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Catalan resurgent: how a language has gone from ban to boom
Languages

Catalan resurgent: how a language has gone from ban to boom

...courses in the UK, 20 French higher education institutions offer Catalan Studies, as do 24 in the US. Catalan is the ninth language in Europe in terms of number of speakers – more than Swedish, Danish, Finnish or Greek. More than 80 television channels and more that 100 radio stations are broadcast daily in Catalan and there is a long publishing tradition. Each year in...
Veganuary: can it make a positive difference?
Health, Sports & Psychology

Veganuary: can it make a positive difference?

...course Why are nonhuman animals victims of harm? As that course shows, harmful uses of other animals tend to be justified by speciesism – the idea that other animals’ interests are subservient to those of humans – which is an idea that is embedded very deeply in society. Speciesism, and the role that veganism plays in challenging it, is outlined in a free OpenLearn...
We might end up being looked after by robots. How do we prepare for that?
Science, Maths & Technology

We might end up being looked after by robots. How do we prepare for that?

...course, are hardly new. Over the last few decades we’ve had industrial devices that assemble cars, vacuum our floors and shunt stuff around warehouses. But the 2010s have seen a rise in the attention paid to robots of the kind that most of us still think of as robots: autonomous machines that can sense their surroundings, respond, move, do things and, above all,...
Colour fastness
Money & Business

Colour fastness

...course being a t shirt it will be exposed to the sun. How is the fabric checked to make sure it is suitable for life as a t shirt? It undergoes standard test methods which replicate an average type of rubbing, washing, perspiration and sun exposure to give the dyer and the retailer an idea that it will be suitable. These tests are internationally accepted and approved...
Star Wars: Myth and fairy tale
History & The Arts

Star Wars: Myth and fairy tale

...Obi-Wan Kenobi, who answers him, is my favourite character: a fairy godfather if ever I saw one. ‘These are not the droids you’re looking for’, he says, altering reality in a later scene. The experience of redemptive love, to which his counsel eventually leads Luke, is a yet more impressive aspect of his gift. Try your hand at writing with these free courses...
The science of sleep
Health, Sports & Psychology

The science of sleep

...course of twenty four hours, but the key hormone seems to be melatonin. Its concentration rises in the evening, which makes us feel sleepy; in fact one can take synthetic melatonin as a sleeping tablet. In the morning the concentration falls, helped by light. When the eyes receive strong light (not artificial lighting) melatonin production is depressed via links with the...
For some people, staying awake might help fight depression
Health, Sports & Psychology

For some people, staying awake might help fight depression

...open the wrinkled, grey-tinged skin around her eyes. “Occhi aperti,” she says. Eyes open. This is the second night in three that Angelina has been deliberately deprived of sleep. For a person with bipolar disorder who has spent the past two years in a deep and crippling depression, it may sound like the last thing she needs, but Angelina – and the doctors treating...
Can rabies be eliminated from Asia by 2020?
Health, Sports & Psychology

Can rabies be eliminated from Asia by 2020?

...course of vaccinations after exposure. Others turn to herbs, spices or local remedies that have no effect. The World Health Organization (WHO) wants to eliminate rabies from the South-East Asia region by the year 2020. It is a goal that India is unlikely to meet, public health experts say. For one thing, the actual number of rabies deaths in the country may be far higher...