Reading in the news - Wed 27 Aug

Primates’ brain development: The Guardian, BBC News, The Times, The Independent, Daily Mail and EurekAlert (republished by MirageNews, AOL, MSN and Yahoo! News) cover a new study led by Dr Joanna Baker and Professor Chris Venditti (both Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) which found an evolutionary correlation between primates’ thumb dexterity and their brains. Also picked up by Phys.org, myScience, Discover and various other international outlets. From our story: Primate thumbs and brains evolved hand-in-hand

Business and society:

• Professor Rosa Freedman (Law) was interviewed by BBC News Channel discussing how to tackle the global trade of child abuse images. The interview also aired on BBC World and BBC Parliament.
• Professors Andrew and Nada Kakabadse (both Henley Business School) co-wrote an article for The HR Director on how workplace values can be both good and bad for businesses.

Health and wellbeing:

• Professor Parveen Yaqoob, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, is quoted in The Telegraph on how concerns over healthy eating have changed since the 1970s. Republished by AOL, MSN and Yahoo! News.

Food and farming:

• Dr Ollie Douglas (Museums and Collections) was interviewed on BBC Radio 4, discussing the accuracy of farm depictions in George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
• Seed World highlight Dr Nick Bardsley (Agri-food Economics) on the potential benefits of regenerative farming.

#PlanetPartners: working with global partners to protect the environment

• Dr Jess Neumann (Geography and Environmental Science) was quoted by ITV News, The Independent, The Standard, Press Association (print), Greatest Hits Radio, Liverpool Echo, Gazette and Herald, Swindon Advertiser, Wiltshire Times, Yahoo! News and various other outlets on how this summer is set to be the warmest on record, and the negative impacts this brings.
• After 20 people were kicked off a British Airways flight, Dr Jonny Williams (Meteorology) is quoted by Cas.sk, DNES24, and Interez on how increasing temperatures means less people can be carried by aircrafts. From our story: Holiday flights could carry fewer passengers as world warms
• Kompas quoted Dr Mohamed Foudad (Meteorology) on how air turbulence will become more common due to climate change.

Heritage and culture:

• BBC Newsround provided further coverage of a centre in Wales attempting to breed and save African hooded vultures from extinction, quoting Dr Campbell Murn (Ecology), who also spoke to BBC Radio Berkshire and BBC Radio Wales about the project.
• Tenerife Weekly provided further coverage of research which discovered that early primates evolved from cold climates, not tropical conditions. From our story: Early primates survived in cold, not tropical climates

Other coverage:

• BBC Radio Berkshire mentioned the Readipop Fiesta event taking place at Reading Students’ Union in September.
• Free Press Journal mention University research which found that AI detection tools largely fail to detect AI-generated university essays.
• Thames Valley Chamber highlight Reading as the best place to study Business and Architecture, according to the most recent Daily Mail Uni Guide. From our story: Best for Business and Architecture in Daily Mail uni guide
• General Anzeiger mention the Reading rowing team, who competed at the Henley Royal Regatta.
• Henley Business School receptionist Martin Ridley spoke to That’s TV Thames Valley about a charity swim he did dressed as a superhero.