This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH
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Bite me: Venom, volunteers and venture capital
A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
POISON: Centivax workers study antivenom to counteract the bites of various snakes at the company lab in San Francisco
The FBU is demanding 52 weeks of full pay for women firefighters, highlighting the unique health risks they face — and the continuing need to recruit and retain more women if policies like this are still not in place, writes SEONA HART
Israel continues to operate with impunity in what seems to be a brutal and protracted experiment, while much of the world looks on, says RAMZY BAROUD
A new report by Amnesty International pulls no punches in highlighting the Labour government’s human rights violations of those on benefits, says Dr DYLAN MURPHY
With Reform UK surging and Labour determined not to offer anything different from the status quo, a clear opportunity opens for the left, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
A recent Immigration Summit heard from Lord Alf Dubs, who fled the Nazis to Britain as a child. JAYDEE SEAFORTH reports on his message that we need to increase public empathy with desperate people seeking asylum
By sticking together, working collectively and building the union, we can weather any uncertainty ahead, writes general secretary of Usdaw PADDY LILLIS
IN the 1660s, the Italian natural philosopher Francesco Redi started to investigate vipers at the urging of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In his final work, Redi criticised previous writers on the topic, accusing them of parroting received wisdom.
One popular belief among scholars was that viper bile, produced in the snake’s liver, was also poisonous. Redi referred to a demonstration by a viper catcher who, after listening to the learned debate, “took a viper’s bile and diluting it with half a glass of fresh water, tossed it off with unflinching face; he gave to understand how mistaken the above-mentioned authors were.”
There is a rhetorical power to self-experimentation — particularly if it is dangerous. To see if colours were produced by pressure, Isaac Newton rammed a bodkin into his own eye. The Scottish surgeon John Hunter inoculated himself with pus from a patient with gonorrhoea to see if he would later get syphilis.
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Science has always been mixed up with money and power, but as a decorative facade for megayachts, it risks leaving reality behind altogether, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
A small Japanese trial has reported some positive results for stem cell therapy to treat spinal-cord injuries
Man-made canals like Panama and Suez face unprecedented challenges from extreme weather patterns and geopolitical tensions that reveal the fragility of our global trade networks, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
It’s sunny times for the solar industry which is expected to continue to grow rapidly — but there are still major environmental issues with how solar cells are made, explain ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
