The Conversation: In-depth analysis, research, news and ideas from leading academics and researchers.

People react to exit polls during the far-right Alternative for Germany election party.

Germany: why the AfD won in Saxony-Anhalt – and what happens next

Ed Turner, Aston University

France: the far-right’s proposed headscarf ban in public places breaches religious freedom and anti-discrimination principles

Lauren Bakir, Université de Strasbourg

A person with a megaphone addressing a large crowd

Populists claim to speak for ‘the people’ – but who are they actually talking about?

Clara Juarez Miro, Universitat de Barcelona

Immigration in Sweden: how the country went from one of Europe’s most welcoming, to one of its most restrictive

Henrik Emilsson, Malmö University

A line of people on stairs at a train station

How ‘egalitarian’ Sweden became more comfortable with wealth

Håkan Johansson, Lund University and Axel Vikström, Lund University

aerial view of island chain and assembled yachts off the coast of stockholm, sweden.

A mother and her son at the doctor’s office

Why cancer affects children differently to adults

Lydia Begoña Horndler Gil, Universidad San Jorge

Fire and floods are usually treated as separate hazards. Portugal’s Pinhal Interior shows why they are part of the same cycle

Afonso Nuno Martins, University of Beira Interior

People taking measures and samples in the forest.

Galileo, Copernicus, Cleansky, IRIS² must work together to secure Europe’s place in the space race

Audrey Rouyre, Montpellier Business School; European Academy of Management (EURAM) and Anne-Sophie Fernandez, Université de Montpellier; European Academy of Management (EURAM)

Two engineers standing in front of equipment from the ExoMars programme.

Noise exposure is linked to chronic stress and heart disease. It’s time to make peace and quiet a public health right

Julia Almazán Catalán, Universidad CEU San Pablo and Carmen Morais Moreno, Universidad CEU San Pablo

A woman covers her ears in the middle of the streets of a city

Climate change images are getting scarier – could fear help drive action?

Joshua Garland, Lund University

Why France’s illustrious history of cheesemaking is full of holes

Dominique Frère, Université Bretagne Sud (UBS)

Man in his bed having trouble sleeping wearing a smart sleep band

Brain-reading wearables will soon be ordinary. What will this mean for the new generation of ‘neurotechnological natives’?

José M. Muñoz, IE University

People resting on benches in a city park.

Ceuta crisis: anti-migrant ‘invasion’ rhetoric threatens Europe’s food supply and economy

Diana Tung, Universitat de Barcelona and Seth M. Holmes, Universitat de Barcelona; ICREA; University of California, Berkeley

The pastry paradox: why are the Danes slimmer than Britons?

Vassiliki Sinopoulou, University of Lancashire

More trees are needed to cool down European cities in heatwaves – but they must be planted nearer to homes

Thami Croeser, RMIT University and Simon Hodder, Loughborough University

Puerta del Sol square in Madrid with people walking across the square.

Bees view the world in surprisingly different ways – understanding this could inspire new technology

Elisa Rigosi, Lund University and David O'Carroll, Lund University

A female blue-banded bee with large eyes gripping a plant stem.

Denmark versus UK: which country gets more health for their money?

Subhash Pokhrel, Brunel University of London

Autonomous weapons can select targets without human help – now is the time for binding rules

Elke Schwarz, Queen Mary University of London and Jessica Dorsey, Utrecht University

A rotogravure of a hysterectomy being performed by French surgeon Paul Segond at Paris' Salpêtrière hospital.

Endometriosis: a long-ignored disease, despite symptoms that can be traced back to ancient times

Nadjib Mohamed Mokraoui, Inserm; Université Paris-Saclay

Palaces and the Pope: the fascinating story of how Renaissance Rome was rebuilt

Alyssa Rusonik, HEC Paris Business School

Europe needs to fight back against US software dominance – and now is the time

Francesco Grillo, Bocconi University

How climate change affects different modes of transport – from roads to railways

Vahid Aryanpur, University College Cork

woman sat on train platform, straw hat on her face, hot, no trains

A black fungus is thriving in the midst of Ireland’s whiskey boom – we need to know more about it

Jenny Lawler, Dublin City University

Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference in Kyiv.

Why holding elections now may not be the best safeguard for Ukrainian democracy

Derek Stanford Hutcheson, Malmö University

Childhood sleep apnoea: when snoring is more than a noisy night

Mirja Quante, University of Tübingen

Little girl asleep in bed with mouth open

Nearly 30 years after Erasmus, university alliances are reshaping Europe’s higher education landscape but still lack visibility

Isabelle Corbett-Etchevers, Grenoble IAE Graduate School of Management; Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)

Graduates gather in academic dress and mortarboard caps on Brescia’s Piazza della loggia.

Get the Conversation Europe newsletter, direct to your inbox every Thursday

Roberta Metsola speaking into a microphone at a table, with Ursula von der Leyen sitting to her right

Women in politics face more personal, sexualised attacks than men, a recent analysis shows

Arianna Sala, Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Europe recycles just 12% of the materials it uses. Here’s how training can accelerate the transition to a circular economy

Marina Schmitz, IEDC-Bled School of Management; European Academy of Management (EURAM); Mirjana Matešić, IEDC-Bled School of Management, and Mislav Ante Omazić, IEDC-Bled School of Management

Three discoveries that transformed how we understand nutrition

José Miguel Soriano del Castillo, Universitat de València

A doctor points to a model of the human digestive system

Left-handed people tend to be left-leaning voters

Jérémie Bertrand, IÉSEG School of Management; Caroline Perrin, and Laurent Weill, Université de Strasbourg

Close-up of a voter's hand casting a ballot into a ballot box.

Why it’s so hard to apologise sincerely in a foreign language

Irini Mavrou, Universidad Nebrija; UCL and Lucía Martín Pérez, Universidad Nebrija

A technician repairing a laptop with a screwdriver

The EU’s repair policies are changing the way tech is designed

Christoforos Spiliotopoulos, Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Portrait shot of Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, at a podium with his hands held out.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s other war: Ukraine’s endless struggle with corruption

Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham and Tetyana Malyarenko, National University Odesa Law Academy

woman in white jumper blue jeans holds phone and scans label on washing machine in showroom

The free EU database that tells you if an appliance is actually green

Lala Rukh, University of Galway; Atlantic Technological University

The Mocha monopoly: how Yemen’s dominance of the global coffee trade birthed the Houthi rebels

Ibrahim Al-Marashi, IE University; California State University San Marcos

The law of the innocents: Ireland’s medieval precursor to the Geneva conventions

Chris Doyle, University of Galway

Stained glass depiction of Saint Adomnán, Abbott of Iona.

What has the return-to-office movement taught us? People, not technology help companies get ahead

Dr Dino Dogan, European Academy of Management (EURAM)

The mangrove forests of Qeshm Island in southern Iran.

Iran oil spill: the war is leaving environmental scars that ceasefires cannot heal

Nima Shokri, United Nations University; Technical University of Hamburg

Why salty food is so appetising when you’re by the sea