ResearchPod

Crowd management is key to evacuation safety. Yet, evacuation simulation programmes often lack experimental verification due to the inadequacy of benchmarks with real-world experiments.Ilias Panagiotopoulus, Jens Starke, and Wolfram Just from the University of Rostock, Germany, have developed a model-free approach to analyse field experiments. This innovative method provides quantitative benchmarks and extends our understanding of crowd dynamics.Read more in Research FeaturesRead the original research: doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.043190

In the late 1960s Cambridge PhD student Jocelyn Bell Burnell was studying quasars (very luminous active galactic nuclei) when she reported anomalous data which was later identified as pulsars (‘pulsating stars’).While she was controversially missed off the list for the Nobel Prize awarded in 1974 for this discovery, Bell Burnell continued to be a pioneer in the field.Now nearing the end of her career, Dame Jocelyn tells Research Features what it was like to grow up in Northern Ireland, be the only woman in a male-dominated environment, and what space research looks like in the era of AI technology.Read more in Research Features

The COST COSY Action is redefining scientific collaboration by fostering diversity, equality, and inclusion across chemistry, physics, and materials science. Led by María Pilar de Lara-Castells, the network of 400+ researchers from 45 countries is breaking barriers in academia by supporting women in science, early-career researchers, and underrepresented scientists.Initiatives like FemCOSY, mentorship programs, and leadership training are transforming the research landscape, proving that inclusivity drives excellence.Visit their website: cost-cosy.eu

In this episode, we’re looking at research from an interdisciplinary network named COSY, funded by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) agency. Their workgroup researching ‘Confined systems in Astrochemistry’ is led by Professors Lauri Halonen from Helsinki University in Finland and Malgorzata Biczysko from Wroclaw University in Poland. They are engaged in laboratory and computational experiments on new molecules detected in the interstellar medium. Visit their site: https://cost-cosy.eu/

Storage plays an important role in managing global resources, from energy and water to carbon and data, shaping landscapes, supply chains, and environmental systems.Sayd Randle from Singapore Management University investigates resource storage, examining its types—including stockpiling, warehousing, and containment—and their impacts on socio-economic and environmental systems. Her research highlights how storage is not just a logistical necessity but a key force in addressing modern challenges like climate change and resource sustainability.Read the original research: doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12733

The directions of Chinese politics and economics echo restrictive practices that may hinder China’s technological and economic competitiveness.Professor Yasheng Huang’s The Rise and Fall of the EAST has shaken perspectives outside academia. He focuses on how exams, autocracy, stability, and technology (EAST) have historically shaped China’s governance, impacting both prosperity and creativity.Read more in Research FeaturesRead the book: yalebooks.co.uk/9780300274912/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-east

Comedian, performer, and writer Robin Ince has been asking questions about the world around him for as long as he can remember. Perhaps most famous for his radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage which he co-hosts on BBC Radio 4 with Professor Brian Cox, Ince has been bringing science to the masses in new and hilarious ways since the 90s. In this interview with our sister publication, Research Features, we discover what it's like performing 'science' at Glastonbury, why people may be frightened of science, and neurodivergence in STEM.

In this International Women’s Day episode, we chat to Professor Gene Feder OBE, Professor of Primary Care at the Centre for Academic Primary Care, Bristol Medical School, about the Healthcare Responding to Violence and Abuse (HERA) programme. For the past five years, HERA has been co-developing and testing women-centered and culturally-appropriate domestic violence and abuse (DVA) healthcare interventions in low-and middle-income countries – Brazil, Nepal, occupied Palestinian territories and Sri Lanka – with an aim to improve the rates of identification and reporting of DVA, and create more effective healthcare responses. Professor Feder talks about the co-development of care models specific to each country, the outcomes and surprising findings of the study to date – and what working on HERA means to him as a health researcher.---- The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Global Health Research Group was co-led by the University of Bristol and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. The Group reported their findings and published a PolicyBristol report in 2024 Read more about HERA on the University of Bristol Centre for Academic Primary Care webpage and the University of Bristol News page. Professor Feder is Director of VISION, a UK Prevention Research Partnership focused on violence prevention.

Humans are social creatures; we live in family groups, socialise with friends, and work with colleagues both in person and online. Yet, how many friends do you really have? Evolutionary psychologist Professor Robin Dunbar says it won’t be more than 150. Proposed in the 1990s, ‘Dunbar’s number’ puts a limit on the number of stable relationships humans can maintain at any given time, and his ‘social brain hypothesis’ suggests that brain size is directly related to social group size in mammals. In short, the bigger the group, the bigger the brain. In this interview with our sister publication, Research Outreach, we find out how Dunbar’s education moved from philosophy to psychology and how his research moved from primates to people, as well as why size matters when it comes to social groups and evolution.Read more in Research Outreach 

Humanity is overwhelmed by planetary tragedies: climate crisis, widespread hunger, desertification, migrations, destruction of biodiversity, corruption and many more. They are out of control because they are too complex for common-sense approaches like analysis and committees.  But now there are grounds for hope. Dr Alfredo del Valle’s method, ‘Participatory Innovation Praxis’, can make tragedies governable through new forms of social interaction, fostering ‘strong participation’ and ‘future-building communities’. It has saved thousands of lives and could positively impact millions globally. Read more in Research FeaturesRead the original research: doi.org/10.1016/j.socimp.2023.100004