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RTÉ Brainstorm - Brainstorm | Opinion, Analysis, Reports, Features | RTÉ

What monsters tell us about the modern world

The monster can enlighten us, liberate us and reveal how we are the monsters

Rioting at the Peace Gate on Springfield Road/Lanark Way in Belfast in April

The deep roots behind the recent violence in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland

"Western Europe is one of the hardest places in the world to predict long-term weather". Photo: Getty Images

What are seasonal weather models predicting for summer 2021?

"The ECB cannot conduct monetary policy if the euro disappears from the Eurozone."

Are you ready for the digital euro?

Coming soon to your local Aldi or Tesco: insect burgers based on protein-rich mealworm at a supermarket in Geneva. Photo: Fabrice CoffriniAFP via Getty Images

Who wants an insect energy bar or bug burger for lunch?

A supermoon over Boston in March 2019. Photo: Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

'A relatively rare event': this week's super blood moon

"bBeing good at recognising a face doesn't necessarily mean someone is also good at face matching." Photo: Getty Images

Meet the people who never forget a face

Ted Hastings talking to the wall in Belfast as part of Hir the North 2020. Photo: Caoilfhionn Hanton https://www.instagram.com/caoilfhionnhanton - Creative Commons via https://www.geograph.ie/photo/6617499

Bent coppers & Lagan bubbles: the art of Tedisms in Line of Duty

Dubliners watch on from across the Liffey as the Custom House burns after the IRA attack in May 1921. Photo: Bettmann/Getty Images

All you need to know about the 1921 burning of the Custom House

Two of the first stamps issued by the Irish Free State

What Ireland's first stamps told the world about the new state

Can Macron repeat his 2017 electoral success?

Emmanuel Macron's long road to a second term as French president

The 'Mac' raincoat created new possibilities for humans to endure inclement weather. Photo: Getty Images

Why future-proofing is not all it's cracked up to be

We have 98 species of native, wild bees in Ireland, including 21 bumblebee species and 77 solitary bee species.

How Ireland caught the buzz for bees

People on Dublin's Grafon Street shopping for hot water bottles, warmer duvets and bigger umbrellas

Why Ireland's May weather is so awful this year

"When you hand over your DNA, you are ultimately reducing both your own genetic privacy and the privacy of your family as well."

What exactly are you giving away when you hand over your DNA?

More Brainstorm

Spotlight

Ever wondered why one crisp is never enough?

Agnes Bouchier-Hayes on what makes your favourite crisps so tasty and moreish

Ever wondered why one crisp is never enough?

Agnes Bouchier-Hayes on what makes your favourite crisps so tasty and moreish

How inexperienced investors are taken in by hype

Kate Cullen on the contrasts between how different investors gather information

What to eat, drink & do to prevent exercise injuries

Mark Germaine's tips for new runners to reduce sore muscles after exercise

How long-term renting is impacting on our mental health

'We are effectively creating problems for a generation'

Ireland

"It was little wonder given crimes of this nature that one newspaper commented in 1849 that 'society seems to have been shattered to pieces'."

Ireland in the 1840s: 'one of the most dangerous places on earth'

The Great Irish Famine

Two of the first stamps issued by the Irish Free State

What Ireland's first stamps told the world about the new state

"The waffle and jargon used by the Minister for Health during this interview (and on many other occasions) leads to an air of suspicion around the trustworthiness of what is being said."

Why can't our politicians speak in plain English?

"Standing on Grattan Bridge in Dublin's city centre, it's 2km to either the Royal or the Grand Canal, Docklands or the Phoenix Park." Photo: Getty Images

4 steps to make Dublin a better walking city

An Taoiseach Micheál Martin giving a State Apology in the Dáil after the findings laid out in the report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes

Ireland's complex relationship with shame

"Frank Broome played for Shels from February to April 1955 and earned £5 per week, though a newspaper reported that it cost an additional £10 a week to fly him from Birmingham to Dublin and back home again". Photo: Aston Villa FC

The story of the Shelbourne player and Hitler's Nazis

Reaction in 1973 to the publication of a report by the first Commission on the Status of Women in Ireland. Photo: RTÉ Stills Library

The story of Ireland's First Commission on the Status of Women

Podcasts

Incoming: we can tell a lot about weather patterns from what happened before

What's the science behind the weather forecast?

'Data we examined from before the pandemic shows similar bullying prevalence rates amongst those working and not working from home'

How workplace bullying costs Ireland €239 million every year

A swimmer watches the sea at the Forty Foot in Dublin during the lates Covid-19 Level 5 lockdown. Photo: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Why the dryrobe wars shouldn't put you off outdoor swimming

Irish bogs: more than just turf

The inside story of the Irish bog

Garth Brooks at Croke Park in 2014: he really should have called Jim Gavin about the drive for five

The summer Garth Brooks didn't come to town

Technology

"Do a risk assessment. Who is a threat? What do you need to protect? How well must it be protected?"

I run a small business - should I be worried about cybersecurity?

Boris on the phone

Here's what hackers can do with your mobile phone number

"Robots will get into trouble"

Can you sue your robot?

"Security theatre is the double edged sword of providing a false sense of security while also majorly inconveniencing users" Photo: Getty Images

Why password rules and restrictions don't work

"Software systems are often tens of millions of sentences long so finding the appropriate bits to change can be challenging"

Why maintaining software is like updating War & Peace

"Despite their popularity, only a few studies have investigated how accurate sleep devices are". Photo: Getty Images

Why your sleep tracker isn't as accurate as you think

Marty Cooper: "We knew that this was going to be a big deal, but we weren't certain it was going to happen in our lifetime"

The man who invented the mobile phone

Editor's Choice

Is running a marathon under two hours humanly possible?

How sport uses science in the pursuit of medals, wins and records

Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger at the company's virtual AGM earlier this month. Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The CEO is on mute: the rise and rise of virtual AGMs

"A single session of exercise has been shown to improve cognitive skills among older adults with and without cognitive impairments". Photo: Getty Images

How exercise can make you smarter and protect your brain

Thomas Kilroy's play, Christ, Deliver Us! dramatised the experiences of teenage boys in a boarding school in the midlands in 1950s Ireland.

The cultural responses to Ireland's institutional past

Oliver Cromwell: genocidal tyrant or darling of parliamentary democracy

Why did Oliver Cromwell end up in Ireland in the first place?

Freight trucks at Rosslare Harbour, Co Wexford. Photo: Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images

How Brexit shows the vital importance of Ireland's seas and ports