Category: Academic Analysis

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Robin Ireland, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Glasgow

It’s almost too easy to make the case that men’s football in England has become overly commercial. At the start of this season, one Premier League striker cost £125 million. And with an annual TV broadcasting deal worth £1.25 billion, more money is flying around the top level of the sport every year.

But it hasn’t always been this way. So how has the sport become so dominated by commerce?

This was what I wanted to find out when I started looking into the history of the club I have supported ever since I was a young student in the 1970s. And it turns out that Norwich City is a good example of a side which has tackled the various economic factors that have transformed English football over the past five decades.

In the 1970s for example, those factors were often a challenge for businesses and households, with high inflation, high unemployment and slow economic growth.

Football clubs were not immune, and it was not an easy task to keep them going as sustainable businesses (especially when hooliganism and violence were lurking outside – and sometimes even inside – the stadium).

It was during that decade (April 1977) that Norwich City employed its first ever commercial manager, Nigel Mackay, who was fully aware that the existence of his very role was potentially upsetting to football purists. But it turned out to be a well-timed appointment.

Two years later, the Football Association allowed clubs to put sponsors’ names on players’ shirts. Four years after that, in July 1983, a meeting of Football League chairmen agreed a television deal with the BBC and ITV which allowed shirt advertising to appear on TV screens for the first time.

Norwich City’s first shirt sponsorship dealwas a three-year contract with a local double-glazing company, worth £50,000 a year, which was considered a milestone in the Norfolk club’s history.

Other clubs were a little more ambitious. And as football clubs continued to try to maximise their income, Tottenham Hotspur FC became the first club to be floated on the stock market in 1983.

A league of their own

The 1980s was a decade which saw a series of football related tragedies, including the Bradford fire in May 1985 which led to 56 deaths, and the deaths of 39 fans at Heysel in Brussels just 18 days later.

At the end of the decade, the horror of the Hillsborough disaster in April 1989, when 97 Liverpool fans died, proved a turning point both in how football was perceived, and how it was governed.

In 1991, the Football Association proposed all-seater stadiums for safety reasons, and a radical transformation of the sport to enable it to develop its commercial potential while leaning towards more affluent consumers.

And while Margaret Thatcher had been deposed as leader of the Conservative party in November 1990, her legacy of free market expansion and the sale of national assets to private investors was mirrored in the world of football.

The decision to allow the top 22 clubs to break away to form a new elite league in 1992 was a victory for those who sought to exploit and commodify football.

That year the “new” top division of English football launched its inaugural season in a fizz of colour and noise. The whole entertainment extravaganza borrowed much from American sport including exciting camera angles, trenchant pundits and new kick-off times to suit television audiences and advertisers.

And the US idea of mixing up television, commercial sponsorship and sport was clear to see as the media mogul Rupert Murdoch acquired the broadcasting rights to live coverage of the Premier League – using it to build his global audience for paid-for satellite television.

There were, of course, also increased ticket prices for those fans still wanting to attend matches at their local ground.

Winners and losers

Remarkably (it seems now), Norwich City were the unlikely leaders of the Premier League for the majority of its first season, before being deposed by Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. And as others have mentioned, the financial reality in today’s game is that clubs like Norwich, Leeds United, Burnley and Ipswich Town are unlikely to match their successes of the past.

For its part, Norwich City, like many other English clubs, ended up turning to American ownership.

Before that, it was the famous TV cook Delia Smith and her husband who helped to bail their local club out of one of their periodic financial crises in 1997. The couple remained majority shareholders on the club’s board for more than 25 years, and probably never originally planned to hand over their beloved club to a US consortium in March 2025.

In many ways they were bowing to the inevitable. For the English Premier League, with its huge broadcasting revenues and sponsorship income, looks more like an exclusive club with every season that passes.

Fans have been transformed into consumers of a global entertainment product, at the expense of the competition and excitement which the new Premier League had promised. Success is now fundamentally bought with the vast riches generated by television, commercial income and the deep pockets of billionaires.

The result has pros and cons. As Delia Smith said herself: “There’s two ways to look at it. One is that the Premier League is the best in the world and everybody lauds us and our competition, but in another way we’ve lost so much of what football is. I think that’s a bit sad.”

Robin Ireland is affiliated with the Health Equalities Group (registered charity) as Director of Research (Honorary).

– ref. US cash, sponsored shirts and TV deals: how money took over English football – https://theconversation.com/us-cash-sponsored-shirts-and-tv-deals-how-money-took-over-english-football-266416

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nigel Newton, Lecturer in Education, Cardiff Metropolitan University

You can probably remember at least one education choice you regret. You don’t have to be lazy or naive to pick the wrong subject, just lacking in information about what you will actually have to study on the course.

In England, this problem is concentrated at age 16. Young people are expected to choose a small set of subjects – three or four A-levels, or just one T-level, for example – that will shape not just their next two years but potentially how they succeed in the future.

In theory, there is lots of support: open evenings, prospectuses, taster sessions, careers platforms, guidance interviews. Yet disengagement and drop-out remain familiar features of post-16 education. One reason is that the system often treats course choice as a question of career opportunity, while leaving something oddly under-discussed: the curriculum itself.

That matters because students aren’t just choosing “qualifications”. They are choosing to spend hundreds of hours studying – reading, writing, experimenting, analysing – and then to be assessed in particular ways.

In a recently published study, I analysed an unusual dataset: what students thought about the A-level courses they were taking before they began them, and then, later, how well they did in those courses.

The study followed 191 students in a school sixth form who completed 674 questionnaires across 24 A-level subjects. The questionnaires were based on the specific curriculum topics and assessment practices that students would need to engage with on the courses offered in that sixth form.

The questionnaires asked how interested the teenagers would be in studying DNA, including what it is and how it works for A-level biology, for instance, or how much they’d enjoy learning about the management and conservation of coastlines for A-level geography. The questionnaires also asked how they viewed courses in relation to their future career aspirations and progression to university.

Across the subjects with enough data, students who reported higher interest in the content of a course were significantly more likely to complete their courses. But whether a student thought an A-level was valued by future employers, or that would help their progression to university, appeared less likely to affect their chances of completing the course.

This doesn’t mean careers don’t matter to course choice, but it does suggest career aspirations may not be enough to keep students motivated through the weekly pressures of course study.

Schools and colleges go to great lengths to provide guidance. But more information is not the same as meaningful engagement with what a course involves. Previous research suggests students often don’t rely on the course information they’re given to make decisions.

Choice overload

Linked to this is what psychologists call choice overload. Although we value having options, more choice can increase anxiety, reduce satisfaction and encourage us to take shortcuts when making decisions. It’s one reason students simplify decisions by picking subjects they think they know from GCSE, or those their friends are taking.

And for young people from backgrounds affected by disadvantage, choices can narrow towards what seems most likely to lead to employment, even where other interests exist.

And there’s another layer too: the environment of choice is shaped by competition. Research has shown that sixth forms are using open evenings just as much to market themselves to students as to provide information on what their courses cover.

For instance, in the competitive post-16 marketplace, a school may feel it is risky to recruitment efforts to dwell on the reality that their A-level history focuses on religion in the Tudor period rather than the saucier intrigues of the royal court. “Selling” and “informing” don’t always align.

Education policy implicitly assumes young people are to treat post-16 choices as an optimisation problem: maximise exchange value, keep doors open, choose strategically. This can reduce study to a trade-off: endure now, benefit later. For some learners, that works.

For many, it doesn’t, especially when their attention is already being pulled in multiple directions and when anxiety about their future is high.

But interest in what they are actually studying should not get lost. Interest sustains attention and effort. If we don’t know students’ levels of interest in course content to begin with, it becomes difficult to tell whether later underperformance reflects a poor fit between student and course, or limitations in how teaching and assessment are supporting that engagement.

Curriculum-first guidance is needed, making curriculum and assessment visible early and central to sixth forms and colleges’ offers to students. This should be at the heart of how they support teenagers making choices about their post-16 education.

There’s an additional benefit. If curriculum-specific interests can be measured reliably, this could help schools and colleges evaluate mismatches between course provision, the learners’ interests, and outcomes, creating a new way of thinking about “quality” in post-16 education.

It’s not only about who drops out, or whether GCSE results predict how well students do, but whether sixth forms and colleges are building on students’ intrinsic interests in curriculum disciplines.

It may not be impossible to avoid all regrets about choices in education. But if we start by asking learners what knowledge they would enjoy engaging with and acquiring over the next two years, we may go a long way in reducing those course choice doubts and improving the odds that their motivation survives the first difficult term.

Nigel Newton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Too many students drop out of A-levels – here’s how to help them pick a course they’ll stick with – https://theconversation.com/too-many-students-drop-out-of-a-levels-heres-how-to-help-them-pick-a-course-theyll-stick-with-273406

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Adam Taylor, Professor of Anatomy, Lancaster University

You’re relaxing on the sofa when suddenly your eyelid starts twitching. Or perhaps it’s a muscle in your arm, your leg, or your foot that begins to spasm – sometimes for a few seconds, sometimes for hours or even days. It’s an unsettling sensation that affects about 70% of people at some point in their lives.

Muscle twitches fall into two main types. There’s myoclonus, where a whole muscle or group of muscles twitch or spasm. Then there’s fasciculation, where single muscle fibres twitch – often too weak to move a limb but visible or sensed beneath the skin.

Many factors can trigger both types of twitching, but people often fear the worst. Some fear it could signal multiple sclerosis – a condition that requires extensive testing, including a lumbar puncture to look for inflammation and MRI scans to detect brain changes.

For many people, however, twitching is simply an annoyance. Once doctors rule out serious causes, everyday features of modern life often turn out to be the trigger.

Too much caffeine, for instance, can cause muscle twitching. As a stimulant, it affects both skeletal and cardiac muscle, increasing heart rate and having a similar effect on skeletal muscle in areas such as the arms and legs. It slows down the time it takes for muscles to relax and increases the amount of calcium ions released within muscles, disrupting normal muscle contraction patterns.

Other stimulants such as nicotine, cocaine and amphetamines can cause similar muscular twitching. These substances interfere with the neurotransmitters that control or influence muscle function.

Some prescription medications can also trigger twitching. Antidepressants and anti-seizure drugs, blood pressure medicines, antibiotics and anaesthetics can all cause muscular side-effects.

When minerals run low

Twitching isn’t only caused by what you consume, it can also stem from what your body lacks. Hypocalcaemia, a drop in the amount of calcium in the body, is associated with twitching, particularly in the back and legs.

Calcium is fundamentally important in helping muscle cells rest and remain stable between contractions. When calcium levels fall, sodium channels open more easily. Sodium floods in and, as a result, nerves become hyperactive and muscles contract when they shouldn’t.

There are recognised twitching areas associated with hypocalcaemia, including the Chvostek sign, which is seen in the face and can be triggered by tapping the skin of the cheek just in front of the ear.

Magnesium deficiency can also cause muscle twitching. Some causes of magnesium deficiency are a poor diet or poor absorption in the gut, usually due to conditions such as coeliac disease or other gastrointestinal conditions.

Some medications, particularly when taken over a long period, can cause a drop in magnesium levels in the body. Proton pump inhibitors used to treat reflux and stomach ulcers are recognised for this effect.

Low potassium is another mineral that can cause muscle twitching. Potassium helps muscle cells rest. It’s usually at high levels inside the cell and lower outside, but when potassium levels outside the cell fall, the electrical balance shifts, making muscle cells unstable and prone to misfiring, causing muscle spasms.

If you have no underlying gastrointestinal conditions, eating a healthy, balanced diet is usually enough to ensure you have enough of each of these minerals for normal muscle function.

A healthy water intake is important too, as dehydration affects the balance of sodium and potassium, resulting in abnormal muscle function, such as twitching and spasms. This is even more important during exercise, where overexertion can cause the same phenomenon.

The brain plays a role as well. Stress and anxiety can cause muscles to twitch as a result of overstimulation of the nervous system by hormones and neurotransmitters such as adrenaline.

Adrenaline increases the “alertness” of the nervous system, meaning it’s ready to trigger muscle contraction. It also increases the amount of blood flow and changes the tension of the muscles, which when a surge of energy arrives – or if the muscle is held in suspense for long periods – can result in twitching.

Adrenaline can also result in the nervous system responding to altered levels of neurotransmitters, causing muscle movement when the body is actually at rest.

Infectious agents can cause muscle twitching and spasms, too. The most commonly known is probably tetanus, which causes a phenomenon called lockjaw, where the neck and jaw muscles contract to the point where it becomes difficult to open the mouth and swallow. Lyme disease, from ticks, can also cause muscle spasms.

Many different infections can affect either the nerves or the muscles and can lead to twitching. Cysticercosis, toxoplasmosis, influenza, HIV and herpes simplex have all been linked to muscle twitching.

When doctors rule out these causes, some people receive a diagnosis of benign fasciculation syndrome – involuntary muscle twitching with no identifiable underlying disease.

It’s unknown how common it is, but it’s believed to affect at least 1% of the healthy population. It can persist for months or years, and for many, although benign, it doesn’t resolve completely.

For many people, muscle twitches remain a manageable annoyance rather than a sign of disease. But for others, a healthcare professional may need to rule out more serious causes.

Adam Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Muscle twitches: why they happen and what they mean – https://theconversation.com/muscle-twitches-why-they-happen-and-what-they-mean-269556

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Adam Taylor, Professor of Anatomy, Lancaster University

For some women, pregnancy is a time of profound loss. Not all pregnancies progress as expected. One serious complication is ectopic pregnancy, a condition in which a fertilised egg implants somewhere other than the uterus.

The uterus is the only organ designed to stretch, supply blood and safely support a developing pregnancy. When implantation occurs elsewhere, the pregnancy cannot develop normally and poses significant risks to the mother.

In a very small number of cases, implantation occurs within the abdominal cavity. This is known as an abdominal pregnancy and means the embryo attaches to structures such as the bowel or abdominal lining rather than reproductive organs, often undetected.

There are rare reports of such pregnancies continuing into late gestation and, in extraordinary circumstances, a baby being born healthy. Far more often, however, the outcome is one of the strangest phenomena documented in medicine.

This outcome is known as a lithopaedion, a term derived from Greek that translates literally as “stone baby”. Fewer than 350 to 400 cases have been described in the medical literature, making it exceptionally rare.

In these cases, a woman usually experiences at least the early stages of pregnancy. Some reach full term and even go through labour; the body initiates the physical process of childbirth, but no baby is delivered. In some instances, particularly where access to healthcare is limited, a pregnancy may go entirely unnoticed.

The foetus in these cases has sadly died. After approximately three months of gestation, the foetal skeleton begins to ossify into bone. Ossification is the normal biological process by which soft cartilage turns into hardened bone. Once this has occurred, the foetal remains are too large and structurally complex for the body to break down and absorb.

During a typical pregnancy, the placenta plays a crucial role in regulating the exchange of nutrients and immune signals between mother and foetus. At the same time, the maternal immune system enters a state of immune tolerance: it is partially suppressed to prevent it from attacking the genetically distinct foetus. When the foetus is no longer viable, these protective mechanisms disappear. The immune system then recognises the foetal tissue as foreign and potentially dangerous.

To protect itself from infection or inflammation, the body may respond by calcifying the foetus. Calcification involves the gradual deposition of calcium salts around tissue, effectively isolating it. This process seals the foetus off from surrounding organs, preserving it in place and preventing further harm.

Calcification as a defensive response is not unique to pregnancy. The process of dystrophic calcification occurs when calcium deposits form in dead or damaged tissue. Calcium binds to phospholipids, which are fat-based molecules that make up the outer structure of cells and help hold cell membranes together, stabilising the area and limiting injury. A similar biological mechanism contributes to calcium build-up in blood vessels during atherosclerosis, a condition associated with heart disease.

Lithopaedion formation has also been observed in other species, including rabbits, dogs, cats and monkeys. One of the earliest recorded human cases dates back to 1582, involving a 68-year-old French woman who carried a lithopaedion for 28 years.

Another widely reported case describes a woman in China who carried one for over 60 years. Some lithopaedions have been reported to weigh more than two kilograms, roughly the weight of a full-term newborn. In one exceptionally rare case, a woman was found to have twin lithopaedions.

Symptomless cases

Some women carry a lithopaedion without symptoms for many years. Others develop complications caused by its presence in the abdomen. These include pelvic abscesses, which are collections of infected fluid, twisting or obstruction of the intestines that interfere with digestion, fistula formation – meaning abnormal connections between organs – and other abdominal symptoms such as pain or swelling.

Cases without symptoms are often discovered postmortem – after death during examination. When symptoms do occur, surgical removal is usually required. Because lithopaedions develop outside the uterus, they may attach to nearby organs such as the bowel or bladder.

Each case must therefore be carefully assessed. Surgery may be performed laparoscopically, using small incisions and a camera to minimise recovery time, or may require a more extensive open abdominal procedure.

Diagnosis almost always relies on medical imaging. This often occurs incidentally while investigating other symptoms. Calcified foetal bones can be identified using X-rays, ultrasound or CT scans. CT scans are particularly useful because they provide detailed cross-sectional images that clearly show both bone and surrounding soft tissue.

Lithopaedion cases are now exceptionally rare, likely even more so in modern medicine due to accurate pregnancy testing, early ultrasound scanning and routine antenatal care. Although these cases are medically unusual, they highlight both the vulnerability and resilience of the human body. Whether supporting new life or responding when pregnancy ends unexpectedly, the body works to protect the person carrying the pregnancy, sometimes in ways that continue to surprise medicine centuries later.

Strange Health is hosted by Katie Edwards and Dan Baumgardt. The executive producer is Gemma Ware, with video and sound editing for this episode by Sikander Khan. Artwork by Alice Mason.

In this episode, Dan and Katie talk about a social media clip from tonsilstonessss on TikTok.

Listen to Strange Health via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed or find out how else to listen here. A transcript is available via the Apple Podcasts or Spotify apps.

Adam Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Stone baby: the rare condition that produces a calcified foetus – https://theconversation.com/stone-baby-the-rare-condition-that-produces-a-calcified-foetus-274178