Brainstorm | Opinion, Analysis, Reports, Features | RTÉ

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"This year, many of us found ourselves in the grips of nostalgic reverie while revisiting childhood hobbies or reminiscing with family and friends over virtual calls"

Is nostalgia good for your head?

Nostalgia • 1 hr

"It is important to understand farmers' views on adaptation of rural and agricultural areas as they are the central decision-makers with respect to making their farm more resilient or adaptive to the effects of climate change."

What are Irish farmers' views on climate change?

Farming • 24 Nov

"The high prevalence of deficiency in this country is living proof that optimal vitamin D levels cannot be achieved through our low sunlight exposure and poor dietary intakes alone."

What we know about low Vitamin D levels and high Covid-19 rates

Vitamin D • 24 Nov

Shannon airport in 1963: the Irish government dealt with requests for searches of Cuban and Eastern Bloc flights that landed at Shannon airport en route to Cuba during the missile crisis. Photo: Ponzini Family/ Getty Images

How did Ireland deal with Russia during the Cold War years?

History • 20 Nov

An image of nematode worms with fused neurons produced by University of Queensland researchers. Photo: Hilliard Lab, Queensland Brain Institute

What brain cells in worms can tell us about human disorders

Health • 12 Nov

Much of Joe Biden's work on immigration will focus on undoing the harmful policies pursued by the outgoing Trump administration

What will Joe Biden's presidency mean for US immigration policy?

United States • 12 Nov

"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?

Science Week 2020 • 09 Nov

Those curtains will have to go: Joe Biden in the Oval Office in 2015

Joe Biden may win the White House, but where was the 'blue wave'?

US Election 2020 • 06 Nov

"If he wants to, Trump can run again for president in 2024"

'The end of Trump? It's only the beginning'

Donald Trump • 05 Nov

Roger Casement: "the British were wary that such an exhumation and repatriation might create an undesirable precedent"

The behind the scenes story of Roger Casement's homecoming

History • 05 Nov

Dublin's Theatre Royal on Hawkins Street in 1912. Photo: National Library of Ireland via Flickr

How Irish cinemas stayed open during the 1918 flu pandemic

Cinemas • 02 Nov

"There is nothing Donald Trump fears more than being labelled a loser"

You're fired: is Donald Trump set to become a presidential loser?

US Election 2020 • 02 Nov

A drawing showing Protestant settlers attacked by Catholics on Portadown Bridge during the 1641 Irish Rebellion. Image: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

How a grisly atrocity influenced a 17th century Irish ghost story

History • 30 Oct

All aboard: passengers on a mail car near Black's Royal Hotel, Eyre Square, Galway circa 1880. From Old Ireland In Colour (Merrion Press)

Why we turned Ireland's black and white past into colour

Ireland • 30 Oct

"The Book is a library of literature that makes a self-assured statement about aristocratic literary taste in autonomous Gaelic Ireland in the late 15th century." Photo: Clare Keogh

Why the Book of Lismore is so important

History • 28 Oct

"We can never prescribe a certain type of music to promote relaxation, but we can prescribe when and where it might be helpful."

How music helps us relax

Music • 23 Oct

Epic and often violent hurling tussles of the pre-famine era have been lost to popular memory

Violence, protest and melees: hurling in pre-famine Ireland

History • 23 Oct

Former US vice-president Joe Biden speaking in Mexico City in February 2016 after a meeting with then Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto. Photo: Daniel Cardenas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Will Joe Biden 'speak softly' or 'carry a big stick'?

United States • 23 Oct

"Over 2,000 older people across the EU will be piloting new and innovative technology to allow people to continue living where they want to and in the communities that bind them together with friends and family." Photo: Getty Images

How can we age smarter and healthier?

Health • 21 Oct

Joe Biden meets the people in Ballina, Co Mayo in June 2016

How Joe Biden's Irish ancestor saved thousands during the Famine

History • 21 Oct

The fight over "socialized medicine" began long before Donald Trump and Joe Biden squared up.

How Operation Coffee Cup undermined US universal healthcare

US Election 2020 • 20 Oct

"The aim of scenario planniung is to find futures which stretched and challenged our sense of what was possible"

What could Europe look like 30 years from now?

Europe • 16 Oct

Irish hockey players celebrate a win in the 2018 Hockey World Cup quarter-final. Photo: Craig Mercer/Sportsfile

More women, less coverage: a question of sports and the media

Sport • 19 Oct

Armenian soliders and supporters gathering before setting off for Nagorno-Karabakh as tensions rise between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region. Photo: Malik Baghdasaryan/EPA/EFE

What's next in Europe's new war between Armenia and Azerbaijan?

International • 14 Oct

"It is not surprising that we are made to be outdoors" Photo: Getty Images

Why spending time outdoors improves our mood and brains

Nature • 13 Oct

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