Reading in the news - Tue 30 Jul

Business and society:

• Dr Miriam Marra (ICMA Centre) discusses the potential and challenges of a four-day working week in Britain in Edinburgh Evening News and Yorkshire Evening Post (in print). Originally published in The Conversation.
• Professor Andrew Kakabadse (Henley Business School) discusses the importance of smart decision-making in leadership for Board Agenda.
• M. Niaz Asadullah, visiting professor of economics at the University of Reading, compares the current youth protests in Bangladesh to the Arab Spring protests for Taipei Times.

#PlanetPartners: working with global partners to protect the environment 

• Dr Balaji Senapati (Meteorology) and a team of researchers have identified a new climate phenomenon similar to El Niño occurring near New Zealand and Australia. Reported by article. auone. Read our news story.
• Professor Giles Harrison (Meteorology) tells BBC Future  that particulate levels in 1920s Paris were five times higher than today's pollution levels.

Food and farming:

Air pollution dramatically decreases bee visits to flowers, a University of Reading team found. Reported by Ars Technica.

Other coverage:

• A research team led by Professor Chris Venditti (Ecology) found that larger animals do not have proportionally larger brains, Archyworldys reports.