Anna Bickerton

Deputy Editor-in-Chief (Digital Media) - 2024/25

What makes The New York Times games so addictive?

The gold and emerald squares of the once-inescapable Wordle puzzle no longer swamp our social media feeds quite as they did in January 2022, when The New York Times (NYT) acquired the game for a seven-figure sum and sealed its place in millions’ daily routines. Maybe the crushing humiliation of...
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Posted Apr. 10, 2025

Parenting Hell – a pitch to the non-parents

April 2020 was a bleak time for all of us. Locked indoors, binge-watching Netflix and occasionally gracing a Microsoft Teams call—as most students will recall— got boring eventually. For working parents of young children, however, the era may stand out as one of the greatest challenges of their lives. With...
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Posted Mar. 13, 2025

International Women’s Day: six female trailblazers in STEM

To mark International Women’s Day, six of our writers celebrate women in the world of science, technology, engineering and mathematics that inspire them. Fionnghuala O’Reilly – Anna Bickerton Sharp, savvy and brilliantly articulate, Fionnghuala ‘Fig’ O’Reilly has made her mark in all things data science, media… and beauty pageantry? If...
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Posted Mar. 8, 2025

SU Spring Elections 2025: President announcement delayed due to “procedural irregularity”; VP Sports results in RON; all other positions confirmed

Voting has closed in the SU Spring Elections 2025. Follow The Boar’s live coverage throughout Warwick Students’ Union’s (SU) Results Night.  8:42pm The Boar understands that the Students’ Union aims to announce a winner for SU President in the next week. 8:06pm Thank you all for joining The Boar‘s election...
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Posted Mar. 7, 2025

University accommodation offences skyrocket 2,000%

The number of students charged with antisocial behaviour in on-campus accommodation has increased twenty-fold this year, a Freedom of Information request by The Boar has revealed.  In Term 1 alone, 208 incidents classified as ‘antisocial behaviour’ were recorded – seven times the number recorded across the entirety of the preceding...
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Posted Mar. 6, 2025

GAA Palestine: The student bringing hurling to the West Bank

Cathal Ó Gaillín never expected his love for hurling to take him beyond the shores of Ireland, let alone to the West Bank. Yet, just months after reaching out to GAA Palestine, the student from Donegal found himself stepping off a plane and heading into the occupied Palestinian territories, hurls...
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Posted Mar. 5, 2025

In requiem: the Duolingo Owl

“Requiem æternam dona ei, Domine…” Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord – except, in this case, the dearly departed is not a soul but the green, unblinking menace of language learners everywhere: the Duolingo owl. But fear not, for like any good horror movie villain, Duo is never truly...
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Posted Mar. 1, 2025

Love at first sight: what does the science say?

You finally summit the seemingly endless FAB stairs, breathless and dreading the two-hour seminar that awaits. You’re rummaging for a pen when you glance up, and there they are. They’re perfect. Your heart skips a beat, you lock eyes and suddenly you know – or at least you think you...
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Posted Feb. 12, 2025