tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/early-life-6976/articlesEarly life – The Conversation2024-03-15T13:32:02Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2236062024-03-15T13:32:02Z2024-03-15T13:32:02ZChild health is in crisis in the UK – here’s what needs to change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581689/original/file-20240313-18-eed233.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3489%2C2331&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hungry-child-big-clear-eyes-eating-210938179">Slava Samusevich/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://acmedsci.ac.uk/more/news/urgent-action-needed-on-failing-child-health">new report</a> from the Academy of Medical Sciences highlights the “appalling decline” in child health and a need for “urgent action”. In recent years, child vaccination rates have fallen well below World Health Organization target levels, creating a resurgence of outbreaks of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00265-8">serious disease</a> such as measles. </p>
<p>In England, more than one in five children are <a href="https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/news-events/news/rcpch-responds-latest-childhood-obesity-figures-england-202223">overweight or obese</a> by age five and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/oral-health-survey-of-5-year-old-children-2019">one in four</a> children have tooth decay. Demand for child mental health services <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/07/childrens-emergency-mental-health-referrals-in-england-soar-by-53">has surged</a>. Perhaps most worryingly, the rise in infant mortality means that UK is now <a href="https://data.oecd.org/healthstat/infant-mortality-rates.htm">ranked 30 out of 49</a> OECD countries – well behind other European countries except Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia.</p>
<p>One of the most important drivers of this crisis is the number of children in the UK living in extreme poverty, which <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/poverty-children-dwp-energy-bills-food-b2434506.html">tripled</a> between 2019-2022. </p>
<p>The early years, the period from pregnancy to the first five years of life, have historically been overlooked in research and policy. More recently, the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/605c5e61d3bf7f2f0d94183a/The_best_start_for_life_a_vision_for_the_1_001_critical_days.pdf">first 1,001 days</a> from conception to age two has been recognised as a critical period in which the building blocks for lifelong emotional and physical health are laid down.</p>
<p>Investing in the early years is one of the most important things we can do as a society to build a better future and promote the nation’s health, wellbeing and prosperity. There is clear evidence that such investment will be cost-effective in enabling future adults to live long and productive lives. </p>
<p>For example, data from the Royal Foundation and the London School of Economics has shown that the <a href="https://assets.ctfassets.net/qwnplnakca8g/2iLCWZESD2RLu24m443HUf/1c802df74c44ac6bc94d4338ff7ac53d/RFCEC_BCCS_Report_and_Appendices.pdf">cost to society</a> of addressing issues that might have been avoided through action in early childhood is more than £16 billion each year – <a href="https://centreforearlychildhood.org/report/#:%7E:text=This%20sum%20of%20%C2%A316.13,specialist%20perinatal%20mental%20health%20support.">nearly five times</a> the total annual spend in England on early education and childcare entitlements. </p>
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<h2>How to reverse the decline</h2>
<p>So what can be done to reverse these worrying trends? </p>
<p>The Academy of Medical Sciences’ report outlines several recommendations to improve the health and wellbeing of children in the UK and the adults they will become. </p>
<p>The first recommendation is to implement effective early years interventions. One example of such an intervention is the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP), an intensive early home visiting programme for first time teenage mothers. The FNP aims to improve birth outcomes, child health and development, and promote economic self-sufficiency among young mothers. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I recently <a href="https://bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000514">evaluated outcomes of 26,000 mothers</a> in England participating in the FNP from 2010-2019. We found some evidence to suggest that children born to mothers enrolled in FNP were more likely to achieve a good level of development at school entry (age five), supporting findings from a <a href="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/2/e049960">previous trial</a>. Mothers were engaged in the programme, with the majority meeting fidelity targets (Figure 1). </p>
<p>However, in local areas where the FNP was offered, <a href="https://jech.bmj.com/content/76/12/991">only one in four mothers</a> are enrolled due to insufficient places on the programme. In areas with high numbers of teenage mothers, enrolment rates are even lower. More needs to be done to ensure that when interventions are implemented, they are offered to all those who could benefit from support. </p>
<p>A further recommendation is to address the decline in the child and family health workforce. Health visitors are trained nurses who are <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/960708/Commissioning_guide_2.pdf">uniquely placed</a> to influence and work with the whole family in the interests of children on social, psychological and health choices. Years of austerity, cuts and a depleted workforce have meant that since 2015, the health visiting workforce has <a href="https://ihv.org.uk/news-and-views/news/health-visitor-workforce-numbers-in-england-reach-an-all-time-low/">decreased by 37%</a> (from 11,193 to 7,030 in 2022). </p>
<p>The real term value of the public health grant from which health visiting is commissioned <a href="https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/charts-and-infographics/public-health-grant-what-it-is-and-why-greater-investment-is-needed">has fallen by 27%</a>. In the context of this disinvestment, there is huge variation in how local areas are delivering their services. For example, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35193912/">our research</a> has shown that the number of children receiving their (mandated) 2 to 2½-year review ranges between 33%-97% depending on in which area they live (Figure 2).</p>
<p>Investment in targeted interventions and universal services in the early years is key to supporting the health and development of children and the wellbeing of their families in the critical period before school. </p>
<h2>Children need joined-up thinking</h2>
<p>However, such interventions and policies should be underpinned by high-quality research and evaluation. We need to consider the wider determinants of health and wellbeing across the lifecourse, such as education, social care income, criminal justice and the environment, to support a more joined up and cross-government approach to improving outcomes. </p>
<p>Historically, linking cross-sectoral data in this way has been challenging. However, there is promising progress in this area. One example of this is <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/child-health/echild">Echild</a>, a national resource linking together data from hospitals, schools and social care for 20 million children in England and their mothers (Figure 3). </p>
<p>This unique data set represents a significant step towards a more holistic approach to understanding the <a href="https://www.adruk.org/news-publications/news-blogs/how-administrative-data-can-uncover-the-relationship-between-childrens-health-and-education/">many factors influencing child wellbeing</a>, including maternal mental health, childhood chronic conditions and school absences.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223606/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katie Harron 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.</span></em></p>Children are bearing the brunt of austerity. From obesity to infant mortality, child health is affected by sustained under-investment. What can be done to reverse the decline?Katie Harron, Professor of Statistics and Health Data Science, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2181282024-01-15T19:04:45Z2024-01-15T19:04:45Z565-million-years-old, some of the oldest UK fossils are eerily similar to famous Australian ones<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562350/original/file-20231129-28-ulz8qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C4%2C1531%2C1016&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ediacaran life as imagined by scientists in the 1980s.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Life_in_the_Ediacaran_sea.jpg">Ryan Somma/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some half a billion years ago, life on Earth went through a huge transformation. In what is called <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.earth.33.092203.122519">the Ediacaran period</a>, after billions of years of single-celled organisms, large multicellular organisms emerged in the fossil record.</p>
<p>These traces of the oldest complex ecosystems have been found in only a handful of locations around the world. The fossils were made by soft-bodied creatures covered by sand, creating impressions of their squashed remains imprinted into rock.</p>
<p>Evidence of these creatures was first found in the <a href="https://ediacarafoundation.org/visit/">Ediacara Hills</a>, in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges. The discovery was pivotal in defining the <a href="https://www.idunn.no/doi/10.1080/00241160500409223">Ediacaran period</a>: a time in Earth’s past characterised by a specific layer of rock which symbolises a significant change in history.</p>
<p>What was happening elsewhere at this time? <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/268624a0">Similar-looking fossils</a> have been found in a disused quarry in a farmer’s field at Llangynog in Wales, but until now their precise age was unknown. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1144/jgs2023-081">new study published in Journal of the Geological Society</a>, we have dated these Welsh remnants of ancient marine life. Now, we can confirm they were near contemporaries of the famous South Australian fossils. </p>
<h2>A bookmark for rocks</h2>
<p>How do geologists figure out the age of fossils? Understanding the age of fossils is extremely useful for correlation and understanding how biological communities evolved.</p>
<p>Luckily, at least for us today, an environmental catastrophe loomed in the shallow sea where these Welsh organisms lived. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/volcano-eruptions-are-notoriously-hard-to-forecast-a-new-method-using-lasers-could-be-the-key-207031">Volcanic explosions</a> threw mineral particles over the surrounding landscape and polluted the atmosphere with toxic gases.</p>
<p>The billowing red hot clouds created ash layers. These ash layers contain mineral grains that are <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/isotope">isotopically</a> datable, acting like miniature stopwatches that record the time elapsed since they crystallised in a volcano. Hence, volcanic ash acts much like a bookmark in a sequence of rocks, tracking the moment of eruption.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568992/original/file-20240112-19-9fua7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration of a conic volcano in the distance spewing out an ash cloud" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568992/original/file-20240112-19-9fua7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568992/original/file-20240112-19-9fua7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568992/original/file-20240112-19-9fua7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568992/original/file-20240112-19-9fua7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568992/original/file-20240112-19-9fua7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568992/original/file-20240112-19-9fua7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568992/original/file-20240112-19-9fua7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Volcanic eruptions produce layers of ash that can be used as ‘bookmarks’ in the geological record.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/volcano-errupting-volcanic-erruption-3d-illustration-2213727917">CGS Graphics</a></span>
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<h2>A clock for rocks</h2>
<p>A clock tick-tocks every second, but how do we measure time when each tick takes a million years? We use a <a href="https://www.gsoc.org/news/2020/12/07/zircon">mineral called zircon</a>. </p>
<p>Trapped within zircon is some uranium that undergoes nuclear decay to lead over millions of years. Scientists know the rate at which this change occurs, so by analysing the composition of the crystal we can use the zircon as a geological clock.</p>
<p>The more precisely we measure the amount of uranium and lead, the more precise the clock. By carefully <a href="https://www.boisestate.edu/earth-isotope/labshare/id-tims-instructional-videos/">dissolving, heating and analysing zircon</a>, we have dated the rocks in Wales to 565 million years (plus or minus 0.1%). That is a precise death certificate for the fossils.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-cant-agree-on-when-the-first-animals-evolved-our-research-hopes-to-end-the-debate-212076">Scientists can't agree on when the first animals evolved – our research hopes to end the debate</a>
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<h2>It’s life, but not as we know it</h2>
<p>Evidence from Ediacaran fossils implies that after four billion years of oceans containing single-celled microbes, suddenly – in geological terms at least – the seas teemed with new complex life. <a href="https://eos.org/features/hunting-rare-fossils-of-the-ediacaran">Ediacaran life is odd</a>, with strange soft-bodied forms whose interaction with the environment is unclear. </p>
<p>Were the creatures stationary, or did they move around and eat each other? In some ways these creatures would be strangely familiar, yet in another way, bizarre. </p>
<p>Some appeared fern-like, others like cabbages, and yet others were similar to modern <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/sea-pen">sea pens</a>, resembling fat, old-fashioned writing quills.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, fossils from this time preserve the earliest evidence for large-scale multicellular organisms, <a href="https://www.australianenvironmentaleducation.com.au/education-resources/life-in-the-ediacaran/">including the first animals</a>.</p>
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<span class="caption">The rolling countryside of mid-south Wales – hidden away in these hills is evidence of ancient life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rolling-agricultural-hills-mid-wales-landscape-2095266949">Parkerspics</a></span>
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<h2>A tropical paradise?</h2>
<p>Half a billion years ago, Wales was not green and sheep covered and looked much more like a barren volcanic island. The Llangynog fossils are fascinating because they record a shallow marine ecosystem. </p>
<p>In contrast, other famous fossil sites like <a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/560-million-year-old-fossil-is-first-animal-predator/">Charnwood Forest in the United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1497/">Mistaken Point, Canada</a> record deep-marine conditions.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565985/original/file-20231215-15-xkahqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A circular impression on a grey rock with a 20mm scale in the corner" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565985/original/file-20231215-15-xkahqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565985/original/file-20231215-15-xkahqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565985/original/file-20231215-15-xkahqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565985/original/file-20231215-15-xkahqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565985/original/file-20231215-15-xkahqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565985/original/file-20231215-15-xkahqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565985/original/file-20231215-15-xkahqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=632&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"><em>Aspidella</em>, one of the weird and wonderful fossils of Llangynog, Wales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anthony Clarke</span></span>
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<p>In the shallow waters of the chain of tropical volcanic islands that’s now Wales, a creature called <em>Aspidella terranovica</em> felt the warmth of sunlight and the sway of the tides 565 million years ago. This fossil is rare and valuable because it shows evidence of movement.</p>
<p>Alongside <em>Aspidella</em>, other disc-like organisms are preserved; these could represent the anchor for fern-shaped filter feeders.</p>
<p>Hidden away in an unassuming quarry in Wales are the remnants of a diverse shallow marine ecosystem containing some of Britain’s oldest fossils, which we have proved have cousins of a similar age in Australia. This time in Earth’s history was just after a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-snowball-earth-volcanoes-altered-oceans-to-help-kickstart-animal-life-53280">global glaciation</a> so severe and widespread that some researchers consider the entire planet froze into a “snowball”. </p>
<p>The Ediacaran fossils show this thaw-out heralded evolutionary change, demonstrating a profound link between our planet’s geological processes and its biological cargo.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-silence-of-ediacara-the-shadow-of-uranium-72058">Friday essay: the silence of Ediacara, the shadow of uranium</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Kirkland receives funding from the Australian Research Council and various state government organisations within Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Clarke receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Fossil traces of the oldest complex ecosystems are found in precious few locations worldwide, including Australia. Newly dated fossils from Wales now join the ranks.Chris Kirkland, Professor of Geochronology, Curtin UniversityAnthony Clarke, PhD Student in Applied Geology, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1927102022-11-02T12:29:28Z2022-11-02T12:29:28ZWater was both essential and a barrier to early life on Earth – microdroplets are one potential solution to this paradox<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492830/original/file-20221101-26-hkb6tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C1724%2C1732&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Water microdroplets provide a unique interface that can significantly speed up chemical reactions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/macro-abstract-of-water-drops-on-a-mid-blue-royalty-free-image/1356063821">Marianna Armata/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.1c02864">paradox</a>: Life needs water to survive, but a world full of water can’t generate the biomolecules that would have been essential for early life. Or so researchers thought.</p>
<p>Water is everywhere. <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/water-you-water-and-human-body">Most of the human body</a> is made of it, <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/how-much-water-there-earth">much of planet Earth</a> is covered by it and humans can’t survive more than a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/45016189">couple of days without drinking it</a>. Water molecules have <a href="https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/uncategorized/2019/biological-roles-of-water-why-is-water-necessary-for-life/">unique characteristics</a> that allow them to dissolve and transport compounds through your body, provide structure to your cells and regulate your temperature. In fact, the basic chemical reactions that enable life as we know it require water, <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/photosynthesis">photosynthesis</a> being one example.</p>
<p>However, when the first biomolecules like proteins and DNA started coming together in the early stages of planet Earth, water was actually a barrier to life.</p>
<p>The reason why is surprisingly simple: The presence of water prevents chemical compounds from losing water. Take, for example, proteins, which are one of the main classes of biological molecules that make up your body. Proteins are, in essence, chains of amino acids linked together by chemical bonds. These bonds are formed through a <a href="https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_Chemistry/Introductory_Chemistry_(CK-12)/25%3A_Organic_Chemistry/25.18%3A_Condensation_Reactions">condensation reaction</a> that results in the loss of a molecule of water. Essentially, the amino acids need to get “dry” in order to form a protein.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492807/original/file-20221101-19-oovg5j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram of condensation reaction joining two amino acids with a peptide bond" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492807/original/file-20221101-19-oovg5j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492807/original/file-20221101-19-oovg5j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492807/original/file-20221101-19-oovg5j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492807/original/file-20221101-19-oovg5j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492807/original/file-20221101-19-oovg5j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492807/original/file-20221101-19-oovg5j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492807/original/file-20221101-19-oovg5j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Condensation reactions join amino acids by losing a molecule of water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CNX_Chem_20_04_peptide.png">OpenStax/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Considering that Earth before life was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abh4289">covered in water</a>, this was a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1210029109">big problem</a> for making the proteins essential to life. Like trying to get dry inside of a swimming pool, two amino acids would have had a hard time losing water to come together in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-44185-5_1275">primordial soup</a> of early Earth. And it wasn’t only proteins that faced this problem in the presence of water: Other biomolecules essential to life, including DNA and complex sugars, also rely on condensation reactions and losing water to form.</p>
<p>Over the years, researchers have proposed many solutions to this “water paradox.” Most of them rely on very specific scenarios on early Earth that could have allowed water removal. These include <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201503792">drying puddles</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02248-y">mineral surfaces</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2019.2045">hot springs</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.283.5403.831">hydrothermal vents</a>, among others. These solutions, while plausible, require particular geological and chemical conditions that might not have been commonplace.</p>
<p>In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2212642119">recent study</a>, <a href="https://aston.chem.purdue.edu/index.html">my colleagues</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=aC4GqPMAAAAJ&hl=en">and I</a> found a simpler and more general solution to the water paradox. Quite ironically, it might be water itself – or to be more precise, very small water droplets – that allowed early biomolecules to form.</p>
<h2>Why microdroplets?</h2>
<p>Water droplets are everywhere, both in the modern world and especially during prebiotic (or pre-life) Earth. In a planet covered by crashing waves and raging tides, the small water droplets in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1021/ar300027q">sea spray and other aerosols</a> would have plausibly provided a simple and abundant place for the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.200366897">first biomolecules to assemble</a>.</p>
<p>Water microdroplets – typically very small droplets with diameters <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13361-019-02264-w">around a millionth of a meter</a>, far smaller than the <a href="http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=6105">diameter of spider silk</a> – might not seem to solve the water paradox at first, until you consider the very particular chemical environments they create.</p>
<p>Microdroplets have a substantial surface area-to-volume ratio that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/jms.4585">gets larger the smaller the droplet is</a>. This means there is a significant space where the solvent they are made of (in this case, water) and the medium they are surrounded by (in this case, air) meet.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fxlMABxU7zU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The chemical properties of water are what make it so important to life.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the years, researchers have shown that the air-water interface is a unique chemical environment. The chemistry of these microdroplet interfaces is dominated by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-27941-x">large electric fields</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cplu.202100373">partial solvation</a> where molecules are partially surrounded by water, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1911883116">highly reactive molecules</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/D0SC02467H">very high acidity</a>. All these factors allow microdroplets to accelerate the chemical reactions that occur in them.</p>
<p><a href="https://aston.chem.purdue.edu/">Our lab</a> has been studying microdroplets for a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1039/C0SC00416B">decade</a>, and our previous work has shown how the rate of common chemical reactions can be sped up to a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-physchem-121319-110654">million times</a> faster in microdroplets. Reactions that would have taken a full day could now be complete in just a fraction of a second using these small droplets.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2212642119">our recent work</a>, we proposed that microdroplets could be a solution to the water paradox because their air-water interface not only accelerates reactions but also acts as a “drying surface” that facilitates the reactions needed to create biomolecules despite the presence of water.</p>
<p>We tested this theory by spraying amino acids dissolved in microdroplets of water toward a <a href="https://www.broadinstitute.org/technology-areas/what-mass-spectrometry">mass spectrometer</a>, an instrument that can be used to analyze the products of a chemical reaction. We found that two amino acids can successfully join together in the presence of water via microdroplets. When we added more amino acids and collided two sprays of this mixture together, mimicking crashing waves in the prebiotic world, we found that this can form short peptide chains of up to six amino acids. </p>
<p>Our findings suggest that water microdroplets in settings like sea spray or atmospheric aerosols were fundamental microreactors in early Earth. In other words, microdroplets may have provided a chemical medium that allowed the basic molecules of life to form from the simple, small compounds dissolved in the vast primordial ocean that covered the planet.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492828/original/file-20221101-28600-be0m5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close-up of water droplets against clear background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492828/original/file-20221101-28600-be0m5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492828/original/file-20221101-28600-be0m5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492828/original/file-20221101-28600-be0m5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492828/original/file-20221101-28600-be0m5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492828/original/file-20221101-28600-be0m5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492828/original/file-20221101-28600-be0m5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492828/original/file-20221101-28600-be0m5m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Water microdroplets may have provided the chemical environment necessary for life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/water-drops-on-a-clear-white-background-royalty-free-image/1356063793">Marianna Armata/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Microdroplets past and future</h2>
<p>The chemistry of microdroplets might be helpful in tackling current challenges across many scientific fields. </p>
<p>Drug discovery, for example, requires synthesizing and testing hundreds of thousands of compounds to find a potential new drug. The power of microdroplet reactions can be integrated with automation and new tools to speed up synthesis rates to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/24726303211047839">more than one reaction per second</a> as well as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202009598">biological analysis</a> to less than a second per sample.</p>
<p>In this way, the same phenomenon that might have aided the origin of the building blocks of life billions of years ago can now help scientists develop new medicines and materials faster and more efficiently.</p>
<p>Perhaps <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/1328130044">J.R.R. Tolkien</a> was right when he wrote: “Such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere.”</p>
<p>I believe the importance of these small droplets is far bigger than their tiny size.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192710/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicolás M. Morato received funding from Eastman Chemical Company through a Summer Fellowship in Analytical Chemistry (Jun - Aug 2021) and from the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society through a Graduate Fellowship sponsored by Agilent Technologies (Sep 2021 - May 2022). </span></em></p>The chemical reaction that forms essential biomolecules like proteins and DNA normally doesn’t occur in the presence of water. Microdroplets provide a unique environment that make it possible.Nicolás M. Morato, PhD Candidate in Chemistry, Purdue UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1884152022-08-22T19:07:40Z2022-08-22T19:07:40ZThere is an urgent need to prevent the lifelong damage caused by adverse childhood experiences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479766/original/file-20220817-11701-ay1khs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=201%2C40%2C6166%2C4406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Recent advances in research on human development, and brain science in particular, have revealed that traumatic childhood literally changes the human body, affecting brain development.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/there-is-an-urgent-need-to-prevent-the-lifelong-damage-caused-by-adverse-childhood-experiences" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.110.080499">More than one-third of the population experiences adversity in childhood</a> — including abuse, neglect or family violence — leaving hundreds of thousands in need of treatment. </p>
<p>Predictably, as clinical psychologists, we both recommend psychotherapy to minimize the consequences of adverse childhoods. However, an even greater concern is how, in addition to reducing the suffering it causes, chronic childhood adversity can be prevented from flooding our health-care system.</p>
<h2>The impact of childhood trauma</h2>
<p>Recent advances in research on human development, and brain science in particular, have revealed that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146%2Fannurev-devpsych-121318-084950">traumatic childhood literally changes the human body</a>. It affects brain development, the programming of our stress response system and is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.07.009">even passed on to the next generation</a>. </p>
<p>Knowing this helps us better understand why somebody might develop mental illness or addiction. For example, people who score four items or more on a scale of 13 traumatic childhood events (like neglect or exposure to violence) are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(17)30118-4">37 times as likely to attempt suicide</a> as people without childhood trauma. They are also 10 times as likely to develop problematic drug use as people with less trauma exposure.</p>
<p>On top of that, people with high adversity scores are four times as likely to develop depression and twice as likely to be afflicted by cancer and heart disease. In other words, all facets of health are affected. </p>
<h2>A narrow window for prevention</h2>
<p>Research on the link between trauma and illness is rich, but also complex, with few simple answers. However, that complexity should not prevent us from moving forward. In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13541">recent editorial for the <em>Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry</em></a>, we argued that prevention programs have a lot of promise but require extremely early action, namely during pregnancy and the first two years of life. </p>
<p>That narrow timing is critical because those earliest years provide a window in which environmental experiences become biologically embedded, and then very difficult to change. </p>
<p>The human brain has billions of nerves and connections between them, called <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/synapse">synapses</a>. Together, they form networks like spider webs that begin development during pregnancy and absolutely explode in speed and complexity during the first two years of life. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Interconnecting white lines against a blue background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479966/original/file-20220818-186-xf85eo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479966/original/file-20220818-186-xf85eo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479966/original/file-20220818-186-xf85eo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479966/original/file-20220818-186-xf85eo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479966/original/file-20220818-186-xf85eo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479966/original/file-20220818-186-xf85eo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479966/original/file-20220818-186-xf85eo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The human brain has billions of nerves and connections between them, called synapses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The next phase of <a href="https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/brain-architecture/">brain development</a> is very different: the brain seeks efficiency and will lock in, or solidify, the brain connections that are used the most often. Furthermore, it will shrink or get rid of the pathways that are rarely used, in a process called synaptic pruning. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that before the age of two, a child might have already learned that the world is unsafe and adults cannot be trusted — perhaps not even to provide a stable food supply. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.35248/2161-0487.19.9.365">The nervous system solidifies that experience and retains especially those connections that reflect fear and distrust of adults</a>. Constant reactivation of these ingrained pathways likely leads to exaggerated stress responses and interferes with needed adaptations for years to come. </p>
<p>Understanding this typical brain development leads to one overwhelmingly clear message: that we need to invest in parallel physical and mental health approaches to support healthy pregnancies and stable, caring early childhoods. However, a lot of political will and cultural sensitivity is needed for these programs to succeed.</p>
<h2>Prevention programs</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1049731505284391">research base supporting the efficacy of prevention programs</a> is strong, and supports the creation of high quality pregnancy supports and services that facilitate attachment for the child, as well as emotion regulation skills. </p>
<p>There is no one program that “fixes” everything. Prevention programs need to be tailored to specific needs and people. One type of program might be a nurse-led education and support group for first time mothers. Another might be a web-based self-help group for <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18199952">pregnant women with substance use concerns</a>. </p>
<p>A key problem with implementation is the up-front cost, and the long period of waiting before benefits are seen. This waiting-period implies that politicians and policy-makers often need to invest in programs that cannot reveal benefits before they are up for re-election. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F070674370204700903">makes prevention programs very vulnerable to changes in the political landscape</a>. </p>
<p>Scientists and health professionals cannot do this alone; society as a whole needs to engage. Voters can play a critical role by encouraging and supporting politicians who are willing to invest in long-term programming. The science is there; now is the time to act on it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188415/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joelle LeMoult receives funding from CIHR, SSHRC, NSERC, and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wolfgang Linden 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.</span></em></p>The impact of early childhood trauma on lifelong physical and mental health makes it urgent to invest in programs to support healthy pregnancies and stable, caring very early childhoods.Wolfgang Linden, Professor Emeritus in Clinical and Health Psychology, University of British ColumbiaJoelle LeMoult, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1805672022-08-18T02:17:55Z2022-08-18T02:17:55ZWe asked children how they experienced poverty. Here are 6 changes needed now<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479263/original/file-20220816-12-dx3w5x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C2560%2C1682&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Orlando Vera/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An <a href="https://cpc.weblogs.anu.edu.au/files/2021/10/Children-Communities-and-Social-Capital-Report.pdf">eight-year-old boy</a> is often hungry, but knows if he tells his mum, she will eat less herself and go hungry. He hates the thought, so he stays quiet.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19452829.2021.1911969?needAccess=true">11-year-old girl</a> knows once rent is paid, there is almost nothing left over, so she tries not to ask for too much. She never takes school excursion notes home in case the cost is too much.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://cpc.weblogs.anu.edu.au/files/2021/10/Children-Communities-and-Social-Capital-Report.pdf">10-year-old boy’s</a> dad has been angry since he was injured at work; he can no longer support his family, and awaits compensation. It makes this boy feel sad, but he understands and tries not to add to his dad’s stress.</p>
<p>This is how children have described their <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19452829.2021.1911969?needAccess=true">experiences of poverty</a> in research I have done over several years.</p>
<p>Children have also told us relationships are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/chso.12197">essential</a>. They talk about the importance of family, the strength of community, and people <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/giving/impact-stories/paul-ramsay-foundation-supports-anu-to-end-disadvantage">helping one another</a>.</p>
<p>These help buffer children from the effects of poverty – but none can address its structural drivers, or the ways systems fail many people.</p>
<p>Decades after then prime minister Bob Hawke <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/no-child-will-live-in-poverty-30-years-on-bob-hawkes-promise-remains-an-elusive-goal-20170621-gwvdya.html">declared</a> that by 1990, “no Australian child will live in poverty”, the problem remains very real in Australia. </p>
<p>So what is that experience like for children, and what needs to be done?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/richer-schools-students-run-faster-how-the-inequality-in-sport-flows-through-to-health-185681">Richer schools' students run faster: how the inequality in sport flows through to health</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Three key themes</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://researchprofiles.anu.edu.au/en/persons/sharon-bessell/publications/">research</a> shows that when we listen to children about their experiences of poverty, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19452829.2021.1911969">three themes</a> almost always emerge. </p>
<p>First, not having the material basics – enough food, a safe and secure home, transport - is a near-constant problem for <a href="https://cpc.weblogs.anu.edu.au/files/2021/10/Children-Communities-and-Social-Capital-Report.pdf">far too many children</a>.</p>
<p>Some of these things can be bought if money is sufficient, but some – like secure housing and transport – require investment in public infrastructure and equal distribution of resources. These are structural problems, not individual ones. </p>
<p>My colleagues and I have found children are more likely to talk about the importance of <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/19452829.2021.1911969?needAccess=true">food</a> than toys or electronic devices. Hunger shapes priorities powerfully.</p>
<p>Second, poverty limits children’s ability to participate in activities and services (such as sport, public library time and health care).</p>
<p>This can be due to families not having the money – but often the barriers are, once again, structural. Schools in low-income areas are often under-resourced, playgrounds are less likely to be maintained, services are limited, and public transport is inadequate. </p>
<p>Third, relationships are deeply affected by the pressures poverty creates. This is exacerbated by factors such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>low income</li>
<li>punitive conditions placed on welfare recipients (such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/06/single-parents-forced-to-attend-story-time-or-lose-centrelink-payments">needing to attend playgroups and parenting classes</a> or <a href="https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/centrelink-job-seeker-will-change-next-month-heres-why-recipients-are-worried-015017339.html">job interviews</a>)</li>
<li>insecure work</li>
<li>housing stress </li>
<li>unaffordable costs of living. </li>
</ul>
<p>For children, time with the people they love – particularly parents – is always a priority. Poverty eats away at that time.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479265/original/file-20220816-18-vkphou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The pressure of poverty eats away at the time children can spend with their parents.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/crop-faceless-mom-touching-hand-of-newborn-7282843/">Photo by Sarah Chai/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A culture of shame</h2>
<p>Another, perhaps even more harmful, theme has emerged in Australia over recent decades – the discourse around poverty often attaches blame and stigma to individuals.</p>
<p>Anyone deemed to be part of the “undeserving poor” is shamed. Children experience this in the names targeted at them, their families and communities. Policy settings around welfare can be unbelievably punitive.</p>
<p>As a society, we are diminished by this blaming and shaming rhetoric. It undermines our ability to care for others, and to recognise the value of care.</p>
<h2>6 changes needed now</h2>
<p>There is no quick fix, but here are six changes that would help immediately.</p>
<p><strong>1. Boost welfare benefits</strong></p>
<p>Children in families dependent on working-age benefits will grow up in income poverty. Children in single-parent (usually single mum) families dependent on income support are most likely to be in <a href="https://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/poverty/sole-parents-and-unemployed-face-poverty-as-nation-surges-ahead/">poverty</a>. The policy response is clear – we must raise the <a href="https://www.cfecfw.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Social-security-and-time-use-during-COVID-19-Report-Treating-Families-Fairly-2021.pdf">rate of working age benefits</a> and reform the <a href="https://www.austaxpolicy.com/poverty-by-design-how-single-mothers-benefits-are-reduced-without-them-knowing/">child support system</a>.</p>
<p><strong>2. Recognise the importance of strong and supportive relationships</strong></p>
<p>Relationships are crucial to children but undue pressure on parents – through welfare conditions or child-unfriendly, insecure working conditions – undermines those relationships. </p>
<p>Some countries, such as New Zealand, are undertaking <a href="https://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/resources/child-impact-assessment.html">child impact assessments</a>, which aim to work out whether a given policy proposal will improve the wellbeing of children and young people. </p>
<p>Australia should do similar assessments of all policies, particularly those linked to social security and labour markets.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479268/original/file-20220816-24-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Undue pressure on parents undermines relationships.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/silhouette-of-man-with-children-at-sundown-6008346/">Photo by Maria Lindsey/Pexels</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>3. Build child-friendly communities</strong></p>
<p>As governments respond to the housing crisis through greater numbers of social housing it is critical we adhere to principles of <a href="https://childfriendlycities.org/">child-friendly communities</a>.</p>
<p>This means providing safe, welcoming places for children to play, building footpaths so children can easily and safely get around, creating communal, child-inclusive spaces to bring people together across generations, and creating child-friendly services close to home.</p>
<p><strong>4. Reform education funding</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-equity-in-schools-look-like-and-how-is-it-tied-to-growing-teacher-shortages-185394">Education funding</a> must be more equitable, and ensure all children can access and enjoy high-quality schooling. </p>
<p><strong>5. Change the narratives and language around poverty</strong></p>
<p>We must recognise poverty is not the fault of the individual. Debates and policies should be based on <a href="https://www.policyforum.net/resource/making-empathy-unconditional-changing-the-story-on-poverty-and-inequality/">empathy, not blame</a>.</p>
<p><strong>6. Put children at the centre of policy</strong></p>
<p>This could include approaches like the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1428&langId=en">European Child Guarantee</a>, which aims to guarantee every child access to essential services. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/attending-school-every-day-counts-but-kids-in-out-of-home-care-are-missing-out-182299">Attending school every day counts – but kids in out-of-home care are missing out</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sharon Bessell receives funding from The Australian Research Council; Paul Ramsay Foundation. This article is part of The Conversation’s Breaking the Cycle series, which is supported by a philanthropic grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation.</span></em></p>One 11-year old girl told us she knows once rent is paid, there is almost nothing left over. So she never takes school excursion notes home, in case the cost is too much.Sharon Bessell, Professor of Public Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/920612018-02-20T13:55:00Z2018-02-20T13:55:00ZGrowing up in poverty weakens later health – even if you escape it<p>Poverty remains a widespread problem. In the UK, <a href="http://www.cpag.org.uk/child-poverty-facts-and-figures">30% of children</a> are growing up in poverty. More than half of these children are in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-poverty-60-per-cent-working-families-uk-jobs-employed-study-tax-credits-housing-university-a7751201.html">working households</a>, and poverty is on the rise even for children whose parents work in <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/surge-in-poverty-rates-among-children-of-public-sector-worker-parents-a8211166.html">government-funded jobs</a>.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/ageing/afy003">new research</a> from the University of Geneva, these children may be at risk of poorer health in adulthood – even if they escape poverty later in life. This suggests that childhood adversity doesn’t just affect our choices, but also directly compromises the biological ability of our bodies to stay healthy. </p>
<p>Our childhood affects our health across the course of our lives. Stress, it seems, is a major contributor. While a life lived with financial, educational and social security and stability may not be free of worries, a disadvantaged childhood means <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8624.00469/full">more exposure to a number of difficult circumstances and events</a>. These may include social tensions, domestic abuse, neglect, food and fuel poverty, unsafe or poor quality housing, and separation from caregivers.</p>
<p>These life events understandably cause stress. Most of us will have personal experience of responding to pressure at work or a relationship breakdown with ice cream, cigarettes or alcohol, or giving the gym a miss. When facing financial troubles, the health benefits of vegetables can seem trivial to parents in the face of the time- and money-saving virtues of junk food. Feeling like you do not have enough food, money, time, or friends <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/338/6107/682">occupies the mind</a> so that there is less space to focus on decisions with long-term pay-offs.</p>
<p>Experiencing these feelings over a long period of time (rather than the shorter-term stress experienced when applying for a job or studying for an exam) can make it increasingly difficult to make healthy choices. Over a lifetime, choices add up. But this latest research suggests that chronic stress impacts more than just our choices.</p>
<h2>What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker</h2>
<p>In the new study of over 24,000 people across 14 countries, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/ageing/afy003">researchers</a> found that individuals, particularly women, of lower socioeconomic status in childhood had lower hand grip strength in older adulthood – a reliable health indicator, predicting the risk of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ageing/article/32/6/650/13078">frailty</a>, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.03145.x/full">disability</a>, and death from <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/36/1/228/665601">cardiovascular disease and cancer</a> in older age.</p>
<p>While health-related behaviours such as exercise, nutrition, smoking and alcohol consumption were partially responsible for this link, adults from poorer backgrounds had weaker grip strength even if their socio-economic status improved later in life. This suggests that a tougher start in life has a direct, biological and lasting effect on an individual’s ability to stay healthy.</p>
<p>We already know that children suffering from long-term stress build up <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051107002013">higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol</a>, making the body’s response to threats from the outside world change. Chronic stress in childhood is related to <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/2/319">a host of diseases</a> through mechanisms such as poorer mental health, changes in the body’s <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889159112001821">immune response</a> to infection and injury, and increased blood pressure. </p>
<p>Now, we have evidence that growing up in poverty has a cumulative wear-and-tear effect on the physiological systems that govern how our bodies respond to our environment, permanently disrupting the ability of affected individuals to maintain good health in old age.</p>
<p>While more work is still needed to understand how early adversity affects our immune system and other physiological systems in later life, one thing is already clear. To make our society less stressed, happier and healthier, we need to recognise just how crucial a role hardship in childhood plays in determining an individual’s long-term health.</p>
<p>The argument that poverty and poor health are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953696001918">down to laziness or lack of willpower</a> is itself lazy and too often thrown around. Poverty in early life affects not only how capable the mind is of making the right choices, but also how the body responds to adversity at a fundamental level. Far from being a resource drain, investing money in improving children’s quality of life could improve a <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/2/319">range of health outcomes</a>, and dramatically reduce the burden on a health-care budget stretched by the vast capital needed to care for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/01/ageing-britain-two-fifths-nhs-budget-spent-over-65s">older people</a>.</p>
<p>Rock star Marilyn Manson got it right with the lyrics for Leave A Scar. What doesn’t kill you, in many ways, <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/insight-therapy/201008/what-doesnt-kill-you-makes-you-weaker">makes you weaker</a>. Those who thrive amid deprivation do so in spite of, rather than because of, the difficulties they experience. Many less fortunate people will struggle to stay fit and well despite making healthy choices. We could do with providing them with a little more support, and a little less judgement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92061/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noortje Uphoff 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.</span></em></p>Childhood adversity doesn’t just affect our choices – according to new research, it also weakens the body’s fundamental ability to stay healthy in old age.Noortje Uphoff, Researcher in Social Epidemiology, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/648952016-09-11T20:09:01Z2016-09-11T20:09:01ZAncient life in Greenland and the search for life on Mars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136698/original/image-20160906-6088-ikj2m1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If life survived on Earth 3.7 billion years ago, why not elsewhere in the solar system?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Filip Fuxa</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australian geologists say they have found ancient microbial fossils in 3.7 billion-year-old rocks in Greenland. The finding, reported in <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature19355.html">Nature last month</a>, is some 200 million years older than previously accepted fossils.</p>
<p>Previously, the best-known evidence for life in these rocks has been <a href="http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/v7/n1/abs/ngeo2025.html">a fractionation of stable carbon isotopes</a>. All organisms fractionate carbon isotopes, and the carbon isotope record of sedimentary rocks is good evidence for the presence of life as we know it.</p>
<p>The fractionation of isotopes in Greenland is less than in younger rocks, where values are consistent with known microbial metabolisms.</p>
<p>But since time, heat and pressure generally drive values in this direction, the researchers have interpreted the Greenland data as evidence that life had evolved by 3.7 billion years ago.</p>
<h2>The evidence so far</h2>
<p>The newly reported fossils are known as stromatolites. Stromatolites are layered mounds that form when mats of microorganisms precipitate minerals and trap and bind sediment particles. </p>
<p>By doing this, they modify the local environment in ways we would not expect from non-biological processes.</p>
<p>But many non-biological processes can mimic the shape and texture of genuine stromatolites. Such processes include the formation of sand ripples on the seafloor, the precipitation of calcium carbonate minerals on the seafloor and deformation that occurs after the rocks are deposited. </p>
<p>That’s why geologists must be very careful when they interpret stromatolites.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137151/original/image-20160909-13363-18ykhkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137151/original/image-20160909-13363-18ykhkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137151/original/image-20160909-13363-18ykhkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137151/original/image-20160909-13363-18ykhkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137151/original/image-20160909-13363-18ykhkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137151/original/image-20160909-13363-18ykhkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137151/original/image-20160909-13363-18ykhkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137151/original/image-20160909-13363-18ykhkh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stromatolites at Shark Bay in Western Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/aa3sd/3028449763/">Flickr/Paul Morris</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In rare cases, the actual bodies of individual microbes have been found in ancient stromatolites. And we can even watch stromatolites forming before our eyes in some modern environments <a href="http://www.sharkbay.org.au/nature-of-shark-bay/fact-sheets/stromatolites-of-shark-bay.aspx">including Shark Bay in Western Australia</a>.</p>
<p>But truly ancient stromatolites are typically poorly preserved and their interpretation is not straightforward. </p>
<p>Interpretations based on biology have resulted from years of detailed study and intense scrutiny supplied by prominent sceptics. The oldest generally accepted examples are 3.49 billion years old, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137152/original/image-20160909-13342-1hto8t6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137152/original/image-20160909-13342-1hto8t6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137152/original/image-20160909-13342-1hto8t6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137152/original/image-20160909-13342-1hto8t6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137152/original/image-20160909-13342-1hto8t6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137152/original/image-20160909-13342-1hto8t6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137152/original/image-20160909-13342-1hto8t6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137152/original/image-20160909-13342-1hto8t6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some 2.7 billion-year-old stromatolites in Western Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Flannery</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the latest study, the overall scene is set by sedimentary features that suggest the rocks were deposited in a shallow-water marine environment. This is where stromatolites are often found.</p>
<p>Here, the researchers discovered dome- and cone-like structures made of dolomite (calcium magnesium carbonate) and quartz. Dolomite is a mineral found in many ancient stromatolites.</p>
<h2>More data needed</h2>
<p>But the study is preliminary and there is little additional information available. Further work is needed and until then, geobiologists are likely to maintain a degree of scepticism. </p>
<p>Stromatolites are by definition laminated (layered). At best, the Greenland features show a lamination that is considerably less well-defined than accepted examples from younger rocks. Wrinkled mat surfaces, trapped organic matter, or other features associated with biological activity are not reported.</p>
<p>The overall shape of a stromatolite can also be influenced by biological processes. For example, the movement of microbes inhabiting the microbial mat may produce characteristic shapes. A limited number of slices through the rock leaves the 3D shape of the Greenland features unclear.</p>
<p>Careful investigation of the composition and texture of a suspected stromatolite and the surrounding rocks can help geologists determine how the structure formed. </p>
<p>During their growth on lake or ocean floors, material washed in from elsewhere can accumulate in and around stromatolites, and this material is usually made of different elements and minerals.</p>
<p>Elemental mapping in two-dimensions would show the distribution of elements in greater detail. <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26575217">Micro-x-ray fluorescence instruments</a> are being developed at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to perform this and similar tasks on Mars, during future rover missions.</p>
<p>But we needn’t be so high-tech. Traditionally, very thin slices of rock are examined for mineral content using microscopes. More thin sections of the Greenland features are likely to reveal additional details.</p>
<p>So, if not stromatolites, what else might these Greenland features be? </p>
<p>Currently, there isn’t enough information to rule out several alternative hypotheses, including <a href="http://zsylvester.blogspot.com/2007/09/flame-structures.html">flame structures</a> and non-biological mineral precipitates.</p>
<h2>Life on Mars?</h2>
<p>If they are shown to be genuine fossils, one of the potential implications is that life may have been less affected by early meteorite impacts than previously thought.</p>
<p>The 200 million year age difference between the Greenland features and well-studied biosignatures in younger rocks could change our understanding of early solar system habitability, and the timing of the evolution of photosynthesis.</p>
<p>This in turn may have implications for the search for life on Mars, since much of the surface of Mars is thought to date from this time. </p>
<p>The landing site selection process for NASA’s next Mars rover mission is currently underway. Ancient lake deposits that might preserve stromatolites are competing with rocks recording underground environments.</p>
<p>Discoveries like this one can influence the focus of multi-billion-dollar science investigations.</p>
<p>It is often said that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and I expect the debate surrounding these features will continue until more evidence emerges.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64895/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Flannery receives funding from NASA.</span></em></p>Scientists say they’ve found fossils showing life existed on Earth 3.7 billion years ago. How good is the evidence? And what does it mean for the search for life elsewhere in our solar system?David Flannery, Planetary Scientist, NASALicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/404822015-04-22T05:44:42Z2015-04-22T05:44:42ZA 3.5-billion year old Pilbara find is not the oldest fossil: so what is it?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78884/original/image-20150422-24568-7qkcfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The site of the Apex chert once thought to hold the oldest fossil found on Earth.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martin Brasier</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Less than 10km outside Marble Bar in the Pilbara region of Western Australia lies one of the more famous sites for scientific research in Australia. Around a quarter of a century ago, UCLA palaeontologist James William Schopf discovered tiny filaments preserved within a silica-rich rock, the so-called Apex chert.</p>
<p>These were interpreted as the fossilised remains of primitive filamentous bacteria and thus thought to constitute the earliest known evidence for life on Earth, dated at 3.46 billion years old.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78865/original/image-20150422-23604-11pcn2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78865/original/image-20150422-23604-11pcn2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78865/original/image-20150422-23604-11pcn2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78865/original/image-20150422-23604-11pcn2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78865/original/image-20150422-23604-11pcn2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=890&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78865/original/image-20150422-23604-11pcn2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1118&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78865/original/image-20150422-23604-11pcn2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1118&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78865/original/image-20150422-23604-11pcn2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1118&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Apex chert filaments, once interpreted as Earth’s oldest microfossils.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martin Brasier</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With the technology available to researchers at that time this was a reasonable interpretation. The sizes of the filaments (mostly 1-20 micrometers in diameter) were comparable to known filamentous bacteria and they had an internal structure that resembled multiple cells joined in chains.</p>
<p>During the following decade these filaments became embedded in both the textbook and popular science literature as Earth’s oldest microfossils.</p>
<p>They were also heralded as the standard against which other possible signs of ancient (or even extra-terrestrial) microbes should be judged.</p>
<h2>The Apex microfossil debate</h2>
<p>Everything changed in 2002 when a team led by Oxford palaeobiologist Martin Brasier <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v417/n6891/full/417782a.html">questioned</a> the authenticity of the microfossils .</p>
<p>Brasier and colleagues had re-interpreted the geological setting of the filaments, demonstrating that they were trapped in rocks that formed at high temperatures during volcanic activity. This brought into doubt the initial interpretation by Schopf.</p>
<p>Re-examination of the filaments under the microscope revealed that some appeared to branch and others followed the edges of mineral crystals.</p>
<p>These new findings led the Brasier group to propose that the filaments were not microfossils. Instead they were merely bits of carbon, arranged in roughly filamentous patterns around crystal boundaries, probably formed by hot fluids.</p>
<p>In the ensuing decade or so the Apex microfossil debate has been intense. Although it is now accepted that the geological setting is likely a hydrothermal one, this has not diminished the Schopf group’s belief in the authenticity of the microfossils.</p>
<p>They’re now suggesting the filaments are fossils of heat-loving (thermophilic) bacteria, similar to those found around deep-sea hydrothermal vents today.</p>
<p>On the other side of the debate, the Brasier group presented more detailed geological and microscopic analysis consistent with the filaments being non-biological artefacts.</p>
<p>A scientific stalemate had been reached.</p>
<h2>Not everything that looks like biology is biology</h2>
<p>In collaboration with the late Professor Brasier, we have now used high spatial resolution electron microscopy techniques to investigate the detailed structure and chemical composition of the filaments.</p>
<p>This research, <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/04/14/1405338111.abstract">published this week</a> in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has confirmed that the Apex filaments are not microfossils. Instead, they are mineral artefacts, comprising stacks of silicate grains onto which later carbon adsorbed.</p>
<p>Our data provided a picture of the morphology and chemistry of the filaments at a spatial scale up to one hundred times better than previous studies. At this scale it becomes apparent that the filaments are made of hundreds of plate-like grains of a potassium and barium rich silicate mineral.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78869/original/image-20150422-23594-18kaz2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78869/original/image-20150422-23594-18kaz2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/78869/original/image-20150422-23594-18kaz2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78869/original/image-20150422-23594-18kaz2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78869/original/image-20150422-23594-18kaz2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78869/original/image-20150422-23594-18kaz2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78869/original/image-20150422-23594-18kaz2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/78869/original/image-20150422-23594-18kaz2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Electron microscope image of part of an Apex filament showing stacks of silicate grains (green) and iron minerals (red) that have been coated by later carbon (yellow)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Martin Saunders</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These grains are similar in appearance to common mica that you might see glistening in granite tables around Australia. Although carbon is present in the filaments, its distribution is incompatible with any known biological morphology. </p>
<p>Today mica-like minerals are used to clean up oil spills due to their very high capacity to adsorb (attract to their surface) hydrocarbons. We believe that the carbon in the Apex filaments was arranged by a similar process. </p>
<p>While the lower resolution techniques previously employed allow for a potential biological interpretation, our high resolution data shows that the arrangement and distribution of the carbon within the minerals does not support the biological hypothesis. </p>
<p>The supposed cellular compartments have very inconsistent lengths, plus length/width ratios that match crystal growth patterns but are unlike any known microbial cells. The carbon is found to have entered the filaments after the formation of the surrounding minerals, again inconsistent with it being the in situ remains of bacteria.</p>
<h2>What does this all mean for the search for early life?</h2>
<p>The field of early life research is fraught with difficulty. Data initially interpreted as biological in origin are often reinterpreted at a later date as having a (less exciting) geological explanation. As new analytical techniques become available, accepted paradigms may have to be questioned.</p>
<p>While our latest research does not really move the goalposts for when life first originated on Earth – there are robust microfossils only a few million years younger than the Apex material – it emphasises that not everything that looks like life really is life. </p>
<p>Perhaps most importantly it shows that microstructures that appear to tick all the boxes for biology when examined down to the micrometre scale, can fail some of these same criteria when examined at the sub-micrometre scale. This may usher in a new way of analysing possible signs of life in the future, on Earth or further afield.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/40482/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Wacey receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the European Commission. He is affiliated with the University of Bristol, UK.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Saunders receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>The debate has raged for years on the origin of life-like structure in an ancient rocky find in Western Australia. But is it evidence of early life?David Wacey, Adjunct Senior Lecturer, The University of Western AustraliaMartin Saunders, Associate Professor in Electron Microscopy, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/233582014-02-18T19:09:36Z2014-02-18T19:09:36ZLife on Earth was nothing but slime for a ‘boring billion’ years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41784/original/hzy2tkfv-1392700073.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Slime on Earth... that's all there was for a billion years.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Evolution of life on Earth began about 3.5 billion years ago but it has not been a constant or continuous process.</p>
<p>During the middle years of Earth’s history (1.8 billion to 800 million years ago), evolution stagnated. Life remained as little more than a layer of slime for a billion years. This period has become known as the “boring billion” years.</p>
<p>So what was going on? A research team led by geologists at the University of Tasmania has developed new mineral technology to track the trace metal content of the ocean and oxygen content of the atmosphere over the past 3.5 billion years. This has never been achieved before.</p>
<p>Why is it important? Evolution of life in the oceans is strongly influenced by trace metals, as many metals (such as copper, zinc, cobalt and selenium) are taken up by marine species and are critical for life and evolutionary change.</p>
<h2>Studying the ocean floor</h2>
<p>Our UTAS research team – of which I was a part – with help from many other international geologists, have been collecting seafloor sediments from all around the world over the past six years.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41795/original/j46ff3pf-1392702217.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41795/original/j46ff3pf-1392702217.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41795/original/j46ff3pf-1392702217.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41795/original/j46ff3pf-1392702217.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41795/original/j46ff3pf-1392702217.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41795/original/j46ff3pf-1392702217.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41795/original/j46ff3pf-1392702217.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41795/original/j46ff3pf-1392702217.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ross Large and Valeriy Maslennikov (from the Russian Academy of Science) on location in Siberia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ross Large</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found pyrite (iron sulfide) in each sample and analysed for 22 different trace metals with a cutting edge laser system at UTAS, and built a unique database of more than 3,000 pyrite laser analyses to track changes in ocean chemistry spanning a 3.5-billion-year period through time.</p>
<p>Some exciting and totally unexpected outcomes emerged from this ocean tracking technology. The most significant outcome relates to how trace metals in the oceans have influenced the evolution of life.</p>
<p>Back in the early part of Earth’s history, from 3.5 billion to 1.8 billion years ago, single celled life evolved slowly but progressively, related to an abundance of available trace metals in the oceans. But during the “boring billion”, from 1,800 million to 800 million years ago, evolution slowed. This has been a puzzle to scientists. </p>
<h2>Ocean life nearly collapsed</h2>
<p>Our research, published in the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X13007267">Earth and Planetary Science Letters</a>, suggests that the reason for the slow down is that the trace metal content of the oceans declined. This resulted in a depletion of critical trace metal nutrients to the point that oxygen content dropped and life in the oceans was in great danger of total collapse.</p>
<p>But rather than causing a mass extinction, marine life and evolutionary change was put on hold for a billion years.</p>
<p>Following the boring billion, our research shows that the trace metal content in the oceans rose steeply in a series of steps over a 200-million-year period, from 750 million to 550 million years ago.</p>
<p>This was accompanied by a steep rise in oxygen in the atmosphere (known as a Great Oxidation Event, see below) that led to the Cambrian explosion of life and progressive evolution to the present time.</p>
<h2>The essential trace elements</h2>
<p>Bio-essential trace elements are critical to life and evolution. These include cobalt, selenium, copper, zinc, molybdenum, vanadium and cadmium. Certain species need these trace elements to survive.</p>
<p>The elements are linked into the chemical structure of the cells and become a natural nutrient for survival. Cobalt is a central atom in the structure of vitamin B12, whereas zinc is essential for growth in many species. </p>
<p>The UTAS research team showed that at certain periods of earth history these trace elements were in short supply (such as the boring billion period) leading to evolutionary decline, whereas in other periods the bio-essential elements were in great abundance, causing rapid evolutionary change.</p>
<h2>The Cambrian Explosion</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/earth/earth_timeline/cambrian_explosion">Cambrian explosion</a> was the relatively rapid appearance, around 542 million years ago, of most major <a href="http://eol.org/collections/18879">animal phyla</a>, as demonstrated in the fossil record.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41780/original/yyh3x657-1392699721.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41780/original/yyh3x657-1392699721.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41780/original/yyh3x657-1392699721.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41780/original/yyh3x657-1392699721.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41780/original/yyh3x657-1392699721.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41780/original/yyh3x657-1392699721.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41780/original/yyh3x657-1392699721.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41780/original/yyh3x657-1392699721.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fossil tracks form the Cambrian explosion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/maitri/5167801442/sizes/l/">Flickr/Maitri</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was accompanied by major diversification of other organisms. Before about 580 million years ago, most organisms were simple, composed of individual cells occasionally organised into colonies.</p>
<p>Over the following 70 million or 80 million years, the rate of evolution accelerated by an order of magnitude and the diversity of life began to resemble that of today.</p>
<p>The Cambrian explosion has generated intense scientific debate. The seemingly rapid appearance of fossils in the “Primordial Strata” was noted as early as the 1840s. In 1859 Charles Darwin discussed it as one of the main objections that could be made against his <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-theory-of-evolution-2276">theory of evolution</a> by natural selection.</p>
<p>The long-running puzzlement about the seemingly abrupt appearance of the Cambrian fauna 540 million years ago centres on three key questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>was there really a mass diversification of complex organisms over a relatively short period of time during the early Cambrian, and are we lacking evidence of what really happened?</li>
<li>what might have driven such rapid change – was it all due to rising oxygen?</li>
<li>implications about the origin and evolution of animals?</li>
</ul>
<p>This latest research by the UTAS team demonstrates, for the first time, a rapid increase in bio-essential trace elements in the ocean starting 660 million years ago. So was this the cause of the Cambrian explosion of life?</p>
<h2>Great Oxidation Events (GOEs)</h2>
<p>GOEs are large increases in oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere and there have been two in Earth’s history – one at 2.4 billion to 2.5 billion years ago and one at around 700 million to 550 million years ago corresponding with the Cambrian Explosion.</p>
<p>There are several schools of thought about GOEs’ origin. The most favoured theory is that the GOEs are produced by a dramatic increase in ancient marine organisms (cyanobacteria) that released oxygen as a by-product of photosynthesis.</p>
<p>But which came first? Did the increase in oxygen speed up evolution of life or did an increase in life result in a rapid rise in atmosphere oxygen?</p>
<p>Either way, the oxygen did eventually accumulate in the atmosphere, providing a new opportunity for biological diversification as well as tremendous changes in the nature of chemical interactions between the atmosphere, rocks, oceans and living organisms.</p>
<p>The research team at UTAS, using a novel approach to the problem, demonstrated major changes in trace element concentrations in the ocean at both GOEs, which may be the answer to the rapid expansion of life.</p>
<p>This is the start of a new journey for the Tasmanian research team and we will be doing much more with this technology.</p>
<p>But it’s already becoming clear that there have been many fluctuations in trace metal levels over the millennia and these may help us understand a host of events including the emergence of life, fish, plants and dinosaurs, mass extinctions, and the development of seafloor gold and other ore deposits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ross Large receives funding from Australian Research Council and Australian Mineral Industry Research Association.</span></em></p>Evolution of life on Earth began about 3.5 billion years ago but it has not been a constant or continuous process. During the middle years of Earth’s history (1.8 billion to 800 million years ago), evolution…Ross Large, Distinguished Professor of Geology, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/177142013-09-02T10:13:10Z2013-09-02T10:13:10ZPhosphorous discovery stokes speculation of life beginning on Mars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/30445/original/jwck5rnt-1378064773.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Spirit View</span> </figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/30444/original/ykvcv73j-1378064354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/30444/original/ykvcv73j-1378064354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/30444/original/ykvcv73j-1378064354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30444/original/ykvcv73j-1378064354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30444/original/ykvcv73j-1378064354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30444/original/ykvcv73j-1378064354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30444/original/ykvcv73j-1378064354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/30444/original/ykvcv73j-1378064354.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Home is where the phosphorus is.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Observer has published what it regards as the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/01/20-big-questions-in-science?CMP=twt_gu">top 20 questions in Science</a>. Number one on the list is the question of what the universe is made of. Specifically the 95% of the universe that we cannot see - the nature of dark matter and dark energy. But close on the heels of this fundamental gap in our knowledge are two further questions on The Observer list - “How did life begin?” and “Are we alone in the universe?”.</p>
<p>A paper presented recently at the <a href="http://goldschmidt.info/2013/">Goldschmidt conference</a>, an international meeting of 4,000 or more geochemists in Florence, addressed both of these questions simultaneously. Unsurprisingly, it <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23872765">attracted wide attention</a>. </p>
<p>Steven Benner of the University of Florida suggested, in his talk at the conference, that life first kicked off with the organisation of sugars into ribose, and then ribonucleic acid (RNA), one of the fundamental molecules key to life. His thesis claims that minerals containing the elements boron and molybdenum are essential templates and catalysts, needed to coax the simplest sugars into the types of biopolymers that characterise life. “There is hope through mineralogy,” said Benner.</p>
<h2>Arid Mars vs water world</h2>
<p>Benner posits that these minerals would have been more stable on Mars in the youthful Solar System. In his model, dry environments are needed for sugar-templating boron minerals like borax to form. Such oxidising conditions are needed for the correct form of the molybdenum catalyst to exist.</p>
<p>Early in its history, Earth is thought by many to have been completely covered in oceans formed by volatile elements escaping from its interior. Dry oxidised Mars is suggested to have been more hospitable than Earth for the formation of the required mineral catalysts as well as the survival of water-soluble RNA. NASA’s Curiosity Rover <a href="https://theconversation.com/ageing-rover-finds-evidence-for-an-early-ocean-on-mars-15057">recently reported</a> back a Martian landscape of water-scoured (now dry) ocean basins but in combination with dry higher mountains.</p>
<p>Benner, then, suggests that the development of molecules such as RNA may have first taken place on Mars, before transferring to Earth as part of the constant rain of Martian meteorites that still arrive on Earth today. “Transpermia” was the term coined to describe this process in the mid 1990s. As a concept, it touches both on the origins of life and the existence of life elsewhere in the universe.</p>
<h2>Show me the phosphorus</h2>
<p>Hot on the heels of Benner’s suggestions that Mars may have been a better world to kickstart life than the early Earth, is a paper by Christopher Adcock, of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1923">Nature Geoscience</a>. He suggests that early Mars would also have been a better place for organisms to sequester phosphorus from their environment. </p>
<p>Phosphorus is a key element for life on Earth today. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the compound that transports energy in all living cells, and phosphorus is a limiting nutrient in many Earth environments. Small amounts can be obtained from dissolved phosphate minerals (apatite) in rocks, but most bio-available phosphate today is derived from biological recycling. When life started, with no significant gas-phase source of the element, the phosphorus would presumably have to have come from rocks or fluids present on the planet surface.</p>
<p>Adcock’s work has focused on differences in the solubility of different types of apatite thought to have been present on early Earth and Mars. He finds that the chlorine-bearing apatites, characteristic of Martian meteorites and anticipated to be present in its early history, are considerably more water-soluble that the hydroxyl- and fluorine-apatites dominant on Earth. Overall, Mars also contains higher concentrations of volatile phosphorus than Earth, sitting further from the sun. This suggests that early Martian oceans would have been a better source of vital phosphorus than Earth’s seas.</p>
<h2>Wet and dry</h2>
<p>So, while Benner appeals to Martian equivalents of dry Death Valley for the formation of borax and molybdates, Adcock claims that the onset of life on Mars would have benefited from its phosphorus-rich oceans. In each case, the scales tip in favour of Mars over Earth, but for different reasons. While Benner prefers a dry Martian landscape to form RNA, Adcock focuses on sources of phosphorus in Martian seas. But more questions remain.</p>
<p>Commenting in a Nature Geoscience <a href="http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo1929.html">“News and Views” article</a>, Matthew Pasek of University of South Florida highlights one problem with Adcock’s model. He points out that the higher phosphorus concentrations that Adcock’s chlorapatite experiments suggest may still be too dilute to promote the formation of primordial phosphate-bearing biopolymers.</p>
<p>Indeed, Pasek has himself recently proposed a completely different source of phosphorus for building an “RNA world”. He suggested, in a paper in the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/05/30/1303904110">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a> published earlier this summer, that the iron–nickel phosphide mineral, schreibersite was delivered in the rain of meteorites that dominated early planet formation. This could have led to an ocean here on Earth rich in reactive reduced phosphorus, as phosphite. Schreibersite, rather than apatite, is the key mineral in his model for RNA assembly.</p>
<p>While the debate goes on, it is clear is that the key questions of the origins of life and whether we are alone in the universe will need minds focused on investigating the environments and chemical processes on early Earth and, as some evidence now requires, on early Mars too. </p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/17714/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The Observer has published what it regards as the top 20 questions in Science. Number one on the list is the question of what the universe is made of. Specifically the 95% of the universe that we cannot…Simon Redfern, Professor in Earth Sciences, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.