tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/university-of-nottingham-1192/articlesThe University of Nottingham2024-03-26T17:02:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2265722024-03-26T17:02:09Z2024-03-26T17:02:09ZExtinguishing lights and a great big bang: the ancient sights and sounds of the pre-Easter tenebrae service<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584208/original/file-20240325-18-saxwku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The crucifixion of Christ inside Chester Cathedral.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/chester-cheshire-england-uk-26-march-2433472355">PhotoFires|Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Easter is a time of mixed emotions. According to <a href="https://www.churchofengland.org/media/press-releases/church-attendance-rises-second-year-running">Church of England figures</a>, up to a million people will go to church on Easter Sunday to celebrate the joy and hope of the resurrection of Christ. But in the three days before that, churchgoers in many traditions come face to face with the darkest moments of the Christian story: <a href="https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/explore-our-collection/highlights/context/subjects/judas">the betrayal</a> Jesus faced at the hands of Judas Iscariot, his death on the cross and his burial.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A priest extinguishes a candle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584205/original/file-20240325-9980-x5ion5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=695&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A symbolic darkening.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/25389408003/in/photolist-EFzmrR-qYG4Vv-rsNXi9-rD326R-qYJtLH-rCVpZw-rCVwuq-rBaqre-rD2YZB-rCU4QJ-rVq5Li-rBaCTZ-rVnevu-rVnbds-rVn54J-rCVt5u-rCU9Bh-qYutdC-qYGikB-rVpYFH-rVpZK6-9XFueb-rVuA3a-6dSFu4-rCUe3m-qYuwAu-rVuvSM-EFzmxT-SxBjRf-rCuHh7-7qWKHW-e6w8nR-7QK7Y4-e6FJya-rVsi1e-TNcwt5-5rUMHg-9AJeZS-TNcwqu-7Q8vmN-7QNq9G-4zM5yA-buGoW5-ngK9DK-ngK8v2-2gC1u1M-rUWund-rUZgjH-qYgu1p-nivvzB">Lawrence OP|Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Among the lesser known rituals of this pre-Easter period is an ancient exploration of darkness itself, known as <em>tenebrae</em>. Originally, this service took place late at night or early in the morning on the last three days of Holy Week, leading up to Holy Saturday (the day before Easter Sunday).</p>
<p>For at least 1,200 years, the defining feature of tenebrae services has been the gradual <a href="https://alcuinclub.org.uk/product/175/">extinguishing of lights</a>. Enclosed in an increasingly darkened church, worshippers are reminded of the three days Jesus spent in the tomb following his death. </p>
<p>My research <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/humanities/departments/music/research/research-projects/music-in-the-shadows.aspx">shows</a> that in the past it was actually quite common for worshippers to attend church in the middle of the night. Before electric light, sunset forced most daily activities to cease. Long winter nights afforded plenty of time both to sleep and to pray. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white nitrate negative image of a church service in 1941." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584196/original/file-20240325-20-uwswqc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tenebrae service on Spy Wednesday at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 1941.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/matpc.21011/">Matson photograph collection|LOC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Darker than dark</h2>
<p>Since medieval times, the tenebrae ritual has had the feel of a funeral. It features <a href="https://archive.org/details/liberusualismiss00cath/page/302/mode/2up?view=theater">dirge-like chanting</a>, <a href="https://www.liturgies.net/Lent/Tenebrae.htm">doleful texts</a> and a pointed avoidance of ornament. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A large standing candelabra." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584194/original/file-20240325-28-8pnz7q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1190&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Antoni Gaudi’s tenebrae hearse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:(Barcelona)_Tenebrae_Candelabra_-_Antoni_Gaud%C3%AD_-_Museums_of_the_Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia.jpg">Didier Descouens|Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Latin verb <em>tenebrare</em> means “to darken” and this is probably the origin of the ritual’s name. A symbolic number of candles or lamps – historically this varied between five and 72, but is now most often 15 – is lit at the beginning of the service, and then, for each successive chant, reading or verse, one light is extinguished. </p>
<p>These are often placed on what is known as a “hearse” – a triangular or pyramidal frame that would also be placed above a coffin or tomb. (Only in the 17th century would this word be borrowed to describe a funeral vehicle.) By the end of the service, a single light remains, barely enough to see by. </p>
<p>The effect is hugely dramatic. There have been different interpretations of the ritual through the ages.</p>
<p>In his ninth-century commentary <a href="https://documentacatholicaomnia.eu/04z/z_0776-0852__Symphosius_Amalarius__Liber_De_Ordine_Antiphonarii__MLT.pdf.html">On the Ordering of the Antiphoner</a>, the Frankish bishop Amalar of Metz understood the extinguishing of candles to represent the “the extinction of joy” brought about by Jesus’s crucifixion. Others saw a representation of the biblical figures and saints who had died bearing witness to this story, or a depiction of the waning light of Jesus the metaphorical sun.</p>
<p>Art objects have also provided layers of meaning. Standing some 25 feet tall, the giant <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/75710752@N04/8758144549">16th-century tenebrae candelabra</a> of Seville Cathedral is comprised of a metal hearse topped with 15 candles and as many carved figures.</p>
<p>As each candle is extinguished, a person seems to disappear, as if the faith of Christians is draining away. Similar objects are found in many Catholic churches, including the one designed by Antoni Gaudi for the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. </p>
<p>Some medieval churches used a hand-shaped snuffer made of wax to put out the candles. Signifying the hand of Judas, this underlined the theme of betrayal.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4TFAR6oTz8s?wmode=transparent&start=57" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>At the end of tenebrae, the final light is customarily hidden. In the eery, disorienting darkness that ensues, there is a long tradition of a loud sudden noise being made. This bang or clatter is known as the <em>strepitus</em>. People <a href="https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/282/tenebrae-best-ways-to-make-the-strepitus/">might</a> slam a door, bang a book, stamp their feet or use percussive instruments. </p>
<p>The strepitus is thought to represent the confusion or shock the disciples experienced after Jesus died, or the earthquake that followed the crucifixion. Like many aspects of ancient ritual, though, the strepitus was probably functional in origin.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/when-easter">By definition</a>, the days around Easter always enjoy the light of the moon. But finding your way out of an unlit church can be a struggle. It seems the original purpose of the sound, then, was to signal to the sacristan (the warden in charge of the church building and its contents) to reveal the hidden candle again, so that everyone could safely return home.</p>
<p>Inevitably, sometimes things got out of hand. In his Latin <a href="https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503044033-1">commentary on the liturgy</a>, the 13th-century French bishop <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/thib14180">Guillaume Durand of Mende</a> described a form of tenebrae service that ended with shouting, wailing and a “commotion of the people” as congregants enacted both the disciples’ grief and the ironic cheers of Jesus’s enemies. One 19th-century author <a href="https://archive.org/details/ancientenglishho00feas/page/90/mode/2up">reported</a> a volley of musket-fire being used for the strepitus in Seville.</p>
<p>Today, the sounds of tenebrae are much more respectable. Performances by the eponymous, Grammy-nominated choir, Tenebrae, make a feature of candlelight and ancient church spaces. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nXYbEyvVXUk?wmode=transparent&start=36" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The ritual has also inspired countless famous classical works. The 16th-century English royal composer Thomas Tallis crafted a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de_OPTtfZdw">sensuous vocal setting</a> of tenebrae readings from the Old Testament’s Book of Lamentations. </p>
<p>In 1585, his younger Spanish contemporary Tomás Luis de Victoria published almost three hours’ worth of <a href="https://open.spotify.com/embed/album/4up2bNlUkQvQhPFAwsWhM1?utm_source=generator">tenebrae polyphony</a>. A more operatic style appears in François Couperin’s exquisitely anguished <a href="https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W7081_120622">Leçons de ténèbres</a>, composed around 1710.</p>
<p>More recent examples include Stravinsky’s angular and unrelenting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RpOOgOeab0">Threni</a>, a concert work from 1958, and Poulenc’s lesser-known <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZCnnK7bvfc">Seven Tenebrae Responsories</a>, commissioned by Leonard Bernstein in 1961. </p>
<p>Among the many cherished settings of one medieval Tenebrae text, O vos omnes (a Latin adaptation of Lamentations 1:12-18), is a version by Spanish and Puerto Rican composer Pablo Casals. Written in 1932, it is still widely performed today. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RlcAqb-h98A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Casals was a <a href="https://www.paucasals.org/en/pablo-casals-and-the-united-nations/">peace activist</a> as well as a cellist. His simple, heartfelt strains transform <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Lamentations+1.18&version=NIV">the words of the prophet Jeremiah</a> into an impassioned plea for our troubled times: “Listen, all you peoples; look on my suffering.” </p>
<p>On Easter Sunday, many Christians will return from church having received a vital injection of hope for the world. But the tenebrae tradition, which some will also experience this week, has a useful role too. It helps us to come to terms with darkness in human history, and to find beauty even when it seems that hope itself is being extinguished.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226572/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Henry Parkes receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>The ancient tenebrae tradition brings churchgoers face to face with the darkest moments of the Christian story.Henry Parkes, Associate Professor, Department of Music, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2244312024-03-25T18:23:52Z2024-03-25T18:23:52ZDigital mindfulness could help reduce the effects of technostress at work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580693/original/file-20240308-26-a964hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C26%2C5928%2C3970&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/businesswoman-relax-work-office-1084534856">TORWAISTUDIO/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Technology-related stress, overload and anxiety are <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-09928-1_8">common problems in today’s workplace</a>, potentially leading to <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00420-023-01967-8">higher burnout and poorer health</a>. Many of these issues are likely to have increased since remote working became much more widespread following the pandemic. </p>
<p>In 2022, along with colleagues at the University of Nottingham, I <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563221004416#:%7E:text=The%20dark%20side%20of%20digital,technostress%2C%20overload%20anxiety%20and%20addiction.&text=A%20narrow%20focus%20on%20certain,holistic%20experience%20of%20digital%20work.">conducted a review</a> of the academic literature on the downsides of digital working. We looked at nearly 200 studies from over the past decade, which revealed extensive evidence of negative health impacts of technostress and related “dark side of digital workplace” effects.</p>
<p>Building on that research, our next study, published in 2024, investigated whether mindfulness and digital confidence – the ability to apply existing digital skills to new devices, apps and platforms – might help reduce these negative effects.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295631">We found</a> that being more confident and mindful when using technology could help protect the health of digital workers.</p>
<p>Mindfulness is <a href="https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/a-z-topics/mindfulness">a technique</a> to develop an nonjudgmental awareness of one’s feelings, thoughts and surroundings in the present moment. </p>
<p>It can help some people to avoid negative habits and responses by learning to observe their thoughts and emotions and tune in to the breath and body as an anchor. Becoming aware of habitual reactions in this way can help us to respond in a calmer, more effective manner.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Se971VQf8w8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Our latest study adds to evidence collected through <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-021-01681-x">many decades</a> of workplace mindfulness research, which has demonstrated its potential to reduce stress and anxiety among workers, as well as promoting better mental health and improving work engagement.</p>
<p>While our research did not investigate specific mindfulness techniques, our interview participants talked about ways that being mindful helped them to reduce stress in the digital workplace. </p>
<p>This could be as simple as pausing for a few deep breaths or stepping away from the technology for a short period. Checking in with their own mental, emotional and physical state while working digitally was also something that people said really helped them.</p>
<p>Participants with higher levels of mindfulness tended to be less overwhelmed by technology. They talked about avoiding multitasking online – for example, reading emails while on a video call – as well as establishing clear boundaries around its use, such as only using technology at certain times of the day. </p>
<p>It is worth noting that some workers were uneasy about taking time to disconnect, noting that they feared being seen as slacking or falling behind.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3PaWrX2uWm4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Overall, workers who were more confident with technology experienced less anxiety. And those who were more mindful appeared better protected from the negative aspects of digital working. </p>
<p>Our results suggest that although digital mindfulness and confidence are both important for employee wellbeing, ultimately, mindfulness is more effective than confidence with technology in protecting against technostress. </p>
<h2>Change perceptions to improve wellbeing</h2>
<p>In our analysis we explore the idea, based on previous studies, that mindfulness can help reduce anxiety by altering employees’ perceptions of digital stressors. </p>
<p>For example, researchers from the <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0214935">University of Turin</a> in 2019 found that higher mindfulness among teachers was associated with a more positive workload stress appraisal and lower rates of subsequent burnout.</p>
<p>In our study, we found that digital workers who were more mindfully and digitally confident appeared to have a greater sense of agency when working digitally. They were also better equipped to change their digital habits for the better. </p>
<p>These changes involved setting boundaries by implementing rules for how and when to engage in the digital workplace. For example, turning off notifications, batching email or shutting down devices at the end of the working day.</p>
<p>Some participants also used short mindful practices to regulate their engagement with technology and take care of physical and mental health while working digitally. Beneficial activities included taking a short break from technology, going for a walk or making a cup of tea. </p>
<h2>Reflection is key to healthy digital habits</h2>
<p>To help employees thrive during the ongoing digital transformation of the workplace, organisations should consider ways to support staff with digital skills and mindful practices. Otherwise, they risk workers suffering further negative effects.</p>
<p>Conducting this research made our team think about our own digital practices and identify areas for change. For instance, being setting clearer boundaries around reading and responding to emails outside of work hours and taking more pauses while working digitally. </p>
<p>There are opportunities for all of us to grow our own skills in these areas, for example by engaging with training or self-learning to raise our digital competencies for work and learn some basic mindfulness practices.</p>
<p>Reflecting on what is and isn’t working in your digital work day can be a great place to start in fostering healthy digital work habits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224431/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Marsh receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number: ES/P000711/1). As well as conducting part-time PhD research at the University of Nottingham she is an independent digital workplace consultant and mindfulness teacher. She is a graduate member (GMBPsS) of the British Psychological Society.</span></em></p>Workers who find the digital workplace more stressful are also more likely to experience burnout and poorer health. Can taking a mindful approach to technology improve digital workers’ wellbring?Elizabeth Marsh, PhD Candidate, employee technostress and the potential of mindfulness, School of Psychology, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2262092024-03-21T15:47:16Z2024-03-21T15:47:16ZRwanda asylum deportation plan faces more delays – how did we get here?<p>The government’s goal to send a flight of asylum seekers to Rwanda this spring is looking less and less likely. The plan has been in the works, blocked by a number of legal rulings, for nearly two years. All now hinges on the passage of a bill declaring Rwanda to be a “safe” country to send asylum seekers to. </p>
<p>But the bill has faced yet another parliamentary hurdle in the House of Lords. The upper house passed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/20/rwanda-bill-likely-to-be-stalled-at-least-till-april-after-seven-defeats-in-the-lords">several amendments</a> to bring the bill in line with the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/uk/about-unhcr/who-we-are/1951-refugee-convention">refugee convention</a> and international law. It is now due back in the House of Commons, a process known as parliamentary “ping pong”. If the bill passes, it won’t be until after Easter. </p>
<p>Rishi Sunak has repeatedly said that the government would like <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/bill-cash-uk-government-rwanda-rishi-sunak-government-b2514668.html">flights to take off in the spring</a>. While it was recently reported that no flights to Rwanda <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rwanda-flights-pause-bill-migrants-9zxsjqpw0">would occur before mid-May</a>, the government might now need to wait even longer due to these latest delays.</p>
<h2>How did we get here?</h2>
<p>In April 2022, the UK and Rwandan governments announced a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migration-and-economic-development-partnership-factsheet/migration-and-economic-development-partnership-factsheet">migration and economic development partnership</a>. Under this arrangement, some asylum seekers who travel to the UK irregularly (such as by small boat across the Channel) will be sent to Rwanda. There, Rwandan officials will process their protection claims. If the person is found to be a refugee, they will be resettled in Rwanda.</p>
<p>In exchange, the UK has agreed to pay Rwanda <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-68440653">£370 million to support economic growth in the country</a>. The UK will also resettle a small number of vulnerable refugees from Rwanda in the UK. </p>
<p>Two months after the partnership was announced, the government’s attempt to send the first plane of people to Rwanda was foiled by the courts. After a number of legal challenges, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/rwanda-deportations-what-is-the-european-court-of-human-rights-and-why-did-it-stop-the-uk-flight-from-taking-off-185143">European Court of Human Rights</a> issued an emergency order to stop the plane taking off.</p>
<p>Just before Christmas 2022, the High Court (one of the senior courts of England and Wales) ruled that the policy was lawful – but this finding was later overturned. Both the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-uk-court-ruled-rwanda-isnt-a-safe-place-to-send-refugees-and-what-this-means-for-the-governments-immigration-plans-208768">Court of Appeal</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/supreme-court-rules-rwanda-plan-unlawful-a-legal-expert-explains-the-judgment-and-what-happens-next-217730">Supreme Court</a> found that Rwanda was not a “safe” country to send asylum seekers to.</p>
<p>In particular, judges raised concerns about Rwanda’s domestic legal system, and the extent to which it would make accurate and fair decisions about whether a person was a refugee.</p>
<p>Because of this, both courts found that people sent to Rwanda were at risk of refoulement – that is, being sent back to their home country where they might be tortured, persecuted or killed. Non-refoulement is a key principle in the refugee convention and is recognised in UK law.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-uk-court-ruled-rwanda-isnt-a-safe-place-to-send-refugees-and-what-this-means-for-the-governments-immigration-plans-208768">Why UK court ruled Rwanda isn't a safe place to send refugees – and what this means for the government's immigration plans</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Resurrecting the Rwanda plan</h2>
<p>Following the Supreme Court’s decision, the government doubled down. It has taken a number of desperate steps to try and bypass the courts, making it legal to send people to Rwanda for asylum processing and resettlement.</p>
<p>The government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-rwanda-treaty-provision-of-an-asylum-partnership/uk-rwanda-treaty-provision-of-an-asylum-partnership-accessible">signed a new treaty with Rwanda</a>, requiring Rwanda to process claims in accordance with the refugee convention and provide refugees with support and accommodation. Rwanda’s commitments under this treaty are binding under international law.</p>
<p>In September and November last year, the Home Office held training days for Rwandan government officials, lawyers and judges on refugee law and effective asylum decision-making. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0czA8QNKsvo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Most significantly, the government introduced the <a href="https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3540">safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill</a>. This requires every immigration officer, tribunal and court in the UK to treat Rwanda as a safe country. By declaring in law that Rwanda is safe, the government is hoping to prevent courts from ruling against its policy.</p>
<p>The bill also says that courts and tribunals must <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-rule-39-uk-government-tells-civil-servants-to-ignore-european-court-of-human-rights-on-rwanda-deportations-221636">ignore any emergency orders made by the European Court of Human Rights</a> to prevent a person being removed to Rwanda.</p>
<p>The House of Lords opposed many of these provisions as contrary to the domestic and international rule of law. The Lords have repeatedly pushed back on the Rwanda plan, but appear unlikely to try and block the bill altogether. It has now been sent back to the House of Commons for further debate. </p>
<h2>What happens if the bill passes?</h2>
<p>Even if the legislation is passed, the Rwanda plan will likely be subject to another round of legal challenges. We can expect these to focus on whether or not the government can pass a law that overrides the courts on whether Rwanda is safe. Legal experts have <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-bill-to-declare-rwanda-a-safe-country-for-refugees-could-lead-to-a-constitutional-crisis-219777">expressed serious concerns</a> about the legislation, suggesting it could even trigger a “constitutional crisis”. </p>
<p>Courts might also be asked to consider whether the government’s efforts to ensure Rwanda’s safety (such as signing a new treaty and training Rwandan officials) are sufficient to overcome the problems previously identified with the policy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-bill-to-declare-rwanda-a-safe-country-for-refugees-could-lead-to-a-constitutional-crisis-219777">How the bill to declare Rwanda a 'safe' country for refugees could lead to a constitutional crisis</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Even if the bill somehow avoids legal hurdles, there are still questions of logistics, capacity and cost. In addition to the £370 million being paid to Rwanda to support economic growth, the UK will also pay it <a href="https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/investigation-into-the-costs-of-the-uk-rwanda-partnership/">£151,000 for every person relocated</a>. </p>
<p>Currently, Rwanda only has capacity to accept <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rwanda-flights-pause-bill-migrants-9zxsjqpw0">up to 200 asylum seekers at a time</a> from the UK. This pales in comparison to the 29,437 people who crossed the English Channel <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53699511">in small boats in 2023</a>. Many people who travel to the UK on small boats are found to be refugees.</p>
<p>Under the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-passed-a-major-immigration-law-last-year-so-why-is-it-trying-to-pass-another-one-207343">Illegal Migration Act</a>, passed in 2023, anyone who travels to the UK irregularly will never have their asylum claim considered by the government. These people, if not sent to Rwanda, will likely be trapped in legal limbo in the government’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/28/sunaks-asylum-laws-trapping-55000-people-in-perma-backlog-says-uk-thinktank">“perma-backlog” of asylum applications</a>.</p>
<p>Politically, the government is staking a lot on this plan. But it also needs a plan for the thousands of asylum seekers who will not be removed to Rwanda.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226209/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalie Hodgson 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>An expert on immigration law explains the latest developments with the safety of Rwanda bill.Natalie Hodgson, Assistant Professor in Law, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2256042024-03-19T18:17:35Z2024-03-19T18:17:35ZSmart rings’ ultra-precise movement tracking takes wearable technology to the next level<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581943/original/file-20240314-26-1uz986.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6382%2C4248&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/male-hands-blue-velvet-box-containing-2053213751">Vigen M / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a lot of hype about smart rings right now – <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/samsung-galaxy-ring-everything-we-know-so-far/">Samsung is due to release a Galaxy ring</a>, and there is unsubstantiated speculation that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2024/02/27/apple-developing-ring-to-beat-samsung-galaxy-ring-report-claims/?sh=4195d8954e2c">Apple is considering a ring too</a>. But why would you want a smart ring in the first place?</p>
<p>The short answer is that they are likely to fulfil the same health and activity tracking as a watch, leaving your wrist free for a more fashionable or traditional timepiece.</p>
<p>But they can also track the your body’s movements much more precisely than other wearable technology, and record detailed information about the movement of your hands. This could allow you to control and interact with other technology in new ways – but also raise even more concerns about privacy.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://ouraring.com/">Oura ring</a> has been available since 2015 and one of us, Max, has been wearing one for more than five years. He does this to track sleep and activity data during times when he does not want to wear a watch (including sleeping). These rings track changes in your body temperature, heart rate, heart rate variability (the time intervals between heart beats), blood oxygen levels, and physical activity. A smart watch can also do much of this. </p>
<p>It is expected that the Galaxy Ring will do the same (at least that is what one of <a href="https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/smart-ring-competition-heats-up-with-samsungs-announcement-of-galaxy-ring/">their announcements focuses on</a>), and be added to its health and fitness range.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.patentlyapple.com/2023/08/apple-has-won-a-major-smart-ring-patent-designed-to-control-companion-device-uis-speed-scroll-documents-use-in-air-gesture.html">Apple’s patent application</a> indicates that its version may do more than monitor health. It may help control other devices, and vibrate to give users notifications.</p>
<h2>Benefits all round?</h2>
<p>Fingers are better than wrists at making specific gestures. With many more finger gesture options than arm positions, and finger gestures being the primary mode of interaction for VR (virtual reality) headsets, one probable future for smart rings is to control other devices. This would allow for the more precise detection of actions like pinching and pointing. </p>
<p>Multiple rings could work together to achieve this, with other devices. Apple’s ring patent, for example, implies that rings could be worn in different bands along the length of a single finger (not an uncommon choice with normal rings), allowing a company to know how your finger is angled. If communicating with a watch, smart rings could detect finger and hand position in relation to your arm. This potentially provides more precise interactions with VR headsets.</p>
<p>In being able to carefully track fingers, rather than wrists, smart rings might allow technology companies to understand, model, and help improve many more activities, especially in situations where cameras and sensors are less likely to be found. </p>
<p>One example of this is learning to play classical guitar, which does not involve as much strumming with the whole arm or at the wrist, but where all the skill is in the fingers. Bringing sensors closer to the body’s more dexterous touch sensors means that technology companies can more closely understand what you are doing. </p>
<h2>Status symbols</h2>
<p>Rings are jewellery, often worn to be seen. Apple is well known for making aesthetics a priority in its products. While the Galaxy ring looks a lot like the Oura Ring, it’s likely that Apple will consider the importance of personalisation and style.</p>
<p>Rings are not just worn on fingers, of course. Could rings for piercings, that go inside the body to some extent, like those on our ears or lips, give us additional data on ourselves? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman runner using smart watch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582558/original/file-20240318-18-3tco3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582558/original/file-20240318-18-3tco3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582558/original/file-20240318-18-3tco3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582558/original/file-20240318-18-3tco3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582558/original/file-20240318-18-3tco3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582558/original/file-20240318-18-3tco3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582558/original/file-20240318-18-3tco3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Smart watches have found a particular use in fitness and health monitoring.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-fitness-woman-runner-checking-time-705175816">Ground Picture / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There might also be value in incorporating smart technology into other adornments. There are already smart products <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/best-smart-jewelry?r=US&IR=T">designed to be worn as necklaces</a>. Potentially necklaces could help monitor stress levels because stress is closely linked to breathing patterns. There has also been a <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90853727/this-bra-tracks-your-vital-signs">smart bra</a>.</p>
<h2>Rings signify attachment</h2>
<p>The most well-known association that a ring has is as a gift of commitment and attachment. Researchers have looked at how we can use digital technology to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/634067.634252">communicate with loved ones who are not physically present</a>. Apple’s smart ring patent includes haptic feedback (where technology applies forces or vibrations to the user to simulate the experience of touch).</p>
<p>Smart wedding rings could be used to transmit messages between partners – to let one of them know the other is thinking about them. For example, an interaction such as twisting the ring could make your partner’s ring vibrate.</p>
<p>However, new smart devices will generate new forms of data and tracking, raising important questions about privacy and ethics. As with other wearable technology, there may be things people do not want to track. Imagine a message from your workplace telling you: “We see you aren’t typing at your desk right now.” </p>
<p>Social problems are also a possibility. If smart technology was incorporated into wedding rings, it could give people a way of tracking what their partners were doing even more closely than smartphones can.</p>
<p>These questions highlight the importance of governments focusing on the <a href="https://www.rai.ac.uk/">responsible use of AI</a>, as well as responsible innovation. <a href="http://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2023/11/be-smarter-than-your-smart-tech/">Research shows</a> that over half of British people (52%) feel like they do not know how their personal data is being collected and used.</p>
<p>Companies could create more targeted advertising based on changing circumstances, as when someone learns they are pregnant. Some regions of the world even offer cheaper life insurance to people with better health data from wearables.</p>
<p>What we should ask is: what is responsible and irresponsible for companies to track and try to infer about people from their wearables? This question should be at the forefront of thinking in the big tech companies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Horia Maior receives funding from UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Max L Wilson receives funding from the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the European Union, as well as past research funding support from Google Research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve Benford receives research funding from The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UKRI and the European Union. He has previously received funded from Unilever to research smart mirrors.</span></em></p>Smart rings can collect information about us that smartphones and smart watches struggle to.Horia Maior, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, University of NottinghamMax L Wilson, Associate Professor of Human-Computer Interaction, University of NottinghamSteve Benford, Professor of Collaborative Computing, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2249012024-03-15T13:32:04Z2024-03-15T13:32:04ZFuel poverty in England is probably 2.5 times higher than government statistics show<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580730/original/file-20240308-28-m97ekg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/white-radiator-heater-beside-brown-wooden-window-ihx1LdtnGXw">Julian Hochgesang|Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The cap set on how much UK energy suppliers can charge for domestic gas and electricity is set to fall by 15% from April 1 2024. Despite this, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-uk-energy-crisis-plan-will-affect-bills-and-price-inflation-an-economist-explains-190586">prices</a> remain shockingly high. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-energy-prices-december-2023">average household energy bill</a> in 2023 was £2,592 a year, dwarfing the pre-pandemic average of £1,308 in 2019.</p>
<p>The term <a href="https://theconversation.com/fuel-poverty-as-government-support-dries-up-communities-are-taking-action-221282">“fuel poverty”</a> refers to a household’s ability to afford the energy required to maintain adequate warmth and the use of other essential appliances. Quite how it is measured varies from country to country. In England, the government uses what is known as the low income low energy efficiency (Lilee) indicator. </p>
<p>Since energy costs started rising sharply in 2021, UK households’ spending powers have plummeted. It would be reasonable to assume that these <a href="https://theconversation.com/cost-of-living-crisis-its-not-enough-to-know-how-many-people-are-below-the-poverty-line-we-need-to-measure-poverty-depth-180450">increasingly hostile economic conditions</a> have caused fuel poverty rates to rise. </p>
<p>However, according to the Lilee fuel poverty metric, in England there have only been modest changes in fuel poverty incidence year on year. In fact, government statistics show a slight <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-fuel-poverty-statistics-report-2024">decrease in the nationwide rate</a>, from 13.2% in 2020 to 13.0% in 2023. </p>
<p>Our recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114014">study</a> suggests that these figures are incorrect. We estimate the rate of fuel poverty in England to be around 2.5 times higher than what the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-statistics">government’s statistics</a> show, because the criteria underpinning the Lilee estimation process leaves out a large number of financially vulnerable households which, in reality, are unable to afford and maintain adequate warmth.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Blocks of flats in London." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580731/original/file-20240308-24-pw8ikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580731/original/file-20240308-24-pw8ikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580731/original/file-20240308-24-pw8ikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580731/original/file-20240308-24-pw8ikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580731/original/file-20240308-24-pw8ikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580731/original/file-20240308-24-pw8ikc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580731/original/file-20240308-24-pw8ikc.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">Household fuel poverty in England is calculated on the basis of the energy efficiency of the home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/a-street-with-cars-and-buildings-along-it-JqT3PsJ7Chc">Igor Sporynin|Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Energy security</h2>
<p>In 2022, we undertook an in-depth analysis of Lilee fuel poverty in Greater London. First, we combined fuel poverty, housing and employment data to provide an estimate of vulnerable homes which are omitted from Lilee statistics. </p>
<p>We also surveyed 2,886 residents of Greater London about their experiences of fuel poverty during the winter of 2022. We wanted to gauge energy security, which refers to a type of self-reported fuel poverty. Both parts of the study aimed to demonstrate the potential flaws of the Lilee definition. </p>
<p>Introduced in 2019, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainable-warmth-protecting-vulnerable-households-in-england">Lilee metric</a> considers a household to be “fuel poor” if it meets two criteria. First, after accounting for energy expenses, its income must fall below the poverty line (which is 60% of median income). </p>
<p>Second, the property must have an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of D–G (the lowest four ratings). The government’s apparent logic for the Lilee metric is to quicken the net-zero transition of the housing sector. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sustainable-warmth-protecting-vulnerable-households-in-england">Sustainable Warmth</a>, the policy paper that defined the Lilee approach, the government says that EPC A–C-rated homes “will not significantly benefit from energy-efficiency measures”. Hence, the focus on fuel poverty in D–G-rated properties. </p>
<p>Generally speaking, EPC A–C-rated homes (those with the highest three ratings) are considered energy efficient, while D–G-rated homes are deemed inefficient. The problem with how Lilee fuel poverty is measured is that the process assumes that EPC A–C-rated homes are too “energy efficient” to be considered fuel poor: the main focus of the fuel poverty assessment is a characteristic of the property, not the occupant’s financial situation.</p>
<p>In other words, by this metric, anyone living in an energy-efficient home cannot be considered to be in fuel poverty, no matter their financial situation. There is an obvious flaw here. </p>
<p>Around 40% of homes in England have an EPC rating of A–C. According to the Lilee definition, none of these homes can or ever will be classed as fuel poor. Even though energy prices are going through the roof, a single-parent household with dependent children whose only income is universal credit (or some other form of benefits) will still not be considered to be living in fuel poverty if their home is rated A-C. </p>
<p>The lack of protection afforded to these households against an extremely volatile energy market is highly concerning. </p>
<p>In our study, we estimate that 4.4% of London’s homes are rated A-C and also financially vulnerable. That is around 171,091 households, which are currently omitted by the Lilee metric but remain highly likely to be unable to afford adequate energy. </p>
<p>In most other European nations, what is known as the 10% indicator is used to gauge fuel poverty. This metric, which was also used in England from the 1990s until the mid 2010s, considers a home to be fuel poor if more than 10% of income is spent on energy. Here, the main focus of the fuel poverty assessment is the occupant’s financial situation, not the property. </p>
<p>Were such alternative fuel poverty metrics to be employed, a significant portion of those 171,091 households in London would almost certainly qualify as fuel poor. </p>
<p>This is confirmed by the findings of our survey. Our data shows that 28.2% of the 2,886 people who responded were <a href="https://www.eia.gov/consumption/residential/energy_insecurity.php">“energy insecure”</a>. This includes being unable to afford energy, making involuntary spending trade-offs between food and energy, and falling behind on energy payments. </p>
<p>Worryingly, we found that the rate of energy insecurity in the survey sample is around 2.5 times higher than the official rate of fuel poverty in London (11.5%), as assessed according to the Lilee metric. </p>
<p>It is likely that this figure can be extrapolated for the rest of England. If anything, energy insecurity may be even higher in other regions, given that Londoners tend to have higher-than-average <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/regionalaccounts/grossdisposablehouseholdincome/bulletins/regionalgrossdisposablehouseholdincomegdhi/1997to2021">household income</a>. </p>
<p>The UK government is wrongly omitting hundreds of thousands of English households from fuel poverty statistics. Without a more accurate measure, vulnerable households will continue to be overlooked and <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-single-person-on-universal-credit-now-receives-20-less-than-what-it-costs-just-to-eat-and-keep-warm-222008">not get the assistance</a> they desperately need to stay warm.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224901/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Torran Semple receives funding from Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) grant EP/S023305/1.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Harvey 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 top 40% most energy efficient homes aren’t counted as being in fuel poverty, no matter what their bills or income are.Torran Semple, PhD Student in Engineering & Data Science, University of NottinghamJohn Harvey, Associate Professor in Marketing, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243432024-03-04T11:47:59Z2024-03-04T11:47:59ZKenyans use humour to counter unpopular state policies – memes are the latest tool<p>Seemingly disillusioned with the country’s leadership, Kenyans have taken to new ways of expressing their anger and frustration with their government. </p>
<p>On social media and in everyday conversations, President William Ruto is now referred to as Zakayo, named after the infamous <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/111/LUK.19.1-10.NIV">Zaccheaus</a>, the much-hated chief tax collector in biblical Jericho. </p>
<p>Ruto is also called Kaunda Uongoman, which mimics the stage name of a controversial Congolese musician, <a href="https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/magazines/people-power/wahito-kanda-bongo-man-and-the-story-of-his-kenyan-beauty-1789094">Kanda Bongoman</a>. The first name is a reference to Ruto’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67563308">recent penchant</a> for Kaunda suits. The surname is a portmanteau of the Kiswahili word <em>uongo</em>, meaning liar, and man. </p>
<p>These nicknames are examples of the many humorous but pointed and pithy descriptions now widely used by Kenyans, particularly on social media platforms, to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329099584_Whatwouldmagufulido_Kenya's_digital_practices_and_individuation_as_a_nonpolitical_act">ridicule and express defiance</a> towards a president and government whose policy decisions have become <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67694865">deeply unpopular</a>. </p>
<p>Satire and humour have always been legitimate sites for popular engagement with the state in Kenya. But a new weapon in the armoury of those criticising the state is the use of memes. Across social media, Kenyans are employing a range of memes drawn from folk, biblical, global and everyday expressions, as well as videos, screen grabs and photographs riffed off circulating news stories to comment on the government’s failings. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-advertising-blackmail-to-physical-threats-kenyas-journalists-are-under-attack-but-they-must-also-regain-public-trust-203580">From advertising blackmail to physical threats, Kenya's journalists are under attack – but they must also regain public trust</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Memes have become an <a href="https://berghahnbooks.com/downloads/OpenAccess/BernalCryptopolitics/BernalCryptopolitics_03.pdf">important feature</a> of Kenya’s everyday and discursive political practices. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1470412914551351">Memes</a> are defined by media scholars Laine Nooney and Laura Portwood-Stacer as</p>
<blockquote>
<p>digital objects that riff on a given visual, textual or auditory form and are then appropriated, re-coded, and slotted back into the infrastructures they came from. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>I have <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=CmVgKXsAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">researched</a> these popular cultural forms particularly within the context of digital media in Africa. I have demonstrated, for example, how <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23743670.2015.1119490?casa_token=Sue0yxvwcvUAAAAA:dTsuDNJM9KDsFfjWqA7JvO1jupx_WdVmiLg7eKpMGu_7cbbqo-LoBohB6USKYQhGZHtpGfRp2ByF">Twitter</a> has incubated various cultures of popular expression. These create important “<a href="https://www.berghahnbooks.com/downloads/OpenAccess/BernalCryptopolitics/BernalCryptopolitics_03.pdf#page=9">pockets of indiscipline</a>” through which state power is constantly challenged. </p>
<p>Media repression in Kenya has taken new forms. The focus is largely on <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-advertising-blackmail-to-physical-threats-kenyas-journalists-are-under-attack-but-they-must-also-regain-public-trust-203580">invisible tactics</a> that don’t make the state look bad. These range from the use of advertising blackmail to legal instruments often vaguely defined to facilitate misuse. There’s also the creation of a pliant “independent” media council which is <a href="https://mediacouncil.or.ke/index.php/about-us/origins-of-the-council">partly funded by the government</a>. </p>
<p>Memes aren’t completely insulating users from potential state harassment and legal transgressions. Nevertheless, they are making it possible for Kenyans to expand their spaces and boundaries of popular expression, and to navigate some of the existing legal barriers to free expression.</p>
<h2>Resistance legacy in Kenya</h2>
<p>Satire and humour have historically been important forms of political practice in Kenya. The tradition has existed in different forms across various platforms, including broadcast and print media, as well as in popular cultural forms such as music and drama. </p>
<p>For example, in the 1980s and 1990s a satirical newspaper fiction column, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13504630500161581">Wahome Mutahi’s column Whispers</a>, became a must-read. Through satirical and humorous accounts of a fictionalised Kenyan family, Mutahi was able to openly criticise the government, commenting on state policies and failings in a way that mainstream press couldn’t. </p>
<p>This was at the height of the terrifying reign of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/daniel-arap-moi-the-making-of-a-kenyan-big-man-127177">late Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi</a>, when criticism of the government was dangerous. Journalists were routinely jailed, exiled or even killed for it. </p>
<p>Kenyans are again tapping into this history using new media technologies to creatively challenge power. </p>
<p>The political context in the country is different from that of the 1980s. Nevertheless, the government continues to exert influence on mainstream media. Its main means of doing so is through <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-advertising-blackmail-to-physical-threats-kenyas-journalists-are-under-attack-but-they-must-also-regain-public-trust-203580">the control of advertising revenue</a>. The state is the largest single advertiser in the country’s media, and organisations regarded as hostile are denied government advertising. </p>
<p>As a result, social media platforms have become alternative critical debating spaces. This is despite efforts by the state to <a href="https://www.article19.org/resources/kenya-withdraw-proposed-amendments-to-cybercrimes-law/">undermine free speech</a> in various communication platforms. </p>
<p>As rights group <a href="https://www.article19.org/resources/kenya-harmonise-free-expression-with-iccpr-recommendations/">Article 19</a> has argued, content-based restrictions on free expression that are incompatible with international human rights law and standards remain in Kenya’s penal code. Another problematic law is the <a href="http://kenyalaw.org/kl/fileadmin/pdfdownloads/Acts/ComputerMisuseandCybercrimesActNo5of2018.pdf">Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act</a>, which the government has routinely used to punish those on social media exposing instances of state corruption. <a href="https://mediainnovationnetwork.org/2022/04/07/the-legal-challenges-facing-east-africas-bloggers-and-influencers/">Bloggers and political activists</a> have been subjected to some of these laws.</p>
<h2>Game of cat and mouse</h2>
<p>In an environment where the government seems determined to control public communication spaces, and has the means to do so, alternative cultures of defiance that have been known to elude state capture should thrive.</p>
<p>Yet, even as the use of memes, especially for political accountability, proliferates, there is always the fear that the state can simply ignore their spread and “vitality”, or appropriate them. This would weaken their subversive intent. For example, during a recent foreign trip to Japan, <a href="https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/realtime/2024-02-08-ruto-i-dont-mind-being-called-zakayo-but/">Ruto “accepted”</a> his nickname Zakayo, insisting that he wouldn’t backtrack on his unpopular tax policies. </p>
<p>When the state takes “ownership” of this language of resistance, it presents an interesting paradox, one which the Cameroonian scholar Achille Mbembe once likened to a form of “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/abs/provisional-notes-on-the-postcolony/BE5FFE3AC0DB10125B69E0D63E36DD89">mutual zombification</a>”. This is where the ruler and the ruled “rob each other of their vitality, leaving both impotent”. </p>
<p>In other words, none is left the stronger.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224343/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Ogola 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>Satire and humour have always been sites for popular engagement with the state in Kenya.George Ogola, Professor of Media Industries, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2242952024-03-01T11:49:59Z2024-03-01T11:49:59ZPanda diplomacy: what China’s decision to send bears to the US reveals about its economy<p>A <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-send-new-pandas-san-diego-zoo-rcna139926">deal was signed</a> between San Diego Zoo and China’s Wildlife Conservation Association in February 2024 that paved the way for Chinese giant pandas to return to the US by the end of the summer. </p>
<p>But this is far more than just a deal between two zoos. It suggests a <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3252870/chinas-envoys-friendship-return-us-zoo-beijing-restarts-panda-diplomacy">warming of relations</a> between the US and China, and a bid by China to help repair <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/27/economy/china-economy-challenges-2024-intl-hnk/index.html#:%7E:text=The%20Chinese%20economy%20was%20expected,(IMF)%2C%20among%20others.">its struggling economy</a>.</p>
<p>For decades, China has used <a href="https://www.diplomacy.edu/topics/panda-diplomacy/">panda diplomacy</a>, where Beijing gave or loaned its pandas as a sign of friendship or to strengthen national ties, to establish a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/01/panda-diplomacy-exit-from-edinburgh-zoo-may-signal-end-of-era#:%7E:text=As%20the%20UK's%20only%20giant,be%20coming%20to%20an%20end.">good long-term relationship with other countries</a>. However, in 2023, when China <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/us/politics/panda-zoo-china.html">withdrew its giant pandas</a> from the Smithsonian zoo in Washington DC, this seemed to symbolise how rocky the China-US relationship had become. </p>
<p>Two pandas were given as a gift to the US after President Richard Nixon <a href="https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/history-giant-pandas-zoo">visited China in 1972</a>, and this was seen as a major breakthrough in modern US-China relations. From the 1990s onwards panda diplomacy was transformed into a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/6387">long-term programme</a> involving conservation and scientific study.</p>
<p>Panda diplomacy is part of what is called <a href="https://world101.cfr.org/foreign-policy/tools-foreign-policy/what-soft-power">“soft power”</a>, how nations use their culture or heritage to influence <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/hjd/8/1/article-p49_3.xml?language=en">another country’s foreign policy</a>. Pandas are <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo3631069.html">soft and cuddly</a>, and have what it takes to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01292986.2020.1725075">win hearts and minds</a>. So, the pandas became part of an attractive part of <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/hjd/8/1/article-p49_3.xml">China’s international image</a>. </p>
<p>By sending these pandas to the US, Beijing intends to woo the American public, but also more specifically, California, the home of the US technology industry.</p>
<p>One reason for this is that Beijing needs to jump start its ailing economy. Foreign investment in China was <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Foreign-investment-in-China-turns-negative-for-first-time">lacklustre</a> in 2022. But between July and September 2023 things got a lot <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Foreign-investment-in-China-turns-negative-for-first-time">worse</a>, as foreign direct investment leaving the country outweighed that coming in. This had not happened since 1998.</p>
<p>A main reason for this drop in foreign investment stems from <a href="https://time.com/6324619/us-biden-ai-chips-china/">US restrictions</a> on exports of semiconductor technology to China. This is related to US concerns that the chips could be used by China for <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/11/15/will-xi-and-biden-mend-us-china-relations-at-the-apec-summit#:%7E:text=With%20the%20Chinese%20economy%20slowing,speech%20at%20the%20business%20dinner.">military objectives</a>. To turn the economic tide, China needs to repair its trade relationship with the US, and possibly get the US government to change its policy.</p>
<p>The two giant pandas are headed for California, home to both the Silicon Valley and San Francisco, currently the <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/01/07/ai-start-ups-are-booming-in-san-francisco-s-cerebral-valley_6408847_4.html#:%7E:text=%22San%20Francisco%20is%20the%20AI,of%20more%20than%20three%20years.">world’s centres for artificial intelligence</a> development. </p>
<p>The potential of this technology is important for China. As well as the potential to add <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-next-frontier-for-ai-in-china-could-add-600-billion-to-its-economy">$600 billion</a> (£474 billion) to the Chinese economy by 2030, it could provide <a href="https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2021/696206/EPRS_ATA(2021)696206_EN.pdf">an edge</a> for China’s powerful <a href="https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/JIPA/Display/Article/2980879/artificial-intelligence-technology-and-chinas-defense-system/">military</a>.</p>
<p>To become a world leader of artificial intelligence by <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/07/10/china-s-ai-regulations-and-how-they-get-made-pub-90117#:%7E:text=The%202017%20New%20Generation%20AI,China's%20economy%20and%20national%20power.">2030</a>, China needs talent and technological know-how. But China’s ability to enhance its artificial intelligence capacity through domestic talent is constrained by an education system steeped in <a href="https://innovationmatters.economist.com/beijing/education-artificial-intelligence">rote learning</a>.</p>
<p>Beijing’s redeployment of pandas dials up the diplomatic goodwill several notches, signalling Beijing’s seriousness in improving links with Washington. After all, the pandas represent China’s <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-practice/article/abs/environmental-reviews-and-case-studies-diplomats-and-refugees-panda-diplomacy-soft-cuddly-power-and-the-new-trajectory-in-panda-conservation/A23238335C47C1717417060B7AAB05AF">seal of approval</a> towards a foreign nation, and this move typically <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/environmental-practice/article/abs/environmental-reviews-and-case-studies-diplomats-and-refugees-panda-diplomacy-soft-cuddly-power-and-the-new-trajectory-in-panda-conservation/A23238335C47C1717417060B7AAB05AF">signals</a> a plan to build a long, prosperous working relationship.</p>
<h2>What’s the history?</h2>
<p>The Smithsonian’s zoo, arguably the birthplace of panda diplomacy in the west, had been home to giant pandas since <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/world/panda-diplomacy-us-china/index.html#:%7E:text=The%20Smithsonian%20National%20Zoo%20was,say%20whether%20it%20will%20continue.">1972</a>. It was from November 8, 2023, that the zoo lost its giant pandas for the first time in <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/08/world/panda-diplomacy-us-china/index.html#:%7E:text=(CNN)%20%E2%80%93%20Three%20giant%20pandas,being%20housed%20at%20the%20zoo.">more than 50 years</a>, when Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their offspring, Xiao Qi Ji were flown back to China.</p>
<p>At that point, there were suggestions that panda diplomacy <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/us/politics/panda-zoo-china.html">was over</a> as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/28/pandas-returning-china-dc-zoo/">tensions</a> between the US and China had risen significantly. Relations between US and Chinese businesses also seemed to be getting worse. A survey by the US-China Business Council of its members in 2023 found that 34% had stopped or reduced planned investment in China <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/business/economy/xi-jinping-american-business-leaders-dinner.html">over the previous 12 months</a>.</p>
<p>But later in November, China’s president Xi Jinping held a four-hour summit with President Joe Biden at the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/08/business/economy/xi-jinping-american-business-leaders-dinner.html">Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) conference in San Francisco</a> and signalled that there was potential for rapprochement. Xi said that, in a world of challenges, the US and China “must handle our relations well”. Xi alluded to the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/xi-jinping-china-pandas-california-biden-summit-rcna125471">pandas’ popularity</a> with Americans. </p>
<p>He added <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/xi-jinping-china-pandas-california-biden-summit-rcna125471">that China</a> is “ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation”, and added that China will “do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples”.</p>
<p>Xi also set up a dinner with hundreds of tech executives including Apple CEO Tim Cook and business leaders on the sidelines of the Apec meeting. So it would seem logical that Beijing has decided to send its national treasures to California to signal the state’s importance to the Asian superpower.</p>
<p>It looks like <a href="https://www.history.com/news/panda-diplomacy-the-worlds-cutest-ambassadors">Beijing’s willingness to send its bears</a> back to the US is part of a strategy to improve not only its political relationship with Biden, but, perhaps more importantly, to help bring back US investment, and reframe Beijing as a friendlier trading power.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224295/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chee Meng Tan 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 arrival of two giant pandas in San Diego is a sign of China’s need to make friends in the US tech industries.Chee Meng Tan, Assistant Professor of Business Economics, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248042024-02-29T17:47:45Z2024-02-29T17:47:45ZIranian parliamentary election: what people are voting for and why it’s different this time<p>Iranian voters head to the polls on March 1 to elect the country’s next parliament and the powerful Assembly of Experts. The result is likely to be a foregone conclusion, given the tight control that the Islamic Republic holds over who can run for office. But the way the election plays out – and its significance – may be different to normal.</p>
<p>Every four years the public get to vote for the 290 members of the <a href="https://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/parliament">Iranian parliament</a> (also known as the Islamic Consultative Assembly). The parliament is the legislature of the country, and its members are responsible for drafting legislation, approving the annual budget and any international treaties or agreements. It is not responsible for foreign or nuclear policy.</p>
<p>At the same time, elections are being held for the <a href="https://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/assembly-experts">Assembly of Experts</a>, which serves an eight-year term and is imbued under the <a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Iran_1989">Iranian constitution</a> to monitor, dismiss and elect the supreme leader. </p>
<p>Despite Iranians being able to vote, there are a number of limitations to the democratic process in Iran. Most notably, all candidates are vetted by the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/03/iran_power/html/guardian_council.stm">Guardian Council</a> – an unelected body – hence removing a significant element of choice. </p>
<p>Of the 49,000 people who registered to run for parliament this year, <a href="https://www.shora-gc.ir/en/news/243/over-14000-candidates-approved-for-irans-parliamentary-elections">14,200 applicants</a> were approved. This has involved the disqualification of many reformist and centrist conservatives and has left mainly right-wing conservatives vying for posts. </p>
<p>In fact, only 30 reformists have been approved to run for office, leaving them <a href="https://www.iranintl.com/en/202402204964">to claim</a> that the elections are “meaningless, non-competitive, unfair, and ineffective in the administration of the country”.</p>
<p>In the Assembly of Experts, 144 candidates have been approved to run for the 88 seats. But the centrist and reformist former president, <a href="https://twitter.com/hassanrouhani?lang=en">Hassan Rouhani</a>, has been <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/iran/2024/01/24/irans-rouhani-says-he-is-banned-from-running-in-march-election-for-elite-assembly/">banned from seeking re-election</a>. This has further cemented the Assembly of Experts as a stronghold of conservatives and ultra-conservatives.</p>
<p>The names of the final candidates were also released very late – just two weeks before the election. This has allowed little time for campaigning or, more importantly, for the public to get to know who they are supposed to be voting for.</p>
<h2>It’s different this time around</h2>
<p>There are three important points to note about this election. First, this is the first election since the death of <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/09/what-happened-to-mahsa-zhina-amini/">Mahsa Amini</a>. Amini died in police custody in September 2022, at the age of 26, after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for violating the country’s strict Islamic dress code. </p>
<p>Her death led to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2022/12/06/mahsa-amini-the-spark-that-ignited-a-women-led-revolution/">widespread protests</a> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/16/iran-one-year-after-the-death-of-mahsa-amini">across Iran</a> which were met with a brutal crackdown. And while these “woman, life, freedom” protests, may have largely died down after 18 months, they <a href="https://theconversation.com/womens-activism-in-iran-continues-despite-street-protests-dying-down-in-face-of-state-repression-213514">continue via online activism and civil disobedience</a>. </p>
<p>Therefore, this election is likely to see some response from these events, with women and young people wanting to continue the protest through the ballot box.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/womens-activism-in-iran-continues-despite-street-protests-dying-down-in-face-of-state-repression-213514">Women's activism in Iran continues, despite street protests dying down in face of state repression</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Second, there is expected to be a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/28/middleeast/iran-election-parliament-turnout-low-jihad-vote-mime-intl/index.html">low turnout</a>. Voting turnout has been on the decline in Iranian elections for some time, but increasing dissatisfaction with the voting choice, combined with apathy and frustration over the lack of change in the country means that many voters are planning to stay away from the ballot box.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.etemadonline.com/%D8%A8%D8%AE%D8%B4-%D8%B3%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%B3%DB%8C-9/652287-%D9%87%D8%B4%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D9%86%D8%B8%D8%B1%D8%B3%D9%86%D8%AC%DB%8C-%D9%87%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%85%D8%AC%D9%84%D8%B3-%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B2%D8%AF%D9%87%D9%85">recent poll</a> suggested that national turnout is likely to be at 35% and only 18% in the capital, Tehran. By comparison, the <a href="https://irandataportal.syr.edu/2020-parliamentary-election">turnout in 2020 was 42.5%</a> – but this was the lowest it had been since 1979 and was during a global pandemic.</p>
<h2>Succession question</h2>
<p>A low turnout could be problematic for the political leadership, who rely on elections to provide a veil of legitimacy over their regime. As a result, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has started a dual pronged campaign of encouraging citizens to vote and blaming the west if they don’t.</p>
<p>Last month he <a href="https://twitter.com/khamenei_ir/status/1759192438504120516">tweeted</a>: “Elections are the main pillar of the Islamic Republic, and they are the way to improve the country. For those who are seeking to solve the problems, the way to do this is the elections.” </p>
<p>He also attended a meeting with people from the East Azerbaijan province and used the opportunity to emphasise that it was the intention of what he called the <a href="https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/495092/Enemies-oppose-Iran-elections">“arrogant powers”</a> and the US to encourage people to boycott the elections.</p>
<p>The third point is that the elections are likely to have a greater significance for the future of Islamic Republic than normal. Khamenei is currently 84 years old, so the election of the next supreme leader is likely to happen within the next eight-year term of the Assembly of Experts. </p>
<p>This is why it is thought that the Guardian Council has been so restrictive when it has come to this year’s <a href="https://www.iranintl.com/en/202401293591">candidate selection</a> for the Assembly – because this election could secure Iranian succession.</p>
<p>The first results could emerge within 24 hours, although the full tally – and what it means for Iran’s future – may not be clear for some days.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224804/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Kettle is an Associate Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute</span></em></p>Candidates have been pre-approved to favour the religious right.Louise Kettle, Assistant Professor of International Relations, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2229332024-02-23T15:22:21Z2024-02-23T15:22:21ZLegion: Life in the Roman Army exhibition delivers exciting finds but fails to go beyond stories of men and weapons of war enough<p>The life of a Roman soldier was full of risk, danger and camraderie, but it could also be beset with loneliness. Many soldiers joined in order to build a better future for themselves. We know this was the case for Claudius Terentianus.</p>
<p>Terentianus was a marine who was later transferred onto a legion, a more prestigious unit consisting of Roman citizens. He went on to serve in Syria and Alexandria before finally retiring in the village of Karanis, Egypt.</p>
<p>Terentianus was one of hundreds of thousand of men who served in Roman armies but we know a lot about his experiences thanks to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24518619">papyrus letters</a> written early in the second century to his father Claudius Tiberianus. Terentianus’s experiences are at the centre of the exhibition Legion: Life in the Roman Army at London’s British Museum. </p>
<p>The British Museum’s first <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/legion-life-roman-army">major exhibition devoted to Rome’s armies</a> explores the experience of military service, from enlistment to retirement. The exhibition features collections of military equipment, inscriptions on stone and unique finds from across the Roman Empire.</p>
<p>The structure draws on a fairly traditional research approach focused on tracing careers of military men, and on study of military equipment. It was through work on military equipment that stories of individual men started emerging. These stories were told through personalised items, name tags and hand-made repairs. Legion: Life in the Roman Army reflects these approaches, if imperfectly. </p>
<h2>A ‘greatest hits’ selection of Roman military finds</h2>
<p>The opening panel sets the tone of the exhibition by focusing on the imagery of military might on Trajan’s column, a landmark of ancient Rome, and introducing the exhibition’s protagonist. The exhibition’s prominent theme is the story of Rome’s legions as the first professional army and of Rome as a highly militarised society. </p>
<p>The exhibition’s narrative starts with the tale of young men taking risk, pinning hopes of improving their livelihoods and gaining citizenship on military service. The exhibition doesn’t shy away from exploring the violence of frontiers, showing from the beginning stories of lives cut short through conflict. </p>
<p>Some highlights of the artefacts on show including items from the musuem’s own collection, such as a crocodile leather scale armour, a selection of Oxrynhous papyri and an eye catching single red wool sock. It also features loans of some of the most spectacular Roman military finds from Northern England and Scotland, tombstones from Mains and Bonn (Germany) and military equipment from the battlefield at Kalkriese (Germany). </p>
<p>Most striking, however, due to their totally unique nature and extraordinary preservation are loans of material from Dura Europos, Syria. On loan from Yale University Art Gallery, these include the only surviving example of a painted shield and a full horse armour, among other objects.</p>
<h2>Rich in finds, but poor in diversity</h2>
<p>The exhibition is rich in finds, but fails in its representation of the social diversity on the frontiers and a distinction between life on campaign and life on a settled frontier.</p>
<p>It would have been good to see more context behind how military communities functioned within local societies. For example, curators could have further explored the lives of people not directly in the army, but associated with it such as suppliers, enslaved people and civilians living near military sites.</p>
<p>Enslavement is alluded to in personal stories, including that of Abbas, a boy whose purchase by a legionary is attested on a papyrus and the story of an enslaved concubine, turned freed woman and wife, Regina. However, this could have been pushed further. Some estimates of the numbers of the extended communities easily match or surpass the number of actual soldiers.</p>
<p>Throughout the three panels on fort life, women are featured only in relation to the men in their lives. They are deceased daughters of soldiers, wives, or concubines. It would have been interesting to juxtapose these with evidence of economically independent women such as <a href="https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue17/4/2.3.html">Belica</a>, an innkeeper, or women who asserted their agency, such as <a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0078%3Abook%3D4%3Achapter%3D19">Sosia Galla</a>, wife of a legionary legate tried for treason.</p>
<p>Sex work and gender-based violence are not addressed explicitly either. A panel above the fort life section mentions Terenatius’ wish to purchase a concubine, but nothing of the accompanying text puts this in context. Instead, the visitor is shown a birthday invitation from Sulpicia Lepidina, who was a wife of a military commander from Vindolanda, a Roman fort near Hadrian’s Wall in Northern England, offering a more comfortable vision of women’s lives on frontiers. </p>
<p>As an expert in Roman frontiers, it was incredible to see so many world famous artefacts I have researched in real life, but I worry the narrative they have woven includes too many blindspots that perpetuate ideas around the might of Rome’s legions. It preserves a horrified fascination with the “boy’s toys” of warfare, while obscuring the issues of inequality and social and gender diversity.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222933/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Walas 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>There are some incredible rare finds on show at this exhibition but it fails to depict a more diverse life in and around Rome’s armies.Anna Walas, Honorary Research Fellow and Community Archaeology Liaison Officer, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2231372024-02-20T16:52:16Z2024-02-20T16:52:16ZThe Virgin Mary features heavily in anti-abortion activism – and many Catholics are worried<p>If you’ve ever come across an anti-abortion protest, particularly outside of a clinic, you may have been struck by the use of the Virgin Mary. Images of Mary and other religious signs and symbols are frequently used in anti-abortion activism in Britain, as in other countries*.</p>
<p>At one level this is understandable because, as <a href="https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/anti-abortion-activism-in-the-uk/?k=9781839093999">our research has shown</a>, anti-abortion activists in the UK are overwhelmingly highly religious, with most aligned with conservative forms of Catholicism and a smaller number of evangelicals. Yet the use of these images also reveals important information about the activists’ motivations and understandings, such as ideas about the nature of women. And many Catholics are concerned about the way their religion is being portrayed.</p>
<p>The Catholic image of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67690996">Our Lady of Guadalupe</a> appears on everything from clothing to jewellery to shopping bags. Our Lady of Guadalupe is a specific, Mexican variation of the Virgin Mary. She depicts Mary as pregnant and has been given the title of “the protectress of the unborn”. </p>
<p>Catholic activists we spoke to said that Mary was important in their campaign as someone who proceeded with an unplanned pregnancy. So Our Lady of Guadalupe is a good representation of their cause. </p>
<p>There was also a particular colonial understanding of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s role in converting Mexico to Christianity, linked to the activists’ ideas about child sacrifice. They mentioned how Our Lady of Guadalupe’s apparition was central to Christianity displacing the “pagan” Aztecs, who they believed <a href="https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/home/nearly-everything-you-were-taught-about-aztec-sacrifice-is-wrong">sacrificed children</a>. </p>
<p>One participant went as far as to say that Mary enabled Mexicans to convert to the “true religion”. This position is in line with the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/colonialism">colonial mentality</a> at the time, which <a href="https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/98075/3/Pennock%20-%20Insights%20from%20the%20Ancient%20Word.pdf">exaggerated and distorted indigenous practices</a> to justify subjugating whole populations.</p>
<p>Activists we spoke to linked child sacrifice and abortion and believe these to be the same thing. For these activists, Our Lady of Guadalupe visually represents opposition to abortion and is therefore really significant to their campaign.</p>
<p>But despite the beliefs of anti-abortion activists, there is no singular meaning of Our Lady of Guadalupe. All religious interpretations are disputed, and images can be used for many different reasons. </p>
<p>Our Lady of Guadalupe is often used to represent Mexican identity. <a href="https://www.police1.com/gangs/articles/understanding-east-coast-mexican-gangs-part-2-PJzWfEWCxb7QP21r/">Mexican prisoners</a> are known to deploy her image in tattoos. And she has also been an <a href="https://qspirit.net/queer-lady-guadalupe/">icon for the queer community</a>. </p>
<p>In these instances, her connection to abortion is absent, and we think that this is a surprise to many of the anti-abortion activists who promote her image.</p>
<h2>Misuse of religious symbols</h2>
<p>British Catholics are often unhappy with the ways anti-abortion activists use Catholic imagery. The majority of British Catholics <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/most-uk-catholics-support-abortion-and-use-of-contraception-2083291.html">support abortion</a> in at least some circumstances. Only a minority follow the strict Vatican teaching which is against abortion in all circumstances, including rape. </p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/book/9783031546914">Our latest research</a> with Catholic parishioners reveals that they are particularly unhappy about anti-abortion activism at clinic sites. This is because they see this as harassment of service users and staff, as well as a public nuisance to the local people who live around abortion clinics. </p>
<p>Like most people in Britain, they think that “<a href="https://www.rcog.org.uk/media/iouempf3/fsrh-rcog-safe-access-zones-around-abortion-clinics-report.pdf">safe access zones</a>” are needed to prevent any form of abortion protest in the vicinity of clinics.</p>
<p>Some Catholic parishioners told us that anti-abortion activism at clinics involving prayer like the Rosary was a “misuse of prayer” and preyed on women who might be vulnerable. They are concerned about the overall image that this gave to Catholicism, especially when objects connected to Catholicism – such as rosary beads – are used. </p>
<p>Rather than following the teaching of the church – that abortion is always wrong – these Catholics felt individual conscience was key to abortion decisions. They also often emphasised the importance of recognising that reproductive decisions are made within the broader context of people’s lives. </p>
<p>Of those who were against abortion, many still did not think it was the right of anti-abortion activists to display their theological viewpoint outside of clinic sites. Instead, parishioners felt that people needed to determine what their moral stance on abortion was through their relationship with God.</p>
<p>Overall, rather than adopting a secular interpretation of abortion, Catholic parishioners used Catholic theology to interpret their perspective on abortion. This often led to a negative perception of anti-abortion activists.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/there-is-no-one-religious-view-on-abortion-a-scholar-of-religion-gender-and-sexuality-explains-184532">multiple Catholic viewpoints</a> on abortion mean that an image such as the Virgin Mary does not have the same meaning to all those who display and see it. Even the same images of the Virgin Mary can have many different, and contrasting, interpretations. </p>
<p>It is important to recognise that, while religiously motivated anti-abortion activists often dominate the abortion discourse, they represent only a small minority of viewpoints within the broader Christian church.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah-Jane Page has received funding from The British Academy for research related to abortion. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pam Lowe has received funding from The British Academy for research related to abortion. She is a member of Abortion Rights and has previoulsy undertaken a secondment at BPAS. </span></em></p>There is no singular meaning behind the Mary imagery used by anti-abortion activists.Sarah-Jane Page, Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of NottinghamPam Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Aston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2215462024-02-18T22:07:26Z2024-02-18T22:07:26ZCuando el miedo se generaliza: de la rata de Albert al impacto emocional de las palabras<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572552/original/file-20240131-25-gw05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=252%2C84%2C5086%2C3648&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/small-baby-rat-on-human-hand-2020309817">Maslov Dmitry/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hace algo más de un siglo, se realizó uno de los experimentos <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2006-01667-001">más polémicos en la historia de la psicología</a>. Los investigadores pusieron a jugar con una peluda rata a Albert, un bebé de 8 meses. El pequeño se mostró curioso al principio, y no tardó en hacer muy buenas migas con el roedor. </p>
<p>Pero la situación dio un giro inesperado. Mientras jugaba con su amigo, los investigadores provocaron un ruido estridente. Este ruido hizo que Albert comenzará a llorar. El emparejamiento rata-ruido se repitió en días posteriores, hasta el punto que que la sola presencia del animal provocaba un llanto incontrolable en el pequeño.</p>
<h2>Pavlov y sus perros</h2>
<p>Al igual que los <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1927-02531-000">perros de Pavlov</a>, Albert había sido condicionado. Semanas después, el pequeño volvió al laboratorio para que los investigadores pudiesen contestar una pregunta clave: ¿transferiría Albert el miedo adquirido a otros estímulos? Los científicos observaron que la respuesta de miedo seguía ocurriendo en presencia del roedor, indicando que recordaba lo que había aprendido. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Leer más:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/es-la-mente-del-bebe-un-papel-en-blanco-210313">¿Es la mente del bebé un papel en blanco?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Sin embargo, también respondía con miedo ante la presencia de un perro, un conejo e incluso una máscara de Santa Claus con su larga barba blanca. Por el contrario, esto no ocurría ante juguetes de madera. Y ¿qué tenían en común los objetos que provocaban el miedo?</p>
<h2>Generalización del aprendizaje</h2>
<p>Que todos eran peludos, al igual que el roedor. Albert había generalizado el miedo a estímulos que compartían características físicas con la rata. De esta forma, la generalización es el proceso que permite a los organismos responder ante estímulos nuevos (conejo) basándose en su experiencia previa (la rata). </p>
<p>El proceso de generalización permite a animales y humanos adaptarse de forma eficiente a su ambiente, ya que utilizamos nuestra experiencia previa para guiar nuestras respuestas futuras. Pero, basándonos en nuestra propia experiencia, podríamos afirmar que la reacción de Albert no fue del todo adaptativa. Una máscara de tela de Santa Claus no es peligrosa ni debería provocar temor. </p>
<p>En este caso, Albert podría haber incurrido en el proceso de sobregeneralización. Salvando las distancias, si caminando por la calle nos ataca ferozmente un perro grande y peludo, responderemos seguramente con miedo y ansiedad. Pero al igual que le pasaba a Albert, si sobregeneralizamos el miedo, terminaremos respondiendo con <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24001473/">ansiedad excesiva</a> ante cualquier animal que se parezca a ese perro, ya sea un chihuahua o una chinchilla.</p>
<h2>¿De qué depende la respuesta de generalización?</h2>
<p>La semejanza física entre objetos es fundamental para que se produzca la respuesta de generalización. Cuanto más parecidos son los objetos entre sí, mayor será la generalización. En cierta forma, es como un eco: la respuesta va decayendo a medida que los objetos se parecen menos al estímulo condicionado. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Leer más:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/como-mide-nuestras-emociones-la-neurociencia-172249">¿Cómo mide nuestras emociones la neurociencia?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A nivel experimental, se observa muy claramente manipulando dimensiones físicas de forma controlada. Por ejemplo, si el estímulo condicionando es un tono de una determinada frecuencia (400Hz), la respuesta será máxima ante esa frecuencia. Sin embargo, al variar la frecuencia (ej, 380Hz, 360Hz, 340Hz), la respuesta irá progresivamente decayendo, en lo que se conoce como un gradiente de generalización. Este fenómeno se observa en <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1988-28272-001">diversas especies de animales y a través de muchas dimensiones físicas</a>. </p>
<h2>De Cervantes a Shakespeare</h2>
<p>Nuestro mundo no es sólo físico. Vivimos inmersos en un mundo abstracto, lleno de ideas y conceptos simbólicos que representamos y comunicamos a través del lenguaje. Por eso no debe sorprendernos que la generalización también ocurra a nivel simbólico. Por ejemplo, al condicionar una palabra como “sopa” con una pequeña descarga eléctrica, los participantes muestran miedo ante esa palabra, pero también <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02699931.2014.1000831">ante un sinónimo como “caldo”</a>. </p>
<p>Además, cuando en <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02699931.2019.1604319">personas bilingües</a> se asocia una palabra como “taza” en español con una descarga, el miedo se transfiere a la palabra inglesa correspondiente “cup”. Estas palabras no tienen ninguna similitud física, no tienen letras parecidas ni suenan igual, pero sí están conceptualmente relacionadas. </p>
<p>Si el valiente hidalgo de la mancha supiera hablar con soltura la lengua en la que Macbeth recitaba sus versos, el escuchar la palabra <em>windmill</em> hubiera despertado sus fábulas.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Leer más:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lo-que-gibraltar-nos-ensena-sobre-el-cerebro-bilingue-177384">Lo que Gibraltar nos enseña sobre el cerebro bilingüe</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>La emoción que despiertan las palabras</h2>
<p>Más allá del significado, algunas palabras también despiertan emociones. Este nivel de afectividad se puede representar en una dimensión que va desde palabras que tienen connotaciones negativas como “pistola”, hasta palabras que evocan emociones positivas como “abrazo”. En medio quedarían palabras neutras como “vaso”. </p>
<p>Es más, las emociones que despiertan las palabras suelen coincidir entre distintas personas, como lo muestran las <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13428-015-0572-5">bases de datos normalizadas</a>. Estas emociones se sitúan en un abanico que va de lo totalmente negativo hasta lo positivo. Es decir, en un continuo, al igual que ocurre con una dimensión física. En este sentido, una pregunta que nos hemos planteado recientemente ha sido: ¿pueden las emociones modular el gradiente de generalización al igual que una dimensión física? </p>
<p>La respuesta es que sí. En <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13423-023-02450-8">nuestro estudio</a> encontramos que la emoción de las palabras moduló el gradiente de generalización. Cuando las palabras expresan emociones más parecidas a las de la palabra condicionada, las respuestas son más intensas y decaen gradualmente según se refieren a emociones menos semejantes. Es más, el gradiente obtenido fue muy similar al que se observo en otra condición diferente pero variando la orientación de unas líneas, es decir, una dimensión física. </p>
<p>Estos resultados abren la puerta a nuevos enfoques e investigaciones que ayudarán a comprender mejor la respuesta de generalización. Hasta la fecha las connotaciones emocionales en la respuesta de generalización no habían sido estudiadas. Pero, al igual que las propiedades físicas de los objetos o las representaciones simbólicas a través del lenguaje, las características emocionales también afectan a la respuesta de generalización. </p>
<p>Podría ocurrir que nuestro comportamiento se modifique en función de la emoción que nos despiertan las palabras. Por ejemplo, en personas que padecen un trastorno de ansiedad provocado por hablar en público, el mero hecho de escuchar palabras relacionadas con esta situación podría incrementar su activación de manera excesiva. De esta forma, comprender el impacto emocional que ejercen estas palabras podría ser de ayuda para desarrollar intervenciones encaminadas a ayudar a la personas a controlar una indeseada sobregeneralización del miedo en casos concretos, como el de Albert. Y ahora que mencionamos al pequeño, quizá se pregunten qué pasó con él. </p>
<h2>¿Y qué fue de Albert?</h2>
<p>Albert, sin pretenderlo, se convirtió en una de las figuras más emblemáticas de la historia de la psicología. Su experimento fue uno de los primeros en describir el fenómeno de generalización, que posteriormente ha sido <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36811021/">estudiado sistemáticamente</a>. Influyó mucho en el conocimiento de nuestros comportamientos, pero también en aspectos éticos sobre los límites de la investigación. </p>
<p>El pequeño abandonó el laboratorio con temor a objetos peludos. La segunda parte del experimento consistía en buscar la forma de eliminar el miedo adquirido, por ejemplo, a través del proceso de <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/4001939">extinción</a>. Hoy en día un procedimiento muy utilizado en el <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2017.0025">tratamiento de fobias</a>.</p>
<p>Sin embargo, la universidad impidió que el estudio continuara por proteger a Albert (a buenas horas, podríamos decir). Aunque el destino del pequeño sigue siendo un misterio, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0019332">algunos autores sugieren</a> que de ser ciertas sus pesquisas, Albert habría seguido evitando a animales peludos y se sentiría ansioso en su presencia durante toda su vida.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221546/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>José A. Alcalá Martín ha recibido fondos del Ministerio de Universidades con una ayuda de atracción de talento internacional "María Zambrano". </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Celia Martínez Tomás recibe fondos del Ministerio de Universidades con una ayuda para la formación de profesorado universitario (FPU)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>José Antonio Hinojosa Poveda recibe fondos del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gonzalo Urcelay no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.</span></em></p>Generalizar nos ayuda a responder a los estímulos externos y adaptarnos al ambiente. Cuando lo hacemos en un grado demasiado alto acabamos teniendo reacciones exageradas que nos perjudican.José A. Alcalá Martín, Ayudante Doctor en Psicología, Universidad Rey Juan CarlosCelia Martínez Tomás, Investigadora predoctoral FPU en el Departamento de Psicología Experimental, Procesos Cognitivos y Logopedia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidad Complutense de MadridGonzalo Urcelay, Adjunct professor, University of NottinghamJosé Antonio Hinojosa Poveda, Profesor Titular del Departamento de Psicología Experimental, Procesos Cognitivos y Logopedia, Universidad Complutense de MadridLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2236642024-02-16T16:17:39Z2024-02-16T16:17:39ZHarry Potter online fanfiction lovers might not be too happy to see Manacled become a book<p>The upcoming publication of <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-13061735/book-fanfiction-harry-potter-draco-malfoy-hermoine-granger.html">Alchemised</a>, a fantasy romance book that began its life as the Harry Potter fan fiction story <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/harry-potter-fan-fiction-manacled-plot-explained-2023-9?r=US&IR=T">Manacled</a> by Sen Lin Yu, is part of a relatively small, but curious trend of fan fiction (amateur fiction writing by fans) being rewritten and published as original work.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most famous is <a href="https://theconversation.com/fifty-shades-of-grey-10-years-later-self-publishing-wasnt-novel-then-but-now-its-easier-to-reach-a-niche-audience-147625">Fifty Shades of Grey</a>, which began as Twilight fan fiction called Masters of the Universe in 2009, but there’s evidence it may date back to 2007. </p>
<p>The great success of Fifty Shades has turned publishers’ attention to the wealth of stories found in online fan fiction archives. These stories sometimes have huge loyal readerships. Manacled, for example, is a whopping 74 chapters long with three epilogues. It has a huge ongoing readership since it was published between 2018 and 2019, a readership publishers are hoping to tap into with Alchemised. </p>
<p>However, not all of those readers are ready to celebrate their favourite story going pro.</p>
<p>Fan fiction uses the characters or world from an established, usually copyrighted work of fiction. Romance stories that pair up characters who are not romantically involved, like Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger in Manacled, are probably the best known type of fan fiction. </p>
<p>But these works come in every shape: from <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/6636">Old English poems about the Starship Enterprise</a> to Downton Abbey’s Thomas Barrow being <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/1147421/chapters/2324484">recast as the butler to Marvel’s Iron Man</a>. Works of fan fiction (“fanfics”) are usually written and shared within a community of creative fans that enjoy discussing and reworking the source material. Within these communities, the act of “pulling to publish” can be highly controversial.</p>
<h2>A legal grey area</h2>
<p>Stories based on existing fiction are as old as storytelling itself. <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-05811-2_4">Virgil’s Aeneid</a>, published in 19 BC, draws on the Iliad and Greek myth. But fan fiction as we know it today is tied to our system of copyright law. These laws determine who has the legal right to publish work using certain characters (such as Hermione), places (such as Hogwarts), objects (such as lightsabers) and other elements of a story. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="TiktokEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.tiktok.com/@laurens.little.library/video/6995972672429608197?q=manacled\u0026t=1708080771783"}"></div></p>
<p>Fan fiction is written by people – fans – who don’t own the copyright for the stories they rework, and don’t have such a legal right. But because works of fan fiction are “transformative” works, that don’t simply reproduce the original but build on and alter it, they fall in a legal grey area. Fans argue that these works should be considered “fair use” for sharing with others.</p>
<p>This fair use argument only holds as long as the works are not professionally published and sold. Anyone selling a work of fan fiction for profit is normally shut down by the copyright owner. </p>
<p>This happened recently to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/18/copyright-claim-against-tolkien-estate-backfires-on-lord-of-the-rings-fanfiction-author">Demetrious Polychron</a>, who was ordered to pay more than £100,000 to the Tolkien Estate for commercially publishing his Lord of the Rings fanfic. </p>
<h2>A challenge to fan fiction’s “gift economy”</h2>
<p>Many fan communities are anxious of such publications because of the fear that the copyright holder would crack down on the community as a whole. The website <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/">Archive of Our Own</a>, on which Manacled was originally published, is run and maintained by fan volunteers and donations from many such communities.</p>
<p>The amateur, nonprofit and community-based nature of fan fiction had made fandom into what scholars of fandom such as Karen Hellekson <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25619733">call a gift economy</a>. </p>
<p>In this culture, fans create and share their works without expecting pay – the stories are a gift to the community and a part of participating in communal life. The fandom gift economy creates an alternative space where monetary value is replaced by the value of social connection and interaction, and for the most popular writers, of high status within the community.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="TiktokEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.tiktok.com/@laurens.little.library/video/7332184067548515617?q=manacled\u0026t=1708080771783"}"></div></p>
<p>The practice of rewriting a fanfic to be published as an original, known in fan communities as “filing off the serial numbers”, is hotly debated. To comply with copyright demands, the original fanfic is usually removed from the web and lost to the original readers who have made it so popular. Many fans resent the idea of an author taking away work written within the community’s gift economy and replacing it with a commercial product they now have to pay for.</p>
<p>Fan fiction writing and posting can be a highly interactive affair. Long stories, like Manacled, are often posted in chapters and the author receives many reader comments and reactions along the way. To some fans, turning this story into a book leaves them feeling exploited, as though they had served as unknowing test subjects.</p>
<p>Pulling to publish raises the fear of fan spaces becoming more and more commercialised, turning from amateur communities united by love for a story into platforms for would-be professionals to build a brand.</p>
<p>It’s important to say that online fandom is not one community but many, with different cultures and opinions. Some fans are happy to celebrate what they see as proof of quality for the work of a popular member of their community. But as the trend demonstrated by Alchemised develops, it continues to challenge the cultures of fan and other amateur creative communities.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leora Hadas 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 book will change the story and what was once given to a community of readers for free will cease to exist online.Leora Hadas, Assistant Professor, Film and Television Studies, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2218062024-02-02T17:35:14Z2024-02-02T17:35:14ZHow trophy fishing can have a sustainable future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572280/original/file-20240130-29-g3zie3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Blue sharks are popular targets of a catch-and-release fishery along the southern coast of England</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/magnificent-blue-shark-elegant-proud-look-2318078271">Vladimir Turkenich/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was 1984, and a hot tropical sun beat down on the inky blue depths of the Huon Gulf, a large inlet of the Solomon Sea just off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Suddenly, the peace was broken by the scream of a fishing reel as a four-metre-long blue marlin (<em>Makaira mazaraburst</em>) burst from the water. </p>
<p>For the next hour the giant fish surged, leapt and tail walked, as my best friend and fishing companion mostly just held on. Then, suddenly, it was gone. </p>
<p>The trace had frayed. No fishermen likes to lose a fish, but for me, there was also a sense of relief that it had got away. That fish was the most magnificent creature I’d ever seen, and that moment helped inspire my lifelong career in marine biology.</p>
<p>Recreational fishing for the largest species and individual fish in the sea like this is often called trophy fishing. Anglers seek to set new size records, either overall or using particular line strengths. These can be incredible specimens – the <a href="https://www.marlinmag.com/biggest-marlin-ever-caught/">largest marlin ever caught</a> weighed over 700kg, similar to a small car. </p>
<h2>What’s the catch?</h2>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aqc.4051">In a new paper</a>, we analysed 80 years of trophy fishing world records, using data recorded by the International Game Fishing Association (IGFA) to reveal some intriguing trends. Notably, in the 1950s, the average record-holding fish weighed a hefty 168kg, but this figure fell drastically to just 8kg in the 2010s. </p>
<p>The fish are not shrinking, instead anglers are now targeting a broader range of smaller species. However, this might signal a concerning decline in the population of larger fish species.</p>
<p>There has also been a noticeable expansion of trophy fishing worldwide. While the US dominated the scene historically, recent decades have seen an uptick in records from regions like Japan and New Zealand. </p>
<p>This global spread offers potential social and economic benefits to these new areas, but also raises concerns about increased fishing pressure on local fish populations that were previously less targeted.</p>
<p>Perhaps our most significant observation was the sharp decline in new records for fish species listed as threatened with extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Comparing the last decade (2010–2018) to the 2000s, there has been a roughly 66% decrease in records for these at-risk species. </p>
<p>This trend could indicate a growing awareness towards conservation issues in trophy fishing or could reflect the worrying reality of diminished populations of these species. The exact implications of this trend are yet to be fully understood.</p>
<p>Trophy fishing is controversial. Some people will never be fans. The largest fish in the ocean are often <a href="https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/71/8/2171/748104">the most productive breeders</a>, so catching and killing them, especially threatened species, doesn’t make sense. However, while world record fish accredited by the IGFA gain the spotlight, they account for a very small number of fish in total. </p>
<p>Much more concerning are the fishing tournaments that offer <a href="https://www.bisbees.com/News/Article/166">highly lucrative prizes</a> for landing the largest and most fish and <a href="https://sharkallies.org/shark-fishing-tournaments">sharks</a> in a given period of time. </p>
<h2>Tackling sustainability</h2>
<p>Trophy fishing, and sport fishing in general, is changing to become more sustainable, and even a force for good. In 2011, the IGFA introduced the <a href="https://igfa.org/announcement/igfa-launches-all-tackle-length-record-release-category/">“all-tackle length” category</a>. This approach records the length of the fish rather than weight, enabling it to be released without needing to kill it. </p>
<p>The Shark Angling Club of Great Britain has been releasing all sharks for decades and the <a href="https://anglingtrust.net/2023/11/22/update-from-british-record-fish-committee/">British Record Fish Committee</a> recently decided to only allow length-based records for large sharks, with fish having to be measured while still in the water. Although releasing fish does not guarantee survival, that can be maximised by using <a href="https://academic.oup.com/conphys/article/11/1/coad100/7503354">the right gear and careful handling</a>. Such approaches should become mandatory for all trophy anglers.</p>
<p>Anglers dedicate extensive time to their passion, developing a wealth of knowledge about the fish they catch. Harnessing this expertise is crucial for better estimating the extent of trophy fishing and increasing knowledge of fish stocks in general. </p>
<p>In the UK, anglers and scientists are working together through initiatives such as <a href="https://anglingtrust.net/sea/sea-angling-science/shark-hub-uk/">Shark Hub UK</a> and <a href="https://anglingtrust.net/sea/sea-angling-science/pollack-project/">Project Pollack</a> to gather catch data, collect samples and tag fish. </p>
<p>This approach not only aids conservation efforts but also aligns with the anglers’ interest in maintaining healthy fish populations for the future. After all, the recreational fisheries are not only a source of livelihood but also contribute to the <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2673-3986/4/3/30">mental and physical wellbeing</a> of those who engage with them.</p>
<p>Nearly 40 years after that experience in Papua New Guinea, I marvelled at huge schools of giant fish off the coast of southern England last summer. These Atlantic bluefin tuna (<em>Thunnus thynnus</em>) have had <a href="https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/78/5/1672/6231587?login=false">a remarkable recovery</a> around the coast, most likely due to a combination of improved management and changing environmental conditions. </p>
<p>From this year, the UK government has authorised a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/recreational-fishing-for-atlantic-bluefin-tuna-set-to-start-in-english-waters-next-year#:%7E:text=Each%20UK%20fisheries%20administration%20will,commercial%20fishery%20for%20bluefin%20tuna.">catch and release only recreational fishery</a> for these fish. With continued careful management this should bring exciting angling, social and economic benefits for years to come.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
<br><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeTop">Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead.</a> Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/imagine-57?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Imagine&utm_content=DontHaveTimeBottom">Join the 30,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.</a></em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221806/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryce Stewart receives funding from Defra and UK Research and Innovation. He is a member of the Marine Conservation Society and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and sits on the Marine Stewardship Council Stakeholder Advisory Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Boon 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>Trophy fishing is a big threat to some of the most threatened species of fish, but there are ways to adapt the sport with marine conservation in mind.Bryce Stewart, Senior research fellow, Marine Biological AssociationJames Boon, PhD candidate in Marine Ecology, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2145032024-01-26T02:07:31Z2024-01-26T02:07:31ZMengapa repatriasi prasasti Sangguran dan Pucangan penting untuk membantu Indonesia menghadapi krisis iklim?<p>Ilmuwan diaspora Indonesia sedang mendorong upaya pengembalian prasasti Pucangan dan Sangguran ke Indonesia (<a href="https://itjen.kemdikbud.go.id/web/repatriasi-benda-bersejarah-mengembalikan-warisan-budaya-ke-tanah-asalnya/">repatriasi</a>) yang sudah dilakukan sejak <a href="https://www.rri.go.id/surabaya/daerah/339745/gubernur-khofifah-upayakan-repatriasi-prasasti-sangguran-dari-inggris-ke-indonesia">tahun 2004 </a> tapi belum berhasil. </p>
<p>Kedua prasasti besar abad ke-10 dan ke-11 yang memuat tulisan Jawa kuno ini saat ini berada di <a href="https://www.iias.asia/the-newsletter/article/kolkata-calcutta-stone-bicentennial-british-interregnum-java-1811-1816">Kalkuta, India</a> dan Skotlandia. <a href="https://kebudayaan.kemdikbud.go.id/bkborobudur/sir-thomas-stamford-bingley-raffles/">Stamford Raffles</a>, Letnan Gubernur Inggris Raya yang berkuasa di Jawa tahun 1811-1816, memberikan kedua prasasti ini sebagai <a href="https://rejogja.republika.co.id/berita/s0dwwi399/mengenal-prasasti-sangguran-peninggalan-kerajaan-mataram-yang-kini-di-skotlandia">cinderamata untuk <em>Lord Minto of Roxburghshire</em></a>. Namun, belum ada informasi pasti mengapa prasasti Pucangan ditinggal di India dan tidak ikut dibawa ke Skotlandia.</p>
<p>Baik prasasti Pucangan maupun Sangguran bukan sekadar artefak budaya. Isi dari kedua prasasti tersebut adalah kunci untuk memahami arti hadirnya Indonesia di dalam era Antroposen (<em>Anthropocene</em>), era yang melihat adanya hubungan erat antara manusia dengan proses-proses geologis.</p>
<p>Kedua prasasti tersebut memuat tulisan Jawa kuno tentang peristiwa bencana pada sebuah periode kritis dalam sejarah Indonesia yang sampai saat ini belum sepenuhnya dimengerti karena teksnya tidak tersusun dengan baik. Sejauh ini, belum ada edisi atau terjemahan yang diterbitkan berdasarkan pemeriksaan langsung terhadap prasasti tersebut. Tanpa akses ke prasasti dan reproduksi yang dapat diandalkan, studi tentang isinya tidak dapat berkembang.</p>
<p>Padahal, bencana iklim dan Antroposen mendesak kita semua untuk memikirkan tentang dunia yang rapuh dan hubungan antara alam dengan masyarakat. Ilmuwan dunia percaya, mengunjungi kembali dua prasasti ini penting untuk memahami hubungan erat antara manusia dengan proses-proses geologis di masa lalu dan membantu masyarakat menghadapi ancaman iklim di masa kini dan masa depan. </p>
<h2>Hubungan manusia dengan alam</h2>
<p>Masyarakat lokal menilai Batu “Minto” atau Prasasti Sangguran dengan berat hampir 3 ton sebagai sebuah peninggalan sejarah berharga; sampai-sampai <a href="https://www.britishcouncil.id/en/blog/pulang-research-sangguran-inscription%E2%80%9D-area-olah-karya-id-x-edinburgh-sculpture-workshop-uk">replika dari prasasti tersebut</a> kini berdiri dan disembah di Jawa Timur, tempat asalnya. </p>
<p>Memang, prasasti Pucangan dan Sangguran adalah salah satu kunci untuk memahami hubungan sakral antarkehidupan sosial, struktur kepemerintahan dan manifestasi geologis di tanah Jawa. Sebagai contoh, ahli sejarah masih berdebat tentang hubungan antara pralaya (kehancuran besar) yang tertuang dalam prasasti Pucangan dan letusan gunung Merapi sekitar tahun 1006 yang kemudian mengakibatkan <a href="https://eprints.upnyk.ac.id/18101/1/2019_Kusumayudha%20et%20al_Chapter_VolcanicDisasterAndTheDeclineO%20%281%29.pdf">perpindahan kekuasaan kerajaan Mataram ke Jawa Timur</a>.</p>
<p>Setidaknya sejak awal abad ke-20, masyarakat Jawa sudah terlebih dahulu mencatat bukti adanya hubungan yang erat antara proses geologis dengan struktur kepemerintahan masa itu. </p>
<p>Bagi Keraton Yogyakarta, contohnya, kekuasaan sultan adalah <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-pulse-of-the-earth">pemberian dari penguasa Gunung Merapi dan Laut Kidul</a>. </p>
<p>Masyarakat lokal meyakini bahwa merekalah yang memberikan dan mempercayakan kekuasaan administratif kepada Sultan. Sedangkan Gempa bumi, letusan gunung berapi, hujan, dan tsunami adalah pengejawantahan dari suara, dan nafas—para penunggu tersebut. Kepercayaan tersebut yang mendorong para abdi yang bekerja untuk sultan mempersiapkan sesaji bagi arwah nenek moyang, penunggu gunung berapi, sungai, hutan, dan laut.</p>
<p>Ahli ilmu bumi Belanda, Pieter Veth, dalam catatannya di tahun 1882 yang bertajuk “<a href="https://lib.ui.ac.id/detail.jsp?id=20393939">Java: Geography, Ethnology, History</a>” mengakui signifikansi Nyai Ratu Kidul, dan Samudera Hindia sebagai teritorinya.</p>
<p>Masyarakat Jawa sudah memahami bahwa segala aspek sosial, politik, dan proses geologis tidak dapat dipisahkan; dan <a href="https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/269616/">mereka sudah bergumul dengan konsep Antroposen setidaknya sejak abad ke-18</a>. </p>
<p>Ketika para ilmuwan barat di awal abad ke-20 melakukan eksperimen, mereka mengambil data di situs-situs gunung berapi dan menemukan sesajen. </p>
<p><a href="https://repository.naturalis.nl/pub/317412/SG1983071001.pdf">Georges Kemmerling</a>, ilmuwan dari Belanda, mencatat bahwa dalam melakukan kegiatan ilmiahnya di sekitar gunung Merapi di Jawa dan gunung Agung di Bali, dia mengikuti <a href="https://www.anthropocene-curriculum.org/anthropogenic-markers/strata-signals-symptoms/contribution/a-javanese-anthropocene">rute ritual menuju situs-situs sakral</a>.</p>
<p>Dalam rute-rute itulah, ilmuwan kolonial pada tahun 1920-1930 pertama kali mempelajari gunung-gunung berapi di Jawa. </p>
<p>Apa yang hari ini dianggap sebagai mitos atau <em>local wisdom</em> sejatinya adalah fondasi dari berbagai cabang ilmu bumi modern. Konsep Antroposen yang dipahami oleh masyarakat Jawa <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/718757">memberi pengertian baru di bidang <em>Kronostratigrafi</em> (cabang ilmu yang mempelajari umur strata batuan dalam hubungannya dengan waktu) dan peran manusia dalam perubahan iklim</a>.</p>
<p>Itulah sebabnya, prasasti seperti Sangguran, dan Pucangan penting untuk memberikan pengertian mendalam terkait hal ini.</p>
<h2>Apa yang sudah dilakukan?</h2>
<p>Untuk lebih memahami sejarah Indonesia pada abad ke-10, penulis dan <a href="https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/ges/staff/adambobbette/">Adam Bobbette</a>, peneliti dan dosen di Universitas Glasgow, Skotlandia, mengumpulkan peneliti-peneliti dari Indonesia, Amerika, Inggris dan Australia untuk menggali konsep kerajaan-kerajaan kuno nusantara dan bagaimana batas-batasnya berevolusi dari masa ke masa dalam sebuah forum bertajuk <a href="https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_1000069_en.html"><em>Inscriptions on the Move</em>, September 2023 lalu</a>. </p>
<p>Saat ini status kepemilikan prasasti Sangguran masih dipegang oleh keluarga Minto, bukan oleh pemerintah Skotlandia.</p>
<p>Kolaborasi keilmuan yang dimotori oleh diaspora akademik Indonesia ini adalah cerminan diplomasi sains akar rumput untuk meningkatkan kesadaran publik tentang keberadaan prasasti Sangguran di Skotlandia, lewat diskursus ilmiah. </p>
<p>Ini sekaligus mengajak pemangku kebijakan Skotlandia untuk memfasilitasi upaya repatriasi yang sampai saat ini masih gagal terlaksana setelah Kedutaan Besar Republik Indonesia di London, Inggris <a href="https://nasional.tempo.co/read/671753/prasasti-kutukan-nilainya-selangit-sulit-ditebus-6">menghentikan negosiasi pada 2006</a>. </p>
<p>Dalam acara di atas, penulis bersama penyelenggara juga mengikutsertakan Bupati kota Batu, Jawa Timur, Aries Agung Paewai, serta Wakil ketua Majelis Permusyawaratan Rakyat (MPR), Lestari Moerdijat untuk menyuarakan <a href="https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/23785804.scotland-colonial-history-indonesia-needs-addressing/">pentingnya pengembalian prasasti Sangguran lewat media lokal</a>. </p>
<p>Prasasti Pucangan dan Sangguran bukan hanya penting sebagai peninggalan budaya untuk dipamerkan di museum, melainkan untuk dipahami dan diteliti secara keilmuan oleh etnografer, ahli geologi, maupun ahli sejarah. Harapannya, kita bisa menggunakan hasil analisisnya untuk mempelajari bagaimana Jawa di permulaan abad modern menyikapi bencana alam dan lingkungan.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bagus Putra Muljadi tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Prasasti Pucangan maupun Sangguran adalah kunci untuk memahami arti hadirnya Indonesia di dalam era Antroposen. Mengapa demikian?Bagus Putra Muljadi, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2213782024-01-22T21:10:58Z2024-01-22T21:10:58ZEste es el visionario radical escocés que está detrás de la película ‘Pobres criaturas’<p><em>Pobres criaturas</em>, la nueva película del director Yorgos Lanthimos, cuenta la historia de Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), una mujer irrefrenablemente libre que parece tener la mente de una niña. En su proceso de descubrimiento del mundo, Bella se embarca en un exuberante viaje, recorriendo la Europa del siglo XIX y llegando hasta Egipto, experimentando muchas cosas nuevas a medida que su intelecto se desarrolla rápidamente, antes de regresar a casa para enfrentarse a su pasado secreto.</p>
<p>La película está basada en <a href="https://www.anagrama-ed.es/libro/panorama-de-narrativas/-pobres-criaturas-/9788433908254/PN_355">la novela homónima</a> de 1992 del escritor de Glasgow Alasdair Gray. Gray fue un inconformista y polímata –escritor, artista, polemista, disidente y nacionalista cívico– que ejerció una inmensa influencia en la literatura escocesa contemporánea y más allá.</p>
<p>Igual que ver el magnífico espectáculo que ha rodado Lanthimos, leer a Gray es un viaje salvaje e inquietante. Su obra está llena de imaginación progresista, irónica incorrección e intrincada forma literaria.</p>
<p>Gray fue un pensador audaz y creativo, que se atrevió, por ejemplo, a convertir a Dios en un personaje ligeramente desprestigiado. Era un radical que perturbaba el orden establecido, incluso mediante la mezcla de arte visual y literario. Nombrar e impugnar el poder arbitrario y dar testimonio visceral y visiones alternativas de la sociedad contemporánea son cualidades que definen su obra, especialmente <em>Pobres criaturas</em>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KRTp36su47w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Un <em>Frankenstein</em> escocés</h2>
<p>En lugar de presentar una perspectiva única, <em>Pobres criaturas</em> mezcla diferentes documentos –preludios, entradas de diarios, cartas, notas explicativas a pie de página– que, juntos, producen múltiples historias que compiten entre sí. La historia es autorreflexiva; la voz narrativa o la acción se detienen en el acto de escribir o hacer ficción. </p>
<p><em>Pobres criaturas</em> está repleta de alusiones y préstamos de los ricos recursos de la ficción victoriana –el más obvio, <em>Frankenstein</em>– y sus obras de referencia. Abundan los experimentos tipográficos y los juegos de palabras. Por ejemplo, el nombre del gran científico médico de la novela, Godwin Baxter, se abrevia a veces como “Dios” (God) para enfatizar el paternalismo y el poder de crear y destruir, entre otras interpretaciones.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570022/original/file-20240118-27-24tau4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portada de la edición española de _¡Pobres criaturas!_, de Alasdair Gray." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570022/original/file-20240118-27-24tau4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570022/original/file-20240118-27-24tau4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570022/original/file-20240118-27-24tau4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570022/original/file-20240118-27-24tau4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570022/original/file-20240118-27-24tau4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570022/original/file-20240118-27-24tau4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570022/original/file-20240118-27-24tau4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Portada de la edición española de <em>¡Pobres criaturas!</em>, de Alasdair Gray.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.anagrama-ed.es/libro/panorama-de-narrativas/-pobres-criaturas-/9788433908254/PN_355">Anagrama</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>La práctica creativa de Gray es “multimodal”, entrelazando la palabra escrita con su propio arte visual. En <em>Pobres criaturas</em>, este enfoque se aprecia en las imágenes, que incluyen retratos, ilustraciones anatómicas, mapas y frenéticas secciones manuscritas. Estos aspectos aportan una dimensión interpretativa añadida al texto y refuerzan, replantean o incluso contradicen los elementos escritos.</p>
<p>Estos componentes constituyen un placentero rompecabezas literario, pero la complejidad de la novela también tiene su lado serio. Una interpretación convincente de Bella Baxter es la de una figura feminista que frustra los intentos de los hombres de controlarla a ella y a su narrativa. </p>
<p>En <em>Pobres criaturas</em> se cuestiona la autoridad, tanto la normal como la que asumen los propios autores. Se vuelve una mirada crítica sobre la historia victoriana y el Imperio Británico, y el papel de la literatura en esa historia.</p>
<h2><em>Glasgow made</em></h2>
<p><em>Pobres criaturas</em> se publicó el mismo año que la obra de Gray <a href="https://canongate.co.uk/books/220-why-scots-should-rule-scotland-1997/"><em>Why Scots Should Rule Scotland</em></a> (Por qué los escoceses deberían gobernar Escocia), un alegato antiimperialista y democrático-socialista que abogaba por un nacionalismo cívico en el que las personas fueran participantes iguales y activas en la sociedad escocesa. Era partidario sin paliativos de una Escocia independiente y un apasionado republicano, lo que quedó plasmado en <a href="https://www.thenational.scot/politics/18137079.alasdair-gray-work-live-early-days-better-nation/">su repetida orden</a> de “trabajar como si viviera en los primeros días de una nación mejor”.</p>
<p>La ilustración de Bella en la novela está etiquetada como “Bella Caledonia”. Calendonia es un nombre romántico utilizado para referirse a Escocia. Esto sugiere que Gray planteaba el personaje como una metáfora de Escocia: enredada en una historia difícil pero orientada al futuro y llena de potencial. El hecho de que Bella haya nacido en Inglaterra apoya este argumento de forma contraintuitiva. Una nación cívica tiene que ver con la gente que la habita, más que con las personas nacidas en ella.</p>
<p>Trasplantada la acción a Londres, poco de Glasgow o de Escocia puede percibirse en la película de Lanthimos. Pero el argumento intelectual y la conciencia social de <em>Pobres criaturas</em> son dependientes de Glasgow. Gray fue moldeado por el espíritu radical y la arquitectura única de la ciudad, que inspiraron su ficción y sus obras de arte. </p>
<p>Gray estudió en la Escuela de Arte de Glasgow, cuya experiencia se ficcionaliza en partes de su obra magna <a href="https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/files/special/exhibns/month/may2002.html"><em>Lanark: una vida en cuatro libros</em></a> (1981). Además, realizó retratos, paisajes familiares y extraños y ambiciosos murales que aún pueden verse en Glasgow. </p>
<p>Para quien aún no la haya visitado, el estereotipo de Glasgow es el de una ciudad industrial en horas bajas, con pesados conventillos victorianos, costumbre de beber mucho y constantes lluvias torrenciales. Es una imagen que ha sido difícil de eliminar. </p>
<p>En <em>Lanark</em>, el protagonista Duncan Thaw se lamenta de lo difícil que es imaginar Glasgow de forma creativa, una tarea a la que Gray se aplicó con asiduidad a lo largo de su carrera. En la propia <em>Lanark</em>, una epopeya que combina una vívida fantasía con un realismo evocador, tiene lugar gran parte de esa imaginación. Su grandeza y ambición encajarían perfectamente en una superproducción.</p>
<p>La película de Lanthimos y el texto de Gray son obras independientes pero relacionadas. Conviene recordar que las adaptaciones no tienen ninguna obligación de ser fieles al material original. No hay un órgano rector que dictamine ni un código de leyes que aplicar. Sin embargo, quedan huellas. Busque el cuestionamiento de la autoridad, la imaginación de un futuro alternativo y el espíritu indomable de Bella Baxter. Después, lea algo de Alasdair Gray.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joe Jackson no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.</span></em></p>Pintor y escritor radical, la obra de Alasdair Gray estaba llena de audaces visiones de una Escocia independiente.Joe Jackson, Associate Professor in Twentieth-Century and Contemporary English Literature, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2214402024-01-22T10:56:57Z2024-01-22T10:56:57ZTikTok’s pomegranate obsession: the trendy fruit was also big during the Renaissance to talk about female fertility<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570332/original/file-20240119-22-rk7zhv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C0%2C1994%2C1197&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Popular symbol of fertility: Botticelli's Madonna of the Pomegranate.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_of_the_Pomegranate#/media/File:Madonna_della_Melagrana_(Botticelli).png">Sandro Botticelli/Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pomegranates are hot right now, the red fruit with its glistening jewel-like segments has become the centre of a new <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2024/01/are-pomegranates-back-tiktoks-latest-fruit-trend.html">TikTok trend</a>. The hashtags #pomegranate and #pomegranategirl have been trending in videos featuring debates about sexuality and feminism.</p>
<p>At the risk of sounding all staid and academic but this all is just so Renaissance. Actually, it is more than that, as the roots of pomegranate symbolism and its links to femininity and sexuality extend into classical writings. You’ll find the connection in <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1118911/">Herodotus’ Histories</a> and in many religious texts – from those belonging to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1118911/">Christianity and Islam to Zoroastrianism</a>.</p>
<p>In the Old Testmament’s <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1118911/#:%7E:text=The%20pomegranate%20was%20revered%20for,sanctity%2C%20fertility%2C%20and%20abundance.&text=The%20Song%20of%20Solomon%20compares,two%20halves%20of%20a%20pomegranate.&text=Depictions%20of%20the%20fruit%20have%20long%20featured%20in%20architecture%20and%20design">Song of Solomon</a>, for example, the two cheeks of a blushing bride are compared to the two halves of a pomegranate. In Buddhist legend, meanwhile, the child-eating demoness <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1118911/">Hariti</a> is helped by Buddah to kick that evil habit by eating pomegranates and is <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/from-demoness-to-deity-hariti-in-art-and-familial-traditions-american-institute-of-indian-studies/lQXR8A221T6bLA?hl=en">often depicted with one</a>.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/bed-rotting-the-social-media-trend-the-victorians-would-love-especially-writer-elizabeth-gaskell-209725?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Bed rotting: the social media trend the Victorians would love, especially writer Elizabeth Gaskell</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/goblin-mode-a-gothic-expert-explains-the-trends-mythical-origins-and-why-we-should-all-go-vampire-mode-instead-180282?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Goblin mode: a gothic expert explains the trend’s mythical origins, and why we should all go ‘vampire mode’ instead</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-often-do-you-think-about-the-roman-empire-tiktok-trend-exposed-the-way-we-gender-history-214425?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">How often do you think about the Roman empire? TikTok trend exposed the way we gender history</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>TikTokers have, wittingly or not, joined this storied trend in creating videos that use the pomegranate as a symbol for exploring narratives around sexuality and especially fertility. </p>
<p>It is not difficult to see why the pomegranate has traditionally been considered a powerful visual metaphor for fertility. In most images of it, the fruit has been sliced open to reveal its vibrant red interior, with its rich pink pulp surrounding the plentiful seeds.</p>
<p>But many of the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@_jesspacito_/video/7316222786282720543?embed_source=%3Bnull%3Bembed_share&refer=embed&referer_url=www.thecut.com%2F2024%2F01%2Fare-pomegranates-back-tiktoks-latest-fruit-trend.html&referer_video_id=7316222786282720543">TikToks</a> equate the opening of the pomegranates to narratives around sexual domination, male domination and violence and a brutal laying open of female vulnerability. </p>
<p>Historical depictions have rarely been so literal in engaging with these themes. There is some precedent in the artwork of the Renaissance. At this time pomegranates were an expression of male control of ideas around fertility and they promoted a limiting idealised femininity tied up in being a good wife and a highly fertile bearer of heirs. </p>
<h2>The very model of a Renaissance wife</h2>
<p>One Renaissance master who frequently depicted pomegranates in his renditions of the Virgin and Child was Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445-1510). Images of the Virgin and Child were an important staple for the Botticelli workshop. If a Renaissance workshop produced multiple versions of a theme, it meant that the idea was popular among art buyers of the time. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Madonna della Melagrana by Botticelli." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570328/original/file-20240119-25-9yphb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570328/original/file-20240119-25-9yphb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570328/original/file-20240119-25-9yphb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570328/original/file-20240119-25-9yphb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=608&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570328/original/file-20240119-25-9yphb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570328/original/file-20240119-25-9yphb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570328/original/file-20240119-25-9yphb9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=764&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Madonna della Melagrana by Botticelli.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_of_the_Pomegranate#/media/File:Madonna_della_Melagrana_(Botticelli).png">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These images of the Virgin and Child with pomegranates, often in round frames, tended to be hung in the private houses of their buyers. They were specifically displayed in homes as visual exemplars to inspire model behaviour in Renaissance women living and bringing up their children within those spaces.</p>
<p>Reinforcing and inspiring model behaviour was a key social concern for men of the Renaissance era. Such concern resulted in an abundance of treatises, tracts, letters and even sermons (here’s looking at you, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/479579">Fra Bernardino da Siena</a>) aimed at setting out model (female) behaviour. One such example that circulated in elite circles not just in Italy but all over Europe was a treatise written by Francesco Barbaro in 1416.</p>
<p>Barbaro penned <a href="https://docplayer.net/67147490-Advice-to-lorenzo-de-medici-on-wifely-duties-1416.html">On Wifely Duties</a> as a wedding gift for his friend Lorenzo de Medici, the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. In it, Barbaro sets out, in ten chapters, what the duties of the perfect Renaissance wife are and how this paragon of womanhood should behave. The key themes are love for her husband, modesty of life and diligent and complete care in domestic matters. Or, in other words, obedience, fertility and chastity in marriage.</p>
<p>These are of course the ideals celebrated in Botticelli’s Virgin and Child images with pomegranates. A beautiful but chaste and modest Virgin Mary holds her son close to her, in a safe and comfortable domestic environment. Both mother and child clutch the ubiquitous sliced open pomegranate, as a reminder to Renaissance women to emulate the domesticity and fertility of the Virgin Mary. In On Wifely Duties, <a href="https://escholarship.org/content/qt8cm5t90d/qt8cm5t90d.pdf?t=mjyjan">Barbaro encourages</a> young mothers to have such an image, a painting or a statue, in their home featuring a child with a bird or pomegranate in his hand. </p>
<h2>A Tudor queen’s fertility issues</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Katherine of Aragon's badge." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570329/original/file-20240119-16-n6x2ja.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570329/original/file-20240119-16-n6x2ja.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570329/original/file-20240119-16-n6x2ja.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570329/original/file-20240119-16-n6x2ja.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=909&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570329/original/file-20240119-16-n6x2ja.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570329/original/file-20240119-16-n6x2ja.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570329/original/file-20240119-16-n6x2ja.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1142&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Katherine of Aragon’s badge.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One Renaissance woman who was closely associated with pomegranates and issues surrounding fertility was Henry VIII’s first wife, Katherine of Aragon. Queen Katherine’s chosen badge included the pomegranate, together with the motto “humble and loyal”. This of course recalls Barbaro’s recommendations for the perfect wife.</p>
<p>Thomas More, Henry VIII’s lord high chancellor, wrote a series of poems on the occasion of their marriage. In these poems he did not hold back on what was expected of Katherine, including in this one called <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41154945">The Rose and The Pomegranate</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>But your queen, fruitful in male offspring,<br>
will render it on all sides stable and everlasting.<br>
Great advantage is yours because of her, and similarly is<br>
hers because of you.<br>
There has been no other woman, surely, worthy<br>
to have you as husband, nor any other man worthy to have<br>
her as wife. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>For Katherine, her pomegranate symbolism, with its expectations of fertility and adherence to social expectations of motherhood, became a curse. This is something the TikTok #pomegranategirl hashtag explicitly picks up and translates into contemporary debates about sexuality and gender norms. </p>
<p>However, if I can be a bit of a critic here, while their use on TikTok gets the message across, these posts are a bit repetitive. After the umpteenth viewing of yet another post of a sliced open pomegranate evoking a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/mar/01/georgia-okeeffe-show-at-tate-modern-to-challenge-outdated-views-of-artist">Georgia O'Keefe-esque vaginal</a> aesthetic set to mournful music and poetry, I am a little bored. </p>
<p>Thousands of years of history of pomegranate symbolism and you get stuck in one groove? Come on Gen Z, raise your game and let’s see what you can make of the not-so-humble pomegranate. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221440/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gabriele Neher 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>Pomegranates were popular signifiers of fertility and motherhood, used to inspire “good” behaviour in women during the Renaissaince.Gabriele Neher, Associate Professor in History of Art, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2200802024-01-10T14:16:13Z2024-01-10T14:16:13ZPoor Things: meet the radical Scottish visionary behind the new hit film<p>Director Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things tells the story of Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), an irrepressibly free woman who seems to have the mind of an innocent child. She embarks on an exuberant voyage of discovery, travelling around 19th-century Europe and reaching Egypt, experiencing many new things as her intellect rapidly develops, before returning home to face her secret past.</p>
<p>The film is based on the 1992 novel of the same name by the Glaswegian Alasdair Gray. Gray was a maverick and polymath – a writer, artist, polemicist, dissident and civic nationalist – who had an immense influence on contemporary Scottish literature and beyond.</p>
<p>Like watching Lanthimos’s gorgeous spectacle, reading Gray is a wild and unsettling ride. His work is full of progressive imagination, wry impropriety and intricate literary form.</p>
<p>Gray was a bold creative thinker, one who dared to make a slightly disreputable character out of God, for instance. He was a radical who disturbed established order, including through the blending of visual and literary art. For him, naming and contesting arbitrary power and providing both visceral witness to, and alternative visions of, contemporary society are defining qualities of his work – particularly Poor Things.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RlbR5N6veqw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>A Scottish Frankenstein</h2>
<p>Rather than a single perspective, Poor Things is made up of different documents stitched together – prefaces, journal entries, letters, explanatory footnotes – that produce multiple, competing stories. The story is self-reflexive, where the narrative voice or action dwell on the act of writing or making fiction. </p>
<p>Poor Things is full of allusions to, and borrowings from, the rich resources of Victorian fiction – most obviously Frankenstein – and reference works. Typographical experimentation and word play abound. For instance, the name of the novel’s great medical scientist Godwin Baxter is sometimes abbreviated to “God” to emphasise paternalism, powers of creation, withdrawal from the world and many other interpretations.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568403/original/file-20240109-19-vrtonn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book cover featuring an illustration of a large man being hugged by a smaller woman and a man." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568403/original/file-20240109-19-vrtonn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568403/original/file-20240109-19-vrtonn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568403/original/file-20240109-19-vrtonn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568403/original/file-20240109-19-vrtonn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568403/original/file-20240109-19-vrtonn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568403/original/file-20240109-19-vrtonn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568403/original/file-20240109-19-vrtonn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_Things#/media/File:Poorthings.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Gray’s creative practice is “multi-modal”, weaving the written word with his own visual art. In Poor Things, this approach can be seen in the images, which include portraits, anatomical illustrations, maps and frenzied handwritten sections. These aspects provide an added interpretive dimension to the text and reinforce, reframe or even contradict the written elements.</p>
<p>These components make for a pleasurable literary puzzle – but there’s a serious side to the novel’s complexity too. One convincing interpretation of Bella Baxter is as a feminist figure, who thwarts the attempts of men to control her and her narrative. </p>
<p>Authority is firmly in question in Poor Things, both the regular kind and the mantle taken on by authors themselves. It turns a critical eye on Victorian history and the British Empire, and the role of literature in that history.</p>
<h2>Glasgow made</h2>
<p>Poor Things was published in the same year as Gray’s <a href="https://canongate.co.uk/books/220-why-scots-should-rule-scotland-1997/">Why Scots Should Rule Scotland</a>, an anti-imperialist and democratic-socialist argument that advocated for civic nationalism where people are equal and active participants in Scottish society. He was an unapologetic supporter of an independent Scotland and a passionate Republican, which was emblematised by <a href="https://www.thenational.scot/politics/18137079.alasdair-gray-work-live-early-days-better-nation/">his repeated order</a> to “work as if you live in the early days of a better nation”.</p>
<p>The illustration of Bella in the novel is labelled as “Bella Caledonia”, suggesting her as Gray’s metaphor for Scotland: tangled up with a difficult history but oriented to the future, and full of potential. Calendonia is a romantic name used to refer to Scotland. The fact that Bella is English-born counter intuitively supports this argument. A civic nation is about the people in it, rather than people born there.</p>
<p>Transplanted to London, little of Glasgow or indeed Scotland can be perceived in Lanthimos’s film. But the intellectual history and social consciousness of Poor Things is not independent of its Glasgow setting. Gray was shaped by the radical spirit and unique architecture of the city, which inspired his fiction and artwork. </p>
<p>Gray studied at Glasgow School of Art, the experience of which is fictionalised in parts of his magnum opus <a href="https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/library/files/special/exhibns/month/may2002.html">Lanark: A Life in Four Books</a> (1981). He produced unique portraiture, familiar and strange landscapes and ambitious murals which can still be seen in Glasgow. </p>
<p>For anyone yet to visit, the stereotype of Glasgow is a city of heavy industry now vanished, heavy Victorian tenements, heavy drinking and heavy rainfall. That idea has been difficult to dislodge. </p>
<p>In Lanark, the protagonist Duncan Thaw bemoans the difficulty in imagining Glasgow creatively, a task that Gray applied himself to assiduously through his career. Lanark itself, an epic that combines vivid fantasy with evocative realism, is where much of that imagination takes place. Its grandeur and ambition would suit the blockbuster treatment.</p>
<p>Lanthimos’s film and Gray’s text are independent but related works. It is worth remembering that adaptations are under no obligation to be faithful to source materials. There is no governing body adjudicating and no code of laws to apply. Traces remain, however. Look out for the interrogation of authority, the imagination of an alternative future, and the indomitable spirit of Bella Baxter. Then read some Alasdair Gray.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joe Jackson 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>A radical painter and writer, Alasdair Gray’s work was full of bold visions for an independent Scotland.Joe Jackson, Associate Professor in Twentieth-Century and Contemporary English Literature, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2203502024-01-09T17:02:21Z2024-01-09T17:02:21ZPlant roots mysteriously pulsate and we don’t know why – but finding out could change the way we grow things<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568410/original/file-20240109-21-g9babz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C12%2C8130%2C5199&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/farmer-close-holding-picking-green-lettuce-2311127081">Nikita M production/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You probably don’t think about plant roots all that much – they’re hidden underground after all. Yet they’re continually <a href="https://nature.com/articles/s41561-022-00995-2">changing the shape of the world</a>. This process happens in your garden, where plants use invisible mechanisms for their never-ending growth.</p>
<p>Scientists discovered <a href="https://journals.biologists.com/dev/article/134/4/681/52968/Auxin-dependent-regulation-of-lateral-root">about 15 years ago</a> that genes at the root tip (or more precisely, the level of proteins produced from some genes) seem to pulsate. It’s still a bit of a mystery but recent research is giving us new insights. </p>
<p>What we do know is this oscillation is a basic mechanism underlying the growth of roots. If we better understood this process, it would help farmers and scientists design or choose the best plants to grow in different types of soil and climate. With increasingly extreme weather such as droughts and floods, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-023-00491-0">damaging crops</a> around the world, it is more important to understand how plants grow than ever before. </p>
<p>To really understand how plants grow, you need to look at processes which happen inside cells. There are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/advs.202303396">numerous chemical reactions</a> and changes in the activity of genes happening all the time inside cells. </p>
<p>Some of these reactions happen in response to external signals, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-scientists-are-helping-plants-get-the-most-out-of-photosynthesis-196226">changes in light</a>, temperature or nutrient availability. But many are part of each plant’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.117614">developmental programme</a>, encoded <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/plant-development">in its genes</a>. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513999/original/file-20230307-18-3frmra.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513999/original/file-20230307-18-3frmra.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513999/original/file-20230307-18-3frmra.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513999/original/file-20230307-18-3frmra.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513999/original/file-20230307-18-3frmra.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513999/original/file-20230307-18-3frmra.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/513999/original/file-20230307-18-3frmra.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Many people think of plants as nice-looking greens. Essential for clean air, yes, but simple organisms. A step change in research is shaking up the way scientists think about plants: they are far more complex and more like us than you might imagine. This blossoming field of science is too delightful to do it justice in one or two stories.</em> </p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/plant-curious-137238?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=PlantCurious2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of a series, Plant Curious</a>, exploring scientific studies that challenge the way you view plantlife.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Some of these cell processes have <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955067404001759?via%3Dihub">regular oscillations</a> – some families of molecules rhythmically appear and disappear every few hours. The most well known example is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/dgd.12242">circadian rhythms</a>, the internal clock in plants and animals (including humans).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-understanding-plant-body-clocks-could-help-transform-how-food-is-grown-199137">How understanding plant body clocks could help transform how food is grown</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Natural cycles</h2>
<p>There are many other examples of spontaneous oscillations in nature. Some are fast such as heart beats and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/mitosis">mitotic cell cycle</a>, which is the cycle of cell divisions. Others, like the menstrual cycle <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/hibernation">and hibernation</a>, are slow. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man holding plant root while transplanting the flower plant" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568422/original/file-20240109-17-38gv4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568422/original/file-20240109-17-38gv4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568422/original/file-20240109-17-38gv4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568422/original/file-20240109-17-38gv4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568422/original/file-20240109-17-38gv4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568422/original/file-20240109-17-38gv4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568422/original/file-20240109-17-38gv4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are intricate chemical processes happening inside those plant roots.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/focus-on-florist-man-hands-wearing-2190385311">Zamrznuti tonovi/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most often, they can be explained by an underlying <a href="https://swainlab.bio.ed.ac.uk/psb/lectures/negative.pdf">negative feedback loop</a>. This is where a process triggers a series of events which then represses the very activity it triggered. This seems to be the case for the root growth pulsation. </p>
<p>Shortly after the root tip gene oscillation was discovered, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1191937">scientists noticed</a> this pulsation leaves an invisible mark. They found this out by using fluorescent markers visible under a microscope. These marks are left at places where the root can grow sideways. This means they provide regular cues that lead to the root system taking its shape.</p>
<p>Its cause is unknown today, although scientists have ruled out theories that it may be driven by circadian oscillations. </p>
<p>We do know there are many feedback loops involved. A plant hormone <a href="https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-016-0291-0">called auxin</a> seems to be crucial to the process. It wakes up some genes coding for proteins, such as those needed for growth. Charles Darwin <a href="https://academic.oup.com/plphys/article/154/2/501/6108610">hypothesised the existence</a> of auxin and its chemical structure was confirmed <a href="https://cshperspectives.cshlp.org/content/2/10/a004572">around 100 years ago</a>. </p>
<p>The genes which oscillate are the auxin “targets”. When auxin enters a cell, these target genes tend to become more active. Some of these genes are related to growth but not all. Auxin triggers the removal of “repressors”, <a href="https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Repressor#:%7E:text=A%20repressor%2C%20as%20related%20to,of%20gene%20expression%20in%20cells.">proteins which can block</a> the activity in genes. Animals have repressors in their cells too. </p>
<p>But these repressors are activated by the genes they block. It could be that this feedback loop triggers the oscillations we see, but we don’t know for sure.</p>
<p>We know auxin moves from cell to cell via an intricate network of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.079111">transporter proteins</a>. The way proteins direct travel to parts of cells depends on the surrounding levels of auxin itself. This is another feedback loop. The pulsation happens in growing roots, where cells at the tip are continually dividing as a result of the cell cycle (which involves separate feedback loops).</p>
<h2>What a conundrum</h2>
<p>Scientists often turn to mathematics to help explain things. Researchers have used geometry since ancient history to study the visible part of plants. A branch of mathematics developed in the 19th century called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamical_system">Dynamical Systems Theory</a> (DST), has given scientists some clarity about why plant roots oscillate. Scientists have been using tools from DST to try and show how <a href="https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011646">auxin patterns</a> are affected by rounds of cell divisions.</p>
<p>If these rounds of cell division were well synchronised, we could show that, in theory, this would produce a regular pulse of auxin. </p>
<p>But this doesn’t solve the mystery because cells do not typically divide all at the same time, and so any pulsation of auxin would be fairly irregular. </p>
<p>When my team looked under the microscope for fluorescent auxin markers, we found a lack of regularity in auxin, in the parts of the root where its target genes oscillate regularly. </p>
<p>This suggests that the root tip gene oscillation may be linked to root growth but doesn’t happen at the same time as root stem cells are dividing. </p>
<p>Though still mysterious, we are now better equipped to decipher this enigma. The answer is probably not with one single process, but a result of an interplay between various processes. We know the key players, but the rules of the game they play are yet to be discovered. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-cauliflowers-look-so-odd-weve-cracked-the-maths-behind-their-fractal-shape-164121">Why do cauliflowers look so odd? We've cracked the maths behind their 'fractal' shape</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220350/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Etienne Farcot 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>Scientists are still trying to puzzle out strange oscillations in plant root genes,Etienne Farcot, Associate professor of Mathematics, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2194742024-01-07T12:34:38Z2024-01-07T12:34:38ZNeighbourhood amenities may have helped youth mental health and stress early in the pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567975/original/file-20240105-25-yskfll.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=245%2C1003%2C3621%2C1984&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Researchers investigated how the availability of neighbourhood amenities may have contributed to changes in youth mental health and stress levels during the first six months of the pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash/Paul Hanaoka)</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/neighbourhood-amenities-may-have-helped-youth-mental-health-and-stress-early-in-the-pandemic" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>During the COVID-19 pandemic, youth as a population group <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/210201/dq210201b-eng.htm">reported some of the largest declines in their mental health</a> compared to other age groups in Canada. </p>
<p>Research on youth mental health during the pandemic has focused on <a href="https://www.facetsjournal.com/doi/full/10.1139/facets-2021-0096">poor academic engagement</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/facets-2021-0080">loss of peer networks</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(20)30109-7">missed milestone events</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-023-00653-4">challenging summer employment experiences</a>. Yet little is known about how the places where young people lived played a role in changes to their mental health during the pandemic.</p>
<p>From walking in a park to ordering takeout food, there was not much to do out in public during the early months of the pandemic. Youth were attending school remotely and no longer participating in organized sports and indoor recreation. </p>
<p>For many, that meant their daily activities outside the home often consisted of what could be reached within walking distance of where they lived. Parks and food-related retail became the main places for physically distanced social interactions. They became a break in the routines of remote school, activities and virtual social networks available at home.</p>
<h2>Neighbourhood amenities</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2023.2282850">Our study</a> included Canadian youth between the ages of 13 and 19 in London, Ont. We investigated how the availability of neighbourhood amenities may have contributed to positive or negative changes in mental health — interpreted as their own perception of their mood and outlook on life — and stress levels during the first six months of the pandemic.</p>
<p>Amenities included parks, food outlets and convenience stores in close proximity to home.</p>
<p>We investigated whether these amenities could have protected against declines in mental health and increases in stress levels, and also if youth living in suburban neighbourhoods had different perceptions of mental health and stress levels than those living in urban ones.</p>
<h2>The missing role of parks</h2>
<p>Surprisingly, the availability of parks near the home had no significant impact on mental health and stress levels of youth. This finding runs counter to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13148-2">evidence that suggests these places were crucial to supporting well-being</a> during the pandemic. </p>
<p>Given the pre-pandemic challenges of <a href="https://doi.org/10.24095/hpcdp.40.4.02">engaging young people in using their local parks</a>, these places may have not played as substantial a role in supporting better mental health and lowering stress levels for youth compared to other neighbourhood amenities.</p>
<h2>Youth experiences in urban neighbourhoods</h2>
<p>For youth in urban neighbourhoods, having more fast-food outlets available near young people’s homes resulted in lower levels of stress, but worse declines in mental health. When coupled with the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2023.2282850">observed decline in eating habits</a>, urban youth were almost seven times more likely to report worse mental health. </p>
<p>While the places near young people’s homes can make a difference to their mental health, we found that the impact is greater on their stress levels. </p>
<p>It may be that food-based amenities in urban neighbourhoods provided places for young people to relieve their stress and try to cope with declines in their mental health by eating fast-food and convenience-store snacks and socializing.</p>
<h2>Youth experiences in suburban neighbourhoods</h2>
<p>Youth in suburban neighbourhoods were more likely to report changes (both improvements and declines) to their mental health and stress levels. They also had a greater availability of food outlets near them compared to urban youth. In particular, having more convenience stores near the home was associated with more drastic changes to mental health and higher stress levels. </p>
<p>In addition, youth residing in suburban neighbourhoods who reported a decline in their physical activity levels were also at nearly three times the risk of having worsened mental health than their peers who reported their physical activity levels had not changed since the pandemic. </p>
<p>Overall, boys were substantially less likely than girls to have improved mental health during the study period, and this was especially true for those residing in suburban areas.</p>
<p>One possible reason for this trend could be that boys are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2019.03.015">more likely to play organized sports</a> than girls, which are often delivered by schools as extracurricular activities. In addition, boys tend to have less <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2021.2011189">extensive social networks</a> on digital platforms outside of their school than girls. </p>
<p>The loss of opportunities for physical activity and transition away from in-person social networks at schools may have created feelings of isolation and loneliness for boys.</p>
<h2>The role of neighbourhood amenities</h2>
<p>The first six months of the pandemic revealed the importance of neighbourhood amenities in protecting against declines in mental health and reducing stress levels. </p>
<p>Parks may have been a helpful feature for other population groups, but we found their role was limited for youth in terms of mental health and stress. Planners and landscape architects can reflect on how these places could be changed to be more attractive to youth, thereby ensuring they receive the same benefits from them as younger and older groups. </p>
<p>In addition, it is important to consider that the experiences of youth living in suburban and urban neighbourhoods may differ. This highlights the need to include youth perspectives in the planning of public spaces that contribute to healthy and thriving communities. </p>
<p>The pandemic exposed long-standing issues in how youth can access amenities in their community, and how to best meet their needs in Canadian communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219474/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander Wray receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Sport Canada. He is President of the Town and Gown Association of Ontario. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kendra Nelson Ferguson was provided with funding through a trainee award from the Children’s Health
Research Institute, funded by the Children’s Health Foundation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gina Martin, Jamie Seabrook, Jason Gilliland, and Stephanie Coen do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Neighbourhood features may have helped youth cope with the mental health impact of pandemic restrictions. Parks didn’t play much of a role but food amenities and the suburbs did.Alexander Wray, PhD Candidate in Geography, Western UniversityGina Martin, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Health Disciplines, Athabasca UniversityJamie Seabrook, Chair and Professor, School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Brescia University College, Adjunct Research Professor, Paediatrics, Adjunct Professor, Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Western UniversityJason Gilliland, Professor, Director, Urban Development Program, Western UniversityKendra Nelson Ferguson, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Faculty of Social Sciences, Western UniversityStephanie Coen, Associate professor, School of Geography, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2205932024-01-05T01:38:30Z2024-01-05T01:38:30ZAs aranhas podem ter mais medo de você do que você delas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567953/original/file-20231218-23-ws5uv6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=123%2C49%2C8080%2C5407&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As aranhas geralmente agem de forma passiva em resposta aos seres humanos. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/jumping-spider-human-hand-2360829801">Jimmy_Chan/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As aranhas desenvolveram estratégias criativas que lhes permitem se desenvolver em habitats em todo o mundo. No entanto, a única coisa que parece escapar a elas é a capacidade de encantar os humanos que encontram.</p>
<p>Mas e quanto à perspectiva das aranhas em relação aos humanos quando elas encontram um novo lar perto de nós? Não é possível ler a mente de uma aranha, mas pesquisas revelaram alguns insights surpreendentes sobre como elas se comportam em relação aos humanos.</p>
<p>Veja o caso da aranha Jorō, <em>Trichonephila clavata</em>. Os noticiários <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1ZXH_eT9c8">espalharam o alarme</a> sobre a aranha Jorō do tamanho da palma da mão que recentemente se estabeleceu em partes dos EUA.</p>
<p>Essa aranha é nativa de parte do leste da Ásia, mas na última década se estabeleceu nos EUA, seguindo sua prima, a aranha de seda dourada <em>Trichonephila clavipes</em>, que chegou lá <a href="https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phen.12385">há cerca de 160 anos</a>.</p>
<p>Mas seu comportamento sugere que ela pode estar mais preocupada conosco do que o contrário. A aranha Jorō tem uma tendência a se fingir de morta. Esse estratagema é conhecido entre os cientistas como <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5769822/">tanatose</a>. É uma resposta a ameaças usada por muitas criaturas do mundo animal, inclusive outros aracnídeos, como os escorpiões.</p>
<h2>Fingindo-se de morto</h2>
<p>É comum que as aranhas façam isso em resposta a um perigo em potencial ou até mesmo como parte de sua estratégia de acasalamento. O que é incomum na aranha Jorō, no entanto, é o tempo que ela mantém esse ato. Um <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2813-3323/1/2/9">estudo realizado em 2023</a> com dez espécies de aranhas descobriu que a maioria das aranhas congelava por cerca de um minuto em resposta a algumas lufadas rápidas de ar. As aranhas Jorō ficaram imóveis por mais de uma hora.</p>
<p>Fingir-se de morto em momentos específicos é uma <a href="https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/19/3/546/185057">estratégia vantajosa</a>. Isso reduz as chances de ser comido por predadores ou parceiros em potencial, como as fêmeas canibais da <em>Pisaura mirabilis</em> (aranha teia-de-viveiro).</p>
<p>Isso pode ter um custo, como a perda de um banquete passageiro na forma de um inseto voador. Mas fingir-se de morto é provavelmente uma maneira mais eficiente em termos de energia para se manter a salvo de um predador do que as estratégias defensivas ativas. Por exemplo, as aranhas <em>Pholcus cellar</em> gastam muito mais energia tentando confundir e deter os predadores girando em suas teias.</p>
<p>As respostas agressivas que as aranhas usam incluem levantar as pernas e mover as presas para assustar outros animais. No entanto, com mais frequência, as respostas às ameaças percebidas - incluindo a aproximação de um ser humano - <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12177">são passivas</a>. Os exemplos incluem esconder-se ou camuflar-se contra um fundo, disfarçar-se como uma espécie diferente ou até mesmo esconder-se atrás de outros predadores. Essa última opção é adotada por <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-014-1690-2">pequenas aranhas saltadoras</a> que se refugiam de aranhas cuspideiras escondendo-se em ninhos de formigas.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Aranha japonesa joro amarela na teia em close" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562382/original/file-20231129-21-i6inhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562382/original/file-20231129-21-i6inhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562382/original/file-20231129-21-i6inhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562382/original/file-20231129-21-i6inhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562382/original/file-20231129-21-i6inhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562382/original/file-20231129-21-i6inhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562382/original/file-20231129-21-i6inhf.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">As aranhas Joro não são exatamente discretas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-japanese-yellow-joro-spider-net-2228441763">Photo Spirit/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mas a aranha Jorō tem um corpo visivelmente colorido, dourado e preto, e constrói grandes teias de um metro de diâmetro. Ela é grande demais para se esconder e distinta demais para se disfarçar ou imitar, por isso precisa recorrer a outras estratégias, inclusive fingir-se de morta.</p>
<h2>Quem tem medo de quem</h2>
<p>Não está claro por que somos tão suscetíveis à aracnofobia, mas estudos mostram que os seres humanos têm reações emotivas semelhantes a animais muito diferentes (lobos, corvos, aranhas). Os cientistas sugerem que essas reações de medo a outros animais são motivadas por uma necessidade de controlar nosso <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.593501">ambiente ecológico</a>.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pan3.10143">notícias alimentam</a> as suposições das pessoas de que as aranhas têm más intenções em relação a nós. E esses sentimentos são reforçados pelo <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9940273/Creepy-crawlies-Homes-invaded-thousands-spiders-mating-season-kicks-UK.html">aparecimento sazonal</a> de aranhas grandes em nossos jardins e embaixo do sofá.</p>
<p>Algumas aranhas, como as aranhas reclusas dos EUA, têm uma picada que, às vezes, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6628458/">precisa de tratamento médico</a>, mas, mesmo assim, a ameaça que elas representam é <a href="https://www.wired.com/2013/11/poor-misunderstood-brown-recluse/">muitas vezes exagerada</a>. Para contextualizar, nenhuma aranha aparece na <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/animal-bites">lista de animais perigosos</a> da OMS, mas cães e gatos domésticos sim.</p>
<p>Dezenas de milhões de pessoas são feridas por cães domésticos todos os anos. As histórias sobre os benefícios do veneno de aranha, por exemplo, como modelos para <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6551028/">novos medicamentos</a> que podem um dia ser usados para tratar a dor e doenças como o câncer, recebem muito menos atenção da mídia do que as picadas de aranha.</p>
<p>Também é quase certo que as pessoas são mais perigosas para as aranhas do que o contrário. Isso ocorre porque nossos sistemas de produção de alimentos dependem de inseticidas que são letais para as aranhas e provavelmente estão contribuindo para seu <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-29003-2">declínio em larga escala</a>. Isso é um problema para os seres humanos, pois as aranhas têm um papel importante na agricultura, comendo insetos-praga. Seu declínio pode ter consequências de longo prazo para o que você coloca na sua mesa.</p>
<p>Como bióloga, não posso deixar de me impressionar com as soluções imaginativas que as aranhas usam para lidar com o mundo ao seu redor. Elas <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/221959568_The_Role_of_Behavior_in_the_Evolution_of_Spiders_Silks_and_Webs">constroem estruturas de seda elaboradas</a>, desde teias orbitais gigantes completas com decorações (chamadas de estabilimenta) até alçapões habilmente disfarçados no solo.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6ui0hbv3wVs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>A seda das aranhas permite que elas vivam em todos os lugares, desde as <a href="https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2017/05/cave-spiders/">profundezas frias de cavernas profundas</a>, passando pelos <a href="https://www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/spiders/water-spider#:%7E:text=The%20water%20spider%20is%20the%20only%20spider%20that%20spends%20its,Males%20are%20larger%20than%20females">reinos subaquáticos</a> de lagoas, até as <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/tarantulas-spiders-new-species-high-elevation-news">altas altitudes nas montanhas</a>.</p>
<p>Quando pequenos, os filhotes de aranha podem viajar milhares de quilômetros pelo vento, usando velas de seda. Da mesma forma que nossas experiências de vida nos moldam, a jornada da aranha também molda seu futuro. Isso se deve ao fato de que os ambientes que as aranhas jovens experimentam durante o desenvolvimento, como a temperatura ou a quantidade de alimento disponível, podem influenciar as estratégias de vida posteriores, por exemplo, ao <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.12512">procurar alimentos</a> ou decidir se devem permanecer em algum lugar ou se afastar.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Espiral de seda branca." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562369/original/file-20231129-22-ulz8qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562369/original/file-20231129-22-ulz8qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562369/original/file-20231129-22-ulz8qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562369/original/file-20231129-22-ulz8qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562369/original/file-20231129-22-ulz8qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562369/original/file-20231129-22-ulz8qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562369/original/file-20231129-22-ulz8qc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As aranhas podem tecer teias elaboradas: o estabilizador em espiral da aranha japonesa <em>Octonoba yaeyamensis</em>.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Octonoba.yaeyamensis.stabilimentum.1.-.takinawa.jpg">Akio Tanikawa/WikiMedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>O Jorō também é capaz de voar no ar como um filhote de aranha, mas sua recente chegada aos EUA é provavelmente o resultado da atividade humana. Por exemplo, pegando carona em sua bagagem ou em mercadorias transportadas comercialmente. E a nossa preocupação com a sua disseminação não se concentra na aranha em si, mas na possível perturbação do ecossistema no nível mais baixo da cadeia alimentar.</p>
<p>Os recém-chegados a uma área - inclusive essa aranha - podem competir com as espécies residentes por alimentos ou influenciar outros tipos de plantas ou animais de maneiras inesperadas. Na Flórida, por exemplo, as aranhas <em>Cyrtophora</em> invasoras às vezes fiam tanta seda que causam problemas às plantas hospedeiras, podendo <a href="https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/MISC/SPIDERS/Cyrtophora_citricola.htm">danificar as plantações dos agricultores</a>.</p>
<p>Esse exemplo serve como um lembrete de que a consequência das ações de uma aranha pode ser mais complicada do que parece à primeira vista - passiva ou não. Podemos nos beneficiar ao melhorar nossa compreensão sobre as aranhas. Isso será mais fácil se conseguirmos parar de vê-las por meio de uma lente emotiva.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220593/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Goodacre recebeu financiamento do NERC, do BBSRC, da Wellcome e da Royal Society. Ela é membro da British Arachnological Society e da European Society for the study of Arachnology</span></em></p>Um especialista que explica por que as aranhas são mal compreendidas e suas fascinantes estratégias de sobrevivência.Sara Goodacre, Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Genetics, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.