tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/university-of-oxford-1260/articlesThe University of Oxford2024-03-29T08:28:37Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2131972024-03-29T08:28:37Z2024-03-29T08:28:37ZGut microbiome: meet Klebsiella pneumoniae – an opportunistic pathogen that is harmless to some, but causes severe disease in others<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585005/original/file-20240328-22-5pw785.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5490%2C3649&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">_K pneumoniae_ is the most common cause of hospital-aquired pneumonia. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/klebsiella-pneumoniae-colonies-close-media-plate-1280636989">AnaLysiSStudiO/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Klebsiella pneumoniae</em> is a common species of bacteria found in our bodies – and may even be lurking in your gut, mouth or nose right now. But it’s also a notoriously harmful bacteria that can make us very ill. </p>
<p>It’s the most common cause of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519004/">hospital-acquired pneumonia</a> in the US and the second most frequent cause of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3150015/">urinary tract infections</a> worldwide, after <em>Escherichia coli</em> (<em>E coli</em>). If it infects wounds or enters the bloodstream, <em>K pneumoniae</em> can cause <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1011233">bloodstream infections and sepsis</a>.</p>
<p>So how can <em>K pneumoniae</em> live harmlessly among the rest of the microbiome in some of us, yet cause disease in others? Understanding this may hold the key to preventing infections.</p>
<p>Scientists aren’t entirely sure what proportion of the population carries <em>K pneumoniae</em> as part of their normal gut microbiome. Past attempts have had highly variable results.</p>
<p>For example, one survey of healthy people detected <em>K pneumoniae</em> in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23071716/">almost 4% of stool samples</a>. Yet other studies show <em>K pneumoniae</em> is noticeably more common among certain groups – including <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29340588/">hospital patients</a>, people living in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32404021/">lower income countries</a> and, in particular, among people who had travelled to <a href="https://aricjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13756-018-0429-7">Asia</a>. </p>
<p><em>K pneumoniae</em> is what’s known as an opportunistic pathogen. This means that when carried in the gut, nose or mouth as part of the normal microbiota, <em>K pneumoniae</em> should not cause any health problems unless a person’s immune system becomes compromised due to an infection or disease. So our microbiome can act as a reservoir of <em>K pneumoniae</em>, from which it can spread to other parts of the body and cause infection.</p>
<p><a href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/65/2/208/3084729?login=true">One study</a> of 498 intensive care patients at a hospital in Australia found that half of <em>K pneumoniae</em> infections were caused by the patient’s own <em>K pneumoniae</em> strain that had already been living in their gut or throat.</p>
<p>It’s thought that <em>K pneumoniae</em> can spread from the gut to other parts of the body via medical devices such as <a href="https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/spectrum.00641-23">ventilators</a>. This type of gut-to-lung translocation has recently been observed in other pneumonia-causing species of bacteria, such as <em><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-34101-2">Pseudomonas aeruginosa</a></em>. Surgeries can also make possible the spread of <em>K pneumoniae</em> to sites where it can cause infection. </p>
<h2>Stopping the spread</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, some <em>K pneumoniae</em> strains have developed <a href="https://bmcmicrobiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12866-023-02974-y">high levels of drug resistance</a>. This means that some drugs once used to treat <em>K pneumoniae</em> infections now no longer work. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A digital rendering of how Klebsiella pneumoniae would look under a microscope." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585008/original/file-20240328-16-fxidcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585008/original/file-20240328-16-fxidcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585008/original/file-20240328-16-fxidcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585008/original/file-20240328-16-fxidcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585008/original/file-20240328-16-fxidcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585008/original/file-20240328-16-fxidcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585008/original/file-20240328-16-fxidcb.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">
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<span class="caption">Some strains of <em>Klebsiella pneumoniae</em> have increasingly become resistant to the drugs designed to kill them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/bacteria-klebsiella-3d-illustration-gramnegative-rodshaped-584511661">Kateryna Kon/ Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>It’s particularly concerning that some strains of <em>K pneumoniae</em> are developing resistance to the group of antibiotics called carbapenems, which are generally only used as a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3195018/">last resort</a> treatment when other antibiotics haven’t worked. And, this resistance is becoming more widespread among the population.</p>
<p>There’s an <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/27-02-2017-who-publishes-list-of-bacteria-for-which-new-antibiotics-are-urgently-needed">urgent need</a> to develop alternatives to antibiotics so that cases of drug-resistant <em>K pneumoniae</em> can be prevented or treated. Our laboratory’s research focuses on harnessing the gut microbiome as a potential solution. </p>
<p>Since carrying <em>K pneumoniae</em> in the gut is a known <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28369261/">risk factor</a> for subsequent infection, one route to avoiding this could be to manipulate the microbiome. This could be done by using probiotics containing beneficial species of bacteria to limit <em>K pneumoniae</em> in the gut. Such a solution could be especially important for people in hospitals or care homes, where <em>K pneumoniae</em> is more <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23770266/">prevalent</a> and infection risk is highest.</p>
<p>The microbiome has long been known to provide a host with a degree of natural protection against infection via a property known as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-022-00833-7">colonisation resistance</a>. This is when resident gut bacteria outcompete incoming species, including potential pathogens, and prevent them from establishing in the gut. </p>
<p>But microbiomes <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4428241/">vary greatly</a> – and some people carry more protective microbial communities than others.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/diverse-gut-microbiomes-give-better-protection-against-harmful-bugs-now-we-know-why-219734">Diverse gut microbiomes give better protection against harmful bugs – now we know why</a>
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<p>My colleagues and I wanted to understand why some gut communities can resist the growth of harmful bacteria while others cannot. In the lab, we combined human gut bacteria into communities containing different diversities and compositions of bacterial species. We then challenged these communities with <em>K pneumoniae</em> (as well as other harmful bacteria, such as <em>Salmonella</em>). </p>
<p>We found that <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.adj3502">diverse gut microbiomes</a> were more protective against <em>K pneumoniae</em> colonisation. We showed that this protection was due to the resident gut bacteria using up the nutrients needed in order for invading microbes to grow. This led us to develop a way of predicting combinations of gut bacteria that can resist growth of unwanted species of bacteria such as <em>K pneumoniae</em>. </p>
<p>We are still only just beginning to understand the role that microbes play when it comes to our health. Some of these microbes, such as <em>K pneumoniae</em>, can even be harmful and harmless at the same time. Studying the interactions between the members of the gut microbiota is a critical area of research for microbiome scientists because it could lead to new ways of preventing or treating infections. </p>
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<p><em>This article is part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/meet-your-gut-microbes-150943?utm_source=InArticleTop&utm_medium=TCUK&utm_campaign=Health2024">Meet Your Gut Microbes</a>, a series about the rich constellation of bacteria, viruses, archaea and fungi that live in people’s digestive tracts. Scientists are increasingly realising their importance in shaping our health – both physical and mental. Each week we will look at a different microbe and bring you the most up-to-date research on them.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frances Spragge receives funding from The Wellcome Trust. </span></em></p>Some strains of this opportunistic pathogen are also increasingly becoming resistant to the drugs designed to treat them.Frances Spragge, Postdoctoral Researcher in Microbiology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2266802024-03-28T18:54:36Z2024-03-28T18:54:36ZI’ve studied sand dunes for 40 years – here’s what people find most surprising<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585053/original/file-20240328-20-b9wltj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C7348%2C4131&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sand dunes in Mongolia's Gobi Desert can stretch for 100km.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sand-dunes-gobi-desert-mongolia-1042829308">mr.wijannarongk kunchit</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/dune-43718">Dune films</a> remind us of just how beautiful, mysterious, expansive and changeable sand dunes can be. For centuries these wonderful landforms have filled humans with awe – and in some cases fear and foreboding – because of the apparent remoteness and risks associated with the deserts they are synonymous with. </p>
<p>That’s what first attracted me to research deserts and dunes more than 40 years ago, and I have been investigating them ever since. Here are five things I have learned that may surprise you:</p>
<h2>Not all dunes are made of sand</h2>
<p>Ash, snow and even gypsum can all build dunes. Dunes develop when small particles are mobilised on bare dry surfaces by a moderate wind, accumulating where movement is slowed down by an obstacle or a surface undulation. Where the wind deposits the particles they can create a small mound against which other particles in turn accumulate, leading eventually to a dune. </p>
<p>“Sand” is not really a material – it is a size of particle, somewhere between 0.06mm and 2mm diameter. Dunes in deserts and at the coast are primarily formed of quartz and feldspar grains, the most common minerals on earth. </p>
<p>But in volcanic regions, such as the interior of Iceland, dunes can be formed of ash, while in the centre of Antarctica, the driest and windiest continental earth, dunes can form from ice crystals and snow. In New Mexico, US, the very soft and bright mineral gypsum forms dunes – appropriately the place is called White Sands.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585055/original/file-20240328-16-ielofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man walks on white dunes, mountains in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585055/original/file-20240328-16-ielofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585055/original/file-20240328-16-ielofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585055/original/file-20240328-16-ielofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585055/original/file-20240328-16-ielofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585055/original/file-20240328-16-ielofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585055/original/file-20240328-16-ielofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585055/original/file-20240328-16-ielofy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The gypsum dunes of White Sands, New Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/white-sands-national-monument-new-mexico-1065474704">sunsinger / shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Dunes can record a history of climate changes</h2>
<p>Sand dunes might seem soft and changeable, but below their active surface there often lies older sand that tells a story of long-term development. </p>
<p>Dune shape is affected by how changeable wind direction is through the year: some dunes, such as crescent-shaped <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875963719302290">barchan dunes</a>, roll forward under fairly consistent winds, with the sand turning over on a regular basis. Others, such as linear and star dunes, develop where wind directions are more variable, piling sand up to thicknesses of tens and even hundreds of metres. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585062/original/file-20240328-20-5hfp7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sand dune from the air" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585062/original/file-20240328-20-5hfp7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585062/original/file-20240328-20-5hfp7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585062/original/file-20240328-20-5hfp7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585062/original/file-20240328-20-5hfp7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585062/original/file-20240328-20-5hfp7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585062/original/file-20240328-20-5hfp7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585062/original/file-20240328-20-5hfp7p.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"></a>
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<span class="caption">Star dunes, like these in Namibia, have three or more ‘arms’ as the wind comes from several directions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/23027589@N06/33879129024/">Christophe André / flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>Using a technique called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027737911300156X">luminescence dating</a>, we can measure how long dune sand has been hidden from sunlight, identifying periods when dunes even stopped forming and soils, now themselves buried under more sand, developed on dune surfaces under wetter climates. </p>
<p>In Arabia’s Rub’ al Khali desert, for example, giant linear sand dunes have formed in several dry periods during the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618212033812">past 130,000 years</a>. The dunes may even be much older, as it hasn’t yet been possible to drill all the way through to the base and establish the whole accumulation history.</p>
<h2>Only a fifth of deserts are covered by sand dunes</h2>
<p>Only about a fifth of all desert areas have the right conditions to form dunes: a supply of fine loose sediment, enough wind energy and the absence of protective vegetation. Other common desert landscape features include mountains, rock slopes, gravel surfaces and dry lake beds.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585065/original/file-20240328-22-te593w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sand dunes on the coast" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585065/original/file-20240328-22-te593w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585065/original/file-20240328-22-te593w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585065/original/file-20240328-22-te593w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585065/original/file-20240328-22-te593w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585065/original/file-20240328-22-te593w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585065/original/file-20240328-22-te593w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585065/original/file-20240328-22-te593w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Sand dunes can be enormous – the largest are as tall as skyscrapers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sand-dunes-on-atlantic-coast-near-2257206993">imageBROKER.com</a></span>
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<p>Yet we can go beyond today’s deserts and find evidence of more widespread dune landscapes, for example underneath the grass and woodlands of some of Africa‘s savanna regions such as the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618213007088">Kalahari</a> and even under tropical rainforests in parts of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618214004522">South America</a>. These dunes testify to different patterns of deserts and climate in the past.</p>
<h2>Scotland’s ancient dunes changed history</h2>
<p>In the 1780s, the Scottish geologist James Hutton realised that the well-bedded and distinctive red sandstones at Siccar Point on Scotland’s eastern coast were in fact the preserved remains of <a href="https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/GeositesSiccarPoint">ancient desert sand dunes</a>. At this location the Devonian old red sandstone, as it is now known, abruptly overlies fine grey mudstones. </p>
<p>Hutton realised that a considerable period of time – we now know it to be over 65 million years – must have elapsed between the grey rocks being laid down, smoothed flat by erosion, and the red sands being deposited on top. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585057/original/file-20240328-18-9kiyjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Some rocks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585057/original/file-20240328-18-9kiyjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/585057/original/file-20240328-18-9kiyjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585057/original/file-20240328-18-9kiyjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585057/original/file-20240328-18-9kiyjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585057/original/file-20240328-18-9kiyjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585057/original/file-20240328-18-9kiyjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/585057/original/file-20240328-18-9kiyjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Siccar Point’s red rocks were formed in a desert.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/james-huttons-famous-angular-unconformity-siccar-490865605">Mark Godden / shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>His careful theorising established the <a href="https://www.amnh.org/learn-teach/curriculum-collections/earth-inside-and-out/james-hutton">foundations of modern geology</a> and our understanding that the earth was much older than the history that had been calculated from biblical texts. Further developments in the 20th century enabled us to explain why rocks formed under desert conditions are found in the unlikely context of Scotland – we now know it’s due to movements of the earth’s crust, or plate tectonics.</p>
<h2>Coastal dunes defend against storms</h2>
<p>Sand dunes fringe large tracts of the world’s coastlines, built from wind-blown sand derived from the drying intertidal beach zone and trapped by onshore vegetation. While only <a href="https://data.jncc.gov.uk/data/73b03252-f004-4072-bed3-9fc53731256b/sand-dune-inventory-of-Europe-1991.pdf">7% of the British coastline</a> has dunes, 40% of Australia’s and 60% of Portugal’s are fronted by dunes.</p>
<p>These dunes play a vital role in protecting low-lying land from tidal surges and storms. Yet in some areas human recreation and sand extraction for building has degraded the dunes by damaging stabilising vegetation and creating blow-outs, with sea level rise adding a further risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/226680/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Thomas receives funding from NERC and The Leverhulme Trust. He is also affiliated with The University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. </span></em></p>Dunes can preserve a record of historic climate changes and shifting continents.David Thomas, Professor of Geography, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2265412024-03-28T12:21:15Z2024-03-28T12:21:15ZEarly spring brings a ‘hungry gap’ for bees – here’s how you can help<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584795/original/file-20240327-20-lqgl8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4430%2C2951&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/flight-flying-bumblebee-spring-on-fruit-1390687526">Daniel Pahmeier/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Wild bees pollinate the crops and wild plants that feed us and sustain entire ecosystems, but many of the world’s 20,000 bee species are in decline. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ee/article/50/3/732/6119323">Loss of habitat</a> is chiefly to blame, especially the loss of plants that provide pollen and nectar for bees to feed themselves and their brood (their eggs, larvae and pupae).</p>
<p>Falling numbers of bees and other insect pollinators have prompted governments to respond. In the UK, Europe and US, “pollinator planting” initiatives have taken root, yet species continue to decline. At least part of the problem seems to be that these schemes, which offer guidance to farmers, gardeners and landowners, recommend planting flowers to feed bees that start blooming much too late.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://resjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/icad.12736">a new study</a>, we modelled the quantity of food available to bees in a computer simulation of a real farm. We found that the plant species recommended for pollinator planting in national initiatives tend to flower up to a month too late for the bees that emerge in the early spring – that’s right now, in March and April. </p>
<p>This “hungry gap” means fewer bee colonies survive to the end of the summer and not enough new queens are produced for the following year. The good news is that expanding these schemes to include plants that bloom very early in the spring could throw a lifeline to struggling bees. </p>
<h2>Why is the early spring so important?</h2>
<p>We wanted to find out when, during a typical season, limited food most threatens the fitness of bumblebees and which plant species are most helpful for remedying this. Our computer model simulations included multiple colonies of the buff-tailed bumblebee (<em>Bombus terrestris</em>) and the common carder bee (<em>Bombus pascuorum</em>), two UK species which emerge in spring. </p>
<p>The computer model simulates the life cycle of bumblebees. In it, digital bees explore a realistic landscape, collecting nectar and pollen, forming colonies and caring for their brood. At the end of a season, males and daughter queens are produced, and over a number of years the population may prosper or decline.</p>
<p>The landscape of a real farm was digitised to make the simulation, and the different areas (hedgerows, meadows, paddocks) marked in a digital map. We could adjust the variety of flowering plants in these areas for different test runs.</p>
<p>Adding plant species to the model that flower between March and April, like ground ivy, red dead-nettle, maple, cherry, hawthorn or willow, improved the survival rate of these bee populations from 35% to 100% over ten years. This meant that all colonies of both species survived each year a decade after these early flowering plants had been introduced.</p>
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<img alt="Fuzzy yellow catkins on slender branches." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584797/original/file-20240327-30-tgwz47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/584797/original/file-20240327-30-tgwz47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584797/original/file-20240327-30-tgwz47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584797/original/file-20240327-30-tgwz47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584797/original/file-20240327-30-tgwz47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584797/original/file-20240327-30-tgwz47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/584797/original/file-20240327-30-tgwz47.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">
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<span class="caption">Willow tends to flower early in the season when we rarely see many bees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/willow-salix-caprea-branch-coats-fluffy-2244717269">Irina Boldina/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>These plants can fit into existing hedgerows without reducing the area used for crop production, ensuring farmers can continue to grow food and make a living while nourishing pollinators.</p>
<p>We were surprised to find that the bee colony’s demand for nectar and pollen at the start of the spring was driven mainly by the number of larvae rather than the number of adult workers. But if we look at the life cycle of a typical social bee colony, this finding makes sense. </p>
<p>In the spring, a queen emerges from hibernation, finds a suitable nest site, collects nectar and pollen and raises a first generation of brood. This founding stage of the colony is followed by the social phase, when enough pupae have matured into adult workers that they can take over foraging and brood care for the colony. The founding stage can last several weeks, and during this time, there are very few adult bees foraging to meet the needs of a large number of brood. This explains why, for our spring-emerging species, we observed high food demand in March and April, before we normally see large numbers of adult worker bees foraging outside the colony.</p>
<h2>Filling the hungry gap</h2>
<p>Some bee species emerge in the early spring and some emerge later; in the northern hemisphere, a species can emerge any time between March and July. Across <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-019-1062-4">Europe</a> and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1115559108">North America</a> there are plenty of early-spring bees which appear at the beginning of this range. In fact, somewhere between a third and a quarter of bee species in temperate regions may appear around the start of spring.</p>
<p>But government guidance in the UK and the EU misses this critical March-April hungry gap. EU guidance is to allow wild plants to flower during the summer, when most pollinators are on the wing, by cutting grass or grazing in early spring and autumn. In the US, land managers are encouraged (depending on the state) to plant a minimum of three species that bloom between April and June 15. These recommendations overlook the need for early spring forage. </p>
<p>Our critical finding is that bees need flowers for food up to a month before we even see the adults flying around. If different species of bee are active from April through October, then we need flowers blooming from March onward. </p>
<p>Providing flowers across the whole season, with an emphasis on early spring flowers, would make pro-pollinator schemes more effective. To supplement the <a href="https://www.plantlife.org.uk/campaigns/nomowmay/">“No Mow May”</a> campaign, we need a “plant early spring flowers” drive. Or even better: make sure you have flowers blooming every month from March through October.</p>
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<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">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthias Becher works for RIFCON GmbH, Germany. He received funding from UKRI NERC for supporting the development of BEESTEWARD (project NE/P016731/1).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tonya Lander 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>Check that something is blooming every week, March through October, to help bees.Tonya Lander, Stipendiary Lecturer in Biology, University of OxfordMatthias Becher, Affiliate, Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2257132024-03-25T16:39:39Z2024-03-25T16:39:39ZLear is Not Okay: meta play explores what happens when teenagers rewrite Shakespeare’s tragedy<p><a href="https://almeida.co.uk/whats-on/double-bill-lear-is-not-okay-lessons/">Lear is Not Okay</a>, which played at London’s Almeida Theatre this month, was something of a meta performance. The show tells the story of a youth theatre company as they rehearse a new play that responds to William Shakespeare’s tragedy, King Lear. </p>
<p>King Lear, <a href="https://almeida.co.uk/whats-on/king-lear/">currently showing</a> at The Almeida, is about an ageing king who divides the kingdom among his three daughters, leading to betrayal and chaos as his sanity shatters. Lear is Not Okay (directed by Germma Orleans-Thompson and written by Benjamin Salmon) is a satirical piece about issues that also reverberate throughout Shakespeare’s play – the burden and dispossession of youth, and the uncertainty of the future. Making a comedy out of tragedy asks questions about what we laugh at, and why.</p>
<p>The director characters within the play (played by Alexander and Evie*) are broad stereotypes of phoney drama group leaders. The actors’ depictions of identity anxiety and awkward social interactions in a youth theatre group, although set up to provoke laughter among an enthusiastic first night audience, cut close to the bone.</p>
<p>In one scene, the actor Sarah (played by Josephine*) performs a posthumous speech she has written for Lear’s daughter, Cordelia. She explains that she sees Cordelia as a powerful woman, but the monologue she delivers sounds more like a sulky teenager. </p>
<p>Cordelia, banished to France by her father, has been forced to invade her own country to restore political stability and is somewhat disgruntled to have ended up dead. Sarah’s Cordelia concludes with the evergreen adolescent retort: “Whatever.”</p>
<p>Youth theatre encourages actors to connect with characters of canonical plays, but the trajectories of young women within them can make it hard to find redemptive or empowering touch points. Here Sarah’s attempt to find “empowerment” in the story of Cordelia is absurd, while the collapsing of high political tragedy into teenage soap opera inevitably prompts laughter. </p>
<h2>Themes of fairness</h2>
<p>We don’t see much of Lear himself. Each time someone playing Lear goes to speak, they are interrupted, or the scene cuts away. We hear more from Shakespeare’s young villain, Edmund. Kelly (Shadia*) delivers a compelling rendition of Edmund’s first monologue in a classical acting style to contrast with Sarah’s devised Cordelia speech. </p>
<p>In the monologue, Edmund is bitter and vengeful about his status as the illegitimate son of the Earl of Gloucester and reveals he has a plot to undermine and replace his legitimate brother Edgar. </p>
<p>Edmund’s evocation of the arbitrary unfairness of the world and assertion of the necessity to fight for your place – to the detriment of others if necessary – resonates ambivalently throughout this play. Another actor, Dylan (Yee*), concludes that while we’d like to think everyone had equal rights and opportunities, we know the dice are loaded from the start.</p>
<p>This cynical insight follows an altercation in the play about private and comprehensive schools, a lottery the youth cast are very conscious of. In 2019, Nottingham Playhouse chief executive <a href="https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/increasing-social-division-schools-theatre-access">Stephanie Sirr said</a> theatres “had never witnessed a bigger gap in the cultural opportunities open to those in private schools compared to those in state education”. The subsequent five years are only likely to have widened the gap. </p>
<p>When I asked the cast how they found out about the Almeida’s Young Company, they said by word of mouth. These things depend on their school, or which youth groups they attend (though the Almeida also <a href="https://almeida.co.uk/get-involved/young-artists/young-company/">announces opportunities</a> clearly on its website). </p>
<p>Reviews of youth work are almost nonexistent, which also affects the visibility of these theatre opportunities for young people and makes the chance to write about this production all the more important.</p>
<h2>The legacy of COVID</h2>
<p>The age group represented by the Almeida Young Company (14-18) has endured deprivation as a result of COVID that has affected their personal, educational and social growth and development. In addition, 14 years of sustained public service cuts <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/24/schools-england-real-terms-cuts-since-2010-tories">to education</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/19/arts-funding-austerity-collapse-tories-labour">the arts</a> mean they inherit a landscape as bleak as that of Lear’s demise. </p>
<p>The numbers of students taking drama at GCSE has <a href="https://www.dramaandtheatre.co.uk/news/article/drama-gcse-entries-continue-rapid-decline#:%7E:text=The%20number%20of%20students%20taking,49%2C247%20entries%20to%20the%20subject.">dropped by 39.6%</a> since 2010. Specialist drama staff have <a href="https://www.nationaldrama.org.uk/response-arts-in-schools-review/">dropped by 18%</a>. </p>
<p>Giving evidence at the House of Lords inquiry into education for 11-16 year olds in May 2023, National Drama chair, <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/13147/html/">Geoffrey Readman said</a> “few subjects have been so consistently undervalued” or “marginalised” as drama. </p>
<p>While youth programmes run by theatres might help to stem the drain in creative arts in schools, opportunities remain overly focused on London. Theatre critic Lyn Gardner <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/news/education-policy-has-had-disastrous-impact-on-drama-in-schools--inquiry">has argued recently</a> that “the performing arts are no longer available to many children in today’s hard-pressed, underfunded schools”, describing them as a potentially <a href="https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/without-access-to-theatre-in-schools-kids-are-denied-more-than-just-great-art">“lost” generation</a>.</p>
<p>Redman quoted <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/13147/html/">the words of Noah</a>, a 15-year-old boy who spoke to ministers at the House of Lords: “Drama holds a mirror up to life” and in doing so, it makes us “think, explore, communicate, challenge and even change things for the better”. </p>
<p>The Young Company at the Almeida do exactly that. The crisis point of their play arrives with the results of their auditions for the final show. Malicious comments about race-led affirmative casting made by Zara (Eleonora*) when Kelly secures the leading role prompt “circle time” to talk it through.</p>
<p>Racism and discrimination is another key area of complexity for young people to navigate and this scene plays out clumsiness and inefficacy in the handling of racist speech that reflects the young actors own fraught experiences in the rehearsal room and beyond. </p>
<p>In this youth theatre production, drama creates an environment for young people to collaboratively play out the things that matter to them, the things that are hurting them and the things that are “not okay”. </p>
<p><em>*Only first names have been given for safeguarding reasons.</em> </p>
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<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">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penelope Woods 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>Youth theatre encourages actors to connect with characters of canonical plays, but the trajectories of young women within them can make it hard to find redemptive or empowering touch points.Penelope Woods, Research assistant, Empire, Migration and Belonging, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2212752024-03-25T13:05:18Z2024-03-25T13:05:18ZHow Henry VIII’s grandmother used a palace in Northamptonshire to build the mighty Tudor dynasty<p>Today, you would be hard-pressed to find any visible evidence that <a href="https://www.royalpalaces.com/palaces/collyweston-house/">Collyweston village in Northamptonshire</a> was once <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Elite_Female_Constructions_of_Power_and.html?id=w7_CvQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">home to a palace</a> presided over by Henry VIII’s grandmother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. As a royal power base, the palace was an epicentre of Tudor power and propaganda in the 16th century and was a key stopping point for royal visits. This included two royal tours in 1503 and 1541, which were crucial to the making (and remaking) of the Tudor dynasty. </p>
<p>Margaret Beaufort acquired Collyweston manor after her son Henry VII ascended to the English throne following the battle of Bosworth in 1485. There, she set upon expanding the manor house into a palace befitting her status as king’s mother. </p>
<p>Beaufort’s presence at Collyweston formed part of a strategic plan, devised by mother and son, to exert royal influence both locally and nationally. Collyweston was in the heart of the country at a time when most of the royal palaces were clustered in and around London and the neighbouring county of Lincolnshire was the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/urban-history/article/vowesses-the-anchoresses-and-the-aldermens-wives-lady-margaret-beaufort-and-the-devout-society-of-late-medieval-stamford/7046EE13EA0E125BE58676150CAF34F3">epicentre of Beaufort’s influence</a>.</p>
<p>In the early years of the Tudor dynasty, Beaufort’s presence in the area was particularly important as Henry VII had spent much of his youth in exile in Brittany. His mother’s longstanding connections to the local area therefore helped proclaim his legitimacy. </p>
<p>The site was also close to the Great North Road (now partly occupied by the A1), making it an ideal stopping point for royal parties travelling between London and the north.</p>
<h2>Beaufort gets building</h2>
<p>While nothing remains above ground and no drawings of the palace survive, Beaufort’s <a href="https://thetudortravelguide.com/margaret-beaufort-and-the-palace-of-collyweston/">extensive works to the palace</a> over several years, are preserved in numerous volumes of <a href="https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/lady-margaret-beaufort-domina-fundatrix">household and building accounts</a>. </p>
<p>By the early 16th century, the palace was framed around three courtyards and boasted a chapel, great hall, rooms for Margaret and her household, a <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/jewel-tower/history/#:%7E:text=The%20Jewel%20Tower%20is%20a,much%20of%20the%20historic%20palace.">jewel tower</a> and library. Perched on the crest of a hill, the palace offered spectacular views over the Welland valley. The land falling westwards from the residence included a <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/discover/history/gardens-landscapes/what-is-a-deer-park">deer park</a> of approximately 108 acres, along with ponds, gardens, orchards, summer houses and walkways.</p>
<p>Between 1502 and 1503, Beaufort commissioned significant building works, including repainting the chapel, new walkways through the grounds and a new accommodation block overlooking the deer park. This flurry of work anticipated the arrival of the first of two <a href="https://henryontour.uk/">Tudor tours</a>, known as progresses, which were to stop at Collyweston.</p>
<p>Progresses played a vital role in presenting the king (and his wider family) to his people, publicly displaying him as the people’s sovereign. They gave the king and his retinue an opportunity to hunt, engage with the localities and hear the grievances of the local elites and their people. </p>
<p>The 1503 progress notably celebrated the marriage of Beaufort’s granddaughter (Henry VIII’s sister, Margaret Tudor) to James IV of Scotland. For the fledgling Tudor dynasty, the event was a triumph, creating a political alliance in the form of a peace treaty between England and Scotland. </p>
<p>Beaufort recorded the event in a <a href="https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2011/08/the-beaufort-beauchamp-hours.html">prayer book</a> gifted to her by her mother, Margaret Beauchamp, along with other key dates relating to the dynasty’s successes. The wedding party stayed at Collyweston for two weeks, where they enjoyed feasting, hunting, entertainment and services in Beaufort’s repainted chapel.</p>
<h2>Fit for a king</h2>
<p>In 1541, approximately 32 years after his grandmother’s death, Henry VIII returned to Collyweston with his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, during their progress to York. </p>
<p>To travel as far as York was unusual. But Henry intended to secure the region after the Pilgrimage of Grace (a popular revolt that began in Yorkshire in October 1536) in much the same way his father had done in 1486, when he had taken a large force north to secure his reign after the wars of the roses. </p>
<p>Catherine also embarked on <a href="https://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/catherine-howard-thomas-culpeper/">her ill-fated affair</a> with her husband’s friend, the courtier Thomas Culpeper, during the progress and met with him secretly throughout. </p>
<p>Henry VIII and Catherine stayed at Collyweston palace – the queen in rooms known to Margaret Beaufort and once occupied by Henry’s mother – on August 5, on the journey from London to York, and from October 15 to 17 on their return. They had departed from Westminster with their summer court of around 400 to 500 people and a group of 4,000 to 5,000 horsemen – a group larger than most Tudor towns. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570069/original/file-20240118-15-2p9jdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Field of the Cloth of Gold by Hans Holbein the Younger (1545)." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570069/original/file-20240118-15-2p9jdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570069/original/file-20240118-15-2p9jdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570069/original/file-20240118-15-2p9jdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570069/original/file-20240118-15-2p9jdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570069/original/file-20240118-15-2p9jdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570069/original/file-20240118-15-2p9jdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570069/original/file-20240118-15-2p9jdl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Field of the Cloth of Gold by Hans Holbein the Younger (1545) shows the scale of Henry VIII’s progresses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/405794">Royal Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The company was heavily armed, including at least 1,000 soldiers. The king and queen travelled in style, accompanied by an estimated 400 courtiers, officials, musicians and servants.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/sep/22/henry-viii-tent-field-of-cloth-of-gold-reconstruction">Elaborate tents</a> and <a href="https://henryontour.uk/blog/sovereign-2023-royal-progress-1541">the richest tapestries, plates and clothes</a> were brought from London to furnish the royal court on the move. Collyweston would once again have been a hub of activity during the progress, albeit with a different purpose and tone from 1503.</p>
<p>The sleepy appearance of Collyweston village today belies its significance as a stage on which key events relating to the Tudor dynasty were played out. While the site has fallen into relative obscurity, for the Tudors, it was very much on the map as a place of security in the face of uncertainty.</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>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Delman has been researching Collyweston Palace for over a decade. Her doctoral research on the site was funded by a full Arts and Humanities Research Council award at the University of Oxford and she continues to investigate the significance of the palace as a site of female power in early Tudor England. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Keely Hayes-Davies receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council for "Henry on Tour", a research project exploring the progresses of Henry VIII. The project is jointly led by the University of York and Historic Royal Palaces in partnership with Newcastle University (henryontour.uk).</span></em></p>Beaufort’s presence at Collyweston formed part of a strategic plan, devised by mother and son, to exert royal influence both locally and nationally.Rachel Delman, Heritage Partnerships Coordinator, University of OxfordKeely Hayes-Davies, PhD Candidate, Early Modern History, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2254882024-03-21T12:40:03Z2024-03-21T12:40:03ZSix innovative ways to float skyscraper-sized wind turbines<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582845/original/file-20240319-18-t87r9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5520%2C3677&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A large floating wind turbine is installed in France, October 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Obatala-photography</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Yes, you read that right – float. You may have seen a wind turbine in the sea before, but chances are you were looking at a “fixed” turbine – that is, one that sits on top of a foundation drilled into the seabed. For the new frontier of offshore wind power, the focus is on floating wind turbines. In this case, the turbines are supported by floating structures that bob and sway in response to waves and wind and are moored with chains and anchored to the seafloor. </p>
<p>This is becoming the focus of the sector for the simple reason that most wind blows above deep water, where building fixed platforms would be too expensive or simply impossible. Designing these new floating platforms is a true engineering challenge, and is a focus of my <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032123011292?via%3Dihub">academic</a> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032123002733?via%3Dihub">research</a>.</p>
<p>These wind turbines are enormous, reaching up to 240m tall – about the size of a skyscraper. Since they are so tall, strong winds far above the sea surface tend to make the turbine want to tilt, so platform designs focus on minimising this tilt while still being cost-competitive with other forms of energy. </p>
<p>There are more than 100 ideas for platform designs, but we can broadly group them into the following six categories:</p>
<h2>1. Spar</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582823/original/file-20240319-24-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Rendering of spar turbine design" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582823/original/file-20240319-24-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582823/original/file-20240319-24-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582823/original/file-20240319-24-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582823/original/file-20240319-24-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=733&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582823/original/file-20240319-24-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582823/original/file-20240319-24-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582823/original/file-20240319-24-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hywind Spar by Norwegian energy firm Equinor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.equinor.com/">Equinor</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Spars are narrow, deep platforms with weight added to the bottom to counteract the wind force (this is called “ballast”). They are usually relatively easy to make because they normally consist of just one cylinder. </p>
<p>However, they can extend 100 metres or more underwater, which means they can’t be deployed in normal docks which are not deep enough. Specialist installation procedures are required to install the turbine once the platform has been towed into deep water.</p>
<h2>2. Barge</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Floating wind turbine barge from above" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582828/original/file-20240319-30-a47s2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582828/original/file-20240319-30-a47s2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582828/original/file-20240319-30-a47s2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582828/original/file-20240319-30-a47s2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582828/original/file-20240319-30-a47s2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582828/original/file-20240319-30-a47s2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582828/original/file-20240319-30-a47s2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Damping Pool, by French firm BW Ideol.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.bw-ideol.com/en">BW Ideol/ V. Joncheray</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Barges are wide, shallow platforms that use buoyancy far from the centre of the structure to counteract the wind force on the tower. As they usually extend less than 10 metres underwater, they do not need any specialist deep-water docks or installation vessels. </p>
<p>However, they can be difficult to make because the platform is usually a single, large unit with a complex shape.</p>
<h2>3. Tension-leg platform</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582829/original/file-20240319-24-dx11p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram of floating wind turbine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582829/original/file-20240319-24-dx11p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582829/original/file-20240319-24-dx11p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582829/original/file-20240319-24-dx11p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582829/original/file-20240319-24-dx11p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1151&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582829/original/file-20240319-24-dx11p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582829/original/file-20240319-24-dx11p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582829/original/file-20240319-24-dx11p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">PelaFlex by Swansea-based Marine Power Systems.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.marinepowersystems.co.uk/">Marine Power Systems</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tension-leg platforms, or TLPs, use taut mooring lines to connect the platform to the seabed and stop the turbine from tilting in the wind. </p>
<p>These platforms are usually smaller and lighter than the other types, which makes them easier to fit at a standard port. Also, their seabed “footprint” is small due to the taut lines. </p>
<p>However, the platforms are usually not stable until attached to their mooring lines, meaning that a special towing and installation solution is required.</p>
<h2>4. Semi-submersible</h2>
<p>Semi-submersibles consist of three, four or five connected vertical cylinders, with the turbine in the middle or above one of the columns. The platform utilises buoyancy far from the centre (similar to the barge) and ballast at the base of each column (similar to the spar). </p>
<p>Like barges, semi-submersibles do not require specialist tow-out equipment and work for a wide range of water depths. Manufacturing is again a challenge.</p>
<h2>5. Combination-type</h2>
<p>The four categories above are the more “traditional” platforms, influenced by their predecessors in the oil and gas industry. Since the 1960s, floating platforms have meant huge oil rigs can access deeper water sites (the deepest is over 2,000m). Most of these oil rigs in deep water are either semi-submersibles, anchored to the seabed with chains, or TLPs, connected to the seabed with taut cables.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582839/original/file-20240319-18-9hddib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Floating oil platform from above" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582839/original/file-20240319-18-9hddib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582839/original/file-20240319-18-9hddib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582839/original/file-20240319-18-9hddib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582839/original/file-20240319-18-9hddib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582839/original/file-20240319-18-9hddib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582839/original/file-20240319-18-9hddib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582839/original/file-20240319-18-9hddib.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The 22,000 tonne Perdido oil platform afloat in the Gulf of Mexico.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bseegov/51115227891/in/photolist-2kSSUqB-Wjv85j-5iDEs6-5iEtEc-5iE32z-5iE32V-5iEtE8-5iE32R-5iE32B-5iE32M-8eXPHK-8f27AA-8gjHwx-8f27X1">Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement BSEE</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More recently, there has been a trend towards platforms more specialised to floating wind. Specifically, some use a combination of the stability mechanisms, taking advantages from each of the previous designs. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582834/original/file-20240319-9877-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram of floating wind turbine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582834/original/file-20240319-9877-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582834/original/file-20240319-9877-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582834/original/file-20240319-9877-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582834/original/file-20240319-9877-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1122&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582834/original/file-20240319-9877-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1410&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582834/original/file-20240319-9877-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582834/original/file-20240319-9877-2fnt6k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1410&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">TetraSpar, by Danish firm Stiesdal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.stiesdal.com/">Stiesdal</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, “lowerable ballast” platforms look like traditional semi-submersible or barge platforms, but with a weight hanging from from taut cables. </p>
<p>During turbine installation at the port and tow-out, the weight is raised, so that a traditional (non-deep) dock can be used and no specialist equipment is needed. At the site of installation, the weight is lowered and the platform gets extra stability from a low centre of mass.</p>
<p>Other designs use the benefits of stability from taut mooring lines (similar to a TLP) but are designed to be stable during tow-out and so don’t need a special installation vessel. For example, the picture below shows the X1 Wind platform:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582835/original/file-20240319-30-3izp81.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Diagram of floating wind turbine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582835/original/file-20240319-30-3izp81.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582835/original/file-20240319-30-3izp81.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582835/original/file-20240319-30-3izp81.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582835/original/file-20240319-30-3izp81.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582835/original/file-20240319-30-3izp81.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582835/original/file-20240319-30-3izp81.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582835/original/file-20240319-30-3izp81.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A combination design by Barcelona-based X1 Wind.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.x1wind.com/">X1 Wind</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The taut mooring lines are attached to a single column, which is installed initially. The rest of the platform, which is self-stable, is then towed out and connected to the pre-installed column with the taut mooring lines. The platform uses the extra stability from the mooring lines but without the tow-out instability typical of TLPs.</p>
<h2>6. Hybrid platforms</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582842/original/file-20240319-30-7fvt0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Floating wind turbine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582842/original/file-20240319-30-7fvt0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582842/original/file-20240319-30-7fvt0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582842/original/file-20240319-30-7fvt0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582842/original/file-20240319-30-7fvt0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582842/original/file-20240319-30-7fvt0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582842/original/file-20240319-30-7fvt0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582842/original/file-20240319-30-7fvt0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">PelaFlex platform with wave energy converters and wind turbine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.marinepowersystems.co.uk/">Marine Power Systems</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These platforms add another type of renewable energy, most commonly a wave energy converter. This increases the overall amount of energy generated, and reduces costs as power cables, maintenance and other infrastructure can be shared.</p>
<p>A wave energy converter also reduces platform motion, which in turn increases the power performance from the turbine. </p>
<h2>Room for improvement</h2>
<p>Four floating offshore wind farms have already been built, the largest of which was opened in 2023 <a href="https://www.equinor.com/energy/hywind-tampen">off the coast of Norway</a>. Two of these farms use the Hywind spar design and two use the <a href="https://www.principlepower.com/windfloat">WindFloat semi-submersible</a>. </p>
<p>There have been 18 other platform designs to reach at-sea testing, including at least one of each of the categories described above. Some have plans to build floating farms in the next few years, and additional early-stage designs have plans to deploy their own prototype devices in the near future.</p>
<p>Interestingly, platforms are actually diverging in design. After many years, wind turbines have mostly converged on the three-bladed design that you see today, but there has been no such convergence yet on a consensus “best” floating platform. This suggests significant improvements are still possible, especially in terms of reducing motion and decreasing cost. </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>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma C. Edwards has received funding through the Cornwall FLOW Accelerator, funded through the European Regional Development Fund. Her other research has been funded by the US Office of Naval Research and the UK Research & Innovation council. </span></em></p>Meet the next generation of wind turbines that can operate in deeper waters.Emma C. Edwards, Career Development Fellow in Engineering, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2236982024-03-18T17:08:03Z2024-03-18T17:08:03ZThe UK government is using private tech companies to deliver public funds to asylum seekers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580124/original/file-20240306-26-4saaqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Asylum seekers are brought ashore after being rescued at sea by Border Force in Dover, Kent, in September 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dover-kent-uk-22nd-september-2022-2205152061">Sean Aidan Calderbank|Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-counts-as-a-refugee-four-questions-to-understand-current-migration-debates-219735">asylum seekers</a> arrive in the UK, they are not eligible for benefits. Those who do not have anywhere else to live are provided with government-funded housing. Those who are not able to <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64edefc56bc96d000d4ed1ef/Assessing_destitution.pdf">meet essential needs</a> can access basic Home Office funds to cover food, clothing and toiletries. </p>
<p>The sums in question are paltry. As of December 2023, asylum seekers housed in self-catering facilities are given <a href="https://www.gov.uk/asylum-support/what-youll-get">£49.18</a> per week, per person. Those housed in hotels get £8.86. </p>
<p>Private tech companies are increasingly encroaching on the delivery of public funds to vulnerable people. These are distributed via a prepayment system called the Asylum Support Enablement (Aspen) card, provided by Prepaid Financial Services (PFS, a subsidiary of EML Payments Ltd).</p>
<p>This is the same technology used by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ refugee cash assistance programme in Greece. Research there has shown that it restricts asylum seekers’ mobility and constrains <a href="https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/26694/1/IPS-Tazzioli.pdf">what they can purchase</a>. </p>
<p>We have found similar patterns in the UK. Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2024.2312249">recent study</a> shows this technology isolates asylum seekers from networks of financial support, compounding their already precarious financial situation. It also restricts their consumption habits, and enables the government to collect their personal purchasing data. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protestors hold up posters." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580123/original/file-20240306-20-jly07k.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">Restrictive payment systems are part of how the hostile environment is created.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/morton-halllincolnshireuk-january-20th-2018-eighty-1277329108">Ian Francis|Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A restrictive system</h2>
<p>Over the spring and summer of 2021, we analysed policy papers, legal reports, web pages and <a href="https://privacyinternational.org/advocacy/4788/uk-home-office-finally-responds-our-questions-about-surveillance-aspen-card-users">government Freedom of Information Act correspondence</a> related to the Aspen card.</p>
<p>We also undertook qualitative interviews and focus groups with 21 participants (all anonymised in our paper, and all based in <a href="https://migrationscotland.org.uk/policyarea/asylum-dispersal/">Glasgow</a>). These included asylum seekers who were Aspen cardholders, refugees who had used such cards in the past, and NGO staff who supported asylum seekers. We also interviewed staff at PFS.</p>
<p>As a funds management system, the Aspen card is highly restrictive. You can only use it to buy <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a8bf2a9e5274a2e87dc4057/section-4_1_-handling-transitional-cases-v1.0ext.pdf">food and other essential items</a>, mainly from the supermarkets that will accept it. Only asylum seekers whose asylum application is pending can use it to withdraw cash.</p>
<p>The card cannot be used for internet shopping. At the time of our study in 2021, it could be used for contactless payments, but that is no longer the case. Friends or family cannot add money to it and you cannot transfer money to other accounts from it. </p>
<p>Our interviewees told us it often does not work in independent shops including charity shops, cheap clothing stores, halal butchers and African food stores. As a result, they said that in Glasgow, asylum seekers often struggle to buy the warm clothing needed to manage the cold Scottish climate. They also find it difficult to access foods that suit their cultural and religious needs. </p>
<p>The Aspen card is fluorescent orange, which makes its users highly visible in public spaces – potentially exposing them to abuse. Further, in enabling the surveillance of people’s purchasing habits, the card breaches asylum seekers’ right to privacy. Our interviewees told us it makes them afraid of how their patterns of consumption might affect their right to asylum. </p>
<h2>A highly unreliable system</h2>
<p>Above all, the card often does not work. Our interviewees told us about people suddenly being left unable to withdraw money, sometimes for months at a time. As one asylum seeker explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The first time it happened, I went to the machine on Monday to withdraw the money, and it was telling me I had £70-something in there – but zero balance to withdraw. And I was like … I just got here, I’ve not even used the card! How is it possible that I don’t have any money to withdraw?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Home Office has contracted organisations including the charity Migrant Help and housing management company Mears to support asylum seekers with such problems. However, more often that not, they are being left to deal with these issues alone. Another asylum seeker explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>For close to eight months, I was not receiving the complete money. But I don’t have anywhere to go, because even if you call Migrant Help or you phone Mears or the Home Office, they will not give a response to you. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of the 16 asylum seekers we spoke with, 13 had experienced a malfunctioning card, as had their friends. The stress of relying on such an unpredictable system only compounds the extremely low level of support these people have access to in the first place.</p>
<p>At the time of our research in 2021, the UK government was giving asylum seekers around £35 per week, per person. While this has since <a href="https://www.gov.uk/asylum-support/what-youll-get">increased to £49.18</a>, such severely limited funds make it practically impossible for people to fully cover their needs, let alone save any money. </p>
<p>When a card stops working, asylum seekers are left completely destitute. Mothers are unable to buy food, nappies or toiletries. One person with a young toddler was left for five weeks without income. When their housing officer eventually told them that emergency support would be granted, they were given just over an hour to collect it. </p>
<p>When questioned about these findings, Mears referred The Conversation to the Home Office. A spokesperson for Migrant Help said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In instances of challenges with Aspen cards, we facilitate raising the issue to the attention of the payment provider, and strive to offer guidance and assistance. However, it’s crucial to note that we can’t resolve issues of this nature, as that is the responsibility of the payment provider contracted by the Home Office.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A Home Office spokesperson said: “We take the welfare of all asylum seekers very seriously, which is why we provide a weekly allowance to those who would otherwise be destitute through our Aspen card system. There are no restrictions on asylum seekers using the monetary provision to make purchases from retail outlets or withdraw cash from an ATM to buy food.”</p>
<p>The government says it records people’s use of the Aspen card, and may investigate if there are safeguarding concerns or potential breaches of the conditions of support to which the recipients have agreed (to prevent fraud). </p>
<p>Despite this, many of the interviewees we spoke with were unaware of the terms and conditions applicable to use of this card. Furthermore, precisely because they are destitute, asylum seekers have no choice but to accept whatever terms and conditions those might be. </p>
<h2>A tool of surveillance and control</h2>
<p>Prior to contracting PFS, the Home Office had reportedly <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/digitaliberties/big-brother-says-no-surveillance-and-income-management-of-asylum-seekers-through-the-uk-aspen-card/">spent around £84 million</a> on the previous card system, supplied by Sodexo. We estimate that between January <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-spending-over-25000-2020">2020</a> and December <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-spending-over-25000-2021">2021</a>, it then spent over £198 million on the PFS system. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-spending-over-25000-2020">Home Office spending data</a> shows most of this expenditure was attributed to an item labelled “cash support”. Although not explicitly stated, this is likely to refer to the emergency cash support given to asylum seekers when their Aspen card is not working. The documents show that instances of this charge spiked following the contract handover to PFS, which saw <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/02/thousands-of-asylum-seekers-go-hungry-after-cash-card-problems">thousands of asylum seekers</a> left without financial support.</p>
<p>This is concerning, not least because PFS is a preferred supplier for prepaid cards across UK government departments until at least 2025. PFS currently has <a href="https://prepaidfinancialservices.com/en/councils">agreements with</a> around 121 local councils and NHS clinical commissioning groups. It also has an agreement with <a href="https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/RM6248">Crown Commercial Services</a> – the largest <a href="https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/about-ccs">public procurement organisation</a> in the UK. (EML Payments Ltd was approached for comment regarding PFS, its subsidiary, but did not respond.)</p>
<p>Through its collection of purchasing data and constraining rules, the Aspen card serves as a tool of surveillance and control – a means through which the UK government’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/hostile-environment-the-uk-governments-draconian-immigration-policy-explained-95460">“hostile environment”</a> is potentially achieved. This raises questions about the role of financial technology companies in shaping punitive digital welfare practices across the UK.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sophie Bennani-Taylor receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nasar Meer receives funding from the British Academy, UKRI, ESRC, RSE and JPI Urban Europe. </span></em></p>Private tech companies are increasingly being used to delivery public funds to vulnerable people – and facilitate the government’s hostile environment policies.Sophie Bennani-Taylor, Doctoral Researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of OxfordNasar Meer, Professor in Social and Political Sciences, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2253592024-03-08T13:48:25Z2024-03-08T13:48:25ZMass extinction: our fossil study reveals which types of species are most at risk from climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580670/original/file-20240308-16-uwcrn7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=70%2C35%2C3847%2C2572&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Animals in polar regions are at particular risk. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/strongest-gentoo-penguin-cute-funny-baby-1427288915">Andrew Mobbs/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many experts believe we may soon face a <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-mass-extinction-and-are-we-in-one-now-122535">mass extinction</a> event, with a high proportion of Earth’s species dying out. Projections indicate <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/climate-change-2021-the-physical-science-basis/future-global-climate-scenariobased-projections-and-nearterm-information/309359EDDCFABB031C078AE20CEE04FD">the climate will continue to change for centuries to come</a>, and this is a <a href="https://www.ipbes.net/node/35274">significant threat to biodiversity</a> that has already had an impact on many species. </p>
<p>Despite the threat that climate change poses to biodiversity, we do not yet fully understand how it causes animals to go extinct. In our new paper, published in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adj5763">Science</a>, we used the fossil record to make more precise estimates.</p>
<p>The geological rock record provides critical insight on past extinctions caused by a variety of climate change events. Fossils therefore offer a rare opportunity to understand the mechanisms of extinction and investigate how climate shifts have led to extinction in the past. Understanding why species went extinct under natural, pre-human conditions is paramount, since human-induced extinction drivers are accumulating over time. </p>
<p>By identifying which traits are linked to extinction, we can potentially use this knowledge to identify at-risk species to prioritise in conservation efforts.</p>
<p>In our latest research article, we analysed a data set comprising over 290,000 marine invertebrate fossils, covering the last 485 million years of Earth’s history. We looked directly for the traits most crucial for survival in the geologic past.</p>
<p>Previous studies have highlighted <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2021.1681">small body size</a> and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.0701257104">limited geographic range size</a> (the spatial extent occupied by a species) as key predictors of extinction risk throughout geological history.</p>
<p>We reconstructed the climate for 81 geological stages across the Phanerozoic (the current geological era, starting 541 million years ago). And we used climate models to determine the range of temperatures that each species can endure. </p>
<p>These factors were then compared against geographic range size and body size to assess their relative importance. We then estimated an external factor that may impact risk of extinction: the magnitude of climate change experienced by each species.</p>
<p>We assessed how the intrinsic traits, such as temperature tolerance and body size, compared to climate change in affecting a species’ risk of extinction. Our study is the first to directly compare traits to external factors in determining what drives extinction. </p>
<p>Our findings revealed that species inhabiting climatic extremes, such as polar or equatorial regions, were particularly susceptible to extinction. Species with a narrow thermal tolerance of approximately less than 15°C faced a significantly higher risk of extinction. We also found that smaller-bodied species are more prone to extinction due to both climatic and other changes.</p>
<p>However, the most important predictor of extinction risk was geographic range size. Species with smaller ranges, occupying more geographically-confined areas, had a higher likelihood of extinction. </p>
<h2>Conservation is needed</h2>
<p>Alarmingly, our research has, for the first time, identified climate change as a significant predictor of extinction, alongside other species’ traits.</p>
<p>We observed that species subjected to local climate changes of 7°C or greater across geological stages were significantly more likely to face extinction. This suggests that surpassing this climate change threshold increases the likelihood of extinction for a species, regardless of its other traits.</p>
<p>That said, the research shows that there is a cumulative effect of these variables on extinction risk. This underscores the importance of considering a broad spectrum of factors when assessing vulnerability to extinction. </p>
<p>For instance, a species residing in polar regions, characterised by a small geographic range size and body size, and subjected to significant climate change, would face a higher extinction risk than what might be inferred if considering only its geographic range. This holistic approach reveals the interplay between various biological and environmental factors in determining species’ survival over geological timescales. </p>
<p>Our research underscores the urgent challenge climate change poses to global biodiversity. But it also emphasises the necessity for continued research.</p>
<p>Many uncertainties remain when it comes to extinction risk, particularly around why certain traits confer extinction resistance and how traits interact to effect extinction risk. This additional research is essential to fully leverage our study’s implications for conservation strategies. </p>
<p>Without immediate and targeted conservation efforts, informed by a deeper understanding, we risk moving toward a sixth mass extinction event. So our work provides a pivotal call to action. We should mitigate climate change, but also do more research to bolster our understanding of the impacts on vulnerable species.</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">
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<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Erin Saupe receives funding from the Leverhulme Prize and NERC grant NE/V011405/1. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cooper Malanoski 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>If the climate warms by more than 7 degrees, the likelihood of extinction for a species increases, regardless of its other traits.Erin Saupe, Associate Professor, Palaeobiology, University of OxfordCooper Malanoski, PhD Candidate in Geology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2252932024-03-08T13:35:16Z2024-03-08T13:35:16ZHow three 18th century ‘deviant mothers’ defied social norms in their novel writing<p>The onset of the French Revolution, at the end of the 18th century, had a <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/England_and_the_French_Revolution.html?id=sA23AAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">seismic impact</a> on British thinking. Ideas of the nation were <a href="https://archive.org/details/representationso0000paul">being hardened</a> through xenophobia, an unquestioned reverence for institutional authority and a vocabulary of English “manliness” and “chivalry”. The publication of philosopher Edmund Burke’s <a href="https://socialsciences.mcmaster.ca/econ/ugcm/3ll3/burke/revfrance.pdf">Reflections on the Revolution in France</a> (1790) reinforced this conservative stance. </p>
<p>But at the same time, a small but steadily growing group of thinkers vocally <a href="https://archive.org/details/englishjacobinno0000kell/page/n7/mode/2up">supported the revolution</a> and called for similar class reforms in England. Many women writers <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/women-writing-and-revolution-1790-1827-9780198122722?cc=gb&lang=en">responded to these ideas with enthusiasm</a>. They knew that change, conservative or revolutionary, would inevitably shape gender relations and the fight for women’s rights.</p>
<p>Three such women, ridiculed at the time for their decisively radical writing, and celebrated for it today, are Mary Wollstonecraft, Charlotte Smith and Mary Robinson. Their novels feature defiant and non-conforming heroines, who resist the tyranny of forced marriages and indifferent parents. Ultimately, they seek moral, intellectual and economic liberation. </p>
<p>This reconfiguration of the heroine includes portraying them as “deviant” mothers. This was especially important at a time when the definition of “virtuous motherhood” had become <a href="https://archive.org/details/politicsofmother0000bowe/page/34/mode/2up">increasingly restrictive</a>. These women resisted the traditional ideas of mothering not only by writing subversively but also by rebelling against the social norms that expected them to be acquiescent mothers raising submissive daughters themselves.</p>
<h2>1. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)</h2>
<p>Credited as the pioneer of first-wave feminism in England, Mary Wollstonecraft is best known for her book, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3420">A Vindication of the Rights of Woman</a> (1792). But Wollstonecraft also wrote a fictional parallel to this work. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580422/original/file-20240307-24-ggr1gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft reading a book" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580422/original/file-20240307-24-ggr1gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580422/original/file-20240307-24-ggr1gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580422/original/file-20240307-24-ggr1gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580422/original/file-20240307-24-ggr1gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=725&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580422/original/file-20240307-24-ggr1gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580422/original/file-20240307-24-ggr1gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580422/original/file-20240307-24-ggr1gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=912&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft by John Opie (circa 1790-1791).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MaryWollstonecraft.jpg">Tate Britain</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/134/134-h/134-h.htm">Maria: or the Wrongs of Woman</a> (1798) chronicles the life of a woman who is married to an abusive husband. He publicly “proves” her mad, so she is confined in an asylum and can no longer see their infant daughter. Hopeless in prison, Maria writes a manuscript to her daughter, recording episodes from her harrowing life. </p>
<p>The warden at the asylum, Jemima, is a lower-class woman, born out of wedlock and stigmatised from birth. She grows up an impoverished orphan and is sexually abused by her stepfather and later by her employer. Her rape results in pregnancy and she aborts the child. The novel is a bleak commentary on the cyclical nature of sexual violence inflicted on mothers like Jemima and Maria, who live in the shadows of civil society.</p>
<p>We know her as the mother of the novelist Mary Shelley, but before her marriage to William Godwin, Wollstonecraft too had given birth to a daughter out of wedlock. While caring for her infant, Fanny, she coped with the abandonment of Fanny’s biological father. Her autobiographical travel writing, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3529/3529-h/3529-h.htm">Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark</a> (1796), was composed during this difficult period and dedicates extensive sections to her experiences as a new mother.</p>
<h2>2. Charlotte Smith (1749-1806)</h2>
<p>Charlotte Smith was unhappily married to a gambling addict, and of the 12 children born in this troubled marriage, only nine survived. </p>
<p>Her life as a writer was <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Charlotte_Smith.html?id=SfHMCwAAQBAJ&redir_esc=y">marked by desperation</a>, as she struggled to support her children and grandchildren and fought a lifelong legal battle for her father-in-law’s property. Smith wrote prolifically and her novels portray women at various stages of their lives, from older matriarchs leading the family to young mothers and women who give birth outside marriage. </p>
<p>These are often sympathetic portrayals, and the narrator doesn’t make a moral commentary. For instance, in <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41646">Emmeline</a> (1788), one of the characters who gives birth to an “illegitimate” child is reunited with her lover and given a happy ending. This is transgressive as the norm was to depict “promiscuous” women as suffering and dying to caution young women readers. </p>
<p><a href="https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=930MDSl9EMQC&rdid=book-930MDSl9EMQC&rdot=1&pli=1">Desmond</a> (1792), Smith’s most overtly political novel, goes even further in its rebellion. Its English hero unequivocally sympathises with the revolutionaries in France. Moreover, he falls in love in love with a young mother of three children. There’s a convergence of personal and political liberation as the plot unfolds.</p>
<h2>3. Mary Robinson (1757-1800)</h2>
<p>Much like Smith and Wollstonecraft, Mary Robinson championed women’s rights, education and autonomy. She <a href="https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-23857">acquired celebrity status</a> as a stage actress and was dubbed “Perdita” after the Shakespearean heroine. As a poet, she earned the informal title <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/apr/12/sappho-phaon-mary-robinson">“the English Sappho”</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580425/original/file-20240307-28-icfbxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of Mary Robinson with her dog." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580425/original/file-20240307-28-icfbxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580425/original/file-20240307-28-icfbxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580425/original/file-20240307-28-icfbxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580425/original/file-20240307-28-icfbxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580425/original/file-20240307-28-icfbxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1186&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580425/original/file-20240307-28-icfbxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1186&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580425/original/file-20240307-28-icfbxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1186&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mrs Mary Robinson (Perdita) by Gainsborough (1781).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gainsborough_Mary-Robinson.jpg">Wallace Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her initial journey as an author resembles Smith’s. Robinson was coerced to marry young, to a man deep in gambling and debt. When he failed to repay his debts and was imprisoned, Robinson was sent to prison with him. However, she took <a href="https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/perdita-the-life-of-mary-robinson-text-only-paula-byrne?variant=32555097620558">the unusual step</a> of taking her infant daughter to prison with her rather than leaving her in a state care home, as was convention.</p>
<p>Robinson’s eventual rise to literary and theatrical stardom was accompanied by an unconventional personal life, as she separated from her husband and had several affairs. Unlike Smith, who presented herself as a self-sacrificing and chaste single mother to the public, Robinson became <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230118034_4%20OR%20https://www.jstor.org/stable/20798271?seq=29">a sexualised actress and author</a>, an even more “deviant mother”. Her memoirs were posthumously published by her daughter.</p>
<p>Robinson’s novel, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_natural_daughter.html?id=tsQwuAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">The Natural Daughter</a> (1799), set in the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/women-writing-and-revolution-1790-1827-9780198122722?cc=gb&lang=en">backdrop of the French Revolution</a>, portrays a newly married heroine who takes an unmarried mother’s baby under her care in order to protect both the mother and the baby. When the biological mother goes missing, rumours arise that the baby is her own from an illicit affair, leading to the breakdown of her marriage. </p>
<p>The novel follows the lives of both women, the adoptive mother who faces shame and social ostracism, and the biological one who rises to fame as an actress – much like Robinson herself.</p>
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<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">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aditi Upmanyu 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>Their novels feature defiant heroines, who resist the tyranny of forced marriages and seek moral, intellectual and economic liberation.Aditi Upmanyu, PhD candidate in English Literature, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2247712024-03-05T16:25:01Z2024-03-05T16:25:01ZCarbon markets are broken. Here are three ways we can start fixing them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578899/original/file-20240229-18-iffs3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3336%2C2145&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/sustainable-aviation-fuel-white-airplane-model-2320824307">Dudaeva/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Carbon offsetting – where companies or governments atone for their carbon emissions by buying credits to fund projects that are supposed to remove emissions from the atmosphere – has a bad reputation.</p>
<p>In the past few years, wildfires in the US have torn through hundreds of thousands of forested acres associated with carbon credits and sold to companies including <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/23/us/wildfires-carbon-offsets.html&source=gmail-imap&ust=1709727640000000&usg=AOvVaw3EG42kUSVc9U3jCWKPxVmZ">Microsoft</a>. Earlier this month, many scoffed when <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240213-taylor-swift-private-jet-flight-travel-carbon-footprint">Taylor Swift</a> tried to shrug off the emissions from her private jet travel by paying for offsets.</p>
<p>Sadly, low-integrity offset projects are the norm, not the exception. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/18/revealed-forest-carbon-offsets-biggest-provider-worthless-verra-aoe">A 2023 investigation</a> reviewed a broad swathe of rainforest protection projects and found that “94% of the credits had no benefit to the climate”. The issuer of carbon credits at the heart of the investigation has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/land-use-biodiversity/how-verra-is-vowing-turn-over-new-leaf-using-ai-more-credible-methodology-carbon-2023-11-08/">disputed its findings</a>, but also announced it is introducing a new, “more consistent” methodology.</p>
<p>Consider deforestation. The vast majority of dubious credits on the market today are issued by companies who pledge to protect forests from timber harvesting. These firms may use <a href="https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer">faulty baseline accounting</a> practices to make claims that can mislead even the most well-meaning sustainability executives. For instance, credits are routinely issued on the promise of protecting forests that have already been designated for conservation in perpetuity.</p>
<p>To add insult to injury, behind every bad offset is a well-meaning buyer who feels absolved of their carbon debt. When an airline successfully prompts a traveller to pay a few extra dollars to offset the emissions of their flight, they might no longer feel the sort of <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/17/climate/flying-shame-emissions.html&source=gmail-imap&ust=1709727640000000&usg=AOvVaw0ItMK8oCEt2yvKxOrG3ssl">guilt</a> that could have led them to take the train instead.</p>
<p>This broken market persists for a few reasons. First, unlike any other commodity, carbon offsets are generally invisible, creating a classic “<a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/carbon-credits-hot-air">lemons market</a>” in which buyers can’t easily discern quality and so are content to buy even the most dubious carbon credits. The market is also largely unregulated, without robust consumer protection standards. And offset developers can be guilty of ignoring evidence that their projects fail to benefit the climate.</p>
<p>Many have suggested <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/reuters-impact-greenpeace-calls-end-carbon-offsets-2021-10-06/%23:%7E:text%3DOct%25206%2520(Reuters)%2520%252D%2520Carbon,International%2520said%2520in%2520an%2520interview.%26text%3D%2522There%2527s%2520no%2520time%2520for%2520offsets.&source=gmail-imap&ust=1709727640000000&usg=AOvVaw0uycSiOl2LjKxrch-_WBwv">shutting down offsets</a> as a tool for slowing climate change. But as temperatures rise faster than ever, scientists have <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2023-01-19-co2-removal-essential-along-emissions-cuts-limit-global-warming-report&source=gmail-imap&ust=1709727640000000&usg=AOvVaw1c3ZBVawUZqDtl94T4NINI">made clear</a> that slowing down emissions alone will be insufficient to limit global warming to the critical threshold of 1.5°C. We also need a well-coordinated effort to put climate-warming carbon dioxide back into the ground.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three chimneys spewing white smoke." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578901/original/file-20240229-24-ibtoiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578901/original/file-20240229-24-ibtoiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578901/original/file-20240229-24-ibtoiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578901/original/file-20240229-24-ibtoiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578901/original/file-20240229-24-ibtoiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578901/original/file-20240229-24-ibtoiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578901/original/file-20240229-24-ibtoiv.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">Stopping emissions will not be enough on its own.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/plant-pipe-smoke-against-blue-sky-99743438">Mazur Travel/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>We and our colleagues at the University of Oxford have just published <a href="https://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2024-02/Oxford-Principles-for-Net-Zero-Aligned-Carbon-Offsetting-revised-2024.pdf">a set of evidence-based principles</a> to help fix this broken market. Purchasers will still need to do their due diligence, but we’ve laid out a path for where to begin.</p>
<h2>1. Prioritise deep and direct emissions cuts</h2>
<p>Carbon credits must only be used as a last resort. Rather than kick the can down the road, polluters must do everything within their ability to simply reduce their carbon footprint. Offsets should only be used to balance out emissions that cannot be practically eliminated with current technology.</p>
<h2>2. Scale up high-integrity carbon removal</h2>
<p>There is a global shortfall of high-integrity carbon dioxide removal. Our analysis finds that <a href="https://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/research/oxford-offsetting-principles">fewer than 4%</a> of carbon credits are generated by projects that remove (and safely store) excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The other 96% claim to avoid emissions in the first place – but most fail to meet those claims when scrutinised. In the next quarter-century, industry leaders will have to close this massive gap in carbon removal.</p>
<h2>3. Invest in long-lasting solutions</h2>
<p>Most offset projects today are prone to short-term reversal, like a forest beset by drought and wildfire. But because carbon pollution can last in the atmosphere for thousands of years, offsets must also store carbon for millennia in order to avoid passing on emissions to future generations. Long-term solutions to carbon removal are more costly, but avoid the dangerous risk of reversal that dominates the market today.</p>
<p>Current offsetting practices must be overhauled to meet critical climate targets. And until governments finally intervene to <a href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-cftc-should-raise-standards-and-mitigate-fraud-in-the-carbon-offsets-market/&source=gmail-imap&ust=1709727640000000&usg=AOvVaw02AgJjNmIAprVlmb0r1wdX">regulate carbon offsetting</a>, the responsibility for reform falls at the feet of buyers and investors. Our updated principles can help them live up to this planetary responsibility.</p>
<hr>
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<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">
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<p><strong><em>Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?</em></strong>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nothing to disclose.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Lezak 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 global carbon removal industry must be drastically scaled up to avert climate breakdown.Stephen Lezak, Programme Manager at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of OxfordKaya Axelsson, Head of Policy and Partnerships, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2231532024-03-04T18:25:48Z2024-03-04T18:25:48ZGlobal warming may be behind an increase in the frequency and intensity of cold spells<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575431/original/file-20240213-30-h2gkre.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5991%2C3988&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/bradford-uk-02-08-2024-electronic-2423109221">bennphoto / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Global warming caused by increased concentrations of greenhouse gases is already affecting our lives. Scorching summers, more intense heatwaves, longer drought periods, more extended floods, and wilder wildfires are consequences linked to this warming.</p>
<p>One less obvious consequence of global warming is also getting growing attention from scientists: <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/extreme-cold-snaps-could-get-worse-as-climate-warms/#:%7E:text=Many%20studies%20have%20shown%20that,and%20understood%20from%20physical%20reasoning.">a potential increase</a> in the intensity and frequency of winter cold snaps in the northern hemisphere.</p>
<p>Weather phenomena like the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/26/uk-braces-for-beast-from-the-east-as-met-office-warns-of-snow">Beast from the East in winter 2018</a>, the <a href="https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/great-texas-freeze-february-2021">cold spell of Arctic air</a> that reached as <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/17/texas-winter-storm-2021-stories/">far South as Texas in February 2021</a>, or the storm that left <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/world/europe/spain-snow-storm-filomena.html">Madrid</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2021/feb/16/unusually-heavy-snow-blankets-athens-in-pictures">Athens</a> unusually covered in snow for days in early 2021 are becoming more common.</p>
<p>Some of the mechanisms that lead to their occurrence are strengthened by global warming. Key climate mechanisms, like exchanges of energy and air masses between different altitude ranges in the atmosphere, are evolving in ways expected to cause an increase in both the intensity and duration of cold snaps. These link to the behaviour of a region in the high atmosphere called the stratosphere.</p>
<p>Winter cold snaps have major societal impacts, from direct effects on health and loss of life, to effects on transport and infrastructure, surges in energy demand and damage to agricultural resources. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Acropolis in 2021." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577870/original/file-20240226-21-zie9ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577870/original/file-20240226-21-zie9ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577870/original/file-20240226-21-zie9ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577870/original/file-20240226-21-zie9ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577870/original/file-20240226-21-zie9ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577870/original/file-20240226-21-zie9ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577870/original/file-20240226-21-zie9ae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Acropolis in Athens covered in snow in 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/athens-greece-february-16-2021-acropolis-2258307795">Savvas Karmaniolas / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This winter, we have seen these effects over large parts of Europe and the US, with flight cancellations, airport closures, road queues and drivers trapped in extreme cold temperatures. There have also been sharp increases in energy demand to cope with indoor heating, an increase in cold-related hospital admissions and the activation of services needed to assist the most vulnerable.</p>
<p>We need to develop forecasting tools that can predict these events further in advance.</p>
<h2>Polar vortex</h2>
<p>Some of these cold snaps are linked to disruptions in a seasonal atmospheric phenomenon called the stratospheric polar vortex (SPV). </p>
<p>In the northern hemisphere, this vortex consists of masses of cold air centred over the north pole, surrounded by a jet of very strong westerly winds between 15-50km above ground. These spinning winds act as a wall and keep cold air confined to the Arctic region, stopping it from travelling to lower latitudes. </p>
<p>Something that can disrupt the vortex is a sudden stratospheric warming (SSW), when the stratosphere experiences an abrupt increase in temperature due to energy and momentum being transferred from lower to higher altitudes. </p>
<p>When a major SSW occurs, the wall of strong winds around the polar stratosphere can break, allowing cold air to escape the polar vortex and travel down to lower atmospheric altitudes and lower latitudes. When that air approaches the Earth’s surface, significant cold spells can occur.</p>
<p>Even when SSWs are not strong enough to break the vortex, they can weaken it. This can cause polar air circulation patterns to meander further south into lower latitudes, reaching populated areas of North America and Eurasia, instead of staying nearer the north pole. Those areas can then experience temperatures tens of degrees lower than their winter average.</p>
<p>Under climate change, the transfer of energy from the lowest layers of the Earth’s atmosphere to the higher stratospheric layer is changing and seems to be disrupting the polar vortex to a greater degree. A <a href="https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/23/1259/2023/">study has shown</a> that the strength and duration of SSWs in the stratosphere have increased over the last 40 years. This increase is also expected to result in stronger winter cold snaps at surface levels.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Polar Vortex" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579217/original/file-20240301-22-1lzoqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579217/original/file-20240301-22-1lzoqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579217/original/file-20240301-22-1lzoqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579217/original/file-20240301-22-1lzoqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=359&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579217/original/file-20240301-22-1lzoqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579217/original/file-20240301-22-1lzoqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579217/original/file-20240301-22-1lzoqr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The polar vortex is a crucial component in cold snaps affecting the Northern Hemisphere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/facts/vortex_NH.html">NASA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Forecasting challenge</h2>
<p>Accurately forecasting these cold snaps is crucial for helping society prepare appropriately for them. Developing computer-based forecasting tools that reproduce realistic interactions between the lower levels of the troposphere and the stratospheric region is an essential step towards this goal.</p>
<p>To correctly simulate the behaviour of the stratosphere and how it interacts with the troposphere, forecasting tools must include realistic descriptions of the abundance and distribution of stratospheric ozone. Ozone influences the interaction of air masses outside and inside the vortex, and therefore also the transport of colder air from higher to lower altitudes.</p>
<p>However, including all the chemical processes that ozone is involved in, at the resolution needed to predict these weather events, is prohibitive in terms of the computing power needed. This is even truer if we want to predict events one season ahead. </p>
<p>My research looks at ways to improve forecasting models to better capture the type of stratospheric behaviour that leads to these cold spells. To do this I have developed alternatives that can realistically simulate processes in the stratosphere, including aspects of ozone chemistry, using less computing power. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/22/4277/2022/">study I led</a>, we used these alternatives to simulate interactions between the ozone layer, temperature and solar radiation in the global computer model used to produce some of the best weather forecasts in the world.</p>
<p>The experiments we did with this model showed that including this realistic alternative representation of stratospheric ozone led to improvements in simulations of temperature distribution in the stratosphere. This means that it can help provide useful information about triggers of cold spells like SSWs.</p>
<p>Developing and using these alternatives in climate modelling is a significant milestone towards what we call seamless prediction: using the same computer modelling tools to predict both weather and climate. This allows for a more accurate establishment of causal links between climate change and extreme weather events.</p>
<p>A question many may be wondering is if this extreme cold could be counteracting global warming. Unfortunately, not. While this winter has brought days of extremely cold temperatures and heavy snowfall in the northern hemisphere, the current summer in the southern hemisphere has seen some of the hottest days on record for populated areas of Australia, with temperatures of around 50ºC.</p>
<p>Global warming makes extreme weather more extreme, and scientific studies are starting to provide proof that this also applies to extreme winter cold spells. Developing the best possible modelling tools is essential to predict the evolution of extreme weather events in the coming years so that we can be better prepared for them.</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>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beatriz Monge-Sanz 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>Cold snaps can affect everyday services and infrastructure, putting lives at risk.Beatriz Monge-Sanz, Senior Researcher, Department of Physics, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2246602024-03-04T13:41:25Z2024-03-04T13:41:25ZHospital privatisation is linked with worse quality care for patients – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578902/original/file-20240229-24-vgcipq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6144%2C3449&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Privatisation may not necessarily benefit patients.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/different-people-waiting-row-hospital-reception-2169645853">DC Studio/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The NHS is in a critical state. The continued consequences of the pandemic and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/nhs-waiting-list-rishi-sunak-b2504164.html">long waits for treatment</a> mean that people are facing more difficulties than ever accessing the care they need. A growing number of people are even <a href="https://www.phin.org.uk/news/phin-private-market-update-december-2023">paying</a> to get treatment. </p>
<p>There’s a clear need to reform the NHS – and it’s likely this will be a huge issue in the upcoming election. The next government, whoever they are, will be under pressure to urgently address these issues within the NHS.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1744-8603-9-43">increasing spending</a> may be one way to address these issues, others have argued that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/05/tony-blair-urges-expanded-role-for-private-sector-as-nhs-turns-75">outsourcing NHS services</a> to for-profit providers (privatisation) would help make services more efficient and improve care</p>
<p>But outsourcing may solve one problem while creating others. A recent review I published with some colleagues has found that while privatisation may allow hospitals to cut their costs, it’s also linked with <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(24)00003-3/fulltext">worse quality care for patients</a>.</p>
<p>To conduct our review, we brought together peer-reviewed research on the effects of outsourcing on quality of care. Our review analysed 13 studies from eight high-income countries, including the US, Germany, Canada and South Korea.</p>
<p>Importantly, we only included studies which tracked outcomes before and after outsourcing and could compare outcomes to areas or hospitals with fewer outsourced services. We did this so that our research was directly comparing the effect of privatising care on public services, and not just looking at how care in both the public and private sectors differed.</p>
<p>We found that hospitals who converted from public to private ownership tended to make higher profits than public hospitals. This was achieved by reducing staff numbers and taking on patients who would be considered more profitable (such as those with more generous insurance coverage). Outsourcing also tended to correspond with fewer staff members per patient – including fewer cleaning staff. </p>
<p>Privatised hospitals also tended to cut back on more qualified members of staff. For example, in the US, there was a substantial reduction in the number of qualified nurses employed after a hospital was privatised, when compared with the number employed in public hospitals. But while numbers of most other types of staff were reduced after privatisation, doctors’ numbers remained the same. The studies often concluded that cutting qualified staff was the result of incentives to increase profits and reduce costs.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A nurse speaks with a patient in the waiting room." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578905/original/file-20240229-30-xs9fpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578905/original/file-20240229-30-xs9fpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578905/original/file-20240229-30-xs9fpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578905/original/file-20240229-30-xs9fpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578905/original/file-20240229-30-xs9fpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578905/original/file-20240229-30-xs9fpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578905/original/file-20240229-30-xs9fpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Privatised hospitals would reduce nurse numbers to reduce costs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/busy-reception-desk-many-patients-waiting-2185665787">DC Studio/ Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also found that increases in outsourcing frequently corresponded with worse health outcomes for patients. </p>
<p>Two studies, one conducted in England and one in Italy, both found that increases in the proportion of outsourced care corresponded with higher avoidable death rates (for example, deaths from curable respiratory diseases or surgical accidents) than before outsourcing took place. While neither study could be certain the reasons for higher death rates, they both concluded that quality of care was the most plausible reason. Further research is needed to be sure that the decline in health outcomes is specifically due to changes in accessibility, inequitable treatment or just poorer performing hospitals in the private sector.</p>
<p>When it came to how easily patients could access healthcare services, results were mixed. Two studies that assessed hospital conversions from public to private in the US found that care became less accessible after going private – either because the hospitals became more selective of which patients they treated or because the number of services provided in the privatised hospitals was cut.</p>
<p>But one study in Croatia found that when primary care practices came under private ownership, patients saw benefits. Patients started receiving more precise appointment times and had the opportunity to access healthcare through new means – such as out-of-hours telephone calls. </p>
<p>Overall, this is a difficult area to evaluate as there’s not a huge range of evidence. But, based on the best evidence available, our review consistently finds that privatising healthcare services corresponds with worse quality care and worse patient outcomes.</p>
<p>Evidence from other care sectors, such as <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhl/article/PIIS2666-7568(22)00040-X/fulltext">long-term adult care</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622006293">children’s social care</a>, have also shown negative outcomes for patients when these services are privatised.</p>
<h2>What this all means</h2>
<p>In light of our findings, and in the context of the current NHS crisis, how should the next UK government’s healthcare agenda look? We would suggest that a progressive agenda would aim to remove the dependency of healthcare services on private market provision, avoid further outsourcing and instead fund publicly run services.</p>
<p>Outsourcing has been a popular policy posed by governments of different political stripes for decades. And, with an election looming, both <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/08/people-in-pain-private-hospitals-nhs">Labour</a> and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/04/rishi-sunak-warned-of-concerns-over-nhs-private-sector-partnerships">Conservative parties</a> show no signs of changing their tunes.</p>
<p>But the evidence which is starting to emerge shows that more often than not privatisation would be a mistake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Goodair receives funding from Wellcome Trust 221160/Z/20/Z.</span></em></p>Our review shows that evidence to support further privatisation of healthcare services is weak.Benjamin Goodair, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248182024-03-01T18:10:05Z2024-03-01T18:10:05ZWhy a US state court ruling on the rights of children before birth is unjust<p>In 2020, in a medical facility in one of the southern states of the US, a patient wandered into an unsecured nursery for extremely premature children. Unfortunately, the patient managed to accidentally disconnect multiple babies from their life support. Worried that they would get in trouble, they fled the scene. But by the time the children were found, it was too late. Several had already died.</p>
<p>Of course, this event was extremely distressing for the children’s parents. They subsequently sued the medical facility, but to their astonishment, the state court rejected their case. Had the mothers been pregnant at the time of the incident, they would have had a legal claim for damages. But because the children were in the nursery – outside their mothers’ bodies, the court found that the “wrongful death” statute did not apply.</p>
<p>What should we make of this extraordinary case from the point of view of medical ethics?</p>
<p>Some readers will have realised already that the case above relates to <a href="https://publicportal-api.alappeals.gov/courts/68f021c4-6a44-4735-9a76-5360b2e8af13/cms/case/343D203A-B13D-463A-8176-C46E3AE4F695/docketentrydocuments/E3D95592-3CBE-4384-AFA6-063D4595AA1D">a judgment</a> released by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/20/alabama-supreme-court-frozen-embryos-children-ruling-ivf">the Alabama Supreme Court earlier this month</a>. The case description <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/02/23/1088851/alabama-court-embryo-artificial-wombs/">reflects the facts</a>, but perhaps I should clarify.</p>
<p>The nursery was not a newborn intensive care unit, but a <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2024/02/22/alabama-ivf-ruling-science-translocation-fertilized-embryos/">“cryogenic nursery”</a>. The extremely premature children were not 23 weeks gestation, but embryos three to seven days after conception – smaller than a grain of salt. </p>
<p>The wandering patient had removed the embryos from the freezer and dropped them after burning his hand. In a ruling that many have claimed has disturbing implications for fertility treatment, the court found that the parents in the case could sue the medical facility for the death of their unborn children.</p>
<h2>Old laws, new technology</h2>
<p>There are different responses that might be made to the Alabama Supreme Court judgment. For example, we might question whether the court should have applied a <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/alabama/2022/title-6/chapter-5/article-22/section-6-5-391/">150-year-old piece of Alabama law</a> to a late 20th-century reproductive technology. The lawmakers in 1872 clearly did not have a case like this in mind. </p>
<p>The dissenting judge in the case, Justice Cook, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/21/us/alabama-supreme-court-embryo-ruling.html">argued</a> that when this law was enacted there was no intention for it to be applied to foetuses, let alone embryos.</p>
<p>Alternatively, we might ask how this ruling applies to IVF more generally. IVF providers in Alabama have apparently <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/alabama-ivf-gop-rushes-to-pass-protections-be65fa9c">paused activity</a>, worried that they might become criminally liable if they dispose of unwanted frozen embryos. Many commentators have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/embryos-ivf-abortion-personhood-laws-ffe4f4d326469a97fef999254ca86eea">expressed deep concern</a> about how this ruling might be taken up by campaigners and politicians to further restrict reproductive choice.</p>
<p>But from an ethical perspective, the court did three things that were unquestionably correct. First, it recognised that the parents in this case had suffered a significant loss for which they were owed redress. This loss is more than just a breach of contract. The clinic’s apparent negligence had deprived these parents of future children.</p>
<p>Second, the court recognised that the physical location of an embryo cannot change its intrinsic moral properties. If parents would have had a claim for loss of a five-day-old embryo in the womb, it makes no ethical sense to say that they would have no claim for loss of an embryo that happens to be residing in a freezer.</p>
<p>Third, from a biological point of view, the Alabama Supreme Court was correct to identify these embryos as living human beings, and in so far as they were the genetically unique offspring of their parents – as “children”.</p>
<h2>Two meanings of ‘child’</h2>
<p>But the problem with the ruling (and with an Alabama <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Alabama_Amendment_2,_State_Abortion_Policy_Amendment_(2018)">constitutional amendment</a> passed in 2018) is the conflation of two ethically distinct meanings of “child”, and hence two different sources of concern.</p>
<p>One sense of a “child” is that of the progeny of parents. Such offspring are (in almost every case) loved and treasured. If a child is harmed or lost it is profoundly distressing to those parents and potentially other family members.</p>
<p>But a second sense of a “child” is of an immature human being, living and growing outside a mother’s body, with a special right to our nurturing, care and protection. If such a child is harmed or dies, there is a significant loss to that child. Even if there were no parents who loved or cared for this child, we should identify this loss as morally significant.</p>
<p>These two different senses of a child can come apart.</p>
<p>The early embryo or foetus is clearly a child in the first sense. Indeed, that is why the parents in the Alabama case have a legitimate claim for damages. However, whether an early embryo or foetus is a “child” in the second sense is deeply contested. </p>
<p>Many philosophers have questioned whether <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24439776">a clump of cells</a> has the same moral status as a six-year-old child or an adult. And indeed most of the wider community, including most religious believers worldwide, share that scepticism. For example, IVF and disposal of unwanted embryos is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27650544">permitted in Islam</a> because “ensoulment” is not thought to occur until 120 days.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Human embryo at the very early stages" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579190/original/file-20240301-16-jpt089.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579190/original/file-20240301-16-jpt089.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579190/original/file-20240301-16-jpt089.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579190/original/file-20240301-16-jpt089.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579190/original/file-20240301-16-jpt089.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579190/original/file-20240301-16-jpt089.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579190/original/file-20240301-16-jpt089.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What is a child?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/human-cells-egg-208569940">895Studio/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That is why IVF and the use of frozen embryos has been, and continues to be, widely accepted. It is why, in the Alabama case, there were no newspaper headlines at the time, and why there were no calls for criminal prosecution of either the clinic or the wandering patient. It is why the reference to the rights of “unborn children” in conservative laws and rulings is both misleading and mistaken.</p>
<p>There are, of course, different views about when a child (as offspring) becomes a child, with rights and in need of ethical and legal protection. </p>
<p>One problem with laws that refer to “unborn children” is that they simply assume that these two senses of child are the same, when that is open to debate and question. But the other massive problem is that they impose one particular answer to the question, an answer believed by a relatively small number of religious conservatives, on others (religious and non-religious) who do not share that belief. And that is profoundly unjust.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominic Wilkinson receives funding from the Wellcome Trust. </span></em></p>What constitutes an ‘unborn child’ should not be decided by a relatively small number of religious conservatives.Dominic Wilkinson, Consultant Neonatologist and Professor of Ethics, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2223112024-03-01T17:24:50Z2024-03-01T17:24:50ZWild solitary bees offer a vital pollination service – but their nutritional needs aren’t understood<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576508/original/file-20240219-20-4ra04s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Solitary bees, including this Nomada goodeniana, often feed on nectar from specific flowers - in this case, white hawthorn. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/soft-closeup-on-male-goodens-nomad-2151214787">HWall/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As I walk around the supermarket, I pick up vegetables for tomorrow’s dinner, eggs and bread for tonight and some sweet treats for the week. By choosing a range of different food types, I’ll eat a wide variety of nutrients. But what if bread was the only option available? And another shop just sold a different type of loaf? Or only oranges?</p>
<p>This may sound far-fetched, but for bees – insects that depend on pollen and nectar for their nutrition – that’s the equivalent of feeding from a large field of just one type of plant. Some bees feed on a wide range of plants. Others, including some of the UK’s <a href="https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/other-bees/">200 wild solitary bee species</a> are specialists, like the <a href="https://bwars.com/bee/melittidae/melitta-dimidiata">sainfoin bee</a> that only visits one type of flower for pollen. </p>
<p>While some UK bee species are thriving, many have declined as a result of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12667472/">changes in the abundance and variety</a> of flowers across our landscapes.</p>
<p>Much less is known about the biology of solitary bees compared to that of domesticated honeybees or bumblebees, which have been extensively studied in large numbers under lab conditions. By comparison, solitary bees don’t form colonies or have a queen-worker system. The nutritional needs of each solitary bee species varies so it’s difficult to know what diet they would need in order to thrive during experimental conditions. </p>
<p>Yet, they provide a vital pollination service for some of our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880921001511?casa_token=tdHy6f7VJfQAAAAA:iPS3yu_jmGdEgHMQV_tUgvZr9F3cyK52y9T1fuBxMjl2ZaOLh715KiVECzE8EL_RjvgvUl5A">flowering crops</a> and help maintain our wildflower populations. So understanding their nutrition in greater detail could help us make sure the right flower foods are available to them.</p>
<h2>The bees’ needs</h2>
<p>For my PhD, I’m studying the different fats that are available in pollen from UK wildflowers and the fats found in the bodies of different bee species. Fats are essential to healthy growth and development in bees, however there’s huge variation in the <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/11/2/132">quantity and quality</a> of food that different flowers provide. Cataloguing that information is complicated.</p>
<p>I’m specifically researching why solitary bees, many of which have specialised relationships with their food plants, visit certain flowers.</p>
<p>Nutrition is complex. Huge monocultures, (growing one crop species in a field at a time), provide a homogenous nutritional offering. Areas with a wider diversity of flowers can provide more nutritional diversity, but extracting enough pollen or nectar to analyse is challenging. </p>
<p>Just because one food source has high protein levels, it might not contain the essential ones or may have a poor fat content. If I recommend that you eat nothing but oranges because they’re rich in vitamin C, you’d miss out on other key nutrients such as protein. Similarly, with pollen and nectar, we need to understand the content of what bees are eating. </p>
<p>Nectar is a sugary liquid which provides lots of carbohydrates. Bees drink it using their tongues. Pollen provides the protein and fat content bees need and is collected on their bodies for transport back to their nests. The nutritional content of both pollen and nectar varies widely between flowers. To understand what food is available to them over <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature16532">large areas</a>, we need to have nutritional information for a lot of different plants. </p>
<h2>How to feed wild bees</h2>
<p>Despite our lack of knowledge about the precise nutritional needs of bees, there are ways we can help feed them. Solitary bees can be found in your <a href="https://www.mygardenofathousandbees.com/the-film">garden</a> or local park. To learn more about them, start by trying to recognise them. Some don’t look like bees because they can be very small or hairless and some can easily be mistaken for wasps in the case of <a href="https://bwars.com/category/taxonomic-hierarchy/bee-4"><em>Nomada</em></a> species, with their black and yellow banding and hairless bodies. </p>
<p>Entomologist and ecologist Steven Falk maintains <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/63075200@N07/collections/72157631518508520/">an excellent stock of photos online</a> and has published a comprehensive <a href="https://www.nhbs.com/field-guide-to-the-bees-of-great-britain-and-ireland-book">ID guide</a>. </p>
<p>Letting a green space go wild or choosing <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10841-019-00180-8">seed mixes with diverse flowers</a> can encourage a variety of wild bees. Even small patches of wildflowers can make a difference, especially at times of year when few other flowers are out, as has been shown in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0769-y">urban areas</a>. </p>
<p>Avoid plants bred to have little or no pollen or nectar. Ensuring food is available throughout their active period is key. The first bees emerge in March and the last ones feed until October. So while it’s good to have plenty of flowers available in peak summer when lots of bees are active, bees emerging from over-wintering need food in spring and those stocking up before winter need flowers to forage from. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576829/original/file-20240220-26-bsp0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close up of colourful wildflowers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576829/original/file-20240220-26-bsp0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576829/original/file-20240220-26-bsp0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576829/original/file-20240220-26-bsp0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576829/original/file-20240220-26-bsp0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576829/original/file-20240220-26-bsp0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576829/original/file-20240220-26-bsp0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576829/original/file-20240220-26-bsp0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A colourful mix of wildflowers provides more diverse nutrition for wild pollinators such as solitary bees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/search/wildflower-meadow?image_type=photo">Tohuwabohu 1976/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Useful resources for selecting plants to bring bees into your garden include the RHS <a href="https://www.rhs.org.uk/science/conservation-biodiversity/wildlife/plants-for-pollinators">plants for pollinators</a> list, the Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s <a href="https://beekind.bumblebeeconservation.org/">Bee Kind garden-scoring tool</a>, plus planting recommendations from <a href="https://friendsoftheearth.uk/nature/beefriendly-plants-every-season">Friends of the Earth</a> and <a href="https://www.buglife.org.uk/get-involved/gardening-for-bugs/planting-for-bugs-2/#:%7E:text=Open%2C%20daisy%2Dtype%20flowers%20and,such%20as%20Jasmine%20and%20Honeysuckle.">Buglife</a>. </p>
<p>Our wild solitary bees are an ecologically important and fascinating group of insects. Steps we take to support them in our gardens and at the landscape scale are key to maintaining the diversity of insects that pollinate so many of our flowers and crops. Even the smallest patches of wildflowers can provide much needed food for hungry bees and, above all, a varied menu.</p>
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<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">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ellen Baker receives funding from NERC and is a member of the British Ecological Society. </span></em></p>The nutritional needs of bees are complex and monoculture crops aren’t providing a diverse diet. Introducing more diverse wildflower meadows and green spaces could benefit wild pollinators.Ellen Baker, PhD Candidate, Nutritional Ecology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2213352024-02-28T15:40:51Z2024-02-28T15:40:51ZComment bien prendre soin de ses os<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569791/original/file-20230915-17-zgaqyj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C4368%2C2890&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pratiquer une activité physique adaptée à son état de santé et à son âge, en privilégiant les exercices de mise en charge, contribue à préserver la solidité de ses os.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/active-senior-woman-working-exercise-gym-641129533">Liderina/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tout comme nos muscles, <a href="https://theconversation.com/fr/topics/os-63601">nos os</a> perdent de leur force avec l’âge. Cela peut avoir de graves conséquences sur notre vie quotidienne et augmenter le risque de fractures, qui sont liées à un <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00198-009-0920-3">risque accru de décès</a>. Heureusement, tout comme nous pouvons renforcer nos muscles, nous pouvons renforcer nos os.</p>
<p>(<em>Chez les seniors, le risque de décès augmente notamment après une fracture du col du fémur selon l’état de santé du patient au moment de la fracture, si on en croit des données françaises issues de la Direction de la recherche, des études, de l’évaluation des statistiques <a href="https://drees.solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/publications/etudes-et-resultats/quel-risque-de-deces-un-apres-une-fracture-du-col-du-femur">Drees</a>. En effet, selon la Drees, le risque de décès à un an augmente dès qu’il existe une pathologie chronique significative, en particulier, dans les situations les plus graves, ndlr</em>).</p>
<p>Les os sont bien plus qu’un simple échafaudage à l’intérieur de notre corps. L’os est un organe complexe qui se présente sous une multitude de formes et de tailles. Il est constitué d’un mélange varié de <a href="https://www.niams.nih.gov/health-topics/what-bone">composants organiques et inorganiques</a> comme le collagène et le calcium. Combinés ensemble, ces composants créent une structure suffisamment malléable pour que les muscles puissent tirer sur les os pour nous permettre de bouger, tout en étant suffisamment solides pour protéger les organes essentiels.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578916/original/file-20240229-16-5yncpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578916/original/file-20240229-16-5yncpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578916/original/file-20240229-16-5yncpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578916/original/file-20240229-16-5yncpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578916/original/file-20240229-16-5yncpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578916/original/file-20240229-16-5yncpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578916/original/file-20240229-16-5yncpq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578916/original/file-20240229-16-5yncpq.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"></a>
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<p>L’os n’est pas la structure solide, inamovible et permanente que l’on pourrait imaginer. Un os sain et vivant reste solide parce qu’il est constamment renouvelé, l’os ancien et endommagé étant extrait et remplacé par de l’<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK45513/">os frais</a>.</p>
<p>Ce contrôle interne de la qualité des os permet à notre squelette d’être remplacé <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK45504/#ch2.s4">environ tous les dix ans</a> chez les personnes en bonne santé, bien que ce processus soit plus lent chez les personnes âgées ou malades. Certaines situations de santé, comme le cancer et les changements hormonaux durant la <a href="https://www.ameli.fr/assure/sante/themes/menopause/menopause-quelles-repercussions-sur-la-sante">ménopause</a>, peuvent également entraîner une perte osseuse excessive.</p>
<p>Contrairement à de nombreux autres tissus, tels que le cartilage, le tendon et le muscle, qui ne sont composés que d’un petit nombre de types cellulaires, l’os est constitué d’une multitude de cellules différentes. Il s’agit notamment des cellules osseuses, de cellules immunitaires, de cellules graisseuses, de cellules nerveuses et de cellules sanguines, pour n’en citer que quelques-unes.</p>
<p>L’action combinée de ces <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3341892/">différents types de cellules</a> aide notre corps à maintenir un volume osseux adéquat tout au long de la vie, afin que nous puissions continuer à être actifs.</p>
<p>Des <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4515490/">cellules osseuses spécialisées</a> (appelées ostéoblastes et ostéoclastes) aident à modifier nos os pour réparer les dommages et augmenter leur volume en fonction des exigences qui leur sont imposées. Ainsi, un joueur de tennis, qui effectue ses services de manière répétée avec le même bras, aura un volume osseux plus important au niveau du bras avec lequel il sert.</p>
<p>[<em>Plus de 85 000 lecteurs font confiance aux newsletters de The Conversation pour mieux comprendre les grands enjeux du monde</em>. <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=france&region=fr">Abonnez-vous aujourd’hui</a>]</p>
<h2>Renforcer ses os</h2>
<p>Il est essentiel de préserver vos os tout au long de votre vie pour votre santé et votre bien-être. Une perte soudaine de mobilité à la suite d’une fracture a des répercussions considérables dans la vie de tous les jours : se rendre dans les magasins, aller voir des amis et effectuer les moindres tâches quotidiennes à la maison peut se révéler douloureux.</p>
<p>Quel que soit son âge, on peut préserver la densité (la solidité) de ses os grâce à une bonne <a href="https://theconversation.com/fr/topics/alimentation-21911">alimentation</a> et de l’<a href="https://theconversation.com/fr/topics/activite-physique-23234">activité physique</a>.</p>
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<img alt="Un éventail d’aliments riches en calcium, notamment le lait, le fromage, les sardines et le brocoli." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548526/original/file-20230915-17-h3uv76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548526/original/file-20230915-17-h3uv76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548526/original/file-20230915-17-h3uv76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548526/original/file-20230915-17-h3uv76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548526/original/file-20230915-17-h3uv76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548526/original/file-20230915-17-h3uv76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548526/original/file-20230915-17-h3uv76.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">Le calcium présent dans ces aliments est important pour renforcer les os.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/foods-rich-calcium-such-sardines-bean-366258461">Evan Lorne/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Il est recommandé de privilégier une alimentation équilibrée et riche en <a href="https://www.anses.fr/fr/content/le-calcium-pourquoi-et-comment-en-consommer">calcium</a> (un minéral essentiel pour les os). Essayez d’en consommer <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/calcium/">700 mg par jour</a>. Le lait, le yaourt et le fromage sont d’excellentes sources de calcium. Si vous êtes végan, des aliments tels que le tofu, les haricots secs et les lentilles contiennent tous du calcium. Il se peut que vous deviez prendre un supplément si vous ne parvenez pas à obtenir la <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261561420306567#bib5">quantité recommandée</a> de calcium dans votre alimentation.</p>
<p>(<em>Les principales sources alimentaires de calcium sont les produits laitiers, les légumineuses, les fruits à coque, les produits céréaliers, certains légumes-feuilles (choux, blettes, épinards, etc.), les fruits de mer et certaines eaux très riches en calcium, liste l’<a href="https://www.anses.fr/fr/content/le-calcium-pourquoi-et-comment-en-consommer">Anses</a> ou Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire française. Il faudra se rapprocher de son médecin avant toute supplémentation en calcium, car des apports excessifs en calcium peuvent être à risque pour la santé chez des personnes sensibles, ndlr</em>).</p>
<p>Précision importante : pour absorber pleinement le <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3012979/">calcium</a>, notre corps a besoin de vitamine D. Il est donc essentiel de passer du temps à l’extérieur car notre peau produit de la vitamine D lorsqu’elle est exposée au soleil. Essayez de passer dix minutes à l’extérieur deux fois par jour. En hiver, lorsque l’ensoleillement est moindre, vous pouvez envisager une supplémentation en vitamine D.</p>
<p>(<em>Outre l’exposition au soleil, la consommation d’aliments riches en vitamine D – poissons gras comme le saumon, la sardine ou le maquereau, produits laitiers et céréales enrichis en vitamine D, jaune d’œuf, etc.– aide à <a href="https://www.anses.fr/fr/content/vitamine-d-pourquoi-et-comment-assurer-un-apport-suffisant">assurer un apport suffisant en vitamine D</a>. Avant d’envisager une supplémentation, notamment via des compléments alimentaires, il convient au préalable de faire le point avec votre médecin traitant, ndlr</em>).</p>
<p>L’activité physique est un autre moyen de préserver la solidité des os – en particulier les <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6323511/">exercices de mise en charge</a> – (<em>c’est-à-dire avec un certain niveau d’impact, ndlr</em>). Marcher et monter les escaliers sont d’excellentes options pour commencer si vous ne faites pas régulièrement de l’exercice. Mais des activités plus dynamiques – comme le saut à la corde ou la musculation – sont préférables, car elles stimulent davantage la croissance osseuse. En effet, lorsque les muscles tirent fortement sur l’os auquel ils sont attachés, cela <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6279907/">stimule la croissance osseuse</a>.</p>
<p>Ce type d’exercices peut être pratiqué par tout le monde, à tous les âges. Veillez simplement à adapter l’exercice que vous pratiquez à votre niveau de forme et à vos capacités. Il est également recommandé d’augmenter progressivement sa pratique afin d’éviter les blessures.</p>
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À lire aussi :
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lactivite-physique-adaptee-pour-rester-durablement-en-bonne-sante-171979">L’activité physique adaptée, pour rester durablement en bonne santé</a>
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<p>Réduire les polluants présents dans votre corps (tels que la <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5352985/">fumée de tabac</a> et l’<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00198-011-1787-7">alcool</a>) contribuera également à ce que vos cellules osseuses aient toutes les chances de fonctionner correctement durant toute votre vie.</p>
<p>Si vous êtes préoccupé par la solidité de vos os – ou si vous souffrez de <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6288610/">certains problèmes de santé</a> qui peuvent diminuer votre densité minérale osseuse (tels que la <a href="https://www.ameli.fr/assure/sante/themes/intolerance-gluten-maladie-coeliaque">maladie cœliaque</a>, les maladies inflammatoires de l’intestin, les <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5349336/">différentes formes de diabète</a> ou un <a href="https://www.inserm.fr/dossier/osteoporose/">cancer</a>) – n’hésitez pas à faire part de vos inquiétudes à votre médecin généraliste. Il vous donnera des conseils personnalisés sur la meilleure façon de prendre soin de vos os.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221335/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Edwards a reçu des financements de diverses sources gouvernementales, caritatives et industrielles</span></em></p>Certaines situations de santé, comme les changements hormonaux durant la ménopause, peuvent entraîner une perte osseuse excessive. En prévention, l’alimentation et l’activité physique peuvent aider.James Edwards, Associate Professor of the Oxford Skeletal Ageing and Regeneration Group, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2225312024-02-21T15:48:02Z2024-02-21T15:48:02ZLGBTQ history month: celebrating queer memory in our cities<p>Cities are like archives. Through their architecture, street names, monuments, plaques and cultural heritage sites, we learn about what remains of the past. But who is remembered in public spaces, and who is kept forgotten?</p>
<p>To diversify the histories revealed in these places, there are attempts around the world to give voice to hidden stories. This includes an increasing interest in representing the memory of LGBTQ communities, often absent from the public realm.</p>
<p>Think of the memorial to <a href="https://www.holocaust.org.uk/news/homosexual-victims-of-nazi-persecution">homosexuals persecuted under Nazism</a> in Berlin, or the mural depicting the gay second world war <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/people/alan-turing/">code breaker Alan Turing</a> in Manchester, and the statues of Virginia Woolf and Oscar Wilde in London, and even LGBTQ walking tours in cities like Athens, New York and Delhi.</p>
<p>As an architect and a researcher of cities, my <a href="https://www.arup.com/perspectives/publications/research/section/queering-public-space">work</a> looks at how the past is represented through our social and built environment. I am interested in the stories told in our cities, as well as the stories untold. Most of all, I am keen to discover how to make our cities more inclusive, where different communities are represented, welcomed and safe.</p>
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<h2>Telling LGBTQ stories</h2>
<p>In the UK, initiatives have emerged to archive, map and narrate stories of often oppressed and underrepresented communities. These vary in scope, from a bookshop, such as London’s Gay’s The Word, to posters on the underground representing LGBTQ communities, to entire neighbourhoods such as Manchester’s Gay Village.</p>
<p>An excellent example of celebrating queer memory is the <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/lgbtq-heritage-project/">Pride of Place project</a> by <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/about/">Historic England</a> (an organisation that protects the country’s heritage), which uncovers and celebrates places of LGBTQ history and contribution across England.</p>
<p>Stories of LGBTQ communities remain hidden in many cultures because of historical and continuing discrimination, criminalisation and violence. But efforts are made to bring these histories into the heart of cities. In 2022, a museum called <a href="https://queerbritain.org.uk/history">Queer Britain</a> opened in central London, making it the UK’s first – and only – LGBTQ museum.</p>
<p>One way to celebrate and remember LGBTQ communities in cities is through street art and murals. In the heart of Brussels, for instance, the <a href="http://rainbowhouse.be/en/projet/street-art-our-frescoes-projects/">Out in The Street</a> initiative brings a new narrative to the archive of the city.</p>
<p>A permanent 40-metre-wide fresco features stories of LGBTQ communities not only by celebrating the freedom they have, but also the difficulties and discrimination they face. A faceless migrant woman in a headscarf says: “You don’t know me. You don’t see me. I come from a country far away and I happen to love women. I’m proud of who I am. But I’m not ready to share my identity with you.” </p>
<p>Elsewhere is a portrait of two elderly men kissing gently, eyes closed. The mural reads: “Because Love sees no: a) colour; b) age; c) gender; d) all of the above.” <a href="https://www.intersectionaljustice.org/what-is-intersectionality">Intersectionality</a> seems to be at the heart of these portraits because there is a need to represent the richness of these communities and highlight the stories of “different” people such as Muslims, migrants and refugees.</p>
<h2>When being queer is forbidden</h2>
<p>Queer memory is commonly represented in big cities with rainbow flags, but this is often less visible in smaller places. Even so, many see rainbow flags as a shallow intervention that does not offer meaningful solidarity or support to LGBTQ communities.</p>
<p>In some places, its presence leads to danger. In Egypt, when activist and writer Sarah Hegazi raised a rainbow flag at a concert in 2017, she was arrested and tortured. Struggling with PTSD after her release, she fled to Canada where she <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-lgbtq-activist-sarah-hegazi-suicide-trauma">ended her life</a> in 2020.</p>
<p>In Brighton, a mural was painted in her memory citing a line from her suicide note: “To the world. You were cruel. But I forgive you.” Hegazi’s death led to global solidarity and she became a <a href="https://theconversation.com/suicide-of-egyptian-activist-sarah-hegazi-exposes-the-freedom-and-violence-of-lgbtq-muslims-in-exile-141268">symbol of the LGBTQ struggle</a>. </p>
<p>Afterwards, writer and activist Tareq Baconi reflected on living in the Arab region. In a piece titled, <a href="https://www.madamasr.com/en/2020/06/23/opinion/u/our-lives-are-not-conditional-on-sarah-hegazy-and-estrangement/">Our Lives are not Conditional</a>, Baconi wrote: “Like other queers from the region, I am painfully familiar with the choice we all face at some point: conform or vanish… There was no sign of queerness around me… The persistent message is unwittingly or maliciously drummed into us: there is only one kind of normal.”</p>
<p>Away from the queer capitals, LGBTQ communities navigate their towns and cities without the privilege of being publicly celebrated or acknowledged. In my <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13604813.2019.1575605">research</a>, published in 2019, I interviewed Syrians in exile about their stories of home and of their newly adopted countries. One man recalled a hammam he visited in Aleppo to meet with men, another remembered a bar and a garden in Damascus where gay men could gather.</p>
<p>A woman in Berlin told me that her life was a secret in Syria, a double life performed in public and private. “My home is the only place .. where I could hold her hand,” she said.</p>
<p>Only a few minutes’ walk from Out in the Street in Brussels, is another colourful mural of a smiling young man. We might assume it is a story of pride and celebration. But the mural – Love Remembers – is dedicated to the memory of 30-year-old Ihsane Jarfi killed in a homophobic attack in Belgium in 2012, and others like him killed in similar attacks there.</p>
<p>Celebrating queer memory within cities and towns reminds society of the achievements, the culture and the struggles of LGBT people. This is just part of the effort to bring other – often minority – stories to the fore, providing a fuller and more inclusive history of a place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222531/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ammar Azzouz receives funding from the British Academy for his research fellowship. </span></em></p>The marking of queer history and contribution is often absent from cities, but efforts are growing to include the stories of underrepresented LGBT communities.Ammar Azzouz, British Academy Research Fellow, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2235192024-02-20T15:17:04Z2024-02-20T15:17:04ZReligious diversity is exploding – here’s what a faith-positive Britain might actually look like<p>The future of the UK’s Inter Faith Network (IFN), a long-standing charity that promotes dialogue and cooperation between Britain’s religious groups, is in doubt after the government announced it was <a href="https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/rmc-briefings/devastating-outrageous-impending-closure-of-the-inter-faith-network/">withdrawing funding</a> for the group. Communities secretary Michael Gove has cited concerns that a member of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), with which the government has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/mar/23/muslim-council-britain-gaza">suspended cooperation</a> since 2009, has been appointed an IFN trustee. </p>
<p>In response to Gove’s letter, the IFN <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/16/inter-faith-network-headed-for-closure-as-gove-minded-to-withdraw-funding">has said</a> it had never been advised “to expel the MCB from membership”. It also said that while the government might choose not to engage with the MCB, doing so “is not a sensible option open to the IFN if it is to achieve the purposes for which the government funds it in the first place”. </p>
<p>Founded in 1987, the IFN represents Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian faith groups. In the charity’s 37-year history, religious pluralism in the UK has grown exponentially – and is still growing despite an overall <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/11/uk-secularism-on-rise-as-more-than-half-say-they-have-no-religion">decline in religiosity</a>. </p>
<p>This underlines the importance of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-people-of-different-faiths-together-to-solve-the-worlds-problems-is-a-noble-goal-but-its-hard-to-know-what-it-achieves-170047">interfaith</a> dialogue the charity exists to promote. Indeed, the government-commissioned <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64478b4f529eda00123b0397/The_Bloom_Review.pdf">Bloom review</a> of England’s growing religious pluralism, published in 2023, made a similar point when examining how the government might best acknowledge the value different faith groups bring to society.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A crowd of women in colourful saris." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576736/original/file-20240220-20-io09l1.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">
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<span class="caption">Performers take part in the Sikh festival of Vaisakhi in Gravesend.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gravesend-apr-6-performers-take-part-1078636838">Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>The UK’s increasingly diverse faith landscape</h2>
<p>In 2018, the Pew Research Centre published “Being Christian in Western Europe,” a survey of religion in <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2018/05/29/being-christian-in-western-europe/">15 western European countries</a>. The majority of the adults surveyed in 14 of the 15 countries considered themselves “non-practicing Christians”. </p>
<p>The survey found that the UK had roughly three times as many non-practicing Christians (55%) than church-going Christians (18%). It concluded that the notion of Christian identity remains a meaningful religious, political and sociocultural marker. </p>
<p>It also noted that many people have “gradually drifted away from religion, stopped believing in religious teachings, or were alienated by scandals or church positions on social issues.”</p>
<p>The rising number of people who subscribe to no religion belies the fact that the Christian proportion of the population is changing too. In 2023, British journalist Tomiwa Owolade <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/religion/2023/03/future-christianity-britain-african-christian">reported</a> on how demographic shifts are reshaping churches across the UK. Between 1980 and 2015, churches saw a 19% rise in attendance by non-white worshippers. </p>
<p>“Without immigration,” he wrote, “the decline of Christianity would be even more profound: it is largely white British people who are abandoning their faith.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An interior shot of a modernist church in England." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576589/original/file-20240219-30-38pqkp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The St Francis of Assisi church on the Mackworth estate in Derby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/church-altar-4COdbEnGCmA">Rachael Cox|Unsplash</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Recent migration from <a href="https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2023/27-october/news/uk/chinese-church-is-fastest-growing-in-the-uk-study-reveals">Hong Kong</a> has seen the Chinese Christian community in the UK grow substantially. As of 2023, there are about 115,000 Chinese Christians worshipping at over 200 churches across the UK. </p>
<p>Newly arrived Chinese Christians bring with them a belief in the importance of Bible reading. They are strengthening Church of England congregations in cities including Manchester, Liverpool and Bristol. </p>
<p>This highlights how migrant populations in the UK and more broadly in western Europe wield <a href="https://theconversation.com/tarry-awhile-how-the-black-spiritual-tradition-of-waiting-expectantly-could-enrich-your-approach-to-lent-222007">increasing influence</a> in terms of spirituality and belief. Between 2011 and 2021, the proportion of the population of England and Wales that identifies as Muslim has grown, from 4.8% (2.71 million people) to 6.5% <a href="https://mcb.org.uk/2021-census-as-uk-population-grows-so-do-british-muslim-communities/">(3.87 million)</a>. </p>
<p>Other fast-growing religious groups in the UK include Shamanism, whose followers have increased from 650 people in 2011 to <a href="https://www.economist.com/britain/2023/02/09/shamanism-is-britains-fastest-growing-religion">at least 8,000 in 2021</a>. Its emphasis on all things in nature – from people to the environment – being treated with dignity and respect distinctively appeals to the growing number of people in the UK who live with <a href="https://theconversation.com/religious-communities-can-make-the-difference-in-winning-the-fight-against-climate-change-172192">climate anxiety</a>. </p>
<h2>How the government engages with faith groups</h2>
<p>Until now, UK politicians have largely only engaged with local faith groups in public when it has been politically expedient to do so. A primary motivation has often been to not be criticised by detractors for excluding communities on the basis of religion. This approach is underpinned by an Enlightenment theory of secularism, which sees engaging with issues of religion as unworthy of the looming headaches such engagement might cause. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People kneel down in a carpeted space with tall windows." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576590/original/file-20240219-22-yr113h.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">
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<span class="caption">Worshippers in prayer in the Regents Park Central Mosque, London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-england-february-18th-2009-crowd-1704858379">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The 2023 Bloom review, by contrast, calls for government to build constructive relationships with faith groups. “It should be the government’s responsibility,” Bloom writes, “to equip all civil and public servants with the basic factual knowledge to be able to recognise and understand the diverse religious life of the population.” </p>
<p>Appointed in 2019 by Boris Johnson, who was then prime minister, Colin Bloom was commissioned to explore what the government could do to better acknowledge and support the contribution faith groups make to society. He investigated how to better promote shared values and tackle harmful practices and how to promote both freedom of religion and freedom of speech. He also looked at how government officials might improve their faith literacy.</p>
<p>To be <a href="https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/religion-and-belief-literacy">faith literate</a> is to understand how belief systems differ and how those distinct from your own shape other people’s attitudes, values and experiences. In a bid to boost equality, Bloom recommends that government workplaces and educational settings adopt the term “faith-sensitive”. </p>
<p>As opposed to the flattening out of difference that a “faith-blind” approach can take, promoting faith-sensitivity encourages people in positions of authority to acknowledge, understand and treat with respect diverse belief systems. </p>
<p>The language the UK government uses on faith-related subjects matters. It models – for everyone living in the UK – how to best engage with <a href="https://theconversation.com/glasgows-museum-of-religion-has-been-saved-from-closure-heres-why-its-important-for-multicultural-britain-180002">diverse manifestations of belief</a>. </p>
<p>I would argue that Bloom’s emphasis on a faith-sensitive government approach does not go far enough. It implies that the government’s priority should be to not cause offense. Even better would be a “faith-positive” approach that actively ascribes value to the contributions faith communities can make to everyday British life.</p>
<p>Back in 2001, the IFN <a href="https://www.interfaith.org.uk/uploads/ar2002.pdf">said</a>, “Greater awareness about the faith of others is crucial as we enter the 21st century in the UK because ignorance is a major contributor to prejudice and even to conflict.” Two decades on, the shocking rises in incidents of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2024/feb/15/huge-rise-in-antisemitic-abuse-in-uk-since-hamas-attack-says-charity">antisemitism</a> and <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2023-11-09/i-was-terrified-islamophobic-incidents-up-by-600-in-uk-since-hamas-attack">Islamophobia</a>, in recent months, point to how urgently that remains true. </p>
<p>Early 20th century English writer G.K. Chesterton once affectionately wrote, “Let your religion be less a theory and more a love affair.” He was offering a framework to help British Christians better understand their faith. A similarly faith-positive approach to all of Britain’s belief systems would both recognise and value quite what people of faith can bring to wider British society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223519/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Christopher Wadibia receives funding from a postdoctoral research fellowship specialising in race, theology, and religious studies based at Pembroke College, University of Oxford.</span></em></p>The language the UK government uses on faith-related subjects matters. It models – for everyone living in the UK – how to best engage with diverse manifestations of belief.Christopher Wadibia, Junior Research Fellow in Theology, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2234802024-02-19T17:10:07Z2024-02-19T17:10:07ZRomans kept black henbane seeds in hollowed-out bone, a new study has found. Here’s what they might have been used for<p>Scientists in the Netherlands have <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/evidence-of-the-intentional-use-of-black-henbane-hyoscyamus-niger-in-the-roman-netherlands/A06E000B17E1642C878E469157D5131C">discovered</a> a hollowed-out bone containing black henbane seeds at a Roman archaeological site. For centuries, the plant has been associated with medicine and magic. </p>
<p>Black henbane (<em>Hyoscyamus niger</em>) contains toxic and potentially deadly compounds called tropane alkaloids. These compounds include hyoscyamine and scopolamine, which are concentrated in the leaves and seeds and are known for their psychoactive and medicinal properties.</p>
<p>The exciting discovery at Houten-Castellum in the Netherlands has shed light on the intentional collection and use of black henbane seeds during the time of the Roman empire. On excavation of a water pit at the site, dated to about AD70-100, a hollowed-out sheep or goat bone, plugged one end with birch-bark tar, was found filled with over a thousand black henbane seeds. </p>
<p>The bone was interpreted as a container rather than a pipe, since there was no evidence of burning of the seeds. Smoking pipes were also rare in Europe before the arrival of tobacco. At the same archaeological site, a flowerhead of henbane was found with a basket and ceramic cooking pots. These were interpreted as offerings when people abandoned the settlement.</p>
<p>Remains of black henbane seeds have been found in association with other medicinal plants at archaeological sites in north-western Europe. These date from the Neolithic period onwards, including at several Roman sites. </p>
<p>The earliest finds date back to the first farmers in Europe, around 5500-4500BC. It has been suggested that the plant migrated with farming communities, either intentionally or accidentally, as a “weed of cultivation”. </p>
<p>Conclusive evidence of black henbane’s use by people at these sites, however, is usually lacking. This is due to the plant’s habit of naturally growing on disturbed ground across temperate <a href="https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:815932-1">Eurasia and north-west Africa</a>, combined with the fact that henbane produces many seeds. </p>
<p>There is little evidence for the cultivation or medicinal and hallucinatory uses of henbane until the Roman period, although it is mentioned in the <a href="https://www.europeana.eu/en/exhibitions/magical-mystical-and-medicinal/henbane">Ebers Papyrus</a> from ancient Egypt, around 1500BC. </p>
<p>The extent of use of henbane as a medicine across the Roman empire is unknown, but it may have been common, since it was found in 65 of 83 Roman-period sites in the Netherlands. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The hollowed-out bone containing the seeds had a plug at one end to keep them in." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/575998/original/file-20240215-24-zqgw1g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The hollowed-out bone containing the seeds had a plug at one end to keep them in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/evidence-of-the-intentional-use-of-black-henbane-hyoscyamus-niger-in-the-roman-netherlands/A06E000B17E1642C878E469157D5131C#figures">BIAX Consult via Free University of Berlin</a></span>
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<p>Archaeological finds from a first century AD hospital at a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20775245">Roman fortress in the Rhineland</a> included burned seeds of black henbane along with several other medicinal plants – providing strong circumstantial evidence that people in Roman Rhineland were aware of, and using, black henbane for its medicinal properties. </p>
<h2>Treating everything from fever to flatulence</h2>
<p>Surviving medical texts from the Roman period also provide details of how henbane was used. The Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder and the Greco-Roman physician Dioscorides both wrote about the properties of henbane in the first century AD. </p>
<p>In his famous herbal, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2021666851/">De Materia Medica</a>, Dioscorides referred to three types of henbane: white, yellow and black. The black type is probably black henbane, while the yellow and white types are probably another species, <em>Hyoscyamus albus</em>. </p>
<p>Dioscorides wrote that both yellow and black henbane can cause delirium and sleep, but he considered that black henbane was best avoided due to its stronger effects. </p>
<p>He also described the use of henbane seeds, taken in a juice for pain relief or for treatment of mucus and disorders of the womb. The leaves could be applied to the body to soothe pain or were taken in liquid to lower a fever. If boiled, the leaves were said to cause disturbances to the senses. </p>
<p>Pliny the Elder described four types of henbane in his book <a href="https://www.attalus.org/info/pliny_hn.html">Naturalis Historia</a>, including one with black seeds and purple flowers that could cause insanity and giddiness. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black henbane flowers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576212/original/file-20240216-26-kgklj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Black henbane is related to deadly nightshade and mandrake – plants associated with medicine and witchcraft.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49246165">K.B. Simoglou/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Several medicinal uses were ascribed to the white type which grew near the coast, including juice from the crushed leaves and stems as a remedy for coughs. Fumes from the burned plant were used for joint ailments, inflamed tendons and gout. Toothache could be treated by chewing on henbane root with vinegar, and the root was applied in an ointment to alleviate womb pain. </p>
<p>Henbane and anise seeds with asses’ milk were taken in a honey-wine to prevent shortness of breath and flatulence. The seed oil was used to soften the skin or poured into the ear to treat earache. </p>
<p>Wine infused with four or more leaves could bring down a fever, but Pliny warned of the dangers of the drug and mentioned remedies for those who had imbibed the wine, declaring henbane both a poison and a remedy. </p>
<p>As with all medicines, the dosage determines the effects. Interestingly, the compounds found in henbane, <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/24/4/796#B13-molecules-24-00796">hyoscyamine and scopolamine</a>, are used in prescription medicines today to treat nausea and vomiting resulting from motion sickness or following surgery, and in the treatment of muscle spasms.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223480/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Edwards 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>Roman medicines derived from black henbane treated everything from earache to womb pain.Sarah Edwards, Associate Lecturer and Plant Records Officer, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2224032024-02-19T13:36:02Z2024-02-19T13:36:02ZNervous Conditions: on translating one of Zimbabwe’s most famous novels into Shona<p>The publishing journey of Zimbabwean writer and film-maker <a href="https://theconversation.com/tsitsi-dangarembga-and-writing-about-pain-and-loss-in-zimbabwe-144313">Tsitsi Dangarembga</a>’s <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/Nervous_Conditions/UyZjAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=Nervous%20Conditions">Nervous Conditions</a> wasn’t easy. Yet the novel is today considered by many as one of <a href="https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/global/virtual-libraries/african_studies/books.html">Africa’s 100 best books</a> of the 20th century and is studied at <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2020/08/african-literature-is-a-country">universities</a> around the world. </p>
<p>When she submitted the manuscript to publishing houses in Zimbabwe in the early 1980s, they all turned it down. Dangarembga felt <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1345839">at the time</a> that it was “very difficult for men to accept the things that women write and want to write about: and the men (were) the publishers”. It was eventually published to critical acclaim in 1988 by <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803124519397">The Women’s Press</a> in London. This made Dangarembga the first black Zimbabwean woman to publish a novel in English. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1745039029970595991"}"></div></p>
<p>Now a new translation of the book into Zimbabwe’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shona">Shona</a> language has been released, marking another milestone for Nervous Conditions, because African classics are seldom translated into African languages. Translation of African literature happens often, but mostly in European countries. Nervous Conditions itself has <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/formats-editions/1230558464">already been translated</a> into a dozen or more languages including Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish. </p>
<p>The new Shona translation, titled Kusagadzikana and released by Zimbabwean publishers <a href="https://houseofbookszim.com/">House of Books</a>, was done by <a href="https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poets/poet/102-7808_Mabasa">Ignatius Mabasa</a>, an acclaimed novelist who also wrote the first <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/facultyofhumanities/latestnews/africanlanguagesstudentwritesfirst-everchishonaphdthesisatrhodesuniver-1.html">PhD thesis in Shona</a>.</p>
<p>Even more remarkably, Dangarembga’s follow-up novel, <a href="https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/book-not">The Book of Not</a>, has also recently been translated into Shona as Hakuna Zvakadaro by writer and academic <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Tanaka+Chidora&btnG=">Tanaka Chidora</a>. This leaves just the last book in the trilogy, <a href="https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/tsitsi-dangarembga">the Booker shortlisted</a> <a href="https://jacana.co.za/product/this-mournable-body/">This Mournable Body</a>, untranslated. </p>
<p>For a reader and <a href="https://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/cpt_people/mushakavanhu-dr-tinashe/">scholar</a> of Zimbabwean literature, encountering Nervous Condition’s story of a rural girl called Tambudzai in Shona is like waking up in a dream. I spoke with Mabasa about his translation journey and why it matters.</p>
<h2>Can you describe the process of translating the book?</h2>
<p>I started translating Nervous Conditions around 1999 when I was a visiting Fulbright scholar in the US, where I was teaching Zimbabwean literature. Nervous Conditions was one of the books I was teaching. Coincidentally, 1999 is the year that my first novel <a href="https://www.google.co.za/books/edition/Mapenzi/qLMaAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=Mapenzi&dq=Mapenzi&printsec=frontcover">Mapenzi</a> was published and I used to talk to my students about the sad situation that there was more Zimbabwean literature in English than in indigenous languages. </p>
<p>I pointed out that the majority of the ordinary women whose story Nervous Conditions was telling would not be able to buy, read and understand Nervous Conditions in English, because of their literacy levels. I thought perhaps I could try to translate the book into Shona as a way of repatriating and decolonising the story. I then dived in and started translating the first chapter, tackling one paragraph at a time. </p>
<p>I was intrigued by how beautiful and sincere the story sounded in Shona. Tambudzai sounded more heartfelt in Shona than in English – I guess because Shona was her real voice. As someone who grew up in a village myself, I strongly identified with Tambudzai and, in translating, I faithfully became her in order to capture the pain and injustice in her family and the national politics in the story. I translated the book up to chapter three and had to stop because Dangarembga was involved in a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/ayebia-clarke-publishing-help-tsitsi-dangarembga-regain-the-rights-to-her-novel-nervous-conditions">legal battle</a> for its rights. I only resumed in 2022, but because I had lost the mood and feeling that I had when I initially started, I had to rework the translation from the beginning.</p>
<h2>Were there difficult parts and how did you deal with them?</h2>
<p>The title was one of the most difficult things to translate. Nervousness is something deeper, it’s beyond nerves. It’s a reflection of the physical, the psychological and the spiritual. The level of disturbance in Nervous Conditions is traumatic, immediate and long-term. I had to think really hard about the words that would capture all that. I’m pleased with Kusagadzikana as the final title because when I read Tanaka Chidora’s Shona translation of The Book of Not, I noticed that he uses the term <em>kusagadzikana</em> the same way I did.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/animal-farm-has-been-translated-into-shona-why-a-group-of-zimbabwean-writers-undertook-the-task-206966">Animal Farm has been translated into Shona – why a group of Zimbabwean writers undertook the task</a>
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<p>Another difficulty I faced was to do with the differences in the storytelling style of the two languages, English and Shona. Dangarembga does go into the human psyche in a complex and deep manner that is not usually found in Shona writing, and that needed to be handled delicately – there were times when it was like deboning a fish. An example is Tambudzai’s trauma caused by Babamukuru’s facilitated wedding of her parents. Also Nyasha’s emotional rollercoasters are key to the story – I had to slow down and make sure that I didn’t miss the metaphorically loaded twists and turns. Then there are some very English descriptions including elaborate colours, ways of dancing, fashion designs, foods that I had to deal with cleverly but without aborting the meaning.</p>
<h2>Why was it important for you to translate this book?</h2>
<p>Nervous Conditions is our story as indigenous people. The story had to be decolonised by making it come back to speak to the people who are victims of colonial injustices in a language that would enable them to tell “when the rain started to beat them” (as the saying goes) in order for them to start drying themselves. </p>
<p>The novel is an important documentation of our history and the translation makes it accessible and able to be discussed under a tree by ordinary folk, and not just by academics in air-conditioned conference venues. It is a form of liberation struggle – the liberation of many things that remain colonised, including our minds.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tinashe Mushakavanhu 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>It reads powerfully in the Shona language, and is one of two of her books newly translated into it.Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Junior Research Fellow, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2230492024-02-16T15:52:25Z2024-02-16T15:52:25ZSri Lanka: why the country’s wait for elections must end<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576016/original/file-20240215-28-3959qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5535%2C3676&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sri Lankan protesters invade the prime minister's residence in Colombo, July 13 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/colombo-sri-lanka-july-13-2022-2178308091">Sebastian Castelier/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sri Lanka is grappling with its worst <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-61028138">economic crisis</a> since independence in 1948. Soaring prices, shortages of essential goods and crippling external debts have sparked widespread protests across the country in recent years. In 2022, enraged demonstrators even stormed the residence of the then president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, forcing him to flee the country and resign. </p>
<p>The following year, elections were <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/world/sri-lanka-delays-first-vote-since-new-president-12203902.html">postponed</a> indefinitely. Rajapaksa’s successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, warned parliament that holding an election during the economic crisis could be disastrous. Opposition MPs criticised the move, accusing the president of using the economic crisis as an excuse to hold onto power and “sabotage democracy”. </p>
<p>But in November Wickremesinghe <a href="https://english.newsfirst.lk/2023/11/22/presidential-parliamentary-elections-next-year-ranil">announced</a> that presidential and parliamentary elections will finally be held in 2024 and 2025. Could this year be one of actual change that free and fair elections can bring? Or will they be used to tighten the grip of authoritarianism that was established by the Rajapaksa family over almost 15 years in power, and has worsened under Wickremesinghe?</p>
<p>Five elections will take place in South Asian countries this year, and most will likely return incumbent parties to power. It is not yet clear if Sri Lanka will follow suit.</p>
<h2>Unpopular candidate</h2>
<p>Wickremesinghe, who has already been Sri Lankan prime minister five times, is widely <a href="https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/For-me-to-be-back-I-must-contest-President-on-Presidential-election/108-276755">tipped</a> to run for presidency. But he faces vast criticism on the grounds that he came to power without being elected by the people. He won a parliamentary vote to replace Rajapaksa but has no popular mandate. </p>
<p>It is expected that he will capitalise on the “stability” he has brought to Sri Lanka since reaching an <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2023/03/20/pr2379-imf-executive-board-approves-under-the-new-eff-arrangement-for-sri-lanka">agreement</a> with the International Monetary Fund to approve a US$2.9 billion (£2.3 billion) loan to help the country through its financial crisis. </p>
<p>This stability, however, is a myth and the situation remains dire. More than <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/sri-lanka/sri-lanka-household-food-security-survey-preliminary-findings-december-2023#:%7E:text=In%202023%2C%20WFP%20and%20FAO,estimated%20to%20be%20food%20insecure.">17% of Sri Lankans</a> are suffering from food insecurity and are in need of humanitarian assistance.</p>
<p>The loan was granted on the condition that Sri Lanka reduce its domestic debt. But Wickremesinghe’s plans to restructure domestic debt have come at the expense of the working population. </p>
<p>The government plans to <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/columns/economic-perspectives-c-p-chandrasekhar-sri-lankan-debt-crisis-to-get-worse-if-imf-prescription-is-heeded/article67045396.ece">decrease interest rates</a> on sovereign bonds held by major pension funds – a cut that would amount to a loss of <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/sri-lanka/daily-mirror-sri-lanka/20230703/281698324193687">close to 30%</a> of the value of retirement funds over the next decade. </p>
<p>Militarisation is also at an <a href="https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/we-are-among-top-10-countries-militarisation-admits-sri-lankan-mp#:%7E:text=Sorry!-,%27We%20are%20among%20top%2010%20countries%27%20for,militarisation%20admits%20Sri%20Lankan%20MP&text=A%20Sri%20Lankan%20lawmaker%20has,sector%20despite%20an%20economic%20crisis.">all-time high</a>. And efforts are being made to restrict the rights of minorities living in the north and east of the country through surveillance, harassment and unlawful arrests. His victory will only ensure continuity of all this, and more. </p>
<h2>How not to hold elections</h2>
<p>For Wickremesinghe to maintain his power, he has to honour his promise of holding elections. Local government elections were initially scheduled for March 9 2023, but they were repeatedly postponed due to a <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/sri-lankas-local-body-polls-postponed-indefinitely-due-to-lack-of-funds/article66725596.ece">shortage of funds</a>.</p>
<p>Their cancellation led to a spate of protests. Police used force to disperse crowds, resulting in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-sri-lanka-colombo-cb7ad21a28ad9fac237144cb9e90ca4d">15 injuries</a>. Shortly afterwards, the election commission postponed the elections indefinitely, <a href="https://www.newsfirst.lk/2023/03/03/supreme-court-issues-interim-order-on-funding-local-government-election-2023">defying</a> a Supreme Court order. </p>
<p>Wickremesinghe then pursued constitutional amendments and <a href="https://www.sundaytimes.lk/231022/columns/president-appoints-special-commission-to-drastically-change-election-laws-536547.html">appointed a commission</a> to explore changes to the electoral system. So, when the announcement that elections would be held was finally made, it was unsurprisingly received with apprehension by the electorate.</p>
<p>The act of delaying elections is an undemocratic move. But these delay tactics appear to be a smokescreen, giving Wickremesinghe time to gather support for his presidential nomination. </p>
<p>It looks as if he is aiming to secure support from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party, which is led by Mahinda Rajapaksa – a former president and the brother of Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This is a calculated move as it is unlikely that Rajapaksa would have any public backing to make a reappearance as president himself. </p>
<p>In November 2023, a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/15/sri-lanka-top-court-finds-rajapaksa-brothers-guilty-of-economic-crisis">landmark ruling</a> by the Supreme Court determined that the Rajapaksa brothers, alongside former governors of the central bank and other senior treasury officials, were responsible for Sri Lanka’s economic crisis.</p>
<p>Wickremesinghe is using this extra time as a political ploy too. He has promised to implement the 13th Amendment – a provision of the 1987 <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/the-hindu-explains-what-is-the-13th-amendment-to-the-sri-lankan-constitution-and-why-is-it-contentious/article32531844.ece">Indo-Lanka Accord</a> that guarantees a measure of devolution to the country’s nine provinces. This is most definitely an attempt to appease minorities and use power sharing as a political tool to garner support.</p>
<p>But it could also have been a deliberate move to appease India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, before his visit to Colombo in January. During Jaishankar’s visit, he <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/asia/india-pledges-strong-support-sri-lankas-debt-restructuring-plan-letter-imf-2023-01-18/">supported</a> the government’s debt restructuring plans.</p>
<p>Wickremesinghe has used the delay to rush the passing of the <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/01/sri-lanka-online-safety-act-major-blow-to-freedom-of-expression/">Online Safety Act</a> through parliament. Created to provide protection against online harassment, abuse and fraud, this highly repressive law could threaten the right to freedom of expression that is crucial for free and fair elections.</p>
<h2>The elusive winds of change</h2>
<p>Elections are only as good as their contestants. So who are Wickremesinghe and his allies afraid of? Informal surveys reveal the rising popularity of Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the leader of the leftist National People’s Power alliance. Dissanayake could pose a serious threat to the leadership of Wickremesinghe. </p>
<p>Dissanayake, who also ran for presidency in 2019, has <a href="https://www.lankaenews.com/news/3634/en">pledged</a> to eradicate corruption, hold dishonest politicians and officials accountable, and establish a fresh system of governance. These pledges resonate with the kind of political party Sri Lanka wants and needs to lift itself out of the mess it is currently in.</p>
<p>Wickremesinghe originally <a href="https://www.firstpost.com/world/sri-lanka-delays-first-vote-since-new-president-12203902.html">claimed</a> that elections would be held when Sri Lanka had achieved greater stability. But the real reason for the delay could have more to do with the simple fact that holding elections could potentially create a more legitimate and credible government – a prospect that Sri Lanka’s entrenched ruling elite may not welcome. </p>
<p>Demanding they take place is thus of utmost importance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223049/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thiruni Kelegama 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>After months of indefinite postponement, presidential and parliamentary elections will finally be held over the next two years.Thiruni Kelegama, Lecturer in Modern South Asian Studies, Oxford School of Global and Area Studies., University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.