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Category: Analysis Assessment

  • MIL-Evening Report: Melting ice will strengthen the monsoon in northern Australia – but cause drier conditions north of the Equator

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Node Leader in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, Flinders University

    Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

    Almost two-thirds of the world’s population is affected by the monsoon – the annual arrival of intense rains in areas north and south of the Equator. These drenching rains tend to arrive during each hemisphere’s summer.

    The East Asian monsoon north of the equator is the best known and best studied, because it affects the largest land area and the most people. But the southern Indo-Australian monsoon is vitally important to northern Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. To date, it has been studied much less.

    To help fill this gap in knowledge, we analysed deep sediment from an unusual lagoon near Darwin in northern Australia. We looked at ancient pollen and chemical isotopes (different versions of the same chemical element) to look about 150,000 years back in time and glimpse changes to the monsoon. When types of pollen change, it tells us the monsoon has changed. Drier conditions favour the emergence of grasslands, while wetter climates favour forests.

    Our new research suggests as the world gets hotter, the Indo-Australian monsoon will intensify and northern Australia will get wetter. This finding is consistent with research suggesting the East Asian monsoon could weaken, threatening agriculture and nature in heavily populated countries.

    Location of Girraween Lagoon in monsoonal north Australia. Insert shows approximate dominant flows of the East Asian and Indo-Australian summer monsoons.
    Corey Bradshaw/Flinders University, CC BY-NC

    The past held in a single lagoon

    To examine how monsoons change over time, researchers drill sediment cores to track changes in pollen and chemical isotopes. For example, changes in hydrogen isotopes indicate changes in the intensity of the monsoon rain.

    The problem is, these cores have to come from long-undisturbed lake sediments, because such places provide a continuous record of change.

    To reconstruct past changes in monsoon patterns, undisturbed sediments have to be sampled carefully by extracting a thin “core” from the bottom sediments. Once researchers have this precious core, they can examine the changing proportions of pollen, chemical isotopes and other properties. The deeper you drill the core, the farther back in time you can look.

    These exacting requirements are one reason the Indo-Australian monsoon is not as well understood as its northern cousin.

    Fortunately, we have found one place which has kept a detailed environmental record over a long period: Girraween Lagoon on the outskirts of Darwin in the Northern Territory.

    This lagoon was created after a sinkhole formed more than 200,000 years ago. It has contained permanent water ever since, and is slowly filling with sediment and pollen blown in from the surrounding landscape.

    The 18-metre core from Girraween’s sediments gave us a 150,000-year record of environmental change in Australia’s northern savannahs.

    It took hard work to extract the core from Girraween Lagoon.

    Dipping into the past

    If you walk around Girraween Lagoon today, you’ll see a tall and dense tree canopy with a thick grass understory in the wet season. But it hasn’t always been that way.

    During the last ice age 20,000–30,000 years ago, the sea level was much lower and the polar ice caps much larger. As a result, the lagoon was more than 300 kilometres from the coast. At that time, the lagoon was surrounded by an open, grassy savannah with fewer, shorter trees.

    A schematic showing the depth of the Girraween core and the associated time periods.
    Emma Rehn/Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, CC BY-NC

    About 115,000 years ago (and again 90,000 years ago), Australia was dotted with gigantic inland “megalakes”. At those times, the lagoon expanded into a large, shallow lake surrounded by lush monsoon forest, with almost no grass.

    At times, tree cover changed radically. In fact, over one 3,000-year period, the percentage of tree pollen soared from 15% to 95%. That suggests a sweeping change from grassland to dense forest – meaning a switch from drier to wetter climate at a rate too fast to be explained by changes in Earth’s orbit.

    Some of these changes are linked to the shifting distance between coastline and lagoon as well as predictable variation in how much solar energy reaches Earth.

    A connection to the North Atlantic

    Huge ice sheets covered large areas of the Northern Hemisphere during previous ice ages.

    Remarkably, the evidence of their melting at the end of previous ice age was there in the sediment core from Girraween Lagoon.

    When glacial ice melts rapidly, huge volumes of fresh water flood into the North Atlantic. These rapid pulses are known as Heinrich events. These pulses can shut down the warm Gulf Stream current up the east coast of North America. As a result, the Northern Hemisphere cools and the Southern Hemisphere warms.

    Over the last 150,000 years, there have been 14 of these events. We could see evidence of them in the sediment cores. Every gush of fresh water in the Atlantic triggered higher rainfall over northern Australia because of the buildup of heat in the Southern Hemisphere as the Gulf Stream slowed.

    What does this mean for the monsoon?

    All this suggests the Indo-Australian monsoon will get more intense as the world gets hotter and more ice melts.

    That would mean a wetter northern Australia. It could also bring more rainfall to other Australian regions, and neighbouring countries. At this stage, it’s too uncertain to predict what an intensifying monsoon would do to the southern parts of Australia.

    We might already be seeing this shift. Weather records since the 1960s show northern Australia getting steadily wetter, and less rain in Australia’s southeast and southwest.

    Trends in total annual rainfall in Australia from 1960 to 2020.
    Commonwealth of Australia Bureau of Meteorology, CC BY

    What would this mean for people? Australia’s tropical north is not densely populated, which would reduce the human impact of an intensifying monsoon.

    But while our research suggests the Indo-Australian monsoon strengthens during Heinrich events, earlier research has shown the East Asian and other Northern Hemisphere monsoons will weaken. Without reliable monsoonal rains, food and water supplies for billions of people could be at risk.

    Corey J. A. Bradshaw receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Cassandra Rowe receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Michael Bird receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Melting ice will strengthen the monsoon in northern Australia – but cause drier conditions north of the Equator – https://theconversation.com/melting-ice-will-strengthen-the-monsoon-in-northern-australia-but-cause-drier-conditions-north-of-the-equator-259992

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Melting ice will strengthen the monsoon in northern Australia – but cause drier conditions north of the Equator

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Node Leader in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, Flinders University

    Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

    Almost two-thirds of the world’s population is affected by the monsoon – the annual arrival of intense rains in areas north and south of the Equator. These drenching rains tend to arrive during each hemisphere’s summer.

    The East Asian monsoon north of the equator is the best known and best studied, because it affects the largest land area and the most people. But the southern Indo-Australian monsoon is vitally important to northern Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. To date, it has been studied much less.

    To help fill this gap in knowledge, we analysed deep sediment from an unusual lagoon near Darwin in northern Australia. We looked at ancient pollen and chemical isotopes (different versions of the same chemical element) to look about 150,000 years back in time and glimpse changes to the monsoon. When types of pollen change, it tells us the monsoon has changed. Drier conditions favour the emergence of grasslands, while wetter climates favour forests.

    Our new research suggests as the world gets hotter, the Indo-Australian monsoon will intensify and northern Australia will get wetter. This finding is consistent with research suggesting the East Asian monsoon could weaken, threatening agriculture and nature in heavily populated countries.

    Location of Girraween Lagoon in monsoonal north Australia. Insert shows approximate dominant flows of the East Asian and Indo-Australian summer monsoons.
    Corey Bradshaw/Flinders University, CC BY-NC

    The past held in a single lagoon

    To examine how monsoons change over time, researchers drill sediment cores to track changes in pollen and chemical isotopes. For example, changes in hydrogen isotopes indicate changes in the intensity of the monsoon rain.

    The problem is, these cores have to come from long-undisturbed lake sediments, because such places provide a continuous record of change.

    To reconstruct past changes in monsoon patterns, undisturbed sediments have to be sampled carefully by extracting a thin “core” from the bottom sediments. Once researchers have this precious core, they can examine the changing proportions of pollen, chemical isotopes and other properties. The deeper you drill the core, the farther back in time you can look.

    These exacting requirements are one reason the Indo-Australian monsoon is not as well understood as its northern cousin.

    Fortunately, we have found one place which has kept a detailed environmental record over a long period: Girraween Lagoon on the outskirts of Darwin in the Northern Territory.

    This lagoon was created after a sinkhole formed more than 200,000 years ago. It has contained permanent water ever since, and is slowly filling with sediment and pollen blown in from the surrounding landscape.

    The 18-metre core from Girraween’s sediments gave us a 150,000-year record of environmental change in Australia’s northern savannahs.

    It took hard work to extract the core from Girraween Lagoon.

    Dipping into the past

    If you walk around Girraween Lagoon today, you’ll see a tall and dense tree canopy with a thick grass understory in the wet season. But it hasn’t always been that way.

    During the last ice age 20,000–30,000 years ago, the sea level was much lower and the polar ice caps much larger. As a result, the lagoon was more than 300 kilometres from the coast. At that time, the lagoon was surrounded by an open, grassy savannah with fewer, shorter trees.

    A schematic showing the depth of the Girraween core and the associated time periods.
    Emma Rehn/Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, CC BY-NC

    About 115,000 years ago (and again 90,000 years ago), Australia was dotted with gigantic inland “megalakes”. At those times, the lagoon expanded into a large, shallow lake surrounded by lush monsoon forest, with almost no grass.

    At times, tree cover changed radically. In fact, over one 3,000-year period, the percentage of tree pollen soared from 15% to 95%. That suggests a sweeping change from grassland to dense forest – meaning a switch from drier to wetter climate at a rate too fast to be explained by changes in Earth’s orbit.

    Some of these changes are linked to the shifting distance between coastline and lagoon as well as predictable variation in how much solar energy reaches Earth.

    A connection to the North Atlantic

    Huge ice sheets covered large areas of the Northern Hemisphere during previous ice ages.

    Remarkably, the evidence of their melting at the end of previous ice age was there in the sediment core from Girraween Lagoon.

    When glacial ice melts rapidly, huge volumes of fresh water flood into the North Atlantic. These rapid pulses are known as Heinrich events. These pulses can shut down the warm Gulf Stream current up the east coast of North America. As a result, the Northern Hemisphere cools and the Southern Hemisphere warms.

    Over the last 150,000 years, there have been 14 of these events. We could see evidence of them in the sediment cores. Every gush of fresh water in the Atlantic triggered higher rainfall over northern Australia because of the buildup of heat in the Southern Hemisphere as the Gulf Stream slowed.

    What does this mean for the monsoon?

    All this suggests the Indo-Australian monsoon will get more intense as the world gets hotter and more ice melts.

    That would mean a wetter northern Australia. It could also bring more rainfall to other Australian regions, and neighbouring countries. At this stage, it’s too uncertain to predict what an intensifying monsoon would do to the southern parts of Australia.

    We might already be seeing this shift. Weather records since the 1960s show northern Australia getting steadily wetter, and less rain in Australia’s southeast and southwest.

    Trends in total annual rainfall in Australia from 1960 to 2020.
    Commonwealth of Australia Bureau of Meteorology, CC BY

    What would this mean for people? Australia’s tropical north is not densely populated, which would reduce the human impact of an intensifying monsoon.

    But while our research suggests the Indo-Australian monsoon strengthens during Heinrich events, earlier research has shown the East Asian and other Northern Hemisphere monsoons will weaken. Without reliable monsoonal rains, food and water supplies for billions of people could be at risk.

    Corey J. A. Bradshaw receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Cassandra Rowe receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    Michael Bird receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

    – ref. Melting ice will strengthen the monsoon in northern Australia – but cause drier conditions north of the Equator – https://theconversation.com/melting-ice-will-strengthen-the-monsoon-in-northern-australia-but-cause-drier-conditions-north-of-the-equator-259992

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Planning a ‘Euro summer’ or cruise? Why another flu shot might save your holiday

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Janetzki, Lecturer in Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of South Australia

    DavideAngelini/Shutterstock

    Are you escaping a southern hemisphere winter by heading off for a “Euro summer”? Maybe you’re planning a cruise through the Mediterranean. Or you’re dreaming of a white Christmas overseas later in the year.

    Maybe you’ve already booked your flights and accommodation, locked in your itinerary, and started planning what to pack.

    But there may be one more thing to add to your pre-travel checklist – a flu shot.

    For some travellers, this may mean a second flu shot this year – one for Australia’s flu season and another to protect them in the northern hemisphere.

    Why do I need another flu shot?

    Protection from a flu shot doesn’t last all year; it decreases after three to four months.

    So if you had your flu shot in April or May, it may no longer offer enough protection by the time you travel in July or later.

    Getting a second shot will provide you with optimal protection against the flu while travelling to the northern hemisphere.

    That’s why it is now recommended Australians travelling to the northern hemisphere between October and May consider a second flu shot if they’ve already had one earlier this year.

    If it’s been three to four months since your first shot, you can consider a second shot.

    A second shot should be at least four weeks after the first shot. Ideally, get your second shot at least two weeks before your departure, so your body has time to build up protection.

    If you haven’t had a flu shot at all this year, now’s the time. In the year to July 7, there have been more than 167,000 confirmed cases of the flu in Australia.

    Who should consider a second flu shot?

    Here are some examples where a second flu shot is worth discussing with your doctor or pharmacist.

    Cruises are a prime setting for flu outbreaks. There are hundreds or thousands of people sharing confined spaces, such as restaurants and entertainment facilities, for days or weeks at a time. This creates the perfect environment for the flu virus to spread.

    Group tours and large events are also high risk. Bus tours, music festivals and cultural events bring together large crowds, often in indoor spaces or via shared transport. This increases your chance of exposure and catching the virus.

    Pilgrimages and religious gatherings such as Hajj, Lunar New Year or Ramadan are also high risk, especially for older travellers or those with health conditions. These events can attract millions of international visitors, often in crowded, shared accommodation, where flu and other respiratory viruses can spread rapidly.

    People who are over 65 years of age, have medical conditions, such as severe asthma or diabetes, or are on medications that decrease their immune function, are more likely to become severely ill if they catch the flu. So, if you’re travelling during the northern hemisphere’s flu season, a second shot should be strongly considered.

    Which flu shot should I get?

    Each year, health authorities around the world develop two different flu shots, one for each hemisphere’s flu season. The flu shots can differ, as flu strains change rapidly and different strains may circulate in different regions.

    Australians receive the southern hemisphere version around March to May. And
    while it’s ideal to have the northern hemisphere flu shot before heading overseas, it’s not available in Australia.

    Instead, you can have two shots of the southern hemisphere flu shot – one earlier in the year and a second shot before your trip.

    You could wait until you are overseas to get your second shot. But you wouldn’t be protected for two weeks afterwards, and you’d need to navigate an overseas health system while on holiday.

    Where can I get a flu shot? How much does it cost?

    You can get a flu shot at your local pharmacy, GP clinic, or sometimes via your workplace. Many pharmacies offer walk-in appointments, and the flu shot usually costs around A$25 (including the price of the vaccine and administering it).

    If your GP doesn’t bulk bill, you will be charged an out-of-pocket cost for the consultation, and may need to pay the cost of the shot if you don’t qualify for a free one.

    The (first) flu shot is free for people who meet certain criteria, such as being 65 and over, pregnant, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and those with certain medical conditions. But you would have to pay for a second shot if you’re travelling.

    Specific flu shots are recommended for each person. So speak to your pharmacist or GP to discuss the best option for you.

    Your GP or pharmacist will also discuss what to expect after your flu shot. This may include tiredness, fever, muscle aches, and redness or swelling at the injection site. These usually go away within two days. For most people, these symptoms are mild and well-tolerated.

    Why bother?

    The flu is more than just a sniffle. It can lead to serious illness, cancelled plans and perhaps a hospital stay in a foreign country. Even if you don’t get sick, you could pass the virus to others more vulnerable than yourself.

    So before you finish your pre-travel checklist, make sure your flu shots are up to date.

    Not getting the shot could be the difference between sipping Aperol spritz on the Amalfi Coast or spending your trip in bed with a fever.

    Jack Janetzki works for the University of South Australia, Pharmaceutical Defence Limited and The Barossa Pharmacist in the Mall (Nuriootpa, South Australia). He is a member of Pharmaceutical Defence Limited, the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association, the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, the South Australian Immunisation Program Advisory Group, the Observational Health Data Science Informatics network and the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Insight Board for pharmacist-led vaccination services.

    Wern Chai is employed as a lecturer at the University of South Australia. He is an SME for the Australian Pharmacy Council, a board examiner for the Pharmacy Board of Australia, the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association, Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, the South Australian Immunisation Program Advisory Group and the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Insight Board for pharmacist-led vaccination services.

    – ref. Planning a ‘Euro summer’ or cruise? Why another flu shot might save your holiday – https://theconversation.com/planning-a-euro-summer-or-cruise-why-another-flu-shot-might-save-your-holiday-259888

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Cannabinoid products may reduce total sleep time in adults with insomnia: new study

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camilla Hoyos, Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Sleep and Chronobiology, Macquarie University

    Lysenko Andrii/Shutterstock

    You might have heard cannabis and cannabinoid products can help people sleep. Data shows one of the top reasons people use cannabis is to help them sleep.

    But there’s a dearth of high-quality research on how medicinal cannabis products actually affect sleep.

    To find out more, our research team conducted a small pilot study involving 20 people. We wanted to compare how they slept after using a medicinal cannabis product, compared to a placebo.

    The results of the study, published today in the Journal of Sleep Research, surprised us.

    We found a single oral dose of a cannabinoid product decreased total sleep time and the time spent in REM sleep (rapid eye movement, which is when we tend to dream). We didn’t observe any change in objective alertness the day after the treatment.

    Our study is small and only measured the effect of a single dose, so more research is clearly needed.

    But overall, our findings suggest cannabinoids may acutely influence sleep, primarily by suppressing REM sleep, without noticeable next-day impairment.

    What we did

    All 20 people (16 of whom were female) involved in our study had a clinical diagnosis of insomnia disorder.

    This means they reported having challenges falling asleep and/or maintaining sleep and that these disturbances impact day-to-day functioning socially, at work, or in other important areas of life.

    The average age of our study participants was about 46 years.

    At our lab, the study participants were interviewed by a doctor and had their medical history taken. All participants also underwent an overnight diagnostic sleep study. This was done to confirm their sleeplessness was truly insomnia and not other conditions such as sleep apnoea.

    Once the participant was able to start the study, they were asked to sleep for two nights at our lab, with at least one week between those two visits.

    On one of their visits, they were given a placebo.

    On the other, they were given a single oral dose of a medical-grade cannabis oil containing 10 mg THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the compound responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis) and 200 mg CBD (cannabidiol, which does not produce a “high”).

    Using a product with a precise, known dose ensures the results are relevant to what doctors in Australia are already prescribing.

    The order in which participants received either the treatment or the placebo was randomised, so they didn’t know which one they were taking.

    After taking either the treatment or the placebo, they slept at our lab while wearing a special cap with 256 monitors on it. This high-density electroencephalogram or EEG allowed us to record the electrical activity of the brain while the person slept.

    The next morning, after they either woke or were woken, they performed a driving simulation test around the time of their normal morning commute.

    They also underwent a test that assessed their ability to stay awake in a quiet, dimly lit environment. To track their alertness throughout the day, they repeated this test four times while wearing the high-density EEG cap. This was so we could test their alertness the day after either the treatment or the placebo.

    What we found

    Our results were not what we expected.

    We found the THC/CBD treatment decreased total sleep time by an average of 24.5 minutes. This was largely driven by a significant impact on REM sleep (the phase associated with dreaming), which not only decreased by an average of 33.9 minutes but also took significantly longer for participants to enter. The treatment also offered no benefit in helping participants stay asleep throughout the night.

    Perhaps most intriguingly, this objective worsening of sleep wasn’t reflected in the participants’ own perceptions; they reported no change in their subjective sleep quality. This disconnect continued into the next day.

    While participants noted feeling slightly more sleepy after the treatment, their objective alertness – measured by their ability to stay awake in a quiet, dimly lit room – was reassuringly unchanged, as was their cognitive and simulated driving performance.

    This leads to a crucial question: if a single dose produces these changes, what are the cumulative effects on a person’s sleep after weeks, months, or years of nightly use?

    We simply don’t have the answers yet, especially with a medical-grade cannabis product.

    A growing body of research

    Our findings underscore a significant gap between the widespread public perception of cannabis for sleep and the complex scientific reality. As highlighted by a review we published in the journal Current Psychiatry Reports, the evidence base remains thin.

    We reviewed 21 recent studies (published between 2021 and 2024) of cannabinoids being used for insomnia, subjective sleep impairment, obstructive sleep apnoea, rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder, and restless legs syndrome.

    We found that, despite its widespread use, there’s not enough research yet to support the use of medical cannabis to treat sleep disorders.

    This is why this kind of research is so vital. It provides the first pieces of a much larger puzzle.

    To give doctors and patients the clear guidance they need, there is an urgent need for adequately funded, well-designed clinical trials with larger sample sizes and longer treatment durations to truly understand the long-term impacts of medicinal cannabis on sleep and daytime functioning.

    Camilla Hoyos is a Research Leader within the Centre for Sleep and Chronobiology at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. The Woolcock sleep group received funding from Lambert Initiative of Cannabinoid Therapeutics (a philanthropic centre based at The University of Sydney) for this study and for another unpublished trial in the same space. Woolcock sleep group also received funding to be a site on an industry-sponsored clinical trial on a cannabinoids medicine in insomnia. Camilla Hoyos is also a board member of the Australasian Sleep Association. This study described in this article was a collaboration between the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and Lambert Initiative of Cannabinoid Research.

    Anastasia has previously received funding from the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics, a philanthropically funded research initiative at the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney. She has received consulting fees from the Medicinal Cannabis Industry Australia for a commissioned review article and Haleon (a consumer health-care subsidiary of GSK) for non-cannabinoid related work. She is a committee member for the Sleep Health Week Working Party and an expert speaker for the Sleep Health Foundation.

    – ref. Cannabinoid products may reduce total sleep time in adults with insomnia: new study – https://theconversation.com/cannabinoid-products-may-reduce-total-sleep-time-in-adults-with-insomnia-new-study-256467

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Cannabinoid products may reduce total sleep time in adults with insomnia: new study

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Camilla Hoyos, Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Sleep and Chronobiology, Macquarie University

    Lysenko Andrii/Shutterstock

    You might have heard cannabis and cannabinoid products can help people sleep. Data shows one of the top reasons people use cannabis is to help them sleep.

    But there’s a dearth of high-quality research on how medicinal cannabis products actually affect sleep.

    To find out more, our research team conducted a small pilot study involving 20 people. We wanted to compare how they slept after using a medicinal cannabis product, compared to a placebo.

    The results of the study, published today in the Journal of Sleep Research, surprised us.

    We found a single oral dose of a cannabinoid product decreased total sleep time and the time spent in REM sleep (rapid eye movement, which is when we tend to dream). We didn’t observe any change in objective alertness the day after the treatment.

    Our study is small and only measured the effect of a single dose, so more research is clearly needed.

    But overall, our findings suggest cannabinoids may acutely influence sleep, primarily by suppressing REM sleep, without noticeable next-day impairment.

    What we did

    All 20 people (16 of whom were female) involved in our study had a clinical diagnosis of insomnia disorder.

    This means they reported having challenges falling asleep and/or maintaining sleep and that these disturbances impact day-to-day functioning socially, at work, or in other important areas of life.

    The average age of our study participants was about 46 years.

    At our lab, the study participants were interviewed by a doctor and had their medical history taken. All participants also underwent an overnight diagnostic sleep study. This was done to confirm their sleeplessness was truly insomnia and not other conditions such as sleep apnoea.

    Once the participant was able to start the study, they were asked to sleep for two nights at our lab, with at least one week between those two visits.

    On one of their visits, they were given a placebo.

    On the other, they were given a single oral dose of a medical-grade cannabis oil containing 10 mg THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the compound responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis) and 200 mg CBD (cannabidiol, which does not produce a “high”).

    Using a product with a precise, known dose ensures the results are relevant to what doctors in Australia are already prescribing.

    The order in which participants received either the treatment or the placebo was randomised, so they didn’t know which one they were taking.

    After taking either the treatment or the placebo, they slept at our lab while wearing a special cap with 256 monitors on it. This high-density electroencephalogram or EEG allowed us to record the electrical activity of the brain while the person slept.

    The next morning, after they either woke or were woken, they performed a driving simulation test around the time of their normal morning commute.

    They also underwent a test that assessed their ability to stay awake in a quiet, dimly lit environment. To track their alertness throughout the day, they repeated this test four times while wearing the high-density EEG cap. This was so we could test their alertness the day after either the treatment or the placebo.

    What we found

    Our results were not what we expected.

    We found the THC/CBD treatment decreased total sleep time by an average of 24.5 minutes. This was largely driven by a significant impact on REM sleep (the phase associated with dreaming), which not only decreased by an average of 33.9 minutes but also took significantly longer for participants to enter. The treatment also offered no benefit in helping participants stay asleep throughout the night.

    Perhaps most intriguingly, this objective worsening of sleep wasn’t reflected in the participants’ own perceptions; they reported no change in their subjective sleep quality. This disconnect continued into the next day.

    While participants noted feeling slightly more sleepy after the treatment, their objective alertness – measured by their ability to stay awake in a quiet, dimly lit room – was reassuringly unchanged, as was their cognitive and simulated driving performance.

    This leads to a crucial question: if a single dose produces these changes, what are the cumulative effects on a person’s sleep after weeks, months, or years of nightly use?

    We simply don’t have the answers yet, especially with a medical-grade cannabis product.

    A growing body of research

    Our findings underscore a significant gap between the widespread public perception of cannabis for sleep and the complex scientific reality. As highlighted by a review we published in the journal Current Psychiatry Reports, the evidence base remains thin.

    We reviewed 21 recent studies (published between 2021 and 2024) of cannabinoids being used for insomnia, subjective sleep impairment, obstructive sleep apnoea, rapid eye movement sleep behaviour disorder, and restless legs syndrome.

    We found that, despite its widespread use, there’s not enough research yet to support the use of medical cannabis to treat sleep disorders.

    This is why this kind of research is so vital. It provides the first pieces of a much larger puzzle.

    To give doctors and patients the clear guidance they need, there is an urgent need for adequately funded, well-designed clinical trials with larger sample sizes and longer treatment durations to truly understand the long-term impacts of medicinal cannabis on sleep and daytime functioning.

    Camilla Hoyos is a Research Leader within the Centre for Sleep and Chronobiology at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. The Woolcock sleep group received funding from Lambert Initiative of Cannabinoid Therapeutics (a philanthropic centre based at The University of Sydney) for this study and for another unpublished trial in the same space. Woolcock sleep group also received funding to be a site on an industry-sponsored clinical trial on a cannabinoids medicine in insomnia. Camilla Hoyos is also a board member of the Australasian Sleep Association. This study described in this article was a collaboration between the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research and Lambert Initiative of Cannabinoid Research.

    Anastasia has previously received funding from the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics, a philanthropically funded research initiative at the Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney. She has received consulting fees from the Medicinal Cannabis Industry Australia for a commissioned review article and Haleon (a consumer health-care subsidiary of GSK) for non-cannabinoid related work. She is a committee member for the Sleep Health Week Working Party and an expert speaker for the Sleep Health Foundation.

    – ref. Cannabinoid products may reduce total sleep time in adults with insomnia: new study – https://theconversation.com/cannabinoid-products-may-reduce-total-sleep-time-in-adults-with-insomnia-new-study-256467

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Labor leads in two Victorian state polls, but Premier Jacinta Allan’s approval tanks

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne

    Labor leads in Victorian state polls by Newspoll and Redbridge, but Premier Jacinta Allan is very unpopular. Two federal polls give Labor big leads and a Tasmanian poll suggests Tasmanians would support Labor seeking to form a government with the Greens and independents.

    The next Victorian state election will be held in November 2026. The first Newspoll since the 2022 election was conducted June 23–30, but no sample size was given. It gave Labor a 53–47 lead (55.0–45.0 to Labor at the last election). Primary votes were 35% Labor, 35% Coalition, 12% Greens and 18% for all Others.

    Despite the clear Labor lead on voting intentions, Labor Premier Jacinta Allan’s net approval was a dismal -31, with 61% dissatisfied and 30% satisfied. Liberal leader Brad Battin led Allan as preferred premier by 41–36. Battin had a net approval of -5.

    Just 25% said Labor deserved to be re-elected, while 59% said it was time to give someone else a go. But by 60–40, voters were not confident the Coalition was ready to govern.

    The Poll Bludger said that by 59–32, voters supported the Suburban Rail Loop, but they were worried rather than confident by huge margins on four policy areas: state debt (78% worried, 13% confident), law and order (76–20), hospitals (71–25) and housing (78–16).

    A Victorian Redbridge poll for The Herald Sun, conducted June 19–30 from a sample of 1,183, gave Labor a 51.5–48.5 lead, a 2.5-point gain for Labor since the last Victorian Redbridge poll in April. Primary votes were 38% Coalition (down three), 33% Labor (up four), 14% Greens (up one) and 15% for all Others (down two).

    By 55–27, voters did not think the Allan government had the right focus and priorities. But by 45–26, they did not think Battin and the Coalition had done enough to deserve to win the next election.

    Labor has held government in Victoria since they won the 2014 election, and for all but one term (2010–14) since they won the 1999 election. By November 2026, Labor will have governed for the last 12 years and 23 of the last 27 years. It’s reasonable to expect an “it’s time” factor at the next election.

    It’s plausible that federal Labor’s surprise landslide at the May 3 election has assisted Labor at other levels of government. Normally a government with a premier at -31 net approval would be way behind on voting intentions.

    The Coalition will hope that any boost for state Labor from the federal election will be temporary. There’s still a long time until the next state election, so Labor could fall back as voters focus more on state politics.

    Another possible explanation for Labor’s lead despite a very unpopular premier is the infighting within the Liberals over the fallout between John Pesutto and Moira Deeming.

    Redbridge and DemosAU federal polls have big Labor leads

    A national Redbridge poll, conducted in late June from a sample of 4,036, was reported by The Financial Review. Labor led by 55.5–44.5, almost unchanged from the election result (55.2–44.8 to Labor). Primary votes were 37% Labor, 31% Coalition, 11% Greens and 21% for all Others. One Nation is likely to have made up a high proportion of Others, otherwise Labor’s two-party lead would be higher.

    This poll gave Labor a 68–32 lead with those aged 18–34 and a 57–43 lead with those aged 35–49. With those aged 50–64, there was a 50–50 tie, while the Coalition led by 55–45 with those aged 65 and older. The Greens’ primary vote was 24% with the youngest demographic, but just 2% with the oldest.

    A national DemosAU poll, conducted July 5–6 from a sample of 1,199, gave Labor a 59–41 lead, from primary votes of 36% Labor, 26% Coalition, 14% Greens, 9% One Nation and 15% for all Others. Education breakdowns had Labor winning by 55–45 with school-educated people, 61–39 with those with a TAFE education and 59–41 with the university educated.

    After their landslide re-election, Labor is getting a second honeymoon in the polls. One Nation was overstated at the election, but perhaps their increase from 6.4% then reflects dissatisfaction on the right with Sussan Ley’s leadership of the Liberals.

    YouGov Tasmanian poll on hung parliament options

    The Tasmanian state election will be held on July 19, only 16 months after the previous election in March 2024. Tasmania uses a proportional system for its lower house elections, and polls suggest another hung parliament is likely. A YouGov poll, conducted June 12–16 from a sample of 842 for The Australia Institute, was reported by The Tasmanian Times on Wednesday.

    Voting intentions were not released, but results of questions were released on whether Labor or the Liberals should seek to form a government with the Greens and independents if they were not elected in their own right.

    For Labor, by 55–31 voters agreed they should seek to form such a government, including 61–25 agree with Labor voters. For the Liberals, by 48–37 voters agreed they should try to form such a government, but Liberal voters disagreed by 46–45.

    Adrian Beaumont 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.

    – ref. Labor leads in two Victorian state polls, but Premier Jacinta Allan’s approval tanks – https://theconversation.com/labor-leads-in-two-victorian-state-polls-but-premier-jacinta-allans-approval-tanks-260553

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives shatters the church’s century-long effort to curate its own image

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brenton Griffin, Casual Lecturer and Tutor in History, Indigenous Studies, and Politics, Flinders University

    Hulu

    Reality TV series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives follows a number of social media influencers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who rose to prominence through social media, and particularly TikTok.

    The show is based in Utah, United States, where the church has its headquarters. But it stands in stark contrast with the stereotypical perception of Mormons – and especially Mormon women – the church has promoted for more than a century.

    Through its exploration of traditionally “taboo” topics such as sex, marital issues, mental illness and sexual abuse, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives clashes against the church’s carefully curated public image.

    Historical pariahs

    Historically, the church’s practice of polygamy placed it at odds with the mainstream sexual and familial norms of 19th century America.

    Polygamy had been practised by Mormons since at least the 1830s, and was officially announced as permissible by the church in 1852. The church now acknowledges its founder, Joseph Smith, married almost 40 women and teenage girls before his death in 1844.

    When Mormon missionaries began to proselytise throughout the world, newspapers criticised the practice, and Mormons were framed as sexual deviants and racialised “pariahs”. In other words, Mormons were presented as being racially different to the rest of white American society. This claim was even supported by doctors at the time.

    1904 Time cartoon by C.J. Rudd, captioned: ‘Mormon Elder Berry – out with his six year olds, who take after their mothers.’
    KUER/Religion of a Different Color: Mormonism and the Struggle for Whiteness’ (2017) by W. Paul Reeve.

    To Mormons, however, polygamy was a reintroduction of the correct form of marriage, and they pointed to biblical prophets to justify it.

    In 1862, the US congress passed a series of laws aimed at abolishing polygamy. This resulted in the arrest of church leaders and the confiscation of church-owned funds and properties in Utah.

    Then, in the 1870s, exposés written by former Mormons (particularly women) decried polygamy as evil, increasing hostility against Mormon leaders.

    Ann Eliza Webb Young, ex-wife of Mormon prophet Brigham Young, wrote the exposé ‘Wife No. 19, Or The Story of Life in Bondage’.
    Internet Archive Open Library

    In 1890, church leader Wilford Woodruff announced in a revelation known as the Manifesto that polygamy would cease. The Manifesto was accepted by most Mormons as the government’s harassment increased. However, breakaway groups called “fundamentalists” continued the practice.

    Today, Mormon scriptures continue to state polygamy is the correct form of marriage, and will exist in the afterlife.

    The stereotypical Mormon

    Since the ending of polygamy, the church has sought to establish itself as a moral equal to mainstream Christian norms, especially sexual norms. In 1995, it released a document titled Family: A Proclamation to the World which emphasised the view that heterosexual marriage and strict gender roles are divinely ordained.

    The 1995 official Mormon document, ‘The Family: A Proclamation to the World’.
    BYU Scholar Arcive

    As the church has grown, it has presented its members as model citizens of the nations they reside in.

    In doing so, it has promoted unique doctrines and practices, such as sexual abstinence before marriage, and a particular health code called the Word of Wisdom which bars alcohol, tea, coffee and tobacco.

    These doctrines, and existing stereotypes of Mormons, are examined in The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

    Colliding perceptions

    The 2024 release of the series caused waves in the Latter-day Saints community, with a number of Mormon-focused publications condemning it.

    Before the show was released, the church published a general statement saying media portrayals of Mormons “often rely on sensationalism and inaccuracies that do not fairly and fully reflect the lives of our Church members”. It has yet to directly comment on the show.

    Nonetheless, the representation of Mormons in The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is problematic for the church, because it transgresses its highly curated image of Mormonism.

    As the influencers put it, there is a desire to push back against stereotypes around Mormonism, and particularly Mormon women. These stereotypes have been crystallised by the church to combat perceptions of Mormons as sexually abhorrent, due to past practices of polygamy.

    The women in the show wear clothing that would not cover “temple garments”, the mandatory Latter-day Saint undergarments which seek to impose sexual modesty.

    There is also a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement that while the church prohibits stimulants such as tea, coffee and alcohol, Mormons within Utah and surrounds still consume other, somewhat surprising, substances. For instance, the use of ketamine in therapy is allowed when administered by a healthcare professional.

    The series also engages with topics considered taboo in the church, such as marital issues, mental health struggles and consensual sex. Even if these are being played up by the cast or producers, such discussions are lacking in broader Mormon circles.

    Importantly, there are admissions by some cast members, including one of the husbands, of being sexually abused as children. According to the cast members themselves, these disclosures are intended to empower viewers who may have had similar experiences.

    This is a powerful critique, because the Mormon church has come under intense scrutiny for its failure to properly respond to child sexual assault, both in the US and globally.

    The next steps

    The show is having a marked impact on perceptions of Mormonism, despite the church’s stance it doesn’t represent the beliefs and lifestyle of Mormons more broadly.

    For many viewers, it might be their introduction to the religion. This is concerning for adherents, and particularly for the church’s leadership.

    The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives reunion special aired earlier this month.
    Hulu

    There are internal tools the church could use against the show’s cast members, such as disciplinary councils or excommunication. But these would be ineffective since only about half the members consider themselves “faithful” Mormons.

    It’s interesting the church has yet to condemn the show. Perhaps maintaining an image of reluctant acceptance is more important, as in recent years the church has been criticised for overreach against its own members.

    In this case, the show would be an uncomfortable reality the church will just have to live with. Either way, the damage to the stereotypical Mormon image is done.

    The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives is available to stream on Disney+.

    Brenton Griffin was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but is no longer a practising member of the church. His research is focused on the religion’s place in Australian and New Zealand popular culture, politics, and society from the 19th century to present.

    – ref. The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives shatters the church’s century-long effort to curate its own image – https://theconversation.com/the-secret-lives-of-mormon-wives-shatters-the-churchs-century-long-effort-to-curate-its-own-image-260418

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Defence spending is like insurance – how will NZ pay the higher premiums?

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Hickson, Lecturer in Economics and Director, Business Taught Masters Programme, University of Canterbury

    Getty Images

    Defence spending is like insurance – you have to pay for it but you hope you never have to use it. And the higher the risk you face, the higher your premium will be.

    New Zealand has now committed to paying those higher defence insurance premiums. The government’s 2025 Defence Capability Plan, released in April, includes NZ$9 billion in extra funding over the next four years. That’s a sizable increase on a current annual budget of just under $5 billion.

    New Zealand is not alone, of course. Driven by geopolitical tensions and US President Donald Trump’s demand that other countries spend a higher proportion of their GDP on defence, global military spending rose for the tenth year in a row to US$2,718 billion in 2024, with huge increases in Europe and the Middle East.

    How much “insurance” a country should buy in the form of defence spending will vary. Too little, and it cannot respond when it needs to; too much, and resources are needlessly wasted. For New Zealand, it is a matter of finding the right balance.

    Economically, however, defence spending is more complicated than simply buying weapons and recruiting more personnel. There can be benefits beyond basic security considerations.

    One involves what economists call “technology spillovers”. Past innovations developed for military use – such as jet engines, GPS and the internet – often found important civilian applications.

    The challenge is to design defence investments to deliberately build skills and technologies with wider economic benefit: advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity or clean tech. New Zealand’s defence plan includes this kind of spending, including
    between $100 million and 300 million on cybersecurity.

    On the other hand, promises of new jobs from large projects are often overstated, with New Zealand’s best known example being the “Think Big” policy of the 1970s. Rather, there can be job substitution as people move from civilian roles into military ones.

    Guns and butter

    In the end, of course, increased defence spending must be funded – through higher taxes, more debt or reduced spending on other items. Higher GDP growth would make the expenditure more affordable, but even then we face the same tradeoffs. It’s not possible to have lower taxes and debt as well as higher government spending.

    Most of the expenditure set out in the defence plan will be on equipment. But any increase in the output of the defence industry will likely crowd out other consumer and investment goods.

    While clearly an extreme example, one only has to look at how defence spending rose during WWII. The increase in military output came at the expense of other goods, leading to shortages and rationing.

    New Zealand doesn’t face that scale of change, but there is still likely to be some shift in production from “butter to guns”. We might also see a shift in how businesses spend their research and development money, towards military and away from civilian applications.

    New Zealand does not have a large defence industry and will need to import much of the new equipment. This implies a need for higher exports to pay for those imports, meaning fewer goods for New Zealanders to consume.

    Costs and benefits

    Most countries are understandably reluctant to cut spending on health, education and other things voters care about in order to boost defence. Hence, governments can be tempted to label new expenditures as “defence” when it could otherwise be classified as “updated infrastructure”.

    Spending on dual-purpose capital works is likely to increase, therefore, with projects earmarked for defence more likely to be funded. The New Zealand defence plan already allows for housing, airfield and port facilities that can all have multiple uses.

    There are also ethical considerations. Many consumers prefer not to invest in the arms trade, but components used in weapons manufacture often have non-military uses as well.

    Similarly, many consumer items, such as phones, vehicles and food, can be purchased by the military but clearly have non-military uses. We may see more of the output of companies that also produce non-military items directed into defence.

    All of this can make it difficult to classify a company as a defence contractor, and may be challenging for large investors (such as superannuation funds) with ethical investment policies. At the same time, the cost of not investing in defence firms might also rise as demand for their products or services increases and they become better investments.

    Like people in general, countries prefer lower insurance premiums. But when risks increase, so too does the price of insurance. Voters will disagree on how much should be spent on defence, but that is largely a political question.

    What economics teaches us, however, is that if you want to reduce your insurance premium, then reduce your risk. And that is something easier said than done.

    Stephen Hickson 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.

    – ref. Defence spending is like insurance – how will NZ pay the higher premiums? – https://theconversation.com/defence-spending-is-like-insurance-how-will-nz-pay-the-higher-premiums-260399

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  • MIL-Evening Report: Where do giant volcanic eruptions come from? New study finds missing link to ‘blobs’ deep within Earth

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicolas Flament, Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow, Environmental Futures, School of Science, University of Wollongong

    Volcanic eruptions at Earth’s surface have significant consequences. Smaller ones can scare tourists on Mount Etna or disrupt air traffic.

    Giant, large-scale eruptions can have more serious impacts. One such event contributed to the demise of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Giant volcanoes also triggered events that led to the largest mass dying on Earth, the Permian–Triassic extinction 252 million years ago).

    But what fuels a giant eruption, and how does it make its way to the surface from deep within the planet?

    In a new study published in Communications Earth and Environment, we show that columns of hot rock, which rise some 3,000 kilometres through Earth’s mantle and cause giant eruptions, are connected to continent-sized source regions we call BLOBS.

    Hidden blobs within Earth

    BLOBS are hot regions at the bottom of Earth’s mantle (between about 2,000km and 3,000km in depth) which might be composed of different material compared with the surrounding mantle rocks.

    Scientists have long known about these two hot regions under the Pacific Ocean and Africa. Geologist David Evans from Yale University suggested the acronym BLOBS, which stands for Big LOwer-mantle Basal Structures.

    These BLOBS have possibly existed for hundreds of millions of years. It is unclear whether they’re stationary or if they move around as part of mantle motion (called convection).



    Read more:
    Volcanoes, diamonds, and blobs: a billion-year history of Earth’s interior shows it’s more mobile than we thought

    Mantle plumes were the implicit link in previous studies relating BLOBS to giant volcanic eruptions. Their shape is a bit like a lollipop: the “stick” is the plume tail and the “candy” is the plume head.

    Connection between the deep mantle and Earth’s surface showing the relationship between BLOBS, mantle plumes and giant volcanic eruptions – not drawn to scale.

    Mantle plumes rise very slowly through the mantle because they transport hot solid rock, not melt or lava. At lower pressures in the uppermost 200km of Earth’s mantle, the solid rock melts, leading to eruptions.

    A long-sought relationship

    In our new study, we simulated mantle convection from 1 billion years ago and found that mantle plumes rise from moving BLOBS and can sometimes be gently tilted.

    Giant volcanic eruptions can be identified by the volume of volcanic rocks preserved at Earth’s surface. The ocean floor preserves detailed fingerprints of mantle plumes for the past 120 million years or so (there is not much seafloor older than that).

    Oceanic plateaus, such as the Ontong Java-Manihiki-Hikurangi plateau currently in the southwest Pacific Ocean, are linked to plume heads. In contrast, series of volcanoes such as the Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain and the Lord Howe seamount chain are linked to plume tails.

    We used statistics to show that the locations of past giant volcanic eruptions are significantly related to the mantle plumes predicted by our models. This is encouraging, as it suggests that the simulations predict mantle plumes in places and at times generally consistent with the geologic record.

    Model BLOBS, plume tails, and giant volcanic eruptions under the African hemisphere from 300 million years ago. BLOBS are coloured in dark red and plume tails are coloured by depth in yellow to orange tones, with warmer colours at greater depths. At the surface, the outlines of continental blocks are shown in transparent grey, and giant volcanic eruption locations are shown as green triangles.

    Are BLOBS fixed or mobile?

    We showed that the considered eruption locations fall either onto or close to the moving BLOBS predicted by our models. Eruption locations slightly outside moving BLOBS could be explained by plume tilting.

    We represented fixed BLOBS with 3D images of Earth’s interior, created using seismic waves from distant earthquakes (a technique called seismic tomography). One out of the four seismic tomographic models that we considered matched the locations of past giant volcanic eruptions, implying that the fixed BLOBS scenario cannot be ruled out for geologically recent times – the past 300 million years.

    One of the next steps for this research is to explore the chemical nature of BLOBS and plume conduits. We can do so with simulations that track the evolution of their composition.

    Our results suggest the deep Earth is dynamic. BLOBS, which are some 2,000km below Earth’s surface, move hundreds of kilometres over time, and are connected to Earth’s surface by mantle plumes that create giant eruptions.

    To take a step back and keep things in perspective: while deep Earth motions are significant over tens of millions of years, they are generally in the order of 1 centimetre per year. This means BLOBS shift at roughly the rate at which human hair grows.



    Read more:
    Where should we look for new metals that are critical for green energy technology? Volcanoes may point the way

    Nicolas Flament receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Anglo American and De Beers.

    Annalise Cucchiaro receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Anglo American and De Beers.

    – ref. Where do giant volcanic eruptions come from? New study finds missing link to ‘blobs’ deep within Earth – https://theconversation.com/where-do-giant-volcanic-eruptions-come-from-new-study-finds-missing-link-to-blobs-deep-within-earth-259804

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Earth’s ‘oldest’ impact crater is much younger than previously thought – new study

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Aaron J. Cavosie, Senior Lecturer, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University

    Outcrops of shocked rocks from the Miralga impact structure. Aaron Cavosie

    Ever been late because you misread a clock? Sometimes, the “clocks” geologists use to date events can also be misread. Unravelling Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history with rocks is tricky business.

    Case in point: the discovery of an ancient meteorite impact crater was recently reported in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia. The original study, by a different group, made headlines with the claim the crater formed 3.5 billion years ago. If true, it would be Earth’s oldest by far.

    As it turns out, we’d also been investigating the same site. Our results are published in Science Advances today. While we agree that this is the site of an ancient meteorite impact, we have reached different conclusions about its age, size and significance.

    Let’s consider the claims made about this fascinating crater.

    One impact crater, two versions of events

    Planetary scientists search for ancient impacts to learn about Earth’s early formation. So far, nobody has found an impact crater older than the 2.23-billion-year-old Yarrabubba structure, also in Australia. (Some of the authors from both 2025 Pilbara studies were coauthors on the 2020 Yarrabubba study.)

    The new contender is located in an area called North Pole Dome. Despite the name, this isn’t where Santa lives. It’s an arid, hot, ochre-stained landscape.

    The sun sets on the arid landscape of North Pole Dome in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
    Alec Brenner

    The first report on the new crater claimed it formed 3.5 billion years ago, and was more than 100 kilometres in diameter. It was proposed that such a large impact might have played a role in forming continental crust in the Pilbara. More speculatively, the researchers also suggested it may have influenced early life.

    Our study concludes the impact actually happened much later, sometime after 2.7 billion years ago. This is at least 800 million years younger than the earlier estimate (and we think it’s probably even younger; more on that in a moment).

    We also determined the crater was much smaller – about 16km in diameter. In our view, this impact was too young and too small to have influenced continent formation or early life.

    So how could two studies arrive at such different findings?

    Subtle clues of an impact

    The originally circular crater is deeply eroded, leaving only subtle clues on the landscape. However, among the rust-coloured basalts are unique telltale signs of meteorite impact: shatter cones.

    Outcrop photo of shatter cones in basalt at the Miralga impact structure. The black pen cap is 5cm long.
    Alec Brenner

    Shatter cones are distinctive fossilised imprints of shock waves that have passed through rocks. Their unique conical shapes form under brief but immense pressure where a meteorite strikes Earth.

    Both studies found shatter cones, and agree the site is an ancient impact.

    This new crater also needed a name. We consulted the local Aboriginal people, the Nyamal, who shared the traditional name for this place and its people: Miralga. The “Miralga impact structure” name recognises this heritage.

    Determining the timing of the impact

    The impact age was estimated by field observations, as neither study found material likely to yield an impact age by radiometric dating – a method that uses measurements of radioactive isotopes.

    Both studies applied a geological principle called the law of superposition. This states that rock layers get deposited one on top of another over time, so rocks on top are younger than those below.

    Example of the law of superposition, known as Hutton’s unconformity, at Siccar Point Scotland. The gently dipping layered rocks at the top left were deposited onto – and are therefore younger than – the nearly vertical layered rocks at the bottom right.
    Anne Burgess/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

    The first group found shatter cones within and below a sedimentary layer known to have been deposited 3.47 billion years ago, but no shatter cones in younger rocks above this layer. This meant the impact occurred during deposition of the sedimentary layer.

    Their observation seemed to be a “smoking gun” for an impact 3.47 billion years ago.

    As it turns out, there was more to the story.

    Our investigation found shatter cones in the same 3.47 billion-year-old rocks, but also in younger overlying rocks, including lavas known to have erupted 2.77 billion years ago.

    Outcrop of shatter cones in 2.77-billion-year-old basalt at the Miralga impact structure. These lavas are the youngest rocks in the area we found to have shatter cones. They have distinctive holes (vesicles) representing trapped gas bubbles. The pen is 15cm long.
    Aaron Cavosie

    The impact had to occur after the formation of the youngest rocks that contained shatter cones, meaning sometime after the 2.77-billion-year-old lavas.

    At the moment, we don’t know precisely how young the crater is. We can only constrain the impact to have occurred between 2.7 billion and 400 million years ago. We’re working on dating the impact by isotopic methods, but these results aren’t yet in.

    Smaller than originally thought

    We made the first map showing where shatter cones are found. There are many hundreds over an area 6km across. From this map and their orientations, we calculate the original crater was about 16km in diameter.

    A 16km crater is a far cry from the original estimate of more than 100km. It’s too small to have influenced the formation of continents or life. By the time of the impact, the Pilbara was already quite old.

    Artist’s depiction looking northwest across the Pilbara, over the 16km-wide Miralga crater. The crater is shown 3km above the modern land surface to account for the deep erosion that has since erased it. The crater size is based on the distribution of shatter cones (inset). The cones point up and back towards the original ‘ground zero’ of the impact. Maps produced using Google Earth Studio.
    Alec Brenner

    A new connection to Mars

    Science is a self-policing sport. Claims of discovery are based on data available at the time, but they often require modification based on new data or observations.

    While it’s not the world’s oldest, the Miralga impact is scientifically unique, as craters formed in basalt are rare. Most basalts there formed 3.47 billion years ago, making them the oldest shocked target rocks known.

    Prior to impact, these ancient basalts had been chemically altered by seawater. Sedimentary rocks nearby also contain the earliest well-established fossils on Earth. Such rocks likely covered much of early Earth and Mars.

    This makes the Miralga impact structure a playground for planetary scientists studying the cratered surface (and maybe early life) of Mars. It’s an easily accessible proving ground for Mars exploration instruments and imagery, right here on Earth.

    Aaron J. Cavosie receives or has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the US National Science Foundation, and NASA.

    Alec Brenner 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.

    – ref. Earth’s ‘oldest’ impact crater is much younger than previously thought – new study – https://theconversation.com/earths-oldest-impact-crater-is-much-younger-than-previously-thought-new-study-259803

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Thirsty future: Australia’s green hydrogen targets could require vastly more water than the government hopes

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Madoc Sheehan, Adjunct Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering, James Cook University

    totajla/Shutterstock

    Green hydrogen is touted by some as the future – a way for Australia to slowly replace its reliance on fossil fuel exports. The energy-dense gas has the potential to reduce emissions in sectors challenging to decarbonise, such as steelmaking and fertiliser manufacturing.

    The Albanese government wants it to be a massive new export industry and has laid out a pathway through its National Hydrogen Strategy.

    Unfortunately, there’s a real gap between rhetoric and reality. Despite ambitious plans, no green hydrogen project has yet succeeded in Australia. The technology’s most prominent local backer, billionaire miner Twiggy Forrest, has dialled down his ambition. Globally, just 7% of announced green hydrogen projects are up and running.

    Economic viability is one problem. But there’s a much larger issue flying under the radar: water. Hitting the 2050 target of 15 million to 30 million tonnes of hydrogen a year would use 7–15% of the amount Australia’s households, farms, mines and black coal power plants use annually. That’s simply not sustainable.

    Splitting water

    Green hydrogen uses renewable energy to power electrolyser machines, which split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

    On the surface, this is an appealing use of clean energy, especially during solar peak periods.

    But what the government hasn’t properly accounted for is the water cost for green hydrogen. The strategy states water use is likely to be “considerable but not prohibitive”.

    This is questionable. For every kilogram of hydrogen produced through electrolysis, nine litres of water are directly consumed.

    That’s not all. The water needed to make hydrogen has to be extremely pure. Salt water has to be desalinated, and even fresh water needs purification. Equipment also needs cooling, which consumes even more water.

    All these processes incur substantial indirect water losses, such as the water used for industrial processes and cooling. The volumes used are highly uncertain. They can be up to 20 times greater than the direct water use.

    A key input value for the government’s hydrogen strategy modelling is taken from a 2015 report by the Argonne National Energy Laboratory in the United States, which assumes each kilogram of green hydrogen produced requires just over 30 litres of water.

    The Australian hydrogen strategy suggests 30 litres per kilogram of hydrogen would cover “all system losses including purification processes and cooling water required”. But it’s not clear if this figure covers other uses of water in making hydrogen, such as water treatment.

    Green hydrogen could help industrial sectors transition from fossil fuels. The problem is the water use.
    Audio und werbung/Shutterstock

    How much water would this use?

    According to the government’s modelling, making 15 million tonnes would require 740 billion litres of water. That would be about 7% of the 10,450 billion litres used by all of Australia’s households, farms, mines and black coal power plants.

    The government’s National Hydrogen Strategy shows the water use by major industries. Their total water use is 10,450 gigalitres annually.
    Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

    That’s substantial. One and a half Sydney Harbours worth, every year. But it might be a major underestimate. After all, estimates on indirect water use differ widely. The government’s figures are at the very bottom of the range.

    For instance, the latest research gives water consumption figures of about 66 litres per kilogram – more than twice as large. Other sources give values between 90 and 300 litres per kilogram of hydrogen – three to ten times higher.

    Uncertainty in modelling is normal. But the wide research suggesting much higher water use should give rise to real concern.

    If we take a middle-of-the-range figure of 95 litres per kilogram, this would mean that making 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen would use up 22% of the 10,450 billion litres used by households, farms, mines and black coal power plants annually by 2050.

    If hydrogen was even thirstier at 310 litres per kilogram, that would translate to 72% of that figure.

    These estimates are enormous. Even under the most optimistic scenario, the draw on Australia’s scarce freshwater resources would simply be too much. Where would this water come from? Farmers? Groundwater? Environmental flows from rivers?

    As the Queensland Farmers Federation pointed out in its response to the hydrogen strategy, the figures on water use “beg the question if they are in fact sustainable”.

    The Water Services Association of Australia has called for much greater attention to the water demands of green hydrogen, which it says are “often seriously underestimated”.

    What about saltwater? Australia has no shortage of oceans. The problem here becomes energy and wastewater. Desalination is still very energy intensive. Converting saltwater to fresh also produces large volumes of super-salty brine, which must then be managed as waste.

    Which way forward?

    Does this mean green hydrogen is a non-starter? Not necessarily. Improved electrolyser technology might offer ways to slash water use, while circular economy approaches such as resource recovery from brine could also reduce losses.

    But these concerns about water must be front and centre in future discussions about the shape and size of the industry in Australia.

    Madoc Sheehan 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.

    – ref. Thirsty future: Australia’s green hydrogen targets could require vastly more water than the government hopes – https://theconversation.com/thirsty-future-australias-green-hydrogen-targets-could-require-vastly-more-water-than-the-government-hopes-252044

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: We interviewed 205 Australians convicted of murder and manslaughter. Alcohol’s role was alarming

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Li Eriksson, Senior Lecturer, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University

    We’ve long known there’s a link between alcohol and violence, but when it comes to homicide the stories behind the statistics are harder to grasp.

    Our study sheds rare light on what actually happens when drinking precedes killing, because it draws not just on police or court records but on the first-hand accounts of convicted offenders.

    We interviewed 205 Australian men and women across Australia aged between 15 and 65 at the time of homicide and 20 to 71 when interviewed.

    Nearly half (43%) said they’d been drinking immediately before committing the act. While levels of intoxication varied, many described being heavily under the influence at the time.

    One man, when asked about his alcohol consumption, stated he had drunk “shitloads” before the incident occurred, adding he intended to “write (himself) off” that night.

    The study offers a disturbing but important window into the realities of alcohol-involved homicide.

    What do we know about alcohol and homicide?

    Most of our knowledge about homicide and alcohol comes from police reports, forensic toxicology and court proceedings. These are useful but limited. They often lack detail about how much was consumed, when and in what context.

    Self-report data – what offenders themselves say about their state of mind and substance use – add depth to this picture.

    While not without its flaws (memory and honesty being obvious concerns), such data helps us understand the psychological and situational dynamics of homicide better than numbers alone.

    What the study found

    Of the 205 homicide offenders interviewed, those who had been drinking prior to the offence shared some distinct characteristics.

    Alcohol-involved homicides were more likely to occur at night, happen in public places such as pubs or parks, involve older offenders, and be committed with knives.

    Interestingly, these cases weren’t necessarily the result of long-planned acts.

    Rather, they had many markers of impulsivity – spontaneous, emotionally charged and often reactive violence.

    Alcohol’s impact here could have played a role, as our study found drinkers and non-drinkers had similar self-control levels.

    Self-control is the ability to manage impulses, emotions and actions in pursuit of long-term goals and is typically seen as a buffer against offending.

    This suggests alcohol may overpower people’s behaviour even if they boast moderate impulse control.

    Why chronic alcohol problems matter

    The strongest predictor of alcohol-involved homicide wasn’t age, gender, or criminal history. It was whether the offender had ongoing problems with alcohol misuse.

    This points to the deeply entrenched nature of alcohol dependence and its capacity to fuel extreme violence. It also has clear implications for prevention.

    Tackling long-term alcohol abuse isn’t just a health issue – it’s a public safety issue.

    The data suggest that had some of these people received support or intervention earlier, lives may have been saved.

    More than a disinhibitor?

    We often think of alcohol as a “disinhibitor” – something that lowers self-control and makes people do things they wouldn’t otherwise do.

    That’s true to an extent but this study highlights the story is more complex.

    Many of these homicides didn’t happen because someone simply “lost control”, they happened in a context shaped by years of alcohol misuse, patterns of violence and social disadvantage.

    In some cases, alcohol didn’t cause the violence, it gave it an opportunity.

    What can we do?

    Understanding the characteristics of alcohol-involved homicide can help shape more effective crime prevention strategies.

    Some takeaways include:

    • Early intervention: addressing problem drinking before it escalates into chronic misuse is critical. This includes better screening, treatment programs and community-based support services.

    • Night-time and public place policing: since these homicides are more likely to happen in public at night, there may be a role for targeted interventions in high-risk locations—especially around bars, clubs and events where alcohol flows freely.

    • Knife crime prevention: the strong association with knife use suggests we also need to examine how accessible knives are in public settings and educate people about the risks of carrying them.

    Looking to the future

    This research doesn’t offer easy solutions but it does reinforce a vital truth: preventing homicide isn’t just about catching violent people, it’s about understanding the conditions that make violence more likely.

    By listening to those who’ve committed the ultimate crime, we might just learn how to help better prevent it from happening in the first place.

    Anna Hartley, science communicator at Griffith University, contributed to this article.

    Li Eriksson has received research funding from the Australian Institute of Criminology, Queensland Corrective Services, and Queensland Police Service.

    Paul Mazerolle received funding from the Australian Research Council to support research which informed this article..

    Richard Wortley and Samara McPhedran do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. We interviewed 205 Australians convicted of murder and manslaughter. Alcohol’s role was alarming – https://theconversation.com/we-interviewed-205-australians-convicted-of-murder-and-manslaughter-alcohols-role-was-alarming-259794

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully: artist Sarah Lightman reimagines characters battling midlife, motherhood and menopause

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dawn Llewellyn, Associate professor of Religion and Gender, Theology and Religious Studies, University of Chester

    What happens when the women immortalised in old master paintings step out of their gilded frames and into the chaos of modern domestic life? That’s the question artist Sarah Lightman tackles, with wit, irreverence and insight, in her exhibition Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully, now on at Chester Visual Arts, Grovesnor Shopping Centre.

    In works from her Biblical Domestic (2021–2024) and Menstrual Hystery (2024) series, Lightman trades halos for housework, and heavenly glory for the cluttered reality of her own everyday life. Her saints and heroines aren’t meditating in divine serenity – they’re battling menopause, messy kitchens and midlife malaise.

    With humour and intimacy, Lightman probes the distance between the idealised women of religious art and the ageing bodies we’re taught to hide. Her characters, drawn from both the canon of western Christian art and the sacred Jewish texts of her upbringing, are lovingly reimagined through a feminist lens.

    What if Mary hated soft play as much as the rest of us? What if Eve was just trying to get through another basket of laundry? What if biblical women aged in real time?

    With bold colours, absurdist touches and deep empathy, Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully reframes these archetypes for today – and starts fresh conversations about visibility, care and womanhood.

    Old masters, new messes

    In Fridge Frustrations (2022), Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes (1599) becomes a scene of domestic dread. Judith still holds Holofernes’ severed head – but now her crisis is storage, not salvation:

    Judith can’t find anywhere in the fridge for her organic and fresh cut of Holofernes.

    Lightman retains the dramatic composition of the original but shifts its meaning entirely. Her watercolour medium softens the baroque oil intensity, introducing levity without losing emotional depth.

    In The Annunciation of the Menopause (2024), she riffs on The Annunciation by Fra Angelico (1425-26), the early Renaissance fresco where the Virgin Mary receives the angel Gabriel’s news that she’ll bear the son of God.

    Here, Mary’s serene acceptance is swapped for something far more visceral: she sits beside an exam table mid heavy bleed, not in graceful surrender but bodily discomfort. Gabriel is gone, replaced by a gynaecologist in latex gloves. The walls? Tiled not with gold leaf but with packets of Always. This is no divine encounter – just hot flushes, greasy hair and hormonal chaos. No spiritual serenity in sight.

    Instead of youthful grace, Lightman gives us perimenopausal truth: gritty, awkward, real.

    Not a rejection, but a rewriting

    Lightman’s work is unabashedly feminist and unapologetically funny – but it’s also rooted in reverence. Her reinterpretations of women from Hebrew scripture honour the complexity of these figures and draw from the feminist Jewish tradition of midrash: creative interpretation that fills in the biblical silences.

    Lightman isn’t discarding these sacred stories: she’s inhabiting them. She paints the parts we were never told, the thoughts and struggles left out of the male-dominated canon. Her canvases ask: what if we didn’t accept the gaps in these women’s lives? What if we imagined them into our own?

    Context matters – and Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully is exhibited not in a white-walled gallery but in Chester’s Grosvenor Precinct, having previously shown at Chester’s cultural centre Storyhouse. The location is deliberate. These Madonnas and menopausal saints appear exactly where they live now: among shopping bags, toddler tantrums and the quiet sighs of women holding it all together.

    Meeting Eve, Mary, Bathsheba, Susanna and Lot’s wife in a shopping centre creates a surreal and poignant dissonance. It collapses the sacred and the ordinary, and invites viewers to see their own lives reflected in these ancient figures.

    Messy, mortal and magnificent

    It’s a risk, of course, putting menopause, motherhood, grief, housework and rape culture centre stage. There’s a version of this exhibition that could have been grim. But Lightman’s palette is anything but dour. Her watercolours are vibrant and playful, her titles sharp with satire. These women aren’t tragic martyrs; they’re exhausted, yes, but also knowing, cheeky and in on the joke.

    Lightman treats art history not as a fixed monument, but as a toolkit to be deconstructed and rebuilt. She gives her saints their bodies back – saggy, sweaty, miraculous – and their agency too.

    What makes Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully so powerful is its embrace of contradiction. It is sacred and silly, sincere and subversive, heartbreaking and hilarious. It is, in essence, a feminist midrash in watercolour: retelling holy stories through the grit and glory of contemporary womanhood, and holding them close even as it pushes them open.

    Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully is on display at Chester Visual Arts, Grovesnor Shopping Centre until July 13.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully: artist Sarah Lightman reimagines characters battling midlife, motherhood and menopause – https://theconversation.com/biblical-women-ageing-disgracefully-artist-sarah-lightman-reimagines-characters-battling-midlife-motherhood-and-menopause-260522

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: From Kabul to the catwalk – the surprising global history behind fashion’s fur revival

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Magnus Marsden, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Sussex

    The winter season of 2024-25 marked a resurgence of fur clothing – both faux and real – in fashion across Europe and North America. Shearling jackets and embroidered “Penny Lane coats” featured widely in reports on the latest fashion trends. Vintage fur coats are also back in vogue.

    To many, the resurgence came as a surprise. The anti-fur movement, especially influential in the 1980s, continues to shape perceptions of fur. In the 2010s, cities including New York and Los Angeles banned the use of fur to make clothes. The UK meanwhile banned the farming of fur-bearing animals, and, alongside the EU, has committed itself to legislating against all fur imports.

    Just last year the town of Worthing, in England, debated whether their mayor should wear ceremonial robes trimmed with fur or not. Despite these trends, many young people have embraced the renewed trend of wearing real fur.

    Some clothes made from animal skins became popular during the counter-cultural movement of the 1960s, but historically, fur has mostly marked status, wealth and luxury. Today, many critics interpret fur’s return to fashion as a cultural expression of rightwing politics.

    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    Fur is prominent in the “boom boom” fashion trend, which emphasises excess and “male-coded values”. It has been described by fashion journalists as “over-the-top and unashamed about its own greed and lack of wokeness”.

    Fur clothing is a reminder of the moral tensions between need and desire, and luxury and excess. In addition to being inter-generational, these debates are also about gender. For much of the 20th century, fur coats symbolised femininity, erotic power and class position in the west. But by the 1980s, advertising campaigns depicted women who wore fur as either stupid and unthinking or thinking and unspeakably cruel, leading many to jettison it.

    Anti-fur protests were held across the US in 1994.

    Fur’s return to fashion has injected old debates with new significance. Some young people are willing to wear faux fur because it does not involve killing animals. But others argue that, because it is made from synthetic material, faux fur is actually more environmentally damaging and prefer to wear the real thing. They claim that wearing vintage fur is a form of “sustainable consumption” but are challenged by those who argue that this fashion trend ultimately justifies killing animals to make clothes.

    The boom boom trend is said to embody a contemporary expression of 1980s “conspicuous consumerism”, but in an era of economic austerity the adoption of fur by young people suggests the clothes they wear identify their desires rather than their financial reality.

    A global history of fur

    Today, as in the 1980s, the perspectives, interests and experiences of non-Europeans are often unheard in debates around fur. A decline of fur-bearing animal populations in North America and Siberia from the early 19th century, led to a global expansion in fur farming.



    Read more:
    How central Asian Jews and Muslims worked together in London’s 20th-century fur and carpet trade

    From the 1850s, for example, Central Asia supplied furs to Europe and North America. Local artisans cured the pelts of karakul lambs – a native breed – to yield a rich and glossy fur. In central and south Asia, men of high status wore karakul hats; in Europe and America, they were mostly used to make women’s coats.

    After the Russian revolution of 1917, many nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists, who raised sheep and other animals, left central Asia and moved with their flocks to neighbouring Afghanistan. The trade in karakul fur grew in the country, and foreign currency reserves came to depend on lambskins sold at auctions in London and New York.

    In the 1960s, sheepskin coats made in Afghanistan – known as “Afghans” – became popular in the west, being worn by stars including Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones. The 1969 British edition of Vogue featured an interview with an icon of “oriental chic”, the “beautiful, dashing, intelligent, adventurous” Afghan socialite, Safia Tarzi, who lived in Paris, and ran a boutique clothing shop in Kabul.

    The Afghan coat enjoyed a resurgence in 2000 having been worn by the character Penny Lane (Kate Hudson) in the film Almost Famous.



    Read more:
    Friday essay: how ‘Afghan’ coats left Kabul for the fashion world and became a hippie must-have

    In the 1980s, the anti-fur campaign contributed to a declining market for karakul. For decades, rumours of Central Asian shepherds extracting lambs from the wombs of sheep to ensure a steady yield of delicate pelts had circulated. Moral opposition to the practice was not confined to the west.

    During my research on globally dispersed activists, intellectuals and merchants from Afghanistan, a man from Afghanistan, now based in London, told me that his father banned his family from wearing karakul hats because sheep and their lambs were treated cruelly.

    In the 1990s, civil war destroyed much of the infrastructure of the karakul industry in Afghanistan, but a trickle of pelts reached auction houses located in Frankfurt, Copenhagen and Helsinki.

    In the 2000s, international development organisations attempted to revive the trade, though sales never returned to anyway near the levels of the 1970s. By the 2010s, families in northern Afghanistan struggling economically opted to send sons to travel illegally to Turkey to find work as shepherds for commercially oriented Turkish farmers.

    Promotional videos of fashion houses occasionally touch on the Penny Lane coat’s ties to Afghanistan, but media coverage of fur fashions rarely address its historical connections to central Asia.

    Magnus Marsden received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council including for the research upon which this article is based.

    – ref. From Kabul to the catwalk – the surprising global history behind fashion’s fur revival – https://theconversation.com/from-kabul-to-the-catwalk-the-surprising-global-history-behind-fashions-fur-revival-256382

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How M&S responds to its cyber-attack could have a serious impact on its future – and its customers

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Aybars Tuncdogan, Reader in Digital Innovation and Information Security, King’s College London

    raymond orton/Shutterstock

    The cyber-attack on Marks & Spencer will lead to an estimated £300 million hit to the company’s profits this year. It now aims to have online shopping at the store back to normal by August, more than three months after IT systems were compromised.

    Fans of M&S clothing and food will be relieved after all of the uncertainty. But that level of uncertainty, as well as the huge cost, is surely a sign that big retailers, which millions of people rely on, need to change how they think about – and invest in – cybersecurity.

    It has to be an absolute priority. After all, few marketing strategies or HR initiatives can save a company £300 million in just six weeks. But perhaps a more sophisticated cybersecurity department could have done just that.

    To be fair, M&S faced a relatively rare, high-impact ordeal. Most cyber-attacks of this nature don’t affect customers so directly, and much of the recovery typically happens behind the scenes.

    But M&S shoppers saw online orders collapse, contactless payments fail and refunds, gift cards and loyalty points not functioning. Disruption in stock-management and warehousing led to empty shelves and food waste.

    On June 27, M&S issued a public apology and a £5 digital gift card to affected customers. But research suggests that the most important element of keeping customers onside is the quality of the recovery process, and whether normal service is eventually resumed.

    To get back to normal service, it is possible that a ransom was paid to the cyber attackers, but M&S has refused to confirm or deny this. (One survey found that many organisations hit by cyber attacks agreed to pay a ransom – and then suffered a subsequent breach, often from the very same culprits.)

    But even when normal service returns, when hackers steal customer data, as they did with M&S, research suggests that this information is often reused by criminals in identity theft and phishing. A study even found that victims of data breaches are more likely to have mortgage applications denied.

    From what we know about the breach at M&S, it seems that the cyber-attackers simply used a phishing technique to get the support desk of a third-party contractor to reset the password of an admin-level account. That said, although in this case the main vulnerability was human, the lesson to be learnt here is that sometimes just one vulnerability can shake the whole system to its core.

    This is why business owners need to think of cybersecurity not just as a tedious and inconvenient IT issue, but as a core function of the business. Otherwise, as the M&S case illustrates, it is simply not possible for the rest of the corporate structure to operate.

    Testing times

    So cybersecurity targets must be incorporated into every department to ensure collective defence. And organisations also need to stress-test the different aspects of their systems.

    That could be checking on human responses, but it should also include technology (like a vulnerability in the web server), physical barriers (a poorly secured server room door) and HR procedures (failure to revoke ex-employee access).

    Lock down your laptop.
    Thapana_Studio/Shutterstock

    These lines of defence have to be stress-tested regularly and from multiple angles, rather than being considered an annual checkbox activity for compliance.

    Scenario-based tests – essentially a cyber fire-drill — such as internal threat simulations and response exercises, can provide useful insights into an organisation’s readiness to detect, respond to and recover from cyber-attacks.

    It’s also important that organisations learn to communicate clearly once a breach occurs. Research into responses to data breaches suggests that any backlash is sharper when the company seems to be trying to hide the breach, which may later be publicised by the criminals instead.

    Consumers should also remember that they are not powerless. We may not be able to prevent a data breach, but all of us can help to stop attackers from infiltrating our online worlds by something as simple as not re-using the same passwords.

    By remaining sceptical, we can prevent attackers from using the information they stole to phish us later. And by thinking carefully about what personal data we share with companies, we can reduce the impact of future breaches.

    Aybars Tuncdogan 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.

    – ref. How M&S responds to its cyber-attack could have a serious impact on its future – and its customers – https://theconversation.com/how-mands-responds-to-its-cyber-attack-could-have-a-serious-impact-on-its-future-and-its-customers-260429

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How M&S responds to its cyber-attack could have a serious impact on its future – and its customers

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Aybars Tuncdogan, Reader in Digital Innovation and Information Security, King’s College London

    raymond orton/Shutterstock

    The cyber-attack on Marks & Spencer will lead to an estimated £300 million hit to the company’s profits this year. It now aims to have online shopping at the store back to normal by August, more than three months after IT systems were compromised.

    Fans of M&S clothing and food will be relieved after all of the uncertainty. But that level of uncertainty, as well as the huge cost, is surely a sign that big retailers, which millions of people rely on, need to change how they think about – and invest in – cybersecurity.

    It has to be an absolute priority. After all, few marketing strategies or HR initiatives can save a company £300 million in just six weeks. But perhaps a more sophisticated cybersecurity department could have done just that.

    To be fair, M&S faced a relatively rare, high-impact ordeal. Most cyber-attacks of this nature don’t affect customers so directly, and much of the recovery typically happens behind the scenes.

    But M&S shoppers saw online orders collapse, contactless payments fail and refunds, gift cards and loyalty points not functioning. Disruption in stock-management and warehousing led to empty shelves and food waste.

    On June 27, M&S issued a public apology and a £5 digital gift card to affected customers. But research suggests that the most important element of keeping customers onside is the quality of the recovery process, and whether normal service is eventually resumed.

    To get back to normal service, it is possible that a ransom was paid to the cyber attackers, but M&S has refused to confirm or deny this. (One survey found that many organisations hit by cyber attacks agreed to pay a ransom – and then suffered a subsequent breach, often from the very same culprits.)

    But even when normal service returns, when hackers steal customer data, as they did with M&S, research suggests that this information is often reused by criminals in identity theft and phishing. A study even found that victims of data breaches are more likely to have mortgage applications denied.

    From what we know about the breach at M&S, it seems that the cyber-attackers simply used a phishing technique to get the support desk of a third-party contractor to reset the password of an admin-level account. That said, although in this case the main vulnerability was human, the lesson to be learnt here is that sometimes just one vulnerability can shake the whole system to its core.

    This is why business owners need to think of cybersecurity not just as a tedious and inconvenient IT issue, but as a core function of the business. Otherwise, as the M&S case illustrates, it is simply not possible for the rest of the corporate structure to operate.

    Testing times

    So cybersecurity targets must be incorporated into every department to ensure collective defence. And organisations also need to stress-test the different aspects of their systems.

    That could be checking on human responses, but it should also include technology (like a vulnerability in the web server), physical barriers (a poorly secured server room door) and HR procedures (failure to revoke ex-employee access).

    Lock down your laptop.
    Thapana_Studio/Shutterstock

    These lines of defence have to be stress-tested regularly and from multiple angles, rather than being considered an annual checkbox activity for compliance.

    Scenario-based tests – essentially a cyber fire-drill — such as internal threat simulations and response exercises, can provide useful insights into an organisation’s readiness to detect, respond to and recover from cyber-attacks.

    It’s also important that organisations learn to communicate clearly once a breach occurs. Research into responses to data breaches suggests that any backlash is sharper when the company seems to be trying to hide the breach, which may later be publicised by the criminals instead.

    Consumers should also remember that they are not powerless. We may not be able to prevent a data breach, but all of us can help to stop attackers from infiltrating our online worlds by something as simple as not re-using the same passwords.

    By remaining sceptical, we can prevent attackers from using the information they stole to phish us later. And by thinking carefully about what personal data we share with companies, we can reduce the impact of future breaches.

    Aybars Tuncdogan 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.

    – ref. How M&S responds to its cyber-attack could have a serious impact on its future – and its customers – https://theconversation.com/how-mands-responds-to-its-cyber-attack-could-have-a-serious-impact-on-its-future-and-its-customers-260429

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Lioness Lucy Bronze uses ‘cycle syncing’ to get an edge on her competition — here’s how the practise works

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mollie O’Hanlon, PhD Candidate, Exercise Physiology, Nottingham Trent University

    Bronze has said ‘cycle syncing’ has been important for her performance. Jose Breton- Pics Action/ Shutterstock

    England footballer Lucy Bronze recently said in an interview that “cycle syncing” gives her an edge on the pitch. This practice involves aligning your training schedule to the different phases of your menstrual cycle.

    Cycle syncing has become increasingly popular in recent years – especially among athletes who are looking to get an edge over the competition. Even Chelsea women’s football team have put this new approach to use, tailoring training schedules according to each player’s menstrual cycle.

    For the average person, tailoring your workouts to your menstrual cycle is probably not going to have much of an impact. But for a professional athlete such as Bronze, cycle syncing could be a gamechanging strategy in shaping her elite performance.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    The menstrual cycle begins and ends with menstruation (a period). While the length of the menstrual cycle varies for each person, it’s usually around 28 days.

    The menstrual cycle is underpinned by fluctuations in levels of the female sex hormones oestrogen and progesterone. This is why the cycle is divided into three key phases: early follicular, late follicular and the luteal phase.

    The early follicular phase usually lasts around seven days and begins with the start of your period. This is when hormone levels are at their lowest.

    The late follicular phase follows on from the first seven days, and is where ovulation happens – usually around day 14 of the cycle, though this will depend on cycle length. Ovulation is when the egg is released and you’re at your most fertile.

    After that comes the luteal phase (lasting around 12-14 days), when progesterone peaks to prepare the body for pregnancy. If pregnancy doesn’t happen, hormones drop and the cycle begins again.

    It’s no secret that mood and energy levels can shift – sometimes significantly – throughout the menstrual cycle. This is why some female athletes have begun using cycle syncing. By tailoring training schedules to match hormonal fluctuations, women are gaining a deeper understanding of their bodies and the symptoms they experience throughout each phase – empowering them to train smarter, not harder.

    Bronze said the strategy has transformed her performance, saying that during certain phases of her cycle she feels “physically capable of more and can train harder”.

    Despite these testimonials, scientists are yet to reach a definitive conclusion on how the menstrual cycle affects athletic performance.

    Bronze is just one of many female athletes putting ‘cycle syncing’ to the test.
    Christian Bertrand/ Shutterstock

    So far, there’s some suggestion that there may be a slight dip in performance (specifically to strength and endurance) during the early follicular phase. However, these effects are minimal – and highly dependent on the person. It’s also not entirely clear what mechanisms underpin these small performance dips that some women experienced.

    Other research suggests that certain aspects of the neuromuscular system (the network of nerves and muscles that make movement possible) – specifically how our muscles generate force – is altered during the luteal phase. Research has also found that certain muscles may fatigue less quickly during this phase as well.

    This implies that during the luteal phase, there may be changes in signals from the brain and spinal cord to the skeletal muscles. However, no changes in the neuromuscular function have been observed.

    Part of the reason it’s so difficult for researchers to gather enough evidence to draw firm conclusions on the menstrual cycle’s potential effects on athletic performance is because of the huge variability in menstrual cycle characteristics, which makes it difficult to study. Phase length, hormone levels and symptoms can differ widely between women – and even from cycle to cycle.

    The small effects seen in these studies will have little effect on how most of us train or exercise. But for an elite athlete, these minuscule differences could have an effect on their training and competition, which may be why so many are willing to give the practice a try.

    So while it isn’t entirely clear how much influence certain menstrual cycle phases have on performance, how you feel during different phases could certainly affect your ability to train at your best.

    Around 77% of female athletes experience negative symptoms in the days leading up to and during menstruation. Fatigue, feeling less motivated and even experiencing digestive issues such as bloating and nausea, could all affect your ability to train at your best.

    Trying cycle syncing

    If you’re still interested in giving cycle syncing a try to see if it has any effect for you, the best place to start is by tracking your menstrual cycle. This will help you understand your body, how you feel in each phase of your cycle and what effect certain symptoms have on your training.

    It’s recommended you track your cycle for at least three months before making any changes to your training to establish a baseline and spot trends over time.

    For example, if you notice you often feel fatigued when training in your luteal phase, it may help to focus on ensuring you fuel well with carbohydrates before and during workouts. Or on days where you feel more energetic and motivated to train, you might be able to push yourself a bit harder in your workouts.

    Whether you’re playing for England in the Euros or simply working towards your own fitness goals, understanding your cycle can help you train smarter, manage your symptoms better and stay consistent with your training.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Lioness Lucy Bronze uses ‘cycle syncing’ to get an edge on her competition — here’s how the practise works – https://theconversation.com/lioness-lucy-bronze-uses-cycle-syncing-to-get-an-edge-on-her-competition-heres-how-the-practise-works-260153

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: China’s interest in the next Dalai Lama is also about control of Tibet’s water supply

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tom Harper, Lecturer in International Relations, University of East London

    As the 14th Dalai Lama celebrates his 90th birthday with thousands of Tibetan Buddhists, there’s already tension over how the next spiritual leader will be selected. Controversially, the Chinese government has suggested it wants more power over who is chosen.

    Traditionally, Tibetan leaders and aides seek a young boy who is seen as the chosen reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. It is possible that after they do this, this time Beijing will try to appoint a rival figure.

    However, the current Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, insists that the process of succession will be led by the Swiss-based Gaden Phodrang Trust, which manages his affairs. He said no one else had authority “to interfere in this matter” and that statement is being seen as a strong signal to China.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Throughout the 20th century, Tibetans struggled to create an independent state, as their homeland was fought over by Russia, the UK and China. In 1951, Tibetan leaders signed a treaty with China allowing a Chinese military presence on their land.

    China established the Tibetan Autonomous Region in 1965, in name this means that Tibet is an autonomous region within China, but in effect it is tightly controlled. Tibet has a government in exile, based in India, that still wants Tibet to become an independent state.

    This is a continuing source of tension between the two countries. India also claims part of Tibet as its own territory.

    Beijing sees having more power over the selection of the Dalai Lama as an opportunity to stamp more authority on Tibet. Tibet’s strategic position and its resources are extremely valuable to China, and play a part in Beijing’s wider plans for regional dominance, and in its aim of pushing back against India, its powerful rival in south Asia.

    The Dalai Lama celebrates his 90th birthday as many Tibetans living in China fear talking about independence.

    Tibet provides China with a naturally defensive border with the rest of southern Asia, with its mountainous terrain providing a buffer against India. The brief Sino-Indian war of 1962 when the two countries battled for control of the region, still has implications for India and China today, where they continue to dispute border lands.

    As with many powerful nations, China has always been concerned about threats, or rival power bases, within its neighbourhood. This is similar to how the US has used the Monroe Doctrine to ensure its dominance over Latin America, and how Russia seeks to maintain its influence over former Soviet states.

    Beijing views western criticism of its control of Tibet as interference in its sphere of influence.



    Read more:
    India and Pakistan tension escalates with suspension of historic water treaty

    Another source of contention is that Beijing traditionally views boundaries such as the McMahon line defining the China-India border as lacking legitimacy, a border drawn up when China was at its weakest in the 19th century. Known in China as the “century of humiliation”, this was characterised by a series of unequal treaties, which saw the loss of territory to stronger European powers.

    This continues to a source of political tensions in China’s border regions including Tibet. This is a controversial part of China’s historical memory and continues to influence its ongoing relationship with the west.

    Demand for natural resources

    Tibet’s importance to Beijing also comes from its vast water resources. Access to more water is seen as increasingly important for China’s wider push towards self-sufficiency which has become imperative in the face of climate change. This also provides China with a significant geopolitical tool.

    For instance, the Mekong River rises in Tibet and flows through China and along the borders of Myanamar and Laos and onward into Thailand and Cambodia. It is the third longest river in Asia, and is crucial for many of the economies of south-east Asia. It is estimated to sustain 60 million people.

    China’s attempts to control water supplies, particularly through the building of huge dams in Tibet, has added to regional tensions. Around 50% of the flow to the Mekong was cut off for part of 2021, after a Chinese mega dam was built. This caused a lot of resentment from other countries which depended on the water.

    Moves by other nations to control access to regional water supplies in recent years show how water is now becoming a negotiating tool. India attempted to cut off Pakistan’s water supply in 2025 as part of the conflict between the two. Control of Tibet allows China to pursue a similar strategy, which grants Beijing leverage in its dealings with New Delhi, and other governments.


    Shutterstock.

    Another natural resource is also a vital part of China’s planning. Tibet’s significant lithium deposits are crucial for Chinese supply chains, particularly for their use in the electric vehicle industry. Beijing is attempting to reduce its reliance on western firms and supplies, in the face of the present trade tensions between the US and China, and Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods.

    Tibet’s value to China is a reflection of wider changes in a world where water is increasingly playing an important role in geopolitics. With its valuable natural resources, China’s desire to control Tibet is not likely to decrease.

    Tom Harper 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.

    – ref. China’s interest in the next Dalai Lama is also about control of Tibet’s water supply – https://theconversation.com/chinas-interest-in-the-next-dalai-lama-is-also-about-control-of-tibets-water-supply-255843

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Parental leave in the UK isn’t working – here’s what needs to change

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi, Senior Lecturer at York Business School, York St John University

    pikselstock/Shutterstock

    The recent launch of a government review into parental leave and pay in the UK is a hugely welcome development. In order to bring about meaningful change, it must challenge the fundamental issue at the heart of current parental leave laws. They are strongly influenced by, and so perpetuate, gender norms that see women as caregivers and fathers as breadwinners.

    Parents in the UK can take maternity leave, paternity leave and shared parental leave in the first year of their child’s life. While these allowances provide parents with support, the support is disproportionate in how it is split between mothers and fathers. Although gender roles have evolved significantly, UK policies lag behind.

    Mothers and fathers are equal parents and have equal parenting responsibilities. However, mothers are allowed up to 52 weeks of maternity leave, while fathers are only entitled to two weeks of statutory paternity leave.

    The introduction of shared parental leave in 2015 was welcomed as a positive step towards gender equality – but it has failed in this aim.

    There are significant barriers stopping fathers from benefiting fully from the legislation. Parents can share up to 50 weeks of leave between them. But because mothers are entitled to a year of leave, the policy requires mothers to act as gatekeepers. The mother determines if the father can share the leave and how long she is willing to give up for the father.

    Consequently, fathers have no autonomy or independence to take parental leave at a time that is important to them and their babies – and they may be reluctant to deprive the mother of leave she is entitled to.

    What’s more, while maternity and paternity leave is well known and the process relatively straightforward, shared parental leave has been criticised for its complexity. Parents that have explored shared parental leave have found the policy and process incredibly complex because some employers still don’t understand how it works and so are unable to support parents.

    The problems with the policy have affected its uptake. Only 5% of fathers take any shared parental leave.

    Financial implications

    Another problem that affects all three policies is the pay. While the UK has a generous maternity leave allowance of 52 weeks, this is not accompanied by a decent financial allowance.

    Although employers can set more generous terms, the law requires only the first six weeks of maternity leave to be paid at 90% of the mother’s salary. This is followed by 33 weeks at statutory pay of £187.18 and 13 weeks of no pay. The two weeks of paternity leave are paid at the statutory rate of £187.18, or 90% of the father’s average weekly earnings (whichever is lower).

    Taking parental leave can bring financial and career worries.
    christinarosepix/Shutterstock

    And while shared parental leave allows the mother to split 50 weeks of leave with her partner, a significant period of this is unpaid. Out of these 50 weeks, parents can share 37 weeks of pay at statutory rate and the rest of the leave would be unpaid.

    Mothers have returned to work early because financially they cannot afford to stay longer on maternity leave – a problem compounded by the rising cost of living. Fathers sometimes opt to take annual leave rather than paternity leave because of the low pay.

    The same reason applies to shared parental leave because parents cannot afford to both be off at the same time or different times on the statutory rate. While the policies are well intended, there is no financial incentive for parents to take it.

    Finances have a significant impact on parental leave choices. The government review should enhance parental leave pay to encourage and support parents, particularly fathers.

    Impact on careers

    The implications for parents’ careers also need to be considered. While parental leave should not affect the career aspirations or progressions of the parents, my research demonstrates otherwise. Mothers have been bullied, refused opportunities, and have felt forced to leave their jobs.

    Research also shows that fathers have concerns about their careers when considering parental leave. While it is illegal for an employer to discriminate against a parent for taking parental leave, this remains an area of concern.

    My research has demonstrated that some fathers consider shared parental leave as a “luxury” they cannot afford. They feel they need to work hard to demonstrate their commitment to their job. Equal parenting policies would support women’s careers and encourage fathers to take up more family responsibilities without fear of repercussions.

    The last point to consider – and one that often goes overlooked – is that how parents choose to feed their baby may have an effect on their decisions to take parental leave. Babies can be breastfed, formula fed or a mixture of both breast and formula feeding. If the parents make the decision to breastfeed – a choice recommended by the World Health Organisation – this may affect the mother’s decision on how much leave she takes.

    Employers have legal obligations to carry out risk assessments for breastfeeding mothers and make reasonable adjustments on specific health and safety guidelines. However, a general policy that covers the wider needs of breastfeeding mothers and offers them more support at work should be implemented.

    My research shows that mothers may prefer to take more maternity leave to enable them to breastfeed.

    The parental leave review shouldn’t miss the opportunity to introduce breastfeeding policies that ensure mothers are properly supported in the workplace – as well as making sure that both mothers and fathers have the opportunity to prioritise caring and their careers.

    Ernestine Gheyoh Ndzi 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.

    – ref. Parental leave in the UK isn’t working – here’s what needs to change – https://theconversation.com/parental-leave-in-the-uk-isnt-working-heres-what-needs-to-change-209661

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke is a powerful account of one child’s gift to another

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Leah McLaughlin, Research Fellow in Health Services, Bangor University

    What does it mean to save a life – and what does it cost? In The Story of a Heart, Rachel Clarke answers this not with slogans or sentiment, but with quiet, searing honesty. This book, which won this year’s Women’s prize for non-fiction, is about organ donation, yes, but it’s also about family, grief, love, courage, and the astonishing edges of human experience.

    At its centre are two children: Max Johnson, a healthy, active nine-year-old whose heart suddenly begins to fail, and Keira Ball, another nine-year-old – vibrant, horse-loving, full of life who tragically dies in a car accident. In a moment of unimaginable grief, Keira’s parents donate her organs. Her heart goes to Max.

    A child dies. A child lives.

    That is the simple, brutal, beautiful truth this book never looks away from. But Clarke does more than tell the story of heart. She immerses us in it – every breath, every monitor beep, every unbearable choice.

    I read this as a health services researcher who has spent years working in the emotionally complex, ethically charged, and often hidden world of organ donation. My work explores how families navigate these unimaginable scenarios, particularly in the context of recent legislative change. Clarke’s account captures, with rare precision and compassion, the silences, the emotional labour of clinicians, and the profound weight of choice that families like Keira’s carry.

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    As both a doctor and a mother, Clarke brings sensitivity to every page. We feel Max’s steady decline: the exhaustion, the fear, the silence that descends as even the doctors grow unsure. We witness Keira’s final hours, the heroic efforts to save her, and the moments where unbearable grief oscillates between hope and despair, eventually giving way to a different kind of gift.

    There are no easy heroes in this story, only ordinary people facing the unthinkable with extraordinary grace. Clarke brings them to life with aching clarity: the cardiologist who, in the dim light of a hospital room, sketches Max’s failing heart on a napkin so his mother can understand what words can’t explain; the ICU nurse who stays long after her shift ends, gently brushing the hair of a child who will never wake up; the donation nurse who enters a family’s darkest hour not with answers, but with quiet presence and unwavering care; the surgeon who steadies his hands – and his heart – when every second matters.

    And in the chaos of resuscitation, amid alarms and broken bodies, a teddy bear is tucked beneath Keira’s arm: “Someone in the crash team has seen Keira not simply as a body, inert and unresponsive, but as a vulnerable child in need of compassion.”

    The Story of a Heart is also a book about history. It’s not just about one child’s transplant, but about medicine, surgery, and the heart itself. Clarke weaves in the stories of early transplant pioneers, accidental discoveries, and the scientific stumbles and breakthroughs that built modern practice. She brings it all to life with a storyteller’s flair, making science feel intimate, alive, and deeply human.

    What the heart means

    What sets the heart apart, Clarke reminds us, is not just its function, but its symbolism. No other organ holds such emotional weight. “Hearts sing, soar, race, burn, break, bleed, swell, hammer and melt,” she writes. They are not just organs, they are vessels for our hopes, fears and deepest longings.

    Clarke shows how, across history, the heart was seen as the source of emotion, morality – even the soul – and how that deep humanism still pulses through our language and culture today. We have our hearts broken, wear our hearts on our sleeves, and as Clarke puts it: “When trying to express our truest and most sincere selves, we do so by saying we speak from the heart, or about all that our heart desires.”

    But what makes The Story of a Heart so exceptional is its emotional truth. Clarke never shies away from the pain. Max’s parents watch their son fade, terrified to even touch him. Keira’s father buys her a pink princess dress for her funeral. Max, wired to machines, records a goodbye message; we learn later he even tried to take his own life. And yet, there is light.

    Keira’s sisters climb into bed with her, painting her nails and sliding Haribo sweet rings onto her fingers. Then comes a moment so clear, so quietly astonishing, it takes everyone’s breath away. Katelyn, Keira’s older sister, turns to the doctor and asks, with calm, steady eyes: “Can we donate her organs?”

    This isn’t a clinical decision or a well-rehearsed conversation. It is an unprompted act of extraordinary love. These moments – fragile, generous, profoundly human – are the true beating heart of Clarke’s book.

    From there, we are guided into a world so few know and even fewer ever witness: the quiet choreography that carries a gift of life from one person to another. What Katelyn sets in motion with just five words unfolds with such precision, that reading it feels like witnessing a kind of living magic.

    The aftermath is just as moving. Max recovers quickly, walks again, laughs again. The two families meet. There are no big speeches, just quiet awe. And beyond that: a law is passed. Max and Keira’s Law brings in an opt-out system of donation in England. Two children. One legacy. A country changed.

    And still, Clarke doesn’t let us forget the hard truths. Not every child survives. Not every family gets a miracle. Transplants are fragile. But in that fragility, she shows us, is the real miracle. Max goes fishing with his dad, the sky glows orange – Keira’s favourite colour. That is enough.

    At the moment organ donation consent rates for children are declining in the UK, and there are more children on the transplant wait list than ever before. The Story of a Heart asks us to see the children, the families, and the quiet acts of love behind every donation. It’s a powerful reminder that the greatest gifts are often given in the darkest hours.

    This book will break your heart – and fill it up again. It’s not just essential reading for anyone interested in organ donation and transplant. It’s essential reading for anyone who has ever loved.

    This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

    Leah McLaughlin 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.

    – ref. The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke is a powerful account of one child’s gift to another – https://theconversation.com/the-story-of-a-heart-by-rachel-clarke-is-a-powerful-account-of-one-childs-gift-to-another-260611

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Gwada-negative: the rarest blood group on Earth

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Martin L. Olsson, Medical Director of the Nordic Reference Laboratory for Blood Group Genomics, Region Skåne & Professor of Transfusion Medicine, Head of the Division, Lund University

    Peter Porrini/Shutterstock.com

    In a routine blood test that turned extraordinary, French scientists have identified the world’s newest and rarest blood group. The sole known carrier is a woman from Guadeloupe whose blood is so unique that doctors couldn’t find a single compatible donor.

    The discovery of the 48th recognised blood group, called “Gwada-negative”, began when the woman’s blood plasma reacted against every potential donor sample tested, including those from her own siblings. Consequently, it was impossible to find a suitable blood donor for her.

    Most people know their blood type – A, B, AB or O – along with whether they are Rh-positive or negative. But these familiar categories (those letters plus “positive” or “negative”) represent just two of several dozens of blood group systems that determine compatibility for transfusions. Each system reflects subtle but crucial differences in the proteins and sugars coating our red blood cells.

    To solve the mystery of the Guadeloupian woman’s incompatible blood, scientists turned to cutting-edge genetic analysis. Using whole exome sequencing – a technique that examines all 20,000-plus human genes – they discovered a mutation in a gene called PIGZ.

    This gene produces an enzyme responsible for adding a specific sugar to an important molecule on cell membranes. The missing sugar changes the structure of a molecule on the surface of red blood cells. This change creates a new antigen – a key feature that defines a blood group – resulting in an entirely new classification: Gwada-positive (having the antigen) or -negative (lacking it).

    Using gene editing technology, the team confirmed their discovery by recreating the mutation in a lab. So red blood cells from all blood donors tested are Gwada-positive and the Guadeloupean patient is the only known Gwada-negative person on the planet.

    The implications of the discovery extend beyond blood transfusions. The patient suffers from mild intellectual disability, and tragically, she lost two babies at birth – outcomes that may be connected to her rare genetic mutation.

    The enzyme produced by the PIGZ gene operates at the final stage of building a complex molecule called GPI (glycosylphosphatidylinositol). Previous research has shown that people with defects in other enzymes needed for GPI assembly can experience neurological problems ranging from developmental delays to seizures. Stillbirths are also common among women with these inherited disorders.

    Although the Caribbean patient is the only person in the world so far with this rare blood type, neurological conditions including developmental delay, intellectual disability and seizures have been noted in other people with defects in enzymes needed earlier in the GPI assembly line.

    The Gwada discovery highlights both the marvels and challenges of human genetic diversity. Blood groups evolved partly as protection against infectious diseases (many bacteria, viruses and parasites use blood group molecules as entry points into cells). This means your blood type can influence your susceptibility to certain diseases.

    But extreme rarity creates medical dilemmas. The French researchers acknowledge they cannot predict what would happen if Gwada-incompatible blood were transfused into the Guadeloupian woman. Even if other Gwada-negative people exist, they would be extremely difficult to locate. It is also unclear if they can become blood donors.

    This reality points towards a futuristic solution: lab-grown blood cells. Scientists are already working on growing red blood cells from stem cells that could be genetically modified to match ultra-rare blood types. In the case of Gwada, researchers could artificially create Gwada-negative red blood cells by mutating the PIGZ gene.

    Gwada is a colloquial term for Guadeloupe, a Caribbean island.
    Shutterstock.com

    A growing field

    Gwada joins 47 other blood group systems recognised by the International Society of Blood Transfusion. Like most of these blood-group systems, it was discovered in a hospital lab where technicians were trying to find compatible blood for a patient.

    The name reflects the case’s Caribbean roots: Gwada is slang for someone from Guadeloupe, giving this blood group both scientific relevance and cultural resonance.

    As genetic sequencing becomes more advanced and widely used, researchers expect to uncover more rare blood types. Each discovery expands our understanding of human variation and raises fresh challenges for transfusion and other types of personalised medicine.

    Martin L Olsson is a Wallenberg Clinical Scholar who receives research funding from Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (grant no. 2020.0234). He holds other major grants from the Swedish Research Council (grant no. 2024-03772), the Novo Nordisk Foundation (grant no. NNF22OC0077684) and the Swedish government funds to university healthcare for clinical research (ALF grant no. 2022.0287). He is also a member of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT)’s Working Party on Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology.

    Jill Storry receives funding from the Swedish Research Council (grant no. 2024-03772). She is affiliated with, and the current senior Vice-President, of the International Society of Blood Transfusion, as well as a member of the society’s Working Party on Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology.

    – ref. Gwada-negative: the rarest blood group on Earth – https://theconversation.com/gwada-negative-the-rarest-blood-group-on-earth-260155

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Sacred sites in South Africa can protect natural heritage and culture: here’s how

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule, Associate Professor, University of Johannesburg

    Lake Fundudzi By Iris Auda – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY

    Nature isn’t confined to officially protected areas. A lot can be done to conserve biodiversity in other places too. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity agreed in 2018 on the idea of “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs). These are geographically defined areas which can be managed in ways that protect biodiversity, ecosystem functions and “where applicable, cultural, spiritual, socio-economic, and other locally relevant values.” Geographer Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule has explored the potential for sacred natural sites in South Africa to contribute to nature conservation.

    Why does South Africa need to protect more land?

    In South Africa, although protected areas play a vital role in biodiversity conservation, they are not sufficient. A lot of biodiversity occurs outside formal protected areas. Protected areas make up only 9.2% (or 11,280,684 hectares) of the country’s total land area. The National Protected Area Expansion Strategy, which was last updated in 2016, aims to increase the percentage of protected areas in the country to 16%.

    My view is that the target can only be achieved by recognising other areas that have high conservation value, such as sacred natural sites. These are places with special spiritual and cultural value.

    Recognising sacred natural sites as “other effective area-based conservation measures” entails officially declaring them as protected areas.

    There are also other sites with conservation potential. These could be on public, private or community land. This means they are governed by a variety of rights holders. Apart from sacred natural sites, other examples include military land and waters, and locally managed marine areas.

    Whatever their other, primary purpose, they can also deliver conservation of biodiversity.

    Where are South Africa’s sacred natural sites?

    There are areas in South Africa known as sacred sites because of their cultural, spiritual, or historical value, often linked to ancestral beings, religion and traditional beliefs.

    They are often places of reverence, where rituals, ceremonies, burials, or pilgrimage are conducted, and where the custodians of the areas feel a deep connection to something larger than themselves.



    Read more:
    Sacred rivers: Christianity in southern Africa has a deep history of water and ritual

    Examples of sacred natural sites include these in Limpopo province, in the north of the country:

    In the province of KwaZulu-Natal, there are Mazizini and Mabasa forests, regarded as sacred by local communities.

    In the Free State province, the local Basotho people regard certain caves as sacred and ancestral sites:

    How do the sites fit in with protecting diversity?

    The study aimed to assess opinions and perceptions about the opportunities and challenges of sacred natural sites in contributing to global conservation goals.

    I interviewed academics involved in research on Indigenous knowledge, people involved in discussions about conservation, and custodians of sacred natural sites – 39 people in all.

    Study participants identified a number of opportunities. They said:

    • Sacred natural sites frequently harbour high levels of biodiversity, including rare and endemic species, because they have been protected for a long time through cultural practices. Giving them more legal protection and funding, and integrating them into national conservation strategies, would protect hotspots of biological diversity.

    • Integrating traditional ecological knowledge and practices into mainstream conservation efforts would promote more inclusive and culturally sensitive approaches to environmental management.

    • It would expand the total land area under conservation.

    • It might create conservation corridors that would facilitate movement of animals and ecological processes between isolated habitat patches.

    • Sacred natural sites could serve as carbon sinks or storehouses of carbon emissions. Sacred forests have old, tall trees and well developed canopy – the layer of foliage that forms the crown of a forest.

    • They can serve as tourist destinations where visitors will learn about biodiversity and about religious and cultural practices.



    Read more:
    ‘Sacred forests’ in West Africa capture carbon and keep soil healthy

    The study participants also identified challenges.

    • A big one was access rights and harmonising cultural and formal conservation practices. Access to sacred natural sites and the use of resources by the public is usually not permitted.

    • There was a fear that external intervention by government, nongovernmental organisations and conservationists might sideline local people and lead to the loss of their sacred sites.

    • External interventions might promote scientific knowledge at the expense of the traditional ecological knowledge that has protected sacred natural sites for millennia.

    • Respondents were concerned about elites capturing all the benefits and not sharing them equitably.

    • A methodological challenge might be how to study conservation effectiveness while respecting cultural sensitivities.

    How would a sacred natural site be officially recognised?

    At the moment, sacred natural sites are not designated or recognised as an “other conservation measure”. Currently, there are no standard procedures, criteria, or guidelines available for declaring them as such in South Africa. These would have to be determined by the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.

    The process should begin with identifying all sacred natural sites to understand where they are and what contribution they could make towards biodiversity conservation. The department should do this in consultation with local communities and traditional leaders who understand the local environment. It should be in line with the international principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. This acknowledges the right of Indigenous peoples to give or withhold their consent for any action that would affect their lands.



    Read more:
    South African communities vs Shell: high court victories show that cultural beliefs and practices count in climate cases

    This will set up sacred natural sites as a conservation model that contributes to both biodiversity protection and cultural heritage preservation. The involvement of communities will ensure that sacred natural sites are a sustainable solution.

    All the respondents in my study said that designating a site as an “other conservation measure” should give control or legal protection, ownership and stewardship roles to local communities who have protected the area for ages.

    Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule 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.

    – ref. Sacred sites in South Africa can protect natural heritage and culture: here’s how – https://theconversation.com/sacred-sites-in-south-africa-can-protect-natural-heritage-and-culture-heres-how-260207

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Sacred sites in South Africa can protect natural heritage and culture: here’s how

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule, Associate Professor, University of Johannesburg

    Lake Fundudzi By Iris Auda – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY

    Nature isn’t confined to officially protected areas. A lot can be done to conserve biodiversity in other places too. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity agreed in 2018 on the idea of “other effective area-based conservation measures” (OECMs). These are geographically defined areas which can be managed in ways that protect biodiversity, ecosystem functions and “where applicable, cultural, spiritual, socio-economic, and other locally relevant values.” Geographer Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule has explored the potential for sacred natural sites in South Africa to contribute to nature conservation.

    Why does South Africa need to protect more land?

    In South Africa, although protected areas play a vital role in biodiversity conservation, they are not sufficient. A lot of biodiversity occurs outside formal protected areas. Protected areas make up only 9.2% (or 11,280,684 hectares) of the country’s total land area. The National Protected Area Expansion Strategy, which was last updated in 2016, aims to increase the percentage of protected areas in the country to 16%.

    My view is that the target can only be achieved by recognising other areas that have high conservation value, such as sacred natural sites. These are places with special spiritual and cultural value.

    Recognising sacred natural sites as “other effective area-based conservation measures” entails officially declaring them as protected areas.

    There are also other sites with conservation potential. These could be on public, private or community land. This means they are governed by a variety of rights holders. Apart from sacred natural sites, other examples include military land and waters, and locally managed marine areas.

    Whatever their other, primary purpose, they can also deliver conservation of biodiversity.

    Where are South Africa’s sacred natural sites?

    There are areas in South Africa known as sacred sites because of their cultural, spiritual, or historical value, often linked to ancestral beings, religion and traditional beliefs.

    They are often places of reverence, where rituals, ceremonies, burials, or pilgrimage are conducted, and where the custodians of the areas feel a deep connection to something larger than themselves.



    Read more:
    Sacred rivers: Christianity in southern Africa has a deep history of water and ritual

    Examples of sacred natural sites include these in Limpopo province, in the north of the country:

    In the province of KwaZulu-Natal, there are Mazizini and Mabasa forests, regarded as sacred by local communities.

    In the Free State province, the local Basotho people regard certain caves as sacred and ancestral sites:

    How do the sites fit in with protecting diversity?

    The study aimed to assess opinions and perceptions about the opportunities and challenges of sacred natural sites in contributing to global conservation goals.

    I interviewed academics involved in research on Indigenous knowledge, people involved in discussions about conservation, and custodians of sacred natural sites – 39 people in all.

    Study participants identified a number of opportunities. They said:

    • Sacred natural sites frequently harbour high levels of biodiversity, including rare and endemic species, because they have been protected for a long time through cultural practices. Giving them more legal protection and funding, and integrating them into national conservation strategies, would protect hotspots of biological diversity.

    • Integrating traditional ecological knowledge and practices into mainstream conservation efforts would promote more inclusive and culturally sensitive approaches to environmental management.

    • It would expand the total land area under conservation.

    • It might create conservation corridors that would facilitate movement of animals and ecological processes between isolated habitat patches.

    • Sacred natural sites could serve as carbon sinks or storehouses of carbon emissions. Sacred forests have old, tall trees and well developed canopy – the layer of foliage that forms the crown of a forest.

    • They can serve as tourist destinations where visitors will learn about biodiversity and about religious and cultural practices.



    Read more:
    ‘Sacred forests’ in West Africa capture carbon and keep soil healthy

    The study participants also identified challenges.

    • A big one was access rights and harmonising cultural and formal conservation practices. Access to sacred natural sites and the use of resources by the public is usually not permitted.

    • There was a fear that external intervention by government, nongovernmental organisations and conservationists might sideline local people and lead to the loss of their sacred sites.

    • External interventions might promote scientific knowledge at the expense of the traditional ecological knowledge that has protected sacred natural sites for millennia.

    • Respondents were concerned about elites capturing all the benefits and not sharing them equitably.

    • A methodological challenge might be how to study conservation effectiveness while respecting cultural sensitivities.

    How would a sacred natural site be officially recognised?

    At the moment, sacred natural sites are not designated or recognised as an “other conservation measure”. Currently, there are no standard procedures, criteria, or guidelines available for declaring them as such in South Africa. These would have to be determined by the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.

    The process should begin with identifying all sacred natural sites to understand where they are and what contribution they could make towards biodiversity conservation. The department should do this in consultation with local communities and traditional leaders who understand the local environment. It should be in line with the international principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. This acknowledges the right of Indigenous peoples to give or withhold their consent for any action that would affect their lands.



    Read more:
    South African communities vs Shell: high court victories show that cultural beliefs and practices count in climate cases

    This will set up sacred natural sites as a conservation model that contributes to both biodiversity protection and cultural heritage preservation. The involvement of communities will ensure that sacred natural sites are a sustainable solution.

    All the respondents in my study said that designating a site as an “other conservation measure” should give control or legal protection, ownership and stewardship roles to local communities who have protected the area for ages.

    Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule 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.

    – ref. Sacred sites in South Africa can protect natural heritage and culture: here’s how – https://theconversation.com/sacred-sites-in-south-africa-can-protect-natural-heritage-and-culture-heres-how-260207

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Antidepressant withdrawal: new review downplays symptoms but misses the mark for long-term use

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mark Horowitz, Visiting Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry, UCL

    marevgenna/Shutterstock.com

    A new review of antidepressant withdrawal effects – written by academics, many of whom have close ties to drug manufacturers – risks underestimating the potential harms to long-term antidepressant users by focusing on short-term, industry-funded studies.

    There is growing recognition that stopping antidepressants – especially after long-term use – can cause severe and sometimes debilitating withdrawal symptoms, and it is now acknowledged by the UK government as a public health issue.

    One of the main reasons this issue took decades to recognise after the release of modern antidepressants onto the market is because medical guidelines, such as those produced by Nice (England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), had for many years declared withdrawal effects to be “brief and mild”.

    This description was based on studies run by drug companies, where people had only taken the medication for eight to 12 weeks. As a result, when patients later showed up with severe, long-lasting symptoms, many doctors didn’t take them seriously because these experiences contradicted what the guidelines led them to expect.

    Our recent research helps explain this mismatch. We found a clear link between how long someone takes antidepressants and how likely they are to experience withdrawal symptoms – and how severe these symptoms are.

    We surveyed NHS patients and found that people who had used antidepressants for more than two years were ten times more likely to have withdrawal effects, five times more likely for those effects to be severe, and 18 times more likely for them to be long lasting compared with those who had taken the drugs for six months or less.

    For patients who used antidepressants for less than six months, withdrawal symptoms were mostly mild and brief. Three-quarters reported no or mild symptoms, most of which lasted less than four weeks.

    Only one in four of these patients was unable to stop when they wanted to. However, for long-term users (more than two years), two-thirds reported moderate or severe withdrawal effects, with one-quarter reporting severe withdrawal effects. Almost one-third of long-term users reported symptoms that lasted for more than three months. Four-fifths of these patients were unable to stop their antidepressants despite trying.

    About 2 million people on antidepressants in England have been taking them for over five years, according to a BBC investigation. And in the US at least 25 million people have taken antidepressants for more than five years. What happens to people in eight-to-12-week studies is a far cry from what happens to millions of people when they stop.

    Studying what happens to people after just eight to 12 weeks on antidepressants is like testing car safety by crashing a vehicle into a wall at 5km/h – ignoring the fact that real drivers are out on the roads doing 60km/h.

    History repeating itself?

    Against this backdrop, a review has just been published in Jama Psychiatry. Several of the senior authors declare payments from drug companies. In what looks like history repeating itself, the review draws on short-term trials – many funded by the pharmaceutical industry – that were similar to those used to shape early treatment guidelines. The authors conclude that antidepressants do not cause significant withdrawal effects.

    Their main analysis is based on eleven trials that compared withdrawal symptoms in people who had stopped antidepressants with those who had continued them or stopped taking a placebo. Six of these trials had people on antidepressants for eight weeks, four for 12 weeks and just one for 26 weeks.

    They reported a slightly higher number of withdrawal symptoms in people who had stopped antidepressants, which they say does not constitute a “clinically significant” withdrawal syndrome. They also suggest the symptoms could be explained by the “nocebo effect” – where negative expectations cause people to feel worse.

    In our view, the results are likely to greatly underestimate the risk of withdrawal for the millions of people on these drugs for years. The review found no relationship between the duration of use of antidepressants and withdrawal symptoms, but there were too few long-term studies to test this association properly.

    The review probably underestimates, in our view, short-term withdrawal effects too by assuming that the fact that people experience withdrawal-like symptoms when stopping a placebo or continuing an antidepressant cancels out withdrawal effects from antidepressants. But this is not a valid assumption.

    We know that antidepressant withdrawal effects overlap with side-effects and with everyday symptoms, but this does not mean they are the same thing. People stopping a placebo report symptoms such as dizziness and headache, because these are common occurrences. However, as was shown in another recent review, symptoms following discontinuation of a placebo tend to be milder than those experienced when stopping antidepressants, which can be intense enough to require emergency care.

    So deducting the rate of symptoms after stopping a placebo or continuing an antidepressant from antidepressant withdrawal symptoms is likely to underestimate the true extent of withdrawal.

    The review also doesn’t include several well-designed drug company studies that found high rates of withdrawal symptoms. For example, an American study found that more than 60% of people who stopped antidepressants (after eleven months) experienced withdrawal symptoms.

    The authors suggest that depression after stopping antidepressants is probably a return of the original condition, not withdrawal symptoms, because similar rates of depression were seen in people who stopped taking a placebo. But this conclusion is based on limited and unreliable data (that is, relying on participants in studies to report such events without prompting, rather than assessing them systematically) from just five studies.

    We hope uncritical reporting of a review based on the sort of short-term studies that led to under-recognition of withdrawal effects in the first place, does not disrupt the growing acceptance of the problem and slow efforts by the health system to help potentially millions of people who may be severely affected.

    The authors and publisher of the new review have been approached for comment.

    Mark Horowitz is the author of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines which outlines how to safely stop antidepressants, benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids and z-drugs, for which he receives royalties. He is co-applicant on the RELEASE and RELEASE+ trials in Australia funded by the NHMRC and MRFF examining hyperbolic tapering of antidepressants. He is co-founder and consultant to Outro Health, a digital clinic which helps people to safely stop no longer needed antidepressants in the US. He is a member of the Critical Psychiatry Network, an informal group of psychiatrists.

    Joanna Moncrieff was a co-applicant on a study of antidepressant discontinuation funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health Research. She is co-applicant on the RELEASE and RELEASE+ trials in Australia funded by the NHMRC and MRFF examining hyperbolic tapering of antidepressants. She receives modest royalties for books about psychiatric drugs. She is co-chair person of the Critical Psychiatry Network, an informal group of psychiatrists.

    – ref. Antidepressant withdrawal: new review downplays symptoms but misses the mark for long-term use – https://theconversation.com/antidepressant-withdrawal-new-review-downplays-symptoms-but-misses-the-mark-for-long-term-use-260708

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How Philadelphia’s sanitation strike differed from past labor disputes in the city

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Francis Ryan, Associate Professor of Labor Studies and Employment Relations, Rutgers University

    Trash piled up in Philadelphia during the 8-day strike that ended July 9, 2025. AP Photo/Matt Slocum

    The Philadelphia municipal workers strike ended after eight days in the early hours of July 9, 2025.

    The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 33 union’s 9,000 blue-collar workers, including sanitation workers, 911 dispatchers, city mechanics and water department staff, were called back to work immediately. The deal involves a three-year contract with 3% annual raises and an additional step in the union pay scale for veteran workers.

    The Conversation U.S. asked Francis Ryan, a professor of labor studies at Rutgers University and author of “AFSCME’s Philadelphia Story: Municipal Workers and Urban Power in Philadelphia in the Twentieth Century,” about the history of sanitation strikes in Philly and what made this one unique.

    Has anything surprised you about this strike?

    This strike marked the first time in the history of labor relations between the city of Philadelphia and AFSCME District Council 33 union where social media played a significant role in how the struggle unfolded.

    The union got their side of the story out on Instagram and other social media platforms, and citizens took up or expressed sympathy with their cause.

    Some city residents referred to the garbage buildup sites as ‘Parker piles.’
    AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa

    How successful are trash strikes in Philly or other US cities?

    As I describe in my book, Philadelphia has a long history of sanitation strikes that goes back to March 1937. At that time, a brief work stoppage brought about discussions between the city administration and an early version of the current union.

    When over 200 city workers were laid off in September 1938, city workers called a week-long sanitation strike. Street battles raged in West Philadelphia when strikers blocked police-escorted trash wagons that were aiming to collect trash with workers hired to replace the strikers.

    Philadelphia residents, many of whom were union members who worked in textile, steel, food and other industries, rallied behind the strikers. The strikers’ demands were met, and a new union, AFSCME, was formally recognized by the city.

    This strike was a major event because it showed how damaging a garbage strike could be. The fact that strikers were willing to fight in the streets to stop trash services showed that such events had the potential for violence, not to mention the health concerns from having tons of trash on the streets.

    There was another two-week trash strike in Philadelphia in 1944, but there wouldn’t be another for more than 20 years.

    However, a growing number of sanitation strikes popped up around the country in the 1960s, the most famous being the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike.

    Black sanitation workers peacefully march wearing placards reading ‘I Am A Man’ during the 1968 sanitation strike in Memphis, Tenn.
    Bettmann via Getty Images

    In Memphis, Tennessee, a majority African American sanitation workforce demanded higher wages, basic safety procedures and recognition of their union. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. rallied to support the Memphis workers and their families as part of his Poor Peoples’ Campaign, which sought to organize working people from across the nation into a new coalition to demand full economic and political rights.

    On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated. His death put pressure on Memphis officials to settle the strike, and on April 16 the strikers secured their demands.

    Following the Memphis strike, AFSCME began organizing public workers around the country, and through the coming years into the 1970s, there were sanitation strikes and slowdowns across the nation including in New York, Atlanta, Cleveland and Washington. Often, these workers, who were predominantly African American, gained the support of significant sections of the communities they served and secured modest wage boosts.

    By the 1980s, such labor actions were becoming fewer. In 1986, Philadelphia witnessed a three-week sanitation strike that ended with the union gaining some of its wage demands, but losing on key areas related to health care benefits.

    Workers begin removing mounds of trash after returning to work after an 18-day strike in Philadelphia in July 1986.
    Bettmann via Getty Images

    How do wages and benefits for DC33 workers compare to other US cities?

    District Council 33 President Greg Boulware has said that the union’s members make an average salary of US$46,000 per year. According to MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, that is $2,000 less than what a single adult with no kids needs to reasonably support themselves living in Philadelphia.

    Prior to this deal, sanitation workers who collect curbside trash earned a salary of $42,500 to $46,200, or $18-$20 an hour. NBC Philadelphia reported that those wages are the lowest of any of the major cities they looked at. Hourly wages in the other cities they looked at ranged from $21 an hour in Dallas to $25-$30 an hour in Chicago.

    Unlike other eras, the fact that social media makes public these personal narratives and perspectives – like from former sanitation worker Terrill Haigler, aka “Ya Fav Trashman” – is shaping the way many citizens respond to these disruptions. I saw a level of support for the strikers that I believe is unprecedented going back as far as 1938.

    What do you think was behind this support?

    The COVID-19 pandemic made people more aware of the role of essential workers in society. If the men and women who do these jobs can’t afford their basic needs, something isn’t right. This may explain why so many people saw things from the perspective of striking workers.

    At the same time, money is being cut from important services at the federal, state and local levels. The proposed gutting of Philadelphia’s mass transit system by state lawmakers is a case in point. Social media allows people to make these broader connections and start conversations.

    This article was originally published on July 8, 2025, and has been updated to include details of the strike’s resolution.

    Francis Ryan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. How Philadelphia’s sanitation strike differed from past labor disputes in the city – https://theconversation.com/how-philadelphias-sanitation-strike-differed-from-past-labor-disputes-in-the-city-260676

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: The dangers of romanticising Britain’s 1976 heatwave

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stephanie Brown, Lecturer in Criminology, University of Hull

    As I scrolled through social media on a hot afternoon in late June, a meme caught my attention. A black and white photo. A smiling young woman with water up to her knees. She appeared to be in a fountain, with many others dipping their legs in the water.

    The caption read “On this day in 1976, the British heatwave started. It would last until the 27th August, during which time Britain would experience extreme temperatures and widespread droughts. And we all had a wonderful summer and survived.”

    This immediately struck me: it was a boiling hot day. As I sat at my office desk keeping hydrated with a fan pointed directly at my face, I felt the rage burning inside me. How could people be so irresponsible? Heat can be dangerous. But the implication of the meme was clear: if people managed back then, surely today’s warnings about heatwaves, climate change, and public health are exaggerated. These rose-tinted memories obscure a darker truth.

    I am a historical criminologist. This meme had the rare effect of deeply troubling both of my areas of expertise.

    As a historian, this meme concerns me because it perpetuates the myth of the “good old days”. A selective, nostalgic vision of the past that smooths over complexity and hardship in favour of a comforting, idealised narrative. Flattening history into feelgood folklore, erasing the social inequalities and governmental failures.

    It echoes a broader cultural tendency: from “Make America great again” to the “Blitz spirit”, representing Britain’s nostalgia for wartime resilience, a romanticised past is often used by politicians to legitimise political ideas in the present. But history is not a comfort blanket. It is a critical tool.

    My work explores how institutions respond to crisis and how narratives of success or failure are constructed. In 1976, advice for dealing with the water shortage was to share a bath with the wife and drive a dirty car. Areas without domestic tap water had to use communal street pipes.

    The government did not appoint a minister for drought until the end of August, despite mounting evidence from meteorologists and public health officials. Emergency measures were piecemeal and unevenly applied.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    The suggestion that “we all had a wonderful summer and survived” is misleading. It was reported that “200 people a day were apparently dying who would not have died if the weather had been normal”. During the peak of the heatwave, deaths increased by 28% in the southeast England and 33% in Greater London.

    As a criminologist, I know that it is not only natural deaths that can increase during a hot weather. The number of violent deaths also increased in 1976 as well as in other heatwaves. Thermic law is the concept that violent crime is higher in hotter seasons. These patterns might be explained by temperature-aggression theory: that hot weather can cause an increase in aggressive behaviours.

    For other criminologists, it is not the temperature itself that causes increased violence, but how people’s behaviour changes due to the heat. For example, people are taking time off work or school, socialising, and drinking. Unstructured time and spaces, combined with alcohol and a holiday feel all lead to increases in violence.

    Misrepresenting risk

    By sentimentalising the summer of 1976, we strip away its lessons. Worse, we risk repeating its mistakes. One Conservative MP described people concerned about the 2022 heatwave as “snowflakes” and “cowards”. Quite an odd response after the British public was asked to “protect the NHS” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    This protection apparently did not extend to looking after each other in a heatwave. In fact, heatwaves are largely an invisible risk. We are told not to fuss, but there is often little communication on how to keep safe.

    A lack of policy and examples of political scepticism connect with a key theme in the comments under that meme: climate change denial. If we had a heatwave in 1976 then what we are experiencing now is nothing new, right? Wrong.

    The heatwave in 1976 was bad: thousands died, fires raged, and water ran dry. But it was also an anomaly; a hot summer in a relatively cool decade. Heatwaves are now more frequent, more intense and longer lasting. Temperatures reached over 40°C in 2022, while the maximum in 1976 was 4°C-5°C cooler.

    Still, each time a weather warning is issued, it is met with a wave of derision. There is the same online discourse as is expressed in this meme. This attitude is not just flippant, it is dangerous. It undermines vital public messaging, discourages precautionary action, and fuels complacency among those least at risk, while leaving the most vulnerable even more exposed.

    History can offer crucial perspective. But only if we treat it honestly. That means moving beyond memeified memories of the past and reckoning with the complexity of what really happened. It means challenging the stories we tell ourselves. Many did live through the 1976 heatwave. But many also died: quietly, invisibly and avoidably. Their stories are not part of the nostalgia. They should be.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Stephanie Brown 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.

    – ref. The dangers of romanticising Britain’s 1976 heatwave – https://theconversation.com/the-dangers-of-romanticising-britains-1976-heatwave-260046

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Could England and Wales introduce jury-free trials? Here’s how they work in other countries

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Natalie Hodgson, Assistant Professor in Law, University of Nottingham

    The right to trial by jury is a fundamental part of the criminal justice system in England and Wales. But under new proposals to address a record backlog of almost 77,000 Crown Court cases, some cases could now be heard by judge alone.

    Sir Brian Leveson has delivered part one of his independent review of the criminal courts, making 45 recommendations to address delays in the criminal justice process. One of his recommendations is that serious offences could be tried by a judge alone without a jury. Our evidence to the review explored how judge-alone trials have been used in other countries.

    Currently, a person can only be tried without a jury at Crown Court if there is a risk of jury tampering. Under Leveson’s proposal, judge-alone trials will be expanded to cases where a defendant requests to be tried without a jury, serious and complex fraud offences and where the case is likely to be lengthy or particularly complex.

    To understand how this might work, we can to look to other countries where judge-alone trials are used. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US all permit judge-alone trials in circumstances similar to what Leveson is recommending. A defendant can choose to be tried by a judge instead of a jury in certain circumstances.

    Defendants tend to express a preference for trial by judge alone if they are concerned that prejudicial media coverage or the nature of the offences might bias jurors against them. Leveson recommends that judges should decide whether a defendant’s request for a judge-alone trial should be granted, but stops short of identifying the factors that a judge should consider.

    Leveson leaves open the question of whether judge-alone trials should be available for all offences, or whether certain offences should be exempt. Some countries limit which offences can be heard without a jury. For example, in the Australian Capital Territory, a defendant cannot request a trial without a jury for murder or certain sexual offences.

    In New South Wales, judges are advised against permitting a judge-alone trial when the offence involves consideration of “community standards”. This recognises that members of the community have an important role to play in deciding whether a defendant has acted “reasonably”, “negligently” or “dishonestly”. For example, if a person is charged with manslaughter the jury may need to consider whether the defendant’s actions were “unreasonable”, which is best determined by members of the community.

    Are judge-alone trials unfair to defendants?

    Lawyers often raise concerns about judge-alone trials being unfair to defendants. Based on what we know from other countries, there is no strong evidence that this is the case. However, that is not to say that concerns about unfairness are unwarranted.

    If judges convict at higher rates than juries, that might suggest that judge-alone trials are unfair. However, the best available study, conducted in New South Wales, found that judges were actually slightly less likely than juries to find a defendant guilty.

    Juries do not explain their verdicts. In all countries which use judge-alone trials, judges must give reasons for their decisions. Knowing why a defendant was found guilty might make trials even more fair, providing a basis for an appeal against conviction if an error was made.

    One key issue with judge-alone trials is inadmissible evidence. Ordinarily, jurors are sent out of the courtroom while the judge and lawyers make decisions about what evidence the jury is allowed to hear. Evidence might be excluded because it is irrelevant, prejudicial or was collected in breach of the defendant’s rights. In these scenarios, the jury is never made aware of the evidence.

    However, in a judge-alone trial, the judge sees all the evidence, even if they decide that some of it should not be used. There is a risk that judges might be subconsciously impacted by inadmissible evidence in reaching their verdict.

    Judge-alone trials also raise issues about diversity of decision-makers. In England and Wales, only 11% of judges are from an ethnic minority background compared to 18% of the population. Ideally, juries contain people from a range of backgrounds. Some defendants might feel more confident that they will be tried fairly by a jury than a judge.

    Ultimately, one way to safeguard against concerns about unfairness is to give defendants the ability to choose whether or not they would like to be tried by a judge alone. Leveson’s recommendations suggest that most judge-alone trials would occur at the request of the defendant. However, judge-alone trials could be ordered against the defendant’s wishes in cases involving fraud or that are long and complex.

    Juries play an important role in the legal system in England and Wales. Through jury service, members of the community contribute to the administration of justice. The inclusion of a range of viewpoints and experiences in determining criminal verdicts enhances the legitimacy of the justice system.

    It is important that we continue to have juries in criminal trials. However, that is not to say that judge-alone trials cannot or should not play a role. The current backlog means that victims and defendants are having to wait years for their day in court. We desperately need to address this, and allowing defendants to elect a judge-alone trial may help to reduce delays to justice.

    While judge-alone trials are not inherently unfair, any rollout in England and Wales should be closely monitored and evaluated. It is important that we do not sacrifice fairness for efficiency as we work to address the issues affecting our justice system.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Could England and Wales introduce jury-free trials? Here’s how they work in other countries – https://theconversation.com/could-england-and-wales-introduce-jury-free-trials-heres-how-they-work-in-other-countries-259489

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How tea, chocolate and apples could help lower your blood pressure

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Christian Heiss, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Head of Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Surrey

    Pixel-Shot/Shutterstock

    We’re constantly told to “eat healthy” – but what does that actually mean? Even doctors sometimes struggle to offer clear, practical advice on which specific foods support health, why they work and what real benefits people can expect.

    A growing body of research is starting to offer some answers. Along with colleagues, I have researched whether a group of plant compounds called flavan-3-ols could help lower blood pressure and improve blood vessel function. The results suggest these everyday compounds may have real potential for protecting heart health.

    Flavan-3-ols – sometimes called flavanols or catechins – are natural plant compounds that belong to the flavonoid family. They’re part of what gives plants their colour and helps protect them from sunlight and pests.

    For us, they show up in some of our most familiar foods: cocoa, green and black tea, grapes, apples and even some berries. That slightly tart or bitter note you taste in dark chocolate or strong tea? That’s flavan-3-ols at work.

    Scientists have long been interested in their health effects. In 2022, the Cosmos trial (Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study), which followed over 21,000 people, found that cocoa flavanols, but not multivitamin supplements, reduced deaths from cardiovascular disease by 27%. Our study set out to dig even deeper, focusing specifically on their effects on blood pressure and endothelial function (how well blood vessels dilate and respond to blood flow).

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    We analysed data from 145 randomised controlled trials involving more than 5,200 participants. These studies tested a range of flavan-3-ol-rich foods and supplements, including cocoa, tea, grapes, apples and isolated compounds like epicatechin, and measured their effects on two key cardiovascular markers: blood pressure and flow-mediated dilation (FMD): a measure of how well the inner lining of blood vessels functions.

    The studies ranged from short-term (a single dose) to longer-term interventions lasting weeks or months. On average, participants consumed about 586 mg of flavan-3-ols daily; roughly the amount found in two to three cups of tea, one to two servings of dark chocolate, two tablespoons of cocoa powder, or a couple of apples.

    Regular consumption of flavan-3-ols led to an average drop in office blood pressure of 2.8 mmHg systolic (the top number) and 2.0 mmHg diastolic (the bottom number).

    But for people who started with elevated blood pressure or diagnosed hypertension, the benefits were even greater with reductions of up to 6–7 mmHg systolic and 4 mmHg diastolic. That’s comparable to the effects of some prescription blood pressure medications and could significantly lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

    We also found that flavan-3-ols improved endothelial function, with an average 1.7% increase in FMD after sustained intake. This benefit appeared even in participants whose blood pressure was already normal, suggesting these compounds may help protect blood vessels through multiple pathways.

    Side effects were uncommon and typically mild, usually limited to minor digestive issues, suggesting that adding flavan-3-ol-rich foods to your diet is generally safe.

    Supporting cardiovascular health

    While the benefits were most pronounced in those with high blood pressure, even people with normal readings saw improvements in vascular function. This suggests flavan-3-ols may help prevent cardiovascular problems before they begin.

    High blood pressure is one of the major drivers of heart disease worldwide, even at levels that don’t qualify as full-blown hypertension (140/90 mmHg or higher). Recent guidelines from the European Society of Cardiology now recognise that even “elevated” blood pressure (120–139 systolic and 70–89 diastolic) carries increased risk.

    Lifestyle changes, particularly diet and exercise, are recommended by doctors as first-line strategies. But patients and even healthcare providers often lack clear, specific guidance on which foods truly make a difference. Our findings help fill this gap by showing that boosting flavan-3-ol intake through everyday foods may offer a simple, evidence-based way to support cardiovascular health.

    What about supplements?

    Some studies tested supplements or isolated flavan-3-ol compounds, but these generally showed smaller effects than whole foods like tea or cocoa. This may be because other beneficial compounds in whole foods work together, enhancing absorption and effectiveness.

    At present, it appears both safer and more effective to focus on getting flavan-3-ols from foods rather than high-dose supplements, especially for people taking medications, since interactions are not fully understood.

    The studies we reviewed suggest that 500–600 mg of flavan-3-ols daily may be enough to see benefits. You could reach this by combining two to three cups of green or black tea, one to two servings (about 56g) of dark chocolate or two to three tablespoons of cocoa powder, two to three apples, plus other flavan-3-ol-rich fruits like grapes, pears and berries

    Eating apples, pears, grapes and berries could help support your heart health.
    Oksana Klymenko/Shutterstock

    Small daily swaps, then, like trading a sugary snack for an apple and a piece of dark chocolate or adding an extra cup of tea, could gradually improve your heart health over time. Because flavan-3-ol content can vary between foods, monitoring your blood pressure at home may help you see if it’s making a difference for you.

    More research is needed, particularly in people with diabetes, where the results were less consistent. We also need to better understand how flavan-3-ols interact with medications and whether even greater benefits can be achieved when combined with other healthy habits.

    But the evidence is now strong enough to recommend flavan-3-ol-rich foods as part of a heart-healthy diet. As clinicians seek practical, affordable lifestyle strategies for patients, these findings bring us closer to the idea of using food as medicine.

    Of course, flavan-3-ols aren’t a magic fix. They won’t replace medication for everyone. But combined with other healthy habits, they may offer a meaningful – and delicious – boost to cardiovascular health. And unlike many health fads, this isn’t about exotic superfoods or expensive powders. It’s about foods many of us already enjoy, used a little more intentionally.

    Christian Heiss has received funding from Lipton Teas & Infusions, Ageless Science, iThera, the Medical Research Council, the EPSRC, European Partnership on Metrology, co-financed from European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme and UK Research and Innovation. He is member of the board of the European Society of Vascular Medicine, president of the Vascular, Lipid and Metabolic Medicine Council of the Royal Society of Medicine, and chairperson-elect of the ESC WG Aorta and Peripheral Vascular Diseases.

    – ref. How tea, chocolate and apples could help lower your blood pressure – https://theconversation.com/how-tea-chocolate-and-apples-could-help-lower-your-blood-pressure-256631

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  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Action is the antidote to ecological grief and climate anxiety – an ecotherapist explains

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Louise Taylor, Early Career Researcher and Ecotherapist, Queen’s University Belfast

    Brussels, Belgium. 21st February 2019. High school and university students stage a protest against the climate policies of the Belgian government. Alexandros Michailidis / Shutterstock.com

    There’s a popular quote by the 13th-century poet and spiritual teacher Rumi: “The cure for the pain is in the pain.” This line often echoes through my mind when I’m working with clients, especially those experiencing ecological grief and climate anxiety.

    As an ecotherapist – a therapist guided by nature and nature-based therapeutic approaches – and environmental researcher, I work with people who are navigating the emotional weight of ecological breakdown.

    Ecotherapy helps people reconnect with the natural world as a way to support mental and emotional wellbeing. It might involve walking in green spaces, mindfulness practices in nature, working with natural materials, or nature-based rituals.

    Whether it’s planting a garden, sitting under a tree, or engaging in conservation efforts, ecotherapy helps people feel more grounded, more connected and more resilient both emotionally and spiritually.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    In my practice, I’ve noticed that younger people are more likely to experience climate anxiety, while older generations tend to experience ecological grief. The difference is subtle but important. Anxiety often relates to what lies ahead and a sense of powerlessness. Grief is about what has already been lost.

    This emotional divide makes sense when we consider what has happened to the natural world over recent decades. Older adults have witnessed the loss of species, habitats and biodiversity in real time. Many have rich memories and relationships with landscapes that no longer exist as they once did. Meanwhile, younger generations face the terrifying uncertainty of a rapidly changing climate and an increasingly unstable future.

    Both grief and anxiety are valid, but they are not the same.

    I have explored these experiences in depth while researching nature connection, mental health and how the climate and ecological crisis is reshaping this relationship.

    At the outset, I assumed that greater connection with nature would always lead to improved mental wellbeing. But that wasn’t the full picture.

    What I found instead was that deepening our connection with the natural world can indeed foster healing, but it can also sharpen our awareness of the damage being done. This heightened sensitivity can trigger emotional pain, despair and even a decline in mental wellbeing.

    Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl Jung once said, “There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” That’s exactly what climate-anxious and ecologically grieving people are expressing: the deep psychological toll of recognising the scale of the crisis we’re facing. For some, it affects their ability to function, to enjoy their lives and to maintain relationships.

    How to stay well

    The question I kept returning to in my work was this: how do we stay well in a time of collapse? My research pointed to one consistent answer: action.

    Engaging in pro-environmental actions emerged as the most effective way people coped with emotional strain. These weren’t merely acts of activism — they became spiritual practices, grounded in care, connection and meaning. Through these actions, people began to reclaim a sense of power and purpose in the face of overwhelming ecological loss.

    For many, this was also a path back to what eco-philosophers call the ecological self: the part of us that extends beyond the individual and identifies with the living world.

    This self isn’t driven by ego or personal gain, but by the impulse to build relationships, nurture communities and support the flourishing of all life. It represents an expanded way of being; one that understands health and healing as collective, not just personal.

    Importantly, these actions don’t have to be large-scale. They might involve growing your own herbs or vegetables, for instance, or joining a local conservation effort, forming a community group to protect waterways or green spaces, or participating in climate strikes and land defence work. What matters is that the action is relational: rooted in reciprocity and care.

    The conclusion of my research was clear: in the face of ecological distress, mental wellbeing is sustained not by thoughts, but by meaningful action.

    Healing through action

    In Northern Ireland, where I live and work, I’ve seen a growing grassroots environmental movement. Communities are stepping up to protect landscapes under threat, from campaigns to defend the Sperrin Mountains from gold mining, to local resistance against the pollution that’s devastating Lough Neagh, the largest freshwater lake in Ireland and the UK.

    This is unpaid, often invisible labour, but it’s powerful. It gives people a way to process their emotions, to feel less helpless and to turn grief into agency.

    Many environmentalists talk about “saving the planet”. But the truth is, the Earth will go on. What’s under threat is us: our ways of life, our communities, our ability to thrive. The dread we feel is rooted in the enormity of this realisation.

    To stay well while caring deeply about the Earth means learning to live with this pain, and still choosing to act. It requires us to show up, to be present and to tend to both the human and non-human world with care and reciprocity. As we do, we become more empowered and less overwhelmed.

    If you are struggling with climate anxiety or ecological grief, know this: the goal isn’t to suppress your feelings. The goal is to acknowledge them, and then use them as fuel for meaningful action.

    Don’t underestimate small acts. The way forward isn’t to wait for hope: it’s to create it through connection, courage and commitment.

    In a time of ecological uncertainty, wellness doesn’t come from thinking differently. It comes from doing differently.

    Louise Taylor 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.

    – ref. Action is the antidote to ecological grief and climate anxiety – an ecotherapist explains – https://theconversation.com/action-is-the-antidote-to-ecological-grief-and-climate-anxiety-an-ecotherapist-explains-260428

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  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Obesity care: why “eat less, move more” advice is failing

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lucie Nield, Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Sheffield

    New Africa/Shutterstock

    For years, people living with obesity have been given the same basic advice: eat less, move more. But while this mantra may sound simple, it’s not only ineffective for many, it can be deeply misleading and damaging.

    Obesity is not just about willpower. It’s a complex, chronic, relapsing condition and affects around 26.5% of adults in England, and 22.1% of children aged ten–11 in England.

    A new report estimates the rapidly growing number of people that are overweight or obese costs the UK £126 billion a year. This includes £71.4 billion in reduced quality of life and early mortality, £12.6 billion in NHS treatment costs, £12.1 billion from unemployment and £10.5 billion in informal care.

    Food campaigners and health experts have called for urgent government action, including expanding the sugar tax to more products, restricting junk food advertising and mandating reformulation of ultra processed foods. As Henry Dimbleby, author of a government-commissioned independent report called the National Food Strategy, warned: “We’ve created a food system that’s poisoning our population and bankrupting the state.”

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    Without significant policy change, these costs are projected to rise to £150 billion a year by 2035. Despite this, much of the UK’s approach continues to frame obesity as a lifestyle issue that can be tackled by emphasising personal responsibility. But this framing ignores the bigger picture.

    We now understand that obesity is multifactorial. Genetics, childhood experiences, cultural norms, economic disadvantage, psychological health, mental illness and even the kind of job you have all play a role. These aren’t things you can simply change with a Fitbit and salad.

    This broader perspective isn’t new. In 2007, the UK government’s Foresight report mapped out the complex web of factors behind rising obesity rates, describing how modern environments actively promote weight gain.

    This “obesogenic environment” refers to the world we live in. Its one where high-calorie, low-nutrient foods are cheap and everywhere, and where physical activity has been engineered out of everyday life, from car-centric cities to screen-dominated leisure time.

    Outdated obesity advice isn’t working.

    These environments don’t affect everyone equally. People in more deprived areas are significantly more exposed to conditions that drive obesity, such as food deserts (areas with limited access to affordable, nutritious food), poor public transport and limited green space. In this context, weight gain becomes a normal biological response to an abnormal environment.

    Why “eat less, move more” falls short

    Despite growing awareness of these systemic issues, most UK obesity strategies still centre on individual behaviour change, often through weight management programmes that encourage people to cut calories and exercise more. While behaviour change has a place, focusing on it exclusively creates a dangerous narrative: that people who struggle with their weight are simply lazy or lack willpower.

    This narrative fuels weight stigma, which can be incredibly harmful. Yet data shows a clear link between higher rates of obesity and deprivation, especially among children.

    It’s clear many people still don’t understand the role of structural and socioeconomic factors in shaping obesity risk. And this misunderstanding leads to judgement, shame and stigma, especially for children and families who are already vulnerable.

    What should good obesity care look like?

    Instead of outdated advice and blame, we need a holistic, stigma-free and science-informed approach to obesity care, one that reflects current Nice guidelines and the Obesity Health Alliance’s recommendations. There are several things that need to be done.

    First, we should recognise obesity as a chronic disease. Obesity is not a failure of willpower. It’s a relapsing, long-term medical condition. Like diabetes or depression, it requires structured, ongoing support, not short-term fixes or crash diets.

    Second, we need to tackle weight stigma head-on. Weight-based discrimination is widespread in schools, workplaces and even healthcare settings. We need training for professionals to reduce bias, promote inclusive care and adopt person-centred, non-stigmatising language. Discriminatory practices must be challenged and eliminated.

    Third, deliver personalised, multidimensional support. Treatment plans should be tailored to each person’s life, including their cultural background, psychological history and social context. This includes shared decision-making, regular follow-up and integrated mental health support.

    And fourth, focus on changing the environment, not just people. We must shift the focus to the systems and structures that make healthy choices so hard. That means investing in affordable, nutritious food; improving access to physical activity; and tackling inequality at its roots.

    Time for a systemic shift

    Obesity isn’t just about what people eat or how often they exercise. It’s shaped by biology, experience and the environment we build around people. Framing it as a personal failure not only ignores decades of evidence – it actively harms the very people who need support.

    If we want to reduce stigma, improve health outcomes – and avoid a £150bn crisis – then the “eat less, move more” era must come to an end. What we need instead is a bold, compassionate, evidence-based systems approach – one that sees the whole person and the world they live in.

    Lucie Nield receives funding from NIHR.

    Catherine Homer receives funding from NIHR. She is affiliated with Royal Society of Public Health.

    – ref. Obesity care: why “eat less, move more” advice is failing – https://theconversation.com/obesity-care-why-eat-less-move-more-advice-is-failing-254628

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