All vaccines work by training our immune systems to recognise a harmless piece of a virus or bacteria so that when the real thing is encountered later, the immune system is prepared to defeat it.
There are two types of polio vaccine in use. One is the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), and the other the live-attenuated oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV).
The IPV is made by “killing” large quantities of poliovirus with a chemical called formalin, making it unable to replicate. The immune system is then “trained” to recognise the poliovirus – which is thankfully rendered safe by formalin.
The OPV vaccine contains a weakened (or “attenuated”) version of the virus. These changes in the virus’s genetic code stop it from causing disease. However, as the OPV vaccine is still capable of replicating, it can revert to a form that can cause disease, with the potential to cause paralysis in unvaccinated people.
Because of these risks, scientists are now looking for safer ways to create vaccines – methods that don’t require growing large amounts of the live virus in high-security labs, as is done for IPV.
Our research team has taken an important step towards producing a safer and more affordable polio vaccine. This new vaccine candidate uses virus-like particles (VLPs). These particles mimic the outer protein shell of poliovirus, but are empty inside. This means there is no risk of infection, but the VLP is still recognised by the immune system, which then protects against the disease.
This vaccine candidate uses technology that’s already being used in hepatitis B and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. Thanks to VLPs, since 2008, there have been no cervical cancer cases in women in Scotland who were fully vaccinated against HPV. Over the past ten years, our research group has worked to apply this successful technology in the fight to eradicate polio.
Vaccine success
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, polio was a major global childhood health concern. However, the development of IPV (licensed in 1955) and of OPV (licensed in 1963), almost eliminated polio-derived paralysis. Due to the success of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, introduced in 1988, most cases of paralytic polio are now caused by the vaccine.
Despite the success of these vaccines, they both have safety concerns that could threaten to compromise eradication of the disease.
IPV, for instance, is expensive to make because it needs stringent safety measures to prevent the accidental release of live poliovirus and so is mostly used in wealthy countries. OPV is five times cheaper than IPV, and due to its lower cost and ease of use, it is used almost exclusively in developing countries.
OPV has been instrumental in the near eradication of “wild polioviruses” (the naturally occurring form) around the world. But in areas where vaccination rates are low and enough people are susceptible to infection, the weakened virus (OPV) can replicate.
Unfortunately, each round of replication increases the potential for the virus to revert to a form of polio that causes illness and paralysis. This is already evident in new vaccine-derived outbreaks across several countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, which now accounts for most paralytic polio cases worldwide. So, once all remaining strains of wild poliovirus have been successfully eradicated, OPV use will have to stop.
Safer vaccine
The next generation of polio vaccinations is likely to be produced in yeast or insect cells. Our research shows that VLPs produced in both yeast and insect cells can perform equally or better than the current IPV.
These non-infectious VLPs are also easier to produce than IPVs. They would not need to be handled under such stringent laboratory conditions as IPVs, and they are more temperature stable, thanks to genetic alteration of the outer shell. The new vaccines, then, will be less expensive to produce than IPVs, helping to improve fair and equal access to vaccination – ensuring that once polio is eradicated, it will stay eradicated.
As we move closer to wiping out polio worldwide, these next-generation vaccines could be the final tool we need – safe, affordable and accessible to all.
Lee Sherry worked as a post-doc on a WHO-funded research grant for the production of poliovirus virus-like particles
Nicola Stonehouse is a member of the WHO VLP vaccine Consortium and receives funding from The World Health Organisation – Generation of virus-free polio vaccine.
What causes schizophrenia? This severe mental illness, which affects over 20 million people worldwide and is characterised by recurrent hallucinations and delusions, often begins to emerge in the period from adolescence to early adulthood. It’s a complex disorder that affects almost every area of life.
Current theories about why schizophrenia develops suggest it may be linked to changes in brain development during this critical period of emerging adulthood. Schizophrenia is also thought to be similar to conditions such as dyslexia, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which are neurodevelopmental but usually manifest in childhood.
However, our research suggests that accelerated brain ageing could be another potential driver in the development of schizophrenia – and this can be measured using a simple blood test.
Our study is unique because we measured proteins in blood derived directly from brain neurons – the brain’s nerve cells – in people suffering from schizophrenia. This protein, called neurofilament light protein (NfL), consists of long, thread-like structures that help maintain the size and shape of nerve cells.
NfL is released into the blood and cerebrospinal fluid when brain neurons are damaged or undergo neurodegeneration. Its release when these cells are damaged makes it a useful biomarker for diagnosing and monitoring neurodegenerative diseases and neurological damage. Measuring the levels of NfL can also provide insight into the extent of neuronal injury.
Neuronal injury is damage or harm to neurons, the specialised cells in the nervous system essential for communication in the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system. When neurons are injured, their ability to function properly is impaired, which can result in a range of neurological symptoms depending on the severity and location of the damage.
Raised levels of NfL have been associated with a range of neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and frontotemporal dementia. But NfL levels also normally increase with age as these proteins lose the ability to repair themselves as effectively. This is due to a combination of factors including gradual wear-and-tear on neurons over time.
While reductions in the brain’s grey matter, white matter and connectivity are all part of normal, healthy ageing, these changes are usually gradual and not disabling. Grey matter contains most of the brain’s neurons and is responsible for processing information, memory, decision-making, muscle control, and seeing and hearing. White matter is the long fibres that connect different brain regions, allowing them to communicate quickly and efficiently.
Noticeable symptoms of normal, healthy brain ageing might include a bit more forgetfulness, slower reaction time, and difficulty juggling multiple tasks. Such changes are very different from the patterns seen in illnesses like schizophrenia where, our study shows, the decline is faster and more severe, indicating an older brain age than would be expected from the patient’s chronological age.
Our research found that, in people with schizophrenia, NfL levels appeared to increase more quickly with age, compared with the rate of increase in healthy people, indicating an acceleration of the brain ageing process.
We also studied samples from people suffering from bipolar disorder, which did not show the same accelerated increase. Data from other methods, such as calculating “brain age” from MRI scans, also points to accelerated brain ageing in people with schizophrenia.
Lifestyle factors
For people suffering from schizophrenia, accelerated ageing of the body is already a serious problem, as Christos Pantelis, a Melbourne psychiatrist and senior author of our study, explains:
An important problem is that people with chronic schizophrenia are often exposed to an unhealthy lifestyle overall. They can experience isolation, unemployment, lack of physical activities, smoking – and many resort to illicit drug use that can make their condition worse.
Currently, people diagnosed with schizophrenia have a life expectancy 20-30 years shorter than the average. This is mainly due to earlier development of common age-related diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Around half of people with schizophrenia have at least one other chronic medical condition, such as obesity, respiratory conditions, chronic pain and substance-use disorders.
People with schizophrenia have a higher risk of substance-use disorders due to a combination of biological, psychological and environmental factors. These include self-medication for distressing symptoms, impaired cognitive function, social isolation, and difficulties with treatment adherence.
While lifestyle is a factor in the accelerated ageing of the body for those living with schizophrenia, our study could prove another important step in understanding – and in time, treating – this distressing disease.
Alexander F Santillo primarily receives funding from the Swedish federal government under the ALF agreement.
Cassandra Wannan receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Dhamidhu Eratne receives funding from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Press release
Clinical Trials regulations signed into law
12-month roll-out begins today for the biggest regulatory shake up of clinical trials in 20 years
New regulations for running clinical trials in the UK have now been signed into law. A 12-month roll-out begins today (11 April) to deliver the most significant update to UK clinical trials regulation in two decades – with the aim of strengthening patient safety, accelerating approvals, enabling innovation and helping more people benefit from taking part in vital research.
First laid in Parliament in December 2024, the updated regulations are designed to put participants firmly at the centre of how trials are run, while supporting a faster, more streamlined approvals, making it easier to test new treatments in the UK.
The MHRA is committed to implementing a flexible and risk-proportionate regulation of clinical trials, which accelerates patient access to potentially life-saving medicines without compromising safety.
This follows new analysis of clinical trial applications submitted to the MHRA over recent years, highlighting where there are opportunities for accelerating medical breakthroughs.
The new regulations will take full effect from 10 April 2026, following the 12-month implementation period starting this week. They were developed by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), in partnership with the Health Research Authority (HRA), and shaped by feedback from patients, researchers, doctors, and industry.
The reforms will:
Put patients and their safety are at the focus of all clinical trials and bring the benefits of clinical trials to everyone.
Cut duplication and unnecessary delays, while maintaining robust oversight of the safety of trials.
Create a proportionate and flexible regulatory environment, reducing bureaucracy for lower-risk trials.
Cement the UK as a destination for international trials.
Provide a framework that is streamlined, agile and responsive to innovation.
By reducing red tape and simplifying approvals, the new framework supports the Prime Minister’s target to reduce the time from application to first participant from 250 to 150 days. It will speed up research and reduce the time it takes for promising treatments to reach patients, without compromising on safety.
These reforms will help ensure the UK remains an attractive place to conduct global research, while continuing to protect trial participants through robust oversight.
The Combined Review – a system that lets researchers apply for ethics and regulatory approval in one go – and notification scheme for some clinical trial initial applications and amendments will now be written into law as part of the changes.
Work to bring in the new rules will continue over the coming months, backed by updated guidance and ongoing engagement with trial sponsors and researchers.
Lawrence Tallon, MHRA Chief Executive, said:
“These new regulations are a key step towards a stronger, more responsive and risk-proportionate clinical trials system that works better for patients. They will help ensure people in the UK can benefit sooner from safe, carefully assessed research into new potentially life-saving medicines, while maintaining the highest standards of participant safety.
“By streamlining how trials are approved and run, we are making the UK a more attractive place to deliver high-quality, innovative research. I’d like to thank colleagues across the MHRA, HRA, government, industry and the clinical research community who helped shape these changes. We’ll continue to work closely with our partners through the implementation period.”
Janet Messer, Director of Approvals Service at the Health Research Authority, said:
“This is an important milestone in improving how clinical trials are set up and run in the UK. By embedding Combined Review in law, and strengthening the focus on transparency and proportionality, these changes reflect our commitment to making it easier to do high-quality research that people can trust.
“We’ve worked closely with patients, researchers and partners across the system to ensure the new regulations protect participants, while reducing unnecessary burden.
“In the coming months we’ll be publishing guidance to accompany the new regulations to support researchers through the transition period and beyond, so more people can benefit from taking part in safe, well-run research.”
The MHRA is responsible for regulating all medicines and medical devices in the UK by ensuring they work and are acceptably safe. All our work is underpinned by robust and fact-based judgements to ensure that the benefits justify any risks.
The MHRA is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care.
For media enquiries, please contact the newscentre@mhra.gov.uk, or call on 020 3080 7651.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A study published in Patterns looks at potential patient harms linked to the use of AI medical outcome prediction models.
Professor Peter Bannister, Fellow and Healthcare expert at the Institution of Engineering and Technology said:
“AI is trained on real-world data which include biases as well as the desired potential to enable better decisions. In the case of healthcare, there is a risk that if AI is widely used for clinical decision making, it may further marginalise groups who already have poor access to treatments. An example would be for patients where AI predicts they have a low survival rate, which means they are then not offered potentially lifesaving treatments.
“This paper proves that in many clinical decision-making processes, relying only on AI’s ability to accurately predict symptoms can sometimes lead to worse outcomes for those patients. While the authors make it clear there are further, more complex scenarios that need to be studied, this work reinforces the need for AI technologies that are used in real-world settings to be assessed in a “whole system” approach, where the overall health outcome of the patient is used to decide whether the AI is contributing to improved care.”
Professor Ibrahim Habli, Research Director, Centre for Assuring Autonomy, University of York, said:
“The study warns us about the risks of relying too much on one technology and judging it only by its accuracy, without considering who it’s for and in what situations. For AI to be used safely in healthcare, it needs to fit into the real-world practices of doctors and the specific needs of patients. The study is encouraging in that it focuses on AI safety, especially as it follows a recently published White Paper ‘Avoiding the AI off switch’ highlighting the need for AI to be a benefit, not a liability to both clinicians and patients. Treating patients is a process that changes over time, depending on their needs and available treatments. Focusing only on accuracy and outcomes can be misleading and even dangerous. AI might also show bias, such as against people with disabilities or rare diseases, making it safer for some people but not for everyone.”
Prof Ian Simpson, Professor of Biomedical Informatics, University of Edinburgh, said:
When asked how widely are these outcome prediction AI models used in the NHS/NHS Scotland right now?
“It’s reasonable to say that AI OPMs are not that widely used at the moment in the NHS/NHS Scotland. Decision support tends to be used more in association with medical hardware systems that were very early adopters of ML techniques, i.e. things like MRI machines. Here they tend to be used in parallel with existing clinical management policies and often either for assisting diagnostics and/or speeding up processes like image segmentation.
“Whilst diagnostics can fall foul of the issues raised in the paper, it’s not quite the same as the scenarios they explore in that it’s deterministic and following clinical decisions would likely be made using existing processes. Issues here tend to be more performance oriented i.e. false positives (over diagnosis) and false negatives (incorrect or missing diagnosis). These are the metrics that are currently scrutinised in approval processes. So, in short, the issues raised in this paper are in my opinion not quite so acute for diagnostics as currently deployed.”
Professor Ewen Harrison, Professor of Surgery and Data Science and Co-Director of Centre for Medical Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, said:
“Artificial intelligence and computer algorithms are increasingly used in medicine to help make difficult decisions. While these tools promise more accurate and personalised care, this study highlights one of a number of concerning downsides: predictions themselves can unintentionally harm patients by influencing treatment decisions.
“Say a hospital introduces a new AI tool to estimate who is likely to have a poor recovery after knee replacement surgery. The tool uses characteristics such as age, body weight, existing health problems, and physical fitness.
“Initially, doctors intend to use this tool to decide which patients would benefit from intensive rehabilitation therapy. However, due to limited availability and cost, it is decided instead to reserve intensive rehab primarily for patients predicted to have the best outcomes. Patients labelled by the algorithm as having a “poor predicted recovery” receive less attention, fewer physiotherapy sessions, and less encouragement overall.
“As a result, these patients indeed experience slower recovery, higher pain, and reduced mobility, seemingly confirming the accuracy of the prediction tool. In reality, however, it was the reduced support and resources – triggered by the algorithm’s predictions – that contributed to their poor outcomes. The model has thus created a harmful self-fulfilling prophecy, with accuracy metrics wrongly interpreted as evidence of its success.
“These are real issues affecting AI development in the UK. The researchers emphasise that hospitals and policymakers need to carefully monitor how predictive algorithms are actually used in practice. Doing so can help ensure that AI-driven decisions genuinely benefit patients, rather than inadvertently harming those who most need help.”
Prof Ian Simpson, Professor of Biomedical Informatics, University of Edinburgh, said:
“This is an important and timely study adding to emerging evidence that the long established dependence on predictive performance when evaluating AI models is not sufficient to support their deployment in healthcare settings. This study undertakes a formal theoretical approach to explore the relationship between model performance (how well a model predicts) and model calibration (how reliable the probabilities of those predictions are) in both pre- and post- model deployment scenarios. The study finds that, even in simple settings, models that have good performance and calibration properties could lead to worse patient outcomes if deployed.
“Intuitively, it would seem that implementing models with the best performance would be desirable, if not essential, however these models are typically trained on historical data. This bakes in relationships so that any future change in treatment from the historical process which changes a patient outcome favourably would paradoxically result in a drop in model performance during deployment. This could result in positive changes in treatment decisions leading to the withdrawal of the model due to a drop in performance below an acceptable level despite it leading to an improvement in patient outcomes. One of the interesting findings in this study is that drops in model performance on deployment could actually be evidence of a model performing well and that where models do not change performance upon deployment it may mean that the model is in fact not effective at all; it simply reinforces existing practice.
“The authors find that over a wide range of settings there is risk of “self-fulfilling prophecy” where the historical training used to develop models hard-wires decisions or worse actively disadvantages groups of patients for whom treatment changes from the established process would be beneficial. They posit a scenario where patients with a fast-growing tumour receive a decision not to undergo palliative radiotherapy based on the poor survival time predicted by the model. Patients with slower growing tumours are recommended for treatment as the model predicts a longer survival time, justifying the side-effects of the treatment. However in this scenario radiotherapy is ineffective for slow growing tumours, but highly effective for aggressive ones; the model supports exactly the wrong outcome.
“This work, building on findings by others in recent years, provides further evidence for a need to shift focus from predictive performance to an explicit consideration of the effects on patient outcomes of changes in treatment choice. The gold-standard for such are long-established in healthcare; randomised control trials designed to directly measure the effectiveness of new interventions in deployment. Regulation for AI tools is evolving rapidly around the world, but these are primarily focussed on performance both pre- and post- deployment which, as this study shows, fails to capture their effectiveness in practice and risks reinforcing bias from historical data.
“Whilst at first glance this work might seem alarming it is in fact a very encouraging development highlighting essential considerations for how to evaluate and use AI models in healthcare. These deepen our understanding of how to improve their safety and clinical effectiveness and, crucially, emphasises the importance of randomised control trials and deep integration of clinical knowledge into model development.”
Dr Catherine Menon, Principal Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire’s Department of Computer Science, said:
“This study presents results that show the risks of doctors using AI prediction models to make treatment decisions. This happens when AI models have been trained on historical data, where the data does not necessarily account for such factors as historical under-treatment of some medical conditions or demographics. These models will accurately predict poor outcomes for patients in these demographics. This creates a “self-fulfilling prophecy” if doctors decide not to treat these patients due to the associated treatment risks and the fact that the AI predicts a poor outcome for them. Even worse, this perpetuates the same historic error: under-treating these patients means that they will continue to have poorer outcomes. Useof these AI models therefore risks worsening outcomes for patients who have typically been historically discriminated against in medical settings due to factors such as race, gender or educational background.
“This demonstrates the inherent importance of evaluating AI decisions in context, and applying human reasoning and assessment to AI judgements. AIs might be accurate, but they can only understand a limited subset of the entire landscape around treatment decisions. This has important real-world implications because it shows that human oversight and sound ethical assessment of AI models is necessary if treatment decisions are going to be made based on the predictions of these AI models. Use of AI without human oversight in this context risks embedding further discrimination and disenfranchisement into medical systems.
“This also has important real-world implications beyond the medical domain. Uses of AI such as the “homicide prediction project” highlighted in https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/08/uk-creating-prediction-tool-to-identify-people-most-likely-to-kill may also lead to the same result. Certain demographics which have historically been over-policed and are over-represented within the justice system may suffer from the same AI-predicted poorer outcomes as those discussed within this medical study. This demonstrates the wider power of such predictive AI models, and the necessity to fully understand their training and scope before using them.”
Dr James N. Weinstein, Innovation and Health Equity, Microsoft Research, Health Futures, said:
“While prediction models are often praised for their accuracy, this research highlights a critical flaw: even well-performing models can lead to harmful self-fulfilling prophecies when used for treatment decisions. It’s essential to evaluate these models based on their real-world impact on patient outcomes rather than just predictive accuracy. Emphasizing “informed choice,” where medical decisions are guided by a patient’s values and preferences, is crucial to ensure that treatment and outcome decisions evolve with the patient’s condition over time.”
References:
Patient-Reported Data Can Help People Make Better Health Care Choices, William B. Weeks, MD and Dr. James N. Weinstein. September 21, 2015: Harvard Business Review
Effects of Viewing an Evidence-Based Video Decision Aid on Patients’ Treatment Preferences for Spine Surgery, Jon D. Lurie, MD, MS, Kevin F. Spratt, PhD, Emily A. Blood, MS, Tor D. Tosteson, ScD, Anna N. A. Tosteson, ScD, and James N. Weinstein, DO, MS, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH, USA Spine (Phila Pa 1976). August 15, 2011; 36(18): 1501–1504. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0b013e3182055c1e.
GenAI and Patient Choice: A New Era of Informed Healthcare, Dr. Peter Bonis and Dr. Jim Weinstein. February 28, 2025: Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare
‘When accurate prediction models yield harmful self-fulfilling prophecies’ by Wouter A.C. van Amsterdam et al. was published in Patterns at 16:00 UK time Friday 11 April 2025.
DOI: 10.1016/j.patter.2025.101229
Declared interests
Prof Ewen Harrison: EMH receives grant funding from the NIHR, Wellcome Leap, UKRI and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Prof Ian Simpson: I have consulted for, and received funding from, pharmaceutical companies including UCB and AstraZeneca. I also lead the UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in Biomedical Innovation that has many industry partners.
Dr Jim Weinstein: employee of Microsoft Research which is a research subsidiary of Microsoft.
For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.
Luis Vassy (Sciences Po), Shalini Randeria (CEU), Cornelia Woll (Hertie School), Daniel Jutras (University of Montreal), Paris Dialogue on the Future of Higher Education, 10 April 2025. (credits: Clara Dufour / Sciences Po)
At a time of rapidly evolving political and geopolitical context, coupled with structural transformations related to new technologies and ecological transition, higher education is at a crossroads.
We are in a historically significant moment for education, a moment to reflect and engage on the role of universities. Over the past year, following 7 October 2023 and the conflict in Gaza, a question has been critical for universities : should we take positions ? How can we protect freedom of expression for our communities (students, professors, researchers) and our core mission of science and knowledge transmission at once ?
Jeremy Perelman, Vice-President for International Affairs, Sciences Po
In response, many leading academic institutions around the world are faced with the need to:
re-emphasise their foundational role in and value for democratic societies,
clarify the core principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech within universities,
Following the recent publication of a report and the adoption by Sciences Po of its doctrine on institutional positioning, this first edition closed with a public roundtable on the protection of academic freedoms as a key challenge for the future of higher education, involving presidents and provosts of 5 leading international academic institutions.
(credits: Clara Dufour / Sciences Po)
I am very grateful for Sciences Po to have initiated this dialogue, because our common mission of producing and disseminating new knowledge relies heavily on collaboration. In recent months, we have faced similar challenges, which makes this discussion particularly valuable. At my own university, our faculty senate adopted a position that prevents the institution from making official statements on political or social issues. My view is that generating new knowledge requires a wide diversity of perspectives, rather than adherence to any form of institutional orthodoxy. Ideas that eventually prove to be true often appear unorthodox – even heretical – at first. This is precisely why it is essential to allow all viewpoints to be expressed. Suppressing ideas hinders scientific progress and the advancement of knowledge.
Jennifer Martinez, Provost, Stanford University
Over the past year, all universities have reached roughly the same conclusion, and I feel quite confident that it is the right position, even though it can be difficult to uphold. At its heart, this position is about preserving everyone’s freedom – the freedom to teach, to learn, to exchange ideas, to express oneself, and to conduct research. If the university, as an institution, adopts an official stance, our scholars and students who hold differing views may find their ability to express those opinions constrained. Universities are a special kind of institution with a unique role in society, and this role must be protected by ensuring the conditions in which our communities can freely exchange ideas and perspectives.
Larry Kramer, President, London School of Economics
In this panel of universities, we find that many of our challenges are shared. We have an educational mission, and we firmly believe that there is nothing more important than this: the task of reinventing leadership – leadership that is responsible and accountable. If you, as students, want to bring about change in the world, if you want to make a real difference, you must be able to share your ideas. Our role – our mission of supreme interest – is to create the processes and conditions that allow you to express your views and share your knowledge. What we produce as universities holds huge value. And the only way to defend that value is to start fighting for our universities with the same urgency and determination we would show in defending any vital asset – one that can be lost or destroyed. We must prevent the destruction of the most precious thing we create: knowledge.
Cornelia Woll, President, Hertie School of Governance
Universities’ involvement in public affairs should be limited to defending academic freedom and upholding the university’s core mission. This creates space within the institution for all viewpoints to be expressed and for all conversations to take place – something that is vital to the health of our academic communities. Academic freedom stands on two pillars: institutional restraint and the protection of free expression for individuals. These two principles go hand in hand, enabling our communities of scholars and students to teach, learn, and conduct research freely.
Daniel Jutras, Rector, University of Montreal
Historically, our university was forced to relocate twice due to autocratic regimes that did not respect academic freedom. We therefore understand the need to protect ourselves from political agendas within our own countries. I think we also need to think about academic freedom internationally : it is our responsibility to safeguard our students and researchers when they are abroad. Academic freedom includes ensuring that our academic communities are free to study and conduct research across borders. One of our students was recently imprisoned in Egypt for social media posts critical of the regime. The university intervened and secured his release, but I fear that in the years ahead, we will see more such cases. We must begin to think and act collectively to develop stronger legal protections for academic freedom on an international scale.
Shalini Randeria, Rector, Central European University
A university is a marketplace of ideas. Ideas must be able to express themselves and circulate freely, to challenge the prevailing consensus and go towards progress. Any stance taken by the institution may have the unintended effect of altering the freedom of expression of those whose opinions diverge from the official line. Protecting academic freedom is essential not only to protect academics or academic institutions but also to guarantee the quality of research, its open, critical inquisitiveness – even when it’s uncomfortable – and the many benefits it brings to society.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Steny H Hoyer (MD-05)
WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (MD-05) released the following statement today after the House voted to pass Senate Republicans’ budget resolution:
“Anyone who has ever promoted fiscal responsibility but supports this Republican budget resolution is defrauding the American people. This budget is unprecedented in its fiscal irresponsibility, upending decades of precedent to clear a path for Republicans to add $5.8 trillion to our national debt over the next decade. That’s more than the cost of the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and Donald Trump’s original 2017 tax cuts for the rich combined.
“Republicans are exploding the national debt to pass their massive tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals and companies in America. At the same time, this budget threatens the largest cut to Medicaid in history, while Trump’s tariffs continue to increase everyday costs for working Americans. The American people are already struggling economically. They should not have to bear additional costs to help the wealthiest individuals get even further ahead.
“Republicans threw out the rulebook to force this budget through. They ought throw out their budget proposal instead.”
A meeting of top diplomats from China, Iran and Russia – three so-called revisionist powers.Photo by Getty Images
Once upon a time, “revisionist power” was a term reserved for nations trying to overturn the postwar liberal order – the usual suspects being countries like Russia, China or Iran.
But what does revisionist really mean? And why should we care?
The roots of ‘revisionism’
At its core, “revisionist power” is a label applied to nations that want to change the way the world is ordered. The concept dates back to the period between the two world wars, when it described countries opposing the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I. Political scientist Hans Morgenthau later distinguished between status quo powers and those seeking to overturn the balance of power.
The label itself was popularized in the mid-20th century, especially through A.F.K. Organski’s 1958 work on power transition, which defined revisionist powers as those dissatisfied with the existing order and determined to reshape it.
The change desired by nations can take many forms: redrawing borders, rebalancing regional power balances or creating alternative rules, norms and institutions to the ones that currently structure international politics. The key is that revisionists nations aren’t just unhappy with specific policies – they’re dissatisfied with the broader system and want to reshape it in fundamental ways.
In that framework, countries operate in an anarchic international system with no higher authority to enforce the rules. The most powerful nations construct or impose a particular set of rules, norms and institutions on the international system, creating an order that reflects their values and serves their interests.
Revisionism in action
In this tradition, status quo powers benefit from the system and want to keep it more or less as it is. But revisionist powers see the system as constraining or unjust – and seek to alter it.
This doesn’t always mean war or open confrontation. Revisionism isn’t inherently aggressive, nor is it always destabilizing. It simply describes a nation’s support for or opposition to the prevailing international order. How that desire is expressed can include diplomacy, economic coercion or even armed conflict.
China presents a different kind of case. Beijing has made use of existing international institutions and benefited enormously from global trade, but it’s also been building alternatives, including regional banks, trade blocs and digital infrastructure designed to reduce dependence on Western systems. China’s expanding presence in the South China Sea, its pressure on Taiwan and its desire to shape global norms on everything from human rights to internet governance point to a broader effort to revise the current order – though more gradually than Russia’s approach.
Iran, meanwhile, operates mostly at the regional level. Through its support for proxy groups like Hezbollah, its influence in Iraq and Yemen, and its confrontational stance toward Israel and the Gulf monarchies, Iran has long sought to reshape the Middle East’s power dynamics. It’s not trying to rewrite the entire international system, but it’s certainly revisionist in the region.
A loaded term
Of course, calling a nation “revisionist” is not a neutral act. It reflects a judgment about whose vision of world order is legitimate and whose is not. A rising power might see itself as correcting historical imbalances, not disrupting stability. The term can be useful, but it can also obscure as much as it reveals.
Still, the label captures something real – though maybe not as cleanly as it used to. Much of today’s geopolitical tension does hinge on a basic divide: Some nations want to preserve the existing order, and others want to reshape it. But it’s no longer obvious who belongs in which camp.
Now, when the U.S. sidelines institutions it once championed, imposes extraterritorial sanctions or pushes for new tech and trade regimes that bypass rivals, it starts to blur the line between defender and challenger of the status quo.
Maybe the more useful question now isn’t just which great power is revisionist – but whether any of them are still committed to the post-World War II international order created in the U.S.’s image.
Andrew Latham 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.
Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By John Calabrese, Assistant Professor, School of Public Affairs and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Middle East Institute, American University
The development, first revealed in February 2025 in the Chinese-language journal Mechanical Engineering, was touted as a tool for civilian salvage and seabed mining. But the ability to sever communications lines 13,000 feet (4,000 meters) below the sea’s surface − far beyond the operational range of most existing infrastructure − means that the tool can be used for other purposes with far-reaching implications for global communications and security.
That is because undersea cables sustain the world’s international internet traffic, financial transactions and diplomatic exchanges. Recent incidents of cable damage near Taiwanand in northern Europe have already raised concerns of these systems’ vulnerabilities − and suspicions about the role of state-linked actors.
The growing sophistication and openness of underwater technology evidenced by the latest news from China suggest that undersea infrastructure may play a larger role in future strategic competition. Indeed, this development adds a new layer to the broader challenge of securing critical infrastructure amid expanding technological reach and the rise of so called “gray zone” tactics – antagonisms that take place between direct war and peace.
The backbone of global communication
Despite their unassuming appearance, undersea cables form the backbone of modern communication systems. Stretching around 870,000 miles (over 1.4 million kilometers) across every ocean, these cables transmit almost 100% of global internet communication.
Tech giants including Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft now own or lease roughly half of the undersea bandwidth worldwide, according to analysis by the U.S.-based telecommunications research group TeleGeography.
Vulnerabilities and sabotage
The very characteristics that make undersea cables effective also render them highly vulnerable. Built to be lightweight and efficient, they are exposed to a variety of natural hazards, including underwater volcanic eruptions, typhoons and floods.
But human activity is still the primary cause of cable damage, whether it’s from accidental anchor drags or inadvertent entanglement with trawler nets.
Now, security experts are increasingly concerned that future human disruptions might be intentional, with nations launching coordinated attacks on undersea cables as part of a hybrid war strategy.
Such assaults could disrupt not only civilian communications but also critical military networks.
An adversary, for example, could cut off a nation’s command structures from intelligence feeds, sensor data and communication with deployed forces. The ramifications extend even to nuclear deterrence: Without reliable communication, a nuclear-armed state might lose the ability to control or monitor its strategic weapons.
The loss of communications, even for a few minutes, could be catastrophic. It could mean the difference between a successful defense and a crippling first strike.
A technician explains the undersea damage to cables around Taiwan following a 2006 earthquake. Sam Yeh/AFP via Getty Images
Geopolitical threats
In recent years, Western policymakers have become particularly concerned about the capabilities of Russia and China to exploit the vulnerabilities of undersea cables.
One particularly illustrative incident occurred in 2023 when Taiwanese authorities accused two Chinese vessels of cutting the only two subsea cables supplying internet to Taiwan’s Matsu Islands.
The resulting digital isolation of 14,000 residents for six weeks was not an one-off episode. Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party has pointed to a pattern, noting that Chinese vessels have disrupted cable operations on 27 occasions since 2018.
In January 2025, Taiwan’s coast guard blamed a Cameroon- and Tanzania-flagged vessel crewed by seven Chinese nationals and operated by a Hong Kong-based company when an undersea cable was severed off the island’s northeastern coast.
Such incidents, often described as gray-zone aggression, are designed to wear down an adversary’s resilience and test the limits of response.
China’s recent push to enhance its cable-cutting capabilities coincides with a surge in its military drills around Taiwan, including a number of recent exercises.
Similar cable disruptions have occurred in the Baltic Sea. In October 2023, a telecom cable connecting Sweden and Estonia was damaged along with a gas pipeline. In January 2025, a cable linking Latvia and Sweden was breached, triggering NATO patrols and a Swedish seizure of a vessel suspected of sabotage tied to Russian activities.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, even hinted at the possibility of targeting undersea communication cables as retaliation for actions such as the Nord Stream pipeline explosions in 2023.
The involvement of state-linked vessels in incidents operating under flags of convenience − that is, registered to another country − further complicates efforts to attribute and deter such attacks.
It isn’t just security and defense at risk. The modern financial system is predicated on the assumption of continuous, high-speed connectivity; any interruption, however brief, could disrupt markets, halt trading and lead to significant monetary losses.
The undersea battlefield
Given the strategic importance of undersea cables and the multifaceted risks they face, Western governments intent on preventing further conflict would be wise to find a comprehensive and internationally coordinated way to secure the infrastructure against threats.
One clear option would be to bolster repair and maintenance capacities. Currently, a significant vulnerability stems from the overreliance on Chinese repair ships. China’s robust maritime industry and state-supported investments in global telecommunications has contributed to the Asian nation taking a prominent position when it comes to cable repair ships.
The protection of undersea cables should not, I believe, be viewed as the responsibility of any single nation but as a collective priority for all nations reliant on this infrastructure. As such, international frameworks and agreements could facilitate information sharing, standardize security protocols and establish rapid response mechanisms in the event of a cable breach.
But such international efforts would be fighting against the tide. The incidents in Taiwan, the Baltic Sea and elsewhere come as great power competition intensifies between the U.S. and China.
China, in developing deep-water cable-cutting technology, may be sending a message of intent. Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s “America First” approach signals a shift that could complicate efforts to foster partnerships for the general global good.
The defense of undersea cables reflects the challenges of our hyperconnected world, requiring a balance of innovation, strategy and cooperation. But as nations including China and Russia seemingly test and probe this vital global infrastructure, it appears the systems underpinning the West’s prosperity and security could become one of its greatest vulnerabilities.
John Calabrese 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.
Supporters of opposition candidate and former President John Dramani Mahama celebrate his victory in Accra, Ghana, on Dec. 8, 2024. AP Photo/Jerome Delay
It is also the first presidential vote to take place in Africa in 2025, to be followed by contests later this year in Ivory Coast, Malawi, Guinea, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Tanzania, Seychelles and Cameroon.
Of particular interest is whether these elections will continue the trend of last year’s votes. As the continent with the youngest population, Africa’s youth was crucial throughout 2024 to a series of seismic political shifts – not least the removal of incumbents and changes in the governing status quo in Ghana, Senegal and South Africa.
Indeed, analysis of the 2024 African Youth Survey – one of the most comprehensive continent-wide polls of people age 18 to 24 – and election results of that year show a clear lack of optimism among the youth.
Unemployment, the rising cost of livingand corruption are primary factors driving youth dissatisfaction on the continent. For example, 59% of South African youth considered their country to be heading the wrong direction – and that’s not hard to imagine given that the country’s youth unemployment rate reached 45.5% in 2024. Not surprisingly, unemployment was a key factor in the election results. Meanwhile, widespread protests in Kenyaand Uganda in the summer of 2024 were youth-led and sparked, respectively, by concerns over tax increases and corruption.
As a professor of political science and an expert in African politics, I believe that a failure to address such concerns could have potentially serious implications for political leaders in the upcoming elections. It also makes it more difficult for countries to consolidate or protect already-fragile democracies on the continent.
Unemployment fueling instability
While African political campaigns often make note of persistently high rates of youth unemployment, the policy priorities of governments across the continent have seemingly failed to fix this intractable problem.
In a 2023 Afrobarometer survey, unemployment topped the list of policy priorities for African youth between the ages of 18 and 35.
Supporters of the UMkhonto weSizwe party, which helped unseat the long-time African National Congress, attend an election meeting near Durban, South Africa, ahead of the May 2024 general elections. AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti
Many governments, faced with the ongoing economic aftereffects of the COVID-19 pandemic and supply-chain issues – which exacerbated rising living costs, high inflation and external debt issues – pursued unpopular revenue collection policies
The violent anti-tax protests in Kenya also provide an example of desperate unemployed youth tapping into a sense of deep popular resentment over fiscal policies.
The combination of deep dissatisfaction with government policies and high youth joblessness can be a destabilizing influence. A 2023 United Nations Development Program study focusing on Ghana pointed to a problem that is common elsewhere on the continent. It concluded that in regions with higher-than-average youth unemployment, that factor was the most common cause for violent extremism and radicalization.
The U.N. study underscored the importance of addressing the social and economic challenges that foster marginalization and anger among youth across sub-Saharan Africa.
The issue of youth unemployment in Africa is exacerbated by the cumulative growth in the youth labor force – estimated to grow by 72.6 million between 2023 and 2050, according to a 2024 report by the International Labor Organization.
The concerns in those countries mirror grievances registered around the continent more broadly, with reducing government corruption listed as a top priority by respondents in the African Youth Survey.
Similar to unemployment, high levels of corruption correlated to some of the political shifts of 2024.
An Afrobarometer survey of attitudes in 2024 showed that 74% of Ghanaians believed corruption had increased over the previous year.
In Kenya, 77% of people view their government’s efforts in fighting corruption as ineffectual.
Of particular concern to many African youth is the belief that security forces and government officials are often considered the most corrupt and that incidents of regularized corruption are underreported.
And it is youth that bear the brunt of much of this corruption. According to a 2022 U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime report, people between the ages 18 and 34 are among the most vulnerable to having to pay bribes to public officials in Ghana.
Supporters of soldiers who launched a coup against the government demonstrate in Niamey, Niger, on July 27, 2023. AP Photo/Fatahoulaye Hassane Midou
Again, youth attitudes toward corruption don’t bode well for many of the governments in this year’s elections. Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Guinea-Bissau all score poorly on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.
Democracy is at its strongest when it empowers governments to deliver on the needs of their populations, particularly the youth.
But the experience of incumbent governments in 2024 elections suggests that too many may have disregarded young people’s needs, which in turn has led to anger resulting in destabilizing protests and regime change – both through democratic and undemocratic means.
It also makes it harder to instill democratic sentiment among younger voters.
Over half of Africa’s 18- to 35-year-olds surveyed in the 2023 Afrobarometer agreed that the military can intervene when leaders abuse power – a pertinent caution about their willingness to support political change, even if it interrupts the democratic process.
While a majority of youth in Africa still retain an apparent preference for democracy to other forms of governance, a growing proportion would embrace nondemocratic governance under some circumstances, according to the 2024 African Youth Survey. The top scores in this particular response came from Gabon, Ivory Coast and Tanzania – all of which have upcoming elections in 2025.
Richard Aidoo 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.
Languages are windows into the worlds of the people who speak them – reflecting what they value and experience daily.
So perhaps it’s no surprise different languages highlight different areas of vocabulary. Scholars have noted that Mongolian has many horse-related words, that Maori has many words for ferns, and Japanese has many words related to taste.
Some links are unsurprising, such as German having many words related to beer, or Fijian having many words for fish. The linguist Paul Zinsli wrote an entire book on Swiss-German words related to mountains.
In our recently-publishedstudy we took a broad approach towards understanding the links between different languages and concepts.
Using computational methods, we identified areas of vocabulary that are characteristic of specific languages, to provide insight into linguistic and cultural variation.
Our work adds to a growing understanding of language, culture, and the way they both relate.
Japanese has many words related to taste. One of these is umami, which is often used to describe the rich taste of matcha green tea. Shutterstock
Our method
We tested 163 links between languages and concepts, drawn from the literature.
We compiled a digital dataset of 1574 bilingual dictionaries that translate between English and 616 different languages. Since many of these dictionaries were still under copyright, we only had access to counts of how often a particular word appeared in each dictionary.
One example of a concept we looked at was “horse”, for which the top-scoring languages included French, German, Kazakh and Mongolian. This means dictionaries in these languages had a relatively high number of
words for horses. For instance, Mongolianаргамаг means “a good racing or riding horse”
words related to horses. For instance, Mongolianчөдөрлөх means “to hobble a horse”.
However, it is also possible the counts were influenced by “horse” appearing in example sentences for unrelated terms.
Not a hoax after all?
Our findings support most links previously highlighted by researchers, including that Hindi has many words related to love and Japanese has many words related to obligation and duty.
‘Silk’ was one of the most popular concepts for Mandarin Chinese. Shutterstock
We were especially interested in testing the idea that Inuit languages have many words for snow. This notorious claim has long been distorted and exaggerated. It has even been dismissed as the “great Eskimo vocabulary hoax”, with some experts saying it simply isn’t true.
But our results suggest the Inuit snow vocabulary is indeed exceptional. Out of 616 languages, the language with the top score for “snow” was Eastern Canadian Inuktitut. The other two Inuit languages in our data set (Western Canadian Inuktitut and North Alaskan Inupiatun) also achieved high scores for “snow”.
The Eastern Canadian Inuktitut dictionary in our dataset includes terms such as kikalukpok, which means “noisy walking on hard snow”, and apingaut, which means “first snow fall”.
The top 20 languages for “snow” included several other languages of Alaska, such as Ahtena, Dena’ina and Central Alaskan Yupik, as well as Japanese and Scots.
Scots includes terms such as doon-lay, meaning “a heavy fall of snow”, feughter meaning “a sudden, slight fall of snow”, and fuddum, meaning “snow drifting at intervals”.
You can explore our findings using the tool we developed, which allows you to identify the top languages for any given concept, and the top concepts for a particular language.
Language and environment
Although the languages with top scores for “snow” are all spoken in snowy regions, the top-ranked languages for “rain” were not always from the rainiest parts of the world.
For instance, South Africa has a medium level of rainfall, but languages from this region, such as Nyanja, East Taa and Shona, have many rain-related words. This is probably because, unlike snow, rain is important for human survival – which means people still talk about it in its absence.
For speakers of East Taa, rain is both relatively rare and desirable. This is reflected in terms such as lábe ||núu-bâ, an “honorific form of address to thunder to bring rain” and |qába, which refers to the “ritual sprinkling of water or urine to bring rain”.
Our tool can also be used to explore various concepts related to perception (“smell”), emotion (“love”) and cultural beliefs (“ghost”).
The top-scoring languages for “smell” include a cluster of Oceanic languages such as Marshallese, which has terms such as jatbo meaning “smell of damp clothing”, meļļā meaning “smell of blood”, and aelel meaning “smell of fish, lingering on hands, body, or utensils”.
Prior to our research, the smell terms of the Pacific Islands had received little attention.
Some caveats
Although our analysis reveals many interesting links between languages and concepts, the results aren’t always reliable – and should be checked against original dictionaries where possible.
For example, the top concepts for Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German) include von (“of”), den (“the”) and und (“and”) – all of which are unrevealing. We excluded similar words from other languages using Wiktionary, but our method did not filter out these common words for Plautdietsch.
Also, the word counts reflect both dictionary definitions and other elements, such as example sentences. While our analysis excluded words that are especially likely to appear in example sentences (such as “woman” and “father”), such words could have still influenced our results to some extent.
Most importantly, our results run the risk of perpetuating potentially harmful stereotypes if taken at face value. So we urge caution and respect while using the tool. The concepts it lists for any given language provide, at best, a crude reflection of the cultures associated with that language.
Charles Kemp was supported by a Future Fellowship (FT190100200) awarded by the Australian Research Council.
Temuulen Khishigsuren was supported by a Future Fellowship (FT190100200) awarded by the Australian Research Council.
Ekaterina Vylomova and Terry Regier 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.
I’m more of a scroller than a poster on social media. Like many people, I wind down at the end of the day with a scroll binge, taking in videos of Italian grandmothers making pasta or baby pygmy hippos frolicking.
For a while, my feed was filled with immaculately designed tiny homes, fueling my desire for minimalist paradise. Then, I started seeing AI-generated images; many contained obvious errors such as staircases to nowhere or sinks within sinks. Yet, commenters rarely pointed them out, instead admiring the aesthetic.
These images were clearly AI-generated and didn’t depict reality. Did people just not notice? Not care?
As a cognitive psychologist, I’d guess “yes” and “yes.” My expertise is in how people process and use visual information. I primarily investigate how people look for objects and information visually, from the mundane searches of daily life, such as trying to find a dropped earring, to more critical searches, like those conducted by radiologists or search-and-rescue teams.
With my understanding of how people process images and notice − or don’t notice − detail, it’s not surprising to me that people aren’t tuning in to the fact that many images are AI-generated.
We’ve been here before
The struggle to detect AI-generated images mirrors past detection challenges such as spotting photoshopped images or computer-generated images in movies.
But there’s a key difference: Photo editing and CGI require intentional design by artists, while AI images are generated by algorithms trained on datasets, often without human oversight. The lack of oversight can lead to imperfections or inconsistencies that can feel unnatural, such as the unrealistic physics or lack of consistency between frames that characterize what’s sometimes called “AI slop.”
Despite these differences, studies show people struggle to distinguish real images from synthetic ones, regardless of origin. Even when explicitly asked to identify images as real, synthetic or AI-generated, accuracy hovers near the level of chance, meaning people did only a little better than if they’d just guessed.
In everyday interactions, where you aren’t actively scrutinizing images, your ability to detect synthetic content might even be weaker.
Attention shapes what you see, what you miss
Spotting errors in AI images requires noticing small details, but the human visual system isn’t wired for that when you’re casually scrolling. Instead, while online, people take in the gist of what they’re viewing and can overlook subtle inconsistencies.
Visual attention operates like a zoom lens: You scan broadly to get an overview of your environment or phone screen, but fine details require focused effort. Human perceptual systems evolved to quickly assess environments for any threats to survival, with sensitivity to sudden changes − such as a quick-moving predator − sacrificing precision for speed of detection.
This speed-accuracy trade-off allows for rapid, efficient processing, which helped early humans survive in natural settings. But it’s a mismatch with modern tasks such as scrolling through devices, where small mistakes or unusual details in AI-generated images can easily go unnoticed.
People also miss things they aren’t actively paying attention to or looking for. Psychologists call this inattentional blindness: Focusing on one task causes you to overlook other details, even obvious ones. In the famous invisible gorilla study, participants asked to count basketball passes in a video failed to notice someone in a gorilla suit walking through the middle of the scene.
If you’re counting how many passes the people in white make, do you even notice someone walk through in a gorilla suit?
Similarly, when your focus is on the broader content of an AI image, such as a cozy tiny home, you’re less likely to notice subtle distortions. In a way, the sixth finger in an AI image is today’s invisible gorilla − hiding in plain sight because you’re not looking for it.
Efficiency over accuracy in thinking
Our cognitive limitations go beyond visual perception. Human thinking uses two types of processing: fast, intuitive thinking based on mental shortcuts, and slower, analytical thinking that requires effort. When scrolling, our fast system likely dominates, leading us to accept images at face value.
Adding to this issue is the tendency to seek information that confirms your beliefs or reject information that goes against them. This means AI-generated images are more likely to slip by you when they align with your expectations or worldviews. If an AI-generated image of a basketball player making an impossible shot jibes with a fan’s excitement, they might accept it, even if something feels exaggerated.
While not a big deal for tiny home aesthetics, these issues become concerning when AI-generated images may be used to influence public opinion. For example, research shows that people tend to assume images are relevant to accompanying text. Even when the images provide no actual evidence, they make people more likely to accept the text’s claims as true.
Misleading real or generated images can make false claims seem more believable and even cause people to misremember real events. AI-generated images have the power to shape opinions and spread misinformation in ways that are difficult to counter.
Trust your gut. If something feels off, it probably is. Your brain expertly recognizes objects and faces, even under varying conditions. Perhaps you’ve experienced what psychologists call the uncanny valley and felt unease with certain humanoid faces. This experience shows people can detect anomalies, even when they can’t fully explain what’s wrong.
Scan for clues. AI struggles with certain elements: hands, text, reflections, lighting inconsistencies and unnatural textures. If an image seems suspicious, take a closer look.
Think critically. Sometimes, AI generates photorealistic images with impossible scenarios. If you see a political figure casually surprising baristas or a celebrity eating concrete, ask yourself: Does this make sense? If not, it’s probably fake.
Check the source. Is the poster a real person? Reverse image search can help trace a picture’s origin. If the metadata is missing, it might be generated by AI.
AI-generated images are becoming harder to spot. During scrolling, the brain processes visuals quickly, not critically, making it easy to miss details that reveal a fake. As technology advances, slow down, look closer and think critically.
Arryn Robbins 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.
Several fossils with possible cut marks from Grăunceanu, Romania.Briana Pobiner
Looking again through the magnifying lens at the fossil’s surface, one of us, Sabrina Curran, took a deep breath. Illuminated by a strong light positioned nearly parallel to the surface of the bone, the V-shaped lines were clearly there on the fossil. There was no mistaking what they meant.
She’d seen them before, on bones that were butchered with stone tools about 1.8 million years ago, from a site called Dmanisi in Georgia. These were cut marks made by a human ancestor wielding a stone tool. After staring at them for what felt like an eternity − but was probably only a few seconds − she turned to our colleagues and said, “Hey … I think I found something.”
What she’d spotted in 2017 was our team’s first evidence that hominins butchered several animals at the site of Grăunceanu, in Romania, at least 1.95 million years ago. Before this discovery, those other cut marks from Dmanisi were the oldest well-dated evidence in Eurasia of the presence of hominins − our direct human ancestors.
Other scientists have reported sites in Eurasia and northern Africa with either hominin fossils, stone tools or butchered animal bones from around this time. Our recently published research adds to this story with well-dated, verified evidence that hominins of some kind had spread to this part of the world by around 2 million years ago.
Romanian site with fossilized animal bones
A 1960s photo of fossil bones before they were excavated from the ground at Grăunceanu, Romania. Emil Racoviță Institute of Speleology
A little background on Grăunceanu: This open-air site was originally excavated in the 1960s, and researchers found thousands of fossil animal bones there. It’s one of the best-known Early Pleistocene sites in East-Central Europe. Many of the fossil animal bones are quite complete and at the time of excavation lay together as they were positioned in life. The original deposition was called a “bone nest” because of how densely packed the bones were.
If you were to stand on the hillside surrounding Grăunceanu almost 2 million years ago, it would likely have seemed familiar: a river channel surrounded by a forest that fades into more open grasslands to the foothills. Occasionally that river floods its banks, inundating the valley with rich soils, providing nutrients for the plants that the resident animals feed on. All pretty familiar, until you look more closely at those animals: ostriches, pangolins, giraffes, saber-toothed cats and hyenas − in Europe!
It’s the fossil bones of these ancient animal inhabitants that were excavated at Grăunceanu. Unfortunately, most of the excavation records and provenance data for the site have been lost. Even without those, though, the Grăunceanu fossils are so remarkably preserved that they offer up a wealth of paleontological information.
A few years after finding those first cut marks, our team, including biological anthropologist Claire Terhune, zooarchaeologist Samantha Gogol, and paleoanthropologist Chris Robinson, spent several weeks carefully studying all 4,524 Grăunceanu fossils, looking for more marks.
We examined all surfaces of every fossil bone with a magnifying lens and low-angled light. Most of these fossils have root etching on them − sinuous, shallow, overlapping marks made by plant roots that grew nearby. But whenever we saw a linear mark that looked interesting, we took an impression of that mark with dental molding material.
Briana Pobiner and Claire Terhune take molds of marks of interest on Grăunceanu fossils. Sabrina Curran
Confirming they’re cut marks
We can’t go back in a time machine to watch when these marks were made. Yes, ancient human butchers wielding stone tools would leave marks on bone. But mammalian predators or crocodiles could also leave marks with their sharp teeth. Sediments in rivers could scratch any bones rolling around in the water. Large animals walking across the landscape could move and scrape bones with their steps.
So how can we be confident that they’re cut marks? That’s where our zooarchaeologist collaborators Michael Pante and Trevor Keevil came in.
Close-up of a cut-marked bone from Grăunceanu, Romania. Sabrina Curran
Within the past decade, Pante developed a novel method for identifying the source of marks left on bones. The first step is capturing precise 3D measurements of the mark impressions using an advanced microscope called a noncontact 3D optical profiler.
Then they compare the 3D shape data from the ancient marks with a reference set of 898 marks on modern bones made by known processes, including stone tool butchery, carnivore feeding and sedimentary abrasion.
This new method adds to the more qualitative, descriptive criteria many researchers, including our team, use to make mark identifications. For instance, we consider things such as mark location: Is the mark near a muscle attachment site, where you might expect to find a cut mark if a hominin were removing meat from a bone?
Based on our analyses, we determined that 20 Grăunceanu fossils are marked by cuts, with eight displaying high-confidence cut marks. Most of those marks are on fossils of hoofed animals, including a few deer; one is a small carnivore leg bone. When we could identify the type of bone, the cut marks are always in anatomical locations consistent with cutting meat off bones.
Dating the site
While the fossil species present can give us a rough age estimate of the site, we used uranium-lead (U-Pb) dating to get more precise age information. This technique relies on the fact that naturally occurring uranium decays over long but well-known periods of time to eventually transform into lead. Geologists use the ratio of these two elements like a radiometric clock to determine how old something is.
When one of us, Virgil Drăgușin, asked geochemist Jon Woodhead to use U-Pb dating to estimate the age of the Grăunceanu fossils based on several small tooth fragments, he was reluctant. Teeth do not usually work well for this dating technique. But he agreed to a test run, and to his surprise the teeth he tried worked very well.
Together with his colleague John Hellstrom, they calculated a much more precise date for the site. We now know the Grăunceanu site is older than 1.95 million years.
All of this data together − the very well-calibrated and tightly clustered dates of the specimens plus at least 20 cut-marked bones verified both by qualitative and quantitative methods − provides very reliable evidence that hominins were indeed in Eurasia by at least 1.95 million years ago, even though there are no hominin fossils from Grăunceanu.
An artist’s reconstruction of the Early Pleistocene landscape around Grăunceanu. Emi Olin
Sometimes when we look through our magnifying lenses, it almost feels like we can peer into the past. That’s impossible − but we can piece together lines of evidence to paint a clearer picture of what happened in the past at Grăunceanu.
Now, imagining the view 1.95 million years ago, we see scenes of deer cautiously drinking from the river, majestic mammoths in the distance, a herd of horses grazing, a saber-toothed cat stalking a large monkey, a bear teaching her cubs to hunt … and a small group of hominins butchering a deer.
Briana Pobiner has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Leakey Foundation, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
Sabrina Curran has received funding from The Leakey Foundation, National Science Foundation, and Ohio University.
Virgil Drãgușin received funding from CNCS-UEFISCDI (Department of Education, Romanian Government).
The question “Who is Keir Starmer?” echoed across headlines before and after he took office in 2024. Despite leading the Labour party for years, his personality, leadership style and core motivations remained something of a mystery. Now in office, that question matters more than ever. In moments of crisis, a national leader’s psychology plays a decisive role.
The UK faces a difficult foreign policy landscape. Post-Brexit Britain is still rebuilding alliances amid economic strain and Donald Trump’s return to the US presidency has put a more transactional, Russia-friendly approach in the White House. The UK’s balancing act has become even more precarious. Starmer must back Ukraine, strengthen ties with the EU and manage an unpredictable relationship with Trump. For any leader, it’s a high-stakes task.
Traditional international relations theories often treat states as rational actors, with little attention paid to who is making the decisions. In this view, leaders are interchangeable; internal traits are “black-boxed” and considered irrelevant.
But political psychology challenges this. Leaders are not all the same. How they perceive and respond to constraints – be they economic, institutional, or geopolitical – varies dramatically.
Faced with similar conditions, different leaders make different choices. Their decisions are shaped by traits, motivations, emotions and deeply held beliefs.
Starmer: psychologically different to other PMs
Political psychology provides tools for assessing leaders by analysing their public statements. Since traditional psychological assessments are rarely feasible, researchers rely on at-a-distance methods, based on the premise that the way leaders speak and the language they use can reveal underlying traits, motivations and beliefs.
To reduce the influence of speechwriters, the analysis focuses on spontaneous material such as interviews and press conferences. The framework identifies seven core traits that are particularly relevant to foreign policy decision-making.
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Applying this framework to Starmer’s public appearances since taking office reveals notable differences between his profile and that of the average UK prime minister.
Of the seven core traits measured by the framework, Starmer scores within the typical range on task orientation, in-group bias, self-confidence, and conceptual complexity. But he stands out in three areas: distrust, belief in his ability to control events, and need for power. In these, he scores significantly above average.
These traits suggest a leader who is confident in his influence, driven to shape outcomes, and inclined to assert control when faced with obstacles. Leaders high in belief in their ability to control events tend to be proactive and view challenges as manageable. When paired with a high need for power, this reflects a strong drive to steer the political environment, often through strategic manoeuvring and behind-the-scenes influence.
These leaders test boundaries and thrive in direct, high-stakes negotiations. This combination has been seen in figures like Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair.
Compared with his most recent predecessors – Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson – Starmer shares certain traits but also diverges in meaningful ways. Like Johnson and Sunak, he shows a strong belief in his ability to control political events and a high need for power.
However, what sets him apart most clearly is his elevated level of distrust, which surpasses even Sunak’s. Research links this trait to risk-prone, uncooperative leadership styles.
Distrustful leaders often view others as potential threats, are less inclined to compromise, and fall back on control rather than collaboration. It’s a hallmark of hawkish leadership and has been associated with costly policy errors, such as George W. Bush’s misjudgement of Iraq’s weapons capabilities.
At the same time, Starmer differs from Johnson and Sunak in his greater cognitive complexity. He sees nuance, tolerates ambiguity and avoids black-and-white thinking.
He appears more open to new information and more flexible in adapting his approach. While Johnson and Sunak were more people-focused and scored low on task orientation, Starmer brings a balanced leadership style, combining interpersonal awareness with a clear focus on results. He can build relationships while staying goal-driven – an essential combination in today’s global landscape.
Starmer and Trump
What does this suggest about Starmer’s potential relationship with Trump? While research on leader-to-leader dynamics is still developing, Trump’s leadership profile is well-established.
He scores high in self-confidence, low in task orientation, places a strong emphasis on loyalty, and shows high levels of distrust. His self-confidence means he rarely seeks disconfirming information, often filtering reality to fit his beliefs.
His low task focus reflects a preference for group loyalty over detailed policy. Combined with a deep suspicion of others, this results in a transactional, uncompromising leadership style centred on personal allegiance.
This presents challenges for Starmer, whose high distrust and tendency to defy constraints could complicate efforts to build mutual understanding. Yet his adaptability, pragmatism, and balanced focus on people and tasks, combined with confidence in his ability to shape outcomes, may help him navigate this volatile relationship.
His assertive style, however, could still surprise or alienate some supporters as he makes bold moves beyond expectations.
Starmer’s leadership may lack the charisma or flair of his predecessors, but his personality profile reveals a distinct and consequential approach to power. Confident, strategic, and distrustful, he is not a passive figurehead but a leader likely to assert control, challenge limits, and drive his vision.
When the stakes are this high, Starmer’s psychology may not just influence Britain’s path – it could determine it.
Consuelo Thiers 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.
In Antarctica’s freezing depths, tiny creatures have mastered survival tactics that could unlock secrets to extreme cold resistance, with implications for science and medicine. Some of the most intense battles against the environment are waged by the smallest of creatures.
When it’s cold, we, as warm-blooded (endothermic), animals simply put on a coat. Other endotherms, can be large, fat or furry to insulate their body from the cold.
Generating your own body heat, however, requires a lot of energy. Insects do not do not do this. The heat they need for metabolism and growth comes from the environment. This is partly how they are so abundant around the world. They need less energy to grow compared with warm-blooded animals like mammals and are great at exploiting this advantage.
Not being able to generate your own body heat is a problem for insects in cold places. They are at the mercy of the environmental temperature and can only grow, develop and feed when it is warm enough. Typically this optimum temperature is around 20°C.
Yet some insects survive when temperatures drop below freezing. Generally, when the temperature goes below 0°C this causes damage to animal cells and even death. This cell damage is what causes frostbite.
Many insects use one of two simple strategies. Freeze tolerance or freeze avoidance.
For example, they produce cryoprotectants, such as glycerol, which lower their freezing point. This allows the animal to undergo supercooling without freezing. Some generate antifreeze proteins that stop ice crystals from forming in their tissue.
Mites are common in the Antarctic – there are hundreds of species. Some even live in the nasal cavities of penguins. Penguin noses provide not only a source of food for the mites that feed on the penguins’ dead skin cells, but also a warm environment.
However, some Antarctic mites, which don’t rely on a host, such as Halozetes belgicae, are freeze-avoiding, using antifreeze compounds to lower the freezing point of their body to well below 0°C.
One of the smallest land animals in Antarctica are the springtails, related to primitive insects but lacking some of the features we see in modern insects. For example, their mouthparts are internal whereas insects have external mouthparts. One springtail, Gomphiocephalus hodgsoni, can reach a temperature of -38°C before it freezes. It is a small species of only 1-2 millimetres in length but important for the Antarctic soil ecosystem, fulfilling an important function as a decomposer of organic matter.
The midge species Belgica Antarctica, however, is the only true insect found in Antarctica. It endures many periods of sub-zero temperatures throughout its life and has some unique strategies to deal with the hostile Antarctic climate. This species takes two years to reach adulthood – which in insect time is quite the long while. Some insects such as aphids have multiple generations in a year.
Belgica Antarcticacan tolerate ice crystals forming in its body by minimising the damage they do to tissue. It can also lose water from its body through a semi-permeable outer membrane, removing molecules that could form into ice crystals.
Perhaps among the most dominant animals in the Antarctic, and indeed anywhere on the planet, are the nematodes. This is a small worm-like animal, that lives in and on top of the soil. Some species like Panagrolaimus davidi can tolerate their body cells freezing. They can also undergo a dormant state called diapause by dehydrating themselves (cryptobiosis), which prevents ice crystals forming in their cells.
Another group that uses this method for dealing with the cold Antarctic climate are the tardigrades (also known as water bears). Freezing can extend the life of this animal. In fact, one tardigrade species known as Acutuncus antarcticuswas frozen at -20°C and defrosted 30 years later with no ill effects.
Invertebrates, make up an enormous proportion of all life on earth. There are so many species yet to be discovered, which could help us unlock more secrets to survival in the most extreme environments and how this can benefit humans.
Freeze tolerance and avoidance strategies, can enhance our knowledge of cryopreservation for medicine and organ transplants, improve food storage, aid climate adaptation and drive innovation in biotechnology and materials science. Studying how these microscopic life forms endure extreme conditions could reveal secrets about the evolution of life on Earth and even offer insights into the future of cryopreservation.
Alex Dittrich 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.
“Iron-clad” and “non-negotiable” is how UK prime minister Keir Starmer recently described the country’s fiscal rules. The government has been coming under pressure to relax the rules and cut itself some financial slack. But according to the PM, these self-imposed restrictions are vital for maintaining UK economic stability.
What Starmer is referring to is notably the “stability” rule, which says that the UK will balance day-to-day public spending with tax receipts, rather than by borrowing, over the course of the parliament.
But the volatility unleashed by US president Donald Trump’s tariff plans has challenged this rule. US tariffs could have a significant economic impact on the UK and the world economies.
Indeed, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that 10% across-the-board tariffs, if they ultimately result in retaliation from China and the EU, could cut global economic growth by 0.5% in 2026.
Unsurprisingly, the UK’s independent economic forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), estimates a similar impact on the UK. It predicts that if the trade wars result in 20% tariff rates between the US and the rest of the world, it could reduce economic growth by as much as 1%. This, it says, could slash the expected UK budget surplus in 2029-30 to “almost zero”.
And herein lies the challenge for the UK’s fiscal rules. Due to the stability rule, a cut to GDP growth would reduce the tax take. That would require either raising taxes or cutting public spending, due to the rule that this cannot be funded by borrowing.
Fear that the government’s nearly £10 billion spending buffer will disappear by the end of the parliament puts pressure on the government to say how it would continue to stick to its fiscal rule. If it did result in spending cuts or tax rises, this could dampen economic growth and negatively affect people’s lives. And the decisions would have been taken on the basis of economic forecasts that may not come to pass.
This is particularly true when the forecasts are based on US tariffs that were imposed and then paused in the space of just a week.
This problem was also evident in the spring statement in March, when the chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves, announced spending cuts because the GDP growth forecast had been halved from 2% to 1% for this year.
And the vast swaths of tariffs later announced by US president Donald Trump could have a similar impact on the UK’s growth rate.
If the UK were to relax or abolish its fiscal rules, that may ease the pressure to react to a potential growth downgrade – which may or may not happen given the volatile nature of the US tariffs announced so far.
The debt burden
But the prime minister and the chancellor have both resisted this change. They are concerned about the UK’s credibility in the eyes of its creditors, who buy government debt in the bond markets based on their assessment of the fiscal position of the British government.
The UK, like other advanced economies, borrows from bond markets to fund its budget deficits. The government is concerned that with a debt-to-GDP ratio of more than 95%, creditors may be reluctant to lend to the UK. To do so, they might want to charge more.
A higher interest rate on the UK’s national debt would of course reduce the amount available for public spending.
The UK spends more than £100 billion a year on debt interest payments. This is more than it spends on education or investment.
The amount increased rapidly in recent years due to the global financial crisis and the COVID pandemic. And, relatively speaking, the UK spends more money on paying interest on its debt than other G7 economies (3.3% of its GDP compared with the G7 average of 1.7% in 2022).
Part of this is due to the UK having more inflation-linked debt than comparable economies. About one-quarter of the UK’s debt repayment is linked to inflation, which is double that of Italy, the next highest in the G7, at 12%. And, as everyone in the UK has experienced, inflation has been high in the past few years.
High inflation over the past few years has squeezed consumers – as well as the government. Edinburghcitymom/Shutterstock
This makes the UK particularly susceptible to movements in bond markets. For instance, if the UK’s borrowing costs were to decline by one percentage point, that would save £21 billion over five years. That’s double the current “fiscal headroom” (effectively the government’s spending buffer) that is at risk from US tariffs.
Without knowing for sure how bond markets would react, it would be challenging for the government to change its fiscal rules. But it’s also challenging to apply the stability rule during times of high volatility like this. Given the unpredictable nature of the US tariff regime, this debate is likely to go on for some time.
Linda Yueh 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.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Shuang-Ye Wu, Professor of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, University of Dayton
A powerful storm system that stalled over states from Texas to Ohio for several days in early April 2025 wreaked havoc across the region, with deadly tornadoes, mudslides and flooding as rivers rose. More than a foot of rain fell in several areas.
As a climate scientist who studies the water cycle, I often get questions about how extreme storms like these form and what climate change has to do with it. There’s a recipe for extreme storms, with two key ingredients.
Recipe for a storm
The essential conditions for storms to form with heavy downpours are moisture and atmospheric instability.
First, in order for a storm to develop, the air needs to contain enough moisture. That moisture comes from water evaporating off oceans, lakes and land, and from trees and other plants.
The amount of moisture the air can hold depends on its temperature. The higher the temperature, the more moisture air can hold, and the greater potential for heavy downpours. This is because at higher temperatures water molecules have more kinetic energy and therefore are more likely to exist in the vapor phase. The maximum amount of moisture possible in the air increases at about 7% per degree Celsius.
Warm air also supplies storm systems with more energy. When that vapor starts to condense into water or ice as it cools, it releases large amount of energy, known as latent heat. This additional energy fuels the storm system, leading to stronger winds and greater atmospheric instability.
That leads us to the second necessary condition for a storm: atmospheric instability.
Atmospheric instability has two components: rising air and wind shear, which is created as wind speed changes with height. The rising air, or updraft, is essential because air cools as it moves up, and as a result, water vapor condenses to form precipitation.
As the air cools at high altitudes, it starts to sink, forming a downdraft of cool and dry air on the edge of a storm system.
When there is little wind shear, the downdraft can suppress the updraft, and the storm system quickly dissipates as it exhausts the local moisture in the air. However, strong wind shear can tilt the storm system, so that the downdraft occurs at a different location, and the updraft of warm moist air can continue, supplying the storm with moisture and energy. This often leads to strong storm systems that can spawn tornadoes.
Extreme downpours hit the US
It is precisely a combination of these conditions that caused the prolonged, extensive precipitation that the Midwest and Southern states saw in early April.
The Midwest is prone to extreme storms, particularly during spring. Spring is a transition time when the cold and dry air mass from the Arctic, which dominates the region in winter, is gradually being pushed away by warm and moist air from the Gulf that dominates the region in summer.
This clash of air masses creates atmosphere instability at the boundary, where the warm and less dense air is pushed upward above the cold and denser air, creating precipitation.
The Storm Prediction Center’s one-day convective outlooks from March 30 through April 5, 2025, and the tornado, wind and hail reports over that period reflect the damage when severe storms flooded communities in the Midwest and South. National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center
A cold front forms when a cold air mass pushes away a warm air mass. A warm front forms when the warm air mass pushes to replace the cold air mass. A cold front usually moves faster than a warm front, but the speed is related to the temperature difference between the two air masses.
The warm conditions before the April storm system reduced the temperature difference between these cold and warm air masses, greatly reducing the speed of the frontal movement and allowing it to stall over states from Texas to Ohio.
The result was prolonged precipitation and repeated storms. The warm temperatures also led to high moisture content in the air masses, leading to more precipitation. In addition, strong wind shear led to a continuous supply of moisture into the storm systems, causing strong thunderstorms and dozens of tornadoes to form.
What global warming has to do with storms
As global temperatures rise, the warming air creates conditions that are more conducive to extreme precipitation.
The warmer air can mean more moisture, leading to wetter and stronger storms. And since most significant warming occurs near the surface, while the upper atmosphere is cooling, this can increase wind shear and the atmospheric instability that sets the stage for strong storms.
Polar regions are also warming two to three times as fast as the global average, reducing the temperature gradient between the poles and equator. That can weaken the global winds. Most of the weather systems in the continental U.S. are modulated by the polar jet stream, so a weaker jet stream can slow the movement of storms, creating conditions for prolonged precipitation events.
All of these create conditions that make extreme storms and flooding much more likely in the future.
Shuang-Ye Wu 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.
Many companies will find that returning to past polluting ways isn’t in their best interest. Over 60% of chief financial officers surveyed by global management firm Kearney in December 2024 signaled that they intended to invest at least 2% of their revenue in sustainability in 2025.
These companies may maintain a low profile about climate change while the Trump administration is in power, but they have strong financial incentives to continue to reduce their emissions and their own climate risks.
We study privateenvironmentalgovernance – the ways companies and organizations work outside government to improve the nation’s sustainability and reduce environmental damage. Our work finds that, in this polarized era, addressing climate and sustainability challenges is not just a matter of government action. That’s because a lot of climate and sustainability progress is underway in the private sector.
When McDonald’s faced public pressure to reduce waste in the late 1980s, the company teamed up with the Environmental Defense Fund to analyze the problem. It was able to reduce its waste by 30% over the following decade, saving the company US$6 million a year. This early risk-taking by McDonald’s opened the door for other environmental groups to help businesses understand how to reduce their environmental impact, including emissions, while boosting the companies’ profitability.
The shipping company Maersk expects to cut emissions and boost productivity at the same time with better logistics and low-emissions ships like this one, which runs on methanol. Axel Heimken/picture alliance via Getty Images
Maersk, the logistics giant responsible for nearly a quarter of global shipping, has responded to pressure from its corporate customers with a plan to reduce carbon emissions by one-third from 2022 to 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2045. It expects the combination of low-emissions vessels and a more efficient delivery network with hubs and shuttles to help meet its climate goals while increasing productivity.
Microsoft and Amazon are responding to massive new power demand by trying to locate data centers near existing nuclear power plants for cleaner energy supplies.
Thousands of companies report emissions via private systems
Another sign of companies’ continuing commitment to sustainability is how many of them measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions even when governments do not require them to do so.
California has its own formal reporting requirements designed to encourage companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. And other states are considering setting climate disclosure rules. The Trump administration has promised to challenge them, and announced that it also plans to cut federal greenhouse gas reporting standards, but companies will likely still face reporting rules in the future.
Managing supply chains with climate and environmental risks in mind can also help businesses increase their efficiency and reduce the risk that climate change will disrupt their operations.
The supply chain is the largest source of the average company’s emissions and may be particularly vulnerable to climate shocks. A storm can easily disrupt vital production or shipping, and droughts or heat waves can damage crops, stop work and increase costs. Companies estimate climate-related supply chain risks at $162 billion, nearly three times the cost of mitigating those risks. Many companies therefore have incentives to reduce emissions and their exposure to related hazards.
Walmart eliminated 1 billion tons of carbon emissions from its supply chain in less than seven years by sharing its expertise with suppliers and working with them to reduce their emissions. Walmart’s global director of sustainable retail noted in 2024 that the effort made its suppliers more efficient, too.
Keeping employees and customers happy
Companies also face pressure from average people − both employees and customers.
The outdoor clothing company Patagonia ranked third out of over 300 brands in a 2024 customer experience survey, in part because of its reputation for sustainable practices. Many of the over 10,000 respondents cited the company’s sustainable practices as the leading reason for their support.
Many companies also face pressure from lenders and insurers who want to reduce climate risks to their own bottom lines. Dozens of insurers have committed to ending or restricting underwriting for new fossil fuel projects. Others use incentives, such as lower premiums for companies that reduce emissions or invest in climate adaptation.
Media attention and interest group advocacy is often focused on government actions, but decisions made in boardrooms and through initiatives with nonprofits have created an important kind of private climate governance.
As companies respond to their own economic risks and incentives, they help buy time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change until the political system recognizes the financial risks posed to the entire country.
Zdravka Tzankova receives funding from the National Science Foundation.
Ethan I. Thorpe and Michael Vandenbergh do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
French researchers recently published an edition of a previously unknown 17th-century French play that they argue could be attributed to the French satirist and dramatist Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac.
Bibliophiles and literary historians like myself are rejoicing at this discovery, which sheds new light on 17th-century literary, political and libertine culture. However, questions remain regarding the authorship of the comedy.
Cyrano de Bergerac is best known as the big-nosed protagonist in a 19th-century eponymous play by Edmond Rostand. Adapted for the screen most recently in 2021, Rostand’s play portrays Cyrano de Bergerac as a flamboyant young man who combines the arts of duelling and poetry and is tormented by love for his cousin, Roxane. It caricatures the real Cyrano, who led a tumultuous life that ended tragically when he was only 35.
Contrary to what Rostand’s play suggests, historians have argued that Cyrano de Bergerac was homosexual. While he enlisted as a musketeer serving the French king for some time, he quit after suffering several wounds. He is often associated with libertine culture, questioning the core dogmas of Christianity and the moral, sexual and political values of 17th-century France.
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Cyrano de Bergerac wrote a variety of plays, letters and novels, often in a satirical vein. Few were published during his lifetime and his most famous works, Les États et Empires de la Lune (The States and Empires of the Moon) and a sequel on the Sun, were both published posthumously.
These novels have been characterised as early forms of science fiction. They describe voyages to the Moon and Sun, where the protagonist encounters utopian societies inspired by some aspects of libertine thought. While Cyrano de Bergerac became the object of ridicule by some contemporaries, others – including the acclaimed French playwright Molière – were inspired by his works.
The 17th-century manuscript now tentatively attributed to Cyrano de Bergerac was brought to the attention of lead researcher Guy Fontaine by the previous owners, who asked him to determine its possible author.
However, in 2022, before Fontaine and his research team were able to draw any conclusions, the manuscript was sold at an auction for the low sum of €300 (£257). The auction catalogue attributed it to the minor playwright Gabriel Gilbert.
But Fontaine and his team later concluded that the attribution to Gilbert was unlikely. According to them, the manuscript, which contains a comedy written out over 70 pages, points in the direction of Cyrano de Bergerac.
Cyrano, a film based on the Edmond Rostand play Cyrano de Bergerac, was released in 2021.
The play, entitled L’Art de Persuader (The Art of Persuasion), tells the story of two young men seeking to marry two women, incidentally both named Julie, in a traditional structure in five acts. The play shows an experienced playwright at work, aware of both classical and contemporary models.
Set against the backdrop of Paris during the political upheavals involving Cardinal Mazarin and the thirty years’ war, the political events described in the play allowed the researchers to situate its creation in the final years of the 1640s or first half of the 1650s. These dates are corroborated by physical evidence. The play is written in a mid-17th-century handwriting style, and watermarks found in the paper were only in use until 1656.
This timeline corresponds to the the active years of Cyrano de Bergerac, who emerged as a potential author because of the combined presence of a number of elements in the comedy. The play’s references to libertine ideas and Epicurean philosophy, a topic with which Cyrano de Bergerac was familiar, point in his direction.
L’Art de Persuader’s style, including many Latin influences, and division into acts and scenes bear similarity to Cyrano de Bergerac’s known plays, as does the pairing of its characters, who often appear in duos. The locations mentioned in the play all have some connection to the historical Bergerac – and the author’s most famous theme, the Moon, is also mentioned.
Reason for caution
Despite the clear similarities with the style and themes preferred by Cyrano de Bergerac, the researchers remain cautious with their claim – and rightly so. Many of the elements that correspond with his style, such as the pairing of characters, were in fashion in the mid-17th century and can be found in the works of other writers, too.
No single element connects the play irrefutably to this particular libertine author. An additional problem is that an expert in 17th-century handwriting who was consulted by the research team was unable to definitively match the writing of the manuscript to Cyrano de Bergerac’s.
The edition of L’Art de Persuader published by the research team will enable other experts of Cyrano de Bergerac to shed their light on the authorship question. But whoever the author is, this play is of interest to literary historians as it provides new insights into the interplay between political history and theatre culture, as well as into libertine writing and the influence of Latin comedy – in particular Plautus – on baroque literature.
When part of a private collection, however, these materials are difficult for researchers to access. It is therefore all the more valuable when owners contact specialists themselves, which is how Fontaine and his team first learned about this precious French play. For now, their edition is the only way to study this manuscript as, following the auction, it is in private hands.
Alisa van de Haar 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.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Yoon Walker, PhD Candidate in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, SOAS, University of London
South Korea’s constitutional court upheld the parliament’s decision to impeach the country’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, on April 4. The court stated that, by declaring martial law in December, Yoon had taken actions that were beyond the powers granted by South Korea’s constitution.
Yoon is also facing criminal charges for allegedly leading an insurrection with the martial law attempt. While the criminal trial is separate from the impeachment, the court’s ruling that the martial law decree was unconstitutional could undermine Yoon’s defence of presidential authority.
Separate to this charge, Yoon is being investigated for obstructing arrest after his security team blocked attempts by the police to detain him at his residence in January. His security service refused police warrants for search and seizure, citing national security concerns.
Yoon has been stripped of his presidential rights, including the privilege of staying in the newly built presidential residence in Seoul and being buried at the national cemetery when he passes away.
South Koreans will now elect a new president. But, in a country beset by deep societal division, the new leader will face an uphill battle to return the nation to stability.
Since parliament approved Yoon’s impeachment over 100 days ago, South Korea has been divided between Yoon’s supporters, who see him as the victim of a political establishment that has been overrun by “communists”, and those in favour of his removal. There have been weekly protests from both camps.
Most conservative politicians from Yoon’s People Power party (PPP) stood by him throughout the political upheaval. But many have started to distance themselves from him now that he has been dismissed, especially as any criminal conviction could be a setback for the party in the upcoming snap election.
Shortly after the constitutional court’s ruling was delivered, Kwon Young-se, the PPP’s interim leader, issued an official statement declaring that the party “solemnly accepts and humbly respects” the decision. This marked a sharp contrast to the position the party had previously taken during the crisis. Many PPP members had been involved in protests organised by supporters of Yoon.
The political stance of far-right figures is also changing. Jeon Kwang-hoon, a Protestant pastor at the forefront of the anti-impeachment movement and an advocate for the “right to resist”, has rejected the court’s ruling on Yoon’s impeachment. He has also urged his followers to resist.
On the other hand, another prominent far-right figure called Jeon Han-gil swiftly changed his stance after the judgment. He expressed his respect for the court’s decision and announced that he would now focus on supporting the upcoming presidential election.
Electing Yoon’s successor
With South Korea’s need for a new president confirmed, the date for the snap presidential election has been set for June 3. Both political camps are gearing up for the race.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main opposition Democratic party (DPK), has been Yoon’s most formidable rival. Lee was the DPK’s candidate in the last presidential election in 2022, where he narrowly lost to Yoon by less than 1% of the vote.
Few others from his party have shown interest in the primary race, including former member of the National Assembly Kim Kyung-soo and the governor of Gyeonggi province, Kim Dong-yeon.
The situation in the ruling party is more chaotic. With no clear frontrunner, a number of candidates are expected to enter the race.
These include labour minister Kim Moon-soo, former PPP leader Han Dong-hoon, Daegu mayor Hong Joon-pyo, and Ahn Cheol-soo, a politician who made his name in the tech industry. Experts predict there could be ten candidates in the ruling party’s primary.
South Korea’s polarisation across political, social, gender and generational lines has intensified in recent years. Lee Jae-myung was even stabbed in the neck in 2024 by a man hoping to prevent him from “becoming president”, resulting in Lee undergoing emergency surgery.
This division has become even more pronounced since Yoon’s declaration of martial law, with tensions spilling over online and on the streets. The crisis has provided both ends of the political spectrum with an opportunity to solidify their positions, further entrenching this divide.
During the street protests following the martial law decree, the majority of women in their 20s and 30s took the lead in advocating for Yoon’s impeachment, while many men in the same age group rallied against it.
As South Korea prepares to elect its next leader, the urgency of uniting a deeply fractured society has never been greater. National unity has long been a central goal for South Korean political leaders, but heightened social divisions are threatening the country’s wellbeing.
This is being compounded by a range of other pressing issues, including the world’s lowest birth rate, a high suicide rate and soaring housing prices. These paint a sobering picture of the challenges ahead.
Yoon Walker 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.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
News story
The Truth About Porton Down
Answering the myths and misconceptions.
Porton Down carries out research to ensure that the UK’s military and wider public benefit from the latest technical and scientific developments. In the interests of national security much of this work is secret. Inevitably this has led to many myths and misconceptions springing up about Porton Down and the wider work carried out by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
The Truth
Chemical and Biological Weapons
The UK’s chemical and biological weapons programme was closed down in the 1950s. Since then Porton Down has been active in developing effective countermeasures to the constantly evolving threat posed by chemical and biological weapons. To help develop effective medical countermeasures and to test systems, we produce very small quantities of chemical and biological agents. They are stored securely and disposed of safely when they are no longer required.
Animal Testing
Safe and effective protective measures for the UK and its Armed Forces could not, currently, be achieved without the use of animals. Examples include:
Nerve Agent Pretreatment Set (NAPS) Tablets. These provide protection against exposure to nerve agents such as Sarin and VX.
ComboPen containing atropine, P2S and avizafone. This is used when individuals are showing signs of exposure to nerve agent poisoning.
Doxycycline and Ciprofloxacin are antibiotics that are given as both a pretreatment and a treatment in the event of exposure to high threat biological agents such as plague and anthrax.
All of these countermeasures are available for use by both the UK’s military and wider civilian population.
It is also notable that several products and procedures developed by Dstl are now used in the NHS. Dstl research, for example, provided evidence that giving specific blood products before casualties reach hospital could help save lives as it improves the ability to form blood-clots.
Dstl is committed to reducing the number of animal experiments. The “three Rs” of ‘reduce’ (the number of animals used), ‘refine’ (animal procedures) and ‘replace’ (animal tests with non-animal tests) are integral to our testing programme. We only apply for licenses if the research cannot be obtained without the use of animals. Dstl Porton Down currently uses less than half of one per cent of the total number of animals used in experimentation in the UK. All research involving animals is licensed by the Home Office, in accordance with relevant legislation, who carry out both announced and unannounced visits several times a year and can access the laboratories at any time.
Human Volunteers
Since 1916 over 20,000 volunteers have taken part in studies at Porton Down. Without their involvement we could not have developed the highly effective protective clothing and medical countermeasures that our armed forces rely on.
The Volunteer Programme has always been operated to the highest ethical standards of the day.
We still carry out trials with human volunteers to make the protective equipment easier to wear and to develop better training procedures. These trials comply with all nationally and internationally accepted ethical standards. All of the trials are approved by the Ministry of Defence Research Ethics Committees (MODREC) process.
If any ex Porton Down Volunteer has any concerns about the trials in which they participated or any subsequent effects on their health they should contact the Porton Down Volunteers Helpline on 0800 7832521.
The Death of Leading Aircraftsman Maddison
The death of Aircraftsman Ronald Maddison in 1953 was a tragic and regrettable incident. He died following participation in a trial in which a number of small drops of the nerve agent sarin were applied to the forearm through two layers of cloth. An inquest returned a verdict of unlawful killing in 2004. He is the only member of the UK Armed Forces to have died as the direct result of participation in experimental tests carried out at Porton Down on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
Porton Down has always been open about the fact that Aircraftsman Maddison died at the site. The Wiltshire coroner held the original inquest in secret, on the grounds of national security, recording a verdict of misadventure. The pathologist’s report stated that he had died from asphyxia. The subsequent inquest into his death overturned the coroner’s original findings, recording a verdict of unlawful killing.
Aerial Release Trials
During the cold war period between 1953 and 1976, a number of aerial release trials were carried out to help the government understand how a biological attack might spread across the UK. Given the international situation at the time these trials were conducted in secret. The information obtained from these trials has been and still is vital to the defence of the UK from this type of attack. Two separate and independent reviews of the trials have both concluded that the trials did not have any adverse health effects on the UK population.
Ebola
Dstl has an active research programme on Ebola and played an important role in the UK’s support to Sierra Leone during the recent outbreak. Dstl’s scientists provided advice on the biological and physical aspects of the virus, as well as deploying highly skilled research scientists to the diagnostic laboratory at the Kerry Town Ebola Treatment Unit.
Gruinard Island
During the Second World War, Porton Down scientists developed a biological weapon using anthrax spores. Trials were held on Gruinard Island off the coast of Scotland. Anthrax spores can remain active for decades and Gruinard was finally decontaminated in 1986.
Destruction of Chemical Weapons
Each year small quantities of old chemical weapons are found in the UK. Dstl possesses the only licensed UK facility for the receipt, storage, breakdown and safe disposal of old chemical weapons. We currently have around 1,000 munitions that are in the process of being safely disposed of.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) makes annual inspections at Dstl to assess compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) by confirming it is making accurate returns on munition types and numbers and is undertaking control and disposal of the UK’s old chemical weapons. We share our world leading expertise on the disposal of legacy weapons with other nations. As part of this we host an annual conference in support of the OPCW.
Alien Bodies
No aliens, either alive or dead have ever been taken to Porton Down or any other Dstl site.
Cannabis Cultivation
Dstl and its predecessors do not and have never grown cannabis at Porton Down.
As the global climate crisis intensifies, the importance of multi-hazard early warning systems becomes more urgent. The “Early Warnings for All” (EW4All) initiative calls for every person on Earth to be protected by such systems by 2027, in line with Target G of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. Barbados is emerging as a clear example of what this vision looks like in action.
In August 2024, Barbadian authorities made the difficult but decisive choice to postpone a major cultural event due to a fast-developing thunderstorm threat. The Soca 5.0 concert—one of the highlights of the annual Crop Over Season—was interrupted and ultimately cancelled based on real-time meteorological data. While the decision sparked frustration among attendees, it likely prevented serious harm: lightning strikes were recorded within a 5-kilometer radius of the venue shortly after the evacuation began.
This response illustrates the life-saving potential of early warnings. But to fully appreciate its significance, it helps to understand the broader context.
Over the last five years, Barbados has faced an increase in high-intensity thunderstorms marked by frequent lightning activity. In June 2021, a system commonly referred to as “the freak storm” produced more than 4,700 lightning strikes in under an hour, overwhelming power grids. More recently, in October 2023, the outer bands of Hurricane Tammy triggered lightning bursts at a rate of 100 strikes every 15 minutes.
These past events set a precedent that made the 2024 thunderstorm threat impossible to ignore. On August 4, a tropical wave—monitored by the Barbados Meteorological Service (BMS)—created unstable conditions just as the Soca 5.0 concert was set to begin at the National Botanical Gardens. Initially, BMS issued a thunderstorm watch, later upgraded to a warning in coordination with the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) and the Minister of Home Affairs. Based on risk assessments and historical patterns, the event was postponed and the venue evacuated.
The decision was not based on instinct or precaution alone. Using Geographic Information System (GIS) tools and lightning strike data provided by BMS, authorities confirmed multiple lightning strikes occurred within a 5-kilometer radius of the venue on August 4.
Given the presence of thousands of attendees, metallic stage equipment, and barricades, the site was highly exposed. GIS-based buffer analysis confirmed that a minor westward shift in the storm’s path could have resulted in direct strikes at the concert location. In such a setting, even a single lightning strike could have caused mass casualties.
By integrating risk data with real-time weather forecasts, Barbados avoided what could have been a national tragedy.
This case exemplifies the core principles of the Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative. Launched by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2022, the initiative seeks not only to increase the availability of multi-hazard early warning systems, but to ensure they lead to timely and effective action.
Barbados is actively implementing EW4All through concrete reforms. The government has approved the expansion of DEM’s workforce, including a new four-person unit specifically aligned with EW4All objectives. This unit includes a GIS and Information Management System Specialist, highlighting the country’s focus on strengthening risk knowledge. In parallel, Barbados is developing a Disaster Risk Information Management System (DRIMS)—a national platform that will consolidate risk data for use by government, private sector, and civil society, which is complementing the National Coastal Risk Information and Planning Platform (NCRIPP).
One of the key lessons from the Soca 5.0 case is the importance of public trust in early warnings. While the event’s cancellation was met with disappointment, the decision was grounded in science and taken to protect lives.
Effective risk communication is essential—especially when protective measures disrupt daily life or major cultural events. Authorities must ensure that messages are not only timely and technically sound, but also accessible, understandable, and inclusive. Using multiple communication channels, addressing concerns in real time, and fostering public trust—long before a crisis hits—are all critical components of a successful multi-hazard early warning system.
The Soca 5.0 decision was more than just a weather-related cancellation; it was a high-stakes, evidence-based intervention that exemplifies what risk-informed governance looks like. It shows how science, data, and decisive leadership can work together to prevent disaster—before it strikes.
As climate change continues to amplify the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, multi-hazard early warning systems will play a growing role in protecting lives and livelihoods. Barbados’ experience offers a compelling example of how the EW4All vision is already being realized—and why its global implementation is urgent and necessary.
The Task Force for Collaboration on the Northern Metropolis Development Strategy held its sixth meeting in Hong Kong today.
Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong and Shenzhen Vice Mayor Tao Yongxin led delegations of the governments of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Shenzhen respectively.
In the morning, both delegations visited the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science & Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone.
In addition to receiving a briefing by representatives of the Civil Engineering & Development Department and the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation & Technology Park on the planning, design and construction work of the park, they toured the newly completed talent accommodation building therein.
During the afternoon meeting, the Hong Kong SAR Government presented the achievements made in taking forward the development of the Northern Metropolis in the past year,including the development proposals for Ngau Tam Mei, the New Territories North New Town and Ma Tso Lung announced at the end of last year; and an earlier invitation for submissions of expressions of interest on three large-scale land disposal pilot areas.
The Hong Kong SAR Government also introduced the Development Outline for the Hetao Hong Kong Park promulgated in November last year, which clearly sets out the park’s major development directions, strategy and targets.
Both sides also exchanged views on the planning progress for the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Rail Link (Hung Shui Kiu-Qianhai), the implementation of the Wutong Mountain-Robin’s Nest Ecological Corridor and the planning and development of Hong Kong-Shenzhen control points.
Mr Wong said that the large-scale development of the Northern Metropolis brings myriad opportunities for Hong Kong.
“We will continue to leverage our unique advantages under the ‘one country two systems’ principle and give full play to our roles as a super-connector and super value-adder. We will work closely with Shenzhen to promote the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and contribute to the high-quality development of our country.”
Secretary for Development Bernadette Linn, Secretary for Constitutional & Mainland Affairs Erick Tsang, Secretary for Security Tang Ping-keung, Secretary for Transport & Logistics Mable Chan, Under Secretary for Environment & Ecology Diane Wong and Under Secretary for Innovation, Technology & Industry Lillian Cheong also attended today’s meeting.
The asteroid 2024 YR4 made headlines in February with the news that it had a chance of hitting Earth on Dec. 22, 2032, as determined by an analysis from NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The probability of collision peaked at over 3% on Feb. 18 — the highest ever recorded for an object of its size. This sparked concerns about the damage the asteroid might do should it hit Earth. New data collected in the following days lowered the probability to well under 1%, and 2024 YR4 is no longer considered a potential Earth impactor. However, the event underscored the importance of surveying asteroid populations to reveal possible threats to Earth. Sharing scientific data widely allows scientists to determine the risk posed by the near-Earth asteroid population and increases the chances of identifying future asteroid impact hazards in NASA science data. “The planetary defense community realizes the value of making data products available to everyone,” said James “Gerbs” Bauer, the principal investigator for NASA’s Planetary Data System Small Bodies Node at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland.
Professional scientists and citizen scientists worldwide play a role in tracking asteroids. The Minor Planet Center, which is housed at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, collects and verifies vast numbers of asteroid and comet position observations submitted from around the globe. NASA’s Small Bodies Node distributes the data from the Minor Planet Center for anyone who wants to access and use it. A near-Earth object (NEO) is an asteroid or comet whose orbit brings it within 120 million miles of the Sun, which means it can circulate through Earth’s orbital neighborhood. If a newly discovered object looks like it might be an NEO, information about the object appears on the Minor Planet Center’s NEO Confirmation Page. Members of the planetary science community, whether or not they are professional scientists, are encouraged to follow up on these objects to discover where they’re heading.
When an asteroid’s trajectory looks concerning, CNEOS alerts NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA Headquarters in Washington, which manages NASA’s ongoing effort to protect Earth from dangerous asteroids. NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office also coordinates the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), which is the worldwide collaboration of asteroid observers and modelers. Orbit analysis centers such as CNEOS perform finer calculations to nail down the probability of an asteroid colliding with Earth. The open nature of the data allows the community to collaborate and compare, ensuring the most accurate determinations possible.
The asteroid 2024 YR4 was initially discovered by the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey, which aims to discover potentially hazardous asteroids. Scientists studied additional data about the asteroid from different observatories funded by NASA and from other telescopes across the IAWN. At first, 2024 YR4 had a broad uncertainty in its future trajectory that passed over Earth. As the planetary defense community collected more observations, the range of possibilities for the asteroid’s future position on Dec. 22, 2032 clustered over Earth, raising the apparent chances of collision. However, with the addition of even more data points, the cluster of possibilities eventually moved off Earth.
Having multiple streams of data available for analysis helps scientists quickly learn more about NEOs. This sometimes involves using data from observatories that are mainly used for astrophysics or heliophysics surveys, rather than for tracking asteroids. “The planetary defense community both benefits from and is beneficial to the larger planetary and astronomy related ecosystem,” said Bauer, who is also a research professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Maryland. “Much of the NEO survey data can also be used for searching astrophysical transients like supernova events. Likewise, astrophysical sky surveys produce data of interest to the planetary defense community.”
In 2022, NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) mission successfully impacted with the asteroid Dimorphos, shortening the time it takes to orbit around its companion asteroid Didymos by 33 minutes. Didymos had no chance of hitting Earth, but the DART mission’s success means that NASA has a tested technique to consider when addressing a future asteroid potential impact threat.
To increase the chances of discovering asteroid threats to Earth well in advance, NASA is working on a new space-based observatory, NEO Surveyor, which will be the first spacecraft specifically designed to look for asteroids and comets that pose a hazard to Earth. The mission is expected to launch in the fall of 2027, and the data it collects will be available to everyone through NASA archives. “Many of the NEOs that pose a risk to Earth remain to be found,” Bauer said. “An asteroid impact has a very low likelihood at any given time, but consequences could be high, and open science is an important component to being vigilant.” For more information about NASA’s approach to sharing science data, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/open-science. By Lauren Leese Web Content Strategist for the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer
When students actively participate in scientific investigations that connect to their everyday lives, something powerful happens: they begin to see themselves as scientists. This sense of relevance and ownership can spark a lifelong interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), paving the way for continued education and even future careers in these fields. Opportunities to engage directly with NASA science—like the one you’ll read about in this story—not only deepen students’ understanding of STEM concepts, but also nourish their curiosity and confidence. With the support of passionate educators, these moments of participation become stepping stones to a future in which students see themselves as contributors to real-world science. In September 2021, Ms. Deanna Danke, a Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School mathematics teacher in Queens, New York, began teaching her students how to measure tree heights using trigonometry. Soon enough, Ms. Danke discovered the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Observer Trees Tool, and with her 150+ students, began taking tree height observations around the school, an activity that Ms. Danke and her students continue to participate in today. Her and her students’ hundreds of repeat tree height observations have provided student and professional researchers with clusters of measurements that can coincide with measurements made by NASA satellite instruments, allowing for a comparison of datasets that can be analyzed over time. Due to the consistent tree height data collection resulting from this effort, Ms. Danke was asked to be a co-author on a peer-reviewed research paper that was published on June 21, 2022 in the Environmental Research Letters special journal “Focus on Public Participation in Environmental Research.” The paper, “The potential of citizen science data to complement satellite and airborne lidar tree height measurements: lessons from The GLOBE Program,” included data from the tree height observations reported by Ms. Danke and her students—an incredible achievement for everyone involved. On March 21, 2025, Ms. Danke’s former and current students continued their inspiring adventures with NASA science by taking a trip to the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. Highlights from this trip included science and technology presentations by personnel from the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) and Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Missions, the Wallops Balloon Program Office, and the Wallops Machine Shop for Fabrication and Testing. The ICESat-2 presentation, in particular, included a discussion on the student-collected tree height data and how the ICESat-2 satellite makes tree height observations from space. Ms. Danke’s work is a testament to the incredible impact educators can have when they connect classroom learning to authentic scientific discovery. By introducing her students to tools like the GLOBE Observer Trees Tool and facilitating meaningful contributions to NASA science, she opened the door to experiences most students only dream of—from collecting data that supports satellite missions to co-authoring peer-reviewed research and visiting NASA facilities. Stories like this remind us that when students are empowered to be part of real science, the possibilities—for learning, inspiration, and future careers in STEM—are truly limitless. The GLOBE Observer app, used by Ms. Danke and her students, is made possible by the NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC). This free mobile app includes four tools that enable citizen scientists to participate in NASA science: Clouds, Mosquito Habitat Mapper, Land Cover, and Trees. Learn more about ways that you can join and participate in this and other NASA Citizen Science projects. Through these projects, sometimes called “participatory science” projects, volunteers and amateurs have helped make thousands of important scientific discoveries, and they are open to everyone around the world (no citizenship required). NESEC is supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AE28A and is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn
I know this was an experience they will remember forever and they have already told me that they cannot wait to tell their future children about it. It was wonderful meeting you in person and being on site to get a real sense of what you are working on. The boys were especially fascinated by the last two stops on the tour and appreciated learning a little more about how tree height is measured. Thank you again for this incredible opportunity.”
Ms. Deanna Danke Monsignor McClancy Memorial High School
THE WOODLANDS, Texas, April 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ring Energy, Inc. (NYSE American: REI) (“Ring” or the “Company”) today provided an update concerning its Board of Directors (the “Board”), including the retirement of Ms. Regina Roesener effective April 14, 2025 and the appointment of Ms. Carla Tharp to the Board effective April 14, 2025 who will serve as an independent Director.
Mr. Paul D. McKinney, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “It has been a pleasure to work closely with Regina as a fellow Director. She joined our Board in 2019 and her financial markets and board governance experience was greatly valued. On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Regina for the strong strategic guidance and oversight she consistently provided in support of Ring’s stockholders, and we wish her all the best in retirement.”
About Ms. Carla Tharp
Ms. Tharp is the CEO of Apoyar Energy, an upstream oil and gas exploration and production company focused on international assets. She most recently served as President of C.T. Tharp & Co., an independent consulting firm concentrating on global acquisitions and divestitures. Ms. Tharp served in multiple key positions at APA Corporation (formerly Apache Corporation) from 2020 through 2023 leading multi-disciplinary teams, including as Vice President of New Business & Commercial, Vice President of Corporate Development, and Vice President of Reserves. Prior to Apache, she served as Managing Director of Energy Investment Banking at Raymond James Financial, Inc., as well as Director of Acquisitions and Divestitures at Citigroup Inc. and Lantana Energy Advisors. Ms. Tharp graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering before working as a reservoir engineer in transactions and reserves reporting, senior and mezzanine debt finance and in a private equity portfolio company. She is a licensed professional engineer in Texas and has held Series 79 and 63 FINRA licenses.
Mr. McKinney concluded, “We look forward to Carla’s contributions to the Board as she brings an extensive and impressive technical and financial background in the upstream oil and gas business that complements the skills and expertise of our other Directors. Her proven multi-decade track record of sourcing, evaluating, and executing significant organic and external value-enhancing opportunities will prove invaluable as Ring continues to execute its proven strategy designed to further position the Company for long-term success.”
ABOUT RING ENERGY, INC.
Ring Energy, Inc. is an oil and gas exploration, development, and production company with current operations focused on the development of its Permian Basin assets. For additional information, please visit www.ringenergy.com.
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements involve a wide variety of risks and uncertainties, and include, without limitation, statements with respect to the Company’s strategy and prospects, regarding the composition of the Company’s board of directors, and the expectation that Ms. Tharp will help Ring execute its strategy designed to further position the Company for long-term success. The forward-looking statements include the Company’s ability execute its proven strategy designed to further position the Company for long-term success. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and subject to numerous assumptions and analyses made by Ring and its management considering their experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors appropriate under the circumstances. However, whether actual results and developments will conform to expectations is subject to a number of material risks and uncertainties. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties which are disclosed in the Company’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, and its other SEC filings. Ring undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Al Petrie Advisors Al Petrie, Senior Partner Phone: 281-975-2146 Email: apetrie@ringenergy.com
Reacting to the deteriorating health condition of Tofig Yagublu, a prominent opposition activist from Azerbaijan, who is serving a nine-year prison term, and who has been on a hunger strike since 1 April, Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia Director, said:
“Tofig Yagublu has endured years of politically motivated persecution and ill-treatment by Azerbaijani authorities. This time, not just his freedom, but his health and life are at stake. His condition has been significantly deteriorating, and every day counts.”
“The Azerbaijani authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Tofig Yagublu, who has been imprisoned solely for his outspoken criticism of government, and should urgently provide him access to all necessary health services.”
Background
On 10 March 2025, the Baku Serious Crimes Court sentenced Tofig Yagublu, a leading member of the opposition Musavat Party and the National Council of Democratic Forces, to nine years in prison on charges of “fraud resulting in substantial harm” and “document forgery.” Amnesty International has recognized him as a prisoner of conscience.
Tofig Yagublu has long been a target of Azerbaijani authorities. He has been arbitrarily detained multiple times and has been sentenced to prison on three separate occasions on various politically motivated charges. Tofig Yagublu has been on hunger strike since 1 April to protest against his most recent nine-year sentence. He said, “I am released at 75 years old, is this a life? If it is [not a life], I will choose to die before”.
According to Tofig Yagublu’s family, his health, already weak after years of persecution, detention and ill-treatment, has been rapidly deteriorating. His lawyer, who visited him recently, described him as being very weak, pale, rapidly losing weight and having difficulty walking. Tofig Yagoublu’s health has reportedly been damaged as a result of the ill-treatment he was subjected to during his previous detention. He is suffering from chronic asthma, which has been worsening due to poor prison conditions and lack of adequate medical care. His lawyer’s request for an independent medical examination has so far not been granted.
Plastic Parks in India Accelerating Growth of the Polymer-Based Industrial Ecosystem
Posted On: 11 APR 2025 1:03PM by PIB Delhi
Introduction
The Department of Chemicals and Petro-Chemicals is implementing the Scheme for Setting up of Plastic Parks under the umbrella scheme of New Scheme of Petrochemicals, to support setting up need-based Plastic Parks, with requisite state-of-the-art infrastructure, enabling common facilities through cluster development approach, to consolidate the capacities of the domestic downstream plastic processing industry. The objective is to consolidate and synergize the capacities of downstream plastic processing industry to help increase investment, production and export in the sector as well as generate employment. Under the scheme, the government of India provides grant funding up to 50% of the project cost subject to a ceiling of Rs.40 crore per project.
A plastic park is an industrial zone specifically designed for plastic-related businesses and industries. It aims to consolidate and synergize the capacities of the plastic processing industry, promoting investment, production, and exports while generating employment. These parks also focus on achieving environmentally sustainable growth through waste management and recycling initiatives.
Plastic Parks have emerged as an integral part of India’s strategy for managing plastic waste, promoting recycling, and supporting the chemical industry. 10 Plastic Parks have been approved so far in different States. Details of funds released to these Plastic Parks during the last five years are:
Plastic Park Location
Approval Year
Total Project Cost
(₹ crore)
Approved Grant-in-aid
(₹ crore)
Amount Released
(₹ crore)
Tamot, Madhya Pradesh
2013
108.00
40.00
36.00
Jagatsinghpur, Odisha
2013
106.78
40.00
36.00
Tinsukia, Assam
2014
93.65
40.00
35.73
Bilaua, Madhya Pradesh
2018
68.72
34.36
30.92
Deoghar, Jharkhand
2018
67.33
33.67
30.30
Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu
2019
216.92
40.00
22.00
Sitarganj, Uttarakhand
2020
67.73
33.93
30.51
Raipur, Chhattisgarh
2021
42.09
21.04
11.57
Ganjimutt, Karnataka
2022
62.77
31.38
6.28
Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh
2022
69.58
34.79
19.13
Background and Objectives
India stands 12th in the world export of plastics, as per the 2022 World Bank estimates. It has grown exponentially from 2014, when it was worth just 8.2 million thousand USD, as compared to the 2022 estimates, where it reached 27 million thousand USD. This growth has been a result of the constant efforts by the Indian government to promote the production and export of plastics, like setting up Plastic Parks.
The Indian plastics industry was large but highly fragmented with dominance of tiny, small and medium units and thus lacks the capacity to tap this opportunity. The Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals formulated this scheme with a view to synergize and consolidate the capacities through cluster development and enhance India’s plastic production and export capabilities. The scheme has the following objectives:
Increase the competitiveness, polymer absorption capacity and value addition in the domestic downstream plastic processing industry through adaptation of modern, research and development led measurers.
Increase investments in the sector through additions in capacity and production, creating quality infrastructure and other facilitation to ensure value addition and increase in exports.
Achieve environmentally sustainable growth through innovative methods of waste management, recycling, etc.
Adopt a cluster development approach to achieve the above objectives owing to its benefits arising due to optimization of resources and economies of scale.
Process of setting up a Plastic Park
For the purpose of setting up Plastic Parks, the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals seeks preliminary proposals from state governments, highlighting the proposed location, financial details, broad cost estimates etc. Following in-principle approval from the Scheme Steering Committee, the State implementing agency is required to submit a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to the Department, which is evaluated and final approval is given by the Scheme Steering Committee based on the viability of the proposed project.
For example, in November, 2020, the Department invited proposals from the state governments for establishing two new Plastic Parks. Proposals were received from the state governments of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh (02 proposals), Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh. These were examined by an Expert Committee, based on which the setting up of Plastic Parks at Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, and at Ganjimutt, Karnataka, was approved in July, 2022 and January, 2022 respectively.
The Government provides grants-in-aid for the establishment of the Plastic Parks. The implementation of these projects as well as the process of getting them populated by industrial units is largely in the hands of the Special Purpose Vehicles set up by the State Government or State Industrial Development Corporation or their agencies. The respective States have taken several steps to promote private sector participation in these Plastic Parks, including conducting awareness and sensitization programmes for the industry, providing plots at competitive rates, giving tax incentives etc.
Under the Scheme, common infrastructure for the sustainability and eco-friendliness of industrial units is provided including effluent treatment plant, solid/ hazardous waste management, facilities for plastic recycling, incinerator etc. Some of the Plastic Parks have also established in-house recycling sheds for recycling of plastic waste.
Other Government Initiatives for promoting Plastic Production in India
The other initiatives taken by the Government to enhance plastics processing are:
Centres of Excellence (CoE): To promote the research and development in polymer and plastics the department has established 13 Centres of Excellence in various national level institutes.
Location of the Centre of Excellence (CoE)
Title of Centre of Excellence
Date of Approval
National Chemical Laboratory, Pune
Sustainable Polymer Industry to Research & Innovation
15.04.2011
Central Institute of Plastic Engineering & Technology (CIPET), Chennai
Green Transport Network (GREET)
01.04.2011
CIPET, Bhubaneswar
Sustainable Green Materials
06.04.2013
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi
Advanced Polymeric Materials
15.03.2013
IIT, Guwahati
Sustainable Polymers (Sus-Pol)
April 2013
IIT, Roorkee
Process Development, Wastewater Management in Petrochemical Industries
12.02.2019
CIPET, Bhubaneswar
Bio-engineered Sustainable Polymeric Systems
12.02.2019
National Chemical Laboratory, Pune
Specialty Polymers for Customized Applications
12.02.2019
CSIR – North East Institute of Science & Technology (CSIR-NEIST)
Polymers, Their Composites and Polymeric Membranes for Sustainable Development of Petroleum Industries
04.12.2020
CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad
Polymer Coatings for Decorative, Protective and Strategic Applications
04.12.2020
CIPET, Bhubaneswar
Manufacturing of Next Generation Bio-Medical Devices
04.12.2020
IIT, Guwahati
Sustainable & Innovative Design and Manufacturing of Polymer-based Products
February 2022
IRMRA, Thane
Design and Development for Value added Toys of Rubber and Allied Finished Products
February 2022
These CoEs focus on various aspects such as sustainable polymers, advanced polymeric materials, bio-engineered systems, and process development for wastewater management in petrochemical industries. They aim to drive innovation, improve technology, and promote environmentally sustainable development within the sector.
Skilling of Workforce:Central Institute of Petrochemical Engineering and Technology is conducting many short term and long-term courses in Plastics processing and Technology to cater to the skilling requirement of the industry.
Indian Plastic Industry and Environment Sustainability
The Government of India has taken several steps to ensure that the development of the plastic industry is environmentally sustainable and aligned with global sustainability standards.
The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Regulations for plastic packaging mandate targets for minimum level of reuse, recycling and use of recycled content. This ensures accountability for waste collection, recycling, and reuse. Certainsingle-use plastics have been banned, with a focus on reducing plastic waste. The regulations also mandate to utilize minimum amount of recycled material in packaging products.
The Hazardous Waste Management Rules seek to ensure proper disposal of hazardous chemicals and promote waste minimization and resource recovery.
The Government promotes the adoption of circular economy principles in the plastic industry, including recycling and the use of biodegradable alternatives. In order to promote the latest technologies and products for circular economy, the Department supports and encourages industry in organizing discussions and exhibitions to showcase the latest technologies and machinery for waste management, recycling and up-cycling as well as the innovative products made from recycled material.
India engages with international organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to enable compliance with global sustainability standards. Further, India actively participates in meetings of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) which formulates international standards for plastic products.
Conclusion
The Plastic Parks scheme, under the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, represents a comprehensive and forward-looking initiative that addresses both the industrial growth and environmental sustainability of the Indian plastics sector. By providing state-of-the-art infrastructure, fostering cluster-based development, and encouraging private sector participation, the scheme not only strengthens India’s downstream plastic processing capabilities but also attracts investment, boosts exports, and generates employment. As India continues to rise in global plastic trade rankings, the Plastic Parks scheme and allied measures will remain crucial to ensuring that this growth is sustainable, inclusive, and innovation-driven.
Nominations/recommendations for the Padma Awards-2026 to be announced on the occasion of Republic Day, 2026 have started on 15thMarch, 2025. The last date for nominations for Padma Awards is 31stJuly, 2025. Thenominations/recommendations for Padma Awards will only be received online on the Rashtriya Puraskar Portal (https://awards.gov.in).
The Padma Awards, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri, are amongst the highest civilian awards of the country. Instituted in 1954, these Awards are announced on the occasion of the Republic Day every year. The Award seeks to recognize ‘work of distinction’ and is given for distinguished and exceptional achievements/service in all fields/disciplines, such as Art, Literature and Education, Sports, Medicine, Social Work, Science and Engineering, Public Affairs, Civil Service, Trade and Industry etc. All persons without distinction of race, occupation, position or sex are eligible for these Awards. Government servants including those working with PSUs, except Doctors and Scientists, are not eligible for Padma Awards.
The Government is committed to transform Padma Awards into “People’s Padma”. All citizens are, therefore, requested to make nominations/recommendations, including self-nomination. Concerted efforts may be made to identify talented persons whose excellence and achievements really deserve to be recognized from amongst women, weaker sections of the society, SCs & STs, divyang persons and who are doing selfless service to the society.
The nominations/recommendations should contain all relevant details specified in the format available on the above said Portal, including a citation in narrative form (maximum 800 words), clearly bringing out the distinguished and exceptional achievements/service of the person recommended in her/his respective field/discipline.
Italy’s Minister of University and Research Ms Anna Maria Bernini calls on Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh The two Ministers discuss deepening collaboration in Quantum Technologies, AI, and Biotechnology
Dr Jitendra Singh recalls bilateral discussions between PM Modi and PM Meloni on the sidelines of G20 Summit in Brazil
India and Italy Sign MoU to Boost Cooperation in Science and Technology
Indo-Italian programme to include 10 research initiatives and 10 collaborative initiatives
Posted On: 11 APR 2025 3:25PM by PIB Delhi
In a significant move to enhance bilateral scientific cooperation, Italy’s Minister of University and Research, Ms. Anna Maria Bernini, currently on India visit, called on Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Earth Sciences, and Minister of State for PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions, Dept. of Space, Dept. of Atomic Energy met with Italy’s Minister of University and Research, Ms. Anna Maria Bernini, for a high-level meeting at North Block here.
The hallmark of the meeting was the signing of an MoU of cooperation by the two Ministers. The discussions between the two dignitaries centered on advancing joint initiatives in quantum technologies, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and other emerging sectors.
Dr. Jitendra Singh recalled the bilateral discussions between Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni held on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Brazil, which culminated in the announcement of a Joint Strategic Action Plan 2025–2029. The plan outlines a shared vision for collaborative innovation in science and technology.
As part of this vision, both nations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in the field of scientific research and agreed to implement the 2025–2027 Executive Programme for Scientific and Technological Cooperation, aimed at fostering collaboration in critical technologies like AI and digitalization.
Reaffirming India’s commitment to bilateral research, Dr. Jitendra Singh announced the signing of the Indo-Italian Executive Programme of Cooperation (EPOC) for 2025–2027 on 10th April 2025 during the Joint Science & Technology Committee Meeting.Under the EPOC framework, both countries have successfully implemented over 150 joint research projects to date.
The current programme includes joint funding for 10 research mobility proposals and 10 significant collaborative research initiatives across a wide range of scientific disciplines.
Dr. Jitendra Singh highlighted India’s robust progress in areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), High-Performance Computing (HPC), Big Data, and biotechnology. He noted that India’s strategic investments and policies are steering the nation toward becoming a global hub of emerging technologies.
Sharing key achievements, Dr. Jitendra Singh mentioned about India’s pioneering development of a DNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, which was later gifted to many countries in need.The development and launch of the HPV vaccine and Nafithromycin, an indigenous antibiotic for respiratory infections.The country’s first-ever gene therapy trial, which has been a success.The creation of a national genome data bank to support personalized medicine and public health research.
Dr. Jitendra Singh proudly referenced India’s vibrant startup ecosystem, now the third largest globally, with significant contributions from agro-biotech startups. Initiatives such as the Aroma Mission (also known as the Purple Revolution) exemplify innovation in agriculture and floriculture.
He also highlighted the impact of technology-driven schemes like the Soil Health Card and Swamitva Yojana, which have revolutionized agriculture through drone technology.
Reflecting India’s commitment to preserving ancient wisdom through modern science, Dr. Singh spoke of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) — a unique initiative that digitizes and protects traditional Indian knowledge using cutting-edge technology.
Dr. Jitendra Singh, also the Minister of Earth Sciences, briefed the delegation about India’s ambitious Deep Ocean Mission, which aims to send an Indian submersible 6,000 meters deep into the ocean. The trial dive up to 500 meters is set to commence next year.
Both countries reiterated their commitment to long-standing cooperation in fields such as Infectious diseases, Quantum technologies, green hydrogen and renewable energy, Cultural heritage preservation technologies and Sustainable Blue Economy.
They also agreed to explore new collaborative areas such as Industry 4.0, Clean energy.
Dr. Jitendra Singh also identified other mutual sectors, including academic and industrial partnerships involving SMEs and startups from both nations.
Dr. Rajesh Gokhale, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology and Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology were also part of the high-level meet.
A new study conducted in Kolkata shows that the toxicity value of PM2.5 experiences a sudden jump when the pollution reaches around 70 µg m-3.
PM 2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or smaller, is a significant air pollutant posing serious health risks, including respiratory and cardiovascular problems, and is a key indicator of air quality.
The Government of India has taken several initiatives and policy measures to combat air pollution and the latest is the National Clean Air Program (NCAP) launched in 2019 by the MoEFCC. The programme is focused on the reduction of particulate matter by 40 % by 2026 with respect to 2017 through strategies and action plans for 131 non-attainment cities (not attaining the National Ambient Air Quality Standard of India) in India for different states. Kolkata has been identified as one of such cities in India.
Bose Institute, an autonomous research institute under Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India which has been given the responsibility to act as the Nodal Institute to work towards the mitigation of air pollution over this city and also to act as a national knowledge partner under the NCAP, studied the toxicity of atmospheric aerosols over the atmosphere of Kolkata.
Prof. Abhijit Chatterjee and his former Ph.D students Dr. Abhinandan Ghosh and Dr. Monami Dutta also explored how the degree of the toxicity changes with the increase in total aerosol pollution load and have studied the oxidative potential (OP) of ultrafine aerosols (PM2.5) or the potential of forming the reactive oxygen species (ROS) that are introduced to the human lung cells via inhalation of particles. The enhanced presence of the reactive oxidative species makes the natural antioxidants of human cells incapable of counteracting, leading to oxidative stress in cells.
The team led by Prof Chatterjee has shown that there is a non-linear relationship between the PM2.5 pollution load and its toxicity (OP). Up to the PM2.5 pollution load of around 70 µg m-3, the toxicity remains unchanged. With the increase in PM2.5, the OP values show a jump and sudden rise till the PM2.5 pollution reaches at around 130 µg m-3. With the further increase in PM2.5 load exceeding 130 µg m-3, OP values do not change much.
Fig: The relationship between PM2.5 and its oxidative potential over Kolkata and various sources involved for high pollution load and toxicity.
They have conducted source apportionment of PM2.5 with the help of a source-receptor statistical model (Positive Matrix Factorization) and revealed that biomass/solid waste burning is the key source of PM2.5 that is enhancing the toxicity of ultrafine aerosols over Kolkata.
They have also observed that while the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) has been effective in reducing and curbing various air pollution sources like road-dust, constructional/demolition dust, vehicular exhaust, industrial emissions etc. However, biomass/solid waste burning could not be kept under good control. The particles emitted from this particular source are accelerating the toxicity.
The study has introduced a “toxicity standard” of PM 2.5 for this city and the value is around 70 µg m-3. This implies that policies, strategies and control measures should be taken to keep PM2.5 pollution within this limit of around 70 µg m-3, because once the PM2.5 load exceeds this value, the toxicity (OP) starts to increase rapidly and goes beyond control.
The study published in the journal Science of The Total Environment has helped urban local bodies in Kolkata to take action, carry out strict surveillance over biomass/waste burning as well as take stringent action. This has been reflected in the air quality of Kolkata in last winter (November 2024-February 2025).
