An international panel of medical experts have thrust Lucy Letby back into the spotlight. At a press conference convened by Letby’s legal team, the experts cast doubt over the former nurse’s conviction. Letby was given 15 whole-life sentences for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more.
Speaking at the press conference in London, retired neonatologist Dr Shoo Lee told the assembled reporters: “In all cases death or injury were due to natural causes or just bad medical care.”
Why should we take Dr Lee’s word for it? Well, in part, because he is the author of a key paper on air embolisms, one of the methods that Letby was accused of using to kill babies, which formed a key part of the prosecution’s evidence at the trial.
He also claims that the paper’s findings were misinterpreted at the trial and that a newly updated version of the article would help exonerate Letby rather than convict her.
The Letby conviction has always attracted critical attention because there were no witnesses who could confirm they saw her attacking any of the babies she was convicted of murdering. Nor did anyone see her perform actions that could have constituted the attempted murders of seven others.
Consequently, the prosecution used statistics alongside the medical evidence the expert panel has now cast doubt upon. So how solid is that statistical evidence?
A key piece of statistical evidence is a chart which showed that Lucy Letby was on duty every time one of the crimes of which she was accused occurred, but that none of the other nursing staff were.
On the face of it, it seems quite damning. But when you think about it, it’s unsurprising that Letby’s column is the only one full of crosses. Any of the events at which she was not present she would not have been charged with and consequently wouldn’t appear on the chart.
This is an example of what is known in statistics as the Texas sharpshooter fallacy.
The fallacy is named for a story about a Texan cowboy who likes to head out to his barn after a few drinks for target practice. Invariably, the barn wall gets peppered with random bullet holes during the inebriated exercise, and purely by chance some of these holes are clustered.
One morning the savvy “sharpshooter” gets out his paint cans and daubs a target around this cluster of holes to give the impression of accuracy to anyone who didn’t see the process by which they were made and to draw attention away from the other more dispersed bullet holes.
The sharpshooter fallacy occurs when a conclusion is drawn based only on data consistent with a given hypothesis, ignoring data that doesn’t support the proposed conclusion.
Imagine, for example, you made a chart similar to the one used to convict Letby, this time including only those deaths at which a different member of the nursing staff was present. It’s entirely possible – for example, if they were present for deaths at which Letby was not – that their name would be above the only column full of crosses and not Letby’s.
Indeed, it later transpired that the table did not include six other deaths that occurred during the same period and with which Letby was not charged. The jury was not told about these other deaths.
As Jane Hutton, a professor of medical statistics at the University of Warwick argues: “If you want to find out what went wrong, you need to consider all deaths, not just a subset of them.”
The probability of so many deaths on a neonatal unit in such a short period should be quite low. At first glance, this might seem to make the alternative explanation of murder seem more likely. But this is a classic statistical error.
This mistake is so common in courtrooms that it is known as the prosecutor’s fallacy. The argument starts by showing that, if the suspect is innocent, seeing a particular piece of evidence is extremely unlikely.
For Letby, this is the assertion that if she was innocent of killing these babies, the probability of them dying due to other causes is extremely low. The prosecutor then deduces, incorrectly, that an alternative explanation – the suspect’s guilt – is extremely likely.
The argument neglects to take into account any other possible alternative explanations, in which the suspect is innocent, such as the death of these babies due to inadequate care. It also neglects the possibility that the explanation that the prosecution is proposing, in which the suspect is guilty, may be just as uncommon as the alternative explanations, if not more so.
By just presenting the low probability of these seven babies dying naturally, the inference that an untrained jury is invited to draw runs something along these lines: “The deaths of these babies from natural causes is extremely rare, so the odds that the deaths are the result of murder is correspondingly extremely high.”
However, it must also be taken into account, when weighing up the evidence, that multiple infant murders are also extremely uncommon. What really matters is the relative likelihoods of the different explanations. Weighing these very unusual events against each other is not an easy thing to do.
Criminal cases review
Other statistical issues with the case also deserve more attention: the high number of deaths at the Countess of Chester, even excluding the babies that Letby has been convicted of murdering. Or the possibility of false positive medical identifications of murder, for example.
Whether Letby’s team’s appeal to the Criminal Cases Review Commission will be successful or not remains to be seen. The statistical issues over the case, when taken alongside the doubts about the medical evidence, mean that there is certainly a possibility.
Throughout all this, it’s important to remember the families affected by the events at the Countess of Chester Hospital. Whatever the ultimate truth of the matter, this ongoing case will undoubtedly make dealing with their grief more difficult.
Christian Yates 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
Scientists comment on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) technologies.
Prof Hannah Chalmers, Personal Chair of Sustainable Energy Systems, Institute for Energy Systems, School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, said:
“CCUS technologies can play a unique role in tackling carbon dioxide emissions. They can be used at large industrial sites to ensure that most of the carbon dioxide produced by activities like iron and steel production is not emitted to the atmosphere. Instead, the carbon dioxide is permanently stored in geological formations (rocks). In the UK, CCUS projects are developing plans to store carbon dioxide in layers of rock that are deep underneath the sea.
“There is also ongoing work to develop and deploy cost-effective approaches to remove carbon dioxide directly from the air. This provides an important option to respond to the widely reported increases in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere that are causing significant concern.
“There is significant evidence that including CCUS in a mix of technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions will be the most cost-effective way to address climate change. Several large-scale projects have been operating in other countries for many years. Experience from these projects is being used to ensure that the CCUS projects that are being developed in the UK are designed to be reliable and cost-effective.”
Dr Stuart Gilfillan, Reader in Geochemistry, University of Edinburgh, said:
What is CCUS technology, how does it work, does it have limitations?
“CCUS stands for Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage, which is a developing technology which reduces the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere. It works by capturing CO2 at the point source, transporting it and then burying it for safe storage in rocks over a kilometre below the ground surface. Like any technology, it has pros and cons, and costs more than simply releasing the CO2 directly to the atmosphere, which is currently free. CCUS is the only currently available technology that can directly reduce CO2 emissions from sources like power plants and industrial processes. Given that global temperature records are now being broken on an almost daily basis and yesterday’s announcement of the hottest January on record, it is essential tool in the urgent fight against runaway climate change.
What is the existing evidence around the efficacy of CCUS?
“CO2 capture technology has proven successful in capturing up to 90-95% of CO2 emissions from point of sources from power stations and industrial facilities. Successful examples include the Boundary Dam power station in Saskatchewan, Canada, where a large-scale CCUS unit has been operational since 2014, capturing about 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
“The long-term storage of CO2 is proven by natural CO2 reservoirs around the world and engineered projects like Sleipner in the North Sea, which have been injecting CO2 beneath the seabed since 1996 without significant issues. Research over the past two decades has developed monitoring technologies that can detect and mitigate potential leakage and to ensure that CO2 remains securely buried in rocks deep underground.
What more evidence may be needed to be confident in its applications?
“No more evidence is required, as exemplified by the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC), which is an independent body established under the Climate Change Act who advise the government on emissions targets and report to Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The CCC is clear that CCUS is a critical technology for the decarbonisation of the UK economy, particularly in sectors that are hard to decarbonize directly, such as heavy industry (steel, cement, chemicals) and power generation.
“CCUS is not only as a standalone technology but is an essential part of a broader strategy to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. It compliments energy efficiency, renewable energy deployment, and electrification. CCUS is a clear driver for regional economic development, particularly in regions with suitable geological storage sites and industrial bases, such as the East Coast of Scotland, the Humber region, and North East England, areas that have been ‘left behind’ in recent times.”
Dr Tim Dixon, IEA Greenhouse Gas, Director and General Manager, said:
“Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a necessary technology for the UK and other countries to achieve net-zero, and we need all low-carbon energy technologies. The science case for the role of CCS is provided by the UK’s Climate Change Committee, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) and cannot be disputed if climate change is to be taken seriously. The key aspect of CCS is the secure long-term retention of CO2 in deep geological formations, and we have decades of experience in this from around the world. With over 40 large scale projects in operation injecting millions of tonnes every year and many pilot-scale projects, this has allowed us to test the science, the monitoring and the practicalities of geological storage of CO2. Hence CO2 geological storage is a proven technology and the regulations to enable and to ensure that it is safe and secure are based upon this sound science and experience. ”
Professor Paul Fennell FIchemE, Professor of Clean Energy, Imperial College London, said:
“The idea that Carbon Capture and Storage is an unproven technology is simply untrue. There are projects ongoing around the world, and millions of tonnes of CO2 have been safely stored over the last couple of decades. This has not happened in the U.K. because of our sclerotic inability to develop public infrastructure, not because the technology is unproven.”
Dr Greg Mutch, Researcher in Carbon Capture and Storage, Newcastle University, said:
“Carbon capture and storage is a technology that prevents carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, by capturing it and storing it underground in ‘empty’ oil & gas reservoirs or saline aquifers. According to the world’s foremost experts on the subject, gathered to contribute the International Panel on Climate Change, carbon capture and storage processes are necessary to achieve climate change mitigation goals at lowest cost. Without scalable CCS technologies by the end of the century, climate change mitigation will cost between 29 and 297% (mean value 138%) more.[1] Moreover, CCS is predicted to provide tens of thousands of jobs in the UK, add several billion pounds in terms of gross value added per year by 2050,[2] and enable other important technologies (hydrogen production etc) that will come with further jobs and economic value.”
[1] IPCC, 2018: Global Warming of 1.5 °C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty, ed. V. Masson-Delmotte, P. Zhai, H.-O. Portner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P. R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Pean, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J. B. R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M. I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor and T. Waterfield, Cambridge University Press, 2018.
[2] Energy Innovation Needs Assessment Sub-theme report: Carbon capture, utilisation, and storage, Vivid Economics, Carbon Trust, E4tech, Imperial College London, Frazer-Nash Consultancy, Energy Systems Catapult. Commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, 2019.
Professor Peter Styring, Director of the UK Centre for Carbon Dioxide Utilization, Professor of Chemical Engineering & Chemistry, University of Sheffield, said:
What is CCUS technology, how does it work, does it have limitations?
“CCUS is carbon capture and storage. This has been primarily focused on CCS as the main driver. It aims to capture carbon dioxide from emitters such as power stations and industries. The current technology temperature swing absorption (TSA) using a chemical reaction with an aqueous amine solvent to capture the CO2 from the mixed waste gas and then to release it in a purified form by increased temperature chemical desorption and then further drying and purification to get a gas that can be in theory transported to a site where the gas can be stored underground. It works but at a high energy cost and the production of amine decomposition products that need to be removed and more amine added. It costs a lot!
“Limitations are the energy and financial costs, permitting regulations on solvent disclosure and the large physical footprint. Full system lifecycle analysis is required but this is not always reported.”
What is the existing evidence around the efficacy of CCUS?
“This is not proven using current technologies. The problem is that the current government funded projects use old technologies to achieve CCS and what is actually needed is a step change to new, lower cost more efficient processes such as solid based pressure swing adsorption (PSA). The whole system tends to be simpler and the energy costs and land use is significantly reduced.”
What more evidence may be needed to be confident in its applications?
“Full evaluation of new technologies and rapid acceleration from proof of concept to capture at scale. The Innovate UK funded Flue2Chem project is a good example of how this is being addressed using mid-TRL technologies. The UK also needs to move away from a single minded storage approach to adding value through the use of CO2 in the production of chemicals that would otherwise be sourced from virgin fossil carbon. SUSTAIN project is making synthetic fuels from captured CO2 and Flue2Chem is making FMCG components, including surfactants and precursors from the CO2.”
Dr Stuart Jenkins, Net Zero Fossil Fuel Fellow, University of Oxford, said:
“The Public Accounts Committee are wrong to have labelled CCUS as ‘unproven’, there are many commercial scale projects around the world, but they are right to question the current model for funding it. We need to make sure the CCUS industry becomes self-sustaining, without the need for major taxpayer funding. One option — asking fossil fuel suppliers to contribute to these costs via a carbon storage mandate — is a fair and responsible approach going forward.
In a recent report we published working with researchers at the University of Oxford and Carbon Balance Initiative [1] we looked at the use of Carbon Storage Mandates, which place an obligation on fossil fuel producers to capture and store a rising fraction of the CO2 they produce, to support the UK’s CCUS industry.
Carbon storage mandates, in tandem with carbon pricing and other mechanisms, could deliver subsidy-free CCUS to the UK and provide investment certainty for companies.”
Dr Stuart Jenkins Our report was funded by the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, and consulted regulators, fossil fuel companies, capture and storage entities, UK Government, and academics on models for CCUS sector support packages.
Professor Paul Fennell: No conflicts other than being involved in CCs research.
Dr Tim Dixon: “Tim is a Director of IEA Environmental Projects Ltd (UK), a Non-Executive Director on the Board for The International CCS Knowledge Centre (Canada). He is also proud to be an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Bureau of Economic Geology, University of Texas in Austin, and an Honorary Lecturer at the School of Geosciences at University of Edinburgh. He was an original Board Member of the UK CCS Research Centre. Previously he worked in CCS, emissions trading, clean energy technologies and related areas for AEA Technology (ETSU), for the UK Government‘s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and for the Global CCS Institute. He was the EU’s Lead Negotiator for getting CCS in the CDM in UNFCCC in 2011, and a UK negotiator for getting CCS in the London Convention 2004-7, in OSPAR 2006-7, in the EU Emission Trading Scheme 2004-8, and inputting to the EU CCS Directive 2007-8. He gives talks on climate and CCS to schools and public organisations and supported the start of Oxford Climate Society at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the UK Energy Institute, and member of the UK Institute of Physics and the UK Environmental Law Association.”
Dr Stuart Gilfillan “I have received funding from TotalEnergies in the past, for research related to CO2 origins in the subsurface and reservoir connectivity and Equinor on CO2 dissolution in natural CO2 reservoirs. I currently receive funding from the Natural Environment Research Council and Carbfix on CO2 mineralisation.”
Prof Hannah Chalmers “I work collaboratively with industrial partners who are developing CCUS projects in the UK (e.g. as a member of the Advisory Board for the Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre). I currently receive no funding from industry, but have received funding from industrial partners who are actively developing CCUS projects in the UK in the past (e.g. SSE plc).”
Professor Peter Styring: Peter is Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at the University of Sheffield (an investigator on Flue2Chem and SUSTAIN) and a Co-founder and Director of CCU International.
For all other experts, no response to our request for DOIs was received.
Source: United States Senator for Maine Angus King
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) is introducing legislation to prohibit direct-to-consumer advertising of pharmaceutical drugs. The Responsibility in Drug Advertising Act would prohibit direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of a new drug in the first three years after the drug receives Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval. The FDA could waive the third year of this prohibition if an affirmative value to public health is established or extend the prohibition if the drug has significant adverse health effects.
The legislation comes as more than 120 million viewers are expected to tune in to Super Bowl LIX this Sunday. Drug advertisers use these high-visibility moments, with millions of eyes on TV screens, to persuade and potentially mislead consumers about specific drugs that can be costlier to patients and possibly hazardous to their health. In the weeks leading up to Super Bowl LIX, the network airing the game has fetched $8 million for each 30-second TV ad slot, as companies pay a premium to tout their newest product to the Super Bowl’s vast audience.
“The widespread use of direct-to-consumer advertising by pharmaceutical companies drives up costs and doesn’t necessarily make patients healthier. It is misleading and frankly not safe for Maine people and all Americans looking for specific treatments to their conditions,” said Senator King. “The Responsibility in Drug Advertising Act would prohibit direct-to-consumer advertising of recently approved pharmaceutical drugs to protect people over profits. This bill is a great step to ensure that patients are getting the best information possible: we can start by making sure newly-approved drugs aren’t allowed to immediately flood the market with promotional ads before we fully understand their impact on the general public.”
Before the mid-1980s, drug companies only provided information about their products to doctors or pharmacists, who would then relay information to their patients when appropriate. But during the 1980s, companies started to market their drugs directly to consumers through ads. To date, federal law does not require the FDA to approve advertisements before they are released to the public. The only major requirement is that advertised information must be presented in consumer-friendly language that is readily understandable.
The United States and New Zealand are the only two countries that even allow direct to consumer drug advertising. In 2007, the World Health Organization (WHO) made a strong recommendation against direct-to-consumer drug advertising, calling it, “a significant risk of exposing more patients to the adverse effects of new drugs.” A study by Dartmouth College and the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that nearly 60 percent of prescription drug advertisements were misleading or false.
Senator King has been a leader in working to reduce prescription drug costs and hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for the content of their ads. Most recently, Senator King cosponsored bipartisan legislation which would require price disclosures on advertisements for prescription drugs in order to inform patients who are considering certain medications after seeing television commercials. He has previously introduced legislation to prohibit pharmaceutical drug manufacturers from claiming tax deductions for consumer advertising expenses. Senator King has also supported a number of commonsense bills to drive down the costs of prescription medication in the United States including the historic Inflation Reduction Act. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, insulin fees are capped at $35/month, Medicare is able to negotiate drug prices, and a $2,000 yearly cap on out-of-pocket expenses has been instituted for Medicare recipients.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén, Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations, University of Westminster
It is not unusual for international leaders to be invited to meet with EU heads of state or government at the fringes of the European Council meetings. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has regularly been invited to address the EU leaders. And while Donald Trump was never invited during his first term as US president, his successor Joe Biden was.
But Keir Starmer’s February 3 visit was significant, because it was the first time since Brexit that a British prime minister was invited to join the EU leaders for their traditional post-summit dinner.
Even before the UK formally left the EU, while the two parties were negotiating the terms for Brexit, British prime ministers were excluded. Not only were they left out of the formal meetings where the other 27 leaders discussed Brexit, but they were also excluded from the post-summit dinner. This caused frustration in Downing Street, and led to complaints about the UK being sidelined.
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There were rumours that Boris Johnson would be invited to a European Council meeting in 2022, but these remained rumours. And even if UK-EU relations improved under the premiership of Rishi Sunak, it was not until the Labour government’s step-change in the signalling of the need for a Brexit “reset” that a dinner invitation was extended.
Symbolically, it was important. After eight rather tumultuous years, the UK and EU were having dinner together again. And against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine and the changing geopolitical landscape, both parties recognised the need for closer cooperation on security and defence.
Starmer wants an ambitious security partnership with the EU. European Council president António Costa recognised that there is a great deal that the EU and the UK can do together in terms of defence and addressing global challenges.
Partners in security
The idea of a security partnership is not new. Already in the political declaration of 2019, which accompanied the withdrawal agreement, the UK and the EU agreed to negotiate such a partnership, including cooperation on foreign, security, and defence policies.
However, in his hurry to “get Brexit done”, Boris Johnson decided not to proceed on this track. As a result, the trade and cooperation agreement, which governs the EU-UK relationship, largely omits security cooperation.
Even without a formal security and defence structure in place, the EU and the UK have worked alongside each other in supporting Ukraine. But the Labour government has repeatedly stressed the need for more formal cooperation arrangements as part of its “reset”. To this end, the foreign secretary, David Lammy, has called for an ambitious and broad-ranging UK-EU security pact.
For the UK it is a relatively easy way to improve relations and rebuild trust with the EU. The EU and the UK face similar geopolitical challenges and are largely aligned in terms of values and interests on security and defence matters. A more coordinated EU-UK response would have greater impact, whether it is about supporting Ukraine, tackling cross-border crime or increasing energy security.
It is also an area where the UK can forge closer links with the EU without crossing its red lines on free movement of people, or membership of the customs union or single market. And the UK – as the only major European military power other than France – is an attractive security partner for the EU.
EU leaders do see potential in such an initiative. Already in the 2022 “strategic compass”, a document which sets out the EU’s security and defence agenda, the EU stressed that it remains open to closer cooperation with the UK.
This has become even more urgent in light of the uncertainty surrounding Trump’s future engagement with Nato and European security. If Trump makes good on his threat to downsize America’s security role in Europe, the EU needs to strengthen its own defence, and it cannot do so effectively without the UK.
However, the EU wants to see concrete proposals for what a security pact would look like. It questioned the genuine commitment to the “reset” after the UK rejected the EU’s proposal around a time-limited and visa-based youth mobility scheme – a move that disappointed the EU, for whom the issue was a top priority. The UK government worried that it could be misinterpreted as a return to free movement of people and rejected the proposal.
While the leaders left the dinner without concrete proposals, they agreed to talk further. There will be an institutional EU-UK summit in the UK in May, where the two parties will discuss what form the deeper security and defence cooperation could take.
European Council president Costa recognised that there is a new positive energy in the EU-UK relationship. It remains to be seen whether this energy, and the signalling about the UK’s commitment to a reset, will eventually translate into an actual EU-UK rapprochement – something both parties would benefit from. Rebuilding trust takes time – and a dinner invitation should be seen as positive sign in itself.
Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén 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.
Every scientific discovery, breakthrough, and innovation we celebrate has been shaped by brilliant minds. However, the minds with more opportunities to shine have predominantly been male. While women constitute 48% of doctoral graduates in the EU, they represent only one third of the total number of researchers in Europe. According to the UN, female researchers also tend to have shorter, less well-paid careers.
Though progress has been made, women remain underrepresented in many fields, in senior academic and decision-making positions. These disparities are driven by challenges such as unconscious bias, a lack of mentorship, and limited access to resources – barriers that continue to hinder the full participation of women in research and innovation.
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11 February is both a celebration and a call to action to inspire young girls and women around the world, to ignite their curiosity and creativity – and to reflect on how best to support their scientific aspirations.
The European Commission is committed to upholding gender equality – one of the core values of the EU. Read how the Commission is supporting equality with some key actions in research and innovation.
Gender equality plans
Gender equality is a priority of the European Research Area (ERA), with actions focused on driving institutional change in research careers at all levels. In 2022, this commitment was strengthened further, with all higher education establishments, research organisations, and public bodies from Member States and Associated Countries applying for Horizon Europe funding now required to implement a Gender Equality Plan (GEP).
These plans must address several areas, including work-life balance, gender balance in leadership and decision-making, gender equality in recruitment and career progression, integration of an inclusive gender dimension into research that acknowledges intersectionality, and measures against gender-based violence.
The EU Award for Gender Equality Champions celebrates and recognises the outstanding results achieved by some change-driving academic and research organisations in the implementation of GEPs. The prize is shaping a community of changemakers who inspire others to adopt gender equality policies and drive meaningful, transformative institutional change.
To date, two award ceremonies have been held, honouring seven champions from Ireland, Spain, Sweden, and France. This year’s ceremony will take place in March 2025.
One of the previous winners is Universitat Rovira I Virgili in Spain where now the majority of research groups in the university are led by women as principal investigators. The university has also run a campaign to prevent sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination among their teaching staff.
Another notable champion is South East Technological University in Ireland. This institution has made impressive strides in achieving gender balance, particularly within its executive management team and across its teaching staff. From assistant lecturers to senior lecturers, the university has worked diligently to ensure that both women and men are equally represented.
Discover how you can apply to become one of the next EU gender equality champions.
EU-funded projects strengthen the gender equality balance in STEM
Strengthening women’s participation in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is not only a matter of equal opportunities and social justice, but also crucial to meet pressing societal challenges, such as the green and digital transitions. According to the “She figures 2021” report, women remain underrepresented among doctoral graduates in most narrow STEM fields.
To tackle this imbalance, the EU is funding research and innovation projects aimed at increasing young girls’ participation in STEM activities, improving the recruitment, retention and promotion of women in science across the EU and beyond.
The Horizon Europe project STREAM IT tackles barriers for underrepresented groups in STEM, focusing on young girls, creating inclusive educational tools. The project aims to provide widely applicable solutions for various stakeholders, including workshop series for supporting girls to orient towards STEM, hands-on activities at science centres and museums, mentoring programme, and establishing collaborative networks on national and international level.
To further boost interest and female participation in STE(A)M (where “A” stands for creative thinking and applied arts), while deconstructing gender stereotypes, three EU-funded projects – Road-STEAMer, The SEER and SENSE – are collaborating to develop and deliver a roadmap for science education in Horizon Europe, in synergy with the EU’s Erasmus programme.
Meet some of the inspiring women behind European R&I
EU actions to eliminate gender inequalities in research and innovation have already yielded significant results, as seen in the stories of several remarkable women in science.
One such example is Dr. Anne L’Huillier, the 2023 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics, who works on the interaction between short and intense laser fields and atoms. She credits the MSCA programme’s early support for kickstarting her career.
Prof Rana Sanyal, the winner of the 2024 European Prize for Women Innovators and a leading expert in biotechnology, is another prime illustration of the vital role EU funding plays in supporting women researchers.
Alba García-Fernández and Erika Pineda Ramirez are other two EU-funded women researchers dedicated to developing more effective treatments for cancer patients. In honour of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, they offer inspiring advice for the next generation of female researchers.
“The contribution of women in science is invaluable. We have so much talent and ideas to offer. As Marie Skłodowska-Curie once said: ‘I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.’ So, my advice is: believe in yourself and go after what truly excites you. Stay curious, keep learning!” – Alba García-Fernández, MSCA fellow.
Erika Pineda Ramirez emphasises that while the work environment can sometimes make things harder, women researchers should keep trying and never give up because science needs more of their contributions.
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
Head of the Department for Coordination of Scientific Research at the State University of Management, Maxim Pletnev, joined the Public Council of the Ministry for Territory Maintenance and State Housing Supervision of the Moscow Region.
On February 5, 2024, the first meeting of the Public Council of the Ministry for Territory Maintenance and State Housing Supervision of the Moscow Region was held in the Government of the Moscow Region. It included 14 people – representatives of various spheres and industries. Among them was the head of the UKNI GUU Maxim Pletnev, who joined the working group of the Public Council for the Maintenance of Territories of Apartment Buildings in the Moscow Region.
During the first meeting, the participants voted to elect the Chairman of the Public Council — Hero of the Russian Federation, member of the cosmonaut corps Andrey Borisenko. The members of the Public Council defined the key goal of the joint work — to identify problem areas and find effective solutions for current issues in the field of housing supervision, improvement and maintenance of adjacent territories, taking into account the interests of civil society.
Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 02/07/2025
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Governor Kathy Hochul today announced that, as part of New York State’s continued effort to combat the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), the Department of Agriculture and Markets (AGM) has issued a new Notice and Order for live bird markets that have not had a detection of HPAI in New York City and Westchester, Suffolk, and Nassau counties. The order requires those markets to sell down all inventory, complete cleaning and disinfection procedures, and remain closed for a period of five days after cleaning and disinfection. In addition, the Notice and Order further outlines quarantine and depopulation procedures for markets that have confirmed detections of HPAI. This Notice and Order follows seven detections of HPAI in markets in Queens, the Bronx, and Brooklyn during routine surveillance conducted by AGM since January 31, 2025. The State reminds farmers to follow good biosecurity measures and emphasizes that the risk to humans remains low.
“Safeguarding public health is all about being proactive, and New York State is continuing our coordinated effort to monitor for the Avian Influenza,” Governor Hochul said. “My top priority will always be to keep New Yorkers safe, and I have directed our state agencies to use all available resources to ensure we are taking every measure necessary to keep the risk to the public low. We will continue to take these measured, common sense steps that will curb the spread of bird flu and ultimately protect our communities.”
New York State Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball said, “We’re continuing to work hard with our partners to combat the spread of HPAI in New York. Today, I signed a Notice and Order requiring that live bird markets in New York City and the surrounding areas close for cleaning and disinfection, even if they haven’t yet had a detection of HPAI in their market. Following seven detections of HPAI in live bird markets in the last week, this Notice and Order is a commonsense measure aimed at getting ahead of the virus, rather than chasing it. We’re working with USDA and other partners to make sure that we can minimize the economic impact to these markets, and we very much appreciate the markets’ cooperation and assistance in protecting public and animal health.”
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, “While there is no immediate threat to public health and no known cases of HPAIin humans in New York State, we support the Department of Agriculture and Markets’ latest proactive measures to prevent the spread of the disease between animals and humans by temporarily closing live bird markets in New York City and surrounding counties. Those who have regular contact with livestock and wild birds should safeguard their health by wearing personal protective equipment when in contact with these animals. We will remain vigilant in working with our state and local partners to monitor for detections and reduce any potential risks to public health and safety.”
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar said, “Through Governor Hochul’s leadership, New York State is acting aggressively to monitor for and advance actions to reduce the spread of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. DEC remains committed to working comprehensively with our state and federal partners to respond to HPAI and encourages New Yorkers to use our new web-based tool to report suspected HPAI outbreaks in wildlife, and follow proper precautions when handling deceased wildlife. Visit DEC’s website for additional information on safe wildlife handling and proper disposal techniques.”
New York City Health Department Acting Commissioner Michelle Morse said, “The current risk to New Yorkers of bird flu (H5N1) remains low. Avian influenza viruses only present a wider risk if the virus develops the ability to transmit between people – which we have not seen. The NYC Health Department will continue to work closely with the NYS Department of Agriculture and NYS Department of Health to ensure that Live Bird Market staff receive essential information and, if symptoms present themselves, receive any treatment they may need. We are prepared to respond to any disease outbreak, including quickly ramping up testing and treatment, and working closely with providers and community partners to rapidly disseminate messaging.”
HPAI is a contagious viral disease that is known to be deadly to domestic poultry and has been transmitted within and between farms and live bird markets. The temporary shutdown mandated by the Notice and Order is necessary and essential to ensuring a break in HPAI virus transmission within the impacted markets. While AGM’s routine surveillance is effective, after finding seven detections of HPAI in live bird markets within the last week, the temporary shutdown ensures that the State can get ahead of any additional opportunities for transmission of the virus within the markets at the current time. A uniform market closure for a five-day period addresses the persistence and circulation of the virus within the markets by quickly reducing the virus prevalence to zero percent.
Effective immediately, the Notice and Order requires that:
No poultry shall be delivered to live bird markets or distributors covered by the Order from February 7, 2025 through February 14, 2025.
Any market that harbors birds exhibiting clinical signs of HPAI must contact the Department of Agriculture and Markets immediately to undergo investigation and testing.
Markets that test positive for HPAI shall be depopulated; undergo cleaning and disinfection and be empty of birds for five days, at a minimum; and shall remain closed until the market passes cleaning and disinfection inspection by an AGM animal health inspector.
All unaffected live bird markets in New York City and Westchester, Suffolk, and Nassau counties must sell down all inventory for a period of three days beginning on February 7, 2025; complete cleaning and disinfection procedures; and subsequently close for a period of five days following cleaning and disinfection. These markets must pass a cleaning and disinfection inspection by an AGM animal health inspector before reopening.
Cleaning and disinfection includes the removal of all organic debris from all equipment, caging, flooring, etc.; and requires that all surfaces be cleaned with soap or detergent, rinsed with water, and saturated with a disinfectant appropriate for killing the avian influenza virus, in accordance with the manufacturer’s label.
USDA provides indemnity and compensation for losses incurred following a confirmed detection of HPAI on a premise.
State Senator Michelle Hinchey said, “This proactive decision by NYS Agriculture and Markets to temporarily close at-risk poultry markets as a precaution against avian flu is a difficult yet necessary step to curb the spread of this highly contagious disease. New York benefits immensely from having one of the country’s top Animal Diagnostic Labs at Cornell University, which will play a critical role in limiting further spread and reducing disruptions for both farmers and businesses. We are committed to ensuring that the lab has the necessary resources to quickly respond to this and any other pathogen-based threats that may emerge.”
Assemblymember Donna Lupardo said, “After detecting avian flu at seven live bird markets across NYS, the decision was made to temporarily close these markets. Proactive measures, while concerning to businesses and consumers alike, are necessary to help prevent the spread of a virus that has devastated poultry farms across the country. We are fortunate in NYS to have one of the country’s premier Animal Diagnostic Labs at Cornell University whose expertise will be invaluable as we navigate these waters.”
HPAI in Poultry
At Governor Hochul’s direction, AGM, DOH, and DEC continue to collaborate closely on proactive measures to prevent the spread of HPAI and facilitate early detection, as the risk to humans remains low. The New York State Department of Health is also reminding the public that the finding of HPAI in this market does not present an immediate public health concern. Individuals working in the markets will be assessed for potential high-risk exposure and be monitored for symptoms by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene accordingly. If any become ill, they will be evaluated for infection with avian influenza. Since the start of 2024, there have been 67 human cases of avian influenza in the United States, and none of these have been in New York State.
AGM encourages those involved in poultry production to take extra steps to prevent their flocks from becoming infected. All poultry producers, from small backyard to large commercial operations, should review their biosecurity plans and take precautions to protect their birds. Poultry biosecurity materials and checklists can be found on the USDA’s “Defend the Flock” website.
In addition to practicing good biosecurity, poultry owners should keep their birds away from wild ducks and geese and their droppings. Outdoor access for poultry should be limited at this time, particularly as the State continues to see HPAI detections in wild bird populations.
To report sick birds, unexplained high number of deaths, or sudden drop in egg production, please contact AGM’s Division of Animal Industry at (518) 457-3502 or the USDA at (866) 536-7593.
HPAI in Dairy Cattle
In January, AGM announced that it is implementing new testing initiatives on dairy farms as part of its aggressive, proactive response to the outbreak of HPAI in livestock in other states. Working in close collaboration with federal partners, including USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, FDA, and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, and State partners, including DOH, this enhanced testing strategy is part of the State’s effort to protect animal and human health and prevent the transmission of HPAI in livestock in New York State. While there have been no detections of HPAI in livestock in New York to date, the State’s comprehensive approach is aimed at ensuring the state remains free of HPAI and facilitating early detection.
In addition to the new testing initiative, New York State has taken multiple preventative measures to prevent the spread of HPAI and protect animal and human health since the first detection of HPAI in dairy cattle in Texas in March 2024. In April, June, and August 2024, the Department issued orders on import requirements for dairy cattle coming into New York as well as testing requirements for lactating dairy cattle entering fairs or exhibitions. These orders continue to remain in place until further notice.
USDA offers several producer support programs that are available to all dairy producers as well as certain programs only available to dairy producers with HPAI-positive herds. These programs include tools to support biosecurity planning and implementation as well as financial support programs to offset costs associated with HPAI testing, veterinary expenses, personal protective equipment purchases, milk disposal, and milk losses.
Rural America faces many challenges that Congress and the federal government could help alleviate under the new Trump administration.
Rural hospitals and their obstetrics wards have been closing at a rapid pace, leaving rural residents traveling farther for health care. Affordable housing is increasingly hard to find in rural communities, where pay is often lower and poverty higher than average. Land ownership is changing, leaving more communities with outsiders wielding influence over their local resources.
Here are some ways we believe the Trump administration could work with Congress to boost these communities’ health and economies.
1. Rural health care access
One of the greatest challenges to rural health care is its vulnerability to shifts in policy and funding cuts because of rural areas’ high rates of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.
Funding from those federal programs affects rural hospitals, and rural hospitals are struggling.
Nearly half of rural hospitals operate in the red today, and over 170 rural hospitals have closed since 2010. The low population density of rural areas can make it difficult for hospitals to cover operating costs when their patient volume is low. These hospital closures have left rural residents traveling an extra 20 miles (32 km) on average to receive inpatient health care services and an extra 40 miles (64 km) for specialty care services.
The government has created programs to try to help keep hospitals operating, but they all require funding that is at risk. For example:
The Low-volume Hospital Adjustment Act, first implemented in 2005, has helped numerous rural hospitals by boosting their Medicare payments per patient, but it faces regular threats of funding cuts. It and several other programs to support Medicare-dependent hospitals are set to expire on March 31, 2025, when the next federal budget is due.
The rural emergency hospital model, created in 2020, helps qualifying rural facilities to maintain access to essential emergency and outpatient hospital services, also by providing higher Medicare payments. Thus far, only 30 rural hospitals have transitioned to this model, in part because they would have to eliminate inpatient care services, which also limits outpatient surgery and other medical services that could require overnight care in the event of an emergency.
Rural emergency hospitals can get extra funding, but there’s a catch: They have no inpatient beds, so people in need of longer care must go farther. AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
Services for pregnant women have also gotten harder to find in rural areas.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth – the ability to meet with your doctor over video – wasn’t widely used. It could be difficult for doctors to ensure reimbursement, and the logistics of meeting federal requirements and privacy rules could be challenging.
The pandemic changed that. Improving technology allowed telehealth to quickly expand, reducing people’s contact with sick patients, and the government issued waivers for Medicare and Medicaid to pay for telehealth treatment. That opened up new opportunities for rural patients to get health care and opportunities for providers to reach more patients.
However, the Medicare and Medicaid waivers for most telehealth services were only temporary. Only payments for mental and behavioral health teleheath services continued, and those are set to expire with the federal budget in March 2025, unless they are renewed.
Like their urban peers, rural communities face a shortage of affordable housing.
Unemployment in rural areas today exceeds levels before the COVID-19 pandemic. Job growth and median incomes lag behind urban areas, and rural poverty rates are higher.
Rural housing prices have been exacerbated by continued population growth over the past four years, lower incomes compared with their urban peers, limited employment opportunities and few high-quality homes available for rent or sale. Rural communities often have aging homes built upon outdated or inadequate infrastructure, such as deteriorating sewer and water lines.
Rental homes in older towns can become run down. Community maintenance of pipes and other services also requires funding. LawrenceSawyer/E+ via Getty Images
One proposal to help people looking for affordable rural housing is the bipartisan Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, which calls for creating a new federal tax credit to spur the development and renovation of family housing in distressed urban, suburban and rural neighborhoods.
Similarly, the Section 502 Direct Loan Program through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which subsidizes mortgages for low-income applicants to obtain safe housing, could be expanded with additional funding to enable more people to receive subsidized mortgages.
3. Locally owned land benefits communities
Seniors age 65 and older own 40% of the agricultural land in the U.S., according to the American Farmland Trust. That means that more than 360 million acres of farmland could be transferred to new owners in the next few decades. If their heirs aren’t interested in farming, that land could be sold to large operations or real estate developers.
A farmer carries organic squash during harvest. Young farmers often struggle to find land to expand their operations. Thomas Barwick/Stone via Getty Images
Congress can take some steps to help communities keep more farmland locally owned.
The proposed Farm Transitions Act, for example, would establish a commission on farm transitions to study issues that affect locally owned farms and provide recommendations to help transition agricultural operations to the next generation of farmers and ranchers.
About 30% of farmers have been in business for less than 10 years, and many of them rent the land they farm. Programs such as USDA’s farm loan programs and the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program help support local land purchases and could be improved to identify and eliminate barriers that communities face.
We believe that by addressing these issues, Congress and the new administration can help some of the country’s most vulnerable citizens. Efforts to build resilient and strong rural communities will benefit everyone.
Randolph Hubach receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Cody Mullen receives funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. He is affiliated with the National Rural Health Association.
WASHINGTON, DC – The Fannie Mae (FNMA/OTCQB) Home Purchase Sentiment Index® (HPSI) increased 0.3 points in January to 73.4, bouncing back slightly after falling last month for the first time since July. Improvements in consumer optimism toward both homebuying and home-selling conditions, along with even greater expectations that home prices will rise over the next 12 months, drove the increase. However, after a surge in mortgage rate optimism in the second half of last year, January saw a 13-percentage-point decline in the net share of consumers who believe mortgage rates will go down in the next 12 months. In addition, the share of consumers who expect rental prices will go up increased 8 percentage points from last month to 65%. Year over year, the HPSI is up 2.7 points.
“Consumers seem increasingly pessimistic that housing affordability conditions will improve across the board, as a growing share expects home prices, rent prices, and mortgage rates will all go up,” said Kim Betancourt, Vice President of Multifamily Economics and Strategic Research. “The lower optimism toward the mortgage rate outlook was largely expected, as rates have continued to stay elevated and even crossed the 7% threshold in mid-January. As noted in our latest forecast, we currently expect mortgage rates to end 2025 around 6.5%, relatively little changed from where we are today, which will likely continue to hinder relief for housing affordability and home sales activity.”
Betancourt continued: “On the rental side, consumers have indicated a sharply growing expectation over the past two months that rent prices will increase. This mirrors our expectation that multifamily rents will grow between 2.0% and 2.5% this year — up from an estimated 1.0% last year. Even though it remains relatively cheaper for consumers to rent than buy in nearly every U.S. metro, we expect affordability issues will remain a real challenge for both renters and homeowners alike for the foreseeable future.”
Home Purchase Sentiment Index – Component Highlights Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) increased 0.3 points in January to 73.4. The HPSI is up 2.7 points compared to the same time last year. Read the full research report for additional information.
Good/Bad Time to Buy: The percentage of respondents who say it is a good time to buy a home (22%) and the percentage who say it is a bad time to buy (78%) both stayed the same from last month. The net share of those who say it is a good time to buy increased 2 percentage points month over month to -55%.
Good/Bad Time to Sell: The percentage of respondents who say it is a good time to sell a home (63%) and the percentage who say it’s a bad time to sell (36%) both remained unchanged month over month. The net share of those who say it is a good time to sell increased 1 percentage point month over month to 28%.
Home Price Expectations: The percentage of respondents who say home prices will go up in the next 12 months increased from 38% to 43%, while the percentage who say home prices will go down decreased from 27% to 22%. The share who think home prices will stay the same decreased from 35% to 34%. As a result, the net share of those who say home prices will go up in the next 12 months increased 9 percentage points month over month to 20%.
Mortgage Rate Expectations: The percentage of respondents who say mortgage rates will go down in the next 12 months decreased from 42% to 35%, while the percentage who expect mortgage rates to go up increased from 25% to 32%. The share who think mortgage rates will stay the same increased from 32% to 33%. As a result, the net share of those who say mortgage rates will go down over the next 12 months decreased 13 percentage points month over month to 3%.
Job Loss Concern: The percentage of employed respondents who say they are not concerned about losing their job in the next 12 months increased from 77% to 78%, while the percentage who say they are concerned stayed at 22%. As a result, the net share of those who say they are not concerned about losing their job increased 2 percentage points month over month to 56%.
Household Income: The percentage of respondents who say their household income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago remained at 17%, while the percentage who say their household income is significantly lower decreased from 11% to 9%. The percentage who say their household income is about the same increased from 70% to 73%, a new survey high. As a result, the net share of those who say their household income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago increased 2 percentage points month over month to 8%.
About Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index The Home Purchase Sentiment Index® (HPSI) distills information about consumers’ home purchase sentiment from Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey® (NHS) into a single number. The HPSI reflects consumers’ current views and forward-looking expectations of housing market conditions and complements existing data sources to inform housing-related analysis and decision-making. The HPSI is constructed from answers to six NHS questions that solicit consumers’ evaluations of housing market conditions and address topics that are related to their home purchase decisions. The questions ask consumers whether they think that it is a good or bad time to buy or to sell a house, what direction they expect home prices and mortgage interest rates to move, how concerned they are about losing their jobs, and whether their incomes are higher or lower than they were a year earlier.
About Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey The National Housing Survey (NHS) is a monthly attitudinal survey, launched in 2010, which polls a representative sample of adult household financial decision makers in the United States, to assess their attitudes toward owning and renting a home, purchase and rental prices, household finances, and overall confidence in the economy. Each respondent is asked more than 100 questions, making the NHS one of the most detailed longitudinal surveys of its kind to track attitudinal shifts, six of which are used to construct the HPSI (findings are compared with the same survey conducted monthly beginning June 2010). For more information, please see the Technical Notes.
Fannie Mae conducts this survey and shares monthly and quarterly results so that we may help industry partners and market participants target our collective efforts to support the housing market. The January 2025 National Housing Survey was conducted between January 2, 2025, and January 21, 2025. Most of the data collection occurred during the first two weeks of this period. The latest NHS was fielded exclusively through AmeriSpeak®, NORC at the University of Chicago’s probability-based panel, in coordination with Fannie Mae and PSB Insights. Calculations are made using unrounded and weighted respondent-level data to help ensure precision in NHS results from wave to wave. As a result, minor differences in calculated data (summarized results, net calculations, etc.) of up to 1 percentage point may occur due to rounding.
Detailed HPSI & NHS Findings For detailed findings from the Home Purchase Sentiment Index and National Housing Survey, as well as a brief HPSI overview and detailed white paper, technical notes on the NHS methodology, and questions asked of respondents associated with each monthly indicator, please visit the Surveys page on fanniemae.com. Also available on the site are in-depth special topic studies, which provide a detailed assessment of combined data results from three monthly studies of NHS results.
To receive e-mail updates with other housing market research from Fannie Mae’s Economic and Strategic Research Group, please click here.
About the ESR Group Fannie Mae’s Economic and Strategic Research Group, led by Chief Economist Mark Palim, studies current data, analyzes historical and emerging trends, and conducts surveys of consumer and mortgage lender groups to provide forecasts and analyses on the economy, housing, and mortgage markets.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is expected to clear the final hurdles in his confirmation as President Donald Trump’s health secretary, and a host of health influencers have proclaimed that widely used cooking oils such as canola oil and soybean oil are toxic.
T-shirts sold by his “Make America Healthy Again” campaign now include the slogan, “make frying oil tallow again” – a reference to the traditional use of rendered beef fat for cooking.
Seed oils have become a mainstay of the American diet because unlike beef tallow, which is comprised of saturated fats that increase cholesterol levels, seed oils contain unsaturated fats that can decrease cholesterol levels. In theory, that means they should reduce the risk of heart disease.
But research shows that different seed oils have varying effects on risk for heart disease.
Furthermore, seed oils have also been shown to increase risk for migraines. This is likely due to their high levels of omega-6 fatty acids. These fats can increase inflammation, a heightened and potentially harmful state of system immune activation.
As a family physician with a Ph.D. in nutrition, I translate the latest nutrition science into dietary recommendations for my patients. When it comes to seed oils, the research shows that their health effects are more nuanced than headlines and social media posts suggest.
How seed oils infiltrated the American diet
Seed oils — often confusingly referred to as “vegetable oils” — are, as the name implies, oils extracted from the seeds of plants. This is unlike olive oil and coconut oil, which are derived from fruits. People decrying their widespread use often refer to the “hateful eight” top seed oil offenders: canola, corn, soybean, cottonseed, grapeseed, sunflower, safflower and rice bran oil.
These oils entered the human diet at unprecedented levels after the invention of the mechanical screw press in 1888 enabled the extraction of oil from seeds in quantities that were never before possible.
Evaluating the omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio
Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids are essential nutrients that control inflammation. While omega-6s tend to produce molecules that boost it, omega-3s tend to produce molecules that tone it down. Until recently, people generally ate equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. However, over the past century, this ratio has changed. Today, people consume 15 times more omega-6s than omega-3s, partly due to increased consumption of seed oils.
In theory, seed oils can cause health problems because they contain a high absolute amount of omega-6 fatty acids, as well as a high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. Studies have linked an increased omega-6 to omega-3 ratio to a wide range of conditions, including mood disorders, knee pain, back pain, menstrual pain and even preterm birth. Omega-6 fatty acids have also been implicated in the processes that drive colon cancer.
However, the absolute omega-6 level and the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in different seed oils vary tremendously. For example, safflower oil and sunflower oil have ratios of 125:1 and 91:1. Corn oil’s ratio is 50:1. Meanwhile, soybean oil and canola oil have lower ratios, at 8:1 and 2:1, respectively.
Scientists have used genetic modification to create seed oils like high oleic acid canola oil that have a lower omega-6 to 3 ratio. However, the health benefit of these bioengineered oils is still being studied.
The upshot on inflammation and health risks
Part of the controversy surrounding seed oils is that studies investigating their inflammatory effect have yielded mixed results. One meta-analysis synthesizing the effects of seed oils on 11 inflammatory markers largely showed no effects – with the exception of one inflammatory signal, which was significantly elevated in people with the highest omega-6 intakes.
To complicate things further, genetics also plays a role in seed oils’ inflammatory potential. People of African, Indigenous and Latino descent tend to metabolize omega-6 fatty acids faster, which can increase the inflammatory effect of consuming seed oils. Scientists still don’t fully understand how genetics and other factors may influence the health effects of these oils.
The effect of different seed oils on cardiovascular risk
A review of seven randomized controlled trials showed that the effect of seed oils on risk of heart attacks varies depending on the type of seed oil.
This was corroborated by data resurrected from tapes dug up in the basement of a researcher who in the 1970s conducted the largest and most rigorously executed dietary trial to date investigating the replacement of saturated fat with seed oils. In that work, replacing saturated fats such as beef tallow with seed oils always lowers cholesterol, but it does not always lower risk of death from heart disease.
Taken together, these studies show that when saturated fats such as beef tallow are replaced with seed oils that have lower omega-6 to omega-3 ratios, such as soybean oil, the risk of heart attacks and death from heart disease falls. However, when saturated fats are replaced with seed oils with a higher omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, such as corn oil, risk of death from heart disease rises.
However, seed oils with less favorable ratios, such as corn oil and safflower oil, can be found in countless processed foods, including potato chips, frozen dinners and packaged desserts. Nevertheless, other aspects of these foods, in addition to their seed oil content, also make them unhealthy.
The case for migraines – and beyond
A rigorous randomized controlled trial – the gold standard for clinical evidence – showed that diets high in omega-3 fatty acids and low in omega-6 fatty acids, hence low in seed oils, significantly reduced the risk of migraines
In the study, people who stepped up their consumption of omega-3 fatty acids by eating fatty fish such as salmon experienced an average of two fewer migraines per month than usual, even if they did not change their omega-6 consumption. However, if they reduced their omega-6 intake by switching out corn oil for olive oil, while simultaneously increasing their omega-3 intake, they experienced four fewer migraines per month.
That’s a noteworthy difference, considering that the latest migraine medications reduce migraine frequency by approximately two days per month, compared to a placebo. Thus, for migraine sufferers — 1 in 6 Americans — decreasing seed oils, along with increasing omega-3 intake, may be even more effective than currently available medications.
Overall, the drastic way in which omega-6 fatty acids have entered the food supply and fundamentally changed our biological composition makes this an important area of study. But the question of whether seed oils are good or bad is not black and white. There is no basis to conclude that Americans would be healthier if we started frying everything in beef tallow again, but there is an argument for a more careful consideration of the nuance surrounding these oils and their potential effects.
Mary J. Scourboutakos 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 – USA – By Mark S. Chandler, Professor of Practice and Director, Government Relations – Intelligence and Security Studies Department, Coastal Carolina University
U.S. intelligence workers gather information from around the world to help guide leaders’ decisions.da-kuk/E+ via Getty Images
The United States’ security depends on leaders who make well-informed decisions, including matters ranging from diplomatic relations around the world to economic relations, threats to the U.S., up to the deployment of military force. The nation’s intelligence community – 18 federal agencies, some military and others civilian – has the responsibility of gathering information from all over the world and delivering it to the country’s leaders for their use.
As a nearly 40-year veteran of the intelligence community, both in and out of uniform, I know that regardless of what leaders do with the information, the American people need them to have as thorough, unbiased, fact-based and nonpoliticized intelligence assessments as possible.
That’s because reality matters. Those tasked with gathering, analyzing and assembling intelligence material work hard to assemble facts and information to give leaders an advantage over other nations in international relations, trade agreements and even warfare. Reality is so important that a key policy document for the intelligence community tells analysts that their top two priorities are to be “objective” and “independent of political consideration.”
But an investigation into the intelligence community found that during the first Trump administration, intelligence workers at many levels made political value judgments about the information they assembled, and did not report the truest picture possible to the nation’s leaders.
Tulsi Gabbard is President Donald Trump’s choice to be director of national intelligence. AP Photo/John McDonnell
Analysts are a key defense against politicization
In general, each administration develops a national security strategy based on global events and issues, including threats to U.S. interests that are detailed and monitored by the intelligence community. Based on the administration’s priorities and interests, intelligence agencies collect and analyze data. Regular, often daily, briefings keep the president abreast of developments and warn of potential new challenges.
In a perfect world, the president and the national security team use that information to determine which policies and actions are in the nation’s best interests.
With the recent arrival of a new presidential administration, recent reports indicate that at least some workers in the intelligence community are feeling pressure to shift their priorities away from delivering facts and toward manipulating intelligence to achieve specific outcomes.
Current and former intelligence officials have publicly worried that President Donald Trump might be biased against the intelligence community and seek to overhaul it if analyses did not fit his policy objectives.
It happened in Trump’s first term. After Trump left office in 2021, Congress turned to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence – which oversees the entire intelligence community – to investigate whether intelligence reports were politicized under Trump’s leadership.
The investigation determined that they were, up and down the intelligence system. The report found that some people who didn’t agree with the president’s policy views and objectives decided among themselves not to provide a full intelligence picture, while others tried to tailor what they showed the president to match his existing plans.
At times, individual analysts withheld information. And managers, even up to the most senior level, also edited analyses and assessments, seeking to make them more appealing to leaders.
For instance, the report found that top intelligence community officials, members of the National Intelligence Council, “consistently watered down conclusions during a drawn-out review process, boosting the threat from China and making the threat from Russia ‘not too controversial.’”
The ombudsman’s report pointed out that this type of event has happened before – specifically, in 2003 around questions of whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction – which it was ultimately found not to. As the report describes, “politicians and political appointees had … made up their mind about an issue and spent considerable time pressuring analysts and managers to prove their thesis to the American public.” That biased, politically motivated intelligence led to a war that killed nearly 4,500 U.S. service members, wounded more than 30,000 more, and cost the lives of about 200,000 Iraqi civilians, as well as more than $700 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds.
Intelligence community leaders brief not only the president and others in the executive branch, but also members and committees in Congress. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Leaders don’t have to listen
At some point or other, almost every president makes decisions that run contrary to intelligence assessments. For instance, George H.W. Bush did not prioritize a crumbling Yugoslavia, and the challenges that presented, choosing to focus on Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the resulting U.S. military Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
President Bill Clinton inherited the Yugoslavia situation, in which a failing country was at risk of political implosion, and chose to ignore intelligence warnings until the ethnic cleansing in that country became too public to ignore, at which point he began a U.S.-led NATO air campaign to stop the fighting. Clinton also ignored several intelligence warnings about al-Qaida, even after its deadly attacks on two U.S. embassies in 1998, and in 2000 on the USS Cole, a U.S. Navy destroyer. He chose more limited responses than aides suggested, including passing up an opportunity to kill al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Elected officials are accountable to the American people, and to history, but I believe accountability is key to ensuring the intelligence community follows its own standards from top to bottom, from senior leaders to the most junior analysts. Failure to abide by those standards harms American national security, and the standards themselves say violations are meant to bring professional, and potentially personal, consequences.
A U.S. military helicopter flies above Kabul during the evacuation of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021. Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images
Perfection is elusive
It’s impossible for intelligence collection and analysis staff to get everything right – they don’t have a crystal ball. Leaders aren’t under any obligation to follow the intelligence community’s recommendations. But if intelligence officials and political leaders are to have effective relationships that safeguard the nation’s security, each must understand their role and trust that each is doing that work as best as possible.
Providing unvarnished truthful assessments is the job of the intelligence community. That means assessing what’s happening and what might happen as a result of a range of decisions the policymakers might choose. In my experience, putting aside my own views of leaders and their past decisions built trust with them and improved the likelihood that they would take my assessments seriously and make decisions based on the best available information.
It’s not that intelligence professionals can’t have opinions, political ideologies or particular perspectives on policy decisions. All Americans can, and should.
But as a second Trump administration begins, I think of what I told my colleagues and staff over the decades: National security requires us to keep those personal views out of intelligence analysis.
Mark S. Chandler 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.
Maps are ubiquitous – on phones, in-flight and car displays, and in textbooks the world over. While some maps delineate and name territories and boundaries, others show different voting blocs in elections, and GPS devices help drivers navigate to their destination.
But no matter the purpose, all maps have something in common: They are political. Making maps is about making decisions about what to omit and what to include. They are subject to selection, classification, abstractions and simplifications. And studying the choices that go into maps, as I do, can reveal different stories about land and the people who claim it as theirs.
Nowhere is this more true than in the contested regions that today include modern-day Israel and the Palestinian territories. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, different governmental and nongovernmental organizations and political interest groups have engaged in what can best be described as “map wars.”
Maps of the region use the naming of places, the position of borders and the inclusion or omission of certain territories to present contrasting geopolitical visions. To this day, Israel or the Palestinian territories may fall off some maps, depending on the politics of their makers.
This is not exclusive to the Middle East – “map wars” are underway across the globe. Some of the more well-known examples include disputes between Ukraine and Russia, Taiwan and China, and India and China. All are engaged in controversies over the territorial integrity of nation-states.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu displays a map of Israel indicating the Golan Heights are inside the state’s borders. Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images
A short history of maps
Traditionally, maps have been used to represent cosmologies, cultures and belief systems. By the 17th century, maps that represented spatial relations within a given territory beaome important to the making of nation-states. Such official maps helped annex territories and determine property rights. Indeed, to map a territory meant to know and control it.
More recently, the tools for making maps have become more broadly accessible. Anyone with a computer and internet access can now make and share “alternative maps” that present different visions of a territory and make varied geopolitical claims.
And maps produced in a conflict region, such as Israel and the Palestinian territories, tell a rich story about the relationship between mapmaking and politics.
Mapping the Middle East
During the British Mandate of Palestine from 1917 to 1947, British surveyors mapped the territories to exercise their control over the land and its people. It was an attempt to supersede the more informal Ottoman land claims of the time.
A map shows the shaded areas of the Arab state recommended by the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine in 1947. The unshaded areas are parts of the proposed Jewish state. Underwood Archives/Getty Images
Maps also helped build the Israeli state. Surveyors and planners mapped the land to allocate land rights, and they helped build the state’s infrastructure, including roads and railroads.
But maps also helped create a sense of nationhood. Maps representing a nation’s shape by delineating its national borders are known as “logo” maps. They can enhance feelings of national unity and a sense of national belonging.
Once established, the Israeli state remade the maps of the region. An Israeli Governmental Names Commission came up with Hebrew names to replace formerly Arab and Christian names for different towns and villages on the official map of Israel. At the same time, formerly Palestinian topographies and places were omitted from the map.
Some Palestinian mapmakers, however, continue to make maps that include Palestinian named sites and depict pre-1948 historic Palestine – an area that stretches from River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. Such maps are used to advocate for Palestinians’ right to land and foster a sense of national belonging.
A Palestinian woman holds up a map of the British Mandate of Palestine during a protest in Gaza City on Feb. 27, 2020. Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images
At the same time, Palestinian cartographers who work with the Palestinian Authority – the government body that administers partial civil control over Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank – make official maps of the West Bank and Gaza in the hope of establishing a future state of Palestine. They align their maps with United Nations efforts to map the territories according to international law by demarking the West Bank and Gaza as separate from and as occupied by Israel.
After the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. As a result, map wars intensified, especially between different fractions within Israel. The left-wing “peace camp,” which was dedicated to territorial compromises with the Palestinians, was pitted against an Israeli right wing committed to reclaiming the “Promised Land” for ensuring Israeli security.
Such incompatible geopolitical visions continue to be reflected in the maps produced. “Peace camp” maps adhere to the delineation of the territories according to international law. For example, they include the Green Line – the internationally recognized armistice line between the West Bank and Israel. Official maps produced by the Israeli government, by contrast, stopped delineating the Green Line after 1967.
Broader and border disputes
Not only have different interest groups and political actors used maps of the region to put forth competing geopolitical claims, but maps have also played a central role in sporadic efforts to establish peace in the region.
The 1993 Oslo Accords, for example, relied on maps to provide the framework for Palestinian self-rule in return for security for Israel. The aim was that after a five-year interim period, a permanent peace settlement would be negotiated based on the borders laid out in these maps.
A map of the West Bank with proposed Palestinian-controlled areas in yellow, as per the Oslo II Accords. Wikimedia Commons
Consequently, Palestinian planners and surveyors mapped the territory allocated to a future state of Palestine. With the Oslo Accords promising only a future state – but with its borders and level of sovereignty still uncertain – Palestinian experts nevertheless continue to prepare for governing the territories by mapping them.
The Oslo maps are used to this day to delineate geopolitical visions of Israel and a future state of Palestine that are based on international law. But for many Israelis, the Oslo vision of a two-state solution has died – the attack by Hamas, the Palestinian nationalist political organization that governs Gaza, on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was its last blow.
The subsequent war between Israel and Hamas, currently subject to a cease-fire, has from the outset involved maps.
In December 2023, the Israeli military posted an online “evacuation map” that divided the Gaza Strip into 623 zones. Palestinians could go online – provided they have access to electricity and internet in a territory plagued by blackouts – to find out whether their neighborhood was called upon to evacuate. Israeli military commanders used this map to decide where to launch airstrikes and conduct ground maneuvers.
Maps aren’t just for making sense of the past and present – they help people imagine the future, too. And different maps can reveal conflicting geopolitical visions.
In January 2024, for example, various Israeli right-wing and settler organizations organized the Conference for the Victory of Israel. The aim was to plan for resettling Gaza and increase Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Speakers advocated for transferring Palestinians from the Strip to the Sinai through “voluntary emigration.” With Jewish settlers planning for the return to Gaza, and speakers citing both the Bible and Israeli security for justifications, an oversized map showed the location of proposed Jewish settlements.
A man takes a photo with a map showing the Gaza Strip with Jewish settlements during a convention calling to resettle the Gaza Strip on Jan. 28, 2024, in Jerusalem, Israel. Amir Levy/Getty Images
Such maps reveal the desire by some in Israel for a “Greater Israel” – an area described in 1904 by Theodor Herzl, considered the father of modern-day Zionism, as spanning from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.
Unsurprisingly, Palestinians make different maps for envisioning the future. Palestine Emerging – a Palestinian and international initiative that brings together various experts, organizations, and funders – uses maps that connect Gaza to the West Bank and the wider region.
A map shows the proposed Gaza-West Bank corridor transport link. Palestine Emerging
Their aim is to transform Gaza into a commercial hub for trade, tourism and innovation and to integrate it into the global economy. Accordingly, maps of urban projects, airports and seaports overlay the cartographic contours of Gaza; and a Gaza-West Bank corridor, which would be sealed for Israeli security, could connect the two geographically separate Palestinian territories.
Such maps reflect the efforts by Palestinian stakeholders to continue surveying the territories that, since the Oslo Accords, were to make up the future state of Palestine.
In a novel twist, U.S. President Donald Trump on Feb. 4, 2025, floated a plan for the U.S. to “take over” Gaza, moving its current inhabitants out and turning the enclave into “”the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Such a move would amount to another attempt to remake borders across the Middle East. It would not, however, end the “map wars” in Israel/Palestine.
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through the Science and Technology Studies (STS) Program, award #1152322. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or any other entity.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Alex Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University – Newark
On Feb. 4, 2025, Trump described his plans for Linda McMahon, his nominee for education secretary. “I want Linda to put herself out of a job,” Trump said, according to The Associated Press.
Education policies in the U.S. are largely carried out at the state and local levels. The Education Department is a relatively small government agency, with just over 4,000 employees and a US$268 billion annual budget. A large part of its work is overseeing $1.6 trillion in federal student loans as well as grants for K-12 schools.
And it ensures that public schools comply with federal laws that protect vulnerable students, like those with disabilities.
Why, then, does Trump want to eliminate the department?
A will to fight against so-called “wokeness” and a desire to shrink the government are among the four reasons I have found.
President Donald Trump waves to supporters at a Jan. 25, 2025, rally in Las Vegas. Ian Maule/Getty Images
First and foremost, Trump and his supporters believe that liberals are ruining public education by instituting what they call a
“radical woke agenda” that they say prioritizes identity politics and politically correct groupthink at the expense of the free speech of those, like many conservatives, who have different views.
Diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives promoting social justice – and critical race theory, or the idea that racism is entrenched in social and legal institutions – are a particular focus of MAGA ire.
So, too, is what Trump supporters call “radical gender ideology,” which they contend promotes policies like letting transgender students play on school sports teams or use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity, not biological sex.
Trump supporters say that such policies – which the Education Department indirectly supported by expanding Title IX gender protections in 2024 to include discrimination based on gender identity – are at odds with parental school choice rights or, for some religious conservatives, the Bible.
For MAGA supporters, ”radical left“ wokeness is part of liberals’ long-standing attempt to ”brainwash“ others with their allegedly Marxist views that embrace communism.
Trump supporters also argue that “woke” federal public education policy infringes on people’s basic freedoms and rights.
This idea extends to what Trump supporters call “restoring parental rights,” including the right to decide whether a child undergoes a gender transition or learns about nonbinary gender identity at public schools.
Diversity, according to this argument, should include faith-based institutions and homeschooling. Project 2025 proposes that the government could support parents who choose to homeschool or put their kids in a religious primary school by providing Educational Savings Accounts and school vouchers. Vouchers give public funding for students to attend private schools and have been expanding in use in recent years.
For the MAGA faithful, the Education Department exemplifies government inefficiency and red tape.
Project 2025, for example, contends that from the time it was established by the Carter administration in 1979, the Education Department has ballooned in size, come under the sway of special interest groups and now serves as an inefficient “one-stop shop for the woke education cartel.”
To deal with the Education Department’s “bloat” and “suffocating bureaucratic red tape,” Project 2025 recommends shifting all of the department’s federal programs and money to other agencies and the states.
And Trump has taken actions, such as seeking to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development without the required congressional approval, which suggest he may try to act on his Education Department promises.
Abolishing the department, however, would legally require congressional approval and 60 votes to move forward in the Senate, which is unlikely since Republicans only have 53 seats.
Trump also made similar promises in 2016 that were unfulfilled. And Trump’s executive actions are likely to face legal challenges – like a DEI-focused higher education lawsuit filed on Feb. 3.
Regardless of such legal challenges, Trump’s executive orders related to education demonstrate that he is already attempting to “drain the swamp” – starting with the Education Department.
Alex Hinton receives funding from the Rutgers-Newark Sheila Y. Oliver Center for Politics and Race in America, Rutgers Research Council, and Henry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.
Source: World Trade Organization – WTO (video statements)
The Young Trade Leaders Programme was established to connect young people with the work of the WTO. Nasubila Ng’ambi, from Malawi, is a 2024 participant. She earned her LLB with distinction from Nelson Mandela University in South Africa.
Nasubila shares what inspired her to join the programme and her aspirations as a Young Trade Leader.
Download this video from the WTO website:
https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/webcas_e/webcas_e.htm
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Catriona Waitt, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Global Health, University of Liverpool
Breastfeeding is so important for child health that the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef recommend that babies should be breastfed within an hour of birth, be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, and then continue breastfeeding in combination with other foods for two years or more.
Infectious disease emergencies can threaten breastfeeding and the lives of mothers and babies. Depending on the disease, there is a risk of passing infection to the baby by close contact or (rarely) through breastmilk. There is also the risk of harm to breastfed infants from medication or vaccination of their mothers.
But separating mothers and babies or stopping breastfeeding also poses risks.
Mothers need proper guidance on the best course of action during an Ebola outbreak.
Threat to mothers and babies
The symptoms of Ebola include fever, tiredness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash and, later, bleeding from any part of the body.
Ebola viruses are extremely contagious and people who become infected are at very high risk of death. Pregnant women and infants are more vulnerable and at greater risk than others.
Ebola outbreaks most often occur in countries where breastfeeding is vital for child survival. They have occurred in several African countries and on 30 January 2025 Uganda declared an outbreak, the latest in several the country has endured.
Breastmilk contains many ingredients that help to prevent and fight infection and that strengthen the baby’s own immune system. Replacing breastmilk with other foods or liquids (including infant formula) removes this protection from babies and makes them more likely to become seriously ill.
It’s important to know which actions protect or harm babies and their mothers during outbreaks. Recommendations on infectious diseases must weigh up the risks related to the disease, medical treatments and the risks of not-breastfeeding.
The World Health Organization has published guidelines on how to care for breastfeeding mothers and their infants when one or both have Ebola, but these recommendations are based on “very low quality” evidence, they are mostly expert opinion rather than research-based knowledge.
Women and children have been largely neglected in Ebola research. More is known about Ebola and semen than Ebola and breastmilk.
In a paper just published in the Lancet Global Health, we have outlined a roadmap for research on Ebola and breastfeeding so that mothers and babies can be protected.
We don’t know if breastmilk can be infectious and, if it is, for how long.
We don’t know whether expressed breastmilk can be treated so that it is safe.
We don’t know whether, if both mother and baby are infected, it is better for the baby if the mother keeps breastfeeding, if she is able to.
We don’t know if vaccinating mothers against Ebola helps to protect their breastfed infants from the virus.
We don’t know if there are any risks for breastfed infants if their mothers are infected.
The result of this lack of knowledge is that decisions may be taken that increase risk and suffering for mothers and their babies.
For example, mothers may refuse vaccination because they are fearful that it is risky for their baby. But by refusing vaccination they’d be making themselves vulnerable to Ebola.
Alternatively, they may get vaccinated and stop breastfeeding, making their baby vulnerable to other serious infections.
If mothers and babies who both have Ebola are separated and breastfeeding is stopped, it could reduce the chances of survival.
Mothers and babies deserve better than this.
No more excuses
For many years people have called for more research on Ebola, breastmilk and breastfeeding, but this research has not been undertaken. It is not acceptable that women and children are deprived of breastfeeding because the needed research has not been done.
In our paper, we describe the different groups of breastfeeding women affected by Ebola who must be included in research:
vaccine recipients
mothers who are ill with Ebola
mothers recovering from Ebola
mothers who are infected with Ebola, but have no symptoms
the wider population of breastfeeding mothers in communities experiencing Ebola outbreaks.
The roadmap also includes the research questions that need answering and the study designs that would enable these questions to be answered.
It is up to governments, pharmaceutical companies, researchers, funders and health organisations to act.
Following the Ebola and breastfeeding research roadmap will not necessarily be easy. It is difficult to do research in the middle of an emergency.
But research on vaccination safety can be done outside outbreaks. Putting research plans in place and gaining approvals before outbreaks will also make things easier.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Rebecca Ackermann, Professor, Department of Archaeology and Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town
Here’s how the story of the Taung Child is usually told:
In 1924 an Australian anthropologist and anatomist, Raymond Dart, acquired a block of calcified sediment from a limestone quarry in South Africa. He painstakingly removed a fossil skull from this material.
A year later, on 7 February 1925, he published his description of what he argued was a new hominin species, Australopithecus africanus, in the journal Nature. It was nicknamed the Taung Child, a reference to the discovery site and its young age.
The international scientific community rebuffed this hypothesis. They were looking outside Africa for human origins and argued that the skull more likely belonged to a non-human primate. Dart was vindicated decades later after subsequent similar fossil discoveries elsewhere in Africa.
Dart is portrayed as prescient in most retellings. He’s hailed for elevating the importance of Africa in the narrative of human origins.
But is this a biased and simplified narrative? The discovery played out during a period marked by colonialism, racism and racial segregation and apartheid in South Africa. The history of human origins research is, therefore, intertwined with inequality, exclusion and scientifically unsound ideas.
Viewed against this backdrop, and with a contemporary lens, the figure of Dart, and palaeoanthropology on the African continent more broadly, is complex and worthy of reflection.
The South African Journal of Science has published a special issue to mark the centenary of Dart’s original paper.
A group of African researchers and international collaborators, ourselves among them, contributed papers offering perspectives on the science, history and legacy of palaeoanthropology in South Africa and beyond.
We were particularly interested in exploring how the history of the discovery of early hominins in South Africa influenced the scientific field of palaeoanthropology. Did it promote or limit scientific enquiry? In what ways? What were its cultural effects? And how do they play out now, a century later?
The papers in the special issue unpack a number of issues and highlight ongoing debates in the field of human evolution research in Africa and beyond.
Our goal is to celebrate the remarkable science that the discovery of A. africanus enabled. At the same time we are probing disciplinary legacies through a critical lens that challenges researchers to do science better.
The marginalisation and erasure of voices
Several key themes run through the contributions in the special issue.
One is the unheard voices. The colonial framework in which most palaeoanthropological research in South Africa took place excluded all but a few groups. This is particularly true for Indigenous voices. As a legacy, few African researchers in palaeoanthropology are first authors on prominent research or leading international research teams.
Too often, African palaeoanthropological heritage is the domain of international teams that conduct research on the continent with little meaningful collaboration from local African researchers. This is “helicopter science”. More diverse teams will produce better future work and those of us in the discipline must actively drive this process.
The dominance of western male viewpoints is part of the colonial framework. This theme, too, threads through most of the work in the special issue.
In a bid to redress some of the imbalances, a majority of the authors in the special issue were women, especially African women, and Black Africans more broadly. Many of the papers call for a more considered and equitable approach to the inclusion of African researchers, technicians and excavators in the future: in workshops and seminars, on professional bodies, as collaborators and knowledge creators, and in authorship practices.
Community and practice
Colonial legacies also manifest in a lack of social responsiveness – the use of professional expertise for a public purpose or benefit. This is another theme in the special edition. For example, Gaokgatlhe Mirriam Tawane, Dipuo Kgotleng and Bando Baven consider the broader effects of the Taung Child discovery on the Taung community.
A map showing where the skull was discovered.HERI, Author provided (no reuse)
Tawane is a palaeoanthropologist and grew up in the Taung municipality. She and her co-authors argue that, a century after the discovery of the fossil, there is little (if any) reason for the local community to celebrate it. They argue that more must be done not only to give back to the community, which is beset by socio-economic struggles, but also to build trust in science and between communities and scientists.
Researchers need to understand that there is value in engaging with people beyond academia. This is not merely to disseminate scientific knowledge. It can also enrich communities and co-create a scholarship that is more nuanced, ethical and relevant. Researchers must become more socially responsive and institutions must hold researchers to higher standards of practice.
Resourcing
Another theme which emerges from this special issue is the value of and the need for excellent local laboratory facilities in which to undertake research based on the fossils and depositsassociated with them.
Increased investment in local laboratory facilities and capacity development can create a shift towards local work on the content being led by Africans. It can also increase pan-African collaboration, dismantling the currently common practice of African researchers being drawn into separate international networks.
It is important for international funding bodies to increase investment within African palaeoanthropology. This will facilitate internal growth and local collaborative networks. International and South African investment is also needed to grow local research capacity. Fossil heritage is a national asset.
This is an edited version of an article in the South African Journal of Science. Yonatan Sahle (Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, South Africa and Department of History and Heritage Management, Arba Minch University, Ethiopia) co-authored the academic article.
– The fossil skull that rocked the world – 100 years later scientists are grappling with the Taung find’s complex colonial legacy – https://theconversation.com/the-fossil-skull-that-rocked-the-world-100-years-later-scientists-are-grappling-with-the-taung-finds-complex-colonial-legacy-248605
In 1981, American physicist and Nobel Laureate, Richard Feynman, gave a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) near Boston, in which he outlined a revolutionary idea. Feynman suggested that the strange physics of quantum mechanics could be used to perform calculations.
The field of quantum computing was born. In the 40-plus years since, it has become an intensive area of research in computer science. Despite years of frantic development, physicists have not yet built practical quantum computers that are well suited for everyday use and normal conditions (for example, many quantum computers operate at very low temperatures). Questions and uncertainties still remain about the best ways to reach this milestone.
What exactly is quantum computing, and how close are we to seeing them enter wide use? Let’s first look at classical computing, the type of computing we rely on today, like the laptop I am using to write this piece.
Classical computers process information using combinations of “bits”, their smallest units of data. These bits have values of either 0 or 1. Everything you do on your computer, from writing emails to browsing the web, is made possible by processing combinations of these bits in strings of zeroes and ones.
Quantum computers, on the other hand, use quantum bits, or qubits. Unlike classical bits, qubits don’t just represent 0 or 1. Thanks to a property called quantum superposition, qubits can be in multiple states simultaneously. This means a qubit can be 0, 1, or both at the same time. This is what gives quantum computers the ability to process massive amounts of data and information simultaneously.
Imagine being able to explore every possible solution to a problem all at once, instead of once at a time. It would allow you to navigate your way through a maze by simultaneously trying all possible paths at the same time to find the right one. Quantum computers are therefore incredibly fast at finding optimal solutions, such as identifying the shortest path, the quickest way.
Think about the extremely complex problem of rescheduling airline flights after a delay or an unexpected incident. This happens with regularity in the real world, but the solutions applied may not be the best or optimal ones. In order to work out the optimal responses, standard computers would need to consider, one by one, all possible combinations of moving, rerouting, delaying, cancelling or grouping, flights.
Every day there are more than 45,000 flights in the United States alone, and worldwide there are thousands of airlines connecting tens of thousands of airports. This problem would take years to solve for a classical computer.
On the other hand, a quantum computer would be able to try all these possibilities at once and let the best configuration organically emerge. Qubits also have a physical property known as entanglement. When qubits are entangled, the state of one qubit can depend on the state of another, no matter how far apart they are.
This is something that, again, has no counterpart in classical computing. Entanglement allows quantum computers to solve certain problems exponentially faster than traditional computers can.
A common question is whether quantum computers will completely replace classical computers or not. The short answer is no, at least not in the foreseeable future. Quantum computers are incredibly powerful for solving specific problems – such as simulating the interactions between different molecules, finding the best solution from many options or dealing with encryption and decryption. However, they are not suited to every type of task.
Classical computers process one calculation at a time in a linear sequence, and they follow algorithms (sets of mathematical rules for carrying out particular computing tasks) designed for use with classical bits that are either 0 or 1. This makes them extremely predictable, robust and less prone to errors than quantum machines. For everyday computing needs such as word processing or browsing the internet, classical computers will continue to play a dominant role.
There are at least two reasons for that. The first one is practical. Building a quantum computer that can run reliable calculations is extremely difficult. The quantum world is incredibly volatile, and qubits are easily disturbed by things in their environment, such as interference from electromagnetic radiation, which makes them prone to errors.
The second reason lies in the inherent uncertainty in dealing with qubits. Because qubits are in superposition (are neither a 0 or 1) they are not as predictable as the bits used in classical computing. Physicists therefore describe qubits and their calculations in terms of probabilities. This means that the same problem, using the same quantum algorithm, run multiple times on the same quantum computer might return a different solution each time.
To address this uncertainty, quantum algorithms are typically run multiple times. The results are then analysed statistically to determine the most likely solution. This approach allows researchers to extract meaningful information from the inherently probabilistic quantum computations.
From a commercial point of view, the development of quantum computing is still in its early stages, but the landscape is very diverse with lots of new companies appearing every year. It is fascinating to see that in addition to big, established companies like IBM and Google, new ones are joining, such as IQM, Pasqal and startups such as Alice and Bob. They are all working on making quantum computers more reliable, scalable and accessible.
In the past, manufacturers have drawn attention to the number of qubits in their quantum computers, as a measure of how powerful the machine is. Manufacturers are increasingly prioritising ways to correct the errors that quantum computers are prone to. This shift is crucial for developing large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers, as these techniques are essential for improving their usability.
Google’s latest quantum chip, Willow, recently demonstrated remarkable progress in this area. The more qubits Google used in Willow, the more it reduced the errors. This achievement marks a significant step towards building commercially relevant quantum computers that can revolutionise fields like medicine, energy and AI.
After more than 40 years, quantum computing is still in its infancy, but significant progress is expected in the next decade. The probabilistic nature of these machines represents a fundamental difference between quantum and classical computing. It is what makes them fragile and hard to develop and scale.
At the same time, it is what makes them a very powerful tool to solve optimisation problems, exploring multiple solutions at the same time, faster and more efficiently than classical computers can.
Domenico Vicinanza, Associate Professor of Intelligent Systems and Data Science, Anglia Ruskin University
Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) students have raised over £110,000 for the British Heart Foundation through a scheme that sees them donate their unwanted household items.
The Green Move Out initiative began in 2015, encouraging students moving out of university accommodation to donate household items that they no longer need. Donation points are located around ARU’s campuses in Chelmsford and Cambridge, as well as some off-site student residences.
In 2024, students donated 6,784kg of items, the equivalent weight of about 60 baby elephants. The goods donated are estimated to have a value of £12,720, taking the total value of goods donated to the BHF to £111,280 in just 10 years.
Among the most commonly donated items are books, clothes and cookware. Although the scheme is primarily targeted at students living in ARU accommodation, any student or staff can donate items and donations can be made at any time of year.
“2024 was another fantastic year for our Green Move Out scheme, which has been hugely successful both in reusing items that may otherwise have been thrown away, and in contributing to a charity that does such wonderful work.
“I thank all our students and staff who have donated items, and I am sure 2025 will be another strong year for donations.”
James Rolfe, Chief Operating Officer at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU)
“Anglia Ruskin University has been raising money for the British Heart Foundation since 2015. The students generously donate items to us through our Pack for Good campaign and we couldn’t be more grateful for their continued support.
“Every year, using these donations, BHF shops and stores raise millions of pounds to help the BHF fund lifesaving research into heart and circulatory diseases. We couldn’t do this without the continued support of students, like those at Anglia Ruskin.”
Natasha Feltham, university account executive at the British Heart Foundation
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
Nikolai Evgrafovich Pestov (1892-1982) – Doctor of Chemical Sciences – specialist in the field of mineral fertilizer technology, professor, holder of the Order of Lenin, famous theologian, historian of the Orthodox Church.
Nikolay Pestov was born on August 17, 1892 in Nizhny Novgorod. He was the youngest, tenth, child in the family. From school, he was interested in chemistry and in 1911 he entered the chemistry department of the Imperial Moscow Higher Technical School (now Bauman Moscow State Technical University). When the Great War, as World War I was then called, broke out, he first entered the Alekseevskoye Military School, and later volunteered for the front with the rank of ensign, without finishing his fourth year at Bauman Moscow State Technical University.
During the war, Nikolai Pestov participated in training soldiers for chemical defense. Once he had to defuse a bomb and carry it out in a truck along a broken road. He took the body of the bomb as a souvenir. After the February Revolution, Nikolai Pestov was elected a member of the regimental committee and the regimental court. A review of him spoke of his discipline, tact, excellent knowledge, and “a sympathetic and noble heart.” For his military distinctions, Nikolai was awarded the Order of St. Stanislav, 3rd degree, and the Order of St. Anna, 3rd degree.
After the October Revolution, Nikolai Evgrafovich had the chance to serve in the Nizhny Novgorod Cheka, in the capital’s Vsevobuch administration under the All-Russian Main Headquarters, and as the head of the Vsevobuch administration in Sverdlovsk, where he personally met Lev Trotsky, whom he later called a “demonic personality.” Trotsky gave his younger comrade his book with the dedication: “To my friend and comrade-in-arms N. Pestov, as a keepsake. Lev Trotsky.”
In 1921, the convinced atheist Pestov had a spiritual experience – he saw Christ in a dream – and soon resigned from the Red Army, left the Communist Party, completed his studies at the Moscow Higher Technical School and was hired as an employee of the Scientific Institute for Fertilizers (NIUIF). He began to lead a religious life, and was briefly arrested for participating in a student Christian circle.
From 1933, he worked at the Department of Mineral Substances Technology at the Mendeleyev Moscow Institute of Chemical Technology, from where he was fired in the dangerous year of 1937 for refusing to speak at a meeting condemning the arrested professor Nikolai Yushkevich. “Almost every day, or rather every night, I expected to be arrested. I believe that only through the prayers of my children, wife and spiritual father was I not arrested at that time and remained alive,” he wrote later. Not long before this, Nikolai Evgrafovich was almost arrested when that very memorable German bomb from the First World War was discovered during a search.
Two years later, Nikolai Pestov was unanimously elected head of the chemical technology department at the Moscow Engineering and Economics Institute (now the State University of Management), where he headed the chemical technology department. In January 1941, he defended his doctoral dissertation “Physicochemical properties of powder and granular products of the chemical industry.” Later, he worked for about a year as the dean of the chemistry department, and from October 1943, he became deputy director for scientific and educational work.
During the Great Patriotic War, Nikolai Evgrafovich worked on issues of organizing and planning the chemical industry. A separate topic of his research was mineral fertilizers for the country’s agriculture. These studies turned out to be very useful both during and after the war, when it was necessary to establish agriculture on low-fertility and war-damaged soils. Professor Pestov was not mobilized into the active army due to health reasons; he developed bronchial asthma. His eldest son Nikolai went to the front and died in 1943. While adjusting the fire of a mortar battery, he was wounded and shell-shocked, but refused to go to the hospital; the second wound to the stomach turned out to be fatal. Nikolai Pestov later wrote a book about his son, Life for Eternity.
Even during the war, Nikolai Evgrafovich stopped hiding his faith from his colleagues and placed a small iconostasis in his office. Since 1943, he worked on the fundamental work “Modern Practice of Orthodox Piety”. Professional merits turned out to be higher than personal convictions for the country’s leadership, and in November 1944, Professor Pestov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor. In 1946, he received the medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945”, and in 1953, for length of service and impeccable work among the workers of science of higher educational institutions of the city of Moscow, he was awarded the Order of Lenin.
Nikolay Pestov is the author of over 100 scientific publications and had 4 patents for inventions. His memory is still alive at the State University of Management.
#Scientific regiment
Nikolai Pestov, 1915 Nikolai Evgrafovich (right) with his eldest son Nikolai Nikolai Evgrafovich and his wife Zoya Veniaminovna
Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 02/07/2025
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Participants of the Serov Readings
On February 3, the Serov Readings took place at SPbGASU. The event, which has been held at our university since 2021, acquired the status of an international scientific and technical symposium this year.
In memory of a prominent scientist
“The Serov Readings are held in memory of Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor Evgeny Nikolaevich Serov, who worked at our university for many years. The scientist is known for his participation in the development of domestic standards for the design of wooden structures in the USSR and Russia, as well as high-quality textbooks that will always be relevant,” said the organizer of the symposium, head of the department of metal and wooden structures at SPbGASU Egor Danilov.
According to Yegor Vladimirovich, the unofficial holding of the readings confirmed the hypothesis about their demand among the professional scientific community: famous scientists, including those from abroad, participated in them. At the moment, the goal is to consolidate Russian scientists in the field of wooden structures on the basis of SPbGASU.
Evgeny Nikolaevich Serov (01.02.1932–30.01.2018) is a prominent scientist and specialist in the field of wooden structures. He worked at our university from 1964 to 2017, rising from assistant to professor of the Department of Wood and Plastic Structures. In 1975–1980, he headed the correspondence faculty.
Along with the main course “Wood and Plastic Constructions”, he also taught special disciplines, including “Engineering Restoration of Architectural Heritage”, and conducted practical classes directly at architectural monuments with unique wooden structures. The research work of students supervised by Evgeny Serov was repeatedly awarded second and third degree diplomas by the Ministry of Higher Education of the RSFSR, and the students were participants of the USSR Exhibition of Economic Achievements and co-authors of scientific articles and inventions. Combining extensive public and administrative activities, Evgeny Nikolaevich worked on the most important national economic topics of the State Construction Committee and the State Planning Committee, the Ministry of Higher Education of the RSFSR.
As a result of many years of research, Evgeny Serov developed new structural forms from glued timber structures (GTS), technologies for their production, including waste-free cutting of blank blocks, as well as calculation methods that take into account the high degree of anisotropy (unequal properties in the directions of the fibers) of glued timber. He formulated the main principle of GTS design – the principle of tracking orientation with the coordination of the fields of effective stresses and the resistance fields of anisotropic material, developed and implemented special curvilinear inserts in the junctions of frame and beam structures, a method for strengthening the support zones of GTS using glued reinforcement bars, which was used in arches with a span of 63 m.
New solutions in the use of wood
Opening the symposium, the Vice-Rector of SPbGASU for scientific activities Evgeny Korolev emphasized: despite its long history, the topic of wood use is constantly evolving. Today, it is necessary to search for new design and technological solutions.
Professor of the Department of Metal and Wooden Structures, Honorary President of the Wooden Housing Association Alexander Chernykh believes that the event provides an opportunity to pass on experience to the younger generation, and that the attention of colleagues from other universities is important for SPbGASU researchers.
Deputy Dean for Research, Associate Professor of the Department of Architectural and Civil Engineering Olga Pastukh invited everyone to the III National (All-Russian) Scientific and Technical Conference “Prospects of Modern Construction”, which will be held at SPbGASU on April 21–23.
The program of the Serov Readings included 23 in-person and remote reports, 23 poster reports from 62 participants. 46 people applied as listeners, including students and postgraduates of SPbGASU. Participants from Moscow, Novosibirsk, Arkhangelsk and other Russian cities, as well as from China and Vietnam, exchanged experiences and opinions on the research conducted in the field of wooden structures, their operation, improvement, and calculation.
Scientific consultant of Georekonstruktsiya LLC Roman Orlovich informed about the problems of exploitation of wooden structures in historical buildings. In his opinion, wooden floors can be preserved with the right approach to analysis of their bearing capacity, physical wear and tear and damage by rot, as well as with the right use of technical solutions.
Chief Researcher of the Kucherenko Central Research Institute of Building Structures (a structural division of JSC NIC Construction) Alexander Pogoreltsev shared the results of a study of platform joints of multi-story buildings made of CLT. He is confident that the general theory of calculating platform joints, which is successfully used in calculating reinforced concrete structures, is not applicable to wood, which is an anisotropic material (i.e. a material with different mechanical properties of fibers when forces are applied to the fibers in different directions).
The current generation of researchers are worthy successors of the famous scientist.
Postgraduate student Elizaveta Kotova presented a report on “Bearing capacity and deformability of circular LVL structures” (supervisor – Egor Danilov): “LVL timber is famous for its high strength and durability, and circular structures made of this material allow you to create elegant and effective architectural forms with large spans, without the use of massive supports. This opens up new opportunities for designing buildings and structures with a unique design. Therefore, the relevance of the study of circular LVL structures is due to the need to develop accurate methods for calculating the stress-strain state, improve the regulatory framework, increase the efficiency of design and operational safety.”
As a result of studying the existing methods for calculating circular structures, Elizaveta managed to find out that information about the bearing capacity and deformability of circular LVL structures is relatively limited compared to studies of rectilinear LVL beams. This is due to the complexity of analyzing the stress-strain state in curvilinear structures.
At present, trial tests of LVL samples with different angles of inclination have been carried out to visualize the behavior of a curvilinear LVL sample under load in order to obtain the main mechanical characteristics of the material. The results obtained will be used for more accurate compilation and calculation of the LVL circular structure in the computational program. In the future, it is planned to study the stress-strain state of dowel joints. Based on the results of the numerical study, a physical model of the LVL circular structure will be developed, which will be tested in laboratory conditions.
The work is aimed at creating a mathematical model for calculating the stress-strain state of circular LVL structures, which will improve the efficiency of calculating and designing such structures and optimize technical solutions, which will lead to an increase in their bearing capacity and rigidity.
Master’s student Yulia Trunina presented a report on the topic “The influence of low negative temperatures on the mechanical properties of LVL” (supervisor – associate professor of the Department of Metal and Wooden Structures Pavel Koval): “As the temperature decreases, the properties of wood change, namely, the strength and elastic characteristics become higher. This pattern allows the material to be used in regions where for a significant time of the year the air temperature is not only below zero, but also reaches -70 °C. LVL is a composite material based on wood. This allowed us to assume that a change in its properties will also occur with a change in temperature.”
An experiment at freezing temperatures of -70, -35 and 0 °C on compression of small LVL samples of more than 300 pieces confirmed the dependence. At the same time, depending on the direction of the veneer fibers, the change in strength and elastic modulus occurred with varying degrees. Yulia reported that this will allow more accurate prediction of the material properties in the future. It became possible to take into account the thawing process (using the derived formula), since the experiment took place under normal conditions – at 20 ° C. These data should be used in the future for larger structures, such as beams or frames, and also to study their durability, i.e. the operation of the structure in the climatic conditions of the Arctic and the Far North, taking into account time. And it is also necessary to consider the combined effect of moisture and temperature on the structure, including in real conditions with fluctuations of these factors.
International experience
The work of postgraduate student Xu Kaixuan was called “Development of methods for calculating composite (wood-concrete) floor slabs of residential and public buildings” (supervisor – professor, doctor of technical sciences Alexander Chernykh). “I began working on this topic during my studies in the master’s program at SPbGASU and chose it for my PhD dissertation. I would like to note that the research is carried out by a student team with the active assistance of employees of the Center for Mechanical Testing of Building Structures at SPbGASU,” the author noted.
According to the postgraduate student, the applied basic design solutions and forms of wood-concrete composite slabs are in demand in the construction of industrial, civil construction and social infrastructure facilities, including multi-apartment residential buildings using wooden CLT structures, as well as in the construction of pedestrian and automobile bridges as span slabs. Xu Kaixuan attributed the advantages of such solutions to environmental friendliness and sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and synergy of the strength properties of concrete and wood. The main problem is to ensure the joint operation of concrete and CLT under load.
During the research, Xu Kaixuan determined the types and shapes of metal connectors (connectors) to ensure the joint operation of CLT slabs and concrete; he found that the combination of shape, size and location of connectors in the adhesive bond zone are critical to the perception of the acting loads of composite floor slabs.
At present, an analysis of the best practices for the design and application of wood-concrete composite floor slabs in Russia and abroad has been conducted, and the relationships between the geometry of connectors and the bearing capacity of the samples under study have been experimentally established.
Xu Kaixuan plans to conduct numerical modeling and experimental studies to determine the missing design characteristics of the adhesive interaction in the contact zone of connectors and concrete to develop a method for calculating the stress-strain state of wood-concrete composite floor slabs.
The Department of Metal and Wooden Structures of SPbGASU was born from the merger of two large scientific centers: MKiIS (metal structures and testing of structures) and KDiP (wood and plastic structures), authoritative in the Russian scientific community and abroad. The employees of the department are members of the Technical Committee for Standardization in Construction, take part in the work of the All-Russian Scientific and Technical Council for Metal and Wooden Structures. The opinions of the members of the department are listened to in large enterprises of the industry (TsNIISK, Association for the Development of Steel Construction, Association of Wooden Housing Construction, etc.).
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Catriona Waitt, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and Global Health, University of Liverpool
Breastfeeding is so important for child health that the World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef recommend that babies should be breastfed within an hour of birth, be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, and then continue breastfeeding in combination with other foods for two years or more.
Infectious disease emergencies can threaten breastfeeding and the lives of mothers and babies. Depending on the disease, there is a risk of passing infection to the baby by close contact or (rarely) through breastmilk. There is also the risk of harm to breastfed infants from medication or vaccination of their mothers.
But separating mothers and babies or stopping breastfeeding also poses risks.
Mothers need proper guidance on the best course of action during an Ebola outbreak.
Threat to mothers and babies
The symptoms of Ebola include fever, tiredness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash and, later, bleeding from any part of the body.
Ebola viruses are extremely contagious and people who become infected are at very high risk of death. Pregnant women and infants are more vulnerable and at greater risk than others.
Ebola outbreaks most often occur in countries where breastfeeding is vital for child survival. They have occurred in several African countries and on 30 January 2025 Uganda declared an outbreak, the latest in several the country has endured.
Breastmilk contains many ingredients that help to prevent and fight infection and that strengthen the baby’s own immune system. Replacing breastmilk with other foods or liquids (including infant formula) removes this protection from babies and makes them more likely to become seriously ill.
It’s important to know which actions protect or harm babies and their mothers during outbreaks. Recommendations on infectious diseases must weigh up the risks related to the disease, medical treatments and the risks of not-breastfeeding.
The World Health Organization has published guidelines on how to care for breastfeeding mothers and their infants when one or both have Ebola, but these recommendations are based on “very low quality” evidence, they are mostly expert opinion rather than research-based knowledge.
Women and children have been largely neglected in Ebola research. More is known about Ebola and semen than Ebola and breastmilk.
In a paper just published in the Lancet Global Health, we have outlined a roadmap for research on Ebola and breastfeeding so that mothers and babies can be protected.
We don’t know if breastmilk can be infectious and, if it is, for how long.
We don’t know whether expressed breastmilk can be treated so that it is safe.
We don’t know whether, if both mother and baby are infected, it is better for the baby if the mother keeps breastfeeding, if she is able to.
We don’t know if vaccinating mothers against Ebola helps to protect their breastfed infants from the virus.
We don’t know if there are any risks for breastfed infants if their mothers are infected.
The result of this lack of knowledge is that decisions may be taken that increase risk and suffering for mothers and their babies.
For example, mothers may refuse vaccination because they are fearful that it is risky for their baby. But by refusing vaccination they’d be making themselves vulnerable to Ebola.
Alternatively, they may get vaccinated and stop breastfeeding, making their baby vulnerable to other serious infections.
If mothers and babies who both have Ebola are separated and breastfeeding is stopped, it could reduce the chances of survival.
Mothers and babies deserve better than this.
No more excuses
For many years people have called for more research on Ebola, breastmilk and breastfeeding, but this research has not been undertaken. It is not acceptable that women and children are deprived of breastfeeding because the needed research has not been done.
In our paper, we describe the different groups of breastfeeding women affected by Ebola who must be included in research:
vaccine recipients
mothers who are ill with Ebola
mothers recovering from Ebola
mothers who are infected with Ebola, but have no symptoms
the wider population of breastfeeding mothers in communities experiencing Ebola outbreaks.
The roadmap also includes the research questions that need answering and the study designs that would enable these questions to be answered.
It is up to governments, pharmaceutical companies, researchers, funders and health organisations to act.
Following the Ebola and breastfeeding research roadmap will not necessarily be easy. It is difficult to do research in the middle of an emergency.
But research on vaccination safety can be done outside outbreaks. Putting research plans in place and gaining approvals before outbreaks will also make things easier.
There just needs to be a commitment to make this research happen.
Catriona Waitt receives funding from the Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation.
Karleen Gribble is a long-term member and current steering committee member of the Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies Core Group.
Peter Waitt receives funding from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the UK Medical Research Council, thr UK National Institute of Health Research and the Wellcome Trust.
Mija Ververs and Prince Imani-Musimwa 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.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Rebecca Ackermann, Professor, Department of Archaeology and Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape Town
Here’s how the story of the Taung Child is usually told:
In 1924 an Australian anthropologist and anatomist, Raymond Dart, acquired a block of calcified sediment from a limestone quarry in South Africa. He painstakingly removed a fossil skull from this material.
A year later, on 7 February 1925, he published his description of what he argued was a new hominin species, Australopithecus africanus, in the journal Nature. It was nicknamed the Taung Child, a reference to the discovery site and its young age.
The international scientific community rebuffed this hypothesis. They were looking outside Africa for human origins and argued that the skull more likely belonged to a non-human primate. Dart was vindicated decades later after subsequent similar fossil discoveries elsewhere in Africa.
Dart is portrayed as prescient in most retellings. He’s hailed for elevating the importance of Africa in the narrative of human origins.
But is this a biased and simplified narrative? The discovery played out during a period marked by colonialism, racism and racial segregation and apartheid in South Africa. The history of human origins research is, therefore, intertwined with inequality, exclusion and scientifically unsound ideas.
Viewed against this backdrop, and with a contemporary lens, the figure of Dart, and palaeoanthropology on the African continent more broadly, is complex and worthy of reflection.
The South African Journal of Science has published a special issue to mark the centenary of Dart’s original paper.
A group of African researchers and international collaborators, ourselves among them, contributed papers offering perspectives on the science, history and legacy of palaeoanthropology in South Africa and beyond.
We were particularly interested in exploring how the history of the discovery of early hominins in South Africa influenced the scientific field of palaeoanthropology. Did it promote or limit scientific enquiry? In what ways? What were its cultural effects? And how do they play out now, a century later?
The papers in the special issue unpack a number of issues and highlight ongoing debates in the field of human evolution research in Africa and beyond.
Our goal is to celebrate the remarkable science that the discovery of A. africanus enabled. At the same time we are probing disciplinary legacies through a critical lens that challenges researchers to do science better.
The marginalisation and erasure of voices
Several key themes run through the contributions in the special issue.
One is the unheard voices. The colonial framework in which most palaeoanthropological research in South Africa took place excluded all but a few groups. This is particularly true for Indigenous voices. As a legacy, few African researchers in palaeoanthropology are first authors on prominent research or leading international research teams.
Too often, African palaeoanthropological heritage is the domain of international teams that conduct research on the continent with little meaningful collaboration from local African researchers. This is “helicopter science”. More diverse teams will produce better future work and those of us in the discipline must actively drive this process.
The dominance of western male viewpoints is part of the colonial framework. This theme, too, threads through most of the work in the special issue.
In a bid to redress some of the imbalances, a majority of the authors in the special issue were women, especially African women, and Black Africans more broadly. Many of the papers call for a more considered and equitable approach to the inclusion of African researchers, technicians and excavators in the future: in workshops and seminars, on professional bodies, as collaborators and knowledge creators, and in authorship practices.
Community and practice
Colonial legacies also manifest in a lack of social responsiveness – the use of professional expertise for a public purpose or benefit. This is another theme in the special edition. For example, Gaokgatlhe Mirriam Tawane, Dipuo Kgotleng and Bando Baven consider the broader effects of the Taung Child discovery on the Taung community.
Tawane is a palaeoanthropologist and grew up in the Taung municipality. She and her co-authors argue that, a century after the discovery of the fossil, there is little (if any) reason for the local community to celebrate it. They argue that more must be done not only to give back to the community, which is beset by socio-economic struggles, but also to build trust in science and between communities and scientists.
Researchers need to understand that there is value in engaging with people beyond academia. This is not merely to disseminate scientific knowledge. It can also enrich communities and co-create a scholarship that is more nuanced, ethical and relevant. Researchers must become more socially responsive and institutions must hold researchers to higher standards of practice.
Resourcing
Another theme which emerges from this special issue is the value of and the need for excellent local laboratory facilities in which to undertake research based on the fossils and depositsassociated with them.
Increased investment in local laboratory facilities and capacity development can create a shift towards local work on the content being led by Africans. It can also increase pan-African collaboration, dismantling the currently common practice of African researchers being drawn into separate international networks.
It is important for international funding bodies to increase investment within African palaeoanthropology. This will facilitate internal growth and local collaborative networks. International and South African investment is also needed to grow local research capacity. Fossil heritage is a national asset.
This is an edited version of an article in the South African Journal of Science. Yonatan Sahle (Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, South Africa and Department of History and Heritage Management, Arba Minch University, Ethiopia) co-authored the academic article.
Rebecca Ackermann receives funding from the National Science Foundation African Origins Platform (AOP240509218040) and the Wenner-Gren Foundation.
Lauren Schroeder receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN-2020-04159)
Robyn Pickering receives funding from the NRF African Origins Platform (AOP240509218076) and the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences (COE2024-RP)
Over the past few weeks the new US president, Donald Trump, has repeatedly claimed that the United States should “take back” the Panama Canal and that it should assume control of Greenland – one way or another. He has talked of Canada becoming America’s 51st state and now he even wants to “take over” the Gaza Strip to convert it into a “Riviera” on the eastern Mediterranean.
It’s as if the US president believes that his country should be an empire. In this Trump seems to be emulating China’s Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin of Russia, leaders he has said he admires and who have themselves shown some clear imperial tendencies in recent years.
Under Putin, Russia has supported secessionist regions, such as Transnistria and Abkhazia, fought wars in Georgia and Ukraine and actively interfered in the affairs of Syria and assorted African countries. In 2022 Russia even launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, claiming that Ukraine was historically inseparable from Russia, but that hostile western influences were trying to destroy that unity.
China, meanwhile, has militarised a number of small uninhabited islands in the South China Sea. It has built 27 installations on disputed islands in the Spratly and Paracel island group that are also claimed by other countries including Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Malaysia. This has prompted a flurry of development, as other countries in the region have raced to establish their own footholds in the disputed, but very resource-rich, region.
Beijing also maintains its claim over Taiwan, which it says is an inalienable part of China which it wants to “come home”.
Empires and nation states
Most people assumed that the age of empires had been relegated to the dustbin of history. But this is by no means a straightforward proposition. Until relatively recently, the rise and fall of empires had dominated much of recorded history. Nation-states only appeared at the end of the 18th century. And as those states rose to prominence many too displayed imperial inclinations.
So the US, fresh from throwing off the yoke of the British empire, wasted little time in expanding its borders westward, acquiring – whether by conquest or purchase – large swaths of new territory in what effectively turned a small group of east coast states into a continental empire.
Meanwhile other newly minted nation-states such as Italy and Germany also aspired to acquire overseas empires and involved themselves, with varying success, building what turned out to be relatively shortlived colonial empires in Africa and elsewhere.
Most traditional dynastic empires, meanwhile, began to adopt various aspects of the nation-state model, such as conscription, legal equality and political participation. The decades following the second world war are often seen by historians as a period of decolonisation by traditional imperial powers such as Britain and France. But the transition from empire to nation-states was far from smooth. Most imperial governments hoped to transform their empires into more egalitarian commonwealths, while retaining a degree of influence.
This they did with varying degrees of success and often under extreme duress, as with France in Algeria and Vietnam, or under great economic pressure, such as with Britain and India. The real age of the nation-state didn’t begin until the 1960s.
The return of empire?
Today, the world consists of about 200 independent countries, the overwhelming majority nation-states. Nonetheless, one could argue that empires – or at least imperial tendencies – have never totally disappeared. France, for instance, frequently interfered in many of its former colonies in Africa. However, these military interventions were not meant to permanently occupy new territories.
Today, imperial tendencies seem to resurface around the world. The past, however, tends not to repeat itself. Massive wars of conquest or attempts to create new overseas empires are unlikely in the immediate future. Most imperial expansions are currently sought close to home.
What is striking is that Putin, Xi and Trump all use fierce nationalist rhetoric to justify their imperialist designs. Putin, as we have seen, claims the indivisibility of Ukraine and Russia and blames “Nazis” for trying to turn Russia’s sister state towards the west. He used it as a justification for invading Ukraine in February 2022.
Xi, in turn, often maintains that Communist China has finally overcome the century of humiliation, in which the country was the plaything of foreign powers. They both seem to yearn for past imperial greatness. The Russian Federation aims to undo the dissolution of the Soviet Union, communist China looks back to the Qing empire. Interestingly, under its increasingly authoritarian leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey – another regional power with imperial inclinations – similarly finds inspiration in the Ottoman Empire.
The US case seems to be more complex, but in fact is very similar. Thus, Trump argues that the Panama Canal, which has long been administered by the US, was foolishly returned to Panama by Jimmy Carter and claims that it is now controlled by China. He will, he says, return it to the US.
Trump also refers to America’s “Manifest Destiny”, the 19th-century belief that American settlers were destined to expand to the Pacific coast. These days his aspirations are northwards rather than to the west. The president also wants to plant the US flag on Mars, taking his imperial dreams into outer space.
If the US joins China and Russia in violating recognised borders, the international, rights-based order could be in danger. The signs are not very positive. Taking steps to illegally annex territories could blow up the entire international edifice.
Eric Storm 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.
AI offers the promise of improving public services by enabling faster, more efficient processes, personalising provision of those services for the public and optimising decision-making. However, the adoption of this technology in public systems brings inherent risks, particularly in an environment characterised by rapid technological developments.
A primary concern and challenge lies in ensuring that AI adoption builds trust in public services. Mismanagement of AI can worsen inequality, lead to job losses, and erode public confidence in government and the further rollout of AI-based technologies.
Balancing these opportunities and risks requires understanding the trade offs involved, notably the tension between job creation and displacement, unconstrained benefits from the misuse of AI, and the need for fairness, transparency, equity and a capacity to be able to explain the design of algorithms.
The challenge lies in maintaining efficiency and accountability while addressing inevitable job gigification. This transition will not be uniform. Workers in roles vulnerable to automation will experience immediate consequences.
The government has rightly identified the need to invest in reskilling initiatives that prepare workers for an AI-driven future. Reskilling is necessary but insufficient to fuel economic growth.
As tasks are gigified by AI technologies, traditional full-time jobs become increasingly scarce, leading to more “white collar” workers experiencing income volatility, periods of un- or underemployment and precarious living. Yet, extant financial systems are based upon patterns of monthly income and expenditure on mortgages and rent or utilities.
Financial systems need to become significantly more flexible to enable workers to align uncertain income streams with unavoidable regular expenditure on necessities such as food and internet connectivity.
Oversight is key
The risks of AI algorithm failures are particularly apparent when systems deployed in the public sector cause harm. A glaring example is the UK Post Office scandal, where inaccurate data from the Horizon IT system led to wrongful prosecutions.
This case highlights the importance of oversight in AI deployment. Without a mix of regulations, guidelines and guardrails, errors in AI systems can lead to serious consequences, particularly in sectors related to justice, welfare and resource allocation.
Government must ensure that AI-driven systems are not only efficient and accurate but also auditable. Independent bodies should oversee the design, implementation, and evaluation of AI systems to reduce risks of failure.
AI can enhance public services, but it is important to acknowledge that algorithms reflect biases inherent in their design and training data. In the public sector, these biases can have unintended and unforeseen consequences that are invidious, as they are hidden in the depths of complex computer code.
For instance, AI systems used in housing allocation can exacerbate existing inequalities if trained on biased historical data. Fairness and trust should therefore be core principles in AI development. Developers must use diverse, representative datasets and conduct bias audits throughout the process.
Citizen engagement is essential, as affected communities can provide valuable input to identify flaws and contribute to solutions that promote equity.
A key challenge for policymakers is whether AI can deliver on its promise without deepening social divisions or reinforcing discriminatory practices. Transparency in AI decision making is essential for maintaining public trust.
Citizens are more likely to trust systems when they understand how decisions are made. Governments should commit to clear, accessible communication about AI systems, allowing individuals to challenge and appeal automated decisions. While AI adoption will likely cause disruption in the early stages, these challenges can diminish over time, leading to faster, more personalised services and more meaningful work opportunities for government employees.
AI systems are dynamic, continuously evolving with the data they process and the contexts in which they operate. Governments must prioritise ongoing review and auditing of AI systems to ensure they meet public needs and ethical standards. Engaging relevant stakeholders – citizens, public sector employees and private sector partners – is essential to this process.
Transparent communication about the goals, benefits, and limitations of AI helps build public trust and ensures that AI systems remain responsive to societal needs. Independent audits conducted by multidisciplinary teams can identify flaws early and prevent harm. To fully realise AI’s potential and ensure its benefits are distributed equitably, policymakers must carefully balance efficiency, fairness, innovation, and accountability.
A strategic focus on education, ethical algorithm design and transparent governance is necessary. By investing in education, AI ethics and strong regulatory frameworks, governments can ensure that AI becomes a tool for societal progress while minimising unintended adverse consequences.
S. Asieh Hosseini Tabaghdehi works for Brunel University of London. She received funding from UKRI (ESRC) to investigate the ethical implication of digital footprint data in SMEs value creation.
Professor Ashley Braganza 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 Nick Ilott, Senior Researcher and Lead Bioinformatician, The Oxford Centre for Microbiome Studies, University of Oxford
Many of us pay attention to the foods we’re putting in our bodies – asking ourselves whether they’re nutritious and healthy for us. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself how fast this food is moving through your gut? The answer to this question is actually really important, as the speed that food moves through your digestive tract affects your health and wellbeing in many ways.
Once you’ve chewed up and swallowed your meal, this food begins its journey along the gastrointestinal tract – a long and winding pathway that begins at the mouth and ends at the anus. Along the way, it reaches specialist organs that churn and digest (stomach), absorb nutrients (small intestine) and absorb water and salts (large intestine).
The movement of food through the digestive tract is known as gut motility. This process is partly controlled by the trillions of bacteria present in our gut. The gut microbiome is extremely important as these bacteria help develop our immune system and break down food.
So, when we eat, we’re not just feeding ourselves – we’re feeding the micro-helpers present in the intestine. To thank us, the bacteria produce small molecules called metabolites that boost our immune system and keep our gut moving by stimulating the intestinal nerves so they contract and move the food onwards.
Without these bacteria and their metabolites, our guts would be less able to move food through the gastrointestinal tract. This could cause a build up of ingested material, leading to constipation and discomfort.
Gut transit time
The time it takes for food to pass from one end of the gastrointestinal tract to the other is called gut transit time.
Gut transit time varies from one person to the next. Recent estimates suggest it can take somewhere between 12 and 73 hours for food to pass through the body – with the average being around 23-24 hours. This variation in gut transit explains some of the gut microbiome differences seen between people – and consequently their gut health.
If gut transit time is long (meaning you have slow gut motility), bacteria in the large intestine produce different metabolites. This is because, just like us, the bacteria in our guts need to be fed. These bacteria enjoy fibre. But, if gut transit time is long and fibre is taking too long to reach the large intestine, these microbial inhabitants have to switch to an alternative food source. So, they turn to protein.
The switch to protein can result in the production of toxic gases leading to health problems such as bloating and inflammation.
Slow gut transit can also cause partially digested food to get stuck in the small intestine. This has additional health consequences – such as an overgrowth of small intestinal bacteria, which can lead to symptoms such as abdominal pain, nausea and bloating.
Fast gut transit can negatively impact health, too.
There are many reasons that someone may experience fast transit time. For example, anxiety, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can all cause decreased transit time and even diarrhoea.
In cases of fast transit, the resulting stool is loose with high water content. This indicates that the faecal matter has not spent enough time in the intestine, preventing sufficient absorption of water and nutrients. In cases of IBD for example, this can lead to dehydration.
Testing your gut speed
Fortunately, there’s a very simple at-home test you can do to check your gut motility. It’s called “the sweetcorn test”. And yes, it is what you’re thinking.
Don’t eat any sweetcorn for 7-10 days (the “wash-out” phase). Then you are ready to begin the test. Note down the date and time, and eat some sweetcorn – a corn on the cob or a handful of corn is sufficient. Because the outer shell of the corn is indigestible, it will pass through your gastrointestinal tract with the rest of the food you’ve eaten and will eventually be visible in your stool.
What you’ll do is keep an eye on the next few stools you pass and note down the date and time that you observe the golden treasure. It should be noted that this at-home test is not definitive – but it does represent a measure of transit time that, on average, gives similar results to more sophisticated measures.
If you pass the corn in 12 hours or less, your gut is fast. If you don’t pass it for around 48 hours of more, then your gut is slow. If you find your gut motility is on either end of the spectrum, there are fortunately things you can do to improve it.
If it’s consistently fast, it’s best to visit your doctor to see if there is an underlying cause. If it’s a little slow – but you don’t seem to be having any additional gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating, abdominal pain, lack of appetite or nausea – eat more fruit and veg to increase the fibre you’re feeding those friendly gut bacteria, drink more water and exercise.
Following a balanced diet will help to keep your bowels moving and healthy.
Nick Ilott receives funding from the Kennedy Trust for Rheumatology Research (KTRR), GutsUK, PSC Support and supervises a PhD project jointly funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Roche.
Meet north Wales’s newest resident: the Aesculapian snake (_Zamenis longissimus_).Nathan Rusli
All animals live in or seek a set of climate conditions they find tolerable. This “climate envelope” partially determines where animals are found, but the continued existence of many species now rests on the outcome of human-driven climate change.
Rising temperatures are moving the available climate niches of many species into areas which were previously too cool. While their ranges shift poleward or to higher elevations, their habitat downslope or closer to the equator shrinks, as it becomes too hot to live in.
Flying and marine animals are relatively free to follow these shifting niches. Birds and butterflies are two examples. New species arrive regularly in the UK with the warming climate and are generally met with excitement by enthusiasts and scientists alike, given that they are a natural effort by a species to make the best of a difficult situation.
However, many grounded species, including reptiles and mammals, cannot disperse through habitats split apart by roads and other human-made obstacles, or cross natural barriers like the Channel. This limits their ability to find suitable conditions and makes them vulnerable to extinction.
Nowhere to go?
Here is the dilemma for conservationists like us.
We normally focus on preserving species within their modern ranges, and have traditionally viewed species that end up outside theirs as a problem. But retaining the status quo is increasingly untenable in the face of unchecked climate change.
Should we consider conserving species that have moved, or been moved, outside of the native ranges that existed before industrial society and its greenhouse effect? Should we even consider deliberately moving species to conserve them? Introduced species that have established just outside of their native ranges, in slightly cooler climates, offer a glimpse of the likely consequences.
Our new study in north Wales focused on one such migrant. Aesculapian snakes (Zamenis longissimus) are nonvenomous reptiles that mostly eat rodents and are native to central and southern Europe, reaching almost to the Channel coast in northern France.
Two accidental introductions, one in Colwyn Bay, north Wales, and another along the Regent’s Canal in London, have allowed this species to thrive in Britain. It is not actually novel to our shores, but it disappeared during a previous ice age and has probably been absent for about 300,000 years.
While the introduced UK populations appear to be thriving, recent surveys of this snake in the southern parts of its range have discovered a rapid decline, potentially due in part to climate change.
A good neighbour
Given their status as a non-native species, we were keen to find out how Aesculapian snakes are surviving in chilly north Wales, further north than anywhere they currently occur naturally. To do this, we implanted 21 snakes with radio transmitters and spent two summers tracking them around the countryside.
Aesculapian snakes are elusive and wary of humans. Tom Major
Our results surprised us. The snakes had a trump card which seemed to help them weather the cool climate. They were frequently entering buildings – relatively warm refuges – while they were digesting food or preparing to shed their skin. They also used garden compost bins for shelter and to incubate their eggs.
Even more surprisingly, most residents did not mind the snakes. In fact, many had no idea they had snakes as neighbours because they kept such a low profile, typically hiding in attic corners. The snakes appear to coexist with normal suburban wildlife, and there are no indications that their presence is affecting native species.
Should successfully established, innocuous immigrants be proscribed and potentially eradicated, as is currently the case? Or should they be valued and conserved in the face of current and impending climate change?
Protecting and conserving the maximum possible diversity of species and ecosystems is the heart of the conservation agenda. However, the rapid pace of change forced upon our planet requires us to rethink what is practical and desirable to achieve.
Conservation within the silos of national boundaries is an increasingly outdated way of trying to maintain the diversity underlying global ecosystems. Instead, conservationists may need to accept that the rapidly changing environment necessitate shifts in the ranges of species. And perhaps, even assist those species incapable of moving on their own.
Introductions have allowed this snake to flourish on an island it would never naturally reach. Antonio Gandini
Unlicensed “guerrilla” releases are obviously unacceptable due to biosecurity risks (for example, the potential to introduce devastating diseases such as the amphibian-killing Bsal fungus) and other unforeseen consequences. Even legitimate reintroductions often fail, due to there being too few individual specimens, pollution or predation from invasive species.
Aesculapian snakes will be considered by the government for addition to the list of alien species of special concern, which would be grounds for eradication. It would be tragic if species such as this became extinct in parts of their natural range, while thriving introduced populations just to the north of their pre-industrial distribution are treated as undesirable aliens that must be removed.
Instead, we argue that this innocuous species should be the figurehead for new thinking in conservation biology, that incorporates the reality of impending further climate change and dispenses with the narrow constraints of national boundaries and adherence to pre-industrial distributions.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Wolfgang Wüster receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.
Tom Major 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.
A student works on a design in a fashion merchandising lab.Fashion Merchandising Labs at Oklahoma State University, CC BY-ND
Generative artificial intelligence tools can help design students by making hard tasks easier, cutting down on stress, and allowing the students more time to explore innovative ideas, according to new research I published with my colleagues in the International Journal of Architectural Computing.
Our study found that AI design tools didn’t just make the designs better – they also made the process easier and less stressful for students.
Imagine trying to come up with a cool idea in response to a design assignment, but it’s hard to picture it in your head. These tools step in and quickly show what your idea could look like, so you can focus on being creative instead of worrying about little details. This made it easier for students to brainstorm and come up with new ideas. The AI tools also made more design variations by introducing new and unexpected details, such as natural shapes and textures.
A design fueled by artificial intelligence: The left image is the result of the text-to-image technology, and the image on the right is the design completed by the student. Oklahoma State University, CC BY-ND A design by a student without using artificial intelligence. Oklahoma State University, CC BY-ND
How we did our work
My colleagues and I worked with 40 design students and split them into two groups.
One group used AI to help design urban furniture, such as benches and seating for public spaces, while the other group didn’t use AI. The AI tool created pictures of the first group’s design ideas from simple text descriptions. Both groups refined their ideas by either sketching them by hand or with design software.
Next, the two groups were given a second design task. This time, neither group was allowed to use AI. We wanted to see whether the first task helped them learn how to develop a design concept.
My colleagues and I evaluated the students’ creativity on three criteria: the novelty of their ideas, the effectiveness of their designs in solving the problem, and the level of detail and completeness in their work. We also wanted to see how hard the tasks felt for them, so we measured something called cognitive load using a well-known tool called the NASA task load index. This tool checks how much mental effort and frustration the students experienced.
The group of students who used AI in the first task had an easier time in the second task, feeling less overwhelmed compared with those who didn’t use AI.
The final designs of the AI group also showed a more creative design process in the second task, likely because they learned from using AI in the first task, which helped them think and develop better ideas.
What’s next
Future research will look at how AI tools can be used in more parts of design education and how they might affect the way professionals work.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
35 Malaysians have returned home after completing their post-graduate studies in the UK under the Chevening Awards Programme.
Acting Deputy British High Commissioner Tom Shepherd with the 35 returning Malaysian Chevening scholars
This cohort saw 34 scholars completing their Master’s degree and one scholar completing an Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies fellowship programme. They are the 40th batch of Malaysian Chevening alumni since the establishment of the scholarship programme in 1983, and their return also marks the conclusion of the year-long 40th anniversary of the Chevening Awards
Acting Deputy British High Commissioner to Malaysia, Tom Shepherd, hosted a reception today to welcome home the 2023/24 cohort of scholars. In congratulating the returning scholars, Sheperd said:
The UK’s commitment to education and fostering global talent remains steadfast and the Chevening Programme is a great example of this. Strengthening the bond between the UK and Malaysia, these alumni have returned not only equipped with invaluable knowledge and skills but empowered to make a real difference in Malaysia, contributing to its continued growth and prosperity.
The Chevening Award is the UK Government’s global scholarship programme, funded and administered by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. This is complemented by generous sponsorships by Malaysian corporate partners including Yayasan Khazanah, CIMB Foundation and the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation. British universities are also providing additional funding in support of the Chevening programme.
Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah, KGB, AO, Founder and Chairman of the Sunway Group and the Jeffrey Cheah Foundation said:
The Chevening Scholarships Scheme has recently celebrated its 40th Anniversary and has, over the years, nurtured key talent in many countries in the world. The Scholarships have become a byword for excellence, prestige, loyalty and satisfaction. It has been JCF’s pleasure to support a Chevening Scholarship since 2018, and we look forward to doing so for many years in the future. This is a flagship programme in our links with the United Kingdom, which have seen us partner with Oxford, Cambridge, Lancaster, and the Royal College of Physicians.
Norhidayah Aslah, Head of Scholarship, Yayasan Hasanah, said:
Yayasan Khazanah is proud to support and celebrate the return of our Chevening scholars, who have gained invaluable global perspectives and expertise. Their experiences and insights will contribute significantly to Malaysia’s growth and development. We look forward to seeing them apply their knowledge, drive positive change, and make a lasting impact in their respective fields.
Ahmad Shahriman Mohd Shariff, Chief Executive Officer of CIMB Foundation said:
CIMB Foundation is deeply committed to uplifting communities and driving positive societal impact through education, a core impact area that aligns with Chevening Scholarship. By investing in learning and development, we empower outstanding individuals with the expertise and leadership skills needed to drive meaningful change.
The returning batch of Malaysian Chevening scholars from the 2023/24 academic year have graduated from disciplines such as Medical Ultrasound, Film Aesthetics, and Conservation and International Wildlife Trade. They attended prestigious institutions such as the University of Oxford, King’s College London and London School of Economics.
Scholar Mandeep Singh who got a Masters in Anthropology and Development from London School of Economics and Political Science said:
I am glad I made my voice count during my year in the LSE. While I got to contribute to various intellectual debates concerning the Global South, I did not lose sight of the everyday challenges which left economic growth precarious for the many. Through my postgraduate studies, I have urged anthropologists to play an active role in making development policies fair and just. I hope to work with public and social sectors to make this a case in Malaysia.
Scholar Nur Ezzah, who attended SOAS, University of London and obtained a Master’s in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice, said:
My Masters provided me with an in-depth understanding of the complexities surrounding human rights issues and equipped me with the tools to critically analyse policies and legislation through a human rights lens. My current role allows me to advocate for marginalised communities, ensuring that human rights principles are integrated into policies and legislation, fostering social justice and equality. My most memorable experience during my Chevening year was attending the Hay Festival of Literature and Arts in Hay-On-Wye, where I met some of my favourite authors and camped under the stars in that charming book town.
Malaysia is the second largest recipient of Chevening awards in ASEAN and the 35 returning scholars are now part of the 2,000-strong Chevening Alumni in Malaysia.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
HARBIN, Feb. 7 — With the opening ceremony of the ninth Asian Winter Games to be staged on Friday night, Harbin is embracing the event for a second time after having hosted the third edition of the Games 29 years ago.
The opening ceremony will be held at the Harbin International Conference, Exhibition and Sports Center, as well as a branch venue at the Harbin Ice-Snow World, the world’s largest ice-and-snow theme park.
In February 1996, the third Asian Winter Games took place in Harbin with a participation of over 450 athletes. Hosts China topped the medal tally with 15 gold, seven silver, and 15 bronze medals.
The upcoming Asian Winter Games has been long-awaited since Harbin won the bid for the Games in July 2023. Over 1,200 athletes from 34 countries and regions across Asia will compete, making this edition the largest in terms of participating delegations and athletes.
“Harbin did a great job after taking the Games two years ago. The organizers prepared the facilities here and all the Games’ requirements in a very short time and in a very professional way,” said Husain Al Musallam, director general of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).
54-year-old Wang Lehui, who worked as an ice maintenance staff member at both the 3rd and 9th Asian Winter Games, was impressed with the city’s development in the intervening years. “In the past 29 years, infrastructure and facilities have improved significantly, and the development of winter sports has reached new heights. Harbin has become a renowned modern city with a growing global reputation,” he said.
At Harbin 2025, teams including Cambodia and Saudi Arabia will make history by making their Asian Winter Games debuts. In 2029, Saudi Arabia’s Trojena will host the next edition of the Games, marking the first Asian Winter Games to be held in west Asia.
Yu Zaiqing, an International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, noted, “I am delighted to see more athletes competing in the Asian Winter Games. Southeast Asian and west Asian countries and regions tried their best to cultivate winter sports athletes despite unfavorable climate factors, showing their passion for winter sports.”
The 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games represents the latest international comprehensive winter sports event held in China since the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, and also serves as a valuable training opportunity for athletes ahead of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
Since Beijing 2022, China has continued to expand on the achievement of engaging 300 million people in winter sports, and boosting the country’s ice-snow economy.
“Beijing 2022 leaves lasting legacies for the development of winter sports, and the Asian Winter Games will also shine on the international stage in Harbin, northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, a cradle of China’s winter sports champions with a profound history,” said Zou Xinxian, a professor at Beijing Sport University.
Earth planning date: Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 Overnight before planning today, Mars reached a solar longitude of 40 degrees. The solar longitude is how we like to measure where we are in a Mars year. Each year starts at 0 degrees and advances to 360 degrees at the end of the year. For those of us on the Environmental Science (ENV) team, 40 degrees is a special time as it marks the beginning of our annual Aphelion Cloud Belt (ACB) observation campaign. During this time of year, the northern polar ice cap is emerging into the sunlight, causing it to sublimate away and release water vapor into the atmosphere. At the same time, the atmosphere is generally colder, since Mars is near aphelion (its furthest distance from the Sun). Together, these two factors mean that Mars’ atmosphere is a big fan of forming clouds during this part of the year. Gale is right near the southern edge of the ACB, so we’re starting to take more cloud movies to study how the ACB changes during the cloudy season. (Jezero Crater, home to Perseverance, is much closer to the heart of the ACB, so keep an eye on their Raw Images page over the next several months as well. The drive from Monday’s plan ended early, after just about 4 meters instead of the 38 meters that had been planned (about 13 feet vs. 125 feet). We initially thought this might have been because our left-front wheel ran into the side of a large rock (see the image above), but after we got our hands on the drive data, it turned out that the steering motor on the right front wheel indicated that a rock was in the way on that side too, so Curiosity stopped the drive to await further instruction from Earth. This is a well-understood issue, so we should be back on the road headed west today. The cold weather is still creating power challenges, so we had to carefully prioritize our activities today. Despite the drive fault, we received the good news that it was safe to unstow the arm, so we were able to pack in a full set of MAHLI, APXS, and DRT activities. Before that, though, we start as usual with some remote sensing activities, including ChemCam LIBS and Mastcam observations of “Beacon Hill” (some layered bedrock near the rover) and a ChemCam RMI mosaic of the upper portion of Texoli butte. After taking a 3½-hour nap to recharge our batteries, we get into the arm activities. These start off with some MAHLI images of the MAHLI and APXS calibration targets, then continue with MAHLI and APXS observations of “Zuma Canyon.” This is followed by DRT, APXS, and MAHLI activities of some bedrock in our workspace, “Bear Canyon.” Although we then take another short nap, we don’t yet stow the arm as we have a pair of lengthy post-sunset APXS integrations. The arm is finally stowed about an hour and a half before midnight. The second sol of this plan begins with some more remote sensing activities, starting with ChemCam LIBS on “Mission Point”. This is followed by a series of Mastcam images of “Crystal Lake” (polygonal fractures in the bedrock), “Stockton Flat” (fine lamination in the bedrock), “Mount Waterman,” and Mission Point. We then finish with some ENV activities, including a Mastcam tau and Navcam line-of-sight to measure dust in the atmosphere and a Navcam cloud movie. This plan ends with a (hopefully!) lengthy drive west and many hours asleep to recharge our batteries as much as possible before planning starts again on Friday. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that REMS, RAD, and DAN continue to diligently monitor the environment throughout this plan. Written by Conor Hayes, Graduate Student at York University
