Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Flynn Ames, PhD candidate, Meteorology, University of Reading

A small, icy moon of Saturn called Enceladus is one of the prime targets in the search for life elsewhere in the solar system. A new study strengthens the case for Enceladus being a habitable world.

The data for those new research findings comes from the Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn from 2004-2017. In 2005, Cassini discovered geyser-like plumes of water vapour and ice grains erupting continuously out of cracks in Enceladus’ icy shell.

In the latest study, Nozair Khawaja, from the Free University of Berlin, and his team set out to re-analyse a Cassini sample of material from Enceladus’ south pole.

Most analyses of solid particles from Enceladus’ plumes had been done on Saturn’s E-ring. The E-ring is an outer diffuse ring in the majestic ring system that surrounds the planet. It is continuously replenished with material from Enceladus’ plumes. But this material is not fresh – and exposure to radiation in space can alter its characteristics.

The younger material analysed by Khawaja and colleagues was sampled by Cassini during a particularly fast flyby over Enceladus’ south pole. The use of freshly ejected plume material guaranteed the removal of any possible interference from radiation.

So what do these and other analyses of plume samples tell us about Enceladus? Early Cassini samples were found to contain sodium salts, suggesting the plumes are fed by an underground liquid water ocean in contact with a rocky bottom. Later observations of Enceladus’ “wobble” (slight shifts in its rotation) relative to Saturn demonstrated that its icy exterior shell is probably completely detached from the rocky core below.

This means that Enceladus’ underground ocean (sandwiched between the ice and rock) is global, extending across the entire moon. The ocean is likely sustained by tidal flexing, where the varying gravitational tug of Saturn on Enceladus stretches and squeezes it, causing Enceladus to heat up and preventing the ocean from freezing and preventing the ocean from freezing.

The ability to (albeit, indirectly) sample the ocean has permitted a more comprehensive investigation of Enceladus’ habitability – that is, whether Enceladus contains the necessary ingredients for life as we know it (namely a suitable energy source and mix of chemical elements).

Sampling the plumes

Analysis of Cassini’s plume samples was made possible by a technique called “mass spectrometry”. The process began with the high velocity impact between Cassini (flying at speeds of kilometres per second) and the solid plume material it collected.

This broke up the material smaller, charged fragments. After impact, an instrument exposed the fragments to an electric field which moved them towards a detector.

The timing of impact of the chemical fragments with the detector was then used to determine their mass and charge. Scientists could then “piece the jigsaw” back together to figure out the identity of the molecules that the fragments once formed.

When attempting to determine habitability, there are certain molecules to look out for in the data. Organics are simply molecules that contain carbon. Because life on Earth is fundamentally carbon-based, detecting carbon-bearing molecules of any form is a good start.

Organics have been detected with confidence in plume material, including “amines”, which can be precursors to amino acids (which in turn, can be precursors to proteins). Much larger “macromolecules” have also been seen. But their exact identity is currently uncertain owing to the limitations of the Cassini instrumentation.

Carbon is one of the “CHNOPS” elements (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulphur) which form the majority of atoms within living organisms on Earth. Apart from sulphur, these have all been detected with confidence in plume material.

Mass spectrometry can also indicate the types of energy sources available within an ocean. Photosynthesis, the primary energy source for life on Earth, is unlikely to be viable within Enceladus because its ocean is buried under kilometres of ice. Photosynthesis requires light and the ocean is almost certainly dark.

Luckily, there are other ways that life can extract energy from its environment. In the late 1970s, vast ecosystems were discovered at Earth’s ocean depths, around hydrothermal vents – fissures on the ocean floor from which hot water rich in minerals emerges.

The microbes surviving around hydrothermal vents are forms of “chemosynthetic” life. They use the various substances found in hydrothermal waters to perform chemical reactions to get the energy they need.

It appears that ingredients for some chemosynthetic pathways such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen are available in sufficient quantities within Enceladus’ ocean to theoretically make it a viable energy source.

In fact, the amount of hydrogen in plume material is so large that it would require a present-day source in Enceladus’ ocean to explain it, most likely hydrothermal vents.

Recent study

Of course, we need to be careful in using plume material to infer what is inside the ocean. Processes during the formation of the plume (as it travels through the ice into space), may either dilute or concentrate certain substances. The harsh radiation could also cause chemicals within the plumes to react, leaving the material unrepresentative of the ocean it came from.

By analysing the freshly ejected plume material, the latest study removes that problem. Owing to the higher speed, samples obtained during this flyby should have fragmented in a way that would allow more types of molecules to become visible in the data.

And the samples collected did include new substances, as well as some that were already known, confirming that they came from within Enceladus, not from radiative alteration. Some of the newly detected substances further hint at a hydrothermal origin.

With knowledge of Enceladus’ potential habitability, the European Space Agency is planning a mission, launching in the 2040s, that will perform flybys of Enceladus, and possibly even orbit and land on its surface.

With an upgraded suite of instruments, the mission will aim to look for evidence of life within plume material. If life resides around hydrothermal systems at Enceladus’ depths, its journey to the ocean top and out into space may be long and arduous.

Yet recent work by Fabian Klenner from the University of Washington and colleagues, showed that even a single bacterial cell within an ice grain could be detectable via mass spectrometry. Thus the hope remains that if life resides within Enceladus, the evidence of it may be floating in space waiting for us to come and see it.

Flynn Ames has previously received funding from STFC

– ref. Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus is an attractive target in the search for life – new research – https://theconversation.com/saturns-icy-moon-enceladus-is-an-attractive-target-in-the-search-for-life-new-research-270694

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Robin Bailey, Assistant professor, University of Cambridge

Christmas can be hard. For some people, it increases loneliness, grief, hopelessness and family tension, and the festive season has a way of turning ordinary concerns into urgent ones. Not because something terrible is guaranteed to happen, but because more is often at stake: money, time, family dynamics, travel and expectations.

A large study found a small but consistent dip in people’s wellbeing in the run-up to Christmas. One psychological process that often shows up under this pressure is worry.

It helps to separate worry from anxiety, because although they feel similar, they are not the same. Worry is mostly a thought process, often taking the form of “what if” questions such as “what if I don’t make everyone happy?” or “what if the cooking goes wrong?”. It tends to be negative and focused on the future.

Anxiety, by contrast, is the body’s threat system revving up. People may experience it as tension, dread, a racing heart or a churning stomach. But there is another part of worry that is particularly important. The issue is rarely the first “what if” thought. It is what happens next.

A psychological approach called metacognitive therapy focuses on the beliefs people hold about worrying itself. These beliefs can quietly determine whether worry passes quickly or turns into a long spiral.

Some beliefs sound reassuring or even helpful. Research has identified positive beliefs such as “worrying helps me prepare”, “worrying stops bad things from happening”, or “worrying shows I care”.

Read more:
Christmas can be stressful for many people – here’s what can help you get through the festive season

Others are more openly distressing. Negative beliefs include thoughts such as “my worrying is uncontrollable” or “my worrying is dangerous”.

Together, these beliefs can keep worry going by making it feel urgent, important and impossible to step away from.

When worry feels urgent and uncontrollable, people often try to manage it in ways that backfire: answering one “what if” with another, seeking repeated reassurance, misusing alcohol, or trying to block thoughts altogether.

Interrupting the worry pattern

One way to interrupt this pattern is to catch worry early and picture it as a text message.

A worry thought arrives like a message on your phone: What if the dinner goes wrong? What if they spoil things? What if they are disappointed with the gift?

You did not choose for the message to arrive. Thoughts often appear automatically. But the message contains a link and invites you to click on it. Clicking the link leads to prolonged worrying, rising anxiety and attempts to solve unsolvable problems at 2am.

The key point is this: you may not control which messages arrive, but you can learn not to click every link. That is the most controllable part of worry.

A technique designed to do this is called “worry postponement”, and it is more evidence based than it sounds. Studies and reviews show that postponing worry, or confining it to a specific time window, can reduce overall worry levels.

The idea is simple. You are postponing engagement with worry, not pretending it is not there. Pick a daily “worry slot” that is not just before bed. Five to ten minutes is enough.

When a worry message arrives outside that window, do something small but deliberate: notice it, name it as worry, and postpone it. For example: “That’s a worry message. I’ll deal with it at 7.30pm.” If it returns later, do the same again: notice, name, postpone.

When 7.30pm arrives, you can engage with the worry if you choose, but only for the agreed time.

Many people forget to use the slot at all, or find that after a day of postponing worry they feel less motivated to start worrying. Evidence suggests that learning to control your response to worry reduces its power.

Another helpful step is questioning beliefs about the usefulness of worry.

Worry often masquerades as protection. It can feel like it prevents disappointment, shows how much you care, or keeps bad things from happening.

One study found that over 90% of people’s worries, as logged day to day, did not come true.

Even when the issue is real, such as money or a difficult family situation, worry is not the same as dealing with the problem. Studies suggest that getting stuck in worry can make people less clear, less confident and more anxious than approaching the issue in a practical, step-by-step way:

1. If the task is preparation, planning works better than worrying.

2. If the task is avoiding conflict, setting a boundary is more effective than worrying.

3. If the task is showing care, actions matter more than worry.

Reframing these beliefs as another kind of scam message can make worry feel less convincing and less worth clicking on.

Christmas can be a difficult time, with heightened pressures and expectations. Learning not to click every worry link can make it more manageable. It is a skill for life, not just for Christmas.

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

– ref. How to deal with worry this Christmas – https://theconversation.com/how-to-deal-with-worry-this-christmas-272146

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Panagiota Tragantzopoulou, Visiting Lecturer, University of Westminster

As daylight shortens and routines slow down, many people experience a
dip in mood and motivation. The run-up to Christmas is marketed as joyful, but for a large number of households it brings family strain and a surprising amount of loneliness. Against this backdrop, it’s no wonder the idea of welcoming a dog into the home feels appealing.

One of the most consistent findings in human–animal studies is that dogs often act as emotional stabilisers. In my 2025 study, pet owners described a sense of companionship that feels different from human relationships. They talked about dogs as warm presences that offer routine, purpose and a steady emotional tone at home.

Many participants said that when a dog is present, expressing emotions becomes easier – whether that is joy, frustration or sadness. Simply having another living being nearby, responding without judgment, can make difficult moments feel more manageable.

These needs often intensify during winter. For many people, this period makes them think about who isn’t present as much as who is. Although a dog cannot replace human relationships, a companion animal can make emotional fluctuations less dramatic. For someone dealing with a difficult December, a dog can provide steadiness during what can otherwise be an emotionally uneven month.

This helps explain the growing popularity of initiatives such as animal-assisted therapy programmes and puppy yoga sessions, where participants interact with dogs that are not their own. Research suggests that even brief contact with unfamiliar or therapy dogs can reduce stress and improve mood, indicating that the psychological benefits of canine interaction do not depend on ownership.

Some studies also suggest that dogs may be particularly effective in buffering stress compared with other companion animals, possibly because of their responsiveness to human social cues. Although these experiences are not a substitute for long-term companionship, they may offer moments of calm, connection and routine.

For people unable or unwilling to commit to dog ownership, lighter forms of contact, such as fostering for a local shelter, walking a friend’s dog or volunteering with rescue organisations, may still provide psychological benefits.

Dogs and social support

During the COVID lockdowns, people who felt strongly bonded to their dogs often reported higher levels of perceived social support. While the dog wasn’t solving practical problems, this relationship appeared to soften feelings of isolation at a time when normal social life was disrupted.

Although the circumstances were very specific, this finding has wider relevance. Many people spend long stretches at home over the Christmas period, sometimes largely alone or without regular social contact. In such situations, having a dog nearby can offer a sense of companionship during what might otherwise be extended periods indoors.

Research shows that dog owners often experience short social encounters while out walking: brief greetings from neighbours, light conversation with other dog owners, or acknowledgement from passersby. These interactions are usually quick, but they can help maintain a sense of belonging during winter, when daylight is short and social activity naturally slows.

Not every owner will have the same experience, and caring for a dog requires time, energy and resources. Even so, for some households, the presence of a dog can make the winter months feel less isolating than they might otherwise be.

Everyday connection

The emotional benefits of companion animals may be particularly relevant for older
adults, many of whom live alone. Loneliness in later life is associated with higher risks of depression, cognitive decline and cardiovascular disease. Here, companion animals can play a modest but important role. Everyday routines such as feeding, grooming and going outdoors with a dog provide structure to the day and encourage gentle physical activity.

Even short outings can increase light exposure and offer low-pressure
opportunities for social contact – two elements known to support wellbeing in later life. Exposure to natural daylight plays a key role in regulating circadian rhythms, which influence sleep, mood and energy levels.

Outdoor light is more intense than typical indoor lighting, even on overcast days, and is more effective at signalling to the brain when to be alert and when to rest. In adults, reduced daylight exposure is associated with sleep disruption and lower mood, particularly during winter months when days are shorter.

Being greeted at the door or having a dog settle beside the armchair does not replace human company, but it can provide a daily sense of being noticed and needed. Some studies suggest that interacting with a familiar dog can help regulate stress and promote feelings of calm. While these effects should not be overstated, they help explain why many older adults describe their animals as central to their emotional wellbeing.

But research also indicates there is an important caveat: emotional benefits are most likely to grow out of stable, long-term relationships. When dogs are adopted impulsively, that foundation may never develop.

Puppies require training, patience – and early-morning wake-ups. Adult dogs may come with behavioural histories that take time to understand. And all dogs bring financial responsibilities, from vet bills to insurance and food, that continue long after decorations are packed away. These realities are often overlooked in the excitement of December.

But for those prepared to take on the responsibility, a dog can offer far more than a fleeting festive moment. It can provide years of connection and companionship long after the Christmas lights fade.

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

– ref. Why you should spend more time with a dog this Christmas – https://theconversation.com/why-you-should-spend-more-time-with-a-dog-this-christmas-272090

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Katy Highet, Lecturer in English Language & TESOL, University of the West of Scotland

Just as the protests outside asylum hotels of summer 2025 faded from headlines, some anti-immigration groups turned their attention to another target: English classes.

On November 24, a protest was organised outside a primary school in Glasgow, in opposition to an Esol (English for speakers of other languages) class being delivered for parents of children at the school. Holding placards reading “protect our kids”, protesters claimed that these classes presented a danger to children at the school.

The protest was widely publicised by Spartan Child Protection Team, a self-styled vigilante “paedophile hunter” group. Just three weeks earlier, the group circulated complaints online regarding an Esol class taking place in a community learning centre next to a primary school in Renfrew. In response, Renfrewshire Council shut down the classes.

Other anti-immigration groups across Scotland have followed suit, raising “safeguarding concerns” around Esol classes – specifically, the presence of migrant adults in proximity to schools.

Glasgow City Council took a strong stance in response to “social media speculation around family learning opportunities” and the protest at Dalmarnock primary school. They defended the importance of the classes for the school community, refused to tolerate “racism or bigotry of any kind” and labelled the campaign as “misguided and toxic”

“We will also not tolerate strangers and vigilante groups coming into our schools claiming to keep children safe when they have a clear hidden agenda to incite fear and alarm by spreading misinformation and inciting violence which is bigotry fuelled and inflamed,” a council spokesperson said in a statement to the media.

Also this month, the Reform mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, Andrea Jenkyns, received legal approval for her plans to withdraw Esol funding. She has said she wants to redirect the budget for such language courses to “Lincolnshire people”.

These examples are part of a pattern over the last 15 years of Esol education becoming politicised as part of the wider discussion on migration.

Politicising language education

Under David Cameron’s Conservative government, increasing emphasis was placed on English language acquisition as an indicator of “integration”. At the same time, however, funding for Esol was slashed, with cuts of up to 32% from 2009-11.

Additionally, Cameron’s policies were widely criticised by politicians and Muslim community groups. Critics argued that the policies stigmatised Muslim women as susceptible to radicalisation, by suggesting that the English language classes could be used to fight extremism.

Echoes of the Cameron-era policies are evident under the current government. Labour’s May 2025 white paper on restoring control over the immigration system emphasises English language skills for integration. It lays out a series of proposals to increase English language requirements for visa holders and permanent residency.

Researchers and teachers in the field of language and migration have argued that such policies take a one-sided approach to integration. The responsibility of acquiring high level English proficiency is placed wholly onto migrants, without any meaningful plans to provide the resources needed to meet the huge demand for Esol.

With decades of cuts, waiting lists for Esol have skyrocketed for public-sector funded college courses across the country. Community organisations, faith groups and migrant support charities have attempted to pick up the slack through casual, often volunteer-led English classes.

Community centres and schools are popular sites for both formal and informal Esol classes, providing easily accessible classes for migrant parents and helping them to connect with the local community.

A struggling sector

As a sector that has been severely underfunded for years, Esol is already struggling. Esol teachers have been battling against the effects of funding cuts – overwork, burnout – for over a decade.

The instructors I have interviewed in my ongoing research are concerned that attempts to further reduce Esol provision will have damaging consequences for migrants. For newcomers, Esol is a source of community, a means to access vital support and a tool to find stable, decent work.

They were also increasingly worried about the impact of the current political climate on the sector and – more importantly – on their students. With Esol taking a progressively more central place within polarised and hostile immigration debates, many felt a duty to defend Esol, and to defend migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

For some, this meant taking inspiration from the successes of the Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees from the early 2000s, when Glasgow became the first dispersal city for refugees in Scotland, in a government scheme that saw thousands of asylum seekers relocated to cities outside of London.

The campaign – led by political activists, many of whom were Esol teachers themselves – fought to unite the local community at a time of rising tensions, and to campaign for better services and resources for all.

In response to the recent attacks on Esol, some are organising to protect Esol provision and to refuse attempts by anti-immigration groups to divide communities. With initiatives such as Educators for All, Esol teachers are taking a stand to reject “racist campaigns that have targeted schools across Scotland”.

Katy Highet receives funding from the Carnegie Trust. She is affiliated with Stand up to Racism Sotland as a member of the steering committee.

– ref. English classes are being targeted by anti-immigration protesters – but they’ve been politicised for years – https://theconversation.com/english-classes-are-being-targeted-by-anti-immigration-protesters-but-theyve-been-politicised-for-years-270872

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lucy Whitehead, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, Royal Holloway, University of London

A Christmas Carol is usually read as a Victorian morality tale about capitalism and compassion. Yet an autographed script written by Charles Dickens during the American Civil War raises the possibility he may also have understood the story as speaking to the cause of ending slavery in the US.

First published in the UK on December 19 1843, the novella is famous for its advocacy of a reformed relationship between the Victorian capitalist Scrooge and the workers whose labour he profits from, epitomised by his downtrodden clerk, Bob Cratchit. The story has inspired countless adaptations in theatre, television and film.

However, a slip of blue paper held in Harvard’s Houghton Library shows how Dickens may have also seen the story through the lens of American slavery. As my current research in the library’s collections shows, on March 7 1864, Dickens wrote out and autographed A Christmas Carol’s most famous line so that it could be sold in aid of the anti-slavery side in the ongoing American civil war (1861–65).

The closing sentence – “And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!” – is usually associated with Victorian families united in the Christmas snow. However, Dickens’ contribution to a set of celebrity autographs being collected for sale at the 1864 New York Metropolitan Fair enlisted his novella in the cause of supporting the Union army’s goal of ending slavery in the US.

The New York fair was one of several events held across the Union states to raise funds for the US Sanitary Commission, a philanthropic organisation which promoted the health, welfare and convalescence of Union soldiers. We don’t know how much the autograph collection to which Dickens contributed ultimately sold for. But records show the collection, gathered by the wife of the US ambassador to Britain, Abigail Brooks Adams, was valued at US$1,000 – approximately US$20,000 (£14,500) in today’s money.

Dickens had been an international celebrity since the 1830s, and was well accustomed to requests for autographs. In 19th-century terms, this often meant a copied-out passage from one of his novels as well as a signature.

What survives of these autographs, written for fans in Britain and America, suggests that the passage he typically used was the death of Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop (1841). His unusual choice of the final line from A Christmas Carol therefore seems deliberate for this specific context.

In my ongoing research, I theorise this choice may have been designed to remind people that the message of A Christmas Carol also applied to enslaved black people in the US and show his support for them.

While there are no direct references to slavery in A Christmas Carol, there are good reasons to think it was on Dickens’s mind at the time he was writing the novella.

The two works he was publishing immediately before it – the travel book American Notes (1842) and serialised novel Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44) – both make vivid reference to the inhumanities of slavery. They had been inspired by the five-month tour that Dickens made of the US in 1842.

There is a long cultural history of ghosts in chains like the ones that weigh down Scrooge’s partner, Jacob Marley, in A Christmas Carol. But at the time Dickens was writing it, he also had a more immediate reference point for the image of people burdened by irons.

In American Notes’s chapter on slavery, he quotes from multiple American newspaper descriptions of escaped enslaved people loaded with iron rings, chains and weights – including a 12-year-old boy with a “chain dog-collar around his neck”.

In A Christmas Carol, Marley attributes his chain, made of “cash-boxes … ledgers … and heavy purses”, to his heartless pursuit of business profit in life. Marley warns Scrooge that he too is a “captive, bound and double-ironed”, suggesting that exploitation for money will ultimately fetter the exploiter as well as the exploited.

Two recent adaptations of A Christmas Carol have suggested that Scrooge and Marley’s business is at least partly built on the trade in enslaved people. Jon Clinch’s 2019 novel Marley makes the link direct, while Steven Knight’s television series of the same year implies it.

For example, Stephen Graham’s Marley tells Guy Pearce’s Scrooge: “Look at these chains Ebenezer … Each link is a man or woman or child who died in our workshops”, mentioning locations not only in “London, Birmingham, Manchester”, but also “Batavia … Mauritius, the Bay of Honduras”. Slavery was present in the last three locations until at least the 1830s.

While Dickens opposed slavery, he was far from immune to racism. Notoriously, his support for the brutal British colonial response to an uprising of Jamaican plantation workers in 1865 contrasted with his career-long advocacy against the deprivations of the British working classes.

In Zadie Smith’s historical novel The Fraud (2023), the character of Dickens suggests that Brits should be turning their attention from the compensation given by the British government to slave owners in the British Empire to problems closer to home. Such a portrayal is supported by Dickens’s mockery of Mrs Jellyby in Bleak House (1853) for her “telescopic philanthropy”, which centres on Africans in the fictional “Borrioboola-Gha” rather than the people in her immediate vicinity.

If Dickens did intend to use the final line of A Christmas Carol to support the anti-slavery cause in the American Civil War, this would allow us to rethink how he may have seen the relationship between exploitation and inhumanity at home and abroad. It suggests that, in at least some circumstances, he was able to see these causes in connection rather than competition.

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

– ref. Did Charles Dickens see A Christmas Carol as an anti-slavery story? – https://theconversation.com/did-charles-dickens-see-a-christmas-carol-as-an-anti-slavery-story-272292