Category: Academic Analysis

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jessie Osborne, Research Assistant, RAND Europe

For the first time in half a century, America stands on the threshold of sending astronauts back to the Moon. Slated for launch no earlier than February 2026, Artemis II will not land on the lunar surface, but it will carry four astronauts on a flyby of Earth’s only natural satellite.

The ten day mission will take the crew further from Earth than any human has travelled since the Apollo missions. It’s a crucial test of Nasa’s Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, determining whether the United States can safely push beyond low Earth orbit once again. The stakes are immense: technical risks, billions in financial commitments and an increasingly competitive international race for lunar leadership.

Indeed, even vocal supporters of America’s effort are now expressing doubts that Nasa will be able to beat the Chinese space agency in the race to send humans back to the lunar surface. China has been making great strides in its lunar effort and is targeting a Moon landing by 2030. America’s programme, on the other hand, is beset with problems, including the lack of a working lunar landing system and lunar surface spacesuits that are behind schedule.

Further underlining the US’ now precarious hopes of returning first to the Moon, China completed a critical landing and take off test of its crewed lunar lander in August.

The astronauts aboard Artemis II will test critical systems required to perform in the harsh deep space environment. After separation from the core stage of their rocket, they will confront an extreme environment where deep space rescue is impossible.

During the uncrewed Artemis I mission in 2022, the Orion crew module sustained unexpectedly high levels of damage to its heat shield, during the return through Earth’s atmosphere. The heat shield protects the occupants of the spacecraft from the superheated gases around the spacecraft during re entry.

Nasa has been working hard to resolve this problem ahead of Orion’s first mission with humans aboard. The problem highlights the complexity of returning to lunar travel after a 50-year hiatus.

Landing challenges

Even if Artemis II is successful, major uncertainties surround the next mission: Artemis III. This is intended to be the first American mission to return to the lunar surface since 1972. The landing vehicle will be based on SpaceX’s Starship vehicle and is known as the Starship Human Landing System (HLS). SpaceX has been carrying out test flights of Starship from its launch site in southern Texas. While the most recent of these was successful, several previous flights resulted in spectacular explosions.

However, Starship faces many further challenges before it can be used to carry astronauts down to the lunar surface. The vehicle must demonstrate that it can refuel in orbit, connecting to another Starship that acts solely as a tanker. The 50 metres tall spacecraft must also be able to land vertically on the Moon. Its ability to act as a lunar habitat for the astronauts creates opportunities for extended missions, but its size and complexity creates risk too.

While these hurdles remain unresolved, Nasa faces the possibility of having to reimagine Artemis III, including the possibility that the mission becomes another lunar flyby rather than the long-awaited return to the surface.

Artemis is ambitious, but also precarious. Each SLS rocket costs US $2 billion (£1.4 billion) to launch. This extraordinary cost has already raised questions in Congress about long term sustainability. As such, some US lawmakers are pushing for a transition to cheaper commercial rockets after Artemis III. For now, funding is secured through the 2025 “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, but the political consensus may not last.

International competition adds urgency to the financial considerations. The implications of lunar leadership extend beyond national prestige. They include access to lunar resources, such as the water ice locked up at the lunar poles, which could be used to support a Moon base. Nasa’s acting administrator Sean Duffy has asserted that “we are going to beat the Chinese to the Moon” , echoing the cold war narrative 63 years on from John F Kennedy’s “we choose to go to the Moon” speech in 1962.

But Nasa must also demonstrate that Artemis delivers scientific value beyond national prestige. It must justify the massive investment through discoveries that benefit humanity’s understanding of the Moon, Earth and solar system.

Lunar space station

The intended impact of the lunar return extends far beyond individual missions. A space station around the Moon called the The Lunar Gateway represents Nasa’s commitment to a sustained presence rather than Apollo-style flags-and-footprints landings. The Gateway’s first modules, scheduled for a 2027 launch, will create a staging point for future lunar operations and deep space exploration.

The Artemis IV mission will deliver additional Gateway modules in 2028, while Artemis V in 2030 will introduce Blue Origin’s competing lunar lander, reducing dependence on SpaceX as a single contractor. The cargo version of Blue Origin’s lander could be ready long before that, as the company is hoping to launch the uncrewed vehicle on a mission to the lunar surface sometime this year.

Next year’s Artemis II mission is not just another spaceflight, it is the proving ground for America’s return to the Moon. It is the test of whether the United States can sustain its most ambitious exploration program since Apollo. It is also the foundation for future voyages to Mars. Success will reaffirm American leadership in space. Failure could cede it to others.

Jessie Osborne 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. Nasa’s Artemis II mission is crucial as doubts build that America can beat China back to the Moon – https://theconversation.com/nasas-artemis-ii-mission-is-crucial-as-doubts-build-that-america-can-beat-china-back-to-the-moon-266385

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sharon Jagger, Lecturer in Religion, York St John University

As an academic specialising in gender and the church, the news that Bishop Sarah Mullally would be the next archbishop of Canterbury came as a pleasant shock to me. The announcement of a woman as leader of the Church of England and the “first among equals” in the worldwide Anglican communion came as a surprise to others too. One woman priest told me she was “stunned but pleased”.

What is not surprising, though, is the immediate condemnation from church conservatives, many outside the Church of England. Social media naysayers made their views known too – I read comments arguing that a female archbishop makes a “mockery of tradition” and that such “feminist rebellion” spells the death of the church.

This type of abusive commentary has been aimed at women priests for years. My own research explores the gendered abuse faced by women in the church.

The appointment of a woman as archbishop is a welcome show of resistance by the church against such misogyny. But it is by no means a panacea for the sexism and misogyny built into the church’s structure.

Before 1993, women were not permitted to be ordained in the Church of England. The campaign for women’s ordination has a long history, gathering pace from the 1970s. Finally, in 1992, General Synod – the church’s governing council – voted in favour of allowing women to be priests. The vote was close, and many in the church remained opposed to the move.

To accommodate those who could not accept women in the priesthood, the Act of Synod (1993) facilitating the ordination of women established a dual structure, allowing individual parishes to refuse the ministry of women priests and to have pastoral oversight from a bishop who did not ordain women (nicknamed “flying bishops”).

In 2014, legislation was passed to allow women bishops. The House of Bishops agreed on a document detailing Five Guiding Principles. This document paradoxically states the church is unequivocal in its commitment to women’s ordination, while also committing to the continuing provision for those who do not accept women can or should be priests.

The discriminatory structure, with its no-go parishes for women clergy, was maintained. The church can do this because it is exempt from UK equality legislation in matters of belief and conscience.

Today, about 5% of Church of England parishes officially object to women priests, though there are also churches where women’s ministry is unofficially curtailed. The official number of parishes avoiding women’s ministry is a minority, but they have had a disproportionate impact on the structure of the church. The open disavowal of women’s priesthood will erode the authority and status of the next archbishop of Canterbury.

There are currently nearly 600 parishes that officially bar women priests. The Church of England must now deal with an extraordinary situation: the archbishop of Canterbury will not be able to preside over communion in these churches.

In my recent book, Women Priests, Symbolic Violence and Symbolic Resistance, I detail the damage this structural discrimination does to women priests. It affects them materially, emotionally, psychologically, and undermines their status by allowing some to claim they are not priests.

To that end, the historic appointment of a woman as archbishop of Canterbury is a bold and significant move by the church. And it may, to an extent, ameliorate the damage to women’s status and bring the church’s own discriminatory practices against women clergy back onto the agenda.

Structural inequality

With guarded optimism, Martine Oborne, the chair of Women and the Church, an organisation campaigning against the Five Guiding Principles, writes about the church’s need to challenge its institutional misogyny: “Hopefully, the appointment of our first female archbishop of Canterbury will be a big step towards this.” But without the dismantling of the current structure, the misogyny that infects the church will not be tackled.

I think it is unlikely that the new archbishop will instigate the end of the dual structure. Bishop Mullally may describe herself as a feminist, but it remains to be seen whether she will create the conditions for real change that is needed to give women priests dignity and equality.

British professor of theology Linda Woodhead has praised Mullally’s emphasis on unity in the church, saying it is “exactly what the church, and nation, needs right now”.

Yet, unity may still be a tall order for the soon-to-be archbishop. Conservatives and traditionalists within the Church of England and in the worldwide Anglican communion may have trouble dealing with a woman’s authority and leadership, precluding any dramatic structural change. And women in the church may be disappointed that their circumstances will not be improved greatly.

Sharon Jagger has received past funding from Women and the Church.

– ref. First woman archbishop of Canterbury can’t preside over communion in hundreds of churches – https://theconversation.com/first-woman-archbishop-of-canterbury-cant-preside-over-communion-in-hundreds-of-churches-266719

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Maha Rafi Atal, Adam Smith Senior Lecturer in Political Economy, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow

UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has set out a “youth guarantee” aimed at ending long-term unemployment among young people. Under the plan, a young person who has been out of work for 18 months would be offered a temporary job, apprenticeship or college place.

The UK has just under a million young people who are not in employment, education or training (Neet) – thought to be around 13% of the country’s 16- to 24-year-olds.

Under Reeves’ plans, those who refuse the offer could face benefit sanctions. The scheme is being positioned as a way to boost growth while keeping to Labour’s fiscal rules ahead of November’s budget.

The idea has some logic. Long-term youth unemployment has consequences that reach far beyond the individual. Research from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that young people who are out of work for extended periods often face lower earnings for decades afterwards, as well as poorer health and social outcomes.

Economists sometimes describe this as “scarring” – that is, lasting negative economic effects. By contrast, job losses that come mid-career tend to have less lasting economic impact because these workers have more experience or skills that they can use to get their next job.

So the argument that tackling youth unemployment offers particularly high returns is, in theory, credible.

Long-term future

The difficulty is whether the guarantee, as outlined by Reeves, can deliver anything more than temporary relief. It is not yet clear where the promised jobs will come from.

If the government pays firms to create placements, they will have been specially created for the scheme, rather than representing real gaps that the firms need to fill to grow their business. When the government subsidy ends, the firms may have no reason to keep the young person on. And a short placement may not provide enough skills development to allow the young person to get a job elsewhere.

What’s more, the government is not proposing to pay the full cost of these placements. If the onus falls on businesses to absorb additional young workers in newly created roles at their own expense, the effect may be negligible. This is because Labour’s wider programme – from higher employer national insurance contributions to new employment rights – already imposes extra costs on employers.

That tension points to a broader issue in Reeves’ strategy. She has pledged not to increase headline tax rates. Instead she is seeking to expand the overall tax base by growing employment and productivity.

Yet that kind of growth usually requires sustained public investment in skills, infrastructure and industrial policy. A scheme that subsidises wages for 12 months may help individuals back into work, but it is unlikely to shift the productivity dial or generate lasting fiscal dividends without a wide programme of investment.

For Reeves, the challenge is that the guarantee must be large enough to create real career pathways and business growth. But to do so requires precisely the kind of government expenditure that is made difficult by her own “non-negotiable” fiscal rules.

Instead of a way to grow within the rules then, the youth guarantee may be added to the list of promises the government cannot fulfil without bending them.

Maha Rafi Atal 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. Will Rachael Reeves’ youth unemployment scheme force her to bend her own rules? – https://theconversation.com/will-rachael-reeves-youth-unemployment-scheme-force-her-to-bend-her-own-rules-266716

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nicolas Forsans, Professor of Management and Co-director of the Centre for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University of Essex

When state institutions crumble under the weight of chaos, desperate governments sometimes turn to controversial solutions. In Haiti, where gang violence has transformed the capital, Port-au-Prince, into a war zone and left over 5,600 people dead in 2024 alone, the government has made a striking decision to hire a private army to restore order.

Haiti’s interim government signed a deal in March with Vectus Global, a firm founded by American private security contractor Erik Prince, that has seen mercenaries help battle the gangs. Vectus operatives have reportedly served as instructors to Haitian security forces, while also coordinating drone strikes against gang-controlled areas and criminal leaders.

The firm is thought to have deployed nearly 200 personnel in Haiti, from the US, Europe and El Salvador. It plans to have stabilised major roads and pushed gangs out of their territory within about a year. In an interview with the Reuters news agency in August, Prince said the measure of success for him “will be when you can drive from Port-au-Prince to [the northern city of] Cap-Haïtien” without being stopped by gangs.

The arrangement, while having done little to curb the power of the gangs so far, represents a dramatic escalation in the privatisation of state security. It raises profound questions about sovereignty, accountability and the risks of ceding control of security to private military personnel.

Vectus Global is reportedly operating in Haiti under two parallel arrangements. The first involves a one-year contract in which Vectus staff will help Haiti restore order. Haiti’s government has not commented on the involvement of Vectus Global specifically, though it confirmed in June that it was using foreign contractors.

The second arrangement, which remains unconfirmed by the Haitian government, will supposedly see Prince’s firm play a role in restructuring Haiti’s customs and immigration services over a ten-year period. Haiti has long struggled to prevent gangs from exploiting its porous border with neighbouring Dominican Republic.

This move would represent an extraordinary transfer of sovereign functions. Reports indicate that Vectus Global will receive a performance-based commission of 20% of customs revenue increases in the first three years and 15% thereafter. It will also receive a fixed fee of 3% on import volumes regardless of performance.

Haiti’s security collapse provides context for such extreme solutions. Criminal groups now control 90% of Port-au-Prince and possess more firepower and manpower than national security forces. A Kenyan-led multinational security support mission was deployed to Haiti in 2024, but it remains understaffed and underfunded with only 1,000 of the 2,500 personnel envisioned initially.

And despite the assistance now being provided by private security personnel, the gangs have continued to expand their reach in the provinces. At least 1,520 people were killed and 600 were injured between April and the end of June across the country. The UN says more than 60% of these killings and injuries occurred during operations by security forces against the gangs.

Criminal groups united under the “Viv Ansanm” coalition continue to dictate events, maintain control over major areas of the capital and launch attacks in a bid to control more territory. There has been no significant territorial loss by gangs in recent months and essential supply chains, trade routes and public safety remain heavily disrupted.

A complex set of factors make combating gang violence in Haiti extremely difficult. Gangs have deep-rooted relationships with certain factions in local police and government, making it hard for external security personnel to dismantle their operations. At the same time, gang control of critical transport infrastructure has crippled tax collection, trade, access to medical supplies and food distribution.

Raising the alarm

Prominent NGOs and rights groups have strongly opposed Vectus Global’s involvement in Haiti. The Business and Human Rights Resource Centre flagged that Prince’s reported ten-year contract would put crucial state powers – including tax collection and deportation – under a private company’s control.

It warned of “serious concerns for human rights and government accountability”. This is because international legal guidelines for private military companies are largely non-binding, and tend to rely on voluntary codes of conduct.

Speaking to the media in August on the condition of anonymity, a senior White House official clarified that there is “no American involvement in hiring Vectus Global and no oversight” of its mission in Haiti. This has only raised further doubts as to who, if anyone, will hold private military personnel there accountable.

The dangers of privatised warfare are well documented. Prince’s own former company, Blackwater, faced numerous scandals over its conduct during the Iraq war. Blackwater provided security for US officials and military installations there.

In 2007, four Blackwater employees killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded 20 others in the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad. While FBI investigations determined that at least 14 deaths were unjustified, all four convicted Blackwater contractors were pardoned by Donald Trump in 2020.

Vectus Global has communicated its plans in Haiti and operational adjustments. But fundamental criticisms relating to accountability, sustainability and lack of local institution-building remain largely unaddressed in public statements.

The deepening crisis in Haiti was on the agenda at the UN General Assembly in New York, where world leaders gathered in September for the 80th anniversary of the UN. The US pushed for a rebranding of the current multinational security support mission into a more aggressive “gang suppression force”, which has now been approved by the UN security council.

This force will have a new mandate, greater numbers and expanded autonomy from the Haitian police. Yet uncertainties remain over where the 5,500 people for the new force will come from, and who is going to pay.

As Haiti continues to struggle with rampant violence, Prince’s private army reflects governmental desperation rather than strategic wisdom. It is a model that prioritises private profit over public accountability and sustainable peace. The consequences are likely to shape how the world responds to state failure as traditional peacekeeping comes under pressure.

Nicolas Forsans 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. Haiti is enlisting the help of mercenaries in its battle against gang violence – https://theconversation.com/haiti-is-enlisting-the-help-of-mercenaries-in-its-battle-against-gang-violence-263684

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Simon Mabon, Professor of International Relations, Lancaster University

The morning of October 7 2023 set in process a series of events which have profoundly changed the Middle East.

At the beginning of that month, the region looked very different to today. Saudi Arabia appeared ready to normalise with Israel, having recently set aside longstanding differences with Iran.

With the normalisation of relations between the region’s two preeminent military powers would come the possibility of curbing Iran’s influence. This, in turn, could bring peace to Yemen and Lebanon.

But thanks to the events of that day, this vision is in tatters. As the sun rose, Hamas fighters launched a brutal terror attack in southern Israel, killing 1,195 people and taking a further 251 hostages. The attack opened up a wound at the heart of the Israeli psyche, evoking memories of the Holocaust and of repeated terror attacks across the 2000s.

In the past two years, the destructive reverberations have been felt across the entire Middle East as Israeli forces have sought to assert unilateral and hegemonic dominance. Beyond Gaza, Israel has engaged in military strikes across the region, causing thousands of deaths and widespread destruction and sowing the seeds of division.

Read more:
Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza is deeply flawed but it may be the best offer Hamas can expect

In Lebanon, Israeli strikes on Beirut and across the south led to more than 3,100 deaths – including senior Hezbollah leaders such as Hassan Nasrallah. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a military campaign in southern Lebanon in October 2024, pushing Hezbollah fighters north of the Litani river. Though a ceasefire was reached on November 26, Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon continues, with the Israeli government citing Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm.

With Hamas and Hezbollah on the ropes, Netanyahu’s attention turned to Iran. Given Israel’s longstanding view of the Islamic Republic as an imminent threat to Israel’s security, this is hardly surprising.

The so-called shadow war that had taken place between the two states across the previous decade erupted. The outbreak of open conflict between the two states on June 13 2025 – since dubbed the 12-day war – had a devastating impact on the Iranian regime.

Netanyahu had called for the Iranian people to overthrow the Islamic Republic. But while many Iranians are unhappy with the regime, Israel’s strikes appeared to have the opposite affect as people rallied around the flag.

Hostilities culminated in bombing raids launched by the US on Iran’s nuclear installations. While the success of these raids has been open to question, the raids allowed the US president, Donald Trump, to claim a US victory.

He demanded an end to hostilities between Israel and Iran and Iran’s retaliation to the US strikes was confined to a carefully orchestrated attack on a US base in Qatar, which was telegraphed in advance and was more performative than escalatory.

Israel has also conducted regular strikes against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, which had targeted Israeli (and other countries’) shipping in the Red Sea. And since the fall of the Assad regime, the Israeli military has occupied large tracts of southern Syria, seizing the demilitarised buffer zone around the contested Golan Heights in violation of a 1974 treaty between the two countries.

More recently, Israel struck targets in Doha, Qatar, in an effort to assassinate senior Hamas leaders which ultimately failed. The strike prompted a united front from the Gulf monarchies who called for a real discussion about ending the war. With US officials furious at the Israeli strike on a major non-Nato ally, diplomats sensed an opportunity for a breakthrough.

Peace plan

Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to enact a ceasefire has the potential to be an impressive feat of diplomacy, bringing together a wide range of disparate actors with a real chance of ending the fighting – despite its multiple flaws. But as a feat of peace building, it rings hollow.

The plan does not indicate how a Palestinian state will emerge. It does suggest that the Palestinian Authority will, in the right circumstances, play a role in the governance of Gaza – but this is something that Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected.

Instead, the Gaza International Transition Authority will resemble a mandate of the sort imposed by the League of Nations over a century ago. And even if Trump’s plan brings about a ceasefire and the release of the Israeli hostages, the contours of regional order have been dramatically affected.

Without a Palestinian state there can be no Saudi normalisation with Israel. This is a point that Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, has made abundantly clear.

Popular anger across the region will remain. The failure to secure a viable Palestinian state after the Abraham accords provoked anger and resentment among some. That feeling is now growing with the death and destruction meted out to people in Gaza.

If a ceasefire doesn’t emerge, the destruction of Gaza will continue at a pace which will continue to have a catastrophic impact across the Middle East. Israel will remain diplomatically isolated while its citizens will continue to live in fear of Houthi and Hezbollah rockets or attacks from what remains of Hamas, as well as having to deal with the memory of October 7 for years to come.

All the while, Palestinians continue to die on a daily basis and there are still Israeli hostages (and in some cases bodies) waiting to be brought home. Gaza is devastated and rebuilding the enclave will take decades. And the so-called international rules-based order may never recover.

Simon Mabon receives funding from Carnegie Corporation of New York and The Henry Luce Foundation.

– ref. The two years of fighting since October 7 have transformed the Middle East – https://theconversation.com/the-two-years-of-fighting-since-october-7-have-transformed-the-middle-east-266804

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tracy Hussell, Director of the Lydia Becker Institute of Immunology and Inflammation, University of Manchester

Three scientists have been awarded the 2025 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for discovering how the body stops its own immune system from turning against itself.

Shimon Sakaguchi from Osaka University in Japan, Mary E. Brunkow from the Institute for System Biology and Fred Ramsdell from Sonoma Biotherapeutics, both in the USA, identified specialised “security guard” cells that keep our immune system in check. These discoveries have been important for understanding how to treat and prevent autoimmune conditions. The trio will share a prize sum of 11 million Swedish Kronor (£870,000).

An effective immune system is critical. It sculpts tissues as they grow and clears away old cells and debris. It also eliminates dangerous viruses, bacteria and fungi, keeping us healthy.

But the immune system faces a delicate challenge: it must attack thousands of different invading microbes each day, many of which have evolved to look remarkably similar to our own cells – yet it must never mistake our own tissue for the enemy.

So how does the immune system know what cells it should attack and which ones it shouldn’t?

This question has been studied by immunologists for decades. But it was the groundbreaking work by this year’s Nobel laureates that led to the discovery of the specialised immune cells – called regulatory T cells – which prevent immune cells from attacking our own body and keep the immune system running as it should.

For decades, immunologists weren’t certain why some immune cells functioned as they should, and why others went rogue and attacked the body’s own tissues. When this happens, it can result in autoimmune conditions – such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

For a long time, scientists believed the thymus – a small gland in the chest – was solely responsible for immune tolerance. Immune cells (specifically a type of cell called a T lymphocyte) that recognised the body’s own proteins too strongly were initially thought to be eliminated in the thymus in early life. Those immune cells that only showed mild reactivity were then released into the bloodstream to patrol the body.

But work conducted in the 1980s and 1990s by Sakaguchi showed that there was a specialised class of immune T cells that played a critical role in suppressing immune responses and preventing the immune system from attacking the body’s tissues.

In Sakaguchi’s first experiment, he surgically removed the thymus organ from newborn mice, then injected T cells into them from genetically similar mice. He hypothesised that the mice would have a weaker immune system and develop fewer T cells.

Instead, he discovered that there appeared to be T cells that protected the mice from developing autoimmune diseases.

Over the next decade, Sakaguchi set out to uncover whether there were different types of T cells that played different roles in immune response. In 1995, Sakaguchi published the paper that detailed a new class of T cell, called a “regulatory T cell”. It showed that T cells carrying a specific type of protein on their surface actually eliminated harmful T cells.

There was initial scepticism among scientists about the existence of regulatory T cells. But work from Brunkow and Ramsdell published in the 1990s and early 2000s showed how regulatory T cells work.

Brunkow and Ramsdell’s research showed that regulatory T cells prevent immune cells from attacking the body by secreting immune dampening proteins or by directly delivering anti-inflammatory signals.

They also discovered a specific protein that identified these regulatory T cells (called FoxP3). This meant scientists could work out when a cell was regulatory and also isolate them for study.

These discoveries showed how important regulatory T cells (also called T-regs for short) are in regulating other inflammatory immune cells in the body.

The work of this year’s Nobel laureates has also massively opened up the field of immunology, going far beyond merely understanding the process of immune tolerance.

Their work has revealed that immunity and inflammation is actively regulated. It has provided a raft of new ideas to control inflammatory disease, whether caused by infection, allergens, environmental pollutants or autoimmunity.

It has even provided new ideas to prevent rejection of transplants and has opened up new ways of improving immune responses to cancer treatments and vaccines.

Tracy Hussell is affiliated with the British Society of Immunology as President

– ref. Nobel prize awarded for discovery of immune system’s ‘security guards’ – https://theconversation.com/nobel-prize-awarded-for-discovery-of-immune-systems-security-guards-266833

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Gulnaz Anjum, Assistant Professor of Climate Psychology, Centre for Social Issues Research, Department of Psychology, University of Limerick

When the daytime air feels like an oven and night brings no relief, people in Karachi, Pakistan, say the heat “goes straight to the head”. They mean more than dizziness or sweat.

It’s the creeping panic of a body that cannot cool down: restless nights, frayed tempers, a household on edge. Here, a heatwave is not simply a matter of high temperatures. It’s a public health emergency that seeps into every corner of life: physical health, sleep, mood and the invisible care work that keeps families and neighbours alive.

Our research in Pakistan and Kenya (Karachi, Lahore and Nairobi), shows how extreme heat affects local communities.

For families living on informal and unstable incomes and in fragile housing, such heat is not just uncomfortable; it can be deadly.

Heatwaves occur when temperatures push daily highs past 40 °C inland and above 35 °C on the coast. In 2015, a single heatwave killed more than 1,200 people in Karachi during just one week in June. But the quieter psychological toll which is rarely counted in official statistics builds with every wave of extreme heat.

Read more:
India and Pakistan’s heatwave is a sign of worse to come – podcast

In our research, residents describe lying awake in stagnant air, waking drenched in sweat and starting the next day already exhausted. Sleeplessness makes emotions harder to manage, fuelling conflict in homes stretched thin. Many, especially women, speak of a sense of suffocation and dread; fearing their bodies won’t cope or that a loved one will collapse. For people with asthma or anxiety the symptoms are magnified, and mothers often feel an acute worry for children and elderly relatives.

This mental strain is no overreaction, it reflects harsh realities. Outdoor workers lose wages when extreme heat makes it unsafe to stay on the job. At the same time, food and water prices climb as supply chains falter and demand spikes, just as family incomes shrink. Hospitals and clinics can be difficult to reach because high temperatures often lead to power cuts, overloaded transport systems and an increase in heat-related illness, all of which slows emergency care.

Read more:
Heatwaves don’t just give you sunburn – they can harm your mental health too

Women often shoulder the heaviest burden because in many households, especially in low- and middle-income countries, domestic and caregiving duties still fall largely to them. Social norms often expect women, not men, to stay home with children, care for older relatives and organise water or food supplies. When a heatwave strikes, those tasks become more physically demanding and more time-consuming: fanning overheated children through sleepless nights, checking constantly on elderly neighbours, and answering calls for help.

In low- and middle-income countries, women also face disproportionate health risks from climate change, particularly during extreme heat, precisely because these gendered roles and socio-cultural expectations expose them to greater stress. The unpaid labour that holds households together – caring, fetching water, preparing food – is carried mainly by women. As one Karachi resident explained, on the hottest days she and her neighbours watch over pregnant women:

Women here may be poor, but they support each other, sharing water, looking after each other’s children and cooking for each other. It’s our way of surviving…

Such neighbourly care surfaces again and again. Families pool money to buy safe drinking water when supplies run short. In some informal settlements, one of the most immediate ways people cope with rising heat is by increasing their reliance on water, often through hand pumps that serve as vital lifelines during prolonged heatwaves. Neighbours check on older people during power cuts. Women take turns cooking when kitchens become unbearable for elderly or pregnant relatives. These are not feel-good tales of “bouncing back,” but acts of collective survival: immediate, exhausting and often invisible. They reveal how vulnerability is shaped by poor housing, patchy healthcare and weak governance – factors that leave people exposed when crises strike.

Extreme heat also compounds heat related health risks and financial costs. In crowded settlements and displacement camps, food spoils quickly, appetites wane and clean water becomes harder to find and more expensive to acquire. Pregnant and breastfeeding women struggle to maintain nutrition. International research shows that heat stress can deplete micronutrients, hinder growth and increase the risk of early labour and premature childbirths. When these pressures collide with poverty and displacement, the dangers of malnutrition and long-term harm can only grow.

Residents’ requests are strikingly simple. They want electricity that stays on through the night, clean water that they can afford and clinics that remain open when symptoms worsen. These are not luxuries. They are the difference between anxiety and peace of mind, between starting the day rested or already exhausted.

Read more:
Climate change and mental health: How extreme heat can affect mental illnesses

Even small interventions help: a working fan, a shaded community space, advice on hydration and sleep. Women-led groups already organise water-sharing, neighbour check-ins and shaded play areas. Strengthening these networks, and centring polices on women’s health could save lives and protect mental health during future heatwaves.

Counting only hospital admissions or heat-stroke cases misses what people say matters most: a child kept hydrated, a safe place to sleep, the absence of panic on the hottest days and nights of the year. These everyday markers of dignity and survival are where real adaptation begins. As one resident put it: “We cannot stop the sun. But we can stop each other from being alone in the heat.”

Gulnaz Anjum is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Limerick.

Mudassar Aziz 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 extreme temperatures strain minds and bodies: a Karachi case study – https://theconversation.com/how-extreme-temperatures-strain-minds-and-bodies-a-karachi-case-study-262983

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Gemma Ware, Head of Audio, The Conversation UK, The Conversation

We’re delighted that the Conversation’s Curious Kids podcast won the Gold award in the Kids category at the British Podcast Awards on October 2 at an event in London.

Launched in April 2024, The Conversation’s Curious Kids features primary school children from around the world posing questions to researchers, with the help of the show’s host and producer Eloise Stevens.

We found out ‘Do whales sneeze?’, ’Why is my dog so cute?’ and ‘How high can I jump on the moon?’ Thanks to all the kids, their parents, and the researchers, who made the show so much fun (and educational).

The podcast, published in collaboration with FunKids radio, grew out of the popular series of Curious Kids articles on The Conversation where children send in questions and we find academics to answer them.

The show is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube, or wherever else you get your podcasts. For those with access to a Yoto player, The Conversation’s Curious Kids is also available via the ‘Discover’ button on your Yoto app, under ‘Podcasts for kids’.

And for any children out there with a question they’d like to put to an academic, you can question to curiouskids@theconversation.comor record it and send your question to us directly at funkidslive.com/curious. We’d love to hear from you!

– ref. The Conversation’s Curious Kids wins best kids podcast at British Podcast Awards – https://theconversation.com/the-conversations-curious-kids-wins-best-kids-podcast-at-british-podcast-awards-266847

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Annayah Prosser, Assistant Professor in Marketing, Business and Society, University of Bath

Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has been released to much fanfare. While the album’s critical reception has been mixed – with reviews ranging from a flop to a masterpiece – the album is all but guaranteed to hold the number one spot in music charts across the world this week thanks to a carefully plotted marketing campaign.

Swift is a global phenomenon and, as a lecturer in marketing, business and society, I am one of many researchers exploring the social science of her success.

In recent years, Swift has been criticised for releasing several limited editions of each album. The Life of a Showgirl has been no exception in its release schedule.

At time of writing, over 24 different versions of the CD and vinyl have been released. These include different colour vinyls, different cover images, signed editions and, most recently, CDs with unique tracks that are not available on streaming platforms.

This marketing strategy is a powerful tool for chart success, where every album purchased (regardless of the format or cover image) is valued.

Many of these editions are released online in timed drops on Swift’s official website. They’re only available for 48 hours, or until stock runs out. This leads to a feeling of scarcity among fans, which encourages them to make impulsive purchase decisions for fear of missing out on their “favourite variant”.

Research has shown that neurodivergent fans are likely to experience stress and anxiety around marketing strategies similar to this. There is a thriving secondary market for these exclusive editions, and scalpers (resellers who legally buy up products and then resell them at an inflated cost) know that keen fans will pay above the recommended retail price for these editions. This encourages over-consumption and many fans may spend more money than they expect to on the new album.

Manipulating charts by offering multiple exclusive album editions is, of course, not an option that many less powerful artists have. Vinyl pressings, in particular, are extremely expensive, and not all artists can afford to do such large vinyl runs, let alone with multiple variants.

The materials used to create vinyl are also unsustainable, and many musicians are seeking more eco-friendly alternatives. As yet Swift hasn’t experimented with eco-friendly alternatives to vinyl, but she does claim to offset her travel carbon footprint. Regardless of the financial drain on fans or the environmental impact, these coercive marketing strategies currently form a strong tactic for chart success.

Pre-release embargoes

Unusually, Swift’s albums do not often feature a lead single, released before the album. Many other artists use this lead single to promote their albums, and to give listeners a taste of what is to come. Swift’s releases are instead kept under sworn secrecy, with all pre-release information coming directly from the singer’s team.

While for many other artists this may be a negative, for Swift this adds layers of mystery to her releases. It also means that everyone hears the tracks at the same time, leaving little opportunity for music aficionados to provide reviews that, among other effects, could dissuade fans from purchasing.

These embargoes have negative impacts for smaller businesses – independent record stores hoping to host midnight launch parties had to cancel these when it became clear album shipments might not arrive on time. Nonetheless, this strategy allows Swift to control the narrative around her releases entirely, enticing fans with sneak-previews and puzzles to uncover before the release that keeps social media hype high.

Over release weekend, many fans attended Swift’s official album launch party, screened in cinemas internationally. These parties featured a sneak-peek of the upcoming music video for the album’s first track, The Fate of Ophelia, alongside behind-the-scenes commentary from Swift herself. Fans who attended these launch parties were able to see the video before anyone else.

As well as providing another avenue to advertise the album, the limited-time cinema release party creates an exclusive opportunity for Swifties (as fans are known) to connect and celebrate the album together. The Eras Tour showed just how important it is for fans to connect with each other around these kinds of events.

Where once these release parties may have been organised informally among friend groups, Swift has now transformed them into another opportunity for income and generating social media hype.

Unsurprisingly, given these tactics, many artists choose not to release music around Swift album release dates. Those artists who historically have deigned to compete – even weeks after the original release – have had their chart threatened by the release of yet more exclusive editions.

For example, the release of three further exclusive editions of The Tortured Poets Department knocked singer Billie Eilish off of the charts last year, five weeks after Swift’s album’s initial release.

It is extremely difficult for any artist to compete with such a strong industry force. Swift and her fans are powerful enough to wipe out most of her competition whenever she chooses to release her albums.

This album roll out leaves many questions about the state of the music industry today. What do artists owe their fans? Is this business model sustainable given the impending climate emergency? Should consumers be protected from these new forms of market exploitation? What would a fairer way of engaging in the music business look like?

Researchers across the fields of business and society, macro-marketing and corporate social responsibility have been considering these complex questions for decades. It is important that fans, researchers, artists and executives answer these questions together. The fate of the music industry – and fair competition within it – is at stake.

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Annayah Prosser 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. Taylor Swift’s aggressive marketing guarantees success – no matter what the music sounds like – https://theconversation.com/taylor-swifts-aggressive-marketing-guarantees-success-no-matter-what-the-music-sounds-like-266812