Category: Analysis

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Adam Taylor, Professor of Anatomy, Lancaster University

They’ve become as ubiquitous on British high streets as coffee shops – bubble tea outlets offering their Instagram-worthy drinks in countless flavour combinations. The Taiwanese beverage, a blend of black tea, milk, sugar and chewy tapioca pearls, has gained global popularity since its origins in the 1980s. But recent findings suggest this trendy drink may warrant closer scrutiny.

A Consumer Reports investigation revealed high lead levels in some bubble tea products in the US, echoing previous concerns about cassava-based foods. (No equivalent UK testing has been published.) The tapioca pearls – those signature “bubbles” – are made from cassava starch, and the root vegetable readily absorbs lead and other heavy metals from soil as it grows.

The tapioca pearls also pose other risks beyond contamination. Their starchy composition means that consuming large quantities can slow stomach emptying – a condition called gastroparesis – or, in some cases, lead to complete blockages.

Both can cause nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain, and symptoms can be particularly severe in people who already have slow-moving digestion. Even guar gum — a thickener often added to bubble tea and harmless in small amounts – can lead to constipation if you drink it often.

The drink’s composition also affects kidney health. In 2023, Taiwanese doctors removed over 300 kidney stones from a 20-year-old woman who’d been drinking bubble tea instead of water. Certain components, including oxalate and elevated phosphate levels, can contribute to stone formation. However, this extreme case probably reflects exceptionally high consumption.

For children, the risks are more immediate. The pearls can be a choking hazard – a risk that is well documented by paediatricians. Adults are not immune to this risk. According to media reports in Singapore, a 19-year-old woman died after inhaling three pearls when sucking harder on a partially blocked straw, while another woman narrowly avoided the same fate thanks to fast-acting bystanders.

The sugar problem

The sugar content raises longer-term health concerns. Most bubble teas contain 20–50g of sugar, comparable to or exceeding a can of Coca-Cola (35g). Research in Taiwan found that by age nine, children who regularly consumed bubble tea were 1.7 times more likely to have cavities in their permanent teeth.

In California, the drink is considered a contributing factor to the youth obesity epidemic, yet many young adults remain unaware of these risks. The high sugar and fat content increases the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes, obesity and metabolic disease, while prolonged consumption may contribute to fatty liver disease – outcomes associated with any high-sugar product that spikes blood glucose and promotes fat storage in the liver.

Perhaps most surprisingly, emerging research suggests potential mental health implications. Studies of Chinese children who frequently consume bubble tea show an association with increased rates of anxiety and depression. Similar patterns appear in adults: research on Chinese nurses found that regular bubble tea consumption was associated with anxiety, depression, fatigue, job burnout and reduced wellbeing, even after controlling for other factors. The same study linked lower consumption to reduced thoughts of suicide, though establishing causation remains complex.

Strange scans

There’s even a curious medical phenomenon associated with consuming bubble tea: tapioca pearls appearing on scans of patients admitted for unrelated emergencies.

Doctors treating people after car accidents or with appendicitis have found dozens of pearls visible in stomachs and digestive tracts. These can occasionally cause diagnostic confusion, as they appear denser than the surrounding tissues and have stone-like properties similar to those seen with kidney- or gallstones.

This doesn’t mean bubble tea should be banned, but it does suggest we treat it as an occasional indulgence instead of a daily habit. And if you do indulge, consider skipping a straw. Drinking directly from the cup gives you better control, and allows your mouth’s sensory receptors to properly prepare for what’s coming.

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

– ref. Bubble tea’s dark side: from lead contamination to kidney stones – https://theconversation.com/bubble-teas-dark-side-from-lead-contamination-to-kidney-stones-266299

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Steve Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett University

A few years ago I climbed over a gate and found myself gazing down at a valley. After I’d been walking for a few minutes, looking at the fields and the sky, there was a shift in my perception. Everything around me became intensely real. The fields and the bushes and trees and the clouds seemed more vivid, more intricate and beautiful.

I felt connected with my surroundings. What was inside me, as my own consciousness, was also “out there”. Within me, there was a glow of intense wellbeing.

This is an example of a higher state of consciousness – or, in my preferred term, an awakening experience. Awakening experiences are a temporary expansion and intensification of awareness that transforms our perception of the world.

As a psychologist, I have been studying such experiences for more than 15 years. Awakening experiences are sometimes viewed as mysterious and random, but I have found that, to a large degree, they can be explained.

My research has found that they have three main triggers.

The most common trigger may seem counter-intuitive. Around one-third of awakening experiences are linked to psychological distress, such as stress, depression and loss. For example, a man described to me, as part of my research, how he went through inner turmoil due to confusion about his sexuality, which led to the breakdown of his marriage.

But amid this turbulence, he experienced an awakening experiences in which, he said: “Everything just ceased to be. I lost all sense of time. I lost myself. I had a feeling of being totally at one with nature, with a massive sense of peace. I was a part of the scene. There was no ‘me’ anymore.”

Second, around one-quarter of the experiences are induced by the beauty and stillness of nature. A woman reported an awakening experience to me that occurred when she was swimming in a lake.

She said she “felt completely alone, but part of everything. I felt at peace… All my troubles disappeared and I felt in harmony with nature.” These types of experiences were often described by poets such as Wordsworth and Shelley.

The third most significant trigger (with a similar proportion to contact with nature) is spiritual practice. This primarily means meditation but also includes prayer and psycho-physical practices such as yoga or tai chi.

Perhaps surprisingly, I haven’t found that psychedelics are a major trigger of higher states. It may be that this is because my samples have been drawn from the general population, and not so many people have tried psychedelics. And psychedelics by no means always induce awakening experiences. They may simply induce perceptual distortions, or a state of dissociation.

Causes of awakening experiences

Some neuroscientists have suggested that awakening experiences are the result of stimulation of the temporal lobes (one of the most important parts of the brain, associated with memory, language comprehension and emotion). This is partly because some reports of higher states of consciousness come from people who suffer from temporal lobe epilepsy.

Another theory is that experiences of oneness arise when the part of our brain responsible for our awareness of boundaries (the superior posterior parietal cortex) is less active than normal.

However, such theories have been criticised by other reseachers for a lack of control groups and successful replication. While some people who suffer from temporal lobe epilepsy may have awakening-type experiences, they are more likely to experience anxiety and disorientation.

In fact, other studies show no connection between seizures and higher states of consciousness. Other neuroscientists dispute the claim that spatial awareness is associated with the posterior parietal cortex.

Perhaps it makes more sense to explain awakening experiences in psychological rather than neurological terms.

Many awakening experiences are related to relaxation and mental quietness, induced by meditation or contact with nature. Normally, our awareness switches off to familiar objects and surroundings, as a way of saving energy.

But in moments of inner quietness, we expend less mental energy than normal. As a result, mental energy may intensify, generating more vivid awareness.

But how can we explain awakening experiences linked to psychological turmoil? A sense of shock and loss may bring a deconstruction of normal psychological processes.

In most states of turmoil, this may only cause further distress. But occasionally this may cause a transcendence of familiar modes of perception, and even a dissolution of our normal sense of ego, causing a sense of oneness.

Awakening experiences really are “higher states.” We tend to assume that our normal way of seeing the world is reliable and objective, offering a “true” vision of reality. But higher states teach the opposite: that our typical consciousness is limited and filtered.

We are normally trapped in a familiarised automatic perception of the world. This is why higher states carry a strong sense of revelation – because they reveal a wider reality to us.

As a result, even though awakening experiences typically only last from a few moments to a few hours, they often have a life-changing effect. Many people in my research described an awakening experience as the most significant moment of their lives.

In a study of 90 awakening experiences, my colleague Krisztina Egeto-Szabo and I found that the most significant after-effect was a positive shift, with increased trust in life, confidence and optimism. For example, one person reported that: “To know that it’s there (or here, I should say) is a great liberation.”

It would be a stretch to say that we can induce higher states of consciousness. However, we can create the conditions that make them more likely to occur. We do know that many are linked to relaxation and inner quietness. So we can create try to try to cultivate a still and relaxed state of mind – for example, through meditation and contact with nature. In doing so, we might find ourselves awakening to a wider and deeper reality.

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

– ref. How higher states of consciousness can forever change your perception of reality – https://theconversation.com/how-higher-states-of-consciousness-can-forever-change-your-perception-of-reality-265151

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Laura O’Brien, Associate Professor in Modern European History, Northumbria University, Newcastle

It sounds like the plot of a heist movie. On October 19, priceless items of jewellery and royal regalia were stolen, in broad daylight and in a matter of minutes, from the Louvre’s gilded Gallery of Apollo in Paris. The theft of these items from one of the world’s most famous museums, however, is merely the latest instalment in the chequered history of the crown jewels of France.

In many other countries, the term “crown jewels” is commonly understood as referring to regalia – in particular, the items used as part of the coronation ceremony for a monarch. In France, however, the crown jewels – or, to give them their French title, les joyaux de la Couronne de la France – is a more expansive term. It includes royal regalia, items of jewellery and precious stones.

The collection originated in the 16th century, when Francis I decreed that a set of jewels in his possession would become part of the inheritance of his successors. Eight items were stolen, including the reliquary brooch, diadem and large corsage-bow broach, and the 1855 crown of the Empress Eugénie, wife of Emperor Napoleon III.

The thieves also took an emerald necklace and earrings made for Empress Marie Louise, second wife of Napoleon I, and a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to Queen Marie Amélie, wife of King Louis-Philippe.

Few items of royal jewellery and regalia survived the French Revolution in 1789. For centuries, the chapter of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, just outside Paris, had been the custodians of the coronation regalia as well as overseeing the preferred burial place of most French monarchs.

Most of the various crowns made for French kings since the Middle Ages were lost or destroyed in revolutionary attacks on the abbey, such as the Crown of Charlemagne and the 13th-century crown of Saint Louis. Both were melted down between 1793 and 1794.

The crown of Louis XV, created in 1722 and on permanent display in the Louvre since the late 19th century, is the only crown from the pre-revolutionary period to survive to this day. This crown was left untouched during the heist, suggesting that the thieves had done their research – the precious jewels that once adorned Louis XV’s crown were removed and replaced with glass replicas in the 1880s.

The history of the jewels

Napoleon I enhanced and expanded the French collection of crown jewels as part of the preparations for his coronation as emperor in 1804, commissioning a new crown and a replica of the medieval Hand of Justice sceptre.

As a nod to the ancient regalia – and, undoubtedly, as a way of cementing Napoleon’s own legitimacy as ruler – this new version of the sceptre included cameos and other jewels from the collection once held at Saint-Denis. This created a sense of continuity between the ancient French monarchies and the emperor born of the French Revolution.

The revolutionary upheavals of the 19th century raised questions about the future of the joyaux de la couronne and their place in post-revolutionary France. In 1848, following the creation of the French Second Republic, some republican politicians suggested that the jewels might be sold off. By 1852, however, the republic had fallen and a new emperor – Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon I and erstwhile president of the republic – had come to power via a coup d’état.

Napoleon III and his wife, Eugénie, significantly expanded the crown jewels during the Second Empire (1852-1870). Yet this period also saw some of the collection go on public display for the first time.

Surviving items of coronation regalia were displayed alongside personal items belonging to previous French rulers as part of the Musée des Souverains (Museum of Sovereigns), which opened at the Louvre in 1852 and traced the history of France through displays devoted to the country’s various ruling dynasties. Here, the crown jewels were presented as an integral part of France’s national heritage, one that included both monarchical tradition and revolutionary transformation.

The fate of the jewels in the latter decades of the 19th century reflected broader debates about the meaning of this national heritage and how to preserve it. In 1878 a selection of the jewels – described in guidebooks as the “Diamonds of the Crown” – generated considerable public interest when they were displayed at the Paris Universal Exhibition.

Increased awareness of the collection prompted renewed calls for the jewels to be sold. Advocates of a sale argued that the Third Republic, founded after the fall of the Second Empire in 1870, should rid itself of these monarchical trappings once and for all and reinvest funds raised in social welfare schemes.

Their opponents pointed to the value of the joyaux de la couronne not just in monetary terms, but as examples of French craftsmanship worth preserving, and symbols of the complex history and heritage of modern France. Eventually, a compromise saw the most historically and aesthetically important items retained by the French Republic, and the rest auctioned off in 1887. Many of the items deemed worthy of preservation found a permanent home in the display cases of the Louvre’s Gallery of Apollo.

Responses to the recent heist suggest that in 21st-century republican France, the place of royal relics in the national heritage is no longer up for debate. Interior minister Laurent Nuñez has described the stolen jewels as having an “inestimable heritage value”. President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, commented on social media that the theft was “an attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history”.

Much of the immediate reaction to the audacious theft has concentrated on the Louvre’s security problems, rather than on the jewels themselves. The absence of these particular items from the museum’s collections is unlikely to bother most tourists.

Indeed, the Galerie d’Apollon and the crown jewels do not even feature on the Louvre’s suggested “masterpieces” visitor trail. However, the likelihood of increased security at the museum, particularly as it undergoes a major programme of renovation works, will affect every visitor to the Louvre – and potentially museums worldwide, as they tighten security measures in response to this extraordinary theft.

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Laura O’Brien 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. Louvre heist: the turbulent history of the stolen royal jewels – https://theconversation.com/louvre-heist-the-turbulent-history-of-the-stolen-royal-jewels-267994

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Palmer, Professor of Quantitative Earth Observation, University of Edinburgh

Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) rose faster in 2024 than in any year since records began – far faster than scientists expected.

Our new satellite analysis shows that the Amazon rainforest, which has long been a huge absorber of carbon, is struggling to keep up. And worryingly, the satellite that made this discovery could soon be switched off.

Systematic measurements of CO₂ in the atmosphere began in the late 1950s, when the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii (chosen for its remoteness and untainted air) registered about 315 parts per million (ppm). Today, it’s more than 420ppm.

But just as important is the rate of change. The annual rise in global CO₂ has gone from below 1ppm in the 1960s to more than 2ppm a year in the 2010s. Every extra ppm represents about 2 billion tonnes of carbon – roughly four times the combined mass of every human alive today.

Across six decades of measurements, atmospheric CO₂ has gradually increased. There have been some large but temporary departures, typically associated with unusual weather caused by an El Niño in the Pacific. But the long-term trend is clear.

In 2023, CO₂ in the atmosphere grew by about 2.70ppm. That’s a large step up, but not too unusual. Yet in 2024, it was an unprecedented 3.73ppm.

How satellites observe atmospheric CO₂

Until recently, we could only monitor CO₂ through stations on the ground like the one in Hawaii. That changed with satellites such as Nasa’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2), launched in 2014.

The OCO-2 satellite analyses sunlight reflected from Earth. Carbon dioxide acts like a filter, absorbing specific wavelengths of light. By observing how much of that specific light is missing or dimmed when it reaches the satellite, scientists can accurately calculate how much CO₂ is in the atmosphere.

But air is always on the move. The CO₂ above any one point can come from many sources – local emissions, nearby forests, or air carried from far away. To untangle this mix, scientists use computer models that simulate how winds move CO₂ around the globe.

They then adjust these models until they match what the satellite sees. This gives us the most accurate estimate possible of where carbon is being released and where it’s being absorbed.

The decade-long data record from OCO-2 allows us to put 2023 and 2024 into historical context.

The result

From the satellite data, we infer that the largest changes in CO₂ emissions and absorption during 2023 and 2024, compared with the baseline year of 2022, were over tropical land.

The largest change was over the Amazon, where much less CO₂ is being absorbed. Similar slowdowns also appeared over southern Africa and southeast Asia, parts of Australia, the eastern US, Alaska and western Russia.

Conversely, we detected more carbon being absorbed over western Europe, the US and central Canada.

Other data backs this up. For instance, plants emit a faint glow as they photosynthesise – remarkably, we can see this glow from space. Measurements of this glow along with vegetation greenness both show that tropical ecosystems were less active in 2023 and 2024.

Our analysis suggests that warmer temperatures explain most of the Amazon’s reduced capability to absorb carbon. Elsewhere in the tropics, changes in rainfall and soil moisture were more important.

Why 2023 and 2024 were special

In many ways, these years resembled previous El Niño years such as 2015-16, when drought and heat led to less carbon absorption and more wildfires. But what’s interesting about 2023-24 is that the responsible El Niño event was comparatively weak.

Something else must be amplifying the effect. The most likely culprit is the extensive, record-breaking drought that has gripped much of the Amazon basin. When plants are already stressed by a lack of water, even modest warming can push them beyond their tolerance, reducing their ability to absorb carbon.

Roughly half of the CO₂ emitted by humans stays in the atmosphere. The other half is absorbed, more or less equally, by the land and the oceans. If drought or heat means plants are less able to absorb carbon, even temporarily, more of our emissions will remain in the air.

Our ability to meet climate targets relies on nature continuing to provide this vital carbon storage.

Satellite shutdown

It’s not yet clear whether 2023-24 is a short-term blip or an early sign of a long-term shift. But evidence points to an increasingly fragile situation, as tropical forests are stressed by hot and dry conditions.

Understanding exactly how and where these ecosystems are changing is essential if we want to know their future role in the climate, and whether drought will delay their recovery. One step is to urgently send scientists to tropical ecosystems to document recent changes in person.

That’s also where satellites like OCO-2 come in. They offer global and almost real-time coverage of how carbon dioxide is moving between the land, oceans and atmosphere, helping us separate temporary effects like El Niño from deeper changes.

Yet, despite being fit and healthy and having enough fuel to keep it going until 2040, OCO-2 is at risk of being shut down due to proposed Nasa budget cuts.

We wouldn’t be blind without it – but we’d be seeing far less clearly. Losing OCO-2 would mean losing our best tool for monitoring changes in the carbon cycle, and we will all be scientifically poorer for it.

The Amazon is sending us a warning. We must keep watching – while we still can.

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

– ref. Record-breaking CO₂ rise shows the Amazon is faltering — yet the satellite that spotted this may soon be shut down – https://theconversation.com/record-breaking-co-rise-shows-the-amazon-is-faltering-yet-the-satellite-that-spotted-this-may-soon-be-shut-down-264908

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Craig Prescott, Lecturer in Law, Royal Holloway, University of London

A small group of MPs is calling for the government to formally remove Prince Andrew’s titles. SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has tabled an early day motion asking the government to take legislative steps to remove Andrew’s dukedom.

At the time of publication, only 14 MPs have signed and there is no obligation for the government to act. But it is an opportunity for MPs to vocalise their desire for action. And it highlights that there are routes by which Andrew could be stripped of his titles.

He has already announced that he will no longer use his title, Duke of York, or honours such as holding a knighthood of the Order of the Garter. This takes further his ostracism from public life due to his associations with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

His announcement came the week before the publication of a posthumous memoir by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who had long accused Andrew of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. He denies the accusations. Giuffre died by suicide in May of this year.

In 2019 after the now infamous Newsnight interview, Andrew “stepped back” from his work as a public-facing royal. In 2022, it was announced that he would defend a lawsuit against him from Giuffre (that he later settled) with confirmation that he would not return to public duties.

His remaining military positions and royal patronages were returned to the queen to be redistributed to other working members of the royal family. He also announced that he would no longer use his HRH status.

Andrew has now voluntarily stopped using his remaining titles but will continue to use his princely status. This is significant – Andrew placed great stock in his titles. Yet for the public, this maybe insufficient. Though the titles have effectively been placed into abeyance, they legally still exist.

When faced with what to do, the king is in a difficult position. The monarch must act within the confines of the law – but the law is not designed to easily allow someone to become an ex-royal. The assumption is that all titles and honours are for life. For every scandalous development in Andrew’s life, Buckingham Palace has done the minimum necessary to head off each particular media storm, each time just going a little further.

An act of parliament

Andrew’s honours, such as his Knighthood of the Order of the Garter, can be removed by the king. However, to remove some of his other titles, an act of parliament is required. The precedent for this is the Titles Deprivation Act 1917. This 1917 law was enacted during the first world war to remove titles from British princes or peers who sided with the enemy.

However, the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 only applied in the context of the “present war” – the first world war. This means that fresh legislation would be required to remove Andrew’s titles today. The 1917 act provided for a committee tasked with considering whether a peerage or a title should be removed from a person, and subject to parliament’s approval, made a recommendation to the king when action should be taken.

Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central, has suggested a model that would amend the 1917 act to apply more generally today. The SNP’s Stephen Flynn has also called for similar legislation to strip titles that would extend to others, including Lord Mandelson, who was fired from his role as the UK ambassador in Washington over his links to Epstein.

Alternatively, bespoke legislation could be enacted to remove Andrew’s peerages in law (in addition to being the Duke of York, he is the Earl of Inverness and the Baron Killyleagh). This could be relatively simple, with a clause making those peerages extinct, and instructing the keeper of the Roll of the Peerage (which is the responsibility of the Lord Chancellor) to strike out Andrew’s name.

In principle, an act of parliament could remove Andrew’s princely and HRH status (again following the 1917 precedent). Such legislation could also address his continuing position as a counsellor of state, which under the Regency Acts 1937-1953 stems from his position in the line of succession, and means he can deputise for the king. Assuming King Charles remains on the throne, Andrew will lose this position once Prince Louis turns 21.

Yet, such legislation comes with risks. Once introduced into parliament, the palace loses control over the process. It would be open to MPs to table any amendments and some may wish to extend the legislation to others, including Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex. The palace or indeed the government is unlikely to want to open up such a debate.

For this reason, the palace only asks parliament to legislate for the monarchy when absolutely necessary. One example is the Counsellors of State Act 2022, which added Princess Anne and Prince Edward to the pool of counsellors of state, avoiding the need for Andrew to ever act again.

Options without parliament

Ultimately, princely and HRH status is in the gift of the monarch of the day. Who is entitled to such status is dictated by letters patent, an official document issued by George V in 1917.

The reason for its creation was, again, the first world war, and the need to restrict princely and HRH status to those connected to the direct line of succession. This is why Andrew was born a prince with HRH status as a son of the monarch. But fundamentally, what the crown gives, the crown could take away. Again, there is precedent for this. In 1996, Elizabeth II issued letters patent to remove HRH status from former wives of princes – Sarah Ferguson (formerly known as the Duchess of York) and Diana, Princess of Wales.

Finally, Andrew remains eighth in line to the crown. This is hereditary, and would remain even if he was no longer a prince. In theory, his position in the line of succession could be removed, but such a step would also require the approval of the 14 other countries (including Canada, Australia and Papua New Guinea) that share the British monarch as their head of state.

On Monday, the king exemplified the best of the monarchy, by visiting the scene of the recent Manchester synagogue of attack to show support for the Jewish community. Yet this was almost entirely overshadowed by the coverage of Prince Andrew. Should Andrew become embroiled in further controversy, it would be in the interests of the crown to exercise what few options the king has left remaining.

Craig Prescott 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 Prince Andrew is still a prince – and how his remaining titles could be removed – https://theconversation.com/why-prince-andrew-is-still-a-prince-and-how-his-remaining-titles-could-be-removed-267816