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September 19, 2025

Who gets to do science? A demand for English is hurting marginalised researchers

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Tatsuya Amano, Associate Professor, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland

Despite growing calls for diversity, equity and inclusion in science, a new study reveals how deep-rooted disparities continue to shape who gets to contribute to science.

We surveyed 908 environmental scientists from eight countries with varying levels of income and English proficiency. In our study, published in PLOS Biology today, we found that the gender, language and economic background of scientists significantly affect their ability to publish their work, especially in English.

The results are striking. Women publish up to 45% fewer papers in English than men. Female non-native English speakers from lower-income countries publish up to 70% fewer papers in English, compared with a male native English speaker from a high-income country.

This gap doesn’t necessarily reflect individual productivity. Evidence shows it stems from systemic barriers that limit fair participation in science.

Scientific productivity gap based on English-language peer-reviewed papers. Shown are the maximum % differences in the number of peer-reviewed papers published by female native English speakers from a high-income country (-45%), female non-native English speakers from a high-income country (-60%), and female non-native English speakers from a lower-middle income country (-70%), compared to male native English speakers from a high-income country (red flag).
Tatsuya Amano, CC BY

The triple disadvantage

Scientific productivity is often measured by the researcher’s number of publications in English. But this metric overlooks the challenges faced by many researchers around the world.

Women already publish fewer articles, receive fewer citations and win fewer grants than men. They are also more likely to take career breaks for caregiving, and are less likely to be involved in collaboration compared with men.

As English is now the common language of science, non-native English speakers face additional hurdles. They spend more time writing papers, and are more likely to have their work rejected and returned for revision due to issues with English. They also often experience anxiety, imposter syndrome and lower satisfaction when conducting science.

Researchers from lower-income countries also struggle with limited funding, fewer opportunities for international collaboration, and travel restrictions.

When these three attributes intersect, the impact is overwhelming.

Taking English out of it

Importantly, when we looked at publications in English and in other languages combined, the productivity gap narrowed significantly.

Non-native English speakers and scientists from lower-income countries often publish more papers overall compared with their native English-speaking, high-income counterparts at the same career stage.

Scientific productivity gap narrows significantly when we look at total publications including those in non-English languages. Shown are the maximum % differences in the number of English-language and non-English-language peer-reviewed papers published by female native English speakers from a high-income country (-45%), female non-native English speakers from a high-income country (-35%), and female non-native English speakers from a lower-middle income country (-25%), compared to male native English speakers from a high-income country (red flag).
Tatsuya Amano, CC BY

Levelling the playing field

The findings have serious implications for how we should measure the performance of scientists. Metrics based solely on publications in English can misrepresent the true productivity of researchers who face language and economic barriers.

This is especially problematic in hiring, promotion and funding decisions. The number of publications in English often play a dominant role in these, even in countries where English is not widely spoken.

The Declaration on Research Assessment, a worldwide initiative, advocates that research assessment should focus on what is published rather than where it is published. Including publications in languages other than English in research assessment aligns with this policy.

In fact, publications in non-English languages can provide valuable knowledge, especially in fields such as biodiversity conservation. Recognising the importance of publications in various languages would also enrich global scientific understanding and allow us to tackle global challenges more effectively.

Institutions and funders should also consider disadvantages related to linguistic and economic backgrounds in research assessments. For example, the Australian Research Council has a policy that allows researchers to declare career interruptions due to factors such as caregiving or illness.

To level the playing field, this policy should also account for the systemic disadvantages experienced by non-native English speakers and scientists from lower-income countries.

Toward a more inclusive science

Recording the numbers on these disparities is just the first step. Making a real difference in dismantling these systemic barriers will likely require a fundamental shift in how we conduct science.

For example, artificial intelligence (AI) translation is rapidly improving and becoming more widely available. Would we still need to use English as the common language of science in, say, ten years’ time? We can start envisioning a future where everyone, regardless of linguistic background, can write papers in their own language and read any paper in their own language with the help of AI translation.

Two futures for academic publishing using AI language tools. (A) In Future 1, scientific papers continue to be published in English. AI is used by those with limited English proficiency to translate information between their preferred language and English. (B) In Future 2, scientific papers are published in any language of the authors’ choice (English or Japanese in this example). AI is used by those without proficiency in the publication language (e.g., Japanese) to translate information between that language and their preferred language (e.g., English).
Amano et al. (2025) PLOS Biology, CC BY

If you find yourself struggling in science as a woman, a non-native English speaker, or someone from a lower-income country, remember it’s not just you. The challenges you face often come from bigger systemic barriers in science, not personal shortcomings.

Science is fun. Everyone, no matter their background, should have an equal chance to enjoy it. But as science becomes increasingly global, embracing diversity is not just a matter of equity. It’s essential for fostering innovation and addressing the complex challenges facing our world.

Tatsuya Amano receives funding from the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship and Discovery Project.

– ref. Who gets to do science? A demand for English is hurting marginalised researchers – https://theconversation.com/who-gets-to-do-science-a-demand-for-english-is-hurting-marginalised-researchers-264493

September 18, 2025

What will the UN’s Gaza genocide report achieve?

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jonathan Este, Senior International Affairs Editor, Associate Editor, The Conversation

This article was first published in The Conversation UK’s World Affairs Briefing email newsletter. Sign up to receive weekly analysis of the latest developments in international relations, direct to your inbox.

The report of the UN’s independent international commission of inquiry on Palestine, released this week, makes for gruelling reading. It found that Israel’s 23-month campaign in Gaza is being waged “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”. This, according to the commission, amounts to genocide under the Geneva conventions.

The detailed 72-page report has found that Israel’s military, under the direction of its political leaders, satisfy four of five acts specified by the convention as genocidal. This includes the genocidal act of “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group”. This, the report said, was due to the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) attack on Gaza’s only IVF clinic at the end of 2023, destroying an estimated 4,000 embryos and 1,000 sperm samples.

The key issue in arguments around genocide, and the reason why charges are so rarely brought, is the word “intent”. To show the intent to destroy the Palestinian people, the report quotes Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, Israeli president Isaac Herzog and other political and military leaders using “inciting, provocative, dehumanising language”. The report gives several examples of this language. It concludes: “The statements were received by the Israeli security forces as an order to destroy Palestinians in Gaza and such order was indeed executed through military operations.”

Malak Benslama-Dabdoub, an expert in international human rights law at Royal Holloway, University of London, walks us through the report and summarises its findings. But crucially she asks: will this report make any difference? Attempts to condemn the violence and call for an end to the campaign in the UN security council have always fallen foul of America’s use of its security council veto.

Neither Israel not the US are signatories to the International Criminal Court, which has issued warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant. So Netanyahu has been able to visit the US without fear of arrest and the death toll in Gaza continues to rise daily. While Israel continues to be protected by its allies, writes Benslama-Dabdoub, it will continue to act with impunity.

And so it goes on. Israel has just launched a major new ground offensive on Gaza City, where scores are already reported to have been killed and thousands have been forced to flee for their lives.

It’s hard to tell how many people lived in Gaza City before the assault began, but some estimates put it at around 590,000. A large proportion of these people will now be forced south, along with much of the rest of the population of the Strip.

It’s not hard to divine that the intention of the Netanyahu government is to push many, if not all, of these displaced people through the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Rory McCarthy, a Middle East expert and former Guardian correspondent in Jerusalem, says this much should be clear from a recent statement by the Israeli prime minister that: “The Egyptian foreign ministry prefers to imprison residents in Gaza who would prefer to leave the war zone.”

Egypt will not accept this, writes McCarthy. It already hosts around 150,000 displaced Palestinians and reacted very strongly against a suggestion by the US president, Donald Trump, that the population of Gaza could be relocated to Egypt and Jordan. (Jordan, which has more than 2 million Palestinians displaced in various conflicts, was also vehemently opposed to the idea.)

This is all putting Egypt’s relationship with Israel under severe pressure and destabilising the regime of Egypt’s strongman leader, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as well, McCarthy writes.

Relations between the two countries have been under pressure since the war began two years ago. It has reached the point that, at an emergency summit of Arab states after Israel launched an airstrike against Hamas leaders who were discussing a peace deal in Doha, the capital of Qatar earlier this month, the Egyptian leader referred to Israel – technically Egypt’s ally – as “the enemy”.

The strike against Qatar is likely to have serious repercussions across the region and is a disaster for diplomacy and mediation, writes M. Waqas Haider, an expert in Middle East diplomacy at Lancaster University. Qatar had built up a reputation as a safe haven in which warring parties could meet in safely for talks. Israel’s strike on Hamas in Qatar risks destroying that at a stroke.

Trump’s vision of a Gaza ‘Riviera’

The US president’s intention to move displaced Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan was made clear in February shortly after the news emerged of a proposal to turn the post-war Gaza Strip into an enormous real estate investment. Trump posted a video, which few took too seriously at the time as it featured a large golden statue of the US president himself.

But last week the Washington Post published a 38-page document, resembling a property developer’s prospectus, which lays out in some detail a plan to turn Gaza from “a demolished Iranian proxy to a prosperous Abrahamic ally”. Any Palestinians left in the Strip would be given cash incentives to leave or tokens in return for their land entitling them to an apartment in one of the shiny new high-rise apartment blocks the plan envisages.

Artists impression of the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation plan. — A real estate developer’s dream: Gaza ‘Riviera’.
Image supplied.

Rafeef Ziadah says it’s a part of an ambitious plan to reposition the Middle East as part of a new US-led order linking India to Europe. Imec (the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor) is envisaged as a counterweight to China’s belt and road initiative, writes Ziadah, who researches regional politics at King’s College London and has made something of a speciality of the politics of major infrastructure plans.

The forced relocation of people as a result of conflict is considered to be a war crime under international law. But once again, it is difficult to make such judgments unless they are tested in court. Another category of war crime arguably taking place regularly across Palestinian areas is collective punishment. This is defined as “a form of sanction imposed on persons or a group of persons in response to a crime committed by one of them or a member of the group”.

Leonie Fleischmann asserts that Israel has been using this tactic as a form of deterrence for years. Just last week the IDF detained 1,500 Palestinian men in retaliation for a bomb which went off in Jerusalem, injuring two. Days before two gunmen boarded a bus in the same city and started shooting, killing six people. Israel imposed harsh penalties against the shooters’ villages.

Fleischmann, an expert in Israeli politics at City St George’s, University of London, says Israel argues that this is legal, as an occupying power it has the right to protect its own security against what is likely to be a hostile population. But there are flaws to this argument, says Fleischmann, who explains how the laws against collective punishment work.

With the UK expected to recognise Palestinian statehood as soon as this weekend, the latest edition of our podcast, The Conversation Weekly, is a history of the Palestinian people’s aspirations for an independent state. Podcasts editor Gemma Ware interviews Maha Nassar, a US-based Palestinian historian, about the Palestinian liberation movement.

Sign up to receive our weekly World Affairs Briefing newsletter from The Conversation UK. Every Thursday we’ll bring you expert analysis of the big stories in international relations.

– ref. What will the UN’s Gaza genocide report achieve? – https://theconversation.com/what-will-the-uns-gaza-genocide-report-achieve-265617

September 18, 2025

How the spiritual sound of the shofar shapes the Jewish New Year – a Jewish studies scholar explains

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Sarah Pessin, Professor of Philosophy, University of Denver

Mark Lipof blows a shofar during the lead-up to Yom Kippur at Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline, Mass., in 2010. Michael Fein/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images

It’s the Jewish High Holiday season, and Jews the world over are preparing to visit their local synagogues – for community, for prayer, and to hear the arresting, soulful sounds of the shofar.

An animal horn – typically a ram’s horn – used as a wind instrument, the shofar is featured over 70 times in the Torah. In ancient Jewish tradition, horns were sounded for everything from calls to action to royal coronations. In the spirit of both, the Bible calls upon Jews to raise forth shofar blasts on Rosh Hashana, which literally means the “head,” or start, of the year.

The holiday is a time of communitywide soul-searching. Beyond marking the Jewish new year, it also commemorates the world’s birthday, the creation of humans, and the sovereignty and majesty of God. Marking the start of the High Holiday season, Rosh Hashana kicks off a 10-day period of reflection that culminates in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, whose last moments are also marked by the shofar’s call.

According to the Talmud, a central collection of rabbinic teachings on Jewish law and theology, three divine books are opened on Rosh Hashana. Each person is inscribed into one of the three: one book for the righteous, one for the wicked and one for those in between, who are given till Yom Kippur to set their hearts straight.

Rabbis say the shofar’s sounds cause God to move from his “throne of judgement” to his “throne of mercy.” They also say that shofar sounds can penetrate human hearts, prompting them toward repentance – while mimicking the broken-hearted cries of someone recognizing just how much they need to repent.

A man in a black skullcap and white shirt, who has a long white beard, blows into a large animal horn. — A Jewish man preparing for Rosh Hashana tests the sound of a shofar before buying it.
Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images

As a scholar of Jewish tradition, I’ve worked extensively on the downright esoteric writings of Moses Maimonides, a 12th-century Jewish philosopher. When it comes to the meaning of the shofar’s call, though, Maimonides offers a refreshingly down-to-earth take in the Mishneh Torah, his guide to Jewish law: “Wake up you sleepy ones from your sleep and you who slumber, arise. Inspect your deeds, repent, remember your Creator.”

Sonic-spiritual pause

The sound of the shofar is uniquely rich and searching, somewhere between a human cry and an otherworldly hum. It fills the room as well as one’s entire body – inviting a moment of pause, of existential reckoning.

During the High Holidays there are three varieties of shofar blasts, which are combined into a series of sound constellations throughout the prayer service.

The first kind of blast is a single, solid sounding called “tekiah.” This one also comes in a “tekiah gedolah,” or “big tekiah,” version that stretches on for a longer stint. The second sound pattern is called “shevarim,” made up of three medium blares. And the third is called “teruah,” consisting of at least nine staccato soundings – or, for Jews of Yemenite heritage, another single tone.

The shofar is sounded throughout the two days of Rosh Hashana – in some congregations, 100 times per day. The constancy and repetition enhance the sounds’ capacity to engage participants’ minds, hearts and spirits.

Three types of shofar blasts are combined during High Holiday services.

Sourcing shofars

To make a shofar, a horn is boiled to soften its innards for removal. Using heat to straighten part of the horn, the craftsman carefully drills a hole and carves a mouthpiece at one end. Heat can be used to further straighten the horn, and the finish can range from natural to polished.

As for the species and shape of shofars, there are differences of opinion – and of culture. Amid rabbinic debates over straight shofars or curved ones for Rosh Hashana, Maimonides says only a curved ram’s horn will do. Jews of Yemenite heritage use the kudu antelope, whose spectacularly long horns produce a strikingly deep sound. And the “Moroccan shofar” is said to have emerged during the Spanish Inquisition: Because Jews needed to hide their shofars to avoid persecution, they were crafted to be flat and straight.

The hollowness of the shofar is what produces its unique sound, so it needs to be made of a horn, not an antler. And it will need to come from a kosher animal, an animal permissible to eat under Jewish law – which, for land animals, means having split hooves and chewing its cud.

On both counts, only certain animals will do, including goats, antelopes and rams. And regardless of the kind of shofar it is, it takes some practice to get a sound to come out of it at all.

A woman in a blue dress and white prayer shawl blows into a large animal horn. — Rabbi Carolyn Braun plays a shofar during a ceremony at The Cedars retirement community in Portland, Maine, in September 2013.
Carl D. Walsh/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

Holy covenant

The popular use of rams’ horns is also a nod to the biblical story of the binding of Isaac, which is traditionally read during Rosh Hashana services.

According to the Book of Genesis, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his beloved son. After nearly going through with the killing, Abraham has a heavenly vision in which he is thanked for his loyalty to God and instructed to spare Isaac after all. Abraham sees a ram caught in a nearby thicket, which he sacrifices to God instead. The next verses describe God blessing Abraham and all his future descendants – which Jews read as a key moment in their identity as a people.

In the Talmud and across a number of other Jewish texts, blowing a ram’s horn for the new year invokes this same redemptive energy: God’s willingness to watch over not just Abraham and Isaac but the entire Jewish community, in a spirit of mercy and blessing.

Using a bull’s horn as a shofar, on the other hand, doesn’t fly. Rabbis rule it out because the term for a cow horn in the bible is “keren,” not “shofar.” The bull’s horn is also seen as too much of a reminder of another key story from the Torah: the Sin of the Golden Calf.

As the Book of Exodus describes it, God led the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. He then shares that he would reveal his law to them as a form of everlasting covenant, working through Moses as his spokesperson.

To make the point, God called Moses up to Mt. Sinai, accompanying him in the form of thunder, lightning and fire. Together with pillars of smoke, and louder and louder shofar blasts, the experience left the people awestruck. While details are debated, the text says that they then assented to God’s law – including the commandment not to worship idols.

Yet when Moses heads back to the mountaintop, the Israelites fear he’s abandoned them. Eager for immediate spiritual support, and in spite of having just agreed to God’s law, they built a bovine idol and proceed to worship at its feet.

God considers destroying the people. Yet Moses reminds God of the promise to protect Abraham and his descendants – a direct loop back to the binding of Isaac.

What’s in a word

It appears that the origin of the term “shofar” is “šappāru,” a word in the Akkadian language of the ancient Near East that originally referred to types of rams, deer or wild goats. But there is also a rabbinic commentary connecting the word “shofar” to the Hebrew term for beauty and improvement – suggesting the shofar inspires people to beautify their souls, aligning their actions with their values.

Regardless of the historical etymology of the word, this reading certainly captures the tenor and texture of hearing the shofar during the High Holidays. Its sounds inspire Jews to take spiritual inventory, surveying where the previous year has led them and planning the paths upon which they will next embark.

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

– ref. How the spiritual sound of the shofar shapes the Jewish New Year – a Jewish studies scholar explains – https://theconversation.com/how-the-spiritual-sound-of-the-shofar-shapes-the-jewish-new-year-a-jewish-studies-scholar-explains-263687

September 18, 2025

Trump state visit: behind talk of harmony there are notes of discord

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jason Ralph, Professor of International Relations, University of Leeds

An unusual feature of Donald Trump’s second state visit to the UK was the spectacle of the Royal Marines, the Coldstream Guards and the Royal Air Force “beating retreat” as the president and King Charles looked on.

This is a traditional military ceremony that started in the 17th century and marked the closing of camp gates and the lowering of flags. It is, by all accounts, the kind of British “soft power” that excites the president and consolidates “the special relationship” between allies.

But one cannot help wondering if what this ceremony marked was in fact the final retreat of the US and UK from their self-defined role as defenders of an international order based on liberal and democratic values.

How are we otherwise to reconcile the fact that a “populist” American president, supposedly elected on an anti-elitist message, so visibly revelled in facing an audience composed almost exclusively of the elites of a monarchical system (on Wednesday) and the tech-business community (on Thursday)?

Trump may have had the unprecedented honour of a second state visit. But what does it say about “the special relationship” between common people (if not heads of state) when the visit was arranged to land in a week the House of Commons was not sitting, meaning he would not be able to address the national parliament?

Perhaps it says something about the retreat of American Republican virtues and the rise of an “imperial presidency” (just as King George III in Hamilton the musical predicted). Trump would not want to be reminded that it was President Obama who had the recent honour of speaking to the British people through their elected representatives in Westminster Hall.

Meanwhile, how do we reconcile the sense that Prime Minister Keir Starmer knows how to handle President Trump with Starmer’s apparent inability to prevent the political retreat of his own government?

The answer to that is that the prime minister may be a better diplomat than he is a politician. He understands that flattery makes Trump the man happy, but he seems less certain about how to deal with Trumpism the idea.

Donald Trump talking to Keir Starmer. — Trump and Starmer behind the scenes.
Number 10/Flickr, CC BY

Trumpism has inspired so-called “new right” movements throughout the western world. In the UK, it defeated Starmer’s preferred brand of progressive internationalism when Nigel Farage pushed for and won a vote to leave the European Union in 2016.

In the wake of this state visit, the government will claim success by pointing to the £150 billion of investment apparently secured through tech deals. It is not, however, clear what role the US state, or indeed the state visit, had in securing (as opposed to announcing) that.

In the meantime, Starmer’s Labour is still reluctant to push back against new right thinking by pointing to the cost Brexit has had on government tax revenues.

A similar concern is being voiced on the cost of the new right’s approach to immigration in the US. The president proudly defended his administration’s actions on immigration and even recommended the UK deploy the military to manage migration. But armed raids on Hyundai factories in the US have left another key ally, South Korea, questioning its longstanding commitment to invest there.

This state visit has coincided with the United Nations Commission of Inquiry finding that Israel has engaged in four of the five genocidal acts as defined under international law since the beginning of its war with Hamas in 2023.

One cannot expect policy – and certainly not policy differences – to make their way into banquet speeches. But the expectation that Trump will simply ignore UK pleas to pressure Israel into stopping its offensive makes the Windsor scenes difficult viewing for many.

Middle East policy differences were on display at the Chequers press conference and the UK government will seek to mollify its critics by following through on its intention to imminently recognise Palestine as a sovereign state. But without US support, the UK cannot expect this to make an immediate difference to the humanitarian situation.

Notes of discord

There was an additional musical theme to the speeches at the state banquet during Trump’s visit. The president described the US and UK as “two notes in the same chord”.

That may be the case, but there are many discordant notes sounded when the president’s words are mixed with the political soundtrack beyond Windsor castle and Chequers. Outside these sheltered surroundings, the mood music is changing.

The images of militaries marching in royal gardens resonate with the recent ceremonial displays of hard power in Washington and Beijing. Putin standing alongside Xi no doubt disappointed Trump, who reportedly tried to ally with Russia to balance the power of China. He was explicit on that at Chequers. Trump feels “let down” by Putin.

The progressive side of UK foreign policy thinking hopes this now means Trump will be more committed to Ukraine and the liberal principle of national self-determination. But perhaps the wider implication of these discordant notes is that “the special relationship” is being reimagined as a focal point in an international order of competing power blocks. This state visit may indeed come to symbolise the retreat of the liberal international order.

Jason Ralph has previously received funding from UK Research Councils and the European Union. He is a member of the Labour Party.

– ref. Trump state visit: behind talk of harmony there are notes of discord – https://theconversation.com/trump-state-visit-behind-talk-of-harmony-there-are-notes-of-discord-265519

September 18, 2025

A ceremonial sword and ‘beating the retreat’: decoding the rituals of Donald Trump’s state visit

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Francesca Jackson, PhD candidate, Lancaster Law School, Lancaster University

State visits are always grand occasions, but Donald Trump’s second was unprecedented in terms of scale and spectacle. The president was treated to the most impressive ceremonial welcome ever laid on for any head of state.

After enjoying a carriage ride through the grounds of Windsor Castle with the king, queen and prince and princess of Wales, the president was greeted by the largest guard of honour ever, comprising 1,300 troops and 120 horses. A lunch, private tour of St George’s Chapel and a Red Arrows flypast followed, before the day culminated in a lavish white-tie state banquet.

All this pomp and pageantry has a purpose and a keen eye can spot meaning in most parts of the itinerary.

For example, there were obvious nods to the government’s priorities for this visit throughout the first day, even before the government meetings began. Prime minister Keir Starmer has wanted to focus on tech and defence, so we saw key business leaders, including the head of Apple and CEO of OpenAI, on the guest list for the state banquet.

There was also a clear focus on defence throughout the first day’s proceedings. As well as inspecting the customary guard of honour, the President took part in the “beating the retreat” ceremony – the first time that this historic military parade has been performed at an incoming state visit.

British and American F-35 fighter jets were part of the aerial flypast and when symbolic gifts were exchanged, Trump presented the king with a replica of a President Eisenhower sword. This, he said, was a “reminder of the historical partnership that was critical to winning World War II”.

But perhaps the government’s objectives were seen most clearly in the speeches delivered during the state banquet. King Charles explicitly reminded the President that the UK had agreed “the first trade deal” of any country with his administration, which he said had brought “jobs and growth” to both countries and hoped would allow for them to “go even further as we build this new era of our partnership”.

Most striking of all, however, were the king’s comments on defence. He explicitly told Trump that “in two world wars, we fought together to defeat the forces of tyranny. Today, as tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine, to deter aggression and secure peace”.

The first day of any state visit is all about royal pageantry, with discussions of politics usually left for day two. This is because in the UK’s constitutional monarchy, the monarch is bound by the doctrine of political neutrality, which means that the king must remain neutral on political matters.

But some have argued that Charles was, with these comments, straying into politics and went too far. The journalist Michael Wolff said the king was effectively correcting Trump over his failure to strike a peace deal in Ukraine and that the President would have been “super irritated” by the intervention.

However, it is important to note that the king’s words will have been chosen carefully for him by the UK government. This is because Charles is bound by the cardinal convention, a constitutional rule according to which he must act on the advice of the government. All his speeches are written by ministers, and this particular speech reportedly went through many drafts to ensure that the king “pushes the right buttons without crossing political lines”.

The button that this speech was designed to push was peace in Ukraine. After his very public spat with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office earlier this year, the UK government has been concerned that Trump is indifferent about who wins the Russia-Ukraine war and favours an appeasement solution with Putin. It wants to get Trump firmly on Ukraine’s side – and thought the king was the best person to deliver this message.

The king is a skilled diplomat whose unrivalled soft power gives him the unique ability to influence some of the biggest political issues of our time. And he seems to get on well with Trump. The king met the President during his first state visit in 2019, wrote to him following his assassination attempt and, unusually, invited him for an unprecedented second state visit with a special hand written note.

There seemed to be genuine warmth between the two men during this second visit. The President, for example, praised the king, describing him as “his friend who everybody loves” and “a great gentleman and a great king”.

And there are signs that this flattery and warmth nullified any potential annoyance over the Ukraine comments. In his own speech, Trump effused that the day was “one of the highest honours” of his life and that “the word ‘special’ does not begin to do justice” to the UK-US relationship.

If the state visit helps increase US support for the British economy and Ukraine, it will be a job well done for the royals.

Francesca Jackson 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. A ceremonial sword and ‘beating the retreat’: decoding the rituals of Donald Trump’s state visit – https://theconversation.com/a-ceremonial-sword-and-beating-the-retreat-decoding-the-rituals-of-donald-trumps-state-visit-265595

September 18, 2025

Can the UK fast-track nuclear power without cutting corners on safety?

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Thomas Haynes, Lecturer in Nuclear Engineering, University of East Anglia

Before the pomp of President Trump’s state visit to the UK, Washington and London announced a series of collaborations on nuclear research and regulation. A reminder to cynics that perhaps these events have some substance.

Britain is already undergoing a nuclear revival. Large power stations are under construction (albeit much delayed) at Sizewell in Suffolk and Hinkley Point in Somerset. Rolls Royce has been confirmed as the supplier for a fleet of small modular reactors (SMRs). These reactors use similar technology to the big power plants, but with all components designed to fit into a single container.

Now, as part of the US-UK deal, we can add proposals to build 12 advanced modular reactors (AMRs), using fundamentally different technology, in Hartlepool.

The UK’s nuclear regulator is therefore being asked to consider radically different designs on a scale and pace never before seen. That’s partly why, as part of the deal, the two countries have agreed to accept each other’s safety checks. The government claims this will “halve the time for a nuclear project to be licensed”. The question is whether this can be done as safely.

Two large cooling towers — With four reactors, Plant Vogtle in Georgia is the largest nuclear power plant in the US.
PrasitRodphan / shutterstock

The US and UK take fundamentally different approaches to nuclear regulation.

The US’s Nuclear Regulation Commission (NRC) takes a “prescriptive” approach. It sets detailed rules based on its own research and enforces them directly.

Like police setting speed limits, the regulator decides the standards and then ensures nuclear operators meet them. If an accident happens, operators can point to meeting every requirement as evidence they followed the rules. They could even legitimately blame the regulator.

The UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) takes a “descriptive” approach. It sets broad standards but leaves operators to prove how they will meet them.

In road terms, the US sets the speed limit and checks drivers obey it. The UK simply says cars must stay on the road, leaving drivers to decide their own limits, prove they’re safe, and take full responsibility if they crash.

These two approaches are driven to a large extent by the two country’s history and make up of their nuclear industries.

The US has a few standard reactor designs, many operators, and vast federal research labs. The UK has fewer, often state-owned (or foreign state-owned) operators running bespoke reactors fleets, with in-house expertise.

The result is that the US’s regulator – the NRC – is large, well-funded, and deeply involved in design and research. The UK equivalent – the ONR – is smaller and focused on critically reviewing the judgement and processes of the operators.

Both systems have worked well. Nuclear regulation and the associated safety record in both countries is regarded as being among the best in the world.

Why collaboration now matters

A sudden surge of new nuclear in the UK would make closer alignment with US regulators more attractive. If the US has already assessed a proposed power plant design, the UK regulator could potentially rely on that evidence rather than duplicate the work. This would avoid bottlenecks and speed up approvals.

The aviation sector already does something similar. Aircraft are certified by either the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or the European Union Aviation Safety Authority (EASA), with airlines around the world trusting those approvals.

There is a strong element of reciprocity, driven by the need for aircraft to fly from one nation to another. The approach makes sense, as it would be absurd for every airline or national regulator to retest the same Airbus wing. Nuclear power, some argue, should move in this direction.

The risk of imported risk

But there are dangers in relying too heavily on foreign regulators. The Boeing 737-Max scandal, in which software error caused two near-identical accidents and left 346 dead, exposed the need to get regulation right. Political pressure and weak oversight at the FAA contributed to design flaws being missed. If the UK simply rubber-stamped US approvals, it could import these risks too.

The nuclear industry has an extra history of mistrust. The US’s 1946 McMahon Act restricted the sharing of nuclear data between the US and UK, and a number of British spies were exposed in the US. Civilian and military technologies overlap, and there is a desire to prevent nuclear proliferation.

So while UK-US collaboration could boost Britain’s nuclear industry and accelerate the path to low-carbon energy, independence and transparency will be essential. Any perception of corner cutting or transatlantic political interference could undermine public trust and derail Britain’s nuclear ambitions.

Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

Thomas Haynes receives funding from Department for Energy Security & Net Zero and the UK Atomic Energy Authority. He is affiliated with the Nuclear Institute.

– ref. Can the UK fast-track nuclear power without cutting corners on safety? – https://theconversation.com/can-the-uk-fast-track-nuclear-power-without-cutting-corners-on-safety-265614

September 18, 2025

Concussion, identity loss, depression: boxing’s toughest opponent isn’t in the ring – it’s mental health

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Helen Owton, Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Psychology, The Open University

Hatton, who won 45 of his 48 professional bouts across an esteemed 15-year career, last fought professionally in 2012. Go My Media/Shutterstock

Ricky Hatton’s death has reignited an all-too-familiar conversation about mental health in sport. Hatton had spoken openly about his long battle with depression, as well as the drug and alcohol addiction that began after his 2007 defeat to Floyd Mayweather.

Research shows that how a boxer thinks – their beliefs about success, identity and failure – can become harmful in the high-stakes context of the sport. The perfectionism and “must-win” mindset mean even a single loss can feel catastrophic.

The constant pressure of “winning at all costs” has negative consequences: for some, losing a fight is not just a professional setback but an identity crisis, laced with shame, guilt and a sense of personal failure.

This danger is especially acute for fighters who rise from humble beginnings to fame and glory. For a boxer, the fear of irrelevance or of being forgotten can trigger depression, anxiety and despair. When vulnerability is seen as weakness, many simply bottle up their emotions, compounding their internal struggle.

Hatton himself acknowledged in 2020 that mental-health problems are widespread in boxing. The sport is brutal by design, subjecting fighters to repeated blunt-force trauma to the head and body. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an accepted risk.

This trauma has been linked to a wide range of acute, subacute and chronic neurological and psychological complications, such as concussion, post-concussion syndrome (when the symptoms of a concussion don’t fade after the usual recovery period but linger for months or even longer), depression, anxiety, cognitive decline and movement disorders, and in some tragic cases even death in the ring.

Repetitive TBI is associated with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive disease once colloquially known as “being punch drunk”. CTE affects memory, mood and behaviour and is among boxing’s most severe long-term health risks.

While head trauma is a physical injury, its impact on mental health is profound. Damage to the brain can impair emotional regulation, increase impulsivity and heighten vulnerability to depression and suicidal thoughts. Yet for all this risk, boxing offers very few long-term support systems – something Hatton himself criticised.

Outside the ring, boxers face other pressures that rarely make headlines. The extreme weight cuts required for competition can alter brain chemistry and destabilise mood. The punishing solitude of training camps and the stress of maintaining a public persona feed into chronic stress.

Then there is the challenge of early retirement. Most athletes have a short competitive life, often retiring in their thirties – a transition many struggle with. Instead of relief, retirement can be a rupture: daily structure disappears, the roar of the crowd fades and with it the sense of purpose, identity and belonging.

With their athletic identities tied so closely to performance and public image, stepping away can feel like vanishing. Many athletes retire without financial security, career direction or a support network, leaving them exposed to loneliness and psychological decline.

Boxing has long offered a ladder out of working-class hardship to fame, fortune and respect. Hatton, like Tyson Fury and Frank Bruno, rose from humble beginnings to become a world champion and national hero.

But the climb from gritty local gyms to Las Vegas spotlights can be steep – and the fall steeper still. The gulf between where fighters start and where they end up can create a deep sense of dislocation. For working-class athletes, the pressure to stay strong, stoic and successful, even when struggling inside, can be overwhelming.

This is intensified by boxing’s enduring culture of hyper-masculinity. The “show no weakness” mentality may breed champions in the ring, but it can be deadly outside it. The sport’s traditional ethos – resilience, toughness, silence – often prevents fighters from seeking help. The stigma around mental health means many endure private battles in silence, where loneliness prevails.

The sport teaches resilience, emotional control, body awareness, the physical self-control that comes from disciplined training, mental focus and self-belief. For some, boxing gyms are sanctuaries that offer structure, mentorship and a reinvention of the self, especially for those overlooked or underestimated by society. But the sport also reveals the danger of fighting your battles alone.

The challenge now is to shift boxing’s culture so that vulnerability weighs as much as valour and to ensure support doesn’t end when the final bell sounds. Initiatives such as The Frank Bruno Foundation offer rare lifelines. Founded after heavyweight champion Bruno’s public battle with bipolar disorder, the foundation uses non-contact boxing and wellbeing programmes to show that true strength also means seeking help.

England’s Box In Mind, backed by Great Britain boxer Jordan Reynolds, who has spoken openly about his own mental-health struggles, urges others not to suffer in silence.

After news of Ricky Hatton’s death, Chris Eubank Snr urged the boxing industry to “look after their fighters”. With proper mental-health support, medical screening, career-transition programmes and open conversations about emotional wellbeing, boxing can continue to transform lives long after fighters hang up their gloves. Winning at all costs should never mean losing yourself outside the ring.

Helen Owton 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. Concussion, identity loss, depression: boxing’s toughest opponent isn’t in the ring – it’s mental health – https://theconversation.com/concussion-identity-loss-depression-boxings-toughest-opponent-isnt-in-the-ring-its-mental-health-265317

September 18, 2025

The Long Walk: a brutal, brilliant film about suffering in the name of patriotism

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Matt Jacobsen, Senior Lecturer in Film History in the School of Society and Environment, Queen Mary University of London

The Long Walk is one of several high-profile film adaptations of Stephen King’s lesser-known works to be released this year, coming out just after The Life of Chuck.

Director Francis Lawrence’s film is adapted from the novella written while the author was at university in the late 1960s – a story wasn’t published until 1979. It was, however, released under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, which King reserved for some of his most unflinching and hard-edged writing.

The setting for this violent thriller is an alternative America in the 1970s, which has suffered economic decline in the aftermath of an unspecified war. A group of 50 young men have been called up to compete in a televised contest, which is intended to inspire patriotism and work ethic among the destitute populace. The rules they must walk continuously at a speed above 3mph, with the threat of execution if any fall behind.

King’s novella is an antecedent to Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games and Takami Koushun’s Battle Royale, both made into successful films. Like The Long Walk, these stories depict a nation whose rulers have gamified and made spectacle the suffering of young people with the aim of encouraging a productive, obedient populace.

Written as an angry response to the Vietnam draft, in The Long Walk, young men must suffer for nationalist ideology. The impact of the Vietnam war on men of King’s generation – he was declared physically unfit for service – resonates throughout his early fiction.

It’s a brilliant choice to distil in this film many of the familiar tropes of the Vietnam movie, here inverted to have the US, not Asia, as the inhospitable, dark and violent environment that is deadly to the young men. Their continuous march feels strangely reminiscent of GIs trudging through Vietnam in films such as Full Metal Jacket or Platoon.

The essence of the film is in the relationship between protagonist Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) and his competitor, Peter McVries (David Jonsson). With its focus on young male friendship, The Long Walk shares DNA with Stand by Me, Rob Reiner’s adaptation of King’s other story The Body.

Like Stand by Me, this film is about male bodily experience, particularly bodies made vulnerable through exertion. At first it mines scatalogical humour like the contestants questioning how to urinate while walking, to gross-out comedy around a contestant with diarrhoea, which later turns horrifying, humiliating and tragic.

This is an interesting film for its release at a time of debate around the activities and values of young men, incel culture and secret online lives, embodied by stories like Netflix’s Adolescence.

In The Long Walk, young men are capable of acts of kindness and generosity, they display vulnerability openly and support each other through struggle. Through playful dialogue and the boys’ wit and tenderness in the face of violence, the film successfully connects us to its characters and renders many of the inevitable and gory deaths horribly poignant.

The Long Walk is clear and overt in its criticism of American cultural experience and political stagnation. Mark Hamill, once the figurehead of youth rebellion in Star Wars, is brilliantly cast against type as the jingoistic Major, who barks like a drill sergeant at the boys. The core values they need, according to the Major’s pro-America creed, are “determination, pride and ambition”.

The film presents a grim vision of the US that is far from the promise of the American Dream. The boy are taken along hundreds of miles of perpetually overcast rural American landscape that is desolate and “one big pile of litter”, as Garraty remarks early on.

Kings prose is sparse, heavy on dialogue and light on description. But here, in this richly shot film, we are continually shown drab depictions of American life: sprawling cornfields, dilapidated industrial buildings, rusted locomotives creaking along tracks, all imbued with the sense that the machinery of the country has ground to a halt. As the boys trudge on, increasingly ragged and physically traumatised, the Major rants obliviously “Where else in the world could you have this opportunity? Nowhere!”

Some of the imagery used to deliver this critique is a little heavy-handed: a flaming Cadillac and a trio of distressed horses galloping behind a barbed wire fence. But the film commits admirably to its presentation of a disturbingly apocalyptic US.

King’s fiction draws criticism for lack of female perspective and it’s an interesting choice that the film keeps this a contest open exclusively to young men. Like Stand by Me and the beloved Shawshank Redemption, this is a story of men bonding without women.

A female perspective is offered in a tokenistic form through brief scenes of Garraty’s idealised mother (Judy Greer), distraught but dignified as her son volunteers. It’s also curious that, like Shawshank, this film focuses on the platonic bond between a white man and a black man while race, – especially the dynamics of race within a military and white supremacist dictatorship – is not mentioned even in passing.

For their core differences in plot and resolution, both King’s story and this excellent film adaptation share in their final moments an ambiguity as to whether nationalist doctrine can be resisted and oppressive systems overthrown. Peter MrVries, the most obviously critically illuminated member of the walking party, comments at one point on the deep-seated conditioning to which the walkers and the rest of the country are subjected.

King’s bleak text is youthfully pessimistic and steeped in the despondent nihilism of the period in which it was written. This bracing, emotionally affecting film is rather more galvanising. It does go some way towards imagining the means of rebellion in the hands of the nation’s youth – even if it doesn’t commit outright to the view that there is power in acts of resistance.

The Long Walk is a brutal, brilliant film that stands among the best adaptations of Stephen King’s work.

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Matt Jacobsen 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. The Long Walk: a brutal, brilliant film about suffering in the name of patriotism – https://theconversation.com/the-long-walk-a-brutal-brilliant-film-about-suffering-in-the-name-of-patriotism-265615

September 18, 2025

Climate change, through your own memories

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Will de Freitas, Environment + Energy Editor, The Conversation

This roundup of The Conversation’s climate coverage was first published in our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter, Imagine.

Two weeks ago we asked our Imagine newsletter subscribers: what climate-related changes have you noticed in your lifetime? We wanted anecdotes, not data.

We received dozens of vivid and often rather moving memories. A big thank you to everyone who contributed.

A few themes stand out, which we’ll illustrate with your words alongside expert analysis from The Conversation.

1. The loss of cold winters

“My father was at university in Cambridge during world war two – he was in the university’s ice hockey team, which practised on the Fens whenever they froze over – there was no need of an indoor ice stadium then!” – Hazel Agnew

“The frost would penetrate 20cm into the ground … such hard frosts are a distant memory.” — Graeme Brown

“I grew up in Hertfordshire. When young, it snowed well every winter, with some drifts above my head. Nowadays, [300 miles north, near Newcastle] we are lucky to see an inch of snow.” – Alan Page

Recollections like these are echoed by many of you: frosts that needed scraping off the windows, head height snowdrifts, frozen puddles to smash through. These are no longer shared, common experiences in the UK.

Scientists studying the UK climate confirm there has been a strong drop in frost and snow days in recent decades. In fact, winter is warming faster than any other season. That’s according to a team of climate scientists from the University of Bristol who we asked to investigate the decline in snow days.

A fast changing climate is more volatile, and there’s always a chance of a “Beast from the East”. But, they point out, “disruptions [like these outlier blizzards] that do occur sit on top of increasing background temperatures, reducing the likelihood of the cold spells that bring widespread snowfall.”

2. Shifting seasons

“There was snow on the ground when I went into hospital in Chelmsford, Essex, to have my first baby on April 18, 1969. The daffodils were finally in bloom when I took him home on May 1. Daffodils are always over several weeks earlier than that now” – Jill Bruce

“Often we’d come back over to Britain [from Trinidad & Tobago] in the height of either summer, or winter for Christmas … Part of why we would come back was the UK had seasons, now we just get nine months of cool to warm drizzle then summers on fire!” – Dean Hill

We have published a lot on seasonal breakdown over the years. Academics have looked at unusual midsummer storms, leaves that linger through autumn,
why April showers are becoming more intense and how that has delayed the annual arrival of swifts.

For more stories like these, check out our series Wild Seasons.

3. Wildlife disappearing

“As a young man driving around the West Country in the summer months in the mid-80s, I would have to stop and scrape a thick layer of dead insects off the windscreen at least once on every journey. Today my windscreen is bug-free for hundreds of miles.” — Steve Tooze

“When I was young every buddleia bush was covered in butterflies during the summer, and I mean covered. We had large flocks of starlings and sparrows on the lawn in our garden during winter. My mother still lives in the same house. She does not see any butterflies on her buddleia now, and no starlings for years, but a very occasional sparrow.” – Andrew Strong

“You hardly see hedgehogs anymore … there have not been any blackbirds or thrushes for even longer.” — Claire Bristol

You told us again and again about butterflies, bees, moths and wasps – once abundant, now rare. You remembered birdsong and hedgerows teeming with life. Small mammals that once wandered quietly through gardens.

Research confirms there has indeed been a steep decline in insect biomass and species diversity. In 2022, for instance, Tim Newbold and Charlotte Outhwaite of UCL wrote about their research which found climate change has triggered a global collapse in insect numbers.

They stress there are winners as well as losers. Freshwater insects are recovering in the UK, for instance. But they say that insects are facing an unprecedented threat due to the “twin horsemen” of climate change and habitat loss, which “do not work in isolation”. “Habitat loss can add to the effects of climate change by limiting available shade, for example, leading to even warmer temperatures in these vulnerable areas.”

This loss goes far beyond insects: the UK is widely regarded as one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries. Richard Gregory, also of UCL, has written about research showing that one in six UK species are threatened with extinction. “Climate change,” he writes, “is among the biggest threats to wildlife in all ecosystems.”

4. A positive change: less pollution?

“The leaves of evergreens were coated with soot, but there were still sparrows. When I first saw a laurel in the countryside, I had to be told what it was, because I didn’t know it with its clean and shiny leaves.

“Pollution was very visible. Hair brushes and combs had to be frequently washed due to the soot on your hair.” – Carole Hegedus

Let’s end on a more positive note. Carole is a few decades older than me and grew up in the same area of London as I did. Yet I recognise none of this. By the 1990s, the coal power stations and factories that once coated the city in soot were long gone. One power station is now a world-famous art gallery. Another is a more controversial shopping centre.

But let’s not rest on our laurels. In a piece marking 70 years since London’s “great smog”, Suzanne Bartington and William Bloss of the University of Birmingham note: “Poor air quality still contributes to somewhere between 26,000 and 38,000 early deaths each year in the UK.” The days of thick smog clouds may be largely behind us (in the UK at least), but Bartington and Bloss warn that “health harms exist even at low pollutant levels and that there is no ‘safe’ level of exposure to PM2.5” (tiny particles invisible to the human eye).

Thank you again for sending such interesting recollections and I’m sorry we couldn’t feature all of them.

I hope this illustrates that the story of climate change isn’t just written in graphs and data, it’s also in frozen puddles, vanishing butterflies and February daffodils.

This roundup of The Conversation’s climate coverage comes from our award-winning weekly climate action newsletter. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed.

– ref. Climate change, through your own memories – https://theconversation.com/climate-change-through-your-own-memories-265514

September 18, 2025

A volcano or a meteorite? New evidence sheds light on puzzling discovery in Greenland’s ice sheet

Source: The Conversation – UK – By James Baldini, Professor in Earth Sciences, Durham University

Buried deep in Greenland’s ice sheet lies a puzzling chemical signature that has sparked intense scientific debate. A sharp spike in platinum concentrations, discovered in an ice core (a cylinder of ice drilled out of ice sheets and glaciers) and dated to around 12,800 years ago, has provided support for a hypothesis that the Earth was struck by an exotic meteorite or comet at that time.

Our new research offers a much more mundane explanation: this mystery platinum signature may have originated from a volcanic fissure eruption in Iceland, not space.

The timing matters. The platinum spike occurs near the beginning of our planet’s last great cold period, the Younger Dryas Event. This lasted from about 12,870 to 11,700 years ago and saw temperatures plummet across the northern hemisphere.

This happened just as the planet had actually been warming up from the last ice age. Understanding what triggered this cold snap could help us understand how Earth’s climate may change in the future.

We propose that this icy phase in Earth’s climatic history was in fact caused either by a large volcanic eruption in Germany or by the eruption of an unknown volcano.

A climate mystery

Ice cores show that during the millennium-long Younger Dryas Event, temperatures across Greenland dropped to more than 15°C colder than they are today. Europe returned to near glacial conditions, with tundra replacing forests that had begun to flourish. Low-latitude rainbelts shifted to the south.

The traditionally accepted explanation involves a massive release of freshwater from melting North American ice sheets. This freshwater pulse disrupted the ocean circulation, affecting temperatures. However, other researchers have proposed that the event was triggered by a comet or asteroid impact over North America.

In 2013, researchers analysing ice cores drilled as part of the Greenland Ice Sheet Project (GISP2) discovered platinum concentrations that were well above normal levels. The ratio of platinum to a radioactive element called iridium was also unusual because space rocks usually have high levels of iridium, while the ice core spike does not. The ice core signature was very different from anything seen in known meteorites or volcanic rocks.

The authors of the space impact paper suggested that perhaps the unusual ice chemistry reflected the impact of an unusual asteroid made up of iron.

A subsequent paper proposed that the ice chemistry could reflect the German
Laacher See volcanic eruption, which had an unusual geochemistry and occurred around that time. To test this idea, we collected and analysed 17 samples of volcanic pumice from deposits left behind by the Laacher See eruption. We measured platinum, iridium, and other trace elements to create a chemical fingerprint of the eruption.

Our results were clear: the Laacher See pumices contain virtually no platinum, with concentrations below or barely at detection limits. Even though some platinum may have escaped to the atmosphere before being trapped in the rock, the eruption was clearly not the source of Greenland’s platinum spike.

Additionally, when we examined the timing carefully, using updated ice core
chronologies, we found the platinum spike actually occurred about 45 years after the Younger Dryas began – too late to have triggered the cooling.

This result was arrived at independently but was consistent with previous research finding the same thing. Importantly, the elevated platinum concentrations lasted for 14 years, suggesting a prolonged event rather than an instantaneous asteroid or comet impact.

We compared the ice core’s chemical signature with various other geological samples and found the closest match was with volcanic gas condensates (the products formed when gases released from a volcano cool from a gas to a liquid or solid state) particularly from submarine volcanoes.

Iceland’s volcanoes can produce fissure eruptions lasting years or even decades, matching the 14-year duration of the platinum spike. During the melting phase that preceded the Younger Dryas, Iceland’s volcanic activity increased dramatically as melting ice sheets reduced pressure on the Earth’s crust.

Crucially, submarine or subglacial eruptions interact with water in ways that could explain the unusual chemistry. Seawater can strip away sulphur compounds while concentrating other elements like platinum in volcanic gases. These platinum-rich gases could then travel to Greenland and be deposited on the ice sheet, explaining the odd geochemistry.

Recent research on historical Icelandic eruptions supports this mechanism. The 8th-century Katla eruption produced a 12-year spike in heavy metals like bismuth and thallium in Greenland ice cores. The 10th-century Eldgjá eruption resulted in a cadmium spike within glacial ice. Although platinum was not measured in those studies, these examples show Icelandic volcanoes regularly deliver heavy metals to the Greenland ice sheet.

Maelifell Volcano, Iceland. It is situated in the Mýrdalsjökull glacier, which covers the central part of the Katla caldera. — Research on Icelandic eruptions show that they can deliver heavy metals to the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Palmi Gudmundsson / Shutterstock

A smoking gun?

Because of the chronological mismatch, whatever mechanism was responsible for the platinum spike didn’t trigger the Younger Dryas. Our research does, however, highlight previous results showing a massive volcanic sulphate spike in multiple ice cores coinciding precisely with the onset of cooling 12,870 years ago.

This eruption, whether from the Laacher See eruption or an unknown volcano, injected enough sulphur into the atmosphere to rival the largest eruptions in recorded history. Volcanic eruptions can trigger cooling by releasing sulphur into the stratosphere, reflecting incoming sunlight and potentially setting off a cascade of positive feedbacks including sea ice expansion, changed wind patterns and disruption of ocean currents, though future research needs to explore this further.

The substantial volcanic forcing around the Younger Dryas onset – a time when climate was already sitting between a glacial and an interglacial (the periods between cold snaps) – may have provided the nudge that tipped Earth’s climate back into a cold state.

It is important to note that our research focused on the platinum spike and did not consider other evidence, such as spherules (spherical fragments of melted rock) and black mats (mysterious dark layers in soil), for an extraterrestrial impact. That said, based on our analysis of the new results and existing data, a large northern hemispheric volcanic eruption seems to be the most straightforward explanation for the Younger Dryas Event.

Understanding past climate triggers is vital for anticipating what lies ahead. Although the chance of a large meteorite impact or volcanic eruption in any given year is low, such events are virtually certain to occur eventually. Knowing how Earth’s climate responded in the past is therefore crucial for preparing for the consequences of the next major event.

James Baldini 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. A volcano or a meteorite? New evidence sheds light on puzzling discovery in Greenland’s ice sheet – https://theconversation.com/a-volcano-or-a-meteorite-new-evidence-sheds-light-on-puzzling-discovery-in-greenlands-ice-sheet-265257