Category: The Conversation – UK

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dan Baumgardt, Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol

Acne is one of the most common skin conditions seen in general practice. Acne vulgaris – the most prevalent form – affects more than 80% of teenagers and young adults (in some countries, it may be as many as 95%), and tends to peak around age 18.

But acne isn’t a single condition. It appears in many forms, affects people at different ages, and can be triggered by a range of factors. Acne-like rosacea, for example, is more common in fair-skinned, middle-aged adults.

Acne may also arise from hormonal changes, exposure to certain chemicals, medications, or even from your job or hobbies. What all these types of acne share is inflammation of the skin, which produces spots and lesions of different kinds, from mild to severe.

One of the earliest and most familiar spots associated with acne vulgaris are comedones – better known as blackheads and whiteheads. Our skin is lined with tiny glands that secrete oil to keep it soft and protected. When these glands become blocked with oil and debris, they form comedones. Closed comedones appear white, while open ones darken when the clogged material reacts with air.

At this stage, acne is usually mild and non-inflammatory. Over time, however, blocked pores can become irritated and infected. When this happens, comedones can develop into papules (small, raised bumps) or pustules, which are spots filled with pus. These often become red, sore and inflamed, which helps explain why acne is so frustrating and sometimes painful.

It’s usually at this stage that the urge to squeeze the spots becomes irresistible, but squeezing rarely helps. In fact, it can make things worse, driving bacteria deeper into the skin, leading to scarring and sometimes causing large, painful cysts or abscesses. Inflammation may also trigger patchy changes in skin colour.

The underlying cause of acne in most cases is a bacterium called cutibacterium acnes, which colonises blocked oil glands. During puberty, a surge of testosterone can stimulate increased oil production, making glands more prone to clogging. Hormonal conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome can have the same effect, as can steroid-based medications.

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PCOS affects 1 in 8 women worldwide, yet it’s often misunderstood. A name change might help

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Other variations of acne exist. Acne excoriée is caused by repeated picking or scratching, which damages the skin and leaves scars. Acne cosmetica occurs when oil-based makeup blocks pores.

Then there’s acne mechanica, which develops when skin is irritated by friction, pressure or sweat. This type can affect athletes wearing tight sportswear, backpacks or helmet straps for long periods. Another curious example is “fiddler’s neck”, where violinists develop spots where the instrument rests recurrently on the chin.

A persistent myth is that acne results from poor hygiene. It’s an understandable assumption given that bacteria play a role, but it’s wrong. Acne doesn’t develop because the skin is dirty, and excessive washing or scrubbing can actually make it worse by irritating already sensitive areas.

Treatment

Treating acne can be challenging. There’s no single cure, but there are many ways to reduce how often it appears and how severe it becomes.

Some simple lifestyle changes can help. For instance, it’s best to avoid heavy, oil-based or fragranced products, as perfumes and strong additives can irritate sensitive skin and worsen inflammation. Products labelled “non-comedogenic” are formulated not to block pores, helping to prevent new breakouts.

Diet remains a controversial topic, but some evidence suggests that reducing sugar and processed foods while eating more fruit, vegetables and whole grains may be beneficial for reducing acne.

If these measures don’t help, topical medications are usually the next step. These include retinoids, which are derived from vitamin A and help calm inflammation, reduce oil production and prevent pores from becoming blocked.

Topical antibiotics can reduce the bacteria and inflammation that drive acne, and are often combined with benzoyl peroxide, which unclogs pores and acts as an antiseptic. However, benzoyl peroxide is also a bleaching agent, so it’s best to avoid contact with your favourite pillowcases or nightwear.

If topical treatments don’t work, oral antibiotics may be prescribed. Patience is important here: acne therapies often take six-to-eight weeks to show improvement.

For severe cases, dermatologists can prescribe oral retinoids (Roaccutane). These powerful medications can have serious side-effects and require close monitoring. As retinoids and some antibiotics are harmful to a developing baby, they are unsuitable during pregnancy.

Acne is far more than a cosmetic issue. It can cause lasting physical marks and have a profound psychological impact. Many people with acne experience low confidence, anxiety or depression. For some, mental health support is just as important as medication.

If your acne is getting worse or affecting your wellbeing, it’s important to see a doctor. Acne is common, but that doesn’t make it trivial. With the right treatment plan, and a little persistence, it can usually be brought under control.

Dan Baumgardt 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. Acne: a GP’s guide to understanding and managing it – https://theconversation.com/acne-a-gps-guide-to-understanding-and-managing-it-266652

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Antonio Cerella, Senior Lecturer, Social and Political Studies, Nottingham Trent University

There’s no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) will have a profound impact on our economies, work and lifestyle. But could this technology also shape the way we think and speak?

AI can be used to draft essays and solve problems in mere seconds that otherwise might take us minutes or hours. When we shift to an over-reliance on such tools, we arguably fail to exercise key skills such as critical thinking and our ability to use language creatively. Precedents from psychology and neuroscience research hint that we should take the possibility seriously.

There are several precedents for technology reconfiguring our minds, rather than just assisting them. Research shows that people who rely on GPS tend to lose part of their ability to form mental maps.

London taxi drivers once memorised hundreds of streets before the advent of satellite navigation. These drivers developed enlarged hippocampi as a result of this. The hippocampus is the brain region associated with spatial memory.

In one of his most striking studies, the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky examined patients who suffered from aphasia, a disorder that impairs the ability to understand or produce speech.

When asked to say “snow is black” or to misname a colour, they could not. Their minds resisted any separation between words and things. Vygotsky saw this as the loss of a key ability: to use language as an instrument for thinking creatively, and going beyond what is given to us.

Could an over-reliance on AI produce similar problems? When language comes pre-packaged from screens, feeds, or AI systems, the link between thought and speech may begin to wither.

In education, students are using generative AI to compose essays, summarise books, and solve problems in seconds. Within an academic culture already shaped by competition, performance metrics, and quick results, such tools promise efficiency at the cost of reflection.

Many teachers will recognise those students who produce eloquent, grammatically flawless texts but reveal little understanding of what they have written. This represents the quiet erosion of thinking as a creative activity.

Quick solutions

A systematic review, published in 2024, found that over-reliance on AI affected people’s cognitive abilities, as individuals increasingly favoured quick solutions over slow ones.

A study that surveyed 285 students at universities in Pakistan and China found that using AI adversely affected human decision making and made people lazy. The researchers said: “AI performs repetitive tasks in an automated manner and does not let humans memorise, use analytical mind skills, or use cognition.”

There is also an extensive body of work on language attrition. This is the loss of proficiency in language which can be seen in real-world scenarios. For example, people tend to lose proficiency in their first language when they move to an environment where a different language is spoken. The neurolinguist Michel Paradis says that “attrition is the result of long-term lack of stimulation”.

The psychologist Lev Vygotsky believed that thought and language co-evolved. They were not born together, but through human development they fused in what he called verbal thought. Under this scenario, language is not a mere container for ideas, but is the very medium through which ideas take shape.

The child begins with a world full of sensations but poor in words. Through language, that chaotic field becomes intelligible. As we grow, our relationship with language deepens. Play becomes imagination and imagination becomes abstract thought. The adolescent learns to translate emotions into concepts, to reflect rather than react.

This capacity for abstraction liberates us from the immediacy of experience. It allows us to project ourselves into the future, to reshape the world, to remember and to hope.

But this fragile relationship can decay when language is dictated rather than discovered. The result is a culture of immediacy, dominated by emotion without understanding, expression without reflection. Students, and increasingly all of us, risk becoming editors of what has already been said, where the future is built only from recycled fragments of yesterday’s data.

The implications reach beyond education. Whoever controls the digital
infrastructure of language also controls the boundaries of imagination and debate. To surrender language to algorithms is to outsource not only communication but sovereignty – the power to define the world we share. Democracies depend on the slow work of thinking through words.

When that work is replaced by automated fluency, political life risks dissolving into slogans generated by no one in particular. This does not mean that AI must be rejected. For those who have already formed a deep, reflective relationship with language, such tools can be helpful allies – extensions of thought rather than substitutes for it.

What needs defending is the conceptual beauty of language: the freedom to build meaning through one’s own search for words. Yet defending this freedom requires more than awareness – it demands practice.

To resist the collapse of meaning, we must restore language to its living, bodily dimension, the difficult, joyful labour of finding words for our thoughts. Only by doing so can we reclaim the freedom to imagine, to deliberate, and to reinvent the future.

Antonio Cerella 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 generative AI could change how we think and speak – https://theconversation.com/how-generative-ai-could-change-how-we-think-and-speak-267118

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mags Lesiak, PhD Researcher in Psychological Criminology, University of Cambridge

At first, it looks like love. He’s charming. Always generous, always attentive. He remembers your coffee order, listens to your stories, seems to share your pain. He tells you that you’re the only one who understands him. But as the relationship deepens, the warmth starts to fade. He becomes distant, defensive, unpredictable. You try harder to reconnect. You think: maybe it’s me.

This pattern of affection followed by withdrawal is often mistaken for the natural turbulence of intimacy. In fact, it can be a form of coercive control: a deliberate manipulation of attachment designed to entrap rather than connect.

For decades, survivors who stayed with abusive partners have been labelled by some as codependent or masochistic – blamed for the abuse and asked: “Why didn’t you just leave?” My new research with colleague Loraine Gelsthorpe, published in the journal Violence Against Women, challenges this outdated view.

We conducted in-depth interviews with 18 female survivors of abuse, and discovered a psychological “playbook” – a set of recurring strategies used to gain trust, create emotional attachment, and then use that attachment as a means of control.

Many of the women I interviewed spoke about their experiences of earlier trauma (often childhood neglect, abuse or loss) and how their abusers appeared to share similar experiences. Survivors described feeling deeply seen or “understood” by someone who shared their pain.

The perpetrators used this connection to create a sense of closeness and emotional intensity early in the relationship, but then later used it against their victims. Personal disclosures were turned into weapons – repeated back during arguments, mocked in front of others or used to justify the abuser’s own behaviour.

The study shows that “trauma bonding” is not necessarily a passive response, but rather, an attachment actively manufactured by perpetrators through grooming, trauma-sharing and manipulation – a strategy of control.

In our research, we found a recurring pattern that survivors described as the “two-faced soulmate”: the abuser who appears deeply loving, even soulful, while concealing manipulation beneath warmth.

The women described cycles of unpredictable behaviour: tenderness followed by sudden withdrawal, verbal cruelty softened by moments of warmth.

Like a slot machine, the abuser delivers unpredictable rewards such as a sudden apology, a tender message or a flash of charm – just enough to keep the victim emotionally hooked. Survivors described this cycle as maddening: not knowing when affection would come, but still hoping it would.

This is what behavioural science calls intermittent reinforcement, a powerful way to condition behaviour. When rewards are rare and unpredictable, the brain doesn’t disengage, it craves and tries harder.

The bond that forms isn’t irrational, it’s neurologically reinforced. And that craving, that confusion, becomes the abuser’s tool. They don’t need to use force. The schedule of rewards does it for them.

A rising form of control

In England and Wales, reported domestic abuse is at record levels. In the year ending March 2024, 2.3 million adults experienced domestic abuse – 6.6% of women and 3% of men. While most forms of crime are falling, recorded violence against women has risen by more than a third since 2018.

Reporting of psychological abuse has also increased. In England and Wales, police recorded 45,310 offences of coercive or controlling behaviour in the year ending March 2024 – up from 17,616 in 2017.

These offences capture not physical violence but domination through monitoring, gaslighting, isolation and control over victims’ everyday lives. Research shows that coercive control is now more commonly reported than physical or sexual abuse in many contexts, and is often the primary mechanism of entrapment.

In our study, all participants reported experiencing psychological abuse, and the majority also described episodes of physical violence. However, the emotional control was not simply a parallel form of harm – it was the gateway to later physical abuse.

The emotional attachment through grooming, flattery and trauma sharing created a dependency that made subsequent physical aggression easier to dismiss, deny or endure.

Detecting invisible abuse

All participants in our study were financially independent, lived separately from their abusers and faced no explicit threats. Yet they described feeling emotionally captive – unable to leave the relationship without unbearable guilt, fear or confusion.

Coercive control in relationships isn’t obvious – it can involve subtle shifts in tone, behaviour and emotional volatility. Traditional risk assessment tools used by police are not designed to detect these subtler dynamics, and often fail to register coercive patterns when there is no recent physical violence.

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Even before deepfakes, tech was a tool of abuse and control

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Survivors’ distress may be misinterpreted as personal deficits – “attachment issues”, “poor boundaries” or “emotional instability” – thus shifting the focus on to her psychology rather than his tactics of control. Participants reported being dismissed by therapists, friends and professionals, or told that their reactions were overreactions or signs of emotional fragility, not valid responses to sustained manipulation.

Organisations working with survivors need a broader understanding of abuse that includes the psychological tactics outlined in this research. Signs like emotional compulsion, sudden mood swings or manipulative displays of vulnerability are not “soft” or secondary – they are part of how abusers gain control.

Such behaviour is often missed because it doesn’t leave bruises – yet it forms the emotional infrastructure that keeps victims trapped.

If institutions continue to define coercion only through visible threats or violence, they will miss its most insidious form: control that is designed to feel like love.

This research was conducted as part of a PhD project funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. No additional funding was received specifically for the authorship or publication of this article.

– ref. How domestic abusers use emotional bonding to control their victims – new study – https://theconversation.com/how-domestic-abusers-use-emotional-bonding-to-control-their-victims-new-study-267371

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kathy Hartley, Senior Lecturer in People Management, University of Salford

Many of us will have experienced the rage that comes with being badly treated at work – and maybe even felt the instinct to pack up and leave. Bad bosses, belittling treatment or poor pay could be behind these kneejerk emotions. But, while most employees swallow their anger and get back to work, some walk out in a way that tells their employer exactly how they feel. Welcome to the world of “revenge quitting”.

Unlike “quiet quitting”,“ where workers stay in their job but do only the bare minimum, revenge quitting is about making a loud and visible stand.

It’s a phenomenon that has now spread around the world. Quitters have filmed their exit for social media, sent scathing farewell emails or quit two hours before they were due to teach a class.

These incidents show how revenge quitting can be empowering – a way to reclaim dignity when workers feel ignored or mistreated. But this signals more than increased workplace drama or a generational change in behaviour. It indicates that when riled, some workers are ready to make their exit heard.

Economist Albert Hirschman’s classic 1970 book Exit, Voice, and Loyalty suggested that when dissatisfied, people can either use voice (speak up and complain), show loyalty (put up with it) or exit (leave). Revenge quitting is a form of exit, but one designed to send a message to employers.

Several workplace dynamics increase the likelihood of revenge quitting.

• abusive bosses and toxic environments: research shows that abusive supervision makes workers more likely to retaliate and to quit

• mistreatment by customers: studies also show that rudeness or incivility from clients can spark revenge intentions in frontline workers

• emotional exhaustion: being overworked or unsupported can tip people into retaliatory behaviour, including dramatic resignations

• social media culture: platforms like TikTok provide a stage, making quitting not just personal but performative.

Risks and alternatives

Of course, revenge quitting comes with risks. Dramatic exits may damage future careers, especially in small industries where word travels fast, or if workers quit multiple times after a relatively short stay. For those with in-demand skills or plenty of experience and a history of good performance, the risks may be lower.

So, what are the alternatives?

• voice rather than exit: raising concerns with the HR department, wellbeing leads or trade union representatives (where they exist)

• disengagement: quietly withdrawing, for instance by not spending time preparing for meetings or avoiding extra tasks, as a way of regaining some control.

These alternatives might ultimately harm organisations more than a worker who quits loudly (so long as revenge quitting doesn’t become a wider phenomenon in the organisation). But of course, not everyone who wants to quit can do so.

A 2023 survey found that more than half of workers worldwide would like to leave their jobs but can’t. This could be due to things like financial responsibilities, limited opportunities or family constraints.

Employment relations researchers have called these people “reluctant stayers”. One study found that around 42% of employees in two organisations were reluctant stayers. Others have found that these “stuck” employees often develop plans to retaliate. They may quietly spread negativity or undermine productivity. In the long run, this may cause more harm than revenge quitting.

The effect of revenge quitting is likely to depend on the context. In small organisations, a sudden departure can be devastating. This is especially true if the employee has rare or highly valued skills. Sudden loud quitting may also hurt the colleagues left behind to pick up the pieces.

Larger organisations may experience inconvenience but are likely to be able to absorb the shock more easily. While a loud exit by senior or highly skilled staff may have significant impact, employers will be keen to prevent this, working to resolve problems before things reach breaking point. For this reason, revenge quitting is likely to be more visible among more junior or precarious workers, who often feel less supported.

So what can workplaces do? Revenge quitting can be a sign that traditional employee support systems aren’t working. Many HR teams are already overstretched, and are struggling to meet all the demands placed on them. But still, there are some basic practices that employers can follow.

These include encouraging open communication so employees feel safe raising issues, as well as training managers to avoid abusive or micromanaging behaviour. And although it may seem obvious, unequal workloads and conditions will leave workers disgruntled – it’s important to ensure they are fair. Employers should also recognise the expectations of younger workers, who often prioritise respect and balance.

At its heart, revenge quitting reflects serious issues in a workplace. While leaving loudly can feel empowering for the worker, especially in the heat of the moment, it could be bad news for both employees and organisations.

This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Kathy Hartley 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. Revenge quitting: is it ever a good idea to leave your job in anger? – https://theconversation.com/revenge-quitting-is-it-ever-a-good-idea-to-leave-your-job-in-anger-266823

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Helen E. Nuttall, Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Neuroscience, Lancaster University

Hearing involves more than just the ears – it’s intimately connected to how we think and feel. A recent study has shed light on the possible links between hearing, emotion, and cognition by investigating misophonia, a condition where someone experiences an extreme emotional response to particular sounds.

If you’ve ever felt inexplicably furious at the sound of someone chewing or clicking a pen, you might have some insight into what people with misophonia experience. The triggers can be sounds made by the human body – someone eating crisps, cracking their knuckles, or breathing heavily. But it’s not just bodily sounds; a clock ticking or a dog barking can provoke the same intense reaction.

The emotional responses range from irritation to full-blown rage and disgust. These aren’t just feelings, either. Physically, people with misophonia experience fight-or-flight responses when they hear trigger sounds. For some, the condition becomes so debilitating that they avoid situations where they might encounter these sounds, which can seriously affect their daily lives and relationships.

But why do certain sounds cause such extreme reactions? The new study suggests that people with misophonia may find it harder to switch focus between emotional and non-emotional information – a skill known as “affective flexibility”.

The researchers tested 140 adults with an average age of 30, including both those with clinically significant misophonia symptoms and those whose symptoms didn’t meet clinical thresholds. Participants completed a memory and affective flexibility task, which involved both memory tasks and emotional tasks using pictures rather than sounds.

The participants were asked to switch between remembering details and judging the emotional content of pictures. The researchers found that the severity of someone’s misophonia was associated with their ability to accurately respond to emotional tasks. More severe misophonia was associated with worse accuracy on these tasks, suggesting reduced mental flexibility when dealing with emotional stimuli.

The mind’s echo: why some sounds won’t let go

Based on questionnaire responses, people with more severe misophonia also showed a stronger tendency to ruminate. Rumination refers to getting stuck in negative thoughts about the past, present, or future, which can cause distress.

It’s worth noting that the questionnaires weren’t specifically about ruminating on misophonia experiences – this was a general tendency to get stuck in negative thought patterns.

Rumination is a symptom of various mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. This link between misophonia and rumination suggests the condition may relate to how people process emotions in general, not just how they react to certain sounds.

These findings highlight just how complex our experiences with sound can be. Hearing really is much more than just the ear doing its job. More severe misophonia may be linked to less mental flexibility around emotional situations and a stronger habit of negative thinking.

It’s crucial to understand that these findings reflect correlation, not causation. We can’t say that reduced mental flexibility causes misophonia, or that misophonia causes reduced flexibility. The relationship could work either way, or both could be influenced by some other factor entirely. Still, the researchers suggest these findings may help inform how misophonia is diagnosed in future.

There are some limitations to consider. The memory and affective flexibility task is new as of this year, so there’s limited data on how well it works. It would also be useful for future research to use sounds instead of images to better understand how visual versus auditory emotional stimuli relate to misophonia. The study also didn’t use a control task to compare emotional task switching with non-emotional task switching, which would have strengthened the findings.

Misophonia remains an underexplored area of research. We don’t really know how common it is worldwide, and research into treatment is still in early stages. There’s even debate about which disorder classification misophonia should be grouped into, if any.

For people with misophonia, the condition can seriously disrupt everyday life. A deeper exploration of the diversity in hearing experiences will be key to understanding how people process sound and how best to relieve the discomfort it brings.

Helen E Nuttall receives funding from UKRI, the Vivensa Foundation, North West Cancer Research, and Rosemere Cancer Foundation.

– ref. Misophonia: having strong negative reactions to certain sounds is linked to mental inflexibility – https://theconversation.com/misophonia-having-strong-negative-reactions-to-certain-sounds-is-linked-to-mental-inflexibility-266844

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Ligin Joseph, PhD Candidate, Oceanography, University of Southampton

Across India, torrential rains over the past few months have swallowed an entire village in the Himalayas, flooded Punjab’s farmlands and brought Kolkata to a standstill. This all happened in a monsoon season in which total rainfall was technically only 8% above normal.

Climate change is not simply making India’s monsoon wetter. It’s making it wilder – with longer dry spells and more extreme downpours.

The Indian summer monsoon, which delivers about 80% of the country’s annual rainfall, usually sweeps in from the Arabian Sea in early June and retreats at the end of September. Growing up in India, I remember the joy of watching the rains arrive each year, the scent of wet earth and the relief they brought after a scorching April and May. Those memories still live in me. But today, the same monsoon that once filled our rivers and hearts with hope now brings fear and uncertainty.

This year, the monsoon arrived a week early, the fastest onset in 16 years. However, an early start does not necessarily translate to higher rainfall totals for the season. The modest 8% above average hides the real story: many regions experienced unusually intense and frequent downpours.

In the Himalayan village of Dharali, for instance, a cloudburst in early August triggered flash floods that left the local market buried under sediment as high as a four-storey building. Most parts of the village were completely washed away. Scientists suspect melting glaciers and cloudbursts – both linked to a warmer climate – were to blame.

In Punjab, a state of 30 million people often called India’s “food bowl”, heavy rains drowned crops across an area roughly the size of Greater Manchester. All 23 districts of the state were affected.

Scientists say the deluge was driven by an unusual interaction between regular monsoon weather systems and “western disturbances” – storm systems that originate in the Mediterranean and typically influence India’s weather in the winter. Their overlap this year amplified rainfall across northern India.

On the other side of the country, the huge city of Kolkata was not spared either. Some areas received 332mm of rain in just a few hours, more than half of what London gets in a whole year. The rains fell just before the major Hindu festival of Durga Puja, paralysing the city. The culprit was another low-pressure system that formed over the Bay of Bengal and carried vast amounts of moisture inland.

While the south escaped the worst flooding, cities such as Mumbai and Vijayawada also saw intense cloudbursts, demonstrating the spread of extreme rainfall.

Why the monsoon is becoming more extreme

Each disaster was driven by the same underlying trend: a warmer atmosphere that can hold more moisture. For every degree of warming, the air can store about 7% more water vapour – and when that moisture is released, it falls in heavier downpours over shorter periods. This trend is now clearly visible in India’s monsoon data.

The number of extreme rainfall days, when daily totals exceed the top 10% of the long-term average, has risen sharply across southern and western India since the 1950s. Some regions, meanwhile, are receiving less overall rain but in stronger and more erratic bursts, meaning both droughts and floods can be a threat in the same season.

Scientists have also noticed shifts in the monsoon’s circulation and in the low-pressure systems that drive it. Climate change is pushing the whole monsoon system westward, increasing rainfall over typically arid northwestern India, while decreasing rainfall over the traditionally wetter northeast.

All this extreme rainfall is turning the monsoon from a friend into a foe. Unless we act responsibly to limit greenhouse gas emissions and become more resilient to the consequences of a changing climate, the season that sustains life across India may increasingly threaten it.

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Ligin Joseph receives funding from the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc).

– ref. Why India’s monsoon is becoming more extreme – even though overall rainfall has hardly increased – https://theconversation.com/why-indias-monsoon-is-becoming-more-extreme-even-though-overall-rainfall-has-hardly-increased-267159

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Athina Vlachantoni, Professor of Gerontology and Social Policy, University of Southampton

About two-thirds of people in the UK will become grandparents during their lifetime. Half of those grandparents will provide some form of care to their grandchildren. But who makes up that half depends on a number of factors. One of these is ethnicity.

Understanding the extent to which parents from different communities in society rely on other people – such as paid-for childcare or their own parents – for the care of their children is an important question from a number of perspectives.

It tells us about the demographic composition of society. It reflects embedded cultural norms and expectations about caring for young children in the family.

Our analysis of the UK’s largest household dataset, the UK Household Longitudinal Study, showed that parents from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and African communities were less likely to use childcare provided by other people, including grandparents, than parents from white British communities. The reasons behind these differences are complex and could relate to other aspects of their lives.

To start with, employment rates among people – particularly women – from minority ethnic communities are lower on average than those of people from white British backgrounds. This could point to parents from minority ethnic communities being more likely to be available to provide care for their children, and having less need to rely on grandparents.

Nearly two-thirds of children in the white British group have a working mother, compared to 17% of children from Bangladeshi families. This means that white British mothers are more likely to depend on childcare, including from grandparents.

What’s more, the Office for National Statistics has shown that workers from Asian and Black communities were less likely than white workers to be managers, directors or senior officials. Workers from Black communities were more likely to work in caring, leisure and other service occupations.

This suggests that people from ethic minority backgrounds may have less disposable income to spend on paid childcare. They therefore may take time off work to look after children rather than looking to grandparents to fill in the gaps between periods of paid childcare.

However, these differences could also point to cultural norms within different communities. Our research shows that only Caribbean parents were more likely than white British parents to use childcare – defined as care for the child by anyone other than the parent or their partner. However, this care is less likely to be from grandparents than it is for white British and other ethnic groups.

Cultural reasons about who should care for young children could also interact with demographic and socio-economic factors to result in ethnic differences.

For example, our research also showed that 28% of white British children have no siblings, compared to 13% and 15% of Pakistani and Bangladeshi children. Having more children could lead to their mother spending more time looking after children at home, with less need to rely on grandparents.

Another explanation may relate to grandparents’ health. Research from the University of Southampton’s Centre for Research on Ageing has shown that – despite years of targeted governmental efforts – ethnic differences in health in later life remain.

For example, Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi men are between two and four times more likely to report their health as limiting their typical activities than white British men. Pakistani women are 11 times more likely to report limiting health than white British women.

This means that grandparents from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to be in good health. They may be physically less able to look after children than grandparents from white British communities.

However, in countries such as the UK, where the average cost of paid-for childcare is relatively high, the availability of grandparental childcare could form a pivotal way to allow working-age parents to enter and stay in the labour market for longer.

It’s also worth considering that providing childcare can take a toll on grandparents. It has a benefit for wellbeing for grandmothers, but only for the first grandchild.

Grandparental childcare is an important part of the caring ecosystem for many families in the UK. Closer attention to grandparent care and how it is experienced differently in different ethnic communities can offer a more nuanced understanding of healthy ageing, family bonds and labour market participation.

Athina Vlachantoni receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council.

Maria Evandrou receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.

– ref. White British families more likely to depend on grandparents for childcare – our research explores why – https://theconversation.com/white-british-families-more-likely-to-depend-on-grandparents-for-childcare-our-research-explores-why-253177

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rahul Sidhu, PhD Candidate, Neuroscience, University of Sheffield

Alzheimer’s is a disease that robs people of their memory, and scientists have long sought ways to stop or reverse its effects. But the blood-brain barrier – the brain’s protective shield – has been both a friend and a foe. While it keeps harmful substances out, it also blocks many treatments from getting in.

Now researchers are trying a different approach. Rather than bypassing the barrier, they’re learning to work with it.

A new study shows that a single injection of specially designed nanoparticles can dramatically reduce levels of a toxic protein in the brains of mice. The protein, called beta-amyloid, is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. It forms sticky clumps that disrupt communication between brain cells and trigger damage.

The innovation doesn’t attack the protein head-on. Instead, it targets the brain’s blood vessels, essentially reprogramming their transport systems to carry the toxic protein out of the brain.

Scientists at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Spain and Sichuan University in China, created tiny nanoparticles coated with a molecule called angiopep 2. This molecule latches onto LRP1, a protein that naturally helps move beta-amyloid out of the brain and into the bloodstream.

The key lies in precision. The researchers had to attach exactly the right number of angiopep 2 molecules to each particle. Too few, and nothing happens. Too many, and the LRP1 protein gets pulled inside cells and destroyed. Get it just right, and LRP1 guides beta-amyloid across blood vessel walls and out of the brain.

When tested in mice genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s-like changes, a single injection decreased beta-amyloid levels in the brain by 45% within two hours. At the same time, the protein surged in the blood, showing it was being actively transported out. Brain scans confirmed the shift.

The benefits went beyond just reducing toxic protein. Tests showed that treated mice performed as well as healthy mice on learning and memory tasks. They also regained interest in everyday activities like building nests and choosing sweetened water – subtle signs their brains were functioning better.

Microscope images revealed how the treatment worked. After injection, more LRP1 proteins appeared on blood vessel surfaces, and fewer were being sent to the cell’s “recycling bins”. Other proteins shifted to favour routes that carry materials across blood vessel walls. In essence, the brain’s natural clearance system was being restored.

Most Alzheimer’s treatments focus on breaking down plaques or preventing their formation. Antibody therapies like lecanemab and donanemab can slow cognitive decline modestly, but they require repeated doses and carry risks such as brain swelling.

Other approaches aim to protect neurons or reduce inflammation. But few target the blood vessels themselves. This new method doesn’t bypass the blood-brain barrier – it repairs and reprogrammes it. The barrier becomes part of the treatment, not just an obstacle.

However, there are important caveats. The experiments involved only a few mice, and some statistical analyses may not fully account for repeated measurements from the same animals. The mice also carried genes linked to a rare, inherited form of Alzheimer’s, which doesn’t reflect how the disease typically develops in humans.

Mouse brains and blood vessels aren’t identical to human ones. What works in mice doesn’t always translate to people. These results need repeating in larger studies, and significant research lies ahead before this approach could be tested in humans.

Conceptual shift

Despite the limitations, the research represents a conceptual shift. Rather than viewing the blood-brain barrier as a wall to overcome, scientists are learning to harness it. If similar strategies work in humans, they could offer a new way to slow or even reverse aspects of Alzheimer’s by focusing on the brain’s own transport systems.

It also opens broader possibilities. Many neurological conditions involve disruptions in blood vessels or blood-brain barrier function. Learning to work with blood vessels could have implications far beyond Alzheimer’s.

For patients, this offers a glimpse of a future where brain blood vessels aren’t passive tubes, but active partners in treatment. The study provides proof of concept for a potential new class of therapies. But translating success from a handful of mice to human patients will require much more work.

Rahul Sidhu 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. New nanoparticle treatment helps brain to clear toxic Alzheimer’s proteins in mice – https://theconversation.com/new-nanoparticle-treatment-helps-brain-to-clear-toxic-alzheimers-proteins-in-mice-267254

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Francesco Grillo, Academic Fellow, Department of Social and Political Sciences, Bocconi University

“The European green deal is something we owe to our children because we do not own this planet.” These words date back to a few days before Christmas 2019. They defined Ursula Von Der Leyen’s first presidency of the European Commission but belong to what now seems like a different era.

Now, six years later, after the COVID-19 pandemic and one (still ongoing) war in Europe, what is left of the European green deal? How can we fix what does remain of it? And why are European voters suffering “climate fatigue” if climate change is accelerating? These are some of the questions that a forthcoming conference in Venice will try to address.

Acting to ensure the planet is habitable for our children is undoubtedly a moral imperative. However, for the EU it is one that requires at least two distinct (albeit connected) strategies.

The first is reducing greenhouse emissions in Europe. The second is convincing the rest of the world to do something with the 94% of the CO₂ emissions that are produced outside Europe.

The history of the last ten years shows relative success on the former but far less on the latter. This may go some way to explaining why European voters are becoming frustrated – they feel they are doing their part and yet find themselves exposed to a crisis that is largely generated elsewhere.

Since the Paris agreement, which promised net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050, the world has increased its pollution by 10%. In that time, the EU has cut its own by 13%. That said, Europe had started down this path long before it was binded into action by the Paris agreement. It had already cut emissions by 20% between 1990 and 2016.

Much of this progress is due to Europe’s comparatively weak economic growth and the pressure on European industries to avoid the costs of energy imports. According to a recently published paper the EU has done better than anybody else (if we consider the last 25 years) in terms of raising the percentage of energy consumption coming from renewables – even if it lags behind China on electrification.

This is a strong result but the EU has missed a number of important innovation trends that would aid the transition and reshape its economy in the process. China is still the greatest polluter but it is dominating parts of the renewables supply chain.

The EU dominates the ranking when it comes to the share of energy consumption coming from renewables. And yet it is China that dominates the supply of both solar panels and wind turbines.

Climate leadership

More worryingly, the EU has done very little to influence the speed at which the rest of the world is dealing with emissions. It should have made more of its emissions successes as a diplomacy tool to urge others to speed up their own transitions but it continues to struggle to find its place in a rapidly changing world.

Europe has often aligned itself with its greatest ally, the United States – such as in debates around the creation of the fund meant to compensate developing countries for “loss and damages” from climate change.

With the US now disengaging, Europe will be forced to find new partners at the next COP – and it does not appear to have come to terms with this challenge. In a recent example, Wopke Hoekstra, the EU climate commissioner, hit out at China for failing to set sufficiently ambitious climate targets while the EU has failed to set out its own.

Climate change doesn’t divide the world into good and bad – it separates the innovators from the defenders of the status quo. EU policymakers have mistakenly viewed climate change as merely a bill to pay rather than a chance to change. It focuses on regulations that companies and citizens need to comply with rather than the investments needed for creating endogenous industries and technologies.

This approach has backfired. Recent elections appear to have punished green parties and rewarded climate sceptics. However, European climate fatigue is at least not about denying climate change itself so much as questioning the approach being taken. That is something to work with. But Europe needs new ideas – and they may have to come from outside the Brussels bubble.

Francesco Grillo is affiliated with Vision, the think tank.

– ref. Climate change divides the innovators from the defenders of the status quo – Europe must decide which it wants to be – https://theconversation.com/climate-change-divides-the-innovators-from-the-defenders-of-the-status-quo-europe-must-decide-which-it-wants-to-be-267355

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Aviva Guttmann, Lecturer in Strategy and Intelligence, Aberystwyth University

When Israel launched its attacks on Iran in the early morning of June 13, many news reports marvelled at the quality and ingenuity of its intelligence agencies in enabling the Israel Defense Forces to strike with such precision. But one element was not talked about in any detail: Israel’s network of relationships with other countries’ intelligence agencies and their contribution to these covert operations.

This cooperation, while critical, can come with a price. It inevitably means a degree of reliance on other countries. Intelligence partners can decide to stop cooperation at any point, which would leave Israel vulnerable to geopolitical shifts that could threaten these relationships and limit its striking capacities.

June’s surgical military interventions against Iran concluded a round of successes against its regional foes. These included the pager attack against Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as assassinations of top Hamas officials, including its political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran in July 2024.

All three of Israel’s security agencies were involved: Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency; Shin Bet, its domestic intelligence agency; and Aman, Israel’s military intelligence division.

Media reports from specialist journalists have revealed some impressive technological advancements. These included using artificial intelligence (AI) to sift through and connect millions of data points to determine targets. Israeli intelligence analysts also used spyware to hack into the phones of the bodyguards of Iranian leaders.

Aman and Mossad have also been adept at recruiting commandos from within local opposition groups. It used these to knock out Iranian air defence installations in the early hours of the first day of the attack.

Israel’s intelligence services are also very good at letting people know just how accomplished they are. It all burnishes their reputation. But much of the time those accomplishments are earned with the help of intelligence from friendly services.

This is nothing new, as I discovered while researching my recent book about Operation Wrath of God. This was the campaign of retribution that followed the Black September murder of members of the Israeli Olympics team at the 1972 summer games in Munich.

While searching the Swiss national archives, I found a large cache of encrypted telegrams that had been shared in a network called Kilowatt. This network involved 18 countries and shared information such as the movements of specific Palestinian people identified as terrorists, including the safe houses and vehicles they used.

Mossad was part of Kilowatt and could use the intelligence it received from European partners to plan and carry out its targeted assassinations in Europe. There is also ample evidence in the cables that western governments knew what Mossad was using the intelligence for.

Israel’s global net of spy friends

The US has historically always been one of the closest intelligence partners of Israeli intelligence. According to studies by the Israeli investigative journalist Ronen Bergman and the American journalist Jefferson Morley, an expert on the CIA, this intelligence-sharing liaison dates back to the early 1950s.

There are numerous cases of Israel calling on US assistance in carrying out targeted assassinations. This relationship endures to this day. Most recently, immediately after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, US intelligence dispatched a special unit to assist the IDF in the war in Gaza and established intelligence-sharing channels with Israel to help locate top Hamas commanders.

Mossad has also worked with Arab intelligence agencies over the years. Meir Dagan, the director of Mossad from 2002 to 2011, set up a highly effective regional spy network during his tenure. Bergman has documented how this network enabled Israeli intelligence to significantly extend its operational reach. This enabled Mossad and Aman to identify, track and strike at targets in Lebanon and Syria.

These relationships operate despite Arab countries often outwardly condemning the actions of Israeli governments at the UN. For example, the Washington Post recently reported Arab states actually expanded their security and intelligence cooperation with Israel.

While talking about “genocide” in Gaza, countries such as Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were sharing data. This relationship also involved cooperation with the Five Eyes intelligence partnership of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

According to documents obtained by journalists, the partnership, which was named the “Regional Security Construct” by the US, began in 2022 and continued even after Israel began its military operation in Gaza. But Israel’s strike on Qatar in early September, in an attempt to kill senior Hamas representatives meeting there, threatened to disrupt the partnership.

It is thought that anger from Gulf states after the attack was a key factor in focusing US pressure on Israel to agree to make a deal in Gaza. Cooperating to combat the regional threat from Iran is clearly one thing. Threatening the security of Qatar, an important player and key US ally in the Gulf region, is quite another.

Israel’s much-vaunted intelligence capabilities have always relied on some help from its friends. That is unlikely to change. The critical question is the extent to which it can retain the trust of its covert allies. As the past has shown, even in a climate of condemnation and isolation, intelligence cooperation with Israel has remained unaffected.

Strong intelligence connections have often helped overcome moments of crisis. Informal intelligence-sharing arrangements with regional powers, which are kept entirely secret, plausibly denied, and minimally documented, are thus especially crucial now as the region looks to heal its wounds after two years of bitter conflict.

Aviva Guttmann 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 Israel’s famed intelligence agencies have always relied on help from their friends – https://theconversation.com/how-israels-famed-intelligence-agencies-have-always-relied-on-help-from-their-friends-264818