Category: The Conversation – UK

Source: The Conversation – UK – By John Flint, Professor of Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffield

The winner of the 2025 RIBA Stirling prize offers an inspiring blueprint for addressing some of our current housing crises. It is also an opportunity to reflect on long-standing dilemmas in providing appropriate accommodation for all.

Architects Witherford Watson and Mann won the prize, for the second time, for the Appleby Blue development. Run by the United St Saviours Charity in Bermondsey, South London, it provides 57 units of one and two bedroom apartments for residents aged over 65, with 11 units fully wheelchair accessible.

It is explicitly a new take on urban almshouses, which date back to the Middle Ages. Throughout their history, almshouses have primarily provided accommodation for the elderly.

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How the high-rise tower block came to symbolise the contradictions of modern Britain

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The almshouse was historically called a “hospital for the poor”. One of the architect’s behind Appleby Blue, Stephen Witherford, points out the intersections between housing and health crises. Often hospital beds are occupied by elderly people because of a lack of appropriate accommodations that fit their needs, paired with a wider lack of mechanisms enabling elderly residents to downsize from their existing homes, Witherford notes.

United St Saviours Charity can be traced back to 1541. The charity’s modern day specialist staff carry a lineage going back to the initial wardens charged with managing the estate and looking after the poor of the parish.

Appleby Blue attempts to address two intersecting crises: the lack of accessible and affordable housing, especially in London and growing levels of loneliness among older people. We face a paradox, while cities like London become more densely populated social connections between us are seen to have reduced, particularly since COVID-19.

The development was partly funded through Section 106 agreements between Southwark Council and the developer JTRE. These legal agreements ensure infrastructure, services, or affordable housing to mitigate the impact of a new development. This is an important agreement when developers are challenging the financial viability of providing affordable social housing or infrastructure as part of new development programmes.

In addition to a design focused on light and space and technical adaptions enabling residents to live as independently as possible, its principal aim is to foster connections – both between residents and with the wider community.

The new development retains the courtyard that has often been a feature of almshouses. As well as the shared courtyard there is a rooftop garden, and spacious balconies, which are provided as spaces for interaction. Britain has a somewhat chequered history of attempts to engineer sociability through the architecture of public housing, including the use of wide deck access in high rise developments.

However, the development seeks, in the words of the judges, to “combine function and community”. This mission recognises that the cohesive design needs to be complemented by shaping daily practices in a way that reduces isolation. The communal kitchen is at the heart of this and while the development includes resident-only spaces, it also emphasises public communal areas, a welcome contrast to “poor door” mechanisms to segregate social and private homes in some other London developments.

There is a deliberate attempt to promote interactions with the wider local community, including shared cooking and dance classes and singing groups. Intergenerational engagement is particularly emphasised, with a toddler’s group and local school children involved in the social activities. This offers an innovative take on a longstanding dilemma in social housing about whether to aim for allocations that mixed generations and household types or to provide more specialist, but separate, accommodation.

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Read more:
Stirling Prize 2024: a welcome turn towards reuse and retrofit but too safe to represent the UK’s ‘best’ architecture

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Encouraging residents to engage in communal activities has been a constant feature, for example of the housing cooperative movement, with mixed results. But here, the focus is on shared interests and mutual skills development, for example cooking, rather than on volunteering or involvement in the management of the development.

Appleby Blue is also deliberately an ongoing site of research. It includes accommodation spaces for researchers. A study by the University of Bournemouth has evaluated the impact of the development on its residents and other studies are ongoing. This is a welcome reminder about how important robust scientific evidence is in understanding what works in housing for the elderly.

There is much to admire, architecturally and socially, about Appleby Blue. An obvious challenge is the extent to which its specific elements, from affordability to design and specialist support, could be scaled up or replicated more widely given the extent of the crises we face. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t celebrate and learn from its pioneering features, including its lessons for tackling loneliness, which is certainly not confined to the elderly.

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John Flint is not currently receiving funding from an organisation. He has previously received research funding from the UKRI, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Nuffield Foundation, a number of UK Government Departments, the Scottish Executive/ Government, the Welsh Assembly Government and local authorities He is a Trustee of the Housing Studies Charitable Trust.

– ref. Stirling prize 2025: Appleby Blue pioneers affordable social housing tackling elderly loneliness – https://theconversation.com/stirling-prize-2025-appleby-blue-pioneers-affordable-social-housing-tackling-elderly-loneliness-268017

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mike Duggan, Lecturer in Digital Culture and Technology, King’s College London

One of the most prolific science-fiction writers of the last century, Ursula K. Le Guin was revered for her inventive, genre-defying novels. Exploring humanity through philosophy, gender, race and society, her stories were rooted in fantasy worlds for which she often created original maps. Now a new exhibition in London is celebrating the cartographic imagination of this groundbreaking American author.

The Word for World: The Maps of Ursula K. Le Guin reveals how maps were central to the other-world building she was so famous for. Fans will find much to enjoy here, including the opportunity to walk around enlarged screenprints of well-known maps from books such as Earthsea and Always Coming Home. They will also have the chance to pore over unpublished maps and artworks from the Le Guin Foundation archive.

Thanks to the accompanying book of the same name, readers will be be able to absorb a deeper sense of maps as world-making and storytelling devices, as scholars and commentators discuss their significance in Le Guin’s oeuvre.

Much has been said about the ways Le Guin began her writing process by drawing a map, where she would place characters and narratives in the bounded space of an world etched out in cartographic form. This was as much a way for her to imagine a world as it was a technique to structure a story about it.

There is now an established field of maps studies called literary cartography that explores the way writers of fiction, poetry and folklore use maps in storytelling. It also examines how literary maps, printed alongside the stories they shape, are used by the reader as a way into a world and a device for understanding it.

It is here that maps take on a life of their own as they seep into the imagination of the reader, becoming a well-loved and remembered part of the story.

How literary maps circulate

The exhibition tells us about the context in which maps are understood and how maps circulate in society, creating new meanings along the way.

In the gallery space, Le Guin’s maps are looked at in isolation rather than relating directly to a text. They demand a different kind of attention, for there is a different form of visual connection between a viewer and a gallery object than between a reader and a book. So the maps are taken out of their original context and placed in another. But this isn’t to say this new context is any less significant.

My research has shown that the circulation of maps in a society is as important as what’s on the maps themselves. The context of where a map is used, and who it is used by, matters. Those with the power to shape a narrative with a map can have more impact than those that do not.

Consider, for example, the way maps are used in migration debates to show clear delineation of who belongs and who does not. Those with the ability to enforce and debate the border lines shown on the map have far greater power than the migrants that might use the same maps to try and cross them.

Bruno Latour’s immutable mobiles theory resonates here – the idea that what’s on a map remains stable, but the map itself is mobile as it circulates amongst different people with different interests.

Who maps are seen by, how they are understood, and where they end up are key considerations for map scholars. The Word for World exhibition is a good example of where literary cartographies circulate in society, and where new meanings emerge.

Much of Le Guin’s work is grounded in a belief that humans and other species are completely entangled with their natural environments. When read within the context of the story, Le Guin’s maps illustrate these entanglements by showing how the landscapes of her fictional worlds shape the actions of the characters.

When read outside of the book, in the context of the gallery, the role of the map changes despite it showing the exact same thing. It makes me wonder how Le Guin would understand the new ways that her maps are being read here.

This is even more the case when we think about the function of the maps in her stories – creating other-worlds that tell fictional, but no less real, narratives about racial, gendered and environmental politics. What does it mean to extract a map from the thorny issues of these politics, to be recontextualised as an aesthetic gallery object?

There will forever be a tension between the map exhibition and the ways that maps are encountered in books. By definition they are being “exhibited” and put at the centre. And there’s no doubt Le Guin’s maps look impressive here, masterfully hung, printed on deep blue cotton, bathed in warm lighting.

Draped thoughtfully in rows throughout the space is perhaps a nod to being immersed in the cartographic imagination of Le Guin. They are certainly a spectacle that encourages a closer look. But is that enough?

There is a common fascination with maps, partly to do with their complexity and invitation to view one’s self in them, which makes them popular objects to exhibit. It’s no surprise then, that the maps do the heavy lifting here, but they are only half the story of the show.

Understanding them more fully means viewing them alongside reading Le Guin’s books, and the show’s accompanying book, which is so much more than an exhibition glossary. It puts the maps into conversation with critical texts on what they meant to Le Guin, but also how they fit into broader discussions about what maps do in the worlds of our imagination.

The Word for World: Maps of Ursula K Le Guin is showing in the Architectural Association Gallery, London until December 6

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Mike Duggan 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 maps of Ursula K Le Guin reveal a fascinating insight into world-building in fantasy fiction – https://theconversation.com/the-maps-of-ursula-k-le-guin-reveal-a-fascinating-insight-into-world-building-in-fantasy-fiction-267561

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The sugar problem

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

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

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

Strange scans

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My research has found that they have three main triggers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Causes of awakening experiences

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The history of the jewels

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

– ref. Louvre heist: the turbulent history of the stolen royal jewels – https://theconversation.com/louvre-heist-the-turbulent-history-of-the-stolen-royal-jewels-267994

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How satellites observe atmospheric CO₂

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

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

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

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

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

The result

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

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

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

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

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

Why 2023 and 2024 were special

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

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

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

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

Satellite shutdown

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An act of parliament

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Options without parliament

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Simonetta Di Pippo, Director of the Space Economy Evolution Lab, Bocconi University

In the 1960s, Frank Sinatra’s song Fly Me to the Moon became closely associated with the Apollo missions. The optimistic track was recorded in 1964, when US success against the Soviet Union in the Moon race was not assured.

Nevertheless, when the crew of the Apollo 11 mission landed first on the lunar surface in 1969, the Sinatra song became an appropriate tune for an era when, in the West, anything seemed possible.

In the 21st century, the exploration of the Moon will take a different form. Several countries want to go there and stay. The US, China and international partners on both sides have plans to establish permanent bases on the lunar surface – raising the possibility of conflict.

The bases will be located at the south pole of the Moon, which has valuable resources such as abundant water in the form of ice. This ice, locked up in permanently shadowed craters, could be turned into water for use by lunar bases and into rocket fuel to support ongoing exploration and the people living there. The Moon may also have valuable minerals, such as rare earth metals, that countries may want to extract.

But such resources will be limited, as are suitable sites for landing and building lunar bases. The potential for conflict between nations in space is not beyond the realms of possibility.

However, there are measures that can be taken to ensure that the future is a cooperative one. So a song as optimistic as Fly Me To The Moon could serve as the soundtrack to this new age in exploration, just as it did in the 1960s and 70s.

International treaties could be the solution, together with a willingness of countries to operate responsibly. The outer space treaty of 1967 says that space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, or by means of use or occupation. At the same time, article I of the treaty considers space as a global common, and states that the exploration and use of space is for all nations, including its resources.

A vital question is whether the Moon’s water ice be used without some level of appropriation.

Moon agreement

The Artemis accords, a set of guidelines initiated by the US, is a bottom-up attempt to establish a common behaviour. Section 10 of the Artemis accords says that the “extraction of space resources does not inherently constitute national appropriation under Article II of the Outer Space Treaty”.

It also proposes the use of temporary “safety zones” around operations to extract resources. Signatories to the Artemis accords must provide notification of their activities to other nations and commit to coordinating to avoid harmful interference.

However, these safety zones are highly controversial because they could be seen as a breach of the outer space treaty’s non-appropriation principles, to say the least. To some, these zones could create de facto ownership rights over space resources.

As of now, 56 countries have signed the Artemis accords. Thailand and Senegal have signed the US-led accords and are also involved in China’s lunar base project. As such, these nations provide a bridge between the two programmes and hope for collaboration.

The Moon agreement, adopted in 1979 by the UN, also governs how Earth’s natural satellite should be used. There are a lot of interesting features in this treaty, including a call for transparency, with requirements for states to share information about their lunar activities, and an international effort to manage lunar resources.

The aim is to build confidence between signatories to the agreement. Like the outer space treaty, it strictly prohibits the national appropriation of space resources.

A major impediment is that neither China, nor the US nor the Russian Federation have signed up. However, in my view, the Moon agreement provides the best framework for the future – without further treaties or accords. Nations just need to use it. And if one or two articles need a change, they should be changed.

New era

The world is standing on the verge of a new age in lunar exploration. Whether the US or China arrive there first, there is a new will to establish a permanent presence on Earth’s natural satellite. China, along with about ten countries, is planning a base called the ILRS (International Lunar Research Station). Nasa, meanwhile, is developing a lunar station called Artemis Base Camp.

These will take some time to build, but nations are already off the starting blocks. Nasa’s Artemis II mission, which will carry four astronauts on a flyby of the Moon, is set to launch in February 2026. On September 24 this year, the US space agency also announced a new class of astronauts who are likely to fly on future missions to the lunar surface.

These developments show that there is the potential for a more equitable future in space than the one we have experienced in the past. I couldn’t help notice, for example, that of the 10 newly selected astronauts, 60% are women, which is a first.

China recently completed a test of its crewed lunar lander, Lanyue. Its ILRS lunar base project has signed up nations without a long track record in human space exploration.

So how can countries ensure that they capitalise on the promise of a cooperative future in space and avoid transferring existing rivalries – and inequities – beyond Earth’s boundaries?

Replicating the wild west on the Moon, where the first person to arrive claims the the land, is not an option in the 21st century. Humans will all be “terrestrials” when they land on the Moon, regardless of national flags.

Space can be a platform for diplomacy as well as conflict. It can also be a tool for socio-economic development. These are powerful incentives for humankind to act as partners on the final frontier.

Expanding humanity’s footprint beyond Earth is the biggest challenge of this century and beyond. So a global effort to explore outer space collaboratively and peacefully is not only possible, but mandatory.

Simonetta Di Pippo 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 spacefaring nations could avoid conflict on the Moon – https://theconversation.com/how-spacefaring-nations-could-avoid-conflict-on-the-moon-267125

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nada Saadaoui, PhD Candidate in English Literature, University of Cumbria

Jane Austen’s novels are often remembered for their wit, romance and sharp social critique. Yet they are also profoundly geographical works: cities, seaside resorts, country estates and naval towns structure the possibilities and limitations of her heroines’ lives.

In Austen’s world, place equals power. Where a woman could walk, who she might encounter and how her movements were constrained often determined the course of her story. Tracing Austen’s fictional geographies – from Bath’s promenades to Brighton’s dangers, Portsmouth’s naval streets and the expansive grounds of Pemberley – reveals how these locations shaped women’s freedoms, reputations and choices.

For Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey (1817), Bath is both exciting and bewildering. She is “about to be launched into all the difficulties and dangers of a six weeks’ residence in Bath”. The phrase parodies gothic terror while also capturing Catherine’s unpreparedness for the subtler hazards of urban sociability: flattery, pretence and manipulation.

Her early walks are tentative. She dutifully accompanies Mrs Allen to the Pump Room, where they “paraded up and down for an hour … looking at everybody and speaking to no one”. The scene highlights both the possibilities and frustrations of urban walking: exposure to fashionable society without any guarantee of genuine connection.

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This article is part of a series commemorating the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth. Despite having published only six books, she is one of the best-known authors in history. These articles explore the legacy and life of this incredible writer.

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Anne Elliot in Persuasion (1817) moves through Bath with greater clarity. Where Catherine mistakes politeness for affection, Anne recognises the city as a site of display and competition. For her, Bath represents confinement. She longs for the lawns and groves of Kellynch Hall, where she once walked freely: “She disliked Bath, and did not think it agreed with her; and Bath was to be her home.”

Bath’s crowded rooms and choreographed promenades stand in stark contrast to the restorative rural landscapes Anne loves. Through both heroines, Austen portrays the city as a stage on which women must learn to navigate visibility, reputation and choice.

Brighton: risk, display and reputation

If Bath is a space of display, Brighton brims with danger. As a fashionable seaside resort, it promised excitement and opportunity, but for young women it carried real risk.

In Pride and Prejudice (1813), 15-year-old Lydia Bennet imagines Brighton as paradise: “In Lydia’s imagination, a visit to Brighton comprised every possibility of earthly happiness … the streets of that gay bathing-place covered with officers.”

Lydia’s giddy enthusiasm blinds her to danger, and the fantasy ends in disaster. Allowed too much freedom, she elopes with a cad, Wickham, disgracing her family. Yet after the marriage is hastily arranged, she boasts: “I only hope they may have half my good luck. They must all go to Brighton. That is the place to get husbands.”

Lydia’s naïve pride underscores Austen’s critique of Brighton as a site of social peril. This negative portrayal was not accidental: Brighton was strongly associated with the Prince Regent and his notorious lifestyle, whose extravagance Austen quietly mocked, despite him being a big fan. In her writing, the resort embodies a world of unregulated freedom and moral laxity – a place where allure could swiftly lead to ruin.

Portsmouth: naval life and restricted mobility

In Mansfield Park(1814), Fanny Price’s return to her family home in Portsmouth reveals another urban geography, shaped not by leisure but precarity.

This naval town, sustained by war and colonial trade, is crowded, noisy and unstable. Unlike the protected grounds of Mansfield, where walking fosters reflection, Portsmouth’s streets are chaotic and male-dominated, exposing women to scrutiny and risk.

Fanny recoils at her new surroundings: “The men appeared to her all coarse, the women all pert, everybody under-bred.” Walking here is not liberating but “strange, awkward, and distressing״.

When Henry Crawford suggests going for a walk with Fanny, it is treated as rare and functional. Mrs Price admits her daughters “did not often get out” unless “they had some errands in the town”. Henry, wealthy and male, strolls without restriction. Fanny and her sister Susan, by contrast, can only walk under supervision.

Austen uses Portsmouth to highlight how class, gender and geography intersect to restrict women’s mobility and reinforce inequality.

Pemberley: moral geography and possibility

By contrast, the countryside walks at Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice offer Elizabeth Bennet a landscape of harmony and possibility.

Austen describes “a large, handsome stone building, standing well on rising ground״, surrounded by woods, streams and “great variety of ground”. Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle gradually ascend through “a beautiful wood stretching over a wide extent” before their first view of the house. This prompts her famous reflection: “She had never seen a place for which nature had done more … At that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!”

Unlike the artificial grandeur of other estates, Pemberley harmonises with its natural setting, reflecting Darcy’s character. Its “natural importance” conveys authenticity rather than display. Walking here is exploratory and expansive, offering shifting perspectives that mirror Elizabeth’s changing emotions.

Pemberley becomes moral geography: a space whose openness and balance anticipate a union founded on respect, responsibility and freedom.

Across her fiction, Austen maps women’s lives through the spaces they inhabit and traverse. Bath exposes the pressures of visibility, Brighton the risks of temptation, Portsmouth the limits of mobility and Pemberley the possibilities of harmony. Walking, whether through crowded assembly rooms, along seaside promenades or across open parkland, becomes a measure of female agency.

Austen’s mapped worlds remind us that geography is never neutral. It shapes choices, relationships and power. Her novels continue to resonate because they ask a question still urgent today: where, and how freely, can women move?

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Nada Saadaoui 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 Jane Austen’s landscapes mapped women’s lives – https://theconversation.com/how-jane-austens-landscapes-mapped-womens-lives-266878

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Oliver Gingrich, Programme Lead BA (Hons) Animation, University of Greenwich

A film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book The Twits has been promised for more than two decades. The Netflix animation plays to the strengths of the beloved classic, while adapting it to present times. Dark humour, many pranks, twists and turns ensure an enjoyable visual feast.

The film was written, directed and produced by the Oscar-nominated film-maker Phil Johnston, also known for his animated films Wreck-it Ralph (2012) and Zootopia (2016). The Twits is a fast-paced, whirlwind animation that speaks to audiences of all ages.

In this contemporary adaptation, the vindictive Mr and Mrs Twit (Johnny Vegas and Margo Martindale) are joint owners of the dilapidated amusement park Twitlandia. In a reinterpretation from the original plot, the park is now located in America, and its attractions include rides made out of toilets. The derelict rides are powered by the Muggle-Wumps – colourful monkey-like creatures that are held prisoner by the Twits.

The Twits spread their spite towards each other all over their hometown. When Twitlandia gets shut down by the police, they choose to take revenge on the city. Their evil scheming is uncovered by two unlikely heroes, orphans Beesha (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and Bupsie (Ryan Anderson Lopez), who set out to unmask the Twits and free the Muggle-Wumps from their misery.

The story leans on the original while reimagining it for global audiences, combining Dahl’s dark humour with a contemporary tale of public deceit. The Twits remain as intransigently nasty and detestable as in the original book, in keeping with Dahl’s fairytale juxtaposition of good versus evil.

Animation artistry

Some critics have taken issue with the Americanisation of the plot. But from an animation perspective, the film’s craftsmanship and collaborative 3D animation expertise still warrant recognition.

The environment design is complex and visually eclectic. The lighting design, meanwhile, is successfully atmospheric and supports the moody and dark twilight present throughout most of the story world.

Though it has been created through CGI, at first glance the film looks like a stop-motion production. The texture of the animation appears almost realistic if not quite painterly, with an aesthetic reminiscent of the 2014 stop-motion film, Box Trolls. The character designs make original use of what is known as shape language – the effective use of simple shapes in character design to communicate both personality and emotion to the viewer.

A fast-paced story like The Twits would be difficult to tell other than through CGI animation. Set pieces such as a city sinking in hot dog grease, a house being displaced by an angry mob and the magic of the Muggle-Wumps require a wealth of technical animation skills.

The magic of animated feature films stems from a substantial team effort. And a successful animation team requires a supportive ecosystem to thrive. The talent list for this film includes more than 350 highly technically skilled artists across cinematography and layout, 3D modelling, art direction, 3D character design, rigging, 3D environment design, 3D lighting, sound, rendering and other fields.

The Twits was produced by the British animation company Jellyfish Pictures before its animation studio closed its doors forever earlier this year. Against the backdrop of a volatile animation industry landscape, it remains important to ensure a favourable climate for animation companies in the UK through continued access to funding, tax breaks and support for skills development in animation practices.

The UK has a longstanding history in children’s animation from the Woodentops in the 1950s to the many iterations of Noddy’s adventures, to Aardman Animation’s many successes, most notably Wallace and Gromit. The UK remains a leading global centre for children’s animation. It is therefore no surprise that the UK was at the heart of the animation pipeline for The Twits.

Animation UK estimates the UK Animation industry’s value at £1.7 billion, with a workforce of 16,000 and over 800 animation production companies. While there are economic challenges, the sector continues to be fuelled by a diverse, highly skilled workforce in which 93% hold a degree. Regional centres such as the University of Greenwich or the National Centre for Computer Animation provide animation degrees across 2D and 3D animation, in support of a talent pool for animated features such as The Twits.

As an international co-production, The Twits points to the fast-paced changes and challenges the animation industry is experiencing globally. But despite such economic headwinds, The Twits is a case in point for just what a labour of love an animated feature film is.

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Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

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Oliver Gingrich receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Min Young Oh 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 Twits: new Netflix adaptation brings Roald Dahl’s magic to life – https://theconversation.com/the-twits-new-netflix-adaptation-brings-roald-dahls-magic-to-life-267759