Category: The Conversation – UK

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kerrie Holloway, Research Fellow in the Humanitarian Policy Group, ODI Global

After heavy rains, a landslide “completely levelled” a remote village in western Sudan in early September. It was the temporary home of hundreds of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had fled the conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, to what they had hoped would be a safe location. In all, more than 1,000 people are feared to have died in the landslide.

At the end of 2024, more than 80 million people were living in internal displacement worldwide. While more attention is usually paid to people who cross borders and become refugees, the reality is most people who are displaced stay within their own borders as IDPs.

A changing climate and the associated extreme or erratic weather affects everyone living in the same region – but it does not affect everyone equally.

IDPs have specific vulnerabilities because they’ve been displaced. They are likely to have used up whatever money and other assets they had prior to their displacement, leaving them unable to make the same adaptations as those who have not been displaced.

---

Wars and climate change are inextricably linked. Climate change can increase the likelihood of violent conflict by intensifying resource scarcity and displacement, while conflict itself accelerates environmental damage. This article is part of a series, War on climate, which explores the relationship between climate issues and global conflicts.

---

In northern Mozambique, the centre of a jihadist insurgency since 2017, hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes – with many seeking refuge in the port city of Pemba. After their houses were destroyed by a cyclone in 2019, IDPs living in Pemba rebuilt temporary structures. But when these were burned down by insurgents, the IDPs were left with nothing at all.

Research I carried out with ODI Global colleagues on the city of Herat in western Afghanistan found that people who had not been displaced by conflict were able to make simple lifestyle changes during periods of drought and extreme heat. These included switching to clay or earthenware jars to keep their water cool, or buying air conditioners.

But IDPs were unable to make similar adjustments. Their coping strategies focused more on reducing consumption, such as skipping meals or no longer eating meat.

When IDPs arrive in a new area, the only land available to settle on is often free to use because no one else wants to live there. In Mosul, a city in northern Iraq, stagnated reconstruction following the liberation of the city from the Islamic State militant group in 2017 has resulted in a scarcity of adequate housing. This has left many IDPs residing in unfinished or makeshift shelters on unpaved roads that are prone to flooding during heavy rains.

And in Mocoa, where a large number of people moved after fleeing Colombia’s longstanding civil conflict, IDPs settled in an area susceptible to landslides as it was the only place with cheap accommodation and land available for building. A landslide in 2017 killed more than 300 people there, destroying several neighbourhoods that were populated almost entirely by people displaced by conflict.

Furthermore, IDPs are often overlooked in whatever disaster management or disaster risk reduction plans may exist. Low literacy or speaking a different native tongue – both common traits among displaced people – can result in them not heeding early warnings when they are given.

Evidence shows that early warning systems can be effective for displaced people who have sought refuge abroad. In Bangladesh, for example, Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are included in the national early warning system, allowing them to strengthen their shelters and stockpile food before cyclones hit.

However, early warning systems are only effective if they are implemented and understandable to all of the communities at risk. The UN’s Early Warnings for All initiative, which aims to ensure everyone has access to early warning systems for hazardous weather or climate events, has only been implemented very slowly. This is particularly true in the countries most vulnerable to climate change.

Reducing the risk

Reducing the vulnerability of displaced people to climate change and related extreme weather is no easy task. It will require decision-makers – humanitarian and development aid workers, government officials and local city planners – to listen and learn from what local populations are already doing to adapt and build their own resilience.

Indigenous knowledge has a huge role to play. But people who have just moved to a new area may not know about – or be capable of making – the same adaptations as people who have lived there for generations.

There are also limits to individual adaptation, of course. Displaced people need to be included in any disaster risk reduction or risk management efforts, as well as in national adaptation plans.

Yet in 2023, the OECD found that nearly three-quarters of all national adaption plans (31 of 42) did not address the effects of climate change on people who were already displaced. And this research did not include countries with high levels of displacement which lack national adaptation plans altogether.

Unless these issues are addressed, there will continue to be tragedies on the scale of the one seen recently in Sudan.

Kerrie Holloway works for ODI Global, which receives funding from many organisations and governments. Most of our climate-related work has been funded by GIZ, BHA and the Ikea Foundation, though other donors also contribute through our central funding mechanism.

– ref. Why people displaced by conflict are particularly vulnerable to climate risks – https://theconversation.com/why-people-displaced-by-conflict-are-particularly-vulnerable-to-climate-risks-264647

Source: The Conversation – UK – By John Everett Marsh, Reader in Cognitive Psychology, University of Lancashire

You’re in the supermarket. Imported beef mince, shrink-wrapped vegetables and cleaning spray are already in your basket. Then you toss in some organic apples and feel a flicker of moral relief. Surely that small green gesture lightens the load?

Not quite. Objectively, every extra product increases your carbon footprint. But psychology research reveals a curious illusion: when we add eco-friendly items, we often judge our shopping basket as having less impact on our carbon footprint than before.

This mental glitch is called the negative footprint illusion, and it matters for how we shop, how businesses market themselves and how governments design climate policies.

The illusion has been demonstrated across dozens of studies. In a typical experiment, people are asked to estimate the carbon footprint of 150 standard houses. Then they estimate the footprint of those same houses plus 50 eco-houses. Mathematically, the second total must be higher – there are simply more houses. Yet participants often judge the mixed set as lower.

In other words, adding a “good” item doesn’t just seem to cancel out a “bad” one. It creates a false impression that the total footprint has gone down, when in reality it has gone up. And the more “green” items you add, the stronger the illusion becomes.

What’s striking is how stubborn this bias is. It occurs among people with strong environmental values, people with scientific training and even among experts in energy systems. Education and numeracy don’t protect us. This isn’t a problem of knowledge, but of how the mind simplifies complex judgements.

Why does it happen?

The main culprit is averaging. Instead of adding up the total impact, we unconsciously average the mix. Toss in a few low-impact items and the “average impression” improves, even though the overall footprint goes up.

Our memory also plays tricks. If a sequence ends with an eco-friendly item, that last impression weighs heavily and colours the whole set. Likewise, when items are arranged irregularly, we find it harder to keep track of how many there are, so we default to averages rather than totals.

Psychologists have long shown that even when people are told about a bias, they often fall right back into it. Our latest experiments suggest the same applies to the so-called negative footprint illusion. That suggests it isn’t just sloppy reasoning but a deeper mental tendency: the mind simplifies.

The illusion may seem harmless in a lab, but it has real-world consequences when it comes to shopping, for example.

Businesses have also learned, consciously or not, to exploit this bias. A fast-food chain might showcase paper straws while still promoting beef-heavy menus. A hotel might advertise its towel-reuse policy while quietly expanding its energy-hungry facilities. These green cues create a halo that spills over to the whole brand.

Even well-intentioned policy nudges can misfire. Offering more green-labelled choices is often assumed to drive better behaviour. But if those choices mask the real cost of consumption, they may backfire – encouraging people to consume more under the false impression of virtue.

Can it be fixed?

The good news is the illusion can be reduced. One promising approach is “summative priming”: nudging people to think in totals rather than averages. In experiments, participants who first completed simple “totalling” tasks were later more accurate in judging carbon footprints.

Research shows that when eco-friendly items appear at the end of a list, they distort overall impressions more strongly. Placing them earlier makes the illusion weaker. Likewise, when items are arranged in a regular, predictable structure, people find it easier to keep track of totals and are less prone to averaging errors.

These tweaks won’t eliminate cognitive bias entirely, but they show that design matters. Product labels, online platforms and policy communications can all be shaped to help people think in terms of totals rather than averages.

Climate change is driven by millions of everyday decisions: what we buy, what we eat, what we throw away. Understanding the psychological biases behind those decisions is essential.

The negative footprint illusion reminds us that even well-intentioned, environmentally conscious people can misjudge the true impact of their actions. Simply offering more green options isn’t enough. If those options distort our perceptions, they may slow genuine progress.

The challenge, then, is not only to provide information – carbon scores, eco-labels, green badges – but to present it in ways that match how people actually think. That means designing interventions that highlight totals, not averages, and that help consumers see the cumulative impact of their choices.

Climate change is a global problem, but it is fuelled by small misjudgments at the individual level. By recognising how our minds work, we can design smarter tools, better policies and more honest messages – and nudge ourselves towards the sustainable future we urgently need.

---

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

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

---

John Everett Marsh is a Reader in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Lancashire in the UK. He is also a Visiting Associate Professor at the Luleå University of Technology in Sweden and Bond University in Australia. He receives funding from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.

Patrik Sörqvist receives funding from Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and The Swedish Energy Agency.

– ref. How our minds trick us into thinking we are being greener than we really are – https://theconversation.com/how-our-minds-trick-us-into-thinking-we-are-being-greener-than-we-really-are-263959

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mari Ellis Dunning, Associate Lecturer at the School of Languages and Literature and PhD Candidate, Aberystwyth University

On an October’s day in 1594, Gwen ferch Ellis was led to the gallows in the middle of Denbigh town square in north Wales, and hanged. She was the first recorded woman in Wales to be executed on charges of witchcraft.

Her death stands out in the context of European history. While thousands of women – and some men – were executed for witchcraft across Scotland, England and mainland Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries, only five executions took place in Wales. Surviving records list just 35 witchcraft trials in the country, making Gwen’s case exceptional.

Little is known about Gwen’s early life, but court records paint a picture of a woman who may have stood out. In her 40s, twice widowed and childless, she was described in her indictment as a “spinster”, indicating that she made her living through spinning yarn.

Like many early modern women, she also sold salves, had a reputation for healing and charming, and had achieved financial independence through these means.

The curse

Gwen’s downfall began with a discovery at Gloddaith, the home of Sir Thomas Mostyn, a powerful landowner and justice of the peace. A charm was found written backwards and was consequently believed to have destructive rather than protective uses.

Mostyn had recently quarrelled with Jane Conwy, a gentry woman who counted Gwen as a friend. Gossip quickly connected the two, suggesting Gwen had been hired to place the charm on Mostyn’s household.

As suspicion around her grew, friends urged Gwen to run, but she refused to do so, insisting she had done nothing wrong. Whether this was pride or misplaced trust in the law, it would prove fatal.

---

Read more:
Five witchcraft myths debunked by an expert

---

Once suspicion took hold, several people came forward with damning stories. This enabled magistrates to build a case against her, with testimony suggesting that she was responsible for the sickness and maiming of people in her community.

Three formal indictments were laid against her. Gwen was accused of “bewitching Robert Evans by breaking his arm”, of “bewitching Lowri ferch John ap Ieuan … who had lost use of her limbs”, and of “murdering Lewis ap John by witchcraft”.

Ironically, the original charm that sparked the investigation never appeared as evidence, but it had already done its damage. It was enough to secure a guilty verdict which led to her judicial murder. Gwen was executed at a gallows erected on the spot where Denbigh library now stands.

The demon fly

Some years before her arrest, Gwen had been visited at home by bailiffs who insisted they had seen a huge black fly hovering on top of a drink of ale she had given them. The men were adamant this fly was Gwen’s devil or familiar spirit, a supernatural being which was believed to protect witches. This, they claimed, was proof she was a witch. Though familiar spirits where not a hugely prominent concept in Wales, they did begin to enter the public consciousness around the time of Gwen’s arrest.

Even so, witchcraft in Wales didn’t conform to the concept of a devil-worshipping anti-religion seen elsewhere. Instead, it was grounded in an intrinsic belief in charming, cursing, soothsaying and magic, and the ability of these things to harm and to heal.

But as a lay healer, with her own source of income, Gwen was, nonetheless, a prime candidate for accusations of witchcraft. Accusations were further supported when Catholic relics were found in her home, despite the Protestant church’s attempts to reform religion in Wales.

While Gwen’s case proves that Welsh juries were prepared to convict accused witches, the event was truly exceptional.

---

Read more:
Why so few witches were executed in Wales in the middle ages

---

Cursing was most dangerous when crossing boundaries of age, gender or status. It was often a weapon of the physically or socially weaker party. Women laid curses against men, the poor laid curses against those who were more well off.

Gwen’s misfortune was to cross a social boundary. She had, allegedly, left a charm in the house of a prominent landowner and justice of the peace, rather than confining her activities to the farmers, craftsmen and yeomen of her neighbourhood.

Court records suggest the grand jury was uneasy. The indictment was marked as a “true bill”, allowing the trial to proceed. But the faint word “ignoramus” – meaning “we are ignorant of this bill” – was also scrawled on it, hinting at hesitation.

In spite of this, the Elizabethan Witchcraft Act of 1562 had made death by witchcraft a capital offence, and prosecutors were determined to set an example. Unfortunately for Gwen, her fate was sealed. Her story stands as a rare but chilling chapter in Welsh history.

Mari Ellis Dunning 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. Curses, whispers and a demon fly: this is the story of the first Welshwoman executed for witchcraft – https://theconversation.com/curses-whispers-and-a-demon-fly-this-is-the-story-of-the-first-welshwoman-executed-for-witchcraft-258861

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Kit Yates, Professor of Mathematical Biology and Public Engagement, University of Bath

Heathrow’s Terminal 4 was evacuated on September 8 as fire crews were called in to investigate “possible hazardous materials” at the London airport. After a few hours of halted flights and frustrating inconvenience, emergency services declared that no “adverse substance” had been found anywhere in the airport.

People were allowed back into the terminal, and normal service was resumed. In the meantime, however, 21 people were treated at the scene by the London Ambulance Service. So what really happened at Heathrow?

According to the Metropolitan Police, it was probably “mass hysteria”. Such outbreaks – variously called mass psychogenic disorder, mass sociogenic illness, epidemic hysteria or mass hysteria – are all types of social contagion. They are typically characterised by the rapid spread, between members of a social group, of symptoms that have no apparent known cause and for which no physical infectious agent can be identified. The symptoms are real, but the trigger is psychological.

History is full of examples. In 1962, a textile factory in the US city of Spartanburg, South Carolina, shut down after dozens of workers reported rashes, numbness, nausea and fainting. Investigators suspected an insect in a shipment of cloth, but no evidence of such a cause was ever found.

Sociologists later concluded that, while an insect bite may have triggered the first case, the rest were probably psychogenic (something that originates from psychological factors rather than a physical cause). Clusters of illness followed social ties, and the main predictors were background anxiety and stress – classic conditions for hysterical contagion.

Mass psychogenic effects have been recorded even further back in time. The infamous “dancing plague” of 1518 in Strasbourg began with a single woman dancing without pause. Within weeks, hundreds of others had joined her.

In a misguided attempt to help the victims “dance away their mania”, officials in the town hired musicians and erected an enormous stage for the merrymakers to help them burn off their energy. Unsurprisingly, this only attracted more people to the fray. At its height, 15 people a day were reported to be dropping dead until the dancing abruptly stopped.

Positive feedback loop

In their early stages, infectious diseases typically spread according to a mathematical mechanism known as a positive feedback loop. These are characterised by a signal that triggers a response – or series of responses – which ultimately ends up amplifying the original signal.

In an epidemic, infected individuals can come into contact and infect susceptible people, creating more infectious individuals who have the power to infect more people, and so on.

Something similar happens in the spread of social epidemics – only in these cases, the illness is spread by the infectious power of emotion, rather than something physical. The same mathematics that we use to describe the explosive onset of an infectious disease can be used to describe the viral outbreak of an idea.

Just because an illness is spread by an idea or emotion, rather than a virus or bacterium, it doesn’t make that illness any less real for the communities or people affected. Scientists have suggested that a hugely diverse range of social phenomena – from generosity to violence and from kindness to unemployment – may be socially contagious.

Some scientists have even come full circle by suggesting that diseases like obesity, which is typically considered to be a non-communicable disorder, may have a strong social component that allows it to spread like a contagious disease. Whether teen pregnancy, for example, is genuinely socially contagious, as some scientists claim, is still hotly debated.

What is clear is that positive feedback loops can amplify an initially small quantity to unexpected magnitudes. For this reason, the impact of positive feedback is sometimes referred to as the snowball effect. A small amount of snow that begins rolling down a hillside picks up more snow as it rolls and increases in size. The bigger it gets, the more snow it picks up, until the initially small snowball has gathered both size and pace.

It seems that social contagion, mediated by a positive feedback loop, may have been the cause of the disruption at Heathrow airport. Of the 21 people assessed by ambulance staff, all but one was discharged at the scene. The Metropolitan Police even used the positive feedback loop terminology, suggesting the incident may have started with a single person falling ill and then “snowballed” from there.

The situation at Heathrow was quickly resolved, but when ideas spread like diseases, they’re much harder to stop than actual germs. Underestimating an idea’s potency, its longevity and its ability to enthral can lead us to misjudge or misunderstand how a situation will unfold.

One only has to look at the pervasive spread of disinformation throughout the COVID pandemic to see the damage that dangerously incorrect ideas – overstating the potential harms of effective vaccines, underplaying the risks of contracting COVID and falsely claiming the effectiveness of unproven treatments – can do.

The viral spread of such falsehoods through social media means they can reach far and wide in virtually no time – and are, consequently, extremely difficult to counter. We underestimate the snowballing of these pervasive myths at our peril.

Kit Yates 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. Mass hysteria at Heathrow aiport – how social contagion works – https://theconversation.com/mass-hysteria-at-heathrow-aiport-how-social-contagion-works-264900

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Mark Button, Professor of Security and Fraud, University of Portsmouth

Consumers are increasingly being targeted by financial fraudsters who deceive them into sending money, access their bank accounts or take out loans using their identity. Over the summer, new and more sophisticated scams have been widespread. Behind these frauds – things like phishing emails and scam calls – are a variety of schemes designed to trap people from any section of society.

In England and Wales, there was a 33% increase in the number of people falling victim to fraud in 2024, meaning it now accounts for 40% of all crime against individuals. According to one study, looking at the scale of the problem internationally, 31% of all adults in the US were targeted by fraudsters between 2021 and 2023. This figure was just 8% for Japan.

Much of this fraud is cross-border, so much so that the UK Home Office estimated in 2023 that 70% of fraud has an international element. And while some fraud schemes involve only lone fraudsters, the spectrum runs right through to sophisticated organised crime groups. In some of the most disturbing cases in east Asia, scam compounds have evolved, filled with tens of thousands of people forced to carry out scams – generating billions of dollars for the crime gangs.

---

Read more:
Scam Factories: the inside story of Southeast Asia’s brutal fraud compounds

---

This cross-border nature of most fraud poses immense challenges for police. There are substantial barriers to conducting international investigations and securing extraditions. The truth is that most active fraudsters based in different countries to their victims have few worries about being caught and punished, or even of having their criminal activities interrupted.

Indeed, there is very little evidence of extradition in western countries. So what can be done about this cruel, complex and costly problem?

The UK government has taken a leading role against cross-border fraud, introducing several initiatives in its counter-fraud strategy. However, most of the action points are defensive – focused on protecting potential victims and tightening the systems fraudsters exploit, such as banks, tech firms and telecoms.

On the offensive

Campaigns centred on fraud awareness, as well as making banks invest in prevention and getting internet companies to take down fraudulent adverts, are all important measures that should form the basis of any strategy. But offensive measures targeted at fraudsters have been under-used so far.

Our own research has highlighted several ways to take more offensive actions against fraudsters. Disruption efforts such as taking down scam websites, fake profiles and using bots are already being carried out by private companies, nongovernmental organisations and the private anti-scam community (Pasc). This group includes “scambaiters” (people who pretend to be taken in by the fraud in order to keep the criminals occupied) and volunteers working against scammers.

Some tactics are widely accepted – things like talking to fraudsters to waste their time, taking down fraudulent websites and using bots to communicate with criminals. However, other disruption methods are more controversial as they often break the law. These include placing malware on scammers’ computers, using “call-flooders” to disable scam phone numbers, hacking scammers to destroy files and intervening to warn victims.

Some groups also expose known scammers by informing their associates, friends and family of what they are doing. Alternatively, they report them to internet service providers and regulators. But publicly outing scammers runs the risk of serious harm to the criminal outside the formal justice system. Worse, it has the potential for mistaken identity and innocent people being vilified or even harmed.

The Pasc community is larger than any one country or global body’s anti-fraud police infrastructure. Retail giant Amazon alone has 15,000 people in its global anti-fraud community. As well as engaging in disruption, it also possesses huge amounts of data.

For any kind of global anti-fraud strategy to work, governments must embrace this community. In this way, they could work together to share data and strategies to target scammers efficiently and effectively.

Much more offensive disruption is needed, but it needs to be done with proper legal and ethical safeguards and in a coordinated way. This means working with existing or new international structures.

And police based in the victims’ countries should work more closely with the nations that are home to large numbers of cross-border scammers.

Sanctions too are a big part of the solution. While actions such as freezing assets and travel bans have been used against individuals and groups (as well as governments) to target things like corruption, money-laundering and people-trafficking, they have not been used in the counter-fraud area. These measures could easily be used against known scammers.

Fraud prevalence looks set to continue to grow globally. Increasing investment in prevention is welcome, but it is only part of the solution. Both public and private groups must renew their focus on offensive measures to target the fraudsters themselves. Sanctions should be central to a suite of strategies to disrupt the scammers, slashing the profits of their criminal enterprises.

Mark Button receives funding from various Government funded bodies to conduct research on fraud and related areas. He is also a member of the Labour Party.

Branislav Hock receives funding from various Government funded bodies to conduct research on economic crime and related areas.

– ref. How the global anti-scam community could come together to beat the criminals – https://theconversation.com/how-the-global-anti-scam-community-could-come-together-to-beat-the-criminals-258450

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Saroash Shahid, Reader in Dental Materials, Queen Mary University of London

You brush twice daily, floss religiously and see your dentist every six months. But what if these acts of oral hygiene are quietly contributing to one of the planet’s most pressing environmental crises?

A growing body of research reveals that our pursuit of clean, healthy teeth comes with an unexpected cost: we’re washing billions of microplastic particles down the drain every day.

Take toothpaste, for example. Decades of using toothpastes with plastic microbeads triggered bans in many countries, but studies show that many modern toothpastes still contain microplastic particles.

And toothpaste isn’t the only offender; dental floss is another stealth culprit. Most flosses are made of nylon or Teflon – non-biodegradable fibres – that shed and linger in ecosystems.

Even the simple toothbrush sheds dozens of nylon bristle fragments during normal use. These fragments enter sewage, pass through treatment systems and end up in marine food chains where they are ingested by plankton, shellfish, fish and, eventually, us.

Beyond daily hygiene products, the materials dentists use inside our mouths also matter. For years, dentists have been replacing mercury-containing silver amalgam fillings with white plastic ones, believing them safer for patients and the planet.

That shift got a boost in 2013, when the UN Minamata Convention treaty urged countries to phase out dental amalgam to cut mercury pollution.

Resin-based composite fillings (the white plastic kind) became the go-to alternative. However, new research suggests these plastic fillings might have their own hidden environmental costs.

A 2022 review in the British Dental Journal confirmed this risk, showing how resin-based composites could contribute to pollution. It found that all the ingredients in these fillings might act as pollutants once they start breaking down.

In other words, the plastic material in a filling doesn’t just sit harmlessly in your tooth forever. Over time, tiny fragments and chemical components can wear off and leach out.

These resin bits and monomers (the basic chemical building blocks of the plastic) can make their way into saliva and wastewater, and eventually into the wider environment.

These risks don’t only emerge while fillings are in the mouth. A key concern is the microscopic plastic dust produced during routine dental work. Drilling out an old composite or polishing a new one generates fine debris that gets suctioned up and flushed down the drain.

These particles, often only a few microns wide, are essentially microplastics. They spread easily through water, and their large surface area means they can leach even more of the filling’s chemicals as they break down.

The problem doesn’t stop with fillings. Acrylic dentures, worn by millions of older adults, are another constant source of microplastic exposure. With every bite and every cleaning, tiny particles can rub off their surfaces and be swallowed.

Similarly, acrylic mouthguards, nightguards, clear aligners and removable retainers are held in the mouth for hours each day and show visible wear over time. That wear is a sign that microscopic fragments are being released and either ingested or rinsed into the sink.

Effect on health

All of this plastic debris inevitably raises a bigger question: what does it do to us? The effect of microplastics on our health is worrying. Bisphenol A, a chemical used in some dental resins (plastics), can mimic hormones and disrupt the endocrine system.

In 2024, a medical study detected microplastics embedded in arterial plaque and those patients were far more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. Other studies suggest swallowed microplastics may disturb gut microbes and trigger inflammation.

Given these mounting risks, solving this plastic invasion will take action from industry and consumers alike. Manufacturers are developing toothpastes with natural abrasives like silica or clay instead of plastic beads and researching biodegradable polymers for future dental products.

Over 15 countries have already banned plastic microbeads in toothpastes and cosmetics, removing one obvious source of pollution. Some dental clinics are testing filters (like activated carbon filters) to trap resin dust before it enters wastewater.

Consumer choice

Consumers also have choices. Toothpaste tablets or powders in plastic-free packaging are now available. Bamboo toothbrushes or those with natural bristles significantly reduce plastic waste.

Plastic-free natural fibre-based floss options can also help minimise the impact of plastics.

For orthodontics, traditional metal braces offer effective alternatives without adding plastic to your mouth or the environment.

Dental plastics have brought clear benefits such as whiter teeth, easy treatments and safer alternatives to mercury. Yet their environmental costs and possible health risks are now coming into focus.

With microplastics turning up from the oceans to the human bloodstream, even our mouths are not safe from this invisible contamination. The hope lies in innovation and vigilance so dentistry can continue to protect our smiles without adding to the plastic crisis.

Saroash Shahid 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 hidden plastic problem in your daily dental routine – and what’s being done about it – https://theconversation.com/the-hidden-plastic-problem-in-your-daily-dental-routine-and-whats-being-done-about-it-264072

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Fufy Demissie, Senior Lecturer in Early Years Education, Sheffield Hallam University

Story time – at home, at nursery and at school – is where young children encounter the magic of books. Reading stories to young children is a pleasurable activity in itself, but it also lays the foundation for language and literacy development and has social and emotional benefits.

What’s more, research for decades has shown a clear difference in the language skills of children who had story time at home and those who didn’t.

Parents and teachers can further expand the benefits of story time by getting children involved in what’s known as dialogic reading – engaging in conversations about stories. This means using questions to get children talking about the book. This talk can deepen children’s knowledge and understanding, and help them learn about language. It can include asking what children remember about plot points to encourage their recall of the book, and asking “why” questions about characters’ choices.

A wealth of evidence has highlighted the significance of these kind of conversations during story time. It has benefits for reading enjoyment, reading motivation, parent-child attachment and parental confidence.

Dialogic reading affects children’s vocabulary as well as their literacy outcomes. One particular study divided 36 children with vocabulary delays into groups taking part in shared reading or shared dialogic reading. While both groups showed improvements, the dialogic reading group had significantly larger gains in vocabulary.

It has benefits for reading enjoyment, reading motivation, parent-child attachment and parental confidence.

Language and communication is a prime area of the early years foundation stage in England – the guidelines for the education and development of children aged from birth to five. What’s more, the practice of dialogic reading is a valuable way to develop young children’s “oracy” – the ability to articulate ideas when speaking, listen carefully and communicate effectively.

However, curriculum pressures can make it difficult for teachers to prioritise story time at school. Policy directives that prioritise decoding skills – reading instruction that focuses on the ability to understand how letters and groups of letters represent sounds. This leaves less time for the development of oracy skills.

Oracy education

In 2024, the Oracy Commission, an independent body campaigning to embed oracy across the curriculum, published a report highlighting oracy’s importance. It pointed out that oracy prepares young children and pupils for the demands of their future lives: it’s needed to give a presentation, argue an idea, and take part confidently in university seminars and work meetings. The report noted that access to high-quality oracy education is not universal.

Oracy in education was a key part of the current Labour government’s election manifesto. But its absence from the interim report of an ongoing review into curriculum and assessment has campaigners worried.

My research project Talk with Tales for Children has worked to improve early years teachers’ skills in using dialogic reading techniques with three- and four-year-olds. The programme uses traditional tales, such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In addition to questions such as “what can you see on this page?” and “what happened next?”, practitioners are also encouraged to ask questions that provoke childrens’ thinking. These include “would it be good or bad to eat someone else’s porridge?” and “was Goldilocks brave?”

The early findings suggest that high-quality training through this programme has improved early years teachers and practitioners’ interactions during shared reading and enhanced childrens’ listening and attention, thinking skills and enjoyment of and engagement with stories.

The language, social, and emotional benefits of story time mean it should be seen as a fundamental part of the early years curriculum – rather than a luxury or an add-on.

Fufy Demissie receives funding from the Educational Endowment Foundation

– ref. Why listening to stories and talking about them is so important for young children – https://theconversation.com/why-listening-to-stories-and-talking-about-them-is-so-important-for-young-children-249302

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Hannah Wakeford, Associate professor, University of Bristol

New research using Nasa’s powerful JWST telescope has identified a planet 41 light years away which may have an atmosphere. The planet is within the “habitable zone”, the region around a star where temperatures make it possible for liquid water to exist on the surface of a rocky world. This is important because water is a key ingredient that supports the existence of life.

If confirmed by further observations, this would be the first rocky, habitable zone planet that’s also known to host an atmosphere. The findings come from two new studies published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The habitable zone is partly defined by the range of temperatures generated by heat from the star. The zone is located at a distance from its star where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold (leading to it occasionally being nicknamed “the Goldilocks zone”).

But exoplanets (worlds orbiting stars outside our solar system) capable of hosting liquid water often also need an atmosphere with a sufficient greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect generates additional heating due to absorption and emission from gases in the atmosphere and will help prevent evaporation of water into space.

Together with an international team of colleagues, we trained the largest telescope in space, Nasa’s JWST, on a planet called Trappist-1 e. We wanted to determine whether this rocky world, which lies in its star’s habitable zone, hosts an atmosphere. The planet is one of seven rocky worlds known to orbit a small, cool “red dwarf” star called Trappist-1.

Rocky exoplanets are everywhere in our galaxy. The discovery of abundant rocky planets in the 2010s by the Kepler and Tess space telescopes has profound implications for our place in the Universe.

Most of the rocky exoplanets we’ve found so far orbit red dwarf stars, which are much cooler than the Sun (typically 2500°C/4,500°F, compared to the Sun’s 5,600°C/10,000°F). This isn’t because planets around Sun-like stars are rare, there are just technical reasons why it is easier to find and study planets orbiting smaller stars.

Red dwarfs also offer many advantages when we seek to measure the properties of their planets. Because the stars are cooler, their habitable zones, where temperatures are favourable to liquid water, are located much closer in comparison with our solar system, because the Sun is much hotter. As such, a year for a rocky planet with the temperature of Earth that orbits a red dwarf star can be just a few days to a week compared to Earth’s 365 days.

Transit method

One way to detect exoplanets is to measure the slight dimming of light when the planet transits, or passes in front of, its star. Because planets orbiting red dwarfs take less time to complete an orbit, astronomers can observe more transits in a shorter space of time, making it easier to gather data.

During a transit, astronomers can measure absorption from gases in the planet’s atmosphere (if it has one). Absorption refers to the process whereby certain gases absorb light at different wavelengths, preventing it from passing through. This provides scientists with a way of detecting which gases are present in an atmosphere.

Crucially, the smaller the star, the greater the fraction of its light is blocked by a planet’s atmosphere during transit. So red dwarf stars are one of the best places for us to look for the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets.

Located at a relatively close distance of 41 light years from Earth, the Trappist-1 system has attracted significant attention since its discovery in 2016. Three of the planets, Trappist-1d, Trappist-1e, and Trappist-1f (the third, fourth, and fifth planets from the star) lie within the habitable zone.

JWST has been conducting a systematic search for atmospheres on the Trappist-1 planets since 2022. The results for the three innermost planets, Trappist-1b, Trappist-1c and Trappist-1d, point to these worlds most likely being bare rocks with thin atmospheres at best. But the planets further out, which are bombarded with less radiation and energetic flares from the star, could still potentially possess atmospheres.

We observed Trappist-1e, the planet in the centre of the star’s habitable zone, with JWST on four separate occasions from June-October 2023. We immediately noticed that our data was strongly affected by what’s known as “stellar contamination” from hot and cold active regions (similar to sunspots) on Trappist-1. This required a careful analysis to deal with. In the end, it took our team over a year to sift through the data and distinguish the signal coming from the star from that of the planet.

We are seeing two possible explanations for what’s going on at Trappist-1e. The most exciting possibility is that the planet has a so-called secondary atmosphere containing heavy molecules such as nitrogen and methane. But the four observations we obtained aren’t yet precise enough to rule out the alternative explanation of the planet being a bare rock with no atmosphere.

Should Trappist-1e indeed have an atmosphere, it will be the first time we have found an atmosphere on a rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star.

Since Trappist-1e lies firmly in the habitable zone, a thick atmosphere with a sufficient greenhouse effect could allow for liquid water on the planet’s surface. To establish whether or not Trappist-1e is habitable, we will need to measure the concentrations of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. These initial observations are an important step in that direction, but more observations with JWST will be needed to be sure if Trappist-1e has an atmosphere and, if so, to measure the concentrations of these gases.

As we speak, an additional 15 transits of Trappist-1e are underway and should be complete by the end of 2025. Our follow-up observations use a different observing strategy where we target consecutive transits of Trappist-1b (which is a bare rock) and Trappist-1e. This will allow us to use the bare rock to better “trace out” the hot and cold active regions on the star. Any excess absorption of gases seen only during Trappist-1e’s transits will be uniquely caused by the planet’s atmosphere.

So within the next two years, we should have a much better picture of how Trappist-1e compares to the rocky planets in our solar system.

Hannah Wakeford receives funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) framework under the UK government’s Horizon Europe funding guarantee for an ERC Starter Grant (grant number EP/Y006313/1).

Ryan MacDonald has recieved funding from NASA through the NASA Hubble Fellowship grant HST-HF2-51513.001, awarded by the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract NAS 5-26555.

– ref. A rocky planet in its star’s ‘habitable zone’ could be the first known to have an atmosphere – here’s what we found – https://theconversation.com/a-rocky-planet-in-its-stars-habitable-zone-could-be-the-first-known-to-have-an-atmosphere-heres-what-we-found-264715

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Dan O’Brien, Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath

In 1751, the English painter William Hogarth created a nightmarish depiction of the London slum of St Giles. The familiar spire of the parish church towered over a scene of human ruin. This is Gin Lane, an imagined thoroughfare where the consumption of gin has deprived the inhabitants of sense, finances – and in some instances life.

At the heart of the image, Hogarth depicted a series of steps on which different characters illustrated the gin drinker’s descent from propriety to death. At the top of the steps, residents deposited their goods with the prosperous pawnbroker, including a carpenter who handed over his saw – a reminder that gin disrupts industry.

Just below on the steps is a drunken mother whose eagerness to take a pinch of snuff causes her baby to slip from her arms to its death below. The drunken mother is the most striking aspect of Hogarth’s image, a focal point that represents how gin detaches the drinker from their closest bonds and duties. Beneath the mother, reclines an emaciated gin drinker whose skeletal features hint at his imminent death. He even lacks the strength to hold his gin glass.

---

This article is part of Rethinking the Classics. The stories in this series offer insightful new ways to think about and interpret classic books, films and artworks. This is the canon – with a twist.

---

Gin Lane was one of two contrasting Hogarth visions of life in England’s capital in which the fortunes of Londoners were shaped by the drinks they consumed. The inhabitants of the other, Beer Street (1751), are artisans enjoying a foaming tankard during their long day of work.

A blacksmith and paviour (person who lays paving) are in the foreground, while a man tasked with carrying a sedan chair quenches his thirst in the background.

Beer Street is a scene of industriousness in which draughts were consumed without disrupting the effort of the day. High in the scene, a group of workers enjoys beer shared from a jug while a tailor toasts them from a nearby window. The inhabitants’ prosperity has just one noticeable consequence in the tattered premises of the pawnbroker.

While Gin Lane can be read as a commentary on the dangers of vice, I believe it also comments on another significant development in 18th-century London – the growth of the funeral trade.

Birth of the undertaker

Just above the shoulder of the drunken mother are two coffins. One lies on the ground as a body is placed in it and the other is suspended outside the premises of an undertaker. This latter coffin was a shop sign, which could be seen across the city in the mid- to late-18th century. Undertaking was a developing trade that had many advocates. These undertakers were artisans or traders who supplemented their existing businesses with funerary work.

Undertakers were primarily middlemen who sourced the items required for a funeral, as well as providing items from their own stock. A carpenter acting as undertaker, for example, might build a coffin himself, before turning to ironmongers, drapers and painters for other elements of funerary display.

The supplemental nature of early undertaking enabled many people to adopt the title and some of the most successful eventually specialised fully in funerary work. In the closing decades of the 17th century, the earliest undertakers organised the elaborate funerals of elites, having previously supplied goods for these occasions. As the trade spread, its development was driven by profit and therefore thrived in urban centres where there were more prospective customers.

The presence of the undertaker’s shop in Hogarth’s Gin Lane is a reflection of the trade’s increasing popularity beyond the early origins in funerals of the elite.

By the mid-18th century, undertaker-led funerals were a common sight on the city’s streets, travelling from bereaved households to parish churches. The upstart trade had drawn criticism as early as 1699 when the author Thomas Tryon argued that undertakers were diminishing the worth of the funerary customs of the elites. And for many critics, there was no group thought less deserving of funerary spectacle than the gin-drinking poor.

Critiquing the undertaker

Hogarth’s inclusion of the undertaker was also a comment on the motives of the developing trade and the worth of its service. In Gin Lane, he emphasised the way that undertakers profited from the misfortune and misery of others.

He places the undertaker’s shop at the heart of a ruined street, where other trades have failed and the residents lie incapacitated and dying. His message is clear – the undertaker gains from the loss of others and so is little different from the other thriving businesses of the fictional street, the pawnbroker and the gin shop.

The opened coffin and distant funeral party can also be read as a comment on the worth of the funerary products that underpinned the trade’s success. The lidless coffin is presented as little more than a box to contain the half-naked remains of the woman who is lowered into it. And the depiction of the dead woman reminds us that the coffin does nothing for its inhabitant – its purpose is purely aesthetic.

A uniform aesthetic is important to the funerary party, wearing hatbands and mourning cloaks as they wander through the tattered background. Yet the neatly attired procession is lost within the image and fails to hold the attention of the neighbourhood. The cost of these items cannot influence the attitudes of those outside of the funeral. Through these small details, Hogarth reminds the viewer that funerary goods are a hollow expenditure, which cannot improve the circumstances of the dead or the bereaved.

Much as the inhabitants of Gin Lane ruin themselves in pursuit of gin, so might the viewer waste their money on funerary goods that do not serve any practical purpose. As such, Hogarth’s work is more than a simple comment on the consequences of the gin craze – it’s a wider critique of how 18th-century Londoners spent their money.

Beyond the canon

As part of the Rethinking the Classics series, we’re asking our experts to recommend a book or artwork that tackles similar themes to the canonical work in question, but isn’t (yet) considered a classic itself. Here is Dan O’Brien’s suggestion:

Juan Manuel Echavarría has used photography to document how people experience death in a time of crisis and brutality. His work Réquiem NN (2006-13) uses imagery of graves in a Colombian cemetery to explore how people’s treatment of the dead is both an act of dignity and a form of resistance.

Réquiem NN depicts graves used for unidentified bodies that have been recovered from Colombia’s Magdalena River as a result of civil war. We see each grave in two periods, bringing to life the act of mourning, which has been performed for the unnamed dead, and revealing how the living use the graves to record the names of victims who were their own relatives.

---

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.

---

Dan 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. Gin Lane by William Hogarth is a critique of 18th-century London’s growing funeral trade – https://theconversation.com/gin-lane-by-william-hogarth-is-a-critique-of-18th-century-londons-growing-funeral-trade-234761

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Manal Mohammed, Senior Lecturer, Medical Microbiology, University of Westminster

A food truck in southern Italy recently became the centre of a deadly health scare. A food-borne outbreak linked to preserved vegetables killed two people and sent more than a dozen to hospital.

At the same time, the UK’s Food Standards Agency warned shoppers to avoid jars of broccoli from a specific batch code, fearing they too could contain the same hidden danger, Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium that produces the toxin responsible for botulism – one of the deadliest food-borne illnesses known.

The canning process removes air from food and seals it tightly, creating an oxygen-free (anaerobic) environment. This is normally what keeps food safe for long storage – but it also creates the perfect conditions for C botulinum. Unlike many bacteria, it doesn’t need oxygen to grow.

Its spores, which are commonly found in soil, can survive cooking and processing. In low-acid foods such as broccoli, green beans, corn, beets and peas, if the canning process isn’t hot enough or long enough, those spores can “wake up”, multiply and release their toxin. Because the toxin is invisible, tasteless and odourless, contaminated food can look and smell perfectly normal while being deadly.

Botulism is rare but extremely serious and even a tiny amount can be deadly – just two nanograms per kilogram of body weight can be fatal.

The spores themselves are usually harmless if swallowed. But in an anaerobic environment they can germinate and release toxin. That’s why homemade preserved foods are a common cause of outbreaks.

Why botulism is so dangerous

Botulism is caused by a neurotoxin that attacks the nerves, leading to muscle weakness, breathing difficulties, paralysis, and, in severe cases, death. Symptoms usually appear within 18 to 36 hours of eating contaminated food, but can range from six hours to ten days.

Early signs include difficulty swallowing or speaking, drooping eyelids, blurred or double vision, facial weakness, vomiting and progressive muscle paralysis, which can cause respiratory failure.

Diagnosis is tricky, as symptoms can mimic other conditions, including stroke, Guillain-Barré syndrome (a rare autoimmune disorder where the body’s immune system attacks the nerves), and myasthenia gravis (a chronic condition that causes muscle weakness due to problems with communication between nerves and muscles). Doctors usually confirm botulism through clinical assessment and laboratory testing of serum, stool or food samples.

The main treatments for botulism are supportive care and antitoxin. Supportive care means treating the complications of the illness — for example, patients may need a ventilator if they develop breathing difficulties, or help managing infections. Antitoxin is a medication that binds to and neutralises the toxin circulating in the body. If given early, it can stop the toxin from causing further harm, though it cannot reverse damage already done. Survivors often face long recoveries with lingering fatigue and breathing problems.

There are simple but vital ways to reduce the risk of foodborne botulism. First, never eat food from cans or jars that are dented, bulging, leaking, or discoloured. If you can your own low-acid foods, make sure you boil them for ten minutes before eating to kill spores. And make sure use proper pressure canners and always follow tested canning instructions.

When in doubt, throw it out.

A deadly toxin with a double life

Despite its dangers, botulinum toxin also has important medical uses. When injected in minute, controlled doses, botulinum toxin can reduce muscle spasticity (a condition where muscles tighten or stiffen abnormally), treat chronic migraines, and manage conditions such as strabismus (crossed eyes) and cervical dystonia (a painful condition where the neck muscles contract involuntarily). The US Food and Drug Administration first approved it for medical use in 1989, and it has since been authorised for a wide range of treatments.

Botulinum toxin works by blocking nerve signals that trigger muscle contraction, smoothing wrinkles and fine lines, and has become a global cosmetic phenomenon. But the same toxin that has medical and aesthetic benefits can also cause catastrophic harm if misused. Unlicensed or poorly regulated injections are risky – and in August 2025, botulinum toxin was linked to a deadly outbreak in the UK.

Food-borne botulism is rare but deadly. Prevention depends on safe food handling, proper canning and avoiding suspicious-looking jars and cans. And while botulinum toxin has life-saving medical uses and cosmetic appeal, outside of controlled and licensed conditions it remains one of the most lethal substances on earth.

Manal Mohammed 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 preserved vegetables can turn deadly – and how to stay safe – https://theconversation.com/why-preserved-vegetables-can-turn-deadly-and-how-to-stay-safe-263161