Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luzita Fereday, Lecturer in Voice at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts., Edith Cowan University

If you’ve seen any of the videos or interviews with Austin Butler at the recent Golden Globes you may have noticed he still sounds a bit like Elvis. In fact, many people have noted that despite being from California, he still sounds like he’s from the Deep South.

For actors, learning a new accent is incredibly demanding. Accent assimilation is a rigorous process that often requires listening deeply to archive material, documentaries, movies and interviews and observing linguistic details.

Austin Butler in his role as Elvis shows how an actor must be acutely responsive to the specifics of an accent, role, script style and demands of the film.

The actor works with a dialect coach, starting months or years before filming. The coach provides source recordings (a real person, for example, Elvis) and an accent breakdown. The actor will listen to the sound samples at every opportunity for total immersion.

Significant practice and repetition are needed to integrate a new accent. Coaching includes layering all the elements to give an accent a solid foundation, slowly building from words to sentences, with the dialect coach providing continuous feedback until the actor is speaking in accent easily and consistently.

A little less conversation a little more action

In cases where an actor is portraying an iconic figure, such as Elvis, there is huge responsibility to be convincing in the role. This can lead to actors staying in-accent for many months or years.

Examples of performers in this situation include Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy, Meryl Streep as Julia Child, and Ben Kingsley as Gandhi.

British actor Idris Elba told the Guardian it took moving to New York and three years of practising to get his American accent believable for his role in The Wire.

Australian actor Nicole Kidman when rehearsing for Nine Perfect Strangers would stay in accent all day, including at home with her family. Over five months the actors she was working with did not hear her Australian accent until the day filming ended.

US actor Forest Whitaker, when faced with the challenge of Idi Amin’s accent in The Last King of Scotland, admitted he practised even when he wasn’t on set in an effort to stay immersed in the character.

There was one time into rehearsals that I dropped it because I had to go down and meet all the dignitaries, and it took me days to get it back. I was so frightened because I was there a month before and I was like, ‘this is not going to happen again, I am not going to lose this character’.

What is role spill?

Actors who live the part of a role, integrating accent, body, imagination and feelings may, post production, experience role spill. This is known in the acting community as boundary blurring: when the actor is finding it difficult to separate themselves from the character they’re playing and blurring the lines between professional and private roles.

Your voice is a direct expression of who you are and your experiences. The fusing of personal identity with characters is crucial to the craft of an actor. However, some actors can lose their “idiolect” (their individual way of speaking) and can retain features of accents they may have used for their character.

An actor that completely loses himself in a role is Gary Oldman. Originally from South London, but having spent many years living in America, he has had to relearn his English accent for a film character in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Margot Robbie told Grazia magazine that during filming I, Tonya, she “genuinely thought” a conversation she was having with fellow actor Sebastian Stan who played Tonya’s abusive husband, was real. The feelings and emotions can become so intensive they felt like the actor’s own.

De-roling

The term de-roling refers to a technique which is thought to have originated within dramatherapy and psychodrama to assist the actor in “disrobing” or letting go of certain physical character traits that are not their own once they finish performing.

It’s a process that can help actors shed intense emotions or characters, and it’s crucial to the health of an artist. This can be done by shaking out the body and doing physical activities such as jumping and running on the spot to shake off the character. In addition to this, it can include taking deep breaths and vocal exercises including humming to release vocal fold tension and let go of negative emotions. In theatre, the ensemble or cast can agree to de-role together before leaving the theatre.

It can be difficult to de-role for an actor who has invested significant commitment to a successful transformation of accent, body and character. It can take months for an actor to feel they have let the character go, especially if they felt a strong synergy and connection with the character.

Speaking about her role as Mare Sheehan in the crime series Mare of Easttown, Kate Winslet explained “it was the hardest thing to let go of” and “she got under my skin…”

Once an actor moves on to a new project or spends time with close friends and family they may revert back to how they sounded before – or maybe not. Varying your speech sounds is not likely to affect an actor’s work opportunities in the future – arguably the more fluid you sound the better.

Luzita Fereday 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 is Austin Butler still speaking in his Elvis voice? It could be a case of ‘role spill’ – https://theconversation.com/why-is-austin-butler-still-speaking-in-his-elvis-voice-it-could-be-a-case-of-role-spill-197704

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chrystal Zhang, Associate professor, RMIT University

A Yeti Airlines ATR 72-500 aircraft crashed in Pokhara in central Nepal on January 15 2023, killing at least 68 passengers on board. The aircraft was en route from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu to Pokhara, the country’s second largest city, situated under the picturesque Annapurna mountain range.

While the picturesque landscape of the country appeals to tourists, it poses significant challenges to aviation operators, who need to embrace and navigate the challenging environment.

The air crash on Sunday was Nepal’s worst aviation disaster since 1992. The country has been working to overcome its challenges in aviation.

A challenging landscape

Topography has gifted Nepal with picturesque landscapes, but posits unrivalled challenges to flight operations.

Nepal, situated between India and China, is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest or Sagarmāthā. For flight operations, it’s an almost unrivalled, harsh environment with sudden weather changes that can make for hazardous conditions.

Airports built in mountainous regions often need to have shorter runways that can only accommodate turboprop-powered regional aircraft, rather than large jet airliners that can access larger cities in Nepal.

As a result, aviation carriers in Nepal have a variety of aircraft on their fleets. These craft vary in condition, presenting potential safety hazards.

The ATR 72 aircraft is one typical aircraft used by Nepali carriers. It is a turboprop-powered regional aircraft with a capacity between 44 and 78 passengers. These aircraft are manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus in France and Leonardo in Italy.

The aircraft involved in this crash had been in service for 15 years, a fairly typical age for an aircraft.

The final report on what happened to the tragic Yeti Airlines flight will take over a month to complete.

A growing and fast-changing industry

Nepal has welcomed private investment into its aviation sector since 1992. Yeti Airlines is one of 20 domestic carriers. The airline, headquartered in Kathmandu, flies to ten domestic destinations using ATR 72-500 aircraft. In addition, 29 international airlines operate into Nepal’s capital too.

With air travel in Nepal becoming more accessible and affordable, airport infrastructure development has remained far behind compared to the growth of air traffic. This has resulted in increasing congestion at airports, fare competition between airlines, and decreased safety records.

In fact, the country has recorded at least 350 casualties associated with aeroplanes or helicopters since 2000, which has raised questions about the effectiveness of its aviation safety regulations.

The aviation regulator in charge is the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, a government agency established in 1998.

Working hard to improve

Nepal became a member of the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in 1960. This membership obliges the country to abide by international conventions, ICAO’s regulations, standards, and recommended practices in aviation safety.

While Nepal’s aviation industry has made significant efforts to improve safety, unfortunately the safety record still doesn’t match up with the requirements of other civil aviation authorities.

In particular, the European Union banned all Nepali airlines from operating in the bloc’s airspace in 2013 after ICAO raised a red flag. That ban still hasn’t been lifted, and Nepal remains on the EU Air Safety List.

Despite the tragic casualty record, Nepal has stepped up its efforts to improve aviation safety. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has been focusing on improving safety in Nepali aviation – such as building improvements at airports, upgrading safety equipment, and fostering a positive safety culture by encouraging hazard reporting.

Nepal’s considerable improvement in safety measures and compliance with international standards was recognised by ICAO in 2018. However, the country must continue work on its aviation reform to make its skies safe for everyone.

Chrystal Zhang no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.

– ref. Why does Nepal’s aviation industry have safety issues? An expert explains – https://theconversation.com/why-does-nepals-aviation-industry-have-safety-issues-an-expert-explains-197901

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toni Hay, Expert in Indigenous climate adaptation, Indigenous Knowledge

The devastating floods sweeping through the Kimberley region of Western Australia have caused unimaginable destruction, leaving remote Indigenous communities stranded in its aftermath.

Heartbreaking reports detail community members desperately seeking assistance from loved ones in Perth. In one case, over 40 people were forced to seek refuge under one roof — unable to access emergency shelters filled beyond capacity.

Some Kimberley locals have taken matters into their own hands by using local boats for search and rescue missions. The government has also since begun organising delivering supplies to these communities in need. However, Derby Shire Council President Geoff Haerewa told the Guardian he felt authorities could have done “a lot more” to prepare for the flooding.

Climate disasters are no longer unprecedented, with both scientists and First Nations people warning of future disaster weather events. Australia needs to do better with disaster prevention, so vulnerable communities don’t have to go through this again.

Atmospheric rivers

Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow lanes of moist air transported in the atmosphere. According to the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, these weather patterns can be beneficial for breaking droughts. However they can contribute to heavy flooding, as we saw in last year’s floods in South East Queensland and NSW.

Scientists have identified that higher sea surface temperatures, increased concentrations of atmospheric rivers, and other climate-related events can lead to more severe floods, storms, droughts, and heatwaves.

Atmospheric rivers have devastated the Kimberley region with its highest level of rain since records began in 1904. Some areas received as much as 831mm of rain in a single week. Intense storms and cyclones in Western Australia have also caused heavy rainfall over the past several months.

Disaster management plans need to consider Indigenous peoples

Indigenous communities are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Yet, current Australian disaster risk management approaches fail to consider the needs of Indigenous communities, such as housing shortages and reduced access to medical services. This leaves them vulnerable to disaster events like flooding. Most towns and communities in WA have no climate adaptation plans in place.

Some Indigenous communities in Australia are reliant on bush food and hunting for sustenance, especially for those living in outlying areas. These activities are made impossible when flood events occur, heightening pre-existing food insecurity issues faced within disaster-affected homelands.

Read more:
Like rivers in the sky: the weather system bringing floods to Queensland will become more likely under climate change

Floods can also bring many health issues for local communities. Dangers include contaminated drinking water and being cut off from medical care and supplies due to infrastructure damage, as we are seeing now in the Kimberley region. Large amounts of standing water can also create an ideal environment for mosquitoes carrying viruses.

The aftermath of natural disasters can be especially devastating with physical damage to peoples’ homes and loss of community infrastructure – often accompanied by extreme financial hardship. For First Nations people, there is a deep spiritual impact as well. Some peoples are put under strain through loss of access to culturally important areas, or evacuation orders separating communities from their respective Countries.

More must be done to ensure the safety of communities whose remote location makes them vulnerable, including First Nations people. Indigenous communities need access to culturally sensitive and appropriate resources, better roads and infrastructure, water management systems, early warning systems and emergency preparedness programs. These communities also need long-term recovery plans made available after disaster events like this. Such as training and skills development, support for business recovery, and access to financial resources and culturally safe mental health support.

What we can learn from Indigenous flood knowledge

Indigenous knowledge from the Kimberley region could provide insight into climate change impacts. Stories and practices passed down through generations of First Nations peoples show how some cultures have addressed changing climates by finding ways to survive extreme weather events and looking after the land.

One example is the story “The Flood Ngawarra-kurlu” where an old man warned of rain coming, which would lead to flooding, and recommended people don’t sleep in creek beds. The people didn’t listen, resulting in them losing their belongings to the flood. This highlights the valuable lesson to governments of not building in flood plains.

Another is the East Kimberley Mulan peoples’ story “The Two Dingoes” which describes visible signs of incoming floods. The colour of the water coming through Sturt Creek and Paruku indicates how long communities will need to relocate to avoid flooding (milky colour water means a few months, red means a few days).

It’s time we include Indigenous knowledge when creating disaster risk management strategies and climate change adaptation plans. This is also in line with the reform commitments made by all Australian governments in the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.

In doing this, we can create more effective tools and methods to protect vulnerable people. This could ensure more comprehensive protection, and also have the potential to foster a greater appreciation of Indigenous cultures and experiences. It is through such collaboration we can create a better future for all communities in the face of climate change.

Toni Hay is Director for Indigenous Climate Change providing climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction services.

Courtney-Jay Williams works for Indigenous Climate Change providing climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction services.

– ref. Disastrous floods in WA – why were we not prepared? – https://theconversation.com/disastrous-floods-in-wa-why-were-we-not-prepared-197407

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Toni Hay, Expert in Indigenous climate adaptation, Indigenous Knowledge

The devastating floods sweeping through the Kimberley region of Western Australia have caused unimaginable destruction, leaving remote Indigenous communities stranded in its aftermath.

Heartbreaking reports detail community members desperately seeking assistance from loved ones in Perth. In one case, over 40 people were forced to seek refuge under one roof — unable to access emergency shelters filled beyond capacity.

Some Kimberley locals have taken matters into their own hands by using local boats for search and rescue missions. The government has also since begun organising delivering supplies to these communities in need. However, Derby Shire Council President Geoff Haerewa told the Guardian he felt authorities could have done “a lot more” to prepare for the flooding.

Climate disasters are no longer unprecedented, with both scientists and First Nations people warning of future disaster weather events. Australia needs to do better with disaster prevention, so vulnerable communities don’t have to go through this again.

Atmospheric rivers

Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow lanes of moist air transported in the atmosphere. According to the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, these weather patterns can be beneficial for breaking droughts. However they can contribute to heavy flooding, as we saw in last year’s floods in South East Queensland and NSW.

Scientists have identified that higher sea surface temperatures, increased concentrations of atmospheric rivers, and other climate-related events can lead to more severe floods, storms, droughts, and heatwaves.

Atmospheric rivers have devastated the Kimberley region with its highest level of rain since records began in 1904. Some areas received as much as 831mm of rain in a single week. Intense storms and cyclones in Western Australia have also caused heavy rainfall over the past several months.

Disaster management plans need to consider Indigenous peoples

Indigenous communities are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Yet, current Australian disaster risk management approaches fail to consider the needs of Indigenous communities, such as housing shortages and reduced access to medical services. This leaves them vulnerable to disaster events like flooding. Most towns and communities in WA have no climate adaptation plans in place.

Some Indigenous communities in Australia are reliant on bush food and hunting for sustenance, especially for those living in outlying areas. These activities are made impossible when flood events occur, heightening pre-existing food insecurity issues faced within disaster-affected homelands.

Read more:
Like rivers in the sky: the weather system bringing floods to Queensland will become more likely under climate change

Floods can also bring many health issues for local communities. Dangers include contaminated drinking water and being cut off from medical care and supplies due to infrastructure damage, as we are seeing now in the Kimberley region. Large amounts of standing water can also create an ideal environment for mosquitoes carrying viruses.

The aftermath of natural disasters can be especially devastating with physical damage to peoples’ homes and loss of community infrastructure – often accompanied by extreme financial hardship. For First Nations people, there is a deep spiritual impact as well. Some peoples are put under strain through loss of access to culturally important areas, or evacuation orders separating communities from their respective Countries.

More must be done to ensure the safety of communities whose remote location makes them vulnerable, including First Nations people. Indigenous communities need access to culturally sensitive and appropriate resources, better roads and infrastructure, water management systems, early warning systems and emergency preparedness programs. These communities also need long-term recovery plans made available after disaster events like this. Such as training and skills development, support for business recovery, and access to financial resources and culturally safe mental health support.

What we can learn from Indigenous flood knowledge

Indigenous knowledge from the Kimberley region could provide insight into climate change impacts. Stories and practices passed down through generations of First Nations peoples show how some cultures have addressed changing climates by finding ways to survive extreme weather events and looking after the land.

One example is the story “The Flood Ngawarra-kurlu” where an old man warned of rain coming, which would lead to flooding, and recommended people don’t sleep in creek beds. The people didn’t listen, resulting in them losing their belongings to the flood. This highlights the valuable lesson to governments of not building in flood plains.

Another is the East Kimberley Mulan peoples’ story “The Two Dingoes” which describes visible signs of incoming floods. The colour of the water coming through Sturt Creek and Paruku indicates how long communities will need to relocate to avoid flooding (milky colour water means a few months, red means a few days).

It’s time we include Indigenous knowledge when creating disaster risk management strategies and climate change adaptation plans. This is also in line with the reform commitments made by all Australian governments in the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.

In doing this, we can create more effective tools and methods to protect vulnerable people. This could ensure more comprehensive protection, and also have the potential to foster a greater appreciation of Indigenous cultures and experiences. It is through such collaboration we can create a better future for all communities in the face of climate change.

Toni Hay is Director for Indigenous Climate Change providing climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction services.

Courtney-Jay Williams works for Indigenous Climate Change providing climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction services.

– ref. Disastrous floods in W.A – why were we not prepared? – https://theconversation.com/disastrous-floods-in-w-a-why-were-we-not-prepared-197407

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Freeman, Associate Professor of Dermatology, Bond University

Maybe you’ve had a skin cancer removed from your face or body. Perhaps you had an injury or accident and needed stitches. However you came by a cut on your skin, you probably want to make it appear as small as possible as quickly as possible and avoid a longer-lasting scar.

In order to minimise scar formation we need to address wound healing, which is a complex process.

It has three major phases: inflammation, proliferation and remodelling. These are orchestrated by special body signalling chemicals acting on the skin’s layers. The majority of scar formation occurs within the first six months after an injury.

So, what can you do to assist this process and support healing?

The inflammation phase

The inflammation phase occurs immediately to remove bacteria and bring in the blood supply.

The first goal of wound care is to avoid bacteria coming into contact with the body’s insides, because these will impair normal wound healing. So keep it clean.

Ideally bacteria will be removed from the skin if a wound is anticipated, such as before surgery. Cleaning the wound to remove bacteria and bacterial spores is critical to good healing and should be done within two hours of any injury.

Don’t let any dirt remain in a wound even if that means scrubbing with soap and water after a fall on the ground. A one-off application of povidone-iodine (sold in Australia as Betadine) will help lessen the chance of bacterial spore activation.

Your body’s natural reaction includes the formation of hydrogen peroxide. Unfortunately external application of this natural antiseptic can slow wound healing. Only weak antiseptic solutions containing silver (with proper advice from your doctor or pharmacist) can improve scar formation.

Read more:
Health Check: do we have to clean out our pores?

The proliferation phase

During this phase, the blood vessel cells, the epidermal cells and the fibroblasts multiply.

The fibroblasts (a type of cell that helps makes collagen to support connective tisues) cause scar contraction, which can “pucker” the skin. Scars tend to be white and a little shiny once the redness dies down.

Collagen, the body’s most abundant protein that helps makes skin strong, is continuously produced and broken down by the body. This can have an ongoing effect on the appearance of the mature wound for at least a further six months after scar formation.

The remodelling phase

The formation of hypertrophic scars (which are raised above the skin level but regress slowly) or keloid scars (which spread beyond the injury site and don’t regress later) is often genetically determined. It’s also partially related to the type of injury and care of the wound.

In people who develop these scars during the remodelling phase, the signal to stop the production of collagen within the wound is disrupted.

Read more:
Why do older people heal more slowly?

Try a gel or dressing

For clean, non-infected wounds, the application of a hydrogel (a polymer that retains moisture and doesn’t disolve) can actually speed healing, provided there is no infection. Use one that is suitable for application to the eye, such as Refresh Liquigel.

By keeping the wound moist, the proliferation of the surface skin cells is enhanced. When they grow out under a hard scab, it’s slowed down.

Wound gels that contain antiseptics and preservatives are best avoided in case of allergy and because antiseptics can slow down healing.

There is an intimate relationship between blood vessels and the fibroblasts. Red and itchy scars are likely to be growing, which will ultimately result in a larger scar. This is when keeping the scar covered to improve hydration can make a big difference.

Cover the scar with a silicone dressing and either a gel or a sheet for as many hours as possible.

For those prone to scarring, your pharmacist can show you an over-the-counter formulation of Zatamil Hydrogel you can use once a day for one week on and one week off. Use this under the silicone to help further reduce the scar. They might also suggest a fading cream.

A dermatologist with a vascular laser (which targets abnormal blood vessels in the skin to reduce redness) can also help, especially in the early stages of a scar.

Some final tips

Keeping the scar moist with oils is more difficult than with the silicone, but can reduce excess scarring, sometimes called “over-scarring”.

Finally, avoid overexposing the scar to sunlight. Scars can become very dark in comparison to the rest of person’s skin and ultraviolet light is the major preventable factor.

Wound healing is complex. Doctors, pharmacists and dermatologists can help advise on which of these tips will help with your specific wound.

Michael Freeman 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 to treat scars at home – and hopefully make them disappear – https://theconversation.com/how-to-treat-scars-at-home-and-hopefully-make-them-disappear-193948

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato

The humanitarian aid worker Andrew Bagshaw, who has dual New Zealand and British citizenship, has been missing in Ukraine for more than ten days.

Bagshaw and his British colleague Christopher Parry worked as part of a team of Ukrainian and international volunteers delivering aid and carrying out evacuations of civilians, often under fire from Russian forces. They have not been seen since January 6, when they left the city of Kramatorsk for Soledar, in eastern Ukraine, which has since been claimed by the Russian mercenary company Wagner.

Humanitarian volunteers often represent the best of us. They are driven to put themselves at personal risk with little financial reward to reduce human suffering and the impacts of conflicts. Their ethical justifications for entering dangerous locations, despite clear warnings from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs not to travel to Ukraine, are often exemplary.

But aid workers are at high risk. During the past two decades, intentional attacks on aid or humanitarian workers have become a disturbing trend, often perpetrated to drive outside influences away from war zones and fully isolate populations.

It is a war crime to intentionally attack aid workers. Some, such as personnel working for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations, have considerably more rights than others.

Despite this division, all aid workers are covered by basic rules. The problem is that international humanitarian law is not based on the ethics of why someone is in a war zone. This is especially the case if they are foreigners.

Read more:
Ukraine: abduction of UK aid workers raises safety questions over humanitarian organisations

Rights of foreigners who enter war zones

There are three main groups of foreigners who voluntarily go into war zones.

Some people volunteer to fight in foreign wars and are paid more than local fighters. If captured and deemed mercenaries, these people have no rights. They can be executed.

The second group are “aliens”, inadvertently caught up in a conflict in a country that is not theirs. For these people, if captured and non-combatants, they have a prima-facie right to leave the country. However, this is not an absolute right – they can still be held if their departure is contrary to the national interests of the state that captured them.

Aid workers represent the third group, and they are at increasing risk. Capturing aid workers for hostage and propaganda purposes is a repugnant trend. In recent conflicts, we’ve also seen a rise in the number of victims of collateral violence – their deaths were not intended but a result of indiscriminate force now commonly used in war zones.

More often that not, attacks on aid workers are a combination of intentional and unintentional actions. Globally, at least 460 aid workers were victims of major attacks in 2021: 140 were were killed, 203 wounded and 117 kidnapped.

Most of these attacks happened in countries such as South Sudan, Afghanistan, Syria and Ethiopia. But other conflict zones are also contributing to the figures, with growing numbers of deaths, kidnappings and wounding of aid workers recorded in Ukraine in 2022.

Read more:
Humanitarian aid workers need security, rights and better pay

International humanitarian law is clear that if a country where a war is happening consents to the presence of aid workers and they are impartial in their work, they “shall be respected and protected”.

Although Russia has withdrawn its consent to the specific convention that contains this rule, Ukraine is a signatory. The obvious problem is that Russia now considers this annexed territory to be Russian, not Ukrainian.

Irrespective of debates about ownership and consent, Russia is still bound by other rules. Russia, like Ukraine, is a party to the Hostages Convention, which prohibits and criminalises the taking of hostages, for whatever justification.

Russia is also bound by the Security Council resolution, in which it strongly condemned all forms of violence against humanitarian workers. The council, including Russia, then urged states to ensure crimes against such personnel do not go unpunished.

Read more:
Ukraine war: the bloody battle for Soledar and what it tells us about the future of the conflict

Between theory and practice on the battlefield

Despite all of these rules and obligations, there is a large gap between the theory of restraint and the practices developing in Ukraine.

It is possible that Bagshaw and other humanitarian workers have been directly caught up in the violence in Ukraine. To be operating in a war zone, which involves the indiscriminate use of force, Somme-like conditions, the possibility of war crimes and the arrival of thousands of mercenaries who often pay scant regard to rules, is extremely risky.

It is also possible they have been taken for bargaining purposes. A practice is developing in Ukraine in which combatants and non-combatants, including foreigners, are taken and traded by the belligerents. These exchanges also include the bodies of the dead.

Whichever scenario applies, this is a tragedy. We are at a point where individuals with the highest ethical motivations to provide impartial humanitarian assistance have themselves become victims: collateral in a war being conducted without honour.

Alexander Gillespie 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. NZ aid worker remains missing in Ukraine: the tragedy of people motivated to help in war zones becoming victims themselves – https://theconversation.com/nz-aid-worker-remains-missing-in-ukraine-the-tragedy-of-people-motivated-to-help-in-war-zones-becoming-victims-themselves-197804

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alessandro Palci, Research Associate in Evolutionary Biology, University of Adelaide

When we think of evolution, we tend to picture slow changes occurring over very long periods of time, typically millions of years. However, evolution can actually happen much faster, over only a few generations: think COVID-19 strains, for example. And this fast evolution isn’t just restricted to viruses and microbes.

Our study, recently published in Evolutionary Biology, documents rapid evolution in tiger snakes (Notechis scutatus). In less than a century, these snakes evolved the ability to swallow whole seagull chicks, allowing them to survive on a tiny island.

Marooned survivors

Most Australians are familiar with the tiger snake, one of our most iconic animals. The snakes in our study were from Carnac Island, a tiny islet off the coast of Perth in Western Australia. They were introduced here less than a century ago, possibly dumped by a travelling snake performer to avoid trouble with the law.

These marooned tiger snakes are now adept at swallowing the large chicks of the seagulls that nest there. Adult snakes have little else to eat on this island in order to survive and reproduce.

But how did they adapt so well, and so quickly? Tiger snakes on the mainland (the ancestral stock of the snakes on Carnac Island) typically feed on much smaller creatures, especially frogs.

The secret is a process called “phenotypic plasticity”, which is a phenomenon where an organism physically changes its body within its own lifetime to match the environment it is experiencing.

Myriad examples exist: from water fleas (Daphnia) that can develop a spiky “helmet” in the presence of predators, to the tadpoles of some spadefoot toads (Spea), which morph from omnivore to carnivore bodies when exposed to environments packed with small prey (including other tadpoles!).

Rearing baby snakes

Our research team took a detailed look at how the snakes from Carnac Island have adapted to survive there. We raised some baby snakes taken from the island and some from the nearby mainland, and divided them further into two groups – one group fed on small mice, and the other on large mice.

After the snakes matured, we looked into their heads using a high-resolution version of a medical CT scanner and took measurements of the different skull bones. This showed us how the island and mainland groups responded to different prey sizes.

Read more:
How venomous snakes got their fangs

Mainland snakes always had the same head shape, regardless of whether they were fed small or large prey. But Carnac Island snakes showed an intriguing reponse: those fed large prey developed a much bigger bite, with longer jaw bones (especially in the lower jaw and palate).

Previous studies had only looked at external head dimensions. We confirmed their conclusions and further revealed exactly which skull bones were responding to the drastic dietary change.

Easy-gainers

The explanation behind our results can be more easily understood if we compare our snakes to people at a gym – a human example of phenotypic plasticity. As all gym-goers know, some people can quickly build up muscle from weight training, the so-called easy-gainers (who doesn’t envy those!), while others struggle more – hard-gainers.

The snakes from Carnac Island are easy-gainers: they have a stronger intrinsic (genetic) capability to change their shape in response to a stimulus, in this case large prey items. This means they have a higher level of phenotypic plasticity.

In any population, some individuals are more plastic than others. Of the tiger snakes marooned on Carnac Island and forced to exist on seagull chicks, the most “plastic” snakes would develop the biggest bites – and be more likely to survive and pass down their easy-gainer genes to their descendants.

Over the course of a few generations (and less than 100 years), the entire population of tiger snakes would become easy-gainers.

The march of evolution

But evolution doesn’t stop there. Eventually, genetic mutations occur so that snakes are born with longer jaws; these would have a survival advantage even over the easy-gainers (who only develop longer jaws after “training”), and eventually replace them.

Thus, a wide gape becomes fixed at birth. This phenomenon is called “trait canalisation” or “assimilation”.

In our study we observed examples of this as well: some skull bones were relatively longer in the Carnac Island snakes from birth, regardless of their diet.

So how much change has occurred in the Carnac Island snakes? We found that certain jaw bones can lengthen by about 5% simply as a result of feeding on large prey for a year.

On top of this, the bones of the snakes from Carnac Island were also about 5% longer at birth than those in the mainland snakes (because of “trait canalisation” mentioned above). The island snakes are indeed on a rapid path to evolve very big jaws to effortlessly swallow baby seabirds.

Our study delves deeply into how rapid evolution occurs in complex organisms, and shows how diet has profound effects, even greatly affecting individual skull bones. It also reveals the resilience of tiger snakes, and how their “easy-gainer” bodies help them adapt almost instantaneously to extreme new environments.

This is one of the likely reasons tiger snakes have been so successful at colonising islands.

Read more:
The sun’s shining and snakes are emerging, but they’re not out to get you. Here’s what they’re really up to

Alessandro Palci’s research is made possible by funding provided by the Australian Research Council and is currently affiliated with the University of Adelaide and the South Australian Museum.

Emma Sherratt works for University of Adelaide, is an Honorary Researcher at the South Australian Musueum, and receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Mike Lee works for Flinders University and the South Australian museum, and receives funding from the Australian Research Council

– ref. On a tiny Australian island, snakes feasting on seabirds evolved huge jaws in a surprisingly short time – https://theconversation.com/on-a-tiny-australian-island-snakes-feasting-on-seabirds-evolved-huge-jaws-in-a-surprisingly-short-time-197791

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Prema Arasu, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Western Australia

We know more about the Moon than the deep sea.

This idea has been repeated for decades by scientists and science communicators, including Sir David Attenborough in the 2001 documentary series The Blue Planet. More recently, in Blue Planet II (2017) and other sources, the Moon is replaced with Mars.

As deep-sea scientists, we investigated this supposed “fact” and found it has no scientific basis. It is not true in any quantifiable way.

So where does this curious idea come from?

Mapping the deep

The earliest written record is in a 1954 article in the Journal of Navigation, in which oceanographer and chemist George Deacon refers to a claim by geophysicist Edward Bullard.

A 1957 paper published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts states: “the deep oceans cover over two-thirds of the surface of the world, and yet more is known about the shape of the surface of the moon than is known about that of the bottom of the ocean”. This refers specifically to the scant amount of data available on the topography of the sea floor and predates both the first crewed descent to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench (1960), and the first Moon landing (1969).

Read more:
Just how little do we know about the ocean floor?

This quote also predates the practice of using ship-mounted echo-sounders to map the sea floor from acoustic data, known as swathe bathymetry.

Almost a quarter of the world’s sea floor (23.4%, to be precise) has been mapped to a high resolution. This amounts to about 120 million square kilometres, or about three times the Moon’s total surface area. This may be why the comparison has shifted to Mars, which has a surface area of 145 million square kilometres.

What’s more, high-resolution maps do not constitute the total sum of knowledge. The deep ocean must be considered in three dimensions – and, unlike the Moon, it is a diverse and dynamic ecosystem.

A surprising number of visitors

Another related and incorrect comparison is that more people have set foot on the Moon than have visited the deepest place on Earth.

This statement is difficult to substantiate. “The deepest place on Earth” could refer to the Mariana Trench, or just the deepest part of it (the Challenger Deep, named for the British survey ship HMS Challenger).

Nevertheless, at least 27 and as many as 40 or more people have visited the Challenger Deep as of early 2023. On the other hand, only 12 people have “set foot” on the Moon and 24 people have visited it.

Out of sight, out of mind

So why do people keep saying we know more about the Moon or Mars than the deep sea?

It feels natural to compare the deep sea to space. Both are dark, scary and far away.

But we can see the Moon very easily by simply looking up. By being able to see it, we accept an apparently glowing rock hanging in the sky more easily than that parts of the ocean are very deep. We can see the Moon wax and wane and we can experience the push and pull of the tides.

It feels like we know more about the Moon than the deep sea, because we are forced to accept its presence. It intrudes on our lives in a tangible way that the deep sea does not.

We don’t think much about the deep sea unless we’re watching a documentary or horror film, or perhaps reading about some “horrific alien-like monster” dredged up by a deep-sea trawler.

A useful analogy

Because the deep sea is so physically inaccessible, comparing it to space may offer a useful analogy for an otherwise difficult-to-imagine ecosystem. But some deep-sea scientists argue that the persistent estrangement of the deep sea minimises the vast amount of research about it that has emerged in recent decades.

Deep-sea biology is relentlessly referred to as a discipline that knows less about its own field of study than a relatively small, barren rock devoid of atmosphere, water and life. And yet this self-deprecating line is repeated by scientists themselves, who may find that highlighting the deficit of knowledge about the deep sea helps to promote the need for ocean research.

Ultimately, the idea we know more about the Moon than the deep sea is at best about 70 years out of date. We know much more about the deep sea – but there is even more left to be known.

Read more:
Final frontiers: the deep sea

Prema Arasu receives funding from Inkfish.

Alan Jamieson receives funding from the Minderoo Foundation and Inkfish.

Thomas Linley works for Armatus Oceanic Ltd. He is affiliated with The Deep-Sea Podcast.

– ref. They say we know more about the Moon than about the deep sea. They’re wrong – https://theconversation.com/they-say-we-know-more-about-the-moon-than-about-the-deep-sea-theyre-wrong-197410

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney

Over the past 12 months, significant challenges by way of policy and politics have impacted professional tennis.

Chief among them have been participation constraints around the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by considerations about the eligibility or otherwise of Russian and Belarussian competitors following the invasion of Ukraine.

With the Australian Open beginning today, where are we currently at with these quandaries?

The COVID conundrum

Public health measures during the pandemic inevitably impacted the staging of tennis tournaments, with organisers obliged to follow local protocols.

At many events this meant players needed to be vaccinated or receive a medical exemption. For the most part this wasn’t an issue. For example, in January 2022 the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) reported 97 of the top 100 men’s players were vaccinated.

This suggested most tennis professionals – much like workers in many other occupations – accepted the public health objectives underpinning vaccination. Doubtless, though, some tennis players had been vaccine hesitant, most notably Novak Djokovic, who famously declared he’d rather miss grand slams than be vaccinated against COVID.

Read more:
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Just a year ago, Djokovic attempted to take part in the Australian Open on the basis of a “medical exemption”, which prompted raised eyebrows among sceptics.

Eventually, the Serb was required to leave Australia after his visa was cancelled, a decision that caused a furore in his home country.

Djokovic says he cannot forget the experience of being deported, but hopes he will be received respectfully by fans at this year’s tournament.

As with wider society, tennis authorities have adjusted their COVID protocols over time, particularly in the wake of the “opening up” of society following widespread vaccination.

At the 2022 Australian Open, players needed to be vaccinated or medically exempt, but in 2023 there’s no such requirement. Indeed, this year there’s no COVID testing at all, and players can even take part should they contract the virus during the tournament.

The contrast over 12 months is stark, with some players finding it hard to reconcile what was required back then to now.

The Ukraine imbroglio

Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, endorsed by its ally Belarus, shows no sign of resolution.

In response to the incursion, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its allies provided Ukraine with military supplies and logistical support, while implementing economic sanctions against Russia.

Tennis, like many other sports, has also been immersed in the question of sanctions; specifically, how to address the participation or otherwise of Russian and Belarussian players.

For team-based competition, the response was decisive, and pro-Western. The International Tennis Federation ruled that Russian and Belarussian teams be banned from the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup. This was especially bad news for Russian tennis players, who were expecting to defend victories in both events from back in 2021.

However, in the case of tournaments focused on individuals, where athletes officially compete for themselves (and unofficially on behalf of their country), the position of tennis authorities varied.

At the first grand slam following the invasion, Wimbledon organisers, with the support of the British government, declined to accept Russian and Belarussian players.

However, this position was repudiated by both the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), which fined the All England Club.

In an effort to counter what they described as “discrimination” against sanctioned players, these international tennis bodies determined that ranking points would not be awarded at Wimbledon, which disappointed many players.

At the French Open, however, organisers deemed that players from Russia and Belarus were eligible to participate, though with the proviso they compete as “neutral” athletes – bereft of regalia, symbols, or status indicating a connection with their homeland.

This would also require, at the very least, neutrality in respect of their public position on the invasion of Ukraine. As the tournament director emphasised, if any players were to show support for Putin, sanctions would follow.

Subsequently, the US Open also allowed Russian and Belarusian participants, again under an expectation of neutrality. The tournament organisers expressed their “concern about holding the individual athletes accountable for the actions and decisions of their governments”.

Meanwhile, though, ordinary Russians are not treated as “neutrals” by NATO and its allies: they have been collectively penalised by Western sanctions, thus being made accountable for Putin’s war.

Read more:
Boycotts in sport may not advance human rights. But they do harm individual athletes

In 2023, the Australian Open – like the US and French Open – announced that “neutral” tennis players from Russia and Belarus are welcome. This incensed the Ukrainian ambassador in Canberra, who labelled Tennis Australia’s position as “unprincipled”.

However, Daniil Medvedev, the leading Russian men’s player, expressed relief at being able to play, asserting a personal commitment to “peace”.

On the other hand, Belarusian tennis star Aryna Sabalenka complained that playing under a neutral flag at the Australian Open makes her feel she is “from nowhere”.

Cheers and jeers

So, how might these political issues impact this year’s Australian Open?

Novak Djokovic is back in town, chasing an incredible tenth singles title. After a year’s absence he remains a polarising figure. How will tennis fans respond?

And what of the Russian and Belarusian players? No player from either country competed at Wimbledon in 2022, and none featured as finalists at last year’s French and US Open. There’s an opportunity in Melbourne for that trend to change.

With these background tensions in mind, Australian Open boss Craig Tiley has instructed security to be on a tight leash in the event of booing, declaring: “If [fans] disrupt the enjoyment of anyone else – boom, they are out. We don’t want them on site. They can stay away or we will kick them out”.

Daryl Adair 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 2023 Australian Open pauses a year of profound political tensions in tennis – https://theconversation.com/the-2023-australian-open-pauses-a-year-of-profound-political-tensions-in-tennis-197397

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney

When is a surgeon not a surgeon? It’s a riddle that’s long puzzled regulators and consumers. But it may soon be solved.

State and territory health ministers have decided to restrict the title “surgeon” to specialist doctors. The move represents a significant change in Australian medical regulation.

So, if you’re thinking of having cosmetic surgery in 2023 (or beyond), these reforms might help you choose the right health professional.

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What’s the problem?

For as long as cosmetic enhancements have been offered in Australia, there have been no rules about which medical practitioners can call themselves cosmetic surgeons.

Consequently, any registered medical practitioner may call themselves a cosmetic surgeon in Australia, even though other specialist titles are protected under legislation.

A “plastic surgeon”, for instance, needs to have completed postgraduate training in surgery certified by the Australian Medical Council and Medical Board of Australia. In doing so, they attain the Australian equivalent of “board certification”, a term you might be familiar with from American TV shows, such as Botched.

Read more:
Who’s the best doctor for a tummy tuck or eyelid surgery? The latest review doesn’t actually say

How did we get here?

Arguments about who should be allowed call themselves a cosmetic surgeon have persisted for more than 20 years.

In 1999, the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission detailed the risks and dangers of the lack of restrictions in its Cosmetic Surgery Report.

The report recommended all medical practitioners who performed invasive surgery as surgeons be trained to the standard required of Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

These reforms have never been adopted, partly due to resistance from some doctors. These doctors have argued they are entitled to call themselves surgeons because they hold the traditional medical degree, called the Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS). Despite its name, the degree provides only rudimentary surgical training.

Read more:
Friday essay: the ugly history of cosmetic surgery

What’s happened since?

The number of cosmetic surgery procedures has increased over the past 20 years.

Social media continues to popularise treatments, such as buccal (cheek) fat removal and the Brazilian butt lift. Many of these surgeries expose the patient to significant risks of harm.

Allegations of unsafe surgeons dubbed “cosmetic cowboys” have surfaced in the media. And the range and seriousness of complaints about unsafe cosmetic treatments (some leading to fatal outcomes) have been of increasing concern to governments and regulators.

In 2018, these concerns triggered a NSW parliamentary inquiry and led to a new code of conduct for health organisations, which came into effect last September.

Read more:
What do normal labia look like? Sometimes doctors are the wrong people to ask

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) has also recently taken action. Some of the doctors mentioned in media coverage have had their medical practice restricted or have been suspended from practice altogether.

AHPRA has also formulated (but not finalised) an endorsement system to set new standards for cosmetic surgeons. It’s also established a cosmetic surgery enforcement unit to enhance complaints and investigations through a cosmetic surgery complaints hotline.

However, some have criticised these changes as inadequate.

Read more:
Who is our health regulator, AHPRA, and does it operate effectively?

What happens now?

In December last year and after public consultation, Australian health ministers decided to implement legislation that restricts the title of “surgeon”.

The consultation report warned that doctors’ continuing use of the title “cosmetic surgeon” might not just diminish public confidence, but chafe against recent updates to the health practitioner law intended to make health regulators, such as AHPRA, put consumer protection first.

Soon, these legal amendments will restrict the title “surgeon” to doctors holding “specialist registrations” in surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, or ophthalmology.

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What does this mean for doctors and consumers?

Although the new law is yet to be drafted, the impact of the change may be significant – for doctors and consumers alike.

Some doctors who have long promoted themselves as surgeons will be prevented from doing so, with disciplinary action or even prosecution on the cards should they continue to call themselves surgeons.

For consumers, the longstanding riddle about who is a “real” surgeon may soon be a little clearer.

Will this fix things?

Will this completely solve the problem of increased complaints and injuries in cosmetic surgery? That’s unlikely.

It still remains unclear how AHPRA’s new approach will interact with the new restricted title, or how demanding the new accreditation standards for endorsed cosmetic surgeons will be.

In the meantime, it’s still important for consumers to inform themselves about the skills and training of their chosen practitioner. They can check the doctor’s AHPRA registration and identify whether they’re a member of any relevant society, such as the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Having said that, the forthcoming changes to the meaning of the phrase “cosmetic surgeon” promises to make that homework just a little simpler.

Christopher Rudge was formerly a legal research associate at the Medical Council of New South Wales.

Cameron Stewart 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. Thinking about cosmetic surgery? At last, some clarity on who can call themselves a surgeon – https://theconversation.com/thinking-about-cosmetic-surgery-at-last-some-clarity-on-who-can-call-themselves-a-surgeon-196947

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Griffith, Professor of Avian Behavioural Ecology, Macquarie University

When you hear beautiful birdsong, such as the warbling of the Australasian magpie, you might believe it’s a sign of intense competition for territory or showing off to attract a mate.

After all, that’s the way birdsong is often thought of – a way for male birds to compete with each other. A prettier version of nature red in tooth and claw, as Tennyson put it. There’s some truth to it – in many species, even the most beautiful song by a male in another’s territory will invite attack.

But birdsong isn’t one dimensional. In some species, birdsong is much less about competition and much more about social cooperation. Our study of highly social zebra finches found the song of the males boosts social cohesion in local populations. It even helps these tiny birds to coordinate their nest building, mating and reproduction when there’s about to be abundant food for their young.

So when you hear a melodious song, enjoy it. Nature isn’t just about competition. More and more, we’re learning cooperation is there too. In some species, birdsong promotes harmony at a species level – and boost bonding between a male and his partner.

What did we find?

Zebra finches travel in large flocks through Australia’s arid interior, looking for seeds. They’re highly social, and are known as a bird species able to learn new songs.

Zebra finches are one of Australia’s most-studied birds, because they’re easy to keep in captivity. But to discover how they act in the wild, we had to go remote to a study area near Broken Hill.

To capture their song, we installed more than 20 microphones and recorded them from dawn to dusk every four days over a whole year.

We chose this species because the males sing their own individually distinctive songs – and they do it relatively quietly, compared to the loudspeaker bugling of, say, a currawong.

That’s important. When birds sing softly, it’s a sign the song isn’t a warning about territory. Zebra finch songs can be heard only by birds within a few metres, and they’re often sung when birds perch together in the same bush. So why do they do it? When each male sings their own unmistakable songs, it lets others in the group figure out who is singing – and gauge how many males are close by.

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Listen for yourself. The two songs below are from male zebra finches – but they’re clearly very different from each other.

What happens when you play one male’s song to another male? In more territorial and less social species, it would provoke a aggressive response. But in zebra finches, it has the opposite effect. It actually draws in other males closer to share the same space. That’s why you can often hear multiple males sing together in the same bush.

Song for social bonding

On our recordings, we heard zebra finches every day – even though it was in 2019, when one of the worst droughts in the last 100 years made conditions very poor. No finches even attempted to breed.

But then the climate cycle shifted from drought to rains and flood. Water drove grass growth – and that meant seeds were coming. The finches sensed this and began mating.

As the drought broke, we heard the males sing more, peaking around the time the female birds laid their eggs. This suggests zebra finch song is part of an ongoing “discussion” between a female and her partner, which helps synchronise their activity. Song is likely to be related to how birds feel. When food is abundant birds feel better and sing more. When individual finches hear lots of singing in the area they know others are also enjoying the conditions and it gives greater confidence in the decision to start breeding.

So if zebra finch males don’t sing to claim territory, are they doing it to show off to prospective mates? Nope. In these remarkable birds, the males tend to sing after they’ve found a partner. They sing to her while perching next to her on a branch, and they will sing regularly – even daily – over the years of their relationship.

The females of most singing species sing too. Female zebra finches, however, don’t sing.

We believe the serenading of the female zebra finch by her partner may play a similar social function to the commonplace song duets you can hear from Australian songbirds in suburbs or in the bush.

For instance, magpie-lark couples will sing a duet while doing a kind of dance, making distinctive, synchronised wing spreading, shoulder raising and body flicking movements.

These duets help to strengthen the pair’s bond and help them coordinate their behaviour. These synchronised songs and visual displays also show the strength of their partnership, which can make territory intruders think twice. For zebra finches, it may be the male’s constant song is enough to keep the pair well bonded.

Australia is rightly famous for its birds, from raucous cockatoos to melodious songbirds. After all, birdsong evolved here first and spread to the rest of the world.

Now we know the zebra finch uses song as social bonding, we can look for this in other species around the world. We expect many other gregarious species will use song in ways more complex than marking territory or drawing in mates.

Birdsong is the animal sound we most regularly encounter – it’s part of the background of our lives. But for birds, it’s far beyond a pretty melody. It’s fundamental to how they live and who they are as a species.

Read more:
Only the lonely: an endangered bird is forgetting its song as the species dies out

Simon Griffith receives funding from The Australian Research Council, and this work was supported by a grant to Marc Naguib from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

Hugo Loning is doing a PhD supported by a grant to Marc Naguib from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

– ref. Birdsong isn’t just competition for mates or territory. Zebra finches sing to bond – https://theconversation.com/birdsong-isnt-just-competition-for-mates-or-territory-zebra-finches-sing-to-bond-197531

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lachie Scarsbrook, DPhil Student, University of Oxford

Aotearoa New Zealand is home to an incredible diversity of lizards (mokomoko) – more than 120 species are identified, and counting.

Elusive species are being (re)discovered in cracks and crevices in remote areas, while geneticists are using DNA to untangle hidden diversity in widespread populations.

We’ve known for a long time that Hoplodactylus geckos living on rocky islands in the Cook Strait were a little different from their northern counterparts. They are smaller, have different patterns and possess unique DNA fingerprints – all indicating a new species.

The arrival of rats, coupled with the burning of native forests centuries ago, complicated this taxonomic task by driving geographically intermediate mainland populations to extinction. With those crucial puzzle pieces missing, it was unclear how significant the observed differences between northern and southern populations were.

It wasn’t until we used new methods of analysing ancient DNA on those extinct populations that we realised northern and southern Hoplodactylus geckos were quite different indeed – they had been separated for over five million years. Our new research describes these populations as different species.

Mistaken identity

Before now, all living Hoplodactylus populations were known as Duvaucel’s gecko, named after French naturalist Alfred Duvaucel.

In the early 19th century, Duvaucel travelled through India, where he acquired various plants and animals to ship back to Paris. Among these samples was a jar of pickled geckos of a species that was later named Hoplodactylus duvaucelii in his honour.

Scientists later realised the assumption that Duvaucel’s geckos lived in Bengal, India, was incorrect, as no similar geckos were ever found in Asia. Hoplodactylus geckos are only found in Aotearoa and, at up to 30 cm in length, they are our largest living lizards.

What’s in a name?

Taxonomy is the study of how different lineages relate to one another. Funding and conservation efforts are often dependent on taxonomic recognition. Robust taxonomic work is critical to conservation.

Once published, scientific names can be impossible to change. This is to limit petty and confusing changes. However, this practice can also “lock in” names that honour historical figures who have fallen from social grace, as well as misspellings and names of little significance to the communities where the species lives.

We wanted to ensure our newly identified species of gecko was appropriately named. We approached Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui, mana whenua of Ngāwhatu-Kai-ponu (the Brothers Islands) in Cook Strait, home to the largest surviving population of the “new” gecko. They proposed the te reo Māori common name te mokomoko a Tohu (scientific name: Hoplodactylus tohu).

Tohu Kākahi, with whakapapa (genealogical) ties to Te Ātiawa, was a pacifist who was taken prisoner by British forces during the invasion of Parihaka in Taranaki.
He was transported to Whakatū (Nelson) and then passed the Brothers Islands while being taken south along the prehistoric range of te mokomoko a Tohu to Ōtepoti (Dunedin). This legacy is now immortalised in the name of this special gecko.

The North Island Hoplodactylus populations retain the name Duvaucel’s gecko following International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) rules.

As a globally applied system, scientific naming conventions sometimes conflict with regional perspectives and values: non-Roman characters (such as macrons) cannot be used, for example, and it may seem that long-standing traditional names are being replaced. Formulation of most new scientific names does not include consultation with Indigenous communities. Women, people of colour and Indigenous people remain underrepresented in species names or as authors of new species.

Read more:
A new method of extracting ancient DNA from tiny bones reveals the hidden evolutionary history of New Zealand geckos

Currently, the legality and ethics of how to select a taxonomic name, who chooses it and what root languages are used are subject to heated debate. As yet, there are no widely supported solutions.

Our naming of te mokomoko a Tohu is just one example of how researchers might approach the naming of new species. Taxonomic and Indigenous names and perspectives constitute different systems, yet those systems are not inherently incompatible. How names are formed and used can be very important, and convey respect to these species and to the communities for whom they are a taonga (treasure).

How to save a species

The few remaining populations in Cook Strait are the last survivers of te mokomoko a Tohu, making them critically endangered. While these islands are currently safe havens, climate change, scrub fires and potential predator incursion pose ongoing risks.

To safeguard their survival, translocation to mainland ecosanctuaries (such as Orokonui Ecosanctuary in Otago) could be used to establish “insurance” populations in regions they once lived. If we don’t act soon, this species may disappear.

Read more:
Taxonomy, the science of naming things, is under threat

We cannot hope to stop extinctions if we don’t know what’s out there. This is why taxonomy, which is critically underfunded in Aotearoa, is so important. Our research has merely scratched the surface of understanding the diversity in New Zealand’s lizard fauna.

We desperately need scientific methods to inform evidence-based conservation management so we can be effective kaitiaki (guardians) of taonga species. Who knows what we will discover as we delve into the biological heritage of other species.

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. Meet te mokomoko a Tohu: a new species of New Zealand gecko hidden in plain sight – https://theconversation.com/meet-te-mokomoko-a-tohu-a-new-species-of-new-zealand-gecko-hidden-in-plain-sight-195093

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Rice, Professor of Law; Kim Santow Chair of Law and Social Justice, University of Sydney

The Iranian government has attempted to brutally suppress the widespread protests sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022.

Central to Iran’s response have been the country’s “revolutionary courts”. They have conducted heavily-criticised trials resulting in at least four executions, while over 100 protesters are in considerable danger of imminent execution.

Criminal trials in these courts often occur behind closed doors presided over by clerics, with none of the standard guarantees of criminal procedure such as allowing time and access to lawyers to prepare a defence.

Submissions to the United Nations from Iranian civil society organisations report that lawyers are routinely denied access to clients, and that coerced confessions, often obtained by torture, are used as evidence.

Tara Sepehri Far, senior Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, describes the trials as “a total travesty of justice”.

Read more:
Iran executes first protester as human rights abuses come under international scrutiny

Unfair trials

Criminal trials that are unfair by international standards have been a feature of the Iranian legal system since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The courts were established to try opponents of the regime who face ill-defined national security charges that carry the death penalty. Such vague charges include waging war against God (“Moharebeh”), corruption on Earth (“Ifsad fel Arz”), and armed rebellion (“baghi”).

The courts are integral to the consolidation of Islamist power which began within a few months of the revolution. As is apparent from the structure of the Iranian government, the courts complement the role of para-state organs such as the Basij.

The Basij is a paramilitary organisation formed very soon after the revolution. It supports the guidance patrol, known colloquially as the morality police.

The Basij is essential to the Iranian authoritarian state. It sits under the command of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, and is fiercely loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The United States Treasury has imposed sanctions on senior members of the Basij, and on a network of businesses it believes is financing the organisation.

Human rights obligations

The revolutionary courts’ secret trials, vague charges, denial of lawyers, and evidence obtained by coercion and torture have focused attention on Iran’s flagrant and persistent breaches of its international human rights obligations.

In 1975, Iran ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to life and the right to live free from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has stated the death penalty is not consistent with these guarantees, putting Iran in breach of its international human rights obligations.

The guarantee of a right not to be tortured is repeated in the Convention Against Torture, which Iran has not ratified. It’s the only country in the Middle East to not have done so, and one of only 20 in the world.

In a periodic review of Iran’s human rights compliance, the UN recommended in 2020 that Iran ratify the treaty, end the use of torture, and credibly investigate and prosecute all allegations of torture. Iran rejected these recommendations.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran warns the executions are “a prelude to more state-sponsored murders of young people in the absence of a strong and coordinated international response”.

Hangings such as these have been characterised by opposition parties in exile as desperate efforts to forestall the inevitable overthrow of the regime, and by the US Department of State as efforts to intimidate Iranians and suppress dissent.

Will sanctions help?

Australia’s response to two executions late last year was to condemn the executions, issue a joint statement with Canada and New Zealand, and subject Iran’s morality police and the Basij to international sanctions.

Despite widespread international condemnation, Iran is following through on its pledge to continue to crackdown on the protests.

We can condemn the country’s conduct and enact sanctions, but sadly, Iran is free to persist despite sanctions if it wants.

At the very least, what international sanctions and global outrage may do is give heart and hope to the protesters, and help signal to them that the world is watching and standing with them.

Simon would like to acknowledge an Iranian-born colleague who requested anonymity for their contributions to this article.

Simon would like to thank an Iranian-born colleague who requested anonymity for their contributions to this article.

– ref. Iran executions: the role of the ‘revolutionary courts’ in breaching human rights – https://theconversation.com/iran-executions-the-role-of-the-revolutionary-courts-in-breaching-human-rights-197534

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University

Sun Cable – considered to be the world’s biggest renewable energy export project – announced this week it had entered voluntary administration following “the absence of alignment” with shareholders.

Sun Cable is expected to cost over A$30 billion. It proposes to build an enormous, 12,000 hectare solar farm in the Northern Territory, add an enormous (40 gigawatt hour) battery for electricity storage, then connect Australia to Singapore via Darwin through an undersea cable over 4,000 kilometres long. This would be by far the world’s longest electricity cable if it existed today.

It would see Darwin access 800 megawatts of additional electricity and Sun Cable could supply “up to” 15% of Singapore’s electricity by 2030. To put this into context, Singapore’s annual electricity consumption is about one quarter of Australia’s.

While this prominent and well funded project has gone into voluntary administration, those enthused about rapid decarbonisation and Australia’s renewable energy export potential need not despair. These events are part of the usual discovery processes.

Read more:
It might sound ‘batshit insane’ but Australia could soon export sunshine to Asia via a 3,800km cable

What Sun Cable promises

Sun Cable offers an enticing possibility of putting Australia’s land, and the rays of sunshine that fall on it, to use in displacing gas for electricity production in a distant land. Singapore is keen to procure renewable electricity, and has limited ability to produce that electricity itself.

The project has attracted the enthusiastic support of Australia’s two richest men: Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest. Each has already committed about $50 million to the project and both are experienced investors in renewable electricity in Australia.

When Cannon-Brookes first invested in the project he described it as “batshit insane” but also that the “engineering all checks out”.

Sun Cable is also supported by Australia’s governments. The NT government passed laws last year to facilitate its development. The federal government gave it “major project” status. And Infrastructure Australia called the project “investment ready” and placed it on its National Infrastructure Priority List.

Media commentary since Sun Cable’s announcement has drawn attention to the differences of view of its two most prominent shareholders, particularly about their differing level of support for Sun Cable’s management.

Read more:
Cannon-Brookes shakes up AGL: what now for Australia’s biggest carbon emitter

But the exact nature of their disagreement is unclear, and both men have said they remain interested in the project.

Commentators have suggested the apparent disagreement is a reflection on the commercial and technical viability of the project itself. Matthew Warren, former chief executive of the Australian Energy Council, went so far as to describe Sun Cable as “a quiet running joke inside the electricity industry” and that it:

reflected the ignorance, egos and quest for notoriety of its proponents rather than the needs of its prospective customers.

But Federal Energy and Climate Minister Chris Bowen, commenting on conversations with Sun Cable’s management, said he was assured the project would proceed. He said the latest developments reflected only a change in corporate structure and approach.

Comparable projects overseas

Sun Cable is obviously a very ambitious project. Yet much too little information is publicly available to pronounce, with any certainty, on its commercial and technical viability.

While the project will certainly break new ground, it is not totally in its own league. The similar Xlinks project was proposed overseas in 2021 and is now advancing quickly. This project would connect Morocco and England with similar capacity renewable generation and storage, and has a comparably long cable to Sun Cable’s.

Read more:
Australia needs much more solar and wind power, but where are the best sites? We mapped them all

And at the end of last year, the European Commission committed funding to a high-voltage direct current link between Tunisia in North Africa and Sicily, Italy. It would export 600 megawatts of (mainly) solar electricity produced in Tunisia.

Although a much less ambitious project than either Xlinks or Sun Cable, it is founded on the same vision of long distance inter-continental transmission of renewable electricity. And it is almost certain to proceed.

Just like fossil fuel resources, the world’s renewable resources are unevenly distributed. There are powerful incentives now, on economic and sustainability grounds, to find ways to reliably and cost effectively move renewable electricity from where those resources are abundant to where they are scarce.

No need for hand wringing

Inevitably, the latest Sun Cable developments draw attention to the questions of how best to exploit Australia’s endowment of land, sun and wind and how to capitalise on our track record as a reliable supplier with credible government and trusted courts.

For example, instead of trying to export electricity, should we focus on exporting renewably produced hydrogen or ammonia for fuel and fertilisers? Or, should we focus on using renewables to process and refine mineral resources before shipping higher-valued products (such as steel, aluminium and silicone metal) to distant shores?

These questions have attracted considerable interest from policy makers, investors and researchers – in particular, in books from economist Ross Garnaut (Superpower and The Superpower Transformation) and in former Australian chief scientist Alan Finkel’s forthcoming book Powering Up.

Both authors canvass many possibilities and neither categorically rule out direct renewable electricity export. They also suggest ore processing using renewable electricity is likely to offer great immediate value.

As best I can see, the latest Sun Cable developments provide no new publicly available information to confidently provide new insights into these issues.

Read more:
Red dirt, yellow sun, green steel: how Australia could benefit from a global shift to emissions-free steel

The outpouring of “I-told-you-so” commentary following Sun Cable’s voluntary administration is to be expected. But perhaps the main import of Sun Cable’s developments is to draw attention to Australia’s good fortune in attracting ambitious and enterprising developers, supported by rich Australians who have been successful swimming against the tide.

Rather than dipping their hands into the public’s pocket to fund the discovery of the best way to exploit Australia’s renewable resources, these enterprising people are risking their own money and reputations in a discovery process likely to benefit us all.

There is no need for a crisis of confidence or a bout of hand wringing about the viability of Australia’s renewable energy export prospects.

Disagreements arise between investors all the time. Administrative and legal processes should provide ways for these to be resolved quickly and amicably, as we should expect here. Viva the discovery process.

Bruce Mountain 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 A$30 billion Sun Cable crash is a setback but doesn’t spell the end of Australia’s renewable energy export dreams – https://theconversation.com/the-a-30-billion-sun-cable-crash-is-a-setback-but-doesnt-spell-the-end-of-australias-renewable-energy-export-dreams-197688

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicky Morrison, Professor of Planning and Director of Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University

Public concerns about high food prices highlight how meeting basic human needs can’t be taken for granted, even in a country like Australia.

Food prices are but one part of the equation that determines access to food – and healthy eating more generally. Just as poverty for some can be hidden within a relatively wealthy community, lack of access to fresh affordable foods can be a problem even in our largest cities.

Read more:
How many Australians are going hungry? We don’t know for sure, and that’s a big part of the problem

The term “food desert” describes this concern. It is believed to have been first coined in the United Kingdom. It’s now widely used in the United States and also in Australia.

People living in food deserts lack easy access to food shops. This is usually due to combinations of:

• travel distances as a result of low-density suburban sprawl

• limited transport options

• zoning policies that prohibit the scattering of shops throughout residential areas

• retailers’ commercial decisions that the household finances of an area won’t support a viable food outlet.

The term “healthy food desert” describes an area where food shops are available, but only a limited number – or none at all – sell fresh and nutritious food.

Our recent research looks at whether food deserts might exist in a major local government area in Western Sydney. We mapped locations of outlets providing food – both healthy and unhealthy food – and of local levels of disadvantage and health problems.

Our initial results are disturbing. We found nearly two-thirds of suburbs have no food stores at all. In those that have them, only 16% of the stores are healthy food outlets.

The maps also show strong correlations between these food deserts and areas of poor public health and socioeconomic disadvantage.

Read more:
How to save $50 off your food bill and still eat tasty, nutritious meals

How did the study assess the area?

Our research took a rapid appraisal approach to assess whether food deserts might be present in the study area.

Health data from the Australian Health Policy Collaboration indicate concerning rates of overweight and obesity, diabetes and early deaths from cardiovascular disease in these areas.

As for the physical environment, the local government area is made up of large single-use residential zones, inconvenient distances to shops, and many fast-food outlets. Walk Score ratings of the suburbs indicate how much a car is needed for almost all errands. People who don’t have a car face real hurdles to accessing affordable, healthier food options.

We used other data sets (online business directories, store locators and Google maps) to plot the locations of food outlets and make an initial assessment of the types of food they offer. We broadly classified these as “healthy” (chain-operated and independent supermarkets, multicultural grocery stores – mostly Asian and African in this area – and fruit and vegetable shops) and “unhealthy” (independent and franchise takeaway stores and certain restaurants and cafés).

We mapped the health and livability indicators and food outlets in different colours.

The coloured maps offer quick, informative and approachable appraisals of the situation. Because community members can easily interpret them, the maps may help to prompt community action to improve the situation.

Read more:
Australia is dragging its feet on healthy eating. In 5 years we’ve made woeful progress

What did the study find?

Overall, “non-healthy” food outlets account for 84% of all food outlets in the local government area.

Further, all food outlets (healthy and non-healthy) are located in 14 suburbs. This means 22 suburbs have no food stores at all. The 14 suburbs with food outlets also commonly have more – at times substantially more – unhealthy than healthy stores.

The mapping also shows a strong correlation between suburbs with large proportions of unhealthy stores and those with greater levels of disadvantage (using the Australian Bureau of Statistics index of relative socioeconomic disadvantage). The suburb ranked as the most disadvantaged, for instance, has six unhealthy food stores but no healthy food stores. Its Walk Score indicates residents depend on the car and could manage few errands by foot.

Our rapid appraisal method does not provide all the answers. Care needs to be taken to not fall into the trap of over-interpretation.

Nor should food outlets themselves be seen as a proxy for healthy or unhealthy eating. They are but one of several factors to be considered in assessing whether people are eating healthily.

Read more:
‘If only they made better life choices’ – how simplistic explanations of poverty and food insecurity miss the mark

What can be done about these issues?

It’s clear large parts of this urban area do not support residents’ health and wellbeing by providing good access to healthy food choices.

Urban policy can be effective in eliminating food deserts. Social, land use and community health actions always need to be on the ball and targeted to need.

After all, diet-related choices are not just an outcome of personal preferences. The availability of food outlets, and the range of foods they sell, can influence those choices – and, in turn, nutrition and health.

Our findings pinpoint where targeted investigations should be directed. Determining the exact nature of this lack of choice will help policymakers work out what can be done about it.

It’s an approach well worth taking throughout Australia to check where there might be similar hidden concerns.

Our study lists other proven tools to assist follow-up research that our work has shown is needed. These include:

• onsite appraisals of individual food outlets

• assessments of the freshness and affordability of items on offer

• more detailed local accessibility data

• direct surveys of residents’ experiences of their local food environments.

We all deserve to live and work in places that intrinsically support, rather than detract from, healthy choices and behaviours, and therefore our health itself.

Ruvimbo Timba, a planning officer at the NSW Department of Planning and Environment and formerly of Western Sydney University, is a co-author of this article.

Ruvimbo Timba, Planning Officer at NSW Department of Planning and Environment and formerly of Western Sydney University, is a co-author of this article.

Nicky Morrison and Gregory Paine 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. Are you living in a food desert? These maps suggest it can make a big difference to your health – https://theconversation.com/are-you-living-in-a-food-desert-these-maps-suggest-it-can-make-a-big-difference-to-your-health-196477

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shane Cronin, Professor of Earth Sciences, University of Auckland

The Kingdom of Tonga exploded into global news on January 15 last year with one of the most spectacular and violent volcanic eruptions ever seen.

Remarkably, it was caused by a volcano that lies under hundreds of metres of seawater. The event shocked the public and volcano scientists alike.

Was this a new type of eruption we’ve never seen before? Was it a wake-up call to pay more attention to threats from submarine volcanoes around the world?

The answer is yes to both questions.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano was a little-known seamount along a chain of 20 similar volcanoes that make up the Tongan part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”.

We know a lot about surface volcanoes along this ring, including Mount St Helens in the US, Mount Fuji in Japan and Gunung Merapi of Indonesia. But we know very little about the hundreds of submarine volcanoes around it.

It is difficult, expensive and time-consuming to study submarine volcanoes, but out of sight is no longer out of mind.

Read more:
Why the volcanic eruption in Tonga was so violent, and what to expect next

Tongan eruption breaks records

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption has firmly established itself in the record books with the highest ash plume ever measured and a 58km aerosol cloud “overshoot” that touched space beyond the mesosphere. It also triggered the largest number of lightning bolts recorded for any type of natural event.

The injection of large amounts of water vapour into the outer atmosphere, along with “sonic booms” (atmospheric pressure waves) and tsunami that travelled the entire world, set new benchmarks for volcanic phenomena.

COVID hampered access to Tonga during the eruption and its aftermath, but local scientists and an international scientific collaborative effort helped us discover what drove its extreme violence.

Eruption creates a giant hole

A team from the Tongan Geological Services and the University of Auckland used a multi-beam sonar mapping system to precisely measure the shape of the volcano, just three months after the January blast.

We were astonished to find the rim of the vast submarine volcano was intact, but the formerly 6km diameter flat top of the submarine cone was rent by a hole 4km wide and almost 1km deep.

This is known as a “caldera” and happens when the central part of the volcano collapses in on itself after magma is rapidly “pumped out”. We calculate over 7.1 cubic kilometres of magma was ejected. It is almost impossible to envisage, but if we wanted to refill the caldera, it would take one billion truck loads.

It is hard to explain the physics of the Hunga eruption, even with the large magma volume and its interaction with seawater. We need other driving forces to explain especially the climactic first hour of the eruption.

Mixed magmas lead to chain reaction

Only when we examined the texture and chemistry of the erupted particles (volcanic ash) did we see clues about the event’s violence. Different magmas were intimately mixed and mingled before the eruption, with contrasts visible at a micron to centimetre scale.

Isotopic “fingerprinting” using lead, neodymium, uranium and strontium shows at least three different magma sources were involved. Radium isotope analysis shows two magma bodies were older and resident in the middle of the Earth’s crust, before being joined by a new, younger one shortly before the eruption.

The mingling of magmas caused a strong reaction, driving water and other so-called “volatile elements” out of solution and into gas. This creates bubbles and an expanding magma foam, pushing the magma out vigorously at the onset of eruption.

This intermediate or “andesite” composition has low viscosity. It means magma can be rapidly forced out through narrow cracks in the rock. Hence, there was an extremely rapid tapping of magma from 5-10km below the volcano, leading to sudden step-wise collapses of the caldera.

Read more:
Tonga eruption was so intense, it caused the atmosphere to ring like a bell

The caldera collapse led to a chain reaction because seawater suddenly drained through cracks and faults and encountered magma rising from depth in the volcano. The resulting high-pressure direct contact of water with magma at more than 1150℃ caused two high-intensity explosions around 30 and 45 minutes into the eruption. Each explosion further decompressed the magma below, continuing the chain reaction by amplifying bubble growth and magma rise.

After about an hour, the central eruption plume lost energy and the eruption moved to a lower-elevation ejection of particles in a concentric curtain-like pattern around the volcano.

This less focused phase of eruption led to widespread pyroclastic flows – hot and fast-flowing clouds of gas, ash and fragments of rock – that collapsed into the ocean and caused submarine density currents. These damaged vast lengths of the international and domestic data cables, cutting Tonga off from the rest of the world.

Unanswered questions and challenges

Even after long analysis of a growing body of eyewitness accounts, there are still major unanswered questions about this eruption.

The most important is what led to the largest local tsunami – an 18-20m-high wave that struck most of the central Tongan islands around an hour into the eruption. Earlier tsunami are well linked to the two large explosions at around 30 and 45 minutes into the eruption. Currently, the best candidate for the largest tsunami is the collapse of the caldera itself, which caused seawater to rush back into the new cavity.

This event has parallels only to the great 1883 eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia and has changed our perspective of the potential hazards from shallow submarine volcanoes. Work has begun on improving volcanic monitoring in Tonga using onshore and offshore seismic sensors along with infrasound sensors and a range of satellite observation tools.

All of these monitoring methods are expensive and difficult compared to land-based volcanoes. Despite the enormous expense of submarine research vessels, intensive efforts are underway to identify other volcanoes around the world that pose Hunga-like threats.

Shane Cronin receives funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, through the Endeavour Fund (UOAX1913 and UOAX2213).
Results described in this work includes work in progress in collaboration with Dr Marta Ribo (Auckland University of Technology, NZ), Prof James Garvin (NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, USA), Prof Frank Ramos (New Mexico State University, USA), Dr Sung-Hyun Park (Korean Polar Research Centre, Republic of Korea) Drs Joali Paredes, Jie Wu, Ingrid Ukstins and David Adams (The University of Auckland, NZ) and Taaniela Kula (Tongan Geoscience Services).

– ref. A year on, we know why the Tongan eruption was so violent. It’s a wake-up call to watch other submarine volcanoes – https://theconversation.com/a-year-on-we-know-why-the-tongan-eruption-was-so-violent-its-a-wake-up-call-to-watch-other-submarine-volcanoes-175734

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Whittaker, Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide

The impact of vegan diets on our pets’ health produces heated debate from people on both sides.

But until now, we haven’t had a formal assessment of the scientific evidence. In new research published today in Veterinary Sciences we have brought together the health findings from 16 studies on dogs and cats fed vegan diets.

So, if you’re considering whether 2023 might be the year for your best (pet) friend to adopt a meat-free lifestyle, read on to find out the benefits and risks, and what we still don’t know.

An ethical diet?

In recent years, people in many parts of the world have been increasingly adopting vegetarian or vegan diets, spurred by ethical concerns for animal welfare, sustainability, or based on perceived health benefits.

Pet owners may also wish to feed their animals in accordance with these dietary choices. In fact, one study found that 35% of owners who did not feed their pets vegan diets would consider them, but found too many barriers. Principal concerns were nutritional adequacy, a lack of veterinary support and there being few commercially available vegan diets.

It has traditionally been considered that the feeding of vegan diets to species that are mainly carnivorous goes against their “nature” and leads to serious health impacts.

There has even been debate around whether the feeding of vegan diets to pets amounts to animal cruelty. But what does the science actually say?

Necessary nutrients

Both dogs and cats are carnivores. Dogs are facultative carnivores, which means they can digest plant material and survive without meat, but may not thrive.

Cats on the other hand are obligate carnivores. By definition this means their diet contains more than 70% meat, and they cannot digest plant material.

The anatomy of the dog and cat gut also clearly points to their carnivorous lifestyles. Their teeth are designed to crush and grind meat, and hold prey. Their intestines are also short with a smaller capacity in relation to body size since, unlike herbivores, they do not need to ferment plant-based material to digest it.

Read more:
Raw meat pet food may not be good for your dog, or your own health

A key concern with vegan pet diets is that the proteins from cereal grains or soy (the main plant-based proteins) contain fewer essential amino acids, e.g. omega 3 fatty acids or taurine, and do not have all the essential vitamins. These nutrients are necessary for maintaining good heart, eye and liver function.

A range of studies have looked at the nutritional composition of vegan pet diets and some do fall short. Homemade vegan diets are particularly at risk of being nutritionally deficient, but some commercial diets may also not meet requirements set by various pet nutrition guidelines.

But all of this considers vegan diets using an input-based approach – it’s based on predictions. If we really want to know the impact of these diets on health, we need to measure this in the animals.

The evidence is lacking

We performed a type of study common in evidence-based practice, called a systematic review. These studies provide a summary of all the research on a topic; it is evaluated for quality, allowing us to give an assessment of how certain we can be when making recommendations based on the evidence.

Only 16 studies have looked at the health impacts of vegan diets in dogs and cats. Cats were only included in six of these, despite being the species most likely to suffer nutrient deficiencies.

A number of these studies used owner reports on health as the measured outcome, for example perception of health or body condition. These are likely to be subjective and could be prone to bias.

In the few studies that measured health directly through examining the animals or running laboratory tests, there was little evidence of adverse health impacts from vegan pet diets. Nutrient levels were generally within normal range, no heart or eye abnormalities were detected, and body and coat condition were normal.

However, it’s important to note these studies often involved low numbers of animals, with vegan diets only being fed to animals for a few weeks – so deficiency may not have had time to develop. Furthermore, the study designs were often ones considered less reliable in evidence-based practice, for example with no control groups used as a comparison.

Owners’ perceptions on the health benefits of the diets were overwhelmingly positive. Advantages cited were reduced obesity, better-smelling breath and reduced skin irritation. The only drawback was increased faecal volume, which seemed tolerable to most owners.

Proceed with caution

Overall, it seems the jury is still out on whether feeding our carnivorous four-legged friends vegan diets is actually safe.

What we can be certain about is that both strong pro- or anti vegan pet feeding arguments are potentially misguided, and not backed by evidence.

For now, owners committed to feeding their pets a vegan diet should take a cautious approach. Use a complete and balanced commercial vegan diet formulation, and schedule regular health checks with a veterinarian.

Read more:
Five ways to help your dog live a longer, healthier life

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. Are vegan pet diets as unhealthy as they’re claimed to be? Here’s what the evidence says – https://theconversation.com/are-vegan-pet-diets-as-unhealthy-as-theyre-claimed-to-be-heres-what-the-evidence-says-197409

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Felmingham, Chair of Clinical Psychology, The University of Melbourne

You might have wondered if the recent death of George Pell, who was jailed in 2019 for child sexual abuse and then later acquitted, would bring a sense of relief or closure for victim survivors of Catholic clergy sexual abuse.

After all, the Royal Commission into Institutional Childhood Sexual Abuse found Pell had failed to do enough during his time in senior church roles in Australia to stop priests who abused children.

In fact, news of Pell’s death may generate a roller coaster of complex and variable emotions among abuse survivors.

This mix of emotions may include sadness for the ongoing consequences of the abuse for fellow victim/survivors, and anger at the lack of justice for so many.

There’s also the potential post-traumatic stress reactions triggered by this recent round of media coverage – such as fear, dissociation, distressing memories and sleep disturbance.

Read more:
George Pell: a ‘political bruiser’ whose church legacy will be overshadowed by child abuse allegations

Lifelong impacts

Extensive research reveals how significantly childhood sexual abuse can affect a victim survivor’s self-identity, relationships and capacity to trust others.

Potential mental health effects include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, and depression.

Evidence suggests clergy-perpetrated child sexual abuse can lead to very serious mental health outcomes, impaired spiritual wellbeing and distrust in the church and God.

This can lead to significant isolation from family and the faith community.

Many survivors of clergy child sexual abuse report struggling with a fragmented sense of self into adulthood. Significant grief at the loss of childhood and the freedom to develop to their true potential are common.

Clergy-perpetrated childhood sexual abuse is particularly toxic as the abuse is done by moral and spiritual leaders who are meant to protect the child, leading to a profound lack of trust in others.

These effects are pervasive and can be lifelong. The impacts of trauma do not end with the demise of an abuser or the resolution of a court case. They will not end or be resolved with the death of Pell. In fact, recent widespread media coverage could exacerbate it.

Pell coverage may spark distress among survivors

Research reveals intensive media coverage of traumatic events can increase PTSD symptoms acutely, particularly in those experiencing long-term trauma.

Greater cumulative media exposure can lead to more adverse mental health outcomes.

This can occur in several ways, triggering:

• distressing and intrusive memories of a survivor’s own abuse, leading to intense fear reactions, sleep disturbance and other PTSD symptoms

• thoughts of injustice and institutional cover-up, leading to anger, self-blame or lower self-esteem

• rumination on what survivors have lost due to such abuse, promoting grief and sadness.

Many recent media reports and obituaries have highlighted the career success of Pell in reaching the upper echelons of the Catholic Church and his role as a spiritual leader.

Yet these accolades strike a highly discordant note with the findings of the Royal Commission, which criticised him sharply for not doing more to protect children from dangerous priests.

Glowing media reporting about Pell may inadvertently increase distress among survivors.

Coming forward about child sexual abuse is incredibly, incredibly difficult and good psychological support following a disclosure is very important.

Not being believed, or being swept up in institutional cover-ups of sexual abuse makes poor mental health outcomes much more likely for those who survive it.

Media reports that focus on Pell’s career success and spiritual standing, without properly acknowledging outcomes from the Royal Commission, may reinforce this sense of not being believed and injustice at institutional inaction.

Research reveals key predictors of not disclosing sexual abuse include fear of not being believed, shame and self-blame.

It is likely survivors of abuse are having a particularly tough time during this recent uptick of reporting around Pell and the broader problems of clergy child abuse.

It is vital their experiences and the impact of these experiences are fully acknowledged and validated, and survivors are provided with ongoing support.

Read more:
3 trauma takes the media gets wrong

If this article has raised issues for you or you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Kim Felmingham receives funding from the NHMRC.

– ref. How might the latest George Pell coverage affect child sexual abuse survivors? – https://theconversation.com/how-might-the-latest-george-pell-coverage-affect-child-sexual-abuse-survivors-197683

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wesley Morgan, Research Fellow, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University

Many people think of the annual UN climate talks as talkfests which achieve only incremental change, at best. Activist Greta Thunberg has described them as “blah blah blah” moments – grossly inadequate and too often hijacked by fossil fuel producers who would like the world to keep buying their main exports.

Look more closely. The world is slowly but surely shifting away from fossil fuels. When historians look back, they will likely see the 2015 Paris agreement as the key pivot point. It achieved a global consensus on climate action and set the goal for nations to decarbonise by mid-century.

In recent years, the enormous task of switching from fossil fuels to clean energy has been given a boost by tailwinds from the need to get off Russian gas, to the plummeting cost of clean energy.

Focusing on the success of global talks is no longer the only game in town. To see real progress, look to countries like China, Germany and the United States, who are moving faster to invest in clean energy technologies – not just for the world’s sake, but because it’s in their own interests to move first.

From Paris with love: why the Paris agreement is so vital

After decades of torturous negotiations and bitter disappointment at the UN COP climate talks, the hard-won 2015 Paris agreement was a major diplomatic breakthrough. Achieved with rare consensus, it has huge legitimacy. That’s what makes it powerful. It sets the standard for all nations to follow.

So what did it do? It introduced a new global norm: achieving net-zero. Countries agreed to keep the world’s heating “well below 2℃ […] and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5℃”.

To get there, the globe must achieve net zero emissions by around mid-century.
All countries need to set national targets to cut emissions and strengthen them every five years. Since 2015, well over 100 countries have pledged to achieve net zero. These countries represent more than 90% of the global economy.

The pledges made in Paris and afterwards are beginning to drive faster change. In the five years to 2020, global clean energy investment grew by 2%. Since 2020, the pace of growth has accelerated significantly to 12% a year. The International Energy Agency (IEA) now expects global fossil fuel use to peak this decade, before the world economy switches irreversibly to clean energy.

At present, the transition is not happening fast enough. But it is happening. And there’s no turning back. Here are six encouraging trends to watch in 2023.

1. G7 economies will form a ‘climate club’

In December, the G7 grouping of the world’s richest democracies agreed to form a “climate club”. Conceived by Nobel Prize-winning economist William Nordhaus, the club is an arrangement where countries develop common standards for climate ambition and share benefits among club members. The club will focus first on decarbonisation of industries such as steelmaking.

Read more:
The Paris Agreement is working as intended, but we’ve still got a long way to go

2. New carbon tariffs will be introduced in the EU

To avoid the problem of European companies becoming less competitive with companies from nations without a carbon price, EU nations agreed in December to bring in carbon tariffs.

That means imports from countries without an adequate carbon price will be taxed. It also means European companies can’t offshore production to avoid the carbon price.

This is just the tip of the spear, with other rich nations like Canada looking to follow suit. Over time, these tariffs will have a ripple effect, forcing countries reliant on exporting to these markets to move faster toward decarbonisation.

3. The Ukraine war boosted renewables, as nations focus on energy security

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Western nations slapped sanctions on Moscow and cut imports of Russian gas. Fossil fuel prices spiked. Bad news, right? Not so fast. The IEA says the war has actually supercharged clean energy investment by making clean energy a matter of security.

In response to Putin’s invasion, major European economies increased renewable energy targets as they moved to end reliance on Russian gas. With renewables ramping up, the EU now intends to set a stronger 2030 emissions target before the COP28 climate summit later this year.

4. The United States and China are competing to lead the shift to clean energy

Climate action doesn’t have to rely on cooperation. Competition is an excellent driver as well. Last year, the United States passed legislation investing over A$530 billion in clean energy.

The largest climate spend in US history was also intended to compete with China, which dominates global production of solar panels, batteries, wind turbines and electric vehicles.

5. Rich nations are paying developing economies to quit coal

In 2021, a grouping of rich nations offered South Africa $A12 billion to shift away from its reliance on coal power. At the Bali G20 summit last year, rich nations offered Indonesia almost A$30 billion to get off coal, while a similar offer was made to Vietnam in December. This year all eyes will be on India, with hopes a similar package will be offered.

6. Coalitions of the willing

In September, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will host a “no nonsense” climate ambition summit, ahead of the formal COP talks in November. Why? He wants big economies to bring new commitments to cut emissions earlier – as in this decade. There will be “no room for back-sliders, greenwashers, blame-shifters or repackaging of announcements”, he declared.

It’s not the only parallel push. Alongside the formal UN talks, we’re seeing a flowering of groupings dubbed coalitions of the willing. These range from the Powering Past Coal Alliance diplomatic alliance to the Global Methane Pledge to more ambitious proposals like the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, put forward by Vanuatu and Tuvalu last year.

So while the UN climate talks are the bedrock of global cooperation, we’re also seeing a patchwork quilt forming of extra measures. These under the radar efforts will be vital to driving ever-faster climate action.

Read more:
COP27 ‘loss and damage’ fund: A historic decision amid discouraging results

Wesley Morgan is a Senior Researcher with the Climate Council

– ref. 6 reasons 2023 could be a very good year for climate action – https://theconversation.com/6-reasons-2023-could-be-a-very-good-year-for-climate-action-197680

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joey Moloney, Senior Associate, Grattan Institute

Nearly all economists and most politicians seem to agree stamp duty is a bad tax. But nearly all state and territory governments rely on it to keep the lights on.

It’s a bad tax because it taxes homeowners every time they move, merely because they have moved. At A$40,000 per move on a median-priced home in Sydney or Melbourne, it’s enough to dissuade people from moving for a better job or to a bigger or smaller home when they have children or their children move out.

It’s even a de facto tax on divorce. When a family home is sold to allow assets to be split, each member of the separating couple needs to pay stamp duty to purchase again. It’s a big reason more than half of divorced women who lose their homes don’t buy again within a decade.

Read more:
Axing stamp duty is a great idea, but NSW is doing it wrong

And it’s unfair. Stamp duty hits most the younger households that move around the most. It leaves alone the older residents who stay put.

New modelling by the Centre for Policy Studies at Victoria University finds abolishing stamp duty and replacing the revenue lost with land tax would put downward pressure on the price paid by buyers of about 4.7%, and downward pressure on the price received by sellers of about 0.1%.

In 2018 the Grattan Institute found a national shift from stamp duties to land tax would add up to $17 billion per year to gross domestic product.

Most states aren’t really removing stamp duty

So far only one state or territory – the Australian Capital Territory – has really taken the plunge. Others are merely tinkering with stamp duty in order to create what amounts to a de-facto first home-buyer grant.

The ACT is halfway through a genuine switchover designed to take 20 years.

In Victoria, the Andrews government is merely expanding a system of exemptions for eligible first home-buyers already available. NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania also offer such exemptions.

Now in the lead-up to the March election, the NSW government and opposition are one-upping each other with competing policies to offer even more first home-buyers a way to avoid paying stamp duty.

Read more:
Stamp duty is an economic drag. Here’s how to move to a better system

The NSW Labor opposition pledged to abolish stamp duty altogether for first home buyers purchasing properties worth up to $800,000 — expanding the current exemption which is for homes worth up to $650,000. First home buyers purchasing more expensive homes worth up to $1 million will be offered a discount.

The Coalition government has already legislated to offer first home buyers the option of paying an annual land tax rather than stamp duty if they buy a property worth up to $1.5 million.

By targeting these exemptions to first home-buyers, both sides of NSW politics and other state governments are undercutting the key benefit of removing stamp duty: removing the tax on moving.

Most of these policies – including the two offered in NSW – amount to little more than first home buyers’ grants. History shows such grants tend to push up prices.

Actually axing stamp duty means replacing it with something

Stamp duty is critical to helping state governments pay the bills. All states or territories, except the ACT, use them to collect at least one-fifth of their tax revenue.

These revenues pay to keep our hospitals running and schools open.

NSW expects to collect around $10 billion in stamp duty this financial year alone.

In contrast, Labor’s NSW giveaway for first-home buyers will cost $722 million in its first three years. The Coalition’s will cost $728 million over four years.

To really get rid of stamp duty altogether, we need to replace it with something else. Land tax is a good candidate because it doesn’t distort people’s decisions.

Whereas homeowners can avoid paying stamp duty again by refusing to move, land can’t be moved, meaning land tax can’t be avoided.

Read more:
Killing off stamp duty: a good policy that no politician supports

The NSW Coalition government started with bolder plans for a meaningful transition, until a scare campaign and the opposition from Labor and the Greens forced it to wind it back.

This has left NSW Labor in the unfortunate position of being against the bad tax (stamp duty) but also against the good tax that would have to replace it: land tax.

Other options – such as increasing the goods and services tax to cover the cost of abolishing stamp duty – appear even less likely.

NSW is stuck in a quagmire in which stamp duty seems here to stay.

Only the ACT is showing the way

The Australian Capital Territory’s approach of slowly reducing one tax while slowly increasing the other shows it can be done.

After announcing the switchover in 2012, the then treasurer Andrew Barr was reelected as chief minister in 2016 and in 2020.

He is ahead in the race to actually remove stamp duty by replacing it with something. He is showing the rest of Australia it needn’t be afraid.

The Grattan Institute began with contributions to its endowment of $15 million from each of the Federal and Victorian Governments, $4 million from BHP Billiton, and $1 million from NAB. In order to safeguard its independence, Grattan Institute’s board controls this endowment. The funds are invested and contribute to funding Grattan Institute’s activities. Grattan Institute also receives funding from corporates, foundations, and individuals to support its general activities, as disclosed on its website.

Brendan Coates 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. Stamp duty isn’t going anywhere until we can agree on the tax to replace it – https://theconversation.com/stamp-duty-isnt-going-anywhere-until-we-can-agree-on-the-tax-to-replace-it-197398

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi McAlister, Senior Lecturer in Writing, Literature and Culture, Deakin University

This week marks the beginning of the tenth season of The Bachelor Australia, Australia’s longest running reality romance franchise.

Often, anniversaries like this provoke nostalgia, a desire to look back at what’s gone before, and to return to a format’s roots. But despite a montage of Bachelor history at the beginning of Monday’s premiere, this is not the approach this new season has taken.

Rather, as it is at pains to remind us repeatedly, it has thrown most of its conventional structures and trappings away. The French-chateau-inspired Sydney mansion is out, replaced by a modern one on the Gold Coast. The fairy lights and candles are conspicuously absent.

And in the most obvious change, instead of having only one man at its centre, there are three: Jed McIntosh, Felix Van Hofe, and Thomas Malucelli. The Bachelor has become The Bachelors.

Commitment and choice: innovating with the format

While the parent Bachelor franchise in the US has remained relatively consistent over the 20 years it has been running, the Australian franchise has been far more open to experimentation. (One might even speculate that it is used to trial innovations that might then be adopted in the extremely popular American version.)

Brooke Blurton’s groundbreaking 2021 season of The Bachelorette Australia, which featured both male and female contestants, was an excellent example of this. Blurton was both the first First Nations and the first openly queer person to ever lead a Bachelor/ette season anywhere in the world.

In Blurton’s season, innovation was based on inclusion. This is not the case in The Bachelors Australia, in which the vast majority of the cast appear to be heterosexual and white (a step backwards, in a franchise which has enormous problems around diversity, nationally and internationally).

Read more:
The first bisexual Bachelorette and the messy history of bisexual representation on reality TV

In the latest season, the innovation is with the underlying structures and mechanics of the franchise, creating new opportunities for the people participating in the show – and new storytelling possibilities for the people making it.

Rather than meeting their contestants upon their entrance to the Bachelor mansion like usual, the three Bachelors travelled around Australia, going on short blind dates with numerous women and inviting only the ten they liked best onto the show. While each of the thirty women is nominally dating the Bachelor who brought them, they are openly encouraged to explore the possibility of a relationship with any of the three men: as host Osher Günsberg tells them, they should “go on all the rides at the theme park before they find the one they’re going to stay on all day”.

This ties into a new rhetoric of choice. While contestants have always been able to refuse a Bachelor’s rose, the multiple-Bachelor format allows them options beyond leaving, giving them more power within the show’s structure.

The other major shift is in the show’s new approach to its endgame. While season-ending proposals are de rigueur in the American franchise, they have historically been rare in the Australian one (with the exception of Blake Garvey’s proposal to Sam Frost in 2014, which ultimately led to one of the franchise’s shortest-lived relationships).

In The Bachelors, this is not the case. All three Bachelors have been given engagement rings – with the expectation, one imagines, that they will use them.

Within the show, the rings are used as a visible symbol of the Bachelors’ commitment to commitment. The world of modern dating is presented as an environment where it is impossible to find a partner who will commit it to you. The show, then, becomes the solution.

A naked ratings grab?

These changes have clearly been made in response to viewer fatigue, and in an attempt to revive the show’s ratings, which have been in decline for some years (although it is worth noting that this has perhaps been overstated: overnight Nielsen ratings do not include streaming, where, for example, Blurton’s season performed quite well, especially for a younger demographic).

The Bachelor is a remarkably long-running reality romance format, both in Australia (where it has run since 2013) and overseas (the US version has run since 2002). For a long time, it was the only format to run for more than a few consecutive years.

However, in the 2010s, this began to change, with the local and global rise of formats like Love Island and Married at First Sight.

The influence of both is plain to see in this new iteration. The emphasis on contestant choice is reminiscent of Love Island, where participants are frequently encouraged to “recouple”. So too, arguably, is the new fluorescent lighting and bright colour palette.

And the emphasis on commitment, and on the show as the supposed solution to the toils of modern dating, is clearly drawn from Married at First Sight, in which the titular “expert”-arranged marriages are positioned as a way to guarantee a dedicated and compatible partner willing to work on a relationship, rather than one who will simply ghost or give up.

Similarly, this new iteration seems designed to encourage conflict – something in which Married at First Sight notoriously specialises.

Read more:
Married at First Sight – a ‘social experiment’ all but guaranteeing relationship failure

Whether or not this new version of The Bachelor Australia saves it from cancellation remains to be seen. The fact that it is being aired in January over a much shorter period than normal seems to suggest that the network does not have much faith in it.

However, it offers something new for old viewers who might have been experiencing fatigue; and something familiar for new viewers, who might be better acquainted with some of these other reality romance formats.

While The Bachelors has its flaws, its first week of episodes certainly did not lack entertainment value.

Jodi is the author of Here For The Right Reasons and Can I Steal You For A Second?, two novels set on a reality romance show.

– ref. From Bachelor to The Bachelors – why Australia’s longest running dating show has updated the old formula – https://theconversation.com/from-bachelor-to-the-bachelors-why-australias-longest-running-dating-show-has-updated-the-old-formula-197414

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Zoe Doubleday, Marine Ecologist and ARC Future Fellow, University of South Australia

As an octopus biologist, I get a call from the media every summer because someone has had an encounter with a blue-ringed octopus. Thankfully, everyone has been OK.

Blue-ringed octopus are famed for being one of the most venomous animals on the planet, and the symptoms from a bite are the stuff of nightmares. But how worried do you need to be?

Read more:
Who would win in a fight between an octopus and a seabird? Two marine biologists place their bets

1,000 times more powerful than cyanide

It’s a common myth that blue-ringed octopus are found only in the tropics. These tiny marine animals are, in fact, found all around Australia, including Tasmania.

There are three official species in Australia, with a maximum size ranging from 12 to 22 centimetres, and they are all extremely venomous. There are also many scientifically “undescribed” species, which have yet to be named and officially added to the blue-ringed family.

The venom of blue-ringed octopus contains tetrodotoxin, a potent neurotoxin claimed to be a thousand times more potent to humans than cyanide.

First discovered in pufferfish, tetrodotoxin is actually found in more than 100 species including the Panamanian golden frog and rough-skinned newt. But levels of the toxin varies hugely between species, and levels in blue-ringed octopus are high.

Surprisingly, scientists are debating where blue-ringed octopus and other marine animals source their tetrodotoxin. One theory is that it’s produced by bacteria that live inside the host species, the other is that it’s sourced from the diet.

Most of these animals use tetrodotoxin for defence, but blue-ringed octopus also use it to hunt and kill their prey, such as fish and crabs.

Are blue-ringed octopus proliferating?

The media often report spikes or record numbers in blue-ringed octopus sightings.

While we don’t have the long-term data to confirm this, the populations of some octopus species are increasing. For example, there are reports the common European octopus is proliferating in France right now.

Octopus are short-lived – the blue-ringed octopus only lives for a few months – and are highly responsive to changing environmental conditions.

Hypothetically, some human-made habitats, such as breakwalls and lobster pots, or marine litter, such as bottles and cans, could be providing additional habitat for blue-ringed octopus. Likewise, climate change could confer an advantage to some octopus species that can better adapt to warming waters.

But we simply do not know if this is the case for blue-ringed octopus. Octopus populations may also undergo natural “boom and bust” cycles in response to fluctuations in temperature, food, and other factors in their environment, resulting in rapid increases and decreases in population numbers.

How to keep safe

Blue-ringed octopus deliver venom by biting using their parrot-like beak, which is found at the base of the arms.

Blue-ringed octopus bites are rare – they are docile, shy animals and are not interested in people. But they may bite when they are threatened or provoked, so NEVER, EVER pick them up.

And remember, these octopus only flash their characteristic blue rings when upset, so stay clear of any small octopus, no matter what they look like.

Blue-ringed octopus are found in shallow coastal waters, including the foreshore, so accidental encounters do happen. Their preferred habitats include rocky reefs and coral reefs, seagrass and algal beds, and rubble. Given they’re found throughout the Indo-West Pacific, you may encounter them while on holiday.

Be careful exploring rock pools, cracks or crevices, or picking up empty shells or bottles at the beach, where the octopus may make a home or den, or even when retrieving fishing gear, such as octopus pots or lobster pots.

Curious, young children may also be at risk of an encounter as they explore the beach environment – I know my own toddler would seek out the ideal octopus habitat if given a chance.

This month also, many dead blue-ringed octopus were found on the beach after a mass death event of marine critters in South Australia. It’s best not to pick them up as they could be dying and stressed. Please also keep pets and young children well away as ingestion could lead to poisoning.

Read more:
Curious Kids: could octopuses evolve until they take over the world and travel to space?

What to do if bitten, and symptoms to watch for

All three blue-ringed octopus species in Australia have killed people, but cases are extremely rare. The severity of symptoms depends on how much venom someone receives.

A mild case of envenomation may result in tingling around the mouth and mild weakness. A severe case may lead to flaccid paralysis (weak or limp muscles), including respiratory paralysis and the inability to breathe.

A tricky thing with blue-ringed octopus is that bites may be painless, so people can be unaware they have been bitten. But the onset of symptoms can be rapid (within minutes) and so an equally rapid first-aid response is crucial.

If you believe someone has been bitten by a blue-ringed octopus, remove them from water immediately and seek urgent medical care. You do not need to put anything on the bite, such as vinegar or hot water. Rather, pressure bandaging and immobilisation is recommended, as for snake bites.

If the envenomation is severe, first aid is also focused on providing basic life support, particularly breathing support. Full first aid response details can be found here and here.

Read more:
The hidden world of octopus cities and culture shows why it’s wrong to farm them

Importantly, undertaking a first-aid course may help equip you with some of the skills to support a person who has been bitten before medical help arrives.

While there is no antivenom available for a blue-ringed octopus bite, the venom has short-lived effects (usually hours).

At the end of the day, enjoy the ocean. But if you see any small octopus, whatever you do, do not pick it up.

The author gratefully acknowledges clinical toxinologist, Professor Julian White AM (Women’s & Children’s Hospital, Adelaide), who provided advice on this article.

Zoe Doubleday receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Australian Academy of Science, and Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.

– ref. ‘More potent than cyanide’: how to stay safe from blue-ringed octopus this summer – https://theconversation.com/more-potent-than-cyanide-how-to-stay-safe-from-blue-ringed-octopus-this-summer-196051

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Webb, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology

What are gravitational waves? – Millie, age 10, Sydney

What a great question Millie!

To answer this we have to travel back in time, to the year 1916. This is the year famous physicist Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity.

Einstein had figured out how to explain gravity within the Universe using maths. Gravity is the force that keeps us on Earth, and Earth orbiting around the Sun. Until 1916 there had been many theories to try and explain what gravity was and why it exists. But Einstein suggested that gravity was the bending of something called space-time.

You can think of space-time like the fabric of the Universe. It’s what makes up the space we live in. Without it we wouldn’t have a Universe, and that wouldn’t be very fun.

Read more:
Curious Kids: is it possible to see what is happening in distant solar systems now?

A space-time trampoline

Curved space-time is responsible for the effects of gravity. A trampoline is a great way for us to picture this on a flat surface.

Imagine you place a heavy bowling ball in the centre of a trampoline – its mass bends the fabric, and it creates a dip. Now, if we tried to roll a marble across the trampoline, it would roll inwards and around the bowling ball.

That’s all gravity is: the distortion of the space-time fabric, affecting how things move.

This is what Einstein’s famous equations helped to explain – how we can expect space-time to move under different conditions. We know that in the Universe, nothing stands still. Everything is always moving, and when objects speed up through space-time, they can create small ripples, just like a pebble in a pond.

These ripples are what we call gravitational waves. Our Universe is likely full of these tiny waves, like an ocean with waves moving in all different directions.

But unlike the ocean, gravitational waves are incredibly small and won’t be rocking Earth about. When first predicted by Einstein, he doubted if we’d ever be able to detect them because of how teeny tiny they should be.

I would love to know what he would think today. Not only have we detected gravitational waves, but we’ve detected 90 unique events! This is one of the biggest achievements in physics, and how they did it was nothing short of amazing.

Read more:
Curious Kids: what is cosmic microwave background radiation?

Squeeze and stretch

When a gravitational wave passes through Earth, it squeezes or stretches the whole planet in the direction it travels. If we tried to measure it with something like a ruler, the ruler would appear to be the same length because the numbers on the ruler would also be stretched or squeezed, and wouldn’t change.

But scientists have a trick: they can use light, because light can only travel a certain distance over a certain time. If space is stretched out, the light has to travel a little bit farther, and takes longer. Vice versa for when space in squeezed.

The trick to knowing if space has been squeezed or stretched is to measure it in two directions, and calculate the difference. Unfortunately for us it isn’t something that is easy to measure.

The difference in the distance we’re looking for is 1,000 times smaller then a really tiny particle called a proton. To really blow your mind, our bodies have around 10 octillion protons (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000).

It’s an insanely small change we needed to detect, but thankfully clever scientists and engineers figured out a way to do it, and you can learn more about these detectors in the video below.

Gravitational waves have given us new eyes to our Universe, allowing us to “see” things like black holes and neutron stars crashing together – because we can finally detect the tiny ripples they create.

Sara Webb 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. Curious Kids: what are gravitational waves? – https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-what-are-gravitational-waves-190830

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Wayland, Associate Professor, University of New England

The thought of her, as always, gave me a jolt of hope, and a burst of energy. And a stab of sorrow.

Prince Harry’s reflection on his mother Princess Diana, who died unexpectedly when he was just 12 years old, appears in his memoir Spare, released officially this week.

In fact, the bestseller is marketed as a story about the “eternal power of love over grief”.

The book’s revelations, retold in high-profile TV interviews and featuring in his Netflix series, are the subject of much media coverage. These revelations chart the prince’s experience of mourning the traumatic death of his mother in public, media intrusion, and its long-term impacts.

On face value, Prince Harry may share typical symptoms of people suffering “complicated grief”. But not everyone agrees with how he “shows” his grief so publicly.

Read more:
Spare: how the soap opera around Prince Harry’s memoir will affect the royal brand

The myth of ‘time healing all wounds’

It’s been more than 25 years since the traumatic death of Prince Harry’s mother after a car crash in Paris. And with his family’s immense privilege, it’s easy to assume the need to explore the layers of grief that shape his experiences has passed its use-by date.

But the idea of “time healing all wounds” is a myth. Pain is ongoing. And by silencing someone’s pain, this can worsen it. The public, health professionals, the media and family can all silence someone’s grief by minimising discussions about the impact of losing a loved one.

Twenty years working with grieving people and researching grief reminds me of the countless people in my counselling rooms reflecting on the stinging words someone says to them: “it’s time to move on”.

Counsellors urge people to make meaning of the life lost with those still living. This can involve sharing memories with family members about the person lost, remembering happy times, imagining their inclusion in life currently, and always creating space for conversations about their absence.

If people struggle to make meaning of the new life they are forced to live due to their loss, this can lead to long-term reactions known as complex or complicated grief.

Read more:
20 years after the Bali bombings, survivors are still processing a unique kind of grief

What is complicated grief?

Complicated grief is a severe, persistent and pervasive longing for the deceased. If the death is sudden and unexpected, the prolonged impact will be greater.

People who experience this intensity of grief struggle to engage in everyday life. This profound distress can affect their physical and mental health, and the relationships around them, for years.

Prince Harry has been candid about his struggles with mental health since his mother’s death and his fractured relationship with his wider family. He’s openly admitted to drug use to help him cope with his loss. We see these types of effects on people suffering with complicated grief, as well as the associated trauma when the loss is sudden.

He was so young

Grief isn’t just about what who was lost, but when the loss occurred.
Prince Harry was just 12 years old when his mother passed away.

Psychologist and psychoanalyst Erik Erikson tells us this period of development between childhood and adolescence oscillates between a child seeking a sense of identity versus confusion about where they “fit” in the world.

It’s a time when young people explore values, beliefs and ideas about who they might become as adults. But this stage of development is impacted with the loss of a parent to guide them through this period.

When a significant loss happens at his life stage, this can destabilise the child for significant periods – well into adulthood – especially when the death is related to an external cause, such as an accident.

Prince Harry has shared this destabilising effect and the strain between himself and his surviving parent. Not all siblings experience grief the same way. There may be conflict with the wider family.

Long-term studies in the United States show children who have lost a parent do eventually grow to be resilient and forthright individuals. Yet traumatic memories of both the event and the impact of that loss remain just under the surface.

Prince Harry’s accounts of his experiences are reminders of what can happen for children who have experienced trauma.

His perspectives about the ways his wife was treated in the media and by his family, may have activated reminders of this past trauma.

Read more:
Netflix’s Harry & Meghan: the Sussexes are not unique in being royal victims

So what helps?

Grief will have long-term impacts on people’s wellbeing throughout their lives, especially if they were only a child when the loss occurred.

When we look back on what helps children to manage their childhood grief, personal agency is key. They want to choose how they grieve, and their voice needs to be a priority.

This may mean choosing not to attend performative activities, such as funerals. This may mean openly sharing their experiences in a way that suits them – at school, work or with families. This may mean getting angry.

An evidence-based national grief program for children in Australia, Seasons for Growth, emphasises the importance of agency. This includes choosing how to accept the reality of their loss, and finding ways of voicing the emotional impact of that loss. This won’t always be through calm, reflective sharing. It may be through frustrated, angry voices, that suddenly emerge later in life.

Even with all the access to therapy, or even family members to speak to, grief will eventually show up in our thoughts, behaviours and actions. There is no discreet way to do it. Grief is both hope and sorrow.

Sarah Wayland 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. What Prince Harry’s memoir Spare tells us about ‘complicated grief’ and the long-term impact of losing a mother so young – https://theconversation.com/what-prince-harrys-memoir-spare-tells-us-about-complicated-grief-and-the-long-term-impact-of-losing-a-mother-so-young-197611

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Jean Baker, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, Monash University

Aussiewood sprinkled its star dust at this year’s 80th Golden Globes with five nominations and a fourth acting win for Cate Blanchett, this time her performance as a renowned German conductor in Todd Field’s Tár.

The Golden Globes was back in full capacity at the Beverley Hilton in Los Angeles and broadcast on NBC. This time the ceremony was on a Tuesday, not a Sunday night and was also streamed live on Stan.

In the previous years the ceremony had been scaled down due the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as controversies associated with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA).

Nominations and awards

Besides Blanchett, another Aussiewood member nominated included Baz Luhrmann for directing the feature about the rockabilly icon, Elvis. Also nominated was Margot Robbie in the acting musical or comedy category for her role as Nellie LaRoy, an aspiring actress in the film Babylon, about ambitious creatives in Hollywood during the roaring 1920s.

Hugh Jackman received an nomination as the father of a teenage boy with mental health issues in The Son, and Elizabeth Debicki in her supporting role of Princess Diana in season five of the Netflix series, The Crown.

US actor Austin Butler won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama for his role as Elvis Presley. But Luhrmann lost out to Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans for Best Director — Motion Picture.

Andrew Dominik’s Netflix drama, Blonde, saw Cuban actress Ana de Armas (who played Marilyn Monroe) nominated in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama. However, that award went to Blanchett, who did not attend the ceremony because she was in London for the premiere of Tár.

Aussiewood and awards

Since the 1900s, Australians in the cultural field have often spent time in or moved to Hollywood to forge successful careers.

Despite the 1970s and 1980s boom in Australia’s national film industry, the minimal Australian nominations for the Golden Globes were tied to the Foreign Language category. One example is Gillian Armstrong’s My Brilliant Career, which was nominated for Best Picture in 1981.

The term Aussiewood came into vogue during the 2000s to describe the international franchisees and successful invasion of Australian artists in Hollywood.

In their 2004 book on the topic, critics Michaela Boland and Michael Bodey said Aussiewood reached a critical mass in 2002 when Australian directors and the acting fraternity were nominated in 24 television and film categories at the Golden Globes.

Nicole Kidman, who won a Golden Globe in 2002 for her role as Satine in Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, has a total of six Golden Globe awards to her name – the most for any Australian to date.

What is the magic of Aussiewood?

Tom Hanks, who is nominated this year for playing Colonel Tom Parker in Luhrmann’s Elvis, joked back then that Australia’s success in Hollywood “has something to do with magical qualities in Vegemite”.

However, as Beverly Hills-based publicist Catherine Olim said:

It doesn’t have anything to do with where they are from […] What Hollywood sees is their talent.

Unlike the peer-driven, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars), the Golden Globes is voted on by 105 Los Angeles-based foreign journalists (six of which are now Black) who are members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Since its inception in 1943, the aim of the the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was to distribute cinema news to the non-US markets. The annual Golden Globes ceremony is often seen as the dress rehearsal to the Oscars in March.

Read more:
The Banshees of Inisherin: competing concepts of justice wage war in Martin McDonagh’s Irish tragicomedy

In recent years the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has been criticised for moving beyond the realms of objective journalism by boosting media campaigns of Oscar hopefuls.

Prior to this year’s Golden Globes and following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September 2022, Blanchett received a lot of international positive media praise for her role in Tár.

Blanchett’s Golden Globe win for Tár hints at possible Oscar glory, which could put her in the elite Aussiewood category of three Academy Awards.

Andrea Jean Baker 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. From Cate Blanchett to Baz Luhrmann: Aussiewood at the 80th Golden Globe Awards – https://theconversation.com/from-cate-blanchett-to-baz-luhrmann-aussiewood-at-the-80th-golden-globe-awards-196808

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Libby (Elizabeth) Sander, MBA Director & Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Bond Business School, Bond University

If you’ve found yourself feeling a bit flat after returning to work (or outright hating your job) this year, you’re not alone. #BackToWork is trending for Australia on Tik Tok, with plenty of users lamenting the return to the office. A growing body of research also shows this feeling is pretty common.

But while there’s nothing new about the return-to-work blues, few companies have any strategy to facilitate readjustment to work after vacation.

So what does the research say on this issue, and what could employers do to address it?

Read more:
Working from home: 7 tips to boost wellbeing and productivity

What does the research say?

One study found worker health and wellbeing:

increased quickly during vacation, peaked on the eighth vacation day and had rapidly returned to baseline level within the first week of work resumption.

Another found:

short breaks have an advantage over longer vacations on some measures, and this may be explained by attributes of the environment and activities in which vacationers engaged.

But while you may feel uninspired in your first week back, hang in there: research has shown employees perceive they are more creative two weeks after returning from vacation.

Many of us were dreading work even before the Christmas break. A December 2022 survey of 100 working adults on LinkedIn showed 60% felt they had worked too much in 2022, while another study showed 46% of Australian employees feel burned out.

The pandemic introduced new stressors into almost every area of our lives. As many of these stressors go on over several years, the risk of burnout increases.

Providing a psychologically safe workplace

In a recent report on mental health and workplace, the Committee for Economic Development Australia noted poor mental health costs the Australian economy around A$70 billion dollars a year.

Employers should provide a psychologically safe workplace, along with access to mental health support.

Taking regular breaks, creating boundaries to stop work spilling into our personal lives, getting exercise and having other interests outside of work are important to reduce stress.

Taking holidays is also essential. One study found “health and wellbeing improve during vacation, but these positive vacation effects fade out within the first week of work resumption”. Even so, the same researchers noted vacations “may act as buffer against future stressors”.

But an October 2022 survey found 75% of Australians were not taking their annual leave due to workload and financial pressures.

This points to a broader issue that isn’t solved by announcing a new employee wellness initiative.

Wellness fads don’t work when the root cause remains

Organisations need to be aware wellness fads and token mindfulness programs do nothing to address stressors such as poor job design, overwork, inadequate management capability and poor organisational and leadership culture.

All the free lunch and in-office massages in the world will be of no use if you’re working in a toxic culture or have a narcissistic boss.

Sometimes, systemic change is needed. That can mean redesigning jobs, rethinking pay, changing organisational structure and addressing workload expectations.

Offering overworked employees yoga sessions, stress reduction workshops, meal vouchers or sessions on personal resilience are unlikely to make any difference.

What’s needed is an approach addressing the root causes of employee burnout.

If I’m dreading work this much, should I look for a new job?

While feeling a bit flat at work after a holiday is normal for a few weeks, some indicators suggest it’s time for a new job (or a longer break).

If you are still feeling flat a month after you return, it’s likely to be more than the post-vacation slump.

Getting support to discuss the causes is an important first step.

If your stressors are largely driven by the pressures of balancing responsibilities outside of work, you might ask your employer for flexibility with hours or working from home.

And while many companies are offering more flexibility since the pandemic, recent changes to federal laws will make it easier for employees to request flexible work.

So you’ve discussed your concerns with your manager – now what?

If there is a lack of genuine action to address poor organisational culture, inadequate leadership capability, continued overwork, and bad job design, then looking for a new job is probably a good idea.

Read more:
How many days a week in the office are enough? You shouldn’t need to ask

Libby (Elizabeth) Sander 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. Feeling flat now you’re #BackToWork? A post-holiday slump is normal, but these clues signal it’s time for a new job – https://theconversation.com/feeling-flat-now-youre-backtowork-a-post-holiday-slump-is-normal-but-these-clues-signal-its-time-for-a-new-job-194641