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Contaminations, revisions, reinventions: how cultures, ancient and modern, have influenced each other

Retrieved on:

Monday, September 18, 2023

He reflects on the creation of this ancient art across generations, and the recovery of its remnants by new generations.

Key Points:

He reflects on the creation of this ancient art across generations, and the recovery of its remnants by new generations.
It is well written, nuanced and light in style, spinning a series of historical narratives in an erudite and engaging way.
It begins with Queen Nefertiti (c.1370-c.1330 BCE), and ends with Nigeria declaring its independence from Great Britain in 1960.
Read more:
Friday essay: Simon During on the demoralisation of the humanities, and what can be done about it

Cultural interaction

This, in turn, leads to a discussion of Nefertiti and her husband, the pharaoh Akhenaten, experimenting with monotheism.
And there is the epic journey of the Chinese Buddhist explorer, Xuanzang (602-664 CE), author of the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, which Puchner describes as “a classic in cultural mobility”.
Puchner is not naïve about the realities underpinning his stories of cultural interaction, replete as they are with colonialism, destruction, theft, and getting it wrong as much as getting it right.
It entails educating the next generation, entrusting them with the preservation of “human inheritance”, so they may proceed with “humility”.

The necessity of education

He discusses the necessity of education – written and spoken – as a mechanism of preserving culture.
Puchner’s heroic tales of creative and intellectual interaction are chronicled in historical artefacts and documents, such as The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon (c. 966–c.1017).
The Pillow Book is a hybrid text in the form of a diary, which includes stories, anecdotes, gossip, poems and character portraits.

Methods and paradigms

The chapter on Plato, for example, shows Puchner to be out of his depth, with ideas not always meshing.
His accounts of the Egyptian influence on Greek culture and Plato the young playwright falling under the spell of Socrates and turning to philosophy are messy and uncertain.
Puchner nevertheless challenges us not to get caught up in the traditional Western paradigm of the ancient Greeks as the creators of culture.

Worried about heat and fire this summer? Here's how to to prepare

Retrieved on:

Monday, September 18, 2023

Down south, the winter was the hottest ever recorded in Australia, fuelled by record ocean temperatures.

Key Points:

Down south, the winter was the hottest ever recorded in Australia, fuelled by record ocean temperatures.
Small wonder many Australians are worried about what summer will bring, as a likely El Niño threatens hot and dry fire weather.
And if you live anywhere in Australia, you need to plan for heat.

Fire gets attention – but extreme heat can do more damage

But in reality, extreme heat hits harder.
That’s because extreme heat can be extremely widespread – and a hidden killer.
As the climate becomes less stable, we’re seeing more heat domes – slow-moving high-pressure systems which sit atop an area and blast it.

Will bushfires be back this summer?

Grasses dry out more quickly than other vegetation types, meaning grasslands switch rapidly from moist to tinderbox.
The most likely fires we’ll see this season will be grass, scrub and city fringe fires.
Very large forest fires like those of the Black Summer are less likely, as these need extended dry conditions.

What should you do to get ready?

Let’s say you live near a forest or grassland which could be a fire risk.
How could you make sure all your loved ones are contactable – and if they’re away from you, how could you make sure they can get to safety?
If you’re in a bushfire prone area, explore and make use of planning resources offered by every state, territory and local emergency agency.
With your family, friends or housemates, run through different scenarios so you’re on the same page.
Businesses must understand their responsibilities to their employees during extreme heat and have plans to manage these.

Do prepare but don’t panic

As these risks build and become more severe, we can no longer just think “she’ll be right”.
As climate risks expand and become increasingly severe, understanding and actively planning for these risks is now an imperative.

An X-Files expert on the show's enduring appeal – 30 years on

Retrieved on:

Saturday, September 16, 2023

Ostensibly a show about aliens, The X-Files swiftly became part of the cultural lexicon and remains there to this day.

Key Points:

Ostensibly a show about aliens, The X-Files swiftly became part of the cultural lexicon and remains there to this day.
After all, it was the X-Files fandom that invented the term “shipping” (rooting for characters to get together romantically).
It also coincided with Bill Clinton becoming president – marking the end of more than a decade of Republican leadership.
These themes reflected growing concerns about government agencies using technology to both spy on and influence the public.

The X-Files’ enduring appeal

As one fan explained: “The cultural context of conspiracy theories has changed since the beginning of X-Files.
They, tells Mulder that “no one can tell the difference anymore between what’s real and what’s fake”.
In the second season episode Ascension, Mulder pulls a phone book off a shelf in his search for Scully – now we’d use Google.
Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays.

A new biography of Donald Horne examines a life of indefatigable energy and intellectual curiosity

Retrieved on:

Thursday, September 7, 2023

Donald had written an essay called “Mind, body, age” that vigorously burst from the page with life, while addressing death.

Key Points:

Donald had written an essay called “Mind, body, age” that vigorously burst from the page with life, while addressing death.
Being out of the loop, no longer an active participant in the cultural life of his beloved Sydney, hurt him.
In his accomplished and insightful biography Donald Horne: A Life in the Lucky Country, Ryan Cropp puts the man in his context and, without a heavy hand, helps us understand his motivating psychology.
Good biographies can be like that – Robert Caro is still finishing the biographical series on Lyndon Johnson he started 50 years ago.
Read more:
Donald Horne's 'lucky country' and the decline of the public intellectual

The Lucky Country

Horne is best known as the author of The Lucky Country – a book that seemed to capture the zeitgeist when it was published, reluctantly, by Penguin in 1964.
The issues explored in The Lucky Country changed with new versions, but the critique remained: Australia got by on luck; it was held back by second-rate leaders who lacked vision, imagination and even a realistic assessment of its place in the world.
The Lucky Country, which owes more to his journalism than the more ambitiously polished writing in The Education of Young Donald, was a two-way mirror, revealing the nation to itself and him to it.
Read more:
An armchair, a desk and 4000 books: the Horne family study gets a second life

Changing contexts

Cropp shows he has mastered the historian’s essential skill of avoiding this trap, while keeping the narrative moving with fresh and lively writing.
One striking contrast is between Horne’s confidence in Hayek’s wartime anti-bureaucratic, libertarian ethos, and Gough Whitlam’s rejection of it.
He was bored and wrote many letters to his mother (like so many others now preserved in archival boxes).
Times change, contexts shift, and responses by thoughtful people are recalibrated.

Intellectual tradition

His teachings and methods helped shape a Sydney intellectual tradition that still echoes today.
For those untouched by this tradition it was mystifying, but for those like Horne, Murray Sayle, Paddy McGuinness and many others, it provided an enduring framework that had the benefit of flexibility.
The cynical, libertarian realist became, by the late 1960s, more optimistic and more open to what Cropp characterises as “opportunities for civic renewal”.
The discipline of a biography, even one as grounded in public events as this, is that it demands a singular focus.

The cultural conversation

The coincidence of the publication of Horne’s Observer, funded by Frank Packer, and Tom Fitzgerald’s Nation in the late 1950s spoke to the need to aerate the national political and cultural conversation.
Cropp conveys a sense of this through the slightly limited prism of Horne’s worldview, with its emphasis on business, religion, Asia and politics.
Cropp has captured a full life, well lived, that was a tribute to the importance of paying attention and making a difference.

Voices of Black youth remind adults in schools to listen — and act to empower them

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Creating dialogue among educators and students, especially Black Canadian youth, regularly proves problematic because of the history of their negative schooling experiences.

Key Points:

Creating dialogue among educators and students, especially Black Canadian youth, regularly proves problematic because of the history of their negative schooling experiences.
As an education researcher who examines schooling experiences of Black Canadian youth and their families, I have worked alongside Black high-school students in grades 10-12 to engage youth voices at the Black Student Summer Leadership Program.
It also necessarily implies action on the part of receptive and understanding adults, willing and poised to help bring about changes youth need to see.

Struggles in and for ‘voice’

One of the greatest struggles to allow for “voice” is the role of adults in these interactions and the hierarchical nature of schools.
Paying attention to student voice involves changing fundamental values, norms and institutional practices, which means teachers need to be open to this shift.
Scholars and education researchers challenged school staff to stop seeing youth as passive recipients of an education.

Black youth’s whole selves

If schools desire genuine opportunities for students to be heard, educators must see Black youth as their whole selves.
Teachers who view the validity in sharing power in classrooms will actively seek Black students’ input.

Youth Participatory Action Research

Black students involved in this program gain leadership opportunities and positive relationships with adults and their peers while participating in research.
Participatory action research has been associated with revolutionary educational projects.

Youth as co-researchers

The principle of Youth Participatory Action Research includes adults sharing the space with youth as co-researchers, sharing ownership in decision-making and supporting and empowering youth as agents of change.
Black students learn how to become submerged in their own research, rather than experiencing themselves as the object of others’ research.

What shapes education

Youth Participatory Action Research provides Black students with opportunities to discuss what shapes their education.
In the summer program, Black students present research projects to education stakeholders.
In order for change to be implemented, key decision makers need to be willing to engage youth and to act.

A promising approach

Youth Participatory Action Research is a promising approach for creating avenues to support Black students’ self-determination and agency.
Amplifying youth voice in alignment with the mission and values of school communities is significant for an empowered path forward.

Ever wonder how your body turns food into fuel? We tracked atoms to find out

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

And it’s not just in our bodies: all animals carry out this dance of metabolism, and it turns out none of them do it quite the same way.

Key Points:

And it’s not just in our bodies: all animals carry out this dance of metabolism, and it turns out none of them do it quite the same way.
These fingerprints reveal how different creatures meet the demands of survival, growth and reproduction – and offer a whole new way to understand metabolism in unprecedented detail.

A more detailed picture

For example, the most common kind of carbon is carbon-12, but there is also an isotope called carbon-13 that is a little heavier.
More recently, scientists have been able to measure isotopes in each of the 20 individual amino acids that make up proteins.
It’s like seeing every pixel in the TV image, which gives us amazingly detailed metabolic info.

Finding the right carbon

We used a chemical called ninhydrin to chop off and isolate the carbon atom we wanted from each amino acid.
We then sent these carbon atoms – from a very metabolically active part of the amino acid called the carboxyl group – through a machine called a mass spectrometer to read their isotope fingerprints.

The four phases of metabolism

We identified four distinct phases of metabolism: creating fats, destroying fats, creating proteins, and destroying proteins.
Animals combine these phases in distinct ways to accomplish growth and reproduction.
By peering deep into the isotopes of amino acids, we will be able to understand eukaryote metabolism like never before, in animals, plants and fungi.

What would an ancient Egyptian corpse have smelled like? Pine, balsam and bitumen – if you were nobility

Retrieved on:

Friday, September 1, 2023

In tomb KV42, Carter found the remains of a noblewoman called Senetnay, who died around 1450 BCE.

Key Points:

In tomb KV42, Carter found the remains of a noblewoman called Senetnay, who died around 1450 BCE.
And the link between these two events is our research, published today in Scientific Reports, which delves into the ingredients of this ancient Egyptian balm recipe.

Recreating the smells of a disappeared world

We used three variations of chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques, which work by breaking samples down into individual molecules.
Based on these characteristic compounds and through comparison to known reference materials, we identified the different ingredients.
After the excavation by Carter, two of Senetnay’s jars recovered from the tomb made their way to Germany.

An ancient ingredients list

The results were exciting; these were the richest and most complex balms ever identified for this early time period.
The findings also contribute to growing chemical evidence that the ancient Egyptians went far and wide to source ingredients for mummification balms, drawing on extensive trade networks that stretched into areas beyond their realm.
If the presence of dammar resin is confirmed in Senetnay’s case, this would suggest ancient Egyptians had access to this South-East Asian resin via long-distance trade, almost a millennium earlier than previously thought.

A perfume for the ages

The vanilla scent comes from a compound called coumarin, and from vanillic acid, and in this case likely reflects the degradation of woody tissue.
Due to the volatile nature of scents, however, Senetnay’s unique scents gradually vanished once her remains were deposited in the Valley of the Kings.
It will provide a unique and unparalleled window into the smells of ancient Egypt and the scents used to perfume and preserve elite individuals such as Senetnay.

Emergency contraception: here’s what you probably don’t know but should

Retrieved on:

Thursday, August 31, 2023

Whatever the reason, if you need to prevent an unplanned pregnancy you might decide to use emergency contraception.

Key Points:

Whatever the reason, if you need to prevent an unplanned pregnancy you might decide to use emergency contraception.
For emergency IUD fittings, you need to go to a contraceptive and sexual health clinic, or your GP or gynaecologist.
This article is part of Quarter Life, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties.

How does it work?

Levonorgestrel and ulipristal both work by delaying ovulation.
This means that if there are sperm inside the fallopian tubes, there won’t be an egg for them to meet and fertilise.
In a typical menstrual cycle, you’re most at risk of pregnancy on days nine to 14.
But even if you’re more than halfway through your typical monthly cycle, these tablets can still work.

How effective is it?

While it’s the most effective form of emergency contraception, it can be uncomfortable or even painful to have an IUD fitted.
It’s at least 95% effective at stopping pregnancies when taken within this time frame.
Levonorgestrel is 95% effective at preventing pregnancy if taken within 24 hours of unprotected sex.
But both tablets are up to 95% effective at stopping pregnancies when taken soon after unprotected sex.

What should you expect?

It may also cause your next period to begin earlier or later than normal.
Ectopic pregnancy (when a fertilised egg implants in a fallopian tube) may be possible if emergency contraception fails.
It’s also worth noting that emergency contraceptives have no effect on long-term fertility and can be used even if you plan to have children later on.

ICO publishes new guidance on sending bulk communications by email

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

The warning comes as the ICO publishes new guidance to help organisations understand the law and good practice around protecting personal information when sending bulk emails.

Key Points:

The warning comes as the ICO publishes new guidance to help organisations understand the law and good practice around protecting personal information when sending bulk emails.
If organisations are sending any sensitive personal information electronically, they should use alternatives to BCC, such as bulk email services, mail merge, or secure data transfer services.
Earlier this month the ICO reprimanded two Northern Irish organisations for disclosing people’s information inappropriately via email.
For further advice on email best practices, view our full email and security guidance.

'Eco-friendly' straws contain potentially toxic chemicals – posing a threat to people and wildlife

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

People, Heart, Human, Food, TFA, PFAS, Metal, Serum, Method, Infection, Skin, Research, Cape Fear, COVID, Plant, Neoplasm, Climate change, Animal, Soil, Chromium, Nickel, Risk, Water, Fertility, Cancer, European, Dust, Paper, Liver, Pregnancy, Trifluoroacetic acid, Environment, Bird, Tandem mass spectrometry, Hydrocarbon, Cosmetics, Environmental remediation

Drinking straws that are made from materials like paper and bamboo are often promoted as more eco-friendly than their plastic counterparts.

Key Points:

Drinking straws that are made from materials like paper and bamboo are often promoted as more eco-friendly than their plastic counterparts.
However, a new study has found that these supposedly sustainable straws contain potentially toxic chemicals called polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
The study, conducted by researchers in Belgium, analysed commercially available drinking straws of various types and recorded PFAS concentrations in 39 separate brands.

Detecting forever chemicals

A screening approach was then used to detect any other PFAS compounds in the straws.
This revealed the presence of two additional PFAS compounds – trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TFMS).
However, they are known to be associated with sites where firefighting foams have been used.

Should we be concerned?

PFAS exposure poses considerable health risks to people, wildlife and the environment.
Research indicates that pregnant women who are exposed to these substances may experience reduced fertility and heightened blood pressure.
Their children could face developmental effects like low birth weight, early puberty and even an increased risk of some cancers.
Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue.