Next generation ice core technology reveals true minimum natural levels of lead (Pb) in the atmosphere: insights from the Black Death

Current policies to reduce lead pollution in the air are based on the assumption that pre-industrial levels of lead in the air were negligible, safe or non-existent. This trans-disciplinary article shows that this is not the case, using ‘next-generation’ laser technology in climate science, in combination with detailed historical and archaeological records in as many as 7 languages, from all over Europe. We show that lead levels in the air have been elevated for the past 2000 years, except for a single 4-year period. This 4-year period corresponds with the largest known pandemic ever to ravage western Europe (the Black Death), resulting in a 40-50% reduction in population. This unprecedented historic population collapse was accompanied by dramatic economic collapse that halted lead mining and smelting, and related emissions in the air. This trans-disciplinary study is a collaboration led by Harvard University and the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, and researchers from the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and the University of Nottingham (UK). It uses next-generation technology and expertise in history, climate science, archaeology and toxicology, brought to bear in a highly detailed contribution to planetary health, with crucial implications for public health and environmental policy, and the history of human exposure to lead

“Re-Culturing” Teacher Education: Inquiry, Evidence, and Action

Currently the press to make policy and practice decisions on the basis of evidence is being coupled with recognition that real change requires shifts in organizational culture. Consequently, there are now many efforts to “re-culture” organizations by making evidence central to decision making. In this article, the authors problematize the notion of a “culture of evidence” in teacher education. Then the article identifies four key aspects involved in efforts to create a culture of evidence at one institution over a five-year period: (1) development of a portfolio of studies about processes and outcomes; (2) recognition that teacher education always poses values questions as well as empirical questions; (3) an exploratory, open-ended approach to evidence construction; and, (4) multiple structures that institutionalize evidence collection and use locally and beyond. The authors suggests that building cultures of evidence has the potential to be transformative in teacher education, but only if challenges related to sustainability, complexity, and balance are addressed

Do Caves Have Agency?

Recent studies of later prehistoric cave use have stressed the affective qualities of these natural spaces. Certain properties of caves, darkness, constriction and their active geomorphology for example, can lead to caves be characterised as active agents, natural places with profound powers. However, is it really plausible to interpret caves, inanimate geological formations, as active agents? This paper will review arguments on social, environmental and material agency. This will include Structuration theory, with its emphasis on human consciousness as a key aspect of agency, Ingold's 'Dwelling perspective', which allows the possibility of non-human agents, the work of Alfred Gell and Actor Network Theory. Two common threads are drawn from these approaches to describe the way that things act. Things act in accordance with the properties they have and in a way that is structured and enabled by their past history. From this perspective caves can be shown to act and therefore caves would have been perceived as having agency

A 3D-Printed Electrochemical Water Splitting Cell

3D printing offers an attractive approach in fabricating complex designs across a wide range of materials to meet the functional requirements of targeted applications. In this study, the surface-patterned metallic electrodes are printed and integrated with custom built reaction vessels produced via a polymer-based 3D printing approach to create a complete electrochemical cell. It is shown that metallic electrodes with conical surface structures can be printed from Ti and Ni. In addition to conventional flat electrodes, the design can be tailor-made to any desirable geometry such as a curved structure. The transformation of inactive Ti electrodes with the deposition of an active catalyst can be readily obtained by electrodeposition to enhance the electrode functionality. A new design of fully printed compartmented electrochemical cell with both anode and cathode facing outward, separated by a Nafion membrane, enabling the water oxidation and proton reduction reactions to occur in their respective compartments is fabricated

The project pyramid Creativity, innovation and the intrapreneurial process

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3597.811(NU-SMF-DP--1992/12) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

A prelude to the cyber business

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:3597.811(NU-SMF-DP--13) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo