Green Shoots? Interview with Natalie Bennett

Interview with Natalie Bennett, the leader of the Green Party, who argues that her party occupies the large political space that was vacated when New Labour shifted to the right. Labour continues to be too cautious on many issues. For example on education it has not come out against free schools, and its academies policy in many ways opened up the way for current Tory practice. Other areas discussed include Greens and austerity in Brighton, energy policy, globalisation, ethical consumerism, and electoral reform - including the Liberal Democrats' inability to persuade the Coalition government to deliver in this are

Celebrity and Schadenfreude: The cultural economy of fame in freefall

This paper explores the popularity of contemporary expressions of delight in celebrity downfall, or Schadenfreude towards celebrity culture, and questions to what extent they can be understood as cultural critiques of economic inequality. For just as the economy has its own parables, so do ‘cultural’ expressions contain parables of normativity about economic life. We argue that Schadenfreude's relationship to ‘equality’ can be read in terms of social, cultural and economic blockages, and investigate some of the history to this feeling by exploring different arguments over the meaning and status of ‘equality’ in modern and post-modern societies. This survey of its contested meanings highlights the distinctions which have been made and elided between property and identity, the economic and the cultural, and the political and the private. These geneaologies are used to interpret Schadenfreude, and to highlight the tension between two different aspects of contemporary subjectivity: ‘integrity’ and marketability of the self. By drawing on these contested genealogies and theories of equality, we are also arguing that Schadenfreude toward celebrity in its most common contemporary form cannot be seen merely as a superstructural phenomenon of a neo-liberal base but rather as stitched into and as of a piece with this neo-liberal culture. We argue that whilst Schadenfreude is able to be articulated in different directions, it overwhelmingly works to express irritation at inequalities but not to change the wider rules of the current social system, and its political economy often actually entails it fuelling inequalities of wealth. In these terms, Schadenfreude can be perceived as being intimately related to autistic economic culture and as being able to be perpetuated by coasting on its own status as an autistic response

Marine Macroalgal Diversity Assessment of Saba Bank, Netherlands Antilles

Background: Located in the Dutch Windward Islands, Saba Bank is a flat-topped seamount (20–45 m deep in the shallower regions). The primary goals of the survey were to improve knowledge of biodiversity for one of the world’s most significant, but little-known, seamounts and to increase basic data and analyses to promote the development of an improved management plan. Methodology/Principal Findings: Our team of three divers used scuba to collect algal samples to depths of 50 m at 17 dive sites. Over 360 macrophyte specimens (12 putative new species) were collected, more than 1,000 photographs were taken in truly exceptional habitats, and three astonishing new seaweed community types were discovered. These included: (1) ‘‘Field of Greens’ ’ (N 17u30.6209, W63u27.7079) dominated by green seaweeds as well as some filamentous reds, (2) ‘‘Brown Town’ ’ (N 17u28.0279, W63u14.9449) dominated by large brown algae, and (3) ‘‘Seaweed City’ ’ (N 17u26.4859, W63u16.8509) with a diversity of spectacular fleshy red algae. Conclusions/Significance: Dives to 30 m in the more two-dimensional interior habitats revealed particularly robust specimens of algae typical of shallower seagrass beds, but here in the total absence of any seagrasses (seagrasses generally do not grow below 20 m). Our preliminary estimate of the number of total seaweed species on Saba Bank ranges from a minimum of 150 to 200. Few filamentous and thin sheet forms indicative of stressed or physically disturbed environments were observed. A more precise number still awaits further microscopic and molecular examinations in the laboratory. The expedition, while intensive, has only scratched the surface of this unique submerged seamount/atoll

Crystal structure of the SARS-CoV-2 non-structural protein 9, Nsp9

Many of the SARS-CoV-2 proteins have related counterparts across the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) family. One such protein is non-structural protein 9 (Nsp9), which is thought to mediate viral replication, overall virulence, and viral genomic RNA reproduction. We sought to better characterize the SARS-CoV-2 Nsp9 and subsequently solved its X-ray crystal structure, in an apo form and, unexpectedly, in a peptide-bound form with a sequence originating from a rhinoviral 3C protease sequence (LEVL). The SARS-CoV-2 Nsp9 structure revealed the high level of structural conservation within the Nsp9 family. The exogenous peptide binding site is close to the dimer interface and impacted the relative juxtapositioning of the monomers within the homodimer. We have established a protocol for the production of SARS-CoV-2 Nsp9, determined its structure, and identified a peptide-binding site that warrants further study to understanding Nsp9 function

'Every generation has to make its own women's movement'

In this interview Sheila Rowbotham talks to Jo Littler about her involvement in feminism and politics over several decades. This ranges across her role in the Women's Liberation Movement, left activism, historical scholarship, work with in the Greater London Council (GLC), involvement in the international homeworking movement and her secret life as a poet

Correspondence: No substantial long-term bias in the Cenozoic benthic foraminifera oxygen-isotope record

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Feminism is a project not an identity: Jo Littler interviews Sylvia Walby

Sylvia Walby is a sociologist who has written extensively on gender inequality, patriarchy and feminism in, for example, books such as Theorizing Patriarchy (1990), Patriarchy at Work (1986), Gender Segregation at Work (1989), Out of the Margins (1991), Gender Transformations (1997) and The Future of Feminism (2011). She was a founder of the Feminist Studies Association and the European Sociological Association. Her work theorising social change includes books such as European Societies (1999), Contemporary British Society (2000), Globalization and Inequalities (2009) and the recent book Crisis (2015). In recent years much of her work has been on violence, including The Concept and Measurement of Violence against Women and Men (2017) and work for the UN on violence against women. She is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Violence and Society Centre at City, University of London, UK, and UNESCO Chair in Building Peaceful Societies through Research on Gender Equality. In this interview Sylvia Walby talks to Jo Littler about gender inequality; why feminism is better understood as a project than as an identity; how gender dynamics were sidelined during Covid; ways to understand crisis; and what we mean by ‘violence’. This interview took place on 14 December 2021