Keeping the faith: reflections on religious nurture among young British Sikhs

Although young Sikhs are regularly accused of not attending gurdwara and not being interested in Sikhism, many young Sikhs are now learning about Sikhism outside traditional religious institutions. Using data gathered as part of a research project studying the transmission of Sikhism among 18- to 30-year-old British Sikhs, this essay explores how young Sikhs are learning about Sikhism in their pre-adult life stage. Examining the influences of the family and the school environment and the various methods used in gurdwaras, this essay offers a retrospective look on the ways in which young Sikhs are nurtured and socialised into Sikhism, providing an understanding from the perspective of young Sikhs themselves about which methods actually work and why

Three-dimensional X-ray-computed tomography of 3300- to 6000-year-old Citrullus seeds from Libya and Egypt compared to extant seeds throws doubts on species assignments

Societal Impact Statement The watermelon (Citrullus lanatus subsp. vulgaris) is among the world's most important fruit crops. We here use C‐14 dating and morphometric analysis to test whether ancient seeds can be identified to species level, which would help document food expansion, innovation, and diversity in Northeastern Africa. We dated a Libyan seed to 6182–6001 calibrated years BP, making it the oldest Citrullus seed known. Morphometric analysis could not reliably assign ancient seeds to particular species, but several seeds showed breakage patterns characteristic of modern watermelon seeds cracked by human teeth. Our study contributes to the understanding of the early history of watermelon use by humans, who may have mostly snacked on the seeds, and cautions against the use of morphology alone to identify Citrullus archaeological samples