‘The Silence is roaring’: sterilization, reproductive rights and women with intellectual disabilities

This paper reviews the history of sterilization of women with intellectual disabilities, and considers its relevance to current practice regarding reproductive choice and futures. The paper provides an overview of published research on historical practices, focusing on the UK, the US, Canada and the Nordic countries. Most of this research draws upon written records, centering on eugenics debates. However, emerging oral history testimonies gathered by the authors suggest that sterilization procedures were also conducted in the community, the result of private negotiations between parents and medical practitioners. The article presents these accounts and calls for an end to a ‘roaring silence’ on this issue. More empirical studies are needed to recover the experiences of women who have been sterilized and to explore how decisions about reproductive choice and capacity were made in the past and continue to be made today. Key words: Sterilization; intellectual disability; contraception; history

Methane distribution on Pluto as mapped by the New Horizons Ralph/MVIC instrument

International audienceThe data returned from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft have given us an unprecedented, detailed look at the Pluto system. New Horizons' Ralph/MVIC (Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera) is composed of 7 independent CCD arrays on a single substrate. Among these are a red channel (540-700 nm), near-infrared channel (780-975 nm), and narrow band methane channel (860-910 nm). By comparing the relative reflectance of these channels we are able to produce high-resolution methane "equivalent width" (based on the 890 nm absorption band) and spectral slope maps of Pluto's surface. From these maps we can then quantitatively study the relationships between methane distribution, redness, and other parameters like latitude and elevation. We find Pluto's surface to show a great diversity of terrains, particularly in the equatorial region between 30°N and 30°S latitude. Methane "equivalent width" also shows some dependence on elevation (while spectral slope shows very little)

Pluto's haze as a surface material

International audiencePluto’s atmospheric haze settles out rapidly compared with geological timescales. It needs to be accounted for as a surface material, distinct from Pluto’s icy bedrock and from the volatile ices that migrate via sublimation and condensation on seasonal timescales. This paper explores how a steady supply of atmospheric haze might affect three distinct provinces on Pluto. We pose the question of why they each look so different from one another if the same haze material is settling out onto all of them. Cthulhu is a more ancient region with comparatively little present-day geological activity, where the haze appears to simply accumulate over time. Sputnik Planitia is a very active region where glacial convection, as well as sublimation and condensation rapidly refresh the surface, hiding recently deposited haze from view. Lowell Regio is a region of intermediate age featuring very distinct coloration from the rest of Pluto. Using a simple model haze particle as a colorant, we are not able to match the colors in both Lowell Regio and Cthulhu. To account for their distinct colors, we propose that after arrival at Pluto’s surface, haze particles may be less inert than might be supposed from the low surface temperatures. They must either interact with local materials and environments to produce distinct products in different regions, or else the supply of haze must be non-uniform in time and/or location, such that different products are delivered to different places