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Director Walter Salles’s first feature film since 2012, the Oscar-nominated I’m Still Here is a return to home ground, and a return to strength, for the Brazilian auteur. At 68, Salles reconnects with his youth, telling a story in which he does not figure, but takes up the role of witness to the pain of others.

I’m Still Here is adapted from the autobiographical novel Ainda Estou Aqui by Salles’s contemporary, the writer Marcelo Rubens Paiva. The novel recounts Paiva’s father’s disappearance in 1971, under the repressive dictatorship of Emílio Garrastazu Médici, through the memories of the author’s mother, Eunice Paiva.

In Salles’s film, the Paivas lead an enchanted life in a house facing Leblon beach in Rio de Janeiro, until the long arm of the military regime wrecks their dream.

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Beloved family head, Rubens (Selton Mello), an engineer and congressman secretly collaborating with the underground opposition, is kidnapped by state police under the pretence of a routine interrogation. It then befalls his wife Eunice (Fernanda Torres) to sustain family life and give their children a sense of future while trying to find out what happened to her husband.

It’s the second act of the film, particularly the harrowing yet restrained sequences of Eunice’s days-long detention, that reveal the stakes of the story. Her traumatic experience in jail and increasingly desperate search for her husband afterwards is framed as a transformative journey. It’s one that will culminate 25 years later, when the memory of the disappeared is reinstated in the official archives of the nation’s history.

I’m Still Here adopts a linear style of storytelling and classical three-act structure (stability, disruption, reparation) that serves historical closure, reinforced by the display of the Paiva family’s photographic archive in the closing credits.

This familiar convention takes on a special poignancy in I’m Still Here, where the private archive is a powerful alternative to a discredited “official” media narrative. The reconstruction of everyday life conveys endurance and resistance. This in turn brings to the fore the gendered dynamics of the Paiva household.

Rubens’s underground political activity against the regime means that he leads a double life to which Eunice, for all her loving closeness to her husband, remains ignorant of. This is sorely tested when Rubens disappears. With him the main source of income, it leaves Eunice and the children to cobble together a new existence in São Paulo.

Adopting Eunice’s perspective throughout, the film observes how her relationship with her eldest daughters begins to fracture as they find different ways of coping with traumatic loss and an uncertain future. However, the film stays clear of melodrama, leaving Eunice to internalise the process instead.

In the lead role, the prolific 59-year-old actor Fernanda Torres carries the film as effortlessly in fitted pencil skirts and chic geometric patterns of late 1960s fashion. Her screen chemistry with the slightly younger Selton Mello – they are the perfect couple while happiness lasts – is palpable.

Torres’s controlled, nuanced performance navigates the family’s shift in fortunes with measured calm and steely determination, even as she gradually comes to terms with the fact that she’s on her own.

Brazilian director Walter Salles.
Shutterstock

In this way, the film is a clear-cut tribute to a “feminine” politics of resilience. This matches the preference for a linear biopic over focus on fraught alliances and betrayals that may have determined the course of 1970s political life in Brazil.

Despite its stark subject matter and suffering heroine, the retro pleasures of I’m Still Here form one of the film’s strongest aspects. The measure of the family’s loss is given by a sweeping first act. Despite the all too readable signs of what’s to come (the film opens with Eunice enjoying a solitary swim in crystalline waters, disturbed by the sound of helicopters hovering above), the viewer is invited to live in the joyous present of the Paiva household.

The dynamic camerawork captures the energy of the children, connecting the space of the beach with the open-doors house where Eunice and Rubens act as genial hosts for their friends.

Through references to the vibrant tropicália musical movement the film celebrates and mourns not only the centrality of music to Brazilian cultural life, but the tastes of a cosmopolitan, white liberal middle class (to which Salles also belongs) whose lives and aspirations were cut short by the dictatorship.

Marcello Rubens Paiva.
Harald Krichel / Wikipedia

Torres’s real-life mother, the decorated Brazilian actress Fernanda Montenegro, plays the older Eunice in the film’s closing scenes. The match is near perfect, as they both command the same intense yet guarded look.

Eunice’s character arc signifies the nation’s rise to consciousness. She goes back to study in her forties, becoming a lawyer working on behalf of the rights of indigenous women and in support of the families of the disappeared.

This personal engagement in justice and reparation is blighted by dementia. In 2014, the nonagenarian Eunice played by Montenegro is a silent, wheelchair-bound Alzheimer sufferer. This epilogue, shot in bleached digital textures vividly contrasts with the vibrant memories captured in the (recreated) Super-8 films shot by the Paivas.

As Brazil pulls itself together after the twin catastrophes of COVID and Bolsonarism, I’m Still Here’s cautionary tale for the present may be curtailed by the fact that its emotional core is placed so firmly in mourning its past, depicted as a idyllic moment of happiness and optimism before Brazil was robbed of its future. Läs mer…

We are all familiar with elastic materials – just think of a rubber band which can return to its original shape after being stretched.

Humans have used elastic materials for millennia. These days, they’re in everything from optical fibres to aeroplanes and buildings. But until now, scientists haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly how these materials return to their original shape. What happens at the level of their molecules?

Published today in the journal Nature Materials, our new study uses the properties of flexible crystals to understand how interactions between molecules give rise to elasticity. This provides new insight into the model of elasticity developed by English polymath Robert Hooke more than 300 years ago.

Our findings will allow us to develop new ways of designing components for complicated aerospace and building materials or electronic devices.

The mystery of elasticity

A material is elastic if it can return to its original structure after being deformed. For example, a rubber band goes back to its original shape after it’s been stretched. However, it will snap if pulled too hard. This is known as a “non-elastic change” – it means the material can no longer return to its original shape.

The most useful elastic materials can undergo large changes in their structures and still return to their original shape. There are many engineering uses for this. As one example, bridges are designed to move elastically in high winds to prevent them from falling down.

All materials are at least a little bit elastic: they can restore themselves after very small changes in structure. If you shake a piece of paper, it will still lie flat. But if you fold it, the crease is permanent – a non-elastic behaviour that is essential for origami.

Prior to our research, there were two main approaches to understanding elasticity.

In the 17th century, Robert Hooke first described how elastic materials work. He discovered that the force needed to stretch an elastic material is proportional to the distance it is stretched, and described this mathematically.

However, knowing this doesn’t provide much insight for chemists and physicists like ourselves, who work to develop new materials with better elastic properties.

More recently, computers have been used to calculate the elastic properties of a material using its structure and the basic laws of physics. But while it’s nice for a computer to understand the problem, it doesn’t necessarily make it easier for humans to grasp. This is where our work on flexible crystals comes in.

A thin, flexible crystal can be bent reversibly and repeatedly – showing its elastic properties.
UQ/QUT

How can a crystal be flexible?

Crystals, which are normally hard and brittle, are made up of a repeating pattern of atoms or molecules. Because the atoms or molecules are stacked neatly in place, it is hard to move them.

This is why diamond – a crystal of carbon atoms – is hard, while coal, also mostly made of carbon but not a crystal, is soft and crumbly.

The structure of a diamond, showing connections between the carbon atoms (blue spheres).
Pieter Kuiper/Wikimedia Commons

In the flexible crystals we have developed, there are weak interactions between the molecules. These crystals are made of a combination of simple organic molecules and metal ions.

Interactions between them allow the crystals to be bent so much, they can be tied in a knot without the crystal breaking.

Our new approach allows humans to understand how the subtle interactions between molecules in crystals give rise to elasticity.

A flexible crystal in the shape of a thin strand is tied in a loose knot.

We first used X-ray diffraction, a technique for determining the positions of atoms and molecules in crystals, at the Australian Synchrotron. This allowed us to understand how the arrangement of molecules in our flexible crystal changes when it’s bent.

We then used a computer to model the interactions between pairs of molecules. Our results showed these interactions could be used to calculate elasticity just as accurately as theoretical models of the entire crystal.

So, what makes our crystal highly elastic? Our results show that none of the interactions between atoms are “happy” with the structure of the crystal when it is bent. Some would like it to move one way, others in the opposite direction. They have to compromise.

This means the molecules and atoms don’t strongly resist to changes, making the crystal highly elastic despite its molecular structure which is typical of a regular, inflexible crystal.

We could not have learned this with either of the traditional approaches for analysing elasticity.

A single crystal cantilever prepared with a steel ball approximately 55 times the mass of the crystal. The ball rises back higher than the neutral position against gravity when the force holding it is released.
UQ/QUT

We were also able to calculate how much energy is stored within a crystal when it is bent, and found it was enough for the crystal to lift a mass 30 times its own weight one metre in the air. This is similar to shooting an arrow with a bow. When you draw the bow, you store elastic energy. Upon the release of the arrow, that elastic energy is transformed into kinetic energy – movement.

Our flexible crystals are not yet robust enough to be used in the construction of bridges or skyscrapers.

But the new understanding our study brings to elasticity could lead to new ways of preparing smart devices, wearable electronics, or even components for spacecraft. Läs mer…

Rising global temperatures are a particularly acute threat for the world’s sea turtles. That’s because the temperature of a turtle’s nest controls the sex of their offspring.

Coming ashore onto a beach (often the beach from where they hatched), sea turtles use their flippers to carefully scoop out the sand and create flask-shaped nests in the sand in which they lay their eggs. There is no maternal care for these nests – their success depends solely on the environment. Hotter nests will produce more female hatchlings, but fewer babies will survive into adulthood once temperatures rise above a critical threshold.

Unless sea turtles find a way to counteract rising nest temperatures, climate change could produce an increasing number of females and fewer offspring – a frightening scenario for sea turtle biologists like us.

Fortunately, we were pleased to discover that green and loggerhead turtles that breed in North Cyprus are arriving earlier in the year to offset some of the impacts of rising incubation temperatures.

A green turtle hatchling heads to the sea in Cyprus.
Matt Wall

Since the early 1990s, the Society for the Protection of Turtles and our team at the University of Exeter have been working together to monitor and protect the green and loggerhead turtles that nest on the beaches of North Cyprus.

Every summer, a team of dedicated volunteers patrols nesting beaches to record every nest that has been laid. They place temperature data-loggers into these nests and tag every female they encounter. The result is a unique database of over 1,300 individual female turtles for whom the date, location and hatching success of her nests is known.

Using this database, we were able to show that, since 1992, green and loggerhead turtles in North Cyprus are nesting more than half a day earlier each year (greens 0.61 days, loggerheads 0.78 days). Before the mid 2000s, no turtles had been recorded nesting before June, but now we expect to see quite a few nests from the start of May.

Do the seasons feel increasingly weird to you? You’re not alone. Climate change is distorting nature’s calendar, causing plants to flower early and animals to emerge at the wrong time.

This article is part of a series, Wild Seasons, on how the seasons are changing – and what they may eventually look like.

If temperatures keep rising at current rates, we estimated that to maintain current sex ratios, the loggerhead turtles would need to keep nesting half a day earlier each year. To prevent a decrease in hatching rates, they’ll need to nest 0.7 days earlier each year.

This means that, for the time being, our loggerheads are shifting their nesting dates early enough to maintain current incubation temperatures and, therefore, sex ratios and hatching success. Good news.

Though our study in loggerheads offers cause for optimism, there is no guarantee that the females will continue to nest earlier and earlier each year. To try to understand if this might be the case, we wanted to understand whether temperature was the main factor driving this earlier nesting.

Temperature isn’t everything

For individual green turtles, we confirmed that the temperature is an important factor in causing them to nest earlier. In fact, we found that individual females will nest 6.47 days earlier for every degree celsius increase in sea temperature.

However, we also showed that how many times a female has bred before and the number of times she lays eggs in a breeding season explain an equal amount of the variation in her lay dates. These observations have important effects when we think about what is happening to the green turtle population as a whole.

Researchers have studied loggerhead turtle breeding behaviour in Alagadi, North Cyprus.
Brad Clarke

As a result of conservation measures such as protecting the nests from predation and relocating nests laid too close to the high water line we have seen a big population increase in the green turtles at our study site in North Cyprus. Since 1992, numbers have grown from 55 nests per year to over 400.

Understanding the current trend of earlier nesting is complicated. But, for now, we can be assured that sea turtles are doing just enough to counteract the negative effects of climate change – which is fantastic news.

The turtles are doing their bit. Now, it is up to us to ensure the continued conservation and long-term monitoring of this charismatic ocean ambassador to give them the best chance of survival in our changing world.

Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 40,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far. Läs mer…

South Africa’s finance minister, Enoch Godongwana, cancelled the unveiling of the country’s 2025 budget as it was due to be released. The move is unprecedented in the country’s history.

The reason for the abrupt cancellation was the failure of the minister to get cabinet approval for the proposal to raise value added tax (VAT) from 15% to 17%. VAT is the second biggest contributor to tax collection after personal income tax, followed by corporate taxes.

The strongest opposition to the idea came from parties that have joined the African National Congress in a government of national unity which was formed after the ruling party lost its majority in polls in June 2024.

To understand the finance minister’s efforts to raise VAT it’s helpful to revisit the revenue proposals of a year ago.

In the 2024 budget, all the additional revenue was to come from a “stealth tax” on personal income. Because personal income tax is levied at increasing rates as income rises, the tax burden rises as wages go up if tax thresholds are not adjusted for inflation.

In the Treasury’s estimates, R16.3 billion (US$889 million) was raised in 2024/25 by not making inflation-related adjustments to the personal income tax brackets and rebates. This meant that another 200,000 income-earners became taxpayers, and everyone’s effective tax rate was raised.

This has been a long-standing trend. Over the past decade, the tax threshold (for individuals under the age of 65) has declined from R115,000 (in today’s prices) to R95,750, bringing about 850,000 more people into the tax net.

Above the threshold, tax rates were raised by one percentage point in 2015 and the 45% rate was introduced in 2017.

As a strategy for raising personal income tax, the results have been impressive. Personal income tax has increased from 8% of GDP in 2014 to nearly 10%. In the nine months to December 2024, personal income tax increased by over 13% compared with the same period in 2023. Even after taking account of the revenue windfall from retirement fund withdrawals following recent reforms, this signals a substantial erosion of households’ disposable income.

But that is precisely the problem. Taxes collected on goods and services (mainly VAT and excise duties) increased by just 0.4% last year by comparison with 2023. Revenue from corporate income tax declined. The implication is clear: higher taxes on personal income are at least partially offset by reduced consumption and declines in revenue from other sources.

So the Treasury has taken the view, this year, that there should be relief given in the personal income tax and that additional revenue will have to come from taxes on consumption.

There are good reasons for this: personal income tax has contributed a rising share of the overall tax burden over the past decade, while households also face rising costs of electricity, housing and services. However, raising VAT also has its downsides: it generates revenue by raising prices relative to the costs of production, and effectively also reduces households’ spending power.

The Treasury’s estimate is that an increase in VAT from 15% to 17% would raise an additional R60 billion (US$3.3 billion) in revenue. To offset the impact on low-income households, the schedule of basic foods that don’t attract VAT will be extended beyond the present list of 21 items to include various specified meat cuts and tinned and bottled vegetables. In addition, above-inflation adjustments to social grants are proposed.

The main argument against increasing the VAT rate is that it is regressive – it has a greater impact on lower-income households than on the rich. But a two percentage point VAT increase would also be a substantial shock to overall consumption spending. It would temporarily raise inflation and it would have a negative impact on business income and profitability.

The arguments for a higher VAT rate, rather than other tax increases, are in part about its broad base and comparative ease of collection.

There are nonetheless valid concerns from an administrative perspective. The Treasury argues that other countries have higher VAT rates than South Africa (Morocco, Turkey, Brazil and India, for example). But this is not in itself protection against the potential impact of a higher tax rate on non-compliance and tax fraud.

The upsides

There may be deeper economic considerations behind the Treasury’s tax proposal.

The most compelling arguments for VAT as a revenue source are in its basic design structure: what is taxed and what is not. There are two key features. The first is that it taxes imports and zero-rates exports. The second is that the VAT base excludes investment.

The import VAT is sometimes seen as an unfair form of trade protection. But it simply levels the consumption tax across foreign and domestic-produced goods. And it’s simpler than excise and sales taxes.

The important consideration for domestic production is that the VAT encourages exports.

The exclusion of investment from the VAT base caused some controversy when the tax was introduced in 1990. Some argued that this would bias economic development in favour of capital and against labour. But investment and employment are complements. To achieve higher rates of employment, South Africa needs far greater levels of investment. Since 2013, investment has fallen as a percentage of GDP from 19% to less than 15%: nowhere enough to generate growth sufficient to bring down South Africa’s unemployment rate.

Because the VAT base is consumption, not investment, it supports expansion of the economy’s productive capacity.

Managing the fallout

But this doesn’t change the short-term impact on the cost of living that would result from a VAT rise. A higher tax burden will reduce demand and inhibit growth at first, before potentially contributing to fiscal stability and lower interest rates.

If the tax increase is to be avoided, then the spotlight will have to fall on the expenditure side of the budget. This is a far harder discussion than tax policy – there are a thousand options to consider, and there are vested interests wherever you look.

If Godongwana’s VAT rate increase is to be rejected, tough choices on the alternatives will have to be confronted. Läs mer…

The indictment filed by the attorney general’s office on Tuesday February 18 against Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro and 33 other people is the country’s most eagerly awaited – and most important – political event of recent months. The document doesn’t really contain any new elements: almost all of the facts presented were already included in the indictment filed by the federal police in November last year.

There are two major developments. The first is Bolsonaro’s accountability for a process of democratic subversion, which lasted until the events of January 8, 2023. It all began in 2021, as soon as the supreme court overturned convictions against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and paved the way for his return to the electoral game.

The decision in favour of Lula led Bolsonaro to adopt, according to the complaint, “a growing tone of rupture with institutional normality”. Since then, the president, his allies and supporters have begun to question the legitimacy of the Supreme Court (based on the slogan “Supreme is the people”), as well as the suitability of the electronic ballot boxes.

Anti-democratic narratives were inspired by Trump slogans

In both cases, the anti-democratic narratives were inspired by Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign slogans, such as “stop the steal” and “big lie”. Emulating Trumpism has been an inseparable part of Bolsonaro’s political strategy since his 2018 presidential campaign.

The second new development concerns the characterisation, as a coup attempt, of a set of decisions and plans that don’t fit the classic model of institutional rupture. Since Brazil’s republican political history has been marked by coups d’état, a common strategy in Jair Bolsonaro’s defence is based on the idea that if there was no attempt to put tanks on the streets or close down congress, there was no intention to break up democracy.

In his 272-page report, Paulo Gonet argues that a contemporary coup can happen by other means. In the Brazilian case, the attempt was marked by the overt use of disinformation mechanisms, often by the president himself and members of the government, to promote distrust in institutions and the electoral process, produce social instability and ensure that Bolsonaro remained in power, even after being defeated at the polls.

But the complaint goes further. It wasn’t just an attempt to undermine democracy with widely disseminated narratives and attacks on supporters on social media. In the words of the attorney general, among the objectives of the criminal organisation set up for the coup were to carry out “kidnappings, arrests and killings” in order to guarantee control of the three branches of government and the re-establishment of law and order.

Read more:
Bolsonaro’s indictment over alleged coup plot signals shift in Brazil’s approach to political accountability

High-ranking officers were part of anti-democratic plan

The report says according to the coup plan, called “Green and Yellow Dagger”, members of the army special forces would assassinate the supreme court justice, Alexandre de Moraes, as well as the winners of the 2022 election, Lula da Silva and his vice-president, Geraldo Alckmin. The plan had already been known for a few months, but Gonet brings elements to support the case that Jair Bolsonaro was not only aware of these steps, but that he agreed to them.

The accusations against the former president also shed light on the role of the military in the coup plot. Officers of all ranks, starting with members of the president’s inner circle, such as Admiral Almir Garnier and Generals Augusto Heleno, Paulo Sérgio Nogueira and Walter Braga Netto, were integral parts of the anti-democratic planning.

Not surprisingly, of the 34 people indicted, 24 are military. The coup attempt was the conclusion of an accelerated process of militarisation of Brazilian politics, which began under the presidency of Michel Temer in April 2016. In four years, the number of active military personnel serving in the executive branch rose from 1834 to 2558. At the height of this process, in 2020, eight of the Bolsonaro government’s 22 ministries were occupied by military personnel.

Bolsonaro continues to deny all the accusations and is trying to stay alive politically. And the complaint puts Bolsonaro in the position of being politically persecuted. Victimisation is one of the far right’s most popular strategies, as it allows them to project themselves, in the name of the people, against an empty and frightening enemy (the “system”).

Although Gonet was very careful in drafting his complaint as an exclusively legal piece, Bolsonaro – in congress and on the networks – was quick to denounce an alleged persecution against “the greatest political leader Brazil has ever seen”. In other words, the tension against political institutions is in full swing.

Bolsonarismo remains the main opposition force

The accusation also has the potential to inflame Bolsonaro’s supporters, with possible electoral consequences. The next national election in Brazil is a year and a half away and Bolsonaro remains the main opposition force. Figures such as former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro and the governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, are projected as candidates for the 2026 presidential race.

Faced with a weak government, whose popularity has fallen from 35 per cent to 24 per cent since December, a Bolsonarism unified by the narrative of persecution will be a major problem for Lula. This narrative will be tested in mid-March, when national demonstrations have been called against the current government – and in favour of Bolsonaro.

Finally, we must monitor how the White House responds to political events in Brazil. We know that pressure from the Biden administration was crucial in preventing the coup d’état from materialising in 2022. Trump and his allies, such as Elon Musk and Marco Rubio, are open critics of Lula and the decisions of the supreme court.

It’s unlikely that the Trump administration, a month after taking office, will treat the Brazilian political situation as a priority. But the road to 2026 will be long and tortuous, and challenges to democracy can come from both inside and outside the country. Läs mer…

Hydrogen was once sold as a universal climate fix — a clean, green wonder fuel for cars, homes, power grids and even global export. But reality has cooled that buzz.

This week, the South Australian government shelved plans for a A$593 million hydrogen power plant, in favour of injecting that money into the $2.4 billion Whyalla steelworks rescue package. Premier Peter Malinauskas said there was “no point in producing hydrogen” without a customer: the steelworks.

It’s the latest in a series of setbacks for hydrogen. Last year, Australian mining and energy giant Fortescue pared back its green hydrogen projects as a result of increasing costs and changing financial circumstances in the United States.

Then, gas and oil heavyweight Woodside withdrew plans for two large-scale green hydrogen projects and Origin Energy dropped out of the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub.

Meanwhile, the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain project in Victoria, meant to ship hydrogen to Japan, has met with delays and overruns. Earlier this month, the new Queensland government chose to halt further investment in the Central Queensland Hydrogen Project, putting plans to export hydrogen in doubt.

These setbacks show hydrogen isn’t the ultimate solution to all our energy needs, especially if we want to export it. But they don’t spell doom. Instead, they nudge us toward where hydrogen really shines: in heavy industry, right where it’s made.

Heavy industry: where hydrogen makes sense

Heavy industries such as steel manufacturing and ammonia production are where hydrogen proves its worth. These sectors are significant contributors to climate change — steel accounts for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, ammonia a further 2%.

Most emissions from steelmaking come from burning coal in blast furnaces to convert ore into iron and carbon dioxide.

In a cleaner alternative, hydrogen (when produced using renewable energy) can be used to strip oxygen from the ore and make iron, with water as a byproduct. The result is green iron, ready to be turned into steel in an electric arc furnace – with a fraction of the emissions.

Ammonia is used to make fertiliser and industrial chemicals, and hydrogen is one of the main ingredients in its production. Hydrogen bonds with nitrogen from the air to form ammonia. No hydrogen, no ammonia — it’s that simple. Conventional ammonia plants get hydrogen from methane, producing CO₂ in the process. Green ammonia uses renewable energy to produce hydrogen by splitting water via electrolysis.

Our recent research crunched the numbers on producing these new green commodities. We found making green iron in Australia with hydrogen and shipping it to Europe for steel production could be 21% cheaper than exporting raw iron ore and hydrogen separately. Plus, it could cut emissions by up to 95% compared to traditional methods.

There are huge economic opportunities for Australia too. Instead of shipping low-value raw materials, Australia could export ready-to-use green iron or green steel, reshaping global supply chains while cutting costs and carbon. That’s the kind of rethink hydrogen enables.

Industry hubs: a practical fix

Transporting hydrogen long distances is costly and inefficient. The fix? Industry hubs that produce hydrogen right where it’s needed — next to steel mills, ammonia plants, desalination plants, water treatment plants or even aluminium smelters. Putting producers and consumers together slashes transport costs and unlocks efficiencies.

We’ve built tools to pinpoint places with the greatest potential to produce these new green commodities.

The Hydrogen Economic Fairways Tool maps where renewable energy, infrastructure and industrial sites align for cost-effective hydrogen production.

The Green Steel Economic Fairways Mapper zooms in on prime locations for green steel, spotlighting places such as Eyre Peninsula in SA and the Pilbara in Western Australia, among others (see below). These locations have abundant wind and solar resources alongside an existing industrial base.

The Green Steel Economic Fairways Mapper compares the levelised cost of steel, including production and transport to the port. a) Regional changes across Australia b) Example of how to optimise the system to minimise the levelised cost of producing 1 million tonnes per annum c) Breakdown of costs d) Hourly system performance, in terms of energy flows.
Green Steel Economic Fairways Mapper, Geoscience Australia

Challenges remain

Green hydrogen promises to revolutionise heavy industries, but significant hurdles stand in the way of widespread domestic adoption. The biggest challenge comes from the unpredictable nature of renewable energy, which makes it hard to maintain the steady hydrogen supply industries need.

The costs remain steep, too. Splitting water into hydrogen using renewable electricity isn’t cheap, particularly when you need backup storage systems to keep production going during cloudy or windless periods.

Getting hydrogen where it needs to go poses another major challenge. As hydrogen is both bulky to transport and highly flammable, it requires special handling and infrastructure, driving up costs, especially for facilities far from production sites.

Many companies also hesitate to invest in hydrogen-compatible equipment, as retrofitting existing plants or building new ones requires substantial upfront costs without guaranteed returns.

The $2.4 billion rescue package for the Whyalla Steelworks (ABC News)

Government backing: a push in the right direction

Thursday’s announcement of A$2.4 billion investment in the Whyalla steelworks along with plans for a $1 billion green iron investment fund are a bold bet on green steel. Furthermore, the landmark Future Made in Australia legislation introduces a $6.7 billion Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive, offering $2 per kilogram of renewable hydrogen produced between 2027–28 and 2039–40, alongside a 10% tax credit for critical minerals processing.

Meanwhile tax credits for green aluminium and alumina should help another heavy industry to navigate the energy transition using clean hydrogen.

These measures aim to unlock tens of billions in private investment, boost regional economies, and position Australia as a leader in clean energy manufacturing. This isn’t just about one-off projects. It’s laying the groundwork for hubs that link renewable energy and hydrogen production to industrial demand.

There’s more in the pipeline. The Hydrogen Headstart program pumps funds into hydrogen innovation, and the Future Made in Australia initiative backs clean industry with billions more. Add in policies like carbon pricing or low-interest loans, and the economics tilt even further toward green steel and ammonia. Government buying power — in the form of procurement targets for low-carbon materials — could seal the deal by guaranteeing demand.

These policies aren’t just wishful thinking — they’re practical steps that are already working elsewhere. Sweden’s HYBRIT project, which paired green steel with government-backed demand, has already led to construction starting on new industrial-scale green steel facilities. At the same time, the European Union’s hydrogen strategy leans on carbon pricing and subsidies to guide industries and suppliers through the energy transition, while Japan offers incentives for the use of green steel in their automotive industry.

Australia has the renewable energy and the industrial base to take advantage of these opportunities. With the right leadership, we can turn hydrogen’s stumbles into a global triumph for heavy industry. Läs mer…

Imagine you have just finished a workout. Your legs are like jelly, your lungs are burning and you just want to collapse on the couch.

But instead, you pick yourself up and go for a brisk walk.

While this might seem counterintuitive, doing some light activity after an intense workout – known as “active recovery” – has been suggested to reduce soreness and speed up recovery after exercise.

But does it work or is it just another fitness myth?

What is active recovery?

Active recovery simply describes doing some low-intensity physical activity after a strenuous bout of exercise.

This is commonly achieved through low-intensity cardio, such as walking or cycling, but can also consist of low-intensity stretching, or even bodyweight exercises such as squats and lunges.

The key thing is making sure the intensity is light or moderate, without moving into the “vigorous” range.

As a general rule, if you can maintain a conversation while you’re exercising, you are working at a light-to-moderate intensity.

Some people consider doing an easy training session on their “rest days” as a form of active recovery. However, this has not really been researched. So we will be focusing on the more traditional form of active recovery in this article, where it is performed straight after exercise.

What does active recovery do?

Active recovery helps speed up the removal of waste products, such as lactate and hydrogen, after exercise. These waste products are moved from the muscles into the blood, before being broken down and used for energy, or simply excreted.

This is thought to be one of the ways it promotes recovery.

In some instances active recovery has been shown to reduce muscle soreness in the days following exercise. This may lead to a faster return to peak performance in some physical capabilities such as jump height.

Active recovery can involve stretching.
fatir29/Shutterstock

But, active recovery does not appear to reduce post-exercise inflammation. While this may sound like a bad thing, it’s not.

Post-exercise inflammation can promote increases in strength and fitness after exercise. And so when it’s reduced (say, by using ice baths after exercise) this can lead to smaller training improvements than would be seen otherwise.

This means active recovery can be used regularly after exercise without the risk of affecting the benefits of the main exercise session.

There’s evidence to the contrary too

Not all research on active recovery is positive.

Several studies indicate it’s no better than simply lying on the couch when it comes to reducing muscle soreness and improving performance after exercise.

In fact, there’s more research suggesting active recovery doesn’t have an effect than research showing it does have an effect.

While there could be several reasons for this, two stand out.

First, the way in which active recovery is applied in the research varies as lot. It’s likely there is a sweet spot in terms of how long active recovery should last to maximise its benefits (more on this later).

Second, it’s likely the benefits of active recovery are trivial to small. As such, they won’t always be considered “significant” in the scientific literature, despite offering potentially meaningful benefits at an individual level. In sport science, studies often have small sample sizes, which can make it hard to see small effects.

But there doesn’t seem to be any research suggesting active recovery is less effective than doing nothing, so at worst it certainly won’t cause any harm.

When is active recovery useful?

Active recovery appears useful if you need to perform multiple bouts of exercise within a short time frame. For example, if you were in a tournament and had 10–20 minutes between games, then a quick active recovery would be better than doing nothing.

Active recovery might also be a useful strategy if you have to perform exercise again within 24 hours after intense activity.

For example, if you are someone who plays sport and you need to play games on back-to-back days, doing some low-intensity active recovery after each game might help reduce soreness and improve performance on subsequent days.

Similarly, if you are training for an event like a marathon and you have a training session the day after a particularly long or intense run, then active recovery might get you better prepared for your next training session.

Conversely, if you have just completed a low-to-moderate intensity bout of exercise, it’s unlikely active recovery will offer the same benefits. And if you will get more than 24 hours of rest between exercise sessions, active recovery is unlikely to do much because this will probably be long enough for your body to recover naturally anyway.

Active recovery may be useful for people with back-to-back sporting commitments.
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock

How to get the most out of active recovery

The good news is you don’t have to do a lot of active recovery to see a benefit.

A systematic review looking at the effectiveness of active recovery across 26 studies found 6–10 minutes of exercise was the sweet spot when it came to enhancing recovery.

Interestingly, the intensity of exercise didn’t seem to matter. If it was within this time frame, it had a positive effect.

So it makes sense to make your active recovery easy (because why would you make it hard if you don’t have to?) by keeping it in the light-to-moderate intensity range.

However, don’t expect active recovery to be a complete game changer. The research would suggest the benefits are likely to be small at best. Läs mer…

You may have noticed that changes in weight are sometimes accompanied by changes in your period.

But what does one really have to do with the other?

Maintaining a healthy weight is key to regular menstruation. Here’s why – and when to talk to your doctor.

The role of hormones

The menstrual cycle – including when you bleed and ovulate – is regulated by a balance of hormones, particularly oestrogen.

The ovaries are connected to the brain through a hormonal signalling system. This acts as a kind of “chain of command” of hormones controlling the menstrual cycle.

The brain produces a key hormone, called the gonadotropin-releasing hormone, in the hypothalamus. It stimulates the release of other hormones which tell the ovaries to produce oestrogen and release a mature egg (ovulation).

But the release of the gonadotropin-releasing hormone depends on oestrogen levels and how much energy is available to the body. Both of these are closely related to body weight.

Oestrogen is primarily produced in the ovaries, but fat cells also produce oestrogen. This is why weight – and more specifically body fat – can affect menstruation.

Fat cells produce oestrogen, a hormone with a key role in the menstrual cycle.
Halfpoint/Shutterstock

Can being underweight affect my period?

The body prioritises conserving energy. When reserves are low it stops anything non-essential, such as reproduction.

This can happen when you are underweight, or suddenly lose weight. It can also happen to people who undertake intense exercise or have inadequate nutrition.

The stress sends the hypothalamus into survival mode. As a result, the body lowers its production of the hormones important to ovulation, including oestrogen, and stops menstruation.

Being chronically underweight means not having enough energy available to support reproduction, which can lead to menstrual irregularities including amenorrhea (no periods at all).

This results in very low oestrogen levels and can cause potentially serious health risks, including infertility and bone loss.

Missing periods is not always a cause for concern. But a chronic lack of energy availability can be, if not addressed. The two are linked, meaning understanding your period and being aware of any prolonged changes is important.

How about being overweight?

Higher body fat can elevate oestrogen levels.

When you’re overweight your body stores extra energy in fat cells, which produce oestrogen and other hormones and can cause inflammation in the body. So, if you have a lot of fat cells, your body produces an excess of these hormones. This can affect normal functioning of the uterus lining (endometrium).

Excess oestrogen and inflammation can interfere in the feedback system to the brain and stop ovulation. As a result, you may have irregular or missed periods.

It can also lead to pain (dysmenorrhea) and heavier bleeding (menorrhagia).

Being overweight can sometimes worsen premenstrual syndrome as well. One study found for every 1 kg increase in height (m²) in body mass index (BMI), the risk of premenstrual syndrome went up by 3%. Women with a BMI over 27.5 kg/m² had a much higher risk than those with a BMI under 20 kg/m².

Read more:
What is premenstrual dysphoric disorder? And how is it different to PMS?

What else might be going on?

Sometimes weight changes are linked to hormonal balances that indicate an underlying condition.

For example, people with polycystic ovary syndrome may gain weight or find it hard to lose weight because they have a hormonal imbalance, including higher levels of testosterone.

The syndrome is also associated with irregular periods and heavy bleeding. So, if you notice these symptoms, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor.

Similarly, weight changes and irregular periods in midlife might signal the start of perimenopause, the period before menopause (when your periods stop altogether).

Changes in weight and your period could be a sign of menopause approaching.
Sabrina Bracher/Shutterstock

When should I worry?

Small changes in when your period comes or how long it lasts are usually harmless.

Similarly, slight fluctuations in weight won’t usually have a significant impact on your period – or the changes may be so subtle you don’t notice them.

But regular menstruation is an important marker of female health. Sometimes changes in flow, regularity or the pain you experience can indicate there’s something else going on.

If you notice changes and they don’t feel right to you, speak to a health care provider. Läs mer…

Archaeologists in Egypt have made an exciting discovery: the tomb of Pharaoh Thutmose II, a ruler who has long been overshadowed by his famous wife and half-sister, Queen Hatshepsut.

The remarkable find is located in the Western Valley (a burial ground for queens rather than kings), near the complex of Deir el-Bahari, which houses the funerary temple of Hatshepsut. Both of us worked together as archaeologists at this spectacular site some 15 years ago.

Thutmose II’s tomb has been labelled the first, and biggest, discovery of a royal tomb since Tutankhamun’s tomb was found just over 100 years ago.

Despite being totally empty, it’s a crucial element in further understanding a transformative period in ancient Egyptian history.

The tomb of King Thutmose II was recently discovered by a joint British-Egyptian archaeological mission.
EPA/Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities

Hatshepsut’s forgotten brother and husband

Thutmose II (also called Akheperenre) reigned in the first half of the 15th century BCE. This made him the fourth ruler of the 18th Egyptian Dynasty, which marked the beginning of the New Kingdom period.

Thutmose II likely ruled for a little over ten years, although some scholars believe his reign may have lasted only three years.

He was the son of a great pharaoh Thutmose I and his lesser wife, Mutnofret. He married his half-sister Queen Hatshepsut according to the royal custom, to solidify the rule and bloodline. Together they had a daughter named Nefrure.

Thutmose II’s mummy was discovered in 1881 but his original tomb was unknown until now.
Wikimedia

Upon his death, his wife Hatshepsut became the sixth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty – and arguably one of the most famous and successful female rulers of all time.

Military activities

As the successor of Thutmose I, Thutmose II continued his father’s military policy in the southern regions of Egypt.

According to preserved inscriptions, he ordered the brutal suppression of a rebellion against Egyptian rule in the land of Kush (in present-day north Sudan). As a result, a significant number of prisoners were brought to Egypt – possibly as part of a campaign.

But Thutmose II’s military campaigns were minor in comparison to the grand conquests of his predecessors and successors. Most historians believe he was a weak ruler and that Hatshepsut had a major role in governing the country, even long before his death. However, others contest this.

Thutmose II’s short reign left modest traces of building activity in Karnak, one of the largest religious centres in ancient Egypt, located in present-day Luxor.

The structure, of which only fragments survive, features a unique decoration depicting Thutmose II, Hatshepsut as his royal wife before she became a ruler, and their daughter Nefrure. The origins of the monument are uncertain. It’s possible Thutmose II started it and Hatshepsut finished it.

The monument was reconstructed by French researchers and can now be admired at the Open Air Museum in Karnak.

Karnak is one of the most important religious centres in Ancient Egypt.
Katarzyna Kapiec

Other monuments of Thutmose II were found in the southern regions of Egypt, such as in Elephantine, in the city of Aswan, and in northern Sudan (likely connected to his military campaigns).

The condemnation of Hatshepsut’s memory

Interestingly, the name of Thutmose II became strongly associated with many of Hatshepsut’s constructions due to the actions of Thutmose III.

Regarded as one of the greatest warriors, military commanders and military strategists of all time, Thutmose III was the nephew and stepson of Hatshepsut, and co-ruled with her as a regent.

At the end of Thutmose III’s reign, some 20 years after Hatshepsut’s death, he carried out a large-scale campaign to remove or alter Hatshepsut’s names and images. Scholars call this “damnatio memoriae”, or condemnation of the memory.

An example of Hatshepsut’s ‘damnatio memoriae’ at Deir el-Bahari. Hatshepsut’s cartouches (left) were defaced, while Thutmose III’s (right) remained untouched.
Wikimedia

This was likely due to concerns about securing the throne for his successor, Amenhotep II, by linking him to his male ancestors.

In many cases, Hatshepsut’s name was replaced with that of Thutmose II, making him the principal celebrant in temples built by Hatshepsut, such as in Deir el-Bahari.

View at the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari at the dawn.
Katarzyna Kapiec

What does Thutmose II’s empty tomb tell us?

The newly discovered tomb reveals fresh details about the status of Thutmose II and his role in the sociopolitical structure of 15th century BCE Egypt – a period of territorial expansion, wealth and political intrigue. It also sheds light on the perception of his rule at the time.

Thutmose II has been painted as an ineffectual ruler. And the latest findings don’t contradict this.

Unlike his father Thutmose I, who expanded Egypt’s reign through military strength, or his stepson Thutmose III, who became one of the most famous Egyptian warrior-kings, his modest tomb suggests his legacy may not have been as widely celebrated as others in his dynasty.

The tomb’s location is also intriguing, as it is near the tombs of royal wives, including the cliff tomb of Hatshepsut, which was prepared for her when she was still a royal wife.

Thutmose II’s mummy was discovered in the so-called Royal Cache in Deir el-Bahari in 1881, alongside other royal mummies. Many royal mummies were relocated here for protection from flooding and during the uncertain times of the 21st Dynasty (circa 1077–950 BCE), some 400–500 years after Thutmose II’s original burial.

However, experts suspect Thutmose II’s tomb might have been emptied even earlier due to flooding from a waterfall above it.

The two of us speculate another tomb may have been built for him, and is still awaiting discovery.

An 1881 photograph of some of the coffins and mummies found in DB320, taken before the mummies were unwrapped.
Wikimedia

Ultimately, Thutmose II’s reign remains shrouded in mystery due to the lack of available records. The search for his tomb – from Western Valley, through the Valley of the Kings, all the way to Deir el-Bahari – spanned centuries.

Despite its poorly preserved state, and its scarcity compared with Tutankhamun’s splendorous tomb, this discovery will expand our understanding of the overlooked figure of Thutmose II, and the role he played in setting up the reign of Hatshepsut – arguably the most successful of the four female pharaohs.

In fact, paving the way for the ascent of Hatshepsut may have been his greatest contribution. Läs mer…