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In general, death is a taboo subject. Nobody teaches us how to look after a dying person, and we also ignore or overlook the fact that caring for someone at the end of their life gives us a chance to reflect on the limits of our own existence.

When a patient is facing a serious illness, fear and a sense of abandonment can often make them feel profoundly cut off from the rest of the world. For this reason, it is crucial that they have people around them who are willing and able to look after them. We all know that one day it could be us, or a loved one, who needs to be eased through their suffering.

This is where palliative care comes in, a field that supplements curative medicine with care and support.

12 October marked World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, which invited us to reflect on the on this field’s significance, and on the advances made since the World Health Assembly passed resolution 67.19 in 2014, which urged countries to include it in their health services.

A holistic and multidisciplinary approach

Palliative care improves quality of life for patients and families dealing with chronic or terminal illnesses by relieving pain and other physical symptoms, as well as providing psychological, social and even spiritual support. It can be provided at any stage of illness and in conjunction with curative treatments, helping patients to live actively until the end.

Collaboration between the family and the palliative care team ensures that all the needs of the sick person – be they physical, social, emotional and spiritual – are met. It also addresses the needs of those close to the patient – bereavement support begins even before the loss, helping family members to cope with grief.

This holistic and interdisciplinary approach is essential to alleviating suffering, and providing a feeling of safety and trust.

10 years of progress, but still a long way to go

In 2014, the World Health Organisation highlighted the need to include palliative care in health policies and to improve access to essential medicines such as morphine. It also stressed the importance of training health professionals in palliative care and promoting research to improve the quality of services.

In the ten years since, major progress has been made, although significant challenges remain. In many countries, awareness of pain care has increased and training programmes have been developed, improving the quality of care. Access to basic pain relief drugs has also been made easier.

However, globally, only 14% of people in need of palliative care receive it, with very pronounced inequalities in low and middle income countries.

Restrictive regulation of morphine and other medicines remains an obstacle, and lack of both financial and human resources limits many countries’ ability to provide quality services.

How can palliative care be improved around the world?

Governments need to develop national policies and strategies that integrate palliative care into their health systems, creating legal frameworks that facilitate access at all levels. Training of health professionals, both through ongoing education and in medical and nursing degrees, is also essential.

Ensuring access to medicines such as morphine is crucial, and restrictive regulations need to be reviewed and modified. In addition to physical symptom management, palliative care needs to include psychosocial and spiritual support for both patients and families.

Lastly, it is also vital to raise public awareness through advocacy and education campaigns. Implementing all these steps will ensure accessible and quality palliative care.

How can you and I help?

As much of the world’s population ages and the burden of non-communicable diseases increases, the need for palliative care will continue to grow.

To meet this need, we have to build community networks that are aware of the value of care, and that collaborate with local organisations and train volunteers to provide accompaniment for those in need of palliative care. This will help to create caring and compassionate communities that improve the quality of life for patients and their families.

In addition to laws and government decisions, numerous initiatives have emerged to address this need. For instance, Pallium Latin America promotes training in palliative care and supports health professionals in their work throughout the region. Initiatives such as Pallium Canada and the Pallium Project in Spain train non-specialists to integrate palliative care into health systems, enabling quicker and more comprehensive access.

Other organisations, such as Pallium India and the New Health Foundation in Spain, mobilise communities to provide care and support for people with advanced or chronic diseases.

While considerable progress has been made, many challenges still remain. Three out of four people will require access to palliative care during their lifetime, meaning palliative care is, quite literally, everyone’s business. Läs mer…

In general, death is a taboo subject. Nobody teaches us how to look after a dying person, and we also ignore or overlook the fact that caring for someone at the end of their life gives us a chance to reflect on the limits of our own existence.

When a patient is facing a serious illness, fear and a sense of abandonment can often make them feel profoundly cut off from the rest of the world. For this reason, it is crucial that they have people around them who are willing and able to look after them. We all know that one day it could be us, or a loved one, who needs to be eased through their suffering.

This is where palliative care comes in, a field that supplements curative medicine with care and support.

12 October marked World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, which invited us to reflect on the on this field’s significance, and on the advances made since the World Health Assembly passed resolution 67.19 in 2014, which urged countries to include it in their health services.

A holistic and multidisciplinary approach

Palliative care improves quality of life for patients and families dealing with chronic or terminal illnesses by relieving pain and other physical symptoms, as well as providing psychological, social and even spiritual support. It can be provided at any stage of illness and in conjunction with curative treatments, helping patients to live actively until the end.

Collaboration between the family and the palliative care team ensures that all the needs of the sick person – be they physical, social, emotional and spiritual – are met. It also addresses the needs of those close to the patient – bereavement support begins even before the loss, helping family members to cope with grief.

This holistic and interdisciplinary approach is essential to alleviating suffering, and providing a feeling of safety and trust.

10 years of progress, but still a long way to go

In 2014, the World Health Organisation highlighted the need to include palliative care in health policies and to improve access to essential medicines such as morphine. It also stressed the importance of training health professionals in palliative care and promoting research to improve the quality of services.

In the ten years since, major progress has been made, although significant challenges remain. In many countries, awareness of pain care has increased and training programmes have been developed, improving the quality of care. Access to basic pain relief drugs has also been made easier.

However, globally, only 14% of people in need of palliative care receive it, with very pronounced inequalities in low and middle income countries.

Restrictive regulation of morphine and other medicines remains an obstacle, and lack of both financial and human resources limits many countries’ ability to provide quality services.

How can palliative care be improved around the world?

Governments need to develop national policies and strategies that integrate palliative care into their health systems, creating legal frameworks that facilitate access at all levels. Training of health professionals, both through ongoing education and in medical and nursing degrees, is also essential.

Ensuring access to medicines such as morphine is crucial, and restrictive regulations need to be reviewed and modified. In addition to physical symptom management, palliative care needs to include psychosocial and spiritual support for both patients and families.

Lastly, it is also vital to raise public awareness through advocacy and education campaigns. Implementing all these steps will ensure accessible and quality palliative care.

How can you and I help?

As much of the world’s population ages and the burden of non-communicable diseases increases, the need for palliative care will continue to grow.

To meet this need, we have to build community networks that are aware of the value of care, and that collaborate with local organisations and train volunteers to provide accompaniment for those in need of palliative care. This will help to create caring and compassionate communities that improve the quality of life for patients and their families.

In addition to laws and government decisions, numerous initiatives have emerged to address this need. For instance, Pallium Latin America promotes training in palliative care and supports health professionals in their work throughout the region. Initiatives such as Pallium Canada and the Pallium Project in Spain train non-specialists to integrate palliative care into health systems, enabling quicker and more comprehensive access.

Other organisations, such as Pallium India and the New Health Foundation in Spain, mobilise communities to provide care and support for people with advanced or chronic diseases.

While considerable progress has been made, many challenges still remain. Three out of four people will require access to palliative care during their lifetime, meaning palliative care is, quite literally, everyone’s business. Läs mer…

Informal settlements in Africa are diverse. Across regions and even in the same city, socioeconomic and physical conditions vary. One thing is common though: upgrading them is a challenge.

Among the challenges are issues of including people, having enough funding and sustaining improvements. That’s why attention is shifting to community driven development. This concept refers to local interventions that are started or led by community groups with support from the local government, private or civil society organisations.

Community driven development has gained support from international agencies such as the World Bank. The World Bank Group is estimated to have invested about US$30 billion in projects like this across 94 countries.

These initiatives are considered more affordable, efficient and durable. Communities often contribute local resources and labour, and residents can learn skills from service providers which enable them to manage projects in the long term. When residents work together it can also strengthen bonds and build social capital. Social capital generally refers to the ties, bonds, relationships and trust found in a community. It is an important resource in informal settlements.

We are a group of urban and development planners who examined the role of social capital in community driven development in urban Ghana.

We conducted our study in the Abese Quarter (La township) and Old Tulaku communities, in the Greater Accra metropolitan area. These are both informal settlements but have different social characters.

Our findings highlight the need for local governments to tailor development to the social context of informal settlements. Development planning institutions should use the networks already present in communities, as well as providing external help and resources.

The research

Our analysis was based on questionnaire responses from 300 residents of informal settlements in Greater Accra. Abese Quarter is what we call an indigenous settlement. It it composed of residents from the local Ga ethnic group with similar cultural practices. Old Tulaku is a migrant settlement. It includes a mix of residents originally from other regions in Ghana who moved to Accra in search of economic opportunities.

We observed community water and sanitation projects planned and carried out by local residents.

In doing so, we considered the role of two types of social capital: bonding and bridging.

Bonding social capital deals with the personal relationships between individuals based on shared identity. It’s about family, close companionship, culture and ethnicity. Bridging social capital refers to the connection between people and external groups.

In the indigenous settlement, bonding social capital had a positive influence on community driven development. Bridging social capital showed a negative relationship with it. For example, the public toilet in the community was in a deplorable state. This seemed to be explained by an inability to build wider connections outside the community to get the support needed. We reason that socially homogeneous communities tend to generate inward-looking networks that limit access to resources from beyond the group. Overemphasis on social ties can impede long-term community development.

In the migrant informal settlement, our research revealed the opposite. Without shared identities (like ethnicity, language and social norms), migrant residents drew on shared challenges and goals. They organised and built connections to get support from businesses and donors for community projects.

Our research reinforces the argument that the relationship between social capital and community-driven development of informal settlements is not straightforward. The social character of the settlement, be it indigenous or migrant, produces different outcomes.

Bonding and bridging social capital

Informal settlements are often neglected by local government and planning authorities. In such poor conditions, social connections influence the local capacity to carry out improvement projects.

Typically, high levels of bonding social capital are seen to promote collective action in communities that share similar social and cultural norms and practices. However, the long term benefits of such projects may require building partnerships with external support organisations and service providers.

Bridging social capital goes beyond shared identities. It fosters connection between people and external organisations.

Generally, community-driven development success is greatest when both forms of social capital are high and used together. For instance, in the Ubungo Darajani informal settlement in Kinondoni Municipality in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, landholders relied on both to secure land for community development.

What next?

Local government and community-based organisations should harness the different forms of social capital for development.

Policymakers can learn from the creative and innovative ways that informal communities solve problems. This could help improve informal settlements equitably and sustainably.

Beatrice Eyram Afi Ziorklui, a registered valuer and auditor at the Performance and Special Audit Department of the Ghana Audit Service, was part of the research team and contributed to this article. Läs mer…

News of the passing of South African pastor Ray McCauley on 8 October was met by a flood of tributes from across the spectrum of society, from President Cyril Ramaphosa to everyday worshippers at the Rhema Bible Church. McCauley established the influential church in 1985. It has since attracted a vast and racially mixed profile of worshippers, even during apartheid, an era of white minority rule.

McCauley would become a prominent public figure and his church a space where upwardly mobile South Africans congregated as Pentecostalism spread in the country and, along with it, the prosperity gospel.

As a Pentecostal pastor myself in a previous life and now a theologian who has studied evangelicalism and democracy in South Africa, I reflect here on the passing of McCauley. One of the most prominent Pentecostal pastors in South Africa with an influence that extended into the political arena, his legacy is as remarkable as it is controversial and has many lessons to teach us.

Who was Ray McCauley?

McCauley was born in Johannesburg on 4 October 1949. He had rather a rough childhood, with drinking and gambling problems in the house. At an early age he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his idol, Reg Park, a British bodybuilder and businessman who was Mr Universe in 1965. McCauley dropped out of school early, took up bodybuilding, and made it to the Mr Universe competition in 1974, where he came third.

But he was “left feeling empty” and decided to answer a higher call to the ministry. He became the founder of Rhema Bible Church which is reported to have over 45,000 members. It was an early adopter of televangelism in South Africa, reaching many more people through its broadcasts. While there are bigger churches in the country, Rhema is one of the most influential.

Prosperity

Rhema Bible Church is based in Johannesburg and has satellite congregations around the country. It is part of a global network of churches affiliated with the Rhema Bible Training College in Tulsa in the US, formerly under the leadership of Kenneth Hagin, the “guru” of a theology that is known as the “prosperity” or “health and wealth” gospel.

The 40th anniversary celebration of Rhema Bible Church in Johannesburg.
GCIS/Flickr, CC BY-ND

This doctrine is based on the principle that believers have the divine right to prosper financially, to be healthy, and to be successful in all areas life. McCauley introduced this theology to South Africa in 1979 after two years of study in Tulsa. He became its most successful and articulate exponent in southern Africa. His church was started at his parents’ house, but had to move to progressively bigger premises because of its growth.

There was increasing unrest in the country during the 1980s as the struggle against apartheid grew. The Rhema Bible Church has always been involved in a plethora of outreach programmes aimed at supporting and uplifting communities and addressing social issues. But McCauley was not interested in politics as such until 1990 when the Rustenburg Church Conference took place.

Politics

In 1990 Nelson Mandela had been released and there was great turmoil in the country as it was transitioning towards democracy. Over 230 representatives of a wide spectrum of Christian denominations met in a mining city called Rustenburg to reflect on the role of the church during the apartheid era and beyond.

McCauley, with many others, realised how compromised his church had become under apartheid. It had taken a policy of apolitical non-involvement which amounted to complicity with the regime. He recognised the necessity to confess his guilt and work towards reconciliation and democracy. He became more actively involved in the political transformation of the country.

He was instrumental in establishing the National Religious Leadership Forum to foster unity among the different religious communities and contribute to nation building. This became the Interfaith Leaders Council, which he co-chaired.

McCauley (right) with President Jacob Zuma in 2012.
GCIS/Flickr, CC BY-ND

But his inexperience in this field emerged when Jacob Zuma was campaigning to become president of the country in 2009. Zuma tried to coopt religious leaders because he knew how influential they were. The South African Council of Churches refused his advances but he found the National Religious Leadership Forum far easier to cozy up to. So much so that McCauley invited Zuma to address the Rhema Bible Church just before the elections.

Zuma spoke about how important the church was for giving moral guidance to the nation even though he himself was far from a shining example. Among other things he had been accused of rape and corruption. This was a hugely controversial decision by McCauley. It was suggestive of the fact that the Rhema Bible Church was “the ANC at prayer” and that McCauley could too easily have the wool pulled over his eyes by unscrupulous politicians seeking to enhance their power.

Pastor Ray and a consumerist society

Pastor Ray, as his thousands of followers liked to call him, had a very simple message for people: God loves you and wants what is best for you. In itself there is surely nothing wrong with this. People throughout the history of Christianity have been transformed by this message.

But when it is interpreted as God wants you to be healthy, prosperous and successful then some obvious problems arise. First of all, it raises the question of how does God then see the sick, the poor and the unsuccessful? Secondly, who defines what it means to be prosperous and successful?

The truth is that the doctrine is not adequately able to deal with the issue of pain and suffering as a fact of life. And the default interpretation of what it means to prosper and be successful will be based on the values that are being promoted in the (consumer) society where the message is being preached.

Read more:
Christianity is changing in South Africa as pentecostal and indigenous churches grow – what’s behind the trend

It was speculated that McCauley received a monthly salary of over US$ 5,685 (R100,000) which was decided, presumably by the church leadership, on the basis of a senior executive salary of a medium sized company. He proved to be a shrewd businessman. The Rhema Bible Church had an annual turnover of $5.68 million (R100 million). The level of opulence of McCauley’s lifestyle is demonstrated by his luxury mansion in the beachfront suburb of Umhlanga Rocks in Kwazulu-Natal, right next door to the home of billionaire mining magnate Harry Oppenheimer.

Towards the end of his life he handed the church over to his son Joshua. This merely reinforced the notion that the corporate model was being followed and that the “business” was being inherited by the eldest son.

Reflecting on his legacy

Ray McCauley had an enormous love for South Africa, enormous charisma, and made an enormous impression on many people. But, arguably, he was a little too similar to the scores of powerful “men of God” that are making their presence felt all across Africa.

Surrounded by poverty they live rich lifestyles, drive fancy cars, and wield enormous spiritual power over their credulous followers. They demonstrate that religion in Africa can mean big business for those who know how to scratch where it itches. And this is surely an obscene contradiction of the life and message of Jesus of Nazareth, the founder of Christianity. Läs mer…

If you work in digital marketing, you don’t need to be told a picture’s worth a thousand words. More than half of content marketers say images are crucial for achieving their social media goals, and a staggering 70% of users prefer image-based posts over text, surveys have found.

But which types of visuals work best? While anecdotal evidence abounds, systematic research on this topic is scarce.

As a professor of business who knows the issues social media managers face while picking images for their posts – and who collected thousands of Facebook posts from two organizations in different industries – I saw an opportunity.

Pigments and pixels

Researchers measure color complexity at the pixel level. Images with higher scores have greater color complexity.
Source: Kanuri, Hughes and Hodges.

Together with my colleagues Christian Hughes and Brady Hodges, I looked at what researchers call “color complexity.”

Color complexity is similar to colorfulness, but it’s not quite the same: It’s measured as color variation across pixels in an image, and our brains process it subliminally. The more the brain has to decipher color variations across neighboring pixels, the harder it has to work.

Fortunately, advanced computer vision technology makes it easier than ever to measure color complexity, and biometric eye-tracking makes it possible to see what images grab people’s attention in real time.

We conducted four studies, looking at both real-world Facebook posts from two firms and experimental data using biometric eye-tracking. On the whole, we found that more complex images in social media posts tended to capture greater attention.

However, there were some caveats.

For instance, posts made later in the day and those with images that took up more screen space tended to benefit more from color complexity. This suggests that the timing and visual prominence of posts play a role in maximizing engagement.

In addition, when images were paired with negative, feel-bad text, color complexity made less of a difference.

We also found that pairing images with complex texts can actually strengthen the link between color complexity and user engagement. This surprising finding suggests that more intricate language might encourage people to pay more attention to the images.

The complexities of color

The importance of color in marketing, and its influence on everything from brand perception to purchase intentions, has long been well documented. Much less is known, however, about the role of color complexity in social media engagement. Our research is beginning to fill that gap.

Overall, our findings underscore the importance of strategic image design in social media marketing. They suggest that a nuanced approach to image design, incorporating high color complexity where appropriate, can significantly enhance user engagement.

For marketers and content creators, the implications are clear: Investing in the careful curation of social media images, especially those with high color complexity, can lead to better user engagement. Just be mindful of the timing and context, too. Läs mer…

Religious hate crimes in England and Wales are at record levels. New Home Office statistics reveal that although hate crime overall saw an annual decrease of 5% in the year to March 2024, there was a 25% increase in religious hate crimes.

Hate crimes against Jewish people more than doubled from the previous year, making up 33% of religion-based hate crime in the new figures. Those against Muslims rose by 13%, making up 38% of the total.

There was a sharp increase in reported incidents against both Jewish and Muslim people after the Israel-Hamas conflict began in October 2023. While the total number of offences has since declined, it is still higher than before the conflict began.

These figures reflect police-recorded hate crime, but other organisations also track these incidents. The organisation Tell Mama, which tracks anti-Muslim hate, recorded a 335% increase in cases in the months after October 7 2023 compared to the year before. And the Community Security Trust tracked a 147% rise in anti-Jewish hate in 2023 compared to 2022. Of these incidents, 66% were on or after October 7.

The October 7 attacks are an example of a trigger event that usually precedes a spike in hate crime. These events can “galvanise tensions and sentiments against the suspected perpetrators and groups associated with them”.

Trigger events can be one-off events or last only a short period of time, but the continuing high levels of hate crime that the UK has seen over the past year is still likely due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East.

These trends had been increasing worldwide, and not only since the latest conflict. A UN report in 2021 found that Islamophobia had reached “epidemic proportions”. Additionally, as my colleagues and I have found in our research, such racism is also experienced by a diverse range of ethnic groups and not only Muslims. A rise in antisemitism has been recorded around the world too.

Unreported hate

Not only are the latest statistics in the UK alarming, they are only the tip of the iceberg. As my work on the inquiry into Islamophobia in Scotland found, many incidents go unreported.

We found that many did not report incidents due to concerns about institutional racism in the police and a lack of confidence in policing and in the criminal justice system. Added to this were worries about not having enough evidence, the incident not being “serious enough”, and fear of reprisal. Some even felt that it happened so often that there was “no point” in reporting it.

Anti-Jewish hatred has risen in the UK since October 7 2023.
Shutterstock

The long-term impacts of hate crime are deeply concerning. Victims who experience constant discrimination are likely to experience poor health outcomes and premature ageing.

The rising numbers also promote a culture of fear that can discourage members of ethnic or religious minority groups from participating fully in society.
My colleagues and I have found in our research that Islamophobia and prejudice has stopped some Muslims from participating in politics and going out to socialise.

Encouragingly, however, others chose to become more active in their communities in order to challenge stereotypes about Muslims.

Making prejudice mainstream

In addition to the trigger event of the Israel-Hamas war, there are a number of factors that contribute to rising hate crime, particularly against Muslims.

First is the prevalence of organisations and individuals, including media outlets, online influencers, far-right think-tanks and political figures who promote anti-Muslim messaging and hatred.

The rise of far-right politics around the world plays a role. The election of Donald Trump, as well as
recent electoral gains by Marine Le Pen in France, the Freedom Party in Austria and Reform UK show how such politics are seeping into the mainstream.

But even supposedly centrist politicians spread narratives that contribute to Islamophobia and racism. For example, former prime minister David Cameron decried the failure of multiculturalism and this message was repeated by Suella Braverman when she was home secretary.

This perpetuates the idea that it is not possible for different ethnic and religious groups to live in harmony. I would argue this provides an ideal platform for the promotion of Islamophobia.

Mainstream media outlets and social media also shape the narratives that contribute to a culture of fear around Muslims. High profile acts of religious hatred, such as the atrocities committed by Anders Breivik in Oslo in 2011 or by Brenton Tarrant in Christchurch in 2019, tend to be put down to a “lone wolf” or to be regarded as “fringe incidents”, rather than part of a wider problem to be addressed. Both Breivik and Tarrant promoted white supremacy and were explicitly anti-Muslim.

The spread of inaccurate information on social media has stirred up Islamophobia, antisemitism and racism, and led to violence against migrants. This was seen in the far-right riots in summer 2024 following the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport, near Liverpool.

According to a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a false name and disinformation suggesting the attacker was Muslim reached around 1.7 billion people across several platforms.

The long history of Islamophobia in Britain can be traced back to the response to the 9/11 terror attacks and the “war on terror”. The UK’s counter-terrorism programme Prevent has made life intolerable for Muslims by promoting the idea that all Muslims are potential terrorists and a threat to security.

The obsession with this approach persists internationally despite the existence of several alternatives, yet it urgently needs to be replaced alongside the thinking that supports it.

The result of all this is that Islamophobia has flourished in the UK without being called out by those in power. This must be challenged if we want to see a reduction in racially and religiously motivated hate crime. Läs mer…

The blue blood of threatened horseshoe crabs contains a chemical essential for testing the safety of vaccines. So these ancient creatures are highly sought after by pharmaceutical companies worldwide, contributing to declines in their populations.

While species are disappearing at alarming rates, with a global biodiversity financing gap of US$600 billion to US$800 billion (£460 billion to £610 billion) annually, the genetic information of rare plants and animals is a commercially valuable resource.

Advances in technology now allow the rapid sequencing and sharing of genetic data, bringing huge benefits (and profits) for biotechnology and medicine. However, it also opens the door to “biopiracy”: the unethical or unlawful appropriation of biological resources, typically from countries or Indigenous communities in developing countries.

Even if genetic information is obtained and used appropriately and within the law, important ethical, legal and financial questions still arise: who owns the genetic data derived from nature, and how can we ensure fair sharing of the benefits derived from their use?

A key debate at Cop16, the upcoming UN biodiversity conference, will be how best to channel funding into protecting valuable biological resources. If done properly, people can benefit from the genetic information that nature contains, while ensuring that those conserving these resources, particularly Indigenous people, are properly compensated financially for their efforts.

Our recent paper argues that rules of fair allocation, which have been around since the time of Aristotle, offer a potential way forward.

Genetic information extracted from living organisms can now be easily digitised and shared across borders. This practice, often referred to as digital sequence information (DSI), plays a pivotal role in advancing research in fields such as medicine, agriculture and environmental science.

For example, the genome of the COVID-19 virus was digitally sequenced and shared globally, enabling researchers worldwide to use that DSI to develop vaccines quickly.

Yet, this leads to ethical and legal challenges. The genetic codes of plants and animals from all over the world are stored in international databases, often without proper acknowledgement or compensation to the countries or communities where these sequences originated.

Countries with rich biodiversity, particularly in developing countries, have raised concerns that their genetic resources are being used – and in some cases monetised and commercialised – without approval or fair compensation. Indigenous peoples and local communities have similar concerns.

So, who owns genetic data? It depends.

The ownership of genetic data derived from plants and animals has become a grey area. In theory, countries have sovereignty over their biodiversity, as stipulated in an international agreement adopted in 2010 called the Nagoya protocol. This mandates that countries sharing their biological resources should be compensated through access and benefit-sharing agreements.

Genetic codes of rare plants aren’t currently owned by their country of origin.
Polonio Video/Shutterstock

However, the concept of DSI has complicated these agreements. When genetic data is transformed into a digital format and stored in databases, it is not always clear whether the original country still holds any rights over that data.

Should the digital sequence information of a rare Amazonian plant, for example, belong to the country where it was found, or is it now part of a global commons available to any researcher or commercial entity? Currently, there is no universal agreement on DSI, and with companies and research institutions using genetic data freely, this opens the door to the next wave of biopiracy

Biopiracy has been a historical problem, long before digital data entered the picture. For decades, pharmaceutical and agricultural companies have sourced plant and animal materials from the Amazon rainforest or African savannas. They patented products based on those materials and profited without compensating source countries or Indigenous peoples and local communities who may have used these species for generations.

Now this issue extends beyond physical specimens. The real treasure lies in the genetic information itself. When genetic data is digitised and shared globally, it becomes challenging to trace its origins and hold companies accountable for unauthorised use.

In the absence of benefit-sharing mechanisms (formal ways to share the monetary and non-monetary benefits of using biodiversity with those who bear the costs of conserving it), companies can patent discoveries derived from DSI, with profits flowing to corporations and research institutions in developed countries.

Meanwhile, low-to-middle-income nations that are home to these resources and the communities that protect them do not benefit. We argue this is unjust and contributes towards the continued undervaluation and therefore degradation of biodiversity.

A new genetic code

At Cop16, a potential solution is up for a negotiation: a global system governing the exchange of DSI, including a multilateral fund into which companies which benefit from DSI would contribute.

This fund would be used to pay for action to conserve biodiversity, with a specific priority given to funding for Indigenous peoples and local communities, women and youth. As well as providing compensation for stewardship of the biodiverse ecosystems that contain these genetic resources, funding can be used for training and capacity-building (such as genetic research), which could start to compensate for longstanding inequalities of opportunity that are built into today’s research and commercialisation systems.

Many questions remain as to how this fund would work. That will be negotiated at Cop16. One particular challenge is determining how to implement mechanisms to distribute this fund that are fair, enforceable, and do not overburden countries or companies.

Proposed solutions are grounded in rules of fair allocation. Pharmaceutical companies using DSI could contribute in proportion to their profits or revenues. Beneficiaries could receive payment or other benefits according to criteria such as the levels of biodiversity conserved, threats to biodiversity and financial need.

This multilateral fund could be a major contributor to conservation finance, and one which is directed at those who actually conserve biodiversity on the ground. It has been described as a potentially “historic breakthrough” by the executive secretary of the convention on biological diversity.

But there are still major hurdles to overcome. Big pharma companies are resistant due to the potential financial implications. There has been limited engagement from the conservation community, perhaps because fair sharing of the benefits from genetic materials appears much less immediately pressing than the conservation of wild species and their habitats.

If successful, this could represent a major step towards generating the finance that is desperately needed to support nature conservation. It would set a precedent for similar mechanisms to ensure that those benefiting from using nature pay for the cost of conserving or restoring it – just like bycatch taxes in commercial fisheries or pollution taxes on large agribusinesses.

We believe that this proposal could be revolutionary if it succeeds in channelling large amounts of biodiversity finance to where it is most needed in a fair and equitable way. Genetic data should not only be seen as a resource that generates new drugs and technologies, but as a shared asset of humanity, with the rights and sovereignty of nature’s stewards properly respected and valued.

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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 35,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far. Läs mer…

We’ve all found ourselves trying to avoid the swarms of midges that are so common in late summer. But as you try to avoid them, what you may not know is that they are equally keen to avoid each other.

It’s strange behaviour for creatures that typically move around together. But physicist Andrew Reynolds from research centre Rothamsted Research recently investigated swarms of the non-biting midge Chironomus riparius, and found something very strange happening.

While they may move around in swarms, they do so in a way that ensures they keep their distance from each other. And it might be why, paradoxically, they are so successful at breeding.

Swarming, where animals form large and dense groups, is common in a lot of animals. A lot of us are familiar with the murmuration of starlings at sunset as they dance in the setting sun, for example. In water, animals form shoals, pods and schools. They may vary in their cohesiveness and the species that they contain, but are all essentially different types of swarms.

It helps animals evade predators and gives them safety in numbers. Large numbers of animals in these aggregations make it difficult for predators to single out a target. This is known as the selfish herd effect where animals seek positions towards the centre of a herd, shoal or flock where there’s less risk of being attacked.

Animals sometimes behave differently as part of a bigger system where the animal is interacting with it’s nearest neighbour. Fish for example align themselves and match speed with their nearest neighbour to shoal together and avoid collisions. Birds operate in a similar way.

Social insects such as ants often swarm in the summer, in mate-finding nuptial flights. Locusts defoliate large patches of land before moving on. Some researchers suggest that this social aggregation behaviour is linked to elevated serotonin the locusts get from close contact.

However, in the midge C. riparius we see something different.

Reynold’s research showed that these midges maintain maximum distance from one another. In the lab based models of these midges he studied, the midges are almost, by equal measure attracted to the centre of a swarm, but also away from each other.

Birds in a flock move in the same direction, staying close to one another (positive correlation). But C. riparius midges position themselves apart, so if one moves left, others tend to move right for example (maximal anticorrelation).

The swarms of C. riparus are predominantly for reproductive purposes and they are made up of males. Midges maximise their potential to find a mate by collecting at the same time, in the same place. You could argue that’s how bars and pubs work for humans.

When a female enters the swarm however, and is pursued by a male, the swarm maintains cohesion. The other members of the swarm are still drawn towards her. But this force of attraction is weaker than the negative “impulse” for the males to stay away from each other.

Staying evenly spaced means there is less competition between males. Which means that, as a group, they spend less energy and have more overall mating success.

The repellent effect also has other advantages. When midges are spaced apart in an organised and distributed way, the swarm can collectively respond to disruptions, such as changes in weather or predators, without losing its structure. Because each midge’s relative position to each other is defined by the maximal anticorrelation, a disturbance to one part of the swarm can quickly be compensated by the whole group.

We might learn a thing or two from the midge. In social situations, let’s take a step back, wait our turn, and give each other some space. Don’t interrupt your friend in conversation, don’t barge in at the self-service checkouts in the supermarket… and certainly don’t flirt with your friend’s partner. Läs mer…

Music is woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. Whether it’s lifting our spirits, pushing us to run faster or soothing us to sleep, we can all recognise its power. So it’s no wonder it is increasingly being used in medical treatment.

As well as proving very useful in cancer treatment, managing chronic pain and even helping the brain recover after a stroke, researchers have also been making great strides in using music to help patients with dementia.

It reduces patients’ anxiety and depression, and improves wellbeing both for them and their carers by enhancing everyone’s ability to adapt and cope with adversity or stress.

Music therapy in the form of playing, singing or listening to music can also have a positive effect on cognitive function – particularly for older adults either with dementia or memory issues.

So why does music appear to have such a powerful effect for people with dementia?

Music and the brain

About a decade ago, researchers discovered that when people listened to music, multiple areas of the brain were involved in processing it. These included the limbic (which processes emotions and memory), cognitive (involved with perception, learning and reaction) and motor areas (responsible for voluntary movement). This challenged preconceptions that music was processed more narrowly in the brain – and helped explain why it has such a unique neurological impact.

Not only that, research has shown that music might help regenerate the brain and its connections. Many causes of dementia centre around cell death in the brain, raising the possibility that music could help people with dementia by mending or strengthening damaged neural connections and cells.

Many brain areas are activated when we listen to music.
Toa55/ Shutterstock

It’s not just any music that has a regenerative effect on the brain, though. Familiar and favourite music has been shown to have the biggest impact on the way we feel, and is closely linked with memory and emotions. This is because listening to our favourite songs releases feel-good hormones that give us a sense of pleasure. Curated music playlists of favourite music could be the key in helping us deal with the stress of everyday life.

This is relevant to Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia because researchers have discovered that parts of the brain linked with musical memories are less affected by these conditions than other areas of the brain. This explains why memories and experiences that are linked to favourite music are often preserved for people with such conditions.

Listening to music can also help manage their experiences of distress, agitation and “sundowning” – where a person is more confused in the afternoon and evening.

In a small study conducted by us and our colleagues at the Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research, we showed just how great of an effect listening to music can have for people with dementia. We found that when people with dementia repeatedly listened to their favourite music, their heart rate and movements changed in direct response.

This showed that people’s physical responses were affected by musical features like rhythm and arrangement. Their heart rate also changed when they sang along to music, or when they began reminiscing about old memories or stories while listening to a song or thinking about the music. These changes are important because they show how music affects movement, emotions and memory recall.

Studies have also shown that during and after listening to music, people with dementia experienced less agitation, aggression and anxiety, and their general mood was improved. They even needed less medication when they had regular music sessions.

Read more:
Why researchers are turning to music as a possible treatment for stroke, brain injuries and even Parkinson’s

Other researchers have even begun testing the effects of music training programmes to support cognition for people with dementia. Results have been promising so far – with adults in the study showing improved executive functioning (problem solving, emotion regulation and attention) compared to those who took part in just physical exercise.

So, music is likely to continue to be a useful medical treatment for people with dementia. But based on what we know so far, it’s important that it comes from the patient’s own music collection – and is used alongside other management techniques such as using drugs that can slow the progression of dementia or help manage symptoms to support self-care and wellbeing. Läs mer…