Rochester Public Schools superintendent removes book from elementary library shelves citing nudity

Arts & Culture, Books

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Rochester Public Schools (RPS) Superintendent Kent Pekel ordered a book be removed from elementary school media center open shelves, in a memo dated January 3, 2025.Pekel’s recommendation was discussed at RPS’s board meeting on January 7. His recommendation came despite the review committee voting 9-1 in favor of keeping the book on the shelves.Pekel said in the meeting and his memo his decision to remove The Rainbow Parade, written by Emily Neilson, is “based solely upon the depiction and celebration of public nudity in illustrations on two pages of the book. I believe that the depiction of public nudity makes the book inappropriate for the open shelves of a media center in an elementary school where students as young as kindergarten can access the book without adult supervision or guidance.”The district’s lawyer also looked over district policy and state law to affirm Pekel could make this decision, according to the memo.The topic was originally part of the consent agenda of the meeting, but was later removed so the board could discuss it separately, which caused several outbursts from viewers in the crowd.School board member Karen McLaughlin asked Pekel to reconsider his stance on the issue, following the committee’s 9-1 vote in favor of keeping the book.Jean Marvin said during the meeting she feels that having LGBTQ+ books in libraries are important, but, “with the plethora of other books about gay rights and celebrating LGBTQ [people], I’m not sure that this one is in particular is meaningful enough that we really, really have to fight for it.” After an outburst from a community member, Marvin did note she was worried this decision “could be precedent setting.”In the meeting, you can hear a community member say the decision would be precedent setting and they were [at the meeting] to “not let that happen.”[embedded content]In a letter to the school board, dated December 16, 2024, Tammy Van Moer, the licensed media specialist for the Franklin and Montessori at Franklin Elementary School, said she bought the book for the library on March 15, 2023.In her letter that asked for the book to stay on the shelves, Van Moer said, “there has been a need for authentic texts written by the LGBTQ+ community about their authentic experiences. This book fills that need… The interest level and appropriateness is for children from preschool through grade 3 as determined by the reviewers and publishers of this book and the aforementioned book review companies.”According to the letter, a first grade student checked out the book in February of 2024. The parent of the student was reading the story with their child and became concerned about some of the illustrations in the book. Eventually, Pekel recommended the book be reconsidered by the review committee, made up of a secondary student, teachers, library media specialists and equity specialists, to see if they think the book is suitable for an elementary school library. On December 10, 2024, Pekel asked the book to be removed from the shelves.In his memo, Pekel continued, “Importantly, I want to make it very clear that I am not directing the removal of the book because it focuses on the experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. I strongly support inclusion of books that introduce students to and celebrate the lives and experiences of LGBTQ people in our libraries and our classrooms.”He continued, “That said, being nude in public is not a fundamental aspect of living life as an LGBTQ person in our country today. As such, my decision to remove the remove the book from the shelves of one of our elementary school libraries does not constitute denial or diminishment of the life experience of LGBTQ people in any way. It is simply a reflection of my conclusion that the nudity depicted in the book is inappropriate for placement on the open shelves of a library where students as young as five and six years of age can pick up the book.”Both the Rochester Public Library and Rochester Pride disagree with the decision.In a letter sent by the Rochester Pride Board of Directors to Pekel disagreeing with the statement, the board said, “While Dr. Pekel’s memo expresses support for including books that celebrate LGBTQIA+ lives; the removal of The Rainbow Parade contradicts that statement. It sends a message that LGBTQIA+ representation is acceptable only when it conforms to specific, narrow standards deemed “appropriate” by a single individual, effectively silencing certain voices and experiences.”In the letter sent by the Rochester Public Library, the letter said, “While public nudity is not intrinsic to the LGBTQIA2S+ experience, it is a form of self-expression that is visibly present at Pride parades and events across the country. We would argue that basing your decision to ban the book “solely upon the depiction and celebration of public nudity” is restricting access to a viewpoint. Other children’s titles contain similar, innocent depictions of nudity and are considered classics in children’s literature. The nudity depicted in the pages of The Rainbow Parade is subtle and an insignificant portion of the work as a whole… Not all books are for all families, but every book is for some families.”In a post on X on Saturday, Pekel doubled down on his decision saying, “I removed a book from the open shelves of an elementary school library based on the depiction of nudity because that’s not a viewpoint or idea. I think that standard is sufficient…”The Rochester Public Schools Board has a study session on Tuesday, while the Rochester Public Library plans to discuss the topic on Wednesday.You can find more information about The Rainbow Parade by Emily Neilson on the publisher’s website by clicking here.Find stories like this and more, in our apps.Copyright 2025 KTTC. All rights reserved.

Eight Gatton Academy students selected as KJAS Delegates for 2025 American Junior Academy of Science

Science and Health

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – Sixteen students from The Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science at Western Kentucky University presented their research in Frankfort at the Kentucky Junior Academy of Science (KJAS) meeting. According to the release, 50 students from across the state presented their research through KJAS. 11 of those students were chosen to be delegates for the 2025 American Junior Academy of Science (AJAS) conference held in Boston, Massachusetts, in February. Eight of those 11 students who will represent the state at AJAS are from The Gatton Academy. The students who presented are listed below: Aanyaa Arora (’25, Greenwood High School)Presented “Investigating the Regulation of Cell Cycle and Shape by the Polarity Proteins and the Mitotic Exit Network in Yeast” in cellular and molecular biology. Arora is mentored by WKU faculty Dr. Joseph Marquardt in the Department of Biology.Asa Ashley (’25, Bowling Green High School)Presented “Relativistic Fermion Dynamics in Noncommutative Space-Time: The Fuzzy Dirac Equation” in physics and astronomy. Ashley is mentored by WKU faculty Dr. Tony Simpao in the Department of Physics & Astronomy.Ava Blackledge (’25, Rowan County Senior High School) Presented “Functional Characterization of a Bacteriophage Gene Product That is Toxic to Mycobacterium smegmatis” in cellular and molecular biology. Blackledge is mentored by WKU faculty Dr. Rodney King in the Department of Biology.Katie Isaacs (’25, University Heights Academy) Presented “Enhancing Photon Detection for Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering at the Electron-Ion Collider” in physics and astronomy. Isaacs is mentored by University of Kentucky faculty Dr. Renee Fatemi in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.Youngwoo Kim (’26, Model Laboratory School) Presented “The Role of K2P Channels in Cellular Membrane Potential: The Goldman-Hodgkin-Katz Equation Approach” in health sciences. Kim is mentored by University of Kentucky faculty Dr. Robin Cooper in the Department of Biology.Varshith Kotagiri (’25, Western Hills High School)Presented “Developing a Novel Fluorescent Sensor for Detecting Analytes in an Aqueous Medium” in chemistry. Kotagiri is mentored by WKU faculty Dr. Lei Li in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.Sydney Putnam (’25, Mercer County Senior High School)Presented “V-type ATPase’s Role in Drosophila melanogaster Air Sac Primordium Development” in cellular and molecular biology. Putnam is mentored by WKU faculty Dr. Ajay Srivastava in the Department of Biology.Daniel Thelen (’25, Corbin High School)Presented “Quantitative Analysis of Geochemistry and Flow Dynamics in the Great Onyx Groundwater Basin, Mammoth Cave National Park” in geology. Thelen is mentored by Lee Ann Bledsoe, Associate Director of the Crawford Hydrology Lab at WKU.Copyright 2025 WBKO. All rights reserved.

The best movies of 2024 according to you, the audience

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

As we dive deeper into January — 2024 gets further and further away. We can’t wait to see what the New Year brings, but we’re human, and we can’t help but look back — as one would on a great vacation, a promotion at work, a wonderful family memory. But also to take inventory of missed opportunities and take advantage of new ones in 2025.2024 had plenty of movies … including blockbusters, indie favorites, and sequels galore. There are a lot of lists out there of people telling you their favorite movies of the year, but I don’t want to do that, and my guess is you don’t really care what my favorites are. (Well, maybe those of you who love to argue with me would so you have some fresh fodder, but you few are going to have to wait).This, however, is about what audiences thought were the best of the year, using box office numbers and audience ratings.While it is not a perfect science, I think what audiences think is much more important than what critics think. That is coming from a guy who has been doing movie reviews for more than a decade. I love movies, but if I’m being honest, too many critics miss the point of a movie: to entertain. Sure, some films are so beautifully crafted and artfully orchestrated that they can be borderline boring while also utterly brilliant. But I have seen too many critics rip a movie apart because it prioritized a fun trip to the theater over trying to earn prestigious and ultimately meaningless awards.A movie doesn’t earn a sequel or endless rewatches at home because it’s a best-picture winner. It earns that when it makes a killing at the theater, and the studio wants to extend the franchise for more of that cash.My point is, I can’t tell you what the best movies of 2024 were because my list will be different from yours. What I can tell you, however, is what movies made the most at the box office and which movies audiences ranked as their favorites.It should come as no surprise the most popular with critics were not the most popular with audiences.First up, we have the top 10 highest-grossing movies of 2024, based on domestic box office gross, not worldwide. You’ll see the total amount made, the critic and audience score from Rotten Tomatoes, as well as the rating on IMDb.Rotten Tomatoes critic scores are an average of all Rotten Tomatoes’ approved critics. The audience score is based on users on the site. The IMDb score is calculated on a scale from 1 to 10 — 1 being the lowest — and it is aggregated from users on the site and not critics.Highest grossing”Inside Out 2″$652,980,194Critic score: 91%Audience score: 95%IMDb rating: 7.6″Deadpool & Wolverine”$636,742,741Critic score: 78%Audience score: 94%IMDb rating: 7.6″Wicked”$451,338,955Critic score: 88%Audience score: 95%IMDb rating: 7.8″Moana 2″$426,189,996Critic score: 61%Audience score: 86%IMDb rating: 7.0″Despicable Me 4″$361,004,205Critic score: 56%Audience score: 87%IMDb rating: 6.2″Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”$294,097,060Critic score: 76%Audience score: 79%IMDb rating: 6.7″Dune: Part Two”$282,144,358Critic score: 92%Audience score: 95%IMDb rating: 8.5″Twisters”$267,762,265Critic score: 75%Audience score: 90%IMDb rating: 6.5″Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire”$196,350,016Critic score: 54%Audience score: 90%IMDb rating: 6.1″Kung Fu Panda 4″$193,590,620Critic score: 71%Audience score: 85%IMDb rating: 6.3There are a few things to consider when it comes to box office numbers.First, you’ll see a lot of animated and family films on the list, and that is because box office numbers are an indicator that audiences and moviegoers like family fare — but think about how many tickets you’re selling to one family for “Inside Out 2” compared to “Gladiator II.” The former will attract mom, dad and all the kids. Then maybe the kids loved it, and now aunt or uncle or grandma or grandpa want to take the kids again. Naturally, more tickets can be sold for family films. The latter is for a more mature audience, so “Gladiator II” making nearly $170 million, domestically, is impressive when you think about how narrow the audience is compared to “Inside Out 2,” even though the animated movie made nearly six times more.This is not me trying to say “Gladiator II” was a better movie than “Inside Out 2,” but rather that we can’t completely go off box office numbers to judge the “best” movie of the year.Rotten Tomatoes critic bestsLet’s look at the highest-ranked movies, according to Rotten Tomatoes critics. Are these the best movies of the year? I don’t think so … and many of you likely won’t, either, but this is according to critics, and we’re always right … right?Along with the title of the films, the following are the Rotten Tomatoes critic and audience scores.”All We Imagine as Light”Critic: 100%Audience: 74%”Nowhere Special”Critic: 100%Audience: 94%”Girls Will Be Girls”Critic: 100%Audience: N/A”On Becoming a Guinea Fowl”Critic: 100%Audience: N/A”Laroy, Texas”Critic: 100%Audience: 67%”Ghostlight”Critic: 99%Audience: 92%”Thelma”Critic: 98%Audience: 83%”His Three Daughters”Critic: 98%Audience: 84%”Robot Dreams”Critic: 98%Audience: 89%”Good One”Critic: 98%Audience: 70%Don’t feel left out if you have not heard of most of these titles. Most of them are low-budget fare. I have not seen most of them myself, but I love this list because it can introduce me to something not on my radar, maybe even ending up being a wonderful surprise.One last thing to note is that since these movies did not see a big, worldwide release, the critic sample size is likely much smaller than bigger movies. Meaning the high score should not be ignored, but the score may not be quite so high if more critics were voting. For example, “All We Imagine as Light” has a 100% critic score with 128 reviews. “Wicked,” on the other hand, was a big release and has a critic score of 88% with 374 reviews.Top audience scoresNow, for the audience scores. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that none of the titles on the critics’ list made it to the audience list. Again, a lot of the audience picks had big marketing bucks behind them, while the critic picks did not. It also, however, shows there is a discrepancy between many of the critics and the moviegoing public. These are not necessarily the highest-rated audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes for all 2024 movies, but they are a good representation.It is interesting to note audience and critic numbers are not too far off. Both camps more or less agree the following 2024 movies were fantastic.”c”Audience: 99%Critic: 84%”The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”Audience: 97%Critic: 92%”The Wild Robot”Audience: 98%Critic: 97%”Transformers One”Audience: 97%Critic: 89%”Sonic the Hedgehog 3″Audience: 96%Critic: 86%”Wicked”Audience: 95%Critic: 96%Biggest discrepancies between critic and audience scores in 2024Here’s where we can have some fun. I have several issues with Rotten Tomatoes, but I’m being told I’ve been on my soap box a bit too much in the article, already, so I won’t delve into it. I have always found the gap between what critics and audiences think downright laughable.A critic can give you their opinion, but all that really matters is whether you like the movie or not. Art is subjective, and it’s OK if you like something everyone else hates, or vice versa.Here is a list of some of the biggest gaps between Rotten Tomatoes’ audience and critic scores of 2024:”Arthur the King”Critic: 69%Audience: 97%”Argylle”Critic: 33%Audience: 70%”Godzilla x King: The New Empire”Critic: 54%Audience: 90%”The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”Critic: 68%Audience: 92%”IF”Critic: 50%Audience: 86%”Despicable Me 4″Critic: 56%Audience: 87%”Longlegs”Critic: 85%Audience: 61%”It Ends With Us”Critic: 55%Audience: 89%”Reagan”Critic: 18%Audience: 98%”Red One”Critic: 30%Audience: 90%”Venom the Last Dance”Critic: 41%Audience: 81%”Kraven the Hunter”Critic: 17%Audience 74%”Carry-On”Critic 88%Audience 52%”Mufasa: The Lion King”Critic 56%Audience: 89%Now, it’s your turn.What were your favorite movies of 2024? Did it make any of these lists? How do you determine your favorites? Let us know in the comments.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

Adam Scott Says He’s Not Sure He’ll Be In Another Comic Book Film After MADAME WEB But, “Never Say Never”

Arts & Culture, Books

Adam Scott is best known for a myriad of roles, like his turn as the likable love interest in the sitcom Parks and Rec, the jerk brother in the movie Step-Brothers, and his incredibly intense and multifaceted Lumon employee in the psychological thriller series Severance. He has played a lot of interesting characters, and as a self-described “comic book nerd,” a role in a comic-based movie seemed like a good fit, but unfortunately, the movie he signed on for, 2024’s Madame Web, was a box office bomb.When talking to Comic Book about his upcoming season of Severance, Scott was asked if he could see himself in another comic movie, and he responded:“I’m not sure. I think that it’s a genre that I, certainly, as an audience member, participate in. I like seeing all those movies, I watch them all.”While promoting Madame Web, Scott talked about his own comic book origin as a kid who grew up buying comics from the Atlantis Fantasyworld comic book shop in California. He said on The Jess Cagle Show:“I was really into comics as a kid. I actually grew up in Santa Cruz, California, where they shot Lost Boys. And the comic book store in [1987’s The Lost Boys] was the comic book store that I would go to just about every day to get all my latest comic books. And my next door neighbor owned it, Joe Ferrara, and so I would go in there every day, and he would have the latest comics that I was interested in.”I love that story! As a huge fan of The Lost Boys, I get how that would be the perfect introduction to the world of comics. I would have wanted to shop and hang out there too. It sounds like Scott just doesn’t know what the future holds, but I hope he is able to get back into the world of comic book films, and make one that holds up a little better. He’s a fantastic actor, and it would be cool to see him step into that world.

Do scientists usually get it wrong when it comes to climate change?

Science and Health

Scientists may modify their claims as new research and information become available, but that doesn’t mean they were initially wrong.

PORTLAND, Maine — NEWS CENTER Maine meteorologists are responding to a series of common myths about climate change. We take a common claim, investigate it, then present the findings supported by research.  

Claim: Scientists often get it wrong

Science isn’t always perfect, but many of the “mistakes” people notice come from their own perceptions. For example, with weather forecasts, we might see clouds at the start and end of the day but forget about the sunshine in between while we’re stuck inside at work. This can make it seem like the forecast was wrong, even though it wasn’t.

Science evolves as we learn more. This is why forecasts improve as a storm gets closer or why information changed quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientists start with the best information they have, then adjust their reporting as new information becomes available. That doesn’t mean they were wrong at first but were doing the best they could with the data available at the time. Science is always evolving with new information.

How does this relate to climate change? It may seem like scientists haven’t changed their opinions on it, and that’s exactly the point. Even as new data comes in, climate change remains undeniable.

Climate change data has been debated for decades.

RELATED: Climate myth debunked: Is warming a bad thing?

From 1965 to 1979, scientists were divided on whether we were heading for an ice age or a warming planet. A 2008 study by Thomas Peterson and his team found that, despite media stories focusing on an ice age, only 10 percent of scientists predicted cooling, while 62 percent predicted warming. But which headline grabs more attention or sells more newspapers? Ice Age sounds a lot more “clickable,” I’ll admit it.

These days, 97 percent of climate experts agree that global warming is manmade. This consensus is supported by John Cook and his colleagues in their 2016 peer-reviewed study, which compiled opinions from a plethora of climate scientists.

The study also found a direct correlation between lack of expertise in climate science and the disbelief of manmade climate change. More expertise equals a greater belief.

RELATED: Are cold snaps a valid argument against climate change?

We have decades of research that continues to support climate change as a real and ongoing issue. It’s not that the science is wrong. This is one of those times where the evidence has been proven again and again. 

If you remember your middle school Scientific Method lesson, when a hypothesis is repeatedly supported, it moves from being a theory to a fact. 

Therefore, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, has stated that climate change is an established fact.

Yes, there are occasional inaccuracies in science that get corrected as new evidence comes in. No, scientists are not often wrong. They carefully gather data, test their hypotheses, and only speak out when they have enough evidence to support their conclusions.

RELATED: Is sea level rise greatly exaggerated? Debunking common climate myths

AUM opens new Science and Technology Complex

Science and Health

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – The newest building on Auburn University at Montgomery’s campus is officially open for students.After three years of planning and construction, students are now using the new Science and Technology Complex.The new building will be home to science, technology, engineering and math classes, such as biology and chemistry. Each classroom will have the latest technology. There is also a research facility on the basement level.Officials have been discussing a place like this for nearly a decade. Now that it’s open, AUM Chancellor John Stockton said the students are excited to be there.“It’s a big, big upgrade from our old facilities that we used to have, so it creates a very positive learning community for our students,” Stockton said.AUM will hold a formal ribbon-cutting and grand opening on Feb. 7.Sign up for the WSFA Newsletter and get the latest local news and breaking alerts in your email!Copyright 2025 WSFA. All rights reserved.

Story Science & Exploration ExoMars discovers hidden water in Mars’ Grand Canyon 15/12/2021 90887 views 216 likes Read

Science and Health

Science & Exploration

15/12/2021
90585 views
216 likes

The ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has spotted significant amounts of water at the heart of Mars’ dramatic canyon system, Valles Marineris.

The water, which is hidden beneath Mars’ surface, was found by the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO)’s FREND instrument, which is mapping the hydrogen – a measure of water content – in the uppermost metre of Mars’ soil.While water is known to exist on Mars, most is found in the planet’s cold polar regions as ice. Water ice is not found exposed at the surface near the equator, as temperatures here are not cold enough for exposed water ice to be stable.Missions including ESA’s Mars Express have hunted for near-surface water – as ice covering dust grains in the soil, or locked up in minerals – at lower latitudes of Mars, and found small amounts. However, such studies have only explored the very surface of the planet; deeper water stores could exist, covered by dust. “With TGO we can look down to one metre below this dusty layer and see what’s really going on below Mars’ surface – and, crucially, locate water-rich ‘oases’ that couldn’t be detected with previous instruments,” says Igor Mitrofanov of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia; lead author of the new study; and principal investigator of the FREND (Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector) neutron telescope.

Trace Gas Orbiter at Mars

“FREND revealed an area with an unusually large amount of hydrogen in the colossal Valles Marineris canyon system: assuming the hydrogen we see is bound into water molecules, as much as 40% of the near-surface material in this region appears to be water.”The water-rich area is about the size of the Netherlands and overlaps with the deep valleys of Candor Chaos, part of the canyon system considered promising in our hunt for water on Mars.

Tracking neutrons

Igor and colleagues analysed FREND observations ranging from May 2018 to February 2021, which mapped the hydrogen content of Mars’ soil by detecting neutrons rather than light.“Neutrons are produced when highly energetic particles known as ‘galactic cosmic rays’ strike Mars; drier soils emit more neutrons than wetter ones, and so we can deduce how much water is in a soil by looking at the neutrons it emits,” adds co-author Alexey Malakhov, also of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “FREND’s unique observing technique brings far higher spatial resolution than previous measurements of this type, enabling us to now see water features that weren’t spotted before.“We found a central part of Valles Marineris to be packed full of water – far more water than we expected. This is very much like Earth’s permafrost regions, where water ice permanently persists under dry soil because of the constant low temperatures.” 

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter maps water-rich region of Valles Marineris

This water could be in the form of ice, or water that is chemically bound to other minerals in the soil. However, other observations tell us that minerals seen in this part of Mars typically contain only a few percent water, much less than is evidenced by these new observations. “Overall, we think this water more likely exists in the form of ice,” says Alexey.Water ice usually evaporates in this region of Mars due to the temperature and pressure conditions near the equator. The same applies to chemically bound water: the right combination of temperature, pressure and hydration must be there to keep minerals from losing water. This suggests that some special, as-yet-unclear mix of conditions must be present in Valles Marineris to preserve the water – or that it is somehow being replenished.“This finding is an amazing first step, but we need more observations to know for sure what form of water we’re dealing with,” adds study co-author Håkan Svedhem of ESA’s ESTEC in the Netherlands, and former ESA project scientist for the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.“Regardless of the outcome, the finding demonstrates the unrivalled abilities of TGO’s instruments in enabling us to ‘see’ below Mars’ surface – and reveals a large, not-too-deep, easily exploitable reservoir of water in this region of Mars.”

Future exploration

As most future missions to Mars plan to land at lower latitudes, locating such a reservoir of water here is an exciting prospect for future exploration.While Mars Express has found hints of water deeper underground in Mars’ mid-latitudes, alongside deep pools of liquid water under Mars’ south pole, these potential stores lie up to a few kilometres below ground, making them less exploitable and accessible to exploration than any found just below the surface. The finding also makes Valles Marineris an even more promising target for future human exploration missions to the planet. The largest canyon in the Solar System, Valles Marineris is arguably Mars’ most dramatic landscape, and a feature that is often compared to Earth’s Grand Canyon – despite being some ten times longer and five times deeper.

Perspective view of Candor Chasma

“This result really demonstrates the success of the joint ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars programme,” says Colin Wilson, ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter project scientist.“Knowing more about how and where water exists on present-day Mars is essential to understand what happened to Mars’ once-abundant water, and helps our search for habitable environments, possible signs of past life, and organic materials from Mars’ earliest days.”TGO launched in 2016 as the first of two launches under the ExoMars programme. The orbiter will be joined in 2022 by a European rover, Rosalind Franklin, and a Russian surface platform, Kazachok, and all will work together to understand whether life has ever existed on Mars.

Notes for editors

“The evidence for unusually high hydrogen abundances in the central part of Valles Marineris on Mars” by I. Mitrofanov et al. is published in the journal Icarus.

For more information, please contact:

ESA Media [email protected]

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Food scientist: farmers are the start of all nutrition

Science and Health

We learn early on in life that good food promotes health. But what’s not so simple is how many of those nutrients we absorb, or what impact the way something is farmed has on the quality of the produce.

Nicknamed ‘The Simple Scientist’, Dr Anneline Padayachee has a bit of a superpower; being able to break down complex research to help consumers make better choices. Farmers are among her favourite people, for the role they play in providing us all with important nutrients.

Dr Anneline Padayachee says farmers have a huge role in providing important nutrients for all. Image: Anneline Padayachee

Dr Anneline is a wealth of food facts, like how Egyptians discovered sourdough bread by accident; or that the bacteria present in yoghurt eat lactose, therefore making it a more easily digestible form of dairy than milk. But food scientists have a far-reaching job from food safety to product development or creating new products.

“It’s important to remember, we eat food not nutrients. No one sits down to a plate of pills.”

Dr Anneline finds our obsession with things like protein powders and collagen supplements can be a distraction from what happens on farm.

Farmers are the start of it. They create food.

“Farmers are the start of it. They create food. They create nutrients essentially. What happens after it leaves them, it could be modified, transferred or changed. But what farmers create right from the get-go, they are the creators of nutrients, edible nutrients,” she explains.

Dr Anneline says it’s important to remember that we eat food, not nutrients. Image: Heather Radveski

When looking at food, Dr Anneline recommends analysing three key things:

Nutritional Composition – low, medium or high.

Your Digestive tract – does the food agree with you, allowing nutrient absorption.

The 80/20 Rule – 80 per cent nutritious food, 20 per cent fun

If the food is nutritious, but there is a problem with the individual’s digestive enzymes, that would be a good place to start looking before resorting to dispensing vitamins, according to Dr Anneline.

Processing food

Dr Anneline also shares her concerns over the NOVA classification that grades processed foods. A classification of 1, for example, is unprocessed. A classification 4 is ultra processed.

“The theory behind NOVA is, the more processed a food is, the worse it is for you. That is actually extremely simplistic,” she shares. Cooking meat is a form of processing, so too is milk pasteurisation.

Milk pasteurisation is a form of processing. Image: David Williams

“The most processed food in the entire world is baby formula because it must be for such an underdeveloped digestive tract. That doesn’t make it bad. Yoghurt and bread are processed foods – they could be a category 3, as are jellybeans and cookies. Nutritionally, they’re completely different.”

Dr Anneline suggests looking at the total quality of the diet. A bowl of porridge in the morning, a salad and protein for lunch and roast veggies at dinner coupled with a sweet treat before bed, gets a big green tick from her.

Dr Anneline says nutrition starts on the farm. Image: Imogen O’Doyle

“You can actually have lollies and marshmallows in your diet. Yeah, I said it! The problem is, are you having them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

“Right now – fat is evil, sugar is bad, protein is the best thing since sliced bread. Let’s get some balance back into the debate.”

A positive trend, Dr Anneline has noticed, is the consumer’s interest in where their food comes from.

Consumers are taking more interest in where their food comes from. Image: Sandie Read

She loves learning about regenerative farming practices and sustainability innovations happening across our country.

This is a great opportunity for farmers to be repositioned as the creators of nutrition.

“This is a great opportunity for farmers to be repositioned as the creators of nutrition. You cannot take the farmer out of that equation. They are the start of the health cycle.”

Some take-home advice from Dr Anneline is to eat the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, white.

“I don’t need to give you the details of why it’s good for you. But if you eat colour, you’re getting that assortment.”

And finally, she says, eat the treats. “The emotional side cannot be discounted. Any birthday that doesn’t have cake is just sad!”

Eating a variety of colours is important

Food is a field that impacts every single one of us, but breaking it down can be complex. Thankfully, Dr Anneline, “The Simple Scientist” is happy to do the hard work for us. She points out that if our car breaks down, we take it to an expert in mechanics, unfortunately if someone has a concern about food, they don’t do the same thing.

“And that’s a car, which is so much cheaper in value and easily replaceable than the human body.”

If Dr Anneline achieves her ultimate goal, of making a food documentary, we’ll all have a lot more access to her insights, keeping food science as simple as possible.

As always it’s important to seek individualised nutritional advice from a qualified professional.

Hear more stories like this by subscribing to the Telling Our Story podcast on iTunes (or wherever you listen to podcasts) and follow podcast host Angie Asimus on Instagram for more updates.

IIM Sambalpur Launches Full-Time MBA In Business Analytics At Delhi Campus

Business News

Around 70 students would be admitted to the programme. New Delhi: IIM-Sambalpur has announced the launch of its first-ever full-time MBA programme in Business Analytics at its Delhi campus. The programme is designed for STEM graduates with relevant work experience and prepares them for the evolving data-driven business landscape.  EligibilityCandidates with a high CAT percentile…