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Half-baked nonsense
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Half-baked nonsense The idea that only meals prepared from scratch are good for children is a misogynistic myth, says Anthony Warner ONLY 16 per cent of UK mothers cook from scratch every day, according to a survey. Many healthy-eating campaigners will be keen to tell you that the other 84 per cent are risking the health and prospects of their children. Blame is routinely heaped on working mothers – and let’s be honest, it is largely mothers who get shamed – for apparently neglecting their family’s nutritional needs, filling them up with processed junk. “Return to real ingredients that our grandmothers would have recognised”, “ditch additive-laden frankenfoods”. The guilt trip over not feeding children a “proper” meal is pervasive and reinforced by misguided attitudes towards manufactured food products. It has become commonplace to pour scorn upon women who do not fulfil their “duty” of delivering a continual stream of beautiful
home-cooked dishes. Critics long for what they see as a lost world of nuclear families gathering daily at the table to be nourished by serene and domesticated mothers. Driven by the animated corpse of Victorian misogyny, this view comes with a handy narrative: the pre-prepared food products that make lazy women’s lives even easier must be rejected. Those products are vile, unhealthy and unclean. They make children fat. Such people might do well to read recent research (Archives of Disease in Childhood, doi.org/ bmtx). It found home-made meals for children based on recipes from bestselling cookbooks are not always healthier than convenience products and ready meals. In fact, on many measures they seemed less healthy: they tended to have a lower vegetable variety and were more likely to bust recommended
Degrees of freedom The autonomy of Turkish academic institutions faces an existential threat, says Caghan Kizil SOCIETY’S prized institutions are always worth defending. On 16 July, Turkey woke up to scenes unprecedented to most. Shocking images from the attempted coup d’etat included the bombing of parliament, war jets swooping over cities and tanks on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul. This was an undemocratic and 20 | NewScientist | 30 July 2016
educational staff, have been suspended and 1577 deans of universities have been forced to resign. More than 600 academics have been sacked. All academics are banned from going overseas and those on assignments abroad have been told to return. Life is more difficult for those dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. The reason for this purge is a falling-out between Turkey’s ruling AKP government and the Gülen movement. Political allies
unacceptable act. Many citizens died. Fortunately, the coup failed, but it has had dire consequences for many parts of Turkish society, including its academics. Due to suspected involvement in the coup, blamed on a political “Intimidating top-down control has long been network called the Gülen eradicating free speech movement, tens of thousands and academic creativity” of public employees, including
for over a decade, relations between the two soured a few years ago. Before then, warnings had been raised that key positions in education were being filled by members of the AKP and Gülen movement. Today’s actions are more than a selective hunt for those behind the coup attempt. Those in power are taking advantage to try to restructure this vital part of society by cracking down on anyone who might have opposed their actions in the past. It is a continuation of previous hostility, demonstrated by the AKP’s earlier subordination of the Turkish Academy of Sciences to
For more opinion articles, visit newscientist.com/opinion
Anthony Warner is a food industry development chef by day and blogs as The Angry Chef by night
political power and prosecution of the group Academics for Peace. An indiscriminate dragnet is undermining academic freedom by seizing control of this sector’s already impaired autonomous decision-making. Intimidating top-down control and the blurring of the distinction between criminal investigations and political punishment has long been eradicating free speech and academic creativity in Turkey. It seems there is more to come. n Caghan Kizil is a biologist at Dresden University of Technology, Germany, and a former associate professor of Turkey’s higher education and science council
INSIGHT The politics of space
nasa
limits for energy and fat content. It’s a small study and you can’t draw too many conclusions, but it does question the narrative that processed food is inherently bad. As with most simple stories, when you look closely, the reality is far more nuanced. If there is a core message, it is that choosing convenient options as part of a balanced and varied diet is OK and should not be a source of shame. We must stop thinking of the consumption of processed fare as a symbol of society’s moral decline. In many ways it has given us more freedom, time and energy to engage in family life. My formative years were full of beautiful home-cooked meals, but I have equally fond memories of ice cream, Crispy Pancakes, fish fingers and tinned tomato soup. Foods like these form a rich part of many lives. They can be an expression of love and family values as wholesome and joyful as any meal cooked from scratch. Every time we shame food choices and advocate excluding perfectly healthy items for moral reasons, we move away from the sensible, balanced relationship with food that we really need. n
–Next time, let’s do it together–
Ditch the flag-waving: space is for us all NATIONALISM has always been a part international efforts; going it alone will of space exploration. The US went to not teach us more about the universe. the moon “because it was hard”, as Before Kennedy even made his President Kennedy said – but also famous moon-shot speech, US military because the Russians were orbiting officials were talking of the moon as a Earth. Every time a NASA craft visits vital base for warfare – the “ultimate another world, the little American high ground”. A similar tone was flags come out. NASA administrator evident when President Johnson Charles Bolden has justified the defended the Apollo programme, agency’s current efforts to develop saying, “I do not believe that this crewed craft as a way to “bring space generation of Americans is willing to launches back to America“. resign itself to going to bed each night We may now be seeing the logical by the light of a communist moon.” conclusion of that focus. On 20 July, Collins echoed these sentiments in the anniversary of the Apollo 11 her speech: “Nations that lead on the moon landing, former space shuttle frontier lead in the world,” she said. commander Eileen Collins spoke at “Human space flight is the Republican national convention mostly about flexing and called for “leadership that will national muscle – expect make America’s space programme more of that from Trump” first again” – a clear reframing of Donald Trump’s nationalistic “Make America Great Again” theme. Do we really want to return to this? This is a step too far. The space Since the cold war, space missions community and scientists, more have broadened to encompass broadly, should not be co-opted in understanding what space is and our place in it. Human space flight service of a presidential candidate who was and is mostly about flexing has called climate change a Chinese national muscle, not about science. hoax. It’s time to reassess what we That’s the sort of exploration we value in space. The best, most exciting, can expect from a Trump presidency: work has been done through
one that lets science take a back seat. Trump has said that he would prioritise fixing potholes over space. Let’s not kid ourselves that his apparent reversal means that a Trump administration would send spacecraft to Pluto. The “me-first” framing limits what we can do in space. In a speech to Congress in 2014, astronaut Sandra Magnus speculated that the goaloriented nature of the moon landings led to the eventual decline of the US space programme – once they were accomplished, funding dried up. By contrast, the International Space Station has been saved from the budget axe many times over, in large part because of the political treaties that ensured its survival. Particle physics has a similar cautionary tale: by many accounts, the Texas-based Superconducting Super Collider would have found the Higgs boson 20 years ahead of the international Large Hadron Collider, if its funding hadn’t been cut. Our stated goals for the future of space exploration are huge: to send people to Mars; to observe the first stars in the universe; to explore other worlds and see whether they have life. Maybe nations can take the first steps towards these goals alone, but only an international effort will attain them. Collaboration makes projects more sustainable, long-lived and efficient, not to mention affordable. We don’t need another space race. Lisa Grossman n 30 July 2016 | NewScientist | 21
Half-baked nonsense The idea that only meals prepared from scratch are good for children is a misogynistic myth, says Anthony Warner ONLY 16 per cent of UK mothers cook from scratch every day, according to a survey. Many healthy-eating campaigners will be keen to tell you that the other 84 per cent are risking the health and prospects of their children. Blame is routinely heaped on working mothers – and let’s be honest, it is largely mothers who get shamed – for apparently neglecting their family’s nutritional needs, filling them up with processed junk. “Return to real ingredients that our grandmothers would have recognised”, “ditch additive-laden frankenfoods”. The guilt trip over not feeding children a “proper” meal is pervasive and reinforced by misguided attitudes towards manufactured food products. It has become commonplace to pour scorn upon women who do not fulfil their “duty” of delivering a continual stream of beautiful
home-cooked dishes. Critics long for what they see as a lost world of nuclear families gathering daily at the table to be nourished by serene and domesticated mothers. Driven by the animated corpse of Victorian misogyny, this view comes with a handy narrative: the pre-prepared food products that make lazy women’s lives even easier must be rejected. Those products are vile, unhealthy and unclean. They make children fat. Such people might do well to read recent research (Archives of Disease in Childhood, doi.org/ bmtx). It found home-made meals for children based on recipes from bestselling cookbooks are not always healthier than convenience products and ready meals. In fact, on many measures they seemed less healthy: they tended to have a lower vegetable variety and were more likely to bust recommended
Degrees of freedom The autonomy of Turkish academic institutions faces an existential threat, says Caghan Kizil SOCIETY’S prized institutions are always worth defending. On 16 July, Turkey woke up to scenes unprecedented to most. Shocking images from the attempted coup d’etat included the bombing of parliament, war jets swooping over cities and tanks on the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul. This was an undemocratic and 20 | NewScientist | 30 July 2016
educational staff, have been suspended and 1577 deans of universities have been forced to resign. More than 600 academics have been sacked. All academics are banned from going overseas and those on assignments abroad have been told to return. Life is more difficult for those dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. The reason for this purge is a falling-out between Turkey’s ruling AKP government and the Gülen movement. Political allies
unacceptable act. Many citizens died. Fortunately, the coup failed, but it has had dire consequences for many parts of Turkish society, including its academics. Due to suspected involvement in the coup, blamed on a political “Intimidating top-down control has long been network called the Gülen eradicating free speech movement, tens of thousands and academic creativity” of public employees, including
for over a decade, relations between the two soured a few years ago. Before then, warnings had been raised that key positions in education were being filled by members of the AKP and Gülen movement. Today’s actions are more than a selective hunt for those behind the coup attempt. Those in power are taking advantage to try to restructure this vital part of society by cracking down on anyone who might have opposed their actions in the past. It is a continuation of previous hostility, demonstrated by the AKP’s earlier subordination of the Turkish Academy of Sciences to
For more opinion articles, visit newscientist.com/opinion
Anthony Warner is a food industry development chef by day and blogs as The Angry Chef by night
political power and prosecution of the group Academics for Peace. An indiscriminate dragnet is undermining academic freedom by seizing control of this sector’s already impaired autonomous decision-making. Intimidating top-down control and the blurring of the distinction between criminal investigations and political punishment has long been eradicating free speech and academic creativity in Turkey. It seems there is more to come. n Caghan Kizil is a biologist at Dresden University of Technology, Germany, and a former associate professor of Turkey’s higher education and science council
INSIGHT The politics of space
nasa
limits for energy and fat content. It’s a small study and you can’t draw too many conclusions, but it does question the narrative that processed food is inherently bad. As with most simple stories, when you look closely, the reality is far more nuanced. If there is a core message, it is that choosing convenient options as part of a balanced and varied diet is OK and should not be a source of shame. We must stop thinking of the consumption of processed fare as a symbol of society’s moral decline. In many ways it has given us more freedom, time and energy to engage in family life. My formative years were full of beautiful home-cooked meals, but I have equally fond memories of ice cream, Crispy Pancakes, fish fingers and tinned tomato soup. Foods like these form a rich part of many lives. They can be an expression of love and family values as wholesome and joyful as any meal cooked from scratch. Every time we shame food choices and advocate excluding perfectly healthy items for moral reasons, we move away from the sensible, balanced relationship with food that we really need. n
–Next time, let’s do it together–
Ditch the flag-waving: space is for us all NATIONALISM has always been a part international efforts; going it alone will of space exploration. The US went to not teach us more about the universe. the moon “because it was hard”, as Before Kennedy even made his President Kennedy said – but also famous moon-shot speech, US military because the Russians were orbiting officials were talking of the moon as a Earth. Every time a NASA craft visits vital base for warfare – the “ultimate another world, the little American high ground”. A similar tone was flags come out. NASA administrator evident when President Johnson Charles Bolden has justified the defended the Apollo programme, agency’s current efforts to develop saying, “I do not believe that this crewed craft as a way to “bring space generation of Americans is willing to launches back to America“. resign itself to going to bed each night We may now be seeing the logical by the light of a communist moon.” conclusion of that focus. On 20 July, Collins echoed these sentiments in the anniversary of the Apollo 11 her speech: “Nations that lead on the moon landing, former space shuttle frontier lead in the world,” she said. commander Eileen Collins spoke at “Human space flight is the Republican national convention mostly about flexing and called for “leadership that will national muscle – expect make America’s space programme more of that from Trump” first again” – a clear reframing of Donald Trump’s nationalistic “Make America Great Again” theme. Do we really want to return to this? This is a step too far. The space Since the cold war, space missions community and scientists, more have broadened to encompass broadly, should not be co-opted in understanding what space is and our place in it. Human space flight service of a presidential candidate who was and is mostly about flexing has called climate change a Chinese national muscle, not about science. hoax. It’s time to reassess what we That’s the sort of exploration we value in space. The best, most exciting, can expect from a Trump presidency: work has been done through
one that lets science take a back seat. Trump has said that he would prioritise fixing potholes over space. Let’s not kid ourselves that his apparent reversal means that a Trump administration would send spacecraft to Pluto. The “me-first” framing limits what we can do in space. In a speech to Congress in 2014, astronaut Sandra Magnus speculated that the goaloriented nature of the moon landings led to the eventual decline of the US space programme – once they were accomplished, funding dried up. By contrast, the International Space Station has been saved from the budget axe many times over, in large part because of the political treaties that ensured its survival. Particle physics has a similar cautionary tale: by many accounts, the Texas-based Superconducting Super Collider would have found the Higgs boson 20 years ahead of the international Large Hadron Collider, if its funding hadn’t been cut. Our stated goals for the future of space exploration are huge: to send people to Mars; to observe the first stars in the universe; to explore other worlds and see whether they have life. Maybe nations can take the first steps towards these goals alone, but only an international effort will attain them. Collaboration makes projects more sustainable, long-lived and efficient, not to mention affordable. We don’t need another space race. Lisa Grossman n 30 July 2016 | NewScientist | 21