Wandering Adventure Party

• Ozone layer remains on track to recovery in coming decades
• WMO Ozone Bulletin says ozone hole in 2024 smaller than previous years
• Vienna Convention and Montreal Protocol show benefits of science for global action
• Stratospheric ozone protects people’s and planetary health
• Continued atmospheric monitoring is vital

[…]

“Forty years ago, nations came together to take the first step in protecting the ozone layer — guided by science, united in action,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

“The Vienna Convention and its Montreal Protocol became a landmark of multilateral success. Today, the ozone layer is healing. This achievement reminds us that when nations heed the warnings of science, progress is possible,” he said.

To date, the Montreal Protocol has led to the phase-out of over 99% of the production and consumption of controlled ozone-depleting substances, which were used in refrigeration, air conditioning, firefighting foam and even hairspray. As a result, the ozone layer is now on track to recover to 1980s levels by the middle of this century, significantly reducing risks of skin cancer, cataracts, and ecosystem damage due to excessive UV exposure.

[…]

Here is the study: Measurement invariance of the home literacy environment for preschoolers with and without speech and/or language impairment

• Simple hands-on activities, such as writing letters and pointing out words in daily life, are the most effective way to build early reading skills, according to a study by the Michigan State University in the U.S.
• Both children with and without speech and/or language impairments experienced literacy gains from print-related activities; however, only children with typical learning development experienced benefits from shared book reading.
• All children who spent more time on literacy games, both digital and analog, scored lower on early reading assessments.
• The findings challenge the idea that more exposure to learning games always helps, raising important questions for parents, educators and developers about which strategies best support early literacy.

“This research shows that both content and mode of delivery are important when considering how to strengthen children’s early literacy skills. Focusing on print directly, via meaningful interactions with caregivers, was most helpful for children in our work. Literacy games and digital media cannot replace the role of caregivers in helping children to learn these skills. This is particularly important for children who have speech and/or language impairment, as they might need more time and opportunities to understand how print works.”

A new MSU study shows that simple, hands-on activities are the most effective way to build early reading skills.

A new MSU study shows that simple, hands-on activities are the most effective way to build early reading skills.

Michigan State University (msutoday.msu.edu)

This cautious approach is necessary to protect sensitive information and prevent foreign influence in research, Universities explained [according to Danish broadcaster DR].

Aarhus University is the one for which the Danish broadcaster managed to get the most information. Here, in 2025 alone, 24 research applications have been rejected for security reasons. According to DR’s story, the university now automatically subjects candidates from China, Russia, and Iran to rigorous background checks.

Whenever Aarhus University receives an application from one of these countries, it triggers a thorough investigation into the candidate’s background. The university examines their previous research collaborators, institutions, and research fields to assess any risk of exposure to foreign pressure or espionage attempts. The goal is to prevent sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands.

Brian Vinter, pro-dean of the technical faculty at Aarhus University, explained to DR that these rejections are not due to poor qualifications but because the candidates are deemed potential security risks. “They are rejected based on the possibility they could be pressured by their home countries to leak information,” he said.

A very cautious approach, that’s for sure, which may exclude skilled applicants — profiles the country is otherwise extremely interested in — but on the other hand, it seems necessary to protect Denmark’s interests and the university’s employees from foreign coercion.

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Aarhus University has hired five specialists fluent in Russian, Chinese, and Persian solely to evaluate applicants. According to the DR story, the university plans to expand security measures to include physical protection of facilities, new travel policies, and issuing specially secured devices to staff traveling to risk countries.

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It’s not the first time that universities have gotten tangled up with developments that would later come to haunt them, explains Olivia Guest, computational cognitive scientist at Radboud University and lead author of the paper. ‘From combustion engines to tobacco, universities have been used in the past to whitewash now-controversial products. For a long time, the tobacco industry pointed to research it subsidized at universities to claim its products were healthy.’

In their article, a position paper released as a pre-print this month, the researchers warn similar entanglements are happening with artificial intelligence technologies now. ‘A lot of academic research on AI currently is also funded by the AI industry, which creates the risk of distorting scientific knowledge, similar to how we’ve seen happen in the past’, adds Iris van Rooij, co-author and professor of computational cognitive science at Radboud University [in the Netherlands].

…

The researchers explain that the current uncritical adoption of AI at the top level of universities actually is counter to what most students and staff want. ‘AI is often introduced into our classrooms and research environments without proper debate or consent,’ says van Rooij. ‘This is not just about using tools like ChatGPT. It’s about the broader influence of the tech industry on how we teach, how we think, and how we define knowledge.’

‘Study after study shows that students want to develop these critical thinking skills, are not lazy, and large numbers of them would be in favor of banning ChatGPT and similar tools in universities’, says Guest. By speaking up, the researchers aim to show that the ‘inevitability’ of AI is just a marketing frame perpetrated by the industry and that pushback is a lot more possible than we often see.

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Guest, van Rooij and colleagues list a vast number of problematic aspects of AI technology in their paper. These range from the environmental issues (using vast amounts of energy and resources), illegal labor practices (such as plagiarism and theft of others’ writing), to risks of deskilling of students. Guest: ‘The uncritical adoption of AI can lead to students not developing essential academic skills such as critical thinking and writing. If students are taught to learn through automation, without learning about how and why things work, they won’t be able to solve problems when something actually breaks – which will be often, based on the AI output we now see.’

The researchers also warn of AI technology harming future research and enabling the spread of misinformation. ‘Within just a few years, AI has turbocharged the spread of bullshit and falsehoods. It is not able to produce actual, qualitative academic work, despite the claims of some in the AI industry. As researchers, as universities, we should be clearer about pushing back against these false claims by the AI industry. We are told that AI is inevitable, that we must adapt or be left behind. But universities are not tech companies. Our role is to foster critical thinking, not to follow industry trends uncritically.’

‘Opposing the inevitability of AI at universities is possible and necessary’ | Radboud University

Since the widespread release of ChatGPT in December of 2022, AI has taken over much of the world by storm – including academia. Most of this happened with very little pushback, despite a myriad of issues related to AI technologies.

(www.ru.nl)