Chung-Ang University researchers use carbon capture and utilization technology to recycle industrial carbon dioxide

A new study discusses a sustainable process for the efficient conversion of carbon dioxide emissions into commercially valuable products

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CHUNG ANG UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: REPURPOSING INDUSTRIAL WASTES SUCH AS CARBON DIOXIDE CAN SIGNIFICANTLY MITIGATE THE EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE AT SCALE. view more 

CREDIT: PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTOS FROM OPENVERSE HTTPS://OPENVERSE.ORG/IMAGE/60ED779D-0AFA-4564-A979-A448F167DB81?Q=CHIMNEY

Climate change is a serious concern that needs to be prioritized globally. Nations across the globe are drafting policies to reduce the impact of global warming and climate change. For instance, the European Union has recommended a comprehensive set of guidelines to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Likewise, the European Green Deal puts heavy emphasis on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The capture of emitted carbon dioxide (CO2) and its chemical conversion into useful commercial products is one way to limit global warming and mitigate its effects. Scientists are now looking into carbon capture and utilization (CCU) technology as a promising approach to expanding CO2 storage and conversion at a low cost. Global CCU research, however, is largely limited to only about 20 conversion compounds. Given the variety of CO2 emission sources, it is critical to have a wider range of chemical compounds, which necessitates delving deeper into processes that can convert CO2 even at low concentrations.

A team of researchers from Chung-Ang University in Korea are conducting research on CCU processes that use waste materials or abundant natural resources as raw materials to ensure their economic feasibility. The team, led by Professor Sungho Yoon and Associate Professor Chul-Jin Lee, recently published a study where they discuss the utilization of industrial CO2 and dolomite—a common and abundant sedimentary rock that is a rich source of calcium and magnesium—for the production of two commercially viable products: calcium formate and magnesium oxide. The study was made available online on May 22, 2023 and was published in Volume 469 of the Chemical Engineering Journal on August 1, 2023.

“There is a growing interest in utilizing CO2 to produce valuable products that can help mitigate climate change while creating economic benefits. By combining CO2 hydrogenation and cation exchange reaction, a process for simultaneous metal oxide purification and high-value formate production has been developed,” remarks Prof. Yoon.

In their study, the researchers used a catalyst (Ru/bpyTN-30-CTF) to add hydrogen to CO2, which resulted in the production of two value-added products, calcium formate and magnesium oxide. Calcium formate, a cement additive, de-icing agent, and animal feed additive, is also used in leather tanning. Magnesium oxide, in contrast, is extensively used in the construction and pharmaceutical industries. The process was not only viable but also extremely rapid, yielding the products in just 5 minutes at room temperature. Moreover, the researchers estimated that this process could reduce global warming potential by 20% when compared to traditional calcium formate production methods.

The team also evaluated if their method could potentially replace the current production approaches by checking its environmental impact and economic feasibility. “Based on the results, we can say that our method offers an eco-friendly CO2 conversion alternative that could replace the conventional approaches, potentially contributing to the reduction of industrial CO2 emissions,” Prof. Yoon explains.

Although converting CO2 into meaningful products sounds promising, these processes are not always easy to scale up. Most of the CCU technologies have not been commercialized owing to their low economic feasibility compared to the prevailing commercial processes. “We need to combine CCU processes with waste material recycling to make them both environmentally and economically beneficial. This may contribute to achieving a net-zero emissions goal in the future,” concludes a hopeful Dr. Lee.

***

Reference

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2023.143684

Authors: Hayoung Yoona, Taeksang Yoonb, Chul-Jin Leeb,c, Sungho Yoona

Affiliations:

aDepartment of Chemistry, Chung-Ang University, 84 Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

bSchool of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Chung-Ang University, 84 Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

cDepartment of Intelligent Energy and Industry, Chung-Ang University, 84 Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea

 

About Chung-Ang University

Chung-Ang University is a private comprehensive research university located in Seoul, South Korea. It was started as a kindergarten in 1916 and attained university status in 1953. It is fully accredited by the Ministry of Education of Korea. Chung-Ang University conducts research activities under the slogan of “Justice and Truth.” Its new vision for completing 100 years is “The Global Creative Leader.” Chung-Ang University offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs, which encompass a law school, management program, and medical school; it has 16 undergraduate and graduate schools each. Chung-Ang University’s culture and arts programs are considered the best in Korea.

Website: https://neweng.cau.ac.kr/index.do

 

About Professor Sungho Yoon

Sungho Yoon is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Chung-Ang University. His group is researching inorganic catalysts for reactions like hydrogenation and carbonylation, aiming to create diverse spin-off applications with significant societal benefits.

Read more about Prof. Yoon here: https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/cau/researcher-profile?ep=1238

 

About Associate Professor Chul-Jin Lee

Chul-Jin Lee is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Chung-Ang University. His group is actively involved in sustainable process design, optimization, and the application of machine learning to process systems.

Read more about Prof. Lee here: https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/cau/researcher-profile?ep=993

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JOURNAL

Chemical Engineering Journal

DOI

10.1016/j.cej.2023.143684 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Kinetic conversion of magnesium and calcium ions of dolomite into useful value-added products using CO2

Why do some environmental shocks lead to disaster while others don't?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

COMPLEXITY SCIENCE HUB VIENNA

 

IMAGE: WE ARE LIVING IN A POLY-CRISIS, BUT KNOWLEDGE ABOUT OUR PAST CAN HELP TO GUIDE THE WAY. view more 

CREDIT: © UNSPLASH

It's no longer just about stopping, but how we can live with climate change. To figure this out, we must delve into our cultures, as highlighted in a special issue of The Royal Society. A study by the Complexity Science Hub points out how our history could help guide the way.

Currently, we are grappling with a global crisis convergence. Various types of threats intersect, intertwine, and test our collective resilience, from climate change and economic inequality to political polarization. Although the scale and global reach of these challenges present new hurdles, these threats have been faced and, sometimes, overcome in the past. Societies today barely have time to recover from one crisis to the next, but we possess a significant advantage: knowledge. The knowledge we can obtain from our history through new methods.

DATA FROM MORE THAN 15O CRISES

CSH researchers Peter Turchin and Daniel Hoyer have pioneered fresh approaches to drawing lessons from history. Together with colleagues from different fields, they have compiled the Crisis Database (CrisisDB) as part of the Global History Databank Seshat, containing over 150 past crises spanning different time periods and regions.

When earthquakes shook the earth, droughts parched the land, or floods ravaged regions, some societies succumbed to social unrest, civil violence, or total collapse, while others exhibited resilience, maintaining essential social functions or even achieving improvement through systemic reforms that promoted well-being and increased democratic participation. Daniel Hoyer remarks, "What we observe is that not every ecological shock or climatic anomaly leads to collapse or even a severe crisis, and not every crisis involves a major environmental stressor." But what makes the difference? What drives collapse versus positive change?

DIVERGENT EXPERIENCES IN DIFFERENT TIMES AND PLACES

To illustrate the divergent dynamics experienced by past societies, and to highlight the comprehensiveness of their data, the researchers provide three examples. The Zapotec hilltop settlement of Monte Albán in southern Mexico emerged as the most significant settlement in the region. Extreme, persistent drought hit the region in the 9th century, and the once-great site of Monte Albán was entirely abandoned along with many other cities in Mesoamerica. However, recent research presented here shows that this was hardly a case of ‘societal collapse’, as many former residents of Monte Albán resettled in smaller communities nearby, likely without massive mortality, but rather through an ideological and socio-economic reorientation that also preserved many aspects of their society.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the immensely wealthy Qing Dynasty in China proved resilient to adverse ecological conditions – recurrent floods, droughts, swarms of locusts – during the early part of their reign, but by the 19th century, social pressures had built up leaving them more vulnerable to these same challenges. It was in this period that suffered the Taiping Rebellion, often seen as the bloodiest civil war in human history, and ultimately collapsed completely in 1912 after 250 years of rule. Learn more about the causes in a new study.

In between, the researchers highlight the Ottoman Empire, which faced daunting environmental conditions during the 16th century, including recurrent droughts and the Little Ice Age, leading to social unrest and numerous rebellions led by disgruntled local officials and wealthy families, yet they managed to maintain key social and political structures and avoided collapse, ruling a large swath of territory for several hundreds of years more.

GENERALIZABLE TO MULTIPLE CASES

“Many studies typically concentrate on a single event or a specific society. However, it is only by exploring the responses of all, or at least many, societies affected by a particular climate 'regime' that we can ascertain the causal influence and overall effectiveness of the environmental stressor,” Peter Turchin says. With this objective in mind, the researchers have developed a methodological framework aimed at producing insights that can be applied to numerous cases across different regions and time periods, helping identify the underlying causes of divergent outcomes.

UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS

"The course of a crisis hinges on numerous factors. Environmental forces are undeniably pivotal, but it's not as straightforward as a specific climate event triggering a predetermined societal response," asserts Turchin. Instead, these forces interact with cultural, political, and economic dynamics. Only by comprehending these dynamics can we fathom the interactions. Through their work on the CrisisDB program, the researchers and colleagues aim to unveil these patterns and pinpoint the key factors that either fortify or undermine resilience to contemporary climate shocks.

REDUCING SOCIAL INEQUALITY

One key initial finding is that slowly evolving structural forces, such as escalating social inequality, which also happens currently, can erode social resilience. Hoyer emphasizes, "Dealing with large-scale threats demands considerable societal cohesion." As an example, he cites the Covid pandemic. Societies that showed higher levels of cohesion and the capacity for collective action before Covid broke out navigated the pandemic more effectively and successfully implemented the necessary distancing measures. "Given that we reside in an era marked by increasing ecological shocks, economic disruptions, inequality, and major conflicts, our focus should be on reducing these structural pressures to build this kind of cohesion and resilience," Hoyer underscores.

___________
 

FIND OUT MORE

The study “Navigating Polycrisis: long-run socio-cultural factors shape response to changing climate” by Daniel Hoyer, James S. Bennett, Jenny Reddish, Samantha Holder, Robert Howard, Majid Benam, Jill Levine, Francis Ludlow, Gary Feinman and Peter Turchin was published in Philosophical Transactions B (doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0402).

___________
 

ABOUT THE COMPLEXITY SCIENCE HUB

The mission of the Complexity Science Hub (CSH) is to host, educate, and inspire complex systems scientists dedicated to making sense of Big Data to boost science and society. Scientists at the Complexity Science Hub develop methods for the scientific, quantitative, and predictive understanding of complex systems.

The CSH is a joint initiative of AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Central European University CEU, Danube University Krems, Graz University of Technology, Medical University of Vienna, TU Wien, VetMedUni Vienna, Vienna University of Economics and Business, and Austrian Economic Chambers (WKO). https://www.csh.ac.at

___________

Interested in more?

BALI RICE EXPERIMENT

The Special Issue also features a study by Stephen Lansing (CSH External Faculty and Santa Fe Institute) and I Wayan Alit Artha Wiguna (Balai Pengkajian Teknologi Pertanian Bali) that could not only transform rice farming methods but also significantly mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. Asia alone boasts over 200 million rice farms, and rice fields contribute to a substantial 11% of global methane emissions. This study has the potential to be a game-changer. Initial indications suggest that by regulating irrigation, greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by a remarkable 70%, while also reducing excess commercial nitrogen fertilizer flowing from rice paddies to rivers and coral reefs.

With this method, the rice field was not flooded as usual and therefore did not provide an ideal environment for anaerobic, methane-emitting bacteria. Instead, it was drained and irrigated only when hairline cracks appeared in the surface. In addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the farmer who owned the demonstration plot increased his crop yield on the drained field by more than 20%.

Lansing, who is an ecological anthropologist, has been researching Indonesia's rice paddies since his arrival in Bali in 1974.

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JOURNAL

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI

10.1098/rstb.2022.0402 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Navigating Polycrisis: long-run socio-cultural factors shape response to changing climate

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Sep-2023

 

What is the carbon footprint of a hospital bed?

In a first-of-its-kind study, Waterloo researchers calculate the environmental footprint of hospitals

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO

Researchers from the University of Waterloo completed the first-ever assessment of a Canadian hospital to reveal its total environmental footprint and specific carbon emission hotspots.

Studying a hospital in British Columbia during its 2019 fiscal year, the researchers identified energy and water use and purchasing of medical products as the hospital’s primary hotspots, accounting for over half of the yearly footprint, totalling 3500-5000 tons of CO2 equivalent. One hospital bed is roughly equivalent to the carbon footprint of five Canadian households. 

The new method brings an unprecedented level of comprehensiveness and detail to hospital emissions data that can equip administrative leaders to assess which improvements to focus on to meet their environmental commitments.

“In our work, we often find that the biggest environmental footprints are where you least expect them to be. As the adage goes: out of sight, out of mind,” said Alex Cimprich, a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development. “The goal is to make hidden environmental footprints more visible so that we can start to manage them.”

The researchers calculated the carbon footprint by assessing thousands of unique products purchased by hospitals and using a combination of statistical sampling and calculations of carbon intensity – CO2 equivalent per dollar spent – for the sampled products. The approach is distinct from commonly used environmental assessments that give a rough overall estimate because it employs a bottom-up approach. 

“The results suggest that hospital sustainability initiatives need to look further to achieve deeper emissions reductions,” said Cimprich. “While transportation of patients and products supplied to hospitals and hospital waste are visible areas of environmental concern, other more hidden areas like the supply-chains of medical products could have much bigger environmental footprints.” 

Future research could zoom in on the hotspots identified, and the new approach could also be applied to other hospitals and other types of healthcare facilities, such as primary care or long-term care, or even organizations outside the healthcare sector.

The study, Environmental footprinting of hospitals: Organizational life cycle assessment of a Canadian hospital, appears in the Journal of Industrial Ecology. 

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JOURNAL

Journal of Industrial Ecology

 Does a brain in a dish have moral rights?

Inventors of brain-cell-based computer work with international team of ethicists exploring ethical applications of bio-computing

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CORTICAL LABS

 

IMAGE: A MICROSCOPY IMAGE OF NEURAL CELLS WHERE FLUORESCENT MARKERS SHOW DIFFERENT TYPES OF CELLS. GREEN MARKS NEURONS AND AXONS, PURPLE MARKS NEURONS, RED MARKS DENDRITES, AND BLUE MARKS ALL CELLS. WHERE MULTIPLE MARKERS ARE PRESENT, COLOURS ARE MERGED AND TYPICALLY APPEAR AS YELLOW OR PINK DEPENDING ON THE PROPORTION OF MARKERS. view more 

CREDIT: CORTICAL LABS

No longer limited to the realm of science fiction, bio-computing is here, so now is the time to start considering how to research and apply this technology responsibly, an international group of experts says.

The inventors of DishBrain have partnered with bioethicists and medical researchers to map such a framework to help define and address the problem in a paper published in Biotechnology Advances.

“Combining biological neural systems with silicon substrates to produce intelligence-like behaviour has significant promise, but we need to proceed with the bigger picture in mind to ensure sustainable progress,” says lead author Dr Brett Kagan, Chief Scientific Officer of biotech start-up Cortical Lab. The group were made famous by their development of DishBrain – a collection of 800,000 living brain cells in a dish that learnt to play Pong.

While philosophers have for centuries pondered concepts of what makes us human or conscious, co-author and Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, Professor Julian Savulescu, warns of the urgency to determine practical answers to these questions.

“We haven’t adequately addressed the moral issues of what is even considered ‘conscious’ in the context of today’s technology,” he says.

“As it stands, there are still many ways of describing consciousness or intelligence, each raising different implications for how we think about biologically based intelligent systems.”

The paper cites early English philosopher Jeremy Bentham who argued that, with respect to the moral status of animals, “the question is not, ‘can they reason?’ nor, ‘can they talk?’ but, ‘can they suffer?’”.

“From that perspective, even if new biologically based computers show human-like intelligence, it does not necessarily follow that they have moral status,” says co-author Dr Tamra Lysaght, Director of Research at the Centre for Biomedical Ethics, National University of Singapore.

“Our paper doesn’t attempt to definitively answer the full suite of moral questions posed by bio-computers, but it provides a starting framework to ensure that the technology can continue to be researched and applied responsibly,” says Dr Lysaght.

The paper further highlights the ethical challenges and opportunities offered by DishBrain’s potential to greatly accelerate our understanding of diseases such as epilepsy and dementia.

“Current cell lines used in medical research predominately have European-type genetic ancestry, potentially making it harder to identify genetic-linked side effects,” says co-author Dr Christopher Gyngell, Research Fellow in biomedical ethics from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and The University of Melbourne.

“In future models of drug screening, we have the chance to make them more sufficiently representative of the real-world patients by using more diverse cell lines, and that means potentially faster and better drug development.”

The researchers point out that it is worth working through these moral issues, as the potential impact of bio-computing is significant.

“Silicon-based computing is massively energy-hungry with a supercomputer consuming millions of watts of energy. By contrast, the human brain uses as little as 20 watts of energy – biological intelligences will show similar energy efficiency,” says Dr Kagan.

“As it stands, the IT industry is a massive contributor to carbon emissions. If even a relatively small number of processing tasks could be done with bio-computers, there is a compelling environmental reason to explore these alternatives.”

Media kit with photos at www.scienceinpublic.com.au/corticallabs.
The paper is available at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0734975023001404.

Abstract

The technology, opportunities, and challenges of Synthetic Biological Intelligence

Brett J. Kagan a,⁎, Christopher Gyngellb,c, Tamra Lysaghtd, Victor M. Coled, Tsutomu Sawaie,f, Julian Savulescub,c,d,g

a Cortical Labs, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
b Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
c The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
d Centre for Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore
e Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan
f Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Biology (ASHBi), Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
g Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Abstract

Integrating neural cultures developed through synthetic biology methods with digital computing has enabled the early development of Synthetic Biological Intelligence (SBI).

Recently, key studies have emphasized the advantages of biological neural systems in some information processing tasks. However, neither the technology behind this early development, nor the potential ethical opportunities or challenges, have been explored in detail yet. Here, we review the key aspects that facilitate the development of SBI and explore potential applications.

Considering these foreseeable use cases, various ethical implications are proposed. Ultimately, this work aims to provide a robust framework to structure ethical considerations to ensure that SBI technology can be both researched and applied responsibly.

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JOURNAL

Biotechnology Advances

DOI

10.1016/j.biotechadv.2023.108233 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Lab-produced tissue samples

ARTICLE TITLE

The technology, opportunities, and challenges of Synthetic Biological Intelligence

COI STATEMENT

B.J.K. is an inventor on patents for technology related to this paper along with being employed at and holding shares in Cortical Labs Pty Ltd., Melbourne, Australia. No specific funding or other incentives were provided for involvement in this publication and there are no further potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

 

Witchcraft accusations an ‘occupational hazard’ for female workers in early modern England

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

 

IMAGE: PAGE OF RICHARD NAPIER'S CASEBOOKS FEATURING THE CASE OF A YOUNG WOMAN SUFFERING PERINATAL ILL HEALTH WHO SUSPECTS HER FORMER MIDWIFE OF WITCHCRAFT. (CASE15411) AUGUST 1. MONDAY 12.15PM 1603 view more 

CREDIT: BODLEIAN LIBRARY

While both men and women have historically been accused of the malicious use of magic, only around 10–30% of suspected witches were men by the 16th and 17th centuries.*  

This bias towards women is often attributed to misogyny as well as economic hard times. Now, a Cambridge historian has added another contributing factor to the mix.  

Dr Philippa Carter argues that the types of employment open to women at the time came with a much higher risk of facing allegations of witchcraft, or maleficium.

In a study published in the journal Gender & History, Carter uses the casebooks of Richard Napier – an astrologer who treated clients in Jacobean England using star-charts and elixirs – to analyse links between witchcraft accusations and the occupations of those under suspicion.

Most of the jobs involved healthcare or childcare, food preparation, dairy production or livestock care, all of which left women exposed to charges of magical sabotage when death, disease or spoilage caused their clients suffering and financial loss.

“Natural processes of decay were viewed as ‘corruption’. Corrupt blood made wounds rankle and corrupt milk made foul cheese,” said Carter, from Cambridge’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science.

“Women’s work saw them become the first line of defence against corruption, and this put them at risk of being labelled as witches when their efforts failed.” This was in contrast to men’s work, which often involved labour with sturdy or rot-resistant materials such as iron, fire or stone.  

Moreover, women often worked several jobs, usually in the heart of their communities – criss-crossing between homes, bakehouses, wells, marketplaces – rather than off in fields or workshops.

“The frequency of social contact in female occupations increased the chance of becoming embroiled in the rifts or misunderstandings that often underpinned suspicions of witchcraft,” said Carter. “Many accusations stemmed from simply being present around the time of another’s misfortune.”    

“Women often combined multiple income streams, working in several households to make ends meet: watching children, preparing food, treating invalids. They worked not just in one high-risk sector, but in many at once. It stacked the odds against them.”

As part of a decade-long project at Cambridge University, over 80,000 of the case notes scribbled down by the astrologer-doctors Richard Napier and Simon Forman were catalogued and digitised.

Napier serviced the physical and mental health needs of ordinary people from the area surrounding his Buckinghamshire practice, taking reams of personal notes on the woes of his clients. His records reveal everyday attitudes to magic in the decades before the English Civil War.

“While complaints ranged from heartbreak to toothache, many came to Napier with concerns of having been bewitched by a neighbour,” said Carter. “Clients used Napier as a sounding board for these fears, asking him for confirmation from the stars or for amulets to protect them against harm.”

“Most studies of English witchcraft are based on judicial records, often pre-trial interrogations, by which point execution was a real possibility. Napier’s records are less engineered. He seems to have kept these notes only for his own reference,” Carter said.

“The astrologer’s services were accessible to the average person. People might visit him to stress-test their theories or look for magical solutions, rather than attempt a risky lawsuit. Napier’s notes allow us access to witchcraft beliefs at a grassroots level, as suspicions bubbled up in England’s villages.”  

Carter was able to use the now-digitised casebooks to trawl through his notes for suspected bewitchments, which made up only 2.5% of Napier’s total casefiles.

Between 1597 and 1634, Napier recorded 1,714 witchcraft accusations. The majority of both accusers and suspects were women, although the ratio of female suspects was far higher.**

Some 802 clients identified the suspected witches by name, and 130 of these contained some detail about the suspect’s work.

Six types of work featured regularly across the 130 cases: food services, healthcare, childcare, household management, animal husbandry, and dairying. Such forms of labour were either regularly or almost exclusively the domain of women.

Dairy was symbolically tied to women as “milk-producers”. Carter found 17 cases of magical spoliation of dairy, and 16 involved women only. For example, Alice Gray suspected her neighbours when cheese began to “rise up in bunches like biles [boils] &… heave & wax bitter”. Failures in brewing and baking were also attributed to female witchcraft.

Women often managed food supplies – a power that bred suspicion. Many tales of tit-for-tat maleficium in Napier’s notes derived from spurned requests for food. “Women were both distributers and procurers of food, and failed food exchanges could seed suspicions,” said Carter.

One potential witch, Joan Gill, gained her reputation after her husband consumed milk she had been saving, and the spoon he supped it with lodged itself in his mouth overnight.   

Not just denying others food but also supplying it could end in accusation. Nine out of ten suspects who sold food were women, with 25 accusations resulting from a bout of sickness after being fed.    

Many women practised as local healers, or “cunning folk”, but this too was a risky occupation: suspicions arose when treatments failed. One male customer, troubled with “a great sorenes [in] his privy [private] partes”, told Napier a female healer had “wewitched him” after he sought a second opinion.

Some of the riskiest work was in what we now call “caring professions”, still dominated by women today: midwifery, attending to the sick or elderly, childminding, and so on. For example, thirteen suspects had cared for the accuser in her childbed.

Infant mortality was high, and the prospect of losing a child often motivated allegations. Over 13% of all recorded witchcraft accusations naming a suspect involved a victim under the age of 12. 

Loss of sheep and cattle was also a common cause of accusation. Just over half of livestock workers at the time were women. This parity can be seen in accusers (28 men and 28 women) but not suspects (15 men and 91 women). “Napier’s casebooks suggest that disputes between men over livestock could get deflected onto women,” said Carter.

“An early modern housewife was responsible for managing the health of livestock as well as humans; she made the poultices and syrups used to treat both. When an animal sickened strangely, this could be interpreted as a malefic abuse of her healing skills.”

"Gendered divisions of labour contributed to the predominance of female witchcraft suspects,” added Carter. “In times of crisis, lingering suspicions could erupt as mass denunciations. England’s mid-17th-century witch trials saw hundreds of women executed within the space of three years.

“Every Halloween we are reminded that the stereotypical witch is a woman. Historically, the riskiness of ‘women’s work’ may be part of the reason why.” 

Notes:
*In mainland Europe, the British Isles and New England in the US.
** Of the 802 accusers in Napier’s records, 500 were female and 232 were male. The gender of the remaining 70 was not recorded. Among the 960 suspects identified by this group of accusers, 855 were female and 105 were male. Collectively, this group of suspects was accused of at least 1,090 separate accounts of maleficium.

The physical calf-bound volumes of Richard Napier’s casebooks are housed in the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library.

Examples from the casebooks used in the latest analysis

A female healer is suspected of witchcraft:

CASE46520

Mrs Pedder the younger of Potters Perry. 33 years (old). April 30 Thursday 11.30 p.m. 1618.

Has not had the right course of her body these 3 years. Fears a consumption & (asks) what is good to keep her from it. Urine very good.

Would have a purge for herself & her husband who fears his father's disease. (He) cares not for meat (food). Is jealous of his wife (she) being very honest & chaste. & (he) is sometimes lunatic & mad. 4 years & a half, every 3 or 4 days. He thinks that he is bewitched with (by) one, a woman that gave his mother physick (medicine).

A young woman suffering perinatal ill health suspects her former midwife:

CASE15411

Sybil Fisher of Cogenhoe. 24 years (old). August 1. Monday 12.15 p.m. 1603

[Astrological chart] lightheaded (delirious).

Lightheaded, laughs, but at first took it with a weeping. Looks ghastly. Fleering (scornful) looks. Sets her teeth. One night did nothing but swear and curse.

Sybil Fisher. She knows not of her husband’s coming for her, knows nobody. They bind her hands and feet. When she is loose she is so strong that they cannot deal with her. Sings idle songs. Desires to dance. She had 2 midwives, the first unskilful, the 2nd froward (grumpy) & would not meddle with her because she was not first sent (for). Her suspected to be a witch. The woman well laid but a week after fell into these fits & at first speaking of her 2nd midwife said ‘what doest thou there with thy black hen?’ & such like speeches.

Man suspects former shepherdess of witchcraft:  

CASE75057

John Johnson 58 years (old). July 11. Wednesday 9.50 a.m 1632. of Doddington by Wellingborough. Shepherd.

A fortnight since was taken in his knee. (It is) swelled & runs up to his thighs & back & (he) cannot rise. A bad stomach.

Back thighs hucklebone (hipbone) & knee. Cannot stir (move) nor rise nor help him(self).

Suspects witchcraft. Agnes Watts kept his sheep two years before. This shepherd much suspects (her). Lost a Cow.

A page from the casebooks of Richard Napier that includes the case of Mrs Pedder the younger of Potters Perry, who suspects a female healer of witchcraft. (CASE46520). April 30. Thursday 11.30pm. 1618.

A page from the casebooks of Richard Napier that includes the case of John Johnson, who suspects his former shepherdess of witchcraft. (CASE75057). July 11. Wednesday 9.50am. 1632

CREDIT

Bodleian Library

JOURNAL

Gender & History

DOI

10.1111/1468-0424.12717 

ARTICLE TITLE

Work, Gender and Witchcraft in Early Modern England