It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, March 16, 2024
Terminator-style robots more likely to be blamed for civilian deaths
UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX
Advanced killer robots are more likely to blamed for civilian deaths than military machines, new research has revealed.
The University of Essex study shows that high-tech bots will be held more responsible for fatalities in identical incidents.
Led by the Department of Psychology’s Dr Rael Dawtry it highlights the impact of autonomy and agency.
And showed people perceive robots to be more culpable if described in a more advanced way.
It is hoped the study – published in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology – will help influence lawmakers as technology advances.
Dr Dawtry said: “As robots are becoming more sophisticated, they are performing a wider range of tasks with less human involvement.
“Some tasks, such as autonomous driving or military uses of robots, pose a risk to peoples’ safety, which raises questions about how - and where - responsibility will be assigned when people are harmed by autonomous robots.
“This is an important, emerging issue for law and policy makers to grapple with, for example around the use of autonomous weapons and human rights.
“Our research contributes to these debates by examining how ordinary people explain robots’ harmful behaviour and showing that the same processes underlying how blame is assigned to humans also lead people to assign blame to robots.”
As part of the study Dr Dawtry presented different scenarios to more than 400 people.
One saw them judge whether an armed humanoid robot was responsible for the death of a teenage girl.
During a raid on a terror compound its machine guns “discharged” and fatally hit the civilian.
When reviewing the incident, the participants blamed a robot more when it was described in more sophisticated terms despite the outcomes being the same.
Other studies showed that simply labelling a variety of devices ‘autonomous robots’ lead people to hold them accountable compared to when they were labelled ‘machines’.
Dr Dawtry added: “These findings show that how robots’ autonomy is perceived– and in turn, how blameworthy robots are – is influenced, in a very subtle way, by how they are described.
“For example, we found that simply labelling relatively simple machines, such as those used in factories, as ‘autonomous robots’, lead people to perceive them as agentic and blameworthy, compared to when they were labelled ‘machines’.
“One implication of our findings is that, as robots become more objectively sophisticated, or are simply made to appear so, they are more likely to be blamed.”
Hazardous machinery: The assignment of agency and blame to robots versus non-autonomous machines
Illinois study: Tropical birds could tolerate warming better than expected
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
IMAGE:
ORNITHOLOGISTS HENRY POLLOCK (LEFT) AND JEFF BRAWN (RIGHT) TESTED THE TEMPERATURE TOLERANCE OF TROPICAL BIRDS ACROSS HABITATS WITHIN NEOTROPICAL FORESTS, FINDING A GREATER RANGE OF TOLERANCE THAN EXPECTED GIVEN PREVAILING THEORIES.
URBANA, Ill. — Consider the globe, spinning silently in space. Its poles and its middle, the equator, remain relatively stable, thermally speaking, for the duration of Earth’s annual circuit around the sun. The spaces between — Earth’s temperate zones — experience seasons, with their characteristic temperature extremes.
It would follow that animals that evolved in each of these zones should match them, physiologically. We expect tropical animals to handle a certain degree of heat, but not wild swings in temperature. That seems to be the case for tropical ectotherms, or “cold-blooded” animals such as amphibians, reptiles, and insects. However, in a first-of-its-kind study of “warm-blooded” endotherms, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign team found tropical birds can handle thermal variation just fine.
“We tested the climate variability hypothesis, which predicts that organisms can't handle variation because they haven't seen it over evolutionary time,” said study co-author Jeff Brawn, professor emeritus in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences (NRES), part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at Illinois. “That may be true for ectotherms, but the evidence is just not there yet for birds in the Neotropics. Now we know they're able to handle it.”
Climate change may increase the average annual temperature in the tropics, as well as in microclimates like forest edges or tree canopies. The study provides some reassurance that, at least when looking at temperature alone, tropical birds should be okay. Why does that matter?
“The Neotropics alone are home to 40% of the world's bird species. Anyone who cares about birds should care about what’s happening in the tropics,” Brawn said. “Also, birds are important for the overall integrity of tropical forest systems, holding down insect populations that could damage trees.”
Brawn and co-author Henry Pollock, who did postdoctoral research in NRES, already showed that both temperate and tropical birds can withstand temperature extremes, disproving the climate variability hypothesis across latitudes. Their new study explains whether variation within habitats matters for specific groups of tropical birds.
Many tropical birds spend their lives deep in the forest understory. Their large eyes suggest they’re well adapted to the dark, where temperatures stay relatively cool and stable. Conversely, other bird groups zip between the forest canopy and its floor, or in and out of forest gaps and edges. These birds, Pollock reasoned, might have more tolerance to temperature fluctuations than their understory counterparts.
He captured birds from 89 species in Panama and, using a technique called respirometry, measured their metabolic rates across a range of temperatures. The birds were safely cooled and returned to their habitats after testing. He also took advantage of long-term weather station data provided by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute to document temperature differences across forest microclimates.
“If you measure temperature in an open area versus in the forest, there are large differences,” said Pollock, now the executive director of the Southern Plains Land Trust. “But we did not find any evidence that those differences translated into greater temperature tolerance among groups of tropical birds.”
Long-term observations indicate that when tropical forests become fragmented due to deforestation, an increasing phenomenon, certain groups of birds are more likely to decline. Insect-eating understory birds are among the hardest hit. For decades, tropical ornithologists believed narrow temperature tolerances may have been to blame for the declines of understory birds, but this study suggests otherwise.
Pollock is quick to point out that he only measured one aspect of an organism’s thermal environment. In the real world, temperature doesn’t increase in isolation; typically, when temperature goes up, so does solar radiation. Humidity and precipitation come into play, as well. And all of these things are part of the equation with habitat loss and climate change.
Still, one aspect of the climate variability and microclimate hypotheses can, for now, be put to rest for tropical birds.
“There's very little good news for tropical birds these days, but it's comforting that we've eliminated one factor as to what may go wrong with climate change. It's actually not a surprise; birds are very adaptable,” Brawn said. “Heat tolerance alone presents an incomplete situation, but this is further empirical evidence that, if it does get warmer, tropical birds may be able to tolerate a certain level of that.”
The study, “Equivocal support for the climate variability hypothesis within a Neotropical bird assemblage,” is published in Ecology [DOI: 10.1002/ecy.4206]. This research was supported in part by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to Henry Pollock; a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research and Development Center—Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (ERDC-CERL) grant (No. W9132T-11-2-0010) and U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture grant (No. 875370) to Jeff Brawn.
Lonely 12 year-olds less likely to gain employment in adulthood
KING'S COLLEGE LONDON
New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London, in partnership with the University of Greenwich, has found that there is a direct socioeconomic impact of loneliness in early adolescence.
The research, published in Social Science and Medicine, found that lonely young adults are more likely to be out of education, employment, or training (NEET) and consider themselves less employable and lower on the economic ladder than their less lonely peers.
Sourcing data from the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, researchers followed the progress of 2,232 individuals born in England and Wales during 1994-1995. Participants were assessed at ages 12, 18 and 26 for levels of loneliness, as well as being asked to rate their social status1. Participants’ employment status and employability were assessed at age 18.
Researchers found that young adults who had experienced loneliness earlier on in life experienced difficulties in young adulthood, even if they were no longer lonely. Researchers suggest that this demonstrates that loneliness impacts a person’s long term economic prospects and suggests that addressing loneliness in early adolescence could yield economic benefits through increased productivity.
Bridget Bryan, a PhD student at King’s IoPPN and the study’s lead author said, “While there are clear impacts of loneliness on mental health from an early age, our study demonstrates that loneliness also negatively impacts a person’s employment prospects. We’ve shown that, from an early age, loneliness can have knock on effects on a person's ability to compete in the job market. This not only harms a person’s chances in life, but also has direct costs to the economy.”
Previous research in this field has suggested a two-way relationship between loneliness and social standing. By using data collected over time, this research showed that feeling lonely negatively influenced a person’s social standing down the line, but social standing did not affect their future loneliness.
Professor Louise Arseneault, Professor of Developmental Psychology at King’s IoPPN and one of the study’s senior co-authors said, “Our research is one of very few studies reporting on the impact of loneliness years later. If we are to create effective prevention strategies, we need to continue collecting data in order to unravel the long-term outcomes of loneliness at various stages of life.
“We need more longitudinal data to unravel the long-term outcomes of loneliness at various stages of life. This can offer insight for developing prevention strategies.”
The study’s researchers argue that their findings highlight the importance of effectively tackling loneliness in order to help both the individual and society.
Dr Timothy Matthews, Lecturer in Psychology at University of Greenwich and one of the study’s senior co-authors said, "While we should never forget that loneliness impacts people of all ages, our research suggests that reducing loneliness in children and young people could yield benefits both for their own employment prospects and for the economy more widely.”
This study was possible thanks to funding from the Colt Foundation and the Medical Research Council, with additional support from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and by the Jacobs Foundation.
Ends
For more information, please contact Patrick O’Brien (Media Manager) on 07813 706 151
Subjective social status was measured at ages 12, 18 and 26, and used an adapted version of the MacArthur subjective social status measure, in which participants were shown a 5 rung ladder representing societal position. They were then asked which rung they thought they belonged to.
The socioeconomic consequences of loneliness: evidence from a nationally representative longitudinal study of young adults (DOI 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116697) (Bridget T. Bryan, Katherine N. Thompson, Sidra Goldman-Mellor, Terrie E. Moffitt, Candice Odgers, Sincere Long Shin Soa, Momtahena Uddin Rahman, Jasmin Wertz, Timothy Matthews, Louise Arseneault) was published in Social Science and Medicine.
About King’s College London and the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
King’s College London is amongst the top 35 universities in the world and top 10 in Europe (THE World University Rankings 2023), and one of England’s oldest and most prestigious universities.
With an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research, King’s maintained its sixth position for ‘research power’ in the UK (2021 Research Excellence Framework).
King's has more than 33,000 students (including more than 12,800 postgraduates) from some 150 countries worldwide, and some 8,500 staff.
The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s is a leading centre for mental health and neuroscience research in Europe. It produces more highly cited outputs (top 1% citations) on psychiatry and mental health than any other centre (SciVal 2021), and on this metric has risen from 16th (2014) to 4th (2021) in the world for highly cited neuroscience outputs. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), 90% of research at the IoPPN was deemed ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (3* and 4*). World-leading research from the IoPPN has made, and continues to make, an impact on how we understand, prevent and treat mental illness, neurological conditions, and other conditions that affect the brain.
The University of Greenwich has been providing higher education for over 125 years.
The University of Greenwich is a public, research university with four faculties: Liberal Arts & Sciences; Business School; Education, Health and Human Sciences; and Engineering & Science. It’s part of the University Alliance group and is silver rated in the Teaching Excellence Framework.
The university operates across three campuses: Greenwich and Avery Hill in London and Medway in Kent. Its renowned research has been globally received and endorsed by nine Times Higher Education Awards and five Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Higher & Further Education.
The socioeconomic consequences of loneliness: evidence from a nationally representative longitudinal study of young adults
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
14-Mar-2024
COI STATEMENT
The E-Risk Study received funding from the Medical Research Council (UKMRC grants G1002190 and MR/X010791). Additional support was provided by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (grant HD077482) and by the Jacobs Foundation. Bridget T. Bryan is supported by a Colt Foundation PhD Fellowship. Katherine N. Thompson is supported by an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) LISS-DTP Studentship. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation or writing of the report. The authors have no interests to declare.
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! a
Revealing environmental exposure to liquid crystal monomers from digital displays
KEAI COMMUNICATIONS CO., LTD.
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INNOVATIVE DETECTION OF LCMS ACROSS DIVERSE ENVIRONMENTS.
Liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) are synthetic organic chemicals used in manufacturing liquid crystal displays (LCDs) present in numerous digital electronic devices. As the use of digital electronics, such as computers and smartphones, becomes increasingly prevalent, concerns over LCMs exposure have risen to prominence as a public health issue. However, research into the occurrence of LCMs in human and environmental matrices remain limited.
In a recent study published in the KeAi journal Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, a team of researchers from the Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, and the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at SUNY Albany, developed an innovative technique to identify 60 different liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) in a variety of samples, including electronic waste, indoor dust, and even in dog feces and urine.
"Our approach, using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), provides insight into the biological and environmental exposure to LCMs, chemicals frequently used in the production of liquid crystal displays,” explains Yuan Liu, the first author of the study. “Notably, we found the widespread presence of LCMs not only in electronic waste but also in dog feces and urine.” This is the first study to report the occurrence of LCMs in dog urine and feces.
The method's performance was evaluated based on accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and feasibility. It demonstrated satisfactory levels of precision and accuracy, with limits of detection deemed suitable for the analysis of LCMs in both environmental and biological samples.
"The versatility of this method enables the comprehensive monitoring of these chemicals across a wide range of matrices, offering a more detailed depiction of potential exposure risks," adds Kurunthachalam Kannan, senior and corresponding author of the study. “It enhances our understanding of the distribution of LCMs and introduces a novel approach to assess their impact on health and the environment.”
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Contact the author: Dr. Kurunthachalam Kannan, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, kurunthachalam.kannan@health.ny.gov
The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 100 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
A method for the determination of 60 liquid crystal monomers in biotic and abiotic samples
COI STATEMENT
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. The author Kurunthachalam Kannan is the Editor-in-Chief for Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology and was not involved in the editorial review or the decision to publish this article.
USTC develops rechargeable, non-aqueous manganese metal battery
UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF CHINA
IMAGE:
A NOVEL ELECTROLYTE REGULATION STRATEGY FOR MULTIVALENT METAL BATTERIES
A research team led by Prof. CHEN Wei from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) revealed for the first time the important role of halogen-mediated solvation structure in the de-solvation process of multivalent ions. The research result was published in Joule on January 31, 2024.
The team managed to use manganese metal batteries (MnMBs) as the research platform to fully demonstrate the important role of halogen-mediated (with Cl as the main research object) mechanism in lowering the overpotential of the multivalent metal ions deposition and enhancing the Coulombic and the dissolution/deposition efficiencies.
With theoretical calculations and experiments, the researchers fully verified that Cl was fully involved in the solvation of Mn2+ in the designed electrolyte, transforming [Mn(Osol)6]2+ solvated structure into [Mn(Osol)3Cl3]2+.
Compared with other atoms, Cl atoms have a larger radius and smaller charge density, thus the solvated Mn-Cl bond is weaker than the Mn-O bond, greatly reducing the de-solvation energies during deposition, lowering the deposition overpotential of the manganese metal anode and significantly enhancing the Coulombic and Faraday efficiencies.
Researchers assembled symmetric and asymmetric cells to demonstrate the halogen-mediated electrolyte's reliability. The experimental data showed that the electrolyte can support stable cycling of symmetric cells for more than 700 h at a current density of 0.1mA cm-2, which is far beyond the performance of the reported manganese-metal battery electrolytes.
The symmetric cells showed steady polarization values at different current densities, which fully demonstrated the excellent multiplicity performance of the electrolyte. In addition, the electrolyte provided a Coulombic efficiency close to 100% and deposition/dissolution overpotentials of <200 mV even on different metallic or nonmetallic collectors. An asymmetric cell assembled from this electrolyte can be stably cycled for more than 1000h when applying Ketjenblack (KB) as the current collector.
Remarkably, the manganese deposition/dissolution efficiency remained as high as 96.8% even at a higher surface capacity (5 mAh cm-2).
To further validate the value of the designed halogen-mediated electrolyte, the researchers also developed a halogen-meditated non-aqueous manganese metal full cell. The cell was able to cycle stably for nearly 600 cycles in the designed halogen-mediated electrolyte and exhibited satisfying multiplicity performance and two well-defined plateaus.
The study offers a new path to develop rechargeable non-aqueous MnMBs enabled by electrolyte engineering, which is expected to benefit other multivalent metal batteries and electroplating industries.
The outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria is a target for antibiotics
For more than a hundred years, bacteria have been classified into Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens according to their staining patterns. Gram-negative bacteria present a significant challenge, because they are enveloped by a second membrane that prevents many antibiotics from penetrating. “On the other hand, the enzymes that produce this outer membrane are unique and are therefore promising targets for specific antibiotics against this group of bacteria,” explains Professor Franz Narberhaus, holder of the Chair of Microbial Biology and study leader.
Key enzyme can be inhibited
The enzyme LpxC, which catalyzes the first irreversible step in the biosynthesis of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, is a highly promising target for the development of antibiotics. In order to determine how the model bacterium Escherichia coli reacts to the blocking of this enzyme, the researchers compared the cellular response to five different LpxC inhibitors. All five substances were able to bind to LpxC and inhibit this enzyme, which led to an accumulation of inactive LpxC in the bacterial cells. In addition, the bacteria were killed by all five substances, although the efficiency varied considerably.
Same same but different
Although all inhibitors target the same site, a number of compound-specific differences were observed in the bacterial response to treatment. Four of the compounds altered the balance in membrane composition, a sign of acute membrane stress. Some substances induced a general stress response or interfered with metabolic pathways that aren’t directly related to membrane biosynthesis. “The takeaway for us is that we should look closely at what is happening in the bacteria before introducing such substances,” cautions Professor Julia Bandow, Head of the Center for Systems-based Antibiotics Research CESAR, where some of the experiments were conducted. Even if the same enzyme is inhibited, it doesn’t automatically follow that the cellular responses of the bacteria are identical.
New antimicrobial agents with great potential
Unfortunately, all LpxC inhibitors available to date are unsuitable for clinical application due to side effects in humans and animals. We have reason to be optimistic, however, as a new LpxC inhibitor described a few months ago combats bacterial infections extremely efficiently and is free of side effects, at least in animal models. “We’re now keen to test how bacteria react to this substance,” says Franz Narberhaus. In the future, the bacterial response to other active substances that attack at earlier or later stages of outer membrane biosynthesis will also be investigated. Despite the great potential of such antibiotics, little is known about their mechanism of action and the bacterial reaction to them.
Growth of bacteria
Increasing concentrations of antibiotics - from left to right - inhibit the growth of bacteria, recognisable by the turbidity.
Common and Varied Molecular Responses of Escherichia coli to Five Different Inhibitors of the Lipopolysaccharide Biosynthetic Enzyme LpxC
Political theorist Achille Mbembe named 2024 Holberg Prize Laureate
The Holberg Prize is one of the largest international prizes awarded annually to an outstanding researcher in the humanities, social sciences, law or theology
The Cameroonian scholar Achille Mbembe is Research Professor of History and Politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER), at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He will receive the award of NOK 6,000,000 (approx. EUR 525,000) during a 6 June ceremony at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Mbembe is one of the most read and cited scholars from the African continent and receives the prize for his pioneering research in African history, postcolonial studies, humanities, and social science over four decades. Both as an academic and as a public intellectual, he is known for his ability to bridge existing thinking on colonialism and decolonisation with pressing questions on topics such as contemporary migration regimes, global citizenship, restitution and reparation, technology, climate change and planetary futures.
As a historian and a political philosopher, Mbembe has been most concerned about the entanglement of Europe and its former colonies. Using Africa as a point of departure for a mode of thinking that is continuous with multiple and interlocking lineages, he has revealed the extent to which the continent is a living laboratory of thought forms and ideas, a vast world of invention, imagination and creativity.
As a critical theorist, his deliberations on the global order have left an enduring mark far beyond debates on postcolonialism. Drawing on African experiences, Mbembe has played a major role in advancing thinking beyond identity and difference, particularly through concepts such as ‘necropolitics’, ‘the universal right to breathe’, or ‘the earthly community’, which speak to the ongoing struggles for recognition and repair as well as care and dignity in a racialized world.
Originally written in French, Mbembe’s books and numerous articles have been translated into seventeen languages. His key books include On the Postcolony (2000/2001), Out of the Dark Night (2010/2021), Necropolitics (2016/2019), Brutalism (2020/2024) and The Earthly Community: Reflections on the Last Utopia (2022), as well as the groundbreaking Critique of Black Reason (2013/2017)—a philosophical study of the meaning of Blackness as it historically emerged. In Necropolitics, Mbembe examines how power structures wield control over life and mortality, shaping the very fabric of existence for oppressed communities.
Describing the key purpose of his work, the Laureate asks: “What are the conditions for rethinking the world in a way that opens up alternative ways of inhabiting it, of being-in-common and of nurturing a planetary consciousness?” “How to think an open future that moves beyond the history of race, colonialism and segregation with which the present is so deeply entangled,” Mbembe continues. “These questions have been at the heart of my research over the span of my career. Behind them lurks an even bigger issue, that of life futures—how can life be repaired, reproduced, sustained and cared for, made durable and universally shared?”
“Mbembe’s oeuvre goes beyond a particularized notion of decolonization to a universalist recentring of the human”, says Holberg Committee Chair Heike Krieger. “For him, this involves a dedication to facing historical truth, while learning and remembering across South-North divides.”
“Congratulations to Professor Achille Mbembe, an outstanding scholar, historian, political philosopher, critical thinker and one of the world’s foremost intellectuals. This award serves as a testament to the distinguished contribution that Professor Mbembe has made to contemporary scholarship, which will undoubtedly inspire generations of scholars in years to come” said Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University.
Mbembe has taught at various universities in the United States, including Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California at Berkeley and at Irvine, Yale University, Duke University and Harvard University. A winner of the Ernst Bloch Award and the Gerda Henkel Prize, he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the British Academy.
Established by the Norwegian Parliament in 2003, the Holberg Prize is one of the largest annual international research prizes awarded for outstanding contributions to research in the humanities, social science, law or theology. The Prize is funded by the Norwegian Government through a direct allocation from the Ministry of Education and Research to the University of Bergen. Previous Laureates include Julia Kristeva, Jürgen Habermas, Manuel Castells, Onora O’Neill, Cass Sunstein, Paul Gilroy, and Sheila Jasanoff. To learn more about the Holberg Prize, visit: https://holbergprize.org/en. For press photos, biography, Committee citation, expert contact information, and more, see: http://holbergprize.org/en/press-room.
Political theorist Achille Mbembe named 2024 Holberg Prize Laureate
Achille Mbembe is research professor of history and politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He will receive the award of NOK 6,000,000 (approx. EUR 525,000) during a 6 June ceremony at the University of Bergen, Norway.
Mbembe is one of the most read and cited scholars from the African continent and receives the prize for his pioneering research in African history, postcolonial studies, humanities, and social science over four decades. Both as an academic and as a public intellectual, he is known for his ability to bridge existing thinking on colonialism and decolonisation with pressing questions on topics such as contemporary migration regimes, global citizenship, restitution and reparation, technology, climate change and planetary futures.
As a historian and a political philosopher, Mbembe has been most concerned about the entanglement of Europe and its former colonies. Using Africa as a point of departure for a mode of thinking that is continuous with multiple and interlocking lineages, he has revealed the extent to which the continent is a living laboratory of thought forms and ideas, a vast world of invention, imagination and creativity.
As a critical theorist, his deliberations on the global order have left an enduring mark far beyond debates on postcolonialism. Drawing on African experiences, Mbembe has played a major role in advancing thinking beyond identity and difference, particularly through concepts such as ‘necropolitics’, ‘the universal right to breathe’, or ‘the earthly community’, which speak to the ongoing struggles for recognition and repair as well as care and dignity in a racialized world.
Originally written in French, Mbembe’s books and numerous articles have been translated into seventeen languages. His key books include On the Postcolony (2000/2001), Out of the Dark Night (2010/2021), Necropolitics (2016/2019), Brutalism (2020/2024) and The Earthly Community: Reflections on the Last Utopia (2022), as well as the groundbreaking Critique of Black Reason (2013/2017)—a philosophical study of the meaning of Blackness as it historically emerged. In Necropolitics, Mbembe examines how power structures wield control over life and mortality, shaping the very fabric of existence for oppressed communities.
Describing the key purpose of his work, the Laureate asks: “What are the conditions for rethinking the world in a way that opens up alternative ways of inhabiting it, of being-in-common and of nurturing a planetary consciousness?” “How to think an open future that moves beyond the history of race, colonialism and segregation with which the present is so deeply entangled,” Mbembe continues.“These questions have been at the heart of my research over the span of my career. Behind them lurks an even bigger issue, that of life futures—how can life be repaired, reproduced, sustained and cared for, made durable and universally shared?”
“Mbembe’s oeuvre goes beyond a particularized notion of decolonization to a universalist recentring of the human”, says Holberg Committee Chair Heike Krieger. “For him, this involves a dedication to facing historical truth, while learning and remembering across South-North divides.”
About the Holberg Prize Established by the Norwegian Parliament in 2003, the Holberg Prize is one of the largest annual international research prizes awarded for outstanding contributions to research in the humanities, social science, law or theology. The Prize is funded by the Norwegian Government through a direct allocation from the Ministry of Education and Research to the University of Bergen. Previous Laureates include Julia Kristeva, Jürgen Habermas, Manuel Castells, Onora O’Neill, Cass Sunstein, Paul Gilroy, and Sheila Jasanoff. To learn more about the Holberg Prize, visit: https://holbergprize.org/en. For press photos, biography, Committee citation, expert contact information, and more, see: http://holbergprize.org/en/press-room.
