Compulsory sex-marking as a threat to personal autonomy

University of Chicago Press Journals

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Do our norms around sex presentation uphold a constrictive gender regime? In a new article in Ethics, Ophelia Vedder writes that the abolition of hegemonic gender roles must involve the elimination of “compulsory sex-marking,” or the coercive social practice of signaling sexual identity through conventional means like clothes, hairstyles, and personal pronouns. Ultimately, Vedder writes, sex-marking not only perpetuates heterosexist oppression, but also represents a threat to individual autonomy.

In “Getting Free from Gender: The Case Against Compulsory Sex-Marking,” Vedder writes that sex-marking organizes compulsory heterosexuality by classifying people into two distinctive groups. This system has been defended on the grounds that it eases social coordination by facilitating procreation, demarcating work into “male” and “female” professions, and providing templates for social interactions.  However, under this system, one group—women—is typically singled out for subjugation. Moreover, sex-marking poses an additional harm: “it gives rise to an ascribed identity, funneling individuals into social roles on the basis of unchosen characteristics—namely, the sex to which they were assigned at birth.”

This intrusion upon autonomy is most clearly articulated through the transgender experience, as the perceived deviation from gender norms by trans people often results in severe social repercussions. And it is through the lens of trans liberation, Vedder writes, that a world without compulsory sex-marking must be visualized. Since “some ways of realizing trans embodiment embrace sex-marking,” is a gender free future one that cannot accommodate trans identity? On the contrary, Vedder argues that dismantling our hegemonic gender regime will involve ensuring that sex-signaling practices are flexible, pluralized, and freely chosen. The retreat from compulsory sex-marking will lead to more autonomy for trans individuals, and “will open up a greater space of personal freedom for us all.”

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Journal

Ethics

DOI

10.1086/739662 

Article Title

Getting Free from Gender: The Case Against Compulsory Sex-Marking

 

Restored ecosystems could help defend borders, study suggests

Researchers propose using terrain to deter conflict while delivering environmental benefits

University of East London

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Restoring forests, wetlands and peatlands could help defend national borders as well as tackle climate change, according to new research from the University of East London (UEL).

The study introduces the concept of “defensive rewilding” - the intentional, pre- or mid-conflict restoration of ecosystems to shape terrain in ways that can slow, redirect or impede military advances, while delivering environmental benefits.

The research responds to what the authors describe as a growing “guns versus climate” dilemma, where investment in military capability can come at the expense of action on climate change and biodiversity loss. It reframes the environment as a potential “force multiplier” in national defence.

Rather than treating environmental policy and defence as competing priorities, the research suggests the two can be closely aligned. Unlike temporary battlefield measures such as minefields or field fortifications, defensive rewilding operates at a strategic scale, shaping terrain across entire regions before conflict begins.

Examples include restoring wetlands to create waterlogged ground that is difficult for armoured vehicles to traverse, planting forests to restrict visibility and movement, and re-naturalising rivers to complicate crossing operations. Alongside these defensive effects, such interventions also support carbon storage, flood mitigation and biodiversity recovery.

The authors argue this approach can act as a form of “deterrence by denial”, making attacks more difficult or costly and therefore less likely.

The research draws on both historical and contemporary examples to show how terrain shapes conflict, from the deliberate flooding of landscapes during the First World War to more recent examples from Ukraine, where rivers and saturated floodplains have slowed and redirected armoured advances.

Sam Jelliman, researcher at UEL’s Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) and co-author of the study, said, “Rather than seeing defence and climate action as competing priorities, our research shows they can reinforce one another. You can invest in landscapes that are both more resilient environmentally and more secure militarily.”

Peatlands are a particularly strong example. Their low ground-bearing capacity makes them difficult for even light armoured vehicles to cross, while also acting as some of the most effective long-term carbon stores.

“Peatlands are probably the most challenging terrain to cross, and they’re also one of the most effective natural carbon stores. That makes them a particularly powerful focus - they deliver both defensive and climate benefits at the same time,” Jelliman added.

While the concept offers long-term advantages, the researchers note it would need to be carefully balanced against land use, governance and environmental considerations, and implemented as part of a broader defence strategy.

Research Impact Leader at UEL Alan Chandler, who co-authored the study, said, “Nature-based solutions like this challenge us to rethink what infrastructure really means. By working with natural systems rather than against them, we can build resilience that is both sustainable and strategic. It also shows how integrating ecosystem restoration into national security planning could offer a cost-effective and forward-looking approach to defence in an era of growing geopolitical and climate pressures.”

The study also highlights that restored ecosystems can be more cost-effective and longer-lasting than conventional defensive infrastructure, while delivering additional environmental benefits.

The study, Defensive Rewilding: A Nature-Based Solution for National Security, by Sam Jelliman, Brian Schmidt and Alan Chandler, was published in The RUSI Journal.

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Journal

The RUSI Journal

DOI

10.1080/03071847.2026.2646067 

Method of Research

Commentary/editorial

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Defensive Rewilding: A Nature-Based Solution for National Security

Article Publication Date

7-Apr-2026

 

Underwater architects: How do shell-dwelling cichlids build the perfect nest?

The individual steps of nest-building are instinctive, but only through practice do the fish become true masters.

Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence

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Cichlids build nests from abandoned snail shells. A new study shows that while this behavior is instinctive, the fish become increasingly skilled at it with practice.

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Credit: © MPI for Biological Intelligence / Swantje Grätsch

We associate nests with shelter, warmth, and a safe retreat – and usually picture a bird's nest made out of twigs, grass and feathers. Yet many other animals take advantage of such refuges, with nests being built by a diversity of species ranging from termites to great apes, which impress with their hugely varied forms and the wide array of materials used to construct them.

For fish, nest-building comes with an added challenge as they must put together their underwater nests equipped with ‘only’ their fins. Yet fish too have developed a remarkable variety of nest-building innovations, burrowing into sandy lake beds, creating masses of floating bubbles on the water’s surface, or setting up camp in abandoned snail shells repurposed as nests – as is the case with the shell-dwelling cichlid Lamprologus ocellatus.

Endemic to Lake Tanganyika in Africa, these cichlids use empty snail shells for shelter and to raise their young. To do so, the snail shell is positioned and covered in sand in a very specific way, leaving just the opening exposed – only then does it become the perfect home.

And this is precisely where fascinating questions arise from a biological perspective: How do cichlids know what the nest should look like and how to build one? Is this knowledge innate, or must it first be learned? A team from Herwig Baier’s department at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence has now investigated these questions in a new study.

Working with 3D-printed shells, the team showed that nest-building follows a set sequence of different behavioral motifs and takes the fish around three hours on average. After encountering a snail shell, the fish dig a pit using their body and mouth. Then they grasp the shell with their mouth and maneuver it clockwise into the pit, repeating this until the shell sits tip-down in the sand, with its opening protruding upward. Finally, rapid body movements are used to flick sand over the shell, covering the nest.

To test whether this behavior is innate, the team raised cichlid fish in aquaria without snail shells. When these fish were later introduced to shells as adults, they instinctively began displaying typical nest-building behaviors. At first the unpracticed animals were rather clumsy about it, taking an average of around 12 hours to finish making a nest out of a shell.

However, this clumsiness didn't last. When exposed to shells in two more sessions (each separated by ten days), they created their nests noticeably faster and with more skill, completing their third round of nest building in around four and a half hours.

This shows that the individual steps in nest building are innate, but cichlids only become master nest builders through practice. Remarkably, fish that were given another chance at nest building after a whole year without access to snail shells still displayed the skills of practiced architects and did not have to start from scratch – they were able to remember what they had learned even after this long period.

The researchers also explored whether the fish could adapt to unexpected challenges to their nest-building program. They exposed the fish to 3D-printed, sinistral snail shells. These shells are extremely rare in nature and are a mirrored version of the natural shell of right chirality. Amazingly, after just a short time the fish learned to simply change direction, rotating the shell counterclockwise rather than clockwise into the sand as they do for dextral shells.

“For a long time, it was assumed that nest building consisted of purely innate behavioral patterns. But studies in birds and our own research show that cognitive abilities such as learning, remembering and adapting also play important roles,” says Swantje Grätsch, project leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence and first author of the study. “Accordingly, we were able to show that during nest building in cichlids, brain regions homologous to the mammalian hippocampus are active, which is known to be responsible for precisely these abilities. We are only just beginning to understand how complex this goal-directed behavior and the underlying processes in the brain really are.”

 

Nest-building follows a set sequence of different behavioral motifs, which are shown here.

Credit

© MPI for Biological Intelligence / Christina Bielmeier

Flexible response to variables during nest building [VIDEO] 

During the nest-building program, the fish are able to respond flexibly to variables: If they are provided with a sinistral shell instead of a dextral one, they will turn it the other way around in the sand.

Credit

© MPI for Biological Intelligence / Swantje Grätsch

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Journal

Current Biology

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Cognitive ethology of nest building in a shell-dwelling cichlid

Article Publication Date

10-Apr-2026

 

UC San Diego study links flavored tobacco bans to lower youth vaping in California

Analysis of more than 2.8 million students across California finds reductions in youth vaping use emerging several years after local flavor bans took effect, with no evidence that bans increased cigarette smoking

University of California - San Diego

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Researchers from the University of California San Diego have found that local sales bans on flavored tobacco in California are associated with reduced youth vaping over time without increasing cigarette smoking. The findings, based on an analysis of more than 2.8 million middle and high school students, were published April 10, 2026 in JAMA Health Forum.

“Our findings suggest that local flavored tobacco bans can be an effective strategy for reducing youth e-cigarette use,” said Eric Leas, PhD, MPH, assistant professor at the UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and senior author of the study. “Importantly, we did not find evidence that these policies led young people to switch to cigarettes, which has been a major concern raised in policy debates.”

Electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), commonly known as e-cigarettes or vaping products, have been widely used by adolescents in the U.S. National data show that youth vaping peaked in 2019 when more than a quarter of high school students reported using e-cigarettes, though prevalence has since declined. Despite this decrease, frequent use remains common among current users, raising concerns about nicotine dependence and long-term health risks.

One approach policymakers have used to reduce youth vaping is restricting the sale of flavored tobacco products, which often include fruit, candy or mint flavors that appeal to young users. Prior research has shown that flavored products are a major driver of youth e-cigarette use. 

To better understand the impact of these policies, the research team analyzed responses from 2,805,708 students who participated in the California Healthy Kids Survey between 2017 and 2022. The survey includes students in grades 7, 9 and 11 and asks about past-month use of tobacco products.

The researchers compared tobacco use among students attending schools in jurisdictions with flavored tobacco bans to those in areas without such policies. The study used a dynamic difference-in-differences design to account for variations in when different cities adopted the bans and to track how outcomes changed over time. The dynamic difference-in-differences design method allowed researchers to see whether youth vaping changed after flavored tobacco bans were adopted in different cities — and whether those changes grew over several years, rather than just looking at a simple before-and-after comparison.

Youth vaping rates were lower in areas with flavored tobacco bans. In jurisdictions with a ban, 6.2% of students reported current e-cigarette use, compared with 7.7% in areas without one. Over time, the study found these policies were associated with sustained declines in youth vaping. 

By contrast, the study found no meaningful association between flavored tobacco bans and cigarette smoking among youth. Cigarette use remained roughly the same in jurisdictions with and without the policies.

The delayed reductions in vaping may reflect how policies evolve and are enforced over time. Many local jurisdictions gradually strengthened their rules after initial adoption, for example by expanding definitions of flavored products or adding enforcement provisions. Resources and support for enforcing these laws also grew over time, particularly after California’s statewide ban took effect, helping local communities better implement the restrictions.

California voters approved a statewide flavored tobacco sales ban in 2022, which took effect in 2023. Because many cities had implemented their own restrictions years earlier — some as early as 2011 — the researchers say these local policies provide an opportunity to study longer-term impacts of flavor bans.

The authors note that the study focused on California, a state with historically strong tobacco control policies and relatively low youth smoking rates compared with other states. As a result, the magnitude and timing of the effects may differ in places with different policy environments.

Future research will be needed to understand the long-term impact of statewide bans and how similar policies affect youth tobacco use across different regions and communities.

“Local policies gave us a valuable window into how flavored tobacco restrictions may influence youth behavior over time,” said Giovanni Appolon, MPH, first author of the study who conducted this research as part of experiential learning as doctoral candidate in the UC San Diego - San Diego State University Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health. “As more jurisdictions adopt these policies, continued monitoring will help determine how enforcement, policy design and community context shape their public health impact.”

Link to full study: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2026.0631

Additional co-authors on the study include: David Strong, PhD, Dennis R. Trinidad, PhD, from UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. Heather A. Pines, PhD, S. Wilton Choi, PhD, and Eyal Oren, PhD, from San Diego State University. 

The study was funded by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (Grant # T34DT8325).

Authors disclose no competing interests.

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Journal

JAMA Health Forum

DOI

10.1001/jamahealthforum.2026.0631 

 

New study challenges bleak picture of U.S. state gaps in longevity gains

University of Wisconsin-Madison

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A new study co-authored by two University of Wisconsin–Madison professors suggests longevity gains across all states and regions for people born between 1941 and 2000, in contrast to previous estimates suggesting a century of stagnation or even declines in parts of the South.

Published in the journal BMJ Open, the study by Héctor Pifarré i Arolas and Jason Fletcher of the La Follette School of Public Affairs, along with José Andrade of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, challenges recent estimates that portrayed progress on extending longevity in the United States as sharply divergent across states and regions.

Using new data from the United States Mortality Database, their updated analyses suggest substantially less disparity in longevity gains since the mid-20th century than a recent paper led by Theodore Holford of the Yale School of Public Health and colleagues. Rather than a simple story of steady divergence, the new study describes a more complex, two- phase pattern: rapid convergence in mid-century, when Southern states made up lost ground with much of the rest of the country—driven in large part by gains in child survival in the South—followed by a second phase in which that convergence largely stalled over the second half of the 20th century.

“Our forecasts point to universal gains in cohort life expectancy between 1941 and 2000 for all birth cohorts, sexes, and states,” Pifarré i Arolas says. “States are not expected to experience equal gains in longevity, and convergence across states appears to have stalled since the 1950s, but we find no evidence of the radical increase in disparities across states suggested by some earlier estimates.” Holford’s paper argues that many Southern states saw little gain or even declines in cohort life expectancy in the second half of the 20th century, while states such as New York saw rapid gains, widening disparities across states. The new paper challenges these estimates.

For example, Holford’s paper estimated that Mississippi experienced no female gain in longevity over 50 years, while the updated figures in the BMJ Open study found roughly 7 years.

By investigating regional and state-specific trends, the authors hope this research leads to increased understanding of key drivers of longevity gains, as U.S. states have differed significantly in populations and policies over this period. “Understanding that all statesexperienced gains—especially the substantial improvements in the South earlier in the century—helps shift the conversation toward what drove those successes and why progress has slowed since. That’s where the real policy lessons are,” Fletcher says. In the context of slowing longevity gains in high-income countries, as suggested in recent work by Pifarré i Arolas, Andrade, and colleagues, the study adds to a growing body of research that uses birth cohorts and forecasting methods to clarify how policies and living conditions may contribute to longer or shorter lives.

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Journal

BMJ Open

DOI

10.1136/bmjopen-2025-109623 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Life expectancy gains across US states between 1941 and 2000: a cohort study

Article Publication Date

8-Apr-2026

 

When does the body clock begin to synchronize with local time?

Daily rhythms cross placenta from mother to the baby before the fetus can sense light

Washington University in St. Louis

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By Talia Ogliore

Humans and most other organisms have internal biological clocks that track the daily cycle of sunrise and sunset. These clocks help time our sleep, metabolism and other essential body functions over the course of a day, creating daily patterns called circadian rhythms. Research shows that when these rhythms are disrupted — by jet lag, lack of sleep or irregular work schedules — people can suffer long-term negative health effects.

Scientists who study daily rhythms have long wondered about when the mammalian circadian clock starts ticking and synchronizes to local time. In a new study published in the Journal of Biological Rhythms, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis reported that a mother helps to set the biological clock for her babies while they are still in the womb.

“We know that disrupting circadian rhythms during pregnancy can affect how sleep and daily rhythms develop in infants, and these early disruptions are linked to a higher risk of mood disorders such as anxiety and depression later in life,” said Nikhil Lokesh, study author and a research scientist in biology in WashU Arts & Sciences. “Understanding when the fetal clock begins to function helps us identify sensitive developmental windows when circadian disruption may have lasting effects and how those effects might be prevented or corrected.”

For this new study, WashU scientists developed a way to observe circadian clock activity in fetuses while they are still developing inside the womb. The scientists used genetically engineered mice in which a luminescent protein called luciferase, the same protein that makes fireflies glow, is attached to a clock protein that drives circadian rhythms.

When a male mouse carrying this modified protein mates with a normal female, the tagged clock protein appears in the developing fetuses but not in the mother’s tissues. The pregnant mice were then given drinking water laced with a chemical that reacts with luciferase to produce light. Whenever the clock protein was active in the fetuses, they glowed.

The researchers detected that fetal light using highly sensitive cameras. By recording the glow’s timing, they were able to identify clear cyclical patterns of clock protein expression in babies while they developed inside their mothers’ womb.

“We found clear day-night rhythms in the pups that synchronized to the mother’s rest-activity cycle during the last week of pregnancy, equivalent to the third trimester in humans,” Lokesh said. “This suggests that the clock machinery forms early in development and receives entraining cues from mom later.”

“Importantly, we found daily rhythms across the placenta from the mother to the baby before the fetus can sense light,” said Erik Herzog, the Viktor Hamburger Distinguished Professor in biology, senior author on the study.

The researchers found that circadian synchronization of the pups to the mother coincided with when glucocorticoid hormones from the mother cross the placenta, potentially acting as timing signals for the fetal clock. These stress-related hormones normally rise and fall over the course of the day under the control of the mother’s internal clock.

Synthetic glucocorticoids are routinely given to pregnant women at risk of preterm birth, often without considering the time of day when these hormones naturally fluctuate. The authors found that giving these steroids daily to the mother accelerated the synchronization to local time of the daily rhythms in the pups. These findings may be important when considering how and when doctors administer medications to treat pregnancy conditions.

During the study, the researchers also observed a strong association between failure to develop circadian clock gene activity in the fetuses and failure to deliver. “We cannot yet say whether the absence of rhythms contributes to developmental problems or simply reflects them,” Lokesh said. “But the observation suggests that circadian clock activity may be closely linked to healthy fetal development.”

Lokesh said the findings also highlight the importance of maintaining stable circadian rhythms during pregnancy. “Over 80 percent of the world’s population is exposed to artificial light at night that can disrupt daily rhythms, and this includes pregnant people,” he said.

“Understanding when and how the body clock starts ticking helps scientists identify sensitive developmental windows when circadian disruption may have lasting effects,” Lokesh said. “This knowledge could help guide medical treatments, inform clinical practices and shape public health policies aimed at protecting neonatal circadian health during pregnancy.”

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Nikhil KL, Bates K, Sapiro E, Amme JL, McCarthy R, Speck SL, Vasireddy V, Roberts E, Martin-Fairey CA, Domínguez-Romero ME, Cárdenas-García SP, England SK and Herzog ED. Fetoplacental circadian rhythms develop and then synchronize to the mother in utero. Journal of Biological Rhythms. April 10, 2026. DOI: 10.1177/07487304261435435

This work was supported by National Institutes of Health Grants NINDS R01NS12116 and the March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center. KLN was supported by a fellowship from the McDonnell Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology.

 

Researchers enhance original forestry decision-making software

Mississippi State University

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Mississippi State's Steve Bullard led the development of an updated version of a widely used forestry decision-making tool, improving accessibility and usability while maintaining its analytical strength.

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Credit: Photo by MSU Agricultural Communications

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State researchers have developed an updated version of a widely used forestry decision-making tool, improving accessibility and usability while maintaining its analytical strength.

Originally created in 1999 by a team of scientists in the university’s Forest and Wildlife Research Center, the Forest Valuation and Investment Analysis software program, known as FORVAL, helps foresters and other land managers quantify and evaluate complex management decisions.

Steve Bullard, CFR associate dean and FWRC associate director, who helped create the program, led the development of FORVAL-XL, the new version built specifically for Microsoft Excel.

“This is the most user-friendly version yet,” Bullard said. “We maintain the ability to make complex calculations, including varied costs and revenues over time, but new features include discounted cash-flow results, sensitivity analyses and easy-to-read tables and graphs to support informed forest management decisions. The final product can also be easily exported as a PDF for sharing.”

Jagadish Dosapati, a master’s student in data science from India, helped develop the code for the updated version. Thomas Straka, professor emeritus at Clemson University, and Robert Grala, MSU’s George L. Switzer Professor of Forestry, also played key roles in the project. Grala incorporated forestry students from his forest resource economics course as beta testers, providing real-world feedback during development. He said the approach served two purposes.

“Our students and natural resource students throughout the country are users of this product,” he said. “We were able to identify issues and troubleshoot in real time, tailoring the program to the needs and abilities of future consultants, land managers and real estate investors.”

Together, the team’s work ensures FORVAL remains a practical, classroom-tested tool capable of supporting real-world forestry investment decisions, from small private landholdings to large timber operations. By combining rigorous economic analysis with an intuitive interface, the updated program is designed for both experienced professionals and those new to forest management.

FORVAL-XL and an accompanying user’s manual are free to download at www.fwrc.msstate.edu/software.php.

Learn more about MSU’s College of Forest Resources and Forest and Wildlife Research Center at www.cfr.msstate.edu and www.fwrc.msstate.edu.

Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters. Learn more at www.msstate.edu.