Chondritic meteorites, and especially the most volatile-rich chondrites, the carbonaceous chondrites, preserve a record of the solar protoplanetary disk dust component and how it has been changed both in the disk environment itself and in its asteroidal parent body. Here we review some of the key features of carbonaceous chondrites and report some new data on their organics component. These show that the nebula reached temperature of >10000C, but only very locally, to produce chondrules. Most meteoritic material underwent thermal and/or aqueous processing, but some retain delicate nebular components such as complex organic molecules and amorphous silicates.

Palynological research is increasingly revealing the landscape impacts of Norse colonisation in southern Greenland. Typically, although not exclusively, these studies are from depositional environments with highly localised pollen source areas close to fjord-side centres of medieval power. In contrast, this paper presents data from Vatnahverfi, an inland district of the Eastern Settlement, and explores the emergence of a cultural landscape through three pollen sequences at variable distances from Norse farms. Two are from mires with small pollen source areas close to (<100 m) and distant from (≥1500 m) probable farming activities. The other provides a more regional signal of vegetation change, albeit one located close to a Norse settlement. Landnám is marked primarily through an increase in microscopic charcoal and the appearance of pollen from Rumex acetosella, although significant differences between profiles are noted. Close to Norse ruins, pollen productivity from grassland communities increases and woodland and scrub representation declines. Further from archaeological remains, palynologically inferred human activity is primarily characterised by decreased productivity, notably declining influx from woodland and scrub species, reflecting grazing herbivores or coppicing. Abandonment of Vatnahverfi is indicated from the late 14th to early 15th century AD.

How should we identify, protect and preserve contemporary heritage? Five years ago, comparisons in an Antiquity paper between the ‘simulations of scenes’ drawn on the wall of 6 Denmark Street by John Lydon, during Sex Pistols rehearsals in the 1970s, and the Palaeolithic cave art of Lascaux provoked a strong response. Less contentious was the recent listing of the building, bringing its punk artworks under statutory protection. In this follow-up to their earlier article, the authors review the initial reaction from the media, the public and the artist himself, and consider how attitudes may have shifted. They also offer a novel, ‘punk’-informed approach to the management of cultural heritage.

Epidemiological studies suggest a higher prevalence of congenital malformations in children conceived through assisted reproductive technologies. There are a few studies that address CHD specifically and most have examined data from registries. We examined the relationship between CHD and assisted conception using data collected in a specialist paediatric cardiac service in the United Kingdom.

Between April, 2010 and July, 2011, the parents of children attending paediatric cardiology clinics at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, were invited to complete a questionnaire that enquired about the nature of their child’s conception, the route for their original referral, and a number of potential confounding exposures. “Cases” were defined as children diagnosed with one or more carefully defined CHDs and “controls” as those with normal hearts.

Of 894 new attendees with complete data, half of them were cases (n=410, 45.9%). The overall prevalence of assisted conception was 5.4% (n=44). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated a non-significant increase in the crude odds for the use of assisted reproduction (odds ratio 1.21, 95% confidence interval 0.66–2.22) in this group. After adjustment for gestation, parity, year of birth, and maternal age, the odds ratio reduced (odds ratio 0.95, 95% confidence interval 0.48–1.88). Increased rates of assisted conception were observed in a number of CHD subgroups, although no significant differences were found.

These findings do not suggest an overall association between CHD and assisted reproduction in this population.

In case readers are wondering whether this paper is written tongue in cheek — or with tongue sticking out — it is worth recalling that modern archaeology includes recent periods in its remit, and uses recent materiality to help understand more ancient times as well as a critique on modernity itself. Here the authors find graffiti left by a notorious group of popular musicians and probe it for social meaning as earnestly as students of cave art. Their archaeological study finds an underlying driver that is part political, part personal and therefore also part (anti-)heritage.

Pyrochemical and aqueous processing of impure Pu metal and Pu oxide results in a waste stream that contains calcium, plutonium and americium chlorides (CaCl2, PuCl3 and AmCll3) that tend to form insoluble salt layers on top of melts during vitrification. By adding chlorides to ammonium dihydrogen phosphate, ammonium chloride is evolved during vitrification, leaving behind the Ca, Pu and Am cations as oxides. HfO2 and Sm2O3 were used as surrogates for PuO2 and Am2O3 respectively. The effects of waste loading and melt duration on some basic physical properties for different melt durations were investigated. Synthetic batches containing CaO, HfO2 and Sm2O3 in molar ratios 93.34 : 5.91 : 0.74 respectively, reflecting the waste composition, were mixed with a fixed glass composition of P2O5 (75 mol%) and Fe2O3 (25 mol%). NH4H2PO4 was used as a precursor material. The solubility of calcium, hafnium and samarium oxides into phosphate glasses is reported and elemental analysis of the glasses is compared with expected glass compositions.

Interactive rendering combines the geometrical precision of classical computer graphics with the representational freedom of a paint program. It is more sympathetic to the ways in which designers use images, and overcomes many of the frustrations experienced in rendering from CAD models. The scene is generated in a standard viewing application, but saved as a specially enhanced raster image. The extra information allows the interactive renderer to apply brushed-on rendering effects which are sensitive to the perspective of the image. Effects can be applied locally or overall, and may be overlaid, blended and erased to create complex combinations. A huge range of treatments is obtainable, both photorealistic and not.