Climate and health activist has been immortalised in a sculpture, The Solomon Siren 鈥� recently installed on her now-flooded former home: Kale Island in the Solomon Islands.

Rising tides completely flooded the 50,000-square-metre Pacific island in 2016. The sculpture sits in the intertidal zone, where patches of rubble and sand rise above the ocean surface from time to time.

Sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor made the sculpture as part of his Sirens series of installations around the world highlighting warming seas, sewage pollution and the presence of microplastics.

When flooding made life untenable, Bartlett and her family had to evacuate to one of the main islands. 鈥淏ack then, [the island] was land 鈥� green, vibrant, full of life,鈥� says Bartlett in a film accompanying the sculpture鈥檚 installation. 鈥淜ale became one of the first documented islands in the Solomons lost to sea level rise.鈥�

The sculpture consists of a marine-grade stainless steel tree on which a life-sized figure of Bartlett leans. The artwork also uses biochar and pH-neutral cement. Hauntingly, as the tide rises and falls, it is intermittently hidden as waves roll over.

Incorporated into the sculpture are inscriptions recording past milestones of Kale鈥檚 submergence along with predictions for a sea level rise of up to 20 centimetres by 2046. But as Taylor says, the sculpture isn鈥檛 intended to work as a scientific measuring instrument, but as a 鈥渟ymbolic representation鈥� of a changing relationship between land and sea.

鈥淲hat happened is a warning not only for us, but for the world,鈥� says Bartlett.

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Stony ground

When you start watching a film, there are some characters you can confidently predict will die. A minor character joining two major characters for an action sequence? Dead to illustrate the stakes. Wise old mentor in an epic fantasy? Sure to die at the end of act two.

Feedback knows these cliches and more, but it hadn鈥檛 previously occurred to us to consider geologists as being at risk. Nevertheless, it turns out they have a life expectancy only marginally better than characters played by Sean Bean.

We learned this from a delightful . Geologist Erik Sturkell at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and his colleagues have amused themselves over the past decade or so by compiling examples of geologists in films: who are they, how are they portrayed and what tends to happen to them?

Sturkell鈥檚 team has now documented 鈥�141 movies, spanning the period 1919鈥�2023 and starring 202 geologists鈥�. It turns out geologists mostly appear in films centred on adventure, drama, action and science fiction. 鈥淕eologist movies are rarely comedic,鈥� write the researchers. Only 11 per cent of movie geologists are female, though this has apparently picked up a bit since the 1990s. Furthermore, cinematic geologists are, if not consistently heroic, 鈥渁t least not guilty of any professional misconduct鈥�.

And yet they are frequently rubbed out. 鈥淕eologists die at an alarming rate in the movies, often very early on,鈥� the authors write. Depending on the decade, the death rate varies between 31.6 and 35.7 per cent. Of the 202 geologists, 69 die, 30 by murder. The authors cite the 1967 film The Money Jungle, which Feedback hasn鈥檛 seen, but which involves multiple oil companies scheming for control of a rich field. During this unseemly squabble, five geologists are murdered, mostly by creative means, 鈥渟uch as being electrocuted by a golf cart, poisoned when taking medicine, gassed by the fireplace and killed when his toy train explodes鈥�. This, the authors note, is 鈥渢he worst serial slaughter of geologists in any movie鈥�.

Across the years, a further 12 geologists died of 鈥渨ork related鈥� causes, such as 鈥渂eing hit by a volcanic bomb, falling into a crater or an opening fault, drowning in quicksand or lahar, and incineration in an oil pit鈥�. Equally common are deaths involving extraterrestrials, such as the geologist in Prometheus who is assimilated by aliens and 鈥渃onsequently killed by former colleagues鈥�.

This is all fascinating, but Feedback finds ourselves consumed by follow-up questions. What are the cinematic death rates for other branches of science? We can鈥檛 help but suspect that palaeontologists must be absolutely getting it in the neck, because they only show up in stories where extinct creatures come back to life and start eating people. On the other hand, movie solid-state physicists are probably having a pretty chill time.

Can anyone point us to a dataset?

Me, me, me

Feedback is alarmed to learn that the lyrics of pop music have become significantly more self-centred over the past few decades.

This is true in the US and Germany, according to a study in PLoS One, which each year from 1970 to 2019. The analysis revealed an increase in the use of first-person singular words like 鈥淚鈥�, 鈥渕e鈥� and 鈥渕ine鈥�, compared with first-person plural words like 鈥渨e鈥� and 鈥渙urs鈥�. Curiously, this didn鈥檛 occur in Japan and Hong Kong, which the study describes as 鈥渕ore collectivist鈥�.

The paper treats this in near-apocalyptic terms, noting that 鈥渃ontemporary societies are increasingly self-focused, as reflected in levels of greed, narcissism, and social disconnection鈥�.

Feedback certainly isn鈥檛 going to mount a 鈥済reed is good鈥� defence, but we do have questions. For starters, how much of the trend is driven by the highly entrepreneurial US, as opposed to the more moderately capitalistic Germany? Second, how much of the increase in 鈥渕e鈥� words can be explained by the rise of solo artists and the total collapse of bands? Do K-pop groups 鈥� at this point basically the only remaining successful bands 鈥� also exhibit this egotistical trend?

She鈥檒l be back

Last month, New 女生小视频 reviewed the book We Are Not Machines: The fight for the future of work, which argues that artificial intelligence is not exactly coming for our jobs, but rather that our jobs are being contorted to fit AI (20 June). The result is that jobs that were once interesting are becoming boring and companies鈥� products and services are getting worse.

Readers Ian Williams and Erik Foxcroft both got in touch to flag the spooky near-coincidence that the book鈥檚 author, a journalist at the Financial Times, is named Sarah O鈥機onnor. 鈥淥, how close to perfection,鈥� says Erik.

Having a name that is almost but not quite that of the lead human character in The Terminator has previously caused ripples. In 2015, O鈥機onnor was the FT鈥榮 employment correspondent and : 鈥淎 robot has killed a worker in a VW plant in Germany.鈥� The combination of seeming cyborg-murderer news and O鈥機onnor鈥檚 name went viral. The irony was that . Feedback assumes she has since watched it, and hopes she concluded her book with a three-word promise of a sequel.

Got a story for Feedback?

You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week鈥檚 and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.

After the British ship Endurance (pictured above) became stuck in an ice sheet in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica in January 1915, the expedition鈥檚 official photographer, Frank Hurley, made a brave decision. He waded into the icy water filling the lower deck to rescue hundreds of his precious glass-plate photo negatives.

To Hurley鈥檚 dismay, Ernest Shackleton, the expedition leader, informed him he would have to abandon most of the negatives because they would weigh down their escape lifeboats. Hurley went through the plates one by one and smashed 400 of them on the ice before he could change his mind and risk his life to return for them, salvaging 120.

Hurley also had to relinquish most of his photography equipment and rely on a pocket camera and a few rolls of film to capture the crew鈥檚 fight for survival as they camped on the ice near their trapped ship for months. 鈥淚t is beyond conception, even to us, that we are dwelling on a colossal ice raft, with but five feet of ice separating us from 2,000 fathoms of ocean, and drifting along under the caprices of wind and tides, to heaven knows where,鈥� wrote Hurley in his diary.

The Endurance sank for good in November 1915. After months camped on the ice, in April 1916, Hurley and the rest of the crew took his fragile photo negatives and remaining supplies on lifeboats to the uninhabited Elephant Island. From there, realising there was little chance of rescue, Shackleton and five men took the James Caird lifeboat (pictured below) on a perilous journey of 1200 kilometres across the Southern Ocean to seek rescue in South Georgia, eventually rescuing the men (including Hurley) who had remained on Elephant Island in August 1916.

While stranded on the ice sheet in the Weddell Sea, Hurley proved to be a hardy survivor, fashioning a blubber stove from an old drum and eating the expedition鈥檚 sledge dogs when food supplies ran short. Pictured below is Leonard Hussey lifting the largest sledge dog, Samson.

Hurley, an Australian photographer, was recruited for the expedition to Antarctica after Shackleton saw a film he had made of Douglas Mawson鈥檚 earlier Australasian Antarctic Expedition, for which he was also the official photographer. Unfortunately, the Shackleton expedition never succeeded in crossing the Antarctic continent.

Now, the UK鈥檚 Royal Geographical Society, in collaboration with Shackleton鈥檚 granddaughter and others, has published (Riverside Press), a compilation of Hurley鈥檚 images that survived. It features the original glass-plate negatives alongside new, high-definition scans that uncover previously hidden faces and details, such as in the image below. Digitisation of the negative revealed a sixth crew member, hidden behind the smoke from the stove.

鈥淭he survival of these negatives through such a journey in such conditions to reach the safety of the Royal Geographical Society鈥檚 collections is extraordinary,鈥� says the society鈥檚 president, Jane Francis, in the book. 鈥淸Hurley鈥檚] images are an example of documentary photography at its finest. He was committed to his craft and would often put himself in danger to create the perfect image. Each of his negatives is not just a visual record of a particular moment, but a beautifully composed, carefully considered piece of art.鈥�