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    Interaction of novel hydrocolloids from indigenous New Zealand ferns with κ-carrageenan and low-acyl gellan gum
    (Elsevier Ltd, 2026-08-28) Han XY; Goh KKT; Waterland MR; Matia-Merino L; Pen FZW
    Growing demand for sustainable hydrocolloids has spurred the exploration of polysaccharides from New Zealand's diverse fern flora. This study investigates interactions between polysaccharides extracted from Sphaeropteris medullaris (mamaku gum, MG) and Parablechnum novae-zelandiae (kiokio gum, KG), with κ-carrageenan (κC) and low-acyl gellan (LAG), selected from a preliminary screening of commercial hydrocolloids. MG and KG are non-gelling anionic glucuronomannans exhibiting unusual shear-thickening behaviour, but their interactions with other polysaccharides remain unexplored. Mixtures were characterised using rheology, TPA, FTIR, cryo-SEM, syneresis, water-holding capacity (WHC) and freeze–thaw stability across different blend ratios, temperatures, ionic strengths, and pH values. Crude and purified forms of MG and KG impacted differently in these mixtures; κC and LAG gels containing crude fern gums were significantly firmer, with functionality dominated by endogenous ions. Conversely, κC and LAG gels containing purified fern gums were softer, heterogeneous and displayed micro-phase separation, which was exacerbated at pH 3 and pH 9. These findings are consistent with a segregative interaction resulting in a phase-separated gel network. From a formulation perspective, purified fern gums were able to modulate gel microstructure and functionality independently of ionic effects, offering advantages for ion-sensitive formulations. The LAG-purified MG blend also maintained its WHC after one freeze-thaw cycle, highlighting potential for frozen products. Overall, the distinct behaviour of crude and purified fern gums offers an adaptable approach to texture modification in mixed polysaccharide systems.
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    Climate theatre as reversal agent: eerie art and the anaesthesia of capitalism
    (Taylor & Francis Group, 2026-07-15) Tweed B; Tilley E
    This article examines short plays produced by Climate Change Theatre Action (CCTA), using a lens from Mark Fisher who is living with us still (eerily haunting us, perhaps) through his two books Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? (2009) and The Weird and the Eerie (2016). We first draw on Capitalist Realism to examine our current capitalist predicament and its numbing of sensation that makes it difficult to envision alternatives. We connect this with Fisher’s conceptualisation of the eerie as an encounter with obscured agents or agency which is how capitalism operates but, as a theatrical technique, might offer a chink in capitalism’s armour through which eerie art can make a Real impact on capitalist reality. We then examine three short CCTA plays written over the past decade and consider the part that eeriness plays in their anti-capitalism. From this analysis, we broaden out to consider whether, in our current capital-induced anaesthesia in which it is almost impossible to imagine how things would work outside of capitalism, eeriness might be one of theatre’s most crucial contributions, offering not only a glimpse of capitalism’s obfuscation of causality, but also some concrete prototyping of alternatives.