The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Director Zhao leads the history-makers at Oscars
Road movie Nomadland won the top prize at the Oscars, where director Chloe Zhao made history.
The ceremony also saw Sir Anthony Hopkins win the best actor Oscar, defeating the late Chadwick Boseman, while Daniel Kaluuya won the best supporting actor prize.
Zhao, who was born in China, is the first woman of colour to win the award for directing, and the second woman in history.
The only other woman to win the directing prize is Kathryn Bigelow, who was honoured for The Hurt Locker in 2010.
Nomadland, which tells the story about a woman travelling through the American West, also scooped the best actress prize for its star Frances Mcdormand.
Mcdormand, who has now won three best actress Oscars, howled on stage as the film won the best picture gong.
It was a tribute to Nomadland production sound mixer Michael Wolf Snyder, who died at the age of 35 earlier this year.
Sir Anthony, 83, who did not attend the ceremony, is the oldest winner of the best actor category.
He previously won an Oscar in 1992 for his defining role as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence Of The Lambs.
He won for his performance in The Father, about a man slipping into dementia, defeating presumptive favourite Boseman, who died last year aged 43 following a private four-year battle with colon cancer.
Boseman was nominated for his performance as an ambitious trumpeter in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Kaluuya, who was born in London to Ugandan parents, is the first black British winner of the best supporting actor prize, as he was celebrated for his portrayal of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in Judas And The Black Messiah.
In his acceptance speech, Kaluuya told of his admiration for Hampton, who was shot and killed by police in Chicago in 1969 when he was 21.
He praised Hampton’s work in the black community and took aim at the forces of the state that worked to bring him down.
“When they played divide and conquer, we say unite and ascend,” Kaluuya said.
“There’s so much work to do guys and that’s on everyone in this room. This ain’t no single man job.”
Babies in the womb respond to their mother’s voice and touch, new research has revealed. Experts found a baby in the womb will make more sucking motions when touched or spoken to, compared with those who are left alone.
Scientists said the study gives “clear evidence” there is a response from an unborn baby to its mother’s touch or voice.
The team from Dundee University wanted to determine whether a baby’s social engagement begins at birth or develops within the womb.
And scientists said the findings indicate that interacting with an unborn baby is not just “wishful thinking” on the part of the mother.
Twelve pregnant women, with foetuses between 25-33 weeks of gestation, attended 4D ultrasound sessions.
Mothers carried out five tasks – interactive touch, interactive talk, non-interactive touch, non-interactive talk, and a control, where no contact was made at all.
Interactive tasks required mothers to speak to or touch the baby over a twominute period.
For non-interactive tasks, mums were told a laminated sheet would be shown for five seconds, and in this time they should talk or touch.
The study found that the interactive talk condition prompted increased levels of face-touching by the baby in the womb compared to all conditions at almost a minute on average.
The lowest level of facetouching, at under 20 seconds, was prompted by the non-interactive touch condition.
Mouth opening significantly increased in the interactive talk condition at almost five seconds.
The baby’s levels of self-touching decreased in response to the mother touching her bump, as if the foetuses were focusing on the mother’s touch instead of self-touch.
Dr Emese Nagy, an expert in fetal-neonatal psychology who led the study, said: “There has always been a lot of questions about how communicative a baby in the womb can be.
“Many mothers feel that they can communicate with their babies in the womb by touching or talking to them, and this study has allowed mothers to see this very eyes.
“Our research allowed us to analyse frame-by-frame the response of the foetus to the interactions from outside and there is clear evidence to suggest that there was a response, even just small movements, to interactions from their mothers.
“This is the first study to compare interactive versus non-interactive engagement of the foetus,” she pointed out.
“Though the numbers involved were small, it certainly indicates that interacting with an unborn baby is not just wishful thinking on the part of the mother.
“Further studies with a larger number of volunteers could help to establish just how commonplace this behaviour is,” Dr Nagy added. before their