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Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging used for the first time to analyze marine sedimentary records of the Gulf of California is a remarkable improvement over the more conventional X‐ray technique in the identification of organic rich layers. Analytical results indicate that NMRI differentiates clearly between organic rich (light) and organic poor (dark) deposits. It also provides a fine resolution of sedimentary structures, laminae and stratigraphic subtleties. It may be made to yield a three‐dimensional stratigraphy; the procedure is nondestructive. The organic vs. inorganic resolution provided by NMRI technology complemented by X‐ray when needed should facilitate future studies of paleoceanographic, paleoclimatic and biogeochemical cycles recorded in the vast deposits of marine clays.

Dan Newman and Jon Robins combine investigative journalism and academic scholarship to examine how the lives of people suffering problems with benefits, debt, family, housing and immigration are made harder by cuts to the civil justice system.

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Access to justice in England and Wales has been undermined by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. These cuts to legal aid came as part of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government’s austerity programme and they represent part of a deeper legacy of antipathy towards state funding of legal services over recent decades. This socio-legal paper draws on interviews across four case studies with those on the frontline of the legal aid sector to draw out the implications of the LASPO cuts, and the wider disdain of successive governments for legal aid, for social welfare law. Vulnerability theory is used to highlight the importance of the legal aid scheme and the threat posed by the cuts. The paper makes an argument that access to justice is a cause that needs to be championed for the good of all in society. Keywords: access to justice; legal aid; social welfare law; austerity; vulnerability.