Wind turbines kill mostly female and juvenile bats

Many bats die at wind turbines when colliding with the spinning blades. Currently it is unclear whether all age cohorts or sexes are equally vulnerable. A comparison of age, sex and geographic origin of Nathusius' pipistrelles killed at wind turbines and living conspecifics from nearby populations now reveals that juveniles are killed more frequently than adults compared to their proportion in local populations. Females are killed more frequently than males -- yet in line with their higher proportion in local populations. The high number of killed females and the elevated vulnerability of juveniles may have a negative effect on the long-term survival of populations, indicating that the current practice of wind energy production may not be ecologically sustainable. The investigation was led by scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) and is published in the scientific journal Ecological Applications.

In an effort to reduce the negative effects of CO₂ emissions on global climate, many countries are promoting energy production from renewable sources such as wind. Although being considered environmentally friendly, wind energy production comes at notable costs to biodiversity. First, animal populations may suffer from habitat loss during wind turbine constructions in sensitive areas such as forests or wetlands. Second, birds and bats may be killed by operating turbines, either by directly colliding with the rotating blades of turbines or -- in the case of bats -- by a so-called barotrauma in the tailwind vortices of the spinning blades. Until now, it was unclear whether some age cohort or sex of bats may be particularly vulnerable to encounters with wind turbines. A higher vulnerability of, for example, female or juvenile bats might have strong conservation implications.

"In our comparative investigation we observed more juvenile Nathusius' pipistrelles (Pipistrellus nathusii) dead beneath wind turbines than expected from their frequency in the local population, suggesting that juvenile bats may be particularly vulnerable to encounters with wind turbines," says Dr Christian Voigt, head of the Leibniz-IZW Department of Evolutionary Ecology and senior author of the paper. "We found this significant bias at low wind turbine densities in areas with water bodies and forests where Nathusius' pipistrelles breed. In areas with high turbine densities such as in coastal regions, this difference was no longer observed." A high vulnerability of juvenile Nathusius' pipistrelles at wind turbines may reduce juvenile recruitment and thereby have detrimental effects on the population viability. Although the proportion of females among the killed bats was not higher than in the local population, Voigt and his team still consider the death of female bats a conservation concern for the migratory bats. "Females and juveniles are extremely important for ensuring the long-time viability of populations. Protecting juvenile and female bats from being killed should be a high-priority goal for planning and operation of wind parks," concludes Voigt.

Voigt and his colleagues looked into the characteristics of about 650 individuals of Nathusius' pipistrelles bats during the summer migration period in Germany. They statistically evaluated sex, age and geographic origin for both killed bats (119) and individuals from local populations (524) caught in nets or observed in artificial daytime roosts. In order to distinguish regional bats from conspecifics originating from Balto-Russian populations, they analysed stable hydrogen isotopes in the fur of bats. "In contrast to sex and age, the origin of a bat does not influence the likelihood of being killed at wind turbines," says first author Cecília Kruszynski de Assis, doctoral student in the Leibniz-IZW Department of Evolutionary Ecology. "However, our investigation demonstrates that wind turbines can have uneven effects on migratory bats. Schemes to mitigate wind turbine mortality, such as elevated cut-in speeds, should be implemented throughout Europe to prevent population declines of migratory bats."

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Materials provided by Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW). Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

#Environment | https://sciencespies.com/environment/wind-turbines-kill-mostly-female-and-juvenile-bats/

MIT scientists design a 'flying saucer' that could float across the Moon

Researchers have imagined a lightweight, flying saucer-style rover that can float across the surface of the Moon and other airless planetary surfaces such as asteroids.

The 'flying saucer' would be powered by the electric field that builds up due to direct exposure to the Sun and its surrounding plasma. In the absence of an atmosphere, this solar exposure creates a charge that's able to levitate dust more than a meter (more than three feet) above the lunar surface, and it could be possible to harness this energy.

The rover would be made of a material called Mylar, which naturally holds the same charge when hit by the Sun's rays. Tiny ion beams would be used to both charge up the vehicle and boost the natural surface charge, counteracting gravity.

How the rover might look. (MIT)

"With a levitating rover, you don't have to worry about wheels or moving parts," says aerospace engineer Paulo Lozano, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

"An asteroid's terrain could be totally uneven, and as long as you had a controlled mechanism to keep your rover floating, then you could go over very rough, unexplored terrain, without having to dodge the asteroid physically."

The ion thrusters, called ionic-liquid ion sources, are small nozzles that have previously been used to propel satellites through space. The actual fuel is molten salt, which when hit with an electric charge, shoots out of the nozzles as a beam.

Here, the charge is transferred to the surface below to supplement its own natural charge. Mathematical models confirmed the idea could work, and would provide enough of a thrust to get the gliding rover off the ground.

In a lab experiment using ionic-liquid ion sources to create an electrostatic force, the team was able to get a small, palm-sized vehicle weighing about 60 grams (2.1 ounces) to levitate. The amount of force required would depend on the size of the planetary body.

The test setup. (MIT)

"This kind of ionic design uses very little power to generate a lot of voltage," says Lozano. "The power needed is so small, you could do this almost for free."

When you're packing for a trip to the Moon (or anywhere else in space), it's important to pack as light as possible – heavier loads need more fuel and cost more money to launch. In this case, the proposed probe would be sourcing a lot of its power naturally.

The current analysis only proves that levitation is possible. In order to get the rover up to a respectable height, further modeling is going to be required, the researchers say – but the underlying calculations check out.

Large asteroids like Psyche could also be explored by this kind of rover, giving experts a way of examining these rocky bodies up close with a vehicle that isn't fazed by uneven surfaces and which can draw some of its power from natural electric fields.

"We think of using this like the Hayabusa missions that were launched by the Japanese space agency," says Oliver Jia-Richards, a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow from MIT.

"That spacecraft operated around a small asteroid and deployed small rovers to its surface. Similarly, we think a future mission could send out small hovering rovers to explore the surface of the Moon and other asteroids."

The research has been published in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets.

#Space | https://sciencespies.com/space/mit-scientists-design-a-flying-saucer-that-could-float-across-the-moon/

Farmed seafood supply at risk if we don’t act on climate change

The supply of farmed seafood such as salmon and mussels are projected to drop 16 per cent globally by 2090 if no action is taken to mitigate climate change, according to a new UBC study.

Ocean-farmed seafood or mariculture is often seen as a panacea to the problems of depleted stocks of wild fish and growing human demand, and is expected to grow substantially in the coming years, says lead author Dr. Muhammed Oyinlola (he/him), a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries (IOF). But the new modelling study highlights the industry is as vulnerable to the effects of climate change as any other. "If we continue to burn fossil fuels at our current rate, the amount of seafood such as fish or mussels able to be farmed sustainably will increase by only eight per cent by 2050, and decline by 16 per cent by 2090."

By comparison, in a low emissions scenario where the action is taken to mitigate climate change, mariculture is projected to grow by about 17 per cent by the mid-21st century and by about 33 per cent by the end of the century, relative to the 2000s.

The model takes into account many factors, including changing ocean temperatures, suitable mariculture areas in the future, and the supply of fishmeal and fish oil. It examined approximately 70 per cent of the world's mariculture production as of 2015, focusing on Exclusive Economic Zones, where most of the world's seafood farming occurs.

Climate change will affect mariculture production differently depending on where farms are in the world, and what they produce, says Dr. Oyinlola. The hardest-hit regions in the high-emissions scenario -- Norway, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Netherlands, and China -- could see their mariculture production decline by as much as 40 to 90 per cent.

Climate effects on mariculture include changes in the area of viable ocean in which to farm fish as well as the stock of food used to feed them. Fish farms tend to use fishmeal and fish oil, which are largely composed of smaller fish such as herring and anchovy -- stocks which are also threatened by climate change.

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"Some regions produce more bivalves, such as mussels, oysters and clams, and in these regions, the impact is smaller," Dr. Oyinlola said. "In regions that produce more finfish, such as salmon, the impact will be high due to reduction in the supply of fishmeal and fish oil."

Under current carbon emission rates, finfish farming, such as salmon, is projected to decrease globally by three per cent by 2050, and 14 per cent by 2090. Bivalve farming is projected to increase by 2050 and decrease by 2090 under both climate scenarios.

Countries where mariculture is prominent especially for finfish production, such as Norway, Iceland, Finland, Chile, and Bangladesh, will be hit hardest, according to Dr. Oyinlola, whereas regions that produce more bivalves will be more stable or in Canada's case, will grow.

Vegetarian fish: feeding fish soybeans

The study also found that substituting fishmeal and fish oil for plant-based foods such as soybeans could help alleviate the effects of climate change for fish farms.

When a quarter of the fish food was substituted with alternatives, under a low emissions scenario, mariculture production was projected to increase by 25 per cent by 2050 and 31 per cent by 2090.

With no change to current emissions, when a quarter of the fish food was substituted with alternatives, mariculture production was projected to increase by 15 per cent by 2050 and four per cent by 2090. When half the food was substituted in both climate scenarios, these percentages increased.

"This study highlights the need to diversify mariculture development from the current focus on fish," said senior author Dr. William Cheung (he/him), IOF professor and director. Climate-adapted mariculture would include species that are not dependent on fishmeal and fish oil, such as shellfish or algae, or those that can utilize non-fish-based feed. "Farming these species generally helps to reduce exposure of seafood farming to climate hazards."

While there is enthusiasm about ocean mariculture helping to increase the production of seafood, the study shows if humans don't relieve climate change, such enthusiasm will be tempered, says Dr. Cheung. "Climate change affects everything, including aspects of seafood farming we've not previously considered. We need to act, and quickly, to mitigate climate change rather than rely on one solution to solve all our seafood production problems."

#Nature | https://sciencespies.com/nature/farmed-seafood-supply-at-risk-if-we-dont-act-on-climate-change/

China’s space station maneuvered to avoid Starlink satellites

HELSINKI — China has informed the United Nations that its crewed space station twice maneuvered to avoid potential collisions with SpaceX Starlink satellites earlier this year.

A notification dated Dec. 6 by China under Article V of the Outer Space Treaty stated that the Tianhe space station module conducted preventive collision avoidance due to close approaches by the Starlink-1095 (2020-001BK) and Starlink-2305 (2021-024N) satellites on July 1 and Oct. 21 respectively.

Starlink satellites typically orbit at around 550 kilometers above the surface of the Earth, but the pair had lowered their altitudes, apparently as part of active deorbiting maneuvers at the end of the satellites’ life. 

This saw the pair drift into the path of China’s Tianhe, the first module for the country’s space station. Both times Tianhe was inhabited, by the three-person crew of the Shenzhou-12 mission in July, and the ongoing Shenzhou-13 mission during the October close approach.

Satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, confirmed the two close approaches and avoidance burns using data published by U.S. space tracking. The October pass appears to have been within three kilometers.

I confirmed the Starlink/Chinese Space Station conjunctions on Jul 1 at 1315 UTC (S-1095) and Oct 21 at 2200 UTC (S-2305), with CSS orbit adjustmets at about 0950 UTC Jul 1 and 0316 UTC Oct 21. The Oct passes shown here: pic.twitter.com/DmbIucpRPF

— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) December 28, 2021

The note from China requested the UN secretary-general to remind others that, “States Parties to the Treaty shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, whether such activities are carried on by governmental agencies or by non-governmental entities, and for assuring that national activities are carried out in conformity with the provisions set forth in the present Treaty.”

McDowell told SpaceNews via email that the “A/AC.105 UN series is usually ‘we did this, watch out,’ not ‘we are unhappy someone else did this,’ making this complaint very unusual. 

“I expect people will go ‘um, you know the ISS had to dodge debris from the Chinese ASAT more than once too?’ But I think this is another sign we are in a qualitatively new era where the crowding of low Earth orbit is concerned,” McDowell noted.

SpaceX has so far not responded to a request for comment on the incident. 

The company has launched nearly 1,950 Starlink satellites, of which about 1,800 are in orbit and providing internet services. SpaceX has plans for 12,000 satellites already approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and has submitted paperwork for 30,000 more across a range of altitudes.

Reuters reported that Chinese internet users have heavily criticized Elon Musk over the incident, following Chinese media reporting on the maneuvers.

Global Times, a Beijing-based tabloid known for nationalistic screeds, cited a Chinese aerospace commentator Dec. 27, suggesting SpaceX possibly “aimed to test China’s sensibility in space” with the two close approaches.t

SpaceX’s Starlink project has been challenged and criticized, by competitors, astronomers, and others, with one industry official saying, “they don’t play well with others.”

The 22-metric-ton, 16.6-meter-long, and 4.2-meter-diameter Tianhe launched in April this year as the first of three modules to form the Tiangong space station. Two Tianzhou cargo spacecraft and the Shenzhou-13 spacecraft are currently docked with the module.

A Long March 2F and Shenzhou-14 spacecraft are in a state of near-readiness at the Jiuquan launch center in the Gobi Desert in case of emergency. Such a launch should be nine days according to reports.

China’s human spaceflight agency (CMSA), the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center (BACC), and the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), have been working to establish the space station and adjust to the challenges of and gaining experience in operating long-term crewed missions in LEO, including cargo supply, spacewalks, and maintenance. 

Being able to avoid debris requires being able to detect, track and predict courses of objects in low Earth orbit and be able to maneuver a spacecraft accordingly. 

The International Space Station has been required to adjust its orbit to avoid debris numerous times, including due to fragments from a 2007 Chinese military destructive anti-satellite missile test—the largest debris-creating incident to date—as well as rocket upper stages from other countries. 

In a further tweet, McDowell suggests the Starlink satellite involved in the July 1 encounter may have performed an avoidance burn, but communication may not have occurred. 

A 2019 incident in which an ESA spacecraft dodged a Starlink satellite had earlier highlighted the need for coordination between satellite operators.

“It’s now gone beyond a question of whether we should trust their algorithms or not: with the highest percentage of operational LEO satellites now being owned and operated by Starlink, we have no choice but to trust their algorithms,” said Christopher Newman, professor of space law and policy at Northumbria University in the United Kingdom. “That causes real problems for governance when space diplomacy depends largely upon transparency.”

Low Earth orbit is becoming increasingly crowded, raising the risk of collisions. The growing debris problem threatens space infrastructure upon which many aspects of everyday life now depend. 

Debris removal spacecraft and missions are in development, as are technologies and practices for reducing risk. Starlink is far from the only constellation that poses new challenges, however.

Other companies such as OneWeb and countries including China are also planning LEO megaconstellations. Earlier this year China created a company to manage the construction of a 13,000-satellite constellation for LEO communications. 

China has so far not commented on a Nov. 15 Russia ASAT test which created debris that threatened the ISS. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a Nov. 16 press conference that, “We noted relevant reports and that Russia has yet to respond. I think it is too early to make any comment.”

#Space | https://sciencespies.com/space/chinas-space-station-maneuvered-to-avoid-starlink-satellites/

FAA delays completion of Starship environmental review

SANTA FE, N.M. — The Federal Aviation Administration says it needs at least two more months to complete an environmental review of SpaceX Starship orbital launches from its Boca Chica, Texas, facility.

The FAA said Dec. 28 that was unable to meet an original Dec. 31 deadline to complete an environmental assessment of plans by SpaceX to conduct orbital launches of its Starship/Super Heavy vehicle from the Boca Chica facility the company calls Starbase. That review, formally known as a Programmatic Environmental Assessment (PEA), is a key requirement for obtaining an FAA launch license needed for those launches.

“However, due to the high volume of comments submitted on the Draft PEA, discussions and consultation efforts with consulting parties, the FAA is announcing an update to the schedule,” the FAA stated on its website. “The FAA now plans to release the Final PEA on February 28, 2022.”

The FAA received more than 18,000 public comments to the draft version of the report, released in September. SpaceX is working to respond to those public comments under the supervision of the FAA, the agency noted, but did not give further details about the analysis of the comments. Two public hearings about the review in October generated many comments both supportive and critical of SpaceX’s plans.

The environmental review process also includes consultations with other government agencies. The FAA noted that those consultations involve those regarding endangered species and perseveration of historical sites.

The postponed completion of the environmental review means a delay in the award of an FAA launch license for Starship/Super Heavy orbital launches from Boca Chica. In November, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said he expected to get the launch license at the end of 2021 with a first orbital launch projected for January or February 2022.

It is not clear, however, that SpaceX would be ready for an orbital launch attempt on that schedule even if the environmental review and licensing process was completed as previously planned. Musk said in November that SpaceX would perform a “bunch of tests” of the Starship vehicle and its Super Heavy booster in December, but many of those anticipated tests, such as static fires, have not occurred yet.

There is also no guarantee that the new Feb. 28 deadline will not be extended again. An environmental review of a proposed launch site in Georgia, Spaceport Camden, suffered a series of delays lasting months before the FAA awarded a spaceport license for the facility Dec. 20.

#Space | https://sciencespies.com/space/faa-delays-completion-of-starship-environmental-review/

China Accuses US of Unsafe Space Conduct After Near-Miss With Elon Musk's Starlink

Beijing on Tuesday accused the United States of irresponsible and unsafe conduct in space over two "close encounters" between the Chinese space station and satellites operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Tiangong, China's new space station, had to maneuver to avoid colliding with one Starlink satellite in July and with another in October, according to a note submitted by Beijing to the United Nations space agency this month.

The note said the incidents "constituted dangers to the life or health of astronauts aboard the China Space Station".

"The US... ignores its obligations under international treaties, posing a serious threat to the lives and safety of astronauts," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a routine briefing on Tuesday.

Starlink, a division of SpaceX, operates a constellation of close to 2,000 satellites that aims to provide internet access to most parts of Earth.

SpaceX is a private American company, independent of the US military and civilian space agency NASA.

But China said in its note to the UN that members of the Outer Space Treaty – the foundation of international space law – are also responsible for actions by their non-government entities.

Addressing reporters, US State Department spokesman Ned Price declined to respond specifically to the Chinese accusations.

"We have encouraged all countries with space programs to be responsible actors, to avoid acts that may put in danger astronauts, cosmonauts, others who are orbiting the Earth or who have the potential to," Price said.

SpaceX has not responded to a request for comment.

Evasive maneuvers to reduce the risk of collisions in space are becoming more frequent as more objects enter Earth's orbit, said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

"We've really noticed the increase in the number of close passes since Starlink started getting deployed," he told AFP.

Any collision would likely "completely demolish" the Chinese space station and kill everyone on board, McDowell added.

The core module of China's station Tiangong – meaning "heavenly palace" – entered orbit earlier this year, and it is expected to become fully operational next year.

Prepare to boycott Tesla

Beijing's complaint about Starlink prompted criticism on Chinese social media of SpaceX's billionaire founder Musk, who is widely admired in China.

One hashtag about the topic on the Twitter-like Weibo platform racked up 90 million views Tuesday.

"How ironic that Chinese people buy Tesla, contributing large sums of money so Musk can launch Starlink, and then he (nearly) crashes into China's space station," one user commented.

Musk's electric car maker Tesla sells tens of thousands of vehicles in China each month, though the firm's reputation has taken a hit this year following a spate of crashes, scandals and data security concerns.

"Prepare to boycott Tesla," said another Weibo user, echoing a common response in China to foreign brands perceived to be acting contrary to national interests.

© Agence France-Presse

#Space | https://sciencespies.com/space/china-accuses-us-of-unsafe-space-conduct-after-near-miss-with-elon-musks-starlink/

The 3,000-year-old mummy of a famous Egyptian pharaoh has been digitally unwrapped

The mummy of ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I was so exquisitely wrapped – decorated with flower garlands and buried with a lifelike face mask – scientists have been hesitant to open up the remains. That is, until now.

Some 3,000 years after Amenhotep's burial, a team of researchers used CT scans to digitally unwrap his body for the first time, virtually peering through the many layers to reveal what he would've looked like when alive (he took after his dad it seems). 

They also found that the pharaoh, who ruled from about 1525 BCE to 1504 BCE, was 35 years old and 5.5 feet (169 centimeters) tall when he died; he was also circumcised and had good teeth, the researchers said. Beneath the wrappings were 30 amulets as well as "a unique golden girdle with gold beads," study co-author Sahar Saleem, a radiology professor at Cairo University's faculty of medicine, said in a statement. 

Related: What is the ancient Egyptian 'mummy's curse'?

This girdle may have had "a magical meaning," and the amulets "each had a function to help the deceased king in the afterlife," Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former minister of antiquities and co-author of the new study published Tuesday (Dec. 28) in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, told Live Science in an email. 

"Amenhotep I's mummy is wearing a piece of jewelry called a girdle. The ancient Egyptians wore jewelry like this around their waists. Some girdles, as this one, have shell amulets on the side," Saleem told Live Science in an email.

Amenhotep I, April 2006, Cairo Museum, Egypt. (Patrick Landmann/Getty Images)

Amenhotep I

Egypt expanded in northern Sudan during the time that Amenhotep I reigned during the 18th dynasty. The pharaoh initiated a building program that saw the construction or expansion of numerous temples. Nobody knows how the pharaoh died or where he was originally buried.

A team led by French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero found Amenhotep's mummy in 1881, along with several other mummies in a tomb on the west bank of Thebes (modern-day Luxor). His mummy had been placed in the tomb sometime during the 21st dynasty (around 1070 BCE to 945 BCE) after it was robbed in ancient times. 

Researchers found that the robbers had damaged the pharaoh's body. "The CT images show the extent of damage of the mummy of Amenhotep I that involved neck fractures and decapitation, a large defect in the anterior abdominal wall, and disarticulation of the extremities," including the right hand and foot, wrote Saleem and Hawass in their journal article. 

The researchers found that priests had repaired the mummy by placing detached limbs back in their place, using resin to help hold parts of the mummy together and rewrapping parts of the mummy with fresh bandages. 

"We show that at least for Amenhotep I, the priests of the 21st dynasty lovingly repaired the injuries inflicted by the tomb robbers, restored his mummy to its former glory, and preserved the magnificent jewelry and amulets in place," said Saleem in the statement.

What killed the pharaoh is unclear. "We couldn't find any wounds or disfigurement due to disease to justify the cause of death," Saleem said in the statement. 

Pharaoh's skull showed his teeth were in good condition at the time of death. (S. Saleem/Z. Hawass)

The scans shed light on what the pharaoh looked like when he was alive. "Amenhotep I seems to have physically resembled his father [Ahmose I]: He had a narrow chin, a small narrow nose, curly hair, and mildly protruding upper teeth" said Saleem. 

Most pharaonic mummies have been physically unwrapped or extensively studied using CT scans, the researchers said, noting that Amenhotep I was one of the few royal mummies that had not been examined in detail.

"This fact that Amenhotep I's mummy had never been unwrapped in modern times gave us a unique opportunity: not just to study how he had originally been mummified and buried, but also how he had been treated and reburied twice, centuries after his death, by High Priests of Amun," Saleem said. 

Shrunken skull and skeleton beneath the wrappings. (Image credit: S. Saleem and Z. Hawass)

Live Science reached out to scholars not involved with the research. "It's all very interesting, but I'm not sure there's anything earth-shattering here," said Aidan Dodson, an Egyptology professor at the University of Bristol in the UK.

The golden girdle "may be without direct parallels, but nearly all other royal mummies were completely robbed, so this doesn't mean very much," Dodson said, noting that other royal mummies may have worn similar girdles that were subsequently stolen. 

It's possible that the 21st dynasty priests put the golden girdle on Amenhotep I, said Kara Cooney, an Egyptology professor at UCLA.

The high priests of Amun, who effectively controlled parts of Egypt during the 21st dynasty, regarded Amenhotep I as an ancestor and may have displayed their affection for the pharaoh by placing this girdle on him, Cooney told Live Science in an email.

Cooney said that she will discuss this topic more in an upcoming book called "Recycling for death" that will be published by American University in Cairo Press.

Related content:

3 Egyptian mummy faces revealed in stunning reconstruction

In photos: A look inside an Egyptian mummy

Why were the ancient Egyptians obsessed with cats?

This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.

#Humans | https://sciencespies.com/humans/the-3000-year-old-mummy-of-a-famous-egyptian-pharaoh-has-been-digitally-unwrapped/

A weird paper tests the limits of science by claiming octopuses came from space

A summary of decades of research on a rather 'out-there' idea involving viruses from space raises questions on just how scientific we can be when it comes to speculating on the history of life on Earth.

It's easy to throw around words like crackpot, rogue, and maverick in describing the scientific fringe, but then papers like this one, from 2018, come along and leave us blinking owlishly, unsure of where to even begin.

A total of 33 names were listed as authors on this review, which was published by Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology back in August 2018. The journal is peer reviewed and fairly well cited. So it's not exactly small, or a niche pay-for-publish source.

Science writer Stephen Fleischfresser goes into depth on the background of two of the better known scientists involved: Edward Steele and Chandra Wickramasinghe. It's well worth a read.

For a tl;dr version, Steele is an immunologist who has a fringe reputation for his views on evolution that relies on acquiring gene changes determined by the influence of the environment rather than random mutations, in what he calls meta-Lamarckism.

Wickramasinghe, on the other hand, has had a somewhat less controversial career, recognized for empirically confirming Sir Fred Hoyle's hypothesis describing the production of complex carbon molecules on interstellar dust.

Wickramasinghe and Hoyle also happened to be responsible for another space biology thesis. Only this one is based on more than just the origins of organic chemistry.

The Hoyle Wickramasinghe (H-W) thesis of Cometary (Cosmic) Biology makes the rather simple claim that the direction of evolution has been significantly affected by biochemistry that didn't start on our planet.

In Wickramasinghe's own words, "Comets are the carriers and distributors of life in the cosmos, and life on Earth arose and developed as a result of cometary inputs."

Those inputs, Wickramasinghe argued, aren't limited to a generous sprinkling of space-baked amino acids, either.

Rather, they include viruses that insert themselves into organisms, pushing their evolution into whole new directions.

The report, titled "Cause of Cambrian Explosion – Terrestrial or Cosmic?", pulls on existing research to conclude that a rain of extra-terrestrial retroviruses played a key role in the diversification of life in our oceans roughly half a billion years ago.

"Thus retroviruses and other viruses hypothesized to be liberated in cometary debris trails both can potentially add new DNA sequences to terrestrial genomes and drive further mutagenic change within somatic and germline genomes," the authors wrote.

Let that sink in for a moment. And take a deep breath before continuing, because that was the tame part.

It was during this period that a group of mollusks known as cephalopods first stretched out their tentacles from beneath their shells, branching into a stunning array of sizes and shapes in what seemed like a remarkably short time frame.

The genetics of these organisms, which today include octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish, are as weird as the animals themselves, due in part to their ability to edit their DNA on the fly.

The authors of the paper make the rather audacious claim that these genetic oddities might be a sign of life from space.

Not of space viruses this time, but the arrival of whole genomes frozen in stasis before thawing out in our tepid waters.

"Thus the possibility that cryopreserved squid and/or octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago should not be discounted," they wrote.

In his review of the paper, medical researcher Keith Baverstock from the University of Eastern Finland conceded that there's a lot of evidence that plausibly aligns with the H-W thesis, such as the curious timeline of the appearance of viruses. 

But that's just not how science advances.

"I believe this paper justifies skepticism of the scientific value of stand alone theories of the origin of life," Baverstock argued at the time.

"The weight of plausible, but non-definitive, evidence, great though that might be, is not the point."

While the idea is as novel and exciting as it is provocative, nothing in the summary helps us better understand the history of life on Earth any better than existing conjectures, adding little of value to our model of evolution.

Still, with solid caveats in place, maybe science can cope with a generous dose of crazy every now and then.

Journal editor Denis Noble concedes that 'further research is needed', which is a bit of an understatement.

But given the developments regarding space-based organic chemistry in recent years, there's room for discussion.

"As space chemistry and biology grows in importance it is appropriate for a journal devoted to the interface between physics and biology to encourage the debates," said Noble.

"In the future, the ideas will surely become testable."

Just in case those tests confirm speculations, we recommend being well prepared for the return of our cephalopod overlords. Who knows when they'll want those eggs back?

This research was published in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology. 

A version of this article was first published in August 2018.

#Space | https://sciencespies.com/space/a-weird-paper-tests-the-limits-of-science-by-claiming-octopuses-came-from-space/

How This Climate Scientist Felt After Watching ‘Don’t Look Up’

As a graduate student studying climate change, I was genuinely thrilled for the cathartic release that the trailer for the satirical saga Don’t Look Up might give me. The movie is about a cataclysmic event that doesn’t garner the attention it deserves - it could easily be about climate change or even COVID, but it’s not. And, I was looking forward to the distance and levity this movie might bring.

Written and directed by Adam McKay (who was behind two other movies I deeply enjoyed, The Big Short and Step Brothers), the movie follows PhD Candidate Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) and Professor Randall Mindy (Leanardo DiCaprio) and their consistently failing attempts to raise awareness about a comet that could wipe out all life on earth in six months’ time. Despite support from a level-headed administrator from NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (Rob Morgan), their interactions with the media (Himesh Patel, Tyler Perry, Cate Blanchett), the White House (Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill), and a tech executive (Mark Rylance) do not result in effective action from these parties governed by their own interests.

Where The Parallels Lie

Scientists Not Being Taken Seriously

The first part of the movie deals with Dibiasky and Mindy trying to inform the president about the inevitable comet collision (the president decides to “sit tight” until the Ivy League-trained scientists on staff can “assess” the situation), and then the public via a morning talkshow (during which the hosts downplay the severity of the situation). In fact, Dibiasky is eventually relegated to an alarmist meme, while Mindy is elevated to National Science Advisor and is credited with discovering the comet (even though the comet bear’s Dibiasky’s name). But his position has no teeth, and his reservations are never taken seriously. During this moment, I was reminded of scientists trying to provide direction on COVID and climate change, whose efforts to steward effective policy were quashed by political motivations. Indeed, the fictional White House only changed course on deflecting the comet after it became politically convenient for them.

Reliance On Technology To Solve The Problem

There is a moment where it seems a strategy is in place to prevent the comet from colliding with earth, but the operation is aborted when Peter Isherwell (a tech executive played by Rylance that seems to be an amalgamation of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerburg, and Steve Jobs) believes there is a way to both demolish the comet and profit from it at the same time using untested technology. This plot point is built off the many attempts to profit from the climate crisis and COVID, be it unproven geo-engineering efforts or fake N95 masks. It was still maddening to see a fictional wealthy person choose to experiment with technology that could make them even wealthier at the expense of literally everyone on the planet. And, the movie also hints that rich/powerful people have an escape hatch if the experiment doesn’t succeed.

Waiting Until It’s Too Late To Do Something

Even though the White House was notified the moment it became clear that a comet was headed towards earth, the president chose not to take action. And, even though the scientists went to an esteemed publication and then on a popular TV show to raise awareness, their attempts were diluted by efforts to “keep things light”. Also, the slow uptake is not all that surprising — numerous studies on climate communication suggest that ‘doomerism’ is not an effective way to mobilize people. And, that is exactly what we see, both in the fictional world on the verge of collapse, and in our own. We are well past the time when we could have quashed COVID, and we are now seeing changes in quarantine guidelines for healthcare workers because the end is nowhere in sight. Additionally, there are still very few aggressive actions being taken to address the climate crisis, which is particularly disappointing given that we are in the last decade we have to curb catastrophic climate change.

Where The Catharsis Was

Kate Dibiasky

Seeing Lawrence’s Dibiasky be self-assured and have agency, while also feeling deeply emotional about the negligence of people in positions of power was perhaps my favorite aspect of this movie. Her status as a junior-level scientist (and a woman, I presume, though misogyny is never referenced) preclude her from participating in the higher-level negotiations that DiCaprio’s Mindy was privy to, despite this comet being Dibiasky’s discovery. Her character also experiences a couple of meltdowns because she is frustrated with the glib way the media treats this issue and that the solutions are motivated by self-interested parties. While the fallout from these outbursts aren’t exactly ideal, they definitely hit close to home — after all, scientists have long been deemed alarmists for suggesting that climate change could be world-altering. And doctors sharing the reality of being part of the healthcare system during this pandemic have been accused of fear-mongering.

(Part of) The Ending

While I don’t want to spoil the ending, I will say that watching characters be in community with one another was endearing. As someone who struggles with climate grief, being able to forge into the fear with others by my side fills me with relief and gratitude. And, if our lives do become more difficult, we will have to learn to rely on one another to get through. At one point, DiCaprio’s Mindy is in a commercial for a hotline that soothes callers’ concerns that is merely a political ploy to falsely assuage callers’ legitimate concerns. However, a government-funded crisis line could, in fact, be a fantastic resource for navigating climate change from both a practical and emotional perspective.

Where I Wanted More

The Players

Given that Don’t Look Up is the number one Netflix movie in every country, I was surprised that this movie was extremely U.S.-centric (with a predominantly white cast). There are brief nods to scientists in other countries and an international coalition attempting to destroy the comet without the U.S. But, for a climate change allegory, the disproportionate impacts of climate change on developing countries, poor communities, and people of color were not touched upon (other than maybe a running gag about overpriced shovels) and should be depicted. For a problem that requires collective action (be it comet or COVID or climate change), there needs to be more discussion about how to protect the most vulnerable members of the population.

The Solution

While I fully appreciate the movie’s criticisms of selfish politicians, glib media engagement, and malicious tech giants, I do wish there had been more probing of how minds can change. The role of these three groups in allowing the climate crisis to proceed have been discussed at length, and I’m not sure this movie added anything new to that conversation other than showing how they synergistically exacerbate the situation.

Fundamentally, I am disappointed that there were no consequences for the bad actors that the people victimized by their negligence could witness. And, I don’t like that there is room for some people to walk away with the idea that tech companies may provide a way out without cleaning up a mess that they are responsible for.

On Twitter, McKay reminded people that there are obvious solutions to climate change, something the movie’s characters didn’t have access to. But, what is still disheartening — and what the movie didn’t give me respite from — is that there were no efforts to right the wrongs. Again, I believe there are merits to the path the movie took, but I would appreciate a peek at what a truly just transition looks like, where the wrong-doers are held fully accountable and our trajectory is reversed while acknowledging that there will still be suffering.

#News | https://sciencespies.com/news/how-this-climate-scientist-felt-after-watching-dont-look-up/

Happiness through work? The science of work-life balance might surprise you

Finding the right work-life balance is by no means a new issue in our society. But the tension between the two has been heightened by the pandemic, with workers increasingly dwelling over the nature of their work, its meaning and purpose, and how these affect their quality of life.

Studies suggest people are leaving or planning to leave their employers in record numbers in 2021 – a "great resignation" that appears to have been precipitated by these reflections. But if we're all reconsidering where and how work slots into our lives, what should we be aiming at?

It's easy to believe that if only we didn't need to work, or we could work far fewer hours, we'd be happier, living a life of hedonic experiences in all their healthy and unhealthy forms. But this fails to explain why some retirees pick up freelance jobs and some lottery winners go straight back to work.

Striking the perfect work-life balance, if there is such a thing, isn't necessarily about tinkering with when, where and how we work – it's a question of why we work. And that means understanding sources of happiness that might not be so obvious to us, but which have crept into view over the course of the pandemic.

Attempts to find a better work-life balance are well merited. Work is consistently and positively related to our wellbeing and constitutes a large part of our identity. Ask yourself who you are, and very soon you'll resort to describing what you do for work.

Our jobs can provide us with a sense of competence, which contributes to wellbeing. Researchers have demonstrated not only that labor leads to validation but that, when these feelings are threatened, we're particularly drawn to activities that require effort – often some form of work – because these demonstrate our ability to shape our environment, confirming our identities as competent individuals.

Work even seems to make us happier in circumstances when we'd rather opt for leisure. This was demonstrated by a series of clever experiments in which participants had the option to be idle (waiting in a room for 15 minutes for an experiment to start) or to be busy (walking for 15 minutes to another venue to participate in an experiment).

Very few participants chose to be busy, unless they were forced to make the walk, or given a reason to (being told there was chocolate at the other venue).

Yet the researchers found that those who'd spent 15 minutes walking ended up significantly happier than those who'd spent 15 minutes waiting – no matter whether they'd had a choice or a chocolate or neither. In other words, busyness contributes to happiness even when you think you'd prefer to be idle. Animals seem to get this instinctively: in experiments, most would rather work for food than get it for free.

Eudaimonic happiness

The idea that work, or putting effort into tasks, contributes to our general wellbeing is closely related to the psychological concept of eudaimonic happiness. This is the sort of happiness that we derive from optimal functioning and realizing our potential. Research has shown that work and effort are central to eudaimonic happiness, explaining that satisfaction and pride you feel on completing a grueling task.

On the other side of the work-life balance stands hedonic happiness, which is defined as the presence of positive feelings such as cheerfulness and the relative scarcity of negative feelings such as sadness or anger. We know that hedonic happiness offers empirical mental and physical health benefits, and that leisure is a great way to pursue hedonic happiness.

But even in the realm of leisure, our unconscious orientation towards busyness lurks in the background. A recent study has suggested that there really is such a thing as too much free time – and that our subjective wellbeing actually begins to drop if we have more than five hours of it in a day. Whiling away effortless days on the beach doesn't seem to be the key to long-term happiness.

This might explain why some people prefer to expend significant effort during their leisure time. Researchers have likened this to compiling an experiential CV, sampling unique but potentially unpleasant or even painful experiences – at the extremes, this might be spending a night in an ice hotel, or joining an endurance desert race.

People who take part in these forms of "leisure" typically talk about fulfilling personal goals, making progress, and accumulating accomplishments – all features of eudaimonic happiness, not the hedonism we associate with leisure.

The real balance

This orientation sits well with a new concept in the field of wellbeing studies: that a rich and diverse experiential happiness is the third component of a "good life", in addition to hedonic and eudaimonic happiness.

Across nine countries and tens of thousands of participants, researchers recently found that most people (over 50 percent in each country) would still prefer a happy life typified by hedonic happiness.

But around a quarter prefer a meaningful life embodied by eudaimonic happiness, and a small but nevertheless significant amount of people (about 10-15 percent in each country) choose to pursue a rich and diverse experiential life.

Given these different approaches to life, perhaps the key to long-lasting wellbeing is to consider which lifestyle suits you best: hedonic, eudaimonic, or experiential. Rather than pitching work against life, the real balance to strike post-pandemic is between these three sources of happiness. 

Lis Ku, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, De Montfort University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

#Humans | https://sciencespies.com/humans/happiness-through-work-the-science-of-work-life-balance-might-surprise-you/

High-speed trains on Nizhny Novgorod Moscow Route

One of the most interesting parts about Russia is its size. However, Russia’s vastness also makes it challenging to see everything on your list in one vacation. Luckily, Russia has a solution to its breadth: high-speed trains. With three high-speed options, it’s worthwhile to weigh them side by side. One will probably meet your needs more than the others.

The fastest train in the country is the Sapsan. Named after the peregrine falcon, it can travel at 250 km per hour. The Sapsan trains offer much more than just speed. All around, the experience is high quality, with soundproofing, plentiful storage space and good toilets. The restaurant car is great. One of the best features for travelers is that the Sapsan staff can book connecting transportation and hotels for passengers. There’s also a gift shop and a mini-office where you can print, scan or photo copy. The train accommodates the handicapped well too. Convenience is Sapsan’s forté.

Overall, the additional perks depend on the class of ticket. There are six class options. Basic and Economy are the lowest levels, and the latter includes an entertainment portal. It features music, books, audiobooks, newspapers, music, kids’ entertainment and traveling information.

· Economy+ has the entertainment portal, a cold meal and a power outlet.

· Dining Class tickets reserve a table in the restaurant carriage for the entire trip. A 2,000-rouble deposit can be used on food.

· Business Class tickets offer a free travel kit, pillow and hot meal. At the stations, they have access to designated business lounges.

· First Class is the highest class, with spacious leather seats with footrests that recline all the way. With reading lamps and extra space, you feel like you’re in your recliner at home.

· The Conference Suite can also be booked by any passenger. This suite is designed for four and has a minibar, TV, PlayStation and all the amenities of First Class.

Routes: To hop between the two capitals, Moscow and St. Petersburg, takes only three and a half hours. The Sapsan travels from St. Petersburg to Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod in eight hours. The last leg, Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod, is less than four hours.

Departures: More than twelve trains run per day between the two capitals in each direction. One St. Petersburg – Moscow – Nizhny Novgorod train leaves each day in either direction. It reaches Nizhny Novgorod at 01:00 and St. Petersburg at 13:30.

Prices: The price to travel between the capitals is around 2,500 roubles for Economy and 5,700 for Business Class. For a Nizhny Novgorod Moscow train, Economy tickets are 1,400 and Business are 4500.

Strizh

Another high-speed option is the Strizh, named for the acrobatic swift bird. The trains are built by the Spanish company Talgo. Today, the Strizh travels Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod and St. Petersburg to Samara. The trains aren’t as modern inside as the Sapsans. However, they’re still very comfortable and have Wi-Fi. Any class of ticket offers access to the “Fellow Traveler” multimedia portal. Everyone can order restaurant meals from it, see an interactive map of the trip, read about the train and access the news. Meanwhile, the higher-class tickets have access to entertainment and Wi-Fi. The Strizh has a buffet-style car offering snacks.

The daytime Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod train has Second and First Classes. Passengers can also book into the First-Class sleeping compartments that have two beds, hygiene kits, private facilities and a TV.

The longer trip on the night train from St. Petersburg to Samara has First and Second-Class seats. To book in a compartment, there are Deluxe, First and Second-Class options. Second Class is a sleeping compartment for four passengers. First Class sleeps one or two but lacks a private bathroom. Deluxe Class is for one or two. It has a TV, private shower and toilet. A handicapped Deluxe Compartment is available.

Routes: Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod takes less than for hours. To go between St. Petersburg and Samara takes 19 to 20 hours.

Departures: There are as many as seven trains between Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. That’s one train leaving every other day to Samara. There is a St. Petersburg to Moscow Strizh, but it is an overnight train running once every four days.

Prices: Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod costs about 1,200 roubles for an Economy ticket, 2,000 for Business Class and 3,000 for First Class overnight. When traveling from St. Peterburg to Samara, tickets cost between 3,300 and 8,000 roubles.

Lastochka

The Lastochka takes its name from ‘swallow’ in Russian. Its high-speed offerings include both European and Siberian Russia. The Lastochka isn’t as luxurious as the Sapsan or Strizh, but it’s fine. There are no sleeping compartments and only four types of tickets. Up from Basic Class, Economy has a power outlet. Economy+ has an adjustable leather seat, while Business Class also includes a meal. The standard Lastochka train only has Basic Class. The Premium and Standard Premium have all four classes. All trains offer handicapped seats and toilets.

Routes: Although the Lastochka has many routes, some of the popular ones with tourists are:

· Krasnodar - Imeretinsky

· Krasnodar - Rostov-on-Don

· Ekaterinburg - Tyumen

· Moscow to the Golden Ring cities of Kostroma and Ivanovo

· Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod

· St Petersburg - Vyborg

· St Petersburg - Oranienbaum

· St Petersburg - Petrozavodsk (approximately 5 hours);

· St Petersburg - Pskov (3.5 hours)

· St Petersburg - Moscow Lastochka (high-speed trains are much faster)

Departures: For most Lastochka trains, there are less than two departures per day.

Prices: Ticket prices have a large range based on the service offered. To go from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod, it costs 900 roubles on Basic Class. For the possible cost of the Trans-Siberian railway, the Lastochka isn’t bad.

Which train is best – Sapsan, Strizh or Lastochka?
The Sapsan: The Sapsan is the best option to go between the two capitals. Its other service is great too, but infrequent. The Sapsan is expensive, however, especially from Business Class upward.

The Strizh: The Strizh is best to travel from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod or Vladimir. The tickets are generally cheaper than Sapsan, and you can get sometimes get more of the features you want for the money.

The Lastochka: With a more basic setup, the Lastochka wouldn’t be great for a long trip. However, it has the widest variety of routes. For the common routes, the other two are probably better.

This article was originally published by transsiberianexpress.net. Read the original article here.

#Humans | https://sciencespies.com/humans/high-speed-trains-on-nizhny-novgorod-moscow-route/

Climate-driven disease devastates seagrass health

In an oceanic omen for climate change's intensifying effects, new research shows that seagrass suffers from a lesion-filled wasting disease through large swaths of intertidal meadows in the Pacific Northwest. The grasses' once-vibrant plant root systems are deteriorating, too.

The research was published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.

"Not only are we seeing more seagrass wasting disease outbreaks, we're seeing a severe impact within the vital nutrient stores of these plants in the roots -- so they become compromised late in the growing season, setting them up for a harder winter," said co-lead author Olivia Graham, a doctoral student in the field of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University.

Eelgrass (Zostera marina) normally thrives in the San Juan Islands, Washington, on the Salish Sea along the Canadian border. In typical scenarios, Graham describes the seagrass meadow environment as bountiful underwater rainforests, which clean the waters and support herring, salmon, perch, clams, mussels and oysters. Nearby, orca whales feast on Chinook salmon -- the largest of the Pacific salmon -- which live in these tidal grasslands.

Seagrass wasting disease has been present for years, thanks to the warming waters of climate change, which strengthens the plant's disease nemesis Labyrinthula zosterae. This paper confirms that below the muddy beds, the plant's roots are compromised.

The research team marked hundreds of plants at low tide and followed the meadow's fate over several weeks. This "mark and recapture" method showed that seagrass with disease lesions grew more slowly and produced less storage sugars than their healthy counterparts.

"This answers a long-standing question about whether this disease does actual damage," said senior author Drew Harvell, professor emeritus in ecology and evolutionary biology. "Unfortunately, it is a resounding 'yes.'"

Eelgrass plants spread vegetatively, Harvell said, noting that seagrass roots have huge systems where carbohydrates and sugars get manufactured and stored, to expand their own lush networks.

"We learned that the lesioned plants had reduced starch reserves and grew more slowly, so now we can say that the wasting disease is even bigger than most thought -- and the harm goes well beyond the lesions," Harvell said.

The National Science Foundation provided funding.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Cornell University. Original written by Blaine Friedlander, courtesy of the Cornell Chronicle. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

#Nature | https://sciencespies.com/nature/climate-driven-disease-devastates-seagrass-health/

Decreased vehicle emissions linked with significant drop in deaths attributable to air pollution

Decreasing vehicle emissions since 2008 have reduced by thousands the number of deaths attributable to air pollution, yielding billions of dollars in benefits to society, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study also found that although the public health burden of large trucks has been greatly reduced, passenger light-duty vehicles, such as SUVs and pickup trucks, continue to contribute a significant amount of air pollution in major metropolitan areas.

The study will be published online on December 13, 2021 in the journal PNAS.

"Recent reductions in vehicle emissions have yielded major health benefits, even though only small progress has been made on reducing their climate impact," said first author Ernani Choma, a research fellow in Harvard Chan School's Department of Environmental Health. "Our results indicate that to achieve further public health and climate gains, even more stringent policies will be required."

Although the health and climate burden of vehicle emissions in the U.S. has been widely studied, the benefits of recent reductions in vehicle emissions -- spurred by federal air pollution regulations and technological innovations by car manufacturers -- were not well known. The new study provides estimates that compare the actual health and climate impact of reduced vehicle emissions with what that impact would have been had emissions not been reduced. Researchers calculated the so-called "social benefits" attributable to decreasing emissions -- in this case, the monetary value to society of the reduction in deaths attributable to air pollution and climate impacts avoided.

Using recent national emissions data, the researchers modeled four scenarios for emissions in 2017: actual emissions as well as three alternative scenarios in which county-level emissions were the same as they were in 2014, 2011, and 2008. Each of the scenarios factored in the types of vehicles being driven and how many miles they traveled, detailed data about air pollution levels across the U.S., mortality rates, and trends in demographics -- including an aging population that is becoming more susceptible to air pollution over time.

The researchers estimated that reductions in emissions yielded $270 billion in social benefits in the U.S. in 2017 -- mostly due to the estimated value of reduced mortality risk from fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution -- and, to a lesser degree, to reduced "social costs" from greenhouse gas emissions, which are calculated from a range of factors such as human health impacts, changes in agricultural productivity, natural disasters, risk of conflict, and more.

The researchers also estimated that deaths attributable to air pollution due to vehicle emissions dropped from 27,700 in 2008 to 19,800 in 2017. The decrease in deaths was not as large as researchers expected, because many factors offset the progress in reducing emissions, such as a larger and aging population, larger vehicles replacing smaller ones, and more miles traveled per vehicle. On the other hand, the authors noted, if vehicles were still emitting at 2008 levels, those emissions would have caused 48,200 deaths attributable to air pollution in 2017 -- which would have represented a 74% increase between 2008 and 2017.

The study found significant recent progress in reducing emissions from heavy-duty trucks, but less progress with passenger light-duty vehicles, including cars, SUVs, and pickup trucks. Passenger light-duty vehicles accounted for two-thirds of the public health burden from transportation-related air pollution in 2017, the authors said. They noted that emissions from these vehicles in large metropolitan areas are so harmful that they are responsible for 30% more attributable deaths than all heavy-duty trucks across the nation.

"If the trends of increased population density with an aging population, and a shift to larger passenger vehicles continue, emissions, especially in urban areas, will continue to become more harmful and it will be harder to achieve further public health gains by small incremental improvements in new vehicles," said John Spengler, Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation and senior author of the study. "Our study findings strengthen the case for policies at the municipal level that encourage electric vehicles while discouraging conventional gasoline vehicles and for making our cities more accessible for non-motorized transportation such as biking or walking."

Other Harvard Chan School co-authors of the study included John Evans, Joel Schwartz, and James Hammitt.

Funding for the study was provided by Harvard University, from which Choma received financial support during his doctoral program.

#Environment | https://sciencespies.com/environment/decreased-vehicle-emissions-linked-with-significant-drop-in-deaths-attributable-to-air-pollution/

Arianespace wraps up 2021 with OneWeb launch

TAMPA, Fla. — Arianespace completed its last mission of the year Dec. 27 with the launch of 36 satellites for low Earth orbit broadband operator OneWeb.

OneWeb’s latest batch of satellites launched on a Soyuz 2.1b rocket at 8.10 a.m. Eastern from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Mission Success!

We are thrilled to have ended the year with another successful launch, with contact received from all 36 satellites. We have now launched over 60% of our constellation!

Thanks to all our team and distribution partners for a great year!https://t.co/jn9YhCSlJe pic.twitter.com/vue4UBQW4I

— OneWeb (@OneWeb) December 27, 2021

The U.K.-headquartered startup said it has made contact with all satellites after they were released from the rocket’s Fregat upper stage, following nine separation sequences over the course of nearly four hours from liftoff.

It will now take a few weeks for the spacecraft to raise themselves to an operational altitude at 1,200 kilometers, where they will expand OneWeb’s network from 358 to 394 satellites, or more than 60% of its planned 648-strong constellation.

Arianespace conducted the mission with French-Russian affiliate Starsem, which commercializes Soyuz launches.

It is the eighth mission Arianespace has completed for OneWeb this year with Soyuz rockets: three from Baikonur Cosmodrome and five from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia. Following manufacturing and launch vehicle integration improvements, it is also the first time a Soyuz rocket delivered 36 satellites from the Baikonour Cosmodrome, instead of the usual 34 from Kazakhstan. 

The mission comes just days after Arianespace successfully completed the long-anticipated launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Dec. 25, which lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.

In total, Arianespace completed 15 launch missions in 2021, a 50% increase over 2020.

SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket for the 31st time this year Dec. 21, easily beating SpaceX’s previous record of 26 launches in a calendar year that it set in 2020.

Arianespace expects to launch the remaining satellites for OneWeb’s initial constellation next year to enable global services. The startup is currently conducting network tests in Alaska.

#Space | https://sciencespies.com/space/arianespace-wraps-up-2021-with-oneweb-launch/

The famous fossils scientists got incredibly wrong

We sort of take for granted the depictions of prehistoric beasties illustrated in the books of our childhood. But piecing together Earth's murky past is a lot harder than it sounds.

Scientists have to rely on fragmentary bones, weathered footprints, impressions in rock – these don't always capture the fine details of the complex, living, breathing animal that passed through or died there.

Sometimes, while doing this painstaking work, researchers get it wrong. And not just a little wrong! Here are some of our favorite fossil flubs, and what we have learned from correcting them.

The snake lizard with four perfectly normal legs

Tetrapodophis' tiny little feet. (Ghedoghedo/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Tetrapodophis amplectus, revealed in 2015, was a paleontological marvel. A fossil from 110 million years ago, the sinuous skeleton was, scientists said, something long-sought. The snake-like body had four tiny legs, marking the first discovery of the missing link between snakes and lizards.

It was named accordingly and celebrated, but not everyone was convinced. Earlier in 2021, a different team of paleontologists revealed the fruits of their long labor re-examining the remains: Tetrapodophis was no snake at all, but a member of an extinct genus of marine lizard called Dolichosaurus.

We expect there is going to be some debate about the fossil, but either way, it has something to teach us. It's exceptionally well preserved, and may yet reveal something new about dolichosaurs, whose fossil record is patchy and sparse.

Hallucigenia's head

Hallucigenia, the right way around. (Caron et al., Proc. Royal Soc. B, 2013)

During the Cambrian period, from about 541 to 485 million years ago, the animals that roamed the Earth were very different from the life we see today. Some very strange creatures indeed could be found on the seafloor. We know about them because their remains were pressed in lake sediment that later hardened into shale, preserving enigmatic imprints that paleontologists later attempted to interpret.

One of these was Hallucigenia, so named because it looked like, well, a hallucination. It had at least seven pairs of rigid spikes on its back, seven pairs of weirdly floppy 'legs', and what appeared to be a large, bulbous head at one end.

Many fossils were discovered without this head, which baffled scientists. Why were so many Hallucigenia getting decapitated?

Then, a re-examination of the fossil revealed something really quite funny: teeth. And eyes. On the end we thought was its butt. Which meant that what we thought was its head were the contents of its guts, squeezed out as the animal was compressed in the sediment.

The good news is that sorting out Hallucigenia's ass from its noggin meant researchers could finally classify it as a lobopodian, the group that gave rise to velvet worms, arthropods, and our beloved tardigrades.

Dickinsonia: animal, vegetable, fungus?

Dickinsonia fossils from Australia. (University of Oregon)

Dickinsonia has had one long identity crisis since it was first described in 1947. It hails from the Ediacaran era, prior to the Cambrian, before the emergence of the major phyla we know today. The Ediacaran biota were mostly soft-bodied organisms, and very few of them resemble any living or extinct organism. So they've been very hard to contextualize.

Dickinsonia looks a lot like a strangely ribbed oval, and it could be anything, really. On its discovery, it was classified as a type of jellyfish. Scientists have also thought it could be a worm, a polyp, or a mushroom or lichen. It's even been proposed that Dickinsonia belonged to some unknown, extinct kingdom that was neither animal, plant, nor fungus.

A study a few years ago into the way the organism grew seems to have solved it. According to the scientists' analysis, Dickinsonia is an animal, belonging either to Placazoa, which are among the simplest of animal organisms, or Eumetazoa, which are a step up from sponges.

Oh, and… we had its head and butt around the wrong way, too. Oops.

Iguanodon: nose or thumb?

Iguanodon fossils, drawn in 1882 as they were found in Bernissart, Belgium. (G. Lavette/Public Domain)

Ah, iguanodon. We love you, and your funny little thumb-horns. But we didn't always know where they were supposed to go.

When iguanodon was first described, way back in 1825 by geologist Gideon Mantell, he had the strange spike placed atop the beast's nose. This isn't an unreasonable assumption – after all, the rhinoceros has a single horn adorning its head.

It wouldn't be until over 50 years later that this supposition unraveled. More complete specimens were found in Belgium in 1878, with the spiky appendage clearly belonging on the animal's forelimb, where we primates might have a thumb. And this is where Mantell's assumption makes even more sense because we just don't know what the rigid spike was used for. Social interaction? Defense against predators? Something to do with food?

It's possible that we'll never know – but even so, iguanodon taught us that we ought never to take even the smallest detail for granted.

Archaeopternope?

The controversial fossilized feather. (Museum fur Naturkunde)

Archaeopteryx has long worn the crown of the earliest known species of bird. It lived around 150 million years ago and is known from just a dozen specimens from around the world. Yet the identification has been plagued by controversy.

Some believe that the animal has been miscategorized – that Archaeopteryx was not a bird but a dinosaur. Individual specimens have also been subject to scrutiny.

In 2017, a team of scientists analyzed one Archaeopteryx specimen (which itself had been reclassified, initially thought to be a pterodactyl) and claimed it was not Archaeopteryx at all, but an entirely unknown species of theropod dinosaur. That analysis seems to be holding, so far.

Then in 2019, another specimen – a single feather – was reanalyzed. Those researchers also found that the specimen instead belonged to an unknown species, in their opinion, citing the curvature of the quill. This, however, generated a response in late 2020; another team of paleontologists found this curvature was incorrect, and in any case, quill curvature can be highly variable.

In addition, the feather, they said, was found at a site with other Archaeopteryx specimens, and resembles other Archaeopteryx feathers in both size and shape.

Whether or not this matter is considered resolved, we can be pretty danged sure that we haven't experienced our last Archaeopteryx drama.

Since the animal is so mysterious, whichever way the debate goes, it will give us an amazing opportunity to learn something new about our world – just like every scrap of fossil our planet has preserved in its wonderful depths.

#Nature | https://sciencespies.com/nature/the-famous-fossils-scientists-got-incredibly-wrong/