Road verges cover 1.2% of land in Great Britain -- an area the size of Dorset -- and could be managed to help wildlife, new research shows.
University of Exeter researchers used Google Earth and Google Street View to estimate that verges account for 2,579 km2 (almost 1,000 square miles) of land.
About 27% of these verges are frequently mown, 41% is wilder grassland, 19% is woodland and the rest is scrub.
There are "significant opportunities" to improve verges by reducing mowing and planting trees, the researchers say.
"Our key message is that there's a lot of road verge in Great Britain and we could manage it much better for nature," said lead author Ben Phillips, of the Environment and Sustainability Institute on Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.
"About a quarter of our road verges are mown very regularly to make them look like garden lawns -- this is bad for wildlife."
Previous research has shown that reducing mowing to just once or twice per year provides more flowers for pollinators, allows plants to set seed and creates better habitats for other animals.
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Phillips said: "Some parts of verges need to be mown regularly for safety, but many verges could be mown much less, and this could save money due to reduced maintenance costs.
"We found that only a quarter of frequently mown verges had trees, so there's potential to add trees and shrubs, which will also help to capture carbon.
"But tree planting must be done carefully to avoid damaging flower-rich grass verges, and to prevent any impacts on visibility for drivers, or damage to infrastructure from roots and branches."
Planting trees in some verges could provide a wide range of benefits for people, nature and the environment, and contribute towards the UK government's tree-planting ambitions.
As well as estimating land area of verges, the study found that 1.8% of Great Britain is covered by hard road surfaces.
The charity Plantlife is currently running a campaign called #NoMowMay, asking gardeners and councils to "lock up your lawnmower" for the month of May.
For months, NASA had strongly suggested that it would select two companies for the next phase of its Human Landing System (HLS) program. Just as with the commercial cargo and crew programs, agency officials said, having two companies develop and demonstrate lunar landers would provide redundancy and ensure NASA was getting the best deal.
“Competition — having multiple suppliers for us — is an extremely important principle,” Mark Kirasich, director of NASA’s advanced exploration systems division, which includes the HLS program, said at a conference in February.
So, it was a surprise when NASA announced April 16 that it had picked just one company for what it calls an “Option A” award to develop a lunar lander and fly a single demonstration mission with astronauts on board. Even more surprising was the company NASA selected: SpaceX, whose Starship vehicle appeared massively oversized for the job. However, the end of the HLS competition does not necessarily mean the end of the overall competition to send astronauts to the surface of the moon.
“THIS IS ACTUALLY DOABLE”
Going into the HLS Option A competition, SpaceX was widely considered the underdog. It received the smallest of the three base period awards for the program in April 2020, at $135 million, compared to Blue Origin’s $579 million and Dynetics’ $253 million. NASA’s assessment of those original proposals graded SpaceX lower than Blue Origin and Dynetics, with limited confidence “in SpaceX’s ability to successfully execute on its proposed HLS development schedule,” according to a source selection statement.
But at the April 16 announcement — held late on a Friday afternoon with just a couple hours’ notice — NASA said SpaceX offered not only the best proposal, but the only one the agency could afford. “It was in NASA’s best interest, along with the budget that was there, for us to award to one,” said Kathy Lueders, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations.
Blue Origin’s “National Team” HLS proposal, at $5.99 billion, was twice as much as SpaceX’s winning bid. Credit: Blue Origin
In the source selection statement for the Option A competition, SpaceX had a technical score of “Acceptable,” the same as Blue Origin and higher than Dynetics’ “Marginal.” Its managerial score of “Outstanding” beat out the “Very Good” scores from the other two companies. But the biggest difference was price: SpaceX bid $2.89 billion, while Blue Origin was “significantly higher” than that; Dynetics was “significantly higher” than Blue Origin.
That price difference was a key factor for NASA, which received only $850 million for the HLS program in fiscal year 2021, one-fourth of its original request. Lueders wrote in the source selection statement that “at the initial prices and milestone payment phasing proposed by each of the Option A offerors, NASA’s current fiscal year budget did not support even a single Option A award.” NASA then asked SpaceX to make an unspecified change to its payment schedule, but not its overall price, before making an award.
That ruled out, she argued in the document, picking a second company, even if NASA asked it to lower its price. After selecting SpaceX, she wrote, “the amount of remaining available funding is so insubstantial” it wasn’t feasible to ask either company to revise their proposals.
NASA said little at the announcement about the technical merits of SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander, beyond that it met or exceeded various requirements. “SpaceX also, I’m sure, will be very happy to talk about their strategy,” Lueders said. But SpaceX wasn’t represented at the briefing and the company, which eschews press releases and routinely ignores media inquiries, said nothing beyond a single tweet stating it was “humbled” to win the contract.
A week later, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk discussed the HLS award during a NASA briefing about the launch of the Crew-2 commercial crew mission. “It’s definitely going to be really helpful funding the Starship program,” he said. Asked later in the briefing if a 2024 Starship lunar landing with astronauts was feasible, he agreed.
“Yeah, I think so,” he said, then paused. “I think it will happen. I think 2024 seems likely. We’re going to aim for sooner than that. This is actually doable.”
REDUNDANCY NOW
Neither Blue Origin nor Dynetics are giving up on their lunar lander ambitions. On April 26, the companies filed separate protests with the Government Accountability Office, seeking to overturn the HLS Option A award.
Both companies alleged in their protests that NASA improperly evaluated the technical merits of their proposals and, in the words of Blue Origin’s protest, “unreasonably favored” SpaceX’s proposal. Blue Origin, for example, claimed NASA improperly concluded there were problems with its lander’s communications system, while Dynetics argued NASA overlooked the steps the company was taking to reduce the mass of its overweight lander.
The two companies also took issue with the rationale NASA used to select a single company. Blue Origin revealed in its protest that it bid $5.99 billion for the HLS Option A award. While twice as high as SpaceX’s bid, it argued that the combination of the two would have cost NASA about the same as what it spent on the commercial crew program, which supported Boeing and SpaceX.
Blue Origin complained that NASA didn’t give it a chance to revise its bid. Brent Sherwood, senior vice president of advanced development programs at Blue Origin, said in the protest that had NASA informed the company that budget issues would preclude the agency from making two awards, “Blue Origin would have welcomed the opportunity to offer specific adjustments in a revised proposal.”
Dynetics’ HLS proposal was “significantly higher” than Blue Origin’s. Credit: Dynetics
Dynetics took a somewhat different approach. It argued that NASA overlooked several alternatives when it decided to make a single award, from going back to the companies for revised proposals to canceling the solicitation entirely. Another option it highlighted was for NASA to use the available funding for multiple awards of “sustainable” lander studies, a separate contract line item in the solicitation, rather than a single Option A award.
“This whole mechanism was set up to be very flexible, and they didn’t really use the flexibility they had,” a source familiar with Dynetics’ protest said.
Those protests are now in the hands of the GAO, which has until Aug. 4 to sustain or deny them. NASA announced April 30 it was suspending work on the HLS award it gave to SpaceX “until GAO resolves all outstanding litigation related to this procurement.”
To many, the protests are not surprising, given they’re common for any large government procurement. “I expected them to come. They’re a normal part of life in Washington,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), chair of the House space subcommittee. “The authorities will sort through it and we will move on.”
Others in Congress are taking a different approach to giving companies a second chance at HLS. The Senate Commerce Committee approved May 12 a NASA authorization bill as an amendment to legislation for the National Science Foundation called the Endless Frontier Act.
The amendment, introduced by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the committee, is similar to a NASA authorization bill that the Senate approved at the end of the last Congress. This version includes a new “competitiveness within the Human Landing System program” provision that directs NASA to have no fewer than two companies under contract to develop lunar landers within 30 days of the bill’s enactment, and authorizes $10.032 billion for the HLS program — slightly above the combination of the SpaceX and Blue Origin bids.
The committee didn’t discuss the amendment, which passed on a voice vote, and it’s uncertain the amendment will make its way to a final version of the bill. However, Cantwell previously stated she was disappointed NASA did not pick two companies for HLS. “I think there needs to be redundancy, and it has to be clear in this process that it can’t be redundancy later. It has to be redundancy now,” she told Bill Nelson, the nominee for NASA administrator, during his April 21 confirmation hearing.
LETS MAKE A DEAL
Nelson, at that hearing, said he supported the agency’s approach to the HLS procurement, including its plans to accelerate the acquisition of lander services that will be open to competition. “Those competitions will be there,” he promised Cantwell.
NASA is proposing to acquire lander missions after the single Option A mission through a program called Lunar Exploration Transportation Services (LETS). NASA foresees LETS being a full and open competition, with multiple companies winning contracts to transport astronauts to the surface of the moon and back, similar to its space station commercial cargo and crew contracts.
The actual LETS competition is “still a few steps away,” cautioned Lisa Watson-Morgan, NASA HLS program manager, in an April 29 statement. The first of those steps was a request for information (RFI) asking industry for input on how to structure the LETS program.
NASA will follow with a broad agency announcement as soon as June to fund risk reduction work for those lunar landers. At a May 3 industry day, Watson-Morgan said NASA would make several awards, but each would likely be no more than $15 million, a tiny fraction of the development cost of a lunar lander. “We do not have a tremendous amount of dollars,” she said.
That could be too little and too late for some companies that don’t have wealthy founders or other access to capital. “Putting out an RFI for something that’s a couple years from now, well, there’s not going to be anybody left,” said one industry source. “Other than billionaires who can choose to keep things around, you’re not going to have others left in the game that are going to give you real competition.”
Even a company like Blue Origin that’s funded by billionaire Jeff Bezos will be at a disadvantage to SpaceX in any LETS competition thanks to SpaceX’s HLS award. That assumes, though, that SpaceX will successfully develop Starship on a schedule like what it proposes.
“I tend to be somewhat optimistic with respect to schedules,” Musk said, laughing, during the Crew-2 press conference shortly before he predicted a 2024 landing. “Also, we need to be, like, not making craters.”
He laughed again. “We’ve got some work to do, but we’re making rapid progress.”
This article originally appeared in the May 2021 issue of SpaceNews magazine.
For months, NASA had strongly suggested that it would select two companies for the next phase of its Human Landing System (HLS) program. Just as with the commercial cargo and crew programs, agency officials said, having two companies develop and demonstrate lunar landers would provide redundancy and ensure NASA was getting the best deal.
“Competition — having multiple suppliers for us — is an extremely important principle,” Mark Kirasich, director of NASA’s advanced exploration systems division, which includes the HLS program, said at a conference in February.
So, it was a surprise when NASA announced April 16 that it had picked just one company for what it calls an “Option A” award to develop a lunar lander and fly a single demonstration mission with astronauts on board. Even more surprising was the company NASA selected: SpaceX, whose Starship vehicle appeared massively oversized for the job. However, the end of the HLS competition does not necessarily mean the end of the overall competition to send astronauts to the surface of the moon.
“THIS IS ACTUALLY DOABLE”
Going into the HLS Option A competition, SpaceX was widely considered the underdog. It received the smallest of the three base period awards for the program in April 2020, at $135 million, compared to Blue Origin’s $579 million and Dynetics’ $253 million. NASA’s assessment of those original proposals graded SpaceX lower than Blue Origin and Dynetics, with limited confidence “in SpaceX’s ability to successfully execute on its proposed HLS development schedule,” according to a source selection statement.
But at the April 16 announcement — held late on a Friday afternoon with just a couple hours’ notice — NASA said SpaceX offered not only the best proposal, but the only one the agency could afford. “It was in NASA’s best interest, along with the budget that was there, for us to award to one,” said Kathy Lueders, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations.
Blue Origin’s “National Team” HLS proposal, at $5.99 billion, was twice as much as SpaceX’s winning bid. Credit: Blue Origin
In the source selection statement for the Option A competition, SpaceX had a technical score of “Acceptable,” the same as Blue Origin and higher than Dynetics’ “Marginal.” Its managerial score of “Outstanding” beat out the “Very Good” scores from the other two companies. But the biggest difference was price: SpaceX bid $2.89 billion, while Blue Origin was “significantly higher” than that; Dynetics was “significantly higher” than Blue Origin.
That price difference was a key factor for NASA, which received only $850 million for the HLS program in fiscal year 2021, one-fourth of its original request. Lueders wrote in the source selection statement that “at the initial prices and milestone payment phasing proposed by each of the Option A offerors, NASA’s current fiscal year budget did not support even a single Option A award.” NASA then asked SpaceX to make an unspecified change to its payment schedule, but not its overall price, before making an award.
That ruled out, she argued in the document, picking a second company, even if NASA asked it to lower its price. After selecting SpaceX, she wrote, “the amount of remaining available funding is so insubstantial” it wasn’t feasible to ask either company to revise their proposals.
NASA said little at the announcement about the technical merits of SpaceX’s Starship lunar lander, beyond that it met or exceeded various requirements. “SpaceX also, I’m sure, will be very happy to talk about their strategy,” Lueders said. But SpaceX wasn’t represented at the briefing and the company, which eschews press releases and routinely ignores media inquiries, said nothing beyond a single tweet stating it was “humbled” to win the contract.
A week later, SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk discussed the HLS award during a NASA briefing about the launch of the Crew-2 commercial crew mission. “It’s definitely going to be really helpful funding the Starship program,” he said. Asked later in the briefing if a 2024 Starship lunar landing with astronauts was feasible, he agreed.
“Yeah, I think so,” he said, then paused. “I think it will happen. I think 2024 seems likely. We’re going to aim for sooner than that. This is actually doable.”
REDUNDANCY NOW
Neither Blue Origin nor Dynetics are giving up on their lunar lander ambitions. On April 26, the companies filed separate protests with the Government Accountability Office, seeking to overturn the HLS Option A award.
Both companies alleged in their protests that NASA improperly evaluated the technical merits of their proposals and, in the words of Blue Origin’s protest, “unreasonably favored” SpaceX’s proposal. Blue Origin, for example, claimed NASA improperly concluded there were problems with its lander’s communications system, while Dynetics argued NASA overlooked the steps the company was taking to reduce the mass of its overweight lander.
The two companies also took issue with the rationale NASA used to select a single company. Blue Origin revealed in its protest that it bid $5.99 billion for the HLS Option A award. While twice as high as SpaceX’s bid, it argued that the combination of the two would have cost NASA about the same as what it spent on the commercial crew program, which supported Boeing and SpaceX.
Blue Origin complained that NASA didn’t give it a chance to revise its bid. Brent Sherwood, senior vice president of advanced development programs at Blue Origin, said in the protest that had NASA informed the company that budget issues would preclude the agency from making two awards, “Blue Origin would have welcomed the opportunity to offer specific adjustments in a revised proposal.”
Dynetics’ HLS proposal was “significantly higher” than Blue Origin’s. Credit: Dynetics
Dynetics took a somewhat different approach. It argued that NASA overlooked several alternatives when it decided to make a single award, from going back to the companies for revised proposals to canceling the solicitation entirely. Another option it highlighted was for NASA to use the available funding for multiple awards of “sustainable” lander studies, a separate contract line item in the solicitation, rather than a single Option A award.
“This whole mechanism was set up to be very flexible, and they didn’t really use the flexibility they had,” a source familiar with Dynetics’ protest said.
Those protests are now in the hands of the GAO, which has until Aug. 4 to sustain or deny them. NASA announced April 30 it was suspending work on the HLS award it gave to SpaceX “until GAO resolves all outstanding litigation related to this procurement.”
To many, the protests are not surprising, given they’re common for any large government procurement. “I expected them to come. They’re a normal part of life in Washington,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), chair of the House space subcommittee. “The authorities will sort through it and we will move on.”
Others in Congress are taking a different approach to giving companies a second chance at HLS. The Senate Commerce Committee approved May 12 a NASA authorization bill as an amendment to legislation for the National Science Foundation called the Endless Frontier Act.
The amendment, introduced by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the committee, is similar to a NASA authorization bill that the Senate approved at the end of the last Congress. This version includes a new “competitiveness within the Human Landing System program” provision that directs NASA to have no fewer than two companies under contract to develop lunar landers within 30 days of the bill’s enactment, and authorizes $10.032 billion for the HLS program — slightly above the combination of the SpaceX and Blue Origin bids.
The committee didn’t discuss the amendment, which passed on a voice vote, and it’s uncertain the amendment will make its way to a final version of the bill. However, Cantwell previously stated she was disappointed NASA did not pick two companies for HLS. “I think there needs to be redundancy, and it has to be clear in this process that it can’t be redundancy later. It has to be redundancy now,” she told Bill Nelson, the nominee for NASA administrator, during his April 21 confirmation hearing.
LETS MAKE A DEAL
Nelson, at that hearing, said he supported the agency’s approach to the HLS procurement, including its plans to accelerate the acquisition of lander services that will be open to competition. “Those competitions will be there,” he promised Cantwell.
NASA is proposing to acquire lander missions after the single Option A mission through a program called Lunar Exploration Transportation Services (LETS). NASA foresees LETS being a full and open competition, with multiple companies winning contracts to transport astronauts to the surface of the moon and back, similar to its space station commercial cargo and crew contracts.
The actual LETS competition is “still a few steps away,” cautioned Lisa Watson-Morgan, NASA HLS program manager, in an April 29 statement. The first of those steps was a request for information (RFI) asking industry for input on how to structure the LETS program.
NASA will follow with a broad agency announcement as soon as June to fund risk reduction work for those lunar landers. At a May 3 industry day, Watson-Morgan said NASA would make several awards, but each would likely be no more than $15 million, a tiny fraction of the development cost of a lunar lander. “We do not have a tremendous amount of dollars,” she said.
That could be too little and too late for some companies that don’t have wealthy founders or other access to capital. “Putting out an RFI for something that’s a couple years from now, well, there’s not going to be anybody left,” said one industry source. “Other than billionaires who can choose to keep things around, you’re not going to have others left in the game that are going to give you real competition.”
Even a company like Blue Origin that’s funded by billionaire Jeff Bezos will be at a disadvantage to SpaceX in any LETS competition thanks to SpaceX’s HLS award. That assumes, though, that SpaceX will successfully develop Starship on a schedule like what it proposes.
“I tend to be somewhat optimistic with respect to schedules,” Musk said, laughing, during the Crew-2 press conference shortly before he predicted a 2024 landing. “Also, we need to be, like, not making craters.”
He laughed again. “We’ve got some work to do, but we’re making rapid progress.”
This article originally appeared in the May 2021 issue of SpaceNews magazine.
The shimmering appearance of frosty, white clouds in the atmosphere of Mars has surprised NASA scientists, with the wispy formations emerging in unexpected ways.
Clouds are a rarer weather phenomenon on Mars as compared to Earth, thanks to the red planet's thin, dry atmosphere, but they're certainly not unheard of.
Still, a number of unusual cloud formations observed by NASA's Curiosity rover in recent times have been somewhat remarkable, arriving both earlier than expected in the Martian year, and at higher altitudes in the atmosphere.
According to the space agency, cloudy days on Mars usually occur around the equator at the planet's coldest time of the year, which is when Mars is farthest from the Sun in its slightly elliptical orbit.
Clouds drifting over Mount Sharp on 19 March 2021. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
Two years ago, however, clouds began to emerge earlier than generally expected, and this year the trend continued, with early clouds showing up in January, and higher in the sky as well.
NASA researchers aren't entirely sure, but these unusual characteristics could be because these aren't clouds of water ice.
The majority of Martian clouds are made up of water ice crystals that shimmer with light reflected from the Sun. Such clouds usually sit at a maximum altitude of around 60 kilometers (about 37 miles).
Clouds just after sunset on March 31, 2021. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Further analysis is required to be sure, but the higher-altitude clouds Curiosity has seen recently may be of a different kind, and could be made of frozen carbon dioxide (aka dry ice) suspended in a higher, colder section of the sky.
Whatever they are, they're a sight to behold thanks to Curiosity's keen vision.
Amongst the rover's recent captures are noctilucent (night shining) clouds, which reflect the last, fleeting light of the day as it's chased away by the sweeping darkness of night.
Mars's iridescent (aka 'mother of pearl') clouds are an even more captivating phenomenon, revealing a subtle palette of different colors in the cloud, which speaks to how they take shape.
Colorful, iridescent clouds seen on 5 March 2021. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
"If you see a cloud with a shimmery pastel set of colors in it, that's because the cloud particles are all nearly identical in size," explains atmospheric scientist Mark Lemmon from the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
"That's usually happening just after the clouds have formed and have all grown at the same rate."
While the colors are faint, they're still some of the more colorful things you could ever see on the red planet, Lemmon says.
"I always marvel at the colors that show up: reds and greens and blues and purples," Lemmon says. "It's really cool to see something shining with lots of color on Mars."
If you have an overreaction to 'triggering' sounds such as other people chewing or drumming their fingers, you probably have misophonia. Now, scientists have discovered a key brain connection responsible for setting it off.
The connection runs from the auditory cortex (the brain's hearing center) to the orofacial motor cortex (controlling movement of the face, mouth and throat). This makes sense, as most misophonia-triggering sounds are caused by actions involving the human face – such as chewing or breathing.
As a result of the findings, the researchers have a new suggestion: that people with misophonia are actually experiencing a stimulation of the same part of the motor cortex that is causing the triggering sound from someone else.
"Our findings indicate that for people with misophonia there is abnormal communication between the auditory and motor brain regions," says neuroscientist Sukhbinder Kumar, from Newcastle University in the UK.
"You could describe it as a 'super-sensitized connection'. This is the first time such a connection in the brain has been identified for the condition."
The team analyzed fMRI brain scans from a total of 75 people with and without misophonia to discover this super-sensitized connection. Data was collected with no noise, with misophonia trigger sounds (like chewing), with sounds designed to be unpleasant to everyone (like screaming), and with neutral sounds (like rainfall).
The researchers made an additional discovery too: a stronger connection between the motor cortex and the visual cortex. This gives us more clues about what might be setting off misophonia in the brain.
"What surprised us was that we also found a similar pattern of communication between the visual and motor regions, which reflects that misophonia can also occur when triggered by something visual," says Kumar.
"This leads us to believe that this communication activates something called the 'mirror system', which helps us process movements made by other individuals by activating our own brain in a similar way – as if we were making that movement ourselves."
This mirror neuron system, which has been previously studied, is thought to work in the same way inside the brain whether we're actually doing something or watching someone else do it. The researchers suggest that misophonia is so uncomfortable because it feels like an intrusion into the brain when this mirroring happens.
That idea is backed up by one of the ways that misophonia can be managed in some people: by mimicking the action creating the trigger sound and thus taking back control. If we can better understand how that works, we could improve our approaches to managing misophonia, which can have a seriously negative impact on people's day-to-day lives.
Between 6-20 percent of the population are thought to be living with some form of misophonia, but there's still plenty about it that we don't understand. In its most severe form, it can make some work, family and social situations almost intolerable.
"The study provides new ways to think about the treatment options for misophonia," says neurologist Tim Griffiths, from Newcastle University.
"Instead of focussing on sound centers in the brain, which many existing therapies do, effective therapies should consider motor areas of the brain as well."
HELSINKI — Russia and China are looking to announce new partnerships for a joint initiative to construct a robotic moon base ahead of potential crewed lunar missions.
The first responses to invitations to join the International Lunar Research Station project (ILRS) are expected during bilateral meetings during the Global Space Exploration Conference 2021 (GLEX 2021) in St. Petersburg, Russia, running from June 14-18.
“We have sent out invitations for cooperation in the international scientific lunar station to a number of our respected partners, including the European Space Agency, for example,” Roscosmos Deputy Head for International Cooperation Sergei told TASS last week.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Russia’s Roscosmos sent invitations to potential partners in early April.
China and Russia are seeking international ILRS partners at the same time as the United States is building partnerships with countries through its Artemis Accords. South Korea became the 10th signatory of Accords May 27, and the first to sign up under the Biden Administration.
Roscosmos and CNSA will present a roadmap for creating the ILRS at a GLEX 2021 event June 16. Beijing and Moscow earlier stated that the ILRS project would be open to participation at all stages and levels. Russia and China signed a memorandum of understanding on the ILRS in March.
Early details suggest that missions for the ILRS first phase will include China’s Chang’e-6 (sample return) and Chang’e-7 (orbiter, lander, rover, small surface probe) and Russia’s Luna 25 (lander), Luna 26 (polar orbiter) and Luna 27 (lander) missions.
A second phase will run from 2026-2030. Chang’e-8, designed for in-situ resource utilization and 3D-printing technology tests, and Luna 28, will set down at a chosen site and mark the beginning of construction of the robotic base.
A third phase would consist of multiple missions across 2030-2035. By this time China hopes to test launch its Long March 9 super heavy-lift launcher for infrastructure. The country is also developing a new-generation launcher for crewed missions and a new crewed spacecraft with deep space capabilities.
Early Chinese visions of the ILRS outlined long-term robotic and potentially short-term crewed missions for this timeframe. A long-term human presence at the lunar south pole is the goal for 2036-2045.
Recent reports suggest that Russia and China will share spaceflight technologies for the ILRS project.
“Both sides have agreed to incorporate Russia’s superheavy rocket with China’s human space flight as well as the other way round – incorporate China’s superheavy rocket with Russia’s manned carriers,” Alexander Bloshenko, Roscosmos’ executive director for long-term programs and science, told media, according to the the South China Morning Post.
The Roscosmos Press Office told SpaceNews that they cannot comment on the matter.
The GLEX 2021 conference was to be held in 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The previous edition of the GLEX conference, organized by the International Astronautical Federation, was hosted by Beijing.
The inevitable has occurred. A piece of space debris too small to be tracked has hit and damaged part of the International Space Station - namely, the Canadarm2 robotic arm.
The instrument is still operational, but the object punctured the thermal blanket and damaged the boom beneath. It's a sobering reminder that the low-Earth orbit's space junk problem is a ticking time bomb.
Obviously space agencies around the world are aware of the space debris problem. Over 23,000 pieces are being tracked in low-Earth orbit to help satellites and the ISS avoid collisions - but they're all about the size of a softball or larger.
Anything below that size is too small to track, but travelling at orbital velocities can still do some significant damage, including punching right through metal plates.
An impact hole left in the Hubble Space Telescope antenna in 1997. (NASA)
Canadarm2 - formally known as the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), designed by the Canadian Space Agency - has been a fixture on the space station for 20 years. It's a multi-jointed titanium robotic arm that can assist with maneuvering objects outside the ISS, including cargo shuttles, and performing station maintenance.
It's unclear exactly when the impact occurred. The damage was first noticed on 12 May, during a routine inspection. NASA and the CSA worked together to take detailed images of and assess the damage.
"Despite the impact, results of the ongoing analysis indicate that the arm's performance remains unaffected," the CSA wrote in a blog post. "The damage is limited to a small section of the arm boom and thermal blanket. Canadarm2 is continuing to conduct its planned operations."
Although the ISS seems to have gotten lucky this time, the space debris problem does seem to be increasing. Last year, the ISS had to perform emergency maneuvers three times in order to avoid collisions with space debris at its altitude of around 400 kilometers (250 miles).
Ever since the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, space debris has been accumulating. According to a report from the European Space Agency, an estimated 130 million fragments of anthropogenic material smaller than a millimeter are orbiting Earth right now. That estimate does not include natural space dust.
"To continue benefiting from the science, technology and data that operating in space brings, it is vital that we achieve better compliance with existing space debris mitigation guidelines in spacecraft design and operations," said head of the ESA's Space Debris Office Tim Florer last year.
"It cannot be stressed enough - this is essential for the sustainable use of space."
Robotics operations on the ISS using the Canadarm2 will continue as planned for the near future, the CSA said. But both space agencies will continue to gather data in order to perform an analysis of the event, both to understand how it occurred, and to assess future risk.
Each city is populated by a unique host of microbial organisms, and this microbial 'fingerprint' is so distinctive, the DNA on your shoe is likely enough to identify where you live, scientists say.
In a new study, researchers took thousands of samples from mass transit systems in 60 cities across the world, swabbing common touch points like turnstiles and railings in bustling subways and bus stations across the world.
Subjecting over 4,700 of the collected samples to metagenomic sequencing (the study of genetic material collected from the environment), scientists created a global atlas of the urban microbial ecosystem, which they say is the first systematic catalog of its kind.
The results suggest that no two cities are alike, with each major metropolis studied so far revealing a unique 'molecular echo' of the microbial species that inhabit it, distinct from populations found in other urban environments.
(Weill Cornell Medicine)
Not only that, but the three-year analysis turned up thousands of previously unidentified kinds of microorganisms, including almost 11,000 viruses and over 1,300 types of bacteria that didn't match any known species.
"Every time you sit down in the subway, you are likely commuting with an entirely new species," says systems biologist Christopher Mason from Cornell University.
The team, comprising a consortium of dozens of scientists from over 60 research organizations, ultimately collected the samples from 32 countries across six continents, but the project began with more modest aims, analyzing microbial specimens found in the New York City subway system.
After that work began to get attention, Mason founded MetaSUB, an international collaboration attempting to document the urban biome that millions of people interact with each day.
"It is now apparent that cities, in general, have an impact on human health, though the mechanisms of this impact are broadly variable and often little understood," the researchers write in their new study.
"Indeed, our understanding of microbial dynamics in the urban environment outside of pandemics has only just begun."
(Weill Cornell Medicine)
The new results bear that observation out. Amongst the 4,728 metagenomic samples analyzed (all of which were collected prior to the COVID-19pandemic), a far greater amount of unknown microbes was found than known microbes.
In total 10,928 viruses, 1,302 bacteria, 2 archaea, and 838,532 CRISPR arrays (fragments of viral DNA) were identified that didn't have a match in reference databases, compared with some 4,246 species of urban microorganisms that had previously been identified.
Of these, the researchers say a set of 31 non-human microbe species was found in 97 percent of samples: a consistent 'core' urban microbiome that appears virtually everywhere it seems.
On top of that core, however, distinct geographic variations of microbial populations exist in each city. So much so, in fact, that Mason says he could predict with about 90 percent accuracy where a person lives, if the DNA on their shoes was sequenced.
"A microbiome contains molecular echoes of the place where it was collected," says first author of the study David Danko, MetaSUB's director of bioinformatics.
"A coastal sample may contain salt-loving microbes while a sample from a densely populated city may show striking biodiversity."
Aside from differentiating the distinct signatures of each metropolitan microbiome, the researchers hope to discover new ways to identify health threats in microbial populations, such as antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria – evidence for which was found to be globally widespread among the study's cities, although not in abundance.
What remains to be seen is whether each city's microbial uniqueness is a matter of random chance, or if there is a deeper significance to the geographical variations that we don't yet fully appreciate.
In addition to revealing potentially lurking pathogens, the diverse world of invisible microbes within cities may also hold promising opportunities for medicine, helping us to discover biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) – compounds with significant potential for future antibiotics and other drugs.
"One of the next steps is to synthesize and validate some of these molecules and predicted BGCs, and then see what they do medically or therapeutically," Mason says.
"People often think a rainforest is a bounty of biodiversity and new molecules for therapies, but the same is true of a subway railing or bench."
Researchers have successfully detected the environmental DNA (eDNA *1) of the Argentine ant (*2) in surface soil samples from sites on Kobe's Port Island and in Kyoto's Fushimi District, two areas that have a long history of destruction caused by this invasive species. The research group included then graduate student YASASHIMOTO Tetsu and Associate Professor MINAMOTO Toshifumi of Kobe University's Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Visiting Professor OZAKI Mamiko of the Graduate School of Engineering, and NAKAJIMA Satoko, formally of the Kyoto Prefectural Institute of Public Health and Environment.
This method can be used to enable scientists to easily gain an accurate understanding of the habitat distribution and hotspots for globally invasive ant species (*3), such as the fire ant, which cause significant damage. Combining this method with pest control plans against invasive ant species will contribute towards the formulation of targeted measures and successful elimination results.
These research results are due to be published in Scientific Reports on May 26, 2021.
Main points
Invasive ant species are causing serious damage worldwide. Early detection and rapid elimination is essential for controlling their populations.
However, current pest control methods involve a series of direct detection techniques (such as visual observation, capture, classification, elimination, follow-up observation and evaluation), which require specialist knowledge, labor and time. This is inefficient considering the widespread damage caused worldwide by these invasive species.
By focusing on one species that is difficult to eradicate (the Argentine ant), the group demonstrated that eDNA analysis can provide a useful tool for observing and evaluating the invasion, establishment and proliferation of invasive ant species.
The research group developed an Argentine ant-specific real-time PCR assay. Using this new assay, they successfully and highly accurately detected eDNA originating from this species in surface samples collected from invasion sites.
The researchers compared the presence of eDNA with the last decade of pest control records. They demonstrated the efficiency of eDNA analysis for monitoring populations of the target species and reported for the first time that this method could lead to rapid improvements in the accuracy and effectiveness of invasive ant extermination.
Research Background
In the midst of globalization, the transport of goods and commodities between nations is increasing. Consequently, the arrival, subsequent establishment and widespread proliferation of invasive ant species that are inadvertently transported to other countries has developed into a worldwide problem. In Japan, Argentine ant colonies continue to proliferate widely, and the invasion and establishment of highly poisonous fire ant populations have also been reported.
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The research group chose two areas that have a long history of damage caused by the Argentine ant; 1. Kyoto's Fushimi district and 2. Kobe's Port Island. 1. Fushimi has continuously used insecticide measures for almost 10 years, and has had consistent success in suppressing Argentine ant populations in built-up areas. 2. Although the Argentine ant first invaded Kobe over 20 years ago, the situation has yet to change for the better.
In cases like 1, where insecticide-based methods have been carried out for a long period of time, it is difficult to stop the usage of insecticide on a non-scientific basis, even though this presents a problem from the perspective of conserving the natural environment and ecosystem.
In cases like 2, there are no pest control plans in place because the extent of the species' distribution is not readily understood.
Environmental DNA analysis is a biological monitoring method that was introduced into the fields of ecology and conservation biology around 2008. It has brought about revolutionary changes in the conduction of biological surveys, especially in aquatic environments. It is hoped that applying this technique to surface soil samples instead of water samples will play a key role in eliminating invasive ants, providing a breakthrough solution to this problem.
Research Methodology and Findings
Argentine ant-specific DNA assay
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The researchers designed a real-time PCR assay specific to the Argentine ant and experimentally confirmed the specificity of the assay. The researchers then performed the following experiments using this method.
Selection of surface sample sites and their respective pest control histories
Surface samples were collected from a total of four sites in the Fushimi district of Kyoto in order to test them for the eDNA of the Argentine ant. The characteristics of efforts to control invasive ant species over the past decade are different for each site.
Detecting the eDNA of Argentine ants using surface soil samples
Environmental DNA from the Argentine ant was found in the samples from the FM-1 and FM-2 sites, where their presence had previously been confirmed by traditional bait trap surveys. However, eDNA from this invasive species was not detected in the samples taken from sites FM-3 and FM-4. These results did not contradict those obtained using the bait trap method, suggesting that eDNA analysis can be considered more accurate than surveys based on visual observations (Table 1). In addition, native ant species were observed at each of the survey sites. At sites FM-1 and 2, where Argentine ant eDNA was detected, 7 and 3 native species were observed, whereas at sites FM-3 and 4, where the invasive ant's DNA was not detected, 15 and 10 native species were found respectively. This indicates that the invasive species may be driving out native ant species.
Conclusions and Further Developments
1. By comparing and analyzing the results of environmental DNA analysis of various ant species with the habitat data of Argentine ant and native ant species accumulated over the years, a method for estimating ant habitat by environmental DNA can be developed for practical use. In this way, eDNA could provide a scientific basis from which to reconsider previous ineffective pest control methods and to eradicate issues relating to the continuance of pest control and confirming extermination.
2. The environmental DNA method is a fundamental, all-purpose technique, which enables further research into other invasive ant species, such as fire ants, to be conducted in the same way.
3. A policy model for the control of invasive species, based on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to 'Conserve and restore terrestrial ecosystems and halt biodiversity loss', can be drawn up and implemented, beginning with invasive ant species (including Argentine ant and fire ant).
Glossary
*1 Environmental DNA (eDNA): This is DNA originating from organisms that is found in the environment, such as in the water or on the ground. Environmental DNA analysis allows researchers to comprehensively identify species that reside in an area, even if they no longer live there. This in turn enables them to estimate and gain an understanding of the target species' distribution. Environmental DNA surveys are used in a wide range of research fields, including species conservation, ecology, taxonomy, microbiology and palaeontology.
*2 Argentine ant (Linepithema humile): The Argentine ant is part of the Dolichoderinae subfamily and belongs to the Hymenoptera order. It originated in South America. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) ranks it as one of the world's worst 100 invasive species. It is also designated as one of Japan's worst 100 invasive species. It was first found in Japan in 1993 in Hatsukaichi City (Hiroshima Prefecture) and has since been reported in 11 prefectures. It is a very difficult species to eradicate once it has invaded an area, as the ant establish supercolonies with multiple queens.
*3 Invasive ant species: These species have spread beyond their country of origin and have established themselves in countries worldwide. They invade native species' habitats, as well as the dwellings of people and livestock; posing a threat to living environments, in addition to health and safety. These invasive ant species drive out and eradicate the former occupants of an area, which leads to a loss of biodiversity and ecosystem destruction.
A 2,300-year-old ceramic jar filled with the bones of a dismembered chicken was likely part of an ancient curse to paralyze and kill 55 people in ancient Athens, archaeologists say. The finding reveals new evidence for how people tried to use "magic" in the city.
They discovered the jar, along with a coin, beneath the floor of the Agora's Classical Commercial Building, which was used by ancient craftspeople.
"The pot contained the dismembered head and lower limbs of a young chicken," Jessica Lamont, a classics professor at Yale University, wrote in an article published in the journal Hesperia.
At the time, around 300 BC, the people who made the curse also gouged a large iron nail through the vessel.
Curse jar in situ. ( C. Mauzy; courtesy Agora Excavations)
"All exterior surfaces of the [jar] were originally covered with text; it once carried over 55 inscribed names, dozens of which now survive only as scattered, floating letters or faint stylus strokes" Lamont wrote, noting that the Greek writing contains words that may mean "we bind".
The nail and chicken parts likely played a role in the curse. Nails are commonly found with ancient curses and "had an inhibiting force and symbolically immobilized or restrained the faculties of [the curse's] victims," Lamont wrote.
The chicken was no older than 7 months when it was killed, and the people who created the curse may have wanted to transfer "the chick's helplessness and inability to protect itself" to the people whose names are inscribed on the jar, Lamont wrote.
The presence of the chicken's head and lower legs in the jar suggests that "by twisting off and piercing the head and lower legs of the chicken, the curse composers sought to incapacitate the use of those same body parts in their victims," Lamont wrote.
"The ritual assemblage belongs to the realm of Athenian binding curses and aimed to 'bind' or inhibit the physical and cognitive faculties of the named individuals," Lamont wrote. The jar was placed near several burned pyres that contained animal remains — something that may have enhanced the curse's power, according to Lamont.
Why was the curse created?
The style of the handwriting on the jar suggests that at least two individuals wrote the names on the jar, Lamont said. "It was certainly composed by people/persons with good knowledge of how to cast a powerful curse," Lamont told Live Science in an email.
Why they went to the trouble of creating such an elaborate curse is not certain, but it may have been related to a legal case.
"The sheer number of names makes an impending lawsuit the most likely scenario," Lamont wrote, noting that "curse composers might cite all imaginable opponents in their maledictions, including the witnesses, families and supporters of the opposition."
Trials were common at the time in Athens and galvanized a lot of the public, according to Lamont.
The jar's location — a building used by craftspeople — suggests that the lawsuit may have involved a workplace dispute. "The curse could have been created by craftspersons working in the industrial building itself, perhaps in the lead-up to a trial concerning an inter-workplace conflict," Lamont wrote.
Another possibility is that the curse is related to the strife in Athens around 2,300 years ago. After Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, his empire collapsed and his generals and officials fought for power.
Historical records show that several factions fought for control of Athens at the time. It was "a period plagued by war, siege and shifting political alliances," Lamont wrote.
The curse jar was excavated in 2006 and was recently analyzed and deciphered by Lamont. Excavation of the jar was overseen by Marcie Handler, who was a doctoral student in classics at the University of Cincinnati at the time.
The popular conception goes that nothing can escape from a black hole. Once something passes the event horizon - the so-called point of no return - it stays there, forever, bound by a gravitational field not even light can escape.
But a rotating black hole generates vast amounts of energy, which, theoretically, can be extracted from the ergosphere, a region that sits just on the outside of the event horizon. This has been shown both theoretically and experimentally - and now a team of astrophysicists has found what they believe is observational evidence for it.
The smoking gun is the most powerful gamma-ray burst we've ever detected, GRB 190114C, a colossal flare clocking in at around a trillion electron volts (1 TeV), from 4.5 billion light-years away.
"Gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful transient objects in the sky, release energies of up to a few 1054 erg in just a few seconds," said astrophysicist Remo Ruffini of the International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics Network (ICRANet) headquartered in Italy.
"Their luminosity in the gamma-rays, in the time interval of the event, is as large as the luminosity of all the stars of the observable Universe! Gamma-ray bursts have been thought to be powered, by an up-to-now unknown mechanism, by stellar-mass black holes."
Last year, Ruffini and his colleagues came up with a solution for this mechanism - a process they have called a binary-driven hypernova.
It starts with a close binary system consisting of a carbon-oxygen star at the end of its life, and a neutron star. When the carbon-oxygen star goes supernova, the material ejected can be rapidly slurped up by the companion neutron star. Thus, that companion passes the critical mass point and collapses into a black hole, which launches a burst of gamma rays, as well as jets of material from its poles at nearly light-speed.
(The core of the carbon-oxygen star collapses into a second neutron star, resulting in a black hole-neutron star binary.)
Now, in a new paper, Ruffini and his colleagues led by ICRANet's Rahim Moradi have described the mechanism that can launch such a high-energy gamma-ray burst: the acceleration of particles along magnetic field lines inherited from the black hole's parent neutron star. That magnetic field extracts rotational energy from the black hole's ergosphere.
"The novel engine presented in the new publication," Ruffini explained, "makes the job through a purely general relativistic, gravito-electrodynamical process: a rotating black hole, interacting with a surrounding magnetic field, creates an electric field that accelerates ambient electrons to ultrahigh-energies leading to high-energy radiation and ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays."
Relativistic, or near light-speed, jets are not uncommon in active galactic nuclei, the supermassive black hole monsters at the cores of galaxies. These jets are thought to form from the accretion process, which goes as follows.
A huge disk of material swirls around the active black hole, falling into it from the inner edge, but not all of this material falls onto the black hole. Some of it, astronomers believe, is funneled and accelerated along magnetic field lines around the outside of the black hole to the poles, where it is launched into space in the form of collimated jets.
We know black holes and neutron stars can have powerful magnetic fields, and the evidence suggests these can act as a synchrotron (a type of particle accelerator). Evidence also suggests that a magnetic field synchrotron plays a role in launching a gamma-ray burst during the formation of a black hole.
Studying GRB 190114C, Moradi and his team have found a similar mechanism - but, rather than a continuous emission process, it's discrete, repeating over and over, releasing each time a quantum of black hole energy to produce the observed gamma-ray emission following the gamma-ray burst.
Based on observations of GRB 190114C, the team was able to reconstruct the sequence of events.
The carbon-oxygen star goes supernova, while the core collapses into a neutron star; some of that ejected material falls back onto the newly formed neutron star, producing an X-ray glow - as observed by the Swift telescope.
Some of the material also falls onto the neutron star companion, pushing it over the mass limit to form a black hole - this process would have been smooth, taking just 1.99 seconds. Then material continues to fall onto the newly formed black hole, producing a gamma-ray burst from 1.99 to 3.99 seconds.
Finally, more material falling onto the black hole results in the formation of jets, and gamma radiation in the gigaelectronvolt range, from the extraction of rotational energy.
Other scientists may disagree with the findings; a team last year found that the gamma-ray burst was the result of a collapsing magnetic field, for instance. It may not even apply to all gamma-ray bursts. Nevertheless, all the parts seem to fit the observations of GRB 190114C very neatly.
"The proof that we can use the extractable rotational energy of a black hole to explain the high-energy jetted emissions of gamma-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei stands alone," Ruffini said.
"A long march of successive theoretical progress and new physics discovered using observations of GRBs has brought to this result which has been [awaited] for about 50 years of relativistic astrophysics."
A potentially new species of tree frog has been discovered in New Guinea, and it's full of surprises. For starters, instead of the bright green skin of its relatives, this creature sports a beautiful chocolate brown.
"Because of this we named the new frog Litoria mira because the word Mira means surprised or strange in Latin."
The research, which has been published in the Australian Journal of Zoology, was actually looking more widely at the Australasian tree frog genus Litoria across Australia and New Guinea.
Litoria mira in all its adorable brown glory. (Steve Richards)
Now, there's a bit of confusion in the frog world on whether the common green tree frog in Australia is part of Litoria at all. Researchers in 2016 split Litoria into several separate genera, finding that the common green tree frog should actually be under Ranoidea.
However, not all scientists agree, citing missing data in the genetic analysis that led to this conclusion, and the researchers of this new study have continued to call the species they investigated Litoria, rather than Ranoidea.
The team was investigating the habitat of the common Australian green tree frog (which we'll call Litoriacaerulea for simplicity's sake), tracing it across the northern part of Australia and New Guinea. At its closest, the two land masses are a mere 150 kilometers (80 nautical miles) apart, and were once connected by a land bridge when the planet was colder and the sea levels lower.
This means that in the past there was significant intermingling between species in the two regions, and some – including the common green tree frog – live happily in both Australia and New Guinea. As a result, the frog's range expands across different climates: in New Guinea they're mostly located in the rainforest, while in Northern Australia they're predominantly found in the savannah.
"Our study is the first to present phylogenetic and phylogeographic data for a nominal frog taxon occurring across these two regions," the team wrote in their new paper.
"And it provides evidence for both established and novel biogeographic hypotheses and, as we will argue, recognition of a previously undescribed species."
The team went out and collected frogs, recorded their calls, and reanalyzed specimens that had been collected previously. There are some southern areas of New Guinea that are savannah-like, and this is where the team found most of the traditional L. caerulea which shared many traits with those in far North Queensland.
However, farther north in more swampy rainforest areas, the team found that the L. caerulea weren't really caerulea at all.
Look at those little fingers! (S. Richards)
"The advertisement call is a deep, rasping bark repeated in long series, 'crawk, crawk, crawk …' that is indistinguishable to the ear from that of L. caerulea," the team explain.
However, "L. mira can be distinguished from all other Litoria by the unique combination of moderately large size … dorsal coloration uniformly brown, without white or yellow spots; small violet patch of skin at postero-ventral edge of eye; and ventral surfaces of limbs, torso and throat with moderate to extensive regions densely stippled with dark to medium brown."
It's not to say that there aren't other brown species of tree frog – there are over 215 species in the Pelodryadidae family which contains both Litoria and Ranoidea, and there are plenty which aren't bright green.
But the discovery of a new species is always exciting for scientists, and researchers think this newly identified amphibian might be much more widespread across New Guinea.
"Because the frog lives in very hot, swampy areas with lots of crocodiles, all these things discourage exploration," said Steve Richards from the South Australian Museum.
Now that we know they're there, let's keep it that way.
Fishery and aquaculture have given rise to an enormous uniformity in the diversity of bivalves along the more than 18,000 kilometer long Chinese coast, biologist He-Bo Peng and colleagues report in this month's issue of Diversity and Distributions.
Climate zones
Peng and colleagues sampled bivalves at 21 sites along the Chinese coast from the city of Dongliaodao in the tropical south, to the mudflats of Yalu Jiang, more than 2000 km further north and ice-covered for several months in winter. "At 19 out of these 21 sites, commercially exploited species dominated," Peng saw. "In the naturally occurring species, we still recognized the natural gradient with highest diversity in the tropics and lowest diversity in the north. However, the same commercially exploited species were found in all regions, regardless the climatic conditions. Also, the commercial species dominated almost all mudflat communities."
Shrimp fisheries
One of the dominant species nowadays is Potamocorbula laevis. Peng: "At some locations, this bivalve represented 95% of the biomass." This is not necessarily due to the culturing of this bivalve. "The intensive fishing for shrimps has almost eradicated a natural enemy of the small fragile juveniles of this bivalve. Possibly, this lack of predators has now favored P. laevis."
Blessing in disguise
The eradication of the south to north biodiversity gradient and the dominance of commercially exploited bivalve species may be a blessing in disguise for migratory birds along the Chinese coast. Peng: "At sites where there's a lot of p. laevis now, migratory birds like red and great knots find a lot of food as they refuel during their migrations between Australia and the tundra areas of northeast Russia. But the more general point raised by this study is the immensity of the role of human activities in determining coastline biodiversity. Where once there was a strong climate gradient in biodiversity, aquaculture and fisheries have favored uniformity now."
Continuous sampling
"This extensive research along more than 18,000 km of Chinese coast builds on the Dutch tradition of studying mudflat ecosystems," Theunis Piersma, researcher at NIOZ and promotor of PhD-student Peng as professor of global flyway ecology at the University of Groningen, says. "Sampling programs like SIBES in the Dutch Wadden Sea taught us the value of widespread and continuous sampling. In this study He-Bo Peng once again shows the value of documenting benthos at very large spatial scales, with sampling strategies developed in the Wadden Sea."
WASHINGTON — The bipartisan leadership of the House Science Committee has asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate NASA’s cybersecurity activities amid growing concerns about hacking of government computer systems.
In a May 27 letter, the top Democrats and Republicans of the committee requested the GAO investigate the “cybersecurity risks to the sensitive data” associated with major NASA programs. That includes comparing NASA’s activities to leading cybersecurity practices and identifying additional practices the agency should adopt.
The letter did not identify any specific NASA cybersecurity breach or other event that prompted the request for the review, but rather longstanding concerns about the agency’s vulnerabilities. “The extent to which these ongoing weaknesses have impacted the agency’s ability to protect its most sensitive data, especially data tied to its major space development projects and spacecraft and human spaceflight operations, is not well understood,” the members wrote in the letter.
NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has regularly reviewed, and criticized, NASA’s approach to information technology management in general and cybersecurity in particular. In its most recent cybersecurity report, released May 18, it warned of growing cybersecurity threats to the agency.
“Attacks on NASA networks are not a new phenomenon, although attempts to steal critical information are increasing in both complexity and severity,” the OIG report concluded. It stated that phishing attempts more than doubled and malware attacks increased “exponentially” during the move to remote work caused by the pandemic.
“The cyber threat to NASA’s computer networks from internet-based intrusions is expanding in scope and frequency, and the success of these intrusions demonstrates the increasingly complex nature of cybersecurity challenges facing the Agency,” the report stated. Those threats, as described in the report, range from coordinated attacks by Chinese hacking groups to a NASA contract employee who installed software on agency computers to mine cryptocurrency.
The OIG report criticized the agency for a “disorganized” approach to information technology management, such as funding redundant services. NASA also prioritizes cybersecurity for some key programs, like the International Space Station, “leaving cybersecurity for other mission systems as a secondary concern.”
The Science Committee leadership, in their letter to the GAO, suggested that their request for a study was also prompted by cybersecurity issues elsewhere in the federal government. “Recent, sophisticated cybersecurity attacks on multiple Federal government systems that went undetected for months underscore the importance of having robust processes in place manage cybersecurity risks related to NASA’s sensitive data,” they wrote.
That includes what is known as the “SolarWinds” hacking of both government and private-sector computer systems by what cybersecurity analysts believe was a hacking group affiliated with Russian intelligence. Those hackers last year compromised software developed by a company called SolarWinds that handles network management. That gave hackers access to the computer networks of SolarWinds’s customers, including several major companies and federal agencies.
“SolarWinds was a big wakeup call,” said Kathy Lueders, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, when asked about cybersecurity at NASA during a May 25 meeting of the National Academies’ Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board and Space Studies Board.
She didn’t elaborate on specific steps NASA took in the wake of the SolarWinds hack, but emphasized the importance the agency placed on cybersecurity. “This has absolutely been a major focus area for us over the last four to five years.”
One problem is dealing with companies and use of commercial assets, whose cybersecurity vulnerabilities can become ways to get around NASA’s cybersecurity defenses. “It’s a big worry for us,” she said. “We’ve got to figure out how to be able to do this and protect ourselves, while still being on the cutting edge.”
The letter to the GAO was signed by Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) and Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), chair and ranking member, respectively, of the full House Science Committee, and Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Brian Babin (R-Texas), chair and ranking member, respectively, of the space subcommittee.
A heavily used group of pesticides, designed to kill insects upon contact, is also poisoning bee colonies.
Scientists have discovered a way to deliver an antidote using pollen-like microparticles. The medicine is composed of a special enzyme that can break down certain groups of insecticides called organophosphates.
These insecticides pose a deadly threat, but if the right enzymes go through the bees' bodies under the right conditions, they could break down certain pesticides before they are digested and kill the bees.
When researchers tested their antidote – in this case, amidohydrolase phosphotriesterase, or OPT – on a small group of the common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens), the rates of survival were stark.
In the lab, bumblebees fed pollen loaded with malathion – an organophosphate highly toxic to bees – died within four or five days. Meanwhile, those bees that received a meal of malathion and the OPT antidote delivered via the microparticle showed a survival rate of 100 percent.
Bees that received only the antidote without the microparticle protection had the same fate as those that only received the malathion meal.
The problem is, when bees eat toxic pollen grains, they are held in the gut for up to 12 hours, which makes them difficult to remove. This means the antidote must also get to the gut before digestion of these toxins occurs.
While OPT is effective at neutralizing organophosphates' toxicity, it loses its stability – and thus its effectiveness – at high temperatures and low pH levels. Naturally, this describes a bee's digestive environment.
To avoid being broken down in the bee's acidic crop stomach, researchers encased OPT in protective microparticles made of calcium carbonate that are roughly the size of pollen grains and dubbed them PIMs, or pollen-inspired microparticles.
The PIMs protect the OPT past the crop stomach, allowing it to detoxify the pesticides in more amenable conditions.
(Chen et al., Nature Food, 2021)
"We have a solution whereby beekeepers can feed their bees our microparticle products in pollen patties or in a sugar syrup, and it allows them to detoxify the hive of any pesticides that they might find," explains biological and environmental engineer James Webb from Cornell University.
Webb, one of the co-authors of the study, is now the CEO of Beemmunity, a company using microparticles and their potential to save honey bee colonies. Two of this study's authors are also shareholders in Beemmunity.
Today, pesticide residues are commonly found in bee honey, wax and pollen, and while no single chemical is responsible for the recent and catastrophic collapse in honey bees, it appears some organophosphates, like malathion, can put hives at substantial risk.
While this particular group of insecticides is widespread in agriculture, there are other toxins out there that bees are also harmed by.
To target more than just one group of pesticides, Beemmunity is filling its microparticles with a special absorptive oil. This would create a kind of sponge, sucking any neonicotinoids hiding in the bee's gut up into the shell of the microparticle. The quarantined toxins can then later be pooped out by the bee.
Beemunity plans to test this spongy microparticle on 240 hives this summer.
Given how ubiquitous pesticides are and how long they can persist in the food chain, clearing the environment of these toxins will be incredibly difficult. Finding an antidote may be our best shot.
One of the most important and widespread reef-building corals, known as cauliflower coral, exhibits strong partnerships with certain species of symbiotic algae, and these relationships have persisted through periods of intense climate fluctuations over the last 1.5 million years, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State. The findings suggest that these corals and their symbiotic algae may have the capacity to adjust to modern-day increases in ocean warming, at least over the coming decades.
Cauliflower corals -- which are in the genus Pocillopora -- are branching corals that provide critical habitat for one-quarter of the world's fish and many kinds of invertebrates, such as lobsters, sea urchins and giant clams. They are common throughout the Indo-Pacific -- the region extending from eastern Africa, north to India and Southeast Asia, across Australia and encompassing Hawaii -- and are capable of long-range dispersal and rapid growth, making them among the first species to repopulate reefs damaged by typhoons and events of mass coral bleaching and mortality.
"We found that Pocillopora has maintained a close relationship with certain species of algae in the genus Cladocopium over repeated oscillations in Earth's climate," said Todd LaJeunesse, professor of biology, Penn State. "Our findings reinforce how stable and resilient these relationships are over deep time."
LaJeunesse explained that corals comprise hundreds to hundreds of thousands of individual animals, called polyps. Tiny, single-celled algae, known as dinoflagellates, live inside these polyps' tissues, giving the corals their color and providing the animals with up to 90% of their energy needs through the products of photosynthesis. These dinoflagellates significantly influence the capacity of corals to deal with environmental stressors.
For two decades, LaJeunesse and his colleagues have been collecting coral samples from around the world, using molecular-genetic techniques to identify the coral and algal species, documenting the specificity of the partnerships (some species of algae are highly specific to certain species of coral, whereas others are generalists and can associate with many different types of coral) and determining how these partnerships have changed through evolutionary history.
"Important biological discoveries are more likely when working with accurate species resolution -- in this case, for both coral and dinoflagellate," said LaJeunesse. "Research on the biology of photosynthetic corals has been hampered by a lack of good taxonomic resolution. Our work on resolving these species is highly detailed and currently among the most sophisticated."
The team used a combination of genetic, ecological and morphological -- the outward appearance of an organism -- techniques to examine Cladocopium that associate with Pocillopora. Specifically, they relied on a variety of genetic markers -- or DNA sequences with known locations on chromosomes -- to determine the genetic identities of the species. They also used a microscope to visualize and image the Cladocopium cells. The findings published on May 20 in the ISME Journal, the official journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology.
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"With this research, we now know that Cladocopium, the most common genus of coral symbionts, comprises hundreds of species," said Kira Turnham, graduate student in biology, Penn State. "We were able to identify and describe two species, which we named Cladocopium latusorum and Cladocopium pacificum, and with this resolution, were able to deduce the age of their partnerships and unique importance to specific host corals."
Next, the team investigated whether Cladocopium from geographically dispersed populations of Pocillopora were reproductively isolated or displayed connectivity. They found that populations of both species, like their Pocillopora hosts, are genetically well-connected across the tropical and sub-tropical Pacific Ocean, indicating a capacity for long-range dispersal.
For instance, Turnham said, "Cladocopium latusorum spans the Indian and Pacific Oceans -- from the eastern shores of Tanzania to the Coral Triangle, Great Barrier Reef in Australia and Panama. This connectivity between populations in different locations may contribute to the resiliency of these species to endangerment or extinction threats."
To determine how old the partnerships are, the researchers used a "molecular clock" -- an analysis that assesses DNA sequence divergence over time -- to estimate when the two Cladocopium species diverged from their common ancestor. They found that the species arose during the late Pliocene to early Pleistocene epochs, at a time when their coral host was also forming new species.
"There has been considerable talk about corals' ability to shuffle their dinoflagellate species to improve their ability to withstand global warming," said LaJeunesse. "While some of this may be true, most corals have a very limited assortment of species with which they are able to associate. We have shown that with this limited number of compatible symbionts, Pocillopora have been able to deal with major changes in climate every 100,000 years for the past 1-to-2 million years."
Turnham noted that despite their persistence through time, the strict nature of the relationship between Pocillopora and Cladocopium may limit their ability to evolve in response to increased warming compared to corals that can associate with more thermally tolerant dinoflagellates.
"Ultimately," she said, "the broad geographic distributions and geological age of these and other coral-algal combinations must be considered in forecasting their response to ocean warming, and guide decisions when planning for their conservation."
The National Science Foundation, Australian Biological Resources Study, Society of Systematic Biologists and Penn State supported this research.
