In the throes of scorching summer and the dead of winter, electric and gas bills get expensive. Climate control is the biggest single power suck, making up more than half of all energy used in most homes. It’s bad for your wallet and the planet, and the cost makes staying comfortable difficult for many. There are lots of ways to make your home more efficient, from switching out old appliances for heat pumps or installing double-pane windows–but these options are big, expensive upgrades. It costs thousands of dollars to replace windows and HVAC systems. 

Yet there’s a deceptively easy and much more affordable way to cut back on your heating and cooling costs, and it’s likely accessible even for renters: Reconsider your window coverings. Through insulation and control over radiant heat from sunlight, window coverings have the power to keep heat in or out, depending on the season. There are products to fit most budgets, and lots of what’s out there is likely better than the familiar, plastic or metal Venetian blinds or ill-fitting curtains that hang in most homes. One type of covering in particular, the cellular shade, is an unsung, energy efficient hero, according to multiple analyses from national labs.

Why windows? 

First off, some necessary explanation. All the things that separate a building’s inside from the outside are collectively referred to as the “building envelope.” This term encapsulates doors, walls, windows, the foundation, and the roof. Altogether, that barrier is enormously important for indoor thermal efficiency, says Robert Hart, a technology researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL). “An envelope-first approach reduces the need for energy in the first place,” he explains. If you’re able to effectively keep the outside out, then you’ll have to put way less work into making your home comfortable when the weather isn’t.

The biggest and most easily adjusted source of thermal flux within the matrix of materials that make up a building is generally the transparent, glass windows. “Windows tend to be the largest aspect of building envelope that you can focus on,” says Christian Kaltreider, a building energy research engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Yet most people opt for the window coverings that are already there or go for style over function. By doing so, they miss out on energy savings. 

Efficiency researchers and engineers have tested all manner of window coverings, combinations, and use decisions in experimental houses around the country. Though many variables count towards power consumption, the right shades make a big difference.

The benefit of cellular shades

Adding a honeycomb or cellular shade (a style of fabric covering designed with one or more layers of air pockets between the material) can reduce heating costs in the winter by as much as 9 percent, compared with vinyl Venetian blinds, according to a 2018 PNNL report. Given that heating alone constitutes between 25 and 47 percent of home energy use, a 9 percent reduction isn’t trivial. Energy costs vary widely by state, home size, and appliances, but if you live somewhere with cold winters, you can expect to save around $10 a month on gas and electricity. In the summer, the potential benefit is even larger: up to 25 percent reductions in cooling cost in the best-case scenario, and up to 15 percent savings compared with Venetian blinds in a day-to-day use scenario.

“For ease of implementation… and bang for your buck, cellular shades are generally going to be your best bet,” says Kaltreider. 

[Related: The best blackout shades for all your windows]

A 2022 analysis from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) found even more promising results. In winter, cellular shades can save up to 20 percent on heating costs, compared with blinds, per that assessment. In summer, ORNL researchers determined cooling savings were also up to 15 percent. Mahabir Bhandari, a co-author on that study and an efficiency and buildings researcher at ORNL, agrees that cellular shades are one of the most affordable and accessible options for boosting home energy efficiency. “You can go to Home Depot or Lowe’s and easily get whatever kind you want,” he says. Most are easily self-installed. The least expensive versions start around $25. 

Simple alternatives

Not all cellular shades are created equal. Some are more transparent, others blackout opaque. They come in single and multi-layered versions, are made of different materials, and have variations in how they’re controlled–from fancy, automated kinds to your standard pull-down ones. Choosing one requires balancing personal needs (like privacy and light filtering) with budget and preference. More opaque, multi-layered shades will be more insulating and prevent more heat exchange, but they’ll also keep more light out in the summer. It’s all a trade-off, Hart says. Energy savings “really depend on the specific product,” he notes, and cellular shades aren’t the only option–but they are a good one.

Window quilts are another effective, seasonal alternative, says Bhandari. External shade structures like awnings, if you’re able to install them, can do a lot in the hot months and climates, note Hart and Kaltreider. And storm windows, secondary panes of glass added to existing window frames, are another great way to reduce heating and cooling costs that exist somewhere between the affordability of swapping out your shades and the expense of getting entirely new windows installed. All three efficiency experts recommended storm windows for their ability to minimize air leakage. Even just a simple tube of caulk can help fill gaps and reduce energy losses, says Bhandari.

How to choose the right shade 

With so many variables and products to consider, online tools like this one, which Hart helped to develop, can help users narrow it down. You can also search for specific products through the website of the Attachments Energy Rating Council, a non-profit that offers comparable information about different window covering features. 

No matter what you choose, the way you use it changes the outcome. “Operating [window coverings] smartly gives you the most benefit, no matter what shade,” says Hart. If you install a blackout cellular shade and then leave it up all the time, there’s no point, he explains. Investing in “efficient” coverings only pays off if you heed the operation advice, which is mostly common sense. And even the coverings you already have can be deployed to good effect. 

Let the sun in if you want heat and keep it out if you don’t. Prioritize west and south facing windows, which can be the biggest sources of manipulatable heat gain. If it’s cooler outside than in during summer nights, leaving shades open can help heat to dissipate through the glass. In winter, leave your shades open on sunny days to catch warmth. When the sun isn’t shining, think about drawn shades as a means to keep heat from leaking out.

Your window coverings are more than just home decor; They’re a tool. Use them to slash your energy bill.

The post Ditch your old blinds for cellular shades appeared first on Popular Science.

A toxin from one of the world’s most venomous animals could one day help treat diabetes and endocrine disorders. The toxin in snails called consomatin is similar to somatostatin in humans, a peptide hormone that regulates blood sugar. In cone snail venom, consomatin’s specific and long-lasting effects help the animal hunt its prey, but it could also lead to the development of better drugs for sometimes fatal diseases–if we can understand how it works. The findings are detailed in a study published August 20 in the journal Nature Communications.

Fine-tuned venoms

Scientists have previously experimented with using cone snail venoms for creating less addictive opioid alternatives and new diabetes treatments. In 2016, scientists unlocked the structure of a fast-acting insulin that the snails use to stun their prey; a similar structure could be used to create an insulin that works faster in humans. In the new study, consomatin also exhibited enough precision to target single types of molecules. Researchers hope that drugs could be developed with the same amount of precision.

“Venomous animals have, through evolution, fine-tuned venom components to hit a particular target in the prey and disrupt it,” study co-author and University of Utah biochemist Helena Safavi said in a statement. “If you take one individual component out of the venom mixture and look at how it disrupts normal physiology, that pathway is often really relevant in disease.” 

[Related: What is a toxin?]

The team looked at the human hormone somatostatin that prevents the levels of blood sugar in the body from rising to dangerously high levels. The cone snail toxin consomatin also keeps blood sugar levels from increasing, but uses that as a way to stun and kill its prey. However, the team found that consomatin is more chemically stable and longer-lasting than the human hormone. This makes it a particularly promising blueprint for new drugs and treatment. 

In the study, the team looked at one of the most toxic marine cone snail–the geography cone. They are found along reefs in the Pacific and Indo-Pacific, where the snails stun and eat small fish. The team measured how the cone snail’s consomatin interacts with somatostatin’s targets in human cells in a dish. They found that consomatin mingles with one of the same proteins that somatostatin does. While human somatostatin directly interacts with several proteins, consomatin only works with one. This fine-tuned targeting means that the cone snail toxin can affect blood sugar levels and hormones, but not hit the other molecules around it.

According to the team, the cone snail toxin can hit its targets even more precisely than most specific synthetic drugs designed to regulate hormone levels. However, in its current form, the consomatin’s effects on blood sugar could make it dangerous to use to treat diabetes in humans. Studying its structure could help researchers design drugs for endocrine disorders that have fewer side effects in the future.

Earth’s chemists

Consomatin and somatostatin share an evolutionary history. Over millions of years, the cone snail turned its own hormone into a weapon. Importantly, consomatin doesn’t work alone. A 2022 study found that cone snail venom also includes another toxin which resembles insulin. This lowers blood sugar levels so quickly that the cone snail’s prey becomes unresponsive. Consomatin will then keep blood sugar levels from recovering, and the prey will ultimately die. 

[Related: This cone snail’s deadly venom could hold the key to better pain meds.]

“Cone snails are just really good chemists,” study co-author and University of Utah postdoctoral researcher Ho Yan Yeung said in a statement. “We think the cone snail developed this highly selective toxin to work together with the insulin-like toxin to bring down blood glucose to a really low level.”

Since several parts of the cone snail’s venom target blood sugar regulation, the venom may have other molecules with similar functions, including regulating glucose properties. A better understanding of the process at the molecular level could then be used to design better medications. 

The post Precise, lethal sea snail toxin could one day lead to better medicines appeared first on Popular Science.

Among the numerous snakes on planet Earth, pythons are well known for their incredible ability to swallow their prey whole. Some python species have been spotted taking down deer, cows, and even alligators, but they don’t generally eat every single day the way that most animals do. While scientists have observed their eating patterns for decades, less is known about how this affects their hearts. It turns out that to eat this way, pythons rapidly increase their heart rate, body mass, and energy output just for a meal. 

A study published August 19 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found that python hearts appear to become less stiff, even while the blood pumping muscle is doing the work required to eat such a large meal. With more research, understanding how the python heart does this could be applied to heart diseases in humans one day. 

Feasting and fasting

In the wild, pythons must often go for months at a time without eating due to food scarcity. When they do eventually find food, they will really go for it and often eat a meal that can equal their body mass.

[Related: Scientists propose eating more python.]

“It [is] crucial to their survival to be able to have long fasting periods that are not harmful to them and to be able to consume these large meals intermittently,” study co-author and University of Colorado biologist Leslie Leinwand tells Popular Science. “One adaptive response to such a lifestyle is that almost all of the organs in their body get much larger in the first week after such meal consumption and after the meal is consumed, their organs shrink back to a little bigger than their fasting size.”

To learn more about the effects that their feeding style has on their bodies, Leinwand and the team compared the hearts of ball pythons (Python regius). One group of pythons had fasted for 28 days. The other group ate a meal of whole rats that were equivalent to a quarter of the snake’s body mass. 

Compared with the hearts of pythons who hadn’t eaten, the fed pythons increased their own mass by close to 25 percent after eating. The general structure of the heart was mostly unchanged after meals. 

In the fed pythons, the cardiac myofibrils–individual units in cardiac muscle cells that help the heart contract–had generated more force to eat. The cardiac myofibrils also relaxed more slowly and were less tense than myofibrils in the hearts of fasted pythons. The chromatin in the heart muscle cells that alters how genes respond to physiological stress in the fed pythons was also less condensed in the fed pythons compared to fasted pythons.

The cardiac ventricle tissues that help the heart pump blood were also less stiff in the fed pythons than the fasted ones. According to the study, it only took 24 hours after eating a large meal for the python heart to become much less stiff.

[Related: Stressed rattlesnakes just need a little help from their friends.]

Future applications for ‘stiff’ hearts

Stiffness in the heart can be troublesome in animal hearts because it can prevent blood from flowing properly. In humans, cardiac amyloidosis or “stiff heart syndrome” can lead to abnormal heartbeats and faulty heart signals. For pythons, their hearts appear to be avoiding the pitfalls of a stiff heart. Their hearts become much more stretchy while still producing the immense forces required to eat their prey. 

“We have shown that this organ size increase is what we call physiological–or healthy,” says Leinwend. “In the heart, such an increase is what is seen in highly conditioned athletes.”

However, there is still more research needed to determine how this can be used to help human hearts.

“If we could apply the biology of pythons that do this healthy thing in their hearts, it could be very helpful to people with heart disease,” says Leinwend. “There is a lot of fascinating biology in the world that can lead to better understanding and treatment of disease.”

The post How pythons can eat such giant meals appeared first on Popular Science.

The dodo is one of the most iconic—and misunderstood—extinct animals. Four hundred years after its extinction, the popular narrative remains that the flightless bird was simply too dumb, slow, and ungainly to withstand modern society’s arrival to its native island of Mauritius. But researchers are seeking justice for the unfairly maligned dodo and its extinct relative, the solitaire, by synthesizing centuries of scientific literature, historical accounts, and biological information into a single work providing clarification and revised taxonomic records.

In a study published in the August 2024 issue of Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, a team collaborating between the University of Southampton, Oxford University, and the Natural History Museum attempted to correct the record for Raphus cucullatus. According to an accompanying August 16 announcement, the paper represents “the most comprehensive review of the taxonomy of the Dodo and its closest relative, the Rodriguez Island Solitaire.” Neil Gostling, the study’s supervising author and University of Southampton professor of evolution and paleobiology, argues that most people’s idea of the dodo isn’t simply inaccurate—it ignores the larger issues behind its extinction.

“If you picture the dodo, you picture… this dumpy, slightly stupid bird that kind of deserved to go extinct. That’s not the case,” Gostling says in a university video profile. “It was neither fat nor stupid, it was adapted to the ecosystem in the isle of Mauritius that it had been living in for millions of years.”

What the dodo and its sister species, the Rodrigues solitaire, were not adapted for, however, was the violent, colonizing force of modern society. Dutch sailors first encountered the dodo in 1598 after arriving on the island, located roughly 705 miles east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Having evolved without any significant predators, the birds had no instinctual wariness of humans, making them easy prey for both hungry ship crews and international trade. In less than a century, the dodo was wiped out—but not due to their popularity on menus or in zoos.

The dodo’s main enemies weren’t humans themselves, but everything they brought with them while establishing a provisioning port for the Dutch East India Company on Mauritius. Livestock such as pigs trampled the ground birds’ nests, while rats devoured their eggs and small chicks. Meanwhile, dogs, cats, and other invasive animals preyed on the birds themselves while also competing for the island’s limited food sources. By 1662, the dodo was done. Barely a century later, the Rodrigues solitaire followed it into extinction. And with just 64 years of human documentation of the former, it didn’t take long before bird fact blended with bird fiction.

“The dodo was the first living thing that was recorded as being present and then disappeared,” Gostling said, adding that before their extinction, “it hadn’t been thought possible” that human beings could exert so much influence on the environment.

By the early 19th century, some circles even considered both the dodo and the solitaire “mythological beasts,” added Mark Young, a University of Southampton professor specializing in human transport and paper lead author. During the 1800’s, however, Victorian scientists finally proved both bird species did once exist. But over time, the dodo’s image transitioned largely from an emblem of humanity’s often disastrous environmental impact, to an inaccurate, misunderstood example of “survival of the fittest.” 

[Related: Dodos were actually not that dumb.]

Meanwhile, more than 400 years of subsequent taxonomic confusion led experts to debate just how many dodo and solitaire species originally existed—some biologists argued in favor of three separate variations, while others contended as many as five once roamed the region. These possibilities included the Nazarene Dodo, the White Dodo, and the White Solitaire, among others.

But after a painstaking review of four centuries’ worth of scientific writings and physical remains—including the only surviving dodo soft tissue—Gostling, Young, and their teammates believe they have some answers. Most notably, there were only ever the two species, dodo and solitaire, and they belonged to the columbid family along with pigeons and doves.

As for its “dumpy” reputation, a closer look at its anatomy indicates the dodo was far from a clumsy, slow-moving bird. Skeletal remains studied by the team show that the dodo possessed a tendon in its leg almost the same diameter as the bone itself. This feature can be found today in other avian species known for their speed and climbing agility, indicating the dodo was actually an incredibly fast and active animal.

“Even four centuries later, we have so much to learn about these remarkable birds,” Young said. “The few written accounts of live Dodos say it was a fast-moving animal that loved the forest.”

​​[Related: Is de-extinction only a pipette dream?]

Researchers believe that further reevaluations of the dodo and the solitaire will not only help dispel inaccurate myths, but refocus their legacies. Ultimately, their extinction isn’t the result of any evolutionary failings, but rather the effects of humans when we are at our most environmentally reckless. 

“Dodos held an integral place in their ecosystems. If we understand them, we might be able to support ecosystem recovery in Mauritius, perhaps starting to undo the damage that began with the arrival of humans nearly half a millennium ago,” Gostling explained, adding that, “There are no other birds alive today like these two species of giant ground dove.”

The post The dodo was faster and smarter than you think appeared first on Popular Science.

As the insect sentinels of summer, fireflies use their glowing bellies to communicate to other fireflies. Males from the species Abscondita terminalis use multi-pulse flashes with both of their lanterns to attract females. The females use single-pulse flashes with their one lantern. However, a new study found that some spiders may have decoded this signal and are using it to its advantage. This mimicry is detailed in a study published August 19 in the journal Current Biology.

When orb-weaving spiders (Araneus ventricosus) trap male fireflies in their webs, they manipulate the flashing signals to mimic the typical flashes made by female fireflies. These feigned flashes then lure other males into the web where they become the spider’s next meal. However, we still don’t know if the spider’s venom or a bite itself is manipulating the firefly’s signal. 

[Related: A new theory on why fireflies glow—and why they need help.]

The discovery arose after Xinhua Fu, a study co-author and entomologist at Huazhong Agricultural University in China observed several male fireflies entangled in orb-weaving spider webs while working in the field. He rarely saw a female firefly trapped in a web and additional field trips revealed this sexually skewed pattern. Fu hypothesized that the spiders may be somehow manipulating the fireflies’ behavior to attract others. 

To test this hypothesis that the spiders are manipulating the firefly’s signal, he recruited behavioral ecologists Daiqin Li and Shichang Zhang from Hubei University. The team conducted field experiments where they observed the firefly signals and spider behavior. The observations showed that the spider’s web captured male fireflies more often when the spider was there, compared to when it was away from the web. 

After further analysis, they found that the signals created by male fireflies in webs with spiders present looked more like the signals made by free flying females. The trapped males used single-pulse signals that use only one lantern and not both. 

Interestingly, the ensnared male fireflies very rarely lured other males when they were alone in the web and the spider was not around. This suggests that the males were not altering their flashes as a kind of distress signal. The team believes that the spiders are altering the firefly’s signal.

“While the eyes of orb-web spiders typically support limited spatial acuity, they rely more on temporal acuity rather than spatial acuity for discriminating flash signals,” Li said in a statement. “Upon detecting the bioluminescent signals of ensnared male fireflies, the spider deploys a specialized prey-handling procedure involving repeated wrap-bite attacks.”

[Related: Spider glue might evolve faster than the spiders themselves.]

According to the team, the experiment reveals that some animals are capable of using indirect yet dynamic signaling to go after a very specific category of prey in nature. The team also believes that there could be many other undescribed examples of this kind of mimicry in nature waiting to be uncovered. Predators could be using sound, pheromones, or other means, and not just visual signals to fool their prey. This deceptive ability is not exclusive to the animal kingdom either. The South African daisy appears to trick flies into mating with it and depositing pollen. 

“We propose that in response to seeing the ensnared male fireflies’ bioluminescent signals, the spider deployed a specialized-prey handling procedure based on repeated wrap bite attacks,” the team wrote in the study. “We also hypothesize that the male firefly’s neurotransmitters may generate a female-like flashing pattern.”

However, additional study is needed to determine what exactly is changing in the trapped firefly’s flashing pattern.

The post Spiders may be hacking firefly signals to trap dinner appeared first on Popular Science.

Kristy Murray was there at the very beginning. In 1999, the epidemiologist and tropical medicine expert, now a professor of pediatrics at Emory University, was part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) team responding to the initial U.S. outbreak of West Nile virus in New York City. “It was my very first outbreak assignment,” Murray tells Popular Science. Thirty cases of unexplained encephalitis had been reported in the city, and it was up to Murray and her colleagues to figure out why. The cause was initially baffling. People had symptoms of paralysis, “which is very unusual to see in encephalitis,” she explains, and older adults comprised the majority of those worst off, despite viral paralysis often being most common in children. None of the patients had any relation or apparent connection to one another. 

To figure out what was happening, Murray says she and the rest of the CDC team acted as “disease detectives.” The first clue came from interviewing family members of those who were sick. “The one thing that kept coming up is that many of them were active, and spent a lot of time outside,” says Muray. From there, and through home visits, a CDC entomologist narrowed the potential sources down to Culex mosquitoes. More false leads and confusing test results finally gave way to a West Nile virus identification, after birds in the Bronx Zoo also began to fall ill with encephalitis. In total, the investigation took about three weeks, says Murray. 

[ Related: Can we prevent a bird flu pandemic in humans? ]

Though the initial mystery was resolved relatively quickly (“especially for 1999,” notes Murray), uncertainties surrounding West Nile have lingered. When and where the worst outbreaks will occur remains unpredictable. Exactly why some people have no symptoms, while other infections prove deadly is unclear. There’s still no available vaccine or proven treatment. 

It’s been 25 years since the mosquito borne virus was first found in the U.S.. In that quarter century, the disease has spread from New York City across all 48 contiguous states. “It’s everywhere–all over the map, literally,” says Murray. “There is no place in the [lower 48] where you can really hide from this pathogen.” Each year, 2024 included, West Nile virus cases are reported, with a peak between late July and October. Here’s what to know as this year’s season unfolds, what we still don’t know, and how experts recommend you protect yourself.

How does West Nile virus spread?

Birds are the primary host and reservoir for West Nile virus. The pathogen is mainly passed from host to host via mosquito bites. Culex mosquitos, a genus found worldwide and especially common in major cities, are the primary vector, transmitting the virus between birds or from birds to humans or horses. People and other mammals infected with the illness don’t produce a high enough concentration of viral particles to act as a reservoir and subsequently infect additional mosquitos. “Humans are what we call a dead end host,” says Gonzalo Vazquez-Propkopec, a disease ecologist and professor of environmental science at Emory University. Only a small proportion of cases are transferred between humans through blood transfusions and organ transplants. 

Yet though we can’t generally pass the virus on to each other, mosquitos do plenty of work to spread it themselves. “It’s the most widespread viral vector borne disease in the United States, without a doubt,” says Murray. “It far surpasses any other.” Other non-viral vector-borne illnesses, like tick-borne Lyme’s disease, may affect more people each year. But Lyme is a bacterial disease with an effective antibiotic treatment. There is no approved therapeutic for treating West Nile. 

Is 2024 a bad year for West Nile? 

The CDC tracks West Nile cases, along with other arthropod-borne illnesses, through ArboNET. As of August 13, the federal agency has confirmed 174 West Nile cases in 30 different states, with double digit numbers in Texas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, and Arizona. Of these, 113 have been “neuroinvasive,” or the more severe variant of infection that causes neurological symptoms like encephalitis (brain swelling), or meningitis, which is swelling of the membrane surrounding the brain. So far, eight of those reported cases have proved deadly. 

If you look at past years’ West Nile case numbers, fewer than 200 cases nationwide may not sound like much. However, it’s relatively early in the season and each confirmed case at this point likely represents many more hidden ones, says Murray. 

In general, cases are vastly underreported because many cases are asymptomatic and many symptomatic infections are mild and difficult to distinguish from other viral infections, she explains. Fever, a rash on the torso, fatigue, aches, and malaise are how the majority of symptomatic West Nile cases present. Often, those infected don’t seek any treatment or testing. A small proportion of infections, less than one percent, turn more serious, affecting the brain and nervous system and becoming “neuroinvasive.” These cases can be life threatening. Survivors of neuroinvasive illness often end up with lifelong disabilities, says Kiran Thakur, a neurology professor at Columbia University who studies neuroinfectious disease. 

Yet even those severe cases are undercounted because providers don’t always test and tests don’t always come back positive, she says. In 2022, 827 confirmed neuroinvasive cases were reported to the CDC, but the agency estimates that between 24,810 and 57,890 neuroinvasive infections occurred. Up to 15 percent of neuroinvasive cases are estimated to be fatal, notes Thakur.  

Delays in testing and reporting also mean that it takes time for the CDC to learn about a confirmed case. “There’s a lag in reporting cases, typically by about two weeks,” Murray says, and we’re just getting into the peak transmission time now. 

Given those caveats, “we are seeing a few more cases than we [usually] would at this time of year, and some earlier cases,” says Erin Staples, a physician and medical epidemiologist with CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases. The biggest wave of illness onset tends to come at the end of August and beginning of September, Staples says. 

However, that doesn’t mean we’re guaranteed to have a terrible West Nile season nationwide. Predicting how this year’s season will progress over the next couple of months “is very difficult,” Staples tells Popular Science. Trends can shift rapidly and lots of variables contribute to an outbreak’s severity. 

Year-to-year, West Nile levels and epicenters vary a lot. The virus may spike in the Northeast one season and then the Southwest the next. In 2003, there was a major outbreak, another came in 2012. As a result, experts consider it “cyclic”, peaking in waves that come about once a decade, says Vazquez-Prokopec. “It seems, roughly, that we’re due for another spike,” he adds. 

Climate and rainfall are important. Warm temperatures and the right level of moisture can contribute to a mosquito boom. Bird immunity levels also play a role, he says. If most birds in a region have antibodies and are avoiding illness in a given year, then there will also be fewer human cases, as the reservoir is smaller, Vazquez-Prokopec explains. “It’s a very complex cycle,” he adds– which makes accurate forecasting hard. 

Regardless of what unfolds in the next couple of months, Staples notes that right now is a critical time to take preventative measures. 

How can we manage West Nile virus?

Through surveillance of mosquito populations and birds, cities keep tabs on the viral threat year to year. In addition, many municipalities also treat for Culex mosquitos with pesticide sprays dispersed from fogging vehicles and by targeting the aquatic larvae. Mosquitoes need water to breed, so applying insecticide to drainage ditches and catchment basins can help reduce their populations without inadvertently killing beneficial insects like pollinators, says Vazquez-Prokopec. 

The CDC is researching preventative vaccines and antiviral treatments (and has been for years), says Staples–though the development process, which requires large scale human trials to prove efficacy, is challenging for such an unpredictable virus. A silver lining of the Covid-19 pandemic is that it made alternate pathways to FDA approval and licensure clearer, she adds. 

But in the meantime, without a vaccine or medication to rely on, iIndividual people can mitigate their own risk by eliminating sources of standing moisture around their homes (ex: emptying buckets and kiddie pools). Then, there’s behavioral interventions. 

“We have to exercise–not panic, but caution,” says Vazquez-Prokopec. Mosquitoes are more than a nuisance, they’re a public health problem, he says. So, he advises that people take earnest steps to avoid bites.

Insect repellents, specifically ones registered with the Environmental Protection Agency and recommended by the CDC, are a critical tool. Wearing loose fitting long sleeve shirts and pants helps to prevent bites as well. And people should be particularly mindful when going out around dusk and dawn when mosquitoes are most active. “I have a can of repellent by my front door and another by my back door, so I remember to [apply] before I walk outside,” says Staples.

[ Related: How to build a mosquito kill bucket ]

It’s still not completely understood why some people become very sick while others have asymptomatic infections. However, some trends are clear and certain groups are known to be more vulnerable to severe West Nile virus. People who are immunocompromised, including those who take medications for autoimmune diseases, should be more vigilant, says Staples. People over the age of 50 are also at higher risk, says Murray. Severe neuroinvasive illness is more commonly reported among men, though that could be because men share a higher level of other risk factors, like working outdoors or comorbidities such as diabetes, notes Thakur. And ultimately, anyone can end up with a severe case.

West Nile virus may be benign for most people, and the worst consequences may be rare, but preventative steps are simple and accessible. When the stakes are so high, it’s best to take the risk seriously, says Thakur. Plus, the same strategies for avoiding West Nile will also help to minimize exposure to other vector borne diseases like Dengue or Powassan, Staples adds. ” “Another great reason to use your repellent,” she says. 

Getting in the habit now will be good practice for our warming future, where we’ll all want to take biting bugs more seriously. Under climate change, mosquito seasons are likely to grow longer, and vector–borne illnesses, including West Nile, are set to spread into new regions where people have no prior exposure or immunity. As global warming progresses, “it’s a disease category I worry about a lot,” says Thakur.

The post West Nile Virus cases are on the rise again: How to protect yourself appeared first on Popular Science.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced plans to turn land that previously housed aspects of the Manhattan Project into a 1 GW solar farm. For the uninitiated, the Manhattan Project was a top-secret and successful effort to develop nuclear weapons during the 1940s.

This particular renovation is being conducted at the former home of the Hanford nuclear testing facility, otherwise known as Site W, which is in Washington state. This site housed the world’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor. Plutonium made at this location was used in the very first atomic bomb and the Fat Man bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.

The location certainly is intriguing, but so is the transformation project. This 580-square mile section of semi-arid desert could end up housing the largest solar project in the country, if built to the announced capacity. This record currently belongs to the Edwards Sanborn Solar and Energy Storage project in California, which generates 875 megawatts of solar power.

The DOE has teamed up with Hecate Energy to repurpose the 8,000-acre site. This is part of the Biden-Harris administration’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative that launched last year. This program is tasked with repurposing DOE-owned land for clean energy generation. This program has already added around 90 GW of solar capacity to the grid, which is enough to power 13 million homes.

This isn’t quite a done deal yet. The DOE and Hecate Energy still have to negotiate for a realty agreement and the government could cancel these negotiations at any time.

This is good news, but we still have some catching up to do with regard to Europe. The US produces around 5.6 percent of its energy via solar, but the EU recently shot up to 9.1 percent. However, trends are moving upward in both regions.

VinFast, a Vietnamese automaker that builds electric vehicles, announced in July that it would not begin production at its North Carolina plant for another four years. While the news is certainly a setback, the disappointment is compounded by the fact that the state is trying to bulldoze a number of private homes, and a church, to make the project happen.

In March 2022, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced that VinFast would build its first North American plant in Chatham County. The company would spend $4 billion and create 7,500 jobs, with production from the completed factory set to begin in July 2024. At its peak, the facility would be capable of producing 150,000 vehicles per year.

In exchange, North Carolina lawmakers agreed to give the company $1.25 billion in incentives, including $450 million for infrastructure, including "roadway improvements" and building out the water and sewer capacity; $400 million from the county; and a $316 million state grant paid out over 32 years, linked to the company's job creation promises. In effect, North Carolina taxpayers would be financing over 30 percent of the project.

President Joe Biden called the project "the latest example of my economic strategy at work." CNBC lauded the state's Democratic governor and Republican Legislature for "managing to put aside their very deep political divisions to boost business and the economy" when it named North Carolina America's Top State for Business.

But within two years, the deal was on shaky ground. The company announced in March 2023 that it would not be able to begin production at the factory until at least 2025 "because we need more time to complete administrative procedures," according to a company spokesperson.

Then in July 2024, in a press release about manufacturing output in the previous quarter, VinFast announced that it had "made the strategic decision to adjust the timeline for the launch of its North Carolina manufacturing facility, which is now expected to begin production in 2028," in order to "optimize its capital allocation and manage its short-term spending more effectively."

While this is disappointing news for many—company executives, shareholders, North Carolina state officials—it's worse for residents in the area.

Many of the state and county incentives are dependent upon VinFast meeting certain metrics: While the state doled out $125 million to reimburse the company for site preparation costs, it can claw back that entire amount if VinFast fails to hire at least 3,875 people—just over 50 percent of the required total. There are further clawback provisions if it doesn't hire at least 6,000 people and doesn't invest at least $2 billion into the project.

But even if the deal falls apart and the state gets its money back, some things can't be undone. As part of the deal, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) would conduct "roadway improvements" at the future site of the facility. As detailed in an August 2022 project overview, "private property is needed to construct the improvements proposed by the roadway project." And while the NCDOT "works to minimize impacts such as the number of homes and businesses displaced by a road project, some impacts are unavoidable."

In total, the state expected that the roadwork would "impact" five businesses, 27 homes, and Merry Oaks Baptist Church, which had stood since 1888. This meant the state was authorized to purchase the properties from the owners—or if the owners refused to sell, the state could simply take the properties through eminent domain.

Eminent domain, authorized by the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, allows government entities to seize private property for public use, as long as the owner receives "just compensation." Of course, the only thing that separates this from a normal real estate transaction is that the use of eminent domain implies that the property owner did not want to sell but was forced to anyway.

While an electric car factory does not qualify as a "public use," the state is planning to bulldoze the houses, businesses, and church to make way for a new roadway interchange that will accommodate traffic to and from the site. Of course, under the U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Kelo v. New London, the state would also have been justified to seize property to give to a purely private party, with Justice John Paul Stevens writing that "there is no basis for exempting economic development from our traditionally broad understanding of public purpose."

In fact, that seems to be just what happened: In July, after VinFast announced its latest delay, the Raleigh News & Observer reported that so far the state had spent $96 million—nearly all of it on site preparation and infrastructure—and purchased four homes, with negotiations ongoing with other homeowners and two businesses. And sadly, "North Carolina has acquired two businesses and Merry Oaks Baptist Church through eminent domain, meaning negotiations fell short and the state took over the land after paying the previous owners fair market values assessed by a state-approved appraiser."

In July 2023, VinFast offered to donate up to three acres of land from its 2,000-acre parcel to Merry Oaks Baptist Church so the congregation could relocate. But a better solution would have been for VinFast to simply shoulder the burden of development in the first place, first by footing the bill for the project itself and then by obtaining land where the government did not forcibly remove any obstacles in the way.

The post VinFast Delays Production After North Carolina Seizes Property for Factory Site appeared first on Reason.com.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won applause at the Libertarian National Convention by criticizing government lockdowns and deficit spending, and saying America shouldn't police the world.

It made me want to interview him. This month, I did.

He said intelligent things about America's growing debt:

"President Trump said that he was going to balance the budget and instead he (increased the debt more) than every president in United States history—$8 trillion. President Biden is on track now to beat him."

It's good to hear a candidate actually talk about our debt.

"When the debt is this large…you have to cut dramatically, and I'm going to do that," he says.

But looking at his campaign promises, I don't see it.

He promises "affordable" housing via a federal program backing 3 percent mortgages.

"Imagine that you had a rich uncle who was willing to cosign your mortgage!" gushes his campaign ad. "I'm going to make Uncle Sam that rich uncle!"

I point out that such giveaways won't reduce our debt.

"That's not a giveaway," Kennedy replies. "Every dollar that I spend as president is going to go toward building our economy."

That's big government nonsense, like his other claim: "Every million dollars we spend on child care creates 22 jobs!"

Give me a break.

When I pressed him about specific cuts, Kennedy says, "I'll cut the military in half…cut it to about $500 billion….We are not the policemen of the world."

"Stop giving any money to Ukraine?" I ask.

"Negotiate a peace," Kennedy replies. "Biden has never talked to Putin about this, and it's criminal."

He never answered whether he'd give money to Ukraine. He did answer about Israel.

"Yes, of course we should,"

"[Since] you don't want to cut this spending, what would you cut?"

"Israel spending is rather minor," he responds. "I'm going to pick the most wasteful programs, put them all in one bill, and send them to Congress with an up and down vote."

Of course, Congress would just vote it down.

Kennedy's proposed cuts would hardly slow down our path to bankruptcy. Especially since he also wants new spending that activists pretend will reduce climate change.

At a concert years ago, he smeared "crisis" skeptics like me, who believe we can adjust to climate change, screaming at the audience, "Next time you see John Stossel and [others]… these flat-earthers, these corporate toadies—lying to you. This is treason, and we need to start treating them now as traitors!"

Now, sitting with him, I ask, "You want to have me executed for treason?"

"That statement," he replies, "it's not a statement that I would make today….Climate is existential. I think it's human-caused climate change. But I don't insist other people believe that. I'm arguing for free markets and then the lowest cost providers should prevail in the marketplace….We should end all subsidies and let the market dictate."

That sounds good: "Let the market dictate."

But wait, Kennedy makes money from solar farms backed by government guaranteed loans. He "leaned on his contacts in the Obama administration to secure a $1.6 billion loan guarantee," wrote The New York Times.

"Why should you get a government subsidy?" I ask.

"If you're creating a new industry," he replies, "you're competing with the Chinese. You want the United States to own pieces of that industry."

I suppose that means his government would subsidize every industry leftists like.

Yet when a wind farm company proposed building one near his family's home, he opposed it.

"Seems hypocritical," I say.

"We're exterminating the right whale in the North Atlantic through these wind farms!" he replies.

I think he was more honest years ago, when he complained that "turbines…would be seen from Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard… Nantucket….[They] will steal the stars and nighttime views."

Kennedy was once a Democrat, but now Democrats sue to keep him off ballots. Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich calls him a "dangerous nutcase."

Kennedy complains that Reich won't debate him.

"Nobody will," he says. "They won't have me on any of their networks."

Well, obviously, I will.

I especially wanted to confront him about vaccines.

In a future column, Stossel TV will post more from our hourlong discussion.

COPYRIGHT 2024 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.

The post RFK Jr. Pays Lip Service to the Debt While Pushing Policies That Would Increase It appeared first on Reason.com.

Penguins can’t fly. And while their wings may seem to be purely decorative, these appendages actually play a larger role in their evolutionary history. A fossil penguin species named Pakudyptes hakataramea bridges a gap between penguins that have gone extinct and those living today. Some of its bones show how these wings evolved to help penguins become such speedy swimmers. The findings are described in a study published July 31 in the Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand. 

Pakudyptes lived in present-day New Zealand’s South Island about 24 million years ago. It was very small, roughly the same size as the little blue penguin–or kororā living today. At only 9.8 inches tall and 2.2 pounds, Pakudyptes are among the smallest known penguin species to ever live on Earth. 

[Related: This human-sized penguin isn’t even the largest ancient penguin we know about.]

Interestingly, Pakudyptes did have the physical adaptations that allowed them to dive into the water, despite being such an early penguin species. In the study, a team of scientists from the University of Otago in New Zealand, and Japan’s Ashoro Museum of Paleontology, Okayama University of Science, and Osaka University examined three bones. The humerus, femur, and ulna were discovered during several field trips in 1987 by the late paleontologist Ewan Fordyce in the Hakataramea Valley, in the Canterbury region of the South Island. 

They found that Pakudyptes fills in a morphological gap between modern and fossil penguins who are now extinct.

“In particular, the shape of the wing bones differed greatly, and the process by which penguin wings came to have their present form and function remained unclear,” study co-author and Ashoro Museum of Paleontology paleontologist Tatsuro Ando said in a statement. 

The humerus and ulna bones show how the penguins’ wings have evolved. 

“Surprisingly, while the shoulder joints of the wing of Pakudyptes were very close to the condition of the present-day penguin, the elbow joints were very similar to those of older types of fossil penguins,” said Ando. “Pakudyptes is the first fossil penguin ever found with this combination, and it is the ‘key’ fossil to unlocking the evolution of penguin wings.”

Otago’s Faculty of Dentistry analyzed the fossil’s internal bone structure alongside data on living penguins from the Okayama University of Science. They found that Pakudyptes had microanatomical features that suggest they could dive. Modern penguins are well known for their excellent swimming abilities. Their bullet-like swimming skills are largely due to the dense, thick bones that add to their buoyancy during diving.

In Pakudyptes, the bone cortex was reasonably thick. However, the medullary cavity–which contains bone marrow–was open. This is similar to the living little blue penguin, which usually swims in shallow waters. 

Pakudyptes’ diving and swimming likely comes down to the distinctive combination of its bones. The humerus and ulna show spots for attachment of muscles and ligaments, which reveal how the wings were used to swim and move underwater. 

[Related: Poop stains reveal four previously unknown Emperor penguin colonies.]

While no longer living, fossil penguins were usually large. Some could reach about 4.5 feet or even 6 feet tall, compared to today’s Emperor penguins that clock in at about three to four feet.

“Penguins evolved rapidly from the Late Oligocene to Early Miocene and Pakudyptes is an important fossil from this period,” study co-author Carolina Loch from Otago’s Faculty of Dentistry said in a statement. “Its small size and unique combination of bones may have contributed to the ecological diversity of modern penguins.”

The post Tiny fossil reveals when penguins evolved their surprisingly useful wings appeared first on Popular Science.

A newly discovered extinct mollusk species that skulked along the ocean floor half a billion years ago is offering new insights into the early days of this diverse group of animals. Fossils from Shishania aculeata indicate that some early mollusks were flat, armored, slug-like creatures that didn’t have the signature shells we see on today’s snails and bivalves. This species was also covered with hollow cone-shaped spines called sclerites. The findings are detailed in a study published August 1 in the journal Science. 

Shishania was discovered thanks to some well-preserved fossils uncovered in the Yunnan Province in southern China. The newly named species dates back to the early Cambrian Period–roughly 514 million years ago. The specimens of Shishania that the team studied are a few centimeters long and the spiky cones are made of chitin. This crunchy material is also found in the shells of modern insects, crabs, and even some mushrooms.  

The fossils that were preserved upside down, indicates that it likely had a muscular foot similar to a slug. Shishania would have used that leg to creep around the seafloor. Unlike most mollusks, it lacked a shell that covered its body. 

[Related: Experience the uncomfortable weirdness of a snail eating fruit.]

Living mollusks come in a wide array of forms–snails, clams, and highly intelligent cephalopods like squids and octopuses. All of this biodiversity developed very quickly during the Cambrian Explosion. This event about 530 million years ago was when all of the major groups of animals were rapidly diversifying. However, due to this accelerated pace of change, few fossils have been left behind to tell the story of early mollusk evolution. The team believes that Shishania represents a very early stage in molluscan evolution.

“Trying to unravel what the common ancestor of animals as different as a squid and oyster looked like is a major challenge for evolutionary biologists and paleontologists–one that can’t be solved by studying only species alive today,” study co-author and University of Oxford in England paleontologist Luke Parry said in a statement. “Shishania gives us a unique view into a time in mollusc evolution for which we have very few fossils, informing us that the very earliest mollusc ancestors were armored spiny slugs, prior to the evolution of the shells that we see in modern snails and clams.”

Shishania’s body was made of soft tissues that typically don’t preserve well in the fossil record. This made the specimens a bit challenging to study, since several were poorly preserved.

“At first I thought that the fossils, which were only about the size of my thumb, were not noticeable, but I saw under a magnifying glass that they seemed strange, spiny, and completely different from any other fossils that I had seen,” Guangxu Zhang, a study co-author and recent PhD graduate from Yunnan University in China who discovered the fossils, said in a statement. “I called it ‘the plastic bag’ initially because it looks like a rotting little plastic bag. When I found more of these fossils and analyzed them in the lab I realized that it was a mollusc.”

Shishania’s spines show an internal system of canals that are less than one hundredth of a millimeter in diameter. The cones were secreted at their base by microvilli–tiny protrusions of cells that increase surface area. Microvilli are found on the human tongue and in the intestines where they help the body absorb food.

“We found microscopic details inside the conical spines covering the body of Shishania that show how they were secreted in life,” said Parry. “This sort of information is incredibly rare, even in exceptionally preserved fossils.”

The team likens Shishania’s method of secreting hard parts to a natural 3D printer that can change its body parts depending on what the animal needs. This method allows several invertebrates to secrete hard parts that do everything from providing defense to helping it scoot around. 

[Related: This taco-shaped critter is a big (evolutionary) deal.]

Chitons–the hard spines and bristles in some modern mollusks–are made of the mineral calcium carbonate instead of the organic chitin that is in Shishania. Similar chitinous bristles can be found in some more obscure groups of animals including brachiopods and bryozoans. These animals along with mollusks and annelids (modern earthworms and their relatives) form the group Lophotrochozoa.
“Shishania tells us that the spines and spicules we see in chitons and aplacophoran mollusks today actually evolved from organic sclerites like those of annelids,” said Parry. “These animals are very different from one another today and so fossils like Shishania tell us what they looked like deep in the past, soon after they had diverged from common ancestors.”

The post A ‘rotting little plastic bag’ was actually a 514 million-year-old fossil appeared first on Popular Science.

While humans won’t be regenerating entire limbs like sea stars, some new genetic work with fruit flies has yielded some surprising results. A team from the University of Tokyo found that certain genes from simple organisms that help them regenerate body parts and tissues can be transferred into other animals. These genes then suppressed an intestinal issue in the flies and could potentially reveal some new mechanisms for rejuvenation in more complex organisms. The findings are detailed in a study published August 1 in the journal BMC Biology.

[Related: These fingernail-sized jellyfish can regenerate tentacles—but how?]

Some animals including jellyfish and flatworms can regenerate their whole bodies. While scientists still don’t really know how, there are possibly specific genes that allow regeneration. These same genes may also maintain long-term stem cell functions.

Stem cells can divide and renew themselves over a long period of time and are kind of like a skeleton key. While they aren’t necessarily specialized, they can potentially become more specialized cells, including blood cells and brain cells, over time. Mammals and insects who have very limited regenerative skills may have lost these genes over the course of evolution. 

“It is unclear whether reintroducing these regeneration-associated genes in low regenerative animals could affect their regeneration and aging processes,” study co-author and University of Tokyo Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences biologist Yuichiro Nakajima said in a statement.

In this new study, Nakajima and the team focused on the group of genes that is unique to animals with high regenerative capacity like flatworms. These genes are called HRJDs, or highly regenerative species-specific JmjC domain-encoding genes. They transferred the HRJDs into the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and tracked their health with a blue dye. They nicknamed the fly Smurf, thanks to this hue. 

Initially, they hoped that these HRJD-boosted fruit flies would regenerate tissue if injured. This didn’t happen. However, the team had a fruit fly intestine expert Hiroki Nagai onboard, who noticed something else. There were some novel phenotypes–or the characteristics like eye color or hair color that comes from a specific gene.  

“HRJDs promoted greater intestinal stem cell division, whilst also suppressing intestinal cells that were mis-differentiating, or going wrong in aged flies,” said Nakajima. 

This is different to how antibiotics may suppress the mis-differentiated intestinal cells, but suppress intestinal stem cell division. 

[Related: Hydras can regrow their heads. Scientists want to know how they do it.]

“For this reason, HRJDs had a measurable effect on the lifespans of fruit flies, which opens the door, or at least provides clues, for the development of new anti-aging strategies,” said  Nakajima. “After all, human and insect intestines have surprisingly much in common on a cellular level.”

Fruit flies are famous test subjects in biological research. They share 75 percent of the genes that cause diseases in humans, reproduce quickly, and their genetic code is fairly easy to change. However, even with their relatively short lives and rapid-fire reproduction and maturating rates, it still took about two months to study their full aging process. 

In future studies, the team would like to take a closer look at how HRJD’s work on a molecular level. 

“Details of the molecular workings of HRJDs are still unresolved. And it’s unclear whether they work alone or in combination with some other component,” said Nakajima. “Therefore, this is just the start of the journey, but we know now that our modified fruit flies can serve as a valuable resource to uncover unprecedented mechanisms of stem cell rejuvenation in the future. In humans, intestinal stem cells decrease in activity with age, so this research is a promising avenue for stem cell-based therapies.”

The post Swapping genes can help fruit flies regenerate cells appeared first on Popular Science.

You know those little plastic air bags in your more fragile Amazon purchases that make perfect popping noise makers when you crush them? Amazon says it's reduced its usage of them and plans to completely eliminate using them by the end of the year.

The ecommerce behemoth announced on its news blog that it has reduced the use of plastic air pillows by 95 percent and switched to crumbled paper filler instead. Amazon also says it plans to use paper filler for “nearly all” of its customer deliveries on Prime Day.

The company says its decision to phase out the use of plastic air cushions at its distribution centers aims to eliminate unnecessary waste and focus more on using recycled materials.

Plastic pollution has always been a concern when it comes to our environment but it has dramatically increased as a result of Amazon’s meteoric rise especially during the COVID pandemic. The nonprofit ocean conservation group Oceana released a study in 2021 showing that Amazon produced 599 million pounds of plastic waste in 2020. The group also estimated that the waste produced from plastic air pillows alone “would circle the Earth more than 600 times.”

In 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included $7.5 billion to build 500,000 public charging stations for electric vehicles (E.V.s) across the country in an effort to boost a switch to the use of clean energy.

As Reason reported in December, not one charger funded by the program had yet come online. Now, six months later, the number of functional charging stations has ticked up to eight.

That news comes from an Autoweek article earlier this month. In March, The Washington Post reported that only seven were built; a charging station in Bradford, Vermont, opened in April, containing four E.V. fast chargers. Public chargers are either Level 2, which use alternating current electricity and take several hours to fully charge an all-electric vehicle from empty, or Direct Current Fast Charging (DCFC) superchargers, which use direct current and can charge in less than an hour.

Why so little progress? Alexander Laska of the center-left Third Way think tank told Autoweek's Jim Motavalli that the federal cash "comes with dozens of rules and requirements around everything from reliability to interoperability, to where stations can be located, to what certifications the workers installing the chargers need to have." Laska says the regulations "are largely a good thing—we want drivers to have a seamless, convenient, reliable charging experience—but navigating all of that does add to the timeline."

A spokesperson with the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, which administers $5 billion of the $7.5 billion total, further told Motavalli that the delay is because "we want to get it right."

Thankfully, federal grants aren't the only way to build out charging infrastructure.

"US drivers welcomed almost 1,100 new public, fast-charging stations in the second half of 2023, a 16% increase," Bloomberg's Kyle Stock reported in January. And not just in big cities or progressive enclaves: Deep-red Idaho "switched on 12 new [DCFCs] between July and December," while "Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee welcomed 56 new fast-charging stations in the second half of 2023, an infrastructure increase of one-third."

While Stock notes that $5 billion of federal money is expected to roll out soon, "the vast majority of chargers added in the US last year were bets by for-profit companies on the future of battery-powered driving."

The most prominent company by far is Tesla, whose network of Superchargers includes over 57,000 DCFC chargers around the world and generated an estimated $1.74 billion of revenue in 2023 alone. Just in the fourth quarter of 2023, the company built 357 new stations, accounting for 3,783 charging ports.

Around two-thirds of all public chargers in the U.S. are manufactured for Teslas, but the company has also expanded its network for its competitors to use: In the 2025 model year, most major automakers' E.V.s will use the same charge port as Teslas and be able to access the Supercharger network.

Rivian, a Tesla competitor, is also building out its own DCFC network: In February 2024, it counted 400 chargers in 67 locations, with plans to expand further, and just like with Tesla's Superchargers, Rivian plans to make its chargers accessible to other models.

In fairness, both Tesla and Rivian have benefited from government handouts: State and local governments in Georgia promised Rivian a raft of incentives worth up to $1.5 billion. And Tesla has received at least $2.8 billion in federal, state, and local subsidies over the years, despite CEO Elon Musk's professed distaste for government intervention in the economy. In fact, Politico found in February that Tesla was the single largest recipient of funds disbursed by the federal NEVI program, winning "almost 13 percent of all EV charging awards from the law, earning it a total of more than $17 million in infrastructure grants."

But those companies still provide the best template for expanding access to public chargers.

While proponents of the federal regulations may defend the amount of red tape involved in the federal program, with demands on where a charging station can be placed and the types of licenses people need to build one, the fact is that the private sector is already building out a nationwide E.V. charging network that will be available to most drivers.

The post $7.5 Billion in Government Cash Only Built 8 E.V. Chargers in 2.5 Years appeared first on Reason.com.

Britain's signals intelligence spy chief raised eyebrows this week with warnings that Russia is coordinating both cyberattacks and physical acts of sabotage against the West. There's evidence to back her claims—and the West may be returning the favor. Coming soon after FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that China is targeting American infrastructure, it looks like the world is not only fracturing once again, but that the hostile blocs are engaged in covert warfare.

Rumors of War

"We are increasingly concerned about growing links between the Russian intelligence services and proxy groups to conduct cyberattacks as well as suspected physical surveillance and sabotage operations," Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) Director Anne Keast-Butler told an audience at the United Kingdom government-sponsored CyberUK 2024 conference. "Before, Russia simply created the right environments for these groups to operate, but now they are nurturing and inspiring these non-state cyber actors in some cases seemingly coordinating physical attacks against the West."

Keast-Butler, whose agency is comparable to the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), also called out China, Iran, and North Korea as cybersecurity dangers. But naming Russian officials as being behind "physical attacks" raises the stakes. Sadly, her claims are well-founded.

Sabotage, Espionage, and Other Mischief

"A 20-year-old British man has been charged with masterminding an arson plot against a Ukrainian-linked target in London for the benefit of the Russian state," CBS News reported last month. That wasn't an isolated incident.

"In April alone a clutch of alleged pro-Russian saboteurs were detained across the continent," The Economist noted May 12 in describing what it called a "shadow war" between East and West. "Germany arrested two German-Russian dual nationals on suspicion of plotting attacks on American military facilities and other targets on behalf of the GRU, Russia's military intelligence agency. Poland arrested a man who was preparing to pass the GRU information on Rzeszow airport, the most important hub for military aid to Ukraine. Britain charged several men over an earlier arson attack in March on a Ukrainian-owned logistics firm in London whose Spanish depot was also targeted."

The GCHQ chief's warnings coupled with reality on the ground are alarming in themselves. Worse, they come after FBI Director Christopher Wray issued similar cautions in April about China.

"The PRC [People's Republic of China] has made it clear that it considers every sector that makes our society run as fair game in its bid to dominate on the world stage, and that its plan is to land low blows against civilian infrastructure to try to induce panic and break America's will to resist," Wray told the Vanderbilt Summit on Modern Conflict and Emerging Threats in Nashville, Tennessee.

Wray clarified that, by "infrastructure," he meant "everything from water treatment facilities and energy grids to transportation and information technology."

If that doesn't make you want to check that your pantry is stocked and that the water filter and generator are in working order, nothing will.

A Game Both Sides Can Play

Of course, in war of any sort, the implication is that both sides are involved in conflict. Western intelligence officials are loud in their warnings about foreign threats, but less open regarding just what their own operatives might be doing in Russia, China, and elsewhere. Still, there's evidence that this is hardly a one-sided war, shadowy though it may be.

In June 2022, The New York Times reported that Ukraine's defensive efforts relied heavily on "a stealthy network of commandos and spies rushing to provide weapons, intelligence and training." In addition to Americans, the story noted, "commandos from other NATO countries, including Britain, France, Canada and Lithuania, also have been working inside Ukraine."

American journalist and combat veteran Jack Murphy goes further, claiming the CIA, working through an allied spy service "is responsible for many of the unexplained explosions and other mishaps that have befallen the Russian military industrial complex." The targets include "railway bridges, fuel depots and power plants," he adds.

And if you wonder who blew up Nord Stream 1 and 2, well, so do a lot of people. Russia was initially accused, but it didn't make a lot of sense for the country's forces to destroy pipelines that generated revenue and fed western dependence on Russian natural gas. Since then, Denmark and Sweden have closed inconclusive investigations, journalist Seymour Hersh blamed American officials, and a report by Der Spiegel and The Washington Post placed responsibility on a rogue Ukrainian military officer.

The Wider War Is Here

Taken all together, the warnings from Keast-Butler and Wray, as well as acts of sabotage and arrests of foreign agents suggest that fears of a wider war resulting from Russia's continuing invasion of Ukraine may miss the point; the war could already be here. People looking for tanks and troops are overlooking cyber intrusions, arson, bombings, and other low-level mayhem.

"Russia is definitely at war with the West," Oleksandr Danylyuk of the Royal United Services Institute, a British defense and security think tank, told NBC News earlier this week.

Russian officials seem to embrace that understanding, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commenting in March that the invasion of Ukraine, originally referred to by the euphemism "special military operation," is now more serious. "It has become a war for us as the collective West more and more directly increases its level of involvement in the conflict," he said.

Fortunately, a shadow war of the sort around us is less destructive than open military conflict, especially when the hostilities involve nuclear-armed powers. It's far better that spies hack the email accounts of government officials, as happened in the case of a Russian cyberattack on Germany's ruling Social Democrats, than that cities burn. But civilians still must live with the consequences of combatants attempting to do each other harm—particularly when the harm is to infrastructure on which regular people rely.

So, welcome to the world of global shadow war. Try to not become collateral damage.

The post World War War III May Already Have Started—in the Shadows appeared first on Reason.com.

Space weather has been known to cause disruptions to GPS and communications systems, and perhaps no one is feeling those headaches more than farmers this weekend. 404 Media reports that the heightened solar activity over the last few days has led to outages in the GPS navigation systems that guide some modern tractors from John Deere and other brands. The technology has allowed farmers to plant more efficiently in ultra-tight, straight lines, but they’ve been advised to temporarily stop using it due to the potential for inaccuracies that could cause havoc down the line come harvesting time.

John Deere’s tractors connect to what are known as Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) systems, 404 reports, which allow for precision planting down to the centimeter level. If farmers were to go ahead and plant without their usual accuracy, “we expect that the rows won't be where the AutoPath lines think they are” when it’s time to tend and harvest the crops, Landmark Implement, owner of some John Deere dealerships, told 404 Media.

The timing is terrible — it’s peak planting season for corn, and one Nebraska farmer, Kevin Kenney, told 404, “All the tractors are sitting at the ends of the field right now shut down because of the solar storm.” Many farms have had to pause planting, while others are carrying on and just hoping for the best.

The geomagnetic storm we’re currently experiencing is the strongest observed in the last 20 years, and reached G5 levels on Friday and Saturday morning, which is considered to be “extreme.” It later died down some to G4/G3, but is expected to surge again on Sunday evening when some intense but slower-moving coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the sun reach Earth. That’s great if you want to see the northern lights, but not so much if your livelihood depends on the technology the storm is interfering with.

The strongest geomagnetic storm in 20 years made the colorful northern lights, or aurora borealis, visible Friday night across the US, even in areas that are normally too far south to see them. And the show may not be over. Tonight may offer another chance to catch the aurora if you have clear skies, according to the NOAA, and Sunday could bring yet more displays reaching as far as Alabama.

The NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center said on Saturday that the sun has continued to produce powerful solar flares. That’s on top of previously observed coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or explosions of magnetized plasma, that won’t reach Earth until tomorrow. The agency has been monitoring a particularly active sunspot cluster since Wednesday, and confirmed yesterday that it had observed G5 conditions — the level designated “extreme” — which haven’t been seen since October 2003. In a press release on Friday, Clinton Wallace, Director, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, said the current storm is “an unusual and potentially historic event.”

Geomagnetic storms happen when outbursts from the sun interact with Earth’s magnetosphere. While it all has kind of a scary ring to it, people on the ground don’t really have anything to worry about. As NASA explained on X, “Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere” to physically affect us. These storms can mess with our technology, though, and have been known to disrupt communications, GPS, satellite operations and even the power grid.

Climate protestors in Germany broke through police barricades on Friday, amid clashes between activists and law enforcement. The protestors either made it onto (according to protestors) or near (according to local police) the grounds of a Tesla gigafactory in Grünheide, Germany, near Berlin. It’s part of a planned five-day demonstration ahead of a local government vote next week to determine whether Tesla’s plant can expand.

Wired flagged social media videos showing activists, many of whom have been camping out in treehouses in nearby forest encampments, running toward a Tesla building on the site. In addition, the German newspaper Welt said at least one person participating was injured. Police reportedly police used pepper spray and batons to try to thwart the crowd, and there were at least some arrests.

A spokesperson for one of the groups participating in the protests told Wired that they broke the police barriers and stormed the Tesla grounds. “Eight hundred people have entered the premises of the gigafactory,” Lucia Mende of Disrupt Tesla said. However, local police posted on X (Musk’s social media platform) that the activists only reached a field facing the site. “We have been able to prevent them from entering so far,” they posted.

Axel Schmidt via Getty Images

At least at first glance, it’s easy to wonder why activists are pouring so much energy into fighting Tesla. After all, despite Musk’s increasingly unhinged right-wing conspiracy-mongering and Nazi-catering on X, other automakers pushing gas-guzzling cars seem like more appropriate targets (not to mention the fossil fuel companies spending big bucks on anti-climate-reform disinformation). However, several factors make the issues at the heart of the protests less simplistic.

A (nonbinding) vote in February showed Grünheide residents opposed the expansion by almost a two-to-one ratio. If for no other reason, the local government having a chance to brush aside the overwhelming will of the voters in the name of capitalism is enough to raise the eyebrows of anyone who balks at minority rule.

Wired notes the area is also one of the most water-scarce in Germany, and residents worry the gigafactory will drain the resource, leaving much less for the humans who live there. The plant could also pollute local water supplies.

Those fears appear to have merit: The plant is licensed to use 1.4 million cubic meters of water annually, and a separate Wired report from Tuesday noted that’s enough to supply for a large town. As for the contamination fears, Tesla was fined in 2019 by the EPA for several hazardous waste violations at a California factory. The company paid a grand total of $31,000 to settle. (Tesla had a market cap of almost $76 billion in 2019.)

But some of the groups protesting have concerns that go much farther than those more immediate issues affecting the locals, instead taking issue with the entire electric vehicle movement. “Companies like Tesla are there to save the car industry, they’re not there to save the climate,” Esther Kamm, spokesperson for Turn Off the Tap on Tesla told Wired.

Another activist, who only gave Wired the name Mara, described the factory as the result of “green capitalism.” She views the EV movement as little more than a theatrical performance in the name of profit. “This has been completely thought up by such companies to have more growth, even in times of an environmental crisis,” she said.

I wouldn’t exactly say flipping the bird to the EV movement is a “workable” solution to the very real and pressing climate crisis. Regardless of your thoughts on the matter, the world needs to move quickly to fend off climate change’s most ravaging effects, and the scientific consensus is that the planned shift to EVs will need to play a central role.

Tesla reportedly told its employees at the factory to work from home on Friday, shutting down the plants for the planned protests. As for Friday’s protests, Welt reports that the situation had calmed by afternoon — at least for now.

Swiss start-up Climeworks has done it again. The company just opened the world’s largest carbon capture plant in Iceland, dwarfing its own record of how much CO2 it can pull from the air. The company’s previous record-holding carbon capture plant, Orca, sucks around 4,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year, but the new plant can handle nearly ten times that, as reported by The Washington Post.

The plant’s called Mammoth and boasts 72 industrial fans that can pull 36,000 tons of CO2 from the air each year. Just like with Orca, the CO2 isn’t recycled. It’s stored underground and eventually trapped in stone, permanently (within reason) removing it from the environment. The plant’s actually located on a dormant volcano, so it’ll make a great hideout for a James Bond villain should it ever cease operations.

The location was chosen for its proximity to the Hellisheidi geothermal energy plant, which is used to power the facility's fans and heat chemical filters to extract CO2 with water vapor. After extraction, the CO2 is separated from the steam, compressed and dissolved in water. Finally, it’s pumped 2,300 feet underground into volcanic basalt. This compound reacts with the magnesium, calcium and iron in the rock to form crystals, which become solid reservoirs of CO2. It’s pretty nifty technology.

However, it’s not the end-all solution to climate change. It’s barely a blip. For the world to achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2050, "we should be removing something like six to 16 billion tons of CO2 per year from the air," said Climeworks founder Jan Wurzbacher, according to reporting by CBS News.

Therein lies the problem. This facility, the largest of its kind by a wide margin, can capture up to 36,000 tons of CO2 from the air each year, but that’s just 0.0006 percent of what’s needed to meet the minimum annual removal threshold as indicated by Wurzbacher. There are other plants, of course, but all of them combined don’t make a serious dent in what’s required to pull us from the brink.

To that end, Wurzbacher has pleaded with other companies to take up the cause. He says that Climeworks has a goal of surpassing millions of tons captured per year by 2030 and a billion by 2050. The company’s chief technology officer, Carlos Haertel, told 60 Minutes that scaling up the process globally is possible, but requires political will to rally behind the initiative.

The Biden administration recently committed $4 billion to jumpstart the industry here in the states and earmarked $1.2 billion for a pair of large-scale projects. The US Department of Energy also started a program called Carbon Negative Shot, with a goal of fostering the development of budget-friendly carbon capture technology.

The method of carbon capture deployed by Climeworks is just one of many approaches. These processes range from stacks of limestone blocks that absorb CO2 like a sponge to giant hot air balloons that freeze and trap the chemical compound. Restoring forests is another option, which is something companies like Apple and Goldman Sachs have experimented with. Which one is best? All of them together deployed at global scale. Whatever it takes. Climate change isn’t fooling around.

The strongest geomagnetic storm in 20 years made the colorful northern lights, or aurora borealis, visible Friday night across the US, even in areas that are normally too far south to see them. And the show may not be over. Tonight may offer another chance to catch the aurora if you have clear skies, according to the NOAA, and Sunday could bring yet more displays reaching as far as Alabama.

The NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center said on Saturday that the sun has continued to produce powerful solar flares. That’s on top of previously observed coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or explosions of magnetized plasma, that won’t reach Earth until tomorrow. The agency has been monitoring a particularly active sunspot cluster since Wednesday, and confirmed yesterday that it had observed G5 conditions — the level designated “extreme” — which haven’t been seen since October 2003. In a press release on Friday, Clinton Wallace, Director, NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, said the current storm is “an unusual and potentially historic event.”

Geomagnetic storms happen when outbursts from the sun interact with Earth’s magnetosphere. While it all has kind of a scary ring to it, people on the ground don’t really have anything to worry about. As NASA explained on X, “Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere” to physically affect us. These storms can mess with our technology, though, and have been known to disrupt communications, GPS, satellite operations and even the power grid.

Climate protestors in Germany broke through police barricades on Friday, amid clashes between activists and law enforcement. The protestors either made it onto (according to protestors) or near (according to local police) the grounds of a Tesla gigafactory in Grünheide, Germany, near Berlin. It’s part of a planned five-day demonstration ahead of a local government vote next week to determine whether Tesla’s plant can expand.

Wired flagged social media videos showing activists, many of whom have been camping out in treehouses in nearby forest encampments, running toward a Tesla building on the site. In addition, the German newspaper Welt said at least one person participating was injured. Police reportedly police used pepper spray and batons to try to thwart the crowd, and there were at least some arrests.

A spokesperson for one of the groups participating in the protests told Wired that they broke the police barriers and stormed the Tesla grounds. “Eight hundred people have entered the premises of the gigafactory,” Lucia Mende of Disrupt Tesla said. However, local police posted on X (Musk’s social media platform) that the activists only reached a field facing the site. “We have been able to prevent them from entering so far,” they posted.

Axel Schmidt via Getty Images

At least at first glance, it’s easy to wonder why activists are pouring so much energy into fighting Tesla. After all, despite Musk’s increasingly unhinged right-wing conspiracy-mongering and Nazi-catering on X, other automakers pushing gas-guzzling cars seem like more appropriate targets (not to mention the fossil fuel companies spending big bucks on anti-climate-reform disinformation). However, several factors make the issues at the heart of the protests less simplistic.

A (nonbinding) vote in February showed Grünheide residents opposed the expansion by almost a two-to-one ratio. If for no other reason, the local government having a chance to brush aside the overwhelming will of the voters in the name of capitalism is enough to raise the eyebrows of anyone who balks at minority rule.

Wired notes the area is also one of the most water-scarce in Germany, and residents worry the gigafactory will drain the resource, leaving much less for the humans who live there. The plant could also pollute local water supplies.

Those fears appear to have merit: The plant is licensed to use 1.4 million cubic meters of water annually, and a separate Wired report from Tuesday noted that’s enough to supply for a large town. As for the contamination fears, Tesla was fined in 2019 by the EPA for several hazardous waste violations at a California factory. The company paid a grand total of $31,000 to settle. (Tesla had a market cap of almost $76 billion in 2019.)

But some of the groups protesting have concerns that go much farther than those more immediate issues affecting the locals, instead taking issue with the entire electric vehicle movement. “Companies like Tesla are there to save the car industry, they’re not there to save the climate,” Esther Kamm, spokesperson for Turn Off the Tap on Tesla told Wired.

Another activist, who only gave Wired the name Mara, described the factory as the result of “green capitalism.” She views the EV movement as little more than a theatrical performance in the name of profit. “This has been completely thought up by such companies to have more growth, even in times of an environmental crisis,” she said.

I wouldn’t exactly say flipping the bird to the EV movement is a “workable” solution to the very real and pressing climate crisis. Regardless of your thoughts on the matter, the world needs to move quickly to fend off climate change’s most ravaging effects, and the scientific consensus is that the planned shift to EVs will need to play a central role.

Tesla reportedly told its employees at the factory to work from home on Friday, shutting down the plants for the planned protests. As for Friday’s protests, Welt reports that the situation had calmed by afternoon — at least for now.

Swiss start-up Climeworks has done it again. The company just opened the world’s largest carbon capture plant in Iceland, dwarfing its own record of how much CO2 it can pull from the air. The company’s previous record-holding carbon capture plant, Orca, sucks around 4,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year, but the new plant can handle nearly ten times that, as reported by The Washington Post.

The plant’s called Mammoth and boasts 72 industrial fans that can pull 36,000 tons of CO2 from the air each year. Just like with Orca, the CO2 isn’t recycled. It’s stored underground and eventually trapped in stone, permanently (within reason) removing it from the environment. The plant’s actually located on a dormant volcano, so it’ll make a great hideout for a James Bond villain should it ever cease operations.

The location was chosen for its proximity to the Hellisheidi geothermal energy plant, which is used to power the facility's fans and heat chemical filters to extract CO2 with water vapor. After extraction, the CO2 is separated from the steam, compressed and dissolved in water. Finally, it’s pumped 2,300 feet underground into volcanic basalt. This compound reacts with the magnesium, calcium and iron in the rock to form crystals, which become solid reservoirs of CO2. It’s pretty nifty technology.

However, it’s not the end-all solution to climate change. It’s barely a blip. For the world to achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2050, "we should be removing something like six to 16 billion tons of CO2 per year from the air," said Climeworks founder Jan Wurzbacher, according to reporting by CBS News.

Therein lies the problem. This facility, the largest of its kind by a wide margin, can capture up to 36,000 tons of CO2 from the air each year, but that’s just 0.0006 percent of what’s needed to meet the minimum annual removal threshold as indicated by Wurzbacher. There are other plants, of course, but all of them combined don’t make a serious dent in what’s required to pull us from the brink.

To that end, Wurzbacher has pleaded with other companies to take up the cause. He says that Climeworks has a goal of surpassing millions of tons captured per year by 2030 and a billion by 2050. The company’s chief technology officer, Carlos Haertel, told 60 Minutes that scaling up the process globally is possible, but requires political will to rally behind the initiative.

The Biden administration recently committed $4 billion to jumpstart the industry here in the states and earmarked $1.2 billion for a pair of large-scale projects. The US Department of Energy also started a program called Carbon Negative Shot, with a goal of fostering the development of budget-friendly carbon capture technology.

The method of carbon capture deployed by Climeworks is just one of many approaches. These processes range from stacks of limestone blocks that absorb CO2 like a sponge to giant hot air balloons that freeze and trap the chemical compound. Restoring forests is another option, which is something companies like Apple and Goldman Sachs have experimented with. Which one is best? All of them together deployed at global scale. Whatever it takes. Climate change isn’t fooling around.

“How do we get to making nanomaterials that haven’t been evolved before?” asked Angela Belcher at the 2023 Mildred S. Dresselhaus Lecture at MIT on Nov. 20. “We can use elements that biology has already given us.”

The combined in-person and virtual audience of over 300 was treated to a light-up, 3D model of M13 bacteriophage, a virus that only infects bacteria, complete with a pull-out strand of DNA. Belcher used the feather-boa-like model to show how her research group modifies the M13’s genes to add new DNA and peptide sequences to template inorganic materials.

“I love controlling materials at the nanoscale using biology,” said Belcher, the James Mason Crafts Professor of Biological Engineering, materials science professor, and of the Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. “We all know if you control materials at the nanoscale and you can start to tune them, then you can have all kinds of different applications.” And the opportunities are indeed vast — from building batteries, fuel cells, and solar cells to carbon sequestration and storage, environmental remediation, catalysis, and medical diagnostics and imaging.

Belcher sprinkled her talk with models and props, lined up on a table at the front of the 10-250 lecture hall, to demonstrate a wide variety of concepts and projects made possible by the intersection of biology and nanotechnology.

Energy storage and environment

“How do you go from a DNA sequence to a functioning battery?” posed Belcher. Grabbing a model of a large carbon nanotube, she explained how her group engineered a phage to pick up carbon nanotubes that would wind all the way around the virus and then fill in with different cathode or anode materials to make nanowires for battery electrodes.

How about using the M13 bacteriophage to improve the environment? Belcher referred to a project by former student Geran Zhang PhD ’19 that proved the virus can be modified for this context, too. He used the phage to template high-surface-area, carbon-based materials that can grab small molecules and break them down, Belcher said, opening a realm of possibilities from cleaning up rivers to developing chemical warfare agents to combating smog.

Belcher’s lab worked with the U.S. Army to produce protective clothing and masks made of these carbon-based virus nanofibers. “We went from five liters in our lab to a thousand liters, then 10,000 liters in the army labs where we’re able to make kilograms of the material,” Belcher said, stressing the importance of being able to test and prototype at scale.

Imaging tools and therapeutics in cancer

In the area of biomedical imaging, Belcher explained, a lot less is known in near-infrared imaging — imaging in wavelengths above 1,000 nanometers — than other imaging techniques, yet with near-infrared scientists can see much deeper inside the body. Belcher’s lab built their own systems to image at these wavelengths. The third generation of this system provides real-time, sub-millimeter optical imaging for guided surgery.

Working with Sangeeta Bhatia, the John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Engineering, Belcher used carbon nanotubes to build imaging tools that find tiny tumors during surgery that doctors otherwise would not be able to see. The tool is actually a virus engineered to carry with it a fluorescent, single-walled carbon nanotube as it seeks out the tumors.

Nearing the end of her talk, Belcher presented a goal: to develop an accessible detection and diagnostic technology for ovarian cancer in five to 10 years.

“We think that we can do it,” Belcher said. She described her students’ work developing a way to scan an entire fallopian tube, as opposed to just one small portion, to find pre-cancer lesions, and talked about the team of MIT faculty, doctors, and researchers working collectively toward this goal.

“Part of the secret of life and the meaning of life is helping other people enjoy the passage of time,” said Belcher in her closing remarks. “I think that we can all do that by working to solve some of the biggest issues on the planet, including helping to diagnose and treat ovarian cancer early so people have more time to spend with their family.”

Honoring Mildred S. Dresselhaus

Belcher was the fifth speaker to deliver the Dresselhaus Lecture, an annual event organized by MIT.nano to honor the late MIT physics and electrical engineering Institute Professor Mildred Dresselhaus. The lecture features a speaker from anywhere in the world whose leadership and impact echo Dresselhaus’s life, accomplishments, and values.

“Millie was and is a huge hero of mine,” said Belcher. “Giving a lecture in Millie’s name is just the greatest honor.”

Belcher dedicated the talk to Dresselhaus, whom she described with an array of accolades — a trailblazer, a genius, an amazing mentor, teacher, and inventor. “Just knowing her was such a privilege,” she said.

Belcher also dedicated her talk to her own grandmother and mother, both of whom passed away from cancer, as well as late MIT professors Susan Lindquist and Angelika Amon, who both died of ovarian cancer.

“I’ve been so fortunate to work with just the most talented and dedicated graduate students, undergraduate students, postdocs, and researchers,” concluded Belcher. “It has been a pure joy to be in partnership with all of you to solve these very daunting problems.”

Climate protestors in Germany broke through police barricades on Friday, amid clashes between activists and law enforcement. The protestors either made it onto (according to protestors) or near (according to local police) the grounds of a Tesla gigafactory in Grünheide, Germany, near Berlin. It’s part of a planned five-day demonstration ahead of a local government vote next week to determine whether Tesla’s plant can expand.

Wired flagged social media videos showing activists, many of whom have been camping out in treehouses in nearby forest encampments, running toward a Tesla building on the site. In addition, the German newspaper Welt said at least one person participating was injured. Police reportedly police used pepper spray and batons to try to thwart the crowd, and there were at least some arrests.

A spokesperson for one of the groups participating in the protests told Wired that they broke the police barriers and stormed the Tesla grounds. “Eight hundred people have entered the premises of the gigafactory,” Lucia Mende of Disrupt Tesla said. However, local police posted on X (Musk’s social media platform) that the activists only reached a field facing the site. “We have been able to prevent them from entering so far,” they posted.

Axel Schmidt via Getty Images

At least at first glance, it’s easy to wonder why activists are pouring so much energy into fighting Tesla. After all, despite Musk’s increasingly unhinged right-wing conspiracy-mongering and Nazi-catering on X, other automakers pushing gas-guzzling cars seem like more appropriate targets (not to mention the fossil fuel companies spending big bucks on anti-climate-reform disinformation). However, several factors make the issues at the heart of the protests less simplistic.

A (nonbinding) vote in February showed Grünheide residents opposed the expansion by almost a two-to-one ratio. If for no other reason, the local government having a chance to brush aside the overwhelming will of the voters in the name of capitalism is enough to raise the eyebrows of anyone who balks at minority rule.

Wired notes the area is also one of the most water-scarce in Germany, and residents worry the gigafactory will drain the resource, leaving much less for the humans who live there. The plant could also pollute local water supplies.

Those fears appear to have merit: The plant is licensed to use 1.4 million cubic meters of water annually, and a separate Wired report from Tuesday noted that’s enough to supply for a large town. As for the contamination fears, Tesla was fined in 2019 by the EPA for several hazardous waste violations at a California factory. The company paid a grand total of $31,000 to settle. (Tesla had a market cap of almost $76 billion in 2019.)

But some of the groups protesting have concerns that go much farther than those more immediate issues affecting the locals, instead taking issue with the entire electric vehicle movement. “Companies like Tesla are there to save the car industry, they’re not there to save the climate,” Esther Kamm, spokesperson for Turn Off the Tap on Tesla told Wired.

Another activist, who only gave Wired the name Mara, described the factory as the result of “green capitalism.” She views the EV movement as little more than a theatrical performance in the name of profit. “This has been completely thought up by such companies to have more growth, even in times of an environmental crisis,” she said.

I wouldn’t exactly say flipping the bird to the EV movement is a “workable” solution to the very real and pressing climate crisis. Regardless of your thoughts on the matter, the world needs to move quickly to fend off climate change’s most ravaging effects, and the scientific consensus is that the planned shift to EVs will need to play a central role.

Tesla reportedly told its employees at the factory to work from home on Friday, shutting down the plants for the planned protests. As for Friday’s protests, Welt reports that the situation had calmed by afternoon — at least for now.

Swiss start-up Climeworks has done it again. The company just opened the world’s largest carbon capture plant in Iceland, dwarfing its own record of how much CO2 it can pull from the air. The company’s previous record-holding carbon capture plant, Orca, sucks around 4,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year, but the new plant can handle nearly ten times that, as reported by The Washington Post.

The plant’s called Mammoth and boasts 72 industrial fans that can pull 36,000 tons of CO2 from the air each year. Just like with Orca, the CO2 isn’t recycled. It’s stored underground and eventually trapped in stone, permanently (within reason) removing it from the environment. The plant’s actually located on a dormant volcano, so it’ll make a great hideout for a James Bond villain should it ever cease operations.

The location was chosen for its proximity to the Hellisheidi geothermal energy plant, which is used to power the facility's fans and heat chemical filters to extract CO2 with water vapor. After extraction, the CO2 is separated from the steam, compressed and dissolved in water. Finally, it’s pumped 2,300 feet underground into volcanic basalt. This compound reacts with the magnesium, calcium and iron in the rock to form crystals, which become solid reservoirs of CO2. It’s pretty nifty technology.

However, it’s not the end-all solution to climate change. It’s barely a blip. For the world to achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2050, "we should be removing something like six to 16 billion tons of CO2 per year from the air," said Climeworks founder Jan Wurzbacher, according to reporting by CBS News.

Therein lies the problem. This facility, the largest of its kind by a wide margin, can capture up to 36,000 tons of CO2 from the air each year, but that’s just 0.0006 percent of what’s needed to meet the minimum annual removal threshold as indicated by Wurzbacher. There are other plants, of course, but all of them combined don’t make a serious dent in what’s required to pull us from the brink.

To that end, Wurzbacher has pleaded with other companies to take up the cause. He says that Climeworks has a goal of surpassing millions of tons captured per year by 2030 and a billion by 2050. The company’s chief technology officer, Carlos Haertel, told 60 Minutes that scaling up the process globally is possible, but requires political will to rally behind the initiative.

The Biden administration recently committed $4 billion to jumpstart the industry here in the states and earmarked $1.2 billion for a pair of large-scale projects. The US Department of Energy also started a program called Carbon Negative Shot, with a goal of fostering the development of budget-friendly carbon capture technology.

The method of carbon capture deployed by Climeworks is just one of many approaches. These processes range from stacks of limestone blocks that absorb CO2 like a sponge to giant hot air balloons that freeze and trap the chemical compound. Restoring forests is another option, which is something companies like Apple and Goldman Sachs have experimented with. Which one is best? All of them together deployed at global scale. Whatever it takes. Climate change isn’t fooling around.

“How do we get to making nanomaterials that haven’t been evolved before?” asked Angela Belcher at the 2023 Mildred S. Dresselhaus Lecture at MIT on Nov. 20. “We can use elements that biology has already given us.”

The combined in-person and virtual audience of over 300 was treated to a light-up, 3D model of M13 bacteriophage, a virus that only infects bacteria, complete with a pull-out strand of DNA. Belcher used the feather-boa-like model to show how her research group modifies the M13’s genes to add new DNA and peptide sequences to template inorganic materials.

“I love controlling materials at the nanoscale using biology,” said Belcher, the James Mason Crafts Professor of Biological Engineering, materials science professor, and of the Koch Institute of Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. “We all know if you control materials at the nanoscale and you can start to tune them, then you can have all kinds of different applications.” And the opportunities are indeed vast — from building batteries, fuel cells, and solar cells to carbon sequestration and storage, environmental remediation, catalysis, and medical diagnostics and imaging.

Belcher sprinkled her talk with models and props, lined up on a table at the front of the 10-250 lecture hall, to demonstrate a wide variety of concepts and projects made possible by the intersection of biology and nanotechnology.

Energy storage and environment

“How do you go from a DNA sequence to a functioning battery?” posed Belcher. Grabbing a model of a large carbon nanotube, she explained how her group engineered a phage to pick up carbon nanotubes that would wind all the way around the virus and then fill in with different cathode or anode materials to make nanowires for battery electrodes.

How about using the M13 bacteriophage to improve the environment? Belcher referred to a project by former student Geran Zhang PhD ’19 that proved the virus can be modified for this context, too. He used the phage to template high-surface-area, carbon-based materials that can grab small molecules and break them down, Belcher said, opening a realm of possibilities from cleaning up rivers to developing chemical warfare agents to combating smog.

Belcher’s lab worked with the U.S. Army to produce protective clothing and masks made of these carbon-based virus nanofibers. “We went from five liters in our lab to a thousand liters, then 10,000 liters in the army labs where we’re able to make kilograms of the material,” Belcher said, stressing the importance of being able to test and prototype at scale.

Imaging tools and therapeutics in cancer

In the area of biomedical imaging, Belcher explained, a lot less is known in near-infrared imaging — imaging in wavelengths above 1,000 nanometers — than other imaging techniques, yet with near-infrared scientists can see much deeper inside the body. Belcher’s lab built their own systems to image at these wavelengths. The third generation of this system provides real-time, sub-millimeter optical imaging for guided surgery.

Working with Sangeeta Bhatia, the John J. and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Engineering, Belcher used carbon nanotubes to build imaging tools that find tiny tumors during surgery that doctors otherwise would not be able to see. The tool is actually a virus engineered to carry with it a fluorescent, single-walled carbon nanotube as it seeks out the tumors.

Nearing the end of her talk, Belcher presented a goal: to develop an accessible detection and diagnostic technology for ovarian cancer in five to 10 years.

“We think that we can do it,” Belcher said. She described her students’ work developing a way to scan an entire fallopian tube, as opposed to just one small portion, to find pre-cancer lesions, and talked about the team of MIT faculty, doctors, and researchers working collectively toward this goal.

“Part of the secret of life and the meaning of life is helping other people enjoy the passage of time,” said Belcher in her closing remarks. “I think that we can all do that by working to solve some of the biggest issues on the planet, including helping to diagnose and treat ovarian cancer early so people have more time to spend with their family.”

Honoring Mildred S. Dresselhaus

Belcher was the fifth speaker to deliver the Dresselhaus Lecture, an annual event organized by MIT.nano to honor the late MIT physics and electrical engineering Institute Professor Mildred Dresselhaus. The lecture features a speaker from anywhere in the world whose leadership and impact echo Dresselhaus’s life, accomplishments, and values.

“Millie was and is a huge hero of mine,” said Belcher. “Giving a lecture in Millie’s name is just the greatest honor.”

Belcher dedicated the talk to Dresselhaus, whom she described with an array of accolades — a trailblazer, a genius, an amazing mentor, teacher, and inventor. “Just knowing her was such a privilege,” she said.

Belcher also dedicated her talk to her own grandmother and mother, both of whom passed away from cancer, as well as late MIT professors Susan Lindquist and Angelika Amon, who both died of ovarian cancer.

“I’ve been so fortunate to work with just the most talented and dedicated graduate students, undergraduate students, postdocs, and researchers,” concluded Belcher. “It has been a pure joy to be in partnership with all of you to solve these very daunting problems.”

The Los Angeles Press Club on Thursday announced the finalists for the 66th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards, recognizing the best work in print, online, and broadcast media published in 2023.

Reason, which is headquartered in L.A., is a finalist for 14 awards.

A sincere thanks to the judges who read and watched our submissions, as well as to the Reason readers, subscribers, and supporters, without whom we would not be able to produce impactful journalism.

Senior Editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown is a finalist for best technology reporting across all media platforms—print, radio, podcast, TV, and online—for her November 2023 print piece, "Do Social Media Algorithms Polarize Us? Maybe Not," in which she challenged what has become the traditional wisdom around the root of online toxicity:

For years, politicians have been proposing new regulations based on simple technological "solutions" to issues that stem from much more complex phenomena. But making Meta change its algorithms or shifting what people see in their Twitter feeds can't overcome deeper issues in American politics—including parties animated more by hate and fear of the other side than ideas of their own. This new set of studies should serve as a reminder that expecting tech companies to somehow fix our dysfunctional political culture won't work.

Science Reporter Ronald Bailey is a finalist for best medical/health reporting in print or online for "Take Nutrition Studies With a Grain of Salt," also from the November 2023 issue, where he meticulously dissected why the epidemiology of food and drink is, well, "a mess":

This doesn't mean you can eat an entire pizza, a quart of ice cream, and six beers tonight without some negative health effects. (Sorry.) It means nutritional epidemiology is a very uncertain guide for how to live your life and it certainly isn't fit for setting public policy.

In short, take nutrition research with a grain of salt. And don't worry: Even though the World Health Organization (WHO) says "too much salt can kill you," the Daily Mail noted in 2021 that "it's not as bad for health as you think."

Managing Editor Jason Russell is a finalist in print/online sports commentary for his August/September 2023 cover story, "Get Your Politics Out of My Pickleball," which explored the emerging fault lines as the government gets involved in America's weirdest, fastest-growing sport:

Pickleball will always have haters—and if its growth continues, local governments will still face public pressure to build more courts. Some critics think the sport is a fad, but strong growth continues for the time being, even as the COVID-19 pandemic ends and other activities compete for time and attention. There's no need to force nonplayers to support it with their tax dollars, especially when entrepreneurs seem eager to provide courts. If pickleball does end up as an odd footnote in sporting history, ideally it won't be taxpayers who are on the hook for converting courts to new uses.

Reporter C.J. Ciaramella is a finalist in magazine investigative reporting for his October 2023 cover story, "'I Knew They Were Scumbags,'" a nauseating piece on federal prison guards who confessed to rape—and got away with it:

Berman's daughter, Carleane, was one of at least a dozen women who were abused by corrupt correctional officers at FCC Coleman, a federal prison complex in Florida. In December, a Senate investigation revealed that those correctional officers had admitted in sworn interviews with internal affairs investigators that they had repeatedly raped women under their control.

Yet thanks to a little known Supreme Court precedent and a culture of corrupt self-protection inside the prison system, none of those guards were ever prosecuted—precisely because of the manner in which they confessed.

Senior Editor Jacob Sullum is a finalist in magazine commentary for "Biden's 'Marijuana Reform' Leaves Prohibition Untouched," from the January 2023 issue, in which he disputed the notion that President Joe Biden has fundamentally changed America's response to cannabis:

By himself, Biden does not have the authority to resolve the untenable conflict between state and federal marijuana laws. But despite his avowed transformation from an anti-drug zealot into a criminal justice reformer, he has stubbornly opposed efforts to repeal federal pot prohibition.

That position is contrary to the preferences expressed by more than two-thirds of Americans, including four-fifths of Democrats and half of Republicans. The most Biden is willing to offer them is his rhetorical support for decriminalizing cannabis consumption—a policy that was on the cutting edge of marijuana reform in the 1970s.

Editor in Chief Katherine Mangu-Ward is a finalist for best magazine columnist for "Is Chaos the Natural State of Congress?" from the December 2023 issue, "Don't Just Hire 'Better Cops.' Punish the Bad Ones," from the April 2023 issue, and (a personal favorite) "Bodies Against the State," from the February 2023 issue:

Governments do unconscionable things every day; it is in their nature. But not all transgressions are equal. In the wake of the Iran team's silent anthem protest, an Iranian journalist asked U.S. men's soccer captain Tyler Adams how he could play for a country that discriminates against black people like him. What makes the U.S. different, he replied, is that "we're continuing to make progress every day."

The most perfect and enduring image of a person weaponizing his body against the state was taken after the brutal suppression of protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. The unknown Chinese man standing in front of a tank didn't have to hold a sign for the entire world to know exactly what the problem was.

Reporter Christian Britschgi is a finalist for best long-form magazine feature on business/government for "The Town Without Zoning," from the August/September 2023 issue, in which he reported on the fight over whether Caroline, New York, should impose its first-ever zoning code:

Whatever the outcome, the zoning debate raging in Caroline is revealing. It shows how even in a small community without major enterprises or serious growth pressures, planners can't adequately capture and account for everything people might want to do with their land.

There's a gap between what zoners can do and what they imagine they can design. That knowledge problem hasn't stopped cities far larger and more complex than Caroline from trying to scientifically sort themselves with zoning. They've developed quite large and complex problems as a result.

Associate Editor Billy Binion (hi, it's me) is a finalist for best activism journalism online for the web feature "They Fell Behind on Their Property Taxes. So the Government Sold Their Homes—and Kept the Profits," which explored an underreported form of legalized larceny: governments across the U.S. seizing people's homes over modest tax debts, selling the properties, and keeping the surplus equity.

Geraldine Tyler is a 94-year-old woman spending the twilight of her life in retirement, as 94-year-olds typically do. But there isn't much that's typical about it.

Tyler has spent the last several years fighting the government from an assisted living facility after falling $2,300 behind on her property taxes. No one disputes that she owed a debt. What is in dispute is if the government acted constitutionally when, to collect that debt, it seized her home, sold it, and kept the profit.

If that sounds like robbery, it's because, in some sense, it is. But it's currently legal in at least 12 states across the country, so long as the government is doing the robbing.

Senior Producer Austin Bragg, Director of Special Projects Meredith Bragg, Producer John Carter, and freelancer extraordinaire Andrew Heaton are finalists for best humor/satire writing across all broadcast mediums—TV, film, radio, or podcast—for the hilarious "Everything is political: board games," which "exposes" how Republicans and Democrats interpret everyone's favorite games from their partisan perspectives. (Spoiler: Everyone's going to lose.)

The Bragg brothers are nominated again in that same category—best humor/satire writing—along with Remy for "Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor Swift Parody)," in which lawmakers find culprits for the recent uptick in thefts—the victims.

Deputy Managing Editor of Video and Podcasts Natalie Dowzicky and Video Editor Regan Taylor are finalists in best commentary/analysis of TV across all media platforms for "What really happened at Waco," which explored a Netflix documentary on how the seeds of political polarization that roil our culture today were planted at Waco.

Editor at Large Matt Welch, Producer Justin Zuckerman, Motion Graphic Designer Adani Samat, and freelancer Paul Detrick are finalists in best activism journalism across any broadcast media for "The monumental free speech case the media ignored," which made the case that the legal odyssey and criminal prosecutions associated with Backpage were a direct assault on the First Amendment—despite receiving scant national attention from journalists and free speech advocates.

Associate Editor Liz Wolfe, Senior Producer Zach Weissmueller, Video Editor Danielle Thompson, Video Art Director Isaac Reese, and Producer Justin Zuckerman are finalists in best solutions journalism in any broadcast media for "Why homelessness is worse in California than Texas," which investigated why homelessness is almost five times as bad in the Golden State—and what can be done about it.

Finally, Senior Producer Zach Weissmueller, Video Editor Danielle Thompson, Video Art Director Isaac Reese, and Audio Engineer Ian Keyser are finalists in best documentary short for "The Supreme Court case that could upend the Clean Water Act," which did a deep dive into a Supreme Court case concerning a small-town Idaho couple that challenged how the Environmental Protection Agency defines a "wetland"—and what that means for property rights.

Winners will be announced on Sunday, June 23 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. Subscribe to Reason here, watch our video journalism here, and find our podcasts here.

The post <em>Reason</em> Is a Finalist for 14 Southern California Journalism Awards appeared first on Reason.com.

If you've been thinking about picking up a new supercomputer but were waiting on a good price, now might be a good time to put in your bid. Right now, the US government, via GSA Auctions, is auctioning off the Cheyenne Supercomputer to the highest bidder with three days remaining. While we haven't tested this one ourselves, we assume its 145,152 CPU cores will easily out-perform our current top pick for a laptop. You also won't need to upgrade the memory anytime soon, as there's a full 313,344GB of RAM currently installed, and the storage capacity tallies up to around 36 petabytes. No need to delete files to make room for new games or other media downloads.  

The deal was spotted by Ars Technica, who also point out that the fiber optic and CAT5/6 cabling are not included in the sale. While the price the government paid for the supercomputer has not been disclosed, it's safe to assume the cost was well into the millions, considering the price tags of other supercomputers. As of this writing, the bidding has reached $28,085, though the reserve has not yet been met. There are still three days to go and there's currently no deposit required to place a bid. 

The reason for such a hefty discount (other than the fact that Cheyenne has been decommissioned) could be faulty quick disconnects causing water spray and the fact that approximately one percent of nodes have "experienced failure" and "will remain unrepaired." One other caveat to note before you start making room in your arena-sized climate-controlled garage is that shipping is not included. As GSA Auctions notes on the details page, "moving this system necessitates the engagement of a professional moving company" and that "the purchaser assumes responsibility for transferring the racks from the facility onto trucks."    

But where else will you find such steep savings on a machine that can carry out 5.34 quadrillion calculations per second? Cheyenne is also surprisingly energy-efficient, consuming 25 percent less energy per computation than its predecessor, Yellowstone. The massive supercomputer helped researchers understand the rapid intensification of hurricanes, how wildfires impact air quality, and simulated years of climate functions to predict outcomes decades in advance. It should definitely provide you with enough processing power for extreme multitasking at work while handling even the most demanding games after hours. 

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