It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, November 25, 2021
Preserved baby Neanderthal milk tooth shows earlier emergence than in humans
Figure 1. Prenatal enamel extension rates. (A) K21 maxillary deciduous central incisor, mesial view. Rectangle highlights region of interest imaged through SRµCT. (B) Buccal-lingual virtual histological section. Scale bar is 200 microns. Isotropic voxel size = 3.0 μm, δ/β=20, reformatted slice thickness=15 μm. Yellow dot indicates EDJ 44 days before birth. Blue arrow points to neonatal line. Back arrow points to the location that the neonatal line intersects with the EDJ at birth. (C) Yellow dot represents average rate new ameloblasts were recruited along the EDJ over a period of 44 days leading up to birth. Mean values for modern comparative samples (Australian n=29; Medieval British n=13) represented by black diamond, with line showing min and max values. See electronic supplementary material, Supplementary Table S2. (D) K183 maxillary deciduous first molar, mesial view. Rectangle highlights region of interest imaged through SRµCT. (E) Buccal-lingual virtual histological section. Scale bar is 200 microns, isotropic voxel size = 3.0 μm, δ/β=20, reformatted slice thickness=15 μm. Rates calculated for starting points commencing 200, 500, 1000 and 1500 µm away from the dentin horn, represented by yellow dots. (F) Yellow dots represent extension rate for K183 compared to upper deciduous first molar extension rates for modern comparative sample (Canadian n=7). Black diamond represents human mean with line illustrating max and min values. See electronic supplementary material, Supplementary Table S3. Credit: DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2079
An international team of researchers studying a recovered Neanderthal milk tooth has found evidence of baby teeth growing faster and emerging earlier in the extinct human species than in modern humans. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes their study.
In modern humans, deciduous teeth, also known as baby teeth, or milk teeth, generally emerge from the gums around seven to 10 months of age. They remain in place for approximately six years, when they are replaced by succedaneous or permanent dentition. Prior research has shown that the enamel that covers milk teeth has neonatal lines that mark the point where enamel was produced before and after a baby is born. Prior research has also shown that enamel grows on teeth in a daily cycle, which gives them cross-striations. The amount of tooth growth in a single day can be seen in the distance between the stripes. In this new effort, the researchers used this information as they studied a Neanderthal milk tooth from a child who lived approximately 120,000 near what is now the city of Krapina in Croatia.
In studying the milk tooth, the researchers were able to plot out how quickly the tooth had grown in the child and the time in its life when it emerged from the gum—sometime between four and seven months of age. This finding suggests teeth began emerging from gums in Neanderthal children several months earlier than they do in modern humans. Thus, Neanderthal children likely began eating solid food sooner than is the case with modern human children. The researchers confirmed their results by comparing what they had found with another Neanderthal preserved jawbone that had three intact teeth. The researchers suggest that Neanderthals may have needed to begin eating a more diverse array of foods earlier in life than modern humans, because they would have needed more energy to nourish their large brains. Prior research has suggested they were larger than the brains of modern humans.Closer look shows Neanderthals on La Cotte de St Brelade interbred with modern humans
More information:Patrick Mahoney et al, Growth of Neanderthal infants from Krapina (120–130 ka), Croatia,Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences(2021).DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2079
Albatross divorce rates found to climb during times of warm sea surface temperature
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
A team of researchers from Universidade de Lisboa, the University of Montana, the South Atlantic Environmental Research Institute and Instituto Universitário, Rua Jardim do Tabaco, has found that black-browed albatrosses living on the Falkland Islands see rising divorce rates during times when the sea surface temperatures rise. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group outlines their analysis of data collected by wildlife researchers on the islands over a 15-year period.
The albatross, known as a long-distance flyer, is also well known for monogamous relationships. Pairs of the birds "date" for several years in their younger years before eventually finding a lifelong mates. Once pairs are formed, the relationship can last for several decades. Prior research has shown that divorce rates for the birds are quite low, typically ranging from 1 to 8 percent. Prior research has also found that the main reason for divorce is problems raising young—eggs fail to hatch; hatchlings die or are eaten by predators. In this new effort, the researchers found evidence that suggests harsh conditions can also lead to divorce, particularly if they impact reproductive efforts.
The researchers looked at data collected over the years 2004 and 2019 describing aspects of the birds living on the Falkland Islands, focusing most specifically on paired relationships. They then compared data from weather observation and environmental condition monitoring. In so doing, they found a relationship between higher divorce rates in the birds and periods when sea surface temperatures rose. Prior research has shown that during such times, upper warm water does not mix as well with lower cooler water. This leads to fewer nutrients making their way to the surface, where the birds can reach them. The result is increased hunger, which, the researchers note, can impact egg production. They also point out that hunger could lead to one or the other partner abandoning an egg or hatchling—events that could lead to one of the birds ditching the other. And once that happens, the split tends to be permanent. Divorced birds generally search for a new partner.
More information:Francesco Ventura et al, Environmental variability directly affects the prevalence of divorce in monogamous albatrosses,Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences(2021).DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2112
Pesticide found to reduce fertility in blue orchard bee
A blue orchard bee in 2019. Credit: Jim Rivers, OSU College of Forestry, Oregon State University/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 2.0
A pair of researchers at the University of California, Davis has found that the neonicotinoid pesticide imidacloprid can reduce fertility rates in the blue orchard bee. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes testing the response of the valuable pollinator to the presence of imidacloprid.
Prior research has shown that imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid pesticide, is harmful to bees of all types. But as the researchers with this new effort note, little work has been done to determine if the chemical has a generational impact on bees. In this new effort, the team sought to discover if the pesticide harms not just the bees that are impacted by its application, but also theiroffspring.
To that end, they captured a large number of blue orchard bees, a type that is similar to the honeybee but has different coloring and collects pollen on its belly instead of its legs. It is important to farmers who grow tree-bearing crops, such as almonds, peaches apples and cherries. The captured bees were separated into small groups, each of which were exposed to imidacloprid in different ways. The researchers applied the pesticide to the plants inside the enclosure per the instructions. Some of the plants received multiple doses and some just one. Also, some of the bees were exposed to the chemical while still larvae, others while they were young and others while they were mature. And others yet were exposed more than once during different stages of their life cycle.
The researchers found that bee larvae exposed to the chemical produced 20% fewer offspring after they became adults. They also found that multiple exposures led to even fewer offspring. Those that were exposed as larvae, for example, and were then exposed again as adults had 44% fewer offspring, which, the researchers note, represents approximately 10 fewer offspring out of a normal group of 24.
More information:Clara Stuligross et al, Past insecticide exposure reduces bee reproduction and population growth rate,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(2021).DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2109909118
Calgary's Inn from the Cold shelter supports families experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless. (Monty Kruger/CBC)
An outreach worker who supports Edmontonians experiencing homelessness says some of the provincial government's new funding for shelters this winter should go toward establishing one for homeless families.
Judith Gale, who founded the Edmonton/Beaver Hills House Bear Clan Patrol chapter, said family homelessness is a disheartening reality that has become more common.
"Landlords are not being very patient with our brothers and sisters, and we've seen whole families — three generations in one tent — in tents because they don't want to be separated," she said.
Gale said she raised the city's lack of family shelters with Premier Jason Kenney at the funding announcement outside the Hope Mission's Herb Jamieson Centre last week.
She said the premier thanked her for putting the issue on his radar.
Gale is calling for an apartment-style shelter where families could stay temporarily and access a range of services.
Edmonton families contact Calgary shelters
Calgary has two family shelters — and both field calls from Edmonton families seeking emergency housing.
Brenda's House, a family shelter in southwest Calgary run by the Children's Cottage Society, receives occasional calls from Edmonton, a communications coordinator confirmed.
Heather Morley, executive director of Inn from the Cold, says families travel from Edmonton — and even from neighbouring provinces — to visit its family shelter in downtown Calgary.
She said demand for shelter and services has spiked during the pandemic.
Hidden homelessness
Inn from the Cold tries to prevent families from becoming homeless and keep children out of shelters, but Morley said family shelters play an important role in helping some Albertans secure a stable environment for their children.
"About 15 per cent of the families we see are single dads," she said. "A women's shelter isn't going to be an appropriate place for a single dad to go with his children."
She said the lack of family shelters is a national problem.
Family homelessness can be difficult to understand and measure because it often involves "hidden homelessness," she said. People experiencing hidden homelessness are not reflected in municipal statistics because instead of showing up at a shelter, they find temporary places to stay, like a friend's house.
Gale said the families she meets choose to stay in tents or crash with friends because they do not want to split up and attend multiple gender-segregated shelters or put children in chaotic environments.
Gale, who is a Sixties Scoop survivor, pointed out that Canada splitting up Indigenous families by forcing children to attend residential schools is an underlying cause of homelessness.
"That's what got us here in the first place," she said.
Pilot failed to start
Twenty years ago, agencies and advocates tried to open a family shelter in the city.
The Kings Community Society set a goal of raising $3.5 million to turn a rundown downtown commercial building into a transitional family shelter pilot, but it never came to fruition.
Laurie LaFleur, an Edmonton pastor who was involved in the initiative, told CBC News the group applied for funding from several sources, but failed to raise enough money.
Getting families housed is priority: province
Justin Marshall, press secretary to Community and Social Services Minister Jason Luan, said there are no plans to fund a family shelter in Edmonton.
"That's because getting families directly into housing has always been the focus by our local providers," he said.
Marshall said the province helps families through the income support program. An emergency needs allowance covers the cost of temporary accommodation, food, child care, damage deposits and other costs.
He said Homeward Trust receives provincial funding to help Edmonton agencies find families housing and run eviction-prevention programs.
Marshall said families needing emergency accommodation should contact Alberta Supports at 1-877-644-9992.
U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin and Swedish firm Saab
still in contention for contract
The Canadian Press ·
The McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet has been the Royal Canadian Air Force's primary fighter jet since 1983. (NORAD/Twitter)
Boeing has been told that its bid to replace Canada's aging CF-18s with a new fleet of the American company's Super Hornet fighter jets did not meet the federal government's requirements.
Three sources from industry and government say the message was delivered Wednesday as the other two companies competing for the $19 billion contract — U.S. defence giant Lockheed Martin and Swedish firm Saab — were told they met the government's requirements.
The three sources were all granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss these matters publicly.
The Department of National Defence and Public Services and Procurement Canada, which is managing the competition on behalf of the federal government, did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
Companies had been ordered to show their fighter jet was able to meet the military's requirements for missions at home and abroad, but also that winning the contract would result in substantial economic benefits to Canada.
But while Boeing's failure to meet the requirements would appear to disqualify the Super Hornet from the competition — leaving only Lockheed Martin's F-35 and Saab's Gripen fighter jet in the running — none of the companies have been told whether they are still in or out.
A Boeing spokesperson said the company would reserve comment pending official notification from the government.
News that one of the two U.S. companies competing for the contract failed to meet one or more of the requirements is the latest twist in what has already been a long and often unpredictable road toward replacing Canada's CF-18s.
Many observers had seen the Super Hornet and F-35 as the only real competition because of Canada's close relationship with the United States, which includes using fighter jets together to defend North American aerospace on a daily basis.
Those perceptions were only amplified after two other European companies dropped out of the competition before it even started, complaining that the government's requirements had stacked the deck in favour of their U.S. rivals.
Sweden is not a member of NATO or the joint Canadian-American defence command known as NORAD, which is responsible for protecting the continent from foreign threats. That had prompted questions about the Gripen's compatibility with U.S. aircraft.
Defence analyst David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute said that while Boeing's failure to meet the government's requirements is surprising, it could also boost the government's assertion that it is running a fair and unbiased competition to replace the CF-18s.
"It indicates it was genuinely a competitive procurement, which Canada had put an awful lot of effort into ensuring was the case," he said.
"There was a lot of speculation about whether a non-American fighter could actually be a real contender, given Canada's requirements for interoperability with the United States. If they're still in the mix, Saab has obviously met that mark."
But Jeff Collins, an expert on military procurement at the University of Prince Edward Island, said there remain longstanding concerns in some corners that the entire competition has been set up from the beginning to select the F-35.
Choosing a different fighter, he added, would represent a major break from Canada's closest allies, the majority of which are buying the F-35.
Lockheed Martin F-35 seen as leading contender
Canada first joined the U.S. and other allies as a partner in developing the F-35 in 1997 and has since paid US$613 million to stay at the table. Partners get a discount when purchasing the jets and compete for billions of dollars in contracts associated with building and maintaining them.
Stephen Harper's Conservative government committed to buying 65 F-35s without a competition in 2010, before concerns about the stealth fighter's cost and capabilities forced it back to the drawing board.
The Liberals promised in 2015 not to buy the F-35, but to instead launch an open competition to replace the CF-18s. They later planned to buy 18 Super Hornets without a competition as an "interim" measure to ensure Canada had enough aircraft until permanent replacements could be purchased.
Some at the time questioned that plan, suggesting the Liberals were trying to find a way to lock Canada into the Super Hornet without opening itself up to a legal challenge from Lockheed Martin or any other jet makers.
U.S. Navy crewmembers launch a Super Hornet from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. (U.S. Navy/Associated Press)
But the government cancelled the plan after Boeing launched a trade dispute with Montreal aerospace firm Bombardier over the latter's C-Series planes. It later introduced a penalty on firms seeking a federal contract which have launched trade disputes with Canada.
Collins questioned whether the so-called "Boeing clause" played any part in the fighter jet competition — though officials have said it was not a factor as the dispute was resolved in Bombardier's favour in 2018.
Meanwhile, the government has been forced to invest hundreds of millions of additional dollars into the CF-18 fleet to keep it flying until a replacement can be delivered. The government has said it plans to name a winner in the coming months, with the first plane set to be delivered in 2025.
The last plane isn't scheduled to arrive until 2032 — at which point the CF-18s will have been around for 50 years.
COP26 and other efforts to fight climate change have put nuclear power back in the spotlight for many governments and institutions
Nuclear energy failed to gain a significant portion of the energy mix when it first broke onto the scene due to a failure in the industry to take a holistic approach
This time around, it seems the industry is eager to deal with not only cost but also economic, social, and environmental issues
Now that the Glasgow conference and some mighty public relations work have put nuclear energy back in the spotlight, maybe it is worth examining why nuclear dismally failed to meet expectations, which might tell us why the nuclear advocates (some of them, anyway) are moving in new directions at long last, after clinging for decades to a model that did not work.First, let’s understand that most nuclear power plants work in the sense that they produce electricity, and they have been working far better than in the past. The problems, largely, lie in how nuclear fits into the picture economically and societally. The historian Thomas Hughes chose to define a technology not just as the machinery and software (technical) but as an entire system composed of technical, economic, safety, and other components all working toward a common goal. In this case, the engineers who decided to enlarge a nuclear submarine engine into something bigger, and those who jumped on the opportunity, missed a lot of the picture.
First, there was construction cost. The builders figured that putting up a nuke was like putting up a coal-fired plant, only bigger. They were wrong. A nuclear station was a giant project and, like other giant projects that had too many teams and bosses, was too big to finance easily, was oversized for the market, and had to be planned and started far before the time when the market for the output would be evident. Cost overruns were almost inevitable. To make matters worse, most builders decided to put up custom projects (the French did not) so they never gained the advantage of experience or savings from replication. What’s more, with a nuclear plant, you could not stop halfway along when you discovered you only needed half the output. It was all or nothing. This is why there is so much interest in smaller, factory-made, modular units, that repeat the design from place to place and that might go up relatively fast. That process reduces the risk and makes it easier to stop when necessary.
Second, there is the issue of safety. One might make comparisons of all deaths and injuries attributable to nuclear operations and deaths and injuries in coal mines or oil rigs, and conclude that nuclear is safer. But nuclear accidents, while rare, can be spectacularly devastating, forcing evacuations of thousands of people and endangering the viability of the plant owner as well. The usual risk analysis concentrates on the likelihood of the event, not how bad an extremely unlikely event could be. The public looks at the worst case. As a result, a significant portion of the public is wary of nuclear. The government has to insure against disaster.
And, third, there is the problem of nuclear waste. Whether the waste is sitting above ground in “temporary” storage, or below in rock vaults, the public worries about terror attacks above ground or leaks into underground water supplies. Again, likelihood matters little. The people of Las Vegas did not want a nuclear waste storage facility nearby. The facility is still there, but not operating. Some of the newer nuclear plant designs either do not solve the storage issue or substitute another problem, a byproduct that could be diverted to weapons. We expect the new nuke builders to ignore or fudge the waste issue because they have no control over it. But they will deal with local opposition to nuclear by putting facilities on existing sites. The locals know the issues, have accepted the risks in return for good jobs and high tax payments. Existing nuclear plant sites are extraordinarily valuable, then.
Finally, the builders did not realize that nuclear power, with all the risks attached and the vast scale of the projects, was not appropriate for commercial entities. It was a government project from beginning to end. Commercial entities might run the plants, build them under contract, sell the output, but they could not afford to undertake nuclear risk. We expect that governments will take a more active role, this time around, rather than wait to bail out the builders afterward. We would be surprised if these confident purveyors of the new nuclear act without some sort of government aid. That is another lesson.
In short, boosters for a new nuclear age plan substantial improvements over the old nuclear age but still have not shown how to make society more welcoming of nuclear or how to make nuclear self-sufficient. Then again, in light of the climate emergency, maybe we should just welcome any improvement in nuclear and go for it.
By Leonard Hyman and William Tilles for Oilprice.com
Hydrogen as a future energy source in Western Canada
The level of industrial interest in hydrogen as a future energy source has grown dramatically. Pathways for generating, and utilizing hydrogen are being investigated by many operating companies as solutions toward satisfying decarbonization ambitions, and longer-term net-zero goals.
During the past year, Fluor Canada and GoobieTulk Inc. (GTI) have performed an in-depth review of hydrogen as a future energy source in Western Canada. The business case success criteria for using hydrogen as a future energy source was centered around five key attributes. These were 1) a meaningful reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, 2) the potential for immediate technology implementation, 3) the use of proven world-scale hydrogen production plants, 4) an acceptable cash-cost of hydrogen production and 5) standalone competitiveness as a source of alternative energy.
The review involved comparing different hydrogen manufacturing technologies – steam-methane reforming, autothermal reforming and electrolyzer-produced hydrogen as alternative pathways to hydrogen production. Autothermal reforming presented the most compelling arguments; economy-of-scale production rate, de-risked technology, lowest cash-cost of operation and highest carbon capture rate, to name a few.
Additionally, the review encompassed potential Alberta hydrogen markets, such as using hydrogen as a transportation fuel, as an alternative to natural gas, replacing current “grey” hydrogen with “blue” hydrogen, the blending of hydrogen into West-coast LNG supply (i.e., natural gas) pipelines and considerations around using hydrogen for West-coast ammonia and methanol production.29dk2902l
Several conclusions are outlined in the report, however, one compelling conclusion stood out. A business case exists to continue with the development of an Alberta-based project – to use hydrogen as a future energy source in Alberta, having potential to replace traditional transportation fuels. The compelling storyline satisfies the business case success criteria on several fronts, these being, 1) the ability to capture 96% of the CO2, 2) the potential for immediate technology implementation, 3) proven, de-risked world-scale hydrogen production, 4) the lowest quantity of natural gas required per gigajoule (GJ) of hydrogen produced, and 5) practically the lowest-cost hydrogen production location in the world.
The headwinds to this pathway relate to the nascent hydrogen transportation fuel market in Western Canada. Relative to the scale of demand for conventional transportation fuels, demand for hydrogen as a transportation fuel does not currently exist. A catalyst is required to enable this market to evolve in Western Canada.
As noted in the recently released Alberta Hydrogen Roadmap, Alberta has the potential to be a supplier-of-choice for clean hydrogen as a transportation fuel once zero-emission vehicles are more widely adopted.
David Mercer Director, Head of Technology – Energy Solutions, Fluor Canada
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COP26: Architectural firm envisions skyscrapers that capture CO2
Architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill gave a presentation last week at COP26 suggesting that skyscrapers of the future could remove more carbon dioxide out of the air than they emit. They have come up with a design for such a skyscraper called the Urban Sequoia in homage to the famous redwood trees.
In theirpresentation, representatives for SOM noted thaturban areasare the primary emitters ofcarbon dioxide, accounting for approximately a third of all greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. And the problem is only going to grow worse as the population of the world grows. They suggest that one way to reduce emissions is to change the way large buildings are designed—instead of being huge emitters, they claim, the buildings could actually be huge collectors.
The team at SOM envisions skyscrapers incorporating technology that either sequesters carbon pulled from the air or stores it for sale to manufacturers. They see buildings made of materials that absorb carbon, serving as a carbon sink over the course of their lifetimes. They also see buildings with areas dedicated to growing plants and algae—both of which could be used to capture carbon and to provide fuel for the building. And they also suggest that the building itself could be designed in a way that captures carbon from the air using what they describe as a "stack effect." In such a design, air would be drawn into a central part of the building, where carbon-extraction devices could be put to work 24 hours a day. They suggest such a building would have a lifetime of approximately 60 years during which it would absorb up to four times as much carbon as was released.
The team at SOM point out that carbon extracted from a building could be used to create road paving materials, pipes or other parts of urban structures. And they suggest that if all new buildings were made to collect more carbon than they emit, urban greenhouse gas emissions could be greatly reduced—perhaps by as much as 1.6 billion tons a year.Cities and climate change: Why low-rise buildings are the future, not skyscrapers
Space launch costs are dropping rapidly. Solar panels are cheaper than ever. Could space-based solar power soon be price-competitive with nuclear? Promoted as a zero-carbon solution, classified military space planes have also been conducting experiments into wireless power transmission. The FT's Peggy Hollinger looks at whether space-based solar power can move beyond science fiction.
