Paulinho Paiakan is remembered as a hero to Indigenous Brazilians

As Brazil tops 1 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the country’s Indigenous peoples mourn the death of a historic leader.


June 22, 2020 · By Michael Fox

Indigenous leader Paulinho Paiakan takes part in an Occupy Funai protest that will shut down Funai offices throughout Brazil in Brasilia, July 13, 2016.Credit:Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters


Kayapó Bepkororoti, better known as Paulinho Paiakan, was a hero to Indigenous Brazilians across the country, not just those of his own Kayapó people.

Paiakan was seen as one of the first Kayapó to recognize the power of the media and of learning Portuguese, the language of Brazil’s majority. He also understood the importance of unifying Brazil’s Indigenous people.

Related: Police beating of Indigenous chief fuels Canadian anti-racism protests

“The only thing, brothers and sisters, is unity,” he said in a recent interview from an Indigenous gathering, which was posted after his death. “We all must unite in order to fight. That is the only way we will overcome any government.”


Last week, he died from the coronavirus, and while his legacy lives on, some say his death is a sign of the times for Indigenous peoples across Brazil, as COVID-19 increasingly spreads into their territories.

“Paiakan will be missed,” said Adriano Jerozolimski from the Protected Forest Association, which represents roughly 30 Kayapó communities in southern Pará state.

“It’s difficult to predict the real impact that this new illness is going to have on the Kayapó and Indigenous peoples, in general. But it will be enormous. It’s already a catastrophe.”Adriano Jerozolimski, Protected Forest Association

“It’s difficult to predict the real impact that this new illness is going to have on the Kayapó and Indigenous peoples, in general. But it will be enormous. It’s already a catastrophe.”

So far, 332 Indigenous people have died from the coronavirus, and 7,208 people are infected across 110 tribes, according to the Association of Indigenous Peoples in Brazil (APIB), a leading Indigenous organization.

Amid the pandemic, Indigenous peoples across Brazil are also facing increasingly racist and hostile attitudes from local officials and businesses. The mayor of Pau D’Arco, in the Amazonian state of Pará, banned Kayapó tribal members from the city, saying they are high-risk for infection.

“This is prejudice, discrimination — or racism,” said local Indigenous leader Takwyry Kayapó.

Related: Black Lives Matter protests renew parallel debates in Brazil, Colombia

Far to the south, 40 Kaingang tribal members living on the Serrinha Indigenous Territory were fired from their jobs at a local meatpacking plant run by JBS, the world’s largest meat-processing company, on the grounds that they, too, were high-risk for infection. A local Kaingang lawyer is fighting the mass firing.

Meanwhile, deaths continue to climb, and the number of Indigenous people infected with COVID-19 has doubled in just a week.


“We are losing our leaders. We are losing our libraries. That’s the feeling that we have about losing many of these community elders. That the communities are losing their knowledge and history.”Sandro Luckmann, Missionary Council for Indigenous People, COMIN

“We are losing our leaders,” said Sandro Luckmann, the director of the Missionary Council for Indigenous People, COMIN.

“We are losing our libraries. That’s the feeling that we have about losing many of these community elders. That the communities are losing their knowledge and history.”

Paiakan, who was about 65 years old, is survived by his wife and their three girls. There’s been an outpouring all over social media in Brazil honoring the late Indigenous leader.

Related: Brazil's government hid coronavirus stats. That's a problem.

In one 36-second video, roughly a dozen members of the Kaingang tribe, in southern Brazil, dance in face masks and feathered headdresses.

pic.twitter.com/oeyLhQztS2— APIB oficial (@ApibOficial) June 18, 2020
“Today is a very sad day. A day of mourning for the Indigenous peoples of Brazil,” says a man in an accompanying video clip. “We are here to say that we will survive the pandemic and try to live life as Paiakan did, in defense of the environment and fighting for the Indigenous cause.”



O legado da luta de Bepkororoti, Paulinho Paiakan, está enraizado na vida dos povos indígenas de todas as regiões do Brasil. O povo Kaingang do Sul do país fez uma linda homenagem pela passagem de Paulinho. #luto pic.twitter.com/aV9Sj0YaZR— APIB oficial (@ApibOficial) June 18, 2020

Another, produced by the Indigenous filmmaker Kamikia Kisedje, features grainy news footage from 1989. Representatives of 24 different Brazilian Indigenous tribes and environmentalists march chanting into a stadium in the Amazon city of Altamira to fight government plans to build hydroelectric dams on their land.


Homenagem do fotógrafo e cineasta ambiental indígena @kamikiakisedje para Paulinho Paiakan, que junto com seu tio, Cacique Raoni, liderou a mobilização de enfrentamento da hidrelétrica de Kararaô (primeiro nome dado para o projeto da usina que hoje é Belo Monte), em 1989. #luto pic.twitter.com/Ira7s369ZW— APIB oficial (@ApibOficial) June 18, 2020

Paiakan, the organizer, tells a government representative that dams would destroy their people. The crowd cheers.

Paiakan, who began to defend Indigenous land under Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s, was instrumental in the demarcation of tribal territory and ensuring that Indigenous rights were enshrined in Brazil’s 1988 Constitution.


“Paiaka was one of the activists who was on the frontlines of making sure that clauses that guarantee Indigenous rights today are in the constitution.”Glenn Shepard, an anthropologist and filmmaker who has lived and worked in the Amazon for decades

“Paiaka was one of the activists who was on the frontlines of making sure that clauses that guarantee Indigenous rights today are in the constitution,” said Glenn Shepard, an anthropologist and filmmaker who has lived and worked in the Amazon for decades.

Related: Women leaders eschew 'macho-man' politics in COVID-19 response

“He was in the room during the creation and signing of the constitution and he was translating. There was this huge Kayapó commission.”

Historic alliance of forest peoples at Altamira in 1989 in opposition to the Belo Monte dam, with Paulino Payakan in a leading role via @felipedjeguaka @socioambiental https://t.co/G4dtftNDYU— Glenn H. Shepard (@TweetTropiques) June 19, 2020

Paiakan and his uncle, Chief Raoni Metuktire became the faces of the international movement to defend the Amazon against deforestation, mining and development. With the help of rock star Sting and an international campaign, they successfully blocked the development of the Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River for years before a modified project was eventually built over the last decade.

But his international image was tarnished in 1992 when a student accused him of rape. The news broke on the cover of the conservative magazine Veja the very week that the world’s environmental leaders were amassed in Rio de Janeiro for the historic Earth Summit.

The allegations were thrown out of court two years later. But a retrial in 1998 led to the conviction of both Paiakan and his wife. They were sentenced to six, and four years in jail, respectively, which they partially served under house arrest on their Indigenous territory.

Paiakan never regained his previous international rock star status. For his allies, the case was a tool to silence Paiakan and his prominent environmental activism.

“In order to push back against the demarcation of Indigenous lands and in order to be able to deforest and extract the resources from the land, and everything that Paulinho was against, they politically shot him — the greatest environmental icon on the planet at that time,” said Felipe Milanez, a humanities professor at the Federal University of Bahia, who knew Paiakan and his family well, having worked at Brazil’s National Indian Foundation.

De toda a imprensa que massacrou Paiakan e os Kayapo, sempre ao lado dos fazendeiros e mineradoras, que inclui OGlobo, Estadão, JB, QuantoÉ, Veja, etc, a @folha foi a única que trouxe dois obituários RACISTAS por Fabiano Maisonnave e Sérgio Dávila requentando mentiras antigas.— Felipe Milanez (@felipedjeguaka) June 21, 2020

Duterte’s ‘weaponization of the law’ is a threat to democracy, says journalist Maria Ressa


June 18, 2020
By The World staff

Maria Ressa, executive editor of Philippine news website Rappler, walks out of Manila City Hall after being found guilty of cyber libel, in Manila, Philippines, June 15, 2020.
Credit: Eloisa Lopez/Reuters

Filipina journalist Maria Ressa, the founder of the online news outlet Rappler Media, has spent years staring down President Rodrigo Duterte, one of the world’s most ruthless dictators.

She hasn’t blinked yet.

But this week, a Manila court convicted Ressa and a former colleague at the news site she founded of the crime of cyber libel.

Related: Journalist Maria Ressa says democracies are fragile

Her alleged crime involved a 2012 article published on Rappler that linked a Filipino businessman to human trafficking and drug smuggling. She could face up to six years in prison.

"In 2014, someone in Rappler noticed a typographical error in this 2012 article, and they changed one letter of one word. Based on that, I could go to jail for six years because the judge then ruled that this is re-publication. Of course, we're going to challenge this. And I hope I do get justice at some point," Ressa told The World while out on bail waiting to appeal the verdict.

Related: Violence toward journalists is rising around the world

Ressa spoke with Marco Werman about her legal challenges and what it means to be a journalist in the Philippines under the Duterte administration. She says the legal acrobatics the Filipino government performed to get to a guilty verdict are a saga of their own.

Marco Werman: It sounds like a really Kafkaesque situation you find yourself in. Are you preparing yourself mentally for the possibility of going to jail?


Maria Ressa: It took me a month of really thinking about it. I talked to other journalist friends who had been imprisoned, and I realized that the path I was on that I would need to start thinking about this. I had to confront that.

President Duterte has called journalists "sons of bitches." He says journalists are not exempt from assassination. Do you think on some level you intimidate Duterte? Or are the attacks against you personal on some level for him?


I'm not sure. I know the last time I spoke with him directly was in December 2016. That was his first year in office. I was one of four journalists that he gave interviews to. I think that the Duterte administration makes examples of people. Among businessmen, he focused early on after he took office on a businessman whose ...company's stocks dropped, and they were forced to sell. And politicians — Senator Leila de Lima was head of the Commission on Human Rights and was running after [Duterte] for human rights violations when he was still mayor. She [was] imprisoned in February 2017, and she is still in prison until today. And then, for journalists, I'm a cautionary tale. And I think that there's some level of threat that if we can do this to her, imagine what we can do to you.

Related: Will Voice of America's new Trump pick protect agency independence?

Does his language frighten you?


It's something that we gradually accepted in Rappler. And then, when we were confronted bit by bit with decisions that we had to make, the choice was always very clear. And part of that probably was because the women who founded Rappler were older. I was in my 50s already at that point. I felt like I'd spent my entire career going to the gym to get ready for this moment. So — frightened? By the time I realized the path I was on, I just spent some time to wrap my head around it in the same way for the Monday verdict, I sat and accepted the worst-case scenario. And if I was okay with the worst-case scenario, then everything else will be all right.

I know a lot of Filipinos support President Duterte. What is it like for you, battling such a popular dictator, when he's got that support behind him?


He was one of five presidential candidates, and he didn't win substantially. In fact, he won only a small majority over the five. I think he's definitely a popular president. His authoritarian style of leadership was what Filipinos wanted during great times of uncertainty. The fact that he says what he thinks — he seems like "every man." But he's also aided by a propaganda machine on social media. And these disinformation networks seed these narratives that really take on a life of their own and float his reputation. One of the most familiar narratives is that "He's just like me. He is the best president this country will ever have." I have never — and I've gone around a lot in the Philippines — no one has ever come to my face to say or do the things that they do on social media. I've been a journalist for a long time. This next year will be my 35th year. And this is part of the reason I worry about the manipulation of the public sphere through social media.

You've been working as a journalist since 1986. What will stop you from reporting?


I hope nothing. I mean, I did conflict reporting in Southeast Asia for CNN. I've worked in war zones. And this time period, with the kind of hate and exponential attacks you get on social media — the weaponization of the law — this is tougher. This is a tougher environment to work in than a war zone because you don't know where the attacks are going to come from, right? There's a Damocles sword hanging over your head all the time. When I look at my colleagues in the Philippines, look, the largest newspaper was attacked first by the president. The largest television station was just shut down about a month ago. We were the third attack. And what I've learned is that we need to swat away the Damocles sword, because if you allow it to change the way you do your journalism, then they win.

I always wonder, why is our government attacking us so much? Why do they not want the questions in a time of COVID? It almost seems like right now they're codifying into law the abuses of our rights that have happened on an ad hoc basis. So, this is a precipice that we need to make sure we don't fall off the edge and lose our democracy.

Do you have an answer to why? Why is the government going after journalists?


It's the consolidation of power — the perfect storm of social media [and] President Duterte-style of leadership. In my last interview with him, I asked him, do you need to use violence? And he just categorically said yes. He feels that violence and fear are important aspects of leadership. I don't know where this will lead, but we certainly, because of technology, because of the weaponization of the law, we're in a new area. Look, the eight criminal charges I have, cumulatively, I could face almost 100 hundred years in jail. But I look away from that and look at where we are today and see that we have to actively push. It is a battle for truth, right? And in a battle for truth, journalists are advocates.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The Big Fix
Anti-poverty program in Indonesia also helps save forests, study shows

Where people received cash payments from the government, there was 30% less deforestation.

The World
June 18, 2020 · By Anna Kusmer
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Sumbanese villagers work on a field seeding peanuts in Hamba Praing village, Kanatang district, East Sumba Regency, East Nusa Tenggara province, Indonesia, Feb. 23, 2020.
Credit: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters

Helping Indonesia’s poorest people could save the nation’s forests, too, a new study shows.

Indonesia is one of the most rapidly deforested places on Earth, and nearly 10% of the population lives below the poverty line.

These struggles are not separate, conflicting issues — but deeply intertwined — the study from Science Advances says.

The study shows that where people received services from a national anti-poverty program, 30% fewer trees were cleared — and about half of the saved forests were old-growth.


“These are the beautiful rainforests everybody thinks of when they think of rainforests that are ecologically and economically the most valuable.”Paul Ferraro, Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School

“These are the beautiful rainforests everybody thinks of when they think of rainforests that are ecologically and economically the most valuable,” said Paul Ferraro, a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School and the study’s co-author.

“What's most surprising is the effect is roughly similar to the size of the effects that people have estimated for explicit conservation projects,” Ferraro said. “Like national parks or payments conditional on protecting the environment.”

The payments came from one of the biggest poverty alleviation programs in the world, called Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH) — which means the Family Hopes Program. The program, which started in 2007, provides six years of quarterly payments to households on the condition that families will register with health clinics and send their kids to school.

Related: Can the pandemic encourage airlines to be greener?

“In the long term, the program wants to break the vicious cycle [of poverty], particularly for the next generation,” said Vivi Yulaswati, a senior adviser to the Ministry of Planning in Indonesia, specializing in poverty reduction. She helped roll out the program in Indonesia.

The cash payments came with no environmental conditions, but “exploring how this program works for deforestation would be very useful because deforestation is a big problem,” said Yulaswati.

Indonesia is the third-most forested country in the world, and it’s losing its valuable rainforests at an alarming rate, said Rhita Simorangkir at the National University of Singapore, who is a co-author of the recent study.


“Indonesia [has] the highest forest loss in terms of primary forests in the world, and, of course, that is devastating. The consequences of forest loss are carbon emissions and loss of biodiversity.”Rhita Simorangkir, National University of Singapore

“Indonesia [has] the highest forest loss in terms of primary forests in the world, and, of course, that is devastating,” she said. “The consequences of forest loss are carbon emissions and loss of biodiversity.”

Forests are often cleared using fire, which can also be harmful to human health.

In another study, scientists estimated that in 2015, the smoke from forest fires in Indonesia (both intentionally set and resulting from weather conditions) may have contributed to more than 100,000 deaths in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

The largest drivers of deforestation in Indonesia are forest fires and clearing for large-scale farming (such as oil palms) and mining. However, small-scale farming and clearing are a significant driver of deforestation as well, potentially contributing to around 25% of deforestation in Indonesia.

Related: What history tells us about building climate coalitions

For many Indonesians facing poverty, cutting down trees is a form of insurance. They clear land to expand their farms when they fear the harvest won’t be enough. They also sell timber for extra income. With the federal cash payments, people are more secure and don’t need to cut the trees, Simorangkir said.


“When the government transfers cash to them, they make their budget more flexible. I think, this is like giving them options.”Rhita Simorangkir, National University of Singapore

“When the government transfers cash to them, they make their budget more flexible,” she said. “I think, this is like giving them options.”

Fighting poverty and protecting the environment are often seen as conflicting priorities, though. And there’s some evidence to support that. A 2013 study in Mexico found that cash transfers to alleviate poverty resulted in increased deforestation. The study’s authors believe it was likely because when given more cash, people could afford more beef, and they cleared more land for cattle.

Ferraro says many nongovernmental organizations and researchers are focused on one or the other and often debate their relative importance.

Related: Amsterdam’s coronavirus recovery plan embraces ‘doughnut economics’ for people and the planet

“These debates come from those different groups who believe that it's a zero-sum game, that if money goes to anti-poverty, that's at the expense of the environment or if money goes to the environment, that's at the expense of reducing poverty,” Ferraro said. “We hope that our study gives people some hope that these twin goals that we have globally don't necessarily need to be at odds.”

The idea that addressing poverty helps the environment is not surprising to Monica Nirmala, senior health adviser at Alam Sehat Lestari, which is partnered with Health In Harmony and trades health care for forest protection in communities near two national parks on the island of Borneo.

Nirmala said the study’s findings confirm her team’s experience over the span of 14 years there.

“What we have found, clearly over and over again, is that these people really want the forest for the future, she said. “They do not want to cut down these forests. They know it’s important for their children and future generations. And they want to protect them, but often they don’t have the choice to do so.”

Red Sea's coral reefs help protect the KSA coast

KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (KAUST)

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VIDEO: KAUST RESEARCHERS INVESTIGATE THE ROLE OF CORAL REEFS IN MODULATING THE WAVE CLIMATE OF THE REEF-SHELTERED SHORES OF THE RED SEA. view more 

CREDIT: © 2020 KAUST

Prediction of storm surges and peak wave heights using advanced high-resolution modeling reveals the important role of offshore reefs in protecting coastal zones. The findings by KAUST researchers provide valuable design criteria for city planning in the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) coastal zone and highlight the economic and disaster-mitigating imperative to conserve the Red Sea's coral reefs.

"The original task was to model the maximum wave heights to set the minimum safe floor elevation for structures and roadway design in the city," says Sabique Langodan from KAUST's Red Sea Modeling and Prediction Group. "Yet with the wealth of wave and water-level observations and accurate bathymetry (water depth) near the coastline, combined with the advanced modeling and supercomputing capabilities available to us at KAUST, we extended the study to investigate the role of coral reefs in modulating the wave climate of this reef-sheltered region."

To accurately predict extreme wave heights it is necessary to model how waves transform as they pass across reefs and the shallow sea floor using long-term wave data. Many inputs go into the simulation, including a model of the physical wave transformation process, bathymetry, atmospheric forcing and sea circulation. Just as important, however, is the simulation architecture and the computational platform because they determine the resolution and accuracy of the results.

"We configured a high-resolution model using an unstructured grid, which allows us to vary the resolution of the model over the domain, from 60 kilometer cells out to sea, to cells as small as 60 meters near the coastline," says Langodan.

The researchers used a coupled wave and circulation model to account for changes in wave heights resulting from variations in water levels and currents. They combined this with meteorological fields derived from a high-resolution regional atmospheric model.

"Our high-resolution study allowed the minimum safe elevation in KAEC to be revised lower, from 4.0 meters to 2.3 meters," says group leader Ibrahim Hoteit. "Although a relatively small drop, this leads to a saving of about 90 million cubic meters of fill material equating to about 500 million USD."

However, the study also showed that the lowered safe elevation depends on the presence of the coral reefs located off the Red Sea coast, which act as a natural breakwater to provide protection to coastal areas against hazards, such as wave runup, overtopping, flooding and erosion.

"The reefs reduce wave heights by half at the coastline," says co-author Omar Knio. "Reef?protected coastlines could still be at risk of larger waves if the coastal protection offered by reefs is reduced by coral degradation or sea level rise."

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Why are plants green?

UC Riverside-led research team's model to explain photosynthesis lays out the next challenging phase of research on how green plants transform light energy into chemical energy

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - RIVERSIDE

 

IMAGE: UC RIVERSIDE-LED RESEARCH TEAM'S MODEL TO EXPLAIN PHOTOSYNTHESIS LAYS OUT THE NEXT CHALLENGING PHASE OF RESEARCH ON HOW GREEN PLANTS TRANSFORM LIGHT ENERGY INTO CHEMICAL ENERGY. view more 

CREDIT: GABOR LAB, UC RIVERSIDE.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- When sunlight shining on a leaf changes rapidly, plants must protect themselves from the ensuing sudden surges of solar energy. To cope with these changes, photosynthetic organisms -- from plants to bacteria -- have developed numerous tactics. Scientists have been unable, however, to identify the underlying design principle.

An international team of scientists, led by physicist Nathaniel M. Gabor at the University of California, Riverside, has now constructed a model that reproduces a general feature of photosynthetic light harvesting, observed across many photosynthetic organisms.

Video.

Light harvesting is the collection of solar energy by protein-bound chlorophyll molecules. In photosynthesis -- the process by which green plants and some other organisms use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water -- light energy harvesting begins with sunlight absorption.

The researchers' model borrows ideas from the science of complex networks, a field of study that explores efficient operation in cellphone networks, brains, and the power grid. The model describes a simple network that is able to input light of two different colors, yet output a steady rate of solar power. This unusual choice of only two inputs has remarkable consequences.

"Our model shows that by absorbing only very specific colors of light, photosynthetic organisms may automatically protect themselves against sudden changes -- or 'noise' -- in solar energy, resulting in remarkably efficient power conversion," said Gabor, an associate professor of physics and astronomy, who led the study appearing today in the journal Science. "Green plants appear green and purple bacteria appear purple because only specific regions of the spectrum from which they absorb are suited for protection against rapidly changing solar energy."

Gabor first began thinking about photosynthesis research more than a decade ago, when he was a doctoral student at Cornell University. He wondered why plants rejected green light, the most intense solar light. Over the years, he worked with physicists and biologists worldwide to learn more about statistical methods and the quantum biology of photosynthesis.

Richard Cogdell, a renowned botanist at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom and a coauthor on the research paper, encouraged Gabor to extend the model to include a wider range of photosynthetic organisms that grow in environments where the incident solar spectrum is very different.

"Excitingly, we were then able to show that the model worked in other photosynthetic organisms besides green plants, and that the model identified a general and fundamental property of photosynthetic light harvesting," he said. "Our study shows how, by choosing where you absorb solar energy in relation to the incident solar spectrum, you can minimize the noise on the output -- information that can be used to enhance the performance of solar cells."

Coauthor Rienk van Grondelle, an influential experimental physicist at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands who works on the primary physical processes of photosynthesis, said the team found the absorption spectra of certain photosynthetic systems select certain spectral excitation regions that cancel the noise and maximize the energy stored.

"This very simple design principle could also be applied in the design of human-made solar cells," said van Grondelle, who has vast experience with photosynthetic light harvesting.

Gabor explained that plants and other photosynthetic organisms have a wide variety of tactics to prevent damage due to overexposure to the sun, ranging from molecular mechanisms of energy release to physical movement of the leaf to track the sun. Plants have even developed effective protection against UV light, just as in sunscreen.

"In the complex process of photosynthesis, it is clear that protecting the organism from overexposure is the driving factor in successful energy production, and this is the inspiration we used to develop our model," he said. "Our model incorporates relatively simple physics, yet it is consistent with a vast set of observations in biology. This is remarkably rare. If our model holds up to continued experiments, we may find even more agreement between theory and observations, giving rich insight into the inner workings of nature."

To construct the model, Gabor and his colleagues applied straightforward physics of networks to the complex details of biology, and were able to make clear, quantitative, and generic statements about highly diverse photosynthetic organisms.

"Our model is the first hypothesis-driven explanation for why plants are green, and we give a roadmap to test the model through more detailed experiments," Gabor said.

Photosynthesis may be thought of as a kitchen sink, Gabor added, where a faucet flows water in and a drain allows the water to flow out. If the flow into the sink is much bigger than the outward flow, the sink overflows and the water spills all over the floor.

"In photosynthesis, if the flow of solar power into the light harvesting network is significantly larger than the flow out, the photosynthetic network must adapt to reduce the sudden over-flow of energy," he said. "When the network fails to manage these fluctuations, the organism attempts to expel the extra energy. In doing so, the organism undergoes oxidative stress, which damages cells."

The researchers were surprised by how general and simple their model is.

"Nature will always surprise you," Gabor said. "Something that seems so complicated and complex might operate based on a few basic rules. We applied the model to organisms in different photosynthetic niches and continue to reproduce accurate absorption spectra. In biology, there are exceptions to every rule, so much so that finding a rule is usually very difficult. Surprisingly, we seem to have found one of the rules of photosynthetic life."

Gabor noted that over the last several decades, photosynthesis research has focused mainly on the structure and function of the microscopic components of the photosynthetic process.

"Biologists know well that biological systems are not generally finely tuned given the fact that organisms have little control over their external conditions," he said. "This contradiction has so far been unaddressed because no model exists that connects microscopic processes with macroscopic properties. Our work represents the first quantitative physical model that tackles this contradiction."

Next, supported by several recent grants, the researchers will design a novel microscopy technique to test their ideas and advance the technology of photo-biology experiments using quantum optics tools.

"There's a lot out there to understand about nature, and it only looks more beautiful as we unravel its mysteries," Gabor said.

###

Gabor, Cogdell, and van Grondelle were joined in the research by Trevor B. Arp, Jed Kistner-Morris, and Vivek Aji at UCR.

The research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Program, the National Science Foundation, and through a U.S. Department of the Navy's Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Minority Institutions award. Gabor was also supported through a Cottrell Scholar Award and a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Azrieli Global Scholar Award. Other sources of funding were the NASA MUREP Institutional Research Opportunity program, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Biotechnological and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

The research paper is titled, "Quieting a noisy antenna reproduces photosynthetic light harvesting spectra."

The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment is more than 24,000 students. The campus opened a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of almost $2 billion. To learn more, email news@ucr.edu.

An international team of scientists,

Four new species of giant single-celled organisms discovered on Pacific seafloor

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA

IMAGE: MOANAMMINA SEMICIRCULARIS ON THE SEAFLOOR PRIOR TO COLLECTION BY ROV. view more 

CREDIT: JENNIFER DURDEN AND CRAIG SMITH, DEEPCCZ PROJECT.

Two new genera and four new species of giant, single-celled xenophyophores (protozoans belonging to a group called the foraminifera) were discovered in the deep Pacific Ocean during a joint project between scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, UK (NOC), the University of Hawai'i, and the University of Geneva. 'Moana' has inspired the name Moanammina for one of the new genera, while the second has been named Abyssalia in recognition of its abyssal habitat.

The species were described, based on morphology and genetic data, from specimens collected with the University of Hawai'i's Remotely Operated Vehicle Lu'ukai on an expedition to the western Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) aboard the RV Kilo Moana in 2018. The seabed in this area is over three miles deep. The CCZ occupies a vast swathe of the Pacific Ocean with extensive seafloor polymetallic nodule deposits, and is targeted for deep-sea mining.

"We were excited to find these beautiful new xenophyophores," said Andrew Gooday, professor at NOC and lead author of the recently published findings. "It seemed appropriate to name one after 'Moana', a Hawaiian word meaning ocean. Xenophyophores are one of the most common types of large organism found on the CCZ abyssal plains, so the name of the second genus was chosen to reflect this."

Like some other types of foraminifera, xenophyophores construct shells, called tests, composed of particles that they obtain from the surrounding environment. These are often elaborate structures that can reach sizes of four inches or more.

Moanammina semicircularis sp. nov., the new species of the new genus, has a stalked, fan-shaped test, around three inches tall and three and one-half inches wide. Two other new species, Abyssalia foliformis sp. nov. and Abyssalia sphaerica sp. nov., have tests that resemble a flat leaf and an almost perfect sphere, respectively. They are remarkable for being constructed entirely of glass sponge spicules. The fourth new species is Psammina tenuis sp. nov., which has a delicate, thin, plate-like test.

"These four new species and two new genera have increased the number of described xenophyophores in the CCZ abyss to 17 (22% of the global total for this group), with many more known but still undescribed," said Gooday. "This part of the Pacific Ocean is clearly a hotspot of xenophyophore diversity."

"The abundance and diversity of these giant single-celled organisms is truly amazing!" said oceanographer Craig Smith from the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), co-author and Chief Scientist of the RV Kilo Moana cruise on which the xenophyophores were discovered.

"We see them everywhere on the seafloor in many different shapes and sizes. They clearly are very important members of the rich biological communities living in the CCZ. Among other things they provide microhabitats and potential food sources for other organisms. We need to learn much more about the ecology these weird protozoans if we wish to fully understand how seafloor mining might impact these seafloor communities."

Moanammina semicircularis is genetically identical to another specimen found in 2017 in the eastern CCZ. Thus, this study provided the first genetic confirmation of wide geographic ranges (at least ~2,300 miles) for an abyssal xenophyophore species.

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More evidence of causal link between air pollution and early death

Study of more than 68 million older Americans using state-of-the-art analyses suggests that US air pollution standards are not protective enough

HARVARD T.H. CHAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

 

Boston, MA - Strengthening U.S. air quality standards for fine particulate pollution to be in compliance with current World Health Association (WHO) guidelines could save more than 140,000 lives over the course of a decade, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study, published June 26, 2020 in Sciences Advances, provides the most comprehensive evidence to date of the causal link between long-term exposure to fine particulate (PM2.5) air pollution and premature death, according to the authors.

"Our new study included the largest-ever dataset of older Americans and used multiple analytical methods, including statistical methods for causal inference, to show that current U.S. standards for PM2.5 concentrations are not protective enough and should be lowered to ensure that vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, are safe," said doctoral student Xiao Wu, a co-author of the study.

The new research builds on a 2017 study that showed that long-term exposure to PM2.5 pollution and ozone, even at levels below current U.S. air quality standards, increases the risk of premature death among the elderly in the U.S.

For the new study, researchers looked at 16 years' worth of data from 68.5 million Medicare enrollees--97% of Americans over the age of 65--adjusting for factors such as body mass index, smoking, ethnicity, income, and education. They matched participants' zip codes with air pollution data gathered from locations across the U.S. In estimating daily levels of PM2.5 air pollution for each zip code, the researchers also took into account satellite data, land-use information, weather variables, and other factors. They used two traditional statistical approaches as well as three state-of-the-art approaches aimed at teasing out cause and effect.

Results were consistent across all five different types of analyses, offering what authors called "the most robust and reproducible evidence to date" on the causal link between exposure to PM2.5 and mortality among Medicare enrollees--even at levels below the current U.S. air quality standard of 12 μg/m3 (12 micrograms per cubic meter) per year.

The authors found that an annual decrease of 10 μg/m3 in PM2.5 pollution would lead to a 6%-7% decrease in mortality risk. Based on that finding, they estimated that if the U.S. lowered its annual PM2.5 standard to 10 μg/m3--the WHO annual guideline--143,257 lives would be saved in one decade.

The authors included additional analyses focused on causation, which address criticisms that traditional analytical methods are not sufficient to inform revisions of national air quality standards. The new analyses enabled the researchers, in effect, to mimic a randomized study--considered the gold standard in assessing causality--thereby strengthening the finding of a link between air pollution and early death.

"The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed retaining current national air quality standards. But, as our new analysis shows, the current standards aren't protective enough, and strengthening them could save thousands of lives. With the public comment period for the EPA proposal ending on June 29, we hope our results can inform policymakers' decisions about potentially updating the standards," said co-author Francesca Dominici, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population, and Data Science.

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Other Harvard Chan School co-authors of the study included research scientist Danielle Braun and Joel Schwartz, professor of environmental epidemiology.

Funding for the study came from NIH grants R01 ES024332-01A1, P50 MD010428, R21 ES024012, R01 ES026217, R01 ES028033, MD012769, R01 ES030616, and P30 ES09089; HEI grant 4953-RFA14-3/16-4; and USEPA grants 83587201-0 and RD-83479801.

"Evaluating the Impact of Long-term Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter on Mortality Among the Elderly," Xiao Wu, Danielle Braun, Marianthi-Anna Kioumourtzoglou, Francesca Dominici, Science Advances, June 26, 2020, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aba5692.

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Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health brings together dedicated experts from many disciplines to educate new generations of global health leaders and produce powerful ideas that improve the lives and health of people everywhere. As a community of leading scientists, educators, and students, we work together to take innovative ideas from the laboratory to people's lives--not only making scientific breakthroughs, but also working to change individual behaviors, public policies, and health care practices. Each year, more than 400 faculty members at Harvard Chan School teach 1,000-plus full-time students from around the world and train thousands more through online and executive education courses. Founded in 1913 as the Harvard-MIT School of Health Officers, the School is recognized as America's oldest professional training program in public health.

Report points to intergroup tensions from different interpretations of social distancing

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

 

Changes to lockdown measures in the UK and around the world in an effort to restart the economy could lead to wide disparity in how the public adheres to social distancing, according to a new report from psychologists at the University of Bath.

In a paper published in the British Journal of Social Psychology, the researchers warn of emerging tensions that will arise between groups who interpret messages about social distancing in different ways and the challenge this poses to policymakers.

They suggest that in March, strict lockdown guidelines supported by legal and policy changes, meant that most people adhered to the same mitigating practices including isolation and distancing.

Now that lockdown is easing in many parts of the world, with policies becoming more ambiguous, many practices now need to be negotiated on an interpersonal level, they argue. This means that ensuring compliance will increasingly rely on informal, social policing between individuals: both for those who do, versus those who do not uphold social distancing.

Over recent weeks in the UK, scenes of packed sunny beaches have filled newspapers, leading some to question the sense of others, labelled 'covidiots'. For the researchers this is a sign of mixed messaging surrounding the relaxation of lockdown with different interpretations by individuals.

They warn that morally blaming individuals for the impact of their behaviour on the pandemic - as evidenced in the recent threat to close beaches - may detract from a much-needed discussion over whether guidelines are fit for purpose and their effect on infection rates.

Equally, they draw attention to moral challenges faced by others who wish to maintain strict distancing or isolation and the challenges they now face under pressure to socialise without wanting to appear rude or overdramatic. The researchers suggest that how individuals continue to differently interpret public health messages about COVID-19 will lead to increased tensions between groups moving further into summer.

Lead researcher Annayah Prosser from the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath explains: "Strict lockdown guidelines meant that until recently everyone was adhering to the same mitigating practices such as isolation and distancing. However, now that lockdown is easing, and policy is becoming more ambiguous, many practices now need to be negotiated on an interpersonal level. For example, at the height of lockdown you didn't need to decline an invitation to a social gathering, because it was technically against the law. Now, if you decline an invitation, you could be perceived as rude, or as a 'do-gooder' who thinks they're better than everyone else."

In their report, the team outline how this person-to-person informal regulation poses difficulties for people who want to continue to maintain strict practices over time, who may increasingly face social derogation and ostracism from others who behave differently.

Annayah Prosser added: "Our main recommendation for individuals is to avoid portraying others as morally 'good' or 'bad' for their actions. People may have complex reasons for their behaviour, that may not be visible on sight or through a short social media post. These choices are tough and simplifying behaviour as 'good' or 'bad' without knowing the full story could lead to increased tensions and polarisation at a time when communities need to work together constructively to address the crisis."

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Spraying ethanol to nanofiber masks makes them reusable

POHANG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (POSTECH)

IMAGE: EVALUATION OF BREATHING COMFORT BY INFRARED THERMAL CAMERA: (A) AIR AND MOISTURE TRANSMISSION AND (B) CO2 TRANSMISSION view more 

CREDIT: HYUNG JOON CHA (POSTECH)

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, masks have become an essential personal hygiene product as the first line of defense to protect one's respiratory system against the viruses and germs that spread through droplets in the air. It's a waste to dispose the masks after single use but troubling to reuse them. In light of this, a Korea-Japan research team recently released findings that compare and analyze the performance and functional differences of the filters used in masks after they are cleaned with ethanol.

Professor Hyung Joon Cha and doctoral candidates Jaeyun Lee and Yeonsu Jeong of the Department of Chemical Engineering at POSTECH and Professor Ick-Soo Kim and doctoral candidates Sana Ullah and Azeem Ullah of Shinshu University in Japan have been jointly analyzing the filtration efficiency, airflow rate, surface and morphological properties of the mask filters after they undergo cleaning treatments.

The research team verified the results using two types of cleaning procedures: First one was spraying 75% ethanol on the mask filter then air drying it, second was to saturate the filter in a 75% ethanol solution then air drying it.

A study of the melt-blown filters commonly used in N95 masks and the nanofiber filters produced by electrospinning found that just by spraying ethanol three or more times on the two materials or dipping them in the ethanol solution for more than five minutes effectively inhibit pathogens that can remain inside the mask filter.

The filtration efficiency of both materials in its first usage was measured at 95% and above, indicating that the wearer's respiratory system is effectively protected. It was also confirmed that surface of both materials do not allow water to adhere well, sufficiently hindering wetting by moisture or saliva (droplets).

However, the filtration efficiency of the melt-blown filter decreased by up to 64% when cleaned with ethanol solution and reused. On the other hand, the filtration efficiency of nanofiber filters when reused 10 times through ethanol spray cleaning or immersion in ethanol solution for 24 hours maintained nearly consistent high filtration efficiency.

Schematic diagram on spraying and dipping treatments of face mask filters using 75% ethanol for evaluation of reusability

The joint research team attributed this difference to the decrease in static electricity in the filters after cleaning. Melt-blown filters rely in part on the electrostatic effect of the surface when filtering particles. However, nanofiber does not rely on static electricity but filters according to the morphological properties and pore size of the surface, and is not deformed by ethanol.

Moreover, nanofiber filters have better breathability because they have much higher heat and carbon dioxide emission capabilities compared to the melt-blown filters. Biosafety tests using human skin and vascular cells also confirmed no cytotoxicity.

In summary, both mask filters have similar filtration performance in its initial use, but only nanofiber filters can be reused multiple times through a simple ethanol cleaning process.

POSTECH Professor Hyung Joon Cha explained the significance of the research by commenting, "This research is an experiment that has verified the biosafety of nanofiber masks - which have recently become a hot issue - and their ability to maintain filtration efficiency after cleaning."

In addition, Professor Ick-Soo Kim of Shinshu University added, "I hope the nanofiber masks will help everyone as a means of preventing contagion in the possible second or third wave of COVID-19.

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These research findings were recently published online in the international journal ACS Applied Nano Materials published by the American Chemical Society.