'The global built environment sector must think in new, radical ways, and act quickly'

The construction sector, the real estate industry and city planners must give high priority to the same goal - to drastically reduce their climate impacts

CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Research News

  

The construction sector, the real estate industry and city planners must give high priority to the same goal - to drastically reduce their climate impacts. Powerful, combined efforts are absolutely crucial for the potential to achieve the UN's sustainability goals. And what's more - everything has to happen very quickly. These are the cornerstones to the roadmap presented at the Beyond 2020 World Conference.

Today, 55 percent of the world's population lives in cities. By 2050, that figure is estimated to have risen to 68 percent, according to the UN. Cities already produce 70 percent of the world's greenhouse gases. Buildings and construction account for 40 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Rapid urbanisation is bringing new demands that need to be met in ecologically, economically and socially sustainable ways.

"If we continue as before, we have no chance of even getting close to the climate goals. Now we need to act with new radical thinking and we need to do it fast, and increase the pace at which we work to reduce cities' climate impact. We must look for innovative ways to build our societies so that we move towards the sustainability goals, and not away from them", says Colin Fudge, Visiting Professor of urban futures and design at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.

As an outcome of the Beyond 2020 World Conference, Colin Fudge and his colleague Holger Wallbaum have established a "Framework for a Transformational Plan for the Built Environment". The framework aims to lay the foundation for regional strategies that can guide the entire sector in working towards sustainable cities and communities, and the goals of the UN Agenda 2030.

"The conference clearly demonstrated the growing awareness of sustainability issues among more and more actors in the sector. But it's not enough. Achieving the sustainability goals will require a common understanding among all actors of how they can be achieved - and, not least, real action. That is what we want to contribute to now", says Holger Wallbaum, Professor in Sustainable Building at Chalmers University of Technology, and host of Beyond 2020.

Chair of Sweden's Council for sustainable cities, Helena Bjarnegård, is welcoming their initiative.

"We are aware that we have to deliver change to address the climate, biodiversity, lack of resources and segregation. We need to develop sustainable living environments, not least for the sake of human health. The framework of a transformational plan for the built environment provides a provocative but necessary suggestion on concrete actions to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for one of the most important sectors", says Helena Bjarnegård, National architect of Sweden.

In the framework, Wallbaum and Fudge have added a detailed action plan for northwestern Europe that contains 72 concrete proposals for measures - intended as an inspiration for the rest of the world.

The proposals cover everything from energy efficiency improvements, research into new building materials, digital tools and renovation methods, to free public transport, more green spaces and cycle paths. They involve all actors from the entire sector - such as architects, builders, real estate companies, material producers and urban planners.

Several of the high-priority measures in northwestern Europe are under direct governmental responsibility:

• Higher taxes on carbon dioxide emissions and utilisation of land and natural resources - lower taxes on labour
• State support for energy-efficient renovation works
• A plan for large-scale production of sustainable, affordable housing
• Increased pace in the phasing out of fossil fuels in favour of electric power from renewables

"Here, governments, in collaboration with towns, cities and other sectors, have a key role, as it is political decisions such as taxation, targeted support and national strategies that can pave the way for the radical changes we propose. But all actors with influence over the built environment must contribute to change. In other parts of the world, it may be the business community that plays the corresponding main role", says Holger Wallbaum.

Wallbaum and Fudge are clear that their proposed measures are specifically intended for the countries of northwestern Europe, and that their work should be seen as an invitation to discussion. Different actors around the world are best placed to propose which measures are most urgent and relevant in their respective regions, based on local conditions, they claim.

"Key people and institutions in different parts of the world have accepted the challenge of establishing nodes for the development of regional strategies. From Chalmers' side, we have offered to support global coordination. Our proposal is that all these nodes present their progress for evaluation and further development at a world conference every three years - next in Montreal, in 2023", says Colin Fudge.

A thousand participants followed the Beyond 2020 conference, which was arranged by Chalmers 2-4 November in collaboration with Johanneberg Science Park, Rise (Research Institutes of Sweden), and the City of Gothenburg. As a result of the Corona pandemic, it was held online. The conference discussed methods for reducing climate footprints, lowering resource consumption, digital development and innovative transport. Among the speakers were authorities in sustainable construction, digitisation and financing from around the world.

Beyond 2020 has the status of a World Sustainable Built Environment Conference (WSBE). Organisers are appointed by iiSBE, a worldwide non-profit organisation whose overall goal is to actively work for initiatives that can contribute to a more sustainable built environment. The next WSBE will be held in Montreal in 2023.

More about: A roadmap for the built environment

In their newly established framework, Wallbaum and Fudge establish a general approach that each individual region in the world can use to identify the measures that are most urgent and relevant to achieving the goals of the UN Agenda 2030, based on local conditions. They identify the key questions that must be answered by all societal actors, the obstacles that need to be overcome and the opportunities that will be crucial for the sector over the next decade.

The work has been carried out in dialogue with prominent researchers and city planners around the world. Read more about the framework and download the material here: Framework document on a Transformational Plan for the Built Environment

More about: Action plan for the built environment sector in northwestern Europe

Wallbaum and Fudge have specified 72 acute sustainability measures in northwestern Europe (Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Belgium, Switzerland). A selection:

Establish renovation plans which focus on energy efficiencies for all existing property by 2023. Avoid demolition and new construction when it is possible to renovate.

• Halve emissions from production of building materials by 2025. The transition to greater usage of materials with lower climate impact needs to accelerate.
• Accelerate the phase out of fossil fuels in the transport sector in favour of electric power - with, for example, a ban on new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
• Double the amount of pedestrian and cycle paths in cities by 2030.
• Offer free municipal public transport for all school children and for everyone over the age of 70.
• Introduce the climate perspective as a mandatory element of the architectural industry's ethical guidelines.
• Increase the proportion of green spaces by 20 percent in all cities by 2030.
• Concentrate research on the development of new building materials with lower carbon footprints, digital tools for the built environment and new energy-efficient renovation methods.
• Read the entire action plan on the pages 20-23 in the Framework document on a Transformational Plan for the Built Environment

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Potential plumes on Europa could come from water in the crust

by Gretchen McCartney, Jet Propulsion Laboratory

This illustration of Jupiter's icy moon Europa depicts a cryovolcanic eruption in which brine from within the icy shell could blast into space. A new model proposing this process may also shed light on plumes on other icy bodies. Credit: Justice Wainwright

Plumes of water vapor that may be venting into space from Jupiter's moon Europa could come from within the icy crust itself, according to new research. A model outlines a process for brine, or salt-enriched water, moving around within the moon's shell and eventually forming pockets of water—even more concentrated with salt—that could erupt.

Europa scientists have considered the possible plumes on Europa a promising way to investigate the habitability of Jupiter's icy moon, especially since they offer the opportunity to be directly sampled by spacecraft flying through them. The insights into the activity and composition of the ice shell covering Europa's global, interior ocean can help determine if the ocean contains the ingredients needed to support life.

This new work that offers an additional scenario for some plumes proposes that they may originate from pockets of water embedded in the icy shell rather than water forced upward from the ocean below. The source of the plumes is important: Water originating from the icy crust is considered less hospitable to life than the global interior ocean because it likely lacks the energy that is a necessary ingredient for life. In Europa's ocean, that energy could come from hydrothermal vents on the sea floor.

"Understanding where these water plumes are coming from is very important for knowing whether future Europa explorers could have a chance to actually detect life from space without probing Europa's ocean," said lead author Gregor Steinbrügge, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford's School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences.

Using images collected by NASA's Galileo spacecraft, the researchers developed a model to propose how a combination of freezing and pressurization could lead to a cryovolcanic eruption, or a burst of frigid water. The results, published Nov. 10 in Geophysical Research Letters, may shed light on eruptions on other icy bodies in the solar system.

The researchers focused their analyses on Manannán, an 18-mile-wide (29-kilometer-wide) crater on Europa that resulted from an impact with another celestial object tens of millions of years ago. Reasoning that such a collision would have generated tremendous heat, they modeled how the melted ice and subsequent freezing of the water pocket within the icy shell could have pressurized it and caused the water to erupt.

"The comet or asteroid hitting the ice shell was basically a big experiment which we're using to construct hypotheses to test," said co-author Don Blankenship, senior research scientist at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) and principal investigator of the radar instrument, REASON (Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface), that will fly aboard NASA's upcoming Europa Clipper spacecraft. "Our model makes specific predictions we can test using data from the radar and other instruments on Europa Clipper."


The model indicates that as Europa's water partially froze into ice following the impact, leftover pockets of water could have been created in the moon's surface. These salty water pockets can move sideways through Europa's ice shell by melting adjacent regions of ice and consequently become even saltier in the process.

A Salty Driving Force

The model proposes that when a migrating brine pocket reached the center of Manannán Crater, it became stuck and began freezing, generating pressure that eventually resulted in a plume, estimated to have been over a mile high (1.6 kilometers). The eruption of this plume left a distinguishing mark: a spider-shaped feature on Europa's surface that was observed by Galileo imaging and incorporated into the researchers' model.

"Even though plumes generated by brine pocket migration would not provide direct insight into Europa's ocean, our findings suggest that Europa's ice shell itself is very dynamic," said co-lead author Joana Voigt, a graduate research assistant at the University of Arizona, in Tucson.

The relatively small size of the plume that would form at Manannán indicates that impact craters probably can't explain the source of other, larger plumes on Europa that have been hypothesized based on data from Galileo and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, researchers said. But the process modeled for the Manannán eruption could happen on other icy bodies—even without an impact event.

"The work is exciting, because it supports the growing body of research showing there could be multiple kinds of plumes on Europa," said Robert Pappalardo of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and project scientist of the Europa Clipper mission. "Understanding plumes and their possible sources strongly contributes to Europa Clipper's goal to investigate Europa's habitability."

Missions such as Europa Clipper help contribute to the field of astrobiology, the interdisciplinary research on the variables and conditions of distant worlds that could harbor life as we know it. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Europa and investigate whether the icy moon, with its subsurface ocean, has the capability to support life. Understanding Europa's habitability will help scientists better understand how life developed on Earth and the potential for finding life beyond our planet.


Explore further Researchers model source of eruption on Jupiter's moon Europa
More information: G. Steinbrügge et al. Brine Migration and Impact‐Induced Cryovolcanism on Europa, Geophysical Research Letters (2020). DOI: 10.1029/2020GL090797

Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters

Provided by Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Hard-hit Central America in crosshairs of another hurricane

Residents evacuate a flooded area in Baracoa, Honduras on November 8, 2020


NOVEMBER 14, 2020

Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua announced evacuations Friday as a second major hurricane in days closed in on Central America with the region still reeling from deadly storm Eta last week.

Eta killed more than 200 people across Central America, with heavy rain bursting river banks and triggering landslides as far north as Chiapas, Mexico.

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami has now confirmed that another major hurricane is approaching Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala, whose populations total more than 30 million.

The NHC forecasts Tropical Storm Iota to become a Category 2 or 3 hurricane as it moves into the same shell-shocked countries, hitting Nicaragua and Honduras by late Sunday or early Monday—less than two weeks after Eta hit.

Authorities in Honduras on Friday ordered the evacuation by police and the army of people in the area of San Pedro Sula—the country's second city and industrial capital, located 180 kilometers (110 miles) north of Tegucigalpa.

"Our red alert (in Honduras) orders mandatory evacuations," Julissa Mercado of Honduras' Emergency Response Agency told AFP.

The San Pedro Sula valley was hit hard by Eta and about 40,000 people are still in shelters across the country.

In Nicaragua relief agencies began to evacuate some indigenous communities from the Coco River, on the border with Honduras, which could be affected by heavy rains and floods due to the storm.

"We are asking you to calmly prepare" for the hurricane that "threatens to cause floods and disasters," Rose Cunnigham, the mayor of Waspam, on the border with Honduras, urged the community over a local radio station.

Waspam authorities on Friday sent boats to evacuate the community in Cabo Gracias a Dios, the cape where the Coco River flows into the Caribbean along the "Mosquito Coast", and buses to transport people from the village of Bihmuna.

The town of Morales in Guatemala's Izabal Department is seen flooded following the passage of storm Eta on November 7, 2020

Guatemala's disaster management agency CONRED meanwhile called on residents in the country's most threatened areas in the north and northeast to voluntarily evacuate to shelters. It also recommended avoiding waterways and other risky areas.


"Our ground is already oversaturated," said Guatemala's President Alejandro Giammattei.

"So it's to be expected that we will have more farming and infrastructure damage," he warned after meeting his Honduran counterpart, Juan Orlando Hernandez, in Guatemala City.

Eta hit the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm and was one of the strongest November storms ever recorded.

Warmer seas caused by climate change are making hurricanes stronger for longer after landfall, increasing the destruction they can wreak, scientists say.

Guatemala's Giammattei on Friday accused industrialized nations of being responsible for the catastrophes caused by climate change that are ravaging the area.

"Central America is one of the regions where climate change is felt the most," he told reporters.

The region is hit by "catastrophic floods, extreme droughts and the greatest poverty" but nonetheless receives "the least help on behalf of these industrialized nations", he said.

This year's hurricane season has seen a record 30 named tropical storms wreak havoc across the southeastern United States, the Caribbean and Central America.

The NHC was even forced to switch to the Greek alphabet after 2020's storms exhausted its list of Latin names.


Explore further Storm Eta leaves 150 dead or missing in Guatemala

© 2020 AFP

Hurricane Iota to deal another catastrophic blow to Central America

By Courtney Spamer, Accuweather.com & UPI Staff


Hurricane Iota strengthened into a Category 4 storm early Monday. Photo courtesy of NOAA

Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Areas of Central America still reeling from a humanitarian crisis caused by the deadly Hurricane Eta are now under threat from an equally powerful tropical system -- Hurricane Iota.

At 1 a.m. EST on Monday, the national Hurricane Center said Iota had strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Iota is the sixth major hurricane, meaning it is a Category 3 or higher, to churn in the Atlantic this season.

Just 40 minutes later, Iota was found to have rapidly strengthened into a dangerous Category 4 hurricane.

As of 1:40 a.m. EST Monday, Iota was packing a serious punch with sustained winds of 140 mph. Iota continued to move westward at 10 mph with its center located about 190 miles east-southeast of Cabo Gracias on the Nicaragua-Honduras border. Hurricane watches and warnings are in effect for much of the coast.

Besides Iota, the most recent major hurricane in the Atlantic was Hurricane Eta. Hurricane Eta made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Nov. 3, in Nicaragua, which was among the top five strongest storms to ever hit the nation. Eta also carved a path of destruction through Honduras and Guatemala, unleashing feet of rain, tremendous flooding and killing more than 100.

Central America is still facing a humanitarian crisis following Eta's deadly blow. Millions are enduring dangerous conditions in the storm's wake -- with concerns over waterborne diseases and COVID-19 complicating recovery. And the situation could become even more dire as Iota creeps toward the coast.

"With Eta having gone through less than 2 weeks ago, Hurricane Iota will place another devastating blow to the region. No amount of words can describe the problems this system will add to the crisis already occurring in the area," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Matt Rinde said.

Iota is forecast to pick up some forward speed and continue to move westward toward the border of Honduras and Nicaragua. Along the way, heavy rainfall will inundate northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela, as well as southern Jamaica.

In addition to widespread rainfall, Iota will be moving through an area of low wind shear and warm water -- around 84 degrees Fahrenheit -- in the western Caribbean Sea, encouraging the hurricane to strengthen into an even more powerful hurricane.

"Exactly how long Iota is able to to hang out in that favorable environment will ultimately determine how long it could be a major [Category 3 or higher] hurricane," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller.

RELATED Subtropical Storm Theta makes 2020 a record year for named storms

The exact track it takes, the strength and forward speed as it plows onshore in Central America will determine how grim the situation will become.

"It is possible that Iota could track north of Honduras, allowing the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Eta to be spared. But it is even more likely that Honduras and Nicaragua take a direct hit from Iota," warned Miller.

Should Iota make landfall in Nicaragua as a hurricane, it would be only the second time in history the country would be hit by two hurricanes in one season. The last time it occurred was in 1971, when Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Edith hit Nicaragua.

In Central America, building seas will be the first impact, coming on Sunday. Next would be the outer bands of Iota, that will bring heavy rain to Nicaragua and eastern Honduras as early as Monday morning, then gusty winds.

The exact strength of Iota at landfall will dictate the wind gusts experienced by the storm. If Iota makes landfall as a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds of 130 mph or greater, the effects could be devastating.

In addition to the strongest, most distructive winds being found at the coast near landfall, so too will be the most impactful storm surge from Iota.

Storm surge of 1-3 feet will stretch from near Claura in Honduras to Haulover, Nicaragua, with the most severe surge, 10-15 feet (3-5 meters) between Puerto Cabezas and Nina Yari. This same area experienced coastal inundation from Eta earlier this month.

Even still, the most widespread and greatest threat to lives and property from the new cyclone is expected to be dealt by serious flooding caused by feet of rainfall. Major river flooding and flash flooding could occur with a vast area of 12-18 inches across the mountainous terrain of Honduras, the most likely location for the AccuWeather Local StormMax of 30 inches.

Even more widespread amounts of 2-4 inches are forecast from Guatemala to central Nicaragua, worsening ongoing flooding and clean-up efforts.

With all of the mountainous terrain and the very saturated ground following Hurricane Eta, mudslides are a definite concern with the new tropical threat.

Given the threat posed by devastating storm surge, catastrophic flooding inland and devastating winds, Iota will be a 5 on the AccuWeather RealImpact Scale for Hurricanes over Central America. This is based on the life-threatening heavy rainfall that will lead to catastrophic flooding, damaging winds, storm surge and a number of other economic factors.

Tropical Storm Iota developed Friday afternoon in the central Caribbean just hours after the system had become Tropical Depression 31. Iota strengthened into a hurricane early Sunday morning and officially became the 13th hurricane of the season. 2020 is now just two shy of the record number of hurricanes to churn in the Atlantic in one season held by 2005.

In fact, this is the first time the NHC has ever gotten this far into the Greek alphabet during a tropical season.

Iota strengthened into a Category 3 hurricane early Monday morning and officially became the sixth major hurricane of the season. Five other major hurricanes churned in the Atlantic this season: Laura, Teddy, Delta, Epsilon and Eta.

This year set the record for the most tropical storms to be named in one Atlantic hurricane season as Theta became the 29th tropical storm of the season earlier this week.

Theta continued to swirl in the Atlantic Basin on Saturday morning, after spinning between the Azores and Canary Islands into Sunday morni

Belgium announces measures for bird flu outbreak

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

NOVEMBER 14, 2020

Belgium has detected an outbreak of bird flu, leading authorities to order all poultry farmers and individual bird owners to keep the animals confined, the country's food safety agency AFSCA said Saturday.

Avian influenza has recently spread to western Europe after outbreaks in Russia and Kazakhstan this summer.

"Three wild birds that stayed in a bird sanctuary in Ostend tested positive for the H5N8 virus," AFSCA said in a statement on Saturday, adding that the outbreak was confirmed the day before by the Sciensano public health institute.

AFSCA said the new measures would be effective from Sunday and would apply to private poultry houses as well as individuals who keep birds in their homes, in a country where there is a strong tradition of pigeon racing.

"All gatherings of poultry and birds are strictly prohibited," the statement said, adding that preventive measures were imposed on professional pigeon farms on November 1.

France this month ordered measures for poultry farms such as protective netting to prevent contact with wild birds that spread the disease, after the country's ministry of agriculture warned that bird flu infections were on the rise in western Europe.

In addition to cases declared in the Netherlands, the ministry pointed to "13 cases in wild birds in Germany" and an outbreak on November 3 in the northwest of England.


Explore further Bird flu fears: Dutch farms ordered to keep poultry indoors

© 2020 AFP

 Plastic pollution is everywhere.

 Study reveals how it travels

by Princeton University

Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Plastic pollution is ubiquitous today, with microplastic particles from disposable goods found in natural environments throughout the globe, including Antarctica. But how those particles move through and accumulate in the environment is poorly understood. Now a Princeton University study has revealed the mechanism by which microplastics, like Styrofoam, and particulate pollutants are carried long distances through soil and other porous media, with implications for preventing the spread and accumulation of contaminants in food and water sources.


The study, published in Science Advances on November 13, reveals that microplastic particles get stuck when traveling through porous materials such as soil and sediment but later break free and often continue to move substantially further. Identifying this stop-and-restart process and the conditions that control it is new, said Sujit Datta, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering and associated faculty of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, the High Meadows Environmental Institute and the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials. Previously, researchers thought that when microparticles got stuck, they generally stayed there, which limited understanding of particle spread.

Datta led the research team, which found that the microparticles are pushed free when the rate of fluid flowing through the media remains high enough. The Princeton researchers showed that the process of deposition, or the formation of clogs, and erosion, their breakup, is cyclical; clogs form and then are broken up by fluid pressure over time and distance, moving particles further through the pore space until clogs reform.

"Not only did we find these cool dynamics of particles getting stuck, clogged, building up deposits and then getting pushed through, but that process enables particles to get spread out over much larger distances than we would have thought otherwise," said Datta.

The team included Navid Bizmark, a postdoctoral research associate in the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials, graduate student Joanna Schneider, and Rodney Priestley, professor of chemical and biological engineering and vice dean for innovation.

They tested two types of particles, "sticky" and "nonsticky," which correspond with actual types of microplastics found in the environment. Surprisingly, they found that there was no difference in the process itself; that is, both still clogged and unclogged themselves at high enough fluid pressures. The only difference was where the clusters formed. The "nonsticky" particles tended to get stuck only at narrow passageways, whereas the sticky ones seemed to be able to get trapped at any surface of the solid medium they encountered. As a result of these dynamics, it is now clear that even "sticky" particles can spread out over large areas and throughout hundreds of pores.


In the paper, the researchers describe pumping fluorescent polystyrene microparticles and fluid through a transparent porous media developed in Datta's lab, and then watching the microparticles move under a microscope. Polystyrene is the plastic microparticle that makes up Styrofoam, which is often littered into soils and waterways through shipping materials and fast food containers. The porous media they created closely mimics the structure of naturally-occurring media, including soils, sediments, and groundwater aquifers.

Typically porous media are opaque, so one cannot see what microparticles are doing or how they flow. Researchers usually measure what goes in and out of the media, and try to infer the processes going on inside. By making transparent porous media, the researchers overcame that limitation.

"Datta and colleagues opened the black box," said Philippe Coussot, a professor at Ecole des Ponts Paris Tech and an expert in rheology who is unaffiliated with the study.

"We figured out tricks to make the media transparent. Then, by using fluorescent microparticles, we can watch their dynamics in real time using a microscope," said Datta. "The nice thing is that we can actually see what individual particles are doing under different experimental conditions."

The study, which Coussot described as a "remarkable experimental approach," showed that although the Styrofoam microparticles did get stuck at points, they ultimately were pushed free, and moved throughout the entire length of the media during the experiment.

The ultimate goal is to use these particle observations to improve parameters for larger scale models to predict the amount and location of contamination. The models would be based on varying types of porous media and varying particle sizes and chemistries, and help to more accurately predict contamination under various irrigation, rainfall, or ambient flow conditions. The research can help inform mathematical models to better understand the likelihood of a particle moving over a certain distance and reaching a vulnerable destination, such as a nearby farmland, river or aquifer. The researchers also studied how the deposition of microplastic particles impacts the permeability of the medium, including how easily water for irrigation can flow through soil when microparticles are present.

Datta said this experiment is the tip of the iceberg in terms of particles and applications that researchers can now study. "Now that we found something so surprising in a system so simple, we're excited to see what the implications are for more complex systems," said Datta.

He said, for example, this principle could yield insight into how clays, minerals, grains, quartz, viruses, microbes and other particles move in media with complex surface chemistries.

The knowledge will also help the researchers understand how to deploy engineered nanoparticles to remediate contaminated groundwater aquifers, perhaps leaked from a manufacturing plant, farm, or urban wastewater stream.

Beyond environmental remediation, the findings are applicable to processes across a spectrum of industries, from drug delivery to filtration mechanisms, effectively any media in which particles flow and accumulate, Datta said.


Explore further 

Hopping bacteria—New look at behavior upends common assumptions about bacteria
More information: Multiscale dynamics of colloidal deposition and erosion in porous media, 

Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc2530 , 

advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/46/eabc2530

Journal information: Science Advances 

Provided by Princeton University

Apophis asteroid might be more likely to strike Earth in 2068 than thought

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

DAMIT model of Apophis generated from light curve. This assumes that all areas of the asteroid have a similar albedo and reflectivity. 

Credit: Astronomical Institute of the Charles University: Josef Ďurech, Vojtěch Sidorin,

 CC BY 4.0

David Tholen, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii, recently reported on the status of asteroid Apophis during a virtual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences. During his presentation, he outlined research he and his team conducted regarding the path of the asteroid and the likelihood that it will strike Earth.

The asteroid Apophis was first spotted by astronomers back in 2004. Shortly thereafter, researchers worked out its orbital path and found that the 340-meter-wide asteroid would pass near to the Earth in 2029, 2036 and again in 2068. More study showed that there was little chance of the asteroid striking Earth; thus, it was discounted as a threat. More recently, Tholen and his team noted that earlier researchers had not accounted for the Yarkovsky effect by which rays from the sun strikes one side of an asteroid. As the heat radiates away from the asteroid, a small amount of energy pushes back against the asteroid, forcing it to turn slightly. Tholen and his team calculated that the Yarkovsky effect is pushing Apophis to one side enough to force it to drift by approximately 170 meters a year. They next applied that bit of knowledge to the math describing Apophis's orbit and found that the drift is changing the course of the asteroid in a way that will bring it closer to Earth. He notes that thus far, there is no indication that the asteroid will strike the Earth in 2029 and 2036, but 2068 might be another matter. He suggests that astronomers will have to keep an eye on Apophis as its rendezvous date approaches.

As news of a possible threat from Apophis arises, others have pointed out that the human race has made strides in protecting the planet from asteroid strikes. NASA's DART mission, for example, scheduled for 2022, will involve sending a spacecraft to an asteroid called Didymos and using it to alter the path of Dimorphos, one of its moons. Tholen noted during his talk that study of Apophis when it passes by in 2029 should give scientists a much better idea of whether or not it poses an actual threat in 2068.

Explore further Massive asteroid subject of new findings

© 2020 Science X Network

Solar system formed in less than 200,000 years

by Anne M Stark, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Artist's conception of the dust and gas surrounding a newly formed planetary system. 

Credit: NASA.

A long time ago—roughly 4.5 billion years—our sun and solar system formed over the short time span of 200,000 years. That is the conclusion of a group of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists after looking at isotopes of the element molybdenum found on meteorites.

The material that makes up the sun and the rest of the solar system came from the collapse of a large cloud of gas and dust about 4.5 billion years ago. By observing other stellar systems that formed similarly to ours, astronomers estimate that it probably takes about 1-2 million years for the collapse of a cloud and ignition of a star, but this is the first study that can provide numbers on our own solar system.

"Previously, the timeframe of formation was not really known for our solar system," said LLNL cosmochemist Greg Brennecka, lead author of a paper appearing in Science. "This work shows that this collapse, which led to the formation of the solar system, happened very quickly, in less than 200,000 years. If we scale this all to a human lifespan, formation of the solar system would compare to pregnancy lasting about 12 hours instead of nine months. This was a rapid process."

The oldest dated solids in the solar system are calcium-aluminum–rich inclusions (CAIs), and these samples provide a direct record of solar system formation. These micrometer- to centimeter-sized inclusions in meteorites formed in a high-temperature environment (more than 1,300 Kelvin), probably near the young sun. They were then transported outward to the region where carbonaceous chondrite meteorites (and their parent bodies) formed, where they are found today. The majority of CAIs formed 4.567 billion years ago, over a period of about 40,000 to 200,000 years.

This is where the LLNL team comes in. The international team measured the molybdenum (Mo) isotopic and trace element compositions of a variety of CAIs taken from carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, including Allende, the largest carbonaceous chondrite found on Earth. Because they found that the distinct Mo isotopic compositions of CAIs cover the entire range of material that formed in the protoplanetary disk instead of just a small slice, these inclusions must have formed within the time span of cloud collapse.

Since the observed time span of stellar accretion (1-2 million years) is much longer than CAIs took to form, the team was able to pinpoint which astronomical phase in the solar system's formation was recorded by the formation of CAIs, and ultimately, how quickly the material that makes up the solar system accreted.

Explore further   Ultraviolet shines light on origins of the solar system

More information: Gregory A. Brennecka et al. Astronomical context of Solar System formation from molybdenum isotopes in meteorite inclusions, Science (2020).

DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz8482

Journal information: Science

Provided by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Exploring the reasons behind Kenya's low COVID-19 infection and death rates

by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress
  

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers from institutions in the U.K. and Kenya has been conducting research to explain Kenya's comparatively low COVID-19 infection and death rates. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes analyzing blood from donors in Kenya for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies as a means to estimate infection rates in that country.

As the world continues to grapple with the global pandemic, Africa has begun to stand out from other regions. Infection rates and deaths from COVID-19 have remained much lower across the continent (except South Africa) than in most of the rest of the world. Thus far, little work has addressed why African infection rates have been lower, but some experts in the field suggest it is likely due to demographics—the average age of people across Africa is much lower than in other parts of the world. Others suggest it might simply be a matter of less accurate reporting of infections and deaths. In this new effort, the researchers sought to discover which explanation is more likely. To that end, they conducted a study of donated blood in Kenya—a country in Africa that, like the rest of the continent, has not seen the sky-high infection and deaths rates found in other parts of the world.

The work involved analyzing blood samples collected from donors across the country over the months April to June. Each sample was tested for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies—a sign that the person who had donated the blood had experienced a COVID-19 infection.

The researchers found that approximately 4.3 percent of the donor samples had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, which, the researchers suggest, indicates that approximately the same percent of the population had been infected—a very high number compared to the number of deaths reported for the same period: roughly 341. They note that during the same time period, Spain had roughly the same percentage of infections but experienced 28,000 deaths.

The researchers were not able to explain why death rates from COVID-19 infections appeared to be lower in Kenya than in other parts of the world, but suggest it might be due to the low average age of people living there. However, they also acknowledge that they might have seen higher-than-average infection rates in their study because people in Kenya who are willing to donate blood might also be more likely to have been infected. They also suggest the possibility that people in Kenya might simply have more natural resistance to such infections.


Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak  

More information: Sophie Uyoga et al. Seroprevalence of anti–SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies in Kenyan blood donors, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.abe1916
Journal information: Science

Where is Megan Rapinoe? How the USWNT star followed 2019 accolades with 2020 crusades

Ameé Ruszkai SPORTING NEWS 

NOV 14, 2020

Outside of women’s soccer, Megan Rapinoe was not the icon she is today before 2019.

After being a leading figure in her sport for years, last summer she exploded into the mainstream media within weeks.

Amid a very public feud with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, the winger helped the U.S. women's national team to a second successive World Cup triumph, her goal in the final one of six across the tournament – a Golden Boot-winning total.

While continuing to divide opinion for her outspoken nature, Rapinoe collected the Ballon d’Or and a whole host of other individual awards to cap a year where the media’s attention on her swelled like never before.

However, as 2020 comes to a close and those individual accolades are ready to be dished out again, she is not in the conversation.

Winner of Goal 50 last year, the 35-year-old doesn’t even make the list this time around.

For an athlete who has long been about more than just the sport she loves though, that in itself is telling of who she is.

It was March 11 when Rapinoe last stepped foot on the pitch. With seven minutes on the clock, she thundered a free-kick from 25 yards into the top corner to put the United States ahead against Japan, and on their way to winning the SheBelieves Cup.

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Since then, soccer has been put on hold. Rapinoe opted out of playing for her club, OL Reign, when the NWSL organized the Challenge Cup in July, after the regular season was unable to go ahead. She also decided not to play in the Fall Series in September.

Instead, in a year which has seen a number of politicians tell athletes to stick to their sport, Rapinoe has been using her voice to draw attention to issues that have taken huge precedence in 2020.

From stressing the importance of a fair vote in this year’s presidential election, to supporting the Black Lives Matter movement and continuing to fight against all forms of discrimination, she has been pushing a number of significant messages to her millions of followers.

She has had a huge impact while doing so, too.

© Provided by Sporting News Lionel Messi Megan Rapinoe

Fair Count is an organization that fights to achieve a fair and accurate census in Georgia and around the United States.

Their message was especially important in an election year – even more so in hindsight, with Trump calling several times for all counting of votes to stop – and founder Stacey Abrams was just one of many important figures that Rapinoe used her platform to amplify.

“She did an online programme called Ask Stacey, where we talked about the census,” Rebecca DeHart, CEO of Fair Count, tells Goal.

“We were able to use some of those videos for online digital advertising and we got some of the best click throughs, where folks went the next step and learned about the census afterwards, from using her and other people that were part of that programme.

“Also, while we won't get full census numbers yet, we do know that we did better than we did in 2010 in Georgia, and that is really exciting,” she added, speaking just before the recent election.

“In all the seven states in the southeast part of the United States, only three improved their 2010 census counts and it was really great that we were one of them.”

Georgia was one of the crucial swing states in the 2020 U.S. election and, pending a recount, Trump's defeat there has helped to seal his fate as a one-term president.

Patrisse Cullors-Brignac, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, and Joe Biden, the U.S. president-elect, were other guests on the winger’s Instagram, while she also hosted a show on HBO called Seeing America, with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress, among those involved.

It was not just high-profile names she lifted up on her platform, either. As part of the Movement for Black Lives’ #ShareTheMicNow campaign, Rapinoe was one of many white women with huge followings who leant their social accounts to black women.

Fresco Steez, a cultural curator and creative strategist, took over Rapinoe’s account, sharing imperative messages of anti-racism to over two million people. Steez has 6,000 followers on her own Instagram account. “This is the voice we need to follow,” Rapinoe wrote.

This activism is not anything new. She is not just jumping onto the bandwagon and pretending to care

© Provided by Sporting News Megan Rapinoe USWNT GFX (1:1)

When NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the American national anthem back in 2016 - protesting against racial injustice, police brutality and systematic oppression - Rapinoe was among the first athletes to support him.

As a result, U.S. Soccer created a policy that required all players to stand "respectfully" during the anthem, making it the first league or governing body to do so.

“It was a little nod to Kaepernick and everything that he’s standing for right now,” she said at the time, explaining her decision to kneel.

“I think it’s actually pretty disgusting the way he was treated and the way that a lot of the media has covered it and made it about something that it absolutely isn’t.

“We need to have a more thoughtful, two-sided conversation about racial issues in this country.”

People like Rapinoe pushing these messages, to a different audience than the usual streams, can help change attitudes and open the eyes of those who do not see these issues or believe they do not impact them.

“The census is not the sexiest thing. When we're able to break out of that frame of nerdiness and talk about what it really means and how everyone is equally affected by it, that just really helps bolster our message,” DeHart explained.

“Megan is the true 'see something, say something' type of person and I admire her so much for that. She has a moral compass that points true north.

“When she partnered with us on the census, she understood that if people didn't get counted, if they were either scared of participating or didn't trust participating, she knew what was at stake.

“She knew then that it would be very hard for them to be seen and heard for the next decade.”

© Provided by Sporting News Megan Rapinoe quote GFX (1:1)

The sad thing is that Rapinoe remains in the minority when it comes to elite soccer stars speaking out.

“They could do so much if they decided to use their stupendous level of popularity to fight racism, for example,” she told L’Equipe Mag recently, speaking about stars such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

“I’m not talking about wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt, I’m talking about going deeper.

“Lewis Hamilton's willingness to speak out is incredible, not to mention LeBron James, as they are at the centre of colossal economic powers.

“Naomi Osaka, who at the US Open wore masks with the names of black people killed by U.S. police, like Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. In the middle of the tennis world, which is so white!

“These athletes inspire me. There is like an invisible thread between us. We must not be shy.”

Last year, when Rapinoe took to the stage at the FIFA Best Awards, having been named best women's player for 2019, she said: “Lend your platform to other people, share your success.”

One year on, she is not in contention to retain that award, or any she collected 12 months ago, such has been her lack of impact on the pitch throughout 2020. However, away from soccer, it has been more of the same from the two-time World Cup winner.

While many soccer stars appear afraid of speaking out against what is wrong, Rapinoe’s continued fight against injustice and discrimination is one of the few things that has been normal about 2020.

New Alabama senator struggles with basic WWII history and says US fought ‘socialism and communism’

It’s not his only recent gaffe about history 

Josh Marcus
NOV 14, 2020

Tommy Tuberville, the incoming Republican senator from Alabama, doubled down on his erroneous grasp of World War II history in comments on Thursday, telling a news site his father, a US soldier, fought to “free Europe of socialism.”

“I tell people, my dad fought 76 years ago in Europe to free Europe of Socialism,” he told Alabama Daily News. “Today, you look at this election, we have half this country that made some kind of movement, now they might not believe in it 100 per cent, but they made some kind of movement toward socialism.”

Last week, he made a similar remark in a speech to supporters, recounting that his father was part of “liberating Paris from socialism and communism.” 

Tommy Tuberville, the incoming US senator for Alabama
(Tuberville for Senate, Inc. )

Though the full name of the Nazis was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, they were fascists, not socialists. And the Soviet Union, a US ally during the war, was communist.

During the campaign, in which Mr Tuberville, the former football coach of Auburn University, defeated Democratic incumbent Doug Jones, the Republican had another factual mix-up, appearing not to understand what the landmark Voting Rights Act is.

Calling Democrats socialists is a longstanding canard that has resurfaced in recent years thanks in part to the growing prominence of progressives like senator Bernie Sanders and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who describe themselves as “democratic socialists.”

But as she told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, despite attacks from the right and the left that Democrats are going socialist and losing voters, she’s not aware of anyone in office who fits the description of a true socialist.

“If you look at some of the arguments that are being advanced, that ‘Defund the Police’ hurt or that arguments about socialism hurt, not a single member of Congress that I’m aware of campaigned on socialism or defunding the police in this general election,” she said.

The arguments over the label reflect a broader discussion going on in the Democratic party about how liberal it should be, following its presidential win and disappointing run in congressional elections.

Comments

Austin-Healey1 day ago

If a 66-year-old Republican senator can believe the second world war was about defeating socialism and Communism then you can bet your life that a good many of the those seventy something million who voted for Trump will believe something similar too.

But that wasn’t his only cock up, he spoke of the three branches of US government being the House, the Senate, and the executive, whereas as any high school graduate will have been taught them to be the legislative, the executive and the judicial.

But these are the same sort of mistakes we've come to expect of Trump, when he came to office his ignorance of world history, the American constitution, foreign affairs, even common everyday world affairs was astoundingly poor and America didnt seem to notice.