Erin O'Toole isn't breaking through — and Jason Kenney and Doug Ford aren't helping

Éric Grenier 

CBC 

© Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press The Conservatives under Erin O'Toole have struggled to close the gap on the Liberals, who lead in national polls by an average of six percentage points.

Unable to make any headway in the polls against the Liberals, Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole could use a little help from his friends Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

Basically, he needs Ford and Kenney to avoid doing anything that makes matters worse for him.

Trailing the Liberals by six percentage points nationwide in the CBC's Poll Tracker — an aggregation of all publicly available polling data — the Conservatives are struggling in both Ontario and Alberta, among other places.

But Ontario is a key electoral battleground for the Conservatives, while Alberta is supposed to be their unassailable fortress. It might be no coincidence that O'Toole is having difficulty in these provinces as Kenney and Ford slide in the polls.

Two polls published this week by Campaign Research and Mainstreet Research suggest Ford's Progressive Conservatives still hold a lead in Ontario. But with the party now averaging 34.5 per cent across the two surveys, Ford's PCs have dropped six points since the 2018 provincial election. Only a divided opposition is keeping his party ahead.

Ford's own personal numbers have gotten significantly worse since reaching a peak in May 2020 during the first wave of the pandemic. According to Abacus Data, just 30 per cent of Ontarians now have a positive impression of Ford, down 16 points from last spring. His negative impression score has increased 22 points to 47 per cent.

Things are arguably going much worse for Kenney in Alberta, where he has faced a caucus revolt over the province's pandemic restrictions.

The polls are not looking good for Kenney's United Conservatives, who have trailed the opposition New Democrats by an average margin of 10 points in polls published since December. That represents a combined 30-point swing between the UCP and NDP since the 2019 provincial election.

The pandemic appears to be what's driving these polling trends.

According to a survey by Léger, just 29 per cent of Albertans and 37 per cent of Ontarians are satisfied with the measures put in place by their provincial governments to fight the pandemic — lower levels than those reported anywhere else in the country.

Ontario and Alberta are also the only two provinces where the federal government is receiving higher marks than provincial governments in Léger's survey.

And that's what could be hurting O'Toole — the voters in Alberta and Ontario who believe the federal Liberal government is doing a better job on the pandemic than their Conservative premiers.

Trouble in the Conservative heartland

According to the Poll Tracker, O'Toole's Conservatives have 47 per cent support in Alberta, putting them well above the Liberals and NDP. But that represents a drop of 22 points since the 2019 federal election and about 10 points since the beginning of the pandemic.

Very few seats are at risk for the Conservatives in Alberta, of course — even with this steep drop in support. Of the 33 seats the Conservatives captured in the province in 2019, only two were won by margins of less than 20 points. The Conservatives can afford a swing of 30 points against them before more than a handful of seats are put at risk.

Nevertheless, the Conservatives can't afford to leave any seats on the table — particularly those it normally would win handily. It doesn't help that a recent Angus Reid Institute poll gave the Maverick Party — which advocates for Western autonomy — seven per cent support in Alberta. RETURN OF THE WCC

A drop in support in Alberta doesn't help the national picture for the Conservatives either. A loss of 22 points in Alberta might not put more than a seat or two at risk there, but it does translate into a slide of more than two percentage points at the national level — making the Conservatives appear less competitive against the Liberals.

Ford not helping in Ontario (again)

That's the kind of thing that can have some spillover in Ontario. Many voters like to back the party that looks like a winner.

The Poll Tracker puts the Conservatives at just 30 per cent in Ontario, down three points since 2019. They trail the Liberals there by about 11 points — three points more than in the last election.

Making gains in Ontario is absolutely essential for the Conservatives if they're going to have any chance of forming a government in the future. Ford's unpopularity was an obstacle for Andrew Scheer when he led the federal party in the 2019 election.

But things might be worse for the party now. Even polls that otherwise look good for the Conservatives — such as the most recent polls by Abacus Data and Léger, which had the Conservatives trailing nationally by just two or three points — still had the Liberals ahead by 12 or 13 points in Ontario. That's the electoral ball game.

Vaccines could give premiers a shot in the arm

As the third wave recedes and more vaccines are administered to Albertans and Ontarians, it is possible that voters' negative feelings about Ford and Kenney will recede as well. If that happens, the O'Toole Conservatives may be able to regain some lost ground in those two provinces.

It's also possible that the attacks by Kenney, Ford and O'Toole on the federal government's vaccine procurement efforts will backfire when Canadians find themselves getting their second doses ahead of schedule later this summer.

Either way, it suggests that the Liberals may have an incentive to send voters to the polls sooner rather than later. Any polling improvements for Ford and Kenney could start rubbing off on O'Toole.

At that point, O'Toole's friends might actually start to help him out. And he needs the help: a recent poll by Abacus Data found that just 18 per cent of Canadians have a positive impression of the federal Conservative leader, while 35 per cent have a negative one. ROFLMAO

Those are his worst numbers since he became leader last August. He can't blame Kenney or Ford for all of his troubles — but they aren't making things any easier for him.

POLLUTER PAYES? NO! WE DO!

Arsenic legacy in lake-bottom sediments from historic N.S. mine worries researcher


HALIFAX — Findings from a study describing the arsenic legacy left in lake-bottom sediments near an abandoned Halifax gold mine are setting off alarm bells for a senior cancer researcher.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

A paper published Monday in the journal Science of the Total Environment says a dated core sample taken from the bottom of Lake Charles discovered arsenic at 4,960 milligrams per kilogram, more than 280 times higher than levels "where biological harm is expected."

The site is downstream from the historic Montague mines, where successive gold rushes saw the creation of 121,000 tonnes of arsenic-rich tailings between the 1860s and 1940.

Not only are the carcinogen' levels high, the sample suggests the arsenic in sediments at the lake's deepest point is actually rising closer to the water itself.

Joshua Kurek, an environmental scientist at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., and one of the study's co-authors, said in a recent interview the proximity of the arsenic to the lake water after so much time was unexpected.

"We tend to think of sediments at the bottom of a lake as a sink for a lot of materials ... but here's a case where the pollutants from mining that ended 80 years ago are slowly moving up the core and are getting closer to the sediment-water boundary," he said.

"If environmental conditions at the bottom of Lake Charles change, what can happen is some of those contaminants that were locked into the sediments can be released into the water column."

The popular swimming and boating lake on the outskirts of Halifax already has high levels of arsenic at 11 micrograms per litre, double the Canadian water quality guidelines for the protection of aquatic life and higher than 50 other lakes in the region, according to federal Fisheries Department data.

In a province full of abandoned mine sites, the journal article raised concerns for Dr. Graham Dellaire, the director of research in Dalhousie University medical school's department of pathology.

The Halifax-based researcher is leading a national team of experts looking at carcinogens that affect people's risk of getting cancer.

He said in an interview last week that while the public has often heard the message on the carcinogenic risk of being exposed to radon, many remain unaware of the risks of long-term exposure to arsenic and its links to various cancers.

"as the arsenic and mercury levels increase from this sediment, there could be increased risk of skin cancer from swimming and playing in the water," he said after reading the Lake Charles study.

Dellaire is attempting to start awareness campaigns on arsenic, and he's seeking funding to provide information to areas where there is high risk for contamination, such as areas downstream from abandoned gold sites.

He said the program would test well water and invite people to screen for personal arsenic exposure through sampling of their toenails.

"The ghost of our mining past is coming back," he said.

Kurek said the upward migration of the arsenic in Lake Charles may be tied in to urban influences on the body of water.

The expert in freshwater ecosystems suggests with nutrients such as fertilizer flowing in from surrounding properties, there are biological processes that can deplete oxygen in the deeper reaches, and this chemical change in the water appears to be related to the rise of arsenic.

Warming water and other climate change impacts could also be playing a role, potentially speeding the chemical processes that deplete oxygen in the lake, he added.

The Lake Charles research comes about a year after another study suggesting more work is needed to know the impact of arsenic and mercury on plants, fungi, invertebrates, mollusks, fish and mammals in Nova Scotia's historic gold mining areas.

A 2020 paper published in the journal Environmental Reviews found only 18 of the 64 gold districts in Nova Scotia have been analyzed for mercury and arsenic accumulation in various forms of life.

In July 2019, the provincial government announced it was spending $48 million to clean up the Montague site and the Goldenville site in Guysborough County. Overall, it said it was looking at a list of 69 abandoned mining sites, including 24 gold mines, on Crown land in order to determine which ones needed containment or other work.

This came the same year the province's auditor general issued a report concluding the province hasn't sufficiently investigated potential contamination at many abandoned mine sites, meaning there could be unknown future tolls on the government's finances.

During a legislative committee hearing last month, Donnie Burke, executive director of Nova Scotia Lands, said remediation work at the Montague site is expected to start by the next fiscal year.

Allison Clark, the lead author on the most recent paper, completed the work while finishing her thesis at Mount Allison's department of biology.

"I believe our study is a call to action to work on remediation efforts of the tailing sites," she said.

Linda Campbell, a professor of environmental science at Saint Mary's University and another co-author, said in an interview that arsenic is an element that will remain in an ecosystem for a "very, very long time."

She said the first step to remediation of the contaminated sites is to "stop the mobility of the (gold) tailing materials themselves," at Montague and other sites.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 24, 2021.

Michael Tutton, The Canadian Press

HEY SEYMOUR FEED ME!

Edmonton engineer develops device that lets plants talk to their owners about watering

Kashmala Fida 

© Submitted by Quench Andy Burke, founder of Quench, holds a small plant with the device inserted into the soil.

For those who may have killed one too many plants by forgetting to water them, an Edmonton engineer has created the perfect solution.

Quench is a probe that measures the moisture content of soil and emits a faint chirp to alert people when their plant needs watering.

Andy Burke, founder of Quench, set up a Kickstarter campaign on Tuesday and has since raised $30,000.

"Our goal was $12,000 ... in order to help us get just a little bit of funds to gauge the interest and to help us put in that order for production and we have blown past it," he told CBC's Edmonton AM on Thursday.

The device comes in two sizes, a small one for plants with a soil depth of less than 20 centimetres and a larger size for deeper containers.

Users can adjust the depth of the device based on the plant's watering needs. The device would be inserted deeper for a succulent than for water-loving ferns, according to details on the Quench Kickstarter campaign.

Burke said Quench is also light-sensitive, so at night time it will light up red instead of sending an audio alert.

The idea came to Burke in 2017 after killing his first houseplant, an expensive dracaena, which he bought after getting his own place.

"My life was busy. I was an engineer and I found I just kept forgetting," he said.

Burke said he bought some moisturizing systems but they weren't up to the task. That's when he decided to take matters into his own hands and started working on different prototypes.

"We made over 20 prototypes and it actually took four years of testing to finally kind of nail down exactly the materials, the dimensions and the methods for detection," he said.

The final version, completed in 2020, was sent to be tested by plant experts in Edmonton and as far away as the United States, Europe and Japan, Burke said. "To make sure we really nail down the final details and at that point to make sure it's working properly," he said.

In the next few months, the company will be working to fill the orders made on Kickstarter, he said. After the campaign ends in mid-June, Burke plans to sell it online in Canada and the U.S. as well as in stores in Edmonton.

Hundreds attend pro-Palestinian rallies in Edmonton and Calgary
CBC/Radio-Canada 

© Instagram/drone360imagery An organizer estimated more than 1,000 people gathered in Hawrelak Park Sunday in support of Palestine.

Pro-Palestinian rallies were held in both Edmonton and Calgary on Sunday.

Saturday marked the first full day of a ceasefire, agreed to by Israel and Hamas, that went into effect early Friday morning. It marked the end of a devastating 11-day war that caused widespread destruction in the Gaza Strip and brought life to a standstill in much of Israel.

Fatmeh Kalouti, one of the organizers of the Edmonton rally, didn't have the numbers in from Sunday's event yet, but estimated more than 1,000 people attended. It's the third event in the span of a week.

"It's not just the Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim community that's coming out to these events," Kalouti said in an interview. "We have heard a lot of support and so many different liberation movements have reached out to us.

"We've had support messages from Black Lives Matter Edmonton, from the Ukrainian community in Edmonton, from the Jewish community in Edmonton, from the Mennonite community in Edmonton. People in Edmonton are so quick to support and so quick to mobilize and be there to help in any way that they can."

Kalouti said children released 75 biodegradable balloons at the end of the rally, in memory of the 75 children killed in Gaza in recent days. People linked up in a human chain throughout the event, separated by Palestinian flags and keffiyeh, a Palestinian scarf.
Calgary rally marches on despite weather

Around 400 demonstrators met at Calgary's Olympic Plaza, before marching through downtown.

"We are soaked, flags are soaked but spirits are high," Saima Jamal, a community activist, said of the large turnout.

It was the latest after at least three other large protests in support of Palestinians held in the city.

"Calgarians made history for the past three weeks. When I watch you guys rally in the streets, you ignite the whole country," speaker Mahmoud Mourra told the crowd at Olympic Plaza, before reading the names of the dead in Gaza as other organizers released balloons into the sky as well.

"All of them are brothers and sisters to someone."

Watch: Joe Biden cracks up the room with his response to a Fox News question about UFOs

Joe Biden // MSNBC
Bob Brigham and
Raw Story May 21, 2021


Fox News personality Peter Doocy, the son of Fox News personality Steve Doocy, got to ask a question at President Joe Biden's Friday news conference.

The younger Doocy was ridiculed in March after complaining about not being called on by the president on Friday, he got to ask a question.

"I think it's interesting, President Obama says that there is footage and records of objects in the skies, these unidentified aerial phenomenal and he says we don't know exactly what they are," Doocy said. "What do you think that it is?"

"I would ask him again," Biden replied as the crowd laughed and then applauded.

Sniffing Labrador retrievers join Thai coronavirus fight
By TASSANEE VEJPONGSA

AP

May 21, 2021


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A dog trainer watches Bobby, a Labrador Retriever, sniffs samples of human sweat through containers to detect the COVID-19 coronavirus at the Veterinary Faculty at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, May 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand has started deploying a canine virus-detecting squad in hopes of quickly identifying people with COVID-19 as the country faces a surge in cases, with clusters at construction sites, crowded slum communities and large markets.

Angel, Bobby and Bravo are among six Labrador retrievers that have been trained by researchers at the Faculty of Veterinary Science at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University to sniff out a unique odor that people with COVID-19 produce in their sweat, the researchers say.

Since May 10, the three have tested more than 1,000 samples from college staff, students and people outside the university.

The results so far are impressive with a success rate of nearly 95%.

After a few seconds of sniffing sweat samples placed in metal containers, the dogs can tell which people have COVID-19. If there’s no trace of infection, the dog will walk pass the sample. If it is positive, it will sit in front of it.

Prof. Kaywalee Chatdarong, head of the research team, said she was aware that other countries have been using dogs to identify the coronavirus, including Finland, the United Arab Emirates, Germany and India, but that she had no idea if it would work in Thailand because of the country’s spicy and flavorful cuisine.

Suwanna Thanaboonsombat, a volunteer who collects samples to bring to the lab, said the canine testers add a big element of convenience because they can check samples from people who can’t go out to be tested.

“People can simply put cotton balls underneath their armpits to collect sweat samples and send them to the lab. And the result is quite accurate,” Suwanna said.

The researchers plan to send the canine team out to communities suspected of being new COVID-19 hotspots. The dogs will work inside a mobile unit, while the collecting team can comb through the community collecting samples.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dogs are among a small number of pets that can become infected with the coronavirus, mostly after close contact with people with COVID-19. It says the risk of animals spreading the virus to people is considered low.

The Thai researchers said that as a safety precaution, they designed the sample containers so that the dogs’ noses do not contact the samples. They also believe the receptors on cells in dogs’ respiratory tracts are not a welcoming environment for the coronavirus to attack.

Kaywalee said that while dogs can provide a fast and cheap testing alternative, they do have limitations.

“5 p.m. is their dinner time. When it’s around 4:50, they will start to be distracted. So, you can’t really have them work anymore. And we can’t have them working after dinner either because they need a nap. They are living animals and we do have to take their needs and emotions into consideration,” she said.

“But for me, they are heroes and heroines.”

Bobby, a Labrador Retriever in training, sits front of a human sweat sample after detecting the COVID-19 coronavirus at the Veterinary Faculty of Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand Friday, May 21, 2021. Thailand has deployed a canine virus detection squad to help provide a fast and effective way of identifying people with COVID-19 as the country faces a surge in cases, with clusters found in several crowded slum communities and large markets. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

 

Dogs have already shown that they can sniff out maladies such as cancer, malaria and epilepsy Antti Aimo-Koivisto Lehtikuva/AFP/File


Paris (AFP)

Dogs can be trained to detect more than 90 percent of Covid-19 infections even when patients are asymptomatic, according to research published Monday, which authors hope could help replace the need to quarantine new arrivals.

Using their remarkable sense of smell -- which can pick up the equivalent of half a teaspoon of sugar in an olympic-sized swimming pool -- dogs have already shown that they can sniff out maladies such as cancer, malaria and epilepsy.

Several previous studies have shown proof-of-concept that dogs can detect SARS-CoV-2.


Researchers from the London School of Tropical Medicine wanted to see if dogs could detect a distinctive odour given off from chemical compounds associated with someone who is Covid positive but doesn't show symptoms.

They gathered samples of clothing and face masks from people who had tested positive for mild or symptomatic SARS-CoV-2.

Samples of the socks of 200 Covid-19 cases were collected and arranged in lab tests for six dogs that had been trained to indicate either a presence or absence of the chemical compound.

The dogs needed to be trained not to identify "false positives" in a bid to hack their reward system and obtain treats even if there were no Covid-19 samples in a given test.

"This means that the dog fully understands and gets a reward for a correct negative as well as a correct positive," said Claire Guest, from the school's Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases.

Overall, the dogs were successfully able to identify between 94 and 82 percent of SARS-CoV-2 samples.

The researchers then modelled how effectively these success rates, combined with traditional PCR tests, could help detect mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 cases.

They found that using dogs to screen arrivals at terminuses such as airports could detect 91 percent of cases, resulting in a 2.24 times lower rate of transmission than with PCR tests alone.

- 'Important start' -

Authors of the research, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, said they hoped it could eventually replace the need for travellers to quarantine -- which necessarily disrupts every arrival even though the vast majority are not Covid positive.

"The key thing is that dogs are significantly quicker than other tests," said co-author James Logan.

"What we're suggesting is that dogs would give the first initial screening, and then those (arrivals) that were indicated as positive would then receive a complimentary PCR test."

The team said that out of a plane full of arrivals -- around 300 people -- less than one percent were statistically likely to be carrying SARS-CoV-2.

Under current quarantine regulations employed by some countries, all 300 would need to isolate, causing significant inconvenience.

But given the sensitivity of trained dogs, a maximum of 35 people on board would be indicated as positive, the paper said.

Of these, only around 3 would be expected to return a positive PCR test.

"This is a really important start and could lead to a useful, usable system," said Mick Bailey, professor of Comparative Immunology at the University of Bristol, who was not involved in the research.

"But there's a lot more validation needs to be done before we could be confident that the dogs can reliably and specifically detect asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection in people in airports and train stations."

CAPITALI$M 101 SUPPLY & DEMAND

Las Vegas restaurant owner wants unemployment benefits cut — and complains applicants are asking how much he'll pay

RAISE YOUR PRICES

Image via Shutterstock.

Brad Reed and Raw Story May 24, 2021

A restaurant owner in Las Vegas told a local newspaper last week that he's tired of having prospective workers ask him how much they'll be making if they take a job with him.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Steven Kim, director of operations at the Island Sushi & Grill in the South Point Hotel Casino, complained that workers are no longer willing to take jobs at his restaurant because they are making money from enhanced unemployment benefits.

"'How much do you pay?' that's one of the first questions out of their mouth," he said. "When they opened the economy, they should have decreased the amount of unemployment."

Gin.o Ferraro, who owns Ferraro's Italian Restaurant and Wine Bar, similarly told the Review-Journal that a major problem he's encountering right now is "everybody wants more money... no matter what position you hire for in the restaurant."

Nonetheless, Ferraro said he's "hoping things get better soon," and pointed to the impending expiration of enhanced unemployment benefits in September as a reason for optimism

POST PANDEMIC ECONOMICS: 

ALL WORKERS SHOULD HAVE A CONTRACT 

FOR WAGES & BENEFITS FROM THE BOSS

THAT STARTS AT $15 AND RISES TO $25 OVER FIVE YEARS, JOINT PENSION (RRSP, 401K), HEALTHCARE, DENTAL, BLUECROSS, ACCIDENT INSURANCE, TRAVEL ALLOWANCE ETC.

Talking to the moon: Europe pitches lunar satellites plan

By FRANK JORDANS

AP

May 20, 2021


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FILE - In this Thursday, May 7, 2020 file photo, the full moon sets behind trees in the Taunus region near Frankfurt, Germany. The European Space Agency, ESA, national counterparts and private companies are presenting their vision Thursday to put satellites in orbit around the moon, to make future missions to Earth's closest neighbor easier. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, file) 

BERLIN (AP) — The European Space Agency presented a vision Thursday to put satellites in orbit around the moon that would facilitate future missions to Earth’s closest neighbor.

The plan, dubbed “Moonlight,” would see ESA offer communications and navigation services to any country that wants to carry out lunar exploration missions.

By relying services provided from lunar orbit, space agencies would be able to design their moon landers without the need for cumbersome communications and navigation devices on board. This would free up space to carry other cargo, making each launch more cost-effective, said Paul Verhoef, ESA’s director of navigation.

The project builds on one of the agency’s strengths: launching satellites to provide services to third parties. ESA has a fleet of observation satellites in orbit around Earth that supply weather, climate and other data to public and commercial companies.

It also has a constellation of navigation satellites, known as Galileo, that provide highly accurate global positioning data to rival the U.S.-based GPS system.

But it also highlights the European agency’s weakness: unlike the United States, China or India, ESA lacks any ambitious moon exploration programs of its own. Instead, ESA is hoping to partner with NASA to build a “lunar gateway” that would be a staging post for future moon missions.

The proposal outlined by ESA on Thursday will see two international consortiums devise ways for building a reliable and dedicated lunar communications and navigation service.

The first such satellite, called “Lunar Pathfinder,” will be operational in 2024.

David Parker, ESA’s director of human and robotic exploration, said the agency’s member states would be given a formal proposal for a constellation next year.

“If approved, the project could start full steam ahead at the beginning of 2023 to ensure it’s operational within four or five years,” he said.

New detector finds gamma rays from surprising cosmic sources

By SAM MCNEIL

AP

May 21, 2021


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White and green electromagnetic detectors surround mounds of dirt covering instruments to detect muon particles originating from outer space at the Large High-Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) at Haizi Mountain, near Daocheng in southwestern China's Sichuan Province, Friday, Nov. 8, 2019. The LHAASO, the biggest device of its kind, has detected a dozen sources of ultra high-energy gamma rays from within our Milky Way galaxy, according to a new study in the journal Nature. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

HAIZI MOUNTAIN, China (AP) — Astrophysicist Cao Zhen opens a steel hatch on a windswept Tibetan Plateau and climbs down a ladder into inky darkness. His flashlight picks out a boat floating on a pool of purified water above thousands of glittering orbs the size of beachballs.

He’s inside a $175 million observatory that isn’t technically complete but has already discovered something tantalizing: bursts of gamma rays from outer space that may someday help explain how matter is created and distributed across the universe.

The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory, the biggest device of its kind, has detected a dozen sources of ultra high-energy gamma rays, according to a study in the journal Nature, from what Cao calls “many hot spots,” in our Milky Way galaxy.

Gamma rays with such high energy have never been detected before, and the findings suggest these rays can come not just from dying stars, but are also generated inside massive young stars.

“These results are really stunning — some of the most exciting I have ever seen,” said Alan Watson, an astrophysicist working with the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina.

Cao’s team traced 530 high-energy gamma rays to 12 sources including a massive cluster of young stars called the Cygnus Cocoon and the interstellar cloud called the Crab Nebula.

Gamma rays are a type of extreme radiation generated by the hottest and brightest explosions in the universe, like when a large star implodes. Those implosions also create the matter that make up planets — and everything that lives on them, including us. Of all the electromagnetic waves in the universe, gamma rays have the smallest wavelengths and the most energy. They can release more energy in 10 seconds than our sun in 10 billion years.

The pool of purified water at LHAASO that Cao paddled across measures the subatomic shrapnel — the “air shower” in the observatory’s name — created when gamma rays and high energy particles called cosmic rays crash into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The shrapnel includes mysterious particles called muons that can be seen as faint blue flashes known as Cherenkov radiation in the observatory’s dark water. The array of 3,120 beachball-sized globes contain tiny sensors that measure the radiation.

“We can trace these gamma rays back to their source in the sky,” said Cao, dressed in blue scrubs to keep the water clean. “We can find something new.”

LHAASO is one of dozens of devices on Earth and in orbit — suspended in ice tunnels in Antarctica or inside toaster-sized satellites — trying to understand how matter such as carbon, oxygen and iron came to be.

Located near the 4,400-meter-tall (14,500-foot-tall) Haizi Mountain, it houses separate instruments that can study different phenomena, including cosmic rays, high energy subatomic particles that scientists believe come from the same sources as gamma rays. Cosmic rays are like sparks from a massive stellar crucible — each contains flecks of material from the forging process. Gamma rays are more like light from a glowing hearth. By studying both, the observatory can learn more about what generated them.

The Chinese observatory offers “unprecedented sensitivity,” said Avi Loeb, a Harvard University astrophysicist, that may, for example, help physicists tell whether if some rays come from inside our galaxy or farther away.

It’s not yet complete, however. Cao said that by the end of June the instruments will be in place, including 5,195 electromagnetic detectors, 1,188 muon detectors, and 18 Cherenkov telescopes each the size of a shipping container that will study air showers in the sky.

“The outcome really justifies the massive effort,” Watson said of the new findings. “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”=P
___

Associated Press video producer Olivia Zhang in Haizi Mountain and science writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report