Non-toxic technology extracts more gold from ore

Study shows new chloride-based process recovers 84% of gold compared to the 64% recovered with traditional methods

1-Oct-2021 8:25 AM EDT, by Aalto University

Robert von Bonsdorff/Aalto University

Gold

Newswise — Gold is one of the world’s most popular metals. Malleable, conductive and non-corrosive, it’s used in jewelry, electronics, and even space exploration. But traditional gold production typically involves a famous toxin, cyanide, which has been banned for industrial use in several countries.  

The wait for a scalable non-toxic alternative may now be over as a research team from Aalto University in Finland has successfully replaced cyanide in a key part of gold extraction from ore. The results are published in Chemical Engineering.  

Traditionally, once gold ore is mined from the ground, it’s crushed to a powder and passed through a series of tanks in a process called leaching. Cyanide is then used to separate the gold from the ore into the leached solution.  

With the new process, the leaching and recovery process is done with chloride, one of two elements in table salt.    

‘Until now, no one has developed a good method for recovering small amounts of gold from industrial chloride solutions,’ says Ivan Korolev, a researcher on the project and doctoral candidate.  

‘With our process, the amount of gold we’ve been able to recover using chloride is as high as 84%. In comparison, using the standard cyanide process with the same ore yielded only 64% in our control experiment,’ he explains.  

Called electrodeposition-redox replacement (EDRR), the new process combines the best of two common methods for extracting leached gold: electrolysis, which uses electric currents to reduce gold or other metals present in the leaching solution, and cementation, which adds particles of other metals to the solution to react with the gold. Professor Mari Lundström and University Lecturer Kirsi Yliniemi, from Aalto University’s School of Chemical Engineering, are behind its development.    

‘With EDRR, we apply short pulses of electricity to create thin layers of metal – in our case copper – on the electrode and cause a reaction that encourages gold to replace the copper layer by layer,’ says Korolev. ‘The method has low energy consumption and doesn’t require the addition of any other elements.’   

The research was conducted as part of a broader EU sustainability project called SOCRATES, and the work was done in collaboration with Finnish mining-technology giant Metso Outotec. Most of the experiments were performed at the company’s research centre in western Finland.  

‘Collaborating with Metso Outotec allowed us to develop the method in a way that’s much closer to real-world implementation,’ says Korolev. ‘We started with about 9% recovery, but it then grew to 25%, and soon we were hitting 70% -- sometimes we even achieved close to 95%.’  

‘It’s one thing to do an experiment like this on a small scale, but nobody had ever done it at the scale that we have done. We showed that even though our method is still really new, there is a lot of potential for making it a successful alternative to the traditional industrial process,’ he says.  

‘The extraction methods of the past have always left some valuable metals behind. Now, as demand for metals grows all the time, even these small amounts are important,’ he says. ‘I think we can still increase the yield with our EDRR technology. Perhaps we cannot reach 100%, but I believe we can hit the 90% mark or more.’   

‘It would be great to see a mining company interested in this technology and willing to test with their ore on site.’ 

SEE ORIGINAL STUDY

Primordial ‘hyper-eye’

discovered

30-Sep-2021 6:25 PM EDT, by University of Cologne

Dr Brigitte Schoenemann

Phacops geesops, a trilobite from the Devonian age. The animal's eyes consist of 200 single lenses each, 

spanning six small facets, which again form one eye each.

Newswise — An international research team has found an eye system in trilobites of the suborder Phacopina from the Devonian (390 million years B.P.) that is unique in the animal kingdom: each of the about 200 lenses of a hyper-facet eye spans a group of six normal compound-eye-facets, forming a compound eye itself. In addition to the hyper-facetted eyes, the researchers, led by zoologist Dr. Brigitte Schoenemann at the University of Cologne’s Institute for Didactics of Biology, identified a structure that they believe to be a local neural network which directly processed the information from this special eye, and an optic nerve that carried information from the eye to the brain. The article, ‘A 390 million-year-old hyper-compound eye in Devonian phacopid trilobites,’ has been published in Scientific Reports.

Trilobites are arthropods that once inhabited the world’s oceans and became extinct about 251 million years ago. The discovery was made when Schoenemann and her colleagues examined X-ray images taken by radiologist and amateur paleontologist Wilhelm Stürmer in the 1970s. Stürmer had already believed the filaments under the trilobite eyes to be nerves, or a light guiding system. Schoenemann also found markings by Stürmer on the images designating the six subfacets. However, scientists at the time did not believe his interpretations. Now, however, the re-examination of the images and verification with modern computed tomography succeeded in confirming his conjectures.
Most trilobites had compound eyes similar to those that are still found in insects today: a large number of hexagonal facets form the eye. There are usually eight photoreceptors under each facet. Comparable to the image of a computer screen, which is built up from individual pixels, an image is built up from the individual facets. In dragonflies, there are up to ten thousand individual facets. In order to produce a coherent image, the facets must be very close together and connected by neurons.

However, in the trilobite suborder Phacopinae, the externally visible lenses of the compound eyes are much larger, up to 1 mm in diameter and more. In addition, they are set farther apart. Until now, scientists had not been able to explain this because space is wasted where light could be captured. Since a small cup sits under the lens, they assumed that at the bottom of the capsule was a small retina comparable to that of humans. 

Dr Schoenemann’s analysis of Wilhelm Stürmer's 40-year-old X-ray archive now suggests a different interpretation: a hyper-compound eye. Each phacopid had two eyes, one on the left and one on the right. ‘Each of these eyes consisted of about 200 lenses up to 1 mm in size,’ said Schoenemann. ‘Under each of these lenses, in turn, at least 6 facets are set up, each of which together again makes up a small compound eye. So we have about 200 compound eyes (one under each lens) in one eye.’ These sub-facets are arranged in either one ring or two rings. ‘Underneath sat a foam-like nest that was probably a small neural network to process the signals,’ the zoologist added. The filaments Stürmer found in fact did turn out to be nerves leading from the eyes to the trilobite’s brain. Further examination with modern computer tomography confirmed these structures.

Wilhelm Stürmer was the head of the X-ray department at Siemens and an avid paleontologist. With a VW bus equipped as an X-ray station, he drove from quarry to quarry to X-ray fossils. Among other things, he discovered structures called filaments under the animals’ eyes, which he thought were fossils of soft tissues, especially optic nerves. ‘At that time, the consensus was that only bones and teeth, the hard parts of living things, could be seen in the fossils, but not the soft parts, such as intestines or nerves,’ Schoenemann explained. Stürmer’s heir gave the zoologist his archive. But the hobby-paleontologist had not only correctly identified the optic nerve, she notes: ‘On an X-ray negative, there was an arrow in red pen pointing to the structure of the six lower facets under a main lens. This probably indicated that Stürmer had already recognized the hyper-compound eye.’ At the time, however, scientists assumed that nerves did not fossilize, nor that light guides existed in natural optical system. Optical fibres were not discovered until the 1980s in the compound eyes of a deep-sea crab.

The trilobite’s ‘hyper-eye’ may have been an evolutionary adaptation to life in low light conditions, Schoenemann believes. With its highly complex visual apparatus, it may have have been much more sensitive to light than a normal trilobite eye. ‘It is also possible that the individual components of the eye performed different functions, enabling, for example, contrast enhancement or the perception of different colours,’ the biologist said. So far, such an eye has only been found in the trilobite suborder Phacopinae: ‘This is unique in the animal kingdom,’ she concluded. In the course of evolution, this eye system was not continued, since the trilobites of the suborder Phacopinae died out at the end of the Devonian period 360 million years ago.

SEE ORIGINAL STUDY

NASA wraps up preparations for Lucy mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids

Brittany A. Roston - Sep 30, 2021

NASA is wrapping up the final tasks that must be completed ahead of the Lucy mission launch scheduled for October, the space agency has announced. The Lucy mission has been a work-in-progress for some time now, but the rewards for this effort are nearer than ever. NASA plans to launch the Lucy spacecraft on October 16, sending it off on a mission to study eight never-before-seen Trojan asteroids around Jupiter.

With all the other prep work out of the way, NASA says the team is preparing to put Lucy in its capsule for launch. This will be the first spacecraft to visit the Trojan asteroids, which both lead and follow Jupiter as it moves around the Sun. It has taken the last eight weeks to prep Lucy for its launch next month, including testing its various electrical, mechanical, and thermal systems, as well as practicing the launch sequence we’ll see on October 16.

The mission is a promising one that will, hopefully, help shed light not only on the origins of the Trojan asteroids but also how the planets in our solar system formed long ago. The spacecraft is equipped with massive solar arrays to power its instruments, while recently added fuel — about 1,600lbs of it — will propel Lucy to its destination.

Once fully encapsulated, Lucy will be shuttled to Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V 401 rocket will send Lucy to space, something that will — assuming there aren’t any delays — happen around 5:34 AM ET. As with other launches, it is possible weather issues could bump the event to the next day.

Lucy was built by Lockheed Martin as the 13th spacecraft under NASA’s Discovery Program. Among other things, Lucy will be notable as the first spacecraft to make multiple circles back near Earth as part of its mission, something intended to give it “gravity assists.”

Story Timeline
NASA Lucy mission integrates its second scientific instrument
NASA's Lucy spacecraft gets two very special cameras to go asteroid hunting
NASA Lucy spacecraft solar panel deployment test goes off without a hitch

  

NASA's Lucy mission toward Jupiter will explore eight never-before-seen worlds

The upcoming momentous mission to the Trojan belt could rewrite our knowledge about the origins of planets. Here's everything you need to know.

Monisha Ravisetti
Sept. 30, 2021 


An artist's concept of Jupiter's Trojan asteroids. Recent results suggest the rocks are uniformly dark with a hint of burgundy. NASA

Far out in Jupiter's orbit lie the Trojan asteroids -- fossils from the rock collection that spawned the giant planets over 4 billion years ago. These hovering time capsules could hold keys that unlock the origins of Earth, Saturn and Mars.

And in a couple of weeks, NASA's Lucy mission is sending a spacecraft toward the ancient raw materials in an ambitious and daring attempt to access our solar system's well-preserved history.

Perfectly named for the fossil that taught us about humanity's genesis, Lucy's 12-year-long trek promises to reveal a cosmic evolutionary record. The spacecraft will catch close-up views of a diverse selection of Trojan asteroids to help scientists decipher how and why our solar system's planets came to be.

Right now, we know close to nothing about these primitive rocks' properties. But we've rounded up everything we can to help you prepare for the momentous launch.

Cue "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."

How to watch NASA launch the Lucy mission

You can watch the take-off scheduled for Oct. 16 at 2:34 a.m. PT (5:34 a.m. ET) online on NASA TV.

Make sure to check back closer to the big day for a livestream on CNET Highlights, but first, let's dive into why this mission could be life-changing for the astronomy field.
What are the Trojan asteroids?

Long before planets came into existence, the solar system overflowed with trillions of rocky and icy bodies orbiting a dim sun. Some of these fragments slowly fused together to form larger planets, such as the Earth and Mars. But along the way, a bunch of floating rocks were left over.

Many were swept into the endless depths of the universe -- taking their secrets with them -- but a smattering still live in the outer reaches of our solar system.

Caught between the gravitational pull of the sun and Jupiter are these primitive pieces of rock that have been around for billions of years. They're known as Jupiter's Trojan asteroids. NASA aptly refers to them as "time capsules from the birth of our solar system" and they form two clusters that share an orbit with the gas giant. Over 7,000 have been detected, so far.

"The stuff that went into growing Jupiter and Saturn are now trapped in these locations," NASA planetary scientist and principal investigator of the Lucy mission, Hal Levison, said in the mission's overview.
Where does Lucy come in?

Lucy will be the first spacecraft to asteroid-hop among seven of the Trojan asteroids, but before heading to both the leading and trailing swarms, it'll visit a main belt asteroid located between Mars and Jupiter.

In green, you see the leading and trailing swarms of Jupiter Trojans. That's where Lucy is headed.NASA

"We're going to eight never-before-seen asteroids in 12 years with a single spacecraft," Tom Statler, Lucy project scientist at NASA headquarters in Washington said in a statement. "This is a fantastic opportunity for discovery as we probe into our solar system's distant past."


NASA notes that "no other space mission in history has been launched to as many different destinations in independent orbits around our sun" and that "Lucy will show us, for the first time, the diversity of the primordial bodies that built the planets."

The spacecraft will use traditional chemical propulsion technology that'll help with maneuvering, but to save fuel, it'll fly past points of interest instead of treading slowly. That doesn't pose much of a hindrance, though, because Lucy can still snap pics and collect spectroscopic information while whizzing by.
Mission objectives

Armed with a high-gain antenna for communication with Earth; high-tech cameras (color, as well as black and white); an infrared spectrometer and thermometer, the spacecraft will check out several key features of these asteroids by capturing their physical properties:

Surface geology: This includes things like shape, crater size, crustal structure and layering.

Surface color and composition: Tones and colors of the rocks, mineral makeup and regolith properties, such as loose soil composition, are some of these features.

Interiors and bulk properties: Masses, densities, powder blankets around craters and other nitty gritty details comprise this section.

Satellites and rings: A few of the asteroids might have mini-asteroids orbiting them, as though they're the center of their own solar system. Some might even have Saturn-like rings consisting of super small rocks or icy bodies.

NASA's Lucy will explore eight asteroids over a dozen years.NASA
Prepping for take-off

It isn't easy being a NASA probe.

Because Lucy will rely on solar power for the mission, its arrays -- large enough to cover a five story building -- had to undergo intense testing to ensure they won't malfunction during spaceflight. They're so huge because of how far the probe will be traveling from the sun.

A researcher working on Lucy's solar panels.NASA

According to NASA, it will take a total of 20 minutes for these crucial solar panels to extend after launch. "These 20 minutes will determine if the rest of the 12 year mission will be a success," Levison said in a statement.

Mars rovers, such as Perseverance, have shorter spans of anxiety-inducing moments during their EDL phase, or entry, descent and landing sequence.

"Mars landers have their seven minutes of terror, we have this," Levison remarked.

After several iterations of testing, Donya Douglas-Bradshaw, Lucy project manager from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement that the execution on the ground was "flawless."

Although space is a very different arena.

On Oct. 16, Lucy will be transported to the Vehicle Integration Facility at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and "mated" with the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. That rocket will help Lucy exit Earth's atmosphere.

Then, Lucy will propel away from our home planet to begin the 12-year voyage, swinging around the solar system, using Earth's gravity as leverage three times during the journey.


"Launching a spacecraft is almost like sending a child off to college -- you've done what can for them to get them ready for that next big step on their own," Levison said.

Lucy stands 13 feet (4 meters), nearly fully assembled in this photo.NASA
What will happen after the mission is complete?

After a dozen years, Lucy will stabilize near Earth, then crusade once again to the Trojan asteroid belt. It'll be the first ever spacecraft to travel all the way to Jupiter and back home.

Future humans will face two options: collect Lucy as an artifact and bring it down to Earth, or allow Jupiter to eventually fling it into the sun or out of the solar system.

Not to fear. Lucy's job will be complete by then. And perhaps our astronomy textbooks will be amended with the unprecedented information it delivers home.

NASA Lucy mission will carry words of Einstein, Carl Sagan and Beatles into space

Lucy in the darkness of space with John, Paul, George and Ringo.


Amanda Kooser
Sept. 29, 2021 

NASA's Lucy spacecraft will visit asteroids while carrying this plaque full of words of wisdom meant for future humans.

NASA

NASA's first mission to the Trojan asteroids associated with the planet Jupiter will be carrying words of wisdom meant to inspire humanity in the distant future. The Lucy spacecraft is scheduled to launch in October, and it was recently kitted out with a plaque that will act as a time capsule.

While Lucy was named for the fossil skeleton of a human ancestor, the moniker was also inspired by The Beatles' 1967 classic song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. The spacecraft's plaque is inscribed with quotes from band members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.

These are the words it will carry:

"And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make." - Paul McCartney

"We all shine on . . . like the moon and the stars and the sun." - John Lennon

"Peace and love." - Ringo Starr

This is what the Lucy spacecraft looked like in late 2020 when it was nearly fully assembled.

Lockheed Martin

"When you've seen beyond yourself then you may find peace of mind is waiting there." - George Harrison

The Beatles are joined by other famous people. The plaque includes quotes from Albert Einstein, poet Joy Harjo, author Kazuo Ishiguro, Martin Luther King Jr., Brian May of Queen, Yoko Ono, Carl Sagan and others.

Amanda Gorman, known for her poem for President Joe Biden's inauguration, also contributed a poem to the plaque.

You can read all the quotes on the Lucy mission website and hear some of them read by their creators in a NASA video. Starr even makes an appearance, saying, "Lucy is going back in the sky with diamonds."

Lucy's adventures will take it to a series of fascinating asteroids that travel along in Jupiter's path. NASA said the asteroids "are thought to be remnants of the primordial material that formed the outer planets." The spacecraft will study these objects so we can learn more about the history of our solar system and the origins of planets.

NASA is thinking way ahead into the future for the plaque to when our descendants many millennia from now might find the Lucy spacecraft still moving through space.

"After Lucy finishes visiting a record number of asteroids for a single mission in 2033 (eight asteroids on six independent orbits around the sun) the Lucy spacecraft will continue to travel between the Trojan asteroids and the orbit of the Earth for at least hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years," the space agency said in a statement on Monday.

NASA unveils 30 dazzling new Hubble space images for an epic anniversary See all photos

+27 More

The plaque is also inscribed with an image depicting our solar system as of the expected launch date of Oct. 16, 2021. Lucy's messages are a human-focused version of the Golden Record meant for aliens that is part of NASA's 1970s Voyager missions. The twin Voyagers are still on the move in interstellar space, but Lucy will be sticking around within our solar system.

Perhaps one day Lucy will be retrieved, brought back home and shared with the people of Earth, its messages of hope, unity, exploration, peace and love still as relevant to our future as it is to us now.

Follow CNET's 2021 Space Calendar to stay up to date with all the latest space news this year. You can even add it to your own Google Calendar.

First published on July 12, 2021 

Controlled fire can reduce the overall size of a wildfire and the corresponding smoke emissions and smoke-related public health impacts, federal report finds

30-Sep-2021 6:50 PM EDT, by Environmental Protection Agency - Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response (CESER)

Research Alert

Newswise — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S Forest Service (USFS), Department of Interior (DOI) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released The Comparative Assessment of the Impacts of Prescribed Fire Versus Wildfire (CAIF): A Case Study in the Western U.S., which compared the air quality and health impacts of smoke from prescribed fire with wildfire using two case studies – one in Oregon and one in California. 

The report, prepared at the request of the Wildland Fire Leadership Council (WFLC), recognizes the importance of prescribed fire as a land management and fire management strategy. The CAIF Report consists of two parts that collectively, provide a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the different effects of wildland fire, with a focus on the smoke impacts. Part I: Conceptual Framework, Background, and Context presents an integrated discussion of topics that are important to consider in the context of comparing the effects, both smoke and direct fire, of wildland fire; Part II: Quantitative Assessment of Smoke Impacts of Wildland Fire in Case Study Areas consists of a quantitative assessment of the air quality and corresponding public health impacts of wildland fire smoke by focusing on two case studies.

The CAIF Report found that in the examined case studies, prescribed fire can reduce the overall size of a wildfire and the corresponding smoke emissions and smoke-related public health impacts. In addition, well-designed and strategically placed prescribed fires may be able to reduce impacts of a subsequent wildfire. However, prescribed fires are not without risk and produce smoke that can result in public health impacts, but at a substantially smaller scale compared to a wildfire.  Compared to wildfire, smoke exposures from prescribed fires have the potential to be more readily mitigated through public awareness and preparedness strategies.

This report has the potential to serve multiple functions. The collaborating federal agencies, along with WFLC,  can use the results of this report to help further inform messaging around the use of prescribed fire, building off earlier collaborations. Additionally, this report can provide some initial information to inform future land management and fire management strategies and support the development of future research efforts to examine the tradeoffs between prescribed fire and wildfire.   

 

Learn more from EPA’s Press Release.

Access the full report here.

 

Doctor who claims that there's a significant uptick in cancers in vaccinated people offers no supported evidence

30-Sep-2021 2:15 PM EDT, by Newswise

Fact Check By: Craig Jones, Newswise

Truthfulness: False

 

 

Claim: A doctor has found an increase in cancers since the COVID-19 inoculation rollout. 

Claim Publisher and Date: 

 

ANTI ABORTION SITE

LifeSite News on 2021-09-13

An article published on LifeSite News, a site started by a Canadian national "pro-life" organization, says that an Idaho doctor is seeing a "massive ‘uptick’ in various autoimmune diseases and cancers in patients who have been vaccinated."  The doctor is Ryan Cole, a board-certified pathologist and owner and operator of a diagnostics lab. Dr. Cole provides no evidence or data to back this claim. 

“Since January 1, in the laboratory, I’m seeing a 20 times increase of endometrial cancers over what I see on an annual basis,” reported Dr. Cole in the video clip shared on Twitter.

Public health authorities have not reported any surge in cancer diagnoses since the COVID-19 vaccination rollout began in the U.S. in December 2020. According to the American Cancer Society*, there were 1.8 million new cancer cases in 2020 (up from 1.76 million in 2019). They estimated 1.9 million new cancer cases diagnosed in 2021. Although there does seem to be a slight rise in cases, the numbers hardly reflect the "20 times" that Dr. Cole said he's observed.  Obviously, a record spike like that would certainly show on a global scale. 

The American Cancer Society recommends that most people with cancer or a history of cancer get the COVID-19 vaccine once it’s available to them. 

As for vaccines weakening the immune system, Flora Teoh of Health Feedback addresses the claim thoroughly in her Fact Check. 

Cole claimed that the COVID-19 vaccines weakened a person’s immune system, thereby making them more prone to cancer and infectious diseases. He alleged that this was due to the vaccines’ effect on CD8 T cells and cited a “study out of Germany” that examined this subject in “young individuals after the Pfizer” vaccine. CD8+ T cells are a subset of immune cells known as lymphocytes. As explained by the British Society for Immunology, they play a major role in the defense against viruses and bacteria as well as cancer.

Health Feedback reached out to Cole to request the reference for this study, but didn’t receive a response by the time of this review’s publication. We will update this review if new information is available.

 

*https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2020/cancer-facts-and-figures-2020.pdf 

Earth is dimming due to climate change

Warming oceans cause fewer bright clouds to reflect sunlight into space, trapping even more energy in Earth's climate system

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION

 

IMAGE: EARTHSHINE ANNUAL MEAN ALBEDO 1998–2017 EXPRESSED AS WATTS PER SQUARE METER (W/M2). THE CERES ANNUAL ALBEDO 2001–2019, ALSO EXPRESSED IN W/M2, ARE SHOWN IN BLUE. A BEST FIT LINE TO THE CERES DATA (2001–2019) IS SHOWN WITH A BLUE DASHED LINE. AVERAGE ERROR BARS FOR CERES MEASUREMENTS ARE OF THE ORDER OF 0.2 W/M2. view more 

CREDIT: GOODE ET AL. (2021), GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS

 

WASHINGTON—Warming ocean waters have caused a drop in the brightness of the Earth, according to a new study.

Researchers used decades of measurements of earthshine — the light reflected from Earth that illuminates the surface of the Moon — as well as satellite measurements to find that there has been a significant drop in Earth’s reflectance, or albedo, over the past two decades.

The Earth is now reflecting about half a watt less light per square meter than it was 20 years ago, with most of the drop occurring in the last three years of earthshine data, according to the new study in the AGU journal Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences.

That’s the equivalent of 0.5% decrease in the Earth’s reflectance. Earth reflects about 30% of the sunlight that shines on it.

“The albedo drop was such a surprise to us when we analyzed the last three years of data after 17 years of nearly flat albedo,” said Philip Goode, a researcher at New Jersey Institute of Technology and the lead author of the new study, referring to the earthshine data from 1998 to 2017 gathered by the Big Bear Solar Observatory in Southern California. When the latest data were added to the previous years, the dimming trend became clear.

Two things affect the net sunlight reaching the Earth: the Sun's brightness and the planet’s reflectivity. The changes in Earth's albedo observed by the researchers did not correlate with periodic changes in the Sun's brightness, so that means changes in Earth's reflectiveness are caused by something on the Earth.

Specifically, there has been a reduction of bright, reflective low-lying clouds over the eastern Pacific Ocean in the most recent years, according to satellite measurements made as part of NASA's Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) project.

That's the same area, off the west coasts of North and South America, where increases in sea surface temperatures have been recorded because of the reversal of a climatic condition called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, with likely connections to global climate change.

The dimming of the Earth can also be seen in terms of how much more solar energy is being captured by Earth's climate system. Once this significant additional solar energy is in Earth's atmosphere and oceans, it may contribute to global warming, as the extra sunlight is of the same magnitude as the total anthropogenic climate forcing over the last two decades.

“It's actually quite concerning,” said Edward Schwieterman, a planetary scientist at the University of California at Riverside who was not involved in the new study. For some time, many scientists had hoped that a warmer Earth might lead to more clouds and higher albedo, which would then help to moderate warming and balance the climate system, he said. “But this shows the opposite is true.”

###

AGU (www.agu.org) supports 130,000 enthusiasts to experts worldwide in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, we advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.

---

Notes for Journalists:
This research study is published with open access and is freely available. Download a pdf copy of the paper here. Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo.

Paper title:
 “Earth's Albedo 1998–2017 as Measured From Earthshine”

Authors:

• Philip Goode (corresponding author), A. Shoumko and S. Shoumko, Big Bear Solar Observatory, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Big Bear, CA, USA
• E. Pallé and P. Montañes-Rodriguez, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), La Laguna, Spain, and Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), La Laguna, Spain
• S. E. Koonin, Department of Physics, New York University, New York, NY, USA

AGU press contact:
Liza Lester, +1 (202) 777-7494, news@agu.org (UTC-4 hours)

Contact information for the researchers:

Philip Goode, Big Bear Solar Observatory, New Jersey Institute of Technology, philip.r.goode@njit.edu (UTC-4 hours)
Enric Pallé, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), La Laguna, Spain, and Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), La Laguna, Spain, epalle@iac.es (UTC+1 hour)
Steven Koonin, New York University, steven.koonin@nyu.edu (UTC-4 hours)

 This press release and accompanying multimedia are available online at:
https://news.agu.org/press-release/Earth-is-dimming-due-to-climate-change

---

JOURNAL

Geophysical Research Letters

DOI

10.1029/2021GL094888 

ARTICLE TITLE

Earth's Albedo 1998–2017 as Measured From Earthshine

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-Aug-2021

TANSTAAFL

Fox News anchor attacks New Jersey's school nutrition program: 'Kids are going to grow up thinking lunch is free!'

Brad Reed

RAW STORY
September 30, 2021



Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum on Thursday expressed distress at the state of New Jersey for having school nutrition programs in which children do not have to pay money to get fed.

While speaking with former Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow, MacCallum complained about giving out school lunches without requiring payment.

"What kills me is now that there's a free lunch program in New Jersey, and it's for everyone!" she said. "Even if you don't need help to send your child's lunch to school. So those kids are all going to grow up thinking school lunch is free! And then, God help the person who comes along and tries to take that away, Larry!"

Kudlow then said that the lunch program wasn't "free" and predicted New Jersey residents would "pay for it with higher taxes and higher inflation."

He also said that "commonsense Americans know that this is not right, they don't want big government socialism!"

Watch the video below.

TANSTAAFL by Robert Heinlein from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=735

TANSTAAFL by Robert Heinlein from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. TANSTAAFL. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. An essential element in the basic Heinlein philosophy; this is (as far as I know) the first appearance of this acronym. "Gospodin," he said presently, "you used an odd word earlier--odd to me, I mean..."

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TANSTAAFL

• Overview
• History and usage
• See also
• Notes

The "free lunch" refers to the once-common tradition of saloons in the United States providing a "free" lunch to patrons who had purchased at least one drink. Many foods on offer were high in salt (e.g., ham, cheese, and salted crackers), so those who ate them ended up buying a lot of beer. Rudyard Kipling, writing in 1891, noted how he

Head in the sky: 8-year-old Brazilian girl dubbed world's youngest astronomer

Agence France-Presse
September 30, 2021

Brazilian 8-year-old astronomer Nicole Oliveira poses for a picture with her telescope in Fortaleza, Brazil, on September 21, 2021

 Jarbas Oliveira AFP

When Nicole Oliveira was just learning to walk, she would throw up her arms to reach for the stars in the sky.

Today, at just eight years of age, the Brazilian girl is known as the world's youngest astronomer, looking for asteroids as part of a NASA-affiliated program, attending international seminars and meeting with her country's top space and science figures.

In Oliveira's room, filled with posters of the solar system, miniature rockets and Star Wars figures, Nicolinha, as she is affectionately known, works on her computer studying images of the sky on two large screens.

The project, called Asteroid Hunters, is meant to introduce young people to science by giving them a chance to make space discoveries of their own.

It is run by the International Astronomical Search Collaboration, a citizen science program affiliated with NASA, in partnership with Brazil's ministry of science.

Beaming with pride, Nicolinha told AFP she has already found 18 asteroids.

"I will give them the names of Brazilian scientists, or members of my family, like my mom or my dad," said the lively girl with dark brown hair and a high-pitched voice.

Eight-year-old Nicole Oliveira, known as Nicolinha, has been dubbed the world's youngest astronomer 

Jarbas Oliveira AFP

If her findings are certified, which may take several years, Oliveira will become the youngest person in the world to officially discover an asteroid, breaking the record of 18-year-old Italian Luigi Sannino.

"She really has an eye. She immediately spots points in the images that look like asteroids and often advises her classmates when they are not sure they have really found any", said Heliomarzio Rodrigues Moreira, Oliveira's astronomy teacher at a private school in the city of Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil, which she is attending thanks to a scholarship.

"The most important thing is that she shares her knowledge with other children. She contributes to the dissemination of science," added Rodrigues Moreira.

- 'Passion for astronomy' -

Nicolinha's family relocated to Fortaleza from their hometown of Maceio, about 1,000 kilometers away, at the beginning of this year, after Nicolinha received a scholarship to attend the prestigious school. Her father, a computer scientist, was allowed to keep his job and telework.

"I would also like all children in Brazil to have access to science," says Nicole Oliveira 

"When she was two, she would raise her arms to the sky and ask me, 'Mom, give me a star,' said her mother, Zilma Janaca, 43, who works in the craft industry.

"We understood that this passion for astronomy was serious when she asked us for a telescope as a birthday present when she turned four. I didn't even really know what a telescope was," Janaca added.

Nicolinha was so set on getting a telescope that she told her parents she would swap it for all her future birthday parties. Still, such a gift was too expensive for the family and the girl got it only when she turned 7 and all her friends pooled money for the purchase, her mother said.

As she continued her studies, Nicolinha enrolled in an astronomy course that had to lower its age limit for students down from 12.

On her YouTube channel, Nicolinha has interviewed influential figures like the Brazilian astronomer Duilia de Mello, who took part in the discovery of a supernova called SN 1997D.


Last year, Oliveira traveled to Brasilia to meet with the minister of science as well as with the astronaut Marcos Pontes, the only Brazilian to date to have been to space.

Brazilian 8-year-old astronomer Nicole Oliveira works on her computer at her house trying to discover asteroids as part of a NASA-affiliated educational program

 Jarbas Oliveira AFP

As for her own ambitions, Nicolinha wants to become an aerospace engineer.

"I want to build rockets. I would love to go to the Kennedy Space Center at NASA in Florida to see their rockets," she said.

"I would also like all children in Brazil to have access to science," she says.

© 2021 AFP