It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Endangered turtles found slaughtered in Malaysia
Wildlife officials found the green turtles last Friday during patrols near the city of Semporna, in Sabah state.
PHOTO: AFP PUBLISHED OCT 4, 2021 ST Asian Insider: Malaysia Edition
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Eleven endangered turtles have been found slaughtered off the Malaysian part of Borneo island, with members of an indigenous, sea-dwelling community suspected of targeting them for food, officials said on Monday (Oct 4).
Wildlife officials found the green turtles last Friday during patrols near the city of Semporna, in Sabah state.
They also found sacks of suspected turtle meat, a stove, and a knife at the scene, Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said.
Efforts are ongoing to catch the perpetrators but none have been arrested.
It is a crime in Malaysia to target protected turtles, punishable by jail terms and fines.
The department said such crimes in the area are usually committed by the Bajau Laut, a community of sea-dwelling nomads who typically live on boats off Borneo.
The massive island is shared between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.
Green turtles are one of the largest sea turtles, and are classified as endangered by protection group the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
They face multiple threats, including being targeted by poachers, caught in fishing gear, and having their eggs harvested.
Muqtada al-Sadr set to win Iraq vote, former PM al-Maliki second
Initial results amid record low turnout suggest that the grievances that drove people to the streets in 2019 are unlikely to be addressed.
Iraq's Shia groups have dominated governments and government formation since the US-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Sunni leader Saddam Hussein
[File: Karim Kadim/AP] 11 Oct 2021
Shia Muslim religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s party is set to be the biggest winner in Iraq’s parliamentary election, increasing the number of seats he holds, according to initial results, officials and a spokesperson for the Sadrist Movement.
Former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki looked set to have the next largest win among Shia parties, the initial results showed on Monday.
Iraq’s Shia groups have dominated governments and government formation since the US-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Sunni leader Saddam Hussein and catapulted the Shia majority and the Kurds to power.
Sunday’s election was held several months early, in response to mass protests in 2019 that toppled a government and showed widespread anger against political leaders whom many Iraqis said have enriched themselves at the expense of the country.
But a record low turnout of 41 percent suggested that an election billed as an opportunity to wrest control from the ruling elite would do little to dislodge sectarian religious parties in power since 2003.
A count based on initial results from several Iraqi provinces plus the capital Baghdad, verified by local government officials, suggested al-Sadr had won more than 70 seats, which if confirmed could give him considerable influence in forming a government.
A spokesperson for al-Sadr’s office said the number was 73 seats. Local news outlets published the same figure.
An official at Iraq’s electoral commission said al-Sadr had come first but did not immediately confirm how many seats his party had won.
The initial results also showed that pro-reform candidates who emerged from the 2019 protests had gained several seats in the 329-member parliament.
Iran-backed parties with links to militias accused of killing some of the nearly 600 people who died in the protests took a blow, winning fewer seats than in the last election in 2018, according to the initial results and local officials.
Al-Sadr has increased his power over Iraq since coming first in the 2018 election where his coalition won 54 seats.
The unpredictable populist religious leader has been a dominant figure and often kingmaker in Iraqi politics since the US invasion.
He has opposed all foreign interference in Iraq, whether by the United States, against which he fought an armed uprising after 2003, or by neighbouring Iran, which he has criticised for its close involvement in Iraqi politics.
Al-Sadr, however, is regularly in Iran, according to officials close to him, and has called for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, where Washington maintains a force of about 2,500 in a continuing fight against ISIL (IS
Speaking from Baghdad, Iraq analyst Ali Anbori said that al-Sadr’s victory was not a surprise.
“Muqtada has been working a great deal to win a lead in the election. They [the Sadrists] have a good election machine, and they use all kinds of means to achieve their goals,” Anbori told Al Jazeera.
“Also, Muqtada isn’t so far away from Iran himself. Eventually, all groups will sit together and form a government under the umbrella of the Iranian regime,” he added.
“Muqtada has been the main political player in Iraq since 2005,” said Anbori, explaining that no Iraqi prime minister has taken that position without the tacit consent of al-Sadr.
Anbori said however that with “al-Sadr and his group being influential players accused of corruption,” he did not expect al-Sadr to address people’s grievances that took them the streets during the 2019 protest movement. New law, same big parties
Elections in Iraq since 2003 have been followed by protracted negotiations that can last months and serve to distribute government posts among the dominant parties.
The result on Monday is not expected to dramatically alter the balance of power in Iraq or in the wider region.
Sunday’s vote was held under a new law billed by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi as a way to loosen the grip of established political parties and pave the way for independent, pro-reform candidates. Voting districts were made smaller, and the practice of awarding seats to lists of candidates sponsored by parties was abandoned.
But many Iraqis did not believe the system could be changed and chose not to vote.
The official turnout figure of just 41 percent suggested the vote had failed to capture the imagination of the public, especially younger Iraqis who demonstrated in huge crowds two years ago.
“I did not vote. It’s not worth it,” Hussein Sabah, 20, told the Reuters news agency in Iraq’s southern port Basra. “There is nothing that would benefit me or others. I see youth that have degrees with no jobs. Before the elections, [politicians] all came to them. After the elections, who knows?”
Al-Kadhimi’s predecessor Adel Abdul Mahdi resigned after security forces and gunmen killed hundreds of protesters in 2019 in a crackdown on demonstrations. The new prime minister called the vote months early to show that the government was responding to demands for more accountability.
In practice, powerful parties proved best able to mobilise supporters and candidates effectively, even under the new rules.
Iraq has held five parliamentary elections since the fall of Saddam. Rampant sectarian violence unleashed during the US occupation has abated, and ISIL fighters who seized a third of the country in 2014 were defeated in 2017.
But many Iraqis say their lives have yet to improve. Infrastructure lies in disrepair and healthcare, education and electricity are inadequate.
Roman noblewoman’s tomb reveals secrets of ancient concrete resilience
Study shows how changing chemistry in Roman mortar strengthens the tomb over time
IMAGE: SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPE IMAGE OF THE TOMB MORTAR. THE INTACT AND WISPY C-A-S-H FEATURES APPEAR AS GRAY, WHILE THE VOLCANIC AGGREGATE APPEARS AS WHITE.view more
CREDIT: MARIE JACKSON
Over time, concrete cracks and crumbles. Well, most concrete cracks and crumbles. Structures built in ancient Rome are still standing, exhibiting remarkable durability despite conditions that would devastate modern concrete.
One of these structures is the large cylindrical tomb of first-century noblewoman Caecilia Metella. New research shows that the quality of the concrete of her tomb may exceed that of her male contemporaries’ monuments because of the volcanic aggregate the builders chose and the unusual chemical interactions with rain and groundwater with that aggregate over two millennia.
“The construction of this very innovative and robust monument and landmark on the Via Appia Antica indicates that she was held in high respect,” says Marie Jackson, research associate professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah, “and the concrete fabric 2,050 years later reflects a strong and resilient presence.”
The research is published in the Journal of the American Ceramic Society and is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-e “Extreme Durability of Cementitious Materials” program.
Who was Caecilia Metella?
The tomb of Caecilia Metella is a landmark on the Via Appia Antica, an ancient Roman road also known as the Appian Way. It consists of a drum-shaped tower that sits on a square base, in total about 70 feet (21 m) tall and 100 feet (29 m) in diameter. Built about 30 BCE, at the transformation of the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire, led by Emperor Augustus, in 27 BCE, the tomb is considered one of the best-preserved monuments on the Appian Way (a castle attached to the tomb was built in the 14th century).
Caecilia herself was a member of a wealthy family, the daughter of a Roman consul. She married into the family of Marcus Lincius Crassus, a Roman general and statesman who formed a famous triumvirate alliance with Julius Caesar and Pompey.
Not much more is known about Caecilia’s life, but the enduring magnitude of her tomb has caught the attention of visitors for centuries, including Lord Byron who wrote of the tomb in "Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage" in the early 1800s. After describing the fortress-like structure, Byron asks:
“What was this tower of strength? within its cave What treasure lay so lock’d, so hid?—A woman’s grave.”
Jackson visited the tomb in 2006 with archaeologist Dottoressa Lisa Gianmichele and with a permit from the Soprintendenza Archeologia di Roma to collect small samples of the mortar for analysis.
“It was a very warm day in June,” she says, “yet when we descended the steps to the sepulchral corridor the air became very cool and moist.” She notes the compact, cohesive, nearly perfectly preserved brick masonry walls and the nearly water-saturated volcanic rock outcrop in the sub-structure.
“The atmosphere was very tranquil,” she adds, “except for the fluttering of pigeons in the open center of the circular structure.”
CAPTION
Lava overlying volcanic tephra in the substructure of the tomb.
CREDIT
Marie Jackson
What is Roman concrete?
Before diving into the particulars, let’s get oriented to the terminology of concrete. Walk along most any sidewalk and you’ll see that concrete is made of an aggregate (rock sands and gravels) and a cement binder. The cement in a modern sidewalk is likely Portland cement, produced by heating limestone and clay minerals in a kiln to form clinker, grinding the clinker and adding a small amount of gypsum.
The tomb is an example of the refined technologies of concrete construction in late Republican Rome that contain no cement. The technologies were described by the architect Vitruvius during the period when the tomb of Caecilia Metella was under construction. Building thick walls of coarse brick or volcanic rock aggregate bound with mortar made with hydrated lime and volcanic tephra (porous fragments of glass and crystals from explosive eruptions), would result in structures that "over a long passage of time do not fall into ruins."
Vitruvius’ words are proven true by the many Roman structures standing today, including Markets of Trajan (built between 100 and 110 CE, more than a century after the tomb) and marine structures like piers and breakwaters, which Jackson and her colleagues have also studied.
What the ancient Romans couldn’t have known, though, is how crystals of the mineral leucite, which is rich in potassium, in the volcanic tephra aggregate would dissolve over time to beneficially remodel and reorganize the cohesion of the concrete.
To understand the mineral structure of the concrete, Jackson teamed up with researchers Linda Seymour and Admir Masic from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Nobumichi Tamura at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. They delved into the microstructure of the concrete with an array of powerful scientific tools.
"Samples such as ancient mortar are highly heterogeneous and complex, made of a mixture of different crystalline phases with grain sizes ranging from a few micrometers down to a few nanometers,” says Tamura, who conducted analyses using the Advanced Light Source beamline 12.3.2. To identify the different minerals in the sample, as well as their orientation, he says, you need an instrument like the microdiffraction beamline at the Advanced Light Source that produces a “micron size, extremely bright and energetic pencil X-ray beam that can penetrate through the entire thickness of the samples, making it a perfect tool for such a study.”
Seymour, who participated in this study as a Ph.D. student at MIT and is now a project consultant with engineering firm Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, conducted additional analyses on the samples.
“Each of the tools that we used added a clue to the processes in the mortar,” she says. Scanning electron microscopy showed the micro-structures of mortar building blocks at the micron scale. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry showed the elements comprising each of those building blocks. “This information allows us to explore different areas in the mortar quickly, and we could pick out building blocks related to our questions,” she says. The trick, she adds, is to precisely hit the same building block target with each instrument when that target is only about the width of a hair.
Why is the concrete at Caecilia’s tomb so unique?
In the thick concrete walls of Caecilia Metella’s tomb, a mortar that contains volcanic tephra from the nearby Pozzolane Rosse pyroclastic flow (a dense mass of hot tephra and gases ejected explosively from the nearby Alban Hills volcano) binds large chunks of brick and lava aggregate. It is much the same mortar used in the walls of the Markets of Trajan 120 years later.
In previous analysis of the Markets of Trajan mortar, Jackson, Tamura and their colleagues explored the “glue” of the mortar, a building block called the C-A-S-H binding phase (calcium-aluminum-silicate-hydrate), along with a mineral called strätlingite. The strätlingite crystals block the propagation of microcracks in the mortar, preventing them from linking together and fracturing the concrete structure.
But the tephra the Romans used for the Caecilia Metella mortar was more abundant in potassium-rich leucite. Centuries of rainwater and groundwater percolating through the tomb’s walls dissolved the leucite and released the potassium into the mortar. In modern concrete, such a flood of potassium would create expansive gels that would cause microcracking and eventual spalling and deterioration of the structure.
In the tomb, however, the potassium dissolved and reconfigured the C-A-S-H binding phase. Seymour says that X-ray microdiffraction and Raman spectroscopy techniques allowed them to explore how the mortar had changed. “We saw C-A-S-H domains that were intact after 2,050 years and some that were splitting, wispy or otherwise different in morphology,” she says. X-ray microdiffraction, in particular, allowed an analysis of the wispy domains down to their atomic structure. “We see that the wispy domains are taking on a nano-crystalline nature,” she says.
The remodeled domains “evidently create robust components of cohesion in the concrete,” says Jackson. In these structures, unlike in the Markets of Trajan, there’s much less strätlingite formed.
Stefano Roascio, the archaeologist in charge of the tomb, notes that the study has a great deal of relevance to understanding other ancient and historic concrete structures that use Pozzolane Rosse aggregate.
Admir Masic, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at MIT, says that the interface between the aggregates and the mortar of any concrete is fundamental to the structure’s durability. In modern concrete, he says, the alkali-silica reactions that form expansive gels may compromise the interfaces of even the most hardened concrete.
“It turns out that the interfacial zones in the ancient Roman concrete of the tomb of Caecilia Metella are constantly evolving through long-term remodeling," he says. “These remodeling processes reinforce interfacial zones and potentially contribute to improved mechanical performance and resistance to failure of the ancient material.”
Can we recreate that effect today?
Jackson and her colleagues are working to replicate some of the Romans’ successes in modern concretes, specifically in a U.S. Department of Energy ARPA-e project to encourage similar beneficially reactive aggregates in concretes that use engineered cellular magmatics in place of the tephra of the ancient Roman structures. The objective, according to ARPA-e, is that a Roman-like concrete could reduce the energy emissions of concrete production and installation by 85% and improve the 50-year lifespan of modern marine concretes four-fold.
“Focusing on designing modern concretes with constantly reinforcing interfacial zones might provide us with yet another strategy to improve the durability of modern construction materials,” Masic says. “Doing this through the integration of time-proven ‘Roman wisdom’ provides a sustainable strategy that could improve the longevity of our modern solutions by orders of magnitude.”
Animation legend Ruthie Tompson, who worked on Disney’s first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, has died aged 111.
The artist died ‘peacefully in her sleep’ at her home at the Motion Picture and Television Fund in Woodland Hills, California, on Sunday, according to Variety.
Disney’s co-executive chairman Bob Iger said in a statement: ‘Ruthie was a legend among animators, and her creative contributions to Disney — from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to The Rescuers —- remain beloved classics to this day.
‘While we will miss her smile and wonderful sense of humour, her exceptional work and pioneering spirit will forever be an inspiration to us all.’
Tompson’s career at Disney was written in the stars, as when she moved to Los Angeles at the age of 14, her family ended up living on the same block as Walt and Roy Disney’s uncle Robert, and lived near the Disney Bros. Studio on Kingswell Avenue.
She worked at The Walt Disney Company for nearly 40 years, beginning her career as a painter in the studio’s Ink & Paint Department.
Tompson worked on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Picture: Disney) She worked on Disney’s first full-length animated feature, the beloved Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. in 1937, before moving on to review animation cels as final checker.
Tompson then progressed to animation checking and scene planning in 1948. In her career at Disney, she worked on legendary films including Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Sleeping Beauty, Mary Poppins, The Aristocrats and Robin Hood.
Tompson retired from Disney after working on The Rescuers in 1975.
In 1952, Tompson was among the first three women to be admitted into the Hollywood camera union when she was invited to join IATSE Local 659, and was named a Disney Legend in 2000 for her extensive work at the studio.
Tompson – who was born in 1910, spoke at D23 last year to mark her 110th birthday, and said: ‘Have fun. Try to do as much as you can for yourself. Remember all the good things in life.’
The star was a lifelong fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers as well as Disney, and is survived by two nieces, Judy Weiss and Calista Tonelli; and a nephew, Pierce Butler III.
AW WAS AS PHILOSOPHICAL AS THE MATRIX TRILOGY
Marvel fans celebrate ‘amazing’ casting of Will Poulter as Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy 3
BACK WHEN COMICS WERE 20 CENTS!!!
‘Welcome to the Guardians family, Will Poulter. He’s an amazing actor and wonderful guy’ said director James Gunn
Marvel fans are excited by the news of actor Will Poulter being cast as Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3.
The news was confirmed by director James Gunn on Twitter.
He wrote: “As you guys know I often strike down false rumours, so… um… Welcome to the Guardians family, Will Poulter. He’s an amazing actor and wonderful guy. See you in a couple weeks.”
Gunn first teased Warlock’s arrival to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2017, during an end-credits scene for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.
Few other details about the third part of the film have been released. However, Poulter is expected to join familiar cast members like Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillan, and Pom Klementieff.
Many fans were thrilled by the news, sharing their thoughts on social media.
“Will Poulter has been cast as Adam Warlock in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3! Will is a phenomenal young actor and I can’t wait to see him bring Adam to life for many years to come!” Complex’s Matt Ramos wrote.
Comicbook’s Adam Barnhardt added: “Will Poulter’s Adam Warlock will probably lead the Annihilators or Guardians 2.0 (sorry Quasar) and that’s pretty neat.”
Many people have high expectations from Poulter.
“I feel like Will Poulter as Adam Warlock is going to be something we’ll all joke about before he turns out to be amazing in the role. I’m excited to see how he does,” wrote one person.
The Guardians are set to return in a holiday special to be released on Disney+ around next Christmas.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special will be followed by the theatrical release of the third Guardians film, midway through 2023.
Asked on Twitter what fans could expect from the festive special, Gunn responded: “In my incredibly subjective & admittedly often odd opinion, we’ll be introducing one of the greatest MCU characters of all time.”
The filmmaker had previously confirmed that the film will take place within the main canon of the MCU and will set up some of the events of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3.
A TOTAL BODY SHOCK WITH LONG TERM IMPACT
WILDER'S PUNCH RIPPLES THROUGH FURY'S BODY
It was no surprise that the Brit struggled to regain his composure and balance for the rest of that round, yet from the start of the fifth onwards he displayed his tremendous powers of recovery once again.
Just as he did in their first bout, when he returned to his feet in dramatic fashion after being floored in the 12th round, Fury rallied back in stunning fashion to eventually go on and knock Wilder out.
Biden marks National Coming Out Day with an attack on Republican states' 'anti-LGBTQ laws' and a push to sign the Equality Act
'Despite the extraordinary progress our nation has made, our work to ensure the full promise of equality is not yet done,' Biden said in a statement
'Anti-LGBTQ+ bills still proliferate in state legislatures,' the president continued
The House passed the Equality Act in February but the Senate has not yet taken it up Republicans claim the bill could infringe on religious liberty
President Biden issued a statement to celebrate National Coming Out Day as he slammed anti-LGBTQ bills in GOP-led states and pushed for Congress to pass the Equality Act.
Biden already signed an executive order on his first day in office that outlined protections for gay and trans people in housing, healthcare and education
The House passed the Equality Act in February with three Republican votes, and the Senate has not yet taken it up.
The bill would amend existing civil rights law to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected classes, and would extend to employment, housing, loan applications, education, public accommodations and other areas.
Republicans said the bill could infringe on religious liberty.
Some warned that faith-based adoption agencies seeking to place children with a married mother and father could be forced to close, or that private schools would have to hire staff whose conduct violates tenets of the school's faith.
'Today and every day, I want every member of the LGBTQ+ community to know that you are loved and accepted just the way you are,' Biden said on Monday.
Biden already signed an executive order on his first day in office that outlined protections for gay and trans people in housing, healthcare and education. It called on federal agencies to review existing regulations and revise them if necessary to underline that 'sex' as a protected characteristic included sexual orientation and gender identity.
He also signed an executive order reversing a Trump-era ban on most transgender people serving in the military.
Afghan interpreter who helped rescue Biden in 2008 evacuated from Afghanistan
“Please do not forget me and my family," Khalili had pleaded to Biden.
An Afghan interpreter who helped rescue then Sen. Joe Biden during a congressional delegation visit to Afghanistan in 2008 has been evacuated from the country, the State Department and the nonprofit that coordinated his travel confirmed to ABC News on Monday.
The interpreter and his family were among more than 200 "at-risk" people in Pakistan who have now been moved "to safety," the Human First Coalition said in a statement.
The organization, comprised of volunteers efforting evacuations, thanked Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the State Department for their help facilitating their travel. It said Blinken held late-night phone calls and helped coordinate a "path" out of Pakistan for the group. It also thanked Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan for welcoming the evacuees after they first got out of Afghanistan..
During his 2008 visit to Afghanistan, a helicopter carrying Biden, along with then-Sens. John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, made an emergency landing because of a snowstorm. A group of U.S. service members and their Afghan partners helped rescue them over land, including a man identified as Aman Khalili by the Wall Street Journal, which first reported his story.
After Biden ended the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and withdrew all troops and personnel in August, Khalili pleaded for help getting out -- sharing this message for Biden with ABC News: "Please do not forget me and my family. Please find a way to get me out."
In a statement to ABC News on Monday, the State Department also confirmed Khalili and his family had successfully been evacuated from Afghanistan and had "initiated onward travel from Pakistan."
"They did so with extensive and high-level engagement and support from the U.S. government, and we are grateful for the many others who also supported him along the way," a spokesperson from the Department of State told ABC News.
Khalili was one of thousands of Afghans who worked for the U.S. military and diplomatic mission, but had not been able to get a Special Immigrant Visa for their service. It's unclear whether he was granted a visa now and where he and his family are headed.
AFGHANISTAN
Ghani’s Power Monopoly, Fleeing Caused State Collapse: Abdullah
Abdullah said the peace element in the Doha agreement between the United States and the Islamic Emirate was very weak.
Abdullah Abdullah, the former chairperson of the High Council for National Reconciliation, said that former president Ashraf Ghani’s fleeing from the country left Afghanistan in chaos and resulted in the collapse of the government.
Talking at the India Today Conclave 2021, Abdullah said the culmination of a number of issues caused the state to collapse, adding Ghani was part of those issues.
According to Abdullah, Ghani’s distrust toward political leaders, the fraudulent elections and corruption all paved the way for what happened in August.
He said there were “so many flaws in our own system, bad elections one after another, Ghani not trusting people and mistrust between him and the leadership, (and) corruption were some of the factors.”
He also said the peace agreement signed between the United States and the Islamic Emirate in Doha did not help the peace process to succeed.
“At the same time when the US signed a deal with the Taliban under the Doha Agreement, the peace element of it was very weak," he added.
Ashraf Ghani fled the country on August 15, the day the forces of the Islamic Emirate arrived at the entrance to Kabul and later entered the city.
Two days after his fleeing, Reuters reported that Ghani had transferred out $169 million in cash.
Recently, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) office said it is about to launch an investigation into the case.
Why the United States dominates the Nobels
By Issam AHMED
AFP Published October 12, 2021 Physics co-winner Syukuro Manabe, who left Japan in the 1950s (AS A CHILD) and did his groundbreaking work on climate models at Princeton, told reporters that in America, he was able to go where his curiosity led him, which was key to his success -
Copyright AFP OLIVER BUNIC
No fewer than eight of this year’s 13 Nobel winners were American citizens, extending a historic trend tied to the strength of US academia and its ability to attract top world talent.
American universities consistently dominate “Global top 100” rankings, with a mix of private “Ivy Leagues” with lavish endowments and prestigious state colleges.
Since the first Nobels were awarded in 1901, the US has racked up 400 medals, followed by the United Kingdom with 138 and Germany with 111 — these figures include people affiliated with multiple countries.
“I’m really appreciative of the opportunities that have been given to me in this country,” Ardem Patapoutian, co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Medicine prize for his work on the nerve receptors related to touch, said of the United States at a press conference after his win.
The Armenian-American, who grew up in Lebanon, credited his success to the public-funded University of California system, where he received his bachelors and did his post-doc, as well as the Scripps Research Institute where he has been based for two decades.
The University of California is also home to his co-winner David Julius, of UC San Francisco. In all, UC staff and faculty have won 70 Nobels — one shy of the total won by France, the fourth-leading country. – Basic research –
This year’s Physics Prize co-winner Syukuro Manabe, who left Japan in the 1950s and did his groundbreaking work on climate models at Princeton in New Jersey, told reporters that in America, he was able to go where his curiosity led him, which was key to his success.
Chemistry co-winner David MacMillan relocated to the United States from Scotland in the 1990s, and is also a professor at Princeton — where Filipino-American Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa earned her bachelors in 1986.
Monday’s Economics Prize was shared by Canadian-American David Card, Israeli-American Joshua Angrist — both at Princeton — and Dutch-American Guido Imbens, who is at Stanford.
Funding for basic research, which is defined as study for the aim of improving scientific theories or understanding of subjects, is at the heart of America’s wins, David Baltimore, co-winner of the 1975 Nobel Prize in medicine, told AFP.
This is a “trailing indicator” because, compared to applied research, the dividends can pay out years or decades later, often in unpredictable ways.
“It’s also the strength of our research institutes and universities that goes back to the founding of Harvard so many centuries ago, and their continued support with no breaks,” added Baltimore, now president emeritus and distinguished professor of biology at Caltech.
American emphasis on basic research traces back to the aftermath of World War II and the creation of the National Science Foundation in 1950, which continues to coordinate federal funding to universities today.
Philanthropy and private endowments also play an ever-growing role in financing.
While China is catching up to the US in terms of total research funding ($496 billion versus $569 billion adjusted for purchasing power parity in 2017), it has challenges linked to academic freedom and ability to attract top talent, said H.N. Cheng, president of the American Chemical Society.
– Rewarding youth and migrants –
Just as rich countries with strong sports infrastructure dominate international competitions like the Olympics, being the world’s number one economy makes the United States a scientific powerhouse.
“A scientist for example will find more job opportunities not only in academia, but also industry, government labs and other opportunities,” Cheng told AFP.
Marc Kastner, an emeritus professor of physics at MIT, added that US universities have a long history of rewarding bright young researchers with their own labs.
“In places like Europe and in Japan, there would be big groups led by a very senior professor and it wasn’t until that person retired that a younger person stepped in, and by that time they don’t necessarily have their best ideas anymore,” he said.
For example, Harvard neurobiologist Catherine Dulac, who won the 2021 Breakthrough Prize for her work on parental instinct, decided against returning to France in her twenties for this very reason, as well as gender bias, she told AFP last year.
Looking ahead, some worry that falling immigration could challenge US pre-eminence.
“The US has built a phenomenal culture of welcoming,” Stefano Bertuzzi, who migrated from Italy and is today CEO of the American Society for Microbiology, told AFP.
Lately, however, he and Kastner have been worried by rising trends of xenophobia and nationalism, which are making the United States less of a choice destination.
This is particularly true for Chinese students, who came under the scanner during the administration of former president Donald Trump over espionage concerns
