A Russian spacecraft pushed the space station out of position and sent astronauts into emergency mode — again

Morgan McFall-Johnsen and Aylin Woodward
Oct 15, 2021

A Soyuz spaceship carrying a Russian film crew and a cosmonaut approaches the International Space Station, October 5, 2021. NASA

A Russian spaceship fired its thrusters and briefly pushed the International Space Station out of position on Friday morning.

NASA told its astronauts to follow emergency procedures, according to The New York Times.

A Russian film crew is on the ISS and scheduled to take the errant spaceship back to Earth on Sunday.

A Russian spacecraft pushed the International Space Station out of position on Friday morning, prompting astronauts to go into emergency mode. It's the second time Russian hardware has caused such an incident since July.

Cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky was conducting engine tests on the Soyuz spaceship, which is docked to the ISS, on Friday morning when its thrusters fired too aggressively. That moved the station out of its normal orientation, The New York Times reported.

The precise cause is not yet clear, but NASA mission control in Houston told its astronauts that the station had lost control of its orientation and instructed them to follow emergency procedures.

Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, later said in a statement that the ISS orientation was "temporarily changed" but "swiftly recovered," and that nobody on board was in danger.

Neither agency has revealed how much the space station moved, or for how long.

The International Space Station in orbit above Earth. NASA/Roscosmos

"As you can well imagine, when things start going off the rails like that, there's enough noise on the radar that the clarity of what actually happened is a bit of a mystery," NASA flight director Timothy Creamer told US astronauts after the Soyuz engines stopped firing, according to the Times.

"We think — and we haven't got confirmation — we think the thrusters stopped firing because they reached their prop limit," Creamer said, according to the Times ("prop" usually refers to propellant). "Moscow is checking into it and doing their data analysis."

In addition to astronauts and cosmonauts living on the orbiting laboratory, a Russian actress and director are currently onboard filming a movie. They launched on October 5 and are scheduled to return to Earth on Sunday, using the spaceship that caused the incident.

NASA mission control mentioned that the incident delayed a film shoot in the space station's cupola window, according to the Times. It's unclear if this incident will affect the Russian film crew's schedule for returning to Earth or the spaceship's ability to make the trip.

A different Russian spacecraft flipped the ISS upside down in July

A screenshot from NASA's livestream shows the Nauka module approaching its port on the International Space Station, July 29, 2021. 

NASA via Youtube

This is the second time this year that a Russian spacecraft has pushed the ISS out of position. Roscosmos launched a new module, called Nauka, to the ISS in July. Shortly after it docked to the station, Nauka began unexpectedly firing its thrusters, trying to pull itself away from the football-field-sized station. A tug of war ensued between the errant module and the four gyroscopes that typically keep the ISS steady.

Nauka's thrusters wound up spinning the ISS around 540 degrees and flipping it upside down before flight controllers regained control an hour later.

The crew was never in danger during that incident, according to NASA. They didn't even feel the station move or shake.

That said, Zebulon Scoville, who was in charge of NASA mission control that day, told the Times that it was the first time he'd had to declare a "spacecraft emergency" in his seven years as a flight director.

NASA defines such an emergency as "an anomalous state" that would result in the loss of the entire space station if it were to continue.

"We knew we had a limited amount of time," Scoville said.

Aylin Woodward contributed reporting.

THE CAPITALIST VERSION OF AUTOGESTION

Mental health and wellbeing is boosted by employee voice

ARTICLE BY: Ann-Marie Conway, 

Associate Director Employee Ownership - Seetec

 | Published: 17 OCTOBER 2021

MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES INCLUDING ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION INCREASED SIGNIFICANTLY DURING THE COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS, WITH THE UK CHARITY THE HEALTH FOUNDATION EARLIER THIS YEAR REPORTING THAT DEPRESSION RATES HAD DOUBLED SINCE THE PANDEMIC BEGAN. THOSE IN PRECARIOUS ECONOMIC POSITIONS AND GROUPS INCLUDING THE YOUNG, DISABLED AND WOMEN WERE DISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECTED.

Many of these disadvantaged groups are supported by employee-owned Seetec Group, which operates across the UK and Ireland and helps individuals and communities to fulfil their potential through employment, skills, and rehabilitation services.

During the pandemic employees faced new – and more isolated – ways of working which, presented the group with the challenge of how to maintain the wellbeing of its colleagues, so they could continue to support service users.

It has always been an organisation with strong values, but our employee ownership structure made sure that employee voice was at the centre of our response to the challenges that our service users and our colleagues faced.

The pandemic had an impact on the personal lives of many colleagues, from family members being unwell to not being able to visit and support extended family, members of their households being furloughed creating financial difficulties, to the challenges of home schooling. However, Seetec has benefited from having an established Health and Wellbeing Strategy, and its employee voice has helped to contribute to and implement this.

We have a dedicated employee ownership network of colleagues. They formed a Health and Wellbeing working group to respond to the needs of frontline colleagues, which brought real benefits to our people.

Support included loaning laptops to families to reduce digital exclusion, providing Covid grants for employees with an immediate financial crisis and setting up a safe online space to provide discreet information to anyone facing domestic abuse, mental health or drug and alcohol issues.

This has built upon other successful initiatives such as activity groups, ranging from online yoga and zumba classes to a Strava virtual walking group and mindfulness sessions, plus a vital home school support group helping families with remote learning.

These came from the voice of our people. Our employee ownership structure means that rather than going through a complex approval process, employees had the confidence and authority to put support in place quickly.

When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the first priority was how it could continue to deliver services to those most in need. The expertise and influence of the employee voice empowered the organisation to act quickly and deliver support that works, reaching the most vulnerable and helping to bring communities together.

Employee ownership really sits with our values and beliefs. We work with people in the community, helping them to take ownership of their futures and their lives.

There’s a perfect synergy between that and giving ownership to our colleagues and giving them a say in the future of the organisation.

The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted how the diversity and wisdom of our people improved decision-making in the business and improved outcomes for not just ourselves but our service users.

Despite the pandemic, annual employee engagement survey highlighted a 12% improvement in health and wellbeing scores.

Response to the welfare needs of colleagues during the pandemic has just been highly commended in the ‘Best Health and Wellbeing Initiative – private sector’ category at this year’s CIPD People Management Awards.

Group HR Director Sasha Ashton says: “Our commitment to ensuring that employee owners have a stake and say in Seetec’s destiny means we work in the best interests of service users, while looking after our own people.

“During the pandemic, working together with employee owners has enabled us to deliver support where it is needed the most, leading to improved wellbeing and mental health for all.”

 BUILDING THE NEW SOCIETY WITHIN THE SHELL OF THE OLD

Preamble to the IWW Constitution

The Preamble is the founding document and statement of principles and visions for the IWW. It has not changed considerably since the union’s founding conference in Chicago, 1905. It is a powerful statement of intent which pulls no punches and refuses the compromises and ‘partnership’ attitudes of most contemporary unions. In the context of intensifying employer and government crackdowns on our hard-won pay and conditions, the Preamble resonates as strongly in the contemporary period as it did when it was first written.

 

The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people and the few, who make up the employing class, have all the good things of life.

Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organise as a class, take possession of the means of production, abolish the wage system, and live in harmony with the Earth.

We find that the centering of the management of industries into fewer and fewer hands makes the trade unions unable to cope with the ever growing power of the employing class. The trade unions foster a state of affairs which allows one set of workers to be pitted against another set of workers in the same industry, thereby helping defeat one another in wage wars. Moreover, the trade unions aid the employing class to mislead the workers into the belief that the working class have interests in common with their employers.

These conditions can be changed and the interest of the working class upheld only by an organisation formed in such a way that all its members in any one industry, or in all industries if necessary, cease work whenever a strike or lockout is on in any department thereof, thus making an injury to one an injury to all.

Instead of the conservative motto, “A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work,” we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, “Abolition of the wage system.”

It is the historic mission of the working class to do away with capitalism. The army of production must be organised, not only for everyday struggle with capitalists, but also to carry on production when capitalism shall have been overthrown. By organising industrially we are forming the structure of the new society within the shell of the old.

‘Failed’ former UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock loses UN Africa job just hours after celebrating the appointment online 

16 Oct, 2021 15:35

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Former Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock © Reuters / Matt Dunham 

NOT TIM THE TOOL MAN TAYLOR

   

Former UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock won’t become the special envoy for a United Nations commission working on Africa’s recovery from Covid-19, after the UN suddenly decided not to take his appointment forward.

The job of UN envoy for financial innovation and climate change for the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) was seen as a chance for Hancock to revive his career after his scandalous resignation from the UK government this June.

The 43-year-old was forced to quit his job as health secretary after being photographed kissing a female aide at his office in violation of the coronavirus social distancing rules.

He celebrated the United Nations appointment on Twitter earlier this week, saying that he was honoured to be appointed as a special representative and work “to help African economic recovery from the pandemic and promote sustainable development.”

The former health secretary attached screenshots of a letter from the UN’s under-secretary general, Vera Songwe, to his tweet, in which she praised his “success” in overseeing the Covid-19 response in Britain, as well as his “fiscal and monetary experience.” He also received congratulations on the new job from some of his Conservative Party colleagues. 

However, it turned out on Saturday that the UN gig won’t be happening after all for Hancock, an MP for West Suffolk.

“Hancock’s appointment by the UN Economic Commission for Africa is not being taken forward. ECA has advised him of the matter,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, as cited by media site PassBlue.

The press release on the British politician’s new role in the commission has also apparently been removed from the ECA’s website.

The BBC reported on Saturday that it “understands the organisation has decided not to go ahead with the appointment” of Hancock, who is yet to comment on the matter.

The announcement by Hancock that he was joining the ECA sparked controversy as it coincided with the release of a parliamentary committee report slamming the British government’s response to the pandemic. Among other things, its authors labeled the lockdowns and social distancing rules during the early weeks “one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced.”

UK opposition parties and human rights groups expressed serious doubts surrounding Hancock’s appointment, with Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden saying, “The last thing the African continent needs is a failed British politician. This isn’t the 19th century.” 

Amnesty International noted that while he was health secretary, Hancock “opposed calls to lift intellectual property rights that would allow Covid-19 vaccines to be produced worldwide and ensure access to life-saving vaccines for billions of people.”

It’s unclear if the UN’s decision not to appoint Hancock was motivated by the backlash or other reasons.

Volunteers in the sky watch over migrant rescues by sea


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Migrants navigate on an overcrowded wooden boat in the Central Mediterranean Sea between North Africa and the Italian island of Lampedusa, Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021, as seen from aboard the humanitarian aircraft Seabird. At least 23,000 people have died or disappeared trying to reach Europe since 2014, according to the United Nations' migration agency. Despite the risks, many migrants say they'd rather die trying to reach Europe than be returned to Libya. (AP Photo/Renata Brito)

ABOARD THE SEABIRD (AP) — As dozens of African migrants traversed the Mediterranean Sea on a flimsy white rubber boat, a small aircraft circling 1,000 feet above closely monitored their attempt to reach Europe.

The twin-engine Seabird, owned by the German non-governmental organization Sea-Watch, is tasked with documenting human rights violations committed against migrants at sea and relaying distress cases to nearby ships and authorities who have increasingly ignored their pleas.

On this cloudy October afternoon, an approaching thunderstorm heightened the dangers for the overcrowded boat. Nearly 23,000 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean trying to reach Europe since 2014, according to the United Nations’ migration agency.

“Nour 2, Nour 2, this is aircraft Seabird, aircraft Seabird,” the aircraft’s tactical coordinator, Eike Bretschneider, communicated via radio with the only vessel nearby. The captain of the Nour 2, agreed to change course and check up on the flimsy boat. But after seeing the boat had a Libyan flag, the people refused its assistance, the captain reported back on the crackling radio

“They say they only have 20 liters of fuel left,” the captain, who did not identify himself by name, told the Seabird. “They want to continue on their journey.”

German volunteers Leona Blankenstein, left, and David Lohmueller search from aboard the Seabird, a humanitarian monitoring aircraft, for migrant boats in distress as they fly over the Mediterranean Sea between Libya and the Italian island of Lampedusa, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021. The plane, owned by the German non-governmental organization Sea-Watch, is tasked with documenting human rights violations committed against migrants at sea and relaying distress cases to nearby ships and authorities who have increasingly ignored their pleas. (AP Photo/Renata Brito)

The small boat’s destination was the Italian island of Lampedusa, where tourists sitting in outdoor cafés sipped on Aperol Spritz, oblivious to what was unfolding some 60 nautical miles (111 km/68 miles) south of them on the Mediterranean Sea.

Bretschneider, a 30-year-old social worker, made some quick calculations and concluded the migrants must have departed Libya approximately 20 hours ago and still had some 15 hours ahead of them before they reached Lampedusa. That was if their boat did not fall apart or capsize along the way.

Despite the risks, many migrants and refugees say they’d rather die trying to cross to Europe than be returned to Libya where, upon disembarkation, they are placed in detention centers and often subjected to relentless abuse.

Bretschneider sent the rubber boat’s coordinates to the air liaison officer sitting in Berlin, who then relayed the position (inside the Maltese Search and Rescue zone) to both Malta and Italy. Unsurprisingly to them, they received no response.

Running low on fuel, the Seabird had to leave the scene.

“We can only hope the people will reach the shore at some moment or will get rescued by a European coast guard vessel,” Bretschneider told AP as they made their way back.

The activists have grown used to having their distress calls go unanswered.

For years human rights groups and international law experts have denounced that European countries are increasingly ignoring their international obligations to rescue migrants at sea. Instead, they’ve outsourced rescues to the Libyan Coast Guard, which has a track record of reckless interceptions as well as ties to human traffickers and militias.

“I’m sorry, we don’t speak with NGOs,” a man answering the phone of the Maltese Rescue and Coordination Center told a member of Sea-Watch inquiring about a boat in distress this past June. In a separate call to the Rescue and Coordination Center in Rome, another Sea-Watch member was told: “We have no information to report to you.”

Maltese and Italian authorities did not respond to questions sent by AP.

Trying to get in touch with the Libyan rescue and coordination center is an even greater challenge. On the rare occasion that someone does pick up, the person on the other side of the line often doesn’t speak English.

More than 49,000 migrants have reached Italian shores so far this year according to the Italian Ministry of Interior, nearly double the number of people who crossed in the same time period last year.

Although it is illegal for European vessels to take rescued migrants back to Libya themselves, information shared by the EU’s surveillance drones and planes have allowed the Libyan Coast Guard to considerably increase its ability to stop migrants from reaching Europe. So far this year, it has intercepted roughly half of those who have attempted to leave, returning more than 26,000 men, women and children to Libya.

Sea-Watch has relied on millions of euros from individual donations over several years to expand its air monitoring capabilities as well. It now has two small aircraft that, with a birds-eye view, can find boats in distress much faster than ships can.

Taking off from Lampedusa, which is closer to North Africa than Italy, the planes can reach a distress case relatively quickly if its position is known. But when there are no exact coordinates, they must fly a search pattern, sometimes for hours, and scan the sea with the help of binoculars.

Even when flying low, finding a tiny boat in the vast Mediterranean can strain the most experienced eyes. The three- to four-person crew of volunteers reports every little dot on the horizon that could potentially be people in distress.

“Target at 10 o’clock,” the Seabird’s photographer sitting in the back alerted on a recent flight.

The pilot veered left to inspect it.

“Fishing boat, disregard,” Bretschneider, the tactical coordinator, replied.

In rough seas, breaking waves can play tricks and for brief moments resemble wobbly boats in the distance. Frequently, the “targets” turn out to be nothing at all, and the Seabird returns to land hours later without any new information.

But finding boats in distress is only the first challenge. Getting them rescued is just as difficult, if not harder.

With the absence of state rescue vessels and NGO ships getting increasingly blocked from leaving port, Sea-Watch often relies on the good will of merchant vessels navigating the area. But many are also reluctant to get involved after several commercial ships found themselves stuck at sea for days as they waited for Italy’s or Malta’s permission to disembark rescued migrants. Others have taken them back to Libya in violation of maritime and refugee conventions.

This week, a court in Naples convicted the captain of an Italian commercial ship for returning 101 migrants to Libya in 2018.

Without any state authority, the Seabird can only remind captains of their duty to rescue persons in distress. In this way, Bretschneider recently got an Italian supply vessel to save 65 people from a drifting migrant boat, just moments before the Libyan Coast Guard arrived.

On another mission a few days later, the Seabird returned from its flight without knowing what would happen to the people they had seen on the white rubber boat.

Bretschneider checked his phone at dinner that night, hoping for good news. On the other side of the Mediterranean, 17 bodies had washed up in Western Libya, apparently from a different boat.

The next day the Seabird took off to look for the white rubber boat again, in vain. On their way back, they got a message from land.

The white rubber boat had reached waters near Lampedusa and was picked up by the Italian Coast Guard. The people had made it.

When adaptive radiations collide: Different evolutionary trajectories between and within island and mainland lizard clades

View ORCID ProfileAustin H. Patton, Luke J. Harmon, María del Rosario Castañeda, Hannah K. Frank, View ORCID ProfileColin M. Donihue, View ORCID ProfileAnthony Herrel, and Jonathan B. Losos

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PNAS October 19, 2021 118 (42) e2024451118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2024451118

Contributed by Jonathan B. Losos, December 14, 2020 (sent for review December 14, 2020; reviewed by Michael E. Alfaro and Frank T. Burbrink)
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Significance

Isolated and infrequently colonized, islands harbor many of nature’s most renowned evolutionary radiations. Despite this evolutionary exuberance, island occupation has long been considered irreversible: The much tougher competitive and predatory milieu on mainlands prevents colonization, much less evolutionary diversification, from islands to continents. To test these postulates, we examined neotropical Anolis lizards, asking what happens when mainland and island evolutionary radiations collide. Far from being a dead end, we show that island-to-mainland colonization seeded an extensive radiation that achieved its ecomorphological disparity in ways distinct from their island ancestors. Moreover, when the incumbent and island-derived radiations collided, the ensuing interactions favored the latter, together highlighting a persistent role of both historical contingency and determinism in adaptive radiation.

Abstract

Oceanic islands are known as test tubes of evolution. Isolated and colonized by relatively few species, islands are home to many of nature’s most renowned radiations from the finches of the Galápagos to the silverswords of the Hawaiian Islands. Despite the evolutionary exuberance of insular life, island occupation has long been thought to be irreversible. In particular, the presumed much tougher competitive and predatory milieu in continental settings prevents colonization, much less evolutionary diversification, from islands back to mainlands. 

To test these predictions, we examined the ecological and morphological diversity of neotropical Anolis lizards, which originated in South America, colonized and radiated on various islands in the Caribbean, and then returned and diversified on the mainland.

We focus in particular on what happens when mainland and island evolutionary radiations collide. We show that extensive continental radiations can result from island ancestors and that the incumbent and invading mainland clades achieve their ecological and morphological disparity in very different ways. Moreover, we show that when a mainland radiation derived from island ancestors comes into contact with an incumbent mainland radiation the ensuing interactions favor the island-derived clade.

Anolis
macroevolution
adaptive radiation
convergence
diversification

Footnotes


↵1A.H. and J.B.L. contributed equally to this work.
↵2To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: anthony.herrel@mnhn.fr or losos@wustl.edu.
Accepted August 12, 2021.


This contribution is part of the special series of Inaugural Articles by members of the National Academy of Sciences elected in 2018.


Author contributions: A.H.P., L.J.H., and J.B.L. designed research; A.H.P., M.d.R.C., H.K.F., C.M.D., A.H., and J.B.L. performed research; A.H.P. analyzed data; and A.H.P., L.J.H., A.H., and J.B.L. wrote the paper.


Reviewers: M.E.A., University of California, Los Angeles; and F.T.B., American Museum of Natural History.


The authors declare no competing interest.


See QnAs, e2116186118, in vol. 118, issue 42.


This article contains supporting information online at https://www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.2024451118/-/DCSupplemental.

Data Availability

Scripts and ecological and morphological measurements have been deposited in GitHub (https://github.com/austinhpatton/AnolisRadiation) (80). Ecological, morphological, and all other study data are included in the article and/or supporting information.

REFERENCES ARE IN THE ARTICLE LINKED ABOVE

 

Build Back Smaller? Extinction and Origination Patterns Change After Mass Extinctions

By STANFORD UNIVERSITY OCTOBER 12, 2021

A trilobite fossil from the Ordovician period, which lasted from about 485 to 443 million years ago. A new analysis of marine fossils from most of the past half-billion years shows the usual rules of body size evolution change during mass extinctions and their recoveries. Credit: Smithsonian

A sweeping analysis of marine fossils from most of the past half-billion years shows the usual rules of body size evolution change during mass extinctions and their recoveries. The discovery is an early step toward predicting how evolution will play out on the other side of the current extinction crisis.

Scientists at Stanford University have discovered a surprising pattern in how life reemerges from cataclysm. Research published on October 6, 2021, in Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows the usual rules of body size evolution change not only during mass extinction, but also during subsequent recovery.

Since the 1980s, evolutionary biologists have debated whether mass extinctions and the recoveries that follow them intensify the selection criteria of normal times – or fundamentally shift the set of traits that mark groups of species for destruction. The new study finds evidence for the latter in a sweeping analysis of marine fossils from most of the past half-billion years.

A modern-day species of crinoid known as a feather star.

Whether and how evolutionary dynamics shift in the wake of global annihilation has “profound implications not only for understanding the origins of the modern biosphere but also for predicting the consequences of the current biodiversity crisis,” the authors write.

“Ultimately, we want to be able to look at the fossil record and use it to predict what will go extinct, and more importantly, what comes back,” said lead author Pedro Monarrez, a postdoctoral scholar in Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth). “When we look closely at 485 million years of extinctions and recoveries in the world’s oceans, there does appear to be a pattern in what comes back based on body size in some groups.”

Build back smaller?

The study builds on recent Stanford research that looked at body size and extinction risk among marine animals in groupings known as genera, one taxonomic level above species. That study found smaller-bodied genera on average are equally or more likely to than their larger relatives to go extinct.

The new study found this pattern holds true across 10 classes of marine animals for the long stretches of time between mass extinctions. But mass extinctions shake up the rules in unpredictable ways, with extinction risks becoming even greater for smaller genera in some classes, and larger genera losing out in others.

Fossilized crinoids, or sea lilies.

The results show smaller genera in a class known as crinoids – sometimes called sea lilies or fairy money – were substantially more likely to be wiped out during mass extinction events. In contrast, no detectable size differences between victims and survivors turned up during “background” intervals. Among trilobites, a diverse group distantly related to modern horseshoe crabs, the chances of extinction decreased very slightly with body size during background intervals – but increased about eightfold with each doubling of body length during mass extinction.

When they looked beyond the marine genera that died out to consider those that were the first of their kind, the authors found an even more dramatic shift in body size patterns before and after extinctions. During background times, newly evolved genera tend to be slightly larger than those that came before. During recovery from mass extinction, the pattern flips, and it becomes more common for originators in most classes to be tiny compared to holdover species who survived the cataclysm.

Gastropod genera including sea snails are among a few exceptions to the build-back-smaller pattern. Gastropod genera that originated during recovery intervals tended to be larger than the survivors of the preceding catastrophe. Nearly across the board, the authors write, “selectivity on body size is more pronounced, regardless of direction, during mass extinction events and their recovery intervals than during background times.”

Think of this as the biosphere’s version of choosing starters and benchwarmers based on height and weight more than skill after losing a big match. There may well be a logic to this game plan in the arc of evolution. “Our next challenge is to identify the reasons why so many originators after mass extinction are small,” said senior author Jonathan Payne, the Dorrell William Kirby Professor at Stanford Earth.

Scientists don’t yet know whether those reasons might relate to global environmental conditions, such as low oxygen levels or rising temperatures, or to factors related to interactions between organisms and their local surroundings, like food scarcity or a dearth of predators. According to Payne, “Identifying the causes of these patterns may help us not only to understand how our current world came to be but also to project the long-term evolutionary response to the current extinction crisis.”

Fossil data

This is the latest in a series of papers from Payne’s research group that harness statistical analyses and computer simulations to uncover evolutionary dynamics in body size data from marine fossil records. In 2015, the team recruited high school interns and undergraduates to help calculate the body size and volume of thousands of marine genera from photographs and illustrations. The resulting dataset included most fossil invertebrate animal genera known to science and was at least 10 times larger than any previous compilation of fossil animal body sizes.

The group has since expanded the dataset and plumbed it for patterns. Among other results, they’ve found that larger body size has become one of the biggest determinants of extinction risk for ocean animals for the first time in the history of life on Earth.

For the new study, Monarrez, Payne and co-author Noel Heim of Tufts University used body size data from marine fossil records to estimate the probability of extinction and origination as a function of body size across most of the past 485 million years. By pairing their body size data with occurrence records from the public Paleobiology Database, they were able to analyze 284,308 fossil occurrences for ocean animals belonging to 10,203 genera. “This dataset allowed us to document, in different groups of animals, how evolutionary patterns change when a mass extinction comes along,” said Payne.

Future recovery

Other paleontologists have observed that smaller-bodied animals become more common in the fossil record following mass extinctions – often calling it the “Lilliput Effect,” after the kingdom of tiny people in Jonathan Swift’s 18th-century novel Gulliver’s Travels.

Findings in the new study suggest animal physiology offers a plausible explanation for this pattern. The authors found the classic shrinking pattern in most classes of marine animals with low activity levels and slower metabolism. Species in these groups that first evolved right after a mass extinction tended to have smaller bodies than those that originated during background intervals. In contrast, when new species evolved in groups of more active marine animals with faster metabolism, they tended to have larger bodies in the wake of extinction and smaller bodies during normal times.

The results highlight mass extinction as a drama in two acts. “The extinction part changes the world by removing not just a lot of organisms or a lot of species, but by removing them in various selective patterns. Then, recovery isn’t just equal for everyone who survives. A new set of biases go into the recovery pattern,” Payne said. “It’s only by combining those two that you can really understand the world that we get five or 10 million years after an extinction event.”

Reference: “Mass extinctions alter extinction and origination dynamics with respect to body size” by Pedro M. Monarrez, Noel A. Heim and Jonathan L. Payne, 6 October 2021, Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1681

Payne is also a professor of geological sciences and, by courtesy, of biology.

Support for this research was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation and Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences.

How Astronauts Used A Teabag To Save $150 Billion Space Station 400 Km Above Earth

Bharat Sharma

Updated on Oct 13, 2021

Highlights

After a leak was found in one of the modules of the International Space Station which usually flies 400 kilometres above the Earth, astronauts were left in a fix trying to find a quick solution in case things were to escalate

Usually, the space station leaks air from some of the modules throughout its journey in Earth's orbit, which takes 93 minutes per orbit

Each day, the station loses more than 250 grams (0.6 pounds) of air each day during its 15.5 orbits around Earth, but that's not always the case, as evident in the case of this leak

The International Space Station is a potential hazard due to many reasons, with its age being one of the key factors. In 2020, astronauts used a teabag to avert a major disaster on the space station by fixing a hole in one of the modules.

After a leak was found in one of the modules of the International Space Station which usually flies 400 kilometres above the Earth, astronauts were left in a fix trying to find a quick solution in case things were to escalate.

Usually, the space station leaks air from some of the modules throughout its journey in Earth's orbit, which takes 93 minutes per orbit. Each day, the station loses more than 250 grams (0.6 pounds) of air each day during its 15.5 orbits around Earth, but that's not always the case, as evident in the case of this leak.

NASA
How astronauts detected the leak on ISS

Over the days, the station started losing more than a kilogram every day. Astronauts from different countries - USA, Japan, Russia, Canada, and Europe are usually aboard the station. When the leak occurred, they were compelled to look for its source in the station.

To ascertain its source, they sealed all the modules and camped together in one of the extreme end modules of the International Space Station called Zvezda in the Russian part of the station.

Unsplash

Also read: Is ISS Dying? Former NASA Astronaut Says Cracks On Space Station Are Serious

To this end, they tested each section of the space station for leaks over the duration of four days. Unfortunately, their experiment didn't bear any fruits.

The astronauts then realised that the model they were temporarily waiting was the one leaking. The Zvezda module, launched in 2000 is especially important on the ISS because it supports the station's life support systems in case of an emergency on the space station.

The teabag comes in!

In October 2020, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin saved the day using a teabag. After setting up a few cameras in the Zvezda module, the cosmonaut cut open the teabag, and sealing its doors. Not much later, they witnessed the tea leaves slowly floating towards a tiny scratch on the metal wall of the space station.

It was no scratch, turns out! The astronauts found it to be a crack through which the air was escaping the space station, which were sealed on the spot using tape and foam. Later, astronauts completely sealed the hole using a drill and applying sealing paste, as per Roscosmos.

NASA

Also read: Cracks Found In The International Space Station: Are Astronauts Safe?

The International Space Station is a costly affair. It was built with costs as high as $150 billion before launching on November 20, 1998. On follow up costs, it takes about $3-4 billion each year to maintain the International Space Station. The cracks spotted in the station was caused either by metal fatigue or small meteorites.

What do you think about this genius fix by astronauts aboard the International Space Station? Let us know in the comments below. For the latest in the world of science and technology, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

POP-SCI
How to tell science from pseudoscience

Our all-in guide to ferreting out falsehoods.

BY NATALIE WALLINGTON | PUBLISHED OCT 15, 2021

Trying to determine if something is pseudoscience or real science involves taking a close look. 

Michael Longmire / Unsplash

In our increasingly chaotic digital age, disinformation disguised as science is rampant. It’s also getting harder to detect, thanks to new technologies and politically motivated campaigns against commonly acknowledged scientific truths like vaccine effectiveness, the realities of the climate crisis, and more. Navigating the turbulent sea of online scientific and pseudoscientific information requires a sharp eye, a skeptical brain, and an openness to new ideas about the world around us.

Your first exposure to any pseudoscientific claim will almost certainly come in the form of a catchy headline—perhaps a little too catchy. John Gregory, a researcher for the online fact-checking service NewsGuard, warns that fully capitalized words, exclamation points, or strong opinions in the headline of an article are some of the first signs that its contents may be misleading.

“One of the dead giveaways is the use of really emotional language,” he says, adding that the key difference between a factual and misleading story is what evidence its authors use to back up the headline’s claim. This means that your best defense against being duped is to click the link and actually read the article, rather than taking the headline at face value. It’s often difficult for journalists to convey nuance and uncertainty in headlines that are meant to be catchy and brief. The best way to tell whether a headline is accurate, misleading, or downright false is to see for yourself what the article has to say.

Scrutinize the study

Science news is usually based on a specific, detailed study—a feature that sets it apart from other types of news. Ironically, this makes it both easier to verify and easier to fake. On one hand, a primary source like a recently published paper can quickly back up an article’s claims. On the other, many developments in science and medicine are fairly complex, making primary sources difficult for many readers to understand.

[Related: Why scientific studies are growing increasingly inscrutable]

“A lot of these [pseudoscience] sites rely on the fact that people are not going to dig into the studies that they’re citing,” says Gregory. “They might even present them in a way that’s not very accessible in order to give the impression of scientific rigor and lend the claims an air of credibility.”

Given that risk, it’s worthwhile to do a little extra digging into the studies behind science news stories. Keep an eye out for a few simple metrics: a large sample size, the presence of control groups, and appropriate caveats in the researchers’ conclusions. All of these items should be included in the paper’s abstract—the paragraph at the beginning that summarizes the study’s methods and findings. News articles about the study should also mention these details.

“Most scientists are very cautious, always leaving open that opportunity for new data,” says Jessica McDonald, the science editor at FactCheck.org. “In fact, if a scientist is 100 percent certain of something, that’s probably a sign that they may not be giving you accurate information.”

This applies both to quoted experts and primary sources themselves. A reliable scientific study will be forthcoming about its own limitations, the scope of its results, and the need for further investigation. Likewise, a trustworthy scientist usually won’t make sweeping claims about a study’s findings, instead explaining the nuances of new discoveries.

Consider the context

Developments in the field of medicine are frequently falsified or misrepresented. This means you’ll need an extra level of scrutiny to separate fact from fiction. Often, peddlers of false info rely on a small nugget of truth to help support their claims.

“What they usually rely on is misrepresenting smaller lab studies, maybe an animal model study, but no human trial,” Gregory says of articles that purport to reveal miraculous cures to diseases like cancer. “Then, they exaggerate that to say that because [an experimental treatment] killed cancer cells in a lab in a petri dish, it’ll do the same in the human body—and that’s just not true.”

McDonald adds that medical scientific papers are not necessarily accurate just because they are listed on popular preprint servers. Actual publication in a peer-reviewed journal is a promising sign of legitimacy; simple appearance online is not.

“Just because a paper is indexed on PubMed does not mean that it’s been vetted,” she says. “[Databases like PubMed] can be full of a lot of good information, and also some very dubious scientific papers. They’re not necessarily legitimate.”

Check the source

A miracle cure, a government conspiracy, or a shocking revelation are all hallmarks of dubious science news—and they often pop up again and again in the same pseudoscience-peddling outlets. If a scientific claim seems suspicious, it’s worthwhile to see what other types of stories the site is posting and if the publication’s overall character throws up red flags.

“One of the biggest things we depend on [at NewsGuard] is: ‘What is the history of this site and the claims they’ve shared in the past?’” says Gregory. If a website consistently posted anti-vaccine disinformation before the pandemic, for example, it’s not going to be a reliable source of info about the COVID-19 vaccines now.

[Related: Major news outlets are handing the mic to big business on climate issues]

Gregory recommends checking suspicious outlets for information about who writes their articles, who runs the publication, and what organizations they’re associated with. If this information is difficult to find or missing altogether, the source may not be reliable. It’s also important to look beyond a publication’s name to judge its character, says Gregory. Some sites, like the Denver Guardian or the National Vaccine Information Center, rely on legitimate-sounding names to convey authority despite being known peddlers of disinformation and false news, he explained.

Question the motive

Pseudoscience, particularly in the medical field, often aims to serve a specific goal by preying upon the public’s fear. At times, this goal may be simply political—for example, denying the existence of the climate crisis may serve the agenda of a particular political party. But often, the motivation behind pseudoscience is financial in nature.

“When it comes to health misinformation sites, and pseudoscience in general, there’s often this ‘They don’t want you to know this’ mentality,” says Gregory. “The sources using those tactics are often trying to sell you something themselves, whether it be a supplement, a medical treatment, consultations, or sometimes the content itself.”

This is another reason why it’s so important to figure out who exactly owns or controls a publication: they may have a financial motivation that inherently destroys the impartiality that responsible journalists are supposed to practice. Giving an overview of various sore throat remedies isn’t necessarily pseudoscience—but promising that One Miracle Tea will instantly cure sore throats probably is. If an article seems to be steering you toward one solution or treatment without giving an honest look at its pros and cons, its authors might be after your money.

Even if an article isn’t trying to sell you a particular product, following the money can also reveal the motivations behind dubious claims. If possible, do a little research on the outlet itself to learn more about its leadership and funding sources. A lobbying group, a private medical practice, a professional business association, or even an individual person with a strong agenda may be lurking behind the curtain.

Consult the experts

When you can’t quite tell whether a piece of science news is accurate, doing your own digging may be time-consuming or prohibitively complicated. That’s where fact-checkers like NewsGuard, FactCheck.org, and even us right here at Popular Science come in.


Professional fact-checkers and science journalists are trained to ferret out misleading information and expose it for the pseudoscience it is. In addition to presenting carefully-compiled research in a clear, factual way, they can also help shine light on complex topics by directly consulting subject matter experts.

[Related: How to fact-check suspicious science stories for yourself]

“Part of what journalists are doing is reaching out to sources we trust and asking them what they think. People should take that seriously,” says McDonald. “I would [also] challenge people to find news organizations that aren’t necessarily in line with their views, and that are known for being middle-of-the-road.”

Consulting a wide variety of non-partisan sources to get an idea of the scientific consensus is a great way to rely on outside expertise without placing all your faith in one outlet. Maybe one newspaper or website is leading you astray—but it’s unlikely that five, 10, or 15 are all at once.

Trust the court of public opinion

If you’re the type of person who takes everything with a grain of salt, it may be difficult to figure out who to trust on scientific issues. There is no perfect answer: certain individual scientists may be corrupt or misinformed, some government officials may have political agendas, and even trustworthy news outlets occasionally make mistakes. That’s why in addition to trusting the experts on science, you may also find it useful to trust the systems in our society that you recognize to be reliable, like the importance of public reputation and even human nature itself.

“Governments like to look good,” says McDonald. “They don’t want to have their citizens dying.” You may not trust the government in every aspect of your life, but your tax dollars are funding a lot of scientific and medical research conducted by people hoping to improve our lives and protect us from diseases, she explains.

If renowned universities and hospitals were actively spreading misinformation, they would risk ruining their prestigious reputations. The same goes for well-regarded news outlets and the journalists who work for them. The public’s trust is hard to win, and most institutions wouldn’t risk losing it for the sake of one misleading claim. But even if you will never trust large organizations, you can still have faith in individual people.

“Scientists are people too,” McDonald says. “A lot of this ‘evil scientist’ stuff doesn’t make sense if you’ve actually met a scientist. Scientists are just regular people, and they get into this field because… [they] want to help their fellow man.”

Natalie Wallington is a contributing writer for PopSci's DIY section. Her reporting on social and environmental justice has appeared in the Washington Post, Audubon Magazine, VICE News, and elsewhere. In her spare time, she collects stationery and naps on the couch with her retired racing greyhound. Visit her website to see more of her work.

WHEN IS FEMICIDE FUNNY
Free speech or hate speech? 

Netflix at eye of LGBTQ storm

Issued on: 17/10/2021 

Dave Chappelle's Netflix special "The Closer" has plunged the streaming giant into Americas' culture wars as the comedian accuses LGBTQ people of being "too sensitive" Robyn Beck AFP

Los Angeles (AFP)

Netflix has been plunged into America's culture wars by a Dave Chappelle comedy special that raises concerns about free speech and censorship but has been slammed by its own employees as transphobic.

In "The Closer," boundary-pushing mega-star Chappelle responds to critics who have accused him of mocking transgender people in the past by asserting that "gender is a fact" and accusing LGBTQ people of being "too sensitive."

"In our country you can shoot and kill" a Black man, "but you'd better not hurt a gay person's feelings," says the stand-up comic, who is Black.

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While the show has been condemned by LGBTQ groups -- including GLAAD, which cited studies linking stereotypes about minorities to real-world harm -- Netflix has so far stood firm, insisting the show will not be taken down.

But the streaming giant finds itself trapped at the center of arguably its most intense controversy yet.

Chappelle remains hugely popular, at a time when Netflix is competing with rivals such as HBO and Disney in the so-called streaming wars. He commanded a $24 million outlay from Netflix on his latest special, highlighting his appeal to the subscribers on whom the platform depends.

And the affair raises broader questions about acceptable speech -- and the role of entertainment giants such as Netflix in policing it.

"Netflix is no longer a little company that mails out DVDs, it's a vast maker of content that last year spent something like $17 billion," said Stephen Galloway, film and media arts dean at California-based Chapman University.

"This is [Netflix's] first really visible test case. And they stuck their flag in the grounds of free speech versus limiting speech," he added.

- 'Head-to-head' -

In "The Closer," Chappelle describes a US rapper who "punched the LGBTQ community right in the AIDS," compares trans women to the use of Blackface, 

and jokes about threatening to kill a woman and stash her body in his car.

In a leaked memo, content chief Ted Sarandos wrote that "content on screen doesn't directly translate to real-world harm," and so the principle of free speech outweighs any offense taken -- including by its own employees.

Chappelle was paid $24 million for the special, which illustrates his popularity among Netflix subscribers Alex Edelman AFP/File

Still, a group of Netflix employees plans to walk out this week over their bosses' handling of the furore, while one worker was fired for leaking internal data about Chappelle's high fee.

"We understand this employee may have been motivated by disappointment and hurt with Netflix, but maintaining a culture of trust and transparency is core to our company," Netflix said in a statement to AFP.

Sarandos also sought to defend Chappelle's presence on Netflix by pointing to other performers it features such as Hannah Gadsby, whose acclaimed "Nanette" special recounted her horrific experiences of homophobic violence as a lesbian woman.

That earned him an expletive-laden response from Gadsby on Instagram, who labelled Netflix an "amoral algorithm cult."

"You're seeing the Netflix leadership going head-to-head with some of their employees," said Galloway.

"When does Ryan Murphy say this is unacceptable?" he asked, referring to the creator of LGBTQ-themed smash hits such as "Pose" who is on a reported $300 million deal to make shows for Netflix.

- 'Earthquake' -

Chappelle's case is more complicated still because, while he is accused of hounding one vulnerable minority, the comic repeatedly points out during the show that he is speaking as a member of another.

"The special draws its energy from one of the hottest debates in popular culture, about competing claims to victimhood," wrote Helen Lewis in The Atlantic.

There are parallels with the uproar sparked by "Harry Potter" author JK Rowling last year, when she asserted the reality of biological sex, which many deemed to be transphobic.

While Rowling spoke about the importance of protecting the safety of girls and women, Chappelle discusses his experiences as a Black man.

He argues that white gay people "are minorities until they need to be white again," and that LGBTQ communities have made progress in a few years that Black people have not enjoyed in decades.

"There are multiple fault lines here," said Galloway. "Any one could split open and create an earthquake."

© 2021 AFP

Lord of the plants: death metal eco-baron rewilds Irish estate

Plunkett hails from a dynasty who have presided over Dunsany Castle northwest of Dublin for 900 years

Issued on: 17/10/2021 - 

 Paul Faith AFP

Navan (Ireland) (AFP)

Randal Plunkett, the 21st Baron of Dunsany, strides out of his Irish castle in a T-shirt bearing the name of death metal band "Cannibal Corpse" in bloody lettering.

In the distance, a russet-coloured stag appears for a moment, before dissolving into the 750 acres (300 hectares) of ancestral estate Plunkett has surrendered to the wilderness -- almost half of his lands.

"I felt a sort of sense of duty towards the environment here," said Plunkett, perched on a decaying tree trunk sprouting a clutch of mushrooms.

Plunkett's family has presided over Dunsany Castle northwest of Dublin for nine centuries

 Paul Faith AFP

"I'm a caretaker of this estate for this generation and the estate is not just the castle, it's also the land but it's also the environment," the aristocrat told AFP, his mane of shoulder-length hair rippling in the breeze.

- Born to rewild -

Eight years ago, death metal fan Plunkett, whose family have presided over Dunsany Castle northwest of Dublin for nine centuries, began his "radical" rewilding project.

The 38-year-old vegan, an unlikely successor to ancestors depicted in sober portraits lining the walls of the grey stone castle, evicted livestock and dismissed lawnmowers to allow nature to take its course.

Now, the results are plain. The ultra-rare pine martin has been spotted. Otter and red deer thrive.

Skies are jammed with birds: buzzards, red kites, peregrine falcons, sparrowhawks, kestrels and snipes.

Plunkett says a woodpecker has been sighted in the area for the first time in a century.

Beyond the castle crenellations, the lawn is transformed into a swirling morass of 23 species of grass, fizzing with insect life.

Plunkett lends a hand here and there -- planting 2,500 trees last year was no small feat -- but mostly he is hands-off.

"As I watched it, I began to understand what the land was doing," he said after trudging across a field of knotted undergrowth in a faux leather jacket.

"It became a rewilding project," he said, two Jack Russell terriers named Beavis and Butt-head gambol around his vegan-friendly Doc Marten boots.

In June the UN said an area the size of China must be rewilded over the next decade.

Stemming land "degradation" is key to keeping temperature rise below two degrees celsius in accordance with the international 2015 Paris Agreement, the UN Environment Programme said.

The UN COP26 summit is taking place in Scotland from October 31, hoping for stronger commitments from world leaders to halt runaway climate change.

Last Saturday, UK campaigners marched on Buckingham Palace with a petition signed by 100,000, calling on the British royal family to commit to rewild their estates before they appear as ambassadors at the Glasgow summit.

"I think we need to do a lot more than we're doing. I unfortunately think that it's not going to be done by governments," said Plunkett pessimistically.

"I started all of this because I wasn't willing to wait anymore," he added. "I'm trying to popularise an idea, which I know for a fact will help."

- Fresh Eire -

The benefits of rewilding are manifold. It reverses biodiversity loss, draws carbon down from the atmosphere and can even quash natural disasters.

Some 65 percent of Ireland -- known as the "emerald isle" -- is agricultural land according to 2018 World Bank figures.

Livestock is responsible for around 14 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions according to the UN.

For Plunkett, unhitching the perception of the estate as a farming asset has been difficult. He said initially some locals considered him a "moron".

"They thought that I was destroying perfectly good farmland," he said. "They thought I was just decadent."

There have been dark moments too.

Plunkett now considers the rewilded estate an "oasis" where deer hunting is off-limits. He patrols the land at dawn to keep unwelcome poachers at bay.

"There were certain threats, there was abuse, there was vandalism. It became very difficult," he recalled.

"It became a war and we're slowly winning it because the truth is this needs to happen for climate change."

Listing the species that have taken up residence on his estate it is clear Plunkett still has an appetite to fight for his self-described "mini-movement".

The 38-year-old vegan is an unlikely successor to ancestors depicted in sober portraits lining the walls of the grey stone castle

 Paul Faith AFP

"Every year I'm getting at least one animal back," he enthused.

"We're bringing the wild back to Ireland, a place that used to be remembered for being green."

© 2021 AFP