First heavy-duty electric truck rolls into Manitoba

globalnewsdigital 1 day ago

A Winnipeg-based trucking company is making history with the province's first heavy-duty electric truck.

 Global News The first heavy-duty electric truck in Manitoba.

Gardewine Group Inc. has transformed a vehicle almost 20 years old, into the first electric truck of its kind in Manitoba.

"This truck in the coming months will operate throughout the yard," Darin Downey, President & CEO of Gardewine Group said. "It will back trailers into the docks. It'll run 20 hours a day approximately five days a week."

The province chipped in $150,000 for the project from its Conservation and Climate Fund.

Downey said the industry needs to lead this and the government should support.

"While we don't believe this model is feasible from a financial standpoint, we do believe that as good co-operate citizens we need to take this step forward."

READ MORE: Federal government announces electric vehicle chargers coming to Southern Manitoba, Winnipeg

Terry Shaw, executive director of the Manitoba Trucking Association, hopes it will set the tone for other businesses across the province.

"Everybody understands that truck transportation needs to evolve," Shaw said. "It's not as simple as going to the electric truck store and buying an electric, so clearly there's been a lot of time, effort and thought put into this acquisition."

According to the Manitoba Electric Vehicle Association, the number of electric vehicles on Manitoba roadways has increased dramatically this year, but that's after a slow start in years prior compared to other provinces.

"Quebec is a great example," Robert Elms, president of the Manitoba Electric Vehicle Association said. "There are over 140 companies employing over six thousand people manufacturing electric vehicles, charging equipment and other associated EV technologies."

He says the government and private sector should look towards colleges and universities across the province to further explore opportunities for electric innovation.

The pandemic laid bare the deep problems in America - from healthcare to housing. Now the question is: will we do anything about it?
insider@insider.com (Joshua M. Sharfstein) 9 hrs ago

 Sophia Garcia, center, with Legacy LA in Boyle Heights joins housing advocates and tenants gathered against eviction of tenants from the 50 unit Tokio Hotel apartments n downtown Los Angeles. 

Al Seib / Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

As COVID's Delta wave begins to subside, we can see glaring holes in our nation's resilience.

Whether the pandemic leads us back to the status quo or triggers reform depends on the story the nation tells itself about what happened.

The pandemic was a catastrophe. It doesn't have to be a lost opportunity as well.

Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein is Professor of the Practice in Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.

As the COVID pandemic's Delta wave begins to subside, people across the US are itching for life to return to normal.

But still unclear is how different the new normal will be from our world prior to the pandemic. We now know there are better ways to do things - from flexible work to telemedicine. We can also see glaring holes in our country's preparedness and resilience, including profound underfunding of public health agencies, enormous racial and ethnic disparities in housing, education, and employment, and poor access to healthcare in many rural communities. Now is a unique opportunity to tackle these problems.

At least, that's one lesson of history, which is full of examples of reforms that were previously unthinkable actually happening in the wake of a crisis. But change is not automatic. For every example of a national event that cast a long shadow on policy, there is a counterexample of an event that barely budged the national agenda.

Whether the pandemic leads us back to the status quo or triggers fundamental reform may depend most of all on the story the nation comes to tell itself about what happened.
Who is trusted to tell the story?

The story told depends first on who has the credibility to be the storyteller.

In 1937, a deadly batch of a medication called the Elixir Sulfanilamide killed more than 100 people. A small federal agency named the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) jumped into action, earning public acclaim by sending inspectors across the country to track down remaining doses. The agency then wrote a comprehensive report explaining why the public was so vulnerable to dangerous medications. Congress responded by passing the landmark Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which for the first time in history required medications to be reviewed and approved before marketing.

A very different scenario unfolded in 1976, however. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a campaign to immunize every "man, woman, and child" in the nation against a new strain of influenza. But the feared "swine flu" pandemic never came; even worse, the vaccine was linked to some rare but severe neurological side effects. Its reputation damaged by tough news coverage, CDC could do little to stop a slide in vaccine confidence.

What story is told?

A good story compels attention, recounting not just the tragedies that transpired but the heroes who prevented further harm.

In 1961, a new sedative called thalidomide caused thousands of severe birth defects in Europe -- but very few in the United States, because the FDA had refused to approve the medication. Sensing an opportunity, Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver encouraged journalists to tell the story of how a single heroic drug reviewer, Dr. Frances Kelsey, had protected thousands of American babies from tragedy. Kelsey subsequently appeared in every major national magazine and newspaper and on every major television news program.Kefauver and his colleagues used this hero's tale to make a larger change by passing historic legislation to transform the regulation of medical products.

By contrast, the more than 12,000 US deaths from the H1N1 pandemic in 2009 drew no serious national review of what had gone right and wrong with the response. The desire to return to normal and move on undermined serious consideration of urgently needed investments in preparedness for infectious threats.

What energy does the story generate?

Stories that inform are important; stories that inspire people to action are the ones that lead to the most significant reforms.

The 2017 shooting rampage from a hotel room in Las Vegas killed 60 people and wounded 411. This terrible tragedy, however, led to few reforms. Media attention and policy discussions centered on the narrow question of bumper stocks, which were banned by the Justice Department in 2018 and then reinstated by an appeals court in 2021.

Less than six months later, a shooting at the Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida killed 17 people and wounded 17 others. Defying local elected officials who predicted that yet again, "nothing" would happen because "we've seen this show before," survivors of the shooting attacked the gun lobby as blocking even the most common sense reforms. Young people across the state and the nation mobilized. Despite blocking similar provisions for years, Florida legislators quickly passed major legislation establishing background checks, a waiting period, and a new program to remove guns from those considered to be at extreme risk for using them. These laws have now passed in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

So what changes after COVID-19?

It is easy to imagine this scenario: The nation's profound polarization leaves little room for story-telling or lesson-learning. Harassed and demoralized, public health leaders and agencies are unable to command enough trust or respect to play a major role outlining a path forward. As cases decline, policymakers fall back into their regular routines, and the public embraces a return to normalcy.

And yet. It is also possible to think of an alternative scenario. First, a source of authority emerges, such as a bipartisan national commission or panel. Its investigation covers not only why the US fell short of the best COVID responses in the world, but also why the US had one of the most inequitable and divisive pandemic experiences anywhere.

Second, a compelling story of what happened captures the nation's attention. Millions of Americans come to understand what might have been done differently, and what could yet be done differently, to avoid the needless loss of life.

Third, and finally, the story gets people moving. The time window for reform may be short, and obstacles of all kinds are likely to block the path to reform. Nonetheless, advocates will have a chance to make their case: The pandemic was a catastrophe. It doesn't have to be a lost opportunity as well.

US Childcare staffing is 'at a critical point' as workers leave the industry and it can't afford to hire them back. A CEO says it's 'beyond a shortage.'

insider@insider.com (Madison Hoff)

© Provided by Business Insider Ariel Skelley/Getty Images

Some childcare centers are still having a hard time finding enough staff to meet demand.

One childcare CEO and a lead toddler-level teacher said they've seen people leave for opportunities at school districts.

Another CEO told Insider that they've recently been able to hire more teachers and assistants.

Ted Hockenberry knew that once the economy began to reopen and vaccines started rolling out, demand for childcare would pick up and he would need to hire more teachers.

Hockenberry is CEO of Children of America, a daycare and childcare provider which has 59 preschools primarily in the Northeast and Midwest. And he badly needs staff.

Children of America stayed open during the pandemic, but enrollment plummeted from 7,500 students before the pandemic, which meant cuts to staff, along with quits. Enrollment dropped both because of capacity limits and because of a period when it was forced to only accept the children of essential workers. From about 1,600 employees before the pandemic, it hit a low of 500 before recovering to 1,100. Hockenberry says hundreds of jobs need to be filled.

Convincing workers to sign on has been even harder than he imagined.

He tried sign-on bonuses and increased pay, but he told Insider he's competing for talent against not just other childcare centers, but also public schools and businesses of all kinds - as well as with the wider labor shortage and still-present fear of Covid-19.

Hockenberry said the situation is "beyond a shortage" and instead "at a critical point." He added that there's a waiting list of students needing childcare, in some cases six months long, because the demand is "outpacing the supply of teachers" and they can only have a certain number of children per teacher. He knows how important the industry is, calling it a "gatekeeper" for some families who need to get back to earning two incomes.

Like other industries, childcare providers are trying their best to find new workers. Their struggles to hire have huge stakes - with less teachers around, the job is harder than ever, and more and more childcare workers are considering leaving the industry altogether. It's not an exaggeration to say the future of childcare is at stake.
Childcare is missing 100,000 workers and there's no guarantee they'll come back

Early education teachers told Insider one main reason they think there's a shortage is because of the low pay. Without adequate staff, daycares can't accept more kids and parents who left jobs because of childcare may continue to struggle to return to work, hamstringing the labor market recovery.

Ted Hockenberry, CEO of Children of America. Courtesy of Children of America

Hockenberry said that as demand increased and it was time to call teachers back, some didn't want to because they had already made the transition to other industries or didn't feel safe returning yet. "Between doing this small job and this small job and collecting unemployment," he said of their mindset, "I'm actually making more than I was working with you."

He added that nearby public schools are also facing a teacher shortage and some of his childcare workers with years of experience have left to go work there.

One lead toddler teacher whose name and employer is known to Insider but omitted from this article because she still works there, said she has also seen workers at her preschool leave for positions in elementary and secondary education because of the better pay, incentives, and benefits at local school districts.

With 194,000 jobs added in the US last month - a dismal report compared to previous months in 2021 - child daycare services gained 17,800 jobs. However, childcare employment is down by 108,700 from February 2020.
Workers want higher pay now, but many childcare firms are tied to annual contracts

Employers in childcare increasingly just can't afford to retain their workers.

Hockenberry said that early education schools have always had to compete against other centers and public schools for talent, but now they're competing against other industries as well.

In a recent survey from the nonprofit National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), 81% of respondents said low pay is a main reason educators leave, and 78% said pay is the main challenge in recruiting. "Compensation remains both the challenge and the solution for staffing recruitment and retention problems," NAEYC wrote.

According to 2020 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, childcare workers make a median hourly wage of $12.24, much lower than the median hourly wage for all occupations at $20.17.

The lead toddler teacher who talked to Insider makes $15 an hour in Missouri - and she says that's after a recent raise. She has worked in early childhood education for almost six years. She has, however, been applying for new jobs outside of early education and is particularly interested in an apprenticeship.

She listed several reasons she's looking elsewhere. She wants to better provide for her children, and has had feelings of burnout. She also noted that pay in early education is low, and low staffing has created a difficult, more stressful teaching environment.

"Having done early ed for so long and in a couple of different states, it's pretty standard - the low rates of pay, the lack of benefits, the strenuous nature of it," she said. "So that's doesn't seem like it's going to change anytime soon and since the pandemic doesn't seem like it's letting up, it's maybe just time to make that change."

Hockenberry, like others, said Children of America has tried to attract new talent and compete with competitors by increasing pay and by offering a sign-on bonus of $500, but there's only so much it can do because it can't increase tuition quickly enough. Although they do increase public rates, existing families in the schools are under a contract to pay a certain rate, but there are small annual increases.

"Unlike a restaurant where we could maybe put up the food prices week by week, we can't put up the tuition costs without putting an undue challenge to our parents as fast as we're actually having to pay teachers more," Hockenberry said. "So it's really two tough situations, careening towards each other as we need to recruit, retain, and bring on more teachers."

The lead toddler teacher, who is also a member of NAEYC, said there needs to be political change and reform because childcare centers themselves, especially small ones, can't afford to pay workers more.

"American families can't necessarily afford to pay more for their tuition," she said. "It's already astronomical, and centers can't afford to pay the employees more, but there's a huge discrepancy there and it just needs attention and it needs help."

Beyond higher pay, she said there needs to be better benefits in early education - including paid time off, vacation days, mental health benefits, and medical benefits.
The importance of a message in lean times

Richard "Richie" Huffman, founder and CEO of Celebree School, said his early childhood education franchisor is seeing a spike in enrollments. After enrollment dropped from about 90% capacity before the pandemic to 40% once the pandemic hit, he thinks that by the end of October they can "easily" reach 90% again.

Huffman said his firm is "extremely aggressive on attracting the best talent available along with a really strong message of why you should come work for us." For instance, Celebree has done radio ads to promote the job opportunities at the school.

Richard "Richie" Huffman, founder and CEO of Celebree School. Courtesy of Celebree School

Celebree School has 26 locally owned locations in Maryland and Delaware. Huffman said that from August to September, when he talked to Insider for this article, his company interviewed 285 candidates and hired over 140 as lead teachers and assistants. He said many applicants had reached out to and about a quarter of the new hires had come from employee referrals.

Huffman said some firms will find the labor shortage "a short-term issue" and the way through for struggling companies is to figure out a consistent "message" for employees.

Hiring issues aside, Hockenberry said the job is great for those who want to make a difference in the early stages of children's lives.

"It's pretty rewarding to know that when you are working with those kids, they are blank canvases and you could make a huge difference in their lives," Hockenberry said. "And I think the biggest thing that people that want to get in the industry have to think about is whether they could be that person. And if they can be that person, it's a very rewarding experience."

Hockenberry says it's clear that employers across industries are struggling.

"The labor force is just under duress," he said. "It doesn't matter really what type of job it is. I think everybody's having a really hard time recruiting quality employees to actually come to work."

Biden's Commerce Secretary demands higher pay for childcare workers. 'Our economy cannot run without these women.'

insider@insider.com (Juliana Kaplan,Madison Hoff) 1

© Provided by Business Insider VP Kamala Harris and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo browse in Books on the Square in Rhode Island. Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

Childcare is one of the lowest-paying occupations in America, and it's suffering from a labor shortage.

Commerce Sec. Gina Raimondo told Insider that childcare workers should be paid more than minimum wage.

The lack of childcare workers - and affordable childcare - is holding up economic recovery.

It's well documented that the pandemic caused a childcare crisis - one of its many devastating effects on parents.

As childcare providers shuttered, women dropped out of the labor force to care for their children. Some struggled to balance work and caregiving responsibilities, facing burnout with no end in sight.

Now, labor shortages abound as workers hesitate to return, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Insider that childcare plays a significant role.

"Women are not able to answer the help wanted ad if they don't have steady, affordable childcare, because they know they can't be reliable, productive employees," Raimondo said. "So they're not applying for these jobs."

But on the other end is an equally devastating shortage: Childcare centers are struggling to staff up. That's likely due in part to the low wages that childcare workers make.

Childcare workers made a median hourly wage of $12.24 in 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program.

"If you are a full time childcare worker working in a daycare center, making $13 an hour - which by the way is higher than typical - and you work full-time, 40 hours a week every week, you make $27,000 a year," Raimondo said. "That's really hard to live on, $27,000 a year, and that's working full-time. It's a problem."

Pay for the childcare industry has slowly ticked up - alongside other industries - as employers scramble to lure in workers. As employment in the child daycare services industry continues its recovery from the pandemic, wages for production and nonsupervisory employees in this sector have gone up. As seen in the following chart, average hourly earnings for these workers were $15.77 as of August.

The industry, however, lost 10,000 production and nonsupervisory employees jobs in August, so the earnings increase that month could partially be coming from lost jobs among lower-wage workers that month. These employees have mainly seen job and earnings gains throughout 2021, as some centers in the industry try increasing pay and offering sign-on bonuses to attract new workers.

"We got to get to a higher minimum wage - frankly, it's even more than just minimum wage. Taking care of our elderly loved ones and our children, it's the most important work we can do," Raimondo said. "Why shouldn't childcare workers have the same wages and benefits as teachers?"

Paying these workers more would go a long way. The federal minimum wage hasn't been raised since July 2009, and raising it to $15 would be especially beneficial for women and Black childcare workers, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The left-leaning think tank writes that 48.5% of Black childcare workers would benefit as well as 43.8% of women in childcare.

"Our economy cannot run without these women who are in the childcare industry," Raimondo said. She added: "These childcare workers are, in a very real way, the backbone of our economy, and it's time that we started treating them that way."

In February, a measure to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour was struck from President Joe Biden's first stimulus package. Eight Democrats voted against putting it back in. Now, the Biden administration wants to make childcare affordable and raise wages for workers through a $3.5 trillion social spending infrastructure package. But even that package is at risk as centrists call for it to be pared down.

"Low wages for childcare workers have for too long been treated as a 'solution' to help make child care affordable," EPI wrote. "This has failed on every count. Despite the low wages of child care workers, these services remain unaffordable for many low- and middle-income families. Meanwhile, low wages leave child care workers economically vulnerable and compromise the quality of care children receive."

CRTC provides final $53.4 million for Nunavik high-speed internet project

MobileSyrup 2 days ago

Nunavik’s Kativik Regional Government (KRG) announced that the region’s first-ever high-speed internet expansion is officially fully funded.

© Provided by Mobile Syrup CRTC provides final $53.4 million for Nunavik high-speed internet project

The infrastructure project was originally announced in August 2018, following a pledge from the federal and Quebec governments to each invest $62.6 million — a total of $125.2 million — to provide folks living in the remote northern Quebec region with access to high-speed internet.


In addition to $500,000 from the KRG, the initiative was recently bolstered by a final contribution: $53.4 million from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), as reported by Nunatsiaq News.

Installation began on Nunavik’s first-ever undersea fibre optic cable network in August of this year.

The cable runs north along the coast of James Bay, starting in Chisasibi and connecting through to Kuujjuaraapik, Whapmagoostui, Umiujaq, Inukjuak, all the way up to Puvirnituq.

According to Nunatsiaq News, KRG telecommunications advisor Dan Pellerin says this stretch of the fibre network should be ready to use by January 2022.

In 2022, the plan is to expand the undersea cable network further along the Hudson Strait, in order to connect to the communities of Akulivik, Ivujivik, Salluit, and Kangiqsujuaq.

The entire project is expected to be completed towards the end of 2023.

Image creidt: Shutterstock

Source: Nunatsiaq News

Montreal-made website uses AI to show impacts of climate change on any address

TORONTO — Imagine Parliament Hill blanketed in orange skies, floodwaters climbing the sides of BC Place stadium or a thick layer of smog fogging the view of Halifax from Citadel Hill.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

These are all scenes depicted on a website published Thursday that blends artificial intelligence with geography to show the potential impact of climate change on almost any address on the planet.

The website, thisclimatedoesnotexist.com, was created by Mila, a machine-learning and technology research institute in Quebec founded by Yoshua Benigo, one of the godfathers of AI.

The website can apply filters showing the impacts of flooding, wildfires or smog to any address available through Google Street View and is meant to raises awareness about future scenarios that could arise if the world’s response to climate change continues to fall short.

Victor Schmidt, a lead researcher on the project, said the site is not meant to predict climate change, but rather, it strives to make the issue more personal for people who can't visualize something that is seemingly far off or something that could impact another community sooner than theirs.

"Just because it may not happen to them, doesn't mean it won't happen to other people elsewhere or sometime in the future," Schmidt said.

To boost empathy, the website prompts people to search their current or childhood home, workplaces, favourite restaurants and travel destinations.

The images the website will return are built around generative adversarial networks, or GANs, a class of machine-learning frameworks designed by Mila that allow a computer to create and transform images.

The site doesn't adjust water levels or air quality conditions based on where an address is, so users won't find coastal areas completely underwater or wildfire-ridden neighbours more engulfed by dusty skies than less fire prone regions.

This is intentional, Schmidt said. Mila didn't want people visiting the website, discovering their neighbourhood was facing less distressing climate change impacts than others and then deciding not to care about the issue.

"It's about connecting with other people and trying to make common sense feel closer," he said.

"Making climate change more personal is going to try and help bridge that gap."

Schmidt hopes people will visit the website built with the support of National Geographic Society, Microsoft, BCG Gamma and Borealis AI, and leave feeling more aware about climate change and its affects.

Research on the Canadian Centre for Climate Services website shows climate change has already caused the country's average annual temperature to rise by 1.7 C from 1948 to 2016, about double the global rate.

In Northern Canada alone, the average annual temperate has risen by 2.3 C, about triple the global rate, over the same period.

Almost simultaneously, the summer sea ice area in Northern Canadian waters decreased by nearly 7 per cent per decade on average between 1968 and 2015.

It is expected to keep decreasing to the point where Arctic waters could be nearly ice-free by the 2050s.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2021.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

How Many Dimensions Does Our Universe Really Have?

Does our Universe have extra dimensions, and how do they influence our reality?

By Matthew S. Williams

Oct 16, 2021 (Updated: Oct 16, 2021 12:06 EDT)

StockByM/iStock

Theoretical physics is a fascinating and (at times) amusing field. While most people would not claim to know much about this field of research, many of its more advanced concepts come up in popular culture all the time. In fact, words like "nuclear," "quantum," and "multiverse" are often key to the plot of our favorite TV shows and movies.

On the other hand, some of the more advanced concepts in theoretical physics (when described) sound more like philosophy and metaphysics than science. In fact, some theories even manage to blur the lines between science and religion and are generally met by either awe or dismissal (depending upon who's listening).

Consider the idea of "extra dimensions," which many people would assume refers to the existence of dimensions parallel to our own where things are slightly or vastly different — aka. "multiverse" theory. In truth, the theory of extra dimensions deals with the possible existence of extra dimensions beyond the ones we are immediately aware of.

While this kind of talk may sound like something farfetched or purely speculative, it is actually a vital part of our understanding of how our Universe works. If and when we determine how many dimensions our Universe has (and what each of them does), we will finally have a Theory of Everything (ToE) and know how it all fits together.


Dimensions 101

To break it down, the term "dimension" refers to any mathematical measurement. This can generally refer to a physical measurement (an object or space) or a temporal measurement (time). There are three dimensions that we experience daily, which define the length, width, and depth of all objects in our Universe (the x, y, and z-axis, respectively).

However, scientists maintain that to understand the laws of nature, one must include a "fourth dimension," which is time. Without this coordinate, the position, velocity, and acceleration of objects in our Universe cannot be properly measured. It's not enough to know where an object is in terms of three spatial coordinates. You also need to know when the object was where.


Beyond these four dimensions, theoretical physicists have ventured that there may be more at play. The number of dimensions varies, but the purpose behind extra dimensions is to find ways of unifying the known laws of the Universe, which theoretical physicists have been trying to do for about a century.

The reason has to do with two very interesting fields of study: Quantum Mechanics (QM) and General Relativity (GR). These fields emerged during the early 20th century and were almost concurrent with each other. Whereas QM has many forebears (Planck, Heisenberg, Schrodinger, et al.), GR owes its existence, at least initially, to Albert Einstein — though many of his ideas were refinements on earlier theories.

For the record, Einstein also contributed to the development of QM through his research on the behavior of light. In any case, whereas Quantum Mechanics (QM) describes how energy and matter behave at the atomic and subatomic levels, General Relativity (GR) describes how matter, energy, and spacetime behave on larger scales in the presence of gravity.


The funny thing is, our greatest scientific minds have been trying to figure out how these two fields fit together for almost a century. Both appear to work just fine on their own, but where they come together into a single coherent system, that remains largely a mystery.
Four fundamental forces

After thousands of years of research into nature and the laws that govern it, scientists have determined that four fundamental forces govern all matter-energy interactions. These forces, and the fundamental particles that make up all matter (quarks, leptons, gauge bosons, and scalar bosons), are part of The Standard Model of particle physics. These forces are:
Electromagnetism
Weak Nuclear Force
Strong Nuclear Force
Gravitation

The first three forces are all described by the field of Quantum Mechanics and are associated with specific subatomic particles. Electromagnetism is associated with electrons (a lepton), which are responsible for electricity, magnetism, and all forms of electromagnetic radiation. That includes visible light (color), heat, microwaves, radio waves, ultraviolet radiation, and gamma rays.

Source: NASA

The weak nuclear force deals with interactions between subatomic particles responsible for the radioactive decay of atoms and is associated with particles smaller than a proton (bosons). At higher energies, this force merges with electromagnetism, which has given rise to the unified term "electroweak force."

The strong nuclear force governs particles that are the size of protons and neutrons (hadrons) and is so-named because it is approximately 137 times as strong as electromagnetism, millions of times stronger than the weak nuclear force, and 1038 times as strong as gravitation. It causes quarks to come together to form larger protons and neutrons and binds them to create atomic nuclei.

Finally, there is gravitation, which is the weakest of the four forces and deals with interactions between massive objects (asteroids, planets, stars, galaxies, and the large-scale structure of the Universe.) Unlike the other three forces, there is no known subatomic particle that describes gravitation or gravitational interactions.


This is why scientists are forced to study physics in terms of QM or GR (depending on the scales involved), but generally not both combined. Because of this, scientists have been trying to come up with a theoretical framework for unifying gravity with the other forces. Attempts to do so generally fall under the heading of "quantum gravity" or a Theory of Everything (ToE).
How many dimensions are there?

Attempts to create a unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism can be traced to German physicist Theodor Kaluza (1885–1954). In 1921, he published a paper where he presented an extended interpretation of Einstein's Field Equations. This theory was built on the idea of a 5D Universe, which included a dimension beyond the common 4D of space and time.

In 1926, Swedish theoretical physicist Oskar Klein offered a quantum interpretation of Kaluza's 5D theory. In Klein's extension, the fifth dimension was curled up, microscopic, and could take the form of a circle that had a 10-30 cm radius. In the 1930s, work was undertaken on the Kaluza field theory by Einstein and his colleagues at Princeton. By the 1940s, the theory was formally completed and given the name Kaluza-Klein theory.

The work of Kaluza and Klein predicted the emergence of String Theory (ST), which was first proposed during the 1960s. By the 1990s, multiple interpretations emerged, including Superstring Theory, Loop-Quantum Gravity, M-theory, and Supergravity. Each of these theories entails the existence of "extra dimensions," "hyperspace," or something similar.

To summarize, ST states that the point-like particles of particle physics are actually one-dimensional objects called "strings." Over distances larger than the string scale, they resemble ordinary particles, though their mass, charge, and other properties are determined by the string's vibrational state. In one state, the string corresponds to the graviton, which is what causes gravitation.

Source: NASA

Superstring theory, a variation on ST, requires t spacetime dimensions. These include the four dimensions immediately apparent to us (length, width, depth, time) and six more that are not.

These extra six dimensions are curled up into a compact space. On order the string scale (10-33 cm) we wouldn't be able to detect the presence of these extra dimensions directly because they're just too small.

According to the theory, the fifth and sixth dimensions deal with possible worlds that began with the same initial conditions.

The fifth dimension encompasses worlds with slightly different outcomes than ours, while the sixth is where a plane of possible worlds would be visible. The seventh dimension is where one could see possible worlds that started with different initial conditions and then branched out infinitely — hence why the term "infinity" is used to describe them.

The eighth dimension would similarly give us a plane of these "infinities," while in the ninth dimension, all possible Universes and laws of physics could be seen. In the tenth dimension, anything and everything possible in terms of cosmic evolution are accessible. Beyond that, nothing can be seen by living creatures that are part of the spacetime continuum.


M-theory, which combines five distinct superstring theories, posits the existence of 11 dimensions — ten spatial and one time. This variation on superstring theory is considered attractive because of the phenomena it predicts. For one, M-theory predicts the existence of the graviton, which is consistent with string theory as a whole and offers an explanation for quantum gravity.

It also predicts a phenomenon similar to black hole evaporation, where black holes emit "Hawking radiation" and lose mass over time. Some variations of superstring theory also predict the existence of Einstein-Rosen bridges — aka. "wormholes." Another approach, Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG), posits that gravity is completely different from the other fundamental forces and that space-time itself is made of quantized, discrete bits, in the form of tiny, one-dimensional loops.


Some versions of supergravity theory also promote an 11-D model of spacetime, with 4 common dimensions and 7 hyperspace dimensions. There's also "brane theory," which posits that the Universe is made up of multidimensional vibrating "membranes" that have mass and a charge and can propagate through spacetime.

To date, there is no experimental evidence for the existence of "extra dimensions," "hyperspace," or anything beyond the four dimensions we can perceive.
Why can't we see them?

Alas, the question remains. If additional dimensions are required for the laws of physics to make sense, why can't we confirm their existence? There are two possibilities: one, what we think we know about physics is wrong, or two, the dimensions of spacetime beyond the 4D we experience are so subtle or tiny that they are invisible to our current experiments.


On its face, the first possibility seems highly unlikely. After all, ongoing particle experiments — like those conducted with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — have confirmed that the Standard Model of particle physics is correct. Similarly, General Relativity has been confirmed many times over since Einstein formally proposed it in 1915.

Source: Wikimedia Commons/Jbourjai

That leaves us with the second possibility: that extra dimensions cannot be measured or characterized using current methods and experiments. A well-studied possibility is that dimensions are "curled up" at tiny scales, which means their properties and influence on spacetime could only be measured at subatomic levels.

Another possibility is "compactification," where certain dimensions are finite or temporal in nature. In short, this theory posits that curled-up dimensions become very small or close in on themselves to form circles. If this is true, then the six extra dimensions would likely take the form of a Calabi–Yau manifold (these are shapes that satisfy the requirement needed for the six "unseen" spatial dimensions of string theory).

For astrophysicists and theoretical physicists, compactification and the idea that extra dimensions are tiny explains why the Universe still exists billions of years after its emergence. If these dimensions were larger, they would accommodate enough matter to trigger gravitational collapses and the formation of black holes (which would consume the rest of the Universe).

The fact that the cosmos still exists after 13.8 billion years, and shows no sign of being torn apart, would suggest that this theory is sound. Alternatively, the laws of physics may operate differently in these extra dimensions. Either way, there's still the unanswered question of how we might observe and study them.

How do we find them?

So if the Universe really does have extra dimensions that are imperceptible to us, how are we going to find evidence of their existence and determine their properties? One possibility is to look for them through particle physics experiments, like those conducted by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) — the operators of the LHC — and other particle accelerator labs.

At CERN, scientists boost particles to high energies before smashing them together and measuring the resulting cascade of subatomic particles. Detectors gather clues about the particles, such as their speed, mass, and charge, which can be used to work out their identity.

Theories involving extra dimensions predict that there must be heavier versions of standard particles recurring at higher and higher energies as they navigate smaller dimensions. These would have exactly the same properties as standard particles (and so be visible to detectors like those at CERN) but at a greater mass. If evidence of these were to be found, this might suggest the presence of extra dimensions.

Another way is to look back through time towards the period known as "Cosmic Dawn," roughly 100 to 500 million years after the Big Bang, when the first stars and galaxies formed. Even if extra dimensions are imperceptible to detection today, they would have influenced the evolution of the Universe from the very beginning.

To date, astronomers have been unable to see this far back in time since no telescopes have been sensitive enough. This will change in the near future, thanks to next-generation instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (RST), the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), and the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT).

Source: Suvendu Giri

This coincides nicely with existing Dark Matter and Dark Energy surveys that are observing early comic history in the hopes of measuring their influence on cosmic evolution. Since some theorists venture that the existence of extra dimensions could help explain the "Dark Universe," these observations could address several mysteries at once.

This dual approach is not unlike our current understanding of the Universe, which scientists can only understand in one of two ways — the largest (GR) and tiniest of scales (QM). By observing the Universe with a very wide and very tight-angle lense, we may be able to account for all the forces governing it.

* * *

Much like other ToE candidates, the belief that the universe is made up of ten dimensions or more is an attempt to take all the physical laws we understand and find out how they fit together. In that respect, it's like assembling a puzzle, where each piece makes sense to us, but we are unaware of what the bigger picture looks like.

It's not enough to put pieces together wherever they appear to match. We also need to have an overall idea of what the framework is, a mental picture of what it will look like when it is finished. This helps to guide our efforts so we can anticipate how it will all come together.

Indian Scientist Creates Plant-Based Aircraft Fuel That Cuts Emissions By 68%


Bharat Sharma

Updated on Oct 16, 2021

Highlights

Puneet Dwivedi from the University of Georgia spearheaded the project, leading the team to look for a Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) made from oil found in Brassica carinata, an oilseed crop unfit for eating

Published in GCB Bioenergy, the study could pave way for adoption of cleaner ways to run our existing technology, including aircraft that make up a giant chunk of petroleum-based fuel consumption

Dwivedi is convinced that with "feedstock supply and suitable economic incentives", they could begin producing carinata-based SAF in the southern parts of United States

Could a plant-based fuel replace current petroleum fuel for flights? According to Indian-origin scientist Puneet Dwivedi, a fuel made from a type of mustard plant could help reduce emissions by 68 per cent.

Puneet Dwivedi from the University of Georgia spearheaded the project, leading the team to look for a Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) made from oil found in Brassica carinata, an oilseed crop unfit for eating.

Dorothy Kozlowski/UGA
Adopting cleaner fuel

Published in GCB Bioenergy, the study could pave way for adoption of cleaner ways to run our existing technology, including aircraft that make up a giant chunk of petroleum-based fuel consumption.

Also read: This 100% Solar Powered Aircraft Flew For Three Weeks Straight Without Landing

Dwivedi is convinced that with "feedstock supply and suitable economic incentives", they could begin producing carinata-based SAF in the southern parts of United States, UGA Today reported.

Unsplash

The aviation industry is responsible for 2.5 per cent of all carbon dioxide emissions, contributing to 3.5 per cent of all global warming.

What about the costs?

The team headed by Dwivedi also laid out the costs involved in the production of SAF from carinata. In most optimum conditions, the SAF from carinata could be produced in as less as $0.12 per litre. The cost could go up to $1.28 per litre based on market incentives.

The study found that petroleum-based fuel for flights costs about $0.50 per litre, which is tad higher than the carinata-based SAF. Dwivedi pursued the project as part of the Southeast Partnership for Advanced Renewables from Carinata (SPARC) - a project backed by the US government.

Also read: Winds Of Change - Indian Air Force Flies Its First Biofuel-Powered Military Aircraft AN-32

unsplash

Also read: Jetpacks That Fly On Autopilot At 48 Kmph Coming To Ease Your Work Commute

The $15 million project requires scientists to investigate ways in which carinata could be grown in the Southeast US. The study was co-authored by Asiful Alam and Md Farhad Hossain Masum from the University of Georgia.

Carinata grows in humid regions and may be grown not only in southern parts of the US, but in different parts of Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia as a spring or a winter crop.


What do you think about this fantastic feat? Let us know in the comments below. For more in the world of science and technology, keep reading Indiatimes.com.

Citation

Alam, A., Masum, M. F. H., & Dwivedi, P. (2021). Break‐even price and carbon emissions of carinata‐based sustainable aviation fuel production in the Southeastern United States. GCB Bioenergy. Published.

U of Manitoba union launches 3-day strike vote

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Students say they're being caught in middle of the

 disagreement, affecting their education

Nathan Liewicki · CBC News · Posted: Oct 16, 2021 8:28 PM CT | Last Updated: 9 hours ago

The University of Manitoba Faculty Association is asking the University of Manitoba for a salary bump of 4.5 per cent over the next two years. (Dana Hatherly/CBC)

The University of Manitoba's Faculty Association (UMFA) launched a three-day strike vote Saturday to gauge whether members are in favour of walking off the job, but students say they're being caught in the middle and their education is suffering.

Last month, the UMFA said staff were seeking higher salaries that are more in line with other universities across Canada, along with a "more equitable hiring, tenure and promotion processes."

"We are losing members. We are finding it difficult to recruit members. We have many different positions in our departments and it's impossible to remain competitive with our salaries at this point," said Janet Morrill, an associate professor of accounting and finance and a member of UMFA's collective agreement committee.

The university is offering faculty a three-year deal, with salary increases of 0.75 per cent, 0.75 per cent and one per cent, starting this year. 

But Morrill said they're seeking an increase of 4.5 per cent over the next two years.

"That will help a little bit, but really we need to see salary increases over the next decade that have been much better than the salaries over the last decade if we are going to keep our position," she said.

Janet Morrill is an associate professor of accounting and finance and a member of UMFA's collective agreement committee. She says the school is in "a state of crisis." (Godlove Kamwa/CBC)

Morrill noted the university continues to lose professors to other post-secondary institutions, including those classified as U15 universities, a collective of 15 of Canada's most research-intensive universities. 

According to Statistics Canada, the U of M ranks 14th out of the 15 schools for average salary for its faculty at $136,925. Only Université Laval ranked lower during the 2020-21 academic year.

• U of Manitoba faculty union says university hemorrhaging talent due to low salaries

"It's true that, for instance, the ceilings of our salary scales are now falling behind the University of Winnipeg and Brandon University in the same province," said Morrill.

"And moreover, if you look at other categories of universities that don't even have the same medical and doctoral programs that we have, in many cases we are below their salaries as well."

Stuck in the middle of the tussle is the University of Manitoba Students' Union (UMSU), along with students themselves.

"This is a really pressing issue for us as students. We need teachers and faculty to be able to teach us so that we can complete our programs," said engineering student Luc Maxwell.

Aaliyan Abbasi, an Asper School of Business student at the University of Manitoba, says a strike by the UMFA will hurt students. (Godlove Kamwa/CBC)

Aaliyan Abbasi, a business student, agreed.

"If they are going on strike, how are we going to study?" said Abbasi.

"Nothing is more important than the future of the students. They are the future. They are going to help grow the country, help the economy grow, so I feel that they should both come to terms together and not let the strike happen."

UMSU president Brendan Scott remembers the faculty's last strike — that lasted 21 days in 2016 — and doesn't want to see a repeat five years later.

"The hope is, and the communication that I have been giving to the students of UMSU, is that nothing is predetermined. There is no guarantee that classes will stop. The professors simply just want to expedite the process of bargaining with the university," he said.

He said he has also heard rumblings that some departments are having problems offering enough classes to students due to a lack of faculty.

"A big one I've heard about is the computer science program that has very limited spots for students and is causing many students the inability to progress in their programs," he said.

Brendan Scott is president of the University of Manitoba Students' Union. (Submitted by Brendan Scott)

Morrill told CBC that UMFA is also hearing cases of courses that can't be offered because of many vacant teaching positions. 

"This is hard on students. It's more difficult for them to complete their programs in a timely fashion because the university is having to cancel courses," she said.

"For a masters student or a doctoral student, for example, if their supervisor left it would be disastrous for them. And so I think the University of Manitoba is in a crisis state right now."

• Union for University of Manitoba professors, librarians, instructors to hold strike vote

• University of Manitoba faculty narrowly vote to accept final bargaining deal

The UMSU has yet to take a formal stance, but Scott expects that will happen after meetings with both sides this coming week.

Meanwhile, he hopes they can come to an agreement before a possible strike.

The U of M continues to meet with the UMFA, approaching the bargaining team "with the view to conclude a collective agreement," said the executive director for the university's public affairs department.

The results of the strike vote are expected Tuesday, but the union said it won't mean a strike is imminent, only that members could strike at some point.

Nearly 20,000 pounds of trash removed from one of the biggest accumulations of ocean plastic in the world


BY LI COHEN
OCTOBER 16, 2021 / 2:39 PM / CBS NEWS

In the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California floats a massive collection of debris that has long been accumulating trash — from fishing nets to microplastics — known to be harmful to the marine environment. For years, researchers said it might not be possible to remove the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but now, one non-profit is proving them wrong.

In July, The Ocean Cleanup, which has been developing a system to help clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, took its first large-scale cleanup system, called System 002, or Jenny, to the Pacific. They conducted a series of tests over the course of 12 weeks, each one consisting of the system being taken offshore to safely gather plastic from the ocean.

The organization completed its final test of the system last week, and on Thursday, The Ocean Cleanup tweeted it had gathered 9,000 kilograms — more than 19,841 pounds — of debris.

"Holy mother of god," Boyan Slat, the founder of Ocean Cleanup, tweeted after the organization recovered its massive trash haul on October 8. "It all worked!!! Massive load."

Slat said that 10 years ago, when he first learned about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, everyone told him "there was no hope of ever cleaning it up."

"They were right then; no method existed to do it," he tweeted. "Proud (and relieved!) to say that now there is."

The Ocean Cleanup says the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of the largest marine debris patches in the world. In 2018, research estimated that there are at least 79,000 tons of plastic inside a 1.6 million-square-kilometer area. Microplastics — plastic materials smaller than 5 centimeters — make up roughly 8% of the mass, but 94% of the estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of debris floating in the area, researchers found.

Marine garbage patches such as the one in the Pacific are large areas where debris collects, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The aquatic piles are formed by rotating currents called "gyres," which are like "big whirlpools that pull objects in."

There are five gyres in the ocean — one in the Indian, two in the Atlantic and two in the Pacific — and each gyre contains garbage patches of different sizes. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the most famous of these piles.

Jenny works by two boats slowly guiding a U-shaped barrier through the polluted area. According to the organization, the circulating currents in the garbage patch move the plastic around, and their system helps guide that plastic into the system's retention zone. Once the system is full, workers empty the plastic on the marine vessel. After they gather as much debris as they can during the excursion, workers take the plastic to shore to recycle, and The Ocean Cleanup reuses some of the materials gathered to make products.




The system is designed to gather even microplastics, which are just millimeters in size.

The Ocean Cleanup also designed the system to be animal friendly. The boats tow it at roughly 1.5 miles per hour, so that marine life can easily swim in, out and around, and there are quick release systems, escape routes, cameras and lights to help animals escape the netting. Crew members also monitor marine life interactions.

Slat believes that about 10 upscaled systems could clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and that they could remove 50% of it in the first 5 years.

Slat said that many aspects need to be finessed, but that a fleet of The Ocean Cleanup's systems could clean it up. If properly deployed, the organization predicts it could remove 90% of all floating ocean plastic by 2040.

But the organization's mission has been met with some criticism from fellow climate activists and experts.

In September, Miriam Goldstein, director of ocean policy at the Center for American Progress, told Reuters that The Ocean Cleanup is "coming from a good place," but that priorities should be set on preventing plastic from entering the ocean.

"Once plastic has gotten into open ocean, it becomes very expensive and fossil-fuel intensive to get it back out again," Goldstein said.

While the organization was able to scoop up a massive haul of trash, more than 24 trillion pounds of plastic is dumped into oceans ever year, according to a 2020 study from the Pew Charitable Trusts. And without immediate and sustained action, the annual flow of pollution could nearly triple by 2040 — when The Ocean Cleanup says it could have the majority of floating plastics removed — the study said.

"Without meaningful change, about 4 billion people worldwide are likely to be without organized waste collection services by 2040, contributing significantly to the projected amount of ocean plastic pollution," Pew said in a press release. "Closing this gap would require connecting more than 500,000 people to collection services per day until 2040."

China launches its first sun observation satellite to monitor solar eruptions

Xihe sent up by a Long March 2D rocket from Taiyuan launch centre to keep an eye on sun’s surface

Eye in the sky will fill gap in optical network, state news agency says

Liu Zhen in Beijing
Published: 5:00pm, 15 Oct, 2021

The Xihe satellite is designed to record the changes in atmospheric temperature and speed during solar eruptions. Photo: Shutterstock

China launched its first solar observation satellite on Thursday, entering a new arena of space exploration, state media reported.

The 550kg (121-pound) Xihe satellite was sent by a Long March 2D rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in northern Shanxi province into a 571km-altitude orbit, where it is expected to monitor the sun for three years, state news agency Xinhua reported.

China has had a solar monitoring network on the ground but until now lacked optical data outside the atmosphere. To fill the gap, the first solar satellite will monitor eruptions on the sun’s surface and collect data within the visible spectrum range using an imaging spectrometer on board.

“Conducting space solar exploration will effectively serve China’s basic science research, drive the development of related hi-tech industries, and even lead the progress of international solar physics research,” the report said.

“China’s international influence in the area of solar physics would be significantly increased.”

The Xihe satellite is designed to record the changes in atmospheric temperature and speed during solar eruptions and provide data for studies of the dynamics and physical mechanisms of eruptions. The platform’s features include ultra-high accuracy and ultra-stability.

The satellite will be in a sun-synchronous orbit around the Earth.

A model of the satellite had its first public showing at the Zhuhai Air Show last month and the developer – the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) – ran a competition to name it.

Similar to other Chinese space programmes, the solar satellite was named after a Chinese mythological figure. Xihe is the mother goddess of the gods of the sun.

Beijing has invested heavily in space exploration and pushed forward several major programmes for outer space, the moon and Mars, for which it is regarded as a strong challenger in the space race.

In 2025, a probe is expected to reach the L5 Lagrange point – a gravity balance spot between the sun and Earth – and there are plans for new probes for solar polar orbiting and close orbiting missions around 2030-35.

Since the 1960s, Nasa has sent dozens of solar orbiters to circle the sun and in 2004 the Genesis spacecraft returned a sample of solar wind. The most recently launched Parker Solar Probe (2018) is conducting close-range solar coronal studies. Europe and Japan also have solar missions.