US MILITARY BUDGET IS OVER $700M ANNUALLY

Report finds USS Bonhomme Richard crew lacked training to combat 2020 fire


The U.S. Navy on Wednesday released a report finding that the crew of the USS Bonhomme Richard was not adequately trained to combat the blaze that destroyed the ship in 2020. 

Photo by Lt. John J. Mike/U.S. Navy | License Photo

Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A report detailing the 2020 fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard released by the U.S. Navy on Wednesday showed that the sailors on board were not adequately prepared to combat the blaze.

The 400-page report found that 36 individuals, including the commander of the ship and five admirals, were responsible for errors that allowed the fire to severely damage the amphibious warship as it was in port in San Diego last year.

ASBESTOS, PFAS, UNKOWN TOXIC CHEMICALS, ETC 

MEANS; CHRONIC ILLNESS, DEATH
A total of 63 people -- 40 sailors and 23 civilians -- were treated for injuries related to the fire that burned for five days and the ship, the third to bear the name Bonhomme Richard, was officially decommissioned in April.

"The loss of this ship was completely preventable," Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Bill Lescher said in a statement. "And the Navy is executing a deliberative process that includes taking appropriate accountability actions with respect to personnel assigned to Bonhomme Richard and the shore commands designed to support the ship while moored at Naval Base San Diego."

A sailor who was part of the Bonhomme Richard's crew at the time of the fire was charged last month in connection with the blaze on the ship, which has been identified as an act of arson.

The report, however, identified four factors that led to ineffective response to the fire including the condition of the ship, a lack of training and preparedness among crew members, poor integration between the ship and shore-based fire crews, and insufficient oversight by commanders "across multiple organizations."

"Although the fire was started by an act of arson, the ship was lost due to an inability to extinguish the fire," the report stated, noting that "a lack of familiarity with requirements and procedural non-compliance at multiple levels of command" contributed to the loss of the ship.

At 8:10 a.m on the morning of the fire, a junior sailor noticed a "hazy, white fog" but did not report it "because she did not smell smoke," and although several others eventually noticed and reported the smoke, they failed to properly establish command and control of the situation, according to the report.

A pair of firefighting teams struggled to find a usable fire hose but many were missing or cut and had not been repaired or replaced during routine maintenance, forcing the teams to deploy flame retardant until they retreated about an hour after the blaze began.

Firefighters did not douse the flames with water for 2 hours after the blaze started and senior officers didn't make efforts to integrate civilian firefighters with its crews for 3 hours.

The report cited Capt. Gregory Thoroman for creating "an environment of poor training maintenance and operational standards that led directly to the loss of the ship" second-in-command, Capt. Michael Ray also failed to properly drill the crew to maintain their readiness.

It found the crew's fire preparedness was "marked by a pattern of failed drills, minimal crew participation, an absence of basic knowledge on firefighting in an industrial environment and unfamiliarity on how to integrate supporting civilian firefighters."

Investigators noted that the crew had failed to administer flame-fighting chemicals on time in 14 consecutive drills leading up to the blaze.

"The response effort was placed in the hands of inadequately trained and drilled personnel from a disparate set of uncoordinated organizations that had not fully exercised together and were unfamiliar with basic issues to include the roles and responsibilities of the various responding entities," the report stated.

Crew members failed to report the fire in a timely fashion and also struggled to coordinate with civilian fire crews. 

File Photo by MC2 Austin Haist/U.S. Navy | License Photo

It took two hours for fire crews to spray the fire with water and three hours for senior officers efforts to make efforts to integrate civilian firefighters with its crews. 

File Photo by MC3 Christina Ross/U.S. Navy | License Photo

The report found that the condition of the ship, a lack of training and preparedness among crewmembers, poor integration between the ship and shore-based fire crews and insufficient oversight by commanders "across multiple organizations" led to the destruction of the ship. 

File Photo by MC2 Austin Haist/U.S. Navy | License Photo

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Report finds USS Bonhomme Richard crew lacked training to combat 2020 fire - UPI.com

FROM SPACE RACE TO SPACE WARS

U.S. needs nuclear spacecraft to compete with China, NASA official says


An illustration depicts a nuclear-powered, crewed Mars spacecraft. Image courtesy of NASA

ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- NASA and U.S. aerospace experts urged Congress on Wednesday to invest more quickly and heavily in development of nuclear-powered spacecraft Wednesday to stay ahead of such competitors as China.

The space agency believes spacecraft powered by a nuclear thermal rocket reach Mars in just three to four months, which is about half the time required by traditional, liquid propellant rockets.

"Strategic competitors including China are aggressively investing in a wide range of space technologies, including nuclear power and propulsion," Bhavya Lal, NASA's senior advisor for budget and finance, said during a congressional committee hearing Wednesday morning.

"The United States needs to move at a fast pace to stay competitive and to remain a leader in the global space community," Lal said.

The hearing occurred before the U.S. House of Representatives Science Space and Technology Committee. Experts delivered testimony even as reports emerged that China had tested an orbital rocket to deliver potential nuclear weapons at supersonic speeds.

China acknowledged it tested a spacecraft in August, but said it did not contain nuclear weapons.

The committee took no action as it gathered information for upcoming federal budget proposals.

"If the United States is serious about leading in a human mission to Mars, we have no time to lose," said U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., who chairs the committee.

"Congress has prioritized development of nuclear space propulsion over the past several years, directing about $100 million annually for NASA to advance nuclear thermal propulsion capabilities with the goal of conducting a future in-space flight test," Beyer said.

NASA and the Department of Energy awarded $5 million to three companies in July to produce a nuclear-powered spacecraft reactor design. NASA officials said much more funding is needed, although agency officials didn't discuss dollar amounts Wednesday.

The key to developing such nuclear engines is to identify or develop materials that can withstand the heat and exposure involved, said Roger M. Myers, who chairs a committee on space nuclear engines for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.





"The risks associated with [nuclear propulsion] are a fundamental materials challenge that we think is quite likely solvable," Myers testified during the hearing.

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., asked if any "fundamental scientific limitations" exist for a crewed Mars trip by 2033, or if it was just a matter of Congress appropriating the needed funds for technology development.

NASA can overcome challenges for a human mission to Mars given the resources, but the propulsion method for such a spacecraft is only one issue NASA much confront, Lal said.

"Deep space transport is just one piece of getting to Mars. ... We've landed small rovers there but a spacecraft carrying humans would be much bigger," Lal said. "We also need to make sure that the environmental control and life support systems can keep [astronauts] alive for two to three years."

Dispatches from Mars: Perseverance rover sends images

NASA offers new website to look at Mars rover images

NASA's Mars rover Perseverance captured images of Kodiak Butte, a rock outcrop in Jezero Crater that scientists said shows evidence of sediment and regular flood episodes from an ancient river and lake system. Photo courtesy of NASA

NASA looks beyond SpaceX, Boeing contracts for space station commutes


A SpaceX Falcon 9 launches the Crew-2 mission from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 23.

 File Photo by Pat Benic/UPI | License Photo

ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- NASA posted a formal request on a government website Wednesday, seeking companies that could provide astronaut transportation vehicles to the International Space Station by 2027.

SpaceX has provided such transport services with the Crew Dragon capsule since May 2020, while Boeing also holds a contract. But Boeing is four years behind schedule in delivering on its contract, as the company struggles to fix problems with its Starliner capsule.

"Depending on mission requirements, NASA may purchase single seats, multiple seats within one mission, or an entire mission," NASA said in a statement about the new request.

SpaceX and Boeing received multibillion-dollar contracts in 2014 to provide 12 trips to the space station, while a third provider, Sierra Nevada Corp., received funding to continue developing its proposed Dream Chaser space plane.

Nothing in the new request would prevent Boeing or SpaceX from continuing as contractors with NASA for its Commercial Crew Program, but NASA might include new providers.

When SpaceX delivered on its contract in 2020, the company helped NASA end a nine-year drought of astronaut launches from American soil. Before then, NASA spent years purchasing seats on Russian Soyuz capsules to reach the space station following the space shuttle's retirement in 2011.

Boeing's woes in the NASA program became when Starliner failed to reach the space station in a 2019 test flight.

The company blamed software errors for that failure. It was scheduled to launch its capsule again in August, but sticky valves inside the spacecraft delayed a new test flight. Boeing believes humidity contributed to the stuck valves, but the company said Tuesday it still was investigating the problem.

NASA, SpaceX complete historic first mission to space station

Support teams work around the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience spacecraft shortly after it landed with NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker and Victor Glover and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi aboard in the Gulf of Mexico off Panama City, Fla. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA | License Photo

EARTH IS LIFE SPACE IS DEATH

Spaceflight caused DNA to leak out of astronauts' cell 'powerhouse'

By HealthDay News

Spaceflight may cause DNA to leak out of cell mitochondria, otherwise known as the "powerhouse" of a cell as it is responsible for turning sugars into energy.

 File Photo courtesy of NASA

Scientists already knew radiation exposure and a lack of gravity stress the bodies of astronauts. But new research may offer a better idea of what's driving some of that.

It's a clue that could help them measure the physical impact of space travel to detect problems earlier, and it involves mitochondria, known as the powerhouse of the cell because these tiny structures inside cells produce energy.

Mitochondria have their own DNA, and when they undergo stress or other damage, that DNA is released and causes cellular damage and other problems elsewhere in the body.

Previous research shows increased levels of this circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA can help predict how people with diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and cardiovascular diseases will fare.

RELATED NASA simulates realistic galactic cosmic rays to study effects on astronaut health

And a breakdown in the normal activity of mitochondria has been linked to the development and progression of heart failure.

In the new study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers examined blood samples of 14 NASA astronauts who took five- to 13-day missions to the International Space Station between 1998 and 2001.

Blood samples were taken three times: 10 days before the launch, the day of their return and three days after the landing.

All 14 astronauts had increased levels of free-floating mitochondrial DNA in the blood on the day of landing and three days after, ranging from two to 355 times higher than pre-space travel.

That huge range makes it hard to draw any conclusions, said the study's senior author Dr. David Goukassian. Still, he said, the increased levels are possibly harmful because mitochondrial DNA drives inflammation when it leaks into the rest of the body.

The researchers, funded in part by NASA and the American Heart Association, also looked at astronauts' white blood cells.

They found a significant increase in markers of inflammation, DNA damage and oxidative stress, which is a disruption in the balance of molecules that harm healthy tissue in the body and antioxidant defenses that neutralize them.

"It's a vicious circle: Radiation may induce DNA damage, which may induce oxidative stress, which leads to inflammation, which can lead to DNA damage," said Goukassian, a professor of cardiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

As NASA plans to send astronauts back to the moon and to Mars, scientists need a better understanding of how people are affected by radiation, the relative lack of gravity in space, and issues like confinement and erratic cycles, Goukassian said.

"Deep space exploration is dangerous for many reasons, but we need to know as much as possible about the adverse health effects so we can protect humans from stressors before, during and after exploration-type space missions."

Jamila Siamwala, a researcher on NASA's Twins Study, said the new study was limited by its small size, short length and lack of information about the astronauts' health.

Still, the findings are another key part of a growing body of evidence about the risks of human spaceflight, said Siamwala, an assistant professor of molecular pharmacology, physiology and biotechnology at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. She was not involved in the new research.

She said even as scientists look for ways to put astronauts into artificial hibernation to travel deeper into space, they still don't fully understand how space disrupts blood flow in a species that's so accustomed to gravity.

"I cannot tell you how important these studies are," Siamwala said. "Before we start thinking about commercial spaceflight or establishing factories in space, we need to understand how the body responds to these drastic conditions in such a hostile place."

American Heart Association News covers heart and brain health. Not all views expressed in this story reflect the official position of the American Heart Association. Copyright is owned or held by the American Heart Association, Inc., and all rights are reserved. If you have questions or comments about this story, please email editor@heart.org.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Survey: Women doctors face higher levels of harassment, frustration

By HealthDay News

Many female family doctors face sexual harassment, but most remain satisfied with their careers, a new study finds.

Researchers surveyed 315 women physicians in family practices from 49 countries and found that 75% said they were satisfied or extremely satisfied with their work conditions and their career.

"Despite all obstacles in the work environment, especially regarding the pay and administrative burden and lack of personal time, women family physicians are satisfied with their careers," said study author Jumana Antoun, an associate professor/clinical specialty in the family medicine department at American University of Beirut.

However, 56% said it was difficult or very difficult to advance in their careers, and only 39% said their work conditions and career satisfaction was similar to their male colleagues.

Nearly three-quarters -- 74% -- of the female doctors said they experienced general sexist remarks and behaviors in their training or work, 45% reported inappropriate sexual advances, and 22% reported coercive advances.

There were no country- or income-related differences in the overall satisfaction of the women physicians, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal Family Practice.

"It is possible that they pursued this specialty for intrinsic qualities of the family medicine specialty and connection with patients rather than reasons of money and status," Antoun said in a journal news release.

"Nevertheless, this does not mean that employers should not work on improving their work environment and make it safer and equitable with men doctors," Antoun said.

The proportion of women in family medicine is increasing -- they accounted for about 54% of U.S. family medicine residents in 2019 -- so their well-being and job satisfaction is important, particularity given the scarcity of family medicine physicians, according to the researchers.

It noted that female primary care doctors earn 18% less than their male counterparts, and that women have higher burnout rates and more obstacles to promotion, leadership opportunities, sponsorships and mentorships.

The Association of American Medical Colleges outlines how the nation's physician workforce is changing.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Health benefits of nuts may boost survival, limit recurrence in breast cancer


A new study suggests eating nuts could help boost survival in people with breast cancer. Photo courtesy of Max Pixel

Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Regular consumption of peanuts, walnuts and other tree nuts boosts survival and reduces risk for disease recurrence in people with breast cancer, a study published Wednesday by the International Journal of Cancer found.

Breast cancer survivors who ate more than one-half ounce of nuts per week had five-year survival rates of up to 95% among people in the study -- higher than those without nuts in their diet -- the data showed.

In addition, 94% of those who consumed nuts regularly did not experience a recurrence, or return, of their breast cancer within five years of recovery from their initial illness, the researchers said.

"Nut consumption is associated with improved survival, particularly disease-free survival, among long-term breast cancer survivors," Dr. Xiao-Ou Shu, study co-author, told UPI in an email.

"Nuts are rich in several nutrients, including unsaturated fatty acids, protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals and other bioactive constituents, such as phytosterols and phenolic compounds, that have known health benefits," said Shu, a professor of cancer research at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.

Previous studies have linked diet with breast cancer risk and survival, and earlier research has documented the health benefits of nutrient-dense foods such as nuts, including in people with breast cancer.

For this study, the researchers compared five-year survival and disease-free survival rates in more than 3,100 people who regularly consumed about a half-ounce of nuts per week to those of roughly 300 who did not eat nuts.

Disease-free survival refers to the time between cancer diagnosis to any recurrence of the tumor or death, the researchers said.

Study participants who consumed nuts regularly had five-year survival and disease-free survival rates of 94%, the data showed.

Those who did not eat nuts had a five-year survival rate of 89% and and disease-free survival rate of 86%, the data showed.

"Many mechanisms of cancer development, such as excessive oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, are shared across cancers," Shu said.

"Thus, we speculate that benefits of nut consumption that we observed for breast cancer survivors can be extended to survivors of other cancer, though direct evidence on this is needed," she said.

Most teens with depression, substance use issues don't get simultaneous care

Few teens suffering from both major depression and substance use disorder receive needed care, according to a new study.

 Photo by Jesús Rodríguez/Unsplash

Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Fewer than 5% of teens in the United States suffering from major depression and substance use disorder receive treatment simultaneously for the conditions, a study published Wednesday by JAMA Network Open found.

Similarly, fewer than 2% of teens with co-occurring depression and substance use disorders -- the persistent use of drugs or alcohol, despite the risk for harm -- receive treatment for the substance use issue, the data showed.

However, more than 40% of those ages 12 to 17 diagnosed with major co-occurring substance use disorder and depression -- or at least two weeks of low mood, low self-esteem and loss of interest in activities, as defined by the National Institute of Mental Health -- undergo treatment for the depression, the researchers said.

Boys overall are less likely to be treated for depression than girls, the researchers found.

Hispanic American teens with either or both conditions are nearly 50% less likely than White teens to receive care, and Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Island descent are up to 96% less likely than White teens to receive care, according to the researchers.

"That only one in 20 adolescents with co-occurring major depression and substance use disorders receive treatment for both conditions represents a historic low in the past decade," study co-author Wenhua Lu told UPI in an email.

"Parents and caregivers should pay more attention to their teens' mental health, watch for 'warning signs' of drug use and help their teens seek professional support," said Lu, an assistant medical professor of community health and social medicine at CUNY School of Medicine in New York City.

Major depression and substance use disorder both typically emerge during adolescence, and these conditions have been linked with an increased risk for self-harm, academic problems and suicide, a 2002 report from the Department of Health and Human Services found.

Despite these links, both disorders often go undiagnosed and therefore untreated, according to the agency.

For this study, Lu and her colleagues analyzed data for more than 136,000 respondents ages 12 to 17 to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an ongoing assessment of drug consumption and behaviors coordinated by HHS, between 2011 and 2019.

As many as 2% of the adolescents and teens included in the analysis had been diagnosed with both major depression and substance use disorder, the data showed.

Up to 12% of the respondents with both conditions received treatment during the 10-year study period.

However, in 2019, the percentage of those diagnosed with both disorders who were undergoing treatment declined to fewer than 5%, a low for the decade-long study period.

Adolescents and teens from racial and ethnic minority groups are less likely to receive care, the data showed.

"Compared with Whites, Hispanic adolescents are less likely to use treatment for co-occurring depression and substance use disorders, and Asian-American adolescents have the lowest level of treatment use for depression and co-occurring depression and substance use disorders," Lu said.

"Systemic racism has forever been the root cause for such disparities, blocking people's access to appropriate mental healthcare in marginalized communities," she said.

US Cigarette sales jumped during COVID-19 pandemic, study says

By Cara Murez, HealthDay News

Researchers say an increase in cigarette sales during the COVID-19 pandemic may reflect people falling back on old habits or picking up new ones because of stress caused by the coronavirus. Photo by Free-Photos/Pixabay

As COVID-19 has surged throughout the United States for the past year and a half, some may have picked up an old bad habit or started a new one.

How do researchers know this? They discovered that cigarette sales jumped during the first 15 months of the pandemic, exceeding their own estimates by 14%.

It's not entirely clear whether that's because current smokers are smoking more, former smokers have restarted or new smokers have joined their ranks. Yet experts are concerned.

"The study provides indirect evidence of increased smoking," said study co-author Samuel Asare, a principal scientist with the American Cancer Society. "We don't directly show whether there was increased smoking. We know that there is a strong correlation between sales and consumption."

RELATED Vaping less likely to help smokers quit than giving up tobacco

For the study, the researchers compared cigarette sales from March 2020 to June 2021 with predicted sales based on the long-term declining trend before the pandemic, from January 2007 to February 2020, then adjusted for expected changes, including seasonality.

The investigators gathered data from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

Cigarette sales exceeded expected sales during all months after the onset of the pandemic.

ORAL FIXATION
RELATED Study: Nearly 1 in 5 high school kids uses trio of pot, vapes, cigarettes

Many reasons could have contributed to the increase, Asare said.

"Some of them are the stay-at-home orders," Asare said. "Remember, some people used to work in workplaces where we have smoking bans. Now that they're staying at home, they have their freedom to do whatever they want at home."

For others, smoking can be a strategy for coping with stress. Programs that provided aid to Americans during the pandemic may have led households to increase their spending, which could include increasing cigarette purchases for smokers, Asare said.

RELATED Study: Delay on graphic warning labels on cigarettes may have cost lives

Stockpiling of cigarettes early in the pandemic may also have had an impact on the sales numbers.

Further research would be needed to more firmly determine which of these contributed to the increases.

Researchers do know that smoking cessation programs experienced a sharp decline in requests for help.

"Participation in calls to quitline or cessation counseling declined drastically during the pandemic," Asare said. "The North American Quitline Consortium found a 27% decline in calls to the quitline in 2020 for cessation counseling compared to 2019," he added.

The apparent increase in smoking couldn't come at a more challenging time.

"There are a number of studies that have shown that smokers are more vulnerable to COVID-19-related complications compared to nonsmokers," Asare said.

What's needed now? Restoring calls for smoking cessation counseling and increasing tobacco control policies, Asare said.

"It is important to get back to a trend or to a level we had before the pandemic, so that whatever goals we have, we can actually achieve," Asare said.

The findings of the research report were published online Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Patricia Folan is director of the Center for Tobacco Control at Northwell Health in Great Neck, N.Y. She was not surprised to hear that cigarette sales had increased in these past months.

"During the pandemic, there have been many reports indicating increases in other substance use, as well as increases in mental distress, such as anxiety and depression, which are often triggers for relapse," said Folan, who was not involved in the study.

"After the attacks on 9/11, an increase in smoking and relapse to smoking was noted, particularly among first responders. Although very different situations, the stress felt in both instances may have contributed to increased smoking or relapse to smoking," Folan said.

Folan said the smoking cessation program she leads has seen an increase in enrollment during the pandemic.

As Asare suggested, Folan said patients reported smoking more while working remotely at home, without the smoke-free environment at their usual workplaces. They also reported relapsing due to feelings of stress, anxiety and isolation, Folan said.

"Health care providers should continue to ask patients about their tobacco use even if they have quit in the past and, if relapsed, counsel and refer them to the supportive services of a local program or state quitline," Folan said. "Explaining the connection between poor outcomes for smokers with COVID-19 may motivate patients to engage in quit attempts."More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers resources to help you quit smoking.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

A FIGHT AS OLD AS OLIVER TWIST

Paris Hilton advocates for teen bill of rights in fight against treatment facilities


Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., (L) and Paris Hilton attend a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. 

Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 20 (UPI) -- TV personality Paris Hilton visited Capitol Hill on Wednesday to push for legislation to reform the nation's facilities for troubled teenagers, sharing her own experience of living in such a treatment center.

Joined by Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the Hilton Hotel heiress lent her support to a bill that would put in place a bill of rights for teens in psychiatric treatment facilities.

Hilton spoke about her experience living at Provo Canyon School in Utah, where she said she underwent mental, emotional and physical abuse for several months.

"I was given clothes with a number on the tag, " she said. "I was no longer me, I was only number 127. I was forced to stay indoors for 11 months straight, no sunlight, no fresh air. These were considered privileges.

"I was strangled, slapped across the face, watched in the shower by male staff, called vulgar names, forced to take medication without a diagnosis, not given a proper education, thrown into solitary confinement in a room covered in scratch marks and smeared in blood and so much more."


Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., gives remarks a at press conference at the U.S. Capitol.

 Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

Khanna said he was working to write legislation allowing youngsters in such facilities the right to call their parents, be free from restraints, and have access to clean water and proper nutrition.

"This is not a messaging bill -- this is a bill we need to pass," he said.

"Congress needs to act because children are dying in the name of treatment," Hilton added. "This is a human rights issue. People should be outraged with what's happening.

Uvea Spezza-Lopin, a 12-year-old abuse survivor, gives remarks at a press conference. 

Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

What exactly is 'the metaverse'?

Facebook has announced major investments in "the metaverse," a virtual reality that could one day coexist alongside the physical world. DW breaks down what it is — and how you might already be in it.

  

Although still in its infancy, many believe the potential of the metaverse to be huge

It's been a long day. You've spent the morning hopping between conference rooms, stealing five minutes in the break room to talk to a co-worker about a concert you're going to that evening. You meet at the venue after work, excited to see your favorite K-Pop band play live. After the show ends, you buy a T-shirt and try to forget that you saw your ex-boyfriend there.

A pretty typical day. The twist? You did it all without leaving your home. Welcome to the metaverse.

What is the metaverse?

The metaverse has no single creator or definition. It can be defined loosely as a digital reality, akin to the World Wide Web, but combining aspects of social media, augmented reality, online gaming and cryptocurrencies to allow users to act and interact virtually. While the concept is still in its infancy, its potential is huge.

"I'm fairly sure at this point that […] the metaverse is going to be a new economy that is larger than our current economy," Jensen Hang, CEO of computer graphics chipmaker NVIDIA, has said. NVIDIA, a company whose investment in the metaverse has led some to predict it will one day outgrow Apple, is just one of many companies scrambling to stake a claim in the metaverse goldrush. Epic Games, Microsoft and many others have launched initiatives of their own.

For years now, Facebook has been investing in virtual and augmented reality for the metaverse. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he expects people will one day think of the social media company instead as a metaverse company. This week, Facebook doubled down on the project, announcing a major metaverse initiative in Europe.

Second Life is one of many interactive games already containing metaverse elements

Bringing everything together

"Instead of just viewing content — you are in it," Mark Zuckerberg told tech blog The Verge in July, contrasting the idea of the metaverse with standard "two-dimensional" webpages that currently populate the internet.

Iterations of the metaverse have existed for years, whether as social media, virtual reality, online gaming or the cryptocurrency sphere.

Interactive and world-building games such as Second Life, Fortnite, Minecraft and Roblox all have elements of the metaverse. There, users can work and collaborate, attend events and exchange real-world money for virtual goods and services.

Thus far, however, these worlds have been largely self-contained. Metaverse visionaries predict a virtual universe where one might move seamlessly between these different types of digital worlds. Users could even retain the same virtual identity — in the form of a digital avatar — and capital they own in one world would hold the same value in another. Everyone would pay with a universally accepted digital currency.

The cryptofactor

This payment angle is particularly interesting for cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies have made something of a splash this year, due in part to growing public awareness around non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a technology that could play a key role in the metaverse.

NFTs are a type of digital asset that functions more or less as virtual collector's items. One NFT, a JPG file of a photo collage, made headlines earlier this year when it sold for $69 million (€59 million). Earlier this month, fashion designers Dolce & Gabbana sold a clothing collection in the form of NFTs, with some of the items intended to be worn by digital avatars.

In some virtual worlds currently in existence, users are already paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrencies to buy NFTs of digital real estate and property. Art dealer Sotheby's recently acquired its own chunk of digital real estate, which it used to construct a replica of its London galleries. It then held a virtual art show there.

Immersive art installations will also be part of the metaverse sphere

The transaction and ownership of most NFTs is recorded on the Ethereum blockchain, the network that hosts Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency after Bitcoin. This puts

NFTs and Ethereum in a good position to become the structural backbone of the metaverse. Such a move could also legitimize crypto as a form of payment, quickening the uptake of cryptocurrencies among the general public.

The COVID-19 push

The full functionality of the metaverse is likely still decades away. Key technologies, particularly in the realm of augmented reality, have yet to become mainstream, and the metaverse raises a whole gamut of legal questions as well.

Creating it will also require a degree of technical cooperation among companies that seems unrealistic when one considers, for example, the mobile phone charger landscape.

But momentum is there, and the COVID-19 pandemic has hastened development of the metaverse. Global digitization efforts got a huge push after the health crisis prompted millions of people to work from home, and in some ways digital communications platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams have familiarized people with the concepts at the heart of the metaverse.

Many companies are already trying to replicate digitally the spontaneity of human interaction at the office for employees working from home. Even DW has launched official internal chat rooms called "break room" and "hallway" dedicated to fostering casual chitchat between colleagues in times of working from home.

Still in its infancy, the metaverse could be a market worth $800 billion as early as 2024, Bloomberg Intelligence reported in July.