Schrödinger’s Bat? How the ‘multiverse’ is transforming superhero films

Rizwan Virk
Wed, October 20, 2021

Alternate universes: Tobey Maguire in Spiderman - Alamy

Sometimes yesterday’s science fiction inspires today’s science, and sometimes it’s the other way around. Take, for instance, William Shatner’s (aka Captain Kirk’s) recent trip to space, or (to go further back) how the industrial revolution inspired HG Wells to write the first work of fiction to feature a time machine: The Time Machine.

In the last century, our growing scientific understanding of the vastness of the universe spawned the first superheroes, whose god-like powers were narratively accounted for by the fact that they came from other planets (think Superman and Krypton).

You might say that the idea of technological civilisations on other planets had passed the 10-year test, wherein enough of the population is comfortable with an idea that mainstream pop culture can get away with using it. At the same time, today’s multiple serious scientific efforts to search for techno-signatures on exoplanets might owe something to the proliferation of alien superhero films.

But for today’s comic-book and -film fans, the idea of superheroes coming from other planets is considered quaint and – well – boring. The form has moved on to newer, flashier concepts. I know this because my nephews explained to me a few years ago, in great detail, how different versions of superheroes now come from different timelines in something called the “multiverse”. They were talking about the DC superheroes in the Arrowverse (The Flash, Supergirl), but it was the first evidence that the multiverse, a real concept from quantum physics, had passed the 10-year test, at least on the small screen.

Marvel brought the idea to a whole new level this year, after its Avengers: Endgame storyline concluded. Popular Marvel TV shows, such as Loki, have transformed the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) into the Marvel multiverse right before fans’ eyes. In that show, Thor’s mischievous younger brother is arrested by a bureaucratic elephant called the Time Variance authority for pursuing too many alternate realities (creating a kind of giant cosmic tree-like structure). Similarly, Marvel’s animated series, What If…? imagines what might have happened to our favorite superheroes in alternate realities.

Ezra Miller as The Flash

The Marvel multiverse is soon to hit big screens near you. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will arrive in 2022, and the multiverse has already been hinted at in this year’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, not to mention 2018’s animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Meanwhile, rumour has it that alternate versions of our favorite web-slinger will show up in Spider-Man: No Way Home (Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire, in addition to the current Spiderman, Tom Holland), which is due out in Britain in December.

Indeed, the multiverse has become so popular among the creators of superhero movies that a recent trailer for a cinematic version of DC’s The Flash, to be released next year, suggest that alternate Batmans, such as Michael Keaton’s and Ben Affleck’s, will appear to help Ezra Miller’s speedster save the world yet again.

While this is clearly a strategic choice from DC and Marvel – the multiverse provides each with an infinite number of stories to tell – it is also a prime example of how scientific concepts drift into pop culture, enabling us to think more broadly about the universe and our place in it.

Is it possible that we actually live in a multiverse, of the kind depicted in these superhero films? It turns out that many scientists take the possibility quite seriously, from Columbia’s Brian Greene to MIT’s Max Tegmark and NYU’s Michio Kaku. The scientific theory inspiring these stories is the quantum multiverse, which states that each time a decision is made, we spawn off alternate universes. Echoing the tree-like structure of Loki, you can also think of these as separate timelines in which there are alternate versions of each of us, the earth and the universe.

The idea grew out of the weirdness of quantum mechanics and the famous double-slit experiment (I won’t get into too much scientific detail, but you can read about it here and here). A good way to illustrate this weirdness and how it might give birth to multiverses like those of the superheroes was given by one of the founders of quantum mechanics, Erwin Schrödinger, who proposed a thought experiment known as Schrödinger’s cat.

Schrödinger’s unfortunate theoretical cat is placed in a box with some radioactive material and some poison, which are arranged in such a way that after an hour, there is a 50 per cent chance that the cat is dead. Common sense tells us that the cat is either alive or dead – it can’t be both! Quantum mechanics, in a twist, says the cat is in superposition, which means it is both alive and dead at the same time, at least until one or the other possibility is observed.

How can a cat (or any of us, including superheroes) be in superposition, or exist in multiple states? This has been one of the biggest debates in physics for the last century. The idea was presaged by Schrödinger, who spoke about “multiple simultaneous histories” back in the 1940s, and was proposed more formally by Hugh Everett III in his doctoral dissertation at Princeton in 1960. Everett’s work, which made some of the giants of 20th-century physics such as Einstein (who had an office down the road) uncomfortable, sat in obscurity until an increasing number of scientists, fed up with the weirdness, came to argue that the only way this would be possible is if we were to exist in a multiverse.

Loki: Tom Hiddleston - Alamy

And what would this multiverse look like? It would be a very large tree that branches out into new possibilities. In short, it would look a lot like the Loki Multiverse, though with a lot more branches.

The idea of the multiverse could also solve one of the biggest problems in cosmology, which is called “fine-tuning”. The physical universe we lived in seems fine-tuned for our kind of life. If many cosmological parameters were off even by less than 1 per cent, the atoms that make up our world, not to mention planets and stars as we know them, would break apart. How did this happen? No one knows, but the multiverse offers a possible explanation: all possible worlds are tried out, and only those that meet certain requirements develop life – and, of course, we are in that branch.

What happens to those other branches and whether there is any way for us to perceive them remains unknown. Which means, though there might be alternate versions of Spider-Man and The Flash out there, it may be impossible for us, at least without superpowers, to ever reach those alternate versions. But the current crop of superhero multiverses might inspire the next generation of scientists to look for ways not just to detect but to connect with other parallel universes, in the same way that yesterday’s science fiction inspired the current wave of space travel.

Who knows, we might even find a branch of the multiverse where they’ve already figured it out. Perhaps they are watching us right now, wondering how long it’ll take us to realise that we are actually in a multiverse.

Rizwan Virk is founder of Play Labs @ MIT. His new book, The Simulated Multiverse, is out now

"The dogs are fine": Mystery banner and footprints hint at volcano rescue




"The dogs are fine": Mystery banner and footprints hint at volcano rescue

FILE PHOTO: Dogs stranded on ash-covered earth surrounded by volcanic lava in Todoque area

Anthony Paone
Thu, October 21, 2021

LA PALMA (Reuters) - The Spanish drone company trying to rescue three dogs trapped near an erupting volcano on the island of La Palma has found no sign of the animals, but discovered human footprints in the ash-covered no-go area, and a message: "The dogs are fine".

Images of the emaciated dogs captured from a drone this month have provoked an outpouring of support from animal lovers across Spain, triggering the rescue mission, donations and other initiatives.

A picture of a banner circulating on social media, saying in Spanish "Be strong La Palma. The dogs are fine. A-Team", hinted that the dogs may have been moved. The drone team confirmed they could see part of the message from the skies.

"The banner is really there, only overturned by the wind, and we saw human footprints, so we understood that the dogs had been gone for some days," Jaime Pereira, CEO of drone operator Aerocamaras, told reporters on Thursday.

He said infrared temperature measurements of the lava surface surrounding the yard where the dogs had been stranded for weeks showed it had cooled off in some places to 40C-70C (104F-158F), making it possible for someone to walk to their rescue.

"We knew something weird was going on as we checked all the areas where they could have been hiding and discovered nothing. Now we only want to see the dogs, to verify that they are well and are the same ones we've been looking for," Pereira added.

They had been fed by smaller drones dropping packages of food, but until now no one had been able to retrieve them.

Aerocamaras had been planning to send a 50 kg cargo drone equipped with a remote-controlled net to try to trap the dogs, one by one, and fly them out over the lava.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano started spewing red-hot lava and ash on Sept. 19, with the eruption showing few signs of abating so far after destroying some 2,000 buildings and forcing thousands to leave their homes.

(Writing by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Alison Williams)

'While I'm Alive, I'll Keep Speaking.' Journalist Rana Ayyub's Fight to Expose the Truth in India

Billy Perrigo
Fri, October 22, 2021

Rana Ayyub in Perugia, Italy, in 2019 Credit - Tania—Contrasto/Redux

For the last several months, every time Rana Ayyub’s phone or doorbell rings, she has felt a pang of fear. Could this be the day the Indian government finally throws her in prison—or worse?

In early October, Ayyub was rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night with a suspected heart attack. She remembers screaming to doctors in her hospital bed: “I’m dying.” The scare turned out to be a palpitation, and she was prescribed blood pressure medication. “It happened because I was fearful of my life,” Ayyub, 37, says in a phone interview with TIME two weeks later. “I was just tired of this existence.”

Read More: The Indian Government Is Silencing Critics Even As Its COVID-19 Crisis Surges

Ayyub is one of India’s most famous journalists, and a thorn in the side of the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She rose to prominence after she self-published Gujarat Files, a 2016 book about the 2002 violence in the state of Gujarat that left at least 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus dead. Ayyub’s work accused Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, and his allies of being complicit in the anti-Muslim violence and included undercover audio recordings of politicians in India’s now-ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. (Modi has never been formally charged and has said his government used its “full strength” to “do the right thing.”) Since then, Ayyub has struggled to find editors at mainstream Indian publications willing to publish her work. This summer, she joined the American newsletter platform Substack. She also writes a regular column for the Washington Post, and has occasionally written for TIME, including a TIME cover story in April highlighting the Modi government’s mismanagement of the country’s devastating second wave of COVID-19. And for the past several months, she has endured an escalating campaign of intimidation from Indian authorities and supporters of the ruling party.

Various journalists' organizations staged a silent sit-in protest against media gagging outside the Press Club of India in New Delhi on Feb 18.Pradeep Gaur—SOPA Images/Shutterstock

“Of all the cases of journalists we work on around the world, at the moment Rana is one of my top concerns,” says Rebecca Vincent, the director of international campaigns at rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF). “The hate she’s facing has been escalating for years but it’s so intense at the moment. We have a history of journalists being killed with impunity in India, and frankly it’s very possible that could be repeated. When I receive urgent calls from Rana, my immediate instinct is concern for her life.” The Indian government should know, Vincent says, that the world’s eyes are watching out for Ayyub’s safety. “If something happens to her, it will be very obvious where it came from and why,” she says.

Although India is often called the world’s largest democracy, U.S.-based nonprofit Freedom House downgraded India from “free” to “partly free” in March, citing a decline in civil liberties since Modi came to power in 2014, including the intimidation of journalists and activists. Independent journalists, especially women, face particularly intense harassment, abuse and rape threats. In 2017, prominent journalist Gauri Lankesh, known for her outspoken criticism of the Hindu nationalist government, was shot dead in Bangalore. RSF notes that India “is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists trying to do their job properly” and the group’s annual World Press Freedom Index ranks India at 142 out of 180 countries. Modi’s government set up a committee in 2020 to improve India’s ranking; the committee said in March that the RSF methodology lacked transparency and identified a “Western bias” in the index. (India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting did not reply to a request for comment.)

Ayyub is used to living on the edge. In 2018, for example, BJP supporters shared on social media a pornographic video doctored to include Ayyub’s face in an attempt to discredit her. For more than four years, she has received a barrage of anonymous death and rape threats on her social media. But for the last several months, she has been the victim of a campaign of intimidation by Indian authorities that has taken even her by surprise. In June, the Uttar Pradesh police opened an investigation into Ayyub and other Muslim journalists after they tweeted a video showing a violent attack against a Muslim man. Police and government officials said the man’s claim was faked and police accused Ayyub and several others of attempting to “create animosity between Hindus and Muslims,” saying they did “not make an attempt to establish truth in the case.” In a statement at the time, the Uttar Pradesh government said it placed “absolute sanctity to rule of law, civil liberties and freedom of expression” and the investigation was not lodged “due to any witch-hunt.”

In June, the central government’s Income Tax Department sent Ayyub a summons, investigating her income in relation to her fundraising for COVID-19. (During the height of India’s pandemic earlier this spring, she traveled the country distributing humanitarian aid that she had raised funds for via her online following.) Shortly after, the Enforcement Directorate began investigating Ayyub’s foreign sources of income. Ayyub describes the accusations as baseless. She says she has been followed in the street by mysterious cars, and that she has been forced to disclose to authorities confidential information and emails, including with her editors. On Sept. 27, she filed an appeal against the Income Tax Department, where her case is pending. (The department did not respond to TIME’s request for comment.)

Christophe Deloire (R), Secretary General of Reporter Without Borders, attends a video conference call with Edward Snowden (L on the screen) and Rana Ayyub (R on the screen) during the launch of the 2020 Press Freedom Index in Paris in April 2020.Christophe Petit Tesson—EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

After an experience being tailed by an unknown car for 90 minutes in Mumbai, Ayyub wrote a letter for one of her family members to publish in the event of her death. “It just says that in case anything happens to me, I don’t want you to let my death go in vain,” she says. “I want the future generation of journalists, writers, activists to know that even if my life is short-lived, it’s a fight worth fighting. While I’m alive, I’ll keep speaking.”

Press freedom is under growing threat around the world. In October, the Nobel Committee awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia, editors-in-chief of independent publications who have each faced state-sanctioned intimidation for daring to stand up to authoritarian regimes. Ayyub has spoken to Ressa and gathers strength from knowing that others like her are going through similar trials. She welcomes the recognition for Ressa and Muratov, and sees parallels between their countries and India. (The Philippines is ranked at 138 on the World Press Freedom Index, while Russia is at 150.) “It has given so many of us the courage to fight,” she says of the Nobel Peace Prize going to embattled journalists. “It felt like it was for each one of us.”

But Ayyub is no editor-in-chief. She is a single journalist working mostly alone, without institutional support, and largely for international publications. This makes her particularly vulnerable, but also more determined. “If anything, what they are doing to me has made me realize that my words count, and they are having an impact,” she says.

After Ayyub’s heart scare in early October, her 75-year-old father suggested the family leave the country. His daughter refused. “I love this country more than I can ever explain,” she told TIME. “If I hated it, I would have left a long time ago. Our forefathers, our freedom fighters, fought the British to give us this independent India, this grand idea of a democracy. And I’m fighting for this very idea.”

Parents were fine with sweeping school vaccination mandates five decades ago – but COVID-19 may be a different story


James Colgrove, Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health; Dean of the Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program, Columbia School of General Studies, Columbia University

Fri, October 22, 2021

Children and parents lined up for polio vaccines outside a Syracuse, New York school in 1961. AP Photo

The ongoing battles over COVID-19 vaccination in the U.S. are likely to get more heated when the Food and Drug Administration authorizes emergency use of a vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, expected later this fall.

California has announced it will require the vaccine for elementary school attendance once it receives full FDA approval after emergency use authorization, and other states may follow suit. COVID-19 vaccination mandates in workplaces and colleges have sparked controversy, and the possibility that a mandate might extend to younger children is even more contentious.

Kids are already required to get a host of other vaccines to attend school. School vaccination mandates have been around since the 19th century, and they became a fixture in all 50 states in the 1970s. Vaccine requirements are among the most effective means of controlling infectious diseases, but they’re currently under attack by small but vocal minorities of parents who consider them unacceptable intrusions on parental rights.

As a public health historian who studies the evolution of vaccination policies, I see stark differences between the current debates over COVID-19 vaccination and the public response to previous mandates.
Compulsory vaccination in the past

The first legal requirements for vaccination date to the early 1800s, when gruesome and deadly diseases routinely terrorized communities. A loose patchwork of local and state laws were enacted to stop epidemics of smallpox, the era’s only vaccine-preventable disease.

Vaccine mandates initially applied to the general population. But in the 1850s, as universal public education became more common, people recognized that schoolhouses were likely sites for the spread of disease. Some states and localities began enacting laws tying school attendance to vaccination. The smallpox vaccine was crude by today’s standards, and concerns about its safety led to numerous lawsuits over mandates.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld compulsory vaccination in two decisions. The first, in 1905, affirmed that mandates are constitutional. The second, in 1922, specifically upheld school-based requirements. In spite of these rulings, many states lacked a smallpox vaccination law, and some states that did have one failed to enforce it consistently. Few states updated their laws as new vaccines became available.

School vaccination laws underwent a major overhaul beginning in the 1960s, when health officials grew frustrated that outbreaks of measles were continuing to occur in schools even though a safe and effective vaccine had recently been licensed.

Many parents mistakenly believed that measles was an annoying but mild disease from which most kids quickly recovered. In fact, it often caused serious complications, including potentially fatal pneumonia and swelling of the brain.

With encouragement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, all states updated old laws or enacted new ones, which generally covered all seven childhood vaccines that had been developed by that time: diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps and rubella. In 1968, just half the states had school vaccination requirements; by 1981, all states did.

Smiling boy rolls up his sleeve to get a shot from a nurse

Expanding requirements, mid-20th century

What is most surprising about this major expansion of vaccination mandates is how little controversy it provoked.

The laws did draw scattered court challenges, usually over the question of exemptions – which children, if any, should be allowed to opt out. These lawsuits were often brought by chiropractors and other adherents of alternative medicine. In most instances, courts turned away these challenges.

There was scant public protest. In contrast to today’s vocal and well-networked anti-vaccination activists, organized resistance to vaccination remained on the fringes in the 1970s, the period when these school vaccine mandates were largely passed. Unlike today, when fraudulent theories of vaccine-related harm – such as the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism – circulate endlessly on social media, public discussion of the alleged or actual risks of vaccines was largely absent.

Through most of the 20th century, parents were less likely to question pediatricians’ recommendations than they are today. In contrast to the empowered “patient/consumer” of today, an attitude of “doctor knows best” prevailed. All these factors contributed to overwhelmingly positive views of vaccination, with more than 90% of parents in a 1978 poll reporting that they would vaccinate their children even if there were no law requiring them to do so.

Widespread public support for vaccination enabled the laws to be passed easily – but it took more than placing a law on the books to control disease. Vaccination rates continued to lag in the 1970s, not because of opposition, but because of complacency.

Thanks to the success of earlier vaccination programs, most parents of young children lacked firsthand experience with the suffering and death that diseases like polio or whooping cough had caused in previous eras. But public health officials recognized that those diseases were far from eradicated and would continue to threaten children unless higher rates of vaccination were reached. Vaccines were already becoming a victim of their success. The better they worked, the more people thought they were no longer needed.

In response to this lack of urgency, the CDC launched a nationwide push in 1977 to help states enforce the laws they had recently enacted. Around the country, health officials partnered with school districts to audit student records and provide on-site vaccination programs. When push came to shove, they would exclude unvaccinated children from school until they completed the necessary shots.

The lesson learned was that making a law successful requires ongoing effort and commitment – and continually reminding parents about the value of vaccines in keeping schools and entire communities healthy.
Add COVID-19 to vaccine list for school?

Five decades after school mandates became universal in the U.S., support for them remains strong overall. But misinformation spread over the internet and social media has weakened the public consensus about the value of vaccination that allowed these laws to be enacted.

adults and kids with signs protesting COVID-19 vaccines

COVID-19 vaccination has become politicized in a way that is unprecedented, with sharp partisan divides over whether COVID-19 is really a threat, and whether the guidance of scientific experts can be trusted. The attention focused on COVID-19 vaccines has given new opportunities for anti-vaccination conspiracy theories to reach wide audiences.

[Over 115,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today.]

Fierce opposition to COVID-19 vaccination, powered by anti-government sentiment and misguided notions of freedom, could undermine support for time-tested school requirements that have protected communities for decades. Although vaccinating school-aged children will be critical to controlling COVID-19, lawmakers will need to proceed with caution.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: James Colgrove, Columbia University.

Read more:

Half of unvaccinated workers say they’d rather quit than get a shot – but real-world data suggest few are following through

Shutting down school vaccine clinics doesn’t protect minors – it hurts people who are already disadvantaged

James Colgrove has received funding from the National Library of Medicine, the Greenwall Foundation, the Milbank Memorial Fund, and the William T. Grant Foundation.

Neera Tanden tapped for high-powered White House staff secretary role

by Naomi Lim, White House Reporter |
| October 22, 2021 09:54 AM
 Washington Examiner

Neera Tanden will take over as White House staff secretary seven months after her name was withdrawn as President Joe Biden's nominee to direct the Office of Management and Budget.

Tanden will start on Monday after current staff secretary Jessica Hertz vacates the role Friday, administration sources confirmed to the Washington Examiner. Tanden will report to chief of staff Ron Klain.

"The staff secretary role is the central nervous system of the White House and moves the decision-making process and manages a wide variety of issues for the president," an official said. "Neera has over two decades of experience in policy and management, which are critical elements of the role. Her experience across domestic, economic, and national security policy will be a key asset in this new role."

Tanden was tapped as a White House senior adviser after it became clear in March that not enough Senate Democrats or Republicans would confirm her as budget chief. From centrist West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin to socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, many had expressed concerns about her partisan rhetoric, leadership style, and corporate donor ties as the president and CEO of Center of American Progress.

"She’s working on passage of Build Back Better, particularly pushing outside support, and have done that since August. She is overseeing a government reform initiative alongside OMB, which stems in part from her work overseeing the United States Digital Service on behalf of the chief of staff’s office. And she worked on our response to the Supreme Court review of the ACA," the source added, referring to the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

'MAYBE' TECH

AUSTRALIA
Has our hydrogen future arrived?
The plan for developing a green hydrogen industry has gone from mud-map to GPS in less than a week.


Credit: eyegelb / Getty Images

Hydrogen has been discussed as the fuel of the future in recent times, with state and federal governments aiming to see renewable hydrogen at a competitive price by 2030.

But some companies – most notably Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), an offshoot of mining giant Fortescue Metals Group – have more ambitious dates in mind. FFI aims to manufacture commercial hydrogen products in Queensland within 18 months, and FFI chair Andrew Forrest seems confident there will be a market for them.

Could renewable hydrogen become the fuel of now?

Associate Professor Adam Osseiran, an electrical engineer at Edith Cowan University and president of the Hydrogen Society, thinks FFI’s ambitious plans have meat to them.

“I think, if you put your money where your mouth is, you can do things in that timeframe,” he says. “I don’t think Fortescue is foreign to that.

“Actually, we have to. We have to do it as fast as possible, because the world is moving so fast. And we’re talking about energy here so you cannot miss this trend.”

Part of Osseiran’s confidence in FFI springs from a hydrogen truck the company recently built from scratch.

“They said that they’re going to develop a truck, powered by hydrogen, in a few months,” he says, “and they did it in 130 days.”

FFI’s plan is ambitious, but it reflects an overall acceleration in the hydrogen industry. The Hydrogen Council – an international organisation which advocates for hydrogen fuel – has consistently brought forward its estimated dates for hydrogen competitiveness in various sectors. A January 2020 report produced with consultancy McKinsey & Co stated that “the cost of hydrogen solutions will fall sharply within the next decade – and sooner than previously expected”.

Osseiran says this happens “every time we do a study”.

Dr Jessica Allen, a researcher in electrochemical engineering at the University of Newcastle, says that the investment from FFI and state governments is one of the things speeding the process up.

“In the past, no one believed that hydrogen was the way,” she says. “They thought it was going to be maybe a side-scheme, or there were other things that were going to be centre-stage.

“But green hydrogen is clearly of great importance, and people like Fortescue are driving that forward, and the government’s co-investment will attract more industries to invest.”

This acceleration has been seen in other technologies – like solar panels.

“[There’s] a cost associated with technology development […] The first prototype is really expensive and takes a long time to manufacture,” says Allen. But eventually “they just fly off shelves on their own accord”.

“That’s sort of what photovoltaics did,” she says. “It started off really expensive, and then as the uptake and investment increased the price dropped and they became a lot more cheaper and readily available. It seems like the same thing is happening for hydrogen technology.”

Osseiran says that intense industry investment, like FFI’s, is the key to accelerating.

“This is what we need. Politicians are not going to commit to something earlier than 2030. They say 2030 or 2050, but they’re hoping that the industry will make this happen [sooner].

“That’s how it should work.”

While the announcements this week are promising, there is still much to be done before hydrogen becomes competitive with other energy sources – particularly if it’s to be 100% renewable. Most commercial hydrogen is currently made from coal or natural gas, releasing CO2 in the process. Even if it’s made from water with electricity, the electricity doesn’t necessarily come from renewable sources.

While FFI has committed itself to entirely “green” hydrogen, exclusively from renewable sources, other players in the industry are less selective.

“We need to double, triple, multiply by 10, the green hydrogen production as soon as possible,” says Osseiran.

“This is where we cannot stop.”


Originally published by Cosmos as Has our hydrogen future arrived?

MORE ON:
HYDROGEN
Path to zero emissions: the future of transport
Turning the tide on wave energy
The Hydrogen solution
Electrici-wee? Getting energy from wastewater
CSIRO’s renewable hydrogen initiative

OMG DINO'S WERE COLLECTIVISTS 

Oldest known dinosaur herds found in Patagonia

Evidence of the earliest “gregarious” behaviour springs from the nest.

Artistic reconstruction of a nest of Mussaurus patagonicus with neonate individuals and an adult parent Mussaurus. Credit: Jorge Gonzalez.

Fossils from a 190-million-year-old nesting ground have revealed that its dinosaurs likely lived in herds. The species – Mussaurus patagonicus – are now the oldest known herding dinosaurs, according to a paper in Scientific Reports.

“We’ve now observed and documented this earliest social behaviour in dinosaurs,” says Jahandar Ramezani, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, and co-author on the paper.

“This raises the question now of whether living in a herd may have had a major role in dinosaurs’ early evolutionary success. This gives us some clues to how dinosaurs evolved.”

Nest with eggs of Mussaurus patagonicus. Credit: Diego Pol.

The researchers gathered this evidence by examining Mussaurus eggs and skeletons from the fossil site, which is in the Laguna Colorada Formation, in southern Argentina.

“Such a preserved site was bound to provide us with a lot of information about how early dinosaurs lived,” says Diego Pol, a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina (CONICET), who discovered the site and is lead author on the paper.

The site contains at least 80 Mussaurus skeletons and 100 eggs. The researchers scanned 30 of the eggs with a synchrotron, finding some had embryos inside them.

“We use high-energy X-rays to penetrate the sample without destroying it and get a full view inside it,” says co-author Vincent Fernandez, who did the scanning at the European Synchrotron in France.

“We spent four days scanning the eggs around the clock. It was tiring, but the exciting results were morale-boosting.”

All the embryos were the same species of Mussaurus, indicating that they came from a communal breeding site.

Fossilised egg of Mussaurus patagonicus. Credit: Roger Smith.

The researchers also examined the age of the dinosaur skeletons at the site.

“The bones of these dinosaurs grew in annual cycles, like tree rings, so by counting the growth cycles we could infer the age of the dinosaur,” says Pol.

Skeletons were also grouped by age, with one-year-old skeletons found in clusters together. Older adults and sub-adults were found in pairs or alone, but all within the same small area (a square kilometre in size).

“This may mean that the young were not following their parents in a small family structure,” says Ramezani. “There’s a larger community structure, where adults shared and took part in raising the whole community.”

The researchers calculated the site’s age at 193 million years using radiometric dating (specifically, uranium-lead dating). This is 40 million years prior to the current oldest evidence of “gregarious” (social) behaviour in dinosaurs.

“These are not the oldest dinosaurs, but they are the oldest dinosaurs for which a herd behaviour has been proposed,” says Pol.

The researchers suggest that their evidence throws the evolution of herding back even further. “Palaeontological understanding says if you find social behaviour in this type of dinosaur at this time, it must have originated earlier,” says Ramezani.

The researchers propose that herding may have started between 227 and 208 million years ago, at the same time as dinosaur bodies increased in size.

“Mussaurus belongs to the first successful family of herbivorous dinosaurs, so we postulate that being social and protecting their young together as a herd may have been part of the reason these long-necked dinosaurs were so common in all continents,” says Pol

.

Artistic reconstruction of the breeding ground of a herd of Mussaurus patagonicus. The illustration shows individuals of Mussaurus of different ages (neonates in nests, a group of young individuals, and fully grown adults) representing the findings from Patagonia. Credit: Jorge Gonzalez.

Originally published by Cosmos as Oldest known dinosaur herds found in Patagonia

Printable steak, insect protein, fungus among NASA space food idea winners

Astronaut Kate Rubins harvests radishes in December aboard the International Space Station. File Photo courtesy of NASA

ORLANDO, Fla. Oct. 22 (UPI) -- NASA has chosen 18 companies to continue developing space food that astronauts could eat on long-term, Deep Space missions to Mars or other planets, such as 3D-printed steak and ingredients including insect protein, fungus and algae.

The space agency believes its ongoing Deep Space Food Challenge is vital to keeping astronauts healthy and in good spirits during long isolation. NASA announced this week that more than a dozen organizations will receive $25,000 to keep working on space food solutions.

NASA has tried to focus on appetizing solutions for astronauts, but it also believes innovation requires new approaches, Ralph Fritsche, NASA senior project manager for space crop production, said in an interview.

He said about 10 NASA employees with expertise in food production and spaceflight judged the contest, which had more than 100 entries.

RELATED NASA will pay $500,000 for good ideas on food production in space

"These ideas didn't have to be anywhere close to fully developed," Fritshe said. "Some of our judges may have had some skepticism. But we've decided to open up space food development to many other groups to try and promote space innovation."

The 3D-printed space steak, for example, is proposed by an alliance of companies based in California known as Mission: Space Food.


A 3D-printed steak, which could provide food for astronauts on long missions, is cooked by Aleph Farms in February. Photo courtesy of Aleph Farms

One of those firms is Aleph Farms, which successfully printed a facsimile of a rib-eye steak in February. Aleph boasts advisory board members such as Academy Award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio and retired astronaut Karen Nyberg.

"As we progress in human exploration and colonization of our solar system, space agencies and private companies will need to invest significantly in ... food production so eating in space can minimally depend on resupply from Earth," Shahreen Reza, co-founder of Mission: Space Food, said in an email.

Judges didn't see anything completely new in the ideas for space food, Fritsche said. NASA has grown leafy greens, radishes and peppers in space, for example.

But some entries "moved the bar, pushed the variety of food that we could produce from any single system" by including fungus and algae along with traditional plant crops, he said.

RELATED Astronaut Kate Rubins: Fresh food in space is rare, desired

Mixed greens grow aboard the International Space Station. Photo courtesy of NASA | License Photo

Radishes are shown during harvest in late 2020 aboard the International Space Station. Photo courtesy of NASA

The idea to mix fungus, algae and plants came from Cosmic Eats, a startup company in Cary, N.C.

"Variety is very important on a long space journey, so anything that adds to variety is a big plus," Fritsche said.

One firm, Beehex, of Columbus, Ohio, won with a simple proposal to dehydrate and hermetically seal food so it could be rehydrated with flavor and nutrients intact up to five years later.

Winners from this year's competition will advance to successively narrower and more difficult challenges. Eventually, NASA will require kitchen demonstrations, taste tests and possible demonstrations on orbit.

NASA astronaut Tim Kopra photographed his breakfast in 2016 as it floated inside the International Space Station, where fresh food is rare. Photo courtesy of NASA | License Photo

Other winners include:

Astra Gastronomy, of San Francisco, which plans to grow and dehydrate fast-growing microalgae to form into "crunchy bite-sized snacks mixed with nuts and other ingredients."

Space Bread, of Hawthorne, Fla., which would develop a plastic bag to allow astronauts to store, combine and bake all bread ingredients for a "ready-to-eat yeast-risen roll."
Deep Space Entomoculture, of Somerville, Mass., which would use cells from insect tissue to grow more tissue so the final product would contain protein and fat from insect cells.

The goal of the so-called entomoculture project is "to create familiar meat analogs (burgers, ground meat) using [insect cells] that are more easily adapted to growth in space" than common meat would be, Sophie Letcher, a biomedical engineering doctoral student at Massachusetts-based Tufts University, said in an email.

NASA plans a livestream broadcast on its YouTube channel about the food challenge and the winning ideas with celebrities Martha Stewart and retired astronaut Scott Kelly on Nov. 9 at 11 a.m. EST.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly corrals a supply of fresh fruit that arrived 2015 at the International Space Station, where fresh food is rare and delivered only occasionally. Photo courtesy of NASA

THIN SKINED HAN COLONIALISTS

China bans Boston Celtics games after Enes Kanter's Tibet comments


Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter (11), shown Nov. 20, 2019, made the comments in a two-minute video posted on social media before Wednesday's game against the New York Knicks.

 File Photo by Jon SooHoo/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Boston Celtics games have been removed from Chinese media platforms after center Enes Kanter expressed support for Tibet in a two-minute video posted to social media before Wednesday night's game against the New York Knicks.

Kanter called Chinese President Xi Jinping a "brutal dictator" in the caption of the post, and he wore a shirt with the image of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, in the video. The NBA big man also wore shoes with the phrase "Free Tibet" on them against the Knicks.

"I'm here to add my voice and speak out about what is happening in Tibet," Kanter said in the video. "Under the Chinese government's brutal rule, Tibetan people's basic rights and freedoms are non-existent."

On Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Kanter was "trying to get attention" and the NBA player's remarks "were not worth refuting."

"Tibet is part of China," the spokesman said. "We welcome unbiased friends upholding objectivity across the world to Tibet. In the meanwhile, we never accept the attacks and smears on Tibet's development."

Later Thursday, the Washington, D.C.-based office of His Holiness The Dalai Lama issued a statement to ESPN that read in part: "We are thankful to Enes Kanter, NBA player, for speaking in support of Tibet. In a two-minute video message he summed up the existential threat faced by the Tibetans under Chinese communist rule. Every word that he said is true."

The statement from the organization also noted that Kanter's "courageous" comments came "at the huge risk to his personal life and career."

In response to Kanter's comments, Celtics games were pulled from Tencent -- the Chinese company that streams NBA games and has a content-sharing partnership with ESPN. Previous replays of games are no longer available, and upcoming Celtics games aren't set to be shown on the platform.

In addition, searches for Kanter's name have been blocked on China's Twitter-like social media platform, Weibo.

Philadelphia 76ers games also aren't streamed in China after a previous incident involving then-Houston Rockets executive Daryl Morey.

Two years ago, Morey -- now the Sixers' president of basketball operations -- tweeted his support for democracy in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong, a move that led China to temporarily halt broadcasts of NBA games.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M 
US Watchdog investigates 4 lawmakers on ethics violations

Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., is under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics on allegations his wife, Victoria Kelly, purchased stocks with information gained from his office. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 22 (UPI) -- The Office of Congressional Ethics has recommended issuing subpoenas for four House lawmakers as it has "substantial reason to believe" that they have breached ethics laws.

The reports were released Thursday concerning Reps. Jim Hagedorn, R-Minn.; Mike Kelly, R-Pa.; Tom Malinowski, D-N.J.; and Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., stating they have declined to provide the office with requested information concerning investigations related to either the misuse of founds or the purchasing of stocks.

According to the report on Hagedorn, he's under investigation on accusations of directing at least $453,000 of official funds to companies owned or controlled by two members of his staff who were suspend shortly after the issue made headlines in September of last year.

Friends of Hagedorn, his campaign committee, is also accused of failing to report having used private office space at no cost or for a rate below market value. However, starting in 2019, he began renting official office space at about $2,200 a month in the same building but on a different floor.

The report states that Friends of Hagedorn has listed Suite 7 at 11 Civic Center Plaza in Mankato, Minn., as its mailing address since 2013. However, despite its use of the office, there have been no Federal Election Commission files of rental payments.
The report states that the watchdog has sought his cooperation but he has refused.

Concerning Kelly, the committee said it is investigating whether his wife, Victoria Kelly, purchased between $15,001 and $50,000 worth of stock in Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. on April 29 of last year on confidential nonpublic information that he had access to during his duties.

According to the report, Victoria Kelly purchased the stock a day after her husband's office learned that the Department of Commerce agreed to open an investigation that could benefit Cleveland-Cliffs.

"Victoria Kelly purchased stock in Cleveland-Cliffs just after the Commerce Department advised Cleveland-Cliffs about its planned support ... but before the department publicly announced this course of action," the report said.

Malinowski is being investigated for failing to disclose stock transactions.

According to the report, as a new member of Congress in January 2019, he was trained on his financial disclosure obligations under the STOCK Act but he did not file Periodic Transaction Reports as he was required as "he regularly traded securities."

Staff periodically reminded him to file the PTRs and he received monthly statements from his broker that included all the transactions made in his account, it said.

"The OCE received and reviewed these statements, which confirm that Rep. Malinowski's broker made reportable transactions each month," it said.

Mooney is under scrutiny on accusations he "converted" expended funds from his campaign committees for personal use and failed to disclose required information in his FEC candidate committee filings.