Bumper Cannabis Crop For Afghan Farmers


By Daphne ROUSSEAU
10/30/21 

Afghanistan's new Taliban authorities swear they plan to crack down on the illicit drugs trade that largely fuelled their successful revolt.

But so far nothing has changed for cannabis farmers like Ghulam Ali, whose crop stands head-height across three hectares (eight acres) of land outside Kandahar.

A boy works in a cannabis field on the outskirts of Kandahar Photo: AFP / BULENT KILIC

The plantation lies on the main road through the Panjwai district, northeast of the city, its dark green plants as recognisable as the acrid smell.

"We benefit from it more than from any other crop or fruit," Ali told AFP.


"I had the option to grow other things, but poppy needs more investment, more chemicals to protect the plant from disease."

The Taliban victory put an end to a form of double taxation whereby the insurgents and the former government both took a cut of farmers' profits Photo: AFP / BULENT KILIC

Under the previous US-backed government, overthrown by the Taliban in August, the hashish farmer paid local officials a levy of 3,000 Pakistani rupees ($17) a kilo.

"It was nothing official, just a tax we had to pay. If not they could destroy our plantation," Ali said.

Under the previous US-backed government, overthrown by the Taliban in August, some hashish farmers paid local officials a levy of 3,000 Pakistani rupees ($17) a kilo Photo: AFP / BULENT KILIC

Ali's family converted maize fields to cannabis in 2000, just before the end of the previous Taliban regime, and have had no cause to regret it.

Some 20 relatives live in his mud-brick farmstead. They're not wealthy, but the children go to school and life is comfortable by rural Afghan standards.

At busy times, they hire outside workers to help bring in the harvest.

The Taliban officially opposes the drugs trade but cannabis farmers say the former insurgents are doing nothing to stop them growing their crops Photo: AFP / BULENT KILIC

Next month, the plants will be sifted, pressed and heated to extract an oil, which is then transformed into black-green hashish paste for sale and export.

The bricks sell to traffickers for between 10,000 and 12,000 rupees per kilo ($60).

Ali knows the smugglers will sell it on for double the price in Iran, Pakistan or India, but he hopes to make a profit of 3,000 rupees per kilo.

All this despite the Taliban, once a shadow army in the region and now the local administration, formally opposing the drugs trade.

Yussef Wafa, a mullah and governor of Kandahar under the Taliban emirate, told AFP that his men had arrested 1,000 "addicts" in the past month.

"We are trying to defeat poppy and hashish and we are trying to keep the people from the sellers, the smugglers," he said in an interview.

"And we will not let the farmers grow it."

Whatever the plan, however, Ali is optimistic.

The Taliban victory has at least put an end to a form of double taxation, where the insurgents and the former government both took a cut of his profit.

"They are just here across the road," he told AFP at the farm, referring to the Taliban. "But they don't want anything from us."

DOING ORWELL PROUD
Vietnam jails citizen journalists for 'abusing democratic rights'

Vietnam has a poor record for free speech and is ranked 175th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' 2021 World Press Freedom Index

Hanoi (AFP)

A Vietnamese court has jailed five citizen journalists for "abusing democratic rights", drawing sharp US criticism of the communist government's crackdown on freedom of speech.

Vietnam's hardline administration often moves swiftly to stifle dissent, jailing activists, journalists and any critic with large audiences on Facebook, which is widely used throughout the country.

Critics say the government has adopted a much tougher approach to dissent since Nguyen Phu Trong was re-elected as the Communist Party chief after a secretive congress earlier this year.

Five people working on an online citizen journalist news page were sentenced on Thursday by a court in Can Tho, a city in southern Vietnam's Mekong Delta region.

Truong Chau Huu Danh, the founder of Facebook page Bao Sach, which translates as "The Clean Newspaper" and has posts on hot-button social issues and corruption, was jailed for four and a half years.

Articles by Danh -- a former journalist -- had "reactionary thoughts, going deep into content that is not suitable for the interests of the country", state-run Vietnam News Agency said, quoting court documents.

His four co-defendants received jail terms of between two and three years.

All five will be banned from working in journalism for three years after completing their jail terms.

The verdict is the latest in a "troubling trend" of detentions of press workers and any citizen "exercising their rights to freedom of speech and of the press", US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Friday.

"We understand this group of journalists focused on investigative reporting on corruption, which, of course, is not a crime," he said in a statement.

"The United States calls on the Vietnamese authorities... to release these five journalists and all those unjustly detained, and to allow all individuals in Vietnam to express their views freely and without fear of retaliation."

In July, former radio journalist Pham Chi Thanh -- also a well-known pro-democracy activist -- was sentenced to five and a half years in prison on anti-state charges for disseminating information on Facebook.

Vietnam is ranked 175th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

© 2021 AFP

Sweden's 'gentle art' of house cleaning before death

Swedish death cleaning is meant to relieve families of the burden of sorting through possessions after the death of a loved one 

Jonathan Nackstrand AFP/File

Issued on: 30/10/2021 

Stockholm (AFP)

In her elegant apartment in the centre of Stockholm, 84-year-old Lena Sundgren looks at her crowded bookshelf, lit by the glow of a candle.

Sighing deeply, she lifts up a pile of gardening books and moves them to one side. "The feeling of getting rid of them is a relief," she admits. "This death cleaning, which I do a few times a week, makes me calm."

Death cleaning, or "dostadning" in Swedish, is the name given to the practice of sorting through your personal belongings before your death.

The concept has gained something of a cult following around the world since it was coined by author Margareta Magnusson in her 2017 bestseller "The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter".

"I think you should take care of your stuff so that no one else has to do all the work for you with all the crap that you have left behind," the author tells AFP.

Sorting through a lifetime of possessions "takes you back to moments you want to remember maybe, and if you don't, just throw it away", she says.

Death cleaning differs from the decluttering approach to a tidy home associated with Marie Kondo, a Japanese celebrity who gained global fame promoting the idea that people should keep only those items that bring them joy.

Swedish death cleaning is meant to relieve families of the burden of sorting through possessions after the death of a loved one.

'You can't live forever!'

Magnusson's daughter Jane appreciates her mother's efforts.

"I think most people who have really old parents and a busy life would like to go through less of their parents' things when they are gone," she says.

"I am grateful for the huge amount of work she has done... and happy that it's catching on around the world."

Magnusson's book has made the New York Times bestseller list, has been translated into dozens of languages.

An American blogger who posted a video about her experience with death cleaning has racked up three million views online.

While Magnusson coined the term, Swedes have been death cleaning for ages.

"Forty years ago a very old neighbour of mine told me that she was going to do death cleaning," recalls Kristina Adolphson, an 84-year-old former actress who is now also doing it.

"When you death clean... you have to realise that you can't live forever!"

Swedes' pragmatic approach to dying helps explain the phenomenon, says Magnusson, suggesting that other cultures prefer to avoid the subject.

"They are afraid of death, and so are Swedes. But we talk about it."

Only a few essential items of clothing hang in her closet, but a few figurines of animals and trolls still dot her living room.

"I have death cleaned my apartment many times but I still have quite a few things. So it never ends."

© 2021 AFP

Japanese start-up takes hoverbike for a spin around racetrack


Oct. 29 (UPI) -- A Japanese start-up unveiled its single-rider hoverbike with a video showing the airborne vehicle circling a track.

The XTURISMO Limited Edition Model was taken for a test drive at the Fuji Speedway Racing Course in Oyama and a video of the flight was posted to the company's YouTube account.

The bike features a combustion engine and four battery powered motors that allow it to move at speeds of up to 60 mph.

XTURISMO said the bike is available n Japan for $680,000.

Nipah virus likely won't be next pandemic, but should be watched

By Ian Jones, University of Reading


Fruit bats are the main animal host of the Nipah virus. 

Photo by BTS-BotrosTravelSolutions/Pixabay


Oct. 29 (UPI) -- The severe and devastating consequences of the coronavirus pandemic were undoubtedly made worse by a substantial lack of pandemic preparedness, with the exception of East and South East Asia, which had built up defenses after their experience with SARS in 2003. So it is crucial that governments begin to develop strategies to protect us if other deadly viruses emerge.

A recent outbreak of Nipah virus in India has raised the question of whether we should start to consider it as a future threat, and look to build up our arsenal of defenses now.

The rapid development of vaccines against the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, have provided a pathway out of this pandemic. So, if vaccines for other potentially dangerous viruses could be developed and stockpiled, they could be rolled out as soon as any new outbreak is detected. We would then be ahead of the curve and a pandemic could be avoided.

This approach is laudable -- but it assumes that viruses with pandemic potential can be identified in advance, which is not easy to do. And it also runs the risk that a "don't worry, there's a vaccine" mindset might cause simpler preventative methods to be overlooked.

Nipah virus was first identified in Malaysia in 1998. Cases such as the recent death of a boy in Kerala, India have raised concerns that it could mutate and increase its efficiency of transmission, leading to widespread circulation.

That scenario is frightening as the virus currently has a case fatality rate of over 50% and there is no vaccine or tried-and-tested treatment.

But before we can invest resources into vaccine development against Nipah we need to assess whether it is a realistic pandemic threat. And even if it is, there are other viruses out there, so we must understand where it should rank on the list of priorities.

Assessing the risk

To assess the risk, we need to look at how the virus transmits and replicates.

Nipah is a paramyxovirus. It is related to a human virus, human parainfluenza virus, one of the handful of viruses that cause the common cold. Its natural host is the fruit bat, the large and small flying foxes which are distributed across South and Southeast Asia. All cases of human infection with the Nipah virus to date have been due to direct or indirect contact with infected bats.

The infection in bats is sub-clinical, so goes largely unnoticed. Virus is excreted in the urine which, via grooming and crowding, ensures transfer within and between colonies.

Fruit or fruit juice contaminated by bat urine is the principal route of virus transmission to people.

A long-term study in Bangladesh, where regular Nipah virus outbreaks occur among its people, suggests that bat population density, virus prevalence and people drinking raw date palm sap are the main factors explaining the pattern of transmission. The bats contaminate the sap while it is being tapped from the date palm tree, and it is then consumed locally.

That is an important finding. As we have seen with SARS-CoV-2, better transmitting viruses evolve while the virus is circulating among its human, not animal, hosts. So, keeping the number of infections in people to a minimum not only minimizes the death rate from Nipah itself but also reduces the chance of virus adaptation. Stop the transmission and you stop the pandemic threat.

In the cases of human infection, so far, there has been limited spread to only close contacts of the primary infected individual, such as family members or, if the person is hospitalized, hospital staff.

General transmission does not occur, mainly because the proteins the Nipah virus uses to enter cells, the receptors, are concentrated in brain and central nervous tissues.

Nipah infection leads to death by acute encephalitis in most cases as the virus replicates best in the tissues where it is easy for the virus to enter the cells.

The virus does replicate to a small degree in the vasculature, the blood vessels, which provide a route for the virus to travel from consumed foodstuffs to the nervous system. But the central nervous system preference also suggests why onward transmission is limited. The virus cannot easily transmit from there.

Of course a very sick individual will have virus everywhere, but as with Ebola, the virus is not efficiently transmitted by the respiratory route and requires touch or transfer of body fluids. Very close contact is required to infect someone else.

The chance of the virus changing to replicate in the upper respiratory tract, from where it certainly would be more transmissible, is small, and while this does not rule out pandemic potential it significantly lessens its probability. Like other regular zoonotic infections, the spillover event itself from bat to human, and the immediate people affected is more the issue than the potential for epidemic spread.

There is a case for a Nipah vaccine, but more for emergency use in those in contact with a primary case than for a vaccination campaign in general.

The case against it rests on the fact that absolute numbers are low, costs high and outbreaks so sporadic that a clinical trial would be very difficult to organize. Research has shown that therapeutic antibody is effective and that would make a far more practical treatment option in the short term.

In my view, Nipah does not pose a high risk of causing a pandemic. Its current pattern of outbreak is likely to remain the norm. Instead, as has been discussed elsewhere, we need to ensure that surveillance, improved awareness and effective public health measures are in place and adhered to. They will have a much bigger impact on the control of Nipah virus cases in the immediate future. As for pandemic preparedness in the medium and long term, we need to turn our attention to identifying which other viruses pose a threat and work to develop vaccines and other defensive measures against those.

Ian Jones is a professor of virology at the University of Reading.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

Climate change already harming the health of many in U.S., report says

By HealthDay News

OCT. 30, 2021 

Climate change is already making Americans sick and researchers warn that the nation must take swift action to protect people's well-being.

"Climate change effects aren't just an abstraction, something that will happen years from now," said researcher Lewis Ziska, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City.

"They are happening today, and they impact every aspect of your health, from the air you breathe [more smoke, more pollen] to the nutritional quality of the food you eat [less protein]," he said.

"Yet at present, at the federal level, there is almost no funding for studying the health effects," Ziska added. "We are stumbling along with a candle, when we need a searchlight to see -- and to respond -- to these threats."

Ziska was among the contributors to a U.S. Brief that accompanies the annual Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change.

A large international team produced the report, which was published this week in The Lancet. It focuses on three climate change-associated health threats: heat waves, drought and wildfires.

Compared to 1986-2005, U.S. seniors and babies under 1 year of age experienced many more days of heat wave exposure in 2020.

Certain groups are more likely to be exposed to extreme heat, including people of color, outdoor workers, prison inmates and those living below the poverty line, the study noted.

Wildfires in the Western United States dovetail with hotter temperatures and the wildfire season is getting longer.

By September of last year, the maximum annual U.S. wildfire incidence peaked at about 80,000, eight times more than in all of 2001.

There is emerging evidence that fine particulate matter -- PM2.5 -- in wildfire smoke may be up to 10 times more harmful to human health than PM2.5 from other sources, posing an increased risk of respiratory harm to children.

It's also been shown that PM2.5 from climate change-intensified wildfire smoke increases the risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19, possibly by enabling the virus to travel farther and cause more lung inflammation.

Droughts also are a health threat because they compound exposure to heat, increase respiratory and infectious disease risks, harm water quality, and worsen mental health issues, particularly in rural areas.

"The data in this report are more than just alarming statistics and trends," brief lead author Dr. Renee Salas said in a Lancet news release. She's a climate and health expert at the Harvard Global Health Institute and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

"These numbers represent patients, such as those with worsening asthma attacks, Lyme disease, or life-threatening illnesses from extreme heat," Salas said.

Acting on climate change is a way to improve health in the United States and advance equity, she added.

The brief outlines what the United States needs to do. The steps include making rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, recognizing the health-related costs of fossil fuels, and quickly increasing funding for protections against climate change-related health threats.

"Climate change is real and happening now," said brief contributor Dr. Cecilia Sorensen, associate professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia's Mailman School. "The good news is that there is a ton that we can do to change the course we are on."

More information

The World Health Organization has more on climate change and health.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

LGBTQ youths, adults face gaps in care due to gender identity


LGTBQ youths face gaps in healthcare because of gender identity, which researchers and experts this week said needs to be addressed for these people to receive proper treatment.

 Photo by Semevent/Pixabay


Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Medicine must rethink the way it handles patient gender and sexuality to ensure everyone receives the care needed, researchers said Friday.

Compared with "non-lesbian, gay or bisexual" youth, those who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual were 71% less likely to receive needed medical care, an analysis published Friday by JAMA Network Open found.

This included treatment for sexually transmitted infections, contraception needs and substance use disorders, according to the researchers, who said that most of the lesbian, gay or bisexual participants cited "difficulty communicating" with their physicians as a problem.

To improve understanding of these issues, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a volunteer panel of national experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine, in a JAMA editorial published on Monday called on researchers to consider sex and gender in clinical studies.

RELATED Texas GOP moved beyond bathroom bill to ban transgender student athletes

The task force also committed to "strengthening the way it communicates about sex and gender in recommendation statements, helping [to] ensure ... specificity and inclusivity," it said in a statement.

In addition, more research is needed "to address sex and gender in a more nuanced and comprehensive way" in diagnostic and treatment guidelines, it said.

"Clinicians nationwide are caring for people across the spectrum of gender diversity, and we want to help ensure that they have the best possible information to keep people healthy," task force member Dr. Aaron Caughey said in a press release.

RELATED LGBTQ teens more likely to contemplate suicide at younger age, study says

"Unfortunately, research studies of clinical preventive services often do not fully consider biological sex and gender identity. ... We are calling for all clinical research to adopt a more inclusive approach," said Caughey, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Oregon Health and Science University.

Discussion of these issues within the field is long overdue, Dr. Gina Marie Sequeira, a pediatrician in the Gender Clinic at Seattle Children's Hospital, told UPI in a phone interview.

"We as providers see the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force as an important group and they have a strong influence in the way we practice and treat patients," said Sequeira, who was not part of the task force or the JAMA Network Open study.

RELATED Education Department to protect students based on sexual orientation, gender identity

"To see them take a stand and acknowledge gaps in current treatment guidelines in terms of sex and gender is really a landmark moment," Sequeira said.

In a study published last year, she and her colleagues found that nearly half of transgender youth avoid disclosing their gender identity to healthcare providers for fear of discrimination and stigmatization.

As problematic as this in the short-term, in terms of these patients getting the care -- and support -- they need, it can create even more serious health issues in the long term, according to Sequeira.

For example, current guidelines on heart disease may make specific, and different, recommendations for men and women, but would likely be unclear on how they would apply to a transgender person "who has been on testosterone therapy for more than 40 years," Sequeira said.

To assess the potential near-term challenges, in the JAMA Network Open study published Friday, researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health tracked 4,300 youths from fifth grade through 10th grade, starting in 2010.

By their 10th grade year, roughly 15% of the study participants identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual.

Of those who identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual by 10th grade, 14% reported that they had not gone to a physician or other healthcare professional "for regular or routine care" in the past 12 months, the data showed.

In addition, 18% said that they had not visited a physician or other provider in the past 12 months, even when they were sick.

In comparison, among youth who did not identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual by 10th grade, 11% said they had not had routine care in the past 12 months and 14% said they hadn't visited a physician or other provider int he past 12 months, according to the researchers.

Just over 15% of the lesbian, gay or bisexual youth said they did not feel comfortable discussing healthcare problems with clinicians they saw, while just under 10% of non-lesbian, gay or bisexual youth indicated that they had similar issues.

Although the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations do not consider clinician-patient communication problems specifically, the group said that it plans to "consider whether [any] preventive service is expected to be applied according to biological or physiological sex characteristics, gender identity or potentially both."

When assessing clinical evidence, the group will "consider how applicable it is to transgender, gender nonbinary, gender diverse and intersex people," it said.

As part of its ongoing work, the task force plans to also continue to "engage stakeholders with specific expertise in representing these populations ... to help promote health equity for all people, regardless of their sex or gender," the group said.

"While better data is essential, we are also committed to updating our own processes now so that we can better support the health of people of all genders," task force member Dr. Michael Barry said in a press release.

"This includes using gender-neutral language when appropriate, and clearly stating whether each given recommendation should be applied based on someone's sex at birth, current anatomy or gender identity," said Barry, director of the Informed Medical Decisions Program at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

More fast food outlets in a neighborhood means more Type 2 diabetes, study says

By Denise Mann, HealthDay News

The more fast food restaurants there are in a neighborhood, the more people have Type 2 diabetes, according to a new study. File Photo by Billie Jean Shaw/UPI

Living near a fast-food restaurant may provide a quick fix if you're famished and pressed for time, but it may also boost your odds for Type 2 diabetes, a large study of U.S veterans suggests.

Neighborhoods with more supermarkets, however, may protect you against developing diabetes, especially in suburban and rural areas, the researchers said.

"The food availability choices in your environment really matter across the country and in a variety of different environments," said study co-author Lorna Thorpe. She is a professor of population health at NYU Langone Health in New York City.

For the study, Thorpe and her colleagues followed more than 4 million U.S. military veterans without diabetes who lived in almost all parts of the United States for five-plus years.

The researchers tallied fast-food restaurants and supermarkets relative to other food outlets in four types of neighborhoods: high-density urban low-density urban suburban and rural.

During the study, just over 13% of the veterans were diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease most closely tied to obesity. The more fast-food restaurants the study participants had within walking distance of home, the greater their risk of developing diabetes in all four types of neighborhoods.

By contrast, those in suburban and rural areas who lived near supermarkets were less likely to develop diabetes during the study period, the findings showed. IN OTHER WORDS WHITE NEIGHBOURHOODS

RELATED Study: Ultra-processed foods supply two-thirds of calories in U.S. child, teen diets

Enacting measures that limit the number of fast-food restaurants or increase supermarkets in target areas may help buck these trends, the study authors suggested.

"If we restrict access to unhealthy food and increase access to healthy foods, we may decrease risk for weight gain and the development of diabetes," said lead author Rania Kanchi, a data analyst at NYU Langone Health. "Improving the healthy versus the unhealthy ratio of food that is sold in these settings may also make a difference."

The new study did have its share of limitations. All participants were U.S. veterans, a population that tends to be predominantly male and have more health and financial issues than non-military folks.

RELATED Report: Rise in fast-food advertising largely targets Black, Hispanic youths

The findings were published online Friday in JAMA Network Open.

Experts not involved with the study agreed that a person's environment does influence their food choices, but stressed that this doesn't mean people are doomed or saved based on their ZIP codes alone.

Cooking at home more often and making smarter choices at fast-food restaurants can go a long way toward improving health and preventing diabetes, they pointed out.

"Buying food from the grocery store, preparing it and making more than is needed allows us to eat something more healthful at home before we go out so we are not encountering these places in a hungry state when we make worse choices," said Dr. Minisha Sood, an endocrinologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

If you're hungry and find yourself at a fast-food restaurant, choose wisely, she added.

"Go for the plant-based options, or try to order something not fried," Sood suggested.

New York City dietitian Joy Bauer offered similar advice.

"If you really want the fries, have them ... but opt for the smallest size," she said. "Feel free to order from the kids' menu as these items are more realistic in size and lighter in calories, carbs, fat, sugar and sodium."

Fast food may seem tempting from a budget standpoint, but it adds up quickly and doesn't go very far, Bauer added.

When you do go food shopping, choose convenient and semi-prepared foods that are easy on your wallet. "Frozen veggies, store-bought rotisserie chicken and packaged pre-cut veggies are a cook's best-kept secret," she said.

Another pro tip? Foods that are in season are always less expensive, Bauer said.

"Canned or dried beans and lentils are inexpensive and add a huge nutrition boost [fiber and protein] to your meals, and eggs are another usually inexpensive item that is packed with protein and super versatile," she noted.

More information

Learn how to prevent diabetes at the American Diabetes Association.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Dutch university's rare 'penis plant' blooms

Oct. 29 (UPI) -- A rare flower nicknamed the "penis plant" bloomed at a Netherlands university's botanical garden, a rare occurrence in Europe.

The University of Leiden said the penis plant, known scientifically as Amorphophallus decus-silvae, blooms only once every two decades, and the university's botanical garden hasn't had one of the plants bloom since 1997.

The flower is known as a "penis plant" due to the phallic shape of its bloom.

The school said it is rare for the Indonesia-native plants to bloom in Europe due to the vastly different climate and weather conditions.

The plant that bloomed this month is 6 years old, and researchers noticed it was budding in mid-September. The university made arrangements to allow the public to see the blooming flower and experience its famously foul odor, which often is compared to rotting flesh.

The Amorphophallus decus-silvae is a smaller cousin of the Amorphophallus titanum, more commonly known as a "corpse flower."

A corpse flower went on display in May of this year at an abandoned gas station in Alameda, Calif. Gardener Solomon Leyva grew the plant and brought it to the closed gas station so the public could view it.

Amount of information in visible universe quantified

Estimate measures information encoded in particles, opens door to practical experiments

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS

WASHINGTON, October 19, 2021 -- Researchers have long suspected a connection between information and the physical universe, with various paradoxes and thought experiments used to explore how or why information could be encoded in physical matter. The digital age propelled this field of study, suggesting that solving these research questions could have tangible applications across multiple branches of physics and computing.

In AIP Advances, from AIP Publishing, a University of Portsmouth researcher attempts to shed light on exactly how much of this information is out there and presents a numerical estimate for the amount of encoded information in all the visible matter in the universe -- approximately 6 times 10 to the power of 80 bits of information. While not the first estimate of its kind, this study's approach relies on information theory.

"The information capacity of the universe has been a topic of debate for over half a century," said author Melvin M. Vopson. "There have been various attempts to estimate the information content of the universe, but in this paper, I describe a unique approach that additionally postulates how much information could be compressed into a single elementary particle."

To produce the estimate, the author used Shannon's information theory to quantify the amount of information encoded in each elementary particle in the observable universe as 1.509 bits of information. Mathematician Claude Shannon, called the Father of the Digital Age because of his work in information theory, defined this method for quantifying information in 1948.

"It is the first time this approach has been taken in measuring the information content of the universe, and it provides a clear numerical prediction," said Vopson. "Even if not entirely accurate, the numerical prediction offers a potential avenue toward experimental testing."

Recent research sheds light on the ways information and physics interact, such as how information exits a black hole. However, the precise physical significance of information remains elusive, but multiple radical theories contend information is physical and can be measured.

In previous studies, Vopson postulated information is a fifth state of matter alongside solid, liquid, gas, and plasma, and that elusive dark matter could be information. Vopson's study also included derivation of a formula that reproduces accurately the well-known Eddington number, the total number of protons in the observable universe.

While the approach in this study ignored antiparticles and neutrinos and made certain assumptions about information transfer and storage, it offers a unique tool for estimating the information content per elementary particle. Practical experiments can now be used to test and refine these predictions, including research to prove or disprove the hypothesis that information is the fifth state of matter in the universe.

###

The article "Estimation of the information contained in the visible matter of the universe" is authored by Melvin M. Vopson. The article will appear in AIP Advances on Oct. 19, 2021 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0064475). After that date, it can be accessed at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/5.0064475.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

AIP Advances is an open access journal publishing in all areas of physical sciences—applied, theoretical, and experimental. The inclusive scope of AIP Advances makes it an essential outlet for scientists across the physical sciences. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/adv.

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JOURNAL

AIP Advances

DOI

10.1063/5.0064475 

ARTICLE TITLE

Estimation of the information contained in the visible matter of the universe

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Oct-2021