Geologists Have Redefined the Present Age, Calling the Last 4,200 Years the "Meghalayan Age"


Avery Thompson
Mon, January 31, 2022

What era are we in? Geologists have redefined the present age that human civilization is living in, deciding to call the last 4,200 years the "Meghalayan Age." This new classification will help scientists better understand the events of the last few thousand years.

Geologists break down our planet's history into eras, periods, epochs, and ages. Our current era is the Cenozoic, which is itself broken down into three periods. We live in the most recent period, the Quaternary, which is then broken down into two epochs: the current Holocene, and the previous Pleistocene, which ended 11,700 years ago.

🌎 Science is on our side. We'll help you make sense of it all.


The Holocene began at the end of the last Ice Age, when glaciers started retreating. In that time, humans learned how to farm, built cities, and started launching rockets into space. From a human perspective, the end of the Holocene looks very different from the beginning. But from a geological perspective, has much really changed?

The 2018 announcement, from the International Commission on Stratigraphy, is an admission that there have been, in fact, significant transformations in Earth's geography. While the broader trend of warmer temperatures and receding glaciers holds just as true today as 11,700 years ago, there are other changes in the geologic record.

Around 4,200 years ago, a devastating drought lasted for at least 100 years and caused the collapse of civilizations around the world. It ended Egypt's pyramid-building Old Kingdom, the Akkadian Empire in modern-day Iran and Iraq, the Indus Valley Civilization in modern-day India, and the Liangzhu civilization in modern-day China.

Not only did this drought alter human civilization, it even left an imprint in the rock record. The drought can be seen in stalagmites in India, where the lower monsoon levels are represented by changes in oxygen isotopes. The global nature of the drought, the permanent record visible in rock layers, and the lasting effects to life on Earth mean that this moment in history is enough to qualify as the beginning of a new age.

The Meghalayan isn't the only new age that the International Commission on Stratigraphy identified. They also named the Greenlandian as the first age of the Holocene, ranging from 11,700 years ago to 8,200 years ago. This age ended when the planet abruptly cooled from melting glacial water flowing into the North Atlantic. There's also the new Northgrippan age, which sits between the Greenlandian and the Meghalayan.

These new divisions of geologic time will likely bring some order and clarity to an era defined by monumental change, but not all scientists agree that the new ages are the best way to reclassify recent history. In particular, some geologists are working on defining a brand-new era to succeed the Holocene, called the Anthropocene, or "human era."

"They've suddenly announced [the Meghalayan] and stuck it on the diagram," geography professor Mark Maslin told the BBC. "It's official, we're in a new age; who knew? We have lots of new definitions that perhaps now contradict the Anthropocene Working Group and go against what most scientists perceive to be the most important change on Earth in the last 10,000 years."

But it may be possible for both the Anthropocene and the Meghalayan to exist at the same time. And regardless, the Anthropocene is tough to define precisely—plenty of very smart people are struggling with the definition.

It's hard to say how this geologic debate will play out. Defining the past is clearly hard enough; what happens in the future is anyone's guess.

ECOCIDE
Thousands flee homes near N. Carolina fertilizer plant fire





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Fertilizer Plant FireAn angel statue faces in the direction of billowing smoke from a fire at the Weaver Fertilizer Plant on Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, in Winston-Salem, N.C.

 (Allison Lee Isley/The Winston-Salem Journal via AP)


Mon, January 31, 2022

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — An uncontrolled fire raging at a North Carolina fertilizer plant forced the evacuations of thousands of people as firefighters warned early Tuesday that chemicals at the site could cause a large explosion.

Authorities drove through neighborhoods and knocked on doors asking residents to leave within a one-mile radius (1.6 km) of the Weaver Fertilizer Plant on the northside of Winston-Salem, where the fire started Monday night. No injuries were reported.

Most of the campus of Wake Forest University is just outside the evacuation zone. The university urged students living in dormitories to stay indoors and keep windows closed.


Bright orange flames could be seen shooting into the sky along with thick plumes of smoke as lights from firetrucks and other first responder vehicles surrounded the fully engulfed building. The evacuation area included about 6,500 people in 2,500 homes, the Winston-Salem Fire Department said.

“We want to make sure that right now we’re evacuating everybody in this one-mile radius," Winston-Salem Battalion Chief Patrick Grubbs told reporters early Tuesday. "There is still a potential for explosion.”

Firefighters had pulled back from the scene due to the danger of the uncontrolled fire, leaving behind an unmanned truck to pump water on part of the site, Grubbs said. Authorities were also flying drones over periodically to assess the fire.

At least 90 firefighters, along with emergency personnel from other agencies, fought the fire for about two hours Monday night, but they had to retreat because of the large volume of ammonium nitrate on the site, Winston-Salem Fire Chief Trey Mayo said. The fire department said that firefighters could not flow enough water to be reasonably certain of keeping it cool enough to prevent a detonation.

Grubbs warned that there was going to be a lot of smoke and poor air quality. He said that it could take some time for the fire to come under control.

Michelle Shepherd, who lives blocks from the plant, told the Winston-Salem Journal that after hearing and feeling explosions and seeing the flames Monday night, she didn't wait for the evacuation order to leave her house and head to a shelter opened by local authorities.

“We felt big explosions. The entire house shook,” she told the newspaper. “And I looked out my front door and I could see the orange glow.”

Less than two miles (3 km) away, Wake Forest canceled classes for Tuesday and opened a campus building for students and staff who live off campus but had to relocate. The university said only one campus housing building was within the evacuation zone.

The Forsyth Correctional Center, a minimum security prison with the capacity for about 250 inmates, also is in the evacuation area.

Winston-Salem officials said a shelter has been set up at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds. People who have evacuated should plan to be away from their homes for up to 48 hours.

The fertilizer plant was closed when the fire started and no employees were inside, local media outlets reported.

Grubbs said officials from the Weaver Fertilizer Plant have made no comment about the fire.

Motorcycle Monday: Paris Moves To Ban Motorcycles


Steven Symes
Mon, January 31, 2022,

And it’s not for the reason you’re thinking…

I’ve warned before about the strong possibility of motorcycles being banned on public roads in some areas. Such proposals have been floated in certain UK counties as well as parts of the European mainland and even some cities in the United States. However, nobody has moved on the idea of outright banning all internal combustion engine motorcycles in a specific geographical location. As a result, by pointing out movements towards that, I’ve been mocked by those who think they know better.

Get a refresher on the banning motorcycles from public roads movement here.

Well, news has come out of Paris, France where there’s a serious push to get all internal combustion engine motorcycles and scooters off the roads entirely. That’s right, not just stop selling them but to make driving them anywhere in the city limits illegal.


This fight isn’t about how much carbon spews out of the tailpipes of motorcycles, which is probably what you’re assuming. Instead, it’s all about noise pollution. That’s right, Parisians are sick of their city being loud. Instead of realizing that’s what you get by packing so many people into tight spaces, they’ve decided to blame motorcycles and scooters for their woes.

A noise plan for the City of Paris was presented last October, with 30 actions proposed by city administration. However, an initiative sought to collect ideas from regular citizens. One proposal which gained a lot of support was the banning of internal combustion engine motorcycles since all-electric models produce little to no noise.

The author of this proposal is quoted by the local news as saying, “Outright banning thermal PTWs is therefore a commonsense solution to solve the number 1 source (by far!) of noise pollution in Paris.” A total of 944 voted for this proposal and 307 voted against it.


Already, Paris authorities have been experimenting with sound radars as a way to fight excessive noise pollution in the city. Such devices allow police to pinpoint which motorcycle is emitting more decibels than is allowed, then fine the rider. The claim is that noise pollution is leading to serious health and economic consequences.

If you think the claim of health consequences is ridiculous, you’re not the only one. The European Environment Agency says 16,600 “premature deaths” in Europe are caused by noise pollution as well as 72,000 hospitalizations. Yes, everything is a health crisis these days.


Of course, there’s the saying that a loud motorcycle is a safe motorcycle. Anyone who’s ridden in traffic before knows many drivers just plain don’t see you, so it’s better if they can hear you. While all-electric motorcycles might make some noise, I have yet to hear one that duplicates the Screaming Eagle wail which does such an excellent job of making a bike noticeable. Apparently, riders being hit by cagers in 6,000-lb. vehicles doesn’t constitute a health crisis, at least in Europe.

Reinforcing the argument for banning motorcycles and scooters from Paris is the supposedly inevitability of all internal combustion engine cars also being banned. This is, of course, to fight the health crisis known as noise pollution and not global warming, global cooling, climate change, or whatever the term is this week.

Sources: Le Repaire, Plainsmen Post

Images via Wikimedia

UN envoy: Year of violence has hardened positions in Myanmar


United Nations Myanmar New Envoy

FILE - This March 8, 2001, file photo shows Noeleen Heyzer, then executive director of UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, before the U.N. Millennium Peace Prize for Women Awards 2001 ceremony at the United Nations headquarters. Heyzer, the new U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, said Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, that violence and brutality have intensified since the military took power, sparking a resistance movement in the country, and all sides have hardened their positions on “using violence as a solution.” (AP Photo/Stephen Chernin, File)

EDITH M. LEDERER
Mon, January 31, 2022

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The new U.N. special envoy for Myanmar said Monday that violence and brutality have intensified since the military took power, sparking a resistance movement in the country, and all sides have hardened their positions on “using violence as a solution.”

Noeleen Heyzer told a virtual news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York that Myanmar’s situation is increasingly unstable and military operations, including artillery attacks and airstrikes, have raised concerns about the protection of civilians.

She said around 1,500 civilians have been killed in the past year and the number of internally displaced people rose from more than 320,000 at the end of 2021 to over 400,000 now. “This is in addition to the 340,000 people already displaced before Feb. 1, 2021,” when the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Heyzer, who took up the post six weeks ago, said almost half of Myanmar’s population now live in poverty and more than 14.4 million people are estimated to need humanitarian assistance and protection.

She acknowledged proposals brought by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' new leader, Cambodian President Hun Sen, after he visited Myanmar in December.

Heyzer called one proposal “interesting” but “not sufficient” — to hold a humanitarian meeting to help deliver assistance that was part of the five-point consensus to which ASEAN leaders agreed to help restore peace and security to Myanmar. She said she wasn’t satisfied with the mechanism to ensure aid was delivered without discrimination.

Heyzer said she agreed to help support facilitating a humanitarian meeting and has asked for “a humanitarian pause” and “a possible humanitarian corridor in the areas that are not under the control of the military” to ensure people there can receive aid.

She said ASEAN foreign ministers and some leaders are pressuring Myanmar to implement the entire five-point consensus reached at the bloc's meeting last April that included Min Aung Hlaing. Other points include an immediate halt to violence, starting a dialogue among all parties, and appointment of an ASEAN special envoy. But Heyzer said ASEAN members remain divided on the pressure tactics and on Myanmar’s representation in the 10-nation group.

Heyzer stressed that progress is possible if all parties work together.

“We have a window of opportunity to build upon a unique unity across religious, ethnic, and communal lines,” Heyzer said. “The road ahead will be long and difficult, but the time to act is now, and time is running out,” she said.

How Brad Pitt's green housing dream for Hurricane Katrina survivors turned into a nightmare

Judith Keller, International Research Scholar of Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Mon, January 31, 2022,

Brad Pitt walks past one of the first homes built in New Orleans by his Make It Right Foundation in this 2008 photo. AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation built 109 eye-catching and affordable homes in New Orleans for a community where many people were displaced by damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Now this housing development is in disarray. The vast majority of the recently constructed homes are riddled with construction-related problems that have led to mold, termites, rotting wood, flooding and other woes.

At least six are boarded up and abandoned. Many residents have filed lawsuits that are still pending. That is, a nonprofit that built houses with input from Frank Gehry and other prominent architects amid much fanfare for survivors of one disaster then ushered in another disaster.

Structural and other problems are making many residents fear for their health. Make It Right, despite what its name might suggest, has not resolved these issues and has stopped assisting residents. Instead, the movie star-led nonprofit has apparently become defunct.

As an urban geographer who researches on housing development, I’ve been following Make It Right’s travails since 2018, when residents tried to get the New Orleans City Council involved and have municipal authorities inspect the homes. The situation has only deteriorated since then, highlighting the perils that can accompany nonprofit housing development.

Supposedly sustainable housing

Located in New Orleans’ historically Black and low-income Lower Ninth Ward, this cluster of affordable homes built between 2008 and 2015 was unusual for several reasons. Notably, these residences were sold, rather than rented to their occupants.

The architects who created these homes also tried to make them green and sustainable following a “cradle-to-cradle” philosophy that centers around the use of safe and reusable materials, clean water and renewable energy. All the homes had solar panels and energy-efficient heating and cooling systems.

Make It Right reported spending $26.8 million on the housing. To make the homes, which fell short of the group’s original goal of 150 residences, affordable, they were sold for less than it cost to build them, mostly around $150,000.

The nonprofit housing developer says its mission is to “improve the design and performance of affordable housing” and to “share best practices associated with the construction of such homes.”

Make It Right also sought to revitalize the Lower Ninth Ward and bring people together. For example, it built a community garden and held regular meetings for the new homeowners.

Although some of these structures are not yet a decade old, my data shows that only six remain in reasonably good shape. Most either have had partial repairs or have been completely renovated because of structural problems. Two were demolished because of severe mold problems.


Many of the houses lacked ordinary, essential features such as rain gutters, overhangs, waterproof painting or covered beams – all of which are necessary to withstand New Orleans’ subtropical climate and heavy rainfall.

Brad Pitt, who took credit for launching this organization in 2007 and often served as its public face in subsequent years, was still listed as a board member as of 2018.

Pitt’s lawyers argued that he could not be sued over the housing development’s failings, but a judge ruled in 2019 that the movie star would remain a defendant because of his role as Make It Right’s founder and chief fundraiser.
‘Completely in shambles’

I interviewed 11 residents, as well as seven urban planning experts who worked on the case. Additionally, I gathered data on the development and the homes by reviewing New Orleans property assessments and building permits. While staying in the Lower Ninth Ward myself, I personally took a census of the development and mapped its current state.

More than one resident told me they were initially very excited to be part of something bigger.

A Make It Right resident I’m calling Harry – I promised anonymity to all the residents I interviewed – had to move out of his home during major renovations that didn’t resolve all the issues he faces.

“They kind of got a second chance to make it wrong, not make it right again,” Harry told me. “They made it wrong twice.”

As of early 2022, six homes are vacant because of mold, rot, flooding and assorted structural issues. Hanna, a young first-time homeowner, walked away from her Make It Right residence, which was later demolished.

Only eight months after she moved in, Hanna recounted to me, her home “was completely in shambles.” Its flat roof could not hold up in the heavy rains of New Orleans, causing massive water intrusion and subsequent termite infestation and mold.

Hanna struggles with health problems caused by toxic mold. “I would like to say that there is always a silver lining, but with this situation, I really don’t see a silver lining because it really changed a lot of my plans that I had for myself in life,” she said.

Most of the residents I interviewed were dealing with a similar state of constant uncertainty.

They don’t know how much longer their home is going to hold up, whether the mold they were exposed to is affecting their health, and, worst, what would happen to their finances if they were to lose their home.

“There is just no turning this off,” Harry lamented. “Sometimes I think I’m sitting on a time bomb in this house.”

Others described always being “on edge,” the situation being “very stressful,” and a feeling of having been “taken advantage of on the biggest scale.”

They wonder who they can turn to for help at this point.

“Something that’s been an incredible disappointment is the lack, the retreat, of Make It Right from any form of responsibility,” William told me.
A web of legal turmoil

When Make It Right failed to provide the assistance residents requested, several homeowners filed lawsuits. This litigation is reportedly still pending.

Some residents also blame local authorities.

“We also have an issue with the city, because those who inspect (the home) and are supposed to keep it safe, did not,” said Claire, who tried to get New Orleans’ safety and permits department involved.

The Make It Right Foundation moved out of its offices on Magazine Street in New Orleans in December 2021. Judith Keller, CC BY-SA

My many efforts to reach out to Make It Right by mail, email and visits in person remain unsuccessful. When I went to its New Orleans office in December 2021, I encountered no staff. Instead, I witnessed a moving crew that had been hired by the organization to move its furniture and other property into storage.

The organization has apparently failed to file a 990 form, annual paperwork the Internal Revenue Service requires of all nonprofits, covering any year since 2018. Local media have reported that a bank is suing it. Its website has become defunct and the phone number it included in its 2018 IRS paperwork no longer works. Even the person who mows the vacant Make It Right properties has told reporters that the nonprofit owes him money. Make It Right, in turn, is suing several former executives and its chief architect for alleged mismanagement.

The Conversation U.S. also attempted to reach out to the Make It Right Foundation by phone and email and was unsuccessful.

Make It Right has discontinued a similar affordable housing development that was in the works in Kansas City, leaving empty lots there in limbo. The nonprofit had also engaged in projects in Montana, where other legal issues arose, and New Jersey.
Who pays in the end?

Because one of the abandoned properties is turning into a safety hazard, the city is taking action to seize it. Make It Right’s 2018 IRS filings indicate that it was spending more by then on legal services than on construction and maintenance.

This mirrors the residents’ experiences, who have not seen evidence of the organization’s engagement with their community for years. Many are starting to pay for repairs out of their own pockets rather than wait for the nonprofit builder to resolve issues caused by its shoddy construction.

“I did most of the work myself,” Mario told me. “The ceiling tiles on the porch were falling off, and the wood was rotting, so I just replaced it, slowly, you know, so we could afford it.”

[Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world. Sign up today.]

Despite their experiences, some residents said they still believe Make It Right’s founder had good intentions. “I don’t blame Brad Pitt,” said David, another resident. “He had a vision to build low-income houses and get people back in the Lower Ninth Ward.”

While nonprofit housing developers can play a vital role in creating affordable housing, many questions remain regarding their accountability in this case and others, in places like Chicago and Washington, D.C..

Mismanaged housing developments, even when constructed with lofty goals, only compound the hardships of the low-income people they purport to serve.



This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Judith Keller, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Read more:

What’s a 990 form? A charity accounting expert explains

Why building more homes won’t solve the affordable housing problem for the millions of people who need it most

Judith Keller receives funding from the German Research Association (DFG).

Op-Ed: Thinking of buying a gun for self-defense? Don't do it

Steven J. Sainsbury
Mon, January 31, 2022

Demonstrators attend a rally in support of gun control

 on March 24, 2018, in Chicago. (Nam Y. Huh / Associated Press)

During my more than 25 years as an emergency medicine physician, I treated hundreds of patients with gunshot wounds. I treated criminals who shot each other. I treated gun owners who killed their family members in drunken rages. I pronounced dead suicide victims who shot themselves with an easily accessible handgun in their home.

Yet in all those years of emergency medicine, I never treated a single patient who was shot by a law-abiding citizen in self-protection. Not one.

Multiple reputable studies and surveys bolster what I observed: Choosing to have a gun in your home, because it will keep you safe, is a myth. And a deadly one at that.

Yet surveys of gun owners show they consistently cite self-protection as the primary reason for 67% of gun purchases. Suppose you have the same fears and obtain a handgun. Which of these two scenarios is more likely?

Choice one: That gun you just bought will save your life from criminals or home invaders. This is known as defensive gun use.

Choice two: That gun will be used to kill you or a family member, whether that means the murder of a family member, an accidental shooting or suicide.

It’s choice No. 2 by a landslide. In 2017, for example, according to FBI reports, for every justifiable homicide — a defensive gun-use death — there were 35 criminal homicides. And that doesn’t even include the thousands of deaths each year by suicide or the accidental deaths that occur when there is a handgun in the home.

Where did this “a gun will keep you safe” myth originate? In my estimation, it began with the powerful U.S. gun lobby. Criminologist Gary Kleck and economist and gun rights advocate John R. Lott Jr. are often quoted on the subject. Both rely on surveys regarded as highly flawed to claim that over 2 million gun-use deaths occur each year. Yet reputable analysis put such deaths at around 2,000 a year, not 2 million.

Kleck also suggests that hundreds of thousands of criminals are shot annually by law-abiding citizens. Not surprisingly, there appears to be an absence of hospital records to validate this figure.

The Harvard School of Public Health reports that guns are not used millions of times in self-defense, most purported self-defense uses are to intimidate and frighten intimates — not to thwart crime — and few criminals are shot by law-abiding citizens.

On its website, the school refers to a survey in which five criminal court judges from different states were asked to examine 146 self-reported accounts of defensive gun use. The judges determined more than half of the gun usages were illegal, even assuming that the respondent described the event honestly and that the person had a legally owned gun.

In an analysis of victims of gun violence from 2007 to 2011, the Department of Justice found that people were nine times as likely to be injured or killed by a firearm rather than protected by them.

But enough of statistics. Let’s just use some common sense. What’s more likely? That someone will break into your home and threaten your family, or that a member of your family, in a moment of anger or drunkenness, will resort to wielding that same weapon against you? Or that in a moment of despair, a loved one will turn that easily accessible gun on themselves? Or that your 5-year-old, who knows exactly where you keep your gun, will accidentally shoot himself?

Certain behaviors — not wearing a seat belt and shoulder harness, or smoking cigarettes, for example — increase your risk of injury and death. Having a handgun in the home is no different. The presence of a gun in your home dramatically increases the risk of homicide, suicide and accidental deaths.

Be responsible and be wise. Don't buy into the myth of owning a gun for self-defense. The life you save may be your own.

Steven J. Sainsbury is a hospice and geriatric physician in San Luis Obispo.

U.S. states, other nations back Mexico's lawsuit against gun makers

FILE PHOTO: Mexico seeks $10 billion in damages from gun makers in U.S. lawsuit

Mon, January 31, 2022
By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) - Thirteen U.S. states and two Latin America and Caribbean nations on Monday threw their support behind a lawsuit from Mexico that accuses several major U.S. gun makers of facilitating the trafficking of weapons to drug cartels, leading to thousands of deaths.

The states and the countries of Antigua and Barbuda and Belize filed separate briefs urging a federal judge in Boston to not dismiss Mexico's $10 billion lawsuit against companies including Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Co.

The companies have argued Mexico has failed to establish its harms were attributable to them and that a U.S. law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, protected gun makers from lawsuits over their products' misuse.

Mexico's lawyers in a filing on Monday countered that the law only precludes lawsuits over injuries that occur in the United States and would not shield the companies from allegations over the trafficking of guns to Mexican criminals.

Democratic attorneys general from 13 states including Massachusetts, California and New York along with the District of Columbia agreed, saying even if that law applied extraterritorially, the statute would not bar Mexico's claims.

Representatives for the companies did not respond to requests for comment. Other defendants include Beretta USA, Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Colt's Manufacturing Co and Glock Inc.

In a lawsuit filed in August, Mexico claimed the companies undermined its strict gun laws by designing, marketing and distributing military-style assault weapons in ways they knew would arm drug cartels, fueling murders, extortions and kidnappings.

Mexico's lawsuit said over 500,000 guns are trafficked annually from the United States into Mexico, of which more than 68% are made by the manufacturers it sued.

Lawyers for Antigua and Barbuda and Belize argued countries in their region had likewise faced violent gun crimes and that U.S. gun manufacturers "must not be permitted to hold hostage the law-abiding citizens of an entire region of the world."

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

Is this how life emerged from stuff that was anything but alive?

Elizabeth Rayne
Sun, January 30, 2022

How life crawled out of primordial ooze is a mystery literally as old as Earth itself. There must have been something that switched on the transition from inanimate to alive — but what?

What life even is might be the better question. There could be extraterrestrial life-forms out there which could change our entire idea of what it means to be a living thing (and we might not even recognize them). Before anything lived on Earth, it was a mess of proteins and other potential ingredients for life, some of which ended up creating the first microorganisms which kept evolving and diversifying and re-evolving into everything from single-celled algae to dinosaurs.

For us Earthlings, being alive means the ability to capture energy and put it to use, at least if you ask researcher Yana Bromberg of Rutgers University, who recently led a study published in Science Advances. She and her team were trying to figure out what might have turned life on billions of years ago when they realized that there was a real possibility in proteins that could bind metals. Something that used those proteins might have been the first forms of life.

“All biotic activities, like the cellular functions that are necessary for life, require acquiring, using, and storing energy,” she told SYFY WIRE. “For this, electrons need to be moved around. Thus, any first ‘life’ would need to be able to handle electron transfer.”

Metal-binding proteins can bind metal ions for different purposes. Some of these proteins are stabilized by these ions, while others use them to regulate cell processes in different ways. Then there are proteins which bind to metals which are able to catalyze. Catalysis is the process that accelerates chemical reactions and is important for life. Remember that. Bromberg and her team went through all the existing metal-binding proteins to see what they had in common, because that could lead to their ancestors which might have been around on nascent Earth.

The researchers found that most of the proteins they compared have similar cores that bind metal, no matter what metal it is that they bind themselves to, even if the actual proteins were nothing alike. Substructures in these cores tend to keep repeating themselves and were curiously observed in other parts of the proteins and proteins that do not bind metal. This may not sound like much, but what it revealed was that the vast range of proteins and protein functions which now exist must have emerged from no more than a few common ancestors.

Translation: the ancestral proteins had the potential to bring about what we know as life.

“There was a small number of ways (or even just a single one) of using peptides for metal binding for electron transfer,” said Bromberg. “This original peptide may have been then reproduced and diversified to provide for the set of metal binding functions we currently observe.”

Proteins are made of peptides, which are made of amino acids. Amino acids are necessary for life but can exist outside of living organisms. Whenever these organic compounds are found somewhere else besides Earth, it goes viral, because aliens, but organics do not necessarily mean life is there, though the inverse is true: the presence of life means organics. We still have no idea how life spawned out of nowhere. What went into creating living things out of abiotic substances is unknown, but this can give us further insight into what might have happened.

Another thing Bromberg’s study could help with is what to search for as we keep scouring the universe for signs of life. There are plenty of organics out there, which may or may not be indicators that something is creeping around on a faraway exoplanet. Alien life-forms continue to elude us. If we can go way back and get some idea of how life may have emerged on early Earth, and what that might have looked like, it can at least help astrobiologists identify a planet on which life is just starting to open its eyes, whether or not it actually has them.

“If we can identify similar peptides elsewhere, this would indicate that life may appear (or previously existed) where we see them,” Bromberg said. “Our findings also provide a new direction for understanding the appearance of life on Earth, which may apply to other planets.”

Dearth of Explosive Experts to Drivers Hurt Top Australia Miners




James Thornhill
Sun, January 30, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- From explosives experts to truck drivers, labor shortages are becoming an increasing challenge for mine operators across Western Australia after the state abandoned plans to end Covid-related border controls.

The state’s resources industry, which is a crucial source of revenue for Australia, relies on flying in workers to remote sites. Many of the workers come from other states and it has become increasingly difficult for them to travel given border restrictions enforcing quarantine on arrival in Western Australia, which is more than three times the size of Texas and comprises mainly of barren Outback.

The impact is also being felt beyond the mining and energy industries, with some top executives based in the Western Australian capital Perth signaling they intend to leave the state permanently. They’re exasperated by Premier Mark McGowan’s decision this month to back-flip on a plan to reopen domestic and overseas borders on Feb. 5, extending an isolation from the rest of the world that began at the pandemic’s start two years ago.

McGowan raised the ire of companies suffering labor shortages and cost rises due to supply-chain blockages by saying he will keep the state isolated from the rest of Australia indefinitely. He says that’s needed to support his bid to keep out the omicron outbreaks that are hitting eastern cities such as Sydney and Melbourne.

“It’s definitely having an impact,” Elizabeth Gaines, chief executive officer of Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., said in an interview last week about the border closure. The iron ore miner reported a 20% rise in costs over the past 12 months, driven in part by increased labor overheads.

Many east coast-based workers had delayed returning to work for Fortescue on the expectation the Western Australian border would reopen on Feb. 5. There was some uncertainty on when they would now return, she added.

Other miners are also getting hurt. BHP Group Ltd., the world’s largest, reported that temporary rail labor shortages caused by the border restrictions had been a headwind to production in the December quarter.

Gold Road Resources Ltd., which shares the giant Gruyere gold mine in a 50:50 joint venture with Gold Fields Ltd., said December quarter production missed expectations partly as a result of “labor availability-related scheduling delays.” Specifically, Gold Road referred to difficulty in sourcing key personnel for blast work at the mine.

Another gold producer, Ramelius Resources Ltd., singled out shortages in the haulage industry as hampering its activities. Its costs also rose more than 3% in the December quarter.

And on Monday, lithium producer Pilbara Minerals Ltd. said its guidance for production in fiscal 2022 was under review after December quarter output missed expectations.

Key Personnel

The extended border closure was “exacerbating the ability of all mining companies in Western Australia to access key personnel in construction, production, and maintenance roles,” Pilbara Minerals said in a statement.

Meanwhile, national carrier Qantas Airways Ltd. has said it will reduce its planned domestic capacity by about 10% from Feb. 5 through to March 31 due to McGowan’s border decision. There have also been reports of pilot shortages at the ports servicing the Pilbara iron ore region.

Some top executives are voting with their feet. Rob Scott, head of Perth-based conglomerate Wesfarmers Ltd. which owns retailers such as Coles and Bunnings Warehouse, has signaled his intention to leave the state.

And Richard Goyder, chairman of Qantas and Woodside Petroleum Ltd., told the Australian Financial Review in an interview that he plans to leave the state indefinitely, adding: “I just feel I want to take control of my life.”

Shrinking U.S. Cattle Herd Means No Relief for Soaring Beef Prices




Michael Hirtzer and Dominic Carey
Mon, January 31, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- Drought is shrinking the American cattle herd, meaning consumers are unlikely to get relief from near-record beef prices anytime soon.

Abnormally dry conditions last year in the northern U.S. Plains squeezed supplies of hay and feed for cattle, prompting some ranchers to sell to slaughterhouses animals usually held for breeding. Now, deepening drought in the southern part of the Plains -- where most cattle in the U.S. are raised -- could force another round of herd reductions later this year.

“Drought is looming large,” Derrell Peel, extension livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University, said in a phone interview.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture in its biannual cattle inventory report Monday said the herd was 2% smaller than a year ago. It’s the third straight yearly drop and the smallest herd since 2016. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected only a 1.1% decline.

“The cycle we are in right now is a liquidation phase,” Peel said.

Meat prices have been surging ever since the Covid-19 outbreak sickened workers at slaughterhouses, forcing shutdowns that slowed the amount of food moving into the supply chain. Meanwhile, demand stayed strong even at the higher prices. The smaller cattle supplies may raise costs for meatpackers and potentially consumers as well.

“I don’t really expect beef prices to decline very much,” Peel said.

(Adds USDA data in fourth paragraph)