Privacy advocates demand rules for mobile providers on data use

by Keith Lewis

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Privacy advocates are demanding standards for mobile service providers' handling of sensitive customer information, especially location data, after a Federal Communications Commission inquiry into the top 15 carriers revealed a huge variation within the industry's data retention and consumer privacy protocols.

T-Mobile U.S. Inc. stores customer data, including location information, for up to 24 months, it told the regulator. AT&T Mobility, including its subsidiary Cricket Wireless, stores locations and most other user data for 13 months, but it stores some call records for up to five years, it reported.

Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest carrier, stores users' personal data, including locations, for one year, although it said its on-board vehicle diagnostic application stores it for up to five years. Mint Mobile LLC, the prepaid budget virtual mobile provider, stores data, including location information, for up to 18 months, it said.

Not all carriers sell location data to third party marketing firms, but those that do outlined unique processes that consumers have to navigate to opt out of authorizing their data to be sold, sometimes with different rules applying to call record details and location data.

The carriers' responses were "all over the map," according to Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge, a Washington public interest group focused on digital privacy.

"The only 'industry standard' appears to be that there is no standard at all for how long carriers retain data, how they protect it, or how hard they make it for their customers to invoke their rights," Feld added.

Public Knowledge is urging the commission to pass strong data privacy regulations to protect so-called customer proprietary network information.

'Mobile phones know a lot about us'

"Customer proprietary network information," as defined by Section 222 of a 1996 law (PL 104-104), includes any data that mobile carriers are required to safeguard, such as numbers dialed, call duration, and, perhaps most sensitive, the locations the user visited while their device was pinging a cell tower.

"Our mobile phones know a lot about us," FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in an Aug. 25 statement. "That means carriers know who we are, who we call, and where we are at any given moment. This information and geolocation data is really sensitive. It's a record of where we've been and who we are."

"That's why the FCC is taking steps to ensure this data is protected," she added.

Rosenworcel, a Democrat, appears poised to crack down on data policies for mobile carriers and follow through on her sharp dissent in a 2020 FCC decision to fine the four largest carriers at the time. She argued the commission's collective $200 million fine against T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon for selling users' data to third parties without their consent didn't resolve the problems.

The then-Republican-controlled commission reduced the fine from a potential $40,000 per day fine for the duration of the violation to $2,500 per day. Rosenworcel wrote in dissent that the commission's "bureaucratic math" aiming to ease the punishment was unwarranted.

With Rosenworcel now at the commission's helm and a Democratic majority in sight if Biden's controversial FCC pick Gigi Sohn is confirmed by the Senate, the FCC is now more likely to tighten the rules around mobile carriers' management and authority to sell consumer data.

Congress could beat them to it, but only if it overcomes a dispute about the interaction of federal and state authority on privacy regulation.

The House is working on bipartisan legislation that would establish clearer standards for data privacy, but its provisions may not satisfy the staunchest privacy advocates unless it clearly allows states like California the ability to be more strict, according to some lawmakers.

A bill was approved, 53-2, by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on July 20. It is sponsored by Chairman Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., and co-sponsored by ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. Leaders of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, Chair Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and ranking member Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., are also backing it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Sept. 1 that lawmakers would need to work on the bill, saying it doesn't provide the same consumer protections as existing California law.

The House bill, with more than 20 amendments adopted in committee, may also not gain the approval of Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. Cantwell and some progressive Democrats don't want federal law to preempt states from passing stricter data privacy laws.

Republicans, on the other hand, are worried that a state-by-state patchwork of rules, rather than a national standard, could make compliance too onerous on businesses.

Partisan division means the bill faces a slim chance of passage in the evenly split Senate.

Provisions of the House legislation include ensuring a "clear and conspicuous, easy-to-execute means" for customers to easily withdraw their consent to the sale of their personal data.

Carriers would be entirely banned from selling data related to minors under age 17 or using children's information for any targeted marketing purposes.

It would also require the Federal Trade Commission to adopt regulations within two years that establish more specific data privacy safeguards that include certain minimum standards, training obligations and requirements for written retention and corrective action plans. Carriers would have a duty under the law to mitigate "reasonably foreseeable risks or vulnerabilities."

Reproductive privacy

Privacy concerns grew more urgent in the eyes of many after the Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to abortion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case in June. For Democrats, the ruling encouraged them to back stronger privacy protections amid fears that user locations and other data could be used to spy on individuals seeking abortion services in states that restrict it.

Many privacy advocates raised alarms in the wake of the Dobbs decision about the sensitive nature of personal data stored on menstrual-tracking applications used by millions of women.

Cantwell is among a dozen co-sponsors of a bill introduced after a draft of the Dobbs opinion leaked in May. The bill would prohibit organizations that collect information about individuals' sexual or reproductive health from disclosing it to third parties unless doing so is essential for medical care.

The bill, which includes a private right to sue, would apply to a broad range of companies, including mobile communications providers and technology companies that operate menstrual-tracking apps.

Even though Congress may be unable to agree on robust data privacy protection legislation right now, the FCC "can and should do more" to protect consumers, according to Public Knowledge's Feld.

"Right now, customers must negotiate a confusing maze of carrier practices and notifications," Feld said. "The FCC is more than an enforcer; it is a regulator. The FCC should set new rules of the road so that subscribers have the privacy we need and deserve."

Amazon, Oracle shrug off lawmaker fears of abortion data sales

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Filtered ferry engines hailed for tackling air pollution

by Julie PACOREL

The ferry will link Marseille and the French island of Corsica.

A French ferry company has launched what it claims is the first vessel that uses filters to capture almost all air pollutants from the boat's exhaust fumes, sparking praise from campaigners and local authorities.

La Meridionale, based in the southern French port of Marseille, showed off its innovative ship on Monday to the media.

"It's an unprecedented solution, a world first," company chairman Marc Reverchon told reporters on board the blue-and white Piana which sails between Marseille and the French island of Corsica.

The company said the filters captured 99 percent of sulphur oxides emitted by the ferry's four engines, as well as 99.9 percent of particulate matter created from the burning of its heavy fuel.

The filters use technology already found in power stations or incineration plants in which sodium bicarbonate is injected into the exhaust fumes, causing a chemical reaction with the tiny particles produced during the combustion process.

The pollutants can then be captured by a type of industrial air filter that has been around for more than 30 years, company technical director Christophe Seguinot told reporters.

"We didn't have to look too far. We didn't invent anything," Seguinot explained. "The challenge for us was to make it suitable for a marine setting."

The ferry group has an agreement with chemicals supplier Solvay, which will dispose of the toxic filter residue—with a view to recycling it in the future, Seguinot said.

Heavy fuel oil, also known as bunker fuel, is one of the cheapest but most polluting transportation fuels, resulting in the thick plumes of dirty brown smoke seen above most ships.

It is also high in sulphur which can cause respiratory problems and acid rain.

Regulation

Regulations on the amount of sulphur authorised vary, with ultra-clean fuel mandated in areas such as the North Sea and Baltic Sea in Europe, as well as around North American ports.

Marseille, which hosts cruise and container ships as well as ferries, has struggled with increased smog in recent years and the shipping sector is thought to be responsible for a large part of the problem.

"Let's hope that the big polluters follow the example of La Meridionale," Marseille's Socialist mayor Benoit Payan tweeted on Monday after attending the company event.

He has been battling ship operators over the summer with a petition calling for the dirtiest vessels to be barred during peak pollution times.

Shipping companies are under pressure from regulators and tightening industry standards to tackle their emissions of greenhouse gases as well as atmospheric pollutants, but campaigners want faster action.

La Meridionale "is going much further than current regulations require by treating all of their particulate matter," Damien Piga from Atmosud, a regional air quality surveillance group, told AFP.

Some ship owners favour the use of so-called "scrubbing" technology which sees water sprayed into the exhaust fumes, which captures some of the pollutants.

Environmentalists point out that in many cases the water is then discharged into the sea, however.

Other groups are experimenting with engines that run on cleaner liquefied natural gas (LNG) or methanol, while electric and sail powered vessels are also being developed.

French court fines P&O captain over polluting fuel

© 2022 AFP

Cryptocurrency must be made less energy intensive to protect the planet

by Laura Singleton, Imperial College London

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Cryptocurrency mining must be less energy intensive to limit the impact on the climate, according to a new report from the Imperial College London Business School.

Despite the financial benefits of cryptocurrencies, such as their potential to offer a financial system that is safe from bankruptcy or crisis, continued investment in more energy intensive cryptocurrency is likely to increase the probability of a global climate crisis, according to the report "Damage Limitation: Cryptocurrencies and Climate Change."

The report is authored by Carmine Russo, a visiting researcher at the Centre for Climate Finance & Investment at Imperial College Business School, who is also a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Naples Federico II.

In the report, Russo argues that the main pollution caused by cryptocurrency is generated by its mining procedures. The majority of cryptocurrencies are mined using the Proof PoW approach, an energy intensive process that makes cryptocurrency mining environmentally unsustainable.

The mining process is a "race" among the miners in solving complex algorithms through high performance machines to track the source of the money spent, checking for double-spending, and unlocking the new coins.

According to Russo, only the fastest miner who can solve the puzzle receives the rewards, whilst the others are just polluters. The more powerful the machines are, the more energy they need, which increases the environmental cost. In 2021, the energy usage to mine the most popular PoW cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), was higher than the overall energy usage of the UK as well as Italy in 2020.

Cryptocurrencies are often used as a safe haven asset—a type of investment that is expected to retain or increase in value during times of market turbulence. However, Russo warns that ignoring the environmental damage created by the mining process would be "a grave mistake".

"The question becomes a dubious trade-off: are we more scared of the predictable consequences of a financial crisis or the unpredictable ones of a climate crisis?" said Russo.

He added: "Cryptocurrency has become a popular trend, with an ever-increasing number of users. However, the picture of digital currency is far from uniformly positive. Behind the decentralized cryptocurrency system there are significant concerns, especially with respect to environmental damage."

A greener alternative

The report suggests that a shift to more climate-friendly methods for cryptocurrency trading would not only be advantageous but necessary. The report highlights how the Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanism for cryptocurrency mining is a "greener alternative" due to its design.

Russo argues that in a PoS world, since the entire coin supply is immediately available, there are no complex algorithms to solve because there is no need to unlock new coins. Therefore, the powerful computer machines are not required, making the process less energy intensive. Furthermore, the stakers (the miners of the PoS) involved are chosen randomly by the system and only the selected ones can stake, which takes away the "race" element, which reduces energy waste and makes the process more energy efficient.

Acknowledging efforts made by a number of countries to regulate the cryptocurrency market, Russo makes a number of recommendations, including forcing cryptocurrency miners to disclose the climate-related impacts of their activities, and advertising more environmentally friendly practices to foster awareness. This could help investors in their decision-making process by reducing the asymmetric information between them and the market.

"In doing this, legislators may be able to maximize the positive financial role that cryptocurrencies can play in the economic system, while also addressing the environmental damage caused by their creation and usage," said Russo.The most important cryptocurrency event in years is about to begin, and the biggest windfall goes to the planet

More information: Report: www.imperial.ac.uk/business-sc … -and-climate-change/

Provided by Imperial College London 

Revolutionizing image generation through AI: Turning text into images

by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Image generated from the text "Happy vegetables waiting for supper.". 

Credit: Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Creating images from text in seconds—and doing so with a conventional graphics card and without supercomputers? As fanciful as it may sound, this is made possible by the new Stable Diffusion AI model. The underlying algorithm was developed by the Machine Vision & Learning Group led by Prof. Björn Ommer (LMU Munich).

"Even for laypeople not blessed with artistic talent and without special computing know-how and computer hardware, the new model is an effective tool that enables computers to generate images on command. As such, the model removes a barrier to ordinary people expressing their creativity," says Ommer. But there are benefits for seasoned artists as well, who can use Stable Diffusion to quickly convert new ideas into a variety of graphic drafts. The researchers are convinced that such AI-based tools will be able to expand the possibilities of creative image generation with paintbrush and Photoshop as fundamentally as computer-based word processing revolutionized writing with pens and typewriters.

In their project, the LMU scientists had the support of the start-up Stability.Ai, on whose servers the AI model was trained. "This additional computing power and the extra training examples turned our AI model into one of the most powerful image synthesis algorithms," says the computer scientist.

The essence of billions of training images

A special aspect of the approach is that for all the power of the trained model, it is nonetheless so compact that it runs on a conventional graphics card and does not require a supercomputer such as was formerly the case for image synthesis. To this end, the artificial intelligence distills the essence of billions of training images into an AI model of just a few gigabytes.

"Once such AI has really understood what constitutes a car or what characteristics are typical for an artistic style, it will have apprehended precisely these salient features and should ideally be able to create further examples, just as the students in an old master's workshop can produce work in the same style," explains Ommer. In pursuit of the LMU scientists' goal of getting computers to learn how to see—that is to say, to understand the contents of images—this is another big step forward, which further advances basic research in machine learning and computer vision.

The trained model was recently released free of charge under the "CreativeML Open RAIL-M" license in order to facilitate further research and application of this technology more widely. "We are excited to see what will be built with the current models as well as to see what further works will be coming out of open, collaborative research efforts," says doctoral researcher Robin Rombach.A model to generate artistic images based on text descriptions

More information: Robin Rombach et al, High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models, Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) (2022)

Provided by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich 

Easing pain at the pump with food waste: New method for making biodiesel fuel

by Jack Levy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Graphical abstract. Credit: iScience (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104916

With gas prices soaring and food costs pinching family budgets, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at WPI is looking at ways to use food waste to make a renewable and more affordable fuel replacement for oil-based diesel. The work, led by Chemical Engineering Professor Michael Timko, is detailed in a new paper in the journal iScience

"By creating a biodiesel through this method, we've shown that we can bring the price of gas down to $1.10 per gallon, and potentially even lower," said Timko.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that, in 2018 in the United States, about 81% of household food—about 20 tons—ended up in landfills or combustion facilities. Food waste is also a major contributor to climate change: once it's placed in landfills, it emits methane, a greenhouse gas.

Timko said, "Converting food waste to diesel also has the potential to offset up to 15.3 million tons of CO2 every year, lowering greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by 2.6%."

The work is part of a multi-year project supported by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, and it builds on and refines research previously published in 2018. Timko and his team have now focused on finding a way to make the conversion process easier to scale and bring to the commercial market.

To make the fuel, the researchers employed a process called hydrothermal liquefaction, which uses heat and water to break down the food waste into a liquid. It's a method that has been used widely in converting other materials into biofuel, including algae. However, using food waste removes the need to grow and cultivate algae—an expensive and time-consuming process—while also leading to similar results for the amount of fuel that is extracted. The team also used a catalyst made of a naturally occurring mineral found in bones to get as much as 30% more energy out of the food waste.

Assistant Professor Andrew Teixeira and Ph.D. student Heather LeClerc played key roles in the research as well. LeClerc has spent the past year conducting research in Denmark, as part of a Fulbright scholarship, and is in the middle of a three-year NSF graduate research fellowship.

For this latest work on food waste and biofuel, LeClerc also worked with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on Cape Cod to gain a better understanding of the biocrudes the WPI team was producing, using equipment the Woods Hole researchers normally use to determine how an oil spill is affecting the ocean environment and changing it over time.

The researchers will continue their efforts to refine the fuel even further, and develop ways to use the process to make home heating oil and marine diesel to power ships.

Cutting waste, fossil fuel use, and greenhouse gas emissions by turning unused food into biofuel

More information: Heather O. LeClerc et al, Hydroxyapatite catalyzed hydrothermal liquefaction transforms food waste from an environmental liability to renewable fuel, iScience (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104916

Journal information: iScience 

Provided by Worcester Polytechnic Institute 

You'll soon be able to access Starlink directly with your cellphone from anywhere in the US, and eventually the world

by Andy Tomaswick, Universe Today

Falcon 9 payload fairing with 60 Starlink satellites Credit: Elon Musk

The future of satellite communications is almost upon us. SpaceX has signed a deal with T-Mobile to provide the carrier's customers with text services from its Starlink satellites anywhere in the U.S. starting next year.

It was only a matter of time before SpaceX turned its attention to the cellular industry. The company has recently ramped up its deployment of internet connectivity, allowing everyone from van lifers to remote outposts to be connected to the internet. But cell connectivity is an entirely different thing.

Most people that go to the most remote parts of the world, which amounts to half a million square miles in the U.S. alone, have to lug around expensive satellite phones if they need to reach someone. But T-Mobile and SpaceX have developed a system whereby Starlink can provide services to customers on existing T-Mobile networks, using the phones they already have in their pockets.

That is not the same as providing internet, and the system roll-out will start slowly, with only text messaging being the first of the three major cell services users expect from their carriers to roll out. Voice calls, and eventually data, will follow in the future, with no specified date for when that might be.

Starlink itself has come under plenty of scrutiny lately, as it has continued to infringe upon astronomers' images of the early night sky. The FCC is undergoing a legal battle involving SpaceX, the parent company of the Starlink system, to determine whether or not it should be eligible for an $800 million prize pool promised to the entity that provides internet to rural communities in the U.S.

Even with all the legal frustrations SpaceX has to face, it still has to deal with technical challenges as well. Supporting this new cellular infrastructure will require modifications to its existing Starlink 2.0 satellites, which were announced in June. Launching those satellites will require Starship to be operational, which still doesn't have a timeline other than potentially some time in the next few months.

That will give the company and its new cellular partner plenty of time to flesh out the technical details of their agreement. And even some time to coax other cellular providers into joining their collaboration. T-Mobile's network only reaches the U.S.—to become a genuinely global cell provider, the two companies will have to expand their Coverage Above And Beyond framework to other cell operators. So far, no one has stepped up to the plate, but there are undoubtedly conversations going on behind closed doors.

Ultimately this all leads to the future of seamless internet and cellular connectivity throughout the world, which has been the dream of technologists since the dawn of the internet. SpaceX and T-Mobile have taken another step in that direction. It remains to be seen what others will join them.

SpaceX, T-Mobile try to connect remote areas with satellites

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Provided by Universe Today 

Change with age: As bats mature their immune cells differ

by Susanne Thiele, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung

Graphical abstract. Credit: Cell Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111305

A team of researchers led by Anca Dorhoi at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) and Emmanuel Saliba at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI), has elucidated age-dependent variations in cellular immunity in Rousettus aegyptiacus, known as the Egyptian fruit bat, a natural reservoir for filoviruses such as Marburg Virus.

Using cutting-edge single-cell technologies, they mapped the bat blood with unprecedented resolution. The scientists unveiled that progression to adult age enriches for T lymphocytes and putative regulatory myeloid cells at expenses of B cells. These findings offer deeper insights into the immune system of an important wildlife reservoir species and are now published in Cell Reports.

Bat immunology remains mysterious. Many zoonoses originate from wildlife and several emerging, high-impact viruses are bat-borne. Despite harboring lethal viruses little is known about the bat immune system.

The group of Anca Dorhoi together with colleagues at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI) in Greifswald and with the group of Emmanuel Saliba at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) in Würzburg—a site of the Braunschweig Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in cooperation with the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg—now mapped the complexity of circulating leukocytes in the Egyptian fruit bat and report that age imprints on frequencies and phenotypes of immune cells.

Decomposing bat blood cells one-by-one

The teams focused on Rousettus aegyptiacus, a bat with a broad geographical distribution and reservoir for zoonotic viruses which is also employed as experimental model. FLI is one of the few research institutions worldwide having access to bat colonies which offers unique opportunities to study bat immunobiology.

FLI immunologists teamed up with colleagues in Würzburg who are specialized in analyzing the cellular RNA molecules and are equipped with advanced sequencing technologies. Emmanuel Saliba says that they "took advantage of the power of one, we performed single-cell sequencing using RNA molecules as a fingerprint of cellular identities of bat blood and gather the biggest map so far of bat cells."

This strategy permitted identification of elusive leukocytes, such as subsets of NKT-like cells and B cells, which do not overlap with known subsets from classical experimental models. Without high-resolution methods and in absence of experimental immunological tools identification of bat immune cells would have lagged behind. This effort represents the most comprehensive map of bat blood known to date.

Dynamic age-driven immune cell reshaping

The researchers used flow cytometry among other techniques and observed that T lymphocytes and phagocytes such as neutrophils and subsets of mononuclear myeloid cells were enriched in adult bats, while B cells were more abundant in juveniles. Anca Dorhoi concludes that "in Egyptian fruit bats immune cells gain putative regulatory phenotypes upon reaching adulthood and dramatically change their frequencies in blood."

The age-related observations suggest that the immune system may condition the reservoir function and support epidemiological studies to elucidate age-dependent pulses of zoonotic infection. These findings complement evidences for disease tolerance in bats, so far related to humoral immunity. Overall, the research takes a leap forward into bat cellular immunity.

New players in the immune response identified

More information: Virginia Friedrichs et al, Landscape and age dynamics of immune cells in the Egyptian rousette bat, Cell Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111305

Journal information: Cell Reports 

Provided by Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung

Dental evidence challenges origin time of mammals

by King's College London

Brasilodon Quadrangularis Credit:The Anatomical Society/Wiley

New research published in the Journal of Anatomy has used dental evidence to challenge the origin time of mammals.

The study, an international collaboration led by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Porto Alegre, and which included researchers from King's College London and the Natural History Museum, examined the lower jaws in fossils of Brasilodon quadrangularis, a mouse sized animal dated to have lived 225 million years ago. The analysis of the different growth stages showing tooth development in each of the fossils provided evidence that these were the remains of a mammal.

Previously, the earliest accepted record in geological time of mammals is 205 million years ago. This new research suggests a much earlier origin of mammals by 20 million years.

"The evidence from how the dentition was built over developmental time is crucial and definitive to show that Brasilodons were mammals. Our paper raises the level of debate about what defines a mammal and shows that it was a much earlier time of origin in the fossil record than previously known," says Moya Meredith Smith, contributing author and Emeritus Professor of Evolution and Development of Dentoskeletal Anatomy at King's College London.

Mammalian glands, which produce milk and feed the young of mammals today, have not been preserved in any fossils found to date. Therefore, scientists have had to rely on 'hard tissues', mineralized bone and teeth that do fossilize for alternative clues.

Examining the dentitions found in the fossils of Brasilodon quadrangularis from southern Brazil, and dated around 225 million years ago (Late Triassic/Norian), the research team discovered evidence of only one set of replacement teeth. This is a key feature of mammals known as diphyodonty. The first set starts developing during the embryonic stage and a second and last set of teeth develops once the animal is born. By contrast, reptilian dentitions are different, especially in that replacement is "many for one" (polyphyodonty), in which each tooth site has tooth regeneration many times over the lifetime of a reptile to replace damaged ones.

Diphyodonty is a complex and unique phenomenon that, with tooth replacement, also involves profound, time-controlled changes to the skull anatomy, for instance, the closure of the secondary palate (the roof of the mouth) that allows the young to suckle, while breathing at the same time.

"This research is a collaboration between Brazilian and British scientists, who brought together their expertise on skull development, dental anatomy, physiology and histology to interpret the juvenal and adult fossils of the extinct species Brasilodon quadragularis," says Dr. Martha Richter, Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum and senior author on the paper.

Brasilodon existed at the same time as the oldest known dinosaurs and probably lived in burrows like the shrews today. The new research pushes back the origin of diphyodonty in Brasilodon and therefore also mammals, with related biological traits by 20 million years and illuminates the debate about the rise of mammals in deep time.A tiny jaw from Greenland sheds light on the origin of complex teeth

More information: Sergio F. Cabreira et al, Diphyodont tooth replacement of Brasilodon —A Late Triassic eucynodont that challenges the time of origin of mammals, Journal of Anatomy (2022). DOI: 10.1111/joa.13756

Provided by King's College London 

Study finds inland water carbon emissions are being undercounted

by Stephanie Seay, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

ORNL scientists synthesizing research on the complex biogeochemical processes at play

 in inland waters found that carbon emissions are about 13% higher than previously

 estimated. 

Credit: Adam Malin/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Global carbon emissions from inland waters such as lakes, rivers, streams and ponds are being undercounted by about 13% and will likely continue to rise given climate events and land use changes, Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists have found.

In their study published in Global Change Biology, the researchers estimate that inland waters pump out 4.4 billion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere annually, based on new modeling of previous estimates and improved sampling and data from more types of bodies of water, including those that have dried or are shrinking. About 73% of this carbon is emitted as carbon dioxide or methane.

Earth system modelers are paying increased attention to the complex biogeochemical processes at play in inland waters.

"About 70% to 80% of carbon entering inland waters from land doesn't make it to the ocean; it's processed inland first," said ORNL's Rachel Pilla. "This is a missing piece of the puzzle for Earth system models to better predict and prepare us for the future."

High greenhouse gas emissions from Siberian inland waters

More information: Rachel M. Pilla et al, Anthropogenically driven climate and landscape change effects on inland water carbon dynamics: What have we learned and where are we going?, Global Change Biology (2022). DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16324

Journal information: Global Change Biology

Provided by Oak Ridge National Laboratory 

Northern Alberta First Nation suing province over cumulative environmental effects


A northern Alberta First Nation has filed what experts say is the province's first lawsuit claiming cumulative effects from industry, agriculture and settlement are so pervasive, they violate the band's treaty rights.


Duncan's First Nation alleges in a lawsuit the province has permitted so much activity and sold off so much Crown land that band members can only live their constitutionally guaranteed way of life with great difficulty. The province has not yet filed a statement of defence and the allegations have not been proven in court.© Town of Peace River

Bob Weber - 

Duncan's First Nation, southwest of Peace River, a town located about 500 kilometres north of Edmonton, alleges the province has permitted so much activity and sold off so much Crown land that band members can only live their constitutionally guaranteed way of life with great difficulty.

"Alberta has engaged in a pattern of conduct that has significantly diminished the (nation's) right to hunt, fish and trap as part of their way of life," says the statement of claim, filed in Edmonton in July.

"Habitats have been fragmented, lands and waters have been degraded, substances have been introduced that cause legitimate fears of contamination, and pollution and lands have been put to uses that are incompatible with the continued meaningful exercise of (the Nation's) treaty rights."

The province has not yet filed a statement of defence and the allegations have not been proven in court.

Alberta requires a cumulative effects assessment in environmental impact studies.

However, critics have long complained those assessments are cursory and given little weight. The band argues Alberta has continually permitted development and settlement on the band's traditional lands project by project, without considering how all those activities add up.

Legal scholars have reached similar conclusions.

"These (cumulative) impacts cannot be resolved through piecemeal measures like individual permitting decisions," reads a 2019 paper in the Alberta Law Review.

Jeff Langlois, a lawyer for the First Nation, said the band has taken part in every regulatory hearing that has affected them, to little effect.

"The cumulative impacts of all these projects have led to significant diminishment," he said.

The band sent a letter to Premier Jason Kenney in May listing its concern.s

"We have repeatedly come up against Alberta's appalling disregard for the challenges faced by our members in the exercise of their rights," it says.

"Our people are now relegated to a small island."

Duncan's First Nation represents about 270 members.

Langlois said the premier did not respond and legal action is the only choice Duncan's has left.

"If they don't sit down with us, we have to take another step."

A provincial spokesperson declined to comment on the case.

Duncan's First Nation is using arguments similar to those used successfully last year by the Blueberry First Nation in British Columbia, said Sean Sutherland, a Calgary lawyer with expertise in environmental and Indigenous law who recently wrote an analysis of the Alberta case.

"(The Blueberry decision) essentially directed changes to the regulatory regime that was in place in the area, which is quite an extraordinary remedy for a court to order," he said.

"This claim is an attempt to bring the Blueberry First Nation type of analysis to Alberta."

Langlois said Duncan's saw Blueberry's success and are trying to emulate it.

"They watched their cousins on the B.C. side of the border from Blueberry put their case forward and get findings from the court."

As a result of that decision from B.C.'s Supreme Court, permit applications in the province's northeast have been largely suspended since last summer. The court prohibited the province from authorizing more activities that breach treaty rights, imposing a six-month period for the parties to work out necessary changes.

That doesn't make Duncan's case a slam dunk, Sutherland said.

The facts on the ground must still be proved. As well, an Alberta court might rule differently on what constitutes loss of treaty rights.

"The standard that the British Columbia court relied on is that there's infringement (on treaty rights) when there's a significant or meaningful diminishment of rights on the basis of cumulative impacts," said Sutherland.

"We don't know if that same legal standard is going to apply in Alberta."

Sutherland said because of the complexity of the allegations, the B.C. case took years to work its way through the courts.

Duncan's First Nation is seeking significant remedies. It wants legal, enforceable guarantees of consultation and research, as well as a permanent injunction blocking Alberta from permitting activities that damage the band's ability to exercise its treaty rights.

While it may be the first band to take such arguments to court, it's not the first to be concerned about the continual chipping away of traditional territory by permits for one development after another.

The Fort McKay Metis made such claims for years until the province agreed to protect a particularly valuable area.