Polarized X-rays reveal shape, orientation of extremely hot matter around black hole

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS

 

IMAGE: AN ARTIST’S IMPRESSION OF THE CYGNUS X-1 SYSTEM, WITH THE BLACK HOLE APPEARING IN THE CENTER AND ITS COMPANION STAR ON THE LEFT. NEW MEASUREMENTS FROM CYGNUS X-1, REPORTED NOV. 3 IN THE JOURNAL SCIENCE, REPRESENT THE FIRST OBSERVATIONS OF A MASS-ACCRETING BLACK HOLE FROM THE IMAGING X-RAY POLARIMETRY EXPLORER (IXPE) MISSION, AN INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION BETWEEN NASA AND THE ITALIAN SPACE AGENCY. view more 

CREDIT: JOHN PAICE

Researchers’ recent observations of a stellar-mass black hole called Cygnus X-1 reveal new details about the configuration of extremely hot matter in the region immediately surrounding the black hole.
 
Matter is heated to millions of degrees as it is pulled toward a black hole. This hot matter glows in X-rays. Researchers are using measurements of the polarization of these X-rays to test and refine models that describe how black holes swallow matter, becoming some of the most luminous sources of light — including X-rays — in the universe.
 
The new measurements from Cygnus X-1, published online by the journal Science on Thursday, Nov. 3, represent the first observations of a mass-accreting black hole from the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission, an international collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI). Cygnus X-1 is one of the brightest X-ray sources in our galaxy, consisting of a 21 solar mass black hole in orbit with a 41 solar mass companion star.
 
“Previous X-ray observations of black holes only measured the arrival direction, arrival time and energy of the X-rays from hot plasma spiraling toward the black holes,” said lead author Henric Krawczynski, the Wayman Crow Professor of Physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and a faculty fellow in the university’s McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences. “IXPE also measures their linear polarization, which carries information about how the X-rays were emitted — and if, and where, they scatter off material close to the black hole.”
 
No light, not even light from X-rays, can escape from inside the event horizon of a black hole. The X-rays detected with IXPE are emitted by the hot matter, or plasma, in a 2,000-km diameter region surrounding the 60-km diameter event horizon of the black hole.
 
Combining the IXPE data with concurrent observations from NASA’s NICER and NuSTAR X-ray observatories in May and June 2022 allowed the authors to constrain the geometry — i.e., shape and location — of the plasma.
 
The researchers found that the plasma extends perpendicular to a two-sided, pencil-shaped plasma outflow, or jet, imaged in earlier radio observations. The alignment of the direction of the X-ray polarization and the jet lends strong support to the hypothesis that the processes in the X-ray bright region close to the black hole play a crucial role in launching the jet.
 
The observations match models predicting that the corona of hot plasma either sandwiches the disk of matter spiraling toward the black hole or replaces the inner portion of that disk. The new polarization data rule out models in which the black hole’s corona is a narrow plasma column or cone along the jet axis.
 
The scientists noted that a better understanding of the geometry of the plasma around a black hole can reveal much about the inner workings of black holes and how they accrete mass.
 
“These new insights will enable improved X-ray studies of how gravity curves space and time close to black holes,” Krawczynski said.
 
Related to the Cygnus X-1 black hole specifically, “IXPE observations reveal that the accretion flow is seen more edge-on than previously thought,” explained co-author Michal Dovčiak at the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences.
 
“This may be a signature of a misalignment of the equatorial plane of the black hole and the orbital plane of the binary,” or the paired duo of the black hole and its companion star, clarified co-author Alexandra Veledina from the University of Turku. “The system may have acquired that misalignment when the black hole progenitor star exploded.”
 
“The IXPE mission uses X-ray mirrors fabricated at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and focal plane instrumentation provided by a collaboration of ASI, the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and the National Institute for Nuclear Physics,” said co-author Fabio Muleri of INAF-IAPS. “Beyond Cygnus X-1, IXPE is being used to study a wide range of extreme X-ray sources, including mass accreting neutron stars, pulsars and pulsar wind nebulae, supernova remnants, our galactic center and active galactic nuclei. We’ve found a lot of surprises, and we’re having a lot of fun.”
 
A second paper in the same issue of Science was led by Roberto Taverna at the University of Padova and describes the IXPE detection of highly polarized X-rays from the magnetar 4U 0142+61.
 
“We are thrilled to be part of this new wave of scientific discovery in astrophysics,” Krawczynski said.

---

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.add5399 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Polarized x-rays constrain the disk-jet geometry in the black hole x-ray binary Cygnus X-1

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Nov-2022

Carnivore gut microbes offer insight into health of wild ecosystems

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A NEW STUDY FINDS THE MICROBIAL ECOSYSTEM IN THE GUTS OF WILD MARTEN (MARTES AMERICANA) THAT LIVE IN RELATIVELY PRISTINE NATURAL HABITAT -- LIKE THE ONE PICTURED HERE -- IS DISTINCT FROM THE GUT MICROBIOME OF WILD MARTEN THAT LIVE IN AREAS THAT ARE MORE HEAVILY IMPACTED BY HUMAN ACTIVITY. THE FINDING HIGHLIGHTS AN EMERGING TOOL THAT WILL ALLOW RESEARCHERS AND WILDLIFE MANAGERS TO ASSESS THE HEALTH OF WILD ECOSYSTEMS. view more 

CREDIT: RYLEE JENSEN

A new study finds the microbial ecosystem in the guts of wild marten (Martes americana) that live in relatively pristine natural habitat is distinct from the gut microbiome of wild marten that live in areas that are more heavily impacted by human activity. The finding highlights an emerging tool that will allow researchers and wildlife managers to assess the health of wild ecosystems.

“Specifically, we found that wild marten in relatively undisturbed environments have more carnivorous diets than martens in human-affected areas,” says Erin McKenney, co-lead author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of applied ecology at North Carolina State University. Marten are small mammals, related to weasels, ferrets and mink.

“In conjunction with our other work on carnivore microbiomes, this finding tells us the microbial ecosystems in carnivore guts can vary significantly, reflecting a carnivore’s environment,” McKenney says. “Among other things, this means we can tell how much humans are impacting an area by assessing the gut microbiomes of carnivores that live in that area – which can be done by testing wild animal feces. In practical terms, this work is revealing a valuable tool for assessing the health of wild ecosystems.”

“Our goal here was to determine how, if at all, human disturbance of a landscape affects the gut microbiome of American marten that live in that landscape,” says Diana Lafferty, co-lead author of the paper and an assistant professor of biology at Northern Michigan University. “And the answers here were pretty clear.”

For the study, researchers collected gut microbiome data from 21 marten. Sixteen marten were harvested during a legal trapping season. The remaining five were trapped safely and released in the Huron Mountain Club, which is located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

“The Huron Mountain Club is particularly important for this study, because it’s relatively pristine – one of the largest, primeval forests in the eastern United States,” Lafferty says. “That makes it an excellent juxtaposition to the 16 marten that were harvested, since those were collected in regions that are more impacted by human activity.”

The researchers found that the gut microbiomes of marten in the pristine forest of the Huron Mountain Club were clearly distinct from the marten harvested in other areas.

“This reflects the fact that marten in relatively pristine forest are able to forage at a higher trophic level, meaning they occupy a higher place in the food web,” Lafferty says. “In other words, the marten in relatively pristine forest have a more carnivorous diet, whereas marten in areas where there are more people were more omnivorous. Basically, the findings tell us a disturbed landscape results in a significantly different diet, which is reflected in their gut microbiomes.”

“It’s also worth noting that we were able to trap and release the marten in Huron Mountain Club during the dead of winter because we designed and built custom box traps to protect them from the elements,”  says Chris Kailing, a co-author of the paper who worked on the project while at Northern Michigan University. “That’s of interest because it makes winter sampling possible for future wildlife research even in harsh winter conditions.”

“This is the latest chapter in an ongoing body of research that is helping us understand carnivore gut microbiomes,” McKenney says. “Carnivore gut microbiomes are inherently more variable than the gut microbiomes of other animals. This study lends nuance to the emerging picture that all of this variability is not just noise. Rather, this variability stems from the nutritional landscape carnivores have access to – and that, in turn, reflects the health of the ecosystem carnivores inhabit. And that means that monitoring the gut microbiome of wild carnivores can offer us real insight into the ecosystems those carnivores live in.”

The paper, “The gut microbiome of wild American marten in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan,” will be published Nov. 3 in the open access journal PLOS ONE. The paper was co-authored by Sierra Gillman of the University of Washington; Miles Walimaa of Northern Michigan University; Macy Kailing of Virginia Tech University; and Brian Roell of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The work was done with support from the Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation.

A new study finds the microbial ecosystem in the guts of wild marten (Martes americana) that live in relatively pristine natural habitat -- like the one pictured here -- is distinct from the gut microbiome of wild marten that live in areas that are more heavily impacted by human activity. The finding highlights an emerging tool that will allow researchers and wildlife managers to assess the health of wild ecosystems.

CREDIT

Rylee Jensen

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

The gut microbiome of wild American marten in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Nov-2022

Global warming in the Arctic increases megafires on the permafrost

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SPANISH NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (CSIC)

 

IMAGE: A 30-KILOMETER-WIDE WILDFIRE FRONT DETECTED IN THE SIBERIAN ARCTIC AT A LATITUDE OF 69.31°N ON AUGUST 6, 2020. SENTINEL-2 INFRARED COLOR IMAGE view more 

CREDIT: ADRIÀ DESCALS

The Siberian Arctic experienced an unusual number of fires in 2019 and 2020. This raised concerns in the scientific community, as the Arctic has large areas of permafrost, a permanently frozen layer of subsoil that accumulates large amounts of carbon. Fires damage the permafrost and contribute to the release of carbon emissions in the form of greenhouse gases.

The question that remained unanswered was whether this increase in fires in 2019-2020 was an exceptional case or a trend that will get worse as the Arctic warms.

Now, a new study published in Science and led by Adrià Descals and Josep Peñuelas, both scientists from the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and from CREAF, shows that the increase in temperature is driving an exponential increase in fires in the Arctic. David Gaveau, fire expert at TheTreeMap, as well as researchers from the Desertification Research Centre (CSIC-University of Valencia), Wageningen University (Netherlands), the University of Kyoto, and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Indonesia, also participated in the study.

"In 2020 alone," explains Adrià Descals, first author, "423 fires were detected in the Siberian Arctic, which burned around 3 million hectares (an area almost as big as the whole Belgium) and caused the emission of 256 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent", which is similar to the annual emissions of CO2 in Spain. The researcher adds that "with future warming, these megafires will be recurrent at the end of the century and will have different implications, both for the Arctic and for the global climate".

Analysis of four decades of satellite observations

The authors quantified, from satellite observations from 1982 to 2020, the area burned in Siberia above the Arctic Circle, a region covering 286 million hectares. "While the observations indicated that the 2020 fire season was exceptional, no precise quantitative assessment had been made so far in this remote region," says co-author David Gaveau.

In this work, the scientists show that fire risk factors associated with temperature have increased in recent decades and that there is an exponential relationship between the extent burned annually and these factors. "Temperatures are reaching a critical threshold where small increases above the summer average of 10 °C can exponentially increase the area burned and the associated emissions," explains Josep Peñuelas.

The summer of 2020 was the warmest in four decades, and the large area burned between 2019 and 2020 was unprecedented, the authors explain. Approximately 4.7 million hectares burned between 2019 and 2020, resulting in total emissions of 412.7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

"We detected fires above the 72nd parallel north, more than 600 km north of the Arctic Circle, where fires are unusual and where winter ice was still visible at the time of burning," explains Adrià Descals. "Many fires were detected with a few days of difference, so we hypothesise that increases in thunderstorms and lightning are the main cause of the fires, although further investigations would be required to demonstrate how much human activities may influence the fire season in this remote region."

Rising air temperature and fire risk

Some factors that can exacerbate fire risk have increased significantly, and all these factors are related to rising temperatures. The study explains that factors such as drier weather conditions, longer summers, and more vegetation have shown a consistent trend over the past four decades.

The authors note that "the 2020 average summer temperature - which was 11.35 degrees - will be very common from the second half of the century on if the Arctic warming continues at the same rate." As Adrià Descals warns, "these temperature anomalies increase fire risk factors, so the conditions that were led to the 2019 and 2020 fires will be recurrent in the Arctic by the end of the century."

An explanatory model that links the factors of fire

In 2019 and 2020, fire rates in the Siberian Arctic exceeded those of the last four decades. Only in 2020, there were seven times more fires than the average since 1982 and they damaged an unprecedented area of peatlands. Josep Peñuelas explains that "the concatenation of these factors is what generated the fire rate increase".

"Higher temperatures explain the earlier thaw, which in turn allows for greater vegetation growth and increases fuel availability".

"The fact that there is more and earlier vegetation reduces the availability of water in the soil, and plants suffer greater water stress," says Aleixandre Verger, a researcher at CSIC and CREAF.

In turn, "extreme heat waves, such as in 2020 in the Siberian Arctic, increase vulnerability to drought, as they can desiccate plants and reduce peat moisture, and therefore increase the intensity of fires and carbon emissions".

On the other hand, heatwaves and, above all, the increase in surface temperature, can increase convective storms and lightning, which have been very rare so far in the Arctic, but "they are expected to increase as the climate warms", say the scientists. 

"Climate warming therefore has a double effect on fire risk: it increases the susceptibility of vegetation and peatlands to fire and, on the other hand, it increases the number of ignitions caused by thunderstorms," explains Adrià Descals.

Our work suggests that the Arctic is already experiencing a change in fire regimes caused by climate warming. "The areas burned in 2019 and 2020 could be exceptional events, but recent temperature trends and projected scenarios indicate that, by the end of the century, large fires such as those in 2019 and 2020 will be frequent if temperatures continue to increase at the current rate," conclude Adrià Descals and Josep Peñuelas.

---

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abn9768 

Arctic warming linked to increasing Arctic wildfires

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)

Continued global warming is creating conditions that will likely cause dramatic increases in Arctic wildfires within the coming decades, potentially releasing massive stores of organic carbon from burned peatlands into the atmosphere, according to a new study. Using satellite data, Adrià Descals and colleagues show that the fires in the Siberian Arctic burned nearly 4.7 million hectares (Mha) in 2019 and 2020, which accounted for 44% of the total burned area in this region for almost the last 40 years. They argue that temperatures in the Arctic – one of the most rapidly warming regions on the planet – could be headed towards a threshold where small temperature increases could result in exponential increases in area burned. Arctic soils store vast amounts of organic carbon, much of which is in the form of peatlands. Although often frozen or waterlogged, climate warming thaws and dries peatland soils, increasing the likelihood of large Arctic wildfires. Burning of these carbon-rich soils releases this carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, fueling a feedback loop of continued warming, subsequent burning, and CO2 emission. Descals et al. used six satellite-derived maps to evaluate annual burned area in the Siberian Arctic for 1982-2020 and combined it with an analysis of 10 climatic factors associated with the likelihood of fires, including temperature and precipitation. They found that fires burned at the highest rates in 2019 and 2020 and accounted for 44% of all the total area burned across their nearly 40-year-long study period, releasing almost 150 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. 2019 and 2020 were also the warmest years across the study. According to the authors, the findings suggest an exponential relationship between fire associated with increased temperature and annual burned area. The Siberian Arctic has already doubled the long-term average of burned area in just the last three years of their analysis. This could indicate a profound shift in the region’s fire regimes caused by accelerating climatic warming. “Larger and more intense wildfires could substantially accelerate the release of permafrost carbon into the atmosphere, but this interaction is not considered in current forecasts of Arctic feedback to global warming,” write Eric Post and Michelle Mack in a related Perspective. “Future studies that link rigorous assessment of wildfires with the dynamics of permafrost thaw in these remote regions are therefore needed to better quantify their climate impact.”

For reporters interested in trends, another study in this issue also investigates recent extreme Siberian wildfire seasons. In this study, Rebecca Scholten and colleagues used data from the satellite-borne Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to evaluate fire activity in the Siberian Arctic between 2001 and 2021. Scholten et al. found that early snowmelt combined with an anomalous Arctic front jet over northeastern Siberia promoted unusually dry and warm surface conditions, which was followed by unusually high lightning and fire activity. They show that these interconnected climatic drivers have been increasing over the last several decades and are likely driving extreme fire activity in the region. These fires have the potential to accelerate the thawing and degradation of carbon-rich permafrost peatlands.

---

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abn9768 

ARTICLE TITLE

Unprecedented fire activity above the Arctic Circle linked to rising temperatures

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

4-Nov-2022

SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE

York U researchers’ revamped AI tool makes water dramatically safer in refugee camps

As the world’s refugee crisis intensifies and climate change linked natural disasters become more frequent, unique machine-learning enabled tool helps aid workers deliver safe water in displaced-population settlements

Meeting Announcement

YORK UNIVERSITY

TORONTO, Nov. 3, 2022 – A team of researchers from York University’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research and Lassonde School of Engineering have revamped their Safe Water Optimization Tool (SWOT) with multiple innovations that will help aid workers unlock potentially life-saving information from water-quality data regularly collected in humanitarian settings. 

Created in partnership with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the free-to-use, open-source online platform has been shown to dramatically increase water safety for people living in refugee camps and has corrected major inaccuracies about proper chlorination levels that went on for decades. 

SWOT v2, to be unveiled at a virtual event on Tuesday, Nov. 8, builds on earlier research with advancements in the tool’s machine-learning and numerical-modelling engines. A reimagined and redesigned user experience, and new functionalities, promise to give humanitarian responders much-needed assistance in situations where waterborne diseases are among the leading health threats. 

“Our first version of the tool was a prototype. What we've done in the past two years with user feedback and field learning is build a state-of-the-art web product,” says team lead Syed Imran Ali, who is a research fellow at the Dahdaleh Institute and an adjunct professor at the Lassonde School of Engineering. “This is one of the first operational deployments of artificial-intelligence technology in humanitarian response.”  

Ali and the rest of the team, who include machine learning lead Professor Usman T. Khan from Lassonde’s Department of Civil Engineering, modelling graduate researcher Mike De Santi, Dahdaleh Institute director Dr. James Orbinski and field advisor James Brown, say these improvements are informed by real-life lessons gleaned from the field.

Humanitarian aid workers face huge challenges supplying safe water to people affected by conflict or natural disasters, explains Brown, who has previously worked in camps managing the water supply of upwards of 40,000 people.

 

“Working as a water engineer in crisis, you’re providing water to people who are often extremely vulnerable, and it’s your job to help protect them from all the health risks that exist in that kind of environment. It's so frustrating not having the information you need to be confident that the water you're delivering isn't yet another health risk,” he says. 

“The motivation for all the work we've been doing to release the SWOT v2 is to help people make the best decisions and provide confidence that quality standards are being maintained — both for aid workers and those relying on the water supply.”  

The tool was born out of Ali’s experience working with MSF as a water and sanitation specialist in refugee settlements in South Sudan. Despite following industry-standard guidelines for water chlorination, Ali and his colleagues were seeing that water was still unsafe in people’s households during a large outbreak of Hepatitis E, a serious waterborne illness that can have up to a 25 per cent mortality rate among pregnant women.

“There was a huge crisis — end of the rainy season, flooding everywhere,” Ali recalled. "So all these waterborne diseases were tearing through the camp.” 

Through field research looking at how water quality behaves in refugee camps, Ali and his team discovered the chlorination guidelines used widely in the humanitarian sector were built on faulty assumptions.

“No one had ever looked at the problem of what happens after the tap,” Ali explains, noting that unlike most urban settings in the developed world, people in refugee camps must collect water from public faucets in containers and then bring it back to their homes where it is stored and used for many hours, introducing many opportunities for recontamination during this ‘last mile’ of the safe-water chain. 

Building on the work initiated in South Sudan, the research team studied chlorination levels at distribution and in households in refugee camps around the world, and realized they could use this data — which is routinely collected for monitoring purposes — to model post-distribution chlorine decay and generate site-specific and evidence-based water-chlorination targets. They put these modelling tools on the cloud to create the SWOT v1 prototype and carried out a proof-of-concept study in a large refugee camp in Bangladesh.

“We found that using the SWOT recommendations effectively doubled the proportion of households with safe water at around 15 hours compared to the status-quo practice,” Ali says.

While these results were very impressive, they did not account for all the various conditions water and sanitation workers could experience, Brown adds, which v2 factors in. 

They also did not account for taste. SWOT v2 not only promises to make water safer, but also find the optimal level where chlorine levels are high enough to protect people, but not so high that people will reject it. This is particularly important in parts of the world where people were previously used to sources such as high-quality spring water and are not accustomed to chlorine. 

“If people don't like the taste, they don't like the way it looks and smells, they're not going to use that source and they’ll then go to a river or somewhere else that could be dangerous,” Brown says.

In future SWOT versions, the team hopes to include other water quality and health outcomes and look at how they could integrate more participation from displaced people themselves. While Ali says the tool cannot deal with the political roots of the refugee crisis, the practical need for SWOT is greater than ever. 

“The unfortunate fact of it is there's more people displaced now than there ever has been in human history,” Ali says. “We see climate-linked disasters increasing in frequency and scale — in particular, flooding crises, which are linked to a lot of waterborne illness. It is a very clear and present danger. People need solutions that work in the current context.”  
 

For backgrounder, click here.

To watch a demo, click here.

To sign up for the virtual event launch on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 11 a.m., click here.

 

-30- 

  

York University is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. York's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future. 

Computer science for all

UMass Amherst researchers to work with 750 elementary teachers in Springfield, Massachusetts Public Schools, thanks to $1.2 million NSF award

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

 

IMAGE: TEACHER AND STUDENT IN ONE OF SPRINGFIELD'S PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS LEARNING CSFORALL view more 

CREDIT: SPRINGFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOLS

AMHERST, Mass. – The National Science Foundation recently awarded $1,197,134 to a collaborative team, led by University of Massachusetts Amherst professor of computer science Rick Adrion, to integrate computer science into every classroom and reach every student in the Springfield Massachusetts Public elementary schools. The curriculum, called CSforAll, will reach approximately 11,000 Kindergarten through fifth-grade students in the district’s 32 elementary schools.

Adrion, who has been working with public schools and communities in the Commonwealth for more than decade, has put together a team that includes UMass Amherst researchers Rebecca Woodland and Keisha Green, both professors of education, as well as his fellow computer scientist Sneha Veeragoudar. In addition, the team includes teachers and administrators from the Springfield schools as well as consultants from the SageFox Consulting Group, who will help the team better understand how elements of what is known as “computational thinking” can be effectively woven into every subject across the curriculum, from math to English.

“What we’re really focused on,” says Adrion, “is teaching kids to think critically about how computing can solve some of the problems in their coursework and lives. It’s not enough to have plenty of laptops and fast wifi, nor is it enough to know some programing concepts. Students need to understand how computing can help them solve a variety of problems and can serve them in future careers” For example, students in an English class might design and code short animations to accompany the stories they write. The point isn’t to have programming replace writing, but to give students another tool to help them unlock their creativity.

This current grant piggybacks on a previous grant that Adrion and his team received in 2018, which supported teachers in the Springfield schools to design and implement the CSforAll curriculum. This new grant will focus on studying the successes and challenges of diffusing the

CSforAll curriculum, and especially to craft the curriculum so that it can address the highly diverse identities, perspectives, and cultural backgrounds of Springfield’s student populations.

None of this could have happened without the dedication and hard work of Springfield’s teachers, who actively helped design and implement the curriculum from the ground up.

“I am so proud of Springfield teachers who have been central to this project, designing, piloting and refining computer science lessons, building on their own learning to deliver and sustain culturally responsive computer science instruction,” says Paul Foster, chief of Strategy, innovation and accountability for Springfield Public Schools. “While teachers may initially feel intimidated at the idea of teaching computer science, they have quickly risen to the challenge and reported excitement at seeing the engagement and joy in their students developing these new skills. I am excited for increasing numbers of Springfield students to see themselves as computer scientists and computational thinkers.”

“This whole project is about sustainability,” says Adrion. “If the Springfield School District wasn’t committed as they are, it wouldn’t happen.”

Contacts: Rick Adrion, adrion@umass.edu

                 Daegan Miller, drmiller@umass.edu

Sustainability claims behind booming food technologies lack evidence

Peer-Reviewed Publication

STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: ANNE CHARLOTTE BUNGE, RESEARCHER AT THE STOCKHOLM RESILIENCE CENTRE AT STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY view more 

CREDIT: STOCKHOLM RESILIENCE CENTRE

New analysis reveals significant gaps in evidence related to the sustainability claims of new food technologies such as vertical farming, blockchain, food deliveries and plant-based alternatives to animal products.

Money is pouring into food tech. But despite rosy claims, food innovations are rarely empirically assessed from a broader sustainability perspective.
“Food system technologies are often surrounded by a sustainability halo. And many of them strive to reduce climate impact, but they disregard other dimensions of sustainability,” says Anne Charlotte Bunge, researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University and lead author of a recent study published in Nature Food.

In the study, the research team compared the scientific evidence behind sustainability claims of four food system technologies: plant-based substitutes for meat, dairy, eggs or sea food; vertical farming; food deliveries; and blockchain technology. All four receive considerable interest from venture capital firms across Scandinavia, and all are frequently framed as new sustainable solutions.
However, the scientific evidence to back these claims up is limited, according to the new study.

For blockchain technology, no research has shown any tangible sustainability improvements related to its usage in the food industry. Studies that have been published so far only discussed theoretical benefits.

Plant-based substitutes are found to have lower environmental impacts than conventional animal-based products. But research on their nutritional aspects has not been studied over the long term, and other socioeconomic factors, such as pricing, are rarely discussed.
“Plant-based alternatives are higher in costs than conventional animal products, which could generate the impression that a plant-based diet is more expensive and seen as a luxury, leading to social inequalities,” warns lead author Anne Charlotte Bunge.

Vertical farming has a mixed sustainability performance. Vertical farms outperform on-field cultivation and greenhouses in some aspects, such as land and water use. However, they often require more energy and emit more greenhouse gases than field agriculture. And regarding other aspects of sustainability, there is little research: “We found a distinct lack of evidence modelling the socio-economic implications of scaling vertical farming,” says Anne Charlotte Bunge.

Food deliveries performed worse in most aspects of sustainability, except that delivered groceries are better than making individual trips to the supermarket by car – but not by foot or public transport. Having meals delivered to one’s home did not have any benefits, according to the analysis.
“Research demonstrates that walking to the restaurant and consuming the meal there instead of having it delivered could reduce the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions by 68 percent per meal,” says Anne Charlotte Bunge.

Even here, significant gaps in research exist on other environmental issues and social sustainability.
To prevent misled investments in the future, the researchers call for a new sustainability assessment framework.
“Guiding transformative investments requires a more rigorous, quantitative assessment of the sustainability implications of food system technologies,” says co-author Line Gordon, professor at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University.

What are the four food technologies?
Plant-based Alternatives: Vegan substitutes of meat, dairy, seafood, and eggs, that mimic the structure, taste, and sensory profile of conventional animal-based products.
Vertical Farming: Multi-layer vertical indoor crop production systems with controlled growth conditions and without solar light.
Blockchain Technology: A decentralized distributed ledger technology that traces the supply chain to create transparency.
Food Deliveries:  The delivery of meals and groceries that have been purchased online by various means of transport. Part of the wider digital food environment.

Research contact:
Anne Charlotte Bunge
PhD candidate at Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University
Email: annecharlotte.bunge@su.se
Phone: +46 73 7078616
Read more about Anne Charlotte Bunge’s research
 

About Stockholm Resilience Centre:
Stockholm Resilience Centre is a leading international research centre at Stockholm University for research and education on resilience and sustainability. The centre is a joint initiative between Stockholm University and the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics at The Royal Swedish Academy Sciences. Read more

Paper details:
Title: A systematic scoping review of the sustainability of vertical farming, plant-based alternatives, food delivery services and blockchain in food systems
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-022-00622-8
DOI: 10.1038/s43016-022-00622-8
Authors: Bunge, A.C., Wood, A., Halloran, A., Gordon, L.J.

---

JOURNAL

Nature Food

DOI

10.1038/s43016-022-00622-8 

ARTICLE TITLE

A systematic scoping review of the sustainability of vertical farming, plant-based alternatives, food delivery services and blockchain in food systems

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Nov-2022

UC Davis and Barnstorm Foundry

announce partnership to identify new

markets for food tech

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

The Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis, and the UC Davis Innovation Institute for Food and Health will partner with Barnstorm Foundry, a food and heath startup foundry, to discover new markets for novel food ingredients and products that are nutritious, sustainable and accessible. The new partnership will engage the Graduate School of Management’s MBA students to evaluate food tech opportunities and publish publicly available reports on their market potential. 

“Bold innovation is needed to tackle the health and sustainability challenges facing our food system today,” said Barnstorm Foundry Managing Partner Aryeh Ganz. “UC Davis is at the center of a world-class food tech ecosystem, and this new partnership will identify exciting new markets for food technologies that can have an impact.”

“This partnership continues to build on our strength as the leading MBA program for food and agriculture,” said GSM Dean H. RaoUnnava. “Our students will have the opportunity to be part of launching several new food companies, creating unparalleled prospects for our MBA students to create career success and impact the health, sustainability, and accessibility of food.” 

The first report under this partnership — released today (Nov. 4) — explores potential new technologies for healthier and more sustainable plant-based milks, a transformative food category that continues to see rapid development and expansion. New reports will be issued once a quarter.  

“These market discovery reports play a critical role in the institute’s work connecting cutting-edge food and health technologies with industry,” said Justin Siegel, IIFH faculty director and associate professor of chemistry and of biochemistry and molecular medicine at UC Davis. “Students will be equipped with the real-world business and investment knowledge necessary to drive change in food, health, and sustainability.” 

The first cohort of four UC Davis MBA students that took part in the project each received a $5,000 stipend to carry out the research and write the market discovery reports. Prasad Naik, a professor in the Graduate School of Management, advised the students.

The market research experience opened a pathway for students to be well-informed about current trends, the science behind the trends, consumer perception and investors’ activity.

“Our goal was to create a piece of literature that would contribute meaningful analysis to prospective investors in the food and agriculture technology industry so that they may make more informed investment decisions,” said MBA student Lucas Haskins, who blogged about the experience.

---

METHOD OF RESEARCH

News article

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

How much impact do boycotts and buycotts actually have on brand sales?

Political controversy triggered by Goya CEO’s political statements in 2020 sheds light

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUTE FOR OPERATIONS RESEARCH AND THE MANAGEMENT SCIENCES

Key Takeaways:

• The buycott generated an increase in sales that lasted for three weeks, especially among first-time buyers and in heavily Republican counties.
• Social media chatter and news media coverage was largely negative about the brand and incorrectly predicted severe negative consequences for the brand.
• Goya’s Democratic-leaning core customer base, largely made up of Latinos, did not decrease their purchases of the brand.

 

BALTIMORE, MD, November 3, 2022 – At a campaign event in the midst of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, the chief executive officer of Goya, a large Latin food brand, publicly praised and endorsed then-president Donald Trump. The comments triggered both a boycott and a counter “buycott” movement in support of the brand.

Do such boycotts or “buycotts” have any impact on brand sales in both the short- and long-term? These questions were at the center of a study that found the immediate increase in Goya sales due to the buycott, while significant, was not sustained over time. At the same time, the researchers found that the boycott did generate a small countervailing impact in heavily Democratic counties, but that effect was also temporary.

The researchers’ study, published in the current issue of the INFORMS journal Marketing Science, titled “Frontiers: Spilling the Beans on Political Consumerism: Do Social Media Boycotts and Buycotts Translate to Real Sales Impact?” is authored by Jūra Liaukonytė of Cornell University, Anna Tuchman of Northwestern University and Xinrong Zhu of the Imperial College Business School in London.

“After the CEO made his statements, Goya sales temporarily increased by 22%,” says Jūra Liaukonytė. “But this net sales boost fully dissipated within three weeks.”

Anna Tuchman adds, “There was a lack of empirical evidence on buycotts, and we wanted to know, ‘What was the net effect of the boycott versus the buycott movements on sales? How long did the sales impact last, and how did it vary across local markets based on political affiliations?’”

To get the answers, the researchers analyzed sales data over time and by market, as well as the rates of social media and news media activity on the issue.

“Goya’s sales were historically stronger in more Democratic markets,” says Xinrong Zhu. “Among consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, Goya is one of the most Democratic brands. Consistent with this, we found that the boycott generated 75% more chatter on social media than the buycott. And related media coverage was overwhelmingly dominated by the boycott narrative.”

Still, the researchers found that the actual sales response went in the opposite direction, which suggested that in the case of political consumerism, social media metrics may not be a good proxy for actual demand. In fact, the buycott effect dominated the boycott effect, increasing the company’s sales by around 22% on net in the weeks after the scandal. The effect, however, was short-lived.

“We found that the temporary increase in Goya’s sales came from consumers not traditionally thought of as the brand’s core customers,” says Tuchman. “First-time Goya buyers were from heavily Republican areas who did not continue buying the brand, and thus were not particularly valuable in the longer term.”

In heavily Democratic counties, the researchers found that the buycott effect was outlasted by a modest boycott effect that persisted up to eight weeks after the event. At the same time, the study authors found that the brand’s most valuable customers, Latinos, did not decrease their purchases of Goya products.

Ultimately, neither the boycott nor buycott had a lasting impact on sales.

 

Link to Study

 

About INFORMS and Marketing Science

Marketing Science is a premier peer-reviewed scholarly marketing journal focused on research using quantitative approaches to study all aspects of the interface between consumers and firms. It is published by INFORMS, the leading international association for operations research and analytics professionals. More information is available at www.informs.org or @informs.

# # #

---

JOURNAL

Marketing Science

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Frontiers: Spilling the Beans on Political Consumerism: Do Social Media Boycotts and Buycotts Translate to Real Sales Impact?