More magma found below Yellowstone Caldera than expected

 Phys.org

Yellowstone Volcano. Credit: Unsplash, public domain

A team of researchers with members affiliated with multiple institutions in the U.S. and one in Australia reports evidence that there is much more magma below the Yellowstone Caldera than previously thought.

In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes analyzing years of seismic data from the site and building supercomputing models. Kari Cooper with the University of California Davis has published a Perspective piece on the work done by the team on this new effort and also outlines the tools that geologists use to predict when a volcano might erupt.

The Yellowstone Caldera is located in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park, and prior research has shown its last major eruption was approximately 640,000 years ago. Prior research has also shown that there are two large magma reservoirs below the caldera—one just below the surface, the other a few kilometers down.

The ratio of melted rock to crystals in the top reservoir is a reliable indicator of how close a volcano is to erupting. Previous estimates showed the ratio of rock to crystal in the top reservoir was approximately 9%, suggesting the volcano was nowhere near an eruption point. In this new effort, however, the researchers have taken a closer look at the ratio and have found it is much higher than earlier estimates showed.

Yellowstone’s Super Volcano Has More Magma Bubbling Under the Surface Than Previously Thought   View on Watch

To learn more about the ratio in the reservoir, the researchers analyzed 20 years of seismic data for the area with a supercomputer, which created a model that simulated the reservoir, showing both the size of the reservoir and its ratios of rock to crystal.

They found that the ratio of rock to crystal was much higher than previous estimates—they found it to be 16% to 20%. They also found that the reservoir was approximately twice as large as previously thought, at approximately 1,600 cubic kilometers. They note that their findings do not indicate that an eruption is imminent; the ratio is still well below the threshold believed to be necessary to set off an explosion.

More information: Ross Maguire et al, Magma accumulation at depths of prior rhyolite storage beneath Yellowstone Caldera, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.ade0347

Kari M. Cooper, What lies beneath Yellowstone?, Science (2022). DOI: 10.1126/science.ade8435

Journal information: Science 

© 2022 Science X Network

Degassing data suggests Mt. Etna began showing signs of pressure buildup months before 2018 eruption

B.C.'s Julia Levy is Canada's first trans woman Rhodes Scholar


British Columbia’s newest Rhodes Scholar will pursue a master’s degree in computational chemistry, but she says it’s also an “incredible opportunity” as a trans woman to give back to her community.


B.C.'s Julia Levy is Canada's first trans woman Rhodes Scholar© Provided by The Canadian Press

University of Victoria graduate Julia Levy said she was "blown away" when she learned she was among 11 Canadians selected for this year's Rhodes Scholarship, one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious such awards.

Levy, 24, will head to Oxford University in England next October for the fully funded scholarship, a prize she said carries a special meaning because she is the country’s first trans woman Rhodes Scholar.

“I feel I am very, very proud being the first trans woman in Canada (to become a Rhodes Scholar),” said Levy, who made the transition from he to she three years ago.

While thetransitionwas a tough journey, Levy said she is aware of the many advantages she's had.

“I think it’s really interesting to note that I am privileged in literally every other way, like my parents being supportive of my transition. I have always had financial stability and I grew up in a good part of Vancouver … maybe that’s the advantages that you need to equal out the trans part of it,” said Levy.

Levy, who graduated from the University of Victoria with a chemistry major and a minor in visual arts, described the scholarship as an “incredible opportunity and a gift,” equipping her with more knowledge and power to give back to the trans community.

“I feel my experiences of being trans and the ways that I have had to navigate the world being trans ... has given me a lot of empathy for people in crisis and people who have difficulties in their lives,” said Levy.

“I know what it is to be at the bottom in some ways and my interest in harm reduction and trans care really all comes from that place of knowing what it's like and wanting to reach out and help out where that’s possible.”

Levy is also a scientist, artist, activist, programmer, friend and daughter, she said.


"There are many parts of me that are equally important to who I am."

University of Victoria chemistry professor Jeremy Wulff supervised Levy and said she was “destined for greatness,” bringing insights to projects that led to their success.

“I'm always excited when my students are recognized with awards and fellowships, but the Rhodes award is at a whole other level," he said. "Julia is in excellent company amongst this group, and it's absolutely where she belongs."

Levy said magic can happen when you mix computation with chemistry.

In her second year at the University of Victoria, she found some classmates were struggling to picture molecules in their heads while doing peer teaching.

To help them visualize complex molecules, Levy created an augmented-reality app.

The app is a QR code in the workbook and allows the learner to see the molecule on their phone in three dimensions.

“You can work it with your phone and spin it around and zoom in and out,” said Levy.

She also worked as a technician with the university's Vancouver Island Drug-Checking Project, a drop-in service where people can bring street drugs in for chemical analysis.

Levy said the experience used her chemistry skills in a “practical and socially active way” to help more people.

“It’s an excellent example of the social use of chemistry,” said Levy.

Levy, who was travelling in Germany during the interview, said she looks forward to being surrounded by the Rhodes community and "being challenged and pushed to new heights."

“I hope I bring what makes me unique to Oxford, and that I am able to find a group of people, both personally and professionally, that celebrate that uniqueness,” said Levy.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2022.

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press

FREEDOM OF SPEECH CHINA

Ai Weiwei on China's protests

Stefan Dege
12/02/2022

December 2, 2022

DW spoke to Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei about the protests in China against extreme pandemic lockdowns.

Renowned Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, who currently lives in Portugal with his Chinese wife and their child, sees China's reaction to the pandemic over the past three years as the "most stringent constraints on human behavior in Chinese history and in human history," which are restricting human rights and personal autonomy, he told DW in an email interview.

Ai added that the protests in many Chinese cities against the strict lockdowns were "gatherings of resistance" where protest slogans were chanted. "People mostly want to be released from confinement," the artist said, "and go back to their normal life."

Protests in Guangzhou against China's "zero-COVID" restrictions

Image: REUTERS

Though there has been a careful easing of "zero-COVID" pandemic measures in the city of Guangzhou, the artist does not believe the protests will have a lasting effect. "Any type of protests in China can hardly be successful because the Party [the country's sole ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party] considers themselves as representative of the interests of people," Ai wrote, "so for them there is no such thing as people's protests against them."
Sheet of paper as the most important expression of protest

Ai wrote that the protesters do not yet have any leaders, nor are they supported by any organizations. They also have no agenda, according to Ai: "As we say in a Chinese idiom, it is like a plate of loose sand."

The white sheets of paper held by protesters serve as their most important ideological expression, according to Ai, who sees the blank signs as "a very strong symbol" representing the protesters' desire to express themselves freely.

Blank papers have become a popular way to protest China's zero-COVID policyImage: Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

A blank page aimed at the global public

According to Berlin-based art historian and political iconography expert Michael Diers, the blank sheet of paper is a "relatively new invention" and also an "admirably brave and imaginative" means of protest.

Among the first to go viral, the photo of an Russian anti-war protester in Nizhny Novgorod who was holding a blank sheet of paper and subsequently detained by police made international headlines in March this year. "A symbol like the blank placard arises when all other attempts at protest have previously failed," Diers told DW. The action is always aimed at the cameras, he says, and is always addressed towards the global public. "It's about the power of images."

 

Michael Diers, art historian and media expert

Image: privat

According to Ai, the blank sheet of paper stands for wordlessness and resistance against the restricting of freedom of expression.

Ai is not surprised by the absence of representatives from the cultural sector alongside the Chinese protesters. "Usually, artists and writers are all advocates of liberalism," who would be on the side of the demonstrators "by default," he wrote. "But, as the regime in China muzzles freedom of expression, no matter who stands next to protesters," Ai wrote, "they cannot be seen."

This article was originally written in German.

NETHERLANDS
'Black Pete': Dismantling a racist tradition

Astrid Benölken
12/05/2022

December 5, 2022

Over the past decade, attitudes have changed towards the blackface figure accompanying Saint Nicholas in the Netherlands. But the debate is still on.

https://p.dw.com/p/4KPUJ

The arrival of Sinterklaas, the Dutch figure based on Saint Nicholas, is celebrated with different festivities in the Netherlands. Starting in mid-November, crowds of children and parents enthusiastically gather to greet the saint as he arrives in their city or village by steamboat, horse or even hot air balloon.

Landing with him are his little helpers, the so-called Zwarte Piets ("Black Pete"), traditionally depicted as a character with dark skin.

In Amsterdam alone, hundreds of Piets join Sinterklaas on his boat, or out in the streets, handing out Peppernut cookies, dancing, waving and fooling around.

They are everywhere until the eve of December 6, handing out presents or sneaking them into children's shoes. They even report for their own daily news show on TV.

Controversial blackfacing

For activists like Jerry Afriyie, November and December is the most difficult time of the year. That is because Zwarte Piet is usually played by white Dutch people who paint their face black, might wear afro or curly wigs, paint their lips plump, and often wore golden earrings in the past.

For Afriyie, this is clear-cut blackfacing, a racist display of Black people that should have long been abolished. Not only does it make Black people the target of mockery, he also sees the tradition as a symbol of the Netherlands' colonial past — and the lack of historical reappraisal of it.

The controversy surrounding the Zwarte Piet character has been growing in the country for years. But for fans of the figure like Marc Giling, the accusations of racism are misleading and "a threat to one of the most important traditions from the Netherlands." Giling himself has dressed up as Zwarte Piet for parades in the past and is one of the founders of the Sint & Pietengilde, a community of Zwarte Piet supporters.

Decades of complaints

Within the Dutch Black community, Zwarte Piet has been viewed critically for decades, explains Mitchell Esajas, an anthropologist and founder of the Black Archives in Amsterdam.

Historian Elisabeth Koning has researched the roots of the Black Pete figureImage: Privat

In the 1980s, for example, Dutch-Surinamese actor Gerda Havertong told children on an episode of Sesame Street: "I'm tired of being called Zwarte Piet all the time." But overall, complaints like these fell on deaf ears, historian Elisabeth Koning says.

Then the 2010s came around and the first protests gained traction.

By that time, smartphones and social media allowed images of the figure to be seen worldwide, creating additional support for the new generation of Black Dutch people expressing their disapproval.

"We have every right to be seen as fully Dutch people — just like every other child born in this country. We deserve the same respect, the same opportunities, the same space to be able to be heard," says Jerry Afriyie.

In 2011, along with others, he mobilized a first successful wave of protests. As part of an art installation, he walked through Dutch cities with a T-shirt and posters denouncing the racism of the figure.

Afriyie and his group were violently arrested during Sinterklaas' arrival to the city of Dordrecht, and eyewitnesses filmed the scene and the disproportionate level of force used on the activists. The protest movement slowly took off.

Protesters of theAnti-Zwarte-Piet movement have received death threats in the past, and their actions are still met with violent reactions.

 

Protesting against Black Pete can be dangerous

Image: Imago/Paulo Amorim

In November this year, activists of the Kick out Zwarte Piet initiative and Amnesty International were attacked as they gathered to demonstrate during the fest of Sinterklaas' arrival to Staphorst, where Zwarte Piet is still very common. A mob of Zwarte Piets stopped the activists on the streets, threw eggs at them and demolished their cars.

Blackface or a dark devil figure?

Zwarte Piet supporter Giling explicitly distances himself from mobs and being put into "a political right corner."

But he believes there shouldn't be a blackface debate in the first place. According to him, it's rather a misunderstanding. Black Pete is not based on Black people, he claims, but rather derives from pagan folklore.

Just like the German Krampus, a demon-like dark figure accompanying Saint Nicholas, the Dutch Sinterklaas figure was originally accompanied by a dark creature that eventually took a human shape — the only thing remnant of that being the paint on the face that was "coincidentally" black.

Due to these roots, Zwarte Piet cannot be racist, Giling argues.

"There are prints with devil-like depictions of Krampus — definitely, I agree," historian Koning says. But that doesn't change the fact that the present-day depiction of Zwarte Piet, as the likeness of a Black Moor from Spain, started appearing in the 19th century, she adds.

The Krampus figure has little to do with Black Pete, says historian Elisabeth Koning

Image: dapd

"Culture doesn't develop in a vacuum," Koning says. Blackfacing as a stereotypical depiction of Black people was not an isolated phenomenon of American Minstrel shows, but was also very common in the Netherlands as a former colonial power.

'Chimney Pete' replaces Black Pete

By now, in most schools, at many parades and on TV, Black Petes have been replaced by so-called Schoorsteenpieten, or Chimney Petes. Their faces are dirtied with soot, resulting from their trips through the chimney to deliver presents.

Some cities have also started including grey, yellow or purple colored Petes to their parades in addition to black ones.

Afriyie claims that he does not care about what the change to Zwarte Piet will look like — as long as all the racist elements are gone, and the Netherlands doesn't end up with a "Zwarte Piet Light."

Giling also says that he does not mind change. He however believes that it might take away from the magic if Black Petes wear less make-up, since children could recognize them. Also, he also does not see the need to find a compromise, since he doesn't agree with the blackface criticism in the first place.

But for Afriyie, it remains clear: "If the tradition is destroyed when we take out the racism, then it is a tradition we should have never handed over to our children."

When the protests began in 2011, nine out of 10 Dutch people thought that the appearance of Zwarte Piet was alright.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who had even dressed up as Zwarte Piet himself several times, said: "Zwarte Piet is just black."

Today, about half of the Dutch think that the figure of Zwarte Piet needs to be changed.

And Rutte, who is still prime minister to this day, said after the protests over the death of George Floyd that he too had changed his mind. He doesn't want to ban the depiction of Zwarte Piet — but he believes that in a few years from now, the traditional depiction of the character will have disappeared on its own.

This article was originally written in German.

BLACK PETER ORIGINATES WITH THE RISE OF THE DUTCH IMPERIAL FLEET, ITS ROLE IN THE SLAVE TRADE AND THE RISE OF HOLLAND AND ITS BOURSE (STOCK EXCHANGE) DURING THE 15TH CENTURY AT THE BEGINING OF CAPITALISM IN EUROPE

EP

Hundreds of Iran students 'poisoned' before protest

Story by Ahmed Vahdat, James Rothwell • Yesterday 


More than a thousand Iranian university students appear to have been poisoned the night before they were to attend mass anti-regime protests being held across the country this week.


The scene in Tehran's Enghelab Square on Sunday - 

Atta Kenare/ AFP© Atta Kenare/ AFP

According to ISNA, an Iranian news agency, 1,200 students at Kharazmi and Ark universities were taken ill with vomiting, severe body aches and hallucinations. Similar illnesses were reported by at least four other universities.

The Iranian science ministry confirmed that the students were struck by food poisoning, which has led to students protesting by dumping their food on to pavements. Video footage posted online over the weekend showed row upon row of plastic bags containing canteen food placed on the ground outside Ark university.

The Iranian regime has been accused of deliberately poisoning students to thwart their latest protest, while authorities have blamed accidental food poisoning linked to an outbreak of water-borne bacteria in the country.

A statement from Iran's national student union said: "Our past experiences of similar incidents at the Isfahan university negates the authorities' reason for this mass food poisoning".

The student union has claimed the universities' clinics have closed or suddenly run out of electrolytes which has made it harder to treat dehydration - a common symptom of food poisoning. Meanwhile, female students have been told to remain inside their dormitories at some universities.

Iranians have called for an intensified three-day period of national strikes and protests which began yesterday.

It came as an Iranian state broadcaster denied reports that the regime had scrapped its "morality police", the religious enforcers whose alleged killing of student Mahsa Amini, 22, triggered the mass protest movement.

The broadcaster Al-Alam reported on Sunday night: "No official in the Islamic Republic of Iran has confirmed the closure of the morality police."

It said some foreign media had characterised a weekend statement by Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, Iran's attorney general, as "the Islamic Republic's withdrawal from its hijab (laws) and influenced by the recent riots".

He had said that the unit was "shut down" and had "nothing to do with" the country's judiciary as part of a response to a question about rumours that it had been scrapped. It remained unclear whether the unit had been closed down as of yesterday afternoon.

If confirmed, the move to end the rule of morality police officers on Iran's streets would be a major concession to the protesters, who have clashed in their thousands with regime security forces across dozens of towns and cities, leaving more than 300 people dead.

The protests have quickly evolved into a mass uprising that now appears to be focused on the total collapse of the regime, rather than moderate changes to the Iranian legal system.

It also emerged yesterday that Iran has sealed off a jewellery shop and restaurant belonging to the famous footballer Ali Daei, after he backed protesters' calls for strikes.

Daei's 109 goals at international level were long unsurpassed until Cristiano Ronaldo overtook him. ISNA reported that the ex-player's shop and restaurant in Tehran's fashionable north end had been ordered to shut.

"Following the co-operation with anti-revolutionary groups in cyberspace to disrupt peace and business of the market, a judicial order was issued to seal Noor Jewellery Gallery," ISNA reported. It said a restaurant linked to Daei had also been ordered shut but gave no details about it.

Last week, Daei said he had received threats after backing the protest movement. Iranian shops shut their doors in several cities yesterday, following calls for the three-day national strike.

Thousands protest for third consecutive day against corruption in the coal industry


Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Mongolia to protest for the third consecutive day against the government and corruption in the coal industry after thousands of tons of the fuel were stolen.


Archive - Mongolian President Ujnaa Jurelsuj. - 

UKHNAA KHURELSUKH'S OFFICE / XINHUA NEWS / CONTACT© Provided by News 360

The demonstrators, who have gathered in front of the Mongolian Parliament in Ulaanbaatar, the capital, have been involved in a series of clashes with police officers.

Related video: Thousands protest in Mongolia over alleged coal industry corruption
Duration 1:16
View on Watch

Security forces have reported that at least two people have been detained after protesters set fire to a Christmas fir tree in Sukhbaatar Square, according to reports in the daily 'Onoodor'.

The people first began protesting on Sunday outside the residence of the country's president, Ujnaa Jurelsuj, to demand that those responsible for corruption in the coal industry be brought to justice. They have also demanded the resignation or dismissal of members of the government under investigation for stealing vast sums of coal.

The authorities are currently investigating the theft of 385,000 tons of coal, as explained by the government. In total, some fifteen high-ranking officials are being investigated for their involvement in the alleged crime.

Among the accused are the former directors of the country's state-owned railway company, as well as the head of customs and the head of the Border Protection Department. The country has been severely affected by the consequences of the war in Ukraine and slowing economic growth in China.

MMIW
Artist turns butterflies into portraits of murdered or abused Indigenous women

By Amber Victoria Singer, Lauren Gilger
Updated: Friday, December 2, 2022 -

Listen to this story

Lisa Sette
Benjamin Timpson at work in the studio

The current exhibition at Lisa Sette Gallery in Phoenix pays homage to Indigenous women who have been abused or murdered in an unusual way: with butterflies — thousands of butterfly wings, meticulously cut and placed to create faces. Some are easy to see. For others, you have to squint. Each is a masterpiece — painstakingly created over months by artist Ben Timpson, who is part Puebloan.

A photography professor at Arizona State University, Timpson is known for working with organic material. He’s created art out of everything from dove wishbones to worms. But he didn’t just choose butterfly wings to challenge himself. They have a much deeper meaning.

“The name of the show is ‘Illuminated Lives’ to illuminate the stories of these Indigenous women who have survived or who have endured hardship — not just now, but like for the past hundreds and hundreds of years,” he said. “[R]ather than focus on the negative or the abuser like our culture usually does … I wanted to focus this project on the beauty, the hope and the life of these women.”

Timpson pieced together fuzzy portraits of unidentified women, including one from British Columbia and another from Pima County.

After the abstract unidentified women, Timpson felt more comfortable asking survivors to let him do their portraits.



Benjamin Timpson and Lisa Sette Gallery
“Juanita,” 2022, butterfly wings on glass, wood and electrical components


The gallery’s largest portrait is two and a half by one and a half feet. It features a woman named Juanita, a domestic abuse survivor.

“Her husband would abuse her, and then when he tried to shoot her, she blocked the bullet with her hand the bullet was deflected and moved through her hand. And she survived, and he’s now in jail,” Timpson said.

Timpson spent four to five hours each day in the studio sketching, cutting wings and gluing them down to light boxes. Each portrait took five to six months to complete — Juanita’s took a year and a half. The butterfly wings are so delicate that Timpson had to wear a dust mask so his breath didn’t blow the tiny pieces away.

You can see the portraits created with real butterfly wings in Timson’s “Illuminated Lives” exhibition at Lisa Sette Gallery through Jan. 7. A portion of the proceeds from sales will go to the Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition.

Sacha Baron Cohen Revives Borat to Slam Kanye West: ‘He’s Too Antisemitic,’ Even For Kazakhstan

Story by Zack Sharf • Yesterday

Provided by Variety

Borat is back! Sacha Baron Cohen returned as his iconic character at the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday night (via The Guardian) to eviscerate Kanye West for his outspoken antisemitism. Baron Cohen attended the Kennedy Center Honors to pay tribute to U2, but he used his time to bring Borat back to life and also poke fun at President Joe Biden, who was also in attendance at the prestigious event.

“I know the president of U.S. and A is here,” Borat said. “Where are you, Mr. Trump?”

Addressing Biden directly, Borat said, “You don’t look so good. Where has your glorious big belly gone? And your pretty orange skin has become pale… But I see you have a new wife. Wawa-woooah! She is very erotic. I must look away before I get a Bono.”

“Before I proceed, I will say I am very upset about the antisemitism in U.S. and A,” Borat continued. “It not fair. Kazakhstan is No. 1 Jew-crushing nation. Stop stealing our hobby. Stop the steal! Stop the steal! Your Kanye, he tried to move to Kazakhstan and even changed his name to Kazakhstanye West. But we said: No, he too antisemitic, even for us.”

Borat proceeded to sing a parody version of U2’s classing song “With or Without You,” changing the lyrics to “with or without Jews.” The character added, “What’s the problem? They loved this at Mar-a-Lago. They chose ‘without Jews.’”

Baron Cohen joins a handful of celebrities speaking out against West for his antisemitic comments in recent weeks. West praised Hitler during a Dec. 1 interview on Alex Jones’ “Infowars” talk show, leading Biden himself to declare on social media, “The Holocaust happened. Hitler was a demonic figure. And instead of giving it a platform, our political leaders should be calling out and rejecting antisemitism wherever it hides. Silence is complicity.”

Just before Baron Cohen took the stage at the Kennedy Center Honors, Oscar winner Natalie Portman used social media to condemn antisemitism. Portman did not mention West by name, but her statement arrived amid extreme backlash against West for his recent praising of Hitler.

“Seeing the re-emergence of antisemitism makes my heart drop,” Portman wrote. “This hatred must be combatted with boundless love for each other. Today, I send extra love to my fellow Jews. And I send love to all those standing with us against these violent words and actions. It’s been painful and frightening to listen to, and I’m extremely grateful to those who continue to speak up against antisemitism with us, and against all forms of racism.”

Borat’s appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors will be released during the event’s CBS special at a later date.

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Kanye West's Massive Reddit Page Overtaken by Taylor Swift Appreciation, Holocaust Awareness Content as Fans Abandon Him

Joe Biden Says 'Hitler Was a Demonic Figure' After Kanye West's Antisemitic Meltdown: 'Silence Is Complicity'

Jimmy Kimmel Condemns Kanye West for Praising Hitler: 'We Have a Black White Supremacist Running Around'

Sunflowers help bees vanquish parasites. Now we know how.

Story by Elizabeth Anne Brown • Yesterday -NAT GEO

Bumblebees and other pollinators face many threats, including pesticide exposure, climate change, habitat loss due to agriculture and development, and pathogens that ravage multiple species. But a recent finding may help lighten their load.


A common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) gathers pollen in a field of yellow sunflowers, plants whose pollen helps the insects expel parasites.© Photograph by Bill Berry, Getty

Previous studies have shown sunflower pollen can work like a medicine for bumblebees afflicted by a parasite called Crithidia bombi, a single-celled organism that takes up residence in the bee’s gut and harms their health. But scientists couldn’t explain how sunflower pollen vanquished C. bombi—did it boost the bees’ immune function, or perhaps poison the parasite directly?

New research, published in the Journal of Insect Physiology, shows the answer is deceptively simple. “Sunflower pollen makes bumblebees poo a whole lot,” says lead author Jonathan Giacomini, which flushes the parasite out.

Plant products like nectar and pollen are a treasure trove of potential insect medicines that scientists are just beginning to understand, he adds. “There are natural things out there that bees are interacting with that can be beneficial for them,” Giacomini says. And by making changes to the landscape, scientists hope we can help give bees a fighting chance.

Plant power


A carpenter bee covered in pollen of a viburnum. Planting native flowers such as this—which is indigenous to the eastern United States—helps bees in a number of ways.© Photograph by Krista Schlyer

If you happen upon a fuzzy, buzzing, flying creature in eastern North America, there’s a strong chance it’s a common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens). Yellow and black striped with a rump covered in soft hairs, they’re social insects that live in colonies and love a good crevice—they build their homes in birdhouses, woodpiles, abandoned burrows, and dense grasses.



A green metallic bee on a meadow beauty in Florida.© Photograph by Krista Schlyer

They are important pollinators, both in the wild and in agriculture, where they are raised and used to pollinate crops including tomatoes and pumpkins. Like other pollinators, bumblebees face many threats, and C. bombi isn’t even the biggest bumblebee bugaboo. On its own, the parasite doesn’t have much of an effect on a bumblebee’s health. But when food is scarce, C. bombi can shorten a bee’s lifespan and even reduce the number of young queens a colony can produce.



A leaf-cutter bee photographed in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Bees provide the vital service of pollination—and plants produce countless chemical compounds that serve as food and medicine for many animals.© Photograph by Krista Schlyer

Lynn Adler is an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst who studies interactions between plants and insects. For years, she and longtime collaborator Rebecca Irwin at North Carolina State University suspected pollinators might be getting dosed by flowers since plants often invest chemically active compounds into their nectar and pollen to help their genetic payload arrive at its destination.

“Many plant defensive compounds can be medicinal at certain doses,” Adler says. After all, “most of our human medicines come from plants.”

Giacomini discovered the effect of sunflower pollen as an undergraduate working in Adler’s lab in 2018. From the very first tests, sunflower pollen dramatically reduced C. bombi parasite load in common eastern bumblebees, often clearing infection completely. “We’ve been shocked at how consistent and effective sunflower pollen has been,” Adler says.

But they couldn’t figure out how—separate studies over the years ruled out immune function boosts and were unable to pin down any chemical compounds in sunflower pollen that would spell doom for C. bombi.


“I started noticing, man, every time we run these experiments, the bees that are fed sunflower pollen are so much dirtier than the bees that eat wildflower pollen,” Giacomini remembers. It was then his hypotheses turned to the scatological.

Bombus away

To try to suss out the mechanism behind sunflower pollen’s medicinal effect, Giacomini, by then a PhD student, set up a bumblebee buffet in a lab at North Carolina State University.

Giacomini fed sunflower pollen to healthy bumblebees and bumblebees infected with C. bombi, then compared their excretions to other bees that received only wildflower pollen. (Bumblebees don’t separate their solid and liquid waste like we do, so bumblebee poo is a thin slurry that’s often bright yellow from undigested pollen.)

“It turned out that bee poop naturally fluoresces under ultraviolet light,” which made distinguishing between poo and non-poo remarkably easy, Giacomini recalls. “It was very dazzling—it almost looked like a galaxy.”

Regardless of whether they were infected or not, bees that ate sunflower pollen pooped 68 percent more in volume and 66 percent more frequently than bees that ate wildflower pollen alone.

The natural next question was why sunflower pollen had this effect. There are lots of ways to get the bowels moving—osmotic laxatives soften stool with extra water, while stimulant laxatives prompt the muscles of the gut to massage digested food down and out.

But preliminary research from the Adler lab again suggests a surprisingly simple explanation. Sunflower pollen’s outer shell is very spikey, which may irritate the lining of the gut into producing a lubricating mucus or somehow dislodge the parasite. According to as-yet unpublished data, Adler says bees fed the outer shell alone experience the same bathroom disruptions and anti-parasite effects, while bees fed the core of sunflower pollen did not.

Robert Paxton, a zoology professor at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg who researches bee parasites and wasn’t involved in any of the sunflower studies, says the poo-based mechanism would jive with other work on gut parasites in bumblebees. Paxton points to a German study that suggests parasites that wreak havoc with honeybees can’t take hold in bumblebees simply because their gut transit time—the time it takes food to traverse the whole digestive tract—is much shorter.

Paxton adds he’d be eager to see if bees infected with C. bombi self-medicate by choosing to eat sunflower pollen more often than healthy bees—a behavior documented in ailing honeybees.

Good for the colony?

Sunflowers are just one plant among untold thousands that likely have medicinal benefits for bees, scientists believe. Resin from plants like poplar or pitch-apple trees can help honeybees fight fungal infection, while a compound derived from thyme is used by colony managers to help ward off varroa mites.

And since bees have been around since before the dinosaurs, researchers also track the plants pollinators use to identify potential candidates for human drugs—they have a 120-million-year head start on pollen research, after all.

Peter Graystock, a lecturer at Imperial College London who studies bee parasites and wasn’t involved in the sunflower research, praised the study as “elegant.”

The prodigious poops from sunflower pollen definitely seem to be “good for the individual because it reduces their parasite load,” he explains. But since C. bombi is transmitted via feces, having widespread bumblebee diarrhea may not be such a good thing on a community level. “They’re essentially shedding transmittable spores at a higher rate,” Graystock says. “Does this lead to faster transmission of the parasite around the community?”

There’s also the element of nutrition. Sunflower pollen is lower on protein compared to some other flowers and lacks two essential amino acids, so bumblebees can’t subsist on sunflower pollen alone. Paxton and Graystock are both concerned the nutritional downsides of sunflower pollen might outweigh the benefits of ditching the parasites.

But another study from the Adler lab currently undergoing peer review suggests sunflower pollen is worth the gamble. As a postdoctoral student, Rosemary Malfi set up healthy bumblebee colonies at 20 farms in New York state with variable amounts of sunflower plantings and tracked the colony’s progress over the course of a season.

“To our delight, the more sunflower at the farm, the lower the infection in those colonies—both the intensity of the infection” and the proportion of bees affected, Adler says. “And more than that, the colonies with more sunflowers actually made more queens,” a key metric of colony health that determines the next generation’s reproductive success.

Not a silver bullet

The authors emphasize we can’t save the bees by flooding our neighborhoods with sunflowers.

The team has found mixed results for sunflower pollen on C. bombi in other bee species—modest effects on two species closely related to the common eastern bumblebee and no effect on a third. Researchers plan to take it back to basics and look for anatomical differences in the bees’ guts that might explain why they respond differently to sunflower pollen.

In the meantime, if you’re buzzing to help the bees, planting “a diversity of flowers is a good idea,” Irwin explains. And sunflowers can certainly be part of a native wildflower smorgasbord, but make sure you get a pollen-bearing variety—the sunflowers raised for cut flowers are usually sterile.

CRIMINAL CANNABIS CAPITALI$M

Former CannTrust compliance worker says unlicensed growing 'very openly' discussed

TORONTO — A former director of quality and compliance at CannTrust Holdings Inc. says the growth of cannabis in unlicensed rooms was discussed "very openly" at the pot company.


Former CannTrust compliance worker says unlicensed growing 'very openly' discussed© Provided by The Canadian Press

Graham Lee told the Ontario court of justice's Old City Hall court that the activity was not hidden or denied and was discussed on multiple occasions, even with members of the senior leadership team.

His remarks come as three former executives at the cannabis company face a series of securities offenses.

Peter Aceto, Eric Paul and Mark Litwin have pleaded not guilty to fraud and authorizing, permitting or acquiescing in the commission of an offence.

Litwin and Paul are also facing insider trading charges, and Litwin and Aceto are charged with making a false prospectus and false preliminary prospectus.

The charges are linked to unlicensed growing that allegedly occurred at a Niagara, Ont. area facility owned by CannTrust, which is now called Phoena Holdings Inc.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 5, 2022.