It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, May 08, 2023
CRTC will hear from public about banning Fox News from Canadian cable packages
Egale Canada, a 2SLGBTQI advocacy group, has raised the alarm after concerning comments made by "infamously incendiary" former host Tucker Carlson.
Bryan Meler ·Editor, Yahoo Canada Fri, May 5, 2023 Canadians have started to particapte in the public consultation, voicing an array of viewpoints about the controverisal U.S. TV network, Fox News. (Credit: Getty Images).
Fox News may soon be banned from Canadian cable packages, with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) opening a public consultation process to help come to a decision.
The federal agency is in charge of regulating Canada’s broadcasting and television services, and has put Fox News under the microscope after an open letter by Egale Canada, a 2SLGBTQI advocacy group. Canadians have until June 2 to submit their thoughts as part of the public hearing.
The open letter, submitted on April 4, calls on the CTRC to remove Fox News from Canadian cable packages, after especially highlighting comments made by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who the group says made “false and horrifying claims about 2STNBGN [Two Spirit, trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming] people, painting them as violent and dangerous.”
"Egale Canada is pleased to see the CRTC open Part 1 into the removal of Fox News from Canadian distribution," said Jennifer Boyce, Egale's director of communications and marketing, to Yahoo Canada.
"We remain committed to the call in our open letter. The issue of Fox News inciting hate, violence, and discrimination in its programming extends beyond one individual."
The comments made by Carlson particularly caught people’s attention, as Egale in its letter claims that the TV host “made the inflammatory and false claim that trans people are ‘targeting’ Christians.”
“To position trans people in existential opposition to Christianity is an incitement of violence against trans people that is plain to any viewer.”
As part of the segment, Carlson claimed that 2STNBGN people are given preferential treatment in employment among other opportunities. Egale Canada believes this is “clearly an attempt to stoke resentment against 2STNBGN people. ”
The CRTC doesn’t issue licences to non-Canadian broadcasters, like Fox News, but the federal agency has established that they must be held to the same standard as Canadian channels. Recently, the CRTC banned Russian state-controlled TV channels, and RT France from Canadian airways.
Under the Broadcasting Regulations, Canadian broadcasters aren’t allowed to broadcast “any abusive comment or abusive pictorial representation that, when taken in context, tends to or is likely to expose an individual or group or class of individuals to hatred or contempt on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or mental or physical disability.”
The CRTC is not legally required to hold a public hearing, but it may if “it would be in the public interest to do so,” according to Canada’s Broadcasting Act.
Recently, the network settled a defamation suit for $US787 million with Dominion Voting Systems, after they accused Fox News of promoting lies about the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The public starts to have its say
Since opening the public hearing process, over 50 comments have been published.
“I support a full ban of Fox entertainment from Canada’s cable packages,” writes Donna Gillis of Halifax. “It’s entertainment, disinformation and a whole lot of conspiracy. It is not news. It has destroyed the USA. We don’t need Fox in Canada."
While some are in support of the ban, maybe believe it’s a form of censorship.
“I am in opposition to this proposal because it is censorious in nature and is certain to cause more harm than good,” writes Robert Moloney of St. John’s.
“Yes it is extreme in some of its views but it is a channel viewed by many in the USA, for that reason alone we should be able to access this channel and see what our neighbours are saying. Viewing Fox News is optional,” writes Richard Linnett of Picton, Ont.
“I oppose the removal of Fox News from the List of non-Canadian services authorized for distribution. Tucker Carlson is no longer employed by Fox News,” writes David Payne of Toronto.
Carlson and Fox News did not respond in time for publication to Yahoo Canada.
'Jackie the Wolf': A son's intimate look at his mothers death, right-to-die laws
"I was hoping I would not have not do it, because I was hoping my mom would not die," filmmaker Tuki Jencquel said
Jacqueline "Jackie" Jencquel was a notable activist for assisted death, making international headlines for her stance on right-to-die issues and often accompanied people to Switzerland, where assisted dying is legal.
Jencquel had actually been filming his mother for many years, but the intention initially was never to make a documentary.
“I was filming casual moments, like the way you film anyone in your family just to have your own personal memory,” Jencquel told Yahoo Canada. “It wasn't always with the idea that I would make a film.”
“She started being approached and sort of flirting with other filmmakers when I sort of realized, if someone's going to make this film about her, I want it to be me. I sort of then took it more seriously to actually not make it so casual, but actually think of it as a film. ... It became more a film about the two of us and also our relationship. ... She was very involved, it was more like we were making the film together.”
Jackie is absolutely compelling in Jackie the Wolf. She's very much an open book, no topic is too taboo for her, from death to sex. But as the film progresses, you can't help but feel attached to her spirit.
“Since I was little, there were no taboos,” Jencquel said. “I remember growing up and my mom would speak to me like an adult about very important subjects, or about things that were taboo for my friends and their parents.”
“She just believed that you should be able to talk about everything and that's how we grew up, me and my brothers. When we were teenagers my friends loved ... talking to my mom. They could talk about everything with her."
Jackie died in March 2022. While her son didn't capture her final moments, Jackie the Wolf concludes with images of her empty apartment in France. It’s a moving, visual indication of the end her life.
“The night before when she did it, she had ordered a bottle of vodka and foie gras,” Jencquel revealed. “When they found her there was an envelope with a note, and there was the invoice for the vodka and foie gras, and 50 euros for me or someone to go and pay it.”
“So what I did is, I had all her friends over in her place. … We played her music and I gave everyone vodka and foie gras who came in, so it was sort of a way to remember her in a more cheerful way.”
Jackie the Wolf 'I was hoping my mom would not die'
While Jackie's conversations in the film largely point to the activist certainly moving towards assisted death, her son still hoped that he wouldn't have to think about how to include her death in the documentary.
“I was hoping I would not have not do it, because I was hoping my mom would not die,” Jencquel said. “Actually, when I started editing, it looked more like the film was going to have a different ending.”
“On a cognitive level I was like, she's probably going to do it sometime and this is going to be real. She's serious about it. On an emotional level, I was sort of more like, this is my mom, she's never going to die. … She's my mom. She's going to be there.”
Still to this day, the filmmaker questions his decision to chronicle this particular journey his mother was on.
“I think, in a way, what helped me … was the fact that my mom wanted to be a part of this,” Jencquel said. “She was very active with the filmmaking and if I hadn't done it, someone else would have done it."
"So in a way, that's what makes me feel OK. Also, because we had this very open relationship where there were no taboos, I feel like, OK this … justifies that I can share this with other people.”
For anyone who does watch Jackie the Wolf, Jencquel hopes that people "feel like it's OK to speak about uncomfortable issues with people you love."
“I've seen a lot of people that approached my mom and who wanted to go, … who didn't have anyone in their family they could speak to about it,” he said. “These people, they would still go, but it would be very lonely for them."
"So I do hope that this is something people take away. Not so much whether people think it’s OK, it’s right or it’s wrong. People will look at it through their own moral lens and judge it either way, and the film isn’t meant to to make people change their opinion on assisted suicide. It was more like, it’s OK to speak about it.”
'Coven' documentary: An exploration of witchcraft and women finding their power
"I want to give voices to people who normally don't have voices. That's kind of my mission to myself," filmmaker Rama Rau said
Elisabetta Bianchini Sun, May 7, 2023 While witchcraft has been scrutinized and criticized for centuries, Rama Rau's documentary Coven (part of Toronto's Hot Docs festival) explores the lives of three women who identify as witches, evolving in their spirit and feeling more empowered. “I grew up in India and for us, in India, the supernatural has never been something different, it was always part of our everyday lives,” Rau told Yahoo Canada. “In fact, even when we were young girls, we were always told that there's a strong female spirit protecting us, or we would go to temples and there would be shamanistic rituals that we would observe.”
“So I was thinking of what kind of film I would like to make next and it was really about, what do young women feel these days? I know that with the patriarchy and monotheistic religions, we're all looking for, I think, the power we lost in some way as women. I thought, wouldn't it be interesting to see if there are modern-day witches and see how I could follow them.”
Coven documentary from director Rama Rau
Laura Hokstad refers to herself as a "baby witch" and a solitary witch in the film, meaning she had been doing her practice by herself, but in this film we see her explore the coven experience. The documentary also follows her to Scotland, as Hokstad discovers that two of her ancestors were accused of witchcraft.
Ayo Leilani, known as Witch Prophet, is a Canadian singer who staring exploring the occult as a teen. In Coven, she tells a story about how she was accused her of being an Obeah woman, meaning "a Caribbean sorceress." The film follows Leilani to New Orleans, where she seeks advice and mentorship, and learns about the history of the Black Witches movement.
Coven also follows Andra Maria Zlatescu to Romania, the country she left with her parents when she was just a child. Zlatescu expands her knowledge of the witches of Romania and explores a famously haunted forest to reconnect and empower herself.
Rau explained that most people included in the documentary were "very open" to being filmed, but there were some restrictions with the covens.
“Sometimes the actual covens would say, ‘No you can't film this. No, this is a very secret ritual,'" Rau said.
“That's OK because this film has never been about hidden camera. I don't make films like that. I always like to respect people who might film and they have to understand, as much as I do, what the story is about, what the filming is about.”
The director revealed that in Romania, there was a different situation where Rau refused to film a particular moment.
“There was animal cruelty, I absolutely put my foot down," Rau said. "I said, ‘No, you will not sacrifice any animal for my film.’"
"I was very certain about that and they were a little taken aback because I don't think anyone's told them that."
Coven documentary from director Rama Rau 'I really honestly think that magic exists, we just have to look for it'
When it comes to Rau's approach to Coven, the film never really strives to convince the audience that witchcraft should be believed without question. It's more about the personal exploration of empowerment for these women and how our society has an extensive history of not wanting women to have power, even wanting to take that away.
“For me, every documentary I make is like a PhD because of the amount of research you put in,” Rau said. “It teaches me about storytelling. It teaches me about human beings. It teaches me about psychology, so many things.”
“I think documentaries are such a tough but satisfying genre to work in because you absolutely must be prepared. You absolutely must know where you want your story to go. … I want to give voices to people who normally don't have voices. That's kind of my mission to myself.”
When it comes to what Rau wants people to take away from this documentary, the filmmaker is hoping people "don't continue to think in terms of binaries."
“I think Christianity, to a lot, has helped in that. Good, evil. Black, white. Male, female," Rau said. "I don't think the world is so set in its ways at all.”
“I think there's a spectrum for everything and I think this film especially hopes to explore some of those spectrums of reality and supernatural and magic. I really honestly think that magic exists, we just have to look for it. We can find magic in anything we do. ... It's all part of who we are and part of the rhythm of the universe. If I can open people's minds just a little bit, … that would make me very happy.”
Back in 2021, Kjartansson was given the opportunity to open a massive retrospective at the GES-2 House of Culture in Moscow, a renovated power plant owned by a Russian oligarch.
The retrospective included recreations of episodes of the U.S. soap opera Santa Barbara, which had been a massive hit in Russia.
“We've known of each other for a long time and we have a group of friends that are the same group of friends,” filmmaker Úlfarsson told Yahoo Canada about creating a documentary around Kjartansson's work. “A very good friend of mine … told me about what Ragnar was going to do in Moscow.”
“I didn't really understand the scope of what he was going to be doing and later, maybe a week later, I spoke to him on the phone. ... Then he started talking to me about [Santa Barbara], and what he was going to be doing in Russia. Even then, after a long conversation on the phone, I didn't really understand, he just told me that he was going to recreate 99 episodes of Santa Barbara.”
While it ended up being the basis of his film, Úlfarsson had an interesting initial response to this retrospective.
“My first reaction was, this is completely ridiculous,” Úlfarsson said. “But this is also completely brilliant.”
“I didn't understand the politics about it firsthand. … He kind of gave me many of the layers and … I asked him if we could come and do a documentary on this. He was very willing to let us do it.”
Soviet Barbara, the Story of Ragnar Kjartansson in Moscow
Soviet Barbara, the Story of Ragnar Kjartansson in Moscow shows individuals, and Kjartansson himself, questioning the ethics around showing this work in a Russian museum. Even equating the move to people going to consume art in museums funded by the Sackler family.
“My parents were also socialists so I completely identify with being passionate about Russia,” Úlfarsson said. “As a young man reading a lot of Russian literature, I always wanted to go and going there, I was completely amazed by how amazing Moscow is, and the people there are also beautiful people.”
“He really wanted to go there. This was a part of him as an artist. … The music and the literature from Russia is, I think there's no country that compares. So that's part of it I really understand.”
But Úlfarsson identifies that the "heartbreaking" thing is how beautiful the city was, but had so much political turmoil.
“When I started with this, I had a hunch that because of where he was going, things could happen,” Úlfarsson said. “After the invasion, obviously just completely took a U-turn, in a sense.”
Kjartansson quickly had to face the reality that Putin's power will impact his art, including a visit from Putin himself. When Putin invaded Ukraine, that's when the reality sets in that Kjartansson art can't exist in what he calls a "full-blown fascist state."
For Úlfarsson, he hopes that Soviet Barbara, the Story of Ragnar Kjartansson in Moscow, provides an opportunity for people to think more about the threat of censorship.
“I was reading in the Canadian newspapers yesterday about this Canadian poet, [Rupi Kaur who wrote 'Milk and Honey,'’]” Úlfarsson recalled. “She's been banned [in the] United States. There are so many levels of censorship.”
Playing shadow puppets with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope
IMAGE: THIS ARTIST'S CONCEPT IS BASED ON HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGES OF GAS-AND-DUST DISKS AROUND THE YOUNG STAR TW HYDRAE. HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE PHOTOS SHOW SHADOWS SWEEPING ACROSS THE DISKS ENCIRCLING THE SYSTEM. THE INTERPRETATION IS THESE SHADOWS ARE FROM SLIGHTLY INCLINED INNER DISKS THAT BLOCK STARLIGHT FROM REACHING THE OUTER DISK, AND THEREFORE ARE CASTING A SHADOW. THE DISKS ARE SLIGHTLY INCLINED TO EACH OTHER DUE TO THE GRAVITATIONAL PULL OF UNSEEN PLANETS WARPING THE DISK STRUCTURE.view more
CREDIT: ARTWORK: NASA, AURA/STSCI FOR ESA, LEAH HUSTAK (STSCI)
Scientists' Hubble Space Telescope observations of the young star, TW Hydrae may signal new planets under construction.
In 2017 astronomers reported discovering a shadow sweeping across the face of a vast pancake-shaped gas-and-dust disk surrounding the red dwarf star. The shadow isn't from a planet, but from an inner disk slightly inclined relative to the much larger outer disk – causing it to cast a shadow. One explanation is that an unseen planet's gravity is pulling dust and gas into the planet's inclined orbit.
Now, a second shadow – playing a game of peek-a-boo – has emerged in just a few years between observations stored in the Hubble's MAST archive. This could be from yet another disk nestled inside the system. The two disks are likely evidence of a pair of planets under construction.
George Mason University Physics and Astronomy Professor, Peter Plavchan, collaborated with the team making the observations. He studied ways a forming planet in the disk could potentially play a role in the formation of the disk structures and the shadows they case.
TW Hydrae is less than 10 million years old and resides about 200 light-years away. In its infancy, our solar system may have resembled the TW Hydrae system, some 4.6 billion years ago. Because the TW Hydrae system is tilted nearly face-on to our view from Earth, it is an optimum target for getting a bull's-eye-view of a planetary construction yard.
The second shadow was discovered in observations obtained June 6, 2021, as part of a multi-year program designed to track the shadows in circumstellar disks. John Debes of AURA/STScI for the European Space Agency at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, compared the TW Hydrae disk to Hubble observations made several years ago.
"We found out that the shadow had done something completely different," said Debes, who is principal investigator and lead author of the study published in The Astrophysical Journal. "When I first looked at the data, I thought something had gone wrong with the observation because it wasn't what I was expecting. I was flummoxed at first, and all my collaborators were like: what is going on? We really had to scratch our heads and it took us a while to actually figure out an explanation." Debes shared.
“We haven't found any direct evidence for a planet at this time, but can rule out planets more massive than Jupiter from precisely monitoring the position of the star as a function of time,” said Plavchan, who also serves as Director of the Mason Observatory.
The best solution the team identified is that there are two misaligned disks casting shadows. They were so close to each other in the earlier observation, they were missed. Over time, they've now separated and split into two shadows. "We've never really seen this before on a protoplanetary disk. It makes the system much more complex than we originally thought," Debes said.
The simplest explanation is that the misaligned disks are likely caused by the gravitational pull of two planets in slightly different orbital planes. Hubble is piecing together a holistic view of the architecture of the system.
The disks may be proxies for planets that are lapping each other as they whirl around the star. It's sort of like spinning two vinyl phonograph records at slightly different speeds. Sometimes labels will match up but then one gets ahead of the other.
"It does suggest that the two planets have to be fairly close to each other. If one was moving much faster than the other, this would have been noticed in earlier observations. It's like two race cars that are close to each other, but one slowly overtakes and laps the other," said Debes.
The suspected planets are located in a region roughly the distance of Jupiter from our Sun. And, the shadows complete one rotation around the star about every 15 years – the orbital period that would be expected at that distance from the star.
Also, these two inner disks are inclined about five to seven degrees relative to the plane of the outer disk. This is comparable to the range of orbital inclinations inside our solar system. "This is right in line with typical solar system style architecture," said Debes.
The outer disk that the shadows are falling on may extend as far as several times the radius of our solar system's Kuiper belt. This larger disk has a curious gap at twice Pluto's average distance from the Sun. This might be evidence for a third planet in the system.
Any inner planets would be difficult to detect because their light would be lost in the glare of the star. Also, dust in the system would dim their reflected light. ESA's Gaia space observatory may be able to measure a wobble in the star if Jupiter-mass planets are tugging on it, but this would take years given the long orbital periods.
The TW Hydrae data are from Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. The James Webb Space Telescope's infrared vision may also be able to show the shadows in more detail.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C.
IMAGE: THE DETECTOR SYSTEM OF NUCLEAR MASS SPECTROMETER BASED ON THE COOLER STORAGE RING (CSR) IN LANZHOU.view more
CREDIT: IMAGE BY IMP
Researchers at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and their collaborators recently measured the masses of several key nuclei with high-precision by employing a state-of-the-art storage-ring mass spectrometry technique. Using the new mass data, they investigated X-ray bursts on the surface of a neutron star, thus deepening the understanding of neutron star properties. The study was published in Nature Physics.
Neutron stars are considered to be the densest objects besides black holes. Type-I X-ray bursts, among the brightest stellar objects frequently observed in the sky by space-based telescopes, are violent thermonuclear explosions occurring on the surface of neutron stars.
Due to the strong gravity of the neutron star, hydrogen- and helium-rich matter from a companion star accretes on the surface of a neutron star for hours or days before igniting thermonuclear burning. The explosion lasts for 10 to 100 seconds, causing a bright X-ray burst. These frequent X-ray bursts offer an opportunity to study the properties of neutron stars.
The bursts are powered by a nuclear reaction sequence, known as the rapid proton capture nucleosynthesis process (rp-process), which involves hundreds of exotic neutron-deficient nuclides. Among them, the waiting-point nuclides, including germanium-64, play a decisive role.
“Germanium-64, like a crossroad on the path of nuclear reaction processes, is an important congested section encountered when the nuclear reaction proceeds to the medium mass region. The masses of the relevant nuclei are decisive in setting the reaction path and thereby the X-ray flux produced,” explained ZHOU Xu, first author of the paper and a Ph.D. student at IMP.
Therefore, precision mass measurements of the nuclei around germanium-64 are essential for understanding X-ray bursts and the properties of neutron stars. However, due to extremely low production yield, it has been very challenging to measure the masses of these short-lived nuclei. As a result, few breakthroughs have been seen for many years worldwide.
After more than ten years of effort, the researchers from the Storage Ring Nuclear Physics Group at IMP have developed a new ultrasensitive mass spectrometry technique at the Cooler Storage Ring (CSR) of the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL). This technique, named as Bρ-defined Isochronous Mass Spectrometry (Bρ-IMS), is fast and efficient, thus particularly suitable for measuring short-lived nuclei with extremely low production yields.
"Our experiment is capable of precisely determining the mass of a single nuclide within a millisecond after its production, and it is essentially background free in the measured spectrum,” said Prof. WANG Meng from IMP.
The researchers precisely measured the masses of arsenic-64, arsenic-65, selenium-66, selenium-67 and germanium-63. The masses of arsenic-64 and selenium-66 were experimentally measured for the first time, and the mass precision was significantly improved for the others. With the newly measured masses, all nuclear reaction energies related to the waiting point nucleus germanium-64 have been experimentally determined for the first time or the precision of these measurements has been greatly improved compared to old values.
The researchers then used the new masses as inputs for X-ray burst model calculations. They found that the new data led to changes in the rp-process path. As a result, the X-ray burst light curve from the surface of the neutron star shows an increased peak luminosity and a prolonged tail duration.
By comparing model calculations with the observed X-ray bursts of GS 1826-24, the researchers found that the distance from Earth to the burster should be increased by 6.5%, and the neutron star surface gravitational redshift coefficient needs to be reduced by 4.8% to match astronomical observations. These results indicate that the density of the neutron star is lower than expected. In addition, the product abundances from the rp-process reveal that the temperature of the outer shell of the neutron star should be higher than generally believed after the X-ray burst.
"Through precise nuclear mass measurement, we obtained a more accurate X-ray burst light curve on the surface of the neutron star. By comparing it with astronomical observations, we set constraints on the relationship between the mass and radius of the neutron star from a new perspective,” said Prof. ZHANG Yuhu from IMP.
This work was conducted in collaboration with researchers from GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Ohio University, Advanced Energy Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Beijing University, Lanzhou University, Beijing Normal University and East China University of Technology.
JOURNAL
Nature Physics
The evolution of honey bee brains
Specialized neurons in some insect brains, related to highly evolved behaviors, may have developed from a multifunctional ancestor
IMAGE: THE RESEARCHERS STUDIED HONEY BEES EXHIBITING DIFFERENT BEHAVIORS: FORAGERS, NURSE BEES, AND QUEENS. HONEY BEES IN GENERAL HAVE BEEN A KEY INSECT MODEL FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING LEARNING AND MEMORY FOR MORE THAN 100 YEARS.view more
CREDIT: 2023 HIROKI KOHNO
Researchers have proposed a new model for the evolution of higher brain functions and behaviors in the Hymenoptera order of insects. The team compared the Kenyon cells, a type of neuronal cell, in the mushroom bodies (a part of the insect brain involved in learning, memory and sensory integration) of “primitive” sawflies and sophisticated honey bees. They found that three diverse, specialized Kenyon cell subtypes in honey bee brains appear to have evolved from a single, multifunctional Kenyon cell-subtype ancestor. In the future, this research could help us better understand the evolution of some of our own higher brain functions and behaviors.
Are you “busy as a bee,” a “social butterfly” or a “fly on the wall”? There are many ways we compare our behavior to that of insects, and as it turns out there may be more to it than just fun idioms. Studying insects could help us understand not only how their behavior has evolved, but also the behavior of highly evolved animals, including ourselves. Mammalian brains are big and complex, so it is difficult to identify which behaviors and neural and genetic changes have co-developed over time. By comparison, insect brains are much smaller and simpler, making them useful models for study.
“In 2017, we reported that the complexity of Kenyon cell (KC) subtypes in mushroom bodies in insect brains increases with the behavioral diversification in Hymenoptera (a large and varied order of insects)” explained Professor Takeo Kubo from the Graduate School of Science at the University of Tokyo and co-author of the current study. “In other words, the more KC subtypes an insect has, the more complex its brain and the behaviors it may exhibit. But we didn’t know how these different subtypes evolved. That was the stimulus for this new study.”
The team from the University of Tokyo and Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) chose two Hymenoptera species as representatives for different behaviors: the solitary turnip sawfly (which has a single KC subtype) and the sophisticated, social honey bee (which has three KC subtypes). As the sawfly has a more “primitive” brain, it is thought to contain some ancestral properties of the honey bee brain. To uncover the potential evolutionary pathways between them, the researchers used transcriptome analysis to identify the gene expression profiles (the genetic activity) of the various KC subtypes and speculate their functions.
“I was surprised that each of the three KC subtypes in the honey bee showed comparable similarity to the single KC type in the sawfly,” said Assistant Professor Hiroki Kohno, co-author from the Graduate School of Science. “Based on our initial comparative analysis of several genes, we had previously supposed that additional KC subtypes had been added one by one. However, they appear to have been separated from a multifunctional ancestral type, through functional segregation and specialization.” As the number of KC subtypes increased, each subtype almost equally inherited some distinct properties from an ancestral KC. These then modified in different ways, resulting in their varied present-day functions.
The researchers wanted a specific behavioral example of how ancestral KC functions are present in both the sawfly and the honey bee. So, they trained sawflies to engage in a common honey bee behavior test, where they learn to associate an odor stimulus with a reward. Although challenging at first, the team was eventually able to engage the sawflies in the memory task. The researchers then manipulated a gene called CaMKII in sawfly larvae, which in honey bees is associated with forming long-term memory, a KC function. When the larvae became adults, their long-term memory was impaired, indicating that the gene plays a similar role in both sawflies and honey bees. Although CaMKII was expressed (i.e., was active) across the entire single KC subtype in sawflies, in honey bees, it was preferentially expressed in only one KC subtype. This suggests that the role of CaMKII in long-term memory was passed down to the specific KC subtype in the honey bee.
Despite differences in the size and complexity of insect and mammalian brains, there are commonalities in terms of function and the basic architecture of the nervous system. That is why the model proposed in this study for the evolution and diversification of KC subtypes may help towards better understanding the evolution of our own behavior. Next, the team is interested in studying KC types acquired in parallel with social behaviors, such as the honey bee’s “waggle dance.”
“We would like to clarify whether the model presented here is applicable to the evolution of other behaviors,” said Takayoshi Kuwabara, doctoral student and lead author from the Graduate School of Science. “There are many mysteries about the neural basis that controls social behavior, whether in insects, animals or humans. How it has evolved still remains largely unknown. I believe that this study is a pioneering work in this field.”
This image illustrates how the diverse and complex Kenyon cell (KC) subtypes of the honey bee evolved from the ancestorlike single KC subtype, represented by the turnip sawfly.
Takayoshi Kuwabara, Hiroki Kohno, Masatsugu Hatakeyama, Takeo Kubo. Evolutionary dynamics of mushroom body Kenyon cell types in hymenopteran brains from multi-functional type to functionally specialized types. Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.add4201
Funding:
This research was supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) 20H03300 (TKubo) and Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows 21J20847 (TKuwabara).
About the University of Tokyo The University of Tokyo is Japan's leading university and one of the world's top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world's top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 4,000 international students. Find out more at www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on Twitter at @UTokyo_News_en.
IMAGE: CRUSTACEANS HARDEN THEIR SHELLS WITH CALCIUM, WHILE INSECTS HARDEN THEM WITH OXYGEN. THESE MATCH WHAT IS ABUNDANT IN THEIR RESPECTIVE HABITATS.view more
CREDIT: TOKYO METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
Tokyo, Japan – Scientists from Tokyo Metropolitan University have proposed a hypothesis for why insects are so rare in marine environments. They previously showed that insects evolved a unique chemical mechanism to harden their shells which uses molecular oxygen and an enzyme called multicopper oxidase-2 (MCO2). Now, they argue that this gives them a disadvantage in the sea, while it confers advantages that help them on land, placing MCO2 at the heart of insect eco-evolution.
Insects are some of the most successful organisms on the planet. They are said to make up the most biomass of all terrestrial animals and have a significant impact on the global ecosystem. However, their abundance is matched by their startling rarity in the sea. Very few insects call the sea home, even though their biological ancestors came from there. It is a pervading mystery of science, one which scientists have been trying to answer for many years.
Now, researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University led by Assistant Professor Tsunaki Asano have proposed a solution based on evolutionary genetics. The latest in molecular phylogenetics has taught us that both crustaceans and insects are part of the same family, Pancrustacea, and that insects were a branch that left the sea and adapted to the land. They share an important feature, an exoskeleton consisting of a wax layer and hard cuticle. In previous work, the same team showed that when insects adapted to terrestrial environments, they evolved a unique gene that creates an enzyme called multicopper oxidase-2 (MCO2) that helps them harden their cuticles using oxygen. MCO2 mediates a reaction where molecular oxygen oxidizes compounds called catecholamines in the cuticle, turning them into agents that bind and harden the surface. This is in contrast to crustaceans who harden their cuticles using calcium from sea water instead. The team’s claim is that this makes the land far more suitable for insects due to the abundance of oxygen. The sea is now a harsh environment due to both the lack of oxygen and the abundance of better adapted organisms.
But it is not just that the sea is not as hospitable for insects anymore. The hardening and drying of the cuticle via the MCO2 pathway lead to a biomaterial which is not only protective, but also lightweight. They postulate that this may be why insects gained the ability to climb plants, glide, and eventually fly. This allowed them to migrate and occupy previously empty niches in the ecosystem, a strong driving force that led to their sheer numbers. Again, this is in contrast to crustaceans, whose shells are significantly denser, with a strong correlation between density and the degree of calcification.
Of course, insects are hardly the only arthropods to adapt to the land, so it’s clear that MCO2 is not strictly necessary for success in “terrestrial niches.” However, the nature of insect cuticles speaks volumes about their success in the terrestrial environment. In fact, the team believe that MCO2 might be a defining feature of insects: “no MCO2, no insects.” Their work promises an entirely new highlight on the role that cuticle hardening might play in insect evolution and terrestrialization.
IMAGE: A LITHIUM-AIR BATTERY CELL IN FRONT OF A TEST BENCH.view more
CREDIT: FRAUNHOFER IFAM
Lithium-air batteries, also known as lithium-oxygen batteries, are candidates for the next generation of high-energy electricity storage devices. Their theoretical energy storage capacity is ten times that of conventional lithium-ion batteries of the same weight, but they are not yet chemically stable enough to provide a reliable solution. Now a newly launched collaborative research project in which a team from the University of Oldenburg, Germany, led by chemist Professor Dr. Gunther Wittstock is participating is testing a new concept to extend the life of these battery cells.
The project, entitled "Alternative materials and components for aprotic lithium-oxygen batteries: chemistry and stability of inactive components – AMaLiS 2.0", is led by IOLITEC Ionic Liquids Technologies, a company based in Heilbronn, Germany. The MEET (Münster Electrochemical Energy Technology) Battery Research Center at the University of Münster and the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM in Bremen are also taking part. The project will receive around 1.1 million euros in funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research over a three-year period.
Lithium-air batteries basically work in the same way as conventional battery types, but in this type of battery the reaction of lithium ions with oxygen from the air at the positive electrode is used to generate electricity. The big advantage is that lithium-air batteries can store almost as much energy per kilogram as fossil fuels. This means that they have a similar specific energy to today's batteries but weigh much less, which makes them attractive for use in electric cars as well as in stationary energy storage. "However, before we get that far there are still a number of technical problems to be solved," Wittstock underlines. One of these challenges is the lack of electrolyte that are chemically stable at both the positive and the negative electrode. These conductive fluids or solids are located in the area between the two electrodes.
Oxygen from the air is reduced in lithium-air batteries
In lithium-air batteries, one of the electrodes is made of metallic lithium while the other – called the gas diffusion electrode – consists of a porous porous network and conducting material where oxygen (O2) from the air is reduced in an oxidation-reduction reaction. When the battery is discharging, positively charged lithium ions move across the electrolyte from one electrode to the gas diffusion electrode, where they combine with oxygen and electrons from an external electrical circuit to form lithium oxide. This generates an electric current which can be used to provide energy for electrical devices. During charging, lithium and oxygen separate once more and the ions and electrons travel in the opposite direction.
To increase the stability of the lithium-air battery, the project team aims to design a membrane that separates the positive electrode from the negative electrode, thus allowing different electrolytes to be used on either side. "This would significantly expand the options for electrolytes," says IOLITEC's project coordinator Dr Thomas Schubert. The scientists plan to test a separator with a special coating on each side that protects both the lithium electrode and the gas diffusion electrode.
The Oldenburg team led by Wittstock is using various methods, including surface spectroscopy and scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), to investigate the processes on the surfaces of the separator and electrodes. IOLITEC is developing the separating layer together with a team from MEET Battery Research Center at the University of Münster which is headed by Verena Küpers. "We are testing different coatings that are specifically adapted to the challenges posed by each type of electrode," Küpers explains.
The MEET team also carries out test measurements. At the Fraunhofer IFAM, a team led by Dr Daniela Fenske is developing a new type of gas diffusion electrode made of nanostructured titanium carbide. "It will be combined with a special membrane that prevents parasitic air components such as carbon dioxide or water vapour from entering the cell," Fenske explains. The researchers' end goal is to develop a prototype that proves that a stable, rechargeable system is achievable. For this, the construction of a flat cell with a surface area of 25 square centimetres is planned.
