Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Ambitious global $1 billion per year ‘mission science’ model needed to win on sustainable development in time, warns experts

From the climate emergency and global health to the energy transition and water security, new report argues the global science and science funding efforts must be fundamentally redesigned and scaled up to meet complex needs of humanity and the planet.

Reports and Proceedings

INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE COUNCIL

July 17, 2023, NEW YORK – The current sustainability science model requires a fundamental redesign to keep up with the pace and complexity of the challenges facing the planet, argues the high-level Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability.

In a new report launched at the UN’s High-Level Political Forum, the Commission warns that prevailing science design, funding and practice fail to address complex global issues at the speed and scale required.

To rectify the issue, the Commission recommends setting up an ambitious $1 billion per year ‘mission science’ network of Regional Sustainability Hubs around the world. These Hubs would tackle context-specific and complex issues – from climate change and malnutrition to water security and clean energy – through a systematic engagement process, from problem definition to implementation, with key stakeholders in regions wherever they are needed, particularly in the Global South.

A collective investment of this size is not even one percent of the global annual R&D budget, yet it would significantly accelerate the progress towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

“Sustainability is no longer an aspiration; it has become an imperative,” said Ambassador Csaba Kőrösi, President of the UN General Assembly. “To seek integrated and sustainable solutions, policy and political decisions at the United Nations must be supported by science-based evidence.”

As described in the report Flipping the Science Model: A Roadmap to Science Missions for Sustainability, the Commission calls for a ‘mission science’ approach, meant to overcome the fragmented, compartmentalized scientific knowledge that often fails to connect with and to address society’s most immediate needs. It seeks to work in a transdisciplinary, collaborative way that is demand-driven and outcome-oriented.

Convened by the International Science Council (ISC), the Commission includes the former heads of UN agencies and government ministries as well as heads of national science academies and foundations.

“Just as the global community has used big science approaches to build infrastructure like CERN and the Square Kilometer Array, a similar mindset should be applied, particularly in the Global South, to address sustainable development challenges,” said Commission co-Chair Irina Bokova, former Director-General of UNESCO. “Unless funders accept the need to transform their funding instruments to promote transdisciplinary stakeholder-engaged research, science will continue to be under-exploited in addressing the challenges of the 2030 Agenda.”

“Actionable scientific knowledge can be generated only through frank dialogues between scientists and funders based on trust,” said Peter Gluckman, President, ISC and Salvatore Aricò, CEO, ISC. “The same applies to the interaction of scientists with policy-makers on the one hand and with local and indigenous communities on the other, as both sides are exposed to the need to find solutions to complex sustainability challenges at multiple scales.”

As a proof of concept, the Commission is calling for financial support for a series of pilots over an 18-month period to demonstrate the delivery of mission-led research through these Hubs and refine their approach further, with the ultimate goal of around 20 Hubs operating thereafter.

Real-life interventions

The Hubs would provide a framework to do science for the SGDs differently. They would allow to develop context-specific solutions to sustainability challenges, at the local and global scales – ensuring that science is fit-for-purpose, inclusive and results-driven to address the complex real-world situations it seeks to transform. In Nepal, for example, increased damming of rivers that drain from the Himalayas to India is intended to provide for the growing energy needs of multiple regions across national boundaries as well as a source of economic growth. Likewise, building roads and railways to connect with neighboring countries in the north and the south could provide not just economic benefits at national scales but also access to facilities for remote communities.

Similarly, the Zambezi River basin in southern Africa is a critical resource in providing the food, energy, water and ecosystems support of the surrounding population. All these developments would require a science-based understanding of trade-offs, unintended consequences and risks that may arise with such developments, with important implications for the short- and long-term wellbeing of economies, communities and ecosystems.

ENDS

Notes to editors

For an embargoed copy of the report, further information or interview requests, contact:

Matthew Stafford

Marchmont Communications

matthew@marchmontcomms.com

+44 (0) 7788 863 692

About the International Science Council
The International Science Council (ISC) is a non-governmental organization that convenes the scientific expertise and resources needed to lead on catalyzing, incubating and coordinating impactful international action. It is the largest organization of its kind to bring together natural and social sciences for the global public good.

About the Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability
In response to the insufficient progress made on the SDGs, the Global Commission on Science Missions for Sustainability was established in 2021 by the International Science Council and tasked with operationalizing the core conclusions and recommendations of an earlier report, Unleashing Science.

ROBOTICS

First robotic liver transplant in U.S. performed by Washington University surgeons

Groundbreaking surgery performed at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis

Business Announcement

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Khan using surgical robot — IMAGE: TRANSPLANT SURGEON ADEEL KHAN, MD, CONTROLS A SURGICAL ROBOT. A SURGICAL TEAM FROM WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE IN ST. LOUIS LED BY KHAN RECENTLY PERFORMED THE FIRST ROBOTIC LIVER TRANSPLANT IN THE U.S. IN MAY AT BARNES-JEWISH HOSPITAL. view more
CREDIT: KATIE GERTLER/WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

A surgical team from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recently performed the first robotic liver transplant in the U.S. The successful transplant, accomplished in May at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, extends to liver transplants the advantages of minimally invasive robotic surgery: a smaller incision resulting in less pain and faster recoveries, plus the precision needed to perform one of the most challenging abdominal procedures.

The patient, a man in his 60s who needed a transplant because of liver cancer and cirrhosis caused by hepatitis C virus, is doing well and has resumed normal, daily activities. Typically, liver transplant recipients require at least six weeks before they can walk without any discomfort. The patient was not only walking easily one month after surgery but also cleared to resume golfing and swimming.

“The transplant was a success: The operation went smoothly, the new liver started working right away, and the patient recovered without any surgical complications,” said transplant surgeon Adeel Khan, MD, the leader of the team that conducted the trailblazing surgery. Khan is an associate professor of surgery at the School of Medicine. “Liver transplantation is one of the most complex abdominal operations and heavily relies on a specialized team for good outcomes. Here at Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, we are very fortunate to have the support needed to develop a world-class robotic-transplant team that allows us to safely perform complex operations. This team is a big part of our success.”

A liver transplant traditionally is performed as an “open” procedure, with a surgeon making a 3- to 4-inch vertical and 12- to 16-inch horizontal incision just below the rib cage to remove a patient’s diseased liver and place the healthy donated liver. There has been a push by transplant surgeons to shift the procedure to one that is minimally invasive – with smaller incisions that typically result in less pain and faster recoveries. Yet, most transplant surgeries have been thought to be too complicated for a minimally invasive approach – whether performed laparoscopically or robotically — and liver transplants are particularly challenging. Diseased livers are prone to excessive bleeding during surgery to remove them, and attaching the new liver to the patient’s circulatory system requires delicately sewing several tiny blood vessels together.

Robotic surgeries are a kind of minimally invasive surgery. Surgeons maintain complete control of the robot’s tools and perform the operations remotely — usually just a few feet away from the patient — using joystick-like controls. High-resolution cameras provide a magnified, 3D view of the surgical site viewable via a large monitor. The high-tech instrumentation allows for very precise, fine manipulations that would be impossible using traditional techniques.

For this robotic liver transplant, the surgeons operated through several half-inch keyhole incisions and made a single 6-inch vertical incision between the abdominal muscles for removing the diseased organ and placing the new liver, which is about the size of a football, inside the abdomen. This incision is considerably smaller than the one used traditionally and does not require cutting through abdominal muscles, enabling a faster recovery.

While the patient’s physical recovery has been on schedule, he did require extra time in the hospital due to cognitive symptoms that are not unusual in older patients after major surgery.

The robotic liver transplant took just over eight hours — on the high end but within the expected time frame for traditional open liver transplants, which usually take six to eight hours. Future robotic liver transplants likely will be completed faster as the OR team gains experience and gets more used to the subtleties of the new surgical technique, Khan said.

A South Korean team reported the first robotic liver transplant in the world in 2021. That surgery involved transplanting half a liver from a living donor instead of the whole organ, and the surgery was partially robotic; the diseased liver was removed laparoscopically and the new liver implanted robotically. Khan said his team is the first to perform a robotic liver transplant in which a whole liver was transplanted.

“Liver transplantation is the most difficult of the abdominal organs to consider for a minimally invasive approach — given the difficulty of removing a failing liver and successfully implanting the new organ — but Dr. Khan has shown that this is possible,” said William Chapman, MD, the Eugene M. Bricker Professor of Surgery, director of Washington University’s Division of General Surgery and chief of the transplant surgery section. “Further experience with this technique will be needed to establish the extent of the benefits of performing liver transplant as a minimally invasive approach.”

Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital have focused heavily on robotic surgery as part of a concerted effort to advance minimally invasive surgeries and improve patient outcomes. The robotic transplant team was formed five years ago, with an initial focus on kidney transplants. To date, the team has performed more than 30 robotic kidney transplants, all with good outcomes. The team also performs living-donor kidney removal surgery, and other robotic surgeries involving the liver, bile ducts, pancreas and stomach.

“Over the span of several years, we have built a dedicated robotic transplant team that is second to none and has been instrumental to our success,” Khan said. “Once we had this team in place, it allowed us to grow in both number and complexity of the cases while maintaining very good patient outcomes. We have five surgeons on the transplant service doing robotic surgery, and this number will increase to seven by the end of the summer. Since starting our program, we have mentored over 30 transplant centers around the country in building successful robotic programs of their own. Transplant teams from other centers come to observe our process, and we also visit their sites and mentor them as they develop their skills. We are probably one of the very few places in the country that has the support, expertise and team to take robotic transplant surgery to this level.”

Robotics: New skin-like sensors fit almost everywhere

Automated production for different objects

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH (TUM)

“Detecting and sensing our environment is essential for understanding how to interact with it effectively,” says Sonja Groß. An important factor for interactions with objects is their shape. “This determines how we can perform certain tasks,” says the researcher from the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI) at TUM. In addition, physical properties of objects, such as their hardness and flexibility, influence how we can grasp and manipulate them, for example.

Artificial hand: interaction with the robotic system

The holy grail in robotics and prosthetics is a realistic emulation of the sensorimotoric skills of a person such as those in a human hand. In robotics, force and torque sensors are fully integrated into most devices. These measurement sensors provide valuable feedback on the interactions of the robotic system, such as an artificial hand, with its surroundings. However, traditional sensors have been limited in terms of customization possibilities. Nor can they be attached to arbitrary objects. In short: until now, no process existed for producing sensors for rigid objects of arbitrary shapes and sizes.

New framework for soft sensors presented for the first time

This was the starting point for the research of Sonja Groß and Diego Hidalgo, which they have now presented at the ICRA robotics conference in London. The difference: a soft, skin-like material that wraps around objects. The research group has also developed a framework that largely automates the production process for this skin. It works as follows: “We use software to build the structure for the sensory systems,” says Hidalgo. “We then send this information to a 3D printer where our soft sensors are made.” The printer injects a conductive black paste into liquid silicone. The silicone hardens, but the paste is enclosed by it and remains liquid. When the sensors are squeezed or stretched, their electrical resistance changes. “That tells us how much compression or stretching force is applied to a surface. We use this principle to gain a general understanding of interactions with objects and, specifically, to learn how to control an artificial hand interacting with these objects,” explains Hidalgo. What sets their work apart: the sensors embedded in silicon adjust to the surface in question (such as fingers or hands) but still provide precise data that can be used for the interaction with the environment.

New perspectives for robotics and especially prosthetics

“The integration of these soft, skin-like sensors in 3D objects opens up new paths for advanced haptic sensing in artificial intelligence,” says MIRMI Executive Director Prof. Sami Haddadin. The sensors provide valuable data on compressive forces and deformations in real time – thus providing immediate feedback. This expands the range of perception of an object or a robotic hand – facilitating a more sophisticated and sensitive interaction. Haddadin: “This work has the potential to bring about a general revolution in industries such as robotics, prosthetics and the human/machine interaction by making it possible to create wireless and customizable sensor technology for arbitrary objects and machines.”

Further information

Scientific video showing the entire process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i43wgx9bT-E
Sonja Groß and Diego Hidalgo are currently serving as research associates and leading authors of the paper “Soft Sensing Skin for Arbitrary Objects: An Automatic Framework” at the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), TUM. Working alongside them are senior scientists Dr.-Ing. Amartya Ganguly and Dr.-Ing. Abdeldjallil Naceri, who bring their extensive expertise to contribute to the research conducted at MIRMI. With MIRMI, TUM has created an integrative research centre for science and technology to develop innovative and sustainable solutions for key challenges of our time. Led by Prof. Sami Haddadin as Executive Director, the institution has leading expertise in key areas of robotics, perception and data science. More information: https://www.mirmi.tum.de/.

Additional editorial information:

Photos for download: http://go.tum.de/679599; http://go.tum.de/838963; http://go.tum.de/816901; http://go.tum.de/289008

DOI

10.1109/ICRA48891.2023.10161344

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Case study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Soft Sensing Skin for Arbitrary Objects: An Automatic Framework

Picky green sea turtle has travelled to the same place to eat for generations

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN

Dr Willemien de Kock looking at sea turtle bones — IMAGE: THIS IS DR WILLEMIEN DE KOCK, FIRST AUTHOR OF THE PNAS PAPER, WHO DISCOVERED THAT GENERATIONS OF GREEN SEA TURTLES HAVE RETURNED TO THE SAME PLACE TO EAT FOR APPROXIMATELY 3,000 YEARS. view more
CREDIT: LEONI VON RISTOK, UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN

For approximately 3,000 years, generations of green sea turtles have returned to the same seagrass meadows to eat. This was discovered by Willemien de Kock, a historical ecologist at the University of Groningen, by combining modern data with archaeological findings. Sea turtles migrate between specific breeding places and eating places throughout their lives–this much was known. But the fact that this stretches over many generations highlights the importance of protecting seagrass meadows along the coasts of North Africa. The results were published in PNAS on July 17.

When young green sea turtles hatch, their parents have already left for a long journey. The little turtles clumsily make their way off the beach into the ocean and, not yet able to navigate the long migration of their parents, float around for years. During this time, they are not very picky eaters, omnivores even. Then, at about five years of age, they swim to the same area where their parents went, to eat a herbivore’s diet of seagrass.

Along the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, volunteers are active to protect the nests of the endangered green sea turtles. However, as Willemien de Kock explains: ‘We currently spend a lot of effort protecting the babies but not the place where they spend most of their time: the seagrass meadows.’ And crucially, these seagrass meadows are suffering from the effects of the climate crisis.

Analysing sea turtle bones

In the attic of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology at the University of Groningen, De Kock had access to boxes full of sea turtle remains from archaeological sites in the Mediterranean Sea area. The excavations were already done by her supervisor, Dr Canan Çakırlar. ‘All I had to do was dig in some boxes,’ De Kock says. By analysing the bones, De Kock was able to distinguish two species within the collection of bones: the green sea turtle and the loggerhead turtle.

De Kock was also able to identify what the sea turtles had been eating. This relied on a substance called bone collagen. By inspecting the bone collagen with a mass spectrometer, De Kock could detect what kind of plants the sea turtles must have eaten. ‘For instance,’ De Kock explains, ‘one plant might contain more of the lighter carbon-12 than another plant, which contains more of the heavier carbon-13. Because carbon does not change when it is digested, we can detect what ratio of carbon is present in the bones and infer the diet from that.’

Combining old and new

Modern satellite tracking data from the University of Exeter then provided De Kock with information on the current travelling routes and destinations of sea turtles. Researchers from Exeter had also been taking tiny samples of sea turtles’ skins, which revealed similar dietary information as De Kock found in bones. De Kock was, therefore, able to draw conclusions, connecting diets of millennia ago to specific locations. She found that for approximately 3,000 years, generations of green sea turtles have been feeding on sea grass meadows along the coasts of Egypt and West Libya. The results for loggerhead turtles were less specific because they had a more varied diet.

So, why is it relevant to know the eating habits of a species over many past generations? Because we collectively suffer from the shifting baseline syndrome: slow changes in a larger system, such as an animal population, go unnoticed because each generation of researchers redefines what the natural state was, as they saw it at the start of their careers. ‘Even long-term data goes back only about 100 years,’ says De Kock. ‘But tracing back further in time using archaeological data allows us to better see human-induced effects on the environment. And it allows us to predict, a bit.’ In fact, recent models have shown a high risk of widespread loss of seagrass in precisely these spots where green sea turtles have been going for millennia. Which could be detrimental to the green sea turtle, precisely because of its high fidelity to these places.

Reference: Willemien de Kock, Meaghan Mackie, Max Ramsøe, Morten E. Allentoft, Annette C. Broderick, Julia C. Haywood, Brendan J. Godley, Robin T. E. Snape, Phil J. Bradshaw, Hermann Genz, Matthew von Tersch, Michael W. Dee, Per J. Palsbøll, Michelle Alexander, Alberto J. Taurozzi, Canan Çakırlar. Threatened North African seagrass meadows have supported green turtle populations for millennia. PNAS, 17 July 2023.

Collaboration: This study was carried out by Willemien de Kock, using modern data from The Centre for Ecology and Conservation of the University of Exeter and archaeological material from Canan Çakırlar of the Groningen Institute of Archaeology at the University of Groningen. Lab work was carried out at the University of Copenhagen and the University of York.

Sea turtle bones from excavations in the Mediterranean Sea area were used to determine where sea turtles have been feeding in the past.

CREDIT

Leoni von Ristok, University of Groningen

The migration routes of green sea turtles (red and white stripes) between their nesting grounds (circles) and the seagrass meadows where they eat (triangles).

CREDIT

S.E. Boersma, University of Groningen

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2220747120