Huge tipping events dominated the evolution of the climate system

For the last 66 million years, the climate system was dominated by two significant climate events, dividing the period into two distinct climate eras

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: TWO MAJOR CLIMATE EVENTS DOMINATED THE LAST 66 MILLION YEARS OF CLIMATE CHANGE. view more 

CREDIT: TIPES/HP

 

An analysis of the hierarchy of tipping points suggests that during the last 66 million years two events set the scene for further climate tipping and for the evolution of the climate system in particular. If the anthropogenic climate change of today leads to complete deglaciation, the evolution of Earth's climate will be influenced on a geological time scale, the authors suggest. The work by Denis-Didier Rousseau, Université Montpellier, France, Witold Bagniewski, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France, and Valerio Lucarini, University of Reading, UK is published in Scientific Reports and is part of the European TiPES project on tipping points in the Earth System.

 

Inspired by a theory of evolution

 

The new insight into the history of climate change was inspired by the theory of punctuated equilibrium which ranks evolutionary changes into hierarchies.

 

The idea was introduced in the 70'ies by Eldredge and Gould as an alternative to classic evolution theory. Punctuated equilibrium proposes that some evolutionary changes determine the evolution of a species more than others. And it explains why species have a tendency to adapt in short evolutionary spurts, rather than gradually over time.

 

Rousseau et al. speculated that a similar approach of ranking the importance of historical climate changes through tipping events might prove equally beneficial. For that, they applied advanced statistical methods to two series of climate data with clear signs of critical transitions.

 

The results indeed suggest that the idea of hierarchies in the evolution of the climate system can lead to new insights. The analysis reveals that two major events out of the ten dominated the evolution of the Earth's climate system over the last 66 million years.

 

A hierarchy of climate tipping events

 

The first event was the Chicxulub meteor impact in Mexico which killed off the large dinosaurs approximately 65,5 million years ago. This catastrophe marked the beginning of a very warm period with high levels of CO2. For the following 30 million years this regime dictated which climatic changes were possible and kept it within the regime of hot and warm climates.

 

The second crucial event was the tipping point associated with the glaciation of the Southern hemisphere 34 million years ago when the Antarctic continent was isolated at the South Pole due to plate tectonics. The forming of the large ice sheet led to the glaciation of the North as well and marked the beginning of a considerably colder type of climate on Earth, again dictating the scope of future climate changes.

 

The analysis additionally suggests that our current global climate system still belongs to the latter climate regime and still depends on the existence of the gigantic ice bodies built within the Coolhouse/Icehouse era.

 

Serious repercussions

 

In the event that the ice sheets should not withstand anthropogenic global warming, the deglaciation will therefore represent a landmark tipping point similar to the two that have dominated Earth's history leading to a new unknown climate landscape.

 

”The ice sheets are key components in the present climate system. But they are very sensitive. They presently experience a negative mass balance, and there are numerous reports of evidence of melting under the impact of the current climate warming, translating a trend towards a potential tipping point that could accelerate the disappearance at least of Greenland and West Antarctica, with serious repercussions for our societies” says Denis-Didier Rousseau.

 

“Crossing tipping points has been a recurrent feature in climate evolution. Our study reveals a better understanding now of the mathematics of such events. As a consequence, strategies of adaptation to and mitigation of climate change should now take into account the possible destabilization of tipping elements,” adds Valerio Lucarini.

 

The TiPES project is an EU Horizon 2020 interdisciplinary climate science project on tipping points in the Earth system. 18 partner institutions work together in more than 10 countries. TiPES is coordinated and led by The Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany. The TiPES project has received funding from the European Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, grant agreement number 820970.

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DOI

10.1038/s41598-023-38454-6 

ARTICLE TITLE

A punctuated equilibrium analysis of the climate evolution of cenozoic exhibits a hierarchy of abrupt transitions

New research reveals secondary microplastics untreated in nature trigger severe brain inflammation!

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DGIST (DAEGU GYEONGBUK INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY)

Director Choi Sungkyun, Head of the Core Protein Resource Center at DGIST (President Kuk Young), and Dr. Jinkyu Park, Professor of Veterinary Medicine at Kyungpook National University (President Hong Wonhwa), have successfully demonstrated the laboratory-level process through which plastic entering the environment transforms into secondary microplastics. Their groundbreaking research reveals that continuous consumption of these secondary microplastics acts as neurotoxins in the brain. 

 

□ With 8 million tons of plastic discarded each year, the impact of UV rays and waves causes it to break down into tiny fragments, transforming into secondary microplastics. These minuscule particles are subsequently ingested by lower life forms, like plankton, and ultimately pose a threat to humans at the top of the food chain.

 

□ Director Choi and Professor Park conducted a study to determine the harmfulness of secondary microplastics generated through the natural weathering of plastic leaked into the environment. To replicate the process of natural weathering, they artificially created secondary microplastics by subjecting crushed microplastics to seven days of ultraviolet irradiation and physical impact, simulating a natural environment. This laboratory-based generation model closely mimics the chemical and physical changes that take place when plastics are exposed to environmental factors like UV light and waves during leakage into the environment.

 

□ To assess the detrimental impacts of secondary microplastics, the research team conducted an experiment involving rats, where they orally administered microplastics measuring 100 micrometers or less for a duration of seven days. The findings revealed a significant increase in the expression of inflammatory proteins associated with neurodegeneration and cell death, alongside a decrease in the expression of pro-inflammatory proteins in the external brain tissue of the rats exposed to secondary microplastics.

 

□ The research team also conducted experiments utilizing a human microglial cell line (HMC-3) to investigate the impact of naturally weathered secondary microplastics on microglia, which play a vital role in regulating inflammatory responses in the brain. The results demonstrated that secondary microplastics triggered inflammatory responses in the brain by stimulating microglia, the regulators of inflammatory processes in this vital organ. This discovery strongly suggests that secondary microplastics have the potential to act as neurotoxic substances in the brain.

 

□ Director Choi emphasized the significance of their findings, stating, “Through proteomics-based analysis, we have, for the first time, identified that plastic leaked into the environment undergoes an accelerated weathering process, transforming into secondary microplastics that can serve as neurotoxic substances, leading to increased inflammation and cell death in the brain. The implications of microplastics’ harmfulness are particularly alarming, as secondary microplastics exposed in natural environments induce a more severe inflammatory response in the brain.”

 

□ The study received funding from the DGIST Convergence Research Center's distinctive project and was carried out with Researcher Hee-yeon Kim from DGIST’s Core Protein Resources Center as the first author, and Dr. Choi and Dr. Professor Park as corresponding authors. The research findings were published online in Environmental Research, a prestigious journal in the field of the environment, and were also listed in the Biological Research Information Center (BRIC)’s Hanbitsa (People Who Shine Korea).

 

Correspondence Author Email Address : cskbest@dgist.ac.kr

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JOURNAL

Environmental Research

DOI

10.1016/j.envres.2023.116411 

ARTICLE TITLE

A preliminary study about the potential risks of the UV-weathered microplastic: The proteome-level changes in the brain in response to polystyrene derived weathered microplastics

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Sep-2023

Physicists at the University of Jyväskylä demonstrate how sound can be transmitted through vacuum

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ - JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO

 

IMAGE: SOUND WAVES TUNNELING ACROSS A VACUUM GAP. view more 

CREDIT: ZHUORAN GENG AND ILARI MAASILTA

A classic movie was once promoted with the punchline: ”In space, no one can hear you scream”. Physicists Zhuoran Geng and Ilari Maasilta from the Nanoscience Center at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, have demonstrated, on the contrary, that in certain situations sound can be transmitted strongly across a vacuum region!

In a recent publication they show that in some cases a sound wave can jump or “tunnel” fully across a vacuum gap between two solids if the materials in question are piezoelectric. In such materials, vibrations (sound waves) produce an electrical response, as well, and since an electric field can exist in vacuum, it can transmit the sound waves across. The requirement is that the size of the gap is smaller than the wavelength of the sound wave. This effect works not only in audio range of frequencies (Hz-kHz), but also in ultrasound (MHz) and hypersound (GHz) frequencies, as long as the vacuum gap is made smaller as the frequencies increase.  

- In most cases the effect is small, but we also found situations, where the full energy of the wave jumps across the vacuum with 100 % efficiency, without any reflections. As such, the phenomenon could find applications in microelectromechanical components (MEMS, smartphone technology) and in the control of heat, says professor Ilari Maasilta from the Nanoscience Center at the University of Jyväskylä.

The study was funded by the Academy of Finland and European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, and was published in the journal Communications Physics, on 15th July 2023.

Additional information:

• Professor Ilari Maasilta, +358 40 805 4098, maasilta@jyu.fi
• Publication: Complete tunneling of acoustic waves between piezoelectric crystals, Communications Physics, 6, Article number: 178 (2023)
• Link to the article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-023-01293-y

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JOURNAL

Communications Physics

DOI

10.1038/s42005-023-01293-y 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

News article

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Complete tunneling of acoustic waves between piezoelectric crystals

 

Playing football may increase the risk for Parkinson’s disease

New study shows risk increases with more years of play, even in high school and college players

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

(Boston)—Identification of risk factors for Parkinson’s disease (PD) is essential for early diagnosis. Dating back to the 1920s, Parkinson’s disease and parkinsonism—an umbrella term that refers to motor symptoms found in Parkinson’s disease and also other conditions—have long been described in boxers. Repetitive head impacts from tackle football can also have long-term neurological consequences like chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). But research on the association between participation in tackle football and PD is limited.

 

In the largest study to describe the association between participation in football and the odds for having a reported diagnosis of PD, researchers from the BU CTE Center used a large online data set of people concerned for having PD and found participants with a history of playing organized tackle football had a 61% increased odds of having a reported parkinsonism or PD diagnosis.

In this study, the researchers evaluated 1,875 sport participants — 729 men who played football, predominantly at the amateur level, and 1,146 men who played non-football sports who served as the control group. Participants were enrolled in Fox Insight, a longitudinal online study of people with and without PD sponsored by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

 

Notably, researchers found a link between playing football and increased odds for having a parkinsonism or PD diagnosis even after accounting for known risk factors for PD. Additionally, the data revealed that players who had longer careers and played at higher levels of competition experienced increased odds for having a reported diagnosis of parkinsonism or PD. Football players who played at the college or professional level were at 2.93 increased odds for having a PD diagnosis compared with those who just played at the youth or high school level. Age of first exposure to football was not associated with odds for having a reported parkinsonism or PD diagnosis.

“Playing tackle football could be a contributing risk factor to PD, particularly among people already at risk due to other factors (e.g., family history). However, the reasons for this relationship are not clear and we also know that not everyone who plays tackle football will develop later-life neurological conditions, meaning many other risk factors are at play,” says corresponding author Michael L. Alosco, PhD, associate professor of neurology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

The researchers also emphasized that they compared the football players to another group of athletes, a noteworthy strength of the study. Furthermore, most of the participants played tackle football only at the amateur level, which is contrast to most of the research to date that has focused on professional athletes.

“Previous research has focused on the association between American football and risk for CTE. However, similar to what has historically been seen in boxers, American football might also affect risk for other neurodegenerative conditions such as PD,” says Hannah Bruce, MSc, first author and research specialist at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine.

The researchers acknowledge several limitations to their findings and caution that the work is still preliminary. It was a convenience sample of people enriched for having PD who were mostly white, thereby limiting the generalizability of the findings. Diagnosis of PD was also self-reported by participants through online assessments and objective in-person evaluations were not conducted.

This work was in collaboration with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the sponsor of Fox Insight. The Fox Insight study was used to collect and aggregate data used in this manuscript. Grant funding was also from NINDS (U54NS115266; K23NS102399).

Note to Editors:

Several authors are staff members at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the sponsor of Fox Insight. CHA consulted for Avion, CND Life Sciences, Jazz, and Precon Health. RAS is a paid consultant to Biogen (Cambridge, MA, USA). He is a member of the Board of Directors of King-Devick Technologies, Inc. (Chicago, IL, USA), and he receives royalties for published neuropsychological tests from Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. (Lutz, FL, USA). He is a member of the Medical Science Committee for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Student-Athlete Concussion Injury Litigation. Chris Nowinski is a volunteer member of the Mackey-White Committee of the NFL Players Association and compensated advisor to Oxeia Biopharmaceuticals. Ann C. McKee is a member of the Mackey-White Committee of the NFL Players Association. MLA has received honorarium from The Michael J Fox Foundation for services unrelated to this study. He also receives royalties from Oxford University Press. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

 

 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Association Between American Football Play and Parkinson’s Disease

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Aug-2023

COI STATEMENT

Several authors are staff members at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the sponsor of Fox Insight. CHA consulted for Avion, CND Life Sciences, Jazz, and Precon Health. RAS is a paid consultant to Biogen (Cambridge, MA, USA). He is a member of the Board of Directors of King-Devick Technologies, Inc. (Chicago, IL, USA), and he receives royalties for published neuropsychological tests from Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. (Lutz, FL, USA). He is a member of the Medical Science Committee for the National Collegiate Athletic Association Student-Athlete Concussion Injury Litigation. Chris Nowinski is a volunteer member of the Mackey-White Committee of the NFL Players Association and compensated advisor to Oxeia Biopharmaceuticals. Ann C. McKee is a member of the Mackey-White Committee of the NFL Players Association. MLA has received honorarium from The Michael J Fox Foundation for services unrelated to this study. He also receives royalties from Oxford University Press. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Football participation and Parkinson disease among men

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: In this study, 729 participants with a history of playing organized football had higher odds of having a reported parkinsonism or Parkinson disease diagnosis compared with participants in other organized sports. Longer duration of play and higher level of football play were associated with higher odds of a reported diagnosis. 

Authors: Michael L. Alosco, Ph.D., of the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine in Boston, is the corresponding author. 

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.28644)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.28644?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=081123

Association of caregiver depression risk with patient outcomes in Parkinson disease

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: Patients with Parkinson disease who had caregivers at higher risk of depression were more likely to have worse quality of life and higher emergency department use than patients who had caregivers not at higher risk of depression. Additional caregiving resources and interventions to reduce caregiver depression symptoms could potentially improve patient outcomes. 

Authors: Nabila Dahodwala, M.D., M.S., of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, is the corresponding author. 

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.27485)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.27485?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=081123

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

 

Five-year trajectories of prescription opioid use

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: The results of this study of 3.4 million adults suggest that most individuals commencing treatment with prescription opioids had relatively low and time-limited exposure to opioids over a 5-year period. The small proportion of individuals with sustained or increasing use was older with more comorbidities and use of psychotropic and other analgesic drugs, likely reflecting a higher prevalence of pain and treatment needs in these individuals. 

Authors: Natasa Gisev, Ph.D., of UNSW Sydney in Sydney, Australia, is the corresponding author. 

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.28159)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.28159?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=081023

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

Alcohol consumption among adults with a cancer diagnosis

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: The findings of this study of 15,000 adults suggest that alcohol consumption and risky drinking behaviors were common among cancer survivors, even among individuals receiving treatment. Given the adverse treatment and oncologic outcomes associated with alcohol consumption, additional research and implementation studies are critical in addressing this emerging concern among cancer survivors. 

Authors: Yin Cao, Sc.D., M.P.H., of the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, is the corresponding author. 

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.28328)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

 http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.28328?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=0810          23

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication. 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

Next-day effects of heavy drinking on young adults the focus of NIH grant

PENN STATE

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Nausea, headaches and difficulty concentrating are just a few of the hangover symptoms that can besiege young adults who drink alcohol to excess. To gain a greater understanding of how heavy drinking impacts young adults, Ashley Linden-Carmichael, Penn State associate research professor of health and human development, is leading a two-year study funded by a $421,000 grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, one of the National Institutes of Health. She will examine the effects of alcohol use on young adults’ daily cognitive functioning the day after a drinking episode.

According to the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2.4 million adults ages 18-25 reported heavy alcohol use in month prior.

“Since heavy drinking can affect work or school performance, we hope our research will shed a light on who is in need of monitoring and early intervention,” said Linden-Carmichael, who is a multiple-principal investigator on the study.

The researchers will collect intensive self-reported data from 250 young adults over the course of 21 days to explore the effects of alcohol use on cognitive functioning. Participants will be asked to complete brief surveys sent four times per day via text and complete tests to gauge their memory and other cognitive functions.

Analyses will include how much the participants drank the previous day and how long the effects of alcohol use lasted throughout the three weeks of the study. The researchers will also factor in demographic data and whether the participants also used cannabis the previous day.

The research team is also concerned about possible damage to the brain and nervous system caused by drinking over the course of years.

“Depending on findings from our current study, we would like to follow young adults to understand whether the link between alcohol use and cognitive functioning persists over the years — if there is impact on the brain, do these effects accumulate?” Linden-Carmichael asked.

Jacqueline Mogle, associate professor at Clemson University, is multiple-principal investigator on the study with Linden-Carmichael. Stephen Wilson, Penn State professor of psychology, is collaborating on the study.

For more information about the study, visit the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center website.

Perceptions of safety of daily cannabis vs tobacco smoking and secondhand smoke exposure

JAMA Network Open

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: This survey study of 5,035 adults found that adults increasingly perceived daily smoking and secondhand exposure to cannabis smoke as safer than tobacco smoke from 2017 to 2021. Given that these views do not reflect the existing science on cannabis and tobacco smoke, the findings may have important implications for public health and policy as the legalization and use of cannabis increase. 

Authors: Beth Cohen, M.D., M.A.S., of the University of California, San Francisco, is the corresponding author. 

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ 

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.28691)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

 http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.28691?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=081123

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.

  

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

 

Education program tackles race-based cancer health disparities

Project aims to ‘move the needle’ on Black students’ STEM participation, engagement

Grant and Award Announcement

RICE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: CAROLYN NICHOL IS AN ASSOCIATE RESEARCH PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY, DIRECTOR OF THE RICE OFFICE OF STEM ENGAGEMENT AND EDUCATION DIRECTOR FOR THE NSF NANOENABLED WATER TREATMENT (NEWT) ENGINEERING RESEARCH CENTER. view more 

CREDIT: (PHOTO BY JEFF FITLOW/RICE UNIVERSITY)

HOUSTON – (Aug. 10, 2023) Rice University chemist Carolyn Nichol has won a competitive Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Institutes of Health to address race-based cancer health disparities by increasing underrepresented minority student populations’ engagement and participation in biosciences education.

The 5-year, $1,038,544 award will support Nichol’s Cancer Health Activism Network for Greater Equity (CHANGE) project in bringing together cutting-edge cancer research with insight on race-based healthcare disparities from the social sciences in a series of transformative high school biology lessons aligned with both state and national standards.

“Our goal is to affect students’ interest in bioscience careers and studies by working with their teachers,” Nichol said. “We're recruiting high school biology teachers to do research in university labs working on projects led by faculty at Rice and at Texas Southern University who are Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) scholars.

“On the one hand, teachers will learn about the latest innovations in cancer research while, on the other hand, they’ll get to hear from researchers in the social sciences about health disparities affecting Blacks ⎯ it’s a two-pronged approach.”

Nichol hopes that time in the lab will be a “transformative experience for teachers, who will return to classrooms feeling empowered and with a renewed sense of leadership:”

“The research internships could bring a spark to their teaching,” Nichol said. “They'll get hands-on knowledge on topics like CRISPR or epigenetics ⎯ things they may not have learned about when they were in school or that have changed significantly in recent years. They'll also learn about health disparities issues that disproportionately affect minority Black populations, and ways that we can teach science more holistically and more student-driven versus teacher-driven.”

In addition to lab work, the first three years of the program will bring together high school science teachers from Houston-area schools with relatively large Black student populations for a series of workshops where participants will work on developing and refining a portfolio of lessons meant to encourage and motivate students to pursue STEM education and career paths.

“It’s one thing to teach a kid who is already interested in biology and wants to learn about the cell cycle and DNA, for instance, and another thing altogether to try to do that for someone who thinks that’s not for them or that they can’t do that,” Nichol said. “For decades, we've been trying to bring more underrepresented minorities into STEM, but the numbers really haven't changed. Moving that needle has just been really hard.

“This approach of showing kids both the exciting parts of science while letting them know that they have a role to play in changing prevalent race-based disparities in healthcare access could really help break that stalemate.”

During the last two years of the program, participating teachers will attend a 4-day professional development workshop held both in-person and virtually where they will get to share their experience and learn about all the activities and lessons developed.

“One of the reasons it's so powerful to work with teachers is that, according to the Texas Education Agency, each high school teacher works with, on average, 130 students a year,” Nichol said. “So, if there are 187 teachers over the five years of this project, that would impact approximately 25,000 students overall. And, since biology is the only science class that’s required in the state of Texas, we hope to reach kids that might not otherwise self-select to take a science class.”

The program is designed based on a transformational leadership model that cultivates individuals’ strengths and self-worth to drive engagement.

“It’s really about teaching from a positive viewpoint,” Nichol said. “A lot of times when a student walks into a classroom, the teacher looks at their deficits and tries to correct them. Instead, this is an asset-based approach where teachers find positive things to reinforce in the students, build up their self-esteem and help them not feel alienated if they're different or have different skill sets.

“That's what this theory is about: It's this belief that every student has something of value they can bring to the classroom.”

Nichol hopes that a teaching approach based on the transformational leadership theory paired with cutting-edge developments in cancer research and studies on health disparities will engage more students in STEM careers.

“I would like to extend my gratitude to my colleagues in the Rice Office of STEM Engagement for their support,” Nichol said.

Nichol is an associate research professor of chemistry, director of the Rice Office of STEM Engagement and education director for the NSF NanoEnabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Engineering Research Center.

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This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Image downloads:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2023/08/JWF_1888.jpg
CAPTION: Carolyn Nichol is an associate research professor of chemistry, director of the Rice Office of STEM engagement and education director for the NSF NanoEnabled Water Treatment (NEWT) Engineering Research Center. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Related stories:

Black girls benefit most when STEM teachers train up:
https://news.rice.edu/news/2023/black-girls-benefit-most-when-stem-teachers-train

Links:

Office of STEM Engagement: https://research.rice.edu/rstem/
Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas: https://www.cprit.state.tx.us/

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,552 undergraduates and 3,998 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 4 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.