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)
Saturday, August 19, 2023
Natural history museum closes because of chemicals in taxidermy collection
This 2012 photo provided by Delbridge Museum shows an exhibit at the Delbridge Museum of Natural History in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Great Plains Zoo in South Dakota said Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023, that it has pulled its taxidermy collection off display after almost 40 years over concerns about the impact of strong chemicals used to preserve the animals. Credit: Delbridge Museum of Natural History via AP
A South Dakota museum has closed after almost 40 years over concerns that the chemicals in its taxidermy collection could endanger visitors and staff, the affiliated zoo announced Thursday.
The Great Plains Zoo said Thursday that it is has closed the Delbridge Museum of Natural History in Sioux Falls. The zoo's CEO Becky Dewitz said strong chemicals were used in the taxidermy process and that tests found detectable levels of those chemicals in the museum, KELO-TV reported. It wasn't an easy decision to close the museum but it's the right one, she said.
"The specimens were harvested in the 1940s through the 1970s. Prior to the 1980s, it was common to use strong chemicals in the taxidermy process all over the world for preservation of the hides," the zoo said in a statement on its website.
The museum's collection of animals on display was one of the largest in the region. Sioux Falls businessman Henry Brockhouse assembled the collection that includes animals from six continents over several decades. Photos of the collection show an elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros, zebras and other animals.
Sioux Falls attorney C.J. Delbridge bought the collection in 1981 and donated it to the city to establish the Delbridge Musuem of Natural History in 1984.
"As the specimens continue to age, there is more potential for chemical exposure," it added. "Out of an abundance of caution," the city and zoo decided to decommission the collection. Dewitz said this process will take a long time because a number of the animals are now endangered and protected under federal law.
The zoo and city will work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to safely dispose of the taxidermy mounts, a process that is expected to take several months.
For centuries, regulations of the legal profession have made it clear there can't be an engagement in legal practice by unqualified entities. In other words, the practice of law is limited to those admitted as licensed legal practitioners in the jurisdiction.
Professor Michael Legg, an expert in legal innovation from the School of Private & Commercial Law, UNSW Law & Justice, says AI will disrupt the legal profession and raise questions about who, or what, can be a lawyer.
"Anybody, any entity, can provide legal information, including AI systems," says Prof. Legg. "But the provision of legal advice needs to be done by a lawyer because it's not just enough to get the law right, it needs to be applied to a client's circumstances and needs.
"AI doesn't have to comply with ethical responsibilities like a duty to act in the client's best interest that sets lawyers apart."
Prof. Legg says we can be quick to celebrate the potential cost-savings from automation and overlook the other costs of replacing human lawyers that may harm society.
"There are very good reasons why we have the legal profession and why we limit the practice of law to lawyers who are qualified to do so," Prof. Legg says. "Part of that is to protect the client and ensure the quality of legal services, but lawyers also play a critical role in upholding the rule of law and maintaining a just society."
The AI-enhanced lawyer
Advances in artificial intelligence will change the nature of legal work for lawyers, helping to make them more effective and efficient.
"AI can speed up legal research and help draft contracts and other legal documents," Prof. Legg says. "It can review huge numbers of documents for discovery in litigation or for due diligence in a transaction."
Prof. Legg also says a lower cost base will be needed for lawyers to remain competitive. AI can save the lawyer time and the firm money.
The rise of artificial intelligence may also make access to certain legal services more cost-effective or, at the very least, shake up the billable hour model. Lawyers may find themselves selling a product for a flat fee rather than a service.
"For dispute resolution, like small claims, particularly those where the cost of accessing legal services would be disproportionate to what is at stake, they may be able to interact with a chatbot that provides legal information at little-to-no cost."
Driving costs down may also benefit lawyers, enabling them to spend more time on higher-level work and advising and advocating for their clients.
Prof. Legg says more law firms will likely adopt proprietary AI systems tailored to their needs. However, lawyers must also learn how these systems work to be able to use them effectively and manage risks.
"From the consumer side, even though we're likely to see more low-risk self-serve style legal products become available, they will still require some level of oversight from a lawyer to manage the inherent risk of relying on an AI system when it gets it wrong," Prof. Legg says.
"From the lawyers' side, if we look at generative AI like Chat-GPT, it can be trained to read legislation and judgments and draft documents, but it still needs oversight from a lawyer who effectively takes responsibility for what is produced."
The future of the legal profession
But there are still many aspects of the legal profession that no amount of AI development would likely be able to automate or replace.
"There may be an AI-enhanced lawyer, who is more efficient and effective at their job, but it's still the human skills that distinguish them from the machine and to continue to add value," Prof. Legg says. "It's the ability to address the novel and the uncertain problem through practical wisdom and judgment, but also to listen and provide empathy.
"While the legislation that deals with the practice of law could be amended to allow AI and machine-provided services to practice law, whether society would want that is another question."
Prof. Legg says society must also ask how AI would comply with ethical and professional responsibility requirements applicable to lawyers: "Can AI be programmed to advance the client's interests but be independent and comply with a paramount duty to the court and the administration of justice?
"The lawyer has an ethical obligation to their client's best interests, but it is not just about serving a client.
"They're also there to support the administration of justice and uphold the rule of law, and while not always perfect, those ethical obligations make human lawyers essential to a well-functioning society."
Prof. Legg says the profession needs to be more proactive in advocating for its role in the social fabric. Law is not just a business for making money.
"Ultimately, lawyers are there to serve society, and that idea can get lost sometimes," Prof. Legg says. "But if the profession wishes to remain of service, it can't be complacent. It's up to lawyers to continue demonstrating their value to society."
Rising temperatures mean more air conditioning which means more electricity is needed—rooftop solar is a perfect fit
by Tom Rogers, Amin Al-Habaibeh, Angelines Donastorg Sosa and Vahid Vahidinasab, The Conversation
Credit: Douglas Cliff / shutterstock
On June 12 this year, the UK's last remaining coal-fired power station was awoken from a 46-day slumber to meet demand for electricity to run air-conditioning units.
These were rare circumstances as hot weather across the country combined with low wind, a nuclear power station under maintenance and a faulty electricity interconnector with Norway. But the weather is only going to get hotter, and the incident has shed light on the vital role that rooftop solar systems should play in our future energy system.
The absurdity of resorting to coal to power air conditioners during a UK summer is difficult to miss. This is particularly so given rooftop solar systems are uniquely positioned to meet this demand as high summer temperatures coincide with lots of sunshine. They can also help to shade buildings, effectively reducing demand for cooling and lowering energy consumption.
Cooling demand is not limited to air conditioning and can involve many other energy-intensive processes in homes, supermarkets, offices, hospitals, factories and so on. Up and down the country, motors are driving compressors that are used for cooling fridges, freezers, data centers, food processing industries, water coolers, among many others.
This equipment will operate more intensely as air temperatures rise. According to UK government estimates, peak cooling demand during a heat wave can be twice as high as an average summer day.
Google Environmental Insight’s solar PV calculation for Nottingham. Credit: Google Environmental Insight, CC BY-SA
Cooling benefits of rooftop solar panels
Rooftop solar can also reduce demand for cooling by keeping buildings in the shade. A study conducted by Arizona State University found that even a modest group of solar panels that shade about half a roof can lead to anything from 2% to 13% reduction in cooling demand, depending on factors such as location, roof type and insulation levels
Although rooftop solar is being installed faster than ever in the UK, it is still greatly under-used and only on roughly one in 30 buildings. The recent 3D mapping of whole towns and cities means it has become possible to estimate the potential more accurately. Tools such as Google Environmental Insights analyze satellite imagery not only to see how many modules might be installed across our city skylines, but where they should be installed in order to minimize hading and generate the most electricity.
Consider the possibilities for Nottingham and Coventry, two cities in England's Midlands where we work. If Nottingham were to maximize its rooftop potential, all those panels could generate nearly 500 megawatts (MW) of electricity, about the same as a medium-sized gas power plant. Coventry has greater potential, with 700MW. These capacities would equate to nearly one-third of Nottingham's electricity demand and almost half of Coventry's—from their rooftops alone.
With the planet experiencing its hottest temperature in around 120,000 years, keeping buildings cool will be vital. For now, cooling demand is predominantly driven by non-domestic buildings, but projections indicate that by the end of the century around 80% may come from homes.
This makes things awkward, as domestic air-conditioners tend to be used most in the evenings when people return after work or school—not during the day when the sun is shining. Researchers in Australia have proposed a clever solution to address this imbalance by programming air-conditioning units to work in tandem with solar systems to pre-cool buildings before people arrive home.
In the face of evolving climate challenges, the pivotal role of solar systems in addressing summer cooling demand and enhancing climate resilience is becoming evermore evident. While an unusual reliance on coal-fired power for air conditioning underscored this urgency in June, an interesting observation emerged the following month: despite July being cool, cloudy and rainy, solar panels still contributed around 8% of UK electricity demand. This surpassed the value for July 2022, despite that summer's record-breaking temperatures.
What had happened? Though solar panel generation was down 7% this July, overall electricity demand decreased by 15%, in part due to a substantially reduced demand for cooling. The link between the two is very clear
Shown is a UML model of a gas warning system comprised of three layers from the bottom to the top—data access layer, domain layer, and view layer: (1) Data acquisition: This logic flow is run between the Data Access Layer and Domain Layer. The data are obtained from gas, temperature, and wind databases. (2) Correlation analysis: Within the Domain Layer, correlation analyses are conducted separately between data upstream of gas and gas, gas and temperature, and gas and wind. (3) Activated decision: This step bridges the Domain Layer and the View Layer. Credit: Scientific Reports (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-35900-3
Greater monitoring of wind, gas density and temperatures in coal mines can help reduce the risk of disasters, according to a new joint study with Charles Darwin University (CDU) and University Technology Sydney (UTS).
The study, "An FSV analysis approach to verify the robustness of the triple-correlation analysis theoretical framework," focused on developing a gas monitoring system that takes a holistic approach to assessing wind, gas, and temperature conditions. It was published in Scientific Reports.
The project used data from a large Global Fortune 500 listed mining company in China, which held 46% of the world's coal production in 2020.
Co-author and CDU Faculty of Science and Technology Associate Professor Niusha Shafiabady said the study examined real-time data and all tests indicated three significant correlations between gas, temperature, and wind.
The project confirmed the framework could be used to develop a gas warning system with improved sensitivity to reduce the incidence of gas explosions.
"A significant number (3,284) of coal mines have high gas content at outburst-prone risk levels across almost all 26 major coal mining provinces in China," Shafiabady said.
"For example on 10 June 2020, a serious coal and gas outburst accident occurred in Liaoyuan, China which resulted in seven deaths and two injuries, with a direct economic loss of 16.66 million yuan ($3.4 million).
"It is significant to carry out real-time monitoring of coal and rock dynamic disasters during coal mining activities."
The study was undertaken by CDU, University of Technology Sydney, Shanxi Normal University, Central Queensland University, Taiyuan Normal University, Shanxi Fenxi Mining Industry Group Co and Shanxi Fenxi Mining Zhongxing Coal Industry Co.
Shafiabady said the results of the study could be used by different mining companies to avoid gas incidents.
"The outcomes of this study can also be used in other industries such as chemical industry, oil and gas industry, water treatment plants and semiconductor manufacturing industries," she said.
"Currently we are working on creating a real-time artificial intelligence decision-making system with the ability to predict the accidents as an addition to the current designed gas monitoring system."
More information: Robert M. X. Wu et al, An FSV analysis approach to verify the robustness of the triple-correlation analysis theoretical framework, Scientific Reports (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-35900-3
The US has committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. To accomplish this goal, large cuts in emissions are necessary, especially in high-emission sectors like the building industry.
In an article publishing on August 18 in the journal One Earth, a team of researchers use a computational model to analyze several scenarios of future building energy use in the US. They find that by tackling emissions on multiple fronts and placing focus on "demand-side measures" that affect how power is drawn from the grid, such as technologies like electric heat pumps and smart thermostats, the US can achieve its climate goals, decrease building emissions by 91% from their 2005 peak, and save over $100 billion each year on energy costs.
"Meeting the US 2050 net-zero emissions target requires a rapid and cost-effective low-carbon transition across the entire energy system," writes the team of energy technology experts based at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and energy consultants. "Commercial and residential buildings are a primary source of emissions and are key to this transition."
In the United States, the authors cite, buildings—including both public buildings, like offices, and private buildings, like homes—contribute 35% of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2005, the US contributed 2,327 megatons of carbon dioxide in the buildings sector, setting a record for all-time high emissions. Since then, emissions have declined by 25%, and are projected to keep declining by up to another 41% by 2050. But we will need to keep cutting emissions to reach our climate goals, assert the authors.
For their analysis, the authorship team defines three main ways to cut building-related emissions. They argue that we should focus on making buildings use energy more efficiently, making the power grid more reliable by increasing the flexibility of how energy is managed by the grid, and utilizing low-carbon energy sources.
"There are no 'silver bullet' solutions for building decarbonization," write the authors. "Achieving deeper levels of emissions reductions will require a comprehensive mix of solutions addressing both the generation and end uses of energy—a true 'all-of-the-above' menu of solutions to decarbonize the built environment."
The team modeled "low," "moderate," and "aggressive" scenarios of this "all-of-the-above menu" to determine the degree to which we can cut emissions. They found that it's possible to reduce building emissions by 91% compared to 2005 levels by 2050, and that demand-side measures that increase the flexibility of the power grid, like heat pumps and smart thermostats, could contribute up to 45% of these emissions cuts.
"Flexibility will play an increasingly important role as variable renewable energy accounts for a larger share of power generation and distribution networks are challenged by growing demand for clean electricity," write the researchers.
However, achieving this level of emissions cuts would require the "aggressive" level of intervention from the researchers' model, and the authors emphasize that an "unprecedented scale and speed of building technology development and deployment" would be necessary, as well as a large-scale commitment to changing how we consume energy.
"Realizing this level of change in the building sector will require a rapid and sustained increase in investment alongside policy and regulatory support," write the authors. "We hope that this study can inform concrete policy approaches that accelerate energy system decarbonization across both demand- and supply-side technologies to fulfill ambitious targets for climate change mitigation in the US."
California aims to introduce more anglers to native warm-water tolerant sunfish as planet heats up
by Julie Watson In this photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, department environmental scientist Matt Lucero nets a Sacramento Perch at the Bridgeport Reservoir in Mono County, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. Some of the fish are headed to Lindo Lake in San Diego County to support a newly created population of native species and to provide a future urban fishing opportunity. The electrofishing boat emits an electrical current into the water, temporarily stunning fish to the surface where they can be netted and collected. Credit: Travis VanZant/California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP
California's only native sunfish, the Sacramento perch, survived catastrophic floods in the 1860s and was so abundant that it was a regular staple in San Francisco's markets before invasive species decimated its population.
Today it is relegated to mostly isolated lakes, reservoirs and ponds with few predators. But as the planet heats up and threatens many cold-water game fish species like trout, the Sacramento perch may be on the cusp of a comeback, thanks in part to its ability to tolerate warm water and extreme conditions.
State officials recently introduced Sacramento perch to Southern California in an attempt to widen its range, strengthen its gene pool, create a breeding stock and generate interest among more anglers. Biologists with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife released the first batch of 37 mostly juvenile Sacramento perch on Thursday evening in San Diego County's only natural lake, Lindo Lake in Lakeside, a suburb east of the city of San Diego.
"It's a native game fish that we can promote as a viable fishery in the future where we may not be able to have trout in certain areas because of climate change and warming waters," environmental scientist Matt Lucero with the department said after releasing the fish in batches.
California Fish and Wildlife biologist Matt Lucero releases some of the 30 Sacramento Perch juveniles in Lindo Lake County Park in the Lakeside suburb of San Diego, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. Lucero brought the fish from Bridgeport reservoir, a picturesque body of water surrounded by snow-capped mountains that has become a bottleneck for the fish's genes because the isolated population cannot migrate. Credit: AP Photo/Julie Watson
The multiyear experiment reflects the changes facing sportfishing as rivers, streams, lakes and ponds warm. Climate change is the biggest threat to the survival of trout in America's interior West, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. It estimates up to 50% of trout habitat in the Rocky Mountain region is at risk of disappearing by the end of the century.
Sacramento perch will never replace trout, state biologists said. Instead, the focus is on preserving a native species, and as an added benefit, the fish could allow anglers another option as temperatures rise, limiting seasons for cold-water species in some places.
Max Fish, the department's senior environmental scientist overseeing the efforts, said the hope is it can be introduced to fishing spots in more urban areas.
"We're in an exploratory phase to evaluate how well the fish will do, and how communities react to those fisheries," he said.
In this photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Sacramento Perch are collected from the Bridgeport Reservoir into a viewing tank aboard a California Department of Fish and Wildlife electrofishing boat in Mono County, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. Sacramento Perch are mainly unknown, relegated to little more than a dozen isolated lakes, reservoirs and ponds with few predators in the Sierras and Rocky Mountains. But as the planet heats up and threatens many cold-water game fish species like trout, the Sacramento Perch may be on the cusp of a comeback, thanks partly to its ability to tolerate extreme conditions. Credit: Travis VanZant/California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP
Tiffany Turner of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, which advocates for conservation to help anglers and hunters, said California is smart to act now to expand the habitat of climate-resilient fish, though she expects some resistance initially in a sport that is steeped in traditions.
"Anglers are going to have to adapt if we want to keep doing what we love," she said.
Biologists say the iridescent green and purple fish, whose markings and long spiny dorsal fins hint at its legacy dating back 15 million years, stands out for its ability to thrive in everything from cold mountain lakes to warm stagnant, brackish water.
Sacramento perch's resiliency allowed it to survive the catastrophic floods that wiped out much of Central California more than 160 years ago.
But its numbers plummeted by the early 20th century with the introduction of non-native species, including other more aggressive sunfish from the midwestern United States, which pushed the Sacramento perch out of its native habitat in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
In this photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, a Sacramento Perch is collected from the Bridgeport Reservoir into a viewing tank aboard a California Department of Fish and Wildlife electrofishing boat in Mono County, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. It is largely unknown, relegated to little more than a dozen isolated lakes, reservoirs, and ponds with few predators in the Sierras and Rocky Mountains. But as the planet heats up and threatens many cold-water game fish species like trout, the Sacramento Perch may be on the cusp of a comeback, thanks partly to its ability to tolerate extreme conditions. Credit: Travis VanZant/California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP
It's unknown if any still exist in its native habitat. Most of the population is concentrated in more than two dozen high-altitude lakes in Northern California, and a handful of western states.
Scientists hope that by introducing it to Southern California it will help strengthen the gene pool and build data for the captive breeding of Sacramento perch. Some hope the native fish can someday flourish as a food source much like tilapia, a highly adaptable warm-water species that is illegal to produce in California due to its potential to invade native ecosystems.
Peter Moyle, a Sacramento perch expert at the University of California, Davis, applauds the state for bringing it to Southern California. "It's one of the best tasting freshwater fish I know of," he said, adding that it's also fun to fish since it puts up a fight.
In this photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, department environmental scientist Matt Lucero holds a small Sacramento Perch at the Bridgeport Reservoir in Mono County, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. The Sacramento Perch juveniles from Bridgeport reservoir, a picturesque body of water surrounded by snow-capped mountains, has become a bottleneck for the fish's genes because their isolated population cannot migrate. Credit: Travis VanZant/California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP
Lucero said the project will take at least three years, and it'll be awhile before fishing even opens at Lindo Lake. There are still many challenges to overcome.
Last summer biologists released Sacramento perch larval in Lindo Lake after it was drained, dredged and restored to its natural state and outfitted with fish habitat structures. But someone since then dumped in a bucket of largemouth bass, which eat native sunfish eggs, Lucero said.
Biologists still don't know how many have survived. They hope the introduction of juveniles will give the population a fighting chance of establishing itself. The juveniles are believed to be a year old and are expected to be able to spawn in another year, and lay as many as 10,000 eggs, Lucero said.
San Diego County officials have posted "No fishing" signs around Lindo Lake. Rangers also patrol regularly during daylight hours but it is a public park surrounded by apartment buildings, stores and modest ranch style homes.
In this photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Sacramento Perch are collected from the Bridgeport Reservoir into a viewing tank aboard a department electrofishing boat in Mono County, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. State officials recently introduced the Sacramento Perch to Southern California to widen its range, strengthen its gene pool, create a breeding stock and generate interest among anglers as a viable warm-water tolerant game fish option. Credit: Travis VanZant/California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP
Officials say the best assurance is educating people about how special the Sacramento perch is.
Lucero brought the Sacramento perch from Bridgeport reservoir, nestled in the jagged snow-capped Sierra Nevada mountains. Biologists identified it as a gene bottleneck for the species.
Lucero, with other state biologists, stunned the perch with an electrical current so they would float to the surface belly up to be able to scoop them up. They eventually loaded 37 young fish into a bin in the bed of a pickup truck, and Lucero drove them eight hours to the lake in San Diego County.
After arriving with the fish, Lucero spent an hour acclimating them to their new home, which is 6,000 feet (1,828 meters) lower in elevation. He slowly poured into their bin Lindo Lake water, which was at 83 degrees Fahrenheit (28.3 Celsius), while swapping out the water from Bridgeport, which was at 68 degrees Fahrenheit, (20 degrees Celsius).
In this photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, a Sacramento Perch is collected from the Bridgeport Reservoir by department biologists in Mono County, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. The Sacramento Perch, California's only native sunfish, was once so abundant it was a regular staple in San Francisco's markets, and its bones have been commonly found among Native American ruins in the state. Biologists say the iridescent green and purple fish, whose markings and long spiny dorsal fins hint at its legacy dating back 15 million years, stands out for its ability to withstand extreme conditions. Those traits allowed it to survive the catastrophic floods that wiped out much of Central and Northern California 160 years earlier. Credit: Travis VanZant/California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP
A California Fish and Wildlife biologist helps unload 30 Sacramento Perch juveniles from the bed of a pickup truck into bins to introduce the fish to Southern California by releasing them in Lindo Lake County Park in the Lakeside suburb of San Diego, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. The hope is that the fish can offer anglers another option as trout species come under threat from a warmer planet. Credit: AP Photo/Julie Watson
California Fish and Wildlife biologists unload 30 Sacramento Perch juveniles from the bed of a pickup truck into bins before introducing the fish in Lindo Lake County Park in the Lakeside suburb of San Diego, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. The hope is it can offer anglers another option as trout species come under threat from a warmer planet. Credit: AP Photo/Julie Watson
California Fish and Wildlife biologists unload 30 Sacramento Perch juveniles from the bed of a pickup truck into bins to introduce the Sacramento Perch to Southern California by releasing the fish in Lindo Lake County Park in the Lakeside suburb of San Diego, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. After arriving with the fish, environmental scientist Matt Lucero spent an hour acclimating the fish to their new home by pouring in the lake water at 83 degrees slowly into the bin in the bed of the truck, one gallon at a time, while swapping out the 69 degree water they arrived in from Bridgeport Reservoir. Credit: AP Photo/Julie Watson
California Fish and Wildlife biologists release 30 Sacramento Perch juveniles as they introduce the fish in Lindo Lake County Park in the Lakeside suburb of San Diego, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023. The hope is it can offer anglers another option as trout species come under threat from a warmer planet. Credit: AP Photo/Julie Watson
The fish huddled together in a corner of the bin. Then they slowly spread out and swam around as the hour passed, which Lucero saw as a sign that they were ready to be released.
He eyed the lake. He said he did not want to release them too close to the dock where some of the bass might be waiting. But he said too far out in the center there were cormorants. A heron also watched nearby.
Lucero put on his waders and went in up to his waist.
Fellow environmental scientist Austin Sturkie, who is also with the department, stood on the dock and scooped out batch after batch of the fish as the sun began to dip and handed the net to Lucero in the water.
The fish wiggled out and swam away.
"Boys stay together," Lucero joked.
As Lucero worked, a man on a skateboard zipped by and yelled "Yay! More bass."
Italy's government is providing economic incentives to those catching and disposing of the blue crabs invading the northeastern coast.
In the shallow waters of the Scardovari lagoon, fishermen catch clams for Italy's beloved spaghetti alle vongole, alongside mussels and oysters. But an invader risks putting them out of business.
The blue crab, native to the North American Atlantic coast, has been present across the Mediterranean for years but in recent months has become a serious problem on Italy's northeastern coast.
"The blue crabs are eating everything. This stretch of lagoon is becoming a desert," said Gianluca Travaglia, a 52-year-old farmer of mussels and clams.
He is the third generation of his family to have a boat on the "Sacca degli Scardovari", an economically important part of the delta where the Po River reaches the Adriatic Sea.
"Every day we fish more of them... I don't know what to do," Travaglia told AFP as he guided his motorboat across the water.
His fellow farmers had the same issue, he added.
"They can't even lower their nets anymore because the crabs swim into the nets and break them."
'Critical situation'
Italy's government allocated 2.9 million euros ($3.2 million) last week to address what Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida called a "critical situation".
The money will provide "economic incentives" for those catching and disposing of the crabs, which he said lack natural predators in Italian waters.
The blue crab risks putting Italian clam and mussel farmers out of business.
Business lobby Coldiretti has described the phenomenon as a crab "invasion", driven by warming waters and climate change.
Across the Italian seabed, the crabs are "exterminating clams, mussels, eggs, other fish and mollusks, putting at risk the survival of 3,000 businesses in the Po Delta", Coldiretti said.
From their American origins, the "callinectes sapidus" has spread around the world, likely transported via ballast water from ships.
They have thrived in the Mediterranean Sea, which is warming due to climate change.
For years, fishermen from Albania to France and Spain have grappled with the spread of the blue crab, which is disrupting the natural balance of native populations.
Excellent swimmers and weighing up to one kilogram (2.2 pounds), they eat almost everything, while their sharp, blue-tinted claws are particularly adept at prying open clam shells.
Italian cooks are seeking to explore how to use the blue crab, a new, tasty resource in their kitchens.
Crab spaghetti
In Eraclea, outside Venice, restaurateur Luca Faraon is among a number of cooks seeking to explore how to use this new, tasty resource.
"With the blue crab, you can prepare many foods," said the 58-year-old, as diners tucked into crab spaghetti the chef prepared using garlic, cherry tomatoes and parsley.
"We are still thinking about how to use it as a dessert!" Faraon added.
The crab—whose Latin name is said to mean "savory beautiful swimmer"—is a prized catch in the Chesapeake Bay on the United States' East Coast, where it is known as the Maryland blue crab.
After a meeting with the industry last week, Italian minister Lollobrigida said the problem might be an opportunity, citing potential markets in the United States and China.
"Blue crabs are a great resource," he said, emphasizing their high levels of vitamin B12.
The blue crab, native to the North American Atlantic coast, has been spreading across the Mediterranean for several years.
'Devouring clams'
Yet Emanuele Rossetti, a biologist with the Polesine fishing consortium, one of Europe's largest shellfish farming associations, is pessimistic.
Clams were the core business of members of his group, and the mollusks cannot exist alongside large numbers of blue crabs, he said.
Although the crabs have been in the lagoon for about 15 years, there has been an "exponential" increase in recent months, Rossetti said.
He warned that the rate at which they were feasting on clams posed an immediate threat.
"I am sure that after December the fishermen of our consortium will no longer have any products to sell."
The global distribution of grammatical complexity (fusion). Closely related languages resemble each other's scores. Credit: Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adf7704
Languages around the world differ greatly in how many grammatical distinctions they make. This variation is observable even between closely related languages. The speakers of Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian, for example, use the same word hunden, meaning "the dog," to communicate that the dog is in the house or that someone found the dog or gave food to the dog. In Icelandic, on the other hand, three different word forms would be used in these situations, corresponding to the nominative, accusative, and dative case respectively: hundurinn, hundinn, and hundinum.
This grammatical distinction in the case system, along with many others, sets Icelandic apart from its closely related sister languages. "One prominent hypothesis about why some languages show more complex grammar than others links grammatical complexity to the social environments in which these languages are used," says first author Olena Shcherbakova from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
For example, Icelandic is primarily learned and used by the local population of over 350,000 people. Such relatively small isolated communities are also called "societies of intimates." In contrast, the other Scandinavian countries, located in close proximity to their neighbors, have larger populations with substantial proportions of non-native speakers.
Such communities are known as "societies of strangers." Many linguists have claimed that languages with more non-native speakers tend to simplify their grammars, as unlike children, adult learners struggle to acquire complex grammatical rules to master the intricacies of their new language.
But is this Icelandic example representative of the striking linguistic diversity worldwide? Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology wanted to find out if the grammars of languages tend to evolve simpler when spoken by larger societies of strangers with many non-native speakers.
For their study published in Science Advances, they measured the grammatical complexity of 1,314 languages using data from Grambank—a newly released global database of grammatical features. These complexity scores were compared to variables detailing the number of non-native speakers in these languages.
Defining complexity
Language complexity is a hotly debated topic in linguistics, with many different opposing views. "Many of the disagreements are down to differences in how 'complexity' is defined," says Hedvig Skirgård from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology.
"In this study, we improved the methodology by teasing out two distinct measures: fusion (how many affixes verbs and nouns have) and informativity (how many distinctions are made)."
The results show that societies of strangers do not speak less complex languages. "Instead, our study reveals that the variation in grammatical complexity generally accumulates too slowly to adapt to the immediate environment," states Shcherbakova.
The well-known counterexample to the claim about social environment shaping grammatical complexity is German. German is learned and spoken by a large number of non-native speakers, and yet, it has retained its case system and many other grammatical distinctions.
The study tests the influence of social environment on grammatical complexity, while accounting for the expected similarities arising from both genealogical inheritance and contact. "Our study highlights the significance of using large-scale data and accounting for the influence of inheritance and contact when addressing long-standing questions about the evolution of languages. It shows how received linguistic wisdom can be rigorously tested with the global datasets that are increasingly becoming available," concludes Simon Greenhill from the University of Auckland.
In this photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, department environmental scientist Matt Lucero nets a Sacramento Perch at the Bridgeport Reservoir in Mono County, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. Some of the fish are headed to Lindo Lake in San Diego County to support a newly created population of native species and to provide a future urban fishing opportunity. The electrofishing boat emits an electrical current into the water, temporarily stunning fish to the surface where they can be netted and collected. Credit: Travis VanZant/California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP
