Sunday, September 24, 2023

ARACHNOLOGY

Large fossil spider found in Australia

by Australian Museum

A team of Australian scientists led by Australian Museum (AM) and University of New South Wales (UNSW) paleontologist Dr. Matthew McCurry have formally named and described a fossil spider, Megamonodontium mccluskyi, which is between 11–16 million years old. The findings on this new genus of spider have now been published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Found at McGraths Flat, NSW, a fossil site known for its iron-rich rock called "goethite," the new genus of spider is the first ever spider fossil of the Barychelidae family to be found. Similar to the living genus, Monodontium (a brushed trapdoor spider) but five times larger, the spider was named after Dr. Simon McClusky who found the specimen. A geospatial scientist based in Canberra, McClusky volunteers his time helping on palaeontological excavations.

Dr. McCurry said that there have been very few fossil spiders found in Australia which makes the discovery very significant.

"Only four spider fossils have ever been found throughout the whole continent, which has made it difficult for scientists to understand their evolutionary history. That is why this discovery is so significant, it reveals new information about the extinction of spiders and fills a gap in our understanding of the past."

"The closest living relative of this fossil now lives in wet forests in Singapore through to Papua New Guinea. This suggests that the group once occupied similar environments in mainland Australia but have subsequently gone extinct as Australia became more arid."

Queensland Museum arachnologist, Dr. Robert Raven, who was the supervising author of the study said this was the largest fossil spider to be found in Australia.

"Not only is it the largest fossilized spider to be found in Australia but it is the first fossil of the family Barychelidae that has been found worldwide."

"There are around 300 species of brush-footed trapdoor spiders alive today, but they don't seem to become fossils very often. This could be because they spend so much time inside burrows and so aren't in the right environment to be fossilized."

University of Canberra Associate Professor, Michael Frese, who used stacking microphotography to scan the fossils said that the fossils from McGraths Flat show an amazing level of detailed preservation.

"Scanning electron microscopy allowed us to study minute details of the claws and setae on the spider's pedipalps, legs and the main body. Setae are hair-like structures that can have a range of functions. They can sense chemicals and vibrations, defend the spider against attackers and even make sounds."

The fossil is now housed in the AM's paleontology collection and is available online for researchers to study.

A separate paper will be published on the same day in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society describing a jumping spider from McGraths Flat. These are separate publications, but both describe fossils from the same site. Matthew McCurry and Michael Frese are authors on both pieces of work.

More information: Matthew R McCurry et al, A large brush-footed trapdoor spider (Mygalomorphae: Barychelidae) from the Miocene of Australia, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society (2023). DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad100

Journal information: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society

Provided by Australian MuseumA fossil jumping spider's 15-million-year journey

Tuvalu will always be a state, even if underwater, says PM

by Issam AHMED

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Kausea Natano said there had been "unnecessary" conservations in academic and diplomatic circles centered on the definition of a country under international law — *Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Kausea Natano said there had been*

Tuvalu could be one of the first nations to sink beneath the sea as a result of climate change, but that doesn't mean its statehood is up for discussion, the tiny Pacific archipelago's prime minister said Thursday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Kausea Natano said there had been "unnecessary" conversations in academic and diplomatic circles centered on the definition of a country under international law.

"Our sovereignty is not negotiable," Natano told AFP, adding that his country would be working with the international community to "bring a close to these distractions."

Tuvalu's population of 11,000 is spread across nine islands that rise less than five meters above sea level, underscoring the extraordinary challenges it faces from sea-level rise.

Two of the atolls represented on its flag of 11 stars have already disappeared, and even the higher lying areas could become uninhabitable by 2100 as a result of salt contaminating its land and water supply.

The 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States holds that a state consists of a defined territory, a permanent population, a government and the capacity to interact with other states.

If the territory is swallowed up, or no one can live on what is left of it, then at least one of the criteria is no longer met.

But while Tuvalu's land mass accounts for just 26 square kilometers (10 square miles)—around the size of seven Central Parks—its maritime territory covers a vast 800,000 square kilometers.

The convention is ambiguous on the question of whether territory is wet or dry, and there is no precedent for revoking the status of a UN member state, leaving the matter fuzzy.

Land reclamation, and the metaverse

Tuvalu isn't taking an underwater future as a given, and—along with pleading with the world to end its addiction to fossil fuels—has begun work on a Coastal Adaptation Project that aims to reclaim around 3.8 kilometers of land from the ocean and raise land levels in the most vulnerable spots.

It has been financed with $36 million in international assistance channelled through the Green Climate Fund, and $2.9 million from Tuvalu's own government.

The situation is dire, says Natano. Around 40 percent of the capital Funafuti already gets submerged during periodic "king" tides that wash away root crops, including former island staples taro and cassava.

While he is pleased that the project's first phase is nearing completion, Natano said the scope is too small to help all of his people.

"We need more, faster action from whoever is in a position to support us, urgently," he said.

To this end, the country has been at the forefront of the major climate action calls: a global tax on fossil fuels, and the activation of a "loss and damages" fund—international climate jargon for climate compensation owed by rich polluting countries to the most impacted nations.

This fund was agreed to in principle at the last major climate talks in Egypt, but—like so many other vows from the rich world—has yet to be fulfilled.

"It's a matter of life and death—it's a matter of disappearing from the surface of this Earth," said Natano, urging countries to keep their promise.

Should the worst come to pass, Tuvalu has been moving its cultural heritage to the digital sphere, in what some have called a model for how "Nation-States 2.0" might work.

But what happens to Tuvalu will merely be a harbinger of what cities around the world threatened by sea-level rise will experience—from Miami to Manila, said Natano.

"More and more citizens of the world will have to relocate," he said. "Use us a model to preserve the entire world."

As oceans rise, are some nations doomed to vanish?

EDGAR ALLAN POE

THE CITY IN THE SEA.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

LO! Death has reared himself a throne

In a strange city lying alone

Far down within the dim West,

Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best

Have gone to their eternal rest.

There shrines and palaces and towers

(Time-eaten towers that tremble not!)

Resemble nothing that is ours.

Around, by lifting winds forgot,

Resignedly beneath the sky

The melancholy waters lie.

No rays from the holy heaven come down

On the long night-time of that town;

But light from out the lurid sea

Streams up the turrets silently —

Gleams up the pinnacles far and free —

Up domes — up spires — up kingly halls —

Up fanes — up Babylon-like walls —

Up shadowy long-forgotten bowers

Of scultured ivy and stone flowers —

Up many and many a marvellous shrine

Whose wreathed friezes intertwine

The viol, the violet, and the vine. [page 22:]

Resignedly beneath the sky

The melancholy waters lie.

So blend the turrets and shadows there

That all seem pendulous in air,

While from a proud tower in the town

Death looks gigantically down.

There open fanes and gaping graves

Yawn level with the luminous waves;

But not the riches there that lie

In each idol's diamond eye —

Not the gaily-jewelled dead

Tempt the waters from their bed;

For no ripples curl, alas!

Along that wilderness of glass —

No swellings tell that winds may be

Upon some far-off happier sea —

No heavings hint that winds have been

On seas less hideously serene.

But lo, a stir is in the air!

The wave — there is a movement there!

As if the towers had thrown aside,

In slightly sinking, the dull tide —

As if their tops had feebly given

A void within the filmy Heaven.

The waves have now a redder glow —

The hours are breathing faint and low —

And when, amid no earthly moans,

Down, down that town shall settle hence. [[,]]

Hell, rising from a thousand thrones,

Shall do it reverence.

Notes:

In reading this poem, the modern mind tends immediately to think of Atlantis, the fabled paradise that has long usurped any recollection of other submerged cities. As has often been suggested, the more likely source for Poe was the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, both still visible beneath the Dead Sea. In his poem “Al Aaraaf,” Poe includes the following note: “There were, undoubtedly, more than two cities engluphed in the ‘dead sea.’ In the valley of Siddim were five — Adrah, Zeboin, Zoar, Sodom, and Gomorrah. Stephen, of Byzantium, mentions eight, and Strabo, thirteeen, (engulphed) — but the last is out of all reason. It is said, (Tacitus, Strabo, Josephus, Daniel, of St. Saba, Nau, Maundrell, Troilo, D’Arvieux) that, after an excessive drought, the vestiges of columns, walls, &c. are seen above the surface. At any season, such remains may be discoverd by looking down into the transparent lake, and at such distances as would argue the existence of many settlements in the space now usurped by the ‘Asphaltites.’ ”

[S:1 - RAOP, 1845 (fac, 1969)] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - The City in the Sea (Text-05c)

Island nations blame rich countries for climate inaction at UN assembly

Fri, September 22, 2023
By Daphne Psaledakis

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Island nations bearing the brunt of climate change this week confronted rich countries at the United Nations General Assembly, saying the failure by developed countries to act with urgency had put the islands' survival at risk.

"There are many amongst us, the small and marginalized islands of our globe, surrounded by rising seas and scorched by rising temperatures, who are beginning to question this annual parade of flowery speeches and public pretense of brotherhood, otherwise known as the U.N. annual General Assembly," Saint Lucia Prime Minister Philip Pierre told the gathering on Friday.

Several speakers at the week-long event quoted U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who in July cautioned that the era of global warming had ended and “the era of global boiling has arrived.”

A perceived lack of urgency by developed nations was a recurring theme. Speakers emphasized that a failure to sufficiently curb greenhouse gas emissions had contributed to rising sea levels, threatening island and low-lying nations.

"The problem is that those whose actions we most need may be so confident in their survival that they do not act early enough for us," Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said on Friday.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation, countries aimed to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the threshold scientists say would head off the worst impacts of warming.

To meet that goal, scientists say the world needs to cut global emissions in half by 2030, and to net-zero by 2050.

"Unfortunately, the international community has not done nearly enough to get us on track to limiting the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius," Wesley Simina, president of Micronesia, said in a speech on Thursday.

"One need only scan the news on any random day to see the evidence of the climate crisis in devastating effects around the world today," he said.

Marshall Islands President David Kabua called for the establishment of an international financing facility to assist small island and low-lying atoll nations facing natural disasters.

Kabua said countries attending the U.N. COP28 climate summit beginning in November must recognize that the world is failing to deliver on the Paris Agreement and agree on a roadmap to correct course, including the phase-out of fossil fuels.

"These challenges might be inconvenient for large economies - but I can assure the climate impact's already at our door," he told the General Assembly.

U.S. President Joe Biden will host a second summit with leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum at the White House on Monday, where climate will be on the agenda. The gathering is part of Washington's efforts to step up engagement with a region where the U.S. is in a battle for influence with China. (Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis at the United Nations and Valerie Volcovici in Washington; Editing by Don Durfee and Howard Goller)

Australia's firefighters face worst season in years

by Sharon MARRIS, Andrew LEESON

Australia heavily relies on a 190,000-strong volunteer cohort to fight fires.

Volunteer firefighters are scorching Australia's forest undergrowth, reducing fuel for what is expected to be the fiercest fire season since the monster "Black Summer" blazes.

Deadly wildfires have devastated forests in Canada, Greece, Hawaii and elsewhere around the world this year but unlike many other countries, Australia heavily relies on a 190,000-strong volunteer cohort to battle the flames.

Their courage was on display during the "Black Summer" fires of 2019-2020 that killed 33 people and millions of animals, as well as destroying thousands of homes and razing vast swathes of eucalyptus forest.

But some of them fear their brigades may not be able to cope in the future should global warming make fires even more intense and frequent.

"It's terrifying but, if 2019-20 became the norm, I don't know how you sustain that year on year. I don't think that's sustainable," said Andy Hain, a 41-year-old volunteer with the NSW Rural Fire Service, who is married with two young sons.

Faced with repeated fires on the scale of the "Black Summer", Australia and other countries would have to share personnel and resources more than they do already, said Hain, who has volunteered for nearly 10 years in Picton, a rural town southwest of Sydney with a population of about 5,000.

Because of wet conditions since "Black Summer", the RFS warns that the threat of grass fires is the highest it has been in two decades.

There are fears Australia's volunteer firefighters may not be able to cope if climate change makes fires even more intense and frequent.

'Ready to burn'

Driving through Picton, as kangaroos hop along in front of houses lit up by the late afternoon sun, Hain points at the grass growing along the roadside.

"There's green in it but see that straw colour? That's ready to burn," he told AFP.

In New South Wales, as in other states, firefighters have been burning off leaf litter and dense scrub to give themselves the best chance in the coming summer.

They carry fuel-filled "drip torches"—a metal can with a long narrow tube that has a small flame at its end—to set the brush alight before hosing down the embers.

Like most of the RFS's 70,000 volunteers in New South Wales, Hain has a paid job elsewhere—in his case, airline flight operations.

But he is looking at another fire season when his paid job might have to take a back seat.

As the fire season approaches, Hain worries about the toll on colleagues juggling paid work and family alongside their dangerous volunteer roles.

An Australian firefighting volunteer gasps for air while moving out of an area with thick smoke during a hazard reduction burn.

An estimated 82,000 people fought the "Black Summer" fires across Australia, 78 percent of them volunteers.

After the fires, research by the University of Western Australia found that roughly 5,000 of the personnel had a "high need" for mental health support.

'Massive, massive fire'

In a world of fiercer, more frequent fires, what happens when other Australian states and foreign countries are unable to lend a hand as they struggle with their own disasters?

Former NSW Fire and Rescue commissioner Greg Mullins is worried about just that as fire seasons around the world extend and overlap.

"You're asking people to leave their work for months, they have to be their breadwinners, they have to put bread on the table," he said. "At what stage does it become too much?"

During the "Black Summer", some firefighters found themselves saving the homes of their neighbours even as their own properties were burning, and that pressure takes a "huge toll", Mullins said.

"I've seen colleagues who have really broken down because of what they've seen."

Australia has been hit by intense, vast wildfires in recent years.

But it is not just fires that strain the state's firefighters.

Wisemans Ferry, about 90 minutes' drive north of Sydney, is nestled on the banks of the Hawkesbury River and surrounded by dense national parks.

In late 2019, a large fire sparked by lightning erupted not far from the home of 35-year-old RFS volunteer Kim Brownlie.

"We were very lucky that we didn't lose a single home during those fires, and that was a massive, massive fire," she said.

"So much effort was put in by volunteers from everywhere—they were coming down from Queensland or coming up from Victoria as well."

Months after the flames were extinguished, the first of four floods hit Brownlie's town.

Fellow volunteer Mitchell Brennan watched his home go under and then battled to save others from the rising waters.

"We helped them survive the flood with food, water, fuel, as much as we could," he said.

"There was nothing to be saved when the water came through and the way it came up. There was nothing you could do, there was no way of stopping it."

Expert says to brace for bushfire season ahead, but expect worse to come

We could sequester CO2 by 're-greening' arid lands, plant scientists say

by Cell Press

Reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere will take more than cutting emissions—we will also need to capture and store the excessive volumes of already-emitted carbon. In an opinion paper published in the journal Trends in Plant Science on September 21, a team of plant scientists argue that arid lands such as deserts could be one answer to the carbon-capture problem.

The authors argue that we could transform arid ecosystems into efficient carbon-capture systems with improved soil health, enhanced photosynthetic efficiency, and larger root biomass by engineering ideal combinations of plants, soil microbes, and soil type to facilitate a naturally occurring biogeochemical process called the oxalate-carbonate pathway to create below-ground carbon sinks.

"Re-greening deserts by restoration of ecosystem functions, including carbon sequestration, should be the preferential approach," writes the research team, led by senior author and plant scientist Heribert Hirt of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. "The advantage of reclaiming arid regions for re-greening and carbon sequestration is that they do not compete with lands used in agriculture and food production."

The method takes advantage of arid-adapted plants that produce oxalates—ions containing carbon and oxygen that might ring a bell if you're unlucky enough to suffer from kidney stones or gout. Some soil microbes use oxalates as their sole carbon source, and in doing so, they excrete carbonate molecules into the soil. Carbonate usually breaks down quickly, but if these plant-microbe systems are grown in alkaline- and calcium-rich soils, the carbonate reacts with calcium to form stable deposits of calcium carbonate.

Carbon naturally cycles between the atmosphere, oceans, and terrestrial ecosystems, but human actions have resulted in the accumulation of excess CO2 in the atmosphere. Even if we can reduce CO2 emissions, the researchers write that the "...climate effects of elevated CO2 will remain irreversible for at least 1,000 years unless CO2 can be sequestered from the atmosphere."

Trees are considered an ideal system for carbon capture, but reforestation competes directly with agriculture for arable land. In contrast, arid lands, which constitute approximately one-third of terrestrial surfaces, are not utilized for agriculture.

Currently, arid ecosystems support very little plant life, with the lack of water being the biggest limiting factor. However, some plants have adapted to arid life by evolving different mechanisms for coping with the lack of water and extreme temperatures.

Some arid-adapted plants have special root systems for reaching deep into the soil to tap hidden water sources while others use different forms of photosynthesis that allow them to minimize water loss during the hottest parts of the day.

Yet others, so-called "oxalogenic" plants, produce large amounts of oxalates that they can convert into water during times of drought. Some of the carbon from these oxalates is deposited below-ground as carbon deposits when oxalogenic plants are grown under certain conditions, and it's this mechanism that the authors want to exploit for carbon sequestration.

"Overall, in this form of carbon sequestration, one out of every 16 photosynthetically fixed carbon atoms might be sequestered into carbonates," the authors write.

Amplifying this naturally occurring biogeochemical process in arid lands could convert these currently unproductive and degraded ecosystems into carbon sinks with healthier soil and plants, the authors say. They suggest beginning with "fertility islands"—small pockets of re-greened habitat from which the plants and microbes can spread to form a carpet of vegetation.

The authors estimate that these approaches could result in significant increases in both plant and soil carbon sequestration in less than ten years. However, they note that the success and speed of the proposed method will depend on the rate of plant growth (which tends to be slow under water-scarce conditions) and "...will also depend on the financial and political means to apply this technology in various arid countries."

More information: Engineering carbon sequestration on arid lands, Trends in Plant Science (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2023.08.009

Journal information: Trends in Plant Science

Provided by Cell Press Increased droughts are disrupting carbon-capturing soil microbes, concerning ecologists

Peru's Operation Mercury stopped most illegal gold mining in one biodiversity hotspot—then the COVID-19 pandemic hit

by Dartmouth College

Peru's Operation Mercury stopped most illegal gold mining in one biodiversity hotspot in the Amazon. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. — A former mining camp shows where shallow mining ponds have overwhelmed a former

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining is a lifeline for many who live in Madre de Dios, a region in southeastern Peru, where poverty is high and jobs are scarce. But the economic development in this part of the Amazon basin comes at a cost, as it causes deforestation, build up of sediment in rivers, and mercury contamination in nearby watersheds, threatening public health, Indigenous peoples, and the future of the biodiversity hotspot. And much of the mining activity is unauthorized.

Seeking to eliminate illegal artisanal and small-scale gold mining activity and its many negative impacts, the Peruvian government deployed "Operation Mercury" (Operation Mercurio) in February 2019 in the La Pampa region, an area where gold mining is banned in most places. La Pampa straddles the Interoceanic Highway. North of the highway, mining is mostly legal in mining concessions. However, south of the highway mining is strictly prohibited in the buffer zone of the Tambopata National Reserve.

Through Operation Mercury, armed military and national police were dispatched to the region and had a sustained presence until March 2020. Miners were evicted and mining equipment was destroyed. The intervention was successful in stopping illegal gold mining activity in La Pampa but activity in legal areas spiked, triggering many of the same environmental concerns, according to a Dartmouth-led study. The results are published in Conservation Letters.

"Although illegal gold mining operations in La Pampa came to a near halt during Operation Mercury's two intervening years (2019—2020), mining activity essentially just shifted across the road to legal areas on the other side of the Interoceanic Highway," says lead author Evan Dethier, an assistant professor at Occidental College, who conducted the study while he was a postdoctoral fellow at Dartmouth.

Following Operation Mercury, mining decreased by 70% to 90%. Excavated mining pits ("mining ponds") in illegal mining areas decreased by up to 5% per year as compared to increasing by 33% to 90% per year before the intervention.

Although deforested areas experienced revegetation at a rate of 1 to 3 square kilometers per year, progress was offset by increases in deforestation in legal mining areas north of the Interoceanic Highway at a rate of 3 to 5 square kilometers per year. Most of the revegetation occurred on the edges of deforested areas, with the highest revegetation in La Pampa south. Mining pond areas outside intervention zones also saw increases ranging from 42% to 83%

"The spillover effect in areas near the intervention zone demonstrates that stronger regulations are also needed in legal gold mining areas, to help mitigate the environmental effects," says Dethier. "But this intervention did have some of the intended effects, limiting mining in a protected area for a sustained period."

To assess Operation Mercury's impact on mining activity, the research team drew on satellite data from 2016 to 2021 from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2. Data were obtained from nine mining areas: four illegal mining areas targeted by the intervention, two legal areas to the north on the other side of the Interoceanic Highway, and three distant sites that were not part of the enforcement, which served as a control for the study.

Using the radar and multispectral data, the researchers were able to quantify changes in water, water quality, mining pond areas, and deforestation in La Pampa following Operation Mercury, by comparing data from before, during, and after the intervention.

As part of the analysis, the team examined the spectral properties of the mining ponds and changes in pond color. Mining ponds typically take on a yellow color, which acts as a marker for gold mining activity. The "yellowness" of the ponds is associated with increases in suspended sediment in the water, according to prior research led by Dethier.

Through gold mining processes, sediment is churned up from the land, creating turbid water with lower reflectance levels, while clearer water has higher reflectance. After Operation Mercury was implemented, reflectance increased in mining ponds in La Pampa south but then stabilized.

Following Operation Mercury, pond yellowness decreased rapidly after mining activity was suspended in all areas of La Pampa, except in the north. In La Pampa northwest, mining activity spiked and pond yellowness increased by 43%, as compared to before the intervention. In La Pampa northeast, yellowness remained stable due to continued mining activity.

"Like many other countries around the world with highly prized natural resources, with Peru's rich deposits of gold, it has had to determine who controls this extractable resource and how this particular mining sector will be formed," says co-author David A. Lutz, a research assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth.

By January 2023, when this paper was under review by the journal, illegal gold mining had resumed in protected areas, as enforcement and anticorruption activities by the military and national police had ceased, once they were redeployed to focus on the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Our results demonstrate how intervention at the federal level can effectively stop illegal mining in Peru," says Dethier. "But that is just one aspect of the problem, as a multifaceted approach is necessary to address the long-term impacts of both illegal and legal gold mining activity on humans, wildlife and the environment in the Madre de Dios watershed."

Dethier says that "strong governance and conservation and remediation strategies are needed to protect this tropical biodiversity hotspot. And, as we continue to show in our related work, this challenge is a global phenomenon."

Dethier, Lutz, and others just published a related study that showed the rise of similar mining operations in 49 countries across the global tropics. They showed that as much as 7% of large tropical rivers have been degraded by these expanding mining operations.

More information: Evan N. Dethier et al, Operation mercury: Impacts of national‐level armed forces intervention and anticorruption strategy on artisanal gold mining and water quality in the Peruvian Amazon, Conservation Letters (2023). DOI: 10.1111/conl.12978

Journal information: Conservation Letters

Provided by Dartmouth College Illegal gold mining continues to harm Amazon ecosystem

Diamond materials as solar-powered electrodes: Spectroscopy shows what's important

by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres

It sounds like magic: photoelectrodes could convert the greenhouse gas CO2 back into methanol or N2 molecules into valuable fertilizer—using only the energy of sunlight.

An HZB study has now shown that diamond materials are in principle suitable for such photoelectrodes. By combining X-ray spectroscopic techniques at BESSY II with other measurement methods, Tristan Petit's team has succeeded for the first time in precisely tracking which processes are excited by light as well as the crucial role of the surface of the diamond materials.

At first glance, lab-grown diamond materials have little in common with their namesakes in the jewelry shop. They are often opaque, dark and look not spectacular at all. But even if their looks are unimpressive, they are promising in many different applications, for example in brain implants, quantum sensors and computers, as well as metal-free photoelectrode in photo-electrochemical energy conversion.

They are fully sustainable and made of carbon only, they degrade little in time compared to metal-based photoelectrodes and they can be industrially produced!

Diamond materials are suitable as metal-free photoelectrodes because when excited by light, they can release electrons in water and trigger chemical reactions that are difficult to initiate otherwise. A concrete example is the reduction of CO2 to methanol which turns the greenhouse gas into a valuable fuel. It would also be exciting to use diamond materials to convert N2 into nitrogen fertilizer NH3, using much less energy than the Haber-Bosch process.

However, diamond electrodes oxidize in water and oxidized surfaces, it was assumed, no longer emit electrons into the water. In addition, the bandgap of diamond is in the UV range (at 5.5 eV), so visible light is unlikely to be sufficient to excite electrons. In spite of this expectation, previous studies have shown puzzling emission of electrons from visible light excitation. A new study by Dr. Tristan Petit's group at HZB now brings new insights and gives cause for hope.

Dr. Arsène Chemin, a postdoctoral researcher in Petit's team, studied samples of diamond materials produced at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics in Freiburg. The samples were engineered to facilitate the CO2 reduction reaction: doped with boron to insure good electrical conductivity and nanostructured, which gives them huge surfaces to increase the emission of charge carriers such as electrons.

Chemin used four X-ray spectroscopic methods at BESSY II to characterize the surface of the sample and the energy needed to excite specific electronic surface states. Then, he used the surface photovoltage measured in a specialized laboratory at HZB to determine which ones of these states are excited and how the charge carriers are displaced in the samples. In complement, he measured the photoemission of electrons of samples either in air or in liquid.

By combining these results, he was able for the first time to draw a comprehensive picture of the processes that take place on the surfaces of the sample after excitation by light.

"Surprisingly, we found almost no difference in the photoemission of charges in liquid, regardless of whether the samples were oxidized or not," says Chemin. This shows that diamond materials are well suited for use in aqueous solutions. Excitation with visible light is also possible: in the case of the boron-doped samples, violet light (3.5 eV) is sufficient to excite the electrons.

"These results are a great cause for optimism," says Chemin: "With diamond materials we have a new class of materials that can be explored and widely used." What's more, also the methodology of this study is interesting: The combination of these different spectroscopic methods could also lead to new breakthroughs in other photoactive semiconductor materials, the physicist points out.

The work is published in the journal Small Methods.

More information: Arsène Chemin et al, Surface‐Mediated Charge Transfer of Photogenerated Carriers in Diamond, Small Methods (2023). DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202300423

Journal information: Small Methods

Provided by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres Exploring nanodiamonds that can be activated as photocatalysts with sunlight

Researcher uncovers how stereotypes about brilliance shape women's decisions to study psychology or philosophy

by Patty Cox, Florida State University

Even though women in high school and college tend to outperform men academically, they still internalize the stereotype that brilliance is more linked to men. This belief affects their choice of major and perpetuates gender gaps in academic fields, according to a new study by a Florida State University researcher.

Heather M. Maranges, a research fellow in the Department of Human Development and Family Science, compared the fields of philosophy and psychology to explore factors that contribute to these disparities. This study is published in the journal Sex Roles.

Philosophy and psychology share historical and topical overlap and have long been known for their inverse gender gaps. More men than women study philosophy, while more women opt to study psychology. These gaps begin to develop at the undergraduate level, after introductory classes before majors are chosen, and perpetuate through graduate school and into academic careers.

Past research on gender gaps has focused on comparing STEM fields, which are perceived as requiring high brilliance and where women are underrepresented, to humanities and education, which are perceived to require less brilliance and where women are overrepresented, Maranges said.

"Missing from prior research was the ability to isolate the most important factors contributing to gender gaps by comparing fields that are more similar, such as philosophy and psychology," she said. "Our objective was to consider how stereotypes about brilliance versus mindsets about intelligence might differently affect men and women's decisions about what to study."

Maranges conducted the research with an interdisciplinary team at Concordia University in Montreal. The team surveyed 467 undergraduate students studying philosophy and psychology in universities across the United States and Canada.

The study found that brilliance beliefs about oneself—beliefs that a person has especially high levels of innate intelligence—played a crucial role in shaping students' academic choices.

Specifically, women who believed they were not as brilliant as men tended to major in psychology, which people perceived as requiring less brilliance than philosophy, regardless of their own gender. But men's major choices were not strongly influenced by their self-perceptions of brilliance.

Surprisingly, intelligence mindsets did not play a significant role. Whether people believed that intelligence could be grown through hard work and effort (growth mindset) or that it was unmalleable and innate (fixed mindset) did not contribute to their choice of what to study.

"This is striking, given that women come into university with objective markers of academic ability, such as higher GPAs, and that academic psychology requires the similar types of thinking as philosophy but also statistical abilities," Maranges said.

The findings suggest internalized beliefs about the gendered nature of brilliance are crucial in understanding why men and women tend to pursue different academic fields, she said.

"By addressing brilliance beliefs, we can open doors for capable and interested individuals of all genders and other unrepresented groups by allowing actual abilities and interests to play out, reducing disparities across academic fields," she said.

More information: Heather M. Maranges et al, Brilliance Beliefs, Not Mindsets, Explain Inverse Gender Gaps in Psychology and Philosophy, Sex Roles (2023). DOI: 10.1007/s11199-023-01406-5

Journal information: Sex Roles

Provided by Florida State University Academic fields valuing 'brilliance' less welcoming to women, new analysis shows

Teacher well-being not a priority in schools, experts warn

by Taylor & Francis

Against a backdrop of funding shortages and recruitment issues across the education sector, two education experts argue that equipping leaders with more soft skills will improve mental health and well-being in school staff.

In the U.K., the government has just announced it is establishing a taskforce to look at reducing teacher workload, with representatives from across the education sector.

"There is a clear and urgent need to make schools better places to work," School well-being expert Mark Solomons explains, "school leaders need the skills to enact change and quickly."

What exactly is the problem?

Solomons and education journalist Fran Abrams have co-authored a new book to help schools to build a culture of well-being and to ensure staff are not overworked or stressed, called "What Makes Teachers Unhappy, and What Can You Do About it?"

Solomons and Abrams have extensively examined current research and policy to inform a guide for school leaders, which argues staff well-being should be rooted in the culture and climate of all schools. It provides a roadmap to recovery for schools, colleges and multi-academy trusts, which will lead to improvements in staff morale, workload management and mental well-being.

Solomons explains, "School leaders are often under-supported and underprepared to take on something as challenging as staff well-being in a high-stress environment."

The book provides psychological techniques for school leaders to bolster their own resilience and well-being, something the authors argue is crucial before trying to improve team morale.

Utilizing up-to-date research, the authors advise leaders on how to support staff well-being and reduce stress.

"The issue is that leaders in schools are a product of their knowledge and experience. Often they are a teacher or support staff member one day, then the next they are leading a team, often with no or little training. And they usually have to continue to do more than 80 percent of their previous job."

The guide shows how to effectively audit a school's well-being support on a whole-school and individual level, as well as offering ways to address and improve any gaps.

Structural and systemic failures

The U.K.'s Department for Education (DfE) has this week announced it is planning an update to its teacher recruitment and retention strategy, with a priority to "create the right climate for leaders to establish supportive school cultures."

In "What Makes Teachers Unhappy," the authors analyzed the DfE's Education Staff Well-being Charter, which was published in 2021 and asked schools to sign up to a number of pledges on staff well-being.

They found only minor updates to the charter had been posted on the DfE website, none of them providing updates on its pledges.

"It is encouraging that the DfE has renewed its interest in staff well-being," Solomons says. "By creating an environment that supports staff development and encourages staff to make decisions, take responsibility and learn from mistakes, rather than being judged from them, it's possible to improve staff well-being and deliver significant benefits to school leaders and students. In short, it's vital that well-being is built into the culture of organizations from top to bottom if real and lasting change is to take place.

"The failure isn't at an individual level, people are thrust into positions they have had no real training for—and with the background landscape of funding cuts and long hours, it's no wonder the education system seems to be in permanent crisis."

The book, which features a range of real-life examples, will be published by Routledge on September 26. It will focus on how school leaders can build workplace well-being in even the current challenging environment.

More information: Mark Solomons et al, What Makes Teachers Unhappy, and What Can You Do About It? Building a Culture of Staff Wellbeing (2023). DOI: 10.4324/9781003315766

Provided by Taylor & Francis Online tool to support delivery of 'whole school' approach to food

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