THE APE OF THOTH

On the trail of a great mystery

An interdisciplinary project led by primatologist Gisela Kopp is using genetic analysis to determine the geographic origin of mummified baboons found in ancient Egypt.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF KONSTANZ

In ancient Egypt, various deities were portrayed as animals. Thoth, the god of learning and wisdom was represented by a hamadryas baboon. Baboons, probably held in captivity in Egypt, were mummified as votive offerings after their deaths. Today, no wild baboons live in Egypt, and there is no evidence to suggest that these primates did so in the past. In an interdisciplinary project involving biologists, Egyptologists and anthropologists, Gisela Kopp, a biologist from Konstanz who conducts research on non-human primates, pursued the question of how and from where baboons came to Egypt. The results have been published in the current issue of the journal eLife.

Baboons were imported
To pay homage to the deity Thoth, baboons were probably imported from distant regions and kept in captivity in ancient Egypt. As studies of skeletons show, they had their dangerous canine teeth removed. To determine the geographic origin of the baboons, Gisela Kopp and her team used genetic analyses. The region from which the animals originate can be determined with the help of the mitochondrial genome of the animal mummies. The distribution of baboons across the African continent and their genetic diversity is well studied.

"We have comparative samples from almost all regions where baboons live today," Gisela Kopp says. These were supplemented with approximately 100 to 150-year-old specimens from museum collections. Comparisons of samples from the widely separated time periods are possible because the location of the different genetic variants of the baboon populations is very consistent over time.

Comparative sample points to Adulis
One of the study's collaborators, anthropologist Nathaniel Dominy from Dartmouth College in the United States, had already used stable isotopes to identify the respective geographic locations of mummified baboons. This method of using chemical signatures can be employed to distinguish between where animals were born and where they grew up. The study, published in 2020, was able to identify the Horn of Africa as the baboons’ region of origin. Using genetic analysis, which has higher geographic precision and can also determine where the animals and their ancestors came from originally, the location was narrowed down to a well-defined area in Eritrea and neighbouring regions. A comparative sample that was most similar to the genetic variant of the mummy specimen originates from the coastal region in Eritrea, where, in ancient times, the port of Adulis was probably located. Ancient texts refer to Adulis as a trading place for luxury goods and animals.

The mummy specimen used by Gisela Kopp and her team was excavated in 1905 in the "Valley of the Monkeys" and is now held in the Musée des Confluences in Lyon. The mummy is estimated to date back to between 800 and 500 BCE in the Late Period of ancient Egypt. This is long before Adulis flourished as an important trading centre and port.

Early historical texts mention Punt as the baboons' place of origin, a legendary region from which Egypt imported luxury goods for centuries until early in the first millennium BCE. However, the exact location of Punt is unknown. "Egyptologists have long puzzled over Punt, since some scholars have seen it as a location in early global maritime trade networks, and thus the starting point for economic globalization", says Gisela Kopp.

Egyptology provides the link between Punt and Adulis
Punt is documented in ancient illustrations and texts from the same period as the mummy specimens. The Egyptological expertise in the project made it possible to link Punt to Adulis. "The specimen we studied fits chronologically with the last known expeditions to Punt. Geographically, however, it fits Adulis, a location that, centuries later, was known as a trading place, also for primates. We hypothesize that Punt and Adulis are two different names for the same place that were used at different points in time", Gisela Kopp says. And: "It was only after we put our biological findings in the context of historical research that the story really came together."

In the field of biology itself the findings are a scientific breakthrough, because it was the first time that ancient DNA from mummified non-human primates was analyzed successfully. This opens up opportunities to study, for example, the impact of human-wildlife interactions on genetic diversity and their role in the transmission of diseases. The contact ancient Egyptians had with exotic animals is evidence for early intensive interactions between wild animals and humans. The mass mummification of different animal species and primates is a very extraordinary cultural practice.

The representation of baboons in images and artwork since antiquity is only found in Egypt. We do not know what made these primates special to people at that time and why they were elevated to the role of representing the deity Thoth. People that share an environment with baboons usually do not hold the animals in high regard. For these people, baboons were and are considered a nuisance and pest for damaging crops.

 

Key facts:

• Original publication: Franziska Grathwol, Christian Roos, Dietmar Zinner, Benjamin Hume, Stéphanie M Porcier, Didier Berthet, Jacques Cuisin Stefan Merker, Claudio Ottoni, Wim Van Neer, Nathaniel J. Dominy, Gisela H. Kopp: Adulis and the transshipment of baboons during classical antiquity. eLife 12:e87513. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.87513
• Interdisciplinary cooperative project of biologists, Egyptologists and anthropologists is using genetic analysis to search for the geographic origins of mummified baboons found in ancient Egypt. The team finds evidence that the two legendary trading regions of Punt and Adulis may have been the same place separated by a thousand years of history

• Project is led by primate researcher Dr Gisela Kopp, who is a member of the University of Konstanz's Zukunftskolleg and is associated with the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

• Funding for the study provided by the Young Scholar Fund and the Zukunftskolleg at the University of Konstanz in the context of the German Excellence Strategy as well as Die Junge Akademie of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• Nathaniel J. Dominy was supported by a Senior Fellowship from the Zukunftskolleg; Gisela H. Kopp is currently supported by a Hector Pioneer Fellowship from the Hector-Stiftung II and the Zukunftskolleg.

 

Note to editors:
You can download images here:

Photo: https://www.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2023/einem_grossen_mysterium.jpg

Caption: Gisela Kopp

Copyright: University of Konstanz/Ulrike Sommer

 

Photo: https://www.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2023/einem_grossen_mysterium_Pavian.jpg

Caption: The first sequenced mitogenome of a mummified non-human primate connects an Egyptian baboon dated to ca. 800-540 BCE to modern baboon populations in Eritrea, Ethiopia and eastern Sudan, providing evidence for Egyptian-Adulite trade centuries earlier than current archaeological evidence.
 

Copyright: Illustration © 2023 by Mike Costelloe is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

 

---

JOURNAL

eLife

DOI

10.7554/eLife.87513 

 

Banana trees to fight wildfires

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PNAS NEXUS

 

IMAGE: 

WORKFLOW FOR MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF EDIBLE FIRE BUFFERS USING EXISTING SOFTWARE TOOLS AND DATASETS, INCLUDING POSTSIMULATION CONSIDERATIONS SUCH AS SITE SELECTION AND BENEFITS. GREEN SPECIFIES INPUT COMPONENTS, BLUE SPECIFIES OUTPUT COMPONENTS WE VALIDATED, AND RED SPECIFIES POTENTIAL RESULTS WE DISCUSS BUT DID NOT VALIDATE.

view more 

CREDIT: FU ET AL.

Fire buffers composed of irrigated banana trees could slow and calm wildfires and generate profit for residents of fire-prone regions, according to a study. Climate change is increasing wildfire risk. Wildfires in the Western United States doubled in frequency between 1984 and 2015. At the same time, more people are living in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) than ever before, an area that often has high or extreme fire risk. Barath Raghavan and colleagues investigate the potential of banana trees to act as a multifunctional fire buffer in the WUI. Banana trees have a high water content, ideal for stopping fire. When irrigated by recycled water, they can produce high-value crops. The team used a suite of models to simulate the behavior of the real 2017 Tubbs Fire, in Sonoma County, California, if banana tree buffers had been in place. Banana tree buffers 633 meters wide would have reduced the intensity of the fire by 96%, according to the model—a similar effect to that produced by treating forest areas with mechanical thinning and prescribed burning. When not slowing and calming fires, the banana trees could generate an estimated profit of $76,136 per hectare. Even if burned, bananas will resprout from their corms. Succulent ground covers could prevent flammable grasses from growing amongst the bananas. According to the authors, the results should be generally applicable to much of California, and to other areas with a Mediterranean climate, including regions of Mexico, Chile, Australia, and South Africa, and the Mediterranean Basin itself. 

---

JOURNAL

PNAS Nexus

ARTICLE TITLE

Edible fire buffers: mitigation of wildfire with multifunctional landscapes

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Oct-2023

Burning sugarcane possible cause of mystery kidney disease in agricultural workers

CU Anschutz researchers worked with doctors in El Salvador to identify high levels of silica nanoparticles in kidney tissue of patients with mysterious disease

QUIT BURNING USE IT AS BIOFUEL

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO ANSCHUTZ MEDICAL CAMPUS

AURORA, Colorado (October 23, 2023) - The burning of sugarcane and rice husks may be releasing a toxicant causing a mysterious kidney disease in agricultural workers, according to a paper out today in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.

An ongoing epidemic of chronic kidney disease has been observed among manual laborers in hot agricultural communities throughout the world, including along the Pacific coast of Central America, India and Sri Lanka. While heat stress and climate change have contributed to this epidemic, researchers have identified tiny silica particles released from sugarcane ash that can be inhaled or ingested through contaminated drinking water that cause chronic kidney damage.

“To date, there are no studies we are aware of that have identified a toxicant that can cause chronic kidney disease which is actually present in kidney tissues of patients suffering from this unknown disease,” says Jared Brown, PhD, professor at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and one of the senior authors. “These data provide an important clue to the mystery and suggests that in addition to heat stress from climate change that toxicants from sugarcane ash could be contributing to the disease.”  

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus worked with doctors at Hospital Rosales in San Salvador, El Salvador to evaluate patients suffering from this mysterious chronic kidney disease. The authors found significantly more silica particles in the kidney tissue of patients with this particular disease compared to patients with other known kidney diseases. The study suggests the disease could result from exposure to sugarcane ash, which contains amorphous silica nanoparticles. This process may also be linked to people who work in rice paddies, as the burning of the rice paddies, which is also commonly done, can also lead to the release of silica-containing ash.

“While this data is preliminary, we can determine that the burning of sugarcane may not only be contributing to climate change, but it may have a role in the epidemic that has been affecting agricultural workers,” says Richard Johnson, MD, CU Anschutz School of Medicine professor and one of the senior authors. “This disease is identified as one of the first newly recognized diseases resulting specifically from a warming climate. Now we know toxicants are also involved. Hopefully this work will spur efforts to focus on sugarcane burning as a potential risk factor for the development of this mysterious kidney disease in workers and people who live adjacent to sugarcane fields.”

About the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is a world-class medical destination at the forefront of transformative science, medicine, education and patient care. The campus encompasses the University of Colorado health professional schools, more than 60 centers and institutes, and two nationally ranked independent hospitals - UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital and Children's Hospital Colorado - that treat more than two million adult and pediatric patients each year. Innovative, interconnected and highly collaborative, the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus delivers life-changing treatments, patient care and professional training and conducts world-renowned research fueled by over $690 million in research grants. For more information, visit www.cuanschutz.edu.

 

---

JOURNAL

American Journal of Kidney Diseases

DOI

10.1053/j.ajkd.2023.06.010 

ARTICLE TITLE

Silica Nanoparticles and Mesoamerican Nephropathy: A Case Series

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

23-Oct-2023

 

The true costs of corn

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PNAS NEXUS

 

IMAGE: 

SPATIAL PATTERN OF IMPROVEMENTS IN NET BENEFITS OF MAIZE PRODUCTION. TOP: NET BENEFITS (FARMER PROFITS MINUS POLLUTION COSTS) PER T OF MAIZE GROWN IN MIDWEST COUNTIES FOR CURRENT PRACTICES (LEFT) AND THREE CHANGES IN AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES: LIMITING NH3 LOSS (CENTER, LEFT); LIMITING NH3 LOSS PLUS LOWERING N INPUT (CENTER, RIGHT); AND LIMITING NH3 LOSS PLUS LOWERING N INPUT PLUS LAND RETIREMENT (RIGHT). COUNTIES WITH GRAY SHADING (RIGHT-MOST PANEL) RETIRE LAND FROM PRODUCTION. BOTTOM: COUNTIES RANKED FROM LARGESTTO SMALLEST NET BENEFITS PER T(LEFTTO RIGHT). THE GREEN AREA ABOVE THE HORIZONTAL LINE REPRESENTS THE CUMULATIVE NET BENEFITS OF PRODUCTION IN COUNTIES WHERE PROFITS EXCEED POLLUTION COSTS, AND PURPLE AREAS BELOW THE HORIZONTAL LINE REPRESENT THE CUMULATIVE NET COSTS IN COUNTIES WHERE THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE.

view more 

CREDIT: GOODKIND ET AL.

A model examines farmers’ profits and the health and environmental costs of growing corn in the US Midwest, where about 20% of the world’s corn is grown. Corn farming involves applying fertilizer or manure to provide the crop with nitrogen, a vital nutrient. But around half of the nitrogen added to fields never makes it into the crop, and instead enters the environment, either through the air or the water. Andrew L. Goodkind and colleagues set out to model the costs and benefits of corn farming, both under current nitrogen management and alternative approaches. In particular, the authors were interested in capturing the costs associated with air pollution, which have not been as well studied as the costs associated with water pollution. The authors find that the health and environmental costs of current management practices are $25.6 billion per year, far exceeding farmer profits, which averaged $4.3 billion per year from 2013–2022. Emissions in the form of ammonia are responsible for 65% of the costs of nitrogen use. Ammonia forms fine particulate matter that, when inhaled, is associated with a myriad of health conditions. The team then considered several management alternatives, including injecting fertilizer into the ground to reduce air emissions, or reducing fertilizer application rates. Implementing both changes makes corn profits higher than health and environmental costs for the Midwest as a whole, turning net losses into net gains. For some counties, however, costs still outweigh benefits, even after management changes. For these areas, located largely in Indiana, southern Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan, retiring land from corn production may be the best option, according to the authors.

---

JOURNAL

PNAS Nexus

ARTICLE TITLE

Managing nitrogen in maize production for societal gain

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Oct-2023

 

Givers to crowdfunding campaigns enjoy vicarious success

But process “just not as democratic as it seems,” study finds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN

 

IMAGE: 

A RECENT STUDY HAS FOUND THAT CONTRIBUTORS TO CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGNS GIVE, IN PART, TO ENJOY A VICARIOUS SENSE OF SUCCESS AMD FEEL PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER THAN THEMSELVES. BUT DESPITE ITS FRAMING, CROWDFUNDING IS "JUST NOT AS DEMOCRATIC AS IT SEEMS," THE RESEARCHERS SAID.

view more 

CREDIT: KRISTEN LABADIE, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA–LINCOLN

Why would someone decide to give their money to help a stranger bring a creative project to life?

Recent research has found that backers of crowdfunding projects participate, in part, because of a sense of indirect success and the feeling that they are contributing to something bigger.

Crowdfunding — raising money for a new venture by collecting small amounts from many people — is most often done online, and messaging on the most popular sites reinforces the perception of a more democratic market.

But the reality is a bit more complicated, the researchers said, because backers tend to come from similar groups of people and give to certain categories of projects.

“They tend to give money to projects they find cool,” said Andre Maciel, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. “That limits the democratizing potential of crowdfunding… In the aggregate, there’s this effect that specific project categories tend to be more funded than others.”

Maciel and his co-author, Michelle Weinberger of Northwestern University, wanted to examine why ordinary people would give interest-free money to businesses and to understand the culture of crowdfunding.

Unlike traditional investing, people giving to crowdfunding campaigns do not have any legal guarantee that the money — usually less than $50 — will be used as promised. And they usually get no return on their investment beyond something like a mug or T-shirt.

“People could essentially run with their money, and nothing would happen to them,” Maciel said. “Maybe their reputation would get bruised, but there’s no legal contract there. So we started wondering: What’s the social contract that binds all those different parties together?”

The researchers made a distinction between reward-based crowdfunding and charity donation, with their study looking at projects such as a music album, cookbook or toy, rather than the type that would help pay for medical bills. Maciel said it’s an important phenomenon to understand because it’s a relatively new funding model for businesses, and one that is rapidly growing in scale.

“In 15 years, we’re talking about 200,000 new innovations coming to the market only through Kickstarter,” he said. “If you look at all the platforms together, it might be more than half a million.”

Maciel and his Weinberger interviewed a sample of all involved stakeholders: platform representatives, producers and consumers. They then analyzed the platforms’ websites and their messaging on what crowdfunding is. The duo also visited the offices of a leading crowdfunding platform. Finally, they became backers themselves, giving to eight campaigns from a variety of categories on two platforms.

The researchers found that crowdfunding platforms create a narrative of a more democratic process, enabling people to decide which products enter the market. Platform websites do this in part through language, such as referring to a “project” instead of a “business” or to a “pledge” instead of a “payment.” The websites also employ idealistic messaging about a higher purpose and collective action.

The study concluded that people who give to campaigns get a vicarious sense of success. When a campaign succeeds, contributors feel they are part of something bigger than themselves and gain a sense of ownership of the product, the researchers said.

“You’re not going through the pains of developing an idea, the emotional costs,” Maciel said. “And yet, even though they give, usually, small amounts of money, many consumers feel thrilled when a project comes to life.”

Backers also reported they liked getting behind-the-scenes information and some insider knowledge about the process, including explanations about delays in the project and information about how producers are tackling hurdles.

The study additionally found that a negative experience with a crowdfunding campaign doesn’t necessarily deter people from backing others in the future. Consumers view projects individually and don’t assume that a delayed or unsuccessful campaign will translate to others. If this happens repeatedly, however, they might be more likely to stop giving.

The team also determined that the campaigns attract a certain kind of consumer, meaning the model often falls short of its promise of a more democratic market. The researchers discovered that backers tend to be people who work in creative fields, such as web designers, fashion designers and writers, and that they give to projects that match individual interests rather than ones that address collective societal needs. The result is that campaigns in areas such as music, film, publishing and gaming are more likely to succeed.

“Crowdfunding does expand access to the market, but it’s just not as democratic as it seems,” Maciel said. “It is democratic because people get to choose, but it’s not egalitarian.”

Having focused on the relationship between platform and consumers, the team intends to shift next to the relationship between platforms and producers. Maciel and Weinberger will look at what keeps producers from misusing funds and the benefits of choosing crowdfunding over a loan or other source of funds.

---

JOURNAL

Journal of Consumer Research

 

Closing digital skills gap could spur global economic growth by $11.5 trillion

The digital revolution will require reskilling at least half of today’s employees, according to research in a new book.

Book Announcement

TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP

• This significant lack of expertise means firms are not fully embracing the automation revolution, costing businesses valuable time and money.

• Intelligent Automation: Bridging the Gap between Business and Academia delves into how companies and universities can use intelligent automation to address the challenges preventing the workforce from prospering amid the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

 

(NEW YORK – October 16, 2023) The economic benefits of intelligent automation are vast, potentially totaling trillions of dollars in economic growth, according to research in a new book.

Businesses and organizations need to be prepared with proactive digital strategies in order to tap into these benefits, ensuring sustained economic growth, the book asserts.

Intelligent Automation: Bridging the Gap Between Business and Academia highlights the huge hurdles that the public and private sector, as well as universities must overcome if countries are to realize the full benefits of the digital revolution.

Lead co-editor Marie Myers collects a series of expert opinions from across industries to illustrate how companies and educational institutions can collectively and individually upskill their workforce.

“The advent of intelligent automation presents a golden opportunity for nations worldwide. Through collaboration and forward-thinking, we are on the brink of an exciting era of prosperity and progress,” Myers explains.

“Yet, today, very few academic institutions have the vision or dedicated resources to prepare students to work with Intelligent Automation adequately. Frankly, greater investments in this area are sorely needed – this is our future.”

Major transformation

The book’s other co-editors, visionary business strategist and lecturer Carol Brace and Assistant Professor Lila Carden, explore the future of work citing statistics that show the global digital transformation market is expected to grow from $470 billion in 2020 to $1 trillion by 2025.

But according to digital analysts, digital transformation is taking organizations twice as long, and costing at least twice as much, partly due to their workforce’s lack of digital readiness.

The duo suggest that businesses must continue to focus on the skills and capabilities of their workforce to remain competitive and keep up with the ever-changing pace of the digital era. One way to do that is to partner with academic institutions to create a steady pipeline of digitally fluent workers.

“The shift in the division of labor between humans and machines has led to digital transformation initiatives requiring new digital skills and new digital roles. While the demand for digital skills is high, the supply is low, and businesses are challenged to find individuals with the essential digital skills required.

“To close the gap, we recommend a framework that is based on a close partnership between organizations and academic institutions,” says Brace.

And according to the authors. the digital revolution will require the reskilling of at least 50% of employees and 40% of their core skills will need updating to meet rising digital intensity and demands.

Insightful strategies

Highlighting the scale of the problem, the book draws on expertise from a wide range of strategy, technology, and supply chain and logistics experts to provide actionable remedies.

The book provides practical guidance in navigating change in any organization, with insight from Shail Khiyara, widely regarded as a unicorn in the automation industry; Aftab Ahmed, Compliance and IT Audit Manager at oil giant ConocoPhillips; Digital Process Automation expert Kriti Kapoor; intelligent automation solutions expert Partha Baral; Digital Process and Automation professional Bobby Jutley; Assistant Professor Dr. Tiffany Moldano; Director of Intelligent Automation at VMware Neeraj Mathur.

Importantly, some of the contributors stress the human element amid the tech revolution, noting that organizational and cultural change are vital aspects of any aspirations surrounding automation.

Furthermore, readers are given strategies to help them introduce technological and workflow changes to their organizations with examples of best practices.

This approach equips business leaders and educators with the ability to implement the right tools and strategies to deal with the digital disruptions of today and tomorrow.

Towards a better balance

Myers and her co-editors tackle live work-centric debates intrinsically linked to automation, including helping workers achieve a better work-life balance.

Technology is hailed as a tool that can be used to conduct routine, mundane tasks for humans, but as the authors state, this won’t happen at the click of a button.

Firms must ensure they fully understand how and where automation could fit into their organization, explore the best and most effective ways to upskill their employees, and employ a collaborative team approach when implementing new systems and strategies.

“I am intrigued and excited about a more automated enterprise that allows people to focus on value-added and interesting work, and leave the more mundane, routine-bound work to the bots,” Myers said.

“With the current gap in digital skills in the global economy, and an increasing desire for more leisure time, few options will enable this change. However, if organizations embrace intelligent automation and generative AI, we firmly believe that the convergence of these two groundbreaking technologies will revolutionize the way we work for generations to come."

---

DOI

10.1201/9781003276128 

 

Study: School debate programs linked to improvements in academic achievement, graduation rates, and college enrollment

Impacts are largest among students who were lowest achieving prior to participation

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

Washington, October 24, 2023—Participating in policy debate programs in middle and high school is associated with improvements in English language arts (ELA) achievement and increases in the likelihood that students graduate from high school and enroll in postsecondary education, according to new research. The study was published today in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association. It was conducted by Beth Schueler from the University of Virginia and Katherine Larned from Harvard University.

Video: Study co-author Beth Schueler discusses major findings and implications

Policy debate is an interscholastic, competitive, extracurricular activity in which teams of students engage in structured argumentation about public policy issues. Participants focus on a single resolution for the entire academic year, which requires them to learn about one policy area in depth.

Typically, extracurricular debate programs are disproportionately found in private and high-income public schools. However, this study was conducted in the context of the Boston Public Schools, where the Boston Debate League, a nonprofit, serves a student population that is majority low income and students of color.

The study relied on data from the Boston Debate League, Boston Public Schools, and the National Student Clearinghouse for students enrolled in Boston Public Schools during the 2007–08 to 2017–18 school years. It included the 3,515 students who participated in the Boston Debate League over that time.

“We found that debate was linked to improvements not only in overall ELA achievement but specifically in those ELA competencies requiring critical thinking skills,” said Schueler, assistant professor of education and public policy at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development. “The impact was almost entirely concentrated among reading subskills that involve more analysis and argumentation.”

The impacts were substantial, translating to roughly 68 percent of the learning in ELA that typically takes place over the course of the ninth-grade year. The gains were largest among students who were lowest performing at baseline, suggesting that policy debate does not need to be reserved for high-achieving students.

The authors also examined effects on high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment, finding positive impacts driven by increased enrollment in four-year colleges and universities.

“These results provide policymakers a rare promising program for reducing inequality in reading achievement, analytical thinking skills, and educational attainment among middle and high school students,” said Larned, a fellow and doctoral student in the education policy and program evaluation program at Harvard University. “Debate programs are cost-effective relative to other high-profile interventions and therefore have great potential for scalability.”

The authors pointed out that researchers have uncovered very few interventions that generate impacts of this magnitude for secondary school students, especially on literacy outcomes. School leaders looking to boost ELA outcomes could look to this type of extracurricular activity for supporting older students in learning.

“Policy debate appears to be a rare strategy for improving literacy skills among middle and high school students,” said Schueler. “It helps to demonstrate that secondary school is not ‘too late’ to support student progress in reading.”

There are likely implications for teachers working in traditional classrooms. Some professional development programs have been designed to help teachers infuse key principles of debate pedagogy into regular classrooms. The authors suggested that researchers should explore the effectiveness of these programs to help uncover the extent to which debate would generalize to students who do not opt for the extracurricular activity.

The authors also recommended that future research should examine the relative effectiveness of different extracurricular activities, as well as further assess policy debate’s impact on critical thinking, argumentation skills, and other competencies needed for academic and civic participation, such as social perspective taking, media literacy, ability to distinguish fact from opinion, and engagement with the policy process.

Study citation: Schueler, B., & Larned, K. (2023). Interscholastic policy debate promotes critical thinking and college-going: Evidence from Boston Public Schools. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Prepublished October 24, 2023. http://doi.org/10.3102/01623737231200234

###

About AERA

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the largest national interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning. Founded in 1916, AERA advances knowledge about education, encourages scholarly inquiry related to education, and promotes the use of research to improve education and serve the public good. Find AERA on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

---

JOURNAL

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis

DOI

10.3102/01623737231200234 

ARTICLE TITLE

Interscholastic Policy Debate Promotes Critical Thinking and College-Going: Evidence from Boston Public Schools

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Oct-2023

 

Solar farms in space are possible, say Surrey and Swansea

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

 

IMAGE: 

A CUBESAT MADE AT THE SURREY SPACE CENTRE.

view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

It's viable to produce low-cost, lightweight solar panels that can generate energy in space, according to new research from the Universities of Surrey and Swansea. 

The first study of its kind followed a satellite over six years, observing how the panels generated power and weathered solar radiation over 30,000 orbits. 

The findings could pave the way for commercially viable solar farms in space.

Professor Craig Underwood, Emeritus Professor of Spacecraft Engineering at the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey, said: 

“We are very pleased that a mission designed to last one year is still working after six. These detailed data show the panels have resisted radiation and their thin-film structure has not deteriorated in the harsh thermal and vacuum conditions of space.  

“This ultra-low mass solar cell technology could lead to large, low-cost solar power stations deployed in space, bringing clean energy back to Earth – and now we have the first evidence that the technology works reliably in orbit." 

Researchers from the University of Swansea's Centre for Solar Energy Research developed new solar cells from cadmium telluride. The panels cover a larger area, are more lightweight, and provide far greater power than current technology – as well as being relatively cheap to manufacture. 

Scientists from the University of Surrey designed instruments that measured their performance in orbit. The satellite itself was designed and built at the Surrey Space Centre in partnership with a team of trainee engineers from the Algerian Space Agency (ASAL). 

Although the cells' power output became less efficient over time, researchers believe their findings prove that solar power satellites work and could be commercially viable. 

Dr Dan Lamb from the University of Swansea said  

“The successful flight test of this novel thin film solar cell payload has leveraged funding opportunities to further develop this technology.”

“Large area solar arrays for space applications are a rapidly expanding market and demonstrations such as this help to build on the UK’s world class reputations for space technology.” 

The study has been published in the journal Acta Astronautica.

---

JOURNAL

Acta Astronautica

DOI

10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.08.034 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

IAC-22-C3.3.8 Six years of spaceflight results from the AlSat-1N Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experiment

COI STATEMENT

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.