Tree of life for modern birds revealed

The largest and most complete study pinpoints timing of evolution

AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM

 

IMAGE: 

DR JACQUELINE NGUYEN + PROFESSOR SIMON HO WITH AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM BIRD SPECIMENS 

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CREDIT: JAMES ALCOCK

2 April, 2024, Sydney; In a world first, a team of international scientists including three Australians, Al-Aabid Chowdhury and Professor Simon Ho from University of Sydney, and Dr Jacqueline Nguyen from Australian Museum and Flinders University, have determined the family tree of modern birds and pinpointed the timing of their evolution. Their findings have been published today in Nature.

The largest study ever undertaken of modern bird genomes, the scientists combined genomic data of more than 360 bird species with data from nearly 200 bird fossils to reconstruct the most well-supported Tree of Life for modern birds.

The research revealed that most modern bird groups appeared within a very small evolutionary window of only 5 million years. These findings support the hypothesis that birds made the most of opportunities after an asteroid struck earth 66 million years ago wiping out the dinosaurs.

The comprehensive study was led by Assistant Professor Josefin Stiller from the University of Copenhagen, along with Associate Professor Siavash Mirarab from the University of California, San Diego and Professor Guojie Zhang from Zhejiang University.

“Our study has resolved some previous disputes about the bird family tree and added new nuance to the textbook knowledge of bird evolution,” Assistant Professor Stiller said.

Earlier studies had already established that the 10,000 species of living birds form three major groups. About 500 species belong to the flightless ratites group or the landfowl-waterfowl group, however all other birds form a third large and diverse group called Neoaves.

The latest study has been able to establish deeper understanding of relationships in the Neoaves group, which itself contains 10 major sub-groups of birds. These include the colourfully named ‘Magnificent Seven’, including cuckoos, doves, and flamingos, along with three ‘orphan’ groups of birds whose ancestry has long been uncertain.

Professor Ho, who specialises in evolutionary biology at the University of Sydney, said the research has worked out the evolutionary relationships of the major bird groups.

“With such a huge amount of genome data, our study has been able to provide the clearest picture of the bird family tree so far, particularly among the ‘Magnificent Seven’ and three ‘orphan’ bird groups, which make up 95% of bird species,” Professor Ho said.  

Australian Museum and Flinders University avian palaeontologist, Dr Jacqueline Nguyen, said the fossil information was used to work out the timescale of the bird family tree.

“By combining evidence from nearly 200 bird fossils, we were able to pinpoint an extremely important period of bird diversification that happened immediately after the extinction of the dinosaurs,” Dr Nguyen explained.

The genomes also reveal a new grouping of birds that the researchers have named ‘Elementaves’, inspired by the four ancient elements of earth, air, water and fire. The group includes birds that are successful on land, in the sky, and in water. Some birds have names relating to the sun, representing fire. Penguins, pelicans, swifts, hummingbirds and shorebirds are among the birds that have been placed in Elementaves.

Two of the most well-known groups of birds in Australia, the passerines (songbirds and relatives) and parrots, share a very close relationship. Songbirds include familiar birds such as magpies, ravens, finches, honeyeaters and fairy-wrens. They originated in Australia about 50 million years ago and have become the most successful group of birds, making up nearly half of all bird species worldwide.

Despite the enormous scale of the latest genome study, there is one mystery that continues. The researchers were unable to work out the relationships of the hoatzin, a distinctive bird that is only found in South America and is the sole survivor of its entire lineage.

The findings are the outcome of nearly a decade of research involving scientists from across the globe working together on the Bird 10,000 Genomes Project (B10K), which aims to sequence the complete genomes of every living bird species.

Chief scientist and Director of the Australian Museum Research Institute, Professor Kris Helgen, said that genomic tools have precipitated one of the great revolutions in biological sciences.

“The global scientific community has come together to champion impressive genome projects like Bird 10K. Efforts like these can address long-standing questions about evolution, in this case for all living species of birds. They do this by drawing on new genetics techniques, expertise on anatomy and the fossil record, and carefully curated DNA samples, which are stored behind-the-scenes in the collections of natural history museums in Australia and around the world,” Professor Helgen said.

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-024-07323-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Complexity of avian evolution revealed by family-level genomes

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Apr-2024

We’ve had bird evolution all wrong

A frozen chunk of genome rewrites our understanding of the bird family tree

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

 

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A GREATER FLAMINGO IN MALLORCA, SPAIN. UNRAVELING A GENETIC MYSTERY REVEALED THAT FLAMINGOS AND DOVES ARE MORE DISTANTLY RELATED THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT.

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CREDIT: DANIEL J. FIELD

An enormous meteor spelled doom for most dinosaurs 65 million years ago. But not all. In the aftermath of the extinction event, birds — technically dinosaurs themselves — flourished. 

Scientists have spent centuries trying to organize and sort some 10,000 species of birds into one clear family tree to understand how the last surviving dinosaurs filled the skies. Cheap DNA sequencing should have made this simple, as it has for countless other species.

But birds were prepared to deceive us.

In a pair of new research papers released today, April 1, scientists reveal that another event 65 million years ago misled them about the true family history of birds. They discovered that a section of one chromosome spent millions of years frozen in time, and it refused to mix together with nearby DNA as it should have.  

This section, just two percent of the bird genome, convinced scientists that most birds could be grouped into two major categories, with flamingos and doves as evolutionary cousins. The more accurate family tree, which accounts for the misleading section of the genome, identifies four main groups and identifies flamingos and doves as more distantly related.

“My lab has been chipping away at this problem of bird evolution for longer than I want to think about,” said Edward Braun, Ph.D., the senior author of the paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and a professor of biology at the University of Florida. “We had no idea there would be a big chunk of the genome that behaved unusually. We kind of stumbled onto it.”

Braun supervised an international team of collaborators led by Siavash Mirarab, a professor of computer engineering at the University of California San Diego, to publish their evidence that this sticky chunk of DNA muddied the true history of bird evolution. Mirarab and Braun also contributed to a companion paper published in Nature that outlines the updated bird family tree, which was led by Josefin Stiller at the University of Copenhagen. 

Both papers are part of the B10K avian genomics project led by Guojie Zhang of Zhejiang University, Erich Jarvis of Rockefeller University, and Tom Gilbert of the University of Copenhagen.

Ten years ago, Braun and his collaborators pieced together a family tree for the Neoaves, a group that includes the vast majority of bird species. Based on the genomes of 48 species, they split the Neoaves into two big categories: doves and flamingos in one group, all the rest in the other. When repeating a similar analysis this year using 363 species, a different family tree emerged that split up doves and flamingos into two distinct groups. 

With two mutually exclusive family trees in hand, the scientists went hunting for explanations that could tell them which tree was correct. 

“When we looked at the individual genes and what tree they supported, all of a sudden it popped out that all the genes that support the older tree, they’re all in one spot. That’s what started the whole thing,” Braun said.

Investigating this spot, Braun’s team noticed it was not as mixed together as it should have been over millions of years of sexual reproduction. Like humans, birds combine genes from a father and a mother into the next generation. But birds and humans alike first mix the genes they inherited from their parents when creating sperm and eggs. This process is called recombination, and it maximizes a species’ genetic diversity by making sure no two siblings are quite the same.

Braun’s team found evidence that one section of one bird chromosome had suppressed this recombination process for a few million years around the time the dinosaurs disappeared. Whether the extinction event and the genomic anomalies are related is unclear.

The result was that the flamingos and doves looked similar to one another in this chunk of frozen DNA. But taking into account the full genome, it became clear that the two groups are more distantly related.
“What’s surprising is that this period of suppressed recombination could mislead the analysis,” Braun said. “And because it could mislead the analysis, it was actually detectable more than 60 million years in the future. That's the cool part.” 

Such a mystery could be lurking in the genomes of other organisms as well.

“We discovered this misleading region in birds because we put a lot of energy into sequencing birds’ genomes,” Braun said. “I think there are cases like this out there for other species that are just not known right now.”

This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.

  

A wompoo fruit-dove in Queensland, Australia. Unraveling a genetic mystery revealed that flamingos and doves are more distantly related than previously thought.

CREDIT

Daniel J. Field

  

Two mutually exclusive bird family trees. The top family tree lumps flamingos and doves, in blue and teal respectively, closely together, while the bottom family tree does not. The top family tree was built around distortions in bird genomes that date back to the extinction of the dinosaurs. The bottom family tree is likely more accurate, after accounting for these genomic anamolies.

CREDIT

Edward Braun

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2319506121 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

A region of suppressed recombination misleads neoavian phylogenomics

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Apr-2024

When did the chicken cross the road? New evidence from Central Asia

New research reveals that chickens were widely raised across southern Central Asia from 400 BCE through medieval periods and likely dispersed along the ancient Silk Road

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE OF GEOANTHROPOLOGY

 

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AN EGGSHELL FRAGMENT FROM THE SITE OF BASH TEPA, REPRESENTING ONE OF THE EARLIEST PIECES OF EVIDENCE FOR CHICKENS ON THE SILK ROAD

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CREDIT: ROBERT SPENGLER

Chickens are one of the most economically important animals in the world today. However, the story of their origins and dispersal across the ancient world is still poorly understood. In fact, new archaeological techniques have recently led to the recognition that many finds of bones previously thought to represent early chickens in fact belonged to wild birds. Now, in a new publication, an international team of archaeologists, historians, and biomolecular scientists present the earliest clear evidence for the raising of chickens for egg production, and argue that the loss of seasonal egg laying was the main driver for the dispersal of domestic chickens across Eurasia and northeast Africa. 

Using eggshell fragments collected from 12 archaeological sites spanning roughly 1500 years, the researchers show that chickens were widely raised in Central Asia from approximately 400 BCE to 1000 CE and were likely dispersed along the ancient Silk Road. The abundance of eggshells further suggests that the birds were laying out of season. It was this trait of prolific egg laying, the researchers argue, that made the domestic chicken so attractive to ancient peoples.

To reach these conclusions, the team collected tens of thousands of eggshell fragments from sites located along the main Central Asian corridor of the Silk Road. They then used a method of biomolecular analysis called ZooMS to identify the source of the eggs. Much like genetic analysis, ZooMS can make species identifications from animal remains such as bone, skin and shell, but it relies on protein signals rather than DNA. This makes it a faster and more cost-effective option than genetic analysis.

“This study showcases the potential of ZooMS to shed light on human-animal interactions in the past,” says Dr. Carli Peters, researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and first author of the new paper.

The identification of these shell fragments as chickens, and their abundance throughout the sediment layers at each site, led the researchers to an important conclusion: the birds must have been laying more frequently than their wild ancestor, the red jungle fowl, which nests once per year and typically lays six eggs per clutch.

“This is the earliest evidence for the loss of seasonal egg laying yet identified in the archaeological record,” says Dr. Robert Spengler, leader of the Domestication and Anthropogenic Evolution research group and principal investigator on the study. “This is an important clue for better understanding the mutualistic relationships between humans and animals that resulted in domestication.”

Taken together, the new study suggests an answer to the age-old riddle of the chicken and the egg. In Central Asia, evidence suggests that the ability to lay a multitude of eggs is what made the chicken the chicken we know today – a global species of enormous economic importance. The authors hope that this study will demonstrate the potential of new, cost-effective methods and interdisciplinary collaboration to address long-standing questions about the past.

The breathing pore of an ancient eggshell fragment from the medieval site of Tashbulak in Uzbekistan under high power SEM magnification. The morphology of these breathing pours helps with the identification. 

CREDIT

Robert Spengler

JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-024-46093-2 

ARTICLE TITLE

When Did the Chicken Cross the Road: Archaeological and molecular evidence for ancient chickens in Central Asia

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Apr-2024

Chicks prove vision and touch linked at birth

Study reveals that newly hatched chicks can instantly recognise objects with their vision, even if they've only ever experienced them by touch.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

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• Newly hatched chicks raised in darkness and allowed to touch either a smooth or bumpy cube for 24 hours instantly recognised the object with their vision upon first exposure to light.  

• This suggests chicks can link touch and vision without any prior experience combining these senses, challenging the long-held belief that such integration requires learning.  

• The discovery implies a pre-wired ability in the brain for cross-modal perception, potentially redefining our understanding of animal cognition and sensory processing. 

In a study published in Biology Letters, researchers at Queen Mary University of London have cracked a centuries-old philosophical question about sight and touch. Led by Dr Elisabetta Versace, the team used chicks to finally answer the question posed by William Molyneux in 1688: can someone born blind instantly recognize objects by sight after gaining vision? 

Molyneux proposed a scenario where a person blind from birth learns to distinguish a cube from a sphere by touch. Would they then be able to recognise these shapes visually upon gaining sight? Studying this question in humans is ethically challenging. However, Dr Versace and her team used chicks, which hatch with well-developed sensory systems. 

"Unlike humans and other mammals," explains Dr Versace, Senior Lecturer at the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, chicks hatch with developed sensory systems. This allowed us to raise them in darkness and expose them to either a smooth or bumpy object for the first 24 hours of their lives – their first ever tactile experience." 

Remarkably, when exposed to light for the first time, chicks that had touched a smooth object preferentially approached the visual representation of a smooth object, and vice versa. This suggests that chicks can inherently link touch with sight, even without any prior visual experience. 

"This finding contradicts traditional theories," says Dr Versace. "It suggests our brains are pre-wired to make connections between different senses, even before we have ever used them together." 

This breakthrough opens exciting new avenues in understanding how our brains process information across different senses. It could also lead to a deeper understanding of how our senses develop and interact with the world around us. 

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JOURNAL

Biology Letters

DOI

10.1098/rsbl.2024.0025 

ARTICLE TITLE

First-sight recognition of touched objects shows that chicks can solve Molyneux's problem

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

3-Apr-2024

New method reveals hidden activity of life below ground

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BIGELOW LABORATORY FOR OCEAN SCIENCES

 

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THE DESERT RESEARCH INSTITUTE TEAM EXTRACTING SAMPLES FROM THE BORE HOLE AT DEATH VALLEY.

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CREDIT: DUANE MOSER, DESERT RESEARCH INSTITUTE

A team of scientists led by researchers at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences have developed an innovative method to link the genetics and function of individual microbes living without oxygen deep below Earth’s surface. Measuring both of these attributes — and, more importantly, linking them together — has long been a challenge in microbiology but is critical for understanding the role of microbial communities in global processes like the carbon cycle. 

The new approach, developed at Bigelow Laboratory’s Single Cell Genomics Center, enabled researchers to discover that one species of sulfate-consuming bacterium was not only the most abundant but also the most active organism in a groundwater aquifer beneath Death Valley, almost half a mile below the surface. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show how this method can be a powerful tool for measuring how active different organisms are in these extreme environments.

“Previously, we had to assume that all cells were operating at the same rate, but now we can see that there is a wide range of activity levels between individual members of the microbial communities,” said Research Scientist and lead author on the paper Melody Lindsay. “That helps us understand what these microbial communities are capable of and how that might influence global biogeochemical cycles.”

The recent study is a part of a larger project linking the genetic code of microbes — the blueprint of what they’re capable of — to what they’re actually doing at any given moment.

Funded by NSF’s EPSCoR program, the “Genomes to Phenomes” project is a joint venture between Bigelow Laboratory, the Desert Research Institute, and the University of New Hampshire. It leverages recent advances in single-cell genetic sequencing with a creative approach applying flow cytometry to estimate the rates of processes, such as respiration, happening within those cells.

Flow cytometry, a method for analyzing individual environmental microbes that was adapted at Bigelow Laboratory from the biomedical sciences, allowed the researchers to quickly sort out living microbes in the aquifer water samples. Those microbes were stained with a specially designed compound that lights up under the flow cytometry laser when certain chemical reactions are happening within the cell. The relationship between how much the cell fluoresces under the laser and the rate of those reactions was worked out experimentally with lab-grown cultures of cells by student interns at Bigelow Laboratory and then applied to the Death Valley samples.

Once the active cells were measured and isolated, the team sequenced their individual genomes. The researchers also used meta-transcriptomics, a method for determining which genes are being actively expressed, and radioisotope tracers, a more traditional method for measuring activity within a microbial community. This was done both to “double check” their results and to get even more information on the links between what these microbes are genetically capable of and what they’re actually doing.

The Single Cell Genomics Center is the only analytical facility in the world offering this new technique to researchers.

“This study was an exciting opportunity for our research team and the SCGC to help improve our understanding of the immense, enigmatic microbial ecosystems underground,” said Bigelow Laboratory Senior Research Scientist Ramunas Stepanauskas, the director of SCGC and principal investigator of the project.

This new study builds on the first demonstration of this approach for quantifying the activity of individual cells. In late 2022, the team published findings on microbes in seawater, showing that a small fraction of microorganisms is responsible for consuming most of the oxygen in the ocean. With this new paper, the team is expanding that method to show it can be used in low biomass environments with microbes that don’t rely on oxygen. In the samples drawn from the subsurface aquifer in California, for example, the scientists estimated that there were hundreds of cells per milliliter of water, compared to millions of cells in a typical milliliter of surface water.

“We started out with oxygen-respiring organisms in the ocean because they’re a little more active, a little easier to sort, and easier to grow in the lab,” Lindsay said. “But aerobic respiration is just one process that is possible in microbiology, so we wanted to branch out beyond that.”

The results confirmed that the bacterium Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator was not only the most abundant microbe in this environment, but also the most active, reducing sulfate for energy. The overall activity rates the team measured were low compared to the seawater samples from the previous study, but there were large differences between how active individual microbes were.

The research team is now working to apply their method to measure other anaerobic reactions, such as nitrate reduction, and to new environments, including sediments along Maine’s coast. A related project funded by NASA is also enabling Lindsay and her colleagues to test the method in the deep subsurface below the ocean.

“Right now, we’re getting all of these point measurements around the world, and they do help us better understand what microbes are up to, but we need to scale it up,” Lindsay said. “So, we’re thinking about how to apply this method in new places, even potentially on other planets, in expanded ways.”

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2309636121 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Species-resolved, single-cell respiration rates reveal dominance of sulfate reduction in a deep continental subsurface ecosystem

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

5-Apr-2024

 

Gloom and doom warnings about climate change do not work

If we want people to act to curb climate change, we have to find a way to motivate them

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

If you want to spread a message about climate change and global warming, you need to adapt the message according to your intended audience and what you want to achieve.

Researchers have now developed an app to help people who want to spread their message on climate issues to ensure they generate the most support possible – be they researchers, politicians, various decision makers or legislators.

Huge survey involving 63 countries

59,000 people participated in surveys as part of the work on creating the app, and Norway was among the 63 countries involved. (You can read about what works best in Norway later in the article)

“The research team created this app that can help raise climate awareness and climate action globally. It is important to highlight messages that research shows are effective,” says Isabel Richter, Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU’s) Department of Psychology.

In total, nearly 250 researchers were involved in the work of testing out different climate messages and tactics. Richter was part of the research team along with colleagues Senior Researcher Stepan Vesely and Professor Christian Klöckner, also from NTNU's Department of Psychology.

Previous studies have concentrated on checking attitudes towards individual measures. These might include recycling, use of public transport and energy-saving measures in the home. However, this study looked at a number of different variations. It also received answers from people all around the world, and not only Western, industrialised countries.

The researchers collected data between July 2022 and May 2023, so the figures are very recent. Both the app and the method behind it have now been presented in the Science Advances journal.

Multiple variations

The researchers exposed people to different variations of climate messages and tasks related to climate change. They then investigated their attitudes towards the different climate measures and other types of responses.

To measure how effective the methods were, they checked how willing the participants were to support different points of view and measures regarding climate change. For example, participants were asked whether they saw climate change as a serious threat, whether they supported a carbon tax on fossil energy, or whether they would plant trees themselves as part of the solution.

The researchers also tested whether participants were willing to share messages on social media, such as eating less meat in order to mitigate climate change.

Here are some of the results:

• INTIMIDATION: “Climate change poses a serious threat to humanity”.

All tactics increased the likelihood of people sharing the climate message on social media, and this doom and gloom messaging style was most effective, at least globally. However, sharing requires little effort from the person doing it. In some countries, scare tactics reduce support for reforestation, a real measure that requires more effort but may work. Scare tactics also reinforced the negative attitudes of people who are already climate sceptics.

• KNOWLEDGE: “99% of climate experts believe the planet is getting warmer and that climate change is primarily due to human activity”.

Some messages produce different results in different countries. This message, which appeals to the recipient’s sense of knowledge, increased support for climate measures in Romania by 9 per cent. In Canada, however, it reduced support by 5 per cent.

• EMOTIONS: Writing a letter to a child who is close to you about the climate measures we are taking today to make the planet a liveable place in 2055.

This tactic increased support for climate measures in Nigeria, Russia, Ghana, Brazil and the United States by between 5 and 10 per cent. However, in countries such as India, Serbia and the United Arab Emirates, it had little effect, or even reduced support slightly.

Other variations the researchers tested included presenting climate measures that have already been successfully implemented in the past, or portraying climate measures as patriotic or popular choices. Participants were also asked to imagine writing a letter to their future self telling them what type of climate measures they should have taken.

86 per cent believe climate change is a threat

Attitudes varied widely from country to country and depended on both demographics and beliefs. The researchers also divided people into groups according to their nationality, political ideology, age, gender, education, and income.

The results showed that 86 per cent of the participants believed that climate change poses a threat.

More than 70 per cent were supporters of systematic and collective measures to address climate change.

No point in using scare tactics in Norway

Gloom and doom messages about climate change do not work in Norway.

“Writing a letter to future generations is most effective in increasing political support for climate measures, and in increasing the belief that climate change is a problem. The second most effective measure is to say that almost all climate experts agree,” Klöckner said.

Dire warnings and writing a letter to your future self were the least effective measures in Norway.

“All the alternatives made people in Norway less inclined to share a climate message on social media,” adds Richter. In other words, in complete contrast to the results seen globally.

However, people in Norway are quite eager to do something themselves, like planting trees. Here, it is most effective to focus on moral responsibility, the fact that many people acknowledge that climate change is a problem, and also that there is consensus among climate experts.

“The way that I choose to interpret it is that people in Norway like to do something concrete instead of just sharing things on social media,” says Associate Professor Richter.

Significant Norwegian contribution

Researchers from New York University and the University of Vienna led the study, but NTNU’s contribution was also significant.

“We were involved from the very beginning, developing possible interventions. We assessed intervention proposals from other partners, improved them in collaboration with the group and helped determine which interventions should actually be implemented,” says Vesely.

Vesely and Klöckner led and funded the collection of data in Norway.

Richter has good contacts in a number of African countries, the involvement of which is not always that easy to get in these types of studies. Among other things, she co-funded and participated in the collection of data from Kenya in particular.

Approximately 50 per cent of the Norwegian funding came from the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH). NHH also organised data collection through Ipsos.

Messages need to be adapted

Some activists believe that scare tactics are precisely what is needed in order for people to take action themselves. Others are of the opinion that it is depressing, demoralising and counterproductive. The study supports both of these hypotheses, but it depends on what you want to achieve.

Scare tactics work if your main focus is on getting people to post about their support on social media, but the venting of anger and frustration on Facebook, TikTok or X doesn’t necessarily help the environment. If you want to gather support for things that may actually work, you need to use other means.

It is quite easy to get people to do things that do not require much effort, such as sharing a message on social media.

“Sharing something on social media can in itself feel like taking action. People may feel like ‘Now that I have done something, I can get on with my life’. This is behaviour with a very low threshold,” says Associate Professor Richter.

However, based on the results from around the world, none of the methods made people more willing to plant more trees for the sake of the environment – a measure that means people have to put an effort in themselves.

“The findings show that spreading a climate message depends on people’s attitudes towards climate change in the first place. Legislators and campaigners must adapt their messaging to the public,” says Madalina Vlasceanu, Assistant Professor at New York University and one of the people who led the research project.

Reference: Madalina Vlasceanu et al. Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries. Sci. Adv.10,eadj5778(2024). DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adj5778

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adj5778 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Gloom and doom warnings about climate change do not work

 

SwRI awarded $6.4 million to advance cognitive electronic warfare

SwRI engineers developing EW algorithm to ‘think like a human’

Business Announcement

SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE

 

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UNDER A $6.4 MILLION AIR FORCE CONTRACT, SWRI IS EXPLORING ALGORITHMS TO ADVANCE THE AIR FORCE’S COGNITIVE ELECTRONIC WARFARE CAPABILITIES. COGNITIVE EW SYSTEMS ACCURATELY DETECT AND RESPOND TO UNKNOWN ENEMY RADAR THREATS IN REAL TIME, TO DISRUPT OR DECEIVE ENEMY AIR DEFENSES SUCH AS SURFACE TO AIR MISSILES OR ANTI-AIRCRAFT ARTILLERY, AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE U.S. AIR FORCE F-16 EW TRAINING EXERCISE PICTURED.

 

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CREDIT: U. S. AIR FORCE/JAKE MELAMPY

SAN ANTONIO — April 2, 2024 —The United States Air Force is tapping into the extensive expertise of Southwest Research Institute’s Advanced Electronic Warfare team with a $6.4 million contract to explore cognitive electronic warfare (EW) algorithms, which accurately detect and respond to unknown enemy radar threats in real time. SwRI engineers are conducting research to develop a reliable algorithm that will advance the Air Force’s cognitive EW capabilities and protect aircrews.

“How do we get to the point where the EW system is thinking like a human?” said SwRI Staff Engineer David Brown, who is leading the project. “A pilot can fly into an area and not know what’s there, but by analyzing the environment and signals, the pilot can choose a proper response to a threat. We are developing an algorithm that can analyze its environment the same way. It will sift through information with the reliability of a human, but with higher accuracy and faster reaction times.”

Traditional electronic warfare processes involve gathering intelligence before flying into an area. Aircraft operators have advance knowledge of which adversaries they might encounter, and that information is preloaded into the aircraft’s electronic warfare system. The system alerts pilots when it detects threats and automatically protects the aircraft. While this method is effective at tracking known threat signals, the system is incapable of identifying never-before-seen threats. That’s where cognitive EW could prove a stronger, faster and more accurate tool to protect the warfighter and enhance capabilities with allies. 

“In the past, we’ve relied on a library of signals that allows you to recognize and compare familiar signals. We’re asking, ‘does this match anything I already know about?’” said SwRI Research Engineer Damon Plyler, who is part of the development team. “That library is the limit of our information. Through cognitive EW and a machine learning approach, we can instantly identify new signals that are not already in the library.”

To develop this autonomous EW system, SwRI engineers are using a two-phased approach. The first phase, feature extraction, uses artificial intelligence and machine learning processes to extract specific features of threatening radar signals. Those data are used in the second phase to group millions of pulses, highlighting signal lethality and vulnerabilities.

SwRI engineers are implementing feature extraction algorithms on advanced platforms, including neuromorphic processing hardware. Neuromorphic computing systems use spiking neural networks to emulate how the human brain retains “memories,” making processing faster, more accurate and efficient.

“We are working to provide the Air Force with efficient and resilient cognitive EW solutions,” said SwRI’s Dr. Steven Harbour, who is applying his doctorate in neuroscience to lead the development of neuromorphic systems. “We are implementing neuromorphics in hardware to be used for the first time in an operational combat environment. It puts us well ahead of our adversaries. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first in the world to do this.”

SwRI’s cognitive EW work began as a multiyear, multimillion-dollar internal research and development (IR&D) project. Through its IR&D program, the Institute invests in future-focused concepts to advance technology for government and industry clients. The contract between SwRI and USAF commenced on October 1, 2023, and will run through March 2025. Upon completion of the project, SwRI will present the Air Force with effective research toward advancing the field of cognitive EW.

SwRI develops advanced electronic warfare systems for air and ground applications.  For more information, visit https://www.swri.org/industry/advanced-electronic-warfare-department/advanced-electronic-warfare-solutions.

Sandia pumps $140B into the US economy through technology development

Yes, that’s billion with a B

DOE/SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES

 

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SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES’ COOPERATIVE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS AND PATENT LICENSE AGREEMENTS HAVE RESULTED IN A $140 BILLION ECONOMIC IMPACT SINCE THE YEAR 2000. 

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CREDIT: SANDIA NATIONAL LABS

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — To say that the technology and products Sandia National Laboratories researchers have helped imagine, innovate and industrialize have had a massive impact on the country would be an understatement.

Two studies commissioned by Sandia and the National Nuclear Security Administration show Sandia’s work has had an overall economic impact of $140 billion since the year 2000. That’s a significant figure, especially considering it spans just 20 years, less than a third of Sandia’s 75-year existence.

“I am very proud of how Sandia excels in fulfilling its technology transfer mission to deliver economic impact to the U.S.,” said Senior Manager of Business Development Mary Monson. “Sandia’s contribution of $140 billion over 20 years makes it a leader among Department of Energy laboratories.”

Impact in dollars and cents

The two studies, conducted by TechLink, a federally funded technology transfer center at Montana State University, show: $140 billion in overall economic impact, $72.2 billion in new product sales, $22.52 billion in new product sales to the government, $14.1 billion in new tax revenue and 607,246 jobs created.

The studies examined Sandia’s Cooperative Research and Development Agreements and patent license agreements between 2000 and 2023, assessing how they translated into actual products, sales, tax revenue and jobs. This benefits the national economy, improves the nuclear weapons stockpile for the United States and international allies and supports NNSA missions.

“The Nuclear Security Enterprise is a treasure trove of commercializable technologies, and Sandia National Laboratories stands apart in its efforts to bring products to market,” said acting Director of NNSA’s Office of Technology and Partnerships, Jahleel Hudson.

Cooperative Research and Development Agreements and Patent License Agreements

Cooperative Research and Development Agreements and Patent License Agreements are two ways Sandia helps move its technology to industry.

CRADAs are unique contractual vehicles that enable federal labs and outside parties to jointly develop new technologies, leveraging each other’s expertise and resources.

PLAs are legally binding contracts that give licensees, usually for-profit corporations, the right to make, use and sell federal government-owned inventions.

Sandia has excelled in these agreements. According to the FY22 DOE Office of Technology Transitions annual data call, Sandia had:

• The highest number of patent disclosures and filings and copyright assertions
• The second highest number of active patent licenses
• The third highest number of CRADA projects in the DOE enterprise

DOE Boost

In recent years, Sandia has accelerated its efforts to move innovation to industry through the creation of new programs. One such program is the DOE Boost Platform, led by Sandia and external partner FedTech, which partners with 13 other DOE labs. The goal is to bring national labs, startups, academia and entrepreneurs together to find solutions to community-based energy challenges, especially in rural areas.

Sandia is already negotiating three licenses under this program, including one with a team of New Mexicans and Alaskans.

“They are looking to use Sandia’s algae technology in Santa Fe’s municipal water system,” Monson said. “It highlights the fact that communities want to work with people and entrepreneurs from their community to focus on the challenges they’re facing. It’s kind of like the whole impetus behind boost.”

 C4 Partnering Model

Another successful program is the C-4 Partnering Model. The four C’s stand for Co-locate, Collaborate, Community and Communicate. It works with seven lab partners and regional partners to develop a regional commercialization ecosystem for manufacturing clean energy technologies focused on collaboration and rapid technology development.

S2EDGE

A third program is the Semiconductor Sector S2-EDGE program. EDGE stands for Expedite and Develop Game-Changing Exemplar. In collaboration with four other labs, it aims to harness industry use-inspired input to move innovations in semiconductor technologies and next-generation microelectronics from the lab to the market.

Monson says these programs are just part of the reason Sandia’s tech transfer numbers are so positive.

“We are committed to bringing new programs to our ecosystem that researchers can take advantage of to move labs-developed technologies to the market,” she said.

Success Stories – Goodyear

This massive economic impact has been fueled by some long-lasting partnerships including that with Goodyear. In the early 90s, the tire company turned to Sandia for its expertise in advanced computational mechanics, simulation and structural dynamics to improve tire performance, reduce product development times, and improve manufacturing methods.

Thirty years later, that partnership continues. One of its latest projects is a virtual way to develop a quieter tire without the need for physical testing. Over the years, the partnership has also resulted in the development of the Assurance TripleTred, a visually distinctive all-weather tire, and the development of Virtual Flat Track, which uses computer simulations to test a virtual tire on a virtual test track simulating actual road conditions.

All of this technology has roots in Sandia’s nuclear deterrence mission.

Sandia National Laboratories and the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. have developed a virtual way to test how noisy a tire will be on the road before any physical testing.

CREDIT

Goodyear

PNM

Sandia is also involved in ongoing work with the Public Service Company of New Mexico. In 2020, the two formalized a CRADA to help PNM develop a more resilient, clean electric grid and meet a 2040 carbon emissions-free target.

The partners are developing new analytical approaches, capabilities and technologies to help PNM use distributed and centralized sources of clean energy. Sandia and PNM will explore different types of storage, such as batteries, thermal storage and hydrogen that can provide grid resilience. Together, the partners can work to test solutions in real-world scenarios.

hCMOS

Last year, Sandia celebrated its partnership with an Albuquerque-based startup, Advanced hCMOS systems, to commercialize the world’s fastest burst-mode X-ray camera created at Sandia. The company was co-founded by former Sandia employees Liam Claus and Marcos Sanchez, who took advantage of the Entrepreneurial Separation for Technology Transfer program to start their own business.

While the technology is used as part of Sandia’s nuclear power and fusion work, there are many other applications, including astrophysics research, laser design and materials science. Researchers are looking to use it for, among other things, developing stronger glass screens for cell phones. They need to understand how glass fractures. In order to do that, they must see it as it happens at extremely high speeds.

The company is already serving government customers and is working on ramping up production through a DOE Phase I Small Business Innovation Research Grant and a TRGR Technology Readiness Initiative project.

75 years of innovation

With 75 years of innovation behind it, Sandia is looking to make an even bigger impact in the years ahead.

Commercialization of lab developed technologies has long been part of Sandia’s mission, but it is also a reminder that this national lab is made up of some of the brightest minds in the country. Through these partnerships and programs, this work can make its way into the real world and affect everyday lives. Something Sandia and NNSA are proud of.

“Over the last 20 years, Sandia’s economic impact has generated billions of dollars, created half a million high-paying jobs and positioned the United States as a leader in technological innovation,” Hudson said. “NNSA’s Technology and Partnerships Office values Sandia’s extraordinary achievements and is delighted to have commissioned the study to recognize this success.”

For more information on Sandia technology and its impacts, visit 70 ways Sandia has changed the nation.

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Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. Sandia Labs has major research and development responsibilities in nuclear deterrence, global security, defense, energy technologies and economic competitiveness, with main facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Livermore, California.

Sandia National Laboratories’ Quinn Looker inspects sensors used in the ultrafast X-ray imaging camera

CREDIT

Sandia National Laboratories