Researchers discover 1,400-year-old seagrass in Finland

Agence France-Presse
August 9, 2024 

A diver plants eelgrass in Denmark's Vejle Fjord to help restore its damaged ecosystem © Helene-Julie Zofia PAAMAND / Underwater Ambassador/AF

Scientists have discovered the world's oldest known seagrass in Finland, using a new method to determine the age of aquatic plants that put it at 1,403 years old, they said this week.

By measuring the number of genetic mutations occurring over time in seagrass -- which reproduces by cloning itself over and over again, the scientists were able to determine the age of the original ancestor plant with groundbreaking precision.

"This is the first really reliable clone age estimate", study co-author Thorsten Reusch told AFP on Thursday.

The study was published in the scientific journal Nature Ecology and Evolution in June.

Researchers used the new method, dubbed a "genetic clock", at 20 sites across the world and found that a lush underwater meadow of eelgrass -- a species of seagrass -- in the Finnish coastal waters of the Baltic Sea was 1,403 years old, the most ancient marine plant currently known.

"In a way, we now have a clock that can determine to which seed and eventually which seedling a plant dates back to", Reusch said.

The ability to determine the age of plants unravels eye-opening information about how ecosystems function and about ageing processes in the natural world, he explained.

"It is interesting to understand how they avoid ageing symptoms over thousands of years.

"Ultimately it may even give us some clues on how to deal with ageing in humans", he continued.

- Valuable ecosystem -

"I am very positive that we will find clones that are 10,000 years or older".

Reproducing through flowers, seeds and rhizomes in the sediment, eelgrass populations provide important marine environments for other organisms and store carbon dioxide in stems and roots.

"Eelgrass is the most valuable ecosystem in the Baltic Sea," Reusch said.

Despite the staggering age and resilience demonstrated by the ancient plant, eelgrass is a threatened species in the Baltic Sea -- characterised by shallow, brackish waters and encircled by eight countries.

Nutrient pollution from industries like agriculture and forestry, coupled with rising sea temperatures due to climate change, have exacerbated the plight of the eelgrass populations.


"In the western Baltic Sea where I work, about 60 percent of the eelgrass has been lost in the last 100 years", Reusch said.

The sea is bordered by the three Baltic states, Finland, Germany, Poland, Russia and Sweden.

U.S. health regulator rejects MDMA treatment for PTSD, for now

Agence France-Presse
August 10, 2024 


Ecstasy Pills (Shutterstock)

U.S. health regulators on Friday denied an application for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with the drug MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, saying more investigation needed to be done.

The company that submitted the application, Lykos Therapeutics, said in a statement that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had requested an additional Phase 3 clinical trial to study MDMA's "safety and efficacy."

A panel of experts convened by the FDA to evaluate clinical data on MDMA had overwhelmingly voted in early June to say there was insufficient evidence to prove it was effective.

While unsurprising, the decision announced Friday represents a blow to advocates of the novel treatment.

"The FDA request for another study is deeply disappointing, not just for all those who dedicated their lives to this pioneering effort, but principally for the millions of Americans with PTSD... who have not seen any new treatment options in over two decades, said Lykos CEO Amy Emerson.

PTSD is a debilitating mental health condition that develops after a person experiences or is threatened by traumatic events such as death, combat or sexual assault.

It affects an estimated five percent of Americans in any given year.

Pharmaceutical treatment options for PTSD are so far limited to two antidepressants that require three months of dosing to take effect, and response rates to the medications have been found to be uneven.

MDMA -- methylenedioxymethamphetamine -- is a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act, and approving it for medical use would have represented a major shift.

California-based Lykos based its request for regulatory approval on two clinical studies, each of which enrolled around 100 people, to evaluate MDMA used together with other psychological interventions such as talk therapy, against a placebo with talk therapy.

These two studies, published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine, indicated MDMA was indeed both safe and highly effective at treating PTSD.

But nine out of 11 experts on the FDA panel said available data was not enough to show the treatment was effective, and 10 out of 11 said the benefits did not outweigh the risks.

In a briefing document put together ahead of the meeting, FDA staff raised concerns about Lykos's clinical trial methodology and criticized the company for not gathering sufficient side effect data.

The company said it will "work diligently in the coming months to address FDA's concerns and to take advantage of agency processes to resolve scientific disagreements."

"We intend to work tirelessly and use all available regulatory pathways to find a reasonable and expeditious path forward," Emerson added.

Flood of 'junk': How AI is changing scientific publishing

Agence France-Presse
August 10, 2024 

Scientific sleuth Elisabeth Bik fears that a flood of AI-generated images and text in academic papers could weaken trust in science (Amy Osborne/AFP)

An infographic of a rat with a preposterously large penis. Another showing human legs with way too many bones. An introduction that starts: "Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic".

These are a few of the most egregious examples of artificial intelligence that have recently made their way into scientific journals, shining a light on the wave of AI-generated text and images washing over the academic publishing industry.

Several experts who track down problems in studies told AFP that the rise of AI has turbocharged the existing problems in the multi-billion-dollar sector.
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All the experts emphasised that AI programmes such as ChatGPT can be a helpful tool for writing or translating papers -- if thoroughly checked and disclosed.

But that was not the case for several recent cases that somehow snuck past peer review.

Earlier this year, a clearly AI-generated graphic of a rat with impossibly huge genitals was shared widely on social media.

It was published in a journal of academic giant Frontiers, which later retracted the study.

Another study was retracted last month for an AI graphic showing legs with odd multi-jointed bones that resembled hands.

While these examples were images, it is thought to be ChatGPT, a chatbot launched in November 2022, that has most changed how the world's researchers present their findings.

A study published by Elsevier went viral in March for its introduction, which was clearly a ChatGPT prompt that read: "Certainly, here is a possible introduction for your topic".

Such embarrassing examples are rare and would be unlikely to make it through the peer review process at the most prestigious journals, several experts told AFP.

- Tilting at paper mills -

It is not always so easy to spot the use of AI. But one clue is that ChatGPT tends to favour certain words.

Andrew Gray, a librarian at University College London, trawled through millions of papers searching for the overuse of words such as meticulous, intricate or commendable.

He determined that at least 60,000 papers involved the use of AI in 2023 -- over one percent of the annual total.

"For 2024 we are going to see very significantly increased numbers," Gray told AFP.

Meanwhile, more than 13,000 papers were retracted last year, by far the most in history, according to the US-based group Retraction Watch.

AI has allowed the bad actors in scientific publishing and academia to "industrialise the overflow" of "junk" papers, Retraction Watch co-founder Ivan Oransky told AFP.


Such bad actors include what are known as paper mills.

These "scammers" sell authorship to researchers, pumping out vast amounts of very poor quality, plagiarised or fake papers, said Elisabeth Bik, a Dutch researcher who detects scientific image manipulation.

Two percent of all studies are thought to be published by paper mills, but the rate is "exploding" as AI opens the floodgates, Bik told AFP.

This problem was highlighted when academic publishing giant Wiley purchased troubled publisher Hindawi in 2021.

Since then, the US firm has retracted more than 11,300 papers related to special issues of Hindawi, a Wiley spokesperson told AFP.

Wiley has now introduced a "paper mill detection service" to detect AI misuse -- which itself is powered by AI.

- 'Vicious cycle' -

Oransky emphasised that the problem was not just paper mills, but a broader academic culture which pushes researchers to "publish or perish".

"Publishers have created 30 to 40 percent profit margins and billions of dollars in profit by creating these systems that demand volume," he said.

The insatiable demand for ever-more papers piles pressure on academics who are ranked by their output, creating a "vicious cycle," he said.

Many have turned to ChatGPT to save time -- which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Because nearly all papers are published in English, Bik said that AI translation tools can be invaluable to researchers -- including herself -- for whom English is not their first language.

But there are also fears that the errors, inventions and unwitting plagiarism by AI could increasingly erode society's trust in science.

Another example of AI misuse came last week, when a researcher discovered what appeared to be a ChatGPT re-written version of one his own studies had been published in an academic journal.

Samuel Payne, a bioinformatics professor at Brigham Young University in the United States, told AFP that he had been asked to peer review the study in March.

After realising it was "100 percent plagiarism" of his own study -- but with the text seemingly rephrased by an AI programme -- he rejected the paper.

Payne said he was "shocked" to find the plagiarised work had simply been published elsewhere, in a new Wiley journal called Proteomics.

It has not been retracted.

Kroger's new dynamic AI pricing scheme is 'corporate greed is out of control': critics

Julia Conley, Common Dreams
August 10, 2024 

Photo by Joshua Rawson-Harris on Unsplash

Expressing doubt that a new artificial intelligence-powered "dynamic pricing" model used by the Kroger grocery chain is truly meant to "better the customer experience," Sens. Elizabeth Warren said Friday that the practice shows how "corporate greed is out of control."

Warren (D-Mass.) was joined by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) on Wednesday in writing a letter to the chairman and CEO of the Kroger Company, Rodney McMullen, raising concerns about how the company's collaboration with AI company IntelligenceNode could result in both privacy violations and worsened inequality as customers are forced to pay more based on personal data Kroger gathers about them "to determine how much price hiking [they] can tolerate."

As the senators wrote, the chain first introduced dynamic pricing in 2018 and expanded to 500 of its nearly 3,000 stores last year. The company has partnered with Microsoft to develop an Electronic Shelving Label (ESL) system known as Enhanced Display for Grocery Environment (EDGE), using a digital tag to display prices in stores so that employees can change prices throughout the day with the click of a button.

As Warren said on social media on Friday, digital price tags allow stores to "use surge pricing for water or ice cream when it's hot out," or raise the price of turkeys just before Thanksgiving.

Through its work with IntelligenceNode and Microsoft, Kroger has gone beyond just changing prices based on the time of day or other environmental factors, and is seeking to tailor the cost of goods to individual shoppers.

As the senators explained:

The EDGE Shelf helps Kroger gather and exploit sensitive consumer data. Through a partnership with Microsoft, Kroger plans to place cameras at its digital displays, which will use facial recognition tools to determine the gender and age of a customer captured on camera and present them with personalized offers and advertisements on the EDGE Shelf. EDGE will allow Kroger to use customer data to build personalized profiles of each customer... quickly updating and displaying the customer’s maximum willingness to pay on the digital price tag—a corporate profiteering capability that would be impossible using a mere paper price tag.

"I am concerned about whether Kroger and Microsoft are adequately protecting consumers' data, and that as Kroger expands the personalized customer experience, customers will ultimately be offered a worse deal," wrote Warren and Casey.

The lawmakers noted that the high cost of groceries is a key concern for workers and families in the U.S., as chains adopt numerous methods to price-gouge customers including "shrinkflation" and "greedflation"—filling packages with less product and keeping prices high even though supply chain issues have largely resolved since inflation was at high during the coronavirus pandemic.

Kroger, which could soon increase its number of stores by several thousand with a potential $24.6 billion acquisition of Albertsons, had an operating budget of $3.1 billion last year, with gross profit margins above 20% over the last five years.

Meanwhile, said Warren and Casey, U.S. households spent an average of 11.2% of their budgets on food in 2023.

"The increased use of dynamic pricing will drive company profits higher—leaving consumers with the bill," wrote the senators. "It is outrageous that, as families continue to struggle to pay to put food on the table, grocery giants like Kroger continue to roll out surge pricing and other corporate profiteering schemes."

Warren and Casey demanded the McMullen provide information about its use of ESL platforms including EDGE, asking how the company establishes prices using dynamic pricing and whether it has ever used EDGE to change the price of an item more than once in a day, among other questions.

The senators have previously introduced legislation to prevent shrinkflation, urged the Biden administration to use its executive authority to lower food prices, and proposed a bill to prohibit price gouging by empowering states and the Federal Trade Commission to enforce a federal ban.

Mysterious 'Unknown Boy' may be the youngest ever Olympic champion

Agence France-Presse
August 10, 2024 

Photo by Mia de Jesus on Unsplash

Paris (AFP) – "It's probably the biggest Olympics mystery of all," says historian Hilary Evans of the chaotic 1900 rowing race in Paris that may have produced the youngest-ever champion.

As the third Olympics hosted in Paris draw to a close, the identity of a child coxswain who steered two Dutch rowers, Francois Antoine Brandt and Roelof Klein, across the finish line first in Paris more than a century ago remains unknown.

In the constantly updated Olympic archives in Lausanne, he is recorded simply as "Unknown French Boy", infuriating researchers like Evans who at various times have come tantalisingly close to uncovering his name.

"People think they've made a breakthrough every decade or so and it feels like it's within reach, but we've never managed to solve it," Evans explained by phone from his home in Wales.

The story shines a light not only on the amateurish beginnings of the modern Olympics, which have since become a multi-billion-dollar industry, but also the work of a passionate group of researchers for whom no trivia question is too small.

Evans, who spends his days as a sheep farmer and his evenings poring over microfilm and old sports magazines, developed a theory earlier this year about the Unknown Boy and says "we actually thought we'd solved it conclusively".


Alas, it was another false dawn -- and a bitter disappointment for the 54-year-old who describes his biggest achievement as discovering the names of the 1900 gymnastics finalists.

"The ages didn't match up so we had to put the theory to bed," he added.

Evans was hoping that the latest Paris Olympics must prompt someone, somewhere to delve into some dusty Parisian rowing club archives, or find a yellowing photograph that cracks the riddle?

"If it doesn't happen this year, with all the publicity, it's going to be really hard, to be honest," Evans says.

- 'Obsessive' -

Only one photo exists of the Unknown Boy, unearthed by the late Dutch researcher Tony Bijkerk who spent nearly half a century on the conundrum.

In it, the boy is dark haired and small-framed, smartly dressed in long trousers and a shirt. He stands between the two victorious Dutch rowers and the top of his head comings up to their chests.

According to an account given by Brandt, he was picked out of the crowd shortly before the final of the two-man coxed pairs race to give a weight advantage to the Dutch rowers, who ended up winning by less than a metre.

"The young French cox stayed around long enough to be photographed with his new Dutch friends but then he vanished into the city," says "The Complete Book of the Olympics", a compendium of records and information about the Games.

Author David Wallechinsky, who co-founded the International Society of Olympic Historians, says "there just aren't that many large mysteries any more" in Olympic history and the Unknown Boy continues to fascinate "obsessive researchers" like him.

"The first reason this stands out is the photograph. Who is this guy?" Wallechinsky told AFP. "And secondly, was he the youngest person to win an Olympic event?"

If he was around eight years' old at the time, as some historians believe, it would make him the youngest champion of all time.

But others, including Bijkerk, believed he might have been 12 or 13.

The youngest recorded medal winner is Dimitrious Loundras, a 10-year-old Greek gymnast who took bronze in the first modern games in Athens in 1896.

- Chaotic -


The rowing race of 1900 took place on a stretch of the river Seine in northern Paris between the Pont de Courbevoie and Pont d'Asnieres, four kilometres (three miles) from the athletes' village for the July 26-August 11 Games this year.

The 1900 Olympiad was the second edition of the modern Olympics and was held on the sidelines of the World Fair which took place in Paris at the same time.

Scheduled over five months on a tiny budget, the Games were poorly organised, often improvised, and drew small crowds.

They had none of the pomp and pageantry that has been invented since, and winners did not even receive medals.

"There were some people who didn't realise they had competed in the Olympics," Wallechinsky explained.

The coxed four-man rowing was overshadowed by an argument about the qualification process for the final, while the athletics was held on an uneven, boggy field.


It was in this context that the Dutch rowers were able to swap their cox mid-competition and his name was never recorded.

"You would never have that happen now," Wallechinsky laughs. "Every athletes's got a profile."

- Theories -

Several names have been put forward for the Unknown Boy over the years, none conclusively.

Based on Bijkerk's research, he was assumed to be French and to have had a connection with a local rowing club, the Societe de la Basse-Seine.

But in 2016, the small world of Olympic historians was set aflutter by a new theory: the Unknown French Boy wasn't French at all. He was Georgian, and aged 12.

Tbilisi-based historian and Georgian National Olympic Committee member Paata Natsvlishvili claimed the cox was Giorgi Nikoladze, the son of a diplomat and journalist.

He based his claim, written up in the Journal of Olympic History, on a physical resemblance between Nikoladze and the Unknown Boy; that Nikoladze was in Paris at the time with his family; and that Nikoladze had told his sister he had won a rowing race in Paris.

"I am convinced that Giorgi Nikoladze was in that boat," Natsvlishvili told AFP by email. "Until there are convincing counter-arguments or if another more convincing version appears, for me, it will be Giorgi Nikoladze."

Others are unconvinced -- with the editor of the "Journal of Olympic History" saying at the time that "definitive proof is still lacking" to support the theory.

The official IOC records remain unchanged -- despite Natsvlishvili's best efforts.

In the meantime, the search goes on to resolve perhaps the most perplexing footnote in Olympics history.

"I won't give up hope," said Wallechinsky. "I feel that some day something's going to happen.

NIGERIA

Take-It-Back Movement Vows To Return With 10million-Man March If Tinubu Fails To Address Demands Of #EndBadGovernance


August 10, 2024

SAHARA NEWS
News

For the past 10 days, protesters have taken to the streets of Abuja and other major Nigerian cities, demanding the reinstatement of fuel subsidies and reduced electricity tariffs, among other grievances.

The Take It Back movement — one of the organisers of the just concluded 10-day nationwide #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests against hardship on Saturday vowed to return to the streets with a 10-million-person march if President Bola Tinubu fails to address their demands.

For the past 10 days, protesters have taken to the streets of Abuja and other major Nigerian cities, demanding the reinstatement of fuel subsidies and reduced electricity tariffs, among other grievances.

They have expressed frustration with President Tinubu's apparent disregard for their concerns, despite their persistent demonstrations.

Abiodun Sanusi, an activist, said the movement would pause protests temporarily, but vowed to return with a bigger and more determined crowd if demands are not met.

He said, “Earlier on, we declared 10 days of rage to end bad governance in Nigeria. However, it is now clear that President Bola Tinubu is not ready to listen to the demands of Nigerians.

“Today is the final day of the 10 days of rage, but we are promising the Nigerian government and President Tinubu that we will come back until he accedes to our demands."

“We will return to the streets, and this time, we will be more than this. We will be declaring a 10-million-person march across the 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT,” Sanusi added.

Thousands of protesters flooded the major streets of Yola on Saturday, passionately calling for President Bola Tinubu's swift intervention to address the socio-economic crisis gripping the nation.

A group of concerned Nigerian women under the aegis of Women Against Hunger had also held a massive rally against the current economic crisis in Nigeria.

The women who were singing in front of the National Stadium in Abuja called the attention of the President Bola Tinubu's government to the hunger which Nigerians are currently facing due to his failed policies.

 

Smotrich fires back at Kirby, vows to maintain opposition to Gaza ‘surrender deal’

Far-right leader says he respects US but tells White House ‘to respect Israeli democracy,’ likens prospect of deal with Hamas to US reaching ‘agreement with al-Qaeda and Bin Laden’

By ToI Staff10 August 2024, 

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich at a conference hosted by the Makor Rishon newspaper, in Jerusalem, June 30, 2024. (Sindel/Flash90)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Saturday hit back against White House national security spokesperson John Kirby for singling him out for criticism a day earlier when Kirby said the US would not allow “extremists” to push the proposed Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal off course.

“I respect the US stance and thank it for its support of Israel in the face of regional threats, but I expect it to respect Israeli democracy and the stance of the Israeli citizens and its elected officials in relation to decisions that will affect the country’s security,” Smotrich wrote in a post on X.

“Just as the US would have rejected international pressure to reach a surrender agreement with al-Qaeda and Bin Laden, so Israel will not surrender to any external pressure that will cause harm to Israel’s security.”

00:16

02:21

He went on to denounce the agreement as a “surrender deal to” Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar “that leaves most of the hostages to die, releases many murderers, returns terrorists to the northern Strip, abandons the border, and allows Hamas to smuggle weapons and rehabilitate its forces so it can go back to attacking Israel as an extension of Iran, is bad for Israel and endangers its security.”

“No criticism and no attack will divert me from the goal,” he added.

Smotrich, who heads the coalition’s far-right Religious Zionism party, has been consistently vocal about his opposition to a deal throughout negotiations and on Friday denounced the proposal as a “dangerous trap,” saying it creates a “delusional symmetry” between Israeli hostages and “despicable Jew-murdering terrorists” who would be freed.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (left) at a conference in Jerusalem, June 30, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) National Security Council spokesman John Kirby (right) speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, May 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Addressing these comments by Smotrich, Kirby said later Friday that the finance minister was spreading false claims and “ought to be ashamed” for questioning US President Joe Biden’s intentions.

“The idea that [Biden] would support a deal that leaves Israel’s security at risk is just factually wrong, it’s outrageous, it’s absurd,” he said.

The United States and its allies have been trying to arrange a ceasefire-for-hostages deal for months but have consistently run into obstacles from both Israel and Hamas.

US officials believed the latest proposal is the closest the parties have been to an agreement to free women, sick and elderly hostages held by Hamas in Gaza since October 7 in exchange for at least six weeks of ceasefire, the first phase in an envisioned three-stage deal for ending the war.

IDF troops operate in the Gaza Strip, in an image released on August 10, 2024. (Israel Defense Forces)

The war in Gaza broke out on October 7 with Hamas’s unprecedented surprise attack on Israel in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.

It is believed that 111 hostages remain in Gaza, including the bodies of 39 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Seven hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 24 hostages have also been recovered, including three abductees mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.

Freed Morocco journalists urge release of political prisoners

August 10, 2024 
By Agence France-Presse

Moroccan journalist Omar Radi speaks during a press conference at the Moroccan Association of Human Rights headquarters in Rabat, Morocco, on Aug. 10, 2024.

Three journalists released from jail, thanks to royal pardons, called Saturday for Morocco to free "all prisoners of conscience" and start "a new phase" for rights and liberties in the North African kingdom.

Omar Radi, Soulaimane Raissouni and Taoufik Bouachrine, historian and rights advocate Maati Monjib and hundreds more prisoners were pardoned in late July on the occasion of King Mohammed VI's 25th anniversary on the throne.

The three journalists had been held for four to six years on charges of sexual assault that they deny. Radi was also accused of espionage.

They say they were punished for their opinions.

"We have been arrested using dirty methods," Radi, 38, said Saturday at the headquarters of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH).

Raissouni, 52, called for the continuation of "our struggles, our writing and our actions" with the aim of "building a state that guarantees minimal rights, and where such cruel abuse and injustice are not repeated."

"Our joy remains incomplete without the liberation of all prisoners of conscience (linked to) social movements, and political detainees."

The trio mentioned the cases of activists from Morocco's northern Rif region who have been held since 2016, and of the lawyer and government critic Mohamed Ziane, 82, in jail since 2022.

Bouachrine, 55, thanked rights activists for their support, as well as the king for "having put an end to our nightmare" and "letting us see our children grow."

He said he hoped that the royal pardons — which did not overturn the convictions but allowed for early release — could mark "the start of a new phase and a true opening up in politics, journalism, human rights and social struggles."