Chinese boffins advocate nuking nearby asteroids – it’s the only way to be sure

Laura Dobberstein
Mon 2 Sep 2024 


ASIA IN BRIEF Chinese academics have suggested nuclear weapons are the only effective way to destroy an asteroid that threatens to collide with Earth – if it's detected at short notice.

A paper published in Scientia Sinica Technologica argues that nukes are needed when humanity has little warning of an incoming space rock. If we spot such objects with time to spare, gravitational traction and laser ablation are viable alternatives.

International laws currently do not allow the use of nuclear weapons in space, though one imagines that weighed against the extinction of humanity an exception could be made.

AI will spark datacenter growth in China … soon

China's datacenter services market is "still in the recovery phase" after another year of declining revenue, according to analyst firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

The firm found the market was worth ¥125.01 billion ($17.64 billion) in 2023. Growth in public cloud services slowed dramatically, with the IaaS market's expansion rate dropping from 43.4 percent in 2021 to just 10.2 percent by 2023.

Despite a 25 percent increase in datacenter racks – primarily from projects initiated in previous years – government policies have tightened the reins on new bit barn builds, particularly in major cities.

However, Chinese authorities last week celebrated the installation of 1.95 million datacenter racks, in eight new national computing centers, under the east data, west computing plan – envisaged to shift datacenters to parts of the Middle Kingdom where renewable energy and land are plentiful.

India not in a rush to roll out digital currency

Despite the success of India's central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot, central bank governor Shaktikanta Das asserted there "should not be any rush" to extend the scheme across the entire financial system.

Das suggested that the nation should first build "a comprehensive understanding of its impact on users, on monetary policy, on the financial system and on the economy."

"Such understanding would emerge from generation of user data in pilots. Actual introduction of CBDC can be phased in gradually. Undoubtedly, CBDC has the potential to underpin the payment systems of future, both for domestic payments and also cross-border payments," he added.

India's CBDC pilot involved five million users across 16 participating banks and was rolled out in both retail and wholesale segments in late 2022.

The digital currency is programmable – a feature Das argued "could serve as a key enabler for financial inclusion by ensuring delivery of funds to the targeted user."

Alibaba supervision ends

China's State Administration for Market Regulation on Saturday annnounced its three-year "rectification" action to pull e-commerce giant Alibaba into line has ended.

Alibaba is apparently officially no longer a monopolist – but the regulator will continue to watch it in pursuit of better compliance and overall service improvements.

– Simon Sharwood
APNOG cancels Bangladesh conference

The Asia Pacific Network Operators Group Regional will choose a new location for its February 2025 Asia Pacific Internet Conference on Operational Technologies after unrest in Bangladesh made hosting the event there untenable. A new location will be selected in October.

APAC Dealbook

Recent alliances and deals spotted by The Register across the region last week include:Samsung SDI, the Korean giant's battery-making biz, has teamed with General Motors to build a $3.5 billion facility in the US state of Indiana.

The deal is part of an effort to produce 36 gigawatt-hours worth of batteries annually, with operations set to begin in 2027.
IT outsourcer Infosys revealed its plans to introduce generative AI-powered telecom solutions in partnership with Nvidia.

"Infosys developed three generative AI solutions, all of which are powered by Infosys Topaz, using Nvidia NIM inference microservices, Nvidia NeMo Retriever embedding models, and NeMo Guardrails to customize and deploy generative AI telco domain-specific LLM models," stated Infosys. "Infosys Topaz also uses Nvidia Riva, for building real-time conversational AI pipelines that allow for real-time transcription and translations for call center agents."
Fujitsu Uvance announced an initiative to digitalize clinical trials in Japan, by leveraging its AI-powered platforms in partnership with US startup Paradigm Health.

This ecosystem will enhance the efficiency of clinical trials by integrating medical data and automating documentation, thus accelerating drug approval and availability in the island nation.
Telco Singtel and Japanese MNC Hitachi expanded their collaboration to develop next-generation datacenters and GPU cloud solutions across Japan and Asia Pacific.

This partnership aims to enhance enterprise digital transformation and AI adoption by combining Singtel's datacenter and connectivity expertise with Hitachi's capabilities in sustainable datacenter solutions and AI technologies.

®

Will open science change chemistry?




Source: © Lucinda Rogers @ Heart Agency

By Rachel Brazil

2 September 2024

While more researchers are adopting open access, open data, open peer review and open projects, some significant barriers are hindering progress

Twenty years ago the debate surrounding open science focused on access to journals. By 2020 around 25% of all chemistry papers published were open access, and now most of the major publishers of chemistry journals offer some version of open access. But more researchers are starting to realise that other elements of open science are ripe for development. There is a tantalising future where chemists share their data in ways that allow easy reuse, awakening a new era of innovation.

One of the biggest culprits slowing this down is the humble pdf file, often the format for supplementary data submitted to journals. ‘Google and all those internet indexes have trouble reading pdfs and understanding what’s in them,’ says chemist Simon Coles from the University of Southampton. ‘Discoverability of data is really hampered by the fact that this is the way we operate.’ Coles is director of the UK Physical Sciences Data-science Service (PSDS), which is working to create an interconnected lake of data from UK physical science research.
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The urgency to do this is in part linked to the recent explosion in machine learning methods. ‘There’s no hope of us even getting out of the starting blocks with all these fancy new technologies if we don’t have the right data to train the algorithms,’ says Coles. ‘We’re like a Porsche with shopping trolley wheels on – we can’t get anywhere because of the foundations on which we’re building.’

Crystallography is one part of chemistry ahead of the game. In the 1990s the community invested time and effort into developing methods to share data. What started with a crystal structure database developed into a common language to describe the data and then an information file format. ‘Towards the end of the 90s, we were actually publishing papers in this cif format … it was very easy to pick up an example from a crystallographic experiment and run simulations that you could then extrapolate into a whole different space,’ says Coles.


We’re like a Porsche with shopping trolley wheels on

The PSDS, a partnership between the University of Southampton and the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council, is now hoping to create the type of architecture that will allow open sharing in all areas of chemistry. For about four years they have been working on an infrastructure to collect, collate and curate – in other words, can the data be found, can it be re-used and can it be analysed? It’s an enormous task says Coles, because the data chemists use is so diverse: ‘It can be everything from biological systems to materials and all in between.’ There has been progress in the fundamentals of assigning chemical structure data, but it’s still early days: ‘The ability to unify this sort of disparate data is still a long way out.

Similar initiatives are going on in Germany’s chemistry community through NFDI4Chem, one of 30 government funded consortia to open up data. In 2020, chemist Johannes Liermann from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz joined a team that is setting up several data repositories and has been tasked to come up with standards for metadata as part of a five-year project, working with international organisations including the PSDS.

One of the distinctions that Liermann makes is the type of openness they are looking to promote, which they describe as FAIR – findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. ‘It’s important, [as] this is often a concern in chemistry, to distinguish between open and FAIR data,’ says Liermann. FAIR data allows constraints on access; for example, due to a patent application. But the overarching principle of FAIR data is that there should be a record that it exists and it is machine readable.

NFDI4Chem has started with a focus on molecule related data. The harder task is encouraging cultural change through the adoption of electronic lab notebooks, which will ultimately provide a smooth journey from data collection and documentation in the lab to publication and open sharing.
New ways of working, new discoveries

Open science is more than just a way to share data – it’s also a fundamentally different and more collaborative way of doing science that could speed up progress. Medicinal chemist Matthew Todd from University College London School of Pharmacy in the UK has been experimenting with open drug discovery since the mid 2000s. He was looking for a cheap method to separate the enantiomers present in the drug praziquantel, which is commonly used in Africa to treat the parasitic infection bilharzia. The unwanted enantiomer in the current drug makes the tablet large and extremely bitter.

‘We set up a lab book online in collaboration with the University of Southampton, we got a bit of money for a research grant, and we started to post our experiments every day online,’ says Todd. They quickly developed a community of chemists willing to provide input, including many from industry, and found a cost-effective resolving agent. ‘A key thing about these open projects is that you can change what you’re doing as you’re doing it, with advice from the community, rather than waiting until the end and failing,’ says Todd, who expects distribution of a paediatric formulation of the single enantiomer drug to start soon.

Since then, Todd says, ‘everything we do is open,’ including the Open Source Malaria project that has produced publications featuring more than 50 authors. His collaborative open working approach now needs to be matched with open data. He points to the global Protein Data Bank that since 1971 has served as the single open repository of information about the 3D structures of proteins, nucleic acids and complex assemblies. This ultimately led to AlphaFold, the AI system developed by Google DeepMind that can now accurately predict 3D protein structure from its amino acid sequence. ‘We want to do the same thing for hit finding for new targets,’ says Todd. ‘That will only work if [the data is] open.’

This is in the pipeline with initiatives such as the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), a global public-private partnership that intends to openly publish small molecule screening data for thousands of human proteins. Drugs have already been inspired and developed by the private sector from such probes made available by the SGC. ‘That’s a great example of how people need to relax a little bit about sharing stuff, because it can still lead to great projects in the private sector that can help people, even if there’s no IP,’ says Todd.

Under review

One aspect of science that remains stubbornly closed is peer review, with most journals still opting for private and anonymous reviews. Ken Carslaw at the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science at the University of Leeds, UK, co-founded the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics in 2001, which pioneered a model of transparent peer review where papers submitted are published as preprints alongside reviews and author responses and remain there even if not accepted for publication.

With an open approach, ‘people are more civil when they’re writing their reviews, they also tend to be more thorough, because they know it will be public and not just for the editor’s eyes, even if it’s not attributed,’ says Carslaw (most reviewers still prefer to stay anonymous). He also thinks it improves the quality of submissions because people know they will immediately be public.

Carslaw would like to see more journals being open: ‘It’s good for public confidence in science that we’re not hiding things, [it] prevents scientific fraud, [it] prevents all manner of things.’ But he doesn’t see much interest in the model in chemistry, which he suggests may be linked to the dominance of large publishers. But the discipline has also generally been slower than others in opening up, with the chemistry preprint server ChemRxiv launching 26 years after physics’ equivalent arXiv, for example.

The situation is similar with data. ‘In some disciplines, the access to underlying data has got a lot better, or the culture has changed, says Coles. ‘In chemistry that hasn’t changed massively.’ Todd also sees chemistry lagging behind disciplines such as genomics. He suggests this may be because chemists create novel molecules, which engenders a greater sense of ownership.

One big problem is the lack of incentives to work in an open way. ‘People are nervous they will get scooped if they share everything,’ says Todd. But open lab books overcome this concern ‘because everything is time stamped and it’s very clear who’s done what and when’. There is also little recognition or reward for the time and effort it takes to work in a more open way – it is unlikely to get you a promotion or grant funding. Moving forward, Cole thinks there needs to be a data citation system where the originator of any data re-used in a follow-on study gets some credit.

Can science really be considered open if it doesn’t address the needs of the whole world?

Intellectual property is another barrier that Sabina Leonelli from the University of Exeter, UK, says is a particular issue in chemistry. Leonelli is a philosopher of science who studies open science and transformations in research systems. She thinks industry involvement keeps a lot of data out of the public domain: ‘This research is not even findable according to the FAIR principles.’ Plus, Leonelli says, ‘what we’re seeing in a lot of private companies is actually tightening up of trademarking and intellectual property around data, because people are now so aware that it is a very valuable asset.’

In academia at least, there is a push for culture change but Todd says the process is still ‘difficult and slow’. Leirmann thinks the key is convincing colleagues that they are the ones who will benefit from a more open system – for example allowing them to keep better track of data created within their own research groups, rather than it being hidden in a shelf full of theses.

Leonelli is also interested in how science can be more open and inclusive globally. Current open data initiatives still don’t allow those without large resources to participate and she has seen the discrepancies first hand in her interactions with crop researchers in Ghana. ‘In many places in the world, there are structural issues with accessing broadband, with accessing the kind of computing facilities and expertise that allow you to take advantage of some of these tools.’ This often adds to the problem of research agendas skewed to the interests of richer countries, with globally important areas like agriculture receiving little attention. Can science really be considered open if it doesn’t address the needs of the whole world?

For Coles there is a future, not too far away, where open science has revolutionised the way chemists work. He envisions chemists using shared data and machine learning tools to test hypotheses and only then resort to the laboratory to confirm the results – a laboratory that may itself be fully robotic. ‘If we get it right with respect to pooling and managing and indexing our data, then we’re not that far away from that goal,’ he says.

 

As wolves swoop, Austrians grab guns for contested cull

by Blaise GAUQUELIN

After disappearing in the 19th century, wolves have gradually returned to Austria in recent

 years.

After wolves swooped from the forest and savaged her lambs, Austrian sheep farmer Renate Pilz feels like giving up. Others, to the anger of conservationists, are reaching for their rifles.

"I lost two ewes and two lambs" to the wolf attack last year, the 55-year-old said at her farm in the village of Arbesbach.

She showed AFP photos of her animals, bleeding and so badly bitten that they had to be put down.

"It's too much work, it's no longer profitable and, above all, I don't want to do it any more," she said.

After disappearing in the 19th century, wolves have gradually returned to Austria in recent years. The number rose to 104 this year, up from an estimated 80 in 2022.

In response to a reported increase in attacks on livestock, several Austrian regions have authorized the controversial killing of wolves.

Environmental groups say the move violates European law, which lists them as protected animals.

Swelling wolf populations have dominated the headlines in the Alpine country and stirred emotion across Europe, with breeding packs recorded in 23 countries of the European Union.

'Wolf-free' zones

A few kilometers from Arbesbach, Gerhard Fallent told AFP that three wolves had killed "half of his flock of sheep" and seriously injured the other half last year.

Gerhard Fallent has become a vocal proponent of regulating the wolf population

Fallent has since become a vocal proponent of regulating the wolf population, founding the association Wolf Stop.

He has called for "wolf-free" zones to be established near communities where people live and work.

After a wolf was sighted close to a bus stop frequented by children, school trips were cancelled and pupils picked up directly from home by the bus for a year, the 64-year-old lamented.

"We want our children to be able to go back to playing in the woods" in a region that can offer much to tourists too, said Fallent.

With family farms going out of business, he noted that several Austrian regions managed to significantly reduce the number of attacks after authorizing killings.

'Obsolete' protection status

In Austria's southern state of Carinthia, shooting wolves to protect local farms and their livestock has been authorized since 2022.

So far "we have killed 13 wolves," deputy governor Martin Gruber told AFP.

Swelling wolf populations have dominated the headlines in the Alpine country and stirred 

emotion across Europe.

Putting up barriers such as fences in the rugged terrain, he argued, was "impossible" and above all a "waste of public money".

With the total population of wolves in the EU estimated at 20,300, Gruber said the predator's protection status was "obsolete" and should be lowered.

In 2023, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for the downgrading of the wolf's conservation status from "strictly protected" to "protected" in view of the "real danger" posed by the packs.

But conservationists across Europe have been up in arms, with environmental groups in Austria challenging the authorized killings in court.

In July, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that Austria should first try other solutions before hunting wolves massively, noting the local wolf population was "not at a favorable conservation status" and siding with the conservationists.

Fairy tales

Situated in the heart of Europe, Austria is rare in having three isolated wolf populations converge there from other parts of the continent.

After surviving "heavy hunting" about a century ago, wolves have started to spread due to being protected, and separate groups are linking up, said Marianne Heberlein, director of the Wolf Science Center.

The Wolf Science Center researches the process of domestication by comparing the

 behavior of the 10 wolves and 13 dogs housed at the center.

The operation, which claims to be the only one of its kind in the world, is attached to Vienna's University of Veterinary Medicine.

It researches the process of domestication by comparing the behavior of the 10 wolves and 13 dogs housed at the center.

It also aims to increase the public's awareness of wolves by familiarizing people with the "wild animal" in a "neutral" way, said Heberlein.

The center aims to do so "without glossing over the danger" they can pose or "giving them a bad image", she said.

The fear of the wolf "goes back a very long way in history", she said—the age-old conflict between wolf and human has fed into the fairy tales told to children.

© 2024 AFP

Austrian regions allow controversial wolf hunting

 Research finds particulate pollution during pregnancy may impact newborn kidney function

• Download PDF Copy

By Dr. Sushama R. Chaphalkar, PhD.Reviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLMSep 2 2024

In a recent cohort study published in the journal eBioMedicine, researchers investigated the potential effect of gestational exposure to particulate air pollution on cord blood cystatin C levels, a marker for kidney function.

They found that increased exposure to black carbon and fine particulate matter during pregnancy, particularly in the third trimester, was associated with higher cord blood cystatin C levels, suggesting potential negative effects on newborn kidney function.

Study: Newborn glomerular function and gestational particulate air pollution. Image Credit: Deemerwha studio/Shutterstock.com

Background

Researchers have previously hypothesized that a lower number of nephrons at birth increases the risk of hypertension, and early environmental exposures can have a long-term impact on health. Optimal kidney function is critical for maintaining body homeostasis.

However, assessing kidney function in neonates is challenging. Cystatin C, a protein produced by nucleated cells and filtered by the kidneys, has emerged as a valuable marker for glomerular filtration in newborns, as it is not influenced by muscle mass or inflammation.

Ambient air pollution, especially particulate matter of diameter <2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) and black carbon (BC), is a significant contributor to global disease, linked to cardiovascular, respiratory, and kidney issues. PM2.5 is known to cause cardiovascular problems, which are closely related to kidney health.

Maternal exposure to PM2.5 is shown to be associated with higher blood pressure and lower birth weight in newborns, potentially affecting kidney development.

While studies have shown that air pollution increases cystatin C levels and decreases glomerular filtration in adults, there is a lack of research on its effects on cystatin C levels in newborns, highlighting a gap in understanding the early-life impact of pollution on kidney function.

A new way of characterising biomolecules eBook Learn about mass photometry, a revolutionary way of characterizing biomolecules, with this free eBook.Download the latest edition

Therefore, researchers in the present study investigated whether cystatin C levels are altered in the cord blood plasma of neonates owing to exposure to ambient air pollution, specifically BC and PM2.5.

About the study

In the present study, medical and lifestyle data of 1,484 healthy mother-newborn pairs with singleton pregnancies between 2010 and 2020 were obtained from the ENVIRONAGE (ENVIRonmental influence ON early AGEing) birth cohort in Belgium.

Pairs lacking cord blood samples or missing data were excluded. Exposure to air pollution in the form of BC and PM2.5 was estimated using a model that integrated satellite land cover data and pollution data from monitoring stations.

Daily exposure values were averaged for the entire pregnancy and across trimesters. Cord blood samples were collected within 10 minutes of delivery, stored, and analyzed.

Cystatin C levels were measured in the samples using an accredited immune turbidimetry assay, where cystatin C binds to antibody-coated latex particles for quantification, providing insights into kidney function in newborns.

Statistical analysis involved the use of multiple linear regression analyses, distributed lag models, logistic regression analyses, and sensitivity analyses adjusting for various covariates, including age, education, smoking habits, alcohol consumption throughout pregnancy, and ethnicity.

Results and discussion

The average birth weight of newborns was 3,417.52 g, with 49.6% being girls, and the average gestational age was 39.2 weeks. Cord blood cystatin C levels averaged 2.16 mg/L. Mean exposure to BC and PM2.5 during pregnancy was found to be 1.18 μg/m³ and 12.65 μg/m³, respectively, remaining relatively constant across trimesters.

Significant associations were found between BC exposure during the entire pregnancy and elevated cord blood cystatin C levels, with a 0.5 μg/m³ increase correlating with a 0.04 mg/L rise (p<0.01). For PM2.5, a 5 μg/m³ increase was found to be associated with a 0.07 mg/L increase in cystatin C (p<0.01).

The first trimester showed associations with BC but not with PM2.5. Sensitivity analyses indicated that adjusting for additional covariates did not significantly alter effect estimates. Notably, the third trimester (beyond week 27) was identified as the most significant exposure window.

Higher exposures to PM2.5 and BC during the entire pregnancy and specifically in the third trimester increased the risk of higher cord blood cystatin C levels, with a 0.5 μg/m³ increase in BC linked to a 37% higher risk and a 5 μg/m³ increase in PM2.5 associated with an 80% higher risk.

The study is strengthened by its large, representative sample of well-characterized newborns and mothers with a prospective follow-up and high-resolution spatial air pollution model for fetal exposure estimation. However, the study lacks the use of additional markers to assess kidney function, such as creatinine.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the study shows that exposure to PM2.5 and BC during pregnancy, especially beyond week 27, is significantly linked to elevated cord blood cystatin C levels in newborns. This indicates the negative impact of particulate air pollution on kidney function since birth.

Therefore, monitoring early life exposure to particulate air pollution may be crucial for improving kidney health later in life. These findings warrant further research and aim to inform public health policy for improved outcomes in newborns.

Journal reference:

• Rasking, Leen et al., (2024) Newborn glomerular function and gestational particulate air pollution. eBioMedicine, Volume 107, 105253. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2024.105253. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(24)00289-5/fulltext

Written by

Dr. Sushama R. Chaphalkar

Dr. Sushama R. Chaphalkar is a senior researcher and academician based in Pune, India. She holds a PhD in Microbiology and comes with vast experience in research and education in Biotechnology. In her illustrious career spanning three decades and a half, she held prominent leadership positions in academia and industry. As the Founder-Director of a renowned Biotechnology institute, she worked extensively on high-end research projects of industrial significance, fostering a stronger bond between industry and academia.  

DEI

Why research inclusion leads to better outcomes: An Asian women’s perspective

One year on from the publication of NIHR’s Race Equality Framework (.PDF)for public involvement in research, public contributors Kalsum Akhtar, Syeda Islam and Yesmin Begum reflect on why this work matters to them as Asian women, and why it should matter to organisations.

As Asian women, we have a unique, constructive, and invaluable perspective to bring to health and care research not just as a group but individually too, as mothers, daughters, workers, homemakers, carers, and so on. Unfortunately, our voice remains largely under-represented, the situation exacerbated in the health research sphere by a lack of authentic role models.

Diversity contributes to better outcomes for all

The benefits of nurturing inclusion and a diversity of voices in the workplace have been proven time and again. For staff, a culture of respect is engaging and motivating, meaning happy employees and high retention rates; for organisations, different perspectives, styles, insights, and approaches foster innovative and creative problem-solving that can put them ahead of the competition. Nor are the benefits only felt internally. They extend to customers, service users, and society generally, too -to us, in other words.

The importance of this to organisations working in health and care research is obvious. To bring about better outcomes for everyone, organisations in the fields of health and care need to understand and be trusted by everyone. Such understanding and trust can only come about if organisations recognise the contributions of diverse groups, truly listen to what they have to say and work with them as equal partners to shape the services they provide. In other words, only by building diversity and inclusion as standards in their research, can those working in health and care be confident that the services they provide are truly fit for all.

Diversity in action: co-producing the Race Equality Framework

In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of [RACE]. There is no other way, and in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently.

(Harry Blackmun, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States)

To achieve racial equity, organisations must make doing so a priority at every level. Furthermore, they must work in authentic and equal partnership with people of all backgrounds, recognising that the benefits of doing so are mutual. This is something the NIHR’s Race Equality Public Action Group (REPAG), the team behind the Race Equality Framework, knows well, adopting as it did an ethos of ‘Do as I say AND as I do’ in its conception and co-creation of the Framework.

We three Asian women count ourselves fortunate to have been involved in developing the Framework - a self assessment tool to help organisations promote race equality in public involvement in research. Over the course of the past year, we contributed in various ways: taking part in consultations and workshops with diverse communities and partner organisations; as well as informing and advising on various topics, such as the need to do more to include under-represented communities and how to encourage more diverse members of the public—experts by experience—to take part in health and care research. We also experienced first-hand the importance of open and honest conversations, diplomacy, and safe spaces in facilitating learning. We were heartened to encounter pockets of allyship and the will to learn, as well as a recognition by organisations of challenges that are fuelled by resistance and denial of problems.

All in all, contributing to the Framework has been highly motivating and empowering and a great confidence-builder, not just for us personally but also in terms of inspiring us - as Asian women collectively, who have been victims of racial discrimination and treated unequally throughout our lives - to believe that racial equity in health and care services is possible.

The way ahead

Real recognition of individual differences is when every voice counts and matters. We, therefore, call on all organisations working in health and care research to adopt the Race Equality Framework. The richness of the data you will gain will help you to design services that you can be confident will meet the needs of all the communities you serve.

• Find out more about the Race Equality Framework by emailing repag_enquiries@nihr.ac.uk
• Read NIHR’s Research Inclusion strategy and learn more about the various tools and frameworks to support an inclusive approach to research.

Economists Alarmed by Growing Demand for Sausage
"This category tends to grow when the economy weakens... "

Sep 1, 12:45 PM EDT
bySharon Adarlo
FUTURISN

Meat Packer
Getty / Futurism

Struggle Meals

Is a recession coming? Who knows, but economists in Texas are raising their eyebrows over the recent uptick of consumers buying sausages rather than more expensive cuts of meat, a sign that they're feeling the pinch from runaway prices on, well, basically everything.

This trend was highlighted in the latest Dallas Federal Reserve’s Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey and flagged by NBC News, where a survey taker noted that more people are opting to make sausages for their struggle meals, which is online slang for cheap sustenance.

"As the economy weakens, we are seeing modest growth in our category of dinner sausage," this person is quoted as saying in the survey. "This category tends to grow when the economy weakens, as sausage is a good protein substitute for higher-priced proteins and can 'stretch' consumers’ food budgets."

The rest of the survey wasn't upbeat either, with respondents saying they're preparing for a recession because they noticed that invoices are getting paid more slowly, along with other signs that several key industry sectors are weakening.

CNBC also noted that corporate executives, who seem the last people to care, have also warned that consumer spending is slowing down at restaurant chains ranging from Starbucks to McDonald's — all canaries in a mine that something isn't quite right in the economy.

Meat Grinder

Inflation, which got jacked up during the pandemic, seems to be lessening with the consumer price index, one key inflation measure, being also remarkably smaller compared to previous years.

So why is the cost for seemingly everything super high and people are pessimistic about the economy?

It's true that inflation kicked into high gear due to supply chain shortages during the pandemic, but there's been strong evidence that corporations became greedy and price gouged consumers more than was strictly necessarily, on everything from food to medication.

That's not to mention the incredibly steep prices for housing, making it seem like the American dream is out of reach for ordinary folks while the richest among us are doing just fine.

And then you have the steady drumbeat from Silicon Valley that many jobs are in danger due to AI, while tech companies lay off scores of workers. Some of them blame AI, though many see that as window dressing for other reasons.

So for anybody who’s been paying attention to the sentiment of ordinary folks, cooking up some sausages just make cents.

More on the economy: Bill Gates Says He's Quite Concerned About the Global Economy