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Google Workers Form Union to 'Promote Solidarity, Democracy, and Social and Economic Justice'

The tech titan "has a responsibility to its thousands of workers and billions of users to make the world a better place," two of the union's leaders wrote. "We can help build that world." 

by

Brett Wilkins, staff writer

Activists held a rally during Google's annual shareholders meeting in Mountain View, California on May 14, 2014. (Photo: John Green/MediaNews Group/Bay Area News via Getty Images)

Decrying numerous policies and practices they say violate Google's "don't be evil" founding principle, more than 200 of the Silicon Valley tech giant's workers on Monday announced they are forming a union, a move that was applauded by progressive lawmakers and labor advocates nationwide. 

The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU)—named after Google's parent corporation—says it "strives to protect Alphabet workers, our global society, and our world," and to "promote solidarity, democracy, and social and economic justice." It will operate as part of the Communications Workers of America and will be open to all 120,000 of the company's employees.

"We deserve a workplace that respects us, where we can work for a fair wage without fear of abuse or discrimination. We deserve meaningful control over the projects we work on and the direction of this company."
—Parul Koul and Chewy Shaw, AWU

"For far too long, thousands of us at Google and other subsidiaries of Alphabet... have had our workplace concerns dismissed by executives," Parul Koul and Chewy Shaw, respectively AWU's chair and vice chair, wrote in a New York Times op-ed on Monday.

"Our bosses have collaborated with repressive governments around the world," Koul and Shaw said. "They have developed artificial intelligence technology for use by the Department of Defense and profited from ads by a hate group. They have failed to make the changes necessary to meaningfully address our retention issues with people of color."

"Most recently, Timnit Gebru, a leading artificial intelligence researcher and one of the few Black women in her field, said she was fired over her work to fight bias," Koul and Shaw continued. "Her offense? Conducting research that was critical of large-scale AI models and being critical of existing diversity and inclusion efforts. In response, thousands of our colleagues organized, demanding an explanation."

We're Alphabet workers. We’ve been organizing for over a year, & we’re finally ready to share why.

This morning, we're announcing #AWU, the first union open to *all* workers at any Alphabet company.

Every worker deserves a union—including tech workers.https://t.co/m2Qmjwz32V

— Alphabet Workers Union (@AlphabetWorkers) January 4, 2021

And the only thing that's changed anything is worker organizing.

Worker organizing got Project Maven & Project Dragonfly cancelled.

It got 20,000+ Googlers to walk out against sexual harassment.

It got $15 min wage & healthcare for contractors.

And it's going to get us more.

— Alphabet Workers Union (@AlphabetWorkers) January 4, 2021

"Both of us have heard from colleagues—some new, some with over a decade at the company—who have decided that working at Alphabet is no longer a choice they can make in good conscience," added Koul and Shaw.

They then listed some of the successful employee activism that has borne results in recent years, including ending participation in the Project Maven AI warfare project with the Pentagon; terminating the Dragonfly censored search engine in China; winning a $15 per hour minimum wage for some subcontracted workers; and an end to forced arbitration of sexual harassment and other claims. 

Koul and Shaw stressed that Alphabet "has a responsibility to prioritize the public good. It has a responsibility to its thousands of workers and billions of users to make the world a better place."

"As Alphabet workers, we can help build that world," they wrote. 

Unionization is the exception to the rule in Silicon Valley. And unlike traditional labor unions, AWU is a so-called minority union—it represents only a small percentage of the company's 260,000-strong global workforce—that will not negotiate contracts. 

"Our goals go beyond the workplace questions of, 'Are people getting paid enough?' Our issues are going much broader," Shaw, an engineer in the San Francisco Bay Area, told the Times in a report about the new union. "It is a time where a union is an answer to these problems."

omg I’m SO EXCITED to finally announce this. We organized a union at Google — @AlphabetWorkers Union is here!(1/n) pic.twitter.com/0l5LRlB8KL

— Auni A (@trombauni) January 4, 2021

I'm a Google employee and, now, a proud card-carrying member of the Alphabet Workers Union.

Tech workers need a union because we can't rely on the good graces of tech leaders to do right by us and society. https://t.co/u9Q4CDRqDP

— Dr. Alex Hanna (@alexhanna) January 4, 2021

Veena Dubal, a law professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, called AWU a "powerful experiment."  

"If it grows—which Google will do everything they can to prevent—it could have huge impacts not just for the workers, but for the broader issues that we are all thinking about in terms of tech power in society," Dubal told the Times. 

Progressive lawmakers and labor advocates hailed Monday's announcement. 

"The time is long overdue for the workers who built Big Tech to have a voice in their workplace," said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), co-chair of the House Labor Caucus. 

I stand in solidarity with @AlphabetWorkers who are organizing to form a union at Google. What these workers are fighting for is not radical. They want fair wages and a workplace free from abuse, retaliation, intimidation and discrimination. And that is exactly what they deserve.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 4, 2021

Congrats to these workers for this great start to 2021!
People said you couldn’t organize tech workers. But today workers @Google have announced @AlphabetWorkers, a union for all workers at Google with

@CWAUnion.
Workers are ready to change the tech industry for good! https://t.co/rOfBiZuHWE

— Congressman Chuy García (@RepChuyGarcia) January 4, 2021

"The future of tech is stronger with the power of a union," tweeted AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Liz Shuler. "We stand in solidarity with Alphabet workers who are courageously organizing for a better future at Google!"

Yasemin Zahra, chair of Labor Against Racism and War, asserted that by unionizing, "Google workers are not just standing up to management but also Lockheed-Martin and ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] ties in the company. Silicon Valley giants are military-intel contractors. Incredible!"

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Union at Google parent Alphabet seeks bigger role for workers

by Rob Lever 

JANUARY 4, 2021

A labor drive has begun at Google and its parent firm Alphabet aiming to improve conditions for contractors and give employees a bigger role in company decisions

Employees at Google and other units of parent firm Alphabet announced the creation Monday of a union, aiming for a bigger role in company decisions in a move which steps up the activism brewing in Silicon Valley giants.

The Alphabet Workers Union, affiliated with the Communications Workers of America, aims to represent well-compensated tech workers as well as temporary workers and contractors, according to a statement.

The new labor group is focusing not only on pay and benefits but also a role in ethical decisions by the tech giant and protection from allegedly arbitrary firings for activism.

"We hope to create a democratic process for workers to wield decision-making power; promote social, economic, and environmental justice; and end the unfair disparities between TVCs (temporary, vendors and contractors) and FTEs (full time employees)," the union's website said.

As of the end of December, the union had some 200 members. It will be open all employees at Google and Alphabet units including autonomous car division Waymo, connected device maker Fitbit and life sciences division Verily.

In a New York Times op-ed, the union's chair Parul Koul and vice chair Chewy Shaw said that the focus will be "to ensure that workers know what they're working on, and can do their work at a fair wage, without fear of abuse, retaliation or discrimination."

They said they would press Google on ethical decisions including in the use of artificial intelligence.

"Its motto used to be 'Don't be evil,' " they wrote "We will live by that motto."

The move comes with Google and other tech giants under heightened scrutiny by antitrust enforcers in the US and elsewhere for their growing dominance of key economic sectors.

New deal for tech?

"There is a growing techlash against the large technology companies as they are accumulating great wealth and a number of their workers are unhappy with the high cost of living in Silicon Valley, working conditions, AI ethics, and corporate decision-making," said Darrell West, a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for Technology Innovation.

Google workers held a sit-in to protest sexual harassment at the company, on May 1, 2019 at the tech giant's headquarters in Silicon Valley

"Tech employees want a greater say in what is happening and want to see greater social responsibility from the sector. This unionization drive differs from past ones from the industrial era in focusing not just on pay and benefits, but the broader role of technology in society."

Large tech firms, which offer generous compensation to software engineers and other skilled workers, have largely avoided labor drives but have faced growing unrest over workplaces issues in recent years.

At Amazon, which has tens of thousands of warehouse workers, organizing drives have focused on working conditions and safety during the pandemic.

One of the catalysts at Google was the recent firing of Timnit Gebru, a Black artificial intelligence ethics researcher and outspoken diversity activist.

The company also faced a backlash from employees over its involvement with a Pentagon project known as Project Maven, which Google eventually ended.

"This union builds upon years of courageous organizing by Google workers," said Nicki Anselmo, a Google program manager and union member.

"From... opposing Project Maven, to protesting the egregious, multimillion dollar payouts that have been given to executives who've committed sexual harassment, we've seen first-hand that Alphabet responds when we act collectively."

Google's director of people operations Kara Silverstein, said in a statement: "We've always worked hard to create a supportive and rewarding workplace for our workforce.

"Of course our employees have protected labor rights that we support. But as we've always done, we'll continue engaging directly with all our employees."

Arthur Wheaton, a researcher at Cornell University's school of industrial and labor relations, said the union could face challenges if it seeks recognition by the company, needing some 30 percent to force an election and a majority to win representation.

"Union organizing drives take a long time with no guarantees of success," Wheaton said. "US labor law is not very good for workers rights. It is tilted heavily in management's favor."

Explore further  Amazon girds for challenge in warehouse union drive

© 2021 AFP

Google employees form new union in secret

ALL WORKERS ORG.S BEGIN IN SECRET

Google employees said Monday they have formed a union, a first in Silicon Valley. 

JAN. 4, 2021 / 12:29 PM

File Photo by Mohammad Kheirkhah/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 4 (UPI) -- More than 200 Google employees have formed a union, the group said Monday, creating a credible challenge to Silicon Valley culture that has shied away from union workforces.

The new Alphabet Workers Union, to cover 225 engineers and other workers at Google's parent company, elected its leadership in secret last month and earned affiliation with the Communication Workers of America.

The CWA represents union workers in the telecommunications and media industry throughout the United States and Canada.

"This union builds upon years of courageous organizing by Google workers," Nicki Anselmo, Google's program manager said in a statement.

RELATED Nearly 40 states file antitrust lawsuit against Google

"From fighting the 'real names' policy to opposing Project Maven, to protesting the egregious, multimillion-dollar payouts that have been given to executives who've committed sexual harassment, we've seen first-hand that Alphabet responds when we act collectively.

"Our new union provides a sustainable structure to ensure that our shared values as Alphabet employees are respected even after the headlines fade."

Google issued a statement about the union's announcement, saying it supports its employees' rights to organize.

RELATED EU proposes major changes to bar unfair practices by web 'gatekeepers'

"We've always worked hard to create a supportive and rewarding workplace for our workforce," said Kara Silverstein, Google's director of people operations. "Of course, our employees have protected labor rights that we support. But as we've always done, we'll continue engaging directly with all our employees."

Dylan Baker, a Google software engineer, said the union will help the company reflect the values of its workers.

"This is historic; the first union at a major tech company by and for all tech workers," Baker said.

"We will elect representatives, we will make decisions democratically, we will pay dues, and we will hire skilled organizers to ensure all workers at Google know they can work with us if they actually want to see their company reflect their values."

Ga. election official: Trump spreading 'misinformation and disinformation'

JAN. 4, 2021 

Georgia election officials said President Donald Trump was trying to undermine faith in the system. Photo by Tami Chappell/UPI | License Photo

Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A Georgia election official said Monday that President Donald Trump and his lawyers were spreading "misinformation and disinformation" about the state's election tallies and trying to undermine faith in the system.

Gabriel Sterling, voting system implementation manager for Georgia's Secretary of State office, said in a news conference the president's efforts to overturn the results of the Georgia election were based on allegations that were "all easily, provably false."

He said the president's persistent claims "undermine Georgians' faith in the system. Especially Georgia Republicans."

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger did not appear at the news conference, where Sterling discussed a phone call from Trump pressuring his office to "find 11,780 votes" to overturn the state's certified election results.

"The secretary of state wants you to know that your vote counts and your vote counted," Sterling said.

President-elect Joe Biden was certified as the winner of the election in Georgia after a recount and audit. Biden won the state's 16 electoral votes, with 306 votes overall, surpassing the 270 needed to win. Trump garnered 232.

Sterling disputed as false claims about illegal voting in Georgia, which he likened to "whack a mole" and "Groundhog's Day."

He said Trump's lawyers had made fraudulent claims, including that tens of thousands of votes allegedly cast by felons, underage voters, dead voters, unregistered voters, or voters registered to a P.O. box.

Sterling said election officials had followed up on every claim and found them all false.

"No one is changing parts or pieces of Dominion voting machines," Sterling said. "That's not real. That is not happening. I don't even know how to explain that."

RELATED 10 ex-U.S. defense chiefs warn Pentagon against interfering in election

Sterling said the facts were posted on the secretary of state's Securevotega.com, which crashed several times during his press conference.

On Tuesday, voters in Georgia will choose both U.S. senators in a runoff election that could swing control of the U.S. Senate from a Republican to a Democrat majority. The election pits GOP incumbent David Perdue against Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Kelly Loeffler against Democrat Raphael Warnock.

Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will appear at last-minute rallies in Georgia supporting Loeffler and Perdue, while Biden will address voters at an Atlanta rally for Democrats Ossoff and Warnock.

Trump called Raffensperger and the Georgia secretary of state's general counsel, Ryan Germany, last week and asked them to "find 11,780 votes."

Trump cited unfounded claims of fraud and tried to cajole the officials with threats of legal and political consequences.

"All I want to do is this: I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state," Trump said.

The recording of the phone call was published Sunday by the Washington Post and other news outlets.

Raffensperger and the attorney are heard on the call refusing Trump's demands.

"Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong," Raffensperger told the president.

On Monday, two U.S. Congress members asked FBI Chief Christopher Wray to "open an immediate criminal investigation" of Trump's call. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., accused Trump of election fraud and conspiracy to commit election crimes.

Trump Begged And Threatened A Georgia Official To Change The Election Results During A Phone Call

"There's nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated," the president said in an audio recording of the phone call obtained by the Washington Post

 Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Trump's actions "an impeachable offense" and said "if it was up to me, there would be articles on the floor, quite quickly."

Ellie Hall BuzzFeed News Reporter
January 3, 2021


SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
President Donald Trump


President Donald Trump begged, berated, and threatened Georgia's top election official while asking him to overturn the election results in his favor, citing disproven statistics and conspiracy theories, in a rambling phone call Saturday, according to audio obtained by the Washington Post.

During the hourlong phone call, Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" him enough votes to overturn the election. At one point, the president even suggested that Raffensperger could face criminal charges if these nonexistent votes weren't found.

Trump's desperate phone call — which some legal experts described as "extortion" and "mob talk" — comes as a dozen Republic lawmakers, citing election irregularities, have said they will object to certifying Joe Biden's Electoral College win on Jan. 6. Trump has refused to accept the election results, engaging in largely futile legal efforts and endorsing his Republican allies' baseless attempts to undermine the electoral process. On Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff said that Pence "welcomes" the GOP senators' efforts to contest the election results, adding that he "shares the concerns of millions of Americans about voter fraud and irregularities in the last election."

“The people of Georgia are angry, the people in the country are angry, and there’s nothing wrong with saying, you know, um, that you’ve recalculated," Trump said on the call with Raffensperger and his office's general counsel, Ryan Germany, according to audio excerpts released by the Post and other media outlets on Sunday.

Following a recount, Biden was named the winner of Georgia's election in a narrow victory on Nov. 14. He won by 11,779 votes and is the first Democrat to win the state since 1992.

"So look. All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state," Trump said on the call.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and several conservative lawyers were also present on the call, the Post reported.

Throughout the call, Raffensperger, a Republican, pushed back against Trump's wild and unproven assertions about Biden's victory in Georgia and called out the president for citing blatantly false conspiracy theories about the state's voting process and postelection audit.


"Mr. President, the challenge that you have is, the data you have is wrong," Raffensperger said.


John Bazemore / AP
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger

"There’s no way I lost Georgia,” Trump said on the call. "There’s no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes."

In an exchange with Ryan Germany, Raffensperger’s general counsel, Trump pushed the lawyer to validate the false conspiracy theory that Dominion Voting Systems, a company that provides hardware and software for ballot counting, somehow rigged the election.

“Do you think it’s possible that they shredded ballots in Fulton County? ’Cause that’s what the rumor is," Trump said. "And also that Dominion took out machines. That Dominion is really moving fast to get rid of their, uh, machinery. Do you know anything about that? Because that’s illegal.”

When Germany told the president that Dominion hadn't moved any machinery out of Fulton County, Trump then asked if the company had "moved the inner parts of the machines and replaced them with other parts."


"No," Germany said.

"Are you sure, Ryan?" Trump asked.

"I'm sure. I'm sure, Mr. President," Germany replied.

During the call, Trump suggested that Raffensperger could face criminal prosecution and that it was a "big risk" if he didn't do as Trump asked.

"You know what they did and you’re not reporting it," Trump said. "You know, that’s a criminal — that’s a criminal offense. And you know, you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer. That’s a big risk."

Trump had earlier tweeted about the phone call with Raffensperger, saying that he was "unwilling, or unable, to answer questions such as the 'ballots under table' scam, ballot destruction, out of state 'voters', dead voters, and more. He has no clue!"

Raffensperger simply responded: "Respectfully, President Trump: What you're saying is not true. The truth will come out."

A senior adviser for Biden, Bob Bauer, told MSNBC, "We now have irrefutable proof of a president pressuring and threatening an official of his own party to get him to rescind a state's lawful, certified vote count and fabricate another in its place."

BuzzFeed News has reached out to the White House and the Georgia secretary of state's office for comment.

Soon after the Washington Post published its story — and the full hourlong audio and transcript of the call — elected officials began blasting Trump, with many saying that his actions merited criminal charges.

"Trump’s call pushing the GA Secretary of State to doctor the election outcome is an immoral attempt to manipulate the election and a potential criminal act," said Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat.

"This disgraceful effort to intimidate an elected official into deliberately changing & misrepresenting the legally confirmed vote totals in his state strikes at the heart of our democracy and merits nothing less than a criminal investigation," Democratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin said. "The President is unhinged and dangerous. Those who encourage and support his conduct, including my Senate colleagues, are putting the orderly and peaceful transition of power in our nation at risk."

On a press call, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called Trump's actions "an impeachable offense" and said "if it was up to me, there would be articles on the floor, quite quickly."

Former vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine, describing Trump as "a spoiled rich kid who's talking about our democracy like it's a real estate deal," said, "News flash to the current President: It's not a negotiation, it's an election. The voters decided — and you lost."

Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson described Trump's phone call as "a violation of state and federal law" and said that he would introduce a motion to censure Trump in the House on Monday.

Meanwhile, only a few members of the Republican party have publicly commented on the story so far.

"This is absolutely appalling," Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger said. "To every member of Congress considering objecting to the election results, you cannot- in light of this- do so with a clean conscience."

GOP Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, who are at the forefront of the Republican efforts to contest the election results, did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.

Traditional stereotypes about masculinity may help explain support for Trump

by Pennsylvania State University

JANUARY 4, 2021

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

American politicians have long been expected to uphold a certain veneer: powerful, influential and never vulnerable. New Penn State research has found that these idealized forms of masculinity may also help explain support for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election and in the days leading up to the 2020 election.


Across several studies, the researchers found that when men and women endorsed "hegemonic masculinity"—a culturally idealized form of masculinity that says men should be strong, tough, and dominant—they were more likely to vote for and have positive feelings about Trump.

The researchers found this was true even when they controlled for political party, gender and how much the participants trusted the government.

Nathaniel Schermerhorn, a dual doctoral candidate in psychology and women's, gender, and sexuality studies, said the findings—published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America—suggest that while American society seems to be ready for a female president, an active rejection of hegemonic masculinity may need to happen first.

"The pervasiveness of hegemonic masculinity exists because we do not always know that our attitudes and behaviors are contributing to it," Schermerhorn said. "The success of Donald Trump's 2016 campaign shows that even if we, as a society, have made progress in saying that discrimination and prejudice is undesirable, we have not, as a society, fully interrogated the systematic ways in which those prejudices are upheld."

Because American politics are largely dominated by men, the researchers said political campaigns often emphasize traditionally masculine characteristics to convince voters of a candidate's competence and skill.

"Historically, American politics have been a masculinity contest about proving which candidate is better," Schermerhorn said. "Since the 1980s, the Republican party has used this to their rhetorical advantage by presenting the Republican candidate as masculine and feminizing the entire Democratic party, for example by calling them 'snowflakes.'"

Theresa Vescio, professor of psychology and women's, gender, and sexuality studies, said Trump's 2016 campaign was no exception—he often criticized his opponent's masculinity and displayed sexist attitudes toward Hilary Clinton while positioning himself as a tough, powerful and successful businessman.


Vescio said that while this may resonate with voters who share similar ideals of masculinity, such attitudes may not actually be realistic.

"In contemporary America, idealized forms of masculinity suggest that men should be high in power, status and dominance, while being physically, mentally and emotionally tough," Vescio said. "But this is an incredibly high standard that few can achieve or maintain. Therefore, this is an idea that many men strive to achieve, but few men actually exhibit."

Vescio said that while Trump's success with voters has been attributed to many different possible factors, she and the other researchers were specifically interested in to what extent hegemonic masculinity played a role with constituents.

The researchers recruited a total of 2,007 participants for seven different studies. In the first six studies, participants answered questions about their endorsements of hegemonic masculinity, trust in the government, sexism, racism, homophobia and xenophobia. They also indicated their political affiliation, how they voted in the 2016 presidential election, and their evaluations of Trump and Clinton.

In a seventh and final study, participants answered similar questions but also provided information about how they were going to vote in the 2020 presidential election, as well as their evaluations of Trump and Biden.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that across all studies, participants who endorsed hegemonic masculinity were more likely to vote for Trump and to evaluate him positively. This was true for women and men, white and non-white participants, Democrats and Republicans, and across level of education.

"Additionally, we found that stronger endorsement of hegemonic masculinity was related to greater sexism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and Islamophobia," Vescio said. "But, hegemonic masculinity continued to predict support for Trump even when controlling for these prejudices."

Schermerhorn said the results can help shine a light on how both men and women respond to masculine and feminine candidates. He said that because hegemonic masculinity is embedded in social and political institutions, people may internalize the status quo as beneficial, even when it isn't.

"While endorsing hegemonic masculinity predicted a higher likelihood of supporting Trump, it did not necessarily predict negative support for Democratic candidates," he said. "This could suggest that hegemonic masculinity may actually be a predictor of maintaining the status quo and not the inverse—working against the status quo."


Explore further Toxic masculinity is unsafe... for men

More information: Theresa K. Vescio el al., "Hegemonic masculinity predicts 2016 and 2020 voting and candidate evaluations," PNAS (2020). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2020589118

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Provided by Pennsylvania State University

Fluoride to the rescue? 

Addressing the challenge of antibiotic-resistant bacteria

by James Badham, University of California - Santa Barbara

JANUARY 4, 2021

Artist's concept illustration depicting cells treated with antibiotics (red) propagating in a river environment, while those that have been genetically modified to remove the gene that produces the fluoride exporter (green) die off in the presence of fluoride. Credit: Lillian Mckinney

Scientists have long been aware of the dangerous overuse of antibiotics and the increasing number of antibiotic-resistant microbes that have resulted. While over-prescription of antibiotics for medicinal use has unsettling implications for human health, so too does the increasing presence of antibiotics in the natural environment. The latter may stem from the improper disposal of medicines, but also from the biotechnology field, which has depended on antibiotics as a selection device in the lab.

"In biotech, we have for a long time relied on antibiotic and chemical selections to kill cells that we don't want to grow," said UC Santa Barbara chemical engineer Michelle O'Malley. "If we have a genetically engineered cell and want to get only that cell to grow among a population of cells, we give it an antibiotic resistance gene. The introduction of an antibiotic will kill all the cells that are not genetically engineered and allow only the ones we want—the genetically modified organisms [GMOs]—to survive. However, many organisms have evolved the means to get around our antibiotics, and they are a growing problem in both the biotech world and in the natural environment. The issue of antibiotic resistance is a grand challenge of our time, one that is only growing in its importance."

Further, GMOs come with a containment issue. "If that GMO were to get out of the lab and successfully replicate in the environment, you could not predict what traits it would introduce into the natural biological world," O'Malley explained. "With the advent of synthetic biology, there is increasingly a risk that things we're engineering in the lab could escape and proliferate into ecosystems where they don't belong."

Now, research conducted in O'Malley's lab and published in the journal Nature Communications describes a simple method to address both the overuse of antibiotics, as well as containment of GMOs. It calls for replacing antibiotics in the lab with fluoride.

O'Malley described fluoride as "a pretty benign chemical that is abundant in the world, including in groundwater." But, she notes, it is also toxic to microorganisms, which have evolved a gene that encodes a fluoride exporter that protects cells by removing fluoride encountered in the natural environment.

The paper describes a process developed by Justin Yoo, a former graduate student researcher in O'Malley's lab. It uses a common technique called homologous recombination to render non-functional the gene in a GMO that encodes a fluoride exporter, so the cell can no longer produce it. Such a cell would still thrive in the lab, where fluoride-free distilled water is normally used, but if it escaped into the natural environment, it would die as soon as it encountered fluoride, thus preventing propagation.

Prior to this research, Yoo was collaborating with the paper's co-author Susanna Seppala, a project scientist in O'Malley's lab, in an effort to use yeast to characterize fluoride transport proteins that Seppala had identified in anaerobic fungi. A first step in this project was for Yoo to remove native yeast fluoride transporters.

Shortly after generating the knockout yeast strain, Yoo attended a synthetic biology conference where he heard a talk on a novel biocontainment mechanism intended to prevent genetically modified E. coli bacteria from escaping lab environments. At that talk, he recalled, "I realized that the knockout yeast strain I had generated could potentially act as an effective biocontainment platform for yeast."

"Essentially, what Justin did was to create a series of DNA instructions you can give to cells that will enable them to survive when fluoride is around," O'Malley said. "Normally, if I wanted to select for a genetically engineered cell in the lab, I'd make a plasmid [a genetic structure in a cell, typically a small circular DNA strand, that can replicate independently of the chromosomes] that had an antibiotic resistance marker so that it would survive if an antibiotic was around. Justin is replacing that with the gene for these fluoride exporters."

The method, which O'Malley characterized as "low-hanging fruit—Justin did all of these studies in about a month," also addresses a simple economic limitation to antibiotic-driven cell selection in biotechnology labs. Aside from fueling the rise of resistant strains of bacteria, she continued, "from a biotech standpoint, the process of creating antibiotic-resistant organisms is also pretty darn expensive. If you were going to run a ten-thousand-liter fermentation, and it may cost you thousands of dollars per fermentation to add some antibiotics, that's a crazy amount of money." Notably, using fluoride at a low concentration would cost only about four cents per liter.

Clearly, said Seppala, "we'd much rather use a chemical like fluoride that's relatively benign, abundant and cheap, and can be used to do the same thing that is achieved using a conventional antibiotic."

Yoo explained that the role of the fluoride transporters had only recently been elucidated, in 2013, when this project began. Emerging approaches to implementing biocontainment have focused on using biological parts that are foreign to the organism of interest, shifting focus toward what Yoo described as "brilliant, yet complex, systems," while perhaps diverting attention from this simpler approach.

Explore further How bacteria battle fluoride

More information: Justin I. Yoo et al. Engineered fluoride sensitivity enables biocontainment and selection of genetically-modified yeasts, Nature Communications (2020).

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19271-1

Journal information: Nature Communications

Reawakened geyser does not foretell Yellowstone volcanic eruptions, study shows

IGNORE HEADLINES TO THE CONTRARY 

IN RT AND UK TABLOIDS

by University of California - Berkeley

JANUARY 4, 2021

A 2019 eruption of Steamboat Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park. The geyser's first documented activity was in 1878, and it has turned off and on sporadically since, once going for 50 years without erupting. In 2018 it reactivated after a three-and-a-half-year hiatus, for reasons that are still unclear. Credit: UC Berkeley photo by Mara Reed

When Yellowstone National Park's Steamboat Geyser—which shoots water higher than any active geyser in the world—reawakened in 2018 after three and a half years of dormancy, some speculated that it was a harbinger of possible explosive volcanic eruptions within the surrounding geyser basin. These so-called hydrothermal explosions can hurl mud, sand and rocks into the air and release hot steam, endangering lives; such an explosion on White Island in New Zealand in December 2019 killed 22 people.


A new study by geoscientists who study geysers throws cold water on that idea, finding few indications of underground magma movement that would be a prerequisite to an eruption. The geysers sit just outside the nation's largest and most dynamic volcanic caldera, but no major eruptions have occurred in the past 70,000 years.

"Hydrothermal explosions—basically hot water exploding because it comes into contact with hot rock—are one of the biggest hazards in Yellowstone," said Michael Manga, professor of earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, and the study's senior author. "The reason that they are problematic is that they are very hard to predict; it is not clear if there are any precursors that would allow you to provide warning."

He and his team found that, while the ground around the geyser rose and seismicity increased somewhat before the geyser reactivated and the area currently is radiating slightly more heat into the atmosphere, no other dormant geysers in the basin have restarted, and the temperature of the groundwater propelling Steamboat's eruptions has not increased. Also, no sequence of Steamboat eruptions other than the one that started in 2018 occurred after periods of high seismic activity.

"We don't find any evidence that there is a big eruption coming. I think that is an important takeaway," he said.

The study will be published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Manga, who has studied geysers around the world and created some in his own laboratory, set out with his colleagues to answer three main questions about Steamboat Geyser: Why did it reawaken? Why is its period so variable, ranging from 3 to 17 days? and Why does it spurt so high?

The team found answers to two of those questions. By comparing the column heights of 11 different geysers in the United States, Russia, Iceland and Chile with the estimated depth of the reservoir of water from which their eruptions come, they found that the deeper the reservoir, the higher the eruption jet. Steamboat Geyser, with a reservoir about 25 meters (82 feet) below ground, has the highest column—up to 115 meters, or 377 feet—while two geysers that Manga measured in Chile were among the lowest—eruptions about a meter (3 feet) high from reservoirs 2 and 5 meters below ground.


"What you are really doing is you are filling a container, it reaches a critical point, you empty it and then you run out of fluid that can erupt until it refills again," he said. "The deeper you go, the higher the pressure. The higher the pressure, the higher the boiling temperature. And the hotter the water is, the more energy it has and the higher the geyser."

To explore the reasons for Steamboat Geyser's variability, the team assembled records related to 109 eruptions going back to its reactivation in 2018. The records included weather and stream flow data, seismometer and ground deformation readings, and observations by geyser enthusiasts. They also looked at previous active and dormant periods of Steamboat and nine other Yellowstone geysers, and ground surface thermal emission data from the Norris Geyser Basin.

They concluded that variations in rainfall and snow melt were probably responsible for part of the variable period, and possibly for the variable period of other geysers as well. In the spring and early summer, with melting snow and rain, the underground water pressure pushes more water into the underground reservoir, providing more hot water to erupt more frequently. During winter, with less water, lower groundwater pressure refills the reservoir more slowly, leading to longer periods between eruptions. Because the water pushed into the reservoir comes from places even deeper than the reservoir, the water is decades or centuries old before it erupts back to the surface, he said.

In October, Manga's team members demonstrated the extreme impact water shortages and drought can have on geysers. They showed that Yellowstone's iconic Old Faithful Geyser stopped erupting entirely for about 100 years in the 13th and 14th centuries, based on radiocarbon dating of mineralized lodgepole pine trees that grew around the geyser during its dormancy. Normally the water is too alkaline and the temperature too high for trees to grow near active geysers. The dormancy period coincided with a lengthy warm, dry spell across the Western U.S. called the Medieval Climate Anomaly, which may have caused the disappearance of several Native American civilizations in the West.

"Climate change is going to affect geysers in the future," Manga said.

Manga and his team were unable to determine why Steamboat Geyser started up again on March 15, 2018, after three years and 193 days of inactivity, though the geyser is known for being far more variable than Old Faithful, which usually goes off about every 90 minutes. They could find no definitive evidence that new magma rising below the geyser caused its reactivation.

The reactivation may have to do with changes in the internal plumbing, he said. Geysers seem to require three ingredients: heat, water and rocks made of silica—silicon dioxide. Because the hot water in geysers continually dissolves and redeposits silica—every time Steamboat Geyser erupts, it brings up about 200 kilograms, or 440 pounds of dissolved silica. Some of this silica is deposited underground and may change the plumbing system underneath the geyser. Such changes could temporarily halt or reactivate eruptions if the pipe gets rerouted, he said.

Manga has experimented with geysers in his lab to understand why they erupt periodically, and at least in the lab, it appears to be caused by loops or side chambers in the pipe that trap bubbles of steam that slowly dribble out, heating the water column above until all the water can boil from the top down, explosively erupting in a column of water and steam.

Studies of water eruptions from geysers could give insight into the eruptions of hot rock from volcanoes, he said.

"What we asked are very simple questions and it is a little bit embarrassing that we can't answer them, because it means there are fundamental processes on Earth that we don't quite understand," Manga said. "One of the reasons we argue we need to study geysers is that if we can't understand and explain how a geyser erupts, our hope for doing the same thing for magma is much lower."


Explore furtherGeysers have loops in their plumbing: Periodic eruptions tied to underground bends and side-chambers
More information: Mara H. Reed el al., "The 2018 reawakening and eruption dynamics of Steamboat Geyser, the world's tallest active geyser," PNAS (2020). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2020943118
Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences


Provided by University of California - Berkeley
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Model estimates subsidence risks across the globe

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

An international team of researchers has created a model that can be used to make estimates about the degree of subsidence risk for different parts of the world. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes the factors that went into creating their model, and what it showed.

Subsidence occurs when the ground sinks due to material beneath the surface being extracted. In this new effort, the researchers focused on subsidence due to water removal. Prior research has shown that several locations around the globe are already suffering from subsidence problems due to water extraction. Officials in Indonesia, for example, are looking to move the capital of that country (Jakarta) to Borneo. The ground in Jakarta has sunk so much that the government is worried that it will soon fill with ocean water. Subsidence can be less dramatic but still just as problematic—sinking ground can lead to cracks in foundations making buildings unstable, for example.

Subsidence has become problematic in areas of high population or heavy farming, both of which lead to massive amounts of water being pumped from underground reservoirs. As a reservoir is drained, there is no longer anything to support the ground above and so it sinks. Subsidence occurs in two main ways, long slow drops in ground level, and faster drops that are frequently seen as sinkholes.

In this new effort, the researchers sought to create a model that could be used to forecast subsidence in different parts of the world. To meet that goal, they first obtained data describing subsidence that has already occurred or that is occurring now. They then obtained data from different sources describing geology, climatic conditions, susceptibility to flooding, drought and human activities such as pumping water from the ground to supply cities or large farming operations.

They then used the data they had obtained to create a model that could be used to estimate the risk for individual areas around the globe and for whole regions. They next used their model to make predictions for areas that they could compare with real-world results as a way to test the accuracy of the model. In so doing, they found their model to be 94 percent accurate on average. They then used their model to create maps of the world showing which parts were estimated to be at greatest risk of sinking and found that approximately one-fifth of the world's population was living in at-risk areas—the vast majority of which are in Asia.


Explore furtherChanges in subsistence hunting threaten local food security

More information: Gerardo Herrera-García et al. Mapping the global threat of land subsidence, Science (2020). DOI: 10.1126/science.abb8549

Journal information: Science



© 2021 Science X Network
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To battle food inequity, a nonprofit helps neighbors eat healthy

by Karina Ioffee


When Bria Hutson was growing up in East Oakland, California, she had a routine. Every day after school, she and her friends would stop at a corner store and load up on chips, sodas and other junk food. The nearest grocery store was miles away and her mom didn't drive.

Everyone around her ate fast food regularly, and when it came to fruit and vegetables, her exposure was limited to iceberg lettuce, apples and other basic fruit and vegetables sold in the local bodegas.

But when Hutson's son was born in 2012, she knew she needed to change her unhealthy habits. She began buying more produce and learning creative ways to cook so her son and daughter, born two years later, would not grimace at the kale, broccoli and other greens on their plates.

Healthy cooking became a passion, so much so that she began taking orders from friends, neighbors and others in the community. She'd make foods like a burger made with jackfruit instead of meat, and healthy nachos loaded with vegetables and quinoa instead of processed cheese.

With the help of Mandela Partners, a nonprofit that supports local food entrepreneurs and works to increase access to healthy food in low-income communities, Hutson received training for how to run a food business, help with permits and, perhaps most importantly, operate a kiosk, rent-free for three months, in a community market.

"Deep East Oakland is still a food desert and residents have to travel to a different community to access healthy food, which is a problem," said Hutson, now 27. "This experience led me to start my business, Ju'C Fruits. I am the change that I want to see."

Founded in 2004, Mandela Partners was born out of a community effort to bring a grocery store to West Oakland. Over the years, Mandela has expanded to include business incubation and entrepreneur training services, a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program and a produce distribution network that connects more than a dozen local farmers to local retailers.

So, farmers get access to customers and a fair price for their produce, while residents in Oakland and the surrounding area get access to healthy and affordable food.

The nonprofit's work is driven by a vision that locally owned enterprises can be a vehicle for both economic empowerment and a healthier community. Instead of waiting for national retailers to set up shop in the neighborhood, provide jobs and investment, Mandela helps locals do it themselves.

"The mission is bigger than just food justice," said Ciara Segura, director of programs and policy at Mandela Partners. "It's about creating a locally owned economy so that the money that is being made in this community stays in the community."

The organization also runs a Healthy Retail Network that consists of 10 small grocers and corner market owners, and eight community produce stands at schools, libraries and a senior center. Since the start of the pandemic, the produce stands have been replaced by a fully subsidized CSA program that provides fresh produce for 400 low-income families per week.

Mandela Partners was recently awarded funding by the American Heart Association's Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund, which invests in under-resourced communities.

Meanwhile, Hutson is pushing ahead with her new business and is busier than ever. Thanks to Mandela, she now has a contract to cook 200 meals a week for a local women's shelter. Hutson also is making plans to open a brick-and-mortar location.

"It feels really amazing to be a blessing to people," she said, "and be blessed to do something you love."


Explore further Study aims to connect the dots on food access

Copyright © 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

MAKING THEM VALUELESS

Trump Gave The Top Civilian Honor To Devin Nunes For Undermining The Russia Investigation

In his final weeks in office, the president is honoring friends and allies with pardons and medals.
David Mack BuzzFeed News Reporter
January 4, 2021

Drew Angerer / Getty Images

Devin Nunes, the California Republican who helped undermine the Trump impeachment proceedings and Russia inquiry by spreading unfounded conspiracies, was rewarded for his actions by the president on Monday with the nation's top civilian honor.

President Donald Trump announced he would bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the member of Congress, thanking him for his work exposing what Trump called the "Russia Hoax."


"Congressman Devin Nunes is a public servant of unmatched talent, unassailable integrity, and unwavering resolve," Trump said in a statement. "He uncovered the greatest scandal in American history."

A White House spokesperson told media on Monday afternoon the ceremony was held — apparently privately — earlier in the day.

Trump is also expected to soon bestow the award to Jim Jordan, the Ohio member of Congress who has also been a close ally and who has been accused of turning a blind eye to sexual assault at Ohio State University when he coached wrestling there — a charge he denies.

The decision to honor Nunes and Jordan with an award previously given to figures such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Neil Armstrong, and Sandra Day O'Connor is part of a pattern of behavior of Trump rewarding allies with honors or presidential pardons during his final weeks in office.


Nunes, who has represented California's 22nd District since 2003, used his stewardship of the House Intelligence Committee until 2019 to inject partisan intrigue into the investigation into Russia's ties to the 2016 Trump campaign, effectively stalling that committee's probe. Senate Republicans even criticized their House counterparts for a "very partisan" probe.

In 2018, Nunes was also a leading figure in a push to release a classified memo he had written detailing how top Justice Department officials had given approval to surveillance of Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page without fully explaining to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that their intelligence was partially based on the Christoper Steele dossier.

For weeks, Nunes led a campaign in right-wing media teasing the memo's contents, but it failed to live up to the hype.

Democrats said Nunes' decision to release his memo was aimed solely at discrediting the DOJ and FBI, as well as undermining public faith in the investigation of former special counsel Robert Mueller.

Trump subsequently called Nunes "a true American Patriot the likes of which we rarely see in our modern day world."

In his announcement on Monday, Trump praised Nunes for helping to "thwart a plot to take down a sitting United States president."

During the 2019 impeachment of Trump over his dealings with Ukraine, Nunes worked to feed the conservative media machine by peppering witnesses with seemingly bizarre questions drawn from conspiracy theories that were then clipped into viral videos casting doubt over the proceedings.


The impeachment inquiry also found Nunes had been communicating extensively with Rudy Giuliani and his associate Lev Parnas prior to the proceedings.

"It is I think deeply concerning that at a time when the President of United States was using the power of his office to dig up dirt on a political rival," said Democratic House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff in December, "that there may be evidence that there were members of Congress complicit in that activity."

At one point, Nunes appeared more concerned that Trump's conversation with the Ukrainian leader had leaked, rather than with the contents of the call that showed Trump pressuring his counterpart to dig up dirt on Joe Biden.

Nunes has also made headlines in recent years for his failed attempts to sue two Twitter parody accounts — one pretending to be his mother, the other posing as a cow — that had been mocking him.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is typically awarded to individuals — living or dead — who have made "especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

Presidents award the medal at their own discretion, routinely honoring top cultural or historical figures.

During his presidency, Trump has bestowed the medal on Republican donor Miriam Adelson and right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh, among others. He has also posthumously awarded it to Elvis Presley, Babe Ruth, and Antonin Scalia.

WHAT'S WITH WISCONSIN

A Pharmacist Allegedly Tried To Ruin COVID-19 Vaccines Because Of False Beliefs They Were "Unsafe"

Authorities described 47-year-old Steven Brandenburg as an "admitted conspiracy theorist."

Salvador Hernandez BuzzFeed News Reporter


Posted on January 4, 2021, 

Frank Hoermann / Frank Hoermann/SVEN SIMON/picture-alliance/dpa / AP Images

Prosecutors say a Wisconsin pharmacist tried to destroy more than 500 COVID-19 vaccine doses because of false beliefs that the vaccine is not safe.

Steven Brandenburg was arrested Thursday and fired from a suburban Milwaukee hospital after he allegedly removed 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine from a pharmacy refrigerator. The vials contained more than 500 doses of the vaccine.

On Monday, the 47-year-old pharmacist appeared in a virtual court hearing, where Ozaukee County District Attorney Adam Gerol said he had intentionally tried to destroy the vaccines.

"He'd formed this belief they were unsafe," Gerol said in court, according to the Associated Press.

According to a probable cause statement filed by the Grafton Police Department, detectives referred to Brandenburg as an "admitted conspiracy theorist" who believed the vaccine could alter people's DNA — which it cannot.

In fact, COVID-19 vaccines, including Moderna's, have been tested for safety and authorized by the Food and Drug Administration after a series of clinical trials.

The Moderna vaccine uses the genetic material mRNA, but it does not alter people's DNA. Side effects for most people are mild to moderate, including chills, fatigue, and headache.

The vaccine is also 94% effective against the virus.

Gerol in court reportedly added that the pharmacist had been upset because he was going through a divorce and had allegedly taken a gun to work on two occasions.

Grafton police said the former Advocate Aurora Health Hospital employee had admitted in a written statement to removing the vaccine from the refrigerator overnight on Dec. 24, then again overnight on Dec. 25.

The unrefrigerated vials were discovered by a pharmacy technician the following day.



Christine Flores@CFlorestv

The hearing has now started.07:17 PM - 04 Jan 2021
Reply Retweet FavoriteTwitter: @CFlorestv


Grafton detectives said in a statement that Brandenburg knew the spoiled vials would be useless and that people who received doses would think they had been successfully vaccinated.

Vials of the Moderna vaccine are shipped refrigerated at a temperature of -4 degrees Fahrenheit and may be stored in a refrigerator for up to 30 days. They are able to remain at room temperature for about half a day.

The vaccines are estimated to have been worth between $8,000 and $10,000.

On Monday, Brandenburg was released from Ozaukee county jail after being ordered not to contact his former coworkers and surrender all his firearms.

Since his arrest, he had been held on a $10,000 bond on suspicion of criminal damage to property and recklessly endangering safety.

In court, Gerol said the tampered vials would be tested by Moderna to see if the doses were in fact ineffective now, and prosecutors would then decide whether to pursue other charges.

Salvador Hernandez is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles.

.

A Hospital Employee Was Arrested For Intentionally Spoiling More Than 500 Doses Of The COVID-19 Vaccine

Police in Grafton, Wisconsin, said the now-former employee of Advocate Aurora Health Hospital is accused of tampering with and causing the destruction of 57 vials.

Mary Ann GeorgantopoulosBuzzFeed News Reporter

Krys Lee YandoliBuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on December 31, 2020

A now-fired pharmacist of a suburban Milwaukee hospital was arrested Thursday and accused of intentionally removing 57 vials of the COVID-19 vaccine from a pharmacy refrigerator, resulting in the hospital throwing out more than 550 doses.

Police in Grafton, Wisconsin, issued a statement Thursday saying the employee of Advocate Aurora Health Hospital is accused of tampering with and causing the destruction of the vials. The individual was fired from the medical center this week.

According to police, the former pharmacist admitted in a written statement to intentionally removing the vaccine.

“Grafton detectives indicate that the individual knew the spoiled vaccinations would be useless and that people who received the vaccinations would think they had been vaccinated against the virus when in fact they were not," police said.

Authorities said they first believed that the doses were left out of the refrigerator accidentally, but after receiving more information and doing a “deeper dive into the incident,” they discovered that the vials were intentionally removed.

“The investigation revealed that a former Pharmacist — a resident of Grafton, removed the vials from the refrigerated storage knowing that they would not be usable.”

Advocate Aurora Health Care Chief Medical Group Officer Jeff Bahr said the destroyed vials were the Moderna vaccine.

The Moderna vaccine shipped at freezer temperatures of -4 degrees Fahrenheit and the vials can be stored at refrigerator temperatures for up to 30 days, and at room temperatures for half a day.

"We continue to believe that vaccination is our way out of the pandemic. We are more than disappointed," the hospital said in a statement. "This was a violation of our core values."

The value of the wasted medicine is estimated to be between $8,000 and $11,000.

The former employee, who has not been publicly identified, is currently being held in jail in Ozaukee County.