Previously unknown dormouse habitat identified

by Theresa Hübner, Bayreuth University

Radio transmitters (blue) were glued into the fur of the hazel dormice. Credit: Journal of Vertebrate Biology (2024). DOI: 10.25225/jvb.23118

Bayreuth researchers have shown for the first time that the dormouse, which is strictly protected in Germany, not only uses woody structures as a habitat, but also reed beds. The study is published in the Journal of Vertebrate Biology.

The dormouse has become particularly rare due to the destruction of its habitats and is strictly protected under Annex IV of the European Habitats Directive. Until now, it was assumed that the hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius), which is native to Germany, mainly uses woody structures for resting, foraging and nesting.

During construction work, for example, the presence of the dormouse has so far only been checked in forest habitats and hedgerows. Evidence that it uses reed beds is therefore of great importance for nature conservation and the adaptation of conservation measures.

The destruction of habitats threatens many wild animals. The dormouse, which is usually described as a strictly arboreal species, i.e. only found in forests and wooded areas, is therefore a strictly protected species.

Researchers from Bayreuth have now been able to show for the first time that dormice use reed beds as a habitat. The study was recently published in the Journal of Vertebrate Biology and was part of geoecology student Raja Wipfler's Master's thesis.

Previous studies had already found initial evidence of dormice in reed beds. "We followed up on these indications in the study using telemetric investigations," says Prof. Dr. Manuel Steinbauer from the Department of Sports Ecology, who supervised the work.

To this end, eight dormice were caught in the Regnitz Valley south of Bamberg and each fitted with a radio transmitter. They were then released into their natural habitat, where reed beds and woody structures are located in close proximity to each other. Wipfler tracked the mice for at least three nights in order to monitor the whereabouts of the nocturnal animals.

The researchers found that the dormice used reeds and the adjacent woodland in roughly equal proportions: At night, 41.1 % of the measuring points were in reeds, 50.7 % in woody vegetation and 8.2 % in other vegetation. A closer look at the data revealed preferences of the observed mice: six of the eight dormice used the reeds and the woody vegetation.

In contrast, one mouse used only the reeds and another only the woodland as its habitat. It was also shown that the dormice not only stay in the reeds during their active phases at night, but also use this habitat to sleep during the day. The researchers also found a dormouse nest in the reeds.

Wipfler, Steinbauer and Christian Strätz from the Bayreuth Office for Ecological Studies named protection from predators as one of the reasons for using reeds. Reeds could also play a role as a habitat for insects, which are a food source for dormice, and as nesting material. Dormice could also move into the reeds to avoid competition for food and nesting sites with the larger and stronger yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis) and wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus).

The fieldwork for the study was carried out in spring and summer 2022, after Christian Strätz , Raja Wipfler and Dr. Elisabeth Obermeier from the University of Bayreuth's Botanical Garden found initial evidence of dormice in reed beds in 2019 using nesting tubes they had developed themselves.

More information: Raja Wipfler et al, Hazel dormice use reed beds for nocturnal activity and daytime resting, Journal of Vertebrate Biology (2024). DOI: 10.25225/jvb.23118

Provided by Bayreuth University 

Small rodent species may become endangered

Climate: More people died from hot or cold weather conditions than COVID in parts of UK

Hippocratic Post | 23rd May 2024 | 

Credit: shutterstock



Research has highlighted how weather extremes worsened by climate change are now a major national public health threat. The study, led by the University of Bristol and published today in Nature Communications, showed how the death toll from temperature hazards overtook the number of deaths from COVID-19 in the South West region of England, when the UK was in the throes of the pandemic.

Lead author Dr Eunice Lo, Research Fellow in Climate Change and Health at the University’s Cabot Institute for the Environment and Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research, said: “The statistics are stark and illustrate how high the health burden of adverse weather is in the UK in the current climate. I anticipated higher levels of mortality than normal as the country was also experiencing a record heatwave during the peak of the pandemic, but the extent of the increases are surprising and concerning.”

The researchers sprang into action after Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK Government’s former Chief Scientific Adviser, highlighted at COP26 that the climate crisis was a far bigger problem than COVID-19, which would prove more fatal without immediate changes.

Their findings clearly evidence such claims with analysis revealing temperature-related mortality exceeded COVID-19 mortality by 8% in South West England between 2020 and 2022. Temperature-related deaths were also just a quarter less than deaths from COVID-19 in London and not far from a third less (58%) in East Midlands over the same period.

Dr Lo said: “The pandemic rightfully generated huge media attention with the spotlight on daily briefings announcing the latest death toll and public health interventions. Although many, and in some parts of the country more, people were dying from high and low temperatures, this largely went under the radar.

“Ironically the record temperatures, topping 40 degrees, were associated with positive news of people enjoying the sunshine which perhaps reflects a general lack of awareness about how harmful excess heat can be.”

The research highlighted how the coinciding crises presented by COVID-19 coupled with a heatwave or conversely an extreme cold snap put health services under unprecedented pressure, potentially increasing avoidable loss of life.

Findings showed combined excess deaths from extreme temperatures and COVID-19 between 2020 and 2022 were at least twice as high than the previous decade, depending on the region.

Dr Lo said: “The figures strongly demonstrate how negative consequences compound when there are co-occurring major health and weather-related events. For instance, extreme cold during the outbreak of an unexpected disease puts massive strain on hospital bed availability. This research therefore underscores how the UK must be more robustly prepared for such eventualities, which are likely to coincide more often in future with the growing spectre of a changing climate and other global health threats.”

Sir Patrick Vallance discussed whether it was possible to compare the relative health impacts of COVID-19 and climate change with Profs Phil Taylor, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise and Dann Mitchell, Professor of Climate Science at the University of Bristol at COP26, hosted by Glasgow in 2021.

Prof Mitchell and Dr Lo set to analysing relevant statistics to better understand the comparative health repercussions. They wrote to Sir Patrick sharing the findings and were invited to present them at the Natural History Museum.

Co-author Prof Dann Mitchell said: “Climate change is not just an environmental issue; it is a constant, underlying stressor that magnifies the impacts of other global crises, including pandemics, wars, and economic instability. Our research highlights that during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the compound effects of extreme temperatures led to significant mortality burdens in the UK.

“This was likely much larger in other, less developed countries. Our evidence illustrates how climate change can intersect with and exacerbates other crises, creating a multiplier effect that can strain health systems, destabilise economies, and heighten social tensions. To mitigate these compounded risks, it is imperative to integrate climate resilience into global health, economic, and security policies.”

Paper

‘Compound mortality impacts from extreme temperatures and COVID-19 pandemic’ by Y.T. Eunice Lo, Dann Mitchell, and Antonio Gasparrini in Nature Communications

D.E.I.

Project to understand women’s creative contributions to British filmmaking is launched

Published: 22 May 2024

Continuity Supervisor Pamela Davies with filmmaker Michael Powell. The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum.

The lost legacy of women who’ve worked in the British film industry since the dawn of sound in cinema is the focus of a new national research project.

Women’s Screen Work in the Archives Made Visible will seek to address the often-hidden histories of women in filmmaking, including those working in screenwriting or technical roles, or whose achievements have been subsumed by the directors and producers they worked for.

The research is led by the University of Exeter in partnership with the University of Southampton, Swansea University, the BFI (British Film Institute), and The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum.

Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the value of the four-year project is £1.49m. It will bring together archivists, curators, film directors and scholars to develop ways to make women’s work in film more discoverable and visible, whether in museums or archives.

Professor Shelley Cobb, Head of Film Studies at the University of Southampton, will work as part of the project, interviewing filmmakers and archivists, as well as linking with the Wessex Film and Sound Archive in Winchester.

Professor Cobb says: “I’m looking forward to hearing from filmmakers about their experience of depositing items in archives and from the archivists themselves about the process of developing feminist archival practices. We hope to shine new light on the role of women in film over the past decades – establishing new ways of evidencing this and documenting future contributions.”

“Thousands of women have contributed to shaping British filmmaking and its vibrant history over the past century,” says Professor Helen Hanson, Project Lead and Associate Professor in Film History at the University of Exeter. “Their creative contributions, however, are largely absent from public knowledge of that history, because evidence documenting their work is often buried and invisible in major film-related archives and museums.”

Alongside Professor Hanson, the project Co-Leads are Southampton’s Professor Shelley Cobb; Professor Linda Ruth Williams, University of Exeter; Dr Lisa Smithstead, University of Swansea; Wendy Russell, Special Collections Archivist at the BFI’s National Archives Special Collections; and Dr Phil Wickham, Curator of The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum in Exeter.

The researchers will primarily work in the BFI’s National Archive’s Special Collections Department at the Conservation Centre in Berkhamsted and at The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum.

The project explores how gender, race and ethnicity influences the ways that film-related collections are catalogued, described, archived and curated. It will investigate how women’s work in a range of filmmaking roles are archived and look at how the issue of ‘status’ might define whether the work of a female film-maker is regarded as ‘collectable’.

The team will interview prominent female directors, and build case studies around collections of Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham, Blinded By The Light) and Tina Gharavi (I Am Nasrine), examining of the rich production materials relating to their screen work, including details of projects that were never realised, as well as scripts, storyboards, notes, photographs and publicity materials, preserved and cared for by the Special Collections team at the BFI National Archive.

“The BFI is delighted to be part of this important and timely project to highlight the vital contribution women have made to the history of British cinema,” says Wendy Russell. “The opening up of women’s success stories, as well as the barriers they may have faced in the film industry both above and below the line is long overdue and will enhance our understanding and knowledge of the BFI National Archive’s Special Collections. We are immensely grateful to Tina Gharavi and Gurinder Chadha for the generous donation of their personal archives, which will play a key part in this project.”

There will also be a specific focus on making women’s screen work visible, culminating in a major exhibition and new book towards the end of the project.

“Film history has traditionally been written around male directorial figures and influenced by the auteur theory,” says Professor Williams. “But filmmaking is a collaborative process, shaped by highly specialised artists, technicians and practitioners working in sound, set design, scripting and so many other disciplines. Many of these stories – which are more often than we might think women’s stories – can now only be found in the margins of history, So, what we hope to achieve through this collaborative project is to find new ways to archive and exhibit the role of women in film and change how we think about the histories of women in film around the world.”

Study reveals cuddled cows who work as therapy animals show a strong preference for women compared to men

by CABI

Credit: cottonbro studio from Pexels

A new study, titled "Cow Cuddling: Cognitive Considerations in Bovine-Assisted Therapy" published in the Human-Animal Interactions journal, reveals that cows who are cuddled as therapy animals showed a strong preference for interactions with women when compared to men

In turn, the research, which opens a new era on whether some therapies may be initially stronger based upon gender and not procedure, highlighted that the women also reported greater attachment behaviors towards the steers.

Dr. Katherine Compitus, Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University, and Dr. Sonya Bierbower, Associate Professor at United States Military Academy West Point, conducted the research using the Human-Animal Interaction Scale (HAIS) as a measurement tool.

HAIS is a 24-item self-report instrument designed to describe and quantify behaviors performed by humans and nonhuman animals during an episode of interaction.

Enrichment benefits of cattle involved in bovine-assisted therapy

The scientists examined the behavioral and cognitive traits of cattle who work as therapy animals and special attention was paid to the welfare and enrichment benefits of cattle involved in bovine-assisted therapy.

Dr. Compitus and Dr. Bierbower, who conducted their study at the Surrey Hills Sanctuary in New York State, U.S., with two steers—named Magnus and Callum—and 11 people aged 13 to 79, say little research has so far addressed the therapeutic benefits of animal-assisted interventions with farm animals.

Of the research sample, six were females and five were males.

Dr. Compitus said, "We have discovered in the current study that bovine-assisted therapy may not only be an effective treatment model that benefits human participants but appears to be enriching to the cattle participants as well, as shown by their proximity to and continuous interactions with humans."

Integrative model used in conjunction with other methods

Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is an integrative model used in conjunction with other methods such as psychodynamic psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy.

The most common AAT model, the scientists say, is when a companion animal, such as a dog or cat, is integrated into a therapeutic plan.

This model, they add, has been studied with a variety of populations and conditions, from treating substance abuse to autism, often with positive results.

Organizations that certify therapy animals will sometimes certify several species of animals to work as a therapeutic partner, such as llamas, miniature horses, and rabbits.

However, to date there has been little research addressing the therapeutic benefits of animal-assisted interventions with farm animals. Cows have special behavioral traits that allow them to bond with people in a way that is unique to their size and temperament.

Dr. Bierbower said, "Two of the gaps in the research we address in this study are the inclusion of cattle in AAT and an examination of the cognitive processes of animals involved in AAT."

Cattle that enjoy human company will have reduced stress signals

Cattle that are uncomfortable with a human presence, the researchers suggest, will show an increase in stress signals such as vocalizations when involved in therapy work, while cattle that enjoy human company will have reduced stress signals.

Other notable behaviors in cattle during AAT may include lying down and licking or smelling the person. This is indicative of their comfort level with humans, since cows are known to engage in social grooming.

With the two cattle in the study, Dr. Compitus and Dr. Bierbower found that after 45 minutes of contact with the humans, Magnus and Callum often smelled or licked them and accepted food from them.

They also allowed physical human-initiated interactions in the form of hugs, grooming, petting, or kisses.

The animals rarely made unfriendly or aggressive gestures towards them, though they would occasionally decline to interact.

One participant stated that she was worried the bulls would be more aggressive but "fell in love with cows" after the session. All participants reported having an overall positive session with the steers and most stated they would recommend bovine assisted therapy to a friend.

Strong preference or interactions with women compared to men

Dr. Compitus said, "The results of this study show that the steers showed a strong preference or interactions with women compared to men, and, in turn, the women reported stronger attachment behaviors towards the steers.

"It is unclear without further testing whether the animals sought out the attention of women in general or if the women were more likely to initiate the actions when compared to the men participants."

The scientists conclude that they discovered in the study that bovine-assisted therapy may not only be an effective treatment model that benefits human participation but appears to be enriching to the cattle participants, as well, as shown by their proximity to and continuous interactions with humans.

More information: Cow Cuddling: Cognitive Considerations in Bovine-Assisted Therapy, Human-Animal Interactions (2024). DOI: 10.1079/hai.2024.0016

Provided by CABI

A liking for licking—sex and social status influence social grooming among free-ranging feral cattle in Hong Kong

Genesis: Book Review

 By Paul Braterman

PANDAS THUMB

 May 22, 2024 

Martyn Iles, as many readers will know, was managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby until sacked by the Board in February 2023, was appointed Chief Ministry Officer of Answers in Genesis in May of that year, and in November was promoted to Executive CEO, working alongside Ken Ham, who remains as Founding CEO.

While still in Australia, Iles promoted right-wing causes in the name of individual religious freedom, expressed support on his YouTube channel for the claim that the 2020 US presidential election had been stolen, and in a Facebook post on January 21 2020, just two weeks after the January 6 insurrection, reaffirmed his admiration for Donald Trump. However, since joining Answers in Genesis he has, to the best of my knowledge, refrained from overtly political comment. In a Facebook post on March 17 this year he explicitly rejected the idea of a “Christian nation,” since being a Christian or not is a characteristic of individuals. Thus he has placed a welcome distance between himself and the extremes of US Christian Nationalism.

"Who Am I?" by Martyn Iles, Executive CEO of Answers in Genesis: Book Review

By Paul Braterman

PANDA'S THUMB
May 22, 2024 

Martyn Iles, as many readers will know, was managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby until sacked by the Board in February 2023, was appointed Chief Ministry Officer of Answers in Genesis in May of that year, and in November was promoted to Executive CEO, working alongside Ken Ham, who remains as Founding CEO.

While still in Australia, Iles promoted right-wing causes in the name of individual religious freedom, expressed support on his YouTube channel for the claim that the 2020 US presidential election had been stolen, and in a Facebook post on January 21 2020, just two weeks after the January 6 insurrection, reaffirmed his admiration for Donald Trump. However, since joining Answers in Genesis he has, to the best of my knowledge, refrained from overtly political comment. In a Facebook post on March 17 this year he explicitly rejected the idea of a “Christian nation,” since being a Christian or not is a characteristic of individuals. Thus he has placed a welcome distance between himself and the extremes of US Christian Nationalism.

There is one important difference in style between Iles and Ham. Ham, in the tradition of Henry Morris and, before him, George McCready Price, argues that science supports his version of Bible-based Young Earth Creationism. Iles, however, does not even condescend to discuss such mere details. As he posted on Facebook in October 2022, “Truth is in the [biblical] word itself. Other things are true insofar as they conform to it.” Moreover, Iles is clear in his own mind that his understanding of the Bible, however far-fetched, is the correct one. So when he tells us what it means, he is speaking for God.

On his appointment, Iles wrote,
Just as evolutionary naturalism has threatened the faith of so many, postmodernism and new critical theories threaten the faith of a new generation.

Given his position at the head of the world’s leading Young Earth Creationist organization, we need to know what he has in mind by this laconic statement,and we can gain some insight into this from the book under discussion here.

The book itself, like others from the same publisher, appears to be directed at young adults. It is an easy read, with large clear print, and the text is liberally illustrated by silhouettes of young people, generating a warm and welcoming impression at odds with the fundamentally dictatorial nature of the content.

That content is mass of self-contradictions. We are told that man is made in the image of God, but there are multiple biblical references to human sinfulness and corruption. It is our duty to look after the world, but not to take responsibility for human-caused climate change. And Iles deplores, as do I, the upsurge in young people seeking to mutilate their bodies when their personalities do not fit gender stereotypes, but claims biblical authority for stereotypes of the most constricting kind.

Iles begins by deploring what he sees as the modern emphasis on the self:
Actually, I didn’t realize you could use it [self-] as a prefix quite so much until I started my research. Self-ideation, self-love, self-discovery, self-definition, self-perception, self-determination, self-narrative, self-image, self-concept, self-esteem … All of these I have encountered in contemporary works on identity. This word has brought with it the age of the inward turn — the looking at the self.

Notably absent from this list: self-knowledge.

He goes on to build up an enormous superstructure on a very narrow theological base. He makes extensive use of a handful of verses from the opening chapters of Genesis:


Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. (Genesis 1:28)

Increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it. (Genesis 9:7)

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease. (Genesis 8:22)

From this he infers that there cannot be an overpopulation problem, that it is a duty of fertile couples to have children, and that concerns about such large-scale matters as climate change are fundamentally misplaced, since these things are in the hands of God and, to use his expression, when we imagine that we can affect them we are “getting too big for our boots.” This is the sin of pride, and pride is a very serious sin indeed. Climate alarmism (his expression) is only one example of such pride, part of a list that includes
abortion, transgenderism, queer sexuality [sic], critical race theory, feminism, family breakdown, …, childlessness, cultural Marxism, post-modernism, and all that stuff. The common thread is this: all of them seek to usurp God’s authority as Creator by redefining what He has already defined. All of them seek to do His job for Him, only better.

He accepts unquestioningly the interpretation of Genesis 3:15:
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

as the very first prophesy of the coming of Jesus. In this interpretation, which goes back to the 2nd Century CE, the serpent is identified with Satan, the woman’s offspring is Jesus, born of a woman, the bruising of his heel is the agony of the crucifixion, and the bruising of Satan’s head is Christ’s triumph over evil.

From this he infers that the highest vocation of woman is motherhood, and that Satan bears special enmity towards pregnant women and babies. Satan is very prominent in Iles’s view of the world, and is mentioned 11 times in this short book.

Male and female roles were spelt out at the creation. God decides to create woman because:
It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him. (Genesis 2:18)

And Adam is duly appreciative:
This at last 1 is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. (Genesis 2:23).

Thus, according to Iles,
woman was made with such care and purpose that she perfectly complemented and completed him [man]. She too was not made to be alone. The two became one.

One, but different:
The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (Genesis 2:15)

Iles draws our attention to two words, which define a man’s God-given purpose; first, to “work,” and second to “keep.” The reference to “the garden” directs attention to his external responsibilities. And so, he tells us, men are called to industry and must beware the sin of idleness.

Why, Iles asks, was it Adam that God addressed by name after the Fall:
Adam, where art thou? (Genesis 3:17, KJV)

This although Eve and the serpent were also present at the scene, the serpent was the primary initiator of the sin, and Eve was the first to eat of the forbidden fruit. The reason for singling out Adam is that, as a man, he had primary responsibility for what had happened in the garden that had been entrusted to his care. Responsibility is a male prerogative.

Of women, Iles says
The woman was at her best when making another person their best. That was her commission. And it spills over into her motherhood too. Only women are mothers, and this is a good and beautiful thing indeed — a commission from God, for which she is designed biologically, psychologically, and spiritually.

Iles goes on to mentions meekness as part of woman’s special virtue, and uses the word “meek” with reference to women on seven separate occasions.

In a passage worth quoting in full, he compares the different ways in which men and women go about getting their own way when not entitled to:
While men might prefer to exercise illegitimate control through brutishness, force, and cruelty, women tend to use different methods. They play games. They manipulate circumstances. They might even get their girlfriends involved to “make” things happen or drop ideas, seeds, and prompts through third parties. Their minds are always storyboarding, working out what people are thinking, how they’re feeling, and preempting next moves. They operate in the realm of the emotional, subjective, and interpersonal. To use such powers of discernment to manipulate circumstances and control outcomes is ultimately an abuse of those feminine giftings. They were given to be exercised selflessly and meekly, without the taint of self-will and premeditated outcomes. There is a difference between godly help and controlling “femcraft.”

And when challenged as to what the besetting sin of woman might be, as compared to idleness in men, he answers “Control.” As he put it on Facebook (6 June 2023)
A word like “independent” is a direct assault on God’s design for women… A woman who prizes strength in independence is a woman rebelling against her nature.

There you have it. You and I may think that our identity is a puzzle, but the book promises in its title to solve it for us, and does so. We may even have imagined that there are many possible solutions, but Iles knows God’s design, and there’s an end of it.

The rest of the book is devoted to theological questions, with heavy emphasis on our sinful nature, but since I have no special insight to offer on such matters, I will leave it there.

Who am I? Solving the identity puzzle, Martyn Iles, with a foreword by Ken Ham, 35,000 words spread out over 208 pages, Master Books, 2024, $19.99 on Amazon.“At last” because in between the two verses cited, we have the creation of the animals, and their being brought to Adam as potential partners and found wanting for that purpose. But if you include this in your materials, you will find yourself with something far more interesting than Iles’s blinkered moralizing.

D.E.I.

US media coverage of new science less likely to mention researchers with African and East Asian names

by Hao Peng
May 22, 2024
in Racism and Discrimination



(Photo credit: Adobe Stock)



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When one Chinese national recently petitioned the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to become a permanent resident, he thought his chances were pretty good. As an accomplished biologist, he figured that news articles in top media outlets, including The New York Times, covering his research would demonstrate his “extraordinary ability” in the sciences, as called for by the EB-1A visa.

But when the immigration officers rejected his petition, they noted that his name did not appear anywhere in the news article. News coverage of a paper he co-authored did not directly demonstrate his major contribution to the work.

As this biologist’s close friend, I felt bad for him because I knew how much he had dedicated to the project. He even started the idea as one of his Ph.D. dissertation chapters. But as a scientist who studies topics related to scientific innovation, I understand the immigration officers’ perspective: Research is increasingly done through teamwork, so it’s hard to know individual contributions if a news article reports only the study findings

This anecdote made me and my colleagues Misha Teplitskiy and David Jurgens curious about what affects journalists’ decisions about which researchers to feature in their news stories.

There’s a lot at stake for a scientist whose name is or isn’t mentioned in journalistic coverage of their work. News media plays a key role in disseminating new scientific findings to the public. The coverage of a particular study brings prestige to its research team and their institutions. The depth and quality of coverage then shapes public perception of who is doing good science and in some cases, as my friend’s story suggests, can affect individual careers.

Do scientists’ social identities, such as ethnicity or race, play a role in this process?

This question is not straightforward to answer. On the one hand, racial bias may exist, given the profound underrepresentation of minorities in U.S. mainstream media. On the other, science journalism is known for its high standard of objective reporting. We decided to investigate this question in a systematic fashion using large-scale observational data.
Chinese or African names received least coverage

My colleagues and I analyzed 223,587 news stories from 2011-2019 from 288 U.S. media outlets reporting on 100,486 scientific papers sourced from Altmetric.com, a website that monitors online posts about research papers. For each paper, we focused on authors with the highest chance of being mentioned: the first author, last author and other designated corresponding authors. We calculated how often the authors were mentioned in the news articles reporting their research.

We used an algorithm with 78% reported accuracy to infer perceived ethnicity from authors’ names. We figured that journalists may rely on such cues in the absence of scientists’ self-reported information. We considered authors with Anglo names – like John Brown or Emily Taylor – as the majority group and then compared the average mention rates across nine broad ethnic groups.

Our methodology does not distinguish Black from white names because many African Americans have Anglo names, such as Michael Jackson. This design is still meaningful because we intended to focus on perceived identity.

We found that the overall chance of a scientist being credited by name in a news story was 40%. Authors with minority ethnicity names, however, were significantly less likely to be mentioned compared with authors with Anglo names. The disparity was most pronounced for authors with East Asian and African names; they were on average mentioned or quoted about 15% less in U.S. science media relative to those with Anglo names.

This association is consistent even after accounting for factors such as geographical location, corresponding author status, authorship position, affiliation rank, author prestige, research topics, journal impact and story length.


And it held across different types of outlets, including publishers of press releases, general interest news and those with content focused on science and technology.
Pragmatic factors and rhetorical choices

Our results don’t directly imply media bias. So what’s going on?

First and foremost, the underrepresentation of scientists with East Asian and African names may be due to pragmatic challenges faced by U.S.-based journalists in interviewing them. Factors like time zone differences for researchers based overseas and actual or perceived English fluency could be at play as a journalist works under deadline to produce the story.


We isolated these factors by focusing on researchers affiliated with American institutions. Among U.S.-based researchers, pragmatic difficulties should be minimized because they’re in the same geographic region as the journalists and they’re likely to be proficient in English, at least in writing. In addition, these scientists would presumably be equally likely to respond to journalists’ interview requests, given that media attention is increasingly valued by U.S. institutions.

Even when we looked just at U.S. institutions, we found significant disparities in mentions and quotations for non-Anglo-named authors, albeit slightly reduced. In particular, East Asian- and African-named authors again experience a 4 to 5 percentage-point drop in mention rates compared with their Anglo-named counterparts. This result suggests that while pragmatic considerations can explain some disparities, they don’t account for all of them.

We found that journalists were also more likely to substitute institutional affiliations for scientists with African and East Asian names – for instance, writing about “researchers from the University of Michigan.” This institution substitution effect underscores a potential bias in media representation, where scholars with minority ethnicity names may be perceived as less authoritative or deserving of formal recognition
Reflecting a globalized enterprise

Part of the depth of science news coverage depends on how thoroughly and accurately researchers are portrayed in stories, including whether scientists are mentioned by name and the extent to which their contributions are highlighted via quotes. As science becomes increasingly globalized, with English as its primary language, our study highlights the importance of equitable representation in shaping public discourse and fostering diversity in the scientific community.

While our focus was on the depth of coverage with respect to name credits, we suspect that disparities are even larger at an earlier point in science dissemination, when journalists are selecting which research papers to report. Understanding these disparities is complicated because of decades or even centuries of bias ingrained in the whole science production pipeline, including whose research gets funded, who gets to publish in top journals and who is represented in the scientific workforce itself.

Journalists are picking from a later stage of a process that has a number of inequities built in. Thus, addressing disparities in scientists’ media representation is only one way to foster inclusivity and equality in science. But it’s a step toward sharing innovative scientific knowledge with the public in a more equitable way.


This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Escaped GMO canola plants persist long-term, but may be losing their engineered resistance to pesticides

by Public Library of Science

Canola inflorescence. Canola (Brassica napus L.) is highly attractive to insect pollinators 

and readily interbreeds with other cabbage and mustard species. 

Credit: CSagers, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Populations of canola plants genetically engineered to be resistant to herbicides can survive outside of farms, but may be gradually losing their engineered genes, reports a new study led by Cynthia Sagers of Arizona State University, US, published May 22 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

The hypothesis has been put forward that if any genetically engineered crop plants escape farm fields, they will be short-lived. This would make them unlikely to take over wild areas or spread their inserted genes, called transgenes, to wild populations of closely related plants. However, there have been few studies to see if populations of these "feral" crop plants can in fact survive in the wild long term.

In the new study, researchers conducted a large-scale survey of populations of genetically engineered canola living along roadsides in North Dakota, repeating a survey they initially conducted in 2010.

They found that the total number of feral canola plants in the sample had decreased and populations of the plants became less common over time. When they tested the plants for herbicide resistance, they saw that the types of herbicides the plants were resistant to had shifted over time, likely due to changes in the varieties farmers were planting.

Importantly, almost one quarter of the feral plants were not resistant and did not contain transgenes—up from 19.9% in 2010 to 24.2% in 2021—suggesting that these populations may be losing their transgenes.

The researchers hypothesize that feral canola populations may be under evolutionary pressure to shed the transgenes, which could happen if the engineered canola are at a disadvantage once they are no longer being cultivated on a farm.

Further genetic analysis could help clarify the plants' origins and yield more information on how long transgenes can persist in the environment.

Steven Travers says, "The assumption that transgenic crop varieties will be restricted to the benign conditions of ag fields and not inter-mix with natural plant populations can be rejected. Self-sustaining, long-term feral populations of canola (some transgenic and some not) are a world-wide phenomenon and as such emphasize the need for more research on how de-domestication works, the extent to which it impacts natural populations, and the risks that the adventitious presence of transgenes might represent to agriculture."

More information: Persistence of genetically engineered canola populations in the U.S. and the adventitious presence of transgenes in the environment, PLoS ONE (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0295489

Journal information: PLoS ONE 

Provided by Public Library of Science Long-term study finds organic farming leads to adaptations in the genetic material in plants

 

New research into the secrets of the forest: Finnish tree population is made up of families and neighborhoods

by University of Oulu

The figure shows the pines sampled in one study area. The most closely related ones are 

connected by a red line. In this study, the closest relatives were second degree relatives,

 for example half-siblings. Pine offspring generally do not travel very far from the mother 

tree, and the forest is a mosaic of families. 

Credit: Peer Community Journal (2024). DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.413

The trees in the forest are not just a random group. Fascinating facts reveal pine tree family relationships. The pollen that floats in the air can spread for hundreds of kilometers, but the offspring are usually found in the neighborhood.

These new findings, now published in the Peer Community Journal, are also important for forest management.

The trees in the forest are not a randomly organized group, but they make up families and neighborhoods.

Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) do not grow completely randomly throughout the forest, but remain in the vicinity of their close relatives. This was the conclusion of a new study on the relationships of Finnish forest pines.

The average distance between offspring and parent is 54 meters. This result is probably due to the fact that seeds disperse over a shorter distance than pollen. Indeed, pollen can spread over distances of up to hundreds of kilometers, which can be unnerving for a terrace or car washer, but is an effective promoter of gene flow and, as a result, of a wide gene pool in the Scots pine range.

Despite the long flight distance of pollen, pine reproductive partners are likely to be found among the 2,500 nearest pine trees (the so-called neighborhood size), which corresponds to a good hectare in a Finnish commercial forest.

This year is expected to be particularly rich in pine blossom. Pine is wind-pollinated, meaning that pollen is carried from the male strobili to the female strobili by the wind. Once pollination has taken place, the pine seeds begin to develop inside the pine cone. The seeds are not fully developed until two years later, when they break off from the pine cone and float to the ground.

Pine seeds can also be carried by animals, and this is how a new pine seedling ends up in its growing site. Like humans, pine trees begin to reproduce at around 20 years of age. An individual pine tree has both female and male reproductive organs and self-pollination occurs, but the resulting highly inbred seeds are of low viability.

Although the offspring do not usually travel very far from the mother tree, the forest is still a mosaic of families. The abundance of reproductive pine trees means that individual trees cannot dominate, and there also are many trees from completely different families among close relatives.

"In the past, Scots pine relationships have been studied in small, isolated populations at the edges of their range, where clusters of relatives are more distinct. We now have confirmation that the kinship structure is also present in a very large and continuous pine forest," says Associate Professor Alina Niskanen from the University of Oulu, Finland.

The new data on the dispersal distance and relatedness structure of pine are important for forest management. They can be used, for example, in deciding an appropriate distance between seed trees in terms of avoiding inbreeding caused by relatedness.

The study used forest plots resulting from natural regeneration, where seed trees had been left after felling. The results thus describe a typical situation in Finnish forest management, which arises after seed tree felling, when both seed trees and trees in the surrounding areas seed a new generation of pine trees.

For the study, nearly 500 adult pine trees were selected from the Natural Resources Institute Finland's Punkaharju research forest in Finland and relatedness between them was determined using genome-wide genetic data.

From the distances between individuals with different degrees of relatedness, an estimate of the average distance between offspring and parent and the size of the neighborhood was obtained.

More information: Alina K. Niskanen et al, Does the seed fall far from the tree? Weak fine-scale genetic structure in a continuous Scots pine population, Peer Community Journal (2024). DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.413

Provided by University of Oulu 

Hurricanes found to boost cone production in longleaf pine

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Satellites capture smoke pouring from hundreds of wildfires across North America (photos)

"In places, the smoke is so thick that it obscures the blue water beneath."

A satellite image shows smoke from Mexico's fires covering roughly two-thirds of the Gulf of Mexico. A cloud bank is seen toward the top right. (Image credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC)

News
By Sharmila Kuthunur published May 22, 2024


Hundreds of wildfires have been blazing across Canada and Mexico since last week, and new satellite images released by NASA show the smoke pouring out of some.


Firefighters have been battling this army of wildfires, which are scattered across various Canadian provinces, including over 30 blazes in Alberta and British Columbia and 10 in Ontario, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Smoke from multiple fires flowed into the United States and blanketed Wisconsin last Sunday (May 12), prompting the state's first air quality advisory of the year.



The full satellite image of smoke from Mexico's fires covering the Gulf of Mexico. The state of Florida in the top right is obscured by clouds. (Image credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC)

NASA's Terra satellite, which is a small, school-bus-sized satellite circling Earth since 1999, imaged smoke from multiple fires in British Columbia and Alberta. Wisps of smoke can be seen swirling across North America in the new image, which was taken using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument onboard the satellite. The picture is a mosaic stitched from views taken during three separate passes of the satellite over the regions, NASA said in a statement.

In British Columbia, intense wildfires do not become widespread until late summer, so the ongoing blazes have sparked a fresh wave of concern about whether they are a sign of another deadly wildfire season. Last year's wildfire season was the country's worst on record, when more than 45 million acres burned across the country. However, less intense drought conditions compared to last year are expected to make this year's wildfire season less extreme, according to one New York Times article.

Meanwhile, more than 200 fires raged across Mexico last week, some of which were intentional and controlled in order to clear pasture and renew cropland, among other agricultural purposes, according to a NASA statement. The blazes coincide with the peak of the annual fire season, which usually begins mid-March and lasts for 14 weeks.

NASA's Aqua satellite, which circles our planet from south to north over the equator, imaged the smoke from some of the region's fires, which covered about two-thirds of the Gulf of Mexico. "In places, the smoke is so thick that it obscures the blue water beneath," the space agency wrote in the statement.

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In late March, NASA's Landsat 9 imaged the smoke billowing from a fire near the border of Oaxaca and Chiapas in southern Mexico. (Image credit: Wanmei Liang/NASA/Landsat/USGS)

Prevailing winds ferried some of that smoke across the Gulf of Mexico and into southwest Florida, turning the state's normally sunshine-filled skies into a hazy expanse, Florida's local news outlet WINKnews.com reported.

RELATED STORIES:


— Wildfire smoke is warming the planet more than previously thought, scientists say

— How scientists are using artificial intelligence to predict wildfires

— 'Lost' satellite found after orbiting undetected for 25 years

The Aqua satellite, which was launched in May 2002 to study water on Earth, has been in a "free-drift" mode since December 2021, when it completed its final maneuver to make up for atmospheric drag. NASA estimates the satellite "has a strong chance" of operating until September 2026.

CALIFORNIA

Richmond Oil Refining Tax on Chevron, a Major Polluter, Moves Closer to Ballot

Laura Klivans
May 22, 2024
SCIENCE

The Chevron Refinery, a petroleum refinery, can be seen from Point Richmond on 

(Beth LaBerge/KQED)


The Richmond City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to direct the city attorney to prepare a ballot measure that would tax oil refining, putting the city one step closer to a tax on the Chevron Refinery sought by environmental justice groups.

The tax would help address an anticipated $34 million budget shortfall for the 2024–25 fiscal year, according to Mayor Eduardo Martinez and Vice Mayor Claudia Jimenez, who cited the harm done by oil refining to the environment and public health in introducing the measure.

Chevron, Richmond’s largest employer and taxpayer, netted $21.3 billion in profits last year and paid $45.9 million in taxes to Richmond in the 2022–23 fiscal year, representing more than 15% of the city’s revenues. Annual revenue from a refining tax could approach $100 million, according to Kerry Guerin, an attorney for Communities for a Better Environment Action, which initially proposed the idea along with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network Action.

“We support policies that encourage business investment and seek to create a better quality of life for Richmond residents,” Chevron wrote in a statement sent by company spokesperson Caitlin Powell. “That said, we believe the proposed refining tax is the wrong approach to do that.”

Chevron called the tax “a hasty proposal, brought forward by one-sided interests” and said it would hinder the company’s ability to improve its facility to better provide clean energy, among other things.

Kevin Slagle, a spokesperson for California’s main oil industry group, the Western States Petroleum Association, said oil refining is already more expensive in California than anywhere else in the U.S.

“Any additional local taxes or regulatory programs could make operations more challenging and expensive, which could lead to higher costs at the pump for all,” Slagle said in an email.

During Tuesday night’s meeting, Jimenez pushed back on the oil industry assertions and said the new tax revenue would not only fund city operations but also help build green businesses to replace fossil fuel production.

“What we are proposing is not going to break things or just to make them leave,” she said. “What we are proposing is to make sure that we continue to advocate for such a big business with billions of dollars to pay their fair share to Richmond.”

Oil refining is the largest single source of pollution in Richmond, with harmful health effects. Emissions of particulate matter from the Chevron Refinery are responsible for 5 to 11 premature deaths in Richmond each year, according to estimations by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The air district also cites those emissions as contributing to cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses and asthma.

Asthma rates for Richmond residents are higher than 90% of other Californians, according to state data.

“I myself suffer from asthma. My son, who’s 9 years old, is a two-time cancer survivor,” said Sandy Saeteurn, a political director with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network Action and a longtime Richmond resident.

She said the Chevron Refinery is “continuing to pollute our air, our environment, our health. And yet, we are not seeing them as good neighbors. We want to make sure that they’re investing in our city, investing in our residents and the future of our community.”


RELATED COVERAGE


Major Richmond Refinery Accidents Settled as Part of Chevron Deal


Chevron Owns Richmond's Main Local News Source — and Many Refinery-Related Stories Go Untold


Bay Air District Hails 'Decisive Victory' in Battle to Cut Refinery Pollution

Dr. Amanda Millstein, a primary care pediatrician who saw patients for years in Richmond after working in other Bay Area cities, said many parents in the city expect that their children will develop asthma – and added that “they are not wrong.”

“I have lost track of the number of families who have asked me at the initial visit with their 2- or 3-day-old baby, ‘Doctor, does my baby have asthma?’ Or ‘How will I know when my baby has asthma?’” Millstein said.

Most of the dozens of people who spoke during public comment in Tuesday’s city council meeting favored the tax.

Longtime Richmond resident Raphael Castro recalled witnessing the 2012 Chevron Refinery fire and sealing his windows with wet towels to protect his younger sister from breathing the air “because, in North Richmond, we have a higher risk of our children getting asthma,” he said.

Timothy Jefferies, a representative of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, many of whom work in refineries, was more wary.

“We are not against clean air,” Jefferies said. But he cautioned the council to take stock of the good-paying jobs provided by the refinery and “all the indirect jobs, all the indirect economics that this city enjoys because of those jobs.”

Richmond voters passed a tax on refineries in 2008, but the measure was challenged in court and struck down in 2009.

Community groups backing this renewed effort said the city can resolve those legal issues this time around. The ballot measure sought by the City Council would go before voters in November.