Protein-powered device generates electricity from moisture in the air

By Brooks Hays

An illustration shows electric currents traveling between two electrodes as a film of protein nanowires absorbs water from the air. Photo by UMass Amherst/Yao and Lovley labs

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Scientists have developed a new device powered by a naturally occurring protein that uses moisture in the air to generate electricity.

The so-called Air-gen technology links electrodes with electrically conductive protein nanowires synthesized by the microbe Geobacter sulfurreducens. The unique combination is capable of generating electricity from moisture that is naturally present in the air.

"We are literally making electricity out of thin air," Jun Yao, an electrical engineer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said in a press release. "The Air-gen generates clean energy 24/7."

The novel technology doesn't produce polluting byproducts and it is cheap to assemble. Best yet, Yao and his colleagues estimate the technology can be scaled.

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"Connecting several devices linearly scales up the voltage and current to power electronics," researchers wrote in their paper on the technology, published Monday in the journal Nature. "Our results demonstrate the feasibility of a continuous energy-harvesting strategy that is less restricted by location or environmental conditions than other sustainable approaches."

Though the device requires moisture, it doesn't need to be all that humid for the technology to work. Lab tests showed the Air-gen device could generate electricity in places as arid as the Sahara Desert. And unlike solar cells and wind turbines, the technology isn't reliant on the weather. It can work day or night, indoors or outdoors.

To build the device, scientists placed a thin film of protein nanowires atop an electrode. Researchers positioned a second electrode on top, only partially covering the nanowires.

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As the film absorbs water, the electrical conductivity and surface chemistry of the protein nanowires is excited. These unique properties, coupled with the porosity of the film, yield an electrical current between the two electrodes.

Once they've scaled the device, researchers hope to integrate Air-gen technology with smart watches, health monitors, phones and wearable electronics.

"The ultimate goal is to make large-scale systems. For example, the technology might be incorporated into wall paint that could help power your home," Yao said. "Or, we may develop stand-alone air-powered generators that supply electricity off the grid. Once we get to an industrial scale for wire production, I fully expect that we can make large systems that will make a major contribution to sustainable energy production."

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In anticipation of the technology's commercialization, Yao's colleague Derek Lovley, a microbiologist at Amherst, has already developed a microbial strain capable of mass producing protein nanowires.

"We turned E. coli into a protein nanowire factory," Lovley said. "With this new scalable process, protein nanowire supply will no longer be a bottleneck to developing these applications."

Lovley discovered Geobacter sulfurreducens in the mud on the banks of the Potomac River some three decades ago. In his lab, he and his research partners discovered the microbe's ability to produce conductive protein nanowires.

Thirty years later and the discovery has opened up a new field of electronics research.

"This is just the beginning of new era of protein-based electronic devices" said Yao.

Catalyst recycles greenhouse gases into hydrogen gas, fuel, other chemicals

By Brooks Hays SCIENCE NEWS FEB. 17, 2020 / 11:30 AM


Researchers have developed a new catalyst that turns greenhouse gases into the ingredients needed to make hydrogen fuel. Photo by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Scientists have developed a new catalyst that can turn greenhouse gases into hydrogen fuel and other chemicals.

Researchers and policy makers continue to hold out hope that hydrogen fuel, which doesn't emit CO2, can replace traditional fuels.




Engineers have already created a variety of ways to convert CO2 and other gases into hydrogen, but many require relatively rare and expensive elements. Other catalysts trigger brief chemical reactions, limiting their potential.

The catalyst developed by a team of researchers from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, is longer-lasting and more economical.

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"We set out to develop an effective catalyst that can convert large amounts of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane without failure," lead study author Cafer T. Yavuz, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of chemistry at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, said in a news release.

The catalyst is composed of nickel, magnesium and molybdenum, all of which are abundant and relatively cheap. The catalyst, which works for more than a month, triggers chemical reactions that can convert CO2 and methane into hydrogen gas.

Previously, when researchers used nickel to catalyze reactions, carbon byproducts would accumulate, bind with nanoparticles on the surface of the catalyst and alter the reaction process.

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"The difficulty arises from the lack of control on scores of active sites over the bulky catalysts surfaces because any refinement procedures attempted also change the nature of the catalyst itself," Yavuz said.

For the new catalyst, scientists paired nickel-molybdenum nanoparticles with a single crystalline magnesium oxide, both sealed in a reductive environment, which is an environment free of oxygen and other oxidizing gases.

When heated with a reactive gas, the nanoparticles migrated across the crystalline surface seeking clean anchoring points. The catalyst, excited by the heat, produced its own high-energy active sites, locking the nanoparticles in place. The process prevented the nickel-based catalyst from acquiring carbon buildup.

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"It took us almost a year to understand the underlying mechanism," said study author Youngdong Song, a graduate student in the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering at KAIST. "Once we studied all the chemical events in detail, we were shocked."

Because the nanoparticles bind continuously to the edge of the single-crystalline magnesium oxide, there are no breaks or deformities along the surface to disrupt the reaction process. As a result, the chemical reactions are precise and predictable.

Scientists dubbed the novel method "Nanocatalysts On Single Crystal Edges," or NOSCE.

The "technique could lead to stable catalyst designs for many challenging reactions," scientists wrote in their paper on the discovery, published in the journal Science.

Tesla's Berlin 'Gigafactory' halted by forest protection

A German court has halted the clearing of thousands of trees to make room for Elon Musk's electric car factory south-east of Berlin. Green groups forced the stop, just days after the felling began.

A German court has ordered the temporary halt of the development of a Tesla development site in a forest outside of Berlin.

The Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg (OVG) ruled late on Saturday that it must first consider an appeal from the Green League Brandenburg, an environmental protection association, against the tree felling.

Environmental organizations became outraged once the cutting of trees over 91 hectares of forest commenced Thursday.

The Green League called for an immediate stop to the felling and had filed an emergency appeal on Friday to put a stop on the construction of Elon Musk's "Gigafactory."

"We are calmly awaiting the decision of the OVG," government spokesman Florian Engels said on Sunday. "This will be taken for granted," he added.

"We then focus on the timely decision of the OVG," minister of economics in the German state of Brandenburg Jörg Steinbach wrote on Twitter.

Court to consider appeal

The court said that the "already advanced" work at the forest would have been "completed within three days" and so decided on imposing a temporary halt. The court added it would not assume that the Green League's appeal "was obviously hopeless from the outset."

The US electric car giant wants to start production in Grünheide in Brandenburg as early as the middle of next year.

On Thursday, Germany's environment ministry had given Tesla permission to begin work "at its own risk."

The car manufacturing company initially wants to produce 150,000 electric vehicles per year in Grünheide. Later, annual production could rise to 500,000 vehicles. Up to 12,000 workers will be hired at the factory.

The final construction permit has not yet been issued. According to the environment ministry, complaints against the factory can still be filed up until March 5. After that, the final permit will be reviewed.

Wildlife threats

The state of Brandenburg sold Tesla the 300-hectare site in Grünheide for almost €41 million ($44 million).

In the next month, the area will be searched for any waste deposits or explosive artillery from the Second World War.

The German government also recently announced that protected animals in the forest will be "recovered and moved to suitable locations" by April.


Opinion: Tesla's Germany plans are no coincidence

In typical Elon Musk style, he almost casually announced plans to build the European Tesla factory on the outskirts of Berlin. For German carmakers the plans have come just at the right time, says DW's Henrik Böhme.



Let's pretend for a moment that Berlin's huge new airport has been operational for some time. Then, the new Tesla factory could have even been built on the site of the old Tegel airport — and thus in Berlin itself.

But it seems that the rumors about the Berlin-Brandenburg airport disaster — with its opening delayed until at least next year — has spread to Tesla's board room because the hectic and not uncontroversial Elon Musk could not resist cracking a joke at its expense. Tesla certainly aims to get its new factory finished much faster than the troubled airport's planners (construction began in 2006).

The new Tesla facilities — called a Gigafactory because Elon Musk always likes to go one bigger — will now be built in a little-known place called Grünheide, to the southeast of Berlin, close to what may be, eventually, the new airport. Above all, it is being built in the state of Brandenburg, which means the neighboring state and city of Berlin will miss out on any trade taxes generated from the project.

Speed is of the essence

The interstate rivalry probably doesn't much interest Musk, unless he simply doesn't trust the Berliners to be quick enough. Despite its tiny size, Berlin still has plenty of space to settle, especially in the eastern part. But Musk is in a hurry, and the new factory must be built fast.

Why? Because Germany's car manufacturers have (finally!) recognized the sign of the times and are stepping up their investment in electric-powered cars. And I'm sure Musk must have noticed that Volkswagen, a little over a week ago, gave the go-ahead for its own electric car factory in Zwickauin the Eastern state of Saxony. Once the plant is retrofitted from combustion-engine to electric car production in 2021, the world's largest auto manufacturer wants 330,000 purely electric-powered vehicles to run off its production lines every year.


DW business editor Henrik Böhme

But that's not all: two other VW facilities in Germany are just starting to be retrofitted, and VW is now also adding electric car factories in China and the United States.

If Tesla was initially a laughing stock, it will soon be a serious competitor to Germany's automakers. The ambitious startup has had problems with mass production and is carrying around a gigantic mountain of debt. So if VW, the world's largest volume manufacturer — besides Toyota — enters the fray in such an ambitious way, albeit belatedly, then this is a serious threat for Tesla. Therefore, Musk's decision to build a plant in Germany must be seen as a declaration of war.

Read more: Brandenburg in Eastern Germany happy to get a Tesla Gigafactory

New jobs at the right time

Even the so-called luxury car segment, in which Tesla predominantly plays, its biggest competition comes from Germany — Porsche with its Taycan, Audi with the E-Tron series and Daimler's Mercedes EQC. Even in China, where Tesla has built up its third Gigafactory in just 10 months and test production has just started, dozens of direct competitors such as Byton, Wey and Hongqi are lined up in the starting blocks. Tesla's decision to produce cars in Germany means the race for electric car supremacy is now underway in the same country where the car engine was first invented.

Despite many unanswered questions, the new factory is great news for people in the region. Several thousand new jobs will be created, and they couldn't come at a better time. Just south of the planned factory — in Lusatia — thousands of jobs are set to be lost as a result of the decision to phase out lignite (brown coal) extraction.

Bets are now being taken on which project will be finished sooner — the new Berlin airport or Tesla's German Gigafactory.

Man gives CPR to gecko found drowning in his beer

This Aussie hero saved a gecko that drowned in his beer. #9Today pic.twitter.com/hq9ISgv9Av— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) February 16, 2020

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- An Australian man may have saved a lizard's life when he fished it out of his beer at a pub and performed CPR on the seemingly lifeless animal. 

 The customer named Brett, known to his friends as Slab, said he initially thought staff at The Amble Inn in Corindi Beach, New South Wales, were playing a prank on him when he spotted a gecko in his mug of beer. Brett said he sprung into action when workers assured him they had nothing to do with the lizard and he scooped it out of the beverage. 

The gecko wasn't moving, so Brett started performing chest compressions on the lizard while a friend filmed video of his rescue attempt.

The video shows Brett doing compressions and blowing air into the gecko's mouth before it starts to move again.

It was unclear whether the gecko had merely been playing dead as a defense mechanism.

Texas family reunited with lost dog 14 years later

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- A Texas family whose dog disappeared during an outside bathroom break 14 years ago were reunited with the now elderly canine thanks to a rescue group.

Aaron Webster said the Yorkshire terrier, Remington, disappeared from the fenced-in yard at his parents' house in 2006.

"We know he was stolen. Maybe a hawk grabbed him, and he got away. We'll never know," Webster told KTRK-TV.

Webster and his wife put up posters and searched for the dog for weeks, but they had no leads.

The family heard nothing about Remington until Feb. 1, 2020, when Webster received a call from Saving Hope, an animal rescue group in Fort Worth.

The rescue told Webster an elderly Yorkshire terrier had been found with a microchip bearing his contact information.

"This seems impossible," Webster told the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Webster and one of his sons visited Saving Hope and it became clear that the animal was Remington. The dog was now blind in both eyes, was missing teeth, had matted fur and was underweight, but it was the long-lost pet.

Saving Hope said Remington was found on the street by a Fort Worth Animal Control officer. The dog had three microchips, indicating he had been living with other owners at various times, but the rescue decided to contact Webster because his information was on the first microchip implanted.

"If I could ask for anything, it would be to have 24 hours to talk to Remington about what happened in all that time. What happened when he disappeared? Who did he live with? I know he didn't spend 14 years on the street," Webster said. "But at the end, it wasn't good. He was abused, and he's skittish. He's starting to come around."

Webster said veterinarians said Remington is still healthy enough to have a decent quality of life, so his family has decided to welcome him back into their home.

"This dog has been through hell," Webster said. "But we felt like if we could bring him into our home and give him a peaceful existence for however much longer he has, he deserves that."

Ancient plant foods found in northern Australia

By Brooks Hays SCIENCE NEWS FEB. 17, 2020 


The Anbangbang rock shelter is the oldest in Australia. It is found at the base of the Arnhem Land escarpment in northern Australia. Photo by Warren Poole/Wikimedia Common

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Archaeologists have found ancient plant foods eaten some 65,000 years ago by early human populations in northern Australia.

The bits of plant food, preserved as charcoal in ancient cooking hearths, have offered scientists new insights into the diets of the indigenous Australians.

The charcoal bits were recovered from archaeological dig sites in Arnhem Land, a historical region of northern Australia occupied by indigenous groups for thousands of years. Within the charred morsels, scientists identified the remnants of 10 different plant foods, including several types of fruits and nuts, as well as roots, tubers and palm stem.

"Many of these plant foods required processing to make them edible and this evidence was complemented by grinding stone technology also used during early occupation at the site," University of Queensland archaeobotanist Anna Florin said in a news release.

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The latest findings, published Monday in the journal Nature Communications, suggest the earliest indigenous Australians possess extensive botanical knowledge, which helped them adapt to a variety of harsh terrains across the continent.

"They were able to guarantee access to carbohydrates, fat and even protein by applying this knowledge, as well as technological innovation and labor, to the gathering and processing of Australian plant foods," Florin said.

The ancient hearths were found at Madjedbebe, a sandstone rock shelter and Australia's oldest indigenous site.

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"Madjedbebe continues to provide startling insights into the complex and dynamic lifestyle of the earliest Australian Aboriginal people," said Queensland University professor Chris Clarkson, who served as lead excavator on the most recent digs.

Scientists have previously discovered the world's oldest stone axes at Madjedbebe, 35,000 years old. Even older spearheads have been recovered, the oldest evidence of stone grinding technology outside Africa. Researchers have also previously found evidence of the use of ochre, as well as the earliest known use of reflective pigments.

"The site is an important cultural place to Mirarr people today who strive to protect their heritage from numerous threats, including mining," Florin said.

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Airlines making little headway on climate change
By
Susanne Becken, Griffith University


Some airlines, including Qantas, are aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050. File Photo by Brent Winstone/Qantas/EPA-EFE

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- If you're a traveler who cares about reducing your carbon footprint, are some airlines better to fly with than others?

Several of the world's major airlines have announced plans to become "carbon neutral," while others are trying new aviation fuels. But are any of their climate initiatives making much difference?

Those were the questions we set out to answer a year ago, by analyzing what the world's largest 58 airlines -- which fly 70 percent of the total available seat-miles -- are doing to live up to their promises to cut their climate impact.

The good news? Some airlines are taking positive steps. The bad news? When you compare what's being done against the continued growth in emissions, even the best airlines are not doing anywhere near enough.

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Emissions still up

Our research found three-quarters of the world's biggest airlines showed improvements in carbon efficiency -- measured as carbon dioxide per available seat. But that's not the same as cutting emissions overall.

One good example was the Spanish flag carrier Iberia, which reduced emissions per seat by about 6 percent in 2017, but increased absolute emissions by 7 percent.

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For 2018, compared with 2017, the collective impact of all the climate measures being undertaken by the 58 biggest airlines amounted to an improvement of 1 percent. This falls short of the industry's goal of achieving a 1.5 percent increase in efficiency. And the improvements were more than wiped out by the industry's overall 5.2 percent annual increase in emissions.

This challenge is even clearer when you look slightly further back. Industry figures show global airlines produced 733 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions in 2014. Falling fares and more people around wanting to fly saw airline emissions rise 23 percent in just five years.

What are airlines doing?

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Airlines reported climate initiatives across 22 areas, with the most common involving fleet renewal, engine efficiency, weight reductions and flight path optimization. Examples in our paper include:

Singapore Airlines modified the Trent 900 engines on their A380 aircraft, saving 26,326 tons of CO₂ (equivalent to 0.24 percent of the airline's annual emissions); KLM's efforts to reduce weight on board led to a CO₂ reduction of 13,500 tons (0.05 percent of KLM's emissions). Etihad reports savings of 17,000 tons of CO₂ due to flight plan improvements (0.16 percent of its emissions).

Nineteen of the 58 large airlines I examined invest in alternative fuels. But the scale of their research and development programs, and use of alternative fuels, remains tiny.

As an example, for Earth Day 2018 Air Canada announced a 160-ton emissions saving from blending 230,000 liters of "biojet" fuel into 22 domestic flights. How much fuel was that? Not even enough to fill the more than 300,000-liter capacity of just one A380 plane.

Carbon neutral promises

Some airlines, including Qantas, are aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050. While that won't be easy, Qantas is at least starting with better climate reporting. It's one of only eight airlines addressing its carbon risk through the systematic Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures process.

About half of the major airlines engage in carbon offsetting, but only 13 provide information on measurable impacts. Theses include Air New Zealand, with its FlyNeutral program to help restore native forest in New Zealand.

That lack of detail means the integrity of many offset schemes is questionable. And even if properly managed, offsets still avoid the fact that we can't make deep carbon cuts if we keep flying at current rates.

What's needed

Our research shows major airlines' climate efforts are achieving nowhere near enough. To decrease aviation emissions, three major changes are urgently needed.

All airlines need to implement all measures across the 22 categories covered in our report to reap any possible gain in efficiency.

Far more research is needed to develop alternative aviation fuels that genuinely cut emissions. Given what we've seen so far, these are unlikely to be biofuels. E-fuels -- liquid fuels derived from carbon dioxide and hydrogen -- may provide such a solution, but there are challenges ahead, including high costs.

Governments can -- and some European countries do -- impose carbon taxes and then invest in lower carbon alternatives. They can also provide incentives to develop new fuels and alternative infrastructure, such as rail or electric planes for shorter trips.

How you can make a difference

Our research paper was released late last year, at a World Travel and Tourism Council event linked to the Madrid climate summit. Activist Greta Thunberg famously sailed around the world to be there, rather than flying.

Higher-income travelers from around the world have had a disproportionately large impact in driving up aviation emissions.

This means that all of us who are privileged enough to fly, for work or pleasure, have a role to play too, by reducing our flying (completely, or flying less) carbon offsetting for essential trips, only flying with airlines doing more to cut emissions.

To really make an impact, far more of us need to do all three.

Susanne Becken is a professor of sustainable tourism and director of the Griffith Institute for Tourism at Griffith University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Fear of Big Brother guides EU rules on AI

AFP / Tolga AKMENThe EU Commission's digital policy chief Margrethe Vestager compares facial recognition technology to the rise of CCTV security in city centres

Amid fears of a Big Brother-style society ruled by machines, the EU will urge authorities and companies to think hard before rolling out facial recognition technology.

But the bloc, which will make a much-anticipated announcement this week on the role of artificial intelligence (AI), will stop short of imposing an outright ban, a top official said.

On Wednesday, the European Commission will set the stage for European rules on the subject with innovation in the growing sector so far dominated by the US and China.

The commission, the EU's powerful regulator, is eager to answer the worries of European citizens about the rising importance of AI in their lives, amid reports from China of facial-recognition technology used to crack down on dissent.

"I find it truly really scary what I saw in Hong Kong," said the EU Commission's executive vice president on digital policy, Margrethe Vestager, who will spearhead the policy.

During a wave of anti-Beijing protests, she said, "People could get a message on the phone: 'We know you're there, maybe you should go home'. Not really supportive of the freedom to assemble, or to express yourself."

But instead of an outright ban or moratorium, which would require member state backing, Vestager told reporters in Brussels she would recommend that authorities and companies use caution.

"What we will say in the paper in a very lawyered up language is, let's pause and figure out if there are any... circumstances where facial recognition remotely should be authorised," she told reporters.

"Because if we do not pause, then it will... just be everywhere," she warned comparing it to the sudden rise of CCTV security in city centres.

Describing the spread of cameras, she said: "First you put up one, but then it has a blind angle and then you put up the other one... All of a sudden you have cameras everywhere."

Caution is also needed because the uses of facial recognition are wide-ranging -- from unlocking smartphones to capturing criminals -- and often inaccurate and in need of development.

- 'For real' -

The former Danish finance minister, who is also in charge of enforcing EU competition rules, underlined that AI was a vast subject and that any regulation should be mindful of not punishing smaller innovators, which would only benefit major players.

Big tech firms familiar to everyday users -- such as Facebook or Tencent -- are mainly from the United States or China. Europe meanwhile is seen as a leader on regulation, notably with rules on data privacy that have been widely replicated elsewhere.

But with AI, Vestager said Europe wanted to be a player and not just a sheriff.

And if Europe is to develop tech giants, it will probably be in business services and network infrastructure, and not mass market sites or social media.

"If you want to have a say about things that we consider risky then you should be able to do it yourself," she said.

Europe wants to be "sovereign" on AI and protect "the integrity of our grids, of our infrastructure of our research," she said.

But this was not against anyone, she insisted, amid talk of a high tech cold war between the US and China with Europe caught in the middle.

"It's about us, what we would like to be able to do."

Other proposals on Wednesday will include a push to make data centres more energy-efficient and be carbon neutral by 2030.

The EU will also offer a voluntary labelling scheme for companies that abide by EU rules and values on AI.

"We don't want to regulate anything that starts with A and ends with an I. That doesn't make any sense," Vestager said. "But where there is risk, it will be for real."

Indonesia military to blame for 2014 Papua killings: rights commission

AFP / ADEK BERRYActivists in Jakarta protest against the 2014 shootings of four teenagers in Indonesia's insurgency-wracked Papua province

Indonesia's military shot dead four students in the country's restive Papua region during 2014 protests and carried out "gross human rights violations", a commission investigating the uprising concluded Monday.

Komnas HAM issued its findings five years after the high-school students were gunned down in Paniai, a central area of insurgency-wracked Papua province, which shares a border with independent Papua New Guinea.

"This incident constitutes crimes against humanity," the commission's chief investigator Muhammad Choirul Anam told AFP in a statement Monday.

The military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Komnas HAM said it had forwarded its dossier on the unrest to the country's attorney general for possible prosecution.

The probe was hampered by long delays due to attempts by unnamed individuals to hide evidence, the human rights commission said.

- 'Torture' -

Rank-and-file soldiers and their superiors should shoulder the blame for the deaths of the students, aged 17 and 18, as well as "torturing" another 21 demonstrating Papuans, it said, without elaborating.

The protests were sparked by the alleged beatings of other Papuan youths by the army. Security forces eventually opened fire on a crowd after demonstrators threw stones at a military office.

The commission interviewed two dozen witnesses, analysed documents and visited the scene to determine whether the military was involved in the deaths.

AFP / Indra Thamrin HattaPapua has seen several spasms of deadly violence in recent months

So far no-one has been charged.

Indonesia's military has been accused of committing atrocities against Papuan civilians during a decades-long rebel movement aimed at gaining independence for the province.

The Southeast Asian nation took control of mineral-rich Papua in the 1960s following a vote to stay within the archipelago that was widely viewed as rigged.

Papua has seen several spasms of deadly violence in recent months, including unrest partly linked to a fresh push for independence and ethnic tensions.

Ethnically Melanesian, most Papuans are Christians who have few cultural links to Muslim-majority Indonesia.

\ 

French MPs launch debate of controversial pensions overhaul

AFP / Alain JOCARDPension reform protesters at the Louvre museum with posters depicting President Emmanuel Macron as Britain's Margaret Thatcher, who famously took on British unions, with a sign saying "This time, we will win"

The battle over the French government's pension reform moved Monday from the streets to parliament, where opposition lawmakers have vowed to torpedo a plan that sparked weeks of strikes and protests.

Unions are up in arms over President Emmanuel Macron's bid to fuse France's 42 retirement schemes into a single system, which they say will force millions to work longer.

Public transport workers walked off the job for a month and a half in December and January in one of their biggest shows of strength in decades, causing travel misery for millions, particularly in the Paris area.

But a fresh strike and protests Monday caused only minor disruptions on the Paris metro, while regional trains ran as normal.

Opposition lawmakers are taking up the fight with a legislative guerrilla campaign, introducing 41,000 amendments in a bid to keep the government from passing the reform in two to three weeks as planned.

"We're going to make life hard for them, that's for sure," Jean-Luc Melenchon of the hard left France Unbowed party told BFM television.

AFP / Lionel BONAVENTUREPresident Emmanuel Macron's centrist party was thrown into turmoil after Benjamin Griveaux withdrew from the Paris mayor race over a sex video

"Macron will never recover from this attempt to destroy pensions," he said.

The government argues that the changes are necessary to make the system fairer for all, while also ending the deep deficits that have accumulated in recent years as more people live longer.

On Tuesday, it will open talks with unions on how to finance the system, but officials have warned that if no deal is reached, the retirement age will effectively be pushed pack by a few years from 62 currently.

- 'Fix the problems' -

The start of the debate comes as Macron's centrist party reels from a sex scandal that toppled its candidate for mayor of Paris in next month's municipal elections, Benjamin Griveaux.

Griveaux, a close Macron ally and former government spokesman, pulled out of the running over a leaked video showing a man presented as the 42-year-old politician masturbating.

To replace him, the government chose Health Minister Agnes Buzyn, one of the most prominent defenders of the pension reform, which will now be steered through parliament by her successor Olivier Veran.

"We have to fix the problems of our system," Veran told lawmakers, adding: "I'm 39 years old, and already I have contributed to four different pension regimes."

Macron's centrist Republic on the Move (LREM) party wants to get the bill through parliament before the municipal elections, which analysts say could be a crucial test for the party.

While it has a comfortable majority in parliament, some LREM lawmakers have suggested the legislation may have to be forced through by executive decree if the opposition tries to hold it up indefinitely.

But that could see the government accused of curtailing democratic debate on one of the most contentious issues of Macron's presidency.

- Private plans? -

The reforms sweep away dozens of separate pension schemes, some dating back hundreds of years, that offer early retirement and other benefits to public-sector workers as well as lawyers, physiotherapists and even Paris Opera employees.

Tens of thousands of people, including large numbers of teachers and doctors, took part in seven separate days of nationwide protests in December and January.

The government argues that the French, who retire earlier on average than most Europeans, need to work for longer to keep the system afloat, or else accept lower payouts.

Opponents say the plan will force people to invest in private US-style pension plans and have accused Macron, a former investment banker, of rolling out a red carpet to foreign asset managers like US investment giant BlackRock.

Last week, dozens of activists stormed BlackRock's Paris offices and spray-painted the walls and carpets with anticapitalist and environmental slogans -- the second such incident at the site since the pensions battle began.

BlackRock has denied trying to influence the reforms.