Frito Lay union members reject latest offer from management. A strike is set to begin Monday.

Andrew Bahl
Topeka Capital-Journal


Employees at Topeka's Frito Lay plant voted Saturday to reject a proposed labor contract with the company, paving the way for a strike to begin on Monday.

While workers had previously voted to go on strike last week, negotiations between Local 218 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers union and PepsiCo, Frito Lay's parent company, had continued in a bid to reach a deal.

Union leadership and management reached a tentative, two-year deal this week but roughly 400 of its members voted it down after two days of voting, which culminated Saturday.

Union members have criticized the company for working conditions at the plant and have pressed for a pay hike in their next deal.

More:  Members of Topeka's local Frito-Lay union just voted to strike. Here's what we know.

Mark Benaka, business manager for Local 218, said the vote was "overwhelming" in its opposition to the proposed deal, which would have brought a 2% pay raise, as well as limits on mandatory overtime, among other items.

While Benaka noted management had come around on the overtime element after initial opposition, he said members likely felt the wage package was not sufficient as they voted against the offer.


"It was very decisive," Benaka said. "It is obvious we're far apart on the discretions forced on employees over the last ten years. Basically, they're not going to take it anymore."

Benaka said last month it would be the first time since the union was started in 1973 that a strike will take place.

Workers had been operating under a two-year agreement which ran out in September of 2020 and was extended through Sunday.

More: 'Ready to walk': Topeka's Frito-Lay workers take a vote that may prevent strike. Union president isn't optimistic.

In a statement, PepsiCo argued it had worked to meet the demands of workers and committed to fully continue operations at the plant in light of the strike.

"That the union membership rejected this fully recommended agreement suggests union leadership is out of touch with the sentiments of Frito-Lay employees," the statement said. "Because the union had fully recommended our tentative agreement, we do not anticipate any further negotiations with the union for the foreseeable future."

According to John Nave, executive vice president of Kansas AFL-CIO, the state's labor federation, a strike is the last thing workers want when negotiating union contracts. He expected donations from the community and other labor unions throughout the state as the strike date nears.

"It's kind of like the last line of defense," Nave said. "And that's a hard decision because it affects many, many people. Union members don't want to do that. ... But when the company fails to do a fair negotiation at the bargaining table — and history has shown (Frito-Lay has) repeatedly failed to do that — then there's no other alternative."

PepsiCo's seven divisions include Frito-Lay, one of the largest snack-selling companies in the U.S., whose Topeka plant is at 4236 S.W. Kirklawn Ave.

The Capital-Journal's Tim Hrenchir and India Yarborough contributed to this report.

Frito-Lay calls bakers’ union leadership “out of touch” following vote to strike

By Kimberly Donahue
Published: Jul. 4, 2021 

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Frito-Lay responded to Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 218 union to strike this weekend after more failed negotiations.

In a statement to 13 NEWS Frito-Lay said:

“Frito-Lay and BCTGM Union Local 218 met last week and reached a fully recommended two-year agreement that included across-the-board wage increases both years of the contract and improved work rules that would have reduced overtime and hours worked.

Though each member of the union negotiating committee, including the union president, individually committed to supporting the agreement and encouraging Frito-Lay employees to vote in favor of ratifying it and Frito-Lay urged all associates to vote in favor of the fully recommended agreement (after nine months of negotiations), the agreement was voted down Saturday, July 3. While the union has suggested that Frito-Lay didn’t meet its terms, Frito-Lay had agreed to the union’s proposed economic terms. In addition, it was Frito-Lay, not the union, that proposed overtime limitations.

That the union membership rejected this fully recommended agreement suggests union leadership is out of touch with the sentiments of Frito-Lay employees. Because the union had fully recommended our tentative agreement, we do not anticipate any further negotiations with the union for the foreseeable future.

Therefore, Frito-Lay employees will be on strike effective Monday, July 5. The strike unnecessarily puts our employees at risk of economic hardship and will inevitably divide the workforce. Frito-Lay will be focused on continuing to run the operations of our plant in Topeka and has a contingency plan in place to ensure employee safety. We will continue to be attentive to the situation and welcome any employees who wish to continue to work as they are legally entitled to do so.”

The strike begins at 12:01 AM Monday.

Copyright 2021 WIBW. All rights reserved.

Black TikTok Creators Are On Strike To Protest A Lack Of Credit For Their Work

July 1, 2021
SHARON PRUITT-YOUNG

Black creators on TikTok have joined a widespread strike over what some are criticizing as cultural appropriation on the popular video app.Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Black creators on TikTok are hanging up their dancing shoes until further notice.

Tired of not receiving credit for their creativity and original work — all while watching white influencers rewarded with millions of views performing dances they didn't create — many Black creators on TikTok joined a widespread strike last week, refusing to create any new dances until credit is given where it's due.

The hashtag "BlackTikTokStrike" has been viewed more than two million times on TikTok, with users sharing videos of less inspired dances that have popped up in the absence of Black creators. The hashtag has taken off on Twitter as well.

If you were to check out TikTok videos featuring Megan Thee Stallion's latest hit, "Thot S***," for example, what you'd find instead of another viral dance challenge are videos by Black creators calling out the lack of credit they receive and raising awareness of the strike.

Enlarge this image
The hashtag "BlackTikTokStrike" has been viewed more than two million times on TikTok.Photo Illustration by Amna Ijaz

One video, which has been viewed more than 440,000 times, shows Erick Louis, a Black TikTok creator, seemingly about to introduce a new dance before flipping the script with a caption that reads "Sike. This app would be nothing without [Black] people." (And even that, Louis said in another post, was copied by a pair of TikTok users whose video got 900,000 views.)

The situation called to mind the recent TikTok controversy surrounding the Nicki Minaj song "Black Barbies." With lyrics like, "I'm a f****** Black Barbie. Pretty face, perfect body," the song was used on the app to showcase videos of Black beauty. But white users soon began using the song as well, kicking off a debate about cultural appropriation on the app

While TikTok has only been around since 2016, it has already emerged as an example of how new forms of technology are being used as a tool for cultural appropriation, according to Sarah J. Jackson, an associate professor and co-director of the Media, Inequality & Change Center at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication. While Jackson's work does not focus on TikTok, much of her research centers on the intersection of race, media and activism.

"A large swath of American popular culture comes from Black culture and that is before the internet even existed," Jackson said. "We can take any historical period and look at popular culture, at any particular historical period, and see the ways in which white folks who have access to mainstream capital and mainstream media and other forms of access were drawing inspiration from the art forms and creative forms of Black folks."
Dissatisfaction has been brewing for some time

Black creators on the app have long been calling out what they say is the preferential treatment that white creators receive. In March, late night talk show host Jimmy Fallon invited TikTok star Addison Rae Easterling to perform a seriesof eight viral TikTok dances on his show, none of which she created. The creators of those dances were not featured for the segment, nor were they given credit, aside from the show posting their usernames in the description box of the YouTube video after the episode aired. After considerable backlash, Fallon invited the actual creators of the dances onto his show the following month, and acknowledged that they "deserve their own spotlight."

But the Fallon episode wasn't the first example, nor will it likely be the last, of Black TikTok creators being overlooked in favor of their white counterparts.

During last year's NBA All-Star Weekend, the NBA invited several white TikTok creators, most notably Easterling and siblings Charli and Dixie D'Amelio. The trio scored prime seats, sat for interviews and were even asked to dance on the court. Easterling's TikTok videos show her performing numerous TikTok dances with NBA cheerleaders and teaching dances to NBA players — including the Renegade dance. The choreography is set to K Camp's "Lottery," and it's one of the most well-known dances on TikTok.

The dance's actual creator — Jalaiah Harmon, a Black teenager from greater Atlanta — was initially not invited until the NBA issued an invitation following pushback on social media. She later made a video that weekend performing the dance with Easterling and Charli D'Amelio, who were criticized alongside the NBA for not acknowledging Harmon earlier. Neither Easterling or the D'Amelios were reachable for comment.

In an interview with The New York Times, Harmon said that unfortunately, not being credited for a world-famous dance that she created, yet seeing it become ubiquitous, has been hard to watch.

"I was happy when I saw my dance all over," Harmon told the paper in 2020. "But I wanted credit for it."

Harmon has only recently begun to receive more widespread recognition for creating one of the first TikTok dances to really take off in popularity, scoring major endorsement deals and magazine covers. But for every Harmon, frustrated users are asking themselves how many Black creators are still struggling not only to get the recognition they deserve, but dealing with antagonism from those who don't understand why receiving that credit is so important in the first place.

When it comes to being credited for one's work, there's crucial historical context to consider, said Jackson.

"Since the founding of this country, Black art forms, Black dance forms, have been appropriated, watered down, repackaged and used to make money by white folks," she said. "And so, if you put it in that context of that longer history of basically stolen labor and stolen creativity, then you start to see why it matters to people and why it's important to people to be credited for the origins of these things."
TikTok says it wants credit for creators to be the norm

It's not the first time that TikTok has been called to the carpet over issues of race. Last summer, numerous Black TikTok users joined together to host a "blackout" to protest content related to Black Lives Matter, police brutality and the murder of George Floyd being seemingly hidden on the app. TikTok responded with an apology to the Black community, referring to what happened as a "technical glitch," promising to "repair that trust" with Black users, and pledging to make the app a more diverse, welcoming space. The company also held town hall and round-table discussions and formed a Creator Diversity Collective.

Still, some Black creators said that, around eight months later, problems with the app persisted, according to NBC News.

In a statement to NPR, a spokesperson for TikTok said Black creators are part of what makes the platform so successful, and that the company is working to build a culture on the app around crediting creators.

"TikTok is a special place because of the diverse and inspiring voices of our community, and our Black creators are a critical and vibrant part of this. We care deeply about the experience of Black creators on our platform and we continue to work every day to create a supportive environment for our community while also instilling a culture where honoring and crediting creators for their creative contributions is the norm," that statement said.

The company also pointed to a recent progress report on its diversity efforts and referenced the recent launch of the @BlackTikTok page, an official TikTok account run by Black employees.

In the meantime, Black creators are still using the app, but instead of creating dances that get stolen, they're calling out non-Black users and pointing out just how much everyone else is struggling without their input.

Just consider the case of "Thot S***." It's a summer anthem waiting to happen, but the dances that are being posted to the song don't have the same magic as previous viral creations, despite the fact that, as many online have pointed out, the song's chorus includes pretty simple instructions about putting "hands on [your] knees."

As the strike continues, some users have been posting videos lamenting how different their experience on the app is without Black dance creators.

"When are the Black creators finishing their strike?" a voice-over says in one video. "This app isn't fun anymore."

Viral dances: Black tickers go on strike


Livia Laurie



Black tickers creating viral dances went on strike. That’s the reason you can’t get a glimpse of the choreography in Megan Thee Stallion’s new song.

Everything indicated that the viral dance performed by thousands of users would accompany this song Thought shit, Released in mid-June as a trend in Tic Tac Toe. However, this is not the case for Megan Thee Stallion’s new song. And it’s no coincidence: black designers are on strike for not getting credit for the dances they create.

Florida-based dictator Eric Lewis was the first person to protest against the cultural acquisition of black creators and say he would not choreograph the song, according to the U.S. Daily. Vox.

“As blacks we are always aware of being excluded and rejected. Whether in the fields of music, fashion, language or dance – even in the places we can create for ourselves – blacks are constantly invading these spaces without respect for the architects who built them,” he explained in an interview. Vox.

Because, financially and notoriously – the people who benefit from these choreographies are not the ones who created them, but the most popular ticktockers like Charlie de Amelio or Addison Ray, whose subscribers number in the millions.

“It’s necessary because we are assembling in this way, and it’s something we’ve been discussing in ourselves for a while,” Eric Lewis said.

Addison Ray’s invitation to the Jimmy Fallon show last March was the grass that broke the camel’s back for many. Although she is not a creator, she has performed eight of the most popular dances on the social stage. The names of the original creators of these choreographies were not mentioned during the broadcast.

After the fact, some of them were invited to the show, giving some recognition to their choreography. The host opened the section by admitting that it was a mistake not to invite them in the first place, saying that the creators “deserved to come forward.”



Livia Laurie
“Web specialist. Pop culture buff. Thinker. Foodaholic. Travel maven. Avid coffee junkie. Amateur tv advocate.” See author's posts

PHYSICS

An Artificial Network Kept on The 'Edge of Chaos' Acts Much Like a Human Brain

Conceptual age of a neural network (left) next to an image of a nanowire network (right). (Adrian Diaz-Alvarez/NIMS Jap

DAVID NIELD

4 JULY 2021

Researchers have demonstrated how to keep a network of nanowires in a state that's right on what's known as the edge of chaos – an achievement that could be used to produce artificial intelligence (AI) that acts much like the human brain does.

The team used varying levels of electricity on a nanowire simulation, finding a balance when the electric signal was too low when the signal was too high. If the signal was too low, the network's outputs weren't complex enough to be useful; if the signal was too high, the outputs were a mess and also useless.

"We found that if you push the signal too slowly the network just does the same thing over and over without learning and developing. If we pushed it too hard and fast, the network becomes erratic and unpredictable," says physicist Joel Hochstetter from the University of Sydney and the study's lead author.

Keeping the simulations on the line between those two extremes produced the optimal results from the network, the scientists report. The findings suggest a variety of brain-like dynamics could eventually be produced using nanowire networks.

Conceptual image of randomly connected switches. (Alon Loeffler)

"Some theories in neuroscience suggest the human mind could operate at this edge of chaos, or what is called the critical state," says physicist Zdenka Kuncic from the University of Sydney in Australia. "Some neuroscientists think it is in this state where we achieve maximal brain performance."

For the simulations, nanowires 10 micrometers long and no thicker than 500 nanometers were arranged randomly on a two-dimensional plane. Human hairs can be up to around 100,000 nanometers wide, for comparison.

In this case, the problem the network was tasked with was transforming a simple waveform into a more complex type, with the amplitude and frequency of the electrical signal adjusted to find the optimal state for solving the problem – right on the edge of chaos.

Nanowire networks combine two systems into one, managing both memory (the equivalent of computer RAM) and operations (the equivalent of a computer CPU). They can remember a history of previous signals, changing their future output in response to what's happened before, making them memristors.

"Where the wires overlap, they form an electrochemical junction, like the synapses between neurons," says Hochstetter.

Typically, algorithms train the network on where the best pathways are, but in this instance, the network did it on its own.

"We found that electrical signals put through this network automatically find the best route for transmitting information," says Hochstetter. "And this architecture allows the network to 'remember' previous pathways through the system."

That in turn could mean significantly reduced energy usage, because the networks end up training themselves using the most efficient processes. As artificial intelligence networks scale up, being able to keep them lean and as low-powered as possible will be important.

For now, the scientists have shown that nanowire networks can do their best problem solving right on the line between order and chaos, much like our brain is thought to be able to, and that puts us a step closer to AI that thinks as we do.

"What's so exciting about this result is that it suggests that these types of nanowire networks can be tuned into regimes with diverse, brain-like collective dynamics, which can be leveraged to optimise information processing," says Kuncic.

The research has been published in Nature Communications.

 Scientifically mysterious cloud bigger than milky way found in no-man’s land

The orphan cloud.

BYAMIT MALEWAR

JULY 3, 2021

 

SPACE

The orphan cloud is the blue umbrella-shaped part of this image, which is color-coded to show the X-ray part of the cloud in blue, the warm gas in red and the visible region in white. Images courtesy of European Space Agency / XMM-Newton

A research team at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has discovered a lonely cloud bigger than the Milky Way in a “no man’s land” for galaxies. This scientifically mysterious cloud in Abell 1367 is full of hot gas with 10,000-10,000,000 degrees Kelvin (K).

Abell 1367 is also known as Leo Cluster, which contains around 70 galaxies and is located around 300 million light-years from Earth. 

The team discovered the cloud in a cluster of galaxies where thousands of galaxies are bound together with tenuous hot gas. Despite being discovered in a cluster of galaxies, this lonely cloud is not associated with any galaxy. Hence, scientists say it is in a no-man’s land.

The discovery was made using the European Space Agency (ESA) X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton), Europe’s flagship X-ray telescope. The cloud was also observed with the European Southern Observatory Very Large Telescope/Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (VLT/MUSE) and Japan’s flagship optical telescope, Subaru.

Dr. Ming Sun, an associate professor of physics at UAH, said, “This is an exciting and also a surprising discovery. It demonstrates that new surprises are always out there in astronomy, as the oldest of the natural sciences. ESA agrees as our discovery was selected as an ESA image release, which has been very selective.”

According to scientists, the origin of the cloud must be a large, unknown galaxy in the cluster. They think that the gas in the cloud must be removed by the ram pressure of the hot gas in the cluster when the host galaxy is soaring in the hot gas with a velocity of 1,000-2,000 kilometers per second.

Dr. Sun said, “That’s about 50 times faster than the orbital speed of Earth around the sun. That level of force at work can rip the interstellar medium out of a galaxy. In this case, we found that the temperature of the cloud is consistent with having originated from a galaxy.”

“Once removed from the host galaxy, the cloud is initially cold and is evaporating in the hot intracluster medium, like ice melting in the summer.”

“It is estimated that this massive, mysterious cloud has survived for hundreds of millions of years after removal from its host galaxy.”

“This surprising longevity is poorly understood but may have something to do with the magnetic field in the cloud.”

Journal Reference:

1. Chong Ge et al., An H α/X-ray orphan cloud as a signpost of intracluster medium clumping, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2021). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stab1569

COMRADES ON THE RED PLANET
China’s crewed mission to Mars with plans to build permanently inhabited base

MEGHANA KANDRAJULY 3, 2021

China plans to send a crew to Mars by 2033 and further plans to build a permanently inhabited base. They plan to extract resources from the red planet. On race with America, China has ambitious plans to reach Mars.


Image credits- CNET

China’s main rocket maker told in a space exploration conference that they planned for crew missions in 2033, 2035, 2037, 2040, and goes on. Prior to sending crew, robots will be sent to Mars to study the area, so they can plan for setting up a base area. This base will be used to extract resources and work on certain experiments.

For the crew to be able to use the resources, ways to produce oxygen, finding water underneath the surface, and generating electricity are some ways. China plans to work on developing such advanced technology. While the Americans already have technology like boosters to reused the rocket and come back. China is yet to have the rockets which can send a crew to space and bring them back.

By the end of 2030, the extracted samples and other materials will be acquired by China’s uncrewed mission to mars. NASA has already been working on sending crew by 2030. However, China seems to now make potential plans with their plans to send fleets to mars and return some fleet to earth. The major challenge lies with the ability to tap energy from heat and electricity. Also, time plays an important role. They plan to make these missions happen in a few hundred days of flight time.

China’s space missions

Last week, China sent astronauts to their unfinished space station. It has been there since 2016 and was left out till this recent involvement. Once it finished, it will be living quarters for China’s space crew. The current crew on the station will stay there for three months. Expected to be complete by 2022 end.

The main reason for China to have a different space station is because they were banned from NASA. Currently, the International Space Station is being backed by Russia, Canada, Japan, and Europe. Chief designer of China’s manned space program said, “At this current stage, we haven’t considered the participation of international astronauts, but their future participation will be guaranteed,”

Furthermore, China plans to set up a base on the Moon. Deploying robotic expeditions to asteroids and Jupiter form the South pole of the moon. China already sent a remote-controlled motorized rover to Mars. Thus China became the only nation so far to land vehicles on the red planet. In some ways, Chinese space technology advanced beyond expectations.

CHEAP LIKE BORSCHT

Nexperia To Acquire UK's Largest Chip Manufacturer For $87 Million—Chinese Acquisition Leads To National Security Concern?

Griffin Davis , Tech Times 02 July 2021

Nexperia, a Chinese-owned semiconductor manufacturer, could soon acquire the largest chip creator in the United Kingdom, Newport Wafer Fab (NWF).

(Photo : Photo by Liu Yucai/VCG via Getty Images)
HEFEI, CHINA - FEBRUARY 24: A resercher presents a newly-developed 77GHz millimeter-wave automotive radar chip at a laboratory of the 38th Research Institute of China Electronic Technology Group Corporation (CETC) on February 24, 2021 in Hefei, Anhui Province of China.

China's giant SoC developer now wants to purchase NWF for about $87 million. On the other hand, Nexperia also announced that the upcoming acquisition could take place in the second week of July.

However, the chip manufacturer hasn't confirmed the exact date of the acquisition. This information was first leaked by two anonymous sources, which are closed to the two companies.

"We are in constructive conversations with NWF and the Welsh Government about the future of NWF. Until we have reached a conclusion we cannot further comment," said a spokesperson of Nexperia.

The alleged acquisition was confirmed during the current global chip shortage, affecting various EV makers, computer developers, and other tech companies.
Nexperia's NWF Acquisition Poses Security Concern?

According to CNBC News' latest report, many manufacturers are forced to rely on their own plants to make chipsets because of the global SoC shortage. As of the moment, most of the chips are created in Asia.

(Photo : Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)
The Intel 486 microprocessor (left) was introduced in 1989 and marked a significant improvement in the processing capacity of computers over that of the previous Intel 386 (introduced in 1985). In addition, the 486 processor was the first to offer a built-in �math co-processor�. This increased computing speeds because complex mathematical functions could be processed away from the central processor.

The largest manufacturers creating them include South Korea's Samsung and China's SMIC, Taiwan's TSMC, and other chip producers. On the other hand, China's largest chip creator and the U.K.'s NWF could soon join forces as the acquisition is about to occur.

However, some experts claimed that this could lead to a national security concern. Tom Tugendhat, leader of the U.K. government's China Research Group and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, is one of the people who believe this could happen.

'I must stress again that having the U.K.'s leading 200mm silicon and semiconductor technology development and processing facility being taken over by a Chinese entity - in my view - represents a significant economic and national security concern," he claimed.

Because of this, he is now suggesting that the U.K. government should review the deal under the National Security and Investment Act. On the other hand, he also explained that it should be investigated since NWF is the last remaining advanced semiconductor factory in the U.K., which will be sold to China.


Global Chip Shortage Affects Automakers

ZDNet reported that the automotive industry is one of the markets greatly affected by the current global chip shortage. In the United Kingdom, car production this 2021 has lessened to around 50% compared back in 2019.

SMMT (Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders) claimed that the U.K.'s car manufacturing operations are down by 58% in June. It added that the sudden decrease is due to the global chip shortage.

For more news updates about Nexperia and other giant chip developers, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.

Why science can’t resist the allure of Venus: new missions to Earth’s nearest planetary neighbour

Venus is close to Earth in size, composition and distance to the sun. But carbon dioxide has turned it into a ‘vision of hell’. Photograph: AP


With a surface hot enough to melt lead, Venus has been left alone by space agencies for a decade. Now we are about to learn more about its climate – and the chances of life on other planets

Robin McKie Science Editor

Sun 4 Jul 2021 09.00 BST

Afleet of robot spaceships is to descend on Venus in a few years and begin probing the most inhospitable world in the solar system. One craft will drop through the planet’s crushingly dense – and searingly hot – atmosphere while two others will orbit over the thick, acidic clouds that cover Venus and use sophisticated radar telescopes to survey the terrain beneath them.

Such scrutiny represents a remarkable renewal of interest in Earth’s nearest planetary neighbour. For more than a decade, American and European space agencies have ignored the planet – only for three new Venus missions to be announced within days of each other at the beginning of June.

Håkan Svedhem, former project manager for Europe’s previous probe to the planet, Venus Express, told the science journal Nature last week: “Venus has been a forgotten planet for too long.”

The aim of the new missions – Nasa’s Veritas and Davinci+ probes and Europe’s EnVision satellite – is straightforward. They want to know why Earth’s sibling planet is so utterly different from our own world.

As astronomers knew at the beginning of the “space age” in the 60s, both planets are the same size and have similar ages, compositions and orbits round the sun. Beneath the thick clouds of Venus, it was assumed there could be oceans or forests. And so a series of robot probes were sent by American and Soviet space agencies to uncover the truth in the 70s and 80s.

The ESA’s EnVision orbiter will map the surface from high above. Photograph: ESA/PA

They revealed a world that was a vision of hell. Venus was found to have a surface temperature of 475C, which is hot enough to melt lead. At the same time, the atmospheric pressure at its surface is 93 bars, the equivalent to that experienced a kilometre under the ocean on Earth. Soviet probes that landed on Venus in the 70s and 80s managed to transmit data from the planet for only brief periods – two hours was the best they managed – before the heat and crushing pressure destroyed them.

For good measure, Venus was also found to be covered in thick clouds of sulphuric acid. By contrast, our own world possesses oceans of liquid water, clouds and ice caps and supports myriad forms of living creatures in its seas, on land and in the skies. The differences between the two planet – despite their superficial similarities – could not be more stark.

And the key cause of these vastly different sets of conditions is explained by the vast amounts of carbon dioxide that have built up on Venus. This has trapped solar radiation and triggered a runaway greenhouse effect that exists on a scale that utterly dwarfs the impact of the climate crisis that is now disrupting weather patterns and melting ice caps on Earth.

How did this build up of carbon dioxide occur, scientists ask. Did Earth get lucky or was it the case that Venus was just unlucky? Is it the norm for planets in orbits like those of Venus and Earth to develop thick atmospheres of carbon dioxide which trap solar radiation and trigger runaway greenhouse effects – or was it just a one-off development in the case of Venus?

The surface of the planet is obscured by dense cloud cover. Photograph: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstadt/Heidi N. Becker/Koji Kuramura)/PA

“These are key questions and they have important ramifications, not just in understanding how life appeared and evolved on Earth,” said physicist Colin Wilson of Oxford University. “They also have implications for searching for habitable planets in orbit around other stars in our galaxy.”

At present, astronomers pin their hopes of finding promising planets that might support life elsewhere in the galaxy by seeking out small rocky worlds – like Earth – that orbit stars at a distance in which water is likely to exist in liquid form. However, to judge from the only other world in our solar system that is found in such a zone – Venus – that may not be such a promising locale, after all. In other words, if Earth is the exception and Venus the norm, we might find that such planets are far less encouraging as hosts for alien life.

This point was stressed by Giada Arney, deputy principal investigator for Nasa’s Davinci+ probe: “Our investigation of the evolution of Venus may help us better understand how habitable worlds are distributed elsewhere in the universe, and how habitable planets evolve over time in a general sense,” she said. However, it may be that Venus was simply in the wrong place. Being closer to the sun than the Earth – 67 million miles versus 93 million miles – made it slightly warmer when it formed during the solar system’s birth 4.5 billion years ago. As a result, the water vapour in its atmosphere never condensed into oceans as it did on Earth, where our seas played a key role in absorbing carbon dioxide and prevented runaway greenhouse heating.

Other evidence hints that Venus may have had liquid water on its surface at one time, and that some other event set off the rampant warming that now envelops the planet. The three new probes will try to uncover clues as what they might be. “Studying the planet’s surface will be crucial,” said Wilson. “The US Magellan probe – which arrived at Venus in 1989 – used radar to peer through the clouds and give us a wonderful global map of Venus, which revealed volcanoes and a fractured surface that had clearly gone through lots of turmoil. But it was just a snapshot.

“We don’t know if those volcanoes are still active, for example. The new space probes will take 21st-century radar technology and apply it to Venus and give us a much more dynamic picture of the planet.”

Nasa’s Davinci+ will descend into the atmosphere. Photograph: NASA GSFC visualization by CI Labs Michael Lentz and others

This point was backed by astronomer Professor Jane Greaves of Cardiff University. “Some instruments, such as radar and mass spectrometers, have already been used to study Venus in the past, but their technology today is so much better and more sophisticated. We will be able to probe deeper and identify molecules more easily.”

Both Nasa’s Veritas and the European Space Agency’s EnVision will be involved in mapping Venus’s surface from an orbit high above its acid clouds. By contrast, Davinci+ will carry a small probe to the planet that it will release so that it parachutes down through its atmosphere, sampling its component gases every 100 metres as it descends. These measurements will be crucial in understanding the origins of Venus’s atmosphere and provide clues about its evolution.

For example, by studying levels of deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, it should be possible to determine how much water there once was on Venus, while analysis of noble gases – such as argon and neon – in the atmosphere may also allow scientists to determine if the planet once supported liquid water – data that will be crucial in providing clues about Venus’s path to the dark side.

“It is astounding how little we know about Venus,” said Tom Wagner, Nasa’s Discovery Program scientist.

“However, the combined results of these missions will tell us about the planet from the clouds in its sky through the volcanoes on its surface all the way down to its very core. It will be as if we have rediscovered the planet.”

146,000-Year-Old Archaic Human Cranium Represents New Species: Homo longi

Jun 28, 2021 by News Staff / Source

Homo longi is phylogenetically closer to Homo sapiens than to Neanderthals or other archaic humans, according to new research described in The Innovation.

A reconstruction of Homo longi in his habitat. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.

A well-preserved ancient human fossil known as the Harbin cranium was reportedly discovered when a bridge was built over the Songhua River in Harbin City, the Heilongjiang province, China.

Because of its unsystematic recovery and the long time interval, information about the exact site and fossil layer was lost.

“The Harbin fossil is one of the most complete human cranial fossils in the world,” said Professor Qiang Ji, a paleontologist at Hebei GEO University.

“It preserved many morphological details that are critical for understanding the evolution of the Homo genus and the origin of Homo sapiens.”

The Harbin cranium is massive in size, larger than all other known-archaic humans. It is also relatively long and low and lacks the globularity of the modern human braincase.

It has larger, almost square eye sockets, thick brow ridges, a wide mouth, and oversized teeth.

Its endocranial capacity is estimated as 1,420 ml, falling in the range of Homo sapiens and Neanderthals, and larger than other Homo species such as Homo erectus, Homo naledi, Homo floresiensis, and even some Homo heidelbergensis/Homo rhodesiensis.

It is so distinctive that Professor Ji and colleagues have even suggested naming the cranium as a new species of Homo. They have called it Homo longi.

The species name is derived from the geographic name Long Jiang, which is a common usage for the Heilongjiang province and literally means ‘dragon river.’



Portrait of Homo longi. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.

“While it shows typical archaic human features, the Harbin cranium presents a mosaic combination of primitive and derived characters setting itself apart from all the other previously-named Homo species,” Professor Ji said.

“The Harbin cranium is huge, showing either the largest or second largest values for many measurements in our comparative fossil database, and its brain volume at 1,420 ml matches that of modern humans,” added Professor Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London.

“It also shows other features resembling our species. It has flat and low cheekbones with a shallow canine fossa, and the face looks reduced and tucked under the braincase.”

The authors believe the Harbin cranium came from a 50-year-old male living in a forested, floodplain environment as part of a small community.

“Like Homo sapiens, they hunted mammals and birds, and gathered fruits and vegetables, and perhaps even caught fish,” said Professor Xijun Ni, a paleoanthropologist at Hebei GEO University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Using sophisticated geochemical analyses, including rare earth elements, strontium isotopic ratios and X-ray fluorescence, and direct Ur-series dating, the researchers dated the fossil to at least 146,000 years, placing it in the Middle Pleistocene, a dynamic era of human species migration.

They hypothesize that Homo longi and Homo sapiens could have encountered each other during this era.

“Although it is impossible to pin the cranium to an exact location with currently available technology, all the evidence suggests that it was from a bed of water-laid sediments aged between 138,000 and 309,000 years ago in the Harbin region,” said Dr. Junyi Ge, a geochemist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“We are quite confident now that the fossil is older than 146,000 years,” added Dr. Qingfeng Shao, a geochemist at the Nanjing Normal University.

“We see multiple evolutionary lineages of Homo species and populations co-existing in Asia, Africa, and Europe during that time,” Professor Stringer said.

“So, if Homo sapiens indeed got to East Asia that early, they could have a chance to interact with Homo longi, and since we don’t know when the Harbin group disappeared, there could have been later encounters as well.”

The scientists also found that Homo longi is one of our closest hominin relatives, even more closely related to us than Neanderthals.

“It is widely believed that the Neanderthal belongs to an extinct lineage that is the closest relative of our own species,” Professor Ni said.

“However, our discovery suggests that the new lineage we identified that includes Homo longi is the actual sister group of Homo sapiens.”



The Harbin cranium throws new light on debates concerning the diversification of the Homo genus and the origin of Homo sapiens. Image credit: Ni et al., doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100130.

The team’s reconstruction of the human tree of life also suggests that the common ancestor we share with Neanderthals existed even further back in time.

“The divergence time between Homo sapiens and the Neanderthals may be even deeper in evolutionary history than generally believed, over one million years,” Professor Ni said.

“If true, we likely diverged from Neanderthals roughly 400,000 years earlier than scientists had thought.”

“It’s widely believed that Neanderthals form the sister group of the sapiens lineage,” Professor Stringer said.

“But our analyses suggest that the Harbin cranium and some other Middle Pleistocene human fossils from China form a third East Asian lineage, which is actually closer to sapiens than the Neanderthals are.”

“Thus, the excellent preservation of the Harbin cranium throws new light on the evolution of the genus Homo.”

“It’s estimated Middle Pleistocene age places it as an Asian contemporary of the evolving Homo sapiens, Homo neanderthalensis and Denisovan lineages.”

“It may even be a representative of the enigmatic Denisovans, but that is something for the next stages of research.”

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Xijun Ni et al. Massive cranium from Harbin in northeastern China establishes a new Middle Pleistocene human lineage. Innovation, published online June 25, 2021; doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100130

Qingfeng Shao et al. Geochemical provenancing and direct dating of the Harbin archaic human cranium. Innovation, published online June 25, 2021; doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100131

Qiang Ji et al. Late Middle Pleistocene Harbin cranium represents a new Homo species. Innovation, published online June 25, 2021; doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2021.100132