Discovery of 'split' photon provides a new way to see light

by Dartmouth College

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Nearly a century after Italian physicist Ettore Majorana laid the groundwork for the discovery that electrons could be divided into halves, researchers predict that split photons may also exist, according to a study from Dartmouth and SUNY Polytechnic Institute researchers.

The finding that the building blocks of light can exist in a previously-unimaginable split form advances the fundamental understanding of light and how it behaves.

The theoretical discovery of the split photon—known as a "Majorana boson"—was published in Physical Review Letters.

"This is a major paradigm change of how we understand light in a way that was not believed to be possible," said Lorenza Viola, the James Frank Family Professor of Physics at Dartmouth and senior researcher on the study. "Not only did we find a new physical entity, but it was one that nobody believed could exist."

Similar to how liquid water can change into ice or vapor under specific conditions, the research indicates that light can also exist in a different phase—one where photons appear as two distinct halves.

"Water is water regardless of its liquid or solid form. It just behaves differently depending on physical conditions," said Viola. "This is how we need to approach our understanding of light—like matter, it can exist in different phases."

Rather than pieces that can be physically pulled apart, the photon halves serve similar to the different sides of a coin. The two distinct parts make up a whole, yet they can be described and function as separate units.

"Every photon can be thought of as the sum of two distinct halves," said Vincent Flynn, a Ph.D. candidate at Dartmouth and first author of the paper. "We were able to identify conditions for isolating these halves from one another."

The research is based on the fundamentals of physics.

Particles come in two different types: fermions and bosons. Fermions, such as electrons, tend to be solitary, avoiding each other at all costs. Bosons, such as photons, tend to bunch together. Thus, it was natural for researchers to assume that splitting bosons would be an insurmountable task.

The Dartmouth theory relies on energy-leaking, dissipating cavities that are coupled together and filled with quantum packets of light. The research predicts that particle halves appear at the edges of such a synthetic platform: The Majorana boson was discovered.

"Our discovery provides the first hint that a previously unknown, topological phase of light and matter which hosts Majorana bosons may exist," said Flynn.

Credit: LaDarius Dennison / Dartmouth College

The theoretical finding builds on the prediction in 1937 of the existence of neutral, electron-like particles known as Majorana fermions. In 2001, researchers suggested a specific process for how electrons could actually be halved in certain superconductors. But the photon had remained indivisible until now.

According to the research team, Majorana bosons can be viewed as distant relatives to Majorana fermions.

"Fermions and bosons are as different as two things can be in physics," said Emilio Cobanera, assistant professor of physics at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, and co-author of the study. "In effect, the particles are distorted images of each other. The existence of the Majorana fermions was our main clue that the Majorana boson was hiding somewhere in the funhouse mirror."

Confirmation of the Majorana boson would still require a laboratory experiment that observes the photon halves. Unlike the massive structures built to detect the renowned Higgs boson, an experiment to detect photon halves could be done on a tabletop. Such an experiment could utilize existing or near-term technologies.

The team found that Majorana bosons are robust against experimental imperfections and identifiable by distinct signatures. Although it is hard to predict how the findings may be applied, those characteristics could support the development of new types of quantum information processors, optical sensors, and light amplifiers. The research also points the way toward uncovering a new, exotic phase of matter and light.

"In order to make this discovery we had to challenge long-held beliefs and really think outside the box," said Viola. "We have split something previously thought to be unsplittable, and we'll never look at light the same way."

Scientists discover particles similar to Majorana fermions

More information: Vincent P. Flynn et al, Topology by Dissipation: Majorana Bosons in Metastable Quadratic Markovian Dynamics, Physical Review Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.245701

Journal information: Physical Review Letters 

Provided by Dartmouth College 

“Split” Photon Provides New Way To See Light – Predicts Existence of Previously-Unimaginable Particle

By DARTMOUTH COLLEGE DECEMBER 18, 2021

The finding of the Majorana boson demonstrates that photons can be “split” into halves. Credit: Animation by LaDarius Dennison

Research predicts the existence of a previously-unimaginable particle.

When Italian physicist Ettore Majorana suggested that electrons could be split into halves nearly a century ago, the revolutionary idea was largely underappreciated. It now serves as a cornerstone of physics.

Leveraging the same curiosity as Majorana, researchers from Dartmouth’s Viola Research Group are predicting that split photons may also exist.

“This is a major paradigm change of how we understand light in a way that was not believed to be possible,” says Lorenza Viola, the James Frank Family Professor of Physics. “Not only did we find a new physical entity, but it was one that nobody believed could exist.”

The theoretical discovery of the split photon – known as a “Majorana boson” – advances the fundamental understanding of light and how it behaves. Research describing the discovery was published this month in Physical Review Letters.

From left, Vincent Flynn, Guarini ’22, of the Viola Research Group, and Lorenza Viola, the James Frank Family Professor of Physics. Credit: Photo by Eli Burakian ’00

“Every photon can be thought of as the sum of two distinct halves,” says Vincent Flynn, Guarini ’22, the lead author of the paper. “We were able to identify conditions for isolating these halves from one another.”

Similar to how liquid water can change into ice or vapor under specific conditions, the research indicates that light can also exist in a different phase – one where photons appear as two distinct halves.

“Water is water regardless of its liquid or solid form. It just behaves differently depending on physical conditions,” said Viola. “This is how we need to approach our understanding of light—like matter, it can exist in different phases.”

“We have split something previously thought to be unsplittable, and we’ll never look at light the same way.”
— Lorenza Viola, the James Frank Family Professor of Physics

Rather than pieces that can be physically pulled apart, the photon halves are similar to the two sides of a coin. The two distinct parts make up a whole, yet they can be described and function as separate units.

The theory, co-authored by Emilio Cobanera, a visiting assistant professor of physics and astronomy, was developed in Wilder Hall, the same building that housed the laboratory where landmark research in the early 1900s measured the radiation pressure of light.

“As an early career scientist, it’s incredibly rewarding to build off the ideas of giants like Majorana and to be able to do so in a department with such deep historical connection to the physics of light,” says Flynn.

The new theory relies on energy-leaking cavities filled with quantum packets of light and predicts that particle halves appear at the edges of such a synthetic platform.

A laboratory experiment is still required to confirm that photons can exist in this previously-unimaginable split form. Unlike the massive structures built to detect the renowned Higgs boson, a test to detect photon halves could be done on a tabletop using existing or near-term technology.

According to the research team, the research points the way toward uncovering new, exotic phases of matter and light. It is hard to predict how the findings may be applied, but the Majorana boson could support quantum computing, optical sensors, and light amplifiers.

“In order to make this discovery we had to challenge long-held beliefs and really think outside the box,” says Viola. “We have split something previously thought to be unsplittable, and we’ll never look at light the same way.”

For more on this research, see New Research Predicts the Existence of a Previously-Unimaginable Particle.

Reference: “Topology by Dissipation: Majorana Bosons in Metastable Quadratic Markovian Dynamics” by Vincent P. Flynn, Emilio Cobanera and Lorenza Viola, 10 December 2021, Physical Review Letters.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.245701

First genome-wide ancient human DNA from Sudan shines new light on Nile Valley past

by Yale University

3D-model of DNA. Credit: Michael Ströck/Wikimedia/ GNU Free Documentation License

The first genome-wide ancient human DNA data from Sudan reveals new insights into the ancestry and social organization of people who lived more than 1,000 years ago in the Nile Valley, an important genetic and cultural crossroads.

Nature Communications published the analyses of the DNA of 66 individuals from a site in ancient Nubia known as Kulubnarti, located on the Nile River in Sudan, just south of the Egyptian border.

"Before this work, there were only three ancient genome-wide samples available, from Egypt, for the entire Nile Valley," says first author Kendra Sirak, who began the project as a Ph.D. student at Emory University. "And yet the region was, and still is, an incredibly important part of the world in terms of the movement, meeting and mixing of people."

Sirak was the last graduate student of the late George Armelagos, former professor of anthropology at Emory and a pioneer in bridging the disciplines of archeology and biology. While still a graduate student in the 1960s, Armelagos was part of a team that excavated ancient skeletons from Sudanese Nubia, so the bones would not be lost forever when the Nile was dammed.

"Nubia was a place of human habitation for tens of thousands of years," says Sirak, who is now a staff scientist at Harvard University. "This ancient genetic data helps fill in some major gaps in our understanding of who these people were."

The 66 individuals date back from 1,080 to 1,320 years ago, during the Christian Period of Sudanese Nubia, prior to the genetic and cultural changes that occurred along with the introduction of Islam. The analyses showed how the Kulubnarti gene pool formed over the course of a least a millennium through multiple waves of admixture, some local and some from distant places. They had ancestry seen today in some populations of Sudan, as well as ancestry that was ultimately West Eurasian in origin and likely introduced into Nubia through Egypt.

"A key finding is that social status did not have a strong relationship to biological relatedness or to ancestry in this ancient population, who lived during a period of cultural and social change," says Jessica Thompson, a co-senior author of the paper. Thompson, a former Ph.D. supervisor of Sirak in Emory's Department of Anthropology, is now at Yale University.

The remains of the individuals came from two cemeteries with Christian-style burials that previous evidence indicated were socially stratified. In one cemetery, located on an island in the Nile, the skeletal remains bore more markers of stress, disease and malnutrition and the average age of those buried was just over 10 years old. By contrast, the average age at death in the other cemetery, located on the mainland, was 18 years.

One hypothesis that grew out of this skeletal evidence was that the island cemetery was for a Kulubnarti "underclass," possibly laborers for members of landowning families buried in the mainland cemetery. It was a mystery whether the social stratification may have developed because one population came from a different origin.

A genome-wide analysis suggests that was not the case—the people buried in the separate cemeteries came from a single genetic population.

"It seems that people in this area did not use biological ancestry as a basis for social differentiation," Thompson says. "This reinforces the point that dividing people up socially on the basis of their genetic ancestry is a recent phenomenon, with no basis in universal human tendences."

Another key finding of the genetic analyses shows that some people as close as second-degree relatives were buried across the cemetery divide. Examples of second-degree relationships include grandparents to grandchildren, aunts and uncles to nieces and nephews, and half siblings.

"That indicates that there was some fluidity among the two groups of people," Sirak says. "There wasn't an intergenerational caste system that meant someone was prescribed to being in the same social group as all of their relatives."

A further interesting twist is that much of the Eurasian-derived ancestry within the population came from women. "Often when you think of ancestry and how genes move, you think of males who are trading or conquering or spreading religion," Sirak says. "But the genetic data here reveals that female mobility was really crucial to shaping the gene pool in Kulubnarti."

One possible explanation is that Kulubnarti was a patrilocal system, meaning that males tended to stay where they were born and females moved away from their homelands.

"The Christian Period Nubians from Kulubnarti are fascinating," Sirak says. "They survived in a barren, isolated, desolate region where life was never easy. I like to think that the ancient DNA research is giving a new life to these people from 1,000 years ago by providing a more nuanced view of them. Anytime you're studying someone's remains, their physical being, you owe it to them to tell the most accurate, respectful and meaningful story that you can."

Sirak came to Emory as a graduate student in 2012 to study human bones and paleopathology under Armelagos. By that time, he and fellow faculty members had built Emory's Department of Anthropology into a powerhouse of the biocultural approach to the field. In particular, Armelagos, his colleagues and graduate students studied the remains of the Sudanese Nubians to learn about patterns of health, illness and death in the past.

A long missing piece in the studies of this population, however, was genetic analysis. So, in 2013, Armelagos sent Sirak to one of the best ancient DNA labs in the world, University College Dublin, with samples of the Nubian bones.

"I had no interest in genetics," Sirak recalls, "but George was a visionary who believed that DNA was going to become a critical part of anthropological research."

Sirak soon became hooked when she saw how she could combine her interest in ancient bones with insights from DNA. She formed collaborations not just in Dublin but at Harvard Medical School's Department of Genetics and elsewhere, investigating mysteries surrounding deaths going back anywhere from decades to ancient times.

Armelagos was 77 and still mentoring Sirak, his last graduate student, when he died of pancreatic cancer in 2014. Dennis Van Gerven, an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, took over Sirak's mentorship, along with Thompson. Van Gerven was among Armelagos' first group of students, and he also spent decades studying the Sudanese Nubians.

Sirak stuck with her Ph.D. dissertation project of trying to collect enough ancient DNA from the Nubian remains for analysis.

"Ancient DNA is difficult to recover from areas that are extremely hot, because DNA tends to degrade in heat," she explains.

Genetic sequencing techniques kept improving, however, and Sirak was working at the forefront of the effort. In 2015, while still an Emory graduate student, she was among the researchers who realized that a particular part of the petrous bone consistently yielded the most DNA. This pyramid-shaped bone houses several parts of the inner ear related to hearing and balance. In addition, Sirak developed a technique to drill into a skull and reach this particular part of the petrous bone in the most non-invasive way possible, while also getting enough bone powder for DNA analysis. The use of this part of the petrous bone is now the gold standard in ancient DNA analysis.

In 2018, Sirak received her Ph.D. from Emory and went on to work in the lab of David Reich, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School who specializes in the population genetics of ancient humans.

She and her colleagues continued to push the boundaries of what's possible with ancient DNA sequencing. They managed to get whole-genome samples from the petrous bones of 66 of the Sudanese Nubians, ushering in a whole new era of bioarchaeology for the Nile Valley. "I don't think we would have succeeded in this work had we not known to focus on the specific part of the petrous bone," Sirak says.

"It's incredible to me that George asked me to focus on ancient DNA back in 2012, long before these techniques were developed," she adds. "He had a way of making anyone who was working with him really feel important and powerful and that gave me the confidence to strike out on a pioneering path."

"George Armelagos' influence is everywhere," adds Thompson, explaining that he also advised many senior people who mentored her early in her career.

Funded by National Geographic Explorer grants, Sirak is now working with Sudanese colleagues to gather and analyze ancient DNA samples from other geographic locations in the Nile Valley, going even deeper into its past, to add more details to the story of how people moved, mixed and thrived in the region across millennia.

As the last graduate student of Armelagos—and then a mentee of Van Gerven, one of Armelagos' first students—Sirak feels like she is completing a circle. The publication of the current paper is the realization of Armelagos' last wishes for the project.

"It's really special for me to be able to use ancient DNA to build on decades of anthropological and archeological research for the region," Sirak says. "I know that George would be proud and thrilled. I'm part of this amazing lineage of researchers now. And the desire to continue what they started is a huge motivation for me."

In addition to Reich, Thompson and Van Gerven, senior authors of the Nature Communications paper include Nick Patterson (Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT) and Ron Pinhasi (University College, Dublin). Co-authors include researchers from these institutions as well as the University of Vienna, the University of Coimbra in Portugal, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the University of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, the University of Georgia, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Michigan.

Proceeding with Caution: First global guidelines proposed for ancient DNA research

More information: Kendra A. Sirak et al, Social stratification without genetic differentiation at the site of Kulubnarti in Christian Period Nubia, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27356-8

Journal information: Nature Communications 

Provided by Yale University 

Earthquake depth impacts potential tsunami threat

by Marcie Grabowski, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Graphic showing how a tsunami works. Credit: Ocean Institute, modified by NOAA/ NWS/ 

CGS

Earthquakes of similar magnitude can cause tsunamis of greatly varying sizes. This commonly observed, but not well-understood phenomenon has hindered reliable warnings of local tsunamis.

Research led by University of Hawai'i (UH) at Mānoa scientists provides new insight that connects the characteristics of earthquakes—magnitude, depth where two tectonic plates slip past each other and the rigidity of the plates involved—with the potential size of a resulting tsunami.

Previous researchers identified a special class of events known as tsunami earthquakes, which produce disproportionately large tsunamis for their magnitude. Kwok Fai Cheung, professor of Ocean and Resources Engineering in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), Thorne Lay from the University of California—Santa Cruz and co-authors discovered a straightforward explanation for this conundrum. Their findings were published recently in Nature Geoscience.

Using computer models, the team incorporated physical processes that produce earthquakes and tsunamis with a wide range of observations of real-world events, including those classified as tsunami earthquakes. The model results demonstrated that for a given earthquake magnitude, if the rupture extends to shallow depth in the less rigid part of the plate, the resulting tsunami is larger than if the rupture is deeper.

"In a subduction zone, the upper plate is thinner and less rigid than the underthrusting plate near the trench," explained Cheung. "A concentrated near-trench or shallow rupture produces relatively weak ground shaking as recorded by seismometers, but the displaced water in the overlying deep ocean has enhanced energy and produces shorter tsunami waves that amplify at a high rate as they move toward the shore."

On September 29, 2009, a tsunami caused substantial damage and loss of life in American

 Samoa, Samoa, and Tonga. The tsunami was generated by a large earthquake in the 

Southern Pacific Ocean. Credit: NOAA

"Earthquake and tsunamigenic processes are complex, involving many factors that vary from one event to another," said Lay, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at UC Santa Cruz. "We utilized a simplified numerical model to isolate key earthquake parameters and evaluate their importance in defining tsunami size."

Having verified that the presence of shallow earthquake rupture can be a more significant factor than the earthquake magnitude for the resulting tsunami size led the researchers to an important question: Can earthquake magnitude continue to be used as the primary indication of potential tsunami impacts?

"The practice of using earthquake magnitude to estimate potential tsunami threat has led to poor predictive capability for tsunami impacts, and more information about the source is required to do better," said Cheung.

An important aspect of this interdisciplinary research is the synergy of expertise in seismology, with Lay, and tsunamis, with Cheung's research group, applied to a large set of observations. This study motivates development of new seismological and seafloor geodesy research that can rapidly detect occurrence of shallow rupture in order to achieve more reliable tsunami warning.

While shorelines throughout the Pacific Ocean and along the "Ring of Fire" are vulnerable to tsunamis, the situation is most critical for coastal communities near the earthquake, where the tsunami arrives quickly—when detailed information about the earthquake is not yet available.

Cheung and Lay continue their collaboration to investigate prehistorical, historical, and future tsunami events to better understand the hazards posed to coastal communities and enable more accurate warning systems.

Artificial intelligence could be used to accurately predict tsunamis

More information: Kwok Fai Cheung et al, Tsunami size variability with rupture depth, Nature Geoscience (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41561-021-00869-z

Journal information: Nature Geoscience 

Provided by University of Hawaii at Manoa 

UK net zero strategies are overlooking something vital: how to cool buildings amid rising temperatures

December 16, 2021 

In October, the UK government released two different strategies on how to achieve its net zero emissions target by 2050 – the net zero strategy and the heat and buildings strategy. Although both look at how to decarbonise the UK’s economy, they also both overlook an important feature of the future of energy consumption – the demand for cooling.

The most recent report from the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change shows how experiencing extreme heat will become more common as the world warms, with maximum temperatures in parts of England set to increase by more than 0.4℃ per decade. This means that the need to cool buildings is a critical issue.

This cooling also needs to be done efficiently. For example, increasing insulation can reduce overheating in well-designed buildings, but it can increase overheating in others without a good ventilation system – resulting in health problems caused by pollution building up in the air. Unfortunately, the UK’s strategies haven’t properly addressed this.

Currently, the UK’s cooling energy demand is approximately 15.5 terawatt hours per year. This is energy which is mainly used in offices and shops.

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The figure is only going to rise. In a worst case global warming scenario, where the planet’s surface warms by around 4℃, demand for cooling will quadruple by 2100 in the UK.

It’s also projected that 75% to 85% of UK households will install air conditioning in response to rising temperatures by the end of the century. This could increase the UK’s current monthly electricity consumption by up to 15% during the summer season.

Currently, the government’s decarbonisation strategy focuses on increasing the use of energy performance certificates. These certificates – which you can now find on most buildings – provide a formal rating of how energy efficient a building is, based on things like its design and whether its energy comes from renewable or non-renewable sources. The government’s target is for all houses to achieve band C and offices to achieve band B on the scale by 2035.

Energy performance certificates help show how much energy a building uses. Naturewise/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

While these targets provide a good starting point, they’re limited in how much they can achieve. Environmental standards permitted by band C fall woefully short of those permitted by band A, allowing three times band A’s non-renewable energy consumption. And ratings are based on average climate conditions, not potential future temperatures.
Changing cooling

At the moment, reducing cooling energy demand is not explicitly part of energy policies for buildings in the UK. There need to be specific regulations making buildings comfortable to live and work in without needing extra cooling devices installed.

Older buildings can be updated to increase their sustainability. Kolforn/Wikimedia

These could include adding sun protection to windows and reflective materials to the outside of buildings to stop heat accumulating inside, or creating efficient ventilation systems that allow wind to naturally flow through buildings, removing extra heat and pollutants.

It’s not hard to make buildings significantly cooler with comparatively little effort. In one example, just adding ceiling fans to a building with air conditioning installed allowed air conditioning to comfortably be dialed back 3℃, reducing that building’s energy consumption by more than 21%. If some people are still warm, they could use devices like cooling chairs.

Once the need for cooling has been reduced as much as possible, actual cooling should be achieved with the most efficient technologies. Since cooling systems (like fans) usually run on electricity – unlike current heating systems, which are mainly based on gas – there is a huge opportunity to make cooling sustainable by fuelling it with renewable energy.
We’ve identified three main ways to reduce the environmental impact of UK cooling demand.

This could either be done by making energy on site, like by using roof-mounted solar panels, or by making sure that energy used to cool buildings is being sourced as sustainably as possible. Buildings can be synced up with peaks in local renewable generation – when electricity demand is low and renewable power availability high – to make cooling even greener.

Finally, fluorinated gases (F-gases) in air-conditioning units should not just be reduced or limited, as is proposed in the heat and buildings strategy, but phased out and highly penalised to force the transition to alternative clean gases.

F-gases can leak from units and quickly exacerbate global warming up to 22,800 times more than the same amount of carbon dioxide in the short term. Net zero units that use sustainable natural refrigerant gases, such as those based on propane, ammonia or isobutane, should take centre stage in the cooling market.

We have a limited window to address the future of cooling before rising temperatures push up our cooling emissions and hamper progress towards net zero targets. The future of cooling must become a present-day priority.

Authors

Radhika Khosla
Associate Professor of Sustainable Development, University of Oxford

Jesus Lizana
Fellow in Energy and Power, University of Oxford

Disclosure statement
Jesus Lizana does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article. His research receives funding from European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. He has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Radhika Khosla does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Opinion: China is buying up the critical green-revolution minerals sector in Canada and elsewhere. Enough already

 ERIC REGULY

GLOBE AND MAIL
DECEMBER 18, 2021


The minerals China is buying are indispensable for manufacturing high-tech products such as electric motors, mobile phones, wind turbines, hard disk drives and LEDs.

Toby Melville/Reuters

A week ago, shareholders of Canada’s Neo Lithium approved the sale of a TSX Venture exchange-listed company to China’s Xijin Mining for about $960 million. The announcement received little coverage and appears to have upset almost no one in the federal government. it should have.

While Neo Lithium is hardly a household name, and the company is relatively small, its purchase should have struck a chord not only in Ottawa but among electric-car makers in Washington and North America. That’s because lithium is an essential component of the batteries that power vehicles (EVs), a suddenly growing market, and the global supply of the light, silver-white metal is driving large amounts of Chinese companies.

China has been quietly buying out lithium producers and deposits around the world for years and cobalt, another important component of car batteries, and rare earths, a group of 17 special metals essential to manufacturing high-tech products. Such as electric motors, mobile phones, wind turbines, hard disk drives and LEDs.

China’s strategy is clear and hardly a secret: It wants to lock down the raw supply and processing capacity of the metals that will power the next industrial revolution, from EVs and other clean-energy innovations to pioneering consumer electronics.

Trudeau pressures Canada to become an important mineral powerhouse

Within a year the coal investor moved from Paria to Luvi. How did this happen when the planet got hot?

A Swift Path to Economic Ruin

By all accounts, it has a strong edge in these metals, leaving North American and European companies to catch up — if they can. Recently, Western governments have realized their mistakes by not insisting on careful scrutiny of foreign takeover attempts in the industry. The ideology of the free market meant that management and shareholders got their way with minimal government or regulatory intervention.

A recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies largely concluded that the game is lost for the West, as China has made up a share in the “green” metals needed to decarbonize the world’s energy supply and transportation systems. . “No longer a simple mineral producer or component assembler, China is emerging as a high-value producer, requiring an increasing amount of minerals and metals that are needed for clean energy technology manufacturing,” the report said. considered important.” “China has become a major stakeholder in the global supply chain for critical minerals and clean energy commodities.”

The report estimates that China is home to 90 percent of the world’s solar photovoltaic manufacturing industry. In lithium-ion battery cell manufacturing, China has a global share of 80 percent, and its lithium refining capacity is estimated at 60 percent. It controls about half the value chain for wind turbines, including their blades, generators and gearboxes.

While China is a mining powerhouse on the domestic front, its domestic reserves are insufficient to feed its manufacturers. That’s why he has gone abroad to find raw material.

It has invested heavily in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is home to about two-thirds of the world’s cobalt supply, and is responsible for more than 70 percent of the cobalt refining capacity. In 2016, during the Obama administration, China Molybdenum purchased one of the world’s largest cobalt operations in the DRC, Freeport-McMoran, from an American mining giant. Four years later, in the final days of the Trump presidency, China Molybdenum bought another huge cobalt reserve from Freeport.

The shopping time was perfect. Over the years, EVs have gone from niche to mainstream products, with virtually every major automaker resting their future on them. A survey of 1,100 global auto executives by KPMG found that by 2030 more than half of their auto sales will be EVs.

China’s plan on the critical metals front has been called an “apple seed strategy”: it plants a lot of seeds in small companies and large long-term potential projects around the world, even if it recognizes that some of them are nowhere to be found. Can go The purchase of Neo Lithium by Zijin Mining, which bills itself as “The Next Major Lithium Producer”, was part of that strategy. The Canadian company’s massive lithium project is located in northwestern Argentina, near the Chilean border.

China is also lagging behind American lithium companies. But the United States is starting to see a backlash against the Chinese companies it acquires, partly because President Joe Biden is making EVs central to his climate change agenda. In November, when he visited the General Motors factory, Mr. Biden said, “You know, until now, China has been the frontrunner, but that’s about to change.”

He must have been delighted when Lithium America, which does business in New York and Toronto, won an international bidding war for Canada’s Millennial Lithium. The war began in July, when China’s Gangfeng Lithium, one of the world’s top producers, bid for a stake in Millennial. Chinese battery giant CATL joined the bid a few months later. In the end, the American company beat its Chinese rivals for the prize.

But none saved Neo Lithium from a Chinese takeover, though it’s possible the deal could still be blocked by Ottawa. All proposed acquisitions of lithium companies and others producing the metals needed for the Green Revolution, regardless of their size, should be reviewed. Only now is the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau waking up to the threat of handing over the keys to the next industrial revolution and job creation machine to China.

Mr Trudeau wants to make Canada a global leader in EV battery production and has called for a review of investment legislation to protect critical mining sectors from hostile foreign takeovers. The move that came out this week is the right thing to do – but should have come many years ago. China’s lead may be unstoppable.

What if the Doomsday Glacier Collapses?

BY ROBERT HUNZIKERFacebook

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The Thwaites “Doomsday Glacier” in West Antarctica is spooking scientists. Satellite images shown at a recent meeting December 13^th of the American Geophysical Union showed numerous large, diagonal cracks extending across the Thwaites’ floating ice wedge.

This is new information, and it’s a real shocker if only because it’s happening so quickly, much sooner than expectations. It could collapse. And, it’s big, 80 miles across with up to 4,000 feet depth with a 28-mile-wide cracking ice shelf that extends over the Amundsen Sea.

Meanwhile, and of special interest because of the underlying threat posed by Thwaites, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) COP26 meeting in November 2021 held in Glasgow was panned by scientists as one more sleepy affair, failing to come to grips with Western Civilization’s biggest challenge since the Huns trampled Rome. This outrageous failure by the world’s leaders, evidenced by weak-kneed proposals, is decidedly threatening to coastal cities throughout the world, especially with Thwaites glacier showing signs of impending collapse.

According to glaciologist Erin Pettit of Oregon State University, the weak spots on the Thwaites ice sheet are like cracks in a windshield: “One more blow and they could spider web across the entire ice shelf surface.” (Source: Crucial Antarctic Ice Shelf Could Fail Within Five Years, Scientists Say, SFGATE, December 13, 2021)

An article in NewScientist d/d December 13, 2021 discussed the AGU meeting of the satellite images of massive cracks: “Antarctica’s Thwaites glacier could break free of the continent within 10 years, which could lead to catastrophic sea level rise and potentially set off a domino effect in surrounding ice.”

Thwaites is a monster, one of the largest glaciers in the world. A 2017 Rolling Stone article, which followed the footsteps of a team of glaciologists at Thwaites glacier, summed up the situation, according to Ohio State glaciologist Ian Howat: “If there is going to be a climate catastrophe, it’s probably going to start at Thwaites… if we don’t slow the warming of the planet, it could happen within decades.” (Source: The Doomsday Glacier, Rolling Stone, May 9, 2017)

That was five years ago but after rapidly changing conditions on the ice sheet in only five years, scientists are no longer saying: “It could happen within decades.” Now the timeline has changed to: “Within a decade,” meaning by 2032. Moreover, as suggested in the aforementioned SFGATE article, there’s some speculation that it could burst wide open “sooner rather than later.”

The world is not prepared for a major disaster on a scale that spreads across the planet unimpeded and totally out of control. In that regard, it’s unfortunate that the world’s leaders have failed to take adequate measures, especially since scientists have been warning for decades of dire consequences for failure to limit and/or stop CO2 emissions. The truth of the matter is the world’s leaders have failed to protect their own people because of ignorance, greed, and tons of dark money.

Thwaites is what scientists refer to as “a threshold system.” Which means instead of melting slowly like an ice cube on a summer day, it is more like a house of cards: It’s stable until it’s pushed too far, then it collapses with a resounding thud!

What happens after the Ice Shelf collapses?

Thwaites’ ice shelf is one of the most significant buttresses against sea level rise in West Antarctica. New data provides clear evidence that warming ocean currents are eroding the eastern ice shelf from underneath. Meanwhile, a major risk is that the series of cracks spotted on the surface shatter into hundreds of icebergs. In the words of glaciologist Erin Pettit: “Suddenly the whole thing would collapse.”

A collapse of the ice shelf would not immediately impact sea level rise as the ice shelf itself already floats on the ocean surface. Its weight is already displaced in the water. But, once it collapses, the landlocked glacier containing a much larger volume of ice behind the ice shelf will be released, or sprung lose, and dramatically increase its rate of flow to the sea.

A collapse of Thwaites is no small deal. Depending upon several factors, it would trigger the onset of raised sea levels by some number of feet, and paradoxically, it would be happening in the face of IPCC guidance expecting sea levels to rise by a foot or so by 2100, assuming business as usual. That could turn out to be peanuts compared to a collapse of Thwaites if it triggers a domino effect of surrounding ice in West Antarctica, as alluded to in the aforementioned NewScientist article.

Thwaites’ significance to the normal course of life is so potentially impactful as a negative force that a team of scientists studies the glacier under the title: The International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration. According to the lead glaciologist of the team, Ted Scambos (University of Colorado, Boulder): “Things are evolving really rapidly here… It’s daunting.” He spoke on Zoom from Thwaites glacier.

Once the ice shelf collapses, it’ll lead to massive “ice cliff collapsing,” ongoing collapse of towering walls of ice directly overlooking the ocean that crumbles into the sea. And, once ice cliff collapsing starts, it will likely become a self-sustaining “runaway collapse.”

This alarming signal of impending collapse of one of the world’s largest glaciers underscores a potent political message: What do the world’s leaders, e.g., the US Congress, plan to do about the fossil fuel-derived greenhouse gas emissions from cars, trucks, trains, planes, agriculture, and industry that blanket the atmosphere and heat up the oceans to the extent that a bona fide behemoth of ice is getting much closer to splintering apart and collapsing with attendant sea level rise that will flood Miami, just for starters?

Does Build Back Better include funding for continent-wide seawalls?

And yet, the biggest unknown in this grisly affair is timing, assuming Thwaites does collapse within a decade, how soon will ice cliff collapses bring on sea level rise that drowns the world’s coastal metropolises? Nobody knows the answer to that daunting question, but it certainly appears to be forthcoming.

Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached at rlhunziker@gmail.com.

Digital World SPAC Merger Not Worth the Paper It’s Written On

DWAC stock is about 4x too expensive for my taste

2d ago · By Will Ashworth, 

InvestorPlace Contributor

The first time I wrote about Digital World Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:DWAC) and DWAC stock, I gave Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt.

 

Source: Dmitry Demidovich/ShutterStock.com

“There is no question he brings a different mindset to social media, which ought to create some real buzz with a particular segment of the American population,” I wrote on Nov. 17.

“But in the end, social media platforms run on advertising. So after TRUTH Social blows through the My Pillows of the world, the company’s sales executives will be free to do plenty of golfing during the day because they’ll have very few takers from corporate America.”

I rated it a D. That was being kind.

The Digital World SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) merger is not worth the paper it’s written. Here’s why.


DWAC Stock Is 4x Too Expensive

As far as I’m concerned, DWAC is worth no more than $10 a share; the price SPAC investors paid for their units in September when it went public, raising $250 million to go out and find a merger candidate.

I’m sure none of the investors thought it would be with The Donald’s fledgling media empire. However, now that the shares are trading around $52 — going as high as $175 in October — I’m sure the investors late to the party who bought in the $60s are praying the combination gets approved.

If it doesn’t, look out below.

I find it amazing that Digital World has a market capitalization of $1.9 billion for a company with zero revenue and not much hope for any until sometime in 2022.
It Needs to Fill In the Blanks

InvestorPlace’s Mark Hake recently discussed why the SPAC needs to file an SEC form S-4, which lays out the X’s and O’s of the deal, including how it intends to make money. That’s a genuine concern when you consider the reluctance of advertisers to associate with the Trump brand.

Now and forever.

As my colleague reminds readers, an investment in DWAC stock is more aptly described as a venture capital seed investment than an actual SPAC deal.

Here’s all that we don’t know about the Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG):

Who is the CEO? This would be none other than Congressman Devin Nunes. Trump’s media empire made the announcement on Dec. 6. Nunes, who has served the state of California since 2003, starts his new job in January 2022. As far as I know, the man has absolutely no social media experience.

Who is hosting the Truth Social media platform?


According to Hake, that would be RightForge, a global internet infrastructure company whose homepage states “Our Code Is Liberty,” an inference to its right-leaning political opinions. Further down the homepage, it says, “Built for Free Speech and a Free Speech.”

That makes me want to puke.

Not because it’s right-leaning, every person living in a democracy is free to believe what they want to think, but it just reeks of heavy-handedness.

I don’t know about you, but when I look for an internet hosting company, I’m not seeking a business that believes a “second internet is needed for American survival.”

If I have to be told by an internet infrastructure company what America needs to survive, the country’s in a lot worse shape than I imagined.

How much money does it make? It doesn’t. It’s in the same boat as a lot of biotech development companies. Only those companies are working toward developing drugs and therapies to keep Americans healthy. That, to me, is a far better example of what America needs to survive.

Who is Patrick Orlando, the head of the Digital World SPAC?

His biggest accomplishments appear to be his MIT engineering degree, a stint at Deutsche Bank as a derivatives trader, and the founder of Benessere Capital, an investment banking advisory firm. It all looks good on paper, but it doesn’t mean squat when it comes to assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a potential merger candidate. The closest Orlando gets to dirtying his hands is a stint as CFO for a wholesale sugar merchant.

However, the list of unknowns is a block long. I’m skeptical that DWAC stock is going to produce an S-4 anytime soon. As my colleague says, it needs to fill in the blanks, or it’s done like dinner.

For me, DWAC’s merger with TMTG is a prime example of why SPACs have gotten a bad reputation. It’s worth $10 max.

On the date of publication, Will Ashworth did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Will Ashworth has written about investments full-time since 2008. Publications where he’s appeared include InvestorPlace, The Motley Fool Canada, Investopedia, Kiplinger, and several others in both the U.S. and Canada. He particularly enjoys creating model portfolios that stand the test of time. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun: January 6 Was Practice

BY RALPH NADERFacebook

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“Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun…” is the title of an article in the Atlantic, just out, by Barton Gellman, a Pulitzer Prize winner and author of many groundbreaking exposés. He describes the various maneuvers that Trump-driven Republican operatives and state legislators are developing to overturn elections whose voters elected Democrats from states with Republican governors and state legislatures. Georgia fit that profile in 2020 – electing two Democratic senators in a state with a Republican legislature and governor.

Getting ready for 2024, the Georgia GOP legislature has stripped the election-certifying Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, of his authority to oversee future election certifications. The legislature has also given itself the unbridled authority to fire county election officials. With Trump howling his lies and backing his minion candidates, they created a climate that is intimidating scores of terrified election-precinct volunteers to quit.

Added to this are GOP-passed voter suppression laws and selectively drawn election districts that discriminate against minorities – both before the vote (purges, arbitrary disqualifications), during the vote (diminishing absentee voting, and narrowing dates for their delivery), and after the election in miscounting and falsely declaring fraud.

The ultimate lethal blow to democratic elections, should the GOP lose, is simply to have the partisan GOP majority legislators benefiting from demonically-drawn gerrymandered electoral districts, declare by fiat the elections a fraud, and replace the Democratic Party’s voter chosen electors with GOP chosen electors in the legislature.

Now take this as a pattern demolishing majority voters’ choice to 14 other GOP-controlled states, greased by Trumpian lies and routing money to his chosen candidate’s intent on overturning majority rule, add Fox News bullhorns and talk radio Trumpsters and you have the apparatus for fascistic takeovers. Tragically, a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices – three selected by Trump – has no problem with his usurpation of the American Republic. All this and more micro-repression is broadcast by zillions of ugly, vicious, and anonymous rants over the Internet enabled by the profiteering social media corporations like Facebook.

Anonymous, vicious, violent email and Twitter traffic is the most underreported cause of anxiety, fear, and dread undermining honest Americans working, mostly as volunteers, the machinery of local, state, and national elections, with dedicated public servants. These people are not allowed to know the names behind the anonymous cowardly, vitriol slamming against them, their families, and children.

What are the institutions – public and civic – that could roll back this fast-approaching U.S.-style fascism with the snarling visage of serial criminal and constitutional violator, Donald J. Trump?

1. First is the Congress. Democrats impeached Trump over the Ukraine extortion but left on the table eleven other impeachable counts, including those with kitchen-table impacts (See Congressional Record, December 18, 2019).

All that is going on to deal with Trump’s abuses in any focused way on Capitol Hill, controlled by Democrats, is the House’s January 6^th investigation. So far as is known, this Select Committee is NOT going to subpoena the star witnesses – Donald Trump and Mike Pence. So far, the Congress is feeble, not a Rock of Gibraltar thwarting the Trumpian dictators.

2. The federal courts? Apart from their terminal delays, it’s Trump’s Supreme Court and his nominees fill many chairs in the federal circuit courts of appeals. The federal judiciary – historically the last resort for constitutional justice – is now lost to such causes.

3. The Democratic Party? We’re still waiting for a grand strategy, with sufficient staff, to counter, at every intersection, the GOP. The Dems do moan and groan well. But where is their big-time ground game for getting out the non-voters in the swing states? Are they provoking recall campaigns of despotic GOP state legislators in GOP states having such citizen-voter power? Why aren’t they adopting the litigation arguments of Harvard Law School’s constitutional expert, Professor Larry Tribe? Where are their messages to appeal to the majority of eligible American voters who believe that the majority rules in elections? Why aren’t they urgently reminding voters of the crimes and other criminogenic behavior by the well-funded Trump and his political terrorists?

Bear in mind, the Democrats are well-funded too.

4. The Legal Profession and their Bar Associations. Aren’t they supposed to represent the rule of law, protect the integrity of elections, and insist on peaceful transitions of power? They are after all, not just private citizens; they are “officers of the court.” Forget it. There are few exceptions, but don’t expect the American Bar Association and its state bar counterparts to be the sentinels and watchdogs against sinister coup d’états under cover of delusional strongarming ideologies.

5. Well, how about the Universities, the faculties, and the students? Weren’t they the hotbeds of action against past illegal wars and violations of civil rights in the Sixties and Seventies? Sure. But that was before the Draft was eliminated, before the non-stop gazing at screens, and before the focus on identity politics absorbed the energy that fueled mobilizations about fundamental pursuits of peace, justice, and equality.

6. How about some enlightened corporate executives of influential companies? Having been given large tax reductions, sleepy law enforcement regulators, and a corporatist-minded federal judiciary, while the war contracts and taxpayer bailouts proliferate, why should they make waves to save the Republic? The union of plutocratic big business with the autocratic government is one classical definition of fascism.

7. The Mass Media. Taken together, they’ve done a much better job exposing Trumpism than has the Congress or litigation and the judiciary. However, their digging up the dirt does not come with the obvious follow-ups from their reporting and editorializing.

Covering the Ukraine impeachment, but not covering at least eleven other documented impeachable offenses, handed to them by credible voices, left them with digging hard but never hitting pay dirt. Trump has escaped all their muckraking as he has escaped all attempts by law enforcers who have their own unexplained hesitancies. If reporters do not dig intensely into just how Trump and his chief cohorts have escaped jail time and other penalties, their usual revelations of wrongdoings appear banal, eliciting “what else is new?” yawns by their public.

What’s left to trust and rely upon? Unorganized people organizing. What else! That’s what the farmers did peacefully in western Massachusetts in 1774 (See: The Revolution Came Early – 1774 – to the Berkshires) against the tyrant King George III and his Boston-based Redcoats?  By foot or by horse, they showed up together in huge numbers at key places. These farmers collectively stopped the takeover of local governments and courts by King George’s wealthier Tories. Their actions can teach us the awesome lessons of moral, democratic, and tactical grit – all the while having to deal with nature and their endangered crops.

What are our excuses?

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer and author of Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!