Conspiracy theories cause populism to rise

This has been empirically proven by a study recently carried out by researchers at the UAB and the UOC

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA (UOC)

Coinciding with the increased support for populist parties that we have witnessed all over the West, the last decade has also seen an increase in the number of populism-related studies, covering topics such as the causes and consequences of voting for parties that support these ideas, or the reasons for and possible consequences of the emergence and increasing presence of the attitudes on which they are based.

The links between conspiracy theories and populism have also aroused a great degree of interest. Carolina Galais, a researcher at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona's (UAB) Department of Political Science and Public Law, and Marc Guinjoan, an associate professor and researcher at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya's (UOC) Faculty of Law and Political Science, analysed these possible links in their study, "I want to believe: The relationship between conspiratorial beliefs and populist attitudes in Spain", which has recently been published for open access in the journal Electoral Studies.

 

Different explanations for the same problem

There are different opinions when it comes to addressing this issue. Some authors believe that there is no clear distinction between conspiracy theory trends and populism because they are very similar or reflect the same mentality. Others, on the other hand, believe that one of these two factors is the trigger and driving force for change. Guinjoan and Galais are two such authors: "In our paper, we argue and empirically prove by means of various methodological strategies – including an experiment – that changes in populist thinking can be explained by conspiracy theories. Exposure to conspiracy theories makes people more likely to believe them, which in turn promotes populist thinking, particularly Manichaean thinking."

However, this does not mean that the opposite does not happen too, as populist thinking can also promote the tendency to believe in conspiracy theories. In fact, evidence has shown that the development of such ideas can be encouraged by the discourse of certain parties. "Both routes are possible and simultaneous: it will work one way for some people and the other way for others. Our paper focuses on proving the less explored route, according to which exposure to conspiracy theories encourages populist thinking," said the authors.

 

Two online surveys and an experiment

The authors started their study by carrying out an online survey of 2,887 adults. The aim was to establish if there was a link between those people who believe in four distinct conspiracy theories – those relating to 9/11, those relating to the pharmaceutical industry, those that claim that the world is dominated by secret groups, and those making claims about alien life – and a set of populist statements such as "many members of government are shameless" or "those who don't agree with my political views are misinformed". The authors indeed found a correlation: people who embrace conspiracy theories usually have populist attitudes.

The second part of the study involved a survey-based experiment: a group of participants were chosen at random and exposed to a conspiracy theory relating to the 9/11 attacks. Afterwards, they were asked a set of questions to find out their opinion about a number of strongly populist statements. The people who had been exposed to the conspiracy theory were much more likely to agree with them than those in the control group.

 

A world of good and evil

From among the various dimensions of populism, Manichaeism was the one most strongly affected by exposure to conspiracy theories. Manichaeism views society as split between good and evil, between those who are right and those who are wrong. According to the researchers, this idea fits well with conspiracy theories, which always involve an overarching plot concealing the truth about certain situations. This is something that we should be very aware of, because Manichaeism is probably behind other worrying phenomena seen in the last few decades, such as rising polarization and support for populist and even anti-establishment parties.

In turn, the other two dimensions of populism seemed unaffected by conspiracy theories. These two dimensions are anti-elitism, which is the rejection of the individuals and institutions in power, and people-centrism, which is based on the idea that popular sovereignty is the epitome of democracy and power should be held by the people. "Although we had reasons to expect conspiratorial thinking to affect these two dimensions as well, the data showed that, at least in Spain, this isn't the case. Being exposed to conspiracy theories and believing them causes us to see the world in black and white, as a fight between good and evil. People who see things in this way will view any coalition, agreement or compromise between political parties or stakeholders as a serious betrayal, and any concession to the other side will cause outrage and disenchantment," said Guinjoan and Galais.

In Spain, the country focused on by the study, the proportion of people who support conspiracy theories is average and very similar to the figures seen in other countries. As a result, Guinjoan and Galais believe that the results of their study can be extrapolated to other countries. They explained that: "we have no reason to believe that the correlation we found in Spain won't also apply in other contexts, even if we assume they're different in nature. Having said that, we can't provide a definitive answer to this question until an empirical analysis has been carried out in another country of interest."

 

Reference article

Guinjoan, Marc; Galais, Carol (2023). I want to believe: The relationship between conspiratorial beliefs and populist attitudes in Spain. Electoral Studies, Volume 81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2022.102574

 

This UOC research supports Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 16, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

 

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Over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups work in the UOC's seven faculties, its eLearning Research programme and its two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The university also develops online learning innovations at its eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC), as well as UOC community entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer via the Hubbik platform.

Open knowledge and the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu.

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JOURNAL

Electoral Studies

DOI

10.1016/j.electstud.2022.102574 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

I want to believe: The relationship between conspiratorial beliefs and populist attitudes in Spain

Warm liquid spewing from Oregon seafloor comes from Cascadia fault, could offer clues to earthquake hazards

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

 

IMAGE: THIS SONAR IMAGE OF THE PYTHIAS OASIS SITE SHOWS BUBBLES RISING FROM THE SEAFLOOR ABOUT TWO-THIRDS OF A MILE DEEP AND 50 MILES OFF NEWPORT, OREGON. THESE BUBBLES ARE A BYPRODUCT OF A UNIQUE SITE WHERE WARM, CHEMICALLY DISTINCT FLUID GUSHES FROM THE SEAFLOOR. RESEARCHERS BELIEVE THIS FLUID COMES DIRECTLY FROM THE CASCADIA MEGATHRUST ZONE, OR PLATE BOUNDARY, AND HELPS CONTROL STRESS BUILDUP BETWEEN THE TWO PLATES. view more 

CREDIT: PHILIP ET AL./SCIENCE ADVANCES

The field of plate tectonics is not that old, and scientists continue to learn the details of earthquake-producing geologic faults. The Cascadia Subduction Zone — the eerily quiet offshore fault that threatens to unleash a magnitude-9 earthquake in the Pacific Northwest — still holds many mysteries.

A study led by the University of Washington discovered seeps of warm, chemically distinct liquid shooting up from the seafloor about 50 miles off Newport, Oregon. The paper, published Jan. 25 in Science Advances, describes the unique underwater spring the researchers named Pythia’s Oasis. Observations suggest the spring is sourced from water 2.5 miles beneath the seafloor at the plate boundary, regulating stress on the offshore fault.

The team made the discovery during a weather-related delay for a cruise aboard the RV Thomas G. Thompson. The ship’s sonar showed unexpected plumes of bubbles about three-quarters of a mile beneath the ocean’s surface. Further exploration using an underwater robot revealed the bubbles were just a minor component of warm, chemically distinct fluid gushing from the seafloor sediment.

“They explored in that direction and what they saw was not just methane bubbles, but water coming out of the seafloor like a firehose. That’s something that I’ve never seen, and to my knowledge has not been observed before,” said co-author Evan Solomon, a UW associate professor of oceanography who studies seafloor geology.

The feature was discovered by first author Brendan Philip, who did the work as a UW graduate student and now works as a White House policy advisor.

Observations from later cruises show the fluid leaving the seafloor is 9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the surrounding seawater. Calculations suggest the fluid is coming straight from the Cascadia megathrust, where temperatures are an estimated 150 to 250 degrees Celsius (300 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit).

The new seeps aren’t related to geologic activity at the nearby seafloor observatory that the cruise was heading toward, Solomon said. Instead, they occur near vertical faults that crosshatch the massive Cascadia Subduction Zone. These strike-slip faults, where sections of ocean crust and sediment slide past each other, exist because the ocean plate hits the continental plate at an angle, placing stress on the overlying continental plate.

Loss of fluid from the offshore megathrust interface through these strike-slip faults is important because it lowers the fluid pressure between the sediment particles and hence increases the friction between the oceanic and continental plates.

“The megathrust fault zone is like an air hockey table,” Solomon said. “If the fluid pressure is high, it’s like the air is turned on, meaning there’s less friction and the two plates can slip. If the fluid pressure is lower, the two plates will lock – that’s when stress can build up.”

Fluid released from the fault zone is like leaking lubricant, Solomon said. That’s bad news for earthquake hazards: Less lubricant means stress can build to create a damaging quake.

This is the first known site of its kind, Solomon said. Similar fluid seep sites may exist nearby, he added, though they are hard to detect from the ocean’s surface. A significant fluid leak off central Oregon could explain why the northern portion of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, off the coast of Washington, is believed to be more strongly locked, or coupled, than the southern section off the coast of Oregon.

“Pythias Oasis provides a rare window into processes acting deep in the seafloor, and its chemistry suggests this fluid comes from near the plate boundary,” said co-author Deborah Kelley, a UW professor of oceanography. “This suggests that the nearby faults regulate fluid pressure and megathrust slip behavior along the central Cascadia Subduction Zone.”

Solomon just returned from an expedition to monitor sub-seafloor fluids off the northeast coast of New Zealand. The Hikurangi Subduction Zone is similar to the Cascadia Subduction Zone but generates more frequent, smaller earthquakes that make it easier to study. But it has a different sub-seafloor structure meaning it’s unlikely to have fluid seeps like those discovered in the new study, Solomon said.

The research off Oregon was funded by the National Science Foundation. Other co-authors are Theresa Whorley, who did the work as a UW doctoral student and now works as an environmental consultant in Seattle; Emily Roland, a former UW faculty member now at Western Washington University; Masako Tominaga at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; and Anne Tréhu and Robert Collier at Oregon State University.

Pythias Oasis Video [VIDEO] 

The site was discovered during a 2015 Regional Cabled Array expedition cruise, with footage taken by the Canadian remotely operated vehicle ROPOS. When the researchers went to explore the bubble plumes, they discovered warm, chemically distinct fluid gushing from the seafloor about 50 miles off Newport, Oregon. Researchers believe this fluid comes directly from the Cascadia Subduction Zone and helps control stress buildup between the two plates

For more information, contact Solomon at esolomn@uw.edu or Kelley at dskelley@uw.edu. 

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.add6688 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Fluid sources and overpressures within the central Cascadia Subduction Zone revealed by a warm, high-flux seafloor seep

Study re-evaluates hazards and climate impacts of massive underwater volcanic eruptions

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

 

IMAGE: STUDYING BRONZE-AGE UNDERWATER VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IS HELPING RESEARCHERS BETTER UNDERSTAND THE SIZE, HAZARDS AND CLIMATE IMPACT OF THEIR PARENT ERUPTIONS, ACCORDING TO NEW RESEARCH FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. view more 

CREDIT: JOHAN GILCHRIST, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Material left on the seafloor by bronze-age underwater volcanic eruptions is helping researchers better understand the size, hazards and climate impact of their parent eruptions, according to new research from the University of British Columbia.

Roughly 3,600 years ago, the eruption of a semi-submerged volcano in the southern Aegean Sea devastated the island of Santorini, injecting ash, rocks and gas into the atmosphere and depositing kilometres of sediment in terraces on the seafloor. 

The catastrophic eruption, and others like it, have traditionally been associated with abrupt climate shifts. But the minor climate impacts of more recent underwater volcanic eruptions, like that of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai in 2022, have put that theory in doubt.

Now a multi-year study of ancient Santorini volcano deposits is unravelling the nature of these massive caldera-forming eruptions, and providing new clues as to how future eruptions might impact Earth’s climate.

During massive eruptions, volcanic eruption columns pass through shallow seas as jets of ash, rocks and gases that rise tens of kilometres into the atmosphere. But exactly how, and how much, of that material is then delivered to the sea surface or ground has remained unclear.

“We’ve proved the architecture of volcanic deposits in subaerial and submarine settings can be used to quantitatively constrain the dynamics of the eruption that occurred there, including the vent source and environmental conditions,” said University of British Columbia (UBC) researcher Dr. Johan Gilchrist, lead author the study published in Nature Geoscience. 

"The study also provides crucial lower bounds on eruption strength, jet heights and frequencies and sizes of the sedimentation waves linked to terraced deposits. That will help us predict the evolution of hazards during these caldera-forming eruptions and understand the surprisingly small climate impact of similar events.”

With UBC Earth and planetary scientist Dr. Mark Jellinek, Dr. Gilchrist analyzed the concentric terraces that remain around the Santorini caldera—historically called the Minoan eruption. They discovered that the terrace widths decrease with increasing distance from the vent, and slope backwards up towards the caldera wall, consistent with other terraced caldera deposits. The terraces near the caldera wall are also much broader than those found in caldera from purely submarine or subaerial eruptions.

Dr. Gilchrist had a hunch that sedimentation waves collapsing periodically around the volcanic jet spread where they impacted the water surface during shallow submarine eruptions. 

To verify the hypothesis, the researchers injected particles into shallow water layers to mimic the submarine Minoan eruption. The experiments proved the descending sedimentation waves caused by shallow water eruptions can impact and spread at the sea surface to create tsunamis and also scour the seafloor, depending on the eruption strength and water depth. 

The terraced deposits left a fingerprint outlining what happened during the eruption, the size of the sedimentation waves, and how they interacted with the water and seafloor.

“The limits this study has uncovered will guide a next generation of hydrovolcanic climate models aimed at understanding how the mass partitioning properties of eruptions like Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai—as well as the largest and most impressive volcanic phenomena in the geological record—minimize their effects on climate change,” said Dr. Jellinek.

Added Dr. Gert Lube, a volcanologist with Massey University not involved in the study: "For the case of three submarine caldera-forming eruptions, this study provides the first direct relationships between the deposit architecture and parental eruption conditions. The results of this study are intriguing and could possibly be extended to non-marine, caldera-forming and smaller eruption events.”

Submarine terraced deposits linked to periodic collapse of caldera-forming eruption columns - Nature Geoscience
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-023-01160-z

Images

Studying bronze-age underwater volcanic eruptions is helping researchers better understand the size, hazards and climate impact of their parent eruptions, according to new research from the University of British Columbia. A top view of a lab experiment simulating a large submarine eruption (Credit: Johan Gilchrist, University of British Columbia).

Video

Terraced deposits left by the eruption of semi-submerged volcanos are a fingerprint outlining what happened during the eruption, the size of sedimentation waves, and how waves interact with the water and seafloor. Dr. Johan Gilchrist discusses a new Nature Geoscience paper. (Credit Junyi Sun, University of British Columbia).

https://owncloud.eoas.ubc.ca/s/Gw7BzjA3i36PRdD/download/20230404_Final%20Cut_Yoshi%20Paper_Faculty%20of%20Science.mp4 

YouTube interview with Johan Gilchrist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxkr_h-s36c

B-Roll video of experiments mimicking submarine volcanic eruptions. (Credit: Johan Gilchrist, University of British Columbia).

https://owncloud.eoas.ubc.ca/s/Q7pL2ngpbPCk6k7 

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JOURNAL

Nature Geoscience

DOI

10.1038/s41561-023-01160-z 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Submarine terraced deposits linked to periodic collapse of caldera-forming eruption columns

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Apr-2023

Tai Chi Chuan may be effective against cognitive decline, study suggests

A beneficial therapy for older individuals with mild cognitive impairment and type 2 diabetes, study provides scientific evidence of Tai Chi Chuan delaying cognitive decline with multicenter randomized controlled trial

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FUJIAN UNIVERSITY OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), the transition period before dementia, have shown a tendency to go hand-in-hand with Type 2 diabetes (T2D); about 45% of individuals with T2D also have MCI. Tai Chi Chuan is an increasingly popular multimodal mind-body exercise consisting of slow, deliberate physical movements combined with meditative practices. Researchers from the Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine have found using 24-form simplified Tai Chi Chuan shows increased cognitive function and physical markers in those with T2D and MCI over a traditional fitness walking group over a 36-week time period, making Tai Chi Chuan a potentially viable exercise program to reduce effects of T2D and subsequently, MCI leading to dementia.

Results were published on April 6 in JAMA Network Open.

Researchers found after 36 weeks the Tai Chi Chuan group displayed more markers of improvement than the fitness walking group and control group, though notable differences between the groups were not yet seen after 24 weeks, indicating improvement in biomarkers and cognition may not occur until after this point.

This study has found that Tai Chi Chuan is is more effective than fitness walking in improving global cognition for older adults with T2D and MCI, which we think is important for the public to learn and has clinical reference significance for the healthcare staff.

All groups were given an educational seminar on managing T2D and the benefits of diet and exercise for improving the condition. Participants in each group, except the control group which had no change in lifestyle, performed either Tai Chi Chuan or fitness walking for 60 minutes each time three times a week under the instruction and supervision of a medical health professional.  

Changes were measured initially to get a baseline, and at the 24-week mark and 36-week mark using fasted blood glucose levels and other metabolic markers along with measuring Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores to determine cognitive function comparable to a global scale. MoCA is on a scale of 0-30, with a higher score indicating higher cognitive function. By the end of the 36-week study, the tai chi group had an average 3.29 point improvement in MoCA score compared to the baseline. The fitness walking group only improved by 2.32 points, with improvement slowing dramatically between the 24 and 36-week period with a 0.29 point increase compared to a -0.68 point increase in the Tai Chi Chuan group.

The ultimate goal is to establish a more scientific Tai Chi Chuan training program for the older adults with T2D and MCI and decrease the incidence of progression to dementia in this population.

Further research is needed to reach this goal. A limitation of the study is the short follow-up period after the study was over, which does not give information on the longevity of this type of treatment. Additionally, since both activity groups were also given educational seminars on the benefits of exercise, this could have introduced a bias into the study. Fortunately, researchers did report a high adherence rate to the exercises after the study concluded.

Studying the effects of Tai Chi Chuan on a larger sample size with fewer restrictions can help gain insight into the possible benefits of the exercise that may extend to other groups of people that do not meet the narrow criteria of the original study, but would benefit from interventions that promote better physical and cognitive health.

 

Yannan Chen, Jiawei Qin, Zhizhen Liu, Jia Huang, Wellin Liu, Ying Xu, Shengxiang Liang, Cong Chen, Jinjin Xie, Lidian Chen, Jing Tao of the College of Rehabilitation Medicine at Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine,  Liyuan Tao from the Research Center of Clinical Epidemiology at Peking University Third Hospital, Zhizhen Liu, Jia Huang, Wellin Liu, Ying Xu, Shengxiang Liang, Cong Chen, Jinjn Xie, Lidian Chen, Jing Tao of the National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center of Rehabilitation Medicine Technology at Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Qiang Tang of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Heilongjiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Yongguo Liu of the Knowledge and Data Engineering Laboratory of Chinese Medicine at S University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Zhuhong Chen of the Xiyuan Hospital at China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Shangjie Chen of theThe Second Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, and Jue Liu of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Peking University contributed to this research.

The Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China supported this research.

 

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College of Rehabilitation Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine was founded in July 2009, and is an esteemed institution merging traditional Chinese medicine and contemporary rehabilitation. The distinguished faculty, world-class facilities, and globally recognized Physical and Occupational Therapy programs establish this college as a leader in the field in China. The college possesses 1 key laboratory supported by Fujian province government and the Ministry of Education, 1 first-class laboratory of TCM rehabilitative therapies by State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 1 provincial key laboratory of rehabilitation on motor function, 1 laboratory for the dysfunction after stroke and 1 laboratory for the spine and orthopedics diseases. The Affiliated Hospital of Rehabilitation Medicine, delivers an extensive array of specialized services and boasts prestigious CARF accreditation. The faculty of the college collaborates with top global institutions for academic excellence.

 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.7004 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Effects of Tai Chi Chuan on Cognitive Function in Adults 60 Years or Older With Type 2 Diabetes and Mild Cognitive Impairment in China: A Randomized Clinical Trial

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Apr-2023

Breaking inert bonds: Multicomponent catalysts pave the way for green chemistry and green carbon science

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY & MATERIALS

 

IMAGE: THE RECENT PROGRESS IN MULTICOMPONENT CATALYST DESIGN FOR CO2/N2/NOX ELECTROREDUCTION IS SUMMARIZED FROM THREE MODELS. view more 

CREDIT: BUXING HAN AND XIAOFU SUN, INSTITUTE OF CHEMISTRY, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

The chemical industry has played a significant role in the development of society, but its impact on the environment has become a growing concern. Green chemistry and chemical engineering have opened up possibilities for sustainability through the transformation of renewable feedstocks into environmentally friendly chemicals. However, the inert bonds in molecules such as CO2 and N2 present challenges to their activation and conversion.

Electrochemical conversion provides a promising carbon-neutral route to upgrading green chemical sources with inert bonds to chemicals and fuels under ambient conditions. Multicomponent electrocatalysts have advantages over monocomponent catalysts, such as better stability, increased activity, and expanded reaction processes. Multicomponent electrocatalysts offer a promising solution to the challenge of sustainability in the chemical industry. A group of researchers published their review on Industrial Chemistry & Materials in Jan. 2023.

"The chemical industry has played a crucial role in society's historical evolution, but it also presents emerging environmental concerns and skyrocketing CO2 emissions," said corresponding author Buxing Han, the member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a professor at Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS). "We were motivated to explore the possibilities of green chemistry and chemical engineering to transform renewable feedstocks, such as CO2 and NOx, into environmentally friendly chemicals, including syngas, hydrocarbons, oxygenates, and ammonia."

"However, these inert bonds, such as the C=O bond in CO2, pose challenges to their activation and conversion. We wanted to explore electrochemical conversion as a universal carbon-neutral route to efficiently upgrade green chemical sources with inert bonds to chemicals and fuels under ambient conditions harnessing clean energy," said co-corresponding author Prof. Xiaofu Sun, ICCAS. "Multicomponent electrocatalysts offer advantages over monocomponent catalysts in terms of stability, activity, and reaction processes. So, we explored the use of multicomponent catalysts in the electroreduction of small molecules such as CO2, N2, and NOx. We developed three models for multicomponent catalysts: Type I, Type II, and Type III, which we discuss in our paper."

Type I involves a non-catalytic active component that can activate or protect another catalytic component. Type II involves all catalytic components providing active intermediates for electrochemical conversion. Type III involves one component providing the substrate for the other through conversion or adsorption.

"Each of these models has its own advantages and disadvantages, depending on the specific reaction and catalyst. We explored the use of these models in our paper to show their effectiveness in the electroreduction of small molecules," Han said. "And we also discussed future directions for applying multicomponent electrocatalysts in the industrial utilization of renewable chemical sources through highly efficient activation and conversion of inert bonds."

What are the key challenges that need to be addressed in the development and utilization of multicomponent electrocatalysts for the activation and conversion of renewable chemical sources? "One key challenge is improving the selectivity and efficiency of the electrocatalysts, as well as increasing their stability and activity," Sun said. "Another challenge is understanding the fundamental mechanisms of the electroreduction reactions and how they are influenced by the multicomponent catalysts."

"More importantly, there is a need for further research and development to scale up and integrate these electrochemical processes into industrial applications. Many promising research projects are undergoing in our lab." Han said.

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Industrial Chemistry & Materials is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary academic journal published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) with APCs currently waived. Icm publishes significant innovative research and major technological breakthroughs in all aspects of industrial chemistry and materials, especially the important innovation of the low-carbon chemical industry, energy, and functional materials.

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JOURNAL

Industrial Chemistry and Materials

DOI

10.1039/D2IM00056C 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Multicomponent catalyst design for CO2/N2/NOx electroreduction

Rooting out how plants control nitrogen use

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A DIAGRAM EXPLAINING THE MECHANISM AT WORK WHEN PLANTS UTILIZE NITROGENOUS FERTILIZERS. view more 

CREDIT: TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

Insights into gene and protein control systems that regulate the use of nitrogen by plant roots could help develop crops that require less nitrogenous fertilizers to produce acceptable yields. Plant biochemist Soichi Kojima and colleagues at Tohoku University discuss their findings and future plans in an article in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science.

Nitrogen is such a crucial nutrient for plants that vast quantities of nitrogen-containing fertilizers are spread on farmlands worldwide. These fertilizers mostly contain nitrogen as ammonium ions (NH4 +), the chemical form in which nitrogen is most readily taken up by plant roots. However, excess nitrogen in the soil and in drainage run-off into lakes and rivers causes serious ecological imbalances, including algal blooms that de-oxygenate water and kill fish and other aquatic life.

"One of the key goals of modern agricultural research is to develop crops that can grow healthily without relying on so much added nitrogen," says Kojima. He adds that there are also significant economic and environmental incentives behind this aim, pointing out: "Energy from vast quantities of fossil fuels is currently needed to convert nitrogen in the air into ammonium for fertilizers."

The researchers worked with the small flowering plant thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), a common species used for laboratory studies in plant science.

"Taken together, our results reveal, at the genetic level, regulatory mechanisms at work when plants utilize nitrogenous fertilizers in their roots," says Kojima.

The team's next step is to determine if the processes they have identified in Arabidopsis are shared by other plant species, especially major crop plants such as rice and other cereals. If that is confirmed it could open an avenue for plant breeders and geneticists to generate crops that might need much less fertilizer while still producing the yields needed to feed the world. Enhancing the production or activity of the amino acid-making enzymes could be the key to success.

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Plant Science

DOI

10.3389/fpls.2023.1127006 

ARTICLE TITLE

Coregulation of glutamine synthetase1;2 (GLN1;2) and NADH-dependent glutamate synthase (GLT1) gene expression in Arabidopsis roots in response to ammonium supply

Citizen scientists discover new ‘snug’ in Brunei forest, name it after retiring field centre manager

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

 

IMAGE: MICROPARMARION SALLEHI. view more 

CREDIT: PIERRE ESCOUBAS

Semislugs, or ‘snugs’ as they are affectionately known among mollusc researchers, are like the squatters of the snail world: they do carry a home on their back but it is too small to live in. Still, it offers a sort of protection, while not getting in the way of the worm-like physique of the slug. For reasons unknown, on the island of Borneo, which is shared among the countries of Brunei, Malaysia, and Indonesia, most slugs are of the semislug type. The genus Microparmarion there consists of around 10 semislug species, most of which are found in the cooler forests of the mountains. So, when citizen scientists discovered a Microparmarion in the hot lowland forest of Ulu Temburong National Park, Brunei, as part of their expedition, they were surprised.

For the past years, the scientific travel agency Taxon Expeditions, in collaboration with Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) has been organising biodiversity discovery trips for scientists, students, and laypersons to this forest. On the first trip, in 2018, during a night walk, participant Simon Berenyi, who runs an ethical pest control company in the UK, reached up to a dead leaf suspended over the trail. Everybody—the other participants, even the resident snail expert—had ducked and passed underneath this dead leaf without so much as giving it a glance. But something on its surface caught Simon’s eye. “Oi, is that a slug?” he exclaimed, and picked a slimy, well-camouflaged mollusc off it.

At the time, the team’s zoologists already suspected it was a new species – nothing like it had ever been found in this corner of the island. But that single specimen was not enough to publish its description as a new species. Over the years, successive expeditions to the same area came up with several more specimens of the same species, which made it clear that it was really a species never seen before.

On the 2022 expedition, a team composed of UBD students Nurilya Ezzwan and Izzah Hamdani and citizen scientist Harrison Wu from Virginia, USA, finished the description. Using the portable lab that Taxon Expeditions always carries with them, the team studied the animals’ shell, reproductive organs, and DNA, and prepared a paper for the open-access Biodiversity Data Journal, where it was published this week.

As usual on Taxon Expedition trips, on the last night the team voted on the scientific name for the new species. With an overwhelming majority, the ‘snug’ was named after Mr. Md Salleh Abdullah Bat, the field centre supervisor, who would retire just weeks after the team left. Mr. Salleh himself agrees that it is indeed a very fitting farewell gift.

  

A team of citizen scientists in the Brunei forest, searching for slugs and snails.

The locality where Microparmarion sallehi was found.

CREDIT

Pierre Escoubas

Research article:

Schilthuizen M, Berenyi S, Ezzwan NSMN, Hamdani NIAA, Wu H, De Antoni L, Vincenzi L, de Gier W, van Peursen ADP, Njunjić I, Delledonne M, Slik F, Grafe U, Cicuzza D (2023) A new semi-slug of the genus Microparmarion from Brunei, discovered, described and DNA-barcoded on citizen-science 'taxon expeditions' (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora, Ariophantidae). Biodiversity Data Journal 11: e101579. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.11.e101579

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JOURNAL

Biodiversity Data Journal

DOI

10.3897/BDJ.11.e101579 

ARTICLE TITLE

A new semi-slug of the genus Microparmarion from Brunei, discovered, described and DNA-barcoded on citizen-science 'taxon expeditions' (Gastropoda, Stylommatophora, Ariophantidae)

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Apr-2023