Thursday, September 19, 2024

Plastic on your plate: EWG finds adults may ingest equivalent of up to 12 shopping bags a year


WASHINGTON – Adults may ingest up to 150,000 harmful plastic particles a year – equal to eating as many as 12 shopping bags annually, according to a new Environmental Working Group analysis.

There is growing concern about the various ways that large amounts of tiny plastic particles enter the human body and the potential health risks they pose. Some studies found a link between exposure to plastic particles and an increased risk of a stroke or heart attack. These particles have also been associated with inflammation, uncontrolled cell growth, immune system disruption and other health issues.

“Imagine eating as much plastic as a shopping bag every month in your meals – that’s essentially what we could be doing without realizing it,” said Tasha Stoiber, Ph.D., co-author and a senior scientist at EWG. “Our analysis shows that adults likely consume an alarming amount of plastic particles, with serious potential health consequences. The plastics we’re swallowing pose an urgent public health risk that demands immediate attention.”

EWG’s analysis advances the debate by assessing the latest scientific research on micro and nanoplastic particles, and how much people ingest through food and beverages.

EWG scientists reviewed studies published since 2020 on plastic particles. They focused on studies that provided both lower and upper estimates of annual plastic consumption, using conservative estimates. The findings reflect this range of data, giving a clearer picture of how much plastic people may consume each year.

“Nobody wants to be eating what could equate to one bag for every month in extreme cases,” said EWG Associate Scientist and co-author Varun Subramaniam, M.S.. “The good news is that some simple lifestyle and dietary changes accessible to everyone may lower exposures to plastic particles from diet.”

At the high end, EWG’s findings suggest that people may ingest the equivalent of 12 shopping bags per year, though exposure will vary from person to person and could be as low as three bags for some. The report details how EWG calculated how many grams of plastic particles people consume from water, food and containers. Then EWG equated that to the weight of a standard grocery shopping bag to estimate the range.

These findings focus on plastic exposure through diet, with plastic cutting boards as a significant source. However, people can also ingest plastic particles through drinking water, beverages, honey, meat, seafood and vegetables, as well as from using plastic cups and takeout containers.

Plastic is one of the most widely used materials in the world, found in everything from water pipes to product packaging. As it degrades, it breaks into increasingly smaller particles, often invisible to the human eye. A significant way people are exposed to these plastic particles is through their diet, which is the focus of the analysis.

Crops can absorb micro and nanoplastics from contaminated soil and water, while seafood is continuously exposed to floating plastic particles that can bioaccumulate and cling to tissue.

Plastic packaging also plays a major role, continuously exposing foods to tiny particles during transport, storage and even as they sit on kitchen shelves for days. Even after being removed from packaging, food can be exposed to other plastic materials in the kitchen.

Due to the widespread use of plastics, people unknowingly ingest plastic particles from food, beverages, consumer products and even the air. EWG’s report provides tips for reducing exposure from well known sources, such as reducing the use of plastic containers for food storage and reheating, using stainless steel water bottles, and replacing plastic cutting boards and plastic kitchen utensils with alternatives.

For lasting change, efforts must focus on larger systemic solutions. This includes requiring companies and governments to eliminate single-use plastic, minimize the use of plastic where possible and prevent plastic waste from polluting the environment.

“Companies won’t rethink their relationship with plastics overnight, so individuals can take shorter-term, manageable steps to reduce some of their plastic exposures,” said Stoiber. “These actions can help until we achieve much broader systemic change.”

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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.
Even the heaviest particles experience the usual quantum weirdness, new experiment shows

The ATLAS detector under construction. CERN

THE CONVERSATION
Published: September 18, 2024 


One of the most surprising predictions of physics is entanglement, a phenomenon where objects can be some distance apart but still linked together. The best-known examples of entanglement involve tiny chunks of light (photons), and low energies.

At the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, the world’s largest particle accelerator, an experiment called ATLAS has just found entanglement in pairs of top quarks: the heaviest particles known to science.

The results are described in a new paper from my colleagues and me in the ATLAS collaboration, published today in Nature.
What is entanglement?

In everyday life, we think of objects as being either “separate” or “connected”. Two balls a kilometre apart are separate. Two balls joined by a piece of string are connected.


When two objects are “entangled”, there is no physical connection between them – but they are not truly separate either. You can make a measurement of the first object, and that is enough to know what the second object is doing, even before you look at it.

The two objects form a single system, even though there is nothing connecting them together. This has been shown to work with photons on opposite sides of a city.

The idea will be familiar to fans of the recent streaming series 3 Body Problem, based on Liu Cixin’s sci-fi novels. In the show, aliens have sent a tiny supercomputer to Earth, to mess with our technology and to allow them to communicate with us. Because this tiny object is entangled with a twin on the alien homeworld, the aliens can communicate with it and control it – even though it is four light-years away.

That part of the story is science fiction: entanglement doesn’t really allow you to send signals faster than light. (It seems like entanglement should allow you to do this, but according to quantum physics this isn’t possible. So far, all of our experiments are consistent with that prediction.)

But entanglement itself is real. It was first demonstrated for photons in the 1980s, in what was then a cutting-edge experiment.

Today you can buy a box from a commercial provider that will spit out entangled pairs of photons. Entanglement is one of the properties described by quantum physics, and is one of the properties that scientists and engineers are trying to exploit to create new technologies, such as quantum computing.

Since the 1980s, entanglement has also been seen with atoms, with some subatomic particles, and even with tiny objects undergoing very, very slight vibrations. These examples are all at low energies.

The new development from Geneva is that entanglement has been seen in pairs of particles called top quarks, where there are vast amounts of energy in a very small space.
So what are quarks?

Matter is made of molecules; molecules are made of atoms; and an atom is made of light particles called electrons orbiting a heavy nucleus in the centre, like the Sun in the centre of the solar system. We already knew this from experiments by about 1911.

We then learned that the nucleus is made up of protons and neutrons, and by the 1970s we discovered that protons and neutrons are made up of even smaller particles called quarks.

There are six types of quark in total: the “up” and “down” quarks that make up protons and neutrons, and then four heavier ones. The fifth quark, the “beauty” or “bottom” quark, is about four-and-a-half times heavier than a proton, and when we found it we thought it was very heavy. But the sixth and final quark, the “top”, is a monster: slightly heavier than a tungsten atom, and 184 times the mass of a proton.

No one knows why the top quark is so massive. The top quark is an object of intense study at the Large Hadron Collider, for exactly this reason. (In Sydney, where I am based, most of our work on the ATLAS experiment is focused on the top quark.)

We think the very large mass may be a clue. Maybe the top quark is so massive because the top quark feels new forces, beyond the four we already know about. Or maybe it has some other connection to “new physics”.

We know that the laws of physics, as we currently understand them, are incomplete. Studying the way the top quark behaves may show us the way to something new.
So does entanglement mean that top quarks are special?

Probably not. Quantum physics says that entanglement is common, and that all sorts of things can be entangled.

But entanglement is also fragile. Many quantum physics experiments are done at ultra-cold temperatures, to avoid “bumping” the system and disturbing it. And so, up to now, entanglement has been demonstrated in systems where scientists can set up the right conditions to make the measurements.

For technical reasons, the top quark’s very large mass makes it a good laboratory for studying entanglement. (The new ATLAS measurement would not have been possible for the other five types of quark.)

But top quark pairs won’t be the basis of a convenient new technology: you can’t pick up the Large Hadron Collider and carry it around. Nevertheless, top quarks do provide a new kind of tool to conduct experiments with, and entanglement is interesting in itself, so we’ll keep looking to see what else we find.

Author
Bruce Yabsley
Associate Professor of Physics, University of Sydney
Disclosure statement
Bruce Yabsley works for the School of Physics at the University of Sydney, and receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is a member of the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland; and the Belle II Collaboration at KEK in Tsukuba, Japan.


Invasive species are reshaping aquatic ecosystems, one lake at a time

Invasive species (including the plant species, Eurasian watermilfoil, pictured here) pose a real risk to many of Canada’s freshwater habitats. (Shutterstock)

THE CONVERSATION
Published: September 18, 2024 

Freshwater ecosystems in Canada and around the world are under siege.


Lakes, rivers, ponds and wetlands face many environmental threats, but one that is changing them most rapidly is the spread of invasive non-native species.

In recent years, there have been numerous outbreaks of invasive species in Canadian lakes. Zebra mussels continue to spread in Québec and Manitoba. Chinese mystery snails are increasingly found in lakes in eastern Canada. Eurasian watermilfoil has spread to the maritime provinces. Meanwhile, goldfish have become superabundant in small lakes and ponds throughout the country.

Far from being isolated cases, these outbreaks are symptoms of a form of global change.

Our lakes: their secrets and challenges, is a series produced by La Conversation/The Conversation.

This article is part of our series Our lakes: their secrets and challenges. This summer, The Conversation and La Conversation invite you to take a fascinating dip in our lakes. With magnifying glasses, microscopes and diving goggles, our scientists scrutinize the biodiversity of our lakes and the processes that unfold in them, and tell us about the challenges they face. Don’t miss our articles on these incredibly rich bodies of water!
Rising invasion rates

Throughout the history of life, plants and animals have slowly dispersed through natural means to different areas of the world. However, with human assistance, species are now spreading beyond their historical ranges faster, farther and in greater numbers than ever before. They are invading ecosystems at unprecedented rates.

Freshwater ecosystems are highly prone to invasion and susceptible to human disturbances. Most non-native species are introduced through human activities or infrastructure. For example, ballast water release from cargo ships delivered more than half of all non-native species known in the Great Lakes.

The spread of species into lakes is also facilitated by canals, fish stocking, bait bucket dumping, recreational boating and pet release. Invasive aquatic plants are often snagged on the propellers and trailers of recreational boats moved between lakes; the plants themselves may carry attached zebra mussels, which can live out of water for several days during overland transport on boat trailers.
Zebra mussels covering rocks on the bottom of Lake Memphremagog, Que. (Brielle Comartin), Author provided (no reuse)

The release of aquarium pets is another driver of invasion. One study estimated that more than 10,000 fish purchased from Montréal pet stores are released into lakes and rivers annually.

Consequently, rates of invasion for freshwater ecosystems are among the highest of any habitat type and continue to increase.
Highly vulnerable ecosystems

Lakes, rivers and wetlands make up about one per cent of the Earth’s surface area but hold nearly 10 per cent of all living species, including more than half of all known fish species. This diversity is being eroded faster than that of terrestrial and coastal marine ecosystems, in part because of the impacts of invasion.

Although it can be challenging to disentangle the impacts of invasion from other human stressors, in various freshwater ecosystems the primary driver of declines of freshwater fishes has been revealed to be invasive species rather than habitat alteration.

Read more: Our lakes are teeming with parasites. Why that's good...and bad

One reason that lakes are more sensitive to invasive species is because they contain life that lack adequate defences to a broad range of invaders. For example, non-native trout that have been stocked in historically fish-less lakes in western North America have caused declines in native frogs that have evolved without pressure to adapt to large aquatic predators.

Similarly, zebra mussels overgrow and smother the shells of native freshwater mussels, which have no evolutionary experience with such fouling organisms. Many native mussel populations in the lower Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system and other invaded waterbodies have been decimated by the zebra mussel.
Cascading consequences

Aquatic invasive species threaten fisheries, water quality, local economies and human health. These impacts can extend well beyond the invaded lake. When the predatory peacock bass invaded Lake Gatun (Panama) in the late 1960s, it wiped out small insect-eating fishes that played an important role in suppressing mosquito larvae. Consequently, the adult mosquito population around the lake exploded, which increased the risk of malaria to humans in the area.

The unauthorized introduction of lake trout in Yellowstone Lake in the United States in the 1990s fundamentally altered the lake’s food web. These introduced trout caused the decline of a native fish that was a key food source for grizzly bear, forcing the bears to shift their diet toward land mammals (juvenile elk), putting these species in turn under increasing pressure.

The accidental introduction of the peacock bass to Lake Gatun in Panama caused considerable ecological impacts. (Shutterstock)

The European spiny waterflea, a predator that feeds on smaller zooplankton, invaded the Great Lakes through ballast water release in the 1980s and spread to inland lakes like Lake Mendota, where it attained enormous densities. Its voracious feeding caused a massive decline in native algae-eating waterfleas. The absence of these herbivores allowed phytoplankton to bloom and degrade water quality, thereby harming the aesthetic and recreational value of Lake Mendota.

In the lower Great Lakes, the filtration activities of invasive zebra and quagga mussels caused drastic increases in water clarity, which promoted excessive growth of algae on the lake bottom. When this mass of algae decomposed at the end of summer, it reduced the oxygen concentration in the bottom of the lake creating the perfect conditions for the proliferation of botulism. The bacteria accumulated in the mussels, which allowed their toxin to be transferred to mussel predators including an invasive fish called the round goby. Thousands of fish-eating birds died after consuming toxic gobies.

These cases demonstrate the extensive impacts that invasive species can have on lakes and surrounding ecosystems.

Stemming lake invasions

The Kunming-Montréal global biodiversity framework recognized “inland waters” as a distinct realm deserving conservation targets. Target 6 of the framework calls for rates of invasion to be reduced by 50 per cent by 2030.

Meeting this target will require new policies to control poorly regulated vectors such as those linked to the pet trade. An emerging threat from the pet trade is the marbled crayfish, which can generate a new population from just one asexually reproducing individual. A wild population of the crayfish was discovered in Ontario ponds last year.

Read more: Rafts of garbage, kelp and other debris could transport alien invaders to a warming Antarctica

A significant reduction in invasion rates would lower risks of ecosystem disruption and biodiversity loss. For lakes, this can be achieved in part through responsible decisions regarding the disposal of live bait and aquarium pets, inspections of boats and fishing gear for hitchhiking organisms, and reporting newly detected non-native species.

Stakeholder education is also essential. The same citizens whose livelihoods and well-being are affected by lake invasions can play an unwitting role in spreading invasive species.

Engagement involving the public, scientists, industry and government can help reach the Kunming-Montréal target. Fortunately, the Great Lakes offers an encouraging case study as an ecosystem whose invasion rate has been reduced as a result of stakeholders working together to develop and enforce an effective regulation to control ballast water invasions.

Author
Anthony Ricciardi
Professor, Department of Biology & Bieler School of Environment, McGill University
Disclosure statement
Anthony Ricciardi receives research funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and from the Bieler School of Environment (McGill University). He is a member of the Groupe de recherche interuniversitaire en limnologie (GRIL).
Partners

‘Side job, self-employed, high-paid’: behind the AI slop flooding TikTok and Facebook
THE CONVERSATION
Published: September 18, 2024 

TikTok, Facebook and other social media platforms are being flooded with uncanny and bizarre content generated with artificial intelligence (AI), from fake videos of the US government capturing vampires to images of shrimp Jesus.

Given its outlandish nature and tenuous relationship with reality, you might think this so-called “AI slop” would quickly disappear. However, it shows no sign of abating.

In fact, our research suggests this kind of low-quality AI-generated content is becoming a lucrative venture for the people who make it, the platforms that host it, and even a growing industry of middlemen teaching others how to get in on the AI gold rush.
When generative AI meets profiteers and platforms

The short explanation for the prevalence of these baffling videos and images is that savvy creators on social media platforms have worked out how to use generative AI tools to earn a quick buck.


But the full story is more complex. Platforms have created incentive programs for content that goes viral, and a whole ecosystem of content creators has arisen using generative AI to exploit these programs.

Much of the conversation around generative AI tools focuses on how they enable ordinary people to “create”. Many earlier digital technologies have also made it easier to participate in creative activities, such as how smartphones made photography ubiquitous.

But generative AI takes this a step further, as it can generate tailored images or videos from a simple text prompt. It makes content creation more accessible – and also opens the floodgates to mass production on social media.

To take just one example: if you search “pet dance motorcycle” on TikTok, you will find hundreds of AI-generated videos of animals doing the “motorbike dance”, all animated using the same AI template. Some accounts post dozens of videos like this every day.

Creators and platforms are making money

You may wonder why such repetitive, unimaginative content can go viral on TikTok. The answer lies in the platform’s own advice to aspiring creators: if you want your videos to be promoted, you should “continuously share fresh and diverse content” that “doesn’t require a big production budget”.

You may also wonder why some platforms don’t ban AI accounts for polluting the platform’s content stream. Other platforms such as Spotify and YouTube, which police intellectual property rights more aggressively than TikTok, invest considerable resources to identify and remove AI-generated content.

TikTok’s community guidelines do ban “inaccurate, misleading, or false content that may cause significant harm”, but AI-generated content – at least for now – does not qualify as causing “significant harm”.

Instead, this kind of content has become important for platforms. Many of those “pet dance motorcycle” videos, for example, have been viewed tens of millions of times. As long as users are scrolling through videos, they are getting exposed to the ads that are the platforms’ primary source of income.

Inside the AI ‘gold rush’

There is also a growing industry of people teaching others how to make money using cheap AI content.

Take Xiaonan, a social media entrepreneur we interviewed who runs six different TikTok accounts, each with more than 100,000 followers. As he revealed in a live-streaming tutorial with more than 1,000 viewers, Xiaonan earned more than US$5,500 from TikTok in July alone.

Xiaonan also hosts an exclusive chatting group where, for a fee, he reveals his most effective AI prompts, video headlines and hashtags tailored for different platforms including YouTube and Instagram. Xiaonan also reveals tricks for standing out in the platforms’ recommendation game and avoiding platform regulations.

Xiaonan says he established his “AI side job” after being laid off by an internet company. He now works with two partners selling classes and tutorials on making AI-generated videos and other types of spam for profit.

Creators posting AI content may not be the kind of people we expect. As Xiaonan told us, many of the people taking his AI tutorial – entitled “Side job, self-employed, high-paid” – are housewives, unemployed people and college students.

“Some of us also do Uber driving or street vending,” one creator told us. AI-generated content has become the latest trend for earning side income.

The rise of AI has coincided with global unemployment trends and the growth of the gig economy in the post-pandemic era.

Making AI-generated content is more pleasant work than driving passengers or delivering food, according to a creator who is also a stay-at-home mother. It’s easy to learn, almost zero cost, and can be done any time at home with just a phone.

As Xiaonan says, his method is to use AI to “earn from productivity gap” – that is, by producing far more content than people who don’t use AI .
The global AI-generated content factory

Our observations indicate many of these creators are from non-Western countries, such as India, Vietnam and China.

As one Chinese social media influencer told us:

An effective strategy mentioned by one creator is a kind of platform arbitrage involving popular videos from Douyin, the counterpart of TikTok in mainland China.

A creator will take one of these videos, add AI-generated translation, and post the result on TikTok. Despite clunky AI dubbing and error-riddled subtitles, many of these videos garner hundreds of thousands or even millions of views.

Creators often mute the original video and add AI-generated narration, translating the content into various languages, including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian and Swedish. These creators often manage several or even dozens of accounts, targeting viewers in different countries in a strategy known as an “account matrix”.
This is only the beginning

We are only at the dawn of mainstream AI-generated content culture. We will soon face a situation in which content is effectively infinite, but human attention is still limited.

For platforms, the challenge will be balancing the engagement these AI-driven trends bring with the need to maintain trust and authenticity.

Social media platforms will soon respond. But before that, AI-generated content will continue to grow wildly – at least for a while.


Authors  
Jiaru Tang
PhD student, Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology
Patrik Wikström
Professor of Computational Communication, Queensland University of Technology
Disclosure statement
Patrik Wikström receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

KOREA

Severe decline in NICU physicians amid prolonged government-doctor conflict

기자명 Kim Eun-young
Published 2024.09.19 

Physicians who treat critically ill pediatric patients, including high-risk newborns, are rapidly declining in number amid the prolonged government-doctor conflict caused by the push to increase the medical school enrollment quota.

As of June, only seven trainee doctors were left in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), and specialists had dropped by eight persons from the previous year.

The protracted healthcare crisis has led to the loss of doctors to treat critically ill pediatric patients, including high-risk newborns. (Credit: Getty Images)

According to data submitted to Rep. Park Hee-seung of the Democratic Party of Korea by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, only seven trainee doctors were left in NICUs in June this year.

Only five of the 51 hospitals had trainee pediatricians. They were Jeju National University Hospital, with one trainee doctor, Soon Chun Hyang University Hospital Cheonan (two), Busan St. Mary's Hospital (one), Daegu Fatima Hospital (two), and Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital (one).

The number of junior doctors working at NICUs has been declining sharply due to the low birthrate and the avoidance of pediatrics. The number of junior pediatricians working at NICUs decreased by 59.8 percent over the past five years, from 122 in 2019 to 111 in 2020, 95 in 2021, 88 in 2022, and 49 in 2023.

Some hospitals have seen a decrease in the number of specialists working in NICUs this year. In June, the number of specialists fell from six to five at Chonnam National University Hospital compared to the same month last year, from four to three at Chungbuk National University Hospital, from four to two at Jeju National University Hospital, from seven to four at Soon Chun Hyang University Cheonan Hospital, and from three to two at Ilsin Christian Hospital.

In contrast, the number of critically ill pediatric patients requiring intensive care in the NICU, including low birth weight babies, premature babies, and multiple births, is on the rise.

The number of births decreased by 24 percent from 302,676 in 2019 to 230,028 last year. However, the share of high-risk newborns, such as those with low birth weight, increased from 19.2 percent of the total in 2019 to 22.9 percent in 2023, with about one in five needing intensive care.

“The ripple effects of the medical crisis caused by the Yoon Suk Yeol administration have spilled over to neonatal care. Newborn children can be at a crossroads between life and death if they don't receive proper treatment in time,” Rep. Park said. “No newborn patient should be left unattended due to a shortage of medical staff.”
AI-Generated Videos Implant False Memories, Distorting Human Recollections

Download PDF Copy
Reviewed by Joel Scanlon
Sep 18 2024

AI-altered visuals are not just reshaping memories but deeply distorting them, leaving us to question what’s real and what’s fabricated—how much can we trust our minds in an AI-driven world?


Illustration of how AI-edited media can create false memories. The top row depicts a person using AI to enhance an image or video to make it more positive. Over time, the person revisits the image without recalling that it was edited, leading to the development of a false memory of the event. The lower section depicts a situation where AI inadvertently modifies an image, eliminating bystanders from the frame as part of an automatic filter without retaining the original version (a feature already available in Google Photos and other camera apps). Later, when the individual reviews the photograph—potentially related to a crime scene—they develop a false recollection that matches the edited image rather than the actual event, leading to false witness testimony. This figure highlights the impact of AI-generated edits on human memories, demonstrating how subtle changes can distort recollection.

*Important notice: arXiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

In an article submitted to the arXiv preprint* server, researchers investigated the effect of artificial intelligence (AI)-altered visuals on the formation of false memories.

In a study with 200 participants, it was found that AI-edited images increased false recollections by 1.67 times, while AI-generated videos of these edited images amplified this effect by 2.05 times, with the videos having the strongest impact.

The paper also explored potential applications in human-computer interaction (HCI) and addressed ethical, legal, and societal concerns associated with AI-driven image manipulation.
Background

Memory-editing technologies have long been a focal point of both science fiction and cognitive psychology. The concept of altering or erasing memories has been explored in films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Inception.

However, research on false memories—recollections of events that never occurred or are distorted—has been central to psychology due to their potential impact on witness testimony, decision-making, and legal processes.

Early studies, such as Loftus and Palmer's investigation into eyewitness memory, demonstrated how subtle wording changes can alter recollections.

Similarly, the "Lost in the Mall" study revealed that entirely fabricated childhood memories could be implanted in participants. While these experiments advanced understanding, they primarily involved controlled environments with manually manipulated images.

Recent advancements in AI present a new frontier for memory alteration, especially in automating the creation and dissemination of manipulated content.

This study is among the first to provide empirical evidence on how AI-edited images and videos affect memory formation, exploring both the risks and potential therapeutic benefits of AI-assisted memory modification.

The stimulus set consisted of four distinct categories: unedited images, AI-edited images, AI-generated videos from unedited images, and AI-generated videos from AI-edited images. The edits were further divided into three subgroups based on the type of change: People, Objects, and Environment. In the questionnaire, masked versions of the images were used to facilitate recall without revealing the edited features.
Experimental Methodology

The researchers investigated the influence of AI-altered images and videos on the formation of false memories. A total of 200 participants were shown 24 original images, followed by AI-modified versions featuring changes in people, objects, or environments. Participants were then asked to recall specific details from the original images.

The study design simulated real-world scenarios where individuals encounter AI-edited media on platforms like social media, often without awareness of the alterations.


The figure illustrates how AI-generated content can potentially create false memories, particularly through AI-altered videos on social media platforms like TikTok. A recent trend on these platforms involves using AI to animate photos of deceased relatives, creating simulated interactions. These artificial experiences may blur the line between genuine memories and digitally fabricated ones, potentially affecting how people remember their loved ones.

Four experimental conditions were tested, including static AI-edited images and AI-generated videos. Statistical analysis using the Shapiro-Wilk and Kruskal-Wallis tests was employed to assess memory accuracy and confidence levels. Participants’ familiarity with AI filters was also evaluated.

Key findings indicated that exposure to AI-edited media could distort memory, with participants frequently recalling false details. AI-generated videos of AI-edited images not only led to more false memories but also increased participants’ confidence in these inaccuracies by 1.19 times.

The authors also highlighted the risk of false memories in sensitive scenarios, such as AI-edited political content, and explored the impact of AI-generated labels that indicated manipulated media.
Results of Analysis

The primary analysis revealed that AI-edited images significantly distort memory recall, leading to increased false memories and heightened confidence in these inaccuracies. Specifically, AI-edited images induced 1.67 times more false memories than unedited ones, and when these AI-edited images were converted into videos, the number of false memories rose by 2.05 times.

Confidence in false memories was similarly affected, with AI-generated videos of AI-edited images inducing the highest confidence levels. In contrast, no significant differences were observed in uncertain memories across conditions.

Further subgroup analysis based on image content (daily life, news, archival) showed a consistent increase in false memory reports across all categories when exposed to AI-edited images and videos.

Additional exploratory analysis indicated that AI manipulations of people, objects, and environments resulted in varying levels of false memories, with people-related edits producing the highest number of false memories, and environmental edits showing the largest relative increase in memory distortion.
Insights and Implications

AI-edited and generated media significantly impacted memory distortion, leading to false memories that could deeply affect recall and confidence.

Research indicated that participants exposed to AI-altered images and videos were more likely to report inaccurate memories, with environmental changes leading to a 2.2x increase in false memory reports.

Despite labeling AI-edited content, false memories persisted, highlighting the need for more proactive measures. Age influenced susceptibility, with younger individuals being more affected, but skepticism and familiarity with AI offered limited protection.

In legal contexts, AI-induced false memories could influence witness testimony, emphasizing the need for AI detection tools to ensure the integrity of evidence.

AI also posed risks in spreading misinformation by altering public media, potentially affecting societal beliefs and voter opinions.


This figure illustrates the study procedure for our experiment examining how AI-generated images and videos can induce false memories. Participants first viewed original images to establish baseline memories, then were exposed to AI-modified versions after a filler task. These modifications included changes like increased military presence or removed climate change indicators. Finally, participants’ memories of the original images were assessed through a series of questions, allowing researchers to measure the impact of AI-edited visuals on recall accuracy.

To mitigate these risks, the development of robust AI detection tools and media literacy programs is crucial.

Additionally, while AI can be used positively for therapeutic memory reframing and boosting self-esteem, ethical considerations regarding consent and privacy are essential.

Future research should address these issues, exploring long-term effects and developing strategies to counteract AI-induced distortions.
Conclusion

In conclusion, the authors demonstrated that AI-altered media significantly distorted human memory, with AI-generated videos exacerbating this effect.

Participants exposed to AI-edited images and videos were more likely to develop false memories and show high confidence in these inaccuracies, particularly with AI-generated videos.

These findings have critical implications for legal proceedings, public misinformation, and ethical AI applications.

While AI can offer therapeutic benefits, such as reframing traumatic memories, it also poses risks that necessitate stringent regulations and improved detection tools.

Future research should focus on developing interventions and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration to address the challenges of AI-induced memory distortion.

*Important notice: arXiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Journal reference:
Preliminary scientific report. Pataranutaporn, P., Archiwaranguprok, C., Samantha, C., Loftus, E., & Maes, P. (2024). Synthetic Human Memories: AI-Edited Images and Videos Can Implant False Memories and Distort Recollection, ArXiv.org.DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2409.08895, https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.08895



Written by
Soham Nandi
Soham Nandi is a technical writer based in Memari, India. His academic background is in Computer Science Engineering, specializing in Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning. He has extensive experience in Data Analytics, Machine Learning, and Python. He has worked on group projects that required the implementation of Computer Vision, Image Classification, and App Development.
Traditional infrastructure often makes flooding worse, UMich study shows

by Kate Levy and Alexis Spector
September 18, 2024
Design by Evelyn Mousigian

Ten years ago, a record-breaking rainfall hit southeast Michigan on Aug. 11, resulting in flooding across the region. The catastrophe led to highway closures, power outages, stranded drivers and property damage to more than 100,000 homes, costing $1.8 billion.

Today, University of Michigan researchers have utilized data from the disaster to conduct a study of the U.S. stormwater infrastructure in order to better prepare for future severe weather events. The study, published on Aug. 27, found that decades-old stormwater infrastructure around the United States could be worsening the impacts of flooding during severe weather events.

Researchers also found that historical infrastructure design is not efficient in mitigating flooding. Most of this infrastructure fails to account for flood connectivity — the interplay between flooding mechanisms and drainage pathways in an urban environment. The interactions between different stormwater systems and the movement of water in river channels and pipes are often unanticipated, worsening flood conditions.

Valeriy Ivanov, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University, is an author on the study and contributor to a policy brief on stormwater management. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, he said researchers recognized the need for a holistic approach to stormwater infrastructure design after examining the 2014 flood in southeast Michigan.

“When we looked at the 2014 flood, we noticed that none of the traditionally designed systems for motor infrastructure could have handled the event,” Ivanov said. “What we discovered through that research was that, essentially, there is interaction between different parts of the watershed as the flood is taking place. I think that there is a need to go away from this sort of local thinking or local design solutions. We need to have interactions in a system.”

Ivanov described floods as one of the most economically harmful kinds of natural disasters for a community.

“I think economically or impact- wise, in terms of dollar amount, I think it’s number one of all the natural hazards,” Ivanov said. “Everywhere, actually around the world — not only the United States — floods are the most impactful economic events.”

In an interview with The Daily, Joan Nassauer, professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability, said traditional infrastructure systems need to be updated because many of them were designed for smaller urban environments than they currently serve. Nassauer also said new infrastructure designs should use “green and blue infrastructure,” a term describing the network of natural and semi-natural systems that ultimately enhance the environmental quality of ecosystems.

“That infrastructure was originally designed often for a smaller urban footprint — when cities were smaller — and certainly before climate change,” Nassauer said. “The existing infrastructure needs maintenance and replacement, which is a huge project. I would emphasize that GBI should really be part of the system-wide approach, and that there are particular opportunities to do that in cities that have a higher proportion of open land, either planned open space or opportunities with vacant land.”

Rackham student Yuanqiu Feng, a doctoral student in the School for Environment and Sustainability who studies under Nassauer, explained her perspective on how to mitigate flooding with the current infrastructure in place. Feng said an effective solution would use green infrastructure, which includes landscaping vacant areas with trees to act as windbreaks, absorb atmospheric carbon and increase canopy.

“What I’ve been looking at in my research is green infrastructure — basically can we make use of all that vacant land to store some of that storm water without having to revamp the entire stormwater infrastructure system?” Feng said.

Feng said she believes refurbishing existing infrastructure is an important element of addressing the impacts of flooding.

“Can we make it such that these vacant lots are able to hold some of that stormwater and let it go into the system more slowly rather than overwhelming it in a very short period of time, which is how these problems with sewer flow happen and basement backups and so on?” Feng said.

Ivanov said in light of the study’s findings, infrastructure design must use a more holistic approach.

“We’re still using simplified solutions in design, and these solutions are not necessarily capable of taking a holistic perspective,” Ivanov said. “It is crucial to move to more sophisticated design models.”

Daily Staff Reporters Kate Levy and Alexis Spector can be reached at kjlevy@umich.edu and alexissp@umich.edu.
The memory in seeds: how plants carry environmental clues across generations

18-Sep-2024 
by Chinese Academy of Sciences


Credit: Horticulture Research

Cyclic Manhattan plots of P values for phenotypic plasticity through the whole Arabidopsis genome (composed of five chromosomes represented by distinct colors) calculated by coFunMap.

Phenotypic plasticity enables plants to adjust their physical traits in response to environmental variations, playing a vital role in their survival and adaptability. While past research has primarily focused on how these traits manifest within a single generation, the genetic basis of transgenerational inheritance remains largely unexplored. Addressing this gap is essential to fully understand how plants transmit adaptive traits from one generation to the next.


This research (DOI: 10.1093/hr/uhae172), conducted by teams from Beijing Forestry University and Tsinghua University, was published on June 25, 2024, in Horticulture Research. Utilizing a nested experimental design, the study explored how maternal light conditions influence the phenotypic traits of Arabidopsis thaliana offspring. By integrating ecological and computational methods, the researchers identified critical genetic regions associated with transgenerational phenotypic plasticity, providing fresh insights into plant adaptation mechanisms.

The study implemented a reciprocal experimental design, cultivating recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of Arabidopsis under high- and low-light conditions. Offspring were then grown in both matching and contrasting light environments. This setup allowed researchers to assess the influence of maternal conditions on traits such as leaf number and to understand how these traits are inherited across generations. The findings revealed that the genetic framework of phenotypic plasticity evolves between generations and is significantly impacted by maternal environmental experiences. Specific Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs) linked to phenotypic plasticity were identified, varying with light conditions and generational context. The study underscored a complex interplay between genetic and epigenetic factors that drive these adaptive responses.

Dr. Rongling Wu, the study’s lead author, noted, “Our research provides a detailed view of how plants inherit adaptive traits across generations through both genetic and non-genetic pathways. Recognizing the complex interactions between maternal environments and offspring traits could pave the way for enhancing plant resilience in the face of climate change.”

This research offers critical insights into plant adaptation strategies, which are invaluable for agriculture and environmental conservation. Understanding the genetic and epigenetic foundations of phenotypic plasticity can help breeders and scientists predict plant responses to future environmental challenges, guiding the development of more resilient crops. The study also enriches our understanding of evolutionary biology, revealing how organisms manage environmental variability across generations.

###

References

DOI

10.1093/hr/uhae172

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhae172

Funding information

This work is partially supported by special grants of Beijing Forestry University.

About Horticulture Research

Horticulture Research is an open access journal of Nanjing Agricultural University and ranked number one in the Horticulture category of the Journal Citation Reports ™ from Clarivate, 2022. The journal is committed to publishing original research articles, reviews, perspectives, comments, correspondence articles and letters to the editor related to all major horticultural plants and disciplines, including biotechnology, breeding, cellular and molecular biology, evolution, genetics, inter-species interactions, physiology, and the origination and domestication of crops.

 

Rutgers Receives $3.2 Million from NIH to Study Micronanoplastics in the Digestive System


Researchers will look at the potential health hazards of ingested plastic particles on the intestine and other organs and tissues
18-Sep-2024 2:05 PM EDTby Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Newswise — Rutgers received a $3.2 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the impact of micronanoplastics on the digestive system.

The byproduct of environmental and industrial processes, micro- and nano-scale plastic particles and fibers increasingly contaminate the environment. These plastics — now found in our food, air and water — are a potential health hazard.

“This is a concern of epic proportions, especially because we know so little about micronanoplastics’ impact on our health,” said Philip Demokritou, the Henry Rutgers Chair and Professor of Nanoscience and Environmental Bioengineering at Rutgers Health and principal investigator of the project.

With little existing research on micronanoplastics, there is a need for data based on environmentally relevant micronanoplastics and their potential health implications. This five-year NIH-funded project aims to assess the micronanoplastics impact within the human digestive system and other organs, especially for susceptible populations with inflammatory bowel diseases.

Researchers will look at the potential health hazards of ingested micronanoplastics on the intestine and other organs and tissues as well the cellular process behind this. The research also will examine the roles that plastic type and chemistry (e.g., polyethylene, polystyrene, polyethylene terephthalate), size and other properties play in their uptake and toxicity. They also will look at the impact of micronanoplastics on intestinal inflammation.

“We hope that the results of our work will help risk assessors and policy makers assess the risks of micronanoplastics ingestion, provide the basis and rationale for regulatory action and will open new areas of research in toxicology and epidemiology for this emerging and novel pollutant,” said Demokritou, who is the director of the division of environmental health biosciences at the Environmental Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI) and a professor in the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Rutgers School of Engineering and the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Justice at the Rutgers School of Public Health and leader of the project.

The grant will support ongoing research activities in micronanoplastics at the EOHSI Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Center, which studies how environmental and engineered nanoparticles interact with biological and environmental systems. It also will expand collaborations across Rutgers and the Rutgers Department of Genetics with Michael Verzi, the Duncan and Nancy MacMillan Chair in Cancer Genomics, a co-principal investigator of the study, and an expert on metabolic diseases in the gastrointestinal tract.

The harder I work, the luckier I get? What coaches, athletes and fans need to understand about luck in sport


lucky
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

In the world of elite sport, where everything is planned down to the last minute detail, surprisingly few are prepared to acknowledge the inherent role of luck in the outcomes of sporting contests.

It is surprising because luck is a factor that has the potential to affect the outcomes of competition. It can be the difference between a premiership and an early finals exit, or a gold medal and no medal at all.

It is also surprising because the notion of luck is ingrained in so many areas of sport and society—through common actions (fingers crossed, or wearing "lucky socks"), sayings (wishing competitors "good luck"), and religious connections (prayers to various gods of luck or fortune).

Even if athletes, coaches and fans do not want to outwardly acknowledge it, luck is actually part of what makes sport so compelling.

While stronger competitors and teams tend to win, weaker teams or athletes know they still have a chance to snatch victory based on something more than skill alone.

The harder I work, the luckier I get

Presumably, part of the reason that coaches and athletes in particular do not want to outwardly acknowledge the role of luck is that they spend most of their waking hours reducing the possible influence of luck (and increasing the array of things that are perceived as being under their control).

This matches well with the variously-attributed maxim "the harder I work, the luckier I get."

But it's not that simple.

Take injuries for example. Coaches and sport scientists use a variety of training and recovery activities to prepare athletes for the rigors of competition.

But as  push their bodies to the limits, they are more susceptible to injuries.

The timing and severity of injuries can drastically alter careers and seasons.

A key player getting injured before a crucial match can shift the balance of power—cricket fans will never forget Australian bowler Glenn McGrath rolling his ankle on a stray cricket ball in a pre-game warmup, which affected the outcome of the 2005 Ashes series.

Similarly, avoiding injuries can be seen as fortunate for those who manage to stay fit. Take former NRL champion Cameron Smith, the only player to have surpassed the 400-game milestone.

Life's great lottery: Birth

Despite often having similar training regimes, some athletes in the same sports seem to be more or less lucky than their compatriots.

This can be partly attributed to the luck involved in life's great lottery—birth.

There is great evidence supporting the advantages in sport that come with having lucky genetics.

Think about Simone Biles' height and power, having a lucky birth date (known as the relative age effect), birthplace (the birthplace effect), and other fortunate circumstances (socio-economic status or sibling order).

External unpredictability

Luck also exists beyond the individual and their circumstances.

For example, unpredictability in physical environments, such as rain delaying matches, wind affecting ball trajectories and extreme temperatures impacting player performance.

Athletes and teams often have little control over these conditions, and a result can sometimes come down to a matter of luck—a ball bouncing one way and not the other, or a gust of wind for one player and not their rival.

The postponement of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games is a terrific example of this.

An injured or young competitor who was able to make the 2021 event may have considered the delay a fortunate circumstance. But an older athlete who didn't have the capacity to stretch out their career for an additional year may have been very unlucky.

Getting 'lady luck' on your side

In elite sports, the difference in skill between contestants can be razor thin—it is the best of the best.

The subsequent suggestion is that luck therefore has the potential to play an increasingly important role.

This significant and under-appreciated role of luck poses a number of challenges for coaches.

Because it's almost impossible for an athlete to train to develop luck like they develop a skill or physical attribute, coaches tend to focus on:

Foregrounding process and backgrounding outcome: The importance of outcomes in elite sport is unquestionable.

However, quality coaches emphasize the processes that are most likely to lead to a positive outcome, rather than focusing on the outcome itself.

Even more specifically, the best coaches concentrate their attention (and that of their players) on the things they have most influence over, such as skills, preparation, and decision-making, rather than things they do not (like a coin toss, random bounces and deflections, poorly timed injuries or equipment failures).

Training and recovery: Coaches plan for high level training that accounts for as many performance factors as possible, including biophysical (physical capacities of the athlete) and psychosocial (knowing themselves and working with others).

They also try to fully leverage certain inherent forms of luck such as capitalizing on genetics through talent identification and training.

Avoiding overtraining is another approach that coaches take to reduce the chances of bad luck through injuries.

Train for unpredictability: As well as generally emphasizing quality repetitions for their athletes in training, contemporary coaches also regularly introduce variable practices, scenario-based disruptions, and natural variations in the physical environment.

This not only provides players with opportunities to practice their core skills, it gives them opportunities to practice responding in positive ways to good luck ("seize the moment") and bad luck (refocusing after freak occurrences).

Balancing planning with instinct: Coaches work with their athletes to develop comprehensive game plans and a variety of contingency plans for competition.

However, coaches will also often support their athletes to deviate from these established plans to "roll the dice" when appropriate. This typically involves coaches giving their players license to take calculated risks (such as taking a long-range shot from a difficult angle in soccer) when certain circumstances arise.

There's no escaping luck in sports

While skill and preparation are indispensable, the role of luck in elite sports is undeniable.

From Steven Bradbury's serendipity at the 2002 Winter Olympics to St Kilda's unfavorable bounce at the end of the drawn AFL grand final in 2010, luck has almost certainly impacted all athletes at some stage of their careers.

Luck adds an element of unpredictability, makes sports thrilling and, at times, heartbreakingly capricious.

Provided by The Conversation 

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


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