Opinion: Nirvana 'Nevermind' cover isn't child sex abuse

Was baby Spencer Elden sexually exploited for the famous album cover? DW's Silke Wünsch doesn't think so — but that doesn't make it right today.

The cover of Nirvana's 'Nevermind' album featured Spencer Elden

Thirty years. That's how long Spencer Elden said he put up with being associated with the naked swimming baby on the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind album.

A lot has changed in 30 years. For one, child abuse has been recognized around the world as a problem that needs to be taken seriously.

No one today would ever think of putting a naked baby on show like that. But the same sensitivity wasn't there 30 years ago. And so, Elden's father allowed his then 4-month-old baby to be photographed in water, resulting in one of the most famous album covers in music history.

No one thought anything of it

The members of Nirvana — then a relatively unknown band — had themselves tried to pose underwater, but the photo with the baby swimming after a dollar bill convinced them all: the band, the label, the photographer. Barely anyone was bothered by the fact that the baby's penis was visible in the photo.

Still, the record label suggested covering up the baby's genitals. But front man Kurt Cobain supposedly was only ready to agree to this if they covered the area with a sticker that read, "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile."

But here's the crux of the matter: I would never allege that any of those involved at the time felt feelings of sexual arousal in any form when they looked at the image.

When 'Nevermind' was released in 1991, Nirvana and front man Kurt Cobain (c) were hardly known

Children can't defend themselves

Today, everything is different. There's intense debate about if and how one should publish pictures of their children on Facebook. Will my son one day take me to task for the photo of him where he's grinning so sweetly while sitting on the potty? Will my daughter, who can be seen as a topless 8-year-old splashing around the lake, later accuse me of letting her childish appearance be a way for my Facebook friends to get excited?

Children naturally have the right to complain, since when they're young, they can't object to being photographed, and they can't tell their parents, "I don't want you to post that photo of me!"

DW's Silke Wünsch

Baby Spencer Elden also couldn't object. He's doing it now. Of course this raises the question of why now. After all, over the past years Elden has accepted payment in exchange for letting himself be photographed — clothed — in the album cover pose. It would seem that Elden's lawsuit is actually a way to go after money — just like on the Nevermind cover. The internet is buzzing over this question.

However, the real question here is a different one, one that wasn't posed 30 years ago: Are you allowed to photograph naked children and then publish these photos? No — for today we know that many among us ogle such photos in inappropriate ways.

Greater sensitivity is still needed

If Elden is now asking for damages, then he has every right to do so. The best thing about what's going on right now is that a 30-year-old album cover has provided a new reason to talk about the sexual exploitation of children and to increase people's sensitivity on the topic. With near daily news reports about child abuse, trafficking, nonconsensual explicit material and the victims of such heinous exploitation, it's a discussion that's impossible to have too often.

This article was translated from the German by Cristina Burack.

FIVE ALBUM COVERS THAT HAVE BECOME ICONIC
Prince - Lovesexy
Prince's 1988 album took on God and spirituality, bringing with it three hits: "Alphabet St.," "Glam Slam," and "I Wish You Heaven." The cover photo by Jean Baptiste Mondino was retouched so much that it looks like a painting. Some music shops refused to stock the album because of the nudity on the cover. Prince commented that those who see the          picture as sick are sick themselves.   12345

POSTFORDISM PLAYS CATCH UP

Czech auto industry revving up for

 e-mobility transition

Many cheered the European Commission's recent plan for all new cars in the bloc to be emissions-free by 2035. But not the Czech prime minister. He thinks the scheme could harm the domestic industry.



Czech carmakers have cautiously embarked on a path toward e-mobility

"We have repeatedly said that the [EU's climate] goals must be set in a way not to harm our industry," Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis grumbled recently in the presence of reporters. "It must be done reasonably, not based on ideology."

Babis's complaint that the target is "extremely ambitious" is not surprising. While rarely coming up with his own ideas, the populist billionaire seldom misses a chance to claim to Czech voters he's pushing Brussels for a better deal for their country and its less privileged economy.

The transition to e-mobility is a particular issue. The auto sector is a lynchpin for the Czech economy, accounting for 26% of all industrial output and more than 9% of GDP.

Not only does the EU's Fit 55 plan demand a huge shift for a key industry, but it cuts to the very heart of the Czech economic model adopted when communism fell. Based on cheap labor it has long been exploited by foreign investors, and remains in play today in many sectors, including autos.

Although the challenge is huge, in the face of the existential threat posed by the transition there's no choice but to institute revolutionary change, industry figures insist.

Watch video10:30 All-electric SUV from Skoda

Top secret

It's not the carmakers themselves at risk. These giant, well-resourced companies have long been preparing. Studies predict that the effect on employment at the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) as they're known will be moderate.

Czechia hosts factories for three: Skoda, Hyundai and Toyota-Peugeot-Citroen (TPCA). All of them have launched at least some EV production.

At the same time, even at these plants ambition still lags a little. Skoda hopes for over 50% of European sales to be full-electric models by 2030. Its parent, Germany's Volkswagen, is aiming for over 70%.

Still, having a domestic marque offers extra security for the Czech industry compared with some regional rivals. Skoda says it's working to develop its home country into "an electromobility hub" and plans to make all three of its Czech plants EV production centers over the next decade.

Yet few know the details of the carmakers' strategies. "The OEM's plans are top secret," Vojtech Severyn at the Association of the Czech Automotive Industry told DW.

The major suppliers are among the few that are in the loop. The Czech operation of Vitesco Technologies, the drivetrain subsidiary of German giant Continental, says that thanks to this its strategy is now "fully focused on electrified mobility" and it's more than ready for the transition.

"[The OEMs] are transparent with their strategy and we are working closely with them to meet their demands," spokesman Lubomir Tucek told DW.

But the situation is not so clear across the board. Many major suppliers are owned by foreign investors, meaning these strategic decisions are being made abroad.

"The Czech-based subsidiaries are now trying to persuade their international HQs that they can handle EV projects," said Karolina Konicarova at state investment agency Czech Invest.

Further down the supply chain, some smaller suppliers face even more basic challenges.

"The transition is not existential for the OEMs or tier-1 suppliers," said Severyn, "but it's a big issue for smaller companies. They have no choice. They must invest and make big changes."

Yet it can be hard to make those changes when the old ways are still working. For the meantime, it's estimated that just 10% of the cars rolling off Czech production lines are EVs.

"The issue is that the likely impact is slow progress, but then suddenly becoming a cliff," warned Petr Knap, lead partner for the automotive sector at consultancy EY.

Companies that haven't moved past the old economic model based on cheap labor performing basic tasks are particularly at risk he says.

"For some, labor arbitrage is still their main advantage. You have to worry about these groups," said Knap. "They will need to shift east or undergo brutal automation. The denial stage is over."

At the same time, the bulk of the Czech sector was better set for diversification, he suggested. "With courageous leadership they can adjust, although investment capital is a challenge for many."

Domestic and foreign carmakers in the Czech Republic are hoping to get e-mobility off the ground quickly

Crisis and opportunity

The challenge of the transition should be seen as an opportunity as well as a potential crisis, insist several industry voices. Upgrading the Czech sector should lead to a greater share of research and development and other high-added value services, and help modernize the economic model as a whole.

"We're at the start of the race," said Severyn. "The EV market is still in its infancy so we can still take some chances. Many countries are still dealing with the pandemic, so it's all up for grabs."

For that to happen, the government needs to get on board, but despite Babis's apparent concern over the EU deadline, the industry is frustrated with what it's seen so far.

"We need concrete government action," Knap demanded. "The industry has been telling them over the past two years that the train has left the station. They've started to respond a little but we still don't have whole-hearted support."

The government's main program is Transportation 2020+. It will put €50 million ($59 million) into supporting innovation in sustainable transport by 2026, with cooperation between companies and Czechia's strong technical academic sector seen as key.

Further than that, significant direct financial support is lacking. Industry figures also rue that there's little effort being made to encourage a skeptical public to start buying EVs, with support for purchases and charging infrastructure limited.

That leaves an industry keenly in need of knowledge, technology and investment largely reliant on the EU. Under Brussels's auspices, Czechia has committed to spend close to €1.2 billion on sustainable transport and clean mobility.

Hopes are also being raised by a government plan to build a €2 billion gigafactory to produce batteries. The project is intended to exploit the fact that the country holds large lithium reserves, and is reportedly under discussion with Volkswagen.

Industry figures hail the plan for finally sending a "strong signal" that Czechia is keen to play a significant role in the transition. But they warn it will flop unless the government ensures an ecosystem of suppliers and R&D grows up around it.

OUTSOURCED ALL THEIR NURSES

Philippines: Nurses threaten mass resignation amid COVID surge

Saying they are overworked and underpaid, health care workers across the Philippines are threatening to walk off the job unless they receive benefits promised by the government.


A nursing shortage in the Philippines has stretched many hospitals to the limit

The Philippines is currently experiencing record-high COVID caseloads driven by the highly transmissible delta variant. As hospitals fill up, overworked nurses have staged protests and are threatening mass resignations if government benefits are not paid by September 1.

At the start of the pandemic last year, the Philippines' government set aside special risk allowances for health care workers, which included hazard pay and money for accommodation and transportation.

However, health care worker unions allege that the promised benefits and compensation have not been paid out.

"Health care workers are tired and extremely demoralized. Many have already resigned and many more want to," said Jao Clumia, union president of St. Luke's Medical Center, one of the largest private hospitals in Manila.

The dispute over payouts stems from a stipulation that only health care workers directly handling COVID patients are entitled to receive benefits. However, health care workers claim that this provision is both unfair and unrealistic.

Could hospitals close in the Philippines?

"When you work in a hospital during a pandemic like COVID-19, you are exposed to the virus. It's as if you have one foot in your grave already," Clumia told DW. "Our hospitals will close if we don't address this issue," he added.

Watch video 02:31Delta variant surges in Philippines

The Philippines Department of Health has pleaded with health care worker unions to reconsider plans for mass resignation.

"We understand their points, but we want to explain to them that there are policies that we have to follow," Department of Health undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a press conference.

Takeshi Kasai, the World Health Association (WHO) Western Pacific Regional Director, called on the government to ensure that health care workers receive adequate support.

According to Department of Health data, over 22,000 COVID cases were reported in the Philippines on August 30. The seven-day moving average of new cases is currently more than 16,000. Hospital beds are also filling up around the country.
Surge comes amid hospital staff shortage

The Philippines is one of the world's top sources for nurses, however, many hospitals and health care facilities in the country are consistently understaffed.

According to labor unions, low wages are a major deterrent. Many nurses say they would prefer to work abroad or in alternative industries that offer more competitive salaries.

"There has always been a chronic understaffing of nurses. This pandemic has just made it worse. Nurses are severely overwhelmed," said Maristela Abenojar, national president of Filipino Nurses United (FNU), a national labor association for nurses.

She said the FNU has received reports of certain hospitals with a shortage of 100 or more nurses.

"Some nurses are working 12-hour shifts and caring for as many as 20 patients. They forgo meals and bathroom breaks to save on PPEs. All of this is putting them at increased risk of COVID infection and adding to their fears of catching the disease. Their working conditions are no longer humane," Abenojar told DW.

"The government has the funds but health worker benefits and salaries are not prioritized by the health department," Abenojar added.

Watch video 02:09 Philippines: Rumors send thousands rushing to be vaccinated

Last week, the Philippine General Hospital, the country's largest public hospital, announced that it would close its emergency room as it was unable to take in additional patients.

Long-term nursing solutions needed

Cristy Donguines, a nurse at the Jose Rodriguez government hospital in Manila, told DW that her hospital is bracing to take in a surge of patients that can no longer be accommodated at other, overflowing hospitals.

Amid the crunch, workers like Donguines say that having to resort to protests and mass resignations for government-promised benefits is both frustrating and insulting.

"Does the government think we want to be out on the streets protesting? We would rather be at our hospitals, caring for our patients," she said.

"We are needed more there, but if we don't do this, we will not be heard. The government is playing deaf and blind to our pleas. The government should be ashamed of itself," said Donguines, who also heads a local chapter of the Alliance of Health Workers.

As the pandemic wears on, nurses are calling for long-term solutions that will value health care workers as the backbone of the health care industry.

“We will not stop protesting until we see health care reforms that are badly needed. That includes a just living wage for nurses and continued provision of hazard pay during the pandemic. We're not asking for too much. This is what was promised to us by law," said Donguines.

Taliban say US defeat 'big lesson' for other invaders

While declaring victory after the US military left Kabul, the Taliban said they wanted good relations with the US and the rest of the world.


The Taliban said they would welcome good diplomatic relations with the world

The Taliban celebrated the departure of Western "occupiers" on Tuesday, hours after the last US plane left Afghanistan, but also said they wanted to have good diplomatic relations with the United States and the rest of the world.

The final departure of the US evacuation marked the end of 20 years of military intervention.

"Congratulations to Afghanistan ... this victory belongs to us all," said Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid at a press conference held from the Kabul airport runway.

"We want to have good relations with the US and the world. We welcome good diplomatic relations with them all," he added.
'Big lesson for other invaders'

The Taliban now hold full control of Hamid Karzai International, and their vehicles raced back and forth along its sole runway on the northern military side of the airfield.

Taliban leaders later symbolically walked across the runway.

American defeat in Afghanistan is a "big lesson for other invaders and for our future generation," Mujahid said. "It is also a lesson for the world."

Taliban leaders walked across the runway at the Kabul airport, flanked by fighters of the group's elite Badri unit

Mohammad Naeem, a spokesperson for the Taliban's political office in Qatar, expressed a similar sentiment in a video posted online.

"Thank God all the occupiers have left our country completely," he said early Tuesday.

"This victory was given to us by God. It was due to 20 years of sacrifice by the mujahedeen and its leaders. Many mujahedeen sacrificed their lives," Naeem said, referring to Taliban fighters.
A 'moment of decision & opportunity'

Many Afghans dread living under the Taliban regime, which ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.

Their previous reign was characterized by poor treatment of women and girls, widespread human rights abuses, and a brutal justice system.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US special envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation, said that Afghans faced "a moment of decision and opportunity" after the withdrawal of Western forces.

"Their country's future is in their hands. They will choose their path in full sovereignty," he said on Twitter. "This is the chance to bring their war to an end as well."

The Kabul airport had seen days of chaos and deaths after the Taliban took control of the capital city, including the presidential palace, on August 15.

Thousands of Afghans rushed to the airport hoping to escape the country. At one point, some of them fell to their deaths after desperately clinging onto the side of a US cargo jet as it took off.

adi/dj (AFP, AP)

Amid Taliban takeover, climate change could drive conflict

The past 30 years have brought flood, drought and hunger to Afghanistan. With the Taliban sweeping to power, many within and outside of the country wonder how to deal with looming climate disaster.

    

Worsening climate change could increase conflict of scarce arable land and resources in Afghanistan

Forty years of conflict have left many Afghans on the edge of survival — and highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Not only is the landlocked country already becoming drier and drier, but it's also just been thrown into more political uncertainty by the Taliban takeover.Experts say it's a recipe for disaster.

"You have a country that is one of the most vulnerable to climate change and any implications as a result of that and without the needed capacities, you're looking at a human catastrophe," said Basir Feda, head of the Afghanistan unit at the Berlin-based Berghof Foundation, an NGO that promotes peacebuilding.

The arid state has seen a mean rise in temperature of 1.8 degrees Celsius (3.24 Fahrenheit) since the middle of the 20th century, compared to a global average of 0.82 C. Droughts, already more frequent, are likely to become an annual occurrence by 2030.

Drought is becoming more frequent in landlocked Afghanistan

According to the United Nations, a severe drought caused more internal displacement between 2017 and 2018 than conflict. And now the country is in the midst of another prolonged dry period, which the UN's World Food Programme has warned could leave millions of Afghans at risk of starvation.

The agency said it needs $200 million (€170 million) a year to continue working in Afghanistan — its staff members are allowed to continue humanitarian operations in the wake of the Taliban's takeover.

Oli Brown, an associate fellow at London-based policy think tank Chatham House, told DW that food must get to Afghanistan's mountainous areas before winter weather makes some places unreachable.

"The big challenge in the short term is feeding people in Afghanistan," said Brown. Nearly half of the country's 30 million people live below the poverty line and a third is dealing with severe food insecurity.

"Obviously, the ability of the international community to do that now is reliant on decisions that the Taliban government takes — are they going to create the conditions in which people can eat?"

An Afghan refugee washes her clothes at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs). Climate change is expected to increase the number of IDPs

Climate change, poverty and conflict intertwined

Creating those conditions will require the Taliban to address climate change in the long term, according to Brown.

"If you look at some of the predictions for Afghanistan in the future, this (climate change) is going to be something that will be a constraint ... A Taliban government is going to have to deal with it if they want to see a more peaceful and a more secure Afghanistan, which can feed its people," he said.

Even under one of the UN's more optimistic scenarios for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Afghanistan will likely continue to warm by at least a further 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050. That level of warming would still further decrease the amount of snow available to feeds rivers, making water even scarcer.

Frequent droughts have made life difficult for Afghan farmers

While drought will be even likelier, so too will extreme rainfall over short periods, increasing the chances of deadly landslides in the mountainous country. And years of war have robbed Afghanistan of the ability to build capacity to adapt and protect its population. 

"War is development in reverse," said Brown. That means that 40 years of conflict have, for instance, also meant a chronic underinvestment in water infrastructure like dams and irrigation.

Farmers used to rely on ancient irrigation systems known as "karez," which avoided evaporation by transporting water underground from the mountains. Maintained by villages, some are still functional, but the vast majority were destroyed or fell into disrepair during the decades of war.

More than 80% of the population is involved in agriculture and because so many are reliant on rain-fed farming and livestock raising, they are particularly vulnerable to climate shocks, added Brown. That, in turn, makes people more likely to fall into severe poverty, which increases the likelihood of displacement, according to Action Aid, an international NGO working on poverty.

Afghanistan already has nearly 4 million internally displaced people. And a recent Action Aid analysis on climate change and gender found a further 5 million could be forced to migrate due to climate disasters by 2050 even if governments around the world act to significantly cut emissions. 

Climate change sets the stage for increased conflict over ever-decreasing resources like land and water. Evidence suggests it's pushing more farmers to ditch food crops like wheat in favor of drought-resistant poppies used in the opium trade. Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer in the opium industry, worth between $4.1 billion and $6.6 billion in 2017. Revenues from the trade are used to finance the Taliban and other armed groups. 

"The whole question is how do you deal with poverty which comes as a result of climate change?" said Basir Feda of the Berghof Foundation. "There's a direct link that exists between conflict and poverty. And climate change can really function as a catalyst there — and a pretty significant one at that."

Farmers are turning to growing opium poppies as water dries up

Working with the Taliban?

Abdul Qahar Balkhi, a member of the Taliban's Cultural Commission, told US magazine Newsweek it was seeking global recognition of what it is calling an Islamic Emirate, and said climate change is a challenge that can only be overcome with the collective efforts of all. 

Thus far only a few countries are willing to engage with the Taliban. The question for the international community is how much they should engage with the group. 

"They will not be able to run the country without assistance, they must know this," said Jost Pachaly, who heads the Asia division at the Heinrich Böll Foundation, a policy reform think tank based in Germany. "It's a very critical question for the international community: how to deal with the situation — not to support the Taliban but also not let the Afghan people suffer … This is a humanitarian disaster."

Women are often hit hardest by climate change impacts

Women, whose rights are already being curbed under Taliban rule, will likely face an even more uncertain future in the context of climate change. Internationally women are hardest hit by the impacts of global heating, as they are often responsible for collecting water and providing meals.

In Afghanistan, particularly in rural parts of the country, women are further constrained, because they are expected to confine their social and economic lives to the home, or as close to it as possible and are totally financially dependent on men to work and support their families, says Basir Feda.

"This puts women in a far more vulnerable situation, because not only do they play an important role in putting food on the table, they also do it in an environment where their capabilities are severely limited."

While organizations like the World Bank have suspended aid to the country as they wait to see what the Taliban does, international aid and humanitarian organizations want to continue working in the country.

Feda says it is on the "Taliban's shoulders" to keeps its promises and create an inclusive government acceptable to all Afghans so the country can work towards peace and create climate resiliency. "I will never believe that all is lost in Afghanistan."

Why Big Oil loves to talk about your carbon footprint

  

Nawaz: McGill should lead by example with mandatory COVID-19 vaccination

"The requirement to attend a university lecture on infectious disease should be at least as stringent as the requirement to, say, play bingo."

Author of the article: Saleema Nawaz • Special to Montreal Gazette
Publishing date:Aug 30, 2021 • 

While the idea of McGill as the Harvard of the North makes for a fun novelty shirt, the comparison only goes so far. 

PHOTO BY ALLEN MCINNIS /Montreal Gazette

For more than a dozen years, I worked at McGill University. Every fall, a group of enterprising students would set up a table outside the Roddick Gates on Sherbrooke St., hawking T-shirts that read “Harvard: America’s McGill.” Whoever the target audience was for these shirts — I always imagined American students and their parents, with a little extra cash in their wallets after opting for the more affordable Canadian university system — it seemed to be a profitable business model.

But while the idea of McGill as the Harvard of the North makes for a fun novelty shirt, the comparison only goes so far. For one thing, Harvard University is requiring all students to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 this fall. So are Yale, Columbia and the University of Toronto — not to mention the University of Ottawa, the University of New Brunswick and the University of Manitoba, among many other Canadian and American universities.

If McGill is truly a world-class institution for higher education, shouldn’t it be leading by example?

McGill faculty members seem to think so. In a letter to the university administration, several hundred professors called for a vaccine mandate and outlined grave concerns about the university’s return-to-campus plan, which relies heavily on masking but not does not require vaccination, physical distancing or routine testing. The McGill Association of University Teachers issued a similar request. And a letter from 12 members of the faculty of law expressed the opinion that McGill has a legal obligation to request proof of vaccination for on-campus activities or risk exposing itself to liability.

But the official McGill response on the question of mandatory vaccination was a disappointment to many who hoped the university would be at least as proactive in protecting its community as its peer institutions. Instead, the provost suggested McGill’s hands were tied, observing: “Vaccination is a medical procedure. Under Quebec law, people have the right to refuse to undergo a recommended medical procedure, unless otherwise provided for in law.”

The statement goes on, but to me it reads like a cop-out, one that unfortunately plays into the hands of the most vocal anti-vaxxers. Pinning the lack of a vaccine policy to this principle seems especially odd since campus mandates are not at all the same thing as forced vaccinations. Nobody is suggesting the university has the right to give anybody the jab against their will — only that the requirement to attend a university lecture on infectious disease should be at least as stringent as the requirement to, say, play bingo.

A detailed response, this time signed by 35 McGill law professors, outlined the reasons why they find the provost’s message to be “unpersuasive and factually inaccurate.” Even though the government of Quebec has deemed education an essential service not subject to the vaccine passport, these McGill legal scholars believe the university has the clear authority to impose an internal regulation such as a less onerous proof of vaccination. Moreover, appropriate exemptions could be granted and accommodations could be made to deliver the necessary essential services to eligible students.

These concerned professors also point to McGill’s large cohort of international students. While Quebec’s vaccination levels are relatively high, McGill has thousands of out-of-province and international students — who, unlike foreign tourists, can enter Canada with a valid study permit without being fully vaccinated, provided their institution has a COVID-19 readiness plan.

Concordia University does not yet have a campus vaccine mandate, either. Like McGill, Concordia is merely strongly encouraging vaccination for its students and offering a one-day on-campus vaccination clinic.

It seems that both universities are hoping sheer inconvenience will be enough to encourage unvaccinated students who may be on the fence, since many other campus services will require use of Quebec’s vaccine passport, including gyms and dining halls.

A McGill coronavirus update published Aug. 26 reads: “Without a vaccine passport, your McGill experience will be much less fun.” I found this depressing to read. Shouldn’t universities be educating students and promoting the validity of science, instead of coddling them or pandering to their imagined selfishness? A better iteration, to my mind: “Unless you are fully vaccinated, your presence on campus will be too risky for other members of the McGill community.”

As it stands, vulnerable students and staff are the ones who must apply for special accommodations — with additional paperwork and the disclosure of even more personal medical documentation, which is burdensome and unfair.

Maybe McGill should consider itself the Harvard of the North. Then it might choose to be a leader in Quebec and Canada and use its influence for positive change and vaccine confidence, heeding the advice of its own experts in medicine, law and public health. Instead, the administration is sending a murky message about vaccines to the world at large and putting vulnerable students and staff at risk, not to mention the wider Montreal community.

Quantum crystal could reveal the identity of dark matter


By Adam Mann

Beryllium ions might help in the hunt for dark matter.

An artist's impression of quantum entanglement. Scientists entangled the motions of beryllium ions with their spins to create a beryllium crystal capable of detecting incredibly weak electromagnetic fields. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

Using a quirk of quantum mechanics, researchers have created a beryllium crystal capable of detecting incredibly weak electromagnetic fields. The work could one day be used to detect hypothetical dark matter particles called axions.

The researchers created their quantum crystal by trapping 150 charged beryllium particles or ions using a system of electrodes and magnetic fields that helped overcome their natural repulsion for each other, Ana Maria Rey, an atomic physicist at JILA, a joint institute between the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado Boulder, told Live Science.

When Rey and her colleagues trapped the ions with their system of fields and electrodes, the atoms self-assembled into a flat sheet twice as thick as a human hair. This organized collective resembled a crystal that would vibrate when disturbed by some outside force.

"When you excite the atoms, they don't move individually," Rey said. "They move as a whole."

When that beryllium "crystal" encountered an electromagnetic field, it moved in response, and that movement could be translated into a measurement of the field strength.

But measurements of any quantum mechanical system are subject to limits set by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which states that certain properties of a particle, such as its position and momentum, can't simultaneously be known with high precision.

The team figured out a way to get around this limit with entanglement, where quantum particles' attributes are inherently linked together.

"By using entanglement, we can sense things that aren't possible otherwise," Rey said.

In this case, she and her colleagues entangled the motions of the beryllium ions with their spins. Quantum systems resemble tiny tops and spin describes the direction, say up or down, that those tops are pointing.

When the crystal vibrated, it would move a certain amount. But because of the uncertainty principle, any measurement of that displacement, or the amount the ions moved, would be subject to precision limits and contain a lot of what's known as quantum noise, Rey said.

To measure the displacement, "we need a displacement larger than the quantum noise," she said.

Entanglement between the ions' motions and their spins spreads this noise out, reducing it and allowing the researchers to measure ultra-tiny fluctuations in the crystal. They tested the system by sending a weak electromagnetic wave through it and seeing it vibrate. The work is described Aug. 6 in the journal Science.

The crystal is already 10 times more sensitive at detecting teensy electromagnetic signals than previous quantum sensors. But the team thinks that with more beryllium ions, they could create an even more sensitive detector capable of searching for axions.

Axions are a proposed ultralight dark matter particle with a millionth or a billionth the mass of an electron. Some models of the axion suggest that it may be able to sometimes convert into a photon, in which case it would no longer be dark and would produce a weak electromagnetic field. Were any axions to fly through a lab containing this beryllium crystal, the crystal might pick up their presence.

"I think it's a beautiful result and an impressive experiment," Daniel Carney, a theoretical physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, who was not involved in the research, told Live Science.

Along with helping in the hunt for dark matter, Carney believes the work could find many applications, such as looking for stray electromagnetic fields from wires in a lab or searching for defects in a material.

Originally published on Live Science.

 

How star-making pollutes the cosmos

by ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3D (ASTRO 3D)

Galaxies pump out contaminated exhausts. Credit: James Josephides, Swinburne 

Astronomical Productions

Galaxies pollute the environment they exist in, researchers have found.

A team of astronomers led by Alex Cameron and Deanne Fisher from the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) used a new imaging system on at the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii to confirm that what flows into a galaxy is a lot cleaner than what flows out.

The research is published today in The Astrophysical Journal.

"Enormous clouds of gas are pulled into galaxies and used in the process of making stars," said co-lead author Deanne Fisher, associate professor at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University in Australia.

"On its way in it is made of hydrogen and helium. By using a new piece of equipment called the Keck Cosmic Web Imager, we were able to confirm that stars made from this fresh gas eventually drive a huge amount of material back out of the system, mainly through supernovas.

"But this stuff is no longer nice and clean—it contains lots of other elements, including oxygen, carbon, and iron."

The process of atoms flooding into galaxies—known as 'accretion' – and their eventual expulsion—known as 'outflows' – is an important mechanism governing the growth, mass and size of galaxies.

Until now, however, the composition of the inward and outward flows could only be guessed at. This research is the first time the full cycle has been confirmed in a galaxy other than the Milky Way.

Galaxies pump out contaminated exhausts. Credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomical Productions

To make their findings, the researchers focused on a galaxy called Mrk 1486, which lies about 500 million light years from the Sun and is going through a period of very rapid star formation.

"We found there is a very clear structure to how the gases enter and exit," explained Dr. Alex Cameron, who has recently moved from University of Melbourne in Australia to the UK's University of Oxford.

"Imagine the galaxy is a spinning frisbee. The gas enters relatively unpolluted from the cosmos outside, around the perimeter, and then condenses to form new stars. When those stars later explode, they push out other gas—now containing these other elements—through the top and bottom."

The elements—comprising more than half the Periodic Table—are forged deep inside the cores of the stars through nuclear fusion. When the stars collapse or go nova the results are catapulted into the Universe—where they form part of the matrix from which newer stars, planets, asteroids and, in at least one instance, life emerges.

Mrk 1486 was the perfect candidate for observation because it lies "edge-on" to Earth, meaning that the outflowing gas could be easily viewed, and its composition measured. Most galaxies sit at awkward angles for this type of research.

"This work is important for astronomers because for the first time we've been able to put limits on the forces that strongly influence how galaxies make stars," added Professor Fisher.

"It takes us one step closer to understanding how and why galaxies look the way they do—and how long they will last."

Other scientists contributing to the work are based at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Maryland at College Park, and the University of California at San Diego—all in the US—plus the Universidad de Concepcion in Chile.

Cosmic galaxy assembly and the evolution of metals

More information: The DUVET Survey: Direct Te-based metallicity mapping of metal-enriched outflows and metal-poor inflows in Mrk 1486, Astrophysical Journal (2021). iopscience.iop.org/article/10. … 847/2041-8213/ac18ca

Further information about the Survey: www.deannefisher.com/duvet

Journal information: Astrophysical Journal 

Provided by ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3D (ASTRO 3D)

 

Physicist helps confirm a major advance in stellarator performance for fusion energy

by John Greenwald, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

IPP physicist Andreas Langenberg, left, and PPPL physicist Novimir Pablant before 

installation of the XICS diagnostic on the W7-X. Credit: Scott Massida

Stellarators, twisty magnetic devices that aim to harness on Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars, have long played second fiddle to more widely used doughnut-shaped facilities known as tokamaks. The complex twisted stellarator magnets have been difficult to design and have previously allowed greater leakage of the superhigh heat from fusion reactions.

Now scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), working in collaboration with researchers that include the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), have shown that the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) device in Greifswald, Germany, the largest and most advanced stellarator in the world, is capable of confining heat that reaches temperatures twice as great as the core of the sun.

Key indicator

A diagnostic instrument called the XICS, chiefly designed, built and operated by PPPL physicist Novimir Pablant in collaboration with IPP physicist Andreas Langenberg, is a key indicator of a sharp reduction of a type of heat loss called "neoclassical transport" that has historically been greater in classical stellarators than in tokamaks. Causing the troublesome transport are frequent collisions that knock heated particles out of their orbits as they swirl around the magnetic field lines that confine them. Contributing to the transport are drifts in the particle orbits.

A recent report on W7-X findings in Nature magazine confirms the success of the efforts of designers to shape the intricately twisted stellarator magnets to reduce neoclassical transport. First author of the paper was physicist Craig Beidler of the IPP Theory Division. "It's really exciting news for fusion that this design has been successful," said Pablant, a coauthor along with Langenberg of the paper. "It clearly shows that this kind of optimization can be done."

David Gates, head of the Advanced Projects Department at PPPL that oversees the laboratory's stellarator work, was also highly enthused. "It's been very exciting for us, at PPPL and all the other U.S. collaborating institutions, to be part of this really exciting experiment," Gates said. "Novi's work has been right at the center of this amazing experimental team's effort. I am very grateful to our German colleagues for so graciously enabling our participation."

Carbon-free power

The fusion that scientists seek to produce combines light elements in the form of plasma—the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei, or ions, that makes up 99 percent of the visible universe—to generate massive amounts of energy. Producing controlled fusion on Earth would create a virtually inexhaustible supply of safe, clean, and carbon-free source of power to generate electricity for humanity and serve as a major contributor to the transition away from fossil fuels.

Stellarators, first constructed in the 1950s under PPPL founder Lyman Spitzer, can operate in a steady state with little risk of the plasma disruptions that tokamaks face. However, their complexity and history of relatively poor heat confinement has held them back. A major goal of the optimized design of W7-X, which produced its first plasma in 2015, has been to demonstrate the appropriateness of an optimized stellarator as an eventual fusion power plant.

Results obtained by the XICS demonstrate hot ion temperatures that could not have been achieved without a sharp reduction in neoclassical transport. These measurements were also made by the CXRS diagnostic built and operated by IPP, which were thought to be a little more accurate but could not be made in all conditions. The final temperature profiles in the Nature report were taken from CXRS and supported by measurements with XICS in similar plasmas.

'Extremely valuable'

"Without the XICS we probably would not have discovered this [good confinement] regime," said Robert Wolf, head of the W7-X heating and operation division and a co-author of the paper. "We needed a readily available ion temperature measurement and this was extremely valuable."

Researchers conducted a thought experiment to check the role that optimization played in the confinement results. The experiment found that in a non-optimized stellarator large neoclassical transport would have made the high temperatures recorded on W7-X for the given heating power impossible. "This showed that the optimized shape of W7-X reduced the neoclassical transport and was necessary for the performance seen in W7-X experiments," Pablant said. "It was a way of showing how important the optimization was."

The results mark a step toward enabling stellarators based on the W7-X design to lead to a practical fusion reactor, he added. "But reducing neoclassical transport isn't the only thing you have to do. There are a whole bunch of other goals that have to be shown, including running steady and reducing the turbulent transport." Producing turbulent transport are ripples and eddies that run through the plasma as the second main source of heat loss.

The W7-X will reopen in 2022 following a three-year upgrade to install a water-cooling system that will lengthen fusion experiments and an improved divertor that will exhaust high-performance heat. The upgrades will enable the next step in the investigation by W7-X researchers of the worthiness of optimized stellarators to become blueprints for power plants.

The Wendelstein 7-X concept proves its efficiency

More information: C. D. Beidler et al, Demonstration of reduced neoclassical energy transport in Wendelstein 7-X, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03687-w

Journal information: Nature

 Provided by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory