It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
'By far the dumbest': Right ruthlessly ridiculed for new Taylor Swift conspiracy theory
Kathleen Culliton January 29, 2024 NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 14: Taylor Swift leaves The Box after celebrating her 34th birthday on December 14, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by James Devaney/GC Images/Getty Images)
A new conservative conspiracy theory that the Super Bowl will be rigged to prop up Taylor Swift’s imminent endorsement of President Joe Biden is being torn to shreds by critics who call it “by far the dumbest.”
The Bulwark’s Sonny Bunch Monday took to X to vent frustrations over the strange theory — centered on Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Travis Kelce — detailed in a new Rolling Stone report.
“Of all the dumb things the nascent nouveau right has tried over the years, attempting to turn conservatives against the NFL is by far the dumbest,” Bunch wrote.
While Rolling Stone takes time to detail how Swift’s perceived liberal politics and Kansas City’s AFC victory Sunday have created an NFL “scriptwriting” narrative, Bunch doesn’t pull the punch of his summary.
"Two hot celebrities dating is a psyop culminating in the Illuminati fixing the Super Bowl so you'll have to get vaccinated," he writes. "Get people to say the dumbest s--- imaginable ... and they'll believe anything."
The conspiracy theory has been shared by people including former President Donald Trumpally Laura Loomer, failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, reports and social media show.
“Thinking about when Taylor Swift called out the Soros family in 2019 for buying the rights to her music and then how she came out a super liberal in 2020,” Posobiec told X followers Sunday.
“I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall,” Ramaswamy replied.
Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramirez wasn’t impressed by the conclusions drawn, which she argues ignore some pertinent information.
“One must really stretch the depths of credulity to convince oneself that Swift’s success isn’t a result of her record-breaking songs, albums, tours, movies, and a career that has redefined the music industry, but rather a government psyop that forced her to date an NFL star and take up entertainment as a career,” she writes.
“It’s all really stupid.”
Several X users following news of the theory agreed.
“Taylor Swift endorsed Biden in 2020 but this time it’s definitely a psy op,” wrote Noam Blum. “Amazing that people buy this grift horses--- and ask for seconds.”
"Trump’s insecure brand of fascism requires constant attention and seeks to insert itself into every situation,” wrote GQ editor Luke Zaleski. “Like a kindergartener acting like he doesn’t like the girl he’s crushing on in hopes he’ll to trick her into liking him."
‘Fedsurrection’ Looms Large as ‘Army of God’ Protest Convoy Heads to Border
Would-be participants are expressing fears that the demonstration could be a “psyop” or “honeypot,” spearheaded by the federal government.
AN AERIAL VIEW OF THE AREA AS MIGRANTS WALKING ALONG RAZOR WIRE AFTER CROSSING THE RIO GRANDE INTO THE UNITED STATES ON JANUARY 28, 2024 IN EAGLE PASS, TEXAS. (LOKMAN VURAL ELIBOL/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES)
Paranoia about federal entrapment is looming large over the “Take Our Border Back” convoy, which departed Virginia Beach Monday morning and plans to arrive in Texas later this week.
By noon Monday, after a few hours on the road, the convoy had amassed just a few dozen participants—so far, predominantly men over the age of 60. The convoy’s promoters promised over 700,000 participants.
The low numbers could be due, in part, to conspiracy theories riddling Telegram channels for the convoy. Would-be participants are expressing fears that the demonstration could be a “psyop” or “honeypot,” spearheaded by the federal government and undercover agents with the goal of ensnaring right-wingers into a violent event. This is the basis of the Jan. 6 “fedsurrection” conspiracy theory, which around a quarter of Americans believe, according to recent polling.
“I have 3 former associates doing lengthy prison sentences because of the J6 setup,” one person wrote in the Telegram channel for the Texas contingent of the convoy. “I know first hand, even if they don’t have charges they can pin on you, they will make some up.”
One of the organizers, former military commander Pete Chambers, who says he was a green beret, put out a video message in which he appears to directly appeal to supposed undercover federal agents.
“If you start going after these people, trying to trap them, you’re going to be found out,” Chambers said. “There’s too much momentum on the other side bro, so just let it go. Stop working for that entity. They’re just going to tear you down, they’re going to use you like a kleenex, just like they did to me.”
The convoy is expected to stop over in Jacksonville, Florida, before making its way along the southern border. Three separate rallies are planned for Feb 3, in locations near Eagle Pass, Texas, Yuma, Arizona, and a third in San Ysidro, California.
All eyes are on Eagle Pass in particular, which is the epicenter of the standoff between the Biden Administration and Texas over border enforcement. Earlier this month, the Texas National Guard seized control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, which abuts a stretch of the Rio Grande that’s a popular point for unauthorized border crossings, and surrounded it with razor wire. The Biden Administration said that Texas’ actions had severely limited Border Patrol’s ability to survey the area—and prevented them from conducting rescue operations, which likely resulted in a migrant woman and two children drowning. Texas denied the allegation.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that the federal government—not Texas—had ultimate authority over the border. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has since doubled down on the state’s actions and blew past the Friday deadline set by the Biden Administration to allow Border Patrol access to Shelby Park. Governors of twenty-five red states have since signed onto statements supporting Texas, and some have sent reinforcements to the border after Donald Trump called on them to do so.
The escalating standoff has inspired civil war fantasies of a feds versus states showdown.
Organizers of the convoy, who include QAnon-world influencers and anti-vaxxers, characterized the demonstration as an “army of god,” and have spent the last couple days putting out PR fires—and trying to distance themself from any possible future unrest or bad optics. “No we are not militia friendly,” wrote Christina Holbrook aka “Thought Criminals,” who is an admin for the convoy’s Texas Telegram channel. Holbrook has also asked participants to leave their long guns at home.
Organizers are also trying to assuage fears that the convoy is a “false flag” or “psy-op,” trying to suggest that the government is sowing paranoia intentionally. “They are trying to scare the ppl with all their “fed” “Jan 6th” crap,” wrote Holbrook.
Last week on a planning call, one of the organizers also waved off concerns about entrapment. “When J6 happened, that’s DC, that has nothing to do with the United States. It’s its own continent,” said Mark Anthony. “This is a whole different ball game. We’re out in our country, not a foreign territory. Each state and county has been strategically thought through.”
Still, one person on the Telegram channel suggested that convoy participants bring zip ties with them so they can arrest anyone they believe to be “instigating.” “Basically make-shift cuffs and put them in time out,” she wrote. “You can’t fight them, you know they’re a paid fed or paid actor.” Another said that they’ve heard rumors of plain-clothed FBI agents stationed in Eagle Pass “to create unrest” and have decided to reroute to a different rally location.
Others are suggesting that people avoid the convoy altogether. In a YouTube broadcast on Sunday night, the channel LoveTravelAdventure, which is run by a trucking husband and wife influencer duo with nearly 100,000 subscribers, warned viewers about possible traps ahead. “You're being set up, and you’re advertising every move you’re making to the people who want to know the most,” the husband, who goes by “Red Viking,” said. “There is no 1776 happening so put that out of your mind.”
Red Viking also raised suspicions about organizer Pete Chambers. Green berets are “masters of psyops,” said Red Viking. “I’d love to believe he’s not a part of this,” he said, alluding to a government conspiracy to ensnare conservatives.
“All i’m gonna say to the people who are going to the border: don’t get caught in another January 6th event and do dumb shit to get entrapped by your corrupt government,” warned the Telegram Channel Woke Societies. Patriots.win
Far-right commentator Charlie Kirk also weighed in. “Please do not fall for obvious traps at the border,” Kirk wrote on X. “Let law enforcement handle this. Don’t create or join some ad-hoc “citizen militia.” Don’t be a one-man hero. Learn the lessons from the last 3 years.”
The last multi-state convoy in the U.S., in Jan. 2022, was an utter disaster—in part because of infighting about federal infiltration. Inspired by a relatively more successful event in Canada, truckers and their counterparts drove across the country to Washington, D.C. to protest vaccine mandates that didn’t exist. Big promises to “barricade” or “occupy” DC were quickly revealed to be bluster, and the convoy ended up parked at the Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland, just outside of the District, for over a week, before heading home.
The ‘Take Our Border Back’ Convoy Is Already a Complete Mess
Instead of immigrants, the group of extremists mostly battled each other, paranoia, and their GPS systems.
Wire spikes on the border are viewed in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on January 29, 2024.PHOTOGRAPH: DAVID PEINADO/ANADOLU VIA GETTY IMAGES
On Monday morning, the organizers of the Take Our Border Back convoy kicked off their road trip to the Texas–Mexico border in Virginia Beach. Though they claimed that up to 40,000 trucks would be joining, only 20 vehicles made up the convoy as it rolled into Jacksonville, Florida, 14 hours later. The promised support had not materialized—not a single truck showed up, tires were reportedly slashed, participants got lost, and paranoia struck the group. In short, the convoy was a complete mess.
The convoy was organized last week as a show of support for Texas governor Greg Abbott and his decision to defy the federal government and President Joe Biden about the installation of razor wire along the Texas–Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas. While at least one organizer initially said they planned to hunt down migrants along the border in collaboration with sympathetic members of law enforcement, the group appeared to walk back that assertion on Monday, issuing a statement that the convoy would not be heading to the border at all but instead going to Quemado, a tiny town in Catron County, Texas. The group’s website, however, still lists the route of the convoy as “Virginia Beach, VA, to Eagle Pass,” and members of the planning group on Telegram still say they are going to the Texas border.
The organizers also repeatedly stated that the event was peaceful, though online chats in a related Telegram group show members discussing “exterminating” migrants. A known white nationalist who was kicked out of the People’s Convoy in 2022, Ryan Sanchez, is among those most active in the group. Sanchez was previously a Marine Corp reservist who says he was kicked out after he was reported to have been demonstrating alongside the Rise Above Movement, an alt-right street-fighting group that took part in the neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, which led to the death of one counterprotester.
“I think the Eagle Pass rally is going to be the ’main event,’” Sanchez wrote in the convoy Telegram channel. “We need to think strategically and concentrate our limited resources where they will have the greatest effect.”
But on the first day of the convoy, some attendees woke up to find their tires slashed, according to one of the main livestreamers who posted pictures on X of the cars outside a motel. The meeting point also had to be hastily rearranged on Monday morning when the owners of the original location told the organizers they couldn’t gather there.
When the convoy did finally come together in a hotel parking lot in Norfolk, Virginia, there were a few dozen people and around 20 vehicles, based on video footage reviewed by WIRED and comments made by the livestreamers responding to questions from supporters.
The day began with a speech from Craig Hudgins, one of the organizers, who stressed that the event was a "peaceful, peaceable demonstration.” Hudgins also claimed—without evidence—that he had heard that up to “40,000 truckers from all over the country and Canada” would be joining the convoy—although not a single one of those trucks managed to join the group during the first day. The convoy members also heard from Ivan Raiklin, who was involved in the efforts to block Joe Biden’s election win and is an ally of disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Finally, after a prayer from a pastor linked to the Church Militant, a far-right religious website, the convoy rolled out an hour later than scheduled and headed down I-95. It was spearheaded by a bus covered in MAGA slogans.
Almost immediately, one of the vehicles in the convoy got lost, according to messages posted in the Zello walkie-talkie app that the group is using to communicate while on the road. Later, when the convoy linked up to discuss evening plans, the meeting quickly descended into an argument about where they were going to be staying. Even trying to meet up at a gas station was difficult: Due to the size of a Buc-ee’s in South Carolina, convoy members couldn’t locate each other.
A few hours into the trip, the lead bus pulled over onto the highway shoulder and kicked out one of the people onboard, who had traveled on his own from Washington, DC. It was unclear exactly why he was ejected, but the man, who is part of a group that protests daily in support of people jailed for rioting at the Capitol on January 6, was left stranded in Florence, South Carolina, without his wallet, according to details discussed on a livestream of someone in contact with the man.
Throughout the day, the half-dozen people livestreaming the convoy spent much of their time responding to questions from some of the thousands of people watching.
Most of the questions were about the conspiracy that the convoy is a “setup” by the federal government to “entrap patriots.” That sense of paranoia has been present in the group from the very beginning, according to leaks of the group’s chats on Discord: “This will end up loaded with trolls and feds in no time,” one member wrote a week ago.
Paranoia was also prevalent on the Telegram channels used to coordinate the convoy in different parts of the country. “I hope it’s not another J6 trap. People need to pray for discernment about this. But after 3 years of this people are sick of it,” one member wrote, referring to the widely debunked conspiracy that the Capitol insurrection was a left-wing plan to trap Trump supporters.
On Monday, after the cars had started on the road, organizers issued a press release, claiming “groups are forming to infiltrate the convoy.” The statement also claims that “nowhere on the website does it say anything about the convoy going to the border,” which is inaccurate, as the route for the main convoy clearly states the final destination is Eagle Pass.
Additionally, one of the organizers of the convoy, Pete Chambers, told Alex Jones last week that his plan included traveling to the border to hunt migrants and work with local law enforcement to capture them. Among those traveling with the convoy, multiple people on Monday mentioned going to Eagle Pass. “We’re all going to the border,” one member declared on the livestream on Monday night.
Though the convoy’s start was full of mishaps, others planning to join the convoy still appear to be taking their plans seriously. Online, a number of people are openly talking about going to the border: “Those going to Eagle Pass on Saturday, message me,” one member of the Texas-focused Take Our Border Back Telegram channel wrote. “I'm organizing level 2 security detail composed of veterans and prior law enforcement guys. We're not going to engage any threats or go in guns blazing. We'll just keep a watchful eye and report any suspicious behavior.”
As the convoy has gained some media attention, the Telegram channels have been scrubbed of a lot of the more virulent, racist, and violent language used by members. However, leaks of the Telegram chat detail clearly how members spoke openly about “exterminating” migrants.
Since Abbott issued his letter in defiance of the Biden administration, he has seen support flow in from dozens of GOP governors and former president Donald Trump, who has urged other states to send troops to Texas. The convoy has been portrayed in right-wing media in recent days as part of a wider right-wing effort to support Abbott and resist Biden’s immigration policies, and as a result, its organizers have been able to raise over $140,000 on a Christian-focused crowdfunding website.
On Tuesday morning, the convoy departed Jacksonville for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with a few more vehicles joining the group—but still no trucks.
David Gilbert is a reporter at WIRED who is covering disinformation and online extremism, and how these two online trends will impact people's lives across the globe, with a special focus on the 2024 US presidential election. Prior to WIRED, he worked at VICE News. He lives in Ireland.
Wayne LaPierre is 'falling on the sword' as NRA corruption exposed: Expert
Matthew Chapman January 29, 2024 Wayne LaPierre speaking at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Disgraced outgoing NRA president Wayne LaPierre is taking the fall at the organization's civil corruption trial, "The Trace" senior staff writer Mike Spies told CNN on Monday.
"What stood out from LaPierre's testimony today?" asked anchor Jake Tapper.
"What stood out was he's in some respects falling on the sword, there's no question anymore about whether or not he had done the wrong thing," said Spies. "He's basically openly saying that the arrangements that he entered into prior to 2018 specifically, hiding payments through the NRA's longtime PR firm, are going on these fancy vacations to his vendors' yacht or the Taj Mahal, and those kinds of places, that was clearly the wrong thing to do and he should have been disclosing it to the board all along."
"But also, at the same time, it wasn't done in bad faith. He just sort of made a mistake and didn't know better and embarked on a course correction as they kept referring to it in 2018 and now, according to him, the slate has more or less been wiped clean and they are on solid footing," he added.
"Remind us what is at stake in this larger corruption case for the NRA?" Tapper pressed him.
"In some ways, the major thing that was at stake was whether or not Wayne was going to stay in power, but he voluntarily stepped down before the proceedings began," said Spies. "So now it's really a matter of whether or not he and several other defendants who are also going to have to really like to pay up, at the end of the proceedings, and how much money, in fact, they owe to the organization."
LaPierre's doctors told the court that he couldn't testify in the trial all day long because his brain is shrinking, a court filing last week said.
In a significant development for personalised nutrition, researchers in Italy have cultivated microgreens with bespoke nutritional profiles to serve individual dietary requirements.
Co-authors Massimiliano D’Imperio and Francesco Serio, both at the Institute of Sciences of Food Production (ISPA) National Council of Research (CNR); and Massimiliano Renna, professor of agricultural and environmental science at the University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy, explained the motivation behind the research.
‘Propelled by an ever-growing awareness of the importance of following dietary recommendations, interest in personalised nutrition is on the rise. Soilless biofortification of vegetables has opened the door to the potential for adapting vegetable production to specific dietary requirements,’ Renna explained.
The team cultivated four different species – radish, pea, rocket and Swiss chard – and focused on two nutrients that play a crucial role in health and nutrition: iodine and potassium.
Iodine is critical to thyroid function, with deficiency affecting approximately two billion people worldwide. Fortifying table salt with iodine is a strategy used internationally to combat deficiency, while other sources in the human diet include fish, milk and eggs.
However, recommendations from the World Health Organisation to reduce daily salt intake, paired with an increase in vegetarian and vegan diets, mean demand is growing for alternative iodine sources.
Using tailored nutrient solutions for plant growth, the team successfully cultivated plants with iodine content up to 14 times higher than unfortified microgreens, as a novel dietary source of iodine.
They also grew microgreens with a 45% reduction in potassium levels, to cater for chronic kidney disease sufferers – for whom its intake must be restricted to avoid health complications.
‘Since vegetables contain high concentrations of potassium, patients with impaired kidney function are sometimes advised not to eat vegetables, or that they should be soaked in water and boiled to reduce the potassium content through leaching.
‘However, the reduction in potassium using such cooking methods can be considered limited, while other important minerals and vitamins could be significantly lost,’ the researchers noted. ‘In this context, the production of vegetables with low potassium content could be of great interest.’
The study was conducted in a commercial setting – at Ortogourmet, a working microgreen farm in southern Italy. Crucially, this supports the viability of cultivating customised microgreens on a large scale while maintaining optimal agronomic performance.
The microgreens were grown in a soilless system, where a liquid medium is used in place of soil and the plants are fed through a nutrient solution.
Explaining the advantages of a soilless system, the authors said, ‘Soilless cultivation is considered an advanced, environmentally friendly agricultural practice for enhancing the quality of fresh vegetables. In fact, although soilless cultivation systems have been developed primarily to address the challenge of excessive soil pathogens, it is nonetheless true that they also favour optimal control of plant growth, high productivity, and an efficient use of water and fertilisers. Furthermore, soilless systems represent an opportunity to modulate the nutrient solution precisely and efficaciously.’
The researchers are now turning their attention to manipulating the biological pathways of plants to produce desired compounds. ‘The key idea is to leverage in-depth knowledge of plant metabolic pathways to identify key points where intervention is possible to increase the production of desired molecules,’ they note.
‘The optimisation of these techniques will require in-depth research into the molecular biology of plants, including the metabolic pathways involved in the synthesis of target molecules, and a constant refinement of growth conditions. The combination of advanced scientific knowledge and innovative technologies can open new perspectives in the production of healthier and nutritionally biofortified vegetables.’
The research was funded by SOILLESS GO (Rural Development Program of the Apulia Region - Italy) and NUTRAGE projects (CNR, FOE-2021 project).
The microgreens were grown in a commercial setting.
A NATIVE PRICKLY PEAR CACTUS (OPUNTIA HUMIFUSA) ON THE LEFT, THRIVES NEXT TO NON-NATIVE HORTICULTURAL VARIETIES OF SUCCULENT STONECROP SPECIES (SEDUM OR PHEDIMUS).
Green roofs have become increasingly popular thanks to their benefits related to climate adaptation, mitigation, and urban biodiversity management.
These vegetated surfaces on the rooftops of buildings absorb excess storm water, reduce energy use by insulating buildings, and cool neighborhoods, tempering urban heat islands, while also creating urban habitats for plants, pollinators, and wildlife.
But, in the U.S., green roofs are typically planted with non-native plants in sterile soils, and their effectiveness declines over time.
A Dartmouth-led research team set out to determine if managing green roof soil microbes could boost healthy urban soil development, a methodology that could be applied to support climate resilience in cities.
The team created an experimental green roof in Chicago to test how enhancing soil with native prairie microbes would change the soil microbial community over time. They were particularly interested in tracking the presence of beneficial mycorrhizal fungi.
Mycorrhizal fungi are well-known to live in roots and support plants in a symbiotic underground relationship, delivering nutrients and water to them in exchange for plant sugars. Mycorrhizal fungi could be particularly helpful to plants in green roofs that have to endure high temperatures, intense sun, and periodic flooding.
The researchers added soil rich with native mycorrhizal fungi obtained from a local restored prairie, referred to as "inoculum," to the experimental green roof's soil. They planted inoculated and untreated soil with native prairie plants and green roof succulents. Over two years, the team tracked changes in the mycorrhizal fungal community of the green roof. They also compared the green roof fungal species identified to those present in the inoculum and in the air.
Their findings demonstrate that active management of green roof mycorrhizal fungi accelerates soil development faster than if mycorrhizal fungal communities are left to passively reestablish on their own. Green roofs treated with mycorrhizal fungi foster a more diverse soil community that is more likely to support long-term green roof sustainability, according to the results published in New Phytologist.
"In this urban rooftop setting, we saw more diversity in the fungal communities of the inoculated soil," said lead author Paul Metzler, soil ecology lab manager in the Department of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth. "The long-term and consistent effects of the inoculum were quite surprising, as it's not necessarily something you would expect when working with such small microorganisms."
Using a molecular technique called "DNA metabarcoding," which enables the identification of multiple organisms in one sample, the researchers could identify fungi present in the green roof soils as well as potential sources of these fungi. Many fungi came from the inoculum while other species got there through some other vector such as wind.
The co-authors state that their study was different than most of its kind, as few studies track mycorrhizal community shifts over time post-inoculation and even fewer attempt to track the sources of species pools. The team also had a number of species in their green roof that likely arrived via unmeasured vectors such birds, insects, or even rats.
Still, the most diverse fungal communities were those that had been treated with the inoculum, illustrating how mycorrhizal fungi could be used to improve soil health in green roofs. The results suggest that active management of soil microbial communities is effective and worth the effort and resources in cities.
"Green roofs have a shelf life and they're not always the self-sustaining ecosystems that we think they are," says senior author Bala Chaudhary, an associate professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth. "They can be beneficial to urban areas but tend to lose their efficacy over time."
While green roofs are marketed as "set it and forget it," the co-authors explain that ecological thought should be incorporated into their design, construction, and maintenance to maximize the benefits and role that green roofs play in the climate resilience of urban areas.
"Our cities could be a window into the future," says Chaudhary. "They are experiencing the impacts of climate change—warming temperatures and increased drought and flooding—in an intensified way, which make them a great microcosm to study some of these impacts below ground."
Metzler is available for comment at: paul.metzler@dartmouth.edu. Kelly Ksiazek-Mikenas at Elmhurst University also served as a co-author of the study.
Tracking arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to their source: active inoculation and passive dispersal differentially affect community assembly in urban soils
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
31-Jan-2024
PolyU develops high-efficiency carbon dioxide electroreduction system for reducing carbon footprint and progressing carbon neutrality goals
THE SYSTEM DEVELOPED BY PROF. LAU AND HIS TEAM CAN ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF CO2 ELECTROCATALYSIS TECHNOLOGY, POTENTIALLY REVOLUTIONISING MODERN FOSSIL FUEL ENERGY SYSTEMS.
Global warming continues to pose a threat to human society and the ecological systems, and carbon dioxide accounts for the largest proportion of the greenhouse gases that dominate climate warming. To combat climate change and move towards the goal of carbon neutrality, researchers from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have developed a durable, highly selective and energy-efficient carbon dioxide (CO2) electroreduction system that can convert CO2 into ethylene for industrial purposes to provide an effective solution for reducing CO2 emissions. This research was recently published in Nature Energyand won a Gold Medal at the 48th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva in Switzerland.
Ethylene (C2H4) is one of the most in-demand chemicals globally and is mainly used in the manufacture of polymers such as polyethylene, which, in turn, can be used to make plastics and chemical fibres commonly used in daily life. However, it is still mostly obtained from petrochemical sources and the production process involves the creation of a very significant carbon footprint.
Led by Prof. Daniel LAU, Chair Professor of Nanomaterials and Head of the Department of Applied Physics, the research team adopted the method of electrocatalytic CO2 reduction - using green electricity to convert carbon dioxide into ethylene, providing a more environmentally friendly alternative and stable ethylene production. The research team is working to promote this emerging technology to bring it closer to mass production, closing the carbon loop and ultimately achieving carbon neutrality.
Prof. Lau’s innovation is to dispense with the alkali-metal electrolyte and use pure water as a metal-free anolyte to prevent carbonate formation and salt deposition. The research team denotes their design the APMA system, where A stands for anion-exchange membrane (AEM), P represents the proton-exchange membrane (PEM), and MA indicates the resulting membrane assembly.
When an alkali-metal-free cell stack containing the APMA and a copper electrocatalyst was constructed, it produced ethylene with a high specificity of 50%. It was also able to operate for over 1,000 hours at an industrial-level current of 10A – a very significant increase in lifespan over existing systems, meaning the system can be easily expanded to an industrial scale.
Further tests showed that the formation of carbonates and salts was suppressed, while there was no loss of CO2 or electrolyte. This is crucial, as previous cells using bipolar membranes instead of APMA suffered from electrolyte loss due to the diffusion of alkali-metal ions from the anolyte. The formation of hydrogen in competition with ethylene, another problem affecting earlier systems that used acidic cathode environments, was also minimised.
Another key feature of the process is the specialised electrocatalyst. Copper is used to catalyse a wide range of reactions across the chemical industry. However, the specific catalyst used by the research team took advantage of some distinctive features. The millions of nano-scale copper spheres had richly textured surfaces, with steps, stacking faults and grain boundaries. These “defects” – relative to an ideal metal structure – provided a favourable environment for the reaction to proceed.
Prof. Lau said, “We will work on further improvements to enhance the product selectivity and seek for collaboration opportunities with the industry. It is clear that this APMA cell design underpins a transition to green production of ethylene and other valuable chemicals and can contribute to reducing carbon emissions and achieving the goal of carbon neutrality.”
This innovative PolyU project was a collaboration with researchers from the University of Oxford, the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Centre of Taiwan and Jiangsu University.
a,b, The BPM system (a) and reaction (b) with an acidic cathode environment in reverse bias mode. c,d, The APMA system (c) and reaction (d) with an alkaline cathode environment in forward bias mode. e,f, The commercial BPM system (e) and reaction (f) with a bipolar junction/bonding at the AEL/CEL interface in forward bias mode.
a, A scanning electron microscopy image of SS-Cu. b,c, Typical HRTEM images of SS-Cu, revealing abundant stacking faults (b) and grain boundaries (c) with inset atomic-resolution HAADF-STEM images from the area highlighted with a yellow rectangle. The yellow lines in the insets highlight stacking faults and five-fold twin boundaries. d, An atomic-resolution HAADF-STEM image showing stepped faces induced by a stacking fault and a twin boundary, both along {111} planes (dashed white lines). e, GPA strain (ε) mapping on d, showing tensile strain near the surface exits of the stacking fault and the twin boundary, using the lattice far from these defects as a reference (zero strain). The measured strain is perpendicular to the {111} plane along which the stacking fault and twin boundary align.
a,b, The FEs towards ECO2R products under a range of applied potentials under 1 M KOH (a) and 1 M H3PO4 containing 3 M KI as the catholyte and 1 M H3PO4 as the anolyte (b), respectively. c,d, The partial current densities of C2H4 under a range of applied potentials under 1 M KOH (c) and 1 M H3PO4 containing 3 M KI as the catholyte and 1 M H3PO4 as the anolyte (d), respectively. Values are means, and error bars indicate the s.d. (n = 3 replicates).
a, A schematic of the APMA-MEA system architecture for ECO2R. b, The resistance of the system at different reaction temperatures. c, The FEs of gas products and corresponding cell voltages of the system at a total current density of 300 mA cm−2 for different reaction temperatures. d, The anodic gas product analysis of the pure-H2O-fed APMA system at 60 °C with a total current density of 300 mA cm−2. Ti fibre felt sputtered with Pt (Pt/Ti) was used as the anode electrode, and the flow rate of the CO2 inlet was 30 sccm. e, In situ Raman spectra of ECO2R on SS-Cu in 0.1 M KOH, pure H2O and bare electrode after ~20 min. f, The mass spectra of ECO2R using H218O as the anolyte in the APMA system. g, The total overpotential of all the reactions at different reaction temperatures. Values are means, and error bars indicate the s.d. (n = 3 replicates), except for g, where the values are means and the error bars indicate the effect of the AEM’s pH on the overpotential (setting the pH of the AEM in the range of 8–14).
a, The FEs towards ECO2R products under a range of applied current densities, and the corresponding cell voltages without iR compensation. b, The FEs towards ECO2R products under a range of applied cell voltages without iR compensation, and the corresponding total current density. c,d, Comparisons of the FEs (c) and partial current densities (d) towards C2H4 in the pure-H2O-fed APMA-MEA and AEM-MEA systems with 1 M KOH as the anolyte. e, A schematic of the APMA-MEA cell stack containing six APMA-MEA cells for the ECO2R reaction. f, The system stability performance of ECO2R to C2H4 on SS-Cu in a pure-H2O-fed APMA-MEA cell stack containing six APMA-MEA cells at a constant current of 10 A. Each cathode electrode area was 30 cm2, and the reaction temperature was 60 °C. Pt/Ti was used as the anode electrode, and the flow rate of the CO2 inlet was 30 sccm for the single cell or cell stack. AEM and PEM membranes were used as the electrogenerated OH− and H+/H3O+ ion exchange membranes, respectively. Values are means, and error bars indicate the s.d. (n = 3 replicates).
THIS IMAGE, TAKEN ON AUG. 5, 2023, SHOWS A BLEND OF EXTREME ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT THAT HIGHLIGHTS THE INTENSELY HOT MATERIAL IN FLARES AND WHICH IS COLORIZED IN RED AND ORANGE.
Solar flares occur when magnetic energy builds up in the Sun’s atmosphere and is released as electromagnetic radiation. Lasting anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, flares usually reach temperatures around 10 million degrees Kelvin. Because of their intense electromagnetic energy, solar flares can cause disruptions in radio communications, Earth-orbiting satellites and even result in blackouts.
Although flares have been classified based on the amount of energy they emit at their peak, there has not been significant study into differentiating flares based on the speed of energy build-up since slow-building flares were first discovered in the 1980s. In a new paper in Solar Physics, a team, led by UC San Diego astrophysics graduate student Aravind Bharathi Valluvan, has shown that there is a significant amount of slower-type flares worthy of further investigation.
The width-to-decay ratio of a flare is the time it takes to reach maximum intensity to the time it takes to dissipate its energy. Most commonly, flares spend more time dissipating than rising. In a 5-minute flare, it may take 1 minute to rise and 4 minutes to dissipate for a ratio of 1:4. In slow-building flares, that ratio may be 1:1, with 2.5 minutes to rise and 2.5 minutes to dissipate.
Valluvan was a student at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) when this work was conducted. Exploiting the increased capabilities of the Chandrayaan-2 solar orbiter, IITB researchers used the first three years of observed data to catalog nearly 1400 slow-rising flares — a dramatic increase over the roughly 100 that had been previously observed over the past four decades.
It was thought that solar flares were like the snap of a whip — quickly injecting energy before slowly dissipating. Now seeing slow-building flares in such high quantities may change that thinking.
“There is thrilling work to be done here,” stated Valluvan who now works in UC San Diego Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Steven Boggs’ group. “We’ve identified two different types of flares, but there may be more. And where do the processes differ? What makes them rise and fall at different rates? This is something we need to understand.”
DYNAMICAL FRICTION. THE PANELS DEPICT SPARSE AREAS OF THE UNIVERSE WITH DARK COLOUR AND DENSE AREAS WITH LIGHT COLOUR. THE UPPER PANELS SHOW THE DENSITY AROUND A GALAXY IF THE GALAXY'S GRAVITY BENDS (LEFT) OR DOES NOT BEND (RIGHT) THE TRAJECTORIES OF DARK MATTER PARTICLES. THE LOWER PANEL SHOWS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM, OR HOW THE GALAXY AFFECTS THE DISTRIBUTION OF DARK MATTER. THE ARROWS REPRESENT THE ACCELERATION CAUSED BY THE OVERDENSITY BEHIND THE GALAXY, FROM WHICH THE FRICTION ON THE CENTRE OF THE GALAXY IS DEDUCTED. SINCE THE ARROWS HAVE DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS AND STRENGTHS IN DIFFERENT AREAS, THE TIDAL FORCES ARE ABLE TO CHANGE THE SHAPE OF A GALAXY.
So how can the speed of dark matter be measured? The prerequisite is to find a galaxy in the universe that moves relative to dark matter. Since everything in the universe is in motion and there is a great deal of dark matter, it is not difficult to find such galaxies.
Heavy objects, like galaxies, attract all types of matter, whether it is dark matter or visible matter that we encounter on a daily basis. As dark matter moves past a galaxy, the galaxy begins to pull the dark matter particles towards it. However, the change of speed direction of the particles takes time. Before their trajectory curves towards the galaxy, they already manage to pass the galaxy.
Thus, dark matter particles do not enter the galaxy, but instead move behind the galaxy (see video). Behind the galaxy, therefore, the density of matter increases, and this leads to a slowdown of the galaxy – a phenomenon called dynamical friction. The strength of dynamical friction, in turn, depends on how quickly dark matter particles pass the galaxy, that is, how long the galaxy has time to change the trajectory of the dark matter particles. When particles pass slowly, the density of matter increases closer to the galaxy, causing it to slow down more.
The green dot represents a galaxy, and the upper panels show the movement of dark matter particles past the galaxy (if a galaxy exists in the corresponding panel). The lower panels show the shape of all the trajectories, demonstrating that the gravity field of a galaxy affects the particles of matter, creating an overdensity behind the galaxy. Overdensity again slows down the galaxy and distorts its shape.
Let us assume that the galaxy causing the dynamical friction is not tiny, but large. In this case, the overdensity behind it generates friction of different strengths at different points in the galaxy, as seen in Figure 1. The difference in friction makes the shape of the galaxy more lopsided. We experience a similar change in shape on Earth as tidal cycles – high tides and low tides caused by the gravity of the moon. It is irrelevant how big the dark matter particles eventually turn out to be – their orbit still curves behind the galaxy. The method might not produce accurate results if the particles were comparable in size to the galaxies themselves. However, these dark matter models are already excluded.
Finding the lopsided galaxies themselves is not difficult, because they make up about 30 percent of all galaxies in outer space. Of course, a lot depends on how far to look in the outer parts of a galaxy and what level of lopsidedness deems a galaxy lopsided.
Also, the lopsided shape of a galaxy may not be caused only by dynamical friction. There are a number of other reasons for that. For example, galaxies that were formed after the collision of several galaxies may be asymmetric. In this case, however, we should be able to detect somewhere inside the galaxy the nucleus of another galaxy or a larger stellar halo. Galactic lopsidedness can also be caused by a constant inflow of gas. In such situations, the shape of the galaxy will take a few billion years to recover.
Thus, to measure the velocities of dark matter, we need a lopsided galaxy that is as isolated from other galaxies as possible. In this case, it is more certain that nothing has happened to it other than the passage of dark matter.
In this research, we have figured out how to precisely calculate the forces that affect galaxies in tidal cycles. The next stage is to find galaxies sufficiently lopsided in the universe to study the velocity of dark matter relative to the galaxies.
Cosmology is an important test polygon of theoretical physics. Calculating the speed of dark matter can be important for testing new dark matter models and lifting the veil of secrecy over the nature of dark matter.
With an arsenal of advanced technology, scientists have found a multi-planet star system that provides a rare insight into the way planets form and behave around a very young star.
TOI-1136 is a dwarf star in the Milky Way galaxy more than 270 light years from Earth, which is considered nearby, as the Milky Way is 100,000 light years in diameter. There are six confirmed planets orbiting the star, and scientists strongly suspect the presence of a seventh.
“Because few star systems have as many planets as this one does, it’s getting close in size to our own solar system,” said Tara Fetherolf, visiting assistant professor of astrophysics at Cal State San Marcos and co-author of a new paper about the system. “It’s both similar enough and different enough that we can learn a lot.”
Published today in The Astronomical Journal, the paper offers precise measurements of the exoplanets’ masses, details about the shape of their orbits, and characteristics of their atmospheres. Details like these were built upon initial observations of the system from 2019 using data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS.
Stephen Kane, UC Riverside planetary astrophysics professor and principal investigator of the TESS Keck Survey, explains how the newly discovered system differs from many other known systems. To begin with, its age sets it apart. At a mere 700 million years old, it’s very young compared to our own solar system, which is 4.5 billion years old.
“This gives us a look at planets right after they’ve formed, and solar system formation is a hot topic. Any time we find a multi-planet system it gives us more information to inform our theories about how systems come to be and how our system got here,” Fetherolf said.
Juvenile stars are both difficult and special to work with because they’re so active. Magnetism, sunspots and solar flares are more prevalent and intense during this stage of a star’s development, and the resulting radiation blasts and sculpts planets, affecting their atmospheres.
“Young stars misbehave all the time. They’re very active, just like toddlers. That can make high-precisions measurements difficult,” Kane said.
All the planets are of a similar age in the system, and formed under similar conditions. “This will help us not only do a one-to-one comparison of how planets change with time, but also how their atmospheres evolved at different distances from the star, which is perhaps the most key thing,” Kane said.
Because all the planets in this system are relatively close together, the research team was also able to measure something that is hard to gauge in other systems.
“Normally when we’re looking for planets, we’re looking at the effect the planets have on their star. We watch the star move around and interpret that as the gravitational effects the planets are having on it. Here, we can also see the planets pulling on each other,” Kane said.
Using the Automated Planet Finder telescope at the Lick Observatory on California’s Mount Hamilton and the High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer at the W.M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, the researchers detected slight variations in stellar motion that helped them determine the mass of the planets with unprecedented precision.
To obtain such exact information on the planets, the team built computer models using hundreds of observed velocity measurements layered over transit data. Corey Beard, lead author of the paper and a UC Irvine Ph.D. candidate in physics, said combining these types of readings yielded more knowledge about the system than ever before.
“It took a lot of trial and error, but we were really happy with our results after developing one of the most complicated planetary system models in exoplanet literature to date,” Beard said.
Joining UC Irvine and UC Riverside on this study were researchers from Spain’s Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands; the California Institute of Technology; Sweden’s Chalmers University of Technology; Maryland’s Johns Hopkins University; Spain’s University of La Laguna; Sweden’s Lund University; Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University; New Jersey’s Princeton University; Japan’s Ritsumeikan University; California’s SETI Institute; Maryland’s Space Telescope Science Institute; the University of California, Santa Cruz; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Hawaii; the University of Chicago; the University of Kansas; Indiana’s University of Notre Dame; Australia’s University of Southern Queensland; and Connecticut’s Yale University. Funding was provided by the W.M. Keck Foundation, NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Signs of life on Earth appeared almost immediately after the formation of our solar system during the Archean period 3.9 billion years ago. Though TOI-1136 is too close to most of its planets to make life likely – the radiation would be too intense – the team hopes that observing this system ultimately answers existential questions about how our planet came to be.
“Are we rare? I’m increasingly convinced our system is highly unusual in the universe. Finding systems so unlike our own makes it increasingly clear how our solar system fits into the broader context of formation around other stars,” said Kane.
Artist rendering of the TOI-1136 system and its young star flaring.
The TESS-Keck Survey XVII: Precise Mass Measurements in a Young, High Multiplicity Transiting Planet System using Radial Velocities and Transit Timing Variations
