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Best. Science. Fiction. Show. Ever.
"The Expanse" is the best vision I've ever seen of a space-faring future that may be just a few generations away.
26 February, 2021
Credit: "The Expanse" / Syfy
- Want three reasons why that headline is justified? Characters and acting, universe building, and science.
- For those who don't know, "The Expanse" is a series that's run on SyFy and Amazon Prime set about 200 years in the future in a mostly settled solar system with three waring factions: Earth, Mars, and Belters.
- No other show I know of manages to use real science so adeptly in the service of its story and its grand universe building.
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<p>Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know: <em>Best science fiction show ever. </em>That is a pretty audacious claim and it means I've got some explaining to do. But with 58.5 years of nerdom behind me, including years of watching "Star Trek", "UFO", "Space 1999", "Battlestar Galactica" (the original one that sucked except for the special effects), "Stargate", "The X-Files", "Farscape", "Battlestar Galactica" (the new one that didn't suck) and Firefly I have seen a thing or two concerning science fiction on TV. That's why I'm here ready to stand my ground and proclaim for all nerdom to hear…</p>
<p>"<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MMJTJSH" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Expanse</a>" is the greatest science fiction TV show ever. EVER!</p>
<p>For those of you who don't know, "The Expanse" is a series that's run on SyFy and Amazon Prime set about 200 years in the future in a mostly settled solar system (slight spoiler alerts follow). Based on an <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/56399-the-expanse" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">amazing book series</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/AbrahamHanover" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">SA Corey</a>, in this future there are three major political factions in constant conflict with each other. First, there is Earth which remains powerful but is stretched thin by climate change and overpopulation. Then there is Mars, a former colony of Earth, that's now an independent militaristic republic whose technology generally outpaces that of humanity's homeworld. The final faction is "The Belt" which refers to the asteroids and moons of the giant planets. Belters are resource extractors, and they are the oppressed underclass. After generations living on ships and in low-gravity environments, their bodies have changed, making it impossible for many of them to handle the crush of gravity on the inner planets. </p>
<p>The story begins with all three factions at each other's throats. Mars and Earth are in the midst of a long cold war that, occasionally, turns <a href="https://expanse.fandom.com/wiki/Vesta_Blockade" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hot</a>. What Earth and Mars have in common, however, is keeping their boot on the neck of the Belters who are, themselves, poised for bloody rebellion. This simmering political, social and military conflict would be enough for a hundred episodes but it's into this pile of dynamite "The Expanse" drops an alien artifact that changes everything and propels the narrative.</p><p>Now, the individual elements in what I described above are not really that original. You can find many versions of them in many TV shows across many decades. So, what does "The Expanse" do with these elements that makes it so special? For me the excellence of the show manifests in three distinct ways: characters and acting; universe building; science.</p>
<blockquote>The level of attempted scientific realism in the show is wonderful, extending even to little details like how whiskey spirals out of its bottle due to the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/coriolis-effect/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Coriolis effect</a> when poured on a rotating space station.</blockquote>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY5MTc0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODc0NzIyMn0.h3G9wanrr1lmk3itUpVAyj-fw_iuUkUvyFa7Oum86-M/img.jpg?width=980" id="d6dcc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2e1eacc6a1afa879c5c199aec589c06b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1000" data-height="200" /><p>Let's start with characters and acting. No matter how good your science fiction ideas may be, you have to tell your stories through actors pretending to be characters interacting with each other. By its nature, science fiction shows can ask a lot of actors. They have to stare at green screens, pretending to be in awe of an alien mothership that won't get added till post-production CGI; or they dangle from wires emoting through a screen set in the weightlessness of space. It takes serious acting chops to maintain the gravity (or levity) that makes it all believable or better yet <em>relatable</em>. That's why the depth of performances in <em>The Expanse</em> is its best surprise. The recent season, for example, had actor <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4625680/" target="_blank">Dominique Tipper</a> killing it across three episodes as Belter engineer Naomi Nagata. Nagata is caught alone on a booby-trapped ship, exhausting herself trying to signal her friends to <em>not</em> attempt a rescue. It's a solo performance reminiscent of Tom Hanks' great work in "Castaway".<br></p><br>Across the seasons, other actors have also filled out their characters with an empathy that's comparable to anything else in any other genre on TV. <a href="https://twitter.com/ThomasJane" target="_blank">Thomas Jane's</a> detective Josephus Miller was an epic noir depiction of a man broken by circumstance but still moving towards something better. <a href="https://twitter.com/SAghdashloo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Shohreh Aghdashloo's</a> foul-mouthed UN leader Chrisjen Avasarala is a skilled politician who will kick your ass and save your world at the same time. And, perhaps best of all, is <a href="https://twitter.com/weschatham" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Wes Chatham</a>'s Amos Burton. Born in the worst the streets can offer he became a killer then escaped to become a spaceship mechanic. Chatham plays Burton as simultaneously dangerous, kind, and slightly bewildered, always wanting to do the right thing if he just knew what that was. And don't even get me started on how good <a href="https://twitter.com/CaraGeeeee" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Cara Gee</a> is as Belter captain Camina Drummer.
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY5MTc0OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NTgzOTgwMX0.7RtmTVSHBVO7lpWbIa3qx9bmpBi_qG58b6J_L-nGO0s/img.jpg?width=980" id="e8c48" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2b0f8459f35eb2073d4ed2347f667a6d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1000" data-height="200" /><p>Next, we come to what's called 'universe building' in science fiction. All the great acting needs a fully fleshed out, lived-in world to ground it. How, for example, do the trams work on a hollowed out, spinning asteroid like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet)" target="_blank">Ceres</a> that's used as a space settlement? This isn't a physics question. Instead, it means if you arrived on Ceres, where would you find the tram station? What do the maps look like that would help you get around? These are the kind of details that fall both to the writers and the art department. Getting these details wrong means the world your show inhabits will either look cheesy or, worse, sterile, as if all your expensive sets never had anyone live in them.</p>
<p>Happily, everything in "The Expanse" looks lived in. Everything looks like part of an organic whole. The sets and scenes give us a world built by humans for human purposes even if it's a city built into the side of a Martian cliff. From visions of New York City under siege from climate change to the claustrophobic interiors of Belter ships (all webbing, ductwork and grimy computer screens), the universe of "The Expanse" is endlessly rich, interesting, and believable (<a href="https://twitter.com/donttrythis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Adam Savage</a> has a great set of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2ICDTv3VJA" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">videos</a> on production design in "The Expanse").</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY5MTc1MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NDEyNDg2Nn0.b7YJNl900W-P531IJDBt-a3sxieX3VdjuyhOVJU19PY/img.jpg?width=980" id="90aec" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7630d221c2eadd637411ac089fb7c652" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1000" data-height="200" /><p>Finally, we come to the science, because, after all, this is science fiction. I am not one who demands that my science fiction always get the science right. What matters is that the writers create a self-consistent universe where whatever "science" is invoked remains constant as constraints imposed to provide obstacles and make the story work. But, to my joy, for the most part the "science" used in "The Expanse" is the science I teach in my <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/how-real-world-science-sets-expanse-apart-other-sci-fi-shows" target="_blank">physics</a> classes. For example, there is no imaginary "artificial gravity" babble. Instead, there is thrust gravity when the engines are on, accelerating spaceships. There is also spin gravity when you're on the inside of something rotating. Other than that, you are "on the float." Just like what will happen in real spaceships and space stations in the future.</p>
<p>The level of attempted scientific realism in the show is wonderful, extending even to little details like how whiskey spirals out of its bottle due to the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/coriolis-effect/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Coriolis effect</a> when poured on a rotating space station. Most importantly, the writers use the real physics real people will really encounter in real space travel as a kind of extra character in the show. During space battles, as ships roll and pivot, Newton's first law (inertia) means unsecured tools are sent flying across the cabin. That makes them dangerous projectiles our brave heroes must dodge while fighting evil and advancing the storyline. It all makes my physicist's heart weep in gratitude.</p>
<p>Of course, not all the science in "The Expanse" is valid or accurate or correct. But that's OK. No other show I know of manages to use real science so adeptly in the service of its story and its grand universe building. I often rewatch episodes of "The Expanse" just to get a sense of "Oh yeah, that's how it might look." In a way, the show is the best vision I've ever seen of a space-faring future that may be just a few generations away.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY5MTc1OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNTc0OTQ1OX0.Enwz2n8tuWTiTJCUGhNZyKdFFMpIluc_gMiF81syppo/img.jpg?width=980" id="58949" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="19881167238be86e0db2bcae4e79f249" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="970" data-height="546" />
Credit: "The Expanse" / Syfy
<p>Now, I get it if you don't agree with me. I love "Star Trek" and I thought "Battlestar Galactica" (the new one) was amazing and I do adore "The Mandalorian". They are all fun and important and worth watching and thinking about. And maybe you love them more than anything else. But when you sum up the acting, the universe building, and the use of real science where it matters, I think nothing can beat "The Expanse". And with a <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_expanse" target="_blank">Rotten Tomato</a> average rating of 93%, I'm clearly not the only one who feels this way.</p><p>Best.</p><p>Show.</p><p>Ever. </p>
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How tiny bioelectronic implants may someday replace pharmaceutical drugs
Scientists are using bioelectronic medicine to treat inflammatory diseases, an approach that capitalizes on the ancient "hardwiring" of the nervous system.
24 February, 2021
Credit: Adobe Stock / SetPoint Medical
Left: The vagus nerve, the body's longest cranial nerve. Right: Vagus nerve stimulation implant by SetPoint Medical.
- Bioelectronic medicine is an emerging field that focuses on manipulating the nervous system to treat diseases.
- Clinical studies show that using electronic devices to stimulate the vagus nerve is effective at treating inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis.
- Although it's not yet approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, vagus nerve stimulation may also prove effective at treating other diseases like cancer, diabetes and depression.
<p>Could a tiny electronic device treat some diseases more safely and effectively than pharmaceutical medicines?</p><p>For Kelly Owens, the answer was clear. She spent more than a decade suffering from Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that left her with severe arthritis in her joints. The pain forced her to use a cane, sometimes a wheelchair. She tried more than 20 medications and racked up more than $1 million in medical bills, but her condition didn't improve.</p><p>A physician told Owens and her husband that they shouldn't have children, and that she'd have to take steroids for life.</p><p>Then Owens turned to bioelectronic medicine. She reached out to Dr. Kevin Tracey, a pioneer in the field and president and CEO of the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in New York. Soon after, Owens and her husband moved to Amsterdam to participate in a clinical trial involving a relatively new bioelectronic approach to treat inflammation.</p><p>Doctors implanted a small electronic device in her chest that stimulated her vagus nerve, the body's longest cranial nerve. After two weeks, Owens didn't need the cane or wheelchair. Soon she was jogging on a treadmill.</p><p>A growing body of research within bioelectronic medicine shows it's possible to treat diseases by manipulating the nervous system. The field is essentially a fusion of neuroscience, molecular biology and neurotechnology. Dr. Tracey and his colleagues think the field may someday replace or supplement many pharmaceutical drugs used to treat major diseases, including cancer and Alzheimer's.</p><p>But how? The answer centers on how the nervous system controls molecular processes in the body.</p>
<blockquote>...the most revolutionary aspect of bioelectronic medicine, according to Dr. Tracey, is that approaches like vagus nerve stimulation wouldn't come with harmful and potentially deadly side effects, as many pharmaceutical drugs currently do.</blockquote>
The nervous system’s ancient reflexes
<p>You accidentally place your hand on a hot stove. Almost instantaneously, your hand withdraws.</p><p>What triggered your hand to move? The answer is <em>not</em> that you consciously decided the stove was hot and you should move your hand. Rather, it was a reflex: Skin receptors on your hand sent nerve impulses to the spinal cord, which ultimately sent back motor neurons that caused your hand to move away. This all occurred before your "conscious brain" realized what happened.</p><p>Similarly, the nervous system has reflexes that protect individual cells in the body.</p><p>"The nervous system evolved because we need to respond to stimuli in the environment," said Dr. Tracey. "Neural signals don't come from the brain down first. Instead, when something happens in the environment, our peripheral nervous system senses it and sends a signal to the central nervous system, which comprises the brain and spinal cord. And then the nervous system responds to correct the problem."</p><p>So, what if scientists could "hack" into the nervous system, manipulating the electrical activity in the nervous system to control molecular processes and produce desirable outcomes? That's the chief goal of bioelectronic medicine.</p><p>"There are billions of neurons in the body that interact with almost every cell in the body, and at each of those nerve endings, molecular signals control molecular mechanisms that can be defined and mapped, and potentially put under control," Dr. Tracey said in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJH9KsMKi5M" target="_blank">TED Talk</a>.</p><p>"Many of these mechanisms are also involved in important diseases, like cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, hypertension and shock. It's very plausible that finding neural signals to control those mechanisms will hold promises for devices replacing some of today's medication for those diseases."</p><p>How can scientists hack the nervous system? For years, researchers in the field of bioelectronic medicine have zeroed in on the longest cranial nerve in the body: the vagus nerve.</p><blockquote>What's more, clinical trials show that vagus nerve stimulation not only "shuts off" inflammation, but also triggers the production of cells that promote healing.</blockquote>
The vagus nerve
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTYyOTM5OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTIwNzk0NX0.UCy-3UNpomb3DQZMhyOw_SQG4ThwACXW_rMnc9mLAe8/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0&height=700" id="09add" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f38dbfbbfe470ad85a3b023dd5083557" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1245" data-height="700" />Electrical signals, seen here in a synapse, travel along the vagus nerve to trigger an inflammatory response.
Credit: Adobe Stock via solvod
<p>The vagus nerve ("vagus" meaning "wandering" in Latin) comprises two nerve branches that stretch from the brainstem down to the chest and abdomen, where nerve fibers connect to organs. Electrical signals constantly travel up and down the vagus nerve, facilitating communication between the brain and other parts of the body.</p><p>One aspect of this back-and-forth communication is inflammation. When the immune system detects injury or attack, it automatically triggers an inflammatory response, which helps heal injuries and fend off invaders. But when not deployed properly, inflammation can become excessive, exacerbating the original problem and potentially contributing to diseases.</p><p>In 2002, Dr. Tracey and his colleagues discovered that the nervous system plays a key role in monitoring and modifying inflammation. This occurs through a process called the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01321" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">inflammatory reflex</a>. In simple terms, it works like this: When the nervous system detects inflammatory stimuli, it reflexively (and subconsciously) deploys electrical signals through the vagus nerve that trigger anti-inflammatory molecular processes.</p><p>In rodent experiments, Dr. Tracey and his colleagues observed that electrical signals traveling through the vagus nerve control TNF, a protein that, in excess, causes inflammation. These electrical signals travel through the vagus nerve to the spleen. There, electrical signals are converted to chemical signals, triggering a molecular process that ultimately makes TNF, which exacerbates conditions like rheumatoid arthritis.</p><p>The incredible chain reaction of the inflammatory reflex was observed by Dr. Tracey and his colleagues in greater detail through rodent experiments. When inflammatory stimuli are detected, the nervous system sends electrical signals that travel through the vagus nerve to the spleen. There, the electrical signals are converted to chemical signals, which trigger the spleen to create a white blood cell called a T cell, which then creates a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. The acetylcholine interacts with macrophages, which are a specific type of white blood cell that creates TNF, a protein that, in excess, causes inflammation. At that point, the acetylcholine triggers the macrophages to stop overproducing TNF – or inflammation.</p><p>Experiments showed that when a specific part of the body is inflamed, specific fibers within the vagus nerve start firing. Dr. Tracey and his colleagues were able to map these relationships. More importantly, they were able to stimulate specific parts of the vagus nerve to "shut off" inflammation.</p><p>What's more, clinical trials show that vagus nerve stimulation not only "shuts off" inflammation, but also triggers the production of cells that promote healing.</p><p>"In animal experiments, we understand how this works," Dr. Tracey said. "And now we have clinical trials showing that the human response is what's predicted by the lab experiments. Many scientific thresholds have been crossed in the clinic and the lab. We're literally at the point of regulatory steps and stages, and then marketing and distribution before this idea takes off."<br></p>The future of bioelectronic medicine
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTYxMDYxMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjQwOTExNH0.uBY1TnEs_kv9Dal7zmA_i9L7T0wnIuf9gGtdRXcNNxo/img.jpg?width=980" id="8b5b2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c005e615e5f23c2817483862354d2cc4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="2000" data-height="1125" />Vagus nerve stimulation can already treat Crohn's disease and other inflammatory diseases. In the future, it may also be used to treat cancer, diabetes, and depression.
Credit: Adobe Stock via Maridav
<p>Vagus nerve stimulation is currently awaiting approval by the US Food and Drug Administration, but so far, it's proven safe and effective in clinical trials on humans. Dr. Tracey said vagus nerve stimulation could become a common treatment for a wide range of diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, hypertension, shock, depression and diabetes.</p><p>"To the extent that inflammation is the problem in the disease, then stopping inflammation or suppressing the inflammation with vagus nerve stimulation or bioelectronic approaches will be beneficial and therapeutic," he said.</p><p>Receiving vagus nerve stimulation would require having an electronic device, about the size of lima bean, surgically implanted in your neck during a 30-minute procedure. A couple of weeks later, you'd visit, say, your rheumatologist, who would activate the device and determine the right dosage. The stimulation would take a few minutes each day, and it'd likely be unnoticeable.</p><p>But the most revolutionary aspect of bioelectronic medicine, according to Dr. Tracey, is that approaches like vagus nerve stimulation wouldn't come with harmful and potentially deadly side effects, as many pharmaceutical drugs currently do.</p><p>"A device on a nerve is not going to have systemic side effects on the body like taking a steroid does," Dr. Tracey said. "It's a powerful concept that, frankly, scientists are quite accepting of—it's actually quite amazing. But the idea of adopting this into practice is going to take another 10 or 20 years, because it's hard for physicians, who've spent their lives writing prescriptions for pills or injections, that a computer chip can replace the drug."</p><p>But patients could also play a role in advancing bioelectronic medicine.</p><p>"There's a huge demand in this patient cohort for something better than they're taking now," Dr. Tracey said. "Patients don't want to take a drug with a black-box warning, costs $100,000 a year and works half the time."</p><p>Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health, elaborated:</p><p>"Why would patients pursue a drug regimen when they could opt for a few electronic pulses? Is it possible that treatments like this, pulses through electronic devices, could replace some drugs in the coming years as preferred treatments? Tracey believes it is, and that is perhaps why the pharmaceutical industry closely follows his work."</p><p>Over the long term, bioelectronic approaches are unlikely to completely replace pharmaceutical drugs, but they could replace many, or at least be used as supplemental treatments.</p><p>Dr. Tracey is optimistic about the future of the field.</p><p>"It's going to spawn a huge new industry that will rival the pharmaceutical industry in the next 50 years," he said. "This is no longer just a startup industry. [...] It's going to be very interesting to see the explosive growth that's going to occur."</p>
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Here's a 10-step plan to save our oceans
By 2050, there may be more plastic than fish in the sea.
26 February, 2021
Credit: Cameron Venti on Unsplash
- 2050 is predicted to be a bleak milestone for the oceans - but it's not too late to avert disaster.
- Here are 10 actions the world can take to strengthen and preserve our oceans for generations to come.
<p>The year 2050 has been predicted by some to be a bleak year for the ocean. Experts say that by 2050 there may be <a href="https://www.weforum.org/press/2016/01/more-plastic-than-fish-in-the-ocean-by-2050-report-offers-blueprint-for-change/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">more plastic than fish in the sea</a>, or perhaps <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/news/2006/november8/ocean-110806.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">only plastic left</a>. Others say <a href="https://www.wri.org/publication/reefs-risk-revisited" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">90% of our coral reefs</a> may be dead, waves of <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/353/6305/1284" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mass marine extinction</a> may be unleashed, and our seas may be left <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14682" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">overheated, acidified and lacking oxygen</a>.</p><p>It is easy to forget that 2050 is not that far off. Kids we see building sandcastles on the beach today might be gaining traction in their jobs and perhaps starting their own families. The possibility that our children may inherit from us such a broken and diminished ocean is hard to accept.</p><p>Such a future, however, is not yet written in stone. A healthier, more whole, and maybe even more profitable future ocean may still be within reach – at least for a little while.</p><p>Here are 10 steps that could take us towards a more desirable ocean future:</p><p><strong>1. Freeze the warming. </strong>Stopping climate change is the hardest but most important step we can take for ocean health. It is good news to have the US back in the Paris Agreement. However, we now need ambitious national commitments to achieve carbon neutrality from all signatories of the Agreement. <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/strategies/2050_en" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Recent actions</a> by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/world/asia/china-climate-change.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">China</a>, the EU, <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/japan-zero-emissions-carbon-neutral-society-2050/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Japan</a> and the <a href="https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/net-zero-target" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">UK</a> are also positive.</p><p><strong>2. Walk the talk.</strong> We need to make these carbon neutrality commitments real. This will require massive new investment in renewable energy sources, including some more experimental solutions (such as <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2020/physics-fusion-studies-0929" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fusion</a>), plus potentially looking with open minds into making older low-carbon energy solutions safer and more viable (such as traditional nuclear). We need to fast-track the development of <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-race-to-crack-battery-recycling-before-its-too-late/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">sustainable next-generation batteries</a> to store this energy intelligently across our grids. This includes major needs for marine energy infrastructure. A future, for example, with electrified ports and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/12/swedish-firm-wind-powered-cargo-ships" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">low-emission ships</a> would help eliminate the epidemic of deafening ocean noise, address environmental injustices associated with pollution in ports, make oil spills a thing of the past, and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/10/shipping-industry-carbon-emissions-climate-change-environment-ocean/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">significantly reduce global emissions</a>.</p><a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/142/video-super-hd-view-of-global-carbon-dioxide/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><img alt="A NASA model showing CO2 (the yellow/red swirls) moving across the globe" src="https://assets.weforum.org/editor/5H5yt8QXfixQwD_h5PyNy0XhvCwhh38XoRcaUYd6XPU.gif"></a><p style="display: inline !important;"><em>A NASA model showing CO2 (the yellow/red swirls) moving across the globe. Image: NASA</em></p>
<p><strong></strong><strong>3. Blue revolution</strong>. The 'green revolution' – a massive ramping up of food production on land in the 1950s – has belatedly reached the sea. Ocean farming, or aquaculture, <a href="https://www.mba.ac.uk/two-views-revolution-aquaculture" target="_blank">has increased by more than 1,000%</a> in the ocean recently. The green revolution was sloppily executed, and the first baby steps of the blue revolution have included similar stumbles: chemical pollution, genetic pollution and habitat destruction. But the blue revolution can still clean up its act. Farming in the right places, with the right species, and the right practices could make aquaculture a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23308249.2020.1782342" target="_blank">win for human and environmental health</a>. Ocean food research (into <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariellasimke/2020/10/21/everything-you-need-to-know-about-plant-based-seafood/#57b520dc7655" target="_blank">plant-based</a> and<a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2019.00043/full" target="_blank"> cell-based</a> seafood, for example) could also help us meet growing demand for seafood sustainably.</p><img alt="We still haven't met the 2020 goal of protecting 10% of the ocean. Can we hit 30% by 2030?" src="https://assets.weforum.org/editor/GT4CAGznK0npmI31lAq3UNOKGM7J1x4meILoRJK2w2s.png"><em>We still haven't met the 2020 goal of protecting 10% of the ocean. Can we hit 30% by 2030? Image: Protected Planet</em><p><strong>4. 30 x 30.</strong> Parks protect some of our most important chunks of nature on land – our Yellowstones and Serengetis. <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/11/national-parks-transformed-conservation-now-we-need-underwater-parks/" target="_blank">We are vastly behind</a> setting up parks in the sea. We need to follow through on calls to protect <a href="https://www.campaignfornature.org/cbd-intervention" target="_blank">30% of our ocean by 2030</a>. This must be as much about quality as quantity. We need to use <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/protect-ocean-biodiversity-hotspots/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">intelligent planning algorithms</a> and the intelligence of local and indigenous people to select the very best 30% of the sea to protect. Then the hard work begins. We must develop and deploy <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6278/1148" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new technology</a> to monitor and protect the living assets we put in these ocean savings accounts.</p><p><strong>5. The other 70%.</strong> An <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/january/oceans-extinction-cycle-011615.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ocean industrial revolution</a> is beginning. Human industry is growing at <a href="https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2020-01-26-human-pressure-on-worlds-ocean-shows-no-sign-of-slowing.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">exponential rates</a> in the sea. Even if we succeed in protecting 30% of the ocean, we must still intelligently zone and manage this accelerated anthropogenic growth in the majority of our unprotected ocean. We largely missed that boat on land. Proactive steps to sustainably onboard an ocean industrial revolution include responsibly managing wild capture fisheries (and<a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/2596" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> making more money</a> in the process),<a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/109/12/4696" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> carefully zoning</a> what marine industries go where,<a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/09/harmful-fisheries-subsidies-wto/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> eliminating harmful fisheries subsidies</a>, and coming to grips with the fact that some new marine industries,<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/opinion/deep-ocean-mining-pollution.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> like ocean mining</a>, are simply too dangerous to be allowed into the ocean.</p><ul></ul><p><strong>6. Big cracks in the sea.</strong> Most of the ocean belongs to us all. This includes the two-thirds of the ocean in the high seas that lies beyond all nations' ocean borders and the marine regions surrounding Antarctica. Protection of biodiversity and equitable sharing of resources has slipped through antiquated governance gaps in these international ocean spaces. But<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/opinion/deep-ocean-mining-pollution.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> a proposed new UN Treaty for high seas biodiversity</a> – and<a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/once-again-new-antarctic-reserves-fail-win-backing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> negotiations to sustainably manage and protect Antarctic waters</a> could help.<span></span></p><a href="https://phys.org/news/2018-05-dead-zones-global-pollution-sustained.html" target="_blank"><img alt="An algal bloom seen in Lake St. Clair, between Michigan and Ontario, in 2015" src="https://assets.weforum.org/editor/7QPs9GzJG7NOf62qhCJQZd5GQ-HNqQU3Mv1DzjvpPJ8.jpg"></a><em>An algal bloom seen in Lake St. Clair, between Michigan and Ontario, in 2015. Image: NASA</em>
<p><strong></strong><strong>7. End plastic pollution.</strong> <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/07/23/breaking-the-plastic-wave-top-findings" target="_blank">Plastic pollution</a> is the ocean's new cancer. We need to ban unnecessary plastics and tax other single use plastics, finally making them valuable materials we want to recover and helping to pay for the full cost of their environmental impacts. We need <a href="https://cleancurrentscoalition.org/" target="_blank">research and tech</a> to prevent plastics from leaking into the sea, to overhaul our recycling systems, and to design economically viable alternatives to plastics. This progress may be accelerated by a proposed international <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/19/uk-to-support-plans-for-new-global-treaty-to-turn-tide-on-plastic-pollution" target="_blank">'Paris Agreement' for plastic pollution</a>.</p><p><strong>8. Land. </strong>We can help the ocean by first setting a few things right on land. We must massively increase our ambition to <a href="https://www.1t.org/" target="_blank">save our forests</a>, thus locking up a huge chunk of carbon dioxide. We need to stop wastefully spilling megatons of costly fertilizers into rivers that are <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/321/5891/926" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">creating hundreds of marine dead zones</a>. Precision agriculture that optimizes fertilizer use, coupled with other <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/this-is-how-china-cut-fertilizer-use-and-boosted-crop-yields/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">farming reform practices</a> can help.</p>
<p><strong>9. Wired ocean</strong>. We need more ocean data. This includes new tech to <a href="https://globalfishingwatch.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">detect illegal fishing</a> and connect sustainable fishers to consumers. We need <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/this-new-technology-can-save-whales-from-ship-collisions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tech to help endangered marine wildlife</a> co-exist with ocean industry and fleets of environmental sensors <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/08/shark-conservation-drones-artificial-intelligence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">above</a> and <a href="https://www.wired.com/video/watch/robots-that-swim-around-solving-mysteries" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">below</a> the water to better study our rapidly changing ocean.</p><p><strong>10. Ocean equity. </strong>To build a healthy ocean, we must ensure all people have a <a href="https://vimeo.com/462717055" target="_blank">fair stake in its success</a> and that they are no longer unevenly harmed by ocean health risks. The fate of the ocean will affect people in all communities. Thus, we need people from all communities in ocean science, management, and policy.</p><p>Fulfilling the apocalyptic predictions for a 2050 ocean will be all too easy. Altering that ocean future may be one of the hardest things we've ever collectively achieved. But the consequences of inaction will be even harder to shoulder – for us and our ocean.</p><p>Reprinted with permission of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.weforum.org/">World Economic Forum</a>. Read the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/02/a-10-step-plan-to-save-our-oceans/" rel="noopener noreferrer">original article</a>.</p>
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New research shows that bullies are often friends
Remedies must honor the complex social dynamics of adolescence.
25 February, 2021
Photo: rawpixel / Adobe Stock
- Bullies are likely to be friends according to new research published in the American Journal of Sociology.
- The researchers write that complex social dynamics among adolescents allow the conditions for intragroup dominance.
- The team uses the concept of "frenemies" to describe the relationship between many bullies and victims.
<p>Where do your enemies come from? That's the topic of a <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/712972" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new article</a> published in the American Journal of Sociology, which investigates school bullying, a social phenomenon that affects millions of children every year. Despite the belief that bullies are existential foes, it turns out that the bully and bullied are likely to be friends—at least, "frenemies."</p><p>Looking at 14 middle and high schools at two points in the year, the research team of Robert Faris, Diane Felmlee, and Cassie McMillan concluded that social proximity is not enough of a reason to abandon status elevation. Kids often climb over those closest to them in order to acquire greater standing in their networks—a power play that has adverse mental health effects on the bullied. </p><p>Their analysis began by comparing two parallel cohorts that create linear dominance hierarchies: chickens and summer campers. This game of dominance and ritualized submission is apparent in the barnyard and by the forest lake, as well as in high school, places where "overt aggression is not the only means by which status is attained." Prom queens, they note, "do not fight their way to their thrones." Subtler forms of bullying are often recruited. </p><p>Common wisdom has it that balance theory—the idea that enemies and friends share distinct social spaces—defines much of adolescent posturing. Not so, says this team: positive and negative ties are not as far apart as you might imagine. That's where the concept of "frenemies" comes in. Cruelty is a strange bonding tool that serves the purpose of status elevation, at least for the bully. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"In contrast to both balance theory and much of the empirical literature on bullying, which concludes that victims are isolated or marginal and thus sit at relatively large social distances from their tormentors, we extend the logic of instrumental aggression to anticipate higher rates of aggression at low social distances, between friends and among structurally equivalent schoolmates."</p>
School Bullying: Are We Taking the Wrong Approach?
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="dfd7e31a97e8a049081d3cf6b978714f"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E3U38uZBW6w?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Femlee, a sociology professor at Penn State, says her study offers important insights into why bullying occurs—and, potentially, leaves clues for how to combat it. Her team found peer aggression to be much higher among students that are proximal to one another, either through friendship or social circles. Bullying does not end friendships, she says; they persist over the long-term, with the bullied maintaining ties to their tormentors. </p><p>Looking at a data set of over 3,000 students—at least half were either bullier or victim—the researchers asked students to choose five classmates that had been mean to them, then analyzed these networks while racking levels of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. As one student remarked, "Sometimes your own friends bully you. I don't understand why, why my friends do this to me."</p><p>Femlee <a href="https://news.psu.edu/story/648500/2021/02/22/research/et-tu-brute-teens-may-be-more-likely-be-bullied-social-climbing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">elaborates on the complex dynamics</a> of adolescence:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"These conflicts likely arise between young people who are eyeing the same spot on the team, club, or vying for the same best friend or romantic partner. Those who are closely linked in the school social network are apt to encounter situations in which they are rivals for identical positions and social ties."</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4NzI0NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzEzNzk3NH0.rj3oz_O5iObmxGMvYrqLXUlTXC9ReBqcMToEX75pBhM/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0&height=700" id="4813c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="658087c5920ae5126bfee8445e6977c6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1245" data-height="700" />
Photo: motortion / Adobe Stock
<p>They note that strained friendships are more likely to produce dominance behavior and power differentials than close ties. Punching down is common, especially between students of the same gender, race, and grade. The race for recognition seems to necessitate close racial and gender ties. "Frenemies" usually result from one member of a group victimizing another in an attempt at clawing their way to the top of the network.</p><p>This competition can have lifelong effects, such as reducing the bullied's chances of developing intimate relationships. The authors note that most bullying prevention programs fail becuase, in part, "aggressive behavior accrues social rewards and does so to a degree that leads some to betray their closest friends."</p><p>Such programs tend to focus on a fraction of bullying dynamics, such as empathy deficits and emotional dysregulation. They fail to take into account the complex social dynamics of being a teenager. The authors believe coopting status contents and changing the behavior of high-status youths could have downline effects. Instead of dismantling hierarchies, they recommend recognizing status is intrinsic to group fitness instead of pretending the struggle to the top is an aberration. Only then can you create structural change. </p><p>Friends, they conclude, can be the problem but also offer the solution. Aiming for enduring friendships instead of backstabbing frenemies is a tall order but it could impact the tragedy of bullying—and the emotional carnage it leaves in its wake. </p><p>--</p><p><em>Stay in touch with Derek on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/derekberes" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DerekBeresdotcom" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Facebook</a>. His most recent book is</em> "<em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KRVMP2M?pf_rd_r=MDJW43337675SZ0X00FH&pf_rd_p=edaba0ee-c2fe-4124-9f5d-b31d6b1bfbee" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy</a>."</em></p>
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Scientists grow extremophile microbes on rocks from Mars
The results could help NASA's Perseverance rover find evidence of ancient life on Mars.
24 February, 2021
Microscopic imaging of chemolithtrophic growth on Martian meteorite fragments.
Credit: Milojevic et al.
Surprising Science
- In a recent study, researchers simulated the environment of ancient Mars and tested whether a type of extremophile found on Earth could grow on fragments of a meteorite from Mars.
- Extremophiles are organisms that have adapted to survive in conditions in which most life forms cannot, such as ice, volcanoes, and space.
- The results showed that the extremophiles were able to convert the rock into energy. What's more, the microbes left behind biosignatures that could help scientists identify evidence of past life on Mars.
<p>Scientists have successfully grown microcrobrial organisms on rocks from Mars, boosting the case that life could have once existed on the red planet.</p><p>The study, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-021-00105-x" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Communications Earth & Environment</a>, involved tiny chunks of a Martian meteorite called Northwest Africa 7034, better known by its nickname: Black Beauty. The meteorite was discovered in the Sahara Desert, where it crashed around 1,000 years ago. Today, it's worth 250 times the price of gold.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Black Beauty is among the rarest substances on Earth, it is a unique Martian breccia formed by various pieces of Martian crust (some of them are dated at 4.42 ± 0.07 billion years) and ejected millions [of] years ago from the Martian surface," study author Tetyana Milojevic, an astrobiologist at the University of Vienna in Austria, told <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-grown-microbes-on-actual-rock-from-mars" target="_blank">Science Alert.</a></p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"We had to choose a pretty bold approach of crushing a few grams of precious Martian rock to recreate the possible look of Mars' earliest and simplest life form."</p><p>Ancient Mars probably looked a lot different than the planet does today. NASA data suggest that, billions of years ago, Mars was warmer, wetter, and had a thicker atmosphere, all of which are ingredients for the evolution of life. What kinds of life? It's unclear, but extremophiles are a good bet.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4NDg5Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MDg2NDk0OX0.NsfLVJRcWq3BUgRLvN5KltSGhxbQCsDxHFf93LkN93A/img.jpg?width=980" id="a29d4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="713fa45f99fb8f76059c3712a925d810" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1280" data-height="1707" />
Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034
Credit: NASA
<p>Extremophiles are organisms that thrive in conditions where most life forms would die. Scientists have observed them in volcanoes, soda lakes, Antarctic ice and hydrothermal vents. Some have even <a href="https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/tardigrades-extremophiles" target="_self">survived the vacuum of space</a>. The team behind the recent study focused on a particular class of extremophiles called chemolithotrophs, which are microbes that use inorganic compounds as a source of energy.<br></p><p>To test whether chemolithotrophs might have been able to evolve on Mars, the team placed a chemolithtrophic microbe called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallosphaera_sedula" target="_blank"><em>Metallosphaera sedula</em></a> onto bits of Black Beauty. The researchers simulated the ancient Martian environment by keeping the microbe-covered rock bits in a bioreactor that controlled temperature and levels of carbon dioxide and air.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4NDg5OS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjcyNjYxMH0.tztvcSVLi3okQ8wVVPOIxwes6hWvBgfFPZnQCWAukA4/img.png?width=980" id="bf9bd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a57c70ae690983d81c43ea05599eb7c1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="632" data-height="548" />
The high-angle annular dark-field (HAADF) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) image of the focused ion beam (FIB) section extracted for STEM analysis from the NWA 7034 fragment used in this study
Credit: Milojevic et al.
<p>Using microscopy, the researchers saw that the microbe successfully converted rock pieces into biomass.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Grown on Martian crustal material, the microbe formed a robust mineral capsule comprised [sic] of complexed iron, manganese and aluminum phosphates," Milojevic told Science Alert.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Apart from the massive encrustation of the cell surface, we have observed intracellular formation of crystalline deposits of a very complex nature (Fe, Mn oxides, mixed Mn silicates). These are distinguishable unique features of growth on the Noachian Martian breccia, which we did not observe previously when cultivating this microbe on terrestrial mineral sources and a stony chondritic meteorite."</p>Mars 2020 mission
<p>The study didn't prove that chemolithotrophs or any other type of life ever existed on Mars. But the results did show that the chemolithotrophs left behind unique biosignatures as they converted the rock bits into energy. </p><p>With these fingerprints on the books, scientists working with the Mars 2020 mission might be able to find similar biosignatures in rock samples collected or observed by the Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars in February. Rock samples collected by the rover are expected to return to Earth in 2031.</p>
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Lab-grown brain organoids mature like real infant brains
After 20 months, scientists find lab-dish brain cells matured at a similar rate to those of an actual infant.
24 February, 2021
Artist concept of organoids (not scientifically accurate)
Credit: Girl with the red hat/Unsplash/jolygon/Adobe Stock/Big Think
Surprising Science
- Scientists have found that cultures of embryonic brain cells mature at the same rate as a 20-month-old infant's.
- Researchers have looked to such cell structures, called "organoids," as potential models for understanding the human body's biological mechanisms.
- Their study validates the use of lab-dish organoids for research.
<p>Scientists have been growing cell cultures that resemble natural human cells in dishes for a while now, but their usefulness for research has been inhibited by concerns that they never mature enough to provide insights into human development beyond the womb. Now, scientists from UCLA and Stanford have genetically analyzed dish-grown brain organoids that matured over 20 months pretty close to the same timetable that an infant's brain cells would.</p><p>"This will be an important boost for the field. We've shown that these organoids can mature and replicate many aspects of normal human development — making them a good model for studying human disease in a dish," <a href="https://stemcell.ucla.edu/news/brain-organoids-grown-lab-mature-much-infant-brains" target="_blank">says</a> senior author <a href="https://geschwindlab.dgsom.ucla.edu/pages/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Daniel Geschwind</a> of UCLA.</p><p>The research is published in a study in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-021-00802-y" target="_blank">Nature Neuroscience</a>.</p>
What organoids really are and aren't
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4MzgzOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1OTEzMjc5Mn0.R1KWf66xU7CYlT3CPthA2J-xJKjZP0h0W4vx2Quxiq8/img.jpg?width=980" id="60c18" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a496d5eb7684457c09d0139882876a8f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1440" data-height="1080" />A brain organoid
Credit: NIH Image Gallery/Wikimedia
<p>Organoids are tissue cultures comprised of human embryonic stem cells. They start off as induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS) drawn from skin cells or blood cells before being reprogrammed to revert to an embryonic stem-cell-like state. From there, they can be exposed to chemicals that cause them to behave like a specific type of human cell.</p><p>In the case of this study, the chemicals caused them to become cerebral organoids, self-organized 3D cell structures that behave similarly to natural human brain cells. They don't grow to become full mini-brains.</p>The promise of organoids
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4Mzg0MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMDEzODg0Nn0.AmSwbhi7wxpv1vKOX4jqOhB-pEqJNyFQzu2mhzHWTvc/img.jpg?width=980" id="92a7b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3746da47064a9d07ca33ddf44c5c1880" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1440" data-height="960" />Credit: David Matos/Unsplash
<p>The hope for organoids has been that they would provide researchers a way of observing human biological process in a benign, non-invasive way. Insights regarding the manner in which human cells and organs develop a disease, progress through its stages, and respond, or not, to medication, without involving actual human subjects or animal analogues could revolutionize research.</p><p>In the case of brain organoids, researchers have been hoping they can somehow be used to reveal the secrets of neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders, including epilepsy, autism and schizophrenia.</p><p>That organoids <em>could</em> be useful—though that doesn't mean that they <em>would</em> be—as a result of their permanently remaining embryonic cells. This study is a first indicator that organoids' larger promise can actually be fulfilled. </p>An answer scientists have been hoping for
<p>"This is novel," says Geschwind. "Until now, nobody has grown and characterized these organoids for this amount of time, nor shown they will recapitulate human brain development in a laboratory environment for the most part."</p><p>Now, says first author <a href="https://geschwindlab.dgsom.ucla.edu/pages/aaron-gordon" target="_blank">Aaron Gordon</a>, "We show that these 3D brain organoids follow an internal clock, which progresses in a laboratory environment in parallel to what occurs inside a living organism. This is a remarkable finding — we show that they reach post-natal maturity around 280 days in culture, and after that begin to model aspects of the infant brain, including known physiological changes in neurotransmitter signaling."</p><p>With the study verifying a 20-month maturation process, it remains to be seen how long, or how far, maturation in organoids goes. Can their cells continue to mature for years? Decades?</p><p>Even without an answer to that question, the study, says Geschwind, "represents an important milestone by showing which aspects of human brain development are modeled with the highest fidelity and which specific genes are behaving well in vitro and when best to model them. Equally important, we provide a framework based on unbiased genomic analyses for assessing how well in vitro models model in vivo development and function."</p><p>With IPS cells able to take on the roles of so many types of cells in the human body, and the new knowledge that they do in fact mature beyond their embryonic stage, researchers can feel more confident of insights into biological mechanisms organoids seem to reveal. And researchers can now better equipped to solve some of the human body's vexing mysteries.</p>
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Why science denial and science negation are different
Surprising as it may seem, we are all very good at denial. Negation, however, is a different phenomena.
24 February, 2021
Credit: mvdiduk, Rob Atkins via Adobe Stock / Big Think
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- What makes a person espouse an ideology so intensely as to negate the reality of well-established facts? Perhaps the differences between negation and denial can help us understand.
- Negation looks to the past, while denial looks to the present and future. We negate a historical fact and we deny the reality in front of us. Negation involves a conscious choice to lie, even if it involves the suffering of millions. Denial is subtler and, surprisingly, we all do it.
- Climate change conflates both negation and denial. Hopefully, understanding why will spur more into action, as we choose to become heroes of a new anti-denialist narrative.
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<p>As members of society and as consumers of information we have been discussing quite extensively in social and commercial media the puzzling reasons as to why so many people with different levels of education and financial means would blindly negate facts that are self-evident and well-known in order to defend a position which is, more than anything else, ideologically based. In other words, what makes a person espouse an ideology so intensely as to negate the reality of well-established facts? Examples are easy to come by: Earth is flat; vaccines are bad for you; there is a deep state conspiracy bent on changing the world order; global warming is a hoax; there was no holocaust; there were no dinosaurs; we never landed on the Moon. You can add your own [here].</p>
<p>This list intentionally mixes two very different attitudes people have to certain facts: denial and negation. There is an essential distinction between the two which is often overlooked: negation looks to the past, while denial looks to the present and the future. In English, this distinction is not as clear as in Romance languages: people tend to use denial, as in holocaust denier, and to "be in denial." But it may be time to sharpen this distinction, to make it more effective and, hopefully, to have more clarity. </p>
<blockquote>A negationist is a conscious liar. It is someone who'd rather live in a fabricated reality based on a fabricated past, even if this may mean negating the suffering of millions.</blockquote>
<p>Negation requires a conscious choice to partake in a lie. Someone who negates the holocaust does so by asserting that it didn't take place, choosing to ignore historical facts, documents, and narratives that are well-established and beyond questioning. To negate the lunar landings, the sphericity of Earth, or that dinosaurs ever existed is a conscious choice to ignore scientific data that is accessible to everyone. A negationist is a conscious liar. It is someone who'd rather live in a fabricated reality based on a fabricated past, even if this may mean negating the suffering of millions. A negationist lives in a world that only exists in their mind, usually motivated by self-interest; power or money, mostly.</p>
<p>Denial is different. Surprising as it may seem, we are all very good at denial. We may deny that we are sick, or that the person we love doesn't love us back, or that we are not competent to do a job. Sports fans of losing teams deny the reality and go back to the stadium with hope refreshed. When we say, "John is in denial," we mean that John doesn't want to face reality as it is. This may explain why so many more succumb to denial than to negation. Reality is often hard. We may be broke; we may be lonely; we may be lost in life. In 1973, the American cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker published the Pulitzer Prize-winning book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0684832402?tag=bigthink00-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>The Denial of Death</em></a>, where he argued that we create elaborate defense mechanisms to protect us from the certain knowledge of our mortality. How do we do it, day in, day out, knowing that the end is inevitable? Becker argued that we are able to do this due to our dual nature, at once physical and symbolic. As animals, we are aware of our physical needs and limitations. As symbolic creatures, we contemplate the infinite and the divine; we tell stories of heroic feats that defy the reality at bay.</p>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4NDYyMi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2OTQwNjQ3MH0.lLnsJmhIirCCqYj-7hNPL64jz23rCk8C6HM40Se7ORo/img.jpg?width=980" id="101ac" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="63c08ccf2d5ee181fd8769e78edd3755" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="2000" data-height="1125" />
Trump supporters lined the street on President's Day to show support for him after his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
<p>We can thus begin to see why so many people in the US have chosen to deny the reality of the Biden-Harris election, or that masks and social distancing are essential tools to beat the pandemic. When ex-president Trump claimed that there was a plot to steal the election from him, he positioned himself as the hero-martyr, the victim of a destructive plot that was after him and, by proxy, also after everyone who supported him. He used the old trick of galvanizing a visceral group response by creating a fake reality that bundles people together in a single cause: he made his followers into heroes fighting for freedom. The no-mask using is a clear illustration of how far this identification of "fighting for freedom" can go, even to the denial of the obvious danger of dying from COVID. This shows that our symbolic allegiance is more powerful than the physical. No wonder so many people are ready to "die for a cause," often with tragic consequences.</p><p>Deniers find force in their cohort, energizing each other and relying on group dynamics to find companionship and strength. Tragically, by forcing our physical separation in lockdowns, the pandemic worked as a catalyst to the deniers, their perceived "loss of freedom" bringing them closer together to the point of making them all believe in the heroic dream of a power takeover. The attack on the Capitol on January 6th is the epitome of denialism in modern America, from both sides of the aisle: the perpetrators who marched and pillaged and those who failed to read the obvious signs of mounting danger, denying the reality in front of them.</p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTY4NTc0NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTc4NjI3N30.Gn1etm8Dj_toM5CBh6T5aPKeIZRLOSiKXX7wX1MVjE4/img.jpg?width=980" id="51776" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bc2b517415a9bdc33741409656673c4b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="2000" data-height="1125" />
Science denial — or is it science negation? A protest banner set up in front of the Republican National Convention Headquarters on August 24, 2020, in Washington, DC.
<p>Climate change conflates both negation and denial. There is conscious lying from various interest groups—mostly large corporations that greatly benefit from the fossil fuel industry, as flagged in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change" target="_blank">this article</a> from <em>T</em><em>he Guardian</em> exposing 100 companies as responsible for 71 percent of global carbon emissions—that aim to cloud and discredit past results from the scientific community (global warming is a "hoax"), and there is denial from many well-informed people, who simply choose not to believe that they actually can do something to change the situation.</p><p>"I'm just a person, what can I do to change this massive, worldwide problem?" Well you can do many things: As a consumer, you can boycott companies that don't align with your worldview or that ignore their impact on the world's climate; you can consume less fossil fuels, turn unneeded lights off, use less water, buy a hybrid or electric car, use more public transportation (once it's safe again), eat less meat (perhaps the most impactful individual choice one can make to fight global warming)…</p> <p>Although there are nuanced distinctions within negationism and denialism, by exposing their more obvious differences it may be easier to find constructive solutions that move us beyond the current climate stalemate. We need to turn climate change denial on its head, and make us all the new heroes of the "save the future" cause. Because the truth is, as climate change deteriorates our living conditions, we will all be the martyrs of our own failure to see what's in front of us.</p>
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