Happy Thanksgiving, turkeyday, family get together, whatever you choose to call it! Even if it’s not a holiday for you, we’re here to offer a smörgåsbord of good news.
Also, a big happy birthday to my brother. You’re probably not going to see this, but just in case, I love you! Mwa! All the best!
On with the show!
How about a little fun and nostalgic to start, from one of my favorite musical groups?
You may have heard about this. I can’t overstate the importance of it.
It’s been twenty years of advocacy and legal challenges, but the decision was made to carry out the largest dam removal in history to return the Klamath River in California to its natural state.
Led by the Yurok, Klamath, and Karuk tribal nations, the demolition of four hydroelectric dams will allow wild salmon from the Pacific to run upstream and spawn again as they haven’t done for 100 years.
Last Thursday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a license to allow the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) to decommission and remove the four dams and implement related restoration activities.
These four dams deny salmon access to hundreds of miles of historical habitat, degrade water quality, and foster the spread of fish diseases. Scientific studies and dam removal efforts in other watersheds demonstrate that removing dams can reverse these trends.
Beau of the Fifth Column has a brief about it here:
I hope it’s the first of many. (J Pod and the other Southern Residents would like a word with some people about some dams on the Lower Snake.)
From the “I got multiple problems and one solution for them” files:
More info available here.
Technology. Mushrooms. You wouldn’t think they’d go together, but some scientists — and the future — have something to say about that:
The particular species of fungus is the Ganoderma lucidum, which grows on dead rotting wood in European mountains. As it reaches maturity, it creates a fibrous skin to protect its own substrate (the wood in this case) which if peeled off can instead protect microchips.
The substrate under a computing chip tends to be made with unrecyclable material like non-reusable plastic. The authors point out that the increase in the proliferation of electronics in modern times has not been paired with an increase in their lifespan, and throwing them away is much more economical for users than replacing individual parts.
“The vast number of devices produced every day along with the decrease of their lifetime inevitably results in the generation of enormous amounts of electronic waste,” the authors write in their paper, published in Science Advances.
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According to the researchers, the skin is slightly less-insulative than plastic, but can still withstand high temperatures, even at the same thickness as paper. Furthermore, it can be grown from the loads of cast off wood from lumber production.
At the moment, the team believe their mycelium could excel in products that don’t require a long-lasting electrical circuit such as wearable health monitors and near-field communication (NFC) tags for electronic devices. However more development time and work is needed.
Gotta have a cuteness break.
I love this. It needs no other introduction.
Called SharkGuard, the device fits onto the longlines used by fishermen and creates an electrical field around a baited hook, which sharks and rays pick up with their electroreceptors.
Tests have shown that it can reduce the bycatch of these animals by 91% for sharks and 71% for rays.
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“The main implication is that commercial longline fishing may continue, but it won’t always necessarily result in the mass bycatch of sharks and rays,” said Dr. Robert Enever of the conservation company Fishtek Marine, producers of SharkGuard.
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They are now encouraging fishers who experience high shark and ray bycatch, as well as retail companies who want to improve the sustainability of their supply chain, to seek contact with Fishtek Marine early as sea trials and engineering developments are planned for commercialisation.
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“SharkGuard is an example of where, given the appropriate backing, it would be possible to roll the solution out on a sufficient scale to reverse the current decline in global shark populations.”
How about another barrier broken:
Photo courtesy @BrownU_Bears.
We’ve been following the next, if only recently unpaused, step towards becoming a space-faring race with the launch of the Artemis covered in previous editions of the Roundup. Science is also bringing us new knowledge and understanding of our long distant past selves.
In this case the overwhelming likelihood would be that either Neanderthals or even potentially homo erectus, have been cooking their food as one of the earliest technological developments in our history.
The fish was found at the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov archeological site of Achulian hunter-gatherer communities in Israel.
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The authors note that the transition from eating raw food to eating cooked food had dramatic implications for human development and behavior.
Eating cooked food reduces the bodily energy required to break down and digest food, allowing other physical systems to develop. It also leads to changes in the structure of the human jaw and skull. This change freed humans from the daily, intensive work of searching for and digesting raw food, providing them free time in which to develop new social and behavioral systems.
Some scientists view eating fish as a milestone in the quantum leap in human cognitive evolution, providing a central catalyst for the development of the human brain. They claim that eating fish is what made us human. Even today, it is widely known that the contents of fish flesh, such as omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, iodine and more, contribute greatly to brain development.
From the “The Kids are All Right” files:
We’ve all been affected by COVID. There’s another plague that’s facing its comeuppance due to science, one that...occasionally makes world-wide headlines:
An ongoing Ebola outbreak has infected and killed dozens of people in Uganda. Health authorities in the country and] the World Health Organization (WHO) have announced plans to begin a clinical trial for three Ebola vaccine candidates. Licensed vaccines for Ebola exist, but they are not effective against Sudan ebolavirus, the species responsible for the outbreak.
Doses of the vaccine candidates are expected to be delivered to Uganda this week. The clinical trial is the latest effort to stem an outbreak that has already spread to nine districts, including three densely populated areas, according to the WHO.
The candidates for the trial include one that is a bivalent (meaning it targets two viral strains) and two that are monovalent (targeting a single strain each): a bivalent adenovirus vectored vaccine made by the University of Oxford and the Jenner Institute in England, a monovalent adenovirus vectored vaccine developed by the Sabin Vaccine Institute and a monovalent vaccine from the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.
A lot of technical stuff about trials. I don’t understand all the science, but more vaccines being developed is always good.
That’s it for me on this Thanksgiving Thursday, 2022.
Except for some music from Piano Guys. Because REASONS.
MCUBF OUT!