scientificamerican--2020-08-15--The Ocean Carries 'Memories' of SARS-CoV-2

The memories that we humans encode and store in the neuronal networks of our brains are fundamental to our existence as individuals and as collective societies—for the recalling of those memories , especially during times of stress , can help us to anticipate and shape the future for our own well-being .
But we are not the only ones to benefit from the capacity to remember , nor are human memories the only ones from which we can benefit .
Animals across a wide spectrum provide clear evidence of memory retention , and , perhaps surprisingly , so do plants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , artificial intelligence ) , all of which lack a neuronal brain yet can function within their own networks as entities with agency and memory .
In these cases , as in neuronal life , memory expresses itself through priming and triggering events that cause the organism or the system to respond in a way that improves overall fitness .
Now consider the Earth ’ s ocean , our blue planet ’ s dominant feature over deep time and space from its formation about 4.3 billion years ago to its greatest current depth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Deep in the Pacific .
Every aspect of this vast oceanic system can be viewed as holding memory , from short-term to long-term , individualized to collective .
For example , the cold , salty surface waters in polar regions that sink to form the rest of the deep sea ( cold , dense water sinks ) carry the memory of their initial interactions with the polar atmosphere—in the form of a unique temperature/salinity signature—for a thousand years , in the process keeping the ocean circulating globally for the benefit of all life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ocean also carries memory of the atmosphere—of the carbon dioxide ( and other gases ) its waters have exchanged with the air , which can be stored at depth in the solid form of calcium carbonate for tens to hundreds of years , ready to be redissolved with the right priming or triggering event ( anthropogenic inputs ) , in the process helping to regulate whether the ocean remains at a neutral pH or becomes acidic ( which can harm many forms of life ) .
The geological formations at and below @ @ @ @ @ @ @ processes are at work ( think , hydrothermal vents ) , hold the longest-term memories of the hot water–rock reactions that may have spawned the first stirrings of life on the planet and continue to provide carbon and energy resources to life in the ocean .
And , of course , today ’ s ocean is filled with life—more life than land can support .
And this life encodes memories of its ancestors and of earlier oceanic conditions in its genetic information , the DNA and the RNA that directs the production of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life .
Inherent to all of this life is the entity we call a “ virus.
” We are not the only ones to experience viral infection and pandemics ; infective viruses exist for every living organism , from the smallest of bacteria to the largest of marine mammals in the ocean .
Some infections are lethal to the host , others neutral or even beneficial ; humans have an ancient retrovirus to thank for the evolution of the mammalian placenta , for example ( the placental wall is constructed of a retrovirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whole populations to crash ( think , starfish along the U.S. West Coast , or phytoplankton blooms in the ocean ) , but , importantly , they can recover due to genetic memories held by an individual organism or the collective ecosystem .
To fully understand the origins of the coronavirus that has spread in human societies across the globe and transformed the nature of human health , society and connectivity , we look to a source few have discussed : the ocean and the memories it holds .
We find that exploring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the richly metaphorical , yields insights about this pandemic and the challenges of the Anthropocene , and suggest that such exploring within a fluid medium that knows no boundaries like those we construct may also help us to discover a sense of well-being , intimacy and connection that could lead to healthier and more equitable human societies .
Unlike many viruses that encode their genetic information as DNA , the SARS-CoV-2 virus of today ’ s pandemic is an RNA virus , relying upon only RNA-encoded genes to take over the host @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reproduction .
A growing body of gene-based evidence from the new discipline of paleoviromics points to an ancient common ancestor for all RNA viruses , one that originated and diverged genetically in the ocean before jumping to land during the early evolution of terrestrial animals and plants .
This evidence implies that RNA viruses took root on the planet shortly after the ocean first formed , in settings that enabled what is called “ the primordial RNA world.
” This relatively chaotic world is hypothesized to have preceded the DNA world and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ viruses have been termed “ relics ” of the primordial RNA world .
The ocean , with its contemporary seafloor settings that themselves are relics of the early ocean , thus holds the memory of the earliest lineage of RNA viruses , one that eventually led to the coronaviruses that plague humans today .
When did the earliest coronavirus arise , and who were its hosts ?
The answer to the first part of the question is not well constrained , as estimates range from 10 thousand to 300 million years ago .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the earliest mammals coexisted with dinosaurs ( end of the Triassic Period , around 200 million years ago ) and when large and diverse mammal species emerged following the demise of the dinosaurs ( during the Cenozoic , 60 million years ago ) .
Bats , recognized as the present-day source of most coronaviruses , have been observed in fossil records that date to 50–60 million years ago .
The answer to the second part of the question begs analysis of genomic material .
Comparative gene-sequencing of the virally essential enzyme RNA polymerase @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reproduce within host cells , has revealed how these viruses have coevolved with their hosts and transformed over millennia , much as DNA sequencing has revealed the same about their hosts .
RNA viruses in today ’ s vertebrates are no different in reflecting the evolutionary history of their hosts .
The picornavirus supergroup of RNA viruses , which encompasses the coronavirus , is remarkable for the wide range of hosts its viruses can infect , from single-celled protists ( phytoplankton of the surface ocean ) to invertebrates , vertebrates and plants .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” by RNA viruses is not unexpected .
The essential functions of storage , pruning and priming of memories that occur in all systems—the ocean , viruses and humanity alike—sustain some memories while erasing others , better preparing for the future .
For viruses , the sustaining and erasing of memories occurs genetically through an enzymatic process ( actions of the RNA polymerase ) that is prone to mistakes—mutations—during replication .
These mistakes lead to gene mismatches that help the virus avoid host defense mechanisms ( that recognize infecting sequences and disable them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ including access to new hosts .
In the ocean , the best-known host systems for RNA viruses are the single-celled algae , particularly diatoms , but other phytoplankton and protists serve similarly .
As an RNA virus reproduces within the host , it mutates 0.01–0.1 percent of the time , a rate about a thousand times higher than that of a DNA virus .
Each infected cell , therefore , produces a mutant cloud of 1,000–5,000 “ quasispecies ” of viruses , which means that an infected phytoplankton bloom in the ocean will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ viral quasispecies .
Molecular methods have confirmed the presence of such high numbers of quasispecies in viral populations , including in the ocean , and particularly for RNA viruses with smaller genomes ( which include coronaviruses ) .
The existence of these mutant clouds not only increases the genetic flexibility of viruses and thus their ability to overcome host resistance , but also enables viruses to jump to other hosts .
At the same time , better-prepared hosts—those with genetic memories of how to defend against viruses—survive the population-level infection ; in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cycle of spring phytoplankton blooms continues .
One can examine the sequenced genome of any living organism and recognize the presence of virally introduced genes , a measure of past relationships with viruses .
But in many cases , the viral relationship to the host is simply unknown .
Some 44 percent of human genes are transposable elements— “ jumping genes ” that can change position in a genome .
A remarkable one fifth of those genes , or 8 percent of the human genome , are derived from retroviruses .
By far @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us are of unknown function for us .
Life is not definable simply by singular units like genomes or cells , but rather by a dynamic network of relationships and communications among individuals , populations and their viruses , a network that ultimately connects the entirety of our planet .
Living in the midst of this pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has prompted a global rethinking of many things , including human superconnectivity , the enhanced vulnerabilities that brings , and what activities can be considered essential to our well-being .
As we navigate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ movements , such as the Movement for Black Lives , have burst into a larger global consciousness showing common themes even amid diverse circumstances .
Interactive relationships between the spread of a virus and movements for social justice may be complex , but they are not trivial .
The oceanic origins of the early RNA virus thus offer us both a deeper scientific understanding of the behavior of SARS-CoV-2 , and an open space for creative inquiry : How might the current rapid social uprising and transformation mimic that early , messy , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was rampant and where big changes stemmed from unexpected sources ?
The microorganisms that fill the ocean , from the smallest ( less than one micrometer ) marine bacteria to the larger diatoms ( up to 200 micrometers ) and other phytoplankton that generate blooms over extensive areas of the ocean ( visible by satellite ) , are well-known for intensive relationships with their own viruses ; microbes are easier to study than vertebrates .
Not only do they suffer viral “ pandemics ” that crash a population when it gets too dense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for example ) , but they have also acquired numerous helpful genes , known as auxiliary metabolic genes , from their viral relationships—genes that are retained by the host for improved fitness .
Such gene-information exchange represents just one element of the highly evolved communication systems used by marine bacteria , in particular , to “ network ” —to exchange information and regulate their own activities , accomplishing much of the biogeochemical cycling ( and pollution mediation ) that has occurred throughout the entirety of the ocean ’ s history .
This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on its superconnectivity or runaway networking .
Marine bacteria live and die in a balance dictated by available nutritional resources and potential predators , especially viral infectors , all dependent on diffusion through the fluid medium of seawater .
This balance is sustained in part through cooperative chemical signaling among bacterial neighbors , a form of social communication called “ quorum sensing ” by microbiologists .
When the density of bacteria gets high enough for their chemical signals to reach each other ’ s diffusional spheres of influence ( about 10 micrometers from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its diameter ) , then quorum sensing takes effect .
With quorum reached and sensed , communities of networking bacteria pause their growth and shift gears to other life strategies , including attaching to a surface or becoming sessile , reminiscent of human “ shelter in place ” strategies of recent months .
The ocean can thus be seen as the original social medium , and marine bacteria as having highly evolved social practices of community-alert messaging that leads to physical distancing .
This ocean style of physical distancing enables communities to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and viral safety , for viral infection requires contact , and contact rate is reduced as organism density drops .
Mobile hosts like us , and the bat hosts before us , are the metaphorical seas and oceans in which viruses like SARS-CoV-2 persist .
In order to make contact with the next host they must hitch a ride in the tiny droplets of sea—aerosols—that people exhale or cough up .
In doing so , these viruses become embodied within an individual ’ s own fluid networks , connected to their own cells @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through relationships , chance encounters and other communications .
All organisms employ a suite of tools to communicate at a molecular level , with chemistry ( as in quorum-sensing ) serving to accomplish this metabolic “ diplomacy ” across habitat boundaries .
Usually an endless stream of communications provides a general sense of equilibrium , but imbalances or irregularities in the network can emerge , demanding “ correction.
” Sometimes the correction yields chaotic behavior , as in the jump by the coronavirus from bats to humans—evolutionary relationships have shown that such jumps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a new host .
The chaos represents the making of a new memory , which will script itself into possibly both the viral and the human genome , towards a new equilibrium .
As humans are tumbling towards a new social equilibrium—with laws and public opinion mutating rapidly—the virus continues to race through and change within human bodies .
OUR OCEANS , THIS VIRUS , THIS MOMENT The human toll of this pandemic is devastating .
This virus has exposed and amplified existing societal inequities , as well as the effects of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ biosphere .
But no single act of negligence created this pandemic ; collective human behavior did .
SAR-CoV-2 is just a virus behaving like a virus , exposing and amplifying existing aspects of the distributed life of this moment : a high population density of humans that is hyperconnected and capable of propagating viral spread stealthily , with impacts that may not be recognizable for weeks .
Despite the omnipresent war rhetoric surrounding the pandemic , SAR-CoV-2 is not a warrior ; it is a virus in search of a means to continue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taken advantage of anthropogenic bridges connecting previously stable , isolated habitats , in the process disrupting the existing equilibrium with consequences dreadful for humankind .
At the same time , the initial quieting of human activity cleaned the air and caused a noted emergence of wildlife .
For some , it also reactivated an individual capacity that the superconnected world otherwise shuns : listening to the rich tapestry of birdsong , the systemically silenced voices , the ecological potential of an individual action .
As the novel coronavirus becomes more familiar to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the deep connection that human evolution—all life—has to early ocean history .
Might a shared focus on the surfacing of entrenched memories of human evolution , systemic racism and the trauma in individual lives lost galvanize humanity towards collective change that is mindful of our history and ecology ?
Is there a way for us to search—individually and collectively—for ways to shift the paradigm from “ ego to eco ” ?
From separated humans , fearful of each other and of nature , to an ecologically entangled sense of self ?
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ search ?
Pruned memories , lost archives , oceanic embedded histories that have largely escaped awareness ?
Like ocean memory itself , metaphor and scientific precision need not be in contradiction .
Invoking ocean memory as a guide towards thoughtful interconnectivity might make all the difference to how we interpret past events to anticipate the future , shape new memories to serve that future , and survive our own Anthropocene .
The authors of this essay include John Baross , Peter Bradley , Lisa D'Amour , Jody Deming , Mandy Joye , Daniel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Heather R. Spence , Monique Verdin , Timothy Weaver , Anya Yermakova .

The memories that we humans encode and store in the neuronal networks of our brains are fundamental to our existence as individuals and as collective societies—for the recalling of those memories, especially during times of stress, can help us to anticipate and shape the future for our own well-being.
But we are not the only ones to benefit from the capacity to remember, nor are human memories the only ones from which we can benefit. Animals across a wide spectrum provide clear evidence of memory retention, and, perhaps surprisingly, so do plants, microorganisms and inanimate systems (think, artificial intelligence), all of which lack a neuronal brain yet can function within their own networks as entities with agency and memory. In these cases, as in neuronal life, memory expresses itself through priming and triggering events that cause the organism or the system to respond in a way that improves overall fitness.
Now consider the Earth’s ocean, our blue planet’s dominant feature over deep time and space from its formation about 4.3 billion years ago to its greatest current depth of nearly 11,000 meters in the Challenger Deep in the Pacific. Every aspect of this vast oceanic system can be viewed as holding memory, from short-term to long-term, individualized to collective. For example, the cold, salty surface waters in polar regions that sink to form the rest of the deep sea (cold, dense water sinks) carry the memory of their initial interactions with the polar atmosphere—in the form of a unique temperature/salinity signature—for a thousand years, in the process keeping the ocean circulating globally for the benefit of all life on the planet.
The chemistry of the ocean also carries memory of the atmosphere—of the carbon dioxide (and other gases) its waters have exchanged with the air, which can be stored at depth in the solid form of calcium carbonate for tens to hundreds of years, ready to be redissolved with the right priming or triggering event (anthropogenic inputs), in the process helping to regulate whether the ocean remains at a neutral pH or becomes acidic (which can harm many forms of life).
The geological formations at and below the seafloor today, particularly where volcanic processes are at work (think, hydrothermal vents), hold the longest-term memories of the hot water–rock reactions that may have spawned the first stirrings of life on the planet and continue to provide carbon and energy resources to life in the ocean.
And, of course, today’s ocean is filled with life—more life than land can support. And this life encodes memories of its ancestors and of earlier oceanic conditions in its genetic information, the DNA and the RNA that directs the production of protein and the other building blocks of life.
Inherent to all of this life is the entity we call a “virus.” We are not the only ones to experience viral infection and pandemics; infective viruses exist for every living organism, from the smallest of bacteria to the largest of marine mammals in the ocean. Some infections are lethal to the host, others neutral or even beneficial; humans have an ancient retrovirus to thank for the evolution of the mammalian placenta, for example (the placental wall is constructed of a retrovirus protein).
Lethal viruses can cause whole populations to crash (think, starfish along the U.S. West Coast, or phytoplankton blooms in the ocean), but, importantly, they can recover due to genetic memories held by an individual organism or the collective ecosystem. To fully understand the origins of the coronavirus that has spread in human societies across the globe and transformed the nature of human health, society and connectivity, we look to a source few have discussed: the ocean and the memories it holds.
We find that exploring ocean memories, from the scientifically demonstrable to the richly metaphorical, yields insights about this pandemic and the challenges of the Anthropocene, and suggest that such exploring within a fluid medium that knows no boundaries like those we construct may also help us to discover a sense of well-being, intimacy and connection that could lead to healthier and more equitable human societies.
RNA VIRUSES
Unlike many viruses that encode their genetic information as DNA, the SARS-CoV-2 virus of today’s pandemic is an RNA virus, relying upon only RNA-encoded genes to take over the host cells it infects and direct its own reproduction. A growing body of gene-based evidence from the new discipline of paleoviromics points to an ancient common ancestor for all RNA viruses, one that originated and diverged genetically in the ocean before jumping to land during the early evolution of terrestrial animals and plants. This evidence implies that RNA viruses took root on the planet shortly after the ocean first formed, in settings that enabled what is called “the primordial RNA world.” This relatively chaotic world is hypothesized to have preceded the DNA world and the first cellular organisms, such that RNA viruses have been termed “relics” of the primordial RNA world. The ocean, with its contemporary seafloor settings that themselves are relics of the early ocean, thus holds the memory of the earliest lineage of RNA viruses, one that eventually led to the coronaviruses that plague humans today.
When did the earliest coronavirus arise, and who were its hosts? The answer to the first part of the question is not well constrained, as estimates range from 10 thousand to 300 million years ago. But this span encompasses a time when the earliest mammals coexisted with dinosaurs (end of the Triassic Period, around 200 million years ago) and when large and diverse mammal species emerged following the demise of the dinosaurs (during the Cenozoic, 60 million years ago). Bats, recognized as the present-day source of most coronaviruses, have been observed in fossil records that date to 50–60 million years ago.
The answer to the second part of the question begs analysis of genomic material. Comparative gene-sequencing of the virally essential enzyme RNA polymerase, which enables the RNA virus to reproduce within host cells, has revealed how these viruses have coevolved with their hosts and transformed over millennia, much as DNA sequencing has revealed the same about their hosts. RNA viruses in today’s vertebrates are no different in reflecting the evolutionary history of their hosts. The picornavirus supergroup of RNA viruses, which encompasses the coronavirus, is remarkable for the wide range of hosts its viruses can infect, from single-celled protists (phytoplankton of the surface ocean) to invertebrates, vertebrates and plants. From this perspective, “host jumping” by RNA viruses is not unexpected.
VALUABLE VIRAL MISTAKES
The essential functions of storage, pruning and priming of memories that occur in all systems—the ocean, viruses and humanity alike—sustain some memories while erasing others, better preparing for the future. For viruses, the sustaining and erasing of memories occurs genetically through an enzymatic process (actions of the RNA polymerase) that is prone to mistakes—mutations—during replication. These mistakes lead to gene mismatches that help the virus avoid host defense mechanisms (that recognize infecting sequences and disable them) and thus enable evolutionary advantage, including access to new hosts.
In the ocean, the best-known host systems for RNA viruses are the single-celled algae, particularly diatoms, but other phytoplankton and protists serve similarly. As an RNA virus reproduces within the host, it mutates 0.01–0.1 percent of the time, a rate about a thousand times higher than that of a DNA virus. Each infected cell, therefore, produces a mutant cloud of 1,000–5,000 “quasispecies” of viruses, which means that an infected phytoplankton bloom in the ocean will be filled with billions of these mutant viral quasispecies. Molecular methods have confirmed the presence of such high numbers of quasispecies in viral populations, including in the ocean, and particularly for RNA viruses with smaller genomes (which include coronaviruses).
The existence of these mutant clouds not only increases the genetic flexibility of viruses and thus their ability to overcome host resistance, but also enables viruses to jump to other hosts. At the same time, better-prepared hosts—those with genetic memories of how to defend against viruses—survive the population-level infection; in the ocean, for example, the seasonal cycle of spring phytoplankton blooms continues.
One can examine the sequenced genome of any living organism and recognize the presence of virally introduced genes, a measure of past relationships with viruses. But in many cases, the viral relationship to the host is simply unknown. Some 44 percent of human genes are transposable elements—“jumping genes” that can change position in a genome. A remarkable one fifth of those genes, or 8 percent of the human genome, are derived from retroviruses. By far, most of these grafted-on pieces of us are of unknown function for us.
Life is not definable simply by singular units like genomes or cells, but rather by a dynamic network of relationships and communications among individuals, populations and their viruses, a network that ultimately connects the entirety of our planet.
Living in the midst of this pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has prompted a global rethinking of many things, including human superconnectivity, the enhanced vulnerabilities that brings, and what activities can be considered essential to our well-being. As we navigate this pandemic, long-standing, siloed social movements, such as the Movement for Black Lives, have burst into a larger global consciousness showing common themes even amid diverse circumstances. Interactive relationships between the spread of a virus and movements for social justice may be complex, but they are not trivial.
The oceanic origins of the early RNA virus thus offer us both a deeper scientific understanding of the behavior of SARS-CoV-2, and an open space for creative inquiry: How might the current rapid social uprising and transformation mimic that early, messy, primordial RNA world, where information exchange was rampant and where big changes stemmed from unexpected sources?
OCEAN DISTANCING
The microorganisms that fill the ocean, from the smallest (less than one micrometer) marine bacteria to the larger diatoms (up to 200 micrometers) and other phytoplankton that generate blooms over extensive areas of the ocean (visible by satellite), are well-known for intensive relationships with their own viruses; microbes are easier to study than vertebrates. Not only do they suffer viral “pandemics” that crash a population when it gets too dense (at the end of a bloom, for example), but they have also acquired numerous helpful genes, known as auxiliary metabolic genes, from their viral relationships—genes that are retained by the host for improved fitness.
Such gene-information exchange represents just one element of the highly evolved communication systems used by marine bacteria, in particular, to “network”—to exchange information and regulate their own activities, accomplishing much of the biogeochemical cycling (and pollution mediation) that has occurred throughout the entirety of the ocean’s history.
This microbial life in the ocean has limits on its superconnectivity or runaway networking. Marine bacteria live and die in a balance dictated by available nutritional resources and potential predators, especially viral infectors, all dependent on diffusion through the fluid medium of seawater. This balance is sustained in part through cooperative chemical signaling among bacterial neighbors, a form of social communication called “quorum sensing” by microbiologists. When the density of bacteria gets high enough for their chemical signals to reach each other’s diffusional spheres of influence (about 10 micrometers from the cell surface, or 10 times its diameter), then quorum sensing takes effect. With quorum reached and sensed, communities of networking bacteria pause their growth and shift gears to other life strategies, including attaching to a surface or becoming sessile, reminiscent of human “shelter in place” strategies of recent months.
The ocean can thus be seen as the original social medium, and marine bacteria as having highly evolved social practices of community-alert messaging that leads to physical distancing. This ocean style of physical distancing enables communities to be “smart” about both resource use and viral safety, for viral infection requires contact, and contact rate is reduced as organism density drops.
Mobile hosts like us, and the bat hosts before us, are the metaphorical seas and oceans in which viruses like SARS-CoV-2 persist. In order to make contact with the next host they must hitch a ride in the tiny droplets of sea—aerosols—that people exhale or cough up. In doing so, these viruses become embodied within an individual’s own fluid networks, connected to their own cells, but extendable to other human spaces through relationships, chance encounters and other communications. All organisms employ a suite of tools to communicate at a molecular level, with chemistry (as in quorum-sensing) serving to accomplish this metabolic “diplomacy” across habitat boundaries. Usually an endless stream of communications provides a general sense of equilibrium, but imbalances or irregularities in the network can emerge, demanding “correction.”
Sometimes the correction yields chaotic behavior, as in the jump by the coronavirus from bats to humans—evolutionary relationships have shown that such jumps are enabled by mistakes that enabled infection of a new host. The chaos represents the making of a new memory, which will script itself into possibly both the viral and the human genome, towards a new equilibrium. As humans are tumbling towards a new social equilibrium—with laws and public opinion mutating rapidly—the virus continues to race through and change within human bodies.
OUR OCEANS, THIS VIRUS, THIS MOMENT
The human toll of this pandemic is devastating. This virus has exposed and amplified existing societal inequities, as well as the effects of human encroachment on the Earth’s biosphere. But no single act of negligence created this pandemic; collective human behavior did.
SAR-CoV-2 is just a virus behaving like a virus, exposing and amplifying existing aspects of the distributed life of this moment: a high population density of humans that is hyperconnected and capable of propagating viral spread stealthily, with impacts that may not be recognizable for weeks. Despite the omnipresent war rhetoric surrounding the pandemic, SAR-CoV-2 is not a warrior; it is a virus in search of a means to continue evolving. This particular coronavirus has simply taken advantage of anthropogenic bridges connecting previously stable, isolated habitats, in the process disrupting the existing equilibrium with consequences dreadful for humankind.
At the same time, the initial quieting of human activity cleaned the air and caused a noted emergence of wildlife. For some, it also reactivated an individual capacity that the superconnected world otherwise shuns: listening to the rich tapestry of birdsong, the systemically silenced voices, the ecological potential of an individual action.
As the novel coronavirus becomes more familiar to the human body, it offers a memory of the deep connection that human evolution—all life—has to early ocean history. Might a shared focus on the surfacing of entrenched memories of human evolution, systemic racism and the trauma in individual lives lost galvanize humanity towards collective change that is mindful of our history and ecology?
Is there a way for us to search—individually and collectively—for ways to shift the paradigm from “ego to eco”? From separated humans, fearful of each other and of nature, to an ecologically entangled sense of self? And what will be encountered on such a search? Pruned memories, lost archives, oceanic embedded histories that have largely escaped awareness? Like ocean memory itself, metaphor and scientific precision need not be in contradiction. Invoking ocean memory as a guide towards thoughtful interconnectivity might make all the difference to how we interpret past events to anticipate the future, shape new memories to serve that future, and survive our own Anthropocene.
The authors of this essay include John Baross, Peter Bradley, Lisa D'Amour, Jody Deming, Mandy Joye, Daniel Kohn, Christine Lee, Rebecca Rutstein, Heather R. Spence, Monique Verdin, Timothy Weaver, Anya Yermakova.


scientificamerican--2020-08-16--In Case You Missed It

In Case You Missed It

A new study models how a gigantic , morphing blob of liquid iron in Earth 's outer core underneath the @ @ @ @ @ grip on the North magnetic pole .
A second , intensifying blob below Siberia is @ @ @ @ @

CANADA
A new study models how a gigantic, morphing blob of liquid iron in Earth's outer core underneath the Canadian Arctic is losing its grip on the North magnetic pole. A second, intensifying blob below Siberia is pulling the pole away.
SCOTLAND
A geologic-dating effort suggests the fossil of a millipedelike creature found on the island of Kerrera formed 425 million years ago, making it possibly the oldest-known fossilized land animal. (Older land animals have been spotted indirectly, through preserved tracks.)
TANZANIA
Researchers discovered Africa's largest-ever collection of fossilized human footprints, left in volcanic mud about 10,000 years ago. Many of them came from a group of 17 people, mostly women, all walking in the same direction.
NORWAY
Archaeologists are excavating a 20-meter Viking ship, buried below a farmer's field, to stop a wood-eating fungus from destroying it. Ground-penetrating radar had found the ship in 2018, and a new wood sample analysis revealed that it could not be preserved underground.
ZAMBIA AND MONGOLIA
This spring a satellite-tagged cuckoo completed an epic 12,000-kilometer journey from Zambia to Mongolia. It had originally been tagged in Mongolia in 2019 and traversed 16 countries in its round-trip migration.
ANTARCTICA
Scientists found that king penguin excrement releases nitrous oxide–also known as laughing gas. It forms as soil bacteria eat the droppings' nitrogen-rich compounds.


scientificamerican--2020-08-16--What if We Could Live for a Million Years?

Recently , scientists discovered bacteria that had been buried beneath the ocean floor for more than a hundred million years and was still alive .
What would change if we could live for even just a million years ?
Two thoughts immediately come to mind .
First , tenure in academia would have to be capped .
Universities would have to limit faculty appointments to a century at most in order to refresh their talent pool and mitigate old-fashioned education and research dogmas .
Second , a birthday cake can not hold a million candles .
Instead , the number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of our age .
For a thousand-year-old , that would mean three candles .
Past generations used to say that even though we can not postpone natural death , we can control how we live .
They also believed that there is “ nothing new under the sun.
” Both statements are inaccurate from our current perspective .
With advances in bioscience and technology , one can imagine a post-COVID-19 future when most diseases are cured and our life span will increase substantially .
If that happens , how would our goals change @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lives ?
Given the luxury of pursuing longer-term plans , we could accomplish more ambitious tasks .
We could decide to care more about our planetary environment and interpersonal cooperation , since pollution or hostilities carry long-term dangers .
An extended life experience could make us wiser and more risk-averse since there is much more at stake .
It would make little sense to send young soldiers to wars , or initiate wars in the first place .
But even with shrewd strategies , survival is by no means guaranteed .
For example @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and body weight did not make dinosaurs smart enough to deflect the asteroid that killed them .
Accidents are inevitable , and treatment centers will continuously be busy repairing nonfatal damages due to routine mishaps .
Increasing our fertility period in proportion to our life span will bring the risk of overpopulating Earth .
With the current birth rate per person , the number of million-year-old people could increase to the untenable level of a hundred trillion .
Moderating that would require a public policy that limits the birth rate to the desired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ launch people into space to balance the birth rate and maintain a terrestrial population suitable for the available supply of food and energy .
The good news is that over a lifetime as long as a million years , space travel can take us to the nearest stars using existing chemical rockets .
It would take merely 100,000 years to arrive at the habitable planet around Proxima Centauri with a space vehicle that travels at the speed of NASA ’ s New Horizons spacecraft .
For passengers who live a million years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the decade-long journey of New Horizons to Pluto within our current life span .
Of course , the spacecraft will have to provide an enduring ecosystem and comfortable living conditions over this long journey .
And the passengers will have to maintain a stable mindset for their journey ’ s goal and not lose faith , like a fisherman who , after a long hiatus without finding any fish , asks whether “ the real purpose of fishing is catching fish.
” But in a million years , the nearest star to us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so we might have other targets in mind .
In fact , the night sky will change as new stars move in and out from the vicinity of the sun .
During this period , the Milky Way will exhibit tens of thousands of bright supernovae and other transients that will light up in the dark like cosmic fireworks .
The nearest of those events could pose a threat to Earth 's biosphere .
Since our current technologies advance exponentially on a timescale of several years , our future habitat on Earth will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now .
What does a mature technological civilization look like after such a long time ?
Can it survive the destructive forces that its technologies unleash ?
One way to find out is to search for technosignatures of alien civilizations , dead or alive .
Inevitably , all forms of life eventually disappear .
The universe cools as it expands , and all stars will die 10 trillion years from now .
In the distant future , everything will freeze ; there will be no energy left to support life .
The nearer-term @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so bleak .
The immediate benefit of prolonging life is to keep loved ones alive for more time .
The endpoint is inevitable , but as the Greek philosopher Epicurus noted in his Letter to Menoeceus , death should not be feared because we never meet it , since “ when we are , death is not come , and , when death is come , we are not.
” Troublemakers will also live longer and be confined in prison for improper behavior .
Those whose freedom was inhibited by society always saw @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brings the ultimate freedom from all societal chains .
Unfortunately , this freedom arrives too late to do anything with it , as it is characterized in perpetuity by the acronym and slogan of the old British car Iris : “ It Runs in Silence.
” Like academic tenure , life sentences in prison should therefore be capped to a much shorter period than a million years .
The million-year timescale is an arbitrary choice , comparable to the entire period that has elapsed since our ancestral Homo erectus species emerged in Africa @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ages of the universe , the sun or the Earth .
In principle , one could imagine a life that lasts a billion years , during which stars turn on and off in the sky just like light bulbs .
Against the backdrop of that long-term perspective , our current concerns about the world would seem as naive as the first thought in the head of a newborn baby .

Recently, scientists discovered bacteria that had been buried beneath the ocean floor for more than a hundred million years and was still alive. What would change if we could live for even just a million years? Two thoughts immediately come to mind. First, tenure in academia would have to be capped. Universities would have to limit faculty appointments to a century at most in order to refresh their talent pool and mitigate old-fashioned education and research dogmas. Second, a birthday cake cannot hold a million candles. Instead, the number of birthday candles could reflect the logarithm of our age. For a thousand-year-old, that would mean three candles.
Past generations used to say that even though we cannot postpone natural death, we can control how we live. They also believed that there is “nothing new under the sun.” Both statements are inaccurate from our current perspective. With advances in bioscience and technology, one can imagine a post-COVID-19 future when most diseases are cured and our life span will increase substantially.
If that happens, how would our goals change, and how would this shape our lives? Given the luxury of pursuing longer-term plans, we could accomplish more ambitious tasks. We could decide to care more about our planetary environment and interpersonal cooperation, since pollution or hostilities carry long-term dangers. An extended life experience could make us wiser and more risk-averse since there is much more at stake. It would make little sense to send young soldiers to wars, or initiate wars in the first place.
But even with shrewd strategies, survival is by no means guaranteed. For example, the known correlation between brain size and body weight did not make dinosaurs smart enough to deflect the asteroid that killed them. Accidents are inevitable, and treatment centers will continuously be busy repairing nonfatal damages due to routine mishaps.
Increasing our fertility period in proportion to our life span will bring the risk of overpopulating Earth. With the current birth rate per person, the number of million-year-old people could increase to the untenable level of a hundred trillion. Moderating that would require a public policy that limits the birth rate to the desired level. Alternatively, travel ports could launch people into space to balance the birth rate and maintain a terrestrial population suitable for the available supply of food and energy.
The good news is that over a lifetime as long as a million years, space travel can take us to the nearest stars using existing chemical rockets. It would take merely 100,000 years to arrive at the habitable planet around Proxima Centauri with a space vehicle that travels at the speed of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft. For passengers who live a million years, such a trip would appear just like the decade-long journey of New Horizons to Pluto within our current life span. Of course, the spacecraft will have to provide an enduring ecosystem and comfortable living conditions over this long journey. And the passengers will have to maintain a stable mindset for their journey’s goal and not lose faith, like a fisherman who, after a long hiatus without finding any fish, asks whether “the real purpose of fishing is catching fish.”
But in a million years, the nearest star to us will not be Proxima Centauri, and so we might have other targets in mind. In fact, the night sky will change as new stars move in and out from the vicinity of the sun. During this period, the Milky Way will exhibit tens of thousands of bright supernovae and other transients that will light up in the dark like cosmic fireworks. The nearest of those events could pose a threat to Earth's biosphere.
Since our current technologies advance exponentially on a timescale of several years, our future habitat on Earth will look entirely different a million years from now. What does a mature technological civilization look like after such a long time? Can it survive the destructive forces that its technologies unleash? One way to find out is to search for technosignatures of alien civilizations, dead or alive. Inevitably, all forms of life eventually disappear. The universe cools as it expands, and all stars will die 10 trillion years from now. In the distant future, everything will freeze; there will be no energy left to support life.
The nearer-term future, though, need not be so bleak. The immediate benefit of prolonging life is to keep loved ones alive for more time. The endpoint is inevitable, but as the Greek philosopher Epicurus noted in his Letter to Menoeceus, death should not be feared because we never meet it, since “when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.” Troublemakers will also live longer and be confined in prison for improper behavior. Those whose freedom was inhibited by society always saw this as a silver lining: death brings the ultimate freedom from all societal chains. Unfortunately, this freedom arrives too late to do anything with it, as it is characterized in perpetuity by the acronym and slogan of the old British car Iris: “It Runs in Silence.” Like academic tenure, life sentences in prison should therefore be capped to a much shorter period than a million years.
The million-year timescale is an arbitrary choice, comparable to the entire period that has elapsed since our ancestral Homo erectus species emerged in Africa. It is conveniently shorter than the ages of the universe, the sun or the Earth. In principle, one could imagine a life that lasts a billion years, during which stars turn on and off in the sky just like light bulbs. Against the backdrop of that long-term perspective, our current concerns about the world would seem as naive as the first thought in the head of a newborn baby.


scientificamerican--2020-08-17--COVID-19 Has Worsened the Ocean Plastic Pollution Problem

Eight million metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year .
This equates to one garbage truck ’ s worth of plastic being dumped into our oceans every minute .
The total weight is the equivalent of 90 aircraft carriers .
On top of that , models project that by 2050 , there will be more plastic by weight than fish in the oceans .
This is tragic for many reasons .
Whales , fish , seabirds , turtles and many other animals are eating the plastic and dying en masse .
There are many studies in process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and consuming fish that contain microplastics ( bottles and other single-use items that have broken down ) .
Oceanic ecosystems around the world have been ravaged by plastic waste .
This , of course , was all pre-COVID-19 .
At the outset , it seemed that there might be an environmental silver lining to the global pandemic .
With social distancing keeping people off the roads and out of the skies , air quality has seen drastic improvements around the world .
Carbon emissions are projected to fall by 4 percent in 2020 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the extended shuttering of factories temporarily cleared the country ’ s infamous smog and significantly lowered pollution rates .
Perhaps an even more enduring result of the coronavirus may be wildlife conservation efforts in Asia , thanks to enhanced scrutiny of wet markets ( where it ’ s suspected the virus made the leap to humans ) .
Vietnam , one of the biggest offenders , has recently banned all wildlife imports and closed all of its wildlife markets .
The good news has been—well , really good .
However , the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which have been hard hit in recent months .
COVID-19 triggered an estimated global use of 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves every month .
If we stitched together all of the masks manufactured already , and projected to be produced , we ’ d be able to cover the entire landmass of Switzerland .
The practical problems with gloves and masks finding their way into our rivers and oceans is that they can easily be mistaken for jellyfish , a favorite food of sea turtles .
Because of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risks of entanglement for a wide variety of fish , animals and birds .
And that ’ s just PPE .
When it comes to the rapid rise in single-use plastic resulting from COVID-19 , the story gets even more complicated .
The oil market collapsed , making plastic cheaper to use than ever .
COVID , along with OPEC politics , has contributed to a global crash in the oil markets .
Oil and natural gas ( the latter of which was already at record low prices pre-COVID ) are the key @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Their all-time low cost has increased the price disparity between alternative materials ( think cellulose , seaweed ) and virgin plastic , which has always been the most inexpensive way to package goods .
To be financially competitive in the marketplace , it is now extremely advantageous to package your goods in newly made , cheap virgin plastic .
Single-use plastic use is going through the roof as a result of increased takeout .
With the economic crisis making the average consumer more price-sensitive , affordable goods are taking precedence over environmentally friendly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in plastic are universally less expensive , those items are the go-to for cash-strapped shoppers .
And while takeout has been the saving grace for many restaurants , it ’ s also contributing to the growing heap of single-use plastic globally .
Much of this kind of plastic is not recyclable .
2020 is on pace to see 30 percent more waste than 2019 .
Recycling systems around the world are starting to break down because of COVID-19 budget strains .
So , where does all this extra plastic go ?
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up either in landfills ( in North America ) or incinerated ( in Europe ) , and a small amount—10 percent on average—gets recycled .
The U.S. has about 9,000 recycling facilities , most of which are run by municipalities and tied to local budgets .
As states bear the brunt of COVID-19-related health and unemployment costs , some municipalities are suspending their recycling services .
Peoria , Illinois , has already cut recycling programs .
Omaha and New Orleans are considering massive cuts to save money as well .
Lexington , Va. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recycling .
In the developing world , plastic often ends up mismanaged in open dumps , eventually leaking into the environment , ultimately making its way into rivers and then into the oceans .
Much of the minimal funding directed to waste management infrastructure in developing economies has been reappropriated as a result of the virus .
So , what happens in the U.S. and Europe is even further amplified in Indonesia , Brazil , India , Kenya , Guatemala and Haiti .
Fifteen million waste pickers in the developing world pick up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ massive open landfills ; and , in many cases , off beaches .
In recent months , some waste-picking communities have been forced to pick up twice as much plastic as they once did for the same amount of money .
In some cases , this discourages them from picking up plastic at all , as other materials are more valuable .
As far as ocean plastics solutions go , waste pickers are an integral piece of the puzzle—the last line of defense between plastic waste and the oceans .
Given current market @ @ @ @ @ @ @ play this vital role .
Combine the breakdown of the recycling infrastructure in the West and in the developing world with the COVID-19-related explosion of single-use plastic , and you have a plastic tsunami gaining strength in our oceans .
I ’ m the founder of SoulBuffalo , which formed the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network ( OPLN ) , a community of 67 member organizations ( activist to industry ) working together to innovate and actualize solutions to the ocean plastics crisis .
We ’ re committed to simplifying communications regarding the gravity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ person can understand the complexity ) and accelerating solutions to this problem .
WWF , Coca-Cola , P & G , Greenpeace , the Ellen MacArthur Foundation , Dow , the Ocean Conservancy and National Geographic are among the dozens of organizations on this “ Leader-ship ” with us .
As a neutral party in a sea of conflicting , wildly variant viewpoints on how to solve this crisis , SoulBuffalo believes tension equals progress .
We ’ re surrounded by brilliant leaders with compelling and often clashing perspectives .
For example , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ partners are steadfastly dedicated to repairing the recycling system , Greenpeace and many activist organizations believe the system is fundamentally flawed , and that we should work to shut off single-use plastic at the tap as soon as possible .
It ’ s this clash of strategies that makes our network very different , and also gives us deep insight into varied perspectives that lead to the vast array of solutions out there .
Transparent supply chains are the first step , and need to accelerate rapidly .
There is hope and progress @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are paving the way for change .
A critical project led by the World Wildlife Fund ( WWF ) took shape in June .
The initiative , called ReSource : Plastic , mostly flew under the radar in a news cycle largely covering the virus , the social justice movement , and the most important presidential election in our lifetime .
While it may not have made the waves it deserved in the media , the initiative is a huge step forward .
Despite our neutrality at the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ firmly behind movements in which we believe wholeheartedly .
WWF ’ s ReSource : Plastic initiative is one of these .
WWF is encouraging the top companies in the world to share their plastic footprint publicly , including how much plastic they are currently making and putting in the market , where it goes geographically and their best guess at what happens to it .
Is it recycled , landfilled , incinerated or mismanaged , ending up in open dumps or the environment ?
Transparent accounting of the plastic that is getting into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and in this , ReSource : Plastic has catalytic potential .
The open data wheel has begun to turn , with Coca-Cola , Starbucks , McDonald ’ s , Keurig Dr. Pepper and P & G leading the charge and pulling back the curtain of their operations .
According to the first report , “ Transparency 2020 , these five companies totaled 4.2 million metric tons of plastic collectively in 2018 .
For perspective that is 287,279 adult blue whales weighing 330,000 pounds .
( A side note : there are only 25,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million metrics tons of blue whales is 11.5 times the current living numbers . )
And this is just the annual plastic footprint of just five companies .
This disclosure is a giant leap .
If there is courage in the corporate world , this initiative qualifies , as there are clear risks .
Open supply chain transparency will empower activist organizations , like OPLN member Greenpeace , to use the data to push for changes they are championing like plastic reduction goals ( which no Fortune 500 company has publicly committed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ReSource : Plastic with respect to the five launch partner companies include : • 8 percent of the total amount of plastic was recycled .
• 63 percent of the waste in the US ended up in landfills .
Based on the synthesized data , WWF makes four recommendations to its partners and the broader market : • Fill critical data gaps by demanding transparency from more companies .
In the spirit of the five member companies that are working with the WWF ( and the three more that just signed on ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up and make the radical move of being brave , open and transparent .
The commitment of companies to sharing this vital information is urgent and valiant .
To protect the Earth ’ s oceans , the entire world must know exactly how much plastic is manufactured , recycled , lost , burned or buried .
When we have the data from the first 100 major brands , we ’ re going to be in far better shape , but it will just be the tip of the iceberg .
Many organizations in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the ocean plastics crisis must be solved , or else .
And 2030 will be here before we know it .
Especially with the recent COVID-19 setbacks , we must do everything in our power to expedite solutions to the plastics crisis .
So much of this plastic will end up in our oceans .
We must collectively think bigger and faster , as the problem exponentially grows and gathers speed .
When full transparency of the entire global supply chain exists , the decisions made by governments , industry and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tactical and ultimately rooted in fact and fundamental science .
Industry , activists and the consumers will all use this data differently .
We believe having the data readily available will allow all stakeholders to put the pedal to the metal .
How can we ensure that the top 10,000—not just 100—companies share transparent operational data in the next 10 years ?
If the world can embrace this fundamental mindset shift toward urgency , and not just wave the red flag but act on it , we may be able to collectively save @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is ours .

Eight million metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year. This equates to one garbage truck’s worth of plastic being dumped into our oceans every minute. The total weight is the equivalent of 90 aircraft carriers. On top of that, models project that by 2050, there will be more plastic by weight than fish in the oceans.
This is tragic for many reasons. Whales, fish, seabirds, turtles and many other animals are eating the plastic and dying en masse. There are many studies in process exploring the relationship between human health problems and consuming fish that contain microplastics (bottles and other single-use items that have broken down). Oceanic ecosystems around the world have been ravaged by plastic waste.
This, of course, was all pre-COVID-19.
At the outset, it seemed that there might be an environmental silver lining to the global pandemic. With social distancing keeping people off the roads and out of the skies, air quality has seen drastic improvements around the world. Carbon emissions are projected to fall by 4 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. In China, the extended shuttering of factories temporarily cleared the country’s infamous smog and significantly lowered pollution rates. Perhaps an even more enduring result of the coronavirus may be wildlife conservation efforts in Asia, thanks to enhanced scrutiny of wet markets (where it’s suspected the virus made the leap to humans). Vietnam, one of the biggest offenders, has recently banned all wildlife imports and closed all of its wildlife markets. The good news has been—well, really good.
However, the same cannot be said for our oceans, which have been hard hit in recent months. COVID-19 triggered an estimated global use of 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves every month. If we stitched together all of the masks manufactured already, and projected to be produced, we’d be able to cover the entire landmass of Switzerland.
Credit: Geoffrey Abraham
The practical problems with gloves and masks finding their way into our rivers and oceans is that they can easily be mistaken for jellyfish, a favorite food of sea turtles. Because of their elastic components, masks also have increased risks of entanglement for a wide variety of fish, animals and birds.
And that’s just PPE. When it comes to the rapid rise in single-use plastic resulting from COVID-19, the story gets even more complicated.
The oil market collapsed, making plastic cheaper to use than ever. COVID, along with OPEC politics, has contributed to a global crash in the oil markets. Oil and natural gas (the latter of which was already at record low prices pre-COVID) are the key raw materials used to make plastic. Their all-time low cost has increased the price disparity between alternative materials (think cellulose, seaweed) and virgin plastic, which has always been the most inexpensive way to package goods. To be financially competitive in the marketplace, it is now extremely advantageous to package your goods in newly made, cheap virgin plastic.
Single-use plastic use is going through the roof as a result of increased takeout. With the economic crisis making the average consumer more price-sensitive, affordable goods are taking precedence over environmentally friendly ones. Since grocery items that come in plastic are universally less expensive, those items are the go-to for cash-strapped shoppers. And while takeout has been the saving grace for many restaurants, it’s also contributing to the growing heap of single-use plastic globally. Much of this kind of plastic is not recyclable. 2020 is on pace to see 30 percent more waste than 2019.
Recycling systems around the world are starting to break down because of COVID-19 budget strains. So, where does all this extra plastic go?
In the Western world, much of it ends up either in landfills (in North America) or incinerated (in Europe), and a small amount—10 percent on average—gets recycled. The U.S. has about 9,000 recycling facilities, most of which are run by municipalities and tied to local budgets. As states bear the brunt of COVID-19-related health and unemployment costs, some municipalities are suspending their recycling services. Peoria, Illinois, has already cut recycling programs. Omaha and New Orleans are considering massive cuts to save money as well. Lexington, Va., is also considering curbing its curbside recycling.
In the developing world, plastic often ends up mismanaged in open dumps, eventually leaking into the environment, ultimately making its way into rivers and then into the oceans. Much of the minimal funding directed to waste management infrastructure in developing economies has been reappropriated as a result of the virus. So, what happens in the U.S. and Europe is even further amplified in Indonesia, Brazil, India, Kenya, Guatemala and Haiti.
Fifteen million waste pickers in the developing world pick up plastic off the streets; out of massive open landfills; and, in many cases, off beaches. In recent months, some waste-picking communities have been forced to pick up twice as much plastic as they once did for the same amount of money. In some cases, this discourages them from picking up plastic at all, as other materials are more valuable.
As far as ocean plastics solutions go, waste pickers are an integral piece of the puzzle—the last line of defense between plastic waste and the oceans. Given current market conditions, many are not able to play this vital role.
Combine the breakdown of the recycling infrastructure in the West and in the developing world with the COVID-19-related explosion of single-use plastic, and you have a plastic tsunami gaining strength in our oceans.
I’m the founder of SoulBuffalo, which formed the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network (OPLN), a community of 67 member organizations (activist to industry) working together to innovate and actualize solutions to the ocean plastics crisis. We’re committed to simplifying communications regarding the gravity of this crisis (so the average person can understand the complexity) and accelerating solutions to this problem. WWF, Coca-Cola, P&G, Greenpeace, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Dow, the Ocean Conservancy and National Geographic are among the dozens of organizations on this “Leader-ship” with us.
As a neutral party in a sea of conflicting, wildly variant viewpoints on how to solve this crisis, SoulBuffalo believes tension equals progress. We’re surrounded by brilliant leaders with compelling and often clashing perspectives.
For example, while many of our NGO and industry partners are steadfastly dedicated to repairing the recycling system, Greenpeace and many activist organizations believe the system is fundamentally flawed, and that we should work to shut off single-use plastic at the tap as soon as possible. It’s this clash of strategies that makes our network very different, and also gives us deep insight into varied perspectives that lead to the vast array of solutions out there.
Transparent supply chains are the first step, and need to accelerate rapidly. There is hope and progress, and some key solutions and programs are paving the way for change. A critical project led by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) took shape in June. The initiative, called ReSource: Plastic, mostly flew under the radar in a news cycle largely covering the virus, the social justice movement, and the most important presidential election in our lifetime. While it may not have made the waves it deserved in the media, the initiative is a huge step forward.
Despite our neutrality at the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network, there are specific cases when we stand firmly behind movements in which we believe wholeheartedly. WWF’s ReSource: Plastic initiative is one of these.
WWF is encouraging the top companies in the world to share their plastic footprint publicly, including how much plastic they are currently making and putting in the market, where it goes geographically and their best guess at what happens to it. Is it recycled, landfilled, incinerated or mismanaged, ending up in open dumps or the environment? Transparent accounting of the plastic that is getting into the system is the first step, and in this, ReSource: Plastic has catalytic potential. The open data wheel has begun to turn, with Coca-Cola, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Keurig Dr. Pepper and P&G leading the charge and pulling back the curtain of their operations.
According to the first report, “Transparency 2020, ” these five companies totaled 4.2 million metric tons of plastic collectively in 2018. For perspective that is 287,279 adult blue whales weighing 330,000 pounds. (A side note: there are only 25,000 blue whales on earth, so 4.2 million metrics tons of blue whales is 11.5 times the current living numbers.) And this is just the annual plastic footprint of just five companies.
This disclosure is a giant leap. If there is courage in the corporate world, this initiative qualifies, as there are clear risks. Open supply chain transparency will empower activist organizations, like OPLN member Greenpeace, to use the data to push for changes they are championing like plastic reduction goals (which no Fortune 500 company has publicly committed to yet).
The findings from ReSource: Plastic with respect to the five launch partner companies include:
8 percent of the total amount of plastic was recycled.
63 percent of the waste in the US ended up in landfills.
41 percent in Europe was incinerated.
74 percent in SE Asia was mismanaged.
Based on the synthesized data, WWF makes four recommendations to its partners and the broader market:
Eliminate unnecessary products (think small non-recyclable items like straws). Prioritize investment in sustainable production. Work to double the global recycling rate. Fill critical data gaps by demanding transparency from more companies.
In the spirit of the five member companies that are working with the WWF (and the three more that just signed on), we urge other companies to step up and make the radical move of being brave, open and transparent. The commitment of companies to sharing this vital information is urgent and valiant.
To protect the Earth’s oceans, the entire world must know exactly how much plastic is manufactured, recycled, lost, burned or buried. When we have the data from the first 100 major brands, we’re going to be in far better shape, but it will just be the tip of the iceberg.
Many organizations in the world are calling 2030 the year that the ocean plastics crisis must be solved, or else. And 2030 will be here before we know it. Especially with the recent COVID-19 setbacks, we must do everything in our power to expedite solutions to the plastics crisis. So much of this plastic will end up in our oceans. We must collectively think bigger and faster, as the problem exponentially grows and gathers speed.
When full transparency of the entire global supply chain exists, the decisions made by governments, industry and the NGO sector will be smarter, more tactical and ultimately rooted in fact and fundamental science. Industry, activists and the consumers will all use this data differently. We believe having the data readily available will allow all stakeholders to put the pedal to the metal.
How can we ensure that the top 10,000—not just 100—companies share transparent operational data in the next 10 years? If the world can embrace this fundamental mindset shift toward urgency, and not just wave the red flag but act on it, we may be able to collectively save our oceans by 2030. The choice is ours.


scientificamerican--2020-08-17--Costa Rica Readies Horse Antibodies for Trials as an Inexpensive COVID-19 Therapy

Development of the hundreds of vaccines and therapies for COVID-19 is by no means confined to metro areas surrounding San Francisco , Boston or Washington , D.C .
Borrowing from decades of experience in producing snake antivenoms , scientists , veterinarians and technicians at a scientific and technical institute in Costa Rica have labored nonstop in recent months to produce a therapeutic formulation of equine antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 , the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 .
Similar efforts are underway in Brazil and Argentina to tide these countries over until the arrival of an effective vaccine .
In late March , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diagnosed in Costa Rica , Román Macaya—a biochemist and public health expert who heads the Costa Rican Social Security Fund , which runs the nation ’ s public clinics and hospitals—issued a call for the research community to join the fight against the then nascent pandemic .
“ Our response to COVID-19 could not be only a health care response , ” Macaya says .
“ It had to be a scientific response as well.
” In making his plea for help , he singled out the antivenom specialists at the University of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which is named after a renowned Costa Rican scientist .
“ The very next day we got a letter from Henning Jensen , then rector of the University of Costa Rica saying , ‘ We ’ re in .
Let 's get together and work on this , ’ ” Macaya recalls .
The effort ’ s objective was to harness the technology and experience the Clodomiro Picado Institute has acquired in its work using horse antibodies to fabricate antivenoms for snake bites during the past five decades .
Every year , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the institute save more than 500 people in Costa Rica and thousands more in other countries around the world .
The Clodomiro Picado Institute has more than 100 horses that have developed strong immunity to snake venoms after being inoculated with small quantities of toxins over a period of weeks to months .
Besides their use in antivenoms for snakes , scorpions and spiders , for decades , pharmaceutical preparations of equine antibodies have been employed worldwide as a treatment for rabies , botulism and diphtheria .
Clinical trials of the institute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nigeria and Papua New Guinea have shown that these antibodies are safe in humans and rarely induce severe adverse reactions .
More recently , equine immunoglobulin therapy has emerged as a potential treatment for a range of viruses that have limited therapeutic options .
Among them are the highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses H5N1 and H7N9 and the coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome ( MERS ) .
“ All this inspired several research groups to find ways to produce safe and effective COVID-19 equine immunoglobulins , ” explains Fan Hui Wen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Butantan Institute in Brazil , which also has long experience in manufacturing such antibodies .
She was not involved with the research at the Clodomiro Picado Institute .
The Costa Rican project has an air of familiarity .
“ The idea behind the antibody therapy for patients with COVID-19 is similar to that of treating patients suffering from snakebite poisoning , ” says Alberto Alape Girón , a microbiologist and lead researcher of the COVID-19 project at the Clodomiro Picado Institute .
“ We want to generate specific antibodies against viral structures @ @ @ @ @ @ @ give them to patients who are starting to fight the infection but whose immune system still does not produce enough antibodies to clear the viral particles , ” he adds .
Private citizens who wanted to help with the research donated six horses to the institute .
The animals were inoculated with engineered proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus .
Three of the horses received only S1 , a portion of the protein that makes up the protruding spikes that stick out from the pathogen ’ s surface .
The other three animals received @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coronavirus , including S1 .
After four rounds of inoculations administered every two weeks , the horses produced the desired level of antibodies .
At this point , their blood was extracted , and the red blood cells were separated from the plasma and returned to the horses .
“ Plasma is a very complex mixture that has hundreds of proteins , ” Alape-Girón says .
“ Antibodies are one of the most abundant proteins , but there are others.
” At the pharmaceutical plant , researchers used a technology developed by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from other proteins in the plasma and then purified them to obtain the therapeutic formulation for human testing .
In total , the plant produced 1,000 10-milliliter vials of purified equine antibodies .
Half of them had antibodies against the S1 protein , and the other half contained the four proteins present in the coronavirus .
“ Just one 10-mL vial has about 80 times the quantity of antibodies you can find in 800 mL of convalescent plasma , which is the plasma donated by someone who has overcome an infection of SARS-CoV-2 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the efficacy of the equine antibodies , a few vials were shipped to George Mason University ’ s National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases ( NCBID ) .
“ We wanted to determine if the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be neutralized by the horse-produced antibodies , ” says Charles Bailey , a professor of biology and executive director of the NCBID .
“ The test we performed on the samples is called a plaque reduction neutralization test , PRNTest .
We exposed the antibodies produced in horses , at various dilutions , to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The virus was neutralized.
” The results of the research are expected to be published in the near future .
The next step—testing the equine antibodies in COVID-19 patients—will begin with an accelerated clinical trial this month .
The antibodies ’ safety and efficacy will be examined in a group of 26 patients with COVID-19 who have been hospitalized but not placed in an intensive care unit .
The results are expected by the end of September .
If they are positive , the research will then move to a large-scale trial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the equine antibodies are shown to be effective , the Clodomiro Picado Institute could immunize more horses to scale up and produce enough of them to cover Costa Rica ’ s demand—and probably that of its neighbors .
It received a $ 500,000 grant on Aug. 13 from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration to move ahead with equine antibody research .
Unlike monoclonal antibodies , which are being developed to target a specific molecular region , or epitope , on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 to elicit an immune response , horse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The lower specificity translates into a more inexpensive manufacturing process .
Alape-Girón estimates that a vial of equine antibodies will cost $ 100 to produce , whereas a treatment with monoclonal antibodies could be 10 times more expensive .
“ It ’ s not the highest technology , ” Macaya says .
“ It ’ s not a monoclonal antibody , but it allows us the benefit of speed , and it ’ s a very pragmatic approach.
” Further , “ if this were a monoclonal antibody , you would need @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” he adds .
“ Here , the horses are the factories—at least for the production part .
Then comes the purification part , which is an industrial process , but the Clodomiro Picado Institute already has that infrastructure.
” Fan says this description mirrors her experience at the Butantan Institute in Brazil .
“ Polyclonal antibody products can be made in large quantities , and cost-effectively , to respond to large-scale pandemic situations , such as the infection by SARS-CoV-2 ” , she says .
Currently , the Butantan Institute is preparing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inactivated SARS-COV-2 virus , which were isolated , cultured and purified , using its expertise in the production of influenza virus vaccines .
Even though the development protocols differ at the Brazilian and Costa Rican institutes , Fan predicts their antibodies “ will have equivalent efficiency and safety in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
” Even farther south in South America , scientists in Argentina are also developing a potential therapy for COVID-19 patients using equine antibodies , while other researchers worldwide are exploring antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 from llamas and cows .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same : to save lives while waiting for a vaccine to become available .
Costa Rica has more than 28,000 cases of COVID-19 .
`` We have over 100 patients in the ICU , '' Macaya says .
`` And our ICU capacity , as with any country , is limited . ''
His hope is that equine antibodies will prove to be “ a very valuable tool in keeping our health care system from collapsing at the ICU level and , obviously , preventing deaths .
That ’ s the ultimate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outbreak from Scientific American here .
And read coverage from our international network of magazines here .

Editor’s Note (9/4/20): Drugmakers worldwide are working overtime to produce vaccines for COVID-19. If delays emerge, they may need to rely on costly biotech such as monoclonal antibodies. In this article, Scientific American details another approach making progress in Costa Rica, where inexpensive horse antibodies are being developed against the novel coronavirus.
Development of the hundreds of vaccines and therapies for COVID-19 is by no means confined to metro areas surrounding San Francisco, Boston or Washington, D.C. Borrowing from decades of experience in producing snake antivenoms, scientists, veterinarians and technicians at a scientific and technical institute in Costa Rica have labored nonstop in recent months to produce a therapeutic formulation of equine antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Similar efforts are underway in Brazil and Argentina to tide these countries over until the arrival of an effective vaccine.
In late March, after the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Costa Rica, Román Macaya—a biochemist and public health expert who heads the Costa Rican Social Security Fund, which runs the nation’s public clinics and hospitals—issued a call for the research community to join the fight against the then nascent pandemic. “Our response to COVID-19 could not be only a health care response,” Macaya says. “It had to be a scientific response as well.”
In making his plea for help, he singled out the antivenom specialists at the University of Costa Rica’s Clodomiro Picado Institute, which is named after a renowned Costa Rican scientist. “The very next day we got a letter from Henning Jensen, then rector of the University of Costa Rica saying, ‘We’re in. Let's get together and work on this,’” Macaya recalls.
The effort’s objective was to harness the technology and experience the Clodomiro Picado Institute has acquired in its work using horse antibodies to fabricate antivenoms for snake bites during the past five decades. Every year, the antivenoms with purified equine antibodies produced at the institute save more than 500 people in Costa Rica and thousands more in other countries around the world.
Equine antibodies made at The Clodomiro Picado Institute’s production plant. Credit: Jenniffer Jiménez Oficina de Divulgación, Universidad de Costa Rica
The Clodomiro Picado Institute has more than 100 horses that have developed strong immunity to snake venoms after being inoculated with small quantities of toxins over a period of weeks to months. Besides their use in antivenoms for snakes, scorpions and spiders, for decades, pharmaceutical preparations of equine antibodies have been employed worldwide as a treatment for rabies, botulism and diphtheria. Clinical trials of the institute’s antivenoms conducted in Colombia, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea have shown that these antibodies are safe in humans and rarely induce severe adverse reactions.
More recently, equine immunoglobulin therapy has emerged as a potential treatment for a range of viruses that have limited therapeutic options. Among them are the highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses H5N1 and H7N9 and the coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). “All this inspired several research groups to find ways to produce safe and effective COVID-19 equine immunoglobulins,” explains Fan Hui Wen, a researcher and project manager at the Butantan Institute in Brazil, which also has long experience in manufacturing such antibodies. She was not involved with the research at the Clodomiro Picado Institute.
The Costa Rican project has an air of familiarity. “The idea behind the antibody therapy for patients with COVID-19 is similar to that of treating patients suffering from snakebite poisoning,” says Alberto Alape Girón, a microbiologist and lead researcher of the COVID-19 project at the Clodomiro Picado Institute. “We want to generate specific antibodies against viral structures in horses, purify the antibodies and give them to patients who are starting to fight the infection but whose immune system still does not produce enough antibodies to clear the viral particles, ” he adds.
Private citizens who wanted to help with the research donated six horses to the institute. The animals were inoculated with engineered proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Three of the horses received only S1, a portion of the protein that makes up the protruding spikes that stick out from the pathogen’s surface. The other three animals received a combination of four proteins from the coronavirus, including S1.
After four rounds of inoculations administered every two weeks, the horses produced the desired level of antibodies. At this point, their blood was extracted, and the red blood cells were separated from the plasma and returned to the horses. “Plasma is a very complex mixture that has hundreds of proteins,” Alape-Girón says. “Antibodies are one of the most abundant proteins, but there are others.” At the pharmaceutical plant, researchers used a technology developed by the Clodomiro Picado Institute to separate the antibodies from other proteins in the plasma and then purified them to obtain the therapeutic formulation for human testing.
In total, the plant produced 1,000 10-milliliter vials of purified equine antibodies. Half of them had antibodies against the S1 protein, and the other half contained the four proteins present in the coronavirus. “Just one 10-mL vial has about 80 times the quantity of antibodies you can find in 800 mL of convalescent plasma, which is the plasma donated by someone who has overcome an infection of SARS-CoV-2,” Alape-Girón says.
To test the efficacy of the equine antibodies, a few vials were shipped to George Mason University’s National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases (NCBID). “We wanted to determine if the SARS-CoV-2 virus could be neutralized by the horse-produced antibodies,” says Charles Bailey, a professor of biology and executive director of the NCBID. “The test we performed on the samples is called a plaque reduction neutralization test, PRNTest. We exposed the antibodies produced in horses, at various dilutions, to the SARS-CoV-2 virus growing on cell culture. The virus was neutralized.” The results of the research are expected to be published in the near future.
The next step—testing the equine antibodies in COVID-19 patients—will begin with an accelerated clinical trial this month. The antibodies’ safety and efficacy will be examined in a group of 26 patients with COVID-19 who have been hospitalized but not placed in an intensive care unit. The results are expected by the end of September. If they are positive, the research will then move to a large-scale trial with hundreds of patients. And if the equine antibodies are shown to be effective, the Clodomiro Picado Institute could immunize more horses to scale up and produce enough of them to cover Costa Rica’s demand—and probably that of its neighbors. It received a $500,000 grant on Aug. 13 from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration to move ahead with equine antibody research.
Unlike monoclonal antibodies, which are being developed to target a specific molecular region, or epitope, on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 to elicit an immune response, horse polyclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 recognize multiple epitopes. The lower specificity translates into a more inexpensive manufacturing process. Alape-Girón estimates that a vial of equine antibodies will cost $100 to produce, whereas a treatment with monoclonal antibodies could be 10 times more expensive.
“It’s not the highest technology,” Macaya says. “It’s not a monoclonal antibody, but it allows us the benefit of speed, and it’s a very pragmatic approach.” Further, “if this were a monoclonal antibody, you would need a big factory to produce them,” he adds. “Here, the horses are the factories—at least for the production part. Then comes the purification part, which is an industrial process, but the Clodomiro Picado Institute already has that infrastructure.”
Fan says this description mirrors her experience at the Butantan Institute in Brazil. “Polyclonal antibody products can be made in large quantities, and cost-effectively, to respond to large-scale pandemic situations, such as the infection by SARS-CoV-2”, she says.
Currently, the Butantan Institute is preparing horses to be immunized with portions of inactivated SARS-COV-2 virus, which were isolated, cultured and purified, using its expertise in the production of influenza virus vaccines. Even though the development protocols differ at the Brazilian and Costa Rican institutes, Fan predicts their antibodies “will have equivalent efficiency and safety in the treatment of COVID-19 patients.”
Even farther south in South America, scientists in Argentina are also developing a potential therapy for COVID-19 patients using equine antibodies, while other researchers worldwide are exploring antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 from llamas and cows. The objective behind all of these projects is the same: to save lives while waiting for a vaccine to become available.
Costa Rica has more than 28,000 cases of COVID-19. "We have over 100 patients in the ICU," Macaya says. "And our ICU capacity, as with any country, is limited." His hope is that equine antibodies will prove to be “a very valuable tool in keeping our health care system from collapsing at the ICU level and, obviously, preventing deaths. That’s the ultimate goal.”
Read more about the coronavirus outbreak from Scientific American here. And read coverage from our international network of magazines here.


scientificamerican--2020-08-17--This Lab Aims to Prepare the U.S. Electricity Grid for a Climate Transformation

The Department of Energy is preparing a new set of partnerships and innovations that could help the nation 's three power grids handle a transformation in U.S. energy generation to meet lower emissions goals .
One scientist summed up the challenge by saying it 's like updating a reliable 1957 Chevrolet for the complex technologies and climate-related hazards of the 21st century .
Last week , Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette visited the National Renewable Energy Laboratory ( NREL ) in Golden , Colo. , to unveil what amounts to a more powerful test bed for some of those high-tech innovations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is short for Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems .
NREL has such a system now , but changes will give it 10 times more electrical power and hookups with other DOE laboratories .
`` ARIES will enable DOE and industry to de-risk the technical , the operational and the financial impacts of large-scale integration in a unique environment that does n't currently exist , '' explained Brouillette .
In a press release , DOE called it a `` virtual emulation environment that uses advanced computing and digital real-time simulators '' to help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hydrogen-powered energy storage systems and large increases of renewable energy .
Other challenges the program is intended to address include the fuel needs of millions of future electric vehicle owners and the impacts of `` smart thermostats '' and other automated devices .
ARIES will also help researchers study and update the grid 's protections against more powerful storms , blackouts related to larger forest fires and the schemes of computer hackers who are hunting for grid vulnerabilities .
All of that `` has to be easy for the consumer , '' explained @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for energy systems integration , who came up with the 1957 Chevy analogy .
Referring to the grid , he noted : `` It 's been working positively for 100 years , '' and it 's among the world 's most reliable electric distribution systems .
Speaking Thursday at a virtual meeting of NREL partners and businesses , he and others emphasized the need to get both the technologies and the consumers adjusted to their new electric environment .
One of NREL 's experiments is called LA100 , a reference to its partner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It will test what 's needed to prepare the city Department of Water and Power — described as the nation 's largest publicly owned utility — to reach a `` zero carbon economy '' by 2050 .
Jaquelin Cochran , manager of NREL 's grid systems group , noted there are many unknowns that have to be tested to reach the city 's ambitious goals .
They include finding cost-effective ways to combine large quantities of electricity from wind , solar and geothermal sources .
For that reason , NREL will work with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neighborhood councils , environmental groups and school districts to `` frame the complexity '' of some of the problems , Cochran explained .
Leo Simonovich , vice president of a Siemens Energy subsidiary that provides cyber and digital security to companies , said the universe of utilities has changed since the days when they provided a `` one-way street '' for moving electricity to customers .
The added complexities of digital communication systems , automated devices and computer-driven controls will require cybersecurity to become `` a core of their business '' to protect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ `` Utilities are incapable of defending what they ca n't see , '' Simonovich said .
Shayle Kann , managing director of Energy Impact Partners , which invests in companies that focus on more efficient and sustainable energy , noted that while there is new technology to help control energy use , the will to use it is still missing .
`` There are now 10 million smart thermostats in the U.S. How many of them are being used to help protect the grid ? ''
Kahn asked .
`` Very , very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incentives to do that . ''
Wes Bolsen , the president of LaderaTech , a company that sells fire retardants , has been working with a number of California utilities since last year when damage claims from wildfires drove Pacific Gas & Electric Co. into bankruptcy .
Their interest is growing in the use of long-lasting fire retardants to protect power poles and nearby forests .
There are new chemicals , he explained , that can take the threat `` to zero '' without harming plants and trees .
Homeowners , he said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can last until rainfall amounts reach 2 inches cumulatively .
`` That should be enough for the entire season , '' Bolsen said .
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from E & E News .
E & E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environmental news at www.eenews.net .

The Department of Energy is preparing a new set of partnerships and innovations that could help the nation's three power grids handle a transformation in U.S. energy generation to meet lower emissions goals.
One scientist summed up the challenge by saying it's like updating a reliable 1957 Chevrolet for the complex technologies and climate-related hazards of the 21st century.
Last week, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette visited the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., to unveil what amounts to a more powerful test bed for some of those high-tech innovations.
It's called ARIES, which is short for Advanced Research on Integrated Energy Systems. NREL has such a system now, but changes will give it 10 times more electrical power and hookups with other DOE laboratories.
"ARIES will enable DOE and industry to de-risk the technical, the operational and the financial impacts of large-scale integration in a unique environment that doesn't currently exist," explained Brouillette.
In a press release, DOE called it a "virtual emulation environment that uses advanced computing and digital real-time simulators" to help researchers test the impacts of battery- and hydrogen-powered energy storage systems and large increases of renewable energy. Other challenges the program is intended to address include the fuel needs of millions of future electric vehicle owners and the impacts of "smart thermostats" and other automated devices.
ARIES will also help researchers study and update the grid's protections against more powerful storms, blackouts related to larger forest fires and the schemes of computer hackers who are hunting for grid vulnerabilities.
All of that "has to be easy for the consumer," explained Juan Torres, NREL's associate director for energy systems integration, who came up with the 1957 Chevy analogy.
Referring to the grid, he noted: "It's been working positively for 100 years," and it's among the world's most reliable electric distribution systems.
Speaking Thursday at a virtual meeting of NREL partners and businesses, he and others emphasized the need to get both the technologies and the consumers adjusted to their new electric environment.
One of NREL's experiments is called LA100, a reference to its partner, the city of Los Angeles. It will test what's needed to prepare the city Department of Water and Power — described as the nation's largest publicly owned utility — to reach a "zero carbon economy" by 2050.
Jaquelin Cochran, manager of NREL's grid systems group, noted there are many unknowns that have to be tested to reach the city's ambitious goals. They include finding cost-effective ways to combine large quantities of electricity from wind, solar and geothermal sources.
For that reason, NREL will work with an advisory group that includes businesses, neighborhood councils, environmental groups and school districts to "frame the complexity" of some of the problems, Cochran explained.
Leo Simonovich, vice president of a Siemens Energy subsidiary that provides cyber and digital security to companies, said the universe of utilities has changed since the days when they provided a "one-way street" for moving electricity to customers.
The added complexities of digital communication systems, automated devices and computer-driven controls will require cybersecurity to become "a core of their business" to protect everything associated with the updated grids.
"Utilities are incapable of defending what they can't see," Simonovich said.
Shayle Kann, managing director of Energy Impact Partners, which invests in companies that focus on more efficient and sustainable energy, noted that while there is new technology to help control energy use, the will to use it is still missing.
"There are now 10 million smart thermostats in the U.S. How many of them are being used to help protect the grid?" Kahn asked. "Very, very few. Most customers don't have incentives to do that."
Wes Bolsen, the president of LaderaTech, a company that sells fire retardants, has been working with a number of California utilities since last year when damage claims from wildfires drove Pacific Gas & Electric Co. into bankruptcy.
Their interest is growing in the use of long-lasting fire retardants to protect power poles and nearby forests. There are new chemicals, he explained, that can take the threat "to zero" without harming plants and trees.
Homeowners, he said, are also experimenting with retardants that can last until rainfall amounts reach 2 inches cumulatively.
"That should be enough for the entire season," Bolsen said.
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from E&E News. E&E provides daily coverage of essential energy and environmental news at www.eenews.net.