A rush to capture history before it fades away
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1. United States
Scientists grew plants that can alert growers when exposed to a toxin. One goal of the research is to enable a field of plants to signal the presence of a banned pesticide from a distance by turning red. In its new study, a team successfully engineered this environmental sensor in the lab, and did it without impairing the normal functions of the plant.
In a natural system of stress hormones and receptors, the hormone abscisic acid is produced by a plant and binds to receptors during droughts, which help tell the plant to close its pores to retain more water. Previous research found that these receptors can also be trained to bind to other substances.
Why We Wrote This
From underground maps of Italy to digitizing Nigeria’s newspapers, how are efforts toward a more complete record of the past informing how we think about history and make decisions for the future? A progress roundup.
The team “hacked” the receptors and created sensors for a wide range of chemicals, including azinphos-ethyl, an insecticide that is toxic to humans. Scientists also found a similar ability in yeast, which was able to respond to two different chemicals simultaneously.
“We’re working towards being able to sense any chemical in the environment,” said Sean Cutler, who worked on the study. “Not just pesticides, but drugs like pharmaceuticals and antibiotics in the water supply, things people are worried about being exposed to. These kinds of applications are within reach now.”
Source: University of California, Riverside
2. Dominica
Dominica is setting aside 304 square miles of ocean to protect endangered sperm whales. The world’s first marine reserve for sperm whales targets what’s known as the Eastern Caribbean Clan, whose members do not travel as far as most sperm whales and which uses the waters off the country’s coast as a critical feeding and nursing habitat. In unprotected waters, the whales are threatened by fishing gear entanglements, pollution, and ship strikes. The new reserve will enforce rules for shipping lanes and will regulate tourism like whale watching and snorkeling. Traditional fishing will still be allowed.
A whale may give birth to a single calf just once every five to seven years, and the region’s sperm whale population has declined 3% each year since 2010. The new reserve will protect about 35 families of whales and benefit the whole ecosystem, researchers say. Whale feces encourage phytoplankton production, which in turn absorbs carbon dioxide from the seas.
“The 200 or so sperm whales that call our sea home are prized citizens of Dominica,” said Roosevelt Skerrit, the country’s prime minister. “We want to ensure these majestic and highly intelligent animals are safe from harm and continue keeping our waters and our climate healthy.”
Sources: The Associated Press, Mongabay
3. Italy
Archaeologists are creating maps of the ancient world without having to put a shovel in the ground. Amid urbanization, climate change, and conflict, the speed at which powerful electromagnetic equipment can gather data is helping to locate hidden history before it completely disappears.
When COVID-19 lockdowns left the cathedral in Siena, Italy, empty of tourists, researchers scanned the interior using tools developed for studying glaciers, mines, and oil fields. The hunt uncovered evidence suggesting that an older church may have been on the site 1,200 years ago. Along with ground-penetrating radar, which allows surveyors to quickly scan through layers of earth, geophysicists use magnetometry to measure minuscule differences in magnetic-field strength between objects. Visualization software helps the scientists overlay ancient structures onto satellite maps. Skeptics warn that misinterpretation errors can occur and that the approach is best used alongside small excavations.
One geophysicist compares what he sees as a need for complete archaeological records with what taxpayers spend on space exploration. “I am happy to pay the price ... every year to have thousands of people looking downward instead of up,” said Immo Trinks. If we don’t, Dr. Trinks added, “our grandchildren will ask us: Why didn’t you do more to map what’s still out there? Because they will not have the chance to do so once it’s gone.”
Source: Wired
4. Bangladesh
A campaign in Bangladesh to root out the addition of toxic lead to turmeric, a commonly used spice, is proving wildly successful. Global health experts say there is no safe level of lead for people, and South Asians rank highest in lead exposure among populations worldwide. In Bangladesh, researchers looked at supply chains and found that much of the contamination comes from lead chromate used to enhance the color of turmeric.
But in less than two years, a campaign led by the government and Bangladeshi and American researchers managed to decrease the prevalence of lead-adulterated turmeric in the country’s markets from 47% to zero percent.
Researchers attribute the success to cooperation between the nation’s food and health authorities and government officials who were eager to solve the problem. Turmeric adulteration was declared a crime, and a multifaceted media campaign ranged from TV broadcasts of the prime minister discussing the challenge, to a sting operation in a street market that fined sellers of spice that tested positive for lead.
The impact on Bangladeshi people was almost immediate – lead levels among workers at turmeric mills dropped by 30% on average. According to a study by the Center for Global Development, lead poisoning accounts for 20% of the learning gap between children in poor countries and children in richer countries. The Stanford University team that in 2015 began investigating high levels of lead hopes to replicate its campaign in India and Pakistan.
Sources: The Economist, Stanford Medicine
5. Nigeria
A nonprofit called Archivi.ng is working to digitize every pre-online Nigerian newspaper, information that will help serve as historical context for the country in the age of artificial intelligence.
The initial goal is to capture some 700,000 stories from the years between Nigeria’s independence in 1960 and 2010. The archives will be both an open online library for anyone to use and a data source for AI, in which information about Africa is underrepresented, says the founder of the startup, Fu’ad Lawal. He stresses that today’s reliance on web search results means that increasing the amount of online information about Nigeria will inform understanding of present-day issues.
Mr. Lawal first noticed the lack of online Nigerian historical information while working as a journalist. “We need to bring our historical data online to have a maximum and accurate representation in this era of generative modeling,” said Mr. Lawal. “So anybody who has a serious and inclusive AI strategy will have to be looking at digitization efforts like ours and others from emerging markets.”
Sources: Rest of World, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism
