Fishers & scientists unite to restore seaweed populations on Chilean coast

Science and Health

Scientists and fishers in Chile are repopulating a coastal area exposed to high levels of pollution with two species of seaweed that were once abundant in the area.The disappearance of the seaweed has formed ocean deserts. Its absence has not only reduced biodiversity but also deprived the area of the ecosystem services that these plants provide.Despite considerable challenges, the project already shows signs of hope.See All Key Ideas

At the age of 15, Elvio Lagos took his first steps toward becoming a shellfish diver. He began helping his father catch conger eels and shellfish in Caleta Horcón, a cove in central Chile not far from the copper-centered industrial area of Quintero-Puchuncaví, dubbed as one of the country’s so-called “sacrifice zones” due to high pollution levels.
At 18, Lagos decided to become a fisher. This profession ensured he made enough money to contribute to home expenses, because “at that time, we could fish 150 kilograms [330 pounds] of limpets, snails, piure [Pyura chilensis, a sea creature that resembles a rock with red flesh inside] and sole,” the now-56-year-old told Mongabay Latam.
Back then, the sea was so abundant that he and his companions could get around 600 clams to eat on their way home. “The sea was full of catch and there was seaweed everywhere,” he said. But things are different today. “It’s sad to see how the seascape has changed. There’s no seaweed anymore.”
To confront this new reality and restore the area, a group of scientists, led by Loretto Contreras, a professor of biological sciences at Chile’s Andrés Bello National University, is working with the fishers of Caleta Horcón. The aim of the project is to collaboratively create a seaweed management strategy to repopulate the seabed with giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) and Chilean kelp (Lessonia spicata) — two species that are key to the ecosystem’s health.
Despite significant challenges, there have been some encouraging signs: The first new populations are already emerging.
The power of seaweed
In the ocean, seaweed is a vital provider of life, used by many species as a refuge and for reproduction. Seaweed also absorbs enormous quantities of carbon dioxide, acts as a natural barrier that absorbs the force of waves and has been shown to be “very efficient in removing various pollutants from seawater,” according to Bernardo Broitman, a researcher from the Coastal Social-Ecological Millennium Institute, known as SECOS.
A kelp forest in Pisagua, Chile. Image courtesy of Eduardo Sorensen, Oceana Chile.
At the same time, seaweed has increasing commercial value. In the last 20 years, Chile has established itself as a top-10 seaweed producer globally and the largest in South America, with most of it exported. Seaweed can be used to make a variety of products, including paints, cosmetics and toothpaste. The global seaweed market is projected to grow from $7 billion in 2023 to $16 billion in 2033.
This worries scientists because overexploitation of seaweed has created large “deserts” on the Chilean coast, harming biodiversity and robbing coastal communities of important ecosystem services. If the seaweed disappears, “so will their absorption and dissipation of the energy of the waves hitting the coast, which mitigates coastline erosion,” Broitman said. “What would we do without these species’ discreet and essential work as collectors of household waste and sewage?”
The purifying abilities of seaweed are especially important in places like Caleta Horcón, home to an industrial complex housing an oil refinery, thermoelectric power plants and metallurgical companies, among other establishments.
To address these threats, in 2015, Contreras and her team of scientists began to research how to use giant kelp to restore areas that had been denuded of seaweed and contaminated by industrial runoff.
Science and local knowledge
First, Contreras and her team had to meet the fishers and get them on board with their idea. “It was very important because the fishers had never grown seaweed in that area,” said Contreras, who is also the director of the Laboratory of Ecology and Molecular Biology in Seaweed (LEBMA) at Andrés Bello National University, located in Santiago.
The species became a true “oil-eating” seaweed, she said, because the giant kelp cultivation project “was a total success,” despite impacts of oil spills in the area between 2014 and 2016.
Among the results of the study, the scientists found that certain animal species began to appear with the kelp and, in addition, “the plants grew up to 10 meters [33 feet], despite the polluted water. It was all very impressive,” Contreras said.
In 2023, Contreras returned to the area, this time supported by a team of researchers from SECOS and a company called Bitecma, which does marine research. Their objective is to repopulate Caleta Horcón with two species: giant kelp and Chilean kelp.
However, there have been numerous challenges to achieving the task.
Cultivation of lessonia, a type of large kelp. Image courtesy of the Laboratory of Ecology and Molecular Biology in Seaweed (LEBMA) at Andrés Bello National University.
At the start of the project, scientists established some key issues. The first was the necessity for preliminary laboratory work before “sowing the sea,” which consisted of testing different seaweed growth methods. However, success in the laboratory does not necessarily guarantee the same outcome in the field, which carries the additional challenge of working in areas with high exposure to waves, according to Contreras.
Macrocystis and Lessonia live in fairly oxygenated areas “where the sea is rough, and therefore our techniques must resist the problem of mechanical forces,” said Nelson Lagos, the director of the Center for Research and Innovation for Climate Change at Santo Tomás University in Santiago.
A diver displays seaweed grown by fishers, the first hopeful results in this important project. Image courtesy LEBMA.
Lagos and Contreras agree that reproductive material is key to the current project. The spores, which are the reproductive cells that divide to form new individuals, are in very poor condition. “They’re in a bad state because they’re subjected to anthropogenic environmental intervention. It’s like asking a dead tree to bear fruit,” Contreras said.
Technology poses yet another obstacle. According to Contreras, they use sustainable plastic-free devices to repopulate kelp, as well other tools, such as drills, which cost several million Chilean pesos (equivalent to several thousand dollars). Despite these hindrances, Contreras and the research team persist, and the first hopeful results in this important project have already emerged. The fishers await further results with hope.
Delicate laboratory work
When the researchers arrived at Caleta Horcón, they met with the fishers to pool their scientific and local knowledge. The fishers who participated received training to give them theoretical knowledge about the two species used for repopulation. In turn, they provided their boats and local knowledge to support the project delivery.
Meanwhile, scientists manually collected reproductive tissue from the two species of seaweed present in the cove. The wet material was then transported in thermal containers to the seaweed culture laboratory to carry out reproductive operations. “A low temperature during transportation is of the utmost importance to prevent spores in the reproductive tissue from becoming unviable,” Contreras said.
Researchers and fishers met to combine scientific and local knowledge. Image courtesy of LEBMA.
There, the reproductive tissues, called sori, were washed with plenty of potable water to remove dirt and unwanted organisms, such as spores of other algae or small invertebrates. The sori were then subjected to a drying period in trays covered with absorbent paper and wrapped in aluminum foil, in total darkness.
After around five days, the spores of these two species began to germinate, and once they grew into young specimens, the fishers, together with the team of researchers, began planting in Caleta Horcón.
Repopulation begins to yield results
The techniques used so far by the group of researchers are rope seeding and indirect seeding of spores onto natural substrates.
Broitman, who participated in the project, explained that the first technique consists of taking a rope tied to four small concrete pillars to the bottom of the sea, on which a mesh with spores is attached. This, he said, “is intended to make the seaweed grow and produce a large amount of spores for repopulation.”
Kelp growing on ropes at the bottom of the sea. Image courtesy of LEBMA.
“The goal is for the seaweed to grow from the spores and reach such a size that they can reproduce and generate repopulation patches,” Contreras said.
The second technique is to use an improved bio substrate. Nelson Lagos explained that the substrate is a “hard surface” that the kelp settle on, necessary for early-stage development. To ensure that the substrate delivers the best growth conditions for the seaweed, the team of scientists is “artificially” creating that base using an organic resin mixed with carbonate.
This material comes from oyster shells and shells from the Chilean mussel (Mytilus chilensis). “We use these two substrates, which go through a process of washing, grinding, drying and sieving,” Lagos said.
Lessonia spicata cultivation had a 60% reproduction success rate. Image courtesy of LEBMA.
The trial-and-error process at this stage is long, but once the best resin is obtained, Contreras transfers the spores to the improved bio substrate, to later transfer them to the sea.
At the last observation, after two months of crop repopulation, there were more than 2,000 repopulated seedlings between the two species. Those of Lessonia spicata had a reproduction success rate of 60% of the repopulation. “They are on average over 4 centimeters [1.6 inches] long, while those of Macrocystis pyrifera measure over 40 cm [16 in],” Contreras said. Reproductive material is still scarce, but there are already glimpses of “a likelihood of success,” she said.
The project results have given hope to the fishers of Caleta Horcón. “It’s lovely to see how this managed zone, which we’re really looking after, is recovering,” said Elvio Lagos, who hopes to once again see species thrive, just like in his childhood.
 Banner image: Scientists evaluate the growth of seaweed in Caleta Horcón. Image courtesy of LEBMA.
This article was first published in Spanish here on Aug. 21, 2024.

See Topics

Fishers & scientists unite to restore seaweed populations on Chilean coast

Science and Health

Scientists and fishers in Chile are repopulating a coastal area exposed to high levels of pollution with two species of seaweed that were once abundant in the area.The disappearance of the seaweed has formed ocean deserts. Its absence has not only reduced biodiversity but also deprived the area of the ecosystem services that these plants provide.Despite considerable challenges, the project already shows signs of hope.See All Key Ideas

At the age of 15, Elvio Lagos took his first steps toward becoming a shellfish diver. He began helping his father catch conger eels and shellfish in Caleta Horcón, a cove in central Chile not far from the copper-centered industrial area of Quintero-Puchuncaví, dubbed as one of the country’s so-called “sacrifice zones” due to high pollution levels.
At 18, Lagos decided to become a fisher. This profession ensured he made enough money to contribute to home expenses, because “at that time, we could fish 150 kilograms [330 pounds] of limpets, snails, piure [Pyura chilensis, a sea creature that resembles a rock with red flesh inside] and sole,” the now-56-year-old told Mongabay Latam.
Back then, the sea was so abundant that he and his companions could get around 600 clams to eat on their way home. “The sea was full of catch and there was seaweed everywhere,” he said. But things are different today. “It’s sad to see how the seascape has changed. There’s no seaweed anymore.”
To confront this new reality and restore the area, a group of scientists, led by Loretto Contreras, a professor of biological sciences at Chile’s Andrés Bello National University, is working with the fishers of Caleta Horcón. The aim of the project is to collaboratively create a seaweed management strategy to repopulate the seabed with giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) and Chilean kelp (Lessonia spicata) — two species that are key to the ecosystem’s health.
Despite significant challenges, there have been some encouraging signs: The first new populations are already emerging.
The power of seaweed
In the ocean, seaweed is a vital provider of life, used by many species as a refuge and for reproduction. Seaweed also absorbs enormous quantities of carbon dioxide, acts as a natural barrier that absorbs the force of waves and has been shown to be “very efficient in removing various pollutants from seawater,” according to Bernardo Broitman, a researcher from the Coastal Social-Ecological Millennium Institute, known as SECOS.
A kelp forest in Pisagua, Chile. Image courtesy of Eduardo Sorensen, Oceana Chile.
At the same time, seaweed has increasing commercial value. In the last 20 years, Chile has established itself as a top-10 seaweed producer globally and the largest in South America, with most of it exported. Seaweed can be used to make a variety of products, including paints, cosmetics and toothpaste. The global seaweed market is projected to grow from $7 billion in 2023 to $16 billion in 2033.
This worries scientists because overexploitation of seaweed has created large “deserts” on the Chilean coast, harming biodiversity and robbing coastal communities of important ecosystem services. If the seaweed disappears, “so will their absorption and dissipation of the energy of the waves hitting the coast, which mitigates coastline erosion,” Broitman said. “What would we do without these species’ discreet and essential work as collectors of household waste and sewage?”
The purifying abilities of seaweed are especially important in places like Caleta Horcón, home to an industrial complex housing an oil refinery, thermoelectric power plants and metallurgical companies, among other establishments.
To address these threats, in 2015, Contreras and her team of scientists began to research how to use giant kelp to restore areas that had been denuded of seaweed and contaminated by industrial runoff.
Science and local knowledge
First, Contreras and her team had to meet the fishers and get them on board with their idea. “It was very important because the fishers had never grown seaweed in that area,” said Contreras, who is also the director of the Laboratory of Ecology and Molecular Biology in Seaweed (LEBMA) at Andrés Bello National University, located in Santiago.
The species became a true “oil-eating” seaweed, she said, because the giant kelp cultivation project “was a total success,” despite impacts of oil spills in the area between 2014 and 2016.
Among the results of the study, the scientists found that certain animal species began to appear with the kelp and, in addition, “the plants grew up to 10 meters [33 feet], despite the polluted water. It was all very impressive,” Contreras said.
In 2023, Contreras returned to the area, this time supported by a team of researchers from SECOS and a company called Bitecma, which does marine research. Their objective is to repopulate Caleta Horcón with two species: giant kelp and Chilean kelp.
However, there have been numerous challenges to achieving the task.
Cultivation of lessonia, a type of large kelp. Image courtesy of the Laboratory of Ecology and Molecular Biology in Seaweed (LEBMA) at Andrés Bello National University.
At the start of the project, scientists established some key issues. The first was the necessity for preliminary laboratory work before “sowing the sea,” which consisted of testing different seaweed growth methods. However, success in the laboratory does not necessarily guarantee the same outcome in the field, which carries the additional challenge of working in areas with high exposure to waves, according to Contreras.
Macrocystis and Lessonia live in fairly oxygenated areas “where the sea is rough, and therefore our techniques must resist the problem of mechanical forces,” said Nelson Lagos, the director of the Center for Research and Innovation for Climate Change at Santo Tomás University in Santiago.
A diver displays seaweed grown by fishers, the first hopeful results in this important project. Image courtesy LEBMA.
Lagos and Contreras agree that reproductive material is key to the current project. The spores, which are the reproductive cells that divide to form new individuals, are in very poor condition. “They’re in a bad state because they’re subjected to anthropogenic environmental intervention. It’s like asking a dead tree to bear fruit,” Contreras said.
Technology poses yet another obstacle. According to Contreras, they use sustainable plastic-free devices to repopulate kelp, as well other tools, such as drills, which cost several million Chilean pesos (equivalent to several thousand dollars). Despite these hindrances, Contreras and the research team persist, and the first hopeful results in this important project have already emerged. The fishers await further results with hope.
Delicate laboratory work
When the researchers arrived at Caleta Horcón, they met with the fishers to pool their scientific and local knowledge. The fishers who participated received training to give them theoretical knowledge about the two species used for repopulation. In turn, they provided their boats and local knowledge to support the project delivery.
Meanwhile, scientists manually collected reproductive tissue from the two species of seaweed present in the cove. The wet material was then transported in thermal containers to the seaweed culture laboratory to carry out reproductive operations. “A low temperature during transportation is of the utmost importance to prevent spores in the reproductive tissue from becoming unviable,” Contreras said.
Researchers and fishers met to combine scientific and local knowledge. Image courtesy of LEBMA.
There, the reproductive tissues, called sori, were washed with plenty of potable water to remove dirt and unwanted organisms, such as spores of other algae or small invertebrates. The sori were then subjected to a drying period in trays covered with absorbent paper and wrapped in aluminum foil, in total darkness.
After around five days, the spores of these two species began to germinate, and once they grew into young specimens, the fishers, together with the team of researchers, began planting in Caleta Horcón.
Repopulation begins to yield results
The techniques used so far by the group of researchers are rope seeding and indirect seeding of spores onto natural substrates.
Broitman, who participated in the project, explained that the first technique consists of taking a rope tied to four small concrete pillars to the bottom of the sea, on which a mesh with spores is attached. This, he said, “is intended to make the seaweed grow and produce a large amount of spores for repopulation.”
Kelp growing on ropes at the bottom of the sea. Image courtesy of LEBMA.
“The goal is for the seaweed to grow from the spores and reach such a size that they can reproduce and generate repopulation patches,” Contreras said.
The second technique is to use an improved bio substrate. Nelson Lagos explained that the substrate is a “hard surface” that the kelp settle on, necessary for early-stage development. To ensure that the substrate delivers the best growth conditions for the seaweed, the team of scientists is “artificially” creating that base using an organic resin mixed with carbonate.
This material comes from oyster shells and shells from the Chilean mussel (Mytilus chilensis). “We use these two substrates, which go through a process of washing, grinding, drying and sieving,” Lagos said.
Lessonia spicata cultivation had a 60% reproduction success rate. Image courtesy of LEBMA.
The trial-and-error process at this stage is long, but once the best resin is obtained, Contreras transfers the spores to the improved bio substrate, to later transfer them to the sea.
At the last observation, after two months of crop repopulation, there were more than 2,000 repopulated seedlings between the two species. Those of Lessonia spicata had a reproduction success rate of 60% of the repopulation. “They are on average over 4 centimeters [1.6 inches] long, while those of Macrocystis pyrifera measure over 40 cm [16 in],” Contreras said. Reproductive material is still scarce, but there are already glimpses of “a likelihood of success,” she said.
The project results have given hope to the fishers of Caleta Horcón. “It’s lovely to see how this managed zone, which we’re really looking after, is recovering,” said Elvio Lagos, who hopes to once again see species thrive, just like in his childhood.
 Banner image: Scientists evaluate the growth of seaweed in Caleta Horcón. Image courtesy of LEBMA.
This article was first published in Spanish here on Aug. 21, 2024.

See Topics

Public invited to shape the future of tourism

Travel

Tourists make their own ei katu (flower crown) at a Prosecco & Petals Class with Coco Brush. Cocobrushco [IG]/24101734Cook Islands Tourism Corporation is inviting the community to a public information session to discuss the responsible management of tourism in the country.

The public information session will be held on Monday, October 21, at 6pm at FADC Church (TJ’s Studio) in Avarua.

Aligned with the refreshed “Love our Little Paradise” brand strategy, this inclusive session marks an important step toward delivering on its promise by

developing a collective plan for the responsible management of tourism in the Cook Islands.

According to Cook Islands Tourism, “this is a journey we must take together, ensuring tourism remains economically beneficial for generations to come while protecting our environment, culture, values, and community.”

Dr David Ermen, an international expert in sustainable tourism, is supporting Cook Islands Tourism in designing and delivering this initiative.

He will lead interactive components during the session, encouraging open discussions and ensuring participation from all attendees.

Karla Eggelton, chief executive of Cook Islands Tourism Corporation, said: “Tourism in the Cook Islands affects us all, and that means we all have a role to play in shaping its future.”

“Mana Tiaki is more than just a concept – it’s a shared responsibility. This session is a chance for everyone in the community to have their voice heard and contribute to a future where tourism works in harmony with our people and our islands.”

According to the statement, tourism has played a key role in the Cook Islands’ growth and prosperity, and this session provides an important opportunity to shape its future.

“Together, we can create a plan that safeguards our islands, culture, and people, ensuring that tourism remains a positive force for generations to come.”

The event is free of charge and open to the public. RSVP by Friday, October 18, 2024, to Kylie Goulding at 29435 or [email protected].

Kelly Macdonald’s vampire movie now on Sky Cinema

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Kelly Macdonald’s new vampire movie The Radleys is now available to watch for fans on Sky Cinema.The film stars the Line of Duty actor and Billions’ Damian Lewis as vampire couple Helen and Peter, whose teenage children Rowan and Clara discover their family secret of bloodlust.The Radleys is based on the book by Matt Haig and currently has a 73% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.Sky UK/ NIck WallRelated: Best streaming services in 2024Sky users can watch the movie on Sky Cinema from today (October 18) – perfect if you’re looking for a weekend watch.The movie follows the two “abstaining vampires”, who choose “not to drink blood despite their natural cravings, yet becoming more and more bloodthirsty by the day”.“When Clara is unexpectedly attacked by a boy in her class and her natural instincts take over, Peter and Helen are forced to reveal the truth,” the synopsis adds.KEVIN BAKER//SkyRelated: Peter Dinklage’s new movie is now available to watch on Prime Video“The shocking revelation encourages lovesick son Rowan and previously vegan Clara to question their own identity and suppressed desires.”In Digital Spy’s four-star review, we wrote: “The most impressive element of The Radleys is that, thanks to its talented cast and smart tweaks to the original story, you’ll care for this family come the inevitably bloody finale.Sky UK/ NIck Wall Related: 2024’s best thriller is now available to watch at home”They might be vampires, but they feel believably human in their desires and fears, even relatable to a certain extent.”As well as Macdonald and Lewis – who also plays Peter’s twin brother Will, a vampire who “embraces his hedonistic, bloodthirsty lifestyle” – the movie stars Loki’s Sophia Di Martino, Harry Baxendale and Bo Bragason.The Radleys is available to watch now on Sky Cinema.October 2024 gift ideas and dealsSam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International.  Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every ‘t’ and dotting every ‘i’ as a sub-editor.

JD Vance demanded $40,000 and first-class flights during speaking tour for hit book, report says

Arts & Culture, Books

Your support helps us to tell the storyThis election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.CloseRead moreCloseJD Vance demanded $40,000 and first-class flights while promoting his Hillbilly Elegy book in 2017, years before he entered politics, according to a report.Vance made the lavish request for an appearance at a Midwestern public university four years before he was elected to the Senate, records obtained by POLITICO show.But the University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to the outlet, eventually bowed out of negotiations with Vance because they were “too much to overcome.”According to the outlet, in February 2017, a representative from the university contacted Vance’s publisher, HarperCollins, enquiring about an appearance from the author as his book had been shortlisted as a finalist for its 2017 – 2018 Go Big Read.The publisher informed the college that a 45-minute appearance, including a question-and-answer session and book signing, would cost $25,000 plus first-class flights, hotel, meals, and travel on the ground, according to POLITICO.Vance’s book was confirmed as the winner and when the university informed the publisher, they reportedly told them his speaking fee had gone up to $40,000. The university managed to negotiate the fee back down to $30,000, but talks reportedly came to a halt over difficulty pinning down a date.JD Vance at a campaign event in Greensboro, North Carolina on October 10. Vance allegedly made a lavish request for an appearance at a Midwestern public university four years before he was elected to the Senate

Are Aliens hiding under ICE on Mars? Nasa scientists reveal why it could be the perfect survival spot

Science and Health

ALIEN life could be lurking under frozen water to survive on Mars, Nasa scientists have suggested.Living on the Red Planet is near impossible on the surface because of extreme ultraviolet radiation.3Scientists have long wondered whether aliens ever lived on MarsCredit: Getty3Experts want to explore areas like this, where there’s dusty water iceCredit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona3Cryoconite holes like these – found on Earth – could be the answerCredit: Kimberly Casey, licenced under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0Earth is protected by harmful radiation thanks to the magnetic field – which Mars does not have.But scientists have proposed that staying beneath thick ice could shield microbial life from this danger.Experts haven’t uncovered any evidence that aliens are there – the study outlines such spots as a possibility worth exploring for clues.They say that the amount of sunlight that can shine through dusty ice could be enough for photosynthesis to occur in shallow pools of meltwater below the surface of that ice without high levels of radiation getting through.Read more about MarsIt’s plausible because back home on Earth similar pools of water that form within ice are known to be teeming with life, including algae, fungi, and microscopic cyanobacteria.Nasa’s Aditya Khuller, who led the study, said: “If we’re trying to find life anywhere in the universe today, Martian ice exposures are probably one of the most accessible places we should be looking.”Using computer modeling, scientists looked at water ice, most of which formed from snow mixed with dust that fell on the surface during a series of Martian ice ages in the past million years.If there is dust within ice it can create something known as cryoconite holes, Nasa explains.These are small holes that form in ice when particles of windblown dust fall there.They take in sunlight and melt farther into the ice each summer on Earth.Weirdest things spotted on Mars revealedOver time, they lower further down but eventually reach a point where they stop sinking.However, they still generate enough warmth which creates a pocket of meltwater around them, which life can feed off.”This is a common phenomenon on Earth,” explained co-author Phil Christensen, from Arizona State University in Tempe.”Dense snow and ice can melt from the inside out, letting in sunlight that warms it like a greenhouse, rather than melting from the top down.”The full study was published in the Nature journal Communications Earth & Environment.Mars factsHere’s what you need to know about the Red Planet…Mars is the fourth planet from the SunIt is named after the Roman god of warThe landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth but due to the difference in gravity you could jump three times higher there than you can hereMars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than EverestMars is considered to be the second most habitable planet after EarthIt takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the SunSo far, there has been 39 missions to Mars but only 16 of these have been successful

Are Aliens hiding under ICE on Mars? Nasa scientists reveal why it could be the perfect survival spot

Science and Health

ALIEN life could be lurking under frozen water to survive on Mars, Nasa scientists have suggested.Living on the Red Planet is near impossible on the surface because of extreme ultraviolet radiation.3Scientists have long wondered whether aliens ever lived on MarsCredit: Getty3Experts want to explore areas like this, where there’s dusty water iceCredit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona3Cryoconite holes like these – found on Earth – could be the answerCredit: Kimberly Casey, licenced under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0Earth is protected by harmful radiation thanks to the magnetic field – which Mars does not have.But scientists have proposed that staying beneath thick ice could shield microbial life from this danger.Experts haven’t uncovered any evidence that aliens are there – the study outlines such spots as a possibility worth exploring for clues.They say that the amount of sunlight that can shine through dusty ice could be enough for photosynthesis to occur in shallow pools of meltwater below the surface of that ice without high levels of radiation getting through.Read more about MarsIt’s plausible because back home on Earth similar pools of water that form within ice are known to be teeming with life, including algae, fungi, and microscopic cyanobacteria.Nasa’s Aditya Khuller, who led the study, said: “If we’re trying to find life anywhere in the universe today, Martian ice exposures are probably one of the most accessible places we should be looking.”Using computer modeling, scientists looked at water ice, most of which formed from snow mixed with dust that fell on the surface during a series of Martian ice ages in the past million years.If there is dust within ice it can create something known as cryoconite holes, Nasa explains.These are small holes that form in ice when particles of windblown dust fall there.They take in sunlight and melt farther into the ice each summer on Earth.Weirdest things spotted on Mars revealedOver time, they lower further down but eventually reach a point where they stop sinking.However, they still generate enough warmth which creates a pocket of meltwater around them, which life can feed off.”This is a common phenomenon on Earth,” explained co-author Phil Christensen, from Arizona State University in Tempe.”Dense snow and ice can melt from the inside out, letting in sunlight that warms it like a greenhouse, rather than melting from the top down.”The full study was published in the Nature journal Communications Earth & Environment.Mars factsHere’s what you need to know about the Red Planet…Mars is the fourth planet from the SunIt is named after the Roman god of warThe landmass of Mars is very similar to Earth but due to the difference in gravity you could jump three times higher there than you can hereMars is mountainous and hosts the tallest mountain known in the Solar System called Olympus Mons, which is three times higher than EverestMars is considered to be the second most habitable planet after EarthIt takes the planet 687 Earth days to orbit the SunSo far, there has been 39 missions to Mars but only 16 of these have been successful

Meet the reader inspired to seek their own eclectic, confused and misdirected adventures with books

Arts & Culture, Books

Cramming half-heartedly for the Scholarship, I looked up from the red-jacketed Williamson’s History of the British Empire, towards the barrack’s plumed, imperial hillsides where canon-bursts of bamboo sprayed the ridge, riding to Khartoum, Rorke’s Drift, through dervishes of dust, behind the chevroned jalousies I butchered fellaheen, thuggees, Mamelukes, wogs— Derek Walcott, ‘Another Life’, quoted in Abdulrazak Gurnah, ‘Learning to Read’
The imagination of the modern high school or college classroom across the historical stretch of the British Empire is incomplete without a certain student right at the back of the lecture hall. They are perpetually distracted, immersed in their own unruly imagination; they shirk homework and fail at examinations. But they are scandalous in a special way. Their failure is both a rebellion and a creation, a glazed indifference to an instrumental system of education whose colonial character – often long past decolonisation – is hinted rather than directly established. Rabindranath Tagore’s short story, “Tota Kahini”, translated as “The Bird’s Tale”, is iconic in this indictment. In this allegorical story, a bird is captured by the order of the king. Infuriated by its wild and unrestrained singing, the king hands the bird over to pundits who train it day and night, drowning it in tables and grammar, till the bird eventually becomes a lifeless body, silent at last, brought to the king, who squeezes its corpse stuffed with paper and nods with satisfaction at the death of its wild song.Rabindranath’s legendary impatience with institutionalised education of the kind he saw in existence ranged from his own shirking of school as a boy to his establishment of Visva-Bharati as a university of alternative education. The vastness of his critique of traditional education is not my subject here. I wish rather to return to the figure of that scandalous student who variously articulates failure, frustration, and disappointment in their institutional experience of colonially derived curricular education that has, for instance, taken on a particularly pervasive form in India, all the way to our postcolonial present.Recalling his education at the University of Calcutta sometime in the second decade of the 20th century, the Bengali memoirist and essayist Nirad C Chaudhuri had this to say about all but a few exceptions among his professors: “I paid no attention whatever to what they said and sat on one of the back-benches, either reading a book of my choice, or scribbling, or thinking my own thoughts.” Shirking lectures, loafing off in the back benches, he however turned to another institution, the library, to which he credits “nearly all my higher education”.Nearly forty years later, writing about his undergraduate education at the University of Allahabad in 1964, the poet Arvind Krishna Mehrotra recalls the pettily strategic character of his curricular study, comprising subjects that were “scoring”, the frenzy of note-taking and rote-learning, and efforts to game the examination system by guessing possible questions from test-papers of previous years and decades – all the while privately growing as a poet and a thinker entirely outside this institutional space. And another twenty years later, remembering his newly minted college degree from 1988, also at the University of Allahabad, Pankaj Mishra describes it as “three idle bookish years at a provincial university in a decaying old provincial town” that had left him with stodgy but patchy learning in a dated colonial fashion but ironically with the desire to fill these large lacunae as hungrily as possible.Debates around western education in the British colonies are now vast enough to make up their own subfield. I return to some of its key contours later in this book. But long before I became familiar with these ceaselessly evolving debates, and long past my own stumbling familiarity with them, I cannot overcome my own memory of the slow, tedious violence of the apparatus of test papers and note-taking and cheat sheets that were our sole weapons to deal with the giant demon of examinations that tested how well we knew the periodic tables of literary history and style taxonomies of authors – even in the last years of the previous century. But why did we feel this violence? And what was this strange force behind the urge to defy it? Perhaps it was the anxiety of being irresponsible young people in a developing nation where the responsible chose careers in medicine and engineering. Perhaps it was urgency for a kind of cosmopolitanism only attainable from books in the pre-digital age; perhaps a kind of bohemeana that only eclectic reading could read and support.In the end, it was not something purely definable by any of these forces, significant as they all were. But my dream in this book has been to show that a certain kind of reader was inspired to seek their own eclectic, often confused and misdirected adventures with books – particularly books from the metropolitan west that were divorced from their own immediate reality. Perversely, their inspiration was powered by frustration with patterns of the strategic instrumentalism, sometimes of an exclusionary kind, that western humanistic education came to constitute in the colony and the postcolony.The reasons behind them vary according to history and geography, and yet certain unifying patterns are discernible across the stretch of the historical British Empire (which occasionally overlapped with other forms of domination). The ironic centrality of British colonial education to the making of these adventurous autodidacts makes the English language my natural and primary archive, but this is in no way to suggest that that was the only language in which these figures conducted their reading lives. While Nirad C Chaudhuri read and wrote just as much in Bengali as in English, Toru Dutt’s connection with French literature was possibly deeper than her connection with English, along with the reading she did in Bengali and rudimentary Sanskrit. Peter Abrahams memorably chronicles his rich and troubling relation with Afrikaans literature as trapped between a beloved teacher and a history of racist nationalism, and Sindiwe Magona recollects early tremors of movement between Xhosa and English, and describes her later classroom challenges while teaching Afrikaans. The unique history of the Black and Brown diaspora in the Caribbean has left most writers there only with European languages and their creolised variations, and for the figures I read from that part of the world, English accounts for their primary reading and writing lives.Historically, however, the global identity of the British Empire has been richly multilingual and deeply polyphonic. My focus on English in this book is, to a great extent, a gesture of offering unity to a large cultural and territorial expanse through my own scholarly expertise on world English. But the logic and reality of British colonial education in the humanities and the future writing lives of these figures also point to English as the natural archive of this study.Most people would agree that autodidactism is vital to any form of aesthetic education, even when institutions and systems are fulfilling to students. Recent trends in critique and post critique have also established the amateur reader to be more central to criticism than it might have been assumed in the decades of high professionalisation of literary study in the twentieth century. But there is a unique urgency and aspiration in the amateur self-making of the literary subject in a structure of peripheral colonial education, distant from the imperial metropolis of power and culture that claims special attention. No doubt that my own memory of this desolate aspiration is one of the contexts of my interest in this process. But this small personal inspiration aside, my journey through the memorable accounts of reading and self-making left by a group of exceptional thinkers across the stretch of the British Empire across three continents has revealed to me the enabling idiosyncrasies of aesthetic education when self-willed in isolation, amidst conditions far from ideal for it.Excerpted with permission from The Amateur: Self-making and the Humanities in the Postcolony, Saikat Majumdar, Bloomsbury.

Cyclist killed in Paris: ‘This case is stirring up a great deal of emotion among people who travel by bike’

Travel

A rally in tribute to the cyclist who died after being hit by a car, in Paris, on the evening of October 16, 2024. BERTRAND GUAY / AFP Following the death in Paris on Tuesday, October 15, of a cyclist struck by a driver, Alexis Frémeaux, president of the Parisian association Mieux se Déplacer à Bicyclette (“Moving Better by Bicycle,” MDB) and co-president of the Fédération des Usagers de la Bicyclette (“Federation of Bicycle Users,” FUB), has spoken out. How would you describe the event? According to reports of the incident, it was no accident. The SUV driver seems to have deliberately decided to crush the cyclist. It would therefore be a murder. What was your reaction, as an association leader, when you heard the news? Together with other activists, we gathered at noon on Wednesday at the Maison du Vélo (“House of Bicycles”) in Paris, in a state of shock, especially as the victim was a very committed member of the Paris en Selle (“Paris in the Seat”) association. We called for a rally to be held that evening at the Place de la Madeleine, not far from where the tragedy occurred. Has this kind of tragedy ever happened in France? FUB members have reported several similar cases, even though they have not resulted in the victims’ deaths. Morever, when an accident occurs, with the cyclist dying and no witnesses coming forward, it is difficult to determine exactly how the events transpired. The association MDB has issued a call on X for people to share their stories of road violence. What do you think of the responses that have been put forward? We’ve received nearly 150 testimonials, from all over France and beyond. This case is stirring up a great deal of emotion among people who travel by bike. Everyone seems to have a story to tell: People, on bikes or on foot, who have been honked at, verbally or physically assaulted, threatened with beatings or death, or had a drive swerve toward them in an attempt to destabilize them. People have reported having to protect themselves, flee or hide. I have observed that the perpetrators are often motorists or motorcyclists who don’t accept being slowed down, or making a detour from their route. And they are even more opposed to being called out on it. I also note that almost all of them are men. In road accidents involving bicycles or scooters, comments sometimes give the impression that the victims are responsible for what happens to them. Do you feel this way? Society is more accepting of violence when it takes place on the road. Excuses are made for the perpetrator: It was not deliberate, he was in a hurry, etc. A few years ago, a celebrity [musician Michel Sardou, in November 2022] was able to say on TV, when speaking about cyclists, “the next one, I’m getting him,” without eliciting any reaction from the presenter. I observe that many politicians and commentators challenge road safety measures, as was the case when, in 2018, the road speed limit was set at 80 km/h. You have 35.72% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.