Quantifying racial inequality in transit access across New York City | PNAS Nexus. Really!

What a ridiculous if not a junk study! Why did PNAS publish this ideology and propaganda?

The New York city subway, opened in 1904, is one of the oldest subway systems in the US.

What about other public transportation in NYC like busses?

Look at the rather small percentage differences in the abstract! This study is a bad joke!

Caveat: I did not read the study!

From the abstract:

"Urban transit networks are crucial for sustainable cities, yet their uneven distribution often results in unequal access to urban resources.

Prior studies primarily focused on accessibility within transit networks while overlooking its implications for residents’ behaviors and the historical and political roots of inequality [???].

Using door-to-door transit information and over 66 million mobility records, we examine racial disparities in New York City’s transit accessibility and their impact on mobility behaviors. We find that ethnic minorities have 4.9% lower neighborhood accessibility, 15.7% less job accessibility, and 14.9% poorer access to essential facilities compared to the white population.

These disparities exacerbate residential segregation [???] by 26.9% and confine minorities to limited mobility, higher unemployment risks, and longer travel to essential services.

Importantly, inequalities persist even after accounting for socioeconomic covariates, housing values, and residential sorting, pointing to the enduring influence of wealth, political power, and discriminatory planning legacies. Simulations indicate that enhancing transit infrastructure in minority block groups could reduce these gaps by up to 49.8%. Our findings highlight the critical need to integrate equity, affordability, and inclusiveness into the design of future sustainable transit systems."

Quantifying racial inequality in transit access across New York City | PNAS Nexus | Oxford Academic

What’s the science behind acupuncture?

This is still a question today? Acupuncture has become a recognized treatment option some 50 years ago in Western countries.

Is it not still a fringe form of treatment?

"... Although the picture remains incomplete, several lines of research are elucidating the biological underpinnings of acupuncture. They include the involvement of endogenous opioids and the role of loose connective tissue—including fascia, a body-wide network of collagen fibers embedded in an extracellular matrix rich in hyaluronic acid and other proteins. This tissue could be the medium that transmits the effects of local needling to distant systems, echoing the TCM concept of meridians.

By giving ancient ideas a modern scientific footing, recent discoveries are bolstering Western acceptance and strengthening the case that acupuncture’s benefits are not just a placebo effect. ..."

What’s the science behind acupuncture? | PNAS "Recent studies offer insights into how the ancient technique works, while newer approaches are bolstering acupuncture with insights from Western medicine."

Disclaimer

I am currently blogging from behind the Great Firewall of China.

My Internet service in China is very spotty. Thus, I am not able to blog as usual.

Golden retriever and human behaviours are driven by same genes. Really!

Why the Golden Retriever? This research was even published in the once prestigious PNAS!

I believe my genes are driven by the Chihuahua genes! Just kidding! 😊

How the lovely Golden Retriever or the love for dogs messed up the minds of scientists? A case of wishful thinking involving our most favorite pet?

Or can GWAS studies prove anything? Call me a little bit skeptical here!

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

Dogs display temperamental and behavioral variation and possess tractable genetics, making them a compelling model for studying the genetics of psychiatric, temperamental, and cognitive traits.

Using a behavioral questionnaire, we phenotyped over 1,000 golden retrievers and identified 12 genome-wide significant loci and 9 suggestive loci.

Of the 18 proximal candidate genes at these loci, 12 were also associated with psychiatric, temperamental, or cognitive traits in humans.

Seven of these genes were at genome-wide loci and five at suggestive loci.

For example, the gene nearest the dog-directed aggression locus, PTPN1, is associated in humans with intelligence, cognitive performance, educational attainment, and major depressive disorder. These findings suggest shared genetic mechanisms underlying behavior across species and inform emotional states underlying canine behaviors.

Abstract

Dogs display temperamental and behavioral variation between individuals, just as psychiatric, temperamental, and cognitive traits vary in humans.

In both species, these traits are highly heritable, yet causal genes remain incompletely understood.

We performed 14 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for behavioral traits quantified using the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ) in ~1,000 golden retrievers, identifying 12 genome-wide significant loci (P < 2.97 × 10−6) for 8 traits and 9 additional loci exceeding a suggestive threshold (P < 1 × 10−5).

A human phenome-wide association study (PheWAS) showed that most of the 18 canine positional candidate genes identified were associated with one or more of 190 psychiatric, temperamental, or cognitive traits in humans (7/12 genes at genome-wide loci and 5/9 at suggestive loci).

For example, a genome-wide significant locus near PTPN1 (dog-directed aggression) overlapped with human measures of Intelligence, Educational attainment, and major depressive disorder.

The gene ROMO1 was within a genome-wide significant locus for trainability in dogs and associated with intelligence, depression, irritability, and sensitivity/hurt feelings in humans.

Other genes located at genome-wide significant loci associated with behavioral, psychiatric, temperamental, or cognitive traits in both species included PRDX1(dog-directed fear), VWA8 (touch sensitivity), ITPR2, and ADGRL2/LPHN2 (trainability), and ADD2 (stranger-directed fear).

From suggestive loci we also found cross-species associations for HUNK, and ZC3H12C, (dog-directed fear), SLC35F6 and IGSF11 (separation-related problems).

These results suggest that shared genetic and molecular mechanisms underlie complex behavioral and temperamental states across species and may inform our understanding of emotional states driving undesirable behaviors in dogs."

Golden retriever and human behaviours are driven by same genes | University of Cambridge "Researchers have discovered that genes underlying specific behavioural traits in golden retrievers - from trainability to fear of strangers - also shape human personality and mental health."

GWAS for behavioral traits in golden retrievers identifies genes implicated in human temperament, mental health, and cognition (open access)

Fig. 1 Manhattan plots of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of behavioral traits in golden retrievers highlighting loci associated with C-BARQ factor scores.

Synergies between speciation and conservation science yield novel insights for mitigating the biodiversity crisis of the Anthropocene. Really!

The once prestigious PNAS has become a journal of propaganda and demagoguery!

Whenever you read "Anthropocene" (even spelled with a capital A in this case) think of obscene claims! A case of misanthropy!

Again this alarmism and hysteria is again based on (dubious) long term forecasts!

Nature conservation and renaturing has made great progress over the last several decades in many countries! There is no denying that a world human population of over 8 billion has some environmental impact, but there are also signs of population decline around the world.

"The Earth is experiencing ongoing and devastating environmental change, largely, if not entirely, due to anthropogenic impacts. This is leading inexorably to the fragmentation of our biosphere and threatens biodiversity across all continents and habitats.

While forests harbor over 80% of terrestrial biodiversity, 70% of the Earth’s remaining forests are within 1 km of a forest edge.

The loss of aquatic habitat is equally alarming, iconically represented by the dramatic loss of coral reef habitat, which is projected to reach an 84% loss in response to ongoing climate change. ..."

Synergies between speciation and conservation science yield novel insights for mitigating the biodiversity crisis of the Anthropocene | PNAS

Had science in 1860 already been very advanced, we would have discovered anthropogenic climate change back in 1885. Really!

More junk science related to the Global Warming hoax and Climate Change religion!

This "research" too is totally tainted by a severe bias! Humans are bad for climate nonsense! Key ideological term/label here again: anthropogenic. Sounds very sophisticated, but it is more indicative of a superstition than science.

It is truly astonishing that the prestigious PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) accepted such junk for publication!

If our current climate science still was not so immature and more like a superstition than a science, we would perhaps admit we still know very little about the very complex natural phenomenon of climate.

One of many serious challenges to this "thought experiment": Why did the Medieval Warm Period (900 CE to 1300 CE) follow the Late Antique Little Ice Age (536 CE to around 660 CE).

What happens when the earth comes out of an ice age? A warming period! When did the last ice age (The Little Ice Age) end? about 1850.

In 1860, nobody would have predicted the enormous global human population growth since the 1950s. 

Today's climate models are largely junk!

"Climate Change/We could have known

...

At what point in the past could we have detected the anthropogenic influence [???] on climate that now is so glaringly evident had we had good enough instrumentation?

Santer et al. conducted the thought experiment by assuming that the necessary tools to monitor global-scale atmospheric temperatures were available as far back as 1860, and then looked at the fingerprints of atmospheric temperature changes that would have been observed.

They found that a clear fingerprint of human activity, driven by atmospheric carbon dioxide, would have been apparent in stratospheric cooling by 1885. Thus, our impact on climate would have been observable even before the advent of gas-powered automobiles."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

When could scientists have first known that fossil fuel burning was significantly altering global climate? We attempt to answer this question by performing a thought experiment with model simulations of historical climate change. We assume that the capability to monitor global-scale changes in atmospheric temperature existed as early as 1860 and that the instruments available in this hypothetical world had the same accuracy as today’s satellite-borne microwave radiometers.

We then apply a pattern-based “fingerprint” method to disentangle human and natural effects on climate. A human-caused stratospheric cooling signal would have been identifiable by approximately 1885, before the advent of gas-powered cars. Our results suggest that a discernible human influence on atmospheric temperature has likely existed for over 130 y.

Abstract

The physics of the heat-trapping properties of CO2 were established in the mid-19th century, as fossil fuel burning rapidly increased atmospheric CO2 levels.

To date, however, research has not probed when climate change could have been detected if scientists in the 19th century had the current models and observing network.

We consider this question in a thought experiment with state-of-the-art climate models [???]. We assume that the capability to make accurate measurements of atmospheric temperature changes existed in 1860, and then apply a standard “fingerprint” method to determine the time at which a human-caused climate change signal was first detectable.

Pronounced cooling of the mid- to upper stratosphere, mainly driven by anthropogenic increases in carbon dioxide, would have been identifiable with high confidence by approximately 1885, before the advent of gas-powered cars. These results arise from the favorable signal-to-noise characteristics of the mid- to upper stratosphere, where the signal of human-caused cooling is large and the pattern of this cooling differs markedly from patterns of intrinsic variability.

Even if our monitoring capability in 1860 had not been global, and high-quality stratospheric temperature measurements existed for Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes only, it still would have been feasible to detect human-caused stratospheric cooling by 1894, only 34 y after the assumed start of climate monitoring. Our study provides strong evidence that a discernible human influence on atmospheric temperature has likely existed for over 130 y."

In Other Journals | Science

Human influence on climate detectable in the late 19th century (open access)

Divergence between predicted and actual perception of climate information | PNAS. Really!

Could it be the so called "scientific consensus" is wrong and the common men and women is right to dismiss the hysteria and alarmism about climate change? You bet!

The entire world should be so happy that President Trump does not buy this crap of climate change! Neither does Putin the Terrible nor Xi Jinping nor Narendra Modi! Only Western countries are so stupid!

The so called "scientific consensus" is much more demagoguery than reality! The consensus is most likely only limited to the fact that climate changes like it has done over hundreds and thousands of years.

It is appalling that the National Academy of Sciences would publish such a call for more propaganda to "convince" the population that climate change is a threat.

From the abstract:

"Despite strong scientific consensus on the severe risks posed by climate change, a substantial segment of the population remains unconvinced, limiting progress on effective climate action. 

Persuading climate skeptics is essential for building broader support for stronger climate policies and accelerating efforts to mitigate climate change. However, outreach efforts often depend on perceptions of skeptics’ openness to climate communication: when persuasion is seen as unlikely, communication efforts tend to diminish. In this paper, we investigate the predicted versus actual impact of climate change information on skeptics. Using a series of surveys with US respondents, we first gather predictions about the effectiveness of authentic news articles in changing skeptics’ views.

Our findings reveal a widespread pessimism: climate advocates expect no change in attitudes, while skeptics anticipate a backfire effect that reinforces their skepticism.

Contrary to these predictions, our preregistered survey experiment finds that exposure to climate change articles [propaganda] significantly increases concern among skeptics. However, their responses vary in terms of willingness to adopt climate-friendly behaviors and support climate policies.

These results reveal a significant disconnect between people’s expectations and actual effects of climate communication on skeptics, emphasizing the need for sustained and strategic investments in climate communication [demagoguery] to foster greater public engagement and support for climate action."

Divergence between predicted and actual perception of climate information | PNAS Nexus | Oxford Academic (open access)

Extreme temperatures are rising in these global ‘hotspots’. Really!

A case for the urban heat island effect and flawed surface temperature measurements!

There is a strong suspicion here again that we are dealing with pseudo science produced by Columbia University and published in the prestigious PNAS!

This study might very well be another example of climate models being junk!

Keep in mind: Global warming is a hoax and climate change is a religion! It is being used as a pretext by Big Government and the elite to interfere with our lives. It is among the greatest scams and scandals of at least the last 30 years!

Is it not curious that most of these mapped hotspots coincide with centers of urbanization and areas of dense population around the world! A strong indication that actually the urban heat island effect is in effect!

Just look at Europe and Australia and Chile. Take in particular the very thinly populated continent of Australia, where these so called hotspots happen to coincide with Sidney, Melbourne, Canberra, and Adelaide, the major urban centers of Australia. Then we have Chile. Again the map below shows the so called hotspots are located where the major urban centers (Santiago, Valparaiso, Concepcion) are of Chile!

The map below also shows so called hotspots in the very northern and thinly populated regions of Canada. I strongly suspect flawed or even non existent historical surface temperature measurements. Similar the huge island of Greenland.

"New research has identified several regions of the globe where heatwaves are increasing at a rate far higher than state-of-the-art climate models have been projecting.  ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

Heatwaves can lead to considerable impacts on societal and natural systems. Accurate simulation of their response to warming is important for adaptation to potential climate futures. Here, we quantify changes of extreme temperatures worldwide over recent decades. We find an emergence of hotspots where the hottest temperatures are warming significantly faster than more moderate temperatures. In these regions, trends are largely underestimated in climate model simulations. Globally aggregated, we find that models struggle with both ends of the trend distribution, with positive trends being underestimated most, while moderate trends are well reproduced. Our findings highlight the need to better understand and model extreme heat and to rapidly mitigate greenhouse gas emissions to avoid further harm.

Abstract

Multiple recent record-shattering weather events raise questions about the adequacy of climate models to effectively predict and prepare for unprecedented climate impacts on human life, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Here, we show that extreme heat in several regions globally is increasing significantly and faster in magnitude than what state-of-the-art climate models have predicted under present warming even after accounting for their regional summer background warming. Across all global land area, models underestimate positive trends exceeding 0.5 °C per decade in widening of the upper tail of extreme surface temperature distributions by a factor of four compared to reanalysis data and exhibit a lower fraction of significantly increasing trends overall. To a lesser degree, models also underestimate observed strong trends of contraction of the upper tails in some areas, while moderate trends are well reproduced in a global perspective. Our results highlight the need to better understand and model the drivers of extreme heat and to rapidly mitigate greenhouse gas emissions [???] to avoid further harm from unexpected weather events."

Extreme temperatures are rising in these global ‘hotspots’

Unexplained [???] Heat-Wave ‘Hotspots’ Are Popping Up Across the Globe (original news release)

Global emergence of regional heatwave hotspots outpaces climate model simulations

Fig. 3 Regional trends of extreme temperatures are underestimated in climate model experiments in multiple regions globally.

Regions where observed heat waves exceed trends from climate models.

The unappreciated centrality of ethnoracially mixed Americans to the nation’s demographic future. Really!

This Nazi nonsense is published in one of the most prestigious journals, i.e. PNAS! This is pure racism!

The US is about individuals and freedom not about race!

The article was written by a "Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Sociology, Africana Studies" at CUNY.

From the abstract:

"The ethnoracial future of the United States has been framed as a demographic binary: Whites vs. people of color. The argument here is that this binary distorts by failing to take into adequate account the rapidly growing group of Americans who have been raised in mixed minority and White families, the great majority of the total mixed population. The members of this group generally have distinctive social characteristics: socioeconomic advantages compared to minorities and social integration into milieus with many Whites, as revealed by relatively high rates of marriage to them. However, their identities often encompass their minority heritage. Accordingly, they straddle the society’s major ethnoracial fracture line, creating an in-between social space and connecting, through kinship and other close social relations, both of its sides. However, their numbers are distorted in public national population data, such as census data and population projections; and they are typically counted as part of the non-White population. The recently announced revision of the race/ethnic data standards for the census offers an opportunity to refashion public data in a way that illuminates the important role this mixed group is likely to play in the nation’s demographic future."

The unappreciated centrality of ethnoracially mixed Americans to the nation’s demographic future | PNAS (no public access)

Police stop more Black drivers, while speed cameras issue unbiased tickets − new study from Cornell U and Rutgers U and others. Really!

This annoying and tiresome nonsense of systemic racism obsession by U.S. professors! Another piece of pseudoscience!

The headline of this article by these professors is already a lie! The tickets were not at all unbiased as they document in their research (see below). Shame on these professors!

This propaganda and demagoguery was even published in the prestigious PNAS!

Notice again the ideology and indoctrination of Black spelled with a capital B. These researchers also use White as if to show equity!

The PNAS research article clearly states that speed camera enforcement also confirmed that black drivers are disproportionally cited! Are the cameras racist or are they placed with racist intent?

No explanation provided why traffic stops surged!

"... Meanwhile, traffic stops have surged in Chicago, rising from less than 200,000 in 2016 to over 570,000 in 2023. And much like stop and frisk, police disproportionately stop Black drivers in Chicago, according to our latest study examining racial bias in traffic enforcement. ..."

So what! What if more black drivers find it cool to drive fast or prefer certain roads to drive fast? And so on ...

" ... Our findings show that when speed cameras are doing the ticketing, the proportion of tickets issued to Black and white drivers aligns closely with their respective share of roadway users. With human enforcement, in contrast, police officers stop Black drivers at a rate that far outstrips their presence on the road. ...

How many of the police officers involved are black or Hispanic? Were the black drivers perhaps more noticeable in their driving behavior or perhaps more risky drivers that caught the attention of police officers?

"... For instance, on roads where half of drivers are Black, Black drivers receive approximately 54% of automated camera citations. However, they make up about 70% of police stops. ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

This study pioneers in mapping the racial composition of roads. Our findings highlight a disproportionate rate of citations for moving violations among Black drivers through both speed camera enforcement but more so via police stops, challenging the neutrality of police traffic stops and suggesting a racial bias in enforcement practices. This research underscores the need for a more equitable traffic enforcement system and opens avenues for future investigations into the biases ingrained in traffic stop locations and camera placements.

Abstract

This paper exploits the potential of Global Positioning System datasets sourced from mobile phones to estimate the racial composition of road users, leveraging data from their respective Census block group. The racial composition data encompasses approximately 46 million trips in the Chicago metropolitan region. The research focuses on the relationship between camera tickets and racial composition of drivers vs. police stops for traffic citations and the racial composition in these locations. Black drivers exhibit a higher likelihood of being ticketed by automated speed cameras and of being stopped for moving violations on roads, irrespective of the proportion of White drivers present. The research observes that this correlation attenuates as the proportion of White drivers on the road increases. The citation rate measured by cameras better matches the racial composition of road users on the links with cameras than do stops by police officers. This study therefore presents an important contribution to understanding racial disparities in moving violation stops, with implications for policy interventions and social justice reforms."

Police stop more Black drivers, while speed cameras issue unbiased tickets − new study from Chicago

The racial composition of road users, traffic citations, and police stops (open access)

Climate change is drying out canopy plants—that could mean less water for the entire rainforest. Really!

Don't you love it when once respected science publications like PNAS engage in propaganda and demagoguery and alarmism and hysteria!

Over centuries if not millennia, rainforests have already survived all kinds of climate change (e.g. the Little Ice Age or the Medieval Warm Period)!

What little do we still know about rainforests! What a pretense of knowledge! Our knowledge is perhaps  as misty as the rainforest itself! 😊

Climate change is drying out canopy plants—that could mean less water for the entire rainforest | PNAS Ecophysiologists have started to uncover the outsized role of epiphytes in moving water through tropical forests, even as these orchids and ferns dry up.

PNAS: Earth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just and sustainable future. Really!

How many times will this hysteria and alarmism be repeated! This is a case of misanthropy! 

This is a open socialist call for Big Government to run our lives! And this time it is the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences spreading and promoting this nonsense! Disgusting!

During my lifetime, I have seen this kind of alarmism and hysteria many times over the last five decades.

This is not science, but pure propaganda and demagoguery! Worse it is like medieval superstition! 

This article was even featured in their latest biweekly email newsletter!

PNAS is also a propagator of the DEI propaganda! Shameful!

From the abstract:

"Human development has ushered in an era of converging crises ["???]: climate change, ecological destruction, disease, pollution, and socioeconomic inequality. This review synthesizes the breadth of these interwoven emergencies and underscores the urgent need for comprehensive, integrated action. Propelled by imperialism [???], extractive capitalism [???], and a surging population, we are speeding past Earth's material limits, destroying critical ecosystems, and triggering irreversible changes in biophysical systems that underpin the Holocene climatic stability which fostered human civilization. The consequences of these actions are disproportionately borne by vulnerable populations, further entrenching global inequities. Marine and terrestrial biomes face critical tipping points [???], while escalating challenges to food and water access foreshadow a bleak outlook for global security. Against this backdrop of Earth at risk, we call for a global response centered on urgent decarbonization, fostering reciprocity with nature, and implementing regenerative practices in natural resource management. We call for the elimination of detrimental subsidies, promotion of equitable human development, and transformative financial support for lower income nations. A critical paradigm shift must occur that replaces exploitative, wealth-oriented capitalism with an economic model that prioritizes sustainability, resilience, and justice. We advocate a global cultural shift that elevates kinship with nature and communal well-being, underpinned by the recognition of Earth’s finite resources and the interconnectedness of its inhabitants. The imperative is clear: to navigate away from this precipice, we must collectively harness political will, economic resources, and societal values to steer toward a future where human progress does not come at the cost of ecological integrity and social equity [???]."

Earth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just and sustainable future | PNAS Nexus | Oxford Academic (open access)

Can ChatGPT help researchers understand how the human brain handles language? | PNAS. Really!

I believe the question is possibly too narrow, and short-sighted! Reeks of anthropomorphism!

It appears the author Mitchell Waldrop is a free lance journalist and PhD physicist, not a scientist as you would expect from PNAS.

Machine learning & AI are an avenue to finding new forms of intelligence beyond what evolved over billions of years through natural evolution. It is possibly a quantum leap!

Can ChatGPT help researchers understand how the human brain handles language? | PNAS Large language models are surprisingly good at mimicking our speech and writing. Now they’re serving as an electronic lab rat for language, offering insights into the mysteries of one of humankind’s most important abilities.

Plenty of Sugars or building blocks of life found on a Kuiper Belt object about 5 billion kilometers from the sun

Sweet news! 😊 Amazing stuff! Mind boggling!

Why the heck the PNAS does not mention the distance of this object is mysterious! I had to research it myself!

How realistic was this simulation? How strong were the assumptions?

"Observations from the New Horizons spacecraft detected methanol ice and a reddish coloration on the surface of Arrokoth, the furthest Kuiper Belt object (KBO) visited by a spacecraft. The source of Arrokoth’s distinctive red coloration is unclear. Chaojiang Zhang et al. simulated the exposure of methanol and carbon monoxide ices to proxies for galactic cosmic rays in the lab to explore the origins of Arrokoth’s colors. The authors used energetic electrons to replicate the equivalent radiation dose of exposure to galactic cosmic rays for approximately 1.8 billion years at temperatures below 40 K. Spectroscopic analyses, two-dimensional gas chromatography, and time-of-flight mass spectrometry helped characterize the resulting organic molecules and colors. The lab experiment replicated the red coloration of Arrokoth. The results suggest that the surface of Arrokoth is rich in sugars, including ribose and glucose, some of which are molecular building blocks for RNA and lipids. Complex organic compounds, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, were key contributors to the red coloration. According to the authors, “sugar worlds,” such as Arrokoth and similar KBOs, are a plausible prebiotic source for organic molecules important to the evolution of life, which could subsequently have been delivered to Earth by comets. ..."

From the significance and abstract:

"Significance

The flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft of the Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth revealed its reddish appearance and unraveled the unexpected presence of a methanol-rich surface. However, the chemical compositions and fundamental processes responsible for the surface coloring have remained ambiguous. Here, we have evidence that methanol ices exposed to galactic cosmic rays can replicate the colors of Arrokoth. Organics formed indicate that Arrokoth is rich in sugars including biologically significant ribose and glucose, while aromatic hydrocarbons are essential in producing the ultrared color slopes. Our findings provide insights into the surface evolution of planetesimals in the early Solar System ranging from the Kuiper Belt to Oort’s clouds as repositories of short and long-periodic comets.

Abstract

The Kuiper Belt object (KBO) Arrokoth, the farthest object in the Solar System ever visited by a spacecraft, possesses a distinctive reddish surface and is characterized by pronounced spectroscopic features associated with methanol. However, the fundamental processes by which methanol ices are converted into reddish, complex organic molecules on Arrokoth’s surface have remained elusive. Here, we combine laboratory simulation experiments with a spectroscopic characterization of methanol ices exposed to proxies of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). Our findings reveal that the surface exposure of methanol ices at 40 K can replicate the color slopes of Arrokoth. Sugars and their derivatives (acids, alcohols) with up to six carbon atoms, including glucose and ribose—fundamental building block of RNA—were ubiquitously identified. In addition, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with up to six ring units (13C22H12) were also observed. These sugars and their derivatives along with PAHs connected by unsaturated linkers represent key molecules rationalizing the reddish appearance of Arrokoth. The formation of abundant sugar-related molecules dubs Arrokoth as a sugar world and provides a plausible abiotic preparation route for a key class of biorelevant molecules on the surface of KBOs prior to their delivery to prebiotic Earth."

P.S. "Arrokoth was named for a word in the Powhatan language of the Tidewater region of Virginia and Maryland in the eastern United States. The Powhatan language became extinct in the late 18th century and little was recorded of it." (Wikipedia)

In This Issue | PNAS

Ionizing radiation exposure on Arrokoth shapes a sugar world (no public access)

Grayscale composite image of Arrokoth

Antiracism and positive intergenerational (infant) outcomes: A county-level examination of low birth weight and infant mortality | PNAS. Really!

Again, even the once prestigious PNAS is infested with propaganda and demagoguery! Disgusting and appalling! PNAS a purveyor of junk science!

How did this "study" even pass the smell test!

They even boldly claim "Analyses controlled for structural indicators of income inequality, implicit/explicit bias, voting behavior, prior low birth weight/infant mortality rates, and demographic characteristics". Most likely hogwash!

From the abstract:

"Racism is associated with negative intergenerational (infant) outcomes. That is, racism, both perceived and structural, is linked to critical, immediate, and long-term health factors such as low birth weight and infant mortality. Antiracism—resistance to racism such as support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement—has been linked to positive emotional, subjective, and mental health outcomes among adults and adolescents. To theoretically build on and integrate such past findings, the present research asked whether such advantageous health correlations might extend intergenerationally to infant outcomes? It examined a theoretical/correlational process model in which mental and physical health indicators might be indirectly related to associations between antiracism and infant health outcomes. Analyses assessed county-level data that measured BLM support (indexed as volume of BLM marches) and infant outcomes from 2014 to 2020. As predicted, in the tested model, BLM support was negatively correlated with 1) low birth weight (Ncounties = 1,445) and 2) mortalities (Ncounties = 409) among African American infants. Given salient, intergroup, policy debates tied to antiracism, the present research also examined associations among White Americans. In the tested model, BLM marches were not meaningfully related to rates of low birth weight among White American infants (Ncounties = 2,930). However, BLM support was negatively related to mortalities among White American infants (Ncounties = 862). Analyses controlled for structural indicators of income inequality, implicit/explicit bias, voting behavior, prior low birth weight/infant mortality rates, and demographic characteristics. Theory/applied implications of antiracism being linked to nonnegative and positive infant health associations tied to both marginalized and dominant social groups are discussed."

Antiracism and positive intergenerational (infant) outcomes: A county-level examination of low birth weight and infant mortality | PNAS (open access)

Key language markers of depression on social media depend on race | PNAS. Really!

To use machine learning & language models to detect or measure depression in individuals is probably a good idea!

Unfortunately, like so many other superficial studies, this study did not take any socioeconomic or sociocultural circumstances into account only black and white skin color. Akin to pseudoscience!

However, I do surmise that depression could be differently expressed,  because e.g. the music preferences between white and black Americans are also different. Just an empirical observation.

From the abstract:

"Depression has robust natural language correlates and can increasingly be measured in language using predictive models. However, despite evidence that language use varies as a function of individual demographic features (e.g., age, gender), previous work has not systematically examined whether and how depression’s association with language varies by race. We examine how race moderates the relationship between language features (i.e., first-person pronouns and negative emotions) from social media posts and self-reported depression, in a matched sample of Black and White English speakers in the United States. Our findings reveal moderating effects of race: While depression severity predicts I-usage in White individuals, it does not in Black individuals. White individuals use more belongingness and self-deprecation-related negative emotions. Machine learning models trained on similar amounts of data to predict depression severity performed poorly when tested on Black individuals, even when they were trained exclusively using the language of Black individuals. In contrast, analogous models tested on White individuals performed relatively well. Our study reveals surprising race-based differences in the expression of depression in natural language and highlights the need to understand these effects better, especially before language-based models for detecting psychological phenomena are integrated into clinical practice."

Key language markers of depression on social media depend on race | PNAS (open access)

We need a solid scientific basis for nature-based climate solutions in the United States | PNAS. Really!

There is not even a scientific basis for the Global Warming hoax and Climate Change religion!

"nature-based" what an euphemism! But go ahead and plant more trees! Caution: satire!

"Nature-based climate solutions (NbCS) have courted both enthusiastic support and considerable controversy (1–8). Defined as deliberate human actions that manipulate ecosystems to improve the planet’s greenhouse gas balance, NbCS provoke disagreement, in large part because their implementation has so far outpaced a science-based understanding of their long-term climate mitigation potential. ...
NbCS strategies protect carbon-dense forests and wetlands; improve the management of agricultural, forest, and grazing lands; and restore carbon-dense natural ecosystems. These actions are designed to increase carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere and reduce ecosystem emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). ..."

We need a solid scientific basis for nature-based climate solutions in the United States | PNAS

U.S. National Academy of Sciences: Racial disparities and climate policy. Really!

Racialize everything! Ostensible racism everywhere! 

It is very disturbing when even the prestigious NAS of the U.S. disseminates such propaganda and demagoguery!

Well, the headquarters of the NAS is located in the swamp (a.k.a. Washington DC).

As if e.g. white poor people are not exposed to air pollution!

"... In the United States, racial minorities experience a disproportionate exposure to air pollution. Greenhouse gases and other air pollutants, such as particulate matter, are often produced together. So, policy that aims to reduce greenhouse gases should also reduce air pollutants, improving racial equity in air quality. Or, at least, that’s the ideal. ..."

Racial disparities and climate policy | Science Sessions | PNAS Pascal Polonik and Kate Ricke explain why reducing greenhouse gas emissions does not always improve environmental equity [???].

Future of the human climate niche

When the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) participate in disseminating Global Warming Hoax propaganda and demagoguery!



"Significance We show that for thousands of years, humans have concentrated in a surprisingly narrow subset of Earth’s available climates, characterized by mean annual temperatures around ∼13 °C. This distribution likely reflects a human temperature niche related to fundamental constraints. ... Absent climate mitigation or migration, a substantial part of humanity will be exposed to mean annual temperatures warmer than nearly anywhere today.
Abstract
All species have an environmental niche, and despite technological advances, humans are unlikely to be an exception. ... We show that in a business-as-usual climate change scenario, the geographical position of this temperature niche is projected to shift more over the coming 50 y than it has moved since 6000 BP. ...  As the potentially most affected regions are among the poorest in the world, where adaptive capacity is low, enhancing human development in those areas should be a priority alongside climate mitigation."

These "fundamental constraints" are mere conjecture and speculation than anything else! This is not science!!! As a minimum this negates evolution and the adaptability of nature!

Do these dim witted, biased scientists even realize that probably more than 1 billion humans were lifted out of poverty by market economies over the last 30-40 years alone! That many countries in Africa are the next economic tigers etc. Thus to claim that "poorest in the world, where adaptive capacity is low" is an insult to intelligence and common sense!

Future of the human climate niche | PNAS