1 Week, 7 Stories - Newsletter #45

Every edition features 7 stories, from the past week. I’ll draw on my background in media, journalism, agriculture, biotech, and renewable energy to come up with an interesting selection and to offer some context.

When I was working in the biotech sector and trying to understand genetics I embarked on an experiment. I had my genome sequenced by several companies, compared the results, and used the experience for communication and outreach initiatives. One of the companies I used is hitting the skids and is the first story in this week’s newsletter.

23andMe was the first direct-to-consumer genetic testing company and in 2008 was Time Magazine’s ‘Invention of the Year’. ?In announcing the honour Time declared, “We are at the beginning of a personal-genomics revolution that will transform not only how we take care of ourselves but also what we mean by personal information”. Google invested $3.9 million USD in the company’s early days, probably with the encouragement of one of the genetic upstart’s founders Anne Wojcicki, who was married to Sergey Brin, a Google founder. The product they delivered caught the imagination of the public. Buy a testing kit, spit in a tube, send it off, and get back a detailed report on health risks, traits, and ancestry. The novelty and demand wore off, more companies entered the market, and 23andMe ran into financial and regulatory hurdles but continued to improve its product. ??

But there’s more.

Last week the company was ordered to pay $30 million USD as part of a lawsuit accusing them of not protecting the privacy of its customers after a data breach last year. This just added to its existing financial woes.

There have been accusations that the company has not been transparent on how customer’s data is being used. For instance, after you purchased the kit, 23andMe re-used the anonymized results of your tests in its research arm. Maybe because I was more steeped in biotech and was using my testing as part of corporate outreach, I had read the fine print. There should have been no surprises for anyone who also took the time to look over the agreement, and it was clear users could opt out at anytime.

But there is even more.

Seven board members resigned last week as finances continued to fall upon hard times. Anne Wojcicki holds 49% of the shares and wanted to buy out the remaining shares and take the company private. The idea was rejected by the board before the mass resignation saying they had not received a fully financed and actionable proposal from Wojcicki. The resignations also meant that the company was no longer in compliance of Nasdaq’s corporate governance requirements and they could face delisting according to Investing.com.

Wojcicki however seems to be determined to save the company and taking it private.

For me at least, I have always been satisfied with what the company offered. However, I was not only an early adopter, but I shared my raw genomic data online for all to see online so perhaps I am not the best judge!!

My genome like all human genomes consists of 3.2 billion base pairs.? (The genetic building blocks where your DNA information is encoded). The genome of the Greenland shark is twice the size at about 6.5 billion according to a preprint paper published this month in bioRxiv.

Large genomes are not unusual, but the shark genome provided insight into the longevity of this big fish which can live for 400 years and does not even reach sexual maturity until it is 150 years old.

The secret to the long life seems to lie in “jumping genes”. In other animals these self-replicating genes usually cause problems because they de-stabilize the overall genome and destroy the integrity of other genes. In the case of the Greenland shark however, evolution came up with a way to handle these problematic genes by using the self-replicating characteristics to repair damaged DNA. Damaged DNA being is one of the leading explanations of why we age as the unrepaired DNA accumulates.?

Don’t get excited at the prospect of transplanting a few unique shark cells to increase our longevity, but researchers do believe that part of the secret to living a long life does, in part, include good genetics. (See the previous story. My genome sequence indicates a higher chance of living to be 100). However, as a paper in Immunity & Ageing pointed out in 2016, “It takes two to tango” when it comes to genetics and lifestyle in determining how long we live. In early September a published study concluded that a particular gene that produces the OSER1 protein does influence our ability to have a longer life.

So get plenty of sleep, have a healthy social life, avoid all those bad foods, and cross your fingers you have good genetics so you can live long and prosper.?

The ideas of mirrors in space to fix problems on earth is back on the agenda according to a story in TechCrunch. In another example of a commercial company venturing into space, Reflect Orbital believes that by using large mirrors to focus light down and onto specific solar panel arrays on earth, they can provide more sunlight for more hours of the day. The idea has attracted the attention of Sequoia Capital which is leading a $6.5 million USD round of seed funding. The plan is to orbit a 10x10 metre (32x32 feet) prototype to test the idea.

All right so far.

The technical challenges are significant however. The company does not lay everything out there for people to examine, but that initial testing could involve 57 of those smaller-scale mirrors. Ultimately Reflect says full-scale production would deploy 50x50 metre (160x160 feet) mirrors. “thousands to tens of thousands” of them. Apart from the precise control needed to maintain positioning, the number of mirrors poses a more far-reaching problem. 10,000 mirrors will disrupt astronomical work and could pose a danger to other objects orbiting the planet. It is getting crowed out there and given the mess we are creating here on the ground we should be paying attention to the orbiting pollution we are creating as well.

Reflect Orbital wants to make the most of new technology and the commercialization of space, but the Russians gave a similar idea a whirl in the 1990s. Znamya was originally seen as a way to lengthen the day and increase productivity – especially in rural areas of the Soviet Union. It morphed into something more like the latest idea and in 1993 a mylar mirror was launched from the Mir space station. It was successful in directing a beam of light 4 km (2.5 miles) wide down to Earth during the night. The mirror was not designed to last so burned up as it re-entered the atmosphere. It was an expensive venture, and a second test failed so the idea eventually burned up as well.?

?It seems unlikely that Reflect Orbital’s plan will succeed but keep in mind that mirrors can focus or reflect light in whichever direction we choose. Why Not Space Mirrors to reflect light back into space to help minimize global warming?

?No stranger than focusing it down to the surface with 10,000 space mirrors.

Before you read any further you need to look closely at the winning image for Bird Photographer of the Year by Canadian photographer Patricia Homonylo. She is a photojournalist and works with Fatal Light Awareness Program Canada (FLAP). The organization tries to save birds who survive window collisions, and works to teach people about the dangers birds face and how to prevent the problem. FLAP saves some of the dead birds and displays them at the end of the year to drive home the problem. Homonylo’s winning image is titled When Worlds Collide and shows about 4,000 of the 25 million migratory birds which die from hitting buildings every year. In the United States anywhere from 365 to 988 million birds suffer the same fate. That is upwards of a billion birds across North America.

Bird populations have been in decline since 1970 according to a Phys.org story from earlier this year. In Canada, shorebirds are down 40%, aerial insectivores 59%, and grassland birds down 57%. Waterfowl and birds of prey however have made a good comeback. Environment and Natural Resources Canada has a complete breakdown of the numbers for you based on the last complete census.

The leading causes for the steep decline are habitat loss from urbanization and intensive agriculture, climate change, cats (which do even more damage than buildings), and window collisions. Changing the first two of those causes seems nearly impossible at this stage in human history, but the latter two are well within reach. Limiting the deaths of migratory birds which collide with urban office towers and apartment buildings four floors or higher needs a more comprehensive approach.

The FLAP website has a number ideas for you to cut the carnage at home, but for a broad look at what can be done when it comes to hi-rise buildings in Canada, check this story and video report from CBC.?

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A single line in a Canadian Press story this weeks lays out what scientists say will happen if the Western Hudson Bay marine region collapses.? ?

“When the sea ice melts earlier it warms the overall water temperature and it changes algae that blooms, which changes the plankton that feed on the algae, which changes the fish, all the way up the food web to beluga whales, seals and polar bears,”

Despite that clear and unambiguous downward spiral, not much is moving in favour of Canada’s polar bear populations. In a recent open access study in Nature Communications Earth & Environment researchers said that Hudson Bay has warmed 1 °C in the last 30 years and even if we limit global warming to ?2 °C, polar bears are in trouble. Prior to the warming of the planet, Hudson Bay was covered in ice all winter and through to July. Without ice to facilitate hunting, bears enjoyed summers living off their fat reserves while losing 1 – 2 kg (2.2 to 4.4 lbs) every day they did not eat. That lasts for about 4 months and polar bears have evolved to handle that period of fasting. However, bears are now faced with an extra 30 days as the climate warms. The researchers say that once Earth warms another 1.3 or 1.4 °C (2.3 to 2.5 ° F) polar bears will be too hungry, and the Hudson Bay population will likely die out.

Between the 1980s and 2022, the Ursus maritimus population dropped by almost half which was faster than had been predicted.? Polar bears are currently considered a ‘threatened’ species and are not yet on the endangered list.

It is worth noting however that while the Hudson Bay polar bears are perhaps the most studied population there are 20 sub-populations including a new one discovered in southeast Greenland that is genetically distinct from other populations.? (Researchers have also confirmed some grizzly-polar bear hybrids but that does not constitute a sub-population)

Polar bears have no natural enemies, so they only die from old age or through interactions with people. Now they face the prospect of starving to death.

Critical minerals include lithium, gallium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and zinc. Canada considers 31 minerals ‘critical’ because there are limited quantities with no substitutes. They are also key pieces of the green economy to produce batteries, electric cars, wind turbines, and solar panels. Forecasts from the Canadian Climate Institute suggests we will need $16 billion worth of these minerals by 2040 to make the transition away from our reliance on fossil fuels. These minerals need to be mined, and mining creates environmental problems of their own (even though they are being mined to reduce other environmental damage!).

One way to reduce the impact to the environment is by recycling more of the metals used in everything from our computers to solar panels. Earlier this month the Government of Canada announced it was? investing $8.4 million (6.2 million USD) in recycling technology to support the electric vehicle supply chain. One project is a demonstration plant to produce rare earth oxide and cobalt-nickel hydroxide. The other will improve the current technology to repurpose used graphite.

The recycling technology needed is complex but this week a team led by Rice University researchers published a paper in Nature Chemical Communications about a new method to extract gallium, indium, and tantalum from electronic waste. According to a media release from Rice University, the new process will reduce the amount of energy used, and does not involve water, acids, and solvents which produce harmful secondary waste streams.?

There will be no shortage of e-waste for any company looking to take on the challenge. In Canada our electronic waste has tripled in the last 20 years to about a million tonnes or 8.3 kg (18.2 lbs) per person per year right now. By 2030 it will be about 1.2 million tonnes a year.

Alberta’s pilot e-waste recycling program has become permanent and will be able to handle your old electric guitar (though donating it to a music program makes more sense if it is still serviceable), video game equipment, power tools, coffee makers, and other electrical products that have been added to the list.

So, stay away from the landfill or your black garbage cart and look for an e-waste recycler instead. Or just hang on to your cell phone and tablet for another new model cycle!?

This last story fits in because it is one of those ‘I never heard of that before’ pieces of news.

Fonio.

Even if I have never tasted many of the grains that are part of diets around the world, I usually can at least say I have heard of them. Not so with fonio, a grain from West Africa which came up in a story from the New York Times this week (should be a free link. If not let me know please). It was even rejected by my spell checker. ?

The guest essay was by a chef who owns several restaurants in New York and while fonio is the jumping off point for his story, it is really about climate-friendly foods that are slowly finding a place in Western diets. Fonio sprouts quickly, can handle poor soil, and requires relatively little water according to chef Samuelsson. One company heavily into many of these less well-known grains says fonio cooks in the microwave in 5 minutes, is high in fiber, iron, and B-vitamins, and is an alternative to rice. It is part of the millet family and considered to be one of the oldest cultivated grains. Bill Gates writing about fonio in April said “Could a grain older than the wheel be the future of food?” He referred to it as a “lost crop”.

While obviously not lost completely, the reason some of the ancient grains have not become more mainstream comes down to marketing power.

Like many grains, fonio has a hard hull which needs to be cracked to get to the part you eat, and that adds to the processing costs and time. Local farmers in West Africa cannot produce enough fonio or other millet grains for export on a commercial scale. With no marketing clout, products that do make it into specialty stories here in Canada cost more than rice or more familiar ‘superfoods’ such as quinoa.

Ancient grains are those generally considered to be largely unchanged over the last several hundred years. There is no legal or regulatory definition of ancient grains and let’s face it, they are not considered ancient to farmers in Africa. Millet only accounts for about 3% of the global grains trade so North American producers tend to stick with the grains they know can be marketed rather than take a risk with a new crop. FI Global Insights points out that given recent global geopolitical events, supply chain problems, and the challenges of climate change, these ancient grains may not be as risky as we think.?

While they may be niche products today, they may prove to be a staple tomorrow.

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I’m available for contract and freelance work with not-for-profits and charities. With 40 years of experience behind me and lots of time ahead of me, I’m here to help you make a difference in your media relations, public relations, and general communications needs.

I also have a Substack newsletter which includes 1 Week, 7 Stories and other new material when the mood strikes. Starting in the Fall you’ll be able to read stories from my new short story collection.?