A new online experiment in the United Kingdom found that a brief mindfulness training (lasting 2 weeks, 15 minutes a day) can make individuals less likely to avoid information that may cause worry or regret. In this way, individuals can be trained to reduce one of the most important decision-making biases. The study was published in Economics Letters. Avoiding information about potentially negative outcomes, even when such information is freely available is one of the most well-known biases in individual decision-making. It is also one of the most dangerous issues in decision making. Historica...
When you turn on a lamp to brighten a room, you are experiencing light energy transmitted as photons, which are small, discrete quantum packets of energy. These photons must obey the sometimes strange laws of quantum mechanics, which, for instance, dictate that photons are indivisible, but at the same time, allow a photon to be in two places at once.
Similar to the photons that make up beams of light, indivisible quantum particles called phonons make up a beam of sound. These particles emerge from the collective motion of quadrillions of atoms, much as a “stadium wave” in a sports arena is due to the motion of thousands of individual fans. When you listen to a song, you’re hearing a stream of these very small quantum particles.
Originally conceived to explain the heat capacities of solids, phonons are predicted to obey the same rules of quantum mechanics as photons. The technology to generate and detect individual phonons has, however, lagged behind that for photons.
That technology is only now being developed, in part by my research group at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. We are exploring the fundamental quantum properties of sound by splitting phonons in half and entangling them together.
My group’s fundamental research on phonons may one day allow researchers to build a new type of quantum computer, called a mechanical quantum computer.
Splitting sound with ‘bad’ mirrors
To explore the quantum properties of phonons, our team uses acoustic mirrors, which can direct beams of sound. Our latest experiments, published in a recent issue of Science, however, involve “bad” mirrors, called beam splitters, that reflect about half the sound sent toward them and let the other half through. Our team decided to explore what happens when we direct a phonon at a beam splitter.
A beam splitter for phonons – the phonon enters a superposition state where it is both reflected and transmitted until it is detected. A.N. Cleland
As a phonon is indivisible; it cannot be split. Instead, after interacting with the beam splitter, the phonon ends up in what is called a “superposition state.” In this state the phonon is, somewhat paradoxically, both reflected and transmitted, and you’re equally likely to detect the phonon in either state. If you intervene and detect the phonon, half the time you will measure that it was reflected and half the time that it was transmitted; in a sense, the state is selected at random by the detector. Absent the detection process, the phonon will remain in the superposition state of being both transmitted and reflected.
A brief Ted-Ed explainer on superposition, which happens when particles can exist in multiple places at once.
This superposition effect was observed many years ago with photons. Our results indicate that phonons have the same property.
Entangled phonons
After demonstrating that phonons can go into quantum superpositions just as photons do, my team asked a more complex question. We wanted to know what would happen if we sent two identical phonons into the beam splitter, one from each direction.
It turns out that each phonon will go into a similar superposition state of half-transmitted and half-reflected. But because of the physics of the beam splitter, if we time the phonons precisely, they will quantum-mechanically interfere with one another. What emerges is actually a superposition state of two phonons going one way and two phonons going the other – the two phonons are thus quantum-mechanically entangled.
In quantum entanglement, each phonon is in a superposition of reflected and transmitted, but the two phonons are locked together. This means detecting one phonon as having been transmitted or reflected forces the other phonon to be in the same state.
So, if you detect, you’ll always detect two phonons, going one way or the other, never one phonon going each way. This same effect for light, the combination of superposition and interference of two photons, is called the Hong-Ou-Mandel effect, after the three physicists who first predicted and observed it in 1987. Now, my group has demonstrated this effect with sound.
The future of quantum computing
These results suggest that it may now be possible to build a mechanical quantum computer using phonons. There are continuing efforts to build optical quantum computers that require only the emission, detection and interference of single photons. These are in parallel with efforts to build electrical quantum computers, which through the use of large numbers of entangled particles promise an exponential speedup for certain problems, such as factoring large numbers or simulating quantum systems.
A quantum computer using phonons could be very compact and self-contained, built entirely on a chip similar to that of a laptop computer’s processor. Its small size could make it easier to implement and use, if researchers can further expand and improve phonon-based technologies.
My group’s experiments with phonons use qubits – the same technology that powers electronic quantum computers – which means that as the technology for phonons catches up, there’s the potential to integrate phonon-based computers with electronic quantum computers. Doing so could yield new, potentially unique computational abilities.
Hundreds of scientists protested government efforts to restrict educational access to Western science theories, including Darwin’s theory of evolution, in June 2023 in India. Similarly, scientists in Mexico participated in a research strike in May 2023 to protest a national law they claimed would threaten the conditions for basic research. And during the same month in Norway, three scientists were arrested for protesting the nation’s slow-moving climate policy.
As these among many other actions show, scientists today are speaking out on a variety of political and social issues related to their own research fields and in solidarity with other social movements.
We are social scientists who study the relationship between science and society. Through our work, we’ve noticed more scientists seem empowered to advocate for a wide range of policy issues. We’re interested in how the surge in science activism may be changing the norms of scientific research.
With colleagues, we recently reviewed and summarized a growing body of studies examining how scientists are mobilizing for social activism and political protest. We also surveyed 2,208 members of the Union of Concerned Scientists Science Network to learn more about scientists’ political engagement. Here is what we have found so far.
Science organizing also happens within universities, graduate student unions and professional associations. These groups use their connections to local communities and larger networks of science professionals to mobilize others in the scientific community.
Many science advocacy groups borrow protest tactics from previous eras, like mass marches and teach-ins. Others are more innovative, including “die-ins” at medical schools to protest police racial violence and data-rescue “hackathons” to protect public access to government data.
Some efforts mirror conventional forms of politics, like 314 Action, an organization that supports political candidates with STEM backgrounds. Others are more confrontational, such as Scientist Rebellion, some members of which blocked roads and bridges to demand action on the climate emergency.
Or, science advocacy can look indistinguishable from typical academic practices, like teaching. A new course taught by an MIT physics professor titled “Scientist Activism: Gender, Race and Power” helps raise student awareness about the political nature of science.
Professional norms may be shifting
We’ll need more research to determine how the resurgence of scientist activism is influencing politics and policy. But we can already point to some effects – the growth of science advocacy organizations, increased media attention to scientist activism, climate-friendly changes in investment policies at some universities, and more STEM-trained politicians. However, we also expect that impending crises, like climate change, may be driving acceptance of activism within the scientific community.
For example, when we asked scientists how often they should be politically active, 95% of our surveyed scientists answered “sometimes,” “most of the time,” or “always.” Our surveyed population is, by definition, politically engaged. But this near-uniform level of support for political action suggests that the professional norms that have long sanctioned scientist activism may be shifting.
Other findings from the survey strengthen this interpretation. Scientist activism often entails some level of personal or professional risk. But 75% of respondents told us their science-based advocacy had the support of their employers. Most surprisingly for us, respondents were twice as likely to report that activism helped to advance their careers – 22% – rather than damage them – 11%.
Our survey did find, however, that nonwhite scientists are more vulnerable to the risks of engaging in science advocacy. Seventeen percent of nonwhite scientists report negative career repercussions from their science advocacy, compared with less than 10% among white scientists. Yet compared with white respondents, nonwhite respondents are also more likely to engage in science advocacy.
While nonwhite respondents report higher rates of negative career impacts, the percentage reporting higher rates of career advancement from advocacy – 31% – was nearly double that for white respondents – 18%. This difference suggests that science advocacy has deeper career consequences – both good and bad – among nonwhite scientists. Although they are more likely to be rewarded for this activity, they are exposed to greater risk for doing so.
Emerging lessons
Two lessons emerge from our research thus far. First, our findings indicate that science activism may be gaining legitimacy within the scientific community. In this context, social media is helping mobilize and raise visibility among younger researchers. These researchers’ political experiences are informed by the climate justice, Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements. As this newer generation of science activists moves into the profession, they will continue to shift the cultural norms of science.
Second, because race unevenly structures scientists’ experiences with activism, science activists can build on their current momentum by
embracing intersectional solidarity. This means taking actions to center and engage marginalized groups within science. Intersectional solidarity can deepen activist engagement, enhance and diversify recruitment efforts, and increase its impact on social and ecological change.
When you hear news reports about volcanoes spewing lava and ash, you may worry about the people nearby. In fact, almost one in ten people around the world live within 100 kilometres of an active volcano. For those living close to volcanoes, farming on their fertile soils, or visiting their spectacular landscapes, it is crucial to understand the drivers of eruption.
Why is the volcano erupting? How will the eruption evolve? When will it finish?
Our new research published today in Science Advances applies laser technology to read into the chemical composition of erupted magma over time.
Because the chemistry of magmas affects their fluidity, explosivity and hazard potential, our work could help future monitoring and forecasting of the evolution of volcanic eruptions.
Untangling the chemistry of erupted melt
Magma – molten rock – is composed of liquid (known as “melt”), gas and crystals that grow as the temperature of the magma drops during its journey up to Earth’s surface.
When the magma erupts to become a lava flow, it will release the gas (which contains water vapour, carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and other compounds) and cool down into a volcanic rock. This rock contains crystals cooled slowly inside the volcano, embedded in a finer rock matrix cooled rapidly at the surface.
Microscope view of lava erupted on October 24 2021 at La Palma, with large colorful crystals in a fine-grained black rock matrix which we analyze via laser. The image is in cross-polarized transmitted light (5mm scale bar). A. MacDonald, Author provided
As a result, volcanic rocks can look a bit like “rocky road” chocolate. The crystals formed in the guts of the volcano are excellent archives of the run-up to eruption. However, the crystals can get in the way when we want to focus on the melt that carries them to the surface, and how the melt properties vary throughout the eruption.
To isolate the melt signal, we used an ultraviolet laser, similar to the ones used for eye surgery, to blast the rock matrix between larger crystals.
We then analyzed the laser-generated particles by mass spectrometry to determine the chemical composition of the volcanic matrix. The method allows for a rapid chemical analysis.
This provides a faster and more detailed measure of melt chemistry and its evolution over time, compared to traditional analysis of the entire rock, or to painstaking separation of matrix and crystal fragments from crushed rock samples. Even if we call the crystals “large”, they are often as small as a grain of salt (or up to a chickpea in size if you are lucky!) and difficult to remove.
A destructive disaster in the Canary Islands
Our study focused on the 2021 eruption at La Palma, the most destructive volcanic eruption on historical record in the Canary Islands.
From September to December 2021, a total of 160 million cubic metres of lava covered more than 12 square kilometers of land. It destroyed more than 1,600 homes, forced the evacuation of more than 7,000 people and generated losses of more than €860 million (AU$1.4 billion).
Drone image of a lava flow from the 2021 La Palma eruption (December 4 2021, houses for scale). Instituto Geologico y Minero de Espana, Author provided
We analyzed lava samples collected systematically by our collaborators in Spain throughout the three months of eruption. These are precious samples as we know their exact eruption day, and many of the sampling sites are now covered by later lavas from the eruption.
Using the laser-powered method, we could see variations in lava chemistry linked to changes in earthquakes and sulphur dioxide emissions, as well as eruption style and the resulting hazards. This included a change from thick lavas that acted as a bulldozer at the start of the eruption, to runny lavas that created rapid lava rivers and lava tunnels later in the eruption.
We also found a key change in lava chemistry about two weeks before the eruption ended, which suggests cooling of the magma due to a dropping magma supply.
Similar changes could be monitored as a signal of eruption wind-down in future eruptions around the world.
Early lavas from the 2021 La Palma eruption were voluminous and blocky, acting as a hot ‘bulldozer’ (September 22 2021, traffic sign for scale). JJ Coello Bravo, Author provided
Forecasting volcanic activity
We cannot prevent volcanoes from erupting, and we cannot yet travel inside them like French sci-fi author Jules Verne once envisioned. But volcano monitoring has improved enormously in the last few decades to allow us to indirectly ‘peek into’ volcanoes and better forecast their activity.
Our work aims to provide a laboratory tool for testing volcanic samples collected during future eruptions. The goal is to read into the evolution of eruptions, to understand why they start and when they will end.
With about 50 volcanoes erupting at any given time around the world, you will soon see another volcano erupting in the news. This time, you can consider the importance of volcano science to improve our understanding of how volcanoes work and what drives them to erupt, to protect the people around them.
Correction: an earlier version of this article stated the 2021 La Palma eruption released 160 cubic meters of lava. The correct figure is 160 million cubic meters.
For years, small groups of astronomy enthusiasts have traveled the globe chasing the rare solar eclipse. They have embarked on cruises to the middle of the ocean, taken flights into the eclipse’s path and even traveled to Antarctica. In August 2017, millions across the U.S. witnessed a total solar eclipse visible from Oregon to South Carolina, with a partial eclipse visible to the rest of the continental U.S.
The interest in astronomical events that this eclipse sparked will likely return with two eclipses visible in the U.S. during the next year – the annular solar eclipse on Oct. 14, 2023, and the total eclipse on April 8, 2024. But astro-tourism – traveling to national parks, observatories or other natural, dark-sky locations to view astronomical events – isn’t limited just to chasing eclipses.
I am a space scientist with a passion for teaching physics and astronomy and photographing the night sky. Every summer I spend several nights backpacking in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, where the skies are sufficiently dark to allow the Milky Way to be seen with the naked eye. My son and I also like to take road trips – often along U.S. 395, the Eastern Sierra Scenic Byway – that coincide with eclipses and meteor showers.
Natural locations, removed from city light, can be great places for astro-tourism. Vahe Peroomian
Can’t miss astronomical events
There are two types of eclipses. Lunar eclipses occur when the full moon passes through Earth’s shadow. Solar eclipses occur when the new moon briefly blocks the Sun.
There are three types of solar eclipses. During a total eclipse, the Moon completely covers the Sun, with totality, or the time during which the Sun is completely eclipsed, lasting as long as seven minutes. During totality, those in the path of the eclipse will see the Sun’s corona, or its outer atmosphere, behind the Moon’s silhouette.
The Moon’s orbit around the Earth is an ellipse, so the Moon can appear to be 15% smaller when it’s at its farthest point from Earth, its apogee, compared with its size when it is at its closest point to Earth, its perigee. An annular eclipse occurs when the Moon doesn’t cover the entire disk of the Sun, leaving a ring of sunlight around the Moon.
Finally, a partial eclipse occurs when the Moon blocks only a part of the Sun’s disk, as the name implies.
Meteor showers are a far more common astronomical event than eclipses, and they are visible from any dark-sky location on Earth. Meteor showers occur when Earth’s orbit around the Sun takes it through the dust left behind by a comet. The Earth sweeps up the dust like a car speeding through a cloud of insects on the highway.
Meteor showers are named for the constellations from which the meteors seem to emanate, though it’s not necessary to stare in that direction to see meteors. The most prominent meteor showers, occurring on approximately the same dates every year, are the Perseids, named for the constellation Perseus and peaking on the night of Aug. 12-13; the Geminids, named for the constellation Gemini, on Dec. 14-15; and the Lyrids, named for the constellation Lyra, on April 21-22. The night sky will be mostly moonless for the first two this year, but a nearly full moon will make the Lyrid shower of 2024 difficult to see.
Meteor showers happen around the same time each year, and on cloudless nights can be stunning to watch. Haitong Yu/Moment via Getty Images
Tips for aspiring astro-tourists
One of the most important factors to consider when planning an outing to stargaze or to watch a meteor shower is the phase of the Moon. The full moon rises at about 6 p.m. and sets at 6 a.m., making stargazing all but impossible because of its brightness. For ideal stargazing conditions, the Moon should be below the horizon, and the best viewing conditions are during new moon. You can use a moonrise/moonset calculator to determine the phase of the Moon and its rise and set times for any location on Earth.
Another important factor is weather. Amateur astronomers always joke that the sky is cloudy during the most interesting astronomical events. For example, most major cities in the U.S. that are in the path of the April 2024 eclipse have had cloudy skies on April 8 60% of the time since the year 2000.
Most Americans live in heavily light-polluted areas. A light pollution map such as lightpollutionmap.info can help identify the nearest dark-sky location, which, in my case, is hours away. These maps often use the Bortle dark-sky scale, which reports 1 for extremely dark skies to 9 for highly light-polluted city centers.
Though you may still see the brightest meteors from city suburbs, the darker your sky, the more meteors you’ll see. In general, expect to see fewer than 25 meteors per hour. To see the complex structure of the Milky Way with the naked eye, look for a location with a Bortle index of 3 or below.
It’s important to arrive at your chosen site early, preferably during daylight hours. Stumbling around in the dark at an unfamiliar site is a recipe for disaster and may also disturb others who are already at the site. Arriving early also gives time for your eyes to adapt to the dark as night falls, as it typically takes 30 minutes or even longer for your eyes to reach their full dark-adapted potential.
Make sure to carry a headlamp or flashlight that has a red light setting, as red light doesn’t ruin night vision. Avoid using your phone, as even a glance at the screen can ruin your eyes’ dark adaptation. If you’re using a sky-viewing app, switch the app to night mode.
Plan ahead if you’re thinking of traveling to view one of the eclipses visible in the U.S. next year. If you’re in the path of the eclipse, stay put! If you’re traveling, staying at the same location overnight before and after the eclipse can help avoid the hourslong traffic jams experienced by eclipse watchers in 2017.
Eclipse glasses protect your eyes while viewing an eclipse. You should never look directly at the sun. Cavan Images/Cavan via GettyImages
Also, you should never look at the Sun directly with the naked eye, even during a total eclipse. You’ll need a pair of inexpensive eclipse glasses to watch and fully enjoy the eclipse, but get yours early, as many stores ran out of glasses during the 2017 eclipse.
No matter where you travel during the next year, don’t forget to look up at night and marvel at the beauty of the night sky away from city lights.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has left two major public health offices vacant, reported NBC News, potentially jeopardizing the ability to track infectious disease as cases of malaria have begun to spread in the state.
"Two of the top public health officials in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration — responsible for tracking and preventing the spread of communicable diseases — have left their positions in recent months," reported Matt Dixon. "The departures come as public health is increasingly being politicized, and some experts say it leaves the state facing a 'serious health risk.'"
"The openings are in the Florida Health Department’s Bureau of Epidemiology, which plays a key role in monitoring and combating the spread of disease in the state," continued the report. "The open positions include the head of the bureau, which oversees many of the state’s core public health functions. It has been vacant since last month, when former bureau chief Clayton Weiss transferred to the Florida Department of Corrections."
This comes as the Centers for Disease Control posted an alert on four cases of malaria -- a treatable but potentially life-threatening mosquito-borne illness largely controlled in the United States -- in Florida.
DeSantis largely defined his career by defiance of public health measures in the COVID-19 pandemic, closing the state beaches only reluctantly after weeks of pressure and then reopening them almost immediately. Florida saw some of the worst death rates from COVID during some of the outbreaks, although exactly how much of this was attributable to DeSantis' loose lockdown policies is debated because of the state's large and uniquely vulnerable elderly population.
Even Trump, who himself publicly attacked the idea of public gathering restrictions during the COVID pandemic, has lately gone after DeSantis' public health record as they compete in the 2024 primary, noting that New York saw a less severe mortality under former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The world saw its hottest June on record last month, the EU's climate monitoring service said Thursday, as climate change and the El Nino weather pattern looked likely to drive another scorching northern summer.
The announcement from the EU monitor Copernicus marked the latest in a series of records for a year that has already seen a drought in Spain and fierce heat waves in China and the United States.
"The month was the warmest June globally at just over 0.5 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average, exceeding June 2019 -– the previous record -– by a substantial margin," the EU monitor said in a statement from its C3S climate unit.
Temperatures reached June records across northwest Europe while parts of Canada, the United States, Mexico, Asia and eastern Australia "were significantly warmer than normal", Copernicus noted.
On the other hand it was cooler than normal in western Australia, the western United States and western Russia, it said.
- 'Hottest day ever' -
It was the latest in a series of heat records over recent years, reflecting the impact of global warming driven by greenhouse gases released from human activity.
Preliminary readings published Wednesday by US meteorologists indicated Tuesday was the hottest day ever recorded, based on data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
Copernicus noted that sea surface temperatures were higher globally than any previous June on record, with "extreme marine heatwaves" around Ireland, Britain and the Baltic.
Antarctic sea ice reached its lowest extent for June since satellite observations began, at 17 percent below average.
C3S scientist Julien Nicolas told AFP the June record was driven largely by "very warm ocean surface temperatures" in the Pacific and Atlantic due to El Nino, a periodic warming phenomenon.
"On top of that is this warming trend of the ocean absorbing 90 percent of heat released by human activity," he added.
The global temperature was 0.53 C above the 30-year average at an average of 16.51C (61.72F), he calculated.
"June 2023 is way above the others. This is the kind of anomaly we are not used to," Nicolas said.
Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the UN's World Meteorological Organization, warned on Monday that El Nino "will greatly increase the likelihood of breaking temperature records and triggering more extreme heat in many parts of the world and in the ocean."
He urged governments "to mobilize preparations to limit the impacts on our health, our ecosystems and our economies."
- Heatwave deaths -
El Nino is a naturally occurring pattern associated with increased heat worldwide, as well as drought in some parts of the world and heavy rains elsewhere.
In addition, human activity –- mainly the burning of fossil fuels -– is continuing to emit roughly 40 billion tonnes of planet-warming CO2 into the atmosphere every year.
As well as withering crops, melting glaciers and raising the risk of wildfires, higher-than-normal temperatures also cause health problems ranging from heatstroke and dehydration to cardiovascular stress.
In the United States, local officials said last week that at least 13 people died from an extreme heat wave in Texas and Louisiana.
China issued its highest-level heat alert for northern parts of the country as Beijing baked in temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
After a record hot June in Britain, water use restrictions were imposed in parts of southeastern England, and Scotland put regions on water scarcity alert.
The world has warmed an average of nearly 1.2 C since the mid-1800s, unleashing extreme weather including more intense heatwaves, more severe droughts in some areas and storms made fiercer by rising seas.
As he dipped a net into a big cylindrical tub in the dimly lit fish laboratory at the University of Minnesota’s Hodson Hall, Dr. Peter Sorensen scooped a half dozen small silvery fish and gazed at the wiggling, bug-eyed creatures with a look of benevolence.
“I don’t hate them, I really don’t,” said Sorensen. “It’s not their fault they’re here.”
Sorensen, a longtime researcher and professor at the university’s Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, restricts the diet of his captives to stunt their growth. If he didn’t, he explained, the fingerling-size fish would already weigh 10 or 15 pounds — an unwieldy size for lab experiments.
The fish in question — silver carp — have occupied Sorensen’s professional attention for over a decade. It’s an outgrowth of rising concerns that the highly invasive species is inexorably moving up the Mississippi River from Iowa.
While the fishes’ northward march has been slowed by the existence of barriers in the river — the locks and dams that enable navigation — the carp can pass through spillway gates during times of high water, as well as the lock chambers during normal operations.
In 2012, lawmakers in St. Paul responded to the looming crisis and funded a new entity at the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center. Sorensen, who had developed an expertise in the control of two other harmful invasive fish, the common carp and sea lamprey, was tapped as its first director.
Sorenson didn’t last long in the leadership post — “I’m a scientist, not a manager,” he said — but he has continued his research in the field of invasive carp, a catch-all term that describes silver carp, the closely related bighead carp, grass carp and black carp. His cluttered office is adorned with a trio of taxidermied silver, bighead and common carp.
In the course of his investigations, Sorensen has developed respect for the silver carp. For one thing, he notes, they are far more elusive than our native fish, with a wariness that makes them difficult to capture. “They are smart, skittish fish. They hear you coming. Traditional fishing gear doesn’t work very well. These are not walleyes,” he said, adding with a laugh: “Honestly, our native fish are pretty stupid.”
Silver carp are also not fish anyone, least of all a fisheries scientist like Sorensen, wants to see in Minnesota’s lakes and rivers.
“They have no ecological value, they take food from other fish, and they destroy water quality,” Sorensen said flatly. “They are just bad news.”
The other ‘silver tsunami’
Silver and bighead carp escaped into the Mississippi River in the 1970s after they were originally imported from Asia to Arkansas to control algal blooms in fish farms and sewage ponds (and widely touted as a green alternative to common chemical treatments).
In the years since, they have relentlessly expanded their range. Along the way, the fish — voracious, fast growing filter feeders that hoover up the phytoplankton and plankton that is base of the food chain — have devastated native fisheries. In some stretches of the Illinois River, silvers and bigheads account for as much as 90% of the fish biomass.
It’s not just anglers and fish biologists who are disturbed by this development. Silver carp, which can reach weights in excess of 90 pounds, have a strange habit of leaping high out of the water when startled. This has created a new hazard in many lakes and rivers, as schools of leaping carp, triggered by the sound of motors, occasionally collide with and injure people in passing boats.
The unusual behavior has given rise to some novel fishing tactics. To kill silver carp, some people deliberately drive through pods and, when the fish leap from the water, they shoot them with bow and arrow. The made-for-YouTube spectacle serves as a gruesome comedic counterpoint to the dire environmental calamity the fish represent.
In Minnesota, the first documented bighead was netted in Lake St. Croix, a wide spot in the St. Croix River in 1996. The first silver was discovered in the Mississippi near the Iowa border in 2008. In the years since, the fish — especially the silvers — have been spotted with increasing frequency in Minnesota waters, including in the Mississippi River in St. Paul.
While the appearance of the occasional stray is not necessarily worrisome, evidence that fish are here in substantial numbers is; that’s because both silvers and bigheads are wildly prolific spawners.
“At some point, they will reproduce. And if they start to reproduce, I don’t see any hope,” Sorensen said. “The females can produce a million eggs. They are moving upstream. If they reproduce, it will destroy half the fish in the river.”
That’s why Sorensen has focused his research on technologies that can stop — or at least slow — the carps’ upriver passage. The approach that he has long endorsed is called a bio-acoustic fish fence. The BAFF, as it is commonly referred to, combines strobing lights with underwater audio speakers and a curtain of bubbles.
While it sounds like a Rube Goldberg device (or an underwater disco), Sorensen said the BAFF, manufactured by a British company called Fish Guidance Systems, has been shown to be remarkably effective at repelling silver and bighead carp. Under laboratory conditions, Sorensen found that the BAFF deterred 90% of fish from passing the gauntlet. Real world experiments have been similarly encouraging. (Sorensen served as a co-leader of an ongoing BAFF demonstration project in Kentucky, where the device has been placed in a lock in highly infested waters).
Sorensen pointed out that he has published two peer-reviewed scientific papers that validate the efficacy of the approach. Long ago, he came to the conclusion that he knew the ideal spot to install a BAFF to best protect Minnesota waters: Lock and Dam #5, just upriver from Winona.
Frustration at the Legislature
Over his years working on the carp problem, Sorensen has become a regular figure at the Capitol, where he has testified in support of funding for carp research. In more recent years, he has repeatedly advocated for the construction of a BAFF in the lock at Winona.
“I think I’ve tried to get it funded five or six times now. I’ve lost count,” Sorensen said. “By 2015, when we were first looking at this, it was very clear to me that Lock #5 was the best spot.” In part, that’s because the spillway gates at the dam — the easiest means for fish to move upriver — are rarely open.
As part of his research, Sorensen has implanted receivers in common carp in the waters below the lock. Not once in two years of data collection has he recorded an upriver passage through the spillway. To the south, he said, the dams and spillways are “like Swiss cheese.” To his thinking, that makes clear that a deterrent in Lock # 5 is the best — and maybe last — bet to hold the fish back.
If reproducing populations of silver carp become established upriver of Winona, it would expose some of Minnesota’s most iconic waters to ecological catastrophe. The fish would almost certainly prosper in Lake Pepin, the nutrient-rich 22-mile long wide spot in the Mississippi south of Red Wing. The St. Croix River below the dam at Taylors Falls and the Minnesota River could easily be overrun soon afterwards.
In March, Sorensen appeared before the Senate’s Environment, Climate and Legacy Committee to testify in support of $17 million appropriation to fund the BAFF, along with monies for contracted netting operations and further research that the DNR sought.
Despite past failures at the Legislature, Sorensen was optimistic. Among other things, he came armed with a freshly completed 128-page feasibility study from Barr Engineering Company, which endorsed Lock #5 as the most suitable site for the BAFF.
According to the company’s analysis, a BAFF could be installed at a cost between $8.2 and $16.5 million, depending on whether the state chose to purchase or rent. Combined with other measures, including netting of fish below the lock, Barr endorsed Sorenesen’s findings that the BAFF could prevent the upstream passage of 99% of carp.
This year’s legislative push was spearheaded by the group Friends of the Mississippi River, with support from a bevy of other conservation organizations operating under the banner of the Stop Carp Coalition. It had the full-throated support of several lawmakers, including chief author, Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin. “This proposal is the only plan we have,” Hoffman told fellow lawmakers. If the fish begin to reproduce upriver from Winona, Hoffman warned, the state would likely be forced to spend millions on netting programs every year.
In one notable regard, the timing of the Senate hearing could not have been better. In past years, experts like Sorensen had cautioned that the carp were on their way. But on the very day of the hearing, the DNR announced that a commercial crew had just netted 30 silver carp just below Lock #5. It was the largest single capture of the fish that far north on the Mississippi.
In her testimony, Colleen O’Connor Toberman of Friends of the Mississippi highlighted the significance of that event. She also pointed to a political reality of the moment: With the state coffers awash in a record $17 billion surplus, there would probably be no better opportunity to fund a BAFF than 2023. “We will invest now or we will pay more later,” she told lawmakers.
Despite the prevailing enthusiasm for the BAFF, one key voice was conspicuous in its silence: the Department of Natural Resources. In testimony that day, Heidi Wolf, the supervisor of the DNR’s invasive species unit, touted the agency’s emphasis on carp capture and research. She also told lawmakers that the agency was ramping up plans to commence “a structured decision making” process, which would bring key stakeholders, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, DNR and the state of Wisconsin, together to settle on the best path forward.
Wolf did not expressly oppose the BAFF proposal but did not endorse it either. And she offered what seemed to be a measure of reassurance to senators anxious to get moving: There is no evidence, she said, that silver or bighead carp are successfully reproducing in Minnesota. (In Sorensen’s view, the absence of evidence of reproduction does not mean much, given the difficulty of sampling a big, fast flowing river like the Mississippi).
Still, both Sorensen and Toberman left the hearing convinced that there was a good chance the BAFF funding would be included in the committee’s big budget bill. They were wrong.
Due diligence or undue delay?
A few days later, when the language of the Senate’s environmental spending bill was unveiled, Whitney Clark, the executive director of Friends of the Mississippi, was “shocked” to see the BAFF money stripped out, with just $1.7 million left for more research, more targeted netting and, possibly, a study of potential modifications to the operation of the spillway at Lock #5.
After consulting with FMR’s lobbyist, as well as the chair of the Senate environment committee, Sen. Foung Hawj, DFL-St Paul, Clark concluded that the BAFF funding had been excised at the behest of DNR Assistant Commissioner Bob Meier. “Bob Meier went to Sen. Hawj and told him it was unworkable, that there would be cost overruns, and they had big questions about the viability, efficacy, and ongoing costs,” Clark said.
Clark felt sandbagged. Through the fall and winter, FMR had consulted regularly with the DNR about the bill. Before that, the group had repeatedly prodded the DNR to update its 2011 carp action plan (a process that is now underway). While the BAFF wasn’t included in the agency’s budget proposal, Clark said Meier and others in the agency seemed encouraging in the discussions. “I wanted it to be a collaborative effort,” said Clark. “I thought we were in a really good place.”
Reached for comment, Meier eschewed the notion that he single-handedly tanked the BAFF funding. That said, Meier contended that there are too many lingering questions to proceed with the BAFF before getting answers. “We were just concerned about putting the cart before the horse,” he said.
Some of the hurdles are jurisdictional. Lock #5 is federal property, he noted, which raises the question of whether it makes sense for the state to own and operate equipment. He believes the Army Corps of Engineers is more suited to the task. Further, Meier said the costs of the maintenance and operations remain uncertain. He also questioned whether the BAFF could withstand flood conditions and what, if any, effect it might have on native fish.
As part of the DNR’s structured decision-making process, which kicked off this June, Meier expects to have more answers by the end of the year. If there is a consensus among the agencies and stakeholders, he said, the Legislature could come up with the money for the BAFF. Twenty million dollars may be a lot of money, he noted, but it is less daunting against the backdrop of a $72 billion state budget
“If it’s important enough to do, and it makes sense, I don’t see that being a real excuse,” Meier said. As to the criticisms he has received from Sorensen and Clark, Meier was unruffled. “I don’t take those things personally,” he said. “I do my job and I do what’s best for the state of Minnesota.”
Asked whether the BAFF would have been funded had the DNR offered institutional support, Hawj was diplomatic. “I don’t want to be absolute on that,” he said of the agency’s role. “They’re not against it, but they want to have a good foundation for support.”
That said, Hawj insisted that the BAFF will be one of his priorities moving into the next session, adding: “I trust Dr. Sorensen’s research.”
For his part, Sorensen is unlikely to have much involvement in the fight over the BAFF going forward. At 68, he is moving into phased retirement. If the DNR funds the spillway study, he may go on emeritus status and work on that piece of the puzzle. But he has little appetite for further tracking the upriver spread of silver carp — a prospect he finds depressing.
In the months since the BAFF proposal died at the Legislature, Sorensen had visited Lock #5 regularly to track the movements of common carp that he has tagged with receivers. On several occasions, he said, silver carp were conspicuous in their presence, leaping out of the water.
By mid-June, Sorensen had an undergraduate disassembling his lab at Hodson Hall as he readied himself for a vacation at his off-the-grid summer home in British Columbia. He was not inclined to offer the DNR the benefit of the doubt, referring to the lack of urgency at the agency as “dereliction” and “ineptitude.”
In the course of his long career, Sorensen has worked on an array of vexing issues involving invasive fish, from the control of sea lamprey in the Great Lakes to the control of common carp in Tasmania. Many of those experiences were validating, as various state, federal and other government agencies coordinated to take swift action. “You’re not seeing any of that here,” he said. “It’s embarrassing.”
While no solutions are perfect, Sorensen said, aggressive action can bear results. After the sea lamprey devastated populations of lake trout, scientists have managed to curtail their numbers, and the trout have largely rebounded, even though the lamprey have not been completely eliminated.
Sorensen said that the level of collaboration to achieve such goals — and the willingness to take decisive, if imperfect action — has been missing since the alarms were sounded over the invasion of silver carp in Minnesota. In 2005, when the carp were beginning to appear in large numbers below a Mississippi River dam in Keokuk, Iowa, the DNR’s now-retired invasive species coordinator broached the idea of installing a BAFF at the dam there. Nothing came of it.
While no single approach is likely to be 100% effective in stopping the movement of the silver carp, in Sorensen’s view, that’s no excuse for not trying the best available option and buying time.
“My analogy is, if you are in a boat and it’s sinking because there is a hole and you don’t have a perfect plug but you have an old T-shirt, you stuff that old T-shirt in the hole. You fix the hole. Then maybe you go on Amazon and get a better plug,” Sorensen said. “I don’t know why that isn’t intuitive.”
Minnesota Reformer is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Minnesota Reformer maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Patrick Coolican for questions: info@minnesotareformer.com. Follow Minnesota Reformer on Facebook and Twitter.
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