Kenya is using the launch of its first operational observation satellite to promote space education and science through space clubs in schools. Kenya launched an operational 3U nanosatellite April 15 aboard the SpaceX Falcon Force base in the U.S. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi, Kenya. Camera: Jimmy Makhulo
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Day: April 17, 2023
Scientists found coastal species of shellfish and anemones living and breeding on floating islands of garbage in the Pacific thousands of miles from home, a study revealed Monday.
Environmentalists have for years been eyeing what they call the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” — masses of plastic rubbish combining bottles, fishing nets and much more.
U.S. researchers who sampled rubbish from the northeastern Pacific between California and Hawaii said they found 37 kinds of invertebrates that originated from coastal areas, mostly from countries such as Japan on the other side of the ocean.
“The high seas are colonized by a diverse array of coastal species, which survive and reproduce in the open ocean,” they wrote in the study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
“Coastal species persist now in the open ocean as a substantial component of a neopelagic [new, sea-dwelling] community sustained by the vast and expanding sea of plastic debris,” the study said.
More than two-thirds of the items examined had coastal species on them, including crustaceans, sea anemones and moss-like creatures called bryozoans.
Scientists had not often tracked creatures surviving dispersal across entire oceans. The researchers noted that in one rare event in 2012, debris from the previous year’s tsunami in Japan washed ashore in North America bearing living species.
Creatures can spread quickly by feeding on the layers of slime formed on floating plastics by bacteria and algae, the study said. Scientists must now investigate how these coastal colonists will fit into the ocean food chain.
“We found that coastal species are commonly observed on the same plastics as the native pelagic species [dwelling far out at sea], suggesting that these two communities are interacting with one another,” the study’s lead author Linsey Haram told AFP.
“These interactions could include competition for food and space as well as predation. More research is needed to understand whether the implications are positive or negative.”
In a 2021 article, members of the same research team warned that the influx of invasive coastal species “might portend significant ecological shifts in the marine environment.”
A study published in 2017 in the journal Science Advances calculated that if current production and waste-management trends continued, there would be 12 billion tons of plastic waste in landfills or the natural environment by 2050.
G-7 energy and environment ministers declared at the end of talks in Japan on Sunday their “ambition to reduce additional plastic pollution to zero by 2040.”
They said they hoped to draw up an “international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution” by the end of 2024.
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Two years ago, Paul’s teacher noticed that the 10-year-old boy could no longer see anything on the board at the front of the class.
An ophthalmologist confirmed that Paul was one of the soaring number of children worldwide with myopia, also known as nearsightedness, an eye condition projected to affect half of the world’s population by 2050.
But the ophthalmologist in the western French city of Nantes had some good news: specially designed glasses had just become available that could slow down the progression of Paul’s myopia.
“After a year, the results were quite positive because his eyesight seemed to have stabilized,” Paul’s mother Caroline Boudet told AFP.
Previous research has suggested that myopia progresses 60% slower in children wearing the “Miyosmart” glasses compared to normal prescription glasses.
A six-year clinical study also found that the disorder did not start speeding up again if the children stopped using the glasses.
Developed by Japan’s Hoya Corporation, the Miyosmart lenses, which also function as normal glasses to help the children see clearly, have been available in numerous European countries including France and the U.K. for around two years.
Eyewear firm EssilorLuxottica claims its own Stellest lenses reduce myopia’s progression by 67% when worn at least 12 hours a day.
The Italian French firm said the glasses could save more than one dioptre — the unit of measurement for optical power — over three years.
Myopia occurs when there is too much distance between the cornea and retina, making far-off objects appear blurry.
Both Miyosmart and Stellest glasses deploy hundreds of tiny lenses to counteract peripheral hyperopic defocus in which light falls behind the retina, causing the eyeball to get longer and making myopia worse.
The Miyosmart glasses are not available in the United States, however contact lenses that work on a similar principle from the California firm CooperVision have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Research has suggested that the percentage of people affected by myopia worldwide could surge from 27% in 2010 to 52% by 2050.
Children with at least one nearsighted parent are more likely to develop the condition — however no one in Paul’s family is myopic.
Environmental rather than genetic causes are believed to be behind the explosion of cases.
Children spending more time indoors, being exposed to less natural light, and looking at nearby objects such as screens has likely brought about what has been dubbed “the myopia generation,” according to researchers.
Claude Speeg-Schatz, head of the French Society of Ophthalmology, said she was “quite amazed” by the new glasses slowing myopia’s progression.
“We have tried many things to avoid myopia, but this is the first time that we have a system which really works,” she said.
For recently diagnosed children, she first prescribes normal corrective glasses.
“If the myopia increases, then I automatically prescribe” the myopia control glasses, she said.
French ophthalmologist Jimmy Chammas said the glasses were “a real gain for children.”
“The myopia of those who wear these glasses deteriorates half as much as we would have expected — if at all,” he said.
One obstacle is that the glasses cost more for parents, with prices depending on the country.
Jean-Michel Lambert, head of Hoya Vision Care France, called for the glasses to be reimbursed by French health services.
“Each dioptre lost considerably increases the risk of future pathologies,” he said, adding that “if we slow down myopia, it will be one less cost for society.
If a prescription reads -2, that indicates two dioptres of nearsightedness.
Nearsightedness of -6 dioptres or more is called high myopia, which can increase the risk of serious eye damage such as retinal detachment, glaucoma or early onset cataracts.
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Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Monday called off a highly anticipated launch of its powerful new Starship rocket, delaying the first uncrewed test flight of the vehicle into space.
The two-stage rocketship, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 394 feet (120 m) high, originally was scheduled for blast-off from the SpaceX facility at Boca Chica, Texas, during a two-hour launch window that began at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT).
But the California-based space company announced in a live webcast during the final minutes of the countdown that it was scrubbing the flight attempt for at least 48 hours, citing a pressurization issue in the lower-stage rocket booster.
Musk, the company’s billionaire founder and chief executive, told a private Twitter audience on Sunday night that the mission stood a better chance of being scrubbed than proceeding to launch on Monday.
Getting the vehicle to space for the first time would represent a key milestone in SpaceX’s ambition of sending humans back to the moon and ultimately to Mars – at least initially as part of NASA’s newly inaugurated human spaceflight program, Artemis.
A successful debut flight would also instantly rank the Starship system as the most powerful launch vehicle on Earth.
Both the lower-stage Super Heavy booster rocket and the upper-stage Starship cruise vessel it will carry to space are designed as reusable components, capable of flying back to Earth for soft landings – a maneuver that has become routine for SpaceX’s smaller Falcon 9 rocket.
But neither stage would be recovered for the expendable first test flight to space, expected to last no more than 90 minutes.
Prototypes of the Starship cruise vessel have made five sub-space flights up to 6 miles (10 km) above Earth in recent years, but the Super Heavy booster has never left the ground.
In February, SpaceX did a test-firing of the booster, igniting 31 of its 33 Raptor engines for roughly 10 seconds with the rocket bolted in place vertically atop a platform.
The Federal Aviation Administration just last Friday granted a license for what would be the first test flight of the fully stacked rocket system, clearing a final regulatory hurdle for the long-awaited launch.
If all goes as planned for the next launch bid, all 33 Raptor engines will ignite simultaneously to loft the Starship on a flight that nearly completes a full orbit of the Earth before it re-enters the atmosphere and free-falls into the Pacific at supersonic speed about 60 miles (97 km) off the coast of the northern Hawaiian islands.
After separating from the Starship, the Super Heavy booster is expected to execute the beginnings of a controlled return flight before plunging into the Gulf of Mexico.
As designed, the Starship rocket is nearly two times more powerful than NASA’s own Space Launch System (SLS), which made its debut uncrewed flight to orbit in November, sending a NASA cruise vessel called Orion on a 10-day voyage around the moon and back.
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Japanese video games group Sega has offered to buy Angry Birds maker Rovio, valuing the Finnish company at over $770 million, the companies said Monday.
“Combining the strengths of Rovio and Sega presents an incredibly exciting future,” Alexandre Pelletier-Normand, CEO of Rovio, said in a statement, which added that Rovio was recommending shareholders to accept the offer.
The offer, which represents a 19% premium over Rovio’s closing share price on Friday, is part of the Sonic the Hedgehog maker’s “long-term goal” of expanding into the mobile gaming market, Sega CEO Haruki Satomi said.
“Among the rapidly growing global gaming market, the mobile gaming market has especially high potential,” he added.
In 2022, Rovio, which employs over 500 people, saw a revenue of $350 million, and an adjusted net profit of $34.5 million.
Rovio launched the bird slingshot game in 2009 and it soared rapidly to become one of the most popular games on Apple’s App Store.
In 2016, the “Angry Birds” movie, produced by Sony Entertainment, was a huge success and grossed $350 million worldwide.
Rovio also manages Angry Birds theme parks in several countries and oversees the publication of children’s books about the famous birds in a dozen languages.
Following the global success of Angry Birds, Rovio has remained heavily reliant on its flagship game, struggling to develop another similar hit.
After years of success tied to its Angry Birds mobile games, Rovio hit a rough patch in 2015 and laid off a third of its staff.
Sega is aiming to open the offer period in early May, hoping to complete the deal in the third quarter, the company said.
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The final curtain came down Sunday on New York’s production of “The Phantom of the Opera,” ending Broadway’s longest-running show with thunderous standing ovations, champagne toasts and gold and silver confetti bursting from its famous chandelier.
It was show No. 13,981 at the Majestic Theatre and it ended with a reprise of “The Music of the Night” performed by the current cast, previous actors in the show — including original star Sarah Brightman — and crew members in street clothes.
Andrew Lloyd Webber took to the stage last in a black suit and black tie and dedicated the final show to his son, Nick, who died last month after a protracted battle with gastric cancer and pneumonia. He was 43.
“When he was a little boy, he heard some of this music,” Lloyd Webber said. Brightman, holding his hand, agreed: “When Andrew was writing it, he was right there. So his son is with us. Nick, we love you very much.”
Producer Cameron Mackintosh gave some in the crowd hope they would see the Phantom again, and perhaps sooner than they think.
“The one question I keep getting asked again and again — will the Phantom return? Having been a producer for over 55 years, I’ve seen all the great musicals return, and ‘Phantom’ is one of the greatest,” he said. “So it’s only a matter of time.”
The musical — a fixture on Broadway since opening on January 26, 1988 — has weathered recessions, war, terrorism and cultural shifts. But the prolonged pandemic may have been the last straw: It’s a costly musical to sustain, with elaborate sets and costumes as well as a large cast and orchestra. The curtain call Sunday showed how out of step “Phantom” is with the rest of Broadway but also how glorious a big, splashy musical can be.
“If there ever was a bang, we’re going out with a bang. It’s going to be a great night,” said John Riddle just before dashing inside to play Raoul for the final time.
Based on a novel by Gaston Leroux, “Phantom” tells the story of a deformed composer who haunts the Paris Opera House and falls madly in love with an innocent young soprano, Christine. Webber’s lavish songs include “Masquerade,” ″Angel of Music” and ″All I Ask of You.”
In addition to Riddle, the New York production said goodbye with Emilie Kouatchou as Christine and Laird Mackintosh stepping in for Ben Crawford as the Phantom. Crawford was unable to sing because of a bacterial infection but was cheered at the curtain call, stepping to the side of the stage. The Phantom waved him over to stand beside him, Riddle and Kouatchou.
There was a video presentation of many of the actors who had played key roles in the show over the years, and the orchestra seats were crowded with Christines, Raouls and Phantoms. The late director Hal Prince, choreographer Gillian Lynne and set and costume designer Maria Björnson were also honored.
Lin-Manuel Miranda attended, as did Glenn Close, who performed in two separate Broadway productions of Lloyd Webber’s “Sunset Boulevard.” Free champagne was offered at intermission and flutes of it were handed out onstage at the curtain call.
Riddle first saw “The Phantom of the Opera” in Toronto as a 4-year-old child. “It was the first musical I ever saw. I didn’t know what a musical was,” he said. “Now, 30-some odd years later, I’m closing the show on Broadway. So it’s incredible.”
Kouatchou, who became the first Black woman in the role in New York, didn’t think the show would ever stop. “I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to do my run, ‘Phantom’ is going to continue on and they’ll be more Christines of color,’” she said. “But this is it.”
The first production opened in London in 1986 and since then the show has been seen by more than 145 million people in 183 cities and performed in 17 languages over 70,000 performances. On Broadway alone, it has grossed more than $1.3 billion.
When “Phantom” opened in New York, “Die Hard” was in movie theaters, Adele was born, and floppy discs were at the cutting edge of technology. A postage stamp cost 25 cents, and the year’s most popular songs were “Roll With It” by Steve Winwood, “Faith” by George Michael and Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
Critics were positive, with the New York Post calling it “a piece of impeccably crafted musical theater,” the Daily News describing it as “spectacular entertainment,” and The New York Times saying it “wants nothing more than to shower the audience with fantasy and fun.”
Lloyd Webber’s other musicals include “Cats,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Evita,” “Sunset Boulevard” and “School of Rock.” The closing of “Phantom” means the composer is left with one show on Broadway, the critically mauled “Bad Cinderella.”
The closing of “Phantom,” originally scheduled for February, was pushed to mid-April after a flood of revived interest and ticket sales that pushed weekly grosses past $3 million. The closing means the longest-running show crown now goes to “Chicago,” which started in 1996. “The Lion King” is next, having begun performances in 1997.
Broadway took a pounding during the pandemic, with all theaters closed for more than 18 months. Some of the most popular shows — “Hamilton,” “The Lion King” and “Wicked” — rebounded well, but other shows have struggled.
Breaking even usually requires a steady stream of tourists, especially for “Phantom,” and visitors to the city haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels. The pandemic also pushed up expenses for all shows, including routine COVID-19 testing and safety officers on staff. The Phantom became a poster boy for Broadway’s return — after all, he is partially masked.
Fans can always catch the Phantom elsewhere. The flagship London production celebrated its 36th anniversary in October, and there are productions in Japan, Greece, Australia, Sweden, Italy, South Korea and the Czech Republic. One is about to open in Bucharest, and another will open in Vienna in 2024.
Kouatchou, who walked the red carpet before the final show in a hot pink clinging gown with a sweetheart neckline and a cut out, said the bitterness was undercut by the big send-off. Most Broadway shows that close slink into the darkness uncelebrated.
“It kind of sweetens it, right?” she said. “We get to celebrate at the end of this. We get to all come together and drink and laugh and talk about the show and all the highs and lows. It’s ending on a big note.”
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Floating in the port of Los Angeles, a strange-looking barge covered with pipes and tanks contains a concept that scientists hope to make waves: a new way to use the ocean as a vast carbon dioxide sponge to tackle global warming.
Scientists from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have been working for two years on SeaChange — an ambitious project that could one day boost the amount of CO2, a major greenhouse gas, that can be absorbed by our seas.
Their goal is “to use the ocean as a big sponge,” according to Gaurav Sant, director of the university’s Institute for Carbon Management (ICM).
The oceans, covering most of the Earth, are already the planet’s main carbon sinks, acting as a critical buffer in the climate crisis.
They absorb a quarter of all CO2 emissions, as well as 90% of the warming that has occurred in recent decades due to increasing greenhouse gases.
But they are feeling the strain. The ocean is acidifying, and rising temperatures are reducing its absorption capacity.
The UCLA team wants to increase that capacity by using an electrochemical process to remove vast quantities of CO2 already in seawater — rather like wringing out a sponge to help recover its absorptive power.
“If you can take out the carbon dioxide that is in the oceans, you’re essentially renewing their capacity to take additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” Sant told AFP.
Engineers built a floating mini-factory on a 30-meter-long boat which pumps in seawater and subjects it to an electrical charge.
Chemical reactions triggered by electrolysis convert CO2 dissolved in the seawater into a fine white powder containing calcium carbonate — the compound found in chalk, limestone and oyster or mussel shells.
This powder can be discarded back into the ocean, where it remains in solid form, thereby storing CO2 “very durably… over tens of thousands of years,” explained Sant.
Meanwhile, the pumped water returns to the sea, ready to absorb more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Sant and his team are confident the process will not damage the marine environment, although this will require further testing to confirm.
A potential additional benefit of the technology is that it creates hydrogen as a byproduct. As the so-called “green revolution” progresses, the gas could be widely used to power clean cars, trucks and planes in the future.
Of course, the priority in curbing global warming is for humans to drastically reduce current CO2 emissions — something nations are struggling to achieve.
But in parallel, most scientists say carbon dioxide capture and storage techniques can play an important role in keeping the planet livable.
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) could help to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 as it offsets emissions from industries which are particularly difficult to decarbonize, such as aviation, and cement and steel production.
It could help to tackle the stocks of CO2 that have been accumulating in the atmosphere for decades.
Keeping global warming under control will require the removal of between 450 billion and 1.1 trillion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere by 2100, according to the first global report dedicated to the topic, released in January.
That would require the CDR sector “to grow at a rate of about 30 percent per year over the next 30 years, much like what happened with wind and solar,” said one of its authors, Gregory Nemet.
UCLA’s SeaChange technology “fits into a category of a promising solution that could be large enough to be climate-relevant,” said Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
By sequestering CO2 in mineral form within the ocean, it differs markedly from existing “direct air capture” (DAC) methods, which involve pumping and storing gas underground through a highly complex and expensive process.
A start-up company, Equatic, plans to scale up the UCLA technology and prove its commercial viability, by selling carbon credits to manufacturers wanting to offset their emissions.
In addition to the Los Angeles barge, a similar boat is currently being tested in Singapore.
Sant hopes data from both sites will quickly lead to the construction of far larger plants that are capable of removing “thousands of tons of carbon” each year.
“We expect to start operating these new plants in 18 to 24 months,” he said.
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World record-holder Eliud Kipchoge has the speed to outclass the rest of the field when he makes his Boston Marathon debut on Monday.
To win, he may have to slow things down.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist and 12-time major marathon champion knows that the 26.2-mile route from Hopkinton to Boston’s Back Bay isn’t like those flat and friendly courses where he established himself as perhaps the greatest distance runner of all time.
No matter, he said: Breaking the tape is what’s important.
Regardless of how long it takes.
“I don’t mind about time,” said Kipchoge, who set the world record of 2 hours, 1 minute, 9 seconds in Berlin in 2019 and also broke 2 hours in an exhibition in a Vienna park that year. “I trust it will be a fruitful race, a very fruitful race. But I will try to win.”
The hilly Boston course, which begins with a descent, hits Heartbreak Hill around 20 miles in and then drops down to sea level again on the way to the finish, has always rewarded smart tactics more than pure speed. Kipchoge, who had never seen the course before this week, won his majors in Berlin, London, Chicago and Tokyo — all flatter and faster.
Still, his personal best is almost 2 minutes better than the next-fastest runners in the field, defending champion Evans Chebet, also of Kenya, and Gabriel Geay of Tanzania (2:03:00).
“I trust the most prepared and planned person will take the day on Monday,” Kipchoge said. “I respect everybody. I respect the athletes, their condition. I respect their tactics. And if they are most prepared, I will shake their hands.”
In all, there are nearly a dozen runners in the field with times faster than the 2:05:52 that was the Boston record until a blistering 2011 race won by Geoffrey Mutai in 2:03:02 — at the time, the fastest marathon ever run. That year, cool temperatures and a strong tailwind helped create the perfect conditions for fast times.
“What’s capable on this course has been totally flipped upside down,” 2018 winner Des Linden said. “You can just feel the energy. You feel like something magical is going to happen. I get the vibe that something epic is going to happen.”
Monday’s weather is expected to be less cooperative, with rain and a headwind that is sure to crush anyone who gets distracted by the clock on the way to Copley Square.
Kipchoge may not have experience on the course, but Linden said he has enough experience to know it isn’t a time trial.
“He’s been out and he’s checked it out,” Linden said. “But I think there’s something about feeling your quads just being wrecked when you’re coming off of Heartbreak. That’s different. That’s a different thing that you have to experience.
“I’ve heard it described as: We know that the Boston sports is going to chew you up. It’s whether or not it spits you out,” she said. “We don’t know if it’s going to spit him out or not. We’re going to find out.”
Already a winner
No matter what, Edna Kiplagat is going home from Boston a winner.
The 2017 champion claimed her 2021 title in a brief ceremony in Copley Square on Thursday, inheriting the victory that was stripped from fellow Kenyan Diana Kipyokei after she tested positive for a banned substance. Kiplagat was given the winner’s medal and gilded olive wreath; she already had collected the first-prize money.
“It was not the same as when I won the other, but I appreciate the effort,” she said. “It was a good presentation. I was so happy about it.”
Kiplagat leads a women’s field that is also among Boston’s fastest. Amane Beriso of Ethiopia is one of three women ever to break 2:15:00, winning in Valencia, Spain, in December in 2:14:58.
Nonbinary runners
Monday’s race will see the debut of a new division for nonbinary athletes.
The Boston Athletic Association added the category when registration opened last fall. In order to enter, nonbinary athletes needed to complete a marathon as a nonbinary participant during the qualifying window. Twenty-seven runners have signed up, the BAA said.
Five of the six major marathons include a nonbinary category, with Tokyo the exception.
Bombing anniversary
The race will include 264 members of the One Fund community — survivors of the 2013 attack, along with friends and family of the victims and those raising money for related causes.
The 2013 race was interrupted when two backpack bombs exploded on Boylston Street, steps from the finish line. Three people were killed and nearly 300 injured, with 17 people losing limbs to the pressure-cooker bombs that were packed with nails and ball bearings.
The city marked 10 years since the bombing on Saturday, the calendar anniversary.
Big day in Boston
The Boston Red Sox hold their annual Patriots’ Day matinee on Monday, facing two-way Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani. First pitch is expected at around 11:10 a.m., about the time that the wheelchair racers will be zooming through Kenmore Square, the 1 Mile To Go marker.
On Monday night, the NHL-best Boston Bruins open their first-round playoff series against the Florida Panthers. (The Boston Celtics are off, with Game 2 of their series against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night.)
“It’s on, man,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “I mean, if we could have done this on March 17th, that’d be the only way to make it bigger. That’s the only way this place would be more lit up.”
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