The strong interaction of high-energy electrons with a crystal results in both dynamical elastic scattering and inelastic events, particularly phonon and plasmon excitation, which have relatively large cross sections. For accurate crystal structure refinement it is therefore important to uncover the impact of inelastic scattering on the Bragg beam intensities. Here a combined Bloch wave–Monte Carlo method is used to simulate phonon and plasmon scattering in crystals. The simulated thermal and plasmon diffuse scattering are consistent with experimental results. The simulations also confirm the empirical observation of a weaker unscattered beam intensity with increasing energy loss in the low-loss regime, while the Bragg-diffracted beam intensities do not change significantly. The beam intensities include the diffuse scattered background and have been normalized to adjust for the inelastic scattering cross section. It is speculated that the random azimuthal scattering angle during inelastic events transfers part of the unscattered beam intensity to the inner Bragg reflections. Inelastic scattering should not significantly influence crystal structure refinement, provided there are no artefacts from any background subtraction, since the relative intensity of the diffracted beams (which includes the diffuse scattering) remains approximately constant in the low energy loss regime.

Plasmodium vivax is a major cause of malaria, which poses an increased health burden on approximately one third of the world's population due to climate change. Primaquine, the preferred treatment for P. vivax malaria, is contraindicated in individuals with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, a common genetic cause of hemolytic anemia, that affects ∼2.5% of the world's population and ∼8% of the population in areas of the world where P. vivax malaria is endemic. The Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID) conducted a structure–function analysis of P. vivax N-myristoyltransferase (PvNMT) as part of efforts to develop alternative malaria drugs. PvNMT catalyzes the attachment of myristate to the N-terminal glycine of many proteins, and this critical post-translational modification is required for the survival of P. vivax. The first step is the formation of a PvNMT–myristoyl–CoA binary complex that can bind to peptides. Understanding how inhibitors prevent protein binding will facilitate the development of PvNMT as a viable drug target. NMTs are secreted in all life stages of malarial parasites, making them attractive targets, unlike current antimalarials that are only effective during the plasmodial erythrocytic stages. The 2.3 Å resolution crystal structure of the ternary complex of PvNMT with myristoyl-CoA and a novel inhibitor is reported. One asymmetric unit contains two monomers. The structure reveals notable differences between the PvNMT and human enzymes and similarities to other plasmodial NMTs that can be exploited to develop new antimalarials.

This paper describes real-time statistical analysis of liquid jet images for SFX experiments at the European XFEL. This analysis forms one part of the automated jet re-alignment system for SFX experiments at the SPB/SFX instrument of European XFEL.

This study proposes an operation optimization framework for impurity-free recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries. Using a hybrid population balance equation integrated with a data-driven condition classifier, the study firstly identifies the optimal batch and semi-batch operation conditions that significantly reduce the operation time with 100% purity of product; detailed guidelines are given for industrial applications.

In electron microscopy the principle of reciprocity is often used to imply time reversal symmetry. While this is true for elastic scattering, its applicability to inelastic scattering is less well established. From the second law of thermodynamics, the entropy for a thermally isolated system must be constant for any reversible process. Using entropy and statistical fluctuation arguments, it is shown that, while reversibility is possible at the microscopic level, it becomes statistically less likely for higher energy transfers. The implications for reciprocal imaging modes, including energy loss and energy gain measurements, as well as Kainuma's reciprocal wave model are also discussed.

Algebraic expressions for averaging linear and nonlinear stiffness tensors from general anisotropy to different effective symmetries (11 Laue classes elastically representing all 32 crystal classes, and two non-crystalline symmetries: isotropic and cylindrical) have been derived by automatic symbolic computations of the arithmetic mean over the set of rotational transforms determining a given symmetry. This approach generalizes the Voigt average to nonlinear constants and desired approximate symmetries other than isotropic, which can be useful for a description of textured polycrystals and rocks preserving some symmetry aspects. Low-symmetry averages have been used to derive averages of higher symmetry to speed up computations. Relationships between the elastic constants of each symmetry have been deduced from their corresponding averages by resolving the rank-deficient system of linear equations. Isotropy has also been considered in terms of generalized Lamé constants. The results are published in the form of appendices in the supporting information for this article and have been deposited in the Mendeley database.

To fully exploit ultra-short X-ray pulse durations routinely available at X-ray free-electron lasers to follow out-of-equilibrium dynamics, inherent arrival time fluctuations of the X-ray pulse with an external perturbing laser pulse need to be measured. In this work, two methods of arrival time measurement were compared to measure the arrival time jitter of hard X-ray pulses. The methods were photoelectron streaking by a THz field and a transient refractive index change of a semiconductor. The methods were validated by shot-to-shot correction of a pump–probe transient reflectivity measurement. An ultimate shot-to-shot full width at half-maximum error between the devices of 19.2 ± 0.1 fs was measured.

Large-bandwidth pulses produced by cutting-edge X-ray free-electron lasers (FELs) are of great importance in research fields like material science and biology. In this paper, a new method to generate high-power ultrashort FEL pulses with tunable spectral bandwidth with spectral coherence using a dielectric-lined waveguide without interfering operation of linacs is proposed. By exploiting the passive and dephasingless wakefield at terahertz frequency excited by the beam, stable energy modulation can be achieved in the electron beam and large-bandwidth high-intensity soft X-ray radiation can be generated. Three-dimensional start-to-end simulations have been carried out and the results show that coherent radiation pulses with duration of a few femtoseconds and bandwidths ranging from 1.01% to 2.16% can be achieved by changing the undulator taper profile.

The Materials Imaging and Dynamics (MID) instrument at the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser Facility (EuXFEL) is equipped with a multipurpose diagnostic end-station (DES) at the end of the instrument. The imager unit in DES is a key tool for aligning the beam to a standard trajectory and for adjusting optical elements such as focusing lenses or the split-and-delay line. Furthermore, the DES features a bent-diamond-crystal spectrometer to disperse the spectrum of the direct beam to a line detector. This enables pulse-resolved characterization of the EuXFEL spectrum to provide X-ray energy calibration, and the spectrometer is particularly useful in commissioning special modes of the accelerator. Together with diamond-based intensity monitors, the imager and spectrometer form the DES unit which also contains a heavy-duty beamstop at the end of the MID instrument. Here, we describe the setup in detail and provide exemplary beam diagnostic results.

This article presents a demonstration of the improved performance of an X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) using the optical klystron mechanism and helical undulator configuration, in comparison with the common planar undulator configuration without optical klystron. The demonstration was carried out at Athos, the soft X-ray beamline of SwissFEL. Athos has variable-polarization undulators, and small magnetic chicanes placed between every two undulators to fully exploit the optical klystron. It was found that, for wavelengths of 1.24 nm and 3.10 nm, the required length to achieve FEL saturation is reduced by about 35% when using both the optical klystron and helical undulators, with each effect accounting for about half of the improvement. Moreover, it is shown that a helical undulator configuration provides a 20% to 50% higher pulse energy than planar undulators. This work represents an important step towards more compact and high-power FELs, rendering this key technology more efficient, affordable and accessible to the scientific community.

Understanding and controlling the structure and function of liquid interfaces is a constant challenge in biology, nanoscience and nanotechnology, with applications ranging from molecular electronics to controlled drug release. X-ray reflectivity and grazing incidence diffraction provide invaluable probes for studying the atomic scale structure at liquid–air interfaces. The new time-resolved laser system at the LISA liquid diffractometer situated at beamline P08 at the PETRA III synchrotron radiation source in Hamburg provides a laser pump with X-ray probe. The femtosecond laser combined with the LISA diffractometer allows unique opportunities to investigate photo-induced structural changes at liquid interfaces on the pico- and nanosecond time scales with pump–probe techniques. A time resolution of 38 ps has been achieved and verified with Bi. First experiments include laser-induced effects on salt solutions and liquid mercury surfaces with static and varied time scales measurements showing the proof of concept for investigations at liquid surfaces.

This study introduces a compact, portable femtosecond fibre laser system designed for synchronization with SPring-8 synchrotron X-ray pulses in a uniform filling mode. Unlike traditional titanium–sapphire mode-locked lasers, which are fixed installations, our system utilizes fibre laser technology to provide a practical alternative for time-resolved spectroscopy, striking a balance between usability, portability and cost-efficiency. Comprehensive evaluations, including pulse characterization, timing jitter and frequency stability tests revealed a centre wavelength of 1600 nm, a pulse energy of 4.5 nJ, a pulse duration of 35 fs with a timing jitter of less than 9 ps, confirming the suitability of the system for time-resolved spectroscopic studies. This development enhances the feasibility of experiments that combine synchrotron X-rays and laser pulses, offering significant scientific contributions by enabling more flexible and diverse research applications.

Laser-induced projectile impact testing (LIPIT) based on synchrotron imaging is proposed and validated. This emerging high-velocity, high-strain microscale dynamic loading technique offers a unique perspective on the strain and energy dissipation behavior of materials subjected to high-speed microscale single-particle impacts. When combined with synchrotron radiation imaging techniques, LIPIT allows for in situ observation of particle infiltration. Two validation experiments were carried out, demonstrating the potential of LIPIT in the roentgenoscopy of the dynamic properties of various materials. With a spatial resolution of 10 µm and a temporal resolution of 33.4 µs, the system was successfully realized at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility 3W1 beamline. This innovative approach opens up new avenues for studying the dynamic properties of materials in situ.

In a photoinjector electron source, the initial transverse electron bunch properties are determined by the spatial properties of the laser beam on the photocathode. Spatial shaping of the laser is commonly achieved by relay imaging an illuminated circular mask onto the photocathode. However, the Gibbs phenomenon shows that recreating the sharp edge and discontinuity of the cut profile at the mask on the cathode is not possible with an optical relay of finite aperture. Furthermore, the practical injection of the laser into the photoinjector results in the beam passing through small or asymmetrically positioned apertures. This work uses wavefront propagation to show how the transport apertures cause ripple structures to appear in the transverse laser profile even when effectively the full laser power is transmitted. The impact of these structures on the propagated electron bunch has also been studied with electron bunches of high and low charge density. With high charge density, the ripples in the initial charge distribution rapidly wash-out through space charge effects. However, for bunches with low charge density, the ripples can persist through the bunch transport. Although statistical properties of the electron bunch in the cases studied are not greatly affected, there is the potential for the distorted electron bunch to negatively impact machine performance. Therefore, these effects should be considered in the design phase of accelerators using photoinjectors.

A cavity-based X-ray free-electron laser (CBXFEL) is a possible future direction in the development of fully coherent X-ray sources. CBXFELs consist of a low-emittance electron source, a magnet system with several undulators and chicanes, and an X-ray cavity. The X-ray cavity stores and circulates X-ray pulses for repeated FEL interactions with electron pulses until the FEL reaches saturation. CBXFEL cavities require low-loss wavefront-preserving optical components: near-100%-reflectivity X-ray diamond Bragg-reflecting crystals, outcoupling devices such as thin diamond membranes or X-ray gratings, and aberration-free focusing elements. In the framework of the collaborative CBXFEL research and development project of Argonne National Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and SPring-8, we report here the design, manufacturing and characterization of X-ray optical components for the CBXFEL cavity, which include high-reflectivity diamond crystal mirrors, a diamond drumhead crystal with thin membranes, beryllium refractive lenses and channel-cut Si monochromators. All the designed optical components have been fully characterized at the Advanced Photon Source to demonstrate their suitability for the CBXFEL cavity application.

The split-and-delay unit (SDU) at FLASH2 will be upgraded to enable the simultaneous operation of two temporally, spatially and spectrally separated probe beams when the free-electron laser undulators are operated in a two-color scheme. By means of suitable thin filters and an optical grating beam path a wide range of combinations of photon energies in the spectral range from 150 eV to 780 eV can be chosen. In this paper, simulations of the spectral transmission and performance parameters of the filter technique are discussed, along with a monochromator with dispersion compensation presently under construction.

The Circular Electron–Positron Collider (CEPC) in China can also work as an excellent powerful synchrotron light source, which can generate high-quality synchrotron radiation. This synchrotron radiation has potential advantages in the medical field as it has a broad spectrum, with energies ranging from visible light to X-rays used in conventional radiotherapy, up to several megaelectronvolts. FLASH radiotherapy is one of the most advanced radiotherapy modalities. It is a radiotherapy method that uses ultra-high dose rate irradiation to achieve the treatment dose in an instant; the ultra-high dose rate used is generally greater than 40 Gy s−1, and this type of radiotherapy can protect normal tissues well. In this paper, the treatment effect of CEPC synchrotron radiation for FLASH radiotherapy was evaluated by simulation. First, a Geant4 simulation was used to build a synchrotron radiation radiotherapy beamline station, and then the dose rate that the CEPC can produce was calculated. A physicochemical model of radiotherapy response kinetics was then established, and a large number of radiotherapy experimental data were comprehensively used to fit and determine the functional relationship between the treatment effect, dose rate and dose. Finally, the macroscopic treatment effect of FLASH radiotherapy was predicted using CEPC synchrotron radiation through the dose rate and the above-mentioned functional relationship. The results show that the synchrotron radiation beam from the CEPC is one of the best beams for FLASH radiotherapy.

Catalase is an antioxidant enzyme that breaks down hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into molecular oxygen and water. In all monofunctional catalases the pathway that H2O2 takes to the catalytic centre is via the `main channel'. However, the structure of this channel differs in large-subunit and small-subunit catalases. In large-subunit catalases the channel is 15 Å longer and consists of two distinct parts, including a hydrophobic lower region near the heme and a hydrophilic upper region where multiple H2O2 routes are possible. Conserved glutamic acid and threonine residues are located near the intersection of these two regions. Mutations of these two residues in the Scytalidium thermophilum catalase had no significant effect on catalase activity. However, the secondary phenol oxidase activity was markedly altered, with kcat and kcat/Km values that were significantly increased in the five variants E484A, E484I, T188D, T188I and T188F. These variants also showed a lower affinity for inhibitors of oxidase activity than the wild-type enzyme and a higher affinity for phenolic substrates. Oxidation of heme b to heme d did not occur in most of the studied variants. Structural changes in solvent-chain integrity and channel architecture were also observed. In summary, modification of the main-channel gate glutamic acid and threonine residues has a greater influence on the secondary activity of the catalase enzyme, and the oxidation of heme b to heme d is predominantly inhibited by their conversion to aliphatic and aromatic residues.

Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) enables molecular-resolution 3D imaging of complex biological specimens such as viral particles, cellular sections and, in some cases, whole cells. This enables the structural characterization of molecules in their near-native environments, without the need for purification or separation, thereby preserving biological information such as conformational states and spatial relationships between different molecular species. Subtomogram averaging is an image-processing workflow that allows users to leverage cryo-ET data to identify and localize target molecules, determine high-resolution structures of repeating molecular species and classify different conformational states. Here, STOPGAP, an open-source package for subtomogram averaging that is designed to provide users with fine control over each of these steps, is described. In providing detailed descriptions of the image-processing algorithms that STOPGAP uses, this manuscript is also intended to serve as a technical resource to users as well as for further community-driven software development.

Immunodominant membrane protein (IMP) is a prevalent membrane protein in phytoplasma and has been confirmed to be an F-actin-binding protein. However, the intricate molecular mechanisms that govern the function of IMP require further elucidation. In this study, the X-ray crystallographic structure of IMP was determined and insights into its interaction with plant actin are provided. A comparative analysis with other proteins demonstrates that IMP shares structural homology with talin rod domain-containing protein 1 (TLNRD1), which also functions as an F-actin-binding protein. Subsequent molecular-docking studies of IMP and F-actin reveal that they possess complementary surfaces, suggesting a stable interaction. The low potential energy and high confidence score of the IMP–F-actin binding model indicate stable binding. Additionally, by employing immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry, it was discovered that IMP serves as an interaction partner for the phytoplasmal effector causing phyllody 1 (PHYL1). It was then shown that both IMP and PHYL1 are highly expressed in the S2 stage of peanut witches' broom phytoplasma-infected Catharanthus roseus. The association between IMP and PHYL1 is substantiated through in vivo immunoprecipitation, an in vitro cross-linking assay and molecular-docking analysis. Collectively, these findings expand the current understanding of IMP interactions and enhance the comprehension of the interaction of IMP with plant F-actin. They also unveil a novel interaction pathway that may influence phytoplasma pathogenicity and host plant responses related to PHYL1. This discovery could pave the way for the development of new strategies to overcome phytoplasma-related plant diseases.

Ultra-intense, ultra-fast X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) enable the imaging of single protein molecules under ambient temperature and pressure. A crucial aspect of structure reconstruction involves determining the relative orientations of each diffraction pattern and recovering the missing phase information. In this paper, we introduce a predicted model-aided algorithm for orientation determination and phase retrieval, which has been tested on various simulated datasets and has shown significant improvements in the success rate, accuracy and efficiency of XFEL data reconstruction.

Ultrafast, high-intensity X-ray free-electron lasers can perform diffraction imaging of single protein molecules. Various algorithms have been developed to determine the orientation of each single-particle diffraction pattern and reconstruct the 3D diffraction intensity. Most of these algorithms rely on the premise that all diffraction patterns originate from identical protein molecules. However, in actual experiments, diffraction patterns from multiple different molecules may be collected simultaneously. Here, we propose a predicted model-aided one-step classification–multireconstruction algorithm that can handle mixed diffraction patterns from various molecules. The algorithm uses predicted structures of different protein molecules as templates to classify diffraction patterns based on correlation coefficients and determines orientations using a correlation maximization method. Tests on simulated data demonstrated high accuracy and efficiency in classification and reconstruction.

MltG, a membrane-bound lytic transglycosyl­ase, has roles in terminating glycan polymerization in peptidoglycan and incorporating glycan chains into the cell wall, making it significant in bacterial cell-wall biosynthesis and remodeling. This study provides the first reported MltG structure from Mycobacterium abscessus (maMltG), a superbug that has high antibiotic resistance. Our structural and biochemical analyses revealed that MltG has a flexible peptidoglycan-binding domain and exists as a monomer in solution. Further, the putative active site of maMltG was disclosed using structural analysis and sequence comparison. Overall, this study contributes to our understanding of the transglycosyl­ation reaction of the MltG family, aiding the design of next-generation antibiotics targeting M. abscessus.

OaPAC is a recently discovered blue-light-using flavin adenosine dinucleotide (BLUF) photoactivated adenylate cyclase from the cyanobacterium Oscillatoria acuminata that uses adenosine triphosphate and translates the light signal into the production of cyclic adenosine monophosphate. Here, we report crystal structures of the enzyme in the absence of its natural substrate determined from room-temperature serial crystallography data collected at both an X-ray free-electron laser and a synchrotron, and we compare these structures with cryo-macromolecular crystallography structures obtained at a synchrotron by us and others. These results reveal slight differences in the structure of the enzyme due to data collection at different temperatures and X-ray sources. We further investigate the effect of the Y6W mutation in the BLUF domain, a mutation which results in a rearrangement of the hydrogen-bond network around the flavin and a notable rotation of the side chain of the critical Gln48 residue. These studies pave the way for picosecond–millisecond time-resolved serial crystallography experiments at X-ray free-electron lasers and synchrotrons in order to determine the early structural intermediates and correlate them with the well studied pico­second–millisecond spectroscopic intermediates.

A significant part of the present and future of optoelectronic devices lies on thin multilayer heterostructures. Their optical properties depend strongly on strain, being essential to the knowledge of the stress level to optimize the growth process. Here the structural and microstructural characteristics of sub-micron a-ZnO epilayers (12 to 770 nm) grown on r-sapphire by metal–organic chemical vapour deposition are studied. Morphological and structural studies have been made using scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution X-ray diffraction. Plastic unit-cell distortion and corresponding strain have been determined as a function of film thickness. A critical thickness has been observed as separating the non-elastic/elastic states with an experimental value of 150–200 nm. This behaviour has been confirmed from ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy measurements. An equation that gives the balance of strains is proposed as an interesting method to experimentally determine this critical thickness. It is concluded that in the thinnest films an elongation of the Zn—O bond takes place and that the plastic strained ZnO films relax through nucleation of misfit dislocations, which is a consequence of three-dimensional surface morphology.

Data collection at X-ray free electron lasers has particular experimental challenges, such as continuous sample delivery or the use of novel ultrafast high-dynamic-range gain-switching X-ray detectors. This can result in a multitude of data artefacts, which can be detrimental to accurately determining structure-factor amplitudes for serial crystallography or single-particle imaging experiments. Here, a new data-classification tool is reported that offers a variety of machine-learning algorithms to sort data trained either on manual data sorting by the user or by profile fitting the intensity distribution on the detector based on the experiment. This is integrated into an easy-to-use graphical user interface, specifically designed to support the detectors, file formats and software available at most X-ray free electron laser facilities. The highly modular design makes the tool easily expandable to comply with other X-ray sources and detectors, and the supervised learning approach enables even the novice user to sort data containing unwanted artefacts or perform routine data-analysis tasks such as hit finding during an experiment, without needing to write code.

The growing pressure on school curricula has meant crystals and the science of crystallography have been cut from or made optional for many educational programs. This omission is a serious disservice to the history and understanding of modern sciences, given that crystallography underpins many of the greatest advancements in science over the past century, is a critical component of many modern research papers and patents, and has 29 Nobel Prizes awarded in the field. This contribution describes a simple activity to target classroom and public engagement with crystallography, using marshmallows or equivalent sweets/candy to represent atoms and cocktail sticks to represent bonds, together with examples of how crystals are studied and how they are useful. Though it has a simple basis, this activity can be extended in numerous ways to reflect the aims of the demonstrator, and a few of these are described.

With the emergence of ultrafast X-ray sources, interest in following fast processes in small molecules and macromolecules has increased. Most of the current research into ultrafast structural dynamics of macromolecules uses X-ray free-electron lasers. In parallel, small-scale laboratory-based laser-driven ultrafast X-ray sources are emerging. Continuous development of these sources is underway, and as a result many exciting applications are being reported. However, because of their low flux, such sources are not commonly used to study the structural dynamics of macromolecules. This article examines the feasibility of time-resolved powder diffraction of macromolecular microcrystals using a laboratory-scale laser-driven ultrafast X-ray source.

The design and first results of a high-transmission soft X-ray spectrometer operated at the X-SPEC double-undulator beamline of the KIT Light Source are presented. As a unique feature, particular emphasis was placed on optimizing the spectrometer transmission by maximizing the solid angle and the efficiencies of spectrometer gratings and detector. A CMOS detector, optimized for soft X-rays, allows for quantum efficiencies of 90% or above over the full energy range of the spectrometer, while simultaneously offering short readout times. Combining an optimized control system at the X-SPEC beamline with continuous energy scans (as opposed to step scans), the high transmission of the spectrometer, and the fast readout of the CMOS camera, enable the collection of entire rapid resonant inelastic soft X-ray scattering maps in less than 1 min. Series of spectra at a fixed energy can be taken with a frequency of up to 5 Hz. Furthermore, the use of higher-order reflections allows a very wide energy range (45 to 2000 eV) to be covered with only two blazed gratings, while keeping the efficiency high and the resolving power E/ΔE above 1500 and 3000 with low- and high-energy gratings, respectively.

We enumerate the 55083357 iso-edge subdivisions of six-dimensional translational lattices. We report on the use of the method of canonical forms that allows us to apply hashing techniques used in modern databases.

L-R: Three Southern California retro fanatics, John Rabe, Chris Nichols, and Charles Phoenix; Credit: John Rabe/KPCC

Is it possible that the two titans of retro Southern California - Charles Phoenix and Charles Nichols - have never been on Off-Ramp at the same time? But maybe that brings up a larger question. Is it even possible for them to exist in the same place, at the same time, or would their meeting cause a cosmic singularity, an undarnable rending of the time-space continuum?

The answers are, stupidly, yes; and thankfully, yes.

Over the 11 years of Off-Ramp, "God Bless Americana" author Charles Phoenix and Los Angeles Magazine's Chris Nichols have played a large part in bringing interesting and endangered places to our listeners. From Pomona to Chatsworth to Bellflower to Anaheim, both men have made careers of highlighting and preserving things that in their day were seen as expendable, flavor-of-the-month, mass marketed creations. Like programmatic architecture (buildings that look like what they're selling or making, i.e. the Donut Hole in La Puente, the Idle Hour - a giant wine cask - in NoHo).

Yet, with hindsight, we've been able to see them as archetypal and important touchstones of our region.

For their final appearances on the show, they got in the Mercedes and shared their love of getting lost in Southern California.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

NASA released a workshop report on the UNBOUND-FEW workshop series, which was facilitated in part by Tribal Resilience Learning Network staff from the Alaska CASC. The workshop report reveals key recommendations for making data tools more useful for climate adaptation planning.

Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, who read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record and confronted Barack Obama about nuclear weapons during a later presidential run, has died. He was 91.; Credit: Charles Dharapak/AP

SEASIDE, Calif. — Mike Gravel, a former U.S. senator from Alaska who read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record and confronted Barack Obama about nuclear weapons during a later presidential run, has died. He was 91.

Gravel, who represented Alaska as a Democrat in the Senate from 1969 to 1981, died Saturday, according to his daughter, Lynne Mosier. Gravel had been living in Seaside, California, and was in failing health, said Theodore W. Johnson, a former aide.

Gravel's two terms came during tumultuous years for Alaska when construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline was authorized and when Congress was deciding how to settle Alaska Native land claims and whether to classify enormous amounts of federal land as parks, preserves and monuments.

He had the unenviable position of being an Alaska Democrat when some residents were burning President Jimmy Carter in effigy for his measures to place large sections of public lands in the state under protection from development.

Gravel feuded with Alaska's other senator, Republican Ted Stevens, on the land matter, preferring to fight Carter's actions and rejecting Stevens' advocacy for a compromise.

In the end, Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980, a compromise that set aside millions of acres for national parks, wildlife refuges and other protected areas. It was one of the last bills Carter signed before leaving office.

Gravel's Senate tenure also was notable for his anti-war activity. In 1971, he led a one-man filibuster to protest the Vietnam-era draft and he read into the Congressional Record 4,100 pages of the 7,000-page leaked document known as the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Department's history of the country's early involvement in Vietnam.

Gravel reentered national politics decades after his time in the Senate to twice run for president. Gravel, then 75, and his wife, Whitney, took public transportation in 2006 to announce he was running for president as a Democrat in the 2008 election ultimately won by Obama.

He launched his quest for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination as a critic of the Iraq war.

"I believe America is doing harm every day our troops remain in Iraq — harm to ourselves and to the prospects for peace in the world," Gravel said in 2006. He hitched his campaign to an effort that would give all policy decisions to the people through a direct vote, including health care reform and declarations of war.

Gravel garnered attention for his fiery comments at Democratic forums.

In one 2007 debate, the issue of the possibility of using nuclear weapons against Iran came up, and Gravel confronted then-Sen. Obama. "Tell me, Barack, who do you want to nuke?" Gravel said. Obama replied: "I'm not planning to nuke anybody right now, Mike."

Gravel then ran as a Libertarian candidate after he was excluded from later Democratic debates.

In an email to supporters, he said the Democratic Party "no longer represents my vision for our great country." "It is a party that continues to sustain war, the military-industrial complex and imperialism — all of which I find anathema to my views," he said.

He failed to get the Libertarian nomination.

Gravel briefly ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. He again criticized American wars and vowed to slash military spending. His last campaign was notable in that both his campaign manager and chief of staff were just 18 at the time of his short-lived candidacy.

"There was never any ... plan that he would do anything more than participate in the debates. He didn't plan to campaign, but he wanted to get his ideas before a larger audience," Johnson said.

Gravel failed to qualify for the debates. He endorsed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the contest eventually won by now-President Joe Biden.

Gravel was born Maurice Robert Gravel in Springfield, Massachusetts, on May 13, 1930.

In Alaska, he served as a state representative, including a stint as House speaker, in the mid-1960s.

He won his first Senate term after defeating incumbent Sen. Ernest Gruening, a former territorial governor, in the 1968 Democratic primary.

Gravel served two terms until he was defeated in the 1980 Democratic primary by Gruening's grandson, Clark Gruening, who lost the election to Republican Frank Murkowski.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Circus of Books storefront.; Credit: Netflix/Circus Of Books (2020)

The documentary “Circus of Books”  tells the story of two book stores, one in West Hollywood and the other in Silver Lake, operated by Karen and Barry Mason, who became accidental book sellers. They also became real pillars of the LGBTQ communties. Rachel Mason is the daughter of the masons and she’s also the filmmaker. Larry talked with Rachel about “Circus of Books” when it was first released on Netflix. Today on FilmWeek, we excerpt a portion of that conversation. 

This conversation aired during FilmWeek’s Saturday broadcast. 

Guest: 

Rachel Mason, director of the Netflix documentary ‘Circus of Books’ and daughter of Circus of Books owners Karen and Barry Mason; she tweets @RachelMasonArt

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Full Text:

Earth's magnetic field seems steady and true -- reliable enough to navigate by. Yet, largely hidden from daily life, the field drifts, waxes and wanes. The magnetic North Pole is currently shifting toward Siberia, forcing the Global Positioning System that underlies modern navigation to update its software sooner than expected. Every several hundred thousand years, the magnetic field dramatically shifts and reverses its polarity. Magnetic north flips to the geographic South Pole and, eventually, back again. This reversal has happened countless times over Earth's history, but scientists' understanding of why and how the field reverses is limited. The researchers find that the most recent field reversal 770,000 years ago took at least 22,000 years to complete, several times longer than previously thought. The results call into question controversial findings that some reversals could occur within a human lifetime.

Image credit: Brad Singer

Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., speaks during an event in 2018. Apple is one of 310 companies calling on the Biden administration to slash carbon emissions.; Credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

More than 300 businesses have signed an open letter calling on the Biden administration to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the United States to at least half of 2005 levels by 2030. That would nearly double a previous target set by former President Barack Obama in 2015, who pledged a 25 to 28% reduction by 2025.

The United States is not currently on track to meet either goal.

The signatories include some of largest companies in the United States, including Walmart, Apple, McDonald's and Starbucks. "A bold 2030 target is needed to catalyze a zero-emissions future, spur a robust economic recovery, create millions of well-paying jobs, and allow the U.S. to 'build back better' from the pandemic," the letter said, echoing the president's economic recovery slogan.

A 50% reduction target would put the Biden administration in line with what groups such as the United Nations and National Academies of Science say is necessary to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.

In a March statement calling for the same reductions target, the environmental advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council said such a plan would "help pull the country out of the pandemic-induced recession by putting millions of Americans to work" and inspire more ambitious international climate action ahead of a major United Nations climate conference this November.

Like President Joe Biden's campaign promise to guide the United States to carbon-neutrality by the middle of the century, a 50% emissions reduction target would require steeper emissions cuts than the country has ever achieved.

In 2019, greenhouse gas emissions were approximately 13% below 2005 levels, a decrease of just 1.8% from the previous year.

The Biden administration has identified climate action as one of its top four priorities and has named prominent, experienced Washington insiders, including former Secretary of State John Kerry and former EPA administrator Gina McCarthy, to oversee climate policy efforts at the White House.

As NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben has previously reported, activists on the left are cautiously optimistic about the administration's climate plan after expressing doubts about Biden's climate record during the Democratic primary.

Sunrise Movement, a youth-led climate group that champions the Green New Deal, gave candidate Biden's initial climate plan an "F" grade. Now, the group's executive director Varshini Prakash is publicly celebrating his administration's latest climate-focused $2 trillion infrastructure bill — including its commitment to spend 40% of the infrastructure plan's money on disadvantaged communities and launch a jobs program called the Civilian Climate Corps.

New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told NPR earlier this month that she feels that Biden has ultimately come around to the side of progressives on climate issues. She said: "As much as I think some parts of the party try to avoid saying 'Green New Deal' and really dance around and try to not use that term, ultimately, the framework I think has been adopted."

The emphasis on climate comes as a sharp departure from the Trump administration, which withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement and set no emissions reductions targets.

Signatories to the Paris deal, which Biden rejoined on the day he was sworn into office, are all required to set these targets — formally known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs.

The agreement also encourages nations to revise their goals every five years, in hopes that the proposals become more ambitious as the cost of environmental reform goes down.

Since the Paris agreement was first agreed to in 2015, though, just fifty of the deal's nearly 200 signatories have submitted revised targets. A recent U.N. analysis of international climate action found that many countries were doing far too little to reduce emissions for the world to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

So far, the White House has not indicated exactly how ambitious their plan will be. An announcement is expected in the coming days as the White House prepares for its Earth Day climate summit with world leaders, scheduled for Thursday, April 22.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

How many oceans are there? It's National Geographic official now: There are five.; Credit: Alexander Gerst/ESA via Getty Images

Most of us learned about the world's oceans in elementary school. There's the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Indian and the Arctic.

Now, there's a sea change ahead.

Thanks to National Geographic, you'll soon see a fifth ocean on your maps. It's now officially recognizing the Southern Ocean, the waters swirling around Antarctica, marking the first time the organization has made such a change since it started drawing up maps over a century ago.

On World Ocean's Day earlier this week, National Geographic announced the distinction, which many scientists and researchers have unofficially acknowledged for decades.

"Traditionally, there have been the four [oceans] defined primarily by land masses," Alex Tait, National Geographic Society geographer, tells NPR's All Things Considered. "We think it's important to add this fifth ocean region because it's so unique and because we want to bring attention to all areas of the ocean."

National Geographic has produced maps, atlases and globes since 1915. But this is the first time they're drawing up a new map that will recast the oceans.

The move catches up with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recognition of the Southern Ocean in 1999, when it earned approval from the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.

The change made waves for experts already familiar with the area. For instance, it caught Cassandra Brooks, an assistant professor in environmental studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, off-kilter.

"To be completely honest with you, I was rather surprised because I had always thought of the Southern Ocean as its own ocean," says Brooks. "I think most of the scientists who work down there really understand how the Southern Ocean is its own thing."

But the Southern is special, according to Brooks, who's spent more than 15 years of her career studying the Antarctic. It's defined by the powerful Antarctic Circumpolar Current, a critical flow that she says helps regulate the Earth's climate.

Brooks says she thinks about the Southern Ocean as "lungs" or "the heart." The ocean is "pumping water throughout the world's oceans," she says.

Both Tait and Brooks hope that this new recognition will create more awareness for a region that's often forgotten.

"Antarctica is so far away that most people don't think about it on a day to day basis. They're not seeing how important it is to literally all of our survival," says Brooks.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Gloria Majiga-Kamoto, an activist from Malawi, is one of six recipients of the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize. Majiga-Kamoto has been instrumental in implementing Malawi's ban on thin plastics.; Credit: /Goldman Environmental Prize

For Gloria Majiga-Kamoto, her great awakening to plastic pollution started with goats.

She was working for a local environmental NGO in her native Malawi with a program that gave goats to rural farmers. The farmers would use the goat's dung to produce low-cost, high-quality organic fertilizer.

The problem? The thin plastic bags covering the Malawian countryside.

"We have this very common street food, it's called chiwaya, and it's just really potato fried on the side of the road and it's served in these little blue plastics," Majiga-Kamoto says. "So because it's salty, once the goats get a taste of the salt, they just eat the plastic because they can't really tell that it's inedible. And they die because it blocks the ingestion system — there's no way to survive."

The goats were supposed to reproduce for the program, with the goat kids going on to new farmers. But because of plastic deaths the whole goat chain started falling apart.

"It was a lot of expectation from the farmers waiting to benefit. So you had this farmer who had this one goat and then they lost it. And that means that in that chain of farmers, that's obviously affected quite a number of farmers who won't get their turn."

For Majiga-Kamoto, her experience at the NGO with the plastic-eating goats was the moment it all changed. All of a sudden she started noticing how plastics were everywhere in the Malawian environment and food system — affecting people's livelihoods and health.

The fish in Lake Malawi were eating plastic trash. The country's cows were eating plastic. Researchers found that in one Malawi town 40% of the livestock had plastic in their intestines.

"We're choking in plastics," Majiga-Kamoto says, "And so what it means is that in one way or the other, we as humans are consuming these plastics."

Majiga-Kamoto was also seeing how plastics contributed to the growth of disease. Huge piles of plastic trash were blocking off Malawi's many waterways, creating pungent breeding grounds for mosquitoes that carry malaria and for bacteria that cause cholera.

The 30-year-old says she remembers a time when Malawians didn't rely so much on thin, single-use plastic. "I remember back in the day when we'd go to the market and buy things like fish, like dried fish, you'd get it in newspapers."

But thin plastics have taken off in the last decade or so as new manufacturers sprung up in Malawi, selling products like thin plastic bags at cheap prices that made them affordable and accessible even in the most undeveloped parts of the country. A 2019 UNDP funded report found that Malawi produces an estimated 75,000 tonnes of plastic a year, with 80% reportedly single-use plastic. Single-use plastic refers to bags, straws and bottles that can't be recycled, and thin plastic refers to plastic that's under 60 microns in thickness.

The proliferation of this thin plastic waste led to the Malawian government's 2015 decision to ban the production, distribution and importation of single-use thin plastic. But before the ban could go into full effect, Malawi's plastics manufacturing industry filed an injunction at the country's High Court. The ban stalled.

When Majiga-Kamoto and a group of her fellow environmental NGO-workers and activists heard about the injunction they were angry and frustrated. "It sort of caught our interest to say, 'Wait a minute, you mean that there's actually people in our society who think that this is not a problem and that we should actually continue to live this way?'"

Galvanized, Majiga-Kamoto led a group of local environmental activists and NGOs to actually implement the single-use plastics ban, organizing marches on the judiciary where the decision would be decided. She kept her job at her NGO, the Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy, and did this work on her own time.

She rejected the plastic industry's argument that the ban would hurt Malawi's economy — and even debated an industry lobbyist on TV.

Finally in 2019, after multiple injunctions filed by the plastics industry, the High Court ruled in favor of the single-use thin plastic ban. The following year the Malawian government began closing down illegal plastic manufacturers.

Last week Majiga-Kamoto was named one of the six winners of the 2021 Goldman Environmental Prize for her work on this issue. Michael Sutton, executive director of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, says Majiga-Kamoto's fight with the plastic lobby epitomizes the spirit of the prize. "She mustered the troops, the grassroots communities, to take on the government and big industry and won several times," Sutton says, "She not only won the ban in law, but is now holding the government's feet to the fire to enforce it."

And Majiga-Kamoto isn't letting up her pressure to uphold the single-use plastic ban anytime soon. Although she is trying to get some summer vacation time with her family — that is, if she isn't interrupted.

"I was just at the lake a couple of weeks ago and we were there just enjoying the beautiful lake and along come these pieces of plastic." Three plastic bags floated up closer to her, her son and her niece as they played in the water.

Majiga-Kamoto grabbed for the bags.

"My family was laughing to say, 'You shouldn't be working! You're at the lake!' And I'm like, 'But I can't just leave them in there!'"

Julia Simon is a regular contributor to NPR's podcasts and news desks focusing on climate change, energy, and business news.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

; Credit: /Courtesy of TED

Part 3 of TED Radio Hour episode: An SOS From The Ocean

In 1998, Alasdair Harris went to Madagascar to research coral reefs. He's worked there ever since. He explains the true meaning of conservation he learned from the island's Indigenous communities.

About Alasdair Harris

Alasdair Harris is a marine biologist and the founder of the organization Blue Ventures. His organization seeks to catalyze and sustain locally-led marine conservation in coastal communities around the world.

His work focuses on rebuilding tropical fisheries and working with coastal people to increase their sources of income.

Harris holds a PhD in tropical marine ecology, and an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Edinburgh.

This segment of TED Radio Hour was produced by Matthew Cloutier and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour. You can follow us on Twitter @TEDRadioHour and email us at TEDRadio@npr.org.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

A tropical storm with 65-mile-an-hour winds is drenching Cuba, and is expected to reach Key West and the west coast of Florida within the next 48 hours.

The National Hurricane Center expects Tropical Storm Elsa to drop between 5 and 10 inches of rain on central and western Cuba, leading to significant flooding and mudslides. The storm probably will weaken somewhat as it crosses the island, but could strengthen again as it approaches Florida.

According to the Associated Press, Cuban officials evacuated 180,000 people as a precaution against the possibility of heavy flooding.

Most of those evacuated stayed at relatives' homes, others went to government shelters, and hundreds living in mountainous areas took refuge in caves prepared for emergencies. The storm had killed at least three people on other Caribbean islands before it reached Cuba

The National Weather Service says that the western coast of Florida, including Tampa Bay, can expect a storm surge that would lift water levels between two and four feet. Much of Florida could see heavy rainfall that could reach six inches in some places. The storm will then bring heavy rains to Georgia and the Carolinas later in the week.

Florida officials were worried that the storm could destabilize what was left of the condominium building that partially collapsed over a week ago. In order to avoid an uncontrolled collapse, they approved the demolition of the remaining portion of the building, which took place on Sunday night.

"The hurricane was coming, the potential for that building to fall on the pile with the victims in it was a tragic thought," Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told NPR on Monday.

It's early in the hurricane season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted a busier-than-average Atlantic hurricane season, but it would be hard to top last year's, which set an all-time record with 30 named storms.

Tropical storms are fueled by warm water in the upper layers of the ocean, and ocean temperatures have been rising as heat is trapped by greenhouse gases.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Vaccines will be administered on a first-come, first-serve basis, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., or until the supply is depleted on September 21, World Rabies Day, thanks to 250 vaccines provided by the World Rabies Organization and Pfizer Animal Health.

The environmental effects of oil and gas exploration and production on Alaska s North Slope have been accumulating for more than three decades, says a new report from the National Academies National Research Council.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and Institute of Medicine (IOM) today released SCIENCE, EVOLUTION, AND CREATIONISM, a book designed to give the public a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the current scientific understanding of evolution and its importance in the science classroom.

A new data network that integrates emerging research on the molecular makeup of diseases with clinical data on individual patients could drive the development of a more accurate classification of disease and ultimately enhance diagnosis and treatment, says a new report from the National Research Council.

The U.S. electric power delivery system is vulnerable to terrorist attacks that could cause much more damage to the system than natural disasters such as Hurricane Sandy, blacking out large regions of the country for weeks or months and costing many billions of dollars, says a newly released report by the National Research Council.

Rates of physical and sexual abuse of children have declined over the last 20 years, but for reasons not fully understood, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. Yet, reports of psychological and emotional child abuse have risen in the same period, and data vary significantly as to whether child neglect is increasing, decreasing, or remaining constant.

Since 1930, the FBI has served as central coordinator of data on known criminal offenses, combining reports from approximately 18,000 local law enforcement agencies under the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program.

The U.S. is losing ground in a second laser revolution of highly intense, ultrafast lasers that have broad applications in manufacturing, medicine, and national security, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The emergence of inexpensive small unmanned aircraft systems (sUASs) that operate without a human pilot, commonly known as drones, has led to adversarial groups threatening deployed U.S. forces, especially infantry units.