Flies a buzz in plastics debate

Finnish scientists have discovered a way of using dead flies to produce bioplastics that unlike conventional plastics quickly break down in the environment.

Researchers say this represents a significant step towards more sustainable and eco-friendly materials.

The project's principal investigator, Karen Wooley, said her team had spent two decades developing methods to convert natural products, like glucose from sugar cane or trees, into degradable plastics that do not linger in the environment.

“However, we were using materials that are also sources of food, fuel, and are needed in other essential industries. We wanted something that nobody else wanted,” Dr Wooley said.

Her colleague, Jeffery Tomberlin, suggested exploring waste products from farming black soldier flies – a rapidly growing industry in which he has been closely involved.

“Black soldier fly larvae contain a wealth of proteins and nutritious compounds, making them valuable for animal feed and waste consumption,” Dr Tomberlin said.

“However the adult flies have a short lifespan after breeding and are usually discarded.”

Dr Wooley set graduate student Cassidy Tibbetts to work on the project. She discovered that the adult fly carcasses contained chitin, a biodegradable polymer derived from sugar that strengthens the exoskeleton of insects and crustaceans.

Ms Tibbetts developed an extraction process that produced chitin powder with improved purity and characteristics.

She worked with another graduate student, Hongming Guo on a chemical process that converted purified chitin into chitosan, which in this form can be transformed into useful bioplastics, such as superabsorbent hydrogels, with the ability to absorb vast amounts of water.

Dr Wooley said this technology could have applications in cropland soil, capturing floodwater and releasing it slowly during droughts.

“Furthermore, because the hydrogel is biodegradable, it can gradually release nutrients to nourish crops,” she said.

Her team is now working on turning chitin from the flies into monomeric glucosamines, small sugar molecules that can be used to produce traditional bioplastics like polycarbonates and polyurethanes.

“We are also looking at the diverse array of compounds found in black soldier flies, including proteins, DNA, fatty acids, lipids, and vitamins, to create sustainable and degradable materials that contribute to reducing plastic pollution,” Dr Wooley said.

“In the future I can see a circular economy where insects consume waste plastic as a food source, and their components are harvested to create new plastics.

“This is the future where nature's processes drive innovation towards a greener world.”

 

HK reviews rules to sack bureaucrats

Hong Kong’s Minister for the Public Service believes a proposal to make it easier to get rid of poorly-performing Government workers will encourage, not discourage, potential job applicants.

Ingrid Yeung said it takes an average of 20 months to complete the dismissal process of an officer at present and the Government wants to streamline procedures so officers get just one period of performance monitoring to show they can improve.

She said the Government was also reducing the number of times workers could express views on their work performance or their supervisors' assessments.

“The Civil Service was never supposed to guarantee jobs for life, and moving out poor performers benefits everyone,” Ms Yeung said.

However, a union representing the city’s Public Servants has pushed back at the plan

Chair of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, Leung Chau-ting said that in a highly- politicised society under-performance could be used against workers who simply made remarks that annoyed superiors.

“This will cause morale to plummet,” Mr Leung said.

Convenor of Hong Kong’s Executive Council, Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said the reforms should have been introduced sooner.

“Current procedures for dismissal or compulsory retirement are too rigid and take too long,” Ms Ip (pictured) said.

“The mechanism should be streamlined to increase public sector flexibility in hiring and firing. Fairness is assured, so long as Civil Servants affected are given a chance to make representations.”

Official figure show authorities took formal disciplinary action against 451 Civil Servants for serious misconduct or criminal convictions over the past two financial years.

According to the statistics, 35 Civil Servants were dismissed in 2021-22 and another 47 in 2022-23. The number placed on compulsory retirement stood at 17 and 13 respectively.

Russia updates invasion ‘history’

Education authorities in Russia have produced four updated history books for high school students, adding chapters from 2014 to the present day and including the ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.

Historians within Russia have slammed the textbooks, saying history should never deal with continuing events in the present day.

A team headed by former Minister for Culture, Vladimir Medinsky produced the books, which will be used in Grades 10 and 11 in all Russian schools. The same team will produce books for primary school students during 2024.

The books state the West is "fixated on destabilising Russia”, justifying the annexation of Crimea in 2014, followed by the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

It details the destruction of Soviet memorials in Eastern Europe, and the "resurgence of Nazism" in the Baltic countries, before concluding with the emergence of "Ukrainian neo-Nazism”.

It suggests that Ukraine entering NATO “would most likely be the end of civilisation. That must not be allowed to happen".

According to Dr Medinsky (pictured), the new textbook contains "significantly fewer numbers, dates and dry statistics, and, instead, focuses on stories about people and real concrete events".

This does not convince historian and political scientist, Konstantin Pachaljuk who has been involved in writing school history textbooks in Russia in the past.

"I wrote a chapter on World War I for one of the textbooks, but it was edited and turned into patriotic agitation. Such a fuss was made, and I had to defend some of my points," Dr Pachaljuk said.

 "This approach, where current events are included in history textbooks, is not common practice. Many historians are critical of this,” he said.

“The present should not be the subject of history. There needs to be historical distance. Perhaps the reason why the State wants to combine history with the present is so the present appears as stable as its history." 

Finnish capital prepares for crisis weather

Following a wave of extreme weather that has hit Scandinavia, residents of the Finnish capital of Helsinki have been told to prepare for more floods, downpours and sustained heatwaves caused by the climate crisis.

Project Manager of the City of Helsinki’s Climate Division, Kajsa Rosqvist said the City had drafted a plan for adapting to the climate crisis, placing particular emphasis on the storm waters that linger on streets after downpours.

Ms Rosqvist pointed out that while new residential areas on the outskirts of the city had separate pipes for storm and waste water, downtown areas were more vulnerable to heavy rains because of their joint pipe systems and the amount of land covered in asphalt.

“The greatest flood risk is in downtown areas because the piping capacity doesn’t suffice to control the masses of water,” Ms Rosqvist said.

The City Council is expected to finalise the first version of its plan for responding to heavy rains later in the year.

It also has a storm-water strategy based on the principle that the waters are dealt with where they occur rather than channelled to other parts of the city.

“The waters should be either absorbed by the soil and vegetation or, at the very least, their flow should be slowed down so that floods do not occur in bottleneck locations,” Ms Rosqvist said.

“Due to the high cost of replacing old pipe systems, greenery will have a key role in preventing future floods." 

She said Helsinki was in a fairly good position compared to other cities in Europe, "given that it has about 200,000 trees in parks and 30,000 along roads in addition to its forested areas”.

The City Council is evaluating the effectiveness of green areas for preventing floods by transforming 17 parking spots into green squares in neighbourhoods that have less open areas.

However, this is challenging due to the space requirements of roots on the one hand and underground cables, pipes and other infrastructure on the other.

“At the same time, we know that trees do the best job at absorbing water, delaying the flow of storm waters, provide shade and cooling the air through evaporation,” Ms Rosqvist said.

“I’d say that we’re in a hurry and need more resources. Luckily discussion on the topic has increased in recent times, and I’m hopeful we can make progress even quite quickly.”

Warnings over ‘headlong embrace’ of AI

Stakeholders from unions and academia are warning the Canadian Federal Government against a headlong embrace of artificial intelligence as a silver bullet for efficiency and cost-savings.

They want the Government to first put in place a system to govern the use of AI in public sector workplaces.

Law Professor at the University of Ottawa and an expert in cyber security, Karen Eltis said the Government had an opportunity to do this now before AI use developed out of its control.

“The Government must regulate AI in a way that fosters citizen confidence and addresses all the issues,” Professor Eltis said.

Earlier this year, the Federal Government said it was increasingly looking for artificial intelligence to make or support administrative decisions to improve service delivery.

In a statement, it said it was committed to using artificial intelligence in a manner that was compatible with core principles of administrative law such as transparency, accountability, legality, and procedural fairness.

However, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) is warning against over-reliance on technology.

President of the PIPSC, Jennifer Carr said an over-reliance on technology could lead to the delusion that it was a panacea and could cut workforces.

"When we switched over to [the automated Federal pay system] Phoenix, we got rid of our pay and compensation advisers because the system would do more and more decisions automated, but that didn't work out and you know we are still paying for it seven years later," Ms Carr said.

Yoshua Bengio, an expert in AI, has called on Governments worldwide to consider the dangers that AI could pose.

“There is no guarantee that someone in the foreseeable future won’t develop dangerous autonomous AI systems with behaviour that deviates from human goals and values,” Professor Bengio said.

“The short and medium term risks — manipulation of public opinion for political purposes, especially through disinformation — are easy to predict, unlike the longer-term risks.

He suggested future AI systems could be harmful despite the programmers’ objectives.

Overall, more than 10 per cent of Canadian Public Servants said they have used AI tools such as ChatGPT in their work, with 61 per cent of those officials either excited or positive about the opportunity to use AI to process large amounts of data.

 

Ukrainians get services from a suitcase

Over the past few weeks some 30 suitcase-sized packages have been quietly delivered from Poland, in the European Union, to towns and cities in Ukraine.

The suitcases do not contain secret weapons for the war with Russia, nor are they food or medical aid packages.

Each one is an ‘Administrative Service Centre’ (ASC) bringing to residents of war-torn communities in Chernihiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mykolaiv and Poltava the same essential public services that are taken for granted in peacetime.

Ukrainian Public Servants can use the suitcases, each one equipped with a laptop with licensed software, a printer, a handheld scanner, ID card reader, video camera, mobile 4G/3G internet, and a WI-FI router, as a mobile remote workplace.

The project is the work of the EU and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in partnership with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine,

Head of the Local and Human Development Section at the EU Delegation to Ukraine, Martin Schroeder said with this equipment administrators can reach clients directly, simplifying the process and bringing basic public services to those that need them.

“This is particularly crucial for older people, people with disabilities, people with limited mobility, and residents of communities where ASC premises have been damaged or destroyed by hostilities,” Mr Schroeder said.

“The European Union is fully committed to promoting inclusive and equitable development in Ukraine,” he said.

“Granting local communities direct access to essential public services holds particular significance for their resilience, especially in areas affected by the Russian war of aggression.”

The mobile suitcases were purchased, equipped, and delivered by the UNDP in Ukraine in the framework of the EU4Recovery — Empowering Communities in Ukraine project, with financial support from the EU. 

Biden’s run just the same old story

United States President Joe Biden’s determination to seek a further four-year term when he is already in his 80s has raised the question of whether there is ever a time when men and women are too old to hold public office.

Biden’s political opponents have made his age an issue, and while he may be the oldest Chief Executive, there are plenty of examples of politicians who have held high office and been very active in it through their 70s, 80s and even 90s. 

While most Presidents who end their terms seek a comfortable retirement building their libraries and burnishing their legacies, John Quincy Adams was a notable exception.

After losing his re-election bid in 1829, the sixth President entered the House of Representatives, where he served for almost another 17 years before suffering a fatal stroke while answering a question in the House Chamber.

By then Adams was 80 at a time when the average male life expectancy was less than half that. He would not have known it, but he was setting an example that lawmakers, both in the US and overseas, would follow into the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

Currently there are members of both main parties in the US Congress in their 70s and 80s, with two members of the Senate on the verge of their 90s. Even that pales beside the record of James Strom Thurmond (pictured), elected to the Senate in 1954 and retiring 48 years later at the ripe old age of 100. 

Elsewhere, the case of the United Kingdom’s wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill stands out. First elected to Parliament in 1900, he was in his mid-60s when he took on the role of successfully leading his nation through the conflict with Nazi Germany.

After failing to win the General Election of 1945, he stayed on to lead his Conservative Party to victory in 1951, serving as Prime Minister again until 1955 when he was approaching 81.

However, the UK record belongs to Samuel Young, who was elected to the Irish seat of East Cavan when he was 70 and held it until his death in 1918 at the age of 96 years and 63 days.

In Australia longevity in office is a rarity, with many MPs and Ministers almost seeing service in the House of Representatives and the Senate as a rite of passage before moving on to other areas.

William Morris (Billy) Hughes was an exception. The English migrant was a member of the inaugural Federal Parliament in 1901, became the country’s seventh Prime Minister in 1915 in the midst of World War I, serving until he was forced out in 1923.

His appetite for the machinations of politics undimmed, he continued to be highly active through the 1930s and 40s, before his death, while still a Member of the House of Representatives in 1952 at the age of 90 years and one month.

Some countries have mulled the possibility of imposing upper age limits on their lawmakers. In 2015, a French Government announcement that it was considering barring anyone over 70 from standing for election or re-election, met with a storm of criticism, mostly from those in the upper age range who, by virtue of their seniority, held influential positions in Parliament. The proposal was quietly shelved.

While there have been many examples of politicians serving into old age, there can surely be only one holder of the record for the youngest member of an elected Parliament.

Christopher Monck was just 13 when he entered England’s House of Commons as the MP for Devon in 1667, where he sat for three years before being elevated to the House of Lords on the death of his father.

It was not until 1695 that the Parliamentary Elections Act established 21 as the minimum age for MPs.