tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/vanderbilt-university-1293/articlesVanderbilt University2024-03-04T13:36:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2245972024-03-04T13:36:47Z2024-03-04T13:36:47ZCould the days of ‘springing forward’ be numbered? A neurologist and sleep expert explains the downside to that borrowed hour of daylight<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579007/original/file-20240229-24-zwzuqp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C8%2C5557%2C3648&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">While that 'extra' hour of sunlight in the evenings can be exhilarating, it comes with significant health trade-offs.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/daylight-saving-time-notepad-with-text-spring-royalty-free-image/1365468815?phrase=daylight+saving+time&adppopup=true">Anna Blazhuk/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As people in the U.S. prepare to set their clocks ahead one hour on Sunday, March 10, 2024, I find myself bracing for the annual ritual of <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/standard-time-daylight-saving-time-clock-change-sleep-20201031.html">media stories</a> about <a href="https://qz.com/1114163/daylight-saving-time-dst-is-incredibly-disruptive-heres-how-to-reset/">the disruptions to daily routines</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.8780">caused by switching from standard time</a> to daylight saving time. </p>
<p>About one-third of Americans say they don’t look forward to these twice-yearly time changes. And nearly two-thirds <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/11/04/daylight-saving-time-americans-want-stay-permanent">would like to eliminate them completely</a>, compared with 17% who aren’t sure and 21% who would <a href="https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/etwjvohrxx/Daylight_Saving_Time_Toplines_Crosstabs.pdf">like to keep moving their clocks back and forth</a>. </p>
<p>But the effects go beyond simple inconvenience. Researchers are discovering that “springing ahead” each March is connected with serious negative health effects, including an uptick in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8030404">heart attacks</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.4938">teen sleep deprivation</a>. In contrast, the fall transition back to standard time is not associated with these health effects, as my co-authors and I explained in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2019.3780">2020 commentary</a>.</p>
<p>I’ve studied the pros and cons of these twice-annual rituals for more than five years as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZddlKEoAAAAJ&hl=en">professor of neurology and pediatrics</a> and the director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s sleep division. It’s become clear to me and many of my colleagues that the transition to daylight saving time each spring affects health immediately after the clock change and also for the nearly eight months that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/health/permanent-daylight-savings-health-harms-wellness/index.html#">Americans remain on daylight saving time</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Washington is one of the states where legislators are pushing for permanent standard time.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why our bodies are thrown off by DST</h2>
<p>Americans are split on whether they <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/11/04/daylight-saving-time-americans-want-stay-permanent">prefer permanent daylight saving time</a> or <a href="https://apnorc.org/projects/dislike-for-changing-the-clocks-persists/">permanent standard time</a>. But a <a href="https://savestandardtime.com/current/">growing number of states</a> are supporting permanent standard time. </p>
<p>However, the two time shifts – jolting as they may be – are not equal. Standard time most closely approximates natural light, with the sun directly overhead at or near noon. In contrast, during daylight saving time from March until November, the clock change causes natural light to be present one hour later in the morning and one hour later in the evening according to clock time.</p>
<p>Morning light is essential for helping to set the body’s natural rhythms: It <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36791-5">wakes us up and improves alertness</a>. Morning light also boosts mood – light boxes simulating natural light are prescribed for morning use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.55.10.890">to treat seasonal affective disorder</a>.</p>
<p>Although the exact reasons why light activates us and benefits our mood are not yet known, this may be due to light’s effects on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10253890.2020.1741543">increasing levels of cortisol</a>, a hormone that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-019-0228-0">modulates the stress response</a>, or the effect of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36791-5">light on the amygdala</a>, a part of the brain involved in emotions.</p>
<p>Adolescents also may be <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-start-times-and-screen-time-late-in-the-evening-exacerbate-sleep-deprivation-in-us-teenagers-179178">chronically sleep-deprived due to school</a>, sports and social activities. For instance, many <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020006/index.asp">children start school around 8 a.m.</a> or earlier, which means that during daylight saving time they get up and travel to school in pitch darkness.</p>
<p>The body of evidence makes a good case for adopting permanent standard time nationwide, as I testified at a <a href="https://democrats-energycommerce.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/rescheduled-hearing-on-changing-times-revisiting-spring-forward-fall">March 2022 Congressional hearing</a> and argued in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsac236">recent position statement</a> for the Sleep Research Society. The American Medical Association recently <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-calls-permanent-standard-time">called for permanent standard time</a>. And in late 2022, <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/mexico-abolishes-dst-2022.html#">Mexico adopted permanent standard time</a>, citing benefits to <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/3708301-mexicos-senate-votes-to-end-daylight-saving-time-for-most-of-the-country/">health, productivity and energy savings</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An illustration of two clocks depicting Daylight Savings Time changes: Fall backward, and spring forward." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In 2024, clocks spring forward one hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 10. They fall back at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 3.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/daylight-saving-time-fall-backward-and-royalty-free-illustration/1356689682?adppopup=true">iam2mai/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>The biggest advantage of daylight saving time is that it provides an extra hour of light in the late afternoon or evening, depending on time of year, for sports, shopping or eating outside. However, exposure to light later into the evening for almost eight months during daylight saving time comes at a price. This extended evening light delays the brain’s release of melatonin, the hormone that promotes drowsiness, which in turn interferes with sleep and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsac236">causes us to sleep less overall</a>.</p>
<p>Because puberty also causes <a href="https://www.neurologylive.com/view/teenage-circadian-rhythm">melatonin to be released later at night</a>, meaning that teenagers have a delay in the natural signal that helps them fall asleep, adolescents are <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.4938">particularly susceptible to sleep problems</a> from the extended evening light. This shift in melatonin during puberty lasts into our 20s.</p>
<h2>The ‘western edge’ effect</h2>
<p>Geography can also make a difference in how daylight saving time affects people. One study showed that people living on the western edge of a time zone, who get light later in the morning and later in the evening, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.03.007">got less sleep</a> than their counterparts on the eastern edge of a time zone. </p>
<p>This study found that western-edge residents had higher rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and <a href="https://theconversation.com/breast-cancer-risk-higher-in-western-parts-of-time-zones-is-electric-light-to-blame-85803">breast cancer</a>, as well as lower per capita income and higher health care costs. Other research has found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-16-1029">rates of certain other cancers are higher</a> on the western edge of a time zone. </p>
<p>Scientists believe that these health problems may result from a combination of <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.00944">chronic sleep deprivation and “circadian misalignment</a>.” Circadian misalignment refers to a mismatch in timing between our biological rhythms and the outside world. In other words, the timing of daily work, school or sleep routines is based on the clock, rather than on the sun’s rise and set. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/84aWtseb2-4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This video takes a deeper dive – all the way back to 1895 – into the history of daylight saving time.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A brief history of daylight saving time</h2>
<p><a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2017/03/world-war-i-and-daylight-savings-time/">Congress instituted year-round daylight saving time</a> during World War I and World War II, and <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/30/the-year-daylight-saving-time-went-too-far/">once again during the energy crisis</a> of the early 1970s. But the popularity of year-round daylight saving time fell from 79% to 42% after it went into effect in January 1974, largely due to <a href="https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/03/15/the-us-tried-permanent-daylight-saving-time-in-the-70s-people-hated-it/">safety concerns about children going to school in the dark</a>. </p>
<p>The idea at that time was that having extra light later into the afternoon would save energy by decreasing the need for electric lighting. This idea has since been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.03.012">proved largely inaccurate</a>, as heating needs may increase in the morning in the winter, while air conditioning needs can also increase in the late afternoon in the summer.</p>
<p>After World War II, designating the start and end dates for daylight saving time fell to state governments. Because this created many railroad scheduling and safety problems, however, Congress passed the <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/regulations/time-act#">Uniform Time Act in 1966</a>. This law set the nationwide dates of daylight saving time from the last Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October. In 2007, <a href="https://www.bts.gov/geospatial/daylight-savings-time">Congress amended the act</a> to expand the period in which daylight saving time is in effect from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November – dates that remain in effect today.</p>
<p>But the Uniform Time Act does allow states and territories to opt out of daylight saving time. Arizona and Hawaii are on permanent standard time, along with Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and American Samoa. </p>
<h2>A shifting landscape</h2>
<p>As of March 2024, <a href="https://savestandardtime.com/current/">17 states have passed laws</a> to adopt year-round daylight saving time. But federal law requires that they need to wait for Congress, and in some cases also neighboring states, to act. More than two dozen states <a href="https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/latest-updates-daylight-saving-time-legislation-change#what-is-the-status-of-state-level">introduced legislation related to the clock change in 2023</a>, but no laws were passed. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, proposed legislation and resolutions for <a href="https://savestandardtime.com/current/">permanent standard time have increased</a> from 15% in 2021 to 37% in 2024. </p>
<p>In March 2022, the U.S. Senate <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/623">passed the Sunshine Protection Act </a> in a bid to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-bill-that-would-make-daylight-savings-time-permanent-2023-2022-03-15/">make daylight saving time permanent</a>. But the House did not move forward with this legislation. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/3880009-bill-to-make-daylight-saving-time-permanent-reintroduced-in-congress/">reintroduced the bill</a> on March 1, 2023, but <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/582/all-info#">this bill has not progressed</a>. </p>
<p>The spike in activity among states seeking to break from these twice-yearly changes reflects how more people are recognizing the downsides of this practice. Now, it’s in the hands of legislators to decide whether to end the time shift altogether and to either choose a full year of having clocks more aligned with the sun or to artificially extend the day for more than half the year, for better or for worse.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-daylight-saving-time-is-unhealthy-a-neurologist-explains-175427">originally published on March 10, 2022</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224597/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Ann Malow is the Sleep Research Society representative to the Coalition for Permanent Standard TIme. </span></em></p>Americans have long been divided over adopting permanent standard versus permanent daylight saving time. But support for permanent standard time grew dramatically between 2021 and 2024.Beth Ann Malow, Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2229592024-02-13T13:21:38Z2024-02-13T13:21:38ZIn the face of severe challenges, democracy is under stress – but still supported – across Latin America and the Caribbean<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575051/original/file-20240212-22-f6zizy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C179%2C5700%2C3615&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters in El Salvador declare 'Yes to democracy. No to authoritarianism' during a demonstration on Jan. 14, 2024.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/women-walk-holding-up-a-sign-with-the-legend-yes-to-news-photo/1925903965?adppopup=true">PHOTOGRAFIA/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Threats to economic and physical security have become persistent and pervasive across Latin America and the Caribbean – and that is affecting the way people view the state of democracy in the region.</p>
<p>Those are among the findings of the latest <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/about-americasbarometer.php">AmericasBarometer</a>, a study of the experiences and attitudes of people across the Western Hemisphere that we conduct every two years along with other members of Vanderbilt University’s <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/">LAPOP Lab</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">2023 round of AmericasBarometer</a>, which includes nationally representative surveys of 39,074 individuals across 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, reveals widespread pessimism and adversity, decreased satisfaction with the status quo, and yet also resilience in popular support for democracy.</p>
<h2>Elevated economic and physical insecurity</h2>
<p>Across the region, just shy of two-thirds of adults (64%) think the national economic situation in their country has worsened. Remarkably, 32% report that they have run out of food in the last three months, an indicator of food insecurity that tracks with <a href="https://www.paho.org/en/news/9-11-2023-new-report-432-million-people-suffer-hunger-latin-america-and-caribbean-and-region">estimates reported by the Pan-American Health Organization</a>.</p>
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<p>Two in five people feel unsafe in their neighborhoods, and nearly one-quarter – 22% – report having been the victim of a crime in the past 12 months. Homicide rates in the region <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/behind-a-rise-in-latin-americas-violent-crime-a-deadly-flow-of-illegal-guns/">have also been rising</a>.</p>
<p>In brief, despite variation among different countries, the average resident of the region has been facing elevated economic and physical security challenges for over a decade, our surveys have found.</p>
<p>The factors generating and sustaining this reality are complex.</p>
<p>In the mid-2010s, a global economic <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres15_e/pr752_e.htm">commodity boom ended</a>, and the region’s economic recovery has been thwarted by <a href="https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/latin-america-economic-growth/">structural issues</a>, including <a href="https://www.undp.org/latin-america/publications/trapped-inequality-and-economic-growth-latin-america-and-caribbean">low productivity and high income inequality</a>. Economic recovery has been further hampered by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/the-corruption-scandal-started-in-brazil-now-its-wreaking-havoc-in-peru/2018/01/23/0f9bc4ca-fad2-11e7-9b5d-bbf0da31214d_story.html">major corruption scandals</a>, <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO/WH/Issues/2023/10/13/regional-economic-outlook-western-hemisphere-october-2023">crime and violence</a>, and <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/effects-covid-19-latin-americas-economy">the COVID-19 pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>The implications of a sustained economic slump are stark. In nearly every Latin American and Caribbean country, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">food insecurity has increased in the past decade</a>.</p>
<p>The uptick in crime and insecurity is similarly driven by a range of factors, including <a href="https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/crime/GIVAS_Final_Report.pdf">economic crises</a> and the growth of <a href="https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/behind-a-rise-in-latin-americas-violent-crime-a-deadly-flow-of-illegal-guns/">well-armed transnational criminal syndicates</a>. In Ecuador, as one extreme example shows, a shocking <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">36% of adults report having been the victim</a> of at least one crime in the past year, an 11-percentage-point increase from just two years ago.</p>
<h2>Disillusionment is a challenge to democracy</h2>
<p>These problems could spell trouble for democracy in the region.</p>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/how-can-latin-america-halt-its-democratic-backsliding-and-how-can-the-us-help/">experts have predicted</a> that financial stress and food insecurity could contribute to political unrest in the region in the coming years. The threat of organized crime and gang violence may also <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/organized-crime-threat-latin-american-democracies">fuel a desire for authoritarian leadership</a>. </p>
<p>Globally, <a href="https://www.v-dem.net/documents/29/V-dem_democracyreport2023_lowres.pdf">democracy appears to be on the defensive</a>. Within the Latin America and the Caribbean, countries such as Brazil, El Salvador, Haiti and Nicaragua have registered <a href="https://www.v-dem.net/documents/29/V-dem_democracyreport2023_lowres.pdf">recent turns toward authoritarianism</a>.</p>
<p>Our results show that disillusionment with the democratic status quo is strikingly high in the region, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">with only 40% thinking democracy is working</a>. This low level of satisfaction has appeared in our surveys for the past 10 years.</p>
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<p>Although the root causes are debated, disillusionment with the status quo <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/opinion/international-world/democracy-latin-america.html">fuels support for populist leaders</a> with autocratic tendencies. El Salvador stands as an example of how disillusionment can undermine democracy. President Nayib Bukele was reelected on Feb. 4, 2024, with what appears to be over <a href="https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-nayib-bukele-president-reelection-ef04e20d901908099f4f787b841aca89">80% of the vote</a> while overtly flaunting democratic norms.</p>
<p>During his first term, Bukele tackled high levels of gang violence with policies that <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/latin-america-erupts-millennial-authoritarianism-in-el-salvador/">undermined checks and balances and civil liberties</a>. He cheekily <a href="https://www.eltiempo.com/mundo/latinoamerica/presidente-bukele-dice-que-es-el-dictador-mas-cool-del-mundo-619795">referred to himself on social media as a “dictator”</a>, while his running mate spoke of their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/world/americas/el-salvador-bukele-election.html">program to eliminate democracy</a>.</p>
<p>There is no denying that Bukele’s strongman approach has delivered results: Our survey finds that 84% of Salvadorans feel secure in their neighborhood, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/raw-data.php">compared with just 54% in 2018</a>, the year before Bukele was elected. Food insecurity remains a challenge, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">with 28%</a> reporting they have experienced running out of food; yet that statistic is slightly lower in 2023 than it was in 2012, in contrast to the upward trend in nearly all other countries.</p>
<h2>Democracy retains popular support</h2>
<p>Despite general gloom about how well democracy is performing, there is reason for optimism: Support for democratic governance has largely held steady over the last decade of our survey.</p>
<p>Across the region, on average, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">58% say that they believe democracy is the best form of government</a>. This is approximately the same percentage we have recorded since 2016. In all but three countries – Guatemala, Honduras and Suriname – majorities say they prefer democracy.</p>
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<p>Although the <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/how-can-latin-america-halt-its-democratic-backsliding-and-how-can-the-us-help/">possibility of democratic backsliding looms</a>, most countries in the region have yet to undergo significant overhauls to their political or economic systems. And as former U.S. ambassador to Peru, Colombia and Brazil <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/inflection-point-challenges-facing-latin-america-and-us-policy-region">P. Michael McKinley noted</a> in a recent article, a slate of radical proposals by new leaders in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico proved unpopular and were rejected by voters, courts and legislatures. In these cases, democratic institutions are doing their job.</p>
<p>Democratic governance also delivers something that strongman populist governments do not: widespread freedom of speech.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2021/2021_LAPOP_AmericasBarometer_2021_Pulse_of_Democracy.pdf">2021 AmericasBarometer regional report</a> highlighted <a href="https://theconversation.com/support-for-democracy-is-waning-across-the-americas-174992">the value the public places on freedom of speech</a>. Vast majorities say they would not trade away freedom of speech for material well-being.</p>
<p>In 2023, we see that in countries with strongman populist leaders, those who disapprove of the president report strikingly high levels of concern about freedom of speech. In El Salvador, <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/ab2023/AB2023-Pulse-of-Democracy-final-20231205.pdf">89% of government critics say they have too little freedom</a> to express their political views without fear, up from 70% in 2016.</p>
<p>In the face of significant challenges, Latin America and the Caribbean is at a crossroads between the allure of strongman populist leadership and a commitment to democratic institutions and processes. For now, at least, an enduring belief in democracy may facilitate <a href="https://apnews.com/article/el-salvador-nayib-bukele-president-reelection-ef04e20d901908099f4f787b841aca89">efforts by leaders in</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/06/us/politics/biden-democracy-threat.html">outside the region</a> to champion and strengthen democratic governance.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222959/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noam Lupu co-directs the AmericasBarometer, which has been supported by grants from USAID, the US National Science Foundation, and the Inter-American Development Bank. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or any other funding agency.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth J. Zechmeister co-directs the AmericasBarometer, which has been supported by grants from USAID, the US National Science Foundation, and the Inter-American Development Bank. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or any other funding agency.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Plutowski is a staff member at LAPOP Lab, the lab responsible for the AmericasBarometer, which has been supported by grants from USAID, the US National Science Foundation, and the Inter-American Development Bank. The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or any other funding agency.</span></em></p>A survey of people across 24 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean found widespread concern over the economy and crime.Noam Lupu, Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of LAPOP Lab, Vanderbilt UniversityElizabeth J. Zechmeister, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science and Director of LAPOP, Vanderbilt UniversityLuke Plutowski, Senior Statistician and Research Lead, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2201992024-01-25T13:17:44Z2024-01-25T13:17:44ZNazi genocides of Jews and Roma were entangled from the start – and so are their efforts at Holocaust remembrance today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570420/original/file-20240119-27-9655vn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1022%2C680&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Franz Roselbach, a Roma survivor of the Holocaust who was sent to Auschwitz when he was 15, attends a ceremony at the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 2006. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/roma-survivor-of-the-holocaust-franz-roselbach-who-was-sent-news-photo/72830867?adppopup=true">Sean Gallup/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the United Nations passed a resolution to designate Jan. 27 International Holocaust Remembrance Day, it did not define the Holocaust. <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/u-n-resolution-establishing-holocaust-remembrance-day">The 2005 proclamation</a> merely noted that it “resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities.”</p>
<p>Among those unnamed other minorities are Roma, who deserve to be part of the larger story of the Holocaust commemorated on this day. Their story is <a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/jewishstudies/people/faculty/ari-joskowicz/">closely connected with that of Jews’ suffering and struggle for recognition</a> – a relationship at the center of <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691244044/rain-of-ash">my 2023 book</a>, “Rain of Ash.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570426/original/file-20240119-25-j22s4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A blue and green flag with a red wheel design waves in front of a large stone monument with a statue on top." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570426/original/file-20240119-25-j22s4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570426/original/file-20240119-25-j22s4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570426/original/file-20240119-25-j22s4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570426/original/file-20240119-25-j22s4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570426/original/file-20240119-25-j22s4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570426/original/file-20240119-25-j22s4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570426/original/file-20240119-25-j22s4a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Romani flag waves during an event on International Romani Day in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/romani-flag-hangs-at-a-pro-romani-demonstration-in-front-of-news-photo/468905978?adppopup=true">Adam Berry/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>A chilling report</h2>
<p>To understand the connections between Jewish and Romani experiences, it is useful to return to one of the key moments when Europe’s Jews began to realize that they faced a new type of threat: systematic mass murder.</p>
<p>In March 1942, a prisoner fled Chelmno, a Nazi extermination camp in present-day Poland, <a href="http://www.deathcamps.org/occupation/bajler.html">and escaped to the Warsaw Ghetto</a>. There, he told members of the ghetto’s underground resistance movement about mass killings in gas vans. </p>
<p>Szlamek, as the witness was known, recounted how Jewish prisoners had been <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/63902356">forced to dig mass graves</a> for truckload upon truckload of murdered Roma from Austria. In his vivid description of the process, he reported how these Jewish gravediggers warmed themselves by putting on the clothes of the Romani victims. Once their work for the day was done, the SS forced these Jews to lie on the bodies of those already in the burial pits before being shot themselves.</p>
<p>It’s a haunting image: Jews murdered on top of the Roma whose clothes they were wearing. It also encapsulates how connected the murders of these two groups were, even as the crimes committed against them continue to be remembered as distinct events.</p>
<h2>Missing chapter</h2>
<p>Younger generations in the United States are <a href="https://www.claimscon.org/millennial-study/">not able to identify basic facts about the Jewish Holocaust</a>, according to surveys by the Claims Conference, which advocates for restitution for Jewish victims and their descendants. Around half of millennial and Gen Z respondents could not name a single ghetto or concentration camp, and just over a third knew how many Jews had been murdered: around 6 million.</p>
<p>The public knows even less about the Romani Holocaust. Indeed, the history of <a href="https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/combatting-discrimination/roma-eu/roma-equality-inclusion-and-participation-eu_en">Europe’s largest ethnic minority</a> is a blank slate for many Americans, even those who consider themselves well-informed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571224/original/file-20240124-25-o43d27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A faded photograph of a soldier and a man in a suit standing as they interview a shorter woman in a kerchief." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571224/original/file-20240124-25-o43d27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571224/original/file-20240124-25-o43d27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571224/original/file-20240124-25-o43d27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571224/original/file-20240124-25-o43d27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571224/original/file-20240124-25-o43d27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571224/original/file-20240124-25-o43d27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571224/original/file-20240124-25-o43d27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dr. Robert Ritter, whose pseudo-scientific work contributed to the Nazis’ forced sterilization and murder of Romani people, interviews a woman in 1938.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/gypsy-deportation-dr-robert-ritter-head-of-the-racial-news-photo/107759810?adppopup=true">Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is not a matter of students ignoring, or not properly absorbing, the lessons available in their history textbooks, as is the case for the Jewish Holocaust. Romani history is rarely in the textbooks to begin with.</p>
<p>Romani activists are keenly aware of this, and frequently they see Jews’ relative success telling the story of their genocide as a model for <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2019/10/30/roma-holocaust-amid-rising-hate-forgotten-victims-remembered">Romani struggles for recognition</a>.</p>
<p>Nazi Germany persecuted many groups; concentration camps were originally built to imprison the regime’s political opponents, while the first dedicated killing sites’ purpose was <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/euthanasia-program">to murder disabled people</a>. Among those persecuted, Roma and Jews were the only groups whom the Nazis and their allies systematically persecuted in large numbers as entire families – whether by deporting them to concentration and death camps, or <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/mass-shootings-of-jews-during-the-holocaust">systematically shooting them as racialized groups</a> in occupied areas of the Soviet Union. </p>
<p>As with Jews, many of Roma’s experiences of persecution and genocide occurred in locations well known to people who have learned something about the Holocaust, such as Auschwitz or <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/lodz">the Lodz ghetto in occupied Poland</a>. The Roma murdered in Chelmno <a href="http://www.lodz-ghetto.com/the_gypsy_camp.html,36">came from Lodz</a>, where the Nazis had deported over 5,000 Roma from Austria in November 1941. Many <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/roma-genocide/austria">Austrian Roma</a> who avoided these early deportations eventually ended up in Auschwitz. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570423/original/file-20240119-19-wp9t65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An index card filled in with personal information positioned between three photographs of the same woman's face and two handprints." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570423/original/file-20240119-19-wp9t65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570423/original/file-20240119-19-wp9t65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1272&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570423/original/file-20240119-19-wp9t65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1272&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570423/original/file-20240119-19-wp9t65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1272&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570423/original/file-20240119-19-wp9t65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1599&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570423/original/file-20240119-19-wp9t65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1599&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570423/original/file-20240119-19-wp9t65.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1599&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gestapo dossiers for Roma people, whom the Nazis persecuted and considered ‘foreign and inferior.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sinti-and-roma-gestapo-dossiers-at-the-permanent-exhibition-news-photo/523965182?adppopup=true">Horacio Villalobos/Corbis via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the end, the Nazis killed approximately three-quarters of <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/roma-genocide/austria">Austria’s prewar Romani population</a>: approximately 9,000 men, women and children. Among countries where the Romani genocide took place, this was one of the highest rates of murder, next to <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/roma-genocide/latvia">Latvia</a>, <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/roma-genocide/estonia">Estonia</a> and the areas of today’s Czech Republic that the Nazis <a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/roma-genocide/czech-republic">called the Protectorate</a>. </p>
<p>In many other locations, totals are less clear. Serious estimates for <a href="https://www.romarchive.eu/en/voices-of-the-victims/the-number-of-victims/">the overall number of victims</a> range widely, from 120,000 to over half a million.</p>
<h2>Many languages, many faiths, many countries</h2>
<p>Romani people are highly diverse. They have many religions: Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodox Christianity as well as Islam. Many <a href="https://rm.coe.int/roma-history-factsheets-eng/1680a2f2f8">speak Romani as their first language</a>, while others don’t. Whatever their relationship to the Romani language, all Roma are at home in at least one other language, depending on what country they live in. </p>
<p>Historically, many Romani families in Western Europe lived as itinerant traders and craftspeople, contributing to the popular image of them as travelers with wagon homes. Most Roma in Europe, however – particularly in Southeastern and East Central Europe, <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/20/sunday-review/a-diaspora-of-11-million.html">where the largest Romani populations live</a> – have been settled for many generations. Whether considered nomadic or settled, they were stigmatized: frequently isolated at the edge of settlements, excluded from civil rights, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/20/italys-treatment-of-roma-people-reflects-a-centuries-old-prejudice">targeted as a dangerous “nuisance</a>” by authorities.</p>
<p>When the Nazis and their allies persecuted this diverse population as “Gypsies,” they were able to <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/documentation-on-the-persecution-of-roma">rely on policies to police and surveil them</a> that had been <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/bavarian-precedent-roma-european-culture">in place since the late 19th century</a>.</p>
<p>These policies, including special identity cards with fingerprints, did not disappear after liberation. Instead, following the Second World War, Roma across Europe remained marginalized <a href="https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/6450629">and overpoliced</a> in ways that made it hard for them to gain recognition of the genocide they had experienced.</p>
<h2>Shared stories</h2>
<p>An international Romani civil rights movement that took shape in the 1970s, building on earlier local efforts to organize, slowly changed this. Organizations like <a href="https://iru2020.org/">the International Romani Union</a>, <a href="https://eriac.org/">the European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture</a> and <a href="https://zentralrat.sintiundroma.de/en/">the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma</a>, are forming a new landscape for Romani politics and recognition.</p>
<p>From the start, their efforts were tied together with those of Jewish victims. Jewish survivors could build on a much longer history of international organizing and philanthropy, and after 1945 they could rely on the help of the thriving U.S. Jewish community in their quest to document Nazi crimes and explain them to the wider public. Many of the oldest Jewish institutions in this field, such as <a href="https://wienerholocaustlibrary.org/">the Wiener Holocaust Library</a> in London, offered crucial support, as scholars and activists strove to tell the history of the Romani Holocaust. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570424/original/file-20240119-25-s0yn47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Five older men in suits and ties sit in a semicircle as one pulls up his sleeve." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570424/original/file-20240119-25-s0yn47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570424/original/file-20240119-25-s0yn47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570424/original/file-20240119-25-s0yn47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570424/original/file-20240119-25-s0yn47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570424/original/file-20240119-25-s0yn47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570424/original/file-20240119-25-s0yn47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570424/original/file-20240119-25-s0yn47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hermann Hoellenreiner, a Sinto Holocaust survivor, shows his prisoner tattoo to David Lewin, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, as they and officials travel to a commemoration ceremony in 2011.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/german-president-christian-wulff-looks-on-as-sinto-news-photo/108426185?adppopup=true">Jesco Denzel/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Roma and Jews found new ways to connect through their efforts for recognition and redress, though Jewish intellectuals, activists and institutions had much greater access to resources. <a href="https://vha.usc.edu/home">The Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive</a> is emblematic here: It has over 50,000 video interviews with Jewish survivors and 406 with Romani survivors. Yet this is nevertheless the largest dedicated collection of Romani testimony in the world.</p>
<p>While this unequal partnership has not dissolved, it is transforming. Jewish institutions are increasingly investing resources to preserve and digitize Romani history and to promote public education about both peoples’ experiences in collaboration with Romani activists. At the same time, Romani and Jewish activists are <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691244044/rain-of-ash">working together to overcome antisemitism and anti-Roma sentiment</a> – linked by a sense that understanding history is essential for the defense of liberal democracy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220199/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ari Joskowicz received funding from the American Philosophical Society, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, the American Society of Learned Societies, and the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies.</span></em></p>Many young people today know little about the murder of European Jews during the Holocaust, and even less about the murder of Romani communities.Ari Joskowicz, Associate Professor of History, Jewish Studies and European Studies, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2163312023-10-27T00:10:36Z2023-10-27T00:10:36ZAIs could soon run businesses – it’s an opportunity to ensure these ‘artificial persons’ follow the law<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556221/original/file-20231026-19-vrh2ui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6000%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If AIs are going to play a role in society, they'll need to understand the law.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cyber-law-concept-royalty-free-image/1136269425">PhonlamaiPhoto/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Only “persons” can engage with the legal system – for example, by signing contracts or filing lawsuits. There are <a href="https://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=1516">two main categories of persons</a>: humans, termed “natural persons,” and creations of the law, termed “artificial persons.” These include corporations, nonprofit organizations and <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/llc.asp">limited liability companies</a> (LLCs).</p>
<p>Up to now, artificial persons have served the purpose of helping humans achieve certain goals. For example, people can pool assets in a corporation and limit their liability vis-à-vis customers or other persons who interact with the corporation. But a new type of artificial person is poised to enter the scene – artificial intelligence systems, and they won’t necessarily serve human interests.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=cI-ZlbcAAAAJ&hl=en">scholars</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=uTmgFB0AAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">who study AI and law</a> we believe that this moment presents a significant challenge to the legal system: how to regulate AI within existing legal frameworks to reduce undesirable behaviors, and how to assign legal responsibility for autonomous actions of AIs.</p>
<p>One solution is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adi8678">teaching AIs to be law-abiding entities</a>.</p>
<p>This is far from a philosophical question. The <a href="https://www.uniformlaws.org/committees/community-home?CommunityKey=bbea059c-6853-4f45-b69b-7ca2e49cf740">laws governing LLCs in several U.S. states</a> do not require that humans oversee the operations of an LLC. In fact, in some states it is <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2366197">possible to have an LLC with no human owner</a>, or “member” – for example, in cases where all of the partners have died. Though legislators probably weren’t thinking of AI when they crafted the LLC laws, the possibility for zero-member LLCs opens the door to creating LLCs operated by AIs.</p>
<p>Many functions inside small and large companies have already been delegated to AI in part, including financial operations, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/generative-ai-and-the-future-of-hr">human resources</a> and network management, to name just three. AIs can now perform many tasks as well as humans do. For example, AIs <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-023-00929-1">can read medical X-rays</a> and do other medical tasks, and carry out <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2308.11462">tasks that require legal reasoning</a>. This process is likely to accelerate due to innovation and economic interests.</p>
<h2>A different kind of person</h2>
<p>Humans have occasionally included nonhuman entities like <a href="https://people.com/pets/pablo-escobar-cocaine-hippos-become-first-animals-in-u-s-to-be-considered-legal-persons/">animals</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/28/toledo-lake-erie-personhood-status-bill-of-rights-algae-bloom">lakes</a> and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/these-rivers-are-now-considered-people-what-does-that-mean-for-travelers">rivers</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/corporations-people-doctrine-real-legal-concept">corporations</a>, as legal subjects. Though in some cases these entities can be held liable for their actions, the law only allows humans to fully participate in the legal system.</p>
<p>One major barrier to full access to the legal system by nonhuman entities has been the <a href="https://bclawreview.bc.edu/articles/1120">role of language</a> as a uniquely human invention and a vital element in the legal system. Language enables humans to understand norms and institutions that constitute the legal framework. But humans are no longer the only entities using human language. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://openreview.net/pdf?id=yzkSU5zdwD">recent development</a> of AI’s ability to <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2307.13692">understand human language</a> unlocks its potential to interact with the legal system. AI has demonstrated proficiency in various legal tasks, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2306.07075">tax law advice</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2301.01181">lobbying</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2308.11462">contract drafting and legal reasoning</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556236/original/file-20231026-29-3ui65q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A humanoid robot and a man in a business suit shake hands while standing on an industrial waterfront" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556236/original/file-20231026-29-3ui65q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556236/original/file-20231026-29-3ui65q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556236/original/file-20231026-29-3ui65q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556236/original/file-20231026-29-3ui65q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556236/original/file-20231026-29-3ui65q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556236/original/file-20231026-29-3ui65q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556236/original/file-20231026-29-3ui65q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Would you do business with an AI that didn’t know the law?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/robot-and-man-gretting-at-the-port-royalty-free-image/83988169">SM/AIUEO/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An LLC established in a jurisdiction that allows it to operate without human members could trade in <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/digital-currency.asp">digital currencies</a> settled on <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/what-is-blockchain">blockchains</a>, allowing the AI running the LLC to operate autonomously and in a decentralized manner that makes it challenging to regulate. Under a legal principle known as the <a href="https://www.dlapiper.com/en-us/insights/publications/2020/08/delaware-court-of-chancery-internal-affairs-doctrine-bars-stockholder">internal affairs doctrine</a>, even if only one U.S. state allowed AI-operated LLCs, that entity could operate nationwide – and possibly worldwide. This is because courts look to the law of the state of incorporation for rules governing the internal affairs of a corporate entity.</p>
<p>We believe the best path forward, therefore, is aligning AI with existing laws, instead of creating a separate set of rules for AI. Additional law can be layered on top for <a href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2308.11432">artificial agents</a>, but AI should be subject to at least all the laws a human is subject to.</p>
<h2>Building the law into AI</h2>
<p>We suggest a research direction of <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/njtip/vol20/iss3/1/">integrating law into AI agents</a> to help <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4335945">ensure adherence to legal standards</a>. Researchers could train AI systems to <a href="https://law.stanford.edu/2022/09/25/aligning-ai-with-humans-by-leveraging-law-as-data/">learn methods for internalizing the spirit of the law</a>. The training would use data generated by legal processes and tools of law, including methods of lawmaking, statutory interpretation, contract drafting, applications of legal standards and legal reasoning.</p>
<p>In addition to embedding law into AI agents, researchers can develop AI compliance agents – AIs designed to help an organization automatically follow the law. These specialized AI systems would provide third-party legal guardrails.</p>
<p>Researchers can develop better AI legal compliance by fine-tuning large language models with <a href="https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-supervised-learning-7508014">supervised learning</a> on labeled legal task completions. Another approach is <a href="https://online.york.ac.uk/what-is-reinforcement-learning/">reinforcement learning</a>, which uses feedback to tell an AI if it’s doing a good or bad job – in this case, attorneys interacting with language models. And legal experts could design prompting schemes – ways of interacting with a language model – to elicit better responses from language models that are more consistent with legal standards.</p>
<h2>Law-abiding (artificial) business owners</h2>
<p>If an LLC were operated by an AI, it would have to obey the law like any other LLC, and courts could order it to pay damages, or stop doing something by issuing an injunction. An AI tasked with operating the LLC and, among other things, maintaining proper business insurance would have an incentive to understand applicable laws and comply. Having minimum business liability insurance policies is a standard requirement that most businesses impose on one another to engage in commercial relationships.</p>
<p>The incentives to establish AI-operated LLCs are there. Fortunately, we believe it is possible and desirable to do the work to embed the law – what has until now been human law – into AI, and AI-powered automated compliance guardrails.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216331/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Nay is the founder and CEO of Norm AI, and a co-founder and the Chairman of Brooklyn Investment Group.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Gervais does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If a business is run by an AI and it causes you harm, could you sue the AI?Daniel Gervais, Professor of Law, Vanderbilt UniversityJohn Nay, Fellow at CodeX - Stanford Center for Legal Informatics, Stanford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2135182023-09-15T12:37:05Z2023-09-15T12:37:05ZUS autoworkers launch historic strike: 3 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548348/original/file-20230914-1089-crn4qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C2991%2C2065&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">United Auto Workers members rally after marching in the Detroit Labor Day Parade on Sept. 4, 2023. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/united-auto-workers-members-and-others-gather-for-a-rally-news-photo/1645162801">Bill Pugliano via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The United Auto Workers union, or UAW, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-autoworkers-may-wage-a-historic-strike-against-detroits-3-biggest-automakers-with-wages-at-ev-battery-plants-a-key-roadblock-to-agreement-210037">has told workers at three factories to go on strike</a> after failing to agree on new contracts with each of Detroit’s major automakers. The contracts expired at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 14, 2023. By midnight, the union <a href="https://uaw.org/stand-strike-begins-big-three/">posted a strike declaration on its website</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>The strike will force General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – the global company that builds Chrysler, Jeep, Ram and Dodge vehicles in North America – to halt some of their operations. “Tonight for the first time in our history we will strike all three of the Big Three at once,” <a href="https://www.facebook.com/uaw.union/videos/1047762633322736">UAW President Shawn Fain</a> announced about two hours before the negotiation deadline passed without a contract. The union is seeking higher pay, better benefits and assurances that large numbers of its members will work in the automakers’ <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/09/14/uaw-strike-demands-negotiations/">growing number of electric-vehicle factories</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation U.S. asked <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0KmQgfIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Joshua Murray</a>, a sociologist who studies the automotive industry and its workers, to discuss the UAW’s strategy and explain why this strike is significant.</em></p>
<h2>1. How important is it that this strike is affecting all three Detroit automakers?</h2>
<p>Until now, the UAW had always gone on strike against one of the companies at a time. And in recent years, all workers employed by that automaker had walked off the job. That’s what happened in the previous UAW strike. In 2019, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/oct/25/uaw-united-auto-workers-general-motors-strike-deal">48,000 General Motors autoworkers refused to work</a> for 40 days. The UAW used this same tactic in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/automobiles/auto-strikes-history.html">strikes against GM in 2007 and 1970</a>.</p>
<p>While holding a strike against a few key plants breaks with recent UAW practices, it’s a strategy deeply rooted in the union’s history. <a href="https://twitter.com/UAW/status/1702083943174897746">UAW President Shawn Fain has invoked</a> the 1936-37 action known as the <a href="https://press.umich.edu/Books/S/Sit-Down2">Great Flint Sit-Down Strike</a>, when workers targeted what they referred to as General Motors’ “<a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p011993">mother plants</a>.”</p>
<p>Workers took over the plants by sitting down at their work stations at the end of the day and refusing to leave. By the time the strike was over, GM had agreed to sign a contract for the first time with the UAW. The union gained hundreds of thousands of new members, and <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/this-month-in-business-history/february/flint-michigan-sit-down-strike">autoworker pay grew sharply</a> in the months that followed.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/682956">Flint strike demonstrated</a> that strategically targeting a few factories can maximize the pressure put on companies, while minimizing both the number of workers affected and length of time affected workers must remain idle.</p>
<p>The UAW’s use of a similar approach now will reduce the risk of the union exhausting its <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-strike-funds-a-labor-management-relations-expert-explains-213212">US$825 million strike fund</a>, from which it must pay $500 per week to every UAW member who walks off the job.</p>
<p>Fain is calling the new approach a “<a href="https://uaw.org/standup/">stand-up strike</a>.” </p>
<p>“This strategy will keep the companies guessing,” <a href="https://www.facebook.com/uaw.union/videos/1047762633322736">he said in livestreamed remarks</a> shortly before the strike officially began. “It will give our national negotiators maximum leverage and flexibility in bargaining.”</p>
<p>Although the strike is starting at just a few plants, the union may halt all production later on. “If we need to go all out, we will,” <a href="https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/live-amid-looming-strike-uaw-president-shawn-fain-provides-updates-on-negotiations-with-detroit-3">Fain said</a>. “Everything is on the table.”</p>
<p>About 13,000 UAW workers at three sites – a GM assembly plant in Wentzville, Missouri; a Stellantis assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/auto-workers-targeted-strikes-general-motors-stellantis-ford-a0b4b8b66e2001230fda0f2114ef78a0">a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan</a> – are the first to participate in this strike.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="In a black-and-white photo, several striking autoworkers read newspapers, sitting on car seats placed on the ground like sofas. They ignore the unfinished chassis behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/548549/original/file-20230915-17-5v4z7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=560&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sit-down strikers lounge at a General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, in 1937.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dick Shelton/U.S. Farm Security Administration via Library of Congress</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. How would you define success or failure for the UAW’s new strategy?</h2>
<p>To understand why the union chose this strategy over a full-out work stoppage, it’s important to understand the nature of strikes and what makes them successful.</p>
<p>In the book “<a href="https://www.russellsage.org/publications/wrecked">Wrecked: How the American Automobile Industry Destroyed Its Capacity to Compete</a>,” sociologist Michael Schwartz and I analyzed the history of labor relations and production systems in the U.S. and Japanese auto industries to better understand the decline of Detroit’s Big Three automakers. In the process, we learned what determined the level of success of previous auto strikes. </p>
<p>A strike is essentially a <a href="https://economics.fandom.com/wiki/Chicken_game">game of chicken</a> between workers and management. Workers threaten the company’s viability by withholding their labor, going without paychecks to halt production. Companies protect themselves from strikes by stockpiling inventory so they can keep sales going. Workers protect themselves via their strike funds. </p>
<p>Generally, <a href="https://theconversation.com/united-auto-workers-strike-if-it-happens-should-channel-the-legacy-of-walter-reuther-who-led-the-union-at-the-peak-of-its-power-212324">strikes succeed</a> when they hurt a company’s bottom line so much that executives decide it makes financial sense to give in to the workers’ demands.</p>
<p>Strikes fail when workers can’t create enough disruption to pressure the company to give in before strike funds run out. They also fail when workers give in before securing a contract in line with their demands, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv6mtdg6.15">potentially ending up worse off</a> than if they had never walked off the job.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/04/04/1167902956/united-auto-workers-president-shawn-fain">Fain, who was elected UAW president in March 2023</a>, and the rest of his new leadership team seem to recognize the importance of surprising management and picking strategic targets in a way that many of the union’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-united-auto-workers-gm-strike-is-headed-for-failure-123945">previous leaders did not</a>. I believe that the UAW is likely to ultimately have more success with this strike than it has had in decades.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1702539628002119861"}"></div></p>
<h2>3. Is this strike likely to be historically significant?</h2>
<p>No doubt about it. No <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/14/business/deadline-uaw-strike-negotiations/index.html">Ford workers had gone on strike in the U.S. since 1978</a>. Chrysler workers, who are now employed by Stellantis, <a href="https://money.cnn.com/2007/10/10/news/companies/uaw_chrysler_deal/">last went on strike in 2007</a>. And U.S. autoworkers are targeting GM, Ford and Stellantis simultaneously for the first time in the union’s <a href="https://uaw.org/members/uaw-through-the-decades/">88-year history</a>.</p>
<p>But it’s not yet clear how historically significant it will be. </p>
<p>If the UAW’s “stand-up” strike strategy succeeds, I think it’s likely that other labor organizers will embrace it too – potentially improving the leverage other workers have in their contract negotiations and strikes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213518/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Murray has received funding from the Russell Sage Foundation. </span></em></p>A work stoppage hitting the three largest American automakers at the same time is unprecedented.Joshua Murray, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2120832023-09-14T20:28:56Z2023-09-14T20:28:56ZAnálise: “Se inteligência é flexibilidade, então a inteligência artificial não é nada inteligente”<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/548557/original/file-20230915-27-sow1aa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C9%2C1585%2C1041&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"A Criação de Adão", obra-prima de Michelangelo na Capela Cistina, inspira a imagem acima para ilustrar as cada vez mais controvertidas relações entre a humanidade e a Inteligência Artificial</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cottombro Studios / Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Que ironia que alguns dos companheiros da minha espécie achem que o suprassumo da inteligência humana é criar tecnologia que reproduza e substitua essa inteligência, como um Deus criando humanos à sua imagem. Muito pelo contrário, eu prefiro pensar que o que aprendemos com a inteligência artificial deveria inspirar muito mais humildade em nossos cérebros humanos ditos superpoderosos. Afinal, o que <a href="https://chat.openai.com/auth/login">ChatGPT</a> e similares nos ensinaram até agora é que é muito, muito fácil produzir algo que se passa por aquilo que muitos humanos prezam como o mais distintivamente <em>Homo</em> da sua humanidade: a linguagem simbólica.</p>
<p>Falo da capacidade de juntar rabisquinhos em sequências que transmitem algum sentido. ChatGPT e semelhantes são algoritmos treinados do zero, tal qual cérebros humanos novinhos, que constantemente geram sequências de letras (ou sons) por tentativa e erro. Estas sequências são então checadas contra algo que dê algum retorno, seja ele um sorriso ou apenas mais sequências como resposta. Só isso. </p>
<p>Rodando numa máquina ou em um cérebro com unidades suficientes para guardar uma memória do que funcionou (e tempo suficiente de vida para tentar e errar), o algoritmo bobão vai se tornando capaz de gerar sequências cada vez mais próximas das que ocorrem nas bases de dados usadas no treino – sejam elas a fala gerada livremente por humanos ao redor, ou todo o conteúdo fixado na internet até uma certa data.</p>
<p>Tudo o que esse algoritmo gera, seja ele implementado em biologia ou máquina, são combinações novas da base de dados que o alimentou. Humanos assim aprendem a falar a língua que ouvem, qualquer que ela seja. E o ChatGPT assim aprende a construir frases e sequências de frases, chamadas “conversas”, apenas tão <a href="https://theconversation.com/ai-tools-are-generating-convincing-misinformation-engaging-with-them-means-being-on-high-alert-202062">eloquentes ou perturbadoras quanto o conteúdo da internet</a> que o treinou. </p>
<p>O algoritmo não sabe o que está aprendendo a fazer, e portanto faz em qualquer língua. Há “informação” em quais sequências de letras têm mais chance de ocorrer junto com outras em cada língua, mas não há qualquer valor ou utilidade nessas sequências e, portanto, não há conhecimento de fato naquilo que o ChatGPT produz. Donde as ditas <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/business/ai-chatbots-hallucination.html">“alucinações”</a>, as sequências inventadas pelo ChatGPT por livre associação. </p>
<p>Eu protesto. Alucinações seriam sequências que não existem na base de dados, como as imagens geradas por cérebros humanos sem qualquer conexão com a realidade. O que o ChatGPT faz, por excelência, é <em>confabular</em>: criar novas associações entre sequências que já fazem, sim, parte do seu repertório – tal qual humanos amnésicos ao tentar explicar por que colocaram sal no café. “Foi, ahn, uma replicação de um experimento feito com ratos na Universidade Princeton em 2004, isso!”. </p>
<p>E assim o ChatGPT levou a tal da linguagem de suprassumo da Humanidade a algo que requer apenas uma rede capaz de aprendizado não supervisionado; uma base de dados; e muito tempo e energia para rodar, de novo e de novo, até ficar apta a ser utilizada, com resultados nunca garantidos, em ambientes escolares e mais ou menos produtivos. Se o conteúdo gerado é factual ou até transcende informação e vira conhecimento é uma questão dos valores de quem usa – e valores, isso sim, são individuais. Mas se a questão é apenas ter linguagem, então nada exclusivamente humano é necessário. <em>Sorry, Chomski</em>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Um pequeno robô-aspirador redondo sobre um piso de madeira" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545871/original/file-20230901-17-rk0hvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545871/original/file-20230901-17-rk0hvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545871/original/file-20230901-17-rk0hvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545871/original/file-20230901-17-rk0hvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545871/original/file-20230901-17-rk0hvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545871/original/file-20230901-17-rk0hvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545871/original/file-20230901-17-rk0hvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Um robô-aspirador Roomba: se fosse de fato inteligente, seu algoritmo já teria se flexibilizado para evitar que ele fique preso.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IRobot_Roomba_870_%2815860914940%29.jpg">Kārlis Dambrāns/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Ser inteligente são outros quinhentos</h2>
<p>Agora, se o ChatGPT é inteligente, ou mesmo se a “inteligência artificial” é de fato inteligente, são outros quinhentos. Uma máquina, ou mesmo animal, ser capaz de fazer alguma coisa não é prova de inteligência, apenas de <em>comportamento</em>, ou seja, qualquer ação observável, pela minha definição. Gerar ações é o que o cérebro faz em permanência – inclusive a ação de se manter quieto, de pé ou sentado. Um algoritmo ou engenhoca que indica o caminho, traduz texto ou aspira o chão da casa sem supervisão humana também tem comportamento, que pode ser bastante complexo, e quem sabe até tem memória para oferecer endereços frequentes ou mapear sozinho os limites do chão.</p>
<p>Mas inteligência, pelo meu livro, é <em>flexibilidade comportamental</em>, e inteligente é quem tem comportamento flexível, algo que vai muito além de adaptação ou memória: comportamento que expande possibilidades futuras e age em prol da sua flexibilidade continuada, mantendo portas abertas proativamente. <em>Memória</em> é a capacidade de lembrar e fazer <em>igual</em> da próxima vez. Flexibilidade e, portanto, inteligência é a capacidade de fazer <em>diferente</em> quando a realidade, as circunstâncias, ou vontades e valores, mudam – e sobretudo de fazer acontecer o que se deseja que aconteça. </p>
<p>No caso de animais vertebrados, flexibilidade comportamental é um produto do córtex cerebral, uma rede de neurônios ricamente conectada, capaz de formar e mudar associações conforme suas experiências. E, sobretudo, de modificar as ações geradas dependendo do passado, e dos valores associados desde já a simulações do futuro. Em princípio, <a href="https://www.suzanaherculanohouzel.com/uploads/1/1/5/3/115389475/herculanohouzel-2017-curropin.pdf">quanto mais neurônios essa rede possui, mais flexibilidade ela tem</a> e, portanto, mais inteligente ela é. </p>
<p>E a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Vantagem-Humana-C%C3%A9rebro-Superpoderoso-Portugues/dp/8535929908">maior distinção da espécie humana</a>, segundo minha própria pesquisa, é sermos o animal com o maior número de neurônios no córtex cerebral: <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cne.21974">16 bilhões</a>, nada menos que o dobro dos segundos colocados, gorilas e orangotangos empatados com uns 8 bilhões. </p>
<p>Chimpanzés têm entre 6 e 7 bilhões de neurônios corticais; elefantes, menos de 6 bilhões; baleias, pelas minhas contas, não mais do que uns 3 ou 4 bilhões; e araras, papagaios e macacos algo entre 1 e 3 bilhões – tantos, aliás, quanto eu estimo que um <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cne.25453"><em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em></a> adulto possuía. </p>
<p>O tapado do meu robozinho aspirador de pó vive se prendendo debaixo do mesmo móvel no meu quarto desde que saiu da caixa. Sua navegação da minha casa é um comportamento programado por algoritmos um tanto simples. E ele não é inteligente, ou seu sistema já teria se flexibilizado para evitar que fique preso. </p>
<p>Uma vez que se nota que algoritmo funcional não é garantia de inteligência, a expressão “inteligência artificial” deveria ser reservada a sistemas cognitivos artificiais (quer dizer, não biológicos) que se mostram de fato flexíveis. Ainda assim, eles não terão valores humanos, porque não são humanos. E esta, para mim, é a questão que importa: quão inteligente, pela minha definição, é deixar decisões sobre o nosso futuro na mão de sistemas que não compartilham dos nossos valores?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212083/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suzana Herculano-Houzel não presta consultoria, trabalha, possui ações ou recebe financiamento de qualquer empresa ou organização que poderia se beneficiar com a publicação deste artigo e não revelou nenhum vínculo relevante além de seu cargo acadêmico.</span></em></p>Expressão “inteligência artificial” deveria ser reservada a sistemas cognitivos não biológicos que se mostram de fato flexíveis, mas que mesmo assim não teriam valores humanosSuzana Herculano-Houzel, Associate Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2093052023-08-14T12:23:35Z2023-08-14T12:23:35ZThe same people excel at object recognition through vision, hearing and touch – another reason to let go of the learning styles myth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542202/original/file-20230810-22046-z0l1ej.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=57%2C2%2C1432%2C895&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Teachers want to connect with students in ways that help them learn.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/MPreq6">Government of Prince Edward Island</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The idea that individual people are visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners and learn better if instructed according to these learning styles is <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1147498">one of the most enduring neuroscience myths in education</a>.</p>
<p>There is no proof of the value of learning styles as educational tools. According to experts, believing in learning styles amounts to believing in astrology. But this “neuromyth” keeps going strong.</p>
<p>A 2020 review of teacher surveys revealed that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.602451">9 out of 10 educators believe students learn better</a> in their preferred learning style. There has been no decrease in this belief since the approach was debunked as early as 2004, despite efforts by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6053.2009.01038.x">scientists</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/the-myth-of-learning-styles/557687/">journalists</a>, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-problem-with-learning-styles/">popular science magazines</a>, <a href="https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/LearningStylesMyth">centers</a> <a href="https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/learning-styles-preferences/">for teaching</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/rhgwIhB58PA">YouTubers</a> over that period. A <a href="https://www.worklearning.com/2006/08/04/learning_styles/">cash prize</a> offered since 2004 to whomever can prove the benefits of accounting for learning styles remains unclaimed. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, licensing exam materials for teachers in 29 states and the District of Columbia <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/stubborn-myth-learning-styles-state-teacher-license-prep-materials-debunked-theory/">include information on learning styles</a>. Eighty percent of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1475725719830301">popular textbooks</a> used in pedagogy courses mention learning styles. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90792-1_6">What teachers believe can also trickle down to learners</a>, who may falsely attribute any learning challenges to a mismatch between their instructor’s teaching style and their own learning style. </p>
<h2>Myth of learning styles is resilient</h2>
<p>Without any evidence to support the idea, why do people keep believing in learning styles?</p>
<p>One possibility is that people who have <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1147498">incomplete knowledge about the brain</a> might be more susceptible to these ideas. For instance, someone might learn about distinct brain areas that process visual and auditory information. This knowledge may increase the appeal of models that include distinct visual and aural learning styles. But this limited understanding of how the brain works misses the importance of multisensory brain areas that integrate information across senses. </p>
<p>Another reason that people may stick with the belief about learning styles is that the evidence against the model mostly consists of studies that have failed to find support for it. To some people, this could suggest that enough good studies just haven’t been done. Perhaps they imagine that finding support for the intuitive – but wrong – notion of learning styles simply awaits more sensitive experiments, done in the right context, using the latest flavor of learning styles. Despite scientists’ efforts to improve the reputation of <a href="https://www.insidescience.org/news/when-scientists-find-nothing-value-null-results">null results</a> and encourage their publication, <a href="https://frontlinegenomics.com/a-negative-result-is-positive-for-science/">finding “no effect” may simply not capture attention</a>.</p>
<p>But our recent research results do in fact contradict predictions from learning styles models.</p>
<p><a href="http://gauthier.psy.vanderbilt.edu/isabel-gauthier/">We are</a> <a href="https://jasonc.how/">psychologists</a> who study individual differences in perception. We do not directly study learning styles, but our work provides evidence against models that split “visual” and “auditory” learners. </p>
<h2>Object recognition skills related across senses</h2>
<p>A few years ago, we became interested in why some people become visual experts more easily than others. We began measuring individual differences in visual object recognition. We tested people’s abilities in performing a variety of tasks like matching or memorizing objects from several categories such as birds, planes and computer-generated artificial objects.</p>
<p>Using statistical methods historically applied to intelligence, we found that almost 90% of the differences between people in these tasks were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000129">explained by a general ability we called “o”</a> for object recognition. We found that “o” was distinct from general intelligence, concluding that <a href="https://theconversation.com/people-vary-a-lot-in-how-well-they-recognize-match-or-categorize-the-things-they-see-researchers-attribute-this-skill-to-an-ability-they-call-o-182100">book smarts may not be enough to excel in domains</a> that rely heavily on visual abilities. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469066/original/file-20220615-9175-6vr9hj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="images of abstract objects, a chest X-ray, four versions of a prepared food and four imaginary robots" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469066/original/file-20220615-9175-6vr9hj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469066/original/file-20220615-9175-6vr9hj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469066/original/file-20220615-9175-6vr9hj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469066/original/file-20220615-9175-6vr9hj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469066/original/file-20220615-9175-6vr9hj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469066/original/file-20220615-9175-6vr9hj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469066/original/file-20220615-9175-6vr9hj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Examples of tasks that tap into object recognition ability, from top left: 1) Are these two objects identical despite the change in viewpoint? 2) Which lung has a tumor? 3) Which of these dishes is the oddball? 4) Which option is the average of the four robots on the right? Answers: 1) no 2) left 3) third 4) fourth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Isabel Gauthier</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Discussing this work with colleagues, they often asked whether this recognition ability was only visual. Unfortunately we just didn’t know, because the kinds of tests required to measure individual differences in object perception in nonvisual modalities did not exist.</p>
<p>To address the challenge, we chose to start with touch, because vision and touch share their ability to provide information about the shape of objects. We tested participants with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.22.14.3260">a variety of new touch tasks</a>, varying the format of the tests and the kinds of objects participants touched. We found that people who excelled at recognizing new objects visually also excelled at recognizing them by touch.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542197/original/file-20230810-15-gp9ykf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="images of hand touching 3D printed spaceships" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542197/original/file-20230810-15-gp9ykf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/542197/original/file-20230810-15-gp9ykf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542197/original/file-20230810-15-gp9ykf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542197/original/file-20230810-15-gp9ykf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=240&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542197/original/file-20230810-15-gp9ykf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542197/original/file-20230810-15-gp9ykf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/542197/original/file-20230810-15-gp9ykf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In a task measuring haptic object recognition ability, participants touch pairs of 3D-printed objects without looking at them and decide if they are exactly the same.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Isabel Gauthier</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moving from touch to listening, we were more skeptical. Sound is different from touch and vision and unfolds in time rather than space. </p>
<p>In our latest studies, we created a battery of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105542">auditory object recognition tests</a> – <a href="https://jasonc.how/oa_demo/">you can test yourself</a>. We measured how well people could learn to recognize different bird songs, different people’s laughs and different keyboard sounds.</p>
<p>Quite surprisingly, the ability to recognize by listening was positively correlated with the ability to recognize objects by sight – we measured the correlation at about 0.5. A correlation of 0.5 is not perfect, but it signifies quite a strong effect in psychology. As a comparison, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heritability_of_IQ">mean correlation of IQ scores</a> between identical twins is around 0.86, between siblings around 0.47, and between cousins 0.15.</p>
<p>This relationship between recognition abilities in different senses stands in contrast to learning styles studies’ failure to find expected correlations among variables. For instance, people’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.98.1.238">preferred learning styles do not predict performance</a> on measures of pictorial, auditory or tactile learning.</p>
<h2>Better to measure abilities than preferences?</h2>
<p>The myth of learning styles is resilient. <a href="https://advances.asee.org/opinion-uses-misuses-and-validity-of-learning-styles/">Fans stick with the idea</a> and the perceived possible benefits of asking students how they prefer to learn.</p>
<p>Our results add something new to the mix, beyond evidence that accounting for learning preferences does not help, and beyond evidence supporting better teaching methods – like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2020.100314">active learning</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13047">multimodal instruction</a> – that actually do foster learning.</p>
<p>Our work reveals that people vary much more than typically expected in perceptual abilities, and that these abilities are correlated across touch, vision and hearing. Just as we can expect that a student <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543042003359">excelling in English is likely also to excel in math</a>, we should expect that the student who learns best from visual instruction may also learn just as well when manipulating objects. And because cognitive skills and perceptual skills are not strongly related, measuring them both can provide a more complete picture of a person’s abilities.</p>
<p>In sum, measuring perceptual abilities should be more useful than measuring perceptual preferences, because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ase.1777">perceptual preferences consistently fail to predict student learning</a>. It’s possible that learners may benefit from knowing they have weak or strong general perceptual skills, but critically, this has yet to be tested. Nevertheless, there remains no support for the “neuromyth” that teaching to specific learning styles facilitates learning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209305/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Isabel Gauthier receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Chow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The idea that each person has a particular learning style is a persistent myth in education. But new research provides more evidence that you won’t learn better in one modality than another.Isabel Gauthier, David K. Wilson Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt UniversityJason Chow, Ph.D. Student in Psychological Sciences, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2109472023-08-03T15:01:05Z2023-08-03T15:01:05ZImmune cells that fight cancer become exhausted within hours of first encountering tumors – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540881/original/file-20230802-24657-u8hz8s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C538%2C359&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">This microscopy image shows a cytotoxic T cell (blue) attacking a cancer cell (green) by releasing toxic chemicals (red).</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/wyPJtV">Alex Ritter and Jennifer Lippincott Schwartz and Gillian Griffiths/National Institutes of Health via Flickr</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A key function of our immune system is to detect and eliminate foreign pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. Immune cells like <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-b-cells-and-t-cells-explained-141888">T cells</a> do this by distinguishing between different types of proteins within cells, which allows them to detect the presence of infection or disease. </p>
<p>A type of T cell called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-020-01048-4">cytotoxic T cells</a> can recognize the mutated proteins on cancer cells and should therefore be able to kill them. However, in most patients, cancer cells grow unchecked despite the presence of T cells.</p>
<p>The current explanation scientists have as to why T cells fail to eliminate cancer cells is because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-019-0221-9">they become “exhausted.”</a> The idea is that T cells initially function well when they first face off against cancer cells, but gradually lose their ability to kill the cancer cells after repeated encounters. </p>
<p>Cancer immunotherapies such as <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/immunotherapy/checkpoint-inhibitors">immune checkpoint inhibitors</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-cancer-car-t-therapy-reengineers-t-cells-to-kill-tumors-and-researchers-are-expanding-the-limited-types-of-cancer-it-can-target-196471">CAR-T cell therapy</a> have shown remarkable promise by inducing long-lasting remission in some patients with otherwise incurable cancers. However, these therapies <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-022-00689-z">often fail to induce long-term responses</a> in most patients, and T cell exhaustion is a major culprit.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.philiplab.org/">We are researchers</a> who study ways to harness the immune system to treat cancer. Scientists like us have been working to determine the mechanisms controlling how well T cells function against tumors. In our newly published research, we found that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-023-01578-y">T cells become exhausted within hours</a> after encountering cancer cells.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vponeaNiewE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">T cells recognize tumor cells by the specific proteins called antigens they display on their surfaces.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Timing T cell exhaustion</h2>
<p>By the time most patients are diagnosed with cancer, their immune system has been interacting with developing cancer cells <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3397">for months to years</a>. We wanted to go back earlier in time to figure out what happens when T cells first encounter tumor cells. </p>
<p>To do this, we used mice genetically engineered to develop liver cancers as they age, similarly to how liver cancers develop in people. We introduced trackable cytotoxic T cells that specifically recognize liver cancer cells to analyze the T cells’ function and monitor which of the genes are activated or turned off over time.</p>
<p>We also used these same trackable T cells to study their response in mice infected with the bacteria <em>Listeria</em>. In these mice, we found that the T cells were highly functional and eliminated infected cells. By comparing the differences between dysfunctional T cells from tumors and highly functional T cells from infected mice, we can home in on the genes that code for critical proteins that T cells use to regulate their function.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22367">In our previous work</a>, we found that T cells become dysfunctional with dramatically altered genetic structure within five days of encountering cancer cells in mice. We had originally decided to focus on the very earliest time points after T cells encounter cancer cells in mice with liver cancer or metastatic melanoma because we thought there would be fewer genetic changes. That would have allowed us to identify the earliest and most critical regulators of T cell dysfunction. </p>
<p>Instead, we found multiple surprising hallmarks of T cell dysfunction within <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-023-01578-y">six to 12 hours</a> after they encountered cancer cells, including thousands of changes in genetic structure and gene expression.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540884/original/file-20230802-19-7xirm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Microscopy image of a human T cell colored blue" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540884/original/file-20230802-19-7xirm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540884/original/file-20230802-19-7xirm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540884/original/file-20230802-19-7xirm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540884/original/file-20230802-19-7xirm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540884/original/file-20230802-19-7xirm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540884/original/file-20230802-19-7xirm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540884/original/file-20230802-19-7xirm8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">T cells play an important role in fighting against disease.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nist.gov/image/healthyhumantcelljpg">National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We analyzed the different regulatory genes and pathways in T cells encountering cancer cells compared to those of T cells encountering infected cells. We found that genes associated with inflammation were highly activated in T cells interacting with infected cells but not in T cells interacting with cancer cells.</p>
<p>Next, we looked at how the initial early changes to the genetic structure of T cells evolved over time. We found that very early DNA changes were stabilized and reinforced with continued exposure to cancer cells, effectively “imprinting” dysfunctional gene expression patterns in the T cells. This meant that when the T cells were removed from the tumors after five days and transferred to tumor-free mice, they still remained dysfunctional.</p>
<h2>Boosting T cell killing</h2>
<p>Altogether, our research suggests that T cells in tumors are not necessarily working hard and getting exhausted. Rather, they are blocked right from the start. This is because the negative signals cancer cells send out to their surrounding environment induce T cell dysfunction, and a lack of positive signals like inflammation results in a failure to kick T cells into high gear.</p>
<p>Our team is now exploring strategies to stimulate inflammatory pathways in T cells encountering cancer cells to make them function as though they are encountering an infection. Our hope is that this will help T cells kill their cancer targets more effectively.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210947/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>T cells recognize and kill cancer cells but quickly lose their effectiveness. This fast dysfunction may help explain why immunotherapy doesn’t lead to long-term remission for many patients.Mary Philip, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pathology, Vanderbilt UniversityMichael Rudloff, MD-Ph.D. Candidate in Molecular Pathology and Immunology, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2075922023-07-31T12:22:14Z2023-07-31T12:22:14ZTrans youth are significantly more likely to attempt suicide when gender dysphoria is met with conversion therapy than with hormone treatment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539103/original/file-20230724-15-9fs65h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2121%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trans teens living in a supportive family environment have a lower risk of attempting suicide or running away from home.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/gender-symbols-royalty-free-image/1314046616">Eoneren/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As states continue to <a href="https://translegislation.com/">introduce laws</a> that restrict access to gender-affirming care or limit protections against conversion therapy, questions have arisen about the effectiveness of interventions intended to help transgender youth. In this political climate, gold-standard evidence is more important than ever.</p>
<p>Prior research has been unable to tease out cause and effect between health outcomes and gender-affirming care like hormone therapy or gender-denying interventions like conversion therapy, largely because of a lack of longitudinal data or an appropriate control group. To establish whether something causes an outcome, researchers typically rely on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111%2F1471-0528.15199">randomized control trials</a> – experiments that randomly assign people to a treatment or a placebo. Random assignment is a trusted way to create two equal groups to compare. However, because it is unethical to withhold treatment or administer potential harmful interventions, randomized controls trials are off the table in this case.</p>
<p>In lieu of randomized control trials, researchers often retrospectively compare people who have received an intervention with those who did not. Studies using this approach have linked hormone therapy with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261039">positive mental health outcomes</a> for trans teens. However, because this treatment requires parental approval, teens who receive hormone therapy may have more supportive families than those who do not. The mental health improvement they experienced may partially be due to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2020.0094">living in a gender-affirming family environment</a> rather than the effects of hormone therapy alone.</p>
<p>Our research team was able to address these study design issues directly. Along with our colleagues <a href="https://www.umass.edu/economics/graduate/current-graduate-student/nguyen">Duc Hien Nguyen</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=6VtcuWMAAAAJ&hl=en">Yana Rodgers</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Travis_Campbell3">we are</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=7qADvu8AAAAJ&hl=en">economics and</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Di1AiloAAAAJ&hl=en">health policy</a> researchers who study the health and economic outcomes of marginalized populations, including LGBTQ+ communities. To assess cause and effect, we used a method commonly used in economics, policy analysis and health policy research called an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040617-013507">event study</a>. We analyzed data from the 2015 <a href="https://www.ustranssurvey.org/reports">U.S. Transgender Survey</a>, which includes responses from over 27,000 trans adults across the nation. We compare people who initiate an intervention with those who initiate the same intervention one year later. The group that has not yet started treatment acts as a control group, providing credible estimates of the effect of treatment.</p>
<p>We found that supportive family environments and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20231057">hormone replacement therapy</a> that affirms a transgender child’s gender identity decrease their risk of suicide or running away from home, whereas unsupportive family environments and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2023.102750">conversion therapy</a> that denies their gender identity increase these risks.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trans youths and their parents struggle to navigate the wave of anti-trans bills in the U.S.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Treating gender dysphoria</h2>
<p>Many transgender people experience <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/transgender-and-gender-nonconforming-patients/gender-dysphoria-diagnosis">gender dysphoria</a>, which is psychological distress arising from a mismatch between how a person expresses their gender identity and the social norms of their sex assigned at birth. To treat gender dysphoria, health professionals typically use gender-affirming interventions such as hormone therapy to align gender expression with identity. Some, however, use gender-denying interventions such as conversion therapy to align gender identity with sex. </p>
<p>Gender affirmation includes processes that help a person feel socially and physically aligned with their gender identity. Affirmation could include social changes, such as going by a gender-affirming name and pronouns, using gender-aligned bathrooms, or wearing gender-affirming clothing. Affirmation could also include medical interventions, such as medications to delay the onset of puberty, hormones that help align physical characteristics with gender identity, or, for trans adults, gender-affirming surgeries. Some trans adults also legally change their names and gender markers on their ID. Research has shown that these forms of gender affirmation may <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2020.0038">alleviate gender dysphoria</a>.</p>
<p>Conversely, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.365">gender-denying interventions</a> like conversion therapy attempt to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of youth. These interventions assume that gender identity is malleable before puberty. Although it is presumably intended to alleviate gender dysphoria and social stigma of being trans, studies have found that it can prolong and intensify those issues and lead to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.2285">psychological distress in adulthood</a>. </p>
<p>Because there is <a href="https://whatweknow.inequality.cornell.edu/topics/lgbt-equality/what-does-the-scholarly-research-say-about-whether-conversion-therapy-can-alter-sexual-orientation-without-causing-harm/">no credible evidence</a> supporting the efficacy of conversion therapy, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-2162">many professional</a> <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/about-apa/policy-finder/position-statement-on-treatment-of-transgender-%28tr">health organizations</a> <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/op-eds/science-gender-affirmation">have recommended</a> <a href="https://www.endocrine.org/clinical-practice-guidelines/gender-dysphoria-gender-incongruence">gender-affirming care</a> to alleviate gender dysphoria in trans people. </p>
<p>There has been limited evidence, however, on the health effects of both hormone therapy and conversion therapy for trans people, which is why the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has not provided a <a href="https://www.cms.gov/medicare-coverage-database/view/ncd.aspx?NCDId=368">national coverage determination regarding hormone replacement therapy</a>. This means HRT isn’t uniformly covered by state or federal health insurance.</p>
<h2>Effects of gender affirmation or denial</h2>
<p>So what are the effects of affirming or denying a child’s gender identity? </p>
<p>First, we found that <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4503648">over 40% of trans adolescents</a> living in family environments that are unsupportive of their gender identity attempted suicide by the age of 18, a rate approximately eight times as high as that of cisgender adolescents.</p>
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<p>We also found that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20231057">hormone replacement therapy significantly improves</a> the mental health of trans youths. In comparing differences in suicide attempts between trans youths who started HRT a year apart from each other, we found that both groups experienced similar increases in suicide attempts over the five years before initiating treatment but experience a significant drop the year they start treatment. Overall, initiating hormone therapy led to a 14.4% reduction in attempting suicide for trans youths.</p>
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<p>Our research on the effects of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2023.102750">conversion therapy</a> on the mental health of transgender youths had dismal findings. We found a 13.8% increase in attempted suicide within the first year of conversation therapy, and a 47.5% increase in running away from home.</p>
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<p>We also analyzed the effects of social transitions on risk of attempting suicide or running away from home. These social transitions include realizing their gender differed from their sex assigned at birth, self-identification as trans, starting to tell others they are trans, and living full time as their gender identity.</p>
<p>We found that for trans youths living with unsupportive families, social transitions <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4503648">increase their risk of attempting suicide and running away from home</a>. For those living in supportive family environments, that risk is reduced and in some cases virtually eliminated. Some of the increased risk of suicide and running away from home for trans youths living in unsupportive family environments can likely be attributed to higher incidences of conversion therapy and limited access to hormone therapy.</p>
<h2>Public policy and transgender well-being</h2>
<p>Transgender people face <a href="https://theconversation.com/health-rights-for-trans-people-vary-widely-around-the-globe-achieving-trans-bliss-and-joy-will-require-equity-social-respect-and-legal-protections-194237">widespread stigma, discrimination and violence</a>. In June 2023, the Human Rights Campaign declared a <a href="https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/for-the-first-time-ever-human-rights-campaign-officially-declares-state-of-emergency-for-lgbtq-americans-issues-national-warning-and-guidebook-to-ensure-safety-for-lgbtq-residents-and-travelers">national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ Americans</a>, the first in the LGBTQ civil rights organization’s over 40-year history. This was prompted by the <a href="https://translegislation.com/">more than 560 anti-transgender bills</a> that have been introduced in the U.S. through July 2023, 80 of which have passed.</p>
<p>More anti-trans bills have been on the docket in 2023 than any prior year in U.S. history. Our research suggests that policies restricting access to gender-affirming care and limiting protections against conversion therapy will have significant negative effects on the lives of transgender youths.</p>
<p>As newer and larger data sets on the health, economic and social outcomes of trans people <a href="https://www.ustranssurvey.org/">become available</a>, researchers will be able to quantify the effects of anti-trans policies and provide richer insights into the lives of transgender Americans. Whether these findings will help change the tide of restrictive policies on trans health care and protections in the U.S. remains to be seen, but for now, our research suggests that family support will be key.</p>
<p><em>If you are struggling or having suicidal thoughts, help is available. Call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or chat at <a href="https://988lifeline.org/chat/">988lifeline.org</a>. The Trans Lifeline (1-877-565-8860) and The Trevor Project (phone 1-866-488-7386, text 678-678, or chat <a href="https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help/">thetrevorproject.org</a>) also offer crisis support.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207592/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathaniel Tran receives funding from the National Institute on Aging. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Mann receives funding from the Nuffield Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Travis Campbell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Because of ethical considerations, there are no clinical trials comparing the effects of hormone therapy to conversion therapy on trans youths. But a set of recent studies tease out cause and effect.Travis Campbell, Assistant Professor of Economics, Southern Oregon UniversityNathaniel Tran, Ph.D. Candidate in Health Policy, Vanderbilt UniversitySamuel Mann, Postdoctoral fellow, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2095682023-07-13T12:37:12Z2023-07-13T12:37:12ZClimate change is increasing stress on thousands of aging dams across the US<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536900/original/file-20230711-19-5at0w3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=49%2C0%2C5472%2C3604&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Flood damage in Edenville, Mich., after a dam failed on May 19, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MidwestFlooding/29e7a5cbb920467d9c1b84db02553cd0/photo">AP Photo/Carlos Osorio</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Heavy rainfall in the Northeast on June 9-11, 2023, <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/weather/2023/07/11/montpelier-vermont-floods-possible-dam-breach/">generated widespread flooding</a>, particularly in New York’s Hudson Valley and in Vermont. One major concern was the <a href="https://dec.vermont.gov/water-investment/dam-safety/dec-owned-dams#Wrightsville%20Dam">Wrightsville Dam</a>, built in 1935 on the Winooski River north of Vermont’s capital city, Montpelier. The reservoir behind the dam rose to within 1 foot of the dam’s maximum storage capacity, prompting warnings that water could <a href="https://www.boston.com/news/weather/2023/07/11/montpelier-vermont-floods-possible-dam-breach/">overtop the dam</a> and worsen already-dangerous conditions downstream, or damage the dam.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1IjEUscAAAAJ&hl=en">Hiba Baroud</a>, associate professor and associate chair in the department of civil and environmental engineering at Vanderbilt University, explains how flooding stresses dams in a changing climate.</em></p>
<h2>How serious is the risk when flooding overtops a dam?</h2>
<p>Dam overtopping can result in erosion, which subsequently could lead to a dam breach or failure and a sudden, uncontrolled release of impounded water.</p>
<p>The risk of dam overtopping results from the combined effect of a hazardous event, such as heavy rainfall, and the vulnerability of the dam. A vulnerable dam could be old, poorly maintained or not have enough <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/spillway-engineering">spillway capacity</a> to safely release water from the dam.</p>
<p>A dam’s design can affect its ability to withstand overtopping and resist failure. For example, concrete dams can typically better withstand certain levels of overtopping compared to soil embankment dams. </p>
<p>Overtopping is the leading cause of dam failures in the U.S. It accounts for <a href="https://damsafety.org/dam-failures#The%20Causes%20of%20Dam%20Failures">34% of all dam failures</a>. How long water flows over a dam and the volume of water that flows over it are important factors in determining the likelihood that a dam will fail. </p>
<p>The consequences of a dam overtopping, and possibly failing, depend on several factors, such as the purpose of the dam, its size and its location. If a dam is designed for flood protection and is surrounded by homes, businesses or critical infrastructure, a large uncontrolled release of water could be catastrophic. Dams that are small and located in rural areas may cause less damage if they are overtopped or fail. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1678798286939881472"}"></div></p>
<h2>How old are most US dams?</h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://nid.sec.usace.army.mil/#/">more than 91,000 dams</a> across the U.S., in all 50 states, with diverse designs and purposes. The average dam age is 60 years, and more than 8,000 dams <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/problem-america-neglected-too-long-deteriorating-dams">are over 90 years old</a>. </p>
<p>Every four years, the <a href="https://www.asce.org/">American Society of Civil Engineers</a> produces a report card for the nation’s infrastructure that assigns grades based on the condition of structures like roads, bridges and dams, and the investments that they need. The most recent report card estimates that 70% of U.S. dams <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/dams-infrastructure/">will be more than 50 years old by 2030</a>. </p>
<p>Overall, the report gave U.S. dams a “D” grade and estimated that more than 2,300 <a href="https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/risk-management/dam-safety/rehabilitation-high-hazard-potential-dams">high hazard potential dams</a> – those that could cause loss of life or serious property damage if they fail, based on the level of development around them – lacked emergency action plans.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">This video captures the failure of the 90-year-old central spillway of the Lake Dunlap Dam in Seguin, Texas, on May 14, 2019. The collapse led to lawsuits and the creation of a water control district to replace the dam and others like it nearby.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Are there ways to strengthen older dams against flooding without completely replacing them?</h2>
<p>Decommissioning or replacing dams can be complicated and cost-prohibitive. It also can have cascading effects on the surrounding community, and possibly on other infrastructure. Regularly maintaining and upgrading older dams can be a cost-effective way to strengthen them and make them resilient to natural hazards. </p>
<p>When dams no longer serve the purposes for which they were built, they may be partially breached or <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-dams-cause-more-problems-than-they-solve-removing-them-can-pay-off-for-people-and-nature-137346">entirely removed</a> to restore the river’s natural flow. </p>
<p>The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimates that it would cost <a href="https://damsafety-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/files/2023%20ASDSO%20Costs%20of%20Dam%20Rehab%20Report.pdf">US$157.7 billion</a> to rehabilitate all nonfederal dams in the U.S. Of this amount, about one-fifth ($34.1 billion) is for rehabilitating high hazard potential dams. The 2021 <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/11/06/fact-sheet-the-bipartisan-infrastructure-deal/">Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act</a> includes <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3684/text">approximately $3 billion</a> for dam safety projects, focusing on rehabilitation, retrofitting and removal.</p>
<h2>Is climate change increasing stress on older dams?</h2>
<p>Climate change is <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-climate-change-intensifies-the-water-cycle-fueling-extreme-rainfall-and-flooding-the-northeast-deluge-was-just-the-latest-209476">increasing the frequency and intensity</a> of natural hazards like storms that threaten dams. And these shifts don’t follow historical trends. Conditions that once were considered extreme will likely be more common in the future. </p>
<p>For example, one recent study on predicting coastal flooding found that in New England, a 100-year flood – that’s an event of a magnitude that now has a 1% chance of occurring in any given year – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-11755-z">could become an annual occurrence</a> by the late 2100s. </p>
<p>The fact that the climate is changing also means that extreme events are becoming more extreme. In 2015, a 1,000-year rainfall event in South Carolina resulted in <a href="https://ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/9780784480458.024">breaches of 47 dams</a>. </p>
<p>Designing new dams and upgrading existing infrastructure will need to be based on updated design procedures that take into account future climate projections, not just historical hazardous events. While older dams aren’t necessarily unsafe, they were constructed following outdated design standards and construction procedures and for different environmental conditions. That influences the likelihood and consequences of their failure during disasters. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The near-failure of California’s Oroville Dam in February 2017 led to the evacuation of nearly 190,000 people living downstream. A review cited multiple causes, including design and construction flaws, the bedrock upon which the dam was built and lapses in ongoing inspections.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Do you see this event in Vermont as a warning for other communities?</h2>
<p>The disasters that have hit the U.S. in recent years should spur government agencies and communities to prepare and plan for disasters through proactive steps such as developing emergency action plans. </p>
<p>While the number of high hazard potential dams in the U.S. has <a href="https://infrastructurereportcard.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Dams-2021.pdf">more than doubled in the last 20 years</a> as development has moved farther into rural areas, the proportion of these dams with an emergency action plan has also increased. <a href="https://nid.sec.usace.army.mil/#/">It is now at 76%</a>, which is much higher than just a few years ago.</p>
<p>Vulnerable dams and the risk of dam failure cascade through our economy and affect many sectors. Dams serve many purposes: They provide water for drinking and irrigation, generate energy and protect communities from flooding. They are also part of a large navigation network that transports <a href="https://www.iwr.usace.army.mil/Missions/Value-to-the-Nation/Fast-Facts/Inland-Navigation-Fast-Facts/">more than 500 million tons of commodities</a> across the U.S. each year. </p>
<p>As my colleagues and I have shown, it’s important to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.12223">understand the direct and indirect costs</a> when critical infrastructure systems like dams fail. This information is crucial for developing strategies that can help the U.S. prepare for future disasters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209568/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hiba Baroud receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Transportation. </span></em></p>More extreme rainfall and frequent storms are raising the risk that floodwaters could spill over dams, or that dams could fail.Hiba Baroud, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2073972023-07-11T12:28:48Z2023-07-11T12:28:48ZThe 21st Century Cures Act requires that patients receive medical results immediately – and new research shows patients prefer it that way<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534479/original/file-20230628-36173-rt3t82.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C23%2C7904%2C5273&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 21st Century Cures Act requires that test results be released to patients even before their health care provider has reviewed them. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/afro-american-healthcare-worker-discussing-medical-royalty-free-image/1386035203?phrase=patients+talking+to+doctor&adppopup=true">Natalia Gdovskaia/Moment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Patients overwhelmingly prefer to see their medical test results online immediately, even if that means viewing results before discussing them with a health care professional. These are the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.3572">key findings</a> from our team’s recent study, published in JAMA Network Open. Importantly, this preference remains true for patients who received results with abnormal or potentially concerning findings.</p>
<p>We carried out this study to understand how patients are affected by new legislation to prevent <a href="https://www.healthit.gov/topic/information-blocking">information blocking</a> and provide patients complete access to all of their electronic health information. The <a href="https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/selected-amendments-fdc-act/21st-century-cures-act">21st Century Cures Act</a> became law in 2016 to improve access, exchange and use of electronic health information. The information-blocking exceptions, which went into effect in April 2021, codified provisions that required <a href="https://www.opennotes.org/onc-federal-rule/">nearly all electronic health information</a> – including medical test results – be made immediately available to patients once the results are ready. </p>
<p>Many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2021.12.002">clinicians have worried</a> that this new access may cause undue emotional distress. Some patients have reported receiving news of cancer or other critical diagnoses at home <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/well/live/medical-test-results-cures-act.html">without immediate access to their clinician</a>. For some, receiving bad news from a health care professional rather than in an online report may help to avoid misinterpretations and alleviate distress. </p>
<p>Others have argued that receiving bad news itself is worrying, regardless of how it is delivered. Many patients may prefer to receive bad news in the comfort of their own home, surrounded by friends and family, and with time to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/03/journalist-henry-mcdonald-facts-online-medical-records">do their own research and prepare questions</a> to inform conversations with their clinician.</p>
<p>We surveyed more than 8,000 patients, from four medical centers, who received test results through online patient portals between April 2021 and April 2022. We asked participants about the types of tests they received, their reaction to the results, the effect of the result on their health and well-being and preferences for the release of future results.</p>
<p>We found that a staggering 96% of patients wished to continue receiving their medical results online as soon as the results become available. Most patients – 92.5% – who reviewed their results online reported that seeing the result made them feel the same or less worried about their health. About 7.5% of patients reported feeling more worried after reviewing their result, especially when the findings were abnormal. However, over 95% of patients who received results with abnormal findings still wished to continue to receive results online – even if their clinician had not yet seen the result.</p>
<p>This research builds upon our prior work from 2021, which <a href="http://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.29553">found a fourfold increase</a> in the number of sensitive results reviewed first by patients after they were released. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2CQucXKLbA8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The 21st Century Cures Act transforms how patients and clinicians communicate and share information to improve health care.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>A major goal of the 21st Century Cures Act was to improve how health information is shared and exchanged between health care organizations, patients and caregivers. The law does not specify how electronic information should be released to the patient. Health care organizations have widely chosen to comply with the Cures Act by releasing all information through patient portals.</p>
<p>Improved sharing of information benefits both patients and clinicians. Full access to personal health information allows patients to better manage their health care, remain informed about key treatment decisions and have more meaningful discussions with their clinicians.</p>
<p>Before the Cures Act, individual health care organizations could choose which information was made available online to the patient. Many organizations already <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jamiaopen/ooz039">shared results from common medical tests</a>. Health systems often delayed results that might cause distress, such as a new cancer diagnosis or an HIV test result, to give clinicians time to review and discuss the result with patients. Some organizations chose to withhold these sensitive test results from the patient portal altogether.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Patient preferences around test results are highly complex and nuanced, especially when those results are sensitive ones. </p>
<p>One way that clinicians might prepare patients is to do pre-counseling or provide guidance at the time of ordering a test. Helping patients to understand the reason for the test, the possible results and steps for professional follow-up may help to anticipate and alleviate concerns before receiving a test result. </p>
<p>With the 21st Century Cures Act, the medical field is moving away from the paternalistic view that clinicians know best in favor of embracing empowered patients who take charge of their own care.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207397/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The law requires medical test results be made available to patients even before a clinician has reviewed them.Bryan Steitz, Instructor in Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt UniversityCT Lin, Professor of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical CampusLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2075932023-06-28T18:10:56Z2023-06-28T18:10:56ZEnglish dialects make themselves heard in genes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534597/original/file-20230628-21-5cad3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=289%2C118%2C4440%2C3103&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Conditions in rural England around the turn of the 20th century offer a case study for cultural evolution researchers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/coming-home-from-the-marshes-1886-a-work-made-of-platinum-news-photo/1338669913">Heritage Images/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you need to hit a nail, what tool do you ask for? If you say “hammer,” do you pronounce the “<a href="https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/phonological-variation-across-the-uk#:%7E:text=Above%20all%20he%20is%20a%20rhotic%20speaker">r</a>”? Do you drop the “<a href="https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/social-variation-across-the-uk#:%7E:text=and%20happens.-,H%2Ddropping,-%E2%80%93%20the%20tendency%20to">h</a>”?</p>
<p>Different people pronounce the same English words in different ways. People learn which words to use and how to pronounce them as they’re learning to talk with family, friends and others in their community, so geographic patterns in these pronunciations can <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jul/31/north-south-english-dialects-language-pronunciation-study">persist over time</a>.</p>
<p>In England, pairs of words that mean similar things, like “sight” and “vision” or “yes” and “aye,” can reveal a rich history of language that is intertwined with the history of the place itself. Such words have their origins in <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/norman-conquest/">migrations and conquests</a> that took place during the Middle Ages. New words would sometimes coexist and sometimes displace one another.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=06-OHeUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Cultural evolution researchers</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vwQdgAYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">like us</a> know that it’s not just mountain ranges or oceans that can be barriers to interaction. Different people can share their technology, cuisines and ideas, but some tend to interact more often with those who share cultural similarities, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.27.1.415">a behavior called homophily</a>.</p>
<p>This can be seen most clearly when cultural traditions lead people to marry people from the same community. Populations that tend to marry within their group because of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-4755-6-17">social or economic forces</a>, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/srep35837">religious</a> <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/tracing-roots-jewishness-rev2">traditions</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/health/india-south-asia-castes-genetics-diseases.html">social stratification</a>, have smaller gene pools, leading them to be more genetically similar to one another.</p>
<p>In addition to groups with distinctive marital practices, researchers have found relationships between genes and culture when studying groups that are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003316">from different ethnicities</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.94.15.7719">different regions of the world</a>. These similarities between genes and culture don’t imply that certain genetic variants are exclusive to these groups, or that genetics causes certain cultures to arise. Rather, the same people might be more likely to share genetics and language because of a common history, especially because of significant geographic or social barriers between groups.</p>
<p>Can smaller things, like the different dialects between neighboring villages, shape the genetic landscape of populations? In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.24789">new study</a>, we combined genetic and linguistic data sampled in England to study the effects of culture on genetics at smaller geographic scales than generally studied.</p>
<p>We examined this relationship between cultural and genetic variation across England. In places where people move often, the small correlations between language and genes can be lost because of how rapidly they change. Since Great Britain is an island, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0289.00221">few people entered its rural population</a> between the times of the Norman conquest in 1066 and the end of the 19th century, making it ideal for our analysis.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534599/original/file-20230628-19-htd5ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two women and three children in 1956 collect water from a tub against a stone wall of a house" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534599/original/file-20230628-19-htd5ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534599/original/file-20230628-19-htd5ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534599/original/file-20230628-19-htd5ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534599/original/file-20230628-19-htd5ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534599/original/file-20230628-19-htd5ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534599/original/file-20230628-19-htd5ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534599/original/file-20230628-19-htd5ou.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the middle of the 20th century, interviewers recorded the ways rural people spoke.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/village-without-water-at-ruyton-xi-towns-shropshire-churns-news-photo/867461430">Bill Ellman/Mirrorpix via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Combining two sets of data</h2>
<p>Ideally, we could use a unified data set capturing information about the genetics and dialects of people living in a region. Unfortunately, no such data exists. Instead, we used data from two separate studies of people from approximately the same time and place. For our research, we focused on where the data sets overlapped in England.</p>
<p>For linguistic data, we relied on the <a href="https://dialectandheritage.org.uk/about/the-survey-of-english-dialects/">Survey of English Dialects</a>. Between 1950 and 1961, interviewers visited over 300 mostly rural places and asked people hundreds of questions about their daily lives. Their answers recorded the phrases, terms and sounds of local dialects of English. Each of these words can carry clues about where, or with whom, a person grew up.</p>
<p>The genetic data we used came from the <a href="https://www.peopleofthebritishisles.org/">People of the British Isles</a> project, an academic investigation of how much Britain’s historical events of conquest, war and migration are reflected in British genetics. The project sequenced DNA from more than 2,000 people in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Researchers genotyped people whose grandparents who were born within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of each other, were largely rural, and were born in the late 19th century.</p>
<p>The People of the British Isles project found that most genotypes were not local to any one part of Great Britain <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14230">but were evenly distributed</a>. However, the historical movements of people to Great Britain left genetic marks: Compared with people in the rest of Great Britain, the genetics of those from the south of England were slightly more similar to those in France – a result of the Norman conquest a millennium ago – and the genetics of people in the former <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Danelaw">Danelaw</a> were slightly more similar to modern Danes – because of the settling of the region by Vikings and, later, Danes. These events resulted in groups of people with somewhat similar genetics, a phenomenon <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1078311">referred to as genetic clustering</a>.</p>
<p>We used features from the Survey of English Dialects to measure where neighboring towns spoke the most differently, which occurs at the borders between dialects. When people from neighboring towns speak the same dialect, we expect features of their language, such as whether the “r” is pronounced at the ends of words, to be similar. Conversely, if nearby towns speak different dialects, their language features will be more different.</p>
<p>Many of these dialect boundaries have long histories, such as that separating the English of the <a href="https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/regional-voices-the-north-south-divide">North from that of the South of England</a>. Over time, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jul/31/north-south-english-dialects-language-pronunciation-study">dialects can persist</a> in similar locations if geographic or cultural barriers influence how often and with whom people interact.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534601/original/file-20230628-29-64o014.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="1938 black and white photo of postman pushing bike up hill in village" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534601/original/file-20230628-29-64o014.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534601/original/file-20230628-29-64o014.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534601/original/file-20230628-29-64o014.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534601/original/file-20230628-29-64o014.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534601/original/file-20230628-29-64o014.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534601/original/file-20230628-29-64o014.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534601/original/file-20230628-29-64o014.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rural life was more insular in the past.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-postmans-job-is-not-a-happy-one-when-the-snow-is-on-the-news-photo/3288430">Fox Photos/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The echo of sounds long gone</h2>
<p>We found greater genetic differences at the borders between dialects. Our results suggest that language, or some other aspect of culture, has limited how people interacted to some degree over the past thousand years. By limiting how often people started families with those from neighboring groups, cultural differences have maintained genetic evidence of the Norman conquest and other events from the Middle Ages.</p>
<p>This is the first time that information about linguistic dialects has been compared with modern genetic data within a population, particularly at such a granular level. Notably, people speaking different dialects have no obvious reason to avoid marrying one another, as would be expected from groups with specific marriage customs. Nevertheless, we find that even small-scale language differences, or other aspects of culture associated with these differences, can leave an impression on genes via people’s mating behaviors.</p>
<p>Even though people outside of Britain may think of a general “British accent,” the subtle differences among dialects seem to have parallels with the genetics of the region. This is in spite of the fact that the languages brought by people coming to England have since mixed and merged to produce the modern English language and today’s dialects.</p>
<p>The data used in our study represents the genetic landscape and dialects of the late 19th century; both have changed significantly since then. After the introduction of radio and television, dialects became more influenced by the cities around them. As a result, features of many English dialects in England, such as the pronunciation of “r” at the ends of syllables, have <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cambridge-app-maps-decline-in-regional-diversity-of-english-dialects">become much less common</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, immigrants from the former British Empire and elsewhere have brought a new influx of language. The cities in Great Britain have developed a set of new dialects rooted in the interactions among people from all ethnicities. As cultural barriers among groups fall away, small human interactions form the bridges that allow people to deemphasize differences and learn from one another.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to clarify which parts of the United Kingdom were included in the different data sets and the authors’ study.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207593/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yakov Pichkar receives funding from the John Templeton Foundation (grant no. 62187). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Creanza receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation.</span></em></p>People with a common history – often due to significant geographic or social barriers – often share genetics and language. New research finds that even a dialect can act as a barrier within a group.Yakov Pichkar, Ph.D. Candidate in Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt UniversityNicole Creanza, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2071642023-06-08T12:30:43Z2023-06-08T12:30:43ZWill faster federal reviews speed up the clean energy shift? Two legal scholars explain what the National Environmental Policy Act does and doesn’t do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530445/original/file-20230606-19-c60dar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C3%2C2396%2C1589&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">NEPA requires federal agencies to analyze environmental impacts of projects like interstate highway construction.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/big-dig-workers-work-in-the-area-of-ft-point-on-the-route-news-photo/114791218">John Bohn/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The National Environmental Policy Act, enacted in 1970, is widely viewed as a <a href="https://www.eli.org/land-biodiversity/national-environmental-policy-act-nepa">keystone U.S. environmental law</a>. For any major federal action that affects the environment, such as building an interstate highway or licensing a nuclear power plant, NEPA requires relevant agencies to analyze environmental impacts, consider reasonable alternatives and accept public input. It also allows citizens to sue if they believe government has not complied.</em> </p>
<p><em>Critics argue that NEPA reviews <a href="https://www.aei.org/articles/reform-of-the-national-environmental-policy-act/">delay projects and drive up costs</a>. In May 2023 negotiations over raising the federal debt ceiling, President Joe Biden agreed to certain <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2023/05/28/background-press-call-on-the-bipartisan-budget-agreement/">changes to NEPA reviews</a>, which both the White House and congressional Republicans said would streamline permitting for infrastructure projects. Legal scholars <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=x0K9avIAAAAJ&hl=en">J.B. Ruhl</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qD5L-u0AAAAJ&hl=en">James Salzman</a> explain these changes and what they mean for protecting the environment and expanding clean energy production.</em></p>
<h2>What kinds of projects typically require NEPA reviews?</h2>
<p>The statutory text of NEPA is quite sparse and open-ended. When people speak of what NEPA requires, they really are talking about how the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/ceq/">Council on Environmental Quality</a>, or CEQ, federal agencies and the courts have implemented the law over the past 50 years. </p>
<p>The simple requirement is for agencies to create a detailed statement on the impacts of any major federal action that significantly affects the environment. A whole body of law and policy creates filters that sort projects into different NEPA buckets. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E5YQ0ZvA-rQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">NEPA requires all federal agencies to analyze the environmental impacts of their major actions, consider alternatives and receive public comment.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>First, only projects that will be carried out, funded or authorized by a federal agency are subject to NEPA. That’s a pretty big universe, but it also excludes a lot. For example, a wind farm built on private land by a private utility might not require any federal funding or approval. That means it wouldn’t be subject to NEPA. </p>
<p>If a project is subject to NEPA, the federal agency that has primary oversight assesses its impacts to decide how much analysis is needed. Many agencies use a classification known as <a href="https://ceq.doe.gov/nepa-practice/categorical-exclusions.html">categorical exclusions</a> to winnow out minor actions that they know have no significant impacts, either individually or cumulatively. For example, the Interior Department categorically excludes planned burns to clear brush on <a href="https://bianepatracker2.doi.gov/doi_and_bureau_categorical_exclusions.pdf">areas smaller than 4,500 acres</a>. </p>
<p>If the expected impacts are more extensive, but it’s not clear by how much, the agency can prepare an environmental assessment. If that assessment finds the impacts to the human environment will not be significant, that’s the end of the NEPA process. </p>
<p>If the impacts are significant, the agency will prepare a <a href="https://cdxapps.epa.gov/cdx-enepa-II/public/action/eis/search;jsessionid=A75C26C6A17A75907053FA67AC41B7AE?search=&__fsk=2062199394#results">full-blown environmental impact statement</a>, or EIS, which is a far more intensive process. <a href="https://ceq.doe.gov/laws-regulations/regulations.html">CEQ guidelines</a> establish an elaborate template of topics agencies must evaluate, and the public has opportunities to comment on a draft version. </p>
<p>A CEQ review of EISs prepared by all federal agencies from 2010 through 2018 found that, on average, it took <a href="https://ceq.doe.gov/docs/nepa-practice/CEQ_EIS_Timeline_Report_2020-6-12.pdf">about four and a half years</a> to issue an EIS, not including added time if someone sued. The lengths of these reviews ranged widely but <a href="https://ceq.doe.gov/docs/nepa-practice/CEQ_EIS_Length_Report_2020-6-12.pdf">averaged 575 pages</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Flow chart showing numerous steps in the NEPA process." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530618/original/file-20230607-15-xre1jv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A schematic of the NEPA process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/agency/nepa/process.html">NASA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If an agency conducts lots of the same actions under a particular program, such as timber leasing on federal land, it might conduct a high-level programmatic EIS to cover the large-scale issues and then follow up with individual NEPA analyses for specific projects. </p>
<p>Decisions not to issue an EIS can be challenged in court. So can the EIS itself if critics believe that it’s inadequate.</p>
<h2>What are NEPA critics’ central arguments?</h2>
<p>Critiques of NEPA come from many different interests. The law mainly affects land development, industry and resource extraction activities such as logging, mining and drilling for oil and gas, particularly on federal public lands. </p>
<p>NEPA requires an impact assessment, but it doesn’t prescribe any particular outcome. Still, it unquestionably can add substantial time and cost to any significant project. If a project is controversial, interested parties can submit public comments that get their views on the record. If opponents aren’t happy with the final EIS, they can sue the agency responsible for the decision in federal court. </p>
<p>Between agency review and litigation, NEPA can add many years to a project’s development timeline before it is “shovel ready.” For example, it takes <a href="https://www.perc.org/2022/06/14/does-environmental-review-worsen-the-wildfire-crisis/">roughly four to seven years</a> to complete environmental reviews for prescribed burns that the U.S. Forest Service carries out to reduce wildfire risks.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1651944242137145344"}"></div></p>
<p>Supporters argue that NEPA reviews have <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/resources/never-eliminate-public-advice-nepa-success-stories">avoided many bad decisions</a>. In our view, the NEPA process is an important feature of the country’s stewardship of its natural resources. But we also share the growing concern that it can be used to <a href="https://twitter.com/AlecStapp/status/1654456917081595905">delay building renewable energy infrastructure</a> that the U.S. urgently needs to mitigate climate change. </p>
<h2>Did the debt ceiling agreement significantly change the NEPA process?</h2>
<p>Many of the changes are little more than tweaks. Others codify long-standing practices based on how the Council on Environmental Quality, agencies and courts implement the law. </p>
<p>One notable change is requiring a single lead agency and a single environmental impact statement for projects, even when those projects require multiple agency approvals. There also are some new time and page limits. For example, environmental impact statements will be required to be completed within two years and be no more that 150 pages long for most projects, and 300 pages for the most complex projects. </p>
<p>There also are some changes to definitions, such as what constitutes a “major federal action,” that narrow NEPA’s scope to some degree, although it will take time to sort out their meaning. Overall, we do not see these changes as a major overhaul of NEPA. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A dredge deposits crushed shells off a floating platform." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530437/original/file-20230606-19-3i9hzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers places crushed shells in Maryland’s Tred Avon River as part of efforts to restore the Chesapeake Bay’s historic oyster reefs. After a 2009 NEPA review spotlighted risks associated with the proposed use of disease-resistant imported Chinese oysters, native oysters were used instead.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/QosdpW">Sean Fritzges, U.S. Army/Flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Will the changes speed up work on clean energy systems?</h2>
<p>Maybe, but not nearly as much as needed. First, NEPA applies to projects that need federal funding or approval, such as under the Endangered Species Act. Getting that money or agency green light can also involve delays and litigation independent of the NEPA review.</p>
<p>Second, many state and local laws can affect large renewable energy projects, and those statutes can also be used to slow projects down. The bottom line is that to move the needle, politicians will have to do more to reform the project review process.</p>
<p>The debt ceiling agreement left several big questions unaddressed. They include <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-needs-a-macrogrid-to-move-electricity-from-areas-that-make-it-to-areas-that-need-it-155938">where to build high-voltage electric transmission lines</a>; which <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-outlines-roadmap-continued-renewable-energy-progress-public-lands">federal public lands and offshore waters</a> can be used for power lines and renewable power production; and where to <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-is-worried-about-its-critical-minerals-supply-chains-essential-for-electric-vehicles-wind-power-and-the-nations-defense-157465">mine for essential minerals</a>.
Beyond those immediate priorities, if carbon sequestration technology can be developed and scaled up, the U.S. will need an enormous <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-carbon-capture-and-storage-epas-new-power-plant-standards-proposal-gives-it-a-boost-but-ccs-is-not-a-quick-solution-205462">buildout of carbon capture and storage infrastructure</a> to meet net-zero goals. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e0yWihp9RGg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">As renewable energy scales up in the U.S., local opposition could impede some utility-scale projects.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All of these involve incredibly complex permitting processes, and tweaking NEPA won’t change that. Other hot-button issues – including federal preemption of state and local laws, impacts on Native American cultural lands, and environmental justice – will make further permitting reforms politically difficult. </p>
<p>Even this first small measure was hotly contested, and happened now only because it was tied to the debt limit legislation. As the inclusion of federal approval for the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/05/31/debt-deal-mountain-valley-pipeline/">Mountain Valley gas pipeline</a> in the debt ceiling agreement shows, in politics you need a quid in exchange for a quo. We expect to see a lot more deal-making if Congress takes permitting reform seriously.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207164/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>J.B. Ruhl is Of Counsel to Smith-Robertson, a law firm located in Austin, Texas that occasionally provides Endangered Species Act, NEPA, and other environmental compliance counseling to infrastructure development projects, including wind power production facilities. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Salzman serves on the board of the Environmental Defense Center, an environmental advocacy group on the central coast of California.</span></em></p>Do environmental reviews improve projects or delay them and drive up costs? Two legal scholars explain how the law works and how it could influence the ongoing transition to renewable energy.J.B. Ruhl, Professor of Law, Director, Program on Law and Innovation, and Co-director, Energy, Environment and Land Use Program, Vanderbilt UniversityJames Salzman, Professor of Environmental Law, University of California, Los AngelesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2063912023-05-26T12:27:25Z2023-05-26T12:27:25ZEuropean soccer is having another reckoning over racism – is it time to accept the problem goes beyond bad fans?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528427/original/file-20230525-15-uk63av.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C0%2C7679%2C5131&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vinícius Júnior is making the point, but are soccer's governing bosses getting it?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vinicius-junior-of-real-madrid-reacts-after-receiving-news-photo/1492456442?adppopup=true">Aitor Alcalde Colomer/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After suffering <a href="https://apnews.com/article/vinicius-junior-racism-effigy-arrests-bc445cb4a08441238d1975bd44e137a6">months of racial abuse</a> on the field <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/football/vinicius-jr-effigy-real-madrid-atletico-spt-intl/index.html">and off</a>, Brazilian soccer star Vinícius Júnior had enough.</p>
<p>On May 21, 2023, the Real Madrid forward – commonly seen <a href="https://www.goal.com/en-us/lists/ballon-dor-2023-power-rankings/blt51e9eccbef548b72#cs2b89f3769dac96ed">as one of the best soccer players</a> in the world – brought a halt to a game at Valencia’s Mestalla Stadium, pointing to fans who were making blatantly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/may/21/vinicius-junior-sent-off-for-brawl-after-alleged-racism-by-valencia-fans">racist remarks and gestures</a>. </p>
<p>He later made it clear that this was not an isolated event: “It was not the first time, nor the second, nor the third. Racism is normal in La Liga,” <a href="https://twitter.com/vinijr/status/1660379570149683200">he tweeted</a> in reference to the Spanish top division. “The competition considers it normal, the federation considers it normal and the rivals encourage it.”</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://my.vanderbilt.edu/johnsloop/">soccer scholar</a> whose latest book includes analysis of how players, fans and the game’s governing bodies have <a href="https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817394547/soccers-neoliberal-pitch/">responded to the Black Lives Matter</a> movement, I believe the latest incident points to how difficult it is to change fan behavior when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2013.801262">racism remains institutionalized</a> in the sport itself. While it is true that teams and leagues have made progress in signaling their lack of tolerance for racist behavior, there remain systemic problems working against real progress – not least the <a href="https://andscape.com/features/where-are-the-black-managers-in-european-club-soccer/">lack of Black representation</a> in management positions.</p>
<h2>Deep roots of soccer racism</h2>
<p>Soccer has a <a href="https://brockpress.com/2023/04/11/soccer-and-its-long-history-with-racism/">long-established racism problem</a>. Black players throughout the decades attest to both abuse by fans – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/learning/lesson-of-the-day-when-the-monkey-chants-are-for-you-a-soccer-stars-view-of-racist-abuse.html">monkey chants are still common</a> during games in parts of Europe – as well as more subtle forms of discrimination, such as <a href="https://thesporting.blog/blog/jack-leslie-dropped-from-the-england-squad-for-being-black">being left out of national squads</a> or <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-12097859/John-Barnes-says-black-football-managers-unfairly-treated-remarkable-comment-race.html">overlooked for coaching positions</a>.</p>
<p>Black Brazilians such as Vinícius and <a href="https://theconversation.com/pele-a-global-superstar-and-cultural-icon-who-put-passion-at-the-heart-of-soccer-197097">stretching back to Pelé</a> have been subjected to racism both overseas and at home. Indeed, as <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2004/08/how-soccer-explains-world-2/">soccer writer Franklin Foer</a> has pointed out, in the early days of Brazilian soccer Black people were not allowed to play for professional clubs or the national team. Even when finally accepted, some of the star Black players like <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/70531-profiles-of-the-great-and-good-arthur-friedenreich-the-original-black-pearl">Arthur Freidenreich</a> and Joaquim Prado would <a href="https://thesefootballtimes.co/2015/01/10/how-football-and-race-shaped-brazil/">straighten their hair and attempt to lighten their skin</a> in the hope of gaining popularity.</p>
<p>While there has been great change since such times, the roots of subtle and overt racism facing Black soccer players run deep – be it in their home countries or playing for prestigious European clubs.</p>
<h2>Soccer’s Black Lives Matter moment</h2>
<p>While one can argue that there have always been minor attempts to address racism in soccer, it has only really been in the last decade that such efforts have gained steam. And it has been geared very much toward changing attitudes among fans.</p>
<p>For example, in England, the Football Association has long partnered with anti-racist group <a href="https://www.kickitout.org/">Kick It Out</a> to create programs and punishments for racist fan behavior. Meanwhile, <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2755921-why-spanish-football-needs-to-do-more-to-combat-racism">the Royal Spanish Football Association</a> has codes for applying financial penalties against clubs with racist fans.</p>
<p>Such anti-racist efforts and messaging increased as part of a more general societal reckoning over racism after the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">killing in the U.S. of George Floyd</a> by a police officer in 2020.</p>
<p>Soccer authorities – usually <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/sports/soccer/german-player-protest-armbands-world-cup.html">wary of political statements</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-fifa-protests/politics-and-protest-in-sport-have-fifas-rules-changed-idUSKBN2BI2FN">quick to punish players</a> who display protest slogans on shirts – by and large <a href="https://www.si.com/soccer/2020/06/02/george-floyd-tributes-players-fifa-statement">allowed players free expression</a> in regard to Floyd’s killing and the protests it sparked.</p>
<p>Indeed, after restarting a pandemic-struck season in June 2020, the English Premier League promoted <a href="https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37586955/premier-league-display-no-room-racism-black-lives-matter-kits">an active Black Lives Matter campaign</a>. This included “Black Lives Matter” patches on uniforms – although <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/black-lives-matter-premier-league-22662960">patches were later amended</a> to read “No Room for Racism” – and allowing the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-53098516">taking of the knee</a> before games. Three years on, many players and teams <a href="https://www.sportingnews.com/us/soccer/news/why-premier-league-teams-players-taking-knee/khhgbxnprt5ngoz5jaezdjtu">still take a knee</a> before games throughout England.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Soccer players in yellow and blue and white, and a referee in black, all kneel on the grass." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528420/original/file-20230525-29-zjbd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528420/original/file-20230525-29-zjbd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528420/original/file-20230525-29-zjbd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528420/original/file-20230525-29-zjbd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528420/original/file-20230525-29-zjbd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528420/original/file-20230525-29-zjbd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528420/original/file-20230525-29-zjbd8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Players and officials in the U.K. regularly ‘take the knee’ before games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/referee-tim-robinson-and-players-take-a-knee-ahead-of-the-news-photo/1247335754?adppopup=true">John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But it hasn’t stopped the abuse. In 2020, while players on the pitch were presenting a unified front against anti-Black racism, British Home Office Minister Susan Williams observed that racist incidents had risen for the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jan/30/football-related-racist-incidents-sharp-rise-police-kick-it-out">third year in a row</a>.</p>
<p>Soccer leagues in southern Europe <a href="https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817394547/soccers-neoliberal-pitch/">tended to leave it to clubs and individuals</a> to respond to the Black Lives Matter movement, rather than having any blanket policies akin to that of the English Football Association.</p>
<p>But again, it appears to have had little effect on crowd racism.</p>
<p>Italian soccer continues to garner a <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/its-2021-and-italian-football-is-still-racist-af">reputation for racism</a> among its fan base. While examples are numerous, the most recent cases include <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/samuel-umtiti-lazio-racism-infantino-28878713">verbal attacks against Lecce defender</a> Samuel Umtiti and forward Lameck Banda <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/05/football/gianni-infantino-italy-racism-football-spt-intl/index.html">while playing at Lazio</a>, and racists taunts against Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2023/4/5/romelu-lukaku-racism-inter-milan-juventus-italian-football">after he scored</a> against Juventus in a Copa Italia semifinal.</p>
<p>In Spain, after the latest Vinícius incident, football federation chief Luis Rubiales <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/spanish-football-admits-it-has-racism-problem-after-vinicius-incident-2023-05-22/">acknowledged that racism</a> was a problem in the league. It would be hard not to: The abuse of May 21 was <a href="https://onefootball.com/en/news/if-vinicius-tells-me-he-doesnt-want-to-play-ill-leave-too-real-madrid-star-after-more-racism-37530066">at least the 10th</a> racist incident against the Brazilian star that Real Madrid has reported to the league this season.</p>
<p>The diplomatic fallout of the Vinícius abuse – Brazil <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/spanish-football-admits-it-has-racism-problem-after-vinicius-incident-2023-05-22/">summoned the Spanish ambassador</a>, and Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sports/soccer/christ-redeemer-statue-displays-support-vinicius-jr-against-racism-2023-05-22/">was shrouded in darkness</a> in protest – has reignited discussion of what action needs to be taken to stamp out racism in the game.</p>
<p>Spanish police have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/vinicius-junior-racism-effigy-arrests-bc445cb4a08441238d1975bd44e137a6">made several arrests</a> over Vinícius’ abuse. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65691729#:%7E:text=Valencia%20have%20also%20been%20fined,that%20part%20of%20the%20sanction.">La Liga has fined Valencia</a> – the team Real Madrid was playing – 45,000 euros (US$48,000) and closed a portion of the stadium for the next five games.</p>
<p>But given how persistent crowd racism has been in the face of numerous attempts to challenge it, I believe it is fair to ask if such disciplinary actions will have any real impact now.</p>
<h2>Counter-cosmopolitanism</h2>
<p>Continued racism in European soccer comes despite a rise in soccer’s “cosmopolitanism” culture. Prior to the 1990s, Black players in the top European leagues were relatively few and far between – especially in countries where nonwhite players <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-apartheid-european-racism-and-pele-helped-cultivate-a-culture-of-diversity-in-us-soccer-that-endures-into-the-mls-197172">would fear being subjected to racist taunts</a> from their own supporters, as well as the opposition’s.</p>
<p>But modern-day fans have long become accustomed to supporting a racially diverse team. So why does racism in stadiums persist? Political scientist and sociologists <a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/polisci/people/faculty/andymark.html">Andrei Markovits and Lars Rensmann</a> point out in “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691162034/gaming-the-world">Gaming the World</a>” that the rise in cosmopolitanism on the field is not reflected in the stands – that is, in European leagues, the makeup of fan bases is not as diverse as that of the team they go to cheer on. Markovits and Rensmann argue that what we are witnessing in the stands is a kind of “counter-cosmopolitanism” in which the “other” is treated with anger and suspicion because they are deemed to threaten the stable sense of identity of some fans.</p>
<p>If the racial makeup of teams is not reflective of the fan base, it also isn’t reflected in management, or among the people who govern the sport.</p>
<p>Analysis <a href="https://andscape.com/features/where-are-the-black-managers-in-european-club-soccer/">conducted in May 2022</a> found that of the 98 clubs that played in the five most prestigious European leagues – the English Premier League, La Liga, and Italy’s Seria A, along with Germany’s Bundesliga and France’s Ligue 1 – only two had Black managers. La Liga had none, <a href="https://www.transfermarkt.us/primera-division/trainervergleich/wettbewerb/ES1">and still doesn’t</a>.</p>
<h2>Failing the Sterling standard</h2>
<p>As England striker Raheem Sterling <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jun/09/raheem-sterling-english-football-black-managers-campbell-cole">noted in a 2020 interview</a>: “There’s something like 500 players in the Premier League and a third of them are Black, and we have no representation of us in the hierarchy, no representation of us in the coaching staffs.”</p>
<p>While there is certainly some merit in the actions being taken in Spain to address behavior in the stands in the aftermath of the latest Vinícius incident, there is an argument that it is too little, too late. Moreover, it does little to address more institutionalized racism in the game. And to date, anti-racism programs and fines have failed to stamp out racism in soccer.</p>
<p>As Sterling noted, “When there’s more Black people in positions, when I can have someone from a Black background … (to) be able to go to in the [Football Association] with a problem I have within the club – these will be the times that I know that change is happening.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206391/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John M Sloop does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Anti-racist programs and fines have failed to end racism in European soccer. Part of the problem is that Black players have little representation higher up the sport’s hierarchy.John M Sloop, Professor of Communication Studies, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2011492023-03-29T12:28:19Z2023-03-29T12:28:19ZBrains also have supply chain issues – blood flows where it can, and neurons must make do with what they get<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516713/original/file-20230321-20-at1818.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1921%2C1561&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Blood carries oxygen and vital nutrients to the brain.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/cerebral-angiography-image-from-fluoroscopy-in-royalty-free-image/1473413961">Mr. Suphachai Praserdumrongchai/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.818685">Neuroscientists have long assumed</a> that neurons are greedy, hungry units that demand more energy when they become more active, and the circulatory system complies by providing as much blood as they require to fuel their activity. Indeed, as neuronal activity increases in response to a task, blood flow to that part of the brain increases even more than its rate of energy use, leading to a surplus. This increase is the basis of common <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.818685">functional imaging technology</a> that generates colored maps of brain activity.</p>
<p>Scientists used to interpret this apparent mismatch in blood flow and energy demand as evidence that there is no shortage of blood supply to the brain. The idea of a nonlimited supply was based on the observation that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fjcbfm.2013.181">only about 40% of the oxygen</a> delivered to each part of the brain is used – and this percentage actually drops as parts of the brain become more active. It seemed to make evolutionary sense: The brain would have evolved this faster-than-needed increase in blood flow as a safety feature that guarantees sufficient oxygen delivery at all times.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B10pc0Kizsc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Functional magnetic resonance imaging is one of several ways to measure the brain.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But does blood distribution in the brain actually support a demand-based system? <a href="https://scholar.google.com.br/citations?user=cldyZo8AAAAJ&hl=en">As a neuroscientist myself</a>, I had previously examined a number of other assumptions about the most basic facts about brains and found that they didn’t pan out. To name a few: Human brains <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.21974">don’t have 100 billion neurons</a>, though they do <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnana.2014.00046">have the most cortical neurons</a> of any species; the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa9101">degree of folding of the cerebral cortex</a> does not indicate how many neurons are present; and it’s not larger animals that live longer, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/cne.24564">those with more neurons in their cortex</a>.</p>
<p>I believe that figuring out what determines blood supply to the brain is essential to understanding how brains work in health and disease. It’s like how cities need to figure out whether the current electrical grid will be enough to support a future population increase. Brains, like cities, only work if they have enough energy supplied.</p>
<h2>Resources as highways or rivers</h2>
<p>But how could I test whether blood flow to the brain is truly demand-based? My freezers were stocked with preserved, dead brains. How do you study energy use in a brain that is not using energy anymore?</p>
<p>Luckily, the brain leaves behind evidence of its energy use through the pattern of the vessels that distribute blood throughout it. I figured I could look at the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.760887">density of capillaries</a> – the thin, one-cell-wide vessels that transfer gases, glucose and metabolites between brain and blood. These capillary networks would be preserved in the brains in my freezers.</p>
<p>A demand-based brain should be comparable to a road system. If arteries and veins are the major highways that carry goods to the town of specific parts of the brain, capillaries are akin to the neighborhood streets that actually deliver goods to their final users: individual neurons and the cells that work with them. Streets and highways are built on demand, and a road map shows what a demand-based system looks like: Roads are often concentrated in parts of the country where there are more people – the energy-guzzling units of society.</p>
<p>In contrast, a supply-limited brain should look like the river beds of a country, which couldn’t care less about where people are located. Water will flow where it can, and cities just have to adjust and make do with what they can get. Chances are, cities will form in the vicinity of the main arteries – but absent major, purposeful remodeling, their growth and activities are limited by how much water is available.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Microscopy image of astrocytes contacting a capillary" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516731/original/file-20230321-2166-um4qs4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This image shows astrocytes, a type of brain cell, contacting a ravinelike capillary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/astrocyte-in-the-brain-touching-a-capillary-250x-royalty-free-image/152883277">Ed Reschke/Stone via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Would I find that capillaries are concentrated in parts of the brain with more neurons and supposedly require more energy, like streets and highways built in a demand-based manner? Or would I find that they are more like creeks and streams that permeate the land where they can, oblivious to where the most people are, in a supply-driven manner?</p>
<p>What I found was clear evidence for the latter. For <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.760887">both mice</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.821850">and rats</a>, capillary density makes up a meager 2% to 4% of brain volume, regardless of how many neurons or synapses are present. Blood flows in the brain like water down rivers: where it can, not where it is needed.</p>
<p>If blood flows regardless of need, this implies that the brain actually uses blood as it is supplied. We found that the tiny variations in capillary density across different parts of dead rat brains matched perfectly with the rates of blood flow and energy use in the same parts of other living rat brains that researchers measured 15 years prior. </p>
<h2>Resolving blood flow and energy demand</h2>
<p>Could the specific density of capillaries in each part of the brain be so limiting that it dictates how much energy that part uses? And would that apply to the brain as a whole?</p>
<p>I partnered with my colleague <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=18-0e2EAAAAJ&hl=en">Doug Rothman</a> to answer these questions. Together, we discovered that not only do both human and rat brains do what they can with what blood they get and typically work at about 85% capacity, but overall brain activity is indeed <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.818685">dictated by capillary density</a>, all else being equal. </p>
<p>The reason why only 40% of the oxygen supplied to the brain actually gets used is because this is the maximum amount that can be exchanged as blood flows by – like workers trying to pick up items on an assembly line going too fast. Local arteries can deliver more blood to neurons if they start using slightly more oxygen, but this comes at the cost of diverting blood away from other parts of the brain. Since gas exchange was already near full capacity to begin with, the fraction of oxygen extraction seems to even drop with a slight increase in delivery.</p>
<p>From afar, energy use in the brain may look demand-based – but it really is supply-limited.</p>
<h2>Blood supply influences brain activity</h2>
<p>So why does any of this matter?</p>
<p>Our findings offer a possible explanation for why the brain can’t truly multitask – only quickly alternate between focuses. Because blood flow to the entire brain is tightly regulated and remains essentially constant throughout the day as you alternate between activities, our research suggests that any part of the brain that experiences an increase in activity – because you start doing math or playing a song, for example – can only get slightly more blood flow at the expense of diverting blood flow from other parts of the brain. Thus, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1183614">inability to do two things at the same time</a> might have its origins in blood flow to the brain being supply-limited, not demand-based. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="MRI brain scan images" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516735/original/file-20230321-2077-i19xsb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A better understanding of how the brain works could offer insights into human behavior and disease.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/brain-scan-close-up-royalty-free-image/sb10069835m-001">Peter Dazeley/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our findings also offer insight into aging. If neurons must make do with what energy they can get from a mostly constant blood supply, then the parts of the brain with the highest densities of neurons will be the first to be affected when there is a shortage – just like the largest cities feel the pain of a drought before smaller ones. </p>
<p>In the cortex, the parts with the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2022.821850">highest neuron densities</a> are the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. These areas are involved in short-term memory and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1212%2F01.wnl.0000106462.72282.90">first to suffer in aging</a>. More research is needed to test whether the parts of the brain most vulnerable to aging and disease are the ones with the greatest number of neurons packed together and competing for a limited blood supply. </p>
<p>If it’s true that capillaries, like neurons, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2019.05.010">last a lifetime</a> in humans as they do in lab mice, then they may play a bigger role in brain health than expected. To make sure your brain neurons remain healthy in old age, taking care of the capillaries that keep them supplied with blood may be a good bet. The good news is that there are two proven ways to do this: a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archneurol.2011.548">healthy diet</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103046">exercise</a>, which are never too late to begin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suzana Herculano-Houzel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Neuroscientists have typically thought of energy supply to the brain as demand-based. A supply-limited view offers another perspective toward aging and why multitasking can be difficult.Suzana Herculano-Houzel, Associate Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2016232023-03-16T12:30:57Z2023-03-16T12:30:57ZTennessee’s drag ban rehashes old culture war narratives<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515517/original/file-20230315-26-vndw56.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C10%2C3484%2C2315&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A drag queen reads to a group of parents and kids at a library in Los Angeles in July 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protest-against-the-drag-queen-story-hour-event-at-welling-news-photo/1411832510?phrase=drag story hour&adppopup=true">Guy Smallman/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tennessee recently <a href="https://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/113/Amend/HA0011.pdf">passed legislation</a> that bans drag from being performed in public spaces, as well as in the view of children. Although Tennessee is the first state to enact such a ban, it is unlikely to be the last, as others with conservative legislatures are <a href="https://apnews.com/article/drag-queens-tennessee-bill-legislation-3ed2ddd0e8231819ade5d0c8b9f4c30a">currently considering similar action</a>. Some states proposing bans have <a href="https://time.com/6260421/tennessee-limiting-drag-shows-status-of-anti-drag-bills-u-s/">explicitly targeted Drag Story Hour</a>, which involves drag performers reading books to children in public spaces such as libraries. </p>
<p>So why does the American public suddenly need to be protected from drag? </p>
<p>The answer to this question has deep roots in modern U.S. history. </p>
<p>Tennessee’s ban on drag is not an isolated event. Rather, it is only the latest volley in the broader culture war between American conservatives and progressives to define the values of the country. </p>
<h2>A centurylong war</h2>
<p>In 1991, sociologist <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=KTiTxl-rY9AC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=hunter+culture+wars&ots=JugnjdouL-&sig=kjjT85c8xRa2dA78R71MPjWaJYY#v=onepage&q=hunter%20culture%20wars&f=false">James Davison Hunter</a> alerted Americans that the nation was in the midst of a perpetual culture war that would “continue to have reverberations not only within public policy but within the lives of ordinary Americans everywhere.” </p>
<p>Examples of early culture war battles include the 1925 <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties/scopes-trial">Scopes Monkey Trial</a>, in which a Tennessee high school science teacher was prosecuted for violating anti-evolution laws, and the 1962 <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/engel-v-vitale/">Supreme Court ruling</a> that deemed school-sponsored prayer unconstitutional. </p>
<p>Culture war conflict came to a head in the 1980s and 1990s, with Senate hearings over the perceived dangers of <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/dee-snider-on-pmrc-hearing-i-was-a-public-enemy-71205/">heavy metal music</a> and obscenity in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1994/05/10/pop-culture-takes-the-rap-as-congress-battles-violence/96d62842-7f04-415e-8a40-e21e17e80750/">rap music</a>.</p>
<p>Social scientists largely thought the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=IByIDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP8&dq=hartman+a+war+for+the+soul+of+america&ots=wjK0iJJIc7&sig=gIobLQ_e0OfU-LMrWo77TSZ0p_0#v=onepage&q=hartman%20a%20war%20for%20the%20soul%20of%20america&f=false">culture wars had receded</a> at the turn of the 21st century. Then former President Donald Trump’s battle cry to “Make America Great Again” rallied troops back into action.</p>
<p>As Hunter noted in his monumental tome, culture war disputes <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=IByIDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP8&dq=hartman+A+War+for+the+Soul+of+America:+A+History+of+the+Culture+Wars&ots=wjK0gGLQ38&sig=WCz2um1_8hAYro0UDcTjYpQz5Ms#v=onepage&q=hartman%20A%20War%20for%20the%20Soul%20of%20America%3A%20A%20History%20of%20the%20Culture%20Wars&f=false">usually intensify during times of upheaval</a>, such as changes in the country’s demographics and shifts in the distribution of political power. These shifts lead people to wonder exactly whose values, languages, religions and opportunities are respected or promoted by the government, law and popular culture.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, cultural conflict tends to emerge within institutions that have practical implications for Americans’ lives: family, public schools, popular media, public art and law. </p>
<h2>Ripe conditions for a new battle</h2>
<p>The first Drag Story Hour <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/12/first-edition-drag-queen-story-hour">took place in 2015</a>. It was organized by author and queer activist Michelle Tea and the San Francisco-based literacy nonprofit RADAR Productions. The <a href="https://www.dragstoryhour.org/about">official mission</a> of Drag Story Hour is to celebrate “reading through the glamorous art of drag” and create “diverse, accessible, and culturally-inclusive family programming where kids can express their authentic selves.”</p>
<p>Because these performances take place in public spaces and in front of children, they hit upon a couple of important culture war triggers. </p>
<p>First, public performances can spark cultural conflict because they can signify exactly whose values are prioritized over others. Second, art and performances that reach audiences of children are often perceived as a threat to the family as an institution. </p>
<p>For example, in the 1980s, some activists and politicians viewed profane music as a threat to the family. This led to the introduction of <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/2015/10/09/oral-history-tipper-gores-war-explicit-rock-lyrics-dee-snider-373103.html">parental advisory labels</a> to identify music deemed inappropriate for children.</p>
<h2>‘When librarians were nice Christian ladies’</h2>
<p>As social scientists who study gender and culture, we recently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23294965211050019">analyzed reactions to Drag Story Hour</a> that were posted on social media forums. </p>
<p>In our analysis, we found that many grievances centered on institutions and values crucial to the culture wars. </p>
<p>We found that conservatives reminisced about a time when their values were dominant in American society and rehashed old culture war narratives about “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Threatened_Children/8VIg9STL-wUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=best+threatened+children&printsec=frontcover">threatened children</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Group of protesters hold signs with text reading 'groomer.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515519/original/file-20230315-22-4l4pl1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many opponents of Drag Story Hour claim that the events endanger kids by ‘grooming’ them to be sexually exploited.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protest-against-the-drag-queen-story-hour-event-at-welling-news-photo/1411832510?phrase=drag%20story%20hour&adppopup=true">Guy Smallman/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>They specifically expressed nostalgia for a time when American culture was anchored by conservative values, and progressive views existed on the periphery of public life. As one forum member lamented, “When I was a kid, the librarians were nice Christian ladies and there was an American flag outside. My current public library [has] scary levels of liberal posters and talks.”</p>
<p>Some conservatives also used rhetoric reminiscent of the “<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Satanic_Panic.html?id=abJqF8csPrQC">Satanic Panic</a>” of the 1980s and 1990s by claiming that drag performers were satanic pedophiles who sought to recruit, groom and sexually abuse children. Others argued that parents who take their children to Drag Story Hour should be jailed or lose their parental rights.</p>
<h2>The safety of children as political fodder</h2>
<p>In our view, it’s no accident that Tennessee’s ban on drag specifically targets drag performed in front of children. </p>
<p>Emphasizing threats to children is a well-established strategy for conveying the decline of American culture and values. As sociologists Joel Best and Kathleen Bogle have noted, adults often <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Kids_Gone_Wild/91YTCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=best+bogle+kids+gone+wild&printsec=frontcover">project their anxieties and fears</a> concerning a perceived disintegration of traditional norms onto younger generations, whom they believe need to be shielded.</p>
<p>In the 1970s, anti-gay activist Anita Bryant launched her “Save our Children” campaign. Claiming that gays and lesbians were “recruiting children” to their cause, <a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-transgender-bills-are-latest-version-of-conservatives-longtime-strategy-to-rally-their-base-158296">she successfully pressed voters to oppose</a> anti-discrimination statutes.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white photo of woman speaking at a microphone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/515542/original/file-20230315-2388-69ahd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In today’s opposition to Drag Story Hour, there are echoes of the rhetoric of anti-gay activist Anita Bryant.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/anita-bryant-is-near-tears-as-several-hundred-demonstrators-news-photo/515123282?phrase=anita%20bryant&adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And in the 1980s, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2008.00169.x">fears over changing family structures</a>, such as rising divorce rates and an influx of working mothers, fueled a moral panic that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-modern-witch-hunt/2015/07/31/057effd8-2f1a-11e5-8353-1215475949f4_story.html">day care staffers were ritualistically abusing children</a>.</p>
<p>Almost half a century later, fears regarding advancements in LGBTQ+ rights have <a href="https://apnews.com/article/florida-dont-say-gay-law-signed-56aee61f075a12663f25990c7b31624d">produced legislation restricting discussions of gender identity</a> in schools and stoked claims that drag performers are satanists who terrorize children.</p>
<p>The deployment of these well-worn narratives is unlikely to end with legislation such as Tennessee’s drag ban. Rather, it will continue as long as conservatives and progressives battle to define American values.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201623/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Emphasizing threats to children is a well-worn refrain among those worried about the decline of American culture and values.Heather Hensman Kettrey, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Clemson UniversityAlyssa J. Davis, PhD Student in Sociology, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1889562023-03-13T12:26:33Z2023-03-13T12:26:33ZSmell is the crucial sense that holds ant society together, helping the insects recognize, communicate and cooperate with one another<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513805/original/file-20230306-20-apwc3a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1224%2C2696%2C1582&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ants from different colonies will fight based on smell alone.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joseph Howell, Vanderbilt University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ants can be found in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04218-4">nearly every location on Earth</a>, with rough estimates suggesting there are <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29281253">over 10 quadrillion individuals</a> – that is a 1 followed by 16 zeroes, or about 1 million ants per person. Ants are among the most biologically successful animals on the planet. </p>
<p>A surprising part of their evolutionary success is the amazing sense of smell that lets them recognize, communicate and cooperate with one another.</p>
<p>Ants live in complex colonies, sometimes referred to as nests, that are home to <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393067040">a wide range of social interactions</a>. Here, one or more queens are responsible for all the reproduction within that colony. The vast majority of colony members are female workers – sisters that never mate or reproduce and live only to serve the group.</p>
<p>Ants need to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-022-01505-x">defend their colony</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0052219">seek food</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/690840">take care of offspring</a>. To accomplish these tasks some ant species domesticate other insects, while others create agricultural systems, harvesting leaves from which they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/661128">grow edible fungal gardens</a>. Successfully coordinating all these intricate tasks requires reliable and secure communication among nestmates.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PrNrnI8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">We</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=IZUwOQ0AAAAJ">are</a> biologists who study the remarkable sensory abilities of ants. <a href="https://lab.vanderbilt.edu/zwiebel-lab/">Our recent work</a> shows how their societies depend on the exchange of reliable information which, if disrupted, spells doom for their colonies.</p>
<h2>Unique scents</h2>
<p>Human communication relies primarily on verbal and visual cues. We usually identify our friends by the sound of their voice, the appearance of their face or the clothes they wear. Ants, however, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.215400">rely primarily on their acute sense of smell</a>. </p>
<p>An exterior shell, known as an exoskeleton, encases an ant’s body. This greasy coat carries a unique scent that varies from individual to individual and gives each ant a <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674040755">unique odor signature that other ants can detect</a>. This odor signature can communicate important information. </p>
<p>The queen, for example, will smell slightly different from a worker, and thus receive special treatment within the colony. Importantly, ants from different colonies will smell slightly different from one another. The detection and decoding of these differences is <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00191">vital for colony defense</a> and can trigger aggressive turf wars between colonies when ants catch a whiff of intruders.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-ZFWVCkBcxI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Interactions between nestmates are friendly. But when ants sniff out enemy non-nestmates, there is rapid and deadly aggression. Produced by the Zwiebel Lab, Vanderbilt University, filmed by Stephen Ferguson.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For ants and other insects, receiving chemical information begins when an odor enters the small hairs located along their antennae. These hairs are hollow and contain <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2014.10.006">special receptors, called chemosensory neurons</a>, that sort and send the chemical information to the ant’s brain. </p>
<p>Odors, such as those given off from an ant’s greasy coat, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.215400">act like chemical “keys</a>.” Ants can smell these odor keys only if they are inserted into the correct set of chemosensory neuron “locks.” A neuronal lock remains shut to any odors except its particular key. When the correct key binds to the correct neuronal lock, though, the receptor sends a complex message to the brain. The ant’s brain is able to decode this sensory information to make decisions that ultimately lead to cooperation between nestmates – or battles between non-nestmates. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514327/original/file-20230308-22-8r9eol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Tupperware container filled with ants. Three test tubes with cotton stoppers appear to hold water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514327/original/file-20230308-22-8r9eol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514327/original/file-20230308-22-8r9eol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514327/original/file-20230308-22-8r9eol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514327/original/file-20230308-22-8r9eol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514327/original/file-20230308-22-8r9eol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514327/original/file-20230308-22-8r9eol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/514327/original/file-20230308-22-8r9eol.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A colony of carpenter ants (<em>Camponotus floridanus</em>) reared in the Zwiebel Lab at Vanderbilt University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">LJ Zwiebel, Vanderbilt University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Changing the locks</h2>
<p>To better understand how ants detect and communicate information, we use laboratory tools such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.215400">precisely targeted drugs</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2017.06.051">genetic</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2017.07.001">engineering</a> to manipulate their sense of smell. We are especially interested in what happens when an ant’s sense of smell goes wrong. </p>
<p>For example, when we prevent an odor “key” from opening a chemosensory “lock,” it prevents the chemical information from reaching the brain. This would be like plugging your nose or standing in a completely dark room – no scents or sights would register. We can also open all the “locks” at the same time, which floods the neurons with too many messages. Both of these scenarios dramatically compromise an ant’s ability to detect and receive accurate information.</p>
<p>When we messed with ants’ sense of smell – whether shutting down or flooding their odor receptors – we found <a href="https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.215400">they no longer attacked non-nestmates</a>. Instead, they became less aggressive. In the absence of clear information, ants exercised restraint and opted to accept rather than attack their fellow ant. Put another way, ants ask questions first and shoot later. </p>
<p>We believe this social restraint is hard-wired and gives ants an evolutionary advantage. When you live in a colony with tens of thousands of sisters, a simple case of mistaken identity or miscommunication could lead to deadly infighting and societal chaos, which is potentially very costly.</p>
<p>When ants in our experiments lose their sense of smell, and their ability to detect accurate information becomes compromised, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2017.06.051">they no longer stick together</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2017.07.001">in a cohesive colony</a>. </p>
<p>Not only do they fail to recognize and attack foes, they also stop cooperating with their friends. Without nurses to take care of the young or foragers to collect food, the eggs dry up and the queen goes hungry. </p>
<p>We discovered that without an accurate means of communicating and receiving chemical information, ant societies collapse and the colony quickly dies. Miscommunication or the lack of accurate information <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/miscommunication-blamed-deadly-u-s-mistake-afghanistan">affects other highly social animals, including humans</a>, as well. For ants, it all depends on their sense of smell.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188956/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurence Zwiebel currently receives funding from the NIH and Vanderbilt University. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Ferguson currently receives funding from the NIH and Vanderbilt University.</span></em></p>Researchers explore what happens when ants can’t properly use smell to detect friend from foe.Laurence Zwiebel, Professor of Biological Sciences and of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt UniversityStephen Ferguson, Postdoctoral Scholar in Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973432023-03-06T13:34:30Z2023-03-06T13:34:30ZSpringing forward into daylight saving time is a step back for health – a neurologist explains the medical evidence, and why this shift is worse than the fall time change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512086/original/file-20230223-5904-84e4k9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5621%2C3677&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Daylight saving time is back again – amid some controversy. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/spring-forward-royalty-free-illustration/900655094?phrase=Daylight%2BSavings%2BTime">billhagolan/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As people in the U.S. prepare to set their clocks ahead one hour on Sunday, March 12, 2023, I find myself bracing for the annual ritual of <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/standard-time-daylight-saving-time-clock-change-sleep-20201031.html">media stories</a> about <a href="https://qz.com/1114163/daylight-saving-time-dst-is-incredibly-disruptive-heres-how-to-reset/">the disruptions to daily routines</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.8780">caused by switching from standard time </a> to daylight saving time. </p>
<p>About one-third of Americans say they don’t look forward to these twice-yearly time changes. And nearly two-thirds <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/11/04/daylight-saving-time-americans-want-stay-permanent">would like to eliminate them completely</a>, compared to 21% who aren’t sure and 16% who would like to keep moving their clocks back and forth. </p>
<p>But the effects go beyond simple inconvenience. Researchers are discovering that “springing ahead” each March is connected with serious negative health effects, including an uptick in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8030404">heart attacks</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.4938">teen sleep deprivation</a>. In contrast, the fall transition back to standard time is not associated with these health effects, as my co-authors and I noted in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2019.3780">2020 commentary</a>.</p>
<p>I’ve studied the pros and cons of these twice-annual rituals for more than five years as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZddlKEoAAAAJ&hl=en">professor of neurology and pediatrics</a> and the director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s sleep division. It’s become clear to me and many of my colleagues that the transition to daylight saving time each spring affects health immediately after the clock change and also for the nearly eight months that <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/health/permanent-daylight-savings-health-harms-wellness/index.html#">Americans remain on daylight saving time</a>.</p>
<h2>The strong case for permanent standard time</h2>
<p>Americans are split on whether they <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/11/04/daylight-saving-time-americans-want-stay-permanent">prefer permanent daylight saving time</a> or <a href="https://apnorc.org/projects/dislike-for-changing-the-clocks-persists/">permanent standard time</a>. </p>
<p>However, the two time shifts – jolting as they may be – are not equal. Standard time most closely approximates natural light, with the sun directly overhead at or near noon. In contrast, during daylight saving time from March until November, the clock change resulting from daylight saving time causes natural light to be present one hour later in the morning and one hour later in the evening according to clock time.</p>
<p>Morning light is essential for helping to set the body’s natural rhythms: It <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36791-5">wakes us up and improves alertness</a>. Morning light also boosts mood – light boxes simulating natural light are prescribed for morning use <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.55.10.890">to treat seasonal affective disorder</a>.</p>
<p>Although the exact reasons why light activates us and benefits our mood are not yet known, this may be due to light’s effects on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10253890.2020.1741543">increasing levels of cortisol</a>, a hormone that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41574-019-0228-0">modulates the stress response</a> or the effect of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-36791-5">light on the amygdala</a>, a part of the brain involved in emotions.</p>
<p>Adolescents also may be <a href="https://theconversation.com/school-start-times-and-screen-time-late-in-the-evening-exacerbate-sleep-deprivation-in-us-teenagers-179178">chronically sleep deprived due to school</a>, sports and social activities. For instance, many <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020006/index.asp">children start school around 8 a.m.</a> or earlier. This means that during daylight saving time, many young people get up and travel to school in pitch darkness.</p>
<p>The body of evidence makes a good case for adopting permanent standard time nationwide, as I testified at a <a href="https://democrats-energycommerce.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/rescheduled-hearing-on-changing-times-revisiting-spring-forward-fall">March 2022 Congressional hearing</a> and argued in a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsac236">recent position statement</a> for the Sleep Research Society. The American Medical Association recently <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-calls-permanent-standard-time">called for permanent standard time</a>. And in late 2022, <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/mexico-abolishes-dst-2022.html#">Mexico adopted permanent standard time,</a>, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/3708301-mexicos-senate-votes-to-end-daylight-saving-time-for-most-of-the-country/">citing benefits to health, productivity and energy savings</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An illustration of two clocks depicting Daylight Savings Time changes: Fall backward, and spring forward." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/446653/original/file-20220215-13-1d96ozk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2023, clocks spring forward one hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 12. They fall back at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 5.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/daylight-saving-time-fall-backward-and-royalty-free-illustration/1356689682?adppopup=true">iam2mai/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>The biggest advantage of daylight saving time is that it provides an extra hour of light in the late afternoon or evening, depending on time of year, for sports, shopping or eating outside. However, exposure to light later into the evening for almost eight months during daylight saving time comes at a price. This extended evening light delays the brain’s release of melatonin, the hormone that promotes drowsiness, which in turn interferes with sleep and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsac236">causes us to sleep less overall</a>.</p>
<p>Because puberty also causes <a href="https://www.neurologylive.com/view/teenage-circadian-rhythm">melatonin to be released later at night</a>, meaning that teenagers have a delay in the natural signal that helps them fall asleep, adolescents are <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.4938">particularly susceptible to sleep problems</a> from the extended evening light. This shift in melatonin during puberty lasts into our 20s.</p>
<h2>The ‘western edge’ effect</h2>
<p>Geography can also make a difference in how daylight saving time affects people. One study showed that people living on the western edge of a time zone, who get light later in the morning and later in the evening, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2019.03.007">got less sleep</a> than their counterparts on the eastern edge of a time zone. </p>
<p>This study found that western-edge residents had higher rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and <a href="https://theconversation.com/breast-cancer-risk-higher-in-western-parts-of-time-zones-is-electric-light-to-blame-85803">breast cancer</a>, as well as lower per capita income and higher health care costs. Other research has found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-16-1029">rates of certain other cancers are higher</a> on the western edge of a time zone. </p>
<p>Scientists believe that these health problems may result from a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.00944">combination of chronic sleep deprivation and “circadian misalignment</a>.” Circadian misalignment refers to a mismatch in timing between our biological rhythms and the outside world. In other words, the timing of daily work, school or sleep routines is based on the clock, rather than on the sun’s rise and set. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/84aWtseb2-4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This video takes a deeper dive – all the way back to 1895 – into the history of daylight saving time.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A brief history of daylight saving time</h2>
<p><a href="https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2017/03/world-war-i-and-daylight-savings-time/">Congress instituted year-round daylight saving time</a> during World War I and World War II, and <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/30/the-year-daylight-saving-time-went-too-far/">once again during the energy crisis</a> of the early 1970s.</p>
<p>The idea was that having extra light later into the afternoon would save energy by decreasing the need for electric lighting. This idea has since been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.03.012">proved largely inaccurate</a>, as heating needs may increase in the morning in the winter, while air conditioning needs can also increase in the late afternoon in the summer.</p>
<p>Another pro-daylight saving argument has been that crime rates drop with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00547">more light at the end of the day</a>. While this has been proved true, the change is very small, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-daylight-saving-time-worth-the-trouble-research-says-no-86739">the health effects appear to outweigh</a> the benefits to society from lower rates of crime.</p>
<p>After World War II, designating the start and end dates for daylight saving time fell to state governments. Because this created many railroad scheduling and safety problems, however, Congress passed the <a href="https://www.transportation.gov/regulations/time-act#">Uniform Time Act in 1966</a>. This law set the nationwide dates of daylight saving time from the last Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October. In 2007, <a href="https://www.bts.gov/geospatial/daylight-savings-time">Congress amended the act</a> to expand the period in which daylight saving time is in effect from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November – dates that remain in effect today.</p>
<p>The Uniform Time Act allows states and territories to opt out of daylight saving time, however. Arizona and Hawaii are on permanent standard time, along with Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and American Samoa. </p>
<p>Now, many other states are considering whether to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/11/04/daylight-saving-time-legislation-fall-back/6233980001/">stop falling back and springing ahead</a>. Several U.S. states have legislation and resolutions under consideration to support permanent standard time, while many others have been or are <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/06/1134562545/daylight-saving-time-permanent-states">considering permanent daylight saving time</a>. Legislation and resolutions for permanent standard time have increased from 15% in 2021 to 31% in 2023. </p>
<p>In March 2022, the U.S. Senate <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/623">passed the Sunshine Protection Act </a> in a bid to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-bill-that-would-make-daylight-savings-time-permanent-2023-2022-03-15/">make daylight saving time permanent</a>. But the House did not move forward with this legislation. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/3880009-bill-to-make-daylight-saving-time-permanent-reintroduced-in-congress/">reintroduced the bill</a> on March 1, 2023. </p>
<p>The spike in activity among states seeking to break from these twice-yearly changes reflects how more people are recognizing the downsides of this practice. Now, it’s up to legislators to decide whether we end the time shift altogether, and to choose permanent standard or daylight saving time.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-daylight-saving-time-is-unhealthy-a-neurologist-explains-175427">originally published on March 10, 2022</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197343/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Beth Ann Malow receives funding from the NIH as well as foundation funding, though none have been related to Daylight Saving Time.</span></em></p>Americans are divided on their preference for daylight saving time versus standard time. But research shows that our bodies fare better when aligned with the natural light of standard time.Beth Ann Malow, Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1971722023-02-21T13:23:43Z2023-02-21T13:23:43ZHow apartheid, European racism and Pelé helped cultivate a culture of diversity in US soccer that endures into Messi-era MLS<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510142/original/file-20230214-24-cmo1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C278%2C2159%2C1567&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Patrick 'Ace' Ntsoelengoe in action for the Toronto Blizzard.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ace-ntsoelengoe-news-photo/515084973?phrase=Ntsoelengoe&adppopup=true">Tony Bock/Toronto Star via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>North America’s <a href="https://insight.balancenow.co/major-league-soccer-how-diverse-is-the-growing-north-american-sports-league/">most diverse</a> <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-ranks-most-diverse-pro-league-north-america-average-age-drops">professional league</a> kicks off on Feb. 21, 2024, as Major League Soccer returns after a winter break.</p>
<p>The league, commonly known as the MLS, has long prided itself as a standard-bearer for racial and national diversity: Last season <a href="https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/mls-features-most-geographically-diverse-youthful-player-pool-in-north-american-">saw players from 81 countries</a> across six continents compete for teams. Members of racial minorities <a href="https://www.tidesport.org/_files/ugd/c01324_24acde5f83f24b99aa481a33138f9cf1.pdf">make up 63% of players and 36% of head coaches</a>, according to the latest diversity scorecard from the University of Central Florida’s <a href="https://www.tidesport.org/">Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport</a>.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://as.vanderbilt.edu/communication/people/john-m-sloop/">soccer scholar</a> and author of the book “<a href="https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817394547/soccers-neoliberal-pitch/">Soccer’s Neoliberal Pitch</a>,” I know that this diversity is in part by design and has deep roots. Indeed, the MLS had, as a model of diversity, an earlier attempt to get Americans to embrace the “beautiful game”: the North American Soccer League, or NASL.</p>
<h2>The fall and rise of the NASL</h2>
<p>Most often remembered for <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/news/pele-leaves-behind-an-everlasting-soccer-legacy-in-america-20221229-WST-413799.html">bringing Pelé to the U.S.</a>, the NASL was arguably the first serious attempt to develop a truly professional “major” soccer league in the country. It <a href="http://www.nasl.com/a-review-of-the-golden-era">ran from 1968 to 1984</a> and peaked in popularity the mid-1970s. </p>
<p>With minimal audiences at the gates and a TV contract that was scrapped early on because of dismal ratings, the league struggled early on. A full dozen of the 17 inaugural teams folded after the first year, leaving just five competing in the second season. Growth was slow – by 1973 there were nine teams, and games had an average attendance of about 6,000 fans.</p>
<p>Most team owners and league commissioner Phil Woosnam believed the NASL needed more sizzle to appeal to an American market. To that end, the league decided to make a number of alterations. Rules were tweaked to increase the number of goals, and more traditional American sports add-ons – tailgating and cheerleaders, for example – were encouraged to help improve the atmosphere.</p>
<p>But the impulse to alter both the substance and meaning of the game had mixed results, at best. Although the NASL was able to enlarge its audience among a subset of fans through these stylistic distractions, others felt alienated by the focus on razzmatazz.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.proquest.com/docview/1850826116/D78711E2A15A4159PQ/1?accountid=14816&parentSessionId=bzak904ZyhMydnGB5V2QipEQSVYr2TE%2FEco5Su5lPBs%3D">Newsweek reported at the time</a>, first-generation immigrants – the demographic expected to make up the supporting base – stayed away. Polls revealed that these traditional soccer supporters perceived the quality of play in the league to be so inferior that they weren’t interested in attending games. </p>
<p>Likewise, European players often found the innovations of the NASL off-putting. After playing his first game for the Portland Timbers, Pat Howard – a former player for the English team Everton – <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781466884007/rocknrollsoccer">found himself thinking</a>, “What kind of football is this? I mean, there were blinking cavalry charges up the wings, ducks behind the goal, firecrackers going on.”</p>
<p>A study commissioned by the NASL convinced the league that it would have to increase the skill level of the game if it hoped to grab the largest possible viewership. And that is when the story of the league’s diversity really takes off.</p>
<h2>A league of nations</h2>
<p>The New York Cosmos, owned by Warner Communications, was one of earliest NASL teams to reach out to international star power, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/31/football/pele-new-york-cosmos-north-america-revolution-spt-intl/index.html#:%7E:text=Pel%C3%A9%20joined%20the%20New%20York,last%20official%20game%20in%201977.&text=He'd%20won%20three%20World,of%20soccer%20in%20North%20America.">luring Pelé out of retirement</a> to play three seasons for a reported US$4.7 million.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A shirtless soccer player talks with Pelé in white jacket, reclining." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510363/original/file-20230215-3402-78jak9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Pelé chats with fellow New York Cosmos player Manoel Maria in 1975.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Pele/dbbe0191e4ef4ae39acab37d715bb58b/photo?Query=Cosmos%20Pele&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=269&currentItemNo=12">AP Photo</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The Cosmos followed the signing by bringing in other global stars, such as Germany’s World Cup winning captain Franz Beckenbauer, Italian Giorgio Chinaglia and Brazilian Carlos Alberto.</p>
<p>Other global stars who signed for different teams included elite global players such as Johan Cruyff, Gerd Müller, Peter Osgood, Bobby Moore, Eusébio and George Best. It represented a who’s who of the soccer world, albeit an aging one.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781466884007/rocknrollsoccer">impact on the league was immediate</a>. It resulted in increased attendances and a higher media profile in the U.S.</p>
<p>It also set a course for rosters featuring players from around the world – and not only through the import of fading stars.</p>
<p>NASL teams needed to strike a balance – and balance their budgets – by searching for players who were talented but also undervalued. And this often meant <a href="https://blacksoccercoaches.org/product/black-pioneers-of-the-north-american-soccer-league-1968-84">bringing in African and African diaspora players</a>. They were aided in their search by overseas racism, both implicit and state-sponsored.</p>
<p>European teams in the 1970s had relatively low numbers of Black players playing in them.</p>
<p>It led players like Trinidad and Tobago’s Leroy DeLeon to choose the NASL rather than sign contracts with European teams. As DeLeon recounted, he decided to join the New York Generals in 1969 <a href="https://blacksoccercoaches.org/product/black-pioneers-of-the-north-american-soccer-league-1968-84">after a recruitment trip</a> to England in which he only saw one Black player, West Ham’s Clyde Best. By contrast, the Washington Darts, the team DeLeon later joined, had seven Trinidadians on the roster. </p>
<h2>Escaping apartheid</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, under the apartheid laws in South Africa, Black and white <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/06/07/how-soccer-defeated-apartheid/">players were prohibited from playing one another</a>. To Black South Africans, the NASL represented a chance to escape the racism of their homeland. </p>
<p>Patrick “Ace” Ntsoelengoe <a href="https://blacksoccercoaches.org/product/black-pioneers-of-the-north-american-soccer-league-1968-84">was one of many Black South Africans who viewed the NASL</a> as being the only route toward international fame. Fellow Black South African Webster Lichaba, who played in Atlanta in the early 1980s, <a href="https://blacksoccercoaches.org/product/black-pioneers-of-the-north-american-soccer-league-1968-84">relished his treatment in the U.S.</a>: “You were allowed to eat in any restaurant; you went into any club if you wanted to; you stayed in any area you wanted to. … It was different, a different lifestyle altogether. You were treated as an equal.” </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A soccer player in a tracksuit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510148/original/file-20230214-28-hxapdk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Kaizer Motaung of the Denver Dynamos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/motaung-kaizer-boy-boy-denver-dynamos-soccer-star-news-photo/162098895?phrase=Kaizer%20Motaung&adppopup=true">Steve Larson/The Denver Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Kaizer Motaung, who played for the Atlanta Chiefs and later returned to South Africa to found the successful Kaizer Chiefs football club, <a href="https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/jsh/article-abstract/47/3/210/217803/Heading-for-the-big-time-South-Africans-and-the">noted</a>: “America was an eye-opener for me. I am in a foreign country, but here are Black people holding high positions being respected worldwide.”</p>
<p>And it wasn’t only Black South Africans who made the move. Apartheid resulted in <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/06/07/how-soccer-defeated-apartheid/">a sporting boycott of South Africa</a>, preventing the country from playing in international games. As such, the NASL represented an opportunity for white South Africans to play in front of a wider audience.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cFKNjHMAAAAJ&hl=en">soccer scholar Chris Bolsmann</a> <a href="https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/jsh/article-abstract/47/3/210/217803/Heading-for-the-big-time-South-Africans-and-the">has noted</a>, both Black and white players later went back to South Africa, energized to act against apartheid and confident of their ability to succeed in joint struggles again racism. </p>
<p>While some overseas players returned home after their playing careers ended, others stayed to help the grassroots game in the U.S. Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/howard/columbia/cng-ho-cf-lincoln-phillips-vg-20210826-asacu3qrl5gw7pqn2j6ed3i5z4-photogallery.html">Lincoln Phillips</a>, who played for the Baltimore Bays, went on to coach Howard University’s men’s soccer team – the first from a historically Black college or university to <a href="https://www.ncaa.com/history/soccer-men/d1">win an NCAA soccer championship in 1974</a> – and later helped found the Black Soccer Coaches Association, an organization designed to help move Black coaches up the administrative ladder in soccer. </p>
<h2>A lasting soccer experiment</h2>
<p>While the North American Soccer League never turned soccer into a religion in the U.S. and was not without its own race issues – not least the gap in wages between predominantly European elite players and cheaper African and Caribbean players – it nonetheless leaves a legacy of diversity in U.S. soccer that continues today.</p>
<p>As soccer author <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Roll-Soccer-American-League/dp/1906850852/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1654289041&sr=8-2">Ian Plenderleith</a> has argued, the NASL was the first soccer experiment of “mixing several ethnic backgrounds” into one team.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197172/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John M Sloop does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Major League Soccer is the most diverse league in the US. Its predecessor, the NASL, led the way.John M Sloop, Professor of Communication Studies, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1961832023-01-11T13:25:55Z2023-01-11T13:25:55ZCollege students who work more hours are less likely to graduate<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500783/original/file-20221213-18915-z6pe3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C30%2C6689%2C4436&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly half of all full-time college students also work.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/high-school-graduates-in-a-row-royalty-free-image/1140162133?phrase=college%20student%20graduation&adppopup=true">SDI Productions via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Students who work while enrolled in college are about 20% less likely to complete their degrees than similar peers who don’t work, a large and meaningful decrease in predicted graduation rates. Among those who do graduate, working students take an average 0.6 of a semester longer to finish. This is mainly because students who work large amounts – over 15 hours a week – take fewer college credits per semester.</p>
<p>These findings come from a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584221140410">new study in AERA Open</a>, a peer-reviewed open-access journal published by the American Education Research Association.</p>
<p>To learn more about how work might affect a student’s chances of graduation, we examined 17 years of data – 2001 to 2017 – from the state of Tennessee. We matched college student records to employment records for about 600,000 students. We compared working students with those who did not work but were otherwise similar in terms of family income, high school GPA, location and demographic characteristics. We also looked at college progress for students who worked during some semesters but not in others, to see whether they were more successful in completing their classes in semesters when they did not work. </p>
<p>Ultimately, we found that working students signed up for about one less credit on average per semester than students who don’t work. This is likely because they had less time available for classes. Students who worked were every bit as successful in their classes after signing up, with similar course completion rates and similar GPAs. But because they signed up for fewer courses, their progression through college was slower, and they were less likely to graduate.</p>
<p>Notably, we did not see a decrease in graduation rates among students who worked smaller amounts, especially less than eight hours per week. These students signed up for similar numbers of credits as their nonworking classmates, and they completed their degrees at similar rates. This suggests that smaller amounts of work may not affect a student’s progress toward graduation.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Working while in college is very common, especially with the <a href="https://collegeaffordability.urban.org/">rising price of college tuition</a> and the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/scott-clayton-report.pdf">burden of student loan debt</a>.</p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_ssa.pdf">estimates</a> show that 43% of full-time students and 81% of part-time students work while enrolled in college. In Tennessee, we found that working is especially common among community college students, first-generation students and students returning to college as adults. </p>
<p>With so many students trying to juggle work and school, colleges and policymakers could take more steps to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07377363.2020.1777381">support working students</a> and <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED547419">help them meet their needs</a>. </p>
<p>If working students take longer to complete college, policymakers could extend access to financial aid for longer periods if needed. For example, students can access federal Pell Grants for only <a href="https://studentaid.gov/help-center/answers/article/is-there-limit-to-how-long-i-can-receive-federal-pell-grant-funds">12 semesters</a>. This may leave some students without an important source of aid if their work causes them to take longer to finish their degree.</p>
<p>Students should be aware of the challenges that work might pose in their college journey. Work may be crucial for paying bills and creating opportunities for professional development. However, when students work 15 hours or more, they could have a more difficult time earning a college degree, which can ultimately enable a person to get a <a href="https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/the-college-payoff/">higher-paying job in the future</a>.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>One important question is whether certain jobs may work better for college students than others. Some research suggests on-campus jobs might be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/07377363.2020.1777381">more convenient</a> and help keep students focused on their classes. Students working in a job related to their major might find real-world connections between their jobs and classes – like a nursing student working in a hospital. Given that work is a necessity for many students, educators can do more to guide students to jobs that might work best for their college success.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196183/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Celeste K. Carruthers received funding from an anonymous foundation to support this research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolyn Heinrich and Walter G. Ecton do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Taking a job while in college may put graduation out of reach for some students.Walter G. Ecton, Assistant Professor of Education Policy, Florida State UniversityCarolyn Heinrich, Professor of Public Policy, Education and Economics, Vanderbilt UniversityCeleste K. Carruthers, Associate Professor of Economics, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.