The Washington Post - USA (2020-10-20)

E2 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20 , 2020

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HEALTH & SCIENCE

SCIENCE NEWS

N ASA’s new moonshot rules:

No fighting and littering. And no

trespassing at historic lunar land-

marks like Apollo 11’s Tranquility

Base.

The space agency released a set

of guidelines last week for its

Artemis moon-landing program,

based on the 1967 Outer Space

Treaty and other agreements. So

far, eight countries have signed

these Artemis Accords.

Founding members include the

United States, Australia, Canada,

Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, United

Arab Emirates and Britain. NASA

Administrator Jim Bridenstine

said he expects more countries to

join the effort to put astronauts

back on the moon by 2024.

It promises to be the largest

coalition for a human spaceflight

program in history, according to

Bridenstine, and is expected to

pave the way for eventual Mars

expeditions.

It’s important not only to travel

to the moon “with our astronauts,

but that we bring with us our

values,” noted NASA’s acting chief

for international and interagency

relations, Mike Gold.

Rule No. 1: Everyone must

come in peace. Other rules:

l Secrecy is banned, and all

launched objects need to be iden-

tified and registered.

l All members agree to pitch in

with astronaut emergencies.

l Space systems must be uni-

versal so that everyone’s equip-

ment is compatible, and scientific

data must be shared.

l Historic sites must be pre-

served, and any resulting space

junk must be properly disposed.

l Rovers and other spacecraft

cannot have their missions jeop-

ardized by others getting too

close.

Violators could be asked to

leave, according to Bridenstine.

The coalition can say, “Look,

you’re in this program with the

rest of us, but you’re not playing

by the same rules,” Bridenstine

said.

The United States is the only

country to put humans on the

moon: 12 men from 1969 through

1972.

Russia is still on the fence. The

country’s space agency chief,

Dmitry Rogozin, said at an Inter-

national Astronautical Congress

virtual meeting that the Artemis

program is U.S.-centric and he

would prefer a model of coopera-

tion akin to the International

Space Station.

China, meanwhile, is out alto-

gether. NASA is prohibited under

law, at least for now, from signing

any bilateral agreements with

China.

— Associated Press

NASA has released new moon guidelines:

No fighting, littering or trespassing

SCIENCE SCAN

Mars may be our nearest plan-

etary neighbor, but there’s much

to learn about how it formed,

whether it ever hosted life and

what its climate and topography

are really like.

To figure out some of those

secrets, NASA’s exploration rov-

ers wander about its rocky, chilly

surface.

But all that harsh terrain can

hamper expensive, critical rover

missions — or consign them to

doom. So NASA is recruiting

regular people to help create a

way for rovers to figure out if

they’re in danger.

AI4Mars, a citizen science

project, puts users to work classi-

fying photos of the Red Planet’s

sandy, dusty surface. It was de-

signed to help NASA’s Mars rov-

ers identify hazardous terrain.

Participants comb through im-

ages of Mars’ surface and label

sandy, soily and rocky terrain and

ID big rocks. The data will be

used to train neural networks

that will eventually help current

and future Mars rovers figure out

where it’s safe to drive in a

system similar to the one self-

driving cars use to avoid road

hazards.

Doing so could help NASA’s

Curiosity and Perseverance rov-

ers, and future Mars exploration

machines, avoid the fate of Spirit,

a Mars rover that got stuck in soft

soil after six years of tooling

around the Red Planet. Though

Spirit outlasted the 90-day mis-

sion scientists had initially

planned, it might have lasted far

longer if not for the inhospitable

Martian terrain. Instead, it was

marooned, and an attempt to

turn it into a stationary science

platform failed.

AI4Mars is overseen by re-

searchers from the NASA Jet

Propulsion Laboratory, but the

vast majority of team members

are ordinary folks at home.

Thus far, about 7,400 volun-

teers have classified over 60,0 00

chunks of terrain — and you can

help. Visit bit.ly/AI4Mars to join

in.

— Erin Blakemore

SPACE

Citizen science project puts people to work

classifying photos of the Red Planet

AI4Mars

Citizen science project

NASA/JPL-CALTECH/MSSS

This mosaic, taken by the Mars Curiosity rover, looks uphill at

Mount Sharp. Spanning the center of the image is an area with

clay-bearing rocks that scientists are eager to explore.

NEIL ARMSTRONG/NASA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Buzz Aldrin carries equipment to the deployment area on the

surface of the moon at Tranquility Base on July 20, 1969. NASA

released a set of guidelines for its Artemis moon-landing program,

based on the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and other agreements.

M ARK FILE

P rice Lake along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina with Grandfather Mountain in the background, seen in October 2016, f eatures
maples and birches along the shore. Scientists say the long-term effects of climate change on fall colors are already apparent.

s an diego — Little Kurt looks
like any other baby horse as he
frolics playfully in his pen. He
isn’t afraid to kick or head-butt an
intruder who gets in his way and,
when he’s hungry, dashes over to
his mother for milk.
But 2-month-old Kurt differs
from every other baby horse of his
kind in one distinct way: He’s a
clone.
The rare, endangered Przewal-
ski’s horse was created from cells
taken from a stallion that had sat
frozen at the San Diego Zoo for 40
years before they were fused with
an egg from a domestic horse.
With the egg’s nucleus re-
moved, ensuring Kurt would be
basically all Przewalski’s horse,
they were implanted in the mare
who would become his mom on
Aug. 6.
The result, officials say, was the
world’s first cloned Przewalski’s
horse.
The zoo sees his birth as a
milestone in efforts to restore the
population of the horse also
known as the Asiatic Wild Horse
or Mongolian Wild Horse. The
small, stocky animals (they stand
only about 4 to 5 feet tall at the
withers) are believed extinct in
the wild and number only about
2,000 in zoos and wildlife habi-
tats. Their limited gene pool puts
them at a reproductive disadvan-
tage.

“This colt is expected to be one

of the most genetically important

individuals of his species,” Bob

Wiese, chief life sciences officer at

San Diego Zoo Global, which op-

erates the zoo, said in a state-

ment. “We are hopeful that he will

bring back genetic variation im-

portant for the future of the Prze-

walski’s horse population.”

Although only 2 months old,

Kurt’s birth was made possible in

1980 when cells were taken from

a 5-year-old stallion and put in

deep freeze at San Diego’s Frozen

Zoo facility. His father died in

1998.

Kurt was named for Kurt Be-

nirschke, who played a key role in

founding the Frozen Zoo with its

extensive research program and

cell cultures.

“A central tenet of the Frozen

Zoo, when it was established by

Dr. Benirschke, was that it would

be used for purposes not possible

at the time,” said Oliver Ryder,

director of genetics at San Diego

Zoo Global.

The zoo worked in collabora-

tion with the California conserva-

tion group Revive & Restore and

the Texas-based company ViaGen

Equine in creating Kurt.

He was born at a veterinary

facility in Texas where he’ll con-

tinue to live with his mother for

most likely another year.

Eventually he’ll be integrated

into the zoo’s Przewalski’s horse

population, where it’s hoped

someday he’ll become a father

himself.

Przewalski’s horses take their

official name from Russian ex-

plorer Nikolai Przewalski, who

found a skull and hide of one and

shared it with a Russian museum.

At one time they ranged

throughout Europe and Asia, ac-

cording to the Smithsonian’s Na-

tional Zoo and Conservation Biol-

ogy Institute. Encroaching hu-

man population and livestock

eventually pushed them out of

Europe and east to parts of Asia

like the Gobi Desert. Outside of

zoos, they exist today only in

reintroduction sites in Mongolia,

China, and Kazakhstan.

According to the Smithsonian,

they are the only true wild horses

left in the world. The institute

maintains wild horse herds in

North America and Australia

don’t count because they are the

ancestors of escaped domesticat-

ed horses.

— Associated Press

4 0-year-old cells used t o clone endangered horse

CHRISTINA SIMMONS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Kurt is the world’s first cloned Przewalski’s horse. He was born at a

veterinary facility in Texas where he’ll live f or a nother year.

BY KAT LONG

In the 19th century, eastern
forests looked very different.
Huge American chestnut trees,
their trunks up to 10 feet in
diameter, dominated forests from
Maine to Mississippi. Their
bright yellow foliage gilded Appa-
lachia every autumn.
Then, a shipment of imported
trees arrived in New York in 1876
carrying a stowaway: Cryphonec-
tria parasitica, a fungus native to
Asia. Within a few decades, the
fungal blight wiped out hundreds
of millions of chestnuts. Oaks,
hickories and red maples took
over, turning yellow autumn for-
ests more scarlet and bronze.
The pattern continues as hu-
man activities transform not just
the health and composition of
forests, but their colors, too. In-
troduced pests, pathogens and
invasive species are causing im-
mediate changes to the fall color
palette. And scientists are begin-
ning to see a framework for how
climate change may shape the
forest colors of the future.
“These species have been
adapting for millions of years,
and we’re putting them through a
stress test in a very short period of
time. It’s shocking their system,”
said Tanisha M. Williams, the
Burpee postdoctoral fellow in
botany at Bucknell University.
“But they are adapting.”
Autumn’s longer nights and
cooler days kick-start the season-
al color change, known as leaf
senescence. Trees respond to the
difference in temperature, pre-
cipitation and light by slowing
photosynthesis. As the chloro-
phyll — the energy-producing
compound that makes leaves
green — breaks down, new chem-
ical compounds emerge. Carote-
noids, the same pigments in car-

rots and buttercups, make leaves

appear orange, yellow and amber.

Some tree species also produce

anthocyanins, compounds found

in blueberries and grapes, giving

leaves red, purple and burgundy

tones.

But wildly multicolored forests

are under threat. Foreign pests

and pathogens, arriving unno-

ticed in imported lumber or even

packing materials, can alter

whole landscapes in a short time,

said Howard Neufeld, a plant

ecophysiologist at Appalachian

State University.

“They can take out trees, and if

other trees come in that are dif-

ferent colors, that can have a

dramatic effect,” he said. Under

the moniker “Fall Color Guy,”

Neufeld issues foliage color re-

ports on the university’s website

and on Facebook.

For example, an insect called

the hemlock woolly adelgid has

been wiping out Eastern hem-

locks, a dark-green conifer, since

the 1980s. The emerald ash borer,

a pest arriving in wooden packing

crates less than 20 years ago,

decimates ash trees that normally

turn yellow and burgundy. Both

can quickly convert trees from

dazzling to drab.

Weather patterns also affect

when the leaves grow, turn color

and fall off, Williams said. Moder-

ate heat and drought extend the

growing season and delay leaf

senescence. But extreme drought

exacerbated by high heat — the

exact conditions in New England

this summer — can accelerate

senescence, causing leaves to

change earlier and faster.

In some years, “some trees will

continue to turn color early; oth-

ers will delay and turn color later,”

Neufeld said. “So instead of hav-

ing this explosion of color in a

short period of time, you get

different groups of trees turning

color over an extended time.”

Stressed trees may also fail to

produce anthocyanins in their

leaves, and go from greenish to

brown without passing red. It’s

hard to predict because of differ-

ent species’ drought tolerance,

said Amanda Gallinat, a postdoc-

toral fellow and plant ecologist at

Utah State University. “Maples

are often more sensitive to

drought than oaks. Since maples

contribute brighter colors than

oaks, these different responses

could lead to a less colorful au-

tumn landscape,” she said.

Scientists say the long-term

effects of climate change on fall

colors are already apparent.

Warming temperatures tend to

help invasive species, Gallinat

said. Because they tend to come

from places with milder winters

than the eastern United States,

they readily adapt to the longer

growing season and remain an

active threat for more of the year.

Invasive shrubs are over-

whelming forest understories

and adding more red tones with

their leaves and fruit, she said.

Pests and pathogens may contin-

ue to ramp up their attacks on

certain species and allow others

to take over, shifting the fall pal-

ette.

And as the climate gets warmer

and drier, forests in New England

that appear mostly red and or-

ange today might not stay that

way.

“If the forest changes from

having maples and sourwoods

and black gums, which are the red

trees, to one that’s oak and hicko-

ry, then you’re going to get less

colorful,” Neufeld said.

Some species are already on

the move toward more genial

habitats. A 2008 study found

hardwoods in Vermont, such as

the iconic sugar maple, had mi-

grated upslope to cooler territory

occupied by red spruce and paper

birch, both of which had declined.

Sugar maples have also tried to

move northward to Canada as

temperatures rise, Gallinat said.

But like many plants, the trees are

limited in their ability to survive

in colder climates. “It’s most like-

ly that the vibrant colors those

trees give us — not to mention the

syrup — will be in shorter supply

in the future,” she said.

The emerging tree communi-

ties — and their color combina-

tions — have no precedent.

“If we see the migration of

these trees, the fall colors are

going to look different, because

we’re going to have a completely

different species landscape,” Wil-

liams said.

There’s no need to panic about

subpar pigments over the next

few decades, Neufeld said, but

leaf-peepers should be ready for

change.

“I don’t think we have to worry,

in the immediate future, that we

won’t be able to see fall colors,” he

said. “We’ll just see different fall

colors. And maybe at a different

time.”

[email protected]

Climate change a≠ects fall foliage

Human-driven global warming may also shape the forest colors of the future, scientists say

“We’re putting them

through a stress test in

a very short period of

time. It’s shocking their

system. But they are

adapting.”

Tanisha M. Williams, Bucknell

University