Chinese speed skaters made some breakthroughs at the speed skating World Cup in Beijing over the weekend, as they totaled two silver and four bronze medals in the three-day competition.

Ning Zhongyan has become the marquee name for the Chinese speed skating team this year as he bagged one silver and two bronze medals in all three races he participated in. Female skater Han Mei is also a big contributor as she claimed one silver and one bronze medals. 

The National Speed Skating Oval, replaced its ice for the first time after hosting the Winter Olympics last year, has been dubbed the "fastest ice" as it witnessed the breaking of 10 Olympic records last year. 

"I was a bit nervous when competing at the Olympics here last year, but now I am just enjoying the race," Ning told reporters. "I think I didn't fail to live up to the fans' expectations, but I do hope I can change the color of my medal at the next World Cup event."

In the women's race, Han's result in the 1,500 meters of 1:55.92 was just 0.4 seconds short of Japanese veteran Miho Takagi, who bagged three individual medals at the Beijing 2022 Olympics. Han's teammate Li Qishi finished third.

"Different from competing at the Olympics, now we have fans cheering for us, which is a booster for me," Han told reporters, noting she has set herself the goal of stepping onto the podium at the Milan 2026 Olympics.

The last time a Chinese female skater entered the top three in the 1,500 meters event was during the 1999-2000 season, when Song Li achieved third place in the Netherlands. 

Li Yan, head coach of the national speed skating team, said though the team is preparing for its ultimate goal of the Milan 2026 Winter Olympics, participating in the World Cup events has made the goal "clearer."

"Every four years we are preparing for one thing (the Winter Olympics), but this year our goals are clearer, which is to improve our results and rankings," she told reporters. 

"Every athlete, regardless of their current level, is finding their shortcomings and areas to improve. More importantly, we are consolidating the spirit of the entire team, using the team's strength to achieve breakthroughs and support each other."

Compared to speed skating's brother, the discipline short track, which has become a popular event thanks to China's medal haul in the discipline, the oval races are relatively less influential, as it totaled only two gold medals in China's seven entries into Winter Olympics. 

While in recent years China has seen success in shorter distance speed skating, particularly with Zhang Hong and Gao Tingyu winning gold in the 500 meters events at the Sochi 2014 and Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, respectively, the country has struggled in mid-to-long-distance events, which makes breakthroughs like those of Ning and Han more significant.

Despite not participating in the previous season and lacking World Cup ranking points, Gao, who recently returned, finished just a place short for a podium finish in Beijing. But coach Li expressed satisfaction with his recovery. 

"Gao's smooth return is the first step. The fans have high expectations for him, but after all, he hasn't participated in formal competitions for over 20 months," Li told reporters. 

"Being able to move to the top group is a stable first step, and he just needs to do his best."

Even since the eruption of the recent Israeli-Palestine conflict, China has taken a proactive role in de-escalation, collaborating with the international community to spare efforts to bring an end to the fighting, safeguard civilian lives, and provide humanitarian aid.

In recent days, the Chinese Government's Special Envoy on the Middle East Issue Zhai Jun has made relentless trips to Middle Eastern countries including Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Jordan in a diplomatic effort to de-escalate the situation and ease hostilities. 

Meanwhile, in response to the worsening humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, the China International Development Cooperation Agency has pledged an additional 15 million yuan ($2.05 million) in emergency humanitarian supplies. This aid aims to assist those affected by the conflict, in addition to previously allocated $1 million in cash assistance through the Palestinian National Authority and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.

During a meeting with Zhai on Sunday in Amman, the capital of Jordan, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini, noted that the UNRWA regards China as an important partner, thanks China for its long-standing political support and financial assistance to the UNRWA, appreciates China's emergency humanitarian assistance to Gaza since the conflict, and is willing to strengthen cooperation with China to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as soon as possible.

UNRWA, which was founded in 1949, is mandated to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees. The organization relies on voluntary contributions to finance its operations.

At the Wednesday media briefing, China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that "China has no selfish interests in the Palestinian-Israeli issue. We stand for the protection of civilians, a ceasefire and an end to fighting, the opening of humanitarian relief corridors, the prevention of a greater humanitarian crisis, the resumption of political dialogue and negotiation, and the return of the Palestinian issue to the right track of the two-state solution so as to achieve lasting peace and stability in the Middle East."

"As [China assumes] the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council this month and a responsible member of the international community, China will continue to work with the international community to ease the situation, protect civilians, advance humanitarian assistance, and resume peace talks," he said.

According to multiple foreign media reports, on October 10, local time in India, law-enforcement agencies arrested four industry executives, including an employee of the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo, in a case of alleged money laundering. Vivo stated on Wednesday to Chinese media, "Vivo in India strictly adheres to local laws and regulations. We are closely monitoring the recent investigation and will take all possible legal measures to address it."

Many people's first reaction to this news was that India is once again targeting foreign companies operating in the country, especially those from China. This reaction is quite real because such incidents occur very frequently, and people have seen through what is really happening. India has worn the label of the "graveyard for investments" many years, and it seems to have become accustomed to it and doesn't want to take it off. However, wearing this label is not really a good thing for India, but it's ugly.

It is evident that since the border conflict between China and India in June 2020, Indian authorities have significantly increased their hostility against Chinese companies, with Chinese smartphone companies bearing the brunt. From making accusations and threats, conducting sudden office searches, freezing funds, to the recent arrests, India's crackdown actions against Chinese companies have been escalating step by step. The behavior is becoming increasingly unsightly, and is incongruent with India's aspirations for a global major power position and image.

People with some knowledge of India are well aware that India's legal and regulatory framework is as intricate as a labyrinth. Any slight oversight can lead to inadvertent violations, often resulting in widespread non-compliance and selective enforcement. This complexity provides a convenient tool for Indian authorities to extort foreign companies. However, it must be pointed out that in recent years, India has leveled numerous allegations against Chinese companies, yet ultimately found no evidence. It is possible that India aims to use such disturbances to force Chinese companies into unnecessary concessions and compromises.

India has indeed succeeded on numerous occasions, and this is probably the main reason it continues to do so tirelessly. The Financial Times Chinese edition published an article in September, which candidly pointed out that looking back at the history of foreign companies' development in India, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is indeed a history filled with blood and tears.

According to data from the Indian government, from 2014 to 2021, 2,783 multinational companies and their subsidiaries closed their businesses and operations in India. The number of multinational companies registered in India decreased from 216 in fiscal year 2014 to 63 in fiscal year 2021. Many multinational companies, including Metro AG, Ford, General Motors, and Volkswagen, eventually chose to withdraw from the Indian market. The actual number is probably more than that. The poor and volatile business environment in India is a consensus among almost all foreign companies operating in India.

People have summarized India's tactics, which involve initially offering some benefits or promising prospects to foreign capital in order to lure foreign companies to invest in India. Once these foreign companies have established a foundation and achieved certain benefits in India, especially when India has learned a little from imitating them, the Indian authorities use various means to effectively extort them, leaving foreign companies in a dilemma. If it weren't for being unable to bear it anymore, how could those multinational companies endure the pain of giving up such a large market like India? This may make India arrogant, giving it some short-term benefits, but it will inevitably cause long-term damage to India's national interests and act as a ceiling that hinders India's modern economic development. We advise India not to lose sight of the bigger picture for small gains.

After the Modi government came to power, it ambitiously launched the "Make in India" campaign, aspiring to make India a global manufacturing hub. In the past two years, the US' suppression and containment of Chinese companies, coupled with the Western media's hype about "shifting manufacturing from China to India," have made some Indians a bit arrogant. In reality, India is far from achieving this ambition. It is certain that India cannot support its domestic mobile phone industry by targeting Chinese smartphone enterprises. In the era of economic globalization, companies can only truly grow and strengthen through full competition. Driving away Chinese smartphones would bring more harm than benefits to India. In fact, without the support of the Chinese industrial chain, it would be difficult for India's smartphone industry to grow, and the development of India's manufacturing industry would also be hindered.

Lastly, in the face of unreasonable demands, malicious harassment, and repeated extortion, Chinese companies will never be soft targets that can be manipulated. They should stand firm without fear and defend their legitimate rights and interests. India's bullying of Chinese companies not only fails to prove its strength and power but also reveals its inner fragility and lack of confidence, once again demonstrating that India is far from being a mature and investment-friendly market.

American automaker Ford said on Monday it's pausing construction of a $3.5 billion electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in the US state of Michigan until it is confident it can run the factory competitively, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Although the US government is flexing all of its policy muscles available to suppress China's high-tech industry, US competitiveness in cutting-edge technologies has continued to decline as a result of multiple factors.

Ford's decision comes as the company is in the midst of national contract talks with the United Auto Workers union, which wants to represent workers at battery factories and win them top wages, according to the AP report. Intense competition among global EV manufacturers has unsettled the US automotive industry, which had been a pillar of the US economy, as US automakers are under pressure both at home and abroad. 

On the one hand, competition from international competitors, including Chinese EV makers, poses a challenge to American firms, especially as Chinese companies have accumulated technological and price advantages against the backdrop of fierce competition in the Chinese domestic market. 

On the other hand, deep-seated problems in the US economy, including insufficient labor protection and the widening wealth gap, have erupted in a concentrated manner. The car industry, like other manufacturing industries in the US, is facing increased pressure due to rising production costs.

As reported by the AP in March, Ford's EV business has lost $3 billion before taxes during the past two years. If the US automaker wants to catch up with rivals amid intense international competition, one option for Ford is to collaborate with top Chinese companies. 

Ford in February announced plans to build the plant in Michigan, betting that making the batteries in the US would help it and Chinese partner CATL attract US customers to embrace a lower-cost technology pioneered in China, according to Reuters. Honestly speaking, Ford's cooperation with CATL benefits the development of the US EV industry. However, the sector's survival opportunities are being stifled by politicians in Washington. Republicans in Congress have been probing Ford's battery plant plan over concerns it could leave Ford dependent on Chinese technology. 

As reported by Reuters, Rep. Mike Gallagher said lawmakers were "encouraged to see Ford take a crucial first step to reevaluate its deal" with CATL. "Now, Ford needs to call off this deal for good," he added.

Not only in the EV industry, but also in most high-tech and cutting-edge industries, some people in the US possess an extremely unhealthy and unfair zero-sum competition mentality toward China. However, it is evident that this thinking is counterproductive in promoting the development of domestic US industries.

Apart from Tesla, other American vehicle companies still have a relatively low share in the domestic and international EV markets. Although the US government has devised protectionist measures such as the Inflation Reduction Act, it is still moving slowly in terms of addressing domestic supply chain issues, particularly in the production of batteries.

Washington is working toward a zero-sum competition with China, with American firms serving as victims. What Chinese enterprises need to do is to confront external challenges, continuously enhance their competitiveness, strengthen technological innovation, seize the opportunities created by Washington's zero-sum competition mentality - which has caused difficulties for American enterprises - and continuously strengthen themselves.

China is becoming increasingly competitive in EV manufacturing capacity and technology innovation. Chinese EV brands, such as BYD and NIO, have made significant strides in developing advanced EV technologies, including battery technology and autonomous driving features. 

China holds a superior position in the EV supply chain, with about three-quarters of the world's battery production capacity. Moreover, China houses more than half of the world's processing and refining capacity for lithium, cobalt and graphite, which are essential materials for making EV batteries. 

The West's narrow-minded, zero-sum game mentality has indeed put some pressure on China in the short term, but it cannot fundamentally hinder technological progress. If the US always opts for dirty tricks against China instead of learning how to conduct healthy competition with Chinese enterprises and develop its own economic competitiveness, this will just lead to a larger gap between China and the US.

Chinese tourists are eagerly embarking on their holidays ahead of an unprecedented Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays period, set to commence this Friday. The atmosphere is buzzing with excitement and anticipation, as China gears up for a bustling and vibrant holiday season, which experts said is poised to accelerate China's economic growth in the fourth quarter.

China's railway and highway systems are bracing themselves for an influx of travelers, anticipating record-breaking traffic.

China Railway Shanghai Group Co said the Yangtze River Delta railway has facilitated over 2.5 million passenger trips on Wednesday, the first day of the Golden Week travel rush, a growth of 25 percent compared to the same period in 2019 and expected number of the railway trips to climb to 3 million on Thursday. The national railway is expected to complete 190 million passengers trips during the travel rush.

For road traffic, the Ministry of Transport expected that the number of vehicles hitting the road will reach 66 million on Friday, another record-breaking number.

Meanwhile, scenic spots are preparing for an overwhelming surge in visitors, as the eight-day Golden Week holidays promise to attract an unprecedented number of tourists.

Multiple cities are expected to see record-high tourist arrivals. Beijing is projected to receive 12.83 million tourist visits, a year-on-year increase of 60.8 percent and a 21.9 percent increase compared to the same period in 2019. Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province expects to welcome over 25 million visits during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, setting a new record for tourist arrivals for Golden Week.

Additionally, the pre-sale box office for the Golden Week holidays has surpassed an impressive 50 million yuan ($6.84 million) threshold as of Thursday morning, showcasing the immense consumption potential of this festive period.

Experts believed that the record-breaking holiday will be a strong proof of China's economic momentum and a significant turning point for consumption.

Wei Jianguo, a former Chinese vice minister of commerce and executive deputy director of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges noted that development of China's economy in 2023 will be a process of wave-like development. He said that the GDP growth in the third quarter could reach around 5 percent, predicting the consumption and economic growth to further accelerate in the fourth quarter.

"I am confident in the development of China's economy and believe that there will be no problem in achieving the growth target of around 5 percent for the year," Wei said.

As telecom fraud has become increasingly rampant along the southwestern border of China, multiple regions in Southwest China's Yunnan Province have launched a new round of intensive anti-fraud campaigns. Officials warned that if individuals are lured to scam dens on the border, they may be sold "like pigs" and subjected to torture, or even face life-threatening situations. 

To combat cross-border crime, the Mekong River joint patrol consisting of law-enforcement authorities from China, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand are actively taking action, which experts said are necessary and crucial in cracking down on illegal activities, given the complex security situation in border areas and the high mobility of criminal gangs. 

With the exposure of a series of scams under the guise of high-paying overseas jobs and the surprise hit movie No More Bets revealing the inner workings of online gambling fraud, the topic has drawn widespread attention among the Chinese public and particularly from public security services in Yunnan, which neighbors Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam and has been one the main locations of these crimes. 

According to data released by Yunnan's capital city of Kunming, from January to December 2022, the proportion of fraud cases involving overseas phone numbers accounted for 22 percent of the total in the city. So far in 2023, these cases have reached 14 percent of the total.

Various localities in Yunnan have issued warnings in recent days, noting that once people are smuggled to foreign countries, it is not well-paid jobs that are waiting for them but scam dens, where they will be forced to engage in illegal activities. Personal freedom is certainly restricted, and they will be required to complete large amounts of fraud tasks every day. Failure to complete the tasks may result in torture such as forced fasting, electric shocks and beatings. 

If they want to return to China, they are required to pay exorbitant "compensation" and "ransom" up to millions of yuan; if they fail to complete their tasks, they may be sold "like pigs" and even face life-threatening situations, said the warnings.

A Chinese national who has been living in Myanmar for almost 10 years told media on Wednesday that Chinese students studying abroad have become the new targets for scams, as they may not have timely access to the latest information at home and in turn have lower vigilance against scam calls.

Joint patrols with neighboring countries were launched on Tuesday as a fleet consisting of five law-enforcement vessels - three from China, one from Laos and one from Myanmar - departed from the Jingha Port in Yunnan as part of efforts to combat cross-border crimes arising from gambling scams in the Mekong River basin, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Six suspects of telecom fraud were handed over by Myanmar to the Chinese police at Yangon International Airport and escorted back to China on Wednesday. One of the suspects is a key figure in a gambling fraud syndicate and a prime target in the crackdown, media reports said.

In June, the first batch of six suspects involved in fraud cases in Myanmar were returned to China.

Experts noted that as transnational gambling fraud is even more lucrative than drug trafficking and very difficult to eradicate, it is necessary and crucial for countries in the region to collaborate in targeted operations. 

Wu Fei, an expert on Southeast Asia studies, pointed out that some fraud groups are scattered in remote areas of northern Myanmar and have connections with gangs involved in the "Golden Triangle" drug trade, making it more difficult to combat them. After they establish a foothold in underdeveloped regions, these fraud groups can "stimulate" local economies and thus prompt the protection and even involvement of local officials, Wu told the Global Times on Wednesday. 

As many hideouts are located in border areas with strong mobility and networks in Southeast Asia, it is extremely challenging for a single country to conduct operations such as victim rescue or gathering information about crime hotspots, Wu noted. 

The importance of combating cross-border fraud and related crimes lies not only in maintaining a country's image but also in ensuring the development of tourism and international trade. 

This is particularly concerning as the tourism industry is a vital sector for many Southeast Asian countries, the expert said.

What's more, the worrisome security situation may also hamper the timely restoration of people-to-people exchanges in the post-pandemic period, causing unnecessary misunderstandings and conflicts.

The Chinese, Thai, and Laotian ambassadors to Myanmar held a trilateral meeting to coordinate efforts in combating gambling fraud, according to a notice issued by the Chinese Embassy on Tuesday.

The three parties unanimously agreed that the current prevalence of gambling fraud in the region seriously undermines the safety of people's lives and property. They are fully coordinating with Myanmar authorities to conduct investigations and rescue operations, as well as assisting Myanmar in intensifying efforts to combat fraud syndicates. 

New investigations of England’s infamously fraudulent Piltdown Man fossils reveal a mix of clever and clumsy methods used by one man to fool early 20th century scientists for 40 years.

Lawyer and amateur archaeologist Charles Dawson modified orangutan and human bones to resemble what scientists of the time anticipated a “missing link” between apes and humans would look like, say paleoanthropologist Isabelle De Groote of Liverpool John Moores University in England and colleagues. Dawson and British paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward announced the discovery of what they called Eoanthropus dawsoni, or Dawson’s dawn man, in December 1912.
Consistent forgery techniques employed on an orangutan jaw, four orangutan teeth and six braincase pieces from two or perhaps three humans point to Dawson as the lone culprit who planted faux fossils in a gravel deposit near Piltdown village, De Groote’s team reports August 10 in Royal Society Open Science. The results provide the strongest evidence to date that Dawson had no help in perpetrating the hoax.

“Hopefully this is the final, or close to the final, nail in the coffin of the Piltdown story, confirming Dawson’s guilt and sole responsibility,” says archaeologist Miles Russell of the Bournemouth University in Poole, England.

As an artifact collector for a local museum, with access to collections of animal bones, Dawson could easily have obtained an orangutan jaw, Russell says. Russell previously argued that Dawson not only created Piltdown Man on his own but also fabricated many finds in his personal collection, including an alleged reptile/mammal hybrid fossil.
High-resolution 3-D imaging by De Groote’s team shows that the orangutan jaw was cracked lengthwise, probably while being stretched by hand from its two ends. Dawson had to widen the jaw’s tooth sockets to remove two molar teeth, which in great apes have telltale curved roots, the researchers say. Dawson then filed the teeth to appear more humanlike and repositioned them in their sockets. A thin layer of putty kept the teeth in place.
“I was surprised by how major some of the modifications were, changes which had not been noticed before,” says study coauthor Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London.

Since publication of a scientific paper in 1953 and a 1955 book exposing the Piltdown Man hoax — long after Dawson’s death in 1916 — a lengthy list of proposed coconspirators in the embarrassing affair has accumulated. Names include Smith Woodward and French priest Teilhard de Chardin, who attended some Piltdown excavations.

Dawson didn’t need their help, De Groote says. Imaging studies of the internal structure of Piltdown orangutan teeth indicate they came from the same individual. So do matching sequences of mitochondrial DNA extracted from two teeth, one of which came from a second Piltdown site. Before he died, Dawson had informed Smith Woodward of further Eoanthropus finds about three kilometers from the first site.

Dawson did a better job of forging humanlike wear on a tooth from the second site. He may have learned from comments of some early scientific critics of Piltdown Man, the investigators suspect.

Gravel was placed in cavities of two Piltdown teeth, through holes where the roots had been damaged. These cavities were plugged with pebbles held in place by the same putty used on the orangutan jaw.

Dawson created his forgery from at least two human skulls, since remains from the same rear section of the braincase were planted at both Piltdown sites, De Groote’s group says.

Dawson had access to medieval burials during his archaeological work. He could have selected the thickest skull fragments he could find from medieval individuals to pass off as Piltdown Man, Russell suggests. Dawson knew that such bones would appear particularly apelike. Radiocarbon dating of Piltdown skull fragments remains inconclusive.

To match the color of Piltdown gravel, Dawson stained his phony fossils reddish brown. He did the same to nonhuman animal bones, stone tools and a carved bone that were planted as part of the sham.

Dawson’s ambition to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a major scientific honor that he was nominated for but didn’t receive, may have motivated him to fake finds that culminated in Piltdown Man, the researchers say.

The new study demonstrates that Dawson “satiated his attention-seeking by perpetrating skillful, and not so skillful, fraud,” says paleoanthropologist Bernard Wood of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. When Dawson faked a skull that his peers wanted to be real at least as badly as he wanted official recognition, “they gave him pass after pass.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated on August 3, 2016, to correct the scale bar on the image of the tooth.

Cosmic mismatch
Researchers used supernovas, cosmic microwave background radiation and patterns of galaxy clusters to measure the Hubble constant — the rate at which the universe expands — but their results were mismatched, Emily Conover reported in “Debate persists on cosmic expansion” (SN: 8/6/16, p. 10).

Reader J.R. Kennedy thought that light-dimming space dust and debris might explain the discrepancy.

Gas and dust in space can have an impact on the brightness of standard candles — objects with known brightness such as type 1a supernovas and some variable stars, Conover says. But astronomers correct for those discrepancies in their measurements.
In the absence of gas and dust, a candle’s apparent brightness should decrease in relation to its distance from Earth. “But if there’s dust in the way, it can make the candle dim more than that,” Conover says. “However, this intervening material doesn’t dim the candle quite in the same way as distance does. It will dim the shorter, bluer wavelengths of light more than the redder ones. Astronomers can look for this effect to identify the impact of dust and correct for it.” So the mismatch stands.
Great escape
High-speed video captured how the o­ffspring of red-eyed tree frogs prematurely break free from their eggs when in danger, Helen Thompson reported in “Under threat, tadpoles make early escape” (SN: 8/6/16, p. 32).
Online reader myndflyte wondered if early hatching had any long-term de-velopmental effects on the tadpoles.

There’s definitely a trade-off involved in hatching early to escape a predator or some other threat, Thompson says. Past work by tree frog researcher Karen Warkentin, now at Boston University, shows that red-eyed tree frog embryos grow tails and mouthparts in the last few days of their roughly weeklong incubation. Those that hatch earlier, up to four days if threatened, tend to be underdeveloped with smaller bodies and shorter tails. “In the short term, this developmental deficit puts early hatchlings at greater risk of getting eaten by pond shrimp and fish than their older brethren,” Thompson says. “But there’s also evidence to suggest that early hatchers compensate down the line and grow at higher rates as tadpoles.”

More to the story
Although the death rate from motor vehicle crashes in the United States has declined since 2000, the country still tops 19 other high-income nations in m­otor vehicle deaths, Alex Maddon wrote in “U.S. still leads in fatal motor vehicle crashes” (SN: 8/6/16, p. 5).

Some readers took issue with the conclusions presented and thought the researchers should have measured fatalities per miles driven instead of per population. “Using a per capita metric makes the U.S. look unsafe when the opposite is true,” John Underwood wrote. “Since A-mericans drive more miles per year than the other countries in the chart, we will have the highest fatality rate per 100,000 population.”

It’s true that fatalities per miles driven changes the ranking. Using the measure “per 100 million vehicle miles traveled,” the United States drops to fifth place, says Deputy M-anaging Editor, Features Cori Vanchieri. When the researchers looked at deaths per 10,000 registered vehicles, however, the United States still topped the list. The researchers’ overall message is that the United States could further reduce crash deaths if seat belt use goes up and alcohol-impaired driving and speeding go down.

Clarification
“Under threat, tadpoles make early escape” (SN: 8/6/16, p. 32) states that the tree frog embryos gape their mouths to stretch out their egg membranes. Not all embryos gape their mouths, and ultimately, an enzyme secreted from the embryo’s snout breaks open the membrane.

Scaling up from one cell to many may have been a small step rather than a giant leap for early life on Earth. A single-celled organism closely related to animals controls its life cycle using a molecular toolkit much like the one animals use to give their cells different roles, scientists report October 13 in Developmental Cell.

“Animals are regarded as this very special branch, as in, there had to be so many innovations to be an animal,” says David Booth, a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley who wasn’t part of the study. But this research shows “a lot of the machinery was there millions of years before animals evolved.”
Multicellular organisms need to be able to send messages between their cells and direct them to particular roles within the body. That requires a great deal of cell-to-cell coordination — something that unicellular organisms don’t have to deal with. But an amoeba (Capsaspora owczarzaki) employs many of those same tricks to switch its single-celled body between different life stages. That means that the earliest animals were probably “recycling mechanisms that were already present before,” says study coauthor Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo, a biologist at the Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona.

C. owczarzaki goes through three different life stages, acting independently in some stages and aggregating with other amoebas in others. Ruiz-Trillo and colleagues analyzed C. owczarzaki’s proteome — its complete set of proteins — during each life stage.

The amoeba made different amounts of its proteins in each life stage, the team found, suggesting that it was responding to new demands. But it went a step further, too, also shifting the way its proteins behaved during each stage.

Proteins can change their behavior by grabbing on to a molecular fragment called a phosphate ion. The phosphate ion’s effect depends on where it sticks to the protein and whether there are other phosphate ions stuck on nearby. C. owczarzaki showed distinct differences in the pattern of these phosphate add-ons between its three life stages. That parallels what’s seen in animals: Proteins in different organs within the same animal show similar modification differences.

The researchers also found changes in the molecules that control the protein modification process. Certain enzymes within a cell act like molecular concierges, helping phosphate ions latch on to proteins. The type of enzyme often determines where the ion sticks — and thus the effect it has. For instance, enzymes called tyrosine kinases often guide modifications that help multicellular organisms send messages between cells. Those enzymes aren’t thought to be widely used by single-celled species, says study coauthor Eduard Sabidó, a biologist at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona. But C. owczarzaki uses these enzymes across all of its life stages, generating them in different quantities depending on the stage.
Previous research showed that other single-celled organisms had the genes for tyrosine signaling, but this study shows how widely it’s actually used and how closely it’s linked to specific life changes, says Booth.

The shared molecular mechanisms suggest that the unicellular common ancestor of today’s animals and C. owczarzaki probably used these same tricks, too, paving the way for multicellular life. That’s not to say animals don’t get any credit, says Sabidó — they’ve expanded this toolkit further over time. But the perceived chasm between a simple single-celled existence and a complex multicellular one might not have required a flying leap to cross. “This gap,” Sabidó says, “maybe isn’t such a gap.”

To create a heavy black hole, it might help to start with a massive magnetic star.

Strong magnetic fields could help stem the flow of gas from a heavyweight star, leaving behind enough material to form hefty black holes, a new study suggests. A pair of such magnetic stars could be responsible for giving birth to the black hole duo that created recently detected gravitational waves, researchers report online December 1 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The shake-up in spacetime that was picked up the Advanced Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, in 2015 came from a collision between two black holes weighing about 29 and 36 times the mass of the sun (SN: 3/5/16, p. 6). Such plump black holes were surprising. The creation of a big black hole requires the explosive death of a gargantuan star. But weighty stars are so bright that the light blows gas into space.

“These massive stars can lose up to half their mass to their dense stellar winds,” says study coauthor Véronique Petit, an astrophysicist at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne. That leaves only enough mass to make a more modest black hole.

Having a paucity of elements heavier than helium is one way a massive star might retain gas. Atoms such as carbon, oxygen and iron present large targets to the radiation streaming from a star. Photons nudge these atoms along, generating strong stellar winds. A lack of heavy elements could keep these winds in check.

Petit and colleagues have proposed another idea: intense magnetic fields that might redirect escaping gas back onto the star. Observations in recent years have led to the discovery that about 10 percent of stellar heavyweights have powerful magnetic fields, some exceeding 10,000 gauss (the sun’s magnetic field is, on average, closer to 1 gauss).

Computer simulations allowed researchers to see how much mass a star could retain if it were blanketed by magnetic fields. Magnetism is an effective levee, they found. A magnetic star that starts off with 80 times as much mass as the sun, for example, ends its life about 20 suns heavier than a similarly massive one that’s not magnetic.
“This is an interesting alternative hypothesis for how stars can end up holding onto more of their mass, so they can form such heavy black holes,” says Vicky Kalogera, an astrophysicist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. But, she cautions, “the mechanism is somewhat speculative.” Astronomers don’t have a good handle yet on how magnetic fields change as a star evolves, she says, particularly as the star approaches the end of its life.

“It’s going to be hard to test our hypothesis,” Petit says. Pinpointing the host galaxy of a future collision between obese black holes might help, but that’s fraught with ambiguity. If the galaxy is rich in heavy elements, then perhaps magnetic fields are needed to hold back the flow of gas from gigantic stars. But that doesn’t mean the black holes were born in that environment. They could also have formed early in the universe, says Petit, when their galaxy had fewer heavy elements, in which case magnetic fields might not be necessary.