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Plant cells of different species can swap organelles

Plant cells of different species can swap organelles

Viviane Callier writes: More than a decade ago, plant geneticists noticed something peculiar when they looked at grafted plants. Where two plants grew together, the cells of each plant showed signs of having picked up substantial amounts of DNA from the other one. In itself, that wasn’t unprecedented, because horizontal transfers of genes are not uncommon in bacteria and even in animals, fungi and plants. But in this case, the transferred DNA seemed to be the entire intact genomes of…

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Southern Ocean waters are warming faster than thought, threatening Antarctic ice

Southern Ocean waters are warming faster than thought, threatening Antarctic ice

Andrew Freedman writes: The Southern Ocean is one of the most important yet least explored and understood regions of the planet when it comes to determining how global warming may affect the future of humanity, thanks to its capacity to absorb huge quantities of heat and carbon dioxide, and melt swaths of the Antarctic ice sheet. In addition, this vast ocean, part of which separates Australia and Antarctica and also circles the frozen continent, is where global ocean currents get…

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Trump and Justice Dept. lawyer said to have plotted to oust acting attorney general

Trump and Justice Dept. lawyer said to have plotted to oust acting attorney general

The New York Times reports: The Justice Department’s top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with President Donald J. Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department’s power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results. The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to…

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Oath Keeper charged in Capitol riots was ‘preparing for literal war,’ feds say

Oath Keeper charged in Capitol riots was ‘preparing for literal war,’ feds say

The Daily Beast reports: A member of the far-right paramilitary group the Oath Keepers who’s been charged with conspiring to storm the Capitol was ready “for violence” during the deadly riot and had plans for a “further insurrection,” federal prosecutors said Friday. “The plan was never for peaceful protest,” a Virginia prosecutor said during a detention hearing for Donovan Crowl, a former U.S. Marine. “The Oath Keepers arrived in D.C. prepared for violence.” Crowl, 50, is one of three members…

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Organizers of Trump rally had been on campaign’s payroll

Organizers of Trump rally had been on campaign’s payroll

Bloomberg reports: Former President Donald Trump’s campaign paid more than $2.7 million over two years to individuals and firms that organized the Jan. 6 rally that led to rioters storming the U.S. Capitol, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The payments, which span Trump’s re-election campaign, show an ongoing financial relationship between the rally’s organizers and Trump’s political operation. They were all made through Nov. 23, the most recent date covered by Federal Election Commission filings, which is before…

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The enduring allure of conspiracies

The enduring allure of conspiracies

By Greg Miller, Knowable Magazine The United States of America was founded on a conspiracy theory. In the lead-up to the War of Independence, revolutionaries argued that a tax on tea or stamps is not just a tax, but the opening gambit in a sinister plot of oppression. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were convinced — based on “a long train of abuses and usurpations” — that the king of Great Britain was conspiring to establish “an absolute…

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The glittering Gulf city-states are genuine slave societies

The glittering Gulf city-states are genuine slave societies

Bernard Freamon writes: The six city-states on the Arab side of the Persian Gulf, each formerly a sleepy, pristine fishing village, are now all glitzy and futuristic wonderlands. In each of these city-states one finds large tracts of ultramodern architecture, gleaming skyscrapers, world-class air-conditioned retail markets and malls, buzzing highways, giant, busy and efficient airports and seaports, luxury tourist attractions, game parks, children’s playgrounds, museums, gorgeous beachfront hotels and vast, opulent villas housing fabulously affluent denizens. The six city-states ­–…

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Have we already been visited by aliens?

Have we already been visited by aliens?

Elizabeth Kolbert writes: On October 19, 2017, a Canadian astronomer named Robert Weryk was reviewing images captured by a telescope known as Pan-STARRS1 when he noticed something strange. The telescope is situated atop Haleakalā, a ten-thousand-foot volcanic peak on the island of Maui, and it scans the sky each night, recording the results with the world’s highest-definition camera. It’s designed to hunt for “near-Earth objects,” which are mostly asteroids whose paths bring them into our planet’s astronomical neighborhood and which…

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Trump’s parting gift to Biden

Trump’s parting gift to Biden

Ronald Brownstein writes: Donald Trump’s chaotic final days in the White House could present President Joe Biden with a historic opportunity to broaden his base of public support and splinter Republican opposition to his agenda. Recent polls have repeatedly found that about three-fourths or more of GOP voters accept Trump’s disproven charges that Biden stole the 2020 election, a number that has understandably alarmed domestic-terrorism experts. But in the same surveys, between one-fifth and one-fourth of Republican partisans have rejected…

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‘Worse than we imagined’: Team Trump left Biden a Covid nightmare

‘Worse than we imagined’: Team Trump left Biden a Covid nightmare

The Daily Beast reports: Twelve minutes before noon on Wednesday, President Joe Biden was sworn into office as the nation’s 46th president. Seven hours later, the United States reported more than 4,409 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, according to data collected by the COVID-19 Tracking Project. The Biden administration came into power with purpose and an extensive agenda to combat the coronavirus pandemic, but purpose and planning only gets you so far—particularly when the president’s team is only just…

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Legal scholars say Trump can be convicted in impeachment trial even after having left office

Legal scholars say Trump can be convicted in impeachment trial even after having left office

Politico reports: Former President Donald Trump can be convicted in an impeachment trial for his role in inciting the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 even though he is no longer in office, a bipartisan group of constitutional law scholars wrote in a letter Thursday. “We differ from one another in our politics, and we also differ from one another on issues of constitutional interpretation,” wrote the signatories, which include the co-founder and other members of the conservative Federalist Society legal…

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Nearly 20% of defendants in Capitol riot cases served in the military

Nearly 20% of defendants in Capitol riot cases served in the military

NPR reports: As a violent mob descended on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, lawmakers and aides hid wherever they could, waiting for the military and police to arrive. But many of those who stormed the Capitol were military veterans themselves, who had once sworn to protect the Constitution. In fact, an NPR analysis has found that nearly 1 in 5 people charged over their alleged involvement in the attack on the U.S. Capitol appear to have a military history….

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The ongoing collapse of the world’s aquifers

The ongoing collapse of the world’s aquifers

Matt Simon writes: As California’s economy skyrocketed during the 20th century, its land headed in the opposite direction. A booming agricultural industry in the state’s San Joaquin Valley, combined with punishing droughts, led to the over-extraction of water from aquifers. Like huge, empty water bottles, the aquifers crumpled, a phenomenon geologists call subsidence. By 1970, the land had sunk as much as 28 feet in the valley, with less-than-ideal consequences for the humans and infrastructure above the aquifers. The San…

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