What does science want to see in a chemical weapon treaty? The challenges facing scientists after the 1922 UN Chemical Weapons Convention (COP2019)
A majority of countries don’t want a weak treaty and are not willing to compromise to get a text over the line. And although all nations are looking to protect their own interests, no country doubts the need for an agreement to end plastics pollution. Scientists are required to guide the way during the negotiations and to make sure that the treaty is observed once finalized.
The meeting ended in a way that was predictable. It can take years to finish an international agreement. This is particularly true of complex accords that involve the regulation of individual chemicals and chemical products. Talks on the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention took more than a decade, from start to finish, before the agreement opened for signatures in 1993.
There have been five rounds of negotiations since talks on an agreement got the green light at the UN Environment Assembly in March 2022. The agreement will cover particles as small as five millimetres, and products that contain them.
That said, scientists have found it hard to get access to talks on the treaty. Meeting rooms cannot accommodate the number of people attending the talks and there are over 2000 accredited observers who can attend. Some decisions were made in countries that did not allow observers to attend, according to researchers at the Centre for Science and Environment. It is not a positive development because it undermines trust in what should be transparent.
There will be a list of products that will be regulated. There will be a provision for the exemption of chemicals and products, but the criteria for this are yet to be defined.
Some form of funding attached is part of the treaty’s financial mechanism. Who will contribute, what the fund should total and what it is intended to be used for all remain to be agreed. Some of these questions might end up being parked until after the treaty text has been finalized and the first conference of the parties (or COP meeting) is held. It is very difficult to reach an agreement at a COP meeting when there are a lot of issues in contention.
Homo erectus, I presume? Footprints show ancient hominins crossed paths on a lake shore in Kenya
Scientists will be key to the area because they will be able to help define terms according to a consensus of evidence and conduct research to bridge any knowledge gaps.
Some 1.5 million years ago, two ancient hominin species crossed paths on a lake shore in Kenya. Their footprints were frozen in time and were not discovered until 2021. The modern humans are forebears of Homo erectus and the more distant relative Paranthropus boisei. This was the first time that different archaic hominin species coexisted in the same area, after two people walked through the lake area within days of each other.
political deal-making stopped Norway from allowing seabed mining for valuable minerals. The small environmentalist party demanded the move in exchange for their support of the governing party’s budget. WWF Norway is involved in a court case with the government. Proponents say that deep-sea mining is essential to power the green transition and maintain energy security; opponents say that it could irreversibly damage biodiversity and ecosystems.
Source: Daily briefing: Homo erectus, I presume? Footprints show ancient hominins crossed paths
Penrose’s Path to Black Holes: A New Perspective on the Physics of the Future Colliders: Muons, Dark Matter, and Dark Matter
The first book-length biography of mathematical physicist Roger Penrose was written by Patchen Barss, who had access to the personal life of the man who paved the way for black holes. Davide Castelvecchi wrote a review about the book that said it portrayed the mathematician as hugely influential and contentious. Human costs of being a person of genius and how other people often bear those costs are some of the information contained in the book.
Criminal groups in Mexico are targeting chemistry students to increase their production of the drug. Crackdowns on the trade in precursors from China have put the gangs under pressure, and they hope to develop the ability to produce these raw materials in-house. In some cases, students enrol in chemistry classes to gain skills relevant to the illicit trade. “Sometimes when I am teaching them synthesis of pharmaceutical drugs, they openly ask me, ‘Hey, professor, when are you teaching us how to synthesize cocaine and other things?’” says one anonymous chemist.
How do you solve a problem like dark matter? Is there a reason the Universe is built the way it is? Physicists have only one answer that has worked for a century and a half: smash two particles together. Scientists were expecting a lot of new particles to be created by the current generation of large colliders. So attention is turning to a new variant on the collider theme, using particles that have never been smashed together before: muons.
