discovery

What happened to the sea stars?

September 11, 2025 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Billions of sea stars off the Pacific coast of North America from Mexico to Alaska have died from a wasting disease since 2013. This die-off is considered to be the largest ever marine epidemic. Over 90% of the population of sunflower sea stars has succumbed to the disease.

The result has been an explosion in the population of the sea urchins that the sea stars feed on. In turn, the sea urchins have devoured kelp forests that provide habitat for thousands of marine creatures. These kelp forests support a multi-million-dollar economy through fisheries and tourism as well as sequestering carbon dioxide and protecting vulnerable coastlines.

The disease begins with lesions and eventually kills sea stars by seemingly melting their tissues over a period of about two weeks. Sea stars with the disease become contorted and lose their arms.

For years, the definitive cause of the wasting disease has been elusive. But researchers from the University of British Columbia, the Hakai Institute, and the University of Washington have now identified a bacterium that is the disease-causing agent.

A strain of the Vibrio pectenicida bacteria – named FHCF-3 – is responsible. The Vibrio genus of bacteria includes pathogens that infect corals, shellfish, and even humans. Vibrio cholerae is the cause of cholera.

Research is now underway to understand the link between the disease and warming ocean temperatures due to climate change. The hope is that the discovery of the cause of the wasting disease will help guide management and recovery efforts for sea stars and impacted ecosystems.

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‘Disease detectives’ discover cause of sea star wasting disease that wiped out billions of sea stars

Photo, posted April 16, 2011, courtesy of Brian Gratwicke via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A better way to produce green hydrogen

September 9, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Hydrogen has great potential as a fuel and an energy carrier for many applications. Burning it or consuming it in fuel cells does not produce carbon emissions. As a result, there has long been the vision for a future hydrogen economy. Whether the hydrogen economy would ever come about given how various other technologies have evolved over time is questionable. But regardless, hydrogen is valuable for many industrial and commercial applications including the manufacture of ammonia and the refining of metals.

Hydrogen is produced in industrial quantities from natural gas by a carbon-dioxide-producing process known as methane-steam reforming. To take its place as a green energy source, hydrogen needs to be produced by splitting water into its constituent oxygen and hydrogen components by the process of electrolysis.

The problem is economic. Methane-steam reforming produces hydrogen at a cost of about $1.50 per kilogram. Green hydrogen costs about $5 a kilogram.

Researchers at Oregon State University have developed a new photocatalyst that enables the high-speed, high-efficiency production of hydrogen. The material, called RTTA, is a metal organic framework containing ruthenium oxide and titanium oxide. Ruthenium oxide is expensive, but very little is needed. For industrial applications, if the catalyst shows good stability and reproducibility, the cost of the small amount of this exotic material becomes less important.

The photocatalyst, when exposed to sunlight, quickly and efficiently splits water yielding hydrogen. The Oregon State discovery has real potential.

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Oregon State University research uncovers better way to produce green hydrogen

Photo, posted July 7, 2023, courtesy of Bill Abbott via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Better wood for storing carbon

August 29, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Scientists have discovered a new type of wood that is highly efficient at storing carbon. A comprehensive survey of the microscopic structure of the wood from many species of trees revealed that there is a type of wood that is neither softwood, such as pine and conifers, or hardwood, such as oak, ash, and birch.

The scientists from Cambridge University and Jagiellonian University in Poland analyzed some of the world’s most iconic trees using electron microscopy to survey their microscopic structure.

They found that tulip trees, which are related to magnolias and can grow over 100 feet tall, have a unique type of wood. The trees, which diverged from magnolias far back to a time when atmospheric CO2 concentrations were low, grow very tall and very quickly. These features were an adaptation to those conditions and result in the ability to store larger concentrations of carbon to compensate based on their microstructure. The elementary units of wood are known as macrofibrils, and tulip trees have much larger macrofibrils than hardwoods but smaller than those of softwoods. This unusual intermediate structure makes the trees highly effective at carbon storage.

Based on the research, it may be the case that tulip trees will end up being useful for carbon capture plantations – tree plantings specifically for the purpose of mitigating the effects of climate change. Some east Asian countries are already using various tulip tree species in plantations for locking in carbon. This was based on their large size and rapid growth, but it turns out that their novel wood structure may be the most compelling reason to use them.

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Scientists discover entirely new wood type that could be highly efficient at carbon storage

Photo, posted March 3, 2021, courtesy of Thomas Quine via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Satellites discovering penguins

February 20, 2024 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The loss of sea ice in Antarctica has forced emperor penguins to seek out new breeding grounds. Some colonies have traveled more than 20 miles in search of stable ice. Emperor females lay a single egg on a stretch of sea ice at the start of winter and males keep the eggs warm while the females go hunting for up to two months to bring back food for their hatchlings.

Emperor penguins are the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species. The loss of sea ice has led to unprecedented breeding failure in some emperor penguin colonies. Emperor penguins are not threatened by hunting, habitat loss, or other human-caused problems, but the changing climate could be their undoing.

Emperor colonies are easy to spot from above. The penguins are up to four feet tall and the droppings from large colonies stand out vividly against white snow. A careful study of satellite imagery has revealed four previously unknown colonies of emperor penguins along the edges of Antarctica. This is the first bit of good news about the penguins in quite a while. The new discoveries, reported in the journal Antarctic Science, brings the total number of known colonies to 66.

The new discoveries are encouraging, but emperor penguins remain at risk from the warming climate. Three of the four new colonies are small, with fewer than 1,000 birds. So, the discovery does not have a big impact on the overall emperor penguin population. The addition of the new colonies is overshadowed by the recently reported colony breeding failures resulting from early and rapid ice losses.

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Thousands of Emperor Penguins Discovered by Satellite

Photo, posted January 19, 2014, courtesy of Christopher Michel via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Action on the toxic chemical from tires

December 13, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Since the 1990s, populations of coho salmon in streams and urban creeks up and down the West Coast have been dying in large numbers. Scientists at the University of Washington began studying the mysterious deaths and it took years to figure out what was going on. They analyzed water samples from urban creeks and found that chemicals from vehicle tires were present. By soaking tires in water, they found that more than 2,000 chemicals were present. It took three years to narrow down the suspect list to one chemical: a toxin called 6PPD-quinone, which is produced when the common tire preservative 6PPD mixes with oxygen. It is that chemical that was responsible for the salmon die-off.

6PPD-quinone is toxic enough to quickly kill some fish. Studies showed that concentrations of the chemical in stormwater were found to be lethal for coho salmon following exposures lasting only a few hours.

Despite the discovery, the tire industry has continued to use the chemical in its products. The industry says 6PPD is an antioxidant and antiozonant that helps prevent degradation and cracking of tires in the environment and is essential for the performance and safety of vehicles.

Last year, California regulators directed the tire industry to seek out substitutes for 6PPD. The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association pledged to investigate possible safer alternatives to the chemical.

In November, spurred by a petition by West Coast tribes whose lifeways depend on coho salmon, the EPA said it will study the impact of 6PPD with an eye to potentially banning its use.

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After Salmon Deaths, EPA Takes Aim at Toxic Chemical Issuing from Car Tires

Photo, posted May 31, 2021, courtesy of Chris Yarzab via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Detecting dangerous chemicals with plants

December 11, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Researchers at University of California Riverside have been studying how to enable plants to sense and react to a chemical in the environment without damaging their ability to function in all other respects. Why do this? The idea is to be able to use plants as environmental sensors that can detect the presence of harmful substances.

The impetus for the work is presence of a protein in plants that senses a plant hormone called abscisic acid (or ABA) that helps plants acclimate to environmental changes. During drought, plants produce ABA causing the plant to produce ABA receptor proteins that close pores in its leaves and stems, keeping in moisture.

The UCR researchers demonstrated that these ABA receptor proteins can be trained to bind to chemicals other than ABA. This ability enabled them to create sensors for many chemicals, including banned pesticides.

In their recent publication, they demonstrated a green plant that turns bright red in the presence of azinphos-ethyl, a banned pesticide. The goal is to easily detect chemicals in the environment from a distance. A field of these plants would provide an obvious visual indicator of the use of a banned pesticide. The researchers also demonstrated the ability to turn a variety of yeast into a sensor that could respond to two different chemicals at the same time.

Ultimately, it would be extremely valuable to design plants that sense dozens of chemicals to they could be used as living sensors that persist for years and provide environmental information. The sensor plants are not being grown commercially at this time. That will require regulatory approvals that are likely to take years. But the discovery opens up real possibilities.

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Plants transformed into detectors of dangerous chemicals

Photo, posted August 29, 2013, courtesy of the United Soybean Board via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Deeper corals bleaching

December 7, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

When ocean waters get too warm, corals – which are actually tiny animals – eject the colorful algae that inhabit their tissues. The symbiotic relationship between coral polyps and algae is essential to coral survival When the algae is ejected, previously colorful coral turns white, and the coral can ultimately die. If waters cool off, the algae can reestablish themselves and the coral can regain its color and health.

The world’s oceans have been warming at an unprecedented rate, making coral bleaching and die-off a global phenomenon. It is estimated that half of the planet’s reefs have already disappeared. Some places are worse off than others. For example, almost 95% of coral reefs in Southeast Asia are threatened. Florida’s reefs are especially threatened, particularly since there have been unprecedented marine heatwaves off its coast.

It has long been assumed that deeper reefs, where water is cooler, would remain safe from the effects of warming, but a few years ago researchers recorded coral bleaching some 300 feet underwater along the Egmont Atoll in the western Indian Ocean. At one point, bleaching affected 80% of corals in some areas. This discovery came as a huge surprise to oceanographers. It was probably associated with an El Niño-like phenomenon in the waters and those reefs have mostly recovered in the intervening years.

Fairly recently, researchers have found pristine coral reefs deep down in the waters off the Galapagos Islands, where shallow reefs have largely disappeared. There are likely to be similar reefs in the ocean depths around the world, but scientists are expressing concern that even coral reefs lying deep beneath the ocean surface may not ultimately be protected from the warming seas.

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As Oceans Warm, Coral Bleaching Seen at Greater Depths

Photo, posted June 5, 2023, courtesy of Ryan Hagerty / USFWS via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A Huge American Lithium Discovery | Earth Wise

October 12, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Human history has often been described in terms of a succession of metal ages: the copper age, the bronze age, and the iron age. In many ways, we have now entered the lithium age. The light metal goes into the batteries that power smartphones, electric vehicles, and massive storage banks for the power grid. Lithium has become a critical strategic resource.

As it stands now, the U.S. gets most of its lithium from imports from Australia and South America. Major lithium sources are not commonplace; in 2022 there were only 45 lithium mines in the world. Many of the known deposits are not in North America but in Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, China, and Australia. The current largest known lithium deposits lie beneath the salt flats of Bolivia.

Lithium Americas Corporation, a company dedicated to advancing lithium projects to the stage of production, funded research over the past decade that has identified vast deposits of lithium-rich clay in a dormant volcanic crater along the Nevada-Oregon border. The McDermitt Caldera is estimated to hold between 20 and 40 million tons of lithium, which would make it the largest deposit in the world.

There are many questions still to answer. It is not clear how easy it will be to extract lithium from the clay, in particular how expensive or carbon-intensive it will be. There are also political complexities since the area where the lithium deposit was found is considered to be unceded ancestral land for both the Paiute and Shoshone tribes.

Apart from a dearth of domestic sources of lithium, the US also lags well behind China in lithium processing capabilities. The country has catching up to do in the new lithium age.

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America Just Hit the Lithium Jackpot

Photo, posted April 19, 2020, courtesy of Ken Lund via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Decontaminating Drinking Water | Earth Wise

July 24, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

At least two billion people around the world often drink water that is contaminated with disease-causing microbes. Waterborne diseases are responsible for two million deaths each year, mostly among children under the age of five.

There are various ways to decontaminate water, including chemicals that can themselves produce toxic byproducts as well as using ultraviolet light, which takes fairly long to disinfect the water and requires a source of electricity.

Scientists at Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have recently invented a low-cost, recyclable powder that kills thousands of waterborne bacteria every second when the water containing it is exposed to ordinary sunlight. The discovery of this ultrafast disinfectant could be a tremendous benefit to the nearly 30% of the world’s population with no reliable access to safe drinking water.

The new disinfectant is a harmless metallic powder that works by absorbing both ultraviolet and high-energy visible light from the sun. It consists of nano-sized flakes of aluminum oxide, molybdenum sulfide, copper, and iron oxide. The key innovation is that when these four metallic ingredients are immersed in water, they all function together by reacting with the surrounding water and generating chemicals that quickly kill bacteria. The chemicals themselves don’t last long. They quickly break down in the water leaving completely safe drinking water.

The nontoxic powder is recyclable. It can be removed from water with a magnet. It can also be reused at least 30 times. Apart from its uses in less developed parts of the world, it could be valuable for hikers and backpackers who want to drink water from natural sources of unknown quality.

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New nontoxic powder uses sunlight to quickly disinfect contaminated drinking water

Photo, posted February 27, 2013, courtesy of Petras Gagilas via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

A New Deep-Sea Reef In The Galapagos | Earth Wise

June 2, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Like in many other places around the world, ocean warming has mostly destroyed the shallow-water reefs in the Galapagos Islands. The islands are some of the most carefully protected places in the world, but they can’t escape the effects of a warming planet.

Recently, however, scientists have discovered a healthy, sprawling coral reef hidden deep under the sea in the Galapagos. More than 1,300 feet underwater, the reef extends for several miles along the ridge of a previously unknown volcano in the Galapagos Marine Preserve.

The reef is pristine and is teeming with all sorts of marine life including pink octopus, batfish, squat lobsters, and a variety of deep-sea fish, sharks, and rays.

The expedition that discovered the new reef was led by the University of Essex in the UK. Prior to this discovery, scientists thought that coral reefs were all but gone from the Galapagos. A period of ocean warming in 1982 through 1983 wiped out more than 95% of the corals in the archipelago. Only a few reefs in shallow waters remained. The newly discovered reefs are sheltered deep under the sea and would have been protected from the deadly heat.

According to the scientists from the expedition, the newly discovered reef potentially has global significance because it represents a site that can be monitored over time to see how such a pristine habitat evolves with the ongoing climate crisis. Reefs like this are clearly very old because coral reefs take a long time to grow. Finding this one means that it is likely that there are more healthy reefs across different depths that are waiting to be discovered.

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Pristine Deep-Sea Reef Discovered in the Galápagos

Photo, posted March 28, 2009, courtesy of Derek Keats via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Record Levels Of Deforestation In The Amazon | Earth Wise

March 25, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world, covering more than 2.5 million square miles. It’s home to 10% of all known species in the world. The Amazon rainforest’s biodiversity is so rich that scientists are still discovering new plant and animal species today.

The Amazon rainforest absorbs huge amounts of carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere, making it a key part of mitigating climate change. The vast rainforest acts as what’s known as a carbon sink. Simply put, a carbon sink is anything that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases. But as trees in the Amazon disappear, so does the ability of the rainforest to absorb carbon dioxide.

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest remains a major problem. According to satellite data from the Brazilian government, the number of trees cut down in the Brazilian Amazon in January far exceeded deforestation figures for the same month last year. Approximately 166 square miles of land was deforested in January alone, which is five times greater than what was lost in January, 2021.

Cattle ranching – both for beef and for leather – remains the leading cause of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. Trees in the Amazon are also cut down for their wood, as well as to clear the land in order to grow food crops, such as soy, sugar, and oil palm.

Many companies have pledged to achieve “net zero” deforestation in their supply chains over the years, but most have not lived up to the commitment.

Deforestation is not only a major driver of climate change, but it’s also the leading cause of species extinction. Preserving the Amazon rainforest is vital.

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Amazon deforestation: Record high destruction of trees in January

Greenpeace calls on fast food giants to take a stand against Bolsonaro’s Amazon destruction

Hundreds of Companies Promised to Help Save Forests. Did They?

Photo, posted July 14, 2018, courtesy of Alexander Gerst via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Tree Diversity | Earth Wise

March 4, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Scientists have estimated that there are more than 8 million species of plants and animals in existence. Amazingly, only about 1.2 million of them have been identified and described so far and most of those are actually insects. Millions of other organisms have yet to be discovered.

One would imagine that most of these unknown species are tiny things that are hard to spot or encounter. But our ignorance of species even applies to trees, which are pretty easy to spot if you encounter them.

A new study involving more than 100 scientists across the globe has produced an estimate of the number of tree species on the Earth. The new global estimate is that there are 73,000 tree species, which is about 14% more than previously thought. Based on a combination of data from two global datasets, the study yielded a total of 64,100 documented tree species worldwide. The researchers then used novel statistical methods to estimate the total number of unique tree species at biome, continental, and global scales, which includes species yet to be discovered and described by scientists. Therefore, the estimate predicts that there are likely to be over 9,000 tree species still to be found.

Roughly 40% of the undiscovered tree species are likely to be in South America, which is the continent with the highest number of rare tree species and the highest number of continentally endemic tree species – meaning those found only on that continent. Hot spots of undiscovered tree species are likely the tropical and subtropical moist forests of the Amazon basin and the Andes-Amazon interface.

Extensive knowledge of tree richness and diversity is key to preserving the stability and functioning of ecosystems.

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Number of Earth’s tree species estimated to be 14% higher than currently known, with some 9,200 species yet to be discovered

Photo, posted November 5, 2017, courtesy of Deensel via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Breaking Down Polystyrene | Earth Wise

April 20, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The proliferation of global plastic waste continues to be a growing problem for the world. Hundreds of millions of tons of plastics are produced each year and most of it is used once and then discarded. The properties that make plastics so attractive – durability and chemical stability – make it difficult to do anything with discarded plastics other than deposit them in landfills – where they don’t easily degrade over time – or burn them, which dumps carbon dioxide and various hazardous gases into the atmosphere.

Polystyrene is one of the most widely used plastics. It is found in foam packaging materials, disposable food containers, plastic cutlery, storage containers, and many other places.

Recycling plastics like polystyrene is generally not economically feasible. Sorting plastics by type is time and labor intensive and the chemical processes required to break down plastics into usable precursor materials require significant energy input and the use of toxic solvents.

Recently, a team of scientists at Ames Laboratory in Iowa has developed a process based on ball-milling that deconstructs commercial polystyrene in a single step, at room temperature, in ambient atmosphere, and in the absence of harmful solvents.

Ball-milling is a technique that places materials in a milling vial with metal ball bearings which is then agitated to initiate a chemical reaction. This approach is known as mechanochemistry.

The method represents an important breakthrough that enables dismantling of a polymer that includes its chemical breakdown without requiring solvents or the high temperatures generally needed to thermally decompose it. This discovery opens up new avenues for low-temperature recovery of monomers from polymer-based systems that include composites and laminates. It could be a very useful weapon in the battle against plastic waste.

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Polystyrene waste is everywhere, and it’s not biodegradable. Scientists just found a way to break it down.

Photo, posted December 11, 2010, courtesy of Warrenski via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Controlling Malaria Without Chemicals

August 28, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Nearly half of the world’s population lives in areas vulnerable to malaria. The disease kills roughly 450,000 people each year, most of them children and pregnant women. Malaria is spread by Anopheles mosquitoes and, over time, the mosquitoes have been developing resistance to the chemical insecticides that are used to control them. In addition, there is great concern about the toxic side effects of the chemicals used on the mosquitoes.

About 30 years ago, scientists identified a type of bacteria that kills Anopheles, but the mechanism was not understood. As a result, the bacteria could not be replicated or used as an alternative to chemical insecticides.

But now, an international research team, headed by researchers at UC Riverside, has identified the neurotoxin produced by the bacteria and has determined how it kills Anopheles. The work is described in a paper published in Nature Communications.

It took the team 10 years to achieve a breakthrough in understanding the bacteria. Modern gene sequencing techniques were the key.

While many neurotoxins target vertebrates and are highly toxic to humans, the neurotoxin that kills Anopheles mosquitoes does not affect humans, vertebrates, fish, or even other insects. Known as PMP1, the substance is not even toxic to mice when given by direct injection.

The team has applied for a patent on this discovery and hopes to find partners to help them develop the bacteria-based insecticide.

There is a high likelihood that PMP1 actually evolved to kill the Anopheles mosquito. This finding opens the door to new avenues of research into other environmentally friendly insecticides that would be targeted at other disease-spreading pests.

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Controlling deadly malaria without chemicals

Photo, posted June 9, 2018, courtesy of Mario Yardanov via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Fresh Water Under The Sea

July 18, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A new survey of the sub-seafloor off the U.S. Northeast coast has revealed the existence of a gigantic aquifer of relatively fresh water trapped in porous sediments lying beneath the salty ocean. This appears to be the largest such formation ever found.

The newly-discovered aquifer stretches from the shore at least from Massachusetts to New Jersey and extends more-or-less continuously out about 50 miles to the edge of the continental shelf. The deposits begin at around 600 feet below the ocean floor and bottom out at about 1,200 feet. If all that water was found on the surface, it could create a lake some 15,000 miles in area. The researchers estimate that the region holds at least 670 cubic miles of fresh water.

Researchers made use of innovative measurements of electromagnetic waves to map the water, which had not been detected by other technologies. It was already known that fresh water existed in places under the sea bottom as a result of oil drilling as far back as the 1970s. But there was previously no hint of the extent of the undersea aquifer.

The water probably was trapped by sediments deposited during the last ice age when sea levels were much lower. But modern subterranean runoff from land sources might also be a contributor.

If water from the aquifer was to be withdrawn, it would still have to be desalinated for most uses, but the cost would be much less than processing ordinary seawater. There is probably no need to do this in the Northeastern US, but the discovery suggests that such aquifers probably lie off many other coasts worldwide and could provide desperately needed water in places like southern California, Australia, the Mideast or Saharan Africa.

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