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Matter Solid , Liquid , Gas

Free presentations in powerpoint format.

3 States of Matter (and Plasma)

States of Matter: Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma

Two Extra States of Matter

States of Matter: Solid, Liquid, Gas

States of Matter and Particle Motion Tutorial

States of Matter: Liquids and Solids

The Three States of Energy and Matter

States of Matter in Chemistry

Properties of Matter (5th grade)

Matter – The Three States of Water

Classification of Matter (Jeopardy)

Properties of Matter

The Noble Gases – Reactivity Series

Matter and Change

Solids, Liquids, Gases

Matter PowerPoint

Physical Matter

Thermal Energy

See Also: Gas Laws – Boyle’s, Charles’

Solids, Liquids, Gases GAMES for Kids

FLASH States of Matter Presentations

For Teachers

Lots of Lessons – States of Matter

Free Video Clips/Mini Movies for Kids

Free Online Science Games for Kids

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How to make a scientific presentation

Scientific presentation outlines

Questions to ask yourself before you write your talk, 1. how much time do you have, 2. who will you speak to, 3. what do you want the audience to learn from your talk, step 1: outline your presentation, step 2: plan your presentation slides, step 3: make the presentation slides, slide design, text elements, animations and transitions, step 4: practice your presentation, final thoughts, frequently asked questions about preparing scientific presentations, related articles.

A good scientific presentation achieves three things: you communicate the science clearly, your research leaves a lasting impression on your audience, and you enhance your reputation as a scientist.

But, what is the best way to prepare for a scientific presentation? How do you start writing a talk? What details do you include, and what do you leave out?

It’s tempting to launch into making lots of slides. But, starting with the slides can mean you neglect the narrative of your presentation, resulting in an overly detailed, boring talk.

The key to making an engaging scientific presentation is to prepare the narrative of your talk before beginning to construct your presentation slides. Planning your talk will ensure that you tell a clear, compelling scientific story that will engage the audience.

In this guide, you’ll find everything you need to know to make a good oral scientific presentation, including:

• The different types of oral scientific presentations and how they are delivered;
• How to outline a scientific presentation;
• How to make slides for a scientific presentation.

Our advice results from delving into the literature on writing scientific talks and from our own experiences as scientists in giving and listening to presentations. We provide tips and best practices for giving scientific talks in a separate post.

There are two main types of scientific talks:

• Your talk focuses on a single study . Typically, you tell the story of a single scientific paper. This format is common for short talks at contributed sessions in conferences.
• Your talk describes multiple studies. You tell the story of multiple scientific papers. It is crucial to have a theme that unites the studies, for example, an overarching question or problem statement, with each study representing specific but different variations of the same theme. Typically, PhD defenses, invited seminars, lectures, or talks for a prospective employer (i.e., “job talks”) fall into this category.

➡️ Learn how to prepare an excellent thesis defense

The length of time you are allotted for your talk will determine whether you will discuss a single study or multiple studies, and which details to include in your story.

The background and interests of your audience will determine the narrative direction of your talk, and what devices you will use to get their attention. Will you be speaking to people specializing in your field, or will the audience also contain people from disciplines other than your own? To reach non-specialists, you will need to discuss the broader implications of your study outside your field.

The needs of the audience will also determine what technical details you will include, and the language you will use. For example, an undergraduate audience will have different needs than an audience of seasoned academics. Students will require a more comprehensive overview of background information and explanations of jargon but will need less technical methodological details.

Your goal is to speak to the majority. But, make your talk accessible to the least knowledgeable person in the room.

This is called the thesis statement, or simply the “take-home message”. Having listened to your talk, what message do you want the audience to take away from your presentation? Describe the main idea in one or two sentences. You want this theme to be present throughout your presentation. Again, the thesis statement will depend on the audience and the type of talk you are giving.

Your thesis statement will drive the narrative for your talk. By deciding the take-home message you want to convince the audience of as a result of listening to your talk, you decide how the story of your talk will flow and how you will navigate its twists and turns. The thesis statement tells you the results you need to show, which subsequently tells you the methods or studies you need to describe, which decides the angle you take in your introduction.

➡️ Learn how to write a thesis statement

The goal of your talk is that the audience leaves afterward with a clear understanding of the key take-away message of your research. To achieve that goal, you need to tell a coherent, logical story that conveys your thesis statement throughout the presentation. You can tell your story through careful preparation of your talk.

Preparation of a scientific presentation involves three separate stages: outlining the scientific narrative, preparing slides, and practicing your delivery. Making the slides of your talk without first planning what you are going to say is inefficient.

Here, we provide a 4 step guide to writing your scientific presentation:

• Outline your presentation
• Plan your presentation slides
• Make the presentation slides
• Practice your presentation

Writing an outline helps you consider the key pieces of your talk and how they fit together from the beginning, preventing you from forgetting any important details. It also means you avoid changing the order of your slides multiple times, saving you time.

Plan your talk as discrete sections. In the table below, we describe the sections for a single study talk vs. a talk discussing multiple studies:

The following tips apply when writing the outline of a single study talk. You can easily adapt this framework if you are writing a talk discussing multiple studies.

Introduction: Writing the introduction can be the hardest part of writing a talk. And when giving it, it’s the point where you might be at your most nervous. But preparing a good, concise introduction will settle your nerves.

The introduction tells the audience the story of why you studied your topic. A good introduction succinctly achieves four things, in the following order.

• It gives a broad perspective on the problem or topic for people in the audience who may be outside your discipline (i.e., it explains the big-picture problem motivating your study).
• It describes why you did the study, and why the audience should care.
• It gives a brief indication of how your study addressed the problem and provides the necessary background information that the audience needs to understand your work.
• It indicates what the audience will learn from the talk, and prepares them for what will come next.

A good introduction not only gives the big picture and motivations behind your study but also concisely sets the stage for what the audience will learn from the talk (e.g., the questions your work answers, and/or the hypotheses that your work tests). The end of the introduction will lead to a natural transition to the methods.

Give a broad perspective on the problem. The easiest way to start with the big picture is to think of a hook for the first slide of your presentation. A hook is an opening that gets the audience’s attention and gets them interested in your story. In science, this might take the form of a why, or a how question, or it could be a statement about a major problem or open question in your field. Other examples of hooks include quotes, short anecdotes, or interesting statistics.

Why should the audience care? Next, decide on the angle you are going to take on your hook that links to the thesis of your talk. In other words, you need to set the context, i.e., explain why the audience should care. For example, you may introduce an observation from nature, a pattern in experimental data, or a theory that you want to test. The audience must understand your motivations for the study.

Supplementary details. Once you have established the hook and angle, you need to include supplementary details to support them. For example, you might state your hypothesis. Then go into previous work and the current state of knowledge. Include citations of these studies. If you need to introduce some technical methodological details, theory, or jargon, do it here.

Conclude your introduction. The motivation for the work and background information should set the stage for the conclusion of the introduction, where you describe the goals of your study, and any hypotheses or predictions. Let the audience know what they are going to learn.

Methods: The audience will use your description of the methods to assess the approach you took in your study and to decide whether your findings are credible. Tell the story of your methods in chronological order. Use visuals to describe your methods as much as possible. If you have equations, make sure to take the time to explain them. Decide what methods to include and how you will show them. You need enough detail so that your audience will understand what you did and therefore can evaluate your approach, but avoid including superfluous details that do not support your main idea. You want to avoid the common mistake of including too much data, as the audience can read the paper(s) later.

Results: This is the evidence you present for your thesis. The audience will use the results to evaluate the support for your main idea. Choose the most important and interesting results—those that support your thesis. You don’t need to present all the results from your study (indeed, you most likely won’t have time to present them all). Break down complex results into digestible pieces, e.g., comparisons over multiple slides (more tips in the next section).

Summary: Summarize your main findings. Displaying your main findings through visuals can be effective. Emphasize the new contributions to scientific knowledge that your work makes.

Conclusion: Complete the circle by relating your conclusions to the big picture topic in your introduction—and your hook, if possible. It’s important to describe any alternative explanations for your findings. You might also speculate on future directions arising from your research. The slides that comprise your conclusion do not need to state “conclusion”. Rather, the concluding slide title should be a declarative sentence linking back to the big picture problem and your main idea.

It’s important to end well by planning a strong closure to your talk, after which you will thank the audience. Your closing statement should relate to your thesis, perhaps by stating it differently or memorably. Avoid ending awkwardly by memorizing your closing sentence.

By now, you have an outline of the story of your talk, which you can use to plan your slides. Your slides should complement and enhance what you will say. Use the following steps to prepare your slides.

• Write the slide titles to match your talk outline. These should be clear and informative declarative sentences that succinctly give the main idea of the slide (e.g., don’t use “Methods” as a slide title). Have one major idea per slide. In a YouTube talk on designing effective slides , researcher Michael Alley shows examples of instructive slide titles.
• Decide how you will convey the main idea of the slide (e.g., what figures, photographs, equations, statistics, references, or other elements you will need). The body of the slide should support the slide’s main idea.
• Under each slide title, outline what you want to say, in bullet points.

In sum, for each slide, prepare a title that summarizes its major idea, a list of visual elements, and a summary of the points you will make. Ensure each slide connects to your thesis. If it doesn’t, then you don’t need the slide.

Slides for scientific presentations have three major components: text (including labels and legends), graphics, and equations. Here, we give tips on how to present each of these components.

• Have an informative title slide. Include the names of all coauthors and their affiliations. Include an attractive image relating to your study.
• Make the foreground content of your slides “pop” by using an appropriate background. Slides that have white backgrounds with black text work well for small rooms, whereas slides with black backgrounds and white text are suitable for large rooms.
• The layout of your slides should be simple. Pay attention to how and where you lay the visual and text elements on each slide. It’s tempting to cram information, but you need lots of empty space. Retain space at the sides and bottom of your slides.
• Use sans serif fonts with a font size of at least 20 for text, and up to 40 for slide titles. Citations can be in 14 font and should be included at the bottom of the slide.
• Use bold or italics to emphasize words, not underlines or caps. Keep these effects to a minimum.
• Use concise text . You don’t need full sentences. Convey the essence of your message in as few words as possible. Write down what you’d like to say, and then shorten it for the slide. Remove unnecessary filler words.
• Text blocks should be limited to two lines. This will prevent you from crowding too much information on the slide.
• Include names of technical terms in your talk slides, especially if they are not familiar to everyone in the audience.
• Proofread your slides. Typos and grammatical errors are distracting for your audience.
• Include citations for the hypotheses or observations of other scientists.
• Good figures and graphics are essential to sustain audience interest. Use graphics and photographs to show the experiment or study system in action and to explain abstract concepts.
• Don’t use figures straight from your paper as they may be too detailed for your talk, and details like axes may be too small. Make new versions if necessary. Make them large enough to be visible from the back of the room.
• Use graphs to show your results, not tables. Tables are difficult for your audience to digest! If you must present a table, keep it simple.
• Label the axes of graphs and indicate the units. Label important components of graphics and photographs and include captions. Include sources for graphics that are not your own.
• Explain all the elements of a graph. This includes the axes, what the colors and markers mean, and patterns in the data.
• Use colors in figures and text in a meaningful, not random, way. For example, contrasting colors can be effective for pointing out comparisons and/or differences. Don’t use neon colors or pastels.
• Use thick lines in figures, and use color to create contrasts in the figures you present. Don’t use red/green or red/blue combinations, as color-blind audience members can’t distinguish between them.
• Arrows or circles can be effective for drawing attention to key details in graphs and equations. Add some text annotations along with them.
• Write your summary and conclusion slides using graphics, rather than showing a slide with a list of bullet points. Showing some of your results again can be helpful to remind the audience of your message.
• If your talk has equations, take time to explain them. Include text boxes to explain variables and mathematical terms, and put them under each term in the equation.
• Combine equations with a graphic that shows the scientific principle, or include a diagram of the mathematical model.
• Use animations judiciously. They are helpful to reveal complex ideas gradually, for example, if you need to make a comparison or contrast or to build a complicated argument or figure. For lists, reveal one bullet point at a time. New ideas appearing sequentially will help your audience follow your logic.
• Slide transitions should be simple. Silly ones distract from your message.
• Decide how you will make the transition as you move from one section of your talk to the next. For example, if you spend time talking through details, provide a summary afterward, especially in a long talk. Another common tactic is to have a “home slide” that you return to multiple times during the talk that reinforces your main idea or message. In her YouTube talk on designing effective scientific presentations , Stanford biologist Susan McConnell suggests using the approach of home slides to build a cohesive narrative.

To deliver a polished presentation, it is essential to practice it. Here are some tips.

• For your first run-through, practice alone. Pay attention to your narrative. Does your story flow naturally? Do you know how you will start and end? Are there any awkward transitions? Do animations help you tell your story? Do your slides help to convey what you are saying or are they missing components?
• Next, practice in front of your advisor, and/or your peers (e.g., your lab group). Ask someone to time your talk. Take note of their feedback and the questions that they ask you (you might be asked similar questions during your real talk).
• Edit your talk, taking into account the feedback you’ve received. Eliminate superfluous slides that don’t contribute to your takeaway message.
• Practice as many times as needed to memorize the order of your slides and the key transition points of your talk. However, don’t try to learn your talk word for word. Instead, memorize opening and closing statements, and sentences at key junctures in the presentation. Your presentation should resemble a serious but spontaneous conversation with the audience.
• Practicing multiple times also helps you hone the delivery of your talk. While rehearsing, pay attention to your vocal intonations and speed. Make sure to take pauses while you speak, and make eye contact with your imaginary audience.
• Make sure your talk finishes within the allotted time, and remember to leave time for questions. Conferences are particularly strict on run time.
• Anticipate questions and challenges from the audience, and clarify ambiguities within your slides and/or speech in response.
• If you anticipate that you could be asked questions about details but you don’t have time to include them, or they detract from the main message of your talk, you can prepare slides that address these questions and place them after the final slide of your talk.

➡️ More tips for giving scientific presentations

An organized presentation with a clear narrative will help you communicate your ideas effectively, which is essential for engaging your audience and conveying the importance of your work. Taking time to plan and outline your scientific presentation before writing the slides will help you manage your nerves and feel more confident during the presentation, which will improve your overall performance.

A good scientific presentation has an engaging scientific narrative with a memorable take-home message. It has clear, informative slides that enhance what the speaker says. You need to practice your talk many times to ensure you deliver a polished presentation.

First, consider who will attend your presentation, and what you want the audience to learn about your research. Tailor your content to their level of knowledge and interests. Second, create an outline for your presentation, including the key points you want to make and the evidence you will use to support those points. Finally, practice your presentation several times to ensure that it flows smoothly and that you are comfortable with the material.

Prepare an opening that immediately gets the audience’s attention. A common device is a why or a how question, or a statement of a major open problem in your field, but you could also start with a quote, interesting statistic, or case study from your field.

Scientific presentations typically either focus on a single study (e.g., a 15-minute conference presentation) or tell the story of multiple studies (e.g., a PhD defense or 50-minute conference keynote talk). For a single study talk, the structure follows the scientific paper format: Introduction, Methods, Results, Summary, and Conclusion, whereas the format of a talk discussing multiple studies is more complex, but a theme unifies the studies.

Ensure you have one major idea per slide, and convey that idea clearly (through images, equations, statistics, citations, video, etc.). The slide should include a title that summarizes the major point of the slide, should not contain too much text or too many graphics, and color should be used meaningfully.

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Ph.D. Proposal Presentation by Kayla Boggess

Computer Science Department

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Explanations for Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

  abstract: .

In recent years, there has been significant growth in research regarding multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL), enabling sequential decision making for a range of exciting multi-agent applications such as cooperative AI and autonomous driving. However, most of these systems function as black boxes causing possible user misunderstanding and misuse. Generating explanations about agent decisions is crucial for improving system transparency, increasing user satisfaction, and facilitating human-agent collaboration. However, existing works on explainable reinforcement learning (xRL) mostly focus on the single-agent setting. This dissertation focuses on generating explanations for MARL. Our contributions include methods for policy summarization, query-based explanations, and temporal explanations for centralized MARL. We address their effectiveness through computational experiments and user studies. Similarly, for decentralized MARL, we develop methods for policy summarization and query-based explanations, evaluating them using computational experiments and user studies. Additionally, we focus on the presentation of explanations, exploring the use of augmented reality and condensing techniques to better support users.  Lastly, we delve into the intersection of explainable AI and law by defining foreseeability for autonomous systems and presenting possible legal and technical challenges.

Committee :  

• Seongkook Heo, Committee Chair  (CS/SEAS/UVA)
• Lu Feng, Advisor  (CS, SIE/SEAS/UVA)
• Tariq Iqbal (SYS, CS/SEAS/UVA)
• Nicola Bezzo (SIE, ECE/SEAS/UVA)
• Sarit Kraus (Bar-Ilan University)

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UT Tyler University Academy Students Recognized at Regional GLOBE Research Symposia

May 31, 2024 | Hannah Buchanan

They presented how GLOBE data can be used to assess human impact on soil quality and how it will contribute to their work with Dr. Jennifer Honda, School of Medicine associate professor, and Dr. Josh Banta, professor of biology, regarding Nontuberculous Mycobacterial lung disease.

Sponsored by NASA, the annual symposia featured work focused on using citizen science data to investigate scientific hypotheses.

Other UA-Tyler scholars who presented at the regional event and their work are Gavin Green, Hayden Burns and Dallas Nolan, using citizen science data to predict extreme weather events; and Sara Pierson, Melissa Hilbig and Sofia Garcia, establishing a UA butterfly garden to provide usable butterfly habitat and assess the success of butterfly gardens in supporting healthy populations.

“We are proud of our students who presented this year, and we value our School of Education’s leadership and dedication of supporting students in exploring and carrying out research in the local environment,” said Dr. Jo Ann Simmons, UA superintendent.

The GLOBE Program is a hands-on, science and education program that unites students, teachers and scientists from around the world in study and research about the dynamics of the Earth's environment. Dr. Michael Odell, professor of STEM education, and Dr. Teresa Kennedy, professor STEM education, manage the university’s GLOBE program. The UT Tyler GLOBE Partnership trains GLOBE teachers across the state and facilitates GLOBE student research activities in Texas schools.

For more information about the partnership, contact Odell at [email protected] .

The UT Tyler University Academy provides free, innovative and rigorous K-12 education using Project-Based Learning designed to prepare students for university study and the STEM workforce. Operated by the UT Tyler College of Education and Psychology, the district currently serves more than 1,000 students in Tyler, Longview and Palestine. For more information, visit uttua.org/.

With a mission to improve educational and health care outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programs to nearly 10,000 students. Through its alignment with UT Tyler Health Science Center and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has unified these entities to serve Texas with quality education, cutting-edge research and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.

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Joshua Weeber Wins Best Presentation at 2023 SEEC Student Symposium

Each year, SEEC provides a platform for students to present their cutting-edge research at the SEEC Student Symposium, fostering a collaborative environment for emerging scientists to share their work and contribute to crucial environmental discussions.

The 2023 SEEC Student Symposium saw remarkable presentations from emerging researchers, with the award for best presentation going to Joshua Weeber, a PhD candidate from the University of Cape Town and the South African National Biodiversity Institute. A conservation herpetologist at the Endangered Wildlife Trust, Weeber captivated the audience with his in-depth study on the occupancy dynamics of the Table Mountain Ghost Frog tadpoles.

The award-winning presentation highlighted Weeber’s work in assessing the extinction risk of South Africa's reptiles and amphibians, identifying conservation strategies and research priorities for these groups. His PhD research focuses on understanding the ecology and associated threats to the Table Mountain Ghost Frog, a species integral to South Africa's biodiversity. By investigating the occupancy dynamics of these elusive tadpoles, he aims to inform and enhance conservation actions.

Reflecting on his experience at the symposium, Weeber emphasized the potential for conservationists to significantly improve their impact by adopting more complex and structured statistical approaches. He attributed his win to the compelling visuals of beautiful frogs included in his presentation, which undoubtedly captivated the audience. "It was amazing and humbling to see all of the incredible work happening at SEEC," he remarked.

The success of his presentation was also a testament to the support and guidance from his supervisors, Res Altwegg, Krystal Tolley, and Jeanne Tarrant, whose expertise and mentorship have been invaluable throughout his research journey.

A short film about the broader project was shared, providing a deeper insight into the significance of Weeber’s research and the conservation efforts surrounding South Africa's unique amphibian species.

The SEEC Student Symposium continues to be a platform for fostering innovation and excellence in environmental science, and this year's event was no exception, showcasing groundbreaking research that promises to drive impactful conservation strategies.

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https://www.nist.gov/spo/forensic-science-program/firearm-examination-nist-scientific-foundation-review

Forensic Science Program

Firearm examination: a nist scientific foundation review.

This is an image of a 35 Remington caliber, microgroove rifled barrel manufactured by the Marlin Firearms Company. It shows a 20 land and groove barrel with a right hand twist. The image was taken with a Nikon D1X camera using f22 and a 1/30 ss. The bore of the barrel was lighted with a standard bore light. 

This report reviews the scientific foundations of firearm examination, a forensic technique used to compare the marks on bullets and cartridge cases under a comparison microscope with the those from a suspected firearm used in a crime.

The draft report will be made available on this page for public comment in the coming months. Make sure to subscribe to the Forensic Science Gov Delivery email updates to receive the announcement when the public comment window opens. 

The report will include the following parts: 

• (NISTIR 8353sup1) History of Firearm Examination
• (NISTIR 8353sup2) Difficulty Surveys for Firearm Examination Data Sets
• (NISTIR 8353sup3) Published Criticisms of Firearm Examination and Community Responses
• (NISTIR 8353sup4) New Technologies for Firearm Examination
• (NISTIR 8353sup5) Consecutively Matching Striae
• (NISTIR 8353sup6) Firearm Examination References – currently >900 references
• (NISTIR 8353sup7) Table of Results Surveyed

Presentations

• AAFS 2024 A New Black Box Study – Part II: Bullets (NIST/Noblis). Austin Hicklin , Nicole Richetelli, Melissa Taylor , & Robert Thompson
• AFTE 2023 , Update on Proficiency Studies, Theory of Identification, Validation and Statistical Analysis. Gregory S. Klees, Steven P. Lund , Theodore V. Vorburger, John M. Butler , Robert Thompson , Heather Waltke &  Wayne Arendse
• AAFS 2023 Results from a Review of the Scientific Foundations of Firearm Examination. Theodore V. Vorburger , Wayne Arendse, John M. Butler, Gregory S. Klees, Steve Lund, Robert M. Thompson, Heather Waltke, Shannan Williams, & James Yen. American Academy of Forensic Sciences 75th Anniversary Conference, Orlando .  
• NIJ-FTCOE 2022  A Review of the Scientific Foundations of Firearm Examination and Related Research. Theodore V. Vorburger , Wayne Arendse, John M. Butler, Gregory S. Klees, Steve Lund, Robert M. Thompson, Heather Waltke, Shannan Williams, & James Yen. NIJ Forensic Technology Center of Excellence, Firearm and Toolmarks Policy and Practice Forum.  
•   AAFS 2021 Review of the Scientific Foundations for Firearm Examination. Ted Vorburger , S.P. Lund, H.E. Waltke, R.M. Thompson, J.H. Yen, S. Williams-Mitchem, J.M. Butler, J. Weixelbaum, G.S. Klees, & W.E. Arendse.  American Academy of Forensic Sciences Annual Meeting (Virtual).  
• ASCLD 2021 Error Rates and Firearm Examination. Ted Vorburger , S.P. Lund, H.E. Waltke, R.M. Thompson, J.A. Yen, S. Williams, J.M. Butler, J. Weixelbaum, J.A. Soons, X.A. Zheng, J.F. Song, N.F. Zhang, G. Klees, & W.E. Arendse. ASCLD Lightning Talk.  
• 2020 Review of Scientific Foundations for Firearms Examination. T.V. Vorburger , J.M. Butler, S.P. Lund, J.A. Yen, R.M. Thompson, S. Williams, H.E. Waltke, G. Klees, & W.E. Arendse. Bundeskriminalamt, Wiesbaden, Germany.

More Information

For more information on this and other NIST Scientific Foundation Reviews, visit our  Scientific Foundation Reviews page .

• John Butler [email protected] (301) 975-4049

Record number of Oregonians disconnected from electric, gas service as rates climb

More Oregonians had their electricity or natural gas service cut off in April than at any time in the six years the state’s been tracking disconnections, according to a presentation the head of the Oregon Citizens’ Utility Board gave to a state Senate committee on Thursday.

“Last month, 8,715 Oregon households were disconnected because of nonpayment of their bills to investor-owned utilities — both gas and electric,” Bob Jenks, executive director of the voter-created nonprofit Citizens’ Utility Board, told the Senate Interim Committee on Energy and Environment.

Bob Jenks, executive director of the Oregon Citizens' Utility Board.

Oregon State Legislature

Jenks attributed the disconnections to higher natural gas and electric rates, exacerbated by inflation that has pushed up other household costs. January’s abnormally cold weather, which led to higher heating bills, was also a factor, he said.

“That’s just flabbergasting,” Republican Sen. Lynn Findley of Vale, vice chair of the Senate committee, said, in response to Jenks’ report.

Findley and other Republicans on the committee differed with Jenks on solutions to the problem of rapidly rising rates. The utility watchdog is advocating for caps on how much utilities can raise energy bills each year, changes to how for-profit private utility rates are approved and other regulatory solutions. Some Republicans advocated for less pressure to move away from fossil fuels and a focus on expanding energy supply.

But all shared concern for people struggling to pay their bills. “It’s sobering to me that there’s 8,715 shutoffs,” Findley said.

To better understand the people most vulnerable to having their electricity shut off, the Citizens’ Utility Board analyzed two years of power use of people living in poorly insulated manufactured homes in Ontario, an area of Eastern Oregon served by Idaho Power.

Those customers used the most electricity in January and December each year — when temperatures are coldest, and also when rate hikes are typically enacted in Oregon, Jenks said.

Related: Utility watchdog calls to cap Oregon rate hikes as energy bills continue to rise

“These folks are paying hundreds of dollars to heat their homes, and most of these are the kind of families, the kind of folks, that live on fixed incomes, or really live paycheck to paycheck,” he said.

Bills can climb by more than $200 in a month when rate hikes and cold snaps coincide, which can be devastating for customers.

“It’s not surprising that winter rate hikes, combined with cold weather, is leading to these kinds of shutoffs,” Jenks said.

In just over two years, residential customers of Northwest Natural have seen rates climb 42.7%. At Pacific Power, rates have gone up 35.2% and Portland General electric rates have risen 43.8%.

Those utilities, along with Idaho Power, have all asked for additional residential rate increases this year. The Oregon Public Utility Commission is considering requests to raise rates 18% by Northwest Natural, 7.2% by PGE, 21.6% by Pacific Power and 27% by Idaho Power.

“Customers are unable to keep up with these rising utility rates, and that has led to the unprecedented number of disconnections last month,” Jenks said. “And it’s not getting any better. There’s no reason to believe next winter will be any easier for customers.”

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Lawyers to Plastics Makers: Prepare for ‘Astronomical’ PFAS Lawsuits

At an industry presentation about dangerous “forever chemicals,” lawyers predicted a wave of lawsuits that could dwarf asbestos litigation, audio from the event revealed.

By Hiroko Tabuchi

The defense lawyer minced no words as he addressed a room full of plastic-industry executives. Prepare for a wave of lawsuits​ with​ potentially “astronomical” costs​. Speaking at a conference earlier this year, the lawyer, Brian Gross, said the coming litigation could “dwarf anything related to asbestos,” one of the most sprawling corporate-liability battles in United States history.

Mr. Gross was referring to PFAS, the “forever chemicals” that have emerged as one of the major pollution issues of our time. Used for decades in countless everyday objects — cosmetics, takeout containers, frying pans — PFAS have been linked to serious health risks including cancer. Last month the federal government said several types of PFAS must be removed from the drinking water of hundreds of millions of Americans .

“Do what you can, while you can, before you get sued,” Mr. Gross said at the February session, according to a recording of the event made by a participant and examined by The New York Times. “Review any marketing materials or other communications that you’ve had with your customers, with your suppliers, see whether there’s anything in those documents that’s problematic to your defense,” he said. “Weed out people and find the right witness to represent your company.”

A spokesman for Mr. Gross’s employer, MG+M The Law Firm, which defends companies in high-stakes litigation, didn’t respond to questions about Mr. Gross’s remarks and said he was unavailable to discuss them.

A wide swath of the chemicals, plastics and related industries are gearing up to fight a surge in litigation related to PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a class of nearly 15,000 versatile synthetic chemicals linked to serious health problems.

PFAS chemicals have been detected almost everywhere scientists have looked: in drinking water, in rain falling over the Great Lakes , even in Antarctic snow . They are thought to be present in the blood of nearly every American . Researchers have linked exposure to PFAS to testicular and kidney cancers, developmental delays in children, decreased fertility, liver damage and thyroid disease. The man-made chemicals are so long-lasting that scientists haven’t been able to reliably identify how long it might take for them to break down.

PFAS-related lawsuits have already targeted manufacturers in the United States, including DuPont, its spinoff Chemours, and 3M. Last year, 3M agreed to pay at least $10 billion to water utilities across the United States that had sought compensation for cleanup costs. Thirty state attorneys general have also sued PFAS manufacturers, accusing the manufacturers of widespread contamination.

But experts say the legal battle is just beginning. Under increasing scrutiny are a wider universe of companies that use PFAS in their products. This month, plaintiffs filed a class-action lawsuit against Bic, accusing the razor company for failing to disclose that some of its razors contained PFAS.

Bic said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation, and said it had a longstanding commitment to safety.

The Biden administration has moved to regulate the chemicals, for the first time requiring municipal water systems to remove six types of PFAS . Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency also designated two of those PFAS chemicals as hazardous substances under the Superfund law, shifting responsibility for their cleanup at contaminated sites from taxpayers to polluters.

Both rules are expected to prompt a new round of litigation from water utilities, local communities and others suing for cleanup costs.

“To say that the floodgates are opening is an understatement,” said Emily M. Lamond, an attorney who focuses on environmental litigation at the law firm Cole Schotz. “Take tobacco, asbestos, MTBE, combine them, and I think we’re still going to see more PFAS-related litigation,” she said, referring to methyl tert-butyl ether, a former harmful gasoline additive that contaminated drinking water. Together, the trio led to claims totaling hundreds of billions of dollars.

PFAS were an industrial marvel when chemists at Dupont in the 1940s synthesized the material, a remarkably durable compound resistant to water, stains, heat and grease. It quickly became a mainstay in DuPont’s Teflon nonstick pans and 3M’s Scotchgard fabric protector. A powerful fire suppressant, it helped firefighters battle flames. Today, they are used for everyday items as varied as microwave popcorn bags, shampoos, raincoats and firefighting foam.

But the very qualities that have made PFAS so valuable have also prevented them from breaking down naturally in the environment. As PFAS entered the environment from factories, products and landfills, the chemicals have started to accumulate in water, air and soil.

Industry documents released through litigation show that manufacturers found adverse health effects from PFAS exposure as early as 1961 . But it wasn’t until the early 2000s that questions increasingly emerged in public about their safety. In 2005, the E.P.A. fined DuPont $10 million , at that time the largest administrative fine ever levied by the agency, for failing to disclose PFAS’s adverse effects.​​

All that has set the stage for a potential legal storm. Unlike tobacco, used by only a subset of the public, “pretty much every one of us in the United States is walking around with PFAS in our bodies,” said Erik Olson, senior strategic director for environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “And we’re being exposed without our knowledge or consent, often by industries that knew how dangerous the chemicals were, and failed to disclose that,” he said. “That’s a formula for really significant liability.”

Sandy Wynn-Stelt of Belmont, Mich., brought one early case. A year after she lost her husband to liver cancer in 2016, she discovered that the Christmas tree farm in front of her home, which had seemed such an idyllic setting, had been a dumping ground for PFAS-laden tannery waste from Wolverine World Wide, the maker of Hush Puppies shoes.

Wolverine had been among the first to license 3M’s Scotchgard for its waterproof footwear. Mrs. Wynn-Stelt got her blood tested, and found PFAS levels hundreds of times the norm. In 2020, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

She sued Wolverine and 3M, and reached a settlement in 2021. Separately, nearly 2,000 local residents settled a class-action lawsuit against Wolverine. The region’s water source remains polluted with PFAS.

“Those lawyers are exactly right. This is going to be huge, now that people are starting to hold companies accountable,” Mrs. Wynn-Stelt said.

Wolverine declined to comment. 3M said it continued to “address PFAS litigation by defending itself in court or through negotiated resolutions.”

Much of the course of future litigation hinges on the evidence over PFAS’s health risks. There is broad scientific consensus that certain PFAS chemicals are harmful. “There’s a weight of evidence,” said Linda Birnbaum, a toxicologist and the former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. “Multiple studies by different investigators, and in different populations.”

Max Swetman, another MG+M partner who presented with Mr. Gross at the February industry conference, addressed the research in his remarks to the group. “There’s a whole lot of new science being created,” he said. “It’s not the best for us.”

Still, some of the research could be vulnerable to criticism, he said. Getting the right experts to testify was crucial, he said. “Epidemiologists, if you get the right one, is always going to be your best expert in trial.”

Mr. Swetman was unavailable to comment on his remarks, according to his law firm.

One challenge facing medical research lies in the sheer number of different PFAS chemicals that have now entered the environment, each of which can have slightly different health effects, said Steph Tai, associate dean at the University of Wisconsin’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and an expert in the use of science in environmental protection and litigation.

“The other thing, too, is that it takes a long time for health effects to show up,” Dr. Tai said, so the only way that scientists have been able to assess those effects is through long-term studies. Researchers must essentially look for what is referred to as “natural experiments,” according to Dr. Tai, comparing people who are naturally less exposed to PFAS with those who are more exposed. That inevitably leads to some uncertainties.

The industry has scored some major victories. Last November, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit tossed out a lawsuit that would have covered every Ohio citizen in a major case over exposure to PFAS, ruling that a firefighter who brought the lawsuit failed to prove that the PFAS found in his blood specifically came from the companies he sued.

3M phased out most uses of two of the most widely used PFAS chemicals, PFOS and PFOA, in the early 2000s, and DuPont in 2015 stopped using PFOA. 3M has said it will phase out the manufacturing of PFAS chemicals by the end of next year. The company will also work to discontinue their use in products, though that’s contingent on the company finding substitutes.

“As the science and technology of PFAS, societal and regulatory expectations, and our expectations of ourselves have evolved, so has how we manage PFAS,” 3M said.

DuPont referred inquiries to Chemours, the company that was spun off in 2015. Chemours declined to comment.

A long and difficult cleanup is beginning. President Biden’s 2021 infrastructure law provides $9 billion to help communities address PFAS contamination, and the E.P.A. has said $1 billion of that money would be set aside to help states with initial testing and treatment. Meantime, new kinds of PFAS are still being released into the environment. Scientists are working to learn more about them.

Hiroko Tabuchi covers the intersection of business and climate for The Times. She has been a journalist for more than 20 years in Tokyo and New York. More about Hiroko Tabuchi

The Proliferation of ‘Forever Chemicals’

Pfas, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are hazardous compounds that pose a global threat to human health..

For the first time, the U.S. government is requiring municipal water systems to detect and remove PFAS from drinking water .

A global study found harmful levels of PFAS  in water samples taken far from any obvious source of contamination.

Virtually indestructible, PFAS are used in fast-food packaging and countless household items .

PFAS lurk in much of what we eat, drink and use, but scientists are only beginning to understand how they affect our health .

Though no one can avoid forever chemicals entirely, Wirecutter offers tips on how to limit your exposure .

Scientists have spent years searching for ways to destroy forever chemicals. In 2022, a team of chemists found a cheap, effective method to break them down .