There are billions by the end of next year European hours and come about we'll have invested well over a $100000000000.00 u.s. Dollars more since 2016 in addition European governments have agreed to change the way NATO is joint operations are funded Washington is always paid the most based on g.d.p. Now Durham an e the target of Trump's fiercest criticism has agreed to match the American contribution for n.p.r. News I'm Terry Szell's at NATO headquarters authorities in Hong Kong have lifted accordance for rounding one of the city's largest universities and Marie Evans reports the move marks the end of a nearly 2 weeks standoff between police and protesters police spend a 2nd day at Hong Kong Polytechnic University taking away materials from the campus including homemade petrol bombs in thousands of bottles chemicals and more than $500.00 weapons including knives the university management will now spend the next month trying to renovate the buildings which have suffered extensive damage and he government protesters were holed up here 3 days as police surrounded the campus and fired tear gas and rubber bullets the protesters set fires and even used bows and arrows against police more than $1300.00 people were arrested it's unclear whether any protesters remain in hiding at the university Hong Kong is now in its 6 months of unrest for n.p.r. News I'm Anna Marie Evans in Hong Kong you're listening to n.p.r. News in Washington. You Sam workers in Los Angeles are protesting recent layoffs at the Marciano Art Foundation as N.P.R.'s Elizabeth Blair reports the employees say they were laid off shortly after they attempted to unionize the Marciano Art Foundation is home to works by major contemporary artists including Jeff Koons and Cara Walker after laying off 70 visitors services staff the museum announced it was closing citing low attendance Eli Petzold says he and other laid off workers had been making minimum wage for helping visitors understand sometimes challenging arts we just wanted to be acknowledged for the outsized role we had in shaping the visitor experience this foundation the Marciano family founded Guess Jeans today's protest target guest stores around the country other museums where workers have unionized this year include the new museum in New York and the fry in Seattle the Marciano Art Foundation has not responded to requests for comment Elizabeth Blair n.p.r. News today is Black Friday the unofficial peak of the holiday shopping season millions of Americans are hitting stores and shopping malls looking for discounts on electronics toys and clothing the National Retail Federation expects holiday sales to rise between 3.8 and 4.2 percent online purchases are expected to reach nearly $144000000000.00 up 14 percent from the same period last year stocks closed lower in a shortened trading day on Wall Street the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down $112.00 points the Nasdaq down $39.00 You're listening to n.p.r. News from Washington support for n.p.r. Comes from noon offering a personalized weight loss program based on a cognitive behavioral approach with the goal of losing weight and keeping it off for a good learn more Numa and o.o.m. Dot com and listeners like you who donated this n.p.r. Station. Local funding for f.e.m.a. 9 provided by Granville Holmes announcing their newest community now open a Copper River Ranch with 5 model homes details a g.v. Homes dot com Valley children's hospital with a level 4 neonatal i.c.u. For the region's most vulnerable imprints. This is Science Friday I'm Ira Flatow coming to you from the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco. One of my favorite topics to discuss on Science Friday is the micro biome you know that vast menagerie of trillions of microscopic bacteria and fungi that live on us and inside of us but I found out recently there's a lot more living on us than just microbes take for example the face my yes i heard me correctly it's a tiny arachnid that lives on your face and in some studies has been found in 100 percent of people sampled so chances are yes they are hiding out in your oil glands and hair follicles right now I see a few of you squirming in the seats about that and I understand that and you know if you do the math there are about 5000000 hair follicles on your body. And there are more than 7000000000 people on Earth so there are lots of face by every word. And joining me now to talk about these ubiquitous creatures is Michelle Trautwein curator of entomology at the California Academy of Sciences there in San Francisco welcome to Science Friday. Ok what exactly is a face by so face might isn't a rock in it so it's related to a spider. Microscopic and they kind of look like a stubby little worm with 8 little legs at the tip and it's safe to assume that everybody in our audience might have I was at least at least well I hate to break it to you but yes you all have faced mice probably dozens hundreds maybe thousands . Doesn't that make you feel good but we call them face fights but they live all over your whole body all over by they really like the greasy spots so they congregate mostly in your face but also your genitals your ears nipples. Nose inside your nose. And I'm afraid to ask the next question what do they eat on my body so they eat sea of them which is kind of just the oily gunk on your skin so that's why they like the greasy parts because because that's what they eat although to be honest that's what we assume we know very very little about them so maybe they're eating bacteria maybe they're eating skin cells there are still a mystery. Presuming that the oil that my pores are producing is meant to protect my face from the elements. So having all these arachnids eat it isn't that depriving me of my own facial oils that I need it doesn't seem like it right it seems like we probably have enough and maybe even they initiate the creation of see if I don't I don't really know. And we passed them from one person to. Another So that's right we all have our own population and it seems like they're passed mostly from parent to offspring so we do I have some data that shows we share them between people you're really physically close with so you're you know we're partners but it seems they're primarily passed down from parent to offspring so what if you try to wash your face enough when you use all kinds of creams and lotions or whatever you're shaking your head like I'm wasting my time or waste your time yeah so I don't think washing does anything if you really put some kind of pesticide on your face you could really you could kill some of them but here's the. Here's the thing they also can reproduce asexually So if there's one female left anywhere the whole thing will start all over again so they're just a part of your skin ecosystem and inevitable part of what will are not funny if they don't poop. And they don't poop what happens to the now going to blow up. When we 1st learned that it seemed crazy but actually it turns out plenty of mice don't have an anus that's actually not as unusual as it sounds so might some mites just excrete their waste in other ways so I you know whenever we talk about. Biology and animals and humans we talk about they occupy some nish in nature right in each What is that that the face might well why do we have phase where where do they fit in you know they had to they've created this amazing niche for themselves somehow in early Malian evolution so this genus originated with mammals and as every mammal species arose mites arose with them and actually we have 2 species on us and they live in separate micro habitats on our skin so the niche even becomes an even smaller niche Well you send me a face my kid. Where I actually dab on my face and I see. The Witherspoon and I. And some time and sent it back to you so you could look at my face bites What did you learn from that yeah so one of the most interesting things about face mice is that different people from different parts of the world host different lineages of face mites so I can tell you something about your ancestry by looking at your face might say you know so. So surprise surprise this is the big reveal you your face might fall into the European lineage of face might face by you know that let me tell you that that's going to find and so how did they decide they want to live in our Poor's this is and they're volution everything that's gone that's right so mites live in the craziest places all over in every every aspect of the world you could ever imagine so there's mites that live in the you know the noses of birds in the feathers of birds and in the skin of frogs so you know our bodies are just habitat right and these mites of found great cozy places to live if you have questions about face mice and you like to ask a question up here we have a couple of microphones I'm wondering if other animals mammals also have faced mites Yes So all mammal species have face mites and what's amazing is that right now there's about 150 describes species in this genus but we know almost every member that we've looked for has them and some have 234 species unique to them which means there's thousands and thousands of face mites to be discovered on mammal species all over the planet so we need some new scientists some young budding scientists to come and study face lights with me so my swapping mites with my pets Well if you are cozy with your pets you could get one of their mites but they're so uniquely evolved to each host that they probably won't do so well so I wouldn't worry about getting taken over by your dog mites or cat mites. But there. I think we have a question coming to the microphone right here yes my hair is starting to fall or there because I so believe it or not face my it's really like fine hair so they're not there's not a ton of them on your scalp they really like the fine facial hair and hair and other parts your body so you can't blame them for for your hair loss no but you're giving them extra space. That's true they're probably going to move you're helping . Well I understand that you study on whales too right well this is a big mystery face might have never been described on whales but How crazy would it be if whales had face why it's so at the California Academy of Sciences some of our team often responds to the whale standings and so I have been delivered a gift of a big chunk of whale skin with a hair follicle and even a tiny hair. And I look for mites and I have to say I didn't find any which was tragic but one day you know. How Captain Ahab got started right let's go up there on the balcony Yeah our skin rushes like related to meit's not eczema but they are associated with roses and you know sometimes I think they get a bad rap it's not clear if they cause Rose Aisha or if they're just a lot of them if they're just correlate it with reservation you have Eugene sequence Yes So I've been working for years to sequence the face of my genome and it is so. Problematic because it's such a tiny creature and it's full of bacteria and it's full of human d.n.a. So what I've done is sequenced you know my genome and my postdocs genome over and over again but I haven't gotten enough face my d.n.a. To make it put together a genome yet I'm working on it now we were told that parents can pass on their face bites to their kids right then breastfeeding or just kissing them on the forehead that's right but how does one parent usually do it more than the other the passing on of well so you know I think traditionally they were probably passed down from mother to offspring primarily through breastfeeding although I can say in my own family I've tested my husband and my kids face mice and I don't mean. I don't know how your kids are going to test or face mites today yes. They don't have a choice and I can say that my kids have my husband's face my it's which you know meant after all the time I put it. You really really bummed me out. Must really hurt. So when Europeans do this all this cheek is saying all the time you know they do to cheat so there's one they're doing they're passing a lot of face mites I don't think so I think it's got to be a little bit more prolonged contact otherwise so what I found is that I've sampled thousands of people and everyone has unique face mites unless you're together in a family right but you don't share face mice with strangers so if you were passing them along every time you kissed cheeks there would be more sharing amongst the population and there's really not your face mites are really you're. Going to remember I'm going to write you know and I won't pin cushion your face by it's really really or oh yes over here is a man's like are there any forensic uses for face lights you know there would be forensic uses Now I don't know if anyone is is using them but it would be it's a it's a field ripe for ripe for. Friends like you say for example probably because your face mice are really your own you can tell you know you can leave evidence behind leave evidence that is right you have the right my son I've always thought it would be a good sort of like infidelity test you know if you. If you had your partner's face my you know the makings of a t.v. Writer I can I can tell you that and I thank you very much for taking time to be here thank you don't know why curator of entomology at the California Academy of Sciences here in San Francisco thank you very much. And if you're just itching to see what I did there for more my knowledge you can sign up to receive a my text every day this week by texting the word might 291-724-2407 extension 0 that's my m i t e to the number 917-242-4007 extension 0 you get a daily might delivered to you via text. It's not a real my no no it's not a real face my We're going to send you some information about that my. Employees welcome our musical guests for the evening the big areas our own foxtails brigade. I'm Ira Flatow and this is Science Friday from w n y c studios local funding for f m 89 provided by build homes announcing their newest community now open a copper. River Ranch with 5 model homes details a g.v. Homes dot com university high school a charter school on the Fresno State campus offering students a liberal arts and music curriculum u h s Fresno dot com. This Thanksgiving weekend Sunday baroque will offer us period a program of gratitude and autumn cheer including an anthem of Thanksgiving by Henry personal with a hunting concerto and a musical offering fit for a king those are a few highlights of Sunday Boro this weekend. Morning from 9 to noon on Valley Public Radio. This is Science Friday I'm Ira Flatow science fiction can take us to worlds that feel very different whether it's the robot uprising a galaxy far far away or even as they say we believe the wobbly timey Raimi stuff but these stories only appeared to go as they say where no person has gone before as far fetched as Tales of the future may feel my next guest say they can actually connect us to familiar quandaries take Star Trek's Commander Data super smart Android crewmember in the next generation in the season 2 episode the measure of a man data is suddenly on trial is he property or is he a person with the right to choose what happens to him and at the heart of the matter is he sentient and self-aware has a clip of Captain Picard trying to test just that question. On the days what you're doing now. I'm taking part in a legal hearing to determine my rights and status am I a person or property or state our right to choose perhaps my very life. My rights. My state is my right to choose. My life. Seems reasonable if so for where to meet the commander. I'm waiting now let me welcome my guests and only new it's the author of the future of another time line Charlie Jane Anders the author of the city in the middle of the night I know that you both are co-hosts of a podcast called our opinions are correct that is correct that is as correct as our opinions. On Science Friday we love to talk about taking stem and turning it into steam you put the a from arts and to stem and this seems to be you know perfectly example of how you take the arts and talk about contemporary issues right that's right and I think of science fiction as kind of the cultural wing of the scientific project I mean part of what our job is as science fiction writers is to spin up scenarios that people who are working in labs or who are slaving away at a keyboard don't really necessarily have time to think about but what I think is really great about this Star Trek episode is that it raises all of these possibilities that you might not consider if you're developing ai it also raises a lot of ethical questions about how we should treat data but also about how we engage in the scientific process because one of the big questions is will a scientist be able to visit sacked data so Charlie Jane how does this episode resolve all of these ethical. Basically it's resolved by everybody deciding that data actually is a person rather than a thing and the way that that's kind of a stablished in part is that because the scientist who wants to dissect data commander medics has been using the pronoun it's to refer to data throughout the episode but at the end he finally uses the male pronoun to talk about data and watching this episode recently I was really moved by it because as a transgender person the fact that date is pronoun is finally acknowledged felt really meaningful to me and it felt like that's part of acknowledging his person hood and it's also acknowledging that his experiences and his sense of himself are valid and one of the things that they keep talking about in the episode is whether data's memories are just information that you could back up to any other computer or whether their lives experiences and signs of a journey that he's been on as a person one of the things that's interesting is that this is an episode that really deals with robot and legal procedures but we've actually just had one of the very 1st trials in the u.s. Over the driving car and who would be responsible when it killed somebody when it ran over someone and this is a question that revolves around what responsibilities we bear for the automation that we're unleashing on the streets and the other thing that's really relevant I think about this episode is it deals with the way that bias creeps into the scientific process because Maddox who is the scientist that wants to vivisect data what he thinks when he sees an artificial intelligence is well why don't we build an army of disposable labor so he looks at the ai and he doesn't think he this could be a pal or this could be a colleague he thinks Aha I found a disposable labor excellent How can I make thousands of them were millions yeah and in fact that. It's always been part of the stories about robots and in this episode There's that amazing moment where Guyon and the kind of bartender slash confidant talks to Captain Picard about the higher implications of allowing data it's become property we consider the history of the many worlds there of always been disposable creatures they do the dirty work they do the work that no one else wants to do because it's too difficult. And an army of whole disposable you don't have to think about their welfare you don't think about how the. Whole generation is exclusive good people. Think that's a little. That's the truth. I mean how often does Saif I like this Star Trek quandary get to thinking about contemporary technology and society issues I think that as a science fiction writer I'm always thinking about how I can create scenarios that might help to inform science but also I'm informed by science I'm constantly thinking about science and kind of curious about how things could develop based on different technological or social changes and I think that you know people talk about thought experiments in science fiction I think