Transcript

9.11.25 · Science Show KY

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Radio wise Diary of Science and Nature. Your
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reader's Kelly Taylor. I'll have some articles related to science
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and nature, but first a reminder that radioi is a
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reading service intended for people who are blind or have
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other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material. Today,
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we'll start with an article from the Washington Post dated
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September ninth, and the headline reads, quote prolific alien invaders
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quote threaten waters in the West. Water is a driving
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force in the American West, and today it's at risk
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more than ever, not just from overuse, not just from
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mega drought, but from minuscule invaders that pose a nearly
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unstoppable threat to the region's rivers, lakes, dams, and reservoirs.
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Typically smaller than a nickel, Zebra and quagga muscles have
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spread across Europe and the eastern United States, doing billions
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of time dollars in damage by clogging infrastructure, wreaking havoc
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on ecosystems, and eating food on which native fish and
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other animals rely. The mollusk's westward sweep recently crossed a
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feared rubicon when Colorado discovered zebra muscles in its portion.
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Of the Colorado River system, an imperiled lifeline to forty
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million people. Quote this news is devastating end quote, says
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a water manager on the state's arid western side. Quote.
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From irrigation to drinking water, the ramifications cannot be underestimated
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or overstated. Quote. Almost nothing can keep the muscles from
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proliferating once they gain a foothold, but scientists and government
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agencies are desperate to try. Fifteen miles from the Utah border,
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three men in orange vests scan the eastbound traffic of
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Interstate seventy the hot late summer afternoon, and boats are
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their target. Ski boats, fishing boats, pontoon boats. If drivers
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are towing sailboats or watercraft with a motor attached, signs
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here on the Colorado side of the state line tell
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them they must pull over. The checkpoint, staffed daily, is
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Colorado's first line of defense against the Quagga muscles that
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already infest Lake Powell, a massive reservoir on the Utah
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Arizona border. Recreational boats are the main vectors for spread,
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and inspections have become a right of summer at many
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US sites. Inspectors scrutinize ropes and motors for signs of
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the interlopers. They search standing water and plants that might
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hold larvae. Colorado first found adult zebra mussels in twenty
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twenty two in high Line Lake, a sun baked high
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desert reservoir fed by a canal connected to the Colorado River.
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The state tree the water with a copper based mollusc killer.
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The zebras survived, then the state drained the lake, killing
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thousands of fish in the process. When Highline was refilled
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this spring, water samples again came up mussel positive. Meanwhile,
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zebra villagers baby mussels were detected in that canal and
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in spots of the river itself. They showed up again
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this summer, leading the state to declare about half of
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the waterway within its borders contaminated with irrigation and native
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fish at risk. Colorado has doubled down. A squadron of
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seasonal workers operates seventy seven boat checkpoints and exhorts even
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paddle borders and kayakers to clean, drain, and dry their vessels.
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Water samples get drawn weakly from the Colorado's headwaters in
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the Rocky Mountains to the Utah border. They're tested by
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a government lab that has swelled in size. State specialists
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have played detective too, determined to locate adult muscles that
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could have spawned the villagers that made their way to
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the river, They tracked down private bodies of water in
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the vicinity. They got a hit a zebra infested pond
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that connected to the river. The connection was cut. The
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owner agreed to chemical treatment, but that pond may not
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have been the only source, and other threats abound. In
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late August, an inspector intercepted a quagga covered boat after
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its owner sought to launch at McPhee Reservoir in southwest Colorado.
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The state impounded the vessel, airlifting it by crane from
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its trailer to scrape a clean At the I seventy checkpoint,
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the team watches a truck towing a large ski boat
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whiz by, ignoring the signs. Soon a camper pulling a
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smaller boat stops. The occupants, their skepticism only partly obscured
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by sunglasses, say they have been fishing at Lake Powell.
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You guys don't have any live bait on board, asks
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Inspector Everett. Preston. Bait can carry muscle larvae. No, they reply,
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as one of Preston's colleagues flushes the vessel's enters with
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water scalding enough to kill muscles. The other jumps into
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the boat, opening seats and running his hand along the sides,
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feeling for a sandy texture that might betray villagers. The
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owner declines a seal that serves as a record of
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the inspection. He boats only at Powell, he says, and
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Powell does not do entrance checks, one of many interstate
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quirks that complicates the counter attack. OK Gents Inspector Brian
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Potts says, patting the boat, which heads east, its destination unknown.
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Both zebra and quagga muscles, close relatives, are native to
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the Caspian Sea and its surrounding region. Accounts of Zebra's
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presence there day eight to seventeen sixty nine. Trade via
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canals first transported them west, though researchers say factors including
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the closed economies of communist Eastern Europe and polluted waterways
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inconducive to muscle growth, limited their advance. Eventually, leisure boats
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became the carriers, and now even high alpine lakes have
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been colonized. The species made their way to North America
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in the late nineteen eighties. Scientists believe freighters from the
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Soviet Union, arriving to pick up grain at Midwestern ports
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via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, dumped mussel infested ballast water
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into the Great Lakes. They then spread rapidly throughout the
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Great Lakes basin, later moving on to other Eastern US
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waters and the Mississippi River basin. In the Great Lakes,
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says Alexander Karatayev, the muscles have quote changed the ecosystem.
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He is director of the Great Lakes Center at Buffalo
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State University, and with wife and fellow researcher Lubov Eve
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bar Berlakhova, has spent a career studying muscles. The bottom
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of Lake Michigan quote used to be a moon landscape
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with nothing, he notes, now it's completely paved with mussels.
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The muscles are filter feeders, sucking in water and extracting
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plankton and other material for food. This clarifies the water,
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which scuba divers appreciate. So do real estate agents because
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crystalline lakes help sell waterfront properties. But the downside of
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these prolific alien invaders, as a two thousand and one
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Federal plan call them, is enormous muscles not only attached
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to boats and docks, they also clog pipes, screens, and
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gates at water treatment plants and power plants. Congressional researchers
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estimated that infestations cost the power industry in the Great
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Lakes region three point one billion dollars from nineteen ninety
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three to nineteen ninety nine. The mollusk's voracious appetite for
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plankton has also led to the dramatic decline of native
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whitefish and other fish in the Great Lakes. On the
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other hand, native sturgeon have learned to feast on them.
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It's a huge change to that system. Berlakhova says, But
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you know, there is nothing black and white in nature
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except one thing, she adds. Humans drove this change. For
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a time, scientists doubted the muscles could survive in the
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warmer waters of the Southwest and West. They were wrong.
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Zebra mussels took hold in several Texas lakes starting in
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two thousand and nine, astonishing Robert McMahon, an emeritus professor
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of biology at the University of Texas at Arlington. His
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research suggested they had evolved to withstand higher temperatures. Quote
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they can produce literally billions in an infested lake of
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new larvae, and when you have that, manys evolution can
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occur very quickly. McMahon says it's possible that through time
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they may even get more temperature tolerant. I hope not.
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Quaggas have been multiplying in Lake Meads since at least
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two thousand seven. Five years later, an estimated one point
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five trillion adult muscles lived within the Orange Canyon walls
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of Mead, where drought and dizzying development have led to
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record low water levels. Inside the massive Hoover Dam, which
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uses Colorado River to generate electricity across three states, they
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regularly clog pipes that pull river water to cool generators.
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It's a huge problem, facility manager Brad Cochrane says, pointing
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amid the drone of machinery to the nine cylindrical generators
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Inside the cavernous Arizona wing of the dam. Four steel
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tunnels thirty feet in diameter carry water to turbines, and
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every two years each is drained so its interior can
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be recoated with a gray epoxy. Though the water rushes
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through with incredible force. Staff always find what Cochrane describes
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as dunes of mussels attached inside. It takes ten workers
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forty five days to pressure, wash, shovel, and wheelbarrow them away.
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The two thousand and one government report warned of calamitus
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environmental and economic costs if zebras joined them in the West.
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Two decades later, the Army Corps of Engineers estimated that
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protecting hydroelectric projects, salmon fisheries, and private boats from an
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infestation in the Columbia River basin could cost one hundred
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eighty five million dollars annually. The mussel menace has triggered
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extreme measures. California's San Eusto Reservoir, a popular fishing and
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recreation spot east of Monterey Bay, has been closed since
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zebras were found there in two thousand and eight. Some
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jurisdictions have temporarily banned imports of marimao moss balls sold
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as aquarium decor since shipments from Ukraine were found to
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be infested in twenty twenty one, agencies have deployed dogs
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trained to sniff out microscopic larvae. Some experts doubt zebra
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muscles could find much to hold onto in the Colorado
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with its agitating currents, Yet David Wong, an environmental biologists
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who for years studied muscles in the West, sees the
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calcium rich river as sustenance for shell formation and its
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flow as a larvae commuter train. Quote. It's very difficult
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for villagers to swim upstream, he says, but now they
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can be going anywhere, all the way from Colorado down
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to Arizona, Utah. A muscle gripped future terrifies Tino burg Goonzini.
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She oversees the distribution of Colorado River water to irrigators
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across Colorado's parched Grand Valley. The region's ranch lands and
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peaches depend on it, and she says many farmers who
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used micro drip irrigation with small tubes that could be
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jammed by mussels are stressed. Last year, the Grand Valley
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Water Users Association spent more than eighty thousand dollars to
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treat a major canal with a copper solution toxic to mussels,
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boosting user fees. The group may do it again this year,
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she says, But Bergonzini worries about environmental costs after authorities
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doused the Snake River in Idaho two years ago with
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copper to kill Quaggas. Government researchers found the effort also
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killed native species, and still the mussels returned. On a
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serene August morning, she peers over the railings of the
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canal's fish screen, a large metal structure that filters endangered
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fish out of the greenish water and shoots them back
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into the Colorado. The water was languid, the screens and
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beams immer furst and replete with muscle friendly crevices. Quote.
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The life here which we have become accustomed to is
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because the Colorado River, she says, So changing the river
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in such a catastrophic way really kind of changes what
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it means to be a Coloradon quote. Some seventy five
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miles to the northeast, in the resort town of Glenwood Springs,
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an aquatic nuisance species specialist named Morgan Hoffmann returns to
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the river to do sampling. She tosses a net attached
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to a rope into the current, then toes it back
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in with her catch of plankton and other matter. Those
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who study the Zebras and Quaggas insist it is worth
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the money and effort to keep the species at bay,
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or at least try Quote, you can slow it down.
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And you hope, given enough time where places have become infested,
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that the numbers and problems will have dropped off. But
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you're talking about years, maybe, concedes McMahon, the Texas professor
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or never end quote. And now we'll turn to National Geographic.
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We have an article that's headlined this is the best
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evidence yet for ancient life on Mars, published September tenth.
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Geologist Michael Tice had never lost sleep over a Mars
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rock before that changed as he dug into data from
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the red planet's Bright Angel rock formation, located in an
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area river valley. I'm sorry, an ancient river valley called
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Neretva Vallis. N ere Tva Neretva vallis. The al s
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this rock formation contains the most compelling evidence to date
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for possibility of ancient life on Mars, citing a new
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analysis of samples collected by NASA's Perseverance Rover, published September
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tenth in the journal Nature. The result quote is the
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closest we've actually come to discovering ancient life on Mars,
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says Nicola Fox, Ancient Associate Administrator for Science at NASA.
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Further research is needed to confirm that life indeed existed there,
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But for scientists like Tye and his collaborator Joel Herowitz,
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the rocks of Bright Angel raised the possibility that microbes
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thrived in the mud under water some three and a
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half billion years ago. It's pretty mind blowing, says Tye,
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a research scientist at Texas A and M University. When
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Joel and I started seriously considering the possibility that life
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could have been involved in forming these things, I had
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trouble sleeping that night. Bright Angel's rocks, on the western
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edge of Jaesaro Crater were likely deposited at the bottom
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of a lake or river when water flowed freely on
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a planet that is now dry. Chemical clues suggest that
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a specific type of reaction occurred in these rocks, and
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on Earth, such reactions typically involve microbial life. Quote. This
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is the first time that chemical process is consistent with,
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though not definitive proof of a biological origin have been
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observed on Mars, says Christian Schroeder, physicist at the Max
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Planck Institute for Solar System Research. Throughout Bright Angel, Perseverance
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found greenish specks scientists like to call poppy seeds or
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nodules embedded in reddish mudstone. Prominent in those specks is
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the mineral vivianite containing iron phosphate. The rover also drilled
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a thin rock core sample called Sapphire Canyon, barely as
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long as an adult pinky finger. Sapphire Canyon showed tiny
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ring like features called leopard spots, with rims made of
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dark minerals that are also iron phosphate, and lighter interior
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areas with an iron sulfide mineral called gridgite. What's more
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exciting for the research for life would have occurred? I'm sorry,
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what's most exciting for the search for life would have
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occurred at a scale even smaller than molecules. In an
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oxidation reaction or redox reaction, organic material gave over electrons
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to iron in the mud and left these other minerals
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vivianite and gridgite behind. On Earth, microorganisms spark reactions like
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this by consuming the organic matter and capturing the energy
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released in the redox process with minerals formed as byproducts.
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It's like kind of how humans eat food to gain
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energy and generate waste too. Quote the places where we
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see that happening on Earth in ambient temperature sedimentary settings,
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Those reactions are typically driven by microbes, said Herowitz, a
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geologist at Stony University. If the bright Angel formation results
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ultimately do lead to the proof of ancient life on Mars,
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Tye notes that means two different planets hosted microbes getting
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their energy through the same means at about the same
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time in the distant past. That could suggest that early
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life learns how to survive in this way, regardless of
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where it originated. Quote. I think that could be telling
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us something really profound about how life evolves, he says.
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Proving that a sign of life, or what scientists call
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a biosignature, has been found definitively is an enormous scientific undertaking.
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It requires multiple lines of evidence from different scientific instruments
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and a thorough investigation of the geological context in which
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the biological signal could have been produced. Enormous amounts of
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scrutiny and debate would ensue before such a ground breaking conclusion.
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The obvious first question is can a non biological source
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produce the same result. The same redox reactions described in
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the Mars rock paper with the same byproducts can occur
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without the presence of life, but only under hot conditions.
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A volcanic eruption could theoretically explain something like this no
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life required, but the study authors believe conditions weren't hot
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enough in this particular location when the rocks seem to
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have been underwater. Quote, if you were able to take
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the mud and the organic matter and cook them, you
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could come up with that same set of minerals, Heroitz says,
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But so far, using all the tools available to us,
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we don't see any evidence that these rocks were heated
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up to the kinds of temperatures that would be needed
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to make that reaction happen. What's more, Tice noted that
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if a massive lava flow event had created the leopard spots,
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they would only appear in a single layer rather than
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multiple layers of the core sample. Scientists stress that to
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know for sure whether ancient microbial life was responsible for
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the poppy seeds and leopard spots, samples of Mars rocks
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would need to be returned to Earth so that scientists
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can use more sophisticated laboratory equipment to more thoroughly investigate.
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The fate of NASA's own sample return program remains up
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in the air, however, and now will turn to ACU weather,
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and the article headline is survey reveals which natural disasters
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scare Americans the most. Dated September the ninth, a new
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nationwide survey highlights America's deepest weather fears, and the results
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show striking gaps between the threats people worry about and
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how prepared they actually feel to face them. The poll
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of twenty five hundred adults conducted by Talker Research on
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behalf of Masterlocke, found tornadoes ranked as the scariest natural
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disaster forty six percent, narrowly edging out tsunamis forty three percent,
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followed by earthquakes thirty five percent and hurricanes thirty three percent,
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wildfires thirty percent, flash floods twenty six percent, heat waves
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and droughts six percent, blizzards four percent, and mudslides four
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percent trailed behind. The study revealed major regional differences in
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how Americans think about disasters. In the Northeast, residents reported
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high confidence in handling more familiar threats like heat waves
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or droughts and blizzards, but earthquakes a newer concern for
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the region. Does this mean an earthquake is new on
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the survey list, or is it implying that earthquakes in
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general are a new thing in the Northeast, left only
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forty two percent feeling prepared. Fewer still said they would
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be ready for a tornado thirty eight percent. In the Midwest,
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two thirds. Sixty two percent of Midwesterners said they don't
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flinch when tornado warnings are issued, which is unsurprising given
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the region's history with severe storms. However, their confidence waned
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when asked about wildfires thirty three percent and mudslides twenty
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seven percent, hazards less familiar to the area. In the Southeast,
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respondents here were more likely to identify as disaster veterans
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nineteen percent compared to fourteen percent nationwide, citing repeated experience
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with hurricanes and tropical storms. One Florida resident explained, quote,
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we are always prepared in the season with a stock
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of extra food and emergency needs. Quote. In the West,
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earthquakes and wildfires topped the list of fears, with residents
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more confident about what to do in an earthquake than
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in a fast moving wildfire. Despite frequent exposure to severe weather,
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many Americans admit they are under prepared. Only twenty eight
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percent have a tornado plant, twenty two percent have one
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for heat waves, twenty one percent for hurricanes, in nineteen
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percent for flash floods. Nearly a third have no disaster
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plan at all. Even basic weather literacy is uneven. Fewer
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than half could correctly explain the difference between a weather
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watch and a warning. When severe weather alerts are issued,
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twenty one percent of respondents said they immediately gather their
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families and pets and evacuate, fourteen percent head to a
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safe area or start securing their home, while eleven percent
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grab important items on the way out. The study also
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underscored how disasters catch people off guard. Nearly half said
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they were unprepared for prolonged power outages, thirty nine percent
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for the sheer destruction, and thirty six percent for the
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length of time it takes to recover. While preparedness lags,
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awareness is rising. Or in five Americans say they are
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more aware of severe weather than they were a decade ago.
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More than half believe extreme weather is becoming more common,
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and thirty seven percent believe storms are growing stronger. Still,
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sixty one percent agreed it's harder than ever to be
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prepared now. An article from BBC's Science Focus magazine, new
24:24
method could finally destroy forever chemicals and forever chemicals is
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in quotes. For more than seventy years, so called forever
24:33
chemicals have been used to make all sorts of products,
24:35
from nonstick cookware to fabrics, but they've also been linked
24:39
to environmental problems and serious health consequences, including several types
24:44
of cancer, and they're notoriously hard to get rid of. Now,
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scientists have discovered how to break down and recycle these chemicals,
24:53
also known as per and polyfluoroalkal substances or PFA pfas.
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What's more, the method developed by researchers at the University
25:05
of Oxford worked working with Colorado State University in the US,
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not only destroys pfas but also recovers useful elements from them.
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The destruction of pfas with phosphate salts is an exciting innovation,
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offering a simple yet powerful solution to a long standing
25:26
environmental challenge, said doctor Long Yang, chemist at the University
25:31
of Oxford and one of the authors of the study
25:33
that was published in Nature. This involved firstly reacting PFAS
25:39
samples with potassium phosphate salts. Then the researcher's ground the
25:44
pfas and salts together using ball bearings. Small metal balls
25:49
used in machinery. Pfas are chemicals with multiple very strong
25:55
carbon fluorine bonds, but the scientists were able to use
25:58
this method to break those bonds and extract the fluorine content,
26:04
a chemical used in many industries, including making statins and herbicides. Currently,
26:10
we rely on a mineral called fluorospar as the primary
26:15
source of our fluorine. Now we'll go to science Alert
26:22
and the headline for this one is Abandoned shopping carts
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do more damage than you think. This is September eleventh.
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Abandoned shopping carts, pushed into hedges, dumped in rivers, or
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stranded on city streets have become symbols of pollution and waste,
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and a new study shows just how bad for our
26:42
planet they actually are. The research was carried out in
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the UK, where these grocery carriers are known as trolleys,
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and around five hundred and twenty thousand of them are
26:51
deserted annually. Recovering, repairing, or replacing derelict carts comes with
26:56
a sizeable environmental costs of shopping trolleys are reported as
27:02
abandoned in the UK every year says materials engineer Neil
27:06
Wrath from the University of Warwick, quote, when you multiply
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the carbon impact of retrieving each one, it becomes both
27:12
significant and concerning. Wrath and his colleague, University of Warwick
27:18
materials engineer Darren Hughes, calculated that the diesel required to
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retrieve all of those trolleys and vans adds up to
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three hundred and forty three metric tons of carbon dioxide,
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similar to the emissions involved in driving eighty cars for
27:32
a year. If just ten percent of those half a
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million trolleys also required refurbishing with zinc coating, the carbon
27:41
emissions would almost double. And yet recovery and refurbishment can
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massively reduce the cost to the planet of having to
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replace a shopping cart by as much as ninety two
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to ninety nine percent. The researchers focus their attention on
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the suburban area and the city of Coventry, figuring out
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the environmental price of each trolley through its entire life cycle.
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Round thirty trolleys a week are recovered in the area,
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and roughly one hundred a year need refurbishing. Well, that's
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it for this week's Diary of Science. And nature. Your
28:15
reader was Kelly Taylor. Now stay tuned for further programming
28:19
on RADIOI