Transcript

10.8.26 · Science Show KY

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Radio Eye's Diary of Science and Nature. Your
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Speaker 1: reader's Kelly Taylor. I'll have articles on the topics of
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Speaker 1: science and nature, but first, a reminder that Radio Eye
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Speaker 1: is a reading service intended for people who are blind
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Speaker 1: or have other disabilities that make it difficult to read
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Speaker 1: printed material. First up today, we have an article from
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Speaker 1: Reuters News Service, dated October the 7th. Climate Summit warns
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Speaker 1: stronger action needed to curb global warming. Countries must urgently
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Speaker 1: scale up their commitments to keep temperature rises within 1.5
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Speaker 1: degrees Celsius to limit the impacts of extreme weather, a
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Speaker 1: statement from a conference leading up to the UN's COP31
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Speaker 1: summit said. The ministerial meeting being held in Fiji and
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Speaker 1: Tuvalu said on Tuesday that Deep, rapid, and sustained emissions
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Speaker 1: reductions are required to minimize the magnitude and duration of
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Speaker 1: overshoot of the target. As global temperature increases approach 1.5
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Speaker 1: degrees Celsius and we face strong El Nino conditions, we
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Speaker 1: reiterate that every fraction of a degree of warming accelerates
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Speaker 1: the impacts of climate change and increases the risk of
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Speaker 1: irreversible loss and damage for climate-vulnerable communities, the statement said.
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Speaker 1: Some Pacific nations face an existential threat from rising sea levels,
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Speaker 1: driven by climate change. Tuvalu's sea levels have risen about
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Speaker 1: 15 centimeters, or 6 inches, in the three decades prior
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Speaker 1: to 2023, twice as fast as the global average. Under
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Speaker 1: the 2015 Paris Agreement, governments committed to limit global warming
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Speaker 1: to 1.5 degrees above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial level. a threshold
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Speaker 1: that the UN's environmental body warned last month the world
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Speaker 1: would exceed within a few years. The pre-COP 31 conference
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Speaker 1: also reaffirmed the importance of continuing sovereignty and the rights
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Speaker 1: of states to maintain maritime zones under international law, even
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Speaker 1: as climate-related sea level rise threatens to reshape coastlines in
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Speaker 1: the Pacific. Pre-COP events, preparatory meetings leading up to the
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Speaker 1: United Nations' Climate Forum in Turkey in November are typically
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Speaker 1: technocratic meetings of climate negotiators. Australia and Pacific partners are
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Speaker 1: working together through the COP 31 Pacific Partnership to ensure
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Speaker 1: Pacific voices and solutions are at the center of global
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Speaker 1: climate action, while also seeking to strengthen regional ties ahead
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Speaker 1: of the main summit. Now we'll turn to Smithsonian. These
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Speaker 1: five birds have disappeared forever, Their history offers a valuable
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Speaker 1: lesson for the future. Dated October 5th. A search party
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Speaker 1: of scientists and volunteers traipsed through hardwood forest, eyes and
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Speaker 1: ears peeled for birds. On several mornings in March and
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Speaker 1: April of 2002, they scoured South Carolina's Congaree National Park,
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Speaker 1: stopping every 400 feet to play recordings of a distinctive call,
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Speaker 1: a repeated buzzy zeep. The sound, belonging to the olive, black,
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Speaker 1: and yellow Bachmann's warbler, had been recently reported in the
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Speaker 1: area by an experienced birder. The species was known to
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Speaker 1: be secretive, typically skulking low in the brush, but the
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Speaker 1: experts felt sure that if the birds were there, they
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Speaker 1: would respond to the audio. Despite 166 hours of searching
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Speaker 1: through 3,900 acres of forest, however, none of the target
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Speaker 1: warblers called back. It seemed that the birds were nowhere
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Speaker 1: to be found, but that wasn't much of a surprise.
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Speaker 1: No one had confidently documented a Bachmann's warbler in decades.
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Speaker 1: The most recent specimen had been collected from Mississippi in 1949,
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Speaker 1: and the last confirmed sightings had been between 1958 and
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Speaker 1: 1961 around Charleston, South Carolina. In 2023, with no further
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Speaker 1: evidence that any of its kind were alive, the Bachmann's
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Speaker 1: warbler was declared extinct. by the United States Fish and
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Speaker 1: Wildlife Service. Though the species may now be gone from
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Speaker 1: the wild, a taxidermy specimen is on display at the
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Speaker 1: Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, alongside a group of
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Speaker 1: other birds representing living and extinct biodiversity from across the country.
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Speaker 1: The exhibition where the specimens are found, titled From These Lands,
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Speaker 1: Sharing Our Natural and Cultural Heritage, brings together an eclectic
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Speaker 1: collection from the museum's shelves that totals more than 600
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Speaker 1: natural history objects from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and
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Speaker 1: five U.S. territories. Alongside wonders like a fossilized mastodon tooth,
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Speaker 1: shimmering ammonites, and wild rice, the collection features five extinct birds.
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Speaker 1: Beyond the Bachman's warbler, visitors can see the heath hen,
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Speaker 1: Kauai U, and Carolina Parakeet, as well as Martha, the
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Speaker 1: last passenger pigeon. These birds are meant to be a
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Speaker 1: gateway that could prompt viewers to ask questions about their extinctions,
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Speaker 1: says Torben Rick, curator of North American archaeology at the museum. Quote,
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Speaker 1: we hope to draw people in and then get them
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Speaker 1: to think about these issues a little more in depth
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Speaker 1: outside of the exhibit, end quote. Although they no longer
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Speaker 1: fly in our skies or make calls in our forests,
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Speaker 1: the displayed specimens are still capable of teaching scientists crucial
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Speaker 1: information about birds and their ecosystems and inspiring conservation action
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Speaker 1: from people around the world. Museum specimens of extinct species, quote,
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Speaker 1: act as a window into the past, showing us both
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Speaker 1: what has been lost and what is still worth protecting,
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Speaker 1: says Rob Cook, ecological modeler at the UK Center for
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Speaker 1: Ecology and Hydrology. Quote, they are a powerful warning of
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Speaker 1: how human activities can reshape ecosystems, but also a source
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Speaker 1: of knowledge that can help guide better decisions for the future,
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Speaker 1: end quote. Birds currently live in a precarious existence. A
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Speaker 1: September report from BirdLife International found that 45% of migratory
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Speaker 1: bird species are in decline worldwide, and one in nine
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Speaker 1: of them are threatened with extinction. Climate change, which is
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Speaker 1: shifting habitat conditions at a staggering pace, is putting two-thirds
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Speaker 1: of North American birds at a rising risk of disappearing forever.
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Speaker 1: And in the past 130,000 years, at least 1,300 to 1,500
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Speaker 1: bird species have gone extinct, dying out in multiple ways
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Speaker 1: linked to human expansion. That finding comes from a 2023
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Speaker 1: study that combined documented extinctions with modeled estimates based on
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Speaker 1: the fossil record. It was a number twice as high
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Speaker 1: as scientists had previously thought. Quote, the fact that so
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Speaker 1: many extinctions happened without a trace is important because it
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Speaker 1: changes our understanding of the world we live in today,
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Speaker 1: says Cook, who led the 2023 research. Quote, we're already
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Speaker 1: living in a quieter and emptier world than most people realize,
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Speaker 1: end quote. Those bygone birds probably filled roles in the
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Speaker 1: ecosystem that have now also been lost or altered, he adds,
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Speaker 1: such as dispersing seeds or pollinating plants. Every surviving species, therefore,
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Speaker 1: becomes more important, Cook says. Most bird extinctions, about 90%
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Speaker 1: of them, occurred on islands where the species have small
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Speaker 1: ranges and are highly vulnerable to unfamiliar predators. Such was
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Speaker 1: the case for the Kauai-u, one of five species of
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Speaker 1: Hawaiian honey eater, all of which are extinct. Habitat destruction,
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Speaker 1: mosquito-borne disease, and invasive mammal predators contributed to the bird's demise.
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Speaker 1: The species was so loud and vocal that it was
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Speaker 1: synonymous with the forests of Kauai, says Chris Malinsky, bird
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Speaker 1: collection manager at the National Museum of Natural History. The
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Speaker 1: local people there talk about that a lot, how the
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Speaker 1: forests have gone silent without the songs of the Kauai Uu.
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Speaker 1: Though they lived in different areas, the other spotlighted birds
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Speaker 1: share similar stories. The heath hen, a subspecies of the
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Speaker 1: greater prairie chicken, was hunted by humans until one population
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Speaker 1: remained on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. Then a series of
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Speaker 1: unfortunate events, a fire, a severe winter, predators, and disease,
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Speaker 1: ultimately wiped out the only ones that were left. The
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Speaker 1: Carolina parakeet also disappeared, driven to extinction by deforestation, hunting, disease,
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Speaker 1: and the pet trade. Scientists don't know for sure what
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Speaker 1: happened to the Bachmann's warbler, but habitat destruction in its
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Speaker 1: breeding and wintering grounds likely played a role. Quote, in
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Speaker 1: one way or another, these extinctions are related to human factors,
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Speaker 1: whether it's our habitat clearance over hunting, or the introduction
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Speaker 1: of a predator, Rick says. But the birds on display
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Speaker 1: at the museum aren't just reminders of loss. They're also
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Speaker 1: ongoing sources of information for researchers. They represent so much
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Speaker 1: value for future science Rick says. The museum's collections are
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Speaker 1: being studied all the time, he adds, often by outside
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Speaker 1: researchers from other institutions. Taking measurements of these specimens can
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Speaker 1: reveal historical avian anatomy, and small samples of their tissues,
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Speaker 1: such as from a toe pad, can hold an entire genome,
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Speaker 1: Malinsky says. Without the specimen, you of course wouldn't be
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Speaker 1: able to do that at all. A genome can uncover
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Speaker 1: relationships between extinct and living species, Rick adds, and in
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Speaker 1: some cases it could show a genetic bottleneck prior to
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Speaker 1: an extinction. From clippings of the feathers, researchers can conduct
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Speaker 1: stable isotope analysis, a study of versions of the same
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Speaker 1: element with different masses. With this data, they can reconstruct
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Speaker 1: birds' diets and migration patterns, as well as the conditions
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Speaker 1: of their environment. The sky is really the limit, Rick says.
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Speaker 1: Every so often, there's a new breakthrough, a new technique
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Speaker 1: or technology that someone wants to apply to researching the
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Speaker 1: bird specimens. They can come and analyze these collections and
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Speaker 1: they'll be here in perpetuity. The preserved birds also serve
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Speaker 1: an educational purpose, communicating key lessons from the history to
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Speaker 1: the public. Some of them may be the only direct
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Speaker 1: evidence that a bird ever existed, Cook says. Perhaps the
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Speaker 1: strongest lesson they hold is that humans have a powerful
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Speaker 1: influence on the planet, and while collective action has led
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Speaker 1: to the loss of species, it can also be used
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Speaker 1: for the better. To demonstrate that fact, the exhibition takes
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Speaker 1: the extinction of the passenger pigeon, the quintessential story of
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Speaker 1: species lost, often told as a cautionary tale, and connects
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Speaker 1: it to a reason for hope. Once so abundant that
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Speaker 1: flocks could darken the sky and take hours to pass overhead,
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Speaker 1: the passenger pigeon went from being the most populous bird
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Speaker 1: in North America, and perhaps the world, to being entirely
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Speaker 1: eradicated in just a few decades. Out-of-control hunting and habitat
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Speaker 1: destruction devastated the species until its population had crashed beyond repair.
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Speaker 1: In a last-ditch effort to recover the birds, some conservationists
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Speaker 1: tried to breed the surviving individuals in captivity, but it
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Speaker 1: was too late. The last male died at the Cincinnati
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Speaker 1: Zoo in 1910, and the world's last passenger pigeon named
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Speaker 1: Martha died at the same zoo in 1914. Now Martha
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Speaker 1: sits in a display case at the museum next to
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Speaker 1: a specimen of the Guam rail. This island-dwelling bird once
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Speaker 1: stood on the brink of extinction, and it spent 40
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Speaker 1: years classified as extinct in the wild. But while the
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Speaker 1: passenger pigeon's breeding program never took off, the Guam Rail
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Speaker 1: has made a remarkable recovery due to the breeding and
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Speaker 1: reintroduction by experts around the globe. The juxtaposition, Rick hopes,
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Speaker 1: can show visitors that despite the existing losses, all remaining
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Speaker 1: birds are not doomed. While we have the propensity to
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Speaker 1: do these things that are incredibly negative, Rick says, when
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Speaker 1: we go back to the Guam rail, we have this
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Speaker 1: real ability to right that ship and course correct. And
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Speaker 1: the rail isn't alone. Even for other species that are
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Speaker 1: at risk, he hopes the exhibition will demonstrate that we
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Speaker 1: can improve their outcome. Quote, with the proper intervention, with
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Speaker 1: the focus, with the science that we do and the
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Speaker 1: specimens that we have here at the museum, These are
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Speaker 1: things that we can really change, he says. Now we'll
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Speaker 1: turn to the Weather Channel, and they have this headline,
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Speaker 1: Tropical Storm Isaias Stronger, Expected to be a Hurricane Thursday.
13:47
Speaker 1: Tropical Storm Isaias continues to become more organized and should
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Speaker 1: become a hurricane Thursday. The storm will track north and
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Speaker 1: eventually make landfall across the Gulf Coast late Friday or
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Speaker 1: early Saturday. Those in the path of the storm are
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Speaker 1: urged to have their hurricane plans ready, especially in areas
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Speaker 1: like New Orleans, Gulfport, Mobile, Pensacola, and Panama City. The
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Speaker 1: storm could bring significant impacts to the coast from storm surge, flooding,
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Speaker 1: and wind. Heavy rainfall, potentially up to 10 inches, and
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Speaker 1: gusty winds are expected. Here's what you need to know.
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Speaker 1: Tropical storm Assayas continues to become more organized, should become
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Speaker 1: a Hurricane Thursday. and the heavy rainfall is expected to
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Speaker 1: pass not only through Louisiana and Mississippi, but on up
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Speaker 1: through Tennessee and Kentucky. And now from Reuters, an article
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Speaker 1: also related to the hurricane. Shell Chivron cut Gulf of
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Speaker 1: Mexico output as Tropical Storm Assayas approaches. Shell and Chevron
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Speaker 1: said on Wednesday they were curtailing offshore operations in the
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Speaker 1: Gulf of Mexico as Tropical Storm Isaias approached the region.
15:05
Speaker 1: Shell said it was evacuating all personnel and shutting its
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Speaker 1: production at Mars, Olympus, Ursa, Vito, and Appomattox assets. The
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Speaker 1: company added that it had already moved non-essential personnel from
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Speaker 1: its Stones asset. Separately, Chevron said it had initiated shut-in
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Speaker 1: procedures for production at four Chevron-operated facilities in preparation for
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Speaker 1: the storm. The U.S. oil major added that some additional
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Speaker 1: personnel were being transported onshore while production at its other
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Speaker 1: five Gulf of Mexico facilities remained at normal levels. Tropical
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Speaker 1: storm Aseas formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday
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Speaker 1: and is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane before slamming
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Speaker 1: into the southern U.S. early on Saturday, bringing heavy rain,
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Speaker 1: storm surge, and possibly tornadoes across several states. Now we'll
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Speaker 1: turn to Wired Magazine. A startup has a plan to
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Speaker 1: make water from air using data center's waste heat. This
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Speaker 1: is dated October 7th. The temperature is already over 80
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Speaker 1: degrees Fahrenheit as the sun rises on a 20-foot-tall, metal-clad
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Speaker 1: machine in the parking lot of Atoco, that's A-T-O-C-O, an Irvine,
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Speaker 1: California-based startup. Engineers open panels to check systems and an
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Speaker 1: iPad that shows a steadily ascending line that reveals the
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Speaker 1: device's purpose. harvesting water from thin air using special materials
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Speaker 1: known as Metal Organic Frameworks, or MOFs. The materials won
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Speaker 1: Omar Yagi, the company's founder, the Nobel Prize for Chemistry
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Speaker 1: in 2025. And Otoko has shown they work in prototypes
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Speaker 1: capable of producing gallons of water per day. What's unique
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Speaker 1: about this iteration of Otoko's technology is what it doesn't require.
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Speaker 1: No grid connection or even electricity is needed to grab
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Speaker 1: water from the air at the microscopic level, nor is
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Speaker 1: it required to, in turn, wring the water out of
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Speaker 1: the materials in a form useful for humans. Instead, all
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Speaker 1: that's needed is low-level industrial heat. That, Otoko says, makes
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Speaker 1: them a perfect candidate to hook up with AI data centers.
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Speaker 1: which throw off loads of waste heat as servers churn
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Speaker 1: out everything from math proofs to virtual editors, while also
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Speaker 1: often requiring massive amounts of water. Quote, we were not
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Speaker 1: really thinking of AI data centers four or five years ago,
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Speaker 1: says Otoko CEO Samer Taha. But the massive build-out has
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Speaker 1: created an opportunity for the startups they could allow it
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Speaker 1: to get a step closer to its larger goal of
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Speaker 1: ensuring people living in water-stressed regions have control over an
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Speaker 1: increasingly precious resource. When Yagi was a PhD student, he says,
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Speaker 1: creating something like MOFs was every chemist's dream. Part of
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Speaker 1: his Nobel-winning work over the past 20 years has been
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Speaker 1: taking theoretical research into the real world, creating a stable
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Speaker 1: molecular structure that links organic material with metal ions. The
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Speaker 1: structure of a MOF looks somewhat like a jungle gym
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Speaker 1: on a playground, says Seth Cohen, Dean of the School
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Speaker 1: of Physical Sciences at UC Irvine. MOFs are essentially molecular sponges.
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Speaker 1: They're a solid material that's very, very good at absorbing
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Speaker 1: other molecules, says Cohen, who is not involved with Otoko.
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Speaker 1: Like a sponge, the materials can also be wrung out
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Speaker 1: using methods including heat to release whatever they're holding on to.
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Speaker 1: These jungle gym-like frameworks create open spaces on the microscopic
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Speaker 1: level that can hold an unbelievable amount of material, and
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Speaker 1: small tweaks can yield even more interior space. Quote, the
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Speaker 1: footage of a gram of MOF could cover two football fields,
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Speaker 1: Yagi explains. They can store hydrogen in there to make
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Speaker 1: clean energy, or you could store CO2 in there to
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Speaker 1: make clean air, or in this case, you can store water,
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Speaker 1: end quote. Atoko has developed what Taha calls precision materials
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Speaker 1: with a specific objective of being able to harvest water,
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Speaker 1: release it, and then do it over and over again.
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Speaker 1: He quips that as vice president of R & D,
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Speaker 1: as vice president of R & D, Benji Lim Kettle
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Speaker 1: puts it, the material has to like water but not
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Speaker 1: love it. To succeed commercially, It also has to use
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Speaker 1: as little energy as possible. Quote, the scientists reach a
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Speaker 1: level of precision where we really know even the angle
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Speaker 1: of the atom in a given material, Taha says. In
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Speaker 1: Otoko's technology, air passes through the MOF, which has been
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Speaker 1: specially tailored to attract water molecules. Those molecules adhere to
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Speaker 1: the pores, but the material feels completely dry to the
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Speaker 1: touch even when saturated, and squeezing it doesn't release a
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Speaker 1: single drop. Taha was kind enough to let Wired try
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Speaker 1: our hand at it. Instead, the company relies on heat
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Speaker 1: to release the captured molecules. There are other means of
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Speaker 1: harvesting water. Cohen notes that silica, a popular desiccant, can
20:54
Speaker 1: also pull water out of air, but it doesn't hold
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Speaker 1: as much moisture and requires you to, quote, heat the
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Speaker 1: heck out of it to get the water back out,
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Speaker 1: he says. The monolith in the parking lot of the
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Speaker 1: company's Irvine facility is the culmination of of decades of
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Speaker 1: precision development. Atoko's materials and approach allow its off-grid system
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Speaker 1: to work even when relative humidity is in the teams.
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Speaker 1: The MOFs in the device can harvest and release water
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Speaker 1: with heat as low as 100 degrees Fahrenheit, Taha says.
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Speaker 1: With no data center nearby, Atoko's team simulated it by
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Speaker 1: piping heat from a source that was around 150 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Speaker 1: A solar panel powers various systems, but not the water
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Speaker 1: harvesting operation itself, making the metal-clad machine eerily quiet. Cars
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Speaker 1: pulling into the adjacent businesses create more of a sonic disruption,
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Speaker 1: but Taha is ready to show the device has been
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Speaker 1: working hard. It's a little after 9 a.m., and the
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Speaker 1: temperature is over 90 degrees Fahrenheit when he pushes a
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Speaker 1: button on the side and turns a spigot. out tumbles
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Speaker 1: a clear stream of water that looks good enough to drink. Unfortunately,
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Speaker 1: it's not on offer for legal liability reasons, though Taha
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Speaker 1: notes it's the equivalent of distilled water because Otoko's MOFs
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Speaker 1: aren't built to gather air pollution. Tossing it in the bushes,
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Speaker 1: Taha retreats to an air-conditioned conference room, where he lays
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Speaker 1: out the company's vision for its new machine. Quote, Roughly
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Speaker 1: 70% of the industrial waste heat is low-grade, unutilized, thrown
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Speaker 1: into oceans or into the air, he says. If you
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Speaker 1: convert that waste heat to clean water using our technology,
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Speaker 1: you're talking about trillions of liters of clean water, end quote.
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Speaker 1: Data centers are an increasingly big source of that waste heat,
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Speaker 1: with a single facility capable of pumping out as much
22:54
Speaker 1: heat as tens of thousands of homes. Operators are forced
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Speaker 1: to disperse that heat into the surrounding environment, creating heat
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Speaker 1: islands while also paying for various types of cooling systems.
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Speaker 1: Many of those cooling systems also rely on water, and
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Speaker 1: some can consume millions of gallons per day. The Toko's
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Speaker 1: technology would thus address two of data centers' biggest problems.
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Speaker 1: Data centers are investing a lot of money to get
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Speaker 1: rid of waste heat, Taha says. Quote, we actually want it.
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Speaker 1: We need it. We give you back water, the same
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Speaker 1: product that is causing the issue, end quote. He says
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Speaker 1: the company also wants to help deliver water to rural
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Speaker 1: communities where utilities sometimes bring in water by the truckload
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Speaker 1: because of a lack of infrastructure. To do that, let
23:43
Speaker 1: alone serve data centers that require millions of gallons of
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Speaker 1: water daily, will require a big leap in scale. The
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Speaker 1: demo in the company's parking lot can generate up to
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Speaker 1: 300 liters of water per day. Atoko envisions data centers
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Speaker 1: using multiple units in a grid system to generate water
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Speaker 1: and is working on a commercial offering that could produce
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Speaker 1: up to 1,000 liters of water per day. Its parking
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Speaker 1: lot prototype runs off the equivalent heat provided by a
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Speaker 1: 20-kilowatt data center. Hyperscale data centers, in comparison, are orders
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Speaker 1: of magnitude bigger which presents both an opportunity and a challenge.
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Speaker 1: Atoko has deployed five on-grid prototype trials with partners in
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Speaker 1: the U.S. and within the Gulf Cooperation Council. The company
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Speaker 1: says that it hopes to begin taking orders for its
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Speaker 1: first product by the end of this year. It says
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Speaker 1: it's already in conversation with major tech companies about deploying
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Speaker 1: a pilot project at data centers. though it declined to
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Speaker 1: name them or how much customers could expect to spend
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Speaker 1: on a unit. But there are signs that there could
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Speaker 1: be a market. Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services have
24:55
Speaker 1: all committed to being water positive, that is, returning more
24:59
Speaker 1: water to communities than they use, by 2030. Otoko's product
25:04
Speaker 1: might work at data centers and other industrial sites, as
25:07
Speaker 1: well as locations where there are abundant natural heat sources,
25:11
Speaker 1: such as geothermal sites. But Cohen, who worked at the
25:15
Speaker 1: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on MOF projects, including on
25:22
Speaker 1: a project spearheaded by Yagi, cautions that while MOFs have
25:28
Speaker 1: incredible promise, they're not a silver bullet for water access everywhere.
25:32
Speaker 1: Without an outside source of heat, even the most well-designed
25:35
Speaker 1: MOFs still would require energy to squeeze water out. That
25:39
Speaker 1: could make rural development in particular a challenge. Atoko's on-grid
25:44
Speaker 1: system might offer a solution, but distant locations are also
25:47
Speaker 1: frequently underserved by energy infrastructure. Taha says the company can
25:53
Speaker 1: produce water at a levelized cost of $ 5 per metric ton,
25:58
Speaker 1: which makes it competitive with older desalination plants. But newer
26:02
Speaker 1: facilities are able to deliver water at a cost of
26:05
Speaker 1: $ 2 per ton, or even less in some cases, a
26:09
Speaker 1: target he says Otoko is still three to five years
26:12
Speaker 1: away from hitting. MOFs also remain a cutting-edge technology that's
26:17
Speaker 1: untested at scale. While big tech companies are more likely
26:21
Speaker 1: to take risks than, say, staid utilities, it will take
26:25
Speaker 1: time to vet that Otoko's technology can work, and for
26:29
Speaker 1: the startup to scale up production of its commercial units
26:31
Speaker 1: to provide meaningful amounts of water. Still, Otoko's technology has
26:36
Speaker 1: already solved some incredible challenges. The use of MOFs brings
26:40
Speaker 1: the world much closer to a place where, as Yagi
26:43
Speaker 1: puts it, everyone can control access to their own water.
26:48
Speaker 1: Yagi describes how as a child growing up as a
26:51
Speaker 1: Palestinian refugee in Jordan, he was responsible for filling as
26:55
Speaker 1: many containers as he could with water for his household
26:59
Speaker 1: to use when the delivery truck came every two weeks.
27:03
Speaker 1: That experience makes you appreciate scarcity, he says. Now we're
27:07
Speaker 1: talking about going from scarcity to abundance. And now from earth.com,
27:15
Speaker 1: team discovers five new species of freshwater mussels. Five freshwater
27:21
Speaker 1: mussel species new to science were identified in southern rivers.
27:25
Speaker 1: Several are rare and live in only a few river systems.
27:30
Speaker 1: The work was led by Kentaro Inoue, research biologist at
27:35
Speaker 1: Shedd Aquarium, In Chicago, quote, identifying new species is the
27:41
Speaker 1: foundation of biodiversity conservation, says Inouye. Conservation efforts can only
27:46
Speaker 1: protect what we recognize, and without this work, we risk
27:50
Speaker 1: certain species going extinct before they're even known to science,
27:54
Speaker 1: end quote. Over the past 20 years, the authors and
27:58
Speaker 1: other researchers waded into rivers wearing masks and snorkels. They
28:03
Speaker 1: searched muddy stream bottoms for mussels and collected genetic samples
28:07
Speaker 1: to bring back to the lab. Well, that's all for
28:10
Speaker 1: this week's Diary of Science and Nature. Your reader was
28:13
Speaker 1: Kelly Taylor. Now stay tuned for further programming on Radio Eye.