Transcript

1.16.25 · Science Show KY

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Radioized Diary of Science and Nature. Your reader's
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Kelly Taylor. I'll have some articles related to the topics
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of science and nature, but first a reminder that RADIOI
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is a reading service intended for people who are blind
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or have other disabilities that make it difficult to reprinted
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material from Popular Science. We have an article that is
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headlined eleven weird, groundbreaking and cute animal stories from twenty
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twenty four. This is by Laura Basis, December twenty fifth.
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Whether a large and fuzzy social media sensation or deep
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sea slug slunking around in the ocean's mighty zone midnight zone,
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there are still so many exciting animals on Earth just
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waiting for their close up. In that spirit, here are
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eleven of the most exciting animal stories that Popular Science
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covered this year. A wildlife filmmaker and biology doctoral student
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took what could be the first picture of a newborn
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great white shark. Filmmaker Carlos Ghana and University of California
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Riverside biology doctoral student Philip Sterns were looking for sharks
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near Santa Barbara on California's Central coast. Most great whites
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are gray on top with white bellies, but Ghana's drowne
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camera showed a roughly five foot long shark pup that
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had more white on its body than normal. When they
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enlarged the photos, they saw that a layer of white
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skin appeared to be shedding as it swam. The team
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believes that they observed a newborn great white shedding its
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embryonic sack. It was quite a year for tartar grades.
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These microscopic creatures, commonly called water bears, can survive in
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environments with extreme temperatures without water or oxygen, and withstand radiation.
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In January, we learned that these microscopic creatures have a
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molecular sensor that detects uninhabitable elements of their environment. It
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then tells them when to go dormant and when it
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is safe to resume their normal activity. These findings were
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detailed in the journal plus one PS one. Scientists also
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uncovered some new clues to their ultra resilience in April.
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A surprising mechanism in the DNA goes into overtime to
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repair DNA that has been exposed to deadly radiation. When
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they are exposed to radiation, tartar grade cells harness the
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power of hundreds of genes to create new proteins used
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to repair DNA. These proteins then ramp up the level
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of DNA repair to levels that study co author and
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biologists Courtney Clark Hatchell called ridiculous. T twenty four was
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technically the year of the Dragon on the Chinese zodiac,
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it was the year of the cicada. In some parts
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of the United States, trillions of chirpy, red eyed periodical
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cicadas emerged from underground in a rare double emergency event.
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These specific types of cicadas crawl out from below the
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ground every thirteen or seventeen years and can make as
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much noise as a jet engine. During the Cicada Apocalypse,
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Brewed thirteen and Brewed nineteen, cicadas emerged at the same
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time from roughly April to July. The Northern Illinois brood
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is a seventeen year group and stretches across parts of Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa,
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and northern Illinois. The Great Southern Brood emerges every thirteen
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years and is primarily located in Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia,
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North Carolina, South Carolina, and importantly Southern Illinois. SA Illinois
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turned out to be the center of the cicada apocalypse,
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a four year old child finding a one in a
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million blue eyed cicada quote. I would put the periodical
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cicadas as a natural phenomenon in the same category as
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April's total solar eclipse, said Penn State University entomologist Michael Savarka.
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The ocean odyssees oddities are known for their impressive eyesight.
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That's the mantis shrimp. They also have herculean strength and
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punches with the force of a twenty two caliber bullet.
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With cameras that are about a thousand times faster than
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a regular camera, University of California Santa Barbara ecologist Patrick
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Greene captured footage of their fights. He found that their
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shields can absorb an additional twenty percent of the shock
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coming from a rival mantis shrimp. Using their tough tailplates
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in a coiled way appears to help the mantis shrimp
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to dissipate more energy than their armour can absorb alone.
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These findings were detailed in a stubblished study published in
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the Journal of Experimental Biology in May. Elephants use various
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vocal cues and to convey meaning and could also be
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using something akin to individual names. Wild African savannah elephants
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appear to address one another with name like calls, a
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very rare ability among non human animals. The findings were
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described in the journal Nature, Ecology and Evolution in June.
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In this study, a team used machine learning methods to
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analyze recordings of four hundred and sixty nine calls or
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rumbles made by wild African elephant female offspring in the
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Amboseli National Park and Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserve
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in Kenya. Quote. The fact we were able to get
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such clear cut results with the playback experiment was pretty surprising,
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says Cornell University behaviorally cologist Michael Pardo. It was incredibly
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difficult to get the recordings for the playback experiment because
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we needed very clear recordings of rumbles made in a
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long distance contact calling context where we knew who the
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caller was and who the receiver was. Honestly, I was
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a little shocked that the results were statistically significant. End quote.
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In July, a lobsterman fishing off the coast of Newcastle,
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New Hampshire, found a candy colored lobster. The crustacean was
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donated to the Seacoast Science Center, a marine science education
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organization in Audijorn Point State Park. Now, its crazy color
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does not mean that it actually tastes sweet or anything
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like candy. It's hue as the result of a very
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genetic mutation quote. Lobsters commonly have multiple layers of a
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caratenoid pigment known as as taxanthan that shows as layers
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of red, yellow, and blue. When all these layers are stacked,
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they give the lobster a modeled blotchy pattern of oranges, reds, blues, pinks, purples, yellows,
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and browns that form the lobster's camouflage. Sometimes these pigments
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are either not expressed or are over expressed. The results
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are more colorful lobsters. They appear in shades of blue
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about one in two million, red one in ten million,
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split colored one in fifty million, albino one in one
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hundred million, and cotton candy one in one hundred million.
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There are seven new species of tree frogs to add
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to the family. Tree Scientists found these sevens species in
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the lush rainforests of Madagascar. They were all named after
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captains of the sci Fi series Star Trek due to
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the strange, high pitched whistling sounds that sound a bit
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like the sounds that they make. The new species were
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described in a study published in October in the journal
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Vertebrate Zoology. The newly discovered species are from the genus Buffis.
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They are found across the island of Madagascar and communicate
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with other frogs with their signature whistling sounds. When the
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research team heard the calls, they immediately reminded them of
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the sound effects used across the various Star Trek series.
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The names Buffis Kirki, Mufis Picardi, Bufis Ciscoi, Buffis Jane Wayi,
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Bufis archer Eye, Bufus Pikei, and Buffis Bernhame were also
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fitting due to the amount of trekking through the rainforest
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that the team needed to do in order to find
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the frogs. And pygmy hippos sees the spotlight. Shortly after
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Thailand's mood Dang became a social media sensation, the Royal
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Zoological Society of Scotland's Edinburgh Zoo welcomed their own pygmy
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hippo named Hagis. The bouncing baby girl was born on
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October thirtieth to otto and Gloria. Pygmy hippos are native
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to the forests and swamps of West Africa, primarily in Liberia.
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Adult pygmy hippos generally weigh between three hundred and fifty
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and six hundred pounds, or about the same as some
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domestic pigs. By comparison, they are about ten times smaller
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than the standard sized hippo. Despite their stocky size, these
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large mammals can really move. They can run roughly eighteen
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miles per hour on average, comparable to lizards and humans.
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Pygmy hippos are listed as endangered by the International Union
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for Conservation of Nature. Only an estimated twenty five hundred
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remain in the wild due to habitat loss from logging,
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mining and other human activities. And there was a coral
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as big as a blue whale. Scientists found the world's
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largest known coral bobbing around in the southwest Pacific Ocean.
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It is one hundred eleven feet wide, one hundred four
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feet long, eighteen feet high, and six hundred feet around.
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It is a conglomerate of individual creatures called coral polyps
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that have grown over three hundred years. Instead of a
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coral reef. Like the Great Barrier Reef in Australia that
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is a network of several colonies, this is a standalone
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coral that has grown uninterrupted for centuries. The mega coral
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is mostly brown, but has some splashes of bright reds, yellows,
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and blues. The rippling waves mirror the ocean's surface. It
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is a pavona clavas and provides crustaceans and fish with
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shelter and a place to breed and live. Was also
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uncovered by accident. The team of explorers from National Geographic
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initially thought that it was a shipwreck due to its
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large size. A closer look revealed that it was in
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fact a giant living organism, just as many across the
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United States were sitting down around the Thanksgiving table for
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a feast. A study was published in the journal Science
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and details how hibernating ground squirrels can go for six
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to nine months without any water. Specific brain regions that
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are involved in triggering thirsts are strongly suppressed. Combined with
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previous findings, the new research lends clarity on an extreme
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mammalian strategy for staying underground for so long. However, this
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physiological mechanism alone isn't enough to fully explain the lack
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of thirst. Other signals at trigger thirst, like hormones related
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to kidney stress and low blood volume, still circular throughout
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the mammals bodies, which should by all standard measures, be
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crying out for fluids. However, even when active during hibernation
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and offered water, the squirrels still avoided Per this new study,
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one of the planet's apex predators snow big secret that
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orca whales are incredible hunters. This year, scientists discovered two
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more examples of just how adept they are at going
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after prey. In South Africa, a solitary orca named Starboard
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was observed eating a great white shark for the first time,
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and the predation event was detailed in a study published
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in March in the African Journal of Marine Science. Starboard
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the orca was working alone to incapacitate and consume an
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eight foot long juvenile white shark in Only two minutes later,
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the orca was observed carrying the shark's liver in its mouth.
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The event is challenging conventional beliefs about the whale cooperative
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hunting behaviors in the region. The world's biggest fish may
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also be on the menu. For a unique pod of
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orcas off the coast of Mexico, They may be going
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after whale sharks. At almost sixty feet long, whale sharks
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are the largest fish on the planet and can certainly
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feed a big and hungry orca whale. The orcas appear
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to be targeting the whale shark's ventral side, the area
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near their bellies. This part of their body is the
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least protected, so is particularly particularly vulnerable. There is less
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muscle and cartilage on their ventral side, which would allow
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the orca is easier access to important blood vessels like
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the aorta. The findings are detailed in a study published
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in November in the journal Frontiers and Marine Science. And
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now we'll go to Time magazine. This article as headlined
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an Uphill Battle the Year in Climate, written by Justin Worland.
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By early November, it was virtually certain that twenty twenty
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four would be the hottest year on record. The evidence
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was being felt around the world, from flooding that killed
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hundreds in Spain to drought in forty eight of America's
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fifty states. Insurance giants dropped coverage in danger zones and
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warned about the growing challenge posed by climate change. Amid
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all that a casual observer might have expected, negotiators gathered
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at UN Climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan to double down
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on the most critical efforts to cut global emissions and
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prevent the problem from getting worse. Instead, the talks, known
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this year as COP twenty nine, devolved into a chaotic
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conflict across decades old battle lines. The deal that emerged,
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an agreement for developed countries to lead in providing three
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hundred billion dollars annually in climate finance to global south nations,
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was enough to keep hope alive, but far from sufficient
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to tackle the scale of the problem. Chandi Rhina, negotiator
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for at risk India, summed up the prevailing sentiment after
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the finance agreement was gabbled in quote, we are extremely hurt.
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The talks were a fitting in to a complicated year
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of climate action. As a problem grows worse, leaders constrained
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by political consideration keep eking out piecemeal solutions. The solutions
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could be worse, but they could also be a lot better.
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And twenty twenty four, few politicians are denying the urgent
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science of climate change, Yet most are struggling to act
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on the scale necessary to help the world avoid the
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worst effects of warming. But that doesn't mean all is lost.
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This year brought some glimmers of progress. The economics of
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clean energy have improved, policies and acted years ago are
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paying dividends, and innovators technological, financial and policy continue to
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forge ahead. In time, those developments will make a more
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sustainable future inevitable. The question is what the path looks
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like to get there. Any assessment of the year in
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climate requires a clear eyed look at the science. In November,
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the World Meteorological Organization warned not only that twenty twenty
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four is on track to be the hottest on record,
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but also that global temperature rise may bob above the
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one point five degrees celsius threshold laid out in the
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Paris Agreement. To avoid that, a UN Environmental environment Program
16:45
report said countries would need to cut emissions forty two
16:49
percent by twenty thirty and fifty seven percent of twenty
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thirty five. It noted that hitting these numbers remains technically possible,
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but it would require muscular government programs to promote clean energy,
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stop carbon releasing deforestation, and push high polluting industries to decarbonize.
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The current political context is not exactly friendly to such
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sweeping government programs. In the EU, a long standing climate
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leader populist backlash. The EU a long standing climate leader
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populist backlash. This year gave right wing anti climate policy
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makers a record presence in the European Parliament. European Commission
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President Ursula vander Lyon, head of the EU's executive branch,
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remains in office, but her new cabinet will be playing defense.
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Top officials say they will focus on streamlining existing climate
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policies to make the block more competitive, rather than issuing
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new ones. There is a clear conviction that we will
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continue to lead on this, says wopkay Hextra, the block's
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top climate official. But the EU needs to bridge that better,
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marry that better with competitiveness for our companies and a
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just transition for our people. Nowhere, however, is the reality
18:19
of challenging politics more stark than in the US, where
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Donald Trump won a non consecutive second term as president.
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He will enter the White House promising to end what
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he has called the green new Scam, as he describes
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the Biden administration's clean energy tax breaks and subsidies. Trump
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may not be able to repeal in its entirety the
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Inflation Reduction Act, President Joe Biden's landmark climate law, given
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the jobs the law is created in conservative places where
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voters support Trump, but his return nonetheless casts a pall
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on global climate efforts. Investors dumped greens Stole in response
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to Trump's assent. Leaders in the global South have already
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felt less diplomatic pressure to decarbonize, and some companies have
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doubled down on their strategy of keeping quiet on climate efforts. Quote.
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It's clear that the next administration will try to take
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a U turn and erase much of this progress, says
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John Podesta, Biden's climate envoy, on the first day of
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COP twenty nine. Quote. I'm keenly aware of the disappointment
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that the United States has at times caused in quote.
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Combine the stark science with the stark political realities, and
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you get a pretty grim picture. The uphill climate battle
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got a lot more difficult this year. Still, a careful
19:42
observer can't identify meaningful green shoots. No matter the political complications,
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Countries continue to deploy clean energy at a rapid clip,
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driven by economics renewables are often cheaper than fossil fuels
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and energy security concern Producing clean energy at home means
20:02
less reliance on polluting imports. Globally, investment in green technologies
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has reached nearly two trillion dollars annually, twice the level
20:11
of investment in new fossil fuel supply, according to the
20:15
International Energy Agency. Many climate advocates have celebrated the resurgence
20:20
of nuclear power, long considered taboo and too expensive. Investing
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in nuclear offers a zero carbon solution to companies building
20:29
energy intensive AI data centers, and there are the nascent
20:34
initiatives launched in twenty twenty four that will pay dividends
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in the months and years to come. Financial innovators have
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pushed pursued new ways of investing in climate projects. That
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includes efforts on the global stage to use government money
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to de risk private sector climate investments in the global South.
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Thus far, these efforts have been relatively small, but their
20:57
impact will grow as a program's scale. Policy innovators, too
21:02
are thinking through ways to continue progress in the new
21:05
political atmosphere. Linking emissions reduction with trade, for example, offers
21:11
a potential opportunity even under Trump in climate conversations. It
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has become almost cliche to say the energy transition is inevitable,
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and yet that's the truth. Will it happen fast enough?
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Right now things don't look good, but that doesn't mean
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we should give up every bit of warming we can
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avoid matters. In November, I spoke with World Bank President
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aj Banga about his agenda to remake the Bank with
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climate in mind. More than any policy guidance, what struck
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me was his approach to making change by carefully tweaking
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the organization's structures. It's a lesson worth remembering as we
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head into twenty twenty five. In time, small changes add
21:53
up to something much bigger. Quote. Forecasts are not destiny.
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He says, you can change destiny, but you have to
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work at it. Now. Go to USA today. What started
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the wildfires raging across the Los Angeles area? This is
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from January eighth. Fire officials are investigating the causes of
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multiple wildfires that are destroying homes and forcing thousands to
22:24
evacuate across parts of southern California on Wednesday. The Palisades
22:29
Fire started burning around ten thirty am Tuesday and scorched
22:34
nearly three thousand acres between the beach towns of Santa
22:37
Monica and Malibu. Around six thirty pm, the Eton Fire
22:41
broke out in Altadena near Pass Pasadena and swelled to
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more than twenty two hundred acres. By ten thirty PM,
22:49
a smaller blaze named the Hurst Fire had ignited in
22:53
Silmar in the San Fernando Valley, northwest of downtown Los
22:58
Angeles and consumed about five acres. The cause of all
23:03
three blazes are still under investigation, according to col Fire,
23:07
but the powerful Santa Ana winds are likely driving their
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rapid growth. Quote. The combination of low humidity, dry fuels,
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and shifting winds has heightened the potential for spotfires and
23:20
rapid expansion, as Colfire said in an update, Even before
23:26
the fire started, the National Weather Service had issued its
23:29
highest alert for extreme fire conditions for much of Los
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Angeles County. The Weather Service office in Los Angeles warned
23:36
Monday that wind gusts could reach one hundred miles per
23:40
hour in some areas this week, prompting extreme fire behavior
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wherever blaze is ignited. Quote. This is a particularly dangerous situation.
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In other words, this is about as bad as it
23:53
gets in terms of fire Weather, says the Weather Office
23:58
in Los Angeles on Monday. Quote, stay away of your
24:03
stay aware of your surroundings, Be ready to evacuate, especially
24:08
if in a high fire risk area. Be careful with
24:12
fire sources. A wildfire, an uncontrolled blaze that occurs on
24:18
open land with vegetation, can be ignited by natural or
24:22
artificial causes. Lightning is the most common natural cause. In
24:26
higher elevations, Lightning sometimes strikes drive to vegetation and sparks
24:31
of fire that can easily become uncontrollable. In cities with
24:35
roads near wildfire, such as southern California, it's very common
24:39
for vehicles to unknowingly ignite a fire, says Luca Carmegnani,
24:45
fire advisor from the University of California Agriculture and Natural
24:49
Resources Department. We can expect to see larger wildfires. Climate
24:56
change is helping drive an increase in large wildfires in
24:59
the US. Carmig Nanny, the fire advisor, went on to say,
25:06
for example, we have a truck with a train that
25:09
drags on the road and generate sparks where you have
25:12
like a catalytic converter. There are different ways that cars
25:15
and trucks can start a fire from the road. Strong
25:20
winds can cause power lines to move, which may generate
25:24
sparks that eventually land on dry fuels such as grass
25:27
or vegetation. Carmcgnaughni added that unextinguished campfires are a prevalent
25:34
human cause of wildfires. Historically, wildfire season typically begins in
25:40
July and ends around late November to early December. This
25:45
time of year has the driest conditions, which are perfect
25:49
for igniting and burning vegetation. Last month, the Franklin Fire
25:54
in scenic Malibu was clickly quickly contained, while November's Mountain
26:00
and Fire burned tens of thousands of acres, destroyed and
26:03
damaged hundreds of homes in western Ventura County and was
26:08
the third most destructive wildfire in southern California since at
26:12
least twenty thirteen. The National Weather Service's Los Angeles office
26:17
issued a red flag alert Tuesday, the first in January
26:21
since twenty twenty one. November December now January. There's no
26:26
fire season, its fire year. It's year round, says California
26:31
Governor Gavin Newsom in a press conference. Climate change is
26:38
leading to larger and more severe wildfires in the western
26:41
United States. According to the twenty twenty three National Climate
26:45
Assessment Report, warmer temperatures create conditions that make fire behaviors
26:50
more dangerous. John Keeley, a senior research scientist with the
26:54
US Geological Survey, previously told USA Today that climate change
26:59
isn't the only reason for the increase in large fires
27:04
in California. Population growth, increasing fire ignitions, and the Santa
27:09
Ana winds are bigger factors in wildfires. Heely said, these
27:14
factors don't appear to be affected by climate change right now,
27:19
and climate change is likely to be a bigger driver
27:22
in the northern part of the state rather than the south.
27:26
He said, Well, that will be all for today's Diary
27:30
of Science and Nature. Your reader was Kelly Taylor. Thanks
27:35
for listening, and now stay tuned for the Health Corner
27:38
on RADIOI