Transcript

4.9.26 · 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 stories related to the topics of
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science and nature. At first, a reminder that RADIOI is
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a reading service intended for people who are blind or
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have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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From Smithsonian Magazine. This article has the headline this high
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school student invented a filter that eliminates ninety six percent
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of microplastics from drinking water. And this is from March twentieth.
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A few years ago, teenager Mia Heller came across an
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article in her local newspaper about ongoing water quality issues
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in her neighborhood in Warrington, Virginia. Tests had revealed that
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the water available for daily consumption was highly contaminated with PFA,
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pfas and microplastic pollution. The article further reported that government
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agencies would not be providing any funds for filtering the water.
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It was up to people to provide their own filtration,
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says Heller. Not long after the article came out, Heller's
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parents invested in an advanced water filtration system at her home.
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The system, however, required constant upkeep seeing her mother replace
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the water filter membranes. Time and again, Heller set out
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to find a better solution. Quote It inspired me to
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design a filter without the use of membranes to decrease
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the cost and maintenance needs associated with water water filtration,
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says the now eighteen year old student at Kettel Run
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High School. Through her school, she also attends a half
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day program for math, science and technology at nearby Mountain
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Vista Governor's School. The Environmental Protection Agency defines mike grow
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plastics as small particles measuring about one nanometer to five
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millimeters in size. These tiny particles pose a growing global
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concern as they infiltrate not just the environment, but also
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humans and animals. Micro and nanoplastics are getting into our bodies,
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says Matthew Kampen, a toxicologist at the University of New Mexico.
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A recent study revealed that microplastics have been found in
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thirteen hundred species, including humans. So far, These pollutants have
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been detected throughout the human body, from the brain to
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the inside of bones. Concentrations have also been found in testes, semen,
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and the placenta of unborn fetuses. Microplastic intake by organisms
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has increased six fold since nineteen ninety, and plastic production
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continues to grow. A twenty twenty five University of New
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Mexico study camp and author revealed that concentrations of microplastics
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found in human brain tissue have increased by a sharp
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fifty percent in less than a decade. There are still
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a lot of questions as to whether these plastics are
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really impacting our health at this point, says Campin, who
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also studies the effects of complex inhaled pollutant mixtures on respiratory, cardiac,
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and vascular outcomes. He goes on to note the existence
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of evidence that there might be issues for cardiovascular disease
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and potential neurological disease. The links, however, are not strong
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enough to be conclusive. Though the exact impacts of microplastic
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consumption on human health are unclear, a number of recent
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studies have linked it to adverse health issues like cancer,
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respiratory and cardiac disease, hormonal disruptions, Alzheimer's disease, and other
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noncommunicable diseases. While several water filtration systems are available, they
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are all efficient and easily accessible to everyone. Traditional systems
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often rely primarily on chemical treatments and may also require
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labor intensive upkeep and frequent membrane changes. They also come
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with high price tags and maintenance costs. In the spring
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of twenty twenty four, Heller had the idea for her
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filtration system, but she really got working on it in
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the summer of twenty twenty five. By early January of
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that year, after tinkering in her garage and kitchen, she
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had a working prototype. Quote. It was essentially just a container,
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she says. Within the container was her filtration system, what
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she called a spinning magnified vial. Heller harnessed a reusable
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magnetic coil called ferrofluid to selectively bind to microplastic particles
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as water flows through her filtration system. While her model
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successfully filtered out the microplastics from the water in two
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simple steps, the system still required cons maintenance as it
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did not self recycle the ferrofluid. Quote. But if I
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could create a system that was able to basically clean
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itself and reuse materials, she explains, the maintenance needs could
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go down by a lot. Determined to find an answer,
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Heller continued experimenting. One of the main obstacles she faced
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was figuring out how to place her units, so that
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the ferrofluid, a liquid thicker than water, would be able
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to move into the water chamber above it without getting clogged.
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Along with the ferrofluid flow, the process of magnetic separation
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followed by the recovery of ferrofluid also needed to work
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together as one system, rather than competing with each other.
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About five iterations later, she found the perfect solution. Her
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current prototype, which is about the size of a standard
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bag of flour, consists of three modules. The first unit,
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about a liter in volume, olds the contaminated water inside it,
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while the second stores the magnetic oil based ferrofluid. The
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core process takes place in the third module, which is
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much smaller. Quote A magnetic field pulls the microplastics out
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of the water and the ferrofluid is recovered and reused
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in a closed loop. Explains Heller. As a standalone filter
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similar to a Brita pitcher, the system can filter about
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one liter of water at a time. Next to test
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the accuracy of her device, she developed a turbidity sensor,
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which measures the amount of suspended solids in a liquid.
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She used the sensor to precisely gauge the amount of
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ferrofluid and microplastics in the water. The sensor also calculated
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the weight based percentage of microplastics removed by her filter.
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According to her tests, her prototype successfully removed ninety five
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point five two percent of microplastics from the water and
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recycled eighty seven point one five percent of the faro fluid.
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Traditional drinking water treatment plants remove about seventy to more
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than ninety percent of microplastic components. Quote. The result is
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an affordable, low waste filtration system without the use of
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a solid membrane, says Heller. Her innovation has garnered some
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well deserved accolades. Heller was a finalist in the twenty
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twenty five Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, the world's
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largest global science competition for high school students. There, she
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was presented with a special five hundred dollars award by
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the Patent and Trademark Office Society for her innovative, low
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cost and efficient water filtration technology. Is it scalable? Campin
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is excited about Heller's filtration system and considers it a
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quote really great idea end quote. He adds, she is
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doing something that has to be done and considering that
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her recent test results are just a starting point for
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a high school research project. He continues, one can only
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imagine that those percentages would improve with a little bit
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of investment in innovative engineering. The toxicologist still has some
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valid concerns. Quote we have to know that the way
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she extracts these microplastics captures them in a way that
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we can then discard them or destroy them in a
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way that gets rid of them completely, he says. The system,
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he adds, shouldn't quote leave some other pollutant residue that
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we have to deal with. Assuming it does remove the
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microplastic components without leaving any residues, then the next question,
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he explains, is whether it's scalable. Camp In wonders about
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the best application for Heller's device. Would it be most
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effective installed in individual plumbing systems or on a bigger scale,
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placed directly at municipal water treatment plants. Heller considers it
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suitable as an at home under the sink filtration system
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because feral fluid is currently expensive to produce at a
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large scale. She notes, I see this as a system
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for individual home use, but Heller plans to take things
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one step at a time, and for now would simply
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like to professionally confirm the results she found at home. Quote.
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I would love to eventually bring it out to market,
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she says. I think that would be something that would
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be really interesting. Now we have a story from USA today.
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Is a super Alnino coming? How it could shape your weather?
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This is from April eighth. Climate models released this weekend
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are pointing to what could be the most powerful al
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Nino event in recorded history, raising the possibility of a
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rare super episode developing later this year. A super el Nino,
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typically also referred to as a Jurassic Alnino by Colorado
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State University hurricane expert Phil Klotzback, refers to unusually strong
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warming of sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern
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Equatorial Pacific Ocean. That warming can disrupt global weather patterns,
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shifting storm tracks, rainfall, and temperatures for months at a time.
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Forecasts stress it's not a certainty yet, but multiple long
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range models are now trending warmer, with some pushing into
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territory rarely seen in modern records, a signal that has
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caught scientists attention. How does a Superalino differ? Not all
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Alnino events are created equal Some are mild and have
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only localized effects, while others can dramatically reshape weather patterns
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across the globe. What makes a super Anino different is
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its intensity and the scope of its influence. A stronger
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al Nino brings more intense warming of the central and
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eastern Pacific Ocean, which can significantly alter the jet stream.
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This shift affects weather systems far beyond the tropics, increasing
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the likelihood of widespread impacts across multiple continents. Scientists also
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have higher confidence in predicting into potential consequences when an
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event reaches this strength. If this system continues to gain
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strength through summer and fall, it could rival or even
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surpass some of the most powerful events in modern records,
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including the ninety seven, ninety eight and twenty fifteen sixteen Alninos.
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Those events produce notable global effects, from extreme rainfall and
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flooding in some regions to droughts and heat waves in others.
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Alnino's effects can differ depending on location, according to the
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Climate Prediction Center. For instance, the southern US often experiences
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cooler and wetter conditions during fall and winter. The pattern
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can also increase the frequency of storm systems, raising the
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risk for severe weather events like heavy rainfalls, strong thunderstorms,
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and occasional flooding. In contrast, the northern US typically sees
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warmer than average temperatures. When a strong al Nino is underway,
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winters tend to be milder overall, with less snow and
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fewer extended cold spells, which can ease some winter hazards
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but also affect water supply. The West coast, particularly California,
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faces a higher likelihood of heavy rainfall and flooding during
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a strong Alnino. Warmer ocean waters can fuel more intense
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storm systems that bring prolonged rain, raising concerns about landslides,
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river flooding, and other weather related impacts. What is the
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forecast for al Nino during the twenty twenty six hurricane season.
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All signs are pointing to a warming in the Pacific
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Ocean that should birth al Nino by late summer, influencing
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hurricane season. Quote there is a whole pile of models
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forecasting al Nino. Klotzback said, it thinks it's a pretty
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solid bet. Not a slam dunk, but a pretty good bette.
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The Climate Prediction Center issued an al Nino watch on
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March twelfth, as the current La Nina Waynes Center scientists
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said there was a sixty two percent chance Alinho emerging
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in June to August. It was first time an Alinia
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watch was issued. While Lnina persists in records dating back
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about fifteen years, Elino is expected to persist through at
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least the end of twenty twenty six. Cloutzback said spring
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can be a difficult time to predict what the al
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Nino Southern Oscillation, which includes al Nino and La Nina,
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will do, because seasonal shifts can give mixed results. Quote.
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I've been surprised before when things look like a slam
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dunk and they haven't played out that way, said Clotzbach,
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noting that Colorado State University will also release its seasonal
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hurricane forecast on April the ninth. In so conditions, particularly
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El Nino and Lanina can shape Atlantic hurricane activity. L
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Nina often favors more active seasons, while El Nino can
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suppress storms. That's because warmer Pacific waters ultra global wind
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patterns creating stronger upper level wind shear over the Atlantic
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that can weaken developing hurricanes. Historically strong Al Nino years
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have produced fewer Atlantic hurricanes overall, but major storms have
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still reached US coasts. Even when Alnino reduces the total
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number of storms, a single major hurricane can still make
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landfall and cause significant damage. Since nineteen fifty, the warmest
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Alnino years have seen three major Category three or higher
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hurricanes hit the US. That's Audrey in nineteen fifty seven,
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Betsy in nineteen sixty five, and Idalia in twenty twenty three.
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Dalia is struck near Keaton Beach, Florida, as a Category
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three storm with reported winds about one hundred and fifteen
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miles per hour. The National Hurricane Center noted it was
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the third strongest landfalling hurricane in the Big Bend region
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in modern history, behind the eighteen ninety six cedar Key
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Hurricane and nineteen fifties Hurricane Easy. By contrast, in so
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neutral years do not strongly favor or suppress hurricane formation.
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Other factors, including Atlantic sea surface temperatures, short term wind patterns,
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and Saharan dust, often play a larger role in storm
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formation and intensity. Even busy, neutral seasons can produce relatively
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few US landfalls. Studies show that during neutral years, the
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jet stream often steers storms out to sea rather than
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toward the Gulf coast or southeast. The twenty twenty five
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season illustrates this. It began under neutral conditions before transitioning
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to La Nina. In October thirteen named storms formed, including
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five hurricanes, but only one tropic storm made East coast landfall.
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Forecasters say conditions in twenty twenty six will likely remain
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neutral through late summer, meaning the overall number of storms
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will depend more on local and seasonal factors than on
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the inso if a late season L Nino does develop,
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it could reduce Atlantic hurricane activity, but it would not
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eliminate the risk of a damaging landfall. Now we'll turn
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to BBC Science Focus magazine, and this article's headline reads
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five Strange ways wild life keeps changing inside Chernobyl. Let's
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see the date on this is not given. I first
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visited Chernobyl in twenty sixteen, thirty years after the explosion
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at Reactor four. I expected silence and scarcity, a lifeless
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place defined by radiation. Instead, I found beavers swimming beneath
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a new clear power plant. When the reactor exploded on
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April twenty six, nineteen eighty six, many assumed the surrounding
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land would be biologically dead for generations. The exclusion zone,
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the area where radiation is highest and access is still restricted,
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covers roughly twenty six hundred square kilometers on the Ukrainian side,
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about the size of Luxembourg. When neighboring areas of Belarus
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are included, the affected landscape stretches to more than forty
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five hundred kilometers square kilometers. With that as a starting point,
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it was hard to imagine a future Chernobyl that was
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anything other than a waste land. In the days and
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months it followed, the evidence seemed to support that view.
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The pine forest closest to the plant absorbed such intense
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radiation that their needles turned in orange red and dyed,
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creating what became known as the Red Forest. Early studies
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reported small mammals and invertebrates were disappearing in heavily contaminated areas,
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and yet thirty years on there a I was watching
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dark heads cut slow arcs through the cooling ponds at
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the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant itself beneath the vast concrete
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shell of reactor four. A glance upward reminded me this
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water had been engineered to keep a nuclear reactor from overheating.
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Now it held a functioning dam with beavers behaving like beavers.
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Chernobyl's mythology presents the place as being filled with grotesque mutations,
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two headed fish, and other monstrosities. Instead, a white tailed
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eagle and a migrating osprey fished as if this were
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only any other wetland. Great white egrets worked in the
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shallows in the reactor's shadow. A gray wolf burst briefly
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from the reeds, then vanished again, running away, not patrolling
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some apocalyptic wasteland. What people expect from Chernobyl is a
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catastrophe frozen in place, ruins, silence, and a landscape visibly broken. Now,
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nearly forty years on, the Exclusion Zone has become one
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of the most unusual ecological experiments on Earth, Shaped not
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just by radiation but by abandonment and time. The usual
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ecological rules no longer apply, leading Chernobyl to have some
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truly weird wildlife. Large mammals are flourishing. Usually large animals
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are the first to disappear after an environmental disaster. They
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reproduce slowly, require large territories, and are especially vulnerable to
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human pressure. But in Chernobyl, they're thriving. Large mammals have
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returned in numbers that defy expectation. Wolves roam widely across
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the exclusion zone. Brown bears have reappeared after long absences.
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European bison move through abandoned farmland. Przwalski's horses, introduced in
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the late nineteen nineties now range freely. Beavers have recolonized rivers,
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canals and cooling ponds, while deer, bore, moose, and links
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occupy habitats that were once heavily managed or fragmented by agriculture,
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and at first glance it doesn't appear that the radiation
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is bothering them. People often imagine Chernobyl's wild life is
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filled with monsters born of radiation, but scientists working in
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the zone are keen to reset those expectations. Clear dramatic
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physical deformities and large mammals are rarely documented because animals mournless,
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severe abnormalities rarely survive long enough to be observed. Meanwhile,
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the relatively short life spans of wild mammals mean long
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term effects are difficult to detect in the field. The
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absence of monsters does not mean the absence of impact,
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of course, but it does mean that the impacts are
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not playing out in the ways popular culture expects. Instead,
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the decisive factor appears to be the sudden absence of people.
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Hunting stopped, roads fell apart, farming ceased human disturbance. Often
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the most consistentstant pressure on large wildlife dropped almost overnight.
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This matters, says evolutionary biologist herman or Azola, who's been
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studying the effects of radiation in Chernobyl since the spring
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of twenty sixteen. Quote, because if you focus on the
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species that are doing badly, you can blame radiation, but
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often the environment itself has changed. Ecology and the absence
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of humans are huge factors here. The result is an
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inversion of expectation. Landscapes that still carry radioactive contamination yet
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support apex, predators and large herbivores at densities rarely tolerated
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and human dominated. Europe, Chernobyl sounds like a place where
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nothing big should live. Instead, big animals are among its
21:44
most visible residents. Two the frogs that turned black. One
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of the clearest examples of the impact of Chernobyl's radiation
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and of evolution in action comes from the region's frogs.
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You just need to look at them to see it.
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The Eastern tree frogs living inside the exclusion zone are
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markedly darker than those found elsewhere in Ukraine. The difference
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is so striking that, according to evolutionary biologist hermanoor Azola,
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it barely needs measuring. Quote you go to Ukraine, you
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show me a frog, and I will tell you if
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it's from inside or outside Chernobyl. He says, the difference
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in color is not subtle. Frogs inside are simply much darker.
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Frogs from contaminated areas are on average about forty percent
22:30
darker than those outside the zone. Darker skin in frogs
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corresponds to higher levels of melanin, a pigment known to
22:38
protect tissues from radiation by neutralizing some of the cellular
22:42
damage it causes, Rather than radiation creating something new or
22:47
Azola's work suggests that natural selection has favored an existing
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trait even in normal populations. A few frogs are naturally darker,
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he explains, those individuals likely survived and reproduced slightly better.
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Over just a few generations that advantage became visible across
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the population. Evolution here has not produced something new. It
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has favored what already worked. Third, radiation eating fungus. If
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black frogs stretch our idea of adaptation, some of Chernobyl's
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fungi push it even further. Inside the ruined reactor buildings
23:23
and across parts of the exclusion zone, scientists have found dark,
23:27
melanin rich fungi growing where almost nothing else can survive.
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They coat walls, creep across debris, and colonize environments saturated
23:36
with ionizing radiation, even in places that should be profoundly
23:41
hostile to life. Even stranger, some of these fungi appear
23:44
to grow more vigorously in high radiation environments. Laboratory experiments
23:49
suggest that melanin in these organisms may do more than
23:52
simply shield cells from damage. In some species, exposure to
23:57
radiation is associated with changes in growth and metabolism, leading
24:02
researchers to propose that melanin may help fungi tolerate or
24:05
even exploit radiation. Whether these fungi are truly using radiation
24:11
as an energy source remains an open question. What is
24:14
clear is that they exploit an extreme niche that barely
24:18
existed before eighteen nineteen eighty six. Fourth, the dogs that
24:23
are evolving hundreds of feral dogs still live in and
24:27
around the exclusion zone, descended from pets abandoned during the evacuation,
24:32
but in recent years studies have shown that these dogs
24:34
are genetically distinct from populations elsewhere in Ukraine. In one
24:39
study of three hundred and two feral dogs, the researchers
24:42
found there were remarkable differences between dogs living near the
24:46
power plant and those living just nine miles away. That
24:50
finding has fueled a familiar narrative radiation is causing rapid mutation.
24:55
The reality is subtler and stranger. Rather than being driven
25:00
by radiation, The changes reflect isolation, small population size, limited
25:06
movement inbreeding, altered diets, disease exposure, and human feeding patterns
25:10
can all drive genetic divergence surprisingly quickly, even without radiation.
25:16
Chernobyl's dogs show how fast populations can diverge when social
25:21
and ecological conditions change abruptly, even when the animals themselves
25:26
look entirely normal and fifth the empty forest for years.
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One of the most unsettling ideas associated with Chernobyl was
25:35
not what could be seen, but what wasn't being heard.
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In the years following the accident, researchers and visitors alike
25:42
describe parts of the exclusion zone, particularly the most heavily
25:46
contaminated areas. Strangely quiet forests looked lush and intact, yet
25:52
lack the constant background noise typical of healthy ecosystems. This
25:59
gave rise to what ecologists sometimes called an empty forest effect,
26:04
landscapes that appeared structurally complex but were missing some of
26:08
their smallest, busiest layers of life. At the time, that
26:11
description made sense. Radiation levels are far higher in the
26:14
late eighties and nineteen nineties, and ecosystems were dealing not
26:18
only with contamination but with abrupt human abandonment. Farming stopped,
26:23
forestry ceased, habitats were thrown into flux almost overnight. Normally,
26:30
such ecological silence signals environmental collapse, yet here it existed
26:34
alongside visible regrowth. Four decades on, however, the soundscape has
26:40
shifted once more. Today, the exclusion zone is not uniformly quiet.
26:45
In spring, Many areas, including some still classified as highly contaminated,
26:49
can be alive with bird song. Warblers, cuckoos, and nightingales
26:54
are present, sometimes in surprising numbers. According to Arizola, the
26:58
forests now often sounds far richer than first time visitors expect.
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That does not mean recovery has been simple or even
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Some of the more contaminated areas still have localized declines
27:11
in the number of insects. Similarly, bird communities are unevenly
27:15
distributed around the region, shaped by the changing habitat and
27:19
their insect prey. What the empty forest idea captures, then,
27:24
is not a permanent condition, but a moment in time.
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Chernobyl's ecosystems have been changing for forty years. Silence was
27:32
part of the story, but not the final chapter. This
27:39
April marks forty years since the disaster, but tidy conclusions
27:43
about its impact on the surrounding landscape still fail. Wildlife
27:47
has returned largely because people left, but not evenly and
27:51
not predictably. Radiation continues to exert real biological pressure, often
27:57
expressed subtly, unevenly in its small scales where adaptation occurs.
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It is rarely dramatic and almost never straightforward. Well that's
28:06
all for to day's Diary of Science and Nature. Your
28:08
reader was Kelly Taylor. Now stay tuned for further programming
28:11
on RADIOI