Transcript

1.30.25 · 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 a science
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in nature, but first a reminder. RADIOI as a reading
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service intended for people who are blind or have other
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disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material. From
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BBC Science Focus magazine. The headline is two hundred and
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thirty four new species discovered in Southeast Asia. A bumper
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crop of extraordinary species living in the Greater Mekong region
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of Southeast Asia was revealed in a new report published
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by conservation organization the World Wide Fund for Nature in December.
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The rich Wildlife Zone, which runs from me and Mar
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to Vietnam, sees an average of one hundred and thirty
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new species identified per year, but according to the report,
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twenty twenty three saw a total of two hundred and
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thirty four discovered by hundreds of scientists from around the world,
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including one hundred seventy three plants, twenty six reptiles, seventeen amphibians,
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fifteen fish, and three mammals. Among these are a ginger
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root that smells like mango, a leafless orchid found in
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a market, a high altitude crocodile, newt and a shrew
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mole that weighs only eight grams and is now one
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of the ten lightest land mammals on Earth. The report
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warns that species in the Greater Leukon region are threatened
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by habitat degradation, pollution, and invasive species, all threats exacerbated
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by climate change. The researchers hope that the new species
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will bring increased to tension to the area and spur
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on conservation efforts. Although these species were just described by
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science in twenty twenty three, they've been living in the
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unique habitats of our region for many millennia, said doctor
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Chris Hallum, the regional Wildlife lead. Quote, each of these
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species is a critical piece of a functioning, healthy ecosystem
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and a jewel in the region's rich natural heritage. Quote
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now from Scientific American dated January fifteenth. How the polar
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vortex can bring Arctic blasts to the United States. Winter
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is supposed to be cold, and indeed, in the absence
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of global warming, the season would be colder than it
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typically has been in the US in recent years. Nevertheless,
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when freezing temperatures and nipping winds team up for days
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on end, it can be difficult not to wonder why
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conditions must be quite so cold. But if you can
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keep your brain thought enough to be curious, the answer
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offers intriguing glimpses into the weather systems that govern our planet.
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Thinking about how the central part of the country or
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even the Gulf Coast states get cold air isn't just
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thinking about what's happening locally, says Andrea Lopez Lang, an
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atmospheric scientists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. You have
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to really zoom out and take a big picture perspective.
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That big pictures perspective is centered on the Arctic and
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driven by two atmospheric phenomena. The first is the polar
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jet stream, a huge current of air that circles the
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globe between fifty and sixty degrees north latitude within the
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low altitude troposphere, the same layer of atmosphere where most
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weather unfolds. North of the polar jet stream is colder air.
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South of it is warmer air. When the polar jet
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stream zips more or less evenly around the Arctic, the
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continental US and other mid latitude locations remain relatively warm
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because it keeps cold air trapped to the north, but
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When the jet stream meanders, drifting south or north and
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south as it circles the earth, teeth chattering air can
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sneak farther south, causing local temperatures to drop sharply in
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what sometimes known as an Arctic blast. The polar jet
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stream exists year round and can cause winter cold snaps
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on its own, but during the winter it is joined
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by a second atmospheric phenomenon, dubbed the polar vortex. This
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swirl of frigid air located more than ten miles above
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Earth's surface, strengthens each year during the northern hemisphere's coldest months,
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and even though polar vortex antics aren't involved in all
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cold air outbursts, the two atmospheric phenomena can interact in
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ways that cause particularly frigid spells. In normal conditions, the
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polar vortex spins tightly over the Arctic, allowing the polar
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jet stream, which blows by beneath and south of the
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polar vortex, to remain fairly smooth. Quote If the polar
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vortex is left alone, nothing's bothering it. It's a nice, fast,
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quiet rotation, and the cold air is close to the
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center of that rotation, says JUDEA. Cohen, climate scientists at
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the Company Atmospheric and Environmental Research. But sometimes the polar
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vortex gets messy, slowing or wandering or even breaking in two,
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and that destabilized air mass can cause the polar jet
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stream to develop particularly large meanders along its path, allowing
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brutally cold weather to sneak farther south than usual. This
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was a factor in Fabrsbruary twenty twenty one, for example,
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when freezing temperatures in Texas lasted more than eight days,
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causing widespread power outages and killing more than two hundred people.
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Regardless of whether the polar vortex contributes to a specific
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cold air outbreak or that event is the work of
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the polar jet stream alone, these frigid spells are only
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sometimes joined by winter precipitation. Quote, there's a lot of
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ingredients that need to be in place to get a
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really big snowstorm, Lopez Lang says. One of those factors
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is cold, of course, but another is water vapor that's
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available to freeze into snow. Intriguingly, the southern hemisphere is
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also home to a polar vortex, but that system doesn't
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undergo the disruptions that characterize the northern vortex. These events
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never happen over the Antarctic, says Aditi Sheeshrati, atmospheric scientist
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at Stanford, and the absence of these polar vortex disturbances
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in the southern hemisphere, which has its own polar vortex
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and polar jet stream, can point toward an explanation of
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what's causing the phenomenon in the northern hemisphere. The South
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Pole is located in the continent of Antarctica, surrounded by
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the Southern Ocean. In contrast, in the North Arctic Sea,
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in the North Arctic Sea, ice is surrounded by alternating
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land and ocean North America, the Atlantic, Eurasia, the Pacific.
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Earth's atmosphere behaves differently over land and ocean, creating large
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scale atmospheric waves in the Northern Hemisphere that, when circumstances align,
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have the power to upset the polar vortex, triggering more
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extreme cold air outbreaks, just as it affects everything else
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on Earth. Climate change is contributing to cold air outbreaks
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in some clear ways and in some ways that scientists
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are still working to understand. What certain researchers say is
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that winters are becoming more mild and cold extremes are
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becoming less common than they were in the middle of
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the twentieth century. Models aren't clear on whether climate change
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is making polar vortex disruptions more common. Cohen notes that
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cold extremes have become more frequent since two thousand, when
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the Arctic's warming rate picked up steam, and he believes
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they are linked to the way melting ice is shaping
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the atmosphere. Quote in this period of Arctic change, extreme
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winter weather and severe winter weather have been surprisingly resilient,
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he says. Now turn to Time magazine. The headline of
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this article is our Burning World, and it's written by
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Jeffrey Klueger. It's long been established that climate change turbocharges
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wildfires with drought, persistent heat, lightning storms, and dried vegetation,
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all contributing to out of control blazes. That's just one
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reason of January report from the European Space Agency's Copernicus
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Climate Change Service came as such bad news. According to
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the release, twenty twenty four was the first year global
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mean temperatures exceeded pre industrial levels by one point six
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degrees celsius or two point eight eight degrees fahrenheit. That
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blows past the benchmark established by the twenty fifteen Paris
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Climate Accord, which sought to limit future warming to well
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below two degrees celsius in the twenty first century, with
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a preferred target of one point five degrees c. Doing
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so would help limit the impact of a hotter planet.
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In southern California, the report could be read by the
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light of a burning city. On January v seventh, alone,
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four wildfires fed by eighty mile per hour Santa Ana
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winds roared across Los Angeles County, destroying thousands of homes,
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en forcing tens of thousands to flee. But everywhere the
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Earth is showing signs of heat swoon, with record high
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levels of water vapor in the atmosphere, record low expanses
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of sea ice around the poles, and record oceanic temperatures
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in the North Atlantic, Indian, and Western Pacific oceans. July
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twenty second, twenty twenty four, went into the books as
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the hottest single day ever recorded worldwide, with the average
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thermometer popping its top at a comparatively feverish seventeen point
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one six degrees sea that's sixty two point eight degrees fahrenheit.
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All of the global temperature data sets show that twenty
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twenty four was the hottest year since records began in
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eighteen fifty, says Carlo Bontempo, a Copernicus director, in a statement.
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Wildfires across the Americas were not only a result of
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climate change, but also a cause of future heat. Bolivia
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and Venezuela released record levels of wildfire related carbon dioxide.
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Also owing to fires, Canada reached its second highest annual output.
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If there was any good news to be found in
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the Copernicus report, it is that a single year that
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exceeds pre industrial temperatures by one point five se is
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not the end of the story. The Paris Agreement considers
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the one point five sea threshold formally breached only if
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that is the average temperature increase over a twenty year stretch.
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There is still time for aggressive climate action to lower
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emissions and bring temperature to heal in the process. Now,
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as bon Tempo pointed out, humanity is in charge of
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its own destiny. And now we'll turn to Smithsonian curiosity.
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Rover spots ancient water ripples on Mars, hinting at a
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past with shallow ice free lakes. This is January twenty eighth.
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Wave ripples, the undulating lines in sandy shores that form
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when the wind pushes shallow water back and forth, are
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a common sight on Earth's lakes and beaches. Now, NASA's
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Curiosity rover has identified two sets of ancient wave ripples
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on Mars, suggesting the presence of standing bodies of liquid
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water billions of years ago. Curiosity discovered the ripples in
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Mars' Gale Crater region in twenty twenty two. We have
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been searching for these features since the Opportunity and Spirit
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Landers began their missions in two thousand and four. Co
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author John Groetzinger, geologists at California Institute of Technology, says
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in a statement, previous missions discovered ripples formed by water
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flowing across the surface of ancient Mars, but it was
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uncertain if that water ever pooled to form lakes or
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shallow seas. Groetzinger continued. In twenty fourteen, Curiosity identified evidence
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of long gone but long lived Martian lakes, and now
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ten years later, Curiosity has discovered ancient lakes that were
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free of ice, offering an important insight into the planet's
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early climate. The body of water that created the ripples
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must have been exposed to the wind, which is why
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the scientists deduced it was not covered in ice. In fact,
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solidified wave ripples are one of the most direct pieces
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of geological evidence for ancient bodies of standing water. Curiosity
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found that the ripples are about one point five to
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one point nine inches apart and approximately a quarter of
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an inch high. The team plugged these measurements into a
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computer model, which used them to predict the presence of
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an ancient lake less than about six and a half
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feet deep. Both sets of ripples are approximately three point
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seven billion years old, but one is slightly older than
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the other. This suggests that atmospheric conditions allowed for the
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formation of standing water more than once in the planet's history.
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The study joins a host of previous research proposing that
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though Mars lost most of its atmosphere around the same
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time the ancient ripples formed, its bodies of water didn't
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immediately vanish. We can start to see that Mars didn't
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just have one wet peer period early in its history
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and then dried out, says Edwin Kite, geophysicist at the
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University of Chicago. It's more complicated than that there were
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multiple wet periods. The longer water existed on Mars's surface,
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the more opportunities potential life could have had to evolve
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and inhabit the red world. The discovery of the water
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ripples could influence future missions to Mars, suggests Eric Rawls
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of Earth dot Com. In fact, another team of scientists
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has recently investigated how water might have shaped Mars's mysterious
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geology to inform an upcoming European Space Agency mission. Quote
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the mounds in Chryst's Planetia a plane on Mars, are
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rich in clay minerals, meaning liquid water must have been
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present at the surface in large quantities nearly four billion
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years ago, says Joe McNeil, planetary scientists at the Natural
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History Museum in London. The European Space agencies upcoming Rosalind
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Franklin rover will explore near by and could allow us
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to answer whether Mars ever had an ocean, and if
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it did, whether life could have existed there. Our next
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article will come from Popular Science The Best Ways to
16:23
Stay Safe from the neuro virus aka the winter vomiting bug,
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and this is January twenty ninth. The highly contagious neurovirus
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popularly known as stomach flu or the winter vomiting bug,
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is now surging through the United States. The number of
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outbreaks is up significantly over previous years, possibly due in
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part to a new strain of the virus. Outbreaks can
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occur after direct contact with someone who is infected. Food
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and household surfaces can also become contaminated. William Schaffner, pres
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Professor of preventive medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt
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University School of Medicine, discusses the symptoms of neurovirus, how
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best to treat it, and the population's most vulnerable to
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this illness. What are the symptoms of a neurovirus infection,
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Schafner says. Neurovirus is an intestinal virus that can make
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you very, very sick. It is indelicately called winter vomiting disease,
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and it begins suddenly, often with an explosive vomit that
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then repeats itself. Neurovirus can cause abdominal pain and diarrhea
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at the same time, along with a fever. It will
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probably make you feel miserable for two or three days,
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but then everybody pretty much recovers. How should neurovirus be treated.
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The major problem neurovirus causes is dehydration from all that
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vomiting and diarrhea. So you have to say stay hydrated.
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Do this with the little SIPs of clear liquids, because
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you take too much, it'll come right back up. Sports
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drinks are very good. Most people who get into trouble
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are either very young or older and more frail. They
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may have to go to the hospital to get rehydrated
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with an iv When the occasional death occurs due to
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this dehydrating infection, it's in those vulnerable populations. Why does
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neurovirus tend to surge during the winter. You can get
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it anytime of the year, but there is a seasonal
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increase in the winter for reasons that scientists are not
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quite sure of. But people spend a lot of time
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indoors with each other in wintertime, so that makes it
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easier for the virus to get from one place to another.
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All that travel over the holidays, as well as family
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gatherings and parties, can spread the virus. How can people
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protect themselves from the virus. The most important thing is
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good hand hygiene. Washing with soap and water works the
19:02
best Those hand hygiene gels and wipes. The hand sanitizers
19:08
that people tend to use aren't as effective against neurovirus,
19:12
so just wash frequently with good old soap and water,
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and then of course avoid people who are sick. Also,
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remember that the virus can survive on environmental surfaces like counters,
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door knobs, and tables. You don't want to pick up
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those viruses on your fingers. If you get a little
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bit of virus on your fingertips and then touch your lips,
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you can get an infection because it just takes a
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small dose of the virus to make you sick. Who's
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particularly vulnerable to neurovirus? The people who are more susceptible
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to catching it are those living in semi enclosed or
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enclosed populations, for example, people in nursing homes, schools, and prisons,
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essentially any circumstance where people are together for a long
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period of time. Another place where the virus can spread
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is cruise ships, which is why neurovirus is also called
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the cruise ship virus. When people are confined on a
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ship for days and days, these outbreaks can run through
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most of the passengers. Interestingly enough, and this has never
20:15
been well explained. The crew is usually less affected, but
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again the most serious illness occurs in older, frail, and
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immune compromised people or in the very young, where dehydration
20:27
can be more serious. Where's the research on developing a
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neurovirus vaccine? Norovirus has presented some scientific challenges. It's actually
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rather difficult to grow in the laboratory, so that has
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delayed the development of a vaccine, but researchers are working
20:46
on it. Are there other infectious diseases going around right
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now along with neurovirus? Respiratory viruses are still out there, influenza,
20:57
COVID nineteen and respiratories since virus or RSV. They're all
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perking up at the same time. It looks as though
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we're having a very brisk winter viral season. Now we'll
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turn to Popular Mechanics for an article that's headlined one
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of the most active volcanoes in the world is about
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to blow. This is January twenty ninth. Some bullet points
21:24
at the beginning of the article read first, the Axial Seamount,
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a volcano located three hundred miles off the coast of
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Oregon and a mile underwater, is slowly showing signs of
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an impending eruption. Second. Although less well known than other
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volcanic giants of the Cascades, particularly Mount Saint Heleans, this
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underwater volcano is actually the most active one in the
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Pacific Northwest and third, with eruptions in nineteen ninety eight,
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twenty eleven, and twenty fifteen. The volcano serves as a
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perfect laboratory, and experts expecting eruption by the end of
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twenty twenty five. The Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire is
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the most volcanically active area of our planet. Part of
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that ring, though it's really more of a horseshoe, bisects
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the Pacific Northwest via the Cascade Range, and it's here
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that one of the most active volcanoes of the world
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can be found. The honor goes to the Axial Seamount,
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an underwater peak located some three hundred miles off Oregon's coast,
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and scientists think it will erupt before the year is out.
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Some volcanoes in the Cascades can go centuries without erupting,
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but the Axial Seamount's frequency can be measured in just years.
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In fact, the volcano is so active that it has
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become the site of the world's first underwater volcano observatory,
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the New Millennium Observatory NEMO, which monitors ongoing changes at
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the Summits Caldera. While being meticulously monitored since nineteen ninety seven.
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The volcano has undergone an eruption in nineteen ninety eight,
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twenty eleven, and twenty fifteen, and it appears twenty twenty
23:09
five will soon be added to the list. Thankfully, The
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Axial Seamount is different from the Northwest Southern volcanoes both
23:18
in frequency and severity. According to Science Alert, the shield
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structure of the peak formed from thin lava, meaning that
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any eruption will likely ooze out magma and form new seafloor.
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This makes the threat of a possible tsunami extremely low.
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The Axial Seamount is also not a part of the
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Cascadia subduction Zone, which is the danger area in which
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experts believe an earthquake ominously named the Big One will
23:48
one day strike. Instead, it rests on the one di
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Fuca Ridge further west, and its impending eruption likely won't
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have any impact on the seismic activity of these reduction
24:00
zone along Oregon's coast. Scientists at Oregon State University and
24:05
the University of North Carolina at Wilmington have actively studied
24:09
how magma moves within the axial system using bottom pressure recorders.
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According to a report by OPB, every two years, scientists
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put out these bottom pressure recorders, collect the old recorders,
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and analyze the data. Bill Chadwick from OSU then uses
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the data to try to forecast when the Axial Seamount
24:33
will erupt again. In summer of twenty twenty four, Chadwick
24:37
reported on his blog that the rate of inflation within
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the Axial Seamount had been steadily increasing. An update in
24:44
October of twenty twenty four reported that the rate of inflation,
24:48
as well as surrounding seismicity, has stabilized. Quote an eruption
24:53
does not seem eminent, but it can't do this forever,
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Chadwick concluded. He stated that an eruption at the u
25:00
the Axial Seamount between now and the end of twenty
25:02
twenty five was inevitable. Scientists hope that by continuously monitoring
25:08
the Axial Seamount, they can learn more about other volcanoes
25:11
around the world. Luckily, the Pacific Northwest's most active volcano
25:17
provides the perfect scientific laboratory. Now an article from Science
25:24
Alert the ocean's surface is warming over four hundred percent
25:30
faster than in the nineteen eighties. This is from January
25:34
twenty nine. The unexpected jump in global temperatures since twenty
25:38
twenty three has helped fuel a relentless assault of associated
25:42
disasters around the world, including the still burning La fires
25:47
and the deadly Valencia floods, leaving researchers scrambling for explanations.
25:53
Data from the world's oceans now reveal that an alarming
25:56
acceleration in sea surface warming will likely contributed. A new
26:02
study from the University of Reading in the UK finds
26:05
the tops of our oceans are warming more than four
26:07
times faster than in the late nineteen eighties. Several theories
26:12
have been suggested for the excess heat beyond what was
26:15
expected from the El Nino and known rates of increasing
26:18
CO two. Theories include an increase in heat trapping water
26:23
vapor from the twenty twenty two eruption of Honga Tonga
26:28
Hunga Hapai, a decrease in surface cooling aerosols from shipping
26:33
regulations they were changed in twenty twenty, and peak activity
26:37
in the current solar cycle, sending more heat our way,
26:41
but even combined, these couldn't fully account for observed temperatures,
26:46
so meteorologists Chris Merchant and colleagues used satellite data records
26:50
since nineteen eighty five to calculate the change in the
26:53
rate of sea surface warming. They found the underlying rate
26:58
of warming was about point zero six degrees c back
27:01
in the eighties, but it's now increasing too, point to
27:05
seven degrees c per decade. The team notes this is
27:08
not a linear increase, but an accelerating one. The team
27:13
warns that if this trend continues in only the next
27:16
twenty years, we will exceed the sea surface temperature rise
27:20
we've experienced in the last forty years. Quote this leaves
27:25
unanswered the important question of what has caused the Earth
27:29
energy imbalanced trend. They write, with all that excess energy
27:34
already to decimating wildlife in mass, leaving millions hungry from
27:39
destroyed crops, and exacerbating diseases and other health conditions, it's
27:44
hard to fathom how much worse this will rapidly get.
27:50
Policymakers in wider society should be aware that the rate
27:53
of global warming over recent decades is a poor guide
27:57
to the faster change that is likely over the decades
28:00
to come, underscoring the urgency of deep reductions in fossil
28:05
fuel burning, says Merchant and his colleagues in a paper.
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Concerned scientists have been laying out plan after plan to
28:14
try and steer our sinking living biosphere back towards safety.
28:20
We've known for decades what needs to be done, yet
28:23
subsidized fossil fuel industries continue to exacerbate the situation. Well,
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that's it for today's Diary of Science and Nature. Your
28:32
reader was Kelly Taylor. Now stay tuned for the Health
28:35
Corner on RADIOI