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Oceans' magnetic field mapped in stunning detail by Swarm satellite group

Laura Geggel
Live Science
Wed, 11 Apr 2018 17:03 UTC
magnetic fields ocean
© European Space Agency/Planetary Visions
This digital map shows the magnetic signals generated by Earth's oceans, from the ocean's surface to the seafloor. Credit:
Satellites circling Earth have mapped an elusive, invisible force in unprecedented detail: the magnetic field created by the currents in the planet's salty oceans, according to new research.

Most people are familiar with the powerful magnetic field produced by Earth's molten iron core, but less is known about the field generated by its oceans.

To learn more, the European Space Agency (ESA) directed three identical spacecraft, which the agency launched in 2013 and collectively calls Swarm, to map the mysterious magnetic field emanating from the oceans' tides.
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Fire

Volcanic eruptions can lead to 'mass extinction' of life on Earth as it saps oxygen from oceans


RT
Wed, 13 Jun 2018 16:20 UTC
Mount Fuego Guatemala
© Reuters
A plume of volcanic ash rises from the mouth of Mount Fuego in Guatemala
Devastating volcanic eruptions, caused by excess carbon in the atmosphere, could one day lead to the mass extinction of all marine animals, and possibly all life on Earth - so says a new study.

The dire warning comes amid dramatic seismic events in Guatemala and Hawaii, where hundreds of people have been either killed or displaced from their homes in recent weeks.


Comment: Guatemala's Fuego volcano toll reaches 109 with almost 200 missing and presumed dead, criticism grows over evacuation


Researchers from Florida State University looked at data dating back millions of years to the Early Jurassic Period, when powerful volcanoes spewed huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the Earth's atmosphere, drawing oxygen from the world's oceans and killing marine life. The phenomenon was known as the 'Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event.'

"It's extremely important to study these past events," said Theodore Them, a postdoctoral researcher at FSU. "It seems that no matter what event we observe in Earth's history, when we see carbon dioxide concentrations increasing rapidly, the result tends to be very similar: a major or mass extinction event."

Comment: See also:

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2 + 2 = 4

Mathematicians publish doomsday calculations detailing 'how world could end'

Bhaswati Guha Majumder
International Business Times
Wed, 13 Jun 2018 13:57 UTC
comets meteor
© Pixabay
Doomsday calculation by mathematicians (Representational picture)
After years of speculations and many predictions on 'doomsday' or the end of human civilization, now some mathematicians from the University of Rochester in New York might have found the ultimate answer and three possible ways towards the final day of mankind.

Considering the growing population and effects of climate change, the team of researchers used mathematical models to calculate how far the human civilization will exist. The results of the study, which was published in Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., showed that either the extinction will happen gradually or through a sudden collapse.

Schematic of a typical phase portrait
© University of Rochester in New York/ Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
Schematic of a typical phase portrait when there is environmental instability and no resource transition. The nullclines for population and environmental equilibria are shown in black, and the stationary points are shown in red. The population nullcline goes from (0, 1) to (1, 0) while the environmental nullcline leaves the origin with slope δ and then bends back to the null point at (0, 1/ξ). Also shown in orange is the tangent to the phase trajectory at the origin whose slope is given by γδ, as well as the trajectory from the origin to the stable equilibrium in green.

Comment: Further reading: Western civilization on the brink of collapse

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Info

Two distinct populations of white blood cells found in the heart

Geetanjali Rangnekar
Cosmos Magazine
Tue, 12 Jun 2018 18:30 UTC
Heart
© PM Images / Getty Images
The white blood cell population inside the human heart isn't as uniform as previously thought.
Researchers have shown that two genetically and functionally distinct types of macrophage -white blood cells that engulf foreign matter - exist in the human heart.

The discovery, by a team led Geetika Bajpai from Washington University in Missouri, US, is revealed in a paper published in the journal Nature Medicine. It has important implications for the development of targeted immune treatments for patients with a particularly insidious type of heart disease.

Macrophages are the mammoth cells that detect, hoover up and destroy microbes and other invaders. The cells are not uniform, however, and are classified into subtypes. Two - dubbed CCR2-plus and CCR2-minus - were identified in mouse hearts in the 1960s, and have been exhaustively researched ever since.

Different macrophage subtypes have previously been found in human organs, including the skin, lungs and eyes, but this is the first study to prove that CCR2-plus and CCR2-minus are found in the human heart.

They were located in samples taken from the left heart chamber of patients with two kinds of cardiomyopathy (CM). This is a condition in which the heart muscle becomes stretched thin and cannot function, leading to heart failure. The only plausible treatments are the insertion of a device into the heart to help it function, or getting a new ticker altogether.
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Info

Scientists observe bacteria 'harpooning' DNA


Indiana University
Tue, 12 Jun 2018 18:21 UTC
Bacteria
© Ankur Dalia, Indiana University
Clockwise from upper left: This series of four still images shows a pilus stretch out from a bacterium, in green, to catch a piece of DNA in the environment, in red. This is the first step in the DNA uptake process.
Bloomington, Ind. -- Indiana University scientists have made the first direct observation of a key step in the process that bacteria use to rapidly evolve new traits, including antibiotic resistance.

Using methods invented at IU, researchers recorded the first images of bacterial appendages -- over 10,000 times thinner than human hair -- as they stretched out to catch DNA. These DNA fragments can then be incorporated into bacteria's own genome through a process called DNA uptake or "horizontal gene transfer."

The work is reported today in the journal Nature Microbiology.

"Horizontal gene transfer is an important way that antibiotic resistance moves between bacterial species, but the process has never been observed before, since the structures involved are so incredibly small," said senior author Ankur Dalia, an assistant professor in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences' Department of Biology.

"It's important to understand this process, since the more we understand about how bacteria share DNA, the better our chances are of thwarting it," he added.
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Fireball 2

Target practise? Asteroid LV3 will be 35th asteroid this year to flyby Earth at 1 lunar distance


The Watchers
Tue, 12 Jun 2018 16:16 UTC
Asteroid 2018 LV3

Asteroid 2018 LV3
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2018 LV3 will flyby Earth at a distance of 0.86 LD / 0.00219 AU (327 619 km / 203 573 miles) on June 15, 2018. This is the 35th known asteroid to flyby Earth within 1 lunar distance since the start of the year.

This near-Earth object has an estimated diameter between 13 and 30 m (42 - 98 feet) and it belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids. It was discovered at Pan-STARRS 2, Haleakala on June 11, 4 days before its close approach.

Comment: From close calls to those actually blazing into our atmosphere, space rock activity is on the increase:

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Blue Planet

New study finds human and all animal species today originated only 100K-200K years ago

Dr. Eowyn
IWB
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC
DNA codes
© hipertextual.com/Ohio University/CMarZ
Research by two scientists on DNA and mitochrondria found that over 90% of animal species in existence today - including humans - had originated only 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

While the two scientists shied away from saying it, their finding that humans and all animals date back to at most only 200,000 years ago is contrary to what evolutionists have been telling us, that the Earth and its life forms had taken millions of years to develop and evolve.

Note: DNA or Deoxyribonucleic acid carries the genetic instructions of all known living organisms. Mitochrondria are structures or organelles located in the cell's cytoplasm outside the nucleus, responsible for energy production. All mitochondrial chromosomes are inherited from the mother.

Written in a technical and, for non-specialists, arcane language, the article concerns DNA barcoding - a taxonomic method that uses a short genetic marker in an organism's DNA to identify it as belonging to a particular species. For animals, the preferred barcode regions are in mitochondria - cellular organelles that power all animal life. As the authors wrote (p. 10):
The agreement of barcodes and domain experts implies that explaining the origin of the pattern of DNA barcodes would be in large part explaining the origin of species. Understanding the mechanism by which the near-universal pattern of DNA barcodes comes about would be tantamount to understanding the mechanism of speciation.
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Telescope

Discovery of organic molecule on Mars strongly suggests life exists on other planets

JD Heyes
Natural News
Mon, 11 Jun 2018 00:01 UTC
Mars
The age-old mystery, "Are we alone in the galaxy?" is now closer than ever before to being solved.

The answer is: Probably not.

In the last few days, Fox News reported a "massive" discovery regarding Mars: The Curiosity rover put there by NASA found organic molecules on the 'red planet.'

"We found organic molecules in rocks from an ancient lake bed," said Jen Eigenbrode, research scientist at Goddard Flight Center in Goddard, Md., at a press conference simultaneously held at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. A variety of molecules were identified, she noted further.

Comment: This author seems to go a little overboard, here. The discovery of an organic molecule on Mars is not proof of life on other planets, and neither are Navy pilot's encounters with UFOs. While it seems quite likely that we are not alone in the Universe, let's not get ahead of ourselves and keep in check what we call 'proof'.

See also:

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Christmas Tree

Scientists find trees have a 'heartbeat'

Sara Burrows
Uplift
Fri, 08 Jun 2018 00:00 UTC
Trees 'Pump' Water from Roots to Leaves

Trees heartbeat
© Unknown
Until now, scientists thought water moved through trees by osmosis, in a somewhat continuous manner. Now they've discovered the trunks and branches of trees are actually contracting and expanding to 'pump' water up from the roots to the leaves, similar to the way our hearts pump blood through our bodies.

The only difference between our pulse and a tree's is a tree's is much slower, 'beating' once every two hours or so, and instead of regulating blood pressure, the heartbeat of a tree regulates water pressure. András Zlinszky, of Aarhus University in the Netherlands told New Scientist:
We've discovered that most trees have regular periodic changes in shape, synchronized across the whole plant... which imply periodic changes in water pressure.
Trunk 'Pumping' Motion

In his 2017 study, Zlinszky and his colleague Anders Barfod used terrestrial laser scanning to monitor 22 tree species to see how the shape of their canopies changed.

The measurements were taken in greenhouses at night to rule out sun and wind as factors in the trees' movements. In several of the trees, branches moved up and down by about a centimeter or so every couple of hours.

After studying the nocturnal tree activity, the researchers came up with a theory about what the movement means. They believe the motion is an indication that trees are pumping water up from their roots. It is, in essence, a type of 'heartbeat.'
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Info

Cosmic history comes into question after new giant stars discovery

Chris Mahon
Outer Places
Mon, 11 Jun 2018 17:57 UTC
Giant Star
© NASA
As Neil DeGrasse Tyson is fond of saying, "We are all stardust." Zooming out a bit, however, reveals that almost everything is stardust, more or less: after the Big Bang, stars were responsible for creating the heavier elements on the periodic table that eventually became the building blocks for planets, carbon-based life, and (in a roundabout way) Elon Musk.

Stars are so integral to our universe that astronomers and scientists can use stars' masses, births, and deaths to get a handle on the entire history of our cosmos.

And it turns out our current history may be wrong.

It comes down to this: More massive stars live shorter, brighter lives before exploding into supernovas, which can spur the creation of new stars, as well as black holes and even solar systems.

If you want to understand the patterns that shaped galaxies (and the rest of the universe), then you need to understand stars.
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