Sunday, 14 June 2026
Friday, 12 June 2026
‘Forgotten’ pollutants cause 15 per cent of global warming
Image courtesy of Jonas Gratzer/Jonas Gratzer
Joel Kontinen
Why do the so called forgotten pollutants cause a great deal of global warming? Searchers say
that the indirect greenhouse gases can contribute 15 per cent of what is
understood as global warning.
Carbon
monoxide and volatile organic compounds don’t just poison the air we breathe.
They also fuel chemical reactions in the atmosphere that heat the planet.
Of all the
global warming that has happened since the pre-industrial era, about 15 per
cent has been caused by emissions other than greenhouse gases, mainly carbon
monoxide and VOCs. That is double the contribution of nitrous oxide, the
third-most-common greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide and methane.
Source:
Alec Luhn 2026 ‘Forgotten’ pollutants cause 15 per cent of global warming | New Scientist 11 June
Wednesday, 10 June 2026
Wolves seen hunting European bison in rare camera-trap recording
Image courtesy of John Ceulemans/Shutterstock
Joel Kontinen
Europe’s
largest land animal, the bison, is thought to be relatively unthreatened by
predators, but footage from Białowieża Primaeval Forest in Poland shows it does
face attacks from wolves.
Wolves are
making a comeback in many parts of Europe
Deep in the Polish wilderness, a camera trap has captured a pack of wolves hunting down a juvenile bison.
The rare
footage suggests that in Europe, bison might be on the menu for wolves more
commonly than previously thought.
“My mind
was blown,” says Robin Wijnands at the Polish Academy of Sciences. “I was
really surprised because I really didn’t expect wolves to hunt bison,
especially when there are so many other prey available in the forest.”
These attacks happened after the first humans – Adam and Eve
- rebelled after what God said in
Genesis 3 about the fall of man. Animals also begin to kill each other.
Source:
Gennaro Tomma 2026
Monday, 8 June 2026
Saturday, 6 June 2026
Earth has a mysterious triple symmetry that may influence its climate
Image courtesy of Planetary Visions Ltd/Science Photo Library
Joel Kontinen
The Earth is more special than we thought.
A line that
runs through Africa, Europe, Alaska and both poles divides Earth into two
halves that reflect the same amount of light – and this newly discovered
symmetry may play a critical role in the planet’s climate.
It was
previously known that the northern and southern hemispheres have almost equal
reflectivity, or albedo, but Jianhao Zhang at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration in the US and his colleagues have now uncovered a second line of
symmetry along the 27° east and 153° west meridians.
At first,
Zhang thought it must be a coincidence. “What convinced me that the east-west
symmetry is not trivial are three features: its uniqueness, its persistence and
what we call the triple symmetry feature,” he says. “Finding one division with
equal total reflection might be expected. But finding a persistent, unique
east-west division that also balances land-ocean distribution, clear-sky
reflection and cloudy-sky reflection is much less trivial – especially given
how variable and dynamic clouds are.”
Øivind Hodnebrog
says “I was a bit sceptical of an
east-west symmetry separated at around 27 degrees east, which intuitively seems
much less obvious than a separation at the equator,
However,
Hodnebrog says he now agrees it is likely a “robust feature, and potentially
another fascinating property of the Earth”.
The
connection to ENSO may also be significant, says Hodnebrog. Unlike the
north-south symmetry, which appears to be weakening due to the effects of
climate change on sea ice and clouds, the east-west symmetry is currently
stable, though models suggest it could weaken in future. “A potential future
asymmetry could be an indication of changes in the atmospheric circulation,” he
says.
Martin Jucker at the University of New South Wales,
Sydney, says there is a high potential that the east-west symmetry is a
coincidence.
“Earth’s
weather and climate communicate easily across longitudes,” says Jucker. “This
is due to Earth’s rotation, which creates bands of circum-global easterly
and westerly winds, and atmospheric perturbations preferentially propagating in
the east-west direction as well.”
Source:
James Woodford 2026
Wednesday, 3 June 2026
Biofluorescence seen in colourful fire salamanders for the first time
Image courtesy of Ant?nez Glez, (CC BY-NC); Royal Society Open Science,
Joel
Kontinen
Some salamanders
have spectacular features, They have biofluorescence feature. It is an
intelligent design device that can warn the salamanders of predators.
For the first time, fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra) have been shown to bio fluoresce, absorbing and re-emitting light at different wavelengths.
In this
instance, 10 fire salamanders in Catalonia, Spain, gave off a blue-green glow
after being exposed to ultraviolet light.
This
ability had never been recorded in fire salamanders before, despite being a
very well-studied species.
The
fluorescence, which was produced by secretions from the salamanders’ skin
glands, appeared primarily on the side and undersihe fluorescence, which was
produced by secretions from the salamanders’ skin glands, appeared primarily on
the side and underside of their bodies.
The
researchers behind the work believe that this biofluorescence may help the
animals to attract mates, or perhaps even protect themselves from predators.
Michael Dalton 2026
Tuesday, 2 June 2026
Hidden store of manganese may have helped Earth get its oxygen
Image courtesy of Claus Lunau/Science Photo Library.
Joel Kontinen
Computer
simulations have uncovered a new manganese compound that could exist deep in
Earth’s mantle and may be connected to the process that gave our atmosphere
oxygen.
When did
the Earth get its oxygen? According to a new study, it may have got it from
manganese that may have been present deep before in the Earth’s mantle. Some evolutionists believe that manganese was
present in the early stages of the Earth’s history.
Deep below our feet, manganese may exist in a form we have never seen before, and this underground source of the metal could have played a role in the story of how Earth got its oxygen.
Until about 2 billion years ago, Earth’s atmosphere barely contained any oxygen. Then came
the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) when oxygen produced by
photosynthesizing microbes started to accumulate, spurring development of
more diverse forms of life and changing the planet.
Manganese
is thought to have been a crucial component in an early version of
photosynthesis, before the evolution of the oxygen-producing pathway that is
widespread today. In Earth’s crust, manganese is commonly found in
oxygen-containing ores, which started to accumulate at around the same time as
the GOE.
Source:
Karmela Padavic-Callaghan 2026 Hidden store of manganese may have helped Earth get its oxygen | New Scientist 2 June