All posts filed under: Science

River Taff fuel pollution spreads 2.5 miles from Taffs Well

River Taff fuel pollution spreads 2.5 miles from Taffs Well

Published by Miika Tikkanen

People have been advised to keep their windows and doors shut due to a widespread fuel leak in the River Taff. Natural Resources Wales (NRW) said it had received multiple reports about pollution affecting the Taff in places such as Nantgarw, Treforest and Taffs Well. GE Aerospace confirmed fuel got into the river while repair work took place at its site nearby. NRW said the source was identified at 19:30 BST on Friday, and its officers are working to identify how it entered the drainage system, after kerosene spread down almost 2.5 miles (4km) of the river. “The safety of our employees, neighbours, and environment is our top priority,” GE Aerospace said in a statement. “We are working closely with Natural Resources Wales and South Wales Fire and Rescue Service to clean up a fuel spill that occurred on site while repair work was under way.” The environmental body also received reports of pollution affecting the Taff in Glan Y Llyn, Gwaelod-y-garth and Tongwynlais. It said South Wales Fire and Rescue Service workers helped with …

Hidden seawater beneath Thwaites Glacier could substantially raise sea levels

Hidden seawater beneath Thwaites Glacier could substantially raise sea levels

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Adding seawater-driven melting beneath grounded ice improved a model’s reconstruction of Thwaites Glacier’s retreat, thinning and acceleration. A case using a roughly five-kilometer grounding zone projected about 30 millimeters of sea-level contribution by 2100 under constant climate forcing. The findings highlight an important source of uncertainty, but do not predict complete glacier collapse this century. The boundary beneath Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier is less fixed than a line on a map suggests. As tides rise and fall, seawater can push kilometers beneath ice that otherwise rests on the seabed. Melting in that shifting zone could substantially increase the glacier’s contribution to rising seas. One case projected a sea-level contribution of about 30 millimeters, or 3 centimeters, by 2100 without additional climate warming. That is roughly twice the average contribution from Thwaites in an earlier multi-model comparison under constant forcing. It is a conditional projection, rather than a firm maximum or a forecast of total global sea-level rise. The ocean reaches beyond a simple boundary Thwaites occupies part of West Antarctica’s Amundsen Sea Embayment, a region responsible …

The Guardian view on plague in Russia: what is most worrying is the lack of information

The Guardian view on plague in Russia: what is most worrying is the lack of information

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Is there a plague outbreak in Russia? If the answer were a clear yes, there shouldn’t be much reason to worry. With swift medical intervention, plague is treatable. But in the nearly three weeks since a worker at a Siberian plague research unit died of a mysterious respiratory illness, state officials have been consistently tight-lipped about what happened and whether there were any further cases. It is this uncertainty that has the World Health Organization (WHO) and international community worried: partly because there is a – very small – risk of an outbreak, and partly because it is yet another warning that the international coordination we rely on to prevent pandemics is fraying along with the rest of international politics, and could easily fail to protect us in the future. The key to containing an outbreak is quick disclosure and open sharing of information. Russia reportedly held high-level meetings about the case, quarantined the hospital where the worker was treated and traced about 200 contacts. That response suggests officials believed the infection was plague, and yet they did …

New water lily can be seen from space

New water lily can be seen from space

Published by Miika Tikkanen

One cold December day in 2021, Colorado carnivorous plant grower Jeremiah Harris shared some pictures of wild Amazonian giant water lilies (Victoria amazonica) plants in the Inírida River in Guainía, Colombia to Instagram. There’s just one problem. No known Victoria water lily species grow there.  When water lily expert Carlos Magdalena saw the post on Instagram, he suspected a new plant species could be involved. To investigate the matter, he used satellite imagery to remotely search the Inírida River and its surrounding lakes and confirmed the presence of Victorias. And yes, you can see these enormous plants from space. Victorias grow the world’s second largest single plant leaf.  Magdalena is a botanical and scientific research horticulturist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the U.K. Along with his colleagues, the team went on a five-day expedition to Inírida. The team included members of the Indigenous reserves del río Atabapo, one of whom had seen the lilies during his childhood.  However, the trip didn’t exactly go according to plan. By their last night, they had found …

Data Centers Have a New PR Plan: Your Kid’s Field Trip

Data Centers Have a New PR Plan: Your Kid’s Field Trip

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Welcome back to Power Play! Each week, senior writer Molly Taft tackles a topic around this midterm season’s biggest issue: data centers. They’re out this week, so Caroline Haskins is reporting for duty. If you’ve got a question or thought for the column, feel free to shoot Caroline an email at [email protected] or reach her securely on Signal at carolinehaskins.61. The nonprofit 7×24 Exchange International wants to promote data centers, which they believe are “mission critical” infrastructure. As part of this work, the group recommends a children’s story, “What is a Data Center?,” which follows a honey badger named Honey who gets a guided tour of a data center from a worker named Oliver. Oliver explains that the job of data center employees is to make sure that the “functions supported by the data center” are available to anybody, “no matter what time it is.” “Like when my mom shops online late at night because my dad is sleeping and won’t know about it?” Honey asks. The story is part of a broader pattern across …

Your cat may be doing more for your emotional well-being than you realize

Your cat may be doing more for your emotional well-being than you realize

Published by Miika Tikkanen

A small Japanese study found correlated urinary oxytocin levels in cats and their owners, alongside links with owner stress and mood. Closer everyday proximity was associated specifically with higher vigor and activity scores, rather than better scores across every mood measure. The observational findings do not show that cats caused improved mental health or establish how much time owners should spend with them. A cat settling beside its owner may be part of a relationship that reaches beyond companionship. A small study of Japanese households found links between feline and human hormone levels, while closer everyday proximity was associated with owners feeling more vigorous and active. The research, published in iScience, examined 29 cats and 19 owners over one month. Saho Takagi of Kyoto University worked with Taisuke Tsubomura, Miho Nagasawa and Takefumi Kikusui. The team investigated whether everyday relationships could help explain why studies of cat ownership and human wellbeing have produced inconsistent findings. The results suggest that cats and owners share measurable physiological patterns. However, the study cannot establish whether cats improve their …

On this day in space! Oct. 17, 2016: Private Antares rocket returns to flight after catastrophic launch explosion

On this day in space! Oct. 17, 2016: Private Antares rocket returns to flight after catastrophic launch explosion

Published by Miika Tikkanen

On Oct. 17, 2016, Orbital ATK (now Northrop Grumman Space Systems) returned to flight, successfully launching a cargo shipment to the International Space Station (ISS) after its previous cargo mission failed to launch. The private spaceflight company was contracted by NASA to fly cargo to the ISS, and stakes were high for this launch. Orbital ATK’s last attempt nearly two years earlier ended in a catastrophic explosion a few seconds after liftoff. Despite some delays, the newly upgraded Antares rocket flawlessly blasted off into the night sky from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Six days later, the Cygnus cargo spacecraft arrived at the ISS to deliver food, supplies and science experiments to the crew. Why it mattered For the International Space Station to be able to sustain a continuous human occupancy, periodic cargo deliveries are needed. Russia fulfills part of this requirement with its Progress spacecraft, and both ESA (European Space Agency) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) have contributed with their Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) and H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), respectively. For its …

Orphaned walrus calf rescued from nearby polar bears in Alaska

Orphaned walrus calf rescued from nearby polar bears in Alaska

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Some animal rescues are more complicated than others—especially when the creature in peril is about to become a snack for a seagull on a remote Alaskan beach with polar bears lurking nearby.  That was the sticky situation an orphaned Pacific walrus (a subspecies of Odobenus rosmarus) calf was in when two researchers found it on an island in the region of Point Lay, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research walrus biologist Tony Fischbach and Ilisaġvik College student and Point Lay local Violet Anniskett stumbled upon the young male while investigating walrus carcasses on a remote beach. They found the orphan between the remains of two adult walruses, which was a first in Fischbach’s long experience working with walrus herds there.  The researchers requested permission to rehabilitate the walrus from the local Inupiaq community and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Once the approval arrived, the next hurdle was getting the mammal to the Alaska SeaLife Center. The center is the only marine mammal rehabilitation facility in Alaska, and was over 800 miles away. As if …

Can We Ditch BMI for an Obesity Index That Predicts Disease Risk Better?

Can We Ditch BMI for an Obesity Index That Predicts Disease Risk Better?

Published by Miika Tikkanen

As far as obesity measures go, body mass index leaves a lot to be desired. It’s ridiculously simplistic, taking into account just two measurements: height and weight. It also doesn’t account for things like fat distribution, muscle mass, or other metrics known to influence health.  On the other hand, this simplicity makes it incredibly convenient. Combine that with research continuity and inertia (BMI has been around for almost two centuries), and you can see why we haven’t been able to ditch it. But what if there are better obesity indices out there, ones with more predictive power when it comes to disease risk? That’s the question that a study newly published in Science Bulletin is asking.  Read more: “Fat Cells May Retain a Memory of Obesity” To find an answer, a team of Chinese medical researchers analyzed health data from 4,258,033 adults between the ages of 35 and 75 years from the ChinaHEART cohort. The team compared 15 obesity indices belonging to three major groups—body shape, visceral fat, and metabolic function—examining how they were linked …

New drug reverses severe fatty liver disease by repairing the gut

New drug reverses severe fatty liver disease by repairing the gut

Published by Miika Tikkanen

An experimental drug developed at Michigan Medicine has reversed a serious form of fatty liver disease in animal studies by targeting an unexpected source of liver damage: the gut. The compound, known as DT-109, works by reducing harmful gut bacteria, protecting the intestinal lining, and preventing inflammatory substances from reaching the liver. According to findings published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, this approach successfully reversed metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) in animal models, offering a promising new strategy for treating a disease that remains difficult to manage. MASH affects approximately 7% of the world’s population. It is a severe form of fatty liver disease in which excess fat accumulates in the liver, causing inflammation and cellular damage. Over time, the condition can progress to cirrhosis, which involves extensive liver scarring, as well as liver cancer and liver failure. Although treatment options have improved in recent years, effective therapies remain limited. “We see clear evidence that DT-109 protects the gut epithelial barrier, reducing the systemic influx of harmful microbial products that are thought to contribute to …