CTHULHU STUDIES

Unlike humans, cuttlefish retain sharp memory of specific events in old age, study finds

by Jacqueline Garget, University of Cambridge

The common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). Credit: Roger Hanlon

Cuttlefish can remember what, where, and when specific events happened—right up to their last few days of life, researchers have found. The results, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, are the first evidence of an animal whose memory of specific events does not deteriorate with age.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge, U.K., the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole, Mass., and the University of Caen, France, conducted memory tests with 24 common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. Half of them were 10-12 months old—not-quite adult, and the other half were 22-24 months old—equivalent to humans in their 90s.

"Cuttlefish can remember what they ate, where and when, and use this to guide their feeding decisions in the future. What's surprising is that they don't lose this ability with age, despite showing other signs of ageing such as loss of muscle function and appetite," said first author Alexandra Schnell of the University of Cambridge's Department of Psychology, who conducted the experiments at the Marine Biological Laboratory in collaboration with MBL Senior Scientist Roger Hanlon.

As humans age, they gradually lose the ability to remember experiences that happened at particular times and places—for example, what we had for dinner last Tuesday. This is termed episodic memory, and its decline is thought to be due to deterioration of a part of the brain called the hippocampus.

Cuttlefish do not have a hippocampus, and their brain structure is dramatically different to ours. The vertical lobe of the cuttlefish brain is associated with learning and memory. This does not deteriorate until the last two to three days of the animal's life, which the researchers say could explain why episodic-like memory is not affected by age in cuttlefish.

Alex Schnell with a cuttlefish tank at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole,

 Mass., where this experimental work was conducted. Credit: Grass Foundation

To conduct the experiment, the cuttlefish were first trained to approach a specific location in their tank marked with a black and white flag. Then they were trained to learn that two foods they commonly eat—grass shrimp, which they prefer, and king prawn—were available at specific flag-marked locations and after specific delays. This training was repeated daily for four weeks.

Then the cuttlefishes' recall of which food would be available, where, and when was tested. To make sure they hadn't just learned a pattern, the two feeding locations were unique each day. All the cuttlefish—regardless of age—watched which food first appeared at each flag and used that to work out which feeding spot was best at each subsequent mealtime.

"The old cuttlefish were just as good as the younger ones in the memory task—in fact, many of the older ones did better in the test phase. We think this ability might help cuttlefish in the wild to remember who they mated with, so they don't go back to the same partner," said Schnell.

Cuttlefish only breed at the end of their life. By remembering who they mated with, where, and how long ago, the researchers think this helps the cuttlefish to spread their genes widely by mating with as many partners as possible.

Cuttlefish have short lifespans—most live until around two years old—making them a good subject to test whether memory declines with age. Since it is impossible to test whether animals are consciously remembering things, the authors used the term 'episodic-like memory' to refer to the ability of cuttlefish to remember what, where and when specific things happened.

Quick-learning cuttlefish pass 'the marshmallow test'

More information: Episodic-like memory is preserved with age in cuttlefish, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or … .1098/rspb.2021.1052

Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B 

Provided by University of Cambridge 

Ageing cuttlefish can remember the details of last week’s dinner

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

 

IMAGE: CUTTLEFISH IN TANK view more 

CREDIT: DR ALEX SCHNELL, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Cuttlefish can remember what, where, and when specific things happened - right up to their last few days of life, researchers have found.

The results, published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, are the first evidence of an animal whose memory of specific events does not deteriorate with age.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge, the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and the University of Caen, conducted memory tests on twenty-four common cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. Half of these were 10-12 months old - not-quite adult, and the other half were in old age at 22-24 months - equivalent to humans in their 90s.

“Cuttlefish can remember what they ate, where and when, and use this to guide their feeding decisions in the future. What’s surprising is that they don’t lose this ability with age, despite showing other signs of ageing like loss of muscle function and appetite,” said Dr Alexandra Schnell in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Psychology, first author of the paper.

As humans age, we gradually lose the ability to remember experiences that happened at particular times and places – for example, what we had for dinner last Tuesday. This is termed ‘episodic memory’, and its decline is thought to be due to deterioration of a part of the brain called the hippocampus.

Cuttlefish do not have a hippocampus, and their brain structure is dramatically different to ours. The ‘vertical lobe’ of the cuttlefish brain is associated with learning and memory. This does not deteriorate until the last two to three days of the animal’s life, which the researchers say could explain why episodic-like memory is not affected by age in cuttlefish.

To conduct the experiment, the cuttlefish were first trained to approach a specific location in their tank marked with a black and white flag. Then they were trained to learn that two foods they commonly eat were available at specific flag-marked locations and after specific delays. At one spot, the flag was waved and a piece of king prawn, their less preferred food, was provided. Live grass shrimp, which they like more, was provided at a different spot where another flag was also waved - but only every three hours. This was repeated for four weeks.

Then the cuttlefishes’ recall of which food would be available, where, and when was tested. To make sure they hadn’t just learned a pattern, the two feeding locations were unique each day. All the cuttlefish - regardless of age - watched which food first appeared at each flag and used that to work out which feeding spot was best at each subsequent flag-waving. This suggests that episodic-like memory does not decline with age in cuttlefish, unlike in humans.

“The old cuttlefish were just as good as the younger ones in the memory task – in fact, many of the older ones did better in the test phase. We think this ability might help cuttlefish in the wild to remember who they mated with, so they don’t go back to the same partner,” said Schnell.

Cuttlefish only breed at the end of their life. By remembering who they mated with, where, and how long ago, the researchers think this helps the cuttlefish to spread their genes widely by mating with as many partners as possible. 

Cuttlefish have short lifespans – most live until around two years old – making them a good subject to test whether memory declines with age. Since it is impossible to test whether animals are consciously remembering things, the authors used the term ‘episodic-like memory’ to refer to the ability of cuttlefish to remember what, where and when specific things happened.

---

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Episodic-like memory is preserved with age in cuttlefish

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Aug-2021

 

New prehistoric 'Hobbit' creature is among 3 discoveries suggesting rapid evolution of mammals after dinosaur extinction

by Taylor & Francis

Left to right, Conacodon hettingeri, Miniconus jeanninae, Beornus honeyi. Credit: Banana Art Studio

Research published today in the peer-reviewed Journal of Systematic Palaeontology describes the discovery of three new species of ancient creatures from the dawn of modern mammals, and hints at rapid evolution immediately after the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.

These prehistoric mammals roamed North America during the earliest Paleocene Epoch, within just a few hundred thousand years of the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary that wiped out the dinosaurs. Their discovery suggests mammals diversified more rapidly after the mass extinction than previously thought.

New-to-science, the creatures discovered are Miniconus jeanninae, Conacodon hettingeri, and Beornus honeyi. They differ in size—ranging up to a modern house cat, which is much larger than the mostly mouse to rat-sized mammals that lived before it alongside the dinosaurs in North America.

Each have a suite of unique dental features that differ from each other.

Beornus honeyi, in particular has been named in homage to The Hobbit character Beorn, due to the appearance of the inflated (puffy) molars (cheek teeth).

The new group belong to a diverse collection of placental mammals called archaic ungulates (or condylarths), primitive ancestors of today's hoofed mammals (eg, horses, elephants, cows, hippos).

Paleontologists from the University of Colorado in Boulder unearthed parts of lower jaw bones and teeth—which provide insights into the animals' identity, lifestyle and body size.

The three new species belong to the family Periptychidae that are distinguished from other 'condylarths' by their teeth, which have swollen premolars and unusual vertical enamel ridges. Researchers believe that they may have been omnivores because they evolved teeth that would have allowed them to grind up plants as well as meat, however this does not rule out them being exclusively herbivores.

The mass extinction that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago is generally acknowledged as the start of the 'Age of Mammals' because several types of mammal appeared for the first time immediately afterwards.

As lead author Madelaine Atteberry from the University of Colorado Geological Sciences Department in the USA explains, "When the dinosaurs went extinct, access to different foods and environments enabled mammals to flourish and diversify rapidly in their tooth anatomy and evolve larger body size. They clearly took advantage of this opportunity, as we can see from the radiation of new mammal species that took place in a relatively short amount of time following the mass extinction."

Atteberry and co-author Jaelyn Eberle, a curator in the Museum of Natural History and Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado, studied the teeth and lower jaw bones of 29 fossil 'condylarth' species to determine the anatomical differences between the species, and used phylogenetic techniques to understand how the species are related to each other and to other early Paleocene 'condylarths' in the western United States.

The evidence supports the discovery of these three new species to science.

About the size of a marmot or house cat, Beornus honeyi was the largest; Conacodon hettingeri is similar to other species of Conacodon, but differs in the morphology of its last molar, while Miniconus jeanninae is similar in size to other small, earliest Paleocene 'condylarths', but is distinguished by a tiny cusp on its molars called a parastylid.

"Previous studies suggest that in the first few hundred thousand years after the dinosaur extinction (what is known in North America as the early Puercan) there was relatively low mammal species diversity across the Western Interior of North America, but the discovery of three new species in the Great Divide Basin suggests rapid diversification following the extinction," says Atteberry. "These new periptychid 'condylarths' make up just a small percentage of the more than 420 mammalian fossils uncovered at this site. We haven't yet fully captured the extent of mammalian diversity in the earliest Paleocene, and predict that several more new species will be described."

Ankle and foot evolution gave mammals a leg up

More information: Madelaine R. Atteberry et al, New earliest Paleocene (Puercan) periptychid 'condylarths' from the Great Divide Basin, Wyoming, USA, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology (2021). DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2021.1924301

Journal information: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 

Provided by Taylor & Francis 

UPDATES

Two New Species of Dinosaurs Discovered In China; First of their Kind to Be Unearthed In the Region [Study]

An international team of researchers announced the discovery of new dinosaur species at the Hami Pterosaur Fauna in China, and have been dated to the Early Cretaceous period (around 130 to 120 million years ago).

By Jeevan Biswas
August 15, 2021 

Despite going extinct millions of years ago, dinosaurs command the admiration of human beings. At least for most millennials, Jurassic Park played a role in it. And the discovery of a new dinosaur every now and then continues to keep the excitement alive. Now, scientists have reported the discovery of not one but three new species in Northwest China, two of which are giants.

In a new international study, researchers announced the unearthing fossils of three new dinosaur species at the Hami Pterosaur Fauna in China. Of these, two have been christened Silutitan sinensis and Hamititan xinjiangensi, and have been dated to the Early Cretaceous period (around 130 to 120 million years ago). They are believed to be the first non-pterosaur vertebrates discovered in the area.


"These dinosaurs are the first vertebrates reported in this region, increasing the diversity of the fauna as well as the information on Chinese sauropods, further supporting a widespread diversification of somphospondylans during the Early Cretaceous of Asia," the authors wrote.

First Non-Pterosaurs In the Area

Artistic rendering of the palaeoecology of the Hami Pterosaur Fauna, with Silutitan sinensis on the left and Hamititan xinjiangensis on the right

ZHAO CHUANG AND WANG XIAOLIN


The newly identified species are the first vertebrates that are not pterosaurs to be unearthed at the Early Cretaceous Hami Pterosaur Fauna, China. It is the largest locality in the world with pterosaur fossils, and also the most abundant. Several three-dimensionally preserved male and female pterosaurs, and pterosaur eggs, have been uncovered in this area. The three specimens were located around 2-5 km away from each other.

Both the new species are said to belong to a subgroup or clade of dinosaurs known as Sauropoda (particularly within the clade Somphospondyli), whose members are called sauropods. The popular Brachiosaurus from the Jurassic Park franchise is an example of a sauropod. Along with the distinctive tails and large bodies, they were also known to have small heads and thick column-like legs. They are considered to be among the largest land-living animals to have existed, who reached lengths of 5m-40m (16ft-135ft) and weights of up to 70 tons (around 64,000 kgs).

Massive Sauropods Identified

Holotype of Silutitan sinensis gen. et sp. novIVPP


The first newly identified species was named Silutitan sinensis. A joined series of six cervical vertebrae—from the 10th to 15th was preserved in the discovered specimen. Each of the vertebras was between 455–540 mm in length. It was observed that some of the features of its neck vertebrate suggested that it is from a family of sauropods called Euhelopodidae.

All known euhelopodids have been discovered only in Asia so far, particularly in East Asia. The specimen was compared to other dinosaurs that the authors believe were a closely related group, or from the genus Euhelopus. They approximated that this specimen's length was originally over 20 m (65ft). An incomplete lower jaw belonging to a pterosaur, Hamipterus tianshanensis, was found along with the Silutitan sinensis specimen.

Holotype of Hamititan xinjiangensis gen. et sp. nov.IVPP


Also identified as a new species, the second specimen was christened Hamititan xinjiangensis. The recovered specimen consisted of seven vertebrae from the tail. According to the team, they could be from the fourth to tenth within the spine. Each of the vertebras was between 210–320 in length. Based on the shape and the ridges across vertebrae, the scientists conclude that it belonged to a family of sauropods called Titanosaurs.

Dinosaurs from the clade Titanosauria are known to have been abundant in Asia and South America. The authors estimated that this specimen was around 17m (55ft) in length. They arrived at the conclusion by comparing it to dinosaurs from what they assume to be closely related genera, Opisthocoelicaudia and Rapetosaurus.

Insights Into Reptilian Diversity

All specimens described in this paper shown in one outline of a generic titanosaur: preserved cervical elements of Silutitan sinensis gen. et sp. nov. (IVPP V27874) (red), preserved caudal elements of Hamititan xinjiangensis gen. et sp. nov. (HM V22) (yellow) and the preserved sacral elements (IVPP V27875) (green).MAURÍLIO OLIVEIRA


While not christened yet, the third specimen—only known as IVPP V27875—was also considered a new species. However, it consisted of four vertebrae and rib fragments. Based on their analysis, the authors suggest that it could also be a member of the clade Somphospondyli. Somphospondylan sauropods lived from the Late Jurassic period to the Late Cretaceous period (160.3 million years-, 66 million years ago).

Sacral vertebrae (IVPP V27875), in (A) dorsal view, showing the camellate internal tissue (cit) and, (B) in ventral view, showing the mediolaterally deep fossa (mlf) on the ventral surface. Scale bar: 10 cm

WANG, XIAOLIN, ET AL/ SCIENTIFIC REPORTS

The discovered specimens are of special significance as they are some of the first dinosaurs found in the Turpan-Hami Basin; thereby adding to the diversity of Mesozoic (252-66 million years ago) reptiles found in the area.

"The discovery of Silutitan sinensis and Hamititan xinjiangensis increased the sauropod diversity of Asia, particularly from an area where these vertebrates are not common. Silutitan sinensis is closely related to Euhelopus. The existence of a more inclusive clade of similar sauropods (Euhelopodidae) is still a matter of debate and pends on more detailed description of some putative euhelopodid," wrote the authors.

Researchers discover Australia's largest dinosaur

QUANTUM = MAGICK


Exploring ‘the most spooky, weird kind of science’

Alessandro Rossi applies quantum physics to the study of measurements in
a ‘mind-boggling’ marriage of disciplines.

Josie Glausiusz

WHERE I WORK
16 August 2021

Alessandro Rossi is a measurement fellow at the National Physical Laboratory in London and a senior lecturer and UKRI Future Leaders fellow at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK. Credit: Alecsandra Dragoi for Nature


In my work as a quantum engineer, I wear two hats. At the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in London, where this photo was taken in April, I research quantum metrology, the scientific study of measurements based on quantum-physics principles. The instrument in this image is a dilution refrigerator, which allows us to cool our semiconductor quantum devices to 0.007 kelvin: that’s a fraction of a degree above absolute zero (−273.15 °C), a temperature that, in nature, exists nowhere in the Universe.

In experiments at the NPL, we clock the transfer of single electrons so accurately that I know exactly how many of them move in a unit of time. By controlling electrons one at a time in this refrigerator system, I can generate an electric current very, very precisely. This level of control is useful for my research at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, UK, where my colleagues and I are developing quantum computers using semiconductor technology. By moving electrons one at a time, we can transfer information between various parts of a semiconductor-based quantum computer.

Quantum computing uses quantum bits, or qubits, that can exist in different states simultaneously. This means that quantum computers can perform certain calculations exponentially faster than classical computers. They can also simulate chemical reactions, because they work on the same quantum principles that govern interactions between individual atoms and molecules.

The idea that something can be in two states or two places at the same time is counter-intuitive. I feel that I myself live a contradiction. I study quantum physics — the most unreliable, spooky, weird type of science — and apply it to metrology, which is supposed to be among the most reliable, precise and repeatable of disciplines. To think how these two things come together successfully is mind-boggling.

Nature 596, 454 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02224-z

Earth rocks collected in 19th century hold clues to finding water on Mars


By Scott Dutfield 

SPACE.COM

about 12 hours ago

New research suggests that rocks on Mars could be holding water within them

The specimen of hydrohematite discovered by German mineralogist August Breithaupt in 1843. 

(Image credit: Andreas Massanek, TU Bergakademie, Freiberg, Germany)


Rocks found on Earth could hold clues on where to find water on Mars, according to new research from Penn State University.

On Earth, hematite is one of the most abundant minerals on its surface. It can be found in many different igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks and due to a high iron content, it appears a vibrant red color. However, when Peter J. Heaney and doctoral student Si Athena Chen analyzed hematite samples gathered in the 19th century, they uncovered a watery secret within.

Initially, Chen was conducting experiments to artificially crystallize hematite, when she discovered an iron-poor compound. Chen took her findings to Heaney, who uncovered scholars from the mid-1800s that had also reported similar findings but whose work had been dismissed.

Related: Why is there so little water left on Mars?

Those 19th-century scientists, Rudolf Hermann and August Breithaupt, each reported separate discoveries of iron-poor hematite that contained water in the 1840s. Hermann called this discovery "turgite in 1844", while Breithaupt termed the mineral "hyrdohematite in 1847." However, in the early 1900s mineralogists using primitive versions of modern-day diagnostic tools rejected their findings.


Chen and Heaney gathered samples from Hermann and Breithaupts' original studies, which have been stored at the Smithsonian Institution, along with five from Penn State's Frederick Augustus Genth collection for re-examination.


After deciphering the chemical composition of the samples, using infrared spectroscopy, advanced X-ray diffraction and other methods, Chen discovered that the minerals were lacking in iron atoms, but instead included molecules of hydroxyl (a combination of hydrogen and oxygen), which translates to water being stored in the mineral.

But how does it help to find water on Mars?


The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity snapped this image of hematite "blueberries" on Aug. 30, 2006. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/U.S. Geological Survey)

Back in 2004, on NASA’s Opportunity rover discovered mineral concretions affectionately called "blueberries." These rounded rocks were identified by the rovers on-board X-ray diffraction device, as hematite. What the rover couldn’t do was decipher the iron content of the hematite to establish if it was anhydrous hematite (which lacks water) or possible hydrohematite.

Chen's initial experiments were to identify the natural conditions that iron oxides are required to form hematite. She discovered that at temperatures lower than 300 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 149 degrees Celsius) and in a watery alkaline environment hydrohematite precipitates into sedimentary layers. "Much of Mars' surface apparently originated when the surface was wetter and iron oxides precipitated from that water," Heaney said in a statement.

— Water on Mars: Martian Discovery Explained (Infographic)

Heaney also believes the shape of the "blueberries" also offers some clarification. "On Earth, these spherical structures are hydrohematite, so it seems reasonable to me to speculate that the bright red pebbles on Mars are hydrohematite," Heaney said in a statement.

Chen and Heaney's work is detailed in the journal Geology, where they conclude "hydrohematite is common in low-temperature occurrences of iron oxide on Earth, and by extension it may inventory large quantities of water in apparently arid planetary environments, such as the surface of Mars."

Life on Earth Arose Multiple Times and in Multiple Ways, New Theory Says

Aug 17, 2021 by News Staff / Source

In a new theoretical paper, researchers from the Santa Fe Institute provide a new perspective on the origin of life by arguing that life has emerged many times on Earth and that there are many forms of extant life coexisting on a variety of physical substrate; to help explain this position, they organize theories of life into three dominant perspectives: extant centric, history centric, and principle centric.

Kempes & Krakauer argue for multiple forms of life realized through multiple different historical pathways. Image credit: Hadeano.

In their three-layered frame, Santa Fe Institute’s Dr. Chris Kempes and Dr. David Krakauer call for researchers to consider:

(i) the full space of materials in which life could be possible;

(ii) the constraints that limit the Universe of possible life;

and (iii) the optimization processes that drive adaptation.

In general, the team’s framework considers life as adaptive information and adopts the analogy of computation to capture the processes central to life.

“Several significant possibilities emerge when we consider life within the new framework,” Dr. Krakauer said.

“First, life originates multiple times. Some apparent adaptations are actually a new form of life, not just an adaptation. And it takes a far broader range of forms than conventional definitions allow.”

According to the authors, culture, computation, and forests are all forms of life in this frame.

“Human culture lives on the material of minds, much like multicellular organisms live on the material of single-celled organisms,” Dr. Kempes said.

“When we focus on the life traits of single organisms, we often neglect the extent to which organisms’ lives depend upon entire ecosystems as their fundamental material, and also ignore the ways that a life system may be more or less living.”

Within the team’s framework, by contrast, another implication appears: life becomes a continuum rather than a binary phenomenon.

By taking a broader view of life’s principles, the scientists hope to generate more fertile theories for studying life.

“With clearer principles for finding life forms, and a new range of possible life forms that emerges from new principles, we’ll not only clarify what life is,” Dr. Krakauer said.

“We’ll also be better equipped to build devices to find life, to create it in labs, and to recognize to what degree the life we see is living,” Dr. Kempes added.

Their paper was published in the Journal of Molecular Evolution.

_____

C.P. Kempes & D.C. Krakauer. 2021. The Multiple Paths to Multiple Life. J Mol Evol 89, 415-426; doi: 10.1007/s00239-021-10016-2

 

Bee flight suffers under temperature extremes

by Hayley Dunning, Imperial College London

A bumblebee attached to a flight mill. Credit: Daniel Kenna / Imperial College London

Rising temperatures could help some northern-latitude bees fly better, but more frequent extreme weather events could push them past their limits.

Bees' flight performance affects their ability to pollinate plants—a crucial service for many of our crops. Now, researchers from Imperial College London have measured the relationship between bumblebee flight performance and surrounding temperature.

Measuring the motivation of bumblebees to fly and their flight endurance, the team found performance rose rapidly from the lower tested limit of 12°C and peaked between 25-27°C. Beyond this, however, they found performance started to decline.

Their results indicate that whilst bumblebees found in more northern latitudes may see benefits to flight performance under future climate warming, populations in southern latitudes, where temperatures above 27°C are more readily exceeded, may be adversely affected. The results are published today in Functional Ecology.

First author Daniel Kenna, from the Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) at Imperial, said: "Climate change is often thought of as being negative for bumblebee species, but depending on where in the world they are, our work suggests it is possible bumblebees will see benefits to aspects of an important behavior.

"However, more extreme weather events, such as cold snaps and the unprecedented heatwaves experienced in recent years, could consistently push temperatures beyond the comfortable flight range for certain species of bumblebees.

"These risks are particularly pertinent for 'fixed colony' pollinators like bumblebees, which cannot shift their position within a season if conditions become unfavorable, and potentially provide a further explanation as to why losses have been observed at species' southern range limits."

Like most flying insects, air temperature influences bees' body temperature, and body temperature influences flight activity. Too cold and their flight muscles can't function fast enough to support flight; too warm and they could overheat.

To measure how flight is determined by air temperature, the team temporarily attached bumblebees to 'flight mills', which allowed them to fly in circles like a carousel, capturing the distance and speed of flight. They tested bees ranging in body size at temperatures from 12-30°C and used their results to construct a thermal performance curve (TPC).

This TPC predicts that whilst bumblebees can fly around 3km at their thermal optimum, this average flight distance could be reduced to under 1km when temperatures rise to 35°C, and could plummet to just a few hundred meters at a chilly 10°C.

At temperatures of 15°C and below, the team observed that bees were demotivated to fly and frequently would not fly past 100m. Moreover, it was only the bigger sized bees that successfully flew at these low temperatures, suggesting smaller individuals dislike cold days but may benefit more from climate warming.

Lead researcher Dr. Richard Gill, from the Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) at Imperial, said: "While we still need to understand how these findings translate to factors like foraging return to colonies and pollination provision, as well as applicability to other bumblebee species, the results can help us understand how smaller versus larger flying insects will respond to future climate change.

"It's not just pollination: how different flying insects respond to warming temperatures could also affect the spread of insect-borne diseases and agricultural pest outbreaks that threaten food systems. Applying our experimental setup and findings to other species can help us to understand future insect trends important for managing service delivery or pest control methods."

The team are looking to expand this research to understand how climate warming and extreme weather events can influence the impacts of other stressors, such as pesticide exposure. They are also looking at how the impacts of warming can affect pollination delivery across different types of landscapes.

"Thermal flight performance reveals impact of warming on bumblebee foraging potential" by Daniel Kenna, Samraat Pawar & Richard J. Gill is published in Functional Ecology.Pesticide exposure causes bumblebee flight to fall short

More information: Daniel Kenna et al, Thermal flight performance reveals impact of warming on bumblebee foraging potential, Functional Ecology (2021). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.1388

Journal information: Functional Ecology 

Provided by Imperial College London 

 

New way of analyzing tree rings confirms unprecedented central Asia warming

by Earth Institute at Columbia University

Baatarbileg Nachin and Brendan Buckley collect a tree ring core from a Siberian larch that dated to 1250, August 1998. Credit: Neil Pederson

A relatively new way of analyzing tree rings has allowed researchers to reconstruct temperatures in Mongolia since 1269 C.E. The new reconstruction confirms that since the 1990s, summer temperatures are the warmest the region has seen in the past eight centuries.

Published in Geophysical Research Letters, the study is led by Nicole Davi, an adjunct senior research scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Central Asia is one of the fastest-warming places on the planet. In just the past 15 years, summer temperatures have warmed 1.59 degrees C, or nearly 3 degrees F—almost three times the global average rate. During the same period, the region has suffered through extreme and extended droughts.

To date, there are only a handful of long-term climate records in central Asia that can help to put these trends into context. Analyzing the rings from trees can tell scientists about temperature and precipitation patterns hundreds or thousands of years in the past, but suitably old trees and logs in this region can be difficult to sample, in part due to their remoteness.

The scarcity of tree ring data in the region makes the new reconstruction all the more important. To create it, Davi and her colleagues analyzed tree ring cores that were originally collected in 1998 and 2005 for a project led by her mentor, Gordon Jacoby, co-founder of the Tree Ring Lab at Lamont. Jacoby had been trying to reconstruct the region's temperature history using ring widths, but the data wasn't strong enough, so he set it aside. Before Jacoby died in 2014, Davi asked permission to take over the project.

The samples come from several high-elevation forests in western Mongolia. "People think of it as this vast steppe system, but there are some remarkable old forests throughout the country and it's very pristine," said Davi. The locations were very remote, she added. "It is quite an expedition to get to these forests."

The cores come from a combination of living Siberian larch trees dating back 400 to 500 years, and relict wood—ancient trees that had fallen over but hadn't decayed, thanks to the cold and dry conditions. "When we find relict wood it's super exciting because we know we can go back further in time," said Davi.

A map of Mongolia showing the locations of sites that were included in the study (BU, KK, 

and OZN, represented by triangles). Blue and red dots show weather stations that record

 temperature. Credit: From Davi et al./Geophysical Research Letters 2021

She wanted to put the samples to good use, and since the ring-width model hadn't panned out, the team decided to try a different way of analyzing them: Measuring the density of the wood. This is done by taking an extremely thin sliver of the tree core—thinner than a human hair—and shining light through it. More light will penetrate through less dense rings, and less dense rings indicate colder growing conditions. Davi and her team tried this method, but unfortunately, she said, "It's expensive, it takes a lot of time, and it's pretty destructive. It would break up the core, and we couldn't get what we needed."

Finally, the team turned to a newer method that came into use a few years ago and has shown promising results. Called delta blue intensity, the method looks at how well each ring reflects blue light in its latewood (the darker band that forms later in the growing season) compared to in the lighter early wood. Less dense wood that results from cooler conditions absorbs less blue light.

The stronger results from the delta blue light technique allowed the team to build a model of summer temperatures in the region from 1269 to 2004 C.E. The reconstruction matches up well with data from regional weather stations dating back to the 1950s, as well as cooling events associated with several large-scale volcanic eruptions.

For Davi, publishing these findings feels personally meaningful. "Gordon Jacoby was my Ph.D. advisor, mentor, and friend," she said. "We had a lot of adventures doing fieldwork together. Bringing closure to some of the research that he started definitely feels good."

The findings support the growing potential of the delta blue intensity method to improve our understanding of past climates, said Davi. They also put central Asia's warming into context, and enhance projections, under which the region is expected to warm by another 3 to 6 degrees C (5.4 to 10.8 F) by the end of the century. The rapid warming is already harming fragile ecosystems and causing devastating livestock losses for pastoralists, who traditionally have formed the backbone of the Mongolian economy.

"What does it mean for livelihoods in Mongolia?" asks Davi. "This is a largely agrarian culture. Some people live in cities, but there are also people who are nomadic herders who have been living the same way for thousands of years. This reconstruction certainly adds context to the warming of the past several decades, and to global climate models showing what it could look like in the future."

The paper recommends continued investment in infrastructure and climate resilience programs such as index-based livestock insurance to help communities cope with the changing conditions.Yellowstone National Park is hotter than ever

More information: N. K. Davi et al, Accelerated Recent Warming and Temperature Variability Over the Past Eight Centuries in the Central Asian Altai From Blue Intensity in Tree Rings, Geophysical Research Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1029/2021GL092933

Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters 

Provided by Earth Institute at Columbia University 

MORE H2 GREENWASHING
Scientists Just Laid Out a Game Plan for Building a Clean Hydrogen Economy

By Edd Gent
-Aug 16, 2021

Batteries and renewable energy are helping to decarbonize large swathes of the modern world, but they look less likely to help in areas like industrial heating, long-haul heavy transportation, and long-duration energy storage. Some are touting hydrogen as a potentially emissions-free alternative fuel that could fill the gap.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which passed the Senate last week, features $8 billion earmarked to create four regional hydrogen hubs, as well as support for further research and development to accelerate clean hydrogen technology.

However, building out a national hydrogen economy that is both competitive and clean will not be easy, say the authors of a commentary article in Joule. They outline the main challenges the effort faces and the key ingredients that will be required to support the production, transport, storage, and use of clean hydrogen.

The world already produces 70 million metric tons of hydrogen every year, most of which is used to make petrochemicals and synthesize ammonia for fertilizer. It’s primarily derived from fossil fuels by subjecting methane to steam, high heat, and pressure to break it into hydrogen and carbon dioxide, and costs about $1 per kilogram.

Today, that CO2 is simply released into the atmosphere, so this so-called “gray hydrogen” is not especially good for the environment. But there are proposals to capture the CO2 using carbon capture technology and store it deep underground. This so-called “blue carbon” costs 50 percent more, but is touted as a clean source of hydrogen.

In reality, the authors note that only 70 to 80 percent of CO2 can be reliably captured. A cleaner alternative is to use renewable electricity to power electrolyzers that split water into hydrogen and oxygen, but today that “green hydrogen” costs three to four times as much as gray hydrogen.

One less-developed but potentially promising approach is to heat methane in the absence of oxygen. This produces “turquoise hydrogen” and solid carbon as a byproduct. This black carbon can be sold for about $1 a kilogram, though the market for it is fairly small and would quickly be saturated if this became the primary method of hydrogen production.

To compete with gray hydrogen and fossil fuels, all of these approaches would need to hit a cost of $1 per kilogram, say the authors. At that price, clean hydrogen would become viable to replace gray hydrogen in chemical production and gasoline for transportation applications. To break into industrial heating it would probably have to drop below $0.40 per kilogram, though.

On top of that, we also need to find ways to transport and store huge amounts of hydrogen. This presents a major challenge, because the amount of energy in a given volume of hydrogen is a third of that in natural gas. That means either the pressure it’s stored at or the speed at which it’s pumped will need to be boosted three-fold, the authors say.

Building a whole new network of high-pressure hydrogen pipelines and storage tanks would be a massive investment. Instead, we could rely on the existing natural gas and electricity infrastructure to transport the feedstock for making clean hydrogen—electricity and methane—to smaller local hydrogen generation facilities.

According to the article’s authors, the US Geological Survey should be charged with scanning the country for underground caverns where large amounts of hydrogen could be stored. Also, more research and development should go into proposals to convert hydrogen into chemicals that are easier to store, such as ammonia, light alcohols, and metal hydrides.

Some of the steps required to make this happen have already been taken. Earlier this year, the US Energy Secretary launched an initiative to bring the cost of clean hydrogen down to $1 per kilogram by the end of the decade.

Beyond that, the government also needs to support technology demonstrators to help companies test out key parts of a future hydrogen infrastructure. Federal or state authorities also need to implement carbon pricing or clean energy standards to incentivize a shift to hydrogen, while using their purchasing power to support the nascent market.

Economic realities also suggest that green hydrogen is unlikely to be able to support all demand for hydrogen. Given that a lot of this shortfall is likely to be made up by blue hydrogen (at least in the short term), any hydrogen strategy should be aligned with a carbon management plan that includes infrastructure for carbon capture and storage, both from hydrogen production and other fossil fuel use.

Whether a hydrogen economy that’s not entirely reliant on green hydrogen will really be a boon for the climate is uncertain, though. A recent paper in Energy Science and Engineering found that due to methane leaks during natural gas extraction and the fossil-fuel-derived energy used to drive the process, blue carbon production actually releases more greenhouse gases than burning coal.

The New York Times notes that fossil fuel companies have been lobbying hard for investments in hydrogen, but consensus is growing among experts that any hydrogen economy reliant on natural gas is unlikely to be a solution to climate change.

Nonetheless, most experts agree that hydrogen will play an important role in hard-to-decarbonize areas, so building out that infrastructure will be important. While economics might dictate that this will initially have to be driven by hydrogen with less climate-friendly credentials, in time it will hopefully be replaced by truly green hydrogen.

Image Credit: Gennaro Leonardi from Pixabay

EDD GENT
I am a freelance science and technology writer based in Bangalore, India. My main areas of interest are engineering, computing and biology, with a particular focus on the intersections between the three.

WW3.0

Chinese state media sets sights on Taiwan as US' Afghan retreat stokes nationalism

By Nectar Gan and Steve George, CNN 54 mins ago


The chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan has presented Beijing with a propaganda boost, with Chinese state media capitalizing on the crisis to trumpet the supposed decline of America and taunt Taiwan with threats of invasion.

© Shekib Rahmani/AP US soldiers stand guard along a perimeter at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, August 16, 2021.

The jingoistic rhetoric coincided with air and naval drills launched Tuesday by the Chinese military, which sent fighter jets and warships near Taiwan in response to what it called the "repeated collusion in provocation" by Washington and Taipei.

In recent years, China's ruling Communist Party has sought to present the US as a fading global power. And now, the return of the Taliban to the streets of the Afghan capital is being touted by state media as the "death knell of US hegemony."

"The fall of Kabul marks the collapse of the international image and credibility of the US," a commentary from state news agency Xinhua said Monday.

"Following the blows of the global financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic, the decay of the American hegemony has become an undisputed reality. Its failure in Afghanistan is another turning point in that spiral fall," it added.

The Global Times, a state-run nationalist tabloid, meanwhile, has repeatedly played up what it described as the "unreliability of US commitment to its allies," suggesting the self-governing island of Taiwan could face the same fate as Afghanistan in the event of conflict with China.

Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war more than seven decades ago, in which the defeated Nationalists fled to Taipei. But the Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan — a democratic island of around 24 million people — as an inseparable part of its territory, despite having never controlled it.

"Once a war breaks out in the Taiwan Straits, the island's defense will collapse in hours and the US military won't come to help." the Global Times said in an editorial Monday.

Arthur Ding, an international relations professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei, called Beijing's propaganda messaging on Afghanistan "cheap psychological warfare," noting it was intended to convey the US' alleged unreliability, especially to Taiwan's more receptive opposition supporters who favor closer ties with Beijing.

For decades an uneasy status quo governed cross-strait relations. But under President Xi Jinping, China has increased military activity around the island, in response to what it considers to be growing calls for formal independence.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, discussions have broken out across Taiwanese social media in recent days as to how the government in Taipei would respond in the event of a Chinese invasion, and whether the US would indeed come to the island's defense.

So much so, that on Tuesday, Taiwan's premier publicly stressed the island would not collapse like Afghanistan if invaded. In a press conference, Premier Su Tseng-chang appeared to confront the Chinese threats directly, saying Taiwan's leaders are "not afraid of being killed or imprisoned" by "powerful countries that want to swallow up Taiwan using force."

Politicians in Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DDP) also dismissed attempts to draw parallels between Taiwan and Afghanistan, saying such comparisons are inherently fraught.

"If we're going to make Afghan comparisons, Taiwan survived that moment 40+ years ago. US troops left Taiwan in 1979 after recognizing the PRC," Wen Lii, a local ruling party official, wrote on Twitter, referring to China by abbreviation of its official name the People's Republic of China. "So no, Taiwan is not Afghanistan," he added.

Kolas Yotaka, spokesperson for Taiwan's Presidential Office, said the "lazy comparisons...ignore the realities of both countries, and show little regard for the immense human suffering facing many in Afghanistan today."

Despite formally switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing, the US has remained a staunch ally of Taiwan, supplying the island with defensive weaponry under the terms of the decades-old Taiwan Relations Act, including a proposed $750 million arms sale announced earlier this month.

In April, US President Joe Biden dispatched an unofficial delegation to Taiwan in a show of support for the island, according to a senior administration official and a State Department spokesperson.

The State Department also announced in April that the agency had "issued new guidelines for US government interaction with Taiwan counterparts to encourage US government engagement with Taiwan that reflects our deepening unofficial relationship."

On Tuesday, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted "joint fire assault and other drills using actual troops" off the southwest and southeast of Taiwan, according to a statement from the PLA's Eastern Theater Command.

"Recently, the US and Taiwan have repeatedly colluded in provocation and sent serious wrong signals, severely infringing upon China's sovereignty, and severely undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," the statement said. "It is a solemn response to external interference and provocations by Taiwan independence forces."

Though many have speculated the abrupt announcement of the PLA drills was likely timed to accompany Beijing's propaganda messaging on Afghanistan, Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, said the scale of the drills suggested some degree of prior planning, rather than being tied to a specific event.

'DOTARD' TOO

US Senator John Cornyn deletes erroneous Taiwan tweet blasted by Chinese media

The lawmaker was called a ‘dotard’ after incorrectly posting that the US has 30,000 troops stationed on the island ‘today’

Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin says if Cornyn’s tweet is true, China must ‘immediately launch a war to eliminate and expel US soldiers’


Reuters
Published: 3:11am, 18 Aug, 2021
REFUSING TO WEAR A MASK

US Senator John Cornyn talks to reporters as he arrives for a vote on Capitol Hill on August 10. Photo: Reuters

US Republican Senator John Cornyn has deleted a tweet in which he said wrongly that the United States currently has 30,000 troops stationed in Taiwan, a claim that spurred Chinese media to call him a “dotard”.

Cornyn included the statistic late on Monday in a tweet about the numbers of US troops based around the world “today”, including in Afghanistan before the final withdrawal of US forces from that country, which is now under Taliban control.

The US military did have forces in Taiwan before the United States formally established ties with communist China in 1979. Those troops were removed over time, including under diplomatic agreements.

The Global Times, a Chinese state-controlled tabloid, pounced on the Texas senator’s error as evidence of the irresponsibility of US politicians.

“The tweet saying US is stationing ‘30,000 troops’ in China’s Taiwan island could be a jaw-dropping mistake or hype from a ‘dotard’ senator, but it is shocking enough to see how irresponsible American politicians are on crucial issue of Taiwan Straits,” the tabloid said on Twitter.

Cornyn’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin tweeted that Taiwan authorities must explain Cornyn’s remark and added if it is true, China must “immediately launch a war to eliminate and expel US soldiers”.

Cornyn has been an outspoken proponent of boosting US ties with Taiwan and has introduced legislation to establish a partnership between the US National Guard and Taiwan’s defence forces.

Chinese officials consider the status of self-ruled Taiwan, to which nationalist troops fled after losing China’s civil war, one of its most bedrock policy issues, and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control.

The United States is committed to ensuring Taiwan can defend itself under the Taiwan Relations Act.

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