It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Earth's 'dirty mirror' effect is accelerating climate change
Earth is absorbing more sunlight and trapping more heat than it releases into space, causing our planet to warm up at an increasing rate.
New research shows that cloudy areas over oceans are reflecting less sunlight to space than before, adding to heating from rising greenhouse gas levels and causing climate change to accelerate.
The study, published today (Tuesday, 11 March) in Environmental Research Letters, found this dimming effect was occurring in several regions, including cloudy areas off the coasts of California and Namibia, but also at the fringes of Antarctica where recent significant melting of sea ice can also explain more absorption of sunlight by the oceans.
Professor Richard Allan, lead author of the study at the University of Reading, said: "Think of Earth as a mirror reflecting sunlight back to space. Over time, that mirror is getting dirtier, particularly over our oceans where clouds are changing. This means more solar energy is being absorbed rather than reflected, adding to the heating caused by greenhouse gas emissions. An important puzzle to solve is, are the clouds melting away as temperatures rise like a mirror steaming up? Or is declining air pollution that artificially brightened the mirror like a cleaning spray now wearing off? We need to find out which explanation is causing clouds to become less shiny to understand how much global warming will occur and how fast. The remarkable global dimming helps explain why we saw such unprecedented warming in 2023."
Air pollution impacts
The researchers examined the warming that occurred in 2022 to 2023 and discovered the ocean surface warmed even more rapidly than could be explained by the increased energy absorption alone. This led them to the conclusion that either the heat was concentrated in a shallower layer of ocean than normal, or extra heat stored in deeper ocean layers was returning to the surface. The second explanation aligns with the development of El Niño conditions in 2023, when warm water from ocean depths rose to the surface in the Pacific.
The study also found that eastern China is reflecting less sunlight than expected, likely due to successful efforts to reduce air pollution. This finding is significant because while reducing air pollution improves public health, cleaner air also allows more sunlight to pass through the atmosphere and clouds to reach Earth's surface, adding to the warming from increases in heat-trapping greenhouse gases. The research suggests that these reductions in aerosol particles over China could be influencing climate patterns beyond its borders, potentially affecting cloudiness and temperature patterns over the north Pacific region through atmospheric wind patterns.
A more affordable, lower-risk polio vaccine is on the horizon, research led by the University of Leeds has found.
Researchers have taken a major step towards producing a more affordable and lower-risk polio vaccine using virus-like particles (VLPs). These particles mimic the outer protein shell of poliovirus, but are empty inside. This means there is no risk of infection, but the VLP still causes the immune system to respond.
Now, a research project led by Professor David Rowlands, Emeritus Professor of Molecular Virology at the University of Leeds, has tested the effectiveness of using different yeast, insect, mammalian and plant cells as expression systems to generate VLPs.
In a paper published in Nature Communications, the findings show that VLPs produced in both yeast and insect cells can perform equally or better than the current inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), which creates an immune system response by using a killed version of the poliovirus.
Professor Nicola Stonehouse is Chair in Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds School of Molecular and Cellular Biology and one of the senior authors on the paper. Professor Stonehouse said: “Any vaccine is only as effective as the number of children that it reaches. The key is to make vaccines universally accessible, as all children have a right to be protected from diseases such as polio, no matter where they live. Ultimately, VLPs would significantly contribute to vaccine equity.
“Thanks to research like this, we are already working with commercial partners to produce the next generation of polio vaccines. Although we don’t yet know when these will be widely available, we are getting much closer to a polio-free future.”
Today’s polio vaccines
Currently, IPV is relatively expensive to produce because it requires high levels of bio-containment to minimise the risk of leaks of live poliovirus, which could result in outbreaks. VLPs are non-infectious and would not need to be handled under such stringent bio-safety conditions.
Oral polio vaccine (OPV), which contains live but weakened vaccine-virus, is also used in vaccination against polio.
Future polio vaccines
However, once all remaining strains of wild poliovirus have been successfully eradicated, OPV use will need to stop to eliminate a small risk of circulating variant poliovirus that can be associated with its use.
In populations where large numbers of people are unvaccinated and sewage disposal is poor, such strains can cause an outbreak through contact with faeces, often via contaminated water.
At this time, IPV will be the only polio vaccine available to populations, but expensive manufacturing procedures make it unaffordable for lower-income countries.
Non-infectious VLPs are easier to produce than current IPVs and the research has shown they are more temperature stable, thanks to genetic alteration of the outer shell. As they are non-infectious, this means they will be less expensive to produce, helping to improve equitable access to vaccination.
Dr. Martin Eisenhawer is the WHO focal point for the development of Polio VLPs and the VLP consortium led by the University of Leeds. Dr. Eisenhawer said: “The WHO, when looking at research and development priorities for new generation Polio vaccines, has early on identified VLPs as a technology that could be an ideal tool especially for the post-eradication period with the aim for Polio VLPs to be ultimately produced as a very cost effective and safe vaccine by developing country manufacturers for the benefit of a global supply.
“Through an extensive collaboration with the research consortium, vaccine manufacturers and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), we are approaching this goal with the new developments. This research shows that a critical new polio vaccine solution is on the horizon. It would be a critical new tool to not only achieve but sustain global polio eradication, and ensure – in an equitable way – that no child anywhere will ever again be paralysed by any poliovirus. It is about ensuring that once polio is eradicated, it will stay eradicated.”
VLPs are already used in vaccines for hepatitis B and human papillomavirus (HPV) - and researchers have been working for over a decade to apply this successful technology to help eradicate polio.
The next generation of polio vaccinations are likely to be produced in yeast or insect cells, as the research showed these were effective when tested on rats and mice. These cell expression systems are also favoured by companies and are used for existing vaccinations, due to their low cost.
Dr Lee Sherry was one of four lead authors on the paper while working at the University of Leeds. Dr Sherry, who now holds a position at the University of Glasgow, said: “Following the success of using VLP vaccines in preventing hepatitis B and HPV-related diseases, it is very exciting to see this research being taken forward by industrial partners as a safer vaccine production strategy as we move towards a polio-free world.”
Cost, technical performance and environmental impact – these are the three most important aspects for a new type of LED technology to have a broad commercial impact on society. This has been demonstrated by researchers at Linköping University in a study published in Nature Sustainability.
“Perovskite LEDs are cheaper and easier to manufacture than traditional LEDs, and they can also produce vibrant and intense colours if used in screens. I’d say that this is the next generation of LED technology,” says Feng Gao, professor of optoelectronics at Linköping University.
However, for a technological shift to take place, where today’s LEDs are replaced with those based on the material perovskite, more than just technical performance is required. That is why Feng Gao’s research group has collaborated with Professor Olof Hjelm and John Laurence Esguerra, assistant professor at LiU. They specialise in how innovations contributing to environmental sustainability can be introduced to the market.
Together, they have investigated the environmental impact and cost of 18 different perovskite LEDs, knowledge that is currently incomplete. The study was conducted using so-called life cycle assessment and techno-economic assessment.
Such analyses require a clear system definition – that is, what is included and not in terms of cost and environmental impact. Within this framework, what happens from the product being created until it can no longer be used is investigated. The life cycle of the product, from cradle to grave, can be divided into five different phases: raw material production, manufacturing, distribution, use and decommissioning.
“We’d like to avoid the grave. And things get more complicated when you take recycling into account. But here we show that it’s most important to think about the reuse of organic solvents and how raw materials are produced, especially if they are rare materials,” says Olof Hjelm.
One example where the life cycle analysis provides guidance concerns the small amount of toxic lead found in perovskite LEDs. This is currently necessary for the perovskites to be effective. But, according to Olof Hjelm, focusing only on lead is a mistake. There are also many other materials in LEDs, such as gold.
“Gold production is extremely toxic. There are byproducts such as mercury and cyanide. It’s also very energy-consuming,” he says.
The greatest environmental gain would instead be achieved by replacing gold with copper, aluminium or nickel, while maintaining the small amount of lead needed for the LED to function optimally.
The researchers have concluded that perovskite LEDs have great potential for commercialisation in the long term. Maybe they can even replace today’s LEDs, thanks to lower costs and less environmental impact. The big issue is longevity. However, the development of perovskite LEDs is accelerating and their life expectancy is increasing. The researchers believe that it needs to reach about 10,000 hours for a positive environmental impact, something they think is achievable. Today, the best perovskite LEDs last for hundreds of hours.
Muyi Zhang, PhD student at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology at LiU, says that much of the research focus so far is on increasing the technical performance of LED, something he believes will change.
“We want what we develop to be used in the real world. But then, we as researchers need to broaden our perspective. If a product has high technical performance but is expensive and isn’t environmentally sustainable, it may not be highly competitive in the market. That mindset will increasingly come to guide our research.”
A team of researchers has rediscovered a frog species which has not been seen in more than 130 years. First described in 1902, Alsodes vittatus had evaded detection since then, despite multiple search efforts. The researchers discovered two populations of the frog at the southeastern end of the ancient Hacienda San Ignacio de Pemehue in La Araucanía Region, Chile. The rediscovery is an important milestone for South American herpetology and the conservation of biodiversity in the southern cone.
The frog Alsodes vittatus is an elusive creature – described in 1902, it managed to go undetected for more than a century. Now, after a decade of investigation, a research team has rediscovered it, in its first sighting after 130 years.
Researchers from the Laboratory of Systematics and Conservation of Herpetozoa (SyCoH) of the University of Concepción, Chile - Dr. Claudio Correa, engineer in renewable natural resources Edvin Riveros Riffo, and biologist Juan Pablo Donoso, have published their extraordinary discovery in the journal ZooKeys.
Alsodes vittatus was scientifically described in 1902 by Rodulfo Amando Philippi, a German naturalist living in Chile. French entomologist Philibert Germain had discovered the species in 1893 at the former Hacienda San Ignacio de Pemehue in La Araucanía Region, Chile, and brought three specimens to Philippi for description. Since then, no one has seen the species again, despite multiple search efforts.
Between 1995 and 2002, several researchers unsuccessfully tried to find it in the Pemehue area, at the northwestern end of the former estate. In 2015 and 2016, new expeditions led by Claudio Correa and Juan Pablo Donoso managed to locate two populations of Alsodes in the same area, but the individuals they saw lacked A. vittatus’ distinctive white or yellow stripe on the back, suggesting they likely belonged to a different species.
“The main challenge in locating it was the lack of precision in the description of its type locality,” say the researchers. “In Germain's time, the Hacienda San Ignacio de Pemehue was an estate of enormous size, and the naturalist did not specify the exact place where he collected the specimens.”
To locate the species, Correa and his team had to reconstruct the route that Germain could have followed within the estate by studying his publications and other historical documents. In 2023 and 2024, Claudio Correa and Edvin Riveros followed the reconstructed route, entering the former estate from the southeastern end. There, they found two populations of A. vittatus in the Lolco and Portales river basins in La Araucanía region, confirming the existence of this enigmatic species after more than a century without records.
This is an important milestone for South American herpetology and the conservation of biodiversity in the southern cone. Most of the other species in the genus Alsodes are either threatened with extinction or we don’t know enough about them to assess their status, and shedding light on where and how they live is the first step in protecting them.
“The rediscovery of A. vittatus allowed us to obtain, more than a century after its description, the first biological and ecological data on the species. Field observations also indicate that this amphibian faces several significant threats and that it could be considered endangered,” the researchers warn. “In a broader context, this rediscovery demonstrates the limited biological, evolutionary and biogeographic knowledge of the amphibians that inhabit the southern cone of South America, emphasizing the urgency of their study and conservation.”
Original source:
Correa C, Riveros-Riffo E, Donoso JP (2025) Lost for more than a century: the rediscovery of Alsodes vittatus (Philippi, 1902) (Anura, Alsodidae), one of the rarest and most elusive amphibians from Chile. ZooKeys 1230: 195-212. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1230.135523
Lost for more than a century: the rediscovery of Alsodes vittatus (Philippi, 1902) (Anura, Alsodidae), one of the rarest and most elusive amphibians from Chile
Article Publication Date
11-Mar-2025
A male individual of Alsodes vittatus.
A male individual of Alsodes vittatus.
The habitat of Alsodes vittatus
The habitat of Alsodes vittatus.
Credit
Edvin Riveros
Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon has done more damage to peatlands in the last two years than in the previous three decades
New research published in the academic journal Environmental Research Letters reveals that artisan gold mining in the southern Peruvian Amazon has caused more destruction to carbon-rich peatlands in the past two years than in the previous three decades combined, posing a serious threat to the environment and climate.
For decades, small-scale gold mining has thrived along the rivers of the Madre de Dios region, driven by gold frequently found in the surrounding soils. While the deforestation caused by mining has already resulted in significant carbon emissions, scientists have now discovered that the damage goes even deeper - literally.
Using over 35 years of satellite data from NASA’s Landsat program, researchers tracked the spread of gold mining into Amazonian peatlands, which store large amounts of carbon underground. The findings are alarming: more than 550 hectares of peatland have been destroyed, releasing between 0.2 and 0.7 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Shockingly, over 55% of this damage has occurred in just the past two years, surpassing the cumulative destruction from all previous decades.
Peatlands are vital because they hold carbon more densely than forests. In fact, the peatlands in this region store as much carbon as forests would on an area seven times larger. This means that even small areas of peatland loss can have a big impact on greenhouse gas emissions.
Mining in peatlands currently makes up about 9% of all mining activity in the region, but it's growing fast. If the trend continues, peatland mining could account for 25% of total mining by 2027. Already, 63 out of 219 peatland areas have been affected, putting over 10,000 hectares at immediate risk. This could lead to the release of up to 14.5 million tons of carbon - equivalent to the annual emissions of millions of cars.
It was not until 2012 that these peatlands in southern Peru were known to science. Only a decade later, the very same group of scientists that provided the original description of these peats are now describing the beginning of their demise. The data paints a discouraging picture for the future.
Dr John Householder, corresponding author of the study, explains, "Mining is spreading fast into these fragile areas because it has become easier to reach these remote mining spots, and there just isn't enough law enforcement to protect the area. If we don't slow down the destruction, the damage to the Amazon's peatlands could be permanent, with serious environmental, social, and economic impacts down the line."
He adds, “There are many other sites where considerable amounts of peat are suspected, but the ground data to test these suspicions is simply unavailable. What our paper shows is that even within a human generation, it is quite possible that large peat deposits can disappear from the landscape, before science has had a chance to describe them. For those peat deposits that are already known, these research findings are a wakeup call to protect them.”
ENDS
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