TAO OF PHYSICS
Physics Proves Sometimes True Harmony Requires Diversity 

Fireflies in South-East Asia flash in unison. This sort
of synchronization has been thought to rely on similarity,
but diversity may actually make it easier to achieve.
Motter/Northwestern

Contrary to expectations and Star Wars propaganda, an army of clones might not be a particularly effective fighting force. To create something that works together most effectively, whether for war or peace, it is better to build it from elements that differ from each other than have them all be exactly the same. The proof is a physical one, but it could have applications from renewable energy to biology.

We naturally assume the more similar items are, the more likely they are to act in the same way. However, science is all about overthrowing assumptions. Four years ago, Dr Takashi Nishikawa and Professor Adilson Motter published a paper arguing that not only are differences between components of a system no barrier to producing matching behavior, they are sometimes essential.

This sounds like the sort of abstract mathematics that barely connects with reality, but in Nature Physics, Nishikawa, Motter, and Dr Ferenc Molnar have demonstrated what they call “scenarios in which interacting entities are required to be non-identical in order to exhibit identical behavior” in the real world.

We know from examples such as heart cells and pedestrians falling into step that, in the right circumstances, things with naturally different rhythms can synchronize. Even physicists expected similarities in the components would assist this process (for example, if the walkers naturally walked at the same pace).

Molnar built a set of electrically powered oscillators that could be coupled together and applied friction as a dampening force. In some experiments, all three oscillators were matched. In others, the friction applied to each varied. As Motter noted in a statement, identical objects will behave identically when separate, but this can go out the window once they start to interact, with feedback between them inducing changes. Hard as it is to visualize, the three found the output frequencies matched best when the oscillators experienced different, but not too different, dampening.

“This is remarkable mathematically, let alone physically. So, many colleagues thought that experimentally demonstrating this effect was impossible,” Nishikawa said.

As unrelated to the practical world as this may seem, the authors argue: “The results presented here will naturally extend to real systems with tunable node parameters, such as networks of logic gates, neuronal systems, coupled lasers, and networks of mechanical, electrical and chemical oscillators.”

The authors are already trying to use their work to improve stability in electricity grids dependent on wind and solar power. However, the implications extend far further. Fish and birds act in unison to evade predators, and male Asian fireflies are most attractive to mates when their flashing keeps time with each other. This finding raises the possibility that animals' synchronization may work best when diversity exists within those that need to align, a potentially important lesson if we seek to replicate or harness these systems.

https://archive.org/details/TheTaoOfPhysicsFritjofCapra_201802/mode/2up

OZZIE SCIENCE 

Soon You May Be Able To Fight Climate Change By Drinking Beer

Researchers may have found a form of climate action even those most apathetic about the planet's future can get behind. Airthena is a demonstration unit that sucks carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Among its likely applications is making beer, and it could be the entry-point the technology needs to go on to much bigger things.

Airthena harnesses the power of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), lattices whose holes can be tuned to capture a specific gas even at low concentrations. A decade ago, scientists were excited about the potential to collect carbon dioxide released in electricity production so that it could be stored underground rather than adding to global warming. Today, with fossil fuels struggling to compete on price with the plunging costs of wind and solar, this is looking less economic, but Dr Aaron Thornton of Australia's CSIRO thinks the same technology could cool the world in other ways.

Besides making drinks fizz, carbon dioxide is used for industrial cleaning, and the first Airthena will keep hydroponic tomatoes fed. Some of this CO2 is produced by yeast in the process of beer production, while some is currently collected from power plant or ammonia factory waste streams. However, in Australia some is deliberately mined or from on-site methane burning, making its release into the atmosphere after the drinks' consumption bad for the planet.

Moreover, Thornton told IFLScience, even when carbon that would have been released anyway is captured, “there's a lot of energy used in transportation”, a particularly big problem in spread-out countries like Australia where large-scale capture only occurs at a few sites. These issues hit small CO2 users like microbreweries much more than big ones. Capturing two tonnes a year without needing a lot of space, Airthena could fit this market well.

"As it requires just air and electricity to work, Airthena offers a cost-effective, efficient, and environmentally-friendly option to recycle CO2 for use on-site, on-demand," Thornton said in a statement.

Although this is better for the environment than consuming drinks made with carbon dioxide from other sources, Thornton readily acknowledges that customers breathe the gas out, rather than sequestering it. Beer made this way doesn't directly help the environment compared to drinking tap water.

The indirect effects are something else, however. Initially, expensive new technologies need a niche to get started. Once they find one – like solar panels on satellites or mobile phones for early 90s stockbrokers – better production and economies of scale bring costs down until wider uses become viable.

If transport savings and marketing gold convince some brewers to install an Airthena, it could be the entry point the technology needs. Other CO2 users, such as pubs that use the gas to force beer from keg to tap, are often even more remote. One day, a more advanced Airthena could make large-scale removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide for underground storage viable.

Soon you'll be able to make it happen by buying the right brand of tomatoes, but beer will probably generate more enthusiasm.

Japanese Scientists Create A Child Robot That Can "Feel" Pain

Japanese roboticists have developed a suitably creepy child robot that can feel pain. This might seem like a cruel gift to give to a robot, but the researchers say it could help robots understand and empathize with their human companions. 

Scientists from Osaka University have developed a synthetic skin that contains sensors to subtly detect changes in pressure, whether it's a light touch or a hard punch. This artificial “pain nervous system” was then hooked up to a life-like android robot child that was able to react to the sensations using a variety of facial expressions.

Minoru Asada presented the research team’s work on February 15, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Seattle.

Named Affetto, the robot child was first revealed by Osaka University in 2011. At the time, it was just a realistic head capable of pulling a variety of expressions, such as smiling and frowning. This was made possible through a soft skin-like material covering the robot that moved using 116 different facial points. This latest project has given the boy robot a body, complete with artificial skin covered-skeleton covered in the new tactile sensor.

The aim is to make more realistic “social” robots that are able to have deeper interaction with humans. This might sound like a long-term pipedream, but it’s not as far out as it might seem. Japan has already rolled out robots in nursing homes, offices, and schools as a way to deal with its aging population and shrinking workforce. Some states in the US have also been experimenting with using real-life Robocops to patrol the streets – often with mixed results.

The theory goes that these robots will able to communicate with humans more authentically and effectively if they give the impression they are capable of feeling like us. However, speaking to Science News, Antonio Damasio, a neuroscientist at the University of Southern California, was quick to point out that this is “not the same thing” as a robot actually computing and experiencing some kind of internal experience.

So, if young Affetto is gazing at you with puppy dog eyes and a sad frown, try not to feel too bad. 

[H/T Science News]

AUSTRALIA

“Unprecedented” Number Of Rare Antarctic Blue Whales Sighted In South Georgia Waters



BLUE WHALES WERE HUNTED TO NEAR-EXTINCTION WHEN COMMERCIAL WHALING WAS AT ITS PEAK. KIRK HEWLETT/SHUTTERSTOCK

The island of South Georgia, packed with seals, albatrosses, and penguins jostling for space, is a unique wildlife haven in the South Atlantic, around 3,250 kilometers (2,000 miles) east of the southernmost tip of South America. But it has a dark past. This sub-Antarctic island was once a hub of whaling, seeing hundreds of thousands of the ocean giants being plucked from the waters during the 20th century. Thanks to the 1986 ban on commercial whaling, South Georgia’s whaling stations, like the famous Grytviken, lie abandoned. And the whales are bouncing back.

Commercial whaling killed an estimated 2.9 million whales around the world during the 20th century. The animals were processed for meat, blubber, and oil, which was used in everything from lighting to perfume to margarine. Many species, like the iconic blue whale, were decimated to near-extinction. But an international moratorium on commercial whaling signed in 1986 put a stop to the practice, allowing whales to recover their numbers. However, Japan, Norway, and Iceland still commercially hunt whales.

Now, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has shared some good news regarding the whales around South Georgia. Researchers have been surveying the animals, finding humpbacks to be common in these waters and blue whales to be surprisingly numerous. The team spotted a total of 790 humpback whales during their three-week survey. Combining this information with population counts over the past year or so, they estimate that around 20,000 humpbacks seasonally feed in the waters surrounding South Georgia. They believe the area to be a crucial feeding ground for the whales in the Southwest Atlantic, and note that the animals have almost fully recovered from whaling in this region.

What's left of Grytviken, the largest whaling station on South Georgia. 

Thomas Barrat/Shutterstock

In addition to this positive news, the team sighted 55 blue whales, the largest animals to grace our planet. Antarctic blue whales are rare, being critically endangered, and the researchers were surprised to see them in such numbers. In 2018, only one blue whale was sighted during the survey.

“After three years of surveys, we are thrilled to see so many whales visiting South Georgia to feed again,” said whale project leader Dr Jennifer Jackson, a whale ecologist with the BAS, in a statement. “This is a place where both whaling and sealing were carried out extensively. It is clear that protection from whaling has worked, with humpback whales now seen at densities similar to those a century earlier, when whaling first began at South Georgia.”

Southern right whales were also spotted, but not in as great a density as they were in 2018, suggesting they chose to feed in other areas this year. The right whales’ name goes back to whaling days, when they were thought of as the “right whale” to target – their bodies float and they’re often found swimming not too far from shore. During their survey, the BAS researchers successfully managed to tag two southern right whales, which will allow them to track their movements and learn more about this rare species. You can keep an eye on the pair’s whereabouts here.

As we continue to over-exploit Earth’s resources, whales’ recovery from the impacts of commercial whaling serves as an important reminder of what international collaboration can achieve when it comes to protecting our world’s unique wildlife.

Incredibly Well-Preserved Ice Age Frozen Bird Found In Siberian Permafrost

COURTESY OF THE CENTRE FOR PALAEOGENETICS (SWEDEN)

For the very first time, researchers have discovered an ancient bird that's been frozen in the permafrost of Siberia since the last Ice Age.

The bird was discovered by a team of local fossil ivory hunters in the village of Belaya Gora in Yakutia, northern Russia. Realizing they had stumbled across something significant, they passed the specimen onto scientists at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Sweden.

Reported in the journal Communications Biology, radiocarbon dating revealed that the bird was alive approximately 44,000 to 49,000 years ago. Acting like a refrigerator, the conditions have preserved the bird incredibly well after all these millennia, complete with intact feathers, nails, skin, and soft tissue. Permafrost creates the ideal conditions to preserve organic matter, providing sub-zero temperatures that are low enough to stave off most bacterial and fungal growth that would otherwise decompose the body, but not cold enough to damage the tissues.

The bird's remarkable condition also means it’s a treasure trove for researchers looking to study the genetics of ancient animals. They also managed to extract DNA from the carcass, revealing that the bird was a species of passerine known as a horned lark (Eremophila alpestris). The genetic data showed that the bird was the ancestor of two different subspecies of horned lark, one that today lives in northern Russia and another that inhabits the Mongolian steppe.

“The next step is to sequence the complete genome of this bird. This would allow us to obtain direct estimates of mutation rates but also to further examine the timing and evolution of larks in Eurasia,” Nicolas Dussex, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Palaeogenetics, told IFLScience.

The researchers believe this specimen might be the first-ever discovered frozen bird from the Ice Age. While there were plenty of birds around at the time, they often prove difficult to find in permafrost conditions for a number of reasons.

“Firstly, passerines being quite small and fragile... it is more difficult to find intact bird remains under meters of soil," explained Dussex. "Secondly, if one were to find such bird remains on land or partly dug up, they may think the bird died recently and thus what is actually an ancient bird, may never be 'discovered.'"

Ice Age birds are a first, but researchers have found plenty of other ancient creatures trapped in permafrost. Just last year, the Centre for Palaeogenetics also studied a puppy that was discovered in the permafrost near the Indigirka River in Siberia. Named Dogor, this ancient dog was also well-preserved and in stunning condition, despite being some 18,000 years old. Good boy!

NASA Responds To #Broomstick Challenge: Sorry, You’re Probably Not A Witch


PUT DOWN THE BROOM BEFORE SOMEBODY GETS HURT.


Sorry to inform all you witchy-wannabes participating in the #BroomstickChallenge: you’ve been had.

That’s right. The viral hoax claiming that according to NASA, brooms will only stand upright on February 10 is nonsense. No, there is no gravitational phenomenon that makes your broom magical. Try it today, tomorrow, or even the next day and NASA says that you’ll have the exact same results.

“It’s just physics,” said Astronaut Alvin Drew in a Tweet.

“This is another social media hoax that exemplifies how quickly pseudoscience and false claims can go viral. While this hoax was harmless, it also shows why it’s important for all of us to do some fact-checking and research,” NASA told IFLScience in an emailed statement.



🧹 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Astronaut Alvin Drew and scientist Sarah Noble respond to the #BroomstickChallenge, showing that basic physics works every day of the year — not just February 10th. pic.twitter.com/4TTbI3mvzd— NASA (@NASA) February 11, 2020

NASA Earth even weighed in, commenting that there is “no special gravity that only affects brooms” but that the Moon’s gravity does create tides on Earth.

The viral video falsely credited the claims to NASA, showing a standard broom upright from a first-person perspective due to the “gravitational pull” only emitted on February 10. It garnered more than 62,000 in less than 24 hours after being posted.

“Today is the day – the only day – your broom can stand up on its own. And watch this,” said the video poster. “No strings, nothing!”

The #BroomstickChallenge appears to be based on an urban myth, reports NBC. As the story goes, every year on the spring and fall equinoxes – which don’t fall until March 19 and September 22 of this year – a special property allows eggs to balance on their ends. The vernal and autumnal equinoxes are both days of the year where the length of day and night are the same and have long held special lore as signs of Earth’s rebirth. As it so happens, eggs are the ultimate sign of birth, reports Snopes. But as the organization notes, standing an egg on its end is “something just about anyone can do any day of the year” with the right egg and a little practice.

As NASA notes, it’s important to check the source of information when it comes to viral trends, many of which can be harmful and leave lasting consequences. (You can thank the internet for dangerous attempts at the Tide Pod Challenge, Hot Water Challenge the Condom-Snorting Challenge and the Forbidden Fruit Challenge, to name a few.)

But every so often, a quirky and relatively harmless Internet challenge makes the rounds. So, take a Twitter stroll and enjoy it while it lasts – it’s only a matter of time until we’ll be telling you to put down the laundry detergent.

Beautiful New Images Of World's Only Known Pink Manta Ray Snapped In The Great Barrier Reef

Around Lady Elliot Island, a 45-hectare island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, swims a sight like no other in the world: a manta ray with a bright pink belly. The animal was first seen in 2015 and received the name Inspector Clouseau, after the bumbling detective in the Pink Panther movies.

New images of Inspector Clouseau, the only known manta ray with this particular coloration, were recently taken by underwater wildlife photographer Kristian Laine.

The rosy-hued ray came to the attention of the University of Queensland's Project Manta, who wondered about the reason behind the curious color. The researchers performed a small tissue biopsy in 2016, nixing infection or sickness as the cause. In a Facebook post, the team stated that the pink hue is likely due to “an unusual and unique expression of the skins [sic] melanin.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8YC5qUAklD/?utm_source=ig_embed

It's possible the ray has a genetic mutation called erythrism related to the overproduction of red pigments and the underproduction of dark pigments, caused by a recessive gene – much like that for albinism, melanism, and leucism. Erythrism has been seen in a variety of animals, from leopards to snakes, and though it is incredibly rare, it is most often observed in grasshoppers. 

It may be a rarely observed phenomenon because animals with this unusual coloring are easy prey and don't make it to adulthood, but this male ray seems to be doing just fine. Possibly because manta rays are born big, and get bigger very quickly. Adult manta rays weight more than a ton. 

Manta rays are distributed around the world in tropical and subtropical waters, but not all species are equally distributed. Project Manta aims to better understand manta ray populations in Australia and the surrounding regions. Studying the movements of these animals requires tracking and recognizing them. Luckily, every single manta ray has a unique spotting pattern on their underside, a sort of belly fingerprint, and scientists use these to identify individuals.

Project Manta asks citizen scientists to submit photos of rays from around Australia, so if you have any, consider sending them to these researchers to help us understand these beautiful creatures of the deep even better.

[H/T: Australian Geographic]

Study On Misogynist Men's Groups On The Internet Confirms The Obvious

METAMORWORKS / SHUTTERSTOCK / A SCREENSHOT I FOUND ON 

THE BLUE PILL SUBREDDIT AFTER SCROLLING FOR LESS THAN 10 SECONDS


By James Felton 14 FEB 2020

I'm sure if you've been online and strayed off of the Baby Shark music video on YouTube onto Reddit, Twitter, or even the comments section of the Baby Shark music video, to be honest, you've come across some toxic abuse at some point. It's inescapable and, it has to be said, mainly from men.

A new study has looked at particularly toxic communities, analyzing over 38 million posts on the fringe communities on the Internet, which the researchers have dubbed the "Manosphere", which have organized harassment campaigns and spread extreme ideologies over the World Wide Web. The posts were taken from the last 14 years, to see how the Manosphere has evolved over time.

The study, currently available on the pre-print server arXiv, looked at seven forums and 57 subreddits. That's subsections of Reddit, if this is your first time on the Internet (in which case, welcome to hell!). Communities included incel groups (which is short for "involuntary celibate" and is a community of men who blame women for them being celibate, rather than e.g. their dedication to hating women and the amount of time they spend on misogynistic forums) and men's rights activist groups. Men Going Their Own Way, a group that advocates abandoning women altogether, were also part of the study.

The researchers used Google’s Perspective API, which uses machine-learning techniques, to score how hateful, aggressive, and toxic posts from these communities were.

Looking at men's rights and misogynist movements, both mild and more toxic, they assembled a picture of the Manosphere, which they say is "characterized by a volume of hateful speech appreciably higher than other Web communities", including Reddit and other communities, such as Gab, which are already "known to be hateful". What's more, the Manosphere is getting more hateful over time.

"Over the past decade, the Manosphere evolved into a diverse ecosystem of Web communities with various interests/ideologies," the team wrote in their paper. "The growth of communities which espouse more extreme positions against women and women’s rights such as MGTOW and Incels overshadows older communities such as PUA and MRA."

Over time, users have been moving from milder forms of these communities to more extreme groups. Examples the researchers give of milder groups include the men's rights activists subreddit and Pick Up Artists, a subreddit dedicated to helping men "pick up women", which encourages "negging" and promotes "harassment techniques". More extreme groups include incels.

"We also find that communities increasingly share the same user base, and that there is substantial migration from the communities to the newer ones. Worryingly, the latter are more toxic and espouse nihilistic and extreme anti-women ideologies."

They found that as men were migrating from the milder groups to more extreme communities, they were becoming more toxic as they did so.

Surviving Nomadic Population Challenges Ideas About Paternity And Monogamy
HIMBA FATHERS RAISE CHILDREN AS THEIR OWN, 

EVEN THOUGH HALF OF THEM BIOLOGICALLY HAVE 

DIFFERENT PATERNITY. BROOKE SCELZA/UCLA

By Stephen Luntz 21 FEB 2020


The Himba People of northern Namibia, one of the world's last surviving nomadic populations, have very different ideas about marriage and fidelity to most of the world. Not only is sex outside marriage accepted, but Himba men have no problems with raising children who are not biologically their own. The findings challenge the perception of a biological basis for monogamy as a social norm.

Most societies for which we have records prize monogamy, at least for women. Evolutionary psychologists generally ascribe this to the imperative for men to pass on their genes. They point to animal examples where it is common for dominant males to not only punish females they catch having sex with others, but kill offspring that are not their own. Indeed, there are abundant commentators who use these theories to justify domestic violence, either implicitly or explicitly.

An alternative view, most prominently promoted in the book Sex at Dawn, holds that ancestral humans were far less hung up about such matters, and monogamy only became seen as so important after the development of agriculture. A single study can't settle such a debate, but a combination of biological and sociological research among the Himba certainly favors those who doubt the universal status of currently dominant norms.

Despite the widespread belief that children of adulterous affairs are common, studies have found only 1-2 percent of children born into long-term relationships are the result of liaisons outside the pair. All but one of these studies have been done in the West, however. In Science Advances, UCLA's Dr Brooke Scelza reports that among the Himba the figure is 48 percent.

In most other societies such a figure would be seen as representing widespread trickery, with the mothers deceiving long-term partners into raising children of men they preferred for casual sex. However, Scelza found most Himba fathers are aware when children are not biologically theirs, and don't consider this important.

"Himba have strong beliefs about the importance of social fatherhood, that a child is yours if it is born to your wife, regardless of paternity," Scelza said in a statement. "Both the stigma that typically surrounds women having multiple partners and the bias that might lead to children being mistreated are markedly lower among Himba than they are in much of the rest of the world." Many Himba fathers raise children who are biologically their own alongside those who are not without apparent favoritism.

One nomadic society is not necessarily indicative of how all humanity operated prior to the adoption of agriculture. Indeed as pastoralists who move with their herds in search of the best grass, rather than hunter-gatherers, the Himba lifestyle is different from most of human prehistory.

Nevertheless, the addition of modern genetic techniques allows new light to be shed on an old debate. Margaret Mead, for example, became a superstar in anthropology partly for her claims that Samoan culture accepted casual sex before marriage, but subsequent visitors to the same islands have disputed these claims and tarnished her reputation.

Scelza is not claiming jealousy is unknown among the Himba, and witnessed it occurring, but has previously reported: “Many [Himba] people would be uninterested in having a spouse who could not attract other partners.”

As the paper notes, studies like this raise “a host of logistical and ethical challenges that are not present when assessing paternity in other species.” Scelza spent seven years consulting with the Himba themselves and Namibian institutions to design a unique double-blind process to avoid community disruption. The results of individual genetic tests were not revealed either to the Himba, or to anthropologists working on the ground.

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Giant Squid And Glow-In-The-Dark Sharks Captured By Researchers Off New Zealand

AS GIANT SQUIDS GO, AT JUST 4 METERS, THIS WAS PROBABLY A JUVENILE. PHOTO: BRIT FINUCCI/NIWA


By Katy Evans 18 FEB 2020

If you’re going to find strange creatures of the deep it’ll be off the coast of New Zealand, where legendary giants have long roamed.

So it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to learn that researchers exploring New Zealand’s deep waters on the hunt for elusive glow-in-the-dark sharks and hoki managed to catch an unexpected hitchhiker: a 4-meter (13-foot) giant squid.

Researchers aboard the New Zealand-based National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd (NIWA) research vessel Tangaroa were on an expedition to survey hoki, New Zealand’s most valuable commercial fish, in the Chatham Rise – an area of ocean floor to the east of New Zealand that makes up part of the "lost continent" of Zealandia.

At 7.30am on the morning of January 21, scientists were hauling up their trawler net from a depth of 442 meters (1,450 feet) when they were surprised to spot tentacles in amongst their catch. Large tentacles.

According to voyage leader and NIWA fisheries scientist Darren Stevens, who was on watch, it took six members of staff to lift the giant squid out of the net. Despite the squid being 4 meters long and weighing about 110 kilograms (240 pounds), Stevens said he thought the squid was “on the smallish side,” compared to other behemoths caught.

Darren Stevens measures the squid, finds it "on the smallish side". Photo: Brit Finucci, NIWA

Though giant squids are very rare, they can be found around the world, from Japan to the Gulf of Mexico, but they most often seem to crop up around New Zealand waters.

“New Zealand is kind of the giant squid capital of the world – anywhere else a giant squid is caught in a net would be a massive deal. But there’s been a few caught off New Zealand," Stevens said in a statement.

“It’s only the second one I’ve ever seen. I’ve been on about 40 trips on Tangaroa, and most surveys are about a month, and I’ve only ever seen two. That’s pretty rare.”

With eight arms, and two long tentacles tipped with sharp suckers, often twice the length of the rest of the squid, two giant eyes (the largest in the animal kingdom at 25 centimeters/10 inches) and a sharp beak that can devour fish and other squids, Architeuthis dux is the stuff of legends.

I've got my eye on you. Photo: Brit Finucci, NIWA

Because New Zealand actually hosts other giant squid specimens, the researchers onboard only took scientific samples of the valuable bits – the head, eyes, reproductive organs, and stomach. A tiny bone structure in its head will be used to try and age the squid, something there is no way of doing yet.

“We took the stomach because virtually nothing is known about a giant squid’s diet because every time people seem to catch one, there's very rarely anything in their stomachs,” Stevens said.

“Getting two giant squid eyes is apparently enough for a scientific paper. They're really rare, and you need a fresh one. So it was a really unique set of circumstances to get two fresh eyes.”

While the squid was fortuitous, Dr Jérôme Mallefet of UCLouvain, Belgium – the world's leading expert on bioluminescent sharks – was determined to capture and photograph glow-in-the-dark sharks. He even set up a darkroom aboard the RV Tangaroa in anticipation, and was rewarded handsomely with the first evidence of bioluminescent sharks in New Zealand waters.

Seal shark [left] and lucifer dogfish [right]. Photo: Dr J.Mallefet FNRS, Belgium

According to Dr Mallefet, 11 percent of known shark species can produce bioluminescent light, living in near-total darkness at more than 200 meters (656 feet) down. He photographed the southern lantern shark, lucifer dogfish, and seal shark, all of which emit a blue light (though some sharks emit green), as shorter wavelengths travel well through deep waters.

We shouldn't really be surprised that both the Kraken and creatures that glow live in the waters surrounding New Zealand. Its land creatures have always erred on the side of unusual too.

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Thousands of years ago, the Sahara desert was a lush and verdant place more akin to a savannah, where giraffes, hippos, and crocodiles roamed, farmers let their dairy herds graze, and people ate a lot of fish. A vast lake – bigger than the Caspian Sea, the world’s biggest lake today – resided in Central Africa, sprawling 400,000 square kilometers (150,000 square miles), earning it the moniker Lake Mega Chad.

Sometime around 7,000 years ago, the wet, humid land became one of the most inhospitable places on Earth; the vast sandy desert we recognize today. Lake Chad still exists, but it’s a shadow of its former self. Like the rock art and bones that tell us the creatures that once roamed this savannah, evidence of this once-great body of water can still be seen in the ancient shorelines etched into the landscape.

In one of the most spectacular recent images from its Image of the Day series, NASA's Earth Observatory has revealed this incredible view of it from above.  

The elevation data reveals beach ridges and sand spits that formed on the ancient lake's northeastern shores. NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens

Lake Chad still sits inside the shadow of its ancient big sister but it only took a couple of hundred years to shrink to its current 350 square kilometers (135 square miles). Bordered on all sides by Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria, around 40 million people rely on the lake for freshwater and resources, meaning that overuse, as well as droughts contributing to desertification, are causing it to shrink further. 

NASA's Earth Observatory is a vital tool for studying our planet and even getting a glimpse into our past. We often think of NASA as pointing towards the stars, but when we remember to point the lens back at Earth, not only do we learn invaluable information about our world, it's nice to be reminded that we are also, in fact, rather beautiful to look at that.

Methane Emissions From Fossil Fuels Might Have Been Severely Underestimated

By Alfredo Carpineti 20 FEB 2020

A new study suggests that methane emissions from fossil fuels has been severely underestimated.

Methane is the second-largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. It is a lot more potent than CO2 in trapping heat in our atmosphere, but on the flip side, it tends to degrade and disappear in less than a decade compared to the century it takes for carbon dioxide.

As reported in the journal Nature, researchers have estimated how much methane is released from natural sources compared to that from human activity, mostly due to the burning of fossil fuels. The team looked at air bubbles trapped in Greenland ice cores from the time before the Industrial Revolution to today, as well as previous data from Antarctica. In samples from 1750 to 2013, they found that the levels of natural methane emissions is about 10 times lower than previously reported. This means that the total methane emissions generated in the burning of fossil fuels is between 25 and 40 percent higher than expected.

Many of the previous estimates used an inventory-based assessment of the natural sources of methane from around the world. This current work provides an actual measurement from the air trapped in ice before the Industrial Revolution began.

"If we stopped emitting all carbon dioxide today, high carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would still persist for a long time," lead author Dr Benjamin Hmiel, from the University of Rochester, said in a statement. "Methane is important to study because if we make changes to our current methane emissions, it's going to reflect more quickly."

"I don't want to get too hopeless on this because my data does have a positive implication: most of the methane emissions are anthropogenic, so we have more control. If we can reduce our emissions, it's going to have more of an impact," Hmiel added. "Placing stricter methane emission regulations on the fossil fuel industry will have the potential to reduce future global warming to a larger extent than previously thought."

Vancouver’s Chinese restaurants are empty amid coronavirus fears. If misinformation is to blame, so is China’s embassy

For weeks, China’s embassy has been telling people to avoid crowds in Canada, while local authorities blame online mischief for the woes of Chinese restaurants

But misinformation alone is a poor explanation for empty restaurants – it’s also due to the public’s poor ability to calculate risk on a range of scary subjects

Ian Young in Vancouver 22 Feb, 2020


The main problem for Richmond’s Aberdeen Centre food court, in the heart of the most Chinese city outside Asia, used to be a lack of seats.

It heaved around meal times, with tray-toting diners pouncing on tables as soon as an incumbent so much as dabbed their lips with a napkin.

Not any more. The crowds are gone. Most tables are empty. It looks like someone pulled a fire alarm.

In the Aberdeen Centre, and at Chinese restaurants and other businesses in the Vancouver region and across Canada, trade has suffered precipitous declines amid fears of the coronavirus. This is in spite of the fact that there have been just nine known infections in Canada (all of them recent travellers or their close contacts).

Chinese-speaking Vancouverites receive a torrent of real-time updates from family and friends … Little wonder that the official Canadian response seems paltry by comparison

Canadian authorities say misinformation is to blame for those empty seats. At a press conference in Vancouver’s Chinatown on Monday, Canadian health minister Patty Hajdu pinned fault squarely on “rampant” online falsehoods.

Hajdu was backed up by Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart, BC health minister Adrian Dix and a bevy of Chinese restaurateurs and other business owners. Stewart said trade at some restaurants was down 70 per cent – a conservative assessment if the Aberdeen food court is any gauge.

There have indeed been some high-profile instances of misinformation: a local supermarket chain, a restaurant in Burnaby’s Crystal Mall and a popular Richmond roast meat shop have all been hit with utterly baseless and anonymous mischief on social media about supposedly infected patrons or staff.

However, you don’t have to poke around the troll caves of Weibo to discover why Vancouver’s Chinese communities might be staying home.

For more than three weeks, China’s embassy has been plainly telling people in Canada to take precautions against the coronavirus by avoiding crowds and curtailing socialising.

“Please avoid travelling to crowded areas as much as possible, and do not organise or participate in party activities as much as possible,” it says in a directive posted prominently on its website since January 28.

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It also recommends that anyone who does go to a “public place with a large number of people” should wear a face mask.

That advice all goes far beyond anything suggested for the general public by Canadian health authorities and political leaders (“Continue with your regular business,” Stewart had advised on Monday).

If misinformation is behind the woes at the Aberdeen Centre and beyond, then the embassy must share the blame, not just anonymous cranks on social media.

A traveller wears a mask after arriving at Vancouver’s airport on a direct flight from China. Photo: Reuters

Blame information overload

It would almost be comforting if the self-quarantining of Vancouver’s Chinese communities could be pinned on nonsense and crackpottery.

But it’s really down to a combination of factors, including the mixed messaging from the embassy.

It’s also because humans are generally terrible at calculating risk in relation to any high-profile fear factor. And overcoming that will be far more challenging than simple myth-busting.

The risks posed to tourists by terrorists in the aftermath of 9/11? To children in the wake of an infamous abduction case? The current risk to the Canadian public posed by the coronavirus? Logic and math should safely place them all at the back of a dark pantry in a small box marked Exceedingly Low.

But for many, the gut will say otherwise, and misinformation is an incomplete explanation. Math rarely triumphs when fear comes sneaking out of our lizard brains.

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer checks Canadians who had been evacuated from China and are on their way to Canadian Forces Base Trenton on February 7. Photo: Reuters

And Vancouver’s Chinese communities have been bombarded with fearful tales of the coronavirus, true and not, to a degree that dwarfs the exposure of the rest of the city.

That small matter of the Pacific Ocean separating Vancouver from events in China? It may as well not exist in the age of social media, as Chinese-speaking Vancouverites receive a torrent of real-time updates from family and friends sharing their experience of the biggest epidemic response in history, affecting hundreds of millions of people.

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Little wonder that the official Canadian response seems paltry by comparison, with its simple imprecations to wash your hands and cover your mouth and nose when coughing.

So don’t just blame misinformation for those empty seats in the food court. Blame information overload.

The Hongcouver blog is devoted to the hybrid culture of its namesake cities: Hong Kong and Vancouver. All story ideas and comments are welcome. Connect with me by email
ian.young@scmp.com or on Twitter,  @ianjamesyoung70.

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