SPACE/COSMOS

Jules Verne: The writer who inspired space exploration

Timothy Jones  

DW

January 3, 2025

French author Jules Verne gave us some astoundingly accurate predictions of future technological advances. His stories inspired many scientists and inventors to make his visions a reality.

Jules Verne's works have delighted both adults and children for more than 160 years

When French author Jules Verne died in 1905, powered air flight, which he put at the center of his 1886 book "Robur the Conqueror," had moved from fiction to reality. Just two years earlier, the Wright brothers had achieved the first manned air flight in human history.

Yet more of Verne's predictions of world-changing technologies were still far from being realized when he died. Being able to orbit the moon on a spaceship, as he depicted in his 1865 novel "From the Earth to the Moon," seemed like a distant fantasy. But it came true just 60 years later with NASA's Apollo 8 mission in 1968.

Verne's brilliance lay in the way he vividly imagined how existing technologies might be developed, then embedded his ideas in exciting adventure stories.

This fascinating combination of fact and fiction have made Verne's novels ideal for stimulating interest in science and technology, despite all the progress since they were written. That's why Verne’s stories have inspired countless scientists and inventors, and continue to do so today. Here are four such examples.

Simon Lake (1866-1945), submarine designer

Simon Lake was a US naval architect who designed some of the first submarines for the US Navy. He said he was indebted to Verne, in particular the novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas" (1869-1870), which he first read at the age of 10 or 11.

This book features the Nautilus, an undersea vessel far more advanced than the rudimentary submarines that existed when the book was written.

Lake was gripped with the ambition to build a submarine that matched or exceeded the Nautilus in its performance.

He made some progress, designing a submarine called the Argonaut. A successful 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) voyage of the Argonaut in 1898 earned Lake the delight of receiving a congratulatory telegram from Verne himself.

Lake's Nautilus bore the motto 'Mobilis in mobili' ('Moving in a moving element') — that of Verne's character Captain Nemo

Image: public domain

Later, Verne's grandson, Jean Jules Verne, was invited to be a "godparent" of one of Lake's later, more advanced submarines. The vessel was even rebaptized as the Nautilus ahead of an Arctic expedition in 1931, in honor of the French author.

Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), aeronaut and inventor

Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont not only designed and built some of the first powered airships, but also flew them. Among his many trips, he circled the Eiffel Tower in Paris with his airship No. 6 in 1901, a performance which brought him great fame across the world at the time.

A flight by Santo-Dumont's 14-bis in October 1906 is considered the world's first officially registered motorized flight

Image: Jules Beau

Santos-Dumont went on to design, construct, and fly powered aircraft like gliders and ornithopters. He carried out a flight of 220 meters (241 yards) at a height of 6 meters (20 feet) in his 14-bis in November 1906.

In his book, "My Airships," Santos-Dumont mentioned several of Verne's works as inspirations for his curiosity about the world and technology, calling the French writer the "favorite author" of his youth.

Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972), aviation pioneer

Igor Sikorsky's mother, Mariya Stefanovna Sikorskaya, instilled a love for Verne's stories in the Russian-American aviation pioneer.

In particular, "Robur the Conqueror," with its vividly described aircraft, inspired Sikorsky to build the helicopters for which he became famous.

After several failed attempts early in the 20th century, Sikorsky succeed in designing and flying the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300, the first workable American helicopter, in 1939.

The Sikorsky 330 was the first workable helicopter in the US

The early form of a helicopter was modified to become the Sikorsky R-4, the first mass-produced helicopter in the world.

Sikorsky also designed numerous fixed-wing airplanes, mostly after he emigrated from Russia to the US in 1919 after the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), rocket scientist

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, one of the pioneers of modern rocketry and astronautics, named Verne as the person who inspired his interest in space flight.

Tsiolkovsky also emulated Verne as a writer, publishing the novel "On the Moon" in 1893. He also wrote many philosophical and scientific works related to space travel and the human relationship with the cosmos.

Verne's fictional depictions of spaceships carrying lunar voyagers as a shell shot from a cannon could never succeed in reality. In contrast, Tsiolkovsky developed theories on many principles of rocket propulsion and space travel that are workable and still hold true today.

Like Verne, Tsiolkovsky was convinced humans would one day move out further into the solar system.

"Man will not always stay on Earth; the pursuit of light and space will lead him to penetrate the bounds of the atmosphere, timidly at first, but in the end to conquer the whole of solar space," reads the epitaph on his obelisk that Tsiolkovsky himself wrote.

Edited by: Fred Schwaller

India unveils plans for 10 missions in 2025 after successful space-docking launch

Jan. 3, 2025 

An Indian PSLV-C60 rocket carrying Space Docking Experiment, or SpaDeX, payloads is shown lifting off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh on Monday. SpaDeX is a pioneering mission to establish India's capability in orbital docking. 

\Photo courtesy Indian Space Research Organization


Jan. 3 (UPI) -- India's space agency says it is planning a record 10 orbital missions, as well as its first commercial effort, during 2025 after successfully launching a space-docking project this week.

Indian Space Research Organization chairman S. Somanath told reporters following Monday's launch of a PSLV-C60 rocket carrying Space Docking Experiment, or SpaDeX, payloads, that the nation has big plans for the coming year.

"ISRO set to launch the NVS-02 satellite in January 2025, with more missions planned for upcoming year," he said on Tuesday while marking the agency's 99th launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh, which carried two small spacecraft built to dock together in space, a mission deemed as essential for India's space ambitions.

"Through this mission, India is marching towards becoming the fourth country in the world to have space docking technology," the agency said in a statement.

Among the upcoming plans outlined by Somanath are 10 missions, including the NVS-02 navigation satellite. With that "milestone" 100th launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, ISRO will launch the second in the series of 2nd-generation navigation satellites and the ninth satellite in its Navigation with Indian Constellation.

Similar to its predecessor NVS-01, the NVS-02 will likely have both navigation and ranging payloads which are meant to serve both civilian and military geo-positioning needs, NDTV reported.

Four other geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle missions are on the agenda for 2025, as well as a manned LVM-3 launch for India's Gaganyaan human spaceflight program, three Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle missions and a launch of the SSLV solid rocket, Somanath said.

Bezos’s Blue Origin poised for first orbital launch next week

By AFP
January 4, 2025


File photo: The interior of the Blue Origin crew capsule. — Photo: © AFP/File
Gregg Newton with Issam Ahmed in Washington

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin is poised to launch its first orbital rocket next week, marking a pivotal moment in the commercial space race currently dominated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Named New Glenn, the rocket is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida as soon as Wednesday 1:00 am (0600 GMT), with a backup window on Friday, according to a Federal Aviation Administration advisory.

While Blue Origin has not officially confirmed the launch date, excitement has been building since a successful “hotfire” test on December 27.

“Next stop launch,” Bezos declared on X, sharing a video of the towering rocket’s engines roaring to life.

The NG-1 mission will carry a prototype of Blue Ring, a Defense Department–funded spacecraft envisioned as a versatile satellite deployment platform, which will remain on board the rocket’s second stage for the duration of the six-hour test flight.

Jeff Bezos, pictured in November 2021, founded Blue Origin two years before Elon Musk started SpaceX — but the company has progressed at a far slower pace – Copyright POOL/AFP/File Paul ELLIS

It will mark Blue Origin’s long-awaited entry into the lucrative orbital launch market after years of suborbital flights with its smaller New Shepard rocket, which carries passengers and payloads on brief trips to the edge of space.

“The market is really orbital,” analyst Laura Forczyk, founder of Astralytical, told AFP. “Suborbital can only take you so far — there are only so many payloads and customers for a quick ride to space.”

– Space barons –

The milestone will also escalate the rivalry between Bezos, the world’s second-richest person, and Musk, the wealthiest, who has cemented SpaceX’s dominance and is now in President-elect Donald Trump’s inner circle.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets have become industry workhorses, serving clients from commercial satellite operators to the Pentagon and NASA, which relies on them to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Like Falcon 9, New Glenn features a reusable first stage designed to land vertically on a ship at sea.

The vessel, playfully named “So You’re Telling Me There’s a Chance,” reflects the challenge of landing a reusable rocket on the first attempt, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said on X.

At 320 feet (98 meters), New Glenn dwarfs the 230-foot Falcon 9 and is designed to carry larger, heavier payloads. It slots between Falcon 9 and its larger sibling, Falcon Heavy, in cargo capacity while burning cleaner liquid natural gas rather than kerosene and relying on fewer engines.

“If I were still a senior executive at NASA, I’d be thrilled to finally have some competition to the Falcon 9,” G. Scott Hubbard, NASA’s former “Mars Czar” now at Stanford University, told AFP, adding that increased competition could help drive down launch costs.

– Politics at play –

For now, SpaceX maintains a commanding lead, capturing the lion’s share of the market while rivals like United Launch Alliance, Arianespace and Rocket Lab trail far behind.

Like Musk, Bezos has an enduring passion for space. But where Musk dreams of colonizing Mars, Bezos envisages populating the solar system with massive floating space colonies.

Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000 — two years before Musk started SpaceX — but the company has progressed at a far slower pace, reflecting a more cautious approach.

“There’s been impatience within the space community over Blue Origin’s very deliberate approach,” Scott Pace, a space policy analyst at George Washington University and a former member of the National Space Council, told AFP.

If successful, New Glenn will offer the US government “dissimilar redundancy” — alternative systems that provide backups if one fails, said Pace.

This could prove vital as SpaceX plans to retire Falcon 9 by the end of the decade in favor of Starship, a prototype that relies on not fully proven technologies.

Musk’s closeness to Trump has raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, especially with private astronaut Jared Isaacman — a business associate of Musk — slated to become the next NASA chief.

Bezos, however, has been making his own overtures, paying his respects to his former foe during a visit to the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago residence, while Amazon has said it would donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee.

Anniversary of the Birth of Jules Verne 

ESSAYS  IN MEMORIAM

By Howard A. Rodman02/08/2020

Jules Verne, who can be said to have imagined, if not invented, the 20th century, was born on February 8, 1828 — 192 years ago today. He died at age 77 in Amiens, France, of complications from diabetes.

Or we might say: died for the first time. Because his work lives on, and has not yet succumbed.

Captain Nemo, perhaps Verne’s greatest and most enduring figure, first died on June 2, 1868, at the end of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea when his submarine, the Nautilus, was spiraled to the bottom of the sea by a catastrophic and devastating maelstrom, sinking it — perhaps forever — beneath the waves.

Yet Verne’s Nemo has had more than one demise. In a later novel, The Mysterious Island, Nemo is among us once more, and dies once more. On his deathbed in this subsequent novel we learn that after the sinking of the Nautilus both submarine and captain were somehow resurrected, making port on Lincoln Island. Nemo’s second death occurs on October 15, 1868.


We learn little of Nemo’s murderous motivations in Twenty Thousand Leagues; they’re rendered a bit more legibly in Mysterious Island. But what we know depends on where we live.

In England and America — American editions of Verne followed the initial UK translations — Nemo’s pre-Nautilus life was cleansed, its details bowdlerized, its politics gutted. In the Anglophone version, the one you are likely to have read as a child, we learn that Nemo was born Prince Dakkar of Bundelkund, India — a land that the British had benevolently “brought… out of a state of anarchy and constant warfare and misery”; that a few ambitious and unscrupulous princes had in 1857 fomented a revolt, one in which our Dakkar was somehow swept up; that, when the revolt ended, Dakkar disappeared, to live out the rest of his days undersea.

What readers of French, or of the more recent unabridged translations know, is that Nemo was less a victim of that revolt than an enthusiastic participant in it, as successful a general as he had been a prince. And that the British, in savage retaliation, killed his wife and children. Hence: Nemo’s rebellion was far more conscious and purposeful, his flight far more motivated. The ships that in Twenty Thousand Leagues we learn that Nemo attacked and sunk are now contextualized: these are acts of unimaginable grief, legible revenge.

192 years after Nemo’s deaths, 115 years after the death of his creator, the story of Nemo still speaks to us. His unfathomable misery drove him to unfathomed depths. And his destructions of the Governor-Higginson of the Calcutta and Burnach Steam Navigation Company, the Cristobal-Colon of the West India and Pacific Steam Navigation Company, the Shannon of the Royal Mail, now seem less like random acts than strands in a skein of retaliation, transporting the merchant ships of empire to a depth equivalent to that of his own despair.

Even the name embodies these contradictions: Nemo is Latin for “no one,” and also Greek (νέμω) for “I give what is due.” Alienation or vengeance, depending on which classical language should be given precedence. And it’s precisely the ambiguity or, perhaps, complexity of Nemo’s agenda that causes Verne’s figure to echo, from the 19th century to our own, down the corridors of time.

In the current era Nemo appears as caricature in the Disney mash-up crossover series Once Upon a Time, his universe merged with that of Captain Hook. He’s an essential component of Alan Moore’s masterful League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, his elegance, science, violence rendered fully intact in a way one suspects that Verne would have applauded. And of course: he’s lent his name to the world’s most famous animated clownfish. These are the three contemporary faces of Nemo. Reduced to icon. Deeply understood. And as the one thing that Nemo never was: lovable.

The original Nemo was far more Old Testament that that. The murderous acts of Verne’s captain are simultaneously well-lit and obscure, political and personal: precisely calculated yet wildly arbitrary. Is this not the essence of our own age, in which the hideous protagonists who leap out at us from our news feeds are at one and the same time overdetermined and incomprehensible?

We separate parents from children at our border as a deliberate strategy of deterrence, but also savoring the cruelty. Our most brutal leaders see themselves as victims. And of course: the barbarous efforts of the Honourable East India Company to keep those of darker skin snapped to the colonial grid — as chronicled by Verne, at least in the original French — find sickening parallel in today’s Christchurch, in today’s Yemen, in other outposts of our allegedly postcolonial era. In all of these ways, the darker side of Twenty Thousand Leagues never died at all.

There is a difference, though, and it’s a crucial one: Captain Nemo was a man of great intellect and, at times, great heart. He knows who he is. One can empathize (even as one acknowledges his crimes). It is hard if not impossible to muster a parallel empathy for today’s captains of empire, who lack intellect, heart, or indeed any humanizing shred of self-awareness. In history’s long arc, these men will be given what is due. Even as Nemo dies again, lives again, as called upon by each new era — even as his creator, Jules Verne, age 192, dreams on in his eternal slumber.

Howard A. Rodman, past president of the Writers Guild of America West, wrote The Great Eastern (Melville House Books), in which Nemo’s second death is assumed to be as provisional as his first.

http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/192nd-anniversary-birth-jules-verne/

The Mysterious Island (1929) -

Jules Verne Movie - Sci-Fi Movie On a volcanic island near the kingdom of Hetvia rules Count Dakkar, a benevolent leader and scientist who has eliminated class distinction among the island's inhabitants. Dakkar, his daughter Sonia and her fiance, engineer Nicolai Roget have designed a submarine which Roget pilots on its initial voyage just before the island is overrun by Baron Falon, despotic ruler of Hetvia. Falon sets out after Roget in a second submarine and the two craft, diving to the ocean's floor, discover a strange land populated by dragons, giant squid and an eerie undiscovered humanoid race

  

The Mysterious Island (1929 film) - Wikipedia

The Mysterious Island is a 1929 American science fiction film directed by Lucien Hubbard based on Jules Verne's 1874 novel L'Île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island). It was photographed largely in two-color Technicolor and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a part-talkie, with some scenes that featured audible dialog and some that had only synchronized music and sound effects.^[1]

Cast[edit]

• Lionel Barrymore as Count Dakkar
• Jacqueline Gadsden as Sonia Dakkar
• Lloyd Hughes as Nikolai Roget
• Montagu Love as Falon
• Harry Gribbon as Mikhail
• Snitz Edwards as Anton
• Gibson Gowland as Dmitry
• Dolores Brinkman as Teresa
• Karl Dane (uncredited)
• Robert Dudley as Workman (uncredited)
• Angelo Rossitto as Underwater Creature (uncredited)
• Carl 'Major' Roup as Underwater Creature (uncredited)
• Billy Schuler (uncredited)
• Pauline Starke (uncredited)
• Jack Stoutenburg (uncredited)
• Harry Tenbrook as Workman (uncredited)
• Robert McKim (uncredited)

Climate change: A threat to urban trees

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CNRS

Trees play an essential role in the well-being of city dwellers — but for how long? An international research team, including a CNRS researcher from the Ecology and Dynamic of Anthropogenic Systems laboratory at the University of Picardy Jules Verne (Laboratoire Ecologie et dynamique des systèmes anthropisés, CNRS/Université of Picardy Jules Verne)1, has published the first global risk assessment for tree species planted in cities in the current context of increasing temperatures and decreasing annual precipitation due to climate change: 56–65% of these species are already at risk today, and this figure could rise to 68–76% by 2050. By that time in France2, for example, rising temperatures will put 71% of species at risk. In a city like Montpellier, the common ash will be among the species most at risk. Scientists obtained these results, which appear in Nature Climate Change on 19 September 2022, by studying 3,129 species of trees and shrubs found in 164 cities across 78 countries and calculated the safety margin (a measure of the climatic tolerance) of each species in each city under current and future climate conditions. The research team notes that it is quite common for species to already be planted in cities under stressful climate conditions; although certain cities, especially wealthier ones, are able to spend money to water trees in times of drought3 and mitigate the impact of climate change. However, risks are expected to increase in the future and lead to much higher maintenance costs. With trees playing an increasingly critical role as natural air conditioners in cities during heat waves, these findings show that urban greening schemes must be adapted to allow trees to cope with climate change, for example, by planting species resilient to future temperatures and precipitation.

 

Notes

---

1 - A researcher from the Study and Understanding of Biodiversity laboratory (Étude et compréhension de la biodiversité, INRAE/Université de Rouen Normandie) also took part. The study was led by the Western Sydney University in Australia and involved scientists from the University of Melbourne and Macquarie University.

2- Based on data from five French cities (Paris, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Grenoble, Lyon) and 506 different tree and shrub species, for a total of 1,254 observations. By 2050, 69% of urban tree and shrub species will be at risk from decreasing annual precipitation in France and 49% of species will be at risk due to both less precipitation and increased temperatures.

3- Data on urban tree maintenance and management operations are not available. The risk analysis is therefore purely ecological, and does not take into account the technical capabilities of each city to maintain the urban tree network.

 

Bibliography

---

A worldwide climate-change risk analysis for urban forests. Esperon-Rodriguez, Tjoelker, Lenoir et al. Nature Climate Change, 19 September 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01465-8

---

JOURNAL

Nature Climate Change

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

Revealed: The Mysterious, Legendary Giant Squid’s Genome

TOPICS:GeneticsMarine Biological LaboratoryMarine BiologyPopular

By MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY JANUARY 15, 2020

How did the monstrous giant squid – reaching school-bus size, with eyes as big as dinner plates and tentacles that can snatch prey 10 yards away – get so scarily big?

Today, important clues about the anatomy and evolution of the mysterious giant squid (Architeuthis dux) are revealed through publication of its full genome sequence by a University of Copenhagen-led team that includes scientist Caroline Albertin of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole.

Giant squid are rarely sighted and have never been caught and kept alive, meaning their biology (even how they reproduce) is still largely a mystery. The genome sequence can provide important insight.

The giant squid has long been a subject of horror lore. In this original illustration from Jules Verne’s ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,’ a giant squid grasps a helpless sailor. Credit: Alphonse de Neuville

“In terms of their genes, we found the giant squid look a lot like other animals. This means we can study these truly bizarre animals to learn more about ourselves,” says Albertin, who in 2015 led the team that sequenced the first genome of a cephalopod (the group that includes squid, octopus, cuttlefish, and nautilus).

Led by Rute da Fonseca at University of Copenhagen, the team discovered that the giant squid genome is big: with an estimated 2.7 billion DNA base pairs, it’s about 90 percent the size of the human genome.

Albertin analyzed several ancient, well-known gene families in the giant squid, drawing comparisons with the four other cephalopod species that have been sequenced and with the human genome.

She found that important developmental genes in almost all animals (Hox and Wnt) were present in single copies only in the giant squid genome. That means this gigantic, invertebrate creature – long a source of sea-monster lore – did NOT get so big through whole-genome duplication, a strategy that evolution took long ago to increase the size of vertebrates.

So, knowing how this squid species got so giant awaits further probing of its genome.

“A genome is a first step for answering a lot of questions about the biology of these very weird animals,” Albertin said, such as how they acquired the largest brain among the invertebrates, their sophisticated behaviors and agility, and their incredible skill at instantaneous camouflage.

“While cephalopods have many complex and elaborate features, they are thought to have evolved independently of the vertebrates. By comparing their genomes we can ask, ‘Are cephalopods and vertebrates built the same way or are they built differently?'” Albertin says.

Albertin also identified more than 100 genes in the protocadherin family – typically not found in abundance in invertebrates – in the giant squid genome.

“Protocadherins are thought to be important in wiring up a complicated brain correctly,” she says. “They were thought they were a vertebrate innovation, so we were really surprised when we found more than 100 of them in the octopus genome (in 2015). That seemed like a smoking gun to how you make a complicated brain. And we have found a similar expansion of protocadherins in the giant squid, as well.”

Lastly, she analyzed a gene family that (so far) is unique to cephalopods, called reflectins. “Reflectins encode a protein that is involved in making iridescence. Color is an important part of camouflage, so we are trying to understand what this gene family is doing and how it works,” Albertin says.

“Having this giant squid genome is an important node in helping us understand what makes a cephalopod a cephalopod. And it also can help us understand how new and novel genes arise in evolution and development.”

Reference: “A draft genome sequence of the elusive giant squid, Architeuthis dux” by Rute R da Fonseca, Alvarina Couto, Andre M Machado, Brona Brejova, Carolin B Albertin, Filipe Silva, Paul Gardner, Tobias Baril, Alex Hayward, Alexandre Campos, Ângela M Ribeiro, Inigo Barrio-Hernandez, Henk-Jan Hoving, Ricardo Tafur-Jimenez, Chong Chu, Barbara Frazão, Bent Petersen, Fernando Peñaloza, Francesco Musacchia, Graham C Alexander, Jr, Hugo Osório, Inger Winkelmann, Oleg Simakov, Simon Rasmussen, M Ziaur Rahman, Davide Pisani, Jakob Vinther, Erich Jarvis, Guojie Zhang, Jan M Strugnell, L Filipe C Castro, Olivier Fedrigo, Mateus Patricio, Qiye Li, Sara Rocha, Agostinho Antunes, Yufeng Wu, Bin Ma, Remo Sanges, Tomas Vinar, Blagoy Blagoev, Thomas Sicheritz-Ponten, Rasmus Nielsen and M Thomas P Gilbert, 16 January 2020, GigaScience.
DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giz152

Study Reveals That Giant Squid Throughout the World Are Genetically Similar

TOPICS:Evolutionary BiologyGeneticsGiant SquidsUniversity Of Copenhagen

By UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN MARCH 20, 2013

Study reveals that giant squid such as this one are genetically similar throughout the world. David Paul/Museum Victoria

In a newly published study, researchers examine the mitochondrial genome diversity of 43 giant squid samples collected from across the range of the species, finding that there is only one global species of giant squid, Architeuthis.

The giant squid is one of the most enigmatic animals on the planet. It is extremely rarely seen, except as the remains of animals that have been washed ashore, and placed in the formalin or ethanol collections of museums. But now, researchers at the University of Copenhagen leading an international team, have discovered that no matter where in the world they are found, the fabled animals are so closely related at the genetic level that they represent a single, global population, and thus despite previous statements to the contrary, a single species worldwide. Thus the circle, that was first opened in 1857 by the famous Danish naturalist Japetus Steenstrup as he first described the animal, can be closed. It was Steenstrup that realized this beast was the same animal that in the past gave rise to centuries of sailors tails, and even in more recent became immortalized by writers such as Jules Verne and Herman Melville, by demonstrating that the monster was based in reality, and gave it the latin name Architeuthis dux.

It was less than 1 year ago, that the giant squid, Architeuthis dux, was first filmed alive in its natural element. Taken at a depth of 630m and after 100 missions and 400 hours of filming, the footage was captured by a small submarine lying off the Japanese island of Chichi Jima – near to the famous Iwo Jima that was the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting between Japan and the USA in the Second World War.

Now, PhD student Inger Winkelmann and her supervisor Professor Tom Gilbert, from the Basic Research Center in GeoGenetics at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen University, have managed to place new bricks into the puzzle of this giant 10 armed invertebrate, that is credibly believed to grow up to 13 meters long and way over 900 kg.

And the two scientists conclusions are: No matter what a sample looks like, its one species all over the deep oceans of the planet.

Sinking to the depths

PhD student Inger Winkelmann says about these findings, that are published in the esteemed British journal, the Proceedings of the Royal Society B:

– We have analysed DNA from the remains of 43 giant squid collected from all over the world. The results show, that the animal is genetically nearly identical all over the planet, and shows no evidence of living in geographically structured populations. We suggest that one possible explanation for this is that although evidence suggests the adults remain in relatively restricted geographic regions, the young that live on the ocean’s surfaces must drift in the currents globally. Once they reach a large enough size to survive the depths, we believe they dive to the nearest suitable deep waters, and there the cycle begins again. Nevertheless, we still lack a huge amount of knowledge about these creatures. How big a range to they really inhabit as adults? Have they in the past been threatened by things such as climate change, and the populations of their natural enemies, such as the planet’s largest toothed whale, the sperm whale that can grow up to 20 m in length and 50 tons? And at an even more basic level…how old do they even get and how quickly do they grow?

The kraken and the seamonk

These new results about the mysterious giant squid are released, fittingly enough, on the 200th anniversary of the Danish naturalist and polymath, Japetus Steenstrup (born in 1813).

At the age of 44, in 1857, it was Steenstrup who saw that many of the monsters of sea-legend were related to fragments that he had been sent of what appeared to be a giant squid, and in doing so described the species for the first time and removed any hope that sea monsters such as the Kraken and sea-monk really existed (although nevertheless, similar monsters still inspired beasts in literature and even films throughout the 20th century, including Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings in 1957).

Professor Tom Gilbert, who lead the team that undertook the research, says:

– It has been tremendous to apply the latest techniques in genetic and computational analyses, to follow up on Steenstrup’s scientific research 146 years after he started it. But its also been a fantastic experience to work with the giant squid as a species, because of its legendary status as a seamonster. But despite our findings, I have no doubt that these myths and legends will continue get today’s children to open their eyes up – so they will be just as big as the real giant squid is equipped with to navigate the depths.

The work was undertaken in collaboration with researchers around the world, including scientists in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Spain, Portugal, USA and Ireland.

Publication: Inger Winkelmann, et al., “Mitochondrial genome diversity and population structure of the giant squid Architeuthis: genetics sheds new light on one of the most enigmatic marine species,” Proc. R. Soc. B 22 May 2013 vol. 280 no. 1759; doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0273

Image: David Paul/Museum Victoria

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=SQUID

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=GIANT+SQUID

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=KRAKEN

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CEPHLAPOD

We now know exactly what happens in nature when we fell forests

Deforestation is the biggest threat to the planet's ecosystems, and new research has now mapped out exactly what happens when agriculture replaces forestry

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: HEAT, RECURRING RAIN AND VOLCANIC SOIL MAKES THE NATURE ON THE AZORES EXTREMELY FERTILE. IN FACT FARMERS CAN HARVEST YEAR-ROUND ON THE ISLANDS - AND A GREAT DEAL OF THE FRUIT WE EAT IN EUROPA COMES FROM THE AZORES. MANY ANIMALS GRAZE ALSO PASTURES ON THE ISLANDS. THIS PICTURE IS FROM THE ISLAND OF TERCEIRA, SNAPPED CLOSE TO SOME FAMOUS VULCANIC TUNNELS. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO: JULES VERNE TIMES TWO / CREATIVE COMMONS

Humans first started farming about 12,000 years ago. On the shores of the Euphrates and the Tigris, in what is now Iraq and Syria, small groups of people started to grow peas, lentils and barley independently of each other. They felled trees to make space for fields and animals, and in so doing began to shape nature according to the needs of humans. 

Back then, our ancestors already knew that, after the forest was felled and the fields were established, some of the animals and plants that had previously thrived would disappear. Today, we know that modern, intensive agriculture is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity on the planet. 

However, we actually know very little about what specifically happens to plants, insects and animals in the ecosystem when a forest is felled and the soil is ploughed and planted.

Therefore, Gabor Lovei from the Department of Agroecology at Aarhus University and a number of Portuguese colleagues decided to investigate. On the island of Terceira in the Azores, there is still a part of the original forest. For this reason, the island made a good place to study how agriculture affects original nature. 

However, when Gabor Lovei saw his results, he was a little surprised.

"The changes in the ecosystem were less extensive than I’d imagined. True enough, there were fewer large and small animals in the fields, but on a number of other parameters, activity in the ecosystem had actually increased," he says.

The unique nature on the Azores
Until 1427, very few people had set foot on the Azores. Recent archaeological findings suggest that the Vikings perhaps visited the islands many hundred years before the Portuguese, but it was not until the 15th century that humans settled there permanently. 

For thousands of years, the Azores were left untouched and lush in the middle of the Atlantic. Deep-green trees and plants thrived because of the islands' combination of high heat, frequent precipitation and volcanic soil.

After Portuguese sailors accidentally discovered the forested mountains in the middle of the Atlantic in 1427, everything changed.

Smallholders, who were tired of the royal favours poured on manor houses in Portugal, packed their picks, shovels and hoes and sailed out to the Azores. They felled the forest and planted wheat and other crops. 

Unlike at home on the mainland, the farmers reaped huge yields at harvest. Rumours spread and farmers poured to the islands. Large parts of the forest quickly disappeared and were replaced by agricultural land. Only the parts of the forest in the most mountainous and inaccessible areas, where the soil was too difficult to cultivate, were spared. 

And it was precisely this original forest that Gabor Lovei could use in his research.

"In Denmark – and most other places in Europe – the forest is not original. It has been felled, replanted and changed by humans for thousands of years. In the Azores, on the other hand, there is completely original forest – and it’s gold for this type of research," he says.

Gabor’s clever trick
Normally, when entomologists or ornithologists study how agriculture affects different species, they jump into their hiking boots and go out into fields, meadows and forest fringes to record everything they find. They do so systematically, at different times of the day and repeatedly.

However, the method does not tell us as much about how the entire ecosystem reacts to changes. Only about the animal populations. 

So when Gabor Lovei set out to investigate how the entire ecosystem reacted to forest felling and field establishment, he had to use other methods.

First, he planted a number of full-grown lettuces in an original forest, on cultivated fields, and on grazing fields for cows. The plants were left for two weeks. After the two weeks, he recorded the area covered by the lettuce, and how much had been eaten. In this way, he could measure the extent of the plant-eating activity in the ecosystem.

He repeated the same process with larvae to determine the scope of the hunt for insects. The more larvae eaten, the more animals – e.g. birds, rodents and frogs – lived in the area. He also put out small boxes of seeds to see how many disappeared. He dug teabags ten centimetres into the soil to examine the activity of the microorganisms in the soil that break down organic matter.

And finally, he planted strawberries to learn more about the pollination in the different areas.

Together, all these small experiments formed a picture of how the ecosystem as a whole changes when forest is felled and fields are planted.

Fewer animals in the fields
Of all the parameters Gabor Lovei studied, the greatest difference was in the number of insects eaten. In the forest, significantly more larvae disappeared than in the cultivated field and grazing areas.

This suggests that there is more wildlife in the forest, he explains.

“Larvae are typically eaten by rodents, birds and lizards. Our findings suggest that there were significantly more of them in the forest, because more larvae disappeared between the trees,” he says.

The seeds also disappeared more quickly in the forest. 

"The humidity is higher in the forests, and this means that several different invertebrates can live there. Animals like snails and beetles, which eat seeds.”

With regard to pollination and the number of microorganisms in the soil, he did not find any difference. In fact, plant pollination was slightly higher on the maize fields than in the forest. However, this does not necessarily mean that there are many different species of bee. There are usually only a few plant types on cultivated fields. For this reason, the same few bee species are responsible for pollination. 

What can farmers do?
When local farmers fell forest, biodiversity is lost. Gabor Lovei has clearly demonstrated this in his experiments. But can his results also say something about what farmers can do to get some of the biodiversity back on their fields?

Yes, he explains. They can. The results provide a completely new understanding of which parts in the ecosystem will be affected.

"We clearly see that snails and beetles have a hard time on the fields. To get them back, farmers can leave small pockets of natural vegetation in the fields. For example, they can leave roots from dead trees to rot. This will attract many kinds of beetles,” he says.

Another problem with the fields is that we humans bring with us animals, plants and microbes that do not belong there naturally when we grow our crops. For example, rats invaded and displaced a large part of the indigenous fauna on the Azores.

"By making space for small pockets of non-cultivated nature in and around the fields, we know that the native species will survive more easily. They’re simply more resistant to invading species,” he explains.

Can the results be transferred to Denmark?
Nature in the Azores is very different from Denmark. Denmark is colder, the soil is different, and we have virtually no original nature left.

Nevertheless, the results from the Azores can be transferred to Danish conditions, according to Gabor Lovei. 

"Such comprehensive experiments have never been conducted on the European mainland, but some of the parameters have been studied in other European countries. The pattern was roughly the same. Therefore, we can assume that Danish nature reacts more or less in the same way to deforestation and cultivation," he says.

“However, agriculture is not all that threatens biodiversity. Cities and gardens also restrict where animals can live. That’s why it's important to do something in our own backyard,” he concludes.

Sowing flowers and trees that belong naturally in Denmark – and not exotic plants – can make a big difference. Plant Danish trees and Danish flowers and stop mowing the lawn. This will make a huge difference for many species. 

Part of the Azores is covered by ancient, native forest. This photo is from a protected area on the island of Terceira. The same island that Gabor Lovei did his experiments.

CREDIT

Samuel Monteiro Domingues (Creative Commons)

Gabor Lovei and his colleagues have plotted the locations of their experiments in on this map. The green dots show the locations. Furthermore the map shows which parts of the island are cultivated, which parts are grazed by farm animals and which parts are covered in ancient forest.

CREDIT

Basic and Applied Ecology

Large parts of the Azores are cultivated or are grazed by animals. This photo shows pastures on Terceira. These areas contains less biodiversity than they original forest.

CREDIT

Jules Verne Times TwoDOI

10.1016/j.baae.2022.11.010 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Gains and losses in ecosystem services and disservices after converting native forest to agricultural land on an oceanic island