Ocean Acidification Causes, Effects, & Examples: Top 10 List

Ocean acidification is the process by which oceanic waters progressively become more and more acidic...

Ocean Acidification Effects, Causes, & Examples List Part 2

(This is Part 2 of the Ocean Acidification Causes, Effects, & Examples: Top 10 List, which had ...

Ancient Seafaring — Neanderthals Sailing The Mediterranean 100,000 Years Ago; Prehistoric Travel & Cross-Continent Exchange; & The Reality Of Archaeological Evidence As Compared To Pop Culture Assumptions

The subject of prehistoric seafaring, and the technology of ocean-worthy ships, is a highly conteste...

 

Sea Level Rise Is Faster Than Predicted, Previous Estimates Of Rate Of Future Sea Level Rise Were Likely Too Low According To New Research

November 5, 2012 in Geology & Climate

Sea levels worldwide have been rising at a much faster rate than has been predicted by climate change models. The reasons for this are clear according to University of Colorado geologist Bill Hay; there are many large feedback loops that are just beginning to kick in, that will contribute significantly to future sea level rise.

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The most recent official report from the IPCC was released back in 2007, and only predicted a global sea level rise of 0.2 to 0.5 meters by 2100. But current sea-level rise measurements are already meeting or exceeding the high end of that range, and have been suggesting a rise of at least one meter by 2100, possibly much more.

“What’s missing from the models used to forecast sea-level rise are critical feedbacks that speed everything up,” says Hay.

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Synthetic Magnetism Created That Can Control Light, Breaks A Key Law Of Physics And Opens Up New Horizons

November 2, 2012 in Physics

A form of synthetic magnetism has been created that is able to exert influence on photons in a way that is similar to the effect that magnets have on electrons. This new technology will likely result in entirely new forms of “machines” that use and rely on light rather than electricity.

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Since photons don’t possess an electrical charge, they are unaffected by magnetism. With no electrical charge, not even the most intense magnetic fields can influence them. But the new technology will allow the manipulation of them just the same, through use of a ‘synthetic magnetism’.

This process actually breaks a key law of physics, known as the time-reversal symmetry of light. And could potentially create “an entirely new class of devices that use light instead of electricity for applications ranging from accelerators and microscopes to speedier on-chip communications.”

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Biological Cells Found In Dinosaur Bone Confirmed To Be 67-Million-Year-Old Collagen, Possibly Contain DNA

October 25, 2012 in Animals & Insects, Fossils

In 2005, what appeared to be preserved soft tissue was found inside of a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex bone. This soft material was confirmed by later research to be collagen. And now new research has provided further strong evidence that these are in fact dinosaur proteins, and not the result of microbial contamination.

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The primary evidence is the soft tissue’s reactivity to antibodies that only target specific proteins found in the bone cells of vertebrates. This rules out microbial contamination. And strongly suggests that there are actual T-Rex cells preserved in the soft tissue, and possibly DNA.

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Bowhead Whale Mysteries Uncovered By Genetic Study Using Modern And Ancient DNA

October 22, 2012 in Animals & Insects

The first genetic analysis of bowhead whales, throughout their entire range, has just been completed. The study was done by using hundreds of unique samples taken from a wide variety of different modern populations and many archaeological hunting sites dating back thousands of years.

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The ancient DNA samples used by the researchers have been gathered over the past 20 years, primarily from: “old vessels, toys, and housing material made from baleen — preserved in pre-European settlements in the Canadian Arctic.” The new research has shed some light on the effects that whaling has had on genetic diversity, documenting the loss of several unique mitochondrial lineages in the recent past. The researchers comment that some of this loss may have been caused by the effects of increased sea ice during the ‘little ice age’.

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5-Million-Year-Long ‘Dead Zone’ Caused By Extreme Heat Followed Largest Extinction Event Ever 250 Million Years Ago

October 19, 2012 in Geology & Climate

The end-Permian mass extinction event 250 million years ago left a ‘broken world’ where new species weren’t seen for the next five million years. Why this ‘dead zone’ lasted so much longer than other similar periods after mass extinctions had been somewhat unclear. But now new research is strongly suggesting that it was simply too hot for nearly anything to survive.

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Mass extinctions are nearly always followed by a period of tens of thousands of years when no new species emerge, a ‘dead zone’. The dead zone following the Early Triassic period is such an extreme outlier, at five million years long, that researchers have long suspected that there must be some unknown influence at work.

The new research clarifies: “the cause of this lengthy devastation was a temperature rise to lethal levels in the tropics: around 50-60°C on land, and 40°C at the sea-surface.”

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