The heat bearing down on central Alaska “could feel like 110″ in a state where the sun shines 20 hours a day.
Category: climatology – Page 13
Using orbital cycles to understand early life
Chengdu University of Technology-led research has established a high-resolution astrochronological framework spanning approximately 57.6 million years of the early Ediacaran Period. This calibrated timeline provides precise constraints on major climatic events and the appearance of early complex life, offering critical context for understanding environmental change and biological innovation during Earth’s early history.
Understanding early life on Earth has been frequently stalled by an imprecise geological clock. Scientists have relied on broad stratigraphic patterns to trace the early Ediacaran Period (635 to 538.8 million years ago), a time marked by massive climate upheavals and the first signs of complex life.
Without consistent radiometric dating, researchers have struggled to align environmental disruptions such as shifts in carbon chemistry or marine oxygen levels with biological change. It’s a bit like having a few puzzle pieces and a stack of puzzles they might have come from. Fragmented timelines have left unanswered questions about what may have triggered evolutionary steps and when they occurred.
Beyond photorespiration: A systematic approach to unlocking enhanced plant productivity
A study published in Science Advances has revealed promising strategies to significantly improve crop yields by addressing photorespiration, a metabolic process that can reduce productivity by up to 36% in some crops. Researchers from the University of Groningen and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, working as part of the GAIN4CROPS project, have evaluated several alternative pathways that could help overcome this major agricultural bottleneck.
Photorespiration occurs when the enzyme RuBisCO, essential for photosynthesis, reacts with oxygen instead of carbon dioxide, resulting in substantial losses of fixed carbon and energy. This inefficiency costs the global agricultural sector billions in lost crop productivity annually.
“Our work shows that overcoming photorespiration through engineered pathways can provide a dual benefit: increasing carbon fixation while reducing energy losses,” said Prof. Heinemann from the University of Groningen. “This has significant implications for the development of crops that are not only more productive but also better adapted to the changing climate and growing global food demands.”
Hunga volcano eruption’s unexpected Southern Hemisphere cooling effect challenges geoengineering assumptions
When Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai, an underwater volcano near Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean, erupted in 2022, scientists expected that it would spew enough water vapor into the stratosphere to push global temperatures past the 1.5 C threshold set by the Paris Accords. A new UCLA-led study shows that not only did the eruption not warm the planet, but it actually reduced temperatures over the Southern Hemisphere by 0.1 C.
The reason: The eruption formed smaller sulfate aerosols that had an efficient cooling effect that unexpectedly outweighed the warming effect of the water vapor. Meanwhile, the water vapor interacted with sulfur dioxide and other atmospheric components, including ozone, in ways that did not amplify warming.
While that’s good news, the study also suggests that efforts to reverse climate change by loading the atmosphere with substances that react with solar radiation to send heat back out into space, an effort known as geoengineering, are potentially even riskier than previously thought and must take new complications into account.
Why the moon shimmers with shiny glass beads
The Apollo astronauts didn’t know what they’d find when they explored the surface of the moon, but they certainly didn’t expect to see drifts of tiny, bright orange glass beads glistening among the otherwise monochrome piles of rocks and dust.
The beads, each less than 1 mm across, formed some 3.3 to 3.6 billion years ago during volcanic eruptions on the surface of the then-young satellite. “They’re some of the most amazing extraterrestrial samples we have,” said Ryan Ogliore, an associate professor of physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, home to a large repository of lunar samples that were returned to Earth. “The beads are tiny, pristine capsules of the lunar interior.”
Using a variety of microscopic analysis techniques not available when the Apollo astronauts first returned samples from the moon, Ogliore and a team of researchers have been able to take a close look at the microscopic mineral deposits on the outside of lunar beads. The unprecedented view of the ancient lunar artifacts was published in Icarus. The investigation was led by Thomas Williams, Stephen Parman and Alberto Saal from Brown University.
The ‘Gates of Hell’ Are Closing. That’s a Pretty Big Problem
On planet Earth, fire is usually a transient phenomenon—even the strongest of wildfires will eventually succumb to human and/or meteorological intervention. But the same can’t be said for the Darvaza gas crater in Turkmenistan, known colloquially as the “Gates of Hell.” This natural gas field has been burning continuously for decades thanks to its steady supply of seeping methane, and in that time, this devilish pit has become one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions despite its location in the middle of the Karakum desert, roughly 160 miles north of the capital city of Ashgabat.
Turkmenistan’s authoritarian leader, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has previously stated that he wants to snuff out the Gates of Hell once and for all (though the latest pronouncement came years after he reportedly went off-roading around the crater). Now, a new report suggests those efforts may be bearing fruit. Last Thursday, officials in Turkmenistan said that gas being emitted from the pit has diminished three-fold, though the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that no timeframe for this gaseous decrease was provided. This news is in line with previous reports last year that satellite observations of the Gates of Hell showed a 50 percent decline in emissions.
Rings of time: Unearthing climate secrets from ancient trees
Deep in the swamps of the American Southeast stands a quiet giant: the bald cypress (Taxodium distichum). These majestic trees, with their knobby “knees” and towering trunks, are more than just swamp dwellers—they’re some of the oldest living organisms in Eastern North America. Some have been around for more than 2,500 years, quietly thriving in nutrient-poor, flooded forests where most other trees would wither.
But life isn’t easy for these ancient trees. They’re under siege from a variety of threats: rising seas, insect infestations, wildfires and increasingly erratic weather patterns. Unlike most animals, trees generally don’t die of old age—they succumb to the stresses around them.
A study by Florida Atlantic University, in collaboration with Lynn University, the University of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and the Georgia Museum of Natural History, reveals how dramatic shifts in climate can have long-lasting effects on even the toughest, most iconic trees—and offers a glimpse into the powerful forces that shape our natural world.
Physicists set new world record for qubit operation accuracy
Physicists at the University of Oxford have set a new global benchmark for the accuracy of controlling a single quantum bit, achieving the lowest-ever error rate for a quantum logic operation—just 0.000015%, or one error in 6.7 million operations. This record-breaking result represents nearly an order of magnitude improvement over the previous benchmark, set by the same research group a decade ago.
To put the result in perspective: a person is more likely to be struck by lightning in a given year (1 in 1.2 million) than for one of Oxford’s quantum logic gates to make a mistake.
The findings, to be published in Physical Review Letters, are a major advance towards having robust and useful quantum computers.