Lifeboat Foundation

How much does sulfur emitted by marine life cool the atmosphere and help mitigate the effects of climate change? This is what a recent study published in Science Advances hopes to address as an international team of researchers conducted a first-time numerical analysis regarding the amount of sulfur is emitted by marine life and how much it cools the climate, with an emphasis on the Southern Ocean. This study holds the potential to help researchers, climate scientists, and the public better understand how the planet cools itself, thus enabling us to work together to protect it.

“This is the climatic element with the greatest cooling capacity, but also the least understood,” said Dr. Charel Wohl, who is a senior research associate at the University of East Anglia and lead author of the study. “We knew methanethiol was coming out of the ocean, but we had no idea about how much and where. We also did not know it had such an impact on climate. Climate models have greatly overestimated the solar radiation actually reaching the Southern Ocean, largely because they are not capable of correctly simulating clouds. The work done here partially closes the longstanding knowledge gap between models and observations.”

For the study, the researchers produced a database of ocean methanethiol concentrations with the goal of estimating their produced emissions and how this contributes to ocean-derived aerosols that are responsible for cooling the planet. In the end, the researchers discovered that methanethiol emissions increase the aerosol amount between 30 to 70 percent over the Southern Ocean while simultaneously decreasing atmospheric oxidants and increasing planetary cooling. The Southern Ocean is located around Antarctica and serves as a staging ground for the world’s oceans, influencing their circulation.

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and their colleagues have developed the first comprehensive map of the dramatic changes that take place in the blood system over the course of the human lifetime.

The study was published on December 5 in Nature Methods.

The team quantified the gene expression of more than 58,000 individual hematopoietic (blood) stem cells at seven stages, from early fetal development to old age. They documented consistent changes in the types of blood cells that are produced in response to the functional demands of each life stage.

Scientists have identified previously unreported genes which appear to play a key role in the muscle ageing process.

It is hoped that the findings from the Nottingham Trent University study could be used to help delay the impact of the ageing process.

Muscle ageing is a natural process which occurs in everyone, causing people to lose muscle mass, strength and endurance as they get older – and is linked to increasing falls and physical disabilities.

Migraine is often misunderstood, with many people facing stigma due to the invisible nature of the illness. Effective treatment is essential for managing migraine attacks, but education and support from the public and medical community are also crucial for validating the experiences of those affected.

A new laboratory study in mice suggests that primates like humans evolved large brains with a helping hand from microbes that live in the gut.

A recent study investigates the relationship between exercise and the expression of MYC in skeletal muscles over time, revealing that even minimal doses can promote muscle growth without physical activity.

Researchers have long known that there is a relationship between the cancer-associated gene MYC (pronounced “Mick”) and exercise adaptation. When human muscles are exercised, MYC is found to increase transiently in abundance over 24 hours. But as we age, the MYC response to exercise is blunted, perhaps explaining a reduced ability to recover from exercise and maintain or gain muscle.

Knowing the precise mechanisms by which MYC drives muscle growth could prove instrumental in creating therapies that reduce muscle loss from aging, potentially improving independence, mobility, and health.

Discover how SpaceX is achieving the impossible: producing one Raptor engine every 24 hours. From rapid iteration and innovative materials to the McGregor testing facility, learn what makes this engine the muscle behind the Starship program.

Clone Robotics unveils Clone Alpha, a humanoid with synthetic organs, Myofiber muscles, and lifelike movements, aiming to redefine robotics.

Requiring consistency between the physics of neutron stars and quark matter leads to the first astrophysical constraint on this exotic phase of matter.

Recent research uses neutron star measurements to place empirical limits on the strength of color superconducting pairing in quark matter, revealing new insights into the physics of the densest visible matter in the universe through astronomical observations.

Color Superconductivity