For Science on Wed.

Some sloths among animals unable to adapt to rapid climate change

A new study warns that sloths living in high-altitude rainforests of South and Central America could face extinction if temperatures there continue to rise according to climatic predictions.

The research, published in PeerJ Life & Environment, suggests that some sloths’ restricted ability to migrate to cooler regions and limited metabolic flexibility make them particularly vulnerable to climate change.

“Sloths are inherently limited by their slow metabolism and unique inability to regulate body temperature effectively, unlike most mammals,” says Dr Rebecca Cliffe, lead researcher of the study from Swansea University and The Sloth Conservation Foundation in the UK.

“Our research shows that sloths, particularly in high-altitude regions, may not be able to survive the significant increases in temperature forecast for 2100.” (snip-MORE)

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Structure of important male contraceptive target finally solved

A team at Monash University in Victoria developing a hormone-free, reversible male contraceptive has now figured out the 3D structure of one of their primary therapeutic targets – the P2X1-purinergic receptor (P2X1).

According to Dr Sab Ventura from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS), this has been the main stumbling block that has so far hindered the team from progressing the drug discovery program to the next stage.

“Our primary goal is to develop a male contraceptive pill that is not only hormone-free but also bypasses side effects such as long-term irreversible impacts on fertility, making it suitable for young men seeking contraceptive options,” says Ventura.

In previous research in mice, the team showed that simultaneous inactivation of P2X1 and a second protein, α1A-adrenergic receptor, resulted in male infertility.

“Now we know what our therapeutic target looks like, we can generate drugs that can bind to it appropriately, which totally changes the game,” says Ventura. (snip-MORE)

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River piracy pushing Mount Everest upwards

Mount Everest is tall. In other news, the sky is blue.

But Everest (also called Chomolungma and Sagarmāthā) is taller than it logically should be – towering 238m above the world’s next highest peak, K2, and more than 250m higher than any of its counterparts in the relatively uniform Himalaya range.

Plus, it’s growing at about 2mm a year, faster than the expected rate for the range.

A team of Chinese and UK scientists have now suggested why this is the case.

The researchers think the culprit is a nearby river which “captured” another river 89,000 years ago, causing erosion that made Everest more buoyant.

They’ve published their findings in Nature Geoscience.

The Himalayan peaks get their extraordinary height from the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, causing the Earth’s crust to thicken and the mountain range to push upwards.

“An interesting river system exists in the Everest region,” says co-author Dr Jin-Gen Dai, from China University of Geosciences.

The team used numerical modelling to see how the river changed over time. They found that, about 89,000 years ago, the Arun river “captured” another nearby river.

This event, referred to as “river piracy”, happens when a river diverts its course and takes up the discharge of another river or stream.

“Our research shows that as the nearby river system cuts deeper, the loss of material is causing the mountain to spring further upwards,” says co-author Adam Smith, a PhD student at University College London, UK.

The team estimates that the river piracy has made Everest between 15 and 50m higher than it would otherwise be.

It’s also made neighbouring peaks, Lhotse and Makalu, unusually tall. These are the 4th and 5th highest mountains in the world, respectively. (snip-MORE)

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Science fiction health technology a step closer

It’s not the famous Star Trek tricorder but it’s close: researchers have developed a hand-held scanner that can generate highly detailed 3D images of body parts in almost real time.

The technology can accurately image blood vessels up to 15mm deep in human tissue, which the researchers say could help to diagnose conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis.

“We’ve come a long way with photoacoustic imaging in recent years, but there were still barriers to using it in the clinic,” says Paul Beard of University College London (UCL), UK, corresponding author of the new Nature Biomedical Engineering paper.

“The breakthrough in this study is the acceleration in the time it takes to acquire images, which is between 100 and 1,000 times faster than previous scanners.

“This speed avoids motion-induced blurring, providing highly detailed images of a quality that no other scanner can provide. It also means that rather than taking 5 minutes or longer, images can be acquired in real time, making it possible to visualise dynamic physiological events.

“These technical advances make the system suitable for clinical use for the first time, allowing us to look at aspects of human biology and disease that we haven’t been able to before.” (snip-MORE)

Busy Reading All These Articles

so reblogging Ten Bears’s page here-this one’s a doozy!

Page Tue: Titillating Tacos … !

Two, about maga and Putin:

Hate groups converge on Springfield after false claims about Haitian immigrants

Flyers on the City Hall Plaza in Springfield warn about hate groups. JESSICA OROZCO/STAFF

Credit: Jessica Orozco Local News By Sydney Dawes

Neo-Nazis, the KKK and other hate groups are now routinely visiting Springfield, marching through city streets or distributing recruitment flyers and raising fears of intimidation and violence.

Over the weekend, the Blood Tribe — a violent Neo-Nazi hate group, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) — stood outside Springfield Mayor Rob Rue’s home waiving swastika flags. In a previous march through the city, some carried guns.

Also this weekend, an unidentified group stood outside Springfield city hall with a banner that said “Haitians Have No Home Here” in English and Haitian Creole.

These groups are responding to the growth of Springfield’s Haitian community, an issue that made the national spotlight following unsubstantiated rumors circulated on social media and parroted by politicians that Haitian immigrants were eating Springfield residents’ pets.

Since then, Springfield NAACP president Denise Williams says residents have also reported to her agency flyers being distributed in local neighborhoods from a group associated with the Ku Klux Klan.

“They’re trying to intimidate us. But we’re not a city that’s easily intimidated,” Williams said. “We need to stand together.”

The group, the Trinity White Knights, has a P.O. Box based in Kentucky. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported in September that similar flyers from the same group were distributed in Covington, Ky.

Springfield Police Chief Allison Elliott said the department is aware of the flyers.

Some residents have reported harassment from a group of people purporting to be members of the Proud Boys, which the SPLC designates as a hate group that believes in “Western chauvinism” and “an anti-white guilt agenda.”

Clark County Democratic Party chairman Austin Smith said a volunteer canvassing near the political party’s Springfield headquarters earlier this month was returning to the office to drop off campaign materials when a truck with large flags that appeared to say “Proud Boys” pulled up.

A group of men in the truck, the volunteer told Smith, made “vaguely threatening” statements.

“We’ve had threats and things pour into the office. No bomb threats, but ‘You better watch out.’ ‘We’re watching you.’ So that definitely created a lot of fear,” Smith said.

The party increased security measures for its recent meeting as a safety precaution, Smith said.

Members of the religious group Israel United in Christ (IUIC) were also in Springfield in September, gathering in multiple public places around the city.

The members, clad in purple shirts with the group’s name and logo, were seen marching and passing out literature to passersby.

At one point, group members gathered in the parking lot of Groceryland on South Limestone Street, near the corner of East John St. Members were preaching into a microphone about the organization’s teachings. Members also met with NAACP leaders from Dayton and Springfield.

According to its website, the IUIC is a Bible-based organization that believes people within the Black, Hispanic, and Native American communities represent “the true and historical descendants of the Biblical Israelites.”

SPLC categorizes IUIC as one of the handful of “Radical Hebrew Israelites” groups in the U.S. The SPLC designates these groups as hate groups. IUIC denies that it is a hate group, according to a post on the IUIC Classrooms Facebook page. The newspaper reached out to IUIC but did not hear back.

Williams said the Springfield NAACP chapter has plans to host a virtual community meeting to talk about recent activity in the city.

12 people carrying swastika flags and rifles while wearing ski masks walked around downtown Springfield during the Jazz & Blues Fest on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. Contributed

Springfield’s police chief asked residents to remain vigilant and “say something if you see something suspicious or out of the norm.”

“We know our city has looked a little different lately, and you also may notice an increased public safety presence. We assure you that our top priority has always been and will continue to be safety,” Elliott said. “Safety is a shared responsibility and our officers, along with our public safety partners, take all tips and information seriously.”

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‘Everything is dead’: Ukraine rushes to stem ecocide after river poisoning

Russia is suspected of deliberately leaking chemical waste into a river, with deadly consequences for wildlife

By Luke Harding and Artem Mazhulin in Slabyn, Ukraine. Photographs by Alessio Mamo

Serhiy Kraskov picked up a twig and poked at a small fish floating in the Desna River. “It’s a roach. It died recently. You can tell because its eyes are clear and not blurry,” he said. Hundreds of other fish had washed up nearby on the river’s green willow-fringed banks. A large pike lay in the mud. Nearby, in a patch of yellow lilies, was a motionless carp. “Everything is dead, starting from the tiniest minnow to the biggest catfish,” Kraskov added mournfully.

Kraskov is the mayor of the village of Slabyn, in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region. The rustic settlement – population 520 – escaped the worst of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. But the war arrived last week in a new and horrible form. Ukrainian officials say the Russians deliberately poisoned the Seym River, which flows into the Desna. The Desna connects with a reservoir in the Kyiv region and a water supply used by millions.

A man stands near the banks of a poisoned river. — Serhiy Kraskov, the mayor of the village of Slabyn, near the banks of the Desna River in northern Ukraine. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

A toxic slick was detected on 17 August coming from the Russian border village of Tyotkino. According to Kyiv, chemical waste from a sugar factory had been dumped in vast quantities into the Seym. It included ammonia, magnesium and other poisonous nitrates. At the time, fierce fighting was going on in the surrounding area. Ukraine’s armed forces had launched a surprise incursion into Russia and had seized territory in Kursk oblast.

The pollution crossed the international border just over a mile away and made its way into Ukraine’s Sumy region. The Seym’s natural ecosystem crashed. Fish, molluscs and crayfish were asphyxiated as oxygen levels fell to near zero. Settlements along the river reported mass die-offs. Kraskov got a call from the authorities warning him a disaster was coming his way. He spotted the first dead fish on 11 September. “There were a few of them in the middle of the river,” he said.

He returned the following weekend to find the Desna’s banks clogged with rotting fish, stretching out from the shore for three metres into the water. Volunteers wearing rubber boots, masks and protective gloves shovelled the fish into sacks. They found a metre-long catfish. “The stench was terrible. You could scarcely breathe. The river was quiet. Nothing moved apart from a few frogs,” Kraskov said. A tractor took the sacks to an abattoir that used to belong to the village’s Soviet-era collective farm. They were buried in a pit.

Serhiy Zhuk, the head of Chernihiv’s ecology inspectorate, described what had happened as an act of Russian ecocide. “The Desna was one of our cleanest rivers. It’s a very big catastrophe,” he said. Zhuk traced the slick’s route on a map pinned to his office wall: a looping multi-week journey along the Seym and Desna. “More than 650km is polluted. Not a single organism survived. This is unprecedented. It’s Europe’s first completely dead river,” he said. (snip-MORE)

Peace & Justice History for 9/27:

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september27

American Bird Conservancy-Bachman’s Sparrow

This is such a great resource, if you’re at all interested in birds. You can hear songs or calls, get habitat info, and so much more.

Bachman's Sparrow

Hey, Any Good Environmental News Lately? There IS?

Thanks Joe Biden.

DOKTOR ZOOM SEP 14, 2024

The presidential election has turned into a contest between a capable, smart woman who emphasizes what Americans can achieve when they work together for the common good, and a sundowning old racist creep who would be pathetic if he weren’t so dangerously close to returning to power.

In case you’re wondering what the difference looks like, compare the hate and division the old racist creep is spreading with some recent announcements from President Joe Biden’s administration, nearly all of them about programs funded by one or another of Biden’s big legislative packages. Just a little reminder of why elections matter, and of the legacy that Kamala Harris is committed to building on. For, y’know, the people.

Lots of news-go read! 🌞

https://open.substack.com/pub/wonkette/p/hey-any-good-environmental-news-lately?r=1pk2l&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

ABC’s Bird Library ›

Rhinoceros Auklet

“Unicorn Puffin”

Rhinoceros Auklet

Talking climate doesn’t ruin Great Barrier Reef tourism

September 5, 2024 Ellen Phiddian

(Well, go figure!)

Coral underwater — Bleached coral. Credit: Yolanda Waters

Telling tourists on the Great Barrier Reef about climate change doesn’t negatively affect their trip, according to a new study.

Instead, finds the research, it could be a good avenue to promote climate action for people who wouldn’t otherwise be engaged.

The study, done by a team of Queensland researchers, is published in People and Nature.

“Tourism operators are getting more engaged in learning how they can spread more awareness, given the state of the Reef and how urgent it’s getting,” says lead author Dr Yolanda Waters, an environmental social scientist at the University of Queensland.

“But they still have these concerns – what if it ruins people’s day? People pay a lot of money to go to the Reef.”

The team tested this concern by surveying 656 visitors on a variety of Reef tours that either did or didn’t mention climate change.

Waters tells Cosmos that her background working in Great Barrier Reef tourism provided the stimulus for the research.

“I used to work on the boats out of Cairns, and I went through these experiences of tourists asking questions and not really feeling equipped to answer them,” she says.

“There is this real feeling: how do we talk about this in a way that doesn’t negatively affect the industry?”

Person with snorkel next to large fish — Dr Yolanda Waters (right) on the Great Barrier Reef. Credit: Yolanda Waters

The researchers joined forces with 5 Reef tour operators in north Queensland to set up the experiment.

“We tried to get a range of different operators out of Cairns and Townsville, because we were also testing if it depends on the type of experience, the type of boat, if it’s 300 people or a smaller trip,” says Waters.

The researchers and tour staff developed control and experimental climate trips for each tour.

“It really depended on the boat and the type of trip,” says Waters.

“The operators let us work with their staff and design one trip that had no information about climate change specifically – they still had their regular information about marine life and regular day-to-day operations.

“And on other trips, they let us work with the staff to make sure climate change was very clearly incorporated throughout the day.”

This might include marine biologists’ presentations addressing climate change, videos, and posters.

“On the trip back, I went around and surveyed as many tourists as I could,” says Waters.

Visitors were asked to complete a 5-minute paper survey asking about their experience of the trip, and their engagement with climate change.

The researchers found that trips mentioning climate didn’t have a significant effect on visitors’ experiences.

“There was no overall effect on satisfaction,” says Waters.

People on both trips were interested in learning more about climate change.

“A lot of them wanted to have a chat about it, especially on days where there was no climate information on the boat – people noticed,” says Waters.

But people on trips with climate information weren’t any more likely to be spurred to action on climate change.

“We found that the climate information did increase people’s awareness about the threat, that information did get across to people, but we found that didn’t really translate to people’s willingness to do something when they went home,” says Waters.

This means that the information about climate change could be tweaked to be more solutions-focussed, according to the researchers.

“Our conclusion out of this, which aligns with some of the other research we’ve been doing, is that if tourism is to be this beacon of engaging people with climate change, it can’t just be talking about threats – people really want to know about solutions,” says Waters.

“Most people have no idea how they can help stop the ocean boiling. So that was the opportunity we identified.”

The research comes shortly after the release of the 2024 Great Barrier Reef Outlook report by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, which is compiled every 5 years.

The report found that, while parts of the Reef had declined and parts had improved, the overall state of the Reef remained “poor” and climate change was rapidly closing the window to preserve its health.

The researchers say in their paper that the tourism industry has an opportunity to promote action on climate change, provided it uses the right strategies.

“Two million people visit the Reef every year,” points out Waters. She adds that tourists often place a high amount of trust in the information given to them by guides.

“This is the right place and time to do it, but if tourism wants to really embrace the role, they need to start tailoring those talks and those education materials around solutions and actions that people can take home with them.”

Waters says the tourism operators the team worked with were “very receptive” to the study.

“I think tourism really does want to be on board,” she says.

“Tourism has to change, no matter what happens. And I think they’re starting to really recognise that.”

Shot of boat above water and coral underwater — Credit: Yolanda Waters

https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/climate/climate-great-barrier-reef-tourism/

3 for Science on Labor Day

so I guess you may read them tomorrow, if you like. 😎

First, a tiny, acrobatic bug:

Biologists have studied an extreme gymnast of the animal kingdom, watching as it moves so quickly it appears to all but vanish.

The globular springtail (Dicyrtomina minuta) is a small but mighty bug that can backflip more than 60 times higher and 100 times longer than its own body length.

This tiny bug grows to only a couple of millimetres and can’t sting, bite, or fly its way out of danger. Instead, its preferred method of avoiding predators is to flip out so forcefully it seems to disappear! (snip-More on the page, with photos)

Next, a possible source of new antibiotics (and this brought Ten Bears to my mind, for some reason):

A study has found promising antibiotic candidates inside bacteria harvested from the deep Arctic Sea.

The research, by Finnish and Norwegian researchers, is published in Frontiers in Microbiology.

Antibiotic discovery has slowed in recent decades, which has exacerbated the risks of antibiotic resistance.

Most licensed antibiotics – about 70% – have been derived from a type of soil-dwelling bacteria called actinobacteria.

“For example, members of the Streptomyces genus produce several secondary metabolites, including clinically useful antibiotics such as tetracyclines, aminoglycocides and macrolides,” says corresponding author Dr Päivi Tammela, a professor at the University of Helsinki, Finland.

But soil isn’t the only place these bacteria can be found.

“Marine actinobacteria found in the sea, on the seafloor, or within the microbiome of marine organisms, have received far less attention as possible sources of antibiotics,” says Tammela. (snip-More on the page)

Then, an analysis for coal phase-out in Asia:

Countries in the Asia-Pacific region account for 76% of the world’s thermal coal power generation, and many of these plants will need to retire early to meet global emissions targets.

But according to a new analysis, it’s possible to phase these coal plants out and transition to renewable energy while investors still make money.

The study, done by Australian, Singaporean and Chinese researchers, is published in Energy Policy.

“There is a drive and interest from a number of different investors like the Asian Development Bank, but also private sector investors, to finance the early retirement coal fired power plants,” lead author Professor Christoph Nedopil Wang, director of Griffith University’s Asia Institute, tells Cosmos.

Nedopil and colleagues looked specifically at 6 Chinese-sponsored coal-fired power plants in Vietnam and Pakistan.

“With investors wanting to invest in, and ideally also providing lower cost financing for, green projects, refinancing of these coal fired power plants becomes possible at a lower cost,” says Nedopil.

The researchers modelled the future performance of these stations under a variety of financing and geoeconomic scenarios.

“That brought us to the conclusion that, depending on the age of the coal-fired power plant, we can retire these plants earlier than currently envisaged, while reducing the financing cost and therefore increasing enterprise value,” says Nedopil. (snip-More on the page)

ABC’s Bird Library ›

Dovekie, “Little Auk”

Dovekie

Scientific Name: Alle alle
Population: Approximately 24 to 50 million
Trend: Unknown, may be decreasing
Habitat: Breeds on rocky coastlines and islands; spends the rest the year at sea, often at the edges of pack ice.