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Nature
‘It’s mindboggling!’: astronomers detect most powerful black-hole collision yet
Astronomers have detected the most powerful, most distant and most perplexing collision of black holes yet using gravitational waves. Of the two behemoths that fused when the Universe was half its current age, at least one — weighing 85 times as much as the Sun — has a mass that was thought to be too large to be involved in such an event. And the merger produced a black hole of nearly 150 solar masses, the researchers have estimated, putting it in a range where no black holes had ever been conclusively seen before.
“Everything about this discovery is mindboggling,” says Simon Portegies Zwart, a computational astrophysicist at Leiden University in the Netherlands. In particular, he says, it confirms the existence of ‘intermediate mass’ black holes: objects much more massive than a typical star, but not quite as big as the supermassive black holes that inhabit the centres of galaxies.
Ilya Mandel, a theoretical astrophysicist at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, calls the finding “wonderfully unexpected”.
How Mauritius is cleaning up after major oil spill in biodiversity hotspot
When the cargo ship MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef on the southeast tip of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean almost exactly a month ago, it unleashed a vast oil spill. The Japanese-owned vessel held 200 tonnes of diesel and 3,900 tonnes of fuel oil, an estimated 1,000 tonnes of which leaked into the sea when the ship’s hull cracked on 6 August. It is the first reported spill of a new type of low-sulfur fuel that has been introduced to reduce air pollution. The spill has left a 15-kilometre stretch of the coastline — an internationally recognized biodiversity hotspot — smeared with oil.
Jacqueline Sauzier, president of the non-profit Mauritius Marine Conservation Society in Phoenix, has been helping with volunteer efforts to contain the spill. She spoke to Nature about how the clean-up is progressing.
Gizmodo
Monumental DNA Study Reveals Secrets of North American Mastodons
A new paper published today offers surprising insight into the American mastodon and its reactions to a changing environment. This stocky megafauna—whose tusks, trunk, and four legs echo today’s elephant—is thought to have lived predominantly within forests and marshy environments throughout ancient North America before its extinction approximately 11,000 years ago.
With technology not available even a decade ago, scientists have studied genetic information preserved within 33 mastodon individuals. They found that, when the Earth warmed in between Ice Ages, creating a corridor of land between ice sheets, American mastodons (Mammut americanum) took advantage of the expanding trees and plants that were able to grow in those climates. They may have migrated south when temperatures dropped, changing the landscape and possible food sources all around them. Amidst this migration, some mastodon populations thrived; others became isolated. All of them were impacted by the effects of weather that sculpted the world around them. The new research is published today in the journal Nature Communications.
Large Study Finds Link Between Hair Dye And a Certain Type of Breast Cancer
A new large population study looks to clarify the theorized connection between hair dye and cancer. The study found no link between ever using hair dye and an increased risk of most types of cancer in women. However, it did find a possible relationship between hair dye and certain forms of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and the most common kind of skin cancer—links that “warrant further investigation.”
The study, published in the BMJ this week, looked at data from another research project, called the Nurses’ Health Study. That study has kept track of volunteers’ health and lifestyle habits since 1976, with questionnaires sent out and returned every two or four years. More than 120,000 women between the ages of 30 to 55 were initially enrolled.
Science
Warrior skeletons reveal Bronze Age Europeans couldn’t drink milk
About 3000 years ago, thousands of warriors fought on the banks of the Tollense river in northern Germany. They wielded weapons of wood, stone, and bronze to deadly effect: Over the past decade, archaeologists have unearthed the skeletal remains of hundreds of people buried in marshy soil. It’s one of the largest prehistoric conflicts ever discovered.
Now, genetic testing of the skeletons reveals the homelands of the warriors—and unearths a shocker about early European diets: These soldiers couldn’t digest fresh milk.
Searching for more insight into the battle, researchers sequenced the DNA of 14 of the skeletons. They discovered the warriors all hailed from central Europe—what is today Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, their genetic similarity offers little insight into why they fought
Parasitic worms found in medieval human remains hold secret for eradicating them today
Fingernail-size roundworms are a scourge in less economically developed countries, where they cause diarrhea, stunt children’s growth, and even kill. A new study suggests these parasites were just as common in medieval Europe as they are today, suggesting Europe’s later improvements to hygiene and sanitation proved enough to conquer them.
The new study is “extensive and well done,” says Roger Prichard, a parasitologist at McGill University who was not involved with the work. It confirms, he says, that Europe’s successful eradication efforts weren’t simply the result of naturally low parasite numbers.
Two of the most insidious roundworms—whipworms and human roundworms—infect the intestines and expel their eggs in feces, where they go on to contaminate soil, crops, and water supplies. More than 1.5 billion people are currently afflicted.
Phys.org
Deep underground forces explain quakes on San Andreas Fault
Rock-melting forces occurring much deeper in the Earth than previously understood appear to drive tremors along a notorious segment of California's San Andreas Fault, according to new USC research that helps explain how quakes happen.
The study from the emergent field of earthquake physics looks at temblor mechanics from the bottom up, rather than from the top down, with a focus on underground rocks, friction and fluids. On the segment of the San Andreas Fault near Parkfield, Calif., underground excitations—beyond the depths where quakes are typically monitored—lead to instability that ruptures in a quake.
Plant protein discovery could reduce need for fertilizer
Researchers have discovered how a protein in plant roots controls the uptake of minerals and water, a finding which could improve the tolerance of agricultural crops to climate change and reduce the need for chemical fertilizers.
The research, published in Current Biology, shows that members of the blue copper proteins family, the Uclacyanins are vital in the formation of Casparian strips. These strips are essential structures that control mineral nutrient and water use efficiencies by forming tight seals between cells in plants, blocking nutrients and water leaking between.
Mongabay
For Brazil’s most trafficked parrot, the poaching is relentless
It’s a natural phenomenon that you could set your calendar by: every August, the turquoise-fronted parrots (Amazona aestiva) of Brazil’s Cerrado biome start laying their eggs. The chicks hatch soon after, and by November have left the nest.
The cycle is so constant that every year, for decades, poachers have been stealing eggs and chicks from the nests to supply the illegal pet trade. There are no precise figures for the number of birds that get caught or die in this process, but it’s believed to be in the thousands each year.
“In the São Paulo metropolitan area alone, undoubtedly more than 12,000 hatchlings are brought every year to supply illegal sales,” says Marcelo Pavlenco Rocha, president of the NGO SOS Fauna. Rocha has been following the illegal trafficking of turquoise-fronted parrots in the Cerrado for 18 years.
CBC News
Your denim could be destroying some of the world's most precious water bodies, new study finds
A new study suggests that washing your jeans could be contributing to the pollution of Canada's waters.
Researchers at the University of Toronto say they detected microfibres linked to blue jeans in aquatic environments ranging from the shallow suburban lakes of southern Ontario, to the Great Lakes and all the way up to the Arctic Archipelago.
Their findings, published in Environmental Science and Technology Letters on Wednesday, suggest that between 12 to 23 per cent of microfibres in the sediments sampled could be identified as indigo denim.
The Guardian
The future is fungal: why the 'megascience' of mycology is on the rise
As a boy, Merlin Sheldrake really loved the autumn. In the garden of his parents’ house – he grew up a few moments from Hampstead Heath, which is where he and I are walking right now, on an overcast summer morning – the leaves would fall from a big chestnut tree, forming gentle drifts into which he liked nothing more than to hurl himself. Wriggling around until he was fully submerged, Sheldrake would lie there, quite content, “buried in the rustle, lost in curious smells”. As he writes in his wondrous new book, Entangled Life, these autumnal piles were both places to hide and worlds to explore.
But as the months passed, they shrank: reaching into them, trying to find out why, he would pull out matter that looked more like soil than leaves. What was going on? Turning to his father for an answer (he is the son of Rupert Sheldrake, the controversial science writer best known for proposing the concept of “morphic resonance”) was how he first came to learn about decomposition, and thus it is to these rotting leaves that we may trace his original interest in the “neglected megascience” of mycology – the study of fungi – even if neglect is a relative term. “In east Asia, fungi have been loved and revered for thousands of years,” he says. “In China, there are temples to the man who worked out how to cultivate shiitake mushrooms. But yes, in the west it has been neglected.”
Science Daily
Has Earth's oxygen rusted the Moon for billions of years?
To the surprise of many planetary scientists, the oxidized iron mineral hematite has been discovered at high latitudes on the Moon, according to a study published today in Science Advances led by Shuai Li, assistant researcher at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST).
Iron is highly reactive with oxygen -- forming reddish rust commonly seen on Earth. The lunar surface and interior, however, are virtually devoid of oxygen, so pristine metallic iron is prevalent on the Moon and highly oxidized iron has not been confirmed in samples returned from the Apollo missions. In addition, hydrogen in solar wind blasts the lunar surface, which acts in opposition to oxidation. So, the presence of highly oxidized iron-bearing minerals, such as hematite, on the Moon is an unexpected discovery.
"Our hypothesis is that lunar hematite is formed through oxidation of lunar surface iron by the oxygen from the Earth's upper atmosphere that has been continuously blown to the lunar surface by solar wind when the Moon is in Earth's magnetotail during the past several billion years," said Li.
In butterfly battle of sexes, males deploy 'chastity belts' but females fight back
Some male butterflies go to extreme lengths to ensure their paternity -- sealing their mate's genitalia with a waxy "chastity belt" to prevent future liaisons. But female butterflies can fight back by evolving larger or more complex organs that are tougher to plug. Males, in turn, counterattack by fastening on even more fantastic structures with winglike projections, slippery scales or pointy hooks.
It's a battle that pits male and female reproductive interests against one another, with the losing sex evolving adaptations to thwart the winner's strategies.
Could this sexual one-upmanship ultimately result in new species? It's a longstanding hypothesis and one that would help explain how butterflies became so diverse. But it has proven difficult to test.
Live Science
For koalas with chlamydia, relief is finally in sight
A serious bacterial infection called chlamydia is one of the leading causes of death for Australia's koalas. But new research has identified an antibiotic that can manage the infection with few side effects, offering a ray of hope for these adorable, endangered marsupials.
Chlamydia, a sexually transmitted disease (STD), affects humans as well as koalas; the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis targets humans, while koalas are sickened by Chlamydia pecorum. Left untreated, chlamydia can cause infertility and permanent blindness in both species. Antibiotics that treat chlamydia in humans also work for koalas, but their success rate varies. And some types of antibiotics produce side effects that can be harmful to the iconic animals, such as disrupting the gut microbes that enable digestion of eucalyptus leaves, a dietary staple for koalas.
Recently, researchers conducted the first comparative analysis of the two antibiotics that are most commonly given to koalas with chlamydia: chloramphenicol and doxycycline. They found that not only was doxycycline a more reliable treatment for defeating infection, it also produced fewer side effects in the koalas, according to a statement.
BBC News
Secrets of male elephant society revealed in the wild
Older male elephants have an important role to play in the survival of the species by passing on their skills and knowledge to younger males, a study of African elephants suggests.
Matriarchs lead groups of daughters and their calves, while males grow up and leave the herd. Mature bull elephants play an important role in leading these younger males, researchers have found. And their loss by poaching or hunting could have "disastrous impacts".
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests older bulls are likely to occupy a similar role in male society as matriarchs in female breeding herds.
Zombie fires spark record Arctic CO2 emissions
This summer’s carbon emissions from Arctic wildfires were a third higher than last year’s previous record levels, research suggests.
The atmospheric monitoring service Copernicus says the fires which blazed during summer’s heatwaves are a cause for concern.
They say some so-called zombie fires are smouldering through the winter in peat below the frozen surface. These underground fires then re-ignite surface vegetation in the Spring.
Washington Post
A common North American mouse can catch and spread the coronavirus in labs, studies show
Deer mice, the most abundant mammal native to North America, can catch the coronavirus and pass it to other mice in laboratory settings, raising a remote possibility that they could become a reservoir for the pathogen in nature and transmit it to humans, according to two new studies not yet peer-reviewed.
The findings also mean that deer mice may be useful to study coronavirus vaccines, antiviral therapies and infections in the laboratory.
Experts played down the probability that deer mice are harboring the infection in nature, although Tony Schountz, an expert in bat-borne viruses at Colorado State University and a study author, said it is conceivable that a person could give the novel coronavirus to a wild mouse and begin the chain of transmission.
Ars Technica
Evidence slowly building for long-term heart problems post-COVID-19
Coronaviruses spread primarily through material released when we breathe, and they cause respiratory symptoms. And SARS-CoV-2, with part of its name coming from "severe acute respiratory syndrome," didn't appear to be an exception. But as time went on, additional symptoms became clear—loss of smell, digestive-tract issues—and these weren't likely to be due to infection of the respiratory tract. And over time, what also became apparent is that the symptoms didn't necessarily fade when the virus was cleared.
As we've studied the virus more, we've learned that the protein it uses to latch on to cells is present in a lot of different tissues in the body, suggesting that a wide variety of different effects could be the direct product of infections of the cells there. This week, the effect that seems to be grabbing attention is heart problems, spurred by a Scientific American article that (among other things) considers the stories of professional and college athletes who have been infected. That was followed by a report that roughly 30 percent of college athletes who've contracted the virus end up with inflammation of the heart muscle, called myocarditis—a number that ESPN is now saying is an accidental exaggeration.