Science News related to Habitat Loss Due to Food Production, Threshold for Warming Between 2027 – 2042, Volatile Space Weather, Mapping Mars, Transmission Through Barrier Using Sound, Shrinking Lakes Due to Climate Crisis
Note: I do not write/own any of the science news bits (and cover picture) given here. The links on each of the news bits will redirect to the news source. The content given under each headline is a basic gist and not the full story.
1. Current Food Production Systems Could Mean Far-Reaching Habitat Loss
Source: University of Leeds
21 Dec 2020
The global food system could drive rapid and widespread biodiversity loss if not changed, new research has found. The findings show that the world’s food system will need to be transformed to prevent habitat loss across the globe. The international research team found that what we eat and how it is produced will need to change rapidly and dramatically to prevent widespread and severe biodiversity losses.
2. Climate Change: Threshold for Dangerous Warming Will Likely Be Crossed Between 2027-2042
Source: McGill University
21 Dec 2020
The threshold for dangerous global warming will likely be crossed between 2027 and 2042 – a much narrower window than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s estimate of between now and 2052. In a study, researchers introduce a new and more precise way to project the Earth’s temperature. Based on historical data, it considerably reduces uncertainties compared to previous approaches.
3. The Upside of Volatile Space Weather
Source: Northwestern University
21 Dec 2020
Although violent and unpredictable, stellar flares emitted by a planet’s host star do not necessarily prevent life from forming, according to a new study. By combining 3D atmospheric chemistry and climate modeling with observed flare data from distant stars, a team discovered that stellar flares could play an important role in the long-term evolution of a planet’s atmosphere and habitability.
Original written by: Amanda Morris
4. Fluvial Mapping of Mars
Source: Geological Society of America
22 Dec 2020
It took fifteen years of imaging and nearly three years of stitching the pieces together to create the largest image ever made, the 8-trillion-pixel mosaic of Mars’ surface. Now, the first study to utilize the image in its entirety provides unprecedented insight into the ancient river systems that once covered the expansive plains in the planet’s southern hemisphere. These three billion-year-old sedimentary rocks, like those in Earth’s geologic record, could prove valuable targets for future exploration of past climates and tectonics on Mars.
5. Perfect Transmission Through Barrier Using Sound
Source: The University of Hong Kong
23 Dec 2020
The perfect transmission of sound through a barrier is difficult to achieve, if not impossible based on our existing knowledge. This is also true with other energy forms such as light and heat. A research team has for the first time experimentally proved a century old quantum theory that relativistic particles can pass through a barrier with 100% transmission.
6. Climate Crisis Is Causing Lakes to Shrink
Source: MARUM, University of Bremen
23 Dec 2020
While global sea levels are rising due to the climate crisis and threatening near-coastal infrastructures, higher temperatures in other areas are having exactly the opposite effect. The water levels are falling and also causing massive problems. Although the consequences are equally serious, however, declining water levels are receiving less attention according to a new study.
