EARTH :
Polar bears rely on sea ice as the platform from which they hunt for seals. But as Earth’s global temperatures have been rising, that ice has been disappearing. And that’s been causing problems for the polar bears in the Beaufort Sea (along the north coasts of Alaska and Western Canada) and in Canada’s Hudson Bay. Some bears have traveled so far in search of an ice retreat that they risk starving.
Artic Polar bear populations have begun shrinking. Researchers estimate that most populations of these bears will collapse by 2100 unless emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases are sharply cut back. For now, the International Union for Conservation of Nature classifies polar bears as “vulnerable” to extinction.
MATERIAL SCIENCE :
Rare blue diamonds form deep, deep, deep inside Earth The recipe for rare blue diamonds may include boron, seawater and massive rock collisions. (9/5/2018) Readability: 7.6
Diamonds and more suggest unusual origins for asteroids Diamonds found in one asteroid may have formed deep inside a Mars- or Mercury-sized planet that got smashed in the early days of the solar system. (6/19/2018) Readability: 8.0
Extreme pressure? Diamonds can take it Diamond retains its structure even at extreme pressures, which could reveal how carbon behaves in the cores of some exoplanets. (2/19/2021) Readability: 7.5
CHEMISTRY POLLUTANTS :
Plastic sports bottles shed hundreds of chemicals into the water they hold, a new study finds. The containers release even more pollutants after being run through a dishwasher. Although some chemicals might be harmful, it’s not yet known whether there’s any health risk from the amounts that end up in the water.
scientists had known for years that chemicals can leach out of plastic. Some of those chemicals can be toxic. Manufacturers have removed some of the more worrisome chemicals, such as bisphenol A (BPA), from plastic products, such as water bottles. But little is known about what other chemicals might leave these products.
ENVIORNMENT :
Tiny bits of plastic, or microplastics, have been showing up all over the globe. As they move through the environment, some of these pieces can wind up contaminating food or water. That’s been a concern, because many of these plastic pieces pick up toxic pollutants, only to later release them. No one had really known whether these plastic bits could carry enough pollution to harm living cells. Until now.
A new study out of Tel Aviv University in Israel shows that microplastics can ferry enough of a pollutant to harm cells from the human gut.
The new study did not expose people to such tainted plastic bits. Instead, it used human gut cells growing in a dish. They were meant to partially model what can happen to those cells in the body.
HEALTH AND MEDICINE :
Lung cancer cells seem to smell yummy to one species of little worm. Now, scientists are using that allure to build a squirmy new tool to detect cancer. The researchers hope this new “worm-on-a-chip” device will one day provide an easy, painless way to screen for early disease.
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