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Credit: Daniel Feldman/AFP/Getty
The month’s best science images
Contamination from fish factories stained the water hot pink in this lagoon in Chubut, Argentina. The bright hue is caused by sodium sulfite, an antibacterial compound used to preserve shrimp. When protests stopped trucks that were carrying fish waste through the town of Rawson to treatment plants, Chubut authorities gave factories permission to dump their waste in the lagoon. The province’s environmental-control chief Juan Micheloud claims that the pink colour “does not cause damage”. Local environmental activists have condemned the move and expressed concern that the waste might harm wildlife.
See more of the month’s sharpest science shots, selected by Nature’s photo team.
IPCC climate report: every moment matters
A landmark assessment from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes it clear that the future of our planet depends, in large part, on the choices that humanity makes today. Our dependence on fossil fuels has pushed Earth’s global surface temperature up by around 1.1 °C over the average in 1850–1900 — a level that hasn’t been witnessed in 125,000 years, before the most recent ice age. The report lists a dizzying array of impacts that climate change has had on Earth, including record droughts, wildfires and floods that have devastated communities and livelihoods worldwide. It also offers the most scientifically confident projections yet for how humanity’s choices can turn down the heat — or not. “The climate we experience in the future depends on our decisions now,” says climatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte.
Go deeper with a detailed exploration of the report and its findings by Carbon Brief (73 min read)
Reference: IPCC climate report
Exotic tetraquark particle spotted at LHC
Scientists using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — which memorably revealed the Higgs boson in 2012 — have discovered a previously unknown exotic particle made of four quarks. The new ‘tetraquark’, Tcc+, is extremely unusual: most known hadrons, including protons and neutrons, are made of two or three quarks. This brings the LHC’s bounty of new hadrons — non-elementary particles that are made of quarks — up to 62.
Mammoth’s epic travels preserved in tusk
Researchers have reconstructed the detailed movements of a single woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) from one of its tusks. Every place on Earth has a distinct chemical signature based on geological differences. The ratios of various isotopes of elements, such as strontium and oxygen in the bedrock and water, create a unique profile specific to that location that remains consistent over millennia, and is incorporated into soil and plants. As mammoths grazed on the Arctic plains, these isotopic signatures were integrated into their ever-growing tusks, creating a permanent record of the animals’ whereabouts from birth to death, with almost daily resolution.
Features & opinion
The hunt for red fluorescent proteins
Green fluorescent protein is one of the most popular items in the microscopist’s toolbox. Now, bioengineers are pushing fluorescent proteins further into the red. Imaging at the red end of the spectrum works without oxygen, can add another hue to experiments and offers lower background fluorescence, reduced toxicity and deeper tissue penetration. “All other factors being the same, redder is better,” says protein engineer Robert Campbell.
The Bach of physics
Nobel-prizewinning physicist Steven Weinberg played a central part in formulating and establishing theoretical physics’ two standard models — the standard model of fundamental interactions and the standard model of cosmology. His approach to science was scholarly and his assessment of religion was scathing, writes his friend (and occasional competitor) Frank Wilczek. But Weinberg’s more usual, jovial appreciation of the human comedy was exemplified by something else, writes Wilczek: “Given the chance, he would sneak off from stiff parties to play games with the children.” Weinberg died on 23 July, aged 88.
Where I work
María Fernanda Cerdá is a chemist at the University of the Republic in Montevideo.Credit: Pablo Albarenga for Nature
Chemist María Fernanda Cerdá builds solar cells using natural dyes that are found in fruit and flowers. “The technology to convert plant dyes into electricity was developed in Switzerland, but I’m applying it to plants that are indigenous to my home country, Uruguay, including its national flower, the ceibo (Erythrina crista-galli),” says Cerdá. “Funding is scarce, and without it I cannot pay salaries. That’s why I still work in the laboratory at the age of 54. But I don’t complain: I love lab work.”
