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Freak winters linked to Arctic warming
Recent spells of unusually cold winter weather in the United States and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere could be a paradoxical consequence of climate warming in the Arctic. A study based on decades of atmospheric observations shows how rapid Arctic warming can trigger anomalies in the polar vortex, a fast-flowing band of high-altitude winds around the North Pole — with consequences for weather thousands of kilometres farther south. It is still unclear whether this represents a long-term trend that will persist as the world heats up. And the idea that Arctic warming might be responsible for cold spells in mid-latitude regions is still hotly debated among climate scientists.
Tuna conservation is working, says Red List
Conservation efforts are reaping rewards for tuna, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) latest ‘Red List’ of threatened species. Four commercially fished tuna species have shown signs of recovery thanks to countries enforcing fishing quotas: Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus), southern bluefin tuna (Thunnus maccoyii), albacore (Thunnus alalunga) and yellowfin tunas (Thunnus albacares). However, southern bluefin tuna is still endangered and some regional tuna populations are struggling. So too are many species of shark and ray. And the world’s largest lizard, the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) has been newly flagged as endangered. “I think the good news is that sustainable fisheries are possible,” says marine biologist Beth Polidoro.
National Geographic | 4 min read
Reference: IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
Features & opinion
Capture all facets of health
“There is more to disease risk than genetics,” write endocrinologist Mark McCarthy and bioinformatician Ewan Birney. They argue that clinical medicine must learn to develop more-holistic measures of individual risk, both genetic and non-genetic, and to combine these with clinical data over time to deliver better care.
What’s the point of support letters?
Chemist Juan Manuel Parrilla Gutierrez has written dozens of letters of recommendation — for himself. This is because of the common practice of referees delegating support letters to the people who requested them. “What’s the point of these letters if most of them are written by the person sending in the application?” asks Parrilla Gutierrez. He suggests that universities and funding agencies ask for letters of support only for shortlisted candidates to streamline the process — and save everyone time.
The scent of extinct flowers
Artist Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg has recreated the odours of extinct plants, created artwork for an audience of pollinators and imagined how probiotics might flag diseases in our bodies by creating different-coloured faeces. She describes how her interdisciplinary work helps to illuminate our assumptions about technology, nature and value.
Nature Biotechnology | 9 min read
Where I work
Computer scientist and astrophysicist Wanda Diaz Merced stands in front of Virgo — a gravitational-wave observatory near Pisa, Italy — facing one of its 3-kilometre-long arms. Merced lost her sight in her twenties and uses sound to analyse astronomical data. “Gravitational-wave data from colliding black holes is called a ‘chirp’: it sounds like a bird when it’s converted into sound,” says Merced. “By ‘listening’ to the mathematics, I want to identify the possible X-ray counterparts to gravitational waves detected by Virgo.” (Nature | 3 min read)