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A helmet jellyfish (Periphylla periphylla) collected with a remotely operated vehicle in the North Pacific Ocean.Credit: Vanessa Stenvers
Deep-sea mining might harm wildlife
Mining of the ocean floor for minerals could harm deep-sea jellyfish by stressing them out with sediment, suggests the first study of how resource harvesting might affect animals living in the depths. Researchers collected helmet jellyfish (Periphylla periphylla) and exposed them to sediment at concentrations that could be churned up by mining. After a day, the animals had mucus covering much of their bodies, among other signs that they were really not happy. Being stressed uses a lot of energy, which could be harmful over extended periods, say the researchers.
Reference: Nature Communications paper
Wi-Fi for nerve signals
Researchers have charted a long-distance ‘wireless’ nerve network in Caenorhabditis elegans worms for the first time. The nervous system can be thought of as a web of neurons that pass on messages through direct links, called synapses. But neurons can also communicate over longer distances by releasing molecules called neuropeptides, which are intercepted by other neurons some distance away. Incorporating both ‘wired’ synaptic connections and wireless signalling better predicts how signals travel in the worm than does a model using synaptic connections alone.
References: Nature paper & Neuron paper
Iceland braces for volcanic eruption
Underground magma flows in the southwest of Iceland are threatening to breach the surface. The geological unrest kicked off in late October, with thousands of small earthquakes in the area, which is home to around 3,000 people as well as an important power plant. Whether and when the molten rock might erupt remains anyone’s guess. But if the current activity does lead to an eruption, scientists do not expect it to be as devastating as the 2010 eruption of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull, which sent ash across European airspace and grounded planes for days.
Features & opinion
Is it too late to keep warming below 1.5 °C?
When the COP28 climate conference convenes at the end of this month, representatives from 197 countries will arrive in Dubai to do a ‘global stocktake’. It will be the first time that humanity will formally assess its achievements under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, with its ambitious target of limiting global warming to 1.5 ℃ above pre-industrial levels. By any measure, progress is too slow. But it is still possible to keep the 1.5 dream alive, shows this graphics-packed feature — and every fraction of a degree counts.
Source: Adapted from Fig. 1.3, IEA Net Zero Roadmap 2023
How to keep polio from coming back
Poliovirus is close to being eliminated: it could be gone within three years. But eradication is not extinction. The next challenge will be keeping it at bay. In rare cases, the oral poliovirus vaccine can itself seed a polio outbreak. But withdrawing that vaccine will leave people unprotected. The inactivated poliovirus vaccine doesn’t have the same flaw, but it doesn’t block transmission, so a broad vaccination programme would have to continue. And we will have to be sure that polio can never escape from a research institute or vaccine-manufacturing facility. Finally, a very tiny — but unknown — number of people have immune-deficiency disorders that mean they can carry and spread polio without knowing it, for years.
Scientists toil to name victims of Hamas
At the National Center of Forensic Medicine in Israel, forensic scientists continue to grapple with the task of identifying the remains of people killed by Hamas on 7 October. As time has passed, ever smaller clues — such as tiny fragments of bone — have been matched with the identities of victims. The evidence also reveals how attackers ended lives with unfathomable cruelty. For pathologists, the work is a labour of love that is deeply traumatic. “I’ve seen all kinds of death but not in this amount,” says Nir Blatman. “You must disconnect and work like a robot.”
Some of the smallest fragments have been gathered by archaeologists, who used skills honed in ancient ruins to find almost-invisible remains in the devastation left by Hamas. More than 40 people have been identified in this way, reports the Israel Antiquities Authority. “We saw things that no person should ever see,” says archaeologist Moshe Ajami.
Los Angeles Times | 11 min read & Bloomberg | 6 min read, from 9 November
