Welcome to Overnight News Digest- Saturday Science. Since 2007 the OND has been a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Topics in this edition include:
- Health evidence against gas and oil is piling up, as governments turn a blind eye.
- A love letter to my compost pile
- Why more freedom isn’t making women happier
- New Apple iPhone-15 requires a new type of charger
- Tonga volcanic eruption reshaped the sea floor
- Wind turbine generates world record energy
- Asteroid hit by NASA spacecraft behaving unusually
- Mahle combines two different concepts to create the ‘perfect motor”
- As the crow dies — the strange world of bird funerals
- Have we overestimated the number of stars in the universe?
- High levels of dangerous metals found in exclusive marijuana users
- You may want to rethink adding extra lighting to your garden.
The Conversation
by Simon Townsley
Health evidence against gas and oil is piling up, as governments turn a blind eye
We are seeing deadly heat and fires circle the world. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns we are fast running out of time to secure a liveable and sustainable future. Without emergency action to stop mining and burning fossil fuels, the world faces an unthinkable 2.8℃ temperature rise.
It’s incomprehensible, then, that many of our politicians support “unlocking the Beetaloo Basin” in the Northern Territory and developing another 48 oil and gas projects across Australia.
“Unlocking” means starting large-scale shale gas extraction. After drilling through 3–4km of rock and aquifers, a cocktail of chemicals, sand and water is forced down the well. This process of hydraulic fracturing is commonly known as fracking. This brings to the surface, and then into the atmosphere, carbon that had been securely stored underground for 300–400 million years.
Atmos
by Romany Williams
A Love Letter to My Compost Heap
The pain was instantaneous, vibrant, and searing through my thumb as I let out an awkward yelp and sprinted away from my compost bin.
I had been stung by a wasp, unknowingly grabbing a handful of its nest while rummaging through the pile of brown leaves I keep next to the compost heap. As I sat in my kitchen, icing my swollen thumb, I looked up the meaning of a wasp sting. Apparently, it’s an invitation to take action. To move. To do some spiritual work. I had only been composting in my backyard for four months and this pile of dirt, leaves, and food scraps was already—clearly—my new teacher.
[…] Earlier this year, Mayor Eric Adams laid out plans to make composting mandatory in New York City, requiring residents with yards to separate their leaves, grass, and flower clippings for composting purposes. Across North America, municipalities are introducing green bin programs, but are grappling with the logistics of composting at such a large scale. Meanwhile, products like Reenecle and Lomi—high-tech yet low-key appliances that compost food scraps right on your kitchen counter with the push of a button—are gaining traction.
Neuroscience News
by Lowrie Bowthwaite-Walsh
The Paradox of Progress: Why More Freedom Isn’t Making Women Happier
Something strange is going on in women’s happiness research. Because despite having more freedom and employment opportunities than ever before, women have higher levels of anxiety and more mental health challenges, such as depression, anger, loneliness and more restless sleep. And these results are seen across many countries and different age groups.
A recent survey conducted by the American Psychological Association may hold some clues as to why. The results found that most US women are unhappy with how society treats them.
Mac Rumors
by Tim Hardwick
Apple Retail Staff Drilled to Recommend iPhone 15 USB-C Charging Accessories at Point of Sale
With Apple’s iPhone 15 series launch potentially now just two weeks away, Apple retail employees are reportedly being drilled to emphasize to customers at the point of sale that the switch to USB-C means the new devices cannot be charged with existing Lightning charging cables that they may already own.
When customers purchase a new iPhone 15 model, Apple staff will be trained to caution that while a USB-C to USB-C cable is included in the box, a USB-C charger is not. Employees will therefore direct customers to the in-store availability of Apple USB-C power adapters and additional Apple-certified USB-C cables to meet the need for multiple charging locations.
Popular Science
by Rahul Rao
The Tonga volcanic eruption reshaped the seafloor in mind-boggling ways
On January 15, 2022, the drowned caldera under the South Pacific isles of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Haʻapai in Tonga blew up. The volcanic eruption shot gas and ash 36 miles up into Earth’s mesosphere, higher than the plume from any other volcano on record. The most powerful explosion observed on Earth in modern history unleashed a tsunami that reached Peru and a sonic boom heard as far as Alaska.
New research shows that when the huge volume of volcanic ash, dust, glass fell back into the water, it reshaped the seafloor in a dramatic fashion. For the first time, scientists have reconstructed what might have happened beneath the Pacific’s violently strewn waves. According to a paper published in Science today, all that material flowed underwater for dozens of miles.
“These processes have never been observed before,” says study author Isobel Yeo, a marine volcanologist at the UK’s National Oceanography Centre.
About 45 miles from the volcano, the eruption cut off a seafloor fiber-optic cable. For Tongans and rescuers, the broken cable was a major inconvenience that severely disrupted the islands’ internet. For scientists, the abrupt severance of internet traffic provided a timestamp of when something touched the cable: around an hour and a half after the eruption.
EuroNews.green
by Charlotte Elton
World record: Wind turbine generates enough energy in a day to power 170,000 homes
The world’s largest wind turbine has smashed the record for the most power produced by a single turbine in a day.
Offshore from Fujian Province, China, the giant Goldwind GWH252-16MW towers above the sea.
On 1 September, the mammoth turbine – which has a 252-metre diameter – produced 384.1 megawatt hours (MWh) in 24 hours, as a typhoon hammered southeast China.
This is enough to power roughly 170,000 homes, or 38 million LEDs, or 2.2 million kilometres driven in an electric car.
It exceeds the previous record of 364 MWh, set in Denmark in August.
New Scientist
by Jonathan O’Callaghan
Asteroid hit by NASA spacecraft is behaving unexpectedly
When NASA crashed its DART spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos, the goal was to shorten the space rock’s orbit around its parent asteroid. The mission succeeded – but Dimorphos’ orbit has continued to shrink and it isn’t clear why.
A high school teacher and his students have discovered that an asteroid hit by a NASA spacecraft, in a test run for saving Earth from a collision, is behaving unexpectedly. The find could have implications for future planetary defence missions.
New Atlas
by Loz Blain
Mahle combines two innovative concepts to field the “perfect motor”
One of the world’s largest tier-one auto parts suppliers claims it’s created the “perfect motor.” The compact Mahle motor uses no rare earth magnets, transmits power without contact or wear, and can run at high power indefinitely without overheating.
It’s the combination of two impressive concepts Mahle released in 2021 and 2022. The first was the cheap, highly efficient MCT (Magnet-free Contactless Transmitter) motor, which replaced the typical permanent rare earth magnets in the rotor with a series of wound-coil electromagnets, and powered these magnets using contactless induction.This brought down the price of materials, and eliminated the necessity to run supply chains through China, which refines some 97% of the world’s rare earth metals. It was also remarkably frugal with energy, operating at more than 95% efficiency right through its range of operating speeds – a level Mahle said at the time had only ever been achieved by Formula E race cars.
Science Focus
by Alice Lipscombe-Southwell
As the crow dies: The strange world of bird funerals
Corvids, such as crows, rooks and ravens, are some of the smartest animals out there. They can learn to make new sounds, they can cooperate and even use tools. But as Dr Kaeli Swift tells Alice Lipscombe-Southwell, they also have some intriguing rituals when it comes to their dead… and could even be capable of feeling empathy.
What exactly is a corvid?
Corvids are a kind of songbird. Corvids, so the Corvidae family, includes crows, ravens, magpies, jays, rooks, jackdaws and choughs. Ravens are the biggest songbird in the world.
Big Think
by Ethan Siegel
Have we overestimated the number of stars in the Universe?
- If you look out at the entire observable Universe, 46.1 billion light-years in all directions, you’ll discover trillions of galaxies contained within it.
- The Milky Way galaxy, our home galaxy, contains a few hundred billion stars, so you might think that multiplying the stars in our galaxy by the number of galaxies in the Universe is a great way to estimate the number of stars, overall.
- But our galaxy isn’t typical, and neither, for that matter, is our Sun. Here’s how many stars are actually in the Universe, and what differences they have from our own.
New Atlas
by Paul McClure
High levels of dangerous metals found in exclusive marijuana users
A new study has found that people who exclusively use marijuana have higher levels of potentially dangerous metals in their blood and urine than those who don’t. The findings suggest that marijuana may be an overlooked source of metal exposure, an important consideration given the rise in its use.
After tobacco and alcohol, marijuana is the most commonly used drug in the world. The terms ‘marijuana’ and ‘cannabis’ are often used interchangeably, but whereas cannabis describes cannabis products in general, marijuana specifically refers to cannabis products that are made from dried flowers, leaves, stems and seeds of the cannabis plant.
In the US, while some states and Washington DC have legalized recreational marijuana use, the drug is still illegal at the federal level, meaning that the regulation of contaminants in cannabis-containing products remains haphazard. This presents a potential issue, given that the cannabis plant is known to accumulate metals found in water, soil, fertilizers and pesticides.
Researchers from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health undertook a study to examine just how much metal makes its way from the plant to the body of marijuana users.
House Digest
by Alexandria Taylor
You May Want To Rethink Adding Extra Lighting To Your Garden
Many homeowners want to transform their garden into an oasis. Of course, these areas naturally include lighting fixtures that allow you to enjoy spending time outside even after the sun goes down. However, while humans may enjoy sitting outside at night with a little bit of light, the same can’t always be said for wildlife and plants. Similarly, other types of outdoor illumination such as security lights and outdoor solar lights can also have negative effects on the health and behavior of native wildlife.
While fixtures can accent your overall landscape design, in some cases, they can be more harmful than you realize. Garden lights could cause certain animals to confuse their natural awake and resting periods. It could also attract a large number of insects to your garden or home, which most homeowners do not desire. Artificial illumination in the garden can also disrupt plant growth, leading to mutations, reduced fruit production, and vegetation that grows unevenly.
This is an open thread where everyone is welcome, especially night owls and early birds, to share and discuss the science news of the day. Please share your articles and stories in the comments.
Be the first to comment