Scientists may have found the brain-cell switch that determines how long Ozempic’s weight-loss effects last. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have gained new insight into how GLP-1 receptor agonists such as semaglutide produce their weight-loss effects. While scientists have long known which areas of the brain are involved, much less has been [...]
Entre proezas acrobáticas e demonstrações de força em preparação para o trabalho em fábricas, o robot Atlas da Boston Dynamics também tem tempo para dar uns toques na bola e para aprender a ser um craque no futebol.
The post Robot Atlas prepara-se para o Mundial e mostra como treina para ser um craque no futebol appeared first on Tek Notícias.
Volcano Hazards • Lahars • Rain + Ash = Mudflow • Go back to Strange Sounds Heavy rain on Mount Merapi triggered a “cold lava” flood — a lahar — surging downriver, killing people and dragging vehicles. When intense rainfall hits ash-covered slopes, loose volcanic debris turns into a fast-moving slurry that can carry boulders, […]
The post Mount Merapi “Cold Lava” Flood: What a Lahar Is and Why Rain Makes Volcano Slopes Deadly (Mar 2026) appeared first on Strange Sounds.
Earth Oddities • Strange Geological Phenomena • Landslides & Mudflows • Heavy Rainfall Threshold Failures • Go back to Strange Sounds A deadly landslide struck an eastern DR Congo coltan mining area after heavy rainfall, killing more than 200 people (reported). Heavy rainfall triggered a catastrophic slope failure at a coltan mining site in eastern […]
The post DR Congo Coltan Mine Landslide Kills 200+: How Heavy Rainfall Triggers Sudden Slope Failure (Mar 2026) appeared first on Strange Sounds.
Earth Systems • Extreme Rainfall • Landslides & Mudflows • Go back to Strange Sounds Parts of Minas Gerais, Brazil, reportedly received about 21 inches (533 mm) of rain in roughly six hours. Landslides and flooding followed, with at least 64 reported deaths and thousands displaced. This deep dive explains why intense rainfall can trigger […]
The post Brazil Landslides After 21 Inches of Rain in 6 Hours: Minas Gerais Disaster Explained (Feb 2026) appeared first on Strange Sounds.
Using spectral data from the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers analyzed the atmosphere of TOI-199b, a distant Saturn-mass world that is neither frozen nor scorching hot.
The post Webb Detects Methane in Atmosphere of Exo-Saturn TOI-199b appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
Greenhouse gases trap heat within the atmosphere. One such gas that exists beneath the ocean floor is methane. Ice-like substances on the seafloor that contain methane, known as methane hydrates, can break apart or melt, releasing methane gas into the ocean, risking further global warming. Melting permafrost, active tectonics, daily tidal patterns, and changing sea levels can similarly trigger methane’s escape from sediments. However, scientists don’t understand how these triggers will respond to future climate change.
A team of researchers hypothesized that future global warming could actually accelerate methane’s escape into the ocean. To investigate this hypothesis, they focused on an ancient global warming event approximately 56 million years ago, called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum or PETM. Arctic Ocean temperatures at times exceeded 20°C (68°F) during this event. These elevated temperatures serve as an analog for today’s rapidly warming conditions.
Once methane enters seawater, its fate is largely determined by 2 sets of biological processes. Today, 90% of methane released into the ocean from the seafloor is consumed by tiny organisms called microbes via a process known as anaerobic methane oxidation. During this process, microbes consume methane alongside sulfate, producing a solid iron-sulfur mineral, pyrite. Anaerobic methane oxidation prevents methane from escaping into the atmosphere by trapping it in minerals. In this case, the ocean becomes a reservoir, or sink, for methane.
Despite this, too much methane could overwhelm the sulfate-dependent cycle. If that occurs, a different set of microbes consumes methane alongside oxygen in a process known as aerobic methane oxidation. Aerobic methane oxidation produces carbon dioxide, a potent heat-trapping greenhouse gas that escapes from the ocean. Aerobic oxidation accounts for 10% of methane consumption in oceans today, though this could have been different in the past.
To determine how much anaerobic versus aerobic methane oxidation occurred during the PETM, the team extracted data from sediments retrieved from the Arctic Ocean floor. As sediment piles up on the seafloor, it compacts. Scientists can drill deep into the seafloor to extract a cylindrical sample, or core, of this compacted sediment.
The age of sediments in a core increases with depth. Therefore, younger sediments exist at the top of the core, and older sediments exist at the bottom. For this project, the team used a previously extracted core from the Arctic Ocean that contained sediments dating back 100 million years. They found 56-million-year-old sediments from the PETM at a depth of 386 meters, or 1,266 feet, in this core.
The researchers explained that microbes leave behind unique carbon-based molecules called organic biomarkers when they decompose. These organic biomarkers accumulate in seafloor sediments. The 2 different types of methane-consuming microbes leave behind 2 different biomarkers, one for anaerobic methane oxidation and one for aerobic methane oxidation. This team measured the amount of each biomarker in the sediment core to determine which microbes were dominant during the PETM.
The biomarker left behind from microbes performing aerobic methane oxidation is called hop(17)21-ene. The researchers noticed that the amount of hop(17)21-ene increased by a factor of 4 during the PETM. At the same time, the biomarker left behind from microbes performing anaerobic methane oxidation, called glycerol dialkyl tetraether, decreased to half. They interpreted these trends to reflect the rise of aerobic methane cycling and the shutdown of anaerobic methane cycling, respectively. They attributed this transition to the release of enough methane to overwhelm the sulfate-dependent methane cycle under warming conditions.
To estimate the amount of carbon dioxide produced by aerobic methane oxidation during the PETM, the researchers located another biomarker in the sediment core, called phytane. Phytane is produced by organisms that consume carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, and its structure preserves clues to the amount of carbon dioxide available at the time. The researchers found that during and well after the PETM, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Arctic Ocean was 4 times greater than modern levels. They concluded that the Arctic Ocean became a prolonged source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, even after the PETM.
The team suggested that the uptick in aerobic methane oxidation during the PETM serves as an analog for the modern Arctic Ocean, which continues to warm rapidly in the face of modern climate change. Their results highlight how the transformation of methane into carbon dioxide poses a threat. More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere warms the air, which heats the oceans, causing more methane to escape from the seafloor and eventually be converted into additional carbon dioxide. When triggered, this feedback would continue to amplify and could become difficult to recover from.
The post Does the Arctic Ocean regulate or amplify global warming? appeared first on Sciworthy.
Login