A new study shows how changes in ocean circulation could reshape global rainfall patterns. A storm reaching California can begin with changes thousands of miles away in the Atlantic Ocean. Climate modeling suggests that as one of the planet’s major ocean circulation systems weakens, more moisture could be directed toward the West Coast while snowfall [...]
This week in science and technology news we’re covering at The Debrief: For decades, physicists have argued about Richard Feynman’s Sprinkler Problem, involving the question of how a reverse sprinkler would operate. Now we may finally know the answer… elsewhere, new studies reveal how breathwork may trigger psychedelic-like states, emotional breakthroughs, and psychological insights without drugs. Meanwhile, a stone sphere unearthed at an archaeological site in Azerbaijan is reportedly unlike anything previously documented in the South Caucasus.
Also, in an exclusive feature, University of Toronto bioethicist KM Bowman, Ph.D., writes for The Debrief about his firsthand experience with uncontacted indigenous tribes: “Through the haze stood a man. Barely clothed, carrying what appeared to be a weapon of some form, he remained motionless for only a few seconds before silently disappearing back into the forest.” In his essay, Bowman shares his experience and asks whether governments can protect “the uncontacted.”
Finally, here’s a look at more stories The Debrief is tracking right now…
Nitrogen is an essential building block of proteins, amino acids, and DNA. Without nitrogen, cells can’t function or reproduce. Nitrogen is abundant in the atmosphere as dinitrogen gas, but plants and animals can’t access atmospheric nitrogen. Instead, we rely on biologically available forms like ammonia and nitrate.
Specialized microbes can transform atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia via a process called biological nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria have a unique protein complex, the nitrogenase complex, that facilitates this nitrogen transformation. The nitrogenase complex is activated by a group of genes known as nif genes.
Legume plants like peanuts, peas, and beans have nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the soil zone around their roots, called the rhizosphere. The symbiotic relationship between nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria and legume plants supplies most of the biologically available nitrogen to life on Earth.
Bacteria attached to plant roots “feed” nitrogen to plants through the soil, and in turn receive organic acids for energy from plants performing photosynthesis. Source: Wikimedia Commons
However, one piece of the puzzle remains unexplored: the role of soil viruses in these nitrogen transformations, referred to as the nitrogen cycle. Viruses are microscopic particles made up of genetic material and proteins, but they can’t reproduce without a host cell. Scientists consider viruses to be biological entities that are halfway between living and non-living.
To reproduce, viruses contact a host cell and inject their genetic material into it. The virus’s genetic material takes over the host cell’s genome and forces the cell to produce proteins that assemble into new viruses. As new viruses are created, they can incorporate genes from the host cell into their own genetic material. Genes that are transferred from a host cell to a virus are known as auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs). Viruses can carry AMGs and pass them to other hosts or use them to increase their own ecological fitness.
Scientists from China, Spain, and the Czech Republic set out to investigate whether viruses from legume roots could increase local soil nitrogen fixation by expressing nif AMGs or by transferring nif genes to other bacteria. First, they determined the global distribution of viral nitrogen-fixing genes by analyzing about 8.6 million viral genomes from the Integrated Microbial Genomes/Virus database. They looked for the DNA sequences of known nitrogen-fixing genes and the locations where the viruses were sampled. They found that only 0.003% of the viruses in the database had at least 1 nitrogen-fixing gene, but they clustered in the same locations as nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
The team also found 3 types of viruses that most commonly carried nitrogen-fixing genes: Kyanoviridae, Nudiviridae, and Bronfenbrennervirinae. Kyanoviridae viruses carried a nif gene called nifU. The researchers used a computer program called DRAM-v to confirm that nifU was a fully functional gene and a real tool that viruses could use.
Next, the team collected soil samples from a cowpea field in Nanjing, China, to test whether the cowpea roots influenced the abundance of viruses using nitrogen-fixing genes. They collected soil from the cowpea rhizospheres and soil away from the plants. They analyzed both viral and bacterial RNA in the soil samples to identify active genes, using a sequencing process called metatranscriptomics. They found that the viral nifU gene was actively expressed in the cowpea rhizosphere samples more than in the non-crop soil. Although about 96% of nifU genes were being expressed by bacteria, viruses contributed about 4%.
The researchers then assessed whether rhizospheric viruses changed the amount of nitrogen being fixed in these soils. They set up small, enclosed containers of sterile soil and added either bacteria or a mixture of bacteria and viruses extracted from the cowpea rhizospheres. They found that soil with viruses had higher total nitrogen (36 milligrams per kilogram, or mg/kg) than soil without viruses (17 mg/kg).
Finally, they adjusted the air in each container to have a different form of dinitrogen gas. Atoms of the same element that have different atomic masses are known as isotopes. Nitrogen has 2 stable isotopes: lighter nitrogen-14 and heavier nitrogen-15. Bacteria or viruses that fix nitrogen at natural isotope abundances will take up nitrogen-14. But scientists can track who in the population fixes nitrogen by adding nitrogen-15 to the air, a process called nitrogen-15 stable isotope probing. Nitrogen-fixers will incorporate the heavy nitrogen-15 into their biomass over time and increase their weight, allowing researchers to separate and identify them.
The team grew the bacteria and viruses with nitrogen-15 for 35 days, then used stable isotope probing to separate the nitrogen fixers. They detected viral nifU AMGs among the heavier biomass, confirming that rhizospheric viruses were fixing nitrogen.
The team concluded that rhizospheric viruses and the viral nifU AMG can increase nitrogen fixation in cowpea soils. The team suggested that although viruses with nitrogen-fixing genes are rare, they can influence the soil nitrogen cycle. They recommended that future researchers further test the contribution of viral nifU genes to plant nitrogen fixation with controlled infection experiments.
The post Viruses help plants obtain nitrogen appeared first on Sciworthy.
An unusual find has been unearthed by archaeologists excavating a prehistoric settlement in Azerbaijan, who recently discovered a stone sphere they say is unlike any previously documented in the South Caucasus.
The mysterious spherical artifact, crafted from polished stone, was uncovered during excavations at Pasha Tepe in Azerbaijan’s Jalilabad district, and raises new questions about Neolithic technology, trade, and ritual practices.
Excavations at the site are currently being undertaken by a team led by Vafa Mahmudova of the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences.
The unusual find, which measures approximately 4 inches in diameter and weighs a little more than four pounds, immediately stood out among the items the team had uncovered during excavations. They describe the object as potentially being among the most significant polished stone artifacts associated with the region’s Neolithic period that archaeologists have recovered to date.
“The stone sphere is of particular scientific importance because of both its manufacturing technology and its possible function,” Mahmudova recently told the Azerbaijani news site Report.
“It offers a new source of information for understanding connections between the Levant, Anatolia, and the South Caucasus during the Neolithic period,” he added.
The carefully crafted sphere stands out for its remarkably smooth surface and nearly perfect shape. Unlike many prehistoric stone objects, however, it bears no perforations, impact marks, or other modifications that might reveal how it was used.
Mahmudova says that presently there is no similar object that has yet been identified in archaeological records from the South Caucasus, making the discovery potentially unique.
Presently, the techniques employed in crafting the object remain unclear, as well as what its function might have been. Mahmudova and his colleagues believe that understanding the reasons for its creation could potentially offer valuable new insights into cultural connections linking the South Caucasus with Anatolia and the Levant during the Neolithic period.
A range of theories about the object’s purpose have been put forward, which include that it may have been a ceremonial object used for ritual purposes. More utilitarian possibilities include that it may have been a sort of standardized weight, although neither theory can presently be confirmed based on available data.
Presently, Mahmudova and his colleagues hope to compare the artifact to other similar discoveries, and by drawing from specialists and additional scientific analyses, obtain a better idea of the manufacturing processes behind its creation, and what purpose it might have served.
As excavations at Pasha Tepe remain underway, Mahmudova and his colleagues also say they have recently uncovered sections of a medieval ceramic pipeline, which they say may have served as a component of an ancient water management or drainage system.
Additional surveys at nearby archaeological sites, including the Chalcolithic site Alikomektepe, have offered additional clues that are helping archaeologists reveal clues about the ancient ways of life in the region, according to Heritage Daily.
Future studies involving the curious stone sphere Mahmudova and his colleagues unearthed at Pasha Tepe will hopefully shed additional light on the technological capabilities and cultural traditions of some of the earliest farming communities in the South Caucasus. With any luck, they may also find additional clues to the purpose of an artifact that, for the time being, remains unlike any previously discovered in the region.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
Using the upgraded GRAVITY+ instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), astronomers have measured the ratio of carbon isotopes in the atmosphere of the young exoplanet Beta Pictoris, offering new insights into how giant planets form.
The post Astronomers Probe Chemistry of Giant Exoplanet Beta Pictoris b appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
The molten iron core deep within our planet could be much more dynamic and complicated than previously known, as revealed in new studies that point to a current of liquid metal under the Pacific Ocean that reversed directions unexpectedly more than a decade ago.
The new findings provide additional insights into a sort of hidden “engine” driving the planet’s protective magnetic field, as detailed in new reporting featured in the Journal of Studies of Earth’s Deep Interior.
According to the research, long-held assumptions about large-scale flows occurring in Earth’s outer core are now being challenged, pushing back on previous notions that they evolve only gradually over time. Now, researchers say a broad region of molten iron beneath the equatorial Pacific abruptly shifted from a weak westward flow to a strong eastward current sometime around 2010.
Since our planet’s magnetic field is produced by the movement of superheated, electrically conductive liquid iron that is close to 2,200 kilometers (1,370 miles) below the surface, sometimes even the most nuanced changes within these deep currents can fundamentally alter the magnetic field that shields the planet from harmful charged particles emitted by the Sun.
Discovering this unexpected reversal required scientists to combine close to three decades of ground-based magnetic observations with satellite data collected from 1997 until 2025. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Swarm Mission provided measurements, which, combined with previous observations made possible through German CHAMP and Danish Ørsted satellites, helped researchers behind the new work to construct a precise model of the changing flow patterns occurring at the boundary between Earth’s core and mantle.
“The large-scale flow reversal beneath the Pacific raises new questions about the behavior of Earth’s deep interior,” said lead author Frederik Dahl Madsen of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Geosciences.
“Scientists now want to understand whether the reversal represents a short-lived fluctuation, part of a repeating oscillation, or a new stable equilibrium for core circulation,” Madsen said.
Among their findings, the team also said they uncovered evidence that the strong eastward current appears to have weakened since 2020, raising the possibility that the reversal could represent part of a longer natural cycle.
According to Madsen, the shift coincided with changes inferred within Earth’s solid inner core, which suggests previously unrecognized links between the planet’s deepest layers.
“The rise of the strong eastward flow in the Pacific is contemporary with a change in behaviour in the inner core, as inferred from geodesy and seismology, and we hypothesize that these changes in the deep interior are associated with the changes in flow beneath the Pacific,” Madsen said.
While such processes occur thousands of kilometers beneath our planet’s surface and pose no direct dangers, they nonetheless have a vital part in sustaining Earth’s magnetic field.
Although invisible, the magnetic shielding capability it provides protects our atmosphere from solar radiation, while supporting the technologies many of us rely on daily for navigation, space weather monitoring and forecasting, and a range of other things.
ESA scientists say that in the long term, satellite missions like its Swarm mission provide a detailed picture of what’s happening in Earth’s hidden interior. That data is also revealing how the planet’s molten core may be considerably more variable and complex than once thought.
Going forward, Madsen says he and his colleagues will continue to look at how the molten flow deep within the earth is changing over time.
“Continued monitoring will be essential to determine how the flow evolves over the coming years,” Madsen said of the team’s ongoing work.
The team’s recent study, “Principal component analysis of the 2010 reversal of core-surface flow beneath the Pacific Ocean,” was published in the Journal of Studies of Earth’s Deep Interior.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
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