Science & Technology News

[bcboomer]

" Since 1979, the open-water period has increased in nearly every region of the Arctic Ocean, due both to earlier retreat and later advance22,23,24,25. In the Pacific-side Arctic, the trend toward later advance outpaces the trend toward earlier retreat25,26,27. The larger change in ice advance is a result of more ocean heat-uptake in summer as a result of earlier formation of open water, which in turn delays fall advance28,29,30. However, in other regions (e.g., Hudson Bay) the trend toward earlier retreat day drives observed lengthening of the open-water period25."

@newhaul

Which part don't you understand?

[GordMay]

Better Masks, and Ventilation, to stop the spread of COVID-19

A recent study [1] highlights a need for widespread use of better face masks, and the importance of good ventilation, to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 indoors.

Scientists want to stress that using any kind of face covering is very useful.

However, most common surgical or cloth face masks catch only about 10 %, of all exhaled aerosol droplets.

Researchers found that N95 and KN95 masks filtered more than 50 % of exhaled aerosols. Furthermore, these masks are better are preventing inhale of the viral material.

Experiments also showed that, even modest ventilation rates, can be as effective as the best masks, in reducing the risk of transmission.

More about ➥ https://uwaterloo.ca/news/media/stud...-curb-covid-19

The study:
[1] “Experimental investigation of indoor aerosol dispersion and accumulation in the context of COVID-19: Effects of masks and ventilation” ~ by Yash Shah et al
➥ https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/5.0057100

[SailOar]

Increased Transnational Sea Ice Transport Between Neighboring Arctic States in the 21st Century

Plain Language Summary

The Arctic is undergoing a rapid transition toward a thinner, less extensive, more mobile sea ice cover. This affects the amount of sea ice exchanged between the exclusive economic zones of Arctic states. Here we use an Earth System Model, the Community Earth System Model, to track sea ice from where it forms to where it ultimately melts. By midcentury, the area of sea ice exchanged between the different regions of the Arctic is predicted to more than triple compared to the end of the twentieth century, with the Central Arctic joining Russia as a major ice “exporter.” At the same time, the exchange of sea ice over long distances is predicted to diminish in favor of ice exchanged between neighboring Arctic states. By midcentury, the average time required for ice to travel from one region to another is more than halved; by 2100, nearly all transports take less than a year, with little multiyear ice left in the Arctic. Sea ice provides a transport mechanism for a variety of material, including algae, dust, and a range of pollutants. The acceleration, and then disappearance, of sea ice has important implications for managing contamination in Arctic waters.

[GordMay]

Further to SailOar's recent contributions:

“Scientists scramble to harvest ice cores as glaciers melt” ~ Reuters
Scientists are racing to collect ice cores – along with long-frozen records they hold of climate cycles – as global warming melts glaciers and ice sheets. Some say they are running out of time. And, in some cases, it's already too late.

Here ➥ https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sc...lt-2021-09-13/

And ➥ https://graphics.reuters.com/CLIMATE...lvx/index.html



“Why a Warming Arctic Has the U.S. Coast Guard Worried About the Rest of the Country”
➥ https://time.com/6095064/arctic-clim...e-coast-guard/



“Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress” ~ Updated September 7, 2021
➥ https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R41153.pdf

[jimbunyard]

Not sure if this has been noted in these sciency-climate threads, but these guys propose the most sensible, comprehensive approach to AGW solutions I've seen so far.

This is the first I've heard of them, though they seem to have been around since 2014.

They offer, in my extremely cursory review, the only proven, feasible 'carbon capture and storage plan' going. Among other things.

'Sad' to say t'wasn't invented by the latest scientific technological whiz kids, but by the strict laws of probability, chemistry and physics, many billions of years ago.

https://drawdown.org/drawdown-framework

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7K5M-jaHk8

[GordMay]

Nearly 15% of confirmed COVID-19 infections, in the United States, have occurred in children — that’s more than 4.8 million young people.

But data collected by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from hospitals across the country, suggest that people under the age of 18 have accounted for less than 2% of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 — a total of 3,649 children between March 2020 and late August 2021.

Some children do get very ill, and more than 420 have died of COVID-19 in the United States, but the majority of people with severe illness have been adults — a trend that has been borne out in many parts of the world.

Research is beginning to reveal that the reason children have fared well against COVID-19 could lie in the innate immune response — the body’s crude but swift reaction to pathogens.

In the last week of August 2021, just over 22% of weekly reported cases were in children, a rise that may be attributed to a rise in adult vaccination rates.


“Kids and COVID: why young immune systems are still on top”
Innate immunity might be the key to why children have fared better with the virus. But the Delta variant poses fresh unknowns.
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02423-8

“Deaths from COVID ‘incredibly rare’ among children”
Studies find that overall risk of death or severe disease from COVID-19 is very low in kids.
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01897-w

“Will COVID become a disease of the young?”
A growing share of infections among unvaccinated youths in countries with high vaccination rates is putting the spotlight on the role of young people in the pandemic.
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01862-7

[SailOar]

Climate change is erasing 'flammability barrier' that protects high-elevation forests

• A study has found that the amount of scorched land increased across all elevations, but that the biggest increase was at elevations above 8,200 feet
• At high elevations, snow typically lingers through the summer, leaving little time for vegetation in these mountainous forests to dry out before rain and snow fall anew in the autumn and winter
• Now, global warming is melting mountain snowpack earlier in the year and disrupting that natural cycle
• "If you look at two 2020 fires in Colorado, the Cameron Peak Fire and East Troublesome Fire, those were two of the biggest fires in the modern history of that state," he said. "Both of them basically burned all the way to the upper tree line."

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by SailOar

Climate change is erasing 'flammability barrier' that protects high-elevation forests

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Dispatches from a world aflame
From California’s deadliest blaze to a new planetary fire regime, how wildfires are reshaping our climate-changed planet.
A review of two new books:
“Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire” ~ Lizzie Johnson Crown (2021)
“The Pyrocene: How We Created an Age of Fire, and What Happens Next” ~ Stephen J. Pyne Univ. California Press (2021)
Here ➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02426-5

[AllenRbrts]

Originally Posted by jimbunyard

'Sad' to say t'wasn't invented by the latest scientific technological whiz kids, but by the strict laws of probability, chemistry and physics, many billions of years ago.

https://drawdown.org/drawdown-framework

Paul Hawken (guy in the video) has a new book out later this month titled Regeneration

[GordMay]

The tangled history of mRNA vaccines

Hundreds of scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines, for decades, before the coronavirus pandemic brought a breakthrough.
The messenger-RNA (mRNA) vaccines against COVID-19 are among the most important and profitable in history, and have been given to hundreds of millions of people around the world. But the route to success was not direct. Scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines for decades, before the coronavirus pandemic brought a breakthrough. The story illuminates the twisting path that many scientific discoveries take, on the way to becoming life-changing innovations: decades of dead ends, rejections and battles over potential profits, but also generosity, curiosity, and dogged persistence against scepticism and doubt.

Much more ➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02483-w

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by GordMay

The tangled history of mRNA vaccines

Hundreds of scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines, for decades, before the coronavirus pandemic brought a breakthrough.
The messenger-RNA (mRNA) vaccines against COVID-19 are among the most important and profitable in history, and have been given to hundreds of millions of people around the world. But the route to success was not direct. Scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines for decades, before the coronavirus pandemic brought a breakthrough. The story illuminates the twisting path that many scientific discoveries take, on the way to becoming life-changing innovations: decades of dead ends, rejections and battles over potential profits, but also generosity, curiosity, and dogged persistence against scepticism and doubt.

Much more ➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02483-w

Sometimes you have to create the problem to get your new break through solution acknowledged.

[AllenRbrts]

I know a few want to say the earth is only warmed by the sun, which is fundamentally correct, but they say it to try to refute the change induced by higher levels of CO2. Some say the only reason the planet has warmed is because solar irradiation has increased. I ran into this graphic on nasa’s website. It shows solar irradiance vs global temperature change. For 50 years they kind of tracked, but for the last 50 years irradiance has decreased and the rate of temperature change has increased. Kind of pokes a hole in the both theories. Attachment 245377

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by AllenRbrts

I know a few want to say the earth is only warmed by the sun, which is fundamentally correct, but they say it to try to refute the change induced by higher levels of CO2. Some say the only reason the planet has warmed is because solar irradiation has increased. I ran into this graphic on nasa’s website. It shows solar irradiance vs global temperature change. For 50 years they kind of tracked, but for the last 50 years irradiance has decreased and the rate of temperature change has increased. Kind of pokes a hole in the both theories. Attachment 245377

Forgetting the 50 to 60 year ocean lag effect . But TSI is only a small part of the solar picture as I have tried to explain to you for a long time . Now look up the total solar forcings in the IPCC cmip6 instructions .

These charts should help a bit .

[AllenRbrts]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Forgetting the 50 to 60 year ocean lag effect . But TSI is only a small part of the solar picture as I have tried to explain to you for a long time . Now look up the total solar forcings in the IPCC cmip6 instructions .



These charts should help a bit .

The charts are mostly meaningless and have no source or explanation. They certainly don’t make your point, which is incorrect.

From NASA

“Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) is the main contributor of energy to Earth. We are fortunate that visible and IR light, which contribute the majority of energy to Earth, exhibit the smallest relative variation”

Perhaps you should read the full article.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/s...rradiance.html

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by AllenRbrts

The charts are mostly meaningless and have no source or explanation. They certainly don’t make your point, which is incorrect.

From NASA

“Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) is the main contributor of energy to Earth. We are fortunate that visible and IR light, which contribute the majority of energy to Earth, exhibit the smallest relative variation”

Perhaps you should read the full article.

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/s...rradiance.html

Perhaps you should read the cmip6 section on total solar forcings.

I did suggest it earlier.
If you had then the charts would make sense.

Here is another link that should assist you
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communitie...er-enthusiasts