Science

A new study conducted by an international team of researchers has discovered that air pollution stunts the growth of coral reef. The study reveals that air pollution from volcanic eruptions or burning coal can block sunlight and reduce water temperatures, which lowers coral reef growth rates.

Corals are ancient animals which have evolved over the past 25 million years into modern, reef-building forms. Coral reefs are thus very unique and complex systems, and reflect many years of history.

This is the first study to show a link between coral growth and air pollution. Past studies have shown that coral reefs are exceptionally sensitive to ocean acidification and climate change.

Study lead author Lester Kwiatkowski says that a quarter of all ocean species depend on corals for food and shelter.

Air pollution reflects sunlight, which in turn reduces the amount of light that is available for coral photosynthesis, and lowers the temperature of the surrounding waters. These conditions were found by Dr. Paul Halloran of the Met Office Hadley Centre to stunt coral growth.

Over the past 44 years, flights have become bumpier. According to a new study, they're now set to get even worse as climate change affects the jet stream. An analysis by scientists of the impact of global warming on weather systems over the next four decades reveals that climate change will lead to bumpier flights caused by increased mid-air turbulence.

The increased air turbulence is a result of the impact of climate change on the jet streams, which are the mile-wide winds that swirl around the planet at the same altitude as airplanes.

Some of the other unexpected impacts of climate change include spottier WiFi and mobile phone signals, and even slower marathon race times for runners.

The new research was led by Paul Williams at the University of Reading, who states:

"Air turbulence does more than just interrupt the service of in-flight drinks. It injures hundreds of passengers and aircrew every year. It also causes delays and damages planes, with the total cost to society being about £100m each year."

Williams found that the frequency of turbulence on the numerous flights between North America and Europe will double by 2050. It's intensity will also increase by 10 to 40%.

A new study suggests that a potential energy source for life looks to be common on Jupiter's moon, Europa. Analysis of infrared observations of the icy moon show that hydrogen peroxide is abundant on Europa, and if it finds a way beneath the surface and mixes with the moon's liqui water ocean, it may be an important energy source that for any life that may exist there.

Study leader Kevin Hand of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement:

"Life as we know it needs liquid water, elements like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur, and it needs some form of chemical or light energy to get the business of life done. Europa has the liquid water and elements, and we think that compounds like peroxide might be an important part of the energy requirement. The availability of oxidants like peroxide on Earth was a critical part of the rise of complex, multicellular life."

Study co-author Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena also found that the highest concentration of hydrogen peroxide occurs on the leading side of Europa as it orbits Jupiter. In these regions, the ice is nearly pure water and is not contaminated by sulfur like other parts of Europa.

5,000 years ago, the climate shift in North Africa was quite dramatic and sudden. It transformed from lakes and grasslands with hippos and giraffes, to a vast, dry desert. A new study finds that the sudden geographic transformation took place nearly simultaneously across the continent's northern half.

These findings come from the analysis of dust blown west from Africa and dropped into the Atlantic Ocean. Researchers sifted through 30,000 years worth of dust and ocean bottom muck that was retrieved by ocean drilling ships. The changing levels of windblown dust in ocean sediments are what have provided scientists with clues to Africa's climate, and how it has changed over time.

In simple terms, a lot of dust meant drier conditions and less dust meant a wetter environment.

The west period in northern Africa is known as the African Humid Period. This period of wetness both started and ended suddenly. The Humid Period ended abou 6,000 years ago, and dust levels were at about 20 percent of today's, which is much less dusty than previous estimates. This suggests that the change in climate was rather dramatic.

On October 16, 2013, the world's first video camera will launch into space aboard a Russian Soyuz Rocket, within the Progress 53P Space Cargo Ship. The two UrtheCast cameras are to be launched to the International Space Station, as well as a payload of space station supplies from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstant.

The two cameras were built in a joint effort along with RSC Energia, Russia's largest space organization, and RAL Space from the United Kingdom. One camera is a medium-resolution still, while the other is a high-resolution video camera.

UrtheCast is now in the final state of implementing the first HD Earth video platform from space.

Both the still camera and the video camera will be fitted on the Zvezda Service Module of the Russian segment of the ISS, which will happen during the crew spacewalk. Once the cameras have been installed, Earth images and videos will be transmitted to ground stations across the globe using the high-speed downlink from the ISS, which will later be streamed to the web.

NASA has revealed its future plans to lasso an asteroid and bring it back to Earth. That's right, the space agency is looking to go on an space rodeo, and are currently looking for a suitable space rock to target on the mission, which has been tentatively scheduled for 2019.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson, who is the chairman of the Senate science and space subcommittee, unveiled the plans at a press conference. Nelson said that President Barack Obama would put aside $100 million for the mission in next week's budget for 2014. The funds would be used to find a suitable small asteroid, which NASA scientists expect to be around 25-feet and weigh 500 tons.

The mission would use a robotically controlled spacecraft to approach the spacecraft, and then attach a large version of a baggie with a stringe, and then finally, drag the captured space rock back to near Earth.

Once the asteroid has been brought to near Earth, it will be much easier to send up astronauts to examine it up close.

Another aim of the mission is to explore the possibility that asteroids could eventually be mined for resources.

If you suffer from arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, then here's one spider you'll definitely never want to encounter. A face-sized tarantula known as Poecilotheria rajeal has been discovered in Sri Lanka and a photo of the creepy creature has already gone viral.

The image of the massive tarantula can be seen above, and it should be noted that the image is NOT to scale. The spider is actually much larger than it appears here. The spider has a leg span of eight inches.

Scientists believe that the giant spider's habitat is likely old trees, however they may have also recently been found in other places as well.

Researchers have discovered weapons that were made from the teeth of a shark species that was previously unknown to science.

The sharks lived in the Gilbert Island reefs located in the Central Pacific about 130 years ago. The Gilbert Islands are a major part of the Republic of Kirbati in the Pacific Ocean.

The shark-teeth weapons were made by people living in the islands in the 19th century. Historic records indicate that the weapons made by the Gilbertese Islanders were a big part of their cultural identity and that special customs were performed while hunting these sharks.

A team of researchers led by Joshua Drew from Columbia University examined a collection of 120 of the weapons from the Field of Museum of Natural History. Among the weapons were clubs, daggers, lances, spears, and swords. Analysis reveals that the weapons were made from the teeth of eight shark species, two of which - the Spot-tail (Carcharhinus sorrah) and the Dusky (C. obscurus) - have never been identified in the region.

The Spot-tail shark can be found near Australia and Indonesia, while Dusky sharks are located near Fiji. Neither of these sharks is present in Kirbati right now, and researchers speculate that either the shark species live undiscovered near the islands, or that they've gone extinct.

Researchers say that they've shown they can eliminate a rat's cocaine habit by shining a laser light on its brain. The study could possibly lead the way towards developing a new therapy for people who struggle with an addiction to cocaine.

Compulsive cocaine addiction in both humans and rats can dull activity in the prefrontal cortex, a region of the brain that is believed to be important fo impulse control and decision making.

For the study, scientists used genetic engineering to transform neurons in the rats' prefrontal cortex into a switch. They then implanted light-sensitive proteins known as rhodopsins in the neurons that they could then turn on and off with a laser light. Researcher Antonello Bonci, scientific director of the intramural research program at the National Institute of Drug Abuse, which is a part of the National Institutes of Health, said:

"When we turn on a laser light in the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex, the compulsive cocaine seeking is gone."

Scientists announced on Wednesday that a $2 billion particle detector - the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) - that is attached to the International Space Station has detected the possible signature of dark matter annihilation in the Cosmos.

The AMS was attached to the space station in May 2011 by the space shuttle Endeavour on its second to last mission to the orbital outpost. Since being placed, the AMS has been detecting electrons and positrons originating from deep space and has been assessing their energies. Physicists hope that by tallying up the electrons and positrons, the AMS will help to answer one of the biggest mysteries in science: does dark matter exist?

It looks as though the answer may be a possible yes.

Roughly 400,000 positron detections of energies consistent with the signature of dark matter have been confirmed in the AMS' first batch of data.

Dark matter is believed to make up 80 percent of all matter in the universe, while the rest is babyonic matter, such as the stuff that we are made of. This means that the majority of matter is locked up in an invisible component of matter. This matter is dark and does not interact with electromagnetic radiation. Because dark matter still carries mass that has a gravitational effect on space-time, scientists can detect its gravitational presence through indirect means.

Scientific theory suggests that Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles, or WIMPs, could be a part of non-baryonic matter. WIMPs are their own anti-particles, so when two WIMPs collide, they annihilate and produce positrons and electrons. For physicists to confirm WIMP annihilation occurs, the positrons must have a specific energy signature.

Positrons with energies of 0.5 GeV to 250 GeV have been recorded by the AMS. This constitutes the largest collection of antimatter particles recorded in space. The data collected is consistent with theory that WIMPS are out in space, annihilating. Also bolstering the theory that dark matter permeates the entire universe is the fact that the positrons are originating from all directions.