Ice-core freezer gets upgrade

The refrigeration system that houses the largest collection of climate-tracking ice cores is about to slash its environmental footprint by switching away from ozone-harming coolants.  The US National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility in Denver, Colorado holds 25,000 metres of ice cores at -36?, using outdated hydrochlorofluorocarbon refrigerants.  A major refurbishment of the freezer will see it switch to ‘transcritical’ CO2, which behaves as liquid and gas simultaneously.

Asian elephant given first herpes vaccine

An adult female Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) in a zoo in the United States has received the first ever mRNA vaccine against elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV), as part of a trial. The vaccine is designed to boost the immunity of young calves, and prevent serious illness and death.  EEHV is the leading killer of Asian elephant calves in captivity, but the disease has also been seen in African elephants and in wild populations.

Europe cursed by plague 5,000 years ago

“Call it a mystery,” says archaeologist Karl-Göran Sjögren of the sharp decline in Neolithic populations in Europe around 5,400 years ago.  “We have no real explanation for it.” Now, sequencing of ancient DNA from 108 individuals buried in tombs in Sweden and Denmark is pointing the finger at the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis — present in 18 of them when they died.  The researchers identified three different plague strains from the tombs.  It is unknown if these ancient strains were as deadly as the bubonic plague that wiped out one third of Medieval Europeans, but in one tomb nearly two generations of the same family died with active Y. pestis infections.

Climate change is making days longer

Melting ice sheets are making the Earth spin more slowly, so each day lasts longer.  As ice at the poles melts, the water is redistributed, with more pooling around the equator than before.  This ‘fattening’ of the planet slows its spin by around 1 millisecond per century, and the effect could reach 2.6 milliseconds per century by 2100.  “We can see our impact as humans on the whole Earth system, not just locally, like the rise in temperature, but really fundamentally, altering how it moves in space and rotates,” says geophysicist and study co-author Benedikt Soja.

The oceans are getting sicker

As human activities, including climate change, put more stress on the oceans, new marine diseases and pathogens are emerging.  The result has been harmful blooms of toxic algae caused by warming seas, mass die-offs of marine species and disease outbreaks of increasing severity and frequency.  Ocean scientists worry that for too long, marine diseases have been ignored.  “We need to study them on equal footing with things like overfishing and pollution,” says marine ecologist Kevin Lafferty.

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