Just when you think the ocean couldn’t get any weirder, it turns out there are viruses in it.
A new study reveals there are almost 200,000 distinct viral populations in the ocean.
That’s a lot more viruses than we previously thought.
A liter of sea water contains anywhere between 1-10 billion virus particles—most of which we don’t know anything about. Our understanding of these elusive microbial communities has just been coming into focus over the last few decades, and this new research is a huge step toward better understanding our oceans.
Previously, highest number we had for ocean viral populations was about 15,000, but this new study pretty much blows that already impressive number out of the water.
From 2009 to 2013, researchers analyzed samples from about 80 different sites all over the world, from sunny surfaces to thousands of meters down into the depths. They found more than 180,000 additional unique viral populations, bringing the total number of distinct viral populations to almost 200,000. And the diversity of these new populations is nothing short of impressive.
Understanding how viruses interact with bacteria is important to human health and viruses also play essential roles outside of our bodies.
Viruses kill so many marine microbes they actually release a really significant amount of carbon back into the environment, playing a critical role in the food chain, all the way down at the very bottom.
Viruses continue to be very mysterious and though this project uncovered a lot of new populations, there is still a lot we just don’t know.
Find out more about the newest viral populations, how they were discovered, and more on this episode of Elements.
Climate change threatens to make dry regions even drier, so scientists at UC Berkeley created a device to make water out of thin air.
At least one hundred million people live in desert regions around the world according to the UN, and they survive off of less than 25 cm of rainfall each year, and for many, even that minuscule water supply is under threat as the climate crisis is making dry areas even drier. So scientists at UC Berkeley have been experimenting with materials that can pull drinking water out of thin air.
That’s right, right out of thin air.
A chemist at the University of California, Berkeley reported that he and his colleagues have created a solar-powered device that could provide water to millions living in water-stressed regions.
At the device’s heart is a porous crystalline material, known as a metal-organic framework (MOF), that acts like a sponge: It sucks water vapor out of air, even in the desert, and then releases it as liquid water.
A single gram of an MOF can have the surface area of a football field, and depending on the metal and organic molecules they’re made of, MOFs can be tailored to capture various different things in their pores. For example, an MOF could have the ability to capture CO2 and turn it into the fuel methanol, or neutralizing nerve agents like sarin gas. The function the Berkeley scientists used their MOF for was extracting water vapor that’s present in the air.
The lead researcher behind the device started a private company called Water Harvesting.
The company’s plan is to launch a microwave-sized device that can supply 2 adults with enough water for their daily hydration and cooking needs. Eventually the research team envisions a harvester device big enough to supply a small village. If the devices end up being affordable, safe, and reliable enough, these metal-organic frameworks have the potential to turn even the driest desert into an oasis.
This lab is planning to test the world’s first solar geoengineering experiment in the field. Here’s why that’s so controversial.
Solar geoengineering, an idea that picked up steam over a decade ago when a Nobel Prize winning scientist called for more research on this climate engineering intervention, is back in the news. The idea made it into the 2019 UN Environment Assembly agenda and was used to kickstart a global conversation surrounding the contentious response to the climate crisis.
With growing urgency and scientific interest, a team at Harvard University took up the charge to investigate solar geoengineering in a fully fledged research program.
Solar geoengineering involves a plan that would disperse particles into the stratosphere and could ultimately reduce global temperatures by bouncing the Sun’s rays back into space.
However, this type of geoengineering intervention would not fix the root cause, which is the rising funnel of greenhouse gas emissions that are getting trapped in our atmosphere.
