ENVIRONMENT: NEWS IN BRIEF

Credit: Pixabay

Credit: Masato Hattori

PLANKTON AND FISH REACT TO CLIMATE CHANGE

Global simulations suggest plankton and fish species are showing resilience to climate change by going deeper underwater or moving to higher latitudes.

Credit: Clay Bolt

WORLD’S LARGEST BEE, THOUGHT EXTINCT, REDISCOVERED IN THE WILD

With an estimated wingspan of two and a half inches, Wallace’s giant bee (Megachile pluto) is the world’s largest bee. First described by British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1858, the bee had been lost to science since 1981. A single female bee was found and photographed in 2019, in an undisclosed location in the North Moluccas islands of Indonesia.

Credit: Hokkaido University Fossil coral records provide new evidence that frequent winter dust storms and a prolonged cold winter season contributed to the collapse of the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, which existed from 24th to 22nd century B.C.E. The 4,100-year-old coral fossil (pictured) was collected in Oman, downwind of the Mesopotamia region.

A NEW DUCK-BILLED DINOSAUR

Kamuysaurus japonicus, whose nearly complete skeleton was unearthed from 72-million-year-old marine deposits in Mukawa

Town in northern Japan, belongs to a new genus and is a new species of herbivorous hadrosaurid dinosaur.

Credit: Kyoungchae Kim, Public Relations Team, UNIST

THIN FILM CONVERTS WASTE HEAT INTO ELECTRICITY

Researchers develop a low-cost thermoelectric material made of tin and selenium that efficiently converts waste heat into electricity with ten times higher electrical properties than a previous study.

STRONG WINTER DUST STORMS MAY HAVE CAUSED THE COLLAPSE OF ANCIENT EMPIRE

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STUDY OFFERS VERDICT FOR CHINA’S EFFORTS ON COAL EMISSIONS

China’s efforts on emission reductions, air quality improvement and human health protection were effective. Similar measures could be used in countries such as India to help them reduce emissions alongside rapid economic growth.

Credit: Maciej Olszewski | 123rf

WEEVILS THWARTED BY LEAVES’ COMPLICATED GEOMETRY

The leaf shapes of certain species of the Isodon group of flowering plants act as deterrents against a leaf-rolling weevil. Female insects, which cut leaves and roll them up to provide shelter for their eggs, appear to prefer simpler shaped leaves.

Credit: National University of Singapore

SMARTPHONE DEVICE DETECTS HARMFUL ALGAE IN 15 MINUTES

Scientists have created a highly sensitive system combined with a smartphone that detects the presence of toxin-producing algae in water within 15 minutes.

Credit: Tadasu K. Yamada et al., Scientific Reports

NEW WHALE SPECIES IDENTIFIED ALONG THE COAST OF HOKKAIDO

The new beaked whale species Berardius minimus, which had long been called Kurotsuchikujira (black Baird’s beaked whale) by locals, is smaller than other Berardius species.