Monday Morning Coffee Break: October 17

(Credit: Psammophile) 

#sedimentcore #climatechange #environmentalchange #oceans

In the News: Biodiversity in Beer and Nut-cracking Monkeys

Fig.1. Some beer labels now display Genebank accession numbers. (Credit: Ove Fosså.)

A powerful DNA tool holds the answers to crop population genetic variations, and archaeologists discover tools that monkeys used to get their nut fix. That and more in our science news roundup.

• As we shared last week in our video, high-throughput sequencing is a powerful tool available to scientists. This team used it to identify small genetic differences in plant crop populations: Exploring Genetic Diversity in Plants Using High-Throughput Sequencing Techniques, Current Genomics (August 2016)
• We've talked about beer made with wild yeast - here's an assessment of how many barley varieties are actually utilized by the industry. You know the number is low when there is a brewery putting Genebank accession numbers on its labels: The biodiversity of beer, Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog (5 July 2016)
• Ocean ice and sediment cores reveal a new connection between ocean circulation and climate patterns during the last ice age: Ocean circulation implicated in past abrupt climate changes, Science Daily (30 June 2016) 
• Humans aren’t the only ones with a history of using tools. Primate archaeologists have found evidence of 700-year-old tools used by capuchin monkeys to crack open nuts: Monkeys used stone tools 700 years ago, BBC News (12 July 2016)
• If you study cancer, you probably were excited to hear about a new initiative to double the world’s number of cancer cell lines available to researchers (to 1,000!): Global Initiative Seeks 1,000 New Cancer Models, Scientific American (11 July 2016)

In the News: Creating Art and Spreading Hope

Fig.1. Humpback whale breaching in Stellwagen Bank National
Marine Sanctuary (Credit: Whit Welles/2008)

Amidst fears for the planet’s future, these artists and marine biologists have a clear message of hope. From an active campaign to spread the word, to art that engages children and researchers, we can celebrate the biodiversity and beauty of our oceans. 

Mercury in a Time of War

Fig.1. British sailors towing warships toward the besieged city of Canton
in 1841 during the First Opium War (Credit: Edward Hodges Cree)

Since industrialization, mercury levels in our oceans have tripled. This toxic heavy metal is one of many pollutants that can be seen in environmental records as a testament to human activities in the past. A recent article published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology found a new type of environmental record that measures mercury levels in the seawater through time.

Fossils and our Future Climate

Fig.1. 40 million year old fossil planktonic foraminifera from Tanzania 
(Credit: Paul Pearson/Cardiff University)

According to a study published this week in the journal Nature, tiny fossils from 53 million to 36 million years ago may help to predict the future of climate change. This research, led by scientists from the University of Southampton and partners around the United Kingdom, sheds light on the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and climate during an ancient period in Earth’s history known as the Eocene Epoch.

Sea Turtles and Atomic Bombs

Fig.1. Hawksbill sea turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata
(Credit: Clark Anderson/Aquaimages, 2006)

At 5:30 a.m. on July 16, 1945, the first nuclear weapon was detonated under code name “Trinity.” Although disagreement still remains as to the start or nature of the Anthropocene, many scientists agree that nuclear weapons testing caused a widespread anthropogenic signal in the geologic record. In a couple short decades, these weapons tests doubled the amount of the radioactive isotope carbon-14 in our atmosphere. The isotope in the air entered plants during photosynthesis and animal tissues as animals ate the plants, leaving behind a radioactive trace in the natural world.

 

A Year in the Life of "Collections in the News"

Fig.1. SciColl secretariat is housed at the National Museum of Natural History in D.C.
(Credit: Don DeBold, 2012) 

With 158 articles published and more than a year underway, Collections in the News has sought to raise awareness about ongoing research done with scientific collections. This year brought visitors from 95 countries to our blog who read about a disease detective at the National Museum of Natural History, stopped for their Monday morning coffee break each week, and had the chance to learn how microbes and mammoth bones teach us more about our world.

Some blog highlights for 2015 include article series on international efforts that work to protect the planet’s soils and address climate change problems. We also participated in GIF week with Deep Sea News and celebrated Thanksgiving with maize scientists. Read more below about these article series!

The Dawn of Birds

Fig.1. A green-naped lorikeet, a little owl, an Adélie penguin, and a northern cardinal show only a fraction of the remarkable diversity of birds (Credit: Benjamint, 2009; Trebol-a, 2011; Reinhard Jahn, 2007; & Stephen Wolfe, 2011)

Around 65 million years ago, one of the largest mass extinction events in Earth’s history occurred. An estimated 75 percent of all species went extinct, from non-avian dinosaurs to types of mollusks, plankton, insects, and plants. With extinction, however, came the chance for animals like birds to diversify and expand into empty ecological niches in a process called adaptive radiation. Although the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event (K-Pg) may have enabled the rapid evolution of new species of birds, research published last Friday in the journal Science Advances suggests that birds have a much longer and more complicated history than previously thought.

In the News: Moby-Dick and the Future Seas

via GIPHY

As the climate talks in Paris come to a close - and as we wrap up GIF week with Deep Sea News - we learn more about ancient and recent marine collections that might save our warming seas. This week, we read about a miniature "Moby-Dick" from ancient times, the future of the Mediterranean, citizen science efforts, and more:

Bones of Coral Reefs

Fig.1. Coral depends upon algae for survival (Credit:via GIPHY)

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just off the small island of Kiritimati, corals are dying off at an astonishing rate. The small atoll, also called Christmas Island, suffers from high water temperatures caused by the current El Niño that have reached 4℃ above normal. Although these temperatures might be nice for a beachgoer, they do not bode well for the survival of the atoll’s extensive coral reefs.

In the News: Mammoths and Men

Fig.1. Mammoth skeleton at the George C. Page Museum
(Credit: Russ via Flickr, 2014)

Artifacts, sediment cores, and mammoth bones all connect us to ancient history, either through culture or the natural world. This week in the news, we read about how to examine the past using old collections in new ways:

Of Ice and Insects

Fig.1. Greenland Ice Sheet (Credit: Christine Zenino, 2009)

Researchers at Stockholm University, Plymouth University, and the Natural History Museum, London (NHM) may have solved one of the most enduring puzzles from the last Ice Age. Around 12,880 years ago, the Northern Hemisphere experienced a sharp change in temperatures that culminated in a decrease of about 5℃ over 400 years. This event, called the Younger Dryas, is well documented in environmental records, but the cause had been largely unknown. In a study recently published in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers brought together three types of collections to address this mystery.

In the News: Bones of Blue Whales

Fig.1. Blue whale from above
(Credit: NOAA Fisheries, 2007)

What happens when a blue whale washes up on shore? This week in the news, scientists and students had the chance of a lifetime to study rare animals from around the world, from blue whales in Oregon to mysterious arachnids near the Dead Sea.

In the News: Filter-Feeders and Whale Drones

Fig.1. This basking shark is one of several species that independently evolved the ability to filter feed (Credit: Greg Skormal/NOAA Fisheries Service, 2011)

Breathalyzer tests for whales and climate change-fighting sea creatures are part of ongoing research in marine animal science. Read to learn more about checking the health of whales, the unusual octopus genome, plankton-feeding sharks, and more!

Monday Morning Coffee Break: Sept. 14

(Credit: Department of Fisheries and Oceans) 

#newspecies #discovery #DNA #oceans

Monday Morning Coffee Break: Aug. 17

(Credit: Emanuele Lodolo) 

#discovery #monolith #Stonehenge #ocean

In the News: Surveys and Shark Whisperers

Fig.1. Conservation efforts are necessary to keep these animals in the oceans (Credit: Wyland, USFW via Flickr, 2012)

Between shark whisperers and access to a soon to be unprecedented amount of survey data, scientists hope to better their understanding of these elusive creatures. Rather than portraying them as the monsters of “Shark Week,” these studies hope to address ongoing conservation issues that go beyond just sharks and affect the entire ocean:

Monday Morning Coffee Break: June 8

Editor's Note: In honor of World Oceans Day, we wanted our weekly installment of Monday Morning Coffee Break to reflect the day. Enjoy the very cool article about Google using its Street View technology beyond the streets.

(Credit: Google) 

#ocean #Google #WorldOceansDay #streetview #marinelife #wildlife

Monday Morning Coffee Break: June 1

(Credit: RTE News) 

#ocean #plankton #marinelife #study #research