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We May Have Accidentally Formed a Protective Bubble Around Earth
The long wavelengths, beamed from large towers on the ground are unique in their ability to travel through salty water but some end up in space instead. According to a new report, they may be forming a protective bubble around the Earth’s atmosphere. The Van Allen radiation belts are zones where charged particles streaming from the sun get stuck in Earth’s magnetic field where the high energy protons and electrons can destroy a satellite’s electronics, which is a constant concern because the belts don’t always stay in one place. The conventional wisdom is that the inner edge of the outer belt kind of moves in and out as the atmosphere especially ionosphere and plasmasphere grows and shrinks, a space plasma physicist at MIT. The edge of where these very powerful radio signals stop is the same place where the electrons stop coming in. Nowadays, when electrons shooting out from a solar storm approach Earth, VLF waves deflect them, knocking them off their trajectory and pushing them into the atmosphere, where they get lost.
Source: https://www.popsci.com/radio-wave-shield-space-weather
How Fast Is the World’s Fastest Human?
In 2009 Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt set the world record in the 100-meter sprint at 9.58 seconds. Speed is the rate at which an object that moves through time; represented mathematically as speed = d/t (in which d is distance and t is time). That means that Bolt’s speed during his world-record run was 10.44 meters per second. From a biomechanical perspective, the fastest sprinters are relatively short, and their muscles are loaded with fast-twitch fibers for rapid acceleration. The elite sprinter is a compact athlete, not a tall and lean one but Bolt's had literally head and shoulders above the other competitors, Bolt should be last off the blocks and last across the finish line. And yet he is the fastest man in the world.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/story/is-27-an-especially-deadly-age-for-musicians
What Makes a Species Endangered?
Over 7,000 species around the world are considered endangered. The number doesn’t even include the plants, animals, and other life-forms that are listed by some scientists as vulnerable, critically endangered, or extinct in the wild—all rankings that mean a species is inching closer and closer to ill-fated extinction. An endangered species is one that meets any one of the following criteria of 50–70% population decrease over 10 years, a total geographic area less than 5,000 km2, a population size less than 2,500 adults, a restricted population of 250 adults, or a statistical prediction that it will go extinct within the next 20 years. Though the IUCN’s Red List covers a wide range of what qualifies as an endangered species, it doesn’t quite say how a species reaches those low points. Loss of habitat, the introduction of a foreign species into the environment, hunting, pollution, disease, and loss of genetic variation are all causes of species decline and most often are a result of human activities. The effect was positive, as bald eagles are on the rise and were taken off of the endangered species list in 1995.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/story/what-makes-a-species-endangered
Do Camels Store Water in Their Humps?
Camels also know as the "Ships of the desert" have long been known for their ability to go weeks at a time without needing to drink water-an ability that makes them particularly useful pack animals for people traveling across arid environments. Camels are also known for their prominent humps, which leads many people to believe that these are used to store water for access at a later time. Camel's hump actually stores fatty tissue, not water, which is used as a source of nourishment when food is scarce. The humps can deflate and droop if the camel has gone a particularly long time without food, but they will sit upright again once the camel is able to refuel. An important feature in the desert, where temperatures can be extremely high during the day and drop drastically at night, Camel's hump helps the animal to regulate its body temperature. Although the humps do not store water, camels are still incredibly efficient in the amount of water they use per day, which is why they are able to go nearly a week without drinking. Without its humps, a camel would be more likely to overheat and sweat-but it's still the oval-shaped blood cells that help the camel retain so much water, not the humps.
Source:https://www.britannica.com/story/do-camels-store-water-in-their-humps
Hawaii's Erupting Volcano Is Making It Rain Green Gems
Hawaiian residents have been dealing with the fallout of an angry volcano ever since Kilauea began erupting, sometimes the mount spews hot fire, endangering citizens but right now, it's also spewing green crystals. These stones are known as olivine crystals which are common minerals found the world over, and seeing them in Hawaii is nothing out of the ordinary. The crystals are carried along with lava out of the volcano and into the sky which instantly cools in the air. When that happens, it turns into a rock known as pumice, the transformation is so sudden that gasses are trapped within the pumice and force their way out, leaving the rock lighter and full of holes. From these holes, olivine rains over the island. In Hawaiian history Kilauea has been an influential force continually changing the nature of the island, Hawaiians wish it would take a break.
Dark Chocolate is Good for Your Brain; It Makes you Happy and Smarter
Dark chocolate is not only good for your brain, but it also makes you happy. Dark chocolate promotes blood flow to the brain which contains flavonoids that promote blood flow to the brain which enhances memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem-solving skills. Dark chocolate is rich in antioxidants packed with antioxidants that fight free radicals. It also contains magnesium, which promotes relaxation and reduces stress by suppressing the release of the stress hormone cortisol. Particularly high-quality dark chocolate which is made out of organic cocoa beans helps to reduce junk food cravings of all kinds. The best dark chocolate always has cocoa listed as the first ingredient and must have at least 70 percent of cocoa so, you need to buy the one that is organic which has more high-quality, ethically sourced, and pesticide-free.
Source :https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-10-09-dark-chocolate-is-good-for-your-brain-makes-you-happy.html
Why Is the Ocean Salty?
This famous line ,“Water, water everywhere,/ Nor any drop to drink” spoken by the lost sailor in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", sums up one of the basic difficulties of life at sea: humans need water to survive, but seawater is too salty to drink. Most of the Earth is covered with undrinkable water where the ocean covers at least 70 percent of the Earth’s surface and account for about 97 percent of all water. The average salt content of ocean water is 35 parts per thousand, while it may not sound like much but it works out to 120 million tons of salt per cubic mile of seawater and there are about 332,519,000 cubic miles of water in the ocean. So, the salt comes from the land, as the rain forms and falls through the air which accumulates carbon dioxide from the atmosphere causing it to become slightly acidic which actually flows over the land and erodes rocks, picks up small amounts of salt and other dissolved minerals. At this point, the water is still basically fresh; there is some salt in it but usually not enough to make it undrinkable though, most rainwater finds its way to the ocean. Once it gets there, some of the dissolved minerals like calcium are removed from the water by biological processes, but salt tends to remain Additional salt is contributed by underwater hydrothermal and volcanic activity.
Source:https://www.britannica.com/story/why-is-the-ocean-salty
When You Should Eat Breakfast—And When You Can Probably Skip It
Most people would benefit from eating something in the mornings, the impact of breakfast has focused on short-term effects rather than long-term impacts since there’s no conclusive evidence that skipping the meal is damaging to your health where our body response to breakfast is mostly positive. According to some studies, breakfast skippers on the other hand smoke, drink more and exercise less but in average people who do eat breakfast are less overweight, less obese and less likely to have diabetes. Ultimately, eating breakfast gives your body another chance to get the nutrients it needs, If you spread out your nutrients, it gives your body the best cycle for metabolism. Participants burned more calories after they skipped breakfast, however, there may be a risk to doing so. Based on a 2017 study it was found that skipping breakfast may cause inflammation and affect negatively affect a person’s insulin sensitivity, which affects how well the body regulates the amount of glucose in their blood.
Source : https://www.popsci.com/when-you-should-eat-or-skip-breakfast#page-3
The Unmet Promise of Big Data in Policing
A nation without an organized police force is hard to imagine but it’s a fairly modern invention. Law enforcement has evolved a lot and in recent decades, information technology has emerged as a significant player in policing. Back in the 60s, police were able to count how many robberies happened in a day but Today, the same sort of case file can have detailed information like the address, CCTV footage and text reports that police have written about the incident. These days the police have body camera video documentation and detailed descriptions of the force incidents. Only 45 percent of crimes are solved so basically the percentage of crimes that the police solve has been the same in the US since the 60’s. There ’s been no change in that rate of solving crimes even though we have digitized a lot of records, but it’s still not enough maybe we’re not digitized enough to see the impact, yet.
Source: https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/society/2018/unmet-promise-big-data-policing
The Future of Work: Will Robots Take my Job?
As US banks started installing automated teller machines in a big way, the human tellers who worked in those banks seemed to be facing rapid discontinuance. The machines will eventually exceed human capabilities and will move beyond our control and perhaps even trigger the collapse of human civilization. There are currently about 2 million industrial robots in use globally, each of them taking the place of one or more human workers mostly in automotive and electronics assembly lines. It becomes more difficult to automate when you have a lot of variability and customization, and flexibility is required. The experts are hardly close to a consensus on whether robotics and artificial intelligence will result in more jobs, or fewer jobs, but they will certainly change jobs. So if we don't make a change now and gradually phase things over the next 20 years it will probably be unmanageable and impossible to handle.
Source: https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/technology/2018/future-work-will-robots-take-my-job
Spiders are Secretly Great Roommates
It’s natural to fear spiders but almost all are venomous. There are some species of spider that enjoy great indoors and are usually secretive, not all you meet are dangerous. Some of them are generalist predators, apt to eat anything they can catch, spiders regularly capture nuisance pests and even disease-carrying insect-like mosquitoes. There’s even a species of jumping spider that prefers to eat blood-filled mosquitoes in African homes. If you truly can’t stand spiders instead of smashing it, try to catch it and release it outside so, both parties will be happier with the outcome. So consider a live-and-let-live approach to the next spider you encounter.
Source : https://www.popsci.com/killing-spiders#page-3
As the Arctic Warms, it’s Losing More Than Just Ice
Arctic sea ice has reached its yearly minimum size at its 6th lowest area of coverage in the 39-year satellite record. The ice’s role is to keep the planet cool, but due to the Earth’s rising temperature, the seasonal loss of sea ice is worrisome because with less amount of ice bounces sunlight back into space. This causes oceans to warm up faster. If the oceans get warmer, there's going to be lack of ice on the planet causing a warmer planet. This also could affect the abundant life found inside and just underneath the sea ice hugging the planet’s poles. At its lowest, the Antarctic sea ice remains nearly the size of Argentina.
Source: https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/sustainability/2018/arctic-warms-its-losing-more-just-ice
