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Overnight News Digest - Science Saturday- Earth, Sharks, Diabetes, Gold Coins, Universe’s age [1]
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Date: 2023-07-15
Earth has tilted 31.5 inches on axis
Universe looks like it’s twice as old as it was thought to be
Sharks in New York’s waters are a good thing
NASA’s deepest fly-through of the universe
Treating diabetics with healthy food prescriptions
Civil War-era coins found in cornfield
The no-wash movement — foregoing laundry
How to reduce exposure to microplastics
Birds’ divorce grounds
Citizen science — Searching for Kilolnovae (cosmic explosions)
Popular Mechanics
by Tim Newcomb
Earth Has Tilted 31.5 Inches. That Shouldn't Happen
Water has power. So much power, in fact, that pumping Earth’s groundwater can change the planet’s tilt and rotation. It can also impact sea-level rise and other consequences of climate change. Pumping groundwater appears to have a greater consequence than ever previously thought. But now—thanks to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters—we can see that, in less than two decades, Earth has tilted 31.5 inches as a result of pumping groundwater. This equates to .24 inches of sea level rise. “Earth’s rotational pole actually changes a lot,” Ki-Weon Seo, a geophysicist at Seoul National University and study lead, says in a statement. “Our study shows that among climate-related causes, the redistribution of groundwater actually has the largest impact on the drift of the rotational pole.”
PHYS.org
by Bernard Rizk
New research puts age of universe at 26.7 billion years, nearly twice as old as previously believed
Our universe could be twice as old as current estimates, according to a new study that challenges the dominant cosmological model and sheds new light on the so-called "impossible early galaxy problem." The work is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. "Our newly-devised model stretches the galaxy formation time by a several billion years, making the universe 26.7 billion years old, and not 13.7 as previously estimated," says author Rajendra Gupta, adjunct professor of physics in the Faculty of Science at the University of Ottawa. For years, astronomers and physicists have calculated the age of our universe by measuring the time elapsed since the Big Bang and by studying the oldest stars based on the redshift of light coming from distant galaxies. In 2021, thanks to new techniques and advances in technology, the age of our universe was thus estimated at 13.797 billion years using the Lambda-CDM concordance model.
Vox
by Benji Jones
New York’s shark-infested waters are a good thing. Yes, really.
In most past summers, New York beaches were, at their worst, crowded, dirty, and loud. Now, however, beachgoers must contend with something slightly more unsettling: sharks. Along the south shore of Long Island, on some of New York’s most popular beaches, shark attacks appear to be on the rise. Over the long July Fourth weekend, several people reported being bitten, including two 15-year-olds. The bites were not fatal, and no one lost a limb. These reports follow a record of eight confirmed shark bites last summer, some of which may have been caused by sand tiger sharks. Prior to 2022, no year in at least the last three decades had more than two confirmed shark bites in New York, according to data shared with Vox from the University of Florida, which compiles statistics on shark attacks. Shark bites are, of course, frightening, but there’s actually a bit of good news behind the recent spate of attacks. A rise in bites typically points to a rise in sharks, and a rise in sharks indicates that the marine habitat is full of fish, i.e., shark food.
Big Think
by Ethan Siegel
NASA’s deepest 3D fly-through of the Universe
With our own naked eyes, we can only see the stars and nebulae of the Milky Way and a few other nearby galaxies: all within our gravitationally bound Local Group.
But thanks to a variety of observatories, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Hubble, and now JWST, we can see what the Universe is like both near and far.
With their newest visualization based on CEERS data taken with JWST, we can now "fly through" the Universe all the way back to when it was just 3% of its current age. Here's what it looks like!
New Atlas
by Bronwyn Thompson
Study makes the case for prescribing fruit and veg to treat diabetes
You’d find few arguments in the science world that a diet rich in fruit and vegetables doesn't have wide-ranging health benefits. Now, a new study suggests that prescribing patients with type 2 diabetes could prevent 296,000 cases of cardiovascular disease and save US$39.6 billion in health-care spending in the US over 25 years. Using a model based on 6.5 million Americans aged 40-79 years who had both diabetes and food insecurity, as reported in three cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the simulation estimated that a national prescription program that provided free fruit and vegetables could have a significant impact on health outcomes.
Live Science
by Kristina Killgrove
Kentucky man finds over 700 Civil War-era coins in his cornfield
A Kentucky man got the surprise of his life while digging in his field earlier this year: a cache of over 700 coins from the American Civil War era. The "Great Kentucky Hoard" includes hundreds of U.S. gold pieces dating to between 1840 and 1863, in addition to a handful of silver coins. In a short video , the man who discovered the hoard — whose identity and specific location have not been revealed to the public — says, "This is the most insane thing ever: Those are all $1 gold coins, $20 gold coins, $10 gold coins," as he aims his camera at the artifacts tumbling out of the dirt. According to the Numismatic Guaranty Co. (NGC), which certified the coins' authenticity, and GovMint , where the coins were sold, 95% of the hoard is composed of gold dollars, along with 20 $10 Liberty coins and eight $20 Liberty coins. The rarest is the 1863-P $20 1-ounce gold Liberty coin. Just one of these coins can go for six figures at auction, and the Great Kentucky Hoard boasts 18 of them.
The Guardian
by Emine Saner
The no-wash movement: would you wear underpants for a week without cleaning them?
Do you need to wash your T-shirts after every wear? Probably not. What about your knickers? That depends. But more and more people are eschewing detergent to save time, money and the environment. […]
The climate crisis may finally have persuaded us to consider the environmental impact of hot washes, water usage and carbon-intensive detergents, while recent increases in energy prices have focused the mind on how much each load is costing us. ]…[
When it comes to what we wear, trying to choose more environmentally conscious clothing is increasingly mainstream – many of us buy less, or secondhand, or supposedly “ethical” brands. But that is only the start, says Charlotte, who works in sustainability and fashion. “Post-purchase washing has a really big impact. Cold washing, only washing when you need to, wearing things for longer – these are of equal, if not greater, importance from a consumer decision-making point of view than buying a ‘sustainable’ brand or more sustainable fibre.”
The Guardian
by Amy Fleming
‘They’re in the air, drinking water, dust, food …’ How to reduce your exposure to microplastics
Invisible specks of eroded plastic from long-forgotten toothbrushes, sweet wrappers and stocking-filler toys are everywhere. They live in our laundry bins, the Mariana trench and the human bloodstream. Microplastic particles can be small enough to infiltrate biological barriers such as the gut, skin and placental tissue. We are all now partially plastic – but how worried should we be, and is there any way to minimise our exposure? Food and drink sealed in plastic has long been associated with cleanliness, purity and protection from contamination, but we now know that some of the highest exposures to microplastics, says Wright, “are likely to come from processed and packaged foods and drinks”. The shedding of plastic is increased when containers are exposed to heat. “Hot water in plastic-lined cups and takeaway containers also release micro- and nanoparticles, in some cases trillions per litre, although whether these are true plastic particles is unknown.” Wright says that to reduce exposure to microplastics, “I would start by not heating anything in plastic, or consuming hot liquid that has come into contact with plastic”. This includes microwaving food in Tupperware or ready-to-heat products such as boil-in-the-bag rice and “food-grade nylon used for food packaging, as liners for baking pans in restaurants and commercial kitchens and in slow cookers in household kitchens”. When it comes to water, she chooses tap over bottled: “Some bottled waters – including glass bottles – contain thousands of microplastic particles per litre.” And, ideally, she would take it filtered. When I mention filtering to Mark Taylor, chief environmental scientist at the Environmental Protection Authority in the Australian state of Victoria, he points out that home water filters are usually plastic, too: “Ultimately it will start to shed because it will degrade.”
The Guardian
by Nicola Davis
Birds may ‘divorce’ due to promiscuity or long spells apart
Affairs or lengthy spells apart commonly spell divorce for human couples – but it seems similar factors play a role in breakups among birds. It is thought more than 90% of bird species generally have a single mate over at least one breeding season, if not longer. However, some monogamous birds switch to a different partner for a subsequent breeding season despite their original mate remaining alive – a behaviour labelled “divorce”. While a number of studies have looked at possible factors associated with such breakups, experts say these tend to focus on individual species or groups of species. Now researchers say they have found two key factors that are involved in divorce across a broad range of bird species: male promiscuity and long-distance migrations.
Zooniverse
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