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Categories: Geoscience: Severe Weather, Space: Cosmology
Published Researchers identify largest ever solar storm in ancient 14,300-year-old tree rings



An international team of scientists have discovered a huge spike in radiocarbon levels 14,300 years ago by analyzing ancient tree-rings found in the French Alps. The radiocarbon spike was caused by a massive solar storm, the biggest ever identified. A similar solar storm today would be catastrophic for modern technological society – potentially wiping out telecommunications and satellite systems, causing massive electricity grid blackouts, and costing us billions. The academics are warning of the importance of understanding such storms to protect our global communications and energy infrastructure for the future.
Published The Gulf Stream is warming and shifting closer to shore



The Gulf Stream is intrinsic to the global climate system, bringing warm waters from the Caribbean up the East Coast of the United States. As it flows along the coast and then across the Atlantic Ocean, this powerful ocean current influences weather patterns and storms, and it carries heat from the tropics to higher latitudes as part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation. A new study now documents that over the past 20 years, the Gulf Stream has warmed faster than the global ocean as a whole and has shifted towards the coast. The study relies on over 25,000 temperature and salinity profiles collected between 2001 and 2023.
Published Climate-driven extreme heat may make parts of Earth too hot for humans



If global temperatures increase by 1 degree Celsius (C) or more than current levels, each year billions of people will be exposed to heat and humidity so extreme they will be unable to naturally cool themselves, according to interdisciplinary research. Results indicated that warming of the planet beyond 1.5 C above preindustrial levels will be increasingly devastating for human health across the planet.
Published Pulsars may make dark matter glow



The central question in the ongoing hunt for dark matter is: what is it made of? One possible answer is that dark matter consists of particles known as axions. A team of astrophysicists has now shown that if dark matter consists of axions, it may reveal itself in the form of a subtle additional glow coming from pulsating stars.
Published Climate change brings earlier arrival of intense hurricanes



New research has revealed that since the 1980s, Category 4 and 5 hurricanes (maximum wind speed greater than 131 miles per hour) have been arriving three to four days earlier with each passing decade of climate change.
Published Comfort with a smaller carbon footprint



Researchers have developed a data-driven AI algorithm for controlling the heating and cooling of an office building. The system does not require ambient sensors or specific knowledge of the building's rooms. During heating operations, the system was able to achieve energy savings of up to 30%, which can represent significant reductions to cost and environmental impact.
Published Two-dimensional compounds can capture carbon from the air



Some of the thinnest materials known to humankind -- MXene and MBene compounds -- may provide solutions to scientists in their quest to curb the effects of global warming. These substances are only a few atoms thick, making them two-dimensional. Because of their large surface area, the materials have the potential to absorb carbon dioxide molecules from the atmosphere, which could help reduce the harmful effects of climate change by safely sequestering carbon dioxide, according to a review study.
Published Study identifies jet-stream pattern that locks in extreme winter cold, wet spells



Winter is coming—eventually. And while the earth is warming, a new study suggests that the atmosphere is being pushed around in ways that cause long bouts of extreme winter cold or wet in some regions. The study’s authors say they have identified giant meanders in the global jet stream that bring polar air southward, locking in frigid or wet conditions concurrently over much of North America and Europe, often for weeks at a time. Such weather waves, they say, have doubled in frequency since the 1960s. In just the last few years, they have killed hundreds of people and paralyzed energy and transport systems.
Published New 'Assembly Theory' unifies physics and biology to explain evolution and complexity



An international team of researchers has developed a new theoretical framework that bridges physics and biology to provide a unified approach for understanding how complexity and evolution emerge in nature. This new work on 'Assembly Theory' represents a major advance in our fundamental comprehension of biological evolution and how it is governed by the physical laws of the universe.
Published Hot weather hits productivity -- even in air-conditioned factories



Hot weather reduces workers’ productivity – even if their workplace is air conditioned.
Published Controlled burns help prevent wildfires; Climate change is limiting their use



Climate change means the American West will have 17% fewer safe days to light prescribed fires for wildfire management, according to new research. Winter, however, will see a net 4% increase in the number of favorable days. Implementing controlled burns in the West will require changes to policy and the availability of firefighters.
Published Bursts of star formation explain mysterious brightness at cosmic dawn



In the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) first images of the universe’s earliest galaxies, the young galaxies appear too bright, too massive and too mature to have formed so soon after the Big Bang. Using new simulations, a team of astrophysicists now has discovered that these galaxies likely are not so massive after all. Although a galaxy’s brightness is typically determined by its mass, the new findings suggest that less massive galaxies can glow just as brightly from irregular, brilliant bursts of star formation.
Published Colliding neutron stars provide a new way to measure the expansion of the Universe



In recent years, astronomy has seen itself in a bit of crisis: Although we know that the Universe expands, and although we know approximately how fast, the two primary ways to measure this expansion do not agree. Now astrophysicists suggest a novel method which may help resolve this tension.
Published Climate and human land use both play roles in Pacific island wildfires past and present



It’s long been understood that human settlement contributes to conditions that make Pacific Islands more susceptible to wildfires, such as the devastating Aug. 8 event that destroyed the Maui community of Lahaina. But a new study from fire scientist shows that climate is an undervalued part of the equation.
Published Groundbreaking mathematical proof: New insights into typhoon dynamics unveiled



A research team has provided irrefutable proof that certain spherical vortices exist in a stable state.
Published Important additional driver of insect decline identified: Weather explains the decline and rise of insect biomass over 34 years



Combinations of unfavorable weather conditions over several years can cause a decline in insect biomass.
Published Down goes antimatter! Gravity's effect on matter's elusive twin is revealed


For the first time, in a unique laboratory experiment at CERN, researchers have observed individual atoms of antihydrogen fall under the effects of gravity. In confirming antimatter and regular matter are gravitationally attracted, the finding rules out gravitational repulsion as the reason why antimatter is largely missing from the observable universe.
Published New research reveals extreme heat likely to wipe out humans and mammals in the distant future



A new study shows unprecedented heat is likely to lead to the next mass extinction, akin to when the dinosaurs died out, eliminating nearly all mammals in some 250 million years time.
Published Hidden supermassive black holes reveal their secrets through radio signals


Astronomers have found a striking link between the amount of dust surrounding a supermassive black hole and the strength of the radio emission produced in extremely bright galaxies.
Published How weather patterns will change in the future



In a warming Pacific Northwest, summers are getting hotter and winters less cold, but the atmospheric patterns that influence the weather aren't necessarily expected to become stronger or more frequent by the end of the century, according to a new study.