A new technique has been developed for the manufacture of artificial diamonds and are diamonds really all that valuable anyway?

We all know about diamonds, those sparkly gemstones that are most familiar to us in engagement rings, necklaces and other forms of personal adornment. I’ve actually known someone, a man who had a diamond inserted into a false canine tooth. While rubies, emeralds and sapphires may be valuable its always a diamond that we think of whenever someone mentions a ‘precious gem’.

Looks beautiful doesn’t it, all clear and sparkly. Remember however, it’s just carbon! (Credit:Science News)

Another well-known fact about diamonds is that the chemical element that they are made of is ordinary carbon, just like charcoal and graphite. A diamond however can only form naturally when carbon is exposed to the enormous pressure and temperatures that are found deep below the surface of the Earth. Diamond therefore carry with them information about the conditions that exist within our planet’s interior, making them of great importance to geologists.

Diamond mines are never as attractive as the gems that come from them! (Credit: Mining Global)

The difference between a diamond and other types of carbon is due to nothing more than the way the carbon atoms arrange themselves in space. In graphite, the most common form of naturally occurring carbon, the atoms arrange themselves in rings that then form into broad flat sheets. Although the bonds between the atoms in the rings and even between the rings are stronger than the bonds in a diamond the bonds between the sheets are extremely weak. This makes graphite a very soft material.

Arrangement of carbon atoms in a diamond (l) and graphite (r). (Credit: IGCSE Chemistry)

In a diamond however, the carbon atoms arrange themselves in a basic 3-D shape known as a tetrahedron. Each tetrahedron is then connected to adjacent tetrahedrons so that the entire structure repeats itself over and over again in every direction. Because of this 3-D arrangement a diamond is equally strong in all directions. 

And we all know that diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring material, a quality that makes them as valuable for industry as they are for jewelry. In fact diamonds are so valuable that material scientists have for the last sixty years been developing techniques with which to manufacture diamonds artificially. Unfortunately, despite all of the heat and pressure modern industry can provide diamond production still requires the addition of a metal catalyst into the carbon that leave the diamonds appearing cloudy, usable in industry but nowhere near gem quality. 

They may not be as pretty as gem quality diamonds but these diamonds are every bit as hard. (Credit: Science Photo Library)
A Diamond Saw. Because they are so hard industrial diamonds are useful for cutting or grinding. (Credit: A&M Instruments Inc. )

Now a new technique for the production of artificial diamonds has been developed at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Labouratory (SLAC), a technique that requires far less energy and which produces diamonds of gem quality. The key to this new process is in the raw material, a white powdery residue that is left behind in empty containers of crude oil. The researchers, led by senior author Yu Lin, recognized that the grains of the powder were in fact 1-cage to 3-cage carbon ‘diamondoids’, small fragments of diamond with atoms of the element hydrogen filling in around the edges.

SLAC Scientist Yu Lin recognized that diamondiods, common in raw petroleum products, could be used as building blocks for artificial diamonds. (Credit: Quirky Science)

The researchers took the fine grains of ‘diamondoid’ and placed them in a pressure chamber; actual diamonds are used as the chamber’s inner walls. At a pressure of 20 gigapascals, similar to that deep within the Earth’s interior, the ‘diamondoids’ are zapped with a laser to a temperature of 900 Kelvin, just a fraction of the 5000 Kelvin required for natural diamonds. The ‘diamondoids’ fuse together, eliminating the hydrogen in the process and the result is a tiny pure diamond, gem quality although much too small to be used in jewelry.

Presently the process developed at Stanford is impractical to be employed on an industrial basis, but remember it’s brand new. Who knows what improvements could be made over the next decade or so. Also the Stanford technique has taught Doctor Lin and her colleagues a great deal about how diamonds form, knowledge that could spur those improvements and lead to a better understanding of these precious gems.

Before I close I’d like to take a few minutes to discuss the diamond industry itself. First of all diamonds really aren’t all that rare, certainly not rare enough to justify the high cost of diamond jewelry. In order to keep prices high however the diamond merchants employ a great deal of advertising to convince people that a diamond is some sort of a visible, material symbol of love.

Advertisers tell us that a diamond is a symbol of our love. Does that means that love is cold and hard? (Credit: Isbell Jewelers)

Another trick played by the diamond industry is that fully half of the gem quality diamonds that are brought out of the ground are simply locked away in storage vaults. In this way, by deliberately restricting the supply the price of diamonds in jewelry is kept artificially inflated and consumers are convinced they are buying something much more rare and valuable than it really is.

Additionally of course there is the problem of conflict diamonds. It’s true that many of the gem producing areas of the world are also war zones and both dictators and rebel leaders have used the sale of diamonds and other gems to help finance their murderous careers.

Treated almost like slaves, thousands of people around the world work to provide the diamonds that adorn our fingers! (Credit: Gem Rock Auctions)

All the more reason therefore to hope that the researchers at Stanford will succeed in developing a method to manufacture gem quality diamonds on an industrial scale in order to reduce the value of diamonds. Maybe then diamonds will no longer be used as weapons of war or con-games to bilk innocent consumers.

As hard as it is to believe there are already some people who are trying to make a dishonest buck off of the Coronavirus.

I told myself that I wasn’t going to write a post about the Coronavirus, formally known as Covid-19. I’m certainly not qualified to do a proper job of telling people how to protect themselves from this new infectious disease. Besides, even if I tried to learn everything I could about the Covid-19 you would still be better served by visiting the websites of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) or the National Institute for Health (NIH) or the World Health Organization (WHO). For anyone who is looking for some reliable information on this pandemic you can follow the links below to be taken to the websites of these institutes, something I highly recommend.

CDC:https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/index.html

NIHhttps://www.nih.gov/health-information/coronavirus#!/detail/403327

WHOhttps://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

However, while its true that I’m not the right person to listen to in order to get the most accurate information about Covid-19 I decided that perhaps I could do some good but pointing out some of the lies, falsehoods and even fake cures that are spreading almost as fast as the disease itself. Even more despicable are those who are seeking to use Covid-19 to make a quick buck off of the fears of others.

Electron Microscope false colour Image of a Coronavirus. The tack shaped proteins in red that surround the central sphere form the ‘corona’ that gives this class of viruses its name. (Credit CDC)

Epidemics have always seemed to bring out the very worst in human beings. Old friends and good neighbors can become deadly enemies if we think they might be infected while the disease can also become an excuse for indulging in our usual racial bigotries. Psychologically the disease frightens us, stimulating our fight or flee mechanism. We can’t fight a microscopic virus however, and since we can’t see it, how can we run away from it. So instead we turn on each other making a bad situation much, much worse.

During the ‘Black Death’ of the 14th century rumors went around claiming that Jews were poisoning wells! Killing all the Jews did nothing to stop the spread of the disease. (Credit: Wikipedia)

That’s already happening with the Covid-19. Within weeks of the start of the outbreak, while the disease was still confined to China a conspiracy theory began to be spread across the Internet that the disease wasn’t natural, it had escaped from a Chinese biological warfare labouratory. The evidence for this accusation, well there simply isn’t any; and besides even if the lie were true it how would that help us in fighting Covid-19.

Covid-19 may have started in China but conspiracy theories that the Chinese ‘invented’ it are just modern versions of the well poisoning by Jews lie! (Credit: Business Insider)

Falsely blaming the Chinese is a harmless rumor when compared to some of the misinformation now spreading across social media. Everything from a complete denial of the situation, ‘It’s all a democratic hoax!’, to useless cures like eating raw garlic, taking huge doses of vitamin C or even drinking bleach. (Do not drink bleach, not only won’t it cure Covid-19 it could possibly kill you.)

Eating garlic is probably the least harmful of the fake remedies for Covid-19, but it doesn’t work. (Credit: BBC)

One thing that will help to protect you from Covid-19 is simply washing your hands often or using a hand sanitizer. Because of this however, some people are starting to hoard hand sanitizers and other disinfectants leaving many supermarkets and drug stores with empty shelves. Such panic buying only prevents other customers from obtaining these helpful products, which could actually help to spread the virus.

Of course some of those people who are buying those large quantities of hand sanitizer aren’t doing so to protect themselves. Instead they are buying in order to resell those products at hugely inflated prices.

Just one example of someone trying to get rich off of other people’s fears of Covid-19. $300 dollars for 2 bottle of hand sanitizer! (Credit: News Break)

This practice is known as price gouging and is one of the time honoured if completely illegal techniques for making a quick buck off of your neighbor’s fears and desperation. The new Internet market places of E-bay, Facebook and even Amazon have become innocent vehicles for this trade. While all of these companies are cracking down on websites that are engaging in the illicit business nevertheless it is impossible to keep up with all of the websites being created just to sell over priced disinfectants and cleaning products.

But at least those websites are selling products that are actually helpful in preventing Covid-19. There are also websites, thousands of them now, which are selling fake ‘cures’, snake oil, and otherwise useless products to people who are afraid that they will get Covid-19, at inflated prices of course. One of the more popular ‘cures’ is known as MMS. Depending on the crook selling it MMS can stand for either Miracle Mineral Solution, Miracle Mineral Supplement or Master Mineral Solution.

No matter what name it may be sold under MMS is just house bleach, a very dangerous thing to drink! (Credit FDA)

No matter what the name is MMS comes as a packet of sodium chlorite (NaClO2) along with an ‘activator’ such as citric acid (C6H8O7). Mixed together the chemicals produce Chlorine dioxide (ClO2), bleach, just as I talked about earlier. Dozens of people have been hospitalized after drinking MMS and some of the frauds peddling MMS actually tell their customers that severe vomiting and diarrhea only shows that the ‘cure’ is working. MMS has actually been around for many years being sold as a cure for everything from autism to malaria and especially AIDS.

Another fraudulent ‘cure’ is actually being peddled on cable TV, on ‘The Jim Bakker Show’ to be precise. If the name Jim Bakker rings a bell with your memory that’s because back in the 1990s televangelist Jim Bakker build a money making empire out of his ‘Praise The Lord’ or PTL ministries. Turned out that much of Bakker’s financial shenanigans were illegal so the right reverend spent five years in jail for fraud. Just the sort of person you want to trust your healthcare to!

Anyway, Bakker is back on the air, still selling god and quack cures and on the February 12th episode of his program he and his guest Sherill Sellman (Yes, an actual snake oil salesman named Sellman!) discussed the virtues of Sellman’s product Silver Solution, which is nothing more than particles of silver suspended in a fluid. Purchased from Bakker’s website Silver Solution costs $40 for a 16oz. bottle.

The right reverend Jim Bakker has been using god to defraud people for decades. Silver solution is his latest scam! (Credit: Patheos)

According to Sellman, “Well let’s say it hasn’t been tested on the strain of coronavirus (covid-19 that is) but it’s been tested on other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours, totally eliminate it, kills it, deactivates it.” That statement is so inaccurate that not only have the FCC and Federal Trade Commission taken action to prevent Bakker from repeating his false claims but the Attorney General’s of New York and Missouri have issued cease and desist orders against the show. 

This is much closer to God’s truth!!! (Credit: Patheos)

   I could go on but there’s just too much misinformation, outright lies, profiteering, and fake cures for me to cover in a single post. It’s true, this is a dangerous situation, we all need to keep our heads and, most importantly, listen to the doctors and scientists who are studying Covid-19. Again, real information you can trust is available at the websites I listed above, go to them, go to your doctor if you start to feel sick. Before I go I would like to point out one thing. If I stay healthy there is less chance of Covid-19 spreading to you and vice versa. That means that we really are all in this together.

New Research may soon bring relief to million of Allergy Sufferers.

I think I’ll start today with a bit of personal information. For most of my life I suffered greatly from allergies. Every year starting in late May and going through most of June I’d be absolutely miserable while late September was also pretty bad. Like most victims of allergy I’m not quite certain of everything that I’m allergic to but I know I’m allergic to dogwood pollen and, worst of all grass!

Spring is such a wonderful time of year, unless like me you have allergies! (Credit: New York Post)

The absolute worse thing about an allergy is that it’s really all just a mistake! An allergic reaction occurs when your immune system mistakes the presence of a harmless substance as an attack by a lethal pathogen. That’s true, a few grains of grass pollen in my nostrils aren’t going to do me any harm but my body will react as if I’ve contacted the latest coronavirus.

When you have an allergy your body will react to a harmless Allergen exactly the same way it reacts to a disease pathogen! (Credit: McGraw-Hill)

I’ll get all of the typical symptoms, runny nose, sneezing, stuffed sinuses, sometimes even a fever just as if I had a cold or the flu but I’m not sick at all, my body just thinks I am. And I tried all of the remedies, antihistamines, steroids, decongestants but nothing did much good. At least my allergies didn’t worsen into asthma, an allergic reaction that causes a swelling of the esophagus that can be life threatening.

Typical Symptoms of an allergic reaction. (Credit: Colorado Allergy and Asthma)

Funny thing is, now as I’m older my allergies are slowly going away. Over the last decade or so I may have one or two bad days every year. My symptoms now however are nothing like the misery I went through back in High School and College. Still, even today the smell of fresh cut grass can send chills down my spine.

Even today I shudder whenever I see or hear a lawn mower in action! (Credit:The Ground Guys)

Besides allergies to plant pollens like mine there are also people who have food allergies, some of which can be very severe, even lethal on occasions. Cow’s milk, egg whites, tree nuts, fish and wheat are all known to cause allergies but the two most common food allergies are to shellfish and peanuts.

Food allergies can be very nasty because you have to be careful about ALL of the ingredients in everything you eat! (Credit: AIRE Medical Group)

Reactions to insect bites and stings are also common and these can be the deadliest form of an allergy. For some people a single bee’s sting may cause their esophagus to swell so much that they can literally suffocate without immediate treatment. For individuals with such severe allergies a shot of the medication epinephrine may be the difference between life and death and many carry a device known as an epinephrine autoinjector for just such emergencies.

An allergic reaction to a Wasp Sting typically starts as a rash as shown here. (Credit: Healthline)
For people with really severe allergies Epinephrine can be a life saver! (Credit: Baby Center)

The leading theory as to why we suffer from allergies is known as the hygiene hypothesis. Simply put the hygiene hypothesis states that thousands of years ago our ancestors living in the wild were constantly being bombarded with bacteria and viruses along with innocuous organic material like tree pollen. Our immune systems therefore evolved to not only fight this barrage but to expect it.

Our ancestors thousands of years ago lived much less hygienic lives than we do but their bodies learned to accept the common allergens around them. (Credit: Medium)

Today however we live in an artificial environment, the homes we live in possess both central heating and air conditioning so that we almost never open any windows. This means that we are rarely exposed to natural organic particles in the air, like pollen grains.

Today we keep our homes clean to protect us from real diseases but it also makes our bodies more sensitive to harmless allergens. (Credit: Space-O Technologies)

We also bathe or shower daily and wash our hands before meals and after going to the bathroom, again removing organic substances from our skin. We practice these hygienic habits because we know that they help to prevent the spread of diseases but those same habits also leave our immune systems without an enemy to fight causing them to become hyper-sensitive.

This theory also explains the fact that people in developed countries are more likely to acquire allergies than those in under developed countries and city dwellers more likely to suffer than farmers. It also explains why some people can lose their allergies over time. Take me for example, after 45-50 years of overreacting to grass pollen my body seems to have finally realized that it’s not harmful.

Armed with the hygiene hypothesis physicians have developed techniques, known as immunotherapy, where repeated applications of small doses of an allergy causing agent can enable the patient to build up resistance to their allergy. This technique has been found to provide considerable benefit to patients with environment allergens such as pollen and insect bites but only occasional success for people with food allergies.

One problem with using immunotherapy to treat allergies is that it only works for one specific allergy at a time! (Credit: Science Mission)

A corollary to the hygiene theory is the farm factor, basically the idea that children who grow up on farms are so exposed to potential allergens that they acquire all of the immunities that our ancient ancestors once possessed. Exposure to one substance in particular seems to provide a strong protective effect, cow urine.

That’s right cow urine. Proteins called lipocalins that are found in cow urine are currently being studied at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna by Doctor Erika Jensen Jarolim. Doctor Jarolim has been able to show that lipocalins are able to treat allergic reactions in labouratory mice, who if you think about it live a much more hygienic life than we do and should therefore be more susceptible to allergies.

Doctor Erika Jensen Jarolim of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. (Credit: Researchgate)
Cow urine, that’s right cow urine may be the secret to controlling allergic reactions. After all if you can lose your sensitivity to it you’ve pretty much lost your sensitivity to everything! (Credit: Waterqualitynz.info)

The same proteins are also present in a cow’s milk but unfortunately the process of pasteurization to kill bacteria also destroys the lipocalins. Instead of milk Doctor Jarolim is currently working on a pill form of the lipocalins which unlike anti-histamines would actually provide an immunity to allergies rather than simply relieving their symptoms. Whether or not Doctor Jarolim succeeds in developing a treatment that will completely eliminate the scourge of allergies there is no doubt that progress is definitely being made. The more we understand the causes of the hypersensitivities that plague our immune systems the better able we will be to eliminating them. 

Book Review: ‘The Io Encounter’ by Brandon Q. Morris

The ‘Io Encounter’ is the third in a series of novels by science fiction author Brandon Q. Morris concerning the voyage of the spaceship ‘International Life Search Expedition’ or ILSE. In ‘The Enceladus Mission’ (Reviewed in my post of 16 October 2019) a robotic space probe on Enceladus sends back data confirming the existence of life on that distant moon of Saturn. In response the world’s space agencies organize the ILSE mission to discover what kind of life inhabits that icy world. In ‘The Enceladus Mission’ the mission is successful but not without loss to the crew of ILSE.

Cover of ‘The Io Encounter’ by Brandon Q. Morris. (Credit: Amazon)
Author Brandon Q. Morris. (Credit: Facebook)

‘The Titan Probe’, the second book in the series (Also reviewed in my post of 16 October 2019) begins while ILSE is still in orbit around Enceladus. Another probe on the surface of Saturn’s larger moon Titan is also sending back data indicating that something is going on there so ILSE is ordered to go and investigate. Again the mission is successful thanks to the ingenuity of the ILSE crew.

Covers of ‘The Enceladus Mission’ and ‘The Titan Probe’ by Brandon Q. Morris (Credit: Amazon)

I liked both ‘The Enceladus Mission’ and ‘The Titan Probe’; both are hard science fiction based on well established science. In both novels the crew use their training and knowledge to overcome the obstacles that author Morris throws at them. I also liked the extraterrestrials in both books, they were really alien while at the same time being understandable.

Which only makes ‘The Io Encounter’ that much more of a letdown. The novel starts with ILSE having left Saturn and on its way back to Earth. On the return trip the ship will make a flyby of Jupiter in order to get a boost from the giant planet’s gravity.

As they are approaching Jupiter however the crew discover that something is happening on the moon Io so they decide to stop and take a look! After all how hard can that be!

The Pimply face of Jupiter’s Moon Io. Io is the most volcanic place in the Solar System. Bombarded with radiation from Jupiter’s version of the van Allen belts Io is hardly the sort of place you just stop at while you’re passing by! (Credit: Space.com)

Well space missions are usually designed with very little margin for detours of any kind. That side trip to Titan when the crew where at Enceladus would have required a delta vee of no more than about 3 kilometers per second. A space journey to Saturn would probably have that kind of spare fuel so in ‘The Titan Probe’ I was more than willing to go along for the sake of the story.

Going from a Jupiter flyby to orbit around Io however would require a delta vee of at least 7 km/sec, about as much as getting into Earth orbit. And then you would need another 7 km/sec when you leave Io to continue on to Earth. But it gets worse because, without giving away any of the plot elements, midway through the novel the ILSE turns around and starts back to Saturn! And then later on the ship stops midway between the two giant planets to once again head back to Io. After being so detailed and logical about how everything works in the first two novels Mr. Morris seems to have just given up on reality and simply has the ship do whatever he wants in order to keep the plot moving.

Remember in the Movie ‘Apollo 13’ where the engineers at Mission Control have to figure out how the Lunar Module can use an air filter designed for the Command Module. Space missions are VERY HARD to redesign in progress!!! (Credit: MSN.com)

Not that the plot of ‘The Io Encounter’ is really worth it. Morris simply brings out the tired old cliché of ‘military elements’ in the US and Chinese governments who want to kill the creature that the ILSE crew discovered back on Enceladus. All in all it’s not a good finish for what had been an interesting series of stories.

Back in the 1950s any alien that landed on Earth was immediately attacked by our Military (Credit: IMDB)

Reading ‘The Io Encounter’ I couldn’t help but wonder if Brandon Q. Morris hadn’t been rushed to complete the novel. It seems to me that a lot of times an author will take 2, 3 or even more years to complete a first novel that turns out to be popular. Then their publisher hounds them to finish another story while they’re hot with the result that the follow up is nowhere near as good as the first story where they took their time to do it right.

I guess what I’m saying is that ‘The Io Encounter’ isn’t a bad story, it just seems like a really rushed story.

Space News for March 2020.

Last month’s Space News was all about the race between Space x and Boeing to see which of these two aerospace corporations would be the first to launch a privately owned spacecraft carrying live astronauts. That is the stated goal of NASA’s ‘Commercial Crew Program’, a program that is now two years behind schedule. See my post of 25Jan2020. There’s been a bit more news about Space X and Boeing since then so I think I’ll begin with an update.

The bad news comes from Boeing. You may recall that back on the 20th of December Boeing launched its Starliner capsule on an unmanned final test flight to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch itself went well but while the spacecraft was adjusting its orbit a software glitch caused the maneuvering rockets to fire for so long that the spacecraft no longer had enough fuel to reach the ISS and complete the mission. The capsule was brought down from orbit and successfully recovered with what appeared to be only that single, software problem.

Launch of the Boeing Starliner Capsule on its Orbital Test Flight. Turns out the spacecraft had several software related problems during the test. (Credit: CNN.Com)

Not so fast. Turns out that there was another, potentially much more dangerous software problem that was caught just a few hours before it could have badly damaged the spacecraft. Just before re-entry the crew capsule has to discard its service module in order to expose the heatshield that will project it from the heat generated by fiction in the atmosphere. Once detached the service module then uses its maneuvering rockets to get out the capsule’s way so it can begin re-entry.

Before Re-entry of the Starliner the Crew Module must separate from the Service Module which then needs to get out of the Crew Module’s way! (Credit: Yahoo Movies UK)

That’s where the second software glitch comes in because the service module’s rockets were being told to fire in exactly the wrong direction. This could have resulted in a collision of the two modules, potentially damaging the capsule’ heatshield and making re-entry impossible.

There may even be more issues that haven’t been identified yet; the NASA investigation isn’t completed. Regardless, this second issue will almost certainly require Boeing to carry out another, more successful unmanned test flight of Starliner before NASA will allow a manned flight.

Boeing’s troubles with its Starliner capsule come on top of the company’s continuing troubles with its 737 Max 800 Jet! (Credit: New York Post)

Which makes it a safe bet that Space X will be the first private company to launch human beings into space. Having aced their final In-Flight-Abort test in January all that remains before astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken climb aboard Space X’s Dragon capsule for a trip to the ISS is paperwork, a lot of paperwork. Informed sources have stated that both NASA and Space X are working toward a target launch date of May 7th but realistically the mission could take place anytime between late April or early June. And just to make certain that the tees are crossed and the eyes dotted on all of that paperwork Space X has announced that they have hired former NASA Associate Director for Human Exploration and Operations William Gerstenmaier to oversee the final details. With his background in NASA’s shuttle and ISS programs Gerstenmaier will see to it that when Dragon does launch it will be as ready to go as humanly possible.

Space X’s Dragon Capsule has completed all of its tests and its first manned mission could come as early as April! (Credit: Space X)
William Gerstenmaier is a long time manager of NASA manned missions. His expertise will be of great value to Space X. (Credit: Space News)

One question still to be resolved is just how long Hurley and Behnken will stay at the ISS. The original plan was for the Dragon capsule to only remain docked to the station for a week but at the moment Chris Cassidy is the only American aboard the ISS. To increase their presence on the ISS NASA is considering extending Hurley and Behnken’s mission to as much as three months. If that option is chosen then Hurley and Behnken may need to undergo some additional ISS training. Whichever option is chosen the countdown has begun, in just a matter of months the U.S. will be back in the business of human space flight.

Space X Astronauts Doug Hurley (r) and Bob Behnken are ready, even anxious to go! (Credit: Space X)

Now of course NASA is also in the unmanned space exploration business as well, and there’s news from the furthest parts of our Solar system and beyond.

NASA is still downloading data from its New Horizons spacecraft that the probe gathered during its flyby of the Kuiper belt object Arrokoth, formerly Ultima Thule, back on New Year’s Day in 2019. Even from the first images that were sent back of the peanut shaped object however planetary scientists became convinced that Arrokoth was actually two objects that were fully formed before they joined softly together. See image below.

The data sent back by New Horizons clearly shows that Arrokoth is two distinct objects that gently came together. (Credit: NASA)

Now the New Horizons team thinks that their models of how Arrokoth formed may have a profound effect on theories of how our entire Solar system came into being. Current ideas about planet formation are rather violent, with orbiting boulders smashing into each other while proto-planets were bombarded by a constant rain of meteoroids.

Was the formation of the Earth this violent? The data from Arrokoth seems to say no! (Credit: Quora)

The data from New Horizons suggests that the early Solar system may not have been quite so violent however. Perhaps the pieces that made up the planets came together more gently and as the proto-planet grew the force of gravity just squeezed everything together into the familiar ball shape that the planets have today. How much influence the work of the New Horizons scientists will have on our theories of the early solar system remains to be seen, after all other scientists still get their chance to examine and criticize it. Also it’s worth remembering that things are a lot colder and quieter in the outer Solar system anyway, after all Pluto’s velocity around the Sun is just about one tenth that of Mercury’s. With that in mind you would expect events in the outer Solar System to happen less violently.

I’d like to conclude this briefing by discussing the problem that NASA recently successfully fixed on the Voyager 2 space probe. First launched over forty years ago Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited four planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

The Voyager 2 spacecraft has had a rather distinguished career! (Credit: JPL-NASA)

Voyage 2 is still working; it’s left the Solar System now, joining its sister Voyager 1 in interstellar space. With only a tiny amount of energy still being provided by its Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) NASA has shut off all of the probe’s instruments except its magnetometer and cosmic ray detector to save power.

Then on January 25 Voyager 2 failed to perform a routine calibration of its magnetometer. Telemetry from the spacecraft indicated that a fault protection circuit had been activated to prevent a power overload. Since Voyager 2 is now so far away from Earth, 18.5 billion kilometers, it takes 17 hours for an instruction to reach the probe, and another 17 for the spacecraft’s response to reach Earth, even trying to understand the problem took a considerable amount of time. In fact it took a full three days of back and forth messages to sort out the power budget.

Still they did it; they managed to fix a 42-year-old spacecraft that’s now speeding through the space between the stars. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Labouratory are confident that both Voyager probes could continue their missions for as much as another 10 years. Imagine that, fifty years of exploring both the Solar System as well as interstellar space.   

Paleontology News for February 2020.

Now I’d be the first person to point out the science of paleontology is about a lot more than just dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are just one of the myriad groups of once living creatures that we only know about through their fossilized remains. Still, what kind of creature do we immediately think of when we think of paleontology? Dinosaurs that’s what! So this month’s paleontology post is all about dinosaurs.

My introduction to the science of Paleontology, many years ago! (Credit: ETSY)

Everyone knows that animals get sick just the way that we humans do. When you hear stories about swine flu or bird flu remember that those diseases are given their names because they actually came from those animals. Even extremely deadly human diseases such as smallpox and bubonic plague are actually diseases of cattle and rats respectively.

With modern instruments paleontologists can sometimes even find the telltale evidence of diseases in the fossils that they unearth. It’s actually true, Tyrannosaurids (the family of T rex) have been found with evidence of gout while osteoarthritis has been diagnosed in Iguanodons.

A recent study has been published by lead author Bruce M. Rothschild of Indiana University and the Carnegie Museum in the journal Nature. What Doctor Rothschild and his colleagues have found are lesions produced by the cancer Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) in the tailbones of a duck billed Hadrosaur from Alberta Canada. The exact species of the Hadrosaur whose bones were studied could not be exactly determined because the animal’s skull was not found. 

Two tailbones of a Hadrosaur were found to possess cavities caused by cancerous tumors. (Credit: Live Science)

Now normally Langerhan cells in the body regulate the immune system but in LCH overproduction of Langerhan cells leads to the growth of benign tumors called granulomas in the bone marrow. After the death of the Hadrosaur the cancerous Langerhan cells decayed along with the animal’s normal cells so that the tumors left cavities in the dinosaur’s tailbones, cavities that could be studied using both microscopes and other instruments. Based on the evidence provided by those studies the Doctor Rothschild and his colleagues were able to determine that LCH is the closest match in form to the cavities in the Hadrosaur’s tail.

Closeup view of a tailbone. The cavity in the middle of the right view was caused by a cancerous tumor. (Credit: Live science)

Recognizing and studying the diseases that plagued animals in the past may help us to better understand how those diseases ever arose in the first place. In any case the knowledge that those animals suffered from diseases just as we do helps to remind us of one of the things that all living creatures have in common.

There’s something else that we and dinosaurs may have in common, warm blood. The possibility that dinosaurs may have evolved to have been able to maintain a warm internal body temperature has been around for about the last fifty years, and during that time a great deal of circumstantial evidence to support the idea has accumulated. Not everyone is convinced however, so each piece of new evidence strengthens the case for dinosaur warm-bloodiness.

Fossil evidence that at least some species of Dinosaurs were covered in feathers is strong support for the idea that dinosaurs were warm blooded. (Credit: NPR)

The latest discovery comes from an examination of the eggshells of cretaceous era dinosaurs in a paper published in the journal Science Advances with lead author Robin R. Dawson of Yale University’s department of Geology and Geophysics. Using a newly developed technique called ‘Clumped Isotope Paleothermometry’ the researchers measured the ordering of oxygen and carbon atoms in the wall of a fossilized eggshell as a means to determine the mother’s internal body temperature.

Hardosaur dinosaurs are know to have been good parents. The mother warming her eggs with her own body heat. (Credit: Sci-News.com)

Using this technique the paleontologists were able to measure the internal temperatures of three distinct species of dinosaurs. Troodon, a small theropod related to T rex whose body temperature was determined to be 38ºC and Maiasaura, a duck billed dinosaur whose body temperature was found to be 44ºC. The specimens for both of these species came from Alberta, Canada. The final species to have their eggshells tested is named Megaloolithus, which comes from Romania and is known only by its eggs, and whose temperature was found to be 36ºC.

Cross Sections of Dinosaur Eggshells used in the Yale study. (Credit: Sci-News.com)

Now the scientists had to be careful, remember cold-blooded means that an animal’s body temperature is the same as the ambient air around it. So if those eggs were laid on a hot summer’s day the mother’s body temperature could still have been as high as 44ºC! The researchers needed to find a control to test, the egg of a definite, known cold-blooded animal which would give a measurement of the air temperature.

Paleothermometry is one of the newest techniques that scientists have developed to glean every possible bit of information about the past from fossils. (Credit: nerdfighteria.info)

Fortunately they were able to find the necessary eggs allowing the temperature of the mother Troodon to be determined to be about 10ºC warmer than the temperature of the ambient air while the Maiasaur mother’s body temperature was 15ºC warmer. The Megaloolithus mother was also found to be 3-6ºC warmer than the air temperature. This research provides yet one more piece of evidence that dinosaurs were warm-blooded. Further advancing the argument that dinosaurs were actually more like modern birds than the ancient reptiles from whom they evolved.

Archaeology News for February 2020. Two Stories from beyond the Grave!

‘Dead men tell no tales’ the saying goes but I think archaeologists would argue with that. Much of what we have learned about the past has been obtained by studying the mortal remains excavated from ancient graves and the material goods that have been interred with them. Two recently published papers illustrate this point rather well. I’ll begin with a story about the ‘Black Death’ in 14th century England.

During the ‘Black Death’ epidemic of the mid 1300s a third of the entire human race died during a span of less than ten years. (Credit: Cosmos Magazine)

Entering Europe through Sicily in October of 1347 the bubonic plague sweep across the continent, reaching the British Islands in August of 1348. In cities like London the disease was so deadly that people died by the thousands leading to an almost complete breakdown of social norms. So many died that the time honoured customs of Christian burial were abandoned and the plague’s victims simply thrown into mass graves, several of which have been discovered and excavated by archaeologists.

A mass grave in Toulouse France dated to the time of the bubonic plague. (Credit: Science)

In rural areas however the death toll was somewhat lower, enough so that some of the usual customs for honouring the dead continued to be carried out. To date only one mass grave associated with the plague has been discovered in the English countryside and a recent study published in the journal Antiquity gives evidence that even in these troubled times the country folk still did what they could to show respect for their dead.

The mass grave was discovered in 2012 on the grounds of Thornton Abbey and contains the remains of 48 men, women and children of all ages. The location of the grave itself is curious because the local church, and its graveyard, is less than two kilometers away, so why weren’t the plague victims buried there? The researchers, led by Hugh Willmott of the University of Sheffield, speculate that perhaps the local priest and gravediggers had succumbed to the plague themselves so that the local people were forced to turn to the Abby’s monks for help.

Thornton Abbey may still look impressive from the front but there’s actually no building left behind the front gate you see here! (Credit:English Heritage)

DNA analysis of samples taken from the molars of 16 individuals showed the presence of the bacteria Yersinia pestis, the germ that causes the bubonic plague. This leaves no doubt that the people buried in the mass grave died of the plague and were therefore highly infectious. Despite the danger however the dead bodies were not simply thrown into a hole in the ground. Rather each body was laid separately in a single layer of eight rows with no overlapping. There were even indications that each body had been covered in a shroud that had since decayed. The treatment of the dead shown at Thornton Abby is further evidence that even while it seemed that the world was collapsing around them people still did what they could to honour the memory of their departed loved ones.

Layout of the mass grave found at Thornton Abbey showing that at least some care was given to the dead. (Credit: Arizona Daily Star)
Here’s the cause of all the trouble, the bacteria Yersina pestis. (Credit: Creative Biolabs)
The Mass grave at Thornton Abbey shows definite signs of greater care being given to the plague victims. (Credit: Smithsonian Magazine)

Which brings up the question of just when did human beings first begin to perform burial rituals for their dead? And could it possibly have been before our species Homo sapiens ever existed? Turns out that there is growing evidence that Neanderthals also had burial rites that, if more primitive, nevertheless still seem very human.

The first such evidence came from excavations in a site in Iraqi Kurdistan known as Shanidar Cave. In the late 1950s and early 60s fragmentary remains of 10 Neanderthal skeletons were discovered in the cave. The big news however was the discovery of clumps of pollen adjacent to one skeleton that the researchers speculated could be the decayed remains of flowers that had been deliberately buried with the dead Neanderthals, a clear sign of some kind of funeral rite.

Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq. (Credit: Science)
Layout of the original flower grave at Shanidar. Samples 313 and 314 contained the pollen grains thought to come from flowers left with the deceased. (Credit: Wonderful Things)

At the time that interpretation was very controversial. Critics counter argued that the pollen deposit was accidental, perhaps dropped by some animal. Neanderthals, it was thought, had little or no culture. After all cave paintings were made by Stone Age Homo sapiens, not Neanderthals. The earliest known examples of jewelry and carved figurines were again made by early H sapiens. Neanderthals may have had some stone tools and weapons but their societies were hardly more advanced than a troop of Chimpanzees.

Over the last several decades however evidence has mounted that Neanderthals did in fact have some culture, and even something resembling art. Cave markings have been found that are far too old to have made by H sapiens. Seashells and semi-precious stones have been discovered in connection with Neanderthal habitats that indicate they were used as decorations. Neanderthals it seemed were not as brutish as we’d assumed.

(Of course it’s worth noting at this point that the work of anthropologists like Jane Goodall over the last 50 years have shown that Chimpanzees also have a degree of what can only be described as culture, see my posts of 18Oct2017, 21Mar2018, and 16Mar2019.)

With the growing evidence supporting the funeral ritual interpretation of the burials found in Shanidar Cave you’re think that anthropologists would have returned to the cave in order to see if any further evidence could be found there. Trouble was that for about the last thirty years northern Iraq hasn’t been the safest place to do scientific research. After the recent defeat of the terrorist group ISIS however an archaeological team from Cambridge University returned to Shanidar in 2018 to reexamine the gravesite with the newest instruments and techniques.

Many regions of importance to both Archaeology and Paleontology are inaccessible to science because of the endless wars being fought there. (Credit: Chatham House)

What the team unearthed were the skeletal remains of the upper body of a Neanderthal male, including the skull. The remains, which have been dated to 70,000 years ago, were lying on the person’s back with the left arm curled up so that the hand lay under the skull. Such a position indicates that the body had been deliberately arranged rather than simply thrown into a hole. There were also signs that the grave site for all of the bodies had been deliberately dug and it is possible that a large stone placed near the skull may have been intended as a headstone or marker or a sort.

These latest discoveries raise the possibility that the Neanderthals were using Shanidar as a graveyard, a special place for the burial of the dead. According to Emma Pomeroy, an archaeologist with the team. “If Neanderthals were using Shanidar cave as a site of memory for the repeated interment of their dead, it would suggest cultural complexity of a high order.”

Evidence is growing that Neanderthals practiced burial rites that would seem to us as quite human. (Credit: Bones Don’t Lie)

The way humans care for, respect and remember their dead is one of the things that most makes us different from our animal relatives. This means that in a sense the dead can indeed speak, telling us much about what it is to be human.

Book review: The Death of Expertise By Tom Nichols.

In today’s troubled world it sometimes seems as if the truth itself were under attack. Everyday in the news we see partisan opinions being treated as established fact, we see actual evidence being spin doctored until it feels like up is down and the Sun rises in the west. On top of that there are the outright lies, the doctored videos, the conspiracy theories. It’s no wonder therefore that many average, reasonable people are finding to difficult to distinguish reality from fiction, right from wrong.

Is this the new reality??? (Credit: Cartoonstock.com)

The reason for this war on truth isn’t hard to understand. There have always been people who make money by lying, who profit by hoodwinking others, who rise to power through deceit and deception. And if you’re going base your career path on spreading falsehoods then your enemies are going to be those people who speak the truth, who rely on facts to make rational judgments, in other words experts.

The way that experts are currently under assault in our society is the theme of ‘The Death of Expertise’ by Tom Nichols. By any definition of the word Doctor Nichols is an expert, his credentials include Professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and Adjunct Professor at the Harvard Extension School while also serving as an aide on national security issues to the United States Senate. Doctor Nichols knows firsthand about the campaign against established knowledge, he has experienced pushback on his expert opinion from students, laypersons and even experts in other fields.

Cover for ‘The Death of Expertise’ by Tom Nichols (Credit: Amazon)
Professor Tom Nichols, author of ‘The Death of Expertise’. (Credit: Harvard Magazine)

Doctor Nichols begins by trying to define what he means by expert and layperson, taking the time to look at both terms broadly and narrowly. By expert Nichols broadly means anyone who has received training in a ‘certain subject’ and has acquired a reasonable amount of experience in applying that training. On the other hand Doctor Nichols defines the term ‘Certain Subject’ very narrowly. For example he is an expert on security risks to our nation, he quite aware that he is not an expert on economics, or health insurance or infrastructure. In fact there are several times in his book where Nichols criticizes experts in one field who ‘go out of their lanes’ to pontificate about subjects on which they are as ill informed as any layman.

All too often today we’re led to think that gathering a large number of different opinions, no matter how ill-informed, will led us to the truth. In reality it only starts fights! (Credit: CNN)

A layperson therefore would be anyone without a deep background ‘on the subject being discussed at the moment’! And since no one can know everything we are all laypersons on some, let’s be honest many subjects. This is a fact of life, on some subjects we may be experts but most of the time we are laymen. Many of us however find it difficult to accept this situation, preferring to demand respect for our own opinion no matter how ill informed it may be.

As Doctor Nichols points out, this has been the situation for hundreds if not thousands of years. Nobody likes to feel that they are being talked down to, and we’re never quite sure whether or not we should trust someone who advertises themselves as an expert, a skepticism that is actually quite healthy. Over the last several decades however the problem of anti-intellectualism has grown to unprecedented proportions, becoming a serious problem in the way we run our society. No longer do we question those who claim intellectual authority, we attack them.

Nothing more to say! (Credit: Imgur)

After setting his boundary conditions Doctor Nichols then proceeds to detail the growth of, and the effect of this anti-expert feeling across a broad spectrum of our society. Everything is covered from the debasement of higher education into a consumer product, to the replacement of the serious study of a subject with ‘googling it’ to the rapid spread on the Internet of outright falsehoods and conspiracies. Using both individual cases and broad studies as illustrations Nichols succeeds in painting a dark picture of the dysfunction that is taking hold of western civilization.

O’k it hasn’t gotten this bad, YET! (Credit: Imgur)

That’s my biggest problem with ‘The Death of Expertise’. Doctor Nichols convinces you of the enormity of the problem and then honestly admits that he has few solutions. I suppose that isn’t a so much a criticism of the book as a feeling of hopelessness. As I was reading ‘The Death of Expertise’ I was constantly reminded of a quote from the German poet Schiller, “Against Stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain!” I hope that isn’t the future of our democratic society.

In the end we can only hope, as Doctor Nichols does, that those people who recognize the problem, those people who value knowledge and ability will stand against the rising tide of ignorance and work to bring back a respect and reliance upon expertise. That expert and layman will find enough common ground that they can work together for the common good.

‘The Death of Expertise’ is a very important book. I heartily recommend it, but it’s certainly not a pleasant book.

More bad news about Climate Change: Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday’ glacier is melting at an accelerated rate while Arctic Ocean currents are being altered by melting ice.

2019 has now been officially recorded as the second hottest year since accurate records began over one hundred years ago. Only the year 2016 was hotter and in fact the last five years have been the five hottest ever measured. By now anyone who doubts that the CO2 that we are dumping into the atmosphere is raising the very temperature of the Earth is simply lying to themselves. The only questions left are how much damage is climate change going to cause, and how soon? Now new data is coming in from ongoing scientific studies at both of our planet’s poles that may give us some answers to those questions. Answers that we’re not going to like.

Global temperature map for 2019. A lot of red (hot) and very little blue (cool). I know I used this image in my past post but it’s worth seeing again!(Credit: Climate Central)

Thwaites glacier is considered to be the most threatened; perhaps threatening would be a better word, glacier in the entire world. Part of this is because at some 180,000 square kilometers in area it’s one of the world’s largest glaciers. More importantly however the glacier’s position along the very edge of the west Antarctic ice sheet puts it in direct contact with ocean waters that are causing it to melt at a very high rate. In fact it is calculated that the melting of the Thwaites glacier is currently responsible for about 4% of the entire sea level rise caused by global warming.

Because of its size and position adjacent to the ocean, Thwaites glacier is considered the ‘Doomsday’ glacier. (Credit: GWPF)

In order to better understand the threat posed by the Thwaites glacier a research team led by scientists at New York University’s Center for Global Sea Level Change and Environmental Fluid Dynamics Labouratory have traveled out onto the glacier itself in order to drill down two kilometers through the ice and see what is going on beneath the glacier.

Enduring the bitter Antarctic cold scientists drill through the Thwaites Glacier to understand the threat caused by global warming. (Credit: EarthSky)

What the researchers found was alarming. Along the glacier’s edge the Ocean’s comparatively warm waters, about 2ºC, are under cutting Thwaites, exposing even more of the glacial ice to the melting effect of the ocean’s heat. This undercutting will undoubtedly increase the speed of the ice’s melting and could even lead to a collapse of the entire glacier.

Warm ocean water has undercut Thwaites Glacier, exposing more of the ice and destabilizing its structure. (Credit: Daily Mail)

If a collapse does happen that could cause a rise in the ocean level by half a meter and threaten coastlines around the world. And remember, Thwaites is only one glacier, how many more are going to melt before we finally recognize the problems we are causing.

Another little sign of how Antarctica is changing because of global warming came in a small news item on the 6th of February, as an all time high temperature was recorded for the entire continent. The measurement was made at an Argentine research base called Esperanza, which sits on the Antarctic peninsula jutting up toward South America. The meteorological station at the base there recorded a high temperature of 18.3ºC, replacing the previous record of 17.5ºC set back in 2015. Although this is only the temperature of a single day it is yet one more sign of ever rising heat at the place where arguably it matters most.

Esperanza station in the Antarctic, site of the recent record warm temperature. (Credit: TreeHugger
O’k so 18 degrees C isn’t exactly sunbathing weather but for Antarctica it’s really hot! (Credit: Science Alert)

So if the Thwaites glacier, along with thousands of other ice reservoirs is melting, what is happening to all of the water that’s flowing into the world’s oceans? A team of researchers at the other end of the Earth, literally, is investigating that very question and what they’re discovering is that the oceans aren’t just slowly, quietly rising. Scientists with the ‘Impact of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Artic Pacific Environment’ or ICESCAPE mission funded by NASA have been carrying out shipborne examinations in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas around the Artic Ocean.

When ICESCAPES measurements are combined with the data obtained from Earth observing satellites what the scientists have found is that the melted water from the northern ice sheets is increasing the flow velocity and turbulence of an oceanic current in the Artic.  This ocean current, known as the Beaufort Gyre, is a circular stream of water that flows around the Artic in a clockwise direction north of Canada and Alaska.

Ocean Current in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. (Credit: ResearchGate)

What the scientists discovered is that since the 1990s some 8,000 cubic kilometers of fresh water have melted into the Beaufort Gyre, while at the same time the shrinking of the ice cap has left the ocean current more exposed to the wind. This combination of increased water input and amplified wind driving it has resulted in an increase in the flow rate of and turbulence in the current. This is globally important because the Beaufort connects to the Atlantic Ocean, slowly releasing its fresh meltwater into that ocean. If the Beaufort were to release all of its accumulated fresh water into the Atlantic suddenly it could cause massive disruptions to the environment, everything from poisoning salt-water fish to affecting the path of the Gulf Steam.

Over the last 40 years the amount of ice in the Arctic has halved! (Credit: Virginia Institute of Marine Studies)

Over the last three decades the measured temperature rise in the world’s polar regions has been twice as great as those seen elsewhere on the planet. The Artic and Antarctic are the front lines of global warming, and the reports we’ve been getting from those fronts haven’t been full of good news.

Ocean Acidification, the other big problem being caused by all of the fossil fuels emissions we are dumping into the environment.

We all know the basic facts about Global Warming. We all know that the massive amounts of carbon dioxide and methane that we are releasing into our atmosphere in the form of fossil fuel emissions are acting as a sort of blanket, keeping our planet from radiating away some of the energy it absorbs from the Sun. That’s why 2019 was the second warmest year ever recorded, only surpassed by 2016. And that’s why the last five years have been the five hottest years ever recorded! And now last month, January 2020 has been declared the hottest January on record! Temperature rise is a fact and we are causing it!

Global temperature map for 2019. A lot of red (hot) and very little blue (cool). (Credit: Climate Central)

It turns out however that raising the world’s temperature isn’t the only way all of that carbon dioxide is damaging our planet. You see much of that carbon dioxide ends up getting absorbed into the Earth’s oceans. Estimates are as much as 35% of CO2 emissions wind up in the ocean. 

Everywhere you look you can see all of the CO2 we are pouring into the atmosphere. Does anyone really believe this isn’t affecting our planet in some way! (Credit: Fortune)

Well that’s a good thing isn’t it? At least in the ocean the CO2 won’t be contributing to Global Warming, right?

Perhaps not, but that doesn’t mean it’s harmless. In fact carbon dioxide dissolved in water forms carbonic acid and with all of the CO2 polluting our atmosphere enough is getting into the oceans to actually lower the pH of the world’s oceans. Not much, but remember most of the life on Earth lives in the oceans and those living things have evolved over millions of years to grow and survive at a pH level that is naturally slightly alkaline. Even the slightest change in pH level can make life very difficult for them.

The chemical equation for CO2 being dissolved in water to form Carbonic acid. (Credit: JamiiForums)

This is especially true of shellfish, crabs, lobsters, clams, oysters and the like, even coral itself. You see the shells of these creatures are composed of calcium carbonate, which dissolves in acids. Now the oceans aren’t becoming acidic enough to actually dissolve the shells of shellfish, not yet at least. What it is doing however is making it harder for those animals to grow their shells. This is especially true for the larval stages of shellfish.

Consider Dungeness crabs, one of my favourite foods, for example. Studies conducted by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project and funded by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have found that Dungeness crab larva off of the coasts of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia are having damage caused to their shells by ocean acidification from the moment they hatch from their eggs.

Dungeness crab may not look so tasty, but they sure are! (Credit: SFist)
The effect of oceanic acid on the development of the shells of Dungeness crab is greatest during their early growth. (Credit: Associated Press)

Even if those larva survive this damage to their shells will effect the crabs throughout their lives, making it harder for them to move and feed, harder to defend themselves against predators, harder to reproduce, just plain harder to live. Such added stress on a species survival can lead to a population collapse, in this case the collapse of a very valuable commercial species. Did I mention I think that Dungeness crab is delicious?

As the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere increases the amount of carbonic acid increases which lowers the pH of the oceans. (Credit: NOAA)

Other studies have revealed similar threats to other important kinds of seafood, clams, oysters and mussels. As the human race becomes ever more dependent on the oceans for food we are actually poisoning the very species that we are harvesting in ever greater numbers to feed ourselves.

Ocean acidification is a threat to many commercially valuable species of shellfish. (Credit: KCET)

So far I been discussing the potential harm to shellfish, invertebrates caused by ocean acidification, what about actual fish, vertebrates? Well there’s some bad news there as well. A new study from the Heinrich-Heine University in Duesseldorf along with the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany has analyzed the effect of lower pH on the growth of the skin scales of the Puff Adder Shyshark that lives in the Atlantic waters off of South Africa. These scales, like the shells of invertebrates, contain calcium and therefore are becoming damaged by the increase in ocean acidification.

Enlarged view of damage to shark scales caused by ocean acidification. (Credit: EurekAlert)

However even if fish are not directly harmed by the effects of ocean acidification they certainly will not avoid indirect damage from the loss of coral reefs. After all coral is calcium carbonate and large sections of coral reefs have already been observed to have been ‘bleached’, a loss of colour which indicates poor health.  Further acidification, along with temperature rise, could lead to the loss of huge parts of the world’s coral reefs and all of the species that depend on those reefs.

He may look tough but compared to all of the harm we’re doing to the world he’s a little pussycat! (Credit: Intelligent Living)

To sum it all up, we humans now have the greatest effect on the environment of any species in Earth’s history, but most of us are not even thinking about the effect we’re having. We’re still behaving as if the all of the many different kinds of waste that we throw away is ‘out of sight, out of mind’. That is no longer true, ocean acidification, like temperature rise and plastic pollution, is only one of the ways in which we are poisoning the only planet we have.