APES Current Events

The persistent and ongoing spread of Ebola has been a terrifying threat for many people in all different countries around the world. The strides that scientists are now making to treat the virus is hopefully a step in the right direction that will lead to further development of preventative treatments. The new found increase in success with the developing treatments has already decreased the percent chance of dying as well as protects those who have come in contact with the affected patient. I believe that any strides that have been made to cure or even just treat Ebola are incredibly important. We have the technology that grants us the ability to work through theories and test treatments in order to discover solutions that haven't ever been found before. Hopefully, for the sake of future individuals as well as those living now that face Ebola, scientists and doctors continue the pursuit to make the world a better and safer place to live in. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/hea...

Over the past few years, extreme weather conditions have been on the rise including intense droughts, record breaking wildfires, and servere hurricanes. This is due to global warming, which is disrupting the jet stream, a flow of air in the atmosphere. Increased human carbon emissions and other sources of pollution can be to blame for this. A recent study, however, has shown that deadly natural disasters will be on the rise by and average of 50% by 2100, sometimes reaching 300%. I believe that this is an important issue and the world should attempt to work together to do something about global warming, if this continues, our world will soon be inevitable to humans. www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/extreme-weather-increases-50-percent-2100-jet-s

Article A study found that chocolate labrador retrievers tend to live slightly shorter lives than other labs. Dogs with yellow or black coats live about 10% longer than dogs with chocolate colored coats. This correlates with the fact that skin and ear diseases tend to affect chocolate colored dogs more often. I feel as if this information can seem to be quite pointless to many people, but it also can be seen as extremely helpful to others. This information could be used by veterinarians in order to identify possible health problems sooner and produce longer-living dogs.

In Hansen Creek, ecologist Thomas Quinn and students from the University of Washington studied and monitored salmon populations. Whenever they found dead salmon, they would throw the carcasses to the riverbank. However, after doing this for 20 years, Quinn and the students discovered that the forest on the side of their fish carcasses was growing faster than the opposite bank. They measured tree trunk diameters and nitrogen isotopes in white pine needles, and counted tree rings. They discovered that the nitrogen in the needles came from marine sources, proving their theory. If we used fish carcasses as growth enhancers, we could probably decrease the time it takes for some plants to grow. Link to article

An island in Hawaii has been wiped completely off of the map.  East island which is a island in Hawaii was washed completely away from a hurricane named Walaka.  This island mostly held wildlife and no human lived on it, most of the wildlife had left the island before the hurricane struck.  I believe that this article can show what a hurricane can do and the effects of the hurricane.  This is cool because it is interesting how a hurricane could do all of this damage.  https://www.livescience.com/63921-hawaiian-island-vanishes.html

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/how-roaches-fight-wasps-turn-their-victims-zombies In recent research, it has been found that emerald jewel wasps sting and paralyze roaches, turning them into zombies and eventually burying them alive. The wasps sting the roaches twice in approximately 11 seconds, once on the back of the neck and once on their throats, and they are left with zombie roaches that the wasps lead by holding on to their antenna. The wasps then lay eggs on top of the roaches and bury them in the ground, and the roaches are used as live meat for the larva. This is a really interesting article, because most roaches are utterly defenseless and are controlled by the wasps in only 11 seconds. Some roaches have the ability to fight back and attack them with their legs, but full grown roaches are usually the only ones that are able to escape. This is an amazing discovery, and it will be interesting to see if wasps use this tactic on other insects.

Mayflies came back to the Susquehanna River after efforts were made to remove pollution, however, they are becoming a problem. Lights on the bridge over the river attract the mayflies by mimicking moonlight on the rivers surface, and they die on the overpass; sometimes the numbers are enough to result in knee-deep piles. The bridge is planning to be renovated to guide these insects back to the river rather than to the lights. I think this is a great example of how human activity can disrupt the natural cycles of organisms. The bridge not only causes problems for humans, but also for the mayflies who are trying to reproduce, and must be renovated to cater to both.  Confused mayflies wreak havoc on a Pennsylvania bridge

click for cool toddlers Scientists have found bones of an ancient toddler. She was found in Ethiopia and was named Selam which means peace. The foot that they found along with the rest of her body is the most complete skeleton of an ancient foot that they have found in adolescents. These bones are about 3 million years old and the toddler was a little over two years old when it died. I personally think that its pretty cool that they found these bones because of how old they are and because of how complete the skeleton is. Its weird to think that the earliest humans looked like chimpanzees and climbed trees like them. 

While reading this article I came to sum it all up as air pollution is increasing and becoming an even bigger issue as wildfires spread and continues to produce and put out fine particulate into the environment as, in reality, it's only creating more air pollution. In addition, wildfire smoke consists of fine particulates that are able to be inhaled and, as a result, create breathing problems as the elderly and people who have asthma are more at risk than others. As also, the pollution caused by wildfires has gotten so bad that communities who are located near wildfires could experience levels of pollutants so increasingly high that it is advised that no one is out of their homes for a long period of time. Therefore, humans whom are exposed to the toxins have a greater risk of chronic health conditions such as heart disease or diabetes but still no increase in cleaner air in the northwest area where wildfires hit a lot. Overall, I never would've thought that wildfires could b...

          Can you die of a broken heart? Recent  studies now show that stress and despair can significantly influence health, especially the heart. One of the most striking examples is a condition known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, or broken-heart syndrome, in which the death of a spouse, financial worries or some other emotional event severely weakens the heart, causing symptoms that mimic a heart attack.  Dr. Jauhar, author of "Heart:A History," argues that the field of cardiology needs to devote more attention to the emotional factors that can effect heart disease, for example, unhappy relationships, poverty, income inequality and work stress . Up until th e 19th century doctors didn't even want to  operate on the heart because as Dr. Jauhar said  “You can’t suture something that’s moving, and you couldn’t cut it because the patient would bleed to death.”            Overall I believe that this is an issue tha...

A good portion of the Great Barrier Reef had already been destroyed in 2016. Following that, a bleaching event took place which is usually caused by stress, but in this case, caused by global warming. By the year 2016 to 2017, the bleaching had eventually killed half of the entire coral reef. This travesty affects many homes to marine life and if/when marine life dies out it affects the human population as well. I believe we need to get to the bottom of climate change as quickly as possible to save our planet and the organisms within it. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?resultListType=RELATED_DOCUMENT&searchType=ts&userGroupName=pl1953&inPS=true&contentSegment=&prodId=GIC&docId=GALE|CP3208520030&it=r

A photograph from spacecraft showing a picture of mars, with a close up on what seems to be a 50 million year old volcano, ready to erupt. Although some scientist are just saying its just a cloud. Olymous Mons is the biggest volcano on mars, which is more than 13 miles tall and the largest in the solar system. Dr. Noe Dobrea says its not a volcanic event because they would have detected a rise in methane, sulfur, and other gases. Scientist keep arguing that it is just clouds and every time the spacecraft goes passed Arsia Mons there always seems to be cloudy, so no one can tell. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/26/science/mars-cloud-volcano-eruption-arsia-mons.html?action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront

https://newsela.com/read/elem-big-q-why-do-we-love-sugar/id/39427/      In the article, it stated that sugar tastes sweet because it is made up of sweet tasting molecules.  Even as babies we crave sugar. We need sugar as fuel but humans eat 20 teaspoons of unneeded sugar everyday. Humans do not have a way to stop themselves when it comes to sugar so we eat too much of it without realizing. Children daily, are allowed to eat up to six extra teaspoons of sugar each day. "That's less sugar than in one can of soda" (paragraph 14). People could fight that fruits have sugar in them too but doctors have researched and stated that the natural sugars are okay. It is the added sugars that are making us unhealthy.      I was shocked to read that we eat 20 unneeded teaspoons of sugar. I was also surprised to read that we all really could have a much healthier diet if there wasn't so much added sugar into all of the foods we eat.

Pacific Oxygen Levels Marine life that live in the Pacific Ocean are dying at some point in the year. The animals that live closer to the bottom of the ocean don't get enough dissolved oxygen while the ones that live near the surface get a lot of the dissolved oxygen. By not having the dissolved oxygen the some of the animals are dying off during the time that has such a low point in the year.

        Future clothes may be wired to charge phones and make our daily lives more convenient. Engineers are thinking about how to make the clothes lightweight and comfortable just like normal everyday clothes and still preform the same. They have to make sure the clothing will stay good through daily wear and tear and be able to run through the washer and dryer. Researchers have created shirts that change color at the touch of a smartphone screen. Researchers have also created passcode-storing clothes with threading that contains copper and silver. Instead of having keys, all you need it your shirt to do the job. Another creation are motion-sensing clothes, the key component in these sensor is buckypaper, this can train you to do certain things like play the piano, kick a soccer ball, and many other activities. There goal is to convert sunshine and motion energy into electricity, and even have body heat turn into electricity. I believe this may be an advantage for m...

Roughly 480 million years ago, fish, the first vertebrates as well as our earliest back boned ancestors, arose in shallow coastal waters. It took scientists a long time to figure out what type of water and the depth of the water that fish arose in due to the tiny fossil records. From thorough experiments and research, it was discovered that fish remained in the shallow waters for about 100 million years in order to evolve and adapt to different environments before they occupy different areas of the ocean. I find this article fascinating due to the idea that the deep parts of the ocean were once cleared of all types of fish. Other than offering interesting facts, this article also gives added insight on the evolution of living organisms on planet Earth. Rise of First Vertebrates

Link: Car emissions and other pollutants in the air contribute to causing asthma attacks for many of those affected by the respiratory disease.  Approximately 95 percent of the world's population lives in places with unsafe air.  Targeting emissions produced by cars in bigger cities is a way to start cleaning the air.  I think that we should really pay more attention to what pollutants get in the air and we should try our best to reduce the amount of dirt in the air.  It would help everyone breathe better, not only those suffering from a respiratory disease.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181025151042.htm Studies show that if everyone in the world wanted to eat healthy, we would not have enough fruits and vegetables to sustain us. The world overproduces things like fat, sugar, and salt because people like those things. If everyone ate healthy, we would need a lot less land to grow fruits and veggies. I am very surprised by this. I never thought about this happening, but its a good thing we all like to eat crappy food. I think this will almost never happen because mcdonalds and all these processed foods are what people enjoy. If this does happen I believe scientists will find a way to feed us all, probably through GMOs and all that.

In Greenland, Ice sheets melt during the summer and cause problems in the area. But these events could beginning to change the sea levels across the world. Which could effect coastal communities across Earth, possibly leaving islands underwater. This years summer melt wasn't as bad as 2012's 97% melt which destroyed a local bridge in Greenland. But researchers are digging deeper into to see how fast these sheets disappear. Greenland has been in a lot of trouble lately with the rising temperatures and climate change, and this is nothing different. This rising issue could effect every. Could put islands and coastal areas under water, changing landscapes for ever. Scary what is and could happen if things don't change. Read Article Here-https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/greenland-ice-sheet-predicts-sea-level-rise-climate-change/

Everyday 93% of children under the age of fifteen breath dangerous polluted air. In 2016 over 600,000 kids died because of lower respiratory infections. Air pollution can cause problems for children in their developing and can cause problems like asthma or worse problems like cardiovascular disease. I think this is a horrible problem and something needs to be done to treat this problem.  https://phys.org/news/2018-10-air-pollution-children-year.html  

A new epidemic for sea creatures has begun, especially off of the coast of Florida. The "red tide" as its known is a form of red algae that is toxic. A new tide, known as the "brown tide" is beginning to grow and could become very dangerous if grouped with the red tide which is caused from an algan bloom that has gone on too long. In addition to harming sea animals, it also poses as a threat to humans. If these tides combine, many sea creatures could be injured or killed. A goliath grouper was found dead on the shores, and if this brown tide can kill big animals such as groupers, it could kill nearly anything.  (August) https://www.livescience.com/63449-brown-tide-red-tide-bloom.html

A large form of corn found in Oaxaca, Mexico has been found to stand at about sixteen feet tall and to drip a slimy goo. However, it is found to be the only form of corn that can take in nitrogen directly from the air to help with growth. This reduces nitrogen pollution, which is one of the biggest environmental problems facing the world. If other crops can begin to take in nitrogen for direct groth, nitrogen pollution will cease and a huge environmental problem that has only a few steps toward a solution will find its answer.   (September) https://www.livescience.com/63435-what-is-nitrogen-fixation.html

Rising tempertures and lots of human activity are causing water runoff to increase. Hurricanes Michael and Florence in the U.S. have shown how tremendously effective flash flooding can be, causing more deaths, agricultural losses, and many hazards across the country. As more human activity is being generated, more water is being left to go through the precipitation process. If this continues, more and more terrible storms could occur. While we can't stop nature, we can slow down the rate at which it affects our planet. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181022085820.htm

In the united states over a billion pounds of pesticides are used and it is making its way into our homes. Many homeowners are unaware of this. It is crazy that there could be pesticides in your home and you not even know it. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181023130526.htm

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/19/us/hurricane-michael-cotton-agriculture-climate-change.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fclimate&action=click&contentCollection=climate&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=9&pgtype=sectionfront For the Southwestern peach farmers in Georgia, it has been quite the struggle with climate change. Hurricane Michael devastated over 2.5 billion dollars worth of destruction in its path. Some farmers are saying if it comes down to one more bad year they may have no choice than to quit.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/11/turkey-flooding-dams-displaced-antiquities-mesopotamia/ In the town of Hasankeyf in Turkey, an ancient village lies on a plateau, overlooking the Tigris. This village contains remnants of Neolithic pioneers, Byzantines, Romans, and was used with trading in the Silk Road. In 2006, the Turkish government began working on a giant dam across the Tigris river, and it is predicted to flood most of this town within the next year. Turkey is said to be doing this to promote modernization, and to enhance its most valuable resource, being water, for irrigation. I feel that it is completely unacceptable to destroy such a rare and valuable civilization, that can easily be preserved. Aside from this, I also found it extremely interesting just how direct the correlation between environment and political conflict is. For example, the article mentioned that the Kurdistan Workers Party (terrorists to the US and Turkey) revolted against these injustic...

Check out this web site...... https://wattsupwiththat.com/ Using what we talked about in our discussion ab out validity & authority what are yo ur thoughts about this site. Remember words DO Matter..... Just becasue it is says   ... The world's most viewed site on global warming and climate change   doesn't mean anything on the site is correct just means a lot of people looked at it. Don't be fooled!

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181017140925.htm Ice is melting more and more in the arctic and it will eventually cause the Gyre to spill out its water and possible change global climate and ocean circulation. This is more evidence of global warming.

On September 3rd, Japan had a tragic typhoon. The typhoon killed at least 6 people, flooded an airport, and caused a tanker truck to hit a bridge. At least 7 more people died a few days later when they had a magnitude 6.7 earthquake. This is very sad because people don't realize what were doing to this planet, since this is the worst typhoon to hit Japan in 25 years. https://www.infoplease.com/september-2018-current-events-disaster-news

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/diving-pooping-moose-saving-its-ecosystem-now By pooping and peeing, moose are actually helping its habitat thrive. In cooler climates, there isn't that much nitrogen to help plant growth. Plants get nitrogen nutrients from the air and soil, while animals depend on getting their nitrogen intake through the plants. Moose diving and foraging for plants in the water had nearly tripled the amount of nitrogen in the waters. These moose have also transported more nitrogen onto the land as well. The plants that the moose are eating are rich in nitrogen and when they eat them, each moose pass around 78 grams of nitrogen a day through defecation and urination. However, moose aren't the only ones that are helping the environment. Hippos in the savanna in Africa produce these nitrogen nutrients as well.

https://www.livescience.com/63881-arctic-mercury-mystery.html Scientists have discovered that marine animals in the western arctic of the Canadian arctic have higher mercury levels than those in the east. The trend is seen throughout the food web, from the tiny zooplankton that drift along the oceans currents to large mammals like polar bears. This matters because mercury is a global concern and some communities in Canada rely on the oceans for food. Mercury can cause reproductive issues in some animals and neurological damage in humans.

http://www.thejournal.ie/raw-sewage-epa-2-4299832-Oct2018/ Last year it has been brought to America's attention that Ireland is not investing quickly enough in infrastructure that is needed to treat waste water. This sewage is flowing into rivers, lakes and coastal waters. In the last few years Ireland has not had a effective way of managing sewage waters. If this gets bad enough it could effect us extremely. I feel like this is disgusting because there will literally be poo and pee in the ocean, and it may get bad enough to migrate over to us. I don't feel like swimming or drinking human waste or trash filled water.

Unraveling Trump’s Toxic Agenda https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-environmenal-agenda-738964/ -

Origins of plastic- Oil ans gas molecules were chemically bonded, to create plastic pellets that could be melted and then molded into a shape. The discarding of plastic goes unrecognized and is a common occurrence for the average person. Most plastic bottles end up in a landfill. Being compacted by other trash, much of the plastic gets doused in rain. When water is combined with the substances in the plastic, many of them can be harmful to the ecosystem. It can seep into soil, groundwater, and even streams. This destroys wildlife because of the harmful substances in the tainted water, also known as leachate. If a bottle or any other plastic is brought out to the ocean it comes, eventually, to a kind of a landfill if you will, however these landfills are in the middle of the ocean. These are then broken down, but they are not forgotten about. The plastic is broken down into "micro-plastics". These are then consumed by fish and those fish die of starvation because they feel f...

In many parts of the world there has been an increase in mouth cancer cases. PM2.5 is known for being harmful to your cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Exposure to heavy metal and petrochemical plants emit PM2.5. " When compared with levels below 26.74 ug/m3, those above 40.37 ug/ m3 were associated with a 43 per cent heightened risk of a mouth cancer diagnosis." in the article it says that they cant come up with a cause. it is scary to think that you could get mouth cancer just from the air. I think that this could become a big issue.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181009210733.htm

There is a lot of garbage in the ocean, and a project was created to take out the plastic in the ocean and it could remove about 90% of the plastic by 2040. Some other researchers feel the project won’t get all of the plastic out because they are only small pieces and the project is for bigger things like fishing nets. They have unmoored booms set up as an artificial shoreline traveling with the wind and waves collecting debris and the booms drag beneath the surface. In September they are releasing the system 001 will be tested and if it works with how it is supposed to arrive at the North Pacific gyre five weeks later. The system was shown not to cause a lot of problems for marine life, but had a concern of sea turtles getting caught and eating the plastic. Environmental scientists feels like the project won’t actually collect as much plastic as they say they will, but they have to test the system before they can judge if it will fully work. The Ocean Cleanup team believes that any ef...

A new study shows the rate of ice melting might be temporarily increased or decreased by two climate patterns. If global warming at its rate the Greenland ice sheet could melt entirely. Depending on how the AMO and NAO reacts melting could happen two decades earlier or two decades later than expected. The NAO can switch between positive and negative phases over the course of a few weeks and the AMO can take 50 years to go through a full cycle. People need to start paying more attention to things like this and find ways to contribute so that we can slow down the rate the ice is melting.

Hurricane Michael recently made landfall on the Florida panhandle and has also impacted surrounding states.  Michael transitioned from a tropical storm following a predictable path to a category five hurricane in just two days.  This caught forecasters off guard, but it also left little time for the residents of Florida to prepare for the powerful storm.  This resulted in massive damage.  The reason for Michael's unpredictable power is the unusual temperature of the Gulf of Mexico for this time of year.  The heat and moisture allowed Michael to pick up speed and essentially harness more power before it made landfall.  This entire situation turned out to be extremely unfortunate.  If the weathermen had been able to track the storm more efficiently, it may have given people more time to prepare.  Unfortunately , that's not how things played out, however, and the resulting damage is extensive.      https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/1...

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/greenpeace-beach-cleanup-report-highlights-ocean-plastic-problem/ This article explains how the pollution on these beaches are gathered up each year in September and they have picked up about 300,000,000 Lbs. of trash of more than 350 varieties. This pollution is affected the wild marine life and killing them and isn't good for the environment. This is very shameful of human beings they need to take their actions into account of other creatures and the environment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6xlNyWPpB8 This video talks about the life cycle of plastic specifically three plastic bottles. Each plastic bottle goes through a different scenario representing the three possibilities for what happens to plastic after we're done using it. Now knowing the three different outcomes to the plastic I use, I am much more inclined to make sure I recycle. I never realized how bad plastic pollution was in the ocean until watching this video and hearing that there are five giant patches of plastic floating in the water in all parts of the globe.

This article was published in Newsweek on Oct. 5th after Florence, BUT before Micheal http://find.galegroup.com/grnr/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/climate-change-increasing-venomous-creatures-ocean-warming/ According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate change expected to occur over the next few decades could potentially impact the range shift of venomous marine life. Animals such as lion fish, starfish, jellyfish, and water snakes will likely begin to move away from the Ecuador as it becomes too hot for their survival. They will disperse northward to seek more moderately warm temperatures in areas near coastlines where people typically swim in the ocean. Hospitals are expected to struggle with the large influx of sting and bites needing immediate treatment.  I think that this is an important reason as to why climate change needs to be taken seriously by the United States government. The government should focus more funding and resources towards making a long term plan to prevent climate change from impacting other aspects of the environment and c...

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/bird-poop-helps-keep-coral-reefs-healthy-rats-are-messing The bird poop is rich in nitrogen and when washed away to the reefs, keeping it productive. Rats will eat the seabird's eggs, chicks, and even the adult brains. The rats are becoming a problem because the bird's give back to the ecosystem in positive ways. Scientists did a study on rat-free island and an island with rats. This study helped realize that the rat-free island was much healthier than the non rat-free island because it was more rich in nitrogen.

The Lowland Bongo, an elusive striped antelope, was discovered using motion sensor cameras in Semuliki National Park. This can lead to more discoveries in the unexplored rainforest. This discovery also will help with conservation because the animal since scientists believe that they are using th forest to move between Uganda and Democratic Republic of the Congo. They also believe that other rare species are yet to be discovered in this forest. I think this is interesting because I've never heard of the Lowland Bongo and it is neat to know that there still may be species of animals still left to discover.

An endangered species of baleen whales found in Patagonia, Chile, experienced a mass die-off of 337 whales in 2015. In an attempt to discover what happens during the decaying process, marine biologist Katie McConnell decided to document the decaying process of the whales over the span of two years, using sixteen time-lapse cameras. While birds fed on the carcasses, scientists were able to see five phases of decomposition, which include fresh, bloated, active, advanced, and dry, in the respected order. By observing and recording this data, McConnell hopes that this documentation will give reference to future documentation of decomposition in other species that can hopefully show a cause of death. In my opinion, I found this article interesting because of the opportunity to see decomposition through all five phases. I do not know, however, how well this can help the environment, but, maybe seeing how the decomposition process occurs can cause ways to change the environment that way the...

This article was about a scientist in Australia who thinks he has designed a trap that will keep Asian tiger mosquitos from flourishing anymore. The man has built a trap with 3 buckets, one black one on the top, a clear one in the middle and another black one on the bottom. The mosquitos are supposed to be attracted to the black, fly inside the first bucket and get trapped inside. The bottom bucket is supposed to be filled with water and rotted grass because mosquitos like to lay eggs in stagnant water. The trap that the man built is only effective, though, if everybody does it because mosquitos will not necessarily be attracted to your trap if they see something they like more at your neighbor's house. https://www.npr.org/2018/09/25/647973731/building-a-better-mosquito-trap-one-scientist-thinks-hes-done-it

Scientists suspect that the planet Kepler 1625b might not be orbiting alone. They have found evidence that there might be a mega-moon the size of Neptune that is orbiting the planet. This would be the first moon spotted outside of our solar system. The Hubble Space Telescope has aided in finding evidence of the large moon. The discovery is not 100% confident as of now but scientists are working on building a stronger foundation for their theory and the concept of this possible orbiting mega-moon. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/10/news-first-exomoon-nasa-kepler-planets-facts-space/

With current weather conditions they could end up creating more extreme weather conditions such as heat waves and drought. It could also create storms the could cause extreme damage. Researchers have shown that there are more prolonged periods of dry and wet spells. With this research it shows that with the Arctic melting it could show more prolonged periods of these spells. Which in turn cause more damage to the land. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180926110943.htm

    Why some flowers greet us each spring        Flower's DNA cause them to survive differently. Annuals, will bloom every year and yet die every year, and perennials will survive year after year. Perennials will try to conserve alive cells during the winter to be able to regrow in the spring. Scientist are working on being able to turn non-perennials into perennials to make crops that do not need to be replanted. .     I think this is important because it can revolutionize the way we grow food. The farming industry will become way more profitable. This can make food cheaper and change the economy. 

In Indonesia there was an earthquake and a tsunami. The Indonesia government is being accused of not warning people about it. They sent out a tsunami warning but then took it down soon after and people did not know about it. This is crazy that they would not warn people about a tsunami coming. 

Over the last couple of years the number of people using the plant-based diet or the vegan diet has increased quite a bit and for a couple different of reasons. Is being a vegan better for the environment? it does save some animals but we don't need everyone going vegan. The vegan industry is expected to hit one billion dollars by 2020 and 600% increase of vegan eaters in the last 10 years. Being vegan can be quite expensive and if we did all turned vegan it would not be good with the demand of meat going down and the price of vegan food would be going up. My Response is it will help our environment to a certain extent, no I do not think that everyone should go vegan but if you don't meats or want to lose weight here is a solution for you. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/newsbeat-43128019/going-vegan-is-it-just-a-fad

E.P.A. Places the Head of Its Office of Children’s Health on Leave

The striped antelope was discovered in Bongo in the Republic of Congo. A new picture of the antelope was taken which is causing the researchers to question how much they really know about the area. This is going to cause more research into the area to discover new animal in the area. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45633272

Poachers kill about 40,000 elephants every year. Doctors can use a genetic map to find out where the elephant was killed. This will help law enforcement target certain areas to try and stop poaching. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/science/ivory-poaching-genetics.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Ftrilobites

A study has shown that artificial light makes fish as in guppies more courageous during the day which made them more prone to predators in the early morning hours. Many other animals such as insects and birds are attracted to artificial light. Alot of times it will change the patterns of animals and make them come out or become active at a different times. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180921113456.htm

Malaria is one of the worlds most prevalent diseases caused by a parasite transmitted through mosquitoes. Biologists recently developed a way of changing mosquito genetics that forces the insects to self-destruct. This technique has proven to be so successful that malaria could potentially be eliminated.  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/24/science/gene-drive-mosquitoes.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180926110943.htm More persistent weather patterns in the US are being linked to Arctic warming. Dry and wet spells have occurred more now than in the last decade. As Arctic warming continues, long duration weather conditions will increase. More heat waves, droughts, cold spells and stormy conditions will be in our future. My reaction to this was not happy. I am so tired of all the rain all the time, but I guess global warming is inevitable. Even if we do things to avoid global warming, it will most likely still happen and we will still have to deal with the weather conditions. I am also tired of how cold it is during the winter, so this sucks.