Month: July 2015

It’s hard for a human to imagine successfully walking on water, but it’s actually pretty common within the animal kingdom. Creatures that weigh a tiny fraction of our weight can manipulate the surface tension on a body of water to move around.

According to a report from Phys.org, an international team of scientists has drawn inspiration from the water strider, and created a robot that can leap from the surface of the water.

Researchers from Seoul National University, Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, and the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have offered new insights into the mechanics of the “magic bugs” that seemingly decline to distinguish between water and solid ground.

The water strider has evolved to press the surface of the water at the right speed for just the right amount of time to a specific depth, allowing it to jump and step. Its legs have slightly curved tips and move rotationally to help them take off.

Using inspiration from the bug’s design, the researchers got to work. The prototype robot glider can exert up to 16 times its own weight against the surface water without sinking, with relatively simple controls. It was built using a “torque reversal catapult mechanism,” which drew inspiration from the way fleas jump.

You can check out a video of the water-striding robot here:

Forests are an essential part of the system that regulates the climate on Earth. In addition to providing the atmosphere with oxygen, they absorb massive amounts of carbon dioxide. There may be something that’s keeping trees from absorbing as much CO2 as we thought, however. According to Newsweek, a new study has shown that increasing droughts have caused forests to absorb significantly less carbon dioxide.

“Forests are more sensitive to drought than previously thought,” said lead author William R.L. Anderegg, a University of Utah biology professor. The study, which analyzed 1,300 forests in the northern hemisphere, also found that the effects of a drought hang around with the forest for years to come.

To make matters worse, climate scientists nearly universally agree that droughts will become more frequent and intense as the average global temperature continues to rise. This creates a dangerous feedback loop, as CO2 becomes less effectively absorbed and continues to contribute to atmospheric warming.

The study reveals a glitch in many current climate models, which assumed forests could recover from a drought instantly. In reality, a single drought poses a long-term threat to the survival of a forest. The effects are especially pronounced in tropical latitudes, where many of the trees rely on constant rains.

The study did not reveal that the forests of the northern hemisphere had reached any dangerous tipping points, but the threat posed by droughts is much worse than previously thought.

Wolves are known for being sly, but this one managed to sneak all the way past the scientific community. According to a report from the Guardian, scientists in Africa have identified a new wolf species, the golden jackal.

According to a DNA analysis, the authors of the recent study published in Current Biology were shocked to discover that the African golden jackal, which split from a population in Eurasia about a million years ago, is actually more closely related to the grey wolf. There are no grey wolves in Africa, and the two bear little physical similarities.

Even though the African golden jackals look more like their Eurasian cousins, they are actually their own distinct species. The scientists want to name the wolf the African golden wolf, or Canis anthus.

Science hasn’t paid very close attention to jackals, and taxonomists traditionally recognize just three species: the black-backed jackal, the side-striped jackal, and golden jackals. All three species are endemic to Africa, but the golden jackals also live well into Eurasia.

The three species were long considered closely related based on observations about their physical characteristics. Upon further genetic analysis, however, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The African golden jackal split from the grey wolf about 1.3 million years ago. The Eurasian population split about a half a million years before. There is still much to learn about the different populations of jackals, and researchers are just getting started sorting out the genetic data that has recently become available.

Political arguments aside, the state of Washington, DC, the county’s capital, is not looking good. According to an MSNBC report, the usual suspects for water encroaching on land are not to blame in this case. Instead of climate change or an act of karma, Washington’s problem is caused by something called “forebulge collapse.”

The term describes the geological history of the region since the last ice age. Up until about 20,000 years ago, there was a massive ice sheet that rose a mile into the sky. The ice was so heavy that it caused the areas south of the glacier, including Washington, DC, to bulge and rise up in elevation. The hilly topography made the city seem like a great place to begin building a capital.

Ben DeJong, the lead author of a new study on the city published in Science Daily, likens the phenomenon to standing on a waterbed filled with viscous honey. The other side of the bed rises when you apply downward pressure, but when you relieve that pressure, the other side goes down again.

Geologists believe that Washington, DC may sink as low as six inches over the next 100 years. While that may not seem like much, it puts a number of military installations, government buildings, homes, and national monuments at risk.

Given the low elevation of the surrounding areas, a six-inch drop could spell havoc for the Washington, DC area. Hopefully, citizens will take heed and stray away from “forebulge-collapse-denial.”

A recent study has asserted that the ocean could wash away nearly two-fifths of all American homes. According to a report from Wired, climate scientists think that rising sea levels could put a large portion of the population at serious risk.

Coastal cities know how to deal with high tides and the occasional storm surge, but scientists’ models are predicting that the sea will only continue to seem more unpredictable.

A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change has shown that heavy flooding and storm surge events, which can occur due to a combination of tidal, climatic, and the interactions between the ocean and existing infrastructure on the coasts, have increased over the last half century.

Sea level rise is influenced by thermal expansion, where heat energy absorbed into the water causes the molecules to become more active and take up a larger area. This phenomenon, paired with the accelerated melting at both of the world’s poles, contributes significantly to the sea level rise recorded over the past 50 years.

The study measured the frequency of extreme high tide events and precipitation records for 30 different cities. They compared this data with records dating back to the early 20^th century, and found that heavy rains and high tides are becoming increasingly synchronized.

The study stops short of blaming climate change as the cause of immediate danger, but the data recorded shows a clear risk for nearly 40 percent of Americans.