The importance of subterranean microbes

Here we apply terabase-scale cultivation-independent metagenomics to aquifer sediments and groundwater, and reconstruct 2,540 draft-quality, near-complete and complete strain-resolved genomes that represent the majority of known bacterial phyla as well as 47 newly discovered phylum-level lineages. Metabolic analyses spanning this vast phylogenetic diversity and representing up to 36% of organisms detected in the system are used to document the distribution of pathways in coexisting organisms.

Sources:

Thousands of microbial genomes shed light on interconnected biogeochemical processes in an aquifer system : Nature Communications

More CO2 than ever

The carbon dioxide at pre-industrial level was about 278 ppm...
... nowadays is at 400ppm.

Sources:

Globally Averaged CO2 Levels Reach 400 parts per million in 2015 | World Meteorological Organization

USA prepared for space weather events....

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to prepare the Nation for space weather events, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Sources:

Executive Order -- Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events | whitehouse.gov

CO2 increasing... and plants cannot help us...

Natural carbon sinks currently absorb approximately half of the anthropogenic CO2 emitted by fossil fuel burning, cement production and land-use change. However, this airborne fraction may change in the future depending on the emissions scenario. An important issue in developing carbon budgets to achieve climate stabilisation targets is the behaviour of natural carbon sinks, particularly under low emissions mitigation scenarios as required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Sources:
Simulating the Earth system response to negative emissions - IOPscience

Blue lakes on antarctic galicers

New detailed research about blue lakes on antarctic  glaciers

Supraglacial lakes are known to influence ice melt and ice flow on the Greenland ice sheet and potentially cause ice shelf disintegration on the Antarctic Peninsula.

Sources:

Seasonal evolution of supraglacial lakes on an East Antarctic outlet glacier - Langley - 2016 - Geophysical Research Letters - Wiley Online Library
Dazzling blue lakes are forming in Antarctica — and they’ve got scientists worried - The Washington Post

Planet earth megafauna in darger

The big animals continue their extinction...

59% of the world's largest carnivores (more than or equal to 15 kilograms, n = 27) and 60% of the world's largest herbivores (more than or equal to 100 kilograms, n = 74) are classified as threatened with extinction on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List (supplemental tables S1 and S2). 

Sources:

Saving the World's Terrestrial Megafauna

The first form of live in planet earth

 The origin of life on planet earth could be a bacteria that fix C02 and H2...

The concept of a last universal common ancestor of all cells (LUCA, or the progenote) is central to the study of early evolution and life's origin, yet information about how and where LUCA lived is lacking. 

LUCA inhabited a geochemically active environment rich in H2, CO2 and iron. The data support the theory of an autotrophic origin of life involving the Wood–Ljungdahl pathway in a hydrothermal setting. 

Sources:

The physiology and habitat of the last universal common ancestor : Nature Microbiology

Ocean biomass with human pathogens increases

Some dangerous form of life are increasing in the world oceans. The reason seems that are related to global climate change.

Climate change is having a dramatic impact on marine animal and plant communities but little is known of its influence on marine prokaryotes, which represent the largest living biomass in the world oceans and play a fundamental role in maintaining life on our planet.

Sources:

Climate influence on Vibrio and associated human diseases during the past half-century in the coastal North Atlantic

Bees are stressed by pesticides

Human pesticides are used without control and influence on critical ecosystems that provide politicization.

Here we show that pollen collected by honey bee foragers in maize- and soybean-dominated landscapes is contaminated throughout the growing season with multiple agricultural pesticides, including the neonicotinoids used as seed treatments. 

Sources:

Non-cultivated plants present a season-long route of pesticide exposure for honey bees : Nature Communications

Smashing temperature records...

On March the global average temperature has achieved a new record... never seen before in 100 years...

An 'the show'... still goes on...

It comes after scientists reported that Greenland’s ice sheet has melted three months earlier than usual due to climate change.

"Something like this wipes out all kinds of records, you can't help but go, 'This could be a sign of things we're going to see more often in the future."

Nasa ice scientist Walt Meler said: "Things are getting more extreme and they're getting more common".

Sources:

March temperature smashes 100-year global record | Environment | The Independent

Data.GISS: GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP)

Water shortages in near future...

Water shortages in Asia near 2050...

Economic and population growth on top of climate change could lead to serious water shortages across a broad swath of Asia by the year 2050, a newly published study by MIT scientists has found.

Sources:

Water problems in Asia’s future? | MIT News

Understanding the basic principles of life...

The simplest form of live has been developed inside a laboratory and has only 473 genes...

Not all the 'code' used is already understood...

... Improved transposon mutagenesis methods revealed a class of quasi-essential genes that are needed for robust growth, explaining the failure of our initial design. Three cycles of design, synthesis, and testing, with retention of quasi-essential genes, produced JCVI-syn3.0 (531 kilobase pairs, 473 genes), which has a genome smaller than that of any autonomously replicating cell found in nature. JCVI-syn3.0 retains almost all genes involved in the synthesis and processing of macromolecules. Unexpectedly, it also contains 149 genes with unknown biological functions. JCVI-syn3.0 is a versatile platform for investigating the core functions of life and for exploring whole-genome design.

Sources:

Design and synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome | Science

Bacteria 'eats' plastic

The plastic is one of the new materials that humans use extensively worldwide... Is no really 'compatible' with nature but there is a 'bacteria' (Ideonella Sakaiensis) that seems to put this new material into the biodegradation scheme...

It could be a viable remediation or recycling strategy.

Bacteria isolated from outside a bottle-recycling facility can break down and metabolize plastic. The proliferation of plastics in consumer products, from bottles to clothing, has resulted in the release of countless tons of plastics into the environment.

Sources:

A bacterium that degrades and assimilates poly(ethylene terephthalate) | Science

Water filtered using graphene

New method based in graphene membranes is more effective to remove contaminants from water...

Mi says that membranes made from graphene or graphene oxide can more effectively remove wastewater contaminants—including pharmaceuticals, pathogens and endocrine disruptors—than current methods and can be applied to wastewater reuse, water desalinization and storm water treatment.

The longstanding problem with graphene oxide membranes has been that adding oxygen makes graphene more likely to dissolve in water.

But when Mi was able to adhere a chemical to the sheets of graphene oxide to "glue" them together, the membrane stayed intact in water. The results of that breakthrough were published in a 2013 academic journal.

Sources:

Using graphene to filter water

New instrument to mesure gravitational waves... in place.

The ripples in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity are difficult to detect in a planet...

"LISA Pathfinder was launched on 3 December 2015 and arrived today (22 January 2016) in its orbit around 'L1', a virtual point in space some 1.5 million km from Earth towards the Sun."

Sources:

ESA Science & Technology: LISA Pathfinder arrives at its worksite

ESA Science & Technology: LISA Technology Package core assembly – without vacuum enclosures

It's so hot...

This is a global scale warming problem.

At this point I really don't know if it's possible to stop this process...

And the most impressive... there are people who doesn't believe in planet climate change.



Sources:

NASA, NOAA Analyses Reveal Record-Shattering Global Temperatures | NASA