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