A transatlantic flight may turn Saharan dust into a key ocean nutrient

SCIENCE NEWS - As dust from the Sahara blows thousands of kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean, it becomes progressively more nutritious for marine microbes, a new study suggests. Chemical reactions in the atmosphere chew on iron minerals in the dust, making them more water soluble and creating a crucial nutrient source for the iron-starved seas...
By Douglas Fox | Science News |

Our Atmosphere Transforms Dust From The Sahara Into Minerals That Fuel Life

SCIENCE ALERT - Dust swept from the Sahara desert provides life at the bottom of the marine food chain with a critical nutrient. Without the iron carried far and wide in this mineral cloud, oceanic phytoplankton would struggle to bloom. According to a new study led by the University of California, Riverside, the more time...
By Tessa Koumoundouros | Science Alert |

The Sun Will Destroy the Earth One Day, Right? Maybe Not.

THE NEW YORK TIMES - In six billion years the sun will expand into a red giant. That process should consume Mercury, and maybe Venus. For a long time we have thought it might incinerate Earth, too. But perhaps all is not doomed for planet Earth (although it may be a world that will have...
By Jonathan O’Callaghan | The New York Times |

Oceanic life found to be thriving thanks to Saharan dust blown from thousands of kilometers away

FRONTIERS - Scientists from the US measured the relative amounts of ‘bioreactive’ iron in four sediment cores from the bottom of the Atlantic. They showed for the first time that the further dust is blown from the Sahara, the more iron in it becomes bioreactive through chemical processes in the atmosphere. These results have important...
By Michiel Dijkstra | Frontiers |

California Mountain Towns Are Too Risky for Insurers, but Residents Want to Stay

THE NEW YORK TIMES - The snow-blanketed peaks, fishing holes and cool alpine air of the San Bernardino Mountains have beckoned Southern Californians for generations. As far back as the 1880s, travelers braved a 6,000-foot climb in horse-drawn carriages to reach the pine forests that now surround the resort towns of Lake Arrowhead and Big...
By Soumya Karlamangla | The New York Times |

Did climate change make the 3 Southern California wildfires worse?

THE MERCURY NEWS - Climate change didn’t light the match, but it likely set the stage for the Airport, Bridge and Line fires to burn fiercely and aggressively throughout Southern California, say academics and the head of an environmental group. As of Friday afternoon, Sept. 13, the three blazes had consumed more than 113,000 acres...
By Jeff Horseman | The Mercury News |

Alien-hunters given 3D space map showing where extraterrestrials may be hiding

THE U.S. SUN - Scientists have created a 3D illustration charting a list of nearby stars that may be hosting "habitable" alien worlds. They used data from Nasa's Chandra X-ray Observatory to identify these planets. It involved finding stars that are close enough to Earth that we could use future telescopes to take images of...
By Sean Keach | U.S. Sun |

These nearby star systems could be good targets in the search for alien life

LIVE SCIENCE - NASA's Chandra X-ray space telescope has created a three-dimensional map of stars close to the sun that may help astronomers search for alien planets that could host life. The map created by Chandra — which just celebrated 25 years in orbit but is facing a troubling budget crunch — could inform scientists...
By Robert Lea | Live Science |

The Salton Sea is now smelly all year long and making people's asthma worse. The culprit? Bacteria

LOS ANGELES TIMES - Five years ago, Lisa Clark and her husband left her hometown of El Centro for Niland, a small town of 500, in search for more affordable housing. But now they’re paying a hidden cost for living just two miles southeast of the Salton Sea. “I’ve been having very bad asthma lately,”...
By Lila Seidman | LA Times |

‘Fire clouds’ from super-hot wildfires are on the rise as Earth warms

NATURE - The monstrous fires that are now charring vast areas of western North America aren’t just colossal and fast-moving, they have also created their own thunderstorms — an example of exotic fire behavior that scientists say is becoming more common as the climate changes. Both the Park Fire, which has burnt more than 160,000...
By Brian Owens | Nature |
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