What the scientists are saying…
Greenland’s ice at “tipping point” Greenland’s ice is melting faster than expected – and is doing so in regions where the ice was presumed to be “safe”, a new study has found. A team at The Ohio State University used satellite images and ground-based instruments to monitor the island’s ice, and found that 400 billion tonnes were shed in 2012, four times more than in 2003. Greenland has long been monitored by scientists concerned about rising sea levels, but previously, research has focused on the southeast and northwest of the island, where there are many large glaciers which calve in warm weather, creating icebergs that melt in the Atlantic. For this study, however, researchers examined data from a broader area, and found that an alarming amount of meltwater was now being dumped in the southwest, where there are few glaciers. According to the study’s lead author, Professor Michael Bevis, this indicates that Greenland’s ice sheet is now melting rapidly, sending water coursing down rivers and into the oceans. “This is going to cause additional sea level rise. We are watching the ice sheet hit a tipping point.” Greenland’s ice sheets contain enough water to raise sea levels 23 feet.
Under-sevens’ divorce resilience Older children appear to be worse affected by divorce than younger ones. To better understand the impact of family break-ups, a team from UCL looked at the behavioural and mental health records of 6,245 UK children, around a fifth of whose parents had separated when they were aged between three and 14. They found that children who were seven or under when their parents divorced were no more likely to exhibit emotional or behavioural problems than children living with both of their parents, either in the short term or later on. However, children whose parents split when they were aged between seven and 14 subsequently displayed a 16% increase in emotional issues and an 8% increase in conduct disorders, on average. Emotional problems were experienced by both girls and boys, but behavioural problems were mainly confined to boys. “Family splits occurring in late, but not early, childhood are detrimental to adolescent mental health,” said Professor Emla Fitzsimons, a co-author of the study. “One possible reason for this is that children are more sensitive to relationship dynamics at this age.”
Storing energy under the sea Britain could overcome one of the key problems with renewable energy – the unpredictability of its supply – by “storing” it in porous rocks as compressed air, scientists suggest. Compressed air energy storage (CAES) involves using electricity generated by wind, tidal and solar plants to compress air and store it in rocks deep within the seabed; when the energy is required, you simply “pop the cork”, and use the escaping air to drive a turbine that re-generates the electricity, reports Discover magazine. And in theory, it could work for the UK. Using mathematical models, researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde have calculated that Britain could store all the energy it needs for two wintery months – January and February – in sandstone rocks under the North Sea. This would require considerable investment, but CAES’S advocates say it is more efficient than other electricity storage methods – and there is no cheap way of revolutionising a country’s power production.
Thin people have “skinny” genes There are hundreds of genetic variations linked to obesity; now, scientists have discovered that people who are naturally thin not only lack these “fat” genes, they also have “skinny” genes of their own. For a Wellcome Trust/university of Cambridge study, DNA samples were taken from about 2,000 people who exercised little yet remained thin, with a body mass index less than 18 (classed as underweight). They were physically healthy, and none had eating disorders. When the researchers compared this DNA with that of overweight people, they found the thin people had fewer genes linked to obesity; they also identified three DNA regions linked to thinness containing hundreds of genes. This, said study leader Professor Sadaf Farooqi, shows that thin people are not “morally superior” to fat people; often, they are thin simply because of the genes they were born with and without.