Earthweek: a diary of the planet
For the week ending Friday, Dec. 1.
Light pollution
Artificial light on the Earth’s surface at night grew by about 2 percent in each of the last five years, causing concerns that the light pollution could affect both people and wildlife. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association cautions that the satellite sensors used to detect the lighting can’t observe some of the increasingly common LED lighting, meaning the analysis of the observations could be underestimating the amount of light pollution. German ecologist Franz Hölker warned that the light “threatens biodiversity through changed night habits, such as reproduction or migration patterns of many different species: insects, amphibians, fish, birds, bats and other animals.”
Disease drones
An international team of researchers suggests that the common fly can be used as a kind of bionic drone to monitor and predict the progression of disease outbreaks. Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, the scientists say they found swarms of flies can carry hundreds of species of bacteria, some of which can harm humans. Singapore researcher Stephan Schuster and his colleagues suggest that flies bred to be germ-free could be released into the environment, then later captured in bait traps to see if they had picked up any dangerous pathogens.
Israeli snow birds
Ornithologists say climate change has prompted some of the 500 million migratory birds that used to stop off only briefly in Israel to stay for the winter rather than cross an increasingly hostile and expanding desert region to the south. Because 40,000 newly wintering cranes like to feast on the corn and peanuts growing around Agamon Hula Lake, Israel has resorted to feeding the birds up to 9 tons of corn a day to keep them away from the crops.
Southern cyclone
Indonesia’s meteorological agency said the first tropical cyclone of the season in the Southern Hemisphere formed just south of the island of Java. As it was forming, Cyclone Cempaka killed at least 19 people on Java, mainly in a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall.
Antimatter bolt
New studies have revealed that the intense power introduced into the atmosphere by lightning can result in matter-antimatter annihilation in a series of radioactive decays that follow some strikes. Writing in the journal Nature, Japanese researchers found that electric fields within thunderstorms are able to accelerate electrons to extremely high energies, generating a zone that contains unstable isotopes of oxygen and nitrogen. Radioisotopes and even positrons — the antimatter equivalent of electrons — are formed in the process.
Bali eruptions
Indonesia’s Mount Agung belched plumes of ash and created tremors that shook parts of Bali during a string of eruptions that ended the volcano’s 54-year slumber. Authorities told 100,000 residents around the volcano to leave the area.