News and notes about science
A CASPIAN SEA MYSTERY, SOLVED ON TWITTER
What could have left those crisscrossing lines in the Caspian Sea? That’s the question that had Norman Kuring scratching his head last month as he pored over a satellite image of the shallow waters surrounding the Tyuleniy Archipelago.
“I had no idea what they were,” he said. “I thought maybe they were marks of trawlers, which sometimes disturb the bottom.”
Kuring, an oceanographer at NASA, and his colleagues posted the peculiar photograph to Twitter and asked for help. After a few exchanges with other experts, they had a likely suspect: ice.
Their theory is that large, frozen chunks were blown across the sea until they piled atop one another, deep enough to gouge the seafloor. As the wind blew, the ice was dragged across the bottom, plowing up sea grass and algae.
This suspicion was confirmed by Stanislav Ogorodov, a researcher at Lomonosov Moscow State University, who said the scratches were “undoubtedly” so-called ice scours, melting away the mystery. Nicholas St. Fleur
A LIGHT SHOW FROM STAR-SPANGLED SQUID
Hop on a fishing boat in Toyama Bay, Japan, in the wee hours of the morning, and you may feel as if you’re in a spaceship, navigating through the stars.
Each year, from March to June, millions of firefly squid transform the water into a starscape. Three inches long and covered in glowing spots, the cephalopod is lit by an internal enzymatic reaction: Up close, each looks like its own constellation of green and blue stars — a blue nebula when the squid rise from the depths to spawn.
But why the firefly squid glows is unclear — scientists say it doesn’t seem to help attract mates or deter predators. Equally mysterious, but perhaps related: This squid is thought to be the only one with color vision. Joanna Klein
A CAP ON RADIOACTIVITY NEARS COMPLETION
On the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, access to the surrounding 18-mile exclusion zone is still restricted. But at the plant itself, things are looking up.
An arched shelter designed to enclose the radioactive remains is nearing completion — away from the destroyed reactor to protect workers. Once the arch is moved into place, the radiation inside will be so high that normal maintenance will not be possible. So the arch is covered in stainless steel, and dehumidified air will be circu- lated around the structure’s steel trusses to prevent rust.
The shelter will eliminate one of the greatest risks at Chernobyl: a structural collapse that could raise a cloud of radioactive dust and spread more contamination across Ukraine and into Western Europe.
Then it will be up to Ukraine, if officials can find the money, to start removing the crumbling radioac- tive fuel with remote-operated equipment inside the arch. By one estimate, 195 tons of fuel remain, mixed with other materials into a lethal, lavalike substance. Henry Fountain