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Mega Drought

In the previous two decades, the American west has been subjected to the most extreme mega drought in at least 1,200 years, according to scientists. Human-caused climate change is cited as a major factor in the current devastating conditions in a recently released study, and the researchers predict that more drier decades lie ahead.

Park Williams, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles and the study’s lead author, says, “Anyone who has been paying attention knows that the west has been dry for most of the last two decades.”

Human-caused global warming has played a significant role in raising the temperature. In other studies, researchers have found that the climate problem “will increasingly boost the likelihood of lengthy, widespread and severe mega droughts. This worst-case scenario already looks to be coming to pass,” according to a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

It expands on a previous study, also led by Williams, which found that the decade from 2000 to 2018 was the second driest in the past 12,000 years of record-keeping. However, 2021 – 2022’s record-breaking heat, dwindling reservoirs, and increase in dangerously unpredictable and uncontrollable fires were worse still.

Researchers from UCLA, NASA, and Columbia University studied soil moisture levels in landscapes stretching from Montana to northern Mexico and from the Pacific Ocean north to the Rocky Mountains. They looked at tree ring patterns to figure out how much moisture was in the soil over time. Stunted development patterns can be seen in the rings where they appear closer together.

Researchers discovered that mega droughts, which are extended periods of dryness lasting more than two decades, are woven into history. Water availability fluctuated across time, even before humans began using it for industrial purposes. The climate catastrophe, on the other hand, has exacerbated this variability. In the last 22 years, soil moisture deficiencies have doubled compared to the 1900s, according to their research. More than 40% of the rise in severity was caused by humans.

The researchers are concerned that the West is reaching a tipping point in its rising trajectory. It’s been shown in numerous studies that human-caused global warming and drought are linked, and that these climate calamities compound over time. Heat waves are expected to grow in size, intensity, and frequency in the coming years, according to a substantial body of research. This study, on the other hand, provides information that shows how quickly and steeply these changes are taking place in the context of history.

There are many experts and campaigners who think this will be a wake-up call to prepare for a future that is quickly becoming reality. Unsustainable systems are already showing signs of weakness. A declining water bank account, Williams explains, “means that our spending must be curtailed before the account goes dry.”

A Cure For HIV

Scientists reported last week that a woman of mixed race had become the third person believed to be cured of HIV through the use of a stem cell transplant from a donor naturally resistant to the virus. Success with the new umbilical cord blood technique could allow physicians to assist more patients of various genders and races.

AIDS-causing virus HIV has previously been treated in two patients who appeared to have recovered using a different procedure. When Timothy Brown and Adam Castillejo were diagnosed with HIV, they were given bone marrow transplants from donors with a genetic mutation that prevents HIV infection. Adult hematopoietic stem cells can be found in bone marrow and umbilical cord blood, which are supplied by the parents of newborns. All of the immune system’s blood cells are derived from these stem cells.

A donor with natural immunity to HIV was chosen for the female patient’s umbilical cord blood treatment for leukaemia in the belief that it would help her battle both illnesses. It’s been 14 months since the woman, who prefers to remain anonymous, has been rid of the virus, according to specialists.

The two male patients were the first to be cured of HIV with the use of umbilical cord blood, a less intrusive and more generally available therapy option than the more invasive bone marrow transplant. Because cord blood donors aren’t as closely matched to the recipient as bone marrow donors, it can be an alternative for patients with unusual tissue types.

AIDS expert Steven Deeks, who was not involved in the study, said: “The fact that she’s mixed race, and that she’s a woman, that is incredibly important scientifically and really important in terms of the community impact.”

In contrast to Brown and Castillejo, the woman was discharged from the hospital 17 days following her bone marrow transplant without showing any signs of graft-versus-host disease. It was a stem cell transplant that saved the lives of all three individuals who appeared to have beaten HIV.

Despite the apparent success of the medication, most of the 38 million people living with HIV around the world will not be able to benefit from it at the moment. HIV patients who receive cord blood stem cell transplants for cancer treatment are part of a bigger study that will follow a total of 25 people with HIV who receive transplants for aggressive malignancies like leukaemia.

Koen van Besien, director of Weill Cornell Medicine’s stem cell transplant programme and one of the clinicians engaged in therapy, estimates that there are roughly 50 individuals in the US each year that could benefit from this technique. For these individuals, the use of cord blood grafts that are only partially matched dramatically increases the chance of finding a compatible donor.

Solar Powered Tesla

EV Solar Kits is a business founded by Steele Wasik, their main focus is to encourage the usage of solar energy instead of burning fossil fuels and polluting the atmosphere. Wasik believes that if you install an EV Solar Kit in your car, it can totally depend on the sun’s energy if your car gets enough hours of solar energy. Steele Wasik started this business by following in the steps of his father and grandfather, who were both design engineers for Cadillac. EV Solar Kits claim that your Tesla model 3 standard range 50kw battery can add up to 60 miles of charge per day when charged with 6 hours of direct sunlight. These solar kits can be installed over Tesla’s Model 3 and Model Y cars’ roofs where they can easily access the solar energy. These kits are still not installed in any of the vehicles but they do claim to have tested their kits in the Austin, TX area however no photographic proof has been provided. Steele Wasik’s reasoning behind not providing the proof is that “the final design of the panels isn’t yet finalized”.

Image : canadianPhotographer56 Shutterstock

Wasik also said that he’s working on solar kits that can be used on other cars by attaching them on the trunk. He said that those trunk panels will be easily compatible with all electric vehicles. Steele Wasik’s company is also planning to launch a crowdfunding campaign in the future. He suggests that there are thousands of potential buyers willing to try these new EV Solar Kits. EV Solar Kits stated on the website Indiegogo that, “[we] are excited to bring our vision to life with our range of kits from EVSK. We have a top tier engineering and design team building a series of products to eliminate range anxiety and allow you to get the most out of your vehicle! It will allow your car to charge while you drive!” and intend to “make EVs more attainable for those with an adventurous lifestyle.”

According to a study, the average North American drivers 31 miles a day, while the average driver from Europe goes 25 miles a day, which means that if what Steele Wasik is claiming about charging up to 60 miles is right, then these drivers will be able to drive powered by the Sun without having to use any fuel! Their kit consists of a rooftop solar panel system, an extendable solar panel that can be stored in the trunk, and a battery for emergency charge. The amount of charge will mainly depend on the weather conditions, and where the car users park their vehicles because the most important part of getting the extra 60 miles will be having the right amount of solar power for your EV Solar Kit to gain energy from. 

Hunting for Alien Megastructures

In 2015, the astronomers of NASA stated that they had discovered an object, which was later on known as Tabby’s star, which blocked out about 22% of the light from its parent star named as KIC 8462852. This discovery was made by NASA’s planet hunting Kepler space observatory. It’s called a Megastructure because the largest planet, Jupiter, would only block out about 1% of a star’s light which means that this object is possibly very huge. Some astronomers thought it was a cloud of comets, and some thought it was maybe the debris from a recently destroyed planet but another guess was an Alien Megastructure.

Kepler Space Telescope

Ann Marie Cody, a researcher scientist at NASA and the SETI Institute stated in an interview with Vice that “[It’s] essentially any artificial structure built by an intelligent civilization perhaps for energy harvesting purposes”. Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is currently working to find Alien Megastructures, and they try to find these huge objects by looking at large amounts of stars, capturing their photos and then translating them in an order of brightness. This procedure is followed when a planet-like object passes in front of the star and dims the brightness of the star’s light. Ann Marie Cody stated that if an artificial object passed in front of a star, it creates a different light signature compared to passing natural objects. The abnormal light signature will help identify the unusual object.

There still haven’t been any Alien Megastructures detected yet but there could be a high chance of some unusual objects being present and the SETI says that they will inform the world if they identify any artificial Alien Megastructure. Ann Marie Cody also stated in the interview with Vice that “we don’t want science to be happening behind closed doors,” and that “we want the public to see that it’s a process. It’s not just like you discover something instantly and there it is. You’ve got to follow-up and test all hypotheses.”

These Alien Megastructures are also known as Dyson Spheres and they look like ​​dark embers when viewed through infrared telescopes. In 1960, a scientist known as Freeman Dyson said that these Alien Megastructures were a sign of alien life and after over 60 years later, scientists are still searching for proof of alien life. There are already some red herrings that naturally exist in the galaxy which can be very similar to the artificial Dyson Spheres or Alien Megastructures and astronomers are finding it hard to tell the difference between them. The best way to find these Dyson Spheres is to look for them around supermassive black holes, or any high energy astrophysical objects.

The Doomsday Glacier

Another day, another fossil fuel induced problem. Bill Nye, famously known as “Bill Nye The Science guy” is a mechanical engineer, science communicator, and television presenter, says that the high amounts of burning of fossil fuels is going to result in all of South Florida sinking below sea level. Bill Nye said that if the world keeps burning fossil fuels at the same frequency as right now, the glacier from Antarctica will completely melt within five years resulting in South Florida sinking. The ocean may rise half a meter above its normal level. This will all happen as the global temperature increases as a result of the burning of fossil fuels causing the glaciers to melt.

Studies say that if all fossil fuels are burned, then all of the ice in Antarctica will melt resulting in a huge disaster. Some of the most prominent signs of global warming include the increase in ocean temperature, increase in air temperature, the sea levels increasing, reduced snow fall, and high increased humidity. 

One of the many reasons for global warming is also due to the cutting down of trees and forests which is increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, trapping heat and gas. Due to the vast change in the climate, scientists believe that many areas of the Earth will not be able to sustain life and between 2030-2050, life on earth could be extinct. This supports Bill Nye’s claim that the world (and South Florida) will drown in the water coming from melted glaciers increasing the sea levels throughout the world and causing extreme floods. The heavy moisture in the air and higher sea surface temperatures also cause extreme hurricanes and tropical storms. 

While some scientists say that the world will end in 2100 and some believe it will end somewhere in between 2030 to 2050, at the moment Bill Nye is mainly concerned about South Florida’s current situation which he believes will get worse within the next five years. The only solution to this disastrous problem is to reduce the usage of fossil fuels or completely omit it altogether and instead use renewable energy resources including energy from sunlight, wind, rain, waves, and geothermal heat. By using renewable energy resources, the production of carbon dioxide will decrease and reduce the heat trapped beneath the outer Earth gasses. When carbon pollution is minimized, the process of global warming will slow down resulting in less glacial melt and stabilized sea levels.

Omicron Spread

The Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus is said to be the most different variant from earlier versions of coronavirus, but the good news is that the symptoms are not as severe as the previous variants. But the main problem with this variant is that it is highly contagious and is spreading way more quickly than the Delta variant. Some scientists believe that the Omicron variant is the fastest spreading virus in the history of the world. The reason behind Omicron not causing that many deaths or high intensive illnesses is the vaccination program most countries have utilized. Experts from Case Western Reserve University said that patients affected by Omicron are at less risk of being admitted to the hospital or intensive care unit compared to patients affected by the Delta at a rate of 1:2. 

Research performed by the experts from Case Western Reserve University also found that a booster shot against Covid-19 will protect against the Omicron variant. These booster shots protect the human bodies from severe illnesses caused by Covid-19. The CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky stated that “Protection against infection and hospitalization with the omicron variant is highest for those who are up to date with their vaccination, meaning those who are boosted when they are eligible”. The third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine was said to reduce hospital admissions by 94 percent during the delta wave, and by 82 percent once omicron started spreading. 

The Omicron variant was first identified in South Africa and spread quickly throughout the rest of the world. It effects the upper respiratory tract of the human body which is what makes it less severe than the other variants. According to WHO’s data, Omicron has reached at least 128 more countries causing disruptions in normal human activity and the countries’ economies. Countries with high amounts of unvaccinated people are most at risk of increased deaths and hospitalizations. It seems that the number of cases in South Africa have decreased thanks to the lockdown and the booster shots, which indicates that this variant can be controlled if all the nations follow the right instructions and take proper precautions. 

Director of the Basque Museum of the History of Medicine and Science, Anton Erkoreka says that the spread of Omicron has exceeded the spread of the bubonic plague, Black Death which was spread almost 700 years ago. Erkoreka stated that “It is the most-explosive and the fastest-spreading virus in history,” Currently in the USA, the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has highly affected the population which has caused the government to declare an emergency for the 8th time. Even when the Omicron variant is labeled as less severe, it is still causing deaths and hospitalizations in vulnerable people with weaker immune systems and those who are yet to be vaccinated.