Hi friends!
I had a good rhythm going with this newsletter where I was putting out a new edition every week (and having a great time), until the internet at my house essentially stopped working last week. Webpages wouldn’t load, and my normal pleasure of reading articles every day became a painful slog through neverending loading bars. Island problems.
So, I gave up that week. A few days later, someone must have restarted the master router or something because it went back to normal and I finally caught up on Rings of Power. Another few days, and now it’s been going up and down inconsistently, and the customer service robot says they are “working on your network”. So I’m hoping to get back in the weekly routine but it’s not entirely up to me.
Speaking of island problems, I just listened to a great podcast detailing Puerto Rico’s electrical grid problems, why they’re still not recovered from Hurricane Maria, and what needs to be done to fix it. Take a listen here, and if you like it you should consider subscribing to the Substack newsletter Volts (visit volts.wtf or click below), which shares conversations about the transition to clean energy.
This one is a little long, and may not show up in its entirety in your email. Consider reading it in your browser or Substack app so you don’t miss anything.
Let’s get on to the science!
Turning the Tide
Understanding what the seafloor looks like seems like it should be easy in the age of remotely operated vehicles and satellites. In reality, seafloor mapping is impressively complex, requiring all the latest technology. It’s also hugely important to understanding how our planet may change as the climate does.
Trees in Iceland during the Viking era were generally too small and sparse to be used for building homes and boats. Instead, they used driftwood. A new study has found that Icelandic driftwood comes from Siberia, and has been rapidly declining. Researchers predict from sea ice loss simulations that within the next few decades, driftwood will no longer arrive in Iceland, disrupting centuries of cultural importance.
The oldest evidence of reef fishes used to be fossils found in northern Italy. Scientists suspected that there were earlier examples, but had never found any, until now. Researchers studying Mayan ruins found fossils in the limestone that was used to build them. One of them was a long skinny fish with an elongated snout called a flutemouth. Tracing the limestone back to a quarry led to the discovery of dozens of other fossils of more familiar fish groups like damselfish and grouper.
Some Science
Ask the average person what they’re most scared of that lives in the ocean and I’m guessing they’re going to say great white sharks. (Does someone with a larger Twitter following than me want to take a poll?) But drone footage has shown that great white sharks are not necessarily the top predators in the ocean. Scientists captured video of orcas hunting and eating great white sharks, and just published a paper with additional data showing that great white sharks nearby fled the area when the hunt began. Click here to see the footage.
Rachel Pannett, Washington Post
A day in the life of a narwhal consists of alternating between diving deep to hunt for food, and resting near the surface. Their pattern of movements seemed to be random until researchers applied chaos theory to study them. They found that narwhals dive more deeply during the day, and shallower at night, following the vertical migration of their squid prey. They also dive deeper when sea ice is present.
Yes, double duty on fish fossils this week. Another team of researchers found several sets of early jawed fish fossils in China. One fossil bed is around 436 million years old, and contain “fishtank-sized fishes” representing the oldest-known complete jawed fish. Another is 439 million years old, and contains the oldest-known teeth in a vertebrate.
Deep Dive
An Immense World by Ed Yong
This book quickly became one of my favorite science books, before I even finished it. Ed Yong crushed it with his detailed descriptions of animal senses, immersing the reader in the perspective of bats, electric eels, seals, and more. It is beautifully written and put together. Read more in my book note.
Fun and Fascinating
I wouldn’t normally think of a kelp forest as “cozy” but this seal really sells it:
Thanks for reading! Remember to drink water, eat plants, and don’t be too salty.
Til next time,
Sarah
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