Warning Great Barrier Reef is reaching a ‘point from which it cannot recover'
This decline follows a record-breaking marine heatwave in 2024, which triggered the worst bleaching events in nearly four decades.
Heat stress from climate change is identified as the primary cause of mass bleaching, worsened by factors such as cyclones and crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks.
Aims found that two of the three areas monitored since 1986 experienced coral losses, marking the largest annual decline recorded.
Researchers warn that the reef faces a "volatile" future and may reach a "point from which it cannot recover" due to the increasing frequency of mass bleaching events.
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The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Meteor explodes in fireball and sonic boom over Australia
People in Australia 's Victoria reported a loud sonic boom that rattled houses as a meteor streaked past the night sky on Sunday. Footage of the space rock burning brightly was shared on social media by residents in Ballarat and Bendigo from 7:30pm local time. They reported hearing a loud sonic boom about a minute after the fireball was seen on community Facebook pages. 'A very bright and slow fireball was observed and video recorded over Victoria, August 10, 9:34 UT,' the International Meteor Organisation, a coalition of amateur meteor observers, said in a post on Facebook. 'Bendigo just got hit by a meteor! Felt all over Bendigo! Shook our house. BOOM,' one resident wrote. The Australian government's earthquake monitoring agency said in an X post that it had received multiple reports of tremors around the time the meteor passed by, but ruled out any seismic event. 'Geoscience Australia received multiple felt reports from Bendigo, VIC at around 7:40pm, however no seismic event was observed,' the agency said. Amateur astronomer David Finlay, admin of Australian Meteor Reports, suspected a large chunk of the object likely survived to the ground. 'To be able to hear the sonic boom loudly from the ground suggests that quite a big chunk of the meteor was pretty close to the ground,' associate professor Michael Brown from Monash University's school of physics and astronomy told The Age. 'And that possibly means there's chunks of the meteorite that actually made it down to the ground and optimistically, might be found.' Experts ruled out the possibility of the fireball being space junk, finding it was most likely a meteor whose fragments might have landed somewhere between Bendigo and Ballarat. 'A manual reduction on the fireball over Victoria at 9:34 UT indicates a fall site to the northeast of Maryborough, with a final visual height of 9 km, so almost definitely a meteorite fall,' the Ballarat municipality observatory said. 'There were numerous reports of sound, adding confidence that this is a dropper. This maybe refined if further good quality data becomes available.' The fireball's sighting coincided with the Perseids meteor shower, anticipated to be the best of the year, producing a dazzling display of shooting stars. 'With swift and bright meteors, Perseids frequently leave long 'wakes' of light and colour behind them as they streak through the Earth's atmosphere,' Nasa's Monika Luabeya noted in a blog post. However, experts ruled out the possibility of the Victoria fireball being part of any meteor shower such as the Perseids or Alpha Capricornids. 'The reason it's not a Perseid is because the 'radiant' – the point the meteors appear to radiate out from – never rises above the horizon for us at the latitude of Victoria,' astronomer Perry Vlahos told The Age.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Unlikely, non-invasive treatment could significantly improve sleep
An ancient ritual of shankh blowing, involving forceful exhalation into a conch shell, shows promise as a non-invasive treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). A small trial in India found that participants who practised shankh blowing for six months reported better sleep, 34 per cent less daytime sleepiness, and fewer breathing interruptions during the night. Researchers suggest the technique strengthens upper airway muscles, which are often implicated in OSA, potentially offering an alternative to uncomfortable continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines. Obstructive sleep apnoea affects an estimated eight million people in the UK, causing symptoms like loud snoring and frequent awakenings due to throat muscle relaxation. Further larger-scale trials are planned to validate these findings, compare shankh blowing with standard treatments, and assess its long-term effectiveness for a wider population.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Blowing into a shell can stop you snoring
The ancient ritual of blowing into a large shell could help stop you from snoring, a study has suggested. The practice of conch blowing, also known as shankh blowing, could increase oxygen levels and improve sleep for patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) without the need for a machine, according to researchers. Shankh blowing involves breathing in deeply before exhaling forcefully into a conch, the spiral-shaped shell from a species of sea snail. The experts found that regular use helped improved participants' symptoms, potentially because it strengthened the muscles in the throat and airway that are prone to collapse during sleep. OSA is a condition that causes the walls of the throat to temporarily relax during sleep, narrowing or closing the airway, and stopping the person from breathing. As a result, symptoms include snoring, loud inhales or choking sounds, waking up a lot, as well as sleepiness during the day and brain fog as a result of oxygen supply to the brain being disrupted. About eight million people are thought to have the condition in the UK but fewer than one in five have been diagnosed. The small trial, led by researchers in India, involved 30 people aged 19 to 65 with OSA. They were split into groups, with half given a traditional shankh used in yoga and trained on how to use it before taking it home, while the other half were asked to carry out deep breathing exercises. Both groups were encouraged to practice for a minimum of 15 minutes five days a week. They were monitored during sleep and asked questions about sleep quality and how tired they felt during the day. Higher blood oxygen levels After six months, the study found that those blowing into the conch shell were sleeping better and 34 per cent less sleepy during the day. They also had higher levels of oxygen in the blood during the night and had four to five fewer apnoea episodes, where breathing stops during sleep, per hour on average. Dr Krishna K Sharma, of the Eternal Heart Care Centre and Research Institute in Jaipur, India, said: 'The way the shankh is blown is quite distinctive. It involves a deep inhalation followed by a forceful, sustained exhalation through tightly pursed lips. '[It] creates strong vibrations and airflow resistance, which likely strengthens the muscles of the upper airway, including the throat and soft palate, areas that often collapse during sleep in people with OSA.' Dr Sharma added: 'The shankh's unique spiralling structure may also contribute to specific acoustic and mechanical effects that further stimulate and tone these muscles.' Continuous positive airway pressure (Cpap) machines are the usual treatment for OSA, and involve wearing a mask that blows pressurised air into the nose and throat during sleep, but many people find them uncomfortable. 'Promising alternative' Dr Sharma said people also 'struggle to use it consistently' and so blowing into these could be a 'promising alternative'. He said: 'Shankh blowing is a simple low-cost, breathing technique that could help improve sleep and reduce symptoms without the need for machines or medication.' Researchers are now planning a larger trial involving several hospitals. Responding to the study, Prof Sophia Schiza, the head of the ERS group on sleep disordered breathing, based at the University of Crete, said: 'While Cpap and other treatments are available based on careful diagnosis of disease severity, there is still need for new treatments. 'This is an intriguing study that shows the ancient practice of shankh blowing could potentially offer an OSA treatment for selected patients by targeting muscles training. A larger study will help provide more evidence for this intervention.'
