The Manmade Clouds That Could Help Save the Great Barrier Reef
On a hot February morning, that ship and two smaller companion barges — nicknamed Big Daddy and the Twins — roamed a bay within the Palm Islands cluster, off the northeastern coast of Australia. Each pumped seawater aboard, pressurized it and sprayed it into the air through hundreds of tiny nozzles arrayed on metal frames. Dense plumes of fog billowed from all three vessels, forming long white strands that eventually converged into a seamless cloak. Daniel Harrison — an engineer, pilot and oceanographer based at Southern Cross University's National Marine Science Center — surveyed the scene from the large ship's observation deck, one hand on his wide-brimmed brown felt hat to keep it from flying away. It was the most successful test of the technology to date, he said.
Since 2016, Harrison and his colleagues have been investigating whether it is possible to reduce coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef by altering the weather above it. As the planet heats up, unusually high ocean temperatures are stressing corals around the world, forcing them to eject their symbiotic partners: the photosynthetic single-celled algae that live in their tissues and provide them with much of their sustenance. Theoretically, machine-generated fog and artificially brightened clouds can shade and cool the water in which corals live, sparing them much of that stress.
Not far behind the primary fogger on the big ship stood a pair of cloud-modifying machines known as the cannons. From a distance, each tubular white contraption resembled a jet engine angled toward the sky. Up close, you could see that they were mostly hollow, outfitted on one end with a large fan and on the other with a ring of torpedo-shaped manifolds, each of which supported nearly 100 small metal nozzles. When the scientists switched them on, a series of squat, square air compressors began to groan and shake, like washing machines pushed to their breaking point. This time, seawater pumped onboard was combined with highly pressurized air before being expelled through the nozzles. The result was a fine white mist that burst from the cannons at more than 60 miles per hour. As the wind lifted the briny spray into the air, it intermingled with low-lying clouds, making them more reflective.
Harrison's project is essentially a highly localized version of geoengineering: the deliberate modification of the planet to counteract climate change. When Harrison began his undergraduate studies in the late 1990s, geoengineering was still largely taboo in the scientific community. In a paper that considered the history of such research, the climate scientist Stephen Schneider recalled that even the idea of including a single chapter on geoengineering in a 1992 National Research Council report resulted in 'serious internal and external debates.' The physicist David Keith, now a prominent figure in the field, remembers colleagues in the '90s telling him that pursuing geoengineering might tarnish his reputation and derail his career. Not much changed in the subsequent two decades, though there were some high-profile geoengineering blunders.
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New York Times
25-07-2025
- New York Times
The Manmade Clouds That Could Help Save the Great Barrier Reef
The fog was neither subtle nor slow. It did not emanate gradually from the sea or roll gently down the slopes of the nearby islands. It erupted into the air with all the drama of a volcanic-ash plume. Yet, for all that, its source was quite modest: a grid of nozzles, about 20 feet wide, stationed on the back of a ship. On a hot February morning, that ship and two smaller companion barges — nicknamed Big Daddy and the Twins — roamed a bay within the Palm Islands cluster, off the northeastern coast of Australia. Each pumped seawater aboard, pressurized it and sprayed it into the air through hundreds of tiny nozzles arrayed on metal frames. Dense plumes of fog billowed from all three vessels, forming long white strands that eventually converged into a seamless cloak. Daniel Harrison — an engineer, pilot and oceanographer based at Southern Cross University's National Marine Science Center — surveyed the scene from the large ship's observation deck, one hand on his wide-brimmed brown felt hat to keep it from flying away. It was the most successful test of the technology to date, he said. Since 2016, Harrison and his colleagues have been investigating whether it is possible to reduce coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef by altering the weather above it. As the planet heats up, unusually high ocean temperatures are stressing corals around the world, forcing them to eject their symbiotic partners: the photosynthetic single-celled algae that live in their tissues and provide them with much of their sustenance. Theoretically, machine-generated fog and artificially brightened clouds can shade and cool the water in which corals live, sparing them much of that stress. Not far behind the primary fogger on the big ship stood a pair of cloud-modifying machines known as the cannons. From a distance, each tubular white contraption resembled a jet engine angled toward the sky. Up close, you could see that they were mostly hollow, outfitted on one end with a large fan and on the other with a ring of torpedo-shaped manifolds, each of which supported nearly 100 small metal nozzles. When the scientists switched them on, a series of squat, square air compressors began to groan and shake, like washing machines pushed to their breaking point. This time, seawater pumped onboard was combined with highly pressurized air before being expelled through the nozzles. The result was a fine white mist that burst from the cannons at more than 60 miles per hour. As the wind lifted the briny spray into the air, it intermingled with low-lying clouds, making them more reflective. Harrison's project is essentially a highly localized version of geoengineering: the deliberate modification of the planet to counteract climate change. When Harrison began his undergraduate studies in the late 1990s, geoengineering was still largely taboo in the scientific community. In a paper that considered the history of such research, the climate scientist Stephen Schneider recalled that even the idea of including a single chapter on geoengineering in a 1992 National Research Council report resulted in 'serious internal and external debates.' The physicist David Keith, now a prominent figure in the field, remembers colleagues in the '90s telling him that pursuing geoengineering might tarnish his reputation and derail his career. Not much changed in the subsequent two decades, though there were some high-profile geoengineering blunders. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Yahoo
Infant twins buried together in Roman Croatia may have died from lead poisoning
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Nearly 2,000 years ago, fraternal twin infants — one boy and one girl — were buried facing each other in a cemetery in what is now Croatia, a new study finds. It's unclear why the twins died, but lead poisoning may have played a role, the researchers wrote in a study published in the April issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. "It is one of the very few double burials known in Croatia and is the only double burial of very young individuals in this cemetery," study first author Anna Osterholtz, a bioarchaeologist at Mississippi State University, told Live Science in an email. The burial ground, known as Dragulin cemetery, was initially excavated in 2016, when construction for a parking lot revealed a handful of ancient stone urns, the researchers wrote in the study. The cemetery is in the modern city of Trogir (Tragurium in Roman times), a UNESCO World Heritage site. This area became a part of the Roman province of Illyricum after Julius Caesar's civil war in 47 B.C. An investigation into the "short life and death of these siblings" revealed that they were buried sometime between the end of the first and the late second century A.D., the researchers wrote in the study. Related: 31,000-year-old burial holds world's oldest known identical twins An ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis showed that the infants were fraternal twins who were either stillborn or died within two months of their birth. "The burial posture of both twins suggests that they were important to their family and buried with significant care," Osterholtz said. "This is the first case of fraternal twins from the Roman period in Croatia that has been confirmed via aDNA analysis." Both individuals showed signs of chronic metabolic disease, or diseases caused by nutritional deficiency (like scurvy or rickets) or the body's inability to utilize nutrients. Given the twins' young age at death, their nutrition would have come entirely from their mother, either through the placenta in the womb or breast milk after birth. So, it's possible that their metabolic diseases reflected their mother's poor health — meaning she was either malnourished or suffered from a metabolic disease herself. Another idea is that the twins died from lead poisoning. Lead was pervasive in the Roman world; it was used in pipes and cookware. A lead compound was even used as a sweetener in wine and as a preservative for fruits. The twins' skeletal conditions are consistent with the effects of lead exposure, such as increased bone porosity and periosteal reactions, or new bone formation that happens when bones weakened from lead poisoning are fractured, the researchers wrote in the study. Chronic lead exposure can disrupt metabolic processes like hemoglobin synthesis, sperm production and neural function, and it can also hinder nutrient absorption, which could manifest in both the mother and the developing infants. "Lead exposure through breast milk is a known cause of elevated infant blood lead levels," Amy Pyle-Eilola, an assistant professor of pathology at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email. "Additionally, there is a known correlation between elevated blood lead and metabolic bone disease in children." RELATED STORIES —Medieval 'vampire' burial in Croatia contains decapitated and twisted remains —Ancient Egyptian teenager died while giving birth to twins, mummy reveals —Remains of twin fetuses and wealthy mom found in Bronze Age urn Although the authors did not test the twins' remains for lead, they highlighted several cases of metabolic disorders in Roman-era children with high levels of lead in their teeth whose remains were found near Tragurium. "So, if the mother had a significant lead exposure, which is a realistic possibility based on studies examining the same general time and location, it is absolutely possible that the lead was passed to the twins during pregnancy and/or via breastmilk, and the resulting elevation in lead could cause the observed bone disease," Pyle-Eilola added. However, it's hard to know why the twins' health was so poor; there are many other nutritional, genetic and developmental issues that could account for the metabolic bone disease described in this study, Pyle-Eilola said.
Forbes
21-05-2025
- Forbes
Far-Red Light Boosts THC In Some Cannabis Strains And Lowers Energy Use, Study Finds
growing marijuana with LED phyto lighting. purple cannabis leaves. Far-red lights can improve yield and the quality of specific cannabis strains, and reduce energy costs and carbon emissions amid energy-intensive cannabis cultivation, according to a new study. Published in Nature this week, this Australian government-funded study, conducted by researchers from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and Southern Cross University, analyzed whether the daily light period to which cannabis plants were exposed could be shortened from 12 to 10 hours by supplementing with far-red light, without sacrificing plant yield or cannabinoid content. The findings suggest that far-red light treatments sometimes enhanced cannabinoid yield in specific strains and, when paired with a 10-hour light schedule, offered about 5.5% energy savings. This would be significant for high-consuming cannabis farming. Cannabis growers in the U.S. use about 1% of the country's total energy, which is more than cryptocurrency mining and all other crops combined, according to a recent study. Far-red light, which sits just beyond the visible spectrum, naturally occurs in sunlight during the early hours of the morning, late in the afternoon, and in shaded spots. Plants have evolved to recognize this kind of light as a cue that they may be shaded by other plants, prompting them to grow taller in search of more sunlight. When far-red light is paired with regular red or white light, it doesn't just trigger growth, but it also enhances photosynthesis. This effect, known as the Emerson enhancement effect, highlights how plants can make more efficient use of different light wavelengths when they work in combination. The research team explored several lighting schedules across three cannabis strains: Cannatonic, known for its high CBD content, and Hindu Kush and Northern Lights, both rich in THC. They compared a traditional 12-hour light cycle with a shortened 10-hour version, along with variations where far-red light was introduced, either at the end of the light phase, the start of the dark phase, or both. In addition to observing changes in plant height, they measured total biomass, which included flowers, leaves, and stems, and analyzed the concentration of various cannabinoids. The results showed that adding far-red light made all the cannabis plants grow taller, especially when the light was used at the end of the day or both before and after lights-off. In some strains, like Cannatonic and Hindu Kush, far-red light combined with a full 12-hour light cycle increased the total weight of the plants, but most of that extra weight came from leaves and stems, not flowers. In fact, flower weight decreased in these cases. The way cannabinoids responded also depended on the strain. Cannatonic had the highest levels of CBD and THC when grown under a regular 12-hour light cycle or when far-red light was added at both ends of the day, but this did not lead to a clear increase in the total amount of cannabinoids per plant, and flower size often dropped. Hindu Kush showed some THC increases with far-red light, especially when it was used both before and after the lights went off. Northern Lights performed better using far-red light right after the main lights turned off, as it led to a strong boost in THC and a 70% increase in total cannabinoid yield compared to the regular light schedule. Researchers, therefore, suggest that growers could increase the potency of these specific cannabis strains while reducing lighting time and carbon footprint by using far-red light. As these effects were seen only in specific cannabis strains, growers should test for themselves whether far-red light works on other strains. Nevertheless, the use of far-red light could potentially help reduce the carbon footprint and make cannabis growing more sustainable, while also maintaining or even boosting yield and quality, and reducing energy costs. 'These findings have significant implications for the cannabis industry, specifically for energy consumption, with electricity being a significant cost for cultivation. Consequently, the preference is to achieve productivity improvements without extending, and ideally reducing, the duration of the artificial lighting period,' the study reads. This is not the first time that the use of far-red light in farming has been studied. Some research shows that its use produced taller cannabis plants but decreased yields, while another study on far-red light in lettuce cultivation showed that intermittent supplementation of far-red light accelerated leaf and bud development, leading to increased yields. This study is in line with others that have analyzed the use of far-red light when growing cannabis. Some research shows that its use produced taller cannabis plants but decreased yields, while others have found that using far-red light in cannabis farming increased plant height but also decreased both flowering and the concentrations of cannabinoids like CBD, THCVA, CBGA, and terpenes in the flowers, compared to a high red-light ratio.
