Scientists make startling discovery after analyzing historic photos of Antarctic ice shelves: 'An unambiguous signal'
They could have missed it — a black-and-white aerial image taken back in 1966. The photographer is imagined to have been a member of the U.S. Navy who was likely mapping the Antarctic landscape. But, years later, a few researchers noticed something unusual.
That frozen frame seemed to show the Wordie Ice Shelf giving way.
The old photo turned out to be a major clue, one that could reshape our understanding of Antarctica's melting crisis and show why ignoring it could cost us.
What's happening?
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen, the institution shared in a release, compared those vintage photos to newer satellite images. What they found was quiet but alarming: The Wordie Ice Shelf hadn't just melted from the surface — it had been worn down from beneath. Warmer ocean waters, they deduced, had slipped under the ice, slicing into it from the inside out.
With the team's findings published in Nature Communications in April, corresponding author Mads Dømgaard explained in the university's release, "We have identified several signs of incipient ice shelf collapse that we expect will be observed in other ice shelves, but perhaps more importantly, the dataset has given us a multitude of pinning points that can reveal how far advanced a collapse is. It's a completely new tool."
Dømgaard says the resource could be used to assess shelves that could collapse or are already collapsing.
Co-author Anders Anker Bjørk added that they've found the process of "ice shelf collapse may be slower than we thought." But Bjørk also strongly cautioned, " … this longer process will make it harder to reverse the trend once it has started. This is an unambiguous signal to prioritise halting greenhouse gas emissions now rather than sometime in the future."
Why does it matter?
Wordie wasn't huge to start — losing it has bumped sea levels by only millimeters — but it has given scientists a look into the future.
If bigger ice shelves, such as Ross or Ronne, crumble, the chain reaction could be a lot worse. These shelves currently provide a stabilizing force, and once they break down, it could be difficult to prevent further damage.
That's why tools that might help researchers spot the signs of collapse earlier on could really matter. They might buy us more time — and offer stronger motivation to make a change.
Do you think our power grid needs to be upgraded?
Definitely
Only in some states
Not really
I'm not sure
Click your choice to see results and speak your mind.
What can be done?
Research like this in-depth look at the Wordie Ice Shelf can encourage more effective mitigation and adaptation efforts. As Bjørk noted, the team's findings underscore the urgency with which governments and coalitions need to reduce the amount of heat-trapping, ice-melting pollution in our atmosphere. They could also help state officials and community advocates better prepare to withstand the effects of rising sea levels by taking actions like updating flood guidance, reworking zoning ordinances, and relocating and strengthening critical infrastructure.
But maybe these activities don't fall under your personal purview? Individual choices can still stack up — especially when organized en masse. Residents can organize support for policies that lower emissions, ask local officials how they're preparing for sea level rise, and use clean energy options whenever available.
That photo sat, seemingly untouched, for decades. But it captured something big. And committed people took it to the next step. What happens next — that's still up to us.
Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
This ancient Indian seashell trick can help with sleep apnea — and reduce snoring
Shell shock! Nearly 54 million US adults are believed to suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which occurs when muscles in your throat relax and repeatedly block your airway, causing you to stop breathing as you sleep. Besides disrupted sleep and snoring, OSA can raise the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke and car crashes. 'The standard treatment for OSA is a continuous positive airway pressure machine, or CPAP, which keeps the patient's airway open by blowing air through a facemask throughout the night,' said Dr. Krishna K. Sharma from the Eternal Heart Care Centre and Research Institute in Jaipur, India. 'While effective, many patients find it uncomfortable and struggle to use it consistently.' Sharma is conch-fident that an ancient Indian practice known as shankh blowing can ease OSA symptoms without the hassle of a costly machine. He led a small study that reported that OSA patients who regularly blew into a conch for six months had fewer breathing interruptions at night and more alertness during the day. 'In my clinical practice, several patients reported feeling more rested and experiencing fewer symptoms after regularly practicing shankh blowing — a traditional yogic breathing exercise involving exhaling through a conch shell,' Sharma said. 'These observations led us to design a scientific study to rigorously test whether this simple, ancient practice could serve as a meaningful therapy for people with OSA.' Thirty people between 19 and 65 years old were divided into two groups — 16 blew through a conch shell while 14 engaged in a deep breathing exercise. The conch group underwent training and daily practice sessions at home before the study commenced. Eternal Heart tracked the participants, who had moderate OSA, from May 2022 to January 2024. They were monitored while sleeping and asked about their sleep quality and daytime sleepiness. After six months, the conch group was 34% less sleepy during the daytime than the deep breathing group. Medical testing showed that the conch group participants had an average of four or five fewer episodes where their breathing stopped during sleep. They also had higher levels of oxygen in their blood at night. The conch-lusions were published this week in the ERJ Open Research journal. 'For people living with OSA, especially those who find CPAP uncomfortable, unaffordable or inaccessible, our findings offer a promising alternative,' Sharma 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.' Blowing shankhs can cost anywhere from $20 to over $100. The theory is that shankh blowing strengthens muscles crucial to maintaining an open airway during sleep. Dr. Sophia Schiza — a professor of respiratory and sleep medicine at the University of Crete in Greece and head of the European Respiratory Society group on sleep-disordered breathing — called it an 'intriguing study.' 'A larger study will help provide more evidence for this intervention, which could be of benefit as a treatment option or in combination with other treatments in selected OSA patients,' said Schiza, who was not involved in this research. Sharma is planning a larger trial involving several hospitals, a longer study period and more severe forms of OSA. The team wants to further explore how shankh blowing affects airway muscle tone, oxygen levels and sleep and compare it against treatments like CPAP. Losing weight, exercising and abstaining from alcohol can also help OSA, along with oral devices, a different sleep position and surgery in severe cases. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Researchers issue urgent warning over 'invisible' health threat lurking all around us: 'Biggest drivers of death'
Researchers issue urgent warning over 'invisible' health threat lurking all around us: 'Biggest drivers of death' A meta-analysis of "countless" peer-reviewed studies and interviews with dozens of subject matter experts identified a threat that researchers say is as grave as planetary warming is flying frighteningly under our radar, the Guardian reported. What's happening? "Novel entities" at first may conjure up images of newly established businesses or ghosts, but the concept is more unsettling than an encounter with the latter. The Guardian indicated that an insidious form of chemical pollution poses a threat "of a similar order as climate change," citing a report from Deep Science Ventures, a company focused on research and enterprise. DSV started with a question: "What if one of the biggest threats to our health and planet is invisible, yet found in our air, food, and water?" Enter novel entities, "chemicals not found in nature," 100 million of which, DSV estimates, have been introduced by the industrial economy. In its report, DSV established that these substances have much "potential for unwanted geophysical and/or biological effects." Harry Macpherson, senior climate associate at DSV, noted that people are often shocked by how unmonitored the issue truly is, and went on to provide an alarmingly relatable example. "Maybe people think that when you walk down the street breathing the air; you drink your water, you eat your food; you use your personal care products, your shampoo, cleaning products for your house, the furniture in your house; a lot of people assume that there's really great knowledge and huge due diligence on the chemical safety of these things. But it really isn't the case," Macpherson said, per the Guardian. Why is DSV's report so concerning? Macpherson wasn't wrong — even diligent consumers who take steps to avoid plastic or other potential contaminants often can't rely on manufacturers' disclosures for everything from what's in our kitchens to how objects might adversely impact household health and the planet. DSV's review noted that novel entities evade detection, emphasizing "critical shortcomings in current toxicity assessment, research, and testing methods" to quantify the vast array of adverse impacts on humans — with particularly pronounced effects on reproductive health. "The way that we've generally done the testing has meant that we've missed a lot of effects," Macpherson observed, and DSV's "Novel Entities: A Ticking Time Bomb" report bore that out. Do you worry about having toxic forever chemicals in your home? Majorly Sometimes Not really I don't know enough about them Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. "Two million lives and 53 million disability-adjusted life-years … were lost in 2019 due to exposure to selected chemicals," it read, highlighting exposure to lead and occupational contamination as the "biggest drivers of death." What's being done about it? Given the framing of the report, "nothing" appeared to be an unsettling answer to that conclusion, but Macpherson advocated for serious research and funding and a shockingly simple partial solution. Researchers "obviously don't want less funding" for climate research. "But this we think — really, proportionally — needs more attention," he added, before expressing some optimism about the potential for a straightforward, consumer-driven fix. "There isn't necessarily the need for a massive collective action; it can just be demand for safer products, because people want safer products," Macpherson said. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
The DNA of Great White Sharks Defies Explanation. Here's Why.
The genes of great white sharks defy scientific explanation. An animal's genome can be deeply revealing, but ever since researchers started decoding great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) DNA more than 20 years ago, their discoveries have raised more questions than answers. In 2024, a study confirmed that, contrary to common thought, this fierce ocean predator does not belong to a single global species. Instead, there appear to be three distinct groups, all descended from a common population that lived 10,000 years ago before the last ice age reduced their numbers. One of the modern groups is in the north Pacific, one in the southern Pacific and Indian Ocean, and one in the north Atlantic and Mediterranean. Related: Surprise Discovery Reveals There Are 3 Different Kinds of Great White Shark No matter how researchers try to explain those groups using evolutionary simulations, they continue to hit dead end after dead end. "The honest scientific answer is we have no idea," says study senior author Gavin Naylor, director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History. While the nuclear DNA of all three shark groups is mostly the same, their mitochondrial DNA is surprisingly distinct. Nuclear DNA is packaged inside the nucleus of a cell (hence the name), but mitochondrial DNA is packaged inside the mitochondria, which churns out energy for the cell. Unlike nuclear DNA, which is inherited from both parents, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is thought to be inherited from the mother in most multicellular animals – sharks included. Because mtDNA can trace a maternal line, conservation biologists have used it for years to identify population boundaries and migration paths. When it comes to great white sharks, however, that method isn't working. Even after using one of the largest datasets on great white sharks, globally, researchers came up empty-handed. Previously, scientists suspected the changes in mtDNA were due to female sharks returning to their birthplace to reproduce – a concept known as female philopatry. The hypothesis is even supported by recent observational evidence, which suggests that while both male and female sharks travel vast distances, females return home when it's time to mate. When Naylor and colleagues put that idea to the test, however, it failed to explain the groups of mtDNA. Sequencing the genes of 150 white sharks from around the world, Naylor and his team found no evidence of female philopatry. A small signal would be expected in nuclear DNA if females were only breeding with certain populations. "But that wasn't reflected in the nuclear data at all," says Naylor. Even when the team ran an evolutionary simulation, showing how sharks might have split off into three groups since their last shared ancestor, the female philopatry hypothesis didn't stand. "I came up with the idea that sex ratios might be different – that just a few females were contributing to the populations from one generation to the next," explains Naylor. That also failed to explain the genetic differences. So did random genetic changes that accumulate over time, called genetic drift. The team of scientists argues that "an alternative evolutionary mechanism must necessarily be operating". But the only other known explanation is that natural selection may have honed each group's mtDNA, and that seems far-fetched. There are only 20,000 great white sharks in the world, which is a very small population, relatively speaking. If there's something beneficial in the evolution of some forms of mtDNA, then it would have to save the sharks from something "brutally lethal", says Naylor. He has doubts that that is the case. Some piece of the puzzle is clearly missing. "The mitochondrial variability observed in natural populations was never reproduced in any of the simulations – even under extreme female philopatry, suggesting that other forces have contributed to the discordance," the authors conclude. "The same approach would benefit other species of shark where female philopatry has previously been assumed based on genetic data." The study was published in PNAS. Related News Meet The 'Genital King' Tarantula And Its Record-Breaking Sexual Organ Giant Stick Insect Found Hiding in Rainforest May Be Australia's Heaviest Evidence of World-Changing Comet Explosion 12,800 Years Ago Found in The Ocean Solve the daily Crossword
