A fiery side-effect of melting glaciers & paging Dr Droid for gallbladder surgery

The Print

13-07-2025

The scientists found that after the last ice age, melting glaciers triggered powerful eruptions from deep magma chambers. While the magma system responds slowly, the volcanic activity can be explosive, and even influence global climate. Big eruptions release aerosols that cool the Earth briefly, but repeated eruptions can add greenhouse gases, speeding up warming.
They studied six volcanoes in southern Chile using rock dating and crystal analysis to understand the impact of the Patagonian Ice Sheet on past eruptions. They found that thick glaciers can keep magma trapped deep underground. But as the ice melts and the pressure eases, the magma can rise and explode more violently. This process, already seen in Iceland in the 1970s, may also affect other glaciated regions like Antarctica, North America, and New Zealand.
New Delhi: New research posits that one of the side effects of melting glaciers due to global warming could be an increasing number of volcanic eruptions. Scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison drew this connection in a presentation on 8 July at the Goldschmidt conference of the European Association of Geochemistry. The study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal later this year.
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Robot performs gall bladder surgery without human intervention
A robot trained by Johns Hopkins researchers successfully performed a complex portion of a gallbladder removal surgery on a lifelike model. The findings were published in a new paper in the peer-reviewed Science Robotics journal on 9 July. Unlike previous robots that follow strict, pre-programmed instructions, this one, called SRT-H, learned and adapted from voice commands by surgeons, like a real surgical trainee.
It was trained using surgery videos and captions and can even respond to voice commands like 'grab the gallbladder head' or 'move left'. Think of it as a surgical assistant that's both incredibly precise and smart enough to think on its feet.
The robot handled a full sequence of 17 surgical tasks, adjusted to different anatomy, and coped with unexpected situations like changes in how the gallbladder looked. While slower than a human, its accuracy matched that of surgeons, said the paper. According to the authors, this robot could pave the way for autonomous systems to one day assist or even lead real surgeries, especially in high-risk or remote situations.
Airport radar signals might be detected by alien civilisations
Every time a plane takes off from Heathrow airport or JFK airport in the US, or a military radar scans the skies for incoming threats, the Earth may be sending out a cosmic 'we're here!' to the universe. New research presented at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting on 8 July reveals that the radar systems used by airports and militaries across the globe are powerful enough to be detected by alien civilisations up to 200 light-years away—if those aliens have radio telescopes as sensitive as ours. However, these are preliminary results and have not been published in a journal yet.
These unintentional signals radiate far beyond our planet. Researchers from the University of Manchester, who presented this work, simulated how these waves spread into space. They found that from the perspective of nearby stars like Barnard's Star, Earth might appear to blink with distinct, artificial patterns. Military radars, in particular, act like sweeping lighthouse beams, and their focused energy could stand out as clear signs of intelligent life.
The research suggests that any technologically advanced planet, not just ours, might light up the cosmos in this way, offering a universal clue to alien astronomers that someone is out there, watching the skies.
Why are sharks blue?
Blue sharks don't just wear their colour, rather they engineer it. New research presented at the Society for Experimental Biology's Annual Conference on 9 July said that sharks' iconic blue shimmer comes from a hidden world of nanoscopic crystals and pigments embedded deep within their skin's tiny scales, called dermal denticles. These scales are armoured with pulp cavities filled with reflective guanine crystals, which act as mirrors, and melanin vesicles, which absorb light. Together, they act like coordinated teams of glitter and blackout curtains, filtering light to create that signature deep-sea blue.
But the twist is that this isn't just a static paint job. These structures may allow the shark to change its color. The research team, using powerful imaging tools and computer models, found that subtle shifts in the spacing of these crystals could shift the shark's hue from vibrant blues to greens and golds. Changes in water depth, water pressure, and even atmospheric humidity causes these shifts in colour.
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