Latest news with #Antarctica
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Legendary sci-fi film hailed as 'one of the best horrors ever made' and 'as perfect as a movie can get' is finally streaming for free on ITV
A legendary sci-fi film branded 'one of the best horrors ever made' has finally landed for free on ITV - four decades on from its debut. The broadcaster has added the movie, which was first released in 1982, to its streaming platform ITVX. Named The Thing, the movie quickly became one of the most influential science-fiction films following its release. It stars Kurt Rusell, A. Wilfred Brimley and Keith David as a group of American explorers in Antarctica discovered extraterrestrial life. The movie is based on the 1938 novel by John W. Campbell Jr. titled 'Who Goes There?' During the movie, which boasts an 85 per cent Rotten Tomatoes score, the explorers learn how the alien life is able to infiltrate the bodies of other human beings, taking over their vessels without being detected. The broadcaster has added The Thing, which was first released in 1982, to its streaming platform ITVX and is available now to stream The movie quickly became one of the most influential science-fiction films following its release, though struggled to make an impression at the Box Office at first At the time of its release, The Thing received a mixed response from audiences as well as critics and failed to make an impact at the Box Office. However, after the movie was released on DVD and began airing across terrestrial television, it quickly became a fan-favourite, cementing itself as a legendary movie. A synopsis for the film on ITVX reads: 'Shape-shifting aliens & era-defining special effects! 80s sci-fi mystery starring Kurt Russell. A research team is hunted by an alien that can resemble its victims.' The streaming platform has also slapped a warning on the title too, advising potential viewers it has 'strong gory violence & strong language'. The Thing has had glowing reviews, with saying: 'Every October, I revisit John Carpenter's 'The Thing' to celebrate the month of Halloween, and every year I arrive at the same conclusion: it's one of the most effective horror films ever made.' Loud And Clear Reviews stated: 'In my eyes, The Thing is as perfect as a movie can get: it knows exactly what it wants to be and what it's trying to do, and succeeds on every level I can conceive.' Since its release over four decades ago, a prequel of the same name was released in 2011, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Kim Bubbs and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. However, it also wasn't initially perceived well like the first movie, achieving a disappointing Rotten Tomatoes score of just 34 per cent. After the original movie, The Thing was followed by a novelisation, with a series of board games and video games also released based on the creepy storyline After the original movie, The Thing was followed by a novelisation, with a series of board games and video games also released based on the creepy storyline. Meanwhile, a critically acclaimed crime thriller 'you need to watch immediately' has finally hit Netflix - and is hailed as 'a masterpiece'. The TV show, Sneaky Pete, hit our screens on the streaming service Amazon Prime Video back in 2015. The series aired 30 episodes over three successful series until 2019. It stars Giovnni Ribisi as Marius Josipović / Pete Murphy, Marin Ireland as Julia Bowman, Shane McRae as Taylor Bowman, Libe Barer as Carly Bowman and Michael Drayer as Eddie Josipović. Although the show wrapped up six years ago, fans will be happy to know that they can watch the full series on Netflix. The streaming service's synopsis reads: 'A con man (Giovanni Ribisi) on the run from a vicious gangster (Bryan Cranston) takes cover from his past by assuming the identity of his prison cellmate, Pete, 'reuniting' with Pete's estranged family, a colorful, dysfunctional group that threatens to drag him into a world just as dangerous as the one he's trying to escape - and, just maybe, give him a taste of the loving family he's never had.'
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Decoding the fingerprint of a humpback whale
In Antarctic waters, glaciers calve like distant thunder and the air stings with salt and cold. It is in these waters that marine mammal ecologist Ari Friedlaender shuts off the inflatable boat's engine and waits. This is the edge of the world—remote, hostile, and stunningly alive. Beneath the hull, the dark sea churns with wonder abound. A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) emerges, slow, deliberate, and gentle in its curious demeanor, casting a ripple across the surface. Then another shadow glides below. One rolls sideways to peer up, one spyhops, another nudges the rubber boat as if asking a question.'You feel alien out there,' Friedlaender tells Popular Science. 'And yet, the whale chooses you and interacts with you as a curious individual. It gives you its attention, and that kind of moment is just the most compelling.'In the last two decades, humpback whales in Antarctic waters have staged one of the most remarkable recoveries since the end of commercial whaling. 'We started seeing them again—first almost none, then a few, then many,' Ted Cheeseman, a marine ecologist and co-founder of the whale tracking platform Happywhale, tells Popular Science. 'But we didn't know who we were seeing. We wanted to know more than just that whales were coming back. We wanted to know which whales.' [ Related: Humpback whales use bubble-nets as 'tools'. ] Unlike critically endangered species like the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) or Rice's whale (Balaenoptera ricei), humpbacks have shown a striking degree of behavioral flexibility and resilience in a rapidly changing ocean. But their future is still uncertain: ship strikes, warming waters, and shifting food webs continue to pose serious began a transformative shift in whale science, driven by photography, artificial intelligence, public participation, and lab research–and it all starts with the fluke. The story flukes tell To the casual observer or the untrained eye, the emergence of a whale's tail may just be an exciting and fleeting splash of black and white. But to researchers and other whale lovers across the globe, that exhilarating splash holds a unique story and is as idiosyncratic as a human fingerprint. The shape of the trailing edge, pigmentation patterns, rake marks from orca attacks, scars from fishing gear, and barnacle clusters all combine to tell the narrative of an individual whale's life, as well as how to identify that humpback.'Flukes as a primary piece of data are incredibly valuable,' Friedlaender explains. 'They help us trace migration routes, understand site fidelity, and even track how changes in the environment impact individual behavior over time.' If you're lucky enough to observe a whale fluke arcing above the waterline, try taking a closer look beyond the marvel of it. Is the edge smooth or torn? Are there specks, scars, or barnacles dotting one side more than the other? Do the pigmentation patterns differ from other fluke's that you've spotted? Like a fingerprint, these ever-so-slight irregularities and subtle signatures mark a whale's identity, and can give you some insight into their life story. This citizen science and fluke analysis is crucial, because whales are famously hard to study. As Cheeseman puts it, 'We see one percent of a whale for one percent of its life.' Most of what whales do—feed, rest, nurse, socialize—happens deep below the surface, and far from view. That disconnect, he says, contributes to a larger issue: a failure to relate.'When we look out at the horizon,' he says, 'we're removed from what's really happening under the waves.' Whales need you–to take photos Happywhale aims to change that by making individual whales visible, trackable, and, most of all, relatable. Anyone—tourists, sailors, researchers—can upload a fluke photo to the platform. AI, trained on thousands of images, scans each photo and compares it to over 112,000 known whales in the database. 'The algorithm reads features we might miss,' Cheeseman says. 'Even if a scar disappears, or pigmentation changes over time, the trailing edge often stays consistent from nearly birth. The computer can pick up on that and match individuals with more accuracy than the human eye.'Still, every match is verified by a human—preserving both the integrity of the data and the intimacy of the process. 'The goal is to keep people at the center of the science,' Cheeseman says. 'We want people to feel close to it.'And they do. When someone uploads a photo and later receives a notification that 'their whale' has been seen thousands of miles away, something shifts. 'It lights something up inside people,' he says. 'They go from being a bystander to being part of a story.' That story is often one of resilience in a rapidly changing ocean. Many whales carry visible signs of survival—scars from boat strikes, or entanglement wounds that wrap around the tail like old rope. In 2016, there were 71 documented whale entanglements off the US West Coast, but Cheeseman estimates that's just 10% of what actually occurred.'Imagine driving down a road and seeing a deer caught in a barbed wire fence,' he says. 'Most people would stop, call someone, and maybe even risk yourself to help free it. But with whales, it's out of sight, so it's out of mind, and since we don't know about it, we don't care, and we don't act.'The work Friedlaender and Cheeseman are doing—alongside the growing community of citizen scientists—aims to help close that gap. And in a time when climate change, noise pollution, and industrial fishing continue to erode ocean health, proximity matters. 'We've urbanized the ocean,' Cheeseman says. 'We build roads in it—shipping lanes—and infrastructure like ports and offshore platforms. We ask so much of it. But we don't think of it as part of our shared space.'That's beginning to change, and in part, it's because of whales. Not just whales as a species, but whales as whale research looked at the species as a whole, Friedlander notes, but fluke matching has transformed this approach by allowing scientists to study individual whales in much finer detail. This method opens up opportunities to investigate how specific factors—such as food supply, noise pollution, or environmental shifts—affect particular whales and various demographic groups differently.'What has really been valuable,' he continues, 'is being able to say, 'This is a fluke of an individual whale with a long sighting history—41 years in one case.' When you want to study processes that happen over an animal's lifetime, that contextual detail becomes crucial.' This rich, individual-level perspective informs everything from behavioral studies to toxicology research, facilitating new ways in understanding these ocean giants in unprecedented depth. 'That personal connection leads to a desire for protection' Friedlaender's research focuses on detailed snapshots of individual whales using suction cup tags that collect incredibly fine-resolution data. These tags reveal intimate details about how a whale moves, dives, and feeds—showing, for example, how it manages to engulf what's essentially a swimming pool's worth of water in a single mouthful to fuel its massive energy highlights how this complementary blending of citizen science and traditional scientific methods brings research from being something 'out there' to something closer and more accessible.'By combining fine-scale data from suction cup tags with long-term sighting records collected by everyday people through Happywhale, we create a more holistic view of humpback whales—connecting detailed individual behaviors to broader lifetime patterns and population trends.' [ Related: Whale pee moves vital nutrients thousands of miles. ]And it all stirs something deeper. 'We are wired to care about individuals more than abstract concepts,' Cheeseman continues. 'And that personal connection is what leads to a desire for protection.'Friedlaender and Cheeseman will soon return to Antarctica to continue their research in one of the planet's most ecologically vital and least accessible regions. Their work is supported through a partnership between the Friedlaender Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Quark Expeditions, which facilitates science-based voyages in the Southern Ocean. In these former whaling grounds, the team will deepen their data on humpback behavior and migration—bringing AI, photo ID, and public participation into one of the last truly wild whale at a time, the ocean is becoming less anonymous. And with every scar and splash recorded, the researchers see that a clearer picture of this hidden world begins to emerge, not just in the minds of scientists, but in the hearts of the people observing, and participating, from ashore. Solve the daily Crossword
Daily Mail
7 hours ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
What lies beneath: Scientists make shocking discovery under the Antarctic Ice Sheet
It is the least explored continent in the world, famous for its harsh and remote environment. Now, scientists have made a shocking discovery lurking beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Researchers have discovered 332 hidden trenches known as submarine canyon networks carved deep into the ocean floor - five times more than previously thought. Some of these underwater trenches reach staggering depths of up to 13,000 feet (4,000m) - roughly as deep as Mont Blanc is tall. Scientists have found roughly 10,000 submarine canyons all over the world. And with just 27 per cent of the sea floor mapped in detail, there are likely to be many more waiting to be found. However, the researchers say those beneath Antarctica's ice are the largest and most impressive anywhere on the planet. David Amblas, of the University of Barcelona, says: 'The most spectacular of these are in East Antarctica, which is characterized by complex, branching canyon systems.' Scientists have made a shocking discovery lurking beneath Antarctica's Ice Sheet (pictured), and it could have big implications for global sea level increases The submarine canyons around Antarctica are so large because they are carved by a phenomenon known as turbidity currents. These are underwater avalanches of sediment and water, which flow at speeds up to 45 miles per hour down the steep slopes of the continental shelf, digging out deep channels as they pass. Dr Amblas says: 'Like those in the Arctic, Antarctic submarine canyons resemble canyons in other parts of the world. 'But they tend to be larger and deeper because of the prolonged action of polar ice and the immense volumes of sediment transported by glaciers to the continental shelf.' These vast canyons play a vital role in a number of important ocean processes. They transport nutrient-rich sediment from the coast to wider ocean, connect shallow and deep waters, and create habitats rich in biodiversity. However, despite being so important, these unique environments remain profoundly understudied - especially in remote, hard-to-reach locations like the Antarctic. In their paper, published in the journal Marine Geology, Dr Amblas and his co-author used the most complete and detailed map of the Antarctic to hunt for previously unnoticed canyons. By analysing the map with a semi-automated method for identifying canyons, the researchers found far more canyons beneath the ice than had previously been expected. Interestingly, these new maps revealed that there is a big difference between the canyons in different parts of the continent. Co-author Dr Riccardo Arosio, a marine geologist from University College Cork, told MailOnline: 'It has been very interesting to discover a striking difference between East and West Antarctic canyons, which had not been observed before.' Dr Arosio says that those in the East form 'long canyon-channel systems, and have more frequent U-shaped profiles'. Meanwhile, canyons in the West of the continent are 'shorter, steeper, and V-shaped'. This is likely because the canyons in the West have been carved by the water released by relatively recent melting of the ice sheet while those in the East are the product of a much longer process of glacial activity. The researchers say this discovery could have much wider implications for how we predict the impacts of climate change. The Antarctic canyons help exchange water between the deep ocean and the continental shelf. This allows cold, dense water formed near the ice sheet to sink into the deep ocean, and drive global ocean circulation currents that help keep the climate stable. At the same time, these canyons also bring warmer waters in from the open sea up to meet the floating ice shelves - driving the ice melt, which is weakening Antarctica's inland glaciers. By affecting how quickly water from the ice sheet enters the ocean, these channels have a direct impact on global sea level increases. However, the ocean models used by organisations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) don't take the effects of these hidden canyons into account. Dr Arosio says: 'Omitting these local mechanisms limits the ability that models must predict changes in ocean and climate dynamics.' In the future, by gathering more high-resolution data in unmapped areas, the researchers expect to find even more submarine canyons beneath the ice. Properly understanding these canyons and how they affect the circulation of water around the poles could be key to accurately predicting the impacts of climate change. Antarctica's ice sheets contain 70% of world's fresh water - and sea levels would rise by 180ft if it melts Antarctica holds a huge amount of water. The three ice sheets that cover the continent contain around 70 per cent of our planet's fresh water - and these are all to warming air and oceans. If all the ice sheets were to melt due to global warming, Antarctica would raise global sea levels by at least 183ft (56m). Given their size, even small losses in the ice sheets could have global consequences. In addition to rising sea levels, meltwater would slow down the world's ocean circulation, while changing wind belts may affect the climate in the southern hemisphere. In February 2018, Nasa revealed El Niño events cause the Antarctic ice shelf to melt by up to ten inches (25 centimetres) every year. El Niño and La Niña are separate events that alter the water temperature of the Pacific ocean. The ocean periodically oscillates between warmer than average during El Niños and cooler than average during La Niñas. Using Nasa satellite imaging, researchers found that the oceanic phenomena cause Antarctic ice shelves to melt while also increasing snowfall. In March 2018, it was revealed that more of a giant France-sized glacier in Antarctica is floating on the ocean than previously thought.
CNN
a day ago
- Science
- CNN
Frozen in time: oldest Antarctic ice sample used to study climate trends
Researchers in Antarctica have recovered an ice core sample that is over 1.5 million years old. They believe it could hold crucial details about a previously uncharted period in the history of the Earth's atmosphere.
Reuters
a day ago
- Business
- Reuters
Afghan evacuees, forest fires and Antarctica
Follow on Apple or Spotify. Listen on the Reuters app. Days before President Donald Trump said he would help Afghan evacuees who fled their country and were stuck in the UAE, cables reveal the Emirati government had already begun returning them to Afghanistan. The U.S. Forest Service is struggling to cope with an increase in wildfires, as cuts under the Trump administration hit home. And scientists are analyzing Antarctica's oldest ice with hopes to reveal more about the Earth's climate and atmospheric record. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit to opt out of targeted advertising. Further Reading Japan PM Ishiba vows to stay on after bruising election defeat Evidence shows Jeju Air pilots shut off less-damaged engine before crash, source says Alaska Airlines resumes operations after IT outage Trump threatens Washington stadium deal unless NFL team readopts Redskins name Calm reported in Syria's Sweida, Damascus says truce holding Recommended Read: China embarks on world's largest hydropower dam, capital markets cheer
