Latest news with #oceans
CBS News
20 hours ago
- Health
- CBS News
How is the heat index calculated? Why it's more important than air temperature during some heat waves
During the hot, humid summer months, meteorologists often discuss the heat index instead of the actual air temperature. But how is the heat index calculated, and why is it more important than the air temperature during some heat waves? Spending time outdoors or exercising outside can feel very different depending on humidity levels — from crisp mornings when it seems you do not even sweat, to muggy summer afternoons when the air feels like a steam sauna. Humidity is a measure of how much moisture is in the air, which originates from the water cycle. When the sun hits the Earth's lakes and oceans, a fraction of that water evaporates into a gaseous form called water vapor. That water vapor, or humidity, then blows from place to place as air moves around the planet. The heat index is a complicated calculation that factors humidity into the air temperature, giving us a more representative number of how it feels outside when the humidity is high. It looks like this: HI = -42.379 + 2.04901523*T + 10.14333127*RH - .22475541*T*RH - .00683783*T*T - .05481717*RH*RH + .00122874*T*T*RH + .00085282*T*RH*RH - .00000199*T*T*RH*RH Ultimately, it's all about how easily sweat evaporates off of your skin. Sweat is the body's natural air conditioning system. Evaporation is a cooling process, so when sweat evaporates off of your face, is pulls heat out of your skin and dissipates it into the surrounding air, leaving your skin slightly cooler. But the amount of humidity in the air has a big impact on how much of your sweat evaporates, and how easily your body can cool itself. On a crisp, low humidity day, sweat evaporates so easily off of your skin that you may not realize you are sweating at all. In extremely dry climates like Phoenix or Palm Springs, you may even feel cold after getting out of the swimming pool on a 100-degree day. That is because water is evaporating off of your skin so rapidly in the low humidity environment, it cools your skin well below the air temperature. In a high humidity environment, like a tropical beach, the air surrounding your body is too moist for sweat to evaporate off of your skin. Your body continues to sweat in an effort to cool itself, but heat keeps building up since the sweat is not evaporating. The heat index is a measure of how hot the temperature and humidity feel to the human body in the shade. Heat index values can be 15 degrees hotter in direct sun.
Entrepreneur
6 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Meet the Person Who Invented Plastic that Dissolves in Water
"Big Plastic" might hate it, but it's an opportunity for investors in the $1.3T plastics industry. Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you'll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. Everyone's heard the warnings: The world produces 450 billion tons of plastic waste every year. It's polluting our oceans and landfills, and it's even invading our bodies. But what if we didn't just recycle or "reduce" plastic use? What if we could make plastic disappear entirely? That's the idea behind Timeplast. And investors have just a few days left—until July 31—to back the company. Developed by chemical engineer and former PepsiCo executive, Manuel Rendon, Timeplast's patented tech looks like plastic, acts like plastic, and works in everything from packaging to agriculture to 3D printing. But unlike traditional plastics—or even "bioplastics"—it doesn't take 1,000 years to break down. It fully dissolves in water, leaving behind no microplastics, toxins, or residue, the company says. Think of it like what Tesla did to combustion engines, or what Impossible Foods did to meat. A complete reinvention of plastic itself. Here's why you shouldn't miss out on the chance to invest. Timeplast says it is truly the first of its kind Most so-called biodegradable plastics aren't what they claim to be. They may "break down" under industrial composting conditions. Think: high heat, special facilities, and long timelines. But even then, they leave behind microplastics and chemical residues. Rendon witnessed this firsthand while working in global sustainability at PepsiCo. Billions of dollars were being spent on packaging changes that still created pollution. He knew it would take a radical shift to solve the plastic problem. So he spent the next 10 years developing a patented water-soluble polymer designed to behave like plastic, without the toxic afterlife. There's no material like it, and the world is taking notice. They're unlocking a $1.3T plastics market Timeplast's materials are already being tested and sold in multiple industries. More than 1,000 paying customers have used the product. And demand continues to build as manufacturers look for ways to hit ESG goals, reduce waste costs, or avoid new microplastic regulations taking effect in the U.S. and Europe. The company is also expanding their product line, with the recently unveiled Pabyss™ reactor. It's a modular system that is designed to eliminate plastic waste entirely by accelerating the dissolution process. Think of it like a recycling system, but instead of grinding and melting plastic, it makes it vanish, the company says. Pabyss™ is an early glimpse at Timeplast's long-term vision of a closed-loop ecosystem that prevents plastic pollution from the start. And that vision is starting to gain traction, just as the regulatory and public pressure to act reaches a breaking point. With real traction, strategic IP, and a massive market tailwind behind it, Timeplast is now opening the door to investors. The Timeplast investment window is closing soon Right now, Timeplast is accepting public investments to help scale operations and meet demand. They're already receiving attention from Fortune 500 companies and selling out of products. But what's next could be even bigger, because their applications aren't limited to plastic alone. Their potential ranges across packaging, agriculture, consumer goods, and industrial manufacturing. With so much opportunity ahead, it helps to have a CEO who was instrumental in shaping the sustainability policy at one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world. Investors right now have an opportunity to back a systemic shift. But the current investment opportunity ends July 31 at 11:59 p.m. PT. With demand surging, new global partnerships forming, and a growing spotlight on microplastic pollution, many believe Timeplast is positioned to become a defining company in the next wave of sustainable tech. The clock is ticking. Learn more and invest in Timeplast while the opportunity lasts. This is a paid advertisement for Timeplast's Regulation CF Offering. Please read the offering circular at
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New guides aim to help apparel brands cut microfibre pollution
Titled "Reducing Microfiber Pollution: An Industry Playbook", the playbook offers a collection of scientifically grounded, cost-effective strategies that can be readily integrated into brand operations to minimise the release of microfibres. Microfibres, which are minuscule particles that detach from clothing during various stages such as washing, production, wear, drying, and disposal, represent a notable source of pollution. They affect oceans, agricultural lands, wildlife, air quality, drinking water, and even human health. The 5 Gyres Institute science & innovation director Dr Lisa Erdle said: 'Mostly invisible to the eye but widespread in our ecosystems, microfibre pollution is an emerging environmental challenge, and something we've seen the fashion industry grapple with. 'Our guides provide brands with the practical, science-backed tools they need to take immediate and effective actions that have a big impact in reducing microfibre shedding.' The guides provide a suite of practical solutions for brands to implement throughout the textile supply chain. This includes guidance on garment design, material sourcing, and manufacturing processes. Audience-specific guides in the playbook Design Solutions: Targets designers and developers and offers alternatives for fibres, yarns, and construction methods. Sourcing Practices: Directed at sourcing professionals and provides tools for supplier engagement and recommendations for material libraries. Manufacturing Interventions: Caters to production teams with suggestions on filtration enhancements and washing and finishing techniques. The Nature Conservancy plastic project director Patrick Journey said: 'The main barrier to addressing microfibre pollution is that brands, designers, and suppliers aren't always aware of the many solutions that can be implemented. These guides shed light on the key levers for impact, which, if scaled across the industry, could turn the tide on this growing conservation crisis.' "New guides aim to help apparel brands cut microfibre pollution" was originally created and published by Just Style, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Sustainability Times
13-07-2025
- Science
- Sustainability Times
'These Alien Oceans Are the Ultimate Game-Changer': NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory Poised to Expose Extraterrestrial Seas That Could Redefine All Life
IN A NUTSHELL 🌌 NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory aims to detect oceans on exoplanets, enhancing the search for extraterrestrial life. aims to detect oceans on exoplanets, enhancing the search for extraterrestrial life. 🔍 The telescope will use specular reflection to identify water bodies by analyzing how light reflects off surfaces. to identify water bodies by analyzing how light reflects off surfaces. ☁️ Challenges include dealing with cloud cover and achieving precise measurements of exoplanet brightness. and achieving precise measurements of exoplanet brightness. 🪐 Discovering oceans on tidally locked planets may reveal stable climates, indicating potential habitability. In humanity's eternal quest to find life beyond Earth, we may finally have a telescope that can spot not just planets—but oceans. On Earth, water is inseparable from life. It shapes our landscapes, carves canyons, forms clouds, and pulses through every living cell. It is no surprise, then, that our search for life elsewhere in the universe has become, at its core, a search for water. But while we've found thousands of exoplanets orbiting distant stars—some even within the so-called 'Goldilocks zone' where temperatures might allow for liquid water—one critical detail has eluded us: proof. Are there truly oceans out there, shimmering beneath alien suns? NASA's proposed Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) may soon be able to answer that question. The Cosmic Mirror: How Liquid Water Reveals Itself When light strikes a surface, the way it reflects depends on what that surface is made of. Rough, solid surfaces scatter light in all directions—a diffuse reflection. But liquids, with their smooth, mirror-like texture, reflect light in a way called specular reflection. On Earth, this is why a body of water can look dark and flat from one angle, but shimmer like a mirror from another. When the Sun hits it just right, that glint is unmistakable. The Habitable Worlds Observatory is designed to capture this very phenomenon—not on Earth, but on exoplanets tens to hundreds of light-years away. If a distant world has oceans, they will reflect starlight in a distinctive, directional pattern. By watching how that light changes as the planet rotates or orbits its star, the HWO could piece together not only that liquid water is present—but where it pools on the surface. 'Planets with large bodies of water on their surface will have more temperate and stable climates,' Cowan and his co-authors write. 'Such planets are the ideal places for life-as-we-know-it to arise and evolve.' 'Earth's Core Is Acting Up': NASA Links Planet-Wide Disturbance to Mysterious Energy Surge Emerging From Deep Within the Mantle Mapping Oceans on Spinning Worlds The beauty of the method lies in time—specifically, how a planet's brightness changes over time as it spins and moves through different phases of illumination. On a rotating planet like Earth, different features come into view with each turn. Oceans, continents, cloud systems—they all reflect light differently. The HWO will perform something akin to time-lapse photography from space, measuring how the reflectance of a planet varies over hours, days, even seasons. When a watery surface turns toward the right angle, it reflects light with a brilliance not seen in rocky terrain. That glint, carefully teased from the surrounding noise, could reveal a surface ocean. These changes aren't just visible in brightness—they show up in polarization as well. At crescent phases, when a planet is backlit by its star, water-rich surfaces tend to polarize light in unique, detectable ways. In other words, oceans don't just shine—they whisper their presence through the alignment of light waves. Detecting it requires not just powerful optics, but stability and patience. The HWO will need to record high-precision, time-resolved measurements over long periods. 'Space Needs Nuclear Now': This New Global Race to Harness Atomic Power Beyond Earth Is Accelerating Faster Than Expected The Challenge of Clouds and Shadows Earth has taught us much, but it's also revealed the complications. Our own atmosphere is often cloaked in cloud cover—so thick, in fact, that any attempt to map our oceans from a light-year away would be muddled by ever-changing clouds. Exoplanets, too, will likely have clouds—and those clouds will obscure parts of the surface, alter the reflected light, and complicate the story the data tells. The HWO's team knows this and is building models to work around it. Cloud-free regions can still reveal surface features, and by observing over time, the telescope may be able to average out the impact of variable weather systems. Instrumental precision will be key. The authors emphasize that for rotational mapping to work, the telescope must be stable over the timescale of a planet's rotation—likely somewhere between 10 to 100 hours. That kind of stability is achievable, but photometric precision—measuring tiny changes in brightness—remains the telescope's biggest challenge. Four or more separate measurements per planetary rotation will likely be needed. 'NASA Sounds the Alarm': Sudden Planet-Wide Disturbance Linked to Mysterious Subterranean Energy Surge Now Spreading Without Warning Tidally Locked Worlds: Oceans in Eternal Daylight Many potentially habitable exoplanets orbit red dwarf stars, and many of those planets are tidally locked—meaning one side always faces the star in unending daylight, while the other remains in perpetual night. That's not a death sentence for habitability. If the planet has a thick atmosphere or large oceans, heat could circulate efficiently. For tidally locked worlds, specular reflection might actually be easier to detect. Since the surface features never rotate out of view, any reflection from oceans would remain fixed relative to the planet's orbit. Over time, this stability could help astronomers isolate the signal from noise. By observing how the brightness and polarization of reflected light change as the planet orbits its star, the HWO could identify oceans even on these strange, unmoving worlds. A mirror that never turns still shines, if you know when to look. Discovering an ocean on an exoplanet would be more than just a scientific achievement—it would be a revelation. It would prove that conditions for life exist beyond Earth in a tangible, observable way. It would mean that somewhere, under a star not so different from our own, waves might be lapping at a rocky shore. NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory is still in the proposal stage. It has not yet been approved, funded, or built. But its vision is clear. If launched, it would not be alone. Europe's Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) will soon begin observations from the ground, and other proposed missions—like the Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE)—may complement the HWO's efforts. In the end, the question is no longer if we'll find water among the stars. It's when. Could this discovery change our understanding of life in the universe? This article is based on verified sources and supported by editorial technologies. Did you like it? 4.6/5 (20)
Daily Mail
12-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
They're not ALL like Jaws! Five unloved sharks species you may never have heard of... including one that lives up to 500 YEARS
While you may be well aware of the dangers posed by a tiger, bull, or Great White shark, would you know what to do when face to face with a megamouth shark? Our oceans have an estimated 90 per cent of species still undiscovered yet people don't even know the species that have been revealed. There are over 500 species of shark and yet the average person, even those who claim sharks as their favourite animal, fail to name more than five, with those five being the same species recycled from person to person. Great White, bull, hammerhead, tiger, and whale sharks are all heavily regarded as the most popular sharks, with movies such as Jaws greatly boosting their fame. However, other, arguably more interesting, sharks remain lurking far beneath the surface. With over eight billion people, surely all 500+ shark species deserve to be somebody's favourite. From scary to sweet, these are five of the most underrated sharks to add to your list of favourites. Greenland shark The Greenland shark is far too underrated considering the absolute marvel of its lifespan, having baffled scientists for years as the oldest shark. Due to their particularly slow metabolism, delayed sexual maturity, and cold Arctic water habitats 2,000m below the surface, the Greenland shark has adapted to have a lifespan of up to 500 years. In 2016, carbon dating of a Greenland shark's eye lenses revealed it was from 1627 and was almost 400 years old. However, you needn't fear these gentle giants, as they are also the slowest-moving shark with a top speed of 2.5km/h. And even if you were to be caught up, you'd be more at risk if you took a bite out of the shark than if it were to bite you. The high count of trimethylamine oxide in their flesh, which can cause cancer and heart diseases, leaves the Greenland shark completely toxic to consume, making the 1,000kg of meat more dangerous than their fifty-two teeth. Wobbegong sharks Wobbegong is the name given to carpet sharks, bottom-dwellers best known for their impeccable camouflage and interesting distinctive features. Due to their intricate patterns and skin folds, carpet sharks are able to seamlessly blend into coral reefs along the seabed. This aids them in hiding but also hunting, with their ability to hide allowing them to easily strike and capture their prey, making them efficient ambush hunters. This hunting advantage is highly successful as the wobbegong, similarly to the Greenland shark, are slow swimmers. Their innate ability to 'disappear' into coral reefs is made even more impressive when you consider their grand size of 10ft. Megamouth sharks The megamouth shark is often overshadowed by whale and basking sharks, its fellow plankton-eating species, however it has no reason to be as the megamouth is far more unique than its popular counterparts. While the megamouth has been known to swim closer towards the surface for feeding at night, it spends the majority of its time 15,000ft below the surface. This has caused it to be the rarest spotted shark, with only 117 documented sightings. However, if you were lucky enough to spot one of these creatures you would know immediately, as the megamouth has one of the most distinctive builds of any shark. And whilst its appearance may initially scare you, they are easily kept at bay with a slight tap of their nose. With its bulbous head, large lips, and impressive length of 18ft, the megamouth could easily become one of the most recognisable sharks if only more people knew they existed. Cookiecutter sharks The cookiecutter shark is undeniably one of the most remarkable shark species, from unique feeding techniques to its glowing stomach, all at a measly 50cm (20in). The cookiecutter shark is named after the hole it leaves behind after it feeds. They are ectoparasitic as they will live on the outside of their host, and can also live off of krill and small fish rather than feeding on larger lifeforms. Many of their prey are attracted to them by their phosphorous underbelly which glows green, particularly effective due to the darkness of its natural habitat 3km below the surface of the water. They are such efficient predators because of their powerful jaws and bone structure, strengthened by their tendency to swallow their own teeth as a way to intake calcium. Dwarf Lanternsharks If a fear of sharks is why you don't want to learn more about them, then the dwarf lanternshark is perfect for you. The dwarf lanternshark is the smallest breed of shark, growing up to 21cm (just over 8in) - no bigger than a carrot. They are also bioluminescent, allowing them to glow in the deep, dark waters in which they inhabit. While you may assume this would disadvantage them, making them stick out as an easy prey, they instead use this to lure prey to them. They are also camouflaged by the black markings that form patterns with the bioluminescent colourings. So, if a fear of sharks is putting you off, simply think of the dwarf lantern shark as no more harmful than a glow in the dark carrot.
