Nature involves Science, too! (Nobody Cares...)

[Free]

Eww, but hey, pooping and peeing is part of the circle of life... (I guess)

How whale urine benefits the ocean ecosystem

Great whales can transport 4,000 tons of nitrogen annually to tropical coastal areas.

arstechnica.com

Scientists have long understood that microbes, zooplankton, and fish are vital sources of recycled nitrogen in coastal waters. But whales and other marine mammals like seals also help in this regard by releasing tons of nutrient-rich fecal matter into those waters. Now we can add whale urine to that list, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Communications.

“Lots of people think of plants as the lungs of the planet, taking in carbon dioxide, and expelling oxygen,” said co-author Joe Roman, a biologist at the University of Vermont. “For their part, animals play an important role in moving nutrients. Seabirds transport nitrogen and phosphorus from the ocean to the land in their poop, increasing the density of plants on islands. Animals form the circulatory system of the planet—and whales are the extreme example.”

 

[Free]

When things potentially go boom.

Alaskan Volcano Likely to Erupt in the Next Weeks or Months, Experts Warn

Volcanologists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory have been monitoring volcanic unrest since April of last year.

gizmodo.com

Accurately predicting when a volcano will erupt is nearly impossible, but Alaska’s Mount Spurr is sending clear warning signs to volcanologists.

Experts at the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) warn that Mount Spurr—a snow-covered volcano 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of Anchorage—is likely to experience an explosive eruption in the coming weeks or months, according to an AVO statement posted Wednesday to the U.S. Geological Survey’s website. Though volcanologists expect to see increased gas, seismic, and heat activity leading up to the potential event, the volcano could also explode without further warning.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Doctor Muraco is a Mississippi based marine biologist who also rehabilitates beavers while studying them. In recent weeks she got two new baby beavers.

Holley Muraco at Something Wild

Something Wild's mission is to rescue, rehabilitate, and release Mississippi’s native wildlife, with a special focus on the North American Beaver. Through our commitment to research, conservation and outreach, we aim to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of Mississippi's wildlife...

www.youtube.com

 

[Free]

Cristiano, I would appreciate a beaver reaction on the forum.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

:beaver:

 

[Essence Lumin]

 

[Caete]

[Live] Hawaii Island's Kilauea Volcano erupts [LIVE] (March 26, 2025) ANN / Teleasa

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

As of the time I'm posting this, that lava fountain is INSANELY high. It's the highest I've seen yet, I think. It's a little hard to see since it's daytime, so you lose the glow about halfway up, but geez.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

On this POV you can see the ashfall directly in front of the camera!

 

[Casey Pelous]

Hawaiian volcanoes are generally so polite. "Oh, god, I think I'm gonna erupt ...." *oozes some lava that moves at a walking pace, pops a spectacular but relatively harmless fountain or two*

Northwest volcanoes are sort of a testament to poor anger management: "I'm fine. Shut up, I'm fine. I swear to god, I'm fine, stop asking me!" *instantaneously turns the top of a big mountain into dust while blowing half a forest to kingdom come. Sends 50 mph floods of water, ash, trees, and rocks for miles, dumps 3 feet of ash over half the state* "SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO?"

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

The secret is in the lava recipe!

At Hawaii and other hotspot and spreading-center volcanoes, the magma that feeds them is usually deep mantle rock, basalt, rich in magnesium and iron. It's called "mafic" as like a portmanteau of magnesium and ferrous. It's very runny stuff, and doesn't hold back any pressure very well. When it nears the surface, any dissolved gasses in it come out of solution due to decompression and race easily toward any available outlet, and just push the watery lava along with them and it flows right out, easy as you like. If there's a LOT of gasses they can force the lava up into those big pretty fountains, like a giant Forbidden Sprinkler that you're not allowed to run through.

Subduction-zone volcanoes like the Pacific Northwest are way different. Their magma is called "felsic" (as in, feldspar/silicon), it is mostly melted continental crust rock and it is very very viscous and sticky and hardens quickly compared to mafic magma. Gas can still come out of solution as it nears the surface, but doesn't always, and even when it does felsic magma can just fill up and harden right in the vent, blocking the gas from escaping. This means that a LOT of pressure can build up behind a clog of felsic rock, indeed it often needs to build up to seriously explosive levels in order to break through - and when it does, well, everyone in the neighborhood knows about it. Felsic lava is always chunky fragments rather than the runny flowing rivers like you see with mafic eruptions, and if an eruption is particularly violent and explosive then it just gets dustified and creates giant ash clouds and deadly pyroclastic flows.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Hawaiian volcanoes are generally so polite. "Oh, god, I think I'm gonna erupt ...." *oozes some lava that moves at a walking pace, pops a spectacular but relatively harmless fountain or two*

Northwest volcanoes are sort of a testament to poor anger management: "I'm fine. Shut up, I'm fine. I swear to god, I'm fine, stop asking me!" *instantaneously turns the top of a big mountain into dust while blowing half a forest to kingdom come. Sends 50 mph floods of water, ash, trees, and rocks for miles, dumps 3 feet of ash over half the state* "SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO?"

My first job was shoveling Mt St Helens up from parking lots. When it erupted, my father was driving from Salem to Portland. It was raining ash and the wipers wouldn't clear the silica, it was sticking to the windshield. The air filter clogged so bad he almost had to abandon the truck.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

From yesterday's USGS report:

Fountain heights were higher in episode 15 than in previous episodes, continuing the pattern of fountain growth with time. Fountaining reached maximum heights just over 1,000 feet (305 meters) between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. and again around 1:30 p.m. HST. Fountain heights in excess of 600-800 feet (180-250 meters) occurred sporadically through the rest of the episode, with more sustained fountaining at somewhat lower heights of roughly 600 feet (180 meters).

During episode 15, lava flows covered about 80-90% of the floor of Halemaʻumaʻu within the southern part of Kaluapele (Kīlauea caldera). Weak winds also resulted in deposition of Pele's hair and tephra in public areas of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and in populated areas near Kīlauea summit.

 

[Dancien]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/28/travel/mount-fuji-eruption-guidelines-scli-intl

Japanese Officials: Hey, Mt Fuji is totally not going to blow up, but if it does we need you to be prepared for how fucked you'll be. But again, totally not blowing up......

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Hokusai: the Eruption of Fuji

Katsushika Hokusai, "The Appearance of Hoeizan"

The eruption of Mt. Fuji on a winter evening in 1707 was one of the largest recorded in Japan. The explosion came from a lateral vent on the mountain, thus creating the Hoeizan peak to the East. Hokusai did not experience this catatrophe as he was not born yet, but the chaos in the composition...

tokaidoarts.com

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Katie Mack (@astrokatie.com)

Enough internet. Time to cheer myself up by writing about how dark energy will eventually destroy the universe.

bsky.app

 

[Veritable Quandry]

No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction

Colossal Biosciences claims three pups born recently are dire wolves, but they are actually grey wolves with genetic edits intended to make them resemble the lost species

www.newscientist.com

And Colossal claims it has turned grey wolves into dire wolves by making just 20 gene edits?
That is the claim. In fact, five of those 20 changes are based on mutations known to produce light coats in grey wolves, Shapiro told New Scientist. Only 15 are based on the dire wolf genome directly and are intended to alter the animals’ size, musculature and ear shape. It will be a year or so before it’s clear if those changes have had the intended effects on the genetically modified animals, says Shapiro.

So these pups aren’t really dire wolves at all, then?
It all comes down to how you define species, says Shapiro. “Species concepts are human classification systems, and everybody can disagree and everyone can be right,” she says. “You can use the phylogenetic [evolutionary relationships] species concept to determine what you’re going to call a species, which is what you are implying… We are using the morphological species concept and saying, if they look like this animal, then they are the animal.”

Last common ancestor between grey wolves and dire wolves was 6 million years ago. Modern wolves are more closely related to jackals than they are to dire wolves.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Not to endorse the original fucked up "recreation" of the dire wolf, but...

Modern wolves are more closely related to jackals than they are to dire wolves.

The "golden jackal", the link between dogs, wolves, and jackals, is not a jackal... and is more closely related to wolves and their common ancestors than to actual jackals. It's now being reclassified as the North African Golden Wolf.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Not to endorse the original fucked up "recreation" of the dire wolf, but...


The "golden jackal", the link between dogs, wolves, and jackals, is not a jackal... and is more closely related to wolves and their common ancestors than to actual jackals. It's now being reclassified as the North African Golden Wolf.

Wolves, jackals, and golden jackals are all Canis species. Dire wolves are Aenocyon species. Different genus altogether.

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

Wolves, jackals, and golden jackals are all Canis species. Dire wolves are Aenocyon species. Different genus altogether.

Jackals are now classified as Lupulella(2019), not Canis. The "Golden Jackal" (Canis Aureus) is not actually a jackal.

Paleonotological taxonomy is speculative because there are no living members to classify. Which is also another reason the claim that they have resurrected the Dire Wolf is hogwash.