Aurelia Butler

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    How a puffin patrol in Iceland is saving the iconic seabirds

    A small, rocky island off Iceland is home to the world’s largest breeding colony of Atlantic puffins.

    When breeding season is in full swing, around 1.5 million adults pair up and nestle into burrows on the grassy seaside slopes above Heimaey island’s rocky cliffs.

    Once chicks hatch, puffin moms and dads devote about six weeks to caring for their babies, bringing meals of small fish and fending off predators such as seagulls. By late August or early September, the pufflings are mature enough to live on their own. Over four to five weeks, throngs of young birds head off to sea. Their instinct is to head for the open ocean, where they will spend most of their lives. They leave in the dark of night to hide from predators, guided by the moon.

    Puffin parents care for immature pufflings until they can fly on their own. The downy fluff around the neck of this puffling (right) indicates it’s not yet ready to fledge.Rachel Bennett/iStock/Getty Images Plus

    But sometimes fledglings lose their way. Heimaey’s only town got electricity about a century ago. Ever since, dazzled by night lights or swept along in stiff sea breezes, some young puffins have taken a wrong turn — toward town.

    Light pollution affects wildlife in perilous ways, disrupting crucial activities from pollination to mating. Some creatures, like these Atlantic puffins (Fratercula arctica), lose their orientation and can’t find their way to the ocean. Some could be attacked by predators; others might starve. Fortunately for these pufflings, the residents of Heimaey have taken a hands-on approach to addressing the problem. More

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    Fog collection could alleviate water stress in desert cities

    Rural communities in arid regions have harvested tiny droplets of fog for years as a source of fresh drinking water. Now, researchers say that fog water can be a practical supplement to stave off water stress for larger desert cities.

    A yearlong assessment of the potential volume of harvested fog water near a city in northern Chile’s Atacama Desert found that it’s possible to collect as much as 5 liters per square meter each day, scientists report Feb. 20 in Frontiers in Environmental Science. More

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    Migrating whale sharks make pit stops at oil and gas rigs

    Like rolling into a gas station during a road trip, whale sharks use oil and gas rigs as a pit stop during their migrations of thousands of kilometers across the oceans. The human-made structures attract marine life — including the sharks’ favorite snack: plankton. But experts worry that this lure could put the endangered behemoths at risk of ship strike or chemical pollution.

    Satellite tracking of whale sharks off the coast of western Australia shows how oil and gas platforms influence the movements of these gentle giants, marine ecologist Ben D’Antonio and colleagues report January 18 in Diversity and Distributions. “As they migrate across the ocean, they are stopping over and moving between features to presumably grab an easy meal before continuing with their migration,” says D’Antonio, of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and University of Western Australia in Perth. More

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    Historical writings reveal how people weathered the Little Ice Age

    “Dear diary, it was freezing outside today…” If someone today wrote that in their journal, it might seem like an innocuous enough line, perhaps never to be carefully considered again. But what if, 500 years from now, scientists used that entry about the weather to answer climate mysteries?

    Researchers looking to the past have done just that, combing through diaries and other old documents to reconstruct the climate of 16th century Transylvania, part of modern-day Romania. What they found offers a glimpse at how a cooling period called the Little Ice Age may have affected people in the region, the team reports February 12 in Frontiers in Climate. More

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    Just a small rise in global temperatures could be deadly

    Meghan Rosen is a staff writer who reports on the life sciences for Science News. She earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology with an emphasis in biotechnology from the University of California, Davis, and later graduated from the science communication program at UC Santa Cruz. More

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    The best way to cook an egg, according to science

    When egg prices are hard-boiling your temper, it’s important to make sure that each egg you make is the best it can possibly be. But when your egg white is cooked, your egg yolk is often still a runny mess. Once the yolk is cooked, the white is rubbery. The solution is a method of periodic cooking, researchers report February 6 in Communications Engineering. And true eggcellence, they say, requires only boiling water, slightly warm water, an egg — and 32 minutes of patience.

    The challenge of cooking an egg is that the yolk and the albumen — or white — have different compositions, says Emilia Di Lorenzo, a chemical engineer at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy. The result is that the proteins in each part of the egg denature — or fall apart — at different temperatures. Yolk proteins cook at 65° Celsius, while those in the white cook at 85° C. More

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    Can geoengineering plans save glaciers and slow sea level rise?

    Citations

    H. Seroussi et al. Evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet over the next three centuries from an ISMIP6 model ensemble. Earth’s Future. Vol. 12, September 4, 2024. doi: 10.1029/2024EF004561.

    M. Wolovick, J. Moore and B. Keefer. The potential for stabilizing Amundsen Sea glaciers via underwater curtains. PNAS Nexus. Vol. 2, April 2023, pgad103. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad103.

    B. Keefer, M. Wolovick and J.C. Moore. Feasibility of ice sheet conservation using seabed anchored curtains. PNAS Nexus. Vol. 2, March 2023, pgad053. doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad053.

    K. Yamazaki et al. Multidecadal poleward shift of the southern boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current off East Antarctica. Science Advances. Published online June 11, 2021. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abf8755.

    R. DeConto et al. The Paris Climate Agreement and future sea-level rise from Antarctica. Nature. Vol. 593, May 6, 2021, p.83. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03427-0.

    A.K. Wåhlin et al. Pathways and modification of warm water flowing beneath Thwaites Ice Shelf, West Antarctica. Science Advances. Vol. 7, April 9, 2021, eabd7254. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abd7254.

    O. Gürses et al. A submarine wall protecting the Amundsen Sea intensifies melting of neighboring ice shelves. The Cryosphere. Vol. 13, September 6, 2019, p. 2317. doi: 10.5194/tc-13-2317-2019.

    M.J. Wolovick and J.C. Moore. Stopping the flood: Could we use targeted geoengineering to mitigate sea level rise? The Cryosphere. Vol. 12, September 20, 2018, p. 2955. doi: 10.5194/tc-12-2955-2018.

    J.C. Moore et al. Geoengineering polar glaciers to slow sea-level rise. Nature. Vol. 555, March 15, 2018, p. 303. doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-03036-4.

    I. Joughin et al. Marine Ice Sheet Collapse Potentially Under Way for the Thwaites Glacier Basin, West Antarctica. Science. Vol. 344, May 16, 2014, p. 735. doi: 10.1126/science.1249055.

    I. Joughin et al. Changes in west Antarctic ice stream velocities: Observation and analysis. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. Vol. 17, November 2002, p. EPM 3-1. doi: 10.1029/2001JB001029. More

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    Quantum mechanics was born 100 years ago. Physicists are celebrating

    A century ago, science went quantum. To celebrate, physicists are throwing a global, year-long party.

    In 1925, quantum mechanics, the scientific theory that describes the unintuitive rules of physics on very small scales, began to crystallize in the minds of physicists. Beginning in that year, a series of monumental papers laid out the theory’s framework. Quantum physics has since permeated a wide range of scientific disciplines — explaining the periodic table, the lives and deaths of stars and more — and enabled technologies from the laser to the smartphone. More