Ripples In A Teacup

  Scientists using ice-breaking ships and underwater robotshave found the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is melting at an acceleratingrate and could be on an irreversible path to collapse, spelling catastrophe forglobal sea level rise. A six-year investigation into the vast Thwaites glacier in Antarctica has concluded with a grim outlook on its future. Often dubbed the “doomsday glacier”, this huge mass of ice is comparable in size to Britain or Florida and its collapse alone would raise sea levels by 65 centimetres. Worse still, this is expected to trigger a more widespread loss of the ice sheet covering West Antarctica, causing a calamitous sea level rise of 3.3 metres and threatening cities like New York, Kolkata and Shanghai. Though the glacier is in anextremely remote and difficult area, the International Thwaites GlacierCollaboration (ITGC), a joint UK-US research programme, has deployed 100scientists there over the past six years, using planes, ships and underwaterrobots...

I just finished the first term of my last year at school. As usual, we had a set of exams before a short break kicked in. I had drastically cut down on my news reading for the last three weeks and couldn’t wait to catch up as soon I got home yesterday after my physics exam. Horrible news from Sweden , a country which I visited once when I was three (I don’t remember a thing) and which I hope to re-visit one day. Apparently Sweden plans to cull 20% of its brown bear population. Licenses have been issued to kill 486 bears. We are told that culling is necessary for sustaining the rest of the bear population and at some level, it does make sense. However, I am very sad to hear this news. The summer of 2024 has been the warmest ever in the Northern Hemisphere, the EU Climate Change monitor has said. This is yet another portent of the disaster we are walking into. In India, thanks to climate change, monsoons have become extremely unpredictable. This year, monsoon rains have continued ...

On August 14, 2024, WHO called the latest mpox outbreak an ‘emergency of international concern’. A UNICEF press release states that children are among those at great risk of contracting Mpox in Congo , one of the most affected countries. Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is a self-limiting viral infection caused by mpox virus (MPXV). At least 99,176 cases and 208 deaths due to mpox have been reported from 116 countries since 2022, according to data from the WHO. This is the second time the infection has received the designation in as many years — the outbreak between July 2022 and May 2023 was also declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Mpox was discovered in 1958 (in captive monkeys, hence the original misnomer “monkeypox”) and the first human case was identified in 1970. Then for decades it was largely neglected by the scientific and public health communities, regarded as an uncommon infection in remote rural areas in tropical Africa without releva...

  A few weeks ago, I read this interesting piece in the NewYork Times about the possibility of the US, Russia and China resuming nuclear testing. "From 1945 to 2017, nuclear nations carried out more than 2,000 explosive tests in the atmosphere, underground and underwater, mostly in remote places. Some of the atmospheric tests were magnitudes more powerful than the bombs dropped on Japan, sickening and displacing thousands." Seven decades after Castle Bravo, the United States’ most devastating nuclear test, the people of Bikini Atoll are yet to  receive fair compensation . The Soviets do not have a better record.  Hundreds of tests were carried out between 1949 and 1989 on the barren steppe near the city of Semey, formerly known as Semipalatinsk, close to the Kazakh-Russian border. The effect of radiation had a devastating impact on the environment and local people's health, and continues to affect lives there today. Scary! Hope this does not come to pass!

I’ve been to Maldives once, on holiday, sometime in 2019, much before the Covid-19 pandemic hit India. I distinctly remember feeling very sad when I left, thinking that the low-lying islands would soon be under water, swallowed by rising sea-levels , brought on by climate change and global warming. So, when I came across a news paper article which said that as many as 1,000 low-lying tropical islands in Maldives, which were once considered doomed to disappear, are now actually growing in size. According to researchers who analysed decades of aerial photos and satellite imagery , most islands have either remained stable or even grown in size. The secret apparently lies in the power of waves and currents. As sea levels rose, waves transported more sand and sediment to the shores, replenishing the land that had eroded. Although the islands' shapes and positions may have changed, they did not diminish in size. This gives me hope. We earthlings can survive climate change. However, some ...

When I hold a test tube over a flame, the chemical reaction accelerates. The same happens in our atmosphere when there is a heat wave. Ground-level ozone is made more efficiently in sunny, hot weather since the reactions that create harmful ozone in our atmosphere require sunlight. Therefore, in summer and during heat waves, ozone often reaches dangerous levels, especially in cities.  This New York Times article discusses this phenomenon in detail. In northern India, cold weather worsens the smog . That’s because pollution in cities mixes vertically in the atmosphere. In winter, the height at which this mixing happens shrinks by more than half, raising the concentration of pollution. Heads you win, tails I lose!

  On June 10 2024, OpenAI and Apple announced a partnership at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference 2024, to integrate ChatGPT into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. This collaboration will allow users to leverage ChatGPT’s advanced capabilities, such as image and document understanding, directly within Apple's ecosystem. Siri will also utilize ChatGPT for enhanced responses, ensuring user consent and privacy protections. Additionally, ChatGPT will be embedded in Apple's system-wide writing tools, aiding in content generation and image creation. This integration, powered by GPT-4o, will be available for free later this year, with premium features accessible to ChatGPT subscribers. Elon Musk wasn’t very happy with this news. "If Apple integrates OpenAl at the OS level, then Apple devices will be banned at my companies. That is an unacceptable security violation ... And visitors will have to check their Apple devices at the door, where they will be stored in a Faraday cage....