Record High Temp Of Last Year May Be The New Normal By 2025

Global temperature records set in 2015 – the hottest year so far – may become the new norm by 2025 if carbon emissions continue to rise at the same rate. Human activities have already locked in this new ‘normal’ for future temperatures but immediate climate action could prevent record extreme seasons year after year. If we don’t reduce our rate of emissions, the record hot summer of 2013 in Australia - when we saw temperatures approaching 50 degrees Celsius in some areas – could be just another average summer season by 2035. So, what is the idea of a new normal? Researchers determined that a new normal occurred when at least half of the years following an extreme year were cooler and half warmer. Only then can a new normal state be declared. This process was also used to determine new normal conditions for seasonal and regional changes to the climate. Using the ANU’s National Computational Infrastructure supercomputer to run climate models, the researchers explored when new normal states would appear under the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change’s four emissions pathways. The results revealed that while global average temperatures would inevitably enter a new normal under all emissions scenarios, this was not the case at seasonal and regional levels. Researchers found that with prompt action to reduce greenhouse gases, a new normal might never occur in the 21^st century at regional levels during the southern hemisphere summer and northern hemisphere winter.

Water Found On Metallic Asteroid

Scientists have detected the presence of water on Psycho, a largest metallic asteroid in our solar system and the target of a proposed NASA mission. New observations from the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii show evidence of water or hydroxyl on its surface. While the source of these molecules on Psycho remains a mystery, Joshua Emery, from the University of Tennessee, said that water-rich minerals detected on the asteroid might have been delivered by carbonaceous asteroids that impacted Psyche in the distant past.

A Battery Made From Junkyard Metal

Researchers have developed a new high-performance, grid-scale battery made from metal scrap and common household chemicals. The battery, which is the size of a pill bottle, can withstand the equivalent of 13 years of daily charging and discharging while retaining 90% of its capacity. Researcher said that the battery was powerful and easy to build. Researchers were inspired from an ancient technology called the Baghdad Battery, which dates to the first century BC. It consisted of a terracotta pot, a copper sheet and an iron rod along with some trace chemicals that could have been an electrolyte. The team soaked metal in a jar with a solution of water and salt. They then applied a voltage to induce a process called anodisation, which restructures the nanoscopic composition of a metal. That exposes the metal’s interior surface and makes it more receptive to storing and releasing energy. Researchers placed a barrier between the two pieces of metal and submerged it in an electrolyte solution made from water and potassium hydroxide. When connected by wires to a device that generated a current, their contraption worked like a car battery.

Ebola Virus Mutated To Better Infect Humans

The Ebola virus may have adapted to better infect human cells, say scientists who identified mutations in the deadly virus that developed during the recent epidemic in West Africa. More than 28,000 people have been infected with the virus and more than 11,000 people died from the disease. To study whether the virus might have changed genetically in response to infection of such large numbers of people, the researchers used Ebola virus gnomic sequences to track virus mutations. They found that mutations of the gene that encodes the Ebola virus glycol-protein increased the virus’ ability to infect cells of humans and other primates. Ebola virus circulated in an unknown animal reservoir and rarely crosses over into people. When the virus does cross over, the effect has been devastating to those people who are infected. Until recently, the human diseases outbreaks have been short lived, and the virus has had little opportunity to adapt genetically to the human host. By increasing infectivity in human cells, it is possible that these mutations increased Ebola virus spread during the outbreak.