Catastrophe

Native to the eastern U.S., Carolina azolla holds excellent potential for use as a fast-growing, short-season crop that requires minimal inputs, upkeep, and processing, according to Penn State researchers. The plant — sometimes referred to as mosquito fern, fairy moss, and water fern — could be used to increase the food supply. Credit: Penn StateThe rapidly expanding aquatic fern possesses the nutritional profile necessary to act as a crucial food source in post-disaster scenarios and could be relevant now.An…

Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Preview | Tagged: PenguinWill Penguin #7 reveal Cobblepot's master plan or just another night of bat-futility? Find out in this week's icy showdown.Published Sun, 25 Feb 2024 13:26:08 -0600 by Jude Terror | Article Summary Penguin #7 drops on Tuesday, February 27th, teasing a Cobblepot showdown. Readers will witness Cobblepot's strategic play in battling the Dark Knight. The issue explores the evolving dynamic between Penguin and Batman. LOLtron malfunctions, teasing a…

This illustration depicts the aftermath of a collision between two giant exoplanets. What remains is a hot, molten planetary core and a swirling, glowing cloud of dust and debris. Credit: Mark A. GarlickResearchers have discovered evidence of a colossal exoplanet collision, marked by a glowing cloud of gas and dust, through observations of a young star’s unusual brightness fluctuations.A cosmic cloud, glowing with an unusual luminosity, has unveiled the aftermath of a cataclysmic collision in the cosmos. This discovery…

Five years and 2,500 miles apart, fires devastated thriving communities — and major U.S. utility companies stood at the center of the infernos.It's a story increasingly familiar in the energy industry: Some utility companies don't properly assess the risks wildfires pose to their operations. A failure to mitigate these risks can have disastrous consequences for both fire victims and utility investors.Through interviews with experts and a review of public records, CNBC found evidence of safety shortcomings in the utility…

Linear, planar and cluster conformations for colloids in a vesicle. Experimental images obtained through a combination of bright-field and confocal microscopy, along with simulation snapshots, representing cluster, plate, and linear configurations. The insets provide schematic representations of the cluster arrangement observed in experiments. The scale bars in all experimental images are 5 μm. Credit: Nature Communications (2023). DOI:…

Leading scientists propose a crucial shift in global governance to mitigate the environmental impact of rapid urban expansion. They suggest a new global advisory system, akin to the IPCC, to guide sustainable urban development and protect Earth’s ecosystems. This initiative aims to fill a critical gap in current policymaking and is supported by the UKRI PEAK program. Credit: SciTechDaily.comLeading experts in science are urgently advocating for a significant transformation in global governance to safeguard the future of…

Once every year, a select group of nuclear, climate and technology experts assemble to determine where to place the hands of the Doomsday Clock. Presented by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock is a visual metaphor for humanity's proximity to catastrophe. It measures our collective peril in minutes and seconds to midnight, and we don't want to strike 12. In 2023, the expert group brought the clock the closest it has ever been to midnight: 90 seconds. On January 23 2024, the Doomsday Clock was…

AI Roundup: Several notable developments took place in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) today, January 4. Microsoft launched the Copilot key, a key that can summon Microsoft's AI chatbot at just a press of a button. Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday said that AI will be one of the two key issues for Italy during its one-year presidency of the G7. Nearly 58 pct of the researchers think that AI could have catastrophic effects, according to a new survey. All this, and more in today's AI…

CLIMATEWIRE | The melting Greenland ice sheet is the single largest contributor to global sea-level rise — and some experts are warning it could soon cross the threshold into a slow but irreversible death spiral.A sweeping new scientific report, with contributions from more than 200 researchers, finds that continued warming could trigger not only the collapse of the Greenland ice sheet but a wide variety of tipping points in the Earth's climate system. Once crossed, those thresholds would have unstoppable…

Cyber catastrophe bonds may be about to move out of the shadows of private deal-making and into the public debt markets.So-called cat bonds, which farm out hard-to-insure risks to capital market investors in exchange for double-digit returns, have typically been built around natural disasters such as hurricanes. But as the potential fallout of business-halting cyberattacks becomes too big to insure, issuers are seizing the moment.  Beazley Plc, which owns specialist insurers across Europe and the US, is exploring a…