Six Billion People going about their everyday lives are pushing the Earth to its sustainable limits in several biophysical thresholds, some already crossed, that are causing environmental collapse.
Biophysical Thresholds
Credit: Nature
President Obama is calling on the countries of the world to end fossil fuel subsidies, of which America’s federal government has given $72 billion to the fossil fuel industry between 2002 and 2008.
While it’s true that species can lose adaptations, like walking on land, flight, or big brains, it’s not true that evolution can run in reverse as computer simulations find that protein interactions between genes are too complex to rearrange into previous forms without unexpected mutations screwing things up.
Saturn’s rings are rippled and mountainous in some regions the recent Saturn equinox has revealed.
The fungus devastating frog populations in Central America is worse than previously thought, wiping out biodiversity in the species and leaving homogenized communities in its wake.
Hemiphractus fasciatus
(Species victim of fungus)
Credit: Smithsonian National Zoo
Teens with a specific mutation in the COMT gene, where they have two copies of Met-158, tend to have better working memory and higher verbal IQs, but they also have higher anxiety, which makes them bomb on standard tests.
With 68 of the 72 people older than 110 (supercentenarians) being women, it begs the question: what makes them so special?
It’s a totally speculative idea right now, but gamma ray bursts may be the result of black holes falling into stars and devouring them from the inside.
They Might Be Giants: How Many Planets?
