The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
11-01-2021
A Disturbance in the Field
A Disturbance in the Field
By Dr. Amira Val Baker, Resonance Science Foundation Research Scientist
The Earth’s magnetic field appears to be shifting and geologists don’t know why.
Like most spinning systems, such as stars and planets, the Earth’s magnetic field is assumed to be generated through the motion of electrically conducting fluids – such as a liquid iron core as is thought to be the case for the Earth. All being well, in a perfect idealized ‘physics’ world, the magnetic field would align with the axis of spin. However, the reality is that the Earth’s magnetic field is aligned at an 11-degree angle to the spin axis, hovering somewhere over Canada. The exact location is variable and over the last 180 years the magnetic north pole has been migrating northwestward with movements of up to 25 miles per year.
Variation of the poles is normal and, in some cases, can result in complete reversal of the poles. This can be seen in the magnetic fingerprints stored in ancient rocks, which show that the poles have flipped every 200,000 to 300,00 years for the last 20 million years. The last flip occurred around 780,000 years ago so some say we are well over due for a flip! If a flip did occur, then our north compass would point towards the south pole and vice versa. This could result in some confusion, especially for animals with internal compasses, such as birds. As well, when a flip has occurred in the past it has been associated with a temporary weakening of the field, which would remove the capabilities of Earth’s protective shield exposing us to increased levels of radiation. Read more here.
Understanding the magnetic field in all its complexities has been progressing with the continuous development of computer simulations – however it still has a long way to go in furthering our understanding and reaching a satisfactory predictive model.
The World Magnetic Model (WMM) utilizes these computer simulations to spatially represent the Earth’s magnetic field. All modern navigation systems rely on it – from the systems that steer ships at sea to Google maps on smart phones. Its accuracy is paramount and is therefore updated every 5 years to account for the latest variations. The next update was scheduled for 2020, however, recently the magnetic field has been changing so rapidly and erratically that it has to be updated now – with the update set for the end of this month!
In the unified physics perspective all fields and forces are the result of a fundamental toroidal dynamic. The magnitude of the force and the associated effects of the field will depend on the characteristics of the system and will thus be of varying significance. The Earth is spinning and will therefore have a magnetic field which can be measured in terms of the exerted torque. Typically, the magnetic field will be aligned with the spin axis of the planet or spinning system. However, both internal disturbances and/or external perturbations could affect both the local and global symmetry and overall alignment, which is what we could be experiencing now. Maybe the unified physics approach can help shed some light on these complexities. Watch this space!
From the “This is probably not a good thing but aren’t they cute?” files comes news out of Africa of the discoveries of two dwarf giraffes – short-legged males half the size of normal giraffes. Conservationists found the first in a national park in Uganda in 2015 and the second on a private farm in Namibia in 2018. Their discoveries have been kept quiet to protect the unusual creatures, but Michael Brown, a conservation science fellow with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute who discovered the Ugandan dwarf, recently let the tiny giraffes out of their big bags with a paper in the journal BMC Research Noteson the condition both suffer from – skeletal dysplasia.
“Skeletal dysplasias, cartilaginous or skeletal disorders that sometimes result in abnormal bone development, are seldom reported in free-ranging wild animals. Here, we use photogrammetry and comparative morphometric analyses to describe cases of abnormal appendicular skeletal proportions of free-ranging giraffe in two geographically distinct taxa: a Nubian giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis camelopardalis) in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda and an Angolan giraffe (Giraffa giraffa angolensis) on a private farm in central Namibia.”
Normal baby giraffes seen here) have the same proportions as adults.
While they’re both giraffes (photos here), Brown points out that they represent different subspecies (there are nine subspecies of giraffes) – the Nubian giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis camelopardalis) is found in Uganda, Kenya, eastern South Sudan and southwestern Ethiopia, while the Angolan giraffe (Giraffa giraffa angolensis) roams northern Namibia, southwestern Zambia, Botswana, and western Zimbabwe. While normally reaching 18.7 ft. (5.7 m) in height, Uganda’s “Gimli” (named for the dwarf in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy – did you really need to be told?) is only 9-foot-4-inches (2.8 m), while Namibia’s Nigel is only 8-1/2 feet tall (2.6). As The New York Times reports, the giraffes have seemingly normal necks but extremely short legs, making them look like normal giraffe bodies on horse legs.
“It’s easy to imagine how this might make them more susceptible to predation since they lack the ability to effectively run and kick, which are two of the giraffe’s most effective anti-predator tactics. Additionally, given the mechanics of giraffe mating, I’d speculate that for both of these giraffes, mating would be physically challenging.”
Cute but not exactly conducive to survival in the wild or creating future generations of Gimli and Nigel juniors, says Dr. Brown. For one thing, since they’re both males, they would have to attempt to mate with females nearly double their height – a feat that would get millions of views on YouTube but not much, if any, success. Besides, giraffes in general aren’t exactly doing well as a species and even the fittest, tallest and fastest are still having a tough time outrunning their biggest enemy – humans.
A look at how big normal giraffes really are.
“Although seldomly observed in wild animals, cases of skeletal dysplasia in captive animals have been associated with inbreeding and a lack of genetic diversity.”
Brown and his colleagues could not determine the cause of Gimli’s and Nigel’s dwarfism, so they’ve been trying to monitor them to look for clues. That has proven to be difficult – it’s tough to track little giraffes. While Nigel was seen in July 2020, Gimli has been missing since March 2017. Brown hopes that both giraffes will show up again soon so he can “get some interesting stories and neat little wrinkles about how animals that have these types of conditions cope with changing environments.”
Let’s hope they’re not just coping but thriving and that it’s not our environment itself that caused their skeletal dysplasia.
2020’s science superlatives include the oldest, highest and grossest discoveries
2020’s science superlatives include the oldest, highest and grossest discoveries
The earliest known modern bird and other record-breaking animals are among the highlights
Vertebrate paleontologist Daniel Field of the University of Cambridge holds a 3-D printed skull of Asteriornis maastrichtensis, also known as the “Wonderchicken,” which lived nearly 67 million years ago and is the earliest known modern bird.
From the biggest merger of black holes to the world’s oldest string — fashioned by Neandertals, no less — discoveries in 2020 set new records that amazed and inspired.
1. Highest-temperature superconductor
After more than a century’s wait, scientists have found the first superconductor that works near room temperature. Superconducting up to about 15° Celsius (59° Fahrenheit), it’s made by squeezing carbon, hydrogen and sulfur between two diamonds and zapping the compound with a laser (SN: 10/14/20). The new material allows current to flow without any energy loss, but only at high pressures, which means practical applications are still a distant vision.
To make the first superconductor that works near room temperature, physicists squeezed to high pressure a material between the tips of two diamonds.ADAM FENSTER
2. Oldest, biggest Maya monument
Underneath a previously unexplored site in Mexico called Aguada Fénix, archaeologists uncovered an enormous raised ceremonial structure (SN: 6/3/20). Built about 3,000 years ago and featuring a 1,400-meter-long rectangular plateau with a platform longer than four American football fields, the discovery shows that the Maya civilization built big from its beginnings.
The ancient Maya site of Aguada Fénix, shown in this 3-D rendering, had a ceremonial plateau with a platform and mound in its center.TAKESHI INOMATA
3. Best evidence for anyons
Theoretical physicists have long predicted the existence of anyons, a type of bizarre quasiparticle resulting from the movements of electrons that together behave as a particle. In a mind-twisting discovery, physicists braided anyons, which exist only in two dimensions, by looping them around one another within complex layers of materials (SN: 7/9/20). The resulting disturbances observed in the 2-D sheets of material suggest that the quasiparticles are real.
4. Earliest modern bird
The nearly 67-million-year-old fossilized “Wonderchicken” (also known as Asteriornis maastrichtensis) is the oldest modern bird ever found, meaning that its descendants survived the asteroid impact that wiped out nonavian dinosaurs and led to the birds we see today (SN: 3/18/20). Wonderchicken did indeed look something like a chicken, if it were crossed with a duck and shrunk to the size of a quail.
5. Grossest discovery
For the first time, researchers observed a snake gnawing a hole in a toad’s belly, slithering inside and gorging on the innards — all while the toad was alive (SN: 10/2/20). The snake may have been avoiding poison that the toad releases from its neck and back, or finding a way to eat a meal too big to swallow whole.
After chewing a hole into the belly of a toxic toad, a small-banded kukri snake shoved its head inside to eat.WINAI SUTHANTHANGJAI, H. BRINGSØE ET AL/HERPETOZOA 2020
6. Oldest string
Not only was this scrap of cord handmade more than 40,000 years ago, but the hands that made it belonged to Neandertals, close human relatives who don’t often get props for creativity. The string, made from bark fibers, was found clinging to an ancient tool discovered in France (SN:4/9/20).
7. Biggest black hole merger
A detection of gravitational waves from two colliding black holes led to a bevy of records (SN: 9/2/20). It’s the first definitive evidence that midsize black holes — those with a mass between 100 and 100,000 times that of the sun — exist. The resulting merger is the most massive spotted so far using gravitational waves, as well as the farthest (17 billion light-years from Earth) and the most energetic: It radiated the equivalent in energy of about eight times the sun’s mass.
Two black holes orbited each another, sending out ripples of gravitational waves (illustrated in blue and pink in this computer simulation) before merging to form the first definitive example of a midsize black hole.DEBORAH FERGUSON, KARAN JANI, DEIRDRE SHOEMAKER, PABLO LAGUNA/GEORGIA TECH, MAYA COLLABORATION
8. Record-breaking animals
This year saw several record-breaking animal achievements, from the highest-living mammal — a yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse found 6,739 meters above sea level in South America (SN: 7/29/20) — to the longest dive by a marine mammal, a nearly four-hour plunge by a Cuvier’s beaked whale (SN: 9/23/20). There was also the coldest bird, the black metaltail hummingbird, which chills to about 3° Celsius (37° Fahrenheit) overnight to conserve energy (SN: 9/8/20).
Researchers captured a yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse (Phyllotis xanthopygus rupestris) at a record altitude of 6,739 meters, or 22,100 feet, above sea level. Jay Storz, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and mountaineer Mario Pérez Mamani discovered the animal at the summit of Volcán Llullaillaco, a dormant volcano on the border of Chile and Argentina.
Everyone needed a respite from 2020, and tales of discovery provided a happy distraction from the worries of the day. Here are a few reminders that we still live in a world full of wonders.
1. Flowers at the South Pole
Antarctica was once home to a diverse rainforest. The unearthing of traces of vegetation in 90-million-year-old sediments off the coast of West Antarctica shows just how radically different the planet was during the age of dinosaurs, with conifers, ferns and blooming flowers where an ice sheet sits today (SN: 4/1/20).
Roughly 90 million years ago, a diverse rainforest (shown in this artist’s reconstruction) flourished within about 1,000 kilometers of the South Pole.J. MCKAY/ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUTE (CC BY 4.0)
2. Life finds a way
Researchers are still identifying new species and cataloging the amazing diversity of life on Earth. This year saw the discovery that the sparkly “Elvis worm” of the deep sea is actually four different species (SN: 5/25/20). Other scientists found a bonanza of 10 new bird species and subspecies on remote Indonesian islands (SN: 1/9/20). And the first complete count of plant species on New Guinea revealed more than 13,600 species of vascular plants, the most of any island on Earth (SN: 8/18/20).
New Guinea’s impressive array of floral diversity includes this Syzygium plant, a member of the myrtle family.YEE WEN LOW, R. CÁMARA-LERET ET AL/NATURE 2020
3. Raining reptiles
During a cold snap in southern Florida, lizards started falling from trees, landing legs-up (SN: 10/30/20). The reptiles weren’t hurt, just so cold that they couldn’t move and lost their grip. Oddly, this may be good news for the six lizard species scientists examined. The ability to withstand temperatures down to about 5.5° Celsius may suggest some resilience to extreme weather caused by climate change.
This iguana fell out of a tree in Key Biscayne, Fla., after a cold snap in January. Scientists have learned that such lizards are more tolerant of the cold than previously thought.BRETT PIERCE
4. Super chill
Hot water can sometimes freeze more quickly than cold, a baffling phenomenon called the Mpemba effect. Scientists couldn’t explain it — and weren’t sure it was even real. Now researchers have demonstrated the bizarre effect for the first time in the laboratory by cooling glass beads as a proxy for the more complex freezing process of water. In some conditions, the researchers say, materials can take a cooling “shortcut” that allows warmer objects to cool faster than colder ones (SN: 8/7/20).
Astronomers have found the edges of the Milky Way, for the first time showing its enormous span and potentially helping to gauge its heft. Our home galaxy stretches almost 2 million light-years across, more than 15 times as wide as the Milky Way’s spiral disk of stars and planets (SN: 3/23/20). Beyond that disk lies a broad stretch of gas surrounded by a vast halo of invisible dark matter.
The vastness of the Milky Way (shown in a gamma-ray image) seems almost immeasurable, but this year, astronomers put limits on our home galaxy’s bounds.FERMI LAT COLLABORATION/DOE AND NASA
5. Go fly a snake
Paradise tree snakes can fling themselves 10 meters or more through the air, and engineers have now figured out how they stay aloft. Once the snakes are in the air, they undulate both side to side and up and down, giving them the stability needed to glide (SN: 6/29/20).
Scientists captured the undulating motion of paradise tree snakes as they glide through the sky. A computer simulation based on high-speed video shows that the undulation is necessary for stable flight.
6. Floats our boat
Here was a chance to witness the seemingly impossible: tiny toy boats floating along both the top and bottom of a levitating liquid. Physicists made this magic happen by shaking a container of liquid, thus keeping a fluid layer aloft above a layer of air and allowing the inverted flotation (SN: 9/2/20).
Physicists knew it was possible to keep a layer of liquid levitated over a cushion of air by vigorously shaking the layers up and down in a container. But new lab experiments have revealed a surprising effect of that antigravity trick. Toy boats and other objects are able to float along the bottom surface of a levitated liquid as well as its top.
7. Will to survive
One inspiring creature just refused to accept being eaten. The Regimbartia attenuata water beetle is the first prey known to survive a trip through a frog’s entire digestive system, not just by taking a ride (like the fish eggs found this year to survive ducks’ digestive systems) but by actively escaping through the back door (SN: 8/3/20; SN: 6/29/20).
About two hours before this video begins, this pond frog (Pelophylax nigromaculatus) ate a water beetle (Regimbartia attenuata). After traversing the digestive tract, the beetle emerges from the back end of the amphibian, alive. It’s the first documented example of prey actively escaping a predator through the digestive system.
8. Everybody smile
From grins to grimaces, facial expressions may be universal across human cultures, and from ancient times to the modern day. Just by looking at the faces of sculptures crafted between 3,500 and 600 years ago, without the context of the rest of the sculpture, present-day people correctly interpreted expressions such as anger in depictions of combat and pain in sculptures of people being tortured (SN: 8/19/20).
This ancient sculpture of a beaming Maya woman holding a child was among the artworks included in a study of universal facial expressionsPRINCETON UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM 2003-26, GIFT OF G.G. GRIFFIN
9. Meet PigeonBot
A robotic bird made with real pigeon feathers can change the shape of its wings by fanning its feathers out or gathering them in, making for more birdlike flight. Using the robot, scientists discovered that a bird can steer into a turn by bending just one “finger” on one of its wings (SN: 1/16/20).
A robotic pigeon that can change its wing shape like a real bird paves the way for creating more agile aircraft, and offers a new way to study bird flight.
10. It’s alive!
Putting Rip Van Winkle to shame, microbes that had been buried in seafloor sediments for more than 100 million years revived and multiplied. All the microbes needed was food to pull them from their dormant state (SN: 7/28/20).
Seafloor sediment from beneath the Pacific Ocean contains still-living microbes (green in this microscopy image) that are more than 100 million years old.JAMSTEC
How life originated on Earth continues to fascinate scientists, but it's not easy peering back billions of years into the past. Now, evidence is growing for a relatively new hypothesis of how life began: with a very precise mix of RNA and DNA.
RNA and DNA both determine the genetic make-up of all biological life, with DNA acting as a genetic blueprint and RNA as a blueprint reader or decoder. For a long time, it was thought that RNA developed on Earth first, with DNA evolving afterwards – but mounting evidence suggests they may have emerged at the same time and both been involved in kickstarting life on the planet.
The latest study to back up this idea explains how the simple compound diamidophosphate (DAP) – which may have predated life on Earth – can knit together DNA building blocks called deoxynucleosides into basic DNA strands.
"This finding is an important step toward the development of a detailed chemical model of how the first life forms originated on Earth," says chemist Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy form Scripps Research in California.
The findings add credence to the idea that both DNA and RNA developed together from the same sort of chemical reactions at the beginning of life on our planet, and that the first self-replicating molecules could have been mixes of both these nucleic acids – not just RNA, as suggested in the more established 'RNA world' hypothesis.
One of the big issues with the idea that RNA alone gave rise to life on Earth is how RNA was able to go through the necessary self-replication process – RNA usually requires enzymes to split, which evolved after RNA.
From what we know so far, it seems that RNA had some kind of helping hand in engineering life – and the latest experiments show that DNA could well have been it, creating "chimeric" molecular strands that can separate more easily than RNA alone.
The series of lab tests run by the researchers simulated what might have happened before the beginnings of life on Earth, and show how DAP could have feasibly formed basic DNA in much the same way as RNA can come together from chemical building blocks.
"We found, to our surprise, that using DAP to react with deoxynucleosides works better when the deoxynucleosides are not all the same but are instead mixes of different DNA letters such as A and T, or G and C, like real DNA," says chemical biologist Eddy Jiménez, from Scripps Research.
We may never know for sure whether DNA helped RNA to form the first lifeforms on our planet, considering this happened billions of years ago, but our understanding of these processes continues to develop.
The research isn't just useful in terms of how it relates to the origins of life, either – insight into the RNA-DNA relationship can have a whole host of applications in modern chemistry and biology.
"Now that we understand better how a primordial chemistry could have made the first RNAs and DNAs, we can start using it on mixes of ribonucleoside and deoxynucleoside building blocks to see what chimeric molecules are formed – and whether they can self-replicate and evolve," says Krishnamurthy.
Humans often like to relish the fact that they’re the most intelligent creatures in the animal kingdom. Sure, a generous brain-to-body-mass ratio can be a nice ego boost, but let’s not kid ourselves. After all, there are birds that act more reasonably and in cleverer ways than some humans whom I know personally. That may sound like an exaggeration, but wait until you learn what corvids, particularly crows and ravens, are capable of pulling off.
Crows and ravens may look very similar to the untrained eye, but their appearance and behavior clearly distinguish them from one another once you know where to look.
Compared to ravens, crows are less shiny and smaller. Crows also prefer to live in densely human-populated areas like urban landscapes, whereas ravens would much rather forage in wilder areas. However, if you really want to tell the two apart look at the bill and tail. Crows have smaller and flat bills, while those of ravens are bigger, more powerful and curved. Crow tails are fan-shaped while ravens have wedge-shaped ones.
Both birds are extremely intelligent for their body size, though, and extremely resourceful given they can only count on their bills to manipulate objects and the world around them. Yup, it’s easy to do smart things when you have opposable thumbs.
1. Crows and ravens use tools, but also make their own tools, sometimes using other tools they manufactured earlier
A crow using its tool to stir out some food. Image credits: James St. Clair.
You can tell right away that a species is capable of complex cognitive abilities when it uses tools. Corvids not only know how to employ tools, but they also make their own.
Scottish researchers at the University of St Andrews observed New Caledonian crows — birds which live on the remote tropical island of New Caledonia in the South Pacific — fashioning hooked twigs to stir beetles from their holes.
“It’s a painstaking sequence of behaviours,” explains lead author Dr. James St Clair, from the School of Biology, University of St Andrews. “Crows seek out particular plant species, harvest a forked twig, and then – firmly holding it underfoot – carve, nibble and peel its tip, until it has a neat little hook.”
According to Clair and colleagues, hooked tools yield between 2 and 10 times more food than a straight twig. That’s a huge difference, and the crows likely recognized the improved yield.
In another mind-boggling example, researchers have witnessed not one, but two crows inserting sticks into objects to allow for easier transport. Some of these objects were too cumbersome to carry by beak alone, which is telling of the birds’ ingenuity.
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden witnessed two crows inserting sticks into objects that were too cumbersome to lift by beak alone. During four instances, the crows slipped a wooden stick inside a metal nut or into the hole of a large wooden ball. In all instances, both stick (carrying tool) and the hooked objects were flown away by the crows, the researchers reported in the journal Animal Cognition.
In a 2002 study, researchers followed a captive New Caledonian crow called Betty that took a piece of wire, bent it into a hook, then retrieved some food that was otherwise out of reach. Betty used the wire after another crow had taken all the available hooks.
Alex Taylor, a researcher at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, believes that the birds are using a sort of “mental template matching,” forming a mental picture of the tool-making process they’d seen in another bird, then copying it.
This is quite akin to how humans learn and pass on new skills between one another — through cultural transmission.
“Under the mental template matching hypothesis, New Caledonian crow tool designs could be passed on to subsequent generations if an individual used or observed the products of tool manufacture (such as their parents’ tools), formed a mental template of this type of tool design (a mental representation of some or all of the tool’s properties), and then reproduced this template in their own manufacture,” Taylor and colleagues wrote in a study published Scientific Reports.
This New Caledonian crow made a hook out of a paper card from scratch in order to receive a reward.
Credit: Sarah Jelbert
During one logic test, ravens had to reach a hanging piece of food by pulling up a string, anchoring it with its claw, and repeating until the food was within reach. Many ravens got the food on the first try, some within 30 seconds. In the wild, ravens have been seen pushing rocks towards people to keep them from climbing to their nests, stealing fish by pulling a fisherman’s line out of holes in the ice, imitating wolves in order to attract them, and playing dead beside a beaver carcass to scare other ravens away from a delicious feast.
2. Crows remember and respond to people’s faces (and can hold a grudge)
Most birds or animals scatter when a human is approaching no matter what. However, crows only fly away when people are actually heading their away, as opposed to just strolling past them. But there’s much more to it than meets the eye.
A study published in the journal Ethology, led by Barbara Clucas of Humboldt State University, revealed new dimensions in the crow’s social reasoning. Namely, the researchers found that crows can recognize, respond and adapt their behavior to specific human faces.
In one of their experiments, the researchers separated into two groups, each wearing a different type of mask. One of the groups would trap crows in the park, while the other would just pass crows by.
Five years later, the researchers returned to the park with their mask on. Lo and behold, birds present at the original trapping events remembered which masks corresponded to being captured—and they passed this information to their young and other crows. All the crows responded to the sight of a researcher wearing a trapping mask by immediately mobbing the individual and shrieking.
“It’s one thing to learn from one’s own experience and another to observe that happening to other individuals and infer it could happen to you,” John Marzluff of the University of Washington, a co-author of the paper explained.
Seeing crows communicate abstract information and symbols (the particular type of mask associated with trapping) to other crows that did not have first hand, affective information is truly impressive.
When the crows viewed human faces that they associated with threat or care, the birds had increased activity in the amygdala, thalamus, and brain stem—areas related to emotional processing and fear learning. In response to threatening faces, areas that regulate perception, attention, and fleeing also lit up. That’s quite similar to how humans process faces in the brain.
Corvids don’t just hold grudges, though. Researchers found that when they behaved fairly with crows, the birds would bring back shiny objects as a token of gratitude for being nice to them.
3. Ravens use gestures to point out things and communicate
A male raven showing off an object in his beak to his peers. Typically, ravens will point out objects to females. Credit: Thomas Bugnyar.
In a 2011 study, German and Austrian researchers described how ravens would use their beaks in the same manner a human might use their hands to point out objects such as moss, stones, and twigs.
Besides gesturing, the ravens also interacted with their peers using various objects, touching or clasping their bills together, or by manipulating the item together.
“Most exciting is how a species, which does not represent the prototype of a ‘gesturer’ because it has wings instead of hands, a strong beak and can fly, makes use of very sophisticated nonvocal signals,” Simone Pika of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Munich, Germany told LiveScience.
Pika believes that ravens could offer a unique glimpse into the origin of gestures in humans.
“Gesture studies have too long focused on communicative skills of primates only. The mystery of the origins of human language, however, can only be solved if we look at the bigger picture and also consider the complexity of the communication systems of other animal groups,” the researcher said.
4. Crows understand water displacement better than some children
In Aesop’s famous fable, The Crow and the Pitcher, a thirsty crow finds a pitcher with a bit of water left in the bottom. Alas, the bird’s beak isn’t long enough to reach it. But the clever crow is steadfast and drops stones into the pitcher until the water comes to it.
Turns out this is no fiction. A 2014 study showed that crows understand water displacement at the level of a 5- to 7-year-old-child. For instance, when researchers put pieces of meat floating in a long narrow glass, the crows figured out that they could add objects to the container to raise the water level and bring the treat to them. You can see them in action in the video below.
5. Ravens can tell when people are spying on them (and can get paranoid)
When people suspect they’re being watched, they tend to be very self-conscious. And if they don’t want to be seen, they will minimize their movements. This level of abstraction was thought to be unique to humans, but a 2014 study published in Nature Communicationsshowed the ravens are also aware when they’re being spied upon.
During one experiment, ravens were placed in adjacent tiny rooms, separated by a window. Initially, the window was left uncovered so each raven could see where its neighbor was hiding food. Later, the window was covered, leaving only a small peephole, which the ravens quickly learned they could use to see but also be seen through.
The researchers played an audible track from one of the cages which sounded like a raven was in the process of hiding food (scratching, pecking, dirt being displaced). Only when the peephole was left uncovered did the neighboring raven bother to take extra care in hiding its food. The bird hurried to hide the food and once the audio track stopped playing, the raven returned to the hiding spot to improve the concealment. If the peephole was closed the raven was careless, suggesting it understood that no one could track its actions.
6. Crows can solve highly complex puzzles
BBC Two journalists put corvid intelligence to the ultimate test by setting up the most complex animal puzzle ever. Captured wild crows completed eight individual steps, which they had to solve in a specific order, to gain access to a food reward. To do so, the crows had to collect tools and interact with puzzles to move to the next step. Watch the video of the experiment — it’s crazy good.
7. Crows hitch rides on eagles
Wildlife photographer Phoo Chan caught the shot of a lifetime: a crow riding atop a bald eagle. Although the scene only lasted for a few seconds, it speaks volumes about crows’ fearsomeness, even when faced with a much larger predator.
It might not be the smartest move, but it sure is freaking amazing.
One charity said: ‘Babies are being born pre-polluted.’
Photograph: Zffoto/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Microplastic particles have been revealed in the placentas of unborn babies for the first time, which the researchers said was “a matter of great concern”.
The health impact of microplastics in the body is as yet unknown. But the scientists said they could carry chemicals that could cause long-term damage or upset the foetus’s developing immune system. The particles are likely to have been consumed or breathed in by the mothers.
The particles were found in the placentas from four healthy women who had normal pregnancies and births. Microplastics were detected on both the foetal and maternal sides of the placenta and in the membrane within which the foetus develops.
A dozen plastic particles were found. Only about 4% of each placenta was analysed, however, suggesting the total number of microplastics was much higher. All the particles analysed were plastics that had been dyed blue, red, orange or pink and may have originally come from packaging, paints or cosmetics and personal care products.
The microplastics were mostly 10 microns in size (0.01mm), meaning they are small enough to be carried in the bloodstream. The particles may have entered the babies’ bodies, but the researchers were unable to assess this.
“It is like having a cyborg baby: no longer composed only of human cells, but a mixture of biological and inorganic entities,” said Antonio Ragusa, director of obstetrics and gynaecology at the San Giovanni Calibita Fatebenefratelli hospital in Rome, and who led the study. “The mothers were shocked.”
In the study, published in the journal Environment International, the researchers concluded: “Due to the crucial role of placenta in supporting the foetus’s development and in acting as an interface with the external environment, the presence of potentially harmful plastic particles is a matter of great concern. Further studies need to be performed to assess if the presence of microplastics may trigger immune responses or may lead to the release of toxic contaminants, resulting in harm.”
The potential effects of microplastics on foetuses include reduced foetal growth, they said. The particles were not found in placentas from two other women in the study, which may be the result of different physiology, diet or lifestyle, the scientists said.
Microplastics pollution has reached every part of the planet, from the summit of Mount Everest to the deepest oceans. People are already known to consume the tiny particles via food and water, and to breathe them in.
Their effect in the body is unknown but scientists say there is an urgent need to assess the issue, particularly for infants. In October, scientists revealed that babies fed formula milk in plastic bottles are swallowing millions of particles a day. In 2019, researchers reported the discovery of air pollution particles on the foetal side of placentas, indicating that unborn babies are also exposed to the dirty air produced by motor traffic and fossil fuel burning.
The Italian researchers used a plastic-free protocol to deliver the babies in order to prevent any contamination of the placentas. Obstetricians and midwives used cotton gloves to assist the women in labour and only cotton towels were used in the delivery room.
Andrew Shennan, professor of obstetrics at King’s College London, told the Daily Mail it was reassuring that the babies in the study had normal births but “it is obviously preferable not to have foreign bodies while the baby is developing”.
Elizabeth Salter Green, at the chemicals charity Chem Trust, said: “Babies are being born pre-polluted. The study was very small but nevertheless flags a very worrying concern.”
A separate recent study showed that nanoparticles of plastic inhaled by pregnant laboratory rats were detected in the liver, lungs, heart, kidney, and brain of their foetuses.
IMAGE: ARTISTIC DIAGRAM OF THE SUBSEA AND COASTAL PERMAFROST ECOSYSTEMS, EMPHASIZING GREENHOUSE GAS PRODUCTION AND RELEASE. CREDIT: VICTOR OLEG LESHYK AT NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY
New research suggests slow but substantial greenhouse gas release from submarine permafrost
In the far north, the swelling Arctic Ocean inundated vast swaths of coastal tundra and steppe ecosystems. Though the ocean water was only a few degrees above freezing, it started to thaw the permafrost beneath it, exposing billions of tons of organic matter to microbial breakdown. The decomposing organic matter began producing CO2 and CH4, two of the most important greenhouse gases.
Though researchers have been studying degrading subsea permafrost for decades, difficulty collecting measurements and sharing data across international and disciplinary divides have prevented an overall estimate of the amount of carbon and the rate of release. A new study, led by Ph.D. candidate Sara Sayedi and senior researcher Dr. Ben Abbott at Brigham Young University (BYU) published in IOP Publishing journal Environmental Research Letters, sheds light on the subsea permafrost climate feedback, generating the first estimates of circumarctic carbon stocks, greenhouse gas release, and possible future response of the subsea permafrost zone.
Sayedi and an international team of 25 permafrost researchers worked under the coordination of the Permafrost Carbon Network (PCN), which is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
The researchers combined findings from published and unpublished studies to estimate the size of the past and present subsea carbon stock and how much greenhouse gas it might produce over the next three centuries.Using a methodology called expert assessment, which combines multiple, independent plausible values, the researchers estimated that the subsea permafrost region currently traps 60 billion tons of methane and contains 560 billion tons of organic carbon in sediment and soil. For reference, humans have released a total of about 500 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. This makes the subsea permafrost carbon stock a potential giant ecosystem feedback to climate change.”Subsea permafrost is really unique because it is still responding to a dramatic climate transition from more than ten thousand years ago,” Sayedi said. “In some ways, it can give us a peek into the possible response of permafrost that is thawing today because of human activity.”
Estimates from Sayedi’s team suggest that subsea permafrost is already releasing substantial amounts of greenhouse gas. However, this release is mainly due to ancient climate change rather than current human activity. They estimate that subsea permafrost releases approximately 140 million tons of CO2 and 5.3 million tons of CH4 to the atmosphere each year. This is similar in magnitude to the overall greenhouse gas footprint of Spain.
The researchers found that if human-caused climate change continues, the release of CH4 and CO2 from subsea permafrost could increase substantially. However, this response is expected to occur over the next three centuries rather than abruptly. Researchers estimated that the amount of future greenhouse gas release from subsea permafrost depends directly on future human emissions. They found that under a business-as-usual scenario, warming subsea permafrost releases four times more additional CO2 and CH4 compared to when human emissions are reduced to keep warming less than 2°C.
“These results are important because they indicate a substantial but slow climate feedback,” Sayedi explained. “Some coverage of this region has suggested that human emissions could trigger catastrophic release of methane hydrates, but our study suggests a gradual increase over many decades.”
Even if this climate feedback is relatively gradual, the researchers point out that subsea permafrost is not included in any current climate agreements or greenhouse gas targets. Sayedi emphasized that there is still a large amount of uncertainty about subsea permafrost and that additional research is needed.
“Compared to how important subsea permafrost could be for future climate, we know shockingly little about this ecosystem,” Sayedi said. “We need more sediment and soil samples, as well as a better monitoring network to detect when greenhouse gas release responds to current warming and just how quickly this giant pool of carbon will wake from its frozen slumber.”
This research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and by BYU Graduate Studies.
Summary of the key scientific points:
Subsea permafrost has been thawing since the end of the last glacial period (~14,000 years ago) when it began to be inundated by the oceanµ
An international team of 25 permafrost researchers estimate that the subsea permafrost region currently traps 60 billion tons of methane and 560 billion tons of organic carbon in sediment and soil. However, the exact amount of these carbon stocks remains highly uncertain.
This carbon is already being released from the subsea permafrost region, though it remains unclear whether this is a natural response to deglaciation or if anthropogenic warming is accelerating greenhouse gas production and release.
The researchers estimate that currently, the subsea permafrost region releases approximately 140 million tons of CO2 and 5.3 million tons of CH4 to the atmosphere each year. This represents a small fraction of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions–approximately equal to the greenhouse gas footprint of Spain.
Experts predict a gradual increase in emissions from subsea permafrost over the next three hundred years rather than an abrupt release.
The amount of greenhouse gas increase depends on how much human emissions are reduced. Experts estimate that approximately ¾ of the extra subsea emissions can be avoided if humans actively reduce their emissions compared to a no mitigation scenario.
This climate feedback is still virtually absent from climate policy discussions, and more field observations are needed to better predict the future of this system.
Quotes from other co-authors:
“I think there are three important messages from this study. First, subsea permafrost is probably not a climate time bomb on a hair trigger. Second, subsea permafrost is a potentially large climate feedback that needs to be considered in climate negotiations. Third, there is still a huge amount that we don’t know about this system. We really need additional research, including international collaboration across northern countries and research disciplines.”
Dr. Ben Abbott, senior researcher on the project, Brigham Young University
“This work demonstrates the power of science synthesis and networking by bringing together experts across a range of disciplines in order to assess our state of knowledge based on observations and models currently available. While scientific work will continue to be done to test these ideas, bringing knowledge together with this expert assessment provides an important baseline for shaping future research on subsea permafrost greenhouse gas emissions.”
Dr. Ted Schuur, Lead investigator of the Permafrost Carbon Network, Northern Arizona University
“This expert assessment is a crucial contribution to the scientific literature in advancing our knowledge on subsea permafrost and potential greenhouse gas emissions from this so far understudied pool. Bringing together scientists from multiple disciplines, institutions, and countries has made it possible to move beyond individual datapoints or studies providing a much more comprehensive estimate of subsea permafrost. ”
Dr. Christina Schädel, Co-Investigator of the Permafrost Carbon Network, Northern Arizona University
“I hope this study begins to unite the research community in submarine permafrost. Historically, it’s not only been a challenging location to do field work and make observations, but language barriers and other obstacles in accessibility to the existing observations and literature has challenged international scientific progress in this area.
“I’m optimistic that this study will shed light on the fact that submarine permafrost exists, and that people are studying its role in climate,” she said. “The size of the research community doesn’t necessarily reflect its importance in the climate system. The amount of carbon sequestered or associated with submarine permafrost is relevant when you compare it to the numbers of carbon in terrestrial permafrost and what’s in the atmosphere today. This is an example of a very large source of carbon that hasn’t been considered in climate predictions or agreements. And while it’s not a ticking time bomb, what is certain is that the choices we make today that influence anthropogenic climate change will determine the response of submarine permafrost carbon stocks far into the future.”
Dr. Jennifer Frederick, Sandia National laboratories
High resolution versions of the photos and illustrations are available at this link.
'VERGETEN' ONDERZEES PERMAFROST LIJKT EEN ENORME IMPACT OP ONS KLIMAAT TE GAAN HEBBEN
'VERGETEN' ONDERZEES PERMAFROST LIJKT EEN ENORME IMPACT OP ONS KLIMAAT TE GAAN HEBBEN
Vivian Lammerse
Het permafrost – dat momenteel nog aan het bijkomen is van het einde van de IJstijd – blijkt veel CO2 en methaan te herbergen.
Tegen het einde van de laatste ijstijd – zo’n 14.000 jaar geleden – overspoelde in het hoge noorden de aanzwellende Noordelijke IJszee grote delen van de kusttoendra. Hoewel het oceaanwater slechts een paar graden boven het vriespunt lag, begon het onderliggende permafrost te dooien. En die dooi is nog steeds gaande. Hierdoor worden er elk jaar miljarden tonnen CO2 en methaan de lucht in gepompt. En ondanks dat dit onderzeese permafrost een enorme impact op ons klimaat lijkt te hebben, is het niet opgenomen in klimaatakkoorden of klimaatdoelen.
Dooi Permafrost is een normaliter permanent bevroren laag aarde. Maar toen het onderzeese permafrost duizenden jaren geleden begon te dooien, werd het organische materiaal blootgesteld aan microbiële afbraak. De ontbindende organische stof begon CO2 en methaan te produceren; twee belangrijke broeikasgassen. Het wegsmelten van het onderzeese permafrost is dus een verontrustend proces. Want al die opgeslagen broeikasgassen worden naar de atmosfeer getransporteerd en leveren zo een belangrijke bijdrage aan de opwarming van de aarde. “Onderzees permafrost is echt uniek, omdat het nog steeds reageert op de klimaattransitie van meer dan tienduizend jaar geleden,” zegt onderzoeker Sara Sayedi. “In sommige opzichten kan het ons een kijkje geven in de mogelijke reactie van permafrost dat vandaag door menselijk toedoen ontdooit.”
Illustratie van het onderzeese permafrost en de manier waarop opgeslagen broeikasgassen vrijkomen.
Afbeelding: Original artwork created for this study by Victor Oleg Leshyk at Northern Arizona University
Hoewel onderzoekers al decennialang de teloorgang van onderzees permafrost bestuderen, is het nog niet zo gemakkelijk om betrouwbare metingen uit te voeren. Hierdoor weten we eigenlijk nog steeds niet precies hoeveel broeikasgassen er tijdens dit proces de lucht in worden gepompt. Ook weten we niet precies hoe snel dit gebeurt. En dus waagde een onderzoeksgroep in een studie, gepubliceerd in het vakblad Environmental Research Letters, opnieuw een poging. De onderzoekers combineerden de bevindingen van verschillende studies om zo de omvang van de onderzeese koolstofvoorraad uit het verleden en in het heden te schatten. Ook bestudeerden ze hoeveel broeikasgassen er nog in de komende drie eeuwen vrij zouden kunnen komen.
Broeikasgassen De resultaten zijn best zorgelijk. Want de onderzoekers schatten dat het sediment en de bodem in het betreffende onderzeese permafrostgebied momenteel zo’n 60 miljard ton methaan en 560 miljard ton CO2 vasthoudt. Voor je beeldvorming, de mensheid heeft sinds de industriële revolutie in totaal ongeveer 500 miljard ton CO2 in de atmosfeer gepompt. Wanneer alle broeikasgassen die het onderzeese permafrost herbergt een weg naar onze atmosfeer weten te vinden, zou dat dus een enorme impact hebben op ons mondiale klimaat.
Geen houden aan De vraag is in hoeverre we het proces nog kunnen stoppen. Want momenteel komt er al veel broeikasgas vrij. De onderzoekers schatten dat het onderzeese permafrost jaarlijks zo’n 140 miljoen ton CO2 en 5,3 miljoen ton methaan de atmosfeer in pompt. Dat is qua omvang vergelijkbaar met de totale uitstoot van Spanje. Maar dat is nog niet het enige. Want de onderzoekers ontdekten dat wanneer de door de mens veroorzaakte klimaatverandering aanhoudt, de afgifte van CO2 en methaan uit het onderzeese permafrost aanzienlijk zou kunnen toenemen. Die toename zal waarschijnlijk heel geleidelijk, verspreid over de komende driehonderd jaar, plaatsvinden.
Mensen De resultaten wijzen erop dat de hoeveelheid toekomstige uitstoot van broeikasgassen door onderzeese permafrost dus rechtstreeks afhangt van onze menselijke emissies. Als we niets doen om klimaatverandering een halt toe te roepen, zal er zo’n vier keer meer CO2 en methaan de atmosfeer weten te bereiken in vergelijking met wanneer de menselijke uitstoot wordt verminderd en de opwarming van de aarde onder de 2 graden Celsius wordt gehouden. Ondanks dat actie dus vereist is, lijken we het probleem van onderzees permafrost een beetje te zijn ‘vergeten’. Want geen enkel klimaatakkoord of klimaatdoel rept over dit onderzeese permafrost en de mogelijk grote bijdrage van de dooi aan de opwarming van de aarde.
Volgens de onderzoekers is het erg belangrijk dat we meer over dit onderzeese permafrost te weten komen. “Vergeleken met hoe belangrijk het zou kunnen zijn voor ons toekomstige klimaat, weten we eigenlijk schrikbarend weinig over dit ecosysteem,” concludeert Sayedi. “We hebben meer sediment- en bodemmonsters nodig, evenals betere metingen. Op die manier kunnen we begrijpen hoe de uitstoot van broeikasgassen reageert op de huidige opwarming en hoe snel deze gigantische opbergplaats van koolstof uit zijn bevroren slaap ontwaakt.”
BEVERS
Niet alleen onderzees permafrost dooit, ook het Noordpoolgebied wordt geteisterd door smeltend permafrost. En dat ligt niet alleen aan extreem weer. Zo blijkt uit een nieuwe studie dat ook bevers een vinger in de pap hebben. Hoe? Gewapend met hun scherpe tanden bouwen de bevers van struiken en bomen dammen, waardoor er kleine poeltjes ontstaan die uitgroeien tot nieuwe meren die soms wel een paar hectare omvatten. En dat gaat rap. In slechts vijf jaar tijd hebben bevers woonachtig in noordwest-Alaska 56 nieuwe meren gecreëerd. Ook al bestaande meren dijen door toedoen van de bever uit. En dat gaat ten koste van kwetsbaar permafrost. Het water is namelijk warmer dan de omringende grond. En dus kunnen deze meren en vijvers de dooi van permafrost versnellen. Meer weten? Lees hier verder!
The Melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet Could Lead to a Sea Level Rise of 7 Inches in 2100
The Melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet Could Lead to a Sea Level Rise of 7 Inches in 2100
A new study led by researchers from the ULiège Climatology Laboratory , applying the latest climate models, including the MAR – developed at ULiège – predicts a melting of the Greenland ice cap 60% greater than what was previously planned. Data that will be included in the next IPCC report. This study is published in Nature Communications.
Credit: University of Liege
The Greenland ice cap, the second in size after Antarctica, covers an area of 1.7 million square kilometers. Its total melting could cause a significant increase in the level of the oceans, which could reach 7 meters. If we are not there yet, the previous scenarios predicted by the climate models have however just been revised upwards, forecasting an increase in the level of the oceans that could reach 18 cm in 2100 ( compared to the 10 cm previously announced )just because of the increase in surface melt. As part of the next IPCC report (AR6) which will appear in 2022, ULiège’s climatology laboratory has been asked to apply, as part of the ISMIP6 project, the MAR climate model that it is developing to regionalize the old and new IPCC scenarios. The results obtained showed that for the same change in greenhouse gas concentrations, these new scenarios predict a 60% greater surface melt of the Greenland ice cap than previously estimated for the previous IPCC report (AR5, 2013). .
The ULiège MAR model was the first to demonstrate that the Greenland ice cap would melt more with a warming of the Arctic in summer. “While our MAR model suggested in 2100 a contribution of the surface melting of the Greenland ice cap to an increase in the oceans of around ten centimeters in the worst-case scenario (that is to say if nothing is changed) our habits), explains Stefan Hofer, researcher at the ULiège Climate Laboratory currently in post-doctorate at the University of Oslo, our new projections now suggest an increase of 18 cm “. As the new IPCC scenarios are based on models whose physics have been improved – in particular by integrating a better representation of clouds – and whose spatial resolution has been increased, these new projections should in theory be more robust and reliable.
The team from the Climatology laboratory ( SPHERES research unit / Faculty of Sciences ) at ULiège was the first to regionalize these scenarios on the Greenland ice cap. “It would now be interesting ,” continues Xavier Fettweis , FNRS qualified researcher and director of the Laboratory, ” to analyze how these future projections are sensitive to the MAR model that we are developing by regionalizing these scenarios with models other than the MAR as we do. have done on the present climate (GrSMBMIP) ” . This study will be carried out as part of the European PROTECT project(H2020) in which ULiège participates. The objective of this project is to assess and project changes in the Earth’s cryosphere, with fully quantified uncertainties, in order to produce robust global, regional and local projections of sea level rise over a series of time scales.
The data collected as part of the Katabata project - a project to measure the potential of katabatic winds from the south of Groenlad – launched last September by Xavier Fettweis and Damien Ernst ( Montefiore / Faculty of Applied Sciences ), will also help refine the models and in particular the modeling of winds in the MAR climate model. “Knowing that the wind influences the melting of the cap, it is important to have the most reliable models possible,” concludes Xavier Fettweis.
Evolution of the surface mass balance (snowfall – melting) with the old scenarios (cmip5) and the new ones (cmip6). The blue color indicates a mass loss in mm / year (eg 800 mm / year ~ the amount of rain in Brussels).
Credit: University of Liege
Contacts and sources:
University of Liege
Publication:
GrSMBMIP: intercomparison of the modelled 1980-2012 surface mass balance over the Greenland Ice Sheet.Fettweis et al. The Cryosphere, 2020 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20011-8
Greater Greenland Ice Sheet contribution to global sea level rise in CMIP6.Hofer, S., Lang, C., Amory, C. et al. Nat Commun, 2020 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20011-8
The threshold for dangerous global warming will likely be crossed between 2027 and 2042—a much narrower window than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's estimate of between now and 2052. In a study published in Climate Dynamics, researchers from McGill University introduce a new and more precise way to project the Earth's temperature. Based on historical data, it considerably reduces uncertainties compared to previous approaches.
Scientists have been making projections of future global warming using climate models for decades. These models play an important role in understanding the Earth's climate and how it will likely change. But how accurate are they?
Dealing with uncertainty
Climate models are mathematical simulations of different factors that interact to affect Earth's climate, such as the atmosphere, ocean, ice, land surface and the sun. While they are based on the best understanding of the Earth's systems available, when it comes to forecasting the future, uncertainties remain.
"Climate skeptics have argued that global warming projections are unreliable because they depend on faulty supercomputer models. While these criticisms are unwarranted, they underscore the need for independent and different approaches to predicting future warming," says co-author Bruno Tremblay, a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at McGill University.
Until now, wide ranges in overall temperature projections have made it difficult to pinpoint outcomes in different mitigation scenarios. For instance, if atmospheric CO2 concentrations are doubled, the General Circulation Models (GCMs) used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), predict a very likely global average temperature increase between 1.9 and 4.5C—a vast range covering moderate climate changes on the lower end, and catastrophic ones on the other.
A new approach
"Our new approach to projecting the Earth's temperature is based on historical climate data, rather than the theoretical relationships that are imperfectly captured by the GCMs. Our approach allows climate sensitivity and its uncertainty to be estimated from direct observations with few assumptions," says co-author Raphael Hebert, a former graduate researcher at McGill University, now working at the Alfred-Wegener-Institut in Potsdam, Germany.
In a study for Climate Dynamics, the researchers introduced the new Scaling Climate Response Function (SCRF) model to project the Earth's temperature to 2100. Grounded on historical data, it reduces prediction uncertainties by about half, compared to the approach currently used by the IPCC. In analyzing the results, the researchers found that the threshold for dangerous warming (+1.5C) will likely be crossed between 2027 and 2042. This is a much narrower window than GCMs estimates of between now and 2052. On average, the researchers also found that expected warming was a little lower, by about 10 to 15 percent. They also found, however, that the "very likely warming ranges" of the SCRF were within those of the GCMs, giving the latter support.
"Now that governments have finally decided to act on climate change, we must avoid situations where leaders can claim that even the weakest policies can avert dangerous consequences," says co-author Shaun Lovejoy, a professor in the Physics Department at McGill University. "With our new climate model and its next generation improvements, there's less wiggle room."
Raphaël Hébert et al, An observation-based scaling model for climate sensitivity estimates and global projections to 2100, Climate Dynamics (2020). DOI: 10.1007/s00382-020-05521-x
NOAA’s 2020 Arctic Report Card describes a region that is warming even more rapidly than scientists expected.
NOAA’s 15th annual Arctic Report Card, released December 8, 2020, catalogs the many ways that climate change has continued to disrupt the polar region this year, including the second-highest air temperatures and second-lowest summer sea ice, the loss of snow and extraordinary wildfires in northern Russia.
Rick Thoman, of the International Arctic Research Center, is one of three editors of this year’s report card. Thoman said in a statement:
Taken as a whole, the story is unambiguous. The transformation of the Arctic to a warmer, less frozen and biologically changed region is well underway.
First issued in 2006, the Arctic Report Card is a peer-reviewed compilation of observations and analyses of the current state of the Arctic environment from scientists and experts around the world. This year’s update consists of 16 essays by a team of 133 researchers from 15 different countries. Read the full 2020 Arctic Report Card.
NOAA listed some of this year’s significant findings:
The average annual land-surface air temperature in the Arctic measured between October 2019 and September 2020 was the second-warmest since record-keeping began in 1900, and was responsible for driving a cascade of impacts across Arctic ecosystems during the year. Nine of the past 10 years saw air temperatures at least 1 degree C (1.8 degrees F) above the 1981-2010 mean. Arctic temperatures for the past six years have all exceeded previous records.
Extremely high temperatures across Siberia during spring 2020 resulted in the lowest June snow extent across the Eurasian Arctic observed in the past 54 years.
The 2020 Arctic minimum sea ice extent reached in September was the second-lowest in the satellite record. Overall thickness of the sea ice cover is also decreasing as Arctic ice has transformed from an older, thicker, and stronger ice mass to a younger, thinner more fragile ice mass in the past decade.
The MOSAiC Expedition, the yearlong expedition based from the Polarstern icebreaker in the central Arctic Ocean, drifted much faster than anticipated through thinner ice than expected, experiencing sea ice dynamics that complicated the scientific mission.
Extreme wildfires in the Sakha Republic of northern Russia during 2020 coincided with unparalleled warm air temperatures and record snow loss in the region.
Pacific Arctic bowhead whales have rebounded in the past 30 years, due to increases in both local plankton blooms and transport of increased krill and other food sources northward through the Bering Strait, a signal of long-term warming in the Arctic Ocean.
Bottom line: NOAA’s 2020 Arctic Report Card catalogs the ways climate change has continued to disrupt the polar region this year, with the 2nd-highest air temperatures and 2nd-lowest summer sea ice on record, the loss of snow and extraordinary wildfires in northern Russia. Watch video highlights.
30,000 Quakes In 4 Months! Melting Antarctic Ice Heading To Planetary Disaster Of Epic Proportions! - Epic Economist Must Video
30,000 Quakes In 4 Months! Melting Antarctic Ice Heading To Planetary Disaster Of Epic Proportions! - Epic Economist Must Video
In a year devastated by natural disasters, the melting of Antarctic ice has been worrying the scientific community. NASA has recently discovered that under the continent of Antarctica, there is a mantle plume producing almost the same amount of heat as the Yellowstone supervolcano. Consequently, ice plates have been melting at an extraordinary pace and the results of it could generate an apocalyptic catastrophe all around the planet. That’s what we are going to discuss in this video.
It’s no news that 2020 has been marked by tragedies. So far we have had a health crisis that fast spread around the globe, taking millions of lives and harming millions of others. Floods, droughts, and pests decimated crops and created a worldwide food shortage of grains, also contributing to the break of food supply chains. And now, a recent report has featured warnings of researchers of the University of Chile that revealed more than than 30,000 tremors have been registered in Antarctica since the end of August.
Scientists stated that although the majority of the quakes had small proportions, some of them hit magnitude 6. The shakes were detected in the Bransfield Strait, and although the surroundings of the strait have numerous tectonic plates and microplates, the center’s experts say that such a staggering incidence of tremors in the area has been utterly unusual.
Trembling episodes have become so recurrent the strait itself, which used to increase in width at a rate of roughly 7 or 8 mm – or 0.30 inch – a year, now has been expanding 15 cm – or 6 inches – a year, the center informed. “It’s a 20-fold increase, which suggests that right this minute the Shetland Islands are separating more quickly from the Antarctic peninsula,” described Sergio Barrientos, the center’s director.
The peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on the entire planet, and scientists have been carefully watching the impact of climate change on icebergs and glaciers. What is happening in Antarctica right now has become a very relevant and rather alarming discussion amongst experts. Especially because the melting of Antarctic ice could impact on the quick rise of sea levels and provoke cataclysmic accidents all around the world.
Massive ice shelves have been melting from underneath for quite some time now. NASA has discovered a mantle plume almost as hot as the Yellowstone supervolcano that appears to be responsible for melting part of West Antarctica from beneath. Experts say the existence of an immense mantle plume could be the reason why this land is so unstable today, and why it collapsed so fast 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age.
Analysts the continent’s conditions are starting to become unsettling. If that’s the case we could soon be witnessing a scenario we have only seen before in dystopian movies. Live Science has reported that “half of Antarctica’s ice shelves could collapse in a flash”. In fact, the rise in sea level is a phenomenon that has been preoccupying academic circles for decades. Considering the average expansion of all the seas on the planet, the land is being gradually swallowed up by ocean water and the tendency is that this situation will only worsen.
If you’re wondering what could happen if Antarctica’s ice melting process vastly accelerated and suddenly pushed sea levels up, National Geographic has published a projection on how the world would look like if all the ice melted, and their study uncovered that “the entire Atlantic seaboard would vanish, along with Florida and the Gulf Coast”. That is to say, every city that sits along the east coast of the United States would disappear. In California, San Francisco’s hills would become a cluster of islands and the Central Valley a giant bay. The Gulf of California would stretch north past the latitude of San Diego – not that there’d be a San Diego.
These changes are about to affect our lives in ways we could never have imagined. And no place on the planet will remain untouched by the calamities brought by environmental catastrophes. We are just at the start of a process that will alter the Earth’s landscape and all of our lives forever. That’s why experts say that if the ice in Antarctica starts to melt much more quickly, nothing will ever be the same.
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Everyone needed a respite from 2020, and tales of discovery provided a happy distraction from the worries of the day. Here are a few reminders that we still live in a world full of wonders.
Flowers at the South Pole
Antarctica was once home to a diverse rainforest. The unearthing of traces of vegetation in 90-million-year-old sediments off the coast of West Antarctica shows just how radically different the planet was during the age of dinosaurs, with conifers, ferns and blooming flowers where an ice sheet sits today (SN: 4/1/20).
Roughly 90 million years ago, a diverse rainforest (shown in this artist’s reconstruction) flourished within about 1,000 kilometers of the South Pole.J. MCKAY/ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUTE (CC BY 4.0)
Life finds a way
Researchers are still identifying new species and cataloging the amazing diversity of life on Earth. This year saw the discovery that the sparkly “Elvis worm” of the deep sea is actually four different species (SN: 5/25/20). Other scientists found a bonanza of 10 new bird species and subspecies on remote Indonesian islands (SN: 1/9/20). And the first complete count of plant species on New Guinea revealed more than 13,600 species of vascular plants, the most of any island on Earth (SN: 8/18/20).
New Guinea’s impressive array of floral diversity includes this Syzygium plant, a member of the myrtle family.YEE WEN LOW, R. CÁMARA-LERET ET AL/NATURE 2020
Raining reptiles
During a cold snap in southern Florida, lizards started falling from trees, landing legs-up (SN: 10/30/20). The reptiles weren’t hurt, just so cold that they couldn’t move and lost their grip. Oddly, this may be good news for the six lizard species scientists examined. The ability to withstand temperatures down to about 5.5° Celsius may suggest some resilience to extreme weather caused by climate change.
This iguana fell out of a tree in Key Biscayne, Fla., after a cold snap in January. Scientists have learned that such lizards are more tolerant of the cold than previously thought.BRETT PIERCE
Super chill
Hot water can sometimes freeze more quickly than cold, a baffling phenomenon called the Mpemba effect. Scientists couldn’t explain it — and weren’t sure it was even real. Now researchers have demonstrated the bizarre effect for the first time in the laboratory by cooling glass beads as a proxy for the more complex freezing process of water. In some conditions, the researchers say, materials can take a cooling “shortcut” that allows warmer objects to cool faster than colder ones (SN: 8/7/20).
Edge of the map
Astronomers have found the edges of the Milky Way, for the first time showing its enormous span and potentially helping to gauge its heft. Our home galaxy stretches almost 2 million light-years across, more than 15 times as wide as the Milky Way’s spiral disk of stars and planets (SN: 3/23/20). Beyond that disk lies a broad stretch of gas surrounded by a vast halo of invisible dark matter.
The vastness of the Milky Way (shown in a gamma-ray image) seems almost immeasurable, but this year, astronomers put limits on our home galaxy’s bounds.FERMI LAT COLLABORATION/DOE AND NASA
Go fly a snake
Paradise tree snakes can fling themselves 10 meters or more through the air, and engineers have now figured out how they stay aloft. Once the snakes are in the air, they undulate both side to side and up and down, giving them the stability needed to glide (SN: 6/29/20).
Scientists captured the undulating motion of paradise tree snakes as they glide through the sky. A computer simulation based on high-speed video shows that the undulation is necessary for stable flight.
Floats our boat
Here was a chance to witness the seemingly impossible: tiny toy boats floating along both the top and bottom of a levitating liquid. Physicists made this magic happen by shaking a container of liquid, thus keeping a fluid layer aloft above a layer of air and allowing the inverted flotation (SN: 9/2/20).
Physicists knew it was possible to keep a layer of liquid levitated over a cushion of air by vigorously shaking the layers up and down in a container. But new lab experiments have revealed a surprising effect of that antigravity trick. Toy boats and other objects are able to float along the bottom surface of a levitated liquid as well as its top.
Will to survive
One inspiring creature just refused to accept being eaten. The Regimbartia attenuata water beetle is the first prey known to survive a trip through a frog’s entire digestive system, not just by taking a ride (like the fish eggs found this year to survive ducks’ digestive systems) but by actively escaping through the back door (SN: 8/3/20; SN: 6/29/20).
About two hours before this video begins, this pond frog (Pelophylax nigromaculatus) ate a water beetle (Regimbartia attenuata). After traversing the digestive tract, the beetle emerges from the back end of the amphibian, alive. It’s the first documented example of prey actively escaping a predator through the digestive system.
Everybody smile
From grins to grimaces, facial expressions may be universal across human cultures, and from ancient times to the modern day. Just by looking at the faces of sculptures crafted between 3,500 and 600 years ago, without the context of the rest of the sculpture, present-day people correctly interpreted expressions such as anger in depictions of combat and pain in sculptures of people being tortured (SN: 8/19/20).
This ancient sculpture of a beaming Maya woman holding a child was among the artworks included in a study of universal facial expressionsPRINCETON UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM 2003-26, GIFT OF G.G. GRIFFIN
Meet PigeonBot
A robotic bird made with real pigeon feathers can change the shape of its wings by fanning its feathers out or gathering them in, making for more birdlike flight. Using the robot, scientists discovered that a bird can steer into a turn by bending just one “finger” on one of its wings (SN: 1/16/20).
A robotic pigeon that can change its wing shape like a real bird paves the way for creating more agile aircraft, and offers a new way to study bird flight.
It’s alive!
Putting Rip Van Winkle to shame, microbes that had been buried in seafloor sediments for more than 100 million years revived and multiplied. All the microbes needed was food to pull them from their dormant state (SN: 7/28/20).
Seafloor sediment from beneath the Pacific Ocean contains still-living microbes (green in this microscopy image) that are more than 100 million years old.JAMSTEC
Unknown Bright Objects Swarm in ALL Directions Above Earth From ISS | Bright Aurora & Huge Fireball!
Unknown Bright Objects Swarm in ALL Directions Above Earth From ISS | Bright Aurora & Huge Fireball!
Unknown Bright Objects SWARM in ALL Directions Above Earth From ISS | Bright Aurora & HUGE Fireball!
WAY More Occurred During Today’s Total Eclipse Than Was Expected! *Shockwave/Radio Blackout* & more
We are living in very unique, changing times and during these times I have become more than intrigued by these changes and what is causing them. I’m referring to the earth changes, changes in our sun and how the earth’s atmosphere manages this what I believe to be a much different sunlight.
Over the last 10 years I have become very familiar with our planet, the mechanics of it and how it reacts to many different aspects of space weather and many other things as well. I monitor everything from the sea floor to the cosmos and everything in between. I am a full-time Watchman and as these uncertain times move forward I’ve got your back. When you really need to know…you’ll know.
A brain scan that was performed on a dog-sized dinosaur called Thecodontosaurus that roamed around Britain 205-million-year-old revealed very interesting results. Since the remains were so well preserved, experts from the University of Bristol were able to reconstruct the two-inch-long dinosaur brain in 3D and performed CT scans on it.
Probably the most surprising revelation was that since it was related to herbivores that walked on four legs (such as the Diplodocus and Brontosaurus), it was assumed that the Thecodontosaurus was the same. However, the researchers were able to determine that this species ran quickly on two legs and it occasionally ate meat, in addition to having good eyesight and hearing that made it a great hunter.
Doctoral student and lead author of the study, Antonio Ballell, noted that even though it could catch prey, its tooth morphology indicated that plants were its main food source. This suggests that the Thecodontosaurus could have been an omnivore that ate both plants and meat.
(Not a Thecodontosaurus)
Mr. Ballell went on to explain the scans, “Even though the actual brain is long gone, the software allows us to recreate brain and inner ear shape via the dimensions of the cavities left behind.” “The braincase of Thecodontosaurus is beautifully preserved so we compared it to other dinosaurs, identifying common features and some that are specific to Thecodontosaurus.” “Its brain cast even showed the detail of the floccular lobes, located at the back of the brain, which are important for balance. Their large size indicate[s] it was bipedal.” “This structure is also associated with the control of balance and eye and neck movements, suggesting Thecodontosaurus was relatively agile and could keep a stable gaze while moving fast.”
This is pretty shocking news as the Thecodontosaurus was one of the first sauropods – gigantic herbivores that could grow as long as 110 feet and weigh as much as 100 tons. The Thecodontosaurus, on the other hand, was only about the size of a very large dog, measuring a little over 6 feet in length and 3 feet in height.
Co-author of the study, Professor Mike Benton, weighed in by stating, “It is great to see how new technologies are allowing us to find out even more about how this little dinosaur lived more than 200 million years ago.” (An image of what Thecodontosaurus would have looked like can be seen here.)
Thecodontosaurus was one of the first sauropods.
The first bones belonging to a Thecodontosaurus were found back in 1834 where the Bristol Zoo now sits. Then in 1975, eleven more remains were discovered in a quarry. As a matter of fact, the United Kingdom has been described as a “dinosaur paradise” during ancient times. There were more than 100 different types of dinosaurs living in the UK that included three cousins of the Tyrannosaurus rex.
Girl was kidnapped TWICE aged 12 and 14 by the SAME MAN and repeatedly raped after he brainwashed her into thinking she was an alien who could only save her family by having sex with him - after he seduced her mother AND her father to get close to her
Girl was kidnapped TWICE aged 12 and 14 by the SAME MAN and repeatedly raped after he brainwashed her into thinking she was an alien who could only save her family by having sex with him - after he seduced her mother AND her father to get close to her
Netflix documentary tells the story of how Jan Broberg was kidnapped twice at the ages of 12 and 14 by Robert 'B' Berchtold, a trusted family friend
Berchtold manipulated her parents to gain their trust as a way of getting closer to their 12-year-old daughter before taking her to Mexico to get married
Two years after the first abduction, he took Jan a second time, hiding her in a Catholic boarding school in Pasadena, California while he eluded authorities
He repeatedly raped Jan under the guise that she was chosen to complete a top secret alien mission to bear Berchtold's child before her 16th birthday or her family would be 'vaporized'; in effect buying her trust and compliance
Berchtold also seduced both parents into separate sexual relationships, driving a wedge in their marriage that almost ended in divorce
Bob Broberg admits that he 'relieved' Berchtold in a 'masturbatory' act; an event that Berchtold used as blackmail during his first criminal kidnapping trial
Jan's sister Karen Broberg revealed to DailyMail.com that her mother didn't know the details of Bob's homosexual encounter until seeing the documentary for the first time
Karen re-tells the traumatic night her sister first told her about the alien conspiracy when they were teenage girls
The Brobergs were a happy family. Bob Broberg owned a thriving flower shop in downtown Pocatello, Idaho, his wife Mary Ann was a church chorister and a busy homemaker raising their three daughters: Jan, Karen and Susan. Their childhood was happy, free, innocent, and stable. ‘We had the type of neighborhood that never locked their doors, they were always open, you could trust everyone in the neighborhood,’ Mary Ann said.
It was that naivety that would come back to haunt the Broberg family.
It was 1974 when their 12-year-old daughter Jan was abducted and sexually abused by a close family friend and she was 14-years-old when she was kidnapped a second time by the same man.
Her abuser, Robert ‘B’ Berchtold, had wheedled his way into her family’s life; spending two years befriending her parents after meeting Mary Ann in church and gaining their trust as a means to get closer to Jan. He learned their weaknesses, exploited their vulnerabilities for blackmail and seduced both Bob and Mary Ann to create a wedge in their marriage.
At the culmination of his horrifying scheme, he repeatedly raped Jan under the guise that she was involved in a top-secret alien mission to save their species by reproducing before her 16th birthday or her sister and father would suffer the consequence of being ‘vaporized.’ The extent of his brainwashing on Jan dug so deeply into her pre-pubescent psyche that she says she went from ‘loving him like a father figure to loving him like a husband.’
The harrowing story is recounted by the Brobergs, an FBI investigator and recordings of Berchtold in the Netflix documentary movie ‘Abducted In Plain Sight,’ directed by Skye Borgman. It follows the family’s traumatic saga from its innocent beginning to the day Berchtold committed suicide 30 years later in 2005.
The Broberg family from Pocatello, Idaho was left completely devastated after years of grooming and manipulation at the hands of a close family friend, Robert 'B' Berchtold. The Netflix documentary, Abducted in Plain Sight details Jan's harrowing story of her kidnappings and years of sexual abuse by the neighbor she trusted 'like a father.' Pictured front left Mary Ann Broberg, Jan (back row, left) Karen (back row, right) Susan (center) and Bob Broberg right
Bob Berchtold, a father of five himself, was instantly infatuated with Jan Broberg when their families first met in 1972 at their Mormon church. He nicknamed Jan, 'dolly' and said, ‘She was a very beautiful little girl and I knew she was the one I was searching for’
Bob Berchtold was a master manipulator, he used charm and charisma to insert himself into the Broberg family and drive a wedge between Bob and Mary Ann. Gaining their trust, he was allowed to sleep in Jan's bedroom four nights a week; eventually kidnapping her twice and carting her off to Mexico for a quick wedding. He repeatedly raped Jan under the guise that she was part of an alien conspiracy to save their species and threatened that her family would be 'vaporized' if she didn't partake
The Brobergs were active members in the Mormon Church where they met Bob Berchtold, a father of five in June of 1972. The two families had a lot in common and became fast, inseparable friends. ‘He had such an effervescent, wonderful personality,’ said Bob Broberg. ‘It just sort of clicked.’ The Berchtolds and Brobergs enjoyed family vacations and holidays together. Jan said: ‘We had some of our best family times when we were with the Berchtold family.’
Bertchtold was instantly infatuated with Jan; he nicknamed her his ‘Dolly;’ and in chilling tape recording that opens the documentary said: ‘She was a very beautiful little girl and I knew she was the one I was searching for.’
His brainwashing on the Broberg family started right away. He preyed on their vulnerabilities and manipulated Bob and Mary Ann into separate sexual relationships. In a tape recording revealed in the film, Berchtold told the FBI in a matter-of-fact manner: ‘I entered into a homosexual relationship with her father in order to have access to Jan. I had a fixation for Jan.’ On camera, Bob admits that he ‘relieved’ Berchtold in ‘an act of masturbation’ during an afternoon outing when the two fathers were alone. ‘I did the worst thing I’ve ever done,’ said a teary-eyed Bob regarding his indiscretion with Berchtold.
In an interview with DailyMail.com, director Skye Borgman reveals that Bob’s admission was a watershed moment in creating the documentary because it wasn’t something he had done publicly before filming. ‘It was incredibly emotional,’ said Borgman. ‘I think he knew what a critical element to the manipulation that was and I think he also had a great sense that it was the final missing puzzle piece and that it could really complete the story.’
While the Broberg family knew something occurred between Bob and Berchtold, it wasn’t until they watched the documentary for the first time that they learned the precise details of what really took place in the early 1970s. It was an incident that would come back to haunt Bob sooner rather than later – and would continue to haunt him until his death in November 2018, according to his middle daughter Karen.
In an interview with DailyMail.com, Karen explained: ‘Once he (Berchtold) had something to hang over their heads, he controlled them. They had a ten minute locker room incident that affected my father for the rest of his life to his dying day.’
Bob and Mary Ann had been married for 13 years when Berchtold; a master manipulator began to make romantic overtures toward Mary Ann. He exploited the faults of their marriage during a time when many relationships struggle to keep things exciting. ‘Berchtold began saying things to me that were very exciting to hear. “Oh you have a beautiful body and those legs!” And I felt this fluttering inside of me…He could give me a great feeling about myself,’ said Mary Ann. Though it wouldn’t be until after Jan came home from her first abduction that their flirtatious exchanges turned into a full-fledged affair.
10-year-old Jan Broberg is sitting next to Bob Berchtold while Mary Ann Broberg smiles for the camera on Christmas Day in 1973. The two families became fast, inseparable friends, 'We had some of our best family times when we were with the Berchtold family,’ said Jan in the documentary
Jan and Berchtold water skiing in 1973. 'I suspected there was something amiss about that outing,' remembers Cor Hofman, a neighbor who also joined Jan and the Berchtolds on this day trip to the lake. 'He had a way of flattering you, doing things for you and then taking advantage of the situation of trust that he put you in'
Watch trailer for chilling documentary 'Abducted in Plain Sight'
It was October 17, 1974 when Jan and Berchtold did not come back from an afternoon of horseback riding. Berchtold slipped Jan a sleeping pill under the guise that it was allergy medication; her next memory was waking up in a motor home with her wrists and ankles shackled. She was introduced to Zeta and Zethra; alien voices dispatched through a small speaker near her makeshift bed. They explained to her that she was chosen to complete an important assignment that would save their galactic species by copulating with Berchtold. Believing that she had truly been abducted by aliens, Jan proceeded with ‘the mission.’
The mission meant that Jan had to bear Berchtold’s child before her 16th birthday. If she failed to do so, Zeta and Zethra would kill her parents, blind Karen and take her youngest sister, Susan, as her replacement. This elaborate ruse propagated by Berchtold secured Jan’s silence and compliance. ‘When you combine being isolated and completely afraid, you can pretty much get someone to do or believe anything,’ said Jan in the documentary. Especially when the person you trusted intrinsically ‘like a second father’ has also positioned himself as the savior.
The Brobergs did not report Jan’s abduction for five days in fear that it might upset Gail, Berchtold’s wife, who was also a close friend. While troubling, nothing led them to believe it was anything nefarious. Bob had well inserted himself into the Broberg family; winning their trust and confidence.
Pete Walsh, lead FBI investigator assigned to the case was struck by their naivety. Prior to Jan’s abduction, the Brobergs allowed Berchtold to sleep in her bed four nights a week over the course of six months. Berchtold convinced them it was part of a therapy program to overcome his own abuse as a child. “It was the 70s, I never even knew what a child molester was so I never saw those red flags. I don’t know how I was so gullible,’ said Bob Broberg.
‘My brother was always a sexual pervert. He always did like little girls, I guess he had a need to fulfill as a pedophile,’ Berchtold’s brother, Joe, tells the documentary.
Jan was just 12-years-old when the abuse began. It was October 17, 1974 when she didn't return home from an afternoon of horseback riding. Jan remembers waking up in a motor home to alien voices dispatched through a speaker near the makeshift bed she was shackled to. They told her she must bear Bob Berchtold's child in order to save their galactic species before her 16th birthday
Berchtold poses with Susan (left), Karen (center) and Jan Broberg (right). ‘My brother was always a sexual pervert. He always did like little girls, I guess he had a need to fulfill as a pedophile,’ said Berchtold’s brother, Joe in the documentary
Bob and Mary Ann smile for the camera. One of Berchtold's more insidious ploys was in seducing the Brobergs into separate romantic affairs. 'I entered into a homosexual relationship with her father in order to have access to Jan,' said Berchtold in an FBI recording. Mary Ann recalls feeling excited and being 'in love' with Berchtold while Bob tearfully admitted to the documentary that he ‘relieved’ Berchtold in ‘an act of masturbation’ - it was something that haunted him till his death in November 2018
The FBI eventually tracked down Berchtold and Jan in Mazatlan, Mexico where the legal age for marriage was 12. They had been missing for five weeks which was more than enough time for Stockholm syndrome to settle in for Berchtold’s child bride. She said: ‘The shift from I love this man like my father to I love him like a husband happened.’ Under his spell, Jan began to withdraw from her family and abided by Berchtold’s strict rules to stay away from all males including her own father.
Berchtold wasn’t going to take any chances going to jail for his abduction of Jan, he had already laid the groundwork for blackmailing Bob with their illicit affair months earlier. ‘He was going around telling people that my dad was a homosexual,’ said Karen. At the time, Mary Ann did not known of Bob and Berchtold’s one-off afternoon fling but she feared their dirty laundry would be aired to their Mormon community. Using this to his advantage, Berchtold coerced the Brobergs into signing affidavits that claimed he had parental consent to take Jan to Mexico – essentially absolving him of all guilt in the crime. ‘They were covering their own hide, not the kid,’ said FBI agent, Walsh in the Netflix documentary.
The documents effectively destroyed the prosecution’s case against Berchtold; he was sentenced to five years in prison but was released after only 45 days. Years later when Mary Ann finally learned exactly what transpired between Bob and Berchtold, Karen Broberg recalled her mother’s response: ‘That’s it? That’s all it was about?!’
Berchtold stayed in communication with Jan after his short stint in prison by passing love letters through her classmates at school. One note read, ‘Hi Darling, I awake this morning thinking of you as usual, and loving you even more than the night you cried when you were in ‘Oliver,’ and you sang ‘Where Is Love’ especially for me…Please, honey, sing it over and over and know that I need your love more now than anything on this earth. Evil forces would like nothing more than to destroy us and ruin everything. I can do no more than love you every minute of my life, the rest is up to you. Be brave and do everything right and don’t give up hope, I never will because though it all there is you. Forever, B.’
Jan responded to Berchtold’s letters in kind and soon enough he was sneaking back into her bedroom late at night. ‘It was always about sex at that point. That was what all those encounters were about for him,’ said Jan. She estimates that Berchtold raped her more than 200 times in a five year period. Mary Ann Broberg recalls her 13-year-old daughter telling her, ‘Mom, I miss him so much, I want to marry him and we want to have children together.’
Berchtold spent years grooming and brainwashing Jan. By the time she was 14-years-old; Jan was convinced that she was in love with him. Mary Ann remembers Jan telling her, ‘Mom, I miss him so much, I want to marry him and we want to have children together'
Berchtold was sentenced to five years on kidnapping charges but was released from prison after only 45 days. He tried to keep a low profile after the first abduction but was persistent in maintaining contact with Jan by passing love letters through her classmates. Jan responded with letters in kind. This one featured in the documentary shows an innocent childlike drawing which is particularly haunting and poignant, it was signed, 'I send lots of love. Your Dolly, Jan'
Jan’s family noticed a dramatic change in her personality after she came home from Mexico but under the threat of Zeta and Zethra; she was reticent to speak about her suffering. Karen remembers her sister disappearing on long bike rides before returning home a different person: ‘She would come home with a stoic face and just wouldn’t be her happy cheerful self.’ Karen noticed that these episodes happened more frequently as it got closer to the second time Jan was abducted by Berchtold and it became clear after the fact, that she was visiting him during these outings.
It was also during this time that Mary Ann’s school-girl crush on Berchtold turned into an extra- marital affair. ‘I would say that I was in love with Berchtold, it was an exciting time for me,’ said Mary Ann. This went on for two years until Jan went missing again on August 10, 1976. Worried that word of Jan’s second disappearance would spread throughout their community; the Brobergs were reluctant to alert authorities and they waited two weeks before calling the cops.
They were convinced that Jan had run away from home on her own. A letter revealed in the documentary that Jan wrote on the night of her disappearance said, ‘Dear Bob and Mary Ann, you won’t let me do what’s right, so I’ll do what’s wrong. I’m leaving without B, and do not plan on coming back until you accept me as me, I cannot accept your religion or your screwed up morals. I just want to be me and have ‘B.’ Please, before all of us are destroyed, let me go.’
Feeding into their theory, Berchtold kept in touch with the Brobergs to feign his concern for Jan’s ‘unknown whereabouts’ and taunt them with misinformation: ‘I just got through talking to Jan. I think Jan’s done some things that she doesn’t want to tell me about. The stealing for a living, the prostitution, the selling dope,’ said Berchtold in a wiretapped phone call with Mary Ann.
Meanwhile, Berchtold had stored Jan away at a catholic boarding school in Los Angles under a false name while he continued to live in a motor home park in Salt Lake City. He would visit her every weekend in California. This set-up allowed Berchtold to elude authorities for three months. Upon raiding his trailer, agents found a shrine dedicated to Jan with giant, blown-up photographs but no sign of the 14-year-old girl.
The weight of Jan's emotional and sexual abuse took a toll on her physical health. Karen Broberg told TheDailyMail.com that it wasn't until years later, when Jan was 17-years-old and began reckoning with her trauma, that she went through puberty
Pictured from left to right, Karen, Susan and Jan Broberg. Jan and Karen were particularly close as they were similar in age, Jan was the oldest and Karen was younger by two years. Karen remembers Jan disappearing for long periods of a time before she was abducted a second time. ‘She would come home a completely different person,' said Karen. It wasn't until years later that she was able to surmise that Jan was going to visit Berchtold during all those outings
Jan Broberg was abducted for a second time on August 10, 1976. She left a note for her parents that led them to believe she ran away from home but in reality Berchtold stored Jan away at a catholic boarding school in Los Angles under a false name while he continued to live in a motorhome park in Salt Lake City. He would visit her every weekend in California. This set-up allowed Berchtold to elude authorities for three months until she was finally found on October 17, 1976
During another phone call with Berchtold during this time, Mary Ann Broberg asked rather prosaically, ‘Do you still want to marry her?’ He responded, ‘There will never be anybody for me but Jan, never. The sound of her voice just puts me into orbit.’
The FBI eventually tracked down Jan Broberg at Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy in Pasadena, California on November 17, 1976. She had been enrolled under a false name: Janis Tobler and was begrudgingly brought back to her parents’ home in Pocatello, Idaho. ‘I was completely gone…that vivacious happy fun child… that was gone.’
Karen remembers: ‘Jan was like a split personality when she came home. Me and her best friend Caroline noticed it a lot. Sometimes Jan was completely Jan and other times, it’s like she flipped into some other personality. She would go for a whole week being Jan and then she would have this hour being very strange and very different.’
The Brobergs’ real troubles started after Jan came home from her second abduction; they were faced with the painful healing process in picking up the broken pieces of their family. It was especially difficult for Jan, who still wholeheartedly believed that aliens were going to abduct her family if she didn’t complete the mission.
Jan and Mary Ann Broberg found therapy in writing a book about their tragedy in 2004. Unfortunately their harrowing journey was all but over as Bob Berchtold began showing up to book-related speaking events to harass Jan; leaving her no recourse but to apply for a stalking injunction and face her abuser in court
‘I knew that I probably needed to tell somebody but I didn’t know how or who or when, I didn’t know what to do,’ said Jan. She carried the weight of this secret up until the summer before her senior year in High School when Karen and her friend Caroline confronted her after discovering a bizarre manifesto referencing Zeta and Zethra in Jan’s bedroom. Karen remembers Jan’s sense of conviction when she declared: ‘I might not be here tomorrow, you just don’t understand! I might just vaporize into nothing.’
‘It was something I won’t ever forget,’ said Karen when recalling that traumatic night to TheDailyMail.com. ‘She had a meltdown, she got on the floor, she started scratching all over her body and shouting ‘I can’t do this!’ She started to hyperventilate and claw at the carpet. At first I thought she was acting but then I realized this was for real. She was losing it and I kept saying ‘you’re scaring us, you’re really scaring us!’
Eventually Jan was able to articulate her harrowing story in the third person: ‘She finally started talking about this little girl— ‘this happened to this little girl’ and ‘that happened to this little girl’ and became clear that she was talking about herself,’ explained Karen.
For his crime, Berchtold was able to avoid prison time on a convincing insanity plea and was only sentenced to six months at a mental hospital. Years later he was jailed for one year on another child molestation charge unrelated to Jan.
It took the Brobergs many years to heal from the devastation inflicted on their family but Karen admits that ‘the forgiveness happened right away.’ They found therapy in making the documentary and co-authoring a book about their experience titled: Stolen Innocence: The Jan Broberg Story. It was only in writing the book, years later did Mary Ann grasp the full extent of Jan’s traumatic ordeal. Karen asked why her mother why didn’t probe Jan sooner and she tearfully recalled Mary Ann’s response, ‘Because it was too painful to admit that I let that happen, it’s just too painful.’
That very reason is why the Brobergs decided to offer their story under risk of public scrutiny and critique. Karen continues: ‘People wonder ‘how could your parents be so blind?’ And then I think about all the millions of children being abused and nobody notices until it’s too late. It’s because it’s too painful to inquire - too painful to really find out. So you don’t push the issue, you just hope it goes away and you don’t ever look.’
Robert Berchtold's mugshot. Berchtold cheated his way out of serving proper prison time on multiple occasions. After Jan's first abduction, he blackmailed the Brobergs into signing affidavits that claimed he had parental consent to take her to Mexico. The second time he got off by spending six months in a mental hospital on a convincing insanity plea. It wasn't until 30 years later when his crimes would finally catch up to him. He was charged with 3 felonies after getting into an altercation with security at one of Jan's speaking events - he committed suicide before he was ever sentenced
Jan grew up and moved to Hollywood to become an actress with prominent roles in Everwood, Iron Man 3 and Maniac. Here she is pictured with actor Joe Mantegna on the set of Criminal Minds in 2014
Karen Broberg has found peace in forgiveness and chosen to not let the trauma define her. She hopes to defend her parents honor in telling this story and shed light on child abuse. In an interview with TheDailyMail.com she said, ' People think we were so naive because of our religion but it was because of our religion that we were able to survive this'
Skye Broberg, director of ‘Abducted in Plain Sight’ echoes the sentiment: ‘That’s one of the things that we always said was very important throughout our entire time making the film, it’s that we wanted to start the conversation and that conversation is very hard to start.’
It’s been a long road to recovery for Jan, who incredibly, has found the capacity to forgive and move forward with her life. ‘The way I came to forgive my parents is by helping them forgive themselves,’ said Jan in the documentary. As an adult, Jan went on to become an actress in Hollywood with notable roles in both film and television. She recently moved to Utah with her son to run a local theater company. ‘Jan continues to amaze and inspire me every day,’ said Borgman. ‘She’s a real trooper.’
After publishing their book in 2004, Jan and Mary Ann began touring the country in hopes they could warn parents about sexual predators. Unfortunately, their nightmare was all but over when Berchtold, well into his 60s at the time, re-emerged to protest their book. Subsequently during one of these events, Berchtold had a confrontation with event security which landed him back in court for three felony charges and two misdemeanours. Just when it seemed like Bob Berchtold’s crimes would finally catch up to him; he committed suicide in 2005.
Jan says: ‘It’s ironic that the one person I would like to most forget about and never pass through my mind ever again is about is probably the person that I think about every day.’
(Harrison Kirk) Could it be that the answer to whether or not we’re alone in the universe resides deep within each of us, encoded into our DNA, just waiting to be revealed?
It’s a heady subject, one that has fascinated mankind for centuries and even led us to build spaceships to explore the skies beyond our vision.
But what if aliens have come and gone already? Imagine if they did indeed visit this planet and left clues of their presence into what makes each of us unique, waiting for the day that we will finally realize the true origin of the human race.
Are we the product of evolution, or were we created by unseen beings? (Via YouTube)
All of this may sound a bit far-fetched and way outside the normal channels of scientific discourse, but as Ancient Origins notes, some very distinguished minds in the world of science think there could well be a connection between human DNA and aliens:
“In 2013, two scientists affiliated with the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute in Kazakhstan published an article in the journal Icarus suggesting that the search for extraterrestrial life should be expanded to include a survey of human DNA.
“Physicist Vladimir Sherbak and astrobiologist Maxim Makukov are convinced we’ve been genetically engineered by beings from another star system. These founders may have done so directly while visiting here hundreds of millions of years ago. Or, they may have sent an information-packed signal into space that reached Earth and somehow triggered alterations in our DNA. Or, they may have seeded our planet from space with alien genetic material that evolved elsewhere (presumably on their planet of origin).”
Codes and symbols are all around us. Could they have a deeper meaning that is tied to our DNA?
The idea that we (and our DNA) are products of alien engineering is known as panspermia, and has drawn the enthusiastic support of none other than James Crick, co-founder of the DNA double helix. In the panspermia view of our planet, our creators intentionally chose to place their own DNA inside of humans and then leave us on the Earth as some sort of experiment.
“Makukov and Cherbak say human DNA looks as though it has been created with mathematicalprecision. ‘Simple arrangements of the code reveal an ensemble of arithmetical and ideographical patterns of symbolic language. Furthermore, it includes the use of decimal notation and logical transformations that are accurate and systematic.’”
Consider that there’s also a repeating numerical pattern in human DNA:
“Makukov and Cherbak have spotted a specific repeating numerical pattern in the human genetic code. By looking closely at the various mathematical ratios, fractions and constants that show up in calculations and measurements of human DNA, they’ve uncovered multiple instances where the number ‘37’ seems to play a prominent role.”
“In their Icarus research paper, the scientists listed nine instances where the number ‘37’ could be derived by performing calculations somehow related to DNA’s chemical structure, and they calculated the odds of that happening by random at 10 trillion to one against.”
The concept of panspermia suggests that we were created by aliens and encoded with their DNA. (Via YouTube)
The number 37 has relevance when it comes to the human body:
“Expressed in the metric system, the normal body temperature of a human being is 37 degrees Celsius. And according to the latest estimates, there are approximately 37 trillion cells in the human body. So even outside its inclusion in our DNA, the number ‘37’ does help define who we are in some fundamental ways. This is just as we might expect, if that number were included in DNA as a sign.”
Clearly, there are still more questions than answers when it comes to either DNA or aliens, let alone whether a connection can be made between the two. The human genome has already been partially decoded by scientists, and yet we are no closer to proving that intelligent life exists beyond our planet.
Mysteries remain, and in time we may finally discover the answers to them. Until then, all we can do is keep searching.
Stillness in the Storm Editor: Why did we post this?
The preceding information presents information that builds a case for the existence of extraterrestrial life in the universe, which some claim has already made contact with humanity. While these claims remain largely unconfirmed, in a substantive and comprehensive way, an individual can contemplate their meaning, and in the process, catalyze the mind for greater awakening. This information also helps dispel the false reality pushed by the Deep State, which is essential so as to liberate the individual from the fetters of disillusionment related fundamentally myopic and depreciated view of cosmic realities and ultimate identities.
An enormous supervolcano may be hiding under Alaskan islands
An enormous supervolcano may be hiding under Alaskan islands
A geologic game of connect the dots reveals hints of a giant undersea crater
The multiple volcanoes in the Islands of the Four Mountains (shown), part of the chain that make up the Aleutian Islands in southwestern Alaska, appear to be connected by one large caldera created when a supervolcano erupted, a new study suggests.
A mysterious, previously undiscovered supervolcano may be lurking beneath Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.
A new study suggests a wide crater, created when the supervolcano exploded, connects at least four existing volcanoes. It’s so big that if the supervolcano erupted during the last few thousand years, it could have disrupted civilizations around the world, says John Power, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Volcano Observatory. Power presents the findings at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on December 7.
The discovery, not yet confirmed, emerged from several pieces of evidence that at first glance seem unrelated, says Diana Roman, a volcanologist at Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. “There’s no one smoking gun,” she says. And in fact, the mythical-sounding Islands of the Four Mountains, actually six volcanoes located near the center of the island chain, look like an ordinary volcanic cluster.
But taken together, the data point convincingly to the existence of a caldera about 20 kilometers across. The volcanoes’ peaks are arranged in a ring and bathymetric seafloor mapping, mostly from the 1950s, shows arc-shaped ridges and a 130-meter-deep depression in the center of the ring. Both are clues that the volcanoes are connected by one big caldera, a massive crater that forms when a very large magma chamber in a volcano explodes and empties.
Gravity data from satellites echo the look of other calderas. And analysis of such volcanic gases such as sulfur dioxide, as well as patterns of microearthquakes also suggest the presence of a caldera.
Searching for a supervolcano
Some of the clues that a supervolcano may lurk under the Islands of the Four Mountains, in the Aleutian Islands chain in southwest Alaska, come from seafloor topography mapping, like this bathymetry map compiled by NOAA. Gray areas mark the existing volcanoes. The orange zones show shallow volcanic areas apparently connected below the surface in a roughly circular pattern.
Seafloor mapping around Mount Cleveland
HÉLÈNE LE MÉVEL
“We weren’t surprised there were microearthquakes,” says Roman, considering one of the volcanoes, Mount Cleveland, is one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutians. But, she says, those microearthquakes extended farther east and north than they would expect just based on the volcanoes seen at the surface. “That makes more sense in the context of the caldera.”
One hallmark of many calderas is still-active volcanoes on their rims that tap into the same magma chamber, even long after the caldera itself formed. Mount Cleveland fits that scenario. It has “erupted 60 or 70 times since 2001,” says Power. Besides blasting out sky-high ash plumes that disrupt air travel (SN: 11/27/18), this level of constant activity is typical of volcanoes rimming other known calderas, he says. One such volcano is Indonesia’s Rinjani, whose eruption around the year 1257 dumped enough sulfur particles into the atmosphere to cool the entire planet (SN: 6/14/12).
Piecing the evidence together has been challenging, thanks to the extremely remote location, a largely underwater setting and newer volcanic deposits which obscure older ones. In addition, separate studies provided different lines of evidence for a supervolcano caldera, but none connected the dots. Roman likens the team’s approach to “looking under the couch cushions.”
“It’s a neat example of how lots of threads come together to make a bigger story,” says Michael Poland, a volcanologist with the USGS’s Yellowstone Volcano Observatory who was not involved in the study. “We’re starting to get the datasets we need to make these sorts of discoveries.”
The Aleutians site is accessible only a short time each year, Poland says, so “it’s a mad rush to collect data.” But that’s exactly what the team hopes to do to confirm the caldera’s existence. It also plans to search for matching ash in ice cores collected in other parts of the world to determine when the supervolcano would have erupted. “These very large calderas have very large impacts globally,” says Power. “This potential identification helps us understand what we might expect, why Cleveland is so active, and understand the hazards.”
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
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