This blog may help people explore some of the 'hidden' issues involved in certain media treatments of environmental and scientific issues. Using personal digital images, it's also intended to emphasise seasonal (and other) changes in natural history of the Swansea (South Wales) area. The material should help participants in field-based modules and people generally interested in the natural world. The views are wholly those of the author.
Monday 15 February 2021
Unexpected Life, Jim?
The British Antarctic Survey have found life, where they were least expecting it (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/feb/15/researchers-rethink-life-in-a-cold-climate-after-antarctic-find). The scientists were attempting to drill a 1 km borehole through the Filchner-Ronne iceshelf when, at 900m, they hit a boulder. The boulder, which probably dropped from the moving iceshelf, was located in an area of total darkness, with a temperature of -2 degrees Centigrade. To their amazement, their camera revealed filter-feeders, attached to the boulder. These currently unidentified organisms appeared to be sponges and (possibly) tube-living worms or long-necked barnacles. No dead organisms can fall from the surface to these filter feeders (they are under the thick ice), so they must get their nutriment from material (dead planckton?) washed to them from the distant sea. Who needs to look for life on Mars?
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Birder's Bonus 233
Unusually, a Mute swan ( Cynus olor ) was floating on the Loughor estuary near Bynea.
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The UK government continue their quest to turn England's rivers back into sewers. They first facilitated the privatised water companies...
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Garden plants in France, The Netherlands, The UK and Sikkim (NE India).
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