December 23, 2019. The New York Times.
You probably know the broad outline of the story: 66 million years ago, a giant meteorite landed in what is now the Gulf of Mexico, and ended the dinosaurs. This year, various teams of scientists, working independently, helped fill in the picture of exactly what happened on that fateful day.
The biggest discovery was a site in North Dakota that preserved a jumble of fossilized fish and plant life that may have been thrown together by a tsunami on the very day of the meteorite strike. Closer to the impact site, scientists also cataloged a geological timeline of disasters that befell Earth that day. And researchers detailed evidence found in Europe that the Chicxulub event acidified the ocean in a flash, extinguishing much of Earth’s ocean life at the time.
An exhaustive analysis of hundreds of bird species in the United States and Canada contained a warning: The majority of bird species are in decline, many by huge numbers. The likely culprits? Habitat loss and pesticides.
Quantum computing changed everything and nothing
This year we met a new extinct human relative, Homo luzonensis. It was discovered in a cave on Luzon Island in the Philippines, and adds further complexity to the story of human evolution.
Almond milk is over. Oat milk is canceled. What’s in? Spider milk. Burying beetle milk. Great white shark milk. Flamingo milk. Which raises the question: what exactly is milk? Not all experts agree, but some scientists say that if a substance is synthesized or highly modified by a parent, and the offspring’s life depends on it, that’s milk. Now excuse us while we put out cookies and pink flamingo milk for Santa.
There really is a 5G conspiracy
At home, Russia, like the United States and other countries around the world, has embraced the promise of 5G, the next generation of cellphone technology. But in the U.S., RT America, the broadcast network run by the Russian government, has been warning American viewers that the telecommunications technology will kill and disable children. Many alarming claims about 5G technology are linked to bad, debunked science. The U.S. intelligence agencies describe RT America as “the Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet.” The network has taken aim at fracking, vaccination and even the U.S. electoral process; now it has applied its playbook to cellphones.
Extinction warnings for some salmon and orcas
Thirteen species of salmon and steelhead trout are considered threatened or endangered in the Northwest’s Columbia basin region. Wild Chinook salmon could disappear within the next 20 years, according to one Forest Service expert. The fish are a keystone food source for other species, and an endangered population of orcas may be starving for lack of enough wild salmon to eat. Many scientists favor removing dams on some rivers to save the orcas and the fish. But the idea faces resistance from government agencies that manage the rivers.
The fish cannon is no joke
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Your journey, and some common carps’, are now at an end.CreditCredit…By Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center
Voyages deep below the ocean uncovered many things this year: 3D images of underwater volcanoes; close-ups with giant squid; pristine shipwrecks that are centuries old. The technology for such dives is getting better and better, too. But some mysteries have yet to surface.
Robert Ballard, the ocean explorer who found the wreck of the Titanic, set his sights on solving the enigma of Amelia Earhart’s fate. Following an irresistible hint, his crew headed to the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, spending weeks searching for her crashed plane by air, land and sea. They returned empty-handed, but with one bit of solace: A blurry clue from an old picture, which had driven years of speculation about Earhart’s final resting place, can probably be dismissed for good.