SciExplore Connect

See how aerosols fly through Earth’s skies

NASA mapped how sea salt, dust and other tiny particles drifted over six weeks

The sky abounds with tiny bits of solid or liquids known as aerosols. Some are flecks of black carbon or dust. Others are specks of sulfates or sea salt. All play roles in managing Earth’s temperature. And a new NASA visualization reveals how these airborne bits swirl through about. It now shows how aerosols can affect air quality far from their sources.

NASA’s Goddard Earth Observing System created the visual. It combined observations from space and the ground together with computer models. They map where these  aerosols traveled over a six-week span last year.

Sulfates (green, in the visual) are linked most often to the burning of fossil fuels, especially coal. Some countries, such as the United States, have reduced coal burning. Many Asian nations, however, still rely on…

The sweet truth about carbohydrates

Some people worry about eating carbs. But these starches and sugars give our bodies energy

In the liver, an enzyme called fructokinase (Frook-toh-KY-nase) sets off the first step in turning fructose into glycogen. But unlike the enzyme that processes glucose, fructokinase “doesn’t seem to get turned off — ever,” explains Stanhope at UC Davis.

So if you’re drinking a sugary soft drink, “86 percent of all the fructose you’re consuming in that … drink goes into the liver,” Stanhope says. “The liver does the best it can with all this fructose, but now it’s overloaded.” The liver will now turn any excess into fat, she explains.

Too much fat can hamper how the liver reacts to hormones such as insulin. As a result, the organ stores even more sugars as fat. “You just keep going around in circles and making the situation worse,” Stanhope explains.

Scientists accidentally discover a genetic code that breaks the rules of life

A routine experiment involving a microscopic organism from a freshwater pond led scientists to an extraordinary genetic discovery. The tiny creature was found to interpret DNA instructions in a way researchers had never documented before, challenging a long held assumption about how the genetic code works.

The surprise came when scientists examined a previously unknown protist called Oligohymenophorea sp. PL0344. Two genetic signals that ordinarily tell cells to stop making proteins had taken on completely different functions. Even more remarkably, the signals had been reassigned to two different amino acids, breaking a pattern scientists believed was closely linked by evolution.

The discovery, published in PLOS Genetics in October 2023, revealed an unexpected level of flexibility in one of life's most fundamental biological systems. Subsequent research has uncovered additional genetic code variations in related microorganisms, suggesting that many more surprises…

Earth has a natural thermostat and scientists finally know how it works

Scientists have identified a hidden feedback loop that may explain how Earth has regulated its climate for tens of millions of years. As sea levels rose and fell, they changed how much phosphate reached the open ocean, affecting marine life and the amount of carbon buried beneath the seafloor. That burial removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping cool the planet.

Earth appears to have a natural climate control system that has helped keep the planet habitable for more than 100 million years. Scientists have long known that this system exists, but the mechanisms behind it have remained difficult to explain.

New research points to a previously overlooked connection between sea level and the availability of phosphate in the ocean. Changes in global temperature affected the size of polar ice sheets, which altered sea level. Those shifts then…