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Mosquitoes use infrared to track you down
China wants to get samples from Mars
Coffee Table Science
September 08, 2024
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China wants to bring back soil samples from Mars
After successfully returning soil samples from the Moon, China is now aiming to return samples from Mars. This could be achieved as early as 2031.
NASA has prioritized returning soil samples from Mars. The agency is currently exploring this with big names like SpaceX, but the estimated cost of the project is around US$11 billion, and it could be completed by 2040.
China, on the other hand, could do it for much cheaper using its Long March rockets, the most powerful rockets in its fleet. The problem is that unlike NASA’s rovers which are actively collecting samples on the Martian surface, China does not have any infrastructure on Mars at the moment.
So, a soil return mission would have to include everything, including a lander and an ascent vehicle, and a rocket that will remove samples from Martian orbit and bring it back to Earth.
A round trip to Mars takes about three years. So, to get samples back on Earth by 2031, the Chinese mission would need to be launched by 2028, which makes the next few years quite exciting, reported Ars Technica.
Mosquitoes use infrared to track you down
A study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), has found that mosquitoes have a high tech aid that helps them find their targets - infrared sensing.
Previous research in this field has shown that carbon dioxide in our breath and body odors are cues that mosquitoes follow to track humans and bite them. But odors can drift with the wind and carbon dioxide isn’t a reliable signal by itself. So, researchers wondered if there was something else that mosquitoes were using.
Since vision in mosquitoes isn’t great either, the hypothesis was that they used a different means of spotting their prey.
To confirm their hypothesis, UCSB researchers used a thermoelectric plate that could be set to human body temperature, while releasing infrared radiation. Another plate was set to nearly 30 degrees Celsius, a temperature mosquitoes enjoy but one that does not give off any infrared signals.
By combining infrared signals with other cues such as CO2 and odor, mosquito activity doubled in the experimental setup, while applied individually, none of the cues got a response from the mosquitoes.
This explains why mosquitoes attack exposed skin, but loose-fitting clothing, which dissipates infrared, acts as a good deterrent for mosquitoes.
The research findings were published in the journal Nature.
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‘Record-breaking’ winds coming soon
A New York-London flight typically takes seven hours but in February 2020, a British Airways flight completed this journey in just under five hours. The secret was that the flight rode a jet stream which was further accelerated by a storm helping the commercial airliner hit speeds above 1,300 km an hour.
Jet streams are formed by the difference in air temperatures at the poles and the tropics and move west to east of the planet as a result of the Earth’s rotation. The stream occurs in the upper atmosphere at about 10 km altitude but also influences the weather on the ground, such as air temperature and the occurrence of severe storms.
Researchers at the University of Chicago wondered at the impact of the warming planet on the jet streams. They found that the contrast between the air at the poles and in the tropics will further increase as the warmer air will hold more moisture.
However, the increase is multiplicative and not linear. So, the sharper the contrast, the larger the increase. This will result in even faster trans-Atlantic flights in the future, but it also has a downside.
Airplanes will also experience more turbulence. So, if the planet keeps warming, it will be a bumpy ride ahead.
The research findings were published in Nature Climate Change.
10 Cities that will disappear due to climate change
Climate change isn’t just colder winters and hotter summers. It will also increase the risk of starvation while also increasing the sea levels across the globe.
Since some of the most populous cities are located near the cities, there is a risk that some of them might even disappear in the years to come.
To know if your city is on the list, read our article.
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Until next time,
Ameya
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