He's Helping Super Oysters Survive Climate Change

The Seal Mammal Research Unit at the University of St. Andrews is recruiting and tagging pinnipeds to gather details on ocean conductivity, temperature and depth, collectively called “CTD profiles.” When tagged animals surface, the data they’ve collected are relayed to a global satellite system, decoded by computers, and disseminated to researchers.

How can unusable machinery be disposed of in a safe and environmentally-friendly way? A new effort in California drops old oil rigs in the sea as a kind of artificial coral reef.

Warming water has led to the collapse of coral reef systems in the western Indian Ocean, essential to fisheries, protecting shorelines, and reducing beach erosion and sea-level rise. Marine scientists from Nature Seychelles, as part of an international project to protect and restore the reefs, are promoting varieties of coral that they have found to be resistant to the rise in temperature.

Minority families often miss out on treatment or get left out of research — an ethical failure. New projects are illuminating autism’s diverse shades and aim to provide care to all members of society.

A few years ago, a genetic sequencing test was so difficult and expensive that it was generally only available to participants in research projects like those sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. But the price has plunged in just a few years from tens of thousands of dollars to around $7,000 to $9,000 for a family.

Losing weight is a struggle for many people and research has shown that one diet does not fit all, some people lose weight on a diet while others gain. For obese individuals, the way to lose weight may be highly personalized and involve a specific diet type, counting calories, or one of many different medications.

As the global demand for energy continually increases, the strain on natural resources and the detrimental effects of fossil fuels become more problematic. But new developments in renewable energy technologies may provide new solutions. Minesto, a company based out of Northern Ireland, has a new device - structured something like an underwater kite - that allows for the constant harvesting of tidal power, regardless of current weather or wave conditions.

The medical community had essentially given up hope for a cure for aids and thus little to no money was devoted to the research. A man with aids was cured in Berlin, by an optimistic doctor and a stem-cell transplant, and the medical community has begun researching again to see if the solution is replicable on a larger scale.

University research in Kansas and California is providing technical solutions for small farmers to help them compete against large scale farms.

The demand for food crops is increasing globally while the crop resilience is decreasing due to a warming climate and elevated CO2 levels. Scientists in Washington, DC are testing how to cross food crops with weeds, which have resilience against heat and many other environmental challenges.