A Success for The Ocean Cleanup!

The infamous "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is just that -- a huge floating patch of garbage in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The patch is estimated to be about 1.6 million km2, about twice the size of the U.S state of Texas. The garbage debris is a result of land-based activities in North America and Asia and sea pollution from ships, boats, and oil rigs. Much of the pollution is composed of plastic which does not break down completely. Boyan Slat, a 25-year-old Dutch inventor, had developed a system to capture floating plastic. He had come up with the idea as a teenager, and seven years...

Drones Track Whales!

Imagine you were a marine biologist. How would you measure the size of a whale? How would you count how many whales there are in the ocean? Capturing live whales and bringing them out of the ocean without harming them is cumbersome. After all, they are the biggest creatures that currently live on our planet. As for counting the population, not only is the ocean vast, but it’s not easy to track every whale. So far, only dead or stranded whales have been measured; however, these results are not accurate as death can cause bodies to bloat or reduce in size. Drones To The Rescue! Recently,...

U.N Report: Our Earth's Oceans And Ice

The open sea, the Arctic, and the Antarctic may seem distant in our daily lives. But did you know that these areas are responsible for regulating the climate around the world? In fact, we significantly depend on them for food, water, transportation, and biodiversity. Two weeks ago, the United Nations released a climate report that discussed the effects of climate change on these crucial areas of Earth: the ocean and the cryosphere (frozen parts of Earth, like snow, glaciers, and ice caps). Let’s see what they discovered. Details of the Report The report was written and released by the United...

Why Did Google Release Fake Videos?

Seeing is believing … or is it? People use photoshop to alter a photo to change what has happened. Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is commonly used in movies to create amazing special effects. Even the camera filters on most smartphones can be used to distort human faces, making someone look like a very different person. There are a growing number of digitally manipulated videos on the internet. With technology advancing at a rapid pace, people are forced to wonder whether what they see is real or modified. Recently, Google released a collection of deepfakes in order to help develop...

Where Have The Birds Gone?

The sky has been getting quieter and quieter for the past few decades, but not many have noticed. A recent report published in Science confirmed the news that environmentalist Rachel Carson predicted in her book Silent Spring over 50 years ago - an astronomical decline in bird populations across North America. According to the journal, the population of birds in the US and Canada has dropped by 29% since 1970 - with an overall drop of 2.9 billion birds from half a century ago. These plummeting populations are not just a concern for birds - it also affects the environment around the birds...

Dragonflies Show Up In Radar!

The National Weather Service Office in Wakefield, Virginia had quite the surprise when enormous, cloud-like masses showed up the weather radar. Contrary to expectations, these masses were not signs of a hurricane or some other scary precipitation pattern, but large amounts of dragonflies migrating from colder regions of the United States and going southwards. People in Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia have all witnessed the migrating dragonflies. Why are dragonflies migrating south, and how does their life cycle explain this phenomenon? Adult dragonflies, carnivorous winged...

An Expedition To Study The Arctic

Named after the polar star, the Polarstern set sail for the Arctic region on September 20, 2019. The German icebreaker, a ship that is designed to literally break the ice, is going to freeze in place in the icy waters above Norway. This mission, known as Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of the Arctic Climate, or MOSAiC for short, will be the largest Arctic expedition ever. The Polarstem, with its double steel hull, is one of the sturdiest ice breakers in existence today and capable of cutting through 1.5-meter thick ice. After reaching Siberia, the ship will latch to an...

A Pencil's Purpose

The beautiful morning sunlight drifts lazily through the windows as sounds of children laughing and talking fills the air. The sky outside is as blue as a robin’s egg and rainbows dance with the fluffy, white clouds. Ms. Smith’s classroom smells of fresh daisies, hand sanitizer, and crayons. Of course, I can’t see anything, because I am crammed into Sally’s glittery, pink pencil case along with several other pencils. The stench of Sally’s backpack is suffocating, and there was no escape. Sally may seem like a neat girl on the outside, but the highlighters tell me that she left a rotting...

Five Deeps Expedition: A New World Record!

On August 24th, Victor Vescovo and his team became the first people to reach the deepest point of all the oceans on Earth. The voyage, named the “Five Deeps Expedition,” came to a close after Vescovo’s journey to the bottom of Molloy Trench in the Arctic Ocean. Vescovo is a former American naval explorer and an undersea explorer. Vescovo believes that pushing ourselves to the limit is the way humans evolve. He has climbed the highest mountains on each of the continents as well as skied to the North and South poles. What Are Trenches? Oceanic trenches are steep depressions in the deepest part...

Rushing Through London

We hustle down the busy streets of London with instruments and bags dragging us down like anchors, the bowls clam chowder from lunch still warm in our hands. Then my pocket starts buzzing. “Where are you kids?” our conductor yells while we gasp for air and try to move as fast as possible through the unrelenting sea of people. It is a typical gloomy day in London. Gray and heavy clouds loom over our cooling sweaty heads like they are about to burst. “I’m so sorry, Charlotte and I will be there as soon as possible!” I choke, trying to catch my breath during what seems like a few seconds, then...

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