Science Illustrated Issue 97

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Fly-by bonus: Comet gets its tail cut off in rare visit Astrophotographer Gerald Rhemann won the top prize in the 2022 Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest with this image of Comet C/2021 A1, also known as Comet Leonard. The comet was only discovered in 2021, and is a rare guest, given that its orbit around the Sun lasts 80,000 years and takes it 3700 times further away from the Sun than Earth’s orbit. But the photo also captures the rare sight (centre-right) of a section of the tail being ‘pinched’ off and carried away by the solar winds. Photo // Gerald Rhemann Bear witness: Abandoned village has new residents Sailing off Wrangel Island in the East Siberian Sea, photographer Dmitry Kokh was forced by rough weather towards the shore near an abandoned village.…

NATURE Most people make the most of their gardens by means of permaculture, fertiliser and weeding, but one group of US, UK and Australian scientists has found a different path to green-fingered growth: they have modified the genes of soy beans, allowing them to increase their level of photosynthesis from sunlight.. The research comes from the ‘RIPE’ project (Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency) based primarily at the US University of Illinois, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and UK government. In short, scientists have tweaked a soy bean defence mechanism to increase the amount of sunlight which is used for photosynthesis. When sunlight gets too intense, the plants activate a defence mechanism that emits excess solar energy as heat energy. Such photoprotection is vital for plants, but it can take…

BIOSCIENCE Australia’s isolation has given us a trove of unique flora and fauna, but it also leaves our species vulnerable to threats from outside the ecosystem, be they diseases or invasive species. The geographic isolation of Australia’s black swans has meant limited exposure to global pathogens, leading to reduced immune diversity, warns Associate Professor Kirsty Short from UQ’s School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences. “Unlike Mallard ducks, for example, black swans are extremely sensitive to highly pathogenic avian influenza – HPAI, often referred to as bird flu – and can die from it within three days,” she says.“Our data suggests that should any avian viral infection become established in its native habitat, their survival would be in peril.” UQ generated the first chromosome-length annotated black and mute swan genomes, and the team…

THE UNIVERSE Some 18 billion kilometres from Earth’s surface is the ‘heliopause’ – the boundary between interstellar space and the huge gas bubble of electrically-charged particles that envelopes our Solar System, known as the heliosphere. The bubble is produced by solar winds constantly blowing particles out of the peripheral region, so protecting our Solar System from harmful radiation. Only two craft have ever travelled beyond the Solar System shield of the heliosphere, and so the region remains relatively unexplored. But now data from three different NASA craft have provided a more detailed look at the outskirts of our Solar System. It turns out that they are not as uniform as scientists had expected. In a new study published in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy, scientists led by Princeton University have studied data…

ANIMALS When the Chernobyl nuclear power plant’s Reactor 4 exploded in April 1986, it emitted some 400 times more radioactive material than the Hiroshima bomb. Although 37 years have passed since that fateful night, radioactive particles are still simmering in the green zone surrounding the molten reactor, now one of Europe’s biggest natural reserves for large groups of wolves, bears, and rare bird species. A study published by Spanish scientists who have researched the wildlife of the area thoroughly for years reveals how one of the animals has adapted to the new environment in a special way. In 2016 the scientists in the polluted zones began discovering frogs of the species Hyla orientalis (eastern tree frog) which had an unusual black colour. The frog normally has a bright light green back, although…