Readers are discussing an unregulated scientist, a mutant bacterium named Chonkus, a new look of Science News

The life of a party

Margaret S. Collins, the first black entomologist in the United States to acquire a doctorate, overcome racism and sexism to become a field biologist and a Termito expert, Sciences Susan Milius reported Susan Milius in “Termito Pioneer. “

“I had the honor of knowing [Margaret S. Collins] In the early 1990s, when USA hired me at the National Museum, “wrote the research entomologist Dr. M. Alma Solis.” I have a lot of stories about her as a scientist in the museum, but one of the stories that I have never heard is anyone. Her ability to attract the attention and imagination of scientists at parties is associated. If there was a group of people around someone, you knew Margaret was reading his palms! She was very good at reading people and very funny. “

Dive deeper

The sea cyanobacterium called “Chonkus” stores a lot of carbon and quickly sink into the liquid. These traits promise a carbon sequence in the ocean to help fight climate change, the Earth writer and climate Carolyn Gramling reported in “Mutant cyanobacteria has an appetite for carbon. “

Reader Deborah Strod asked how much time it would take for carbon to take away this bacterium to return to the atmosphere.

The carbon cycling scale in the ocean can vary depending on many factors, including the depth of water. Generally, “If you sink organic carbon enough deep enough, it is expected that it will remain separated from the atmosphere for thousands of years,” says Microbiologist Max Schubert, earlier from the WYSS Institute at Harvard University. “The scientific question remains how much biomass is soaked in” from the ocean surface, he says.

Scientists are trying to measure this through models of fertilization of the ocean iron, the practice of fertilization of the ocean surface to increase the growth of phytoplacton. These organisms capture carbon throughout their lives and eventually sink to the seabed as they die.

Although the fertilization of ocean iron could help remove atmospheric carbon, it is some risks. The process can rob valid nutrients from the environment, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, potentially disrupting certain ocean ecosystems. “We were excited to see it [Chonkus] He accumulated a large amount of carbon polymers, “says Shubert, which can allow him to sink carbon” while looting fewer other nutrients on the road. “

On redesign

Scientific news‘January 2025. The edition revealed a new look, with multiple pages and visual elements, a puzzle with the topic of scientific topics and our usual comprehensive and detailed scientific reporting.

Some readers shared their first impressions.

“I love it,” Mark Waltz wrote. “I subscribed to most of my adult life and it is great to see your efforts to deliver the scientific news in what I am sure that the ecosystem of the news is still challenging.”

Joel Sanet wrote: “Most of my life I was a fan of words and mathematical puzzles … I invite you to continue posting them.” Acrostics, a kind of puzzle of words that reveal a coded message, “would provide even more opportunities for the involvement of science in traces and could result in a quote by a well -known scientist or in a scientific little thing,” Sanet added.