Category Archives: Nature

July 9, 2021

As Finland swelters in the summer heat, I started to wonder why exactly severe heat causes memory loss and overall cognitive confusion. An article in the Journal of Neuroinflammation suggests this is in part due to the activation of non-neuronal cells in the nervous system:

Together, these findings suggest that heat stress can lead to activation of glial cells and induction of inflammatory molecules in the hippocampus, which may act as causative factors for memory loss, neuronal death, and impaired adult neurogenesis.

February 16, 2019

Logs from a majestic pit of acid: Diving Belize’s Blue Hole with Erika Bergman

In November of 2018 Aquatica Submarines shipped a three person submarine, Stingray 500, across frosty North America on the back of a truck then over the rolling winter seas of the Gulf of Mexico to Belize aboard the R/V Brooks McCall. Our destination was a site located 7 miles into Lighthouse Reef – a perfect sinkhole in the ocean known as the Great Blue Hole. We traveled to this UNESCO World Heritage site to explore and document a geologic phenomenon in support of conservation science and to conduct outreach.

June 10, 2018
June 25, 2016

We know where the world’s loneliest species came from

The so-called Devils hole pupfish survives within one of the driest places in the world, in the heart of the Mojave desert in the US.

Each fish is less than one inch-long (2.5cm), and perhaps fewer than 50 individuals survive.

Even more remarkably, every member of this species has existed in the wild, since they first appeared thousands of years ago, within an area no bigger than the living room in your house.

March 18, 2016

The Sneaky Life of the World’s Most Mysterious Plant

This is rather fascinating: apparently, the Boquila trifoliolata vine is capable of mimicking the leaves of other plants in its vicinity. Thus far, no one has been able to explain exactly how it achieves this feat.