Day: August 21, 2021

Curiositys, Eco, Future, Health, Planet, UKLeave a comment

Why is the Gulf Stream slowing down and what does it mean for the future of the UK’s climate?

Fernando Kaskais

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation ocean current plays a key role in the climate of the UK, and it’s shifting. By Jason Goodyer What exactly is the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)? The simplest idea of it is just these very large-scale ocean currents in the top thousand metres of the Atlantic. That’s kind of a system of currents that transports warm, salty water northwards throughout the Atlantic and then at high latitude, in the subpolar North Atlantic, the water gets cold, becomes dense and it sinks down to below a thousand metres and it flows back southwards. It’s a loop … Continue reading Why is the Gulf Stream slowing down and what does it mean for the future of the UK’s climate?

Curiositys, Future, Health, ScienceLeave a comment

Why the coronavirus has changed as it has, and what it means going forward

Fernando Kaskais

By Andrew Joseph   It’s impossible to say how the coronavirus will continue to evolve. Those changes, after all, are a result of random mutations. But there are some fundamental principles that explain why the virus has morphed as it has, principles that could guide our understanding of its ongoing evolution — and what that means for our future with the pathogen. The great fear is that nature could spit out some new variant that completely saps the power of vaccines and upends the progress we’ve made against the pandemic. But to virologists and immunologists, such a possibility seems very unlikely. That’s not to … Continue reading Why the coronavirus has changed as it has, and what it means going forward