Ew, Antarctica is Dirty: Antarctic Lakes Full of Viruses

Alcami and his colleagues analyzed DNA from viruses found in water samples collected fromAntarctica's Lake Limnopolar, a surface lake on Livingston Island. They found nearly 10,000 species, including some small DNA viruses that had never before been identified. In total, the viruses were from 12 different families, some of which may be completely new to science, the researchers suggest.

The results reveal this Antarctic lake supports a virus community that's more diverse than most aquatic environments studied in the world so far — a surprising find considering that the polar region is generally thought to have low biological diversity due to the extreme environmental conditions. The scientists speculate the newly discovered viruses may have adapted specifically to thrive in such harsh conditions.

The team also found the community of viruses changed dramatically depending on the season. When the lake was ice-covered in the spring, the liquid water under the ice was inhabited by mostly small viruses, but in the summer months when the ice melted, the lake was home to mostly larger viruses.

"It looks like a completely different lake in summer," Alcami said. The scientists think the shift might be due to an increase in algae in the summertime, which the larger viruses infect.

The researchers hope to figure out whether any of the viruses are unique to Antarctica. If so, that would shed light on whether microbial life evolved independently in Antarctica, which has been isolated for millions of years, or they were introduced there more recently.

Cows Must Diet to Curb Flatulence

We all have heard about how livestock are one of the worse culprits of global warming. Cows produce up to 250-500 liters of methane a day, which warms the earth 20x faster than carbon dioxide. Also, as one can imagine, there is a lot of energy used in releasing this gas which makes the animals less efficient. The sheer number of livestock in the world plus their extreme gassyness requires some sort of solution before the world is warm and/or stinky from cow farts.

One solution is eat less meat. Yeah right.

Another way is put them on a diet by adding oil or a compoung called tannin to feed which lessens methane formation. "Mootral" is an additive that reduces bacteria essential to methane formation and is being commercially developed.

Although this would help reduce global warming, produce better cows and more profitable farms, there are several obstacles:

1. The various populations of livestock in the world require different additives based on where they are located and their food source.
2. Legislation and regulation of feed additives. There are already bans on antibiotic and hormone use in certain countries.

Hopefully some kind of solution will pass to produce a cooler and less stinky world.

From the NO, REALLY Files: "Houseplants Make Air Healthier"

As reported from LiveScience.com:

Houseplants can absorb harmful ground-level ozone and break it down internally. Scientists placed three common houseplants in chambers filled with 10 the normal amount of ozone and timed how long it took for the plants to reduce the ozone to 3% of the initial amount. The plants did so in 50minutes while it took empty chambers 75minutes for the ozone to dissipate.

I in yo office, eetin yo ozone. Nom nom nom.

Ozone high up in the atmosphere forms the ozone layer which prevents us from getting burnt to a crisp from UV-light. Ground-level ozone is harmful and is a component of smog.

Although this is a bigger problem in developing countries because of poor ventilation, offices have copier machines and printers that increase indoor ozone concentrations. In the future, researchers hope to hold more realistic studies by testing how many plants you would need to have a significant reduction and which plants are more efficient at breaking down the ozone.

Forget D.C., Giant Rats Found In Rainforest.

Remember The Princess Bride? Westley and Buttercup had to make their way through the dense forest and encountered these giant M.F-ers?

Well, get ready kids, because this is reality:

Once again, proving if you want some scary sh!t you will go to a rainforest. Scientists found this giant rodent in a remote area of Papua New Guinea. Nose to tail, it is 32.2in and about 3.3lbs. Along with finding a rat "the size of a cat," the researchers from BBC Natural History Unit found about 30 new species including frogs, bats and insects. Although technically the largest rodent in the world is the capybara, which looks like a giant guinea big, I think this one is more traumatizing. Let's hope they can't swim to the mainland.

We Can Totally Solve Global Warming With Space Mirrors

From TIME.com-Can geoengineering help slow global warming?

Global warming is happening.

And scientists are trying to think of ways to combat it before we all suffocate to death. One way is geoengineering which is basically we are going to cool the earth... somehow. Most of the ideas revolve around controlling the solar radiation coming at us.

Method 1: Shooting sulfur particles into the atmosphere with "artillery" (giant cannons??) or airplanes that will thicken the air, therefore blocking some of the sun
Downside: Must be done continuously. Particles eventually will either disseminate or fall out of the sky. Acid rain-We won't be hot, but we also won't have skin. Change in precipitation patterns.

Method 2:Shoot seawater mists at low clouds to reflect the sun. "Relatively" cheap--about $9billion to combat a "century's worth of global warming"
Downside: Salty clouds? Raining fish?

Method 3: Giant space mirrors. No, seriously.
Downside: Unaligned rogue mirror may laser us in half. But at least it would be less hot right?

As you can see, scientists are....getting there. They have yet to have a definitive answer, but at least we are getting creative.