There’s strong evidence that babies inherit their gut microbiomes from their mothers, but it’s been unclear if the microbiome transmission takes place in the womb, at birth, or after birth; there are likely multiple paths of transmission unfolding over time. Microbial diversity is crucial to building up many functions, including the immune system, digestion, and even combating complex diseases. Recent research has found a connection between our gut microbiomes and our mental health as well.
However, studying the direct transmission of these microbes and identifying the strains of bacteria has been difficult until recently. Now researchers at the Centre for Integrative Biology at the University of Trento (UoT), Italy, have developed methods to track this microbial “vertical transmission,” as it’s called, and made some new discoveries in their methodological study, published in mSystems, an open access journal from the American Society for Microbiology.
“We know the infant increases [its] microbial diversity after birth and will continue doing so until being an adult,” senior study author Nicola Segata, an assistant professor at UoT, tells mental_floss. “We needed to understand from where microbes are coming in the first place.”
Many microbes are likely transmitted from mother to infant at birth and just after birth through direct contact with the birth canal, the skin, and through breast milk, but they had not yet done thorough investigations of the strains of bacteria to corroborate this. This is also important in the case of identifying the transmission of microbes that are dangerous to the infant’s health, such as Group B Streptococcus, which can cause an infection, and even death, in infants.
Segata explains, “Our contribution is really tracking which bacteria are moving from mother to infant. It was already known that certain microbes were present in the mother and infant but each had a different strain of, say, E. coli or Bifidobacterium. We looked to see if mothers and infants had the same strain of E. coli, or if it was a different strain from other infants and mothers.”
Taking fecal and breast milk samples from five mother-infant pairs when the infants were 3 months, 10 months, and, for one pair, at 16 months of age, Segata and his team used a technique called shotgun metagenomic sequencing of 24 microbiome samples of either fecal or breastmilk samples to determine which microbes were present. (This technique makes it possible to sample genes from all organisms in a sample.) Then they used another method known as metatranscriptomics to study RNA in fecal samples to identify active microbes.
“Each mother and infant pair had different strains of bacteria, but when you match each mother and her infant, they have the same strain, so this is strong evidence of the strain coming from the mother,” Segata says.
Another important discovery, Segata says, is that “these strains acquired from the mother are also active in the infant gut, they are alive. It’s important that the strains moving from mother to infant are active, colonizing.”
While this study allowed them to say confidently, “We can track microbe transmission from mother to infant,” Segata says their next study will allow them to identify which microbes, and whether they will survive in the infant gut.
Sara Rivers-Cofield has something a little unsavory sitting on her desk: a fragile, round-tipped sheath dug out of an abandoned well that she thinks could be the oldest surviving condom in North America.
A curator at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, or MAC Lab, Rivers-Cofield found the suspected condom in April 2015 when she was looking for artifacts to put in an exhibit tied to the time-travel TV series Outlander. The English goods that dominated 18th century colonial Maryland are comparable with objects featured in the scenes depicting 1740s Scotland, she says.
In search of a silk ribbon for the exhibit, Rivers-Cofield went to a cabinet at MAC Lab containing small organic items that had been found in a well decades ago at Oxon Hill Manor, a slave-owning plantation just south of Washington, D.C., overlooking the Potomac River. The well was used as a trash pit between the 1720s and 1750s. When it was excavated in the 1980s, archaeologists found an array of household garbage, including bottle corks, tobacco leaves, broken porcelain dishes, grass clippers, wooden pieces of musical instruments, and cloth and silk fragments.
She also came across an object labeled “paper?” Immediately, she thought: condom.
“In terms of its dimensions, it’s clearly the right shape and everything,” Rivers-Cofield told mental_floss. “I had seen 18th-century references to condoms, so I knew it was a possibility. My guess would be that whoever originally treated the artifact was probably reminded of a condom, too, but maybe they didn’t know [condoms] could date back to the 18th century. The artifact just needed someone who had seen those period references to make the connection.”
Humans have been using condoms made from animal guts and bladders for thousands of years to prevent pregnancy and, eventually, disease. But given the private (and biodegradable) nature of early condoms, it’s probably not surprising that there aren’t many examples from the archaeological record. The world’s oldest surviving condoms date back to the 1640s: a pig intestine condom found complete with its user manual in Sweden, and another 10 condoms that were excavated from a latrine at Britain’s Dudley Castle.
“Our one example is probably more of a fluke of survival than having anything to do with whether condoms were actually here,” Rivers-Cofield said. “I’m sure they must have been here.”
Historical records suggest that by the 18th century, condoms were widespread in Europe. (It’s also around this time that condoms were first mentioned in English medical literature—in a book about gonorrhea by the unfortunately named William Cockburn.) They were sold in markets, pubs, brothels, and barbershops, much to the predictable dismay of the era’s moralists. In 1705, John Campbell, the 2nd Duke of Argyll, unsuccessfully tried to get the contraceptives banned in Britain. He even brought a linen condom to the floor of the Parliament and waved it around proclaiming that the devices were “debauching of a great number of Ladies of qualitie, and young gentlewomen.”
Others reveled in the debauchery afforded by condoms, and writers in the 18th century came up with plenty of euphemisms—night caps, French letters, machines, preservatives—to talk about the devices. Scottish writer James Boswell wrote about using “armor” in his outdoor dalliances with sex workers in London. Legendary Italian womanizer Giacomo Casanova spoke of using “English raincoats” during his trysts. He even claims he found condoms in the drawer of a French nun he was having an affair with.
Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) and a male pal entertain their lady friends by blowing up condoms like balloons in this engraving from an 1872 book, published nearly a century after Casanova died. Image Credit: Library of Congress // Public Domain
Meanwhile, the American colonies, thanks to their puritanical origins, had a reputation for being rather sexually constrained. In her book The Humble Little Condom, Aine Collier notes that there aren’t many references to colonial condom use in the mid-18th century. It wasn’t until the few decades after the American Revolution that condoms started to be openly sold and discussed in metropolitan centers like New York and Philadelphia. But even then, the subject was a little taboo. A French immigrant who found success selling fine Parisian condoms at his bookshop in Philadelphia in the 1790s still had to pay ships’ captains to smuggle his wares to the U.S., according to Collier’s book.
Rivers-Cofield said there are no sources that talk about condom use in the Chesapeake region in the first half of the 18th century. The Addison family who owned Oxon Hill was a wealthy bunch of merchants and planters with access to the trade networks that presumably would have allowed them to order condoms from a major production center like London.
But Rivers-Cofield isn’t hopeful that she’ll find a paper trail that leads her to an answer about who used this condom and why. “I don’t think it’s going to show up in a probate inventory,” Rivers-Cofield said. “I don’t think it’s going to show up in a ship’s bill of lading. I don’t think we’re going to figure out all of the secrets of it because it’s a private object. I would presume that because it is a private object that this would have surreptitiously been thrown in the well. But again, I don’t really know how open people there were about sexuality. Is it possible that the women were like, ‘Listen I need a break from the kids for a little bit?’ There are so many possibilities.”
She presented her discovery earlier this month at the annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology in Fort Worth, Texas. Now she’s hoping to find a willing biology student to help her confirm with a DNA test that the suspected condom is really made from sheep’s gut.
Snow falls over Horse Guards Parade on January 13, 2017 in London. The Met Office has issued a yellow “be aware” warning for much of the country. Image Credit: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Getty Images.
While the United States deals with its usual conga line of snow and ice storms that are a frequent visitor in the middle of winter, our closest ally across the pond found itself in the midst of an unusual situation: not only did parts of typically temperate Great Britain see a decent amount of snow this week, but the snow was accompanied by thunder. Parts of the United Kingdom experienced thundersnow as a potent winter storm brought heavy precipitation, blustery winds, and the threat of significant coastal flooding to Scotland and England.
A strong ripple in the jet stream allowed a low-pressure system to develop near Scotland and work its way down the eastern English coast late this week, bringing more than half a foot of snow to higher elevations of Scotland and coating areas as far south as London with a light dusting of snow. That doesn’t sound like much, but just like bigger cities in the United States, even a small amount of snow can cause mass chaos if it hits at the wrong time. The storm led to mass flight cancellations, snarled highway traffic, and even caused thousands of evacuations along the coast, where authorities worried that a storm surge—sea water pushed inland by strong winds—would inundate coastal communities.
But the adverse impacts of the snowstorm were overshadowed in news coverage by that unusual buzzword: thundersnow. Thundersnow occurs during a thunderstorm that produces snow instead of rain. The mechanisms that produce rainy thunderstorms and snowy thunderstorms are largely the same, even if the air temperature is below freezing.
A band of snow can become strong enough to produce lightning through two processes known as convection and forcing. Convection occurs when an area of warm air quickly rises through cooler air above it. Convective snow is most common during lake effect snow events like those you’d find on Lake Ontario or Lake Erie, since the process requires extreme vertical temperature gradients that can result from bitterly cold air flowing over a warm body of water.
The other process, known as forcing, is what caused the thundersnow in the United Kingdom this week. A strengthening low-pressure system involves fast, dynamic changes in the atmosphere, especially when one of these storm systems quickly gains strength. Such a fast-developing storm can cause large amounts of lift in the atmosphere, a process that forces air to swiftly rise like you’d see during convection. This creates intense bands of snow that can grow so strong that they produce thunder and lightning. This process is responsible for the thundersnow that occurs during blizzards and nor’easters, those powerful storms that regularly hit the U.S. East Coast during the winter. Thundersnow can be pretty exciting—just ask The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore:
The name “thundersnow” can be a bit misleading. One of the most enjoyable things about a snowfall is how silent it is outside when there’s a thick blanket of snow on the ground. Snow absorbs sound waves so efficiently that you can usually only hear ambient noises immediately around where you’re standing. Snow muffles the sound of thunder for the same reason. Thunder that might be audible for many miles during a rainy thunderstorm might only be audible for a few thousand feet away from where the lightning struck. Unless the lightning strikes very close to where you are, you might only see a bright flash during thundersnow without ever hearing the thunder.
While thundersnow is a fascinating phenomenon to encounter, it does involve lightning, after all, and it’s just as dangerous as any other lightning bolt you’d see in a rainy thunderstorm. If you’re ever lucky enough to experience thundersnow, the event is best enjoyed indoors and out of harm’s way.
Abandoned vehicles line an exit ramp along I-75 South during the winter storm January 29, 2014 in Atlanta. Drivers and kids on school buses were stuck in their vehicles overnight. Image Credit: Daniel Shirey/Getty Images
A significant winter storm will stun parts of the southeastern United States overnight on Friday, January 6, greeting the first full weekend of the new year with a crust of snow from the fields of Alabama to the beaches of Virginia. The storm could produce amounts of snow this region only sees once or twice a decade, potentially snarling traffic and leading to widespread business closings. And as if the snow isn’t bad enough, a bitter cold snap will follow soon after and make post-storm cleanup even more challenging.
The snow and ice will start on Friday afternoon as a low-pressure system comes together at the surface due to a strong jet stream streaking overhead from west to east. Winds swirling around the low will help drag Arctic air as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, ensuring that most of the precipitation that falls across the south on Friday and Saturday falls in the form of snow, sleet, or freezing rain.
Folks in Alabama and Georgia can expect the wintry precipitation to begin before sundown on Friday and last through the nighttime hours. The heaviest snow and ice will reach the Carolinas and Virginia after sunset on Friday and last through Saturday morning, ending from west to east as the storm trudges out to sea.
The Weather Prediction Center’s snowfall forecast from the morning of January 6, 2017, through the morning of January 9. Image Credit: Dennis Mersereau
Meteorologists expect this storm to be a nuisance in Alabama and Georgia and a genuine thumping as you head farther north along the coast. Central Alabama can expect a general dusting of snow with localized higher amounts, while a couple of inches of snow are likely across adjacent parts of Georgia. Atlanta is understandably jittery about even a small blanket of the white stuff given how frozen precipitation has paralyzed the city in recent years. Small amounts of snow can readily freeze into a sheet of ice on heavily trafficked roads, bringing vehicles to a standstill and stranding commuters for many hours before help arrives.
The heaviest snow is expected to fall along a stretch of land that extends from about Charlotte, North Carolina, through Norfolk, Virginia. This is where forecasters expect the greatest mixture of cold air, deep moisture, and upward lift to generate hours of steady—and at times heavy—snowfall. Close to 6 inches of snow are possible in many of these locations, with some totals closer to 1 foot possible between Raleigh, North Carolina, and the Virginia beaches.
A sloppy mixture of snow, ice, and plain old rain is possible closer to the coast where temperatures will be warmer. A thin glaze of ice is possible from central Alabama through eastern parts of the Carolinas by the end of the storm. Even though ice accretions are expected to measure just a few hundredths of an inch, any coating of ice will make roads and sidewalks slick and potentially impassable.
The National Weather Service’s forecast low temperatures, in degrees Fahrenheit, for the morning of Monday, January 9, 2016. Image Credit: NWS EDD
The hazards don’t end with the snow. Temperatures for several days after the skies clear out will be brutally cold compared to normal, approaching record territory in some spots. Low temperatures on Sunday night will likely reach the single digits as far south as Charlotte, North Carolina, with some communities pushing zero degrees before sunrise. Temperatures will likely remain below freezing from Friday night until Tuesday afternoon across areas where the thickest blanket of snow falls, complicating cleanup efforts and making rush hour on Monday and Tuesday a dicey bet. Snow that isn’t removed from roads and sidewalks soon after it falls risks freezing into thick layers of solid ice as the sun melts it and subfreezing temperatures refreeze the meltwater.
The South’s inability to cope with even the tiniest snowfall is a running joke in the rest of the country, but this typically mild region just isn’t equipped to deal with significant amounts of winter weather. Many factors play into this unique problem, including inadequate infrastructure and the simple fact that people just aren’t used to winter driving. The saving grace with this storm should be that the bulk of the hazardous weather will occur overnight on a weekend, minimizing traffic congestion and disruption to everyday life.
This storm has been well-advertised since the beginning of this week, and stores started running out of bread and milk as soon as Wednesday afternoon. People certainly know it’s coming. Still, this storm could cause unexpected disruptions where the forecast doesn’t hit the mark. Exact snow and ice accumulations depend on the track that this storm takes. A tiny shift to the north or south in the storm’s track could result in the bands of heaviest snow setting up farther north or south of where forecasters and models think it’ll set up right now. A track error of just 25 miles could mean that towns expecting a light snowfall could get slammed while cities expecting to spend an afternoon shoveling might get lucky and not see much at all. As with everything in life, prepare for the worst but hope for the best.
A 6th-century mosaic at Mount Nebo, Jordan, a pilgrimage destination because it was said to be where Moses was buried. Image Credit: Jerzy Strzelecki via Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0
Archaeology might raise more questions about the Bible than it answers, but that doesn’t stop millions of religious tourists from flocking to the Holy Land every year to try to walk in the footsteps of figures like Jesus and Moses. Here are nine sites of biblical importance beyond the Old City of Jerusalem.
1. MEGIDDO
Some apocalyptically minded Christians might head to Megiddo, also known as Armageddon, to see the place where the Book of Revelation says earthly armies will fight their last battle during the end times. But Megiddo has already seen its fair share of action. There are 26 layers of archaeological ruins here—including a Canaanite city, an Egyptian citadel, and a Persian city—and it’s listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
European archaeologists first became interested in the settlement of Qumran, near the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, in the 19th century. It has ruins dating back to the Iron Age and hundreds of graves. But the site became world famous in the 1940s after the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in caves carved into the desert cliffs just opposite Qumran. The manuscripts are among the oldest surviving pieces of the Old Testament.
3. HAZOR
The archaeological record tells us that the Late Bronze Age was a time of great unrest in the Eastern Mediterranean, causing once-powerful cultures like the Hittites and Mycenaeans to suddenly collapse. According to the Old Testament, this period is also the backdrop for Joshua’s conquest of Canaan after the death of Moses. One of his key victories came at Hazor in Upper Galilee, and the Book of Joshua claims that he spared no mercy in sacking the city: “He put to the sword all who were in it, utterly destroying them; there was none left that breathed, and he burned Hazor with fire.” It’s a matter of debate whether layers of burned material at Hazor can be really be attributed to Joshua and the Israelites, or if the battle is largely myth. Excavations are ongoing and the sprawling ruins of the city are now a national park in Israel.
4. MACHAERUS
This hilltop fortress in Jordan is famous as the site of a fateful 1st century CE birthday party for Herod Antipas. Princess Salome supposedly danced for her stepfather Herod in the courtyard, and he was so pleased that he promised to give her anything she asked for. Beware of biblical promises: Salome asked for the head of St. John the Baptist, who at the time was already imprisoned in Machaerus, and Herod complied. The story is recounted in the gospel and by the Roman historian Flavius Josephus; the site is also important to Muslims who know St. John the Baptist as Prophet Yahyaibn Zakariyya. Visitors today can walk through the ruins of the Herodian royal castle overlooking the Dead Sea. Over the past decade, Jordanian and Hungarian archaeologists have been uncovering more of the citadel and reconstructing features like columns.
The town of Beersheba in the Negev desert is an important biblical-era “tel,” or an artificial mound that has formed over many generations as old earthen buildings disintegrated and new ones were built. According to the Old Testament, the city was founded when the Jewish patriarch Abraham settled a deal over a well with the Philistine king Abimelech. Visitors to the ruins today might not be able to see Abraham’s well, but they can see the drains and cisterns of the ancient city’s impressive water system which dates back to the Iron Age.
6. MOUNT NEBO
Moses climbed this peak to get a view of the Promised Land, according to the Book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah. Some believe this site, which is in modern-day Jordan, is also the place Moses was buried, and it became a place of pilgrimage for early Christians. A group of monks built a church on the mountain in the 4th century, but the ruins of this building were only rediscovered in the 1930s. Some ornate 6th-century mosaics (see the top image) are still preserved there.
7. BETHLEHEM
Biblical accounts claim Bethlehem, now in the Palestinian West Bank, is the birthplace of Jesus. So it’s no surprise that on Christmas, Christians flock to Manger Square, located near the Church of the Nativity, which was built (and rebuilt) over the cave where Jesus is said to have been born. Jews have also historically made pilgrimages to Bethlehem to see the tomb of the Hebrew matriarch Rachel. Rachel’s Tomb is also considered holy to Christians and Muslims. Access to the site has been a point of political contention between Israel and Palestine.
Ancient Petra is one of the most spectacular sites in the Middle East, famous for its rock-cut facades built by the Nabataeans. Archaeologists are still uncovering new monuments in the city. This location, in modern-day Jordan, also intersects with biblical history. The surrounding valley is called the Valley of Moses, or Wadi Musa, and according to biblical tradition, this is the place where Moses hit a rock and brought forth water for his followers. The supposed tomb of Aaron, Moses’ brother, is located nearby.
9. MOUNT SINAI
In the Book of Exodus, Mount Sinai, in modern-day Egypt, is the place where Moses encounters God in the form of a burning bush and receives the 10 Commandments. St. Catherine’s Monastery was built below the peak, and thanks to its isolation in the desert, the compound has preserved some early Christian treasures, including a house full of monk skeletons.
You may think of your body as home to only one organism: you. But you actually host trillions of microbes, mainly bacteria, fungi and viruses, comprising their own individual microbiomes—ecosystems—too small to be seen with the naked eye.
Before you rush off to take a shower, consider that these living colonies in your body work in synergy with you to keep you healthy. Studying them can reveal imbalances in health, and offer avenues of treatment for a wide range of physical and mental health problems. Your microbiome is so unique to you, it could one day replace the fingerprint ID. And when artists interpret this amazing world, the results can be simply beautiful. Here are 10 mysteries revealed about the human microbiome.
1. YOU ARE MORE BACTERIA THAN HUMAN.
Bacterial cells are so prolific in our bodies, that they outnumber our human cells 10 to 1. It’s only because they’re so microscopically tiny that we don’t notice their presence.
2. YOUR THROAT MICROBIOME MIGHT REVEAL IF YOU ARE LIKELY TO DEVELOP SCHIZOPHRENIA.
A recent study done at George Washington University found a notable difference in the throat microbiomes of schizophrenics as compared to healthy controls. In particular, they found high levels of lactic-acid bacteria and “an increased number of metabolic pathways related to metabolite transport systems including glutamate, and vitamin B12.” While there is much more research to be done, this information has potential applications for biomarkers that could detect and diagnose schizophrenia with a simple swab test, possibly before symptoms occur.
3. YOUR GUT MICROBIOME AFFECTS YOUR MOOD.
Several studies have tested the effects of bacteria lactobacillus and bifidobacterium on mice and humans. In one study, mice fed these bacteria showed less anxiety or despair (measured by how willing mice are to rescue themselves when dropped into jars of water), which they compared to how mice behaved when given the anti-depressant drug Prozac. In another study, mice treated with the probiotics performed better on cognitive tests, including navigating mazes, and object recognition tests. And in the biggest known human study, a group of 25 healthy women ate yogurt with live bacteria every day for four weeks. Compared to the control group, the yogurt eaters had “calmer” reactions to images of facial expressions. Researchers are still trying to pinpoint how these good bacteria improve the mood; theories include activating compounds like serotonin, stimulating the vagus nerve, which releases the natural calming agent acetylcholine, and simply sending calming signals to the immune and nervous systems. Researchers hope that one day common psychiatric disorders could be treated with probiotics as well as drugs.
4. THE MICROBIOTA OF YOUR SKIN HELP PROTECT AGAINST INVADERS.
The exterior surface of human skin is home to as many as 300 strains of bacteria. These microbes are intricately linked to your immune system, helping you defend against invading pathogens. While their intentions aren’t selfless—they are, after all, protecting their home—you receive multiple benefits: helping you heal wounds, control skin inflammation, and modulate T cells and interleukin-1, key compounds that fight infection, according to the National Human Genome Institute.
5. GREATER BACTERIAL BIODIVERSITY IS LINKED TO LOWER ALLERGIES.
If you’re looking for another reason to clean your house less often, more research points to allowing for more bacterial diversity in your home, and connects a reduction in bacterial biodiversity to an increase in allergies. Chemicals that clean floors and toilets also kill good bacteria—better to use “natural” agents like baking soda and vinegar, or to stress less over a slightly dirty floor, the dog sleeping on your bed, or using hand sanitizer for dirty hands. Other research suggests that reduced interaction with the natural world is also responsible for a rise in allergies. So go for a hike, and get dirty.
6. YOU HAVE BACTERIA DNA IN YOUR GENES.
According to a study done by the University of Cambridge, as many as 145 of the genes in your human genome are bacteria genes that have used a process known as horizontal gene transfer to “jump” into human DNA over the course of our evolution.
7. YOUR DOMINANT HAND HOSTS DIFFERENT BACTERIA THAN YOUR NON-DOMINANT HAND.
Though you have approximately the same number of bacteria on each of your hands, research done at George Washington University has found that the colonies are different from hand to hand, suggesting that your dominant hand, with which you are likely to do more things, comes in contact with a different set of bacteria than the other hand.
8. BACTERIA HAVE GENDER PREFERENCES.
Men always take heat for being dirtier than women, but it might be true, in a way. At the very least, the bacteria Corynebacterium—usually found in the armpit and responsible for the pungent odor—prefers male chemistry. It’s 80 percent more abundant on male skin than on female skin, according to a study published in the journal PNAS. But Enterobacteriales is 400 percent more abundant on women, and Lactobacillaceae (primarily found in the mouth and the vagina) is 340 percent more abundant. In general, the palms of women were found to have greater bacterial diversity than the palms of men. Some explanations for this diversity may have to do with the slightly different Ph balance between male and female skin, differences in sweat and sebum (oil) production, and the frequency of moisturizer or cosmetics use.
9. YOUR BELLY BUTTON HAS ITS OWN MICROBIOME.
There are more than 1400 strains of bacteria that call your “inny” home, with as many as 662 of those not previously identified by science until the Belly Button Biodiversity Project analyzed them. And in case you were wondering, “outies” are the same.
10. YOUR FIRST MICROBIOME CONTACT WAS IN UTERO.
For years, science considered the uterus of a pregnant woman a sterile environment, but new research published in Science Translational Medicine revealed that placentas have a unique microbiome that is different from any other part of the body (though most similar to the microbiome of the mouth). Contact with their mothers’ placentas, and the umbilical cord that attaches them, offers babies their first exposure to the bacteria that will soon colonize and support their own small bodies. Understanding this particular microbiome may also help researchers learn more to treat in utero infections and preterm births.
Last month’s supermoon: on November 14, you could see it rising above Athens through the propylaea of the Acropolis. Image Credit: AFP/Aris Messinis/Getty Images
You might be sick to death of hearing about “supermoons.” If that’s the case, I bring good news: tonight, December 13, you’ll see the final supermoon of 2016. If you’re not sick of them, I also bring good news, because you have one more supermoon to see.
Of course, where there is good news there is bad, and it’s this: The supermoon will make it very difficult to catch the Geminid meteor shower, which peaks tonight. Don’t give up, however; because of the sheer volume of meteors that comprise the Geminids, you might see some shooting across the sky.
WHAT IS A SUPERMOON?
Before last year, when the red harvest supermoon took over the world, you might never have heard of a supermoon. And now we’ve had three in a row to close out the year: October’s super hunter’s moon, November’s super beaver moon, and now December’s full cold or long nights supermoon. This is true in part because supermoon is not an astronomy term, but rather, one of astrology. (In case you are wondering about the difference: astronomy is science; astrology is make believe.) The name has stuck of late because it’s Twitter-friendly and a lot easier to remember than the actual name for the phenomenon: perigee-syzygy of the Earth–Moon–Sun system.
If you want to understand what’s going on and why there are so many supermoons recently, you really do need to look at the proper name. Perigee occurs when the Moon is closest to the Earth in an orbit. Remember: the Moon’s orbit is not a perfect circle; rather, it’s elliptical. Sometimes it’s close to Earth. Sometimes it’s farther away.
Syzygy means three celestial objects are in alignment. (It can be the Sun, Earth, and Moon, but it might be the Sun, Venus, and Earth, for example, when astronomers can view Venus cross the solar disc.) So when do the Earth, Sun, and Moon experience syzygy? In one of two instances: either the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth (that’s a new moon, because from our vantage, the Moon is completely black; the far side of the Moon is in full illumination) or the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon (a full moon, when the Sun’s rays are lighting the side we see).
Bear in mind that this does not mean perfect alignment. The phases of the moon have nothing to do with the Earth’s shadow.
So a perigee-syzygy of the Earth–Moon–Sun system means an alignment that occurs when the Moon is near to the Earth. It could be a full moon. It could be a new moon. Easy, right? Inasmuch as a made-up term from a made-up belief system can have a proper definition, a supermoon generally means a full moon.
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY SUPERMOONS THIS YEAR?
Not every full moon is at perigee (or its opposite, apogee, when the Moon is farthest from the Earth). The lunar cycle—the number of days it takes the Moon to experience each of its phases, new moon to new moon—lasts about 29 and a half days. Every 14 lunar cycles, the full moon coincides with perigee.
Supermoons tend to come in threes, however. The reason is that the full moons preceding and succeeding perigee-syzygy are still inordinately close to the Earth, and thus appear a lot larger than normal. Moons that are 224,641 miles or closer to the Earth are considered supermoons. The result: a supermoon trifecta, three in a row.
So if you’ve experienced supermoon overload this year, take comfort that it’ll be more than a year before you have to hear the term again. Enjoy it: 2016 has been a year of wildly unexpected and sometimes awful events. Something as predictable and wonderful as the cosmos can be a great comfort indeed.
Be savvy about the snow forecast and you’ll know whether you should hunker down indoors or go outside and play, like Ziggy and Brody here. Image Credit: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Winter weather forecasts can be as daunting as the icy mess itself. Watching snow creep into the forecast is as delightful for some as it is stressful for others. But whether you’re rooting for it or wishing it’d go away, trying to read a snow or ice forecast isn’t always straightforward unless you’re a diehard weather enthusiast. Thankfully, it’s easy to cut through the noise and become a savvy consumer of snow predictions with a little bit of knowledge—and a healthy dose of skepticism.
1. WEATHER MODELS ARE NOT INFALLIBLE.
Weather models are an incredibly useful tool that help us predict the weather better than ever before, but these advanced computer simulations are not immune to making huge mistakes every once in a while. We run into this issue before every major weather event, but the problem of people treating weather models like the ultimate truth is even more pronounced before a big snowstorm.
Meteorologists usually call these weather models “guidance” for good reason. Each model has its own biases and flaws that only trained meteorologists know to spot and account for when making their forecasts. Some weather models have a hard time figuring out how much snow or ice will fall over certain areas. Even worse, if a model starts with bad data, it will push out a bad forecast.
Despite these flaws, snowfall accumulation maps posted to social media can go viral and collect millions of views before meteorologists have a chance to refute them. You should take maps produced by weather models with a grain of rock salt unless they’re accompanied by some sort of explanation from someone who knows their stuff.
2. NEVER TRUST AND ALWAYS VERIFY.
It’s easy to sound authoritative on the Internet. One of the big debates after the recent presidential election involved the influence that fake news websites had on voters’ beliefs. Unfortunately, that’s nothing new in the world of weather. Meteorologists have dealt with this problem for years. Anyone can create a social media account or a blog and talk about the weather with some cool maps and an official-sounding tone, but that doesn’t mean that the information they’re publishing is accurate.
You should always double- and triple-check your sources before believing or sharing weather information you find online, especially if the forecast calls for a significant storm. Do a little research into the author—it doesn’t take much more than one or two clicks to sniff out a phony forecaster. A general rule of thumb is that the less-reputable sources go to great lengths to tell you that they’re an “expert” rather than proving it to you with a record of accurate, dependable information.
3. BE SKEPTICAL OF OVERLY PRECISE FORECASTS.
It’s not always the fake news sources that tend to mislead you. Some television news stations have a nasty habit of making their products sound more advanced than they really are in order to draw in viewers. Every once in a while, some broadcast meteorologists like to show snowfall forecast maps with predictions down to one-tenth of an inch using values produced by their in-house weather models.
A snowfall forecast with precision down to the length of the nail on your pinky toe is good for show, but it isn’t good science. There are too many factors at play in most snowstorms to predict snowfall totals down to the exact inch, let alone throwing decimal points into the mix.
4. EXACT ACCUMULATIONS DON’T MATTER.
A desire for precision is understandable. We’d love to know exactly how much snow will fall during a storm, but the honest answer is that it really doesn’t matter. The best forecasts use a range of totals rather than exact numbers.
Snow only affects your life once it reaches certain depths. It only takes a dusting of snow to turn a road into an icy mess. A couple of inches of snow usually give you enough traction to slowly proceed with your daily life, but once depths exceed half a foot, it gets increasingly harder for pedestrians to walk and for vehicles to drive. In other words, there’s not much practical difference between 2 inches and 3 inches of snow—but there’s a big difference between 3 inches and 7 inches.
5. PAY ATTENTION TO UNCERTAINTY.
Meteorology is not an exact science. Since we have no way of knowing for certain what’s going to happen in the future, just about every weather forecast conveys some degree of uncertainty. Some weather events are more uncertain than others, and most high-impact snowstorms are usually on the extreme end of the uncertainty scale. Pay attention if your friendly neighborhood weatherperson tells you that things are looking iffy. There’s always a chance you could wind up with a lot less—or a lot more—snow or ice than you were expecting.
6. MANY FACTORS CAN AFFECT SNOW TOTALS.
Meteorologists talk about uncertainty for a reason. Predicting the future is hard work, and despite all our advanced technology, missing one subtle change in a storm can make a huge difference in the outcome. There are lots of reasons a snow forecast could go awry. Two of the most common causes of a broken snow forecast are dry air, which evaporates snow before it can reach the ground, and warm air, which can turn the snow into rain or ice. Even worse than finding less snow than you expected is getting slammed with a lot of it when you were expecting a light coating. Surprise snowstorms are less common today than they were just two decades ago, but they can happen if a storm veers off its expected course or a storm ingests more cold or moist air than expected.
It’s an inconvenient irony that some of the busiest travel days in the United States also happen to land right in the middle of the stormiest part of autumn. Since the beginning of this decade, we’ve only had one Thanksgiving travel period that wasn’t seriously marred by hazardous weather in any of the country’s largest travel hubs. This year looks like it’ll follow the pattern of Thanksgivings before it by producing just enough dreary, sloppy weather to cause some headaches.
Things are slowly starting to return to normal after the long stretches of strangely quiet weather that have blanketed the country for the past couple of months. It’s easy to forget that enjoyable weather is not normal in November when you can wear shorts on Election Day and keep your windows open the week before Thanksgiving, but that’s been our reality these days. November is supposed to be a gloomy, bone-chilling time of the year, and that miserable normalcy is back in place just in time for everyone to head to grandma’s for the long weekend.
Dreary weather will plague the Midwest and West Coast on Wednesday, November 23, 2016. Image Credit: NOAA/WPC
The wavy jet stream that’s bringing normal back will spawn a large low-pressure system in the central Plains on Wednesday morning, quickly making its way toward the Great Lakes as it gathers moisture and strength. The combination of cold, Arctic air to the north and warmish, moist air from the south will allow this system to produce everything from thunderstorms in the south to a chilly rain and a few mushy inches of snow in the north.
If you’re flying anywhere for the long Thanksgiving weekend, the ease of your travels will depend on where you’re going and, more importantly, where you’re connecting. Things are looking pretty good if you’re mostly staying along the East Coast, with weather-related delays at major hubs like Atlanta and Washington looking minimal leaving this week or coming back home this weekend.
Folks flying into or out of Chicago, Detroit, or Minneapolis on Wednesday and Thursday might encounter some delays due to low clouds, gusty winds, and occasionally heavy precipitation. The impending low-pressure system will produce a couple of inches of snow in the Upper Midwest, likely blanketing Minneapolis with a small coating of snow on Wednesday before the storm lifts out of the area on Thursday. The weather-related delays in these hubs shouldn’t be as severe as we’ve seen in years past, but even minor delays can cause disruptions that trickle through the system with such a packed schedule of flights coming and going.
Flights along the West Coast might see some weather delays as well. A fast-moving series of small storm systems will come ashore from the Pacific Ocean over the next five days, with each system bringing with it gusty winds, steady rainfall, and poor visibility during the worst conditions. The greatest impacts should be limited to Seattle and Portland, Oregon, but they could extend as far south as San Francisco on Wednesday night.
Driving across the stormy areas won’t be much of a treat, either. Make sure to check the forecast before you head out so you know what you’re driving into before you get there. If you’re not able to drive in the snow or rain, make alternate plans or see if you can get someone else to drive for you. The weather won’t be much worse than what you experience during a normal commute, but there will be more people on the highways than you’d see on a normal day, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time and space to get to your friends or family safely.
At Cape Canaveral, a crane lifts the GOES-R satellite to join it with the Atlas V Centaur rocket that will take it up into orbit. Image Credit: NASA/Ben Smegelsky via Flickr
The future of weather forecasting weighs more than 6000 pounds and is patiently spending its final days on Earth overlooking the glistening Florida coast. NASA will soon launch the latest addition to its arsenal of tools designed to help meteorologists track and predict the future movements of our fluid atmosphere. The GOES-R weather satellite will provide scientists around the world with a trove of data to monitor the latest movements of storms both near and far.
1. GOES-R IS THE MOST ADVANCED WEATHER SATELLITE TO DATE.
Barring any last-minute issues, GOES-R is scheduled to begin its journey on November 19 just after sunset from Cape Canaveral. GOES-R should have already been in space by now, but like many space projects before it, the new satellite’s launch has suffered several minor delays in the months leading up to launch.
The original launch date was November 4, but in a fitting sendoff for the country’s most advanced weather satellite to date, Hurricane Matthew’s terrifying brush with Florida pushed the launch back by a couple of weeks to November 16 due to safety checks. The launch was further delayed by a couple of days while crews worked out some issues with the booster rockets that will help GOES-R reach orbit.
2. IT WILL FOLLOW A GEOSYNCHRONOUS ORBIT.
The name “GOES” stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, a mouthful that alludes to the very orbit that makes these satellites so useful. Unlike many spacecraft that actively circle the Earth every hour or two, weather monitoring satellites like the GOES series are parked in a geosynchronous, or geostationary, orbit. Satellites that follow a geosynchronous orbit exactly match the speed at which the planet rotates, allowing the satellite to remain over one fixed point on the Earth’s surface. Scientists achieve this feat by sending satellites into orbit exactly 42,164 kilometers (26,199 miles) away from the center of the Earth—or about 36,000 kilometers (22,369 miles) above the surface at the equator—giving the satellite a consistent view of half the planet for its entire service life, which in this case is anticipated to be about 10 years.
3. GOES-R WILL BE IN GOOD COMPANY.
A map showing the locations and coverage area of the three GOES satellites in active service. Image credit: NOAA/NASA
We currently have three different GOES satellites that help us monitor the Western Hemisphere. The two satellites that are in active service are GOES-13 and GOES-15. The former satellite is commonly called GOES-East, while the latter is aptly known as GOES-West. Each satellite covers about half of the Western Hemisphere. GOES-East watches over most of North America, all of South America, and the Atlantic Ocean, while GOES-West primarily keeps tabs on the eastern Pacific Ocean and parts of western North America. GOES-14 serves as a backup satellite, filling in for the other two satellites if they encounter any issues.
4. IT’LL GIVE US A BETTER VIEW OF OUR SKIES THAN EVER BEFORE.
A low-pressure system in the western Atlantic Ocean as seen by GOES-East on November 10, 2016. Image credit: NASA/NOAA
The most important feature of GOES-R will be its Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), the device that will give us a more detailed view of the atmosphere much faster than its predecessors. The current generation of GOES satellites generate “full disk” images (meaning of the entire Earth face) every three hours and higher-resolution views every 15 minutes. In contrast, GOES-R and its successors will take full-disk images every 15 minutes and a higher-resolution image of the United States every five minutes. If there’s an active storm, it’ll take two images of it every 60 seconds. See it in action below.
The new satellite also has the ability to give us rapid scans of smaller areas—think on the level of a couple of states—to track events like tornado outbreaks or the eye of a hurricane. The satellite will be able to give us rapid updates for two small areas every 60 seconds or one small area every 30 seconds, which will be a tremendous help in tracking important changes in rapidly-developing weather systems.
GOES-R will also host a nifty device known as the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), making it the first satellite to track lightning flashes from geosynchronous orbit. The sensor will monitor the atmosphere for sudden flashes of light that indicate the presence of lightning, mapping this data to give us a near-real-time look at just about every thunderstorm within the satellite’s range of sight.
Among other uses, data collected by the GLM could help forecasters extend warning lead times ahead of intensifying severe thunderstorms, adding crucial minutes for people to act before dangerous wind, hail, or tornadoes strike their area. It’s also useful in helping us monitor rapid intensification of hurricanes, as increased lightning activity in the eyewall of a tropical cyclone often precedes strengthening.
6. IT HAS ADVANCED SOLAR MONITORING.
The satellite will also have several sensors dedicated to monitoring activity around the Sun, some of which can have serious implications here on Earth. The Extreme ultraviolet and X-ray Irradiance Sensors (EXIS) will help us track solar flares that could disrupt communications and potentially damage satellites. Several of the sensors will also measure different types of radiation approaching the planet, which can also damage satellites and pose harm to astronauts and even passengers on airline routes that travel over the poles.
7. GOES-R WILL BE RENAMED AFTER LAUNCH.
The GOES-R satellite in the payload processing facility two months before launch. Image Credit: NOAA Satellites via Flickr
It’s customary for GOES satellites to be named sequentially by letter before launch and by number after launch. Once it reaches a successful orbit and begins operation, GOES-R will become GOES-16. NOAA hasn’t decided which current satellite the new one will replace, though GOES-East is the odds-on favorite for replacement as it’s passed the end of its expected 10-year lifespan.
8. GOES SATELLITES HAVE A SIZEABLE FAMILY TREE.
GOES-R represents the fifth generation of GOES satellites, a series that began with the launch of GOES-1 back in 1975. Each new group of satellites improved by leaps and bounds over the previous generation. The first three satellites had limited abilities and provided limited data compared to what we can gather today; they took little more than a picture of the Earth. Each generation after that grew more advanced with improved image resolution, improved speed, more data points, and better data quality.
9. GOES-R IS THE FIRST OF THREE IN ITS GENERATION.
The next two satellites in GOES-R’s class are scheduled to launch before the end of the decade, finally phasing out the fourth generation of satellites in use today. Barring any major issues with GOES-R, the next satellite, GOES-S, is tentatively scheduled to launch in the winter of 2018, and GOES-T will follow behind it in the fall of 2019. After that, we have to wait until the middle of the 2020s to enjoy the technological advances of the series of satellites that will replace the one launching this Saturday.
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