“By sequencing and comparing its genome against related species, the researchers discovered a coordinated set of adaptations.” First, the flies can generate small bursts of internal heat; experiments show that Chionea can produce heat (∼1°C), likely from mitochondria. Second, they exhibit a suite of mitochondrial and peroxisomal enzymes, as well as regulators of peroxisome-mitochondria interactions related to those involved in mammalian thermogenesis. Third, they produce antifreeze proteins [AFP] that prevent ice crystal formation; and they have dramatically reduced sensitivity to the cellular damage caused by cold-induced oxidative stress. Chioneahas had to evolve mechanisms to cope with high levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS), a byproduct of mitochondrial activity and a hallmark of cold exposure.

These findings reveal that extreme cold adaptation in insects involves multiple, interlocking molecular strategies. Source article: Curr. Biol. (2026) 10.1016/j.cub.2026.02.060

On skis or snowshoes, I have often halted to lean over + observe these crazily adapted insects. And muse on the fact that as a mammal I have to resort to multiple layers of clothing to survive in winter environments.

“Porter et al.o used receiver functions from a nodal seismic array to image magma storage beneath the San Francisco volcanic field located just outside the US city of Flagstaff in northern Arizona.” Field includes more than 600 dike-fed cinder cones but also a stratovolcano complex built from explosive eruptions. “The data show melt likely pooling at two crustal levels differing in composition and eruption style and controlled by a lateral change in plate thickness.”

If I’m interpreting this photo correctly, I have tagged some of the cinder cones, while the central part + left lower quadrant represent the results of lava flow from the stratovolcano complex.

As a personal note, I remember one winter visiting one of my sisters who then lived in Flagstaff, + going for a run through fairly thick snow. What I don’t recall is seeing any cinder cones. Nor at that point had I ever taken a geology class, though eventually I would teach several of them at Western Washington University. All of this is part of the picture of our restless Earth. Here is the link to the source article: Geology (2026) 10.1130/G54058.1

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, the Greenland ice sheet [GIS] holds enough water to raise global sea levels by 7.4 metres [~24 feet] if it were to melt completely.” The most interesting statistic broached here is that for every centimetre of sea level rise, around 6 million people on the planet are exposed to coastal flooding. “Greenland’s melting ice also discharges vast quantities of freshwater into the ocean, which scientists worry may impact a major Atlantic Ocean current system called the Subpolar Gyre,” part of the Atlantic Meridianal Overturning Circulation [AMOC].

“Researchers are travelling to Greenland this summer armed with a “sophisticated suite” of technologies including airborne drones, autonomous marine robots, satellites and instruments that can be embedded directly into glacier ice.”

“Some estimates warn that the Subpolar Gyre could change in the next four years.” So we should hope these folks hop to it.

“When a hurricane traverses a shallow area of warm ocean waters, its powerful winds churn up cold waters from the depths, cooling the surface and putting the brakes on the storm’s intensification.” But when unusually warm ocean waters extend 100 meters or more below the surface, the hurricane’s winds simply stir up more warm water, in some cases allowing dangerous rapid intensification to occur. A so-called “Loop Current” transports warm Caribbean water through the Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico, northward into the Gulf of Mexico, in a “loop” southeastward just south of the Florida Keys — where it is called the Florida Current — and then just west of the westernmost Bahamas. These phenomena fueled Hurricane Helene’s furious winds as the storm bore down on Florida in 2024.

“As of May 11, 2026, sea surface temperatures and ocean heat content in the Gulf are at near-record levels, with the sea surface temperatures tied with May 11, 2024, as the warmest on record for the date — over 1 degree Celsius above the 1991–2020 average.”

One more reason this may prove to be an interesting summer for sure.

Grounded in peer-reviewed science, the Humid Heat CSI attribution system calculates how much climate change has increased or decreased the likelihood of reaching any given wet-bulb temperature around the world. “The resource also pinpoints locations where climate change has helped lead to dangerous humid heat conditions — wet-bulb temperatures of 25˚C or higher, a threshold at which many people are at risk of experiencing heat illness, particularly older adults and those without access to cooling.” There are also other Climate Shift Index system resources “on air temperature, ocean temperature, and tropical cyclones.”

As an illustration, in Dubai, capital of United Arab Emirates, wet-bulb or humid heat condition for today is forecasted to be 23.4°C, perilously close to that dangerous threshold. This is in the middle of northern hemispheric springtime. And Dubai lies at 25.27º N latitude, 1740 miles above the equator.

Current projection for 2026 is a 50% chance of being the second warmest year ever, but with a 19% chance of first place. Either way, 2027 is most likely going to be even hotter, in part due to an intense El Niño. Reminds me of the old American popular song from 1896, “There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight.”

The first was, “Yunqing Jian, a plant science postdoc at the University of Michigan who pleaded guilty to smuggling biological material and making false statements.” The letter to Jian’s attorney, intended to be used at her sentencing, argued that what the Chinese postdoc had transported was not dangerous, but she was still ultimately deported.

“Her conviction triggered an investigation of Youhuang Xiang, a Chinese postdoc in Innes’s lab, that led to Xiang also pleading guilty last month to smuggling loops of DNA known as plasmids.” He was also summarily deported.

Innes says he was told by IU lawyers that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which has oversight over the import and export of plant-related biological material, ordered the school to “secure” his lab. “IU police arrived at the lab at 8 p.m. on 7 May, informed one person present that she had to leave, and changed the locks.” Innes says he wasn’t notified ahead of time and has not entered the lab since then. An email the next morning from IU’s vice president of research, Russell Mumper, to the biology department chair, Armin Moczek, explained that USDA had told the university the agency “will be engaging in activity in a laboratory” and the school then locked down six rooms. Moczek wrote to his departmental colleagues shortly after receiving Mumper’s email. that “the overall lockout may take a week or multiple weeks, at this point nobody knows,”

“Innes says that, in his absence, Moczek has agreed to water a batch of genetically modified Arabidopsis plants being grown in his now locked-down lab to further his research.” I ask you, is this or is this not Kafkaesque?

Over a decade ago Illinois released a 400-page evaluation of this education program. It called for retiring that curriculum + revamping it to ​“provide high-quality scientific content, a balance of perspectives, and present coal as part of an energy portfolio in national and global contexts.” Robustly criticized by many, it was fairly rapidly withdrawn, though the state to this day still has in place a cooperative program between Southeastern Illinois College + Frontier Community College, a 2-yr program of Coal Mining Technology utilizing the latest training panels in hydraulics, electricity and programmable logic controllers, designed to parallel current systems in place at the mines.

The original coal education was established by a state law, the Illinois Coal Technology Development Assistance Act, promoting a ​“positive image for the mining and utilization of coal in Illinois.” Jeff Biggers is an historian + author of the book Reckoning at Eagle Creek exploring coal in his southern Illinois hometown. As a whistleblower he reported that the evaluation was spearheaded by Sallie Greenberg, a University of Illinois professor involved with the FutureGen ​“clean coal” plant; and that Greenberg and evaluator Lizanne DeStefano in Biggers’ words ​“apparently failed to disclose they had both been participants in the same controversial coal education conference program they were hired to evaluate.”

Foxes in charge of a dusty, coal-smeared hen house.

Our current Ice Age, the Quaternary Glaciation or Late Cenozoic Ice Age, began 2.6 million years ago, featured alternating relatively mild glacial episodes alternating with warmer interglacial episodes, in the main driven by the variations of the Earth’s orbit [tilt, wobble, eccentricity] “Nothing had changed in Earth’s orbit; something must have tipped within Earth’s climate system itself.”

“The Beyond EPICA core shows that about 950,000 years ago, at the end of a warm interglacial period, carbon dioxide spiked by 50 parts per million (ppm) in a few thousand years…after that peak, carbon dioxide sank to 170 ppm, the lowest value ever recorded in a continuous ice core.” Those trends are mirrored in indirect readings of atmospheric composition more than 800,000 years ago, from seafloor sediment cores that contain the remains of shells from marine animals. “These animals incorporate boron into their shells, and its isotopic composition reflects ancient ocean pH, which in turn tracks carbon dioxide in the air.”

Locate the article by searching for the title above. Enjoy.

“The DoD Siting Clearinghouse has reviewed energy projects for military compatibility since 2011.” An Air Force legal article says the Clearinghouse had reviewed thousands of wind energy projects and had made only one determination of “unacceptable risk to national security” out of those thousands.

“Wind farms curtail operations all the time for grid constraints, negative prices, maintenance, icing, storms, wildlife, noise agreements, and grid-operator instructions.” Public examples of DoD mitigation agreements include language requiring wind-farm operators to immediately curtail turbines when requested by DoD or NORAD for national-security or defense purposes.

A farmer leases land for oil and Washington calls it energy security. “A farmer leases land for wind and Washington calls the Pentagon.” Vague security fog should not be enough to freeze rural income, county revenue, construction jobs, power contracts, interconnection positions, and American electricity supply. We build lots of tall structures, including “cell towers, grain elevators, oil pumpjacks, refinery stacks, gas compressor stations, transmission towers, cranes, water towers + church steeples.”

“The rule seems to be that a private energy project is patriotic if it moves molecules, suspicious if it moves electrons, and terrifying if it has blades.” Cogently stated.

“The United States has reported more than 1700 cases so far this year, up from 100 or so in the early 2000s, while outbreaks continue across the Middle East and Africa.” Growing vaccine hesitancy, disruptions in immunization during the COVID-19 pandemic, and wars have all contributed to the resurgence. “But in Bangladesh, a country of more than 175 million that has long taken pride in its high vaccination rates, the epidemic stems from a catastrophic breakdown in vaccine procurement following [its] 2024 revolution.”

“As the disease spread, high child malnutrition and a weak health system have exacerbated the death toll.” Experts say the tragedy highlights how quickly progress in public health can erode. “Bangladesh routinely administers two doses of the measles-rubella (MR) vaccine to children at 9 months and 15 months of age, supplemented by nationwide campaigns every 4 years to cover any children that were missed and reach 95% coverage, the threshold needed to prevent outbreaks.”

For years, UNICEF supplied the vaccines, with most of the funding provided by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the government contributed as well. “Vitamin A deficiency also weakens children’s defenses, and the country has missed three of its biannual vitamin A distribution campaigns since 2024”

The US has no shortage of measles vaccine. The responsibility for our failure of public health belongs principally to 2 co-conspirators: RFK, Jr and Donald Trump.