Discover 3 science news from the latest 24 hours in our #PeerusWhatsNew, now on Medium.
1 Greenhouse gas emissions could push our planet into a permanent state of hothouse Earth. For researchers, we are close to a point of no return.
This shift could occur “in just a few decades”. Passing this threshold means, according to the researchers, “a temperature of 4 to 5 °C higher than the pre-industrial period and a level of the sea 10 to 60 meters higher than today”.
Researchers suggest that the breakpoint could be reached when the Earth’s temperature is 2 °C higher than the pre-industrial temperature. It is already 1 °C and continues to grow at a rate of 0.17 degrees per decade. “A warming of 2 °C could activate important elements of rupture”, warns the report.
2 According to the researchers, there is a phenomenon of island evolution that would play in particular on the size of animals.
On the island of Cyprus there were hippos no larger than sea lions. And on Flores Island, there were elephants the size of pigs. A strange phenomenon of size reduction, according to scientists, to island life.
This phenomenon could also extend to humans. This research led scientists to imagine that hobbits, or Men of Flores, were also larger men whose size decreased after settling on the island.
3 The consumption of crickets could promote the growth of good intestinal bacteria and reduces inflammation of the body.
More than two billion people regularly eat insects around the world. Insect consumption is gaining more and more interest in Europe and North America for environmental and food reasons.
In a six-week clinical trial, researchers at the University of Wisconsin recruited 20 healthy men and women, aged 18 to 48 years. The results suggest that insect consumption is an interesting source of protein but also of fiber.
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