Analysis of 2.7 billion tweets confirms Echo Chambers on Twitter

echo chamber

First, just for completeness, here is a quick definition. The term “Echo Chamber” is a reference to the idea that people are increasingly being only exposed to the ideas that they agree with, and don’t hear the arguments of those with whom they do not agree. The net effect is that we become more polarised. … Read more

New Study Reveals Ancient Humans Hunted Big Mammals To Extinction

Extinction

Mammal extinction is not simply something from the dim and distant past. In 1680 Sir Ewen Cameron killed the last Scottish Wolf in Killiecrankie (Perthshire). In 1786, the last wolf was killed in Ireland. So what other mammals once existed in the British Isles and when did they go extinct? Here is a brief list (culled from here) … Read more

Study: #GreatBarrierReef at ‘unprecedented’ risk of collapse after major bleaching event

great barrier reef bleaching

I’ve previously written about the 2016 bleaching event at the great barrier reef back in 2016. The update is that a new paper has just been published in Nature that contains a scientific analysis of what happened. Entitled “Global warming transforms coral reef assemblages“, it explains … Our study bridges the gap between the theory … Read more

Seas are rising too fast to save much of the Mississippi River Delta

Mississippi

In addition to the news about the slowing down of the Ocean Circulation system we also have news that rising seas are causing problems in the Mississippi River Delta. There is a new study that reveals the scope of the problem. Entitled “Anatomy of Mississippi Delta growth and its implications for coastal restoration” and published within … Read more

Dire News: Climate Change causing Ocean Circulation to slow down

ocean circulation

Two new and quite independent studies have been published in Nature with some rather dire news concerning a slowdown of ocean circulation due to climate change. Both concern the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) that is perhaps better known as a Gulf Stream. The first provides direct evidence that it has slowed down by 15% … Read more

New Study suggests Fake News won Trump the election

fake news

A paper published by researchers at Ohio University explains that the flow of fake news might have been sufficient to enable Trump to win the 2016 election. Warning: The paper is just a research paper and is not peer-reviewed. It is interesting, but due to the lack of peer-review, I’d recommend digesting with a pinch … Read more