FEBRUARY BLOWS AWAY GLOBAL HEAT RECORD

Last month was far and away the hottest February on record for the planet, by a margin
that has surprised even the climate scientists who closely monitor global temperature
data. It was also the most anomalously warm month Earth has seen in 135 years of
NASA record keeping, continuing an astonishing recent streak that could see 2016 set a
new record for hottest year.
While a strong El Nio has given global temperatures a boost, the main reason for the
spate of intensely warm months is the long-term warming of the planet caused by the
accumulation of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, scientists have
found.
"I think we all knew this would be a warm year due to the major El Nio event. But I
don't think any of us expected such remarkable and persistent record-breaking warmth,"
Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State and a co-author on a recent study on
the issue, said in an email. (A Climate Central analysis conducted in November also
found that manmade warming was the key driver of the record heat of 2015.)
According to data released by NASA this weekend, February 2016 was 2.43F (1.35C)
warmer than the average from 1951 to 1980, and 0.8F (0.5C) warmer than the
previous record February, in 1998. It was the 10th month in a row to set such a monthly
record, tying a streak set back in 1944, according to data from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
During the last major El Nio event, there were nine months in a row that set global
temperature records. Of those nine months from June 1997 to February 1998 only
one remains in the top five for its respective month; most fall between ninth and 16th
warmest today, a mark of how much Earth has warmed over the intervening years.
It's likely that as the year goes on and El Nio continues to wane, that the monthly
temperature anomalies will also ease off, but when and by how much remains
uncertain, Blunden said.
Reaction
I am saddened about this article. It stated the effects of negligence of people here on
earth. It tells the truth about the worsening global warming. And this is really alarming
for us who should take care our home, the earth. I am afraid that for the coming years,
we do not know what will happen next.

A SQUIRT OF STEM CELL GEL HEALS BRAIN INJURIES

Scientists have developed a gel that helps brains recover from traumatic injuries. It has
the potential to treat head injuries suffered in combat, car accidents, falls, or gunshot
wounds. Developed by Dr. Ning Zhang at Clemson University in South Carolina, the gel
is injected in liquid form at the site of injury and stimulates the growth of stem cells
there.
Brain injuries are particularly hard to repair, since injured tissues swell up and can
cause additional damage to the cells. So far, treatments have tried to limit this
secondary damage by lowering the temperature or relieving the pressure at the site of
injury. However, these techniques are often not very effective.
More recently, scientists have considered transplanting donor brain cells into the wound
to repair damaged tissue. This method has so far had limited results when treating brain
injuries. The donor cells often fail to grow or stimulate repair at the injury site, possibly
because of the inflammation and scarring present there.
Dr. Zhang's gel, however, can be loaded with different chemicals to stimulate various
biological processes at the site of injury. In previous research done on rats, she was
able to use the gel to help re-establish full blood supply at the site of brain injury. This
could help create a better environment for donor cells.
In a follow-up study, Dr. Zhang loaded the gel with immature stem cells, as well as the
chemicals they needed to develop into full-fledged adult brain cells. When rats with
severe brain injuries were treated with this mixture for eight weeks, they showed signs
of significant recovery.
The new gel could treat patients at varying stages following injury, and is expected to be
ready for testing in humans in about three years.
Reaction:
This is very good news for the people, specially the illed one regarding the brain. This
will be very helpful for people who are suffering from head injuries. I am glad that we

have found again new discovery and as time goes by we are still discovering new
things.
Real-Life 'Teddy Bear' Is No Longer Endangered
The real-life inspiration for everyone's favorite plush toy has just gotten a new lease on
life.
For more than two decades, the Louisiana black bear the iconic beast that inspired
the "teddy bear" has been considered a threatened species. But the adorable fuzzy
bear will soon be removed from the Endangered Species List, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service (FWS) announced on Thursday (March 10).
Real-life teddy bear
The Louisiana black bear (Ursus americanus lutelous) first entered the national
consciousness in 1902. During a bear-hunting trip to Mississippi, President Theodore
"Teddy" Roosevelt refused to shoot an old bear his aides had trapped and tied to a tree,
calling the whole affair "unsportsmanlike." The story spread in U.S. newspapers, leading
to an editorial cartoon published by The Washington Post. A New York City candy-store
owner saw the cartoon and put two stuffed bears which he called "Teddy's" bears
in his shop window, according to the Theodore Roosevelt Association. The plush toys
became so popular that the shop owner began mass producing them.
Since inspiring one of the world's most beloved toys, however, the species had fallen on
hard times. Louisiana black bears once roamed the seasonally flooded forests of
Louisiana, southern Mississippi and eastern Texas. By 1980, however, people had
destroyed or modified much of this habitat, leading the bear to be listed as threatened in
1992, when as few as 150 bears were living in the wild.
The bear was protected under the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA). More than
2,000 species worldwide are listed under the act as endangered or threatened, nearly
1,500 of which are native to the U.S.
Reaction:

I am glad about this article. It gives us, people, a a second chance to take care and love
these bears. We should love more, not only those bears, but all other species that will
be nearly gone and not be seen by next generations. And I wish to see them up close
and other animals that can be rarely seen.
EYE LENSES REGENERATED USING INFANTS' OWN STEM CELLS
Stem cells could help treat people with cataracts and even some who are blind by
regenerating eye tissue and replacing flawed lenses, according to new experiments in
children and rabbits.
In order for people to see properly, both the lens of the eye and the cornea the layer
of tissue that covers the eye in front of the lens must be transparent. Current
treatments for people who have clouding in the lens or cornea involve artificial implants
or donor transplants, respectively, but these surgical procedures can be risky,
researchers said.
In the new research, scientists performed minimally invasive surgeries on 12 infants
under age 2 who all had congenital cataracts a major cause of childhood blindness.
They removed the children's cataracts, but carefully spared certain cells in their eyes,
called lens epithelial stem/progenitor cells (LECs), which could then go on to regenerate
lenses.
They found that the infants' incisions healed within one month, and the transparency of
their line of vision was more than 20 times better, compared to infants with congenital
cataracts who received the current, standard treatment. [5 Amazing Technologies That
Are Revolutionizing Biotech]
The real value of this research is how experiments with this kind of structure will help
better understand eye development, and "such an understanding might eventually
enable in situ manipulation of stem-cell populations throughout the eye" as Zhang and
his colleagues accomplished, Daniels wrote in a commentary on this research.
Reaction:

This is again a good news. I am happy about new researches that give hope to people
who suffer different illnesses like what the article talks about, cataracts and blindness.
Also, this article signifies the intelligence of human being to discover new things like
this. I am excited and looking forward for the new discoveries coming in the next few
years.

EXPECT DOWNPOURS AND FLOODING AS WORLD WARMS

Umbrella and galosh manufacturers may do well as the planet continues to warm if
they can find somewhere dry to build their factories.
Findings of a new analysis of storm data and model projections warn that flooding is
going to be a worsening problem around the world, with a warmer atmosphere already
leading to heavier downpours in both arid and wet climates.
"The extremes are increasing in both the wet and dry areas," said Markus Donat, a
University of New South Wales climate researcher who led the new study, published
Monday in Nature Climate Change.
That's likely to lead to more flooding, the researchers noted though separate
research by hydrologists has shown that a long list of other factors will influence how
American landscapes will be impacted.
Instead of analyzing the effects of climate change on rainfall in individual regions of the
world, Donat's team aggregated the regions into buckets labeled 'dry' and 'wet.' That
simplified the statistical analysis, helping to reveal that dry areas are being
disproportionately affected.
The group analyzed 60 years of weather observations in the wettest and driest regions,
concluding that increases in heavy rainfall events matched simulations made by earth
models. Future projections from those same models project that rates of deluges will
increase in dry regions more quickly than elsewhere.
Reaction:

I am again saddened about this article. This is also evident in our country. We are
experiencing severe rain and flooding for months. This is not only a natural calamity,
sometimes it is man-made like what the article talks about. We make our own problems.
We do not take care of our nature. But I know, we still have time to make a good move
to change the mood of the earth.

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Reymart M. Alfonso
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