logo
Scientists begin melting Earth's oldest ice to unlock 1,500,000-year-old secrets

Scientists begin melting Earth's oldest ice to unlock 1,500,000-year-old secrets

Metro6 days ago
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Unassuming, icicle-like tubes could help answer mysteries about Earth's climate.
They are the world's oldest ice cores, which have just landed in the UK after being drilled from the depths of Antarctica.
While most of Britain is reeling from weeks of back-to-back heatwaves, scientists in Cambridge find out what the rare blocks of ice can reveal about climate change and our home planet.
But to get hold of the ice, they first had to drill for 1.7 miles down the ice sheet at the South Pole.
The giant stick of ice was then cut into more manageable chunks and transported to Europe.
Scientists hope the pieces will reveal why the planet's climate cycle shifted more than a million years ago, helping to predict Earth's future response to rising greenhouse gas.
Dr Liz Thomas, from the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, told Reuters: 'We really are exploring a completely unknown time in our history.
'We are hoping to unlock all these amazing secrets.'
The new core ice, which was drilled near the Concordia research station in the 'White Continent,' beats the previous 800,000-year-old ice, which was drilled in the early 2000s.
Until now, scientists have relied on marine sediments to study the climate cycles. over millions of years.
But ice has a special feature invisible to the naked eye – entrapped bubbles showing the atmospheric conditions, amount of greenhouse gas in the air and chemical evidence of temperatures at the time when they were released.
And to not make the job too easy for the scientists, Antarctica is the only place on Earth where such a long record of the atmosphere is found.
Summer temperatures at the French-Italian Concordia station range from -30°C to -50°C, and can reach a brain-numbing -80°C in winter.
Dr Thomas continued: 'Our data will yield the first continuous reconstructions of key environmental indicators—including atmospheric temperatures, wind patterns, sea ice extent, and marine productivity—spanning the past 1.5 million years.
'This unprecedented ice core dataset will provide vital insights into the link between atmospheric CO₂ levels and climate during a previously uncharted period in Earth's history, offering valuable context for predicting future climate change.'
The world's largest ice sheet remains shrouded in mystery and intrigue as relatively little is still known about Antarctica. More Trending
Geologists believe the continent was once covered in rivers and forests.
Satellite data and radars revealed ridges and valleys, suggesting the icy no man's land looked very different 34 million years ago.
Meanwhile, conspiracy theorists have their eyes set on Antarctica after Google Map sleuths believe they have found a secret door buried in the mountainside.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: Scorching 40°C temperatures 'will soon become the new normal for the UK'
MORE: I love living in London — but it's absolutely vile in the summer
MORE: Blame, thoughts and prayers – the uncomfortable truth about politicians and natural disasters
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Food dyes: Tech firms look for natural food colours
Food dyes: Tech firms look for natural food colours

BBC News

time9 hours ago

  • BBC News

Food dyes: Tech firms look for natural food colours

French firm Fermentalg has been all over the planet in its search for useful microalgae."One of our lucky scientists got to go and climb the volcanoes in the Caribbean for example, and I have to restrain myself from collecting more every time I go home to New Zealand," says Hywel Griffiths, chief scientific officer at are hundreds of thousands of species of microalgae - microscopic organisms, which mostly live in water. They are essential to the aquatic food chain and also produce half the oxygen we are already used commercially, to make food, animal feed and fertiliser. But for Fermantalg one particular type, Galdieria sulphuraria, has a very useful trait. It can be used to produce a pigment, suitable for use in food, called Galdieria blue."We grow the algae and make a lot of it under conditions which make a lot of this particular molecule - the blue," says Mr pigment can be used for any food and drinks and Mr Griffiths expects the first products using Galdieiria blue will be on shop shelves early next blue was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May, along with Butterfly pea flower extract (also a blue colour) and calcium phosphate (white).The FDA also approved Gardenia blue earlier this month. New sources of colour for food are needed as artificial food dyes are on their way January, the FDA announced the banning of Red Dye No. 3 in food addition, the FDA is looking to phase out petroleum-based synthetic dyes such as Yellow Dye 5 and 6 by the end of next year as part of the government's mission to "Make America Healthy Again"."For the last 50 years, American children have increasingly been living in a toxic soup of synthetic chemicals," FDA commissioner Marty Makary said at a press conference in food colouring bad for you?Though not an outright ban, the FDA is hoping the food industry voluntarily complies to eliminate artificial food dyes by comes after years of pressure from parents and campaigners for the FDA to revoke approval for dyes or educate consumers more about the recent times, many US states have made their own moves to pass laws to remove artificial food colouring differ on the restrictions they have in place. Historically, the UK and the European Union have been stricter than the EU has been phasing out artificial colourings over the last 20 years and also introducing warnings on foods with other colours. So, these are good times for firms developing natural alternatives. US-based Sensient creates natural colours by sourcing raw materials that are grown specifically for their colour content. For example, some red and purple colours are derived from carrots and potatoes."These crops are harvested, washed, processed into a juice, and the colour is extracted with water or other solvents," says Paul Manning, chief executive officer at Sensient."The resulting colour is further processed to stabilise the concentrate and refine it to the specific shade desired by the customer."But the hard work will be trying to match the synthetic colour. "It must be equally vivid," says Mr Manning."There are plenty of examples of brands converting to natural colours with less vivid and vibrant shades where the product does poorly in the market and customers complain about both the colour and the flavour."Getting a stable, bright colour also involved much work for Fermantalg."To our surprise we found that the process of growing the algae and the process of extracting the colour can actually have a fairly significant impact on the stability of the product at the end, even though it's fairly heavily purified," says Griffiths."But something that we've done upstream is having an impact on how stable it is at the end."Will these new colours cost more?"They are more expensive, but in actual contribution to the end product, they're not actually that big an impact because these things are used at a fraction of a percentage in the final product," says Mr Griffiths."If you had a nosebleed and stood over the sink… you know that a little bit of colour goes a long way." For the brands that have long relied on artificial colourings, it's an upheaval."We are reformulating our cereals served in schools to not include FD&C colours by the 2026-27 school year," says a spokesperson for WK Kellogg, the company behind Kellogg' refers to certain certified synthetic colour additives regulated by the FDA, and approved by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic year protesters gathered outside the company headquarters in Michigan, calling on it to remove artificial dyes from cereals such as Froot Loops."We will not be launching any new products with FD&C colours, beginning in January 2026," the spokesperson year food giants including Nestle, Kraft Heinz, General Mills and Conagra have all pledged to phase out artificial food of the challenges for food brands reliant on artificial colouring is that many natural food dyes don't necessarily have a long shelf life, says Institute of Food Technologists food scientist Renee Leber. "Whereas synthetic dyes will outlive the shelf life of pretty much any product."She also says that as many brands rush to make the switch it's going to lead to a "bottleneck" in production."We don't necessarily have all these colours available. But we have 10 months to get that right."Given this isn't an outright ban, is it still expected to lead to sweeping change in the US food industry?"If you are a cereal company and you have a brightly coloured cereal and all of your competitors switch from synthetics to natural colours, then you don't necessarily want to be the last one," says Ms Leber."It's a tight timeframe but companies are doing their best to comply."

London's Kew Gardens opens carbon garden to highlight climate crisis
London's Kew Gardens opens carbon garden to highlight climate crisis

Reuters

time15 hours ago

  • Reuters

London's Kew Gardens opens carbon garden to highlight climate crisis

LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) - London's Kew Gardens will open a new garden focused on carbon that will showcase its importance in sustaining life, but also explore the role of carbon dioxide in the climate crisis and how plants can combat it. The Carbon Garden will feature 6,500 plants, 35 new trees as well as a central pavilion structure inspired by fungi and will be a permanent fixture at the botanical gardens, which were first opened in 1759 and today are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. "The garden aims to show how crucial carbon is, while warning of the damage being caused by increasing carbon dioxide emissions," said manager of garden design at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richard Wilford. The year 2024 was the hottest on record, with global carbon dioxide emissions from the energy sector hitting a record high. As well as signs explaining concepts such as photosynthesis, the process by which plants turn carbon dioxide into organic matter, the area will feature a so-called dry garden filled with hardy plants such as lavender that are able to cope in heat. The garden, which took Wilford and his team over four years to build, includes new trees selected for their resilience to future projected climate conditions and their ability to absorb carbon dioxide. Amanda Cooper, a doctoral researcher who consulted on the garden, said planting more such trees would be part of the solution to tackling climate change. "By reestablishing woodlands, by stopping our deforestation, we can hopefully make a dent in what is being emitted to the atmosphere," Cooper said. "It's not a complete dent because we're still emitting fossil fuel emissions from our cars and factories. But it's a start."

Asteroid the size of the Tower of Pisa to make close approach with Earth in days
Asteroid the size of the Tower of Pisa to make close approach with Earth in days

Metro

time17 hours ago

  • Metro

Asteroid the size of the Tower of Pisa to make close approach with Earth in days

If you've always wanted to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa, all you'll need to do is look up next week. An asteroid roughly the size of the famous Italian landmark is currently hurtling towards Earth at 46,908 miles per hour. The space rock, 2025 OW, will drift past our planet next Monday at a distance of 393,000 miles – about 1.6 times the distance to the Moon. Space officials estimate the rock is about 220 feet across, making it larger than the Leaning Tower of Pisa at 185 feet. 2025 OW is one of five 'planet-sized' asteroids getting up, close and personal with our planet over the next few days, Nasa says. The space agency's Asteroid Watch Dashboard says that 2025 OK1, which is estimated to be about 100 feet across, will fly past us today at a distance of 1,360,000 miles. Another airplane-sized asteroid, 2025-OZ, is also doing a drive-by visit of our home today. As you read this, it's about 3,340,000 miles away. On Saturday, two more giant asteroids will pass by Earth on Saturday: the 110-foot-wide 2025 OX will be 2,810,000 miles above your head. While 2025 OU1, about 140 feet across, will be slightly closer at 1,660,000 miles. But none of these rocks are anything to lose sleep over, astrophysicist, science journalist Alfredo Carpineti told Metro. 'There are over 13,000 near-Earth objects of comparative size that occasionally get near our planet,' the senior writer for IFLScience said. 'They could be dangerous if they hit Earth, but fortunately, these five will all fly well beyond the movement of the Moon.' Asteroids are lumps of rock, dust and metal left behind from the formation of our star system 4.6billion years ago. Most do laps around the Sun between Mars and Jupiter in the asteroid belt, some as small as rubble, and others hundreds of miles in diameter. Earth will be slammed by an asteroid about 300 feet once a decade, while one 10 times the size impacts us every 700,000 years. A space rock measuring just 160 feet in diameter can easily devastate the local area and pockmark the Earth, unleashing a force similar to a nuclear bomb – these happen once a millennium. The so-called 'city-killer' asteroid, 2024 YR4, which officials briefly feared had a 3.1% chance of colliding with Earth, is suspected to be 300 feet across. Our planetary defence options include intentionally smashing a satellite into it to nudge it off course or detonating a nuclear bomb near it. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and the Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre in Italy keep an eye on all these rocks whizzing about. They calculate the odds of an asteroid impact as they plot out the possible orbits, which get more accurate as they observe them more. More Trending This is exactly the case with 2025 OW, with scientists being able to predict its orbit for the next century. As of July, Nasa has discovered more than 38,600 near-Earth asteroids, of which 872 are larger than a kilometre. At least seven wandered close to Earth last month alone, with Nasa keeping an eye on 1,798 near-Earth objects on its 'risk list', though all have next to no chance of striking Earth. 'Still,' continued Carpineti, 'it's important we keep tracking them to know we will stay safe in the future.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: We could get 'proof of aliens by Christmas' after 'interstellar visitor' flies past us MORE: Earth is spinning so fast that today will be shorter – but is time going faster? MORE: We're one step closer to living on the Moon – and it's thanks to something 'magic'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store