Machine learning pinpoints meteorite source on Mars
This unusually colorful view of Mars shows the distribution of 90 million impact craters across the planet’s surface, mapped by researchers using a machine learning algorithm trained on data from previous Mars missions. The colors represent the size, age and density of the craters: for example, blue areas depict the oldest and youngest. Scientists made the map while investigating the origin of a meteorite called Black Beauty, which was found in the Sahara desert in 2011. The piece of rock was thrown into space when an asteroid hit Mars at least 5 million years ago. The team used the algorithm to narrow down the possibilities and finally worked out the exact location of this impact (A. Lagain et al. Nature Commun. 133782; 2022). Researchers suggest the 10km-wide crater – called Karratha – could be the focus of a future mission to Mars. Scientists have yet to establish a clear link between dust storms – like the one in Arizona – and the risk of Valley Fever. Credits: Getty
Dust over the joint of the disease
A study published July 17 casts doubt on 2021 research that suggests there is no firm link between dust storms and valley fever — an infectious disease that occurs in the Western United States and elsewhere, caused by inhalation inhabiting soil Coccidioides fungi. The authors of the new paper (DQ Tong et al. GeoHealth 6, e2022GH000642; 2022) say that the data set used in the 2021 analysis — the Storm Events database, maintained by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — is known to contain errors and uses a definition of “dust storm” that is inconsistent with it used by most meteorological organizations. “Based on our knowledge of the fungus, it is dust-borne, and there is no reason to believe that dust storms cannot carry [it]says co-author Morgan Gorris, an Earth systems scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Andrew Comrie, a climate and health scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who wrote the 2021 paper (AC Comrie GeoHealth 5, e2021GH000504; 2021), acknowledges that the database could be more comprehensive, but still believes his analysis would have found a link to Valley Fever cases. “If there was a reliable signal, it should show up,” he says. Drones offer a cheap and low-impact way to deliver small packages.Credit: Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty
Parcel-carrying drones offer carbon savings
Drones that drop packages straight to people’s doors could be an eco-friendly alternative to conventional modes of transport (TA Rodrigues et al. Patterns 3, 100569; 2022). Thiago Rodriguez, a transportation researcher at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and his colleagues attached packages weighing 0.5 kilograms or less to drones with four rotors and flew them at speeds of 4-12 meters per second. This allowed the researchers to determine how much energy was needed to fly a drone, as well as the amounts of greenhouse gases emitted by generating electricity to charge the drone’s battery. The team compared the environmental impact of different “last mile” delivery methods – which take a package on the last leg of its journey – and found that greenhouse gas emissions per package were 84% lower for drones than for trucks diesel. The drones also used up to 94% less energy per package than the trucks. Research shows that using drones to deliver medicine and other small items could reduce the environmental impact of product deliveries.
