Peptoniphilus lacydonensis: A new specis of pathogenic Firmicute Bacterium isolated from an elderly patient in France.

Firmicute are a group of Bacteria which are not typically pathogenic, but which includes a few species such as Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes which can cause food poisoning or skin infections, as well as more dangerous species such as Clostridium perfringens (Gangrene) and Bacillus anthracis (Anthrax) which are normally soil-dwelling Bacteria, but which can cause lethal infections due to the toxins which they produce. Members of the genus Peptoniphilus are thought to be exclusively pathogenic, with fifteen described species, twelve of which are known only from infections in Humans and three from infections of Animals.

In a paper published in the journal New Microbes and New Infections on 27 February 2018,  Mamadou Beye, Sofiane Bakour, Erwan Le Dault and Jaishriram Rathored, of the Service de Santé des Armées at Aix-Marseille Université, Caroline Michelle and Frédéric Cadoret of the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection at Aix-Marseille Université, Didier Raoult, also of the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée-Infection at Aix-Marseille Université, and of the Special Infectious Agents Unit at King Abdul Aziz University, and Pierre-Edouard Fournier, also of the Service de Santé des Armées at Aix-Marseille Université, describe a new species of Peptoniphilus isolated from an 85-year old patient with chronic refractory sinusitis (persistant blockage of the sinus caused by Bacterial infection) from Marseille, France,

The new species is named Peptoniphilus lacydonensis, where 'lacydonensis' means 'from Marseille' (Lacydon is the ancient name for the city). The Bacteria Gram-positive, non–spore-forming and nonmotile cocci (spherical Bacteria), which grew in culture best at 37°C and a pH of 6.5 to 8.0. The Bacteria thrived in anaerobic (without oxygen) and microaerophilic (with very low levels of oxygen) conditions, but not under normal aerobic conditions.

Transmission electron microscopy of Peptoniphilus lacydonensis strain made using Tecnai G20 electron microscope (FEI Company). Beye et al. (2018).

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Teenager bitten by Shark off Florida beach.

A teenager was bitten by a Shark while bathing off Cocoa Beach in Brevard County, Florida, on Saturday 26 May 2018. Cody High, 15, from San Angelo, Texas, was bitten on the lower calf by a Bull Shark, Carcharhinus leucas, about two metres in length, slightly after 5.00 pm local time on a section of beach without lifeguards or Shark spotters. He underwent surgery at the Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital, where he was retained for several days after the incident. His family are attempting to cover the cost of his treatment via a GoFundMe Page.

Cody High, 15, from San Angelo, Texas, recovering in hospital after being bitten by a Bull Shark off Cocoa Beach, Florida, on 26 May 2018. The Man Post.

Despite their fearsome reputation, attacks by Sharks are relatively rare. Most attacks on Humans by Sharks are thought to be mistakes, made by species that feed principally on Marine Mammals (which we superficially resemble when we enter the water), gaining the majority of their nutrition from the thick adipose (fat) layers of these animals (which we lack). Due to this, when Sharks do attack Humans these attacks are often broken off without the victim being consumed. Such attacks frequently result in severe injuries, but are seldom immediately fatal, with victims likely to survive if they receive immediate medical attention.

 A Bull Shark, Carcharhinus leucas. Sharkopedia/Discovery.

Bull Sharks, Carcharhinus leucas, are a form of Requiem Shark, Carcharhinidae, reaching about four metres in length at their largest. They have a reputation for aggressive behaviour, and are one of the species most prone to attacking Humans, though this is not because they are more hostile towards us than other Shark species, but because they inhabit environments where they are more likely to encounter us, favouring shallow inshore waters, and sometimes entering freshwater systems, which most Sharks shun (Bull Sharks have been encountered in the Mississippi River as far inland as southern Illinois). These Sharks are also territorial, and may lash out if they feel their territory is being invaded.

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Thousands evacuated after landslide hits Lake Tahoma Dam, North Carolina.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from homes in North Carolina, after debris from a landslide hit the Lake Tahoma Dam in McDowell County, North Carolina, compromising the integrity of the structure, on Wednesday 30 May 2018. The evacuation order was issued after engineers inspected the dam and found water spilling around its sides, prompting fears of an imminent catastrophic failure. The landslide was one of several such events triggered by heavy rains in the area associated with Tropical Storm Alberto, which has caused the worst flooding in the area since 2004, when the area was hit by the combined effects of hurricanes Frances and Ivan. 

The Lake Tahoma Dam in McDowell County, North Carolina. Joshua Moore/Getty Images.

Tropical storms are caused by solar energy heating the air above the oceans, which causes the air to rise leading to an inrush of air. If this happens over a large enough area the inrushing air will start to circulate, as the rotation of the Earth causes the winds closer to the equator to move eastwards compared to those further away (the Coriolis Effect). This leads to tropical storms rotating clockwise in the southern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere.These storms tend to grow in strength as they move across the ocean and lose it as they pass over land (this is not completely true: many tropical storms peter out without reaching land due to wider atmospheric patterns), since the land tends to absorb solar energy while the sea reflects it.

The low pressure above tropical storms causes water to rise there by ~1 cm for every millibar drop in pressure, leading to a storm surge that can overwhelm low-lying coastal areas, while at the same time the heat leads to high levels of evaporation from the sea - and subsequently high levels of rainfall. This can cause additional flooding on land, as well as landslides, which are are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall.

 

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Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake to the south of Sumbawa Island, Indonesia.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake at a depth of 50.1 km beneath the island of Sumbawa, in the southern Lesser Sunda Islands, at about 2.25  am local time on Tuesday 29 May 2018 (about 7.26 pm on Monday 28 May GMT). Quakes at this depth are seldom dangerous, but are often felt over a wide area, and this one was reportedly felt as far away as Bali in the west.

 

The approximate location of the 29 May 2018 Sumbawa Earthquake (USGS).

 

The Lesser Sunda Islands are located on the northern part of the Timor Microplate. This is trapped between the converging Eurasian and Australian Plates, both of which are being subducted beneath it. In the south the Australian Plate is passing under the island of Timor, with material from the subducted plate melted by the friction and the heat of the Earth's interior rising through the Timor Plate to feed the volcanoes of the island. In the north the Eurasian Plate is being subducted in the same way, feeding the volcanoes there.

 

 The subduction zones beneath the Timor Microplate. Hamson (2004).

 

Witness accounts of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events, and the structures that cause them. The international non-profit organisation Earthquake Report is interested in hearing from people who may have felt this event; if you felt this quake then you can report it to Earthquake Report here.

 

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Asteroid 2018 KW1 passes the Earth,

Asteroid 2018 KW1 passed by the Earth at a distance of about 149 100 km (0.39 times the average  distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 0.001% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly before midday GMT on Tuesday 22 May 2018. There was no danger of the asteroid hitting us, though were it to do so it would not have presented a significant threat. 2018 KW1 has an estimated equivalent diameter of 2-6 m (i.e. it is estimated that a spherical object with the same volume would be 2-6 m in diameter), and an object of this size would be expected to explode in an airburst (an explosion caused by superheating from friction with the Earth's atmosphere, which is greater than that caused by simply falling, due to the orbital momentum of the asteroid) in the atmosphere more than 40 km above the ground, with only fragmentary material reaching the Earth's surface.

 The calculated orbit of 2018 KW1. Minor Planet Center.
 

2018 KW1 was discovered on 22 May 2018 (the day of its closest approach to the Earth) by the University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon Survey at the Steward Observatory on Mount Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The designation 2018 KW1 implies that the asteroid was the 47th object (object W1) discovered in the second half of May 2018 (period 2018 K). 

2018 KW1 has an 631 day orbital period and an eccentric orbit tilted at an angle of 7.54° to the plane of the Solar System, which takes it from 0.99 AU from the Sun (i.e. 99% of he average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 1.89 AU from the Sun (i.e. 189% of the average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, and further from the Sun than the planet Mars). It is therefore classed as an Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer). This means that close encounters between the asteroid and Earth are extremely common, with the last having occurred in August 2011 and the next predicted in April 2027.

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Colobops noviportensis: A new species of Archosuaromorph from the Late Triassic of Connecticut.

Archosauromorphs, defined as everything more closely related to Dinosaurs and Crocodiles than to Lepidosaurs (Lizards, Snakes and Sphenodon, flourished in the aftermath of the End Permian Extinction, becoming the dominant Vertebrates in most terrestrial ecosystems. They have suffered heavily in each of the subsequent mass extinction events, particularly the End Triassic and End Cretaceous, but each time recovered, with over 10 000 species still alive today (mostly Birds). Almost all post-Triassic Archosauromorphs belomg to three highly successful groups, the Testudines (Turtles and Tortoises), the Crocodylomorphs, and the Dinosaurs (including the Birds), however, in the Triassic a much more diverse range of these animals was present. 

In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications on 23 March 2018, Adam Pritchard of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale University, Jacques Gauthier, also of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale University, and of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Michael Hanson, again of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale University, Gabriel Bever of the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at Johns Hopkins University, and Bhart-Anjan Bhullar, once again of the Department of Geology and Geophysics at Yale University, and of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, describe a new species of Archosauromoph from the Late Triassic New Haven Arkose of Connecticut.

The new species is named Colobops noviportensis, where 'Colobops' means 'short-snout', and 'noviportensis' means 'from Newhaven'. The species is described from a nearly complete cranium and coronoid process of right mandible, lacking tooth-bearing portions of premaxillae, maxillae, palate, and mandible, preserved largely within a sandstone matrix and μCT scanned at the Laboratory of Integrative Science’s Center for Nanoscale Systems at Harvard University.

Reconstructed skull of Colobops noviportensis. Three-dimensional volume rendering of the skull produced in VG Studio Max 3.0 in (a) dorsal, (b) ventral, (c) left lateral, and (d) anterior views. Gray portions indicate portions of the skull of uncertain homology. Scale bar equal to 1 cm. Abbreviations: cp, coronoid process; fo, fontanelle; pf, parietal foramen; sc, sagittal crest. Pritchard et al. (2018).

The skull of Colobops noviportensis is estimated to have been only 2.5 cm in length, providing a valuable insight into smaller Triassic Archosauromorphs, which are less well understood than their larger relatives. The precise affinities of Colobops noviportensis are uncertain, but it appears likely that it was a Rhynchosaur, an early group of Archosauromorphs closely related to the Archosauroformes, the group which includes Dinosaurs and Crocodylomorphs. This species was relatively short-snouted, and appears to have had a powerful bite.

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Journalists die in North Carolina as Tropical Storm Alberto makes landfall in Florida.

Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in Bay County, Florida, on Monday 28 May 2018, bringing high winds and flooding to much of the southeastern United States. Two people are known to have died as a result of this storm, Mike McCormick and Aaron Smeltzer, journalists employed by television station WYFF who were killed when a falling tree struck their vehicle as they covered the storm in North Carolina.

Floodwaters in Wakulla County, Florida, as Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall on 28 May 2018. Southeast Area Weather/Twitter.

Tropical storms are caused by solar energy heating the air above the oceans, which causes the air to rise leading to an inrush of air. If this happens over a large enough area the inrushing air will start to circulate, as the rotation of the Earth causes the winds closer to the equator to move eastwards compared to those further away (the Coriolis Effect). This leads to tropical storms rotating clockwise in the southern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere.These storms tend to grow in strength as they move across the ocean and lose it as they pass over land (this is not completely true: many tropical storms peter out without reaching land due to wider atmospheric patterns), since the land tends to absorb solar energy while the sea reflects it.

 The passage of Tropical Storm Alberto till 8.51 am GMT on mOnday 29 May 2018 (thick line) with its predicted future path (thin line). Colours indicate the strength of the storm. Tropical Storm Risk.

The low pressure above tropical storms causes water to rise there by ~1 cm for every millibar drop in pressure, leading to a storm surge that can overwhelm low-lying coastal areas, while at the same time the heat leads to high levels of evaporation from the sea - and subsequently high levels of rainfall. This can cause additional flooding on land, as well as landslides, which are are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall.

 

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