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China is the undisputed world champion of dam building. Not only do they have more working large dams than every other country in the world‚ but they also hold the record for the largest capacity hydroelectric power station in operation: the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. Now‚ the East Asian superpower is in the process of creating the world's first super dam‚ set to bust all previous records.China first announced the so-called super dam’s construction back in 2021 when the National People’s Congress approved the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan.The dam will sit in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River‚ known as the Brahmaputra River in India‚ among the foothills of the Himalayas in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The river carves along the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon‚ the deepest canyon in the world that stretches for 504.6 kilometers (313.5 miles) in length‚ just slightly longer than the Grand Canyon in the US.It aims to exploit the huge amount of potential energy that's held within the rivers and cliffs of this epically expansive region. In total‚ it could harness triple the amount of hydroelectric power currently captured by the Three Gorges power stations‚ according to state media.The government has justified the plan by saying it will help China achieve its goal of reaching peak carbon emissions peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.The Three Gorges Dam‚ the world's largest capacity hydroelectric power station‚ along the Yangtze River‚ China.Image credit: Daniel Doerfler/Shutterstock.comHowever‚ the scheme has already proved controversial at home and abroad. Over 1.25 million people were kicked out of their homes during the construction of the Three Gorges Dam project‚ while many animal habitats and natural ecosystems were irrevocably upset. Some fear the Yarlung Zangbo dam could prove even more disruptive.Rumors of the super dam have also stirred tensions among China’s bordering neighbors. In recent times‚ China and India have butted heads over the Himalayas’ water resources and the latest developments along the Yarlung Zangbo River‚ aka the Brahmaputra River‚ have the potential to deepen the dispute.As political analysts have noted‚ India and Bangladesh sit downstream of the river system and rely heavily on its waters. Since China’s dam has the potential to drastically change the river system’s flow and course‚ India is worried that their nation's water supply could essentially be held to ransom. A spokesperson for India’s water resource ministry told Al Jazeera it was planning on building its own 10-gigawatt project on another tributary of the Brahmaputra to counteract the impact of China’s dam.Some Indian commentators have asserted that China has a “veil of secrecy surrounding its project” in an attempt to mute the international reaction to the dam’s construction. Without transparency‚ they argue‚ the full impact of the super dam will remain unknown until it is completed and any objection will be too late. Similar disputes have arisen elsewhere in the world. Ethiopia is in the midst of a developing highly controversial hydroelectric dam system on the Blue Nile River‚ much to the annoyance of Egypt who fear it could sever them from the Nile’s precious waters. Likewise‚ control of the Tigris-Euphrates River complex threatens to shake up long-standing rivalries in the Middle East. All of these instances suggest the era of “water wars” may be on the horizon.

Sit with your own thoughts for long enough and you’ll come up with all sorts of questions. If you banged a tuning fork in space‚ would it vibrate forever? Is Jurassic Park possible? Does musical genre affect the flavor of cheese? And on today’s roster: why doesn’t the water in lakes just absorb into the ground?That was the question recently posed by TikTok user allison_risner20‚ and though the comment section and stitches provide some very amusing possibilities (lakes being afraid of the dark‚ for one)‚ there’s a scientific explanation for her query.   IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.It’s important to start off by saying that some lake water does seep into the ground. We often don’t notice because the water that’s lost is quickly replenished‚ such as by rain. However‚ what makes the difference in whether or not‚ and how quickly‚ that seepage happens is the material at the bottom of the lake and how permeable it is – can water pass through it?Image someone is holding up a nice bit of slate and you go and chuck some water on it. That water isn’t going to come out the other side of the rock – it’s going to pour off it. It’s the same idea for rocky-bottomed lakes; if the bottom of a lake is rocky‚ with very few gaps between‚ not a lot of water is going to be able to get through.Even in cases where there are gaps‚ lakes accumulate a lot of sediment‚ such as sand‚ silt‚ and clay‚ which helps to fill those spaces. “Over a long‚ long time‚ the bottom of the pond itself evolves and changes‚” explained hydrologist Dr Joan Wu‚ speaking to Washington State University’s Ask Dr Universe. “The materials settle and the little particles‚ or sediments‚ fill in the large pores.”However‚ water can also escape by other means – namely‚ evaporation. “Eventually‚ you will lose water from the top and from the bottom of a pond‚” said Wu. But thanks to that handy biogeochemical phenomenon known as the water cycle‚ any water that’s lost due to evaporation should theoretically be replenished by precipitation.Theoretically is the key word there. A study published in May last year revealed that more than half of the world's large lakes (that includes both natural lakes and man-made ones) are drying up. According to the researchers‚ 56 percent of that decline is due to human consumption and climate warming‚ the latter of which increases the amount of water lost due to evaporation. So whilst lakes might not be draining away with reckless abandon‚ with around 2 billion people around the world living near one‚ it’s probably a good idea to keep an eye on them.All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text‚ images‚ and links may be edited‚ removed‚ or added to at a later date to keep information current. 

The last total solar eclipse over the US was pretty spectacular‚ as anyone who saw it will attest. Looking at the photos‚ it's hard to imagine how the sight could have been improved upon in the eclipse taking place on April 8 this year.But if we are lucky and the weather is fine‚ we could be in for something special‚ as the eclipse coincides with the solar maximum.Sun activity increases and decreases in an 11-year cycle known as the Schwabe cycle. From 1826 to 1843‚ German amateur astronomer Heinrich Schwabe observed the Sun‚ discovering that it rotates on its axis once every 27 days. He also noticed that over 11 years (though it can be as short as eight years‚ or as long as 14) the Sun goes from quiet periods‚ where no sunspots can be seen‚ to the maximum phase where 20 or more groups of sunspots can be seen‚ before returning to the minimum phase.The 2017 eclipse took place during the solar minimum‚ when the Sun's activity is at its lowest. The solar maximum was previously forecast for 2025‚ meaning it wouldn't quite be at its highest period of activity as the magnetic poles flip. However‚ predictions have since been revised‚ with the next solar maximum predicted to be sometime between January and October this year.So what does that mean for the eclipse? In short‚ it could be quite spectacular."In 2017‚ the Sun was nearing solar minimum. Viewers of the total eclipse could see the breathtaking corona – but since the Sun was quiet‚ streamers flowing into the solar atmosphere were restricted to just the equatorial regions of the star. The Sun is more magnetically symmetrical during solar minimum‚ causing this simpler appearance‚" NASA explains. "During the 2024 eclipse‚ the Sun will be in or near solar maximum‚ when the magnetic field is more like a tangled hairball. Streamers will likely be visible throughout the corona. In addition to that‚ viewers will have a better chance to see prominences – which appear as bright‚ pink curls or loops coming off the Sun."The eclipse should be visible from Mexico to Canada. The path of totality – the area where people will see a total solar eclipse – is wider than in 2017 too‚ as the Moon is closer to Earth due to where it is in its orbit‚ meaning more people will see the Sun's corona."With lucky timing‚ there could even be a chance to see a coronal mass ejection – a large eruption of solar material – during the eclipse‚" NASA added.

Meet the Irish elk: an enormous extinct deer with a pair of comically large antlers to boot. The ancient behemoth’s unusual appendages‚ which measure a whopping 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) from tip to tip‚ may look impressive but we’re not exactly sure why they’re quite so big. According to one new study‚ their size doesn’t make much sense at all. The Irish elk (Megaloceros giganteus)‚ also called giant deer for obvious reasons‚ was Europe’s biggest ever deer‚ and one of the largest deer to exist period‚ measuring around 2 meters (6.5 feet) tall at the shoulder. Its range extended across Eurasia during the Pleistocene‚ from Ireland to Lake Baikal in Siberia‚ before it went extinct around 8‚000 years ago.“The huge antlers of the extinct Irish elk have invited evolutionary speculation since Darwin‚” the researchers write in their study. In the 1970s‚ biologist Stephen Jay Gould proposed an explanation for their size‚ concluding that they were linked to the size of the deer and the result of “positive allometry”‚ with bigger deer having proportionally even bigger antlers. However‚ the authors of the new study have revisited Gould’s conclusions and run additional analyses‚ finding something contradictory.“We found no evidence for allometric constraints as an explanation for the large antlers of the Irish elk‚” they conclude.While Gould compared the shoulder height and antler length of “cervine” deer‚ the team chose to focus on antler volume instead. Using Gould’s positive allometry‚ they predicted Irish elk would have had an antler volume of 17.5 liters‚ when in reality the average observed antler volume is around 25.5 liters.“I wouldn’t say Gould was entirely wrong‚” study author Thomas Hansen at the University of Oslo told New Scientist. “Allometry still plays an important role.” However‚ Hansen’s research suggests that other factors are likely behind the evolution of the deer’s enormous antlers.And what are those factors‚ you ask? Well‚ we don’t know for sure. Professor Adrian Lister‚ an expert on extinct megafauna at London’s Natural History Museum‚ argued that the answer is sexual selection. Fallow deer‚ the closest living relative of the giant deer‚ form a “lek” during the mating season‚ where males compete by roaring‚ parading‚ and locking antlers.“In this display of strength‚ bigger antlers were probably more intimidating to other males and more desirable to the females‚ who would wander into the lek to choose their mate‚” he explained. But having been extinct for several millennia‚ it’s impossible to study Irish elk’s behavior to know if they did the same.Their diets and habitats could also have helped‚ Hansen speculated.Despite previous suggestions that the Irish elk’s insanely big antlers may have had something to do with its extinction – the pressure of finding enough food to grow them can't have made it easy to adapt and survive – the new study concludes that there is no evidence to support this.The study is published in Evolutionary Biology.[H/T: New Scientist]

Prior to achieving their final form‚ gas planets take on flattened shapes technically known as oblate spheroids‚ a new study has found. Although the Earth today is still classified as an oblate spheroid‚ thanks to slight flattening at the poles‚ the protoplanet stage is drastically flatter‚ according to newly published modelling‚ looking more like an M&;M than a chocolate ball.It is now generally understood that planets form out of protoplanetary disks of dust and gas that surround newly formed stars. We’ve directly viewed many of these‚ and sometimes even spotted the giant planets emerging‚ such as the two planets around the 5-million-year-old star PDS 70. However‚ while the material from which they form is acknowledged to be disk-shaped‚ rather than spherical‚ it was previously believed that by the time a recognizable protoplanet had formed‚ it was something close enough to spherical that you would need to look hard to notice the difference. This has now been challenged in a University of Central Lancashire study.“Many exoplanets… have been discovered in the last three decades‚” said Dr Adam Fenton in a statement. “Despite observing many thousands of them‚ how they form remains unexplained.”There are competing theories explaining the process‚ with the most prominent known as “core-accretion”  and “disk instability”. Fenton and his co-author Dr Dimitris Stamatellos’ modeling assumed disk instability‚ which proposes much more rapid planetary formation than the alternative. “This theory is appealing due to the fact that large planets can form very quickly at large distances from their host star‚ explaining some exoplanet observations‚” Fenton said.The process of modeling the formation of gas giants this way required half a million CPU hours at a high-performance computing facility‚ but‚ Fenton said: “The results were amazing and worth the effort.”Stamatellos said: “We have been studying planet formation for a long time‚ but never before thought to check the shape of the planets as they form in the simulations. We had always assumed they were spherical.” The modeling also suggests that when material leaves the disk to become part of the planet‚ it is usually by falling on the poles.Regrettably‚ the modeling did not reveal any sign of a giant turtle for the protoplanet to rest upon during this phase‚ presumably prior to abandonment as things rounded out.Disk instability is currently less widely favored than core accretion‚ but the Central Lancaster team hope their work will change that. Direct imaging of protoplanets is easier than trying to spot well-established worlds‚ but it is still possible only in a limited number of cases. Still‚ fewer of these are likely to be visible in enough detail to distinguish the shape. Nevertheless‚ if the modeling is right‚ protoplanets will look different depending on the angle from which they are seen‚ and the world’s most powerful telescopes may be able to confirm it.If proven right‚ might this be the basis for a truce between science supporters and flat Earth believers? They acknowledge the Earth today is (almost) round and we stop mocking them on the basis that four point something billion years ago they were sort of right? Ok‚ probably not‚ but it was worth a try.The study has been accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters‚ and is available as a preprint on arXiv.

Some people are just learning where in the kitchen you are supposed to store bananas.In a TikTok video‚ user @tipperk stored bananas in four different ways‚ apparently used by people in real life. These included wrapping a wet paper towel around the stem (or handle‚ according to the "monkey method")‚ putting plastic wrap around the stem‚ keeping the banana in the fridge‚ and just keeping the banana on the side in a bowl with nothing weird wrapped around the stem.As you've probably guessed from previous incidents‚ bananas kept in the fridge fare the worst‚ going a horrible shade of brown earlier than their side-dwelling comrades.      IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.The overall winner of this little test was the banana which was kept on the side in the bowl‚ without anything covering its stem. This fits with general online advice that bananas should be kept on the counter‚ preferably in a cool and dry place‚ until they are ripe. One thing you should know about storing bananas‚ however‚ is that they should be kept in solitary confinement. Or away from other fruits at least. This is because they release the airborne plant hormone ethylene‚ or ethene."Bananas make other fruit ripen because they release a gas called ethene‚" Dr Dan Bebber‚ leader of a global food security project on bananas‚ told the BBC. "This gas causes ripening‚ or softening of fruit by the breakdown of cell walls‚ conversion of starches to sugars and the disappearance of acids."While some fruits – like bananas – produce ethylene during ripening‚ others absorb it. Just as it turns bananas brown‚ it will hasten the ripening and overripening of any neighboring fruits. Hence you should keep bananas on the counter‚ in a cool and dry place‚ and well away from your other fruit.

Dwarf galaxies tend to be found around larger galaxies‚ having formed around them. There is a small population of dwarf galaxies that is isolated and they are known for their vigorous star formation. Astronomers didn’t think that dwarf galaxies that were both isolated and had little star formation existed. Somebody must have forgotten to tell galaxy PEARLSDG that is impossible for it to be both quiet and alone. But‚ it seems that this small collection of stars is faring well without a care for our opinions.Our models of the universe expect galaxies to form in certain ways and with certain levels of activity over time. Discovering objects like PEARLSDG by chance is therefore supremely enlightening. It tells us where the holes in our theories are. And the more of these “impossible” galaxies we find‚ the better we can understand galaxies as a whole."These types of isolated quiescent dwarf galaxies haven't really been seen before except for relatively few cases. They are not really expected to exist given our current understanding of galaxy evolution‚ so the fact that we see this object helps us improve our theories for galaxy formation‚" lead author Dr Tim Carleton from Arizona State University said in a statement. "Generally‚ dwarf galaxies that are out there by themselves are continuing to form new stars."The galaxy is in the same field of view as the Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science (PEARLS) project that is being conducted with JWST. Dwarf galaxies have a tiny fraction of stars compared to regular galaxies like the Milky Way. Our galaxy has about 200‚000 million stars‚ while the average dwarf has less than 100 million.PEARLSDG is relatively close to us‚ about 98 million light-years. JWST's keen eye can see individual stars‚ which helped with assessing the distance but also with discovering that not much is happening. Combined with historical observations of that sky in the same area‚ the team looked for evidence of young stars from particular features in wavelengths from ultraviolet to infrared. None were found.The motion of the galaxy was also measured‚ showing that it is not being influenced by another other object nearby. It is truly an isolated dwarf galaxy that is not forming any new stars.“This was absolutely against people's expectations for a dwarf galaxy like this‚" Carleton added.The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 

The organizers of the Vesuvius Challenge‚ which started in 2023‚ have now announced their grand prize winners who have successfully revealed ancient secrets hidden on petrified scrolls. The announcement not only marks the outcome of ingenious work but may also indicate an exciting new era of research.The Vesuvius Challenge was launched in March 2023 with the not-too-ambitious aim of “making history” (which‚ it is safe to say‚ they have probably achieved). The organizers encouraged individuals from diverse academic backgrounds to devise new methods to read ancient scrolls recovered from the pyric remains of Herculaneum‚ Italy.The scrolls‚ which are now completely petrified‚ were originally located in the Villa Papyri‚ a wealthy estate that was buried under volcanic ash and debris when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.The estate‚ and its library‚ were then rediscovered in the 1700s‚ but despite being well preserved‚ the scrolls have remained unreadable. This is because the heat from the eruption essentially “flash-fried” them‚ turning them into carbonized lumps. But now‚ after 10 months of hard work‚ the winners of the Vesuvius Challenge have found ways to unravel these invaluable artifacts using artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that scan their content without damaging their fragile structure. IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.Nat Friedman‚ the former GitHub CEO‚ and a team of scientists launched the Vesuvius Challenge to find new ways to approach these once-obscure texts. They launched the competition with various financial prizes‚ including the $700‚000 Grand Prize‚ to anyone who could help unlock them.Then‚ back in October 2023‚ Friedman announced the First Letters prize to a 21-year-old computer science student‚ Luke Farritor‚ who managed to decipher the word “πορφυρας” on a scroll‚ which means "purple dye" or "cloths of purple". This prize was soon followed by another for Youssef Nader‚ who identified the same work but with more clarity.Both these results would not have been possible without the work of Casey Handmer‚ the winner of the First Ink prize‚ who found a way to identify the presence of ink in the unopened scroll.Now‚ Friedman has announced the winners of the Grand Prize for their ground-breaking effort to reveal over 2‚000 Greek letters from the scroll.“We received many excellent submissions for the Vesuvius Challenge Grand Prize‚ several in the final minutes before the midnight deadline on January 1st”‚ Friedman and colleagues wrote on their competition’s website.“We presented these submissions to the review team‚ and they were met with widespread amazement. We spent the month of January carefully reviewing all submissions. Our team of eminent papyrologists worked day and night to review 15 columns of text in anonymized submissions‚ while the technical team audited and reproduced the submitted code and methods.”But from all the incredible submissions‚ there was one that stood out from the rest. The submission was so rich that‚ while working independently‚ each member of the team of papyrologists was able to recover more text from it than from any other.As the Vesuvius Challenge organizers explained: “Remarkably‚ the entry achieved the criteria we set when announcing the Vesuvius Challenge in March: 4 passages of 140 characters each‚ with at least 85 [percent] of characters recoverable. This was not a given: most of us on the organizing team assigned a less than 30 [percent] probability of success when we announced these criteria! And in addition‚ the submission includes another 11 (!) columns of text — more than 2‚000 characters total.” The team responsible for this massive success consisted of Farritor and Nader‚ the winners of the earlier prizes‚ and Julian Schilliger‚ the winner of three Segmentation Tooling prizes for his work on Volume Cartographer. Schilliger’s work had allowed for the 3D mapping of the papyrus areas used in the winning submission.“For the Grand Prize‚ [these three previous winners] assembled into a superteam‚ crushing it by creating what was unanimously deemed the most readable submission.”For more details on how the team achieved this‚ see the Vesuvius Challenge’s breakdown of their process and how each member contributed to and built on the work of the other.So what does it say?So far‚ the researchers examining the first scroll have managed to read about 5 percent of it. The preliminary transcription indicates that this is a completely original text and not a duplicate of other work. It seems this philosophical text addresses the subject of “pleasure”‚ the highest form of good according to Epicurean philosophy.“In these two snippets from two consecutive columns of the scroll‚ the author is concerned with whether and how the availability of goods‚ such as food‚ can affect the pleasure which they provide.” The papyrologists explain.“Do things that are available in lesser quantities afford more pleasure than those available in abundance? Our author thinks not: 'as too in the case of food‚ we do not right away believe things that are scarce to be absolutely more pleasant than those which are abundant.' However‚ is it easier for us naturally to do without things that are plentiful? 'Such questions will be considered frequently.'”It seems this question was posed at the end of the text‚ which suggests the answers may be held in other scrolls in the same collection. Interestingly‚ the beginning of the first test text mentions a Xenophantos‚ who may have been a musician and was also mentioned in the work On Music by Philodemus‚ an Epicurean who may have been the philosopher-in-residence at the Villa Papyri.“Scholars might call it a philosophical treatise”‚ the organizers of the Vesuvius Challenge explain. “But it seems familiar to us‚ and we can’t escape the feeling that the first text we’ve uncovered is a 2‚000-year-old blog post about how to enjoy life. Is Philodemus throwing shade at the stoics in his closing paragraph‚ asserting that stoicism is an incomplete philosophy because it has 'nothing to say about pleasure?' The questions he seems to discuss – life’s pleasures and what makes life worth living – are still on our minds today.”What is clear is that this is just the start of what may be a whole new chapter in historical analysis. A new and exciting rediscovery of ancient works that‚ apparently‚ not even a volcano could conceal forever.