🐋 Pacific gray whales have shrunk by 13% in last 3 decades, new genetic clock spots marine plant even older than Greenland shark, ISS accidentally live streams medical drill

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Gray whales, which mostly spend their summers on the Pacific Northwest coast, have been declining in body length. An Oregon State University study vetted this claim and noted that this decline has happened since 2000.

The researchers revealed that smaller sizes of the whales could greatly affect their health and reproductive systems. Eventually, their decrease in size could also have a derogatory effect on the food web in which they exist. For more on this development, check out today’s Must-Read.

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MUST READ

🐋 Pacific gray whales have shrunk by 13% in last 2-3 decades, warns study

K.C. Bierlich, co-author on the study, opined that this could be an early warning sign “that the abundance of this population is starting to decline, or is not healthy. And whales are considered ecosystem sentinels, so if the whale population isn’t doing well, that might say a lot about the environment itself.”

Some recent studies from OSU have revealed that whales in the Pacific Coast Feeding Group subgroup are smaller and in worse overall condition than their Eastern North Pacific counterparts.

Enrico Pirotta, the study's lead author and a researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, revealed that size is important for animals. “It affects their behavior, their physiology, their life history, and it has cascading effects for the animals and for the community they’re a part of.”

🍀 New genetic clock spots marine plant older than even Greenland shark

Researchers from Kiel, London, Oldenburg, and Davis, California, have leveraged a revolutionary genetic clock that helped them to determine the age of a huge marine plant clone.

Notably, they dated a seagrass clone for the first time from the Baltic Sea to the migration period, which was around 1400 years ago.

This groundbreaking method could extend to various species, from corals and algae to terrestrial plants such as reeds and raspberries.

🛰️ ISS live streams astronaut sickness, NASA calls it a medical drill

Viewers tuning into a recent live stream of the International Space Station (ISS) experienced an unexpected event. They came across an emergency medical scenario unfolding at the orbital station.

But hold on! Before you hit the panic button, NASA posted a statement on the X (previously Twitter ) clarifying that the live stream was only a “medical drill.”

“There is no emergency situation going on aboard the International Space Station,” announced the post of an ISS account on X. “Audio was inadvertently misrouted from an ongoing simulation where crew members and ground teams train for various scenarios in space.”

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