Mary Anning was born in 1799 in Lyme Regis, a region that is now called the Jurassic coast. Out of 9-10 children, only Mary and her older brother reached adulthood. Mary's father was an amateur fossil collector, and Mary was his sidekick at a young age. He taught her how to search and clean fossils and then displayed and sold them from his shop in the town. Later on, her work would inspire the tongue-twister "She sells seashells by the seashore," which was based on her business of selling fossils to tourists. Like many women at the time, Mary had very little formal education but taught herself geology and anatomy.

A few years later, in 1810, Mary's father suddenly passed away from tuberculous, and Mary was encouraged to sell her finds to help pay off the family debt. Within the following year, her brother Joseph found a strange fossilized skull. For months, Mary searched for and dug the outline of the 5-meter-long skeleton. At this time, the theory of extinction had just recently been introduced, so many thought it must have been a creature washed up from another place. This was studied and debated for years before finally being named Ichthyosaurus, or 'fish lizard.' Now we know this was neither fish nor lizard, but a marine reptile living 201-194 million years ago.

In 1823, Mary was the first person to come across the complete skeleton of a Plesiosaur, meaning 'near to reptile,' and news of the discovery spread so fast that many believed the fossil was a fake. Georges Cuvier, the father of paleontology, disputed the work at a special meeting at the Geological Society of London, to which Mary was not invited. And after a very lengthy debate over the rumors, Cuvier admitted his mistake. Mary struggled with finding recognition for her work in the community. Male paleontologists who bought the fossils Mary found, cleaned, prepared, and identified often didn't credit her discoveries in papers, including the ichthyosaur find.

In 1828, Mary came across a pile of bones with a long tail and wings, later identified as a Dimorphodon. The name Pterodactyl came later. At the time, news spread once again, and scientists across Europe theorized about this 'rare species.' Mary also discovered the study of coprolites or fossilized poop. For years, Mary discovered fossil after fossil, finding significant public interest in her finds. Her work would inspire the tongue-twister "She sells seashells by the seashore," based on her business of selling fossils to tourists. In 1829, mary discovered the skeleton of a Squaloraja, a fossil fish that may have been a mix of shark and ray.

On March 9, 1847, Mary died of breast cancer at 47 years old. After her death, she was eulogized in the annual address of the president of the Geological Society of London; however, women still could not join the society until 1904, 57 years later. Anning's legacy has been recognized in many ways, including having a species of prehistoric fish, Anningia, named after her. Even in 2010, 165 years after her death, she was recognized by the Royal Society as one of the most influential women in British history.

Cecilia was born on May 10, 1900, in Wendover, England. At age eight, she decided she wanted to be a scientist after recognizing a bee orchid, after only hearing her mother’s description. While in her first school, Cecilia excelled in many subjects and was familiar with Latin, French, German, Geometry, and how to use a chemical balance. However, after moving to London when she was 12, Cecilia struggled in high school because they favored religion over science, so science was often left behind. At 17, she was studying calculus and coordinate geometry on her own. Her school said there was nothing more they could do for her, and she left. She went to St. Paul’s School for Girls for the remainder of her time.

Cecilia’s biggest goal was to study science at the University of Cambridge, but it was a hefty sum. After earning a scholarship to cover all her funds, Cecilia began studying for a botany degree at At Cambridge’s Newnham College by September 1919. However, unusual for botanists, she was set on studying the physics path. And soon after, she realized her love for the physical sciences. She switched her major to physics and began attending astronomy lectures and working on research on an informal basis. Her dedication to astronomy dropped her grades, and she graduated with second-class honors. After graduation, she moved to America to become an astronomer and obtain her doctorate.

In 1923, Cecilia arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to attend Radcliffe College, a women’s college now part of Harvard University. She quickly began working at Harvard Observatory to calculate the abundance of elements in stars. She started her research by developing a way to quantify the intensity of absorption lines. Then, she worked day and night for an entire year to analyze the spectra of hundreds of stars and develop general principles. After two years, she built a temperature scale for stars that included absorption intensities. The scale allowed her to calculate the abundances of chemical compositions in stars, and soon after, she made some spectacular discoveries. She discovered that stars had similar compositions, regardless of their spectral type, and that the abundance of hydrogen and helium in stars was astronomical. After two years, she had finished the work for her doctoral degree thesis and was the first awarded for work at a Harvard Observatory.

Unfortunately, her supervisor, Harlow Shapley, said it was impossible for hydrogen and helium to overpower presence of other elements in stars and advised her not to claim it in her Ph.D. thesis, so she followed his advice. Her thesis focused on the fact that the sun was almost entirely composed of hydrogen and helium, but she spent much of her time explaining why this could not be right instead of exploring the possibilities. Her thesis was then printed as a book called Stellar Atmospheres. This began the turning point in theories; many said stars were mainly hydrogen. However, after her book became a hit among the astronomy crowd, many began acknowledging her findings as “groundbreaking.”

After obtaining her doctorate in 2 years, she continued working at the  Harvard Observatory studying stars of high luminosity and variable stars. In 1930, she wrote the book Stars of High Luminosity. Afterward, she was awarded the Annie J Cannon Award in Astronomy and elected to the American Philosophical Society. She became an American citizen in 1931. In 1933, she met a Russian Astrophysicist, Sergei Gaposchkin, in Germany, and they married a year later. They had three children after setting up a home in Lexington, Massachusetts.
In 1954, she published another book Variable Stars and Galactic Structure. In 1956, she was the first woman to be appointed full professor and the first to chair a department. She retired in 1966 but continued her research work at the observatory. In 1976, the American Astronomical Society awarded Cecilia the Henry Norris Russell Prize.

She died of lung cancer on December 7, 1979, at age 79. Her body was donated to science and then buried in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. She was also awarded an honorary degree from Cambridge University in 1984 for her work. On the moon, the crater ‘Payne-Gaposchkin’ was also named in her honor.

Born in Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, on August 26, 1918, Johnson showed significant mathematical capabilities at a very young age. Her curious mind helped move her several grades ahead, and by 13, she was attending high school at West Virginia State College, partly because public schooling was not offered for African Americans past 8th grade. At 18, she enrolled in college itself. Johnson graduated with degrees in mathematics and French, with highest honors, in 1937 and went on to teach math at a black public school in Marion, Virginia.

When West Virginia decided to begin integrating schools in 1939, West Virginia State's president John Davis, selected Johnson and two other men to be offered graduate spots at the school's flagship school - West Virginia University. She became the first African-American woman to attend graduate school at West Virginia University. So, Johnson left her teaching job and enrolled in the school's graduate math program. Shortly after, she decided to leave the program and started a family with James Goble, her first husband.

After hearing of open positions at the all-black West Area Computing section at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA's) Langley laboratory, James and Katherine packed up their family and moved to Newport News, West Virginia. Katherine began working at Langley in the summer of 1953.

After two weeks in office, Katherine's position became permanent when she was assigned a project in the Maneuver Loads Branch of the Flight Research Division. She would then spend the next four years analyzing data from flight tests and investigating a plane crash caused by wave turbulence. However, as she was wrapping up her work in December 1959, her husband died of cancer. Johnson remarried James Johnson in 1959 and was married for sixty years until his death in 2019.

In 1957, Johnson provided some of the mathematical calculations for the 1958 document notes on space technology. This contained lectures given by engineers in the Flight Research Decision (FRD) and the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division (PARD). These engineers were essential to the Space Task Group, the NACA's first official thrust into space travel, where Johnson "came along with the program." Later that year, NACA became NASA.

From 1958 until her retirement, Johnson worked as an aerospace technologist. Johnson made leeway in many different projects, including performing trajectory analysis for Alan Shepard's May 1961 mission, Freedom 7, America's first human space flight, and the launch window for the 1961 Mercury mission. Then, in 1960, Johnson co-authored Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite Over a Selected Earth Position; a report describing the equations needed for orbital spaceflight where the landing position of the spacecraft is specified. This was the first time a woman in the Flight Research Division was given author credit for research.

In 1962, NASA prepared for the orbital mission of John Glenn. NASA began using electronic computers, tracking stations around the work to computers in Washington, Cape Canaveral, and Bermuda. These computers were equipped with specific orbital equations to control the trajectory of the capsule in the mission from liftoff to splashdown. Before the flight, Glenn asked to "get the girl," aka Johnson, to run the numbers. Glenn said he had refused to fly unless the calculations were verified by Johnson. So, Johnson ran the same numbers through the equations that had been programmed into the computer by hand on her desktop calculating machine. The mission was a success and marked a turning point in the competition of the 'space race.'

Johnson had other achievements at NASA, including calculating the trajectory for the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon and the Apollo 13 moon mission. However, when asked about her greatest contributions to space, Johnson would say syncing Project Apollo's Lunar Module with the lunar-orbiting Command and Service Module. She also worked on the Space Shuttle and the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (Landsat) and authored/ co-authored 26 research reports. After 33 years of contributions, she retired in 1986. President Barack Obama awarded Johnson the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. The College of William and Mary awarded her an honorary doctorate on May 12, 2018. Two NASA facilities were also named in her honor.

In 2018, a STEM scholarship and a life-size campus statue were established in Johnson's honor. Mattel announced a Johnson-inspired Barbie doll that came with a NASA badge. Johnson also became one of the members of the Government executive's Government Hall of Fame in 2019. On November 6, 2020, the ÑuSat 15 or "Katherine," COSPAR 2020-079G was launched into space. In February 2021, the Cygnus NG-15 spacecraft to supply the International Space Station was named the SS Katherine Johnson in her honor. Johnson has also received a wide variety of awards, including the NASA Langley Research Center Special Achievement award, an outstanding alumnus of the year, the NCWIT Pioneer in Tech Award, the Silver Snoopy Award, and so many more. Johnson was also inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2019. Johnson passed away on February 24, 2020, of natural causes.

Dorothy Hodgkin was born on May 12, 1910, in Cairo, Egypt. Hodgkin became interested in chemistry around the age of 10 when a family friend gave her chemicals and helped her analyze ilmenite. Along with her four sisters, Hodgkin attended school in England until graduating in 1928. Here she was allowed to study chemistry with the boys. After graduating, she decided to study chemistry and attended Somerville College, University of Oxford, one of Oxford's few colleges for girls. During her undergraduate time, she was one of the first people to study organic molecules using x-ray technology. Hodgkin graduated with her undergraduate degree in 1932 and went to the University of Cambridge to carry out doctoral research. Here she began working with John Bernal to study biological molecules like sterols and helped him make the first x-ray diffraction of a protein called pepsin.

After being offered a temporary research fellowship with Somerville, Hodgkin returned there until her retirement in 1977. Hodgkin gathered an x-ray machine in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and began taking x-ray photographs of insulin. Upon meeting the left-wing historian of the museum, she married Thomas Hodgkin in 1937. Thomas was teaching mining and industrial communities of England. Afterward, he would spend his weekends in Oxford with his wife. The couple had three children in 1938, 1941, and 1946. However, after the infectious birth of her first child, Dorothy was left with rheumatoid arthritis in her hands at age 28, leaving them swollen and distorted. However, this didn't stop her from conducting her research. Upon discovering she could no longer use the main switch of x-ray equipment, she had a longer lever for the switch made so she could continue with her research.

In 1939, Hodgkin was approached by colleagues at the University of Oxford who had succeeded in isolating penicillin and needed Hodgkin's help in identifying its structure. Dorothy worked from 1942 until 1945 when she successfully described the arrangement of its atoms in three-dimensions. Biochemist Ernst Chain originally thought penicillin had a beta-lactam ring, a four-member ring with three carbon and one nitrogen atom, with one oxygen atom attached to the carbon atom that was across from the nitrogen. Hodgkin proved this to be correct using x-ray crystallography. At this time, penicillin was the largest molecule to undergo x-ray methods. Afterward, Hodgkin was elected to the royal society in 1947.

Hodgkin continued her work from 1948 until the mid-1950s, when she finally discovered the structure of vitamin B12. This discovery helped her obtain the position of Wolfson Research Professor at the royal society. In 1964, Hodgkin was nominated for the Nobel prize for her work with penicillin and B12. Hodgkin, still to this day, remains the first and only British woman to receive the Nobel prize for science and the 3rd woman overall. Then, in 1965, she was made a member of the Order of Merit, which is Britain's highest honor for achievement in science, the arts, and public life.

Even though her passion for insulin was pushed aside from other projects, she continued her work on it until 1969 - 34 years after taking her first x-ray photograph of insulin. In 1969, she discovered its structure while working with an international team of young researchers. Her research showed the overlay between chain A and Chain B in the molecules.

Hodgkin was receiving invitations to speak across the world and often did so with enthusiasm. She brought a family member along to help out when things became tough. Hodgkin retired from the public in 1988. On July 29, 1994, Dorothy Hodgkin died of a stroke in her home in the United Kingdom.

Beatrice "Tilly" Shilling was born on March 8, 1909, in Waterlooville, United Kingdom. Shilling was a curious child, always tinkering with machines, especially the family's motorcycle. Her family stated she always pulled it apart and put it back together. Shilling excelled in science and math in school, and her family encouraged her to remain in the field.

In 1927, Shilling enrolled at the University of Manchester, where she majored in engineering. She was among the only two women in her class and often faced discrimination and prejudice from her male classmates and professors. She was also involved in various extracurricular activities, like the motorcycle club. Here she would race motorcycles and work on engines. She was also involved in the university's engineering society, giving presentations on her work and advocating for women in engineering. Shilling graduated with honors in 1932 but stayed an extra year to complete her master's in mechanical engineering.

In 1934 while working as a research assistant, she could be found on her Norton 500cc motorcycle at Brooklands Motorcycle Racing Club. She competed in races and trials and won several awards.

In addition to her work on airplane engines, Shilling also designed and built a motorcycle engine that set a new speed record in 1934.

Afterward, Shilling accepted a job with Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough as a technical assistant in the engine department in 1936. She developed engines for aircraft. Shortly after starting, she also met her husband, George Naylor, a mathematician at the mechanical test department. They were married on July 21, 1938.

While working at RAE, Shilling made one of her greatest accomplishments as an engineer, the creation of  R.A.E. Resrictor or "Miss Shilling's orifice." The restrictor was a small device that regulated fuel flow to the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine in aircraft during negative-g force flights. During these flights, the negative G force would flood the engine's carburetor, causing the engines to stall.

Shilling created a plate, a brass thimble with a hole in the middle, which fit into the engine's carburetor without taking the aircraft out of service. The restrictor limited maximum fuel flow and prevented flooding. It was used in British Spitfire and Hurricane fighter planes. The device was also used in some American fighter planes.

This invention was instrumental to the success of the Royal Air Force during WWII. Afterward, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire for her contributions. After the war, she continued working in the aviation field and was eventually appointed the head of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the Royal Aircraft Establishment. During World War II, she also worked on other inventions, including the "Wabbly" bomb sight or the "Mark XIV bomb sight," which helped improve the accuracy of bombing raids.

In 1946, Shilling became the first woman to give a paper at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Her talk was titled "The Production of High-Intensity Illumination for Aerodromes."

In 1951, Shilling left the RAE and became a Technical specialist at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington, England. Here, she tested and evaluated various technical devices and instruments and provided technical advice and support to industry and government. She worked on many projects related to aeronautics, including the development of the "flying laboratory." The flying laboratory was a small plane equipped with sensors and instruments flown in a wind tunnel to collect data on airflow and turbulence. Shilling played a key role in designing and testing the flying laboratory, which became a valuable tool for aeronautical research.

Shilling's work at the NPL also involved testing and evaluating many technical devices and instruments, like testing an early version of the electric toothbrush and a new type of thermometer. She also provided technical advice and support to industry and government. She was involved in several high-profile projects, like the development of the Concorde supersonic airliner and aided in technical advice on developing the hovercraft.

Shilling retired in 1969 but continued to be involved in the field. She returned to RAE for a short period, helping develop a new type of aircraft engine. In 1970, she became a research fellow at Brunel University in Uxbridge, England, where she worked on several research projects related to engineering and aeronautics. In 1986, Shilling was awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal Aeronautical Society in recognition of her contributions to the field of aeronautical engineering. She was here until she died in 1990.

Tilly Shilling died on November 18, 1990, at 81. Shilling was a member of the Women's Engineering Society and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers throughout her life, . She was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.  Shilling was awarded numerous honors during her lifetime, including the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' James Clayton Prize in 1936 and the Royal Aeronautical Society's Gold Medal in 1972.  In 2014, Shilling was inducted into the British Engineering Hall of Fame to recognize her contributions to the engineering field.  In 2019, she was inducted into the Air and Space Hall of Fame at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England, in recognition of her contributions to aviation. She was known for her practical and hands-on approach to engineering. She once famously said, "I have never met an engineer who doesn't like to take things apart and put them back together again." She is remembered as a trailblazer for women in engineering and a pioneer in  aeronautics.

Rosalind Franklin was born on July 25, 1920, in London, England. She was born into a family of Anglo-Jewish scholars who valued education and intellectual pursuits. Franklin first attended St. Paul's Girl's school before going to Newnham College, one of the two schools for girls at the  University of Cambridge. Here she studied physical chemistry. With the ongoing threat of WWII, Franklin stayed at Cambridge and even served as a London air raid warden.

She then received a graduate research scholarship from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research but sought tension with her supervising professor, R.G.W Norrish.

After assigning Franklin a project, she discovered an error in the project. Norrish refused to accept the findings and made her redo the experiments. Franklin wrote Norris "became most offensive" when "I stood up to him." Norris, on the other hand, told a biographer that he did not approve of Franklin's interest in "raising the status of her sex to equality with men."

In 1941 however, Franklin graduated and moved on to work for the  British Coal Utilization Research Association. Here Rosalind investigated the physical chemistry of carbon and coal for war efforts. She used this research for her doctoral thesis in 1945 and received a doctorate from Cambridge. Her thesis was titled "The Physical Chemistry of Solid Organic Colloids with Special Reference to Coal and Related Materials."

Over the next few years, Franklin worked with Jacques Méring Laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'Etat in Paris. Here, she became an expert at crystallography or x-ray diffraction. Here, the structures of different carbons were revealed and opened new doors for industrial uses of carbon. This aided in the development of heat-resistant materials. By the age of 30, Franklin was an international expert on carbons. She had numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals to her credit.

In 1950, Franklin was awarded a three-year research fellowship at the biophysical laboratory at King's College in London, focused on studying changes in protein solutions. Franklin, however, changed routes after starting. After receiving a specially prepared nucleic gel, Franklin was instructed to use her skills in x-ray diffraction to study the structure of DNA.

Her first eight months at the lab were spent with Raymond Gosling, both working closely to design and assemble a micro-camera. The camera would help them understand the conditions needed to get an accurate diffraction image. to understand the conditions necessary to get an accurate diffraction image of DNA. In May of 1952, Franklin, with the help of Gosling and their camera, suspended a tiny DNA fiber the width of a hair strand and inundated the fiber with an x-ray beam for one hundred hours of exposure under controlled relative humidity. Diffracted by the electrons, the rays produced a pattern on a photographic plate. Then, Franklin performed many mathematical computations to analyze the pattern and reveal the structure of DNA. In April of 1953, Franklin published Photo 51 in the journal Nature.

In that same issue, Cambridge scientists James Watson and Francis Crick also announced their discovery of double-helix DNA. Franklin's data confirmed this new model. However, it isn't clear if Franklin knew her research helped inspire or construct this.

In Early in 1953, Raymond Gosling showed Photo 51 to biophysicist Maurice Wilkins, who in turn showed it to Dr. Watson. Watson grasped the helical structure as an essential part of the replication of DNA and would write about it in his book, "The Double Helix."

Photo 51 was captured by Franklin through X-ray diffraction in May of 1952. It showed the B form of DNA and contained much imperative information about the structure of DNA. She discovered DNA exists in two forms - A and B.

Franklin left King's College in early 1952 and accepted a position at Birkbeck College's Biomolecular Research Laboratory. One week before the Photo 51 was published, J.T. Randall, the head of the biophysics unit at King's College, instructed her to stop working on DNA. However, by this point, Franklin was already studying plant viruses. Here she would lead her team in finding the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus.

By the mid-1950s, Franklin was at the top of her field, was constantly sought after as a speaker for scientific conferences, and was a published author; she struggled to fight for status and pay, lacked job security, and struggled to obtain funding and equipment.

After her fellowship with Birkbeck ended, she received a contract for virus research at the Agricultural Research Council, which offered a reduction in salary and refused to rank her as 'principal scientific investigator.' Franklin wrote back to ARC that her work at Birkbeck was "probably the most fundamental of all questions concerning the mechanisms of living processes, namely the relationship between protein and nucleic acid in the living cell...Moreover, in no other laboratory, either in this country or elsewhere, is any comparable work on virus structure being undertaken."

She thrived on many collaborations with other scientists on coal and virus research. However, in 1956, Franklin was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She continued working and traveling during periods of remission. During this time, she continued to push for financial compensation for her research at Kirkbeck, where he had been asked to build models of viruses for the Brussels World's Fair. She died on April 16, 1958, at thirty-seven years old. The following day, the Brussels World's Fair opened, where five-foot-tall models of Franklin's work were displayed and grew significant interest in the international Science Hall.

In 1962, Four years after Franklin's death, Watson and Crick accepted Nobel Prize for the discovery of the structure of DNA, while Franklin's critical discovery went unnoticed. By the end of her life, Franklin had published 19 papers on coals and carbons, five on DNA, and twenty-one on viruses. Just before her death, she and her team began resdearching the deadly polio virus.  The discovery of the structure of DNA marked a turning point in the biological sciences - the new science of molecular biology was born.

Many southern states are preparing for their upcoming Severe Weather Awareness Week. The week is usually around the end of February or beginning of March and displays the importance of knowing what to do in cases of severe weather. This week marks the state of Tennessee's Severe Weather Awareness Week, so here's what you need to know.

Severe weather is weather that causes damage, disruption, or loss of life. Severe weather can occur any month of the year, but is more common in the summer months from March-April and October- November. Types of severe weather include severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, flooding, hail, damaging winds, winter weather, and hurricanes. What makes a severe thunderstorm? That's the basis of all severe weather right? A thunderstorm is classified as severe when hail is one inch in diameter or greater, winds gusting greater than 50 knots of 57.5 mph, or a tornado is present. There are also 5 different types of severe weather risk. Risk categories are usually issued a day or hours before the event is expected by the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center. They range from thunderstorms to high risk.

Its also important to know the difference between watches and warnings. These can occur with many different types of weather year round. A watch is when ingredient for the weather event are there. A warning is when you are actively seeing the event. A winter weather watch is when its possible for winter weather to from. A winter weather warning is when its actively snowing or freezing rain. One way to remember this is the taco way. With a taco watch, you have all the ingredients for tacos. But you don't physically have the tacos until you have a taco warning.

Tornadoes

When you think of severe weather in the south, you typically think of tornadoes. A tornado is a rotating column of air that reaches the ground. They form when warm, humid air collides with cold, dry air. At the same time, winds are moving at different speeds and directions at different parts of the atmosphere that cause rotation to occur. When rotation occurs, it's called a funnel. After the funnel reaches the ground, it is then classified as a tornado.

Tornadoes are measured on the enhanced Fujita scale, which you can find more information about here: Enhanced Fujita Scale.

There are many different types of tornadoes that can occur. 75% of the world's tornadoes occur in the United States, and of those, most occur in tornado alley and dixie alley located in the Midwest and the south. Over 1,000 occur every year in the united states. Tornadoes haven been recorded on every continent except for Antarctica. However, the state of Tennessee see's the most nocturnal tornadoes of anywhere else in the United States, with around half of the tornadoes occurring at night.

This is troubling because its harder for the NWS to warn for tornadoes when there is no visual confirmation on the ground. Its also harder to warn people because most are asleep around these times. No matter when, you always need multiple ways to receive alerts if you're expecting severe weather. If you hear a siren or alert, you need to head to shelter. You can find this in a storm shelter, basement, or in the most interior room in your house. This can be a bathroom or closet. For extra protection, you can also wear a helmet.

Even if you are experiencing damaging winds, it is smart to address it the same as a tornado. Just because the winds aren't rotating, doesn't mean they aren't strong. Winds can reach 100+ mph and can cause just as much damage.

Lightning

Lightning occurs in all thunderstorms. Lightning is a giant spark of electricity between clouds and the ground. The clouds typically hold a negative change while the ground holds a positive charge. The two need to meet together so the charges from the clouds and the ground will try to meet. Once they do, lightning occurs. Thunder is always associated with lightning. Thunder occurs as the atmosphere tries to cool from the rapid heating from lightning, disrupts the soundwaves, and causes them to collapse. If you hear thunder, lightning is always there. That's why if thunder roars, you head indoors.

There are around 3 million lightning flashes a day across the world, or 44 per second. Don't believe the myth that lightning can't strike the same place twice, because it can. Lady liberty is struck by lightning around 600 times per year.

Lightning strikes are about the width of your thumb and  hotter than the surface of the sun. During thunderstorms, head inside, Be sure to stay away from plumbing and electrical so you don't get electrocuted.

Flooding

Flooding is experienced in every state in the country and every place in the world that receives rain. There are multiple types of flooding that can occur, but the main three are river flooding, flash flooding, and coastal flooding. It occurs when a lot of water accumulates, either at one time or gradually, and the ground does not have the capability to soak it up. This leaves inches, or sometimes feet of water, sitting on top of the surface.

Flooding is the most common natural disaster, averaging around 114 deaths per year. it can occur any month of the year but often occurs during late winter and spring due to melting snowfall of heavy rainfall. Different parts of the coutnry are at risk during different parts of the year. Floods are also the most common of any weather-related natural disaster. Most fatalities also occur while driving.

It only takes 6 inches of moving water to knock an adult off their feet. It only takes 2 feet of water to sweep away a car. The best thing to do in the chance of a flood is to get to higher ground and, turn around, don't drown.

Hail

Hail is another type of precipitation that causes a lot of damage. Hail is frozen ice that forms in thunderstorm updrafts. The stones act as lottery ball machines, being thrown around the cloud and consistently accumulating more ice until it is too heavy to be carried and it drops. Hail can occur anywhere in the world. The only place that sees more hail than the United States is Kenya. In the United States, a series of states called "hail alley" see the most - Texas, Oklahoma,Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wyoming.

Hail can range anywhere from 1/4th and inch up to 4.5 inches and greater. Hail in this part of the country is most common during May and june but often brings damage to crops, homes, and livestock. The largest hailstone recorded in the United States was 8 inches in diameter and was captured in Vivian, South Dakota in 2010.

If you see or hear hail at home, its best to get away from all windows and into an interior room. If you are in a car, pull over and stay in the car. If it is quarter sized or larger, turn your back away from the windshield to reduce the amount of damage to your body.

Paleontologist, Zhuo Feng, made an interesting discovery on a trip in southwest China at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden. He came across fossilized leaves of an extinct plant that may show some plants used to 'close themselves' at night.

The now extinct Gigantonoclea was the proof he needed. Two fossilized leaves from the plant were discovered and it showed signs of nyctinasty, which is circadian folding at night. This would make this the first known specimen of this fossilized example behavior. The fossils date back around 250 million years ago.

One thing that made scientists believe the species showed signs of nyctinasty was the proof of bugs munching on the plants. The insects chewed through the rows of leaves and made marks so visible, they're still visible in the fossilized plant today. But it wasn't just the bites that made scientists speculate but how they were arranged. The bites are arranged symmetrically on both sides.

Insects made the holes feasting on the leaves while they were shut. Similar evidence of leaf damage can be used to distinguish folding behavior from dying leaves that had shriveled. There are modern day plants that act the same way. They fold and unfold their leaves using pulvinus cells which act like muscles. By moving water around the leaf, the cells bloat or deflate and it causes the leaves to fold or unfold. These cells are often found in the base of the leaves so its impossible to tell if the fossilized plants contained these cells.

While plant leaves usually become damaged in the fossilization process and display signs of wear and tear, this wasn't the case. In living plants, the area around the bite tends to thicken in response. It tends to take on the shape of those in the fossil.

It's hard to prove this occurred at night, these leaves would have to be folded long enough for insects to munch through them. This period of time makes scientists believe it may have occurred at night. Most modern plants who do this are flowering plants, and the fossilized Gigantonoclea was a seed producing plant like a ginkgo. And these plants would have been abundant in the area, with plenty for the insects to feast on.

50 years ago, scientists on an oceanographic voyage in the Central Northern Pacific expressed concerns about 'the number of manmade objects littering the ocean surface.'

An article from ScienceNews on February 10, 1973 states "Even though they were 600 miles away from the nearest major civilization (Hawaii) and far off major shipping lanes, they recorded 53 man-made objects in 8.2 hours on viewing. More than half were plastic. They go on to compute that there are between 5 million and 35 million plastic bottles adrift in the North Pacific."

Setting Sail Into a Plastic Sea - article link.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or the Pacific Trash Vortex, spans the length of the western coast of North America to Japan. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch consists of two separate garbage patches - the Western Garbage Patch near Japan and the Eastern Garbage Patch located between Hawaii and California. These two are linked with the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone. In this zone, warm water from the South Pacific meets the cold water from the Arctic, creating a 'highway' that moves debris between the patches.

The amount of debris accumulates quickly because most of it is not biodegradable. These patches aren't contained with a lot of large plastic, but more smaller microplastics. Microplastics can't always be seen with the naked eye. Even satellite imagery doesn't pick up the garbage patches. The microplastics make the patch look like cloudy, dirty water. It's filled with microplastics and other larger items like clothing, shoes, fishing nets, etc. Oceanographers also believe that the garbage patch may be an underwater trash heap - as 70% of marine debris sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Because of this, no one knows exactly how much trash makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The Dirty Details

80% of plastic comes from land-based sources, and the other 20% comes from marine sources like boats. Because of plastics' low cost, it is being used more in consumer products. But it doesn't break down. Instead it breaks down into smaller pieces, and it begins accumulating more and more. The sun also breaks these down even more through a process called photodegradation. It's assumed that most debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups. Because of its location, no country will take responsibility or provide funding for cleaning up the patch.

The approximate size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is around 1.6 million square kilometers, or 994,193.9076 square miles. This would be twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France. The mass of the patch is approximately 80,000 tons. This is thought to be between 4-16 times more than previously thought. A total of 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic are estimated to be floating within the patch. This would account for  around 250 pieces of plastic for every human on Earth. 1.8 is also estimated to be a mid value range. Actual values could be anywhere between 1.1 million or 3.6 million.

Scientists are now seeing evidence of the marine debris disrupting ecosystems. Floating at the surface of the garbage patch is 180 times more debris than marine life. Larger pieces can be mistaken for food, smaller animals can become trapped or entangled in the pieces, and the chemical breakdown of plastics into nearby water can become deadly for animals. And this in hand affects humans as well.

Bioaccumulation is a process where plastics consumed by marine life are absorbed into the body after consumption. As the feeder becomes the prey, those chemicals will then be absorbed into humans. The same plastic that affects marine life could affect humans as well. In hand, this affects the economy, with annual economic costs due to marine plastic are between $6-19 billion. It has impacts on tourism, fisheries, and governmental clean ups. Scientists hope that with time, we can continue cleaning the garbage patch and make the environment better for marine life who live there. But it's a collaboration across the globe and can't be done with one person alone. Maybe in the next 50 years, we'll see it shrinking instead of growing.

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered what is thought to be the first galaxy to quench its star formation. The galaxy GS-9202 was first discovered in the early 2000s. Since then, researchers have laid out the possibility of this being a 'quenched galaxy' due to the wavelength of light it emits. Earth's atmosphere would absorbs the UV rays from the wavelengths that could give great detail to more information about the galaxy, so it was always impossible to know for sure if this was a quenched galaxy.

What is a quenched galaxy?

To undergo creation, galaxies need a lot of gas and dust- very, very cold gas. This cold gas is required for a galaxy to undergo a gravitational collapse. The larger the galaxy, the more cold gas is required for this process.

Quenching' is a process in which a galaxy loses its cold gas. When this happens, star formation is suppressed and galaxies become in route to becoming passive, or dead. It's thought that supermassive black holes may drive this process, as they collect all gas and dust floating nearby.

JWST's Discovery

Because of JWST's greater sensitivity in instrumentation, its easier to pick up even small traces in the universe. By making observations based on the information coming in from JWST, researchers were able to draw conclusions about the galaxy.  

The GS-9202 galaxy formed 600 million years after the Big Bang. Most of the stars in the galaxy were formed in a 200 million year period. In that short time frame, the galaxy built around 40 billion masses of solar masses' worth of stars. It is suggested that the galaxy formed from a cloud of gas and dust that collapsed and ignited all of the stars at once. This is called a monolithic collapse.

However, after those 200 million years of formation, the frenzy came to a stop. Observations from JWST discovered an extra emission of infrared light that is associate with a quickly mixing mass of energized hydrogen. This is the sign of a growing black hole, that is now a billion times the mass of the sun. Scientists estimate that for the black hole to reach that size in less than a billion years, it has to be consuming everything in its path.

On February 6, 2023, around 4:15 local time, residents near south central Turkey (towards the Syrian border) were struck by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake. The earthquake lasted approximately two minutes. 11 minutes later, another followed- a magnitude 7.5 earthquake. Some believe this was an aftershock of the first one. Others believe that due to the cluster of activity being different among the two, the  magnitude 7.5 earthquake may have been a separate earthquake along the fault.

Over 100 aftershocks have been recorded since. Thousands of buildings have collapsed and more than 12,000 have died as a result. The quake was the strongest in the region since 1939 - where a magnitude 7.8 earthquake killed 30,000 people. And since 1970, 6 earthquakes with a magnitude of 6.0 or larger have been recorded in the area. This area is known for its earthquakes so why is this one different?

The Big Quake

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) confirmed these quakes were occurring within the East Anatolian Fault System. This is a major strike slip fault zone that runs from eastern to south-central Turkey, forming the boundary between the Anatolian plate and the Arabian plate. This means these two plates are sliding past each other horizontally. This is similar to the San Andreas Fault in California. In this case, it's anticipated that the two plates slid 10 feet past each other during the earthquake.

Geologists with the USGS say that an earthquake of this magnitude is rare anywhere across the globe, but this type of event is not expected on a long plate-boundary strike-slip fault. The greatest earthquakes occur within subduction zones, not strike-slip faults.

The USGS has produced a ground failure report, which shows a significant area is exposed to landslides and liquefaction hazards as a result of the violent shaking. The report can be seen here: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us6000jllz/ground-failure/summary

How is it Measured?

Earthquakes occur all across the globe on a daily basis. They're measured using a seismograph. This device measures the seismic waves traveling through Earth after an earthquake. Their waves are similar to ocean waves rippling across the planet. They then measure the waves using the MMI scale, or the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale. The scale shows the magnitude, approximately how many people feel it, and what damage estimates may be. The intensity of shaking as a whole depends on more regional factors.

"The lower numbers of the intensity scale generally deal with the manner in which the earthquake is felt by people. The higher numbers of the scale are based on observed structural damage. Structural engineers usually contribute information for assigning intensity values of VIII or above."

What Happened?

There's a lot of speculation about what happened or worsen the effects of the earthquake. Timing was not great, as many people were inside and sleeping during the early hours. Some also speculate building codes may have had a lot to do with the amount of damage.

After the 1999 earthquake, officials reevaluated building codes in the area. The problem was, not all were built after 1999. Because it had been so long since an earthquake of this magnitude, older buildings were likely first to topple.

Not only was the quake itself devastating, but the weather that followed after didn't help. Temperatures were below freezing with falling rain and snow this week in the region. Those trapped under rubble now not only have to worry about food, water, and safety, but risk hypothermia. Civilians are urged not to stay indoors incase of another quake or aftershock, however, for some, being outside may be just as dangerous.

At the moment, rescue teams are still searching for survivors in Turkey and Syria. The president has also announced a three month state of emergency for the region affected.

One life-threatening cold snap moved into the northeastern part of the United States this past weekend, setting a new national wind chill record. On Friday evening, a new record was set at Mount Washington in New Hampshire with a wind chill of -108°F. Actual temperatures at Mount Washington were -46 ° with a wind speed of 100-110 mph and gusts up to 127 mph.

What is a wind chill?

Wind chill can be commonly confused with temperature. Temperature is the measure of hotness or coldness exerted from a body. Wind chill is the intersection of your actual temperature and the wind speed. An easier way to remember this- temperature is what the thermometer reading and wind chill is what it feels like.

Wind chill is always cooler than the temperature but how do scientists figure this out? Simply by using the wind chill calculation, where T = temperature in Fahrenheit and V= wind speed:

35.74 + 0.6215T – 35.75(V^0.16) + 0.4275T(V^0.16)

Or, you can use this chart to look at a wind chill, but notice it doesn't go below -98°F. It's very rare for any wind chill to drop below that number.

Out of the Troposphere

What makes this situation even more fascinating is the fact that the summit of Mount Washington was actually in the stratosphere, one atmospheric layer above the troposphere. But, how is this possible?

We currently live in the troposphere - that's where almost all of the weather takes place. On a regular day, the bottom of the stratosphere lies somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 feet. However, when an arctic air mass, similar to this one, moves in, the cold, dense air sinks. This forces the troposphere levels much lower than usual. Early Saturday morning, the border between the troposphere and the stratosphere was located at 5,000 feet.

Mount Washington is the highest peak in the northeastern United states, at 6,288.2 ft or 1,916.2 m. This would make Mount Washington surpassing the border of the troposphere and moving into the Stratosphere. This phenomenon is called a tropopause fold and is fairly uncommon to see.

But along with record wind chills and bitter cold temperatures, there were also frost quakes in the area of Maine.

And frostquakes?

Frost quakes are not real earthquakes, but they may feel like it. The phenomenon occurs when temperatures drop rapidly, causes underground water to freeze. When this happens, the ice expands due to its nature, putting extra pressure on the bedrock and soil surrounding the area. This pressure continues to build until the soil and the rocks begin to crack, which can result in a loud 'boom' or shaking. A few of these quakes were reported in Maine as temperatures started to suddenly drop on Friday.

Temperatures began to rebound on Sunday morning, as a warm front surpassed the area. This will leave many to see above average temperatures compared to the bitter, well below average temperatures this weekend.

A lot has happened this week in the science community, including space, AI technology, and chemistry!

A Bear-y Unusual Find

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a bear-y unusual feature on the red planet. The image was captured in December but shared on January 25th of 2023. If you look closely, you can see a head, two eyes, a mouth, and a nose. Or you'd think.

The two eyes are actually craters, the nose is a hill with a V-collapsed structure, and the head is a circular fracture pattern. While the adorable face looks well put together here, the features spread out around 2,000 kilometers across the Martian surface. The team is always finding familiar faces on the planet, just like this one. Maybe just 'grin and bear it.'

For more information on this story, click here: https://www.serendum.com/newsroom/bear-y-cool-capture-on-mars/

AI Technology Takes Off

A Canadian machine learning system is making its way to the moon on a United Arad Emirates rover that launched on a SpaceX rocket on December 11, 2022.The rover is expected to touch down this spring, searching for minerals and other geologic features. Canada's AI system will inform the rover's decision making and  will be the first time an AI has ever reached beyond a low Earth orbit, according to officials.

If all goes to plan, the Rashid rover will run for approximately one lunar day, or 14 earth days. It is not expected to last the lunar night. Rashid's rover navigation images will be sent to the base, which will handle communications with Earth. Then the output will be sent to the ground to be used by scientists and engineers to help decide where the rover should go next. Once engineers are confident the AI knows how to classify different features like rocks and craters, humans will be taken out of the mission.

For more information on this story, click here: https://www.serendum.com/newsroom/canadian-ai-technology-soars-to-new-heights/

Ice, Ice Baby

Researchers have discovered a new type of ice through a process called ball milling. By using liquid nitrogen to cool a jar to -200 degrees, adding crystlline ice and steel balls, they were able to discover a medium-density amorphous ice. In this form, the molecules are in more of a disorganized shape, rather than the organized shape found in crystallized ice. This type of ice is rare on Earth but abundant in space; due to the cooler environment, the ice does not have enough thermal energy to form crystals. The only place on Earth where this ice could be observed is in the upper levels of the atmosphere.

Researchers suggested this type of ice may be found in more ice moons in our solar system, like those of Jupiter and Saturn. The forces from the gas giants may exert similar forces on ordinary ice, similar to the process of ball milling. One thing researchers discovered from the ice was what happened when it was warmed up. Using calorimetry, researchers discovered the ice released a significant amount of heat after it was warmed and recrystallized. This led to the idea that the ice could possibly trigger tectonic motions on ice planets, like Jupiter's Ganymede.

For more information on this story, click here: https://www.serendum.com/newsroom/new-forms-of-ice-discovered/

Water has many animalities that have baffled scientists for years. Like how water is most dense at 4°C, and becomes less dense the more it freezes. This is how ice floats in your glass. But how would you feel if your ice cube didn't sink or float, and just bounced around your glass? That's something researchers at UCL and the University of Cambridge may have discovered.

Researchers may have discovered a new type of ice - amorphous ice. In this form, the molecules are in more of a disorganized shape, rather than the organized shape found in crystallized ice. This type of ice is rare on Earth but abundant in space; due to the cooler environment, the ice does not have enough thermal energy to form crystals. The only place on Earth where this ice could be observed is in the upper levels of the atmosphere.

Researchers made this discovery through a process called ball-milling. They used liquid nitrogen to cool a mixing jar to -200°C. Then, they aggressively shook ice together with steel balls in the jar. Instead of finding your usual crystalline ice, a more amorphous type of ice was discovered. However, unlike all other ices, the amorphic ice had the same density as liquid water and the state of the ice resembled water in its liquid form. The type of ice was named medium density amorphous ice (MDA). They observed the density based on how it reacted with the liquid nitrogen, through x-ray diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy.

Researchers suggested this type of ice may be found in more ice moons in our solar system, like those of Jupiter and Saturn. The forces from the gas giants may exert similar forces on ordinary ice, similar to the process of ball milling. One thing researchers discovered from the ice was what happened when it was warmed up.

Using calorimetry, researchers discovered the ice released a significant amount of heat after it was warmed and recrystallized. This led to the idea that the ice could possibly trigger tectonic motions on ice planets, like Jupiter's Ganymede. Scientists have discovered 20 crystalline forms of ice but only two forms of amorphic ice - high density and low density. Low-density amorphous ice was discovered in the 1930's as scientists condensed water vapor on a -110°C metal surface. High density ice was discovered in the 1980's when crystalline ice was compressed at -200°C. Now, medium density amorphous ice fills the gap.

There are still some questions to find answers to- like that the ice may be a glassy state of liquid water and window glass is the solid form of liquid silicon dioxide. Another is that MDA is not glassy but heavily sheared in a crystalline state. Researchers hope to continue performing tests to come to conclusions about the future of medium density amorphous ice.

For more information, you can read the study here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq2105