Top Stories: The Darkest Year of the Earth, Ocean Study Errors, and a Young Crater Under Greenland Ice | Science

Why 536 was "the worst year of life"

After analyzing the volcanic glass particles in ice from a Swiss glacier, a team of researchers identified why some medieval historians say 536 was the worst year of life. Earlier this year, a cataclysmic volcano in Iceland pulled ash into the northern hemisphere, creating a mist that sank Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia into the dark – day and night – for 18 months. Summer temperatures have fallen from 1.5 ° C to 2.5 ° C, starting the coldest decade in the past 2300 years.

High profile steel sheet for ocean heating to get a correction

Scientists behind a major study on ocean warmth this month are recognizing the errors in their calculations and say the findings are not as safe as those reported for the first time. Research, published in The nature, these oceans heat up much faster than previously estimated. After a blog post marked some discrepancies in the study, the authors said they would send a correction to the magazine.

The massive crater under Greenland's ice shows the impact of climate change in the weather

An international team of scientists this week reported the discovery of a 31-kilometer impact crater hidden under Greenland's ice sheet left after an asteroid the 1.5-kilometer wide fell into the ground. One of the 25 most famous craters of the planet is also remarkably fresh, apparently indicating a recent strike over the last few million years. Time is still under debate, but some researchers in the discovery team believe the asteroid struck at a crucial time: about 13,000 years ago, just as the world has thawed since the last ice age.

Are intestinal bacteria making a second home in our brains?

At the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, California last week neuroscientist Rosalinda Roberts made a splash with a presentation of results from her laboratory at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, where bacteria were observed living healthy brain cells human body harvested. Roberts carefully noticed that her team did not exclude the possibility of contamination of the samples, but the results are one of several preliminary indications that bacteria could directly influence processes in the brain.

The large, brilliant and strange galaxy was hidden in the distant part of the Milky Way

Astronomers have discovered a dwarf galaxy called Antlia 2, which represents one third of the size of the marshy path that hides in the farthest part of our galaxy. As large as the Big Magellanic Cloud, the largest companion of the galaxy, Antlia 2 has bypassed the detection so far, as it is 10,000 times weaker. Such a strange beast causes models of galaxy formation and dark matter, the unseen things that help pull the galaxies together.