The shaky science of Jill Stein continues.
The shaky science of Jill Stein continues. BART.GOV

Did Jill Stein Inaccurately Tweet About Sea Level Rise?: Climate scientists are questioning Jill Stein’s recent tweet that “12.3M Americans could lose their homes due to a sea level rise of 9ft by 2050.”, saying that the figure exceeds even extreme estimates. (Three feet is more or less the consensus projection.) Was Stein using alarmist statistics boost her agenda, or was it an innocent mistake? The Washington Post dug into the question, tracing her numbers to the controversial research of climate scientist James Hansen. Hansen had suggested that sea level rise of “several meters” might occur by 2050-2060 under the worst case scenario, which appears to be the closest thing to a direct source for Stein’s tweet. Where she attained the number 12.3M remains less clear. (Jill Stein also stands on scientifically soft ground when comes to GMOs, vaccines, and homeopathy).

Cruise Ship Departs For NW Passage In Grim Symbol Of Our Times: The Northwest Passage is a sea route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Canadian Arctic, first pioneered by Roald Amudsen in an expedition from 1903-1906 but rarely navigable since due to persistent sea ice. Culturally, the Northwest Passage has a near-mythical resonance attained by few other geographic benchmarks in the history of exploration: only the North and South Poles, El Dorado, and perhaps Mount Everest come close. In our era of rapidly accelerating climate change, then, it’s a sober portent of the world to come that the first luxury cruise liner is departing Anchorage next Tuesday to traverse the route, ultimately scheduled to dock in New York City. Given historically low pack ice levels this year, little should stand in their way. On board are passengers paying $22,000 - $120,000 a head, and hopefully Stan Rogers playing on repeat over the intercom.

The Secret To Coral Health Might Be Fish Pee: Coral reefs are among the most important of all ecosystems—“the rainforests of the sea”, as the cliché goes. They’re also highly endangered, threatened by a cocktail of anthropogenic threats including climate change, pollution, ocean acidification—and overfishing. According to research recently published in Nature Communications by a team including UW SAFS postdoc Jacob Allgeier, this overfishing may have the unexpected effect of starving coral of nutrients. How? By depriving reefs of fish pee.

Burke Paleontologists Uncover Big-Ass Dinosaur: Late breaking news from UW’s Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture: a team of paleontologists under Dr. Greg Wilson has uncovered a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton at their long-term field site in Hell Creek, Montana, including a nearly complete skull. Its nickname, in honor of the volunteers who discovered it, is Tufts-Love Rex. The fossil should be on display at the New Burke by 2019.

What Running 100 Miles Does To Your Body: What happens to the human body in the course of running 100 miles nonstop? While your dutiful SLOG science correspondent will be conducting first-hand research on Saturday after making the questionable decision to jump into the Leadville 100, this Outside Magazine article nicely summarizes the state of the field. Included among the intriguing possibilities are hallucinations, hyponatremia, and nausea.