Françoise Gaill, a French marine biologist and vice president of the Ocean & Climate Platform, who is also a scientific adviser at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), spoke to FRANCE 24.

FRANCE 24: What is a dead zone?

Françoise Gaill: Dead zones are hypoxic areas in the ocean, where the concentration of oxygen is below the norm. This can mean a decrease of up to 20 percent, which is already quite significant, but can reach up to a 50 percent drop in oxygen levels.

The lack of oxygen occurs in the ocean’s surface areas, between 50 and 400 metres deep. The shallowest waters are generally less affected since they have more contact with the air and therefore benefit from oxygenation, which is less available in deep water.

Dead zones are mostly found off the coast of the Americas, from California to Chile. West Africa is also affected, as is the western part of Indonesia in the Indian Ocean.

Although they mostly hug coastlines, we are starting to see some dead zones stretch from the Americas into the middle of the Pacific, far from the shore.

An ongoing decrease in oxygen levels underwater is an important component of the loss of marine life. More than 400 "dead zones" – where aquatic life can no longer survive – existed in the world’s oceans in 2007, according to a study led by a scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, compared to 150 in 2003.

Deprived of essential oxygen, these marine areas span 245,000 square kilometres and threaten vertebrate animals, with more than a third of marine mammals affected.

The phenomenon has been ongoing since the 1980s and is proliferating, while research on the subject lags behind.

The day when most new drugs will be developed and tested directly using human tissues is right around the corner

Most people know what microelectronics are: those small but mighty components powering our phones, TVs, and other electronic devices.

Microfluidics is a related miniaturization technology but applied to fluids instead of electricity. Often hidden from view, microfluidics underlies a variety of devices that are essential to our lives, from home pregnancy tests to inkjet printers to glucometers for the monitoring of diabetes.

In recent years a class of microfluidic devices, called organs-on-chips, have even been used to mimic the natural environments of organs, opening the door to experiments that would otherwise not be feasible

Almost a million stillbirths a year can be attributed to air pollution, according to the first global study.

The research estimated that almost half of stillbirths could be linked to exposure to pollution particles smaller than 2.5 microns (PM2.5), mostly produced from the burning of fossil fuels.

The study covered 137 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, where 98% of stillbirths occur. Dirty air was already known to increase the risk of stillbirth but the research is the first to assess the number of foetal deaths. The work was based on data from more than 45,000 stillbirths and live births.

Stillbirths were described as a “neglected tragedy” in a 2020 report published by Unicef. The heavy impact of stillbirths on mothers and their families would mean that action to prevent them would boost women’s health and equality, the scientists behind the new work said.

The epidemiological study did not examine how small particle pollution could cause stillbirths. But it followed the revelation in October that toxic air pollution particles were found in the lungs and brains of foetuses. Air pollution particles were first detected in placentas in 2018 and by then dirty air was known to strongly correlate with increased miscarriages, premature births, low birth weights and disturbed brain development.

The warming during the summer months in Europe has been much faster than the global average, shows a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres.

As a consequence of human emissions of greenhouse gases, the climate across the continent has also become drier, particularly in southern Europe, leading to worse heat waves and an increased risk of fires.

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:

I love not Man the less, but Nature more.

Indeed, but unfortunately it's the original title

>The developments I find most interesting use no agricultural feedstocks. The microbes they breed feed on hydrogen or methanol – which can be made with renewable electricity – combined with water, carbon dioxide and a very small amount of fertiliser.

>They produce a flour that contains roughly 60% protein, a much higher concentration than any major crop can achieve (soy beans contain 37%, chick peas, 20%). When they are bred to produce specific proteins and fats, they can create much better replacements than plant products for meat, fish, milk and eggs. And they have the potential to do two astonishing things.

Precision fermentation could produce new staple foods, and end our reliance on farming

Precision fermentation is a refined form of brewing, a means of multiplying microbes to create specific products. It has been used for many years to produce drugs and food additives.

But now, in several labs and a few factories, scientists are developing what could be a new generation of staple foods.

The diminished power of the immune system in older adults is usually blamed on the aging process. But a new study by Columbia immunologists shows that decades of particulate air pollution also take a toll.

The study found that inhaled particles from environmental pollutants accumulate over decades inside immune cells in lymph nodes associated with the lung, eventually weakening the cells’ ability to fight respiratory infections.

The findings—published Nov. 21 in Nature Medicine—offer a new reason why individuals become more susceptible to respiratory diseases with age.

>Older people are particularly susceptible to infectious and neoplastic diseases of the lung and it is unclear how lifelong exposure to environmental pollutants affects respiratory immune function. In an analysis of human lymph nodes (LNs) from 84 organ donors aged 11–93 years, we found a specific age-related decline in lung-associated, but not gut-associated, LN immune function linked to the accumulation of inhaled atmospheric particulate matter. Increasing densities of particulates were found in lung-associated LNs with age, but not in the corresponding gut-associated LNs. Particulates were specifically contained within CD68+CD169− macrophages, which exhibited decreased activation, phagocytic capacity, and altered cytokine production compared with non-particulate-containing macrophages. The structures of B cell follicles and lymphatic drainage were also disrupted in lung-associated LNs with particulates. Our results reveal that the cumulative effects of environmental exposure and age may compromise immune surveillance of the lung via direct effects on immune cell function and lymphoid architecture.

A historic deal has been struck at the UN's COP27 summit that will see rich nations pay poorer countries for damage and economic losses caused by climate change

It ends almost 30 years of waiting by nations facing huge climate impacts.

But developed nations left dissatisfied over progress on cutting fossil fuels.

"A clear commitment to phase-out all fossil fuels? Not in this text," said the UK's Alok Sharma, who was president of the previous COP summit in Glasgow.

Major industry groups like the London-based Global Cement and Concrete Association and the Illinois-based Portland Cement Association have now released detailed road maps for reducing the 8 percent that cement-making is contributing to the total of CO2 emissions, to zero by 2050.

Many of their strategies rely on emerging technologies; even more are a matter of scaling up alternative materials and underutilized practices that have been around for decades. And all can be understood in terms of the three chemical reactions that characterize concrete’s life cycle: calcination, hydration, and carbonation.

It was a matter of time. Sooner or later everyone will do it.

When the technology is mature and the adoption rate high enough, cut back subsidies.

Hydrogen is touted as a wonder fuel for everything from transport to home heating — but greener and more efficient options are often available.

The problem is that hydrogen is not freely available. On Earth, it exists mostly in molecules bound to other elements, from which it must be extracted at huge energetic cost.

Policymakers should beware potential unintended negative consequences for both people and the planet from an overwrought dash for hydrogen.