Natural disasters in the world continue. Almost every winter, countries with traditionally temperate climates find themselves in captivity of snow and frost. Last year, residents of one of the southern countries - Italy skated along the frozen Venetian canals.
England and France experienced real Siberian snow this winter. Most people associate these natural phenomena with global warming and the melting of glaciers, leading to a shift in the north and south poles. Moreover, the scientists themselves do not deny the decrease in the ice area in the Arctic, but explain this for other reasons.
Warming is not a problem
Disputes on this score have been going on for a long time. The scientists undressed. Some argue that the problem of climate warming exists and in the near future may turn into serious natural disasters for humanity. Others adhere to more moderate views, believing that some warming is just a temporary phenomenon and will certainly be replaced by a cooling phase.
The Institute of the Earth Cryosphere, SB RAS, adheres to the same theory. Tyumen scientists assure that the process of degradation or aggradation of permafrost occurs periodically throughout all known history. “Glaciers were advancing and retreating. This was followed by aggradation (expansion, increase in the area occupied by permafrost) or degradation - its retreat to the north,”explains the director of the institute, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Melnikov.
According to him, climate warming is a large-scale and cyclical phenomenon. The period of the highest temperatures was observed under Genghis Khan. Then a powerful cold snap began, which scientists later called the Little Ice Age. It lasted several centuries and ended only in the middle of the 19th century. During this time, the freezing of the Moskva River was repeatedly noted, even in August. At present, humanity is approaching the climatic optimum that was under Genghis Khan. After which the cooling phase will begin again.
The Tyumen scientists also do not consider the reduction of the ice area in the Arctic critical; rather, on the contrary, they point to the possibility of opening the Northern Sea Route, which could well compete with the Suez Canal. In addition, until now the Arctic was the most poorly studied region and today the prerequisites are being created for its large-scale study.
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For example, quite recently a phenomenon called "ice tornado" was discovered. It is observed during the period of a sharp decrease in temperature in polar latitudes. During the formation of sea ice, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere, associated with the decomposition of calcium bicarbonate into CO2 and CaCO3. Cold brine, falling down in negative-temperature water, creates something similar to an ice tornado, sinking to the bottom and creating an ice path into which sea creatures freeze.
“This phenomenon of anomalous crystallization of seawater was previously not taken into account in heat and mass transfer models, in which the water column between the bottom and surface ice was taken as a homogeneous layer. For us, this is primarily an additional source of cold, affecting the parameters of subaqueous permafrost, and also as a regulator of the circulation of flows in the seas of the Arctic and Antarctic,”notes Academician Vladimir Melnikov.
It should be noted that this is by no means the only example of poor knowledge of the Arctic latitudes. This territory keeps in itself many secrets, both dangerous for humanity by nature, and vice versa - useful, capable of revolutionizing spheres of vital importance for a person - medicine, energy, astrophysics.
Command thunder and lightning
It is known from the school physics course that ice, like steam, is just one of the states of water. However, despite the uniform formula - H2O - these are completely different objects. In particular, ice has about 17 states and over one hundred and fifty terms among the peoples originally inhabiting the northern territories. It is no coincidence that scientists from all over the world are now turning to the study of ice as an independent object that has many functional differences and roles in nature.
The surge of interest in the study of ice and gas hydrates is associated not only with an alternative energy source to gas, but also with the active use of ice in modern nanotechnology. Among the leaders in revealing the secrets of ice are employees of the Earth Cryosphere Institute of the SB RAS.
Thus, Tyumen scientists discovered the fourth state of the liquid - droplet clusters. They are structured droplets that create a new layer with specific physical properties. “This water is not in the form of ice and not in the form of individual molecules, but forms a lattice similar in structure to a crystal lattice, and gives the environment in which water droplets are suspended, new mechanical properties,” says Anatoly Shavlov, Doctor of Physics and Mathematics.
To observe the fourth state of water, scientists have made a simple installation, which consisted of a microscope, an inhaler and a video camera. Many videos and photographs of laboratory fog have shown that the viscosity of droplet clusters is higher than the viscosity of air, and chains of tiny droplets indicate that there is order in the sky. Consequently, the new state of water can significantly affect the earth's climate.
The discovery of Tyumen scientists has already attracted the attention of the world community. The new state of water could revolutionize astrophysics.
Granulated gas
In the era of the search for more and more advanced technologies for the storage and transportation of energy resources, the study of gas hydrates by Tyumen scientists is of particular relevance. In their opinion, the future of the energy sector of the whole world lies precisely in these ice-like substances, where 160 volumes of gases account for one volume of water and ice.
The first evidence of the content of gas hydrates in the earth's crust was obtained in the 1970s, when natural gas hydrates were sampled from the deep-water part of the Black Sea. A little later, similar studies were carried out at the bottom of Lake Baikal. The descent of the Mir spacecraft recorded gas hydrates that came to the surface from the earth's crust. Scientists, not without reason, call these substances the fuel of the future, since the accumulation of bottom sediments is constantly formed, while oil and gas reserves are gradually depleted.
Another significant advantage of gas hydrates over traditional energy sources - hydrocarbons - is their ability to exist for a long time at negative temperatures. That is, when the pressure is released to the level of atmospheric air in conditions of negative temperatures, an ice crust forms on the surface of substances, preventing their decomposition into gas and water. The leadership in the development of technology for the transportation of natural gas in ice-gas hydrate tablets belongs to the Japanese. Today this technology is only being tested, but in the future it can be used for gas transportation. Gas hydrate research programs are also available in the USA, Great Britain, Canada, India.
Russia, which possesses the largest gas reserves, does not yet focus on the study of gas hydrates. Nevertheless, Tyumen scientists are now closely engaged in the technology of obtaining "dry water". The mechanism is simple - in a conventional mixer, 3% of the powder is whipped, the surface properties of which allow keeping water in drops, and 97% of water, resulting in sand. The main challenge is to adapt this technology to gas. To obtain such technical solutions that would allow converting the gas into a powdery state, making briquettes or tablets from it. Thus, it will be possible to transport gas or APG without building gas pipelines.
In the future, this technology will partially solve environmental problems, in particular, the issue of utilization of greenhouse gases. Converting excess gas into a gas-hydrate state, into an ice-like substance, will make it harmless to the environment, scientists are sure. In short, research in the field of genetics of gas formation opens up wide opportunities for the use of natural resources.
The key to the secret of longevity
No less interesting discoveries were made by Tyumen scientists at the intersection of sciences - cryology and biology. Studies of the characteristics of microorganisms inhabiting the cryosphere have revealed their viability and the presence of special yet unknown mechanisms of protection or DNA repair from thermal destruction, radiation, free radicals and other damaging factors.
So, one of these bacteria, patented by Tyumen scientists as Bacillus Frost, became the object of joint research with colleagues from nearly two dozen laboratories in Russia, Ukraine, Sweden, Austria, Japan, Norway. The study of biological activity on plants, ciliates, fruit flies and laboratory mice made it possible to isolate individual strains of microorganisms capable of activating the immune system. Moreover, the biopotential of bacteria is activated at low temperatures and manifests itself in doses 1000–100 times lower than that of their modern counterparts.
Thus, studies have shown the ability of bacteria to accelerate wound healing processes, increase the resistance of organisms to various stresses, increase muscle mass, and activate the right hemisphere of the brain. Moreover, it has been proven that bacterial metabolites reproduce the same effects.
All this allows us to say that the cryosphere, with its inherent unique microorganisms, has a huge biological potential. Further exploration of this environment can become the basis for grandiose discoveries in the field of medicine and pharmacology.
Genre crisis
Despite the fact that research in various fields of science continues, the higher school of knowledge is experiencing today not only a financial crisis, but also a crisis of the genre in the first place. Moreover, the trend can be traced not only in Russia, but in Europe and America.
“We are in a situation where the course towards an innovative economy poses new challenges for the scientific community, but the connection between fundamental knowledge and its practical implementation has been lost,” explains Academician Vladimir Melnikov.
The reason for this gap lies in the abolition of applied institutions designed to bring a scientific idea to a real product. The world community is faced with a powerful problem - finding this important intermediate link.
In this regard, the European Commission announced in 2012 the last and largest call for proposals under the Seventh Framework Program for Research and Technological Development (FP7). In total, more than € 8 billion will be allocated to projects and ideas that will increase the competitiveness of Europe and help solve issues related to human health, environmental protection and finding new solutions to the problems caused by urbanization and the need to manage waste. The funding, which will be available to organizations and businesses from any country in the world, including Russia, represents the lion's share of the EU's proposed research budget for 2013 of 10.8 billion euros.
Another major significant event for the scientific community last year was the X International Conference on Permafrost "Resources and Risks of Permafrost Regions in a Changing World", which was held from 25 to 29 July in Salekhard. The meeting in Yamal brought together the world's leading scientists from East and West, creative youth, public figures, representatives of big business and government. A total of about 600 people, including 300 foreign participants. Moreover, the host party took upon itself not only the obligations to organize the conference, the lion's share of the costs, but also ensured the participation of 80 Russian and 70 foreign young scientists.
Taking into account the significant contribution of the Okrug to the development of the scientific potential of the Arctic regions and the active support of academic science, the participants of the 10th international conference on permafrost decided to support the initiative of the Governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Dmitry Kobylkin to create an international scientific center for the study of the Arctic in Yamal, and, in particular, its offices on Bely Island.
In addition, taking into account the many years of experience of Yamal in establishing diversified cooperation with the polar regions, the conference participants decided to appeal to the international Arctic community and the Arctic Council to support the proposal of the head of the district to give the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug the status of an International Center for the Development of Humanitarian and Scientific Cooperation in the Arctic …
