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Thermal energy all the way from Britain...

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Thermal energy all the way from Britain...

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Energy and heating - Energy and heating - AQA - GCSE Physics (Single Science) Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize

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Learn about and revise energy and how it is transferred from place to place with GCSE Bitesize Physics.

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How much thermal energy does an ice sculpture have?

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How much thermal energy does an ice sculpture have?

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Bill Nye Science Guy Episodes english full episode video review new episode 1 season tv series tv show animated series 2015 2016 2017 funny song dance moments Please Like the video and Subscribe for new videos

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No frostbite for Penguins either, find out why.

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No frostbite for Penguins either, find out why.

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When playful pups skid across an icy pond or romp in a snowdrift, their paws plunge into frosty places. If people go barehanded and barefooted in such cold places, their skin may freeze in a painful condition called frostbite. Dogs frolic without fear of frostbite, and scientists from Japan say they've figured out why.

Dog paws don't freeze because the arrangement of blood vessels beneath the animals' skin keeps the temperature just right, the scientists report. The arrangement helps the animal hold on to body heat, which might otherwise be easily lost through their hairless paws.

Hiroyoshi Ninomiya, an expert in animal anatomy from Yamazaki Gakuen University in Tokyo, led the new study on dog paws. During summer, hot asphalt in Japan can reach a scorching 66º Celsius (150º Fahrenheit), he notes. In the winter, the same pavement may drop to about -9º C (15º F).

"I have always wondered how a dog's paw stands up to that wide temperature difference," Ninomiya says.

Mammals like arctic foxes and wolves regularly trod on ice, and other scientists had shown that the animals' pads stay warm thanks to a boost in blood flow. Ninomiya wanted to find out if the same process helped dog paws keep warm.

He and his colleagues took pictures of blood vessels in beagles' paws using a tool called a scanning electron microscope, or SEM. This instrument fires a stream of electrons - small particles that are some of the building blocks of atoms - at a target. Then the device measures how the electrons are absorbed, changed or reflected. An SEM gives scientists a view of parts of the natural world that are too tiny to view with ordinary microscopes.

The scientists studied blood vessels called arteries and veins. Arteries carry warm blood from the heart to the rest of the body; veins bring blood back to the heart. The scientists discovered that veins surround the arteries that deliver warm blood to dog paws. The two kinds of blood vessels are so close together that they exchange heat: The warm arteries heat up the cooler veins.

As a result, the temperature in the paw stays balanced. Warm blood reaches the pad's surface to keep frostbite away, but without letting the animal lose too much body heat.

Scientists call this kind of system a counter-current heat exchanger. Ninomiya and his colleagues are the first researchers to find it in dogs, although it has been observed in other animals. Animals like penguins, whales and seals use counter-current heat exchangers in their feet, fins and flippers to keep their body heat balanced. Ninomiya says that he and his colleagues were excited to find that dog paws have a heating system like penguins.

Blood vessels in the dog paws open and close with changes in temperature, the scientists also found. This allows more or less blood to flow, depending on where it's needed.

In his previous work, Ninomiya studied blood vessels in birds, rabbit ears and whale eyes. Up next, he says, is a close look at cats' paws. Domestic dogs are related to many animals that live in cold places and need to regulate heat. Cats, in contrast, originally evolved in a warm climate.

"I want to know whether cats have the counter-current heat exchange mechanism in the paw as seen in the dog," he says.

This story and other Science News for Kids articles describing research in medicine and physiology are supported with funding from The Lasker Foundation. The foundation and its programs are dedicated to the support of biomedical research toward conquering disease, improving human health and extending life.

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(adapted from the New Oxford American Dictionary)

artery Part of the body's circulation system, these tubes carry blood from the heart to all parts of the body.

vein Part of the body's circulation system, these tubes usually carrying blood toward the heart.

climate The weather conditions in an area in general or over a long period of time.

scanning electron microscope (SEM) A scientific instrument in which the surface of a specimen is scanned by a beam of electrons that are reflected to form an image.

Stephen Ornes lives in Nashville, Tenn., and his family has two rabbits, six chickens and a cat. He has written for Science News Explores since 2008 on topics including lightning, feral pigs, big bubbles and space junk.

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When playful pups skid across an icy pond or romp in a snowdrift, their paws plunge into frosty places. If people go barehanded and barefooted in such cold places, their skin may freeze in a painful condition called frostbite. Dogs frolic without fear of frostbite, and scientists from Japan say they've figured out why.

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Stephen Ornes lives in Nashville, Tenn., and his family has two rabbits, six chickens and a cat. He has written for Science News Explores since 2008 on topics including lightning, feral pigs, big bubbles and space junk.

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Scientists who study the environment to better gauge Earth's future climate now argue that current changes may not reverse for a very long time.

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S. Zielinski. " A single penguin can break up a huddle." Wild Things blog. December 3, 2015.

T. Saey. " Penguins? How tasteless." Science News for Students. March 3, 2015.

S. Oosthoek. " How birds stay in the air." Science News for Students. January 27, 2015.

B. Brookshire. " Scientists need help to pinpoint penguins." Eureka! Lab blog. October 1, 2014.

J. Raloff. " Even penguins get the flu." Science News for Students. May 18, 2014.

S. Zielinski. " Penguin huddles move like traffic jams." Wild Things blog. December 20, 2013.

E. Sohn. " Penguin pressure." Science News for Students. September 16, 2009.

Original Meeting Source: E. Alizadehbirjandi et al. Ice formation delay on penguin feathers. American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting, Boston, November 22, 2015.

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S. Zielinski. " A single penguin can break up a huddle." Wild Things blog. December 3, 2015. T. Saey. " Penguins? How tasteless." Science News for Students. March 3, 2015. S. Oosthoek. " How birds stay in the air." Science News for Students. January 27, 2015. B. Brookshire.

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Newsela is an Instructional Content Platform that supercharges reading engagement and learning in every subject.

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broadcast To cast - or send out - something over a relatively large distance. A farmer may broadcast seeds by flinging them by hand over a large area. A loudspeaker may send sounds out over a great distance. An electronic transmitter may emit electromagnetic signals over the air to a distant radio, television or other receiving device. And a newscaster can broadcast details of events to listeners across a large area, even the world.

electromagnetic An adjective referring to light radiation, to magnetism or to both.

electromagnetic spectrum The range of radiation that spans from gamma- and X-rays through visible light and on to radio waves. Each type of radiation within the spectrum typically is classified by its wavelength.

frequency The number of times a specified periodic phenomenon occurs within a specified time interval. (In physics) The number of wavelengths that occurs over a particular interval of time.

gamma rays High-energy radiation often generated by processes in and around exploding stars. Gamma rays are the most energetic form of light.

hertz The frequency with which something (such as a wavelength) occurs, measured in the number of times the cycle repeats during each second of time.

inverse Something that is the opposite or reverse of another thing, or that moves in the opposite direction to something.

microwaves An electromagnetic wave with a wavelength shorter than that of normal radio waves but longer than those of infrared radiation (heat) and of visible light.

radiation (in physics) One of the three major ways that energy is transferred. (The other two are conduction and convection.) In radiation, electromagnetic waves carry energy from one place to another. Unlike conduction and convection, which need material to help transfer the energy, radiation can transfer energy across empty space.

radio waves Waves in a part of the electromagnetic spectrum. They are a type that people now use for long-distance communication. Longer than the waves of visible light, radio waves are used to transmit radio and television signals. They also are used in radar.

spectrum (plural: spectra) A range of related things that appear in some order. (in light and energy) The range of electromagnetic radiation types; they span from gamma rays to X rays, ultraviolet light, visible light, infrared energy, microwaves and radio waves.

speed of light A constant often used in physics, corresponding to 1.08 billion kilometers (671 million miles) per hour.

ultraviolet A portion of the light spectrum that is close to violet but invisible to the human eye.

universe The entire cosmos: All things that exist throughout space and time. It has been expanding since its formation during an event known as the Big Bang, some 13.8 billion years ago (give or take a few hundred million years).

wavelength The distance between one peak and the next in a series of waves, or the distance between one trough and the next. Visible light - which, like all electromagnetic radiation, travels in waves - includes wavelengths between about 380 nanometers (violet) and about 740 nanometers (red). Radiation with wavelengths shorter than visible light includes gamma rays, X-rays and ultraviolet light. Longer-wavelength radiation includes infrared light, microwaves and radio waves.

X-ray A type of radiation analogous to gamma rays, but having somewhat lower energy.

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Explainer: Understanding light and electromagnetic radiation

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Energy travels throughout the universe at the speed of light as radiation. What that radiation is called depends on its energy level. At the really high-energy end of the spectrum are gamma rays. They're close cousins to the X-rays that doctors and dentists use to probe for unusual structures in your body.

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Throughout the universe, it's natural for energy to flow from one place to another. And unless people interfere, thermal energy - or heat - naturally flows in one direction only: from hot toward cold.

Heat moves naturally by any of three means. The processes are known as conduction, convection and radiation. Sometimes more than one may occur at the same time.

First, a little background. All matter is made from atoms - either single ones or those bonded in groups known as molecules. These atoms and molecules are always in motion. If they have the same mass, hot atoms and molecules move, on average, faster than cold ones. Even if atoms are locked in a solid, they still vibrate back and forth around some average position.

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In a liquid, atoms and molecules are free to flow from place to place. Within a gas, they are even more free to move and will completely spread out within the volume in which they are trapped.

Some of the most easily understood examples of heat flow occur in your kitchen.

Conduction

Put a pan on a stovetop and turn on the heat. The metal sitting over the burner will be the first part of the pan to get hot. Atoms in the pan's bottom will start to vibrate faster as they warm. They also vibrate farther back and forth from their average position. As they bump into their neighbors, they share with that neighbor some of their energy. (Think of this as a very tiny version of a cue ball slamming into other balls during a game of billiards. The target balls, previously sitting still, gain some of the cue ball's energy and move.)

As a result of collisions with their warmer neighbors, atoms start moving faster. In other words, they are now warming. These atoms, in turn, transfer some of their increased energy to neighbors even farther from the original source of heat. This conduction of heat through a solid metal is how the handle of a pan gets hot even though it may be nowhere near the source of heat.

Convection

Convection occurs when a material is free to move, such as a liquid or a gas. Again, consider a pan on the stove. Put water in the pan, then turn on the heat. As the pan gets hot, some of that heat transfers to the molecules of water sitting on the bottom of the pan via conduction. That speeds up the motion of those water molecules - they are warming.

Bernardojbp/iStockphoto

As the water warms, it now begins to expand. That makes it less dense. It rises above denser water, carrying away heat from the bottom of the pan. Cooler water flows down to take its place next to the hot bottom of the pan. As this water warms, it expands and rises, ferrying its newly-gained energy with it. In short order, a circular flow of rising warm water and falling cooler water sets up. This circular pattern of heat transfer is known as convection.

It's also what largely warms food in an oven. Air that's warmed by a heating element or gas flames at the top or bottom of the oven carries that heat to the central zone where the food sits.

Air that's warmed at Earth's surface expands and rises just like the water in the pan on the stove. Large birds such as frigate birds (and human flyers riding engineless gliders) often ride these thermals - rising blobs of air - to gain altitude without using any energy of their own. In the ocean, convection caused by heating and cooling helps to drive ocean currents. These currents move water around the globe.

Radiation

The third type of energy transfer is in some ways the most unusual. It can move through materials - or in the absence of them. This is radiation.

NASA

Consider visible light, a form of radiation. It passes through some types of glass and plastic. X-rays, another form of radiation, readily pass through flesh but are largely blocked by bone. Radio waves pass through the walls of your home to reach the antenna on your stereo. Infrared radiation, or heat, passes through the air from fireplaces and light bulbs. But unlike conduction and convection, radiation doesn't require a material to transfer its energy. Light, X-rays, infrared waves and radio waves all travel to Earth from the far reaches of the universe. Those forms of radiation will pass through plenty of empty space along the way.

X-rays, visible light, infrared radiation, radio waves are all different forms of electromagnetic radiation. Each type of radiation falls into a particular band of wavelengths. Those types differ in the amount of energy they have. In general, the longer the wavelength, the lower the frequency of a particular type of radiation and the less energy it will carry.

To complicate things, it's important to note that more than one form of heat transfer may occur at the same time. A stove's burner not only heats a pan but also the nearby air and makes it less dense. That carries warmth upward via convection. But the burner also radiates heat as infrared waves, making things nearby warm up. And if you're using a cast-iron skillet to cook a tasty meal, be sure to grab the handle with a potholder: It's gonna be hot, thanks to conduction!

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antenna (in physics) Devices for picking up (receiving) electromagnetic energy.

atmosphere The envelope of gases surrounding Earth or another planet.

atom The basic unit of a chemical element. Atoms are made up of a dense nucleus that contains positively charged protons and neutrally charged neutrons. The nucleus is orbited by a cloud of negatively charged electrons.

circulation (in biology) A term that refers to the pumping of blood through the arteries, and smaller types of vessels (and from there into other organs and tissues).

conduction One of three major ways that energy is transferred. (The other two are convection and radiation.) In conduction, energy is transferred when atoms and molecules bump into each other, with slower, colder particles gaining energy from the warmer, faster ones that slam into them.

convection The rising and falling of material in a fluid or gas due to uneven temperatures. This process occurs in the outer layers of some stars.

current A fluid body - such as of water or air - that moves in a recognizable direction.

electromagnetic radiation Energy that travels as a wave, including forms of light. Electromagnetic radiation is typically classified by its wavelength. The spectrum of electromagnetic radiation ranges from radio waves to gamma rays. It also includes microwaves and visible light.

element (in chemistry) Each of more than one hundred substances for which the smallest unit of each is a single atom. Examples include hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, lithium and uranium.

frequency The number of times a specified periodic phenomenon occurs within a specified time interval. (In physics) The number of wavelengths that occurs over a particular interval of time.

glider A vehicle (such as a plane in air or uninhabited submarine) that takes advantage of currents to travel long distances using little or no fuel. It also tends to move smoothly, creating few disruptions in the fluid or airstream through which it moves.

liquid A material that flows freely but keeps a constant volume, like water or oil.

mass A number that shows how much an object resists speeding up and slowing down - basically a measure of how much matter that object is made from.

matter Something which occupies space and has mass. Anything with matter will weigh something on Earth.

microwaves An electromagnetic wave with a wavelength shorter than that of normal radio waves but longer than those of infrared radiation (heat) and of visible light.

molecule An electrically neutral group of atoms that represents the smallest possible amount of a chemical compound. Molecules can be made of single types of atoms or of different types. For example, the oxygen in the air is made of two oxygen atoms (O ₂), but water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom (H ₂ O).

radiate (in physics) To emit energy in the form of waves.

radiation (in physics) One of the three major ways that energy is transferred. (The other two are conduction and convection.) In radiation, electromagnetic waves carry energy from one place to another. Unlike conduction and convection, which need material to help transfer the energy, radiation can transfer energy across empty space.

radio waves Waves in a part of the electromagnetic spectrum; they are a type that people now use for long-distance communication. Longer than the waves of visible light, radio waves are used to transmit radio and television signals; it is also used in radar.

smoke Plumes of microscopic particles that float in the air. They can be comprised of anything very small. But the best known types are pollutants created by the incomplete burning of oil, wood and other carbon-based materials.

solid Firm and stable in shape; not liquid or gaseous.

thermal Of or relating to heat. (in meteorology) A relatively small-scale, rising air current produced when Earth's surface is heated. Thermals are a common source of low level turbulence for aircraft.

universe The entire cosmos: All things that exist throughout space and time. It has been expanding since its formation during an event known as the Big Bang, some 13.8 billion years ago (give or take a few hundred million years).

vibrate To rhythmically shake or to move continuously and rapidly back and forth.

wave A disturbance or variation that travels through space and matter in a regular, oscillating fashion.

wavelength The distance between one peak and the next in a series of waves, or the distance between one trough and the next. Visible light - which, like all electromagnetic radiation, travels in waves - includes wavelengths between about 380 nanometers (violet) and about 740 nanometers (red). Radiation with wavelengths shorter than visible light includes gamma rays, X-rays and ultraviolet light. Longer-wavelength radiation includes infrared light, microwaves and radio waves.

X-ray A type of radiation analogous to gamma rays, but of somewhat lower energy.

Sid Perkins is an award-winning science writer who lives in Crossville, Tenn., with his wife, two dogs and three cats. He enjoys cooking and woodworking, and he really, really wants to get better at golf.

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Throughout the universe, it's natural for energy to flow from one place to another. And unless people interfere, thermal energy - or heat - naturally flows in one direction only: from hot toward cold. Heat moves naturally by any of three means. The processes are known as conduction, convection and radiation.

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SAN JOSE, Calif. - Wildfires can be deadly for firefighters. When the flames come too close and escape is impossible, firefighters may need to shelter in place. That's why they carry portable flame shields with them. They douse these with water and then huddle under them to escape the flames. But right now, these shelters don't offer enough protection. In 2013, despite such shelters, the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona claimed the lives of 19 firefighters.

This inspired Nicholas Perez, 13, of St. Edward School in Corona, Calif. Two years ago, he started searching for a material to make a better fire shelter. Now, he's unveiled his version. All it took him to develop and test it were a few dozen eggs, a lot of foil, an oven and several packs of diapers.

To keep firefighters from burning, Nicholas says, "I knew I had to find something that absorbed and retained water. And I thought 'wait a minute, diapers do that.'"

When he cut open diapers, Nicholas found small crystals of a chemical called sodium polyacrylate (Pol-ee-AK-rih-layt). When dry it's a crystal. But when exposed to water, it plumps up into a moist gel that's many times its original size. By cutting open diapers, he was able to isolate the crystals. In the first year of his project, he demonstrated that these crystals, when made into a gel, formed a fire-resistant shield in a doorway - one that could withstand direct blasts from a blowtorch.

This year, he was determined to take the next step and use those crystals to build a fire shelter. Nicholas showed what he came up with here at a competition known as Broadcom MASTERS (for Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars). Society for Science & the Public (the publisher of Science News for Students and this blog) created the program in 2010. It brings together students with winning middle-school science-fair projects from across the United States. This year, finalists shared their work with each other and the public on October 3 in San Jose, Calif. The MASTERS program is sponsored by Broadcom, a company that builds devices to help computers connect to the Internet.

Nicholas built his shelter based on the type firefighters now use. His uncle's neighbor, a fire captain, gave the teen two shelters to work with. The teen dismantled one of them. He kept the outer layer of foil, designed to resist flames. Behind it, he inserted his sodium polyacrylate crystals. He held them in place with a cotton cloth - sort of a blanket. The crystals are meant to protect a firefighter from convection heat - the transfer of heat by moving air. He also made sure there was an air gap between the shelter and the fighter, which fire shelters use to resist conduction heat - the type transferred when molecules bump into each other.

To test his invention, the teen built a small wooden frame shaped like a box. He placed a single raw egg inside, along with a meat thermometer. It would measure the temperature inside as the outside of the box heated up. Then the young researcher soaked his shelter in water. The crystals absorbed the water, becoming a thick gel. Nicholas then surrounded his boxed egg with this gel-coated cotton blanket and placed the whole thing in an oven at 287° Celsius (550° Fahrenheit). Then, he monitored the temperature next to the egg for 30 minutes.

After the test was done, he took the egg out and cracked it open to see if it had cooked. An egg's proteins will denature - or lose their structure and become white and solid - at 62 °C (144 °F), so the teen reasoned this egg would make a good stand-in for a firefighter under the same conditions.

In his oven, the official U.S. Forest Service fire shelter heated very quickly. "It reached my thermometer's maximum capacity of 390 °F [199 °C] after 15 minutes," Nicholas recalls. "I know even if I was able to keep measuring, the temperature would keep increasing," he says. Needless to say, the egg inside was completely cooked. But inside the teen's new fire shelter, the egg stayed comfortable. The air temperature in the box climbed only 11 degrees Fahrenheit. And the egg it sheltered remained "completely raw."

Nicholas also exposed both his fire blanket and the official fire blanket to direct flames from a blowtorch. While the U.S. Forest Service shelter reached 115 °C (240 °F) when torched, Nicholas' shelter stayed nice and cool. "It went up zero degrees - and stayed the same the whole test," he reports.

While he still plans to tweak his shelter's design, Nicholas is already getting a patent for his invention. "I believe fewer firefighters will die if they use mine," he says of the new shelter. Soon, he hopes to sell it, and help firefighters beat the heat.

Power Words

conduction One of three major ways that energy is transferred. (The other two are convection and radiation.) In conduction, energy is transferred when atoms and molecules bump into each other, with slower, colder particles gaining energy from the warmer, faster ones that slam into them.

convection The rising and falling of material in a fluid or gas due to uneven temperatures. This process occurs in the outer layers of some stars.

denature A change in the chemistry of proteins that causes them to lose their structure, usually due to stress. Stresses can include heat, acids or bases, solvents and radiation. You can watch proteins denature by cooking an egg (the egg white turns white when albumin denatures) or by making your own cheese.

proteins Compounds made from one or more long chains of amino acids. Proteins are an essential part of all living organisms. They form the basis of living cells, muscle and tissues; they also do the work inside of cells. The hemoglobin in blood and the antibodies that attempt to fight infections are among the better-known, stand-alone proteins.Medicines frequently work by latching onto proteins.

radiate (in physics) To emit energy in the form of waves.

radiation (in physics) One of the three major ways that energy is transferred. (The other two are conduction and convection.) In radiation, electromagnetic waves carry energy from one place to another. Unlike conduction and convection, which need material to help transfer the energy, radiation can transfer energy across empty space.

sodium polyacrylate When dry, this chemical is a crystal. Upon contact with water, however, it quickly swells into a moist gel that can grow to become many hundreds of time its original size. This property quickly gave rise to its popular name: the super slurper. The best known use for this chemical is to soak up urine, creating relatively leak-proof disposable baby diapers.

thermal Of or relating to heat. (in meteorology) A relatively small-scale, rising air current produced when Earth's surface is heated. Thermals are a common source of low level turbulence for aircraft.

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Teen invents a better tent to beat fire's heat

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SAN JOSE, Calif. - Wildfires can be deadly for firefighters. When the flames come too close and escape is impossible, firefighters may need to shelter in place. That's why they carry portable flame shields with them. They douse these with water and then huddle under them to escape the flames.

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Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) have survived in Antarctica for nearly 45,000 years, adapting to glacial expansions and sea ice fluctuations driven by millennia of climatic changes. The penguins remained resilient through these changes, but new research from the University of Delaware suggests that unique 21st-century climates may pose an existential threat to many of the colonies on the Antarctic continent.

Published Wednesday in Scientific Reports, the study, led by oceanographer Megan Cimino, found that up to 60 percent of the current Adélie penguin habitat in Antarctica could be unfit to host colonies by the end of the century.

The Adélie penguin is one of two true Antarctic penguins-the other being the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) -and it inhabits the full extent of the continent. The penguins nest on land during the austral (southern) summer, and migrate during the winter to the edge of the sea ice, where they are able to feed at sea.

Using a combination of field survey data and high-resolution satellite imagery, the researchers were able to stitch together 30 years of colony data, from 1981 to 2010, at sites ringing Antarctica. Looking at the year-to-year data, the researchers were able to identify population trends at each colony site for the full 30-year period.

The scientists found diverging trends at different sites. Some colonies, like the closely monitored population near Palmer Station, a United States research hub in northern Antarctica, saw declines of over 80 percent. Other sites were stable, and some even had growing colonies.

Tellingly, the sites that experienced population declines over the study period were often sites that experienced novel climates, or conditions outside the range of historical observations.

The researchers used statistical models to derive a relationship between colony population trends and climate, represented by sea surface temperature and sea ice concentration. This relationship was incorporated into future climate projections to estimate the quality of penguin habitat at the end of the century.

Climate's Specific Impacts

Many Antarctic researchers believe that climate change will affect penguins through two primary pathways: the quality and availability of food and nesting habitats.

Warming seas could reduce the abundance of penguins' prey, resulting in changes in the composition of the birds' diets.

Cimino explained the threat to the Adélie food supply: "Changes in [sea] ice and temperature can cause changes in the food, krill and fish." In some areas, she continued, "the fish populations have gone down a ton, so their major diet in those areas is krill. In other areas, these penguins eat more fish, which are a more nutritious food source."

Climate change could also reduce the quality of many penguin nesting sites by precipitating changes in local weather. Antarctica's climate is generally cold, dry, and harsh, but warming could yield unprecedented rain, or prematurely melt snowfall, creating puddles on the ground.

According to Cimino, this could be bad news. "For penguins who lay their eggs on the ground ... rain and puddles are bad because eggs can't survive when they're lying in a pool of water. Chicks that don't have waterproof feathers can become wet and die from hypothermia."

David Ainley, a senior biologist with the ecological consulting firm HT Harvey & Associates, confirmed that the research is consistent with past findings; however, he emphasized that the loss of sea ice may ultimately be a greater threat than warming sea surface temperatures.

"The Adélie penguin is a sea ice obligate and only occurs where there is sea ice for a good part of the year...Where sea ice is disappearing in the northern Antarctic peninsula, the Adélie penguin is disappearing."

Despite this dire prediction, Cimino and her colleagues did find a silver lining in their research. While the projections look grim for the penguins at northerly latitudes, the study did identify several refugia where the penguins could continue to thrive.

Climate refugia are locations where animals could survive periods of adverse climate, safe havens that could support them in an otherwise uninhabitable world.

In the face of a warming climate, the Adélie penguins may find refuge in the Ross and Amundsen Seas. These areas are thought to have been glacial refuges in the past, and climate projections suggest they may provide refuge again in the future.

Given the disjointed nature of Antarctic politics-30 countries operate research stations on the continent, and seven nations maintain territorial claims-consistent resource management can be difficult to achieve. Cimino believes it is imperative to prioritize conservation in the places that could shelter the Adélie penguins from climate change. Specific actions could include the establishment of marine protected areas and the fishing restrictions around projected refugia.

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Antarctica Could Lose Most of Its Penguins to Climate Change

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Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) have survived in Antarctica for nearly 45,000 years, adapting to glacial expansions and sea ice fluctuations driven by millennia of climatic changes. The penguins remained resilient through these changes, but new research from the University of Delaware suggests that unique 21st-century climates may pose an existential threat to many of the colonies on the Antarctic continent.