Will the lake on the "Roof of the World" expand by 50%? More water is not necessarily a good thing...｜Expo Daily

Lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are expected to expand by about 50%

Lake area on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is projected to expand by about 50% during the 21st century under a low-emissions scenario, putting important human infrastructure and ecosystems at risk of flooding, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has a large number of lakes, which play an important role in the hydrological and biogeochemical cycles of the region. In the past 30 years, the area of ​​lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has expanded by more than 10,000 square kilometers due to environmental impacts. Understanding the future evolution trend of these lakes and quantifying the risks to infrastructure and ecosystems are crucial to developing appropriate disaster reduction strategies.

The Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed a data-driven model framework to predict the future changes and impacts of lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau under different emission scenarios. Their results show that under a low emission scenario (SSP1-2.6), by 2100, the total area of ​​lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau may increase by about 50% compared to 2020. This increase may cause the surface area of ​​plateau lakes to increase by 20,000 square kilometers and the water level to rise by 10 meters. It is estimated that with the increase in precipitation and glacial meltwater, the total water storage capacity of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will increase by four times, which will have a profound impact on the hydrology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

If no mitigation measures are taken, the lake expansion is expected to flood more than 1,000 km of roads, approximately 500 settlements and 10,000 km2 of various ecosystems. The lake expansion and resulting impacts are expected to be even greater under higher emissions scenarios.

These findings highlight the importance of appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies to prevent hydrological changes and their impacts on infrastructure in this region.

Schematic diagram of the future expansion and impact of lakes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

I'm not moving , why is the WiFi signal so unstable ?

In daily life, we often encounter this phenomenon: the mobile phone is placed in a fixed position, but the received WIFI signal strength is sometimes strong and sometimes weak...

First of all, the transmission of WIFI signals depends on electromagnetic waves, and their propagation characteristics determine the strength of the signal. The layout and placement of the router's antenna have a significant impact on signal coverage. For example, if the router antenna is placed upright, it will form a strong signal coverage area around it, while the signal in the upper and lower directions will be relatively weak.

Secondly, the router's own transmission power and antenna gain quality will also affect the signal strength. If the router's transmission power is unstable or there are quality problems with the antenna, it may cause changes in signal strength.

Signals also encounter obstacles during transmission, such as walls or other objects. These obstacles can weaken the signal, especially when the signal needs to penetrate multiple layers of walls. In addition, reflections and refractions during transmission can also cause fluctuations in signal strength.

Signal crosstalk is another factor that affects the strength of WiFi signals. In a complex wireless network environment, other electronic devices, such as TVs and microwave ovens, may generate electromagnetic interference, affecting the signal quality of the router. At the same time, when multiple devices share the same WiFi channel, they may also interfere with each other, resulting in unstable signal strength.

Who took this photo on the moon? Case solved

A few days ago, the National Space Administration released a photo of the Chang'e 6 lander and ascender. While everyone liked it, many friends were curious: Who took this photo?

According to the National Space Administration, the photo was taken and successfully transmitted on June 3 by the "mobile camera" carried by Chang'e-6.

This "mobile camera" is an autonomous intelligent tiny robot developed by the institute. It can move autonomously and intelligently on the lunar surface. During the process of Chang'e 6's flight to the moon and landing on the moon, this small robot has been hanging outside the side panel of the lander. After Chang'e 6 completed the sampling of the far side of the moon, this small robot autonomously separated to the lunar surface, autonomously moved to the appropriate shooting position, autonomously selected the shooting angle and autonomously composed the image, and intelligently optimized the imaging position, and finally took this third-person perspective real image of the lander-ascender combination on the far side of the moon.

From the appearance, it is easy to remind people of the Yutu lunar rover. However, the Yutu lunar rover weighs the same as two adults, while the autonomous intelligent micro robot on the lunar surface weighs only about 5 kilograms. But don't be fooled by its small size, it is very powerful, its autonomous intelligence level has been significantly improved, and the highly integrated and lightweight hardware is particularly prominent.

In addition to taking precious photos of the Chang'e-6 lander and ascender, the autonomous intelligent micro-robot on the lunar surface is also tasked with verifying autonomous intelligent technology. The series of autonomous intelligent technology achievements embodied in it may have a positive impact on future lunar scientific research.

“Decision-making difficulty” strikes again?

Otherwise, I'll give you a song.

“Give you a hundred dollars now” and “Give you a thousand dollars in two weeks (or even longer)”, which one would you choose?

This is actually "intertemporal choice" in psychology, which is the decision-making process when people face different benefits in the immediate and future. We often know that long-term choices are more advantageous, but we tend to be short-sighted and tend to be satisfied immediately. The psychological mechanism behind this is called time discounting.

Researchers from the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the School of Music of Shanghai Normal University collaborated to explore how music affects intertemporal choice. In the study, volunteers performed an intertemporal choice experiment while listening to music with different emotions - happy (fast, major), sad (slow, minor), and white noise.

In the experiment, the researchers found that this effect is related to the arousal caused by music, rather than the pleasure. The speed of music is the key to affecting emotional arousal and time perception.

Therefore, the researchers eliminated the influence of pleasure by changing the tune of the music but keeping the speed. Fast music increases the level of excitement, making people feel that the future is further away and more inclined to give up future gains; slow music reduces the level of excitement, making people feel that time passes faster and more willing to wait for future gains.

This study is the first to reveal the connection between time perception, decision-making and music, indicating that music affects decision-making behavior by changing our perception of time. When faced with immediate and future choices, we tend to simplify the decision-making process, reduce the sense of time distance, reduce the impact of time discounting, and make intertemporal choices more direct.

Why don’t people living in plateaus suffer from altitude sickness?

Did it evolve secretly without our knowledge?

When non-indigenous people venture from lower altitudes to higher altitudes, such as La Rinconada, they are likely to experience altitude sickness, which is caused by the lower oxygen pressure in the atmosphere at high altitudes, resulting in insufficient oxygenation in the blood, leading to symptoms such as fatigue, dizziness, and difficulty breathing.

However, people who have lived at high altitudes for a long time have adapted to the environment. The native peoples of the Andes developed barrel-shaped chests that helped them increase the amount of air they took in with each breath. Studies in the late 19th century found that their blood was rich in red blood cells and hemoglobin, which improved its oxygen-carrying capacity and made the blood thicker.

However, not all residents of high altitude areas follow this pattern. In the late 1970s, scientists discovered that the hemoglobin concentration of people living in the Tibetan Plateau was not high. It turned out that people in the Tibetan Plateau carried a mutation in the EPAS1 gene, which reduced the hemoglobin content but increased the body's efficiency in using oxygen.

The physiological adaptations of Tibetans on the plateau also include taking in more air with each breath, breathing faster, and exhaling more nitric oxide, which can cause blood vessels to dilate and speed up blood circulation. In addition, their muscles have a richer capillary network that effectively transports oxygen to cells.

The Ethiopian highlanders live at an altitude of about 3,000 to 3,500 meters. Compared with the previous two highland people, they do not have such high hemoglobin concentrations nor the EPAS1 gene mutation of the Tibetans. They are likely to use another unidentified high altitude adaptation method.

Therefore, if you are going to a high-altitude area for fun during the holidays, consider your physical fitness in advance.

The content is compiled from China Science Popularization Expo Weibo, Science and Technology Daily, Voice of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nature Portfolio, Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Bring Science Home

This article was first published on China Science Expo (kepubolan). Please indicate the source of the public account for reprinting