THE PARADOX OF THE PLANKTON EXPLAINED BY COMPUTER SIMULATION

Costa Rica’s flag

Daily Life

Weekdays

Weekends

Buses

Food

Daily life here in Costa Rica, at least for me, is not necessarily all that different or much more exciting than daily life in the U.S. The major difference is since my workload is a lot lighter here, I have a lot more free time.

A typical week may play out like this. Every day, I usually get up between 7:30-8:00 am. Even on weekends when I don’t have plans, my body is used to waking up early and I usually never sleep to my alarm. This may be because the sun is always up my 6:00 am and my internal body clock has just adjusted to this. On Monday, I don't have class until 1 pm, but I usually don't get home until 7:30-8:00 pm, which makes Monday my busiest day. I usually spend the first half of the day doing random stuff, unless I have something I need to prepare for a class, such as an exam or presentation. On Tuesday, I have class at 10:00 am until 11:40 am, and I have a break to go back home and eat lunch before I have my other class at 3:00 pm, which usually is a little under two hours.  

By Tuesday night, I usually pretty tired (since Monday is always a long day) and I don't do too much since I have no class on Wednesday. This makes Wednesday a day to relax or get a head start on work for Thursday and Friday. Occasionally, I have gone on day trips. For example, one week I went somewhere with my host mom for the day and last week, I went to San José to visit two museums. The rest of my week is really easy class wise, with only one class Thursday and Friday, with both starting at 10:00 am.  

On weekends, I've gone on quite a few trips, some sponsored by IFSA and some as a part of a class. Otherwise, I may go a few places with my host parents, do watch, or watch a few things on Netflix.  

In order to get around, I usually take the bus. I live in Barva and la Universidad Nacional is in Heredia, so I always need to take the bus to get to and from class. One round trip costs about $0.35, and it can take anywhere from 10-30 minutes for the bus to get from Barva to Heredia or vice versa, but it usually takes about 15-20 minutes. Other buses, to San José for example, cost a bit more, but still under $1 one way usually unless it's a few hour trip. That being said, if you plan out which buses you need to take, it is pretty easy to get around, even if you're used to having a car like me.

With my host family, breakfast usually consists of eggs a mix of rice and beans called gallo pinto. We usually have freshly-squeezed orange juice as well, and my host parents also drink coffee. We sometimes have cereal or an egg sandwich too. Lunch and dinner are usually pretty similar, and almost always include rice and beans (a staple in Costa Rica). Sometimes my host mom needs to make food that's a little bit different for me because I'm a vegetarian. We almost always have either some type of fruit juice, usually made of cas, but sometimes mango, pineapple, or watermelon, or iced tea. I usually like everything my host mom makes. I don't have to do any of my own laundry, which is very different from college in the U.S. If my host mom does not do it, the maid that comes on Mondays and Fridays comes.

This would be so terrifying

natgeo  Photograph by @thomaspeschak This is a marine iguana, but I think they should be called ‘Ocean Godzilla’ instead. These are our planet’s only lizards that feed in the ocean and despite their fierce, dragon like appearance they are very sensitive to climate change. They rely exclusively on cold water seaweeds for nourishment which die off quickly as the water becomes too warm. For more “Ocean Godzilla” pics follow @thomaspeschak

None Like It Hot

By Joylette Portlock

July. Long known across the U.S. for fireworks, barbecues, and a desire to stay cool any way we can. Whether it’s air conditioning, swimming pools, beaches or popsicles, the dog days of summer are often reminders that as humans, our comfort depends on an experienced ambient temperature roughly somewhere between 59 and 77 degrees (Fahrenheit).

But what if, instead of 77, it’s a full 40 degrees more: 117 degrees, like it was in California on July 6? Or 105, like it was in Japan last week? Then, it’s more than an issue of comfort; our lives depend on finding a way to stay cool, and in fact more than a hundred people have perished in heat-related deaths globally already this year.

Life in this new age, the Anthropocene, is marked by many things, including a human-caused increase in global heat, commonly referred to as global warming, or climate change. Risk from heat (or wildfires, or floods) is no longer something we have to rely on the overwhelmingly strong scientific consensus about global warming to tell us; every year, climate change impacts are becoming more and more obvious to everyone, whether you have a degree in climate science or not.

Weather and climate are different. Weather is what happens on a day-to-day basis. Climate is the range of weather that we expect and consider normal (i.e., summer is hot) – but normal is changing.

Photo: Graph showing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and human population from We Are Nature, on display until September 2018.

We’re now up to over 400 consecutive warmer-than-average months and counting. Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s collections, which span more than 140 years, can help show these shifts in many ways. One of the most important things we can do is to make connections and show the relevance between the basic scientific principles underlying natural phenomena and the evidence all around us; between what’s happening globally and what’s happening locally.

Photo: The growth of plants collected today versus 100 years ago in the same locations, shown in We Are Nature, corroborates the observation of increasingly earlier springtime by documenting earlier maturation of these species.

The globe’s increasing heat is a result of fossil fuel use, food production, and our land use practices. We need energy and food, of course; but it’s critical that we recognize that the systems we impact also impact us. It’s not just our actions, but our interactions with the world around us that are the story. To understand what’s happening and improve our interactions with nature, we have to look at the big picture, and work to meet our needs in ways that minimize disruption to the overall system.

As summer heat waves get longer, more numerous, and more intense (and it seems the whole world is on fire, with deadly fires everywhere from California to Greece to inside the Arctic Circle) one connection is obvious: our need to be cool.

Joylette Portlock, Ph.D., is associate director of science and research at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. She is also executive director of Communitopia, a nonprofit focused on climate change communication, and holds many other roles in the community.

DISCOVERING THE GIANTS OF THE DEEP: BATHYNOMUS JAMESI

A newly discovered species of giant isopod, Bathynomus vaderi, has recently been described from the deep waters around Spratly Islands, off Vietnam. The species, named after the infamous Sith Lord, Darth Vader, due to the striking resemblance of its helmet-like head, adds to the growing diversity of the Bathynomus genus. Bathynomus vaderi is characterized by several unique features, including a parallel-margin clypeal region, a raised dorsal surface on its pleotelson, and upwardly curved pleotelson spines.

Giant isopods like Bathynomus vaderi have become an expensive delicacy in Vietnam. Until 2017, local fishermen only sold them as an incidental product at low prices, but in recent years the media has drawn the public's attention to this unusual seafood. Some even claim that it is more delicious than lobster, the "king of seafood." This new species is described from several individual found at seafood markets in Hanoi, Vietnam.

-Seafood market in Hanoi, Vietnam, selling the newly described Bathynomus jamesi. Large specimens exceeding 2 kg in weight command premium prices.

In Vietnam, Bathynomus species, are often referred to as "sea bugs". Their unique appearance and large size make them a delicacy, and they can command high prices, with larger individuals of B. vaderi reaching up to 2 kg. In recent years, demand for these creatures has risen, especially in urban centers like Hanoi and Hồ Chí Minh City, where they are displayed in restaurants and sold through online seafood markets. This growing industry highlights the continued fascination with deep-sea species and the need for ongoing research to better understand their ecology and conservation.

Main photo: Bathynomus vaderi, male, colour in life. Photo by Nguyen Thanh Son

Reference (Open Access): Ng et al., 2025. A new species of supergiant Bathynomus A. Milne-Edwards, 1879 (Crustacea, Isopoda, Cirolanidae) from Vietnam, with notes on the taxonomy of Bathynomus jamesi Kou, Chen & Li, 2017. ZooKeys.

Aphid captured under a student microscope.

It’s National Hippo Day, and this is all we got.

What if we told you that a group of gelatinous animals helps control the planet’s climate? Your disbelief would be salp-able! 

Salps are filter-feeding gelata related to pyrosomes that pack up plankton produce into poo pellets that precipitate into the deep, capturing carbon from the atmosphere and tucking it away in the depths of the hydrosphere.

Thanks to local photographers Michelle Manson and Joe Platko for the salp selfies! Joe’s photo on top shows a solitary Pegea confoederata ready to birth the same kind of long chain that Michelle found in her lower photo! 

(The pink orbs are the salps’ guts, and these tubular animals are essentially a passing pasta strainer for plankton!)

DEEP-SEA MINING COULD DESTROY MARINE ECOSYSTEMS

Despite deep-sea environments covers about half of the Earth’s surface and is home to a vast range of species, little is known about these environments, and mining could have long-lasting and unforeseen consequences, not just at mining sites but also across much larger areas.

According to a study published in scientific journal Frontiers in Marine Science, which is the first to give a global overview of all current plans to mine the seabed, in both national and international waters, and looks at the potential impacts including physical destruction of seabed habitats, creation of large underwater plumes of sediment and the effects of chemical, noise and light pollution arising from mining operations.

Rising demand for minerals and metals, including for use in the technology sector, has led to a resurgence of interest in exploration of mineral resources located on the seabed. Such resources, whether seafloor massive sulfides around hydrothermal vents, cobalt-rich crusts on the flanks of seamounts or fields of manganese nodules on the abyssal plains, cannot be considered in isolation of the distinctive, in some cases unique, assemblages of marine species associated with the same habitats and structures.

Some operations are already taking place, generally at relatively shallow depths near national coastlines. The first commercial enterprise, expected to target mineral-rich sulfides in deeper waters, at depths between 1,500 and 2,000 m on the continental shelf of Papua New Guinea, is scheduled to begin early in 2019.

Illustration: A schematic showing the potential impacts of deep-sea mining on marine ecosystems. Schematic not to scale.

Reference: Miller et al., 2018.  An Overview of Seabed Mining Including the Current State of Development, Environmental Impacts, and Knowledge Gaps. Frontiers in Marine Science.