Quanta Magazine - GoKawiil

New study links coral cilia overactivity to suffocation risk in warmer seas

Researchers publishing in Science found that corals rely on microscopic hairlike cilia to stir water and pull in oxygen when their photosynthetic algae go dormant at night. As ocean water warms, it holds less oxygen, forcing cilia to beat faster to compensate, but past a critical temperature this frantic motion consumes more oxygen than it delivers, effectively suffocating the coral polyps.

wired.com · 2026-09-20

Volcanology advances since Pinatubo 1991 push toward true eruption forecasting

The article revisits the 1991 Pinatubo eruption, when scientists deployed instruments that detected volcanic unrest and issued an evacuation order shortly before a massive explosion killed over 800 people, saving hundreds of thousands more. It notes that despite this success, the forecast was largely an educated guess rather than a precise prediction, and that volcanology has since improved through better instrumentation and machine learning.

wired.com · 2026-09-13