Depiction by Alison Elmhorst, 2016.

Horizontal gene transfer was first discovered in 1928, but like many topics in the science realm there is still so much to learn about it. A talk I attended recently highlighted the fact that up to 10% of bacterial DNA wasn’t originally their DNA. Bacteria have the ability to “shop around” for bacteria, adding genes that spark joy to their initial DNA. After a few generations the unuseful DNA tends to get deleted, but certain bacteria may choose to keep it. This is one way that bacteria “evolve” even though they don’t undergo meiosis (combination of an egg & sperm).

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Photo by Egor Kamelev on Pexels.com

Science calls it a phenomena. But the word “phenomena” makes it sound as though the Nocturnal Boundary Layer (NBL) is something inexplicable. In reality, we know that it is a relatively thin layer of cool air separate from the rest of the Boundary Layer which appears at night. Its creation is spurred by net radiative loss from Earth’s surface. In the unique case of the solar eclipse of 2017, the NBL appeared from the lack of sun in under a half-hour. We also know there is an effect from cooling of the air after sunset, but the Earth constantly emits longwave radiation (infrared) into the universe.

“Many interacting processes can occur within the statically stable nocturnal boundary layer: patchy sporadic turbulence, internal gravity waves, drainage flows, inertial oscillations, and nocturnal jets.”
– American Meteorological Society

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