Environment

The CDC have acknowledged that America could still see an epidemic of the Zika virus in the coming months, admitting that they have completely underestimated the severity of the outbreak.  Dr. Anne Schuchat from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that “most of what we’ve learned is not reassuring,” adding that “everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought.” This is the U.S. government’s most strongly worded warning to date about the Zika virus, which has infected 346 people so far in the United States.

At the beginning of May the planet Mercury is set to travel in front of the sun in a rare event that we will be able to see from Earth.  The planet will not travel between our planet and the sun again for another three and a half years. Businessinsider.com reports: Here’s everything you need to know to watch. The transit of Mercury occurs when Mercury passes between the Sun and Earth, and happens around 13 or 14 times each century. This year the event kicks off on May 9 just after 7am EDT (9pm AEST, 11am UTC), with the planet taking around 8 hours to make its glorious way across the Sun.

A team of researchers have finally completed a highly detailed “gravity map” of Mars. According to GeoBeats News: NASA has spent years sending spacecraft and rovers to Mars in an effort to unlock some of the planet’s mysteries, and those efforts have paid off in a number of ways. Among them is the recent completion of a new, highly detailed gravity map.

We recently reported on mutations and DNA damage being caused to animals who live near the site of the Fukushima disaster. Now, new reports are surfacing about radioactive wild boars that are terrorizing locals who live near the nuclear site. According to the IB Times: Locals living near the now-defunct Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant still have a hard time dealing with lingering effects of the 2011 meltdown. Adding to their woes is havoc caused by radioactive wild boars on the rampage, damaging private property and crops.

Greenpeace has issued a warning to the world: the environmental impact from the Fukushima nuclear disaster is just starting to affect the animals living in nearby forests. The conservation group says that the leak will continue to cause DNA damage and nuclear mutations for many years to come. Yahoo News reports: The March 11, 2011 magnitude 9.0 undersea earthquake off Japan’s northeastern coast sparked a massive tsunami that swamped cooling systems and triggered reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.