Every year, Discovery Channel dedicates a week in its summer schedule to shows about sharks. This year will not be different as Shark Week 2017 is now officially underway after being launched with a Sunday, July 23 late night program.

Shark Week 2017 and How and Where to Watch It

Shark Week will span over eight days, the first of them being Sunday, July 23. Special programs will air daily on Discovery Channel throughout the week. Those interested in watching them can either tune in by turning to their TV or by using the Discovery Go app. This is available in both an iOS and Android version.

Discovery Go is also available for free on Roku for users with a TV subscription. Thanks to the online versions, watchers will have access to both live episodes as well as re-watches or archive files.

Michael Phelps will be part of two Shark Week 2017 specials. The events will be separate and broadcast on different days. One of them, called “Phelps Vs Shark: Great Gold Vs Great White” will test to see if the Olympic Gold medalist can swim faster than a great white shark. It aired Sunday, July 23.

The other, titled “Shark School with Michael Phelps”, will air Sunday, July 30, at 8 p.m. It will follow Phelps as he learns about sharks from the Bimini Sharklabs in the Bahamas.

This could be a more than useful lesson, as most people still tend to associate sharks with the great white shark. However, there are over 400 known species of sharks. Their sizes range from 8-inch long specimens of dwarf lanternshark to 40-foot-long whale sharks.

All sharks are predators and have a highly developed sense of smell and also eyesight. However, each species has his own distinct behavior.

Sharks are greatly feared, as a small number of species is responsible for most of the recorded human casualties. Specialists do, nonetheless, point out that it is rather more likely to have sharks killed by humans or even other animals than people attacked by the predator.

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Illinois just became the first state to sign House Bill 2721 or Charlie’s Law into its laws. This will require that all health insurers offer coverage in treating PANDAS/PANS or the Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal.

PANDAS, A Sudden and Unexpected Treatment

House Bill 2721 was introduced by Senator Tom Cullerton and was signed into law on Tuesday, July 18 and is effective immediately. The signing took place at the house of Charlie Drury, the reason behind this new bill’s name.

This young boy developed PANDA as he was eight years old, and this changed his life and that of his family. His mother, Kate, together with Wendy Nawara, whose children are also affected by PANDAS/PANS are the driving forces behind this new law.

PANDAS is described as being a sudden and also unexpected illness. It is known to be a rare autoimmune response that, for reasons still quite unknown, can develop after a strep infection. Its key symptoms are of a psychiatric nature, which makes diagnosing the disease quite hard.

Some of the symptoms attributed to the onset of PANDAS include the sudden presence of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) or/and tic disorder. The onset is pediatric (from ages 3 to puberty). Symptoms can develop either very abruptly, or they can worsen unexpectedly but episodically.

The treatment usually involves using antibiotics as well as drugs and therapies generally used in managing OCD and any other psychiatric symptoms.

Thanks to the newly signed law, insurance companies will be restricted by law and unable to refuse to offer treatment options or paying for the costs.

“This new law is a testament to the incredible mothers who went to battle to support Illinois’ children to ensure they receive essential treatment and raise awareness for this tormenting disease,” stated Cullerton.

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Verily, the life science unit from Alphabet, Google’s parent company, announced the official launch of Debug Fresno, the first stage in its Debug Project. This is a company initiative whose purpose is to reduce the “devastating global health impact” of disease-carrying mosquitoes.

On July 14, Verily launched its first large-scale field study in the United States, which will be conducted in Fresno. It is being carried out in collaboration with the Fresno County Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District (CMAD) and with MosquitoMate.

They will be testing a new and potential mosquito control method, which will involve 20 million mosquitoes. All of them sterile, these will be used to try and reduce the Aedes aegypti numbers.

Additional 20 Million Mosquitoes to Help Reduce Mosquito Numbers

The release of even more mosquitos in the wild may seem like a counterintuitive move. However, as Verily explains in a blog post, these will not be regular buzzers.

Debug Fresno set its eye on reducing the number of wild Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. This disease carrying species is perhaps best known for spreading the Zika virus as well as dengue, and also others.

Since its appearance back in 2013 in the central valley of California, A. aegypti is considered to have become pervasive in Fresno County.

Now, the new field test will be currently largest of its type carried out in the United States. It will be releasing in the wild 20 million mosquitoes, all of them sterile male specimens. These were treated with a naturally occurring bacterium called Wolbachia.

The sterilized mosquitos will be released in two neighborhoods, each some 300 acres in size, over the course of 20 weeks. One million specimens are set to be released on a weekly basis.

As the wild female specimens breed with the sterile males, the resulting eggs should not hatch. If they do, the resulting specimens should die very early on.

The outcomes of Debug Fresno will be measured by comparing the egg hatching with the adult population density in the respective neighborhoods. In its blog, Verily stated that:

“Over time, we hope to see a steep decline in the presence of Aedes aegypti in these communities.”

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The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was the host of a unique event, namely, the Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival, which took place at Looe Key Reef.

This event is also held for a good cause, as it looks to encourage reef protection. It is also trying to underline the importance of environmentally responsible diving.

The Underwater Music Festival is an Annual Event

This underwater event is hosted by WWUS 104.1 FM, the Keys’ radio station. In 2017, it was scheduled to take place on Saturday, July 11. It was set to start at 10 a.m. and last until 2 p.m., the same day. It took place at the Looe Key Reef, a region some six miles south of the Big Pine Key which is a part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

This year, 400 divers and snorkelers gathered to listen to the live music of the Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival. These come by boat to the Looe Key, which is part of the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States. The event is also broadcast worldwide, and provides both promotion for the area and also raises awareness about coral reef formations.

“The Underwater Music Festival is a way to celebrate the coral reef, and we celebrate it by looking for a balance between protection of the reef and public enjoyment,” Bill Becker reportedly stated. He is the WWUS news director and also the event co-founder.

Divers and snorkelers can listen to public service announcements. These point out the ‘proper reef etiquette’, reef preservation methods, or that try to raise diver awareness.

The event is also presented as being able to enjoy music while swimming among colorful fish. Its playlist included songs such as “Yellow Submarine” from the Beatles, “Fins” from Jimmy Buffer, and “The Little Mermaid” theme.

Participants were encouraged and actually wore costumes portraying everything from mermaids to SpongeBob SquarePants, the famous animated character. They also pretended to play underwater musical instruments, for example, the baratuba.

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Pyrosomes are a type of rare, gelatinous and bioluminescent sea creatures. Usually very hard to spot, this year, they have been appearing everywhere, from the Southern California waters to the Gulf of Alaska, according to reports. This has been confusing scientists, as they are unsure what might have caused this abundance.

These strange creatures derive their name from the Greek word “Pyrosoma”, which would translate into “fire body”. They seem to be about one to two feet long, although, in some occasion, they can grow to be up to thirty feet.

Although gelatinous, these creatures are also covered in small bumps and reportedly not related to jellyfish. Pyrosomes are considered to be part of a colony of zooids, multi-celled animals.

Usually, such creatures can be found in the waters off Florida or Australia, in the Mediterranean Sea or the Ivory Coast. Smaller specimens seem to move up and down water columns by using little hairs called cilia.

Phytoplankton Blooms Bring About Pyrosomes?

The pyrosomes’ place in the food chain has yet to be determined. For the moment, scientists only know that they can filter phytoplankton. Blooms of these latter have also been appearing in unexpectedly high numbers over the years.

Some scientists consider that the increase in phytoplankton could have also led to the recent mass appearance of this bizarre sea pickle.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) states that pyrosomes reached a mass oceanic status sometime in the spring of 2017.

According to researchers, the bizarre sea pickles ‘pose no immediate threat’ to people. However, they can greatly affect human activities such as fishing. Reports show that the fishing industry in Alaska and Oregon has been quite affected by pyrosomes. These have been either washing ashore in high numbers or clogging the fishing gear.

Scientists reportedly needed only some five minutes to collect around 60,000 such specimens from the Columbia River.

“They just got here and have been flourishing — just super abundant. But that’s the weird thing: Why here? Why now?” said Jennifer Fisher.

She is a faculty research assistant part of the Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center.

At least for the moment, researchers are uncertain as to the reproduction rates of these sea pickles. They are also uncertain as to how and to what extent they could affect future aquatic food distribution. Scientists also have yet to determine the exact cause of the appearance of this increasingly more widespread but previously rare species.

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June 09^th will be coming with a once-in-a-year cosmic event, namely the “Strawberry Moon”, also known as a “minimoon”. This means that, as opposed to the more commonly seen supermoons, Earth’s natural satellite will seem slightly smaller than normal.

June 09’s full moon is both the smallest and the lowest such event throughout the year. Besides appearing to be smaller and dimmer than a usual such event, it will also rise only about one-third of the way up in the sky.

The micro or minimoon occurs as the natural satellite is at apogee. This means that the moon reached the farthest point to Earth on its moon. Supermoons happen as the satellite is at its perigee. During such moments, the moon is at the closest point in its orbit to our planet.

For comparison, the moon is usually situated some 240,000 miles away from Earth. During its perigee, it gets to within about 220,000 miles of the planet. At the apogee, it distances itself to around 250,000 miles, all according to NASA.

The Strawberry Moon and its Name Source

June’s full moon is the only such event throughout the calendar year in which the Moon will appear smaller than normal. Besides its cosmic value, the phenomenon also received various names. Ancient or native people coined most of them.

For example, the Strawberry Moon title originates from the indigenous people of northeastern U.S. They chose this name as June also marks the period of the year in which wild strawberries ripen in their region. As this event differs according to location, this full moon is also known as the “Rose Moon”, for similar reasons.

According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, it could also be called the “Honey Moon”. But this is because it may appear to have an amber tint.

The Strawberry Moon will reach its fullest phase on June 09, at 1309 GMT or 9:09 a.m. EDT. To make the most of this cosmic event, sky gazers should consult a moonrise and moonset calculator.

The moon will already be below the horizon for night watchers in continental U.S. during its peak period. But people in some parts of Alaska and early risers in Hawaii should be able to enjoy the minimoon to the full. Sky gazers in continental U.S. can best see this moon on the evening before and after it reaches its fullest phase. The next minimoon will be observable on June 27, 2018.

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