New experiments suggest the key is light. To navigate, bats orient themselves toward bright patches of the open sky. Researchers hypothesized that at dusk and dawn, turbine blades might reflect just enough moonlight to make them look like the bright sky. These reflections may create an “ecological trap” that draws bats into fatal collisions.

To test this idea, the team collected wild hoary and silver-haired bats, two of the biggest victims of wind turbines in North America. Back in the lab, they released the animals into a dark maze with two exits, one of which was partially blocked by a white turbine blade reflecting artificial moonlight. Nearly three-fourths of the hoary bats and all but one of the 31 silver-haired bats flew toward the white blade, despite the bats’ theoretical ability to use echolocation to avoid it.

Case closed? Not quite. Both bat species in the study roost on trees and haven’t evolved to fly in tunnels, so the experiment didn’t exactly replicate their behavior in the wild. Even so, the study may point to other ways of keeping bats away from turbines, such as changing blades’ color so they reflect less moonlight.

According to new research, that eye-catching golden hue is part of a unique strategy that P. hessleri uses to survive in extreme conditions. Hydrothermal vents belch out plumes of superheated fluid, which are laden with heavy metals and other toxic substances. This tiny worm endures dangerous levels of arsenic and sulfide by combining the two chemicals in its cells, fighting poison with poison to create orpiment—a mineral that, oddly enough, was once prized by painters for its striking yellow color.

It’s not a perfect solution, but it does the job: While still toxic, orpiment is far less hazardous than either of its components. After all, living in such a hostile environment is “a bit of a Faustian bargain,” says marine biologist Peter Girguis, who wasn’t involved in the new study. While hydrothermal vents provide plenty of food, animals must also figure out how to withstand crushing pressure, scalding temperatures, and concentrations of toxins that would prove lethal for most creatures. Under these conditions, he notes, “there is no silver bullet.”

Researchers built and tested a computer simulation of the crust and mantle in the region. In their “best fit” model,  the uppermost part of the mantle—the hot, dense layer that makes up much of Earth’s interior—is sloughing off beneath offshore Portugal, kind of like the sole peeling off an old shoe. This mantle is sinking into Earth, potentially generating enormous stresses and major earthquakes. And as it peels away from the thin crust, more mantle is drawn into the depths.

This self-reinforcing process may explain how subduction begins in the first place, with large earthquakes of the kind that rocked Lisbon in 1755 possibly serving as the “fingerprint” of this mechanism in action. And it may point to a future millions of years from now when subduction could spread into the Atlantic, eventually creating a version of the Pacific Ocean’s vast “ring of fire.”

With contributions from Michael Greshko and Phie Jacobs

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