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Feb 8 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I wrote about one of the wildest nature stories I've heard in years.

There's a community of giant sponges thriving on the peak of an underwater Arctic volcano, by devouring the ruins of an extinct ecosystem that died out 2000-3000 years ago. 1/

theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
Karasik is a seamount 200 miles from the North Pole. Researchers expected it to be barren. Then they dropped a camera and found it carpeted with life, including so many sponges you sometimes can't see what's under them. Which made no sense because... 2/

theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
There's barely any food here. The region couldn't possibly sustain so many animals. And yet the sponges are thriving. They're full of babies. And the adults are 300 yrs old on average--about the same age as Baltimore or New Orleans. What do they eat? 3/
theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
2000-3000 yrs ago, tube-building worms ate the methane/sulfides that leaked from the then-active volcano. The gases stopped. The worms died. But their tubes--the empty architecture of a fallen worm civilization--are what the sponges now eat. 4/

theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
Will the sponges run out of food? Maybe! But probably not for centuries at least.

Imagine that, a group of animals that might be doomed because they're overdependent on the dead remains of an extinct ecosystem.

*stares in fossil fuels*

Fin/

theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
(Lord, I've missed writing nature stories. This was a wonderful and much-needed relief from the continuing horror of the pandemic, to which I will now be returning.)

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More from @edyong209

Ed Yong Profile picture
Feb 2
🚨I wrote about the ordeals that one community hospital in Chicago endured during the recent surge, how its remaining healthcare workers think about the future, and why, as one said, "we’re never going to be able to go back to the way we were." 1/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
At the peak, the hospital “was inundated with patients who spent > 40 hours in the waiting room, holding tight for a bed in the ER, which was itself heaving with people who were waiting for a spot in the ICU, which was also full.” 2/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Advocate Trinity's staff worked heroically to to see people as quickly as possible. But they couldn’t slow the influx of patients, COVID and otherwise. There were people who went into cardiac arrest in the waiting room or still inside an ambulance. 3/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 10 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
Jan 20
🚨I've had a frankly worrying number of messages from people who think the answer to the hospital crisis is simple: deny care to unvaccinated people.

I talked to ethicists and health-care workers about why this is a terrible, unconscionable idea. 1/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
I've given the sentiment a fair hearing, and the people I spoke to sympathized with the exasperation and fear behind it.

But they also said it was immoral, illogical, unfeasible, and completely against the tenets of medical ethics. 2/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
The principle is really simple: "Everyone has an equal claim to relief from suffering, no matter what they’ve done or haven’t done." The medical system shouldn't be a means of punishing people for social choices. 3/ theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 8 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
Jan 18
My new book—AN IMMENSE WORLD—comes out this summer. It’s about how other animals sense the world, and the very different version of reality that they perceive.

Here’s a thread about the book, why I wrote it, and why I hope you'll enjoy it. 1/

bookshop.org/books/an-immen… Two covers of An Immense World, one showing a ring of animal
All animals share the same world, but every species perceives a mere sliver of it. Each is trapped in a unique sensory bubble. This book is my attempt to step inside those bubbles, and imagine what it's truly like to be a bat—or a whale, spider, scallop, or star-nosed mole. 2/
I traveled around 3 continents (pre-pandemic!) for this book. I got punched by a mantis shrimp, shocked by an electric fish, and snuzzled by a manatee. I hung out with spiders, turtles, octopuses, rattlesnakes, butterflies, seals... and a lot of delightful scientists. 3/
Read 14 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
Jan 14
It's real!

This cover is for the UK edition, out Jun 22.

The US edition is out Jul 12 w/ a different cover; I'll show you that one in a couple of days, and say more about what this book's about and why I hope you'll enjoy it.
And yes, that is Typo (my corgi) on the cover.
And here's the US cover!

I love how both covers capture, in very different but complementary ways, the promise of the book--a chance to look at nature in a different and newly wondrous way.
Read 4 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
Jan 12
I've interviewed a lot of health-care workers over the last two years, at various points of the pandemic.

Here's something you should bear in mind as you read these stories (and their first-hand accounts) about what they're experiencing. 1/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
I've often found that health-care workers are at their rawest and most emotionally vulnerable in the lulls, when hospitals are quieter (tho not quiet) and they can exhale and process. That's when people have just broken down on the phone. Or quit. 2/
By contrast, during the actual surges, they're more likely to be in adrenaline mode. They're just trying to get through it, to put aside the trauma so they can do their jobs. They have armor on, and if you listen, you really can hear it in their answers and their voices. 3/
Read 4 tweets
Ed Yong Profile picture
Jan 12
🚨I wrote about the debate about whether people are being hospitalized "for COVID" or just "with COVID".

Many supposedly 'incidental' infections are being misleadingly described & minimized.

And whatever the case, hospitals are in serious trouble 1/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Yes, some COVID hospitalizations really are incidental--someone breaks a limb and only finds out they have COVID when tested.

These exist, but the docs & nurses I've spoken to all say they're uncommon. 2/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Far more common are folks w/ chronic illnesses--heart problems, diabetes, etc.--that are being seriously exacerbated by COVID. Said illness might be listed as reason for admission, but the admission wouldn't have happened if they hadn't been infected. 3/

theatlantic.com/health/archive…
Read 9 tweets

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