New Study Locates Cleanest Air in the World

The coast of Antarctica. AFP file photo
The coast of Antarctica. AFP file photo
TT
20

New Study Locates Cleanest Air in the World

The coast of Antarctica. AFP file photo
The coast of Antarctica. AFP file photo

A new study conducted by the Colorado State University has defined the area that has the cleanest air in the world: the remote Southern Ocean that encircles Antarctica.

The swift climate change driven by human activities has left no area without pollution. But, Professor Sonia Kreidenweis and her team from the Department of Atmospheric Science suspected the air directly over the remote Southern Ocean won't be affected by pollution or contain aerosols produced by human activities or exported from remote lands.

During the study, the researchers examined the region by using the bacteria in the air over the Southern Ocean as a diagnostic tool.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

The researchers also examined the composition of airborne microbes captured from the ship they were on, and found that Antarctica appears to be isolated from microorganisms linked to aerosols, which makes it one of very few places on Earth that has been minimally affected by anthropogenic activities.

Using DNA sequencing, source tracking and wind back trajectories, the team determined the microbes' origins were marine, sourced from the oceans, suggesting aerosols from distant land masses and human activities, such as pollution or soil emissions driven by land use change, were not traveling south into Antarctic air.

These results counter all other studies from oceans in the subtropics and northern hemisphere, which found that most microbes came from upwind continents. But the diagnostic tool used in the study was decisive in validating the hypothesis of Kreidenweis and her team.

In a report published on the Colorado State University's website, research Thomas Hill, coauthor on the study, said: "The air over the Southern Ocean was so clean that there was very little DNA to work with."

"We treated the samples as precious items, taking exceptional care and using the cleanest technique to prevent contamination from bacterial DNA in the lab and reagents, so we can reach more accurate results," Hill added.



Melania Trump Meets with Patients, Visits Garden at Washington Children’s Hospital

 US First Lady Melania Trump takes part in an activity with children during a visit at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC on July 3, 2025. (AFP)
US First Lady Melania Trump takes part in an activity with children during a visit at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC on July 3, 2025. (AFP)
TT
20

Melania Trump Meets with Patients, Visits Garden at Washington Children’s Hospital

 US First Lady Melania Trump takes part in an activity with children during a visit at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC on July 3, 2025. (AFP)
US First Lady Melania Trump takes part in an activity with children during a visit at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC on July 3, 2025. (AFP)

US First Lady Melania Trump visited with sick patients at Children’s National hospital in Washington on Thursday as the children made Fourth of July arts and crafts ahead of the holiday.

Trump, continuing a tradition of support by first ladies for the pediatric care center, also stopped by the hospital's rooftop “healing” garden she dedicated during the first Trump administration to first ladies of the United States.

The first lady decorated rocks for the garden with the children, drawing a red heart on one. A few kids played with stretchy slime while Trump engaged them in questions.

“Wow, that’s a big slime!” she told one child that was more focused on stretching the sticky goo.

Trump gave each of the children gift bags with blankets and teddy bears that had shirts reading, “Be Best,” her campaign focused on children’s well-being.

She quizzed the kids on their favorite sports, what music they like and how they’re feeling. Trump also took an informal poll, asking the kids whether they like chocolate and ice cream.

Most of the hands shot up, including the first lady’s.

“I like it too,” she said.

She then took the children out to the Bunny Mellon Healing Garden, where they placed small American flags and patriotically-colored pinwheels into the soil.

The garden, decked out in decorations for Independence Day on Friday, was named to honor Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, a friend of first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

Mellon was a philanthropist and avid gardener who designed the Rose Garden and other White House gardens during the Kennedy administration.

The garden was dedicated to America’s first ladies because of their decades-long support for the hospital and its patients, including a traditional first lady visit at Christmastime that dates back to Bess Truman.

Trump, along with chief White House groundskeeper Dale Haney, inspected a new yellow rose bush donated by the White House and planted earlier in the week at the hospital garden.

After, the first lady visited the heart and kidney unit at the hospital and met privately with a 3-year-old patient.

Later Thursday, the first lady joined President Donald Trump in the Oval Office where they met with Edan Alexander, the last living American hostage in Gaza, who was released in May.