Florida’s wetlands are home to two striking and often confused waterbirds - the&nbsp;anhinga&nbsp;and the&nbsp;double-crested cormorant. Both are expert divers that rely on their feet to propel themselves underwater. They are commonly seen perched on branches or docks with their wings spread wide to dry.



However, despite their similar appearances and behaviors, new research from the&nbsp;University of Miami&nbsp;reveals that these birds are quite different in their&nbsp;physiology, hunting techniques, and metabolism.



A research team led by&nbsp;Jeff White, a recent&nbsp;biology doctoral graduate, spent months studying these species to understand their unique adaptations.



The findings, which build on earlier work by ornithologist&nbsp;Oscar "Bud" Owre, offer fresh insights into these fascinating birds.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-anhingas-and-cormorants-hunt">How anhingas and cormorants hunt</h2>



To the casual observer, anhingas and cormorants might seem interchangeable. 



Both <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/habitat-and-evolution-shape-the-unique-sounds-of-birds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">birds</a> dive beneath the water’s surface in search of fish and then emerge to dry their fully soaked feathers in the sun. However, their approaches to foraging and movement in the water set them apart.



Cormorants&nbsp;are&nbsp;aggressive hunters. They&nbsp;chase&nbsp;their prey with&nbsp;strong, rapid movements, often diving deep and pursuing larger fish. Their ability to consume more oxygen allows them to sustain this high-energy hunting style. 



"Cormorants have a really large muscle in their leg and are able to really prioritize storage of oxygen in their leg muscles," explained White, who is affiliated to the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Miami</a>. This muscle adaptation gives them an edge in deep-water environments, including&nbsp;coastaland&nbsp;oceanic waters.



In contrast, anhingas are stealthy ambush <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bird-wings-have-a-surprising-effect-on-island-biodiversity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">predators</a>. Rather than chasing fish, they wait patiently in shallow water, camouflaged among vegetation, until their prey swims close enough for a lightning-fast strike.



This sit-and-wait strategy is common among ambush predators like herons and alligators, but it is unusual among diving birds. By minimizing movement, anhingas conserve energy and use less oxygen than cormorants.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-do-they-stay-underwater">How do they stay underwater? </h2>



Both species dive for about&nbsp;two minutes at a time, but their bodies handle oxygen storage differently. Unlike ducks and other diving <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/more-than-100-bird-species-have-been-lost-for-over-a-decade/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">birds</a>, anhingas and cormorants&nbsp;fully wet their feathers. 



This reduces buoyancy and allows them to stay underwater more easily. However, their methods of&nbsp;oxygen management&nbsp;vary.



"They both must hold their breath to dive, so we observed how each of these species convert their oxygen stores into energy in the swimming and flying muscles," noted McCracken, a co-author of the study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-oxygen-use-of-anhingas-and-cormorants">Oxygen use of anhingas and cormorants</h2>



Cormorants store&nbsp;most of their oxygen in their leg muscles, which power their&nbsp;aggressive swimming style. These&nbsp;large, oxygen-rich muscles&nbsp;allow them to&nbsp;generate bursts of speed&nbsp;and maneuver swiftly to catch prey. This trait aligns them more with deep-diving seabirds like penguins.



Anhingas, on the other hand, rely on neutral buoyancy, meaning they neither sink nor float. This allows them to remain motionless under the water without needing to swim to stay in place.



"They are the only aquatic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/terror-bird-phorusrhacid-discovery-was-largest-meat-eating-bird-of-its-time/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bird</a> I know of that can sit underwater without having to swim to stay in place," said White. This&nbsp;passive diving adaptation&nbsp;is&nbsp;unique among aquatic birds&nbsp;and helps anhingas hunt with minimal energy expenditure.



Additionally, anhingas have a&nbsp;low metabolism, which means they require&nbsp;less oxygen to generate energy. While cormorants prioritize storing oxygen in their muscles, anhingas make efficient use of the oxygen in their blood.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-flight-differences-soaring-vs-powerful-wingbeats">Flight differences: Soaring vs. powerful wingbeats</h2>



Beyond their diving behaviors, the two species differ in&nbsp;flight mechanics. 



Cormorants are&nbsp;strong fliers. Their powerful wing muscles allow them to&nbsp;fly quickly and with sustained flapping, making them more agile in the air. This strength is necessary since they often travel between freshwater and saltwater environments in search of food.



Anhingas, by contrast, are less suited for continuous flapping. Instead, they&nbsp;soar and glide, using&nbsp;thermals&nbsp;(rising air currents) to stay in the air with minimal effort. This flight style is similar to&nbsp;hawks and vultures, rather than the rapid, flapping flight of cormorants.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-significance-of-the-research">Significance of the research</h2>



While this study sheds light on anhingas and cormorants, its implications&nbsp;reach far beyond ornithology. Understanding how these birds&nbsp;manage oxygen&nbsp;could offer insights into&nbsp;human physiology, exercise science, cardiovascular health, and metabolism.



"There might be benefits to understanding how other species can generate energy without oxygen," White noted. Some medical conditions and athletic performance studies could benefit from&nbsp;learning how these birds use oxygen efficiently.



Additionally, this research helps scientists&nbsp;better understand metabolism. Different species process nutrients and oxygen in distinct ways, and the anhinga’s ability to function&nbsp;with minimal oxygen use&nbsp;is a&nbsp;fascinating case study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-research-on-anhingas-and-cormorants">Future research on anhingas and cormorants</h2>



Despite this latest research, anhingas remain one of the least studied aquatic birds. Jeff White hopes to continue his work to uncover more about their unique adaptations. He realized that scientists know surprisingly little about these birds, especially compared to other diving species.



Future studies could explore how anhingas achieve&nbsp;neutral buoyancy, allowing them to stay underwater without sinking or floating. Researchers also want to examine their&nbsp;metabolic rates&nbsp;to understand how they survive on lower oxygen levels compared to other diving birds. 



Additionally, studying their&nbsp;evolutionary adaptations&nbsp;could reveal how they developed their distinct physiological traits over time.



Anhingas’ unique energy conservation and oxygen use strategies could also help scientists learn more about metabolism in other animals, including humans. Further research will help unravel the mysteries of this remarkable waterbird.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-perspective-on-florida-s-waterbirds">New perspective on Florida’s waterbirds</h2>



For those who frequent Florida’s lakes, swamps, and coastal waters, the anhinga and the double-crested cormorant are&nbsp;familiar sights. Yet, beneath their seemingly similar exteriors, these birds have evolved&nbsp;very different strategies for survival.



Cormorants are the&nbsp;powerful, fast-moving predators, excelling in deep-water hunting and flight. Anhingas are&nbsp;masters of stealth and efficiency, conserving energy and using their&nbsp;neutral buoyancy&nbsp;to ambush prey.



Next time you see one of these birds perched with wings outstretched, take a closer look. The&nbsp;mystery of their adaptations&nbsp;is still unfolding, and there’s much more to learn about these remarkable waterbirds.



The study is published in the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00360-024-01593-x" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of Comparative Physiology B</a>. 



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Florida’s waterbirds: Expert divers with bold hunting techniques

Florida’s wetlands are home to two striking and often confused waterbirds - the&nbsp;anhinga&nbsp;and the&nbsp;double-crested cormorant. Both are expert divers that rely on their feet to propel themselves underwater. They are commonly seen perched on branches or docks with their wings spread wide to dry. However, despite their similar appearances and behaviors, new research from the&nbsp;University of Miami&nbsp;reveals that these birds are quite different in their&nbsp;physiology, hunting techniques, and metabolism. A research team led by&nbsp;Jeff White, a recent&nbsp;biology doctoral graduate, spent months studying these species to understand their...

According to a new study from the <a href="https://www.rvc.ac.uk/">Royal Veterinary College</a> (RVC), fewer people are adopting West Highland White Terriers across the UK. Ownership of "Westies" has dropped by 25 percent over the last decade, and the researchers explained that the latest social media obsession with <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/genetic-mutation-breathing-problems-dogs/">"flat-faced" dogs</a> is largely to blame. 

The investigation, which was carried out by experts in the RVC’s VetCompass program, was focused on the veterinary clinic records of over 900,000 Westies who received care in 2016 in the UK. The study revealed that Westies comprised only 0.43 percent of puppies born in 2015 compared with 1.69 percent of puppies born in 2004. 

"With the ascent of social media as a dominant influencer of public opinion, ownership preferences for dog breeds are becoming increasingly polarized and susceptible to the whims of internet celebrity endorsements and advertising," said lead author Dr. Dan O’Neill.

"Previously, preferences for dog breeds used to wax and wane gently over time. But VetCompass breed data now show rapid changes in preferences among breeds that create bubbles and troughs of demand that can have far-reaching implications for these breeds."

"Flat-faced breeds are currently the darling of the nation but this has created huge welfare problems for breeds such as the Pug and French Bulldog. And breeds such as the West Highland White Terrier and Cavalier King Charles have fallen sharply out of favor."

The average age of the Westies analyzed for the study was a “relatively elderly” 7.8 years, which suggests that Westies have become an aging population with fewer new puppies compared to other breeds.

"The Kennel Club has certainly seen fewer West Highland White Terrier puppies being registered each year as this historic breed seems to continue to fall out of favor. However, we’re pleased this study indicates that Westies don’t appear to suffer from a high prevalence of specific diseases, other than those which appear to be fairly common for all dogs," said Bill Lambert, who is the senior health and welfare manager at the Kennel Club.

"Sadly this contrasts with many of the increasingly popular breeds, like French Bulldogs, Bulldogs and Pugs, which are often being bred indiscriminately to match the soaring demand leading to some serious health and welfare issues. This underlines just how important it is for puppy buyers to do thorough research and go to a responsible breeder.”

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Dora Zett

Bulldogs have grown more popular than terriers in the UK due to social media

According to a new study from the Royal Veterinary College...

Birds have specific warning calls they can use to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/traffic-noise-prevents-birds-hearing-danger-alerts/">communicate with their neighbors</a> when danger is present, but not all bird chatter is meant to warn against a predator threat. 

In a new study, researchers from <a href="https://www.oberlin.edu/">Oberlin College</a> found that squirrels take their cues from birds by listening in on bird conversations.

Many birds emit non-alarm calls which can signal that the predator threat is low and that it’s safe to resume normal activities like foraging for food. 

Eastern gray squirrels and small birds share many of the same predators, and it would make sense for squirrels to take note of nearby bird calls as a signal that the coast is clear. 

Eavesdropping on birds might provide an advantage for squirrels, the researchers hypothesized. 

To test this, the researchers first observed 54 gray squirrels in parks and residential areas in Ohio. The researchers played a recording of a red-tailed hawk call which hunts both squirrels and small birds to see how the squirrels respond to a direct threat. 

[caption id="attachment_1877378" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/listening-squirrel.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1877378" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/listening-squirrel.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="864" /></a> Image Credit: Emma C. Lucore, Marie V. Lilly[/caption]

Next, the researchers played recordings of songbird chatter and monitored the squirrel responses. Not surprisingly, upon hearing the hawk call, the squirrels ran away, froze, or looked up for signs of danger. 

However, after hearing the recordings of the non-alarm bird chatter, the squirrels quickly went back to their normal activities. 

When compared to squirrels that listened to a recording of ambient noise, the squirrels that listened to bird chatter resumed their normal activities and watchfulness much faster after hearing the hawk call. 

The results indicate that squirrels do take their cues from birds and can listen in on conversations as a safety measure. 

“We knew that squirrels eavesdropped on the alarm calls of some bird species, but we were excited to find that they also eavesdrop on non-alarm sounds that indicate the birds feel relatively safe,” the researchers said. “Perhaps in some circumstances, cues of safety could be as important as cues of danger.”

The study was published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0221279">PLOS ONE</a>.<a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0221279"> </a>

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette,</a> <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Main Image Credit: Shutterstock/Anya Julia

Squirrels eavesdrop on bird chatter as a safety measure

Birds have specific warning calls they can use to communicate...

Many people know that gorillas can use sticks to collect and eat termites. As we have reported, chimpanzees have been recorded making ‘<a href="http://www.earth.com/news/chimpanzees-drinking-sticks/">drinking sticks</a>’ by chewing wood to make it absorbent before dipping it into water. Other primates, including monkeys have been using stone tools for at least a few thousand years. These are all fascinating insights into how some of our relatives think and manipulate the world around them. 

These examples are widely spread in the media partially because they’re interesting but also partly because they allow us as humans to reinforce our own homocentric worldview. It’s obvious to many that other primates use tools, even if they’re relatively crude and easy to fashion. But further from the limelight, there are examples of other animals bearing little resemblance to us who also use tools in surprising ways.

It’s easy to miss a crocodilian floating in a pond, swamp or river. The large reptiles are usually incredibly still, their success at hunting dependent on a cold-blooded patience. A quick glance may fail to distinguish between a clump of algae, a submerged log, and a snout full of deadly teeth hidden in dark water. An American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) lying motionless with sticks on it’s head doesn’t seem very surprising. What is surprising is the subtlety of the alligator lying in the water with sticks covering its snout. 

Vladimir Dinets, et. Al, published <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03949370.2013.858276">research</a> pointing out an interesting correlation between two crocodilians, alligators and mugger crocodiles (Crocodylus palustris), sticks and nesting birds. As you might expect, it’s not wise for a bird to collect sticks off the snout of an alligator laying in wait, although sometimes birds like egrets seem to be in a rush to make nests and mistakes are made. Inevitably, birds that collect sticks from the snouts of alligators or crocodiles are snatched up as quick meals by the speedy reptiles. 

The really interesting thing is that the alligators at least seem to understand when birds are nesting. The behavior is timed to coincide with nesting time when sometimes alligators will be found lying just beneath sticks hidden in the water below heron and egret colonies. At times of year when the birds aren’t collecting sticks for their nests, the behavior seems to stop. Crocodilians seem to be deliberately using sticks to lure the birds to them. This is the first reliable account of reptiles using tools. Using hunting lures is a very rare example of tool use in non-humans indeed, but it’s not the only surprising example.

Cephalopods are smart. An octopus named Otto, living in an aquarium in Germany, made news by squirting a jet of water at a light that annoyed him, causing it to short and turn off, <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3328480/Otto-the-octopus-wrecks-havoc.html">The Telegraph</a> reported. The octopus was also found to juggle hermit crabs and throw rocks at the glass in his tank.

Cuttlefish are known to show cunning as well. Cuttlefish are well known for their ability to change the color and patterns on their bodies, almost instantaneously. The ability to change color patterns is used for camouflage but also for communication. Male cuttlefish have been observed using half their bodies to try and entice a female in with a mating display while displaying a different non-threatening display that makes him look female towards rival males on the other side. 

<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/28/alien-intelligence-the-extraordinary-minds-of-octopuses-and-other-cephalopods">The Guardian</a> reports that there are many more instances of cephalopod intelligence. Some octopuses have been taught to release food by pulling a lever. More interesting, though, are the things that octopuses learn on their own. Observers have watched as an octopus hid itself in a coconut shell, some octopuses guard the entrance to their den by stacking rocks. These last two are clear examples of animals using tools. 

Birds such as crows and ravens in the Corvid family are famous for their intelligence. <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/02/new-caledonian-crows-plan-ahead-with-tools/">National Geographic</a> reports that New Caledonian Crows (Corvus moneduloides) use sticks and stones as tools. The birds have been seen using sticks to pull out grubs and dropping rocks in containers of water to raise to level of the liquid. Like octopuses, crows in captivity have been able to learn complex puzzles and games for food as a reward. <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/did-crows-actually-make-these-gifts-human-who-feeds-them?ms=digital-eng-email-ea-x-engagement_20190603_crows-make-gifts_medium&amp;utm_source=ea&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=engagement_20190603_crows-make-gifts&amp;utm_content=medium">Audubon</a> reports that there is anecdotal evidence of crows leaving ‘gifts’ behind for people who feed them. People sometimes find keys, or candy hearts or other objects apparently left by crows at bird feeders. 

It’s possible that these are examples of the birds giving something in exchange for food but it’s also possible that crows learned that leaving things behind excited people who then leave them more food. Recently a man found pull tabs, like those on soda and beer cans, threaded through pine branches near his feeder, claiming that it was an example of not only a crow gift but of art made by crows. It’s hard to substantiate an individual claim like this one but experts aren’t yet willing to say crows didn’t do it. Either way, it’s clear that corvids are capable of making such ‘artifacts’ whatever their purpose. When you start to look closely, there are examples of animals using tools everywhere.

Research published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-39902-y">Scientific Reports</a> shows that otters use rocks to crack open mussels to eat, and there’s even an archaeological record of these rocks used by otters left in the ocean. Elephants are well known as being intelligent, so it’s no surprise that they use tools sometimes. <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-is-in-elephants-are-even-smarter-than-we-realized-video/">Scientific American</a> reports that elephants have been observed moving objects to use as ‘step stools’ to reach food. Elephants also use sticks to shoo away flies and to scratch themselves. Other animals further from humans also use tools in their own way. Leaf cutter ants harvest pieces of plant on which they grow a fungus that they eat, a rare case of an insect agriculturalist. 

The closer we look at other life on Earth, the more we see that our own prejudices might be blinding us to the reality of other minds.          

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Image Credit:Shutterstock/Chuck Wagner

It’s not just primates - other animals also use tools in surprising ways

Many people know that gorillas can use sticks to collect...

Great white sharks have yet to make an appearance this year in their usual hunting grounds off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. Experts are working to understand whether the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/great-white-sharks-orcas/">sharks</a> have vanished from False Bay as a result of environmental pressures or if they are simply dodging the killer whales in the region. 

Marian Nieuwoudt is a member of the Cape Town City Mayoral Committee for Spatial Planning and Environment.

"There have been no traces of bite marks from great whites on any of the whale carcasses the City had removed from False bay this year which usually indicates their feeding patterns," said Nieuwoudt. "To our knowledge the absence of great white's from False Bay has not been recorded before and we are at a loss at present as to why they have suddenly gone AWOL."

An average of 205 great whites were spotted between 2010 and 2016 in this part of the Atlantic Ocean, but that number dropped to 50 by 2018. This year, there have been no sightings or evidence of great whites in False Bay, which is a region that is well-known for shark activity. 

Shark Spotters, a local charity that monitors the city’s beaches to warn swimmers of nearby sharks, has not detected a single great white shark in 2019. During the summer months from January to April, the sharks can usually be seen close to the shore. 

Shark Spotters CEO Sarah Waries said the sharks have likely moved further up the east coast.

"There seems to be a shift eastwards, so that is why there has been an increase in activity in the Mossel Bay and Algoa Bay area. So it could be for some reasons whether its orcas or environmental conditions the sharks have appeared to have moved further up the east coast and not use the False Bay area," said Waries. 

Orcas, which are the only natural predators of the great white, are known to hunt down the sharks and eat their fatty livers. Since 2015, the presence of great whites has dropped significantly in False Bay after two orcas arrived and began feeding on a local colony of sevengill sharks. 

Sara Andreotti, a marine biologist at Stellenbosch University, emphasized that pollution and overfishing are likely contributing to the disappearance of great whites as well. "My worry is that the focus on the orcas is distracting the attention from problems that humans could solve."

Beyond the fact that shark tourism helps raise money for conservation, the absence of great whites could have resounding effects on the entire ecosystem. 

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Sergey Uryadnikov

Great white sharks are suddenly absent from their hunting grounds off Cape Town

Great white sharks have yet to make an appearance this...

In a project funded by <a href="https://www.nato.int/science/">NATO Science for Peace and Security</a>, experts are training bees to locate explosives, radioactive metals, and drugs. Under some circumstances, the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/world-without-bees-food-shortages/">bees</a> will be more useful than sniffer dogs because they can work longer with less financial investment. 

Dr. Ross Gillanders, a senior researcher at the University of St Andrews, helped develop equipment that detects whether the bees return to the hive with tiny traces of explosives. During early trials in Croatia, drones were used to locate the source of any small traces picked up by the bees.

The bees are trained to form an association between the scent of explosives and sugar water. This allows the bees to pick up on the scent of explosives, which they believe is nectar, from a distance of up to two kilometers. 

According to Dr. Gillanders, once the bees are trained and released they immediately seek out the explosives.

"Basically we teach them by a version of reward like you do with dogs," said Dr Gillanders. "The bees fly out of their hive to go about their normal day to day job of finding pollen but instead of finding pollen they find explosives. It's the sugar syrup, which draws them out."

"However, after three days the bees realise that they aren't getting reward from the TNT and as a result are disinterested in it and look for other things." At this point, the bees must be re-trained to find explosives. 

In Croatia, real-world tests using honeybees from local hives began in 2017. Dr. Gillanders confirmed the bees found abandoned land mines and other explosives lost during The Croatian War of Independence, which was was fought from 1991 to 1995.

In the United States, bees were previously conditioned to detect explosives in vehicles at checkpoints. Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico trained honeybees to stick out their proboscis, the tube they use to feed on nectar, when explosives were detected. 

In 2015, researchers at the University of Cologne proposed that bees could eventually replace dogs for drug detection at airports. 

The results in Croatia suggest that honeybees could help to clear millions of abandoned mines around the world that put thousands of lives at risk.

According to oneybees will be ready for deployment searching out the mines in between five and ten years and have already been trained to identify other dangerous or illicit materials.

The study is published in the <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/bul/">Psychological Bulletin</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/SorasakPhotoDreams

Scientists train sniffer bees to detect explosives and radioactive materials

In a project funded by NATO Science for Peace and...

The feeding habits of fruit flies provide more insight into human diets. Scientists at <a href="https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/">Kyoto University</a> have investigated the diverse diet of the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fruit-fly-smell/">fruit fly</a>, Drosophila melanogaster. The team discovered that this diversity is tied to the fly's flexible response to carbohydrates, which provides new insight into how the human diet evolved.

Species such as humans and fruit flies are collectively known as "nutritional generalists" because we eat a wide variety of foods. Some genetic cousins of the fruit fly, however, are known as "nutritional specialists" because they require very specific plants for survival. The feeding habits of fruit flies provide more insight into human diets

The researchers set out to gain a better understanding of how organisms have such different feeding habits, even when they are genetically related.

"Uncovering the differences in the molecular mechanisms between nutritional generalists and specialists can help us understand how organisms adapt to variable nutritional environments," said the study authors. "In our investigation, we changed the nutrient balance in the food of different Drosophila species and compared their nutritional adaptability along with their transcriptional and metabolic responses."

The team evaluated whether larvae of generalists and specialists could adapt to three experimental diets that were high in protein, high in carbohydrates, or had a moderate mix of the two. The generalist flies, including the common fruit fly, were found to grow and thrive with all three diets. 

On the other hand, the larvae of specialists could not survive on a carbohydrate-rich diet. The researchers examined the nutritional composition of the fruits and flowers that are usually eaten by the specialists, and determined that they have low-carbohydrate profiles.  

The team theorized that the difference between the generalist and specialist flies resides in the genetic pathways that control their response to carbohydrates.

"A signaling pathway known as 'TGF-β/Activin signaling' regulates the body's response to carbohydrates. In the generalists, this pathway is quite flexible and maintains metabolic homeostasis under different diets. In fact, there are about 250 metabolic genes that are downregulated when their diet is carbohydrate-rich," explained the researchers. 

By contrast, the specialist flies expressed these genes at higher levels where they accumulated metabolites, which led to a lack of adaptation. When a gene in the TGF-β/Activin pathway named dawdle was disabled in the common fruit fly, the same lack of adaptation was observed. 

The findings suggest that generalists were constantly under pressure to retain carbohydrate-responsive systems throughout their evolution, while specialists must have been surrounded by low-carbohydrate environments.

"Considering that humans and flies share a number of genes and regulatory factors, we can begin to develop an interspecies comparative approach that provides an informative model system for addressing the genetic variability among humans in response to dietary intakes," concluded the researchers. 

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/home">Cell Reports</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Claudia Evans

The feeding habits of fruit flies provide more insight into human diets

The feeding habits of fruit flies provide more insight into...

Most people aren’t huge fans of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/cockroaches-survive-anything/">cockroaches</a>. And they’re certainly not a box office draw for all except the most devoted and stoic of entomologists. Nonetheless, Madagascar’s most notable silver screen export is in fact a roach. They’re the ultimate stand-ins. 

The enormous hissing cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa) is frequently used as an onscreen substitute for the more-skittery and less-tractable American and German species that infest our homes. They can gather some speed themselves, but they’re nowhere near as zippy as the ones that scamper under our refrigerators when the lights are turned on. In fact, they’ve become a popular, low-maintenance exotic pet and educational animal. 

Easily acclimated to human handling, they’re the perfect doubles for our more-pedestrian household pests, which of course are used onscreen to indicate squalor or, in the case of sci-fi films, to represent the true form of menacing bug-people. The next time you see a roach in your favorite TV show, take a closer look, if you can bear it: it’s mostly likely a Madagascar hisser.

In the forests of the African island to which they are native, these roaches live under fallen logs and among leaf litter, where they feast on fallen fruit, decaying vegetation, and occasionally animal carcasses. Females show a preference for higher-protein items, according to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/James_Carrel/publication/263614605_Sex-Specific_Food_Preferences_in_the_Madagascar_Hissing_Cockroach_Gromphadorhina_portentosa_Dictyoptera_Blaberidae/links/5459152c0cf2cf516483c9dd.pdf">one study</a>. 

The menacing hisses for which they are known serve a number of purposes. There is an alarm hiss that warns other roaches approaching lemurs, birds, and reptiles that might eat them, special courting and mating hisses, and a hiss issued by males who are vying for territory and females. Females and nymphs are only capable of the alarm hiss. 

While higher animals vocalize through the passage of air through their throats, most insects produce sound by stridulation (rubbing two body parts together) or vibration. Unusually, the terrifying hiss of Gromphadorhina is produced by passing air through modified spiracles, or breathing pores—making them more similar to vertebrates in this respect. Interestingly, these insects do not possess tympanums and instead hear through the subgenual organs in their legs. 

[caption id="attachment_1877293" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/hissing-cockroach.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1877293" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/hissing-cockroach.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="434" /></a> Hissing cockroach, Image Credit: Rod Waddington[/caption]

They don’t quite reach Gregor Samsa proportions but Madagascar hissing cockroaches typically range from 2-3 inches in length, making them among the largest of the roaches. The South American Megaloblatta longipennis and the Australian burrowing cockroach (Macropanesthia rhinoceros) both outsize it by about half an inch. Still, they’re intimidating to most who are even slightly entomophobic. With brownish-black armature and, in the case of males, pronotal horns that extend from the front segments of their bodies, they look like they’re ready to do damage. 

In fact, they are capable of little if any aggression toward any but their own species. (Owners report that the sharp spines on their legs can draw blood. But they don’t bite, spray, or otherwise defend themselves.) However, males do engage in some fairly impressive conflicts when vying for harems of females. Though these contests don’t appear to result in much physical harm to the combatants, they involve a good deal of hissing and ramming using their horns, a behavior reminiscent of larger animals such as deer and mountain goats. 

Dominance hierarchies are complex and likely result from a multitude of factors, including size. Larger males usually win, but interestingly, the strength of the hisses appears to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Allen_Moore/publication/15640006_Genetic_aspects_of_communication_during_male-male_competition_in_the_Madagascar_hissing_cockroach_Honest_signalling_of_size/links/02e7e5149fdd515c71000000.pdf">correlate to genetic potential</a> rather than current size. As part of their contests, males also engage in “stilting” or extending their legs to their full lengths in order to appear larger and more intimidating. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jonathan_Pruitt/publication/259633690_Boldness_is_influenced_by_sublethal_interactions_with_predators_and_is_associated_with_successful_harem_infiltration_in_Madagascar_hissing_cockroaches/links/0c96053375ab326989000000/Boldness-is-influenced-by-sublethal-interactions-with-predators-and-is-associated-with-successful-harem-infiltration-in-Madagascar-hissing-cockroaches.pdf">One fascinating study</a> found that predator exposure affected the boldness of subordinate males attempting to displace the dominant roaches in a group. Those who had faced more predatory risk (in this case, a scorpion) were less likely to attempt a coup.

The roaches live in loose groups of <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/academia.edu.documents/42807950/Patterns_of_aggregation_behaviour_in_six20160218-29012-8w8f2o.pdf">about 10 in the wild</a>, showing little tendency to aggregate in laboratory experiments. Captive colonies can, however, quickly become much larger. Unusually, the females are ovoviviparous, unlike many other cockroaches. Rather than depositing their ooetheca on a surface—a distressing sign of cockroach infestation familiar to any apartment dweller who has been afflicted by their presence—the females instead carry the case inside their bodies for around two months until anywhere from 20 to 60 nymphs emerge. These tiny versions of the adults mature in around seven months. 

Hissing cockroaches are host to a mutualistic species of mite, which is often viewed as a pest organism by pet owners. However, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01647954.2012.662248">it turns out</a> that these nasty-looking little critters actually aid the creatures in maintaining proper hygiene, assisting in the removal of food particles that might encourage fungal growth. This has important implications for husbandry: <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080317123243.htm">another study</a> found that a number of molds grow on the creatures and their feces, causing allergies in some people. So, allowing the mites to remain on their hosts may actually keep allergens down. 

Unfortunately, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1081120610607156">some people may be allergic</a> to proteins produced by the roaches themselves. So, the allergy-prone would do well to exercise caution when handling or otherwise interacting with the roaches. (Pest roaches like the American and German species are well-known to produce substances that exacerbate allergies, so this is no surprise.) They are, luckily, unable to colonize human habitations due to their specialized food and moisture requirements, though owners whose roaches have escaped report that they can survive in your average home for a <a href="http://arachnoboards.com/threads/madagascar-hissing-cockroach-escaped.298699/">surprisingly long time</a>.

In an appropriately sci-fi turn, these bizarre insects may have something to offer humanity aside from serving as a unique pet and boosting the market for Claritin. Attempts are underway to turn hissing cockroaches into so-called biobots—hybrid “living robots.” By electrically stimulating their antennae and cerci (essentially antennae protruding from the rear of the abdomen), <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0134348">researchers have been able to control</a> the paths that the roaches take. This may have applications in search-and-rescue missions where attempting to find survivors is logistically insurmountable. 

So, if you have the misfortune of being trapped beneath a collapsed building in a decade or so, don’t be surprised if the first friendly face you see is a roach wearing a camera and wiggling its antennae in your direction. 

--

By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Main Image Credit: Joanne Goldby/Flickr

The enormous hissing cockroaches of Madagascar are gentle giants

Most people aren’t huge fans of cockroaches. And they’re certainly...

In French Guiana, Dyeing poison frogs ward off predators with their bold yellow stripes. This unique coloring signals <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/what-makes-poison-dart-frogs-poisonous/">toxicity</a>, and there are many species in the animal kingdom that have evolved bright coloring as a warning. 

Alongside the yellow frogs, there are Dyeing poison frogs with white stripes, a much less vivid and bold warning color. 

Natural selection and evolution would suggest that the white coloring be weeded out in favor of the bolder yellow stripes, but a new study found that this is not the case. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.jyu.fi/en">University of Jyvaskylä</a> in Finland, the <a href="https://olemiss.edu/">University of Mississippi</a>, the <a href="http://www.cnrs.fr/">Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)</a> in France, and <a href="http://sites.jcu.edu/">John Carroll University </a>investigated how the two types of poisonous frogs can co-exist and flourish side-by-side.

Because the frogs with the white stripes have rare and weaker warning coloring, the researchers needed to find an explanation for why diversity beats the odds in this case. 

One factor in their survival is that predators first learned that yellow frogs are distasteful and poisonous and associate the same level of distastefulness to white frogs in the area. In other words, predators generalize what they know about one type of frog and apply it to the other kind of frog. 

Generalized learning has allowed for the two types of genetically distinct frogs to co-exist. 

With this study, the researchers were up against a challenge because they had to find a way to gauge a predator’s reaction to the frog’s toxicity or defense mechanism. 

“We faced the difficulty of not having an established method to quantify predator reaction to the chemical defenses,” said Dr. Bibiana Rojas, a member of the research team. “However, that difficulty turned into one of the biggest assets of our study, as we eventually succeeded at developing a method.” 

The researchers extracted toxins from the skin of Dyeing poison frogs and combined them with oats. By feeding the oats to the frog’s predators, the researchers could get a sense of how a predator chooses to spit out its prey based on distastefulness. 

“The biggest surprise came from the fact that the frogs [with] higher amount of toxins in their skin are not necessarily the ones that birds find most distasteful,” said Rojas. “This finding challenges previous assumptions that most toxic equals most unpalatable.” 

The researchers published their findings in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1901872116">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. </a>

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: University of Jyvaskyla

Poison frogs flourish even amongst stronger competitors

In French Guiana, Dyeing poison frogs ward off predators with...

“Greater scientific understanding of animals has and undeniably will continue to raise some of the most important questions for us today regarding the scope and nature of morality,” says Peter Woodford, an assistant professor at <a href="https://www.union.edu/">Union College</a> and coauthor of a new paper published in <a href="https://www.aibs.org/bioscience/">BioScience</a>. 

The new paper is an effort by an interdisciplinary group of scientists and scholars who are currently urging animal behavior scientists to increase their involvement in the animal ethics conversation.

“While it is commonplace for animal behavior scientists to emphasize the conservation implications of their work, other broader impacts related to the moral standing of animals are emphasized relatively less in their public outreach,” explains coauthor Christine Webb, an animal behavior scientist at <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a>. “However, scientists have a social responsibility to proactively engage with the ethical debates that are informed by their evidence.”

Today, the moral status of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/working-with-animals-mental-health/">animals</a> is becoming an increasingly visible topic within both developed and developing nations. It has spurred change in the academic, political, and legal fields as research and further insight gives us a better understanding of our responsibilities for how we represent and understand nature. 

Despite this, fields such as animal behavior science have been less integrated in this paradigm shift, despite the growing evidence that has been linked with animal ethics arguments.

The authors state that a greater integration between animal ethics and behavior communities may be valuable for both ethical and pragmatic reasons. 

Elise Huchard, a behavioral ecologist at the <a href="https://www.umontpellier.fr/university-of-montpellier">University of Montpellier/CNRS</a> adds that further integrating science and philosophy “may encourage scientists to embark on new research about the nature of animal minds, question the anthropocentric legacy of behavioral studies, and enrich other aspects of their scientific practices through a more careful consideration of animal interests and subjectivity.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Mark Whiten

Scientists call for increased focus on animal ethics

“Greater scientific understanding of animals has and undeniably will continue...

Ancient rodent teeth help to map out Miocene mouse migration. Raquel López-Antoñanzas, from the <a href="http://www.isem.univ-montp2.fr/fr/">Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution</a> in Montpellier, France, and colleagues unearthed fossils of a new species of prehistoric murine — the mammalian group that includes mice, rats, and their kin — in Lebanon. 

These fossils are the first physical evidence that the first dispersal of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/young-mouse-blood-improved-memory-learning/">mice</a> from Asia to Africa took place via the Levant.

Archaeologists believe murinae, the largest subfamily of mammals, originated in southern Asia about 16 million years ago. However, the route and timing of the first murine dispersal has remained a mystery until now.

By analyzing the fossil’s teeth, which were excavated from the Lebanese site in 2013 and 2018, López-Antoñanzas and team were able to identify them as belonging to a previously unknown species. They named the new species, similar to the oldest populations of Progonomys known, which lived about 10.5 to 11 million years ago, Progonomys manolo (P. manolo).

P. manolo may be one of the earliest representatives of Progonomys, which was the first mouse to migrate out of southern Asia. In fact, researchers believe that P. manolo is most likely responsible for spreading Progonomys populations to Africa.

During the dental analysis of various Progonomys species, researchers saw how their teeth changed throughout the course of evolution with later species showing broader molars, suggesting a switch from an omnivorous diet to a herbivorous one during the shift from the moist middle Miocene era to the dry Late Miocene.

Finding the P. manolo fossil is a huge breakthrough for those studying the migration of the Progonomys, as it’s the first piece of evidence that the genus did, in fact, move through the Arabian Peninsula, therefore the “Levantine Corridor” is as important for mammal migration as researchers have believed it to be.

This new discovery is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-47894-y">Scientific Reports</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Rudmer Zwerver

Ancient rodent teeth help to map out Miocene mouse migration

Ancient rodent teeth help to map out Miocene mouse migration....

Scientists at the <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/">University of Sheffield</a> have discovered the potential to make white sustainable paint using recycled plastic waste by mimicking the structure of the Cyphochilus beetle's scales, which contain one of the brightest whites found in nature. 

According to the researchers, the new paint would not only have a much lower carbon footprint, but could also help to tackle the challenge of recycling <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/un-report-calls-for-ban-on-single-use-plastics/">single-use plastics</a>.

The brilliant white shade of the Cyphochilus beetle is not created by pigments, but by the nanostructure of its tiny scales. The team has managed to reconstruct and refine this scale structure in the lab using inexpensive materials. The technique used to recreate the nanostructure could be used to produce a sustainable alternative to titanium dioxide in white paint.

"In the natural world, whiteness is usually created by a foamy, Swiss cheese-like structure made of a solid interconnected network and air. Until now, how these structures form and develop and how they have evolved light-scattering properties has remained a mystery," said study lead author Dr. Andrew Parnell.

"Having understood these structures we were able to take plastic and structure it in the same way. Ideally, we could recycle plastic waste that would normally be burnt or sent to landfill, structure it just like the beetle scale and then use it to make super white paint. This would make paint with a much lower carbon footprint and help tackle the challenge of recycling single-use plastics."

The study revealed that the foamy structure of the beetle scales had the ideal proportion of empty spaces to optimize the scattering of light. 

Currently, nanoparticles of titanium dioxide are used in white paint because they can strongly scatter visible light. However, titanium dioxide is harmful to the environment, contributing to nearly 75 percent of white paint's carbon footprint.

"This research answers long-standing questions about how the structure inside these scales actually form and we hope these lessons from nature will help inform the future of sustainable manufacturing for paint," said study co-author Dr. Stephanie Burg.

The study is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/commschem">Nature Communications Chemistry</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Wuttipon

The structure of beetle scales could help scientists create sustainable paint

Scientists at the University of Sheffield have discovered the potential...

The jellyfish is one of the most delicate animals on Earth. Jellyfish are 95 percent water and the thin gelatinous layers that make jellyfish so mysterious and beautiful to watch as they float in the ocean also make them incredibly difficult to study. 

What little researchers have been able to glean from jellyfish has paved the way for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/jellyfish-kill-toxin-genes/">several important discoveries</a>, including a protein that could help slow aging. 

The ability to study jellyfish safely without damaging or tearing their delicate dermis layer is important, but most underwater research tools that marine biologists can use are cumbersome and heavy. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a> and the <a href="https://www2.cuny.edu/">City University of New York</a> have developed a new kind of ‘gripper’ that can gently capture and release jellyfish, opening up new research opportunities to study jellyfish in their native habitats. 

The gripper has six thin hollow strips made of silicone which are meant to serve as fingers. 

The strips are attached to a small rectangular “palm,” and as the strips fill with water, they curl up, exerting just enough pressure to keep a jellyfish contained in its grasp but gentle enough to ensure the jellyfish is unharmed. 

“Our ultra-gentle gripper is a clear improvement over existing deep-sea sampling devices for jellies and other soft-bodied creatures that are otherwise nearly impossible to collect intact,” said Nina Sinatra, Ph.D., the first author of the study. “This technology can also be extended to improve underwater analysis techniques and allow extensive study of the ecological and genetic features of marine organisms without taking them out of the water.”

After testing the gripper at the New England Aquarium, the device was successful in capturing jellyfish and keeping them in place until released. 

More tests revealed that the gripper could open and close around 100 times before showing any signs of wear. 

The researchers are continuing to refine the technology, but so far the gripper has promising potential is solving a major problem for marine biologists hoping to unlock the mysteries of jellyfish. 

“Marine biologists have been waiting a long time for a tool that replicates the gentleness of human hands in interacting with delicate animals like jellyfish from inaccessible environments,” said David Gruber, Ph.D., a co-author of the study. “This gripper is part of an ever-growing soft robotic toolbox that promises to make underwater species collection easier and safer, which would greatly improve the pace and quality of research on animals that have been under-studied for hundreds of years, giving us a more complete picture of the complex ecosystems that make up our oceans.”

The team published their findings in the journal Science Robotics.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Shutterstock/HelloRF Zcool

New gripper device allows researchers to study jellyfish safely

The jellyfish is one of the most delicate animals on...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> explores the ability of salt to transform the way that foods and beverages taste. Salt is known to cover up undesirable flavors, such as bitterness in coffee or beer, but how exactly does sodium chloride change the taste of other compounds?



One previous study showed that, not only does salt suppress bitterness, but also enhances sweetness and sourness. Another study revealed that bitterness reduction by salt seems to be happening at the tongue receptor level as well as in the brain.&nbsp;



While it is known that salt taste is mediated by the presence of sodium channels in the form of taste buds, experts believe that there is also an unknown receptor responsible for how we taste salt that has not yet been identified.&nbsp;



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

How does salt makes things taste better?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



'The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September)."



"The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries," says ESA.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Santiago, Chile in South America

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Spiral,Galaxy,,Illustration,Of,Milky,Way

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes a new map of Mars that is providing insight into the planet’s watery past. The map also reveals where future missions could safely land on Mars.&nbsp;



The map has been created over the last decade using observations of water-rich rocks and mineral deposits. The images were captured by ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



"A big surprise is the prevalence of these minerals, with the map revealing hundreds of thousands of water-affected locations in the oldest parts of the planet," says ESA. "The new data will help answer exciting questions about Mars’ climate history, whether water was globally persistent or confined to short, intense episodes, and whether the conditions were ever suitable for life."



"Specifically, the map shows the locations and abundances of aqueous minerals. These are from rocks that have been chemically altered by the action of water in the past, and have typically been transformed into clays and salts."



According to John Carter of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), our collective understanding of Mars has been oversimplified. He explained that planetary scientists have tended to think that only a few types of clay minerals on Mars were created during its wet period, then as the water gradually dried up, salts were produced across the planet.



The new map shows that the composition of Mars is much more complicated than what we thought. For example, while many salts formed after Martian clays, there are some salts that are presumed to be older than some of the clays.&nbsp;



“The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn’t just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. That’s the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does,” said Carter.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes how cavefish adapted to a sedentary lifestyle over tens of thousands of years. 



The experts found that the muscle metabolism of cavefish has been genetically reprogrammed over time. As a result, the animals have experienced major changes in their morphology and behavior. Despite these changes, however, the cavefish remain healthy and fit.



The research may provide new clues about the evolutionary consequences of prolonged physical inactivity in humans.&nbsp;



“It’s no surprise that people are moving less and less as technology has advanced,” said Rohner. “With cavefish, we have a unique system where we can study what might happen if people remained couch potatoes over very, very long periods of time.”



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> some of the most incredible waves in the world, as seen by Landsat satellites.



"With more than 370,000 miles of coastline on Earth, there are plenty of places where epic waves build up, curl over, and hurtle toward the shore.- much to the thrill of surfers," says NASA. "There are some places where these waves are so magnificent that they can be seen from space."



"With the broad perspective of satellites, we can see how these iconic waves develop into the world’s tallest, longest, fastest, and heaviest."



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes why satellite images and measurements of our planet have become "essential to our survival, offering a new outlook of our world."&nbsp;



Rising sea levels pose one of the biggest societal threats associated with climate change. According to ESA, satellite altimeter missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-6 are essential in monitoring global and regional changes in sea level.



"Unbeknown to many, the island of Crete, Greece, plays an important role in the Copernicus satellite altimetry constellation and on an international stage," reports ESA.



"Satellite altimetry data have to be continuously monitored at the ESA’s Permanent Facility for Altimetry Calibration where different techniques have pioneered the use of transponders to provide the best measurements to validate satellite altimeters in space soon after launch."



Dr. Craig Donlon explains that, by understanding planet Earth through satellite measurements, we are able to find evidence of change.&nbsp;



Video Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Satellites have become essential to our survival

[sendtonews key="761m2QQvR1-2035772-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...