The human body excels at maintaining internal balance in a process known as homeostasis. This vital mechanism keeps our core temperature steady at 37°C, regardless of external conditions. 



But now, breakthrough research from the Ikmi Group at EMBL Heidelberg reveals that homeostasis goes beyond internal regulation - it can actively redefine an organism’s shape.



The starlet sea anemone (Nematostella vectensis) provides a stunning example of this phenomenon. Renowned for its extraordinary regenerative abilities, this <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-anemones-use-their-shyness-survive-heatwaves/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">creature</a> can regrow a lost head or foot and even rebuild a complete, functional body from a sliced fragment.&nbsp;



But unlike many regenerating animals that restore parts in proportion to what remains, the sea anemone reshapes its entire body to preserve its overall form, even adjusting undamaged areas.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-regeneration-in-sea-anemones">Regeneration in sea anemones </h2>



“<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/axolotls-regeneration-powers-critically-endangered/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Regeneration</a> is about restoring function after tissue loss or damage,” explained Aissam Ikmi, <a href="https://www.embl.org/sites/heidelberg/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EMBL Heidelberg</a> Group Leader and senior author of a new study published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.devcel.2024.11.001" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Developmental Cell</a>.&nbsp;



“Most research studies mainly consider patterns and sizes in regeneration, but our findings show that maintaining shape is also crucial - and it’s something the organism actively controls.”



The discovery started when Stephanie Cheung, a doctoral researcher in Ikmi’s group, noticed an unexpected phenomenon: when a sea anemone’s foot was injured, cell division occurred not only at the wound site but also at the opposite end of the body near the mouth. This hinted at signals being sent across the entire organism in response to injury.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-molecular-changes-triggered-by-injury">Molecular changes triggered by injury</h2>



Using spatial transcriptomics and advanced imaging techniques, the research team mapped gene activity across the anemone’s body during regeneration.&nbsp;



They found that injury triggered molecular changes both near and far from the wound. Cells moved, tissues reorganized, and the entire body reshaped itself to maintain its original proportions.



The extent of this reshaping depended on the severity of the injury. Losing a foot caused mild adjustments, while being cut in half led to significant remodeling.&nbsp;



A key player in this process was a family of enzymes called metalloproteases, which became more active as more tissue was lost. These enzymes helped realign tissues, not just at the wound site but throughout the body.



“Metalloprotease activity has never been shown before in animals like this,” said Petrus Steenbergen, one of the study’s lead authors and an Ikmi Group Senior Research Technician.&nbsp;



“I had to design and optimize experimental conditions for Nematostella based on the sparse literature available from other species. This took some time, but the final results were very rewarding.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sea-anemones-restore-their-shapes">Sea anemones restore their shapes</h2>



The team discovered that the sea anemone prioritizes restoring its shape, even after significant injury.&nbsp;



By measuring the aspect ratio - the ratio of length to width - they found that the anemone consistently returned to its pre-injury proportions. This proportional response allowed the organism to maintain its shape, even if it became smaller.



“We were able to witness the body-wide coordination that drives this remodeling,” Ikmi explained. “This proportional response allows the anemone to restore its shape, highlighting how organisms like Nematostella interpret and respond to tissue loss in a way that’s scaled to the damage incurred.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-collaborative-efforts-and-advanced-techniques">Collaborative efforts and advanced techniques</h2>



The study was a collaborative endeavor. Rik Korswagen’s team at the <a href="https://www.hubrecht.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hubrecht Institute</a> in the Netherlands helped implement spatial transcriptomics in the sea anemone.&nbsp;



Additionally, Oliver Stegle’s team at EMBL Heidelberg and the <a href="https://www.dkfz.de/en/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">German Cancer Research Center</a> (DKFZ) provided bioinformatics expertise and statistical methods to analyze spatial <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/personality-has-a-profound-influence-on-gene-expression/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gene expression</a> data.



“It was a pleasure to puzzle out the findings of the study together by uniting the team’s expertise in data analysis and cell biology,” said Tobias Gerber, another of the study’s lead authors. “This work was a truly collaborative journey, and I am glad I was part of it.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-questions-remain-about-sea-anemone-regeneration-nbsp">Questions remain about sea anemone regeneration&nbsp;</h2>



While the research offers fascinating insights into how Nematostella maintains its shape during regeneration, it raises new questions.



“The next big question is why maintaining shape is so important,” Ikmi said. “And how does the organism sense its own shape? How does it know what it currently looks like?”



With the starlet sea anemone as their model, the team is eager to explore the mechanisms underlying these abilities. Their work holds promise for understanding how organisms heal, maintain balance, and adapt to injury, potentially unlocking new avenues in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/secrets-of-killifish-regeneration-may-help-us-heal-humans/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">regenerative medicine</a> and biology.



Matthew Be



Image Credit: Matthew Benton/ EMBLtMatthew Bentonhew Benton/EMBL : M: Matthew Benton/EMBLatthew Matthew BentonBenton/EM



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Sea anemones can regrow their entire body in its original shape

The human body excels at maintaining internal balance in a process known as homeostasis. This vital mechanism keeps our core temperature steady at 37°C, regardless of external conditions.  But now, breakthrough research from the Ikmi Group at EMBL Heidelberg reveals that homeostasis goes beyond internal regulation - it can actively redefine an organism’s shape. The starlet sea anemone (Nematostella vectensis) provides a stunning example of this phenomenon. Renowned for its extraordinary regenerative abilities, this creature can regrow a lost head or foot and even rebuild a complete,...

Shere Khan, the tiger who hunted Mowgli the man-cub, may have actually been onto something.

When Rudyard Kipling published The Jungle Book in the early 1900s, close to 100,000 tigers could be found roaming Asia. Since then, the tiger population has dropped by 96 percent, to fewer than 4,000 cats. Poaching is listed as the most significant threat to the survival of tigers in the wild.

Tiger poaching has become an extremely lucrative business in India. The <a href="http://www.wpsi-india.org/wpsi/index.php">Wildlife Protection Society of India</a> (WPSI) reported a surge in estimated tiger killings, with 50 confirmed tiger poaching deaths last year, ranking 2016 the highest in 15 years. 

One of the biggest markets for tiger parts is in China, where the<a href="http://www.apple.com"> Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species</a> found they are being used “less as medicine and more as exotic luxury products.” Once used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat various maladies, tiger pelts and skeletons are now sought after by the audaciously wealthy to be used as high-end decor and for making “bone strengthening wine,” respectively. 

Roving poachers set up outside India’s 50 tiger reserves, laying jaw traps to capture cats who outgrow the protected areas and seek their own territories. 

“No tiger can escape from these traps,” says Nitin Desai, WPSI’s central India director. Once the cat is caught, “poachers spear it in the throat to silence it. Then they club it to death with sticks.”

International cartels trafficking in illegal wildlife targeting tigers, African elephants, and rhinos have gained prominence around the world. The <a href="http://www.unep.org">United Nations Environment Program</a> valued the illegal wildlife trade at $15 to $20 billion a year, ranking it fourth in the world’s illegal activity after guns, drugs, and human trafficking.

The Indian police and WPSI have been working with limited funds to curtail this trend to protect the majestic cats from extinction. Kuttu Bahelia, the notorious leader of a family of roving poachers descended from a centuries-old tribe of expert hunters, has been captured. From 1990 to 2013, he and his clan reportedly killed hundreds of tigers and leopards in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Karnataka. He had been arrested in 2015, but escaped into the forest using the old “I need to use the bathroom” trick after a court appearance. 

Then, in late November of last year, the fugitive and his gang were tracked near India’s Nepalese border, a major trafficking route to China. The group scattered and ran off, but Kuttu was caught. 

Shere Khan would have been proud.

Source: <a href="http://e360.yale.edu/feature/as_chinese_luxury_market_grows_upsurge_in_tiger_poaching_india/3069/">Yale Environment 360</a>, original article written by <a href="http://www.sharonguynup.com/Sharon_Website/HOME.html">Sharon Guynup</a> for <a href="http://e360.yale.edu/feature/as_chinese_luxury_market_grows_upsurge_in_tiger_poaching_india/3069/">Yale Environment 360</a>

Luxe market demand encouragesTiger poaching to rise in Asia

Shere Khan, the tiger who hunted Mowgli the man-cub, may...

Cows’ ancestors, the aurochs, stood almost as tall as elephants, boasting powerful frames and fearsome horns to discourage predators. Our ancestors held aurochs in high esteem, immortalizing them in prehistoric cave paintings. They lived for thousands of years as the largest land mammals in Europe. As the human population number grew, aurochs’ numbers were decimated. In 1627, the last of their species perished – one of the first ever recorded cases of extinctions.

Conservationists believe the loss of this herbivore was tragic for biodiversity in Europe. They claim the aurochs' huge appetite provided a natural “gardening service,” maintaining landscapes and creating perfect conditions for other species to thrive.

That theory is now being put to the test as a "near 100% substitute" of the pre-cow is being returned to the ecosystem.

The <a href="http://www.taurosproject.com/">Tauros programme</a> was launched in 2008 by Ecologist Ronald Goderie, who sought to address failing ecosystems. This powerful historical herbivore in European history offered a solution.

"We thought we needed a grazer that is fully self-sufficient in case of big predators . . . and could do the job of grazing big wild areas," says Goderie. "We reasoned that this animal would have to resemble an auroch."

Casting aside gene editing or high-tech de-extinction approaches used by other scientists, Goderie used a method called back-breeding to create a replacement bovine which he called "Tauros."

As auroch genes still remain in various breeds of cattle, geneticists were able to advise that breeding some species together could produce offspring with qualities close to an auroch. They then bred the child.

With each generation, the animals got closer to the ancient auroch. The team were then able to test the offspring's DNA against the auroch’s complete genome, which was <a href="http://www.sci-news.com/genetics/science-genome-eurasian-wild-aurochs-bos-primigenius-03377.html">sequenced</a> at <a href="http://www.ucd.ie/">University College Dublin</a>.

"You could see from the first generation that apart from the horn size, there was enough wild in the breed to produce animals far closer to the auroch than we would have expected," says Goderie. Goderie predicts that in seven generations – by 2025 – the breeding would complete his desired outcome. Now in their fourth generation, pilot schemes in Europe show encouraging results.

The Tauros programme partnered with <a href="https://www.rewildingeurope.com/">Rewilding Europe</a>, which supports the restoration of natural processes through such projects. Rewilding Europe provided protected land across the continent in Croatia, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Romania. These cross-breeds were able to test themselves in the wild. 

"We see progress not only in looks and behavior but also in re-domestication of the animals," he says. "This is a challenging process as they have to adapt to the presence of large packs of wolves."

Sadly, herds of cows are slaughtered by local wolves at the Croatian site. But the Tauroi learned how to defend themselves and few perished. As selective breeding continues, it’s encouraging for the scientists to see these animals already servicing a function in the wild.

"We support the comeback of large herbivores as they are key species for the specific role of grazing and browsing," says Frans Schepers, who is the managing director of Rewilding Europe.

"Bovines can shape habitats and facilitate other species because of their behavior, and the more primitive and close to the wild the better because it means that eventually they can become part of the natural system. Without grazing everything becomes forest, or barren land when there is agriculture. The gradients in between are so important for biodiversity, from open soil to grassland and 'mosaic landscapes.’”

However, critics of the initiative are concerned that introducing new species could have terrible effects for regional ecology. The <a href="https://www.iucn.org/">International Union for the Conservation of Nature</a> (IUCN) issued new guidelines.

"Typically emphasis is placed on technical feasibility, without sufficient emphasis on risks. Questions abound whether primarily wetland forests like the aurochs used to inhabit still exist, whether it could negatively impact wild or domestic plants or animals, and if it might endanger people," Dr. Axel Moehrenschlager expressed, IUCN Chair of the Reintroduction Specialist Group.

Aurochs, the extinct supercow, coming back to Europe

Cows’ ancestors, the aurochs, stood almost as tall as elephants,...

Most of us would be happy to find our love lives heating up. For some fragile insects, though, heat is the last thing they want when it’s time to reproduce.

At least, that’s what a team of researchers from the <a href="http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/">University of Sheffield</a> found in a <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeb.13018/full">new study</a> of the fruit fly Drosophila subobscura.

The researchers wanted to study how heat affected the fruit fly’s life cycle. Their goal was to find out how rising global temperatures might affect the fly.

They found that even in non-lethal heat, if juvenile fruit flies grow up where it’s too warm, they may not be able to reproduce as adults.

“We found both population- and temperature-specific effects on survival and sperm motility; juvenile heat stress decreased survival and subsequent sperm motility,” the scientists wrote in the study.

They found that juveniles from high-altitude populations in Sweden were more sensitive to temperature than those from lower altitudes in Spain.

“We found juvenile heat stress and population impacted egg-to-adult viability and sperm motility, with the northern population having lower fitness than the southern population,” they wrote.

The fragile insects were only exposed to mild heat. The researchers observed the effects of the temperature change over several generations of the insects.

The results offer a foundation for figuring out which traits aid in adaptation to warmer temperatures, the research team wrote. It may also signal which traits could lead to trouble.

The scientists suspect that other insects will undergo similar changes in a warmer climate.

“Many organisms spend a portion of their life cycle as relatively immobile juveniles, so thermal stress during this life cycle stage may have profound negative fitness consequences beyond survival,” the researchers wrote.

They also hope to study DNA from the two fruit fly populations. They hope to see what genetic factors allowed the low-altitude flies to better withstand warmer living.

The study was published in the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1420-9101">Journal of Evolutionary Biology</a>.

Study: fragile insects can't take the heat when it comes to reproduction

Most of us would be happy to find our love...

According to a Yale University study published today, the ghosts of Ice Age mammals can teach us valuable lessons about what happens to our ecosystem when species go extinct.

Researcher Matt Davis tracked the history of some of the world's largest mammals. His results were published in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Davis reported that the Ice Age wasn't as hard on functional diversity – the role that an animal plays within an ecosystem – as previously thought. Animals that survived the Ice Age, such as the beaver, proved to be just as distinct as those that did not. However, he warned that our planet has reached a point where losing even a small number of core mammals would leave as large a gap as all of the Ice Age mammal extinctions put together. In the Ice Age, our planet lost around 38% of it’s large-mammal functional-diversity.

"You can think of it like a big tent where every animal is holding a pole to keep the tent up," said Davis, a graduate student in Yale's Department of Geology and Geophysics. "We lost a lot of species when humans first arrived in North America, so part of our tent fell down – but not as big of a part as we previously thought. However, now we only have a few animals left holding up those poles. If they die, the whole tent could collapse."

His study reviewed 94 large mammal species in North America over the last 50,000 years. These included Columbian mammoths, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/judge-us-reconsider-canadian-lynx-habitat/">Canadian lynx</a>, long-horned bison, and sabertooths, as well as cougars, moose, coyotes, elk, raccoons, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/the-truth-about-dog-dreams/">dogs</a>, and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/humans-milk-dairy-products-9000-years/">cows</a>.

One of the study aims was to examine the relationship between functional diversity and extinction risk: were the most distinct species the ones most at risk? Davis found that distinct species with unique traits were not more likely to go extinct. He suggested this is why the Ice Age mammals extinctions were not as harsh on the surrounding ecosystems.

In the case of mammoths, nothing was able to replace their unique function – which was essentially being really large – once they were gone. But Davis found that some European domestic animals introduced later did restore some functional diversity. 

For today's species, such redundancies in functionality are much less frequent. Davis warned that vulnerable species like <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/arctic-pollution-new-threat-polar-bears/">polar bears</a>, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/wild-jaguar-conservation/">jaguars,</a> and giant anteaters have no functional equivalent and thus it would not be as simple to restore their functional diversity.

"Examining the past through the fossil record actually allows us to better predict future extinctions," Davis said. "We can't understand how valuable or vulnerable species are today without considering the 'ghosts' of those species that died before them."

—

Source: <a href="http://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a>. Illustration by Matt Davis/Yale University

What our Ice Age mammals can teach us about endangered species

According to a Yale University study published today, the ghosts...

A population of chimpanzees on living on the Ivory Coast have developed a fancy new technique to drink water: drinking sticks. 

A team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/project/Comoe-Chimpanzee-Conservation-Project">Comoe Chimpanzee Conservation Project</a> used hidden cameras to record the methods that a population of chimps used to hydrate during the dry season. The footage shows the chimpanzees habitually fashioning dipping sticks by chewing one end of a stick and thus turning it into a water-absorbent tool. The researchers learned the dipping sticks were made specifically to assist with drinking.

According to lead researcher Juan Lapuente, a similar technique had previously been used by African chimpanzees by dipping sticks into bees’ nests to gather honey.

“But the use of brush-tipped sticks to dip for water is completely new and had never been described before,” Lapuente told <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38524671">BBC News</a>. “These chimps use especially long brush tips that they make specially for water - much longer than those used for honey.”

Upon further examination of  the instruments, the researchers found that the extra long tips at the end of the stick provided extra absorption.  

“The longer the brush, the water they collect,” said Lapuente. “This technology allows Comoe chimpanzees to obtain water from extremely narrow and deep tree holes that only they - and no other animal - can exploit, which [gives] them a superb adaptive advantage to survive in this dry and unpredictable environment.” 

The team published their findings in the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajp.22628/full">American Journal of Primatology</a>. 

According to the research, these chimpanzees have what is called a “drinking culture,” where this custom of using drinking sticks is shared throughout the entire group. Sadly, however, this population of chimpanzees is now critically endangered.

Chimpanzees found to make their own drinking sticks

A population of chimpanzees on living on the Ivory Coast...

Ready for some creepy crawly current events? The news for January 10, 2017 brings us stories about the snake-based diet of giant spiders, the secret love lives of pectoral sandpipers, seafood with a deadly secret, and more.
<h2>Earth news for January 10, 2017:</h2>
<h4>The strange love lives of male pectoral sandpipers</h4>
They would fly 100 miles and they would fly 100 more. Male pectoral sandpipers are willing to fly just about any distance to find a mate, according to a new study by scientists at the <a href="http://www.orn.mpg.de/en">Max Planck Institute for Ornithology</a>.

The average male sandpiper flies about 1,900 miles per breeding season to court various females, the study found. And that’s after flying from South America to their breeding grounds in the Arctic tundras of Alaska.

Some go above and beyond, though. One of the Alaskan shorebirds they were tracking logged about 8,100 frequent flier miles in just four weeks on his quest for love, the scientists said.

The problem is that female sandpipers only mate once or twice per season, and they’re only fertile for a short time. The males fly non-stop and barely sleep during mating season, the scientists said.

The study is an interesting look at how pectoral sandpipers reproduce.
<h4>Researchers find giant spider enjoying snake tartar</h4>
Scientists with the <a href="http://site.ufsm.br/">Federal University of Santa Maria</a> in Brazil were looking for tarantulas when they interrupted one of the giant spiders during a meal.

They turned over a rock, and found the spider munching on an Almaden ground snake. It’s the first time one of the tarantulas has been caught preying on snakes in the wild.

The spider likely attacked the snake after the hapless reptile tried to enter its lair, the scientists said. Grammostola tarantulas like this one have both fangs and venom, but the venom has never been studied so scientists don’t know how toxic it is, they said.

The researchers reported the bizarre feast – with some graphic photos – in the journal <a href="http://www.biotaxa.org/hn/article/view/23156/25075">Herpetology Notes</a>.
<h4>How safe is your shellfish?</h4>
Some shellfish is no longer entirely safe for human consumption, scientists have found. And if ocean temperatures keep rising, that may become more common, they said.

A new study by <a href="http://oregonstate.edu/">Oregon State University</a> researchers found that warmer waters lead to more frequent blooms of phytoplankton, a type of micro-algae. The tiny creatures produce a neurotoxin called domoic acid, and when marine creatures like crabs and anchovies eat them, that neurotoxin begins working its way up the food chain.

Domoic acid events have been linked to illness and death among otters, sea lions, and other marine mammals, the scientists said. If ingested by humans, it can lead to stomach problems, seizures, and memory loss.
<h4>New phytoplankton species thrive in warm water</h4>
Scientists recently identified two new, rare species of phytoplankton. Unlike other phytoplankton, the two species seem to thrive in warm, low-nutrient waters. The discovery was shared in the journal <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)31385-9">Current Biology</a>.

It’s an important finding for several reasons, the study claims. Warming ocean temperatures in recent decades have expanded warm, low-nutrient ocean environments, the researchers said.

Phytoplankton are also responsible for close to half of all biological uptake of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas linked to climate change, and serve as the basis for many marine food chains, the scientists added.
<h4>Controlling greenhouse gases won’t stop sea-level rise</h4>
Even if humans manage to stop carbon emissions in their tracks, the seas will still rise, researchers from the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> found.

Part of that is due to carbon dioxide. Once it’s in the atmosphere, it can stay there for centuries, the scientists said. The other cause is ocean inertia. Once the ocean has heated up, it’s an extremely slow process for it to lose that heat, the scientists said. Warmer waters cause sea ice to melt and ocean waters to expand.

The study was published in the journal <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/01/03/1612066114.abstract?sid=b9093606-a895-4645-8e59-d3757e444cd5">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.
<h4>Reference datasets could improve information from weather satellites</h4>
Every day, dozens of satellites orbit around the Earth, collecting all kinds of data. Some of that is information about the weather, and scientists want to make that data more useful and available to everyone.

The <a href="http://gsics.wmo.int/">Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System</a>, or GSICS, is an international effort by 15 agencies to collaborate on weather data from satellites. They’ve been working to collect and analyze satellite data, so that they can determine the accuracy of the information they share.

For example, they once found that two different satellites showed a 3-degree temperature difference on the same weather events.

Calibrating satellites against tools like <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA’s</a> Atmospheric Infrared Sounder can reduce that margin of error to about 0.1 degrees, GSICS scientists said, greatly improving the satellites’ accuracy.
— January 10, 2017

Earth news daily: January 10, 2017

Ready for some creepy crawly current events? The news for January...

One of the largest genetic studies ever conducted on humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) was published today. This study was used to clarify management decisions in the Southern Hemisphere, following calls to protect unique and threatened populations by the <a href="https://www.wcs.org/">Wildlife Conservation Society</a>, the <a href="http://www.amnh.org/">American Museum of Natural History</a>, <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a>, and others.

Using data gathered from more than 3,000 individual humpback whales found from the South Atlantic to the Indian Oceans, the research team has uncovered huge degrees of relatedness between various whale populations. The study is set to inform ongoing conservation reassessments of humpback whale populations. It reaffirms the highly distinct nature of a small, non-migratory population of humpback whales living in the Arabian Sea who are still in need of continued protection.

Field research on marine mammals is one of the most challenging methods of biological study. Scientists are often unable to follow oceangoing species, such as whales, across their full range; the humpback whale, for example, undertakes far-flung migratory movements. Remote sensing techniques, photo-recognition of individuals, and other methods may help answer some questions, while molecular technologies reveal secrets at a broader level and can be representative of entire populations.

"By comparing carefully selected markers in the DNA of thousands of whales in the Southern Hemisphere, we can begin answering questions about the movements of these animals and how different populations are related," said lead author Dr. Francine Kershaw, science fellow at the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>. "Genetic data provide unique information necessary for effective species management and conservation."

The collected samples were analyzed by the technique called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. Overall, the results will help to evaluate the validity of current definitions used by the <a href="https://iwc.int/home">International Whaling Commission</a>. They are also being used to demonstrate how to better identify Important Marine Mammal Areas in need of protection, which is an initiative led by the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a>.

&nbsp;

Source: <a href="http://www.wcs.org/">WCS</a> (Wildlife Conservation Society)

Humpback whales genetic study will inform conservation

One of the largest genetic studies ever conducted on humpback...

Tequila has gone to the bats. Thanks to companies’ focus on distilling more bat-friendly tequila, one endangered species is making a big comeback.

The endangered species list has included the  lesser long-nosed bat for years. The flying mammal feeds on nectar from cactus flowers – including the agave cactus used to make tequila – and other desert plants in Mexico, Arizona and New Mexico.

It first made it onto the endangered species list more than three decades ago. Since then, biologists, volunteer bat lovers, and tequila producers have teamed up to help monitor and rebuild the bat population.

For a decade, Arizona volunteers have used hummingbird feeders to monitor the bats. This helped biologists find the bats, capture them, and release them with radio transmitters to find their roosting sites.

Federal land managers in the U.S. have also joined in the efforts, taking flowering cacti into account when planning, and protecting caves used for roosting from humans.

But the major success might have flown out of reach if it weren’t for bat-friendly tequila.

Tequila companies in Mexico have made a huge effort to practice more sustainable harvest and cultivation practices when they grow agave cacti, among long-nosed bats’ favorite food. That meant more safe food sources for the bats. It benefited farmers, too, since the bats are key pollinators.

Now, some producers are even marketing their tequila as “bat-friendly.”

At one time, scientists and volunteers were only able to account for about 1,000 bats with 14 roosting locations. Now, about 200,000 lesser long-nosed bats live in the wild.

All in all, the efforts have been successful. Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed removing the bats from the endangered species list. Mexico already delisted the bat in 2015.

“The proposed delisting of the lesser long-nosed bat is a great achievement for all that have been involved in recovery efforts for this species,” Jim deVos, assistant director of wildlife management at the <a href="https://www.azgfd.com/">Arizona Game and Fish Department</a>, said in a <a href="https://www.fws.gov/southwest/es/arizona/">statement</a>. “Many entities in both the U.S. and Mexico have worked tirelessly toward recovery and this announcement stands as testimony that dedicated efforts and sound management practices can lead to recovery of endangered species.”

Bat-friendly tequila is helping one endangered species recover

Tequila has gone to the bats. Thanks to companies’ focus...

Here at <a href="http://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a>, we always like to highlight some of the incredible work being done by nature and wildlife non-profit organizations all around the world. Today, in our regular “Your World” feature, we celebrate the top non-profit Instagram feeds dedicated to big cats.

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C.A.R.E. - Care Rescue Texas (non-profit, Texas)
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7">
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<div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.0% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"></div>
<a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BPDaQRVjSAk/" target="_blank">Allucia amidst the peet prints. Snow day 2015. 📷: @heidiberrykrahn</a>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A photo posted by C.A.R.E. (@carerescuetexas) on <time style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;" datetime="2017-01-09T18:14:17+00:00">Jan 9, 2017 at 10:14am PST</time>

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Panthera (non-profit, New York)
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7">
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<div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 32.8703703704% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"></div>
<a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BOgZe9LAHLU/" target="_blank">Breaking News: cheetahs are sprinting toward extinction, according to a new study from ZSL (@officialzsl), Panthera and WCS (@thewcs) only 7,100 cheetahs left in the wild, urgent action is needed--now. Find out more [link in bio]. #cheetah #cheetahs #bigcat #bigcats #wildcat #wildcats #wildlife #conservation #breakingnews</a>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A photo posted by Panthera (@pantheracats) on <time style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;" datetime="2016-12-27T03:54:08+00:00">Dec 26, 2016 at 7:54pm PST</time>

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Central Florida Animal Reserve (non-profit, Central Florida)
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7">
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<div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 28.125% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"></div>
<a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BL6UucSDy96/" target="_blank">Slow motion #lion yawn from Cunsi the #lioness. Look at those teeth and that jaw span! #teamcfar #snugglysunday http://www.cflar.org</a>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A video posted by Central Florida Animal Reserve (@cflarbigcats) on <time style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;" datetime="2016-10-23T15:58:38+00:00">Oct 23, 2016 at 8:58am PDT</time>

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NW Boreal Forest Lynx Project (non-profit, Colorado)
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7">
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<div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50.0% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"></div>
<a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BL-lGNSDoaJ/" target="_blank">On Saturday we captured this male Lynx and placed a satellite collar on him. This collar is programmed to collect and transmit 6 GPS locations and activity rates each day. The data this collar collects and sends to us via satellite is used to better understand behavior, movement rates, habitat use, home range characteristics, and potential social interactions. Photo by @dashfeier Dash Feierabend. #wildlifeconservation #lynx #canadalynx #satellitecollar #borealforest #alaska #thelynxproject</a>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A photo posted by NW Boreal Forest Lynx Project (@thelynxproject) on <time style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;" datetime="2016-10-25T07:38:39+00:00">Oct 25, 2016 at 12:38am PDT</time>

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Snow Leopard Trust (non-profit, Washington)
<blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="7">
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<div style="background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 33.2407407407% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;"></div>
<a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BNNHo18j4i8/" target="_blank">We're thankful for snow leopards and most importantly all of your support over the years! Happy Thanksgiving! #snowleopardtrust #happythanksgiving</a>
<p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A photo posted by Snow Leopard Trust (@snowleopardtrust) on <time style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;" datetime="2016-11-24T19:41:14+00:00">Nov 24, 2016 at 11:41am PST</time>

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Your world: top non-profit Instagram feeds dedicated to big cats

Here at Earth.com, we always like to highlight some of...

Suraj the elephant spent many of his 45 years on Earth chained up in a tiny, dark room in a temple located in the Indian state of Maharashtra. He was kept dehydrated and malnourished while held as an attraction for temple visitors. That is, of course, until a year ago, when Suraj was finally saved by wildlife rescue workers. 

According to <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/">Yahoo News</a>, when <a href="http://wildlifesos.org/">Wildlife SOS</a> (WSOS) volunteers found Suraj, he was living in “solitary confinement in a 20 foot by 20 space with tight spiked chains on all four limbs… 24/7, from dawn to dusk.”

The rescue effort turned out to be no easy operation. According to <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html">Daily Mail UK</a>, WSOS workers needed an armed team of more than 70 law enforcement officials to settle a stand-off with 200 temple supporters. 

Emancipation was only the first step in Suraj’s road to recovery. At the time of his rescue, Suraj was in such rough shape from his years in captivity that a crane was needed to lift him onto his feet. While he has made incredible progress since then, many of Suraj’s health problems have continued to require daily care from the WSOS team. 

"You can't undo 50 years of abuse in just a few weeks," said Rhea Lopez, WSOS Elephant Campaign Manager. "But over the first few months at the center, we've gotten to know Suraj — experiencing his first taste of freedom, his capacity to forgive, and his absolute joy in little things. It's rewarding and just completely indescribable."

"It's amazing to see the progress Suraj has made in the last year," added Nikki Sharp,  Wildlife SOS Executive Director. "Sometimes it's hard to imagine the amount of pain and loneliness he endured for so many years. We can't return him to the wild from where he was taken, but we can give him some joy in his life. Seeing him doing so well makes us more motivated to help others in a similar situation as he was."

Suraj the elephant has since been named one of <a href="http://time.com/">Time magazine</a>’s Most Influential Animals of 2016. According to Daily Mail UK, he now spends his days “strolling free, foraging, investigating new smells and sounds.” Suraj also allegedly loves peppermint, peanuts, and papaya.

--

Photo courtesy of <a href="http://wildlifesos.org/blog/an-update-on-suraj-the-one-eared-elephant/">Wildlife SOS</a>

Suraj the elephant: a harrowing story of survival

Suraj the elephant spent many of his 45 years on...

What’s going on in the world today? Plenty. In your daily dose of Earth news for January 9, 2017, you'll find a new nature miniseries, tips on algae growth, potential uses for earwax, and more.
<h2>Earth news for January 9, 2017:</h2>
<h4>BBC launches ‘Spy in the Wild’</h4>
With “Planet Earth II” over, nature fans are looking for their next fix. “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfdrQL5Ff-A">Spy in the Wild</a>” aims to provide it. The new <a href="http://bbc.co.uk/">BBC</a> documentary conceals cameras in lifelike robots, and sends them to watch animals in their natural habitats.

Maybe they're a little too lifelike. In the first episode, a robot disguised as a langur monkey successfully infiltrates a group in India. When the robot was dropped from a height, the monkeys began mourning, producers said.

The miniseries airs in the UK beginning Thursday. In the U.S., the first episode will run February 1 on <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/">PBS Nature</a>.
<h4>Could earwax be the next big tech innovation?</h4>
Scientists at the <a href="http://www.gatech.edu/">Georgia Institute of Technology</a> have taken on a new – and sort of disgusting – project: figuring out a technological use for earwax.

The project was inspired after her boyfriend had water trapped in his ear by an earwax plug, doctoral student Alexis Noel said. She wondered how the earwax was able to allow the water in, then trap it so effectively, and mentioned it to Dr. David Hu. They decided to take on the problem.

Using earwax from pigs, sheep, rabbits, and dogs, they began testing its properties and trying out different uses. They’ve found that earwax is made up pretty consistently across species.

They also found that it has excellent filtering properties. As earwax collects dust, it traps it. When too much dust is trapped, the earwax crumbles and falls away, and new wax is formed.

While they’re still studying exactly how earwax is formed, the researchers already see potential uses in tech. One idea would be to create a biomimetic adhesive surface for ventilation systems in robotics and other machinery.
<h4>Colorful new flatworm species discovered in Brazil</h4>
Scientists have found three new land-based species of flatworm in the Araucaria forest of Brazil. Flatworms are invertebrates, and also predators that hunt other invertebrate species.

The Araucaria is part of Brazil’s Atlantic Rainforest and is considered to be a hotspot of flatworm diversity, the scientists wrote in their article in <a href="http://zookeys.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=11093">ZooKeys</a>, an open access journal. The three new species belong to the genus Cratera.
<h4>In forests, Missouri bees prefer darker flowers</h4>
Bees prefer darker colors in cool climates, at least when it comes to flowers. That’s what scientists at <a href="https://www.slu.edu/">St. Louis University</a> discovered while observing how native bee species interact with birds foot violets.

In most cases, the bees prefered the concolor morph, in which all five petals of the flower are light in color. In sunny locations, the concolor morph far outnumbers the bicolor morph, which has two dark purple petals and three light ones.

But in shady, wooded areas, the bicolor morph makes up about half of the flower population. Bees in these areas always land on the darker petals to feed, the researchers found. Testing revealed darker petals were warmer.
<h4>Scientists at UC Irvine find a new method for recycling greenhouse gases</h4>
A team of researchers from <a href="https://uci.edu/">University of California, Irvine</a> has discovered a new method for dealing with carbon dioxide: using it to help produce biofuel.

The bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii can be used to convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide. Though toxic in enclosed spaces, carbon monoxide can be used to produce biofuels and chemical products. Their findings were published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nchembio/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nchembio.2245.html">Nature Chemical Biology</a>.
<h4>Biodiversity of algae is important in biofuel production</h4>
<a href="https://www.umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> researchers studying algae-derived biocrude have found that when raising algae, biodiversity is important. They found that growing a wide variety of algae reduced crop failure and gave a better return on investment. While their research was conducted indoors in tanks, that will be true in outdoor tanks or ponds, too, the researchers said.

The research is being funded by a $2 million, four-year grant from the <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/">National Science Foundation</a>.
<h4>Scientists explore link between rainfall in West, Rocky Mountain air quality</h4>
When the western U.S. suffers from a drought, Rocky Mountain air quality suffers, too, scientists at the <a href="http://www.utah.edu/">University of Utah</a> found.

That’s because drought sparks more wildfires, which creates haze in the Rockies, the scientists said. Haze can be evaluated with instruments that measure aerosol optical depth – the amount of aerosols between the sensor and the sun.

Aerosols in the Rockies went up when the west was in a drought, according to the study published in the journal <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa510a/meta;jsessionid=5E21027595D39B0B34BD2C5716CCDC9D.c4.iopscience.cld.iop.org">Environmental Research Letters</a>.
— January 9, 2017

Earth news daily: January 9, 2017

What’s going on in the world today? Plenty. In your daily...

Marine biologists are taking a fresh look at the effects of a little-understood ocean danger. Not sharks or deep-sea predators – they’re studying ocean acidification and its effects on sea snails.

As the Earth’s oceans takes in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, their pH level falls and they become more acidic. Many scientists credit ocean acidification to increased greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Beyond that, though, they don’t know much about how acidification affects underwater wildlife.

So a team of scientists from the <a href="http://www.uquebec.ca/">University of Quebec</a>, the <a href="https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/">University of Plymouth</a>, the <a href="http://www.pml.ac.uk/">Plymouth Marine Laboratory</a>, and the <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/">University of Birmingham</a> decided to find out.

Ocean acidification, or OA, does play at least some role in altering some species’ behaviors, they said.

“In several marine invertebrate species, [ocean acidification] has been shown to exert significant effects on organismal life history, ecology and behaviour, and on fundamental physiological processes, resulting in imbalances in acid-base status, a reduction in aerobic scope and a shift in energy budget allocation,” they wrote in the <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms13994">new study</a>.

The goal was to find out how much of a role it plays, and how marine creatures adapt to those changes.

In 2010, they launched a project to study Littorina littorea, a common sea snail. They sampled six different populations in the North Atlantic, near Europe’s coast. The sea snails ranged from warm to subpolar waters.

Samples were moved to a lab at the University of Plymouth, where scientists separated them into tanks mimicking sea conditions. The tanks had different pH levels ranging from 8.0, current levels, to 7.6, the predicted levels for the year 2100.

In the more acidic tanks, the snails showed a number of effects. The harsher water conditions ate away at their shells, especially the sea snails from colder waters.

Further ocean acidification could shift the snails’ range to warmer climates, the researchers found.

Still, they cautioned that their study looked only at one species.

“More generally, our study points to the fact that information from single population studies should be used with caution when aiming at predicting species global responses to global drivers,” they wrote. “As a consequence, we may be currently over- or underestimating the impact of different environmental changes in different climatic regions, with this having important implications for the development of directives and policies to promote the preservation of marine biodiversity under the ongoing global change.”

The study was published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>. Funding was provided by the <a href="http://www.nerc.ac.uk/">Natural Environment Research Council</a>.

New study looks at how ocean acidification affects sea snails

Marine biologists are taking a fresh look at the effects...

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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

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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...