On September 29, 2024, something unusual happened in our cosmic neighborhood. Earth captured a tiny asteroid named 2024 PT5, turning it into a temporary mini-moon. 



That's right... as of today, November 2, 2024, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/its-official-earth-now-has-two-moons-captured-asteroid-2024-pt5/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth has two moons</a>.



Richard Binzel, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (<a href="https://www.mit.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MIT</a>), shed some light on these fleeting celestial companions.



"These happen more often than we think, but they're small and tough to spot," Binzel explained. "Only lately have our telescopes become powerful enough to catch them regularly."



Back in August, a team of astronomers from the <a href="https://www.ucm.es/english" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Complutense University</a> of Madrid detected the small space rock using a powerful telescope in Sutherland, South Africa.



They weren't the only ones keeping an eye on it. The asteroid was first noticed on August 7, 2024 by NASA's Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (<a href="https://atlas.fallingstar.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ATLAS</a>) at Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii.



This discovery sparked excitement among astronomers, offering a chance to learn more about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nasa-test-simulation-shows-earth-not-prepared-prevent-large-asteroid-strike/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">near-Earth objects</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-exactly-is-2024-pt5">What exactly is 2024 PT5?</h2>



Earth occasionally captures small asteroids like 2024 PT5, placing them into temporary orbits around our planet. 



While most asteroids circle the sun on their regular paths, some venture close enough for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-global-electric-field-discovered-equally-important-gravity-magnetic-fields/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth's gravity</a> to snatch them up for a brief visit.



These cosmic visitors only stay in Earth's orbit for a short time -- typically a few weeks or months -- before breaking free and resuming their solar journey.



Each mini-moon gives scientists a rare opportunity to examine <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/27500-hidden-near-earth-asteroids-discovered-using-google-cloud/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">near-Earth asteroids</a> up close, revealing valuable insights about our solar system's mechanics.



So, what makes this asteroid special, aside from the fact that new technology and the internet made it famous? 



William Blackmore, Planetarium Director and Astronomy Instructor at <a href="https://www.mhcc.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mt. Hood Community College</a>, offered his thoughts.



"All mini-moons are unique in their own way," Blackmore explained. "This one isn't different from others except that it's the most recent.”



2024 PT5 will be around for about two more weeks, probably until mid-November.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-comparing-2024-pt5-to-our-moon">Comparing 2024 PT5 to our moon</h2>



Let's compare our moon to this new mini-moon: 2024 PT5 is only about 37 feet across, while our familiar moon stretches a massive 2,159 miles in diameter. That makes <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-did-earth-get-its-moon-a-new-theory-has-emerged/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">our moon</a> over 300,000 times wider than this tiny asteroid.



Knowing it’s up there is pretty exciting, even though we can't see it for ourselves without an invitation to a huge Earth telescope installation.



“These temporary captures are natural cosmic laboratories,” Binzel mentioned. “They help us understand the small bodies that come close to Earth and could be important for future space missions.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-asteroid-2024-pt5-became-famous">How Asteroid 2024 PT5 became famous</h2>



Understanding how 2024 PT5 became Earth's temporary moon involves a bit of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/finding-order-in-the-chaos-of-the-three-body-problem/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">orbital mechanics</a>. 



Blackmore explained, "It's moving along with us in our orbit around the sun. It's part of a group of asteroids called the Arjuna asteroids, which move at about the same pace as Earth."



He added an interesting analogy: "Imagine a skateboarder dropping into a skate park. They ride the curves, adding energy as they go. That's like the asteroid getting caught in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dart-mission-debris-will-create-a-human-made-meteor-shower/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth's gravitational field</a>, riding the curve before moving on."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-significance-of-spotting-mini-moons">Significance of spotting mini-moons</h2>



Spotting mini-moons is tough because they're incredibly small and faint. These tiny asteroids are often just a few dozen feet across, which means they don't reflect much sunlight. That makes them nearly invisible against the dark backdrop of space.



Plus, they're zipping around at high speeds and don't hang around for long, so by the time we point our telescopes their way, they might already be gone. 



It's like trying to catch a glimpse of a firefly from miles away -- you need the right conditions and equipment.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-modern-high-tech-telescopes">Modern high-tech telescopes</h2>



Astronomers find them by using powerful telescopes equipped with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gaia-reveals-moons-around-hundreds-of-asteroids/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sensitive detectors and smart software</a>.



Projects like the ATLAS system scan the skies every night, searching for any objects that weren't there before. 



When they spot something moving in a way that suggests it's close to Earth, they alert other astronomers to help confirm the find. 



It's a collaborative effort, combining technology and teamwork to spot these elusive cosmic visitors.



Knowing more about these temporary moons helps us prepare for any potential asteroid threats and opens up possibilities for mining resources from near-Earth objects.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-challenges-in-observing-2024-pt5">Challenges in observing 2024 PT5</h2>



For those eager to see this mini-moon, both experts warned that it would be extremely difficult. "You'd need a telescope with a diameter of at least 30 inches," Blackmore mentioned. "That's beyond what most amateur astronomers have."



Todd agreed, adding, "It won't be visible to the naked eye. Being 33 feet wide and so far away, you'd need a very large telescope."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-does-any-of-this-matter">Why does any of this matter?</h2>



While 2024 PT5 doesn't pose any threat to Earth, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/is-there-a-fifth-force-of-nature-asteroids-provide-new-clues/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">studying it is crucial</a>. 



"It's important to analyze how it moves and interacts with Earth's gravitational pull," Blackmore said. "This helps us refine our techniques for tracking objects that could cross our path again."



Todd highlighted the practical applications of this knowledge. 



"We need to understand how to intercept an asteroid at a distance and change its direction," he said. "This could be vital in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nasa-dart-mission-proves-humanity-can-be-saved-from-asteroid-collision/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">preventing potential impacts</a> in the future."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-inspiration-for-future-space-missions">Inspiration for future space missions</h2>



Blackmore envisioned future missions that could take advantage of these temporary visitors. 



"It would be fascinating if we had missions ready to send small satellites or probes to these objects when they come close," he mused. "Imagine building a network of sensors or cameras traveling along with us, like space webcams."



Todd also saw <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/asteroid-named-psyche-is-worth-10000-quadrillion-for-whoever-can-extract-minerals/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">potential in asteroid mining</a> and scientific discovery. 



"There might be materials on these asteroids that we can't find on Earth," he said. "They could solve problems in medicine or technology. But we need to weigh the benefits carefully."



To sum it all up, the brief visit of asteroid 2024 PT5 serves as a reminder of the dynamic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/building-blocks-of-life-found-in-asteroids-were-formed-in-cold-regions-of-space/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">nature of our solar system</a>. 



While it won't be with us for long -- just a couple more weeks -- its presence offers valuable opportunities for learning and exploration.



As technology advances, we'll likely spot more of these mini-moons. Each one gives us a chance to understand our cosmic environment better and prepare for the future. 



So even though you'll never see it, you might want to spare a moment of your time and stop to appreciate 2024 PT5 while you still can.



The full study was published in the&nbsp;<a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ad781f" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">journal IOPscience</a>.



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Earth's second moon, a mini-moon, will drift away in a few days and never return

On September 29, 2024, something unusual happened in our cosmic neighborhood. Earth captured a tiny asteroid named 2024 PT5, turning it into a temporary mini-moon. That's right... as of today, November 2, 2024, Earth has two moons. Richard Binzel, an astronomer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), shed some light on these fleeting celestial companions. "These happen more often than we think, but they're small and tough to spot," Binzel explained. "Only lately have our telescopes become powerful enough to catch them regularly." Back in August,...

People have always been fascinated by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rhinos-show-that-diseases-can-disrupt-conservation-efforts/">rhinos</a>, finding them charismatic and impressive. These great mammals are depicted in historical and contemporary artworks and photographs for many different reasons and researchers have begun to appreciate the potential of these images as a rich source of data. This is particularly salient as numbers of rhinos of all species decrease and research on living specimens becomes more and more difficult. 



In a recent study, researchers from the University of Helsinki, <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> and the Rhino Resource Center (RRC) in the Netherlands undertook an analysis of 1,531 pieces of artwork and 1,627 photographs depicting rhinos, all of which are held in an online repository by the RRC. Their aim was to investigate the ways in which depictions of human interactions with rhinos have changed over time. In addition, they used a sample of 80 profile photographs of rhinos to determine whether morphological data on horn lengths, extracted from photographs, indicate any change in this feature over time.&nbsp;



In the archives of the RRC, the researchers found digital records of artworks dating back over the past 500 years, and of photographs from the last 150 years. They assigned these to broad categories that represented different relationships between society and rhinos; for example, hunting, conservation, natural history and captivity. Categories were further grouped as consumptive or non-consumptive. Consumptive relationships involved the death of rhinos or their removal from the natural habitat (e.g., hunting, curiosity, museum, captivity, dominion, poaching and circus), whereas non-consumptive relationships did not kill or remove rhinos from their habitat (e.g., conservation, caretaking, education, academic, cartoons).



Although all five extant species of rhinos are represented in the RRC’s data set, the researchers found that earlier images more commonly show Indian rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) whereas the two African species (white rhino&nbsp;Ceratotherium simum, and black rhino&nbsp;Diceros bicornis) feature more prominently in recent images. Images of Javan (Rhinoceros sondaicus)&nbsp;and Sumatran&nbsp;(Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) rhinos are uncommon throughout the data set.



The results of the study, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10406">People and Nature</a>, showed a clear change in how rhinos are portrayed. Hunting scenes in both artwork and photos were more common prior to 1950, but conservation became more common after this date. Depictions of rhino natural history and rhinos in captivity also became more common in artwork from the late 1700s onwards, and in photos from the 2000s onwards. Furthermore, the researchers found that the proportion of images featuring non-consumptive uses of rhinos increased over time, although in this case from the turn of the 19th century.&nbsp;



Many hundreds of photographs showing rhinos shot dead by hunters, taken in the late 19th&nbsp;and early 20th&nbsp;centuries, are present in the collection. These include a photograph of American President Theodore Roosevelt, taken in 1911, standing triumphantly over a black rhino he had just killed. Other early images show rhinos as huge, frightening animals chasing humans. The researchers think these images helped justify the hunting of these animals.



The experts also propose that peak times of hunting activities coincided with European colonial expansion into regions where rhinos occurred and that, once colonial powers pulled out of these regions and they achieved independence, European hunters no longer had easy access for hunting. The researchers suggest that the number of hunting images for a given species is likely to be associated with the true levels of hunting, particularly in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and to be correlated with the reported declines in rhino numbers during this time.



“We found that we can use images from the last few centuries to visualize how human attitudes towards wildlife have changed, and how artists have influenced these views,” said Dr. Ed Turner at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, senior author of the report.



The images suggest that there was very little effort to promote rhino conservation to the public before the 1950s. But after this the focus suddenly changed from hunting the animals to trying to keep them alive. The most recent images appear to reflect a growing awareness of the threats facing the natural world in general.



“For at least a few decades now there’s been much more of a focus on the conservation of rhinos – and this is reflected in the more recent images, which relate to their conservation in sanctuaries or their plight in the wild,” said study first author Oscar Wilson, who is now based at the University of Helsinki, Finland.&nbsp;



The 80 photographs of individual rhinos used to assess changes in horn length represented all five of the extant rhino species. Morphological measurements of body and horn dimensions were made so that horn length could be accurately related to overall body size. This was important as the photos did not have any measure of scale. Analysis of the results showed that, across all species, the horn length increased with body size, and the relative length of the horn to body length decreased slightly, but significantly over time.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The researchers think rhino horns have become smaller due to intensive hunting. Whether this has been for trophies or to supply material for medicines or traditional carvings in certain eastern and middle-eastern countries, the rhinos with the largest horns are invariably the targets. This leaves smaller-horned individuals to breed and pass on their genes for smaller horns to future generations. According to the researchers, these results could be indicative of directional selection in response to hunting pressures, as has been noted in obvious features such as horns and tusks in other groups of animals.



“We were really excited that we could find evidence from photographs that rhino horns have become shorter over time. They’re probably one of the hardest things to work on in natural history because of the security concerns,” said Wilson. “Rhinos evolved their horns for a reason - different species use them in different ways such as helping to grasp food or to defend against predators – so we think that having smaller horns will be detrimental to their survival.”



“Taken together, our results demonstrate the potential and scope for using online images to study the changing relationship between people and the natural world, and long-term morphological changes in species," concluded the study authors. "We advocate a greater use of these data, and the development of more image repositories such as the RRC, to bring data together in an easily accessible format with associated detailed information.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Historical photos suggest that rhino horns have gotten smaller

People have always been fascinated by rhinos, finding them charismatic...

In a recent interview with <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/10/30/23426406/ai-animals-google-translate-karen-bakker-sounds-of-life">Vox</a>, Karen Bakker – an expert in Digital Innovation at the <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a> – has argued that humans could soon communicate with animals, as groundbreaking <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/artificial-intelligence-earth-data/">artificial intelligence</a> tools are designed to decode patterns in non-human sounds, such as the waggle dance of honeybees, the low-frequency noises of elephants, or the clicking made by whales. Yet, according to Bakker, such innovations can raise ethical dilemmas, since they could also be used to manipulate – rather than merely understand - wildlife.&nbsp;



For a long time, humans have sought to find ways of communicating with animals. While just a few decades ago, such attempts would rather belong to a science fiction movie, recent scientific and technological developments have now brought them closer to reality. For instance, in 2018, a team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.mi.fu-berlin.de/inf/groups/ag-ki/index.html">Dahlem Center for Machine Learning and Robotics</a> in Germany has designed the RoboBee, an AI tool that mimics the waggle dance of bees, which is used by these insects to relay information to one another. This robot turned out to be so successful that some of the bees started to follow directions from it, such as where to move within their hive.



Other such attempts include the <a href="https://www.projectceti.org/">Project CETI</a> (the Cetacean Translation Initiative), which uses advanced machine learning techniques to decipher the sounds of sperm whales, one of the world’s most enigmatic oceanic species, or the research of Katie Payne, an expert in Bioacoustics at <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a> who uses artificial intelligence to pick up the infrasonic sounds produced by elephants.



Although humans have communicated with animals in the past too, they usually did it from a human-centered viewpoint, such as teaching primates sign language. By using AI, scientists now hope to use the animals’ own language to communicate with them. “What [these researchers] are doing is not trying to teach those species human language, but rather compiling, essentially, dictionaries of signals and then attempting to understand what those signals mean within those species,” Bakker explained.



However, such attempts lead to significant ethical conundrums, depending upon how they will be used. Thus, enabling humans to speak with different animal species could create a&nbsp;“deeper sense of kinship, or a sense of dominion and manipulative ability to domesticate wild species that we’ve never as humans been able to previously control,” she concluded.



Professor Bakker explained in more detail these new technological developments in her new book, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691206288/the-sounds-of-life">The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants</a> (2022). &nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Can we communicate with animals using artificial intelligence?

In a recent interview with Vox, Karen Bakker – an...

A team of zoologists led by the <a href="https://www.up.pt/portal/en/">University of Porto</a> has recently described a new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/owls-humans-visual/">owl</a> species from Principe Island, part of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe in Central Africa. Although its official description was published only now, suspicions of its occurrence started already to emerge in 1998, and testimonies from local people suggesting its existence can be traced back as far as 1928.



The Principe Scops-Owl, or&nbsp;Otus bikegila, belongs to a group of small owls – the scops-owls - found across Eurasia and Africa, and including widespread species such as the Eurasian Scops-Owl (Otus scops) and the African Scops-Owl (Otus senegalensis).&nbsp;



The easiest way to recognize this species in the wild is its specific call. “Otus bikegila's unique call is a short “tuu” note repeated at a fast rate of about one note per second, reminiscent of insect calls. It is often emitted in duets, almost as soon as the night has fallen,” explained study lead author Martim Melo, an expert in the diversification of bird fauna in Africa at the University of Porto.



The experts believe that this owl can be currently found only in the remaining old-growth native forest of Principe in the uninhabited southern part of the island, occupying an area of just about 15 km2. In this small area though, the density of this species is quite high, with a population estimated at around 1,000-1,500 individuals.



However, since all the members of the species occur in this single, small location, the scientists have proposed that the species should be classified as critically endangered - the highest threat level on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">IUCN Red List</a>. Closely monitoring its population will be essential to get more precise estimates of its size and current trends.



“The discovery of a new species that is immediately evaluated as highly threatened illustrates well the current biodiversity predicament. On a positive note, the area of occurrence of the Principe Scops-Owl is fully included within the Príncipe Obô Natural Park, which will hopefully help secure its protection,” the researchers concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1126.87635">ZooKeys</a>. 



Image Credit: Martim Melo



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New owl species discovered in Africa

A team of zoologists led by the University of Porto...

The <a href="https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/">Woodland Trust</a> – the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity – has recently identified a worrying trend for Halloween pumpkins to be discarded in the nearest woods, in a well-meaning yet misguided attempt to provide food for birds and other woodland animals.



“A myth seems to have built up that leaving pumpkins in woods helps <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/minor-changes-could-improve-human-wildlife-coexistence/">wildlife</a>.&nbsp;People&nbsp;think they’re doing a good thing by not binning them in landfill and instead leaving them for nature,” said Paul Bunton, an engagement and communications officer at Woodland Trust.



“But pumpkin flesh can be dangerous for hedgehogs, attracts colonies of rats, and also has a really detrimental effect on woodland soils, plants, and fungi. We can’t leave dumped pumpkins to rot, so we end up with an orange mushy mess to deal with at many of our sites.”



According to the experts, hedgehogs are particularly endangered by such practices, since they are highly opportunistic eaters that spend the autumn and early winter building up fat reserves they need for hibernation.



“As a result, hedgehogs can gorge themselves on easily available food like dumped pumpkins. Although not toxic to them, the fleshy fibrous fruit can cause stomach upsets and diarrhea, as they are not designed to eat large quantities of fruit,” explained Trevor Weeks, from the <a href="https://wildlifeambulance.org/">East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service</a>.&nbsp;



“This can lead to them becoming bloated and dangerously dehydrated which in turn can be fatal. At this time of year, they can’t afford to become ill, or they may not survive the winter hibernation.”



In order to avoid such situations, the Woodland Trust advises Halloween revelers to make pumpkin bird feeders in their own gardens with the leftovers, instead of discarding them in the woods. However, these feeders should be kept high off the ground so hedgehogs cannot reach them.



“Jack-o-lanterns can be good for wildlife in small quantities in gardens, but not woodland or other countryside. We are urging people everywhere to make soup, birdfeeders for your garden, but please don’t make a mess of the countryside!” Bunton concluded.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dumping pumpkins in the woods can endanger wildlife

The Woodland Trust – the UK’s largest woodland conservation charity...

According to the <a href="https://www.heart.org/">American Heart Association</a>, cardiovascular disease claims more lives each year in the U.S. than all forms of cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease combined. However, advances in treatment and preventative medicine, as well as education about heart healthy lifestyle choices, had seen a steady decline in deaths due to heart disease during the past three decades. This trend marked a success story of note, but it saw a setback in 2020 due to the arrival of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/life-expectancy-continues-to-decline-due-to-covid/">COVID-19</a> pandemic.



In a presentation at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2022, being held November 5–7 both virtually and in Chicago, researchers have compared the national death rate from heart disease during 2020 with the death rates during the period 2010–2019. They did this by accessing the age-standardized death rates per 100,000 population from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s WONDER database, which aggregates death certificate data from the National Vital Statistics System.&nbsp;



Their analysis, presented during the AHA’s meeting, found that heart disease death rates increased in 2020, across adults in all age, sex, race and ethnicity groups, particularly among younger adults and non-Hispanic Black adults.



“Prior to 2020, death rates from heart disease had been declining among adults for decades, which has been recognized by the CDC as one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the last century,” said lead study author Rebecca C. Woodruff, Ph.D., M.P.H., an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “The increases in death rates from heart disease in 2020 represented about 5 years of lost progress among adults nationwide and about 10 years of lost progress among younger adults and non-Hispanic Black adults,” she added.



The spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. began prompting school and workplace closures in some states in February 2020. It was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization the following month and stay-home orders were widespread. The first COVID-19 vaccinations for adults and some teens were available in December 2020.



“The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many aspects of daily life, including access to preventive health care, which may have led to delays in detecting and treating heart disease,” Woodruff said. “We expected to see an increase in heart disease death rates among adults, however the magnitude of the increase was striking.”



In particular, the researchers found that, whereas the national heart disease rate among adults decreased by 9.8 percent between 2010 and 2019, it increased by 4.1 percent in 2020. This reversal represents about five years of lost progress in reducing heart disease death rates among adults.&nbsp;



The findings were even more unsettling for younger adults. Among 35- to 54-year-old people, deaths from heart disease fell by 5.5 percent between 2010 and 2019, yet they jumped up by12 percent in 2020. This represents approximately ten years of lost progress. Among 55- to 74-year-old adults, heart disease death rates were down by 2.3 percent between 2010 and 2019, yet they increased by 7.8 percent in 2020.



In addition, increases in heart disease death rates were high among non-Hispanic Black adults, who experienced approximately ten years of lost gains. In this group, heart disease death rates declined by 10.4 percent between 2010 and 2019, then increased by 11.2 percent in 2020.



Although further investigation needs to be done, the researchers name several factors implicated in the reversals of the heart disease death rate trend during 2020. Lockdowns saw people exercising less and smoking and drinking alcohol more regularly, all of which contributed to the higher cardiovascular death rates, said American Heart Association President Michelle A. Albert, M.D., M.P.H., FAHA, the Walter A. Haas-Lucie Stern Endowed Chair in Cardiology and professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. In addition, growing evidence suggests that people who have had COVID-19 infection may be at an increased risk for new or worsening cardiovascular disease.&nbsp;



“These social determinants of health have a larger effect on people who are economically disadvantaged – Black people, Hispanic people and Indigenous and Native individuals – so then you have a domino effect resulting in higher death rates and more disease among these populations,” Albert explained.



She urged action from both citizens and health care professionals. “If you are a person who has not received medical care for one or more years because of the pandemic, please seek out care from a health care professional. And it’s important for health care professionals to really take a look at their pool of patients to identify those persons who have dropped off their radar, and reach out to those people and offer medical assistance, as well as potentially connect them with the social resources that they might need now coming out of the pandemic.”



Woodruff added that the CDC is actively investigating heart disease trends after 2020 to see how the trends have changed since then. Meanwhile, there are steps to better manage cardiovascular disease risk going forward. Everyone can improve cardiovascular health by following the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/lifes-essential-8">American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8:</a> eat better, be physically active, do not smoke, get enough sleep, maintain a healthy weight, and control blood pressure, as well as levels of cholesterol and blood sugar.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Heart disease deaths increased during COVID, reversing progress

According to the American Heart Association, cardiovascular disease claims more...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/self-control-finite-resource/">Self-control</a> – the capacity to resist immediate temptation in favor of a better but delayed reward – is a crucial skill that underpins effective decision-making and future planning. This ability has been previously shown to be proportionally linked to intelligence in humans, chimpanzees, and cuttlefish.&nbsp;



Now, a research team led by the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> has discovered that Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) – a member of the corvid family often nicknamed the “feathered apes” due to their high cognitive abilities – can pass a version of the “marshmallow test” (a test designed to study self-control in children), and those with the greatest self-control also score high on intelligence tests. These findings show that the link between self-control and intelligence appears across distantly related animal species, suggesting it has evolved independently several times.



Among all the corvids, jays in particular are vulnerable to having their catches stolen by other birds. Thus, the capacity for self-control may have evolved to enable them to wait for the right moment to hide their food without being seen or heard by potential thieves.



To test this ability in ten Eurasian jays, the scientists designed an experiment inspired by the 1972 Stanford Marshmallow Test, in which children were offered a choice between one marshmallow immediately, or two if they waited for a sufficient period of time. In this case, the jays were presented with mealworms (their favorite food), cheese, and bread. They had to choose between bread or cheese (available immediately) or mealworm that they could see but could only get access to after a period of delay ranging from five seconds to five and a half minutes.



All the jays managed to wait for the worm, but some seemed to have much more patience than others. For instance, one of them – called by the scientists JayLo – ignored a piece of cheese and waited five and a half minutes for a mealworm, while others could only wait a maximum of 20 seconds.



“It’s just mind-boggling that some jays can wait so long for their favorite food. In multiple trials, I sat there watching JayLo ignore a piece of cheese for over five minutes – I was getting bored, but she was just patiently waiting for the worm,” reported study lead author Alex Schnell, a psychologist at Cambridge.



The scientists also presented the jays with five cognitive tasks which are commonly used to measure general intelligence. The birds that performed better in these tests also managed to wait longer for the mealworm reward, suggesting that self-control is linked to intelligence in jays too.



“The birds’ performance varied across individuals – some did really well in all the tasks and others were mediocre. What was most interesting was that if a bird was good at one of the tasks, it was good at all of them – which suggests that a general intelligence factor underlies their performance,” Schnell concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0348">Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Science</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Jays with greater intelligence have more self-control

Self-control – the capacity to resist immediate temptation in favor...

According to two preliminary studies to be presented at the <a href="https://ahascientificsessions.org/">American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2022</a> (November 5-7 in Chicago), neighborhood walkability – a measure of how easy and safe it is to walk to reach resources for daily living, such as grocery stores, schools, pharmacies, work, or church – is associated with lower <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/steep-rise-in-cardiovascular-disease-expected-in-the-u-s/">cardiovascular disease</a> burden and risk.&nbsp;



Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death in the U.S. and globally. An important factor for achieving optimal cardiovascular health and reducing disease risk is physical activity. Thus, walkable neighborhoods could turn out to be essential in improving heart health. 



"When a person’s environment is conducive to walking, there is a greater likelihood of engagement in physical activity such as walking,” explained Elizabeth A. Jackson, the past chair of the American Heart Association’s Committee on Social Determinants of Health.&nbsp;



“Ample data support the cardiovascular benefits of regular physical activity including walking, therefore, designing neighborhoods to be walkable may assist residents in improving their cardiovascular health.”



In the first study, over 70,000 U.S. census tracts were analyzed to explore the potential association among neighborhood walkability and cardiovascular disease and risk factors. 



The analysis revealed that cardiovascular disease prevalence was lower (5.4 percent) in the most walkable neighborhoods compared to the least walkable ones (7 percent), and that 36 percent of adults living in the least walkable neighborhoods had high blood pressure, high cholesterol or obesity compared to about 30 percent in the most walkable ones. 



Moreover, type 2 diabetes prevalence was 11.6 percent in the least walkable neighborhoods compared to 10.6 percent in the most walkable ones.



In a second study – conducted only in Houston – the scientists examined the city in terms of its walkability, while evaluating the health data of over 900,000 adults in the Houston Methodist Cardiovascular Disease Learning Health System Registry from 2016 to 2021. 



The researchers found that for people without cardiovascular disease, living in a walkable neighborhood was associated with being twice as likely to have optimal cardiovascular risk factors compared to those living in car-dependent neighborhoods. Furthermore, people with cardiovascular disease living in higher walkability areas had 58 percent higher odds of having an optimal cardiovascular risk profile than those living in lower walkability areas.



Based on these findings, the experts urge policymakers to prioritize resources for building more walkable cities which offer close access to educational, retail, food, recreational, and entertainment venues in order to encourage walking as a normal way to get around.



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.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Walkable neighborhoods help reduce cardiovascular risk

According to two preliminary studies to be presented at the...

According to a new report by the <a href="https://www.healtheffects.org/">Health Effects Institute</a> (HEI), nearly the entire African continent faces the most severe health impacts in the world caused by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/air-pollution-linked-to-a-higher-risk-of-stroke/">air pollution</a>. The experts found that Africa is home to five of the top ten most polluted countries in the world in terms of outdoor fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which is the most consistent predictor of deaths from respiratory, cardiovascular, and other diseases in previous studies of long-term exposure to air pollution. Moreover, widespread exposure to household air pollution (HAP) – which results from burning solid fuels such as coal, wood, or charcoal for cooking – also has a significant impact on African mortality, causing 63 percent of the 1.1 million pollution-related deaths in 2019.



Since across East, West, Central, and Southern Africa, about 75 percent of the population relies on solid fuels for cooking, residents are exposed to high concentrations of harmful pollutants at home every day. In these regions, newborns and infants are at a particularly high risk from HAP, with 14 percent of all deaths in children under five linked to exposure to such hazardous pollutants. Moreover, children’s exposure to HAP – as well as to outdoor pollution – has long-term consequences for their health, including lung development problems and increased susceptibility to infectious respiratory diseases.



“This report gives evidence of the substantial threat air pollution poses to the health, and even life, of babies and children under the age of five. This vulnerable group needs special attention to mitigate their exposures, for example, through policy and intensive awareness campaigns with practical solutions for mothers and caregivers,” said Caradee Wright, a Chief Specialist Scientist at the <a href="https://www.samrc.ac.za/">South African Medical Research Council</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



According to the report authors, air pollution sources and their health impact can vary widely across the continent. For instance, Western Africa experiences the highest PM2.5&nbsp;pollution - with an average concentration of 64.1 μg/m3 - while Southern Africa has the lowest, at 26.5 μg/m3. Although most of this pollution comes from similar sources as elsewhere in the world – such as fossil fuel use for energy production, industrial and semi-industrial activities, or transportation – in parts of Africa, windblown dust (a natural source of air pollution) is also a major contributor to increased PM2.5&nbsp;levels.



Fortunately, countries across Africa are currently implementing a wide range of programs to lower the impacts of air pollution, such as establishing national air quality policies, providing access to clean fuels for cooking, and transitioning to clean energy sources.&nbsp;



&nbsp;“Air pollution greatly contributes to the rising frequency of chronic noncommunicable diseases in Africa, putting further strain on a health system already stretched by chronic infectious diseases and, more recently, Covid-19. These findings call for the African Union and member states to promote, plan, and fund air quality interventions to prevent unnecessary disabilities and deaths&nbsp;throughout the continent,” concluded Patrick de Marie Katoto, an expert in Public Health at the Catholic University of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.



The State of the Air Quality and Health Impacts in Africa report can be found <a href="https://www.stateofglobalair.org/sites/default/files/documents/2022-10/soga-africa-report.pdf">here</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Air pollution caused one million deaths in Africa in 2019

According to a new report by the Health Effects Institute...

Giant,Sequoias,Forest.,Sequoia,National,Forest,In,California,Sierra,Nevada

The Sierra Nevada region of California covers nearly 27 million acres of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/diverse-forests-are-more-resilient-and-productive/">forests</a> that provide habitat for thousands of animal species and is home to dozens of species of conifers, including native redwoods (the world’s tallest trees), sequoias (the world’s widest trees), or Great Basin bristlecone pines (the world’s longest living trees). 



Now, a team of scientists from the <a href="https://www.berkeley.edu/">University of California, Berkeley</a>, has found that, from 2011 to 2020, a combination of devastating wildfires, droughts, and drought-related bark beetle infestations killed a staggering 30 percent of forests in the Sierra Nevada mountain range between Lake Tahoe and Kern County.



“It’s kind of a wake-up call, even to those of us that are kind of steeped in this field,” said study lead author Zackary Steel, an expert in Wildfire and Forest Management at UC Berkeley. “We’re moving from knowing this is a problem to quantifying the problem.”



Besides the overall decline in total conifer forest in this area, half of the mature forest habitats and 85 percent of high-density mature forests were either completely wiped-out or became low-density forests. Moreover, areas protected as habitat for the California spotted owl – an endangered bird at the center of a decades-long battle between environmentalists and the timber industry – experienced worse declines in tree canopy that other, non-protected areas.



According to the researchers, these findings call for a rejection of traditional conservation methods which preserve forests as they are, and for a use of controlled fires – as those ignited for centuries by California’s indigenous populations - as a tool for landscape regeneration and removal of low-lying vegetation that could increase the intensity of wildfires.



“The ecological idea is not to take out trees just to take out trees,” said Felicia Marcus, a researcher in Climate Policy at <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a>. “If you take out enough of the smaller trees that snow can get through and hit the ground but you leave enough trees that it stays shaded, we’ll be able to maybe slow the rate of loss of snowpack which is perhaps the number one threat to stability in California’s water system.”&nbsp;



Fortunately, state and federal government agencies are currently starting to rethink old practices and invest in wildfire resilience and forest health, with over $1,000 million dedicated to safeguard these historical forests. However, according to J. Keith Gilless, the chair of the state board of forestry and fire protection, the task of reverting forests to what they used to be will need long-term planning and dedication.



“We need to be clear to the policymakers that this isn’t something you go into with a one-shot infusion of money and it’s solved. It’s something where you’ve committed to moving to a different kind of landscape level management, that lets us truly deal with the natural hazard of wildfires,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.2763">Ecological Applications</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

One third of Sierra Nevada forest wiped out by drought and fires

The Sierra Nevada region of California covers nearly 27 million...

Earth,At,Night,Was,Holding,In,Human,Hands.,Earth,Day.

According to a new report by an international team of scientists led by the <a href="https://oregonstate.edu/">Oregon State University</a> (OSU), our planet’s vital signs have reached “code red” and “humanity is unequivocally facing a climate emergency.” The experts argue that 16 out of 35 planetary vital signs that they use to track climate change are currently at record extremes, including heatwaves, rising global tree cover loss due to wildfires, a greater prevalence of mosquito-borne infectious diseases, and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels (which have now reached 418 parts per million – the highest ever recorded).



“Look at all of these heat waves, fires, floods and massive storms,” said report lead author William Ripple, a professor of Ecology at OSU. “The specter of climate change is at the door and pounding hard.”&nbsp;



“As we can see by the annual surges in climate disasters, we are now in the midst of a major climate crisis, with far worse to come if we keep doing things the way we’ve been doing them,” added co-author Christopher Wolf, a postdoctoral fellow in Global Change and Biodiversity Conservation at the same university.



The report authors point out that in the three decades since over 1,700 scientists signed the original “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity” in 1992, global greenhouse emissions have increased by 40 percent. However, as co-author Saleemul Huq – an expert in climate change at the <a href="http://www.iub.edu.bd/">Independent University of Bangladesh</a> - put it, global warming is not a standalone issue. “To avoid more untold human suffering, we need to protect nature, eliminate most fossil fuel emissions, and support socially just climate adaptations with a focus on low-income areas that are most vulnerable,” he said.



“As Earth’s temperatures are creeping up, the frequency or magnitude of some types of climate disasters may actually be leaping up. We urge our fellow scientists around the world to speak out on climate change,” concluded co-author Thomas Newsome, an expert in Ecology and Conservation at the <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/">University of Sydney</a>.



The “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency 2022” is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biac083">BioScience</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Climate change has pushed Earth to “code red”

According to a new report by an international team of...

A team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/">Imperial College London</a> (ICL) has recently discovered an unexpected river under the Antarctic ice sheet which affects the flow and melting of ice, potentially accelerating ice loss as the climate warms. This 460 kilometers-long river collects water at the base of the Antarctic ice sheet from an area the size of Germany and France combined – a worrisome aspect suggesting that the base of the ice sheet has more active water flow than previously thought, which could make it more susceptible to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-has-pushed-earth-to-code-red/">climate change</a>.



“When we first discovered lakes beneath the Antarctic ice a couple of decades ago, we thought they were isolated from each other. Now we are starting to understand there are whole systems down there, interconnected by vast river networks, just as they might be if there weren’t thousands of meters of ice on top of them,” said study co-author Martin Siegert, a glaciologist at ICL.



“The region where this study is based holds enough ice to raise the sea level globally by 4.3 meters. How much of this ice melts, and how quickly, is linked to how slippery the base of the ice is. The newly discovered river system could strongly influence this process.”



Water can form between ice sheets in two ways – from surface meltwater flowing down through deep crevasses, or by basal melting, caused by the natural heat of the Earth and friction as the ice moves over land. While in the Arctic, the surface experiences stronger melting during summer, in Antarctica the summers are too cold to cause such phenomena. Scientists have long thought this means that there was relatively little water at the base of the Antarctic ice sheet.



However, the discovery of this vast underground river contradicts this assumption, showing there is sufficient water from basal melt alone to create massive river systems under kilometers-thick ice.&nbsp;“Previous studies have looked at the interaction between the edges of ice sheets and ocean water to determine what melting looks like. However, the discovery of a river that reaches hundreds of kilometers inland driving some of these processes shows that we cannot understand the ice melt fully without considering the whole system: ice sheet, ocean, and freshwater,” explained study co-author Neil Ross, a senior lecturer in Physical Geography at <a href="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/">Newcastle University</a>.



The existence of large under-ice rivers has to be taken into account when predicting the consequences of global warming on this region. For instance, if temperatures are high enough to cause surface melt, pushing water at the base of the ice sheet, these river systems could be significantly affected, potentially tipping Antarctica to a Greenland-like state, where ice-loss is much faster. Moreover, if the ice starts to flow faster than the water accumulated at the base, then this will increase friction where the ice runs over dry land, which could in turn increase the amount of basal melting and water produced.



In future studies, the scientists aim to gather more data about these mechanisms and to apply their models to other regions, in order to better understand how a changing Antarctica could possibly change our entire planet.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-022-01059-1">Nature Geoscience</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Massive river found beneath the Antarctic ice sheet

A team of researchers led by the Imperial College London...

According to a recent study led by <a href="https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/">Lancaster University</a>, we should stop thinking of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/insects-struggle-to-adjust-to-high-temperatures/">insects</a> as creepy crawlies and focus instead on the multiple benefits they bring to humans and nature. The widespread and deeply ingrained negative cultural perception of insects is a major factor holding back the public’s appreciation of the critical roles they play in ecosystems. Unfortunately, this perception is also partly reflected in government biodiversity policy inaction worldwide.



Despite three decades of intergovernmental reports highlighting biodiversity targets, global insect biomass, abundance, and diversity continues to decline. “Biodiversity, including insect, declines are often unintended consequences of human activities with human wellbeing nearly always trumping nature conservation, and this is likely to continue until we reach a point where we see flat-lining ecosystems are detrimental to our own species,” said study lead author Phillip Donkersley, an expert in Invertebrate Biology and Conservation Policy at Lancaster.



&nbsp;“Intergovernmental action has been slow to respond, kicking in only when change becomes impossible to ignore. If we are to see political attitudes and actions change, then first societies’ perception of insects needs to be addressed.”



Dr. Donkersley and his colleagues highlight the various benefits that insects bring, including their fundamental role in ecosystems (such as pollinating plants, or being a food source for animals and people in many parts of the world), and their contribution to wellbeing, culture, and innovation (such as the mental health benefits people derive from seeing butterflies in parks and gardens, their inclusion in poetry and literature, or their use in a range of technologies, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals).&nbsp;



In addition, the scientists outlined several strategic priorities in their action plan to help support the conservation of insects, including: proactively and publicly addressing governmental inaction; highlighting the technological developments we owe to insects; aligning with plant, mammal, and bird conservation groups to stress the interdependency of various species and the knock-on benefits insect conservation could have for other species; and engaging pupils and students with the wonders of the insect world to counter ingrained perceptions of insects as threatening creepy crawlies.



“The benefits we gain from the insect world are broad, yet aversion or phobias of invertebrates are common and stand firmly in the path of their conservation,” said Dr Donkersley. “We need to move beyond this mindset and appreciate the huge role they play in ecosystems, food chains, mental health, and even technological innovation.”



“This perception change is a crucial step, alongside other measures we outline in this paper. Immediate and substantial actions are needed to protect insect species in order to maintain global ecosystem stability,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9417">Ecology and Evolution</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Insects play important roles in ecosystems

According to a recent study led by Lancaster University, we...

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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

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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

[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



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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...