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,...

A new study led by <a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/">King’s College London</a> (KCL) has found that seeing or hearing birds could lead to improvements in mental wellbeing which could last up to eight hours. Such an improvement was also noticeable in people suffering from depression – the most common mental illness worldwide – suggesting that exposure to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/birdsong-frequency-is-influenced-by-sexual-selection/">birdsong</a> could have a potential role in helping those with mental health issues.



The scientists used the smartphone application <a href="https://www.urbanmind.info/">Urban Mind</a> to collect people’s real-time reports of their mental wellbeing, together with their reports of seeing or hearing birds. The study was conducted between April 2018 and October 2021, with 1,292 participants from a variety of countries (with the majority based in the United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United States though) completing 26,856 assessments using the Urban Mind app. The participants had to report through this app three times per day whether they could see or hear birds, followed by inquiries regarding their mental wellbeing.&nbsp;



“There is growing evidence on the mental health benefits of being around nature and we intuitively think that the presence of birdsong and birds would help lift our mood. However, there is little research that has actually investigated the impact of birds on mental health in real-time and in a real environment,” said study lead author Ryan Hammoud, a research assistant in Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at KCL.



“By using the Urban Mind app we have for the first time showed the direct link between seeing or hearing birds and positive mood. We hope this evidence can demonstrate the importance of protecting and providing environments to encourage birds, not only for biodiversity but for our mental health.”



The researchers also collected information on existing diagnoses of mental illness and discovered that hearing or seeing birdlife was associated with improvements in mental wellbeing in both healthy participants and those diagnosed with depression. According to the scientists, these links between birds and mental wellbeing could not be explained by other co-occurring environmental factors, such as the presence of plants, trees, or waterways.



“The term ecosystem services is often used to describe the benefits of certain aspects of the natural environment on our physical and mental health,” explained study senior author Andrea Mechelli, a professor of Early Intervention in Mental Health at KCL. “However, it can be difficult to prove these benefits scientifically. Our study provides an evidence base for creating and supporting biodiverse spaces that harbor birdlife, since this is strongly linked with our mental health. In addition, the findings support the implementation of measures to increase opportunities for people to come across birdlife, particularly for those living with mental health conditions such as depression,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-20207-6">Nature Scientific Reports</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

The presence of birds can improve mental health

A new study led by King’s College London (KCL) has...

On Tuesday, October 26, 2022, the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service</a> listed Antarctica’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/emperor-penguins-may-not-survive-climate-change/">emperor penguin</a> (Aptenodytes forsteri) as an endangered species. Although this species is highly resilient and can endure strong winds and freezing temperature in order to breed and protect their eggs and offspring, melting sea ice is currently upending the habitat they need to breed, feed, and protect themselves from predators, possibly bringing them on the brink of extinction by the end of the century.



“This listing reflects the growing extinction crisis,” said Martha Williams, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Climate change is having a profound impact on species around the world.”



Although the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/">Center for Biological Diversity</a> already petitioned Fish and Wildlife to add the emperor penguin on their Endangered Species Act in 2011, no actions have been undertaken for more than a decade, thus further increasing the risks this species is exposed to. As previous <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.15806">studies</a> have argued, while sea ice around Antarctica has proven more durable than that at the North Pole, almost all emperor penguin colonies in the southern continent could be pushed to extinction by the end of 21st century, unless urgent actions to dramatically decrease global greenhouse gas emissions are taken.&nbsp;



“That body of science really helped to make this decision really clear,” said Shaye Wolf, the Center for Biological Diversity’s climate science director. “That the penguin is endangered by climate change and needs all the protection it can get.”&nbsp;



Although the emperor penguin populations appear to be stable at the moment – with 625,000 to 650,000 birds shuffling around Antarctica – there are already ominous signs of what the future may hold for this iconic bird. For instance, in recent years, the breaking of sea ice before the chicks were ready to swim at Cape Crozier or Halley Bay led to breeding failures.



Scientists and conservationists hope that the listing of this species as endangered will lead to stricter limits on fishing for krill – the penguin’s main food source - around Antarctica, as well as compel United States officials to consider the climate implications of various federal projects before approving them.



“If we manage to take action, and especially action now, we can still avoid the extinction,” concluded Stephanie Jenouvrier, a scientist at the <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution</a> who studied the current situation of Antarctica’s emperor penguins.



The official document listing the penguins as endangered can be accessed <a href="https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2022-23164.pdf">here</a>.&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

Antarctica’s emperor penguin officially listed as endangered

On Tuesday, October 26, 2022, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife...

According to a new report from the <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en">World Meteorological Association</a> (WMO), atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) all reached new record highs in 2021, with the largest year-to-year rise of methane concentrations since systematic measurements began four decades ago. While the causes of this staggering rise in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/methane-emissions-are-higher-than-previously-estimated/">methane emissions</a> is not yet clear, the scientists believe that a combination of biological and human-induced processes could have led to this worrisome situation.



“WMO’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin has underlined, once again, the enormous challenge – and the vital necessity – of urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and prevent global temperatures rising even further in the future,” said Petteri Taalas, WMO’s Secretary-General. “The continuing rise in concentrations of the main heat-trapping gases, including the record acceleration in methane levels, shows that we are heading in the wrong direction.”



Since 2007, atmospheric methane concentrations have been increasing at an unprecedented rate. While scientists argue that the largest contribution to these increases comes from biogenic sources, such as wetlands or rice paddies, anthropogenic climate change could also play a critical role in the rise of methane emissions, due to the fact that, in a warming climate, organic materials decompose faster, and, if this process happens in water – without oxygen – more methane will be released in the atmosphere. Thus, if tropical wetlands become wetter and warmer due to human-induced climate change, they will emit more methane.&nbsp;



“There are cost-effective strategies available to tackle methane emissions, especially from the fossil fuel sector, and we should implement these without delay,” said Professor Taalas. “However, methane has a relatively short lifetime of less than ten years and so its impact on climate is reversible. As the top and most urgent priority, we have to slash carbon dioxide emissions which are the main driver of climate change and associated extreme weather, and which will affect climate for thousands of years through polar ice loss, ocean warming, and sea level rise.”



“We need to transform our industrial, energy and transport systems and whole way of life.&nbsp;The needed changes are economically affordable and technically possible. Time is running out,”&nbsp;he concluded.



The 2021 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin can be found <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/greenhouse-gas-bulletin">here</a>. &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

Methane emissions are rising faster than ever

According to a new report from the World Meteorological Association...

A recent study led by a team of scientists from the <a href="https://www.jcu.edu.au/">James Cook University</a> in Queensland, Australia, has found that over 63,000 people died from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/snakebites-hidden-health-crisis/">snakebites</a> in 2019, largely due to lack of proper antidotes in rural areas. The vast majority of these deaths was in India (51,000), with only two deaths being recorded in Australia. These findings suggest that <a href="https://www.who.int/">World Health Organization</a>’s target to halve snakebite deaths by 2030 will most likely not be met.



“Interventions to ensure faster antivenom delivery must be combined with preventive strategies such as increased education and strengthening of the rural health system,” said study lead author Richard Franklin, a professor of Public Health at James Cook University.



“Ensuring timely antivenom access across rural areas of the world would save thousands of lives, and greater investment in devising and scaling up these interventions should be prioritized to meet WHO targets for snakebite envenoming and neglected tropical diseases.”&nbsp;



By collecting autopsy and vital record data from the <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/gbd/2019">Global Burden of Disease</a> datasets, the scientists modeled the proportion of deaths caused by snakes by location, age, sex, and year. The analysis revealed that the majority of deaths from snakebites occurred in South Asia, particularly in countries such as India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. In India, the deathrate caused by snakes was estimated to be a staggering four per 100,000 people – significantly higher than the global average of 0.8. The sub-Saharan Africa region came second, with Nigeria having the largest number of deaths (1,460).



According to Professor Franklin, the likelihood of death from a venomous snake bite increases substantially if antivenom medicine is not administered within six hours after the bite. “However, in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, many seek traditional healers or attend clinics with inadequate training on how to treat snakebites, or lack antivenom to administer life-saving treatment,” he explained. “People who reach hospital often have inadequate access to dialysis, ventilators, and blood transfusions, which are essential to manage the complications of poisoning.”



Unfortunately, the researchers predict that the number of snakebite deaths is expected to rise to over 68,000 by 2050, mostly due to population increases. “We predict that mortality will continue to decline, but not sufficiently to meet WHO targets. Improved data collection should be prioritized to help target interventions, improve burden estimation and monitor progress,” the scientists concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33627-9">Nature Communications</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

Snakebites caused over 63,000 deaths in 2019

A recent study led by a team of scientists from...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.uq.edu.au/">University of Queensland</a> and the <a href="https://www.cmu.edu/">Carnegie Mellon University</a> has found that sharing real-time air quality readings in developing countries could help reduce air <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/study-reveals-link-between-air-pollution-and-obesity/">pollution</a> and lead to lower mortality rates.



This research was prompted by live air quality updates being posted on Twitter by US diplomatic sites around the world. “In 2008, the US Embassy in Beijing began tweeting hourly air quality information from a new pollution monitor, which dramatically increased attention to air pollution in China,” said study co-author Andrea La Nauze, an environmental economist at the University of Queensland.



“US embassies now tweet live air quality readings in 38 non-OECD countries worldwide. We looked at 36&nbsp;of those countries and found the sharing of real-time data increased local public interest in air quality and led to reduced air pollution levels.”



The scientists used air pollution measurements taken from satellite data in order to evaluate pollution levels both before and after the US embassy in a city started posting on Twitter air quality readings, and compared them with measurements from non-OECD cities without such live monitoring. The analysis revealed that sharing real-time air quality information led to an average reduction in fine particulate matter concentration levels of two to four micrograms per cubic meter each year.&nbsp;



“Poor air quality is a leading cause of premature death worldwide, responsible for one out of every nine deaths,” said study lead author Akshaya Jha, an assistant professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon. “Sharing credible air quality information can highlight this issue and have huge health and economic benefits that far outweigh the costs of the monitoring technology.”



Unfortunately, according to the researchers, the state of air quality monitoring is currently “inadequate” in many less developed countries. “Around 30 per cent of countries had at least some form of monitoring by 2018, but that includes monitoring that is intermittent, only covers a small part of the country or isn’t available publicly,” Dr. La Nauze explained.



“Even Australia – where state governments monitor air quality and provide access to real-time data – could benefit substantially from a denser monitoring network. Policymakers, diplomats and community organizations worldwide should push for the rapid deployment of credible, real-time air quality monitoring and reporting,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201092119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</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

Real-time air quality monitoring can save lives

A new study led by the University of Queensland and...

As people live for longer, the prevalence of dementia increases. This trend is apparent in all countries in the world where medical and health interventions are able to extend <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/life-expectancy-continues-to-decline-due-to-covid/">lifespan</a>. Currently, around 55 million people suffer from dementia and there are some 10 million new cases diagnosed each year. This number is expected to rise to 78 million sufferers in 2030 and more than 100 million by 2050.&nbsp;



Dementia is the seventh leading cause of death among all diseases and one of the major causes of disability and dependency among older people worldwide. It is characterized by cognitive difficulties that begin in adulthood and affect a person’s ability to function independently and perform everyday activities.&nbsp;Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), on the other hand, is thought to indicate a transitioning phase between normal aging and dementia, although not everyone who has MCI will go on to develop dementia.



Since these conditions have significant physical, psychological, social and economic impacts, not only for sufferers themselves, but also for their carers, families and society at large, it is critical that authorities have an up-to-date understanding of their prevalence in populations, in order to formulate appropriate support policies.&nbsp;



In the first nationally representative study of cognitive impairment prevalence in more than 20 years, <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a> researchers, along with colleagues from several other U.S. universities, have analyzed data from individuals enrolled in the&nbsp;nationally representative Health and Retirement Study.&nbsp;This is an ongoing study that started in 1992 and the current researchers randomly selected a subsample of 3,500 participants who were 65 years or older in 2016.&nbsp;



Known as the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol (HCAP), the current study was developed to update national estimates of the prevalence of MCI and dementia in the U.S. and to examine differences by age, race, ethnicity, and gender. Participants completed a comprehensive set of neuropsychological tests and in-depth interviews, and dementia and MCI were classified using an algorithm based on standard diagnostic criteria and comparing test performance to a robust normative sample.



“Such data are critical for understanding the causes, costs, and consequences of dementia and mild cognitive impairment in the United States, and for informing policies aimed at reducing their impact on patients, families, and public programs,” says&nbsp;<a href="https://www.neurology.columbia.edu/profile/jennifer-j-manly-phd">Jennifer J. Manly, PhD</a>,&nbsp;the study’s lead author and professor of neuropsychology in neurology at the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University.



Although dementia and MCI are known to be common in the U.S., accurate, up-to-date measures of their national prevalence have been infrequent. In addition, previous estimates of dementia and MCI have tended to focus on populations that are college-educated and White, and have not been nationally representative. Participants in the new study are representative of older adults and this allows researchers to examine differences in the national prevalence of dementia and MCI by age, race and ethnicity, gender, and education level.&nbsp;



The results of the analysis, published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2022.3543">JAMA Neurology</a>, show that the incidence of dementia and MCI rises sharply with age: 3 percent of people between 65 and 69 had dementia, while the prevalence was 35 percent among people who were aged 90 and over.&nbsp;&nbsp;Overall, the study found that almost 10 percent of U.S. adults aged 65 and older have dementia, while another 22 percent have mild cognitive impairment.&nbsp;



In addition to the association with age, the data show a disproportionate burden of dementia among older adults who self-identified as Black or African American, of mild cognitive impairment among older adults who identify as Hispanic, and of both categories of cognitive impairment among people who had fewer opportunities to obtain higher education.



The economic impact of dementia, including unpaid family caregiving, is estimated to be $257 billion per year in the United States and $800 billion worldwide. And this is set to increase in future as populations age and people experience greater longevity.



“With increasing longevity and the aging of the Baby Boom generation, cognitive impairment is projected to increase significantly over the next few decades, affecting individuals, families, and programs that provide care and services for people with dementia,” Manly says.



“Dementia research in general has largely focused on college-educated people who are racialized as white,” she explains. “This study is representative of the population of older adults and includes groups that have been historically excluded from dementia research but are at higher risk of developing cognitive impairment because of structural racism and income inequality. If we’re interested in increasing brain health equity in later life, we need to know where we stand now and where to direct our resources.”



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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

One-third of older Americans have dementia

As people live for longer, the prevalence of dementia increases....

A team of neuroscientists from <a href="https://www.northwestern.edu/">Northwestern University</a> and clinicians from the <a href="https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/landing-pages/epilepsy">University of Chicago Epilepsy Center</a> has recently explored the role of sleep in consolidating memories. By recording electrophysiological responses to a series of sounds connected to daytime learning activities that were repeatedly presented to five participants during sleep, the experts found that the participants significantly improved their performance in a recall test the next morning, suggesting that sleep plays a crucial role in consolidating <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/having-a-sense-of-purpose-improves-memory/">memory</a> processing and storage.



The scientists enrolled a group of five epilepsy patients who had electrode probes implanted into the brain for the purpose of investigating potential treatments to their seizure disorders. During sleep, the participants were repeatedly exposed to 10-20 sounds, half of which were associated with objects and their precise spatial locations that patients learned before sleep.



The analysis revealed systematic improvements in spatial recall, with the object sounds presented during sleep eliciting increased oscillatory activity, including rises in theta, sigma, and gamma EEG bands, as well as significant activity in the hippocampus – a part of the brain that helps structuring and consolidating spatial and temporal patterns – and the adjacent temporal area of the cerebral cortex, reflecting the reactivation and strengthening of corresponding spatial memories.



“We are investigating how people manage to remember the things they’ve learned, rather than forgetting them,” said&nbsp;study senior author Ken Paller, the director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Program at Northwestern. “Our view is that sleep contributes to that ability.”



“The orthodox assumption used to be that such sounds would be blocked out when people are sleeping. Instead, these sounds allowed us to demonstrate that brain structures such as the hippocampus are responsive when memories are reactivated, helping us to retain the knowledge we gain when we’re awake.”



“At times, remembering and forgetting seems random. We can remember irrelevant details while forgetting what we most want to remember. The new answer to this long-standing mystery, highlighted by this research,&nbsp;is that memories are revisited when we sleep, even though we wake up not knowing it happened,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2123430119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</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

Sleep helps the brain consolidate memories

A team of neuroscientists from Northwestern University and clinicians from...

According to a recent study led by the <a href="https://www.demogr.mpg.de/en">Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research</a> and the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a>, global life expectancy did not recover in 2021 after the mortality shock caused by the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/covid-related-deaths-are-much-higher-than-the-official-count/">Covid</a> pandemic. However, comparing this findings to historical events such as the Spanish flu pandemic from 1918, offers hope for rapid improvements in life expectancy over the next years.



By examining changes in life expectancy in 29 countries, the experts found that most countries in the study – including the United States, Chile, and 27 European countries – experienced period life expectancy (a measurement of the risk of death to which a population is exposed to within a year) decline for a second year in a row.&nbsp;



“The United States is a particularly tragic example; in 2021 the country managed to normalize mortality among those over 80 to pre-pandemic levels, but mortality among those under 80 increased,” said study lead author Jonas Schöley, an expert in Population Health at Max Planck. Thus, period life expectancy in the U.S. declined for two years in a row - by 25.5 months in 2020 and by another 2.7 months in 2021.



Life expectancy returned to pre-pandemic levels in just a few Western European countries, such as Belgium, France, Switzerland, and Sweden. In much of Eastern Europe, for example, the mortality crisis worsened from 2020 to 2021. “This is particularly evident in Bulgaria. In 2021, period life expectancy was 3.6 years below pre-pandemic levels,” said Schöley. Although Bulgaria had the lowest vaccination rate by the fall of 2021 among all the countries studied, this factor alone cannot fully explain the recent disparities in life expectancy between Eastern and Western Europe. According to Schöley and his colleagues, differences in healthcare systems and general living conditions may have also played a critical role.



A worrisome finding regards the change in age patterns related to Covid-induced mortality. “A notable shift between 2020 and 2021 was that the age patterns of excess mortality shifted in 2021 towards younger age groups, as vaccines began to protect the old,” said study co-author Ridhi Kashyap, a professor of Demography and Computational Social Science at Oxford.



Fortunately, historical comparisons show that, although previous pandemics such as the Spanish flu in 1918 also caused period life expectancy to plummet, the recovery was quite rapid. “Covid-19 has triggered one of the most severe mortality crises worldwide in the past 100 years. Past crises, however, only temporarily interrupted the trend of increasing life expectancy,” Schöley concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01450-3">Nature Human Behavior</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

Life expectancy continues to decline due to Covid

According to a recent study led by the Max Planck...

For so long, the world has been focused on the impacts of carbon dioxide (CO2) <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/unchecked-emissions-could-kill-90-percent-of-marine-species/">emissions</a> on global warming and subsequent changes in climate. But CO2 is not the sole product released as a result of industrial processes or the combustion of fossil fuels. There is an array of other airborne pollutants that enter the atmosphere along with CO2 that behave very differently from the greenhouse gases. A new study finds that the impacts of these other pollutants on human health, economies, and agriculture differ drastically depending on where the pollutants are emitted.



Led by scientists from the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/">University of Texas at Austin</a> and the University of California San Diego, the study is the first to simulate how aerosol pollution affects both climate and air quality for locations around the globe. Although the atmosphere is made up largely of gases, there are also tiny solid particles and droplets of liquid that are present, suspended in the air. These small suspended droplets and particles are known as aerosols. They originate from natural sources, such as ocean spray and mineral dust from deserts, and also from human activities, including the combustion of fossil fuels.&nbsp;



Unlike CO2, which is a long-lived gas that spreads out through the atmosphere globally, aerosols are short-lived and tend to have more local and regional effects. Aerosols can absorb incident sunlight and scatter it back into the atmosphere, meaning that they actually have a cooling effect that is opposite to the effect of greenhouse gases. However, if they occur at high densities, the aerosols can also prevent light from reaching the leaves of crops where photosynthesis takes place. They are also involved in the formation of smog. In these ways, aerosols can impact human health and agricultural and economic productivity.



Although CO2&nbsp;and aerosols are often emitted at the same time during the combustion of fuels, the two substances behave differently in Earth’s atmosphere, said co-lead author Geeta Persad, an assistant professor at the UT Austin Jackson School of Geosciences. “Carbon dioxide has the same impact on climate no matter who emits it,” said Persad. “But for these aerosol pollutants, they tend to stay concentrated near where they're emitted, so the effect that they have on the climate system is very patchy and very dependent on where they’re coming from.”



The researchers investigated the influence of aerosols in worsening the social costs of carbon (a measure of the economic costs of greenhouse gases on society) in eight key regions of the world: Brazil, China, East Africa, Western Europe, India, Indonesia, United States and South Africa. They considered these costs both for the region producing the aerosols and for neighboring countries.&nbsp;



In order to do this, the researchers created a set of climate simulations using the Community Earth System Model version 1 developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research. They then ran simulations in which each of the eight regions produced identical aerosol emissions and mapped how temperature, precipitation, and surface air quality were affected in these regions and across the globe.



The experts connected this data with known relationships between climate and air quality and infant mortality, crop productivity, and gross domestic product across the eight regions. In a final step, they compared the total societal costs of these aerosol-driven impacts against the societal costs of co-emitted CO2&nbsp;in each of the eight regions, and produced global maps of the combined effects of aerosols and CO2 emissions. The researchers said the study is a big step forward from previous work, which either only estimated the air quality impacts of aerosols or didn’t consider their diverse global climate effects.



The findings showed that, depending on the geographic location of the emissions, aerosols can increase the social costs of carbon emissions by as much as 66 percent. Aerosols can directly affect human health and the climate independently of CO2. They are associated with negative health impacts when inhaled, and can affect the climate by influencing temperature, precipitation patterns and how much sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface.



“This research highlights how the harmful effects of our emissions are generally underestimated,” said Jennifer Burney, co-lead author and the Marshall Saunders Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in Global Climate Policy and Research at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. “CO2&nbsp;is making the planet warmer, but it also gets emitted with a bunch of other compounds that impact people and plants directly and cause climate changes in their own right.”



The outcome paints a fairly complicated picture. Emissions from some regions produce climate and air quality effects that are between two and 10 times more severe as those seen in other regions. In addition, the social costs of this pollution can sometimes affect neighboring regions more than the region that produced the aerosol emissions. For example, in Europe local emissions result in four times as many infant deaths outside Europe as within its borders. Despite the complex relationships that emerge from the modelling exercise, the researchers note that aerosol emissions are always bad for both the emitter and the planet overall.



“While we might think about aerosols, which cool the climate, as having the silver lining of counteracting CO2-driven warming, when we look at all these effects in combination, we find that no region experiences overall local benefits or generates overall global benefits by emitting aerosols,” said Persad.



For example, the study found that adding aerosol costs to CO2&nbsp;costs could double China’s incentive to mitigate emissions. And it switches the impact of local emissions in Europe from a net local benefit to a net cost. The study also shows that some emerging economies, like in East African nations and India, might be motivated to collaborate on emission cuts since they are strongly impacted by each other’s emissions.&nbsp;



Overall, the findings indicate that individual countries would often benefit from working together with their neighbors to cut emissions since regional emissions affect everyone, not just the country doing the emitting. Researchers also said the findings create potentially new motivations for countries to cut emissions – and to care about other countries cutting their own emissions.



The framework developed in this study can also be applied to maximize societal benefits from current mitigation strategies being considered by policy makers. For example, the researchers applied it to the “fair-share” approach laid out in the Paris Climate Agreement in which all countries target the same per-capita CO2&nbsp;emissions. They found the approach, while beneficial for climate stability, does not improve the mortality and crop impacts from combined aerosol and CO2&nbsp;emissions because it focuses mitigation in regions that already have fairly low aerosol impacts, like the U.S. and Europe.



“By expanding societal cost calculations to include the geographically-resolved societal impacts of co-emitted aerosols, we’re showing that the incentive for individual countries to mitigate and collaborate on mitigation is much higher than if we only think about greenhouse gases,” Burney said.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv">Science Advances</a>.



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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

Airborne pollutants amplify the effects of climate change

For so long, the world has been focused on the...

Many studies have reported associations between video gaming and increases in depression, violence, and aggressive behavior. However, a recent study of nearly 2,000 children has now found that those playing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/playing-action-video-games-can-improve-reading-skills/">video games</a> for three hours per day or more performed better on cognitive skills related to impulse control and working memory compared to children who never played video games.&nbsp;



“This study adds to our growing understanding of the associations between playing video games and brain development,” said study co-author Nora Volkow, the director of the <a href="https://nida.nih.gov/">National Institute of Drug Abuse</a> (NIDA). “Numerous studies have linked video gaming to behavior and mental health problems. This study suggests that there may also be cognitive benefits associated with this popular pastime, which are worthy of further investigation.”



The researchers analyzed survey, cognitive, and brain imaging data from about 2,000 participants in the ongoing&nbsp;<a href="https://abcdstudy.org/">Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development&nbsp;(ABCD) Study</a>, which aims to understand the factors that influence brain, cognitive, and social-emotional development, in order to help devising interventions to enhance young people’s life trajectories. They separated the participants into two groups – those reporting playing no video games versus those playing such games for three or more hours daily, and evaluated their performance on two cognitive tasks that reflected their capacity to control impulsive behavior and to memorize information, as well as their brain activity while performing these tasks.



The analysis revealed that the children playing video games were faster and more accurate on both tasks and showed higher activity in areas of the brain associated with attention and memory, as well as in the frontal lobes, which play a fundamental role in the performance of cognitively demanding tasks. Although some of the children playing video games reported higher mental health and behavioral issues compared to those who played no video games, this association did not appear to be statistically significant.



“While we cannot say whether playing video games regularly caused superior neurocognitive performance, it is an encouraging finding, and one that we must continue to investigate in these children as they transition into adolescence and young adulthood,” said study lead author Bader Chaarani, an assistant professor of Psychiatry at the <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/">University of Vermont</a>. “Many parents today are concerned about the effects of video games on their children’s health and development, and as these games continue to proliferate among young people, it is crucial that we better understand both the positive and negative impact that such games may have.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.35721">JAMA Network Open</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

Video gaming may increase cognitive performance

Many studies have reported associations between video gaming and increases...

Scientists have long investigated the connection between <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/meal-timing-decrease-appetite/">meal timing</a>, sleep, and obesity, arguing that overnutrition could disrupt circadian rhythms and change fat tissues. However, the mechanism behind why eating late at night is linked to weight gain and health issues such as diabetes is still poorly understood. 



Now, a team of scientists from the <a href="https://www.northwestern.edu/">Northwestern University</a> has found that energy release may be the molecular mechanism through which our internal clocks control energy balance – an aspect which suggests that, for humans, daytime is the ideal time in the light environment of the Earth’s rotation when it is optimal to dissipate energy as heat. These finding could have a range of implications, from dieting and sleep loss to how clinicians feed patients who require long-term nutritional assistance.



“It is well known, albeit poorly understood, that insults to the body clock are going to be insults to metabolism,” said study corresponding author Joseph T. Bass, a professor of Medicine at Northwestern. “When animals consume Western style cafeteria diets — high fat, high carb — the clock gets scrambled. The clock is sensitive to the time people eat, especially in fat tissue, and that sensitivity is thrown off by high-fat diets. We still don’t understand why that is, but what we do know is that as animals become obese, they start to eat more when they should be asleep. This research shows why that matters.”



In this recent study, the scientists focused on mice, which are nocturnal animals. By feeding them a high-fat diet either exclusively during their inactive or active period – while setting the lab temperature to 30 degrees, at which mice expand less energy, to mitigate the effects of temperature on their findings - the researchers discovered that those fed during light hours gained more weight compared to those fed in the dark.



“We thought maybe there’s a component of energy balance where mice are expending more energy eating at specific times,” said study first author Chelsea Hepler, a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Bass’ lab. “That’s why they can eat the same amount of food at different times of the day and be healthier when they eat during active periods versus when they should be sleeping.”&nbsp;



These findings could inform chronic care, particularly in cases where patients have gastric feeding tubes. Such patients are commonly fed at night while they sleep and they are releasing the least amount of energy. Since many of them tend to develop obesity and diabetes, medical professional should re-think their strategy to improve their patients’ health and well-being.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abl8007">Science</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

Why does eating late lead to obesity and diabetes?

Scientists have long investigated the connection between meal timing, sleep,...

Panama disease is one of the most destructive plant <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-heightens-risk-of-most-infectious-diseases/">diseases</a> of modern times. It is caused by a fungal pathogen called Fusarium oxysporum cubense, and is also known as Fusarium wilt. It infects banana plants, causing the leaves to turn yellow and wilt, the corm to rot and the vessels to become blocked. Infected plants will invariably die. The fungus is easily spread in the form of hardy spores residing in the soil and also by the transplantation of young banana suckers that appear uninfected but do, in fact, already carry the fungus.&nbsp;



Bananas are one of the most important crops in the world. Over 100 million metric tons are produced in total each year, in more than 150 countries. Not only are they exported and consumed world-wide, but also they provide staple local food for almost half a billion people. They are thus an essential calorie crop and a revenue-generating trade commodity.&nbsp;



In the 1950s, a race of the same fungus (Fusarium oxysporum cubense&nbsp;Race 1) was responsible for an outbreak of Panama disease that almost wiped out commercial banana production around the world. At that time the ‘Gros Michel’ cultivar was the dominant variety of banana and was relied upon for almost all exports. In order to overcome the disaster, a new variety known as ‘Cavendish’ was introduced. This cultivar was not susceptible to the disease and soon replaced the Gros Michel bananas in terms of exports.&nbsp;



Unfortunately, by 1967, a new race of the fungus, known as Tropical Race 4 (TR4), was detected in Taiwan and proved infectious even to the Cavendish variety of banana plants. Since then TR4 has spread rapidly to continents across the world; it reached Africa by 2015 and, by August 2019, had arrived in Colombia in Latin America, a region famed for being the world’s biggest exporters of bananas. This aggressive fungus once again places banana production in jeopardy, threatening to inflict enormous costs on farmers and local people who depend on the fruit for income as well as nutritional value.&nbsp;



The new Panama disease threat is of particular significance as Cavendish bananas currently account for about 40 percent of world production and more than 90 percent of all exports. Normally the best method of controlling fungi on crops is to use fungicides but, so far, none of the usual chemical measures has shown much efficacy against TR4. In a systematic new study, reported in the journal&nbsp;<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1010860">PLOS Pathogens</a>, University of Exeter scientists have now tested 21 fungicides of seven different types, in the hope of identifying a chemical agent that can control Panama disease.&nbsp;



Funded by the BBSRC Global Food Systems initiative (GFS), the team of researchers, led by Professor Steinberg and Professor Sarah Gurr, used a multi-disciplinary approach to improve their understanding of why the trusted fungicides did not appear to work on Panama disease. They tested the fungicides against TR4 spores and hyphae in laboratory cultures, as well as in infected banana corms and roots in the field. By combining expertise in cell and molecular biology, bioinformatics and plant pathology, the team revealed that all major classes of single-site fungicides do not work against this troublesome pathogen.&nbsp;



Their results did, however, provide insight about the molecular reason behind the “tolerance” of these fungicides exhibited by Fusarium TR4. Guided by this understanding, the research team tested seven different multi-site fungicides and discovered that some of this specialized class of anti-fungal chemistries, not previously used on bananas, are toxic to TR4 spores. Further tests using different concentrations of these potentially effective fungicides, and monitoring for possible negative outcomes on plant leaves and corms, revealed two types of fungicides that do protected bananas against TR4-induced Panama disease. They identify these substances as captan and three types of mono-alkyl lipophilic cations (MALCS).



This discovery opens new avenues to develop efficient control strategies and provides a significant step forwards in the fight to protect this valuable crop. Professor Steinberg, who led the molecular and cellular aspects of the work, said: “Bananas are Britain's favorite fruit and Panama disease may ‘wipe’ them off the supermarket shelves. On top, millions of people in producer countries live on bananas. Providing an important step towards safeguarding bananas from Panama disease gives me great pride.”



"Our success is due to an enormous amount of dedicated work over several years with co-workers with hugely disparate skills," said Professor Sarah Gurr, the plant pathology expert who led all work on banana infection and pathogen cultivation. "We are highly delighted and excited by the outcome of our work and by the glimmer of hope that the beloved banana may remain as part of our daily diet.”



Professor Dan Bebber, who was not involved in the study but heads the Exeter Global Food Security program, said: “This work has rather excitingly opened the door to development of safe and effective ways of protecting the UK’s favorite fruit by demonstrating good levels of disease control with lesser known antifungals. It also confirms that basic research has the potential to provide answers to pressing challenges in global food security.”



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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

New research will help keep bananas on supermarket shelves

Panama disease is one of the most destructive plant diseases...

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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?

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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

[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...