Some of the most dramatic climate events in history are the Snowball Earth episodes, which occurred hundreds of millions of years ago. Nearly the entire planet was covered in ice up to a kilometer (0.6 miles) thick during these periods.&nbsp;



The rare Snowball Earth events did not follow regular cycles but lasted for millions to tens of millions of years before being followed by intense <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-global-warming-event-sheds-light-on-earths-future/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">warming</a>. Despite their significance, the details surrounding how these frozen periods ended are still not fully understood.



A new study led by the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Washington</a> (UW) offers a more complete picture of how the last Snowball Earth episode ended and sheds light on why it was followed by a major expansion of life, including the emergence of Earth's first animals.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-changes-in-key-earth-properties">Changes in key Earth properties</h2>



The research, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51412-8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>, focuses on ancient rocks known as “cap carbonates,” which are believed to have formed as the planet’s ice sheets thawed.&nbsp;



These rocks provide clues about the state of Earth's atmosphere and oceans roughly 640 million years ago - long before ice cores or <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earths-largest-ever-solar-storm-discovered-through-tree-rings/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tree rings</a> could record such history.



Study lead author Trent Thomas is a doctoral student in earth and space sciences at UW.



“Cap carbonates contain information about key properties of Earth's atmosphere and ocean, such as changing levels of carbon dioxide in the air or the acidity of the ocean,” said Thomas. "Our theory now shows how these properties changed during and after Snowball Earth.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-formation-of-cap-carbonates-nbsp">Formation of cap carbonates&nbsp;</h2>



Cap carbonates are layered limestone or dolomite rocks with distinct chemical properties. Today, they can be found in more than 50 locations worldwide, including places like Death Valley, Namibia, Siberia, Ireland, and Australia.&nbsp;



These formations are believed to have resulted from the melting of the ice sheets that once covered Earth, triggering significant shifts in atmospheric and oceanic chemistry. The unique sediments were then deposited on the ocean floor.



The rocks are called “caps” because they lie atop the glacial deposits left behind after the Snowball Earth <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/most-complete-record-of-snowball-earth-found-in-rock-formation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">events</a>, and they’re classified as “carbonates” because they consist of carbon-containing limestone or dolomite.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-animals-appeared-after-the-last-snowball-earth-nbsp">Animals appeared after the last Snowball Earth&nbsp;</h2>



Understanding how these rocks formed helps clarify the carbon cycle during periods of dramatic climate shifts. 



This latest study, which models these environmental changes, also provides clues about the evolution of life on Earth and explains why more complex life-forms emerged following the last Snowball Earth.



“Life on Earth was simple - in the form of microbes, algae, or other tiny aquatic organisms - for over two billion years leading up to Snowball Earth,” said senior author David Catling, a professor of earth and space sciences at UW.&nbsp;



“In fact, the billion years leading up to Snowball Earth are called the ‘boring billion’ because so little happened. Then two Snowball Earth events occurred, and soon after, animals appear in the fossil record.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-chemistry-of-a-snow-covered-earth-nbsp">Chemistry of a snow-covered Earth&nbsp;</h2>



The new research offers a framework to explain how these two events may be connected. The study models the chemistry and geology during three distinct phases of Snowball Earth.&nbsp;



During the peak of the icy period, the thick ice sheets covering the planet reflected sunlight, though some open water allowed limited exchange between the ocean and atmosphere. Meanwhile, the cold seawater continued reacting with the ocean floor.



Over time, carbon dioxide built up in the atmosphere until it trapped enough heat to warm the planet and melt the ice.&nbsp;



Once this occurred, rainfall began again, and freshwater from glacial melt poured into the oceans, creating a layer of meltwater that floated on top of the denser, salty ocean water.&nbsp;



This layering slowed down ocean circulation. Eventually, ocean mixing resumed, allowing the upper ocean, deep ocean, and atmosphere to interact again.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-s-recovery-from-the-snowball-period-nbsp">Earth's recovery from the Snowball period&nbsp;</h2>



“We predict important changes in the environment as Earth recovered from the Snowball period, some of which affected the temperature, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/preparing-for-ocean-acidification-a-silent-killer-of-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">acidity</a>, and circulation of the ocean. Now that we know these changes, we can more confidently figure out how they affected Earth’s life,” noted Thomas.



The research team plans to continue exploring how pockets of life that may have survived during Snowball Earth’s tumultuous aftermath could have evolved into the more complex <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-life-and-environment-co-evolved-over-500-million-years/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">life</a> forms that appeared shortly after.



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‘Snowball Earth’ event set the stage for complex life

Some of the most dramatic climate events in history are the Snowball Earth episodes, which occurred hundreds of millions of years ago. Nearly the entire planet was covered in ice up to a kilometer (0.6 miles) thick during these periods.&nbsp; The rare Snowball Earth events did not follow regular cycles but lasted for millions to tens of millions of years before being followed by intense warming. Despite their significance, the details surrounding how these frozen periods ended are still not fully understood. A new study led by...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01254-x">Nature Human Behavior</a> has found that playing a recently developed action video game can help children significantly improve their reading skills. Since reading requires skills such as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/exercise-can-reduce-or-prevent-vision-loss/">vision</a>, attention, working memory, and cognitive flexibility, a research team led by Angela Pasqualotto, a postdoctoral fellow in Psychology at the <a href="https://www.unige.ch/en/">University of Geneva</a>, created a video game aiming to help children develop these capacities.



“The universe of this game is an alternative world in which the child, accompanied by his Raku, a flying creature, must carry out different missions to save planets and progress in the game,” explained Dr. Pasqualotto. &nbsp;“For example, the Raku flies through a meteor shower, moving around to avoid those or aiming at them to weaken their impact, while collecting useful resources for the rest of the game, a bit like what you find in action video games.”&nbsp;



Dr. Pasqualotto and her colleagues enrolled 150 Italian schoolchildren aged between 8 and 12, and divided them into two groups: one group played the action game developed by the team, and the other played <a href="https://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a>, a non-action game which teaches kids how to code, and also requires planning, reasoning, and problem-solving abilities.



After initially testing the children’s reading levels as well as their attentional control, the researchers asked them to play the games for six weeks (two hours per week) under supervision at school. After the end of this period, children’s reading capacities were tested again.



“We found a 7-fold improvement in attentional control in the children who played the action video game compared to the control group,” said Dr. Pasqualotto. “What is particularly interesting about this study is that we carried out three further assessment tests at 6 months, 12 months, and 18 months after training. On each occasion, the trained children performed better than the control group, which proves that these improvements were sustained.”



Moreover, the scientists observed clear improvements not only in reading speed, but also in reading accuracy, together with longer-term increases in the children’s overall school grades. &nbsp;“The effects are thus long-term, in line with the action video game strengthening the ability to learn how to learn,” said study co-author Daphne Bavelier, a professor of Psychology at the University of Geneva.



Researchers are now trying to adapt the videogame in German, English, and French to investigate whether its benefits on reading acquisition can extend to non-phonetic languages too, in which not all letters are pronounced, and thus require further abilities such as a greater reliance on memorization.&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

Playing action video games can improve reading skills

A new study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior...

A new study from <a href="https://www.waseda.jp/top/en/">Waseda University</a> reveals that eating slowly and chewing food well increases the body’s energy expenditure and can indeed help obesity and metabolic syndrome.&nbsp;



It may sound counterintuitive, but each time you eat food your body’s metabolic rate increases and you use up extra energy. So, in response to consuming calories, your body begins to use more calories. This is because food needs to be broken down, digested, absorbed and transported to various places in the body for storage. All of these processes require energy.



Although some of the energy generated by your body is used up in the digestion of your food, there is also heat produced each time you eat. This is known as diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT), or the thermic effect of food, and is defined as the amount of energy expenditure, above the basal metabolic rate, that is due to the cost of processing food for use and storage. A common estimate is that around 10 percent of the calories you consume in food will be used up in the processing of that same food.



Interestingly, previous studies by Dr. Yuka Hamada and Professor Naoyuki Hayashi from Waseda University have shown that eating slowly and chewing food thoroughly further increase the energy expenditure associated with the processing of food, as well as stimulating intestinal motility – all of which increases heat generation in the body after food intake. These findings have relevance for people wishing to maintain their weight or, indeed, to lose weight.&nbsp;



However, the findings of these earlier studies were complicated by the fact that the influence of the size of the bolus (swallowed lump of food) and the “lumpiness” of the food were not taken into consideration.&nbsp;



“We were unsure whether the size of the food bolus that entered the digestive tract contributed to the increase in DIT observed after slow eating," explained Professor Hayashi. "Also, do oral stimuli generated during prolonged chewing of food play any role in increasing DIT? To define slow chewing as an effective and scientific weight management strategy, we needed to look deeper into these aspects.”



In their recent study, published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>, the scientists designed new experiments that excluded the effect of the food bolus by using liquid food. Their aim was to find out whether oral stimuli generated during prolonged chewing of food had any influence on the increase in metabolic rate that follows the ingestion of food.



The study involved 11 adult male volunteers, each of whom went through three eating trials while various aspects of their physiology, metabolic rate and circulatory systems were monitored.&nbsp;



In the first trial, volunteers swallowed 20ml of cocoa-flavored liquid food every 30 seconds until 200 ml had been ingested. In the second trial, conducted at least three days later, the volunteers were again given 20 ml samples of the same liquid food every 30 seconds but had to keep it in the mouth for 30 seconds before swallowing it. This meant that they tasted the food for 30 seconds each time.&nbsp;



In the final trial, the effect of both tasting and chewing were assessed. In this third test, conducted after another break of at least three days, the volunteers had to “chew” each sample of liquid food for 30 seconds (at a rate of one chew per second) before ingesting. In each trial, a total of 200 ml of liquid food was swallowed and the effects on variables such as DIT, hunger, fullness, gaseous exchange and circulation were measured.&nbsp;



The results showed that several metabolic and physiological measures were significantly affected by prolonged tasting and chewing of food. In particular, DIT increased significantly when food was tasted and when it was chewed for prolonged periods. 



In addition, circulation in the celiac artery increased with taste stimulation and with chewing. This artery supplies blood to the liver, stomach, abdominal esophagus, spleen, and the superior halves of the duodenum and the pancreas, and so the motility of the upper gastrointestinal tract was increased by taste and chewing.&nbsp;



“We found DIT or energy production increased after consuming a meal, and it increased with the duration of each taste stimulation and the duration of chewing. This means irrespective of the influence of the food bolus, oral stimuli, corresponding to the duration of tasting food in the mouth and the duration of chewing, increased DIT.”&nbsp;



The results also showed that protein oxidation was significantly greater in the chewing trial than in the control trial, at 45–60&nbsp;minutes after the test drink. This indicates that chewing helps to speed up and increase the digestion of proteins in particular. Fat and carbohydrate oxidation did not differ significantly between the trials.&nbsp;



The researchers calculated the increase in energy production due to DIT from the 200-kcal beverage used in these experiments. They found that tasting increased DIT from 3.4&nbsp;kcal to 5.6&nbsp;kcal over 90&nbsp;minutes, and adding chewing increased it to 7.4&nbsp;kcal over 90&nbsp;minutes. Thus, the increase in DIT by chewing was between 1.8 and 4.0&nbsp;kcal over 90&nbsp;minutes. The use of liquid reduces the chewing stimulation, resulting in a smaller DIT than was recorded in previous studies that used solid foods.&nbsp;



“While the difference in energy expenditure per meal is small, the cumulative effect gathered during multiple meals, taken over every day and 365 days a year, is substantial," concluded Hayashi.



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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

Chewing food thoroughly may help manage weight

A new study from Waseda University reveals that eating slowly...

In our contemporary society, seven or eight hours of rest per night without any interruptions is considered the norm for a healthy sleeping pattern. However, according to Roger Ekirch, a professor of history at <a href="https://vt.edu/">Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University</a> (Virginia Tech), sleep is not a biological constant, and changes substantially in different historical and cultural contexts.&nbsp;



While researching nocturnal life in preindustrial Europe and America, Professor Ekirch discovered strong evidence that people used to sleep in segments – a first and a second period of rest, separated by a few hours dedicated to activities such as sex, eating, chatting, praying, or taking medicine. The practice of sleeping throughout the entire night didn’t appear to take hold until a few centuries later, when electricity and the Industrial Revolution changed our <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-acidification-disrupts-the-behavior-of-fish-shoals/">behavior</a> patterns forever.



The remnants of the “by-phasic sleep” mentioned in many medieval diaries, medical texts, literary works, and prayer books, can be found in our modern society too. “A large number of people who today suffer from middle-of-the-night insomnia, the primary sleep disorder in the United States - and I dare say in most industrialized countries - rather than experiencing a quote unquote, disorder, are in fact, experiencing a very powerful remnant, or echo of this earlier pattern of sleep," explained Ekirch.



However, this does not mean that we should consider by-phasic sleep as “normal” or healthier than other types of sleep. "There is no such thing as natural sleep. Sleep has always been cultural, social and ideological," said Brigitte Steger, a senior lecturer in Japanese Studies at the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a>.



Moreover, it would be too simplistic to understand the Industrial Revolution as a clear turning point, completely changing sleep patterns.&nbsp;



"There is not such a clear-cut difference between premodern (or pre-industrial) and modern sleep habits," explained Professor Steger. "And sleep habits throughout pre-industrial times and throughout the world have always changed. And, of course, there has always been social diversity, and sleep habits have been very different at court than for peasants, for instance."



Other scholars such as Gerrit Verhoeven, an assistant professor of Cultural Heritage and History at the <a href="https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/">University of Antwerp</a> in Belgium, did not find evidence of fundamental changes in sleep patterns throughout history.



“As a historian I'm concerned that arguments about alleged sleeping patterns in the past - prolonged, by-phasic and with napping during the day - are sometimes presented as a possible remedy for our modern sleeping disorders. Before drawing such conclusions, we have to do much more research about these early modern sleeping patterns," he said.&nbsp;



Professor Ekirch’s findings are explained in great detail in his book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/At-Days-Close-Night-Times/dp/0393329011">At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past</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

Sleeping patterns were different during the Middle Ages

In our contemporary society, seven or eight hours of rest...

New research led by a team of biologists from the <a href="https://www.utah.edu/">University of Utah</a> has found that California mice eat <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-predators-have-outsmarted-monarch-butterflies/">monarch butterflies</a> that fall to the ground. This is despite the fact that these butterflies possess a potent “chemical armor” from eating milkweed with toxic cardenolides. The milkweed toxins build up in their bodies and make monarchs unpalatable to most (but not all) predators.



Scientists have long observed that in Central Mexico, the place with the largest winter aggregations of monarchs, the black-eared mouse (Peromyscus melanotis) eats up to 40 of these butterflies each night. More recently, researchers found that the western harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys megalotis) also consume grounded monarchs at the Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove in California.



To study mice-monarch interactions, the researchers first trapped rodents in the grove in February 2020 and screened their feces for monarch DNA, which they found in one sample. The scientists intended to return the next year, but unfortunately, after years of gradual decline, the monarch population finally crashed.



"At a site where 100,000 butterflies used to roost, in 2020 there where were fewer than 200 monarchs. So, we had to change tactics," said study lead author Sara Weinstein, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utah. "We tested whether rodents would feed on the butterflies using captive-reared monarchs."



Weinstein and her colleagues found that rodents that were offered monarchs ate them, usually favoring high-calorie parts with fewer toxins such as the abdomen or thorax. "Many rodent species are likely to have some resistance to cardenolides in monarchs, due to genetic changes at the site where these toxins bind," explained Dr. Weinstein.&nbsp;



"The Pismo Grove is one of hundreds of western monarch aggregation sites, and it seems likely that, at least in the past, rodents throughout the western monarch range may have supplemented their winter diets with monarchs. If you can handle the cardenolides in a monarch, their bodies are full of fat and offer a pretty good meal."



The massive decline of monarch populations is only one example of an ongoing “insect <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-sixth-mass-extinction-is-currently-in-progress/">apocalypse</a>.” According to Dr. Weinstein, about 40 percent of invertebrate species are currently threatened and over 70 percent of flying insect biomass may already be gone. “This is devastating on its own and is also going to have enormous impacts on the other organisms that feed on insects," Dr. Weinstein said.



"Western monarchs and other western butterflies need conservation attention and part of that awareness-raising is illuminating the many ways these animals are interconnected to other insects, birds, mammals, as well as our human communities. This study helps us appreciate more deeply how fewer butterflies means less food for other native animals," added Emma Pelton, a senior conservation biologist at the <a href="https://www.xerces.org/">Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation</a>.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.3607">Ecology</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

California mice can feed on poisonous monarch butterflies

New research led by a team of biologists from the...

The evolution of our <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dozens-of-free-floating-planets-found-in-the-milky-way/">planet</a> is a story of gradual cooling. While 4.5 billion years ago, extreme temperatures and a deep ocean of magma prevailed on the surface of the Earth, the planet’s surface shifted to a cooling phase over the next millions of years that formed a brittle crust. However, the immense thermal energy emanating from the Earth’s core set various dynamic processes in motion, such as plate tectonics, volcanism, and mantle convection.



There is still no scientific consensus regarding how fast the Earth has cooled, or how long it will take until the heat-related dynamic processes mentioned above will stop due to cooling. By investigating the thermal conductivity of the minerals which form the boundary between the Earth’s core and mantle, a research team led by <a href="https://ethz.ch/en.html">ETH Zürich</a> has found that the Earth may in fact be cooling much faster than initially estimated.



Studying this boundary layer, formed mainly of a mineral called bridgmanite, is important since it is the place where the viscous rock of the Earth’s mantle is in direct contact with the hot iron-nickel melt of its outer core, causing significant heat flow.



The scientists used a recently developed optical absorption measurement system in a diamond unit heated with a pulse laser in order to measure the thermal conductivity of bridgmanite in the laboratory, under the pressure and temperatures prevailing inside the Earth.



“This measurement system let us show that the thermal conductivity of bridgmanite is about 1.5 times higher than assumed,” reported study lead author Motohiko Murakami, a specialist in Earth Sciences at ETH Zürich. This finding suggests that the heat flow from the Earth’s core into the mantle is higher than estimated, a phenomenon which increases mantle convection and accelerates the cooling of the Earth.



Moreover, Murakami and his colleagues also discovered that rapid cooling of the mantle will turn bridgmanite into the mineral post-perovskite which, once predominant, will further accelerate the cooling of the mantle due to its higher efficiency in conducting heat.



“Our results could give us a new perspective on the evolution of the Earth’s dynamics. They suggest that Earth, like the other rocky planets Mercury and Mars, is cooling and becoming inactive much faster than expected,” Murakami explained.



Further research is needed to find out how long it will take for convection currents in the mantle to stop. &nbsp;“We still don’t know enough about these kinds of events to pin down their timing,” concluded Murakami.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X21005859?via%3Dihub#!">Earth and Planetary Science Letters</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

Earth’s interior is cooling faster than previously thought

The evolution of our planet is a story of gradual...

After rising more than twentyfold in December due to the spread of the highly-contagious <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/did-the-omicron-variant-jump-to-humans-from-mice/">Omicron</a> variant, the number of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/covid-19-can-prompt-the-creation-of-self-attacking-antibodies/">Covid-19</a> cases in New York City appears to start flattening. In other major cities first hit by the Omicron wave, such as Washington D.C., Newark, Cleveland, New Jersey, Maryland and Boston, case numbers have already started to decrease. The news offers hope to Americans that the Omicron wave may have started to peak and the infections will soon drop rapidly.



This pattern of fast rise and fall of Omicron cases was already noticed a few weeks ago in the case of the variant’s first epicenter, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/31/south-africa-omicron-coronavirus-peak/">South Africa</a>, and more recently in other countries such as the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/omicron-peak-appears-to-have-passed-in-u-k-offering-hope-the-wave-is-receding-11642078349">United Kingdom.</a> The decline in hospitalizations and deaths in South Africa and the current flattening of the number of severe cases in certain European countries increases hope that Omicron’s toll may turn out to be less than Delta’s.



However, the situation in the United States appears more worrisome than in these other countries. With hospitalization numbers reaching all-time <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-breaks-covid-19-hospitalization-record-omicron-surges-2022-01-10/">records</a> and deaths averaging over 1,800 per day in the past week (a 50 percent increase over the past&nbsp; two weeks), the U.S. is “very far from being out if the woods,” as Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, the director of the <a href="https://odh.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/odh/home">Ohio Department of Health</a>, put it.&nbsp;



“If we’ve learned one thing about Covid it’s that it is extraordinarily unpredictable. And things can change dramatically and quickly,” he added.



Even if U.S.’s new case numbers have already peaked and the country will follow the same pattern of rapid descent as places where the Omicron wave has already peaked and is now falling sharply, rises in hospitalizations and deaths are still expected for a few more weeks, possibly even until mid-February. Moreover, U.S.’s rather low vaccine uptake (63 percent) leaves a large part of the population susceptible to more severe forms of illness.



However, the hope that Omicron may be a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/14/world/europe/uk-omicron-coronavirus-pandemic.html">turning point</a> in the pandemic - by offering a large amount of herd immunity at a bearable cost, due to high transmissibility but inherent mildness - increases in many places all over the world, with several countries in Europe starting to treat the variant more like the common flu, and let it become an inescapable, yet less dangerous part of our daily lives.



“At some point, we’ll be able to draw a line — and Omicron may be that point — where we transition from what is a catastrophic global threat to something that’s a much more manageable disease,” said Lauren Ancel Meyers, a professor of Integrative Biology and Statistics at the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/">University of Texas</a>.



Yet, many public health experts are warning that it is too early to make this call. In a recent plea published in the <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o90">British Medical Journal</a>, an international team of scientists argued that there is still an urgent need to “reduce infections to avoid overwhelming health systems and protect public life and the economy.”



“Even under the most optimistic assumptions, letting Omicron run unfettered risks potentially devastating consequences,” they warned.



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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

Omicron is starting to peak in the United States

After rising more than twentyfold in December due to the...

A new study led by the <a href="https://higgs.ph.ed.ac.uk/">Higgs Center for Theoretical Physics</a> in the United Kingdom has found that bacteria may have traveled from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-shed-new-light-on-the-origins-of-life-on-earth/">Earth</a> into space after being blown into the atmosphere by high-speed vertical winds. The scientists estimate that particles the size of bacteria can be pushed at least 90 miles into the atmosphere by strong winds, and then carried further by hyper-fast space dust.&nbsp;



Researchers had previously estimated that the biosphere (the area of the Earth containing life) extends up to only 50 miles, but recent discoveries of terrestrial bacteria on the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html">International Space Station</a> (ISS) show that life can be found even 250 miles above the Earth’s surface.&nbsp;



According to study lead author Arjun Berera, a researcher at the Higgs Center, vertical winds blowing at up to 335 miles per hour, especially during geomagnetic storms near the poles, could have transported these bacteria into outer space.



“The cases in our paper did not show particles could reach quite as high at 150 km [90 miles], but we think it presents plausible evidence that this is possible, but more data and understanding of vertical winds is still needed,” said Professor Berera.



“Our estimates using reported observations of large vertical winds show that it is conceivable for such particles to be projected from near the highest measured altitudes in the mesosphere up to 120 km,” the study authors added. At this point, the particles have “enough momentum to facilitate the planetary escape.”



According to the scientists, these phenomena could help seed life on other planets, such as Mars. “If a biological particle escaped Earth and it landed on something that was conducive to life, biology tends to grow quite easily. Even if the probability of an escape event happening is quite low, like once every 50 years, if you think about long geological timescales there are a lot of events of potential life transfer that could happen from this mechanism,” explained Berera.



Moreover, these findings could also suggest that life on Earth may have originated through transfer of microorganisms from other planets (the so-called “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/panspermia">panspermia theory</a>”). &nbsp;“It is possible if there were say biological particles in early Mars, that they may have been propelled into space and possibly landed on Earth,” Berera said.&nbsp;



Further research is needed to understand what distances can micro-organism travel through space, and what are the factors that influence their journey.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.2021.0626">Proceedings of the Royal Society A</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

Life on Earth may have blown in from outer space

A new study led by the Higgs Center for Theoretical...

During the last year, people spent an average of 4.8 hours per day on their smartphones, thus nearly a third of their waking hours. Globally, consumers spent 3.8 trillion hours on mobile phones, paid $320,000 on apps every minute, and downloaded over 435,000 <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/health-exercise-apps-teens/">apps</a> per minute. These statistics are detailed in a new <a href="https://www.appannie.com/en/insights/market-data/state-of-mobile-2022/">report</a> from <a href="https://www.appannie.com/en/">App Annie</a>, the “State of Mobile in 2022."



By analyzing a vast amount of data, including downloads, consumer spending, and usage estimates, the App Annie company - a leading global provider of mobile data and analytics - has found that smartphones may be the leading technology of the present.



“Mobile is the greatest of all time and the go-to device of the future,' said Theodore Krantz, CEO of App Annie. “The big screen is slowly dying as mobile continues to break records in virtually every category – time spent, downloads and revenue.”



“Despite access to bigger screens, consumers are still watching content on mobile. Competition is heating up in the space and exclusive content is a way of drawing in new viewers.”&nbsp;



The data revealed that, globally, consumers spent $170 billion on apps (up to 19 percent from 2020), while app downloads have continued increasing at five percent each year, reaching a record of 230 billion in 2021. 



The greatest increases were seen in consumer spending on dating apps ($4.2 billion, marking a 55 percent increase from 2019), followed closely by food and drink apps, with a 50 percent yearly increase. Online advertising is also surging, topping $295 billion in 2021 (a 23 percent increase), and heading toward $350 billion within a year.&nbsp;



In terms of user engagement, TikTok, a newly established Chinese social media app, was the standout winner, ahead of previous leaders such as Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp. While TikTok and Facebook both registered 19.6 average monthly hours per user in 2021, TikTok witnessed an extraordinary growth, from only 13.3 average monthly hours in 2020.



“2021 was another blockbuster year in mobile, following a pandemic-induced catalyst to mobile habits in 2020. 2022 is set to blow past records in a transformed economy reliant on digital socialization, hybrid work, and entertainment from the palm of your hand. A mobile-first strategy is a prerequisite for success in our transformed economy,” App Annie said.



However, whether we should be as optimistic as this company regarding such life-changing transformations remains an open question. Research into smartphone technology should also take into account their negative impacts, such as the diminished need for real-life interaction, disruption of sleeping patterns, and the emergence or exacerbation of mental disorders, such as ADHD, depression, or anxiety.



&nbsp;---



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

People spend nearly 5 hours a day on smartphones

During the last year, people spent an average of 4.8...

In a new study from the <a href="https://www.uc.edu/">University of Cincinnati</a>, researchers have discovered that a type of brightly colored jumping spider is <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dinosaurs-may-have-had-pops-of-color-like-modern-ducks/">color</a> blind. The study was focused on Saitis barbipes, a common jumping spider found in Europe and North Africa. 



The males of this species have a furry red crown and legs. They are known for performing elaborate courtship dances.



“We assumed they were using color for communication. But we didn’t know if their visual system even allowed them to see those colors,” said study co-first author David Outomuro.



Using microspectrophotometry to examine jumping spiders collected in Slovenia, the team found no evidence of a red photoreceptor. The experts also looked for colored filters that might shift green sensitivity to red, but found that there were none.



The researchers ultimately determined that, most likely, bright red colors appear no different than black markings to these jumping spiders.



"To quantify and visualize whether females may nevertheless be capable of discriminating red from black color patches, we take multispectral images of males and calculate photoreceptor excitations and color contrasts between color patches," explained the study authors&nbsp;&nbsp;



"Red patches would be, at best, barely discriminable from black, and not discriminable from a low-luminance green."



“It’s a bit of a head-scratcher, what’s going on here,” said study co-author Professor Nathan Morehouse. “We haven’t solved the mystery of what the red is doing.”&nbsp;



Even though animals use color in all sorts of ways, including camouflage, it’s not always apparent what bright colors might signify, according to Professor Morehouse. “We spent a lot of time talking about it as a group. What else could it be? I feel there’s an interesting story behind the mystery."



Study senior author Cynthia Tedore, a research associate at the University of Hamburg, said the results of the research were surprising.



“Males have bold red and black coloration on their forward-facing body surfaces which they display during their courtship dances; whereas, females lack red coloration altogether. This initially suggested to us that the red color must play some role in mate attraction," said Tedore.



“Instead, we found that red and black are perceived equivalently, or nearly so, by these spiders and that if red is perceived as different from black, it is perceived as a dark ‘spider green’ rather than red."



The researchers believe that the spider’s red and black colors may possibly improve defensive camouflage.



“For predators with red vision, at natural viewing distances, the spider's red and black color patches should blur together to become an intermediate orangish-brownish color, which would help the spider blend in with its leaf litter habitat better than all-black coloration would,” said Tedore.



The experts noted that there are many colorful jumping spiders that see red perfectly well. There are also many dull-colored spiders that have great color vision.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.springer.com/journal/114">The Science of Nature</a>.



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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

Scientists find a colorful jumping spider that is color blind

In a new study from the University of Cincinnati, researchers...

New research led by <a href="https://newbrunswick.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers University – New Brunswick</a> and funded by <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a> has discovered the structures of proteins that might have been responsible for the origins of life from the “primordial soup” of chemical elements of ancient <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/earth-humans-and-all-living-creatures-are-made-from-stars/">Earth</a>. By investigating how primitive forms of life on our planet originated from simple, non-living materials, scientists finally managed to address one of the mysteries of modern biology.



“We have very little information about how life arose on this planet, and our work contributes a previously unavailable explanation,” said study lead author Yana Bromberg, a professor of Microbiology and Bioinformatics at Rutgers.&nbsp;



According to Professor Bromberg and her colleagues, all living organism would have needed to collect and store energy from sources such as the Sun or hydrothermal <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/deep-sea-vents-are-favorable-to-the-formation-of-life/">vents</a>. In molecular terms, this would entail the ability to shuffle electrons. And since the best elements for electron transfers are metals and most activities connected to life are carried out by proteins, the researchers decided to investigate proteins that bind metals as potential precursors to living organisms.



By applying advanced computational methods, the scientists found that the majority of metal-binding proteins are similar regardless of the type of metals they bind to, the organism they come from, or their overall functionality.&nbsp;



“We saw that the metal-binding cores of existing proteins are indeed similar even though the proteins themselves may not be. We also saw that these metal-binding cores are often made up of repeated substructures, kind of like LEGO blocks,” explained Professor Bromberg. &nbsp;&nbsp;



“Curiously, these blocks were also found in other regions of the proteins, not just metal-binding cores, and in many other proteins that were not considered in our study. Our observation suggests that rearrangements of these little building blocks may have had a single or a small number of common ancestors and given rise to the whole range of proteins and their functions that are currently available - that is, to life as we know it.”&nbsp;



“This explanation could also potentially contribute to our search for life on other planets and planetary bodies. Our finding of the specific structural building blocks is also possibly relevant for synthetic biology efforts, where scientists aim to construct specifically active proteins anew,” she concluded.



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

Study sheds new light on the origins of life on Earth

New research led by Rutgers University – New Brunswick and...

A new study led by <a href="https://www.tcd.ie/">Trinity College Dublin</a> has found that forgetting may be an important functional feature of the brain, allowing it to interact dynamically with the environment, and could ultimately be understood as a form of learning.



As we live our lives, we create an enormous number of memories, most of which we forget. While forgetting has usually been understood in negative terms, as a weakness of our cognitive system, a research team from Trinity College Dublin discovered that forgetting some memories could in fact be beneficial, as it can lead to more flexible behavior and better decision-making.&nbsp;



According to the scientists, if certain memories were gained in circumstances that are not fully relevant to the current environment, forgetting them may well be a positive thing, improving our well-being. In other words, we learn to forget some memories, while retaining others that are more important to our current situation.



“Memories are stored in ensembles of neurons called ‘engram cells,’ and successful recall of these memories involves the reactivation of these ensembles. The logical extension of this is that forgetting occurs when engram cells cannot be reactivated. The memories themselves are still there, but if the specific ensembles cannot be activated, they can’t be recalled. It’s as if the memories are stored in a safe but you can’t remember the code to unlock it,” explained study lead author Dr. Tomás Ryan, an associated professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin.



“Our new theory proposes that forgetting is due to circuit remodeling that switches engram cells from an accessible to an inaccessible state. Because the rate of forgetting is impacted by environmental conditions, we propose that forgetting is actually a form of learning that alters memory accessibility in line with the environment and how predictable it is.”



Thus, according to Professor Ryan and his colleagues, forgetting is due to altered memory access rather than memory loss. This important insight could have a significant impact in explaining not only the structure of memory in general but also pathological conditions related to memory loss, such as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drinking-coffee-protects-against-alzheimers-disease/">Alzheimer</a>’s disease.



“We believe that this ‘natural forgetting’ is reversible in certain circumstances, and that in disease states – such as in people living with Alzheimer’s disease for example – these natural forgetting mechanisms are hijacked, which results in greatly reduced engram cell accessibility and pathological memory loss,” wrote the authors.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41583-021-00548-3">Nature Reviews Neuroscience</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

Forgetting may actually be a form of learning

A new study led by Trinity College Dublin has found...

A new study led by scientists from the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a> has found an increase in the diversity of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bacteria-can-help-sustainably-extract-rare-earth-elements/">bacteria</a> in the genus Vibrio in UK waters. Scientists discovered V. rotiferianus and V. jasicida, two species that have never been detected in the waste of this region before.&nbsp;



The increase in diversity of Vibrio bacteria may harm sea creatures such as shellfish, and can also be harmful to humans.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



"Vibrio species can often be found in UK waters in summer, when temperatures are more favourable for them," said <a href="https://biosciences.exeter.ac.uk/staff/profile/index.php?web_id=sariqa_wagley">Dr. Sariqa Wagley</a>. "With sea-surface temperatures rising due to climate change, Vibrio activity in the waters is more common, and the diversity of Vibrio species is now increasing. We found Vibrio parahaemolyticus – the leading cause of seafood-borne gastroenteritis worldwide – at Chichester Harbour."Despite the potential health concerns, Dr. Wagley points out that there are easy ways to avoid sickness, even with the spread of bacteria from food.&nbsp;



"It is important to note that thorough cooking kills harmful Vibrio bacteria in seafood. However, increasing abundance and diversity of Vibrio bacteria creates health risks not only for people eating seafood, but for those using the sea for recreation purposes – either due to swallowing infected seawater or from the bacteria entering exposed wounds or cuts.”



Besides their direct impact on human health, Vibrio bacteria have significant indirect impacts, including harm to the shellfish industry.&nbsp;



"Vibrio bacteria are also a threat to a variety of marine species including shellfish themselves. Disease costs the global aquaculture industry £6 billion a year, and this burden of disease can be devastating," said Dr. Wagley.



"We have not seen mass mortality of shellfish due to Vibrio bacteria here in the UK yet, but this has occurred elsewhere – including in France and Australia."



The research highlights the need for careful monitoring of the situation, both for human health as well as marine biodiversity.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/water-research">Water Research</a>.



Image Credit: Dr. Luke Helmer



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New bacteria found in the UK linked to warming waters

A new study led by scientists from the University of...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

[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 



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.

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



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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



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The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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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"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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



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

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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

Satellites have become essential to our survival

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