The Universe contains many types of massive formations that shape our understanding of how stars and galaxies group together. Astronomers have long studied these sprawling patterns, which give valuable clues about where matter gathers and where it remains thinly spread. 



These features define how cosmic evolution unfolds and guide current theories of how the universe expands.



Recently, a team of experts announced a giant find. This collection of galaxy clusters surpasses previous giants by orders of magnitude.



This study adds fresh insights by demonstrating that our <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/interstellar-tunnel-found-that-connects-our-solar-system-to-other-stars/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cosmic neighborhood</a> can still surprise us with unexpected details about how matter arranges itself across unimaginable distances.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-galaxy-clusters-distribution">Galaxy clusters distribution</h2>



Hans Böhringer from the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (<a href="https://www.mpe.mpg.de/main" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MPE</a>) coordinated the effort in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Physics (<a href="https://www.mpp.mpg.de/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MPP</a>) and teams in Spain and South Africa. 



Their work relied on the ROSAT X-ray satellite’s survey, which singled out clusters of galaxies by detecting the energetic radiation these huge clusters emit. 



These data allowed the researchers to build a three-dimensional map of our cosmic vicinity.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/quipo_superstructure_3D-model_credit-MPE_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/quipo_superstructure_3D-model_credit-MPE_1s.webp" alt="Three-dimensional representation of the Quipu superstructure. Credit: MPE" class="wp-image-1960534"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Three-dimensional representation of the Quipu superstructure. Credit: MPE</figcaption></figure>



“If you look at the distribution of the galaxy clusters in the sky in a spherical shell with a distance of 416 to 826 million light-years, you immediately notice a huge structure that stretches from high northern latitudes to almost the southern end of the sky,” explains Böhringer.



By tracing each cluster’s position in space, his team pinpointed how matter spreads out in swirling patterns of galaxies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-quipu-superstructure">The Quipu superstructure</h2>



The researchers named this discovery “Quipu,” taking inspiration from the knotted string recording system once used by the Incas. 



Observed as a long strand with smaller threads branching off, the Quipu superstructure contains 68 galaxy clusters with a combined mass of about 2.4 × 10^17 solar masses. 



Its size of roughly 1.4 billion light-years makes Quipu the largest superstructure ever accurately measured, surpassing the Sloan Great Wall’s 1.1 billion light-years.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/quipo_superstructure_illustration_credit-MPE_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/quipo_superstructure_illustration_credit-MPE_1s.webp" alt="Distribution of galaxies (color coding) and galaxy clusters (black dots) in a spherical shell with a distance of 416 to 826 million light years surrounding us. The five superstructures are marked: 1 Quipu, 2 Shapley, 3 Serpens-Corona Borealis and Hercules (overlapping in the sky), 4 Sculptor-Pegasus. The area enclosed by white lines is shadowed by the disk of the Milky Way. Credit: MPE" class="wp-image-1960536"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Distribution of galaxies (color coding) and galaxy clusters (black dots) in a spherical shell with a distance of 416 to 826 million light years surrounding us. The five superstructures are marked: 1 Quipu, 2 Shapley, 3 Serpens-Corona Borealis and Hercules (overlapping in the sky), 4 Sculptor-Pegasus. The area enclosed by white lines is shadowed by the disk of the Milky Way. Credit: MPE</figcaption></figure>



“This breaks the size record of all reliably measured cosmic structures,” note the researchers who compared the finding with other known formations. 



“The Quipu superstructure, end to end, is slightly longer than the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/SDSS-3D-Universe-Map-Credit-Sloan-Digital-Sky-Survey-Team-NASA-NSF-DOE_fig2_357328983" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sloan Great Wall</a>,” says J. Richard Gott III at Princeton University, who helped discover the Sloan Great Wall. “Congratulations to them for finding it.” 



The name also reflects a connection to Chile, where many distance measurements took place, and where ancient quipus are showcased in Santiago.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-quipu-and-cosmological-principle">Quipu and cosmological principle</h2>



Across extremely large distances, matter is believed to spread out nearly evenly. At smaller scales of about a billion light-years, it collects in superclusters and leaves behind voids. 



This balance underpins the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cosmic-order-or-chaos-universe-expansion-may-follow-a-hidden-pattern/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cosmological principle</a>, which suggests that if we look far enough, the universe should appear uniform in every direction. 



Some experts argue these huge arrangements question that principle’s validity, with past findings triggering debates. 



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/great-sloan-wall_superstructure_SDSS_credit-MIT_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/great-sloan-wall_superstructure_SDSS_credit-MIT_1s.webp" alt="Sloan Great Wall of galaxies. SDSS 3D Universe Map Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey Team, NASA, NSF, DOE." class="wp-image-1960531"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Sloan Great Wall of galaxies is 1.1 billion light years long. SDSS 3D Universe Map Credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey Team, NASA, NSF, DOE.</figcaption></figure>



“Making observations in too small a part of the universe, which has been done earlier on, can be misleading,” says Böhringer. 



Another point comes from an ambiguous definition of the principle. “There is not yet one definition of the cosmological principle that every cosmologist agrees on,” says Alexia Lopez at the <a href="https://www.uclan.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Central Lancashire</a> in the UK. 



Meanwhile, Seshadri Nadathur at the <a href="https://www.port.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Portsmouth</a> notes that “some of those galaxies may drift apart from each other instead of collapsing in on themselves, in which case, according to some interpretations, it’s not really a bound structure.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cosmic-measurements-and-consequences">Cosmic measurements and consequences</h2>



Quipu’s existence highlights how vast formations can shape calculations of cosmic expansion rates and the properties of primordial radiation left over from the early universe. 



Astronomers pay close attention to features like superclusters because they alter light paths and influence how we determine important parameters such as the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/unknown-factors-are-accelerating-the-expansion-of-the-universe/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Hubble constant</a>. 



Small discrepancies can add up when researchers aim for precise numbers in modern cosmological studies.



“Even if these are only corrections of a few percent, they become increasingly important as the accuracy of cosmological observations increases,” emphasizes Gayoung Chon from the Max Planck Institute for Physics. 



This structure offers a reminder that the cosmos presents patterns on many scales. Those patterns appear to affect how we interpret data on the universe’s origin and shape the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/massive-galactic-explosion-provides-clues-about-galaxy-evolution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evolution of galaxies</a> in our vicinity and beyond.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-quipu-and-the-incas">Quipu and the Incas</h2>



The Incas once managed vast territories using quipus, a system of knotted strings that helped track resources and information. 



Each knot arrangement acted like a code, revealing essential data in a form that required no written script.



Quipu’s naming borrowed that image of intertwined threads. 



Researchers see it as a nod to humanity’s long history of gathering knowledge, whether through knotted strings or advanced telescopes that trace the distribution of galaxies across cosmic depths.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-happens-next">What happens next?</h2>



The discovery underscores how ongoing surveys might uncover more structures. 



Scientists are keen to see if similar patterns exist in parts of the sky that remain less charted, which could either confirm current theories or reveal new gaps in our understanding.



Future maps will rely on technology to gather clearer data from remote regions. 



These efforts reflect a human wish to capture our place in the universe, searching for the patterns that connect everything from particles to vast congregations of galaxies.



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Featured image: The open cluster Westerlund 1 is located roughly 12,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Ara (the Altar) where it resides behind a huge interstellar cloud of gas and dust. Credit: <a href="https://www.esa.int" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ESA</a>



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.19236" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Astronomy and Astrophysics</a>.



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Largest structure ever found in the universe is 1.4 billion light years long

The Universe contains many types of massive formations that shape our understanding of how stars and galaxies group together. Astronomers have long studied these sprawling patterns, which give valuable clues about where matter gathers and where it remains thinly spread. These features define how cosmic evolution unfolds and guide current theories of how the universe expands. Recently, a team of experts announced a giant find. This collection of galaxy clusters surpasses previous giants by orders of magnitude. This study adds fresh insights by demonstrating that our cosmic...

In our bodies, genetic codes describe the ways in which amino acids get assembled into chains known as peptides, which then form the building units of proteins. The formation of peptide bonds is one of the most important biochemical reactions and, in our cells, it is catalyzed (sped up) by enzymes in order to produce essential <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plant-cells-message-each-other-using-rna-and-escort-proteins/">proteins</a> quickly. But how did the very first proteins get assembled, before there were any living cells or enzymes to assist the process?



Earth did not always harbor life. In fact, for around 500 million years there was no life at all. But sometime around 4 billion years ago, something in the environment changed, and systems with biological properties began to emerge. Although amino acids of many different types were present before this, they were now able to assemble themselves into peptide chains, and later into proteins. Scientists have pondered how the chemistry of the early Earth may have facilitated the origin of these proteins, and have come up with many theories. However, there has been little experimental laboratory support for these ideas.&nbsp;



If, as scientists have theorized, life on Earth began in the oceans, then amino acids – which were considered to be abundant in these times – would have joined together by means of peptide bonds while surrounded by a watery medium. But the formation of a peptide bond between two amino acids requires the removal of a molecule of water, a process known as dehydration synthesis. Chemists have always thought this was rather unlikely to occur in a wet, aqueous or oceanic environment, especially without the presence of any catalyst to speed up the reaction.&nbsp;



New research from scientists at <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/">Purdue University</a> has now uncovered a mechanism whereby peptide bonds may form in the absence of a catalyst, even when the amino acids are surrounded by water.&nbsp; They say that the key to this process is that it took place within droplets of water, where the edge of the droplet comes into contact with the surrounding air.&nbsp;



“This is essentially the chemistry behind the origin of life,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chem.purdue.edu/people/profile/cooks">Graham Cooks</a>, the&nbsp;Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry in Purdue’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.purdue.edu/science/">College of Science</a>. “This is the first demonstration that primordial molecules, simple amino acids, spontaneously form peptides, the building blocks of life, in droplets of pure water. This is a dramatic discovery.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Cooks, an expert in mass spectrometry and early Earth chemistry, and his team have spent more than 10 years using mass spectrometers to study chemical reactions in droplets containing water.&nbsp;They say that “water isn’t wet everywhere.” In fact, where a water droplet meets the atmosphere, incredibly rapid reactions can take place, transforming free amino acids into the building blocks of life. Places where sea spray flies into the air and waves pound the land, or where fresh water tumbles down a rapid, would have provided suitable conditions for the evolution of life’s first proteins.&nbsp;



“The rates of reactions in droplets are anywhere from a hundred to a million times faster than the same chemicals reacting in bulk solution,” Cooks explained.&nbsp;&nbsp;



This rapid rate of reaction within microdroplets would do away with the need for catalysts or enzymes to speed things up, and make the synthesis of proteins possible in watery environments. This may be the mechanism that underlies the formation of complex molecules, such as proteins, in the chemical environment of early Earth. Understanding how this process works has been the goal of decades of scientific research. The secret of how life arose on Earth can help scientists understand why it happened and inform the search for life on other planets, or even moons.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Understanding how amino acids may have built themselves up into proteins within small droplets of water revolutionizes scientists’ understanding of chemical synthesis. This same understanding could now be applied by synthetic chemists to speed up the reactions critical to discovering and developing new drugs and therapeutic treatments for diseases.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“If you walk through an academic campus at night, the buildings with the lights on are where synthetic chemists are working,” Cooks said. “Their experiments are so slow that they run for days or weeks at a time. This isn’t necessary, and using droplet chemistry, we have built an apparatus, which is being used at Purdue now, to speed up the synthesis of novel chemicals and potential new drugs.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



The research is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2212642119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</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

Did the building blocks of life form inside of water droplets?

In our bodies, genetic codes describe the ways in which...

Young adults who are most active on social media are much more likely to develop <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nearly-ten-percent-in-the-u-s-report-having-depression/">depression</a>, according to a new study from the <a href="https://www.uark.edu/">University of Arkansas</a>. The experts found that excessive social media use was linked to depression regardless of individual personality traits.



“Previous research has linked the development of depression with numerous factors,” wrote the study authors. “However, the literature has been lacking in studies that focus on how various personality characteristics may interact with social media use and depression. This new study addressed these important research questions, finding strong and linear associations of depression across all personality traits.”



The team analyzed data on more than 1,000 U.S. adults between the ages of 18 to 30. Personality was measured using the Big Five Inventory (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism), and social media use was self-reported.



The researchers found that people with high agreeableness were 49 percent less likely to become depressed than people with low agreeableness. In addition, individuals with high neuroticism were twice as likely to develop depression compared to those with low neuroticism.&nbsp;



Regardless, the experts emphasized that for each personality trait, social media use was strongly associated with the development of depression.



The researchers noted that problematic social comparison can enhance negative feelings of oneself and others, which could explain how risk of depression increases with increased social media use.&nbsp;



“Findings from this study are important during a time of technology expansion and integration,” said study co-author Renae Merrill. “Connecting to people virtually may increase the risk of miscommunication or misperception that leads to relationship difficulties and potential risk for developing mental health problems.”&nbsp;



“People have innate emotional needs for social connection and understanding. For example, social media experiences can be improved by becoming more aware of our emotions and our connection with others in various life circumstances. This awareness helps improve relationship quality by simply reaching shared meaning and understanding through more effective communication and concern for others and ourselves. Despite our differences, we have the ability to create a culture of empathy and kindness.”&nbsp;



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jadr.2022.100385">Journal of Affective Disorders</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

Social media increases depression risk across all personalities

Young adults who are most active on social media are...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coral-reefs-can-survive-if-given-the-chance-to-evolve/">Coral reefs</a> all over the world are currently imperiled by a variety of factors, such as mass bleaching events due to climate change or ocean acidification. In order to protect the reefs, some scientists, resource managers, and conservationists have argued that restoring populations of algae-eating fish (such as the parrotfish) could promote the recovery of distressed reefs – a theory known as “fish-mediated resilience.”



However, according to a new study led by the <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> (U-M) that analyzed long-term data from 57 coral reefs around the French Polynesian Island of Mo’orea, such a strategy may not be sufficient, since fish do not efficiently regulate coral reefs over time.&nbsp;



“This paper very well might radically change how we think about the conservation of coral reefs,” said study co-senior author Jacob Allgeier, an assistant professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at U-M. “People have been saying for years that we can protect coral through fisheries management, and our work on Mo’orea reefs shows that this is unlikely to work - there are too many other things going on. There is functionally no measurable effect of fishes on coral cover over time.”



During the 2006-2017 data-collection period, Mo’orea coral reefs were negatively impacted by two major events: a devastating outbreak of the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, and a direct hit from the Cyclone Oli in 2010. These events allowed scientists to study the degradation and subsequent recovery of the Mo’orea reefs, and examine which factors contributed to their successful recovery.&nbsp;



“We found no evidence that the substantial variation in fish community biomass and diversity had any influence on how sites recovered from disturbances,” reported study lead author Timothy Cline, a former postdoctoral fellow at U-M. “Instead, we suggest additional location-specific attributes are critical in recovery, and the fish community is just one component of a suite of variables that must be considered.”



The theory of fish-mediated coral reef resilience has led to calls on moratoriums on fishing for algae-eating fish – a well-intentioned but misguided management strategy with major implications for the millions of people who depend on coral-reef fisheries for sustenance and income. According to these new findings – which identify a multitude of threats to coral reefs, including predatory species, nutrient pollution, ocean acidification, overfishing, coral bleaching, and sedimentation – it would make more sense to support strategies which promote the conservation of diverse habitats and coral reef types at different stages of degradation.



“We do need to manage fisheries in these ecosystems, but instead of things like wholesale restrictions on parrotfish, we should consider management efforts that promote sustainable harvest throughout the food web to disperse the impacts of fishing,” Professor Allgeier concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01882-0">Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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

Restoring fish will not be enough to protect  coral reefs

Coral reefs all over the world are currently imperiled by...

A new study led by <a href="https://wsu.edu/">Washington State University</a> and Texas A&amp;M University adds to a growing collection of evidence that bears are not <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/african-carnivores-face-range-losses-in-the-future/">carnivores</a>. The research suggests that bears are omnivores like humans - even though they are fed high protein diets like carnivores while in captivity.&nbsp;



“Bears are not carnivores in the strictest sense like a cat where they consume a high-protein diet,” said study lead author Professor Charles Robbins. “In zoos forever, whether it's polar bears, brown bears or sloth bears, the recommendation has been to feed them as if they are high-protein carnivores. When you do that, you kill them slowly.”



The WSU Bear Center is the only research institution in the United States with a captive population of grizzly bears. Professor Robbins, who founded the center, has studied bear nutrition for decades. In a previous project, he and his graduate students discovered that grizzly bears gain the most weight when they are fed a combination of protein, fats and carbohydrates.



For the latest study, the researchers set out to investigate the food preferences of captive giant pandas and sloth bears by conducting feeding studies. Under human care, sloth bears are dying up to 20 years early, and there is a lack of data on their nutritional requirements. One theory is that the bears are fed too much protein, which is causing cancer and disease.



"Consumption of diets with inappropriate macronutrient profiles has been associated with increased energy expenditure, ill health, failed reproduction, and premature death. Consequently, we conducted feeding and preference trials with giant pandas and sloth bears, a termite and ant-feeding specialist," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;



"We found that giant pandas are low-protein, high-carbohydrate omnivores, whereas sloth bears are low-protein, high-fat omnivores. The preference for low protein diets apparently occurred early in the evolution of ursids and may have been critical to their world-wide spread."



When presented with unlimited avocados, baked yams, whey and apples, the sloth bears almost exclusively preferred the fat-rich avocados. The exports said that this high-fat, low-carb diet is similar to their wild diet of termites and ants as well as their eggs and larvae.



The researchers also found that giant pandas preferred the carbohydrate-rich bamboo culm found in the woody stalks over the more protein-rich leaves. The results of the study suggest that, when given the chance, bears know what to eat to maximize their health and fitness.&nbsp;



“There's certainly this long-standing idea that humans with PhDs know a lot more than a sloth bear or a brown bear,” said Robbins. “All of these bears started evolving about 50 million years ago, and in terms of this aspect of their diet, they know more about it than we do. We’re one of the first to be willing to ask the bears: What do you want to eat? What makes you feel well?”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-19742-z">Scientific Reports</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

Bears are not carnivores, and they crave a healthy diet

A new study led by Washington State University and Texas...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coal-reserves-botswana/">Coal</a> ash is the residual material from burning coal in order to generate electricity. This type of ash is known to contain dangerous metals such as lead, chromium, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, selenium, and molybdenum, many of which have been linked to the development of cancers and other diseases.&nbsp;



A team of researchers from <a href="https://duke.edu/">Duke University</a> and the <a href="https://www.appstate.edu/">Appalachian State University</a> has performed an analysis of sediments from five North Carolina lakes near coal-burning power plants (Hyco Lake, Mayo Lake, Belews Lake, Mountain Island Lake, and Lake Sutton), and discovered that coal ash pollution of surface waters has been more persistent and widespread than previously thought. According to the researchers, the contaminants are not locked into the lake sediments and could easily enter the aquatic food chain.



“The bottom sediments of a lake represent a complete history of what has fallen into the lake water and settled to the bottom,” said study senior author Avner Vengosh, a professor of Environmental Quality at Duke. “Using our age-dating methods, we were able to go back in time, in some cases even before the coal plant was built, and reconstruct the history of the lakes.”



The coal ash reached lakes by three possible routes: atmospheric emissions of coal ash which settled in nearby lands and were brought into the lakes by their watershed; extreme weather events such as tropical storms and hurricanes that flooded and flushed the nearby coal ash impoundments into the nearby lakes; or ordinary flows of effluents from the coal ash ponds that reached the lakes as part of their routine operation.



“While previously we thought that lakes and groundwater are being contaminated by leaking or effluents discharge from of coal ash ponds, the new findings indicate that we have underestimated the environmental impact of coal ash. We thought that the majority of the coal ash is restricted to coal ash ponds and landfills. Now we see it’s already in the open environment,” Professor Vengosh explained.



“At several of the sites, it appears that coal ash was initially just dumped into the nearby lake,” added study co-author Ellen Cowan, a professor of Geology at the Appalachian State University. “Over time, when the Clean Air Act was enforced and scrubbers were added to the coal plant smokestacks to catch fine particulates, we see changes in the coal ash with higher proportions of small particles.” Unfortunately, these tiny particles contain the highest concentrations of toxic substances, making contamination even worse for the lakes. &nbsp;



“We did a very detailed examination of five lakes, but there are numerous lakes or open water reservoirs next to coal plants not only North Carolina, but all over the country. The phenomenon that we discovered probably applies to many other sites across the US and all of them are going to be vulnerable to more extreme weather events and flooding that we know is coming from global warming,” Professor Vengosh concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c04717">Environmental Science &amp; Technology</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

Coal ash found in North Carolina lake bottoms

Coal ash is the residual material from burning coal in...

A new study suggests that increased surveillance in schools has a detrimental impact on academic performance. The experts have found that tighter school security is linked with lower <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/girls-perform-better-reading-writing/">test scores</a>.



According to study co-author Jason Jabbari of <a href="https://wustl.edu/">Washington University in St. Louis</a>, heightened school security reduces test scores in math, reduces the number of students attending college and increases suspensions.



Surveillance measures that are intended to prevent school shootings may enhance the opportunity for schools to punish students for more common and less serious offenses, and this negatively impacts the learning environment, explained the experts.



“Our research shows that greater detection of student offenses leads to more punishment regardless of the students who attend these schools,” said Jabbari, who collaborated on the study with Odis Johnson Jr. of Johns Hopkins University.



“Moreover, while increased surveillance has collateral consequences on academic achievement that extend to all students, because Black students are more likely to attend high-surveillance schools, the burdens of the safety tax fall most heavily on Black students, ultimately increasing racial inequities in education.”&nbsp;



The experts called their findings a “safety tax,” or the price students pay for increased security at their school. The researchers emphasized that the tax is greatest for black students who are four times more likely to attend a high-surveillance school.



“In addition to suspending more students, the infrastructure of surveillance reduces test scores in mathematics and college enrollment altogether for suspended and non-suspended alike, suggesting the presence of negative spillover effects,” wrote the study authors. They say the best way to end violence in schools is to support students’ mental health, socio-emotional attachment, and feelings of belonging to schools.



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2022.101983">Journal of Criminal Justice</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

Tighter school security linked to lower test scores

A new study suggests that increased surveillance in schools has...

Experts at the <a href="https://www.port.ac.uk/">University of Portsmouth</a> have produced a major map of lightning strikes on the British Isles. The researchers combined three detection systems to map lightning distribution across the UK and Ireland over the last 12 years. Study lead author Leah Hayward hopes the lightning map will help reduce the risk when people are faced with extreme <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-overreact-to-warmer-weather-and-stop-producing-fruit/">weather</a>.&nbsp;



“The overall driver of this research was to combine three different technologies to allow us to produce a more detailed picture of when and where lightning occurs most," said Hayward. "Using multiple datasets has the advantage of allowing us to identify occasions where there is more uncertainty which is represented by larger differences in spatial or temporal distribution between the datasets.”



“In some circumstances thunderstorms can be difficult to forecast, but if you have some awareness of when the risk is greatest you can anticipate this and make a plan. For example, if you’re heading out on a mountain expedition and you know the highest risk time of day for your region, you can avoid being on the peak or a ridge and hopefully have descended before this time. It’s common sense really, but we hope this new research will arm people with stronger data and information than ever before."



Hayward noted that thunderstorms can also produce intense bursts of rainfall that often cause flash flooding, especially in urban areas. She said this type of hazard can be really expensive in both monetary and human terms.&nbsp;



"If councils are prepared for regional variations in the time of year this type of weather is likely to occur, they can make sure for example that all the drains are clear to reduce the danger and also implement contingency plans for rail and road users.”



By separating the data into seven geographical regions, the experts found that these areas of the British Isles have different summer thunderstorm seasons. For example, coastal regions of southern England experienced more lightning flashes from May to July, while inland parts of southeast England had the most lightning activity from April to August.



The researchers also discovered that in Scotland, coastlines that face the northwest have a second peak in lightning and thunderstorm activity in the winter.



“We tend to think of lighting and thunderstorms happening over the summer, but combining the datasets showed this isn’t solely the case. We also found that lightning is more likely to strike in the afternoon in inland areas of the south of England, but in coastal regions it also peaks in the early morning or overnight," said Hayward.



“This study shows there is important work still to be done investigating the variation in thunderstorm activity in the UK and Ireland, despite these areas experiencing a relatively low level of lightning and thunderstorm activity in comparison with mainland Europe and other parts of the world.”



The paper is published in the <a href="https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/joc.7680">International Journal of Climatology</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

Lightning map reveals weather patterns in the British Isles

Experts at the University of Portsmouth have produced a major...

Exposure to poor air quality worsens COVID-19 patient outcomes, according to a new study from the USC <a href="https://keck.usc.edu/">Keck School of Medicine</a>. To understand how air pollution affects those who are vaccinated, the researchers analyzed data from more than 50,000 <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/psychological-distress-increases-the-risk-of-long-covid/">COVID-19</a> patients across Southern California.&nbsp;



The research builds on <a href="https://keck.usc.edu/exposure-to-air-pollution-can-worsen-patient-outcomes-from-covid-19/">earlier findings</a>, which helped establish the link between air pollution exposure and COVID-19 severity. The study compared air quality monitoring data with patient medical records, and found that regardless of pollution exposure, vaccines can reduce COVID-19 hospitalizations.



“Fully vaccinated people had almost 90% reduced risk of COVID hospitalization, and even partially vaccinated people had about 50% less risk,” said study co-first author Dr. Zhanghua Chen.



According to the results of the current study, however, pollutants are still harmful even among the vaccinated. For those who were unvaccinated, exposure to fine particles (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over the short or long term increased the risk of hospitalization by up to 30 percent. For those who were partially or fully vaccinated, the hospitalization risks were slightly lower, but the difference was not statistically significant.



“These findings are important because they show that, while COVID-19 vaccines are successful at reducing the risk of hospitalization, people who are vaccinated and exposed to polluted air are still at increased risk for worse outcomes than vaccinated people not exposed to air pollution,” said study co-author Dr. Anny Xiang, a senior research scientist at Kaiser Permanente Southern California’s (KPSC) Department of Research &amp; Evaluation.



The researchers analyzed medical records from KPSC patients. Across the health care network, 50,010 patients were diagnosed with COVID-19 in July or August of 2021 when the Delta variant was circulating, and many of these individuals had been vaccinated.



The estimated air pollution exposure was calculated for each participant based on residential addresses. The experts looked at average PM2.5, NO2, and ozone (O3) levels during the one-month and one-year periods before each patient received a COVID-19 diagnosis.



“We investigated both long-term and short-term air pollution exposure, which may influence COVID-19 severity through different mechanisms,” said Chen.



Pollution over the long term is linked to cardiovascular and lung diseases, which are in turn linked to more severe COVID-19 symptoms. In the short term, air pollution exposure may worsen inflammation in the lungs and could alter the immune response to the virus.



The findings suggest that air quality must be improved to reduce severe cases of COVID-19. This spring, the Biden Administration launched the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/03/17/fact-sheet-biden-administration-launches-effort-to-improve-ventilation-and-reduce-the-spread-of-covid-19-in-buildings/">Clean Air in Buildings Challenge</a> to install high-efficiency particulate absorbing (HEPA) filters in schools and other public buildings.



The study is published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202206-1123LE">American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Improving air quality could reduce severe cases of COVID-19

Exposure to poor air quality worsens COVID-19 patient outcomes, according...

A new longitudinal study led by the <a href="https://wustl.edu/">Washington University in St. Louis</a> (WUSTL) has found evidence of lasting social relationships between chimpanzees and gorillas in the wild. Drawing from over two decades of observations of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/primates-have-greater-diversity-on-indigenous-lands/">primates</a> at the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo, the experts have documented social ties between individual chimpanzees and gorillas that persisted over several years and across different contexts.



“There are few (if any) studies of interactions between primate species that have been able to take the identity of individuals into account,” said study lead author Crickette Sanz, a professor of Biological Anthropology at WUSTL. “It has long been known that these apes can recognize individual members of their own species and form long-term relationships, but we had not known that this extended to other species.”



“An example of what we found might be one individual traveling through a group of the other species to seek out another particular individual. We were also able to document such interactions over time and in different contexts in this study.”



Such long-lasting forms of inter-species collaboration have several possible benefits, including protection from predation, improved foraging options, and other social benefits from information sharing. “Rather than thinking about chimpanzees alone, we should be thinking about them within diverse and dynamic habitats where they are actively engaging with other species and play an integral role in the persistence of the unique ecosystems in which they exist,” explained study co-author David Morgan, a research fellow at the <a href="https://www.lpzoo.org/">Lincoln Park Zoo</a>.



While social interactions between members of different species have many benefits, they also increase the risk of transmission of various infectious diseases. For instance, the highly transmissible Ebola virus has already had a devastating impact on ape populations in Central Africa, wiping out one-third of the world’s chimpanzees and gorillas.



“No longer can we assume that an individual ape’s social landscape is entirely occupied by members of their own species,” said study co-author Jake Funkhouser, a doctoral student in Biological Anthropology at WUSTL. “The strength and persistence of social relationships that we observed between apes indicates a depth of social awareness and myriad social transmission pathways that had not previously been imagined. Such insights are critical given these interspecies social relationships have the potential to serve as transmission pathways for both beneficial socially learned cultural behaviors and harmful infectious disease.”



Studying co-existing primates may shed new light on interactions between early hominins. While scientists generally assumed that these hominins would competitively exclude each other from using the same resources, this study suggests that these interactions would have most likely occurred in more tolerant social contexts.



The study is published in the journal<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105059"> iScience</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

Chimpanzees and gorillas can form lasting relationships

A new longitudinal study led by the Washington University in...

A new study conducted by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/birdsong-frequency-is-influenced-by-sexual-selection/">birdsong</a> scientists from the <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">University of California, San Diego</a> (UCSD) in collaboration with musicians from the <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/music/">Sydney Conservatorium of Music</a> has found that the order of song elements – or the syntax – of Australian pied butcherbirds is strongly associated with the butcherbird’s rhythmical timing. In the human brain, grammatical syntax and musical rhythm processing have been found to share cognitive resources. The study suggests that songbirds could be processing syntactic-rhythmic relationship in a similar manner to humans.&nbsp;



The scientists and musicians involved in the research discovered that the order of song elements in Australian pied butcherbird songs share a productive relationship with how these elements are rhythmically timed. This relationship seems to be retained when the length of song elements is controlled, suggesting that how syntax and rhythm interact with each other in pied butcherbird songs is more than an artifact of simply producing song elements of different lengths in sequence.



“It is extremely exciting,”&nbsp;said study co-author Hollis Taylor, a fellow at the Sydney Conservatorium. “This collaboration adds to my previous documentation of the myriad overlaps between pied butcherbird vocalizations and human music genres. The musician in me recognizes the musician in them.”&nbsp;



According to Taylor and her collaborators, each bird sings differently, with phrases changing annually, and the songs are combinatorial. “Previously, songbird research has been dominated by studies of song syntax, or how song elements are ordered,” she explained. “Song rhythm, on the other hand, is relatively understudied. We know that if you provide a regular musical beat to children with communication disorders, their grammatical skills improve. To our knowledge, rarely anyone has thought about how syntax and rhythm might be related in birdsong.”



Until recently, birdsong researchers have mainly studied song syntax via information theory – a theory that originates in mathematics and is focused on the encoding of discrete symbols rather than on temporally-continuous bio-acoustic signals. While this has led to a rich variety of valuable studies on birdsong syntax, other aspects of songbird behavior have been largely ignored.



“Information theory tends to treat birdsong as chunkable units; our paper shows we can more directly use music theory to patch some of the inherent problems of information theory,” Taylor said.



Although further laboratory research is necessary to clarify whether songbirds truly process syntactic-rhythmic relationships in the same way as humans, these findings suggest that songbird and human cognition may have more similarities than previously thought, despite the fact that birds lack a layered cerebral neocortex, which is believed to support complex cognition in humans.



“Our paper adds to a gradually growing belief in the birdsong scientific community that we can start integrating what we know about how humans process music to understand how songbirds process their songs. In this pursuit, we can begin to understand the latent musicality of other animals, and in turn, re-examine our own musicality,” concluded lead author Jeffrey Xing, a researcher at UCSD.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220704">Royal Society Open Science</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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

Songbirds have some impressive cognitive skills

A new study conducted by birdsong scientists from the University...

Extreme,Magnification,-,Ant,Queen,Portrait.,Ant,Super,Macro,Picture.

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.tamu.edu/">Texas A&amp;M University</a> has found that a common <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ants-show-signs-of-cognitive-sophistication/">ant</a> species - Tapinoma sessile, a relatively small type of ant commonly known as the house ant or sugar ant – undergoes physiological and behavioral changes in unnatural settings, such as urban areas.



“Urbanization is a growing habitat around the world, and it’s becoming more important for organisms to develop ways to live when their natural settings are disturbed,” said study senior author Edward Vargo, an expert in Urban and Structural Entomology at Texas A&amp;M. “Studies like this look at important questions regarding this change, ‘Can they adapt to urban environments and how?’”



In their natural environments, house ants create small, single-queen colonies usually found under leaf litter, rocks, and logs. However, in urban and suburban areas, these ants build large, ever-expanding multi-queen colonies around human-made structures such as sidewalks, plant containers, or landscape mulching.



By analyzing the ants’ chemistry (such as levels of hydrocarbons), the genetic make-up of colonies, and ant behavior (like aggression toward familial and outsider ants), the researchers found stark differences based on the environment. Their investigations revealed that, while house ant queens in their natural habitat typically leave the colony they were born in, fly to another suitable location, and attempt to establish a new colony, queens in urban colonies stay in their nest and expand their colony rather than leaving it. As a result, urban queens were closely related and less aggressive toward ants with which they were genetically related. Moreover, behavioral analyses showed that ants in super-colonies were aggressive toward ants with outside genetics.



In addition, polydomous colonies – ant colonies that are spatially separated but socially connected – were found only in urban habitats, suggesting that house ants only create super-colonies in developed areas. Since ants from different urban areas shared some genetic similarities, it seems they are adapting to features which are common in urban environments.



In future research, the scientists aim to compare stable isotopes in the ants to investigate dietary changes and how they relate to natural versus urban environments, while taking into account factors such as temperature and the urban heat island effect.



“The study highlights urbanization’s influence on the evolutionary course for species,” concluded lead author Alexander Blumfeld, who was a doctoral student in Vargo’s lab and is now a postdoctoral fellow at <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a>. “It’s important for us to answer questions related to adaptive evolution, whether it is an invasive species or a forest species adapting to city environments.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mec.16188">Molecular 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

Ants can effectively adapt to urban environments

A new study led by the Texas A&amp;M University has...

While some <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/children-with-access-to-nature-are-mentally-and-physically-healthier/">children</a> are risk-takers, others choose to play it safe. Scientists have long pondered whether these differences are simply based on children’s personalities, or if their environments also shape their willingness to take a gamble.&nbsp;



Now, a research team led by <a href="https://www.bu.edu/">Boston University</a> has found that children from different socioeconomic backgrounds make different decisions when placed in the same risky situation. These findings provide experimental evidence that risky decisions in childhood do not always reflect poor judgment or lack of self-control. Instead, children may be rationally choosing risk when it makes sense in the context of their environment, and avoiding risk when it doesn’t.



The premise behind this study is known as the “developmental risk sensitivity theory,” which is drawn from observations of how animals behave in foraging situation, and argues that developing organisms learn to use different risk strategies based on the availability of resources and the extent of their needs. For example, a well-fed fox is unlikely to risk entering dangerous territories for a large meal, when a certain amount of food is already available. By contrast, a hungry fox may take more risks to get access to a big dinner.



To test whether this theory applies to humans too, the researchers created an experimental setup to investigate whether children’s risk preferences would vary according to their socioeconomic status and the size of the offered rewards. Dozens of children aged 4-10 were given the choice to either accept a set number of stickers or to spin a wheel for a 50/50 chance of getting more stickers - or nothing at all. Some of the tasks included a large reward option (keep four stickers or spin the wheel for a change of getting either eight or no stickers) and a small reward option (keep two stickers, or spin for the change or getting four stickers or none). While the children performed the experiments, their parents were asked about their socioeconomic status.



The experiments revealed that children from families with lower socioeconomic status were more likely to take risks in the large reward trial than those from richer families. In the small reward trial, socioeconomic status made no significant difference. Moreover, although boys were more likely than girls to make risky decisions, gender differences did not seem to significantly affect the socioeconomic patterns the researchers examined.



“The kids with lower socioeconomic status, they followed the pattern predicted by the theory,” said study senior author Peter Blake, an associate professor of Social Cognitive Development at Boston. “They acted like the hungry fox. They were more likely to take the risk to get the larger reward, and when it came to a lower value reward, they chose the certain option so that they would get something.”



Further research is needed to assess the role of additional factors in risk taking, including peer pressure and other types of social relations the children are involved in.



The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0712">Royal Society B: Biological 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

Why do some children take bigger risks than others?

While some children are risk-takers, others choose to play it...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"] Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have created...

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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



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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



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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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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"

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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



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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

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