From childhood spats to shared memories and cherished traditions, there's a unique bond that ties siblings together. But there's one topic that's a perennial cause for discussion: who's the favorite child?



Alex Jensen, a professor from BYU School of Family Life, shed some valuable insights on this playful contest in his recent research, which examines the subtle displays of parental favoritism influenced by birth order, personality, and gender.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-younger-siblings-vs-older-siblings">Younger siblings vs. older siblings</h2>



According to Professor Jensen, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/parent-children-relationships-are-key-to-lifelong-well-being/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">parents</a> generally treat their children differently based on birth order, often having a favorite.



Younger siblings often receive more attention, warmth, and support from parents. This could be because parents have more experience raising children by the time the younger ones arrive, making them more relaxed and affectionate.



On the other hand, older siblings tend to gain more independence as they grow up. Parents are usually stricter with their firstborns but gradually become less controlling over time. 



Since older siblings are the first to experience different stages of life, parents may place higher expectations on them to be responsible and self-sufficient.



In short, younger siblings may get more emotional support, while older ones receive more freedom. This difference in treatment can shape sibling relationships and influence how children perceive fairness in their families.



“It is helpful to take the findings from this study and be aware of the patterns that could be happening in your family,” Jensen said. “When parents are aware, they can make small adjustments that benefit everyone.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-do-parents-favor-daughters">Do parents favor daughters?</h2>



The researchers found that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/parents-who-use-humor-have-better-relationships-with-their-children/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">parents</a> tend to favor daughters slightly more than sons, often seeing them as the favorite child.



This preference appears in different ways, such as how parents interact with their children and how they distribute resources like money, time, and attention. Interestingly, while parents are aware of this bias, children themselves do not seem to notice it.



The researchers analyzed data from 19,469 participants. The results showed that both mothers and fathers are more likely to treat daughters with warmth, engage in more positive interactions with them, and provide them with more resources compared to sons.



This could be due to cultural expectations, emotional closeness, or the perception that daughters require more protection and support.



Even though this favoritism is subtle, it can still influence how children perceive their relationships with their parents and siblings. Understanding these tendencies can help parents ensure fairness and strengthen family bonds.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-personality-of-favorite-child-matters">Personality of favorite child matters</h2>



It’s not just birth order or gender that matters - personality also influences favoritism. The study revealed that children who are more conscientious and agreeable receive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/many-parents-use-threats-to-discipline-children-but-its-not-effective-in-the-long-run/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">better treatment</a>, regardless of whether they are the eldest or youngest.



“Most parents probably connect more easily with one child over another, whether that be due to personality, birth order, gender or other things like shared interests,” Jensen said. 



“Watch for those patterns within yourself. Pay attention to how your children react to things that could be perceived as favoritism.”



One surprising finding? Extraversion didn’t seem to impact favoritism. “Americans seem to particularly value extraverted people, but within families it may matter less,” Jensen noted.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-being-the-favorite-child-matters">Why being the favorite child matters</h2>



Favoritism in families goes beyond small privileges like getting the biggest slice of cake - it can have serious emotional and psychological effects on children.



When a child feels less favored by their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/parents-often-feel-lonely-burnt-out-parenting-demands/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">parents</a>, they may struggle with low self-esteem, anxiety, or feelings of rejection. This emotional distress can lead to changes in their behavior, such as acting out, withdrawing socially, or experiencing difficulty in school.



Research suggests that children who perceive themselves as less favored are more likely to develop mental health challenges, including depression and behavioral issues. 



They may seek attention through rebellious actions or disengage from family interactions altogether. This dynamic can also create resentment toward siblings, weakening family relationships over time.



Parents may not always be aware of these effects, but favoritism can leave a lasting impact. 



“Keep an eye out for things that seem unfair. Your children will let you know if they think something is unfair,” Jensen said. “Either they are missing perspective and understanding, or you need to make some changes in your parenting. Make sure you are open to the latter.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-can-parents-do">What can parents do?</h2>



Parents don’t need to feel guilty, but they should be mindful of these patterns. Jensen emphasizes that favoritism isn’t always intentional - it often happens naturally based on personality and circumstances.



“Sometimes parents get so concerned about treating their kids the same that they may overlook individual needs,” he said. 



“We’re not suggesting parents feel guilty; instead, parents can look at this research and use it as encouragement to look at places where they can improve, without going to extremes.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-strengthening-family-bonds">Strengthening family bonds</h2>



Favoritism can impact sibling relationships, but awareness can help parents make positive changes. The study from <a href="https://familylife.byu.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BYU School of Family Life</a> encourages families to focus on connection rather than comparison.



“The simple answers are perhaps the best. Be patient with yourself and with your children,” Jensen said. 



“Spend time together. Do things together that you like to do. Do things together that your children like to do. Work together, serve others together, worship together. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/parents-spend-the-most-time-on-devices-but-nature-offers-a-solution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Relationships</a> take time and time together doing a variety of things will have many positive benefits.”



So, if you’re wondering whether your sibling really is the “golden child,” the answer might not be so simple. It’s not just about being the oldest, the youngest, or even the most charming - it’s about personality, responsibility, and sometimes, just how easy you are to deal with.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/bul-bul0000458.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Psychological Bulletin</a>.



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Parents treat their children differently - but do they have a favorite?

From childhood spats to shared memories and cherished traditions, there's a unique bond that ties siblings together. But there's one topic that's a perennial cause for discussion: who's the favorite child? Alex Jensen, a professor from BYU School of Family Life, shed some valuable insights on this playful contest in his recent research, which examines the subtle displays of parental favoritism influenced by birth order, personality, and gender. Younger siblings vs. older siblings According to Professor Jensen, parents generally treat their children differently based on birth order,...

A research team from <a href="https://www.ull.es/">Universidad de La Laguna, Spain</a> have uncovered mobility and settlement patterns of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-neanderthals-cannibalism/">Neanderthals</a> by unearthing ancient fire remains.

The team conducted their research at the Middle Paleolithic site El Salt in Spain, which contains eleven overlapping and well-preserved open-air hearths. By studying the micromorphology of the layers of earth inside the hearth structures, the team was able to identify how long Neanderthals occupied a settlement. And lipid biomarkers and isotope analysis showed the team what foods were eaten and what fuels were used.

"Micromorphology combined with lipid biomarker analysis is a powerful approach to investigate anthropogenic combustion-related archaeological contexts from a microstratigraphic perspective which can contribute valuable information on the timing and intensity of Neanderthal occupations as well as the natural setting of the site,” study leader Lucia Leierer said. “These are key factors of group mobility and settlement patterns."

Researchers found that hearths were built on multiple layers of topsoils over different periods of time and burned organic matter such as herbivore excrement and flowering plants. Furthermore, researchers conclude that Neanderthals only stayed at the settlement for a limited time, as evident in the flint, bone shards, and conifer wood charcoal that was brought to the site from another location.

[caption id="attachment_1871691" align="aligncenter" width="656"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/neanderthal-settlement.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1871691" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/neanderthal-settlement.jpg" alt="" width="656" height="305" /></a> Neanderthal combustion structure and microscope photograph of organic components of the combustion structure. Image Credit: Leierer et al, 2019[/caption]

It is believed that evidence from the hearths show at least four successive short-term Neanderthal occupations at the site, each being separated by long periods of time — perhaps seasons.

These findings, published in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS One</a>, could potentially lead to a better understanding of Neanderthal group mobility and settlement.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Ancient Neanderthal hearths unearth settlement patterns

A research team from Universidad de La Laguna, Spain have...

Using an X-ray laser located at the <a href="https://www6.slac.stanford.edu/">Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory</a>, a team of <a href="https://www.usc.edu/">University of Southern California</a> researchers have successfully the first detailed map of two melatonin receptors MT1 and MT2) that guide the body’s sleep/wake cycle, along with other biological processes. Better understanding of how these receptors work could help scientists design better drugs to fight <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/sleep-deprivation-charity-vote/">sleep disorders</a>, Type 2 diabetes, and even cancer.

"It's critical for the brain to take rest and process and store memories that we have accumulated during the day," said study co-author Alex Batyuk, a scientist at SLAC. "Melatonin is the hormone that regulates our sleep-wake cycles. When there's light, the production of melatonin is inhibited, but when darkness comes that's the signal for our brains to go to sleep."

The team used an insomnia drug, a drug that combines melatonin with the antidepressant serotonin, and two melatonin analogs to activate the receptors in order to trace their activity with the lab’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) X-ray. They saw that both receptors, located in various places throughout our bodies including the brain, retina, cardiovascular system, liver, kidney, spleen and intestine, have narrow channels embedded in fatty membrane throughout the cells in our bodies. These channels only permit melatonin to pass through while blocking serotonin.

Furthermore, the team also saw that some larger compounds only target MT1 and not MT2 — a discovery that can help design drugs specifically for MT1.

They've shared their work in a pair of articles, one exploring <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1141-3/">ligand recognition at MT1</a> and one on the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1144-0">XFEL structures of MT2</a>, in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/">Nature</a>.

"These receptors perform immensely important functions in the human body and are major drug targets of high interest to the pharmaceutical industry," said lead researcher of MT2 work Linda Johansson, a postdoctoral scholar at USC. "Through this work we were able to obtain a highly detailed understanding of how melatonin is able to bind to these receptors."

MT1 plays a large role in controlling the body’s circadian rhythm. However, designing drugs to actively target and mend the MT1 receptor has been a difficult process. Now that researchers have mapped out how exactly the MT1 receptor works, scientists can more adeptly design drugs to travel through these pathways.

"Since the discovery of melatonin 60 years ago, there have been many landmark discoveries that led to this moment," said Margarita L. Dubocovich, a <a href="https://www.suny.edu/">SUNY</a> distinguished professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the <a href="http://www.buffalo.edu/">University at Buffalo</a>, who provided outside perspective on this study. In the early 80s, Dubocovich pioneered the identification of functional melatonin receptors. 

"The elucidation of the crystal structures for the MT1 and MT2 receptors opens up an exciting new chapter for the development of drugs to treat sleep or circadian rhythm disorders known to cause psychiatric, metabolic, oncological and many other conditions."

From here, the team hopes to map receptors antagonists, compounds that block the receptors. 

"As a structural biologist, it was exciting to see the structure of these receptors for the first time and analyze them to understand how these receptors selectively recognize their signaling molecules," said Vadim Cherezov, a USC professor who supervised both MT1 and MT2 studies. "We've known about them for decades but until now no one could say how they actually look. Now we can analyze them to understand how they recognize specific molecules, which we hope lays the groundwork for better, more effective drugs."

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Illustration by Yekaterina Kadyshevskaya, Bridge Institute at USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience

Melatonin receptor maps pave the way for new sleep disorder treatments

Using an X-ray laser located at the Department of Energy’s...

A new study from the <a href="http://www.monell.org/">Monell Chemical Senses Center</a> has revealed that the olfactory receptors used to detect odors in the nose are also present in taste receptor cells on the tongue. The discovery indicates that interactions between <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/humans-smell-spatial-navigation/">smell</a> and taste, which were thought to take place in the brain, may actually be initiated on the tongue.

“Our research may help explain how odor molecules modulate taste perception,” said study senior author Dr. Mehmet Hakan Ozdener. “This may lead to the development of odor-based taste modifiers that can help combat the excess salt, sugar, and fat intake associated with diet-related diseases such as obesity and diabetes.”

The flavors that we perceive come more from smell than from taste. Prior to this study, taste and smell were thought to be independent sensory systems that did not interact until their information reached the brain. However, after his son asked him if snakes stick out their tongues so they can smell, Dr. Ozdener decided to challenge this theory.

The researchers used genetic and biochemical methods to analyze living human taste cells in culture. They noticed that the taste cells contained many key molecules known to be present in olfactory receptors. Next, a technique known as calcium imaging revealed that the cultured taste cells respond to odor molecules much in the same way as olfactory receptor cells.


The study results provide the first evidence of functional olfactory receptors in human taste cells. The findings suggest that olfactory receptors actively participate in the taste system by interacting with taste cells on the tongue.

In additional experiments, the team demonstrated that a single taste cell can contain both taste and olfactory receptors. “The presence of olfactory receptors and taste receptors in the same cell will provide us with exciting opportunities to study interactions between odor and taste stimuli on the tongue,” said Dr. Ozdener.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/chemse">Chemical Senses</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Scientists find smell receptors in taste cells on the tongue

A new study from the Monell Chemical Senses Center has...

Previous research demonstrated that among less active adults, the amount of time spent <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/americans-time-sitting/">sitting</a> is associated with an increased risk of mortality. A new study published by the <a href="https://www.acc.org/">American College of Cardiology</a> has found that the negative impacts of sedentary behavior can often be eliminated through physical activity. 

The researchers set out to investigate the relationship between sedentary behavior or physical activity and mortality. The team analyzed the effects of replacing sitting with standing, physical activity, and sleep.

Study lead author Dr. Emmanuel Stamatakis is a professor of Physical Activity, Lifestyle and Population Health at the <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/">University of Sydney</a>. 

“Previous studies have not considered that a 24-hour day is finite and an increase in any type of physical activity or sedentary behavior would displace another activity or sleep,” explained Dr. Stamatakis.

The investigation was focused on nearly 150,000 Australian men and women aged 45 years and older who reported on how many hours per day they spent sitting, standing, and sleeping. The individuals also reported the total time they spent walking or participating in moderate to intense physical activity.

On average, the participants were followed  up with after 8.9 years for all-cause mortality and after 7.4 years for cardiovascular disease mortality. The researchers found that higher sitting times of more than six hours per day were associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality risks. However, these risks were mostly found in those did not meet physical activity recommendations. 

With the exception of those who sat more than 8 hours per day, meeting even the lowest requirements for physical activity eliminated the association with all-cause mortality risk. 

“Our results support continued efforts to promote physical activity in those segments of the population that sit a lot for whatever reason,” said Dr. Stamatakis. “In the absence of some physical activity, merely reducing sitting times may be insufficient for better health.”


Replacing sitting with standing was associated with risk reduction in low sitters, but replacing sitting with physical activity was a much more reliable way to reduce mortality risk among high sitters. 

“A possible explanation for this is that among the most sedentary participants, standing may not be sufficient for reducing health risks,” said Dr. Stamatakis. “Instead, substituting sitting for brisk walking may be a better option that is feasible by a majority of adults.”

The study is published in the <a href="http://www.onlinejacc.org/">Journal of the American College of Cardiology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Physical activity can reduce mortality risk caused by sitting for too long

Previous research demonstrated that among less active adults, the amount...

We’ve all experienced being jarred awake from a deep sleep by an unpleasant, incessant beeping alarm clock. When you start the day that way, it’s hard not to<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sleep-deprivation-public-health-crisis/"> feel tired and groggy</a> for a good chunk of the morning. 

But new research shows that waking up with a more upbeat melody could help beat morning grogginess and sleep inertia. 

For the first few hours after waking up, people can be confused, clumsy, and unable to react as quickly as they would when their brain is fully alert. 

This disoriented and groggy feeling is called “sleep inertia” and it’s said to be caused by the sudden transition from sleep to wakefulness.  

Sleep inertia can be a pain when you have a morning meeting, a class to get to, or a deadline, but it can also be deadly, leading to car accidents and plane crashes for pilots and drivers who operate a vehicle immediately after waking up. 

The best way to reduce sleep inertia is to allow the body to wake up naturally, but in today’s fast-paced society this is a near impossibility. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.rmit.edu.au/">RMIT University </a>in Melbourne, Australia have a simple solution to reduce morning sluggishness. 

In a new study, published online at <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2019/04/12/607358.full.pdf">BioRxiv,</a> researchers found that highly melodic music provides enough stimulation to counter the negative impacts of sleep inertia. 

“When they wake up, people experiencing sleep inertia may show signs of reduced alertness and reduced cognition, manifesting in inadvertent mistakes. Sleep inertia can last for seconds, minutes or hours after waking,” said Stuart McFarlane, the lead author of the study. “Research suggests that ‘difficulty in waking up’ is a common experience. It's one that many of us share.”

Listening to catchy pop songs by bands like the Beach Boys or the Cure is better than any traditional alarm, the results show. 

For the study, 50 participants reported on their morning routines, how they felt in the morning, how they woke up, and how their day was impacted after waking up.

The researchers found that the participants who listened to highly melodic music were less impacted by sleep inertia and less sluggish. 

A good melody can captivate a listener for longer periods which is why the researchers theorize that pop songs could be an excellent way to engage the brain first thing in the morning. 

“A sound that is perceived as melodic, produces less sleep inertia in comparison to a sound considered to be neutral,” the researchers wrote in their study. 

Simply changing the alarm on your phone to something more melodic might help, and since mobile phones today have more apps and options for changing ringtones and morning alarm sounds than ever before, it would not be a difficult strategy for people to implement into their morning routines. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Waking up to an upbeat song, not a beeping alarm, combats grogginess

We’ve all experienced being jarred awake from a deep sleep...

A three-year project designed to analyze grass pollen may help to provide more accurate <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/pesticides-bumblebees-buzzing/">pollen</a> forecasts for asthma and hay fever sufferers. The findings from the first year of the study have revealed that pollen that is released by certain species of grass is contributing to increased asthma attacks and intense hay fever.

“I'm a hay fever sufferer myself, and I know that on some days, despite a high pollen forecast, I can be less affected than on other days when the forecast appears to be lower,” said study lead author Professor Simon Creer of <a href="https://www.bangor.ac.uk/">Bangor University</a>. “This led me and others to wonder whether it's the high load of pollen alone that causes the problem, or whether the different grass pollens cause different levels of reaction.”

Currently, pollen counts measure the load of pollen that is present in the air. The pollen created by individual tree and weed species is distinguishable, yet visually identifying different grass pollens has been nearly impossible. 

In the new project, scientists are using a technique called metabarcoding to analyze grass pollens collected over the course of an allergy season. This method enables scientists to automatically identify material caught in a sample of air, water, or soil through its unique DNA “barcode.” As a result, the team can investigate links between certain pollen types and difficult days for allergy and asthma sufferers.

“Bringing a range of specialists together has enabled us to find initial answers,” said Dr. Georgina Brennan. “Our task is now to develop a clearer picture of where the pollen comes from, how it moves through the air and how different types of pollen can be linked to allergies.”

“We are now investigating datasets on hospital admissions and GP prescriptions for certain pharmaceutical products to identify correlations between healthcare data and increases in particular grass pollens,” added Dr. Ben Wheeler of the University of Exeter. “With these new insights into pollen characterization, we are focusing on future implications for pollen warnings and self-care strategies.”


The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/natecolevol/">Nature, Ecology, and Evolution</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Grass can trigger allergy and asthma symptoms when pollen count is low

A three-year project designed to analyze grass pollen may help...

A new study published by the <a href="https://www.srcd.org/">Society for Research in Child Development</a> suggests that playing video games may not have as much of a negative social impact on youths as previously thought. The researchers found no evidence that gaming was detrimental to social development in young boys. 

There has been growing concern among parents and educators about how problematic gaming may be for <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/behavioral-issues-brain-wiring/">children</a> and youth, and most research has focused on the potential for negative effects such as aggression, anxiety, and depression. 

The current study, which was conducted in Norway, analyzed the influence of playing video games on the social skills of 6- to 12-year-olds. The team found that any effects on social development varied by gender and age, but that gaming was not strongly associated with social development.

“Our study may mitigate some concerns about the adverse effects of gaming on children's development,” said study lead author Beate Wold Hygen of the <a href="https://www.ntnu.edu/">Norwegian University of Science and Technology</a> (NTNU). “It might not be gaming itself that warrants our attention, but the reasons some children and adolescents spend a lot of their spare time playing the games.”

The investigation was focused on 873 Norwegian children from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. The researchers followed up with the children every two years for six years when the children were ages 6 to 12. 

The study revealed that the amount of time boys spent gaming did not affect their social development. The researchers also found that girls who spent more time playing video games at age 10 developed weaker social skills two years later than girls who spent less time playing games.

In addition, children who struggled socially at ages 8 and 10 were found to be more likely to spend more time playing video games at ages 10 and 12.

“It might be that poor social competence drives youth's tendency to play video games for extensive periods of time,” explained study co-author Lars Wichstrøm. “That is, youth who struggle socially might be more inclined to play games to fulfill their need to belong and their desire for mastery because gaming is easily accessible and may be less complicated for them than face-to-face interactions.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/childdevelopment/index.html">Child Development</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Video games don’t negatively impact social skills of young boys, study finds

A new study published by the Society for Research in...

While not all blind people have exceptional hearing, research has shown that people who are born blind have a sharper and more nuanced sense of hearing. 

Two new studies recently tackled these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brain-adapts-blind-people/">enhanced auditory abilities</a> to identify what changes in the brain are responsible. 

The research was led by the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington</a> (UW). 

“There’s this idea that blind people are good at auditory tasks, because they have to make their way in the world without visual information,” said Ione Fine, the senior author of both studies and a professor of psychology. “We wanted to explore how this happens in the brain.” 

In both studies, the researchers went beyond just examining brain activity in blind people and instead used functional MRI scans to focus on brain sensitivity to different auditory frequencies.  

“We weren't measuring how rapidly neurons fire, but rather how accurately populations of neurons represent information about sound,” said Kelly Chang, the lead author for one of the studies. 

For the first study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers from the UW and the <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> measured neural responses in sighted and blind individuals. 

The participants were asked to listen to a series of tones with different frequencies, and brain activity was recorded with an fMRI machine. 

In blind participants, the auditory cortex part of the brain was able to more accurately process the frequency of each tone compared to participants who were not blind. 

The brain adapts a better ability to distinguish frequencies because deciphering these small nuances in sounds is more important for blind individuals, according to the researchers. 

“Our study shows that the brains of blind individuals are better able to represent frequencies,” said Chang. “For a sighted person, having an accurate representation of sound isn't as important because they have sight to help them recognize objects, while blind individuals only have auditory information. This gives us an idea of what changes in the brain explain why blind people are better at picking out and identifying sounds in the environment.” 

The second study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, specifically looked at how individuals who are born blind or become blind early in life develop spatial awareness, which is the ability to understand one’s relationship to stationary and moving objects in an environment. 

For sighted people, a part of the brain called hMT+ tracks moving objects, but the researchers wondered how this part of the brain responds in blind individuals. 

Participants in this study listened to different frequency tones that sounded like they were getting closer or farther away to mimic the idea of movement. 

The recorded brain activity showed neural responses in the hMT+ that were similar to sighted individuals after listening to the moving sounds. 

What this means is that blind individuals are not only better attuned to frequency changes, but also that the motion of sounds which could help with tracking moving objects in an environment. 

“These results suggest that early blindness results in visual areas being recruited to solve auditory tasks in a relatively sophisticated way,” said Fine. 

--

By <a href="http://mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The brains of blind people adapt to boost hearing ability

While not all blind people have exceptional hearing, research has...

Empathy is an important skill that we as humans evolved in order to better thrive in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-societies-thrive-empathy/">complex and tight-knit communities</a>. Research has shown that without empathy, people in societies are less altruistic, more selfish and less cooperative. 

Despite the role of empathy in prosperous social groupings among both animals and humans, a new study has found that people try to avoid empathy if at all possible because of the mental effort and perceived financial cost.

New research from the<a href="http://www.apa.org/"> American Psychological Association</a> published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General shows that people would prefer not to empathize with another person even if they are feeling happy. 

“There is a common assumption that people stifle feelings of empathy because they could be depressing or costly, such as making donations to charity,” said C. Daryl Cameron, the lead researcher for the study. “But we found that people primarily just don't want to make the mental effort to feel empathy toward others, even when it involves feeling positive emotions.”

Cameron and his colleagues designed a series of experiments meant to assess the choice to empathize or not. Over 1,200 participants took part in the experiments. 

One of the experiments specifically designed by the researchers was called an “Empathy Selection Task” where participants were presented with two decks of cards that featured photos of child refugees. 

The participants were given a choice to either describe the physical characteristics of the children in the photos in one deck or try and empathize with the thoughts and feelings a child was having in a photo in the other deck. 

Even if the decks featured happy people, the participants favored the decks that didn’t require empathy. The empathy deck was chosen 35 percent of the time. 

Participants were also given surveys after each experiment to explain their reasoning behind choosing a particular deck. Choosing empathy was more challenging and required more effort, according to the participants. 

In another set of experiments, half of the participants were told they were good at empathy and 95 percent better than other participants at choosing the empathy deck. 

When participants were told they excelled at empathy, they were more keen to try and empathize with the photos from the empathy deck. 

“If we can shift people's motivations toward engaging in empathy, then that could be good news for society as a whole,” said Cameron. “It could encourage people to reach out to groups who need help, such as immigrants, refugees and the victims of natural disasters.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

People prefer to avoid empathy because it’s mentally taxing, study finds

Empathy is an important skill that we as humans evolved...

For the first time, a team of researchers from the <a href="http://www.nies.go.jp/index-e.html">National Institute for Environmental Studies in Japan</a> applied metrics developed and used for climate impact assessments to the coal-gas debate. They found that shifting from <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/coal-plant-emissions-higher/">coal</a> to gas would benefit the environment and not introduce a cache of new problems and risk factors, as previously thought.

"Many previous studies were somewhat ambivalent about the climate benefits of the coal-to-gas shift," said study leader Katsumasa Tanaka, a senior climate risk researcher at NIES. "Our study makes a stronger case for the climate benefits that would result from this energy transition, because we carefully chose metrics to evaluate the climate impacts in light of recent advances in understanding metrics."

Tanaka continued, “Given the current political situation, we deliver a much-needed message to help facilitate the energy shift away from coal under the Paris Agreement. However, natural gas is not an end goal; we regard it as a bridge fuel toward more sustainable forms of energy in the long run as we move toward decarbonization."

Rather than devising climate models to come to their conclusion, Tanaka’s team used emissions metrics, indicators used to evaluate the impact of specific emission types on climate change.

"Because the outcome can strongly depend on which metrics are chosen and applied, there is a need for careful reflection about the meaning and implications of each specific choice," said Francesco Cherubini, a professor at the <a href="https://www.ntnu.edu/">Norwegian University of Science and Technology</a>. "Each emission type elicits a different climate system response. The diverging outcomes in previous studies may well stem from the type of metric that was chosen."

Using metrics to calculate both long- and short-term climate impacts, the team found that natural gas power plants have smaller impacts (both long- and short-term) than coal power plants — and that includes potential methane leakage rates, and greenhouse gas and air pollutant production.

The team also compared regional metrics with global metrics to gain a more precise outlook on the coal-to-gas situation.

"We considered a suite of so-called short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), such as SOx, NOx, and black carbon, that can be emitted from these plants," said Bill Collins, a professor at the<a href="http://www.reading.ac.uk/"> University of Reading</a>. "This required a regional analysis because climate impacts from SLCPs depend on where they are emitted, due to their short lifetimes in the atmosphere."

This study, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/nclimate/">Nature Climate Change</a>, is one of many that proves that phasing out coal and replacing it with natural gas must be done in order to thwart rising temperatures and curb climate change. 

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By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

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The benefits of phasing out coal outweigh the risks, research shows

For the first time, a team of researchers from the...

Researchers from <a href="https://www.brown.edu/">Brown University</a> have outlined a framework that can be used to explain and apply methods of reducing uncertainty in social situations. These methods were first developed for non-social scenarios, the researchers explain, however we’ve adapted them to better navigate <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/shape-humans-faces-evolved/">social interactions</a>.

"Humans are predicting machines — our whole lives are spent trying to figure out what is the best move to do next," said Oriel FeldmanHall, an assistant professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences at Brown. "In general, another person's motivations, desires or beliefs are hidden, so we have to figure out how to navigate through the world when we're interacting with other people without that knowledge. What our next action is going to be depends on how others respond."

FeldmanHall and colleague Amitai Shenhav, also a Brown assistant professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences, theorize that people use three connected methods to reduce uncertainty. Their findings are published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/nathumbehav/">Nature Human Behavior</a>.

The first method is called automatic inference, and is the process of using another person’s appearance and environmental social norms to predict that person’s behavior. The second method, controlled inference, is done by using new information to update initial impressions — similar to putting oneself in another person’s shoes to gauge their reaction to a situation. And finally, the third method, social learning, is done by using past experiences or secondhand information about the person’s behavior to update one’s beliefs and tailor one’s actions to suit the social situation.

There are, of course, negative shortcuts people use to reduce uncertainty in a social scenario, as FeldmanHall explains.

"First impressions and stereotypes serve a purpose as we live in very noisy worlds where we have to make snap judgements about people all the time," FeldmanHall said. "You can't get a holistic picture of every single person you encounter on the street, but the reliance on first impressions can go wrong when people are unwilling to seek more information and get a bigger picture of who the person is, and instead stay narrowly focused on their first impression."

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By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How people reduce uncertainty in social scenarios

Researchers from Brown University have outlined a framework that can...

Dogs and other animals use their sense of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fruit-fly-smell/">smell</a> to guide them toward desirable places and to steer them away from the places they need to avoid. Professor Jay Gottfried, a neurobiologist at the <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/">University of Pennsylvania</a>, set out to investigate whether humans also rely on odor information to help them navigate through the world. 

“Each of our five senses plays a unique role, but smell seems to be treated like the black sheep of the family,” said Professor Gottfried. “Obviously, you don't need your sense of smell to take a test or drive a car, but it has a major impact on our quality of life.”

After studying the science of smell for more than 15 years, Professor Gottfried’s research is now focused on olfactory spatial navigation. He designed an experiment using various combinations of pine and banana scents to build a two-dimensional grid, or a “smellscape.” 

Participants moved between grid points that represented a “start” and an “end” based on the odor mixtures they smelled. The study revealed that, as the individuals navigated, their brain activity created a pattern with hexagonal symmetry that was acting as an actual olfactory map. This pattern resembled grid-like mapping structures that have been previously shown to assist animals in other types of spatial navigation.

“Several exciting papers have revealed that using functional imaging techniques, you can find proxies of this grid-like architecture in the human brain,” said Professor Gottfried. “What we did in this study is bring together conceptual ideas about odor navigation with grid-cell models, then used a set of smells to define a two-dimensional space.”

Unlike a real-world setting, the volunteers in this experiment were not actively, physically moving through space. Movement involved mental navigation between two odor coordinates in the smellscape. However, the study design turned out to have something else in common with real-world scenarios.

“Odor intensity increases with distance to the smell's source,” said Professor Gottfried. “For example, as you get closer you to your favorite donut shop, the stronger the donut smell becomes. In this way, the odor space we created, where banana and pine smells go from strong to weak, suggests that this design roughly captures what a person might naturally encounter.”

In an effort to gain a greater understanding of smell, Professor Gottfried plans to alter his experimental set-up and use a virtual reality computer game in which participants will locate a specific scent as they move through an odor-filled arena. 

“Imagine everyone gathering around a Thanksgiving table and one person can't smell the food. They can't really engage in that conversation or feel connected to the shared experience of the meal. There are a lot of examples like that. The sense of smell serves a very unique purpose and confers one-of-a-kind behavioral advantages that other senses can't provide.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/neuron/home">Neuron</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

Humans use their sense of smell for spatial navigation

Dogs and other animals use their sense of smell to...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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



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"

[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

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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



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

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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...