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,...

Australia’s changing human landscape is having an impact on the continent’s food webs – and not a good one. 

With the resettlement of indigenous Australians has come with a high rate of mammal extinction, the spread of invasive species, and other negative impacts on local food webs. Australia’s native mammals seem to be dying off faster in areas where humans have stopped interacting with the landscape altogether, said Dr. Rebecca Bliege Bird of <a href="https://www.psu.edu/">Pennsylvania State University</a>.

"I was motivated by the mystery that has occurred in the last 50 years in Australia," Bird said in a press release. "The extinction of small-bodied mammals does not follow the same pattern we usually see with people changing the landscape and animals disappearing."

Bird and her team have been studying the Western Desert, where the Martu people traditionally lived and hunted. 

In the mid-1900s, the Martu were resettled to make room for a missile testing range. Over the short decades that they were absent from the land, several species went extinct. The desert food webs collapsed.

In the 1980s, the Martu returned to their traditional lands. They revived their hunting, gathering and controlled burning practices. Since their return, the ecosystems of the desert have stabilized. 

By looking at the food webs – which animals, including humans, prey on and eat other animals, and which species provide the food – Bird and her team found that indigenous hunters keep predators and invasive species under control.

"The absence of humans creates big holes in the network," Bird said. "Invading becomes easier for invasive species and it becomes easier for them to cause extinctions."

Bird and her team presented their research today at the <a href="https://meetings.aaas.org/">2019 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science</a> in Washington, D.C. Funding was provided by the <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/">National Science Foundation</a> and the <a href="https://www.eva.mpg.de/">Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology</a>.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Indigenous hunters helped to balance Australia's food webs

Australia’s changing human landscape is having an impact on the...

Vinyl flooring is easy to clean, and a flame-retardant sofa seems like a smart, safe investment. But these and other common furnishings can produce household toxins that are now being found in the blood and urine of children.

A new study has found that children who live in homes where furniture has been treated with flame-retardant chemicals like polybrominated diphenyl ethers carry more evidence of semi-volatile organic compounds in their bodies than other children. So do those who live in homes with vinyl flooring.

"SVOCs are widely used in electronics, furniture and building materials and can be detected in nearly all indoor environments," Dr. Heather Stapleton of <a href="https://www.duke.edu/">Duke University</a>, who led the research, said in a press release. "Human exposure to them is widespread, particularly for young children who spend most of their time indoors and have greater exposure to chemicals found in household dust."

"Nonetheless, there has been little research on the relative contribution of specific products and materials to children's overall exposure to SVOCs," she added.

In 2014, Stapleton moved to address that. Joined by colleagues from Duke, <a href="http://www.bu.edu/">Boston University</a> and the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a>, she kicked off a three-year study of 203 children from 190 families, monitoring evidence of exposure to household toxins that contain semi-volatile organic compounds.

The team analyzed indoor dust and air from each home, along with foam from inside furniture – including flame-retardant chairs and sofas. They also took urine and blood samples from the children to test for the presence of household toxins. 

"We quantified 44 biomarkers of exposure to phthalates, organophosphate esters, brominated flame retardants, parabens, phenols, antibacterial agents and perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)," Stapleton said.

Children from homes that had vinyl flooring were found to have benzyl butyl phthalate metabolite in their urine. The chemical has been linked to respiratory and skin conditions and multiple myeloma, along with other issues.

Stapleton and her colleagues presented their findings today at the <a href="https://meetings.aaas.org/">2019 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science</a> in Washington, D.C.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Are household toxins poisoning your children?

Vinyl flooring is easy to clean, and a flame-retardant sofa...

<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a> has its sights set on returning to the Moon – to stay this time. The U.S. space agency plans to land a manned flight on the Moon by 2028, with a moon station in orbit that would allow easier travel between Earth and its only natural satellite.

The agency intends to land an unmanned craft on the lunar surface within the next five years, officials added.

“This time, when we go to the Moon, we're actually going to stay. We're not going to leave flags and footprints and then come home to not go back for another 50 years,” NASA head Jim Bridenstine said at the agency’s Washington headquarters on Thursday. “We're doing it entirely different than every other country in the world. What we're doing is, we're making it sustainable so you can go back and forth regularly with humans.”

NASA will work with private aerospace companies to help speed up the process, he said. The agency is accepting private sector bids to build the unmanned craft, the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html">Daily Mail</a> reported, as well as possible assistance from selected countries.

The moon station, called Gateway, could be in orbit by 2026. Gateway would not be permanently manned like the International Space Station.

NASA is accepting proposals for a space refueling system and a descent module, among other hardware, through March 25. It plans to select its first projects by May.

“For us, if we had any wish, I would like to fly this calendar year. We want to go fast,” Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, told the Mail.

The last time a manned mission landed on the Moon was Apollo 17 in 1972. However, in 2017, President Donald Trump spoke of a desire to return manned missions to the Moon, with the eventual goal of a Mars mission.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

NASA sets its sights on creation of moon station

NASA has its sights set on returning to the Moon...

New maps reveal state-by-state political divide over climate change. New research has revealed a state-by-state look at how the public’s perceived experiences with <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dietary-changes-slow-global-warming/">global warming</a>, along with their political party affiliation, impact their belief in climate change science and support for government policy changes.

Matto Mildenberger of the <a href="https://www.ucsb.edu/">University of California Santa Barbara</a> has found that opinions on climate change can often be linked to political shifts in Congress, society, and culture.New maps reveal state-by-state political divide over climate change

These partisan opinions within the U.S. about the dangers of climate change can therefore change policymaking within Congress.

Illustrated in a shocking visual labeled “The Partisan Climate Opinion Maps,” there is a clear divide between Democrats and Republicans in terms of belief that climate change exists and is posing a threat to our future.

<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/belief-global-warming.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-1867898" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/belief-global-warming.png" alt="" width="700" height="270" /></a><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/experiences.png"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-1867899" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/experiences.png" alt="" width="700" height="270" /></a>

[caption id="attachment_1867900" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/renewable-energy.png"><img class="wp-image-1867900" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/renewable-energy.png" alt="" width="700" height="275" /></a> Image Credit: Matto Mildenberger[/caption]

80 to 95% of registered Democrats in the U.S. strongly feel that global warming is a reality, whereas Republicans are lukewarm on the issue, with only 30 to 60% of registered Republicans feeling concerned.

These maps have been updated through 2018, and give new information about partisan climate change and energy opinion within our current political climate.

They were constructed using a statistical model that combined nationally representative survey data obtained between 2008 and 2016 by the <a href="http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/">Yale Program on Climate Change Communication</a> and the <a href="https://www.climatechangecommunication.org/">George Mason Center for Climate Change Communication</a> with voter registration, U.S. census, and geographic data.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

New maps reveal state-by-state political divide over climate change

New maps reveal state-by-state political divide over climate change. New...

Biosynthetic fibers could be key to battling microplastic pollution. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, spanning an area <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-great-pacific-garbage-patch-is-now-twice-as-big-as-texas/">larger than the size of Texas</a>, is often cited in articles and studies that highlight the severity and scope of the world’s plastic pollution crisis. 

However, a large majority of the plastic polluting our oceans has been broken down to millimeter size particles that fish mistake for food and isn’t easily noticeable to the naked eye. Biosynthetic fibers could be key to battling microplastic pollution 

Millions of tons of microfibers and microplastics are added to the world’s oceans, lakes, and rivers each year. Microfibers and microplastics have turned the ocean into what scientists are calling a <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/08/ocean-life-eats-plastic-larvaceans-anchovy-environment/">plastic soup</a>, and the problem is only getting worse. 

A major contributor is synthetic fibers like polyester and nylon. Clothes and textiles using these materials shed small microfibers when washed. 

These synthetic fibers are not-biodegradable, and they pose a major environmental and health risk. As fish can easily ingest the fibers, humans also risk <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-ingest-microplastics/">consuming microplastics </a>when they eat harvested fish. 

In a presentation at the 2019 annual meeting of the <a href="https://www.aaas.org/">American Association for the Advancement of Science</a> (AAAS), Melik Demirel, a <a href="https://www.psu.edu/">Penn State</a> materials scientist, suggested four different approaches to tackling the microfiber problem. 

“These materials, during production, processing and after use, break down into and release microfibers that can now be found in everything and everyone,” said Demirel. 

One solution is to reduce synthetic fibers and produce more textiles and fabrics made from natural materials like cotton and wool, but these put stress on water and land resources and are more expensive compared synthetic fibers. 

A second possibility would go a long way in trapping the fibers at the source to keep them out of waterways, and Demirel suggested that washing machines be fitted with microfiber filters that can be placed in outflow hoses. 

Advancements have been made in the development of plastic-eating bacteria, but it will be a long time before this third possibility becomes a viable, large-scale, alternative. 

Demirel’s last suggestion is one of the most promising because it could help make fibers and fabrics easily manufacturable and accessible but also produce recyclable and biodegradable clothing. According to Demirel, biosynthetic fibers, are recyclable, could be used as a substitute for synthetic fibers and blend with natural fibers. 

One example of a biosynthetic fiber developed by Demirel is Squitex, which is comparable to the silk found in squid ring teeth. Squitex, made from squid teeth proteins, is self-healing and completely biodegradable.

Soon the tags on your clothes may no longer list rayon or polyester blends, but rather, biosynthetic fibers that have the same durability and price point as the synthetic fabrics that flood the market today. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Patrick Mansell

Biosynthetic fibers could be key to battling microplastic pollution

Biosynthetic fibers could be key to battling microplastic pollution. The...

New advances will be crucial to successfully feed a growing population while using less water on shrinking acreage and while grappling with a <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-2080-new-york-arkansas/">changing climate</a>.

But according to recent research published in <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6422/eaat9077">Science</a>, a new method increased crop growth by 40 percent after scientists created a shortcut for a glitch that affects most food crops.

Donald Ort, the Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences at Illinois’ <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a>, will present the breakthrough this weekend at the <a href="https://www.aaas.org/">American Association for the Advancement of Science</a> (AAAS) annual meeting, which, this year, is themed around “<a href="https://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2019/meetingapp.cgi/Session/21190">Science Transcending Boundaries.</a>”

"Plants have to do three key things to produce the food we eat: capture sunlight, use that energy to manufacture plant biomass, and divert as much of the biomass as possible into yields like corn kernels or starchy potatoes," Ort said. "In the last century, crop breeders maximized the first and third of these, leaving us with the challenge to improve the process where sunlight and carbon dioxide are fixed — called photosynthesis — to boost crop growth to meet the demands of the 21st Century."

This breakthrough is part of the <a href="https://ripe.illinois.edu/">Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency</a> (RIPE) project, in which scientists are engineering crops to photosynthesize more effectively to sustain worldwide food productivity growth.

[caption id="attachment_1867891" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Breakthrough-to-increase-crop-growth-can-help-feed-growing-population.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1867891" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Breakthrough-to-increase-crop-growth-can-help-feed-growing-population.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="530" /></a> Image Credit: Claire Benjamin/RIPE Project[/caption]

"Land plants evolved with a biochemical glitch whereby a photosynthetic enzyme frequently captures oxygen instead of carbon dioxide, necessitating a convoluted and energy-expensive process called photorespiration to mitigate this glitch," Ort, deputy director of the RIPE project, explained. "Crops like soybean and wheat waste more than 30 percent of the energy they generate from photosynthesis dealing with this glitch, but modeling suggested that photorespiratory shortcuts could be engineered to help the plant conserve its energy and reinvest it into growth."

Researchers borrowed genes from algae and pumpkins to create three alternate routes to replace the circuitous native photorespiration pathway in tobacco. Having achieved this, the team hopes to try the exact same engineering process on soybean, cowpea, rice, potato, tomato, and eggplant crops.

"It is incredible to imagine the calories lost to photorespiration each year around the globe," Ort said. "To reclaim even a portion of these calories would be a huge success in our race to feed 9.7 billion people by 2050."

Ort added that it will take at least 15 years to translate these new technologies to food crops and approve the process to be used by farmers. However, when that does happen, RIPE and its sponsors will ensure that smallholder farmers, specifically those in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, will obtain royalty-free access to this engineering process.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

New method to increase crop growth can help feed growing population

New advances will be crucial to successfully feed a growing...

Humans may be top predators now, but we were prey not long ago. Often as humans, we seem to focus more on our role as predator and think of times when an animal eats us as something unnatural or out of the ordinary.  This is pretty sensible for most of the world, especially the developed world. Throughout the United States outside of perhaps rural Alaska, there’s little direct animal threat posed to humans.  

Sure, people are sometimes killed, even partially consumed by mountain lions, but it’s exceedingly rare. According to <a href="https://www.wideopenspaces.com/list-of-fatal-mountain-lion-attacks-in-north-america/">Wide Open Spaces</a>, there are only 25 fatal mountain lion attacks on record for North America from 1890 to 2017.  Although it’s much more common, fatal attacks from bears are also rare. <a href="https://www.wideopenspaces.com/list-fatal-black-bear-attacks-north-america-last-20-years/">Wide Open Spaces</a> reports that the same number, 25 fatal black bear attacks occurred in North America in just 20 years.  When looking at these numbers, it’s important to remember people are much more likely to see a black bear than a <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/mountain-lions-afraid-humans/">mountain lion</a> as well.  I personally have never seen a mountain lion in the wild, but have seen bears, both black and brown a number of times. In a similar vein, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/06/15/24-alligator-attacks/85955624/">USA Today</a> reports that Florida has had only 24 fatal alligator attacks on humans since 1973. 

By the numbers, the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm">CDC</a> reports that Americans are most likely to die of heart disease, followed by cancer and accidents. For anyone who wants to go out in an epic battle of human versus the wild, you’ll have to really try hard at it.  Still, this isn’t how it’s always been and a part of our brain knows it.

Remember the fear of a monster under the bed or hiding in your closet as a child?  The fear of the dark? I remember swimming in a muddy reservoir in the summer. The water was cool and deliciously fresh, but something about seeing nothing but darkness beneath my swimming limbs gave me the willies.  These fears might be the moldering remains of survival instincts which allowed our ancestors to survive in a world filled with dangerous predators now largely vanquished. Even old children stories like the Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf or Goldilocks and the Three Bears reflect our very human uneasiness with large predators.  

Over the centuries, humans have fought with many big predators and still do.  We’ve <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/loss-bears-american-landscape/">decimated populations</a> of bears in North America and before that in Europe.  Once, as many as 50,000 Grizzly Bears lived in the lower 48 states of the US, but now there are only an estimated 1,500 of the bears left.  This represents bears being pushed out of 98% of their original home range. In other parts of the world, humans have killed lions, tigers, leopards, crocodiles even sharks.  In some ways, this fervor of killing is related to an innate fear of animals that can kill us, the so-called monsters of our myths and legends made flesh. We may soon live in a world with nothing to call a monster except ourselves.   

Evidence shows that in the distant past, our fears were perhaps very well founded.  In the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, ancient human fossils have been found. These fossils aren’t the modern species but represent what is probably an ancestor of Homo sapiens.  In the same area, fossils of an extinct crocodile with interesting ‘horns’ over its eyes have been found as well.  <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18569-monster-crocodile-was-ancient-human-nightmare/">New Scientist</a> reports that tellingly, the crocodile was named, ‘Crocodylus anthropophagus’, Crocodylus of course simply means crocodile.  The species, anthropophagus is a much more sinister name, it means ‘man eater’ in Greek.  

Famous paleontologists Mary and Louis Leakey discovered ancient hominid bones in the area with distinctively crocodile bite marks on them, and until Crocodylus anthropophagus was discovered researchers assumed that the wounds had been inflicted by modern Nile Crocodiles.  There is little doubt that C. anthropophagus and other crocodiles threatened our ancestors just as crocodiles and alligators still sometimes threaten humans today.  In Madagascar, I heard stories about a man who travels from village to village killing dangerous crocodiles for a small fee.  Crocodile hunting not only for food but for a feeling of safety must have been much more common in the distant past but crocodiles were far from the only animals threatening humans.

It’s easy to forget that humans evolved from much smaller animals.  We in all probability once looked much like modern monkeys. In the Latin American rainforests, a harpy eagle is still more than capable of catching an incautious monkey from a tree and carrying her away for a meal.  

In Africa where humans evolved, there are large monkey hunting raptors as well.  In 2006, <a href="https://www.osu.edu/">Ohio State University</a> scientists studied the bones of 600 monkeys collected below the nest of African Crowned eagles in the Ivory Coast Tai rainforest.  The scientists concluded that the wounds on the monkey bones are similar to and suggestive of wounds found on early human fossils. <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/lee-berger-the-death-of-taung-child-and-my-run-in-with-a-raptor/">A famous fossil</a> of Australopithecus africanus (a likely human ancestor) known as the Taung Child found in Africa bears tell-tale talon marks on its skull probably caused by a raptor carrying it away.  The thought of giant birds grabbing us to casually snack on gives more depth to horror fantasies like Alfred Hitchcock’s classic The Birds.  <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/legendary-human-eating-bird-was-real-probably-could-have-eaten-people-89257268/">Smithsonian Magazine</a> reports that far from Africa, Maori tribespeople in New Zealand have legends about giant birds that carry children away for food.  Scientists now believe that the Maori legend of the child eating raptor, Te Hokioi, could correlate with a recently extinct but very real bird, the Haast Eagle.  The Haast Eagle could probably have actually killed and eaten children as recently as 500 years ago. In other places, giant land walking birds like Madagascar’s elephant bird aren’t hard to imagine as threats to human safety.  

In the Americas, there are strong oral traditions of wolves killing humans and it seems at least possible that in the distant past of Europe as well as North America this was a very real possibility.  To discount the idea simply because it virtually never happens today is to ignore the very different situation of our distant past. Wolves have been eradicated from most of their range and have very good reasons to be afraid of humans.  Folklore and even modern movies show that the fear goes both ways. 

Despite the façade of modernity and a world under technical human control, being alone in the dark far from others can show us a different side of humanity.  Alone in unfamiliar places we quickly become more cautious, more observant and sometimes even fearful. The genes that helped us survive a much more savage world still whisper to us the truth in the dark; we were prey before we were top predators.       

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Humans may be top predators now, but we were prey not long ago

Humans may be top predators now, but we were prey...

A team of experts at <a href="https://www.iastate.edu/">Iowa State University</a> has identified ways that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-2080-new-york-arkansas/">climate change</a> will increase the likelihood of violence, based on established models of aggression and violence. The most obvious is the effect of higher temperatures, which can cause irritability and hostility. The other effects are less direct, resulting from conditions such as failing crops and economic instability.

The study authors noted that these risk factors will become more prevalent as a result of climate change-induced disasters, including hurricanes, droughts, floods, and water shortages.

According to study co-author Professor Craig Anderson, some natural disasters are so extensive and long term that large groups of people are forced to migrate from their homeland. He explained that this “eco-migration” creates intergroup conflicts over resources, which can escalate into political violence, civil wars, or wars between nations.

“This is a global issue with very serious consequences. We need to plan for ways to reduce the negative impacts,” said Professor Anderson. “An inadequate food supply and economic disparity make it difficult to raise healthy and productive citizens, which is one way to reduce long-term violence. We also need to plan for and devote resources to aid eco-migrants in their relocation to new lands and countries.”

Professor Anderson fears the effects of eco-migration and conflict will be the most destructive. He pointed out that we are already seeing the migration of large groups in response to this type of instability, such as the ongoing conflict in Syria.

“Although the most extreme events, such as all-out war, are relatively unlikely, the consequences are so severe that we cannot afford to ignore them,” said Professor Anderson. “That is why the U.S. and other countries must make sure these regional conflicts and eco-migration problems don't get out of hand. One way to do that is to provide appropriate aid to refugees and make it easier for them to migrate to regions where they can be productive, healthy and happy.”

Professor Anderson and study lead author Andreas Miles-Novelo explained that the purpose of their research is to raise awareness among the scientific community to help prevent harmful consequences. They also want to educate the public on the potential for increased violence with climate change.

“From past experience with natural disasters, we should be able to prepare for future problems by setting aside emergency resources and funds,” said Miles-Novelo. “We should tear down negative stereotypes and prejudices about those who will need help and humanely assist refugees and others who are displaced. By doing all these things we can reduce conflict and hostility.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://link.springer.com/journal/40641">Current Climate Change 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

Image Credit: Christopher Gannon, Iowa State University News Service

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com
</a>

Climate change will increase potential for violence and aggression

A team of experts at Iowa State University has identified...

It’s no secret that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/follow-new-years-resolutions/">New Year’s resolutions</a> are often doomed to fail, and as we progress further into 2019, many people have let their goals slip away. 

Is lack of self-control to blame for our lax resolution follow through? While determination and willpower are essential in achieving one’s goals, a new study found that there is more to self-control than just sheer force of will. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/">University of Pennsylvania</a> examined self-control and why people are often unable to stick to their goals and resolutions in a new report. 

The report, published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, outlines a new framework by using different strategies to boost effective follow-through depending on the situation and who is involved. 

At a time when caving into temptation is easier than ever, the researchers say a new toolkit of strategies is essential to get people to stay on track.

“Temptations are arguably more readily available, more creatively engineered, and cheaper than any time in history,” said Angela Duckworth, an author of the study. “Junk food gets tastier and cheaper every year. And then there's video games, social media, the list goes on. In parallel, there are public policy issues such as obesity, educational underachievement, and under-saving that result, in part, from failures of self-control.”

The researchers conducted a comprehensive review of past research on self-control and willpower and developed a new framework using four types of self-control strategies. 

One type of strategy involves changing the situation to help exercise self-control. This strategy is self-implemented and could involve someone keeping junk food out the house to make it less accessible or using apps that limit screen time. 

Another self-implemented strategy the researchers recommend is to come up with a game plan for practicing self-control. For example, someone could say, “if my coworker brings cookies to work tomorrow, then I’ll bring a healthy snack and make sure to fill up with a good breakfast, so I’m less tempted.” 

This is an example of an “if--then” plan and helps make sticking to a goal a little easier. 

Another type of strategy is not self-implemented and could work better if implemented by someone else. The researchers say that policymakers raising taxes on cigarettes and alcohol is a good example of this kind of strategy. 

People may think will-power is all you need to stick to your goals, but this new report shows that in some cases determination alone isn’t enough but employing different strategies depending on the situation can help people succeed. 

More research is needed to see if these strategies are effective over the long term and across a wide range of people, as the studies analyzed had small sample groups, but the results are a promising step in the right direction. 

“There is an urgent need for a cumulative and applied science of self-control--one that incorporates insights from theoretical traditions in both psychological science and economics,” the researchers wrote in their study. “We hope this review is a step in that direction.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Effective self-control strategies to help you hit your goals

It’s no secret that New Year’s resolutions are often doomed...

Glyphosate is one of the most commonly used weed killers on the market today, and it’s the main ingredient in the herbicide <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/cancer-suit-weedkiller-roundup/">Roundup</a>.

While <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/roundup-california-river/">glyphosate herbicides</a> are useful in the backyard, there has been increasing unease that exposure to the chemical increases the risk of cancer. 

Now, a new meta-analysis review study of previous research on glyphosate’s associated cancer risk confirmed these fears as the results show that glyphosate exposure may increase the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, an immune system cancer, by as much as 41 percent. 

The study, published in the journal Mutation Research/Reviews in Mutation Research, was conducted by researchers from the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington</a> who reviewed past glyphosate studies including the <a href="https://aghealth.nih.gov/">Agricultural Health Study cohort.</a>

While Monsanto, the producers of Roundup, the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/glyphosate">Environmental Protection Agency</a>, and the <a href="http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/topics/topic/glyphosate">European Food Safety Authority</a> have maintained that glyphosate is non-carcinogenic, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/14/health/us-glyphosate-cancer-study-scli-intl/index.html">CNN</a>, the <a href="https://www-prod.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/MonographVolume112-1.pdf">World Health Organization International Agency for Research on Cancer</a> says otherwise. 

There has been a string of lawsuits against Monsanto which was acquired by Bayer in 2018 and CNN reported that thousands of people are suing Monsanto alleging that exposure to glyphosate caused their cancers. 

For this study, the researchers found that in the highest exposure groups, referring to people with the highest reported exposure to the chemical in the different studies reviewed, exposure to glyphosate raised the risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. 

“All of the meta-analyses conducted to date, including our own, consistently report the same key finding: exposure to GBHs (glyphosate-based herbicides) are associated with an increased risk of NHL,” the researchers wrote. 

The team also reviewed previously published animal studies that dealt with glyphosate to help confirm their meta-analysis findings. 

There are several limitations to the study’s findings as there is little data available on the correlation between glyphosate exposure and cancer risk. 

The researchers also said the studies were varied in terms of the levels of glyphosate exposure each study participant experienced which makes drawing any firm correlations between studies challenging. 

Even with the limitations of the meta-analysis, the study calls attention to an important potentially dangerous carcinogenic and calls for further studies that explore glyphosate’s cancer risk. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Exposure to weed killer glyphosate raises cancer risk by 41 percent

Glyphosate is one of the most commonly used weed killers...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/">Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health</a> are reporting that active, middle-aged men able to complete more than 40 push-ups have significantly fewer complications associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Compared to men who were able to complete no more than 10 push-ups, these individuals had a substantially lower risk of CVD outcomes such as <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/walking-reduce-heart-failure-risk/">heart failure</a> and other major events. 

“Our findings provide evidence that push-up capacity could be an easy, no-cost method to help assess cardiovascular disease risk in almost any setting. Surprisingly, push-up capacity was more strongly associated with cardiovascular disease risk than the results of submaximal treadmill tests,” said study first author Justin Yang. 

This is the first study of its kind to report an association between push-up capacity and cardiovascular disease outcomes. Using data from 2000 to 2010, the researchers analyzed the health of 1,104 active male firefighters with an average age of 39.6 and an average body mass index (BMI) of 28.7. 

The push-up capacity and treadmill tolerance of each participant had been measured at the start of the study. The men followed up with annual physical examinations and health and medical questionnaires over the course of ten years.

Out of 37 CVD-related outcomes reported during the study period, all but one occurred in men who completed 40 or fewer push ups during the baseline exam. The researchers calculated that men able to do more than 40 push-ups had a 96 percent reduced risk of CVD events compared with those who were able to do less than 10 push-ups.

“This study emphasizes the importance of physical fitness on health, and why clinicians should assess fitness during clinical encounters,” said study senior author Stefanos Kales.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen">JAMA Network Open</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Men who can do 40 push-ups are less likely to suffer heart failure

Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health...

Global tiger populations have been on a steep decline as poaching, habitat loss and human-wildlife conflict continue to decimate the species. 

While poaching is seen as the most severe threat, habitat loss exacerbates the other threats by pushing <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/tigers-captive-us-nature/">tigers</a> closer to humans where they can be killed by poachers or during human-wildlife conflicts. But agroforestry has been used as a solution to benefit both humans and tigers by creating new habitats.

Today, there are fewer than 4,000 tigers left in the wild who <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/15955/50659951#population">inhabit less than 6% of their historic range</a>. In the past century, we have lost over 95% of the world’s wild tiger population, according to <a href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/what-we-do/projects/doubling-wild-tiger-numbers">World Wildlife Fund</a>.

These numbers paint a grim picture for the future of tiger conservation. But in recent years, the tiger has seen some conservation wins.  In 2010, the thirteen tiger range countries made an unprecedented pledge to double the world’s tiger population by 2022. India has already seen their tiger population increase from 1,411 in 2006 to 2,226. The uptick is due, in part, to agroforestry, reports<a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/in-india-agroforestry-is-a-win-for-both-tigers-and-villagers/"> Scientific American</a>.

Agroforestry is also prominent in Sumatra, Indonesia which is home to the critically endangered Sumatran tiger.

Agroforestry is a land-use system that integrates agriculture and forestry by planting trees and shrubs around crops. This system diversifies the farmers’ agricultural outputs, provides an alternative to cutting down trees in the forest and enriches the local ecosystem by increasing soil, air and water quality. Agroforestry is hardly new; it has been used in the United States and abroad for centuries. But the system is gaining traction for its contribution to biodiversity conservation.

Many species, such as tigers, are seeing their habitats rapidly decline and degrade throughout their ranges. This habitat loss can reduce animals’ access to resources and isolate them into small, fragmented habitats. Compounding this issue further is the ever-growing human population that needs more space for homes, farms and roads.

Agroforestry works to counteract habitat loss by creating a buffer zone between humans and tigers. The tigers can roam the buffer zone and connect to previously fragmented habitats. Additionally, conservationists argue that agroforestry will decrease deforestation by allowing farmers to harvest their own wood instead of relying on forests.

One <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20967444">study</a> found that agroforestry built around protected habitats could reduce the chances of tiger extinction in Sumatra. In contrast, researchers found that surrounding protected areas with single-use land resulted in the extinction of tigers in their model.

Agroforestry does not come without its risks, as creating habitat near agricultural plots could increase conflicts between tigers and farmers. These human-tiger conflicts can quickly become fatal for both the tigers and farmers. 

A<a href="https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1048&amp;context=faculty_scholarship"> study</a> found that 47% of victims of human-tiger conflicts during a 20-year period in Sumatra, Indonesia were at the forest edge, 26% were in agricultural fields and 21% were in a forested area. Only 6% of victims were attacked in a village. The authors see the conservation value in agroforestry but stress the importance of addressing human-wildlife conflict in these systems.

By addressing human-wildlife conflict, conservationists will not only protect community members but also foster support towards tiger conservation. After all, tigers need all the help they can get.

--

By <a href="mailto:brianna.grant134@gmail.com">Brianna Lynne</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

How agroforestry can help plummeting tiger populations

Global tiger populations have been on a steep decline as...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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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

[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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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

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

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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

[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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



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

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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

Satellites have become essential to our survival

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