Genetically predicted height can be linked to the development of certain health conditions, according to new research. The findings suggest that increased height may raise or lower the odds of certain ailments, emphasizing the importance of early check-ups.



The study was led by Dr. Areti Papadopoulou, a postdoctoral research associate at the <a href="https://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit</a>, and Dr. Eirini Marouli, an associate professor in computational biology at Queen Mary University of London.



The experts emphasize that these findings can benefit many people from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/health-risks-of-ultra-processed-foods-revealed-in-30-year-study/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">varied backgrounds</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-notable-links-between-height-and-disease">Notable links between height and disease</h2>



The scientists examined data from six populations of different <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-life-expectancy-faces-a-triple-threat/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ancestries</a>, and analyzed the DNA factors that govern how tall a person might grow.



This approach, known as a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34982132/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">phenome-wide association study</a> (a method that scans a broad set of health outcomes), uncovered a variety of conditions that were linked to a single genetic trait.



The researchers discovered 254 notable links between height and disease. One of the strongest connections was with <a href="https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/atrial-fibrillation/what-is-atrial-fibrillation-afib-or-af" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">atrial fibrillation</a>. This particular condition, which disrupts normal heart rhythms, appeared more frequently among taller individuals.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-taking-a-closer-look-at-circulatory-risk">Taking a closer look at circulatory risk</h2>



Height was strongly related to blood vessel and heart <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/heart-disease-remains-the-leading-cause-of-death-worldwide/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">issues</a>, with taller people experiencing more problems involving veins and certain arterial conditions.



By one measure, taller people also seemed to have a lower chance of developing <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21656-hyperlipidemia" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hyperlipidemia</a> (high fats in the blood) but a higher likelihood of facing specific heart <a href="https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/arrhythmias" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arrhythmias</a>.



Some conditions connected to taller stature were only spotted in one sex or ancestry group. For instance, there was a connection between increased height and lower risk of <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470284/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hyperpotassemia</a> (high potassium levels), but the link was only found in males. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-perspectives-on-disease-risk">New perspectives on disease risk </h2>



“Our study explored disease-related outcomes in up to 840,000 individuals of European, African, East Asian and Hispanic population groups with genetically predicted height,” explained Dr. Papadopoulou, the first author of the study.



“We report associations with a series of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-takes-a-major-toll-on-childrens-health/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">disorders</a>, involving mental disorders and the endocrine system, that have not been previously associated with genetically predicted height.”



According to Dr. Marouli, the study reveals significant links between genetically predicted height and various health conditions, providing new perspectives on disease risk. 



"By analyzing genetic data across diverse ancestries and incorporating sex-specific analyses, we have identified associations that could improve early diagnosis and patient care,” said Dr. Marouli.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-this-means-for-daily-life">What this means for daily life</h2>



Simple measures, like blood pressure readings, might be interpreted more carefully for taller adults, given that some <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCGEN.121.003612" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a> points to different cardiac risks by height.



For example, the experts noted that taller men appear less likely to experience high blood pressure but are more prone to heart rhythm disorders.



Screening for conditions such as certain cancers has also been debated in past <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.29159" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">studies</a> of taller women, especially regarding breast health. The exact reasons for the potential link remain unclear, but the genetic factors that lead to a bigger frame may sometimes coincide with an increased risk for various types of tumors.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-managing-risks-across-diverse-groups">Managing risks across diverse groups</h2>



The researchers emphasize that improving health monitoring based on genetically predicted height should not focus on one ancestry alone.



The best strategies come from studies that include everyone, ensuring that recommendations will apply to people from diverse backgrounds and help them <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nearly-one-third-of-asthma-cases-linked-to-air-pollution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">manage risks</a>.



Health leaders also recognize the importance of routine checkups, such as monitoring blood pressure, which is crucial for spotting early <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/hypertension" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">hypertension</a>. With height now becoming a bigger part of the conversation, providers might refine their advice to match each person's unique background and build.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-link-between-height-and-health">The link between height and health</h2>



There is still much to learn about the interplay between height and overall health. By studying the genetic codes of people in different parts of the world, scientists hope to reveal fresh insights that lead to more targeted guidance.



Large-scale projects will likely expand on these findings. Future research may clarify why taller individuals face certain conditions at higher rates, while shorter individuals may struggle with others. 



The study is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41525-025-00464-w" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">npj Genomic Medicine</a>.



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Tall or short? Your height could predict future health risks

Genetically predicted height can be linked to the development of certain health conditions, according to new research. The findings suggest that increased height may raise or lower the odds of certain ailments, emphasizing the importance of early check-ups. The study was led by Dr. Areti Papadopoulou, a postdoctoral research associate at the Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit, and Dr. Eirini Marouli, an associate professor in computational biology at Queen Mary University of London. The experts emphasize that these findings can benefit many people from varied backgrounds. Notable...

Screen time for young children has more than doubled since 1997. With such fast-paced advancements made in smartphones, portable tablets, and streaming, today’s children have more access and exposure to screens and media than ever before.

Now, a new study has found that screen time for children under the age of two has more than doubled since 1997.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, raises concerns about how much screen time is too much for young children.

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.fiu.edu/">Florida International University</a> who conducted the study analyzed data from parent diaries that were part of the <a href="https://psidonline.isr.umich.edu/cds/cdsi_usergd.pdf">Child Development Supplement Panel Study of Income Dynamics</a> between 1997 and 2014.

In 1997, screen time included television, video games, and computers. By 2014, the definition of screen time expanded to include smartphones and tablets.

The results showed that for children under two, screen time increased from 1.32 hours in 1997 to 3.5 hours in 2014. The majority of screen time for children under two in 2014 consisted of television.

Children ages three to five didn’t spend much more or less time in front a screen in 2014 compared to 1997, but television still accounted for the majority of screen time.

The <a href="https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages/American-Academy-of-Pediatrics-Announces-New-Recommendations-for-Childrens-Media-Use.aspx">American Academy of Pediatrics</a> recommends that children under 18 months avoid screen time all together, and that children 18 to 24 months be introduced to high-quality educational programming.

The experts say that for children two to five, parents should limit screen time to just one hour and watch programming as a family to help explain what is being watched.

Research has shown the importance of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/limited-screen-cognitive-ability-kids/">limiting screen time</a>, as too much screen time for young children can have an adverse impact on cognition, development, and increase the risk of obesity, according to CNN.

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Screen time for young children has more than doubled since 1997

Screen time for young children has more than doubled since...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/">University College London</a> pinpoints the exact locations of two quarries in Wales where the “bluestones” of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/stonehenge-built-remains/">Stonehenge</a> originated. The research also reveals how the stones were quarried 5,000 years ago.

It was previously established that 42 of Stonehenge's smaller stones, known as bluestones, came from Pembrokeshire in west Wales. Now, two specific quarries have been identified by a team of archaeologists and geologists.


“What's really exciting about these discoveries is that they take us a step closer to unlocking Stonehenge's greatest mystery - why its stones came from so far away,” said Professor Mike Parker Pearson.

“Every other Neolithic monument in Europe was built of megaliths brought from no more than 10 miles away. We're now looking to find out just what was so special about the Preseli hills 5,000 years ago, and whether there were any important stone circles here, built before the bluestones were moved to Stonehenge.”

[caption id="attachment_1868170" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/stonehenge.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1868170" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/stonehenge.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="524" /></a> Stonehenge quarry, Image Credit: UCL[/caption]

The largest quarry was located almost 180 miles away from Stonehenge on the north slope of the Preseli hills in Pembrokeshire.

“This was the dominant source of Stonehenge's spotted dolerite, so-called because it has white spots in the igneous blue rock. At least five of Stonehenge's bluestones, and probably more, came from Carn Goedog,” said Dr. Richard Bevins.

The researchers found that the bluestone outcrops were formed of natural pillars with vertical joints. This would have made it easier to access the stones compared to the quarries in ancient Egypt, where obelisks were carved out of the solid rock. In the Welsh quarries, the workers simply inserted wedges into the joints between pillars before removing them. 

“The stone wedges are made of imported mudstone, much softer than the hard dolerite pillars. An engineering colleague has suggested that hammering in a hard wedge could have created stress fractures, causing the thin pillars to crack. Using a soft wedge means that, if anything were to break, it would be the wedge and not the pillar,” said Professor Parker Pearson.


The excavations also uncovered the remains of man-made stone and earth platforms at the foot of each outcrop.

“Bluestone pillars could be eased down onto this platform, which acted as a loading bay for lowering them onto wooden sledges before dragging them away,” said Professor Colin Richards.


The team now speculates that Stonehenge was initially a circle of rough, unworked bluestone pillars, and that sandstone blocks were added about 500 years later. The findings also challenge the theory that the bluestones were transported by sea to Stonehenge.

Professor Kate Welham explained, “Some people think that the bluestones were taken southwards to Milford Haven and placed on rafts or slung between boats and then paddled up the Bristol Channel and along the Bristol Avon towards Salisbury Plain. But these quarries are on the north side of the Preseli hills so the megaliths could have simply gone overland all the way to Salisbury Plain.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://antiquity.ac.uk/">Antiquity</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Scientists pinpoint where the Stonehenge bluestones originated

A new study led by the University College London pinpoints...

By hunting small animals, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/diverse-climates-homo-sapiens-thrive/">Homo sapiens</a> were able to rapidly adapt and settle in extreme environments that their hominin relatives did not even touch. An international team of researchers has found that humans hunted small mammals such as primates in the forests of Sri Lanka at least 45,000 years ago.

At the oldest archaeological site occupied by humans in Sri Lanka, the experts found evidence of cut-marks and burning alongside sophisticated bone and stone tools. The study, led by scientists from the <a href="https://www.shh.mpg.de/en">Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History</a>, highlights the unique adaptability of Homo sapiens. The research also provides the oldest and longest record of sophisticated primate hunting by foragers.


In discussions of early human dispersal, tropical rainforests have not been explored due to the notion that these areas were isolated barriers to humans with dangerous animals and diseases. There was also a misperception of resources being very limited. The monkeys and squirrels in the forest would have not only been difficult to catch, but would have also provided less protein.

Hunting small animals has long been considered a testament to the complexity of our species, but the onset of this activity has not been widely studied. This is especially the case in tropical regions. 

“Over the last two decades, research has highlighted human occupation of tropical rainforests in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Melanesia at least as early as 45,000 years ago, so the potential for human reliance on small mammals in these settings prior to 20,000 years ago seems likely,” said Dr. Patrick Roberts.


The current study has produced new chronological information through the analysis of animal remains and tools recovered from the Fa-Hien Lena Cave, which is the site of the earliest H. sapiens in Sri Lanka.

“The results demonstrate specialized, sophisticated hunting of semi-arboreal and arboreal monkey and squirrel populations from 45,000 years ago in a tropical rainforest environment,” said study lead author Oshan Wedage.

Dr. Noel Amano added, “This was complemented by sophisticated bone tool technologies which were, in turn, created from the bones of hunted monkeys.”

The new study suggests that hunters in the region were primarily focused on monkeys and other small mammals over the last 45,000 years.

Professor Michael Petraglia said, “This 'monkey menu' was not a one-off, and the use of these difficult-to-catch resources is one more example of the behavioral and technological flexibility of H. sapiens.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: O. Wedage

Humans were hunting small mammals in South Asia 45,000 years ago

By hunting small animals, Homo sapiens were able to rapidly...

In South Africa, an exceptionally high number of young people suffer from <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/ptsd-cancer-heart-disease/">post-traumatic stress disorder</a> (PTSD) and depression. An international team of researchers found that when students practiced Transcendental Meditation (TM) for three months, most of their symptoms of PTSD and depression were alleviated. 


Study lead author Dr. Carole Bandy is a professor of Psychology at <a href="http://www.norwich.edu/">Norwich University</a>, which is the oldest military college in America. She said that the reduction of symptoms found among the students was both rapid and significant. 

The research was focused on students at the <a href="https://maharishiinstitute.org/">Maharishi Institute</a> (MI) who had all been clinically diagnosed with PTSD. Their symptoms included nightmares, flashbacks, anxiety, fear, and hypervigilance. The young adults also reported emotional numbness, anger, violent behavior, and drug and alcohol abuse. 

After just 15 days of learning Transcendental Meditation, the students showed a significant drop of more than 10 points in their PTSD symptoms. At the beginning of the study, the average group score for the students was 44. By the end, this mean score had fallen below the PTSD threshold of 34. The young people also felt relief from the depressive symptoms associated with PTSD.

“A high percentage of young people in South Africa, especially those living in the townships, suffer from PTSD,” said study co-author Michael Dillbeck. “To become successful students and productive members of society, they absolutely need help dealing with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Our study shows, that after 3 months of meditation, this group, on average, was out of PTSD. It offers a way for others to effectively deal with this problem.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/home/prx">Psychological Reports</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Transcendental meditation can help relieve PTSD symptoms

In South Africa, an exceptionally high number of young people...

Experts have been looking into ways to improve beef production methods in an effort to reduce harmful <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/cowspiracy-film-review/">greenhouse gas emissions</a>. One environmentally-friendly option that is being explored is lab-grown meat. However, a new study from the <a href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> has revealed that cultured meat would not mitigate all of the negative impacts of beef production without a widespread shift to carbon-free energy.

The researchers determined that while some forms of cultured meat would be an improvement, others could actually drive higher global temperatures in the long term. The study authors emphasized that the climate impact of cultured meat production will depend on its energy demands and the availability of low-carbon power sources.

“There has been a great deal of public interest in cultured meat recently, and many articles highlight the potential for substituting cattle beef with cultured meat to provide an important climate benefit,” said study lead author Dr. John Lynch.

“We show that it is not yet clear whether this is the case, partly because of uncertainties about how cultured meat would be produced at scale. An important issue in comparing farmed and cultured beef is that the different warming impacts of greenhouse gases are also not well accounted for in the standard measure used in carbon footprints.”

Previous studies have established that agricultural greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for about 25 percent of the Earth's current warming. Replacing traditional beef with lab-grown meat has been widely discussed as a better alternative, but the emissions that result from creating meat in a lab may have been underestimated. 

“Cattle are very emissions-intensive because they produce a large amount of methane from fermentation in their gut,” explained study co-author Professor Raymond Pierrehumbert.

“Methane is an important greenhouse gas, but the way in which we generally describe methane emissions as ‘carbon dioxide equivalent’ amounts can be misleading because the two gases are very different. Per ton emitted, methane has a much larger warming impact than carbon dioxide, however, it only remains in the atmosphere for about 12 years whereas carbon dioxide persists and accumulates for millennia. This means methane's impact on long-term warming is not cumulative and is impacted greatly if emissions increase or decrease over time.”

A model created by the researchers showed that cattle have a greater initial warming effect through the release of methane, but some lab-grown meat techniques would ultimately result in more warming. 

“This is important because while reducing methane emissions would be good - and an important part of our climate policies - if we simply replace that methane with carbon dioxide it could actually have detrimental long-term consequences,” said Dr. Lynch.

“The climate impacts of cultured meat production will depend on what level of sustainable energy generation can be achieved, as well as the efficiency of future culture processes.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems">Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Cultured meat may not be the best substitute for conventional beef

Experts have been looking into ways to improve beef production...

A new study conducted by researchers from the <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/">University of Leeds</a> and published in the journal Cancer Research shows that smoking may hinder the immune system’s ability to fight off <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/immune-cells-skin-cancer-treatment/">skin cancer</a>.

More than 700 patients diagnosed with melanoma took part in the study, and the researchers found that participants who were smokers were 40 percent less likely to survive the disease compared to the participants that hadn’t smoked for the past decade or more. 

A smaller experiment with 156 participants yielded important insights into how smoking may inhibit the body’s immune response to cancer cells.

Past research has shown that smoking <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5352117/">negatively impacts the immune system</a>, but this relationship has not been thoroughly understood. 

While the researchers could not officially determine why smoking lowered survival rates or even that smoking caused a lowered immune response, the study shows a definite association between the two. 

“The immune system is like an orchestra, with multiple pieces. This research suggests that smoking might disrupt how it works together in tune, allowing the musicians to continue playing but possibly in a more disorganised way,” said Julia Newton-Bishop, the lead author of the study. “The result is that smokers could still mount an immune response to try and destroy the melanoma, but it appears to have been less effective than in never-smokers, and smokers were less likely to survive their cancer.”

More work is needed to understand what chemicals in tobacco disrupt the immune system’s ability to fight off cancer cells, but the researchers say the results provide another important motivation to help smokers quit. 

“Overall, these results show that smoking could limit the chances of melanoma patients' survival so it's especially important that they are given all the support possible to give up smoking for good,” said Dr. Julie Sharp, head of health information at <a href="https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/">Cancer Research UK</a>, which funded the study. 

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Smoking may hinder the body’s ability to beat skin cancer

A new study conducted by researchers from the University of...

Through a genomic study of 50 African populations, researchers from the <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/">University of Pennsylvania</a> have found that some of the click-speaking hunter-gatherer populations of East Africa are more closely related to each other than their neighboring populations. The research also shows that this relation is fairly recent.

This evidence provides proof that a few of those who speak languages that utilize “clicks” can most likely be grouped into a single family, which goes against the belief of some linguists that the individual click languages are too different to be grouped together.

The genomic analysis, published February 18th in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>, also shows the importance of infectious diseases, immunity, and diet in the shaping of diverse populations across <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/widespread-burn-scars-africa/">Africa</a>.

"It's very rare to have a study of this many groups that are genetically different in terms of ancestry, in their subsistence patterns, and are geographically dispersed as well," said senior author Sarah Tishkoff, a geneticist and <a href="https://pikprofessors.upenn.edu/">Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor</a>. "This allows us to characterize population structure and demographic history as well as to look at signatures of natural selection acting on these populations."

[caption id="attachment_1868031" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/East-Africa’s-hunter-gatherers-share-a-common-ancestry.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1868031" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/East-Africa’s-hunter-gatherers-share-a-common-ancestry.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="525" /></a> Clockwise from upper left: Sabue, San, Hadza, and Sandawe[/caption]

The study, which has been decades in the making and examines African populations that have otherwise remained understudied, looked at the genomes of 840 Africans from hunter-gatherer populations spread across sub-Saharan Africa and discovered 621,000 separate nucleotides in the DNA of each study participant.

Researchers were particularly interested in the relationships between African populations who speak languages identified as Khoisan — a language that uses click consonants.

"Some linguists say it's not correct to place all of these into the Khoisan family, arguing that the Hadza and Sandawe languages are so different from each other and from the San that they really should be in separate language classifications," Tishkoff said. "It's an ongoing question in linguistics and genetics, and we wanted to ask the question, 'Do these groups with click phonemes have a common genetic ancestry?'"

Via their genetic mapping process, the team found that four hunter-gatherer populations in East Africa — the Hadza, Sandawe, Dahalo, and Sabue — clustered together.

"Typically what we see is that populations cluster by geography, but here we're seeing an exception to that," Tishkoff said. "Here you have three groups that either speak a click language, have remnant clicks, or have an unclassified language, and they're showing a common ancestry even though they're spread across different countries."

Researchers could not find a shared ancestry between these four groups and the South African San people, who also speak with Khoisan clicks. However, they were able to find a genetic link between the San and a population of rainforest hunter-gatherers from Central Africa, despite the large geographical distance.

But other hunter-gatherer groups, like the Wata, El Molo, and Yaaku, were seemingly more genetically similar to neighboring agriculturalist and pastoralist groups than to each other.

The analysis revealed that the common ancestry of the Hadza, Sandawe, Dahalo, and Sabue populations dates back about 20,000 years ago, around the beginning of the last glacial maximum during which ice covered large portions of Earth.

"The idea is that this may have changed environmental conditions and introduced a barrier between populations," said lead author Laura Scheinfeldt, a former research associate in Tishkoff's lab, and currently with the <a href="https://www.coriell.org/">Coriell Institute for Medical Research</a>. “What we found was the strongest signatures of adaptation tended to be population-specific.” This means that targets of natural selection differed from group to group and could be responsible for the unique evolution of each population.

"Genes involved in immune responses, diet, and metabolism were the broad categories that we saw coming up over and over again," Scheinfeldt added. "We know infectious disease in general is a very strong pressure, and, when you look solely at how prevalent malaria is, that also explains some of the patterns we see in adaptive signatures. Just that one disease is a very strong selective pressure."

Next, Tishkoff wants to explore how genetic variants may affect physical traits of those who carry them, which could help scientists better understand disease susceptibility. Furthermore, the team will use whole-genome sequencing techniques to discover more relationships between Africa’s many populations. 

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Tishkoff lab

East Africa’s hunter-gatherers share a common ancestry

Through a genomic study of 50 African populations, researchers from...

A vital <a href="https://www.epa.gov/">Environmental Protection Agency</a> (EPA) research unit tasked with assessing the health risks of chemicals has not been able to publish any new findings since 2018, according to a government watchdog draft report.

The <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/epas-top-leaders-stymied-research-unit-report-finds-11550149201?emailToken=bede640d84fe49b63167308739ccda14K1Qoxu9RP4sFs92YNm/YgmitKm9kvd5C61CTFe8wEVRPBds4m5tJjYoMF4aQ1jLtiJWonP/LgIpu0lQvGHY5RxNbzg0S3p3RB0wbKsRZRM0%3D&amp;reflink=article_email_share">Wall Street Journal</a> was given an advance copy of the new report from the <a href="https://www.gao.gov/">Government Accountability Office</a> (GAO), currently in the process of being finalized for publication, which found although the EPA’s <a href="https://www.epa.gov/iris">Integrated Risk Information System</a> (IRIS) is supposed to evaluate chemicals and their risk to human health and wellbeing, progress has been stalled by new EPA leadership.

“The IRIS program has been unable to release any work since June 2018 while it was waiting for feedback from the Administrator’s office,” the report reads.

For those following the EPA’s recent track record of rolling back regulations, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/epa-fewer-penalties-polluters/">issuing fewer fines, </a>and giving states and companies more freedoms to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drop-epa-inspections-trump/">self-regulate</a>, this new report comes as no surprise.

Bernard Goldstein, a professor emeritus at the<a href="https://www.publichealth.pitt.edu/"> University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health</a>, told the Wall Street Journal that the GAO report shows that the Trump administration is challenging the EPA’s long-held standard approaches to science.

EPA officials, on the other hand, are quick to defend claims that the agency’s new leaders are not upholding the EPA mission.

Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and other EPA spokespeople have argued that they are not going easy on polluters but instead working with companies closely to prevent pollution that way.  

“The Trump EPA believes it is using the best available science to determine its proposed rules and regulations, just as the former administration believed it was doing the same thing,” James Hewitt, an EPA spokesperson, told the Wall Street Journal. “However, this administration clearly has huge disagreements with the way the Obama administration carried out the agency’s mission.”

The GAO report also found that 9 out of the proposed 16 IRIS chemical assessments were dropped.

One analysis dealt with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/politico-epa-formaldehyde-vapor-cancer/">formaldehyde</a> and its link to leukemia, but Wheeler said that the study was dropped because it wasn’t a high priority.

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers disagree and have been pushing for the release of the formaldehyde report. 

For business groups and oil and gas companies, the EPA’s shift in its scientific approach is a welcome change, and the Trump administration has not been shy about its pushes for coal and mining.

“It appears that this process has been guided and shepherded through by political appointees that have really strong conflicts of interest on certain chemicals,” Richard Denison, a senior scientist at the <a href="https://www.edf.org/">Environmental Defense Fund,</a> told the Wall Street Journal. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Report: EPA leadership stalled testing for chemical health risks

A vital Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) research unit tasked with...

Individuals who set realistic goals have a greater sense of well-being, according to psychologists at the <a href="https://www.unibas.ch/en.html">University of Basel</a>. In a study focused on nearly 1,000 participants, the experts found that later life satisfaction depended on whether or not <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/follow-new-years-resolutions/">goals</a> are attainable and how much they mean to the individual. 

Life goals say a lot about a person's character because they serve as a sort of compass that influences behavior. For this reason, goals can contribute substantially to life satisfaction, or to dissatisfaction if important goals are unattainable.

The team conducted a detailed investigation into how life goals are embedded in people's lives. The research was focused on data from 973 people between 18 and 92 years old living in Switzerland. 

The participants were asked to measure the importance and the perceived attainability of life goals in ten areas including health, community, personal growth, social relationships, fame, image, wealth, family, responsibility for younger generations, and work.

The study revealed that perceiving one's personal goals as attainable was a strong predictor for well-being later in life. This suggests that people are most satisfied if they have a feeling of control and attainability.

Life goals were also found to hold predictive power for specific domains. For example, participants who set social-relation goals or health goals were more satisfied with their social relationships or their health. 

The relationship between life goals and subsequent well-being was relatively the same among the individuals, regardless of age. There was an age-related difference, however, in what people wanted. The younger the individuals were, the higher they rated goals involving personal-growth, status, work, and social relations. The older the participants were, the more they rated social engagement and health as important.

“Many of our results confirmed theoretical assumptions from developmental psychology,” said study lead author and PhD student Janina Bühler. “If we examine, however, whether these goals contribute to well-being, age appears less relevant.”

The study is published in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10990984">European Journal of Personality</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Realistic, attainable goals linked with higher levels of well-being

Individuals who set realistic goals have a greater sense of...

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...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

[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"

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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

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