A good night’s sleep does more than help you feel rested - it literally clears your mind. New research reveals how deep sleep removes waste buildup in the brain, a process that is crucial for brain health.



However, sleep aids may disrupt this natural “brainwashing” system, raising questions about their long-term effects on cognitive function.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-brain-s-built-in-cleanup-system">Brain’s built-in cleanup system</h2>



The glymphatic system is like a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-sleep-transforms-brain-performance/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cleaning service for your brain</a>. Throughout the day, metabolic waste builds up in the brain, including toxic proteins that, if not removed, can lead to neurological issues like Alzheimer’s disease.



The glymphatic system works by using cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), a clear liquid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord, to flush out these harmful substances.



Think of the CSF as water flowing through pipes and washing away debris. This process happens most effectively during deep sleep, when the brain’s cleaning system kicks into high gear.



While scientists have known about the glymphatic system’s existence for years, they didn’t understand exactly what powered it - until now.



Recent research has shown that norepinephrine, a chemical messenger in the brain, is key. During deep sleep, waves of norepinephrine cause blood vessels in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/your-brain-literally-changes-based-on-daily-activities-and-lifestyle/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">brain</a> to pulse rhythmically. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-role-of-norepinephrine-in-brain-cleaning">Role of norepinephrine in brain cleaning</h2>



Danish scientists have uncovered a crucial role for norepinephrine during deep sleep. They found that the brainstem releases waves of norepinephrine roughly every 50 seconds during this sleep phase. 



These waves cause blood vessels in the brain to contract and relax rhythmically, much like a pump. This rhythmic movement generates fluid pulses that help cerebrospinal fluid flow through the brain and flush out waste and toxins.



“It’s like turning on the dishwasher before you go to bed and waking up with a clean brain,” explained Maiken Nedergaard, senior author and researcher at the <a href="https://www.rochester.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Rochester</a> and <a href="https://www.ku.dk/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Copenhagen</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-brain-blood-flow-during-sleep">Brain blood flow during sleep</h2>



Nedergaard's team investigated how norepinephrine affects blood flow during sleep. In sleeping mice, they observed that waves of norepinephrine align with changes in the size of blood vessels.



These waves cause the blood vessels to alternately contract and expand in a steady rhythm. This rhythmic motion acts like a pump, pushing cerebrospinal fluid through the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/deep-sleep-how-slow-waves-boost-memory-formation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">brain</a> to remove waste.



“You can view norepinephrine as this conductor of an orchestra. There’s a harmony in the constriction and dilation of the arteries, which then drives the cerebrospinal fluid through the brain to remove the waste products,” noted lead author Natalie Hauglund.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-are-all-types-of-sleep-equal">Are all types of sleep equal?</h2>



The researchers investigated how zolpidem, a common sleep aid, affects the brain's cleaning system during deep sleep. They found that mice given zolpidem experienced a significant reduction in norepinephrine waves, which are essential for driving the brain’s waste-clearing process. 



Specifically, the norepinephrine waves were 50% weaker in mice that were given zolpidem than in mice that slept naturally.



As a result, the fluid transport system responsible for flushing out brain waste slowed down by more than 30 percent. Although zolpidem helped the mice fall asleep faster, their brain’s ability to remove harmful waste was compromised.



This suggests that while sleep aids like zolpidem can promote sleep, they might interfere with the brain's natural cleaning processes, potentially <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/poor-sleep-habits-may-age-the-brain-faster/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">affecting long-term brain health</a>.



“If people aren’t getting the full benefits of sleep, they should be aware of that so they can make informed decisions,” Hauglund warned.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-for-human-health">Implications for human health</h2>



While this study was focused on mice, the researchers believe the findings are relevant to humans, who also have a glymphatic system.



Similar patterns of norepinephrine waves, blood flow changes, and fluid dynamics have been observed in human brains. Disruptions to these processes may contribute to neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.



“Now we know norepinephrine is driving the cleaning of the brain, we may figure out how to get people a long and restorative sleep,” Nedergaard concluded.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-keeping-the-brain-healthy-with-sleep">Keeping the brain healthy with sleep</h2>



The research highlights how critical deep sleep is for keeping the brain healthy. During deep sleep, the brain’s cleaning system removes harmful waste and toxins. This process is essential for preventing neurological disorders and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sleep-is-essential-for-memory-formation/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">maintaining cognitive function</a>.



While sleep aids can make falling asleep easier, they may interfere with the brain's natural cleaning process by disrupting mechanisms like norepinephrine waves, which drive waste clearance. 



This disruption could reduce the benefits of sleep and potentially harm long-term brain health.



By understanding these processes, people can make more informed decisions about their sleep habits, such as prioritizing natural, restorative sleep over relying on sleep medications.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(24)01343-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cell</a>.



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Deep sleep clears toxic waste from the brain

A good night’s sleep does more than help you feel rested - it literally clears your mind. New research reveals how deep sleep removes waste buildup in the brain, a process that is crucial for brain health. However, sleep aids may disrupt this natural “brainwashing” system, raising questions about their long-term effects on cognitive function. Brain’s built-in cleanup system The glymphatic system is like a cleaning service for your brain. Throughout the day, metabolic waste builds up in the brain, including toxic proteins that, if not removed,...

How old is your earliest memory? Current research shows that people can’t form memories until 3 or 3.5 years of age and even then, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/memory-developed-teenage-years/">memory isn’t fully developed</a> until adolescence. Still, many people claim to have memories from their infancy. 

A new study conducted by researchers from <a href="https://www.city.ac.uk/">City, University of London</a>, the <a href="https://www.bradford.ac.uk/">University of Bradford</a> and <a href="https://www.ntu.ac.uk/">Nottingham Trent University</a> found that many of our earliest memories are actually fake. 

This is because people over time come to create a false memory around snippets of information, such as being told a story about being a baby or looking at an old photograph. 

The researchers found that this was so common that 40 percent of people have a fictional first memory. 

The study was the largest survey of first memories ever conducted and the results were published in the journal Psychological Science. 

6,641 people were asked to recall their first memory and what their age was at the time for the study. 

“In our study we asked people to recall the very first memory that they actually remembered, asking them to be sure that it wasn't related to a family story or photograph,” said Martin Conway, a co-author of the research. “When we looked through the responses from participants we found that a lot of these first 'memories' were frequently related to infancy, and a typical example would be a memory based around a pram.”

38.6 percent of the participants said their first memory was from age two or younger and 893 people claimed to have memories from one or younger. 

Middle-aged and older adults were more likely to report first memories from these younger ages than other survey responders. 

No matter how sure the participants were that their first memory was from such a young age, the fact of the matter is memory simply can't be formed at those ages according to current studies. 

This led the researchers to explore what underlying factors were causing the false memories. 

One possibility is that the memories are actually based on remembered fragments of early experiences, photographs, and family stories that are pieced together to form a mental representation that morphs into a memory through the years. 

“We suggest that what a rememberer has in mind when recalling fictional improbably early memories is an episodic-memory-like mental representation consisting of remembered fragments of early experience and some facts or knowledge about their own infancy/childhood,” said Shazia Akhtar, the first author of the study. “Such episodic-memory-like mental representations come, over time, to be recollectively experienced when they come to mind and so for the individual they quite simply are 'memories' which particularly point to infancy.”

Interestingly, the person remembering doesn’t realize the memory is fake and the researchers found that when participants were told their first memory was false they didn’t believe it, showing just how deeply ingrained mental representations of early events are. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Many of our earliest memories are actually fake, study finds

How old is your earliest memory? Current research shows that...

When presented with two numbers, your first instinct, whether told to or not, might be to add them. 

This sort of subconscious correlation is called an action set, and new research shows that sets may have more of an influence over our thought processes than previously realized. 

A new study conducted by researchers from <a href="http://www.sfsu.edu/">San Francisco State University</a> shows that thoughts can subconsciously trigger actions in our brains and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/thoughts-emotions-human-consciousness/">control what or how we think about things</a>. 

You can decide to focus or think about something, but learned activities like counting that are deeply embedded in the brain can trigger other thoughts. These learned activities are called “sets”.

For the study, the researchers conducted two experiments with students from the university. In the first experiment, 35 students were told specifically not to count the objects that would be presented to them. 

The students in 90 percent of the trials with this set up involuntarily counted the objects. 

For the second experiment, the students were shown differently colored shapes and were asked either to name the colors (an example of a set) or counting the shapes (another set). 

No matter which option each student chose, 40 percent of the participants thought about both counting and colors. 

“The data support the view that, when one is performing a desired action, conscious thoughts about alternative plans still occupy the mind, often insuppressibly,” said Ezequiel Morsella, an author of the study. 

Morsella’s work provides new insight on the way we absorb information and how information enters our consciousness, something that has long puzzled psychologists. The results show that after the activation of sets, thoughts enter our consciousness through external stimuli. 

People tend to look at the brain, particularly the conscious mind and thoughts, as protected from the outside world. However, this study shows that our brain is in fact easily penetrable. Our thoughts are instead controlled mostly by outside stimuli, according to Morsella. 

“The research shows that stimuli in the environment are very important in determining what we end up thinking about and that once an action plan is strongly activated its many effects can be difficult to override,” said Morsella.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How information enters the brain and influences our thoughts

When presented with two numbers, your first instinct, whether told...

The digital age has gifted the world with life-changing technological advancements, allowing connectivity and communication on a global scale like never before. 

However, as much as our lives revolve around our online activity, a new study has found that being constantly “plugged in” to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/teens-phones-less-happy/">digital media</a> increases the risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in teenagers. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.usc.edu/">University of Southern California</a> (USC) examined the mental health consequences of using social media, music and movie streaming, gaming, and other entertainment-related apps. 

The results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and show that heavy digital media users are twice as likely to develop ADHD than teenagers who spend less time on their phones and tablets. 

Previous related research focused on TV or video games, and the researchers discovered that there was a lack of current studies that looked at digital media use. 

“What's new is that previous studies on this topic were done many years ago, when social media, mobile phones, tablets and mobile apps didn't exist,” said Adam Leventhal, an author of the study. “New, mobile technologies can provide fast, high-intensity stimulation accessible all day, which has increased digital media exposure far beyond what's been studied before.” 

4,100 students from 10 public high schools in Los Angeles County ages 15 and 16 were asked to participate in the study. Adolescents were chosen for the research because those are the ages that correspond both with the appearance of ADHD symptoms and more access to digital media. 

The researchers then removed those students who had been diagnosed with ADHD leaving 2,857 who were followed for a period of two years. 

The participants were asked how frequently they used 14 popular digital media platforms and the researchers sorted the students into no use, medium use, and high-use categories. 

After that, the researchers checked back with the students every six months between 2014 and 2016, specifically looking for developing ADHD symptoms. 

When the two years were up, the results showed that high users were more likely to develop ADHD. 

“We can't confirm causation from the study, but this was a statistically significant association,” said Leventhal. “We can say with confidence that teens who were exposed to higher levels of digital media were significantly more likely to develop ADHD symptoms in the future.”

According to a recent survey, teens spend almost nine hours a day online and the concerning results show that increased media use increases the risk of ADHD, a disorder that can impede development and ability to focus. 

“This study raises concern whether the proliferation of high-performance digital media technologies may be putting a new generation of youth at risk for ADHD,” said Leventhal. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette,</a><a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Digital media use may increase risk of ADHD in teens

The digital age has gifted the world with life-changing technological...

In 2017, only 5.4 percent of Fortune 500 companies had female CEOs. Obviously, that is a disproportionately low number, but it also happens to be an all-time high in the United States. Now, a new study from <a href="https://www.fsu.edu/">Florida State University</a> has also found that women CEOs in America are paid less, have shorter tenures, and their companies are discriminated against in the stock market – even when the company is as profitable as those run by men. 

FSU professors Michael Holmes and Gang Wang – both business management experts – put together a massive study, spanning over two years, to assess the influence of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gender-bias-lawyers-courtroom/">gender</a> on CEOs’ careers. They conducted a meta-analysis to examine the entire body of research on this topic over the last few decades, including 158 previous studies analyzing gender, companies’ hiring choices, and the impact of those decisions. 

The research project, published in the journal <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/organizational-behavior-and-human-decision-processes">Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes</a>, identifies a variety of factors that hinder female CEOs and CEO candidates among corporate boards, managers, stock market investors, and across American culture. The study’s authors grouped these factors into two basic marketplace forces: demand-side and supply-side influences that combine to detract from a woman’s ability to land a CEO job.

Demand-side factors reduce demand for female CEOs by limiting the willingness of companies to hire women for the job. The hiring process for CEOs can be influenced by gender-role stereotypes, as the perceived traits of a good leader – like aggressiveness and risk-taking – are often seen as masculine traits. “Because of that bias, men have advantages obtaining and succeeding in leadership positions, while women leaders are more likely to be disliked and viewed as socially inept, due to the perceived role incongruity,” the authors note.

On the supply side, more women choose to leave the workplace for a number of reasons, including family changes, lack of career advancement, or even outright discrimination. The study also reports a bigger societal influence on hiring CEOs, where males are taught from childhood to display traits associated with leadership that are usually less common for women. “Females are more likely socialized to care for the home or be nurturing,” says Holmes. “Men start to develop characteristics that might help them become a CEO early in childhood, whereas fewer women do. That reduces the supply of female candidates for CEO jobs.”

The researchers also found a significant bias in the stock market against women CEOs. Using accounting metrics to compare companies with similar financial results, they found that firms run by women CEOs had worse stock performance than those run by men. 

“Women have come a long way in the workforce in terms of their overall numbers and acceptance, but when it comes to stock market investors evaluating a CEO and a company that they don’t know, I think investors may subconsciously discount that firm because the leader is female versus male,” Holmes says. “It seems when investors take an overall look at firms, biases creep in, and people may not even be aware of them.”

With these findings, the researchers believe the next step is for studies to find ways to reduce biases from both demand and supply-side influences. They currently suggest that young women pursue promotions early and often, as research shows that women who become CEOs are usually younger with fewer years of experience than men. 

“These women have earned their place at the top,” says Holmes. “But the data shows things are different for women – the workforce does not offer a level playing field. I hope when people read the research, they have some ‘aha’ moments with the findings, as well as the explanations. By showing these firms perform the same as companies led by male CEOs, let’s get beyond the idea that women can’t be good leaders. Clearly, they are good leaders. They often just aren’t rewarded equally.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Study reveals significant bias against women in business

In 2017, only 5.4 percent of Fortune 500 companies had...

A new study has found that older children who abuse animals are much more likely to have been abused in early childhood. The researchers determined that this behavior is far less common among girls, and is a stronger indicator of child abuse compared to boys.

“Reports of girls abusing animals are less prevalent than boys, and there is some suggestion that girls who do report that they abuse animals are more likely to be part of a wider abuse,” wrote the researchers.

As many as 44 percent of children abuse animals at some point during their childhood, and the study authors explained that this may be a low estimate considering a lot of this abuse is not acknowledged or reported.

Animal abuse among younger children can often be a way of exploring their surroundings, but abuse by children over the age of ten is much more concerning because it may be the result of abuse within the family.

Previous studies have found that children are three times as likely to have been physically abused themselves when they are physically aggressive at five years old, while abusive behavior among 12-year-olds is linked to five times the likelihood of a history of abuse.

According to the study, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/kids-behavioral-issues-parents/">children</a> who witness violence between their parents are around three times as likely to abuse animals.

The study authors pointed out that the term “animal abuse” is associated with a wide variety of motivations and behaviors.

“Differences of opinion exist on what constitutes abuse to an animal, and which animals should be included inside the definition,” they wrote. “For example, should it be restricted to just large vertebrate companion animals, such as dogs and cats, or include smaller animals, such as rodents or birds, or even insects.”

The experts concluded that additional research is needed to identify which types of animal abuse are more indicative of abuse within the family.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://adc.bmj.com/pages/">Archives of Disease in Childhood</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Kids who abuse animals are likely to have been abused themselves

A new study has found that older children who abuse...

Researchers have discovered that long before the development of agriculture, ancient hunter-gatherers harvested cereals to bake bread. 

A new study examined charred remains found in fireplaces in a 14,400-year-old Natufian hunter-gatherer site, called Shubayqa 1, located in the Black Desert in northeastern Jordan. It makes the earliest evidence of flatbread and bread baking found to date.

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.ku.dk/english/">University of Copenhagen</a>, <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/">University College London </a>and the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge </a>conducted the study and the results suggest that baking bread from gathered cereals led to the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-environmental-impact/">agricultural revolution </a>of the Neolithic period. 

What’s most notable about the ancient fireplaces is that the flatbread remains predate agriculture by 4,000 years. 

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

“The presence of hundreds of charred food remains in the fireplaces from Shubayqa 1 is an exceptional find, and it has given us the chance to characterize 14,000-year-old food practices,” said Amaia Arranz Otaegui, the first author of the study. “The remains are very similar to unleavened flatbreads identified at several Neolithic and Roman sites in Europe and Turkey. So we now know that bread-like products were produced long before the development of farming.” 

The researchers analyzed 24 charred remains and found that hunter-gatherers in the Jordan site ground, sifted, and kneaded cereals similar to barley, einkorn, and oat before baking them into bread. 

The team examined the remains using electron microscopy. In order to better identify the remains, the researchers created a new set of criteria to differentiate flatbread, dough, and porridge in the archaeological record. 

It’s possible that given the presence of bread before farming, the desire for bread could have influenced the cultivation of cereals to make bread production easier, and according to Arranz Otaegui, that’s what the researchers plan to delve into next. 

“Indeed, it may be that the early and extremely time-consuming production of bread based on wild cereals may have been one of the key driving forces behind the later agricultural revolution where wild cereals were cultivated to provide more convenient sources of food,” said Tobias Richter, an archeologist who led the excavations. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

When did humans first start baking bread?

Researchers have discovered that long before the development of agriculture,...

Leaving the toilet seat up isn’t just a common annoyance in households the world over, it’s also unsanitary as it allows a cloud of bacteria from flushing to settle on surfaces in the bathroom. 

Charles Gerba, a microbiologist from the <a href="https://www.arizona.edu/">University of Arizona, </a>explained to <a href="https://www.realtor.com/advice/home-improvement/flushing-the-toilet-with-the-lid-up-what-happens/">realtor.com</a> that the problems with leaving the seat up have to do with something called the aerosol effect.

“You get a good spray out of the toilet area,” Gerba said. “When droplets come out of the toilet, it looks like the Fourth of July.” 

After flushing, the force of the water flooding the toilet bowl can create a spray that splashes out of the bowl and with it a cloud of bacteria that can spread throughout the bathroom. 

The spray of bacteria can go as high as 10 inches above the toilet and remain in the air for an hour or more. 

According to the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5949973/Do-leave-toilet-seat-flush-warned.html">Daily Mail</a>, this bacteria can then settle over the sink, bathtub, and walls. 

On average, a person flushes around six times a day adding up to 2,190 flushes a year. Unfortunately, given how much bacteria is eliminated through human waste, no matter how much you flush many of those germs stay behind. 

Leaving the seat up not only provides an outlet for that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-plastic-pollution-bacteria/">bacteria</a> to escape but it also increases the risk of flu and norovirus spreading to others. 

“It is a good idea to lower the seat, especially if the bathroom is used by multiple people,” Philip Tierno, a microbiologist previously told <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sai">Tech Insider.</a>

<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4666014/">One study</a> conducted by researchers from the <a href="http://www.ouhsc.edu/">University of Oklahoma Health Science Center </a>examined whether the aerosol effect differed based on the type of toilet involved. 

The researchers tested aerosol generation from high-efficiency toilets, pressure-assisted high-efficiency toilets and tankless toilets that use a flushometer. 

While the results showed that low flow toilets create less of a cloud of bacteria, the aerosol effect is still present. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

What happens when you don’t put the seat down before you flush

Leaving the toilet seat up isn’t just a common annoyance...

Adidas is taking another step toward the production of sustainable products, pledging to use only recycled plastic by the year 2024. The company has announced plans to eliminate the use of new plastic, also known as virgin plastic, and the transition is set to begin this year.

Adidas will ditch the use of virgin plastic in nearly every aspect of operations such as in its warehouses, retail stores, and offices. Recycled polyester will be used in clothing, footwear, and accessories. 

“We aim to use 100% recycled polyester in every product and on every application where a solution exists by 2024,” Adidas spokeswoman Maria Culp told the <a href="https://www.ft.com/">Financial Times</a>.

According to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/">CNN</a>, the German company’s commitment to becoming more eco-friendly will save an estimated 40 tons of plastic every year.

Two years ago, Adidas launched a sustainable footwear and clothing line in collaboration with <a href="http://www.parley.tv/">Parley for the Oceans</a>. The products are manufactured in part by using plastic that was cleaned up off of beaches and from coastal communities.

Adidas sold one million pairs of Parley shoes in 2017, and predicts that this number will rise to five million by the end of the year.

In September, McDonald's will replace <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/starbucks-plastic-straws/">plastic straws</a> with paper ones in all of its stores across the UK and Ireland. According to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news">BBC News</a>, 1. 8 million plastic straws are distributed in McDonald's across the UK every single day.


The Four Seasons, Hilton, and the Hyatt are also getting on board with the idea of using more environmentally-friendly products, pledging to ditch all plastic straws by the end of this year.

“Hilton has committed to removing plastic straws from all of its 650 managed hotels globally, which will save an estimated 35 million straws per year from potentially ending up in the ocean,” said a spokesperson for the company.

In the retail industry, Adidas is one of just a few major companies that has made a commitment to becoming more sustainable.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Adidas has committed to only use recycled plastic by 2024

Adidas is taking another step toward the production of sustainable...

The art of pottery is thousands of years old. Functional pottery refers to the use of clay to make vessels for food and water and is thought to date back to <a href="http://ceramics.org/learn-about-ceramics/history-of-ceramics">9,000 or 10,000 BC. </a>

A recent study examined some of earliest known pottery remains originating in Japan and discovered that functional ceramics increased as fishing became a central part of daily life towards the end of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ice-mummys-last-meal/">last Ice Age</a>. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/archaeology/postgraduate-study/taught-postgrads/masters-courses/msc-biological-archaeology/">BioArCh at the University of York</a> studied 800 pottery vessels over three years and found that the pots were used to store and process fish ranging from salmon to shellfish. 

The ceramic remains date back to the Late Pleistocene when our early ancestors were still living in glacial conditions up to a post-glacial period which saw an influx of pottery production.  

Pottery continued to be used for fish even after climate warming, which provided new hunting opportunities leading previous studies to conclude that fishing decreased. 

“Our results demonstrate that pottery had a strong association with the processing of fish, irrespective of the ecological setting,” said Oliver Craig, leader of the study. “Contrary to expectations, this association remained stable even after the onset of warming, including in more southerly areas, where expanding forests provided new opportunities for hunting and gathering.”

The researchers conducted a series of chemical analyses on the ceramic remains and were able to identify food compounds and animal fats even though the pots had been buried for thousands of years. 

Charred surface deposits from the pottery revealed that the vessels were used to process and store a large range of freshwater and marine organisms. 

Until this study, researchers could only guess at the role the pots played in early hunter-gatherer daily life. 

“Thanks to the exceptional preservation of traces of animal fat, we now know that pottery changed from a rare and special object to an everyday tool for preparing fish,” said Alex Lucquin, the study’s lead author. “I think that our study not only reveals the subsistence of the ancient Jomon people of Japan but also its resilience to a dramatic change in climate.”

The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

The results shed new light on how our hunter-gatherer ancestors prepared and stored food and show how the role of pottery changed from art to function.

“We suggest this marks a significant change in the role of pottery of hunter-gatherers, corresponding massively increased volume of production, greater variation in forms and sizes and the onset of shellfish exploitation,” said Craig. 
--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties

Pottery was originally developed to be used for fishing

The art of pottery is thousands of years old. Functional...

In as little as 15 years, thousands of fiber optic cables buried beneath large coastal cities like Seattle could soon be submerged under rising sea levels, threatening the internet and global communication. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.wisc.edu/">University of Wisconsin-Madison</a> and the <a href="https://www.uoregon.edu/">University of Oregon</a> recently conducted a study, the first of its kind, that assessed how the internet would be impacted by climate change. 

A complex network of fiber optic cables, the physical internet, carries data to and from your computer in the blink of an eye. 

While marine cables transport data between continents, the major coastal hubs where many of our communications converge contain buried but not waterproof cables. 

As the threat of rising sea levels increases, it could spell disaster for these crucial fiber optic cables built without consideration to climate change 20 to 25 years ago. 

What’s more, the researchers led by Paul Barford, a professor of computer science and physical internet expert, found that thousands of miles of cables will likely be submerged much sooner than previously thought. 

“Most of the damage that's going to be done in the next 100 years will be done sooner than later,” said Barford, “That surprised us. The expectation was that we'd have 50 years to plan for it. We don't have 50 years.”

For the study, the researchers combined data from the Internet Atlas which is a global map of the physical internet infrastructure with sea-level rise projections from the <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a> (NOAA). 

The results show that by 2033, 4,000 miles of buried cables will be underwater and a little over a thousand traffic hubs could be surrounded by water. New York, Miami, and Seattle along with other major coastal cities are most at risk. 

Not only could rising sea levels cost millions of dollars in damage and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-levels-double-coastal-flooding/">displace hundreds of thousands of residents</a>, this new study shows that it could potentially disrupt global communications. 

Major networks like CenturyLink, Inteliquent and AT&amp;T have a higher risk of being affected by rising sea levels according to the researchers. 

The researchers also examined mitigation strategies to prevent cables from being submerged but the effectiveness of these strategies is difficult to predict because there are so many unknown factors that need to be considered. 

“The first instinct will be to harden the infrastructure,” said Barford. “But keeping the sea at bay is hard. We can probably buy a little time, but in the long run it's just not going to be effective. This is a wake-up call. We need to be thinking about how to address this issue.”

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette,</a><a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Rising sea levels could disrupt global communications

In as little as 15 years, thousands of fiber optic...

Officials in Britain are warning that the country could end up with an ineffective system for enforcing environmental standards after exiting the European Union, or “<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brexit-impact-uk-food-agriculture/">Brexit</a>.” According to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news">BBC News</a>, a group that includes 74 Members of Parliament (MPs) wants a new Clean Air Act established.

The MPs suggest that promises made by Environment Secretary Michael Gove are not good enough without new legislation. The collective concerns of the assembly have been highlighted in a letter organized by British politician Geraint Davies, the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Air Pollution.

“Mr Gove talks the talk very impressively. But assurances are worth nothing until they are enacted,” Davies told BBC News. “If there’s no deal, then the UK will be on a cliff edge in March. The government failed to meet existing standards, but it will no longer be able to be taken to court. It could easily pass the buck to local councils to transfer responsibility to them for tackling illegal air pollution.”


Concern over air pollution, in particular, was emphasized by Davies as he spoke to BBC News.

“VW were fined heavily in the USA,” said Davies. “But here, Michael Gove is saying it's better for them to invest the money designing better engines. That doesn’t wash with us.”

Secretary Gove has not yet responded to the letter, but a spokesperson for his office said in a statement: “The government has launched a consultation on our proposals to establish a new, independent, statutory body to hold government to account on environmental standards once we have left the European Union, and on a new policy statement on environmental principles to apply following EU Exit.”

Erik Solheim is the executive director of the UN’s Environment Program. He told the<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/observer"> Observer</a> that it is “incredibly important that the UK keeps the environmental standards it has had under the European Union.”

John Sauven is the executive director of Greenpeace UK. 

“Michael Gove promised a green Brexit, but as things stand his toothless watchdog would leave us with a weaker enforcement agency than Trump’s America,” Sauven told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us">The Guardian</a>.

“This intervention from the UN environment chief is a sign of growing concern and shows the world is watching. Nobody voted for a dirty Brexit that leaves our beaches, water and air quality worse off.”

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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

British officials call for new clean air act before Brexit

Officials in Britain are warning that the country could end...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.ottawaheart.ca/">University of Ottawa Heart Institute</a> have found that women have higher rates of death from heart failure than men. The study also revealed that hospitalization rates are declining among men, while women are being hospitalized for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/loneliness-is-literally-bad-for-the-heart-doubles-mortality-risk/">heart failure</a> more often.

 “This is the first of a series of studies to examine the sex differences in heart failure incidence, outcomes, care delivery and access in Ontario,” said study co-author Dr. Louise Sun.


While recent research has suggested that heart failure rates have declined overall, the differences among genders was unclear. To investigate these differences, the research team examined data on more than 90,000 patients who were diagnosed with heart failure in Ontario between 2009 and 2014.


The analysis showed that 47 percent of all cases were among women who tended to be older and frail, had multiple chronic illnesses, and had lower incomes.


As far as new heart failure cases, the numbers were the lowest in 2011 and 2012 and then began to rise the following year. Within one year after diagnosis, 16.8 percent of female patients died from heart failure compared with 14.9 percent of male patients.

Over the five-year study period, hospitalization rates for women with heart failure surpassed rates for men. In 2013, 98 women per 1000 were hospitalized compared with 91 per 1000 men.

“We found that mortality from heart failure remains high, especially in women; that hospital admissions for heart failure decreased in men but increased in women; and that women and men had different associated comorbidities,” wrote the study authors. 

“Further studies should focus on sex differences in health-seeking behavior, medical therapy and response to therapy to improve outcomes in women.”

The study is published in the <a href="http://www.cmaj.ca/">Canadian Medical Association Journal</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Mortality rates from heart failure are higher among women

Researchers at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute have found...

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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

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

[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

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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...