There's something both captivating and comforting about the rhythms and harmonies of a symphony orchestra, right? Well, did you know that something similar happens inside your brain while you're catching some sleep? It turns out, our brains have a maestro of their own - breathing. 



Just as a conductor harmonizes an orchestra to create a symphony, breathing synchronizes the rhythm of brain waves during sleep. This phenomenon takes place in the hippocampus - a region of the brain that is critical for memory.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-breathing-rhythms-during-sleep">Breathing rhythms during sleep</h2>



This fascinating revelation comes from a recent study by <a href="https://www.nm.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Northwestern Medicine</a>. It marks the first time scientists have linked breathing rhythms during sleep to the hippocampal brain waves known as&nbsp;slow waves, spindles, and ripples. 



Study senior author Christina Zelano is a professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.



“To strengthen memories, three special neural oscillations emerge and synchronize in the hippocampus during sleep, but they were thought to come and go at random times,” noted Professor Zelano. "We discovered that they are coordinated by breathing rhythms.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-science-behind-memory-synchronization">Science behind memory synchronization</h2>



The study shows that certain brain waves, called hippocampal oscillations, align with specific phases of the breathing cycle. These oscillations are critical for organizing and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/breathing-coordinates-brain-waves-for-memory-storage-during-sleep/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">strengthening memories</a>. 



Andrew Sheriff is a postdoctoral student in Zelano's lab and the corresponding author of the study.



This means that the rhythm of your breathing during sleep plays an active role in helping your brain store and recall information effectively. 



“Memory consolidation relies on the orchestration of brain waves during sleep, and we show that this process is closely timed by breathing,” explained Sheriff.



This research opens new doors for understanding the intricate relationship between breathing, brain activity, and memory.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-breathing-sleep-and-memory-consolidation">Breathing, sleep, and memory consolidation </h2>



The connection between sleep and improved memory is not a new discovery. The ancient Roman scholar Quintillion stated: "The interval of a single night will greatly increase the strength of the memory."



This phenomenon, now recognized as memory consolidation, involves the precise coordination of brain waves in the hippocampus.



Sheriff shared a personal example to explain how memory consolidation works. While attending a conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, he had to find his way around an unfamiliar city. 



After sleeping, he realized his sense of direction and understanding of the city's layout had improved. This improvement happened because, during sleep, the brain replayed and reinforced the experiences and maps he had formed earlier. 



His hippocampus, which is responsible for spatial memory, used specific brain waves to process and solidify this information overnight.



“The hippocampus plays a major role in forming a map of a new area,” Sheriff said. “I would wake up and feel I had a better representation of the city around me. That was facilitated by the oscillations that occurred during my sleep, which we found are coordinated by breathing.”



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



The study’s findings carry significant implications for individuals suffering from sleep-disordered breathing, such as sleep apnea. Poor memory consolidation is one of the many cognitive challenges associated with such conditions.



“When you don’t get sleep, your brain suffers, your cognition suffers, you get foggy,” Sheriff noted. He emphasized the connection between disrupted breathing during sleep and serious conditions such as stroke, dementia, and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.



Interestingly, the unique rhythm of breathing during sleep may serve a specific purpose. “If you listen to someone breathing, you might be able to tell when they are asleep, because breathing is paced differently when you’re sleeping,” Sheriff said. 



“One reason for that may be that breathing is performing a careful task: coordinating brain waves that are related to memory.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-frontier-in-sleep-research">New frontier in sleep research</h2>



The research highlights the importance of addressing sleep disorders to maintain cognitive health and memory. Sheriff emphasized the need for individuals with disrupted breathing to seek treatment, as improved sleep could have far-reaching benefits for overall brain function.



This study was funded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and a Ruth L. Kirchstein Institutional National Research Award.



This remarkable research adds a new layer of understanding to the intricate processes that occur during sleep. By uncovering the role of breathing in synchronizing brain waves, Northwestern scientists have paved the way for new interventions aimed at improving memory and cognitive health.



The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.



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Breathing rhythms help strengthen memories during sleep

There's something both captivating and comforting about the rhythms and harmonies of a symphony orchestra, right? Well, did you know that something similar happens inside your brain while you're catching some sleep? It turns out, our brains have a maestro of their own - breathing. Just as a conductor harmonizes an orchestra to create a symphony, breathing synchronizes the rhythm of brain waves during sleep. This phenomenon takes place in the hippocampus - a region of the brain that is critical for memory. Breathing rhythms during sleep...

The <a href="https://www.easac.eu/">European Academies’ Science Advisory Council</a> (EASAC) and the InterAcademy Partnership are urging European policymakers to modify their current approach to food, agriculture, the environment, and human health. 

The experts say that more policy coherence is needed to effectively address the issues of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/europe-drought-regions-climate-change/">climate change</a>, nutrition, and food waste. They are recommending a “food systems approach,” which is an integrative system that includes all of the steps involved from growing to consuming food.

Professor Joachim von Braun, is the co-chair of the <a href="https://easac.eu/meetings-events/details/public-launch-of-our-easac-iap-report-on-food-security-in-europe/">EASAC-IAP project on food and agriculture.</a>

“A food systems approach is critical to tackling some of the most pressing issues of our day, such as climate change, sustainable land and water use, food waste, and of course human health,” said Professor von Braun. “This calls for science initiatives that cut across disciplines, tailored to the complexity of food systems by both, EU and Member States.”

The researchers noted that the negative impacts of climate change must be met by the introduction of climate-smart agriculture, such as developing crops that are resistant to drought. The study authors also pointed out that, although agriculture plays a critical role in the change that is needed, the changes must be reflected in consumer behavior as well.

On the other hand, agriculture itself is significantly contributing to climate change, which means that new practices and consumer behaviors must be aimed at lowering agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. For example, the consumption of alternative protein sources such as insects or cell-cultured meat would lower the demand for livestock products.

The adjustment of meat consumption patterns should also have targeted health benefits, such as reducing the overconsumption of meat and dairy products in high-income countries while providing more nutritious diets for developing countries. Across Europe, obesity and undernutrition are critical public health issues.

Estimates from the research suggest that adopting the World Health Organization guidance on healthy diets could reduce mortality worldwide by up to 10 percent and reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70 percent over the next three decades.

“As malnutrition remains a huge global problem and in recent years global hunger has increased again, EU science policy on food, nutrition and agriculture needs to take an international view,” said Professor von Braun. “Related innovations in Europe can have large positive impacts elsewhere in the world, if shared in science partnerships. Other themes of promising international collaborative science are food safety and healthy diets.”


Study co-author Professor Volker ter Meulen added, “This report is part of a larger project involving 130 science academies around the globe. Europe's approach to food, agriculture, and the environment is crucial because Europe's actions affect others around the world.”

The EASAC-IAP report, “Opportunities and Challenges for Research on Food and Nutrition Security and Agriculture in Europe,” was launched at the <a href="https://visit.brussels/fr/place/Palais-des-Academies">Palais des Académies</a> in Brussels.

--

By <a href="http://csextom@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Europe faces unsustainable future with food and agriculture

The European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) and the InterAcademy...

Future summers in Europe could get even hotter due to a partial collapse of the Atlantic Ocean heat transport. The last time this occurred it triggered major weather extremes during the Younger Dryas period 12,000 years ago. 

Much of Europe, particularly Spain, France and Italy dealt with crippling heat waves during the summer of 2017.  Climate change has only worsened drought and increased summer temperatures in some regions and driven weather extremes.

Now, according to a new study, in addition to the impacts of climate change, the record-breaking cold ocean temperatures in the Atlantic is weakening heat transport through the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). 

The study was conducted by researchers from <a href="https://www.su.se/english/">Stockholm University</a> and published in the journal Nature Climate Change. 

The results show that the Atlantic heat transport system is at a long-term minimum and could be the weakest it's ever been in the past 1,600 years.

A similar event occurred before the beginning of the Holocene (Earth’s current geological era) and researchers can look at climate records to help predict future temperatures and prepare for the inevitable drastic extremes should the Atlantic heat transport system continue to weaken or even collapse. 

The partial collapse of the AMOC during the Younger Dryas was one of the most rapid cooling events that occurred during the transition from the late glacial climate to the climate we see today in the Holocene.  

Because the rapid cooling happened during a period of rapid warming, the researchers created a climate model that compares the Younger Dryas cold reversal to a potential future cold reversal even with warming due to climate change. 

The climate model showed that the weakened AMOC will cause even warmer European summers and bitterly cold winters. 

The model simulations also shed insight into the mechanisms behind the processes causing the weather extremes. The root cause appears to be atmospheric blocking, a process where high-pressure systems are stationary for a period of time ranging from days to weeks.  

With the high-pressure systems stuck in place, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/risk-wildfires-europe-increase/">Europe</a> is cut off from westerly winds that would promote cooler summers and warmer winters. 

“If the slowdown of the Atlantic overturning proceeds as observed and projected by most climate models for the future, atmospheric blocking might increase in intensity and/or frequency and could lead to even stronger heat waves than we would expect from the gradual warming trend in response to greenhouse gases,” said Frederik Schenk, the lead author of the study. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Key Atlantic Ocean system may trigger hotter summers for Europe

Future summers in Europe could get even hotter due to...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/video/garlic-treat-infections/">Garlic</a> makes food better – that’s just a fact. You would be hard pressed to argue that garlic’s contributions to the culinary world are anything less than stellar. But what about it’s contributions to the medicinal world as well?

For thousands of years, garlic has been used to treat human disease. It’s known to reduce your risk of certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes, along with warding off the occasional vampire (just kidding, of course). And how do scientists know that it has these effects? Well, that part is a little more complicated.

A review published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/trends/pharmacological-sciences/home?code=cell-site">Trends in Pharmacological Sciences</a> details the difficulties of explaining exactly how garlic impacts our health. Due to the wide range of compounds garlic produces, achieving consistent results from clinical trials can be rather complicated.

Garlic is part of the allium family, which is a group of plants that absorb sulfate from the soil and incorporate it into amino acids and sulfur storage molecules. Thus, garlic’s distinct flavor comes from the sulfur compounds it contains. These sulfur storage molecules can be broken down into roughly 50 unique sulfur-containing compounds, depending on how the garlic is prepared and ingested. 

“These molecules give the plants an ecological advantage when they’re growing out in the wild,” says Peter Rose, a biochemist at the <a href="https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/">University of Nottingham</a> and senior author of the study. “As it happens, they’re also biologically active within mammalian cells and tissues.”

The preparation of garlic is one of the diversifying aspects of its health effects. Pressing it for oil, chopping or mincing, or fermenting garlic in alcohol all yield different sulfur compounds – each with a potentially different effect on our body’s complex biological systems. The complexities of this research also lie in how these compounds are metabolized within our body, as it’s difficult to pinpoint common mechanisms of action for these molecules. All of these complications help to explain why studies of garlic’s effects on humans have had inconsistent results.

“When it comes to human intervention studies, there’s been quite a lot of disparity,” says Rose. “Sometimes the consumption of and exposure to these compounds has biological effects, and other times, it does nothing. I think it needs reinvestigating, just because of the sheer complexity of the diversity of these sorts of compounds and the different distribution of them between different garlic products.”

For Rose and his colleagues, the most interesting aspect of this food-turned-medicine is how its sulfur compounds could affect gaseous signaling molecules such as nitric oxide and hydrogen sulfide, which our body naturally produces. These signaling molecules play a vital role in cell communication and maintaining homeostasis. It has been found that altered levels of the molecules are present in many diseases.

Recent research has found a connection between the types of sulfur compounds found in garlic to increased production of gaseous signaling molecules, which could mean that this is the common mechanism through which different sulfur compounds affect our bodies.

“There is a lot of possibility within this area for finding approaches that could reduce the risk of diseases and improve human health, but it all comes back to those fundamental questions of what actually happens to these compounds when we metabolize them,” Rose explains. “There’s a whole spectrum of human work that still needs to be done to further explore some of these weird and wonderful sulfur compounds that we find within our diets.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The complicated truth about using garlic as medicine

Garlic makes food better – that’s just a fact. You...

Experts at the <a href="https://www.seas.harvard.edu/">Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences</a> (SEAS) are describing the dangerous health impacts that could be caused by rising airborne dust levels in the southwestern United States.

“Our results indicate that future droughts driven by climate change could pose a potentially substantial public health burden in the U.S. Southwest," said study first author Pattanun Achakulwisut. “This is a climate penalty that is not yet widely recognized.”

Although there has been extensive research confirming a link between dust particle exposure and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wildfire-smoke-dangerous-seniors/">cardiovascular</a> and respiratory issues, the risk of rising airborne dust levels has barely been addressed.

“The U.S. Southwest has been seeing some of the fastest population growth in the U.S., and the area is projected to experience severe and persistent droughts in coming decades due to human-caused climate change,” said co-lead author Susan Anenberg. 

“We know that droughts are associated with increases in exposure to small dust particles (PM2.5) and minerals. These pollutants can penetrate deeply into the lung and are linked to asthma, respiratory inflammation, and cardiovascular mortality, as well an illness known as Valley Fever that is on the rise in the Southwest.”


The team analyzed airborne dust levels and regional drought conditions over the past sixteen years, and then modeled future changes in dust levels based on various climates scenarios through the end of the century. These projections were used to quantify human health impacts.


According to the study, airborne dust levels could rise by 10 to 30 percent, causing premature deaths to increase by 20 to 130 percent. Furthermore, hospitalizations caused by exposure to fine dust could rise by 60 to 300 percent.

“This research highlights the need to better understand both the potential effects climate change will have on dust levels, as well as the specific health impacts of exposure to fine dust in populated, arid regions that may be vulnerable to climate change,” said co-lead author Loretta Mickley. 

“Our results suggest that drought-driven increases in fine dust would pose a substantial public health burden in the U.S. Southwest, especially under the worst-case climate change scenario.”

The research is published in the journal <a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/erl">Environmental Research Letters</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dust exposure in southwestern U.S. threatens human health

Experts at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering...

Experts at <a href="http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/">St. Michael's Hospital</a> are reporting that one out of every six fatalities among young adults in Ontario is related to opioids. The most dramatic increase in deaths from opioid use was documented among individuals between the ages of 15 and 24.

The study, which also included researchers from the <a href="https://www.ices.on.ca/">Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences</a> (ICES), revealed that the rate of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/opioid-use-falls-older-adults/">opioid</a>-related fatalities nearly tripled between 2000 and 2015. The team found that one in every 133 deaths in Ontario was caused by opioid use in 2015.

Lead author Dr. Tara Gomes is a scientist in St. Michael's <a href="http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/knowledgeinstitute/">Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute</a>. The current study expands on previous research by Dr. Gomes, which found that one in every 170 deaths in Ontario was opioid-related in 2010.

“It is striking to see that despite the efforts put into harm reduction, proper prescribing practices, and education around opioid use, the number of opioid-related deaths continues to rise,” said Dr. Gomes. “The other alarming fact is how this crisis is increasingly impacting our youth and young adults.”

The research was focused on deaths that were caused by prescribed or illicit opioids between 2000 and 2015. In one out of every nine deaths among 15- to 24-year-olds, opioids were determined to be a contributing factor by 2015, compared to one out of every 15 deaths in 2010.

“These shifting patterns show us that we have to better understand the dynamics of drug use in younger populations who are succumbing to opioid-related deaths,” said Dr. Gomes. “We can only truly understand this by talking directly to affected communities to learn what they need to create a safer environment in which to live.”

The researchers determined that a total of 29,410 years of life were lost prematurely due to opioid-related deaths in 2015. 


The study is published in the <a href="https://journals.lww.com/journaladdictionmedicine/pages/default.aspx">Journal of Addiction Medicine</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Study: 1 out of every 6 deaths in young adults linked to opioids

Experts at St. Michael's Hospital are reporting that one out...

Researchers have estimated the hidden costs and economic toll of skin cancer caused by workplace sun exposure. The study, which was based on newly diagnosed non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSCs) in Canada in 2011, revealed an economic burden totaling $34.6 million Canadian dollars.

The researchers used official government records and health surveys to calculate the costs of individual cases of NMSCs. These numbers represented the lifelong expense of the illness including out-of-pocket costs, the amount of time missed at work, and healthcare costs.

The team analyzed individual cases of the most common types of non-melanoma <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/firefighters-increased-risk-cancer/">skin cancer</a>, basal cell and squamous cell carcinoma. Each case of basal cell cancer was found to cost $5,760, while squamous cell carcinoma was found to cost $10,555 per case.

In Canada and many other countries with a large population of fair-skinned residents, the most common form of cancer is skin cancer. One out of every ten Canadians works outdoors, and the majority of these workers are exposed to solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation for at least six hours a day.

The jobs which were found to carry the most risk were farming, construction, and landscaping. The researchers hope that the results of this study may lead to better policies that will reduce workplace sun exposure in Canada and elsewhere.

Dr. Emile Tompa is a senior scientist at <a href="https://www.iwh.on.ca/">Canada's Institute for Work &amp; Health</a> and the study's principal investigator. 

“The findings suggest that policymakers might give greater priority to reducing sun exposure at work by allocating occupational cancer prevention resources accordingly,” said Dr. Tompa.

“The results can also raise awareness among policymakers, employers, unions and workers about the significant contribution of workplace sun exposure to skin cancers. These groups can now make a strong cost-benefit argument for inexpensive exposure reduction interventions, such as shade structures, hats and loose clothing, sunscreen, and shift scheduling to reduce the amount of time workers spend in the sun.”

The study is published in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uoeh20">Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Skin cancer cases in outdoor workers takes an economic toll

Researchers have estimated the hidden costs and economic toll of...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/taking-pictures-miss-moment/">Social media</a> can be a great tool for forging connections, enriching social bonds, and sharing news, thoughts, and opinions. Sometimes we take to social media to vent, especially during a long string of inclement weather. 

During a spring blizzard, there is likely to be an uptick of posts about being tired of winter, or during a heat wave, many on social media might pine for cooler temperatures. 

Previous research has found that weather impacts people’s emotional states, but now a new study has found that certain thoughts and comments shared on social media may be directly associated with weather patterns. 

The study was conducted by researchers from the <a href="https://economics.ubc.ca/">Vancouver School of Economics </a>and the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> (MIT) and published in the journal <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0195750">PLOS ONE.</a>

Motivated by past research on weather and emotions, the researchers wanted to establish a pattern between specific weather conditions and positive and negative emotional responses. 

If the researchers could find a way to measure and predict these responses using social media data, it could aid in understanding how long-term exposure to different types of weather affects health and well-being. 

The researchers collected and analyzed 2.4 billion posts from Facebook and 1.1 billion Tweets from 2009 to 2016. A special tool allowed the researchers to sort the posts based on positive or negative keywords. 

Weather definitely had an effect on the sentiments expressed and the results showed that temperature, precipitation, humidity, and cloud cover triggered both positive and negative posts on social media. 

Temperatures up to 68 degrees Fahrenheit correlated with positive commentary but as temperatures increased over 86 degrees Fahrenheit, people expressed more negative sentiments.  

High humidity, high cloud cover, and precipitation also had an effect on the emotions expressed on social media. 

Social media can be used a proxy for underlying emotional states, and although the analysis methods in the study are not perfect, the results show how measuring social media responses can highlight how weather affects different emotions.

“We find that how we express ourselves is shaped by the weather outside,” said Nick Obradovich, a co-author of the study. “Adverse weather conditions -- hot and cold temperatures, precipitation, added humidity, and increased cloud cover -- reduce the sentiment of human expressions across billions of social media posts drawn from millions of US residents.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette,</a> <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Weather affects our emotions and tone of social media posts

Social media can be a great tool for forging connections,...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-level-rise-displace/">Sea-level rise</a> as a result of climate change is a rather worrying predicament for a number of reasons. In recent years, scientists have been working hard to determine the consequences of this phenomenon, with mostly depressing findings. Now, a new study published in <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/">Science Advances</a> reveals that sea-level rise and wave-driven flooding could devastate freshwater resources integral to the populations on low-lying atoll islands, leaving many islands uninhabitable in just a few decades.

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/">U.S. Geological Survey</a>, <a href="https://www.deltares.nl/en/">Deltares</a>, <a href="http://www.noaa.gov/">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a>, and the <a href="https://manoa.hawaii.edu/">University of Hawaii at Mānoa</a> studied Roi-Namur Island on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands from 2013 to 2015. This is one of more than 1,100 low-lying islands that make up 29 atolls, and contains a number of island nations that are populated by hundreds of thousands of people.

The researchers used numerous climate-change scenarios to predict the effect of sea-level rise and wave-driven flooding on atoll infrastructure and the availability of freshwater. Since many atolls around the world share a similar morphology and structure, the findings of this study can be applied to many of the atolls across the globe. The highest rates of sea level rise can be found in the tropics, where thousands of these atoll islands are located. While previous studies have projected that these islands will experience minimal inundation impacts until at least the end of the 21st century, the studies did not count for the additional effects of wave-driven overwash or the impact on freshwater availability.

“The tipping point when potable groundwater on the majority of atoll islands will be unavailable is projected to be reached no later than the middle of the 21st century,” says Curt Storlazzi, a USGS geologist and lead author of the study.

This means that within the next 50 years, annual flooding could result in the islands becoming uninhabitable as a result of repeated damage to infrastructure and the lack of drinkable freshwater. For populated atoll islands, the main source of freshwater is rain that soaks into the ground and stays there as a layer of fresh groundwater, floating on top of the denser saltwater.

“The overwash events generally result in salty ocean water seeping into the ground and contaminating the freshwater aquifer,” explains Stephen Gingerich, a USGS hydrologist and co-author of the study. “Rainfall later in the year is not enough to flush out the saltwater and refresh the island’s water supply before the next year’s storms arrive repeating the overwash events.”

If these predictions come to fruition, human habitation in many of these atoll islands could be almost impossible, beginning between the 2030s and 2060s. This could mean a major relocation of the islands’ inhabitants, or the need for significant financial investment into new infrastructure. Either way, the predicted sea-level rise could have a devastating impact on the communities that call these islands home.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Peter Swarzenski, <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/">US Geological Survey</a>

Sea-level rise could leave low-lying islands uninhabitable

Sea-level rise as a result of climate change is a...

New research focused on more than 2.7 billion tweets is shedding new light on the influence that our political opinions have on our overall <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/false-news-stories-twitter/">Twitter</a> experience. The experts found that when a user produces tweets with biased content, those opinions are echoed in the content that appears on the user's news feed.

“An echo chamber exists if the leaning of the content received by Twitter users is in par with the leaning of the content they share. An opinion echoes back to the user when it is being shared by others in the chamber, the social network around the user,” explained study co-author Professor Aristides Gionis.

The study, which was led by <a href="http://www.aalto.fi/en/">Aalto University</a>, exposed the three main roles of Twitter users that influence echo chambers. 

Partisan users are those that consume and produce one-sided content. Partisans enjoy a central position in their personal networks and their content is endorsed often. 

Gatekeepers are those that consume diverse content generated by all sides, yet produce content with a one-side leaning. These users have a central role in the formation of echo chambers.

“Gatekeepers are a small group of users who have higher than average network centrality,” explained study co-author Kiran Garimella. 

“However, the users that gatekeepers follow are not always connected with each other; instead, they belong to opposing sides. Finding and connecting the gatekeepers would help spread information to both sides, even though they are more challenging to identify than partisan users.”

The third group of Twitter users identified in the study consists of bipartisan users. These individuals voice support for two opposing political parties and make an effort to bridge the echo chambers. 

For the first time, the experts analyzed the sacrifices made by bipartisans on social networks. Those who posted content with both leanings were found to lose connections with other users, became less central in their personal networks, and received very little content endorsement.

“In other words, the content produced by bipartisan users receives less attention - their tweets are re-posted less frequently by other users,” said study co-author Professor Michael Mathioudakis.


Garimella explained that the goal of the study was to understand the relationship between the roles of Twitter users and the structure of echo chambers on a larger scale than ever before.

“Our motivation was to understand how the social media users perceive the world through their Twitter feed,” said Professor Mathioudakis. “In future work, we are going to look more closely into different user roles and try to understand who are the users that shape online debates and how.”

The study was presented at this year's international Web Conference (<a href="http://wikicfp.com/cfp/servlet/event.showcfp?eventid=63231&amp;copyownerid=19251">WWW 2018</a>) in France.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Study proves that Twitter echo chambers are very real

New research focused on more than 2.7 billion tweets is...

We often think of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/trees-keep-cities-cool-summer/">summer</a> as one of the more care-free and relaxing times of the year. The cold drudgery of winter disappears and – unless you’re living too close to the equator – the return of warmth and sunshine can be a welcome reprieve. But despite what we may think, summer can actually be a more stressful time for some people. A new study from <a href="http://pums.ump.edu.pl/">Poznan University of Medical Sciences</a> has found that medical students are more likely to have higher levels of circulating stress hormones in the summer than in winter. 

The stress hormone specifically referred to in this study is cortisol, which is released into the bloodstream during stressful situations and helps regulate the body’s levels of sugar, salt, and fluids. Cortisol is integral to maintaining our overall health, and helps reduce inflammation throughout the body. Our levels of cortisol are usually highest in the morning, gradually dropping throughout the day in order to maintain healthy sleeping patterns. These levels can be affected by illness, lack of sleep, and some medications. But now researchers have discovered interesting seasonal patterns in the cortisol levels of medical students.

The researchers assessed a group of female medical students on two separate days in the winter and two days in the summer. Participants had saliva samples taken every two hours over a 24-hour cycle during each testing period. These samples were analyzed for levels of cortisol and markers of inflammation. During each testing session, the participants also completed a lifestyle questionnaire regarding their sleep schedule, diet, and physical activity levels. 

Past studies looking into the seasonal variability of cortisol have found inconsistent results, but this could be because study subjects were often tested in their own homes rather than in a consistent setting. For the results of this current study, the researchers found that the participants’ cortisol levels tended to be higher on the summer testing dates, and inflammation levels did not change much between seasons. With higher levels of the stress hormone in their bodies during these summer months, it appears that for this group of medical students, summer was actually a period of higher stress.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Warmer temperatures linked to higher stress levels

We often think of summer as one of the more...

Researchers at <a href="https://home.llu.edu/">Loma Linda University</a> (LLU) are reporting on the remarkable health benefits of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/chocolate-red-wine-wrinkles/">dark chocolate</a>. The findings of two separate studies have demonstrated that eating dark chocolate with a high concentration of cacao can reduce stress and inflammation while boosting mood, memory, immunity, and brain power.

Although it has been widely documented that cacao is a major source of flavonoids, this investigation is the first to examine the effect of cacao on cognitive, endocrine, and cardiovascular health in human subjects.

Dr. Lee S. Berk, a researcher in Psychoneuroimmunology and Food Science at LLU, served as the principal investigator for both studies.

“For years, we have looked at the influence of dark chocolate on neurological functions from the standpoint of sugar content - the more sugar, the happier we are,” said Dr. Berk. 

“This is the first time that we have looked at the impact of large amounts of cacao in doses as small as a regular-sized chocolate bar in humans over short or long periods of time, and are encouraged by the findings. These studies show us that the higher the concentration of cacao, the more positive the impact on cognition, memory, mood, immunity and other beneficial effects."

The flavonoids found in cacao are powerful antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents that are known to have protective effects on brain and heart health.

An experimental trial was developed to examine how chocolate containing a minimal amount of 70 percent cacao influenced gene expression in human immune cells. 

The researchers found that cacao consumption boosted the stimulation of intracellular signaling pathways involved in T-cell activation and cellular immune response. Cacao also upregulated the genes involved in neural signaling and sensory perception.


In the second study, experts measured the electroencephalography (EEG) response in participants who consumed 48 grams of dark chocolate containing 70 percent cacao. The researchers analyzed brain activity, focusing specifically on gamma brain waves with a frequency of 25 to 40Hz. 

The investigation revealed that neuroplasticity, which is the ability of the brain to form new neural pathways and increase the capacity for learning and memory, was enhanced after eating a high concentration of cacao.

Dr. Berk explained that further research is needed to understand the significance of the brain and immunity benefits generated by a high dose of cacao. Researchers are currently working to identify the underlying mechanisms responsible for the brain’s responses to the cognition-enhancing properties of this superfood.

The research was presented at the <a href="http://experimentalbiology.org/2018/Home.aspx">Experimental Biology 2018</a> annual meeting in San Diego.

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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

Dark chocolate has more powerful health benefits than you’d think

Researchers at Loma Linda University (LLU) are reporting on the...

Horse found buried in a ceremonial tomb 3,000 years ago. The remains of an ancient horse recovered along the Nile River Valley is providing scientists with new insight into the relationship between humans and animals over 3,000 years ago. The researchers were amazed to discover that the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wild-horses-western-us/">horse</a> had been given a proper funeral with a burial shroud.

The horse was found in 2011 in Tombos, Sudan, more than 5 feet underground in a tomb. The skeleton was so well-preserved that some chestnut hair still remained on the horse’s legs.

“It was clear that the horse was an intentional burial, which was super fascinating,” said Professor Michele Buzon of <a href="http://www.purdue.edu/">Purdue University</a>. 

“Remnants of fabric on the hooves indicate the presence of a burial shroud. Changes on the bones and iron pieces of a bridle suggest that the horse may have pulled a chariot. We hadn't found anything like this in our previous excavations at Tombos. Animal remains are very rare at the site.”

Professor Buzon has been studying remains at this dig site in Sudan since 2000 with Stuart Tyson Smith, an Anthropology professor at the <a href="https://www.ucsb.edu/">University of California, Santa Barbara</a>.

The team excavates and analyzes artifacts to understand the lives of Nubians and Egyptians during the New Kingdom Empire, which is when Egyptians colonized the area to access to trade routes on the Nile River around 1500 B.C. Hundreds of pieces of cultural evidence recovered at this burial site, such as tools and pottery, have been attributed to around 200 people. 

“Finding the horse was unexpected,” said study lead author Sarah Schrader. “Initially, we weren't sure if it was modern or not. But as we slowly uncovered the remains, we began to find artifacts associated with the horse, such as the scarab, the shroud and the iron cheekpiece. At that point, we realized how significant this find was. Of course, we became even more excited when the carbon-14 dates were assessed and confirmed how old the horse was.”

Radiocarbon dating traced the age of the horse back to the Third Intermediate Period, from 1050-728 B.C.E.

“The horse was treated well in life, seeing as how it lived to a mature age,” said Schrader. “It also was important to the people of ancient Tombos because it was buried - a rite that is usually reserved for humans. Furthermore, the fact that one of the earliest pieces of iron from Africa was found in association with the horse reiterates how special it was to the people. It is also important to assess the context of Tombos with regard to the horse - the horse is an important and rare find. The fact that it is buried at Tombos indicates that this town may have served an important function in the post-colonial Napatan Period.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.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

Image Credit: <a href="http://www.purdue.edu/">Purdue University
</a>

Horse found buried in a ceremonial tomb 3,000 years ago

Horse found buried in a ceremonial tomb 3,000 years ago....

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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



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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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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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...