Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting The Starry Night is renowned for its swirling blue skies and luminous yellow stars, capturing the viewer with its vibrant colors and dynamic brushstrokes.&nbsp;



The painting presents a vision of the night sky that is both enchanting and immersive, with each star encased in radiant ripples, as if the sky itself were in motion.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-van-gogh-s-distinctive-brushstrokes-nbsp">Van Gogh's distinctive brushstrokes&nbsp;</h2>



The illusion of movement in The Starry Night is so vivid that it has piqued the curiosity of scientists who wonder how closely van Gogh’s depiction mirrors the actual physics of atmospheric <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/clear-air-turbulence-expected-to-intensify-in-a-warmer-climate/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">turbulence</a>.&nbsp;



While the movement of the sky in the painting is beyond measurement, van Gogh's distinctive brushstrokes can be scientifically analyzed.



In a study published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0213627" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Physics of Fluids</a> by AIP Publishing, researchers specializing in marine sciences and fluid dynamics from China and France analyzed van Gogh’s brushwork to uncover what they describe as “hidden turbulence” within the painting.&nbsp;



The team explored the physical properties of the swirling patterns in van Gogh’s The Starry Night and sought to determine whether they align with known principles of fluid dynamics.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hidden-turbulence-in-the-starry-night-nbsp">Hidden turbulence in The Starry Night&nbsp;</h2>



“The scale of the paint strokes played a crucial role,” said lead author Yongxiang Huang, a scientist at the Xiamen University.&nbsp;



“With a high-resolution digital picture, we were able to measure precisely the typical size of the brushstrokes and compare these to the scales expected from turbulence theories.”



To do this, the researchers used van Gogh’s swirling brushstrokes as a model, similar to how scientists would study wind patterns by observing how leaves swirl in a vortex.&nbsp;



The team examined the painting's use of luminance, or the relative brightness of the colors, to represent the kinetic energy typically found in atmospheric turbulence.&nbsp;



The variation in brightness across the canvas allowed them to draw parallels between van Gogh’s strokes and the flow of energy in real atmospheric systems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-intuitive-understanding-of-natural-phenomena">Intuitive understanding of natural phenomena </h2>



“It reveals a deep and intuitive understanding of natural phenomena,” Huang said. “Van Gogh’s precise representation of turbulence might be from studying the movement of clouds and the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earths-atmosphere-is-expanding-due-to-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">atmosphere</a>, or it could reflect an innate sense of how to capture the dynamism of the sky.”



The team focused on analyzing the spatial scale of 14 prominent swirling shapes in the painting to determine whether they followed the same energy transfer patterns observed in natural turbulent flows.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/starry-night_van-gogh_physics-analysis_atmospheric-dynamics_credit-Yinxiang-Ma_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/starry-night_van-gogh_physics-analysis_atmospheric-dynamics_credit-Yinxiang-Ma_1s.webp" alt="The authors measured the relative scale and spacing of the whirling brush strokes in van Gogh’s “The Starry Night,” along with variances in luminance of the paint, to see if the laws that apply in the physics of real skies apply in the artist’s depiction. The results suggest van Gogh had an innate understanding of atmospheric dynamics. He captured multiple dimensions of atmospheric physics with surprising accuracy. Credit: Yinxiang Ma" class="wp-image-1944953"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The authors measured the relative scale and spacing of the whirling brush strokes in van Gogh’s “The Starry Night,” along with variances in luminance of the paint, to see if the laws that apply in the physics of real skies apply in the artist’s depiction. The results suggest van Gogh had an innate understanding of atmospheric dynamics. He captured multiple dimensions of atmospheric physics with surprising accuracy. Credit: Yinxiang Ma</figcaption></figure>



Specifically, they wanted to see if the painting aligned with Kolmogorov’s law, a theory that describes how kinetic energy cascades from large to small scales in turbulent atmospheric systems.



The analysis revealed that the overall composition of The Starry Night indeed aligns with Kolmogorov’s theory. This was a significant finding, as it suggests that van Gogh’s depiction of the swirling night sky follows the same rules that govern atmospheric movement.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-complexity-of-van-gogh-s-work-nbsp">Complexity of Van Gogh's work&nbsp;</h2>



On a more detailed level, within the smaller paint strokes where luminance diffuses across the canvas, the researchers found evidence of Batchelor’s scaling.&nbsp;



This describes how energy behaves in small-scale turbulence, where passive scalar fields (such as temperature or concentration of a pollutant) follow similar energy laws to those in larger-scale flows.



The discovery of both Kolmogorov and Batchelor scaling in one system is rare and was a major motivator for the research team.&nbsp;



It highlights the complexity of van Gogh’s work, suggesting that the artist might have captured an intricate representation of atmospheric physics without the benefit of formal scientific knowledge.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-starry-night-challenges-existing-theories-nbsp">The Starry Night challenges existing theories&nbsp;</h2>



“Turbulence is believed to be one of the intrinsic properties of high Reynolds flows dominated by inertia, but recently, turbulence-like phenomena have been reported for different types of flow systems at a wide range of spatial scales, with low Reynolds numbers where viscosity is more dominant,” Huang explained.



He went on to suggest that this study opens up new possibilities for understanding turbulence.&nbsp;



“It seems it is time to propose a new definition of turbulence to embrace more situations,” he added, indicating that their findings in The Starry Night might challenge existing theories and expand the scope of fluid dynamics research.



This research brings a new perspective to van Gogh’s masterpiece, revealing not just artistic genius, but also an uncanny alignment with the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/missing-law-of-nature-explains-the-evolution-of-everything-that-exists-in-the-universe/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">laws of nature</a>.&nbsp;



By capturing the hidden turbulence in his night sky, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cnemaspis-vangoghi-new-gecko-species-discovered-india-named-after-van-gogh/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">van Gogh</a> may have been unwittingly painting a scientifically accurate representation of the complex and dynamic forces at work in our atmosphere.



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Van Gogh's 'The Starry Night' masterpiece captured real world physics

Vincent van Gogh’s famous painting The Starry Night is renowned for its swirling blue skies and luminous yellow stars, capturing the viewer with its vibrant colors and dynamic brushstrokes.&nbsp; The painting presents a vision of the night sky that is both enchanting and immersive, with each star encased in radiant ripples, as if the sky itself were in motion.&nbsp; Van Gogh's distinctive brushstrokes&nbsp; The illusion of movement in The Starry Night is so vivid that it has piqued the curiosity of scientists who wonder how closely van...

Gluten-free products often have misleading labeling and may not be as healthy as food containing gluten, according to a new study.

The research presented today at the 50th Annual Congress of the <a href="http://www.espghan.org/">European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition</a>, calls for healthier raw materials in gluten-free foods and for changes in labeling to ensure that consumers understand the differences in the products.

"Where nutritional values of gluten-free products do vary significantly from their gluten-containing counterparts, such as having higher levels of saturated fat, labelling needs to clearly indicate this so that patients, parents and carers can make informed decisions,” said a lead researcher in the study, Sandra Martínez-Barona with the <a href="http://www.itemas.org/en/who-we-are/medical-centers/itcs/instituto-de-investigacion-sanitaria-la-fe/c/show/">Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria La Fe</a> in Valencia, Spain. .

The research compared 654 gluten-free products to 655 products with gluten and found:
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Gluten-free breads had significantly higher amounts of of lipids and saturated fatty acids</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Gluten-free pasta had significantly lower amounts of sugar and protein</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Gluten-free biscuits had significantly lower amounts of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/black-bears-focus-protein/">protein</a> and significantly higher content of lipids</li>
</ul>
A gluten free diet is prescribed for patients with coeliac disease, a condition that affects only about 1 percent of the European population, the study said.  A growing number of people are also using gluten-free products for their overall health, even when they are not diagnosed with coeliac disease.

Poor nutritional labelling may cause consumers to be unaware that that are gluten-free products different in their nutritional composition than the same food with gluten, the study said.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source:<a href="http://www.espghan.org/">European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition</a>

Gluten-free products often misleading, not necessarily healthier

Gluten-free products often have misleading labeling and may not be...

Smiling can make a person appear to be two years older, a new study says. A look of surprise, meanwhile, has the opposite effect.

Researchers flashed images of people with smiling, neutral, and surprised expressions. Participants perceived the surprised faces as the youngest and smiling faces the oldest.

"The striking thing was that when we asked participants afterwards about their perceptions, they erroneously recalled that they had identified smiling faces as the youngest ones," said study co-author Melvyn Goodale of the <a href="http://www.uwo.ca/">University of Western Ontario</a>. "They were completely blind to the fact they had 'aged' the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/study-bees-emotions-good-food-makes-happy/">happy</a>-looking faces. Their perceptions and their beliefs were polar opposites."

The aging effect of a smile stems from people's inability to ignore the wrinkles that form around the eyes during smiling, Goodale said. A look of surprise, on the other hand, smoothes any wrinkles, he said.

The results seem counterintuitive to the popular images of smiles in the media, added Goodale.

"We associate smiling with positive values and youth. Think of all the skin-care and toothpaste companies that sell the same idea every day."

The study by Goodale and Tzvi Ganel from <a href="http://in.bgu.ac.il/en">Ben-Gurion University</a> is published in the journal <a href="http://www.springer.com/psychology/cognitive+psychology/journal/13423">Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. </a>

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/">U.S. Geological Survey</a>

New study: Smiling makes you look older

Smiling can make a person appear to be two years...

Scientists are working on the ultimate fix for potholes: a self-healing asphalt that uses a special bacteria to fill cracks.

Self-healing asphalt has been tested on 12 different roads in the Netherlands, and one of these has been functioning and open to the public since 2010, Erik Schlangen, a materials scientist at <a href="https://www.tudelft.nl/en/">Delft University</a>, told <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/4/15544156/potholes-self-healing-materials-infrastructure-transportation">The Verge</a>.

His asphalt has small steel fibers mixed in, which makes the asphalt conductive. If you add heat by running a big induction machine — basically a huge magnet — over the asphalt, it’ll warm up the asphalt and cause the small cracks to close on their own, The Verge reported.

Schlangen estimates that the overall cost of the material is 25 percent more expensive than normal asphalt, but it could double the life of the road, and one estimate suggests it could save the <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/famous-tulip-fields-netherlands/">Netherlands</a> 90 million Euros a year if all the roads used this material. China has also built a self-healing road.

 “Putting steel fibers in the asphalt mean that you can send information to it, so it might be possible to charge electric cars on the road they’re driving on,” Schlangen added. “This is early, but we are going to make some trials in front of traffic lights, where the idea is that you can charge your car a bit while waiting in traffic.”

Another project is looking at how to reduce fuel consumption of vehicles by tweaking the material of the roads. “When you drive on pavement with your car, you create a little dimple,” says Franz-Josef Ulm, director of <a href="https://cshub.mit.edu/">MIT’s Concrete Sustainability Hub</a>. “You don’t see it because it’s very small, but because of the behavior and texture of the material you’re actually always driving slightly uphill.” 

Ulm compares it to running on a beach on soft sand, and just as running on sand is harder than running on a hard surface, these “dimples” take more energy from the car.

Engineering the concrete to change the roughness can reduce the environmental impact. In a study with roads in Virginia, this process reduced the environmental impact of cars driving on pavement by up to 3 percent. “For an individual car it doesn’t make much difference, but for a state and for a nation, it plays a huge role,” Ulm said.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/4/15544156/potholes-self-healing-materials-infrastructure-transportation">The Verge</a>

How this self-healing asphalt could cure road potholes

Scientists are working on the ultimate fix for potholes: a...

The stability of alpine grasslands in Asia's Tibetan Plateau is threatened by a warming climate that could also jeopardize the livelihoods and ability of farmers and herders, a new study says.

Researchers from the United States and China created test plots of grass in which some were heated to two degrees Celsius above the surrounding grasslands.  At the same time, the researchers varied the amount of rainfall onto the plots, with some sections receiving 50 percent more water, and others receiving 50 percent less. There were also control sections in which temperature and rainfall were not adjusted. Each of the six conditions were replicated six times, for a total of 36 test plots.

"We found that climate warming lowers stability through increasing species synchrony in which the biomass of a few dominant species increased while that of most rare species declined," said Jin-Sheng He, a professor in the Department of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences at <a href="http://english.pku.edu.cn/">Peking University</a>. "That indicates the alpine grasslands that have well adapted to cold environments owing to their long-term evolutionary history may be jeopardized in the future."

The effects of climate change could be “particularly dramatic in this area,” said Lin Jiang, a professor in the <a href="http://biosci.gatech.edu/">Georgia Tech School of Biological Sciences</a>.

Though temperature changes could destabilize the fragile ecosystem of the area, <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/rainfall-tropical-cyclones/">rainfall</a> variations did not appear to have a similar effect, the study found.

The Tibetan Plateau is an area of about 2.5 million square kilometers in which summertime high temperatures seldom rise above 25 degrees Celsius and nighttime temperatures could drop below freezing even in the summer. More than two-thirds of the Plateau is grassland used for grazing yak, sheep and other animals. About 9.8 million people live in the area, which is also the source for several of Asia's major river systems.

While the Tibetan Plateau is unique for its size and high average altitude, there are other areas of the world with similar conditions.

"If these findings can be generalized to other alpine ecosystems, we may need to be concerned about large variations in biomass production in these other areas, as well," Jiang added.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.gatech.edu/">Georgia Institute of Technology</a>

Image Credit: Xian Yang and Qianna Xu

Warming climate threatens life on the Tibetan Plateau grasslands

The stability of alpine grasslands in Asia's Tibetan Plateau is...

Researchers at the <a href="http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/">University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center</a> have discovered the cause of two of the most vexing cosmetic problems of aging: baldness and gray hair.

The findings could lead to a new treatment, the university said.

“Although this project was started in an effort to understand how certain kinds of tumors form, we ended up learning why hair turns gray and discovering the identity of the cell that directly gives rise to hair,” said Dr. Lu Le, associate professor of Dermatology at UT Southwestern. 

The university hopes to develop a topical compound that would end baldness and graying, Le said.

The researchers  discovered that a protein called KROX20, more commonly associated with nerve development, produces a protein called stem cell factor (SCF) that the researchers showed is essential for hair pigmentation.

When they deleted the SCF gene in the hair progenitor cells in mouse models, the animal’s hair turned white. When they deleted the KROX20-producing cells, no hair grew and the mice became bald, according to the study.

The team made the discovery while studying a disorder called Neurofibromatosis Type 1, a rare genetic disease that causes tumors to grow on nerves.

Researchers will now try to find out if the KROX20 in cells and the SCF gene stop working properly as people age, leading to the graying and hair thinning seen in older people – as well as in male pattern baldness, Le said.

The discovery could also provide answers about why we age in general as hair graying and hair loss are among the first signs of aging, the university said. 

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/">University of Texas Southwestern</a>

Accidental discovery could mean a cure for balding, gray hair

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have...

People who read fiction books are kinder and more empathetic than others, a new study found.

"Exposure to fiction relates to a range of empathetic abilities," said researchers at <a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/">Kingston University</a> in London, who addressed the British Psychological Society conference in Brighton last week, according to the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/people-read-books-tend-nicer-dont-study/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_fb_tmg">Daily Telegraph</a>. "Engaging with fictional prose and comedy in particular could be key to enhancing people’s empathetic abilities."

The new study involved 123 participants, who were questioned over their preference for books, plays and TV shows, and tested on their interpersonal skills.

Fans of fiction fans were found to show more positive social behavior and had an easier time understanding other points of view.

Meanwhile, people who watched TV instead came off as less friendly and less relatable.

Those who read drama and romantic novels showed high levels of empathy while fans of experimental books were most able to see things from alternative perspectives, the study found. Readers who favored comedy were best at relating to others. 

Earlier studies have indicated that reading can help lower stress and that <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/children-crossing-street-safely/">children</a> who grow up with books in the house earn more as adults.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.kingston.ac.uk/">Kingston University</a>, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/people-read-books-tend-nicer-dont-study/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_fb_tmg">Daily Telegraph</a>

Study: People who read books are kinder and more empathetic

People who read fiction books are kinder and more empathetic...

For decades, one of the most common negative stereotypes about cannabis has been that it makes people forgetful. But now, a new study from German researchers published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nm/">Nature Medicine</a> could change this notion. According to the study, cannabis has been found to slow <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rosemary-sharpens-memory-children/">memory</a> loss in older mice and even help revive the speed of memory. 

The study found that once older mice were given THC, the chemical compound in cannabis responsible for providing the “high,” the mental power of their brains actually increased significantly. Upon taking a closer look, the researchers found that the brain connections in the hippocampus - the area responsible for learning and memory - were functioning as well as those of young adults.

The team of researchers also added that cannabis may help slow the brain’s aging process, which could even help delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. The team will begin human trials later this year. 

“Chronic, low-dose treatment with THC or cannabis extracts could be a potential strategy to slow down or even reverse cognitive decline in the elderly,” said Professor Andreas Zimmer of <a href="https://www.uni-bonn.de/the-university">Bonn University</a> in Germany.

“Together, these results reveal a profound, long-lasting improvement of cognitive performance resulting from a low dose of THC treatment in mature and old animals. THC treatment for 28 days restored the learning and memory performance of mature and old animals in the water maze, novel object location recognition and social recognition tests to the levels observed in young mice.”

--

By <a href="mailto:rarnold@earth.com">Rory Arnold</a>, <a href="http://earth.com/staff">Earth.com</a>

Source: <a href="http://www.nature.com/nm/">Nature Medicine</a>

Cannabis could slow memory loss in the elderly, new study finds

For decades, one of the most common negative stereotypes about...

Climate change is melting permafrost soils that have been frozen for thousands of years, releasing ancient viruses and bacteria, the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170504-there-are-diseases-hidden-in-ice-and-they-are-waking-up">BBC</a> reported.

In August 2016, a 12-year-old died in a remote corner of <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/batagaika-crater-siberia/">Siberian</a> tundra called the Yamal Peninsula in the Arctic Circle, and at least 20 people were hospitalized after being infected by anthrax, the BBC said.

The theory is that a reindeer was infected with anthrax more than 75 years ago, and its frozen carcass became trapped under a layer of frozen soil, known as permafrost. That is, until a heatwave in the summer of 2016 thawed the permafrost and released the deadly toxins.

The temperature in the Arctic Circle is rising about three times faster than in the rest of the world, the BBC said. As the ice and permafrost melt, other infectious agents may be released.

"Permafrost is a very good preserver of microbes and viruses, because it is cold, there is no oxygen, and it is dark," says evolutionary biologist Jean-Michael Claverie of <a href="https://www.igs.cnrs-mrs.fr/spip.php?article39&amp;lang=fr"> </a><a href="http://www.univ-amu.fr/en">Aix-Marseille University</a> in France. "Pathogenic viruses that can infect humans or animals might be preserved in old permafrost layers, including some that have caused global epidemics in the past."

In the early 20th Century alone, more than a million reindeer died from anthrax. It is not easy to dig deep graves, so most of these carcasses are buried close to the surface, scattered among 7,000 burial grounds in northern Russia, the story said. 

“However, the big fear is what else is lurking beneath the frozen soil,” the BBC said.

Scientists have discovered fragments of RNA from the 1918 Spanish flu virus in corpses buried in mass graves in Alaska's tundra. Smallpox and the bubonic plague are also likely buried in Siberia.

In a 2011 study, Boris Revich and Marina Podolnaya wrote: "As a consequence of permafrost melting, the vectors of deadly infections of the 18th and 19th Centuries may come back, especially near the cemeteries where the victims of these infections were buried."

NASA scientists successfully revived bacteria that had been encased in a frozen pond in Alaska for 32,000 years, the story said.

In the 1890s there was a major epidemic of smallpox in Siberia with one town losing up to 40 percent of its population. Their bodies were buried under the upper layer of permafrost on the banks of the Kolyma River. Now, 120 years later, Kolyma's floodwaters have started eroding the banks, and the melting of the permafrost has speeded up this erosion process.

In a project that began in the 1990s, scientists from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Research_Center_of_Virology_and_Biotechnology_VECTOR">State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology </a>in Novosibirsk have <a href="http://www.istc.int/en/project/84980DF9853EABD94325690B000F3840">tested</a> the remains of Stone Age people  found in southern Siberia, in the region of Gorny Altai. They have also tested samples from the corpses of men who had died during viral epidemics in the 19th Century and were buried in the Russian permafrost.

The researchers say they have found bodies with sores characteristic of the marks left by smallpox. While they did not find the smallpox virus itself, they have detected fragments of its DNA, the BBC said.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170504-there-are-diseases-hidden-in-ice-and-they-are-waking-up">BBC</a>

Report: Climate change unleashing deadly viruses, bacteria

Climate change is melting permafrost soils that have been frozen...

Babies born today in 13 U.S. counties have a lower life expectancy than their parents did when they were born decades ago, a new study said.

The gap between counties with the highest and lowest life expectancies is larger now than it was back in 1980, according to the study by the<a href="http://www.healthdata.org/"> Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation</a> (IHME) at the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington </a>in Seattle and published in AMA Internal Medicine.

Risk factors such obesity, lack of exercise, smoking, hypertension, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rising-temps-diabetes-increase/">diabetes</a> - explained 74 percent of the variation in longevity. Socioeconomic factors, a combination of poverty, income, education, unemployment, and race, were independently related to 60 percent of the inequality, and access to and quality of health care explained 27 percent

“Looking at life expectancy on a national level masks the massive differences that exist at the local level, especially in a country as diverse as the United States," said lead author Laura Dwyer-Lindgren, a researcher at IHME.

Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota - which includes the Pine Ridge Native American reservation - had the lowest life expectancy in the country in 2014 at 66.8 years, comparable to countries like Sudan (67.2), India (66.9), and Iraq (67.7), the study found.

Clusters of counties with low life expectancies were also identified in Kentucky, West Virginia, Alabama, and several states along the Mississippi River. Several counties in these states and others saw decreases in life expectancy since 1980, while much of the country experienced increases.

"These findings demonstrate an urgent imperative, that policy changes at all levels are gravely needed to reduce inequality in the health of Americans," said Dr. Ali Mokdad, an author on the study. "Federal, state, and local health departments need to invest in programs that work and engage their communities in disease prevention and health promotion."<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2014.jpg">
</a> <a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/1980.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-351221" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/1980-300x242.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="242" /></a>

<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2014.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-351220" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/2014-300x242.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="242" /></a>

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.healthdata.org/">Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation</a>

Study reveals big gaps in U.S. life expectancy based on location

Babies born today in 13 U.S. counties have a lower...

Prostate and breast cancer are strongly linked to poor environmental quality, a new study found.

Researchers at the <a href="http://www.uic.edu/">University of Illinois, Chicago</a> linked the Environmental Quality Index, a county-level measure of cumulative environmental exposures, with cancer incidence rates.

Counties with poor environmental quality demonstrated a higher incidence of cancer cases - on average 39 more cases per 100,000 people- than counties with high <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/environmentally-friendly-cool-summer/">environmental</a> quality.

Prostate and breast cancer in particular demonstrated strong links with poor environmental quality, according to the study which examined air, water, and land quality; sociodemographic environment; and built environment.

 "Our study is the first we are aware of to address the impact of cumulative environmental exposures on cancer incidence," said the University of Illinois’ Dr. Jyotsna S. Jagai. "This work helps support the idea that all of the exposures we experience affect our health, and underscores the potential for social and environmental improvements to positively impact health outcomes.”

Research has traditionally focused on individual environmental exposures, which is important for understanding specific mechanisms that can cause disease, Jagai said. However, cancer development is dependent on all exposures people face, including social stress.

"Therefore, we must consider the overall environment that one is exposed to in order to understand the potential risk for cancer development," she said.

The study, published online in <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1097-0142">Cancer</a>, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, may help to reduce the burden of cancer by allowing officials to identify vulnerable communities in need of attention, the authors said.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1097-0142">Cancer</a>

Study: Poor environmental quality leads to higher cancer rates

Prostate and breast cancer are strongly linked to poor environmental...

A new study may pave the way for turning biofuel waste into plastics, fabrics, nylon and adhesives.

Currently, biofuel waste called lignin is burned to produce electricity or left unused because scientists haven’t figured out how to use it to make useful products. Finding out ways to use lignin could make biofuel, made from plants, more price competitive with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bp-oil-spill-damage/">oil</a>, since the biofuel waste could be sold for other products such as plastics, fabrics and adhesives.

<a href="http://www.sandia.gov/">Sandia National Laboratories</a> researchers working with a team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the <a href="https://www.jbei.org/">Joint BioEnergy Institute</a> have decoded the structure and behavior of LigM, an enzyme that breaks down molecules derived from lignin.

The enzyme is different from other proteins, which previously made it impossible for scientists to guess how it functions. 

The new study found that that half of LigM's structure is composed of a common protein architecture found in all forms of life, from bacteria to humans. The rest of the enzyme -- the active portion -- is not found in any other known protein structure. This unique structure gives LigM the ability to bind specifically to molecules derived from lignin.

"Solving the structure allows us to understand how the organism may have evolved its unique function, which I think is scientifically one of the most interesting findings," said Sandia scientist and study coauthor Ken Sale.

More research is needed to fully understand how to use lignin, said Sandia scientist and lead author Amanda Kohler.

"But now we have a much-needed understanding of a key step in this process, and are developing enzymes to fit our end goals of lowering the cost of biofuels by making products from lignin,” said Kohler.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.sandia.gov/">Sandia National Laboratories</a>

New study could help biofuel compete with oil

A new study may pave the way for turning biofuel...

What’s not to love about an energy source that’s free, endlessly abundant and non-polluting? That’s what renewable energy advocates would say about wind power. And yet, it’s not ideal in a lot of ways. 

The turbines that harness the wind are tall and massive, using up a lot of steel and concrete in their construction, and they take up a lot of land. They’re not very efficient, they’re noisy and the spinning blades kill tens of thousands -- or millions -- of birds annually, depending on who’s tabulating. In addition, the big turbines frequently break down and are considered an eyesore by some. Take, for example, the fact that the late Senator Ted Kennedy was involved in legal proceedings to block the establishment of a wind farm off Cape Cod coastal waters in his sight line. If the liberal senator from Massachusetts couldn’t put up with the view, can you find enough available land to set up all of the massive-footprint turbines we’d need to even significantly power the nation by wind?

But what if you could solve all of the problems of wind energy production by adopting a whole new wind-capture technology. One with a much smaller footprint, much lower construction and maintenance costs and so visually and sonically unobtrusive that most people wouldn’t even notice it if they lived a mile away from such a wind farm. And what if that power could be generated at rates that were competitive to coal and natural gas?

Kite power

We’re talking about airborne wind energy, or kite power. The concept is to use the motion of huge tethered kites  or wings (some look more like 84-foot wide parachute canopies) to generate energy in a variety of ways. One technology places turbines on each of the wings to create electricity, and then sends it down a wire to the ground station. Another method sets pumping cycles  in motion as kites are reeled out and reeled in on its tether, generating the electricity at the ground station level.

Although both conventional and kite systems use wind to make electricity, that’s where the similarities end. Wind is hard to consistently catch near the ground, which is why turbines must be built so tall. It’s much windier, say, 300 or even 500 feet above ground, so that’s how high the blades must reach. In order to support building to such impressive heights, the platform base of the tower must be truly massive and deeply entrenched in the ground. The base for one turbine can be fifty feet in diameter, using more than a thousand tons of concrete and steel rebar, and might be anchored as much as thirty feet below surface.

Kite technology, on the other hand, consists of little more that one or more gigantic kites on cable tethers, and the low-lying ground station that houses the generator, tether motor, generator, gear box, pulleys, belts and the like. The kites can go thousands of feet in the air to find and continuously use constant and predictable wind patterns. There’s no such thing as a windless day when you go up that high. In some technologies, computer programs help reposition the kits to take advantage of the best winds.

Dr. Roland Schmehl, associate professor of aerospace engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, said this about the greater efficiency of kite power over standard wind turbines in a TED Time talk on YouTube. 

“We looked at the concept of the wind turbine and realized that the last 25 percent of the rotor blade actually makes more than 50 percent of the energy, so why don’t we decouple the rotor blade from the hub and move it as a free-flying wing into the air. That way we can move it at high speed and have a very high energy density on this wing.”

The Delft University group is only one that’s exploring the possibilities. Another, Makani Power, was recently bought by Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and is testing kite technology in California. In Europe, work is being done in Scotland, Italy and elsewhere.

Cutting energy production costs

One of the pioneering companies  in the technology is Kite Power Systems (KPS), a United Kingdom-based company testing the technology in a military airfield in Scotland. In an email exchange with Earth.com, KPS interim CEO and Business Development Director David Ainsworth had this to say about how he thinks kite power will impact conventional wind turbine technology.

“It’s too soon to say whether kite power will overtake conventional wind turbines, but our technology transforms the economics of offshore and onshore wind power,” Ainsworth wrote. “We are expecting our patented technology to cut offshore costs by 50-60% in a number of ways: reduced need for steel or concrete, lower transport, installation and deployment costs (no jack-up vessels required), cheaper running costs, and a higher capacity factor as the wind resource at high altitude is better.  In our view, the offshore market gives us greater scope and opportunity for our systems to be deployed. However, we do see that there is a significant onshore market for our technology.”

That lack of a footprint is a major consideration of kite power enthusiasts. The technology uses 90 percent less building materials than conventional turbines and, according to online information provided by Makani Power, it can generate 50 percent more energy.

Also consider maintenance costs. When a kite needs repairs, you reel it in and do the work on the ground. Not so much if it’s a turbine blade 300 feet high that goes haywire.

Future gains

Too good to be true? Well of course there are challenges to this, as well as any developing technology. KPS’s Ainsworth writes of some of those roadblocks.

“Like any early stage technology, we encounter challenges (mainly technical) but we are pleased with the progress that we are making. Additional challenges could be with airspace regulators and other users, and we are learning from the lessons learnt by Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine [regarding] impacts on the natural environment (bats and birds). The investment by Shell, E.ON and Schlumberger (announced in December 2016) is a massive endorsement of our work to date and a statement of intent.”

Ainsworth also wrote that the company anticipates showcasing three megawatt and several 500 kilowatt kite systems to demonstrate the technology within the next three to five years. KPS also plans to land its first customer within that time frame.

It’s a start. Visionary innovators within the field can see wind farms of 1,000 very high-flying kites powering our future. Or a single system energizing a community center in a desert village far off of the power grid. They see kites flying so high they’re barely dots in the sky, but they’re cleanly powering our homes and businesses. 

Stand by. The future of airborne wind technology is still up in the air. But it’s in sight.

--

By <a href="mailto:DSearls@earth.com">David Searls</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.nature.com/ngeo/index.html">Nature Geoscience</a>

Image Credit: <a href="http://www.kitepowersystems.com/">Kite Power Systems</a>

Will kite power fly high as the next renewable energy solution?

What’s not to love about an energy source that’s free,...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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



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

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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

Satellites have become essential to our survival

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