Not long ago, the common belief was that only a subset of media consumers - often less educated and highly biased - would let their political allegiance override the truth. They would believe the news that favors their political inclinations, even if it wasn't authentic.



Then some intriguing studies emerged which indicated quite the opposite. The research suggested that media consumers across the spectrum value truth over partisanship.



The studies proclaimed that the authenticity of news was more influential than its alignment with a consumer's political views by more than four times.



However, as we stand on the brink of a national election fraught with misinformation, a fresh study shakes this understanding to its core.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news-and-political-views">News and political views</h2>



The research, led by top psychology scholars at Stanford University, suggests that the masses tend to prioritize partisanship over truth when <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/political-views-change-our-perception-of-the-past-and-future/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">consuming news</a>.



Quite unexpectedly, this behavioral pattern spans across all political orientations, educational backgrounds, and reasoning capabilities.



Study lead author Michael Schwalbe is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Psychology at the School of Humanities and Sciences at <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stanford University</a>.



"We saw an effect of people being more influenced by political alignment than truth," said Schwalbe. 



"We saw it on both political sides and even among people who scored well on a reasoning test. We were a bit surprised to see how widespread this tendency was. People were engaging in a lot of resistance to inconvenient truths."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pervasive-problem-across-political-parties">Pervasive problem across political parties</h2>



The researchers unearthed intriguing ways in which political views and partisanship can impact the analysis of news. 



In one measure of bias, people's beliefs about the impartiality of their political side compared to their rivals were assessed. Ironically, those who were most confident in their side's neutrality were the most biased.



Furthermore, partisanship seemed to have a more robust effect on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-opinions-swing-voting-and-elections-in-the-u-s/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">processing real news</a> than fake news. People demonstrated a higher propensity to reject true information that challenged their political views and accept false information that supported their ideological stances.



"Everyone thinks it's the other person who is the problem," said Geoffrey L. Cohen, the James G. March Professor of Organizational Studies in Education and Business, professor of psychology in H&amp;S, and senior author of the study. 



"People say, 'Not me!' But it turns out, like with a lot of social psychological research, it's actually a pretty pervasive problem across political parties and up and down the educational ladder. The problem isn't just misinformation but the filters of our own mind - perhaps more so."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news-sources-and-political-beliefs">News sources and political beliefs</h2>



The study is based on research conducted on a sample of the voting-age U.S. population, matched to the demographics of the census. This group included supporters and opponents of former President Donald Trump.



A distinctive aspect of this research is its deviation in methodology from previous studies. According to Cohen, this could be why the findings contradict them. While the other studies used existing news headlines, this research involved fabricated ones.



Also, in prior investigations, subjects could see the news sources, which may have influenced their acceptance or rejection of the information, whereas this study focused on the headlines alone.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-role-of-headlines">The role of headlines</h2>



The research team conjured fake headlines like "Trump Beats Grandmaster Chess Champion" and "Trump Attended Private Halloween Gala with Sex Orgies Dressed as the Pope." 



Surprisingly, the experts discovered that Trump's supporters and opponents were more likely to believe headlines that aligned with their views than to accept <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cities-are-largely-unprepared-for-the-effects-of-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">true headlines</a> that opposed their beliefs.



The researchers suggest that one contributing factor for this situation is the increased consumption of partisan media. 



"We found that the strongest predictors of bias include extreme views of Trump, a one-sided media diet, and belief in the objectivity and lack of bias of a person's own political side relative to the other side," Schwalbe said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-growing-concern-about-news-consumption">Growing concern about news consumption </h2>



The findings of this study underscore concerns about news consumption in the 21st century, especially with the advent of social media and the constant availability of political news. 



Gaining access to one-sided information has become easier, which can reinforce beliefs in personal objectivity and lead to deepened polarization over time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-possible-paths-to-improvement">Possible paths to improvement</h2>



Having identified the problem, the next logical step is to propose interventions. A measure suggested by Cohen, known as "pre-bunking," involves proactive fact-checking where media sources warn of potential misinformation, or people independently learn to recognize manipulation tactics.



However, Cohen and Schwalbe emphasized that the solution doesn't solely lie in policy changes focused on fake news; people are also biased in their disbelief of true news.



Accordingly, they highlight the significance of promoting intellectual humility, wherein media consumers acknowledge the fallibility of their minds and learn to question their perceptions.



"There's still much more to do to understand the problem," said Schwalbe. So, while this study forms a solid foundation for further exploration, there's no denying that we're only at the beginning of this investigative journey.



The study is published in the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2025-33892-004.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of Experimental Psychology: General</a>. 



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People trust news that matches their political views, even when it's fake

Not long ago, the common belief was that only a subset of media consumers - often less educated and highly biased - would let their political allegiance override the truth. They would believe the news that favors their political inclinations, even if it wasn't authentic. Then some intriguing studies emerged which indicated quite the opposite. The research suggested that media consumers across the spectrum value truth over partisanship. The studies proclaimed that the authenticity of news was more influential than its alignment with a consumer's political views...

Head into any shop themed around relaxation, and you’re bound to find CDs of nature sounds. Those looking to unwind have sworn by whale song, thunderstorms, birds and rustling leaves for years.

It turns out, they may be right. Researchers from <a href="https://www.bsms.ac.uk/">Brighton and Sussex Medical School</a> say they’ve discovered not only that nature sounds provably help people relax, but also why.

Past studies have backed up that natural sounds and settings can relieve stress.

“The positive effects of exposure to naturalistic environmental stimuli extend to health benefits, including improvements in the patient experience of general anaesthesia, enhanced post-operative recovery, and reduced pain and anxiety in hospice care,” the researchers wrote in the new study.

But this is the first research that offers an explanation as to why it works.

To figure that out, the scientists collaborated with artist Mark Ware to create “natural” and “artificial” audio experiences. Then, they hooked subjects up to an MRI to study their brain activity while they listened to both soundtracks. They also monitored subjects’ heart rates.

That’s when they spotted the key: activity in the brain’s default mode network – areas in the brain that remain active while at rest – changed depending on which set of sounds the subject was listening to.

When listening to the artificial sounds, monitors showed changes in the default mode network of the brain and in the autonomous nervous system similar to changes seen in patients with anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and similar conditions.

When nature sounds were played, other areas of the default mode network activated, and subjects relaxed. In fact, the more stressed subjects were before beginning the study, the greater the relaxation response they showed when listening to nature sounds.

“We are all familiar with the feeling of relaxation and ‘switching-off’ which comes from a walk in the countryside, and now we have evidence from the brain and the body which helps us understand this effect,” lead author Dr. Cassandra Gould van Praag said in a press release. “This has been an exciting collaboration between artists and scientists, and it has produced results which may have a real-world impact, particularly for people who are experiencing high levels of stress.”

The researchers believe their findings can help explain why so many people find nature sounds so relaxing. Ware, Gould van Praag and the other scientists hope to collaborate on future research.

The study has been published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep45273">Scientific Reports</a>.

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com/staff">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Think nature sounds are relaxing? Here's what science says

Head into any shop themed around relaxation, and you’re bound...

How Stanley met Livingstone

“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

Most people have heard, or even uttered in jest, that line and never really thought about its origins. It’s usually expressed as a deliberately obvious statement. 

The words were attributed to a surprised Welsh-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley after he finally caught up with English missionary and explorer David Livingstone in what might have been described at the time as deepest, darkest <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/can-renewable-energy-fuel-africa/">Africa</a>. The greeting is amusingly obvious because Stanley was almost undoubtedly addressing the only other English-speaking white man within hundreds of miles. There could be no doubt as to his identity. But one theory is that the awkwardness of the words was a bad attempt by Stanley to hide his alarm at the physical condition of the older man. 

Missionary explorer 

David Livingstone grew up in a very religious, Presbyterian household and stayed religious his entire life. In addition to looking for Christian converts, his many journeys to Africa were to find the source of the Nile, a discovery that he felt would make him famous enough to have influence over ending the slave trade, which he abhorred. 

During one of many trips to Africa he got into a tangle with a lion and had to set his tattered arm by himself. He frequently suffered cholera and the malaria attacks that killed his wife. He was unable to proceed down one river in a steamboat because of the dead bodies thrown into the water by slavers that got tangled in the wheel.

 Livingstone became a national hero with the book he wrote describing his mid-career adventures and by becoming the first European to see the impressive waterfall he’d rename Victoria Falls in honor of his queen. 

Despite his abhorrence for the European slave traders who were among the few whites he met on the Dark Continent, they saved his life on two occasions after his porters died or deserted him and he became ill. At another time, it was Arab traders who rescued him. 

In 1866, Livingstone took an expedition deep into Equatorial Africa in search of the source of the fabled Nile River. Livingstone never did succeed in that venture, but he lost contact with the outside world in the process, which brings us to his partner in legend.

Livingstone never did find the source of the Nile, and his many years of travel left him ravished by illness. 

A life of adventure and exaggeration

If Livingstone’s life was fascinating, Stanley’s was perhaps more so. Though he would be knighted by the British Empire in 1899, that was an honor his miserable beginnings would have never foretold. He never knew his father, his mother abandoned him before he was five and he was probably raped and brutalized at the poorhouse in which he grew up before fleeing the Old World for the new.

Upon his arrival in America, he changed his name to Stanley, supposedly in honor of a wealthy merchant who adopted him when he was 18. However, that story, and many others he told fell apart under closer scrutiny.

Stanley’s Civil War military career was as colorful and hazy as the rest of his life. Living in the South at the time, he reluctantly joined the Confederate Army before being captured in 1862 and switching sides. But he was released soon afterwards by the Union Army because he was so seriously ill. He recovered eventually, worked on merchant vessels and joined the Union Navy in 1864. He and a friend then deserted ship as the war was winding down.

Stanley became a self-styled journalist to chase adventure across the globe. He was briefly imprisoned in the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Turkey) and filed stories on behalf of the New York Times when he followed a British expeditionary force into battle with an Ethiopian king. He also reported on The Glorious Revolution, a Spanish civil war with a glorious name.

By 1869, Livingstone had lost contact with the outside world for three years and the New York Herald commissioned 28-year-old Stanley and his more than 100 porters to find him. The expedition traveled 700 miles into impenetrable forests, leaving many of his porters behind, felled by numerous tropical diseases.

The two explorers finally met up in present-day Tanzania in late 1871. That’s where The New York Times claimed, a year later, that Stanley uttered that timeless greeting.

Stanley was not able to persuade Livingstone to accompany him back, and the older missionary-explorer would die in Africa about a year-and-a-half after the legendary meeting. Stanley would eventually return to Britain, join Parliament, become a bestselling author of books that were probably highly fictionalized versions of his adventures, and be knighted Sir Henry Morton Stanley in 1899.

“Dr. Livingston, I presume?”

Were those words ever actually spoken? That particular page from Stanley’s diary is perhaps suspiciously missing and the account that got written up in the New York Herald in 1872 doesn’t exactly put all doubts at bay:

Preserving a calmness of exterior before the Arabs which was hard to simulate as he reached the group, Mr. Stanley said: – "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?" A smile lit up the features of the pale white man as he answered: "Yes, and I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you."

But if it didn’t happen exactly that way, it should have. 

--

Written by David Searls, <a href="http://Earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/07/130729-rats-islands-invasive-species-animals-environment/">National Geographic</a>

Earth.com Explorer Series: How Stanley met Livingstone

How Stanley met Livingstone “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Most people...

As the legalization of recreational marijuana use continues to expand across the U.S. state by state, cannabis enthusiasts have a new reason to celebrate. A team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a> (UBC) have identified 30 genes that give each cannabis strain its specific flavor. 

The research was led by UBC professor Dr. Jörg Bohlmann, adjunct professor Dr. Jonathan Page, and graduate student Judith Booth, and published in the journal <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173911">Plos One</a>.

“The goal is to develop well-defined and highly-reproducible cannabis varieties,” said Dr Bohlmann. “This is similar to the wine industry, which depends on defined varieties such as chardonnay or merlot for high value products. Our genomics work can inform breeders of commercial varieties which genes to pay attention to for specific flavor qualities.”

The team observed terpene genes, which are responsible for the different scents and flavors of the cannabis plant. A similar type of gene is in charge of the type of grapevine <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/sriracha-sauce-taste/">flavor</a> in wine. In cannabis plants, terpene genes produce natural terpenes such as myrcene, limonene, and pinene.

“The limonene compound produces a lemon-like flavor and myrcene produces the dank, earthy flavor characteristic of purple kush,” said Booth.

The research adds a great deal of potential economic value to a regulated cannabis industry. The ability to curate and control the production of different cannabis strains would make them available to the public on a much broader level.

'There is a need for high-quality and consistent products made from well defined varieties,” said Dr. Bohlmann.

--

By Rory Arnold, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a>

Scientists identify genes that determine cannabis strain flavors

As the legalization of recreational marijuana use continues to expand...

Personality traits such as prudence, impatience, or laziness have been generally thought to be ingrained within an individual, guiding how they weigh the cost of risk, delay, and effort – respectively.  However, according to a new study published in <a href="http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/">PLOS Computational Biology</a>, people’s attitudes towards these social behaviors may unconsciously imitate others.

Jean Daunizeau and Marie Devaine – of <a href="http://english.inserm.fr/">INSERM, Paris</a> – used mathematical modeling and cognitive psychology to analyze how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brain-adapts-blind-people/">people</a> adjust and align these traits.

They asked 56 participants to make a series of decisions that involved risks, delays, or efforts – both before and after they observed the decisions of fictitious participants (which were actually artificial intelligence algorithms). These algorithms had their prudent, patient, and lazy personalities precisely calibrated.

The researchers found that participants tended to be influenced by a “false-consensus” bias, where they believed that the attitudes of others resembled their own, despite no evidence to show this. You may have experienced this type of attitude from an uncle at Thanksgiving who brings up an uncomfortable political opinion, believing that everyone else at the table is right there with him. Our usual response is to begin eating as fast as possible and avoid all eye contact.

The results also revealed that many participants exhibited a social influence bias, meaning their attitude adjusts to be more similar to those of the people around them. 

Interestingly, it seems that the social influence bias was partially determined by the false-consensus bias. The researchers found that social influence bias first increased when affected by small false-consensus biases, but decreased when joined with large false-consensus biases. So the more an individual believed others attitudes resembled their own, the less they adjusted their own attitude to be similar to those around them.

Through mathematical simulations, the researchers demonstrated that both biases are indicative of a unique mechanism that is used to learn about and learn from others’ covert attitudes. This finding is a departure from the conventional belief that attitude alignment is unconscious and is triggered by the need to experience feelings of social conformity.

The authors are now using this discovery to determine whether this version of attitude alignment may differ in individuals suffering from neuropsychiatric conditions, such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia.

--

By Connor Ertz, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.plos.org/">PLOS</a>

Is social conformity a conscious or unconscious decision?

Personality traits such as prudence, impatience, or laziness have been...

Asexual <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/male-baboons-will-kill/">reproduction</a> might not be as well-received by humans as the traditional variety, but it would make more sense from an evolutionary viewpoint – so why doesn’t it happen except in some lower forms of life? Of course, humans love sex, but wouldn't reproduction be easier if it could be a solo endeavor? Scientists have been asking that question for a century, and now researchers at the <a href="http://www.adelaide.edu.au/">University of Adelaide</a> in Australia think they might have the answer.

“Asexual reproduction, such as laying unfertilized eggs or budding off a piece of yourself, is a much simpler way of reproducing,” said Dr. Jack da Silva, Senior Lecturer in the <a href="http://www.adelaide.edu.au/">University of Adelaide’s</a> School of Biological Sciences. “It doesn’t require finding a mate, and the time and energy involved in that, nor the intricate and complicated genetics that come into play with sexual reproduction. It’s hard to understand why sex evolved at all.”

Da Silva and student James Galbraith came up with is a theory based on a combination of two existing evolutionary theories. It posits that sexual reproduction between two organisms helps ward off constantly evolving dangerous pathogens with beneficial DNA mutations contributed by the partners that are also constantly evolving to play defense.

They were influenced, first, by the Hill-Robertson Interference theory, which suggests that sex evolved because it allows the recombination of DNA between mating pairs so that individuals are produced that carry more than one beneficial mutation.

The researchers felt that this theory lacked an explanation as to why sexual reproduction would continue long after a population had stabilized.

“It is hard to imagine why this sort of natural selection should be ongoing, which would be required for sex to be favored,” da Silva said. “Most mutations in an adapted population will be bad. For a mutation to be good for you, the environment needs to be changing fairly rapidly. There would need to be some strong ongoing selective force for sex to be favored over asexual reproduction.”

They think they found that strong force in another theory, the Red Queen.  

The Red Queen theory suggests that our bacteria, viruses and parasites are constantly adapting to us and we must keep evolving to resist the pathogens.  This provides the opportunity for new mutations to be beneficial and maintains a strong selective force.

“These two theories have been pushed around and analyzed independently, but we’ve brought them together,” said da Silva. “Either on their own can’t explain sex, but looking at them together we’ve shown that the Red Queen dynamics of co-evolving pathogens produces that changing environment that makes sex advantageous through the simple genetic mechanism of the Hill-Robertson theory.”

Da Silva and Galbraity tested their combination theory through computer simulations that accurately replicated the rapid evolutionary increase shown in the amount of sex with other individuals exhibited by nematode worms coevolving with a highly pathogenic bacterium.

The research was published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

--

Written by David Searls, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source:<a href="http://www.adelaide.edu.au/news/news91262.html"> University of Adelaide</a>

Sex evolved as a means of fighting pathogens, says new study

Asexual reproduction might not be as well-received by humans as...

With the disturbing decline of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/honeybees-threatened-by-disease/">honeybee</a> population over the past few years, orchard growers are now looking for viable alternatives in order to manage the pollination of their trees and plants. Luckily, recent research has shown that blue orchard bees (Osmia lignaria) may be a sustainable option in tart cherry orchards. 

Natalie Boyle, an entomologist at the <a href="https://www.usda.gov/">U.S. Department of Agriculture</a>, suggests that a simple change in the layout of the bees’ nesting boxes could make blue orchard bees more likely to remain in the orchard to nest. 

While the honeybee is a social bee species that gathers in colonies, the blue orchard bee is more solitary and nests in the cavities of wood, stems, or even artificial materials like cardboard tubes. This difference in preferred nesting requires that growers make the necessary changes to nesting sites if they want blue orchard bees to take up residence in their orchards.

Boyle laments that management practices for commercial pollination with the blue orchard bee haven’t been as well researched as those of the honeybee. She is looking to change that, saying “This study shows that by simply changing the availability and distribution of nesting sites in the orchard, we can substantially increase overall blue orchard bee nesting success in a commercially managed orchard.”

In order for blue orchard bees to become a cost-effective managed pollinator, they must be willing to remain in the orchard after they are released – which has been an issue in the past.

By changing the nesting arrangement from a large central nesting location with small perimeter nests to small nesting boxes spread evenly throughout the orchard, Boyle found that the blue orchard bees were much more willing to stay and procreate. 

While both setups showed a successful return of bees to the nesting sites, the nesting rates were significantly higher in the uniform nest-box distribution model. Occupancy of nest-tubes increased along with the number of live larvae per location and larvae per individual nest tube.

Although the study did not evaluate the blue orchard bees’ impact on pollination and orchard yield, the researchers are planning a follow-up experiment in 2017. 

In the meantime, Boyle states, "We hope that this study provides practical information that orchardists can use to incorporate blue orchard bee pollination into their current management efforts, particularly with varieties that have been historically fruit set-limited when honey bees are used alone."

More information can be found in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jinsectscience">Entomological Society of America’s Journal of Insect Science</a>.

--

By Connor Ertz, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.entsoc.org/">Entomological Society of America</a>

Image: <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/images/docs/18333_18528/Osligapple.jpg">USDA</a>

Could blue orchard bees replace honeybees for pollination?

With the disturbing decline of the honeybee population over the...

Most of us are aware by now of the disturbing implications <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-evidence-un/">climate change</a> may have on our planet. We’ve also seen the destruction caused by climate change-induced severe weather and natural disasters in recent years. However, what you may not be aware of is the effect climate change can have on mental health as well.

In a new report released by the <a href="http://www.apa.org/">American Psychological Association</a> and <a href="https://ecoamerica.org/">ecoAmerica</a>, entitled Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance, researchers found that individuals can suffer from mental health disorders as a result of climate change.

Obviously, natural disasters that cause injury, death, and loss of property can ignite fear and shock in just about anyone. Furthermore, those emotions may eventually disappear, but they might ultimately be replaced by post-traumatic stress disorder in those they have affected.

A study was done involving people living in areas affected by Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it determined that suicide and suicidal thoughts more than doubled in those populations. One in six people met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD and 49 percent developed an anxiety or mood disorder such as depression.

However, these mental health issues aren’t solely caused by climate change-induced natural disasters. Researchers found that long-term climate change also plays a role in poor mental health.

Climate change can negatively affect agriculture and infrastructure, impacting occupations and quality of life for millions of people. These changes may lead to loss of identity, vanishing social support structures, a sense of having no control or autonomy and many other mental health problems. Issues like stress and anxiety can also cause physical health effects, such as a weakened immune system.

These changes are occurring at a community level as well. Both short and long-term climate change events have been shown to increase hostility and interpersonal and intergroup aggression, which lead to the loss of social identity and cohesion. 

With climate change already having a physical impact, you may be wondering: how do we combat these psychological effects? According to the report, the key is to build resilience. This means building and maintaining your social networks – both online and in person – so that you can have people to turn to in times of need. 

The report further explains: “Individuals' personal capacity to withstand trauma is increased when they are connected to their networks off- and online. Researchers have found that higher levels of social support during and in the aftermath of a disaster are associated with lower rates of psychological distress.”

Furthermore, adopting environmentally friendly policies and lifestyle choices not only benefits the environment, but it can have a positive effect on mental health as well. Research shows that biking or walking to work has been linked to decreased stress. Likewise, the use of public transportation has been associated with boost in community cohesion and decrease in depression and stress – much to the surprise of anyone who has ever taken a public bus.

Increased accessibility to parks and other natural spaces may also be of benefit to one’s mental health, according to the report. So if you take these suggestions to heart, you may not only be benefitting your mental health, but you could be helping the planet as well.

--

By Connor Ertz, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.apa.org/">American Psychological Association</a>

Climate change may cause mental health issues

Most of us are aware by now of the disturbing...

Our planet contains countless breathtaking and unforgettable places to explore. This is not among them. Presenting Earth.com <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/vacations-hell-chernobyl/">Vacations To Hell</a>: Sakha Republic. 

For your east Siberian vacation to be called “hellish,” you’ll first have to give up your certainty that the undesired final destination of lost souls is kept at high thermostat levels. Instead, picture a frozen tundra, unburied winter corpses and a rampaging super-pack of hungry wolves. At least until the brief, sixty degree summers hit.

The Sakha Republic is a Russian Federation member whose capital is located just 280 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The republic is larger than Argentina and just smaller than India. Its capital is Yakutsk, the world’s coldest city, but a surprisingly metropolitan one with a population of over 280,000 that’s got a university and museums and restaurants and the like. TripAdvisor says you could rent a room in a dozen or more hotels and motels here, at prices generally starting in the thirties and heading north of a hundred dollars a night. 

With its record low temp of -83 Fahrenheit, Yakutsk is, perhaps to no one’s surprise, also home to the Mammoth Museum. And to the Melnikov Permafrost Institute Underground Laboratory. Anything with the word “permafrost” in it just seems to fit here. One might imagine wearing sweaters year-round when working at this underground lab. 

Correction: you should pack shorts and swimsuit if you come in July. Yakutsk hits summer highs (very briefly) that can go about 86 F, for the wildest annual temperature swing in the world. 

Nyet to indoor plumbing

One small town in the Republic, Oymyakon, has almost no indoor plumbing because the buried pipes would constantly freeze. That’s to be expected with temperatures that set a non-polar record low of -96.2 F in 1924. So, if you visit during winter months be careful not to sample too much of the local brew before bedtime. If you get up with a full bladder and it’s 50 below, you won’t want to expose much of anything in the outhouse. 

Truckers always travel in pairs and don’t turn off their engines for the entirety of their two-week supply runs, according to The Independent. And you can’t bury gramma in the winter until a roaring bonfire has been lit to melt some of the frost from the ground. They don’t call it permafrost for nothin’. 

Wolves on the prowl

Then there’s Verkhoyansk, located 400 miles north of Yakutsk. Its 1,311 hardy citizens, at last count, boast the Pole of Cold Museum. One might imagine that the name says it all. But here’s another way of looking at the chill factor: Verkhoyansk has an average year-round temperature of 5.9 degrees Fahrenheit, and that’s even after tallying summer temps. The town’s record for warmest month was in July 2010, when the reading hit a sweltering 69.4 F. 

The main course of business around here in 2011 and 2012 was fighting off a roving super-pack of some 400 hungry wolves encircling the town when their usual diet of blue hare ran low on the tundra. Wolves generally run in pack of seven to ten, so 400 was a bit of an overkill to the town’s and region’s animal population. The final tally was the loss of 313 horses and 16,000 reindeer, but no humans.

All in all, a summer-months booking to the Sakha Republic could make for a culturally enriching and memorable vacation. As for a winter visit, not so much. 

--

Feature by David Searls, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Earth.com Vacations to Hell: Sakha Republic

Our planet contains countless breathtaking and unforgettable places to explore....

Starting in the 1920s, a chemical compound known as tetra-ethyl-lead began being added to gasoline in order to boost octane rating and increase engine power. Despite the boost in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/renewable-fuel-cars-hawaii/">car</a> performance, this compound had the unintended effect of exposing the public and the environment to the powerful neurotoxin known as lead.

Unfortunately, the lead itself did not burn in the combustion process. Instead, it was expelled from tailpipes as elemental lead and lead oxides, which then settled as a particulate in soils around areas where cars constantly drove. Children playing near these areas were likely to breathe in lead-filled dust or swallow small amounts of the hazardous soil. 

This exposure would lead to accumulation of lead in the child’s bloodstream. Over time, the lead settled into bones, teeth, and soft tissue. 

Leaded gasoline was phased out in the U.S. between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s. During the time where leaded gasoline was commonplace, <a href="https://www.duke.edu/">Duke University</a> began a long-term study of more than 500 children who grew up in the small town of Dunedin, New Zealand.

The study began at a time when New Zealand had some of the highest gasoline lead levels in the world. Researchers studied participants who were born between 1972 and 1973, assessing them for cognitive skills such as perceptual reasoning and working memory. 

These assessments took place from the individual’s birth through adulthood, including a collection of blood samples at the age of 11.  

Researchers found that the exposure to lead may have caused a loss of intelligence and occupational standing by the time the participants reached age 38. These effects are small, but significant, and found that the higher the blood lead level in childhood, the greater the loss of IQ points and occupational status in adulthood.

Individuals who were found to have more than 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood at age 11 had IQs at age 38 that were 4.25 points lower than those with less lead exposure. They also tended to lose IQ points relative to their own childhood scores, showing a cumulative effect of the neurotoxin over time.

The study also looked at changes in social standing, using a device from the New Zealand government that plotted families on a 6-point scale. The social status of each child’s family was compared to their own adult status at age 38. It was found that children who had over 10 micrograms of lead in their blood attained occupations with socioeconomic status levels four-tenths lower than their less-exposed peers.

Aaron Reuben, a <a href="https://www.duke.edu/">Duke University</a> psychology graduate student and first author of the study, explains: “The downward social mobility we see mirrors the trend in IQ… the decline in occupational status is partially but significantly explained by the loss of IQ. If you're above the historic level of concern [for lead exposure], you're doing worse on both.”

What makes this study unique is that lead exposure was not something that was confined to just the lower social classes. In New Zealand – like many places – automobile traffic occurs just about everywhere. Thus, exposure to leaded gasoline fumes occurred relatively evenly across all social classes.

“Regardless of where you start in life, lead is going to exert a downward pull,” explained Avshalom Caspi, Professor of psychology &amp; neuroscience and psychiatry &amp; behavioral sciences at <a href="https://www.duke.edu/">Duke University</a> and co-author on the paper. Because this method of lead exposure affects all parts of society relatively equally, its negative effects could move the entire curve of IQ and social status downward. In other words, “If everyone takes a hit from environmental pollutants, society as a whole suffers.”

Reuben and his colleagues believe that the effects of lead exposure are likely to be long lasting. Given that some Asian and middle eastern countries still use leaded gasoline, this research is important and incredibly pertinent around the world. 

The study appears Wednesday in the <a href="http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama">Journal of the American Medical Association</a>.

--

By Connor Ertz, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.duke.edu/">Duke University</a>

Exposure to leaded gasoline fumes in childhood linked to lower IQ

Starting in the 1920s, a chemical compound known as tetra-ethyl-lead...

Our planet contains countless breathtaking and unforgettable places to explore. This is not among them. Yes, it’s true. You can book a trip to Chernobyl. No, not to the actual reactor. That would be crazy. But you can explore just about everything short of the Chernobyl Sarcophagus, which is about as ominous as it sounds. That’s the massive steel and concrete structure that “temporarily” encases the damaged reactor while a more permanent confinement shelter is in the works.

As for Pripyat and the rest of what’s called the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone or the Zone of Alienation, well, it’s not so alienating anymore. The website for <a href="https://www.chernobyl-tour.com/english/">Chernobyl Tour</a> sums it up best, though in a bit of an understatement: “Radiation makes the zone particularly interesting.”

Not that you and the family have a thing to worry about, Chernobyl Tour assures. Stay for a day or two and…no problem. The tour group promise couldn’t be more reassuring: “Of course, the Zone in its central part still has places with elevated radiation, and we definitely would NOT recommend you staying at them for a long time. However, if you follow the suggested route and the guides' directions, your visit to the Chernobyl zone will be absolutely radiation-safe.”

This, of course, is despite the website’s stated theme for the tour: “Eye-opening experience of post-Apocalyptic world.” 

Indeed. 

But let’s step back for a moment for a brief history lesson.

Meltdown

On the evening of April 26, 1986, Chernobyl, a Soviet-style nuclear power plant, experienced the world’s first Level 7 meltdown of a nuclear reactor. The second such nuclear catastrophe occurred to the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-fukushima-radiation-no-threat/">Fukushima</a> Daiichi plant in Japan in 2011, as the result of a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The Chernobyl plant was – and is – located less than two miles from Pripyat, which was, at the time a thriving city of nearly 50,000 people. Two workers were killed immediately and nearly 30 other firefighters and workers lost their lives to radiation exposure in the days and months that followed. Not that the world learned of this cataclysmic event as it happened. Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union at the time, and authorities tried to keep it quiet. They sealed the damaged reactor in its sarcophagus and evacuated the surrounding cities and villages. 

Ghost town tours

Ukrainian authorities insist that, after 30 years of evacuation, the radiation levels are low enough that tourists can explore the two towns, settlements and villages that comprise the Zone of Alienation. You can see tens of thousands of abandoned homes and other structures, and more than 10,000 tourists a year take up the offer. The once bustling Pripyat is the largest of the ghost towns, and a popular destination for apocalyptical-minded sightseers – especially the abandoned amusement park with its landmark Ferris wheel. 

The Chernobyl Tour is a property of Ukraine’s Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, so it’s fully endorsed by the nation. There are significant explanations of health issues on the website, and an insistence that the stay of even a day or two is safe. In fact, some 200 people, including children, live in the Zone illegally. <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/hanging-out-with-the-only-residents-of-chernobyls-exclusion-zone">This 2012 Vice article</a> explains that many of those children are seriously ill. 

The photographers and extreme-sport version of tourists who visit can tell their friends they survived Chernobyl. What remains to be seen is whether they can still make that claim in 20 or 30 years.

--

Original Feature Written by David Searls, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Vacations to Hell: Chernobyl

We know that the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes is rising across the world, and that colder temperatures restrain physiological conditions leading to the disease onset. Can we draw conclusions from these two facts? A team of Dutch researchers from <a href="https://www.lumc.nl/">Leiden University Medical Center</a> decided to find out.

First, a few pertinent numbers. Some 415 million adults globally have diabetes as of 2015. That number is projected to rise to 642 million by 204o.

Another and perhaps related fact is that cold <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mercury-levels-fish-climate-change/">temperatures</a> stimulate the body’s production of brown adipose tissue. BAT production triggers modest weight loss and improved insulin action and sensitivity that works to ward off the onset of diabetes. So, could the opposite be true – that warming global temperatures might stymy BAT production, negatively impacting glucose metabolism?

That’s what the research team led by Professor Patrick Rensen set out to learn. They armed themselves with data from the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/data/">National Diabetes Surveillance System</a> of the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a> (CDC) regarding diabetes prevalence in all 50 states and territories between the years 1996 and 2009. Other data sources tabulated for their study came from the <a href="http://www.who.int/">World Health Organization</a> on the rate of raised fasting blood glucose and obesity in 190 nations, and nationwide annual temperature numbers from the Climatic Research Unit at the <a href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/">University of East Anglia</a> in Britain.

They found in crunching the numbers that, on average, a 1°C increase in temperature resulted in an age-adjusted increase of diabetes incidence of 0.314 per 1,000 adults. A related finding was that the global prevalence of glucose intolerance increased by 0.17 percent per the same rise in temperature. The association held true when obesity was taken into account.

“These findings emphasize the importance of future research into the effects of environmental temperature on glucose metabolism and the onset of diabetes, especially in view of the global rise in temperatures with a new record set for the warmest winter in the USA last year,” wrote the researchers.

Their study was published in the journal <a href="http://drc.bmj.com/">BMJ Open Diabetes Research &amp; Care</a>.

Written by David Searls, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source:<a href="http://drc.bmj.com/"> BMJ Open Diabetes Research &amp; Care</a>

Are rising temps leading to diabetes increase?

We know that the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes is...

The very idea of a talking gorilla charmed the world in the 1970s, when Koko, the young Western lowland gorilla was introduced on the cover and in the pages of National Geographic. Koko was, and is the (child?) of psychologist Francine “Penny” Patterson and her friend and Koko photographer/videographer of four decades, Ron Cohn. The story of this odd, but dedicated little family is told in the BBC documentary,<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gxpd7"> Koko: The Gorilla Who Talks</a>. The film was produced for a <a href="http://www.pbs.org/program/koko-gorilla-who-talks/">PBS</a> release in 2016 and is currently available on Netflix. 

Patterson first met Koko at the San Francisco Zoo soon after the female <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/archivist-reveals-gorillas-story/">gorilla’s</a> birth, in 1971. She was a doctoral candidate in Psychology at Stanford University who wanted to discover the viability of human-gorilla communications through American Sign Language. Soon after she started working with Koko, the young gorilla had to be separated from her mother for the treatment of a life-threatening disease and the troop rejected her when she was returned. As a result, Patterson took control of Koko and eventually adopted her.

As the film shows through vintage footage, usually shot by Cohn, Koko’s ability to grasp sign language was remarkable. She learned at about the rate of one sign a month for her first year-and-a-half with Patterson, or about 80 signs by the time she was two. Today, at the age of 44, it’s said that Koko knows some 1,000 sign language gestures and recognizes 2,000 spoken English words. Patterson also insists that Koko can combine gestures to express simple thoughts. For instance, when Koko’s pet kitten was run over by a car, the gorilla was said to have strung together the message, “comfortable hole goodbye.” (It’s not explained how Koko knew that burial was a traditional endgame, though perhaps her human family buried the kitten in her presence.) 

The gorilla’s level of communications ability was questioned by other researchers, however. Leading the charge was Dr. Herb Terrace, a Columbia University behavioral psychologist who’d undertaken a long-term project of his own to teach sign language to Nim, a chimpanzee. His conclusion, based on a 1979 paper, was that Project Nim – and, by extension, all efforts to communicate with primates via sign language – was a failure. He insisted that Nim, Koko, and others on the same experimental wavelength, were merely responding by prompts for praise or treats. 

Terrace’s paper convinced most of the scientific community, and by the 1980s, there was little enthusiasm to pursue sign-language communications involving primates. Instead, researchers focused on watching the animals communicate with one another.

It’s curious to note that there are few if any scenes in the film of handlers other than Patterson “speaking” with Koko. Could others fluent in American Sign Language have carried on the same level of conversation that Patterson claimed? One frequent visitor, an animal language expert named Eugene Linden, is quoted on camera explaining how Koko had greeted him for the first time with a complex message, but we don’t learn whether Linden witnessed and understood the communication himself or relied on an interpretation of Koko’s doting “mother.”

Though it’s not a part of this film, Patterson sent out a press release upon the 2014 death of the actor Robin Williams. She said that Koko had overheard phone call exchanges concerning Williams’ death and showed curiosity. Patterson said that when she explained the tragedy, Koko became “very somber, with her head bowed and her lip quivering.” Williams had spent one afternoon playing with Koko a decade previously, and the two had never reconnected. 

Koko has had relationships of sorts with two male gorillas, but none has led to mating activity and Patterson says that her – and Koko’s – one regret is that the gorilla never had a baby. Today, the gorilla spends her time with Patterson and Cohn and a retinue of caregivers in a sanctuary near Patterson’s California home.

“There’s something special about gorillas being gorillas,” says one of her caregivers at one point in the film. “But there’s also something special about Koko.” 

Koko is worth seeing. It does subtly point toward what the animal might have missed in not spending more of her early years with her own kind, though it never seriously challenges the viewpoint of Patterson and Cohn.  

[caption id="attachment_131604" align="aligncenter" width="800"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/mezzanine_513.jpg.resize.800x450.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-131604" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/mezzanine_513.jpg.resize.800x450.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="450" /></a> Credit: PBS[/caption]

--

By David Searls, Earth.com Staff Writer

Image: <a href="http://www.pbs.org/program/koko-gorilla-who-talks/">PBS</a>. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gxpd7">BBC</a>

Earth.com Film Review: Koko: The Gorilla Who Talks

The very idea of a talking gorilla charmed the world...

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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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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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...