A new study has provided the clearest evidence yet that music therapy can significantly ease the agitation, anxiety, and distress frequently seen in people with advanced dementia. The research also explains in detail why music has such a positive effect, and how it can be systematically woven into daily care. 



Published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s44220-024-00342-x" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Mental Health</a>, the study offers hope that this readily available and cost-effective tool can help improve quality of life for those facing the greatest challenges of dementia.



Around a million people in the UK live with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/certain-personality-traits-lower-the-risk-of-dementia/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dementia</a>, over half of them in advanced stages. As dementia progresses, it can lead to difficult behaviors like aggression, restlessness, wandering, and resistance to care - factors that make life harder for patients, loved ones, and professional caregivers alike.&nbsp;



Now, the evidence indicates that music therapy can offer a pathway to greater calm, improved mood, and more meaningful connections, even in the later phases of the disease.



“With an aging population and increasing numbers of people diagnosed with dementia, music is a relatively straightforward and cost-effective way of improving the quality of life of those affected,” said Naomi Thompson of <a href="https://www.aru.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Anglia Ruskin University</a> (ARU), who led the study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tailored-music-therapy-for-dementia-patients">Tailored music therapy for dementia patients </h2>



The research shows that when <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/music-therapy-can-reduce-pain-stress-and-anxiety/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">music therapy</a> is carefully tailored to an individual’s personal history, tastes, and needs - through listening to familiar recordings, playing instruments, or singing - there can be immediate and short-term improvements in attention, mood, alertness, and engagement.&nbsp;



Just as importantly, these music sessions can reduce anxiety and agitation, helping people feel safer and more oriented.



Why does music have such a profound impact? The study found that music taps into both sides of the brain, stimulating cognitive and sensory networks even as dementia erodes other faculties.&nbsp;



This can allow individuals to access preserved memories and emotions, and regulate their body’s stress responses, leading to reduced distress. In other words, music can gently awaken parts of the mind that are otherwise difficult to reach.



“Our study not only shows why music therapy is successful - including meeting the person’s need for stimulation, supporting familiarity through memories, encouraging relationships, and crucially helping with the reduction of distress and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fear-and-anxiety-the-mental-health-impacts-of-wildfires/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">anxiety</a> - it also paves the way for its wider use in dementia care,” Thompson said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-comfort-of-familiar-music">The comfort of familiar music</h2>



One of the key reasons music therapy works so well is its ability to spark memories. Songs from an individual’s younger years, generally between ages 10 and 30, appear most effective at triggering positive, personal recollections.&nbsp;



These music-driven memories can help restore a sense of identity and comfort, soothing the emotional turmoil that often accompanies advanced dementia.



Music therapists can help caregivers and families identify tracks that resonate with the individual’s life story.&nbsp;



Recorded music, which is easily accessible and affordable, can be integrated into a person’s daily routine, introduced at times when they are most likely to become agitated, or used to foster moments of relaxation and reminiscence.



“Just as a doctor prescribes medications with a specific dose and frequency, a music therapist can outline an individualised program, setting out how music should be used throughout someone’s day to reduce distress and improve their wellbeing,” Thompson explained.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nonverbal-communication-and-social-interaction">Nonverbal communication and social interaction</h2>



Music does not require words - or strong cognitive function - to be enjoyed or understood. People with severe dementia who struggle with language can still respond to melodies, rhythms, and harmonies. They may sway, hum, or smile in response.&nbsp;



This opens up new avenues for connection between the individual, caregivers, family members, and even other residents in a care home.



Such musical encounters can shift the caregiving dynamic. Instead of focusing solely on managing difficult behaviors, caregivers can share positive experiences that validate the person’s humanity.&nbsp;



These uplifting moments can reduce caregivers’ stress and help them feel more empathetic, strengthening the bond between them and the individuals they support.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-effective-use-of-music-therapy-for-dementia">Effective use of music therapy for dementia </h2>



To ensure music therapy is widely adopted, the study recommends training for all care staff in using music effectively.&nbsp;



Music therapists can provide guidance on how to select songs, structure sessions, and integrate these sessions into daily life.&nbsp;



Families should also be encouraged to contribute their knowledge of a loved one’s musical preferences, helping to shape personalized playlists that maximize the therapy’s impact.



The guidance outlined in the study is the result of careful research, including interviews with staff and music therapists working on inpatient dementia wards at the<a href="https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust</a>, a systematic review of published studies, a national survey of healthcare professionals, and collaboration with the dementia nursing charity <a href="https://www.dementiauk.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dementia UK</a>.



“People with advanced dementia can sometimes become quite distressed, and we need to find the best ways to help them,” said study co-author Ben Underwood, an associate professor at the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Cambridge</a>.&nbsp;



“Music is one thing which can help, and so I am excited to see such high-quality work being done in partnership to see how we can bring music therapy to <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NHS</a> dementia patients.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-creating-a-more-positive-environment-for-everyone-nbsp">Creating a more positive environment for everyone&nbsp;</h2>



Although the primary aim is to improve life for people with advanced dementia, the advantages also extend to families and caregivers.&nbsp;



Engaging with music can reduce their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stress-eats-away-our-brains-cognitive-defenses/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stress</a> and create moments of shared enjoyment, leading to better job satisfaction, reduced caregiver burnout, and a more positive environment all around.



As the number of people living with dementia continues to grow, cost-effective, accessible interventions like music therapy become increasingly valuable. This study not only confirms music’s potential but also provides a realistic plan for making it a standard part of dementia care.



“Music is not just a way to soothe - it’s a way to connect, to remember, and to live more fully in the moment,” Thompson said. “Our study shows that music therapy is not just an option but an essential component of dementia care.”



By embedding music into the heart of dementia care, we can help people with advanced dementia experience less distress, rediscover parts of themselves hidden by the disease, and reconnect with those around them, creating moments of calm, understanding, and human connection.



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Music therapy reduces distress in people with dementia

A new study has provided the clearest evidence yet that music therapy can significantly ease the agitation, anxiety, and distress frequently seen in people with advanced dementia. The research also explains in detail why music has such a positive effect, and how it can be systematically woven into daily care.  Published in the journal Nature Mental Health, the study offers hope that this readily available and cost-effective tool can help improve quality of life for those facing the greatest challenges of dementia. Around a million people in...

Report: Magic mushrooms are the safest recreational drug to use. As public opinion surrounding the benefits of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/chili-peppers-marijuana-stomach/">marijuana</a> continues to increase in favorability nationwide, another recreational drug may deserve a second look as well. A new report from the <a href="https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/">2017 Global Drug Survey</a> has found that 'magic' mushrooms are the safest recreational drug to take. 

The study found that only 1 in 500 people will be taken to the hospital as a result of taking psychedelic mushrooms. 

“Magic mushrooms are one of the safest drugs in the world,” Dr. Adam Winstock, founder of the survey, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/23/study-hallucinogenic-mushrooms-safest-recreational-drug-lsd">The Guardian</a>.

According to Winstock, the biggest risk associated with hallucinogenic mushrooms was people picking and eating the wrong kinds.

“Death from toxicity is almost unheard of with poisoning with more dangerous fungi being a much greater risk in terms of serious harms,” Dr. Winstock added.

Mushrooms were found to be significantly safer than MDMA, LSD, and cocaine. Interestingly, the report also found that synthetic cannabis was the riskiest drug.

Only .2% of 12,000 people surveyed who had taken “shrooms” in the past year reported needing any medical attention. 

Psychedelic mushrooms have also been used to treat depression and anxiety.

That said, Dr. Winstock warned against combining mushrooms with other drugs.

“Combined use with alcohol and use within risky or unfamiliar settings increase the risks of harm,” he told told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/23/study-hallucinogenic-mushrooms-safest-recreational-drug-lsd">The Guardian</a>.

-

By <a href="mailto:rarnold@earth.com">Rory Arnold</a>, <a href="http://earth.com/staff">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.globaldrugsurvey.com/">2017 Global Drug Survey</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/23/study-hallucinogenic-mushrooms-safest-recreational-drug-lsd">The Guardian</a>

Report: Magic mushrooms are the safest recreational drug to use

Report: Magic mushrooms are the safest recreational drug to use....

While meditation is often heralded as a miracle solution for its calming, soothing effect, it can also end up painful and disturbing, a new study has found.

“Many effects of meditation are well known, like increased awareness of thoughts and emotions, or improved calm and well-being," said study lead author Jared Lindahl, visiting assistant professor in <a href="https://www.brown.edu/">Brown University</a>'s Cogut Center for the Humanities. 

"But there is a much broader range of possible experiences. Exactly what those experiences are, how they affect individuals and which ones show up as difficult is going to be based on a range of personal, interpersonal and contextual factors."

The researchers sought out "challenging" <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/daily-meditation-works-wonders/">meditation</a> experiences because they are underrepresented in the scientific literature.

They are, however, documented in Buddhist traditions, the study said. Tibetans refer to a wide range of experiences -- some blissful but some painful or disturbing -- as "nyams."

From interviews with 100 Western Buddhist meditators, the researchers developed a list of 59 experiences organized into seven types, or domains: cognitive, perceptual, affective (i.e. emotions and moods), somatic (relating to the body), conative (i.e. motivation or will), sense of self and social. They also identified another 26 categories of "influencing factors" or conditions that may impact the intensity, duration or associated distress or impairment.

All the mediators interviewed reported multiple unexpected experiences from across the seven domains, hypersensitivity to light or sound, as insomnia or involuntary body movements.

Challenging emotional experiences included fear, anxiety, panic or a loss of emotions altogether, the study found.

If research can uncover why challenging experiences arise, then meditators and teachers might be in a better position to manage them, the authors said.

They also hope the new study can help people realize that adverse experiences are not necessarily unique to them or their fault.

"During the interviews, some people learned for the first time that they are not completely alone in having had this experience," Lindahl said. "The social awareness we think this project can raise could be a key way of addressing some of the problems."

One of the remedies people cited for dealing with problems was simply having someone they could talk to who was familiar with challenging meditation experiences, the researchers said. 

One of the authors, Willoughby Britton, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at <a href="https://www.brown.edu/">Brown University</a>, recently started a weekly online support group where meditators can share their challenges with each other.

“Our long-term hope is that this research, and the research that follows, can be used by the meditation community to create support systems for the full range of meditation-related experiences," Britton said. "Really, the first step is acknowledging the diversity of experiences that different people can have."

--

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.brown.edu/">Brown University</a>

Can meditation go wrong? Exploring the range of experiences

While meditation is often heralded as a miracle solution for...

An increasing number of physical therapy patients are being strapped into robots that apply forces to their legs as they walk, gently prodding them to modify their movements by lengthening their strides, straightening their hips, and bending their knees.

Now, a new study has found that physical therapy patients working with rehabilitation robots only modify their walking patterns if the robots interfere with gait stability.

The research could influence future design of robots, the authors said.

The study also examined how patients changed their gaits on a treadmill when a robot applied force.

The patients adjusted their stride in response to a change in the length, but not the height, of their step, even when step height and length were disturbed at the same time, the researchers found.

The discrepancy can be explained by the central nervous system 's primary reliance on stability when determining how to adjust to a disruption in normal walking.

"Lifting your foot higher mid-stride doesn't really make you that much less stable, whereas placing your foot closer or further away from your center of mass can really throw off your balance, so the body adjusts much more readily to that disturbance," says Giacomo Severini,  an assistant professor at <a href="http://www.ucd.ie/">University College Dublin</a> and one of the study’s authors.

The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/monkey-brain-explain-human-thinking/">brain</a> will expend a significant amount of the body's energy to avoid instability, most likely because the consequences of wobbly walking can be severe, the study reported.

Prioritization of stability means other aspects of walking, like the height of the foot off the ground or the angle of the toes, may require treatment beyond walking in a clinical robot.

"To modify step height, for example, you'd need to design forces so that the change in height, which the brain normally interprets as neutral, becomes challenging to the patient's balance," says Severini. 

Most robots used in clinical settings today do not allow for that kind of customization.

"The results of our study give us insight into the way people adapt to external forces while walking in general, which is useful for clinicians when evaluating whether their patients will respond to clinical robot interventions," says Paolo Bonato, leader of the study and an associate professor at <a href="https://hms.harvard.edu/">Harvard Medical School</a>. 

By advancing the understanding of the interactions between robots and patient, the research, published in the journal <a href="http://robotics.sciencemag.org/">Science Robotics</a> will make it possible to design more effective robot-assisted gait therapy, Bonato 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://wyss.harvard.edu/">Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering</a>

How robots are helping physical therapy patients rehabilitate

An increasing number of physical therapy patients are being strapped...

Image

Ochre is an iron-rich <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/evidence-life-oxygen-found-ancient-rocks/">rock</a> that can produce color, and is the earliest known pigment used by humans to paint. Composed of iron oxides, these red and yellow rocks were widely distributed during the Middle Stone Age. A new analysis of ochre collected from a cave in Ethiopia reveals ochre was used here for at least 4500 years. 

The largest collection of African ochre artifacts is from the Porc-Epic Cave of Ethiopia, and is believed to be around 40,000 years old. David Rosso of the <a href="http://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/">University of Barcelona</a> and the <a href="http://www.u-bordeaux.com">University of Bordeaux</a> led a team of researchers in evaluating 3792 ochre artifacts from this collection. The team set out to determine how the ochre was processed during the Middle Stone Age by using microscopy and by simulating various grinding techniques. 

The results of the study showed that the cave inhabitants consistently acquired, processed, and used the same types of ochre during this extensive time frame. Almost half of the ochre pieces had been modified, but the number of pieces that were processed progressively decreased over the years.  

It appeared that flaking and scraping techniques became more common over time, while grinding became less common. This gradual change from one processing technique to the others indicates a type of cultural drift over the 4500-year-span.

The specific uses of the ochre in the Middle Stone Age are somewhat of a mystery. Some of the ochre pieces were modified to a larger extent than others, and appear to have been used with multiple grindstones at different times. This indicates that these particular pieces were utilized to obtain powder. The ochre powder may have been used in symbolic activities such as body painting or may have had more practical uses. 

The study, published today in the journal <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS ONE</a>, gives new insight into the time frame of ochre use. According to the authors, the findings suggest there was a "cohesive behavioral system shared by all community members and consistently transmitted through time."
--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Source: <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS ONE</a>

Image Credit: Rosso et al (2017)

Ochre was used as a tool for thousands of years in the Stone Age

Ochre is an iron-rich rock that can produce color, and...

When Donald Trump announced his presidential bid in June of 2015, he pledged to build a “great, great wall” on the southern border and make Mexico pay for it. Mexico may not be paying for it, but Trump is now asking Congress for a budget to start building the border wall. Researchers are evaluating the threats that the wall poses to many species of animals that will suffer from the fragmentation of their habitats. 

Science journalist Lesley Evans Ogden, a reporter for <a href="https://www.aibs.org/bioscience/">Bioscience</a>, has written an article addressing the potential impact that a U.S.-Mexico border wall will have on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/endangered-status-giraffes/">wildlife</a>. 

"If the wall is completed, it will create a considerable biodiversity conservation challenge--one unlikely to disappear anytime soon," explained Ogden.

There are already 650 miles of steel posts that form a barrier across the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. It is not clear if this hardened border successfully prevents illegal immigration and smuggling, but it is clear is that it has disrupted the natural habitats of many species.

The proposed border wall may prevent migration that is vital to the survival of some species that live along the Mexico border. The threats to many of these local populations urgently need to be considered before the plans for the Mexico wall are put in motion. 

"Local populations blink on and off like Christmas lights," says the University of Arizona's Aaron Flesch, who was interviewed for Ogden’s article. Without the freedom to access their continuous habitats, experts believe some species may disappear forever. 

"Even when there isn't a physical wall or much of a barrier, [border agents] are actively engaged in enforcing the law through patrols," explained David Christianson of University of Arizona. Such patrols, which may alter the behavior of many animals, often consist of off-road trekking "right in the middle of this endangered species habitat," added Christianson. 

Information included in the article by Ogden suggests that extensive border barriers may prove ineffective in preventing humans from crossing the border. Jamie McCallum, a consultant at Transfrontier International Limited, teamed up with scientists from the Zoological Society of London. The team set up cameras to detect motion along the existing steel barrier in order to observe both human and animal activity.

The images revealed the absence of some animals such as pumas, which was expected by the researchers. Human activity at the barrier, however, was not deterred. This suggests that a wall is simply not going to keep humans from crossing the border. 

“I thought it would have at least some kind of trace of an effect, even if it wasn't a statistically significant finding. But it didn't appear to,” said McCallum.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Source: <a href="https://www.aibs.org/bioscience/">Bioscience</a>

Photo Credit: Matt Clark/Defenders of Wildlife

Mexico border wall would hurt biodiversity, wouldn’t deter humans

When Donald Trump announced his presidential bid in June of...

The tiny, uninhabited patch of real estate known as Henderson Island found itself in international news recently. Scientists found that the lonely island in the middle of the vast South Pacific Ocean was home to some 38 million pieces of trash, most of it waste plastic. They also found that the volume is still growing at a rate of about 13,000 items per day.

The reason this three mile by five mile bump in the Pacific has been turned into an accidental landfill is that it sits amidst a vortex of ocean currents that sweeps oceanic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cleaning-ocean-plastic-waste-fuel/">trash</a>, such as from passing freighters, onto its modest shores. 

One of the researchers who made the discovery, Jennifer Lavers of Australia’s University of Tasmania, was quoted in an <a href="https://www.ap.org/en-us/">Associated Press</a> article as saying, “We need to drastically rethink our relationship with plastic. It’s something that’s designed to lasts forever, but is only used for a few fleeting moments and then tossed away.”

Staggering figures

How severe is the global problem of  waste plastic? Here are a few unsettling facts from <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/22-facts-about-plastic-pollution-and-10-things-we-can-do-about-it-1881885971.html">EcoWatch</a>:
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Over the last ten years we’ve produced more plastic than we did during the entire 20th century.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Americans throw away 35 billion plastic water bottles every year.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Enough plastic is tossed each year to circle the globe four times.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Our oceans contain an average of 46,000 pieces of plastic per mile.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, off the coast of California, is the largest ocean garbage site in the world. It’s a floating mass of plastic that’s twice the size of Texas, with plastic pieces outnumbering sea life six to one.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">It takes 500 to 1,000 years for plastic to degrade, so virtually every piece of plastic ever made still exists. (All except that which was incinerated, yet another environmental hazard.)</li>
</ul>
A wet problem

There’s wet waste and then there’s dry waste, and the problem is that much of plastic scrap is wet. That came up in an <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> interview with Doug Woodring, the founder of the <a href="http://www.plasticityforum.com/">Plasticity Forum</a>, a sort of plastics waste environmental think tank. He also founded the <a href="http://www.oceanrecov.org/">Ocean Recovery Alliance</a>.

“The sorting and recycling recovery system is not fit for this product,” he said.

That’s because those who wish to recycle plastic have to, in Woodring’s words, “deconstruct the omelet.” What that means is that, unlike relatively clean recyclable metal, glass and paper, waste plastic is often enmeshed with rotting food scraps or sticky beverages. First you must separate it from and wash it clean of garbage, grease and foulness you don’t even want to contemplate. It’s just not worth it, even to those who recycle for the financial benefit. At least not in industrialized nations.

“In the Third World, they might be interested in recycling for profit, but there are technology barriers,” said Woodring. 

It’s the absence of even such low-tech tools as plastic balers creating obstacles to recovery efforts here. 

“You’re shipping air in your truck if you don’t have a baler,” said Woodring. 

Plastic bottles and containers consist of thin recyclable shells, but a lot of air-filled volume. You have to carry both but you’re only going to be paid for that thin shell. In other words, the waste takes up a lot of room in a truck bed, but doesn’t consist of a lot of recoverable weight per unit. A simple baler could crush the plastic into more  easily transportable bales of recyclable content, but such technology is not readily available in poorer nations.

“There’s no easy fix,” said Woodring. “I believe plastic waste is one of the most complex issues for the environment today.We have to be adults about this. We’re not going to get rid of plastic trash, but we can look for ways to better address the problem.”

<a href="http://www.plasticityforum.com/">The Plasticity Forum</a> brings together the environmentally minded from the corporate world, scientists, packaging designers, recyclers and entrepreneurs working on solutions. While there’s no single-source solution that will solve all of the world’s plastics waste problems, Woodring feels that we’re getting closer on a lot of fronts.

“In Taiwan, they have a tax (on plastics) and a very high recoverable rate,” he said of one possible response. 

Think about it. Aluminum cans and bottles sold with deposits rarely get trashed, simply because there’s a bounty placed on their return. If you won’t recycle your trash, someone else will if there’s enough cash incentive.

Environmentally conscious innovators are continually working on reduced packaging concepts and toward the development of plastic-alternative containers that are “edible, dissolvable or made out of algae,” said Woodring. 

There are also efforts being made to liquify plastics onsite, such as at hospitals, curtailing the need to ship unsafe biomedical waste.

Not all of these and other concepts and developments are at the stage of major commercialization, but they’re examples of technologies hopefully on the horizon. 

And finally, Woodring advocates the Ocean Recovery Alliance’s Global Alert, an in-development “citizen tool” mobile app that can be used to alert authorities to the presence of floating trash waste plastic on their waterways and coastlines. <a href="http://www.oceanrecov.org/global-ocean-alert-system/solution.html">Learn more here</a>.

How many more Henderson Islands are there out there? How much larger is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch destined to get? Or will we, as a society, put our intellectual muscle to the problem and come up with workable solutions that clean up our land, our landfills and our oceans? 

--

Original Feature by <a href="mailto:DSearls@earth.com">David Searls</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Earth.com Exclusive: The world is swimming in waste plastic

The tiny, uninhabited patch of real estate known as Henderson...

Sherpas, an ethnic group from the mountain regions of Nepal, are able to live at high altitude with no apparent health consequences and could help scientists develop new ways of treating lack of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/low-oxygen-levels-delayed-evolution/">oxygen</a>, a new study said.

Previous studies have suggested that Sherpas have fewer blood cells at high altitude, but higher levels of nitric oxide, a chemical that opens up blood vessels and keeps blood flowing.

A team of <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge </a>researchers followed two groups, one of Sherpas, the other lowlanders, as they made a gradual ascent up to Mount Everest Base Camp at an elevation of 5,300 m.

The team found the Sherpas' mitochondria were more efficient at using oxygen to produce ATP, the energy that powers our bodies. They also found lower levels of fat oxidation in the Sherpas.

The measurements taken at high altitude rarely changed in the Sherpas, suggesting that they were born with such differences. For lowlanders, however, measurements tended to change after time spent at altitude, suggesting that their bodies were acclimatizing and beginning to mimic the Sherpas'.

One of the key differences the study uncovered, was in the levels of phosphocreatine an energy reserve that acts as a buffer to help muscles contract when no ATP is present. In lowlanders, after two months at high altitude, phosphocreatine levels crash, whereas in Sherpas levels actually increase.

The team found differences in the levels of free radicals, molecules created by a lack of oxygen that can be potentially damaging to cells and tissue. While these cells increase rapidly at high altitude, at least initially, levels in Sherpas are very low.

"Sherpas have spent thousands of years living at high altitudes, so it should be unsurprising that they have adapted to become more efficient at using oxygen and generating energy," said Dr. Andrew Murray from the University of Cambridge, the study's senior author. "When those of us from lower-lying countries spend time at high altitude, our bodies adapt to some extent to become more 'Sherpa-like', but we are no match for their efficiency."

The findings could provide valuable insights to explain why some people suffering from lack of oxygen, called hypoxia, fare much worse in emergency situations that others.

"Although lack of oxygen might be viewed as an occupational hazard for mountain climbers, for people in intensive care units it can be life threatening," said Mike Grocott of the <a href="http://www.southampton.ac.uk/">University of Southampton.</a> "One in five people admitted to intensive care in the UK each year die and even those that survive might never regain their previous quality of life.”

--

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.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a>

How Himalayan Sherpas could lead to new medical treatments

Sherpas, an ethnic group from the mountain regions of Nepal,...

Having trouble getting a good night’s sleep? The culprit could be air pollution, according to a new study.

Researchers who had studied the effects of air pollution on heart and lung health wondered whether it could also affect sleep. 

"We thought an effect was likely given that air pollution causes upper airway irritation, swelling and congestion, and may also affect the central nervous system and brain areas that control breathing patterns and sleep,” said lead author Dr. Martha E. Billings of the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington</a>.

So they analyzed the sleep data of more than 1,800 participants in a sleep study run by MESA – the <a href="https://www.mesa-nhlbi.org/">Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis</a>. Study subjects had an average age of 68 and were divided into quarters ranging from lowest to highest air pollution at their home locations.

Researchers looked at traffic-related pollutants, particularly nitrous dioxide, and particulate matter such as soot, smoke and pollen, at various points in time during the sleep studies.

Then, they used measurements of movement during sleep to track participants’ “sleep efficiency” – the amount of time they actually spend asleep while in bed.

What they found was that sleepers exposed to pollution were unlikely to actually get a good night’s sleep. 

Those exposed to nitrous dioxide while they slept were 60 percent more likely to have low sleep efficiency. Particulate matter gave sleepers a 50 percent chance of lower sleep efficiency.

"These new findings indicate the possibility that commonly experienced levels of air pollution not only affect heart and lung disease, but also sleep quality. Improving air quality may be one way to enhance sleep health and perhaps reduce health disparities," Billings said.

More research is needed, the team of scientists said. Their study looked at the effects of chronic exposure to pollution, not short-term, acute sleep disruptions. The study also didn’t look into whether traffic noise could be altering sleep efficiency as well.

The research was presented at the <a href="http://www.thoracic.org/">American Thoracic Society’s</a> ATS 2017 International Conference. It was sponsored by the <a href="https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/">National Heart Lung and Blood Institute</a> of the <a href="https://www.nih.gov/">National Institutes of Health</a>.

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com/staff">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Could air pollution be robbing you of a good night's sleep?

Having trouble getting a good night’s sleep? The culprit could...

Friday May 19th is Bike to Work Day, and in honor of the occasion, we’ve accumulated a few stories of the success of biking as an alternative to CO2-spewing road vehicles. 

Cykelhuset

Cykelhuset is a thing, apparently. The word means “bicycle house” in Swedish, and it refers to a new seven-story apartment building in Malmö that comes with everything but parking spaces. 

“The strategy is to look at why people have to use cars, and substitute bikes for the cars,” Cykelhuset’s architect, Cord Siegel, told Fast Company for an article that ran last August.

Among reasons for a car culture to exist anywhere is the need to drive to and from work. So Cykelhuset was built close to the city center and train station.  Shoppers must also drive in order to carry cumbersome packages. So Cykelhuset residents get oversize mail delivery boxes for ease of online shopping. And the complex offers the use of cargo bikes for transporting kids or larger packages.

For convenience’ sake, the building’s elevators are wide and the doors open at both ends for the easy on-off maneuvering of bikes to apartments. In short, just about every detail has been addressed to make it easier for residents to make bikes their main mode of transportation.  

Cykelhuset might not be that unusual today. Many areas of the world -- including significant portions of the U.S. -- have discovered the benefits of biking in terms of not only personal health, but its contribution to the health of the planet.

Cars vs. Bikes

According to a publication released by the Clean Air Council, motor vehicle emissions represent 31 percent of total carbon dioxide, 81 percent of carbon monoxide and 49 percent of nitrogen oxides released in the United States. 

Sure, vehicular emissions aren’t healthy, but what’s the alternative? Actually, it’s easier than you might think.

From the Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, comes the fact that half of the working population commutes five miles to work, or less. Twenty-five percent of all trips are made within a mile of the house, and more than 82 percent of trips of five miles or less are made by motor vehicle. See the opportunity? 

Then there’s this from the Environmental Students Organization at the University of California, Sacramento: “Between 70 and 100 bicycles can be built with the resources to build one car.” The group also points out that a typical road can accommodate three times more bikes than cars, and, well, you can just about park anywhere -- for free. 

The bottom line is that bike riding reduces harmful gases into the atmosphere, uses far less natural resources in production and take up less space on the road and in parking. 

Urban appeal

Believe it or not, some of the largest and most famously congested American cities -- Chicago, New York and San Francisco -- are among the nation’s most bike-friendly metros, according to Bicycling Magazine’s bi-annual ranking of 50 Best Bike Cities. Or maybe it makes a lot of sense. Bicyclists whizz by idling drivers in most of our major cities.

The high ranking of The Big Apple is the result of significant bicycle infrastructure investments, states Bicycling Magazine: “Across the city, (bicycle) ridership increased by 83 percent between 2010 and 2014, according to a recent report from the NYDOT. Additionally, data from Citi Bike, the country’s largest and most popular bike-share system, shows that in Midtown bicycle speeds now outpace cabs by 2 mph.”

The number-three position in the 2016 bike-friendly city ranking was taken by Portland, Oregon.  The West Coast city is so into biking that the annual Pedalpalooza is a major tourist attraction. The nearly month-long celebration of biking starts June 1 and features 239 riding events for bicyclists of all ages and skill levels. The most famous event is the World Naked Bike Ride -- but never fear -- most events are not clothing optional, and some are even costumed rides. 

Biking for everyone

Those crazy Scandinavians. In addition to Cykelhuset, the region has adopted a small fleet of pedal-powered school buses for transporting kids as young as four. A bike bus is pretty much what it sounds like. It’s a pedal-powered mass transit vehicle that looks like a kid-friendly school bus and is powered by an adult operator and nearly a dozen riders who actually ride -- they don’t just sit there.

When there aren’t enought pedal-pushers to provide power or the terrain’s too steep, there’s an electric motor for added oomph. Each bike bus, currently available in parts of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, only costs $15,000. This is, as TreeHugger points out <a href="https://www.treehugger.com/bikes/netherlands-kids-take-bicycle-bus-school.html">in this article</a>, “just over twice the cost of fuel consumed by each regular school bus per year in the United States.” (Of course, it should also be pointed out that conventional school buses carry many more passengers than the bike buses, so most school districts would have to expand their fleet sizes in converting to the kid-powered vehicles.) 

The Tempo is right

Sure, biking is great, but you’ve got to cut residents of such famously hilly cities as San Francisco or Pittsburgh a little slack -- right? And how about those who live too far away for convenient pedaling? A long bike ride would leave them sweaty and exhausted before they even showed up for work…late, no doubt.  Surely they can’t enjoy the benefits of a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eco-friendly-hipsters/">bicycle</a> commute.

“My goal is to get more butts on bikes,” Van Nguyen, the owner of <a href="http://tempobicycles.com/">Tempo Bicycles</a>, told <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>.

Nguyen’s hybrid electric “ebikes” democratize the act of bicycling by assisting the rider with a rechargeable electric motor that’s employed only when needed.

“All you have to do as a rider is control how much assist you want,” she said. “If you want to work out you decrease assist,” and pedal your way to your destination. 

Nguyen described a scenario in which a Tempo bicyclist uses assist power on the way to work in order to arrive looking her best, and then pedals home for a go-for-broke end of day workout. She also sees her bikes as ideal vehicles for seniors who want to stay active but aren’t as physically capable as they once were.

“It’s about mobility as well as sustainability,” Nguyen said about bicycling in general and her Tempo Bikes solution for all.

Calculate your savings

Thinking about at least giving biking a try? Bike-to-Work Day is a great time to grab a little motivation. Get psyched by considering the possible bottom-line benefits. Use this <a href="http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/spending/T061-S001-how-much-can-i-save-biking-to-work/index.php">savings calculator by Kiplinger</a> to plug in your current car commuting costs and see how much you could save by even occasionally pedaling your way to a healthier you and a slightly greener planet. You could also use this <a href="http://www.bikingexpert.com/bike-mileage-calculator-tool/">bike mileage calculator tool</a> from BikingExpert to monitor miles biked and real time speed.

--

Original Feature by <a href="mailto:DSearls@earth.com">David Searls</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Earth.com celebrates Bike To Work Day

Friday May 19th is Bike to Work Day, and in...

The mosquitoes that carry <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/challenges-zika-vaccine-success/">Zika</a> virus might also transmit chikungunya and dengue viruses with one bite, according to a new study.

"A mosquito, in theory, could give you multiple viruses at once," said <a href="https://www.colostate.edu/">Colorado State University</a> post-doctoral researcher Claudia Ruckert. 

A Colorado State research team infected mosquitoes in a lab with multiple kinds of viruses to learn more about the transmission of more than one infection from a single mosquito bite. While they described the lab results as surprising, researchers said there's no reason to believe that “coinfections” are more severe than being infected with one virus at a time. There has not been much research on coinfections and findings are contradictory, the university said.

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which live in tropical, subtropical, and in some temperate climates, transmit chikungunya, dengue and Zika viruses to humans. The viruses continue to emerge into new regions, possibly increasing the likelihood of coinfection.

The first report of chikungunya and dengue virus coinfection occurred in 1967, according to the study, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>.  More recently, coinfections of Zika and dengue viruses, Zika and chikungunya, and all three viruses have been reported during various outbreaks, including the recent outbreak of Zika  in North and South America.

Although the Colorado State research team found that mosquitoes in the lab can transmit all three viruses simultaneously, this is likely extremely rare in nature.

"Dual infections in humans, however, are fairly common, or more common than we would have thought," Ruckert said.

CSU researchers had expected to find that one virus would prove to be dominant and outcompete the others but that wasn’t the case.

"It's interesting that all three replicate in a really small area in the mosquito's body," Ruckert said. "When these mosquitoes get infected with two or three different viruses, there's almost no effect that the viruses have on each other in the same mosquito."

Concerns about Zika virus have heightened following news in 2008 that the virus could be transmitted sexually in addition to being spread by mosquitoes.

Dengue and chikungunya virus symptoms are similar to an infection with Zika virus, and can also include joint and bone pain, nose or gum bleeding and bruising.

--

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.colostate.edu/">Colorado State University</a>

Mosquitoes that carry Zika can also transmit other diseases

The mosquitoes that carry Zika virus might also transmit chikungunya...

What are the reasons that shoppers may prefer free-range chicken eggs over eggs from caged hens? This is the question that researchers at the <a href="http://www.adelaide.edu.au/">University of Adelaide</a> answer in a new study on free-range eggs published in the journal <a href="http://anthrozoos.expressacademic.org/login.php">Anthrozoös</a>, the journal of the <a href="http://www.isaz.net/isaz/">International Society for Anthrozoology</a>. 

In order to collect data for their study, the researchers conducted focus groups and interviewed 73 participants of mixed age and gender. After compiling their responses, they then categorized the different reasons that individuals gave for why they choose one egg type over the other.

The most common motivations for purchasing free-range eggs were that they were viewed as being higher quality, more nutritious, and safer to eat. Also, participants emphasized trying to avoid “industrialized” food.

Interestingly, although many participants described caged-egg farming as “cruel,” they did not often point to animal welfare reasons as paramount in their egg-purchasing decisions. Rather, a number of people thought that free-range <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/prehistoric-egg-layers-secret/">chickens</a> might be “happier,” and thus create a better quality egg. Researchers say this finding shows consumers are more likely to buy a product if it is both “ethical” and assumed to be of higher quality – not just ethical reasons alone.

“Taste and quality are strong motivations for purchasing and may be part of the reason why people are prepared to pay a higher price,” says lead author Heather Bray of the <a href="http://www.adelaide.edu.au/">University of Adelaide</a>. “More importantly these findings suggest that consumers think about animal welfare in a much broader way than we previously thought, and in particular they believe that better welfare is connected to a better quality product."

The results of the study also showed that there is a high level of awareness among participants for caged-egg production, compared to other types of animal farming. Furthermore, despite their unease at supporting caged-egg farming, participants who bought free-range or cage-free eggs did not necessarily also buy their meat in the same ethical scope. This was due to the price difference between egg types being much smaller than those between different sources of meat. 

Moving forward, the authors believe more research can be done to help further understanding of consumer motivations for purchasing products with ethical production claims. Further information could lead to more purposeful production methods or product labeling that is directed at attracting consumers. In the meantime, feel free to join the few participants of the study who said they produced their own free-range eggs by keeping their own hens. They make great pets and an even better breakfast.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://taylorandfrancis.com/">Taylor &amp; Francis Group</a>

Most choose free-range eggs for nutrition over ethical reasons

What are the reasons that shoppers may prefer free-range chicken...

Good looks alone aren’t all it takes to be attractive. According to a new article in <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/psychology">Frontiers in Psychology</a>, voice and smell are also important factors in the force of attraction.

It may not seem surprising that attractiveness involves more than just physical appearance, but most research has focused on looks, neglecting vocal and olfactory factors, the new study found.


A team of researchers reviewed 30 years of literature, but only found a few studies that have looked into the role of voice and scent. Although the research field is small, it provides insight into a large quantity and variety of information.

"Recently, most reviews have focused on visual attractiveness--for example, face or body attractiveness," says Agata Groyecka, lead author of the review and a researcher at the <a href="https://international.uni.wroc.pl/en/s3.php">University of Wroclaw</a> in Poland. "However, literature about other senses and their role in social relations has grown rapidly and should not be neglected."

Viewing attractiveness through all three channels “gives a more reliable and broader variety of information about them,” Groyecka said

Some of the study findings are relatively intuitive, such as people guessing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/light-gender-gynodioecious-plants/">gender</a> and age based on voice alone. But listeners have also proven to be skilled at detecting an unexpected range of characteristics from a voice, including the dominance, cooperativeness, emotional state, and even the body size of the speaker.

People can correctly deduce similar types of information based on scent alone, according to other studies. Recent brain imaging research has also suggested that combinations--sight and smell, for example--appear to be synergistic, producing even stronger reactions than would be expected.

Perceived attractiveness influences not only romantic relationships, but also friendships and professional interactions, Groyecka added.

The review also highlights a variety of proposed evolutionary explanations for the multisensory aspects of attraction, such as the utility of having traits such as voice and looks  that can be detected both from a distance, as well as up close, such as scent.

“I hope that this review will inspire researchers to further explore the role of audition and olfaction in social relations," Groyecka 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://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/psychology">Frontiers in Psychology</a>

Study: Attraction based on more than looks, includes voice, smell

Good looks alone aren’t all it takes to be attractive....

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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

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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

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