Nature-based activities are showing real promise in improving mental health, with visible benefits reported in as little as 12 weeks. 



In a recent evaluation of a community program for people with mild to moderate mental health conditions, participants experienced better mood and lower anxiety levels after joining weekly outdoor sessions. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-reshaping-mental-health-through-nature">Reshaping mental health through nature</h2>



This study is part of the UK government’s larger effort to rethink how mental health care is delivered.



One initiative included setting up seven “test and learn” green social prescribing sites across England. The first site to release its findings comes from Humber and North Yorkshire, where researchers from the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of York</a> led the evaluation.



Green social prescribing works by linking people with community-based nature activities instead of, or alongside, traditional medical treatments. 



Healthcare professionals can refer patients to activities that bring them outdoors and into contact with the natural world. Though still in the testing phase, the evidence is growing stronger that this approach can be a useful tool in mental health support.



More than 220 participants took part in the Humber and North Yorkshire program. The researchers measured their mental health using the Office for National Statistics’ personal well-being metrics and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The participants ranged in age from 18 to 85 and included people of all genders.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-longer-activities-deeper-impact">Longer activities, deeper impact</h2>



The results showed consistent improvement across the board, but participants in longer sessions - typically nine to 12 weeks - saw the most progress.



Activities that involved direct interaction with nature, such as horticulture and care farming, had a bigger effect than sports, crafts, or mindfulness sessions alone.



Professor Peter Coventry from the University of York’s Department of Health Sciences elaborated on the findings.



“We have known for some time that nature has a positive impact on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/natures-scents-linked-to-improved-health-and-well-being/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">health and wellbeing</a>, but in more recent years, a stronger evidence base has grown that proves this to be true for mental health in particular," he said.



“The fact that activities such as gardening, tending allotments, and care farming had the most impact on the participants in our study, demonstrated that it is not just about being passive in nature, but connecting with it in a meaningful way." 



Professor Coventry added that spending time in nature with others from your community can ease <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/where-do-fear-and-anxiety-reside-in-the-brain-new-cells-identified/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">anxiety</a> and depression by reducing loneliness and fostering connection. Participating in local activities that support the environment can boost mood and promote a sense of belonging.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-accessible-and-enjoyable-nature-activities">Accessible and enjoyable nature activities</h2>



The benefits of the program were seen across different age groups and income levels. Of the participants, 65% came from low socioeconomic backgrounds. 



Horticulture-based sessions had particularly high attendance, suggesting these activities were both accessible and enjoyable for a wide range of people.



“This intervention might not work for everyone, but through an initial exploratory conversation a social prescriber will discuss with a patient or user of the service if nature-based activities would be suited to them," said Trish Darcy, a research associate from the University’s Mental Health and Addiction Research Group. 



"For that choice to happen, we need more investment to support these community-based activities."



“In our study, 65% of participants were from low socioeconomic groups and we now know that not only can it help improve their mental health, but participation was high for horticultural based activities in particular, meaning that not only is it good for the individual, but for the local community environment too."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-new-green-partner-in-healthcare">A new green partner in healthcare</h2>



The experts conducted the study in partnership with The HEY Smile Foundation and the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board. 



The research is part of a national cross-government initiative, with backing from DEFRA and several departments and agencies including the Department of Health and Social Care and Sport England.



Dr Hannah Armitt, clinical lead for the regional program, emphasized the potential to bridge medical care with community programs.



“The research conducted in our region has the potential to enhance service delivery by connecting statutory services with local providers of nature-based and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/outdoor-classes-improve-childrens-mental-health/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outdoor activities</a>," said Dr. Armitt.



“It is important to evidence the potential of green space and nature to ensure clinicians and patients alike can harness the benefits of this wonderful free natural resource we have in abundance in Yorkshire and Humber.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-of-nature-prescriptions">Future of nature prescriptions </h2>



As more of healthcare shifts into the community, the role of local organizations is becoming increasingly important. 



Anthony Hurd is the program manager of the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/healthsciences/research/mental-health/projects/humber-north-yorkshire-green-social-prescribing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Humber and North Yorkshire Green Social Prescribing</a>.



“This work has not only shown the positive outcomes that nature-based activities have on mental health, it has also highlighted the role that community-based organizations play in supporting the health and wellbeing of communities," said Hurd.



“As healthcare begins to move more into the community, and with a focus on prevention, the community-based organizations delivering activities such as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gardening-is-beneficial-for-physical-and-mental-health/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">gardening</a>, care farming, and walking groups need to be recognized as key players in our national health service and be resourced appropriately.”



With continued investment, green social prescribing could become a trusted and lasting part of mental health care across the country - offering hope, healing, and a healthy dose of fresh air.



The research is published in the journal&nbsp;<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1155/hsc/2016261" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Health &amp; Social Care in the Community</a>.



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How nature heals: Outdoor activities greatly improve mental health

Nature-based activities are showing real promise in improving mental health, with visible benefits reported in as little as 12 weeks. In a recent evaluation of a community program for people with mild to moderate mental health conditions, participants experienced better mood and lower anxiety levels after joining weekly outdoor sessions. Reshaping mental health through nature This study is part of the UK government’s larger effort to rethink how mental health care is delivered. One initiative included setting up seven “test and learn” green social prescribing sites across...

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...

A team of doctors at <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/">Newcastle University</a> in Britain have received the first UK license to perform a 3-parent In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) technique aimed at preventing inherited genetic diseases. If all goes according to plan, the first 3-parent child will be born this year.

According to the <a href="http://www.hfea.gov.uk/">Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority </a>(HFEA), this will mark the first time that the new mitochondrial replacement therapy (MRT) will be performed on patients. Thanks to funding from the <a href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/">NHS England</a>, the Newcastle team hopes to treat up to 25 female patients per year.

“The team here at Newcastle Fertility Centre is delighted with the decision to grant our clinic a licence to offer treatments to prevent transmission of mitochondrial DNA disease,” said Professor Mary Herbert of <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/">Newcastle University</a>. “Many years of research have led to the development of pronuclear transfer as a treatment to reduce the risk of mothers transmitting disease to their children. It's a great testament to the regulatory system here in the UK that research innovation can be applied in treatment to help families affected by these devastating diseases.”

MRT babies would receive a small amount of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-shark-dna-may-hold-key-curing-cancer/">DNA</a> from a third person. This donor DNA would then replace abnormal genes in the mitochondria. 

“This significant decision represents the culmination of many years hard work by researchers, clinical experts, and regulators, who collectively paved the way for Parliament to change the law in 2015 to permit the use of such techniques,” said <a href="http://www.hfea.gov.uk/">HFEA</a> Chair Sally Cheshire. “Patients will now be able to apply individually to the HFEA to undergo mitochondrial donation treatment at Newcastle, which will be life-changing for them, as they seek to avoid passing on serious genetic diseases to future generations.”

Some critics have questioned the ethics of the 3-parent procedure and the creation of so-called “designer babies.”

“It comes as little surprise that the HFEA has approved the creation of 'three-parent' embryos given their track record of undermining respect for the human embryo and the integrity of human reproduction,” said bioethicist Dr. Andrew McCarthy of The Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. “The two techniques which the HFEA has decided to permit are not curative of mitochondrial diseases and in no way help those who already have them.”

But defenders of MRT are quick to point out that mitochondria only possesses 0.1% of a human’s DNA and has no influence over appearance or personality. It is DNA in the cell nucleus that contains most individual genes.

“This is excellent news, especially for those patients in the UK who have been waiting for this opportunity,” said Professor Simon Fishel, Managing Director of CARE Fertility. “We know it won't be easy for all concerned as the technology is not straightforward and success will depend upon many factors. But it is indeed a step in the right direction following in-depth debate and consideration of all issues from the medical science to the ethics.”

--

By Rory Arnold, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.ncl.ac.uk/">Newcastle University</a>, <a href="http://www.hfea.gov.uk/">HFEA</a>

First 3-parent babies could be born in the UK this year

A team of doctors at Newcastle University in Britain have...

Can you think of any product you give less thought to than palm oil? There probably aren’t many. And yet it’s an ingredient in about 50 percent of the products you find at the supermarket. Particularly, packaged foods and snack foods.

Palm oil is also used for animal feed and such non-food applications as health and beauty products, soap and cleaning supplies and even biodiesel products.

So what’s the problem? And why did palm oil merchant Neil Blomquist feel the need to create the pro-palm oil website PalmDoneRight.com?

Just Google “palm oil” and you start to get an idea. One of the first terms that pops up is “conflict palm oil.” Entries on the first results page asks readers to “Say No to Palm Oil.” Another states “Why Palm Oil Isn’t the Enemy.”

Enemy?

Conflict palm oil is what it’s called on the websites of environmental and activist organizations opposed to the trade, and the product is blamed for a host of violations. Here’s how SayNotoPalmOil.com, sums it up: “The industry is linked to major issues such as deforestation, habitat degradation, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/federal-budget-climate-change-research/">climate change</a>, animal cruelty and indigenous rights abuses in the countries where it is produced, as the land and forests must be cleared for the development of the oil palm plantations.”

The practice is even decimating orangutan populations, according to multiple sources.

Described before as a palm oil merchant, Blomquist, managing director of Natural Habitats USA, might dispute that description. He’d call himself an organic palm oil merchant. That added word makes all the difference to him.

“We’re running the first supply chain that’s 100 percent organic,” he told Earth.com. “If done right, palm oil can be more sustainable than any seed oil.”

Blomquist, who’s worked in the organics industry since 2002, also runs PalmDoneRight.com, which he called a marketing and educational site for the concept of organic palm oil. Its goal is to lift the organic product over the multiple controversies related to conventional farming practices regarding the product.

“Our entire supply chain is small farmers,” he said. “Their average farm size is 30 hectares.” (Less than 75 acres.)

That’s in Ecuador. In Sierre Leone, the only other country in which Natural Habitats does business, the typical farm supplier is a little over one hectare. The company contracts with 2,000 farmers here and 178 in Ecuador.

The statistics about farm size are an important component of Blomquist’s pitch. That’s because the profile of conflict palm oil growers are large plantation owners who clear-cut their rainforest land, farm it environmentally irresponsibly and virtually enslave their labor crews.

“There’s no clear-cutting, burning or planting in primal forests,” Blomquist said in describing the practices of the network of growers his company partners with. His suppliers have been growing on their existing modest plots of land for generations. Natural Habitats follows payment requirements for Fair For Life certification and sends agronomists to teach sustainable farming practices that increase productivity and replace the use of pesticides and herbicides.

Supplier recruitment is never a problem, according to Blomquist. “We never have to go to them. They come to us” as the company’s reputation and the profitability of working with Natural Habitats spreads.

One reason palm oil is such a boon to the African and South American farmers, said Blomquist, is that it’s a 365-day crop. There is no off season. And the farmers have eager buyers in his company.

Blomquist is still challenged in telling the story when his company’s main product line is so seemingly enmeshed with conflict palm oil, but he’s managed to convert even natural food stores.
His long-term goal, he said, is to get to a point in time when his educational website PalmDoneRight.com can "come off the market." Blomquist believes that will be accomplished the day truly organic palm oil is seen in a different light and it no longer needs defending.
--

By David Searls, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Palm Oil Done Right

Can you think of any product you give less thought...

Ignore the punny title if you can. Cowspiracy, now streaming on Netflix, offers a powerful and provocative indictment of animal agriculture as the number one global cause of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The film’s producer/director team of Kip Andersen (who’s also the documentary’s narrator) and Keegan Kuhn states that 51 percent of carbon emissions can be blamed on livestock, particularly cattle. That’s more than the CO2 emissions of oil and gas.

That figure has been challenged, however, by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The organization said that it came from a 2009 Worldwatch Institute report that was never peer-reviewed by the scientific community. The actual figure is 15 percent <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wind-farms-emissions-great-britain/">carbon emission</a> contribution by livestock, a still-significant number, but far below the contribution of fossil fuels. The scientist group also said that Cowspiracy overstated the methane produced by cows. <a href="http://blog.ucsusa.org/doug-boucher/cowspiracy-movie-review">Here’s the scientists' argument</a>.

At any rate, Andersen and Kuhn make strong (and, presumably unchallenged) cases for other environmental damage caused by livestock production. For instance, they say that while the shale oil production method known as fracking uses 100 billion gallons of water, livestock consume 34 trillion gallons annually, from hydration to water usage in the production of grains to feed them.

Putting this in another light, Cowspiracy reports on how environmental agencies encourage individuals to take shorter showers to conserve water. But one hamburger consumes 660 gallons of water, the equivalent, says Andersen, to his showering over a two-month period. While domestic water use is five percent of total U.S. consumption, animal agriculture uses 55 percent, the filmmakers say.

The pair further blames livestock for deforestation, the overhunting of predators and cattle waste runoff into rivers and oceans. (Livestock produce 130 times more waste than humans, the film claims.)

The “conspiracy” in Cowspiracy has to do with silence. Federal and state agencies and environmental groups including Greenpeace, Sierra Club and many others say little about animal agriculture as a planetary villain or refuse to be interviewed at all.

One anti-animal ag activist said that the groups don’t want to lose their funding. This question of funding, from the animal agriculture industry to environmental groups, specifically Greenpeace, was put to one beef industry spokesperson who’d been otherwise cooperative. She twice responded that she’d prefer not to answer that question.

(In fairness, the groups’ lack of emphasis on animal ag as an environmental hazard could also be connected to the challenges put forth by the Union of Concerned Scientists.)

An Amazon Watch spokesperson discussed the very real threat of being killed for outspokenness as another reason activists might be silent. It was stated that over the last 20 years, more than 1,100 rainforest defenders have been killed in Brazil, presumable by cattle ranching interests. One of those was Sister Dorothy Stang, an American assassinated for speaking out against the industry.

In America, the threat is lawsuits. A former cattleman interviewed on the documentary was sued by the cattle industry under federal food disparagement laws for claims he made on Oprah.

The film’s producers took one odd side trip that seemed a better fit for another documentary in discussing fishing methods that are depopulating the oceans.

They also make clear that, after detailing the unsustainability practices associated with meat, fish and dairy, that their suggested solution is a plant-based diet. That point is made in horrific detail when we see tightly caged cows and chickens, and when an adorable little girl cuddles a couple free-ranging pigs at her folks’ pastoral organic farm and states in a matter-of-fact way that she shouldn’t get close to them. They’re going to be killed soon, her mother pleasantly explains. And finally, there was the scene of a pair of ducks graphically being butchered by a backyard farmer – a scene I had to fast-forward through.

How can such a film influence viewers? I had lunch at a natural food market after watching Cowspiracy. Almost everything on the menu contained chicken, bacon or cheese. I passed up the carrot hot dog and settled on the veggie melt. It was delicious, though not as filling or affordable as a Big Mac.

--

By David Searls, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.cowspiracy.com">Cowspiracy Official Website</a>

Film Review, Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret

Ignore the punny title if you can. Cowspiracy, now streaming...

Smell walking has arrived in the world’s cities – some of them, at least. The scent-guided tours are doing more than just just building odor-based maps. They could also help detect air pollution.

Though humans don’t have the sense of smell dogs or cats do, the human nose can pick up odors related to car exhaust and other harmful emissions. 

The city of Guangzhou in China has even gone so far as to hire “smell specialists” to evaluate sealed containers of air from different parts of the city, according to the <a href="http://env.people.com.cn/n/2015/0812/c1010-27446210.html">People’s Daily Online</a>. The goal is to determine air quality.

It sounds strange, but there may be some real science behind it. 

“Smells impact our behavior, attitudes and health,” one team of researchers wrote in their study, which was presented at the <a href="http://researchswinger.org/publications/icwsm15_smell.pdf">2015 International Conference on Web and Social Media</a> [PDF]. “Street food markets, for example, have dramatically changed the way we perceive entire streets of global cities.”

The team, led by Dr. Daniele Quercia of the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a>, has since created a smell dictionary, analyzed thousands of smell-related images on social media, and built smell maps of London and Barcelona. People can zero in on neighborhoods to find out where to go to literally smell the roses, which areas smell like fish or manure, and more.

More importantly, Quercia’s team found that images that are tagged with emissions-related keywords like “traffic” roughly match up with air quality indicators, at least in London.

The researchers believe smell walking could go far beyond just mapping the scents of cities.

The scent maps – including the streets that have worse air quality and higher emissions levels – could be used to help walkers, runners and cyclists plan their routes. Dog walkers and parents or guardians with small children could choose parks that have better air quality. 

The maps could be used to create smartphone and tablet apps that point city visitors to the most <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/people-places-and-things/200912/the-smell-is-right-using-scents-enhance-life">relaxing spots</a>, near lavender bushes, citrus trees or bakeries that smell of vanilla. 

Quercia’s team of researchers want smell walking to become as much a part of city planning and guidebook creation as vision and hearing. 

“We hope to empower designers, researchers, city managers by offering them a number of methodological tools and practical insights to re-think the role of smell in their work,” they wrote.

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com/staff">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Smell walking helps build maps, fight air pollution

Smell walking has arrived in the world’s cities – some...

DNA technology has progressed to the point where researchers can – and have – identified the types of meals and even relationships based on analysis of fossilized remains. Now, researchers have made an interesting discovery from a hardened tooth plaque of five Neanderthals found in a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/millipede-species/">cave</a>.

Our ancient relatives seem to have had the capability to use natural remedies to treat oral pain and stomach ailments. And they appear to have interacted intimately – smooched, at the very least – with humans.

“It really paints a different picture, almost of their personalities, of really who they were,” said study co-leader Laura Weyrich, a palaeomicrobiologist at the <a href="http://www.adelaide.edu.au/">University of Adelaide in Australia</a> of the findings from El Sidrón Cave in northern Spain.

The clue of natural pain remedy use was the unexpected DNA found on the teeth of one of the El Sidrón Neanderthals. It came from poplar trees and a mold that’s the source of penicillin. Poplars contain salicyclic acid, which is traditionally used to make aspirin. The conclusion is that the remedies were used to try to treat a visible tooth abscess and a stomach infection.

As for the suggestion of possible fooling around between humans and Neanderthals, that came about with genetic evidence of a microbe called Methanobrevibacter oralis in the mouths of the El Sidrón Cave crew that can still be found in modern human mouths but was not endemic to Neanderthal populations.

“If you’re swapping spit between species, there’s kissing going on, or at least food sharing,” says Weyrich, “which would suggest that these interactions were much friendlier and much more intimate than anybody ever possibly imagined.”

The study also suggested that Neanderthal diets consisted of whatever they could scrounge up. While a 2013 study of the plaque DNA of a Neanderthal population found in a cave in Belgium discovered woolly rhinoceros and wild sheep on the menu, the El Sidrón group indicated a primarily plant-based diet – mushrooms, moss and pine nuts.

The research team’s findings were reported in <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/">Nature</a>.

 --

By David Searls, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source:<a href="http://www.nature.com/news/neanderthal-tooth-plaque-hints-at-meals-and-kisses-1.21593"> Nature</a>

Neanderthals might have smooched with humans and treated toothache

DNA technology has progressed to the point where researchers can...

Uber has had a rough few weeks. From sexual harassment allegations to stolen technology lawsuits to a disturbing video of <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/uber-flying-car/">Uber</a> CEO Travis Kalanick berating a driver, the ride-sharing giant could use some good news. Unfortunately, we don’t have any for them. According to a new study, yellow taxis have been found to be safer than cabs that look like regular cars.

The study was performed by researchers at the <a href="http://www.nus.edu.sg/">National University of Singapore</a> and was published in the journal <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/02/28/1612551114.abstract">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</a>. The team set out to see if there is a link between the color of a taxi and the frequency of its car accidents by comparing yellow taxis to blue cabs. 

The research found that yellow taxis are 9 percent less likely to be involved in accidents than blue ones. Scientists believe that this is in part due to the higher visibility of the color yellow, which makes other drivers more aware of its presence, thus making it easier to avoid hitting.

“The findings of our study suggest that color visibility should play a major role in determining the colors used for public transport vehicles,” said Professor Ho Teck Hua, lead-author of the study. “A commercial decision to change all taxis to yellow may save lives and potentially reduce economic losses by millions of dollars. Our results are also noteworthy to smaller taxi companies and to drivers who use their private vehicles as taxis to work for private-hire car services.”

The study was conducted over the course of 36 months, during which time researchers recorded accident data from two fleets of yellow and blue taxis. The team analyzed records from 4,175 yellow taxis and 12,525 blue cabs and found that yellow taxis average 6 fewer accidents per month. 

“We are keen to further validate the findings of our study by looking at the use of yellow in other types of public transport, such as school buses,” added Professor Ho. “For instance, we hope to compare the accident rates of yellow school buses against other colors to find out if yellow is indeed a safer color for school buses. Furthermore, we are also interested to look at private-hire vehicles and do a comparison of the accident rates of vehicles that are of different colors.”

--

By Rory Arnold, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.nus.edu.sg/">National University of Singapore</a>

Sorry Uber, yellow taxis found to be safer than other colors

Uber has had a rough few weeks. From sexual harassment...

Forget about classical crib music and brain development games from the age of two for improving intellectual performance. Get your kids out in the fresh air and have some fun. Japanese researchers from the <a href="http://www.nodai.ac.jp/english/">Tokyo University of Agriculture</a> found that the motion associated with horseback riding can stimulate activity in the brain and enhance your child’s cognitive abilities.

Researchers conducted simple tests before and after the study subjects went horseback riding, and found a measurable bump in the results of kids assigned to some of the horses after the rides. The conclusion was that the vibrations from saddle time apparently activated the parts of the developing brain associated with learning and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tree-vegetation-in-the-arctic-has-memory/">memory</a>.

“One important characteristic of the horse steps is that they produce three-dimensional accelerations. The movement of the horse's pelvis may provide motor and sensory inputs to the human body and in this study,” said Professor Mitsuaki Ohta of the Japanese university and the author of the study. “I believe some of the differences among the rider's performances might be due to these accelerations.”

The study findings were published in the journal <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/public-health">Frontiers in Public Health</a>.

Unfortunately, the study showed horseback riding to have less of a positive impact on children’s mathematical abilities. So you’re still going to have to learn how to help your kids with their new math homework.

--

By David Searls, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source:<a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/public-health"> Frontiers in Public Health</a>

Study suggests horseback riding could make your kids smarter

Forget about classical crib music and brain development games from...

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing it with probiotics and prebiotics, aiming to create a treat that satisfies cravings while supporting gut health. 



The challenge lies in maintaining chocolate's beloved texture and flavor while adding health benefits.



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Probiotics - beneficial microbes that balance gut bacteria and aid digestion - are typically fragile and can be destroyed by stomach acid or processing. 



Prebiotics act as food for these microbes, helping them thrive. Together, they form "synbiotics," a powerful health combination.



Researchers Smriti Gaur and Shubhi Singh from India's Jaypee Institute of Information Technology took an innovative approach, using natural prebiotics like corn and honey instead of complex processing methods. 



They created five chocolate varieties: a control and four synbiotic versions containing different combinations of prebiotics, probiotics (Lactobacillus strains), and flavor enhancers (cinnamon or orange).



Laboratory simulations of human digestion showed the probiotics remained viable for over five hours, suggesting they could survive long enough to benefit gut health.



Taste tests were positive, with researchers particularly enjoying the orange-flavored variety, describing it as having "vibrant citrus notes" complementing the "rich cocoa" with a "luxurious" texture.



This research represents just the beginning. With further refinement of strains, textures, and flavors, chocolate could evolve beyond mere indulgence to become a functional food that nourishes while it delights.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00741" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ACS Food Science &amp; Technology</a>.

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing...

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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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