A new study suggests that individual cells might be capable of learning - a behavior once thought exclusive to organisms with brains and complex nervous systems. 



The research, led by scientists at the <a href="https://www.crg.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Center for Genomic Regulation</a> (CRG) in Barcelona and <a href="https://hms.harvard.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Harvard Medical School</a> in Boston, challenges long-standing assumptions about the fundamental capabilities of cells.



“Rather than following pre-programmed genetic instructions, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/animal-cells-capable-of-photosynthesis-created-for-the-first-time/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cells</a> are elevated to entities equipped with a very basic form of decision making based on learning from their environments,” explained study co-author Jeremy Gunawardena, an associate professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School. 



The findings, published in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.041" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Current Biology</a>, could transform our understanding of life at its most basic level.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-habituation-learning-without-a-brain">Habituation: Learning without a brain</h2>



The researchers focused on habituation, a simple form of learning where an organism gradually stops responding to a repeated stimulus - like how humans tune out the ticking of a clock or flashing lights.&nbsp;



While habituation has been extensively studied in animals with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-black-widow-venom-attacks-the-nervous-system/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">nervous systems</a>, whether similar behavior exists at the cellular level has been a contentious question.



Early experiments in the 20th century observed behavior resembling learning in the single-celled ciliate Stentor roeselii, but the findings were largely dismissed. In the 1970s and 1980s, more evidence of habituation emerged in other ciliates, and modern experiments have continued to build on these insights.



“These creatures are so different from animals with brains,” said Rosa Martinez, a co-author of the study and researcher at the CRG.



“To learn would mean they use internal molecular networks that somehow perform functions similar to those carried out by networks of neurons in brains. Nobody knows how they are able to do this, so we thought it is a question that needed to be explored.”&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-using-simulations-to-decode-cellular-learning">Using simulations to decode cellular “learning”</h2>



Instead of working with cells directly in the lab, the researchers turned to computer simulations to track the biochemical reactions that cells rely on to process information.&nbsp;



By simulating how molecular interactions change when exposed to repeated stimuli, the team uncovered evidence of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/secrets-of-learning-how-our-brains-neurons-make-and-retrieve-memories/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">learning</a>-like behavior.



The study focused on two common molecular circuits: negative feedback loops and incoherent feedforward loops.&nbsp;



Negative feedback is like a thermostat - it regulates processes by turning them off when a certain threshold is reached.&nbsp;



Incoherent feedforward loops act like a motion-activated light with a timer, triggering a process and its inhibitor simultaneously.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-memories-formed-at-the-cellular-level">Memories formed at the cellular level</h2>



Simulations revealed that cells use these circuits to fine-tune their responses to repeated stimuli, replicating hallmark features of habituation seen in animals.&nbsp;



A critical discovery was the role of “timescale separation,” where some biochemical reactions occur much faster than others.



“We think this could be a type of ‘memory’ at the cellular level, enabling cells to both react immediately and influence a future response,” Martinez explained.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-bridging-neuroscience-and-cognitive-science">Bridging neuroscience and cognitive science</h2>



The findings also offer new insights into a long-standing debate between neuroscientists and cognitive researchers about habituation.&nbsp;



Neuroscientists argue that stronger habituation occurs with more frequent or less intense stimuli, while cognitive scientists emphasize internal changes, finding habituation stronger with less frequent or more intense stimuli.



The study showed that both perspectives are valid. During habituation, cells respond less to frequent or weak stimuli, but after habituation, their response to similar stimuli is stronger.&nbsp;



“Neuroscientists and cognitive scientists have been studying processes which are basically two sides of the same coin,” Gunawardena said. “We believe that single cells could emerge as a powerful tool to study the fundamentals of learning.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-ability-of-cells-to-learn-and-remember-nbsp">The ability of cells to learn and remember&nbsp;</h2>



If confirmed through real-world experiments, these findings could have profound implications.&nbsp;



The ability of cells to “remember” might explain phenomena like cancer cells developing resistance to chemotherapy or <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-have-been-found-in-clouds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bacteria</a> becoming resistant to antibiotics. Both involve cells appearing to “learn” from their environment to survive.



The researchers used mathematical models to test various scenarios quickly, identifying those worth exploring in laboratory settings. This approach could save time and resources while accelerating discoveries.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-computational-approach-to-biology">A computational approach to biology</h2>



“The moonshot in computational biology is to make life as programmable as a computer, but lab experiments can be costly and time-consuming,” Martinez said.&nbsp;



Her team works at the <a href="https://barcelonacollaboratorium.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Barcelona Collaboratorium</a>, a joint initiative designed to use mathematical modeling to tackle big biological questions.



“Our approach can help us prioritize which experiments are most likely to yield valuable results, saving time and resources and leading to new breakthroughs,” noted Martinez. “We think it can be useful to address many other fundamental questions.”



This research marks a significant step toward understanding learning and memory at the cellular level, potentially reshaping our view of what individual cells are capable of and opening new doors for medical and scientific exploration.



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Biological breakthrough: Cells can ‘learn’ like brains

A new study suggests that individual cells might be capable of learning - a behavior once thought exclusive to organisms with brains and complex nervous systems.  The research, led by scientists at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona and Harvard Medical School in Boston, challenges long-standing assumptions about the fundamental capabilities of cells. “Rather than following pre-programmed genetic instructions, cells are elevated to entities equipped with a very basic form of decision making based on learning from their environments,” explained study co-author Jeremy Gunawardena, an...

Asteroid that killed the dinosaurs caused a massive global tsunami. Beneath Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula lies a 111 mile-wide crater called the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dinosaurs-asteroid-struck/">Chicxulub crater</a> that was formed after a giant asteroid collided with Earth 65 million years ago.

The aftermath causes  of the collision included a nearly mile-high global tsunami and brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs and nearly three-quarters of all life on Earth. 

New research recently presented at the<a href="https://sites.agu.org/"> American Geophysical Union</a>'s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. shows how much of an impact the tsunami had after the asteroid collided into the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico.Asteroid that killed the dinosaurs caused a massive global tsunami

The research was conducted by a team from the<a href="https://umich.edu/"> University of Michigan. 

</a>“The Chicxulub asteroid resulted in a huge global tsunami, the likes of which have not been seen in modern history,” Molly Range, the lead researcher of the project, told <a href="https://www.livescience.com/64426-dinosaur-killing-asteroid-caused-giant-tsunami.html">Live Science</a>. 

According to Range, this is the first global simulation of the impact tsunami, and the researchers had to use two models to simulate the full global scale of the tsunami after the collision. 

One model showed wave height and sediment displacement immediately following the impact and the second model showed how the tsunami spread through and displaced the world’s ocean in the hours after the impact. 

“The impact tsunami spread quickly out of the Gulf of Mexico into the Atlantic and through the Central American seaway into the Pacific within the first 24 hours,” the researchers <a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm18/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/445502">wrote</a>. 

Once the asteroid collided with Earth, the first model simulated what the next ten minutes were like near the collision site, and the model showed an initial wave reaching nearly a mile high flowing away from the crater. 

The team used data from the first model to simulate how the tsunami propagated through the world’s oceans in the second model.

“We found that this tsunami moved throughout the entire ocean, in every ocean basin,” Range told Live Science.

Waves in the North and South Pacific reached as high as 46 feet after the initial impact tsunami wave, the model showed waves reaching 13 feet in the North Atlantic. 

“This model suggests that the bolide impact not only had major effects on the global atmosphere and biosphere, it also created a tsunami of such magnitude that its effect is felt across much of the world ocean,” the researchers conclude. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Asteroid that killed the dinosaurs caused a massive global tsunami

Asteroid that killed the dinosaurs caused a massive global tsunami....

They say blondes have more fun, but true blonde hair is rarer than you might think, according to a new study conducted by researchers from the <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/mrc-human-genetics-unit/news-and-events/news-2018/hair-colour-genetics-uk-biobank-2018">University of Edinburgh's MRC Human Genetics Unit. </a>

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, is the largest genetic <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/human-body-parts-hair/">hair</a> study of its kind as the researchers examined DNA from nearly 35,000 men and women of European descent. 

The DNA data came from the <a href="https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/">UK Biobank Study</a> and the researchers conducted genome-wide analyses of different hair colors to find any genetic variants. 

Previous genetic research had found that the red hair is determined by one gene, the MC1R gene, but these studies failed to explain the variants in the MC1R gene and external genetic factors that interact the gene.

For example, although most redheads have two copies of the MC1R gene, there are people with two versions of this gene that don’t have red hair. The researchers wanted to find out what other underlying genetic factors drive hair color variation. 

The researchers found eight genetic variants linked to red hair and nearly 200 genetic differences in blondes and brunettes. 

The lighter your hair is, the more genetic variants you have, according to the study.  

True blonde is also a rare hair color, and the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6563471/Not-dumb-Blonds-complex-DNA-study-says.html">Daily Mail</a> reports that only 12.7 percent of women have pure blonde hair, and only 9.9 percent of men do. 

Surprisingly, many of the genetic differences identified by the researchers correlated with factors other than pigmentation like hair texture and growth. 

“In summary, the very large dataset provided by UK Biobank has enabled us to dissect the complex genetic nature of hair colour,” the researchers concluded. “This forms the foundation for functional analysis linking genetic variation to phenotype and exploring the cellular interactions between melanocytes and other cells in the hair follicle.”
--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

True blonde hair requires surprisingly complex genetics

They say blondes have more fun, but true blonde hair...

Every year, insect and mosquito-transmitted diseases like malaria, dengue fever, and Zika are responsible for millions of deaths worldwide. 

Nearly 40 percent of the Earth’s population is at risk of contracting malaria, according to the <a href="https://www.who.int/whr/1996/media_centre/executive_summary1/en/index9.html">World Health Organization</a> (WHO), and the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a transmitter of many common insect-transmitted diseases, is one of the deadliest animals in the world. 

Now, a new study could pave the way for the development of a type of mosquito birth control to reduce mortality rates and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dengue-fever-modified-mosquitoes/">prevent insect-transmitted diseases from spreading</a>.

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.arizona.edu/">University of Arizona</a> conducted a study examining mosquito egg formation and identified a gene specific to healthy mosquito larvae development. 

The study was published in the journal PLOS Biology.

“We specifically looked for genes that were unique to mosquitoes and then tested for their functional role in eggshell synthesis,” said Jun Isoe, the leader of the research. “We think there are other discoveries to be made using this same species-directed approach.” 

First, the researchers identified and tested 40 mosquito-specific genes to determine the function of each gene. 

Next, the researchers injected the genes with an RNA molecule that inhibited the protein that each specific gene codes in a process is called RNA interference. 

The team injected the RNA molecules into a female mosquito before she fed on a host. Female mosquitoes need a blood meal to produce eggs. Once a mosquito laid her eggs, the researchers monitored the offspring to see if the RNA molecule had affected the eggs.

Only one of the genes had an impact on embryo development after being injected with the RNA molecule, the EOF-1 gene or Eggshell Organizing Factor protein as the researchers called it. 

Disrupting the EOF-1 protein resulted in the death of an embryo because the female mosquito laid malformed eggshells that were not able to support larvae development. 

Not only is EOF-1 specific to mosquitos, but the researchers also found that the RNA molecule prevented healthy embryo development for the entirety of the mosquito’s lifespan.

“This lasting effect makes the EOF-1 protein a very attractive target for drugs,” said Miesfeld. 

The researchers think that disrupting the EOF-1 protein could be an innovative solution to control mosquito populations in regions where mosquito-transmitted diseases pose major health risks. 

“We think this strategy may have a much lower chance of harming other organisms than what is being used today,” said Miesfeld. “Since the days of DDT, we have known that mosquito population control works to reduce the incidence of human disease. This could be a next-generation tool that could be applied to bed nets and other areas frequented by mosquitoes.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: CDC/Frank Hadley Collins

Mosquito birth control could prevent the spread of deadly diseases

Every year, insect and mosquito-transmitted diseases like malaria, dengue fever,...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/">University of Tokyo</a> have discovered that histamine-boosting drugs can help certain patients improve their long-term memory. The study, led by University of Tokyo Professor Yuji Ikegaya and lecturer Hiroshi Nomura, Ph.D., who worked with collaborators from the Universities of <a href="https://www.global.hokudai.ac.jp/">Hokkaido</a> and <a href="https://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/">Kyoto</a>, tested histamine’s ability to improve <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/breathing-nose-long-term-memory/">long-term memory</a> — that is, anything that happened more than 48 hours prior — on 38 men and women in their mid-20s.

The group of participants completed a series of memory tests on three separate days. They were shown familiar images, like a pair of eyeglasses, and then shown the same images days later, along with similar images, and asked if they had seen the images before.

"In real life, we cannot know what we forgot. This is why we do human memory tests with pictures on a computer screen," Prof. Ikegaya said in the study, published January 8th in <a href="https://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/">Biological Psychiatry</a>.

Days later, participants were then administered either a placebo pill or a drug that increases histamine within the brain. Those with poor memories who had taken the drug recognized more images correctly, and more difficult pictures to recognize became easier to point out in patients across the board. However, those with good memory before taking the drug experienced poorer memory post-drug.

"Increased histamine helped research participants remember an image they knew once but couldn't remember during a long-term memory word-association test," Ikegaya said. The team believes that stochastic resonance, the phenomenon of adding white noise to a transmission, may be responsible for aiding long-term memory in some while hindering it in others.

Researchers believe that introduction of the histamine drug into the brain affects the “gradient system,” that being the way information is stored within the brain. Memories above the threshold come to the forefront of our memory, whereas memories below the threshold are hard to remember. The histamine may cause neurons to fire and help memories cross that threshold. But when memories are already above the threshold, histamine may cause too much noise and distraction, therefore leaving us confused.

In mice, histamine-boosting drugs affected the perirhinal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for visual perception and memories.

A long-term memory boosting drug could have adverse effects in those with post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD, and researchers believe the brain files away memories differently depending on the memory. But researchers hope to test this drug on older adults with memory issues, in an effort to get one step closer to aiding symptoms of memory-loss diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia. 

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Histamine-boosting drug could improve long-term memory

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have discovered that histamine-boosting...

Peak <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/12/20/dating-during-holidays-peak-dating-season-almost-here-according-match/964051001/">dating season</a> is quickly approaching and soon dating sites like Match.com and OkCupid will see a surge in people searching through countless profiles to find a prospective match. 

Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day can be wonderful when you have someone to share them with, but for the chronically single among us, these holidays can be an especially difficult time. 

<a href="http://www.earth.com/news/online-daters-matches-league/">Online dating</a> has become an increasingly popular option in today’s digital age, and there are so many apps and websites with millions of users worldwide, you would think that finding a compatible match would be easy as swipe, match, date. 

However, the reality is that people using apps like Tinder and Bumble often find themselves swiping into oblivion with few prospects, lots of messages that lead nowhere, and an ever-growing collection of “matches” that just sit gathering dust as the swipes keep coming. 

As someone who has tried their fair share of dating sites and apps, I’ve always been curious about the science and math behind the scenes, especially the ones that claim to match you with the most compatible people based on your shared interests and what you’re looking for.

Can science find your perfect match? How do the algorithms that determine your rank within the system work, and who or what decides who sees who?  

You may not realize it, but behind the mega-successful dating websites like OkCupid and the apps like Bumble, there’s math, more specifically a series of algorithms that keep the cogs turning so you can swipe to your heart's content. 

“Algorithms learn from users’ preferences,” wrote Ally Marotti, a reporter for the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-app-dating-algorithms-20181202-story.html">Chicago Tribune</a>, in a piece about perfecting your dating profile. “They gather data on users and how they interact, and calculate which profiles will appear in feeds or as matches. If a user tends not to engage with people with tattoos, the app may stop showing that person people with tattoos, for example.”

These algorithms work to take the guesswork out of the equation and can help you meet a lot of people that you probably wouldn’t if you decided to try your hand at dating the old fashioned way and leave it up to chance. 

A <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/life/ft/2011/07/inside_matchcom.html">Financial Times profile</a>, Mandy Ginsberg, CEO of Match group, discussed the importance of algorithms in making matches. Match group is the parent company of Match.com, OkCupid, Tinder, and Plenty of Fish among other dating brands. 

Ginsberg explained how Match.com’s algorithm, “Synapse,” uses many different factors in a person’s profile to find a match and also learns from the different actions of users on the site. 

This means that for Match.com users, not only will their matches be based on their indicated preferences in their profile, but also on the profiles that users view, who they send messages to, and what they search for. 

Tinder's algorithm claims to weed out inactive users and keep them in the back of the line. Other algorithms may make sure to keep the most popular profiles in a certain area at the head of the queue. 

In Tinder, every user has a ranking called an Elo score, and the fact of the matter is, who sees you and how often you're profile is seen boils down to that ranking. 

“It’s not just how many people swipe right on you," Sean Rad, Tinder’s CEO, told <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3054871/whats-your-tinder-score-inside-the-apps-internal-ranking-system">Fast Company</a>. “It’s very complicated. It took us two and a half months just to build the algorithm because a lot of factors go into it.” 

For Tinder, they say the Elo score measures desirability in the hopes of matching equally desirable couples. 

It's important to note that although some dating websites claim otherwise, dating algorithms have yet to crack the code of human attraction and love, and no amount of math will find you your perfect match. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.northwestern.edu/">Northwestern University</a> and the <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">University of California, Davis</a> found that out the hard way after conducting a series of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0956797617714580">speed dating experiments</a> where romantically unattached individuals were asked to fill out questionnaires rating their own qualities and attractiveness and what they were looking for in a partner. 

Then the participants took part in a speed dating exercise, where people were matched up and given four minutes to make a connection before moving on to the next person. 

After the speed dating was done, the participants told the researchers which people they liked and which they didn’t. 

The researchers then created a machine learning algorithm based on all the data from the questionnaires and the participant's responses to the dates to see if machine learning could predict compatibility. 

After all the analysis and number crunching was complete, the researchers found that machines and algorithms were useless at predicting human compatibility. 

“We couldn’t predict compatibility at all,” said Paul Eastwick, a leader of the study, on the podcast <a href="https://www.gimletmedia.com/science-vs/online-dating-can-science-find-you-love#episode-player">Science Verses</a>, while discussing the results. “It’s very hard to predict how much people are going to like each other once they first meet.”

If you find yourself looking for love and think online dating is the way to go, or if you’ve been a member of every online dating website and still have yet to find a good match, unfortunately, science can’t magically find you a partner.

However, what these algorithms do well is expose you to tons of people while learning from your online dating activity. 

Don’t get too caught up in your rank, or your number of matches because as we’ve learned, these algorithms know very little about actual matters of the heart. 

However, online dating can be a great way to get things started, put yourself out there without looking for an expensive local matchmaking service, and meet different people. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dating in the digital age: Can science help find your perfect match?

Peak dating season is quickly approaching and soon dating sites...

Dr. Ben Almquist and his team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/bioengineering">Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London</a> have developed a new biomaterial that can interact with human tissue and could potentially change the way wounds are healed in the future. Unlike currently-used healing materials like collagen sponges and scaffold implants, Dr. Almquist and colleagues developed a new molecule which lets materials “talk” to the body’s natural healing system.

The molecule, called traction force-activated payloads (TrAPs), could be incorporated into existing healing materials, and “could help launch a new generation of materials that actively work with tissues to drive healing,” as Dr. Almquist stated via <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15214095">Advanced Materials</a>.

The team designed TrAPs to replicate the process of natural healing, during which cells “crawl” through collagen scaffolding within wounds, thus activating hidden healing proteins. To create TrAPs, researchers folded segments of DNA into three-dimensional shapes called aptamers, which cling to proteins. Then, a “handle” was attached to this shape so that cells can grab onto one end before attaching their opposite end to a collagen scaffold, or something similar. Once the cells grab ahold of TrAPs, the TrAPs unravel and healing proteins are activated. These proteins tell the healing cells to start growing.

Dr. Almquist and his team also found that, depending on where the handle is placed, different cells will grab and pull, meaning that TrAPs can be tailored to fit specific proteins based on which cells are present, and intelligently interact during wound repair.

 "Using cell movement to activate healing is found in creatures ranging from sea sponges to humans,” Dr. Almquist said. “Our approach mimics them and actively works with the different varieties of cells that arrive in our damaged tissue over time to promote healing."

Because TrAPs can be tailored to fit different cell types, they can be used to heal several different types of wounds, from bone fractures, to <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/heart-attack-stroke-unemployment/">heart attack</a> scar tissue, to damaged nerves. Patients with “unhealable” wounds will also benefit from this new technology. Furthermore, TrAPs can also be used in lab settings to better understand diseases, stem cells, and tissue development.

“The TrAP technology provides a flexible method to create materials that actively communicate with the wound and provide key instructions when and where they are needed,” Dr. Almquist continued. “This sort of intelligent, dynamic healing is useful during every phase of the healing process, has the potential to increase the body's chance to recover, and has far-reaching uses on many different types of wounds. This technology has the potential to serve as a conductor of wound repair, orchestrating different cells over time to work together to heal damaged tissues."

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New material helps heal wounds by harnessing natural healing methods

Dr. Ben Almquist and his team of researchers from the...

Satellites could help the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/">United Nations</a> (UN) achieve its <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/no-country-sustainability-needs/">Sustainable Development Goals</a> by providing a clearer picture of living conditions across the world at the household level. 

It can be difficult to measure global <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/childhood-poverty-cognitive-skills/">poverty</a> levels and economic conditions especially in developing nations where population growth is expected to increase rapidly in the coming years. 

But if the UN is to stay on schedule with its development agenda which aims to improve quality of life and sustainability worldwide, tracking living and economic conditions is critical. That’s why researchers from <a href="https://international.au.dk/">Aarhus University</a> in Denmark have turned to satellite data. 

A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that freely available satellite imagery can be used to map economic living conditions at the household level in developing nations where this information has not been readily available. 

“Based on high-resolution satellite images, we can very precisely assess the status of poverty at household level in rural areas in developing countries,” said Jens-Christian Svenning, the leader of the research. 

Satellite data is widely and freely available, making it a valuable resource for researchers with a wide range of applications. 

After analyzing imagery from an agricultural area in Kenya, the researchers were able to measure building size, land use, and even the length of the growing season. 

“The method that we have developed is designed to analyse the satellite images in a way that takes into account that people have access to and use different resources in the landscape at different levels,” said Svenning .”Some use the area just around their house, while others use the common areas of a village. When we use space data with a socio-ecological insight, we capture the financial status and in this way also the development in an area much better than we have previously been able to.” 

Overall, satellite images can explain 62 percent of variations in economic conditions of individual households the researchers say. 

Satellite images would be a cost-effective way to keep track of development and poverty as well as household incomes without using surveys or study interviews. 

“The use of satellite images makes it much, much cheaper to keep track of how far we are in reaching the UN's goals for sustainable development. If conventional assessments of the households' economic conditions were used, the cost would be more than 250 billion dollars,” said Gary R. Watmough, a lead member of the research team.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Gary Watmough

Satellite images help map economic living conditions, global poverty

Satellites could help the United Nations (UN) achieve its Sustainable...

Federal scientists caught in government shutdown crossfire. The partial government shutdown that started on December 22nd is now in its third week with little indication of a resolution coming any time soon.

While the shutdown continues, scientific research, grant funding for studies, and data collection have all been put on hold, the impacts of  which will be felt for years to come. Federal scientists caught in government shutdown crossfire. 

President Trump continues to be unyielding in his demands for $5 billion to pay for a<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/border-wall-endangered-species/"> wall on the United States’ southern border</a> between the US and Mexico and has even threatened that the shutdown could continue for months or even years. 

Many government agencies remain closed, and hundreds of thousands of government employees have either been furloughed or are working without pay. Federal scientists caught in government shutdown crossfire

Scientists and government-funded scientific research are caught in the crosshairs, and many essential federal scientific agencies are not able to do their jobs. 

The <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a> (NOAA), the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/">Fish and Wildlife Service</a>, the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/index.htm">National Park Service</a>, the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/">Environmental Protection Agency</a> and the<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/"> National Aeronautics and Space Administration</a> (NASA) are all either running with a skeleton crew or have closed down. 

The president isn’t just holding the government hostage in his mission to fund the border wall, but potential scientific progress is also suffering as these key scientific agencies are not allowed to do the jobs that they were put in place to do. 

Part of that work involves data collection, monitoring, and research and without data, future studies will face large gaps in information, according to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/05/us/government-shutdown-science.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&amp;smid=nytcore-ipad-share">New York Times</a>. 

Future researchers have been cheated out of time-sensitive data and observations, and there’s nothing that the agencies can do. 

“It’s not just the gap,” Sally Jewell, who was the Secretary of the Interior during the 16-day shutdown in 2013, told the New York Times in an interview. “It’s the ability to correlate that with a broader picture of what’s happening environmentally and ecologically. It really does mess things up.”

Where the shutdown was felt the most was at the <a href="https://www.ametsoc.org/index.cfm/ams/">American Meteorological Society’s</a> annual conference. 700 federal employees who were expected to attend the conference were barred from doing so. 

The <a href="https://www.apnews.com/bab6ca69ba754fb094b76bf66b500d8f">Associated Press</a> also reported that 500 government employees would miss the <a href="https://www.aiaa.org/">American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics</a>’ SciTech Forum and Exposition in San Diego and over 300 will not be allowed to attend the “Superbowl of Astronomy” annual meeting of the <a href="https://aas.org/">American Astronomical Society</a>. 

“In the same week that the Chinese government lands a rover (on the far side of the moon), and the U.S. sends a probe to the furthest object ever visited by humanity, scores of scientists at all career levels are being prevented from attending our meeting,” said Kevin Marvel, the astronomy organization’s executive officer to the Associated Press. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Federal scientists caught in government shutdown crossfire

Federal scientists caught in government shutdown crossfire. The partial government...

Researchers will use gene-editing techniques to engineer <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/tomatoes-fruit-improve-lungs/">tomatoes</a> that are spicy like the chili pepper. The objective is not for culinary purposes, but to mass produce the molecules that make peppers spicy, known as capsaicinoids. These molecules have nutritional and antibiotic properties, and are used for producing painkillers and pepper spray. 

When the chili pepper and the tomato split off from a common ancestor 19 million years ago, they became very different even though they still share some of the same DNA. Tomato plants became nutrient-rich and abundant, while chili plants developed capsaicinoids as a defense against predators.

“Engineering the capsaicinoid genetic pathway to the tomato would make it easier and cheaper to produce this compound, which has very interesting applications,” said study senior author Agustin Zsögön, a plant biologist at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_University_of_Vi%C3%A7osa">Federal University of Viçosa</a>. “We have the tools powerful enough to engineer the genome of any species; the challenge is to know which gene to engineer and where.”

The spicy taste from capsaicinoids is actually not a flavor, but a reaction to pain. The molecules activate nerve cells in the tongue that respond to heat-induced pain, which the brain interprets as a burning sensation. 

The evolution of capsaicinoids was likely to deter small animals from eating the fruit of the chili pepper. Birds, on the other hand, will still disperse the seeds because they show no pain response to the molecules.


The heat level of a pepper is determined by the genes that regulate capsaicinoid production, and peppers that are less spicy have mutations that inhibit this process. Previous research has shown that tomatoes have the genes that are needed for capsaicinoids but lack a way to express those genes. 

“In theory you could use these genes to produce capsaicinoids in the tomato,” said Zsögön. “Since we don't have solid data about the expression patterns of the capsaicinoid pathway in the tomato fruit, we have to try alternative approaches. One is to activate candidate genes one at a time and see what happens, which compounds are produced. We are trying this and a few other things.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/trends/plant-science/home">Trends in Plant Science</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Emmanuel Rezende Naves

Scientists may soon create a tomato as spicy as a chili pepper

Researchers will use gene-editing techniques to engineer tomatoes that are...

Things may be heating up a bit on the surface here on Earth, but in the deep Pacific Ocean, life is a lot cooler – if a little outdated. 

The water in the deepest parts of the Pacific are still recovering from the Little Ice Age, a period of cooling in the 17th century that followed the Medieval Warm Period, according to a new study published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aar8413">Science</a>.

A team of researchers from <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a> and the <a href="http://www.whoi.edu/">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution</a> teamed up to create a model of how the climate affects the deep Pacific. What they found was surprising.

"These waters are so old and haven't been near the surface in so long, they still 'remember' what was going on hundreds of years ago when Europe experienced some of its coldest winters in history," said Dr. Jake Gebbie, the WHOI oceanographer who led the study.

The Little Ice Age was a cooling period that lasted from the 1500s to the 1800s at various points on the globe. The timing differs depending on region, but led to widespread disasters in some areas, such as the disappearance of Norse colonies in Greenland and the agricultural failures and starvation across Europe. Those disasters, in turn, may have triggered hardships from warfare to witch trials.

The decades of historical, scientific and statistical research on the Little Ice Age made it an excellent data source for the WHOI and Harvard team’s models of the deep Pacific waters.

"Climate varies across all timescales," said Dr. Peter Huybers of Harvard University, who co-authored the paper. "Some regional warming and cooling patterns, like the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period, are well known. Our goal was to develop a model of how the interior properties of the ocean respond to changes in surface climate."

The models found that, unlike the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-warming-climate-variability/">atmosphere</a> and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pacific-ocean-warming-arctic/">ocean surface waters</a> around the Earth, the deep Pacific may still be cooling from the Little Ice Age.

"If the surface ocean was generally cooling for the better part of the last millennium, those parts of the ocean most isolated from modern warming may still be cooling," Gebbie said.

To test their model, Huybers and Gebbie compared the results to temperature data taken in 1870 and the 1990s. 

"The close correspondence between the predictions and observed trends gave us confidence that this is a real phenomenon," Gebbie said.

The model changes what scientists know about how the ocean absorbs and holds heat from the atmosphere, the pair said.

"Part of the heat needed to bring the ocean into equilibrium with an atmosphere having more greenhouse gases was apparently already present in the deep Pacific," Huybers said. "These findings increase the impetus for understanding the causes of the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age as a way for better understanding modern warming trends."

--

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Image credit: Larry Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Deep Pacific Ocean waters are still cooling from the Little Ice Age

Things may be heating up a bit on the surface...

For some Magellanic penguins in Argentina, loneliness is their lot in life. That’s because male penguins outnumber females nearly three to one at the breeding colony at Punta Tombo.

It wasn’t always that way.

"Two decades ago, there were about 1.5 adult male Magellanic penguins for every adult female at Punta Tombo," said Dr. Natasha Gownaris, a postdoctoral researcher at the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington</a> who was lead author of the study.

While studying the Magellanic penguins at the breeding colony, Gownaris and Dr. P. Dee Boersma found that more female juvenile penguins die while out at sea than their male counterparts.

Magellanic penguins spend most of their lives out at sea, swimming off the coast of Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina throughout the fall and winter months and into early spring. In the summer, they congregate at breeding colonies like Punta Tombo, where they pair off and nurture their chicks.

The pairs’ findings show that juvenile females may face more risk from predators and diminishing food supplies than their male counterparts. That skews the balance between the sexes, and that in turn affects the penguin population as a whole at Punta Tombo, the largest of the breeding colonies.

"Magellanic penguins are serially monogamous – with one male pairing with one female each breeding season – and both parents working together to rear the chicks. So, having fewer females means you have fewer pairings each year overall," Gownaris said.

From 1983 to 2010, Boersma and fellow researchers banded more than 44,300 Magellanic penguin chicks at Punta Tombo. Only 3,296 of those chicks returned to the breeding colony. Researchers were able to determine the sex of 57 percent of those.

"From a conservation standpoint, this study shows us how important it is to try to protect the places where these penguins feed throughout the year, both in the breeding season and the non-breeding season," said Gownaris. "It all comes down to food for this species."

Magellanic penguins aren’t the only penguin species struggling with food competition and survival. King penguins have declined in recent years due to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/king-penguin-colony-declined/">climate-linked food shortages</a>.

The study has been published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eap.1826">Ecological Applications</a>. Funding was provided by the <a href="https://www.wcs.org/">Wildlife Conservation Society</a>, <a href="https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/en/community/worldwide-giving/exxonmobil-foundation/overview">ExxonMobil Foundation</a>, <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/projects/marine-fellows">Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation</a>, <a href="https://www.thewaltdisneycompany.com/environment/">Disney Conservation Fund</a>, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/">National Geographic Society</a>, the <a href="http://www.chasefoundation.com/">Chase Foundation</a> and the Cunningham Foundation.

--

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Image credit: Dr. Natasha Gownaris, University of Washington

At Punta Tombo, male Magellanic penguins compete for mates

For some Magellanic penguins in Argentina, loneliness is their lot...

By the time they turn 14, young girls are twice as likely to show symptoms of depression than boys – and researchers are blaming social media.

The problem, according to a new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589537018300609?via%3Dihub">EClinical Medicine</a>, is that girls tend to use social media much more than their male counterparts.

“Greater social media use related to online harassment, poor sleep, low self-esteem and poor body image; in turn these related to higher depressive symptom scores,” the researchers wrote.

To see how sites and apps like <a href="http://www.twitter.com/">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://www.snapchat.com">Snapchat</a> affected young teens’ mental health, the team from <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/">University College London</a> and <a href="https://www.essex.ac.uk/">University of Essex</a> looked at data collected by the UK’s <a href="https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/cls-studies/millennium-cohort-study/">Millennium Cohort Study</a>. That project involved collecting information from 10,904 14-year-olds.

The study found that 10 percent of boys reported that they don’t use social media, compared to just 4 percent of girls. About 40 percent of girls were on social media for more than three hours per day; only 20 percent of boys said the same.

Those differences put girls at more risk of online bullying, and tended to lead to more interrupted sleep, due to use of chat apps. Those issues, in turn, led to mental health challenges for female tweens and teens.

“The link between social media use and depressive symptoms was stronger for girls compared with boys,” Dr. Yvonne Kelly, the study’s lead author, told the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html">Daily Mail</a>. “For girls, greater daily hours of social media use corresponded to a stepwise increase in depressive symptoms. For boys, higher depressive symptom scores were seen among those reporting three or more hours of daily social media use.”

Rates of depression symptoms among heavy users were more than three times higher than light users.

The study follows on the heels of another report, released in October, that found <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/unlimited-screen-time-depression/">unlimited screen time</a> is linked to worse mental health in young people.

“Our findings highlight the potential pitfalls of lengthy social media use for young people's mental health,” the research team wrote in their study. “Findings are highly relevant for the development of guidelines for the safe use of social media and calls on industry to more tightly regulate hours of social media use.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Social media use, depression linked in teen girls

By the time they turn 14, young girls are twice...

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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

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" 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 Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River.



In 1968, Kainji Lake was created by the construction of the Kainji Dam. The Niger River, the third longest in Africa, enters the lake in the north.&nbsp;



According to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rivers-in-the-american-west-are-a-lifesaving-resource-for-birds/">ESA</a>, the creation of the lake submerged Foge Island and the town of Bussa and permanently flooded other riverine settlements, leaving around 50,000 people displaced.&nbsp;



Large parts of Foge Island are temporarily exposed during low water tides, and the land is often used by migrating fishermen. Kainji Dam is a dam across the Niger River in Niger State of Central Nigeria. 



Wild mammals occur at relatively low densities due to illegal hunting. Lake Kainji has suffered a dramatic decline as a fishery due to the high numbers of artisanal and subsistence fisherfolk using the lake. It has been suggested that a period of closure, together with controlled fishing rights may help improve fish stocks.



Kainji Lake National Park is the oldest of its kind in Nigeria. The park contains three distinct areas: a part of the Kainji Lake, the Borgu Game Reserve to the west of the lake, and the Zugurma Game Reserve to the southeast. The park is home to around 65 mammal species, 350 bird species, and 30 species of reptiles and amphibians. 



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&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.

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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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.

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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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

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

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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

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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://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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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.

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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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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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes why experts are studying zebrafish to gain a better understanding of how the immune system responds to injury. Zebrafish have the ability to repair and regenerate organs.



“Organ regeneration offers an exciting opportunity for studying the immune system and to inquire why some species can regenerate organs like the heart or missing limbs while others like humans cannot,” explained Dr. Tatjana Piotrowski.



Zebrafish sensory organ hair cells are an ideal system to investigate the pathways and cell types involved in regeneration since they are easily destroyed with antibiotics and begin regenerating within five hours. This enabled the researchers to identify the exact timing and genetic programs for each anti-inflammatory macrophage activation state.&nbsp;



“Our hypothesis is that human macrophages do not receive the proper chemical activation 'cocktail' to instruct pro-regenerative processes,” said Dr. Nicolas Denans. “Identifying the molecular recipe of macrophage activation in zebrafish may one day enable us to design regenerative immunotherapies in humans.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The new evidence is a valuable resource for comparative studies on the genetic programs involved in macrophage-mediated repair and regeneration. In other words, different types of injuries may induce different kinds of inflammatory responses. We want to decipher whether this 'language' is universal or if there are a variety of dialects."



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&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.

How the immune system responds to injury

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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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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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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