You've undoubtedly noticed that the Moon has two distinct sides, right? The near side that we see from Earth and the far side that remains a mystery because it is never turned towards us.



This unusual lunar characteristic -- a global dichotomy -- is what a team of scientists led by Professor XU Yigang from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (<a href="http://english.gig.cas.cn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GIGCAS</a>) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been investigating.



They have been studying lunar soil samples collected from the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far side of the Moon, and returned to Earth by China's <a href="https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=CHANG-E-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chang’e-6 mission</a>.



These invaluable samples have allowed them to investigate the Moon's peculiar dichotomy and the results have shed light on some of its secrets.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-is-chang-e-6">What is Chang’e-6?</h2>



The Chinese space program launched Chang'e 6, their latest Moon mission, on May 3, 2024. The spacecraft blasted off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on a Long March 5 rocket at 9:27 UT (that's 5:27 PM Beijing time). 



Their goal? To grab about four pounds (2 kg) of Moon rocks from the far side - something no one had done before.



The lander touched down in a huge crater called the South Pole Aitken Basin. The team used both a scoop and a drill to dig up surface samples and even went 2 meters deep into the lunar soil. 



They also sent out a small rover that cruised around taking snapshots of the lander doing its work.



Once they collected the samples, the crew packed them into an ascent vehicle sitting on top of the lander. 



On June 3 at 11:38 PM UT (7:38 AM Beijing time the next day), this vehicle shot up from the Moon's surface and met up with the orbiter waiting above. They made the handoff on June 6, 2024.



After ditching the ascent vehicle (which crashed back into the Moon), the return vehicle hung around in orbit for a couple weeks before heading home. 



It pulled off a tricky skip-entry through Earth's atmosphere and landed in Inner Mongolia's Siziwang Banner region on June 25 at 6:07 UT (2:07 PM Beijing time). 



The final haul? Roughly 4.2 pounds (1.9 kg) of Moon rocks and soil from the far side -- marking another big win for China's space program.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-far-side-vs-visible-side-of-the-moon">Far side vs. visible side of the Moon</h2>



The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/its-official-earth-now-has-two-moons-captured-asteroid-2024-pt5/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Moon's</a> dichotomy is visible in its topography, chemical composition, crustal thickness, evidence of volcanism and, most noticeably, in the difference in geomorphology between its near and far sides.



The near side of the Moon is home to the familiar "man in the moon" maria - the dark "seas" that are the result of ancient volcanic activity. 



These areas were flooded with molten lava that created rocks known as mare basalts.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-episodes_diagram_credit-YANG-Muhan_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-episodes_diagram_credit-YANG-Muhan_1s.webp" alt="Distribution of distinct volcanic episodes on the Moon’s farside. The remote sensing image highlights the Chang’e-6 landing site along with nearby mare and cryptomare basaltic units. Credit: Image by YANG Muhan" class="wp-image-1950782"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Distribution of distinct volcanic episodes on the Moon’s farside. The remote sensing image highlights the Chang’e-6 landing site along with nearby mare and cryptomare basaltic units. Credit: Image by YANG Muhan</figcaption></figure>



How about the far side? Well, here's where it gets intriguing. Only about 2% of this hidden part of the Moon is covered in the basalts, compared to around 30% on the near side.



This inexplicable difference is a vital part of the lunar global dichotomy that the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program aims to unravel.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-secrets-of-the-moon-s-far-side">Secrets of the Moon's far side</h2>



Thanks to the Chang’e-6 lunar soil samples, Professor XU's team discovered the existence of two different types of mare basalts, low-Ti, and very low-Ti (VLT). 



“The samples returned by Chang’e-6 provide a best opportunity to investigate the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/2024-pt5-mini-moon-say-goodbye-to-earths-second-moon-we-barely-got-to-know-you/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lunar</a> global dichotomy,” said Professor XU.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-eruptions_basalt-types_credit-GIGCAS_1s.webp" alt="The two types of basalts in Chang’e-6 soils and isochrons of the Chang’e-6 low-Ti basalt. Credit: GIGCAS" class="wp-image-1950784"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The two types of basalts in Chang’e-6 soils and isochrons of the Chang’e-6 low-Ti basalt. Credit: GIGCAS</figcaption></figure>



Let's not dismiss the aspect of dating these samples either. With high-precision Pb-Pb dating techniques, the team determined that the low-Ti basalt dates back to around 2.83 billion years ago.



This attests to the presence of "young" magmatism or volcanic activities on the far side of the Moon. But of course, young is a relative term when we talk about 2.83 billion years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mapping-the-history-of-volcanoes">Mapping the history of volcanoes</h2>



With such valuable information now in our hands, we can clearly chart the volcanic timeline on the far side of the Moon. 



Led by Professor LI Qiuli, the team conducted radioisotope dating on 108 basalt fragments, with 107 of them revealing a consistent formation age of 2807 million years ago.



But there's more. One fragment, a high-aluminum basalt, was dated to a monumental 4203 million years ago, making it the oldest <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/harvest-moon-2024-will-feature-a-partial-lunar-eclipse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lunar</a> basalt for which age has been precisely determined.



This implies elevated levels of volcanic activity on the far side of the Moon for at least 1.4 billion years - between 4.2 billion and 2.8 billion years ago.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-does-any-of-this-matter">Why does any of this matter?</h2>



These findings, available for everyone to dissect, can help recalibrate the existing lunar crater chronology models. 



Christopher Hamilton, an independent planetary volcano expert, emphasized the importance of obtaining samples from this previously unchartered lunar territory.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-episodes_Change-6-mission_landing_credit-CLEP_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-episodes_Change-6-mission_landing_credit-CLEP_1s.webp" alt="China's Chang’e-6 mission spacecraft landed on the far side of the Moon. Credit: CLAP" class="wp-image-1950787"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">China's Chang’e-6 mission spacecraft landed on the far side of the Moon. Credit: CLAP </figcaption></figure>



More than just understanding the Moon, these lunar soil samples also have implications for some broad astronomical theories.



The new data indicates a constant impact flux after 2.83 billion years, which can offer new insights into planet migration in the early Solar System. 



So, by looking at the Moon, we are indirectly learning about our own cosmic neighborhood as well!



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-happens-next">What happens next?</h2>



With more missions like the Chang'e-6, the future will undoubtedly bring many enlightening discoveries about our constant celestial companion.



In the end, we see that the Moon, despite its <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-may-have-captured-the-moon-from-space/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">familiar appearance</a>, still hides untold secrets waiting to be discovered. 



These lunar missions represent a new age of lunar and planetary exploration that pushes the boundaries of our understanding.



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The researchers from the <a href="https://english.cas.cn" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chinese Academy of Sciences</a> express their gratitude for the support received from various institutes such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. These institutions' enduring support enables such important lunar explorations.



The study is published in the journals <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08382-0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a> and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt1093" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science</a>.



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Far side of the Moon had volcanic eruptions for over one billion years

You've undoubtedly noticed that the Moon has two distinct sides, right? The near side that we see from Earth and the far side that remains a mystery because it is never turned towards us. This unusual lunar characteristic -- a global dichotomy -- is what a team of scientists led by Professor XU Yigang from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (GIGCAS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been investigating. They have been studying lunar soil samples collected from the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far...

Atmospheric rivers are long jet streams of air that carry large amounts of water vapor. They are often called “rivers in the sky” and can fuel storms that cause disastrous amounts of flooding due to the high levels of water vapor present in the air streams. 

In early 2017, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/relentless-rain-california-nevada-west/">California</a> and much of the U.S. west coast was battered with severe flooding from atmospheric river storms. 

A new <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a> study examined the impact that climate change will have on atmospheric rivers around the world in an effort to provide a better understanding of the weather events. 

According to <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7141&amp;utm_source=iContact&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=NASAJPL&amp;utm_content=daily20180524-2">NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> in California, atmospheric river research was previously limited to either the western United States or Europe. Different methods and results meant that climatologists were not able to compare studies or predict atmospheric river intensity across the globe.  

But this new study provides a method for predicting and evaluating the impacts of climate change on atmospheric river storms on a global scale, as opposed to isolated to a single region. 


The results, recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, project that although atmospheric rivers may slightly decline in numbers, the frequency and intensity of atmospheric river storms will almost double. 

For the study, NASA researchers used global climate projections for the 21st century that were developed for the <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> as well as an algorithm designed to detect atmospheric rivers around the world. 

The algorithm calculates the length, width, and amount of water vapor present in any given atmospheric river from model simulations. 

After applying the algorithm to both real-world observations and model simulations of climate for the 20th century, the researchers were able to show that model simulations accurately represented real-world data and events. 

Next, the researchers used the algorithm to predict atmospheric river events for the late 21st century in order to compare the effects of climate change on these weather events. 

The results showed that increases in global temperature and climate change would impact atmospheric rivers and intensity the frequency of storms even though the number of actual rivers would decrease. 

“The results project that in a scenario where greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, there will be about 10 percent fewer atmospheric rivers globally by the end of the 21st century,” said Duane Waliser, the study’s lead author. “However, because the findings project that the atmospheric rivers will be, on average, about 25 percent wider and longer, the global frequency of atmospheric river conditions -- like heavy rain and strong winds -- will actually increase by about 50 percent.”

Now, because of this study, researchers and climatologists have a uniform way to study climate change and its effect on atmospheric rivers which will be critical for the regions already affected by heavy flooding from atmospheric river fueled storms. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Atmospheric rivers expected to prompt heavier future flooding

Atmospheric rivers are long jet streams of air that carry...

A new study has provided a more accurate picture of how pterodactyls really flew.

It turns out that previous hypotheses, artists renderings, and movies that pictured the winged dinosaurs flying like bats were all wrong. 

The research emphasizes an important point about examining fossils and drawing conclusions about an animal's movements based on its skeletal framework alone.

In the case of pterosaurs, it was long assumed that these dinosaurs flew like bats with their limbs splayed apart because they had wings that were supported by a fourth finger, just like bats. 

However, researchers from <a href="https://www.brown.edu/">Brown University</a> conclude that this movement was likely impossible because of limitations with the pterodactyl’s ligaments, something not apparent from fossil evidence alone. 

For the study, researchers took into account the soft tissues of pterosaurs, and to get a better idea of how the dinosaurs may have moved, they used a dead quail because birds are the closest living relative to pterosaurs. 

The muscles were cut away from the quail’s hip joints and the researchers took X-ray videos while manipulating the joints. The range of motion for the quail was then mapped with the ligaments attached and the results showed that the ligaments greatly limited the bird’s movements. 

To better explain the difference and show that the bat pose among pterosaurs was likely impossible, the researchers used a grocery store chicken as an example. 

“If you pick up a raw chicken at the grocery store and move its joints, you’ll reach a point where you’ll hear a pop,” said Armita Manafzadeh, a co-author of the study. “That’s the ligaments snapping. But if I handed you a chicken skeleton without the ligaments, you might think that its joints could do all kinds of crazy things. So the question is, if you were to dig up a fossil chicken, how would you think its joints could move, and how wrong would you be?” 

In order to achieve the bat pose while flying, the quail ligament would have to stretch 63 percent beyond its capabilities. 

“That’s a huge difference that would need to be accounted for before it can be argued that a pterosaur or ‘four-winged dinosaur’s hip would be able to get into this bat-like pose,” said Manafzadeh. 

The results show how important it is to consider soft tissues when modeling movements of fossils and long extinct species, and now future studies will be able to create a better picture of pterosaurs’ flight.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Pterodactyls did not fly like bats, new study finds

A new study has provided a more accurate picture of...

The growing issue of antibiotic resistance has now been linked to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-fish-north-fishing-business/">climate change</a>. A team of epidemiologists led by <a href="https://hms.harvard.edu/">Harvard Medical School</a> discovered that higher local temperatures are associated with increased antibiotic resistance in common bacterial strains. 

Study lead author Derek MacFadden is an infectious disease specialist at <a href="http://www.childrenshospital.org/">Boston Children's Hospital</a>.

“The effects of climate are increasingly being recognized in a variety of infectious diseases, but so far as we know this is the first time it has been implicated in the distribution of antibiotic resistance over geographies,” said MacFadden.

“We also found a signal that the associations between antibiotic resistance and temperature could be increasing over time.”

According to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a>, antibiotics are unnecessarily prescribed around 30 percent of the time, which was previously believed to be the cause of rising antibiotic resistance.

In the current study, the team used hospital and lab data from between 2013 and 2015 to examine antibiotic resistance in E. coli, K. pneumoniae and S. aureus. The investigation included more than 1.6 million bacterial specimens from 223 facilities across 41 states.

The study revealed that an increase in temperature of 18 degrees Fahrenheit boosted antibiotic-resistant strains of K. pneumoniae by 2.2 percent, S. aureus by 3.6 percent, and E. coli by 4.2 percent.

“Estimates outside of our study have already told us that there will already be a drastic and deadly rise in antibiotic resistance in coming years,” said co-senior author John Brownstein.


“But with our findings that climate change could be compounding and accelerating an increase in antibiotic resistance, the future prospects could be significantly worse than previously thought.”

The team also found a link between antibiotic resistance and population density.

“Population growth and increases in temperature and antibiotic resistance are three phenomena that we know are currently happening on our planet,” explained senior author Mauricio Santillana. “But until now, hypotheses about how these phenomena relate to each other have been sparse.”


Brownstein said that the research highlights an urgent need to gain a better understanding of how our changing environment is interconnected with infectious disease and medicine.


The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/nclimate">Nature Climate Change</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Antibiotic resistance has been linked to climate change

The growing issue of antibiotic resistance has now been linked...

While the majority of the world’s governments are in agreement that human activities are at the core of climate change and that action must be taken to reduce emissions, the Trump administration has continued to ignore science. 

Trump himself has famously called climate change “a hoax” and even taunted political opponents during the cold days of winter, claiming the northeast “could use some global warming.” Oddly, Trump’s own administration still released an <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-driving-climate-change/">official government report</a> stating in no uncertain terms that human activity is driving climate change.

Now, according to a recent report from the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/05/23/in-an-internal-memo-the-white-house-considered-whether-to-simply-ignore-federal-climate-research/?utm_term=.b4956e50d50d">Washington Post</a>, an internal memo from last year showed the White House weighing its options of whether to simply “ignore” all climate change research, or to actually develop a “fact-based” approach.

It was an internal document written by Michael Catanzaro, the president’s special assistant for domestic energy and environmental policy at the time the memo was drafted. 

The memo, according to the Washington Post, was presented to a staff of senior White House and agency officials in September and discussed having an official stance on climate change. 

Catanzaro wrote wondering whether the Trump administration should “consider having a firm position on and a coherent, fact-based message about climate science — specifically, whether, and to what extent, anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are affecting the climate system, and what level of concern that warrants.”

The options presented by Catanzaro included the possibility of a red and blue debate to show the inconsistencies and uncertainties of climate science, or the option to just ignore all climate science. None of the options involved emphasizing or “touting” climate study findings. 

The administration didn't take any formal position on climate change, but as Trump continues to push for coal and other fossil fuels as well confuse weather events as a means to disprove climate change, the unofficial position is clear. 

Yet, despite the new administration's attempts to largely ignore federal scientific findings, new reports and studies continue to be published that show the clear harmful effects of human activities on the world’s climate.

“The scientific evidence about accelerating effects of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is so strong, and so prevalent, that it would be impossible to hush it up even if you wanted to,” Rush Holt, CEO of the <a href="http://www.aaas.org/">American Association for the Advancement of Science</a> told the Washington Post. “Coral deaths and glacier melting and sea-level rise, and all of these things are just so well documented and there’s just new evidence every day, whether it’s from <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/">USGS</a>, or [<a href="http://www.noaa.gov/">the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a>], or<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/"> NASA</a>, or <a href="https://www.energy.gov/">Department of Energy</a>, or various academic institutions. It just can’t be swept under the rug.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

How long can the Trump admin ignore climate change science?

While the majority of the world’s governments are in agreement...

A new study has found that the brain activity of young transgender people matches the gender they identify with, as opposed to the sex that they were born with. 

Researchers from the Netherlands and Belgium set out to better understand the brain activity of young transgender people and to see if MRI scans could shed insight into how best to treat gender dysphoria at an early age. 

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/transgender-youth-risk-suicide/">Transgenderism</a> is defined as identifying with a gender different from one’s assigned biological sex. Someone who is cisgender, conversely, identifies with the gender they were born with. 

Gender dysphoria (GD) can result due to the stress of being faced with a gender or identity that doesn’t match what someone may internally identify with and can lead to serious psychological issues.  

“It is important to study the origin of sex differences in the brain, not only for making clinical decisions for people suffering from disorders of sex development or from gender dysphoria, but also because there are important sex differences in the incidence of a wide variety of neurological diseases such as autism, depression, schizophrenia and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease,” said Julie Baker, the study’s lead author from the <a href="https://www.uliege.be/cms/c_8699436/en/portail-uliege">University of Liège in Belgium. </a>

The researchers analyzed MRI scans of around 160 young transgender people and the study participants included both adolescent boys and girls with gender dysphoria. 

The study participants were exposed to a pheromone that produces gender-specific activity in the brain and the MRI scans showed how the brain responded to the pheromone. 

Brain activity of the participants matched the activity and brain patterns of cisgendered individuals from the participants’ desired genders.

In other words, whatever gender the study participants identified with, regardless of their biological sex, their brain activity matched. 

A misconception of the LGBT community is the idea that these preferences are a “lifestyle choice,” or that choosing to identify as a different gender is psychological. But more and more science has shown that this is not the case. 

“It used to be held long ago that all of this was psychological, and over the years the pendulum of 'Is it nature or nurture?' has swung rather more toward the nature side of it, with increasing peculiar pieces of biological evidence suggesting there may be something innate in the pre-uterine environment,” James Barrett told <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/transgender-people-brains-wired-those-gender-they-identify-new-study-shows-939504">Newsweek</a>, who reported on the study. 

Barrett is the president of the <a href="https://www.bagis.co.uk/">British Association of Gender Identity Specialists,</a> who peer reviewed the new study 

The results show that MRI imaging could help with early detection of transgenderism and GD among young people which can pave the way for better treatments and an overall improved quality of life and transition for both individuals and their families. 

Some treatments that have been met with success include delaying puberty with hormones and psychotherapy. 

“The earlier it [being transgender] is detected, the better the outcome of the treatment,” said Baker in an interview with Newsweek. “For instance in the Netherlands, youngsters are being treated with puberty inhibitors at 12 years of age to prevent the development of secondary sex characteristics which are difficult or even impossible to reverse (like the lowering of the voice in boys) and then at 16 years of age, they can start with cross-sex hormones. It has been shown that these youngsters are doing relatively well and are well accepted by their peers.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Transgender brains match their desired gender at a young age

A new study has found that the brain activity of...

The Earth may have undergone a drastic transformation 2.4 billion years ago with a rapid rise of land above the ocean, according to a new study. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.uoregon.edu/">University of Oregon </a>examined isotopes in shale samples from all over the world and found nearly imperceptible traces of rainwater.

This points to the possibility that during Earth’s early years, newly exposed land underwent dramatic weathering that would have triggered changes in the Earth’s geographic makeup, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/species-climate-change-relocate/">climate</a>, and even life.  

The study was published in the journal Nature and the results show that land weathering may have occurred as early as 3.5 billion years ago. 

The researchers analyzed three oxygen isotopes, oxygen 16, the rare but stable 17 and 18, in 278 shale samples taken from every continent and spanning 3.7 billion years. 

After identifying changes in the ratios of the isotopes in the shale, the researchers were able to better establish when newly exposed crust, after rising above sea level, was exposed to chemical and physical weathering such as rainfall. 

The results also coincide with previous hypotheses about when the Earth’s first supercontinent was formed with mountain ranges and plateaus. 

“Crust needs to be thick to stick out of water,” said Ilya Bindeman, the study’s lead author. “The thickness depends on its amount and also on thermoregulation and the viscosity of the mantle. When the Earth was hot and the mantle was soft, large, tall mountains could not be supported. Our data indicate that this changed exponentially 2.4 billion years ago. The cooler mantle was able to support large swaths of land above sea level.”

The surface temperature during this time was likely hotter by several tens of degrees that what we see today according to the researchers.

Not only does the study provide a possible timeframe for the development of major land formations and weathering, but the rise of land above sea-level at this time coincides with the transition from the Archean Eon to the Proterozoic Eon when algae and plants first emerged.

The stepwise changes in triple-isotopes of oxygen in the shale show that land emerged in a stepwise pattern between 1.1 and 3.5 billion years ago and 2.4 billion years ago, the land began to absorb carbon dioxide.

The study’s results show how the world’s first landmasses emerged and when chemical weathering took place, changing the world’s climate. The newly formed landscapes would have even led to changes in the reflection of solar radiation.

“What we speculate is that once large continents emerged, light would be reflected back into space and initiate runaway glaciation,” said Bindeman. “Earth would have seen its first snowfall.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

When land first rose above water, it transformed Earth’s climate

The Earth may have undergone a drastic transformation 2.4 billion...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/self-driving-cars-back-roads/">Self-driving cars</a> will soon change the way that people commute in the city. Private car ownership will be largely replaced by shared mobility, which is transportation services that are shared among users on-demand. 

A shift to shared mobility will reduce both traffic congestion and air pollution in urban areas. The issue, however, is determining how many vehicles are needed within each city to meet the on-demand needs of commuters. For years, researchers have struggled to develop a mathematical model capable of effectively calculating these numbers.

Experts at the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> have just announced the discovery of a computationally efficient solution, which they have named the “minimum fleet problem,” that can be applied to even the largest cities.

“We started looking into this problem motivated by the increasing trends toward shared mobility, which will likely become even stronger with the transition to autonomous vehicles,” said study co-author Professor Carlo Ratti. 

“If demand for mobility is served by fleets of shared vehicles, a fundamental question is: How many vehicles do we need to serve the mobility needs of, say, a city such as New York?”

Study lead author Paolo Santi explained that while previous solutions have been proposed for fleet management, they have been constrained in size, meaning they can only be computed for fleets with just a few tens of vehicles.


“If we were to consider replacing the current taxi system in New York with an optimized fleet of vehicles, we would have to find the best way of serving the around 500,000 trips made in a day, which are currently served by about 13,500 taxis,” said Santi.

The researchers used a network-based model which they named the “vehicle sharing network” in their approach to the problem.

The algorithm represented the shareability of the taxi fleet as a graph consisting of nodes and edges. The nodes were used to represent trips, and the edges were used to represent the fact that two specific trips can be served by a single vehicle. 

The experts found that the graph enabled the algorithm to find the best solution for fleet sharing. They tested the solution on a data set of 150 million taxi trips taken in New York over the course of one year. They used the Manhattan road network and GPS-based estimations derived from taxi trip datasets to compute travel times.

The researchers found that real-time implementation of the method could reduce the current fleet size by 30 percent, while still providing optimal service. According to Ratti, the solution could become even more relevant in the years ahead, as fleets of networked, self-driving cars become commonplace.

“If we look at Manhattan as a whole, we could theoretically satisfy its mobility demand with approximately 140,000 vehicles - around half of today's number,” said Ratti. “This shows that tomorrow's urban problems regarding mobility can be tackled not necessarily with more physical infrastructure but with more intelligence, or in other words: with more silicon and less asphalt.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/">Nature</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Reduce congestion by calculating ideal number of taxis for a city

Self-driving cars will soon change the way that people commute...

Scientists have created a robotic system that automates the rapid growth of human mini-organs, or organoids, from stem cells. The technology could speed up research on regenerative medicine and drug development.

Benjamin Freedman is a professor at the <a href="http://www.uwmedicine.org/education">University of Washington School of Medicine</a> and a scientist at the UW Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine. He said that the technology is a new “secret weapon” in the fight against disease.

In a <a href="https://newsroom.uw.edu/news/robots-grow-mini-organs-human-stem-cells">news release</a> from UW Medicine, Freedman explained that the traditional way to grow cells for biomedical research is to culture them as flat, two-dimensional sheets that are overly simplistic. Recently, however, experts have been successfully growing more complex, three-dimensional dimensional structures called organoids from stem cells.

The study is the first to demonstrate the automated production of mini-organs from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drinking-kills-brain-stem-cells/">stem cells</a> that are versatile enough to become any type of organ, known as pluripotent stem cells. 

Using this new process, the robots place stem cells into plates containing up to 386 miniature wells, where the cells are manipulated to become kidney organoids over the course of three weeks. Each microwell ends up containing ten or more organoids, and each plate contains thousands of the mini-organs.

According to the researchers, the ability to mass produce organoids is the most exciting potential application of this technology.

“Ordinarily, just setting up an experiment of this magnitude would take a researcher all day, while the robot can do it in 20 minutes,” said Freedman.

“On top of that, the robot doesn't get tired and make mistakes. There's no question. For repetitive, tedious tasks like this, robots do a better job than humans.”

The research team also trained the robots to process and analyze the organoids they produced. Using an automated technique called single cell RNA sequencing, the experts identified all of the types of cells contained in the organoids.

“We established that these organoids do resemble developing kidneys, but also that they contain non-kidney cells that had not previously been characterized in these cultures," said co-lead author Dr. Jennifer Harder. 

“These findings give us a better idea of the nature of these organoids and provide a baseline from which we can make improvements,” said Freedman. 

“The value of this high-throughput platform is that we can now alter our procedure at any point, in many different ways, and quickly see which of these changes produces a better result.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/home">Cell Stem Cell</a>.

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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

Robots have been trained to grow human organs

Scientists have created a robotic system that automates the rapid...

A handful of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antibiotics-soil-killing-superbugs/">soil</a> contains millions of bacteria and fungi, which are competing for space and food. Most are essential in creating healthy soil, but a few of these organisms cause devastating crop diseases. A new study has revealed how some harmful microbes use chemical warfare in response to threats from pesticides as well as from neighboring organisms.

Nancy Keller is a professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the <a href="https://www.wisc.edu/">University of Wisconsin-Madison</a> who has studied the interactions among soil pathogens for years, investigating the chemical signals that are sent back and forth among them. 

Keller’s team has managed to interpret a signal from the fungal pathogen Fusarium fujikuroi, which responds to an attack by the bacterial wilt species Ralstonia solanacearum by generating a host of antibacterial compounds to defend itself.

“Ralstonia is a lethal wilt pathogen worldwide and attacks over 200 plants,” said Keller. Fusarium species are also a major cause of fungal wilt diseases in crops.

In a previous study, Keller’s students noticed competition between Ralstonia and Fusarium. A closer inspection revealed that Ralstonia caused the nearby fungi to produce chlamydospores, which help the fungus survive stress. The distinctive structures turned a unique shade of rusty red.

In the current study, the team identified the red compound as bikaverin, a chemical that helps prevent infection from bacteria.

The researchers demonstrated that Ralstonia secretes a compound that causes Fusarium to produce chlamydospores. Next, Fusarium produces antimicrobial agents, including the red bikaverin, to protect the chlamydospores from invasion. 

The scientists discovered that inhibiting the ability of Fusarium to produce bikaverin allowed Ralstonia to successfully invade the spores. 

An unrelated fungal species that is also a damaging plant pathogen, known as Botrytis, genetically acquired the ability to produce bikaverin from Fusarium. Botrytis has the same response to an attack by Ralstonia and produces chlamydospores.

The researchers were surprised to find that Ralstonia could induce bikaverin in both of the fungal species regardless of the environment. Fusarium and Botrytis normally produce the red pigment under very different conditions, primarily based on what nutrients are available. 


Keller said that these call-and-response offensive and defensive maneuvers are certainly just a small part of the chemical signals passed between microbes hidden from view.

“How these microbes interact and talk with each other is still in its infancy,” said Keller. “We really don't know how they talk to each other. And that's where we want to go in our lab.”

A greater understanding of the messages among the microbial communities in soil could help scientists find ways to respond to persistent threats to crops.

The research is published in the journal <a href="http://mbio.asm.org/">mBio</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Soil microbes communicate and battle with chemical attacks

A handful of soil contains millions of bacteria and fungi,...

New research reveals how melatonin works to help you sleep. Sleep disorders are becoming increasingly common, and it’s been estimated by the<a href="https://sleepfoundation.org/"> National Sleep Foundation </a>that 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from problems with sleep. 

Sleep deprivation can inhibit performance and focus, affect mood, trigger irritability, and cause problems with memory retention.

Many people take non-prescription sleep aids such as melatonin supplements to help them fall asleep, but the underlying mechanisms of melatonin have not been well understood, causing some to <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/melatonin-help-sleep-hype/">question</a> their effectiveness.

But now, researchers from the <a href="https://medicine.missouri.edu/">University of Missouri School of Medicine </a>have conducted a study that investigated how exactly the hormone melatonin promotes sleep. 

The results were published in the Journal of Pineal Research and show how melatonin suppresses certain neurons in the brain that keep you awake and alert. 

For the study, the researchers discovered that mice who were given melatonin during their active period at night had reduced wakefulness and were less alert. 

The researchers also found that blocking the melatonin receptors during bedtime increased activity and made the mice more alert. Melatonin specifically suppressed the particular neurons that were responsible for wakefulness in the mice.

One receptor, MT1, was singled out by the researchers and was the main mechanism that allowed the melatonin to suppress the wakefulness neurons. 

“Melatonin has been used as a sleep drug for many years, but people didn't know how it worked,” said Mahesh Thakkar, the lead author of the study. “Our research suggests that if you target the melatonin MT1 receptor, you will get the most sleep with minimal side effects.”

Finding effective treatments for insomnia and other sleep disorders with few side-effects that help promote restful, quality sleep without risking dependency has been challenging. 

This study could aid in creating treatments that specifically target the neurons responsible for alertness and wakefulness. 

“We as a society are losing sleep because we are working too hard, and it's causing a variety of health concerns," said Thakkar. “We often don't even think about sleep or consider it important. However, there is nothing more important than sleep. We need to focus on therapies that can help you have quality sleep, not just sleep.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New research reveals how melatonin works to help you sleep

New research reveals how melatonin works to help you sleep....

Astronomers suspect that there is a giant planet in our solar system that is 20 times farther from the Sun than Neptune and has ten times the planetary mass of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/large-asteroid-today-moon/">Earth</a>. While this mysterious “Planet Nine” has never actually been spotted, a recent study is providing experts with new evidence of its existence.

In 2016, scientists at the <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/">California Institute of Technology</a> observed icy objects in the Kuiper Belt that had tilted, oval-shaped orbits which all pointed in the same direction. This indicated that there must be a planet controlling the phenomenon, influencing the inclination of the objects with a powerful gravitational field.

Experts at the <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> have now discovered that a large rocky body called 2015 BP519 also holds an exceptionally unusual position in outer space beyond Neptune. The object, which is big enough to be a dwarf planet, has an orbit that is tilted 54 degrees from the normal plane of objects in our solar system.

Computer simulations that represented billions of years could not explain how 2015 BP519 became so highly inclined, until the researchers added the ninth planet to their model.

Graduate student Juliette Becker is the study's lead author. 

“The second you put Planet Nine in the simulations, not only can you form objects like this object, but you absolutely do,” Becker told <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/">Quanta Magazine</a>.

The Kuiper Belt is just on the edge of what the biggest and best telescopes can observe from land. The Caltech researchers are now attempting to get a look at the illusive Planet Nine using the Subaru Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, which they say is the best tool for the job.

Astrophysicist Konstantin Batygin is a professor of Planetary Science at Caltech who was part of the team that first proposed Planet Nine.

“There are now five different lines of observational evidence pointing to the existence of Planet Nine,” said Professor Batygin. 

“If you were to remove this explanation and imagine Planet Nine does not exist, then you generate more problems than you solve. All of a sudden, you have five different puzzles, and you must come up with five different theories to explain them.”

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New evidence of a super planet at the edge of our solar system

Astronomers suspect that there is a giant planet in our...

Scientists in Iceland are not just trapping <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/carbon-capture-profitable-business/">carbon dioxide</a> (CO2) and storing it underground - they have developed a way to solidify the gas and turn it into rocks so that the CO2 will not reach the atmosphere for millions of years.

The Hellisheidi power station is the largest geothermal plant in Iceland, where heat from the Earth is converted to electricity. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news">BBC News</a> is reporting that Hellisheidi is also the site of a revolutionary approach to carbon capture and storage (CCS). 

The project, which is known as <a href="https://www.or.is/carbfix">Carbfix</a>, was developed by an international team led by Reykjavik Energy. According to BBC News, CarbFix has evolved from an experiment to a permanent solution since trials were first launched in 2014. The technology currently stores a third of the power plant's carbon emissions, with 10,000 tons of carbon removed last year.

The process begins with trapping waste CO2 and dissolving it into water, which is pumped over 3,000 feet into the ground. The CO2 solution ultimately binds with porous basalt and turns into calcites that fill in the pores of the rocks.

With about 130 active and inactive volcanoes, Iceland has the ideal landscape for this CCS process because it is made up primarily of basalt, volcanic rock formed by the rapid cooling of lava. Carbon dioxide easily bonds to the calcium, magnesium, and iron found in basalts, which help the carbon harden into a mineral form.

Professor Sigurdur Gislason told BBC News that the solidification process of captured carbon was predicted to take “decades to thousands of years,” but the team found that it hardened in just around 400 days.

CarbFix geologist Sandra Snaebjornsdottir pointed out to the news outlet that this method of CCS could be implemented anywhere there is water and basalt, which is the most common rock in the world.

“The storage capacity is such that, in theory, basalts could permanently hold the entire bulk of CO2 emissions derived from burning all fossil fuel on Earth,” said Snaebjornsdottir.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Scientists in Iceland are capturing CO2 and storing it in rocks

Scientists in Iceland are not just trapping carbon dioxide (CO2)...

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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.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



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.

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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

[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://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

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" 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 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

[sendtonews key="0dEcERCq61-2283382-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Stowers...

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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



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.

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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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

[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...