We might like to think of ourselves as autonomous entities but, in reality, we're more like walking ecosystems, teeming with bacteria, viruses, and other microbes. It turns out that differences in these microbes might be as crucial to evolution and natural variation as genetic mutations are.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-understanding-biological-variation">Understanding biological variation</h2>



This novel perspective was discussed in a recent publication by Seth Bordenstein, director of Penn State’s One Health Microbiome Center, who is a professor of biology and entomology and holds the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Endowed Chair in Microbiome Sciences.



He, along with 21 colleagues from around the globe, collectively known as the Holobiont Biology Network, propose that understanding the relationships between microbes and their hosts will lead to a more profound understanding of biological variation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-microbes-in-the-process-of-evolution">Microbes in the process of evolution</h2>



We've all heard the term evolution before, but what does it really mean? 



"The longstanding definition of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microbes-laid-the-foundation-for-early-life-on-earth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evolution</a> is the process by which living things change over time due to gradual mutations and adaptations to their environments," Bordenstein explains.



These adaptations are commonly driven by natural selection, a process that involves advantageous traits being passed on down the lineage. 



However, when we incorporate the microbiome, the collection of all microbes in and on a host organism, the process of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/discovery-evolution-not-random-gene-families-pangenome-influence-called-revolutionary/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evolution</a> becomes a whole lot more interesting and complex.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-paradigm-holobiont-biology">New paradigm: Holobiont biology</h2>



Traditionally, we've kept the visible and invisible forms of life separate in the way we consider and study them. Many scientists still think of microbes in terms of background noise or minor contaminants.



But it turns out that this approach may have been selling the microbes short.



"Microbes are the base of the biosphere," Bordenstein explains. "Every host organism lives in contact and association with microbes, and those microbes can cause variation in traits."



This realization has given birth to a new concept - holobiont biology; a multidisciplinary and holistic understanding of how life's forms and functions depend upon relationships between microorganisms and their hosts.



Holobiont biology considers organisms and the microbes with which they are inseparably linked as a whole, rather than as separate entities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-does-the-biology-impact-classification">How does the biology impact classification?</h2>



The field of biology traditionally categorizes living things into taxa. But holobiont biology poses a challenging and exciting opportunity to rethink this framework.



"We’re making the case that organisms are not autonomous. They exist, by definition, always in association and in contact with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microbes-found-alive-inside-a-rock-after-2-billion-years-beneath-earth-surface/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">microbes</a>," Bordenstein states.



This novel way of thinking could open doors to harness the power of the microbiome to improve health, resilience in environmental sustainability, and advancements in agriculture. 



Think of it: what if we could use microbes to combat chronic diseases like cancer or make agriculture more resistant to climate change?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revisiting-microbes-and-evolution">Revisiting microbes and evolution</h2>



Darwin's famous treatise, Origin of Species, is a cornerstone of modern biology. However, it was written with species of animals and plants in mind and did not consider the multitude of invisible microbes that are part of every individual macro-organism.



Now that we know so much more about the fundamental role of microbes in the biosphere, we can add a new layer to our understanding of evolution.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-genetic-diversity-and-evolution">Genetic diversity and evolution</h2>



In the 1920s to 1940s, biology witnessed a revolution known as the Modern Synthesis, where Mendel's genetic laws were merged with Darwin's theory of evolution. This created a comprehensive explanation for how new variations of form and function develop over time.



We may well currently be at the cusp of another revolution, a post-Modern Synthesis. As Bordenstein points out, we're now factoring in the role of microbes in our understanding of genetics and evolution.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-shifting-paradigms-in-life-sciences">Shifting paradigms in life sciences</h2>



How do we incorporate this new understanding of the importance of microbes in the biology and evolution of all organisms? The Holobiont Biology Network authors state that this needs to start with redefining and re-teaching biology.



"We’re thinking of animals and plants as a consortium of host and microbial cells that influence anatomy and physiology," explains Bordenstein.



There's also a need for new analytic tools to determine the contribution of microbes and how they interact with genetics to explain traits. Once we have these analytic tools in place, we can engineer microbes and microbiomes as much as we can engineer genes to yield better outcomes for organisms.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-microbes-shaping-our-evolution">Microbes shaping our evolution</h2>



Microbes have been here for four billion years, and they outnumber the stars in the universe by orders of magnitude. There are more bacteria in your mouth than there are people on the planet. They have shaped our world in ways we are only just beginning to understand.



Research shows that they may also play a role in determining who is more likely to develop colon cancer, have high cholesterol levels or an average body mass index. After all, we contain not only our own genes, but also those of the billions of micro-organisms that live in and on us.  



"What we're learning today and over the past decade, is that sometimes microbes explain more biological trait variation in organisms than the genes do," Bordenstein says.



The future of biology lies not just in our genes, but in the characteristics of our associated <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/city-microbes-are-finding-surprising-new-ways-to-survive/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">microbes</a> too. As we move forward, remember this: we're not lone entities. We're ecosystems.



So next time you brush your teeth, remember, you're not just maintaining dental hygiene; you're also managing an ecosystem!



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado2152" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science</a>.



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Humans are walking ecosystems and microbes rule their evolution

We might like to think of ourselves as autonomous entities but, in reality, we're more like walking ecosystems, teeming with bacteria, viruses, and other microbes. It turns out that differences in these microbes might be as crucial to evolution and natural variation as genetic mutations are. Understanding biological variation This novel perspective was discussed in a recent publication by Seth Bordenstein, director of Penn State’s One Health Microbiome Center, who is a professor of biology and entomology and holds the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck...

The idea of ‘Clean Meat’ is simple.  Instead of raising a cow and taking a life for meat, you grow it in a lab.  Lab grown meat is said to be humane, as strings of muscle (and in the future, fat) tissue cultured without a nervous system have no way to suffer, so it’s even questionable whether the tissue is alive in any real sense.

<a href="http://www.hsi.org/">Humane Society International</a> and <a href="http://www.ccmb.res.in/">Centre for Cellular &amp; Molecular Biology</a> are pushing quick development of lab cultured meat on an industrial level.  Already in 2013, a burger was made from cultured meat and sold for $330,000, reports <a href="https://gizmodo.com/">Gizmodo</a>.  The burger being made of cultured muscle fibers without fat was said to be palatable but not delicious.  Researchers are working on developing lab cultured fat to increase the flavor of clean meat. 

<a href="http://vegnews.com/">Vegnews.com</a> reports that cultured meat is set to hit stores in India by 2025.  According to the <a href="http://www.fao.org/about/en/">Food and Agriculture Organization</a> of the <a href="http://www.un.org/en/">United Nations</a>, 42 percent of households in India report as being vegetarian.  In the context of the FAO survey, vegetarian means that the households didn’t consume any type of meat or eggs, a higher standard than most U.S. vegetarians.

In <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/india-cannon-air-pollution/">India</a>, vegetarianism is often connected to religious or spiritual ideals, including the ideal of treating other animals with compassion.  It would make sense that meat cultured without any taint of animal mistreatment or even death may go over well in India.

It seems that cultured meat may also make more sense for environmentalists.  Still in its early stages, it’s hard to estimate the environmental impact of large scale industrial production of cultured meat.  Initial studies seem to indicate that lab cultured meat will likely have less impact than traditional meat. 

A study quoted on <a href="https://gizmodo.com/">Gizmodo</a> calculated that 1000 kg cultured meat will produce 1900 to 2240 Kg of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.  Another study from <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/">Science Direct</a> calculates one ton of packaged chicken meat (~907 Kg) creates 2931.91 Kg of CO2 equivalent.  The study also shows that the main source of greenhouse gas emissions in chicken production come from production and transportation of chicken food and on farm emissions.  In fact, transportation alone is 13 percent of energy consumption in chicken meat production, a cost that will remain with cultured meat. 

Several businesses are already clambering to develop their own version of cruelty free, lab cultured meat.  It seems likely that when processes of production are patented, cultured meat will be expensive, especially initially.  The first $330,000 cultured burger is a good indication of the startup cost. 

A report in the Journal of Hunger &amp; Environmental Nutrition reports that vegetarians save an average of $750 per year on groceries compared to meat eaters.  This statistic is no surprise to me as a vegetarian myself for years. One must wonder who is set to benefit from the introduction of cultured meat to India, a country with a long history of widespread vegetarianism as well as widespread poverty. 

I am suspicious of a solution that seems to allow you to have your cow and eat your burger too.  The difference between a cultured burger and simply being vegetarian seems to me the difference between riding a cable car up and down the Grand Canyon and hiking it yourself.  The solution to the environmental, health and financial cost of meat is already there: going vegetarian. Letting people get away with less willpower doesn’t seem like a good place to start in an endeavor.  In my opinion, cultured meat is a cheap trick and one that in the long run will cost us in ways it’s hard to fathom now. 

Introducing a guilt free way of consuming meat to India is likely to have health implications.  It may also squelch the growth of more vegetarian options in the U.S. and elsewhere, from more wholly vegetarian restaurants to veggie burgers now found in Burger King.

According to <a href="https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/">HealthKnowledge UK</a>, dramatic increases in prevalence of type 2 Diabetes and cardiovascular disease has been shown in South East Asians in other parts of the world, such as the UK, as opposed to their home countries.  The point is that people from places like India eat like people from the UK (or the US), they get sicker. More Indians eating meat, cultured or not, seems likely to benefit tech food companies more than Indians themselves.  

When it comes to health and a healthy world, we should ask ourselves: are we willing to pay the cost or are we going to try to use technology to barter for a lower price tag?        

--

By <a href="mailto: zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Clean meat: Can you have your cow and eat your burger, too?

The idea of ‘Clean Meat’ is simple.  Instead of raising...

Some of archaeology's biggest mysteries involve the famous Nazca lines in <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/yaguas-river-northeast-peru/">Peru</a>. Thousands of these ancient shapes, or geoglyphs, are scattered across the desert in the Nazca province in Peru. 

Created by the Nazca people who date back from 200 to 700 BCE, the shapes are the result of meticulously arranged red pebbles. 

The designs are so expansive that some are only fully observable from the air while others were created on the sides of hills so villages below would be able to see them.

This may be why Peruvian archaeologists recently discovered over fifty new Nazca lines thanks to drone technology.

The new lines mostly depict warriors and animals and some are hundreds of years older than previously studied Nazca lines, leading the researchers to believe that they were created by older communities like the Paracas and Topará cultures between 500 B.C to 200 A.D.

Some shapes are so worn and faded they were only confirmed as Nazca lines with 3-d scans captured by drones.

[caption id="attachment_1200618" align="aligncenter" width="996"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Nazca-lines-1.png"><img class="size-large wp-image-1200618" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Nazca-lines-1-1024x552.png" alt="" width="996" height="537" /></a> Image Credit: National Geographic[/caption]

“This means that it is a tradition of over a thousand years that precedes the famous geoglyphs of the Nazca culture, which opens the door to new hypotheses about its function and meaning,” Johny Isla, the Peruvian Ministry of Culture archaeologist and chief restorer and protector of the Nazca lines, told <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/">National Geographic</a>.

The new discoveries may have gone long undetected had it not been for a new program that uses drones and satellites to monitor important archaeological sites in order to prevent looting.

According to <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/04/new-nasca-nazca-lines-discovery-peru-archaeology/?beta=true">National Geographic</a>, volunteers looking at satellite photos of Peru flagged certain potential problem areas where looting may have occurred.

[caption id="attachment_1200620" align="aligncenter" width="996"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Nazca-lines-2.png"><img class="size-large wp-image-1200620" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Nazca-lines-2-1024x554.png" alt="" width="996" height="539" /></a> Image Credit: National Geographic[/caption]

This was part of an initiative called GlobalXplorer created by Sarah Parcak, an explorer for <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/">National Geographic</a>.

The goal of GlobalXplorer is to train “citizen scientists” to review satellite imagery and notice signs of looting.

When Peruvian archaeologists went to photograph the sites with drones, they found the new designs.

What’s notable about the finds is what they can tell archaeologists about life during the time the lines were created.

According to Isla, the discovery only adds to the body of knowledge surrounding these puzzling shapes and which is all the more reason to protect and manage sites of similar historical significance.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/04/new-nasca-nazca-lines-discovery-peru-archaeology/?beta=true">National Geographic</a>

Drones reveal undiscovered Nazca lines in Peruvian desert

Some of archaeology's biggest mysteries involve the famous Nazca lines...

Imagine if combating <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/food-insecurity-climate-change/">climate change</a> also meant recycling harmful carbon emissions into products we use every day?

It’s a solution that could bolster global markets, aid in infrastructure and create new, innovative technologies without doing further harm to the environment.

For ten finalists in the <a href="https://carbon.xprize.org/">NRG COSIA Carbon XPrize</a> competition, it’s a goal worth reaching for.

The Carbon XPrize competition is a 20-million-dollar contest that gives carbon cyclers a chance to test innovative technologies that transport CO2 emissions from power plants into everything from plastics, fuel, to shoes and concrete.

At this point in the competition, the ten teams that were picked as finalists will get to test their ideas at real power plants in the US and Canada.

There is more carbon dioxide in the planet’s atmosphere <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/graphic-the-relentless-rise-of-carbon-dioxide/">than ever before in recorded history</a>, and finding a way to prevent CO2 from reaching the atmosphere would be a big step in reducing the impacts of climate change.

“The point is to try to move the needle on climate and energy,” said Marcius Extavour, the XPrize Senior Director of Energy and Resources told<a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5587933/20M-XPrize-selects-finalists-competition-transform-carbon-emissions-useful-products.html"> Daily Mail</a>. “Recycling CO2 emissions alone is not going to solve the climate problem, but it could be a really important part of the mix.”

38 teams of competitors first entered the contest and were judged by how much CO2 their technologies could convert and the overall value of the products in question. 

The ten finalists include Breathe (based in India), Carbon Capture Machine (from Scotland), Canada-based CarbonCure, Carbon Upcycling UCLA (based in Los Angeles), and Canada- based Carbicrete and Carbon Upcycling Technologies.

Of these, five teams over the course of the next two years will work at a coal-fired power plant in Wyoming and the other five will work at a natural gas-powered plant in Alberta, Canada.

While they work at the two sites, the teams will collect data in order to gain a better scope of what their carbon footprint is in comparison to the amount to CO2 they are able to recycle.

Carbon is not traditionally thought of as an ingredient but this competition sheds light on how much carbon is used in everyday things.

The problem is that in making these products, more emissions are created, so these technologies are a way to create a cyclical process where emissions are harvested, used, and emitted and harvested again.

“We take carbon out of the ground, we use it, we dump it,” Extavour told Daily Mail. “But we can wrap this chain around itself. Instead of using more fossil fuels like carbon, coal, oil and gas, we can use CO2 emissions as a base for many materials.” 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Recycling carbon emissions into concrete, shoes and plastic

Imagine if combating climate change also meant recycling harmful carbon...

Transmissible cancers are cancers that can spread from one animal to another in the same species. Although rare, these types of cancers can be devastating to species populations, as has been evidenced by two transmissible cancers found among <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/deadly-tasmanian-devil-tumor/">Tasmanian devils</a>. 

In some parts of Tasmania, 90 percent of devils have been wiped out by transmissible cancers. Their continued decline puts the entire Tasmanian ecosystem at risk because of the important role the devils play as scavengers. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> set out to understand what risk factors made Tasmanian devils more susceptible to transmissible cancers than other species. 

“When the first one was discovered, we thought that transmissible cancers were extremely rare and that Tasmanian devils were just really unlucky to get this cancer,” said Elizabeth Murchison, the study’s senior researcher. “But the emergence of the second one made us wonder whether Tasmanian devils might be particularly at risk for developing this kind of disease.”

The results were published in the journal <a href="http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltext/S1535-6108(18)30117-X">Cancer Cell </a>and show that the transmissible cancers studied may have occurred in Tasmanian devils for a variety of reasons, including a lack of genetic diversity and instinctive biting behaviors among the animals. 

The researchers also identified certain drugs that could help treat and prevent the diseases which could be crucial for the species’ survival. 

Tasmanian devils are known for biting each other in the face when they fight, which turned out to be the way the cancers spread. The wound healing processes may actually motivate the cancer cells to divide and form tumors. 

The two transmissible cancers are similar in origin but likely developed years apart, according to the study. 

The team compared the two cancers using genetic and functional comparison methods in order to see what environmental and human-caused changes might have influenced susceptibility among the Tasmanian devils. 

Although the researchers could not find any genomic markers that explain the spread of the cancers, they did find that the cancers have similar mutational processes and respond to the same drugs. 

“It really pointed to some kind of problem that the devils have with this kind of cell's regulation, which probably gives them a greater risk of developing this type of disease,” said Murchison. 

Other factors that give the Tasmanian devil an unfair disadvantage include a lack of genetic diversity after humans tried to wipe out the species and changed the landscape when the island was first settled. 

“When white people first settled in Tasmania, they'd hear these screams at night. And they thought there must be a devilish creature out there," said Maximilian Stammnitz, the study’s first author. “Their immune systems may be less poised to detect foreign tumor cell grafts, compared to other species that have more genetic diversity.”

The research has important implications both in better understanding transmissible cancers but also in treating and preventing cancers among Tasmanian devils. 

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Maximilian Stammnitz

Tasmanian devils are more susceptible to transmissible cancers

Transmissible cancers are cancers that can spread from one animal...

Looking to be a better communicator? It’s all in those expressive eyebrows, a new study suggests.

Researchers set out to test several theories about why hominins evolved a brow ridge, and why it shrunk in the only surviving hominid species – us.

The scientists, led by anatomy professor Dr. Paul O’Higgins of the <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/">University of York</a>, created 3D models used a skull known as Kabwe 1. The skull is from the extinct specials Homo heidelbergensis, which lived in Europe, Africa and Asia between 200,000 and 600,000 years ago. Modern humans – aka Homo sapiens – and our Neanderthal and Denisovan cousins are all believed to have evolved from H. heidelbergensis. 

The researchers quickly shot down two of the theories. The 3D models showed that they were not needed to make up for the species’ flatter brain cases, nor did they help stabilize the force caused by chewing food.

"Since the shape of the brow ridge is not driven by spatial and mechanical requirements alone, and other explanations for brow ridges such as keeping sweat or hair out of eyes have already been discounted, we suggest a plausible contributing explanation can be found in social communication,” O’Higgins said in a press release.

The scientists looked at other species that have evolved physical features with no apparent physical need, such as the colorful swellings on the faces of mandrills. They wondered if the ancestors of humanity evolved brow ridges as a display of dominance, and changing needs led to changing brow sizes.

In short, as human anatomy evolved, faces began to become smaller due to changes in food. As human faces shrunk, they also flattened and allowed for more brow mobility, giving H. sapiens the expressive eyebrows we enjoy today.

Those eyebrows may have helped them evolve strong social networks, allowing our immediate ancestors to survive in harsh climates and situations that cut down the populations of our Neanderthal and Denisovan relatives.

“Sexually dimorphic display and social signalling is a convincing explanation for the jutting brows of our ancestors. Their conversion to a more vertical brow in modern humans allowed for the display of friendlier emotions which helped form social bonds between individuals,” O’Higgins said.

University of York archaeologist and study co-author Dr. Penny Spikins said the new theory could help account for why H. sapiens is the last surviving species of human, thriving in extreme conditions.

“Eyebrows are the missing part of the puzzle of how modern humans managed to get on so much better with each other than other now-extinct hominins,” she said.

—

By Kyla Cathey,<a href="http://www.earth.com"> Earth.com</a> staff writer

Image credit: Dr. Paul O'Higgins, University of York

Expressive eyebrows may have helped modern humans thrive

Looking to be a better communicator? It’s all in those...

Growing the ingredients for an entire salad doesn’t sound impressive, until you add that the feat was accomplished by scientists in Antarctica – and it could bring us closer to a manned mission to Mars.

Germany’s <a href="http://www.dlr.de/irs/en/">DLR Institute of Space Systems</a>, based in Antarctica, managed to produce eight pounds of greens along with 70 radishes and 18 cucumbers, all without the use of soil. More impressive, their greenhouse succeeded while temperatures plummeted to -6 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you’re wondering what that has to do with space, the <a href="http://eden-iss.net/">EDEN-ISS</a> project’s growing conditions are about as close as researchers can get to Mars or the Moon here on Earth. 

Growing an entire salad is an early success for the Antarctica program, which launched in December 2017.

“We have learned a lot about self-sufficient plant breeding in recent weeks, it shows that the Antarctic is an ideal test field for our research,” project manager Daniel Schubert said in a statement, translated from the original German by <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us">Vice</a>.

The new plant growing technology could help humans spend more time on the surface of the Moon, or even survive the long trip to Mars. 

But there’s no need to look to the stars for potential benefits from the program. The EDEN-ISS researchers are also hoping to develop new agricultural technologies and practices that can help humans who live in harsh climates here on Earth.

The team is hoping regular harvests will be in full swing by next month. 

“In May, the DLR researchers are expecting full operation of the container greenhouse, with around four to five kilograms of fresh vegetables being harvested each week,” Schubert wrote.

They’re also looking forward to more salad. Turns out, the first crop tasted great – at least, the station manager Bernhard Gropp seemed to to think so. 

“It tasted as if we had harvested it fresh in the garden. It was special to have the first fresh salad in Antarctica,”  he wrote on the program’s site.

—

By Kyla Cathey,<a href="http://www.earth.com"> Earth.com</a> staff writer

How an experiment to grow an entire salad could lead to space

Growing the ingredients for an entire salad doesn’t sound impressive,...

Hybrid and electric cars have slowly become more and more mainstream, and it’s been <a href="https://about.bnef.com/electric-vehicle-outlook/">estimated</a> that by 2040, electric cars will make up over half of all new car sales. 

A big part of the push toward electric and hybrid vehicles is the falling costs of lithium batteries. As a result, more and more companies are backing projects to put electric and zero-emission commercial planes in the air as soon as the early 2020s. 

Now, according to a new <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/electric-planes-promise-big-benefits-air-passengers-planet-ncna862001">NBC News</a> report, electric planes could offer a quieter and more comfortable flight while emitting less pollution.

According to the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/regulations-emissions-vehicles-and-engines/regulations-greenhouse-gas-emissions-aircraft">Environmental Protection Agency</a> (EPA), aircrafts account for 12 percent of all transportation <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/capture-conversion-carbon-emissions/">carbon emissions</a> and 3 percent of the United States’ entire annual greenhouse gas emissions. 

While they may not replace major jet airliners for long transatlantic flights, electric “air taxis” could be the best option for short trips. 

“They’ll be much quieter for passengers and people who live near airports, and their computer-controlled, electrically driven propellers will make for smoother, more comfortable flights,” reports NBC MACH journalist Tom Metcalfe. 

Electric planes could also be much cheaper than traditional flights because of the high cost of jet fuel. They’ll be cost effective, not only for passengers but for airline companies as well, as they have the capability of being remotely controlled in certain situations.

New startups and investments in electric planes have been popping up, with several companies working on designs and planes that could be in operation in the coming decade. 

According to the NBC report, these new planes include a 19-seat hybrid commuter plane being developed<a href="http://zunum.aero/"> Zunum Aero</a> which is backed by Boeing. The company <a href="http://www.airbus.com/">Airbus </a>is also working on a small craft that could take flight by the 2020s and another 100 seat aircraft down the line.

In addition, the Israeli startup <a href="https://www.eviation.co/">Eviation</a> will have its first electric plane “Alice” in the air by 2021. 

“We're harvesting the same kind of beautiful stability that you see in a drone flight, controlling it roughly 400 times a second, in the cruise,” Eviation CEO Omer Bar-Yohay told NBC. 

We might be a long way off from the Jetsons’ picture of the future complete with flying cars, but these hybrid and electric air taxis are an exciting new innovation with the potential to mitigate climate change and reduce our carbon footprints. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette,</a> <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Eviation

Electric planes could offer smoother flights and zero emissions

Hybrid and electric cars have slowly become more and more...

Two recent studies are shedding new light on how migrating birds have mastered the art of navigation. Experts have identified a protein called Cry4 that is sensitive to blue light and may illuminate Earth's magnetic field.

Migrating birds can travel across huge distances and consistently return to their nests, and this ability has always been intriguing to scientists. Researchers may have now found the secret to the navigational success of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/puffins-migrate-struggle-breeding/">birds</a>.

Previous studies have shown that cryptochromes in birds’ eyes allow them to detect magnetic fields to identify their location and direction, which is a sense that is referred to as magnetoreception. 

Cryptochromes are essentially flavoproteins that are associated with magnetoreception in a number of other species as well. 

Scientists have already established that magnetoreception depends on certain wavelengths of light, particularly blue light, but they could not explain why this was the case.

Researchers from <a href="https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/">Lund University</a> in Sweden investigated magnetoreception in zebra finches, while researchers from <a href="https://www.uni-oldenburg.de/en/">Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg</a> in Germany studied European robins.

The studies have provided evidence that a protein called Cry4 is needed to perceive Earth's magnetic field.

The scientists found three cryptochromes in zebra finches, including Cry1, Cry2, and Cry4, which were located in the brains, muscles, and eyes.

According to <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/">Science Alert</a>, levels of Cry1 and Cry2 varied in the zebra finches, but levels of Cry4 were present 24 hours a day.

“We also found that Cry1a, Cry1b, and Cry2 mRNA display robust circadian oscillation patterns, whereas Cry4 shows only a weak circadian oscillation,” wrote the study authors.

The constant presence of Cry4 was also found in robins, and European robins showed increased levels of Cry4 during migratory season.

The experts say that, despite a lack of strong evidence, it is possible that Cry1 and Cry2 also help to facilitate magnetoreception.

The research was published in the <a href="http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/">Journal of the Royal Society Interface</a> and in <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</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

How migrating birds navigate over vast distances

Two recent studies are shedding new light on how migrating...

For decades, scientists have been trying to solve the “case of the missing nitrogen,” as we’ve known that more nitrogen accumulates in soil and plants than can be explained by atmospheric nitrogen alone. But the source of this additional nitrogen has eluded them… until now. A new study published in the journal <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/">Science</a> has found that as much as 26 percent of nitrogen in global ecosystems is sourced from rocks – with the remaining portion coming from the atmosphere.

“Our study shows that nitrogen weathering is a globally significant source of nutrition to soils and ecosystems worldwide,” says co-lead author Ben Houlton, a professor at the <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">University of California, Davis</a>. “This runs counter the centuries-long paradigm that has laid the foundation for the environmental sciences. We think that this nitrogen may allow forests and grasslands to sequester more fossil fuel CO2 emissions than previously thought.”

Nitrogen is a vital component of the Earth’s ecosystems for many reasons, one of them being that it absorbs carbon dioxide pollution, and there is a limited amount of this element available from plants and soils. The study found that rock nitrogen availability – which is determined by weathering – varies across certain regions and landscapes. Mountainous areas like the Andes and Himalayas are believed to be major sources of rock nitrogen weathering, as do grasslands, deserts and woodlands. 

With these new findings, mapping nutrient profiles in rocks for their potential for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/capture-conversion-carbon-emissions/">carbon</a> uptake could be an important effort for conservation considerations, as areas with more rock nitrogen weathering could be able to sequester more carbon.

“Geology might have a huge control over which systems can take up carbon dioxide and which ones don’t,” says Houlton. “When thinking about carbon sequestration, the geology of the planet can help guide our decisions about what we’re conserving.”

Although this study does not have any immediate implications for farmers and gardeners – both of whom rely heavily on nitrogen to grow food – it could have major implications for how we project for climate change, as those models rely on the carbon cycle. In the meantime, the discovery that as much as one-quarter of an ecosystem’s nitrogen can come from bedrock will be having textbook editors scramble to rewrite our centuries-old understanding of our planet’s nitrogen availability. 

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Paul White, FLICKR

Source of Earth’s nitrogen supply could help store carbon

For decades, scientists have been trying to solve the “case...

Researchers may have finally solved the mystery of whether or not adults grow new brain cells. For the first time, experts have demonstrated that healthy older adults can generate just as many neurons as young people.

Lead author Maura Boldrini is an associate professor of Neurobiology at <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a>. She explained that the findings of this research suggest that some elderly adults are much less cognitively and emotionally impaired than previously thought.

“We found that older people have similar ability to make thousands of hippocampal new neurons from progenitor cells as younger people do,” said Professor Boldrini.

“We also found equivalent volumes of the hippocampus (a brain structure used for emotion and cognition) across ages. Nevertheless, older individuals had less vascularization and maybe less ability of new neurons to make connections.”

The study was focused on the hippocampal brain region of individuals who died suddenly between the ages of 14 and 79. The researchers examined newly-formed neurons as well as the condition of blood vessels throughout the entire hippocampus shortly after death.

The research team had previously concluded that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/insomnia-depression-genetic/">depression</a> or antidepressants can negatively impact the production of new brain cells. The study subjects had not been impacted by depression or cognitive impairment

The investigation revealed that even the oldest brains had recently produced new brain cells. “We found similar numbers of intermediate neural progenitors and thousands of immature neurons,” wrote the study authors. 

On the other hand, older individuals had formed fewer new blood vessels within brain structures and possessed a smaller pool of progenitor cells, which are similar to stem cells in that they can differentiate to form one or more kinds of cells. 

The results of the study indicate that reduced cognitive - emotional resilience in older adults may be caused by fewer progenitor cells combined with reduced vascularization and cell-to-cell connectivity within the hippocampus.

“It is possible that ongoing hippocampal neurogenesis sustains human-specific cognitive function throughout life and that declines may be linked to compromised cognitive-emotional resilience,” said Professor Boldrini.


Further research is needed to understand how neural cell proliferation and survival are regulated by hormones and other inter-cellular pathways in aging adults, according to Professor Boldrini.


The study is published in the journal <a href="http://www.cell.com/cell-stem-cell/home">Cell Stem Cell</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Older adults can generate as many brain cells as young people

Researchers may have finally solved the mystery of whether or...

Saudi Arabia has announced that it will build a massive solar power plant with a capacity of 200 gigawatts. The project, which was announced last week in New York, is 200 times bigger than any solar farm that is now operating and is reportedly 100 times bigger than any <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wind-solar-power-supply/">solar project</a> currently planned.

Backed by the Japanese tech investor <a href="https://www.softbank.jp/en/">Softbank</a>, the initiative will require a $200 billion dollar investment in order to be completed by 2030. The solar farm would nearly triple the current solar generation capacity of Saudi Arabia, which is currently at 77 gigawatts.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is also backing the project, as part of his strategic plan to modernize the country’s economy, <a href="http://vision2030.gov.sa/en">Vision 2030</a>. The Prince has stated that he strives to free his country from its dependency on oil. 

A power station of this magnitude would not only help to facilitate Saudi Arabia’s transition from oil-fired power plants to renewable energy, but would also create an excess of oil that could be sold to other countries - resulting in billions of dollars of revenue.

In addition, the power plant would create tens of thousands of jobs, further boosting the economy.

“It’s a huge step in human history,” said Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “It’s bold, risky, and we hope we succeed in doing that.”

According to <a href="https://qz.com/">Quartz</a>, the solar farm would cover an estimated 5,000 square kilometers if completed, which is an area larger than any of the world's most sprawling cities. The news outlet derived this estimate by calculating the size of one of the world’s largest solar power plants in India, which covers about 24 square kilometers.
--
By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Saudi Arabia announces plans for enormous solar power plant

Saudi Arabia has announced that it will build a massive...

Protecting endangered species is a difficult and time-consuming endeavor, especially in areas where <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eel-poaching-black-market/">poaching</a> is heavily present. This makes any technological advancement that can aid in the protection of these species while also curbing the effects of poaching vitally important. In this vein, a collaboration between ecologists and astrophysicists at <a href="https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/">Liverpool John Moores University</a> (LJMU) has led to a new use for astrophysical software, helping to identify animals through infrared imagery captured by drones – even at night, when poaching is at its most prevalent.

Drones are used to survey significant portions of land from the sky, which helps ecologists access areas with difficult terrain and monitor wildlife without disturbing the animals.

“With thermal infrared cameras, we can easily see animals as a result of their body heat, day or night, and even when they are camouflaged in their natural environment,” says Claire Burke. “Since animals and humans in thermal footage ‘glow’ in the same way as stars and galaxies in space, we have been able to combine the technical expertise of astronomers with the conservation knowledge of ecologists to develop a system to find the animals or poachers automatically.”

This technology is made possible through machine-learning algorithms and astronomical detection tools that were developed using the open source software, Astropy. The research team at LJMU has worked with Knowsley Safari and Chester Zoo to compile libraries of imagery in order to train the software to recognize various species of animals across numerous landscapes. The team is now beginning their field tests identifying endangered species.

“We held our first field trial in South Africa last September to detect Riverine rabbits, one of the most endangered species of mammal in the world,” says Burke. “The rabbits are very small, so we flew the drone quite low to the ground at a height of 20 meters. Although this limited the area we could cover with the drone, we managed five sightings. Given that there have only been about 1000 sightings of Riverine rabbits by anyone in total, it was a real success.”

Because vegetation can sometimes conceal animals to thermal imaging by blocking their body heat, the team developed software that models these effects, allowing animals that would normally be hidden by trees or leaves to be identified. The software is currently being upgraded in order to better handle atmospheric effects, such as weather and other environmental factors. The biggest issues currently facing the system are dealing with humidity and identifying animals when the temperature of the ground is similar to the temperature of the animal.

Next month, the researchers will be testing this new technology in Malaysia and Mexico, looking for orangutans and spider monkeys respectively. They will also be taking to the water to search for river dolphins in Brazil.

“Our aim is to make a system that is easy for conservationists and game wardens to use anywhere in the world, which will allow endangered animals to be tracked, found and monitored easily and poaching to be stopped before it happens,” says Burke.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Endangered Wildlife Trust/LJMU

Mixing astronomy and ecology can help endangered animals

Protecting endangered species is a difficult and time-consuming endeavor, especially...

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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



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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

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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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

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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



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The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://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

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

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://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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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[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...