The development of a big brain in humans and its connection to social bonding has been a hot topic of debate, and secrets found in fossil teeth may hold the answers.



Researchers have been studying the fossilized teeth of an early Homo from Georgia, dating back approximately 1.77 million years. The research was made possible by the European Synchrotron in Grenoble, France.



The findings suggest that despite having a small brain and reaching adulthood at a similar pace to great apes, these early humans had a prolonged childhood. 



This could mean that the large brain of modern humans resulted from an extended childhood along with cultural transmission across generations instead of vice versa.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-long-childhood-big-brains">Long childhood, big brains</h2>



A team of researchers - including specialists from Switzerland's <a href="https://www.uzh.ch/en.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Zurich</a>, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and Georgia's National Museum - have challenged the theory that modern humans' extended childhood is directly linked to their large brains.



The team analyzed dental development in an early Homo that was almost an adult. The results suggest that though these early humans reached adulthood at a similar age as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/buronius-manfredschmidi-tiny-great-ape-species-lived-11-million-years-ago/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">great apes</a>, their tooth development followed a longer timeline similar to modern humans.



This proposes the distinct possibility of a longer dependency on adults and an elongated childhood for these early humans.



Remarkably, the brain size of these early Homo specimens was only marginally larger than that of a chimpanzee. This made the researchers question the link between the prolonged development and cultural transmission across generations.



An extended childhood within a three-generation context might have allowed the immature members of the group to effectively assimilate growing amounts of knowledge. 



Eventually, this led to the development of larger brains and longer life spans, traits characteristic of modern humans.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dental-development-in-early-homo">Dental development in early Homo</h2>



An enduring assumption has been that humans' extended growth period is a consequence of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/our-brain-sizes-are-growing-possibly-lowering-dementia-risk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">increased brain volume</a> since a larger organ requires more energy resources to grow. But analysis of the fossil's dental growth has caused researchers to question this hypothesis.



The research team used synchrotron imaging to study the dental development of a near-adult fossil of early Homo from the Dmanisi site in Georgia, dated to around 1.77 million years ago. 



<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="CWxiqQg039-4024544-12187" type="single"]</div>



“Childhood and cognition do not fossilize, so we have to rely on indirect information. Teeth are ideal because they fossilize well and produce daily rings, in the same way that trees produce annual rings, which record their development,” noted study first author Christoph Zollikofer from the University of Zurich.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-unexpected-findings-and-a-new-perspective">Unexpected findings and a new perspective</h2>



“Dental development is strongly correlated with the development of the rest of the body, including brain development," explained study co-author Paul Tafforeau, scientist at the ESRF.



"Access to the details of a <a href="https://www.earth.com/search-results/?search=fossil%20hominid&amp;start=0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fossil</a> hominid's dental growth therefore provides a great deal of information about its general growth."



After almost two decades of research beginning in 2005, the initial results startled researchers. 



“We expected to find either dental development typical of early hominids, close to that of the great apes, or dental development close to that of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/neanderthal-genes-still-influence-modern-humans/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">modern humans</a>," said Tafforeau.



"When we obtained the first results, we couldn’t believe what we saw, because it was something different that implied faster molar crown growth than in any other fossil hominin or living great ape."



In the following years, the team conducted five series of experiments and completed four full analyses, employing various methods as dental synchrotron imaging technology advanced.



As the consistent results suggested significant implications for the "big brain - long childhood" hypothesis, the scientists needed to think creatively to interpret this fossil's findings.



“It's been a slow maturation, both technically and intellectually, to finally arrive at the hypothesis we are publishing today,” said Tafforeau.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-longer-childhood-evolution-s-early-experiment">Longer childhood: Evolution's early experiment?</h2>



The dental development of the studied fossil suggested that milk teeth were used longer than in great apes, implying that early Homo children were dependent on adult care for a longer duration.



This could be the first experiment evolution took towards a prolonged childhood. Despite having brains only slightly larger than australopithecines or great apes, early Homo are believed to have lived longer.



The survival of a very old individual with no teeth for several years indicates that the group sufficiently cared for him. This alludes to a three-generation structure, a key aspect of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-started-cumulative-culture-around-600000-years-ago/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cultural transmission in humans</a>.



The new hypothesis begins with children's growth slowing down as cultural transmission increased. 



The accumulation of information from older to younger individuals had an advantageous effect on resource utilization and the development of complex behaviors, thus favoring a longer childhood. 



Once this mechanism was established, natural selection acted on cultural transmission, not just biological traits. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-brains-and-delayed-adulthood">Big brains and delayed adulthood</h2>



As the volume of transferrable information grew, evolution supported a larger brain and delayed adulthood, enabling a longer learning period in childhood and time to grow a bigger brain despite limited food resources.



The large brain of modern humans could be attributed to an extended childhood and a three-generation structure encouraging bio-cultural evolution. These mechanisms may have led to increased brain size, delayed adulthood, and longer lifespan. 



The study of this exceptional fossil could motivate researchers to rethink the evolutionary mechanisms that led to Homo sapiens.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08205-2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a>.



Image &amp; Video Credit: ESRF/Paul Tafforeau, Vincent Beyrand



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How did humans get big brains? Fossil teeth reveal new clues

The development of a big brain in humans and its connection to social bonding has been a hot topic of debate, and secrets found in fossil teeth may hold the answers. Researchers have been studying the fossilized teeth of an early Homo from Georgia, dating back approximately 1.77 million years. The research was made possible by the European Synchrotron in Grenoble, France. The findings suggest that despite having a small brain and reaching adulthood at a similar pace to great apes, these early humans had a prolonged...

A new study reveals that certain brain regions are impacted by depression differently in males and females, particularly in adolescents. This indicates that the experience may also differ for each gender, and that sex-specific treatment may be more successful.

Girls are twice as likely to suffer from the condition than boys by age 15. This may be due to body image issues, hormone changes, or genetics. Differences between the sexes not only affect the risk of experiencing depression, but also influence the outcome of the disorder.

Jie-Yu Chuang is a researcher at the <a href="http://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> and an author on the study.

"Men are more liable to suffer from persistent depression, whereas in women depression tends to be more episodic," explained Jie-Yu Chuang. "Compared with women, depressed men are also more likely to suffer serious consequences from their depression, such as substance abuse and suicide." 

Most research has focused on women because it is more common. Chuang and her colleagues set out to examine depression in both men and women in an effort to contrast their experiences.

 The team recruited adolescent volunteers who were between 11 and 18 years old. This included 82 female and 24 male patients who suffered from depression, and 34 volunteers who did not suffer from the condition. Using magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers performed <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brain-training-no-affect-decision/">brain</a> scans while flashing happy, sad, or neutral words on a screen.

The volunteers were instructed to press a button when certain types of words appeared. When the researchers flashed a specific sequence of words on the screen, they discovered that depression impacts brain activity differently between boys and girls in brain regions that have been previously linked to depression - the supramarginal gyrus and posterior cingulate.

"Our finding suggests that early in adolescence, depression might affect the brain differently between boys and girls," said Chuang. "Sex-specific treatment and prevention strategies for depression should be considered early in adolescence. Hopefully, these early interventions could alter the disease trajectory before things get worse."

The study, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, will lead to further research to determine how the brain regions are affected differently in boys. This may help experts  understand why depression tends to persist and become more dangerous for boys.

--

By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a>

Males and females are affected by depression differently

A new study reveals that certain brain regions are impacted...

<a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a> researchers have made a breakthrough by capturing water freezing in a way that has never been done before. They commanded the process molecule-by-molecule and developed an unusual, dense form called ice seven, or ice VII, which occurs naturally in outer space.

The findings of this study will give researchers an unprecedented account of how liquids transition into solids, which may lead to the creation of materials with amazing new properties. The discovery of ice VII could also shed new light on mysterious <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/failed-planets-scarred-earth/">other worlds</a>.

Arianna Gleason is a visiting scientist in the Extreme Environments Laboratory of <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford</a>'s School of Earth, Energy &amp; Environmental Sciences and lead author of the study.

“These experiments with water are the first of their kind, allowing us to witness a fundamental disorder-to-order transition in one of the most abundant molecules in the universe," said Gleason. 

The transformation of materials into gas, liquid and solid states has been extensively studied, but the phase changes are too fast and miniscule to fully observe. Previous research has struggled with these challenges, and researchers resorted to working backward from stable solids in an attempt to view the molecular steps taken to reach this state.

"There have been a tremendous number of studies on ice because everyone wants to understand its behavior," said senior author Wendy Mao. "What our new study demonstrates, and which hasn't been done before, is the ability to see the ice structure form in real time."

The team used the Linac Coherent Light Source, the world's most powerful X-ray laser, for the study. They focused an intense, green laser beam at a small sample of water. The laser instantly vaporized layers of diamond on one side of the target with a force so powerful that it compressed the water to pressures exceeding 50,000 times that of Earth's atmosphere at sea level.

During this water compaction process, the team used a beam from an instrument called the X-ray Free Electron Laser to capture a series of images in only a femtosecond, or a quadrillionth of a second. The images revealed the progression of molecular changes while the pressurized water crystallized into ice VII. The phase change happened in a matter of nanoseconds. The water molecules bonded into rod shapes, which was a surprise to the scientists who expected the molecules would bond into sphere shapes.

The combination of high pressure and snapshot images used for this study could help researchers examine the various ways in which water water freezes depending on pressure and temperature. Due to the conditions of the Earth’s surface, water crystallizes in only one way on this planet known as ice Ih or hexagonal ice. The ice found outside of Earth such as ice VII will give scientists an opportunity to model remote environments.

"Any icy satellite or planetary interior is intimately connected to the object's surface," said Gleason. "Learning about these icy interiors will help us understand how the worlds in our solar system formed and how at least one of them, so far as we know, came to have all the necessary characteristics for life."

The study was published today in Physical Review Letters.

--

By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a>

Scientists create alien ice on Earth

Stanford University researchers have made a breakthrough by capturing water...

People who drink coffee appear to live longer, and it’s not because of the caffeine, a new study found.

Drinking coffee was linked to a lower risk of death from heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and respiratory and kidney disease for African-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Latinos and Whites, the <a href="https://www.usc.edu/">University of Southern California</a> study said. 

Drinking a cup of coffee a day lowered the risk of dying by 12 percent compared to those who didn't drink coffee, with an 18 percent lower chance of death for those drinking two to three cups daily.

Lower mortality for coffee drinkers was the same whether they drank regular or decaffeinated suggesting it is not tied to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/need-pick-climbing-stairs-beat-caffeine/">caffeine</a>, said lead author Veronica W. Setiawan.

"We cannot say drinking coffee will prolong your life, but we see an association," Setiawan said. "If you like to drink coffee, drink up! If you're not a coffee drinker, then you need to consider if you should start."

The study, which will be published in the July 11 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, used data from the Multiethnic Cohort Study, a collaborative effort between the<a href="http://www.uhcancercenter.org/"> University of Hawaii Cancer Center</a> and the <a href="http://keck.usc.edu/">Keck School of Medicine</a>.

The Cohort Study, with more than 215,000 participants, bills itself as the most ethnically diverse study examining lifestyle risk factors that may lead to cancer.

"Until now, few data have been available on the association between coffee consumption and mortality in nonwhites in the United States and elsewhere," the study stated. "Such investigations are important because lifestyle patterns and disease risks can vary substantially across racial and ethnic backgrounds, and findings in one group may not necessarily apply to others."

Since the association was seen in four different ethnicities, Setiawan said it is safe to say the results apply to other groups.

"This study is the largest of its kind and includes minorities who have very different lifestyles," Setiawan said. "Seeing a similar pattern across different populations gives stronger biological backing to the argument that coffee is good for you whether you are white, African-American, Latino or Asian."

Previous research by USC and others has indicated that drinking coffee is associated with reduced risk of several types of cancer, diabetes, liver disease, Parkinson's disease, and other chronic diseases.

"Coffee contains a lot of antioxidants and phenolic compounds that play an important role in cancer prevention," Setiawan said. "Although this study does not show causation or point to what chemicals in coffee may have this 'elixir effect,' it is clear that coffee can be incorporated into a healthy diet and lifestyle."

An estimated 62 percent of Americans drink coffee daily, a 5 percent increase from 2016 numbers, according to the <a href="http://www.ncausa.org/">National Coffee Association</a>.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley, </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source:  <a href="https://www.usc.edu/">University of Southern California </a>

People who drink coffee tend to live a longer life

People who drink coffee appear to live longer, and it’s...

Hundreds of millions of sperm can be released during ejaculation. Surprising new research has shown that the single sperm that fertilizes the egg drastically influences the life of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/oxytocin-improves-autistic-children/">offspring</a>.

It has been widely accepted that fertile sperm are equally capable of producing viable offspring. A study conducted by the <a href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/">University of East Anglia</a> and <a href="https://www.uu.se/en/">Uppsala University</a> proves otherwise. The researchers determined that longer-lived sperm produce offspring that are healthier with better quality lives.

There has been little exploration of the idea that various sperm produce offspring that will thrive better than others. The research team examined zebrafish that fertilize externally to show that selection on intact fertile sperm within a single ejaculate influences the health of the offspring.

"We found that selection for longer-lived sperm produced offspring which had increased chance of survival and performed better as adults than their siblings sired by non-selected control sperm. Thus, it is possible to get rid of the lower quality sperm within an ejaculate through selection on sperm performance,” said Dr. Simone Immler of the University of East Anglia.”

"Male offspring sired by longer-lived sperm in particular exhibited higher fitness. The effect also carried over to the next generation in both sexes,” added Dr. Immler.

The study revealed that sperm within a single ejaculate had different characteristics and genes. The researchers established that the genes residing within each sperm could affect its performance. The scientists selected sperm based on longevity for their experiment and used in vitro fertilization to control the timing between sperm activation.

Some of the sperm were activated immediately and added to eggs in a short activation time (SAT) treatment. The other sperm were held until half of the sperm were no longer mobile and then added to eggs in a long activation time (LAT) treatment.

Offspring resulting from the LAT sperm showed a 7 percent increase in survival rate compared to offspring from the SAT sperm. Also, sons from the LAT sperm produced noticeably faster swimming sperm.

The reproductive success of the adult male and female offspring produced by the first experiment were evaluated next. There was no difference in fertilization success between LAT and SAT females. On the other hand, fertilization success was higher in LAT males by 4 percent. In addition, females that mated with LAT males produced 20 percent more eggs than those paired with SAT males.

"This clearly demonstrates how selection on one trait of sperm within a single ejaculate - in this case its longevity - can have a significant effect on the offspring produced. Fitness traits were strongly affected by sperm selection not only in the immediate offspring but also persisted in the next generation,” explained Dr. Immler.

The study, published in the journal PNAS, could have a large  impact on the future of fertilization treatments.

"Our findings are likely to have major implications for key evolutionary processes, as well as providing insights that are crucial for clinical and agricultural assisted fertilization techniques such as IVF. These techniques currently omit many if not all naturally-occurring steps of within-ejaculate sperm selection, the consequences of which need to be understood,” said Dr. Immler.

--

By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.uea.ac.uk/">University of East Anglia</a>

Study: Longer-lived sperm produce healthier offspring

Hundreds of millions of sperm can be released during ejaculation....

The hormone oxytocin improved social behavior in children with autism, according to a new study.

"Our results suggest that some children with autism will benefit from oxytocin treatment more than others, and that blood oxytocin levels might be a biological sign that will allow us to predict if a child will respond maximally or not," said lead author Karen Parker of <a href="http://med.stanford.edu/">Stanford University Medical Center.</a>

The study involved just 32 children and will need to be replicated, Parker said.

In 2014, researchers discovered that oxytocin levels vary greatly in children both with and without <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fathers-age-social-development/">autism</a>, and that those with low oxytocin have more social impairment regardless of whether they have autism.

In the new study, 32 children with autism were randomly assigned to receive an intranasal oxytocin spray or a placebo spray twice daily for four weeks. The children's blood levels were measured before and after the four-week period. Behavior was assessed at the beginning and end of the trial using a standardized questionnaire completed by their parents. 

Researchers saw some improvement even in children given the placebo, but it was less pronounced than in the oxytocin group. Children who had low oxytocin at baseline received more benefit from a placebo than those who began with high oxytocin -- and their bodies' own production of the hormone rose modestly. That could explain the placebo effect, which is common in studies of psychological and psychiatric treatments, Parker said.

Further research might be needed on whether increases in natural oxytocin production might explain how patients benefit from a placebo, she added.

The effect of oxytocin in the children was modest but the results are exciting because no other medications now exist to treat any of the core features of autism, said Antonio Hardan senior author of the study.

"We are finally narrowing down whom oxytocin could be beneficial for," said Hardan. "This is what precision health looks like for autism."

Hardan is not recommending that physicians start prescribing the hormone for their patients yet.

"If our findings are replicated in the large NIH-funded trial, then I might consider doing baseline oxytocin measurements as part of my clinical practice to try to determine if specific patients will respond," he said.

The study will be published online in the <a href="http://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley, </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://med.stanford.edu/"> Stanford University Medical Center</a>

Oxytocin improves social abilities in some autistic children

The hormone oxytocin improved social behavior in children with autism,...

An average of two vertebrate species go extinct every year but few people notice, according to a new study.

Extinctions often attract little attention because the rate seems relatively low and doesn’t pose an immediate threat to natural systems, according to the <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a> study. 

"This is the case of a biological annihilation occurring globally, even if the species these populations belong to are still present somewhere on Earth," said co-author Rodolfo Dirzo. 

A 2015 study co-authored by Paul Ehrlich, Stanford Professor Emeritus of Biology, showed that Earth has entered an era of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fossil-footprints-recovery-extinction/">mass extinction</a> unparalleled since the dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago. 

In the new study, researchers mapped the ranges of 27,600 species of birds, amphibians, mammals and reptiles - representing nearly half of known terrestrial vertebrate species - and analyzed losses in 177 well-studied mammal species between 1990 and 2015.

More than 30 percent of vertebrate species are declining in population size and range, the study found. All of the 177 mammals for which the researchers had detailed data have lost 30 percent or more of their geographic ranges, and more than 40 percent have lost more than 80 percent, the study said.

Tropical regions have been the hardest hit, particularly the mammals of south and southeast Asia, where all the large-bodied species of mammals analyzed have lost more than 80 percent of their geographic ranges.

As many as 50 percent of the number of animals on Earth have disappeared, as have billions of animal populations. This amounts to "a massive erosion of the greatest biological diversity in the history of Earth," the authors write.

"The massive loss of populations and species reflects our lack of empathy to all the wild species that have been our companions since our origins," said the new study's lead author, Gerardo Ceballos of the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Autonomous_University_of_Mexico"> National Autonomous University of Mexico</a>. "It is a prelude to the disappearance of many more species and the decline of natural systems that make civilization possible."

The researchers call for curbs on human overpopulation and overconsumption - and challenge society to move away from "the fiction that perpetual growth can occur on a finite planet."

The study was published in the journal <a href="http://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley, </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source:<a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a>

Image: Gerardo Ceballos

Population declines underway, two species go extinct each year

An average of two vertebrate species go extinct every year...

Commercial brain training games have no effect on decision-making or cognitive function beyond the practical effects of the training tasks, according to a new study.

Researchers at the <a href="http://www.med.upenn.edu/">University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine</a> studied whether brain training regimes could reduce risky or <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brain-controls-impulses-good-decisions/">impulsive choices</a>.

The researchers recruited two groups of 64 healthy young adults. One group was asked to follow the Lumosity™ regimen, performing the executive function games for 30 minutes a day, five days a week for 10 weeks. The other group had the same schedule but played online video games. Both groups were told the study was investigating whether playing online video games improves cognition and changes decision making.

In an assessment of impulsive decision-making, participants were asked to choose between smaller rewards now and larger rewards later. For risky decision-making, they were asked to pick larger rewards at a lower probability versus smaller rewards at a higher probability.

The training didn't produce changes in brain activity or decision-making during these tasks, the researchers found.

"The logic would be that if you can train cognitive abilities and change activity in these brain structures,then that may change your likelihood of impulsive behavior,” said Joseph Kable, co-leader of the study.

The study participants were also asked to complete a series of cognitive tests that were not part of the training to see if the program had any effect on their general cognitive abilities. While both groups showed improvement, the researchers found that commercial brain training didn't lead to any more improvement than online video games. Although the training alone did not produce the desired benefits, initial results show that combining cognitive exercises with non-invasive brain stimulation enhances self-control over smoking behavior, the study said.

Researchers are now conducting clinical trials to learn whether this combination approach can alter other risky behaviors such as unhealthy eating or improve attention and impulse control in persons with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The study was published in the <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/">Journal of Neuroscience</a>.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley, </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.med.upenn.edu/">University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine</a>

Brain training does not affect decision making or function

Commercial brain training games have no effect on decision-making or...

Researcher H. Arthur Woods of the <a href="http://www.umt.edu/">University of Montana, Missoula</a>, and his team went on a mission to Antarctica in order to explore the phenomenon of “polar gigantism.” For years, scientists have observed that polar species tend to have larger bodies than their temperate and tropical relatives. This has led to researchers wondering how these larger species function physiologically – including how they get enough oxygen to all parts of their body. Woods and colleagues were studying this phenomenon in sea spiders – looking at their beating hearts under microscopes – when he realized that the spiders’ hearts were beating very weakly. 

In fact, their hearts weren’t pushing any blood past the spiders’ central area. What Woods then noticed was that the spiders’ guts were exhibiting strong and organized contractions.

“My 'aha!' moment was to consider that maybe all that sloshing of blood and guts was not about digestion but instead about moving respiratory gases around,” says Woods.

The researchers point out that sea spiders have a unique gut to begin with, as their guts branch our from their center and sections of gut tube extend to the end of every leg. 

Woods explains, “In effect, sea spiders guts are ‘space-filling’ and ubiquitous in their bodies in the same way that our circulatory systems are space-filling and ubiquitous.”

The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ground-spiders-ambush-prey/">spiders</a> are able to use this system to move fluids through gut peristalsis, which is the movement of waves of involuntary constriction and relaxation of muscles. Humans use gut peristalsis as well in order to mix our gut contents and move them through our digestive system.

Woods and his team performed a series of experiments and observations in 12 sea spider species. They used video microscopy of tracers in the spiders’ hemolymph and guts while manipulating the guts’ ability to contract – effectively allowing them to test and confirm their hypothesis.

Researchers say they are not sure if this physiological function first arose for purely digestive functions and the respiratory benefits came later or vice versa. But they do know that this discovery is a prime example of the diversity of evolutionary solutions that Earth’s organisms find. 

More information on this study can be found in the journal <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.cell.com/">Cell Press</a>

Image: Timothy R. Dwyer (PolarTREC 2016), Courtesy of ARCUS

Sea spiders use their guts, not their hearts, to pump oxygen

Researcher H. Arthur Woods of the University of Montana, Missoula,...

Rote memorization of historical dates or multiplication tables won’t help children be successful in the long run.

Instead, teachers and parent should focus on teaching the “six C’s” – communication, critical thinking, content, creative innovation, collaboration and confidence.

At least, so say Drs. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff in their new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Brilliant-Successful-Children-Lifetools/dp/1433822393">Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children</a>.

Golinkoff, a psychologist and linguist, and Hirsh-Pasek, also a psychologist who specializes in early childhood education, wrote their book to offer parents a number of strategies and solutions to offer teachable moments that will lead their children to successful adulthood. The pair are worried that educational strategies that focus on rote memorization for standardized tests are failing to truly teach children how to be lifelong learners and thinkers.

In an interview with <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/07/04/534431831/a-plan-for-raising-brilliant-kids-according-to-science">NPR</a> last year, Hirsh-Pasek compared the problem to climate change.

"What we do with little kids today will matter in 20 years," she told the nonprofit news organization. "If you don't get it right, you will have an unlivable environment. That's the crisis I see."

Education in the U.S. focuses heavily on “content” to the exclusion of the other C’s, the book claims. It cites a number of recent studies and new research to back up its proposed educational strategies.

“We're training kids to do what computers do, which is spit back facts. And computers are always going to be better than human beings at that,” Hirsh-Pasek said.

She and Golinkoff put the “six C’s” in context, showing how they all work together. Students who fail to learn the C’s may struggle through life regardless of how well they score on tests, the scientists said.

The strategies they lay out in the book don’t require any special classes or equipment, Golinkoff said. They just require challenging children to work with others and look at problems from a variety of perspectives.

“At school, when kids are being encouraged to get the one right answer and fill in that bubble, people can do things that enable their children to solve problems in multiple ways: ‘Can you think of different ways to make the bed?’” she explained.

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://www.earth.com">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Rote memorization won't help children be successful in life, scientists say

Rote memorization of historical dates or multiplication tables won’t help...

Researchers from the <a href="http://www.arizona.edu/">University of Arizona</a> are taking a new look at past temperatures in Greenland to determine how quickly the country’s massive ice sheet is melting. 

Atmospheric scientists J. E. Jack Reeves Eyre and Xubin Zeng say that observing past and present surface air temperatures can help establish the rate at which the ice has melted and help predict how fast it will continue to disappear. Previous research suggests that the Greenland ice sheet began vanishing in 1900, and the annual rate of shrinkage has doubled since 2003. 

The loss of this enormous sheet could have a major impact on rising <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/measuring-sea-levels-rising/">sea levels</a>. Greenland’s ice covers an area of land larger than France, Germany, and Italy combined. The sea would rise an additional 7 meters, or 23 feet, in the event that all of Greenland’s ice melted.

"Greenland is particularly important to global climate change because it has the potential to cause a big change in sea level," explains Reeves Eyre. "Knowing how it's going to change over the next century is important."

Calculating the average temperature of Greenland in the 20th century is challenging due to the fact there were only coastal weather stations in the country until 1995. Remote sensing data, climate models, and other methods have been used to establish Greenland’s average temperatures last century, but the studies produced conflicting results.

For the current study, the scientists looked at data sets from 16 previous evaluations. They divided the temperature data into three categories to get an unbiased view of which studies were more accurate. The team ultimately combined the findings of the two best analyses.

"By studying a wide range of available data and combining two of the best data sources, we've come up with a combination that best represents the whole distribution of temperatures over Greenland from 1880 to 2016," says Eyre. "Using this dataset is the best way to evaluate climate models and their projection of temperature change over Greenland."

The findings of the study, published in the journal <a href="http://www.the-cryosphere.net/">The Cryosphere</a>, will be used to improve climate models to more accurately predict how Greenland will respond to future warming.

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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.arizona.edu/">University of Arizona</a>

Greenland is melting, but the question is how quickly?

Researchers from the University of Arizona are taking a new...

Researchers from <a href="https://www.osu.edu/">Ohio State University</a> discovered physical movements that coincide with the mind’s decision-making process. The research team focused on the hands of participants, which revealed the internal struggle that some of the individuals were encountering as they made decisions.

The study used several experiments to measure self-control, and revealed that people with more self-control make a direct <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/self-driving-cars-ethical-decisions/">decision</a>, while those with less self-control hover between the choices. The individuals were observed while they selected options that would be smarter and more beneficial in the long run versus more tempting options that would provide instant gratification.

For one experiment, the college students were asked to choose between two food options in the opposing top corners of a computer screen. Those who were struggling with self-control held the computer mouse in the direction of the unhealthy food choices.

“Our hand movements reveal the process of exercising self-control,” said co-author of the study Paul Sillman. “You can see the struggle as it happens. For those with low self-control, the temptation is actually drawing their hand closer to the less-healthy choice.”

Before beginning the evaluation, the students were told they would have the choice of real foods after the test. The researchers noticed that the students who ultimately chose a candy bar over an apple were the same individuals who hovered in the direction of the unhealthy food options during testing. On the other hand, the participants who exercised self-control and made direct choices during their tests avoided temptation and chose the apple over the candy bar.

“The more they were pulled toward the temptation on the computer screen, the more they actually chose the temptations and failed at self-control,” Stillman said.

Previous research has indicated that two independent systems are involved in self-control decisions, but the findings of this study suggest otherwise. The direction of the computer mouses were curved instead of straight, which implies the food options were battling it out in the brain.

“Our results suggest a more dynamical process in which the healthy and unhealthy choices are competing from the very beginning in our brains and there isn’t an abrupt change in thinking,” said Stillman. “That’s why we get these curved trajectories.”

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By: <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source:<a href="https://www.osu.edu/">Ohio State University</a>

Involuntary movements reveal the brain’s battle for self control

Researchers from Ohio State University discovered physical movements that coincide...

Volcanic activity in the oceans induced by falling sea levels may have caused an unusual decline in the Earth’s temperature 80,000 years ago, according to a new study.

Although temperatures dropped, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere remained relatively stable for several thousand years, according to the study by <a href="http://www.geomar.de/en/">GEOR MAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel</a> and the<a href="https://www.awi.de/en.html"> Alfred-Wegener-Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research</a>.

Normally, if the temperatures decline, CO2 values also decrease and vice versa, the authors said.

Researchers analyzed why <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/ocean-circulation-absorb-carbon-dioxide/">CO2</a> levels were stable during the temperature drop during the last transition to glacial conditions. They investigated the response of mid-ocean ridges and of 43 ocean island volcanoes to glacial sea level changes.

During the development of glacial conditions, temperatures decrease and ice sheets form, redistributing water from the ocean to continental regions. Sea level falls, decreasing pressure on the seabed and the Earth’s crust, and increasing magma production, the authors said.

"To better understand and quantify these processes, we developed a comprehensive computer model that we integrated with geodynamic data,” said Jörg Hasenclever, the lead author of the study. “In addition to this we analyzed paleo-climate data and carried out simulations with a model of the global carbon cycle." 

Close interactions between the solid earth and the climate system exist on geologically relatively short time scales of about 5,000 to 15,000 years, the study suggests.

"Such interactions could provide a novel component for earth system research to better understand the climate evolution at times of glacial sea level changes," co-author Gregor Knorr said. 

The study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>.

--

By: <a href="mailto:dbeasley@earth.com">David Beasley, </a><a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://www.geomar.de/en/">GEOR MAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel</a>

Sea-level declines, volcanoes explain unusual temperature drop

Volcanic activity in the oceans induced by falling sea levels...

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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

[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

[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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

[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...