The era of wondering and wildly speculating may be drawing to a close, with researchers recently devising a new model they're calling the "formula for life." 



The experts hope this tool will calculate the chances of intelligent life existing in our universe and even predict the potential for alien life in future universes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-next-generation-of-intelligent-life">Next generation of intelligent life </h2>



According to this new calculation model, the likelihood of life beyond our galaxy sits at 27 percent, which may let down the 65 percent of American adults who firmly believe in extraterrestrial life.



Interestingly, the chances of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/are-aliens-sending-radio-signals-to-each-other/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">intelligent life</a> existing within our own Milky Way are even lower - just 23 percent.



These estimates come from the concerted efforts of researchers at the <a href="https://search.app?link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ed.ac.uk%2F&amp;utm_campaign=aga&amp;utm_source=agsadl2%2Csh%2Fx%2Fgs%2Fm2%2F4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Edinburgh</a> and the University of Genevieve. The study suggests that star formation and the evolution of large-scale planets might intertwine to quietly "form the next generation of intelligent life."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dark-energy-and-the-potential-for-alien-life">Dark energy and the potential for alien life</h2>



To understand the potential of other life forms, the team devised a theoretical model that leans heavily on the Drake Equation, developed in 1960. 



This well-known formula calculates the universe's expansion and has been used to research the existence of advanced civilizations in our galaxy.



The researchers emphasized that their calculations do not suggest a number of intelligent life forms but rather estimate the likelihood of their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dark-oxygen-in-the-deep-sea-may-hold-clues-about-alien-life/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">existence</a>.



Their estimation process takes into account dark energy, which comprises over two-thirds of the universe and fuels its expansion.



"Understanding dark energy and the impact on our universe is one of the biggest challenges in cosmology and fundamental physics," said lead researcher Dr. Daniele Sorini, affiliated with <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Durham University</a>’s Institute for Computational Cosmology.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-potential-for-future-alien-life">Potential for future alien life</h2>



In addition to the probabilities of current extraterrestrial life, the researchers' model also accommodates for alien life forms that don't exist yet but could develop in the future. 



To do this, they calculated the amount of ordinary matter that combined to form stars across the universe's history, stretching back a staggering 13.8 billion years.



It seems the chances of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cosmic-connection-aliens-could-make-contact-by-2029/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">intelligent life</a> appearing in universes beyond our own also hover at around 27 percent. 



"Surprisingly, we found that even a significantly higher dark energy density would still be compatible with life, suggesting we may not live in the most likely of universes," said Dr. Sorini.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-for-future-research">Implications for future research</h2>



The pioneering work of modeling the probability of intelligent life in other universes opens up numerous avenues for future research. Scientists are now challenged to refine these models further, grounding them in observations and experiments to reach more precise conclusions. 



Such work may involve advancing our understanding of dark matter and energy - components of the universe that remain elusive yet crucial to grasping the cosmic puzzle.



This pursuit could bridge the gap between theoretical physics and cosmology, bringing them closer within the realms of empirical science.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-interplay-of-gravity-and-alien-life">Interplay of gravity and alien life</h2>



Another intriguing factor in cosmic life creation is gravity's role. Gravity influences the formation of stars and galaxies, effectively setting the stage for potential habitats where life could develop. 



The extent of gravity's influence in these processes highlights its importance, not just in structural formation, but in setting conditions that could favor the emergence of life. 



Existing research suggests that regions with optimal gravity balance might support complex planetary systems, paving the way for biological evolution. 



As scientists continue to explore the mysteries of the universe, understanding the precise role of gravity will add another layer to our comprehension of life's cosmic potential.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-speculation-to-exploration">From speculation to exploration</h2>



"It will be exciting to employ the model to explore the emergence of life across different universes and see whether some fundamental questions we ask ourselves about our own universe must be reinterpreted," noted study co-author Lucas Lombriser, a professor at the University of Genevieve.



If this research can help us to better understand our own universe and its likelihood for hosting life, it seems we have come a long way from wild speculation to measured investigation into our place in the cosmos.



So, what does this all mean for us? Are we on the brink of making contact with alien life forms? While the research findings might lead some to temper their expectations, the search for extraterrestrial life continues.



In the end, we need to remember that the universe is vast, mind-bogglingly diverse, and still largely unexplored. The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/finding-alien-life-searching-for-color-purple-not-green/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">potentials for life</a> - both as we know it and beyond our current comprehension - remain a thrilling frontier in scientific exploration.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/535/2/1449/7896079?login=false#493432585" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</a>.



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What are the chances that alien life exists?

The era of wondering and wildly speculating may be drawing to a close, with researchers recently devising a new model they're calling the "formula for life." The experts hope this tool will calculate the chances of intelligent life existing in our universe and even predict the potential for alien life in future universes. Next generation of intelligent life According to this new calculation model, the likelihood of life beyond our galaxy sits at 27 percent, which may let down the 65 percent of American adults who firmly...

While meditation is often heralded as a miracle solution for its calming, soothing effect, it can also end up painful and disturbing, a new study has found.

“Many effects of meditation are well known, like increased awareness of thoughts and emotions, or improved calm and well-being," said study lead author Jared Lindahl, visiting assistant professor in <a href="https://www.brown.edu/">Brown University</a>'s Cogut Center for the Humanities. 

"But there is a much broader range of possible experiences. Exactly what those experiences are, how they affect individuals and which ones show up as difficult is going to be based on a range of personal, interpersonal and contextual factors."

The researchers sought out "challenging" <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/daily-meditation-works-wonders/">meditation</a> experiences because they are underrepresented in the scientific literature.

They are, however, documented in Buddhist traditions, the study said. Tibetans refer to a wide range of experiences -- some blissful but some painful or disturbing -- as "nyams."

From interviews with 100 Western Buddhist meditators, the researchers developed a list of 59 experiences organized into seven types, or domains: cognitive, perceptual, affective (i.e. emotions and moods), somatic (relating to the body), conative (i.e. motivation or will), sense of self and social. They also identified another 26 categories of "influencing factors" or conditions that may impact the intensity, duration or associated distress or impairment.

All the mediators interviewed reported multiple unexpected experiences from across the seven domains, hypersensitivity to light or sound, as insomnia or involuntary body movements.

Challenging emotional experiences included fear, anxiety, panic or a loss of emotions altogether, the study found.

If research can uncover why challenging experiences arise, then meditators and teachers might be in a better position to manage them, the authors said.

They also hope the new study can help people realize that adverse experiences are not necessarily unique to them or their fault.

"During the interviews, some people learned for the first time that they are not completely alone in having had this experience," Lindahl said. "The social awareness we think this project can raise could be a key way of addressing some of the problems."

One of the remedies people cited for dealing with problems was simply having someone they could talk to who was familiar with challenging meditation experiences, the researchers said. 

One of the authors, Willoughby Britton, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at <a href="https://www.brown.edu/">Brown University</a>, recently started a weekly online support group where meditators can share their challenges with each other.

“Our long-term hope is that this research, and the research that follows, can be used by the meditation community to create support systems for the full range of meditation-related experiences," Britton said. "Really, the first step is acknowledging the diversity of experiences that different people can have."

--

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.brown.edu/">Brown University</a>

Can meditation go wrong? Exploring the range of experiences

While meditation is often heralded as a miracle solution for...

An increasing number of physical therapy patients are being strapped into robots that apply forces to their legs as they walk, gently prodding them to modify their movements by lengthening their strides, straightening their hips, and bending their knees.

Now, a new study has found that physical therapy patients working with rehabilitation robots only modify their walking patterns if the robots interfere with gait stability.

The research could influence future design of robots, the authors said.

The study also examined how patients changed their gaits on a treadmill when a robot applied force.

The patients adjusted their stride in response to a change in the length, but not the height, of their step, even when step height and length were disturbed at the same time, the researchers found.

The discrepancy can be explained by the central nervous system 's primary reliance on stability when determining how to adjust to a disruption in normal walking.

"Lifting your foot higher mid-stride doesn't really make you that much less stable, whereas placing your foot closer or further away from your center of mass can really throw off your balance, so the body adjusts much more readily to that disturbance," says Giacomo Severini,  an assistant professor at <a href="http://www.ucd.ie/">University College Dublin</a> and one of the study’s authors.

The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/monkey-brain-explain-human-thinking/">brain</a> will expend a significant amount of the body's energy to avoid instability, most likely because the consequences of wobbly walking can be severe, the study reported.

Prioritization of stability means other aspects of walking, like the height of the foot off the ground or the angle of the toes, may require treatment beyond walking in a clinical robot.

"To modify step height, for example, you'd need to design forces so that the change in height, which the brain normally interprets as neutral, becomes challenging to the patient's balance," says Severini. 

Most robots used in clinical settings today do not allow for that kind of customization.

"The results of our study give us insight into the way people adapt to external forces while walking in general, which is useful for clinicians when evaluating whether their patients will respond to clinical robot interventions," says Paolo Bonato, leader of the study and an associate professor at <a href="https://hms.harvard.edu/">Harvard Medical School</a>. 

By advancing the understanding of the interactions between robots and patient, the research, published in the journal <a href="http://robotics.sciencemag.org/">Science Robotics</a> will make it possible to design more effective robot-assisted gait therapy, Bonato said.

--

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://wyss.harvard.edu/">Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering</a>

How robots are helping physical therapy patients rehabilitate

An increasing number of physical therapy patients are being strapped...

Image

Ochre is an iron-rich <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/evidence-life-oxygen-found-ancient-rocks/">rock</a> that can produce color, and is the earliest known pigment used by humans to paint. Composed of iron oxides, these red and yellow rocks were widely distributed during the Middle Stone Age. A new analysis of ochre collected from a cave in Ethiopia reveals ochre was used here for at least 4500 years. 

The largest collection of African ochre artifacts is from the Porc-Epic Cave of Ethiopia, and is believed to be around 40,000 years old. David Rosso of the <a href="http://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/">University of Barcelona</a> and the <a href="http://www.u-bordeaux.com">University of Bordeaux</a> led a team of researchers in evaluating 3792 ochre artifacts from this collection. The team set out to determine how the ochre was processed during the Middle Stone Age by using microscopy and by simulating various grinding techniques. 

The results of the study showed that the cave inhabitants consistently acquired, processed, and used the same types of ochre during this extensive time frame. Almost half of the ochre pieces had been modified, but the number of pieces that were processed progressively decreased over the years.  

It appeared that flaking and scraping techniques became more common over time, while grinding became less common. This gradual change from one processing technique to the others indicates a type of cultural drift over the 4500-year-span.

The specific uses of the ochre in the Middle Stone Age are somewhat of a mystery. Some of the ochre pieces were modified to a larger extent than others, and appear to have been used with multiple grindstones at different times. This indicates that these particular pieces were utilized to obtain powder. The ochre powder may have been used in symbolic activities such as body painting or may have had more practical uses. 

The study, published today in the journal <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS ONE</a>, gives new insight into the time frame of ochre use. According to the authors, the findings suggest there was a "cohesive behavioral system shared by all community members and consistently transmitted through time."
--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Source: <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS ONE</a>

Image Credit: Rosso et al (2017)

Ochre was used as a tool for thousands of years in the Stone Age

Ochre is an iron-rich rock that can produce color, and...

When Donald Trump announced his presidential bid in June of 2015, he pledged to build a “great, great wall” on the southern border and make Mexico pay for it. Mexico may not be paying for it, but Trump is now asking Congress for a budget to start building the border wall. Researchers are evaluating the threats that the wall poses to many species of animals that will suffer from the fragmentation of their habitats. 

Science journalist Lesley Evans Ogden, a reporter for <a href="https://www.aibs.org/bioscience/">Bioscience</a>, has written an article addressing the potential impact that a U.S.-Mexico border wall will have on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/endangered-status-giraffes/">wildlife</a>. 

"If the wall is completed, it will create a considerable biodiversity conservation challenge--one unlikely to disappear anytime soon," explained Ogden.

There are already 650 miles of steel posts that form a barrier across the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. It is not clear if this hardened border successfully prevents illegal immigration and smuggling, but it is clear is that it has disrupted the natural habitats of many species.

The proposed border wall may prevent migration that is vital to the survival of some species that live along the Mexico border. The threats to many of these local populations urgently need to be considered before the plans for the Mexico wall are put in motion. 

"Local populations blink on and off like Christmas lights," says the University of Arizona's Aaron Flesch, who was interviewed for Ogden’s article. Without the freedom to access their continuous habitats, experts believe some species may disappear forever. 

"Even when there isn't a physical wall or much of a barrier, [border agents] are actively engaged in enforcing the law through patrols," explained David Christianson of University of Arizona. Such patrols, which may alter the behavior of many animals, often consist of off-road trekking "right in the middle of this endangered species habitat," added Christianson. 

Information included in the article by Ogden suggests that extensive border barriers may prove ineffective in preventing humans from crossing the border. Jamie McCallum, a consultant at Transfrontier International Limited, teamed up with scientists from the Zoological Society of London. The team set up cameras to detect motion along the existing steel barrier in order to observe both human and animal activity.

The images revealed the absence of some animals such as pumas, which was expected by the researchers. Human activity at the barrier, however, was not deterred. This suggests that a wall is simply not going to keep humans from crossing the border. 

“I thought it would have at least some kind of trace of an effect, even if it wasn't a statistically significant finding. But it didn't appear to,” said McCallum.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Source: <a href="https://www.aibs.org/bioscience/">Bioscience</a>

Photo Credit: Matt Clark/Defenders of Wildlife

Mexico border wall would hurt biodiversity, wouldn’t deter humans

When Donald Trump announced his presidential bid in June of...

Lake Tahoe has long been a popular vacation destination known for its beautiful, crystal clear waters. But sadly, climate change has caused Lake Tahoe to warm earlier in the springtime, resulting in much cloudier waters.

The premature warming has disturbed the natural mixing of deep and shallow water in the lake, causing a significant decrease in visibility.

Researchers began tracking Lake Tahoe’s water clarity in 1968 by dropping a white disk into the water and measuring how deep it could travel while still in sight. At that time, it remained visible more than 102 feet deep in the water. But now, visibility has dropped to an average of 69 feet.

Of course, other climate factors play into water clarity as well. Years where the lake experiences less <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/extreme-heat-and-precipitation-increase-salmonella-infections-2/">precipitation</a> result in clearer water, while stormwater runoff containing soil and other nutrients make the water murkier. But these predictable patterns have been complicated by climate change.

"What we are learning is that climate change isn't just a one-size-fits-all thing,” Geoff Schladow, director of the <a href="http://terc.ucdavis.edu/">UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center</a>, told the AP. "It's not just warmer air temperatures or more extreme winters or droughts. It's a combination of all of these things."

“Climate change is impacting not only Lake Tahoe's water quality, but also the health of its forests and its recreation-based economy,” Joanne Marchetta, executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, told the <a href="https://www.ap.org/en-us/">AP</a>.

In the past two decades, the federal, state, and local governments have invested over $1 billion in slowing pollution runoff into the lake. But climate change has proven to be a formidable opponent, having caused the surface temperature of the water to rise faster in the past 4 years than any other time on record.

As the surface temperature increases, the lake separates into three distinct layers instead of mixing. Without the natural mixing process, algae remains at the surface exposed to the sun, allowing it to grow and reduce water clarity.

Luckily, there is some good news.

"The exciting thing is this is confirming that the bottom of the lake — probably 90 percent of the water in the lake — is still crystal clear,” Schladow added.

-

By <a href="mailto:rarnold@earth.com">Rory Arnold</a>, <a href="http://earth.com/staff">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.ap.org/en-us/">Associated Press</a>

Climate change is clouding the clear waters of Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe has long been a popular vacation destination known...

The Hermit Thrush songbird produces different sounds based on geography, with differences that can be traced back to the bird’s evolutionary past, a new study found.

The sounds vary across the large portion of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/horned-dinosaurs-eastern-north-america/">North America</a> where it spends the summer, according to the study by researchers from Nova Scotia's <a href="https://www.dal.ca/">Dalhousie University</a>. The team studied 100 recordings captured between 1951 and 2015.

"Though Hermit Thrushes have a beautiful, well-known song, relatively little is known about their singing behavior," says one the authors, Sean Roach.

The analysis revealed significant differences in song structure across the three major populations--Northern, Western Mountain, and Western Lowland--as well as within them. 

The introductory notes that preface the bird’s songs showed the most striking differences. The Western Lowland Thrush produces higher, more variable introductory notes than their relatives elsewhere, the study said.

Some of the variation likely dates back to isolation of different Hermit Thrushes populations by ice sheets during the Pleistocene era. Differences between the two western groups may relate to body size, with larger birds producing lower-frequency songs.

One group of birds in the Canadian Rockies sang songs that stood out from other members of their subspecies, which Roach and coauthor Leslie Phillmore believe is an adaptation to how sound carries in their open, shrubby habitat.

"The whistle note's relative consistency across large geographical distances may be due to its role in long-distance communication of species or subspecies identity, while the remainder of the song could be under fewer constraints and its variability may carry more information about individual singers," said Heather Williams of <a href="https://www.williams.edu/">Williams College</a>, an expert on song diversity who was not involved in the study.

The research was published in the journal <a href="http://www.americanornithology.org/content/auk-ornithological-advances">The Auk: Ornithological Advances</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.americanornithology.org/">American Ornithological Society</a>

The Hermit Thrush songbird’s tune varies with geography

The Hermit Thrush songbird produces different sounds based on geography,...

Female vampire bats forge relationships outside their nuclear families as safety nets in case family members are lost, a new study says.

Female bats are very close to their mothers and daughters, grooming each other and sharing regurgitated meals of blood, according to the study by the <a href="http://www.stri.si.edu/">Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute</a>.

But the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wild-boars-vampire-bats-rabies-oh/">bats</a> also engage in "social bet hedging” by forming friendships with less closely related bats in case they lose a family member, said Gerry Carter, post-doctoral fellow at institute.

Females who have expanded their social network outside the immediate family are better able to survive the loss of a relative than bats who only invest in close kin, the study said.

“We discovered that on the rare occasion that they lose a major food donor, they do much better,” Carter said. “Their social network of food donors is wider and more robust." 

For the research, Carter's team monitored social interactions in a captive colony of about 30 common vampire bats. The researchers worked out how the bats were related based on their genes. Carter then removed individual females from the group for a 24-hour fasting period. Just before returning them to the group, he removed one of the bat's key food donors, usually its mother or daughter. Then he examined how each bat coped with this change to its social network.

Common vampire bats are native to the American tropics and subtropics, where they often feed on the blood of cattle, especially where forests have been replaced by pasture.

"It's not uncommon that a bat goes out to forage and fails to get food, and it's not uncommon that her closest relative will have switched to a different roost that night," Carter said. "We're recreating a situation that vampire bats might face fairly often."

Other species, such as baboons, might also use social bet hedging, the study said.

There is also evidence that humans are happier with “quality over quantity” in their relationships, yet those living in unpredictable social environments tend to value more friendships over a few stronger ones. 

"It would be particularly interesting to test the extent to which human collaborative or friendship networks are shaped by decisions to invest in relationship quantity or quality," the authors added.

--

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.stri.si.edu/">Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute</a>

Image Credit: Uwe Schmidt

Vampire bats make friends to cope with loss of family

Female vampire bats forge relationships outside their nuclear families as...

Whales have existed for 30 million years, but they evolved relatively recently into the giants we recognize today, a new study said.

It was two to three million years ago when ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere altered the way the whale’s food supply was distributed in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/oceans-million-years-recover/">oceans</a> that they became so enormous, according the the study by the Smithsonian's <a href="https://naturalhistory.si.edu/">National Museum of Natural History</a>. 

Before ice sheets began to cover the Northern Hemisphere, food resources would have been fairly evenly distributed throughout the oceans, said Nicholas Pyenson, the museum's curator of fossil marine mammals.

When glaciation began, runoff from the new ice caps would have washed nutrients into coastal waters at certain times of the year, seasonally boosting food supplies, Pyenson said.

Baleen whales, which filter small prey like krill out of seawater, were well equipped to take advantage of these dense patches of food, he said.

Filter-feeding is particularly efficient when whales have access to very dense aggregations of prey and the foraging strategy becomes even more efficient as body size increases, the study said. 

Large whales can migrate thousands of miles to take advantage of seasonally abundant food supplies. The baleen whales' filter-feeding systems, which evolved about 30 million years ago, appear to have set the stage for major size increases once rich sources of prey became concentrated in particular locations and times of year, the study said.

The researchers studied the Smithsonian’s skull collections for both living and extinct baleen whales, which provided the raw data needed to examine the evolutionary relationships between whales of different sizes.  

Their data clearly showed that the large whales that exist today were not present for most of whales' history. 

"We live in a time of giants," said one of the researchers, Jeremy Goldbogen at <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford University</a>. "Baleen whales have never been this big, ever."

The findings could help scientists better understand how whales survive in today’s oceans, Pyenson said.

“Today's oceans and climate are changing at geological scales in the course of human lifetimes.” he said. “With these rapid changes, does the ocean have the capacity to sustain several billion people and the world's largest whales? The clues to answer this question lie in our ability to learn from Earth's deep past -- the crucible of our present world -- embedded in the fossil record."

--

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://naturalhistory.si.edu/">National Museum of Natural History</a>

Image Credit: Copyright Silverback Films/BBC

Whales only recently became so large in size

Whales have existed for 30 million years, but they evolved...

The tiny, uninhabited patch of real estate known as Henderson Island found itself in international news recently. Scientists found that the lonely island in the middle of the vast South Pacific Ocean was home to some 38 million pieces of trash, most of it waste plastic. They also found that the volume is still growing at a rate of about 13,000 items per day.

The reason this three mile by five mile bump in the Pacific has been turned into an accidental landfill is that it sits amidst a vortex of ocean currents that sweeps oceanic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cleaning-ocean-plastic-waste-fuel/">trash</a>, such as from passing freighters, onto its modest shores. 

One of the researchers who made the discovery, Jennifer Lavers of Australia’s University of Tasmania, was quoted in an <a href="https://www.ap.org/en-us/">Associated Press</a> article as saying, “We need to drastically rethink our relationship with plastic. It’s something that’s designed to lasts forever, but is only used for a few fleeting moments and then tossed away.”

Staggering figures

How severe is the global problem of  waste plastic? Here are a few unsettling facts from <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/22-facts-about-plastic-pollution-and-10-things-we-can-do-about-it-1881885971.html">EcoWatch</a>:
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Over the last ten years we’ve produced more plastic than we did during the entire 20th century.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Americans throw away 35 billion plastic water bottles every year.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Enough plastic is tossed each year to circle the globe four times.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">Our oceans contain an average of 46,000 pieces of plastic per mile.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, off the coast of California, is the largest ocean garbage site in the world. It’s a floating mass of plastic that’s twice the size of Texas, with plastic pieces outnumbering sea life six to one.</li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">It takes 500 to 1,000 years for plastic to degrade, so virtually every piece of plastic ever made still exists. (All except that which was incinerated, yet another environmental hazard.)</li>
</ul>
A wet problem

There’s wet waste and then there’s dry waste, and the problem is that much of plastic scrap is wet. That came up in an <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> interview with Doug Woodring, the founder of the <a href="http://www.plasticityforum.com/">Plasticity Forum</a>, a sort of plastics waste environmental think tank. He also founded the <a href="http://www.oceanrecov.org/">Ocean Recovery Alliance</a>.

“The sorting and recycling recovery system is not fit for this product,” he said.

That’s because those who wish to recycle plastic have to, in Woodring’s words, “deconstruct the omelet.” What that means is that, unlike relatively clean recyclable metal, glass and paper, waste plastic is often enmeshed with rotting food scraps or sticky beverages. First you must separate it from and wash it clean of garbage, grease and foulness you don’t even want to contemplate. It’s just not worth it, even to those who recycle for the financial benefit. At least not in industrialized nations.

“In the Third World, they might be interested in recycling for profit, but there are technology barriers,” said Woodring. 

It’s the absence of even such low-tech tools as plastic balers creating obstacles to recovery efforts here. 

“You’re shipping air in your truck if you don’t have a baler,” said Woodring. 

Plastic bottles and containers consist of thin recyclable shells, but a lot of air-filled volume. You have to carry both but you’re only going to be paid for that thin shell. In other words, the waste takes up a lot of room in a truck bed, but doesn’t consist of a lot of recoverable weight per unit. A simple baler could crush the plastic into more  easily transportable bales of recyclable content, but such technology is not readily available in poorer nations.

“There’s no easy fix,” said Woodring. “I believe plastic waste is one of the most complex issues for the environment today.We have to be adults about this. We’re not going to get rid of plastic trash, but we can look for ways to better address the problem.”

<a href="http://www.plasticityforum.com/">The Plasticity Forum</a> brings together the environmentally minded from the corporate world, scientists, packaging designers, recyclers and entrepreneurs working on solutions. While there’s no single-source solution that will solve all of the world’s plastics waste problems, Woodring feels that we’re getting closer on a lot of fronts.

“In Taiwan, they have a tax (on plastics) and a very high recoverable rate,” he said of one possible response. 

Think about it. Aluminum cans and bottles sold with deposits rarely get trashed, simply because there’s a bounty placed on their return. If you won’t recycle your trash, someone else will if there’s enough cash incentive.

Environmentally conscious innovators are continually working on reduced packaging concepts and toward the development of plastic-alternative containers that are “edible, dissolvable or made out of algae,” said Woodring. 

There are also efforts being made to liquify plastics onsite, such as at hospitals, curtailing the need to ship unsafe biomedical waste.

Not all of these and other concepts and developments are at the stage of major commercialization, but they’re examples of technologies hopefully on the horizon. 

And finally, Woodring advocates the Ocean Recovery Alliance’s Global Alert, an in-development “citizen tool” mobile app that can be used to alert authorities to the presence of floating trash waste plastic on their waterways and coastlines. <a href="http://www.oceanrecov.org/global-ocean-alert-system/solution.html">Learn more here</a>.

How many more Henderson Islands are there out there? How much larger is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch destined to get? Or will we, as a society, put our intellectual muscle to the problem and come up with workable solutions that clean up our land, our landfills and our oceans? 

--

Original Feature by <a href="mailto:DSearls@earth.com">David Searls</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Earth.com Exclusive: The world is swimming in waste plastic

The tiny, uninhabited patch of real estate known as Henderson...

Any scientist could tell you that the field of genetics is heavily tied to our understanding of evolution. So when we first learn about evolution in science class, why is it usually taught before we learn genetics? This is a question that piqued the interest of researchers from the <a href="http://www.bath.ac.uk/">University of Bath</a>, who recently published a study in the open access journal <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/">PLOS Biology</a>.

The researchers present a simple, cost-free strategy for significantly improving students’ understanding of evolution at the secondary level: teach them genetics before teaching them evolution.

The study was performed in the UK, where evolution and genetics are generally taught separately, sometimes with long periods of time in between subjects. Led by Lauren Hurst of the <a href="http://www.bath.ac.uk/groups/milner-centre-for-evolution/">Milner Centre for Evolution</a>, they hypothesized that starting students off with studying genetics might aid in their understanding of evolution, as core concepts of genetics (like DNA and mutation) are integral parts of our conceptualization of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/frogs-highly-evolved-skeletons/">evolution</a>.

Consisting of almost 2000 students in 78 classes from 23 schools in the UK (all students were between the ages of 14 and 16), the study asked some teachers to teach genetics before evolution and vice versa. Students were tested prior to teaching as well as after.

Over the course of five years, it was found that students who were taught genetics first improved their test scores by an average of seven percent more than those who were taught evolution first. Furthermore, additional testing on students’ understanding of genetics showed that teaching genetics first either improved their understanding of genetics, or had no effect.

“These are very exciting results,” says Hurst. “School teachers are under enormous pressure to do the best for their students but have little time to make changes and understandably dislike constant disruption to the curriculum.”

The information gained from this study has helped teachers improve the learning environment in the classroom, with no cost or added stress to their own teaching methods. “This research has encouraged teachers to rethink how they teach evolution and genetics and many schools have now changed their teaching practice to genetics-first,” says Rebecca Mead, the first author and a former teacher herself. “I hope more will follow.”

--

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="https://www.plos.org/">PLOS</a>

Image Credit: Miki Yoshihito, Flickr

New study: Teach genetics first to better explain evolution

Any scientist could tell you that the field of genetics...

<a href="https://www.tufts.edu/">Tufts University</a> researchers have tapped into a “hidden code” that allowed them to alter the way worms regenerate after an injury.

The team was able to cause flatworms to regenerate with two heads instead of one by overriding the default body shape called for by a genome.

Flatworms that are known for their regenerative capacity. When cut into pieces, each fragment of flatworm regenerates what it is missing to complete its anatomy. Normally, regeneration produces an exact copy of the original worm.

But the Tufts researchers altered the bioelectric circuits of the worms by using octanol to temporarily interrupt electrical synapses that enable cells to communicate with each other. 

A fourth of the amputated trunk fragments regenerated into two-headed flatworms, while 72 percent regenerated into normal-appearing, one-headed worms, and 3 percent of the fragments did not develop properly.

When the flatworms with normal body shape were amputated repeatedly over several months in normal spring water, they produced the same ratio of two-headed worms to one-headed worms.

The pattern <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cannabis-slow-memory-loss/">memory</a> of the flatworms had been altered, although this only became apparent when the worms regenerated. The research illustrated that the shape to which the worms regenerate is encoded in a bioelectric pattern that instructs one of two possible outcomes after damage.

"With this work, we now know that bioelectric properties can permanently override the default body shape called for by a genome, that regenerative target morphology can be edited to diverge from the current anatomy, and that bioelectric networks can be a control point for investigating cryptic, previously-unobservable phenotypes," said the paper's corresponding author, Dr. Michael Levin, a Tufts biology professor.

The research is significant because advances in regenerative medicine require an understanding of the mechanisms by which some organisms repair damage to their bodies, said Levin.

 "Bioelectricity has a powerful instructive role as a mediator in the reprogramming of anatomical structure, with many implications for understanding the evolution of form and the path to regenerative therapies," Levin added.

[caption id="attachment_450759" align="aligncenter" width="300"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/141023.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-450759" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/141023-300x90.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="90" /></a> Image Credit: Fallon Durant, Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University[/caption]

--

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.tufts.edu/">Tufts University</a>

Researchers discover hidden code behind how worms regenerate

Tufts University researchers have tapped into a “hidden code” that...

A tooth fossil discovered in Mississippi has provided the first evidence that horned dinosaurs lived in eastern North America. 

The tooth belonged to a relative of the Triceratops and was found in rocks that are between 66 and 68 million years old. 

Evidence of horned dinosaurs, also known as ceratopsids, had previously only been found in western North America and Asia. During the Cretaceous Period, 95 to 66 million years ago, a body of water divided eastern and western North America that stretched from the Arctic to the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/birds-challenges-gulf-mexico/">Gulf of Mexico</a>. As a result, animals that evolved on one side of the split were prevented from crossing to the other. 

But the tooth fossil find shows that the body of water that split North America in half must have disappeared by the end of the Age of Dinosaurs.

"The fossil is small, only the size of a quarter, but it packs a ton of information," said Andrew Farke, paleontologist at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology at <a href="https://www.webb.org/">The Webb Schools</a>. "The shape of this tooth, with its distinctive split root, is absolutely unique among dinosaurs," Farke continued. "We only have the one fossil, but it's more than enough to show that an animal very similar to Triceratops-perhaps even Triceratops itself-made it into eastern North America."

The discovery was made by George Phillips, paleontology curator at the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks’ Museum of Natural Science, in the Owl Creek Formation in northern Mississippi. It was announced in the journal <a href="http://peerj.com">PeerJ</a>.

 "I was excited because I knew it was a dinosaur tooth, and dinosaur fossils are rare discoveries east of the Mississippi River,” said Phillips. “I called my volunteer, Michael Estes, over to share in the discovery, and he was beside me in seconds. I knew it wasn't a duck-billed dinosaur, and within 30 minutes of having found it, I posted on Facebook that I'd collected some rare plant-eating dinosaur tooth. It was none other than my colleague Lynn Harrell who made the suggestion, within minutes of my post, that it looked like a ceratopsian tooth."

"The discovery is shocking because fossils of ceratopsid horned dinosaurs had never been discovered previously from eastern North America. It's certainly the most unique and important vertebrate fossil discovery I've ever made," Phillips added.

[caption id="attachment_450745" align="aligncenter" width="300"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/141152.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-450745" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/141152-300x281.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="281" /></a> Image Credit: George Phillips, MDWFP Museum of Natural Science[/caption]

--

By <a href="mailto:rarnold@earth.com">Rory Arnold</a>, <a href="http://earth.com/staff">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://peerj.com">PeerJ</a>

Image Credit: George Phillips, MDWFP Museum of Natural Science

Fossil proves horned dinosaurs lived in eastern North America

A tooth fossil discovered in Mississippi has provided the first...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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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

[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

[sendtonews key="3UUsNkFOuS-2487333-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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...