An asteroid impact on Mars 11 million years ago sent fragments of the red planet hurtling through space. One of these pieces eventually crashed into Earth, making its way to Purdue University and becoming known as the Lafayette Meteorite.&nbsp;



This rare find has been instrumental in unlocking secrets of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/manganese-discovery-ancient-mars-earth-like-water-lake-habitable/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mars</a>’ watery past, with new research recently published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7185/geochemlet.2443" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Geochemical Perspective Letters</a> that provides insight into the timing and nature of Mars’ ancient water activity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracing-mars-watery-past">Tracing Mars’ watery past</h2>



Scientists have long known that the Lafayette Meteorite interacted with liquid water on Mars, but the exact timing of this event was uncertain.&nbsp;



Dr. Marissa Tremblay, an assistant professor at Purdue University’s <a href="https://www.eaps.purdue.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences</a> (EAPS), led an international research team to determine the age of the water-altered minerals in the meteorite, pinpointing it to 742 million years ago.



“Dating these minerals can therefore tell us when there was liquid water at or near the surface of Mars in the planet's geologic past,” Tremblay explained.&nbsp;



The findings suggest that while liquid water wasn’t abundant on the surface at this time, it likely came from melting subsurface ice, or permafrost, caused by intermittent volcanic activity - a phenomenon still observed on Mars today.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-preserving-a-moment-in-mars-geological-timeline">Preserving a moment in Mars’ geological timeline</h2>



The study not only identified when water interacted with the meteorite but also established that the dating was unaffected by events after the meteorite left Mars.&nbsp;



“The age could have been affected by the impact that ejected the Lafayette Meteorite from Mars, the heating it experienced during the 11 million years it was floating in space, or the heating when it fell to Earth,” Tremblay said.&nbsp;



However, the team confirmed that none of these factors altered the age, validating the timeline of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mars-lost-most-of-its-water-but-where-did-it-go/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">water</a> interaction.



Study co-author and Purdue EAPS researcher Ryan Ickert applied heavy isotope analysis to further verify that previous data on the meteorite’s water-rock interaction had likely been skewed by other geological processes.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This meteorite uniquely has evidence that it has reacted with water. The exact date of this was controversial, and our publication dates when water was present,” said Ickert.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mysterious-journey-of-the-meteorite">Mysterious journey of the meteorite </h2>



The Lafayette Meteorite’s journey to Purdue is something of a mystery. It was found in a university drawer in 1931, though how it got there remains unknown.&nbsp;



In previous research, Tremblay and her team used crop disease markers from organic contaminants found on the meteorite to narrow down when it might have fallen to Earth.



Once the meteorite was ejected from Mars, it endured constant cosmic ray bombardment in space, which produced certain isotopes, offering clues to its time of impact on Earth.&nbsp;



“Many meteoroids are produced by impacts on Mars and other planetary bodies, but only a handful will eventually fall to Earth,” Tremblay said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-planetary-time-capsules">Planetary time capsules</h2>



Meteorites like Lafayette serve as planetary time capsules, offering invaluable data on the geological and environmental history of their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/most-meteorites-can-be-traced-to-three-asteroid-families/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">home worlds</a>. With their dense structure, metallic content, and magnetic properties, meteorites are often distinguishable from Earth rocks.&nbsp;



“We can identify meteorites by studying what minerals are present in them, their mineral relationships, and by checking for a fusion crust formed during entry into Earth’s atmosphere,” Tremblay explained.&nbsp;



By analyzing these traits and their chemical signatures, scientists can often determine a meteorite’s planetary origin.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-complex-history-of-meteorites">Complex history of meteorites</h2>



This research marks a significant milestone for the team, which included scientists from institutions across the globe, such as the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Center (SUERC), the University of St. Andrews, the University of Glasgow, the University of Bristol, and London’s <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Natural History Museum</a>.&nbsp;



“Before moving to Purdue, Ryan and I were both based at SUERC, where the argon-argon isotopic analyses of the alteration minerals in Lafayette took place,” Tremblay said.&nbsp;



Their partners at SUERC and the Natural History Museum have long contributed to studying Lafayette’s complex history.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dating-minerals-in-meteorites">Dating minerals in meteorites</h2>



Dating the water-altered minerals in Lafayette, and others in its class of Martian meteorites called nakhlites, has been a central focus in planetary science, as they uniquely capture moments when liquid water was present on Mars.&nbsp;



Due to complex alterations over time, previous attempts to date these minerals were plagued with uncertainties.&nbsp;



However, the team has now developed a robust dating method that could be applied to other meteorites, enhancing our understanding of when water might have been present on Mars and other planetary bodies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-of-planetary-science">The future of planetary science</h2>



Thanks to the Stahura Undergraduate Meteorite Fund, Tremblay and Ickert’s research on the Lafayette Meteorite will continue, with the involvement of undergraduate students in Purdue EAPS.&nbsp;



This opportunity allows students to engage in real-world planetary science, helping to reveal the intricate histories of meteoritic samples.



Tremblay and her team’s work on the Lafayette Meteorite highlights its scientific significance, revealing a complex history that ties it to Mars’ geological past.&nbsp;



Their findings not only deepen our understanding of Mars but also set a precedent for future studies that might unveil even more about the red planet’s climate history, water activity, and potential for supporting <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/some-mars-rocks-contain-signs-of-life-scientists-call-to-bring-them-back-to-earth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">life</a>.



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Meteorite that struck Mars reveals when the planet had liquid water

An asteroid impact on Mars 11 million years ago sent fragments of the red planet hurtling through space. One of these pieces eventually crashed into Earth, making its way to Purdue University and becoming known as the Lafayette Meteorite.&nbsp; This rare find has been instrumental in unlocking secrets of Mars’ watery past, with new research recently published in the journal Geochemical Perspective Letters that provides insight into the timing and nature of Mars’ ancient water activity. Tracing Mars’ watery past Scientists have long known that the Lafayette...

With the human population on the rise, every day there are more mouths to feed. This means that agriculture and the science behind it need to keep up with the growth of our population. Scientists around the world are constantly working on how to maximize the growth and production potential of our crops, so that we can produce more food with less land. In a new study published in <a href="http://www.cell.com/">Cell</a>, researchers have found a way to use two formerly detrimental genes in tomatoes to actually work together and increase yield. 

The two genes in question were found to cause extreme branching of the plant and reduce fruit yield when they are both present. One of these genes causes the green leafy “cap” on the top of tomatoes to grow larger. The other (known as Jointless2) causes the plant to have a smoother stem and firmer attachment to the fruit.

The Jointless2 gene is known to make tomatoes easier to harvest, which has caused it to be a desirable gene in these plants. However, the presence of both of these gene mutations in one plant results in the plant excessively branching out and flowering. These flowers later turn into the tomato fruit, which seems like it would be a desirable outcome, but senior author Zachary Lippman explains why this is not the case:

“…More branches and flowers doesn’t always translate to more fruits,” says Lippman, a plant geneticist at <a href="http://www.cshl.edu/">Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory</a>. “In order to make those fruits, the plant has to pump a lot of resources into the young fruits as they start to grow. But plant can’t handle that imbalance of having too many fruits, so the fertility is quite low.”

The research team hypothesized that there might be a happy medium; where low levels of branching would produce more flowers than a non-branching plant, but not so many that the plant wastes its resources. To test this theory, they began to analyze the genes responsible for flower-bearing branches and these growth patterns.

One of their first discoveries was mutations in two closely related <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bahaman-pupfish-specialization-genes/">genes</a>, which they deemed “strong branching” mutants. Both mutations played a role in initiating flower growth by turning genes on and off in plant stem cells. While the first gene was the already established Jointless2 gene, the second gene was unknown.

Lippman and his colleagues wanted to determine how the second gene worked when Jointless2 was gone. Using the infamous CRISPR “gene editing” technology, they created a tomato with a mutation in the unknown gene. For these plants, the researchers noticed that the mutants grew larger sepals – which are the small leaves at the base of a flower that eventually become part of the green cap to the tomato.

The researchers still aren’t sure what the benefit of larger sepals and a larger leafy cap would be, but the mutation exists in more than 85% of modern tomatoes. This means that it’s hard to breed a jointless tomato without creating a plant that also has excessive branching.

“In the 1970s, breeders wanted to use Jointless2 so much that they said, ‘We’re going to find a way to use the genetics to our advantage, and we’re going to find other genes to suppress the branching.’ So they knew they had this extreme branching, but they didn’t know which gene was mutated,” says Lippman. Previously, the goal had been to suppress branching and bring the plant back to the unbranched state, which they had achieved. But Lippman believes scientists had missed the opportunity to initiate weak branching – which could be more beneficial.

Using natural mutations and CRISPR, the researchers engineered several different tomato plants with varying levels of branching, including one with weak branching but a high fruit yield. Lippman believes that the results of this study may be useful for not just tomato breeders, but for related crops as well.

“The more we understand about basic plant biology, basic mechanisms of plant growth, and plant development, the more we have at our fingertips the knowledge and tools to rework the system or tune the system and exploit the system,”  says Lippman. And when it comes to feeding a growing world, we’ll need all the help we can get.

--

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>

Genetic research aims to improve tomatoes and expand production

With the human population on the rise, every day there...

There is limited terrestrial life in Antarctica - plants only exist on approximately 0.3 percent of the continent. Moss, however, is part of the region's year-round landscape. Weather patterns in Antarctica are rapidly changing, and moss banks are predicted to make the continent much greener if the temperatures continue to climb. 

Temperatures are warming in Antarctica faster than almost anywhere else on the planet, and the ecosystem is changing as a result. Moss in Antarctica has expanded very quickly with the rising  temperatures. Scientists from the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a> set out to get a more detailed account of this phenomenon.

The team studied the cores of moss from approximately 400 miles of land. 

The cores are well-preserved in the cold conditions of the region. An analysis of the last 150 years - recorded in moss cores from 3 different sites - revealed that major biological activity has taken place over the last 50 years.

"Temperature increases over roughly the past half century on the Antarctic Peninsula have had a dramatic effect on moss banks growing in the region," explained Dr Matt Amesbury of the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a>. "If this continues, and with increasing amounts of ice-free land from continued glacier retreat, the Antarctic Peninsula will be a much greener place in the future."

The change in weather patterns on the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-antarctic-peninsula-has-been-cooling-since-the-ozone-repair/">Antarctic Peninsula</a> has been recorded in great detail, particularly since the 1950’s. The samples collected from this project, however, provide an even more extensive historical view of the climate change that has taken place here. 

In 2013, the same research team recorded similar findings from a single site in Antarctica. As a result of the current study, the scientists learned that the rapid biological response to climate change was more widespread than previously thought, and could be applied to a much larger region.  

"Although there was variability within our data, the consistency of what we found across different sites was striking,” said Professor Dan Charman, who led the study.

The research is published in the journal Current Biology. The team plans to expand this project by analyzing moss samples that are thousands of years old. By doing so, they hope to view how climate change affected ecosystems before human-induced global warming. 

--

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.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a>

Image Credit: Matt Amesbury

Climate change is turning Antarctica green

There is limited terrestrial life in Antarctica - plants only...

The <a href="https://www.wmo.int/">World Meteorological Organization</a> (WMO) has released a list of the world’s most deadly extreme weather events, from a tropical cyclone that killed an estimated 300,000 people in Bangladesh, to a lightning-caused oil tank fire in Egypt that killed 69 people.

"Knowing exactly how bad various types of weather have been in the past has been an integral part of preparing for the future," said Randy Cerveny, an <a href="http://www.asu.edu/">Arizona State University</a> Professor of Geographical Science and Urban Planning and Chief Rapporteur of Climate and Weather Extremes for WMO. "This type of extreme (mortality totals) provides a very useful set of baseline numbers against which future disasters can be compared.”

The numbers can also help dispel incorrect beliefs about weather disasters, said Cerveny.

"For example, I have often heard since 2005 that Hurricane Katrina was the deadliest tropical cyclone/hurricane to have ever occurred,” he said. “While Katrina was bad (more than 2,000 died), it pales in comparison to the tropical cyclone that hit the area of present-day Bangladesh in 1970, that killed an estimated 300,000 people."

Cerveny convened an international WMO committee of 19 experts that conducted an in-depth investigation of mortality records for five specific weather-related events. The committee found:
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">The most deaths associated with a tropical cyclone were an estimated 300,000 people killed directly as result of the passage of a tropical cyclone through Bangladesh (then  East Pakistan) on Nov. 12-13, 1970.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">The deadliest <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/six-tornadoes-southeast-louisiana/">tornado</a> killed 1,300 people on April 26, 1989 in the Manikganj district of Bangladesh. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">The deadliest indirect strike from lightning killed 469 people when lightning caused an oil tank fire in Dronka, Egypt, on Nov. 2, 1994.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">The worst single lightning strike killed 21 people in a hut in Manyika Tribal Trust Lands in Zimbabwe (at the time of incident, Rhodesia) on Dec. 23, 1975.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;">The worst hail storm killed 246 people near Moradabad, India, on April 30, 1888, with hailstones as large as "goose eggs and oranges and cricket balls."</li>
</ul>
Detailed knowledge of these extreme weather events "confirm our continuing responsibilities to not only forecast and monitor weather and climate but to utilize that information to save lives around the world so disasters of these types are lessened or even eliminated in the future,” Cerveny 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="http://www.asu.edu/">Arizona State University</a>

WMO releases list of the deadliest weather events

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has released a list of...

When plants decompose, organic carbon that was created through the process of photosynthesis returns to the Earth's atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Rivers help remove carbon-containing plant debris and flush it into the ocean. An emerging study finds that man-made dams have a large impact on this carbon exchange, an impact that is also making a global contribution to climate change. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/">University of Waterloo</a> set out to observe the fate of organic carbon traveling in the world's <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-learn-how-greenhouse-gases-enter-streams-and-rivers/">rivers</a>. They also wanted to analyze how much dams disrupt the flow of these organic materials. The study, which is published in Nature Communications, reveals that 20 percent of the organic carbon moving downstream is trapped by man-made dam reservoirs. 

The team used a new model for their research that linked the movement of organic carbon in the river with physical characteristics of the dam, such as water flow and the size of the reservoir. The model allowed the experts to examine the impact of over 70 percent of the world's reservoirs by volume. 

Philippe Van Cappellen is a professor in the University of Waterloo's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the study's co-author. He explained, "With the model used in this study, we can better quantify and predict how dams affect carbon exchanges on a global scale.”

There are 70,000 large dams in the world. This level of interference in the natural progression of rivers causes  considerable environmental changes. Over the next 15 years, 90 percent of the Earth’s rivers will contain at least one dam. Despite the influence that these reservoirs have on the planet's carbon exchange, they are barely depicted in climate change models. 

"Dams don't just have local environmental impacts. It's clear they play a key role in the global carbon cycle and therefore the Earth's climate,” said Van Cappellen. “For more accurate climate predictions, we need to better understand the impact of reservoirs."

--

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://uwaterloo.ca/">University of Waterloo</a>

How man-made dams affect climate change globally

When plants decompose, organic carbon that was created through the...

Good looks alone aren’t all it takes to be attractive. According to a new article in <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/psychology">Frontiers in Psychology</a>, voice and smell are also important factors in the force of attraction.

It may not seem surprising that attractiveness involves more than just physical appearance, but most research has focused on looks, neglecting vocal and olfactory factors, the new study found.


A team of researchers reviewed 30 years of literature, but only found a few studies that have looked into the role of voice and scent. Although the research field is small, it provides insight into a large quantity and variety of information.

"Recently, most reviews have focused on visual attractiveness--for example, face or body attractiveness," says Agata Groyecka, lead author of the review and a researcher at the <a href="https://international.uni.wroc.pl/en/s3.php">University of Wroclaw</a> in Poland. "However, literature about other senses and their role in social relations has grown rapidly and should not be neglected."

Viewing attractiveness through all three channels “gives a more reliable and broader variety of information about them,” Groyecka said

Some of the study findings are relatively intuitive, such as people guessing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/light-gender-gynodioecious-plants/">gender</a> and age based on voice alone. But listeners have also proven to be skilled at detecting an unexpected range of characteristics from a voice, including the dominance, cooperativeness, emotional state, and even the body size of the speaker.

People can correctly deduce similar types of information based on scent alone, according to other studies. Recent brain imaging research has also suggested that combinations--sight and smell, for example--appear to be synergistic, producing even stronger reactions than would be expected.

Perceived attractiveness influences not only romantic relationships, but also friendships and professional interactions, Groyecka added.

The review also highlights a variety of proposed evolutionary explanations for the multisensory aspects of attraction, such as the utility of having traits such as voice and looks  that can be detected both from a distance, as well as up close, such as scent.

“I hope that this review will inspire researchers to further explore the role of audition and olfaction in social relations," Groyecka 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="http://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/psychology">Frontiers in Psychology</a>

Study: Attraction based on more than looks, includes voice, smell

Good looks alone aren’t all it takes to be attractive....

Land height could be a "game changer" in explaining why temperatures are rising much faster in the Arctic compared to the Antarctic, a new study says.

A possible cause for the accelerated <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/idea-tackle-arctic-ice-melt/">Arctic</a> warming is the melting of the region's sea ice, which reduces the icy, bright area that can reflect sunlight back out into space. This results in more solar radiation being absorbed by the dark Arctic waters, said the study, published in <a href="http://www.earth-system-dynamics.net/">Earth System Dynamics</a>. 

But that may not be the only contributing factor, the study said.

Scientists believe this is an important contribution to warming in the region, but land height could be another.

With an average elevation of about 2,500 m, Antarctica is the highest continent on Earth, due to a thick layer of ice covering the bedrock. Antarctica also has high mountains, such as Mount Vinson, which rises almost 4,900 m above sea level.

"I thought that land height could be a game changer that might help explain why the Arctic has thus far warmed faster than Antarctica," said Marc Salzmann, a researcher at the Institute for Meteorology, <a href="http://www.uni-leipzig.de/en.html">University of Leipzig </a>in Germany.

Salzmann used a computer model of the Earth system to find out how the climate would react to a doubling of the atmospheric carbon-dioxide concentration. He also ran the same experiment in a flat-Antarctica world, where he artificially decreased the land height over the entire southern continent to one metre, similar to the surface height in the Arctic.

The experiments showed that if Antarctica's land height is reduced, temperatures in the region respond more strongly to a rise in the concentration of greenhouse gases over the continent, contributing to an increase in Antarctic warming.

In the real world, Antarctica’s elevation over centuries could be reduced as ice melts from warmer temperatures due to increased greenhouse-gas emissions, the study said. This, in turn, would contribute to even more warming as Antarctica loses the height advantage.

--

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.earth-system-dynamics.net/">Earth System Dynamics</a>

Land height could explain slower warming in Antarctica

Land height could be a "game changer" in explaining why...

Beaver dams may help lower stream temperatures, helping cold-water fish such salmon and trout, a new study says.

Although previous research has suggested that beaver dams raise stream temperatures, the study by Nicholas Weber from <a href="http://ecologicalresearch.net/">Eco-Logical Research, Inc., USA</a> and colleagues found the opposite. They monitored water temperatures along 34 kilometers of the John Day River in Oregon over eight years and assessed the impact of artificial beaver dams on water temperature along four reaches of Bridge Creek.

Juvenile steelhead salmon in Bridge Creek experience extreme stress at about 25°C, and the researchers found that maximum daily temperatures in much of the study stream exceed this temperature for much of the summer.

But temperatures rarely exceeded 25°C after the proliferation of beaver dams, possibly because they dams help moderate temperatures both by increasing water storage and encouraging surface water and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/changing-monsoon-patterns-india/">groundwater</a> exchange. Beavers and salmon were once more abundant and widely distributed in North America, and beaver dams could help mitigate the thermal degradation that can threaten sensitive species, according to the study published in the journal <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS ONE</a>.  

“Beaver are often considered a keystone species, and their propensity to build dams plays an integral role in maintaining biodiversity and enhancing aquatic processes that benefit an array of aquatic and terrestrial organisms,” Weber said. 

Increasingly, beavers and artificial beaver dams are being used as low- cost tools in stream and river restoration efforts, Weber added.

The new study demonstrates that beaver dams could also be used to lower stream temperatures,  mitigating “thermal degradation that can threaten sensitive species,” Weber said.

[caption id="attachment_450650" align="aligncenter" width="300"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/140260.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-450650" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/140260-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a> Credit: Weber et al., 2017[/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="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS ONE</a>

Image Credit: Weber et al., 2017

Beaver dams may protect cold-water fish from warming temperatures

Beaver dams may help lower stream temperatures, helping cold-water fish...

For newborns, breast-feeding is a critical part of their development. Factors such as the duration of breast-feeding and when solid food is introduced to their diet can be important to an infant’s future health.

But this isn’t just important for humans. Primates also breast-feed their young, and the specifics of these feeding tendencies – while not well understood – can have a significant effect on primate populations.

A recent study in the journal <a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/">Science Advances</a> now reveals that biomarkers in the teeth of wild orangutans show how breast-feeding patterns are related to food fluctuations in their natural habitat. These findings may help us delve deeper into the evolution of breast-feeding in humans as well.

Primate <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/extinct-giant-salmon-teeth/">teeth</a> contain growth patterns – similar to tree rings – which allowed researchers to determine the concentrations of maternal elements in an young primate’s teeth as it developed. This was able to reveal details on their dietary and nursing patterns.

“Early-life dietary transitions reflect fundamental aspects of primate life, history, and evolution,” explains Christine Austin, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at <a href="https://www.griffith.edu.au/">Griffith University</a> in Australia.

Analysis of deceased Sumatran and Bornean orangutan teeth revealed that these primates exclusively consume milk for their first year, after which they cycle between more and less milk consumption. This breast-feeding may occur until they are eight or nine years old – a behavior that would be considered quite bizarre in humans. 

Researchers believe this cycling behavior is a result of the changing availability of fruit, which may cause young orangutans to turn to breast milk when fruit availability is low.

The research team is confident these findings will lead to future studies on how food availability and certain environmental factors affect the nursing patterns of primates.

But this research can be connected to human behavior as well, says Austin: “By first studying nursing patterns of our primate cousins, we can apply these findings to future studies in humans. This method can be used to reconstruct the diet histories of contemporary humans in order to reliably and accurately study the relationship between infant diet and health outcomes in childhood or later life, as well as inform models of population growth.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: The Mount Sinai Hospital/<a href="http://icahn.mssm.edu/">Mount Sinai School of Medicine</a>

Orangutan breast-feeding sheds light on human evolution

For newborns, breast-feeding is a critical part of their development....

Researchers have developed a new, natural sunscreen that mimics the body’s own defense systems for ultraviolet rays, according to a new study.

"Basically, we succeeded in making a synthetic version of the nanoparticles that our skin uses to produce and store melanin and demonstrated in experiments in skin cells that they mimic the behavior of natural melanosomes," said Nathan Gianneschi, a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Materials Science and Engineering and Nanoengineering at the <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">University of California San Diego</a>.

Melanin particles are produced naturally in many different sizes and shapes by animals, from iridescent feathers in birds to pigmented eyes and skin of some reptiles. But extracting melanins from natural sources has proven more difficult than producing them synthetically, the study said.

Gianneschi and his fellow researchers discovered two years ago that synthetic melanin-like nanoparticles could be developed to mimic the performance of natural melanins in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/male-birds-not-monogamous/">bird</a> feathers.

Their study, published in the American Chemical Society journal <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/centralscience">ACS Central Science</a>, reports the development of nanoparticles that mimic the behavior of natural melanosomes, melanin-producing cell structures that protect human skin, eyes and other tissues from the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation.

The scientists created melanin-like nanoparticles through the spontaneous oxidation of dopamine, then tested the nanoparticles in tissue culture.

The nanoparticles were not only taken up and distributed normally, like natural melanosomes, within the keratinocytes, but they also protected skin cells from DNA damage due to ultraviolet radiation.

Practical applications could include sunscreen as well as treatments for diseases such as vitiligo and albinism, the researchers said.

Vitiligo develops when the immune system wrongly attempts to clear normal melanocytes from the skin, effectively stopping the production of melanocytes. Albinism is due to genetic defects that lead to either the absence or a chemical defect in tyrosinase, a copper-containing enzyme involved in the production of melanin. Both diseases lack effective treatments and raise the risk of skin cancer.

--

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://ucsd.edu/">University of California San Diego</a>

Scientists develop the ultimate natural sunscreen

Researchers have developed a new, natural sunscreen that mimics the...

During our daily activities, we are constantly deciding what to do and when to do it. Choosing the right time to act can be as important as the action itself. Performing an action too soon or too late may result in a missed opportunity. An emerging study finds that the moment an action is executed is determined by components of the brain that include both predictability and randomness.

Competitors such as athletes display a great amount of unpredictability in the timing of their actions. Researchers at <a href="http://www.fchampalimaud.org/en/the-foundation/champalimaud-centre-unknown/">Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown</a> set out to determine how the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-brain-lsd-microdosing/">brain</a> chooses an optimal time to act while remaining unpredictable. 

Zach Mainen is a neuroscientist who led the study. "Our goal was to understand better the mechanisms in the brain that determine the timing of actions,” explained Mainen. "We were especially interested in the fact that action timing often shows great variability, apparent randomness, even when the conditions are held constant."

Mainen and his team created a project to analyze the timing of the actions of mice. The scientists sounded a tone to alert the mice they could get water from a dispenser. A second tone was also played for the mice, who discovered they would get much more water if they waited a little longer for the second alert. The amount of time that the mice were willing to wait to access more water was both predictable and unpredictable.

The experiment was repeated, and this time the scientists recorded simultaneous activity of multiple neurons in the brains of the mice. Activities were observed in a decision-making region of the prefrontal cortex called MPFC, and also in a part of the motor cortex called M2, which is believed to control movement. Both the MPFC and the M2 help determine the timing of actions. 

The scientists found that the M2 controls both predictable and random aspects of action timing. They were surprised to find that the MPFC had nothing to do with the randomness of the timing.

“We found that two different regions within the brain seem to play very different roles in the generation of action timing,” said Mainen. "One area, the medial prefrontal cortex [MPFC] appears to keep track of the ideal waiting time based on experience. A second area, the secondary motor cortex, also keeps track of the ideal timing and in addition shows variability that renders individual decisions unpredictable. This suggests a previously not well appreciated 'separation of powers' within the brain."

The study, which appears today in the journal Neuron, shows that the predictable component of action timing comes first, and the random component is added on top.

“A similar interplay between optimization and generation of variability underlies the theory of evolution,” said Mainen. "Here, we have begun to see how this plays out in the brain."
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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 

Source: <a href="http://www.fchampalimaud.org/en/the-foundation/champalimaud-centre-unknown/">Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown</a>

Image Credit: Gil Costa (Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown)

The brain uses predictability and randomness in deciding actions

During our daily activities, we are constantly deciding what to...

In a world as complicated as ours is today, few things are rarely 100% good – and it seems like planting trees may now exist in that gray area as well.

In urban areas, the presence of trees is a good way to break up the dreariness of city life and concrete buildings. It’s also common knowledge that trees consume carbon dioxide and release oxygen, both good things for our continued existence. Prior research has shown the benefits of urban vegetation to include everything from controlling storm water to storing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-creatures-carbon-impact/">carbon</a>.

However, new research in the ACS Journal <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/journal/esthag">Environmental Science &amp; Technology</a> has found that during heat waves, urban vegetation can actually increase air pollution levels and ozone formation.

Trees and other plants have been known to release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can interact with other compounds and increase air pollution. Furthermore, in hot conditions, plants are known to release higher levels of VOCs. Researcher Galina Churkina and her colleagues were interested in how heat waves in urban areas might affect the contribution of trees to city air pollution.

In their study, the researchers used computer models to compare air pollution concentrations in the Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan area in Germany for the summer of 2006 to the summer of 2014. In 2006, there was a significant heat wave, while in 2014 Germany experienced more typical temperatures.

The results of the simulation found that in the summer of 2006, VOCs from urban vegetation contributed about 6 to 20 percent of ozone formation. During the heat wave of 2014, this contribution drastically increased to as much as 60 percent.

So what does this mean? Should we stop planting trees in our cities, or maybe cut down some of the existing vegetation? Not so fast. The researchers think that we should continue our tree-planting efforts, while also looking to reduce vehicular traffic. Emissions from vehicles are a major source of nitrogen oxides, which react with VOCs and form ozone. 

Continued research in this area could help inform city officials on how to maximize their efforts for sustainable, healthy cities.

--

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://pubs.acs.org/journal/esthag">American Chemical Society</a>

Urban trees can actually increase ozone levels during heat waves

In a world as complicated as ours is today, few...

Approximately 130 million years ago, India split off from the supercontinent Gondwana. It drifted north - moving at a rate of approximately 15 centimeters a year. Eventually, India collided with Asia and formed the Himalayan Mountains. This collision also buried Cambay amber that is giving scientists incredible new insight into the mystery of India’s drift. 

Embedded in the 54 million-year-old Indian amber are the fossils of three new species of fungus gnats. The newly-discovered insects are closely related to fossils found in Europe. In fact, the fossils in the Cambay amber have a striking resemblance to their relatives encased in the European Baltic amber. 

The long-beaked fungus gnats, or Lygistorrhinidae, have been previously  identified in the younger Baltic amber. These tiny tropical flies are extremely rare, and only two species of the insects were preserved in the Baltic amber. The unearthing of three species in the Indian amber are an unprecedented find. 

The significance of this discovery is that it may disprove the theory that India became an isolated subcontinent after it drifted. This and other faunal connections to Europe suggest India was not a solitary island. 

Exactly how the insects were exchanged is unclear, but experts theorize there may have been an island chain linking Europe and <a href="https://www.earth.com/plants/west-indian-nightshade-solanum-ptychanthum/">India</a>. 

The biodiversity of early India is not very well documented. The study, published in <a href="https://peerj.com/">Peerj</a>, sheds new light on the origin of India's insects which could lead to a better understanding of the country's geological evolution.

--

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://peerj.com/">Peerj</a>

Image Credit: Frauke Stebner

Insect fossils found in Indian amber may solve ancient mystery

Approximately 130 million years ago, India split off 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 Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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



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

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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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

[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...