Earworms - those persistent tunes that play in our heads unbidden - can be more than a minor annoyance.



Imagine going about your day when, without warning, a song loops repeatedly in your mind. 



While these spontaneous musical memories can feel intrusive, earworms offer a fascinating glimpse into the precision of our musical recall.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-unveiling-the-mystery-of-earworms">Unveiling the mystery of earworms</h2>



A recent study has shed light on the surprising accuracy of earworms.



Published in the journal Attention, Perception, &amp; Psychophysics, the study revealed that nearly half of participants' renditions of earworms matched the original <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/most-people-have-a-hidden-musical-talent-for-singing-on-pitch/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pitch</a> of the songs.



This finding challenges prior beliefs about the limitations of musical memory, suggesting that our brains may preserve detailed “absolute pitch” memories even without formal pitch recognition skills.



Earworms, experienced by over 90% of people, are involuntary musical memories that spontaneously play in our minds. 



This study indicates that our recall of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/song-melodies-have-become-much-simpler-since-1950/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">melodies</a> may be more precise than previously thought, even without external references.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-encountering-music-in-a-new-light">Encountering music in a new light</h2>



Matthew G. Evans, PhD candidate at <a href="https://admissions.ucsc.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UC Santa Cruz</a>, said he first learned about the field of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/music-can-prevent-brain-aging-and-cognitive-decline/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">music</a> cognition from Daniel Levitin’s book&nbsp;This Is Your Brain On Music. 



"In that book, he describes a study where they found evidence for absolute pitch recall in voluntarily-recalled musical imagery - and I tried it myself, and it worked, and I’ve been hooked on the topic of musical memory ever since.”



Evans set out to investigate whether this accurate recall extended to spontaneous earworms or was limited only to songs that people purposefully tried to remember.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earworms-more-than-just-random-tunes">Earworms: More than just random tunes</h2>



The study involved 30 undergraduate students who participated in a two-week research period aimed at exploring the accuracy of spontaneous musical recall. 



Using the experience sampling method, the researchers documented these involuntary musical memories in real time by sending participants random text prompts throughout the day.



Students were asked to record any song playing in their minds, capturing the natural occurrence of earworms outside of a controlled laboratory setting.



While most participants had some familiarity with music, none reported having perfect pitch or formal training that would give them an advantage in recalling exact musical notes. 



Each recording was analyzed against the original <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-evolution-of-song-lyrics-less-complexity-and-more-emotion/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">song</a> to determine how closely the pitch matched the song’s actual key. 



The findings were striking: 44.7% of the earworms matched the original song’s pitch exactly. When the range was expanded to include recordings within one semitone of the original pitch, nearly 69% of the renditions met this criterion - far surpassing what could be attributed to random chance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-melodic-imprint-of-our-brains">The melodic imprint of our brains</h2>



The study also found that pitch accuracy was not significantly affected by recent exposure to a song.



Some participants noted that their earworm was triggered by recently hearing the song, but their ability to match the original pitch remained similar to those whose earworms were not influenced by recent listening.



"When we divided our data into responses where participants said they had recently heard the song and those where they hadn’t, we saw absolutely no difference in absolute pitch accuracy," noted Evans. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-research-directions">Future research directions </h2>



While this study provides valuable insights into how we recall music, it also highlights the need for further research to validate and expand upon these findings. 



To gain a broader understanding of how earworms and pitch recall function across different populations, future studies should incorporate a larger and more diverse participant pool, including individuals with no musical background and participants from varied age groups and cultural settings.



By expanding the scope of the research, scientists could explore questions such as whether musical memory accuracy varies by age, cultural exposure to music, or training. 



It may also be valuable to investigate whether factors such as musical genres or personal attachment to specific songs influence pitch accuracy in earworms.



This research marks an early step in unraveling the complex mechanisms of our brain's musical memory. 



As future studies build on this foundational work, we may discover more about the intricate ways in which our minds store and retrieve musical information, shedding light on the intersection of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/memory-is-shaped-by-both-past-and-future-experience-and-events/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">memory</a>, perception, and cognitive processes.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13414-024-02936-0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Attention, Perception, &amp; Psychophysics</a>.



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Earworms: The surprising accuracy of our musical memory

Earworms - those persistent tunes that play in our heads unbidden - can be more than a minor annoyance. Imagine going about your day when, without warning, a song loops repeatedly in your mind. While these spontaneous musical memories can feel intrusive, earworms offer a fascinating glimpse into the precision of our musical recall. Unveiling the mystery of earworms A recent study has shed light on the surprising accuracy of earworms. Published in the journal Attention, Perception, &amp; Psychophysics, the study revealed that nearly half of participants'...

Sustainable, a documentary film by Matt Wechsler and Annie Speicher, lays out the case for organic farming through the eyes of farmers practicing sustainable operations and their nutritionally committed food operations customers.

The star of the film is central Illinois farmers Marty and Kris Travis and their grown son, Will. The family couldn’t be more passionate about the way they work Spence Farm, the small plot of land they repurchased in 1999 after a prior generation had to sell it the decade before. The Travises only started turning a profit after attending a meeting of Chicago restaurant chefs looking for a locally grown organic produce supply chain. The chefs would place an order for whatever underserved produce they needed the next season and the Travises would figure out how to organically grow it. 

When Will points out how his neighbors, traditional farmers farming a thousand acres or more, are making $400 an acre while Spence Farm is pulling in $2,200 on each of their 160 acres, the film certainly makes the case for the economics of 

farming without the high chemical input costs and other bad practices that have become the unwritten rules of agribusiness.

The Travises eventually recruit other small, struggling farmers, some of whom give on-screen credit to the family for saving their own operations.

We learn that most of the farming land in Iowa is devoted to corn and oats, and that the commodity nature of those crops means that the farmers are entirely at the mercy of markets. Their crop prices have nothing to do with the quality of their output in a given year. The sustainable farmers in the film, on the other hand, have more control over what they choose to grow and charge for their yield.

As in many similar stories, big agribusiness is the enemy. One University of Missouri agriculture professor even admits to having trusted the corporate farms to more efficiently feed more people on less acreage. Sure, it would push family farmers out of the business, but that would, in turn, enable those former people of the land to find more profitable careers elsewhere. What he didn’t count on, he says, was the spike of farmer suicides in the 1980s when they couldn’t keep their multi-generation family farms. That’s the point at which he sees that farming isn’t just a business – it’s a culture.

There are a lot of farming cultural heroes in this film, including an Amish agricultural consultant from Middlefield, Ohio whose face is never shown on-camera because of the prohibitions of his religion, but whose knowledge of the old ways are entirely new again.  The sustainability farming experts preach that a diseased plant is one whose health has been permitted to decline and that nutrition programs for the crops can save the fields without <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-study-shows-direct-impact-of-pesticides-on-bee-colonies/">pesticides</a>. 

Interestingly, cattle ranching is put in a favorable light, as long as the meat producers act in environmentally sensitive and non-cruel ways. Vegetarian, animal welfare activist and environmental lawyer Nicolette Hahn meets, falls in love with and marries Bill Niman, a cattle rancher – much to her own surprise. The family’s farm raises grass-fed, grazing beef cattle. The former lawyer states the many ways their herd contribute to responsible land management.

“When you have good grazing, it stimulates vegetation growth and keeps soil moister,” she says. “Hooves tramp organic matter back into the soil.”

The film does an admirable job of extolling the benefits of organic farming over the current agribusiness model. But by presenting mostly small-scale farmers whose main customers are big-city fine dining restaurant chefs, the filmmakers and passionate food activists inadvertently highlight their argument’s weaknesses. These are mostly boutique farmers selling to boutique markets. One might conclude that the higher prices of organic produce is the “real” price of food, and that the corporate mass producers have found ways to cheat costs down that are detrimental to the land and to the health of the American customer.

But until organic farming finds its way into Walmart and Kroger as prime suppliers – not just a small dedicated sub-section of the produce aisle – they aren’t making the mass-market sell they need to be taken seriously by mass markets. Instead, they’re serving only a more elitist audience of fine diners at trendy metropolitan restaurants, and for upscale outdoor market aficionados and those willing to pay extra for their nutritional savvy at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. 

At one point the filmmakers point out that 20 percent of American children are food-insecure. But are the parents of those kids going to solve the challenge by taking the family to a four-star Chicago eatery or by rolling a grocery cart through the organic aisle at a trendy big-city supermarket? 

One foodie and customer of Spence Farm is a baker for Publican Artisan Bread in Chicago who boasts that, while supermarket loaves takes four hours to make, theirs take 60 hours. One can guess that a 60-hour bread costs much more than a mass-produced loaf baked in a fraction of the time – and that it’s well worth it in terms of both flavor and nutritional value. The average family might buy an artisan loaf to thank Aunt Martha for watering the houseplants while they’re on vacation, but will they put it in the kids’ school lunch boxes five days a week?

Until organic farming can be done on a much larger scale at prices that don’t induce sticker shock, sustainable farming might continue to serve a small, but dedicated upscale and urban market. 

Sustainable is currently playing on <a href="https://www.netflix.com/">Netflix</a>. 

--

By David Searls, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: <a href="http://sustainablefoodfilm.com/">Sustainable Official Site</a>

Earth.com Film Review: Sustainable

Sustainable, a documentary film by Matt Wechsler and Annie Speicher,...

Need more proof spinach is good for your heart? Scientists may have figured out a way to “hack” one of the toughest issues in repairing damaged organs. Researchers have used spinach leaves to provide a framework to grow new heart tissue.

“Despite significant advances in the fabrication of bioengineered scaffolds for tissue engineering, delivery of nutrients in complex engineered human tissues remains a challenge,” the research team wrote in the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28222326">new study</a>. “By taking advantage of the similarities in the vascular structure of plant and animal tissues, we developed decellularized plant tissue as a prevascularized scaffold for tissue engineering applications.”

In layman’s terms, the veins in a spinach leaf has provided a sort of template for human heart tissue.

While scientists were able to create human tissue with 3-D printing and other technologies already, organ tissue has presented a larger challenge. Namely, scientists’ are unable to create the delicate vascular network needed to support it, said graduate student Joshua Gershlak, lead author of the paper. 

“Techniques can’t fabricate microvasculature the way that the body needs it,” Gershlak said in a <a href="https://youtu.be/6iUrxGo9gZs">video</a> that the <a href="https://www.wpi.edu/">Worcester Polytechnic Institute</a> research team released to share their work. “Without that microvasculature, you lose that oxygen transport. So as you build a bigger and bigger graft, say for like a heart attack on a human, you’re going to need something fairly large. So without that vascular network, you get a lot of tissue death.”

That’s where the spinach leaves come in.

According to Dr. Glenn Gaudette, who also worked on the research project, the scientists take the spinach leaves and use a detergent to remove all of the plant material while leaving the vascular structure intact.

Then, they seed the structure with human cells, he said. As the human cells grow into cardiac muscle, they can be stacked, and the veins can, in theory, be attached to existing veins in the heart, Gaudette said. 

The heart tissue they’ve created on spinach leaves looks and acts like normal cardiac cells, Gershlak said.

“These data demonstrate the potential of decellularized plants as scaffolds for tissue engineering, which could ultimately provide a cost-efficient, ‘green’ technology for regenerating large volume vascularized tissue mass,” the researchers wrote.

The full study will be published in the May issue of the journal <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/biomaterials">Biomaterials</a>.

—

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com/staff">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Scientists build working heart tissue using spinach leaves

Need more proof spinach is good for your heart? Scientists...

The world changed dramatically beginning some 35 million years ago in what is now Australia. For starters, the entire island nation broke off from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctica-sets-record-high/">Antarctica</a>, and at about the same time, temperatures dropped globally. The freeze resulted in a mass extinction event that drew the interest of modern-day scientists from <a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/">Australian National University</a>.

The ANU researchers used molecular evolutionary studies and fossil records to study a species of pygopodoid geckos that became extinct due to the abrupt climate change.

“The dramatic shift to colder and drier climates likely resulted in rapidly changing Australian habitats, which hugely impacted the animals that inhabited them,” said Ian Brennan, the lead researcher of the study and a PhD student at the ANU Research School of Biology. “Our research provides evidence that rapid shifts in climate may have profound and long-lasting effects on global biodiversity.”

Species of pygopodoid geckos died off in a mass extinction event caused by the freezing temperatures. But over time new species of the hardy reptile adapted to the changing climate in a number of ways once the effects of the big chill wore off and the landscape turned to heated deserts some ten million years ago.

For instance, the reptiles dodged the radiant heat by becoming nocturnal and they developed rugged skin and scales to defend against water loss.

The study proved that climate change affects biodiversity in long-term and dramatic ways. So how will Earth and its inhabitants change to meet the conditions to come under this next cycle of global environmental change?

The ANU study was published earlier this month in the journal Evolution.

-- 

Written by David Searls, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source:<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evo.13207/abstract"> Evolution</a>

Image Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU

Mass extinction event occurred in Australia 35 million years ago

The world changed dramatically beginning some 35 million years ago...

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. It traps heat in the atmosphere, thus making it the main culprit for climate change. But what if science could find a way to convert CO2 to methanol?

On the face of it, that doesn’t look like much of a trade off. Methanol is a chemical that can cause blindness, coma and even death to humans. But when handled carefully, it’s a valuable substance in the production of paint, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/first-evidence-that-deep-sea-animals-are-ingesting-plastics/">plastics</a> and even explosives.

And now researchers at the <a href="https://energy.gov/">U.S. Department of Energy's</a> Brookhaven National Laboratory, have taken the first steps toward that conversion by identifying in the lab the metal that can serve as the most efficient catalyst. Metal catalysts interact with metals to speed up chemical reactions that lead to conversions, and the researchers had to test many such metals.

“We found that copper zinc oxide should give the best results, and that copper zinc is not even stable under reaction conditions,” said Dr. Ping Liu, a chemist and the study’s lead author. “In fact, it reacts with oxygen and transforms to copper zinc oxide.”

The next step is to increase efficiencies in the operation.

“We want to improve it, and get it to operate at lower temperatures and lower pressures, which would save energy,” said Liu.

These findings, which were published in Science, could one day lead to technologies for turning a compound that’s slowly poisoning the earth into a useful substance.

--

Written by David Searls, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source:<a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/"> Science</a>

First steps taken to turn climate-changing CO2 into methanol

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. It traps heat in...

The after-effects of an earthquake observed through seismic readings are not necessarily the same as when observed by orbiting satellites. That’s one conclusion that can be drawn from the study of the 7.8 magnitude quake that shook up <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/the-south-island-new-zealand/">South Island</a> in New Zealand last November. The event, known as the Kaikoura Earthquake – for the town near the epicenter – is now one of the most-studied quakes in history.

The researchers found that before-and-after photos of the area shot from the satellites Copernicus Sentinel-1 and the Japanese-owned ALOS-2 revealed rupture details previously unknown. The team of scientists from New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom started to study the satellite images soon after the quake struck and their findings have been written up in the latest issue of <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/">Science</a>.

Kaikoura was a major quake, resulting in landslides and a tsunami.

Satellite views showed ruptures and land displacements as much as 30 feet high, and the locations of multiple fault lines. The scientists said that the rupture pattern also gave clues to the formation of nearby mountain ranges.

“An earthquake commonly ruptures across a single fault line or faults that are closely grouped, but Kaikoura ruptured at least 12 major crustal faults across two distinct active fault domains,” said Professor Tim Wright, study co-author and director of the Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics at the <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/">University of Leeds</a> in the UK. “This challenges many assumptions about how individual faults control earthquake ruptures.”

The scientists said that their study of the Kaikoura quake could help seismologists reevaluate seismic hazard models.

“The message from Kaikoura is that earthquake science should be more open to a wider range of possibilities when rupture models are being developed,” said Dr. Ian Hamling, a natural hazards geodesist from GNS Science and the lead author of the just-released study. “It underlines the importance of re-evaluating how rupture scenarios are defined for seismic hazard models.”

--

Written by David Searls, Earth.com staff writer

Source:<a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/"> Science</a>

Earthquake satellite imagery reveals more than seismic readings

The after-effects of an earthquake observed through seismic readings are...

Get ready for a bunch of big, hard-to-spell words. And the possibility that some of T.rex’s dinosaur relatives were a measly bunch of plant eaters. 

Paleontologists (there’s your first word challenge) from the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> in England are proposing the possibility that the dinosaur classification system needs to be shaken up.

According to an article in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html">Nature</a>, the researchers believe the system is a bit more complex than what we’ve assumed since 1888. That was the year that paleontologists defined the two main branches of the dino tree: one consisting of bird-hipped herbivores (plant eaters) called Ornithischia, and the other group of both <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fossilized-poop-important-clues/">herbivores</a> and carnivores (meat eaters) with lizard-like hips, called Saurischia.

Too simple.

The <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> researchers studied fossil skeletons and tens of thousands of dinosaur anatomical models to hypothesize that the tree should be reshaped They propose that Theropoda, a classification of dinosaurs that includes the formidable Tyrannosaurus rex, actually branches from the Ornithischia limb despite T. rex very definitely being a meat eater. And that the Saurischia limb should also include the carnivorous Herrerasauridae, among the oldest of dinosaurs, on a separate branch. This is a finding that runs counter to prevailing thought.

“It must be tested and reviewed by others," said study lead author Matthew Baron of the group’s hypothesis and the arguments that are sure to follow. "I personally can’t wait for the debate that this will cause in the field and I look forward to a lively and hopefully civil exchange of ideas and evidence in the coming years.”

Still not content to leave well enough alone, the cantankerous researchers also proposed the possibility that dinosaurs showed up on the planet about ten million years earlier than previously thought, due to the study of a fossil from East Africa.

--

Written by David Searls, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source:<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html"> Nature</a>

Have scientists been up the wrong dinosaur tree since 1888?

Get ready for a bunch of big, hard-to-spell words. And...

For the very first time, a study comparing the brains of people born with blindness to those who are normally sighted has described the combined structural, functional, and anatomical changes that occur in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/animal-brains-seasonal-change/">brains</a> of the blind. These findings demonstrate the awesome power of the human brain to adapt and respond to anatomical adversity.

In a new study led by <a href="http://www.masseyeandear.org/">Massachusetts Eye and Ear</a> researchers and published in <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS One</a>, scientists found that the brains of those who are born blind are able to make new connections due to their lack of visual information. With an absence of visual stimuli to process, the brain is able to enhance other senses such as hearing, smell, and touch. Even more surprising, cognitive functions like memory and language are heightened as well.

By using advanced MRI brain imaging techniques, scientists were able to compare the brains of 12 subjects with early blindness – acquired prior to the age of three – with scans from 16 normally sighted subjects.

What they discovered was that the brain exhibited enhanced connections in subjects with early blindness, sending information between areas of the brain that did not occur in the normally sighted subjects. According to the research team, this is likely due to structural and functional connectivity changes within the brains of those with blindness.

Senior author Lotfi Merabet, director of the Laboratory for Visual Neuroplasticity at the <a href="http://www.schepens.harvard.edu/">Schepens Eye Research Institute</a> of Mass. Eye and Ear, further explains: "Even in the case of being profoundly blind, the brain rewires itself in a manner to use the information at its disposal so that it can interact with the environment in a more effective manner."

This “rewiring” is possible through the process of neuroplasticity, which is the ability of our brain to naturally adapt to our experiences. Merabet believes that this new finding opens the door for a greater understanding of the brain’s powerful ability to adapt. 

The research team hopes that this knowledge will lead to a better understanding of the connections within the brains of those with early blindness. In the long run, this type of work may complement rehabilitation techniques that can help blind individuals better adapt to their absence of visual information.

--

By Connor Ertz, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: Massachusetts Eye and Ear

The brain adapts to heighten remaining senses in blind people

For the very first time, a study comparing the brains...

Neuroscientists at <a href="http://web.mit.edu/">MIT</a> completed experiments that contradict widely held assumptions on the role of the brain’s amygdala. That deep-brain location is believed to be where thoughts of fear and response to unpleasant events were hosted.

In a paper published today in the journal <a href="http://www.cell.com/neuron/home">Neuron</a>, lead authors Joshua Kim and Xiangya Zhang found that the central amygdala primarily houses neurons that drive pleasure-enhancing behavior. In fact, they found that only a relatively small circuitry in this area of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brain-activity-death/">brain</a> triggered a fear response.

“It's surprising that positive-behavior-promoting subsets are so abundant, which is contrary to what many people in the field have been thinking,” said Susumu Tonegawa. She is the Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience, director of the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at <a href="http://web.mit.edu/">MIT</a> and senior author of the study.

The researchers found that most tested populations of neurons in the central amygdala of lab mice stimulated reward-related behavior. Only one of seven tested populations triggered the expected fear-related response.

“Classically people have generalized the central amygdala as a fear-related structure,” said Kim. “They think it's involved in anxiety and fear-related responses. However, it looks like the structure as a whole mainly seems to participate in appetitive behaviors.”

Another surprising development was the team’s finding that fear-related responses in the central amygdala didn’t go directly to the part of the brain where those responses are thought to end up – in an area called the periaqueductal gray (PAG), located in the brain stem. The team said that it’s possible that the message got there eventually, through a more circuitous route they didn’t map, but it wasn’t a direct connection.

--

Written by David Searls, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source:<a href="http://www.cell.com/neuron/home"> Neuron</a>

Brain's fear center stimulates more pleasure than scares

Neuroscientists at MIT completed experiments that contradict widely held assumptions...

Across the country, utilities are required to carefully monitor their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drilling-oil-fracking-problems/">gas</a> lines and fix any leaks that are a safety concern. However, finding and fixing these leaks is a constant challenge. Smaller or more remote leaks that are not as dangerous can easily go undetected and unrepaired for long periods of time. Besides being a safety hazard, leaking natural gas contributes methane – a potent greenhouse gas – to the atmosphere. 

Conventional techniques for detecting and locating methane leaks from pipelines are often inefficient and laborious. In a plan to increase the efficiency of gas leak detection, scientists at <a href="https://www.colostate.edu/">Colorado State University</a> have teamed up with Google Earth Outreach to set up their Street View cars with methane analyzers. 

These analyzers were put in three Street View cars that drove around the cities of Boston, Indianapolis, Staten Island, Syracuse, and Burlington. Findings reported in the ACS journal <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/journal/esthag">Environmental Science &amp; Technology</a> show that Boston, Staten Island, and Syracuse had leaks that released 25 times more methane per kilometer of road than Burlington and Indianapolis.

This difference is likely due to those cities having a larger proportion of old, corroded distribution lines. Both Indianapolis and Burlington can likely point to their implementation of “accelerated pipeline replacement programs” and high number of more modern pipelines for their significantly lower leak rate. 

Programs like this could provide better data to prioritize millions of dollars of infrastructure repair on the pipelines that need it most. In addition, the researchers calculate that repairs to just the largest 8 percent of leaks would reduce pipeline methane emissions by 30 percent. This would be good news for the people that live near any leaky pipes as well as the atmosphere that affects us all.

---

By Connor Ertz, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Source: American Chemical Society

Scientists and Google team up to analyze methane leaks

Across the country, utilities are required to carefully monitor their...

As the world becomes more technology-driven and our population continues to increase, demand is also increasing for rare earth metals. These elements are metals found in rare earth minerals and are – as you might have guessed… rare. They are used in the catalytic converters and batteries that drive our car, in the production of screens and lamps, and as a contrast agent in MRIs, among many other uses. 

In 2013, American researchers reported that surfaces coated with rare earth oxides become water-repellent (hydrophobic), opening up many more applications for the already popular metals. 

Recently, researchers from the <a href="https://www.unibas.ch/en.html">University of Basel</a>, the <a href="http://www.nanoscience.ch/nccr/">Swiss Nanoscience Institute</a>, and the <a href="https://www.psi.ch/">Paul Scherrer Institute</a> published new information on rare earth metal hydrophobicity in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>.

They worked with the company <a href="https://www.glastroesch.com/en/home.html">Glas Tröesch</a> in order to study the hydrophobic properties of rare earths in more detail. By coating glass samples with rare earth oxides, nitrides, and fluorides, they could analyze how the surfaces then reacted to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/water-splashes-science/">water</a> exposure. 

Interestingly, the researchers were unable to detect any hydrophobic properties when the coating was freshly deposited. Only after rare earth oxides came into contact with air did the glass surfaces begin to exhibit hydrophobic properties.

The scientists determined that gaseous hydrocarbons were absorbed from the air by the surface and then reacted with the oxides, making carbonates and hydroxides. The presence of these compounds increased the surfaces’ roughness and reduced wetting by water.

Professor Ernst Meter, from the Department of Physics at the <a href="https://www.unibas.ch/en.html">University of Basel</a>, expressed his shock at this discovery, saying, “We were surprised that the hydrophobic effect was caused by the surface aging.” They were even more surprised that this chemical reaction was able to take place at room temperature.

Although the examined materials are unsuitable for industrial production of water-repellent glass surfaces, knowing that rare earth metals can react with compounds in the ambient air is important for this growing industry. Catalytic processes – like the ones that take place in your car’s catalytic converter and thus help reduce harmful emissions – frequently take place at room temperature. Continuing research into the properties of these important rare earth metals will only serve to benefit an already booming industry as we move into the future.

--

By Connor Ertz, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.unibas.ch/en.html">University of Basel</a>

Rare earth metals increase water-repellent properties over time

As the world becomes more technology-driven and our population continues...

Whenever we see population estimates – whether for our own population or any other species – it’s often hard to tell how these estimates were made. It may be even more difficult to know whether or not these estimates are even accurate. How do you count something that’s constantly moving, like a school of fish? How could you possibly figure out how many <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/space-lasers-phytoplankton-blooms/">phytoplankton</a> inhabit an ocean? For many populations it’s impossible to get exact numbers, so scientists rely on a multitude of strategies to provide estimates. In many cases, scientists use a three-year “moving average,” which helps account for year-to-year irregularities in the results of wildlife surveys. However, this approach has never been evaluated… until now.

A new study published in <a href="http://www.americanornithologypubs.org/loi/cond?code=coop-site">The Condor: Ornithological Applications</a> compares the results of wildlife surveys to true population size using thirty years of surveys of crane populations (the bird, not the heavy machinery). Specifically, Brian Gerber of <a href="https://www.colostate.edu/">Colorado State University</a> and William Kendall of the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/">U.S. Geological Survey</a> looked back on more than three decades of surveys for the Rocky Mountain population of Sandhill Cranes.

The researchers assessed whether the annual population changes determined by the moving averages were realistic. To do this, they used information on crane demographics and compared the moving averages to data gathered by a more sophisticated statistical approach called a hierarchical Bayesian time series model.

The Bayesian model allows for a more structured way to input new information as it becomes available. Gerber explains: “By taking a Bayesian approach, we can include additional information about both the observation process and the true population to obtain more realistic estimates and procedures.”

According to Gerber, this method also accounts for measures of uncertainty about the population estimates, which the more common survey approaches don’t usually provide. This allows researchers to understand the level of confidence they should have in their estimates.

Gerber and Kendall found that this more complex method performed better over a wider range of scenarios, although they found the moving average estimates to be reasonable. From their analysis, they were able to determine that over the last twenty years, the management practices have largely met their annual population objectives for the Rocky Mountain Sandhill Crane population. Gerber believes that their modeling approach “makes implementing any changes relevant to the survey easier.”

The researchers are confident that the work put into collecting this population data over long periods of time can result in pay off beyond the Rocky Mountain’s crane population. Their more complex model may be applicable to other species in other ecosystems as well.

--

By Connor Ertz, Earth.com Staff Writer

Source: <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/emb_releases/2017-03/aosp-hra031517.php">American Ornithological Society Publications Office</a>

The accuracy of wildlife surveys has been put to the test

Whenever we see population estimates – whether for our own...

Keeping track of ocean waves – and therefore wind speed and direction – is important to forecasting weather phenomena that can benefit mariners, coastal farmers and others who live and work near the sea. We can do this to some extent by observing buoys and wave activity from ships, but that only provides a very localized picture. Now, scientists have recently discovered that something as simple as the sun glitter pattern on large bodies of water can be observed by satellite and used for tracking wave activity. They used the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission to map the motion of the sea surface from a large-scale observation point.

The team of scientists found a way to map the height, direction and movement of waves by tracking the patterns sunlight made on the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-waves-cause-great-dying/">waves</a> in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Dorre Island in western Australia. They further developed their techniques through the <a href="http://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency’s</a> Scientific Assessment of Ocean Glitter project.

The findings have already helped scientists successfully map wave activity in the Agulhas Current, a historically treacherous current around the southernmost coast of Africa.

We found that ocean surface currents transform dominant surface waves, which are the tallest surface waves in a given area, driven by local wind and large-scale swells,” said Vladimir Kudryavstev of the <a href="http://www.rshu.ru/eng/">Russian State Hydrometeorological University</a>’s Satellite Oceanography Laboratory. “They also showed how wave packets can be deflected and trapped by ocean surface currents, creating surface waves that are much higher than normal.”

Soon, there will be two Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites in orbit, and both will assigned to add to wave data.

 “The development of new approaches to exploit advances in technologies that are now carried on the Sentinel-2 satellites means that we are not only able to gain further scientific knowledge of surface ocean dynamics, but we are also able to develop the next generation of the operational products for Copernicus,” said ESA’s Craig Donlon.

Sun glitter findings were written up in papers for two issues of <a href="https://publications.agu.org/journals/">AGU Publications</a>.

-- 

By Earth.com staff writer David Searls

Source:<a href="https://publications.agu.org/journals/"> AGU Publications</a>

Sun glitter can be used to track ocean waves

Keeping track of ocean waves – and therefore wind speed...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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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



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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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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



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Designing crops that can beat the heat

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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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



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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



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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



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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



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The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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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



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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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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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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



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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...