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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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What are the chances that alien life exists?

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

Most of the meltwater in Greenland's fjords comes from icebergs, not glaciers. Greenland icebergs lose up to half of their volume as they move through the narrow inlets, according to new research.

Greenland, the world's largest island, is almost entirely covered by a permanent ice sheet that has been shrinking and melting as global warming increases temperatures. In fjords, narrow inlets where glaciers meet the sea, ice breaks off from glaciers to form dense packs of icebergs.

The new study finds 10 to 50 percent of iceberg melting happens in the fjords, not in the open ocean as assumed by previous research. As a result, more than half of all meltwater entering Greenland's glacial fjords can come from these dense packs of icebergs, outweighing the amount of freshwater coming from the island's glaciers, according to the new study.

"We should now be able to better measure the freshwater fluxes that are coming off of Greenland," said Ellyn Enderlin, a glaciologist at the University of Maine in Orono, and lead author of the new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. "That could be really important when we're thinking about how Greenland melts, how that influences ocean circulation and climate."

The new study could help scientists better understand what happens at the ice-ocean interface where glaciers meet the water, according to Jason Amundson, a geophysicist at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau, who was not involved in the new study.

"The reason that's interesting is that there's been quite a few studies in the past 20 years that have shown that the stability of ... glaciers depends on what happens at the ice-ocean interface," he said.

Melting point

The Greenland Ice Sheet releases more than 1,000 cubic kilometers (240 cubic miles) of meltwater per year, according to the authors. Previous research found half of this meltwater comes from icebergs and half comes from glaciers, but the amount icebergs melted in fjords before they reached the ocean remained a mystery.

In the new study, Enderlin and her colleagues used satellite images of two Greenland fjords to calculate the total volume of icebergs within them. Tracking the icebergs over the course of days, weeks and months allowed the researchers to calculate how much volume the icebergs lost through melting before they reached the ocean.

The researchers determined that from October to April, melting icebergs dominate the freshwater flux into the fjords losing up to half of their volume -- glaciers barely melt during the cold winter months. At their peak, these dense packs of icebergs melted at a rate of around 1,000 cubic meters per second (260,000 gallons per second), the equivalent of filling an Olympic-sized swimming pool every two and a half seconds. Even during the warm summer months, underwater glacier melting only occurs at a maximum rate of 400 cubic meters per second (about 100,000 gallons per second).

Icebergs are tiny in size compared to glaciers, but they contribute such a large fraction of meltwater to fjords because their large surface area allows them to melt more quickly, according to Enderlin.

"If you took an ice cube and put it in your drink, one solid ice cube would melt pretty slowly, but if you took it out, hit it with a hammer and put it back in, it would melt a lot faster," she said.

Enderlin and her team also used satellite images to estimate the iceberg distribution in the two fjords, which they used to calculate the icebergs' total underwater surface area. Multiplying the melting rate by the total underwater surface area, Enderlin and her colleagues found more meltwater in the fjords was coming from icebergs than from glaciers throughout most of the year.

"What I see now is that iceberg melting is huge, and so if you don't take that into account you're going to come up with some crazy high estimates for glacier melting that might not be representative," Enderlin said.

Melting icebergs in the fjords create a layer of cold freshwater near glaciers. This freshwater can affect water circulation in the fjords, which can affect how glaciers melt and recede, Enderlin said.

Ocean circulation patterns could also be disrupted depending on where the icebergs melt and release their freshwater, according to Enderlin. Ocean circulation is a major driver of heat movement from the tropics to the poles, and disruptions to it could cause chaotic and unpredictable changes to weather and climate, she said.

Enderlin hopes to expand her studies on iceberg meltwater flux to other areas, like Antarctica. She said she will continue the work she started with Gordon Hamilton, who was a glaciologist at the University of Maine in Orono, and a co-author of new study. Hamilton died in October while doing research in Antarctica.

"I would say that really this was sort of our joint brainchild," Enderlin said. "I bounced lots of ideas off of him ... He was really instrumental to [the research] and it was sad that he couldn't see it come to be finally."

--

Credit: <a href="http://www.agu.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">American Geophysical Union</a>

Most of the meltwater in Greenland fjords comes from icebergs

Most of the meltwater in Greenland's fjords comes from icebergs,...

<div>Marine microalgae, also known as phytoplankton, provide the food base which supports the entire animal population of the oceans. The best known classes are the diatoms (Bacillariophyta), the dinoflagellates (Dinophyta), the green algae (Chlorophyta) and the blue-green algae</div>
<div></div>
<div>Comprising the bottom of the marine food chain, marine microalgae may soon become a top-tier contender to combat global warming, climate change and food insecurity, according to a study published in the journal Oceanography (December 2016).</div>
<div>

"We may have stumbled onto the next green revolution," said Charles H. Greene, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University, and lead author of the new paper, "Marine Microalgae: Climate, Energy and Food Security From the Sea." The study presents an overview of the concept of large-scale industrial cultivation of marine microalgae, or ICMM for short.

ICMM could reduce fossil fuel use by supplying liquid hydrocarbon biofuels for the aviation and cargo shipping industries. The biomass of microalgae remaining after the lipids have been removed for biofuels can then be made into nutritious animal feeds or perhaps consumed by humans.

To make the biofuel, scientists harvest freshly grown microalgae, remove most of the water, and then extract the lipids for the fuel. The remaining defatted biomass is a protein-rich and highly nutritious byproduct -- one that can be added to feeds for domesticated farm animals, like chickens and pigs, or aquacultured animals, like salmon and shrimp.

Growing enough algae to meet the current global liquid fuel demand would require an area of about 800,000 square miles, or slightly less than three times the size of Texas. At the same time, 2.4 billion tons of protein co-product would be generated, which is roughly 10 times the amount of soy protein produced globally each year.

Marine microalgae do not compete with terrestrial agriculture for arable land, nor does growing it require freshwater. Many arid, subtropical regions -- such as Mexico, North Africa, the Middle East and Australia - would provide suitable locations for producing vast amounts of microalgae.

A commercial microalgae facility of about 2,500 acres would cost about $400 million to $500 million. Greene said: "That may seem like a lot of money, but integrated solutions to the world's greatest challenges will pay for themselves many times over during the remainder of this century. The costs of inaction are too steep to even contemplate."

Microalgae's potential is striking. "I think of algae as providing food security for the world," said Greene. "It will also provide our liquid fuels needs, not to mention its benefits in terms of land use. We can grow algae for food and fuels in only one-tenth to one one-hundredth the amount of land we currently use to grow food and energy crops.

"We can relieve the pressure to convert rainforests to palm plantations in Indonesia and soy plantations in Brazil," Greene said. "We got into this looking to produce fuels, and in the process, we found an integrated solution to so many of society's greatest challenges."

</div>
<div>--</div>
<div></div>
<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.cornell.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cornell University</a></div>

Marine microalgae: A new and sustainable way to feed and fuel the planet

Marine microalgae, also known as phytoplankton, provide the food base which...

On Monday, Canadian officials announced that the country plans to phase out coal-fired electricity by the year 2030.

This move is in stark contrast to the United States, where President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to revive the American coal industry.

Environment Minister Kathleen McKenna said the goal is to make sure 90 percent of Canada's electricity comes from sustainable sources by that time - up from 80 percent today.

The announcement is one of a series of measures Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government is rolling out as part of a broader climate change plan. Trudeau also has plans to implement a carbon tax.

Trump, in contrast, has also said he would "cancel" the Paris Agreement.

Trudeau told President Barack Obama this past weekend he would miss working with him because he shared so many values.

France, Britain, the Netherlands, Austria and Denmark have all announced accelerated coal phase outs, McKenna said.

"Taking traditional coal power out of our energy mix and replacing it with cleaner technologies will significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, improve the health of Canadians, and benefit generations for years to come," McKenna said.

Four of Canada's 10 provinces still use coal-based electricity. Alberta had been working toward phasing out coal-fired electricity by 2030.

--

Source: Associated Press

Canada plans to phase out coal-fired electricity by 2030

On Monday, Canadian officials announced that the country plans to...

Earth's oceans store an estimated 90% of the global warming associated with greenhouse gases. Scientists believe that the rate of global ocean warming has been greatly underestimated.

Tracking the temperature of the world's oceans to monitor global ocean warming is trickier than it might seem. While satellites monitor surface temperature, measuring the ocean's interior temperature poses a logistical challenge.

A University of Washington oceanographer has proposed a method to cheaply monitor temperature throughout the depths of the world's oceans. He improves on a similar method, proposed in the 1970s, that later caused concerns for harming marine mammals. The paper was recently published in Geophysical Research Letters.

"We want to monitor global ocean warming, not just for tomorrow or next year, but for decades," said author Zhongxiang Zhao, an oceanographer at the UW's Applied Physics Laboratory. "Using internal tidal waves is cheaper and more reliable than any existing method."

Satellites can take the temperature of the ocean's surface. Below the surface only ocean vessels and, more recently, robotic floats that travel vertically through the water can take direct measurements of water temperature. Maintaining these instruments throughout the world's oceans, however, is expensive.

[caption id="attachment_119659" align="alignleft"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-119659" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/sea-surface-height-1992-2012_1big_UWashington-150x150.jpg" alt="Sea surface height from 1992-2012" width="150" height="150" /> Sea surface height from 1992-2012[/caption]

Acoustic tomography, an idea proposed in the 1970s by one of the world's most famous oceanographers, Walter Munk, seemed to offer a solution. Sound travels faster in warmer water, so he proposed measuring the time for an acoustic pulse to travel across the ocean. Unfortunately, over time the sonar blasts caused public concern for their harmful impacts on marine mammals, and a major experiment using this method was ended in 2006.

Zhao has developed a way to instead monitor the travel time of internal tidal waves that travel silently in the middle of the ocean. Everyone is familiar with the tides that slosh on beaches at the surface. But the ocean is made up of layers of liquid with different properties that slosh around as they feel the tug of the moon.

"Internal tidal waves start from submarine bumps," Zhao said, when tidally driven currents pass over an oceanic ridge or other bottom feature. These secondary waves then travel with a wavelength of about 160 kilometers (100 miles) and a speed of 3 to 4 meters per second (7 to 9 miles per hour) depending on latitude. Climate change is warming the upper ocean more quickly than the layers below, and this increases the speed of internal tidal waves.

Zhao's method uses satellite data to see tiny changes in the height of the ocean's surface that are caused by water motion deep below.

"We have an internal wave inside the ocean that is 20 to 50 meters (60 to160 feet) high," Zhao said. "But at the surface we have a height change of only about 2 centimeters (0.8 inches), compared to about 1 meter (3 feet) for the surface tides."

Zhao has spent about a decade perfecting his method to track these smaller bumps and sort out interference between internal waves. By analyzing the travel times over the past 20 years, he showed a 1 percent increase in speed over that time along two paths in the Atlantic Ocean. He also compared his technique with Argo observations since 2005, showing a good match between the two methods.

"The internal tidal wave is a naturally occurring ocean phenomenon, so monitoring its long-term variability is very cheap," Zhao said. "This method offers a cost-effective way to measure temperature changes over the whole depth of the ocean."

The popular Argo oceanographic floats only measure the top 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of the ocean, less than half the average depth. Upcoming Deep Argo floats aim to monitor to 3 miles depth, where some human-generated heat may be hiding. But new floats would add to the program's existing $24 million annual budget, and spatial coverage would depend on how many floats were deployed.

The new method takes a satellite's-eye view of the Earth using tomography, the same imaging technique that is used in many medical practices.

"If you are a doctor, you are scanning the health of your patient -- I am like a doctor scanning the Earth, who can see if it is getting a temperature," Zhao said. "This method offers a long-term, cost-effective, environmentally friendly technique for monitoring global ocean warming."

--

Source: <a href="http://www.washington.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Washington</a>

New method to monitor global ocean warming

Earth's oceans store an estimated 90% of the global warming associated with...

Continuing to honor his commitment to protect and heal the environment, President Barack Obama issued an order on Friday blocking new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean, handing a major victory to environmentalists who say industrial activity in the icy waters will harm whales, walruses and other wildlife and exacerbate global warming.
A five-year offshore drilling plan announced on Friday blocks the planned sale of new oil and gas drilling rights in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas north of Alaska. The plan allows drilling to go forward in Alaska's Cook Inlet southwest of Anchorage.
The blueprint for drilling from 2017 to 2022 can be rewritten by President-elect Donald Trump, in a process that could take months or years.
Besides Cook Inlet, the plan also allows drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, long the center of U.S. offshore oil production. Ten of the 11 lease sales proposed in the five-year plan are in the Gulf, mostly off the coasts of Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Alabama.
Confirming a decision announced this spring, the five-year plan also bars drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.
"The plan focuses lease sales in the best places - those with the highest resource potential, lowest conflict and established infrastructure - and removes regions that are simply not right to lease," said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.
"Given the unique and challenging Arctic environment and industry's declining interest in the area, forgoing lease sales in the Arctic is the right path forward," Jewell said.
The decision follows an announcement last year by Royal Dutch Shell PLC that it would cease exploration in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas after spending nearly $7 billion. The company cited disappointing results from a well drilled in the Chukchi and the unpredictable federal regulatory environment.
Despite that, industry representatives reacted bitterly to the latest announcement, calling the decision blatantly political.
"The arrogance of the decision is unfathomable, but unfortunately not surprising," said Randall Luthi, president of the <a href="http://www.noia.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Ocean Industries Association</a>, an industry group.
"Once again, we see the attitude that Washington knows best - an attitude that contributed to last week's election results," Luthi said, referring to Trump's victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
More than 70 percent of Alaskans, including a majority of Alaska Natives, support offshore drilling, Luthi said.
The state's three Republican members of Congress also blasted the decision.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she was "infuriated" that Obama "has once again ignored our voices to side with the factions who oppose" offshore drilling in Alaska.
"Arctic development is one of the best ways to create jobs, generate revenues and refill the Trans-Alaska Pipeline," said Murkowski, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "Why the president is willing to send all of those benefits overseas is beyond explanation."
As he prepares to leave office in two months, Obama has worked to build an environmental legacy that includes a global agreement to curb climate change and an ambitious plan to reduce carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants. He also has imposed stricter limits on smog-causing pollution linked to asthma and rejected the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.
All of those accomplishments and others are at risk from Trump's presidency. Trump loathes regulation and wants to increase oil and gas drilling and the use of coal.
Trump has said he believes climate change is a hoax and has vowed to "cancel" U.S. involvement in the landmark Paris Agreement on global warming. While he has been vague about precise policies, Trump is likely to seek to weaken or kill the Clean Power Plan, a cornerstone Obama policy meant to reduce carbon pollution from the nation's power plants as part of an effort to combat climate change.
The decision to block Arctic drilling follows a decision this spring to block drilling in the Atlantic. Republican governors in North and South Carolina back drilling off their states' coasts, as does the Democratic governor of Virginia.
Jacqueline Savitz, senior vice president of Oceana, an environmental group, hailed the Arctic announcement and praised Obama and Jewell for "protecting our coasts from dirty and dangerous offshore drilling."
Rejection of drilling in the Artic and Atlantic "demonstrates a commitment to prioritizing common sense, economics and science ahead of industry favoritism and politics as usual," Savitz said.
Nearly 400 scientists signed a letter this summer urging Obama to eliminate the possibility of Arctic offshore drilling.
---

Source: Associated Press

Obama administration blocks new oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean

Continuing to honor his commitment to protect and heal the...

On Friday, the United Nations held its first climate conference since enacting the Paris Agreement on climate change. The atmosphere at the conference, which should have been jubilant and optimistic, was instead marred by fears over the impact of a Donald Trump presidency.
Delegates at the climate conference appealed to Donald Trump to join the battle against global warming and invited him to see current climate change impact in Pacific islands.
Suddenly faced with the possibility that the U.S. could withdraw from the emissions pact adopted in Paris last year, countries rallied in support of the deal and said they would forge ahead no matter what.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar, the host of the two-week talks in Marrakech, said the climate conference's "message to the new American president is simply to say, 'We count on your pragmatism and your spirit of commitment.'"
Trump said during his campaign that he would "cancel" the <a href="http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paris Agreement</a> and withdraw American tax dollars from U.N. global warming programs.
More than 190 countries, including the United States, pledged in the deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for rising temperatures and sea levels, worsening droughts and heat waves.
In Marrakech, delegates from China to Brazil expressed hope that Trump didn't mean what he said during his campaign. Some appealed to him directly to change his mind about the issue.
"I renew my offer to President-elect Trump to come to Fiji and see the effects of climate change," said the island nation's prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, drawing applause from the conference.
Small island nations are among the strongest advocates for sharp cuts in greenhouse gas emissions because they fear their survival depends on it. Many are already experiencing the effects of climate change, with rising seas eroding their coastlines and intruding into their freshwater supply.
As the conference drew to a close, German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said it "has demonstrated that the spirit of Paris is alive and stronger than ever."
With mostly procedural issues under negotiation at the climate conference, countries announced various partnerships and initiatives to show their commitment to a clean-energy transition.
In a symbolic move, more than 40 vulnerable countries including small island nations and drought-hit African countries, declared they would pursue 100 percent renewable energy "as rapidly as possible."
Many of them would require support from richer countries to switch to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. Some, including the Philippines and Bangladesh, plan to expand coal power, a key source of global warming emissions, to meet their growing energy needs.
Still, the declaration signaled support from even poor countries that previously had said it was up to the West, which historically has polluted the most, to reduce emissions.
"This is a group of countries that are the most vulnerable to climate change, but they are not sitting back and complaining about being vulnerable," Jennifer Morgan of Greenpeace said. "They are acting and they are setting the pace for the type of change that we need to see in our world."
--
Source: Associated Press

UN climate conference ends with pleas for Trump to join the fight

On Friday, the United Nations held its first climate conference...

Aside from marijuana, snow is the most important element of the Colorado economy. If this weather trend holds, the Colorado snowpack could be devastating for the tourists this winter.
Autumn snow has been scarce in the Rocky Mountains, forcing some ski areas to push back opening day and causing some nervousness about how much water will be available next spring for the Colorado River, the lifeblood of the Southwest.
But the first significant storm of the season that moved into Colorado, Utah and Wyoming on Thursday is expected to bring 8 inches of snow or more at higher elevations, forecasters said. Water managers and climate experts say it's too early in the season to predict a dry winter.
"This doesn't mean at all that the winter is going to be dry," said Klaus Wolter, a climate scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences in Boulder, Colorado.
"It's kind of a nervousness-inducing late onset," he said.
A lot can happen between the fall and spring, said Marlon Duke, a spokesman for the <a href="http://www.usbr.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U.S. Bureau of Reclamation</a>, which manages multiple reservoirs on the Colorado River.
"We're hoping to see some good precipitation through the winter months," he said.
The Colorado snowpack is off to its worst start in more than 30 years, said Brian Domonkos, who supervises the <a href="http://www.usda.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U.S. Department of Agriculture</a> snow survey in the state.
At least five Colorado ski resorts have postponed their opening day, and the men's World Cup downhill, super-G and giant slalom races at Beaver Creek in two weeks have been canceled because of unseasonably warm weather.
The warm weather has limited how much artificial snow the resorts can make, compounding the lack of natural snow.
Still, two Colorado resorts have opened with limited skiing and two more are scheduled to start this weekend. Others plan to open before or during the Thanksgiving holiday, said Chris Linsmayer, a spokesman for Colorado Ski Country USA.
No matter how much or how little snow this week's storm brings, the colder weather should help with snow-making, Linsmayer said.
"We're hearing is that Thursday is going to be kind of a shift in the weather pattern to cooler weather," he said.
At least two ski resorts in New Mexico have delayed their opening. In Utah, five resorts that hope to open this weekend are waiting to see what Thursday's storm brings before deciding, said Paul Marshall, a spokesman for Ski Utah.
Water managers pay close attention to the snowfall in the Rocky Mountains because of its direct impact on the Colorado River, which supplies water to about 40 million people and 6,300 square miles of farmland. Seven states and 20 Indian reservations rely on the river.
After a yearslong Western drought, Lake Mead - a vital Colorado River reservoir in Arizona and Nevada - is barely able to supply all the users who depend on it. By 2018, some users might not get all they need, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said last summer. The agency manages multiple reservoirs on the river.
About 90 percent of the river's water comes from the region known as the Upper Colorado River Basin, a large swath of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and smaller sections of Arizona and New Mexico.
With their normally deep winter snows, the Colorado mountains are the heart of the Upper Basin.
The Colorado snowfall could catch up to normal, Domonkos said, but that's unlikely.
"I wouldn't call it likely, no. But it's not out of the realm of possibility," he said.
---
Source: Associated Press

Colorado snowpack off to its worst start in 30 years

Aside from marijuana, snow is the most important element of...

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Through genome analysis, scientists have learned how corals survive and rebound after environmental disasters.

An international team of researchers, led by scientists at Penn State University, sequenced the genomes of three species of corals in the genus Orbicella and used the data to model the population histories of these corals over the past several million years. Despite massive reductions in the coral populations following the onset of glaciation in the Northern Hemisphere between 1 and 2 million years ago -- an event that caused the extinction of many other Caribbean coral species -- these Orbicella coral populations rebounded and expanded into new habitats opened by the mass-extinction event.

“Corals are extremely ecologically and economically important, so understanding how their populations responded to environmental change historically is crucial for current conservation efforts,” said Mónica Medina, associate professor of biology at Penn State and one of the lead authors of the research. “Our study of living corals confirms fossil evidence that suggested that coral populations can recover after environmental disasters and further suggests that current reef deterioration can be reversed if environmental stresses can be reduced.”

The international research team includes scientists from institutions the United States, Australia, Mexico, and Japan. A paper describing the research appears online November 17, 2016 in the journal, Current Biology.

The researchers sequenced the genomes of the three surviving Caribbean Orbicella species -- O. annularis, O. faveolata, and O. franksi. The Orbicella corals have a rich fossil record that shows an increase in species diversity about 2.5 to 3.5 million years ago, followed by a massive extinction event that wiped out half of the species between 1 and 2 million years ago. All but three of the remaining species went extinct over the next million years. The team used their new genomic data to reconstruct the population histories of the three modern Orbicella species over this time period, filling in gaps in the fossil record and showing that corals can recover after environmental catastrophes.

"The wealth of genomic data allowed us to formally test hypotheses of coral population size changes, recapitulating observations from the fossil and environmental record," said Michael DeGiorgio, assistant professor of biology at Penn State and one of the lead authors of the research. "Our study is a textbook example of the power and the necessity of multidisciplinary teams of conservation, evolutionary, and computational biologists coming together to address important biological questions that would have been otherwise difficult to tackle."

The researchers also showed that the more recent extinction of another shallow-water Orbicella species -- the organ-pipe coral, O. nancyi -- allowed the modern species to expand their habitats into the territory vacated by the organ-pipe coral. Understanding these population changes in relation to environmental changes over time will allow the scientists to better analyze variation in modern corals and their potential to adapt and survive climate change.

In addition to Medina and DeGiorgio, the research team includes Carlos Prada, Bishoy Hanna, and Roberto Iglesias-Prieto at Penn State; Ann F. Budd at the University of Iowa; Cheryl Woodley from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); Jeremy Schmutz and Jane Grimwood at Hudson Alpha Institute of Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama; John M. Pandolfi at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia; Don Levitan at Florida State University; Kenneth G. Johnson at the Natural History Museum in London, UK; Hiroaki Kitano at the Systems Biology Institute in Tokyo, Japan; and Nancy Knowlton at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.

The research is funded by the Department of Biology at Penn State, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, Hudson Alpha, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and the Canon Foundation.

---

Credit: <a href="http://www.psu.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Penn State University</a>

How corals survive and rebound after environmental disasters

Through genome analysis, scientists have learned how corals survive and...

Life on Earth existed in soils long before trees or mosses evolved. That is the conclusion drawn by a team from the University of Oregon, as revealed by a close examination of microfossils in the desert of northwestern Australia.

These tiny fossils require a microscope to see and probably represent whole organisms. The 3,000 million-year-old Australian rocks have long been thought to be of marine origin. However, "a closer look at the dusty salt minerals of the rocks suggests they had to have experienced evaporation on land," said UO paleontologist Gregory Retallack, lead author on a study in the December issue of the international journal Gondwana Research.

Other mineral and chemical tracers found in the rocks also required weathering in soils of the distant geological past, he said.

"Life was not only present but thriving in soils of the early Earth about two thirds of the way back to its formation from the solar nebula," Retallack said. The origin of the solar system -- and Earth -- occurred some 4.6 billion years ago.

The study outlines a microbiome of at least five different kinds of microfossils recognized from their size, shape and isotopic compositions. The largest and most distinctive microfossils are spindle-shaped hollow structures of mold-like actinobacteria, still a mainly terrestrial group of decomposers that are responsible for the characteristic earthy smell of garden soil.

Other sphere-shaped fossils are similar to purple sulfur bacteria, which photosynthesize organic compounds in the absence of oxygen while leaving abundant sulfate minerals in the soil.

"With cell densities of over 1,000 per square millimeter and a diversity of producers and consumers, these microfossils represent a functioning terrestrial ecosystem, not just a few stray cells," said Retallack, a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences and director of paleontology collections at the Museum of Natural and Cultural History. "They are evidence that life in soils was critical to the cycles of carbon, phosphorus, sulfur and nitrogen very early in the history of the planet."

The new discoveries by the UO team are potentially controversial because many scientists have long pointed to stromatolites, a life form that emerged 3.7 billion years ago, and other marine life as evidence of life that evolved in the sea and found their way into intertidal rock formations.

Retallack referred to the memoir "Lab Girl" published this year by Hope Jahren, a geobiologist at the University of Hawaii, who wrote: "For several billion years, the whole of the Earth's land surface was completely barren. Even after life had richly populated the oceans, there is no clear evidence for any life on land."

"The newly recognized microfossils may have supplied some evidence at last," Retallack said.

The ancient soils with sulfate salts and microfossils come from the Pilbara region of Western Australia. They are superficially similar to those found recently by the Mars rover Curiosity. "They may," he said, "be useful as guides for the discovery of life on other planets."

Critical to the new discoveries were advanced imaging and analyses performed with the cluster of instruments in the Center for Advanced Materials Characterization of Oregon, commonly known as CAMCOR, at the UO.

--

Credit: <a href="http://www.uoregon.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Oregon</a>

Life on Earth existed on land much earlier than previously believed

Life on Earth existed in soils long before trees or mosses...

Scientists studying the asteroid impacts that wiped out the dinosaurs may have accidentally discovered how life took hold on Earth.

Around 65 million years ago a massive asteroid crashed into the Gulf of Mexico causing an impact so huge that the blast and subsequent knock-on effects wiped out around 75 per cent of all life on Earth, including most of the dinosaurs. This is known as the Chicxulub impact.

In April and May 2016, an international team of scientists undertook an offshore expedition and drilled into part of the Chicxulub impact crater. Their mission was to retrieve samples from the rocky inner ridges of the crater - known as the 'peak ring' - drilling 506 to 1335 meters below the modern day sea floor to understand more about the ancient cataclysmic event.

Now, the researchers have carried out the first analysis of the core samples. They found that the impact millions of years ago deformed the peak ring rocks in such a way that it made them more porous, and less dense, than any models had previously predicted.

Porous rocks provide niches for simple organisms to take hold, and there would also be nutrients available in the pores, from circulating water that would have been heated inside the Earth's crust. Early Earth was constantly bombarded by asteroids, and the team have inferred that this bombardment must have also created other rocks with similar physical properties. This may partly explain how life took hold on Earth.

The study, which is published today in the journal Science, also confirmed a model for how peak rings were formed in the Chicxulub crater, and how peak rings may be formed in craters on other planetary bodies.

The team's new work has confirmed that the asteroid, which created the Chicxulub crater, hit the Earth's surface with such a force that it pushed rocks, which at that time were ten kilometers beneath the surface, farther downwards and then outwards. These rocks then moved inwards again towards the impact zone and then up to the surface, before collapsing downwards and outwards again to form the peak ring. In total they moved an approximate total distance of 30 kilometers in a matter of a few minutes.

Professor Joanna Morgan, lead author of the study from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering, said: "It is hard to believe that the same forces that destroyed the dinosaurs may have also played a part, much earlier on in Earth's history, in providing the first refuges for early life on the planet. We are hoping that further analyses of the core samples will provide more insights into how life can exist in these subterranean environments."

The next steps will see the team acquiring a suite of detailed measurements from the recovered core samples to refine their numerical simulations. Ultimately, the team are looking for evidence of modern and ancient life in the peak-ring rocks. They also want to learn more about the first sediments that were deposited on top of the peak ring, which could tell the researchers if they were deposited by a giant tsunami, and provide them with insights into how life recovered, and when life actually returned to this sterilised zone after the impact.

--

Credit: <a href="http://www.imperial.ac.uk/press" target="_blank">Imperial College London</a>

Asteroid impacts may be responsible for seeding life on Earth

Scientists studying the asteroid impacts that wiped out the dinosaurs...

Six years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, scientists have documented dramatic shoreline loss along the Louisiana coast.

Following the spill, the length of shoreline that receded more than 13 feet (4 meters) a year quadrupled compared to the year before the spill. The land losses occurred mainly in areas where oil had washed ashore during the spill.

A research team led by Amina Rangoonwala of USGS used airborne remote sensing imagery to analyze shoreline loss across nearly the entire upper Barataria Bay, located on the western side of the Mississippi River Delta, beginning a year before the spill and extending for 2.5 years after it. To determine whether the erosion was likely to be caused by the oil, they also compared shoreline loss linked to the deposited oil with shoreline erosion caused by high waves from Hurricane Isaac in 2012.

The team found that although erosion occurred at isolated sections of the shoreline before the spill, the pre-spill shoreline (as analyzed from 2009 to 2010) was largely stable. In the first year after the spill (2010 to 2011), the erosion pattern c

[caption id="attachment_119609" align="alignleft"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-119609" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/louisiana-coastline-changes-deepwater-horizon-spill_1big_nasa-150x150.jpg" alt="Louisiana shoreline lost from Deepwater Horizon oil spill" width="150" height="150" /> Louisiana shoreline lost from Deepwater Horizon oil spill[/caption]

hanged dramatically from isolated to widespread. Erosion occurred mainly along shorelines with documented heavy to moderate oil coating. In the second year after the spill (2011 to 2012), the higher loss rates extended to areas that had less oil coating. Oil is known to weaken or kill vegetation, leading to loss of the roots that help hold soil together.

In August 2012, two months after the two-year post-spill period, Hurricane Isaac made a direct hit on Barataria Bay. Erosion rates measured in the four months after the hurricane were higher than those measured after the spill. But this erosion occurred primarily on just a few shorelines that before the spill showed evidence of heightened susceptibility to wave-generated erosion.

"Our study uniquely shows that the patterns of shoreline recession seen in this region can be directly related to distinctly different causes: broadly dispersed erosion due to oiling from the Deepwater Horizon spill, and enhanced, but spatially limited, erosion due to intense storm impacts," said Rangoonwala.

The wetland impacts of the spill documented by the team included both the loss of wetlands due to shoreline erosion, and island fragmentation, where small islands are broken into even smaller islands, creating more shoreline. Land lost from fragmentation is unlikely to be reestablished, particularly in this part of the Mississippi River delta where levees prevent an influx of new sediments from the river. This will alter natural coastal defenses against flooding.

The images collected in the annual surveys and following Hurricane Isaac were obtained from NASA's Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), developed and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. UAVSAR flies on a C-20A research aircraft based at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center facility in Palmdale, California. UAVSAR's polarized radar produced detailed representations of the marsh, which USGS scientists then used to develop a process to analyze the shoreline recession by mapping the change in shore location.

"Through this process, USGS and NASA scientists developed a repeatable, quantitative mapping method that will allow us to monitor shoreline erosion after oil spills in the future," said study co-author Cathleen Jones of JPL. "Being able to compare shoreline losses in a year without any major storm to losses both after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and after the hurricane was essential to correlating the erosion of the marsh to its underlying causes."

The study, "Wetland shoreline recession in the Mississippi River Delta from petroleum oiling and cyclonic storms," is published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

NASA collects data from space, air, land and sea to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.

Developed to test new technologies and study Earth surface dynamics, UAVSAR is informing the design and planning for a future spaceborne radar mission, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), which is planned to image almost the entire Earth's surface at least once every 12 days.

&nbsp;

--

Credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a>

Deepwater Horizon oil spill caused dramatic shoreline loss in Louisiana

Six years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, scientists have...

According to scientists, small alpine insects in the Rockies are like a canaries in a coal mine, harbingers of doom offering early warnings of the global gas leak that is climate change.

For the last 20 years, scientists have been monitoring the abundance and distribution of two stonefly lapine insects species dependent on alpine glaciers in the northern Rocky Mountains.

The life cycles of the meltwater stonefly and western glacier stonefly rely on short sections of frigid, alpine streams just below glacial termini. Researchers expect many of the Rockies' glaciers to disappear in the coming decades.

Scott Hotaling, a doctoral candidate in the <a href="https://bio.as.uky.edu/">University of Kentucky Department of Biology</a>, is a co-author of the study, titled “Climate-induced glacier and snow loss imperils rare alpine stream insects.” The article has been published in <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13565/full">Global Change Biology</a>. In this study, scientists reveal how glacial retreat has imperiled the two stonefly alpine insects.

"Alpine insects living in glacier and snow-fed streams are adapted to very cold water temperatures and are therefore especially vulnerable to warming and snow and ice loss," lead study author Joe Giersch, an entomologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said in a news release.

[caption id="attachment_119575" align="alignleft" width="150"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-119575" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/insect-stonefly_1big_stock-150x150.jpg" alt="Stonefly" width="150" height="150" /> Stonefly[/caption]

Alpine streams environments in the northern Rocky Mountains are especially vulnerable to climate change due to rapid warming resulting in loss of glaciers and snowpack. Glacier National Park is iconic of the combined impacts of climate change and snow and ice loss — over 80 percent of the park’s glaciers have been lost since the mid-19th century.

"Although this research is focused on two insect species, our findings apply to entire communities of alpine stream organisms, the survival of which depends on the presence of permanent ice and snow feeding the streams in which they live."

During the survey of 272 streams in Glacier National Park and surrounding peaks in Montana and Wyoming, researchers found 113 streams with meltwater stonefly populations and 10 streams with western glacier stonefly populations.

Researchers say the decline of the two species can be linked to the loss of snow and ice pack in the Rockies over the last 150 years.

"By clearly linking glacier decline to the loss of alpine species, we can more confidently state threats to conservation of alpine species in Glacier National Park and also extend the discussion to similar situations worldwide," added Scott Hotaling, a doctoral candidate in biology at the University of Kentucky.

Scientists did find some stoneflies holding out in groundwater-fed alpine springs, suggesting the species may be able to eke out an existence even as glaciers continue to disappear.

---

Source: <a href="http://www.uky.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Kentucky</a>

Alpine insects are harbingers of climate change, scientists say

According to scientists, small alpine insects in the Rockies are...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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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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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

[sendtonews key="iuA5mpp3jv-1641775-12187" 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.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"] Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have created...

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes why experts are studying zebrafish to gain a better understanding of how the immune system responds to injury. Zebrafish have the ability to repair and regenerate organs.



“Organ regeneration offers an exciting opportunity for studying the immune system and to inquire why some species can regenerate organs like the heart or missing limbs while others like humans cannot,” explained Dr. Tatjana Piotrowski.



Zebrafish sensory organ hair cells are an ideal system to investigate the pathways and cell types involved in regeneration since they are easily destroyed with antibiotics and begin regenerating within five hours. This enabled the researchers to identify the exact timing and genetic programs for each anti-inflammatory macrophage activation state.&nbsp;



“Our hypothesis is that human macrophages do not receive the proper chemical activation 'cocktail' to instruct pro-regenerative processes,” said Dr. Nicolas Denans. “Identifying the molecular recipe of macrophage activation in zebrafish may one day enable us to design regenerative immunotherapies in humans.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The new evidence is a valuable resource for comparative studies on the genetic programs involved in macrophage-mediated repair and regeneration. In other words, different types of injuries may induce different kinds of inflammatory responses. We want to decipher whether this 'language' is universal or if there are a variety of dialects."



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

[sendtonews key="0dEcERCq61-2283382-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Stowers...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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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



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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...