Many decades ago, a massive star collapsed. A shockwave erupted, tearing the star apart. As this shockwave hit the star’s surface, it created a burst of intense X-rays, ultraviolet light, and a powerful light echo.



This pulse traveled across space, and 350 years later, it reached a vast region of interstellar gas and dust. This explosion lit up the surrounding material, warming it and causing it to glow in infrared light.



Thanks to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are now able to observe this glowing cosmic material in unprecedented detail. 



The infrared light echoes created by this supernova have revealed intricate structures, like the knots and whorls of wood grain. These observations have allowed scientists to map the interstellar medium in 3D for the very first time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-interstellar-gas-and-dust-details">Interstellar gas and dust details</h2>



"We were pretty shocked to see this level of detail," said Jacob Jencson, principal investigator from <a href="https://www.ipac.caltech.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Caltech/IPAC</a> in Pasadena. 



The telescope revealed layers of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/space-dust-may-contain-signs-of-extraterrestrial-life/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interstellar material</a>, resembling the layers of an onion.



"We think every dense, dusty region that we see, and most of the ones we don’t see, look like this on the inside. We just have never been able to look inside them before," noted Josh Peek of the <a href="https://www.stsci.edu/home" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Space Telescope Science Institute</a> in Baltimore.



Webb's infrared imaging is allowing scientists to peer into areas of space that were once completely concealed, uncovering a hidden cosmic landscape.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-are-light-echoes">What are light echoes?</h2>



The light echo phenomenon occurs when a star explodes, sending light into the surrounding clumps of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dust-storms-can-engulf-the-entire-planet-of-mars-but-how/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interstellar dust</a>. This light then heats up the dust, causing it to glow in an expanding pattern. 



Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (<a href="https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/nircam/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NIRCam</a>) has been crucial in studying these light echoes, revealing their intricate expansion over just a few weeks - a remarkably fast evolution for cosmic phenomena.



The researchers have focused on a particular light echo near the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. This light echo comes from background material behind Cassiopeia A, not from the material ejected by the star’s explosion. 



NASA's retired <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spitzer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spitzer Space Telescope</a> first observed this phenomenon, but Webb’s exquisite resolution has provided a far clearer view of these cosmic echoes.



<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="huBQbcgU76-4226095-12187" type="single"]</div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-stunning-images-from-webb">Stunning images from Webb</h2>



The most striking features in the Webb images are dense, tightly packed sheets of gas and dust. These filaments appear on scales of about 400 astronomical units - less than one-hundredth of a light-year.



“We did not know that the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/solar-storm-triggered-stunning-auroras-worldwide-october-11-2024/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interstellar medium</a> had structures on that small of a scale, let alone that it was sheet-like,” said Josh Peek.



These sheet-like structures might be influenced by interstellar magnetic fields. Webb's images also showcase areas resembling knots in wood grain, which could represent magnetic "islands" within the interstellar medium's more uniform magnetic fields.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-3d-scan-of-the-cosmos">3D scan of the cosmos</h2>



The data collected from <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Webb</a> are revolutionary. "This is the astronomical equivalent of a medical CT scan," explained Armin Rest of the Space Telescope Science Institute.



"We have three slices taken at three different times, which will allow us to study the true 3D structure. It will completely change the way we study the interstellar medium."



These findings will not only enhance our understanding of the space around us, but they could also change how we approach the study of the universe's most distant and mysterious regions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-opportunities-to-study-light-echoes">Opportunities to study light echoes</h2>



In addition to these spectacular images, the team is planning to conduct spectroscopic observations using Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (<a href="https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/mid-infrared-instrument-miri/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">MIRI</a>). 



"We can observe the same patch of dust before, during, and after it’s illuminated by the echo and try to look for any changes in the compositions or states of the molecules," said Jencson.



Infrared light echoes are rare events that require a unique type of supernova explosion. The upcoming Nancy Grace <a href="https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Roman Space Telescope</a> is expected to provide additional opportunities to study light echoes, potentially offering new insights that Webb can explore in greater detail.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-lasting-legacy-of-webb">The lasting legacy of Webb</h2>



"Even as a star dies, its light endures - echoing across the cosmos. It's been an extraordinary three years since we launched NASA's James Webb Space Telescope," reflected NASA Administrator <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/people/nasa-administrator-bill-nelson/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bill Nelson</a>.



"Every image, every discovery, shows a portrait not only of the majesty of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/international-space-station-observes-something-unknown-55-miles-above-earth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">universe</a> but the power of the NASA team and the promise of international partnerships.



"What a privilege it has been to oversee this monumental effort, shaped by the tireless dedication of thousands of scientists and engineers around the globe. This latest image beautifully captures the lasting legacy of Webb - a keyhole into the past and a mission that will inspire generations to come."



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Jencson (Caltech/IPAC)



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Webb captures the light echoes of an exploding star

Many decades ago, a massive star collapsed. A shockwave erupted, tearing the star apart. As this shockwave hit the star’s surface, it created a burst of intense X-rays, ultraviolet light, and a powerful light echo. This pulse traveled across space, and 350 years later, it reached a vast region of interstellar gas and dust. This explosion lit up the surrounding material, warming it and causing it to glow in infrared light. Thanks to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are now able to observe this glowing cosmic...

The oceans hold a vast reservoir -- 700 billion tons -- of carbon, dissolved in seawater as organic matter, often surviving for thousands of years after being produced by ocean life. Yet, little is known about how it is produced, or how it's being impacted by the many changes happening in the ocean.

Think of dissolved organic carbon, or DOC, in the ocean as tree leaves and other dead organic matter falling to the forest ground--a portion of this natural carbon sustains life while the remainder remains hidden in the soils, being sequestered for many years. As is true in the forests, this vital, residual carbon reservoir is necessary to sustain life in the ocean, and to sequester vast amounts of carbon in its great depths.

To better understand this important pool of ocean carbon, researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science used data collected over the past 15 years on several international scientific cruises to map the distribution of this material in the Atlantic Ocean. From the analysis, they found that this major basin contributes one third of the global ocean net production of dissolved organic carbon.

[caption id="attachment_89888" align="alignleft" width="150"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-89888" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/cff2.earth-com-temp.comuploads20161018150937media.eurekalert.orgmultimedia_prodpubweb125059_web-de7999c30fafa3cbc0c860ce838bd14b6a8bfad3-0c75ec12af3f4bd84024ee2b49e2611b5579d155-150x150.jpg" alt="Ocean carbon concentrations" width="150" height="150" /> Ocean carbon concentrations[/caption]

"Carbon is involved in all aspects of our life," said Dennis Hansell, UM Rosenstiel School professor of ocean sciences and coauthor of the study. "We need to understand the carbon cycle on Earth especially as we add more from the burning of fossil fuels."

Dissolved organic carbon is the primary food source at the base of the marine food chain. It is produced by phytoplankton during photosynthesis, and it is mostly consumed by microbial life. The remainder that is not consumed by microbes accumulates in the ocean.

The researchers discovered that the production of dissolved organic carbon at the ocean's surface could be accurately predicted by measuring the amount of nutrients arriving into the euphotic, or sunlit, zone. The nutrients arrive there mostly by winter mixing and upwelling, and in turn support the growth of ocean plant life. From the arrival of nutrients to the surface ocean, they estimated the resulting plant growth and the production of residue, the DOC, from that growth. From those estimates, they built a map of DOC at the surface of the entire Atlantic Ocean.

"In our work, we found that the production of dissolved organic carbon depends on the quantity of nutrients that reach the euphotic zone from deeper layers," said Cristina Romera-Castillo, a former postdoctoral researcher at the UM Rosenstiel School and lead author of the study. "In future scenarios, how climate change will affect the nutrient arrival to the surface ocean will determine the inventory of dissolved organic carbon in the ocean."

This inventory in turn affects the cycling of carbon on Earth, which has important roles in climate.

---

Credit: <a href="http://www.rsmas.miami.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UM Rosenstiel School</a>

Ocean life produces an enormous carbon reservoir

The oceans hold a vast reservoir -- 700 billion tons...

Tropical Fish

Two cold spells, two years apart, in two subtropical regions, have given scientists clues about what happens when an extreme climate event strikes.

By tracking conditions before, during and after a 2008 cold spell in China and a 2010 cold spell in Florida, researchers found severe effects on plants and animals, but not all these effects were equal.

Tropical species suffered more than their temperate counterparts, which were able to resist and recover from the record low temperatures.

Complex Consequences

"Long-term ecological studies like these give us opportunities to understand the complex consequences of unanticipated events such as extreme cold snaps," said ecologist Evelyn Gaiser of Florida International University and principal investigator of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. "This short but extreme cold event mimicked the effects of a strong tropical storm or hurricane. The short-term consequences were different, but the long-term conclusions were similar."

In South Florida, tropical fish, mangroves, and American crocodile populations declined, while populations of their temperate counterparts remained unchanged or increased following the 2010 cold spell.

In China, the population of tropical butterflies in the Nanling National Nature Preserve dropped by 80 percent following the cold spell, allowing temperate butterflies to dominate the area for two years.

These findings have been shared in a new, special issue of the journal Ecosphere, published by the Ecological Society of America.

"More frequent extreme weather is likely with climate change," said David Garrison, program director in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences. "These studies show that these extremes may be cold anomalies as well as warm ones."

Effects on species

Along with disrupting biodiversity, the 2010 cold spell affected Florida's fisheries.

Economically lucrative bonefish, snook and goliath grouper fisheries experienced mass mortalities, while others, including red drum and gray snapper, were not affected.

Some saw population increases after the cold spell passed, including redfish.

Non-native species proved to be less resistant to the cold spells than native species. Non-native bee populations in South Florida took nearly four years to recover, and some non-native fish have shown no meaningful population recovery to date.

The researchers stress the importance of using long-term data to understand how these species in the subtropics will react to and recover from extreme climate events and to predict what the future will look like for them.

Not all populations resist and recover equally, scientists say, and conservation plans that incorporate strategies for extreme climate events could help those that are most vulnerable.

Source:<a href="https://www.nsf.gov/"> NSF</a>

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Cold spells strike danger for subtropical species

Two cold spells, two years apart, in two subtropical regions,...

Rechargeable Battery

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">
Chemists at Oregon State University have discovered one or more organic compounds in a family that has traditionally been known as pollutants could offer a significant advance to make cheap, reliable batteries.
Such batteries might be of particular value to store electricity from some clean energy systems. The inability to easily and cheaply store energy from the wind and sun, which is highly variable and intermittent, has been a key constraint to wider use of those forms of energy.
Although pumped hydro systems or compressed air facilities comprise almost all of the alternative energy storage capacity of this type, they have limitations. There is a tremendous demand, scientists say, for energy storage solutions that are modular and particularly suited to community storage, "smart grid" and micro-grid uses.
A new advance, published in ACS Energy Letters, has shown that at least one, and probably more compounds are known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, can function as a potentially low-cost, long-lasting and high-performance cathode in "dual-ion" batteries.
Such batteries would contain a carbon electrode as the anode and solid PAH as the cathode, with no need for the rare or costly metal elements now usually used.
Traditionally thought of as pollutants, PAHs are usually products of combustion - anything from a campfire to an automobile exhaust or coal-burning power plant -- and pose significant concerns as toxins and carcinogens, often when inhaled.
But in this study, scientists found that at least one PAH compound called coronene, in a safe, crystallized solid form, makes a high-functioning electrode material with promising characteristics in dual-ion batteries.
"Prior to this work, PAHs were not considered stable when storing large anions," said Xiulei (David) Ji, an assistant professor of chemistry in the OSU College of Science, and recipient of a 2016 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the most prestigious award for junior faculty.
"We found that coronene crystalline solid, a PAH, can lose electrons and provide a good capacity of anion storage while being structurally and chemically stable. Coronene had good performance as an electrode and the ability to have a very long cycle life or the number of charges and discharges it can handle."
Avoiding the use of metals in the electrodes is a huge advantage for dual-ion batteries and makes them much more sustainable, Ji said. Graphite cathodes can do this, but a serious challenge that has held them back for two decades is that they operate at levels hostile to the non-aqueous solvents in the electrolyte. The batteries based on coronene largely eliminate this problem, and would significantly improve the maintenance cost and sustainability of a stationary battery system.
The researchers in this study demonstrated the potential of coronene but also said that other PAH compounds as well may have similar potential.
This research opens the door to an entirely new concept in battery construction, they said, which might take what had once been an unwanted pollutant and turn it into a safe, valued product.
Primary collaborators on this project in OSU's Department of Chemistry included lead author and graduate student Ismael Rodriguez-Perez, and professors Michael Lerner and Rich Carter.
--
Credit: <a href="http://www.oregonstate.edu/">Oregon State University</a>
The research was supported by the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund.

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&nbsp;


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<div></div>

Chemists on the way to creating a better battery

Chemists at Oregon State University have discovered one or more...

Bison once roamed the Great Plains in massive herds numbered in the tens of millions. Hunted to near extinction in the late 1800s,  roughly 30,000 wild bison now roam Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone now has the largest population, which means the herd genetics are highly diverse.

Commercial bison herds number more than 300,000. Many of those animals and other wild bison are, to varying degrees, bison-cattle hybrids. Government, tribal and zoo efforts seek to restore the animals' original genetics.

To preserve the domestic cattle-free genes of Yellowstone Bison, select embryos from certified disease- free female bison are now on the move as an experimental scientific migration heads east.

Researchers have transplanted embryos originating from the bison herd at Yellowstone National Park into female bison in Minnesota in hopes of increasing the genetic diversity of herds in the state. This effort hopes to restore America's official mammal to the landscape.

Prized Yellowstone bison, free of domestic cattle genes, still give experts some concern. Using them in traditional breeding programs is difficult because they can carry a contagious disease called brucellosis, which causes spontaneous abortions in pregnant cattle. Transplanting embryos from the Yellowstone herd using in-vitro fertilization bypasses the problem of spreading the disease.

Last month, Jennifer Barfield, Colorado State University animal reproduction professor, and other researchers implanted four female bison at the Minnesota Zoo. Ultrasound tests will be conducted by veterinarians to determine pregnancy status. Spring births are predicted. The four female bison are part of a larger conservation herd managed at the Minneapolis State Park and Blue Mound State Park. This herd is, in large part, free of cattle genes.

"It will also demonstrate that we can use reproductive technologies to move the Yellowstone genetics outside of the park without the threat of spreading the disease brucellosis, which has implications for bison conservation on a broader scale," Barfield said.

Keith Aune, Bison program director for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the Bronx Zoo, cautions that this process is still ‘an experimental procedure at best.’ In 25 attempts at the zoo, he said only one calf was produced. Yet, he encourages continued attempts as the field of bison research is young and the approach may become more successful as it develops over time. Even though Aune is not directly involved with the Minnesota project, he says Barfield’s efforts fit well into the bigger picture of bison conservation. The Bronx Zoo plans to import several bison with pure Yellowstone roots from a disease-free herd next month if it gets the necessary permits. Other programs such as the Toronto Zoo are experimenting with embryo transplants of bison herds in a northern subspecies known as the Wood Bison.

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Author: Suzanne Johnson

Scientists work to increase the genetic diversity of Yellowstone bison

Bison once roamed the Great Plains in massive herds numbered...

Super Typhoon Haima continues to move toward the Philippines and NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible image of the storm that revealed a clear eye.

On Oct. 18 at 12:10 a.m. EDT (0410 UTC) the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible-light image of Super Typhoon Haima approaching the Philippines. The image showed a clear eye surrounded by powerful bands of thunderstorms. Feeder bands of thunderstorms wrapped into the low level center of circulation from the west and east.

The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration or PAGASA has posted many warnings. The Public storm warning signal #1 is in effect in the Luzon provinces of Ilocos Norte, Apayao, Cagayan including Calayan group of Islands, Batanes group of Islands, Isabela, Kalinga, Abra, Ilocos Sur, Mt. Province, Ifugao, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Benguet, La Union, Aurora, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Catanduanes and Polillo Islands.

On Oct. 18 at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) Supertyphoon Haima had maximum sustained winds near 161 mph (140 knots/259 kph). That makes Haima a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, the strongest category on the scale. Typhoon-force winds extend up to 55 nautical miles from the center, while tropical storm-force winds extend up to 180 nautical miles from the center.

Haima was located near 15.7 degrees north latitude and 129.1 degrees east longitude, about 474 nautical miles east of Manila, Philippines. It was moving to the west at 17.2 mph (15 knots/22.2 kph).

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center said that Haima is forecast to move to the west-northwest then northwest. It is forecast to clip the extreme north of Luzon Island and then head toward mainland China

---

Credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a>

Super Typhoon Haima closes in on Philippines

Super Typhoon Haima continues to move toward the Philippines and...

As Tropical Storm Sarika moved over Hainan Island, China, NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite captured a visible picture of the storm as it made a direct hit.

On Oct. 18 at 1:55 a.m. EDT (0555 UTC) the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible-light image of the storm. The image showed the center of circulation covered by clouds.

Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that infrared satellite imagery showed that the low-level circulation center is weakening rapidly and that the strongest thunderstorms within the tropical cyclone appear to be disorganized.

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) on Oct. 18, Sarika was centered near 19.8 degrees north latitude and 109.7 degrees east longitude. That was about 189 nautical miles east-southeast of Hanoi, Vietnam. Sarika's maximum sustained winds dropped to 63 mph (55 knots/102 kph) and it was moving to the northwest at 11.5 mph (10 knots/18.5 kph).

Sarika is moving northwest and is forecast to cross the Gulf of Tonkin and make final landfall in northern Vietnam. A Severe Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from central to northeastern Vietnam.

---

Credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a>

Tropical Storm Sarika moves over Hainan Island, China

As Tropical Storm Sarika moved over Hainan Island, China, NASA-NOAA's...

September 2016 was the warmest September in 136 years of modern record-keeping, according to a monthly analysis of global temperatures by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.

September 2016's temperature was a razor-thin 0.004 degrees Celsius warmer than the previous warmest September in 2014. The margin is so narrow those two months are in a statistical tie. Last month was 0.91 degrees Celsius warmer than the mean September temperature from 1951-1980.

The record-warm September means 11 of the past 12 consecutive months dating back to October 2015 have set new monthly high-temperature records. Updates to the input data have meant that June 2016, previously reported to have been the warmest June on record, is, in GISS's updated analysis, the third warmest June behind 2015 and 1998 after receiving additional temperature readings from Antarctica. The late reports lowered the June 2016 anomaly by 0.05 degrees Celsius to 0.75.

“Monthly rankings are sensitive to updates in the record, and our latest update to mid-winter readings from the South Pole has changed the ranking for June,” said GISS director Gavin Schmidt. “We continue to stress that while monthly rankings are newsworthy, they are not nearly as important as long-term trends.”

The monthly analysis by the GISS team is assembled from publicly available data acquired by about 6,300 meteorological stations around the world, ship- and buoy-based instruments measuring sea surface temperature, and Antarctic research stations. The modern global temperature record begins around 1880 because previous observations didn't cover enough of the planet. Monthly analyses are updated when additional data become available, and the results are subject to change.

---

Credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NASA</a>

September 2016 was the warmest month ever recorded

September 2016 was the warmest September in 136 years of...

<div></div>
<div>

The humble bait worm wriggling on the hook at the end of angler's line may be considered a low value resource, but in the first global assessment of its value and impact, researchers have revealed it to be a multi-billion pound global industry worth nearly £6 billion per year.

Bait worms are found to be many times more valuable than premium seafoods for human consumption. For example, blood worms retail at roughly £150 per kilogram in the USA, over 4 times the price of lobsters.

The annual global weight extracted is estimated at 120,000 tonnes of bait worms. Extraction has a significant physical impact, both through the removal of the bait worms and the turning over of shore sediment. Both collection activity and loss of worms has an impact on wading bird populations and other protected species and habitats.

The researchers encourage the assessment of the value and impact of bait worm fishing. Action is needed to ensure bait fisheries are sustainable, and environmental impacts are minimised.

"This is the first assessment of its kind in the world, highlighting the extraordinary value of worms and the huge amounts removed at local, national and global scales," said Dr. Gordon Watson, lead author of the Fish and Fisheries assessment. "We hope that it provokes people to take action to fully assess these fisheries and ensure they are managed effectively for the future."
 --

</div>
<div></div>
<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.wiley.com" target="_blank">Wiley</a></div>

Study: Bait worms are more valuable than premium seafood

The humble bait worm wriggling on the hook at the...

Exxon is expanding its counter-attack against critics and is now seeking to quash a New York subpoena of the company's documents related to climate change.
Exxon said in a court filing Monday that it has already given New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman more than 1 million pages of documents. It said that it is increasingly clear that the attorney general's investigation is politically motivated.
The Irving, Texas, company asked a federal district court in Dallas to throw out the New York subpoena. It is fighting in the same court to quash a subpoena from Massachusetts attorney general Maura Healey. Both officials say that the company deceived investors and the public by hiding what it knew about the link between burning fossil fuels and climate change.
Exxon said in a company release that Schneiderman and Healey "are incapable of impartial investigations and are attempting to silence political opponents who disagree on the appropriate policies to address climate change."
The environmental group 350.org accused Exxon Mobil Corp. of trying to, "distract from the real story here: that they lied about their knowledge of climate change for decades" and spent millions on campaigns to undermine climate science.
---
© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Exxon tried to quash climate change documents subpoena

Exxon is expanding its counter-attack against critics and is now...

<div></div>
<div>

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) have found a way to nearly double the efficiency with which a commonly used industrial yeast strain converts plant sugars to biofuel. The newly engineered "super yeast" could boost the economics of making ethanol, specialty biofuels and bioproducts.

Though Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been the baker's and brewer's yeast of choice for centuries, it poses a unique challenge to researchers using it to make biofuel from cellulosic biomass such as grasses, woods, or the nonfood portion of plants. The world-famous microbe is highly adept at converting a plant's glucose to biofuel but is otherwise a picky eater, ignoring the plant's xylose, a five-carbon sugar that can make up nearly half of all available plant sugars.

"For cellulosic biofuels to become economically feasible, microbes need to be able to convert all of a plant's sugars, including xylose, into fuel," says Trey Sato, the GLBRC study's lead researcher and a UW-Madison associate scientist.

In a study published Friday (Oct. 14, 2016) in the journal PLOS Genetics, Sato and his GLBRC collaborators describe the isolation of specific genetic mutations that allow S. cerevisiae to convert xylose into ethanol, a finding that could transform xylose from a waste product into a source of fuel. To uncover these genetic mutations, the researchers had to untangle millions of years of evolution, teasing out what led S. cerevisiae to become so selective in its eating habits in the first place.

First, Sato and colleagues gave the yeast a choice akin to eating carrots for dinner or nothing at all, surrounding S. cerevisiae with xylose until it either reevaluated its distaste for xylose or died. It took 10 months and hundreds of generations of "directed evolution" for Sato and his colleagues, including co-corresponding authors Robert Landick, a UW-Madison professor of biochemistry, and Audrey Gasch, a UW- Madison professor of genetics, to create a strain of S. cerevisiae that could ferment xylose.

Once the researchers had isolated the super yeast they named GLBRCY128, they also needed to understand exactly how the evolution had occurred in order to replicate it. Gasch compared Y128's genome to the original strain, combing through the approximately 5,200 genes of each to find four gene mutations responsible for the adapted behavior. To verify their finding, the researchers manually deleted these mutations from the parent strain, producing the same result.

Sato says this work could enable a wide variety of biofuels research going forward. With the technique for making Y128 published, researchers are free to make it themselves for the purposes of applying it to new biomass pretreatment technologies or to different plant materials. "Scientists won't need to adapt their research to the process that we're doing here," he says. "They can just take our technology and make their own strain."

Future research may also focus on the super yeast's potentially powerful role in creating specialty biofuels and bioproducts.

"We want to take this strain and make higher-order molecules that can be further converted into jet fuels or something like isobutanol, lipids or diesel fuel," says Sato. "And if we know how to better metabolize carbon, including xylose, anybody in theory should be able to rewire or change metabolic pathways to produce a variety of biofuel products."
 --

</div>
<div>Credit: <a href="http://www.wisc.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Wisconsin-Madison</a></div>

'Super yeast' could boost economics of biofuels

Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Great Lakes...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">In classic experiments on frogs, scientists found that the amphibians' urge to escape from dangerously hot water decreased significantly when the water temperature rose very gradually.</div>
<div class="img-wrapper"></div>
<div class="img-wrapper">In fact, sensitivity of many animals to increasing temperatures -- including humans -- is similarly affected by the rate of increase. Exactly why, however, has not been understood.</div>
Hoping to shed light on this phenomenon, UC Santa Barbara professor Craig Montell and graduate students Junjie Luo and Wei Shen developed fruit fly larvae as a model to reveal a mechanism through which the animal shows different behavioral responses to fast and slow rises in temperature.

The researchers discovered that a rapid 25-degree Fahrenheit temperature change caused a writhing response in fruit fly larvae. However, when the temperature was raised gradually, far fewer animals reacted, and for those that did, the average threshold temperature was significantly higher. The team's findings appear in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

"We know a lot about how animals sense large and sudden increases in temperature," said Montell, the Patricia and Robert Duggan Professor of Neuroscience in UCSB's Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. "They respond to noxious heat by initiating an escape response. But how is it that animals are so much less sensitive to the same hot temperature when the change is really slow?"

The answer to that question turned out to have two parts. First, Montell and his team identified the thermosensory neurons in the brain responsible for sensing the rate of temperature change, which helped to define the underlying molecular mechanism.

"When there is a really rapid change in temperature, you want to protect the brain, particularly in fly larvae because they're cold-blooded and their body temperature equilibrates to the outside," explained Montell. "If their brains feel a rapid increase in temperature, that stimulates the writhing response."

Second, the researchers discovered that the fast response to rapidly increasing heat depended on a transient receptor potential (TRP) channel. The activation of the cellular temperature sensor, a protein called TRPA1, was not simply a function of the absolute temperature but rather depended on the rate of temperature change. If the temperature increase was rapid, TRPA1 turned on quickly and excited those thermosensory brain neurons. When the temperature increased slowly, TRPA1 was less active.

"There's a feedback mechanism that turns off this protein as quickly as it's turned on," Montell said. "When it's turned on quickly, it stimulates the pathway to cause the writhing response. But when the process occurs slowly, the on and off mechanisms cancel each other out."

The scientists posit that the ability to sense the rate of temperature change is a critical survival mechanism that allows an animal to quickly respond to and escape from a noxious thermal landscape before it is too late.

"We think similar mechanisms occur in other animals -- for example, the frog," Montell said. "It could be that related mechanisms affect temperature-sensitive TRP channels in humans as well. Ultimately, if a common mechanism is conserved across species, our findings may provide insight into how different animals adapt to the rate of temperature change."

--

Credit: <a href="http://www.ucsb.edu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UC Santa Barbara</a>

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Study: Animals can easily adapt to gradually increasing temperatures

In classic experiments on frogs, scientists found that the amphibians'...

<div>Humpback whales can migrate thousands of miles to reach feeding grounds each year, but a new study concludes that their fidelity to certain local habitats - as passed on through the generations - and the protection of these habitats are key to understanding the ultimate recovery of this endangered species.</div>
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The study documents the local recruitment of whales in Glacier Bay and Icy Strait in Alaska over a 30-year period. The researchers found that contemporary whales that utilize these rich feeding grounds overwhelmingly are descendants of whales that previously used the area.

In other words, the population recovery of humpback whales in the region depends on cultural knowledge of migratory routes passed on from mothers to their calves; it is not a product of whales from outside the area suddenly "discovering" a rich feeding ground.

Results of the study are being published this week in the journal Endangered Species Research.

"Humpback whales are recovering from exploitation on an ocean-wide basis, but ultimately their individual success is on a much more local scale," said Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University and a co-author on the study.

"Humpback whales travel globally, but thrive locally."

The study compares records of individual whales returning to Glacier Bay. The first, referred to as the "founder's population," included whales documented by a local high school teacher, Charles Jurasz, beginning in the 1970s. Jurasz was one of the first researchers to realize that individual whales could be identified by photographs of natural markings - a technique now widely used to study living whales.

Over the years, other researchers - including the authors of this study - continued to record the return of these whales by photo identification and they later collected small genetic samples to confirm the relatedness between individual whales.

Using a large database maintained by Glacier Bay National Park and the University of Alaska Southeast, the records of the founding population were then compared to records of the "contemporary population" returning to Glacier Bay, more than 30 years after Jurasz's initial studies. The results were striking.

Of the 25 "founding females" that were also sampled for genetic analysis, all but one was represented in the contemporary group - either as still living, or by a direct descendant, or in many cases, both. Several of the founding females were even grandmothers of individuals in the contemporary population.

"We looked at three possibilities for population increase over a 33-year period including local recruitment from Glacier Bay/Icy Strait, recruitment from elsewhere in southeastern Alaska, and immigration from outside the region," said Sophie P. Pierszalowski, a master's student in OSU's Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and lead author on the study.

"It is clear that the contemporary generation of whales is based on local recruitment, highlighting the importance of protecting local habitat for recovering species, especially those with culturally inherited migratory destinations."

Humpback whales in the North Pacific were once estimated to number more than 15,000 individuals based on catch data before commercial whaling took a toll, reducing the population to less than a thousand by 1966. Humpback whales were first protected by the International Whaling Commission in 1965, then listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1973.

Since the protection, the oceanic population has increased to an estimated 21,000 individuals based on photo-identification studies and other evidence. The recovery has been slow, in part because humpback whales can live to be 70 years of age and their recovery is driven primarily by local fidelity and recruitment.

"Limiting vessel traffic in important habitats is one way to help protect humpback whales," Pierszalowski said, "along with maintaining legal distances by vessels, reducing the risk of entanglement with fishing gear, and maintaining stranding networks that have the capacity to quickly disentangle whales."

OSU's Marine Mammal Institute is based at the university's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Ore.

--

Credit: <a href="http://mmi.oregonstate.edu/" target="_blank">Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University</a>

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Protecting their habitats is key to the recovery of humpback whales

Humpback whales can migrate thousands of miles to reach feeding...

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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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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

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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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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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 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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...