You've undoubtedly noticed that the Moon has two distinct sides, right? The near side that we see from Earth and the far side that remains a mystery because it is never turned towards us.



This unusual lunar characteristic -- a global dichotomy -- is what a team of scientists led by Professor XU Yigang from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (<a href="http://english.gig.cas.cn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GIGCAS</a>) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been investigating.



They have been studying lunar soil samples collected from the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far side of the Moon, and returned to Earth by China's <a href="https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=CHANG-E-6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chang’e-6 mission</a>.



These invaluable samples have allowed them to investigate the Moon's peculiar dichotomy and the results have shed light on some of its secrets.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-is-chang-e-6">What is Chang’e-6?</h2>



The Chinese space program launched Chang'e 6, their latest Moon mission, on May 3, 2024. The spacecraft blasted off from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on a Long March 5 rocket at 9:27 UT (that's 5:27 PM Beijing time). 



Their goal? To grab about four pounds (2 kg) of Moon rocks from the far side - something no one had done before.



The lander touched down in a huge crater called the South Pole Aitken Basin. The team used both a scoop and a drill to dig up surface samples and even went 2 meters deep into the lunar soil. 



They also sent out a small rover that cruised around taking snapshots of the lander doing its work.



Once they collected the samples, the crew packed them into an ascent vehicle sitting on top of the lander. 



On June 3 at 11:38 PM UT (7:38 AM Beijing time the next day), this vehicle shot up from the Moon's surface and met up with the orbiter waiting above. They made the handoff on June 6, 2024.



After ditching the ascent vehicle (which crashed back into the Moon), the return vehicle hung around in orbit for a couple weeks before heading home. 



It pulled off a tricky skip-entry through Earth's atmosphere and landed in Inner Mongolia's Siziwang Banner region on June 25 at 6:07 UT (2:07 PM Beijing time). 



The final haul? Roughly 4.2 pounds (1.9 kg) of Moon rocks and soil from the far side -- marking another big win for China's space program.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-far-side-vs-visible-side-of-the-moon">Far side vs. visible side of the Moon</h2>



The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/its-official-earth-now-has-two-moons-captured-asteroid-2024-pt5/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Moon's</a> dichotomy is visible in its topography, chemical composition, crustal thickness, evidence of volcanism and, most noticeably, in the difference in geomorphology between its near and far sides.



The near side of the Moon is home to the familiar "man in the moon" maria - the dark "seas" that are the result of ancient volcanic activity. 



These areas were flooded with molten lava that created rocks known as mare basalts.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-episodes_diagram_credit-YANG-Muhan_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-episodes_diagram_credit-YANG-Muhan_1s.webp" alt="Distribution of distinct volcanic episodes on the Moon’s farside. The remote sensing image highlights the Chang’e-6 landing site along with nearby mare and cryptomare basaltic units. Credit: Image by YANG Muhan" class="wp-image-1950782"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Distribution of distinct volcanic episodes on the Moon’s farside. The remote sensing image highlights the Chang’e-6 landing site along with nearby mare and cryptomare basaltic units. Credit: Image by YANG Muhan</figcaption></figure>



How about the far side? Well, here's where it gets intriguing. Only about 2% of this hidden part of the Moon is covered in the basalts, compared to around 30% on the near side.



This inexplicable difference is a vital part of the lunar global dichotomy that the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program aims to unravel.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-secrets-of-the-moon-s-far-side">Secrets of the Moon's far side</h2>



Thanks to the Chang’e-6 lunar soil samples, Professor XU's team discovered the existence of two different types of mare basalts, low-Ti, and very low-Ti (VLT). 



“The samples returned by Chang’e-6 provide a best opportunity to investigate the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/2024-pt5-mini-moon-say-goodbye-to-earths-second-moon-we-barely-got-to-know-you/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lunar</a> global dichotomy,” said Professor XU.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-eruptions_basalt-types_credit-GIGCAS_1s.webp" alt="The two types of basalts in Chang’e-6 soils and isochrons of the Chang’e-6 low-Ti basalt. Credit: GIGCAS" class="wp-image-1950784"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The two types of basalts in Chang’e-6 soils and isochrons of the Chang’e-6 low-Ti basalt. Credit: GIGCAS</figcaption></figure>



Let's not dismiss the aspect of dating these samples either. With high-precision Pb-Pb dating techniques, the team determined that the low-Ti basalt dates back to around 2.83 billion years ago.



This attests to the presence of "young" magmatism or volcanic activities on the far side of the Moon. But of course, young is a relative term when we talk about 2.83 billion years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mapping-the-history-of-volcanoes">Mapping the history of volcanoes</h2>



With such valuable information now in our hands, we can clearly chart the volcanic timeline on the far side of the Moon. 



Led by Professor LI Qiuli, the team conducted radioisotope dating on 108 basalt fragments, with 107 of them revealing a consistent formation age of 2807 million years ago.



But there's more. One fragment, a high-aluminum basalt, was dated to a monumental 4203 million years ago, making it the oldest <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/harvest-moon-2024-will-feature-a-partial-lunar-eclipse/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lunar</a> basalt for which age has been precisely determined.



This implies elevated levels of volcanic activity on the far side of the Moon for at least 1.4 billion years - between 4.2 billion and 2.8 billion years ago.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-does-any-of-this-matter">Why does any of this matter?</h2>



These findings, available for everyone to dissect, can help recalibrate the existing lunar crater chronology models. 



Christopher Hamilton, an independent planetary volcano expert, emphasized the importance of obtaining samples from this previously unchartered lunar territory.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-episodes_Change-6-mission_landing_credit-CLEP_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/moon_farside_volcanic-episodes_Change-6-mission_landing_credit-CLEP_1s.webp" alt="China's Chang’e-6 mission spacecraft landed on the far side of the Moon. Credit: CLAP" class="wp-image-1950787"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">China's Chang’e-6 mission spacecraft landed on the far side of the Moon. Credit: CLAP </figcaption></figure>



More than just understanding the Moon, these lunar soil samples also have implications for some broad astronomical theories.



The new data indicates a constant impact flux after 2.83 billion years, which can offer new insights into planet migration in the early Solar System. 



So, by looking at the Moon, we are indirectly learning about our own cosmic neighborhood as well!



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-happens-next">What happens next?</h2>



With more missions like the Chang'e-6, the future will undoubtedly bring many enlightening discoveries about our constant celestial companion.



In the end, we see that the Moon, despite its <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-may-have-captured-the-moon-from-space/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">familiar appearance</a>, still hides untold secrets waiting to be discovered. 



These lunar missions represent a new age of lunar and planetary exploration that pushes the boundaries of our understanding.



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The researchers from the <a href="https://english.cas.cn" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chinese Academy of Sciences</a> express their gratitude for the support received from various institutes such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. These institutions' enduring support enables such important lunar explorations.



The study is published in the journals <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08382-0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a> and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt1093" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science</a>.



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Far side of the Moon had volcanic eruptions for over one billion years

You've undoubtedly noticed that the Moon has two distinct sides, right? The near side that we see from Earth and the far side that remains a mystery because it is never turned towards us. This unusual lunar characteristic -- a global dichotomy -- is what a team of scientists led by Professor XU Yigang from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (GIGCAS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been investigating. They have been studying lunar soil samples collected from the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) Basin on the far...

Hybrids are rare in nature. Many mechanisms, including genetic, behavioral and physiological, usually prevent two different species from reproducing successfully. But in June of 2020, Stephen Gosser, a self-described “diehard birder,” identified an unusual <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/some-seabirds-fly-into-the-eye-of-the-storm-to-survive/">bird</a> out in the woods of Western Pennsylvania. It sang like an elusive and beautiful scarlet tanager (Piranga olivacea) but looked more like a rose-breasted grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus). Both these species are found in the area, but they have different habitat preferences. Gosser immediately took some photographs and then called for a team from the National Aviary in Pittsburgh to help clarify his conundrum.



The ornithologists helped catch the strange bird and took a blood sample to use for DNA analysis. Researchers, led by a team from Penn State, then used a variety of different methods, including low-coverage whole-genome sequencing, analysis of vocalizations, and inferences from natural history, to investigate the unusual bird.&nbsp;



Their results, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9152">Ecology and Evolution</a>, show that this was indeed a hybrid bird, formed as a result of reproduction between a male scarlet tanager and a female rose-breasted grosbeak. Although hybridization between bird species is not uncommon, this usually takes place between closely related species. In contrast, the new bird is the first record of hybridization between these two species that are from lineages that diverged more than 10 million years ago.&nbsp;



“I love this story, because it starts with a little mystery and ends with a surprising discovery,” said David Toews, lead author of the study and assistant professor of biology at <a href="https://www.psu.edu/">Penn State</a>.



The researchers have no idea how the two parental birds managed to breed, as tanagers typically hide away in the canopy cover of mature forests while rose-breasted grosbeaks are happy out in the open, along the edges of woodlands. Toews explained that the two species have very divergent nesting preferences, making their successful breeding attempt all the more mysterious.&nbsp;



In addition to the DNA analysis, the researchers investigated the acoustic characteristics of the hybrid’s song. It sounded like a tanager when it sang, and this was confirmed by comparison of the bioacoustics of both species. Since songbirds usually learn their calls from the father, this finding implied that the male tanager had been around the nest at least until the offspring had learned to imitate its call.&nbsp;



“Something people may not understand is that when we analyze birdsongs, we're not actually listening to them. We're looking at them,” said Toews. “We're looking at wavelengths of the sound&nbsp;– or the ‘spectrogram’ is a more accurate term&nbsp;– and we’re actually measuring visual components of a soundwave to analyze the song.”



The researchers emphasize the usefulness of using combined evidence from visual, bioacoustic, and genetic analyses to confirm that the bird was indeed a hybrid and that the parents were a rose-breasted grosbeak and a scarlet tanager. They stress that this is a straightforward method that can be used effectively to assign ancestry for any putative hybrid individuals, given that whole genome sequences are now available for more and more bird species.&nbsp;



“We used the same tools that we’ve used to identify other hybrids, but we typically have more ambiguous answers that are a bit more esoteric,” said Toews. “In this case, we identified the species. We know who the parents were and we have a somewhat satisfying conclusion at the end. I find this story resonates with more than just your average ornithological nerd like myself.”



Although the hybrid was judged to be a healthy male at the time of its detection and capture, a thorough search for it on the same territory the following breeding season came up negative. It will never be known whether this unusual hybrid was able to pass its genes on to future generations.



Image Credit: Stephen Gosser



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Rare hybrid songbird traced to two very different species

Hybrids are rare in nature. Many mechanisms, including genetic, behavioral...

Herd,Of,Nelore,Cattle,Grazing,In,A,Pasture

Due to climate change, agricultural producers all over the world must adapt to new, often more extreme, weather patterns. While much previous research has focused on mitigation strategies for crop production, a recent study led by the <a href="https://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois</a> (U of I) has now investigated the unique challenges <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/feed-livestock-reduce-land-use/">livestock</a> producers in Brazil face, and the way they respond to climate change.



Since the dry season in Brazil is increasing up to 0.6 days per year, cattle face increased stress, and ranchers are more likely to sell them earlier. “Through talking with cattle ranchers, I kept hearing about ways they had to change their production to cope with the dry season. They are used to a dry season every year, but they noticed it was getting worse,” said study author Marin Skidmore, an assistant professor of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at U of I.



“Every year the animals gain weight in the rainy season, they lose weight in the dry season, and then they gain weight again [a phenomenon referred to as “the accordion effect”]. This takes a toll, of course, but they had been able to make do with the dry season as it was. As it got worse, the weight loss got worse, and they were seeing animal losses and profit losses.”



By conducting interviews with Brazilian ranchers and gathering data from a large database of cattle movements in Brazil, Skidmore found evidence of increased animal sales in preparation for extremely dry seasons. “A rancher who would keep their animals in their own pasture through a normal dry season will instead will be more likely to sell them if they expect that the dry season will be severe,” she&nbsp;explained.



Ranchers often make decisions about the upcoming dry season by observing rainfall patterns. While during the rainy season it rains every day, later on rain becomes intermittent, and ranchers will observe how sporadic the rain gets and how early this happens. In anticipation of the dry season, they have several options.



“They can sell the animals for slaughter, and then it is no one's responsibility to feed anymore. But potentially you have an animal that isn’t at a weight for slaughter yet,” Skidmore said. “Then you can sell the animal to a confinement operation, where they are feeding an animal on grain. This decouples the food source from the current weather; it can be grain that was grown in the region in the previous season, or grain that’s being transported from another region.”



Since pasture-based production is generally susceptible to drought and current production technologies are not equipped to deal with heat stress, investing in better management practices to improve pastures and deal with heat is essential.



“A lot of the climate change literature looks at crop producers. But the difference is that animals have lives, and this opens up a whole other set of adaptive strategies to livestock producers. Ranchers are making use of that, and it can really affect the structure of the supply chain,” she concluded.



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12333">American Journal of Agricultural Economics</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How do cattle ranchers in Brazil cope with climate change?

Due to climate change, agricultural producers all over the world...

Pelagic seabirds, which spend most of their lives in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/how-the-ocean-and-climate-influence-each-other/">ocean</a>, are in many ways still mysterious compared to our land dwelling species. Direct observation of these birds is challenging, except for the brief window of time when they venture onto land for nesting and rearing chicks.&nbsp;



A new study from <a href="https://www.swansea.ac.uk/">Swansea University</a> in the UK opens a window into one aspect of pelagic seabird life - how they survive storms. The research was specifically focused on shearwaters in the Sea of Japan.&nbsp;



The team was led by Professor Emily Shepard and Dr. Emmanouil Lempidakis, from Swansea and included scientists from Nagoya University, the University of Leeds, and Nagoya Institute of Technology. The researchers tagged adult shearwaters with GPS trackers over a period of 11 years.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



When the GPS data was analyzed and compared to wind movement, the team was surprised by what they found. It appeared that the shearwaters were heading into the eyes of storms.&nbsp;



“We were astonished when we saw from the GPS tracks that shearwaters were flying towards the eye of the storm, and sometimes tracking it for several hours. This is unlike any response to storms that has been seen before in seabirds," said Professor Shepard.



The scientists believe that the shearwaters are exhibiting this behavior to avoid being blown to land and possibly injured or killed.&nbsp;



“Shearwaters, like albatrosses, are adapted to windy conditions, as their flight style enables them to fly without much flapping when it’s windy, but there comes a point where their flight speed cannot match the wind speed," explained Dr. Lempidakis. "When this happens birds start to drift with the wind, which is why we were surprised that they fly towards some of the strongest typhoon winds.”



The researchers found that some birds avoided storms by flying around the edges, but only when they were far out at sea with no danger of striking land. This behavior could explain why many young birds wash up after storms. These birds simply don't have the experience to know where land is located.&nbsp;



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2212925119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Some seabirds fly into the eye of the storm to survive

Pelagic seabirds, which spend most of their lives in the...

Farmer,Man,Spraying,Fumigating,Pesti,,Pest,Control.,Weed,Insecticide,Fumigation.

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of over 12,000 chemical substances generally used to manufacture thousands of water-, stain- and heat-resistant products. These substances – known as “<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/forever-chemicals-are-raining-down-all-over-the-world/">forever chemicals</a>” - do not naturally break down and accumulate in both humans and the environment. A wide variety of recent scientific studies links them to major health problems such as cancer, birth defects, liver and kidney disease, autoimmune disorders, high cholesterol, and low immunity.



Now, a research team led by the <a href="https://www.ttu.edu/">Texas Tech University</a> has checked ten insecticides which are mostly used on cotton, but can also be used on food and other crops, and discovered that seven of them contained PFAS, and six what the scientists labelled as “screamingly high” levels of PFOS (Perfluorooctanesulfonic acids), one of the most dangerous PFAS compounds. According to the study authors, the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/">Environmental Protection Agency</a> (EPA) has known about these findings for over 18 months, but has not yet investigated the products or took any action against the manufacturers.



“We know PFOS is a carcinogen, we know it’s a deadly chemical and there’s no safe level in drinking water,” said Kyla Bennett, a former EPA official and science policy director at the non-profit organization <a href="https://peer.org/">Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility</a> (PEER). “Our soil and water are now contaminated.”



While the EPA has not set limits for PFAS in pesticides, in June 2022 they lowered their advisory health limit in drinking water to 0.02 parts per trillion (ppt), a level so low as to suggest that no amount of exposure to these compounds is safe. The Texas Tech researchers found much higher levels of these toxic chemicals in most of the pesticides they analyzed, with a particular insecticide sporting a level as high as 19m ppt.



It is unclear what purpose PFAS in insecticides may serve, but the scientists believe that they could be used as a dispersing agent, helping the pesticide spread evenly. The presence of PFOS could be the result of either chemical companies illegally adding the compound or PFAS added to the fertilizers breaking down into PFOS.&nbsp;



According to Bennett, there is little consumers can do to immediately protect themselves, besides eating organic foods. Unfortunately, many people do not have access to or can afford such healthier products. This leaves it up to the EPA to take faster and more decisive action to eliminate PFAS from pesticides.



“We have to get the EPA to stop allowing PFAS in pesticides. We’ve got a toxic chemical in them that doesn’t need to be there, and pesticides are bad enough on their own without adding another carcinogen,” Bennett concluded.



The study is published in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hazl.2022.100067">Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters</a>.



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.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Toxic “forever chemicals” present in most pesticides

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of over 12,000...

Marine heatwaves helped invasive algae wipe out a native underwater <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/kelp-forests-are-losing-their-capacity-to-trap-carbon/">kelp</a> forest in Mexico, with potentially dramatic effects for the entire ecosystem, according to a new study published by <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/?lang=en">De Gruyter</a>.



The waters of the Todos Santos Islands in Mexico are usually dominated by the giant kelp species Macrocystis pyrifera. However, an unusually long period of heat known as the "warm blob" - which affected the Pacific coast of North America from 2013 to 2016 - shifted the location and population of several marine species.



“Those of us who have dived there before noticed the dramatic community change,” said study co-author Dr. Luis Malpica-Cruz.



Between 2018 and 2019, the researchers assessed the density of the invasive species at a rocky reef to see how the community had changed. The results showed that native kelp suffered greatly. M. pyrifera went from an average of 0.7 individuals per square meter in 2018 to zero in 2019.&nbsp;



The study also revealed a threefold increase of the invasive macroalgae species Sargassum horneri and kelp species Undaria pinnatifida. The research team was shocked at their discovery.&nbsp;



"We looked at other local sites that witnessed M. pyrifera loss and saw other native species had taken its place. But the Todos Santos site had a completely different kelp ecosystem.” said Malpica-Cruz.



It is suspected that the "warm blob" marine heatwave held back the native species and allowed invasive species to thrive. This ecosystem alteration could be a sign of wider changes. The dramatic loss of M. pyrifera is likely to affect other algae, invertebrates and fish further up the food chain.&nbsp;



The kelp may have regained territory in other locations, but this was not the case in the Todos Santos Islands, where invasive species took over. Given the short period of this shift, within only one year, it is doubtful that the native species will return.&nbsp;



“There is hope that not all M. pyrifera kelp forest will be lost. However in those forests that do change it is uncertain how the community will ultimately be impacted," said Malpica-Cruz.



The experts plan to continue studying the invasive species to help design strategies to manage invasive kelp during future marine heatwaves.



The research is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/bot-2022-0037">Botanica Marina</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

"Warm blob" helped invasive algae wipe out kelp forest

Marine heatwaves helped invasive algae wipe out a native underwater...

According to the <a href="https://www.who.int/">World Health Organization</a> (WHO), approximately 39 million children were overweight or obese in 2020 – conditions often leading to increased risks of heart disease, diabetes, cancers, and even early death. While <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ultra-processed-foods-can-make-you-feel-mentally-unwell/">ultra-processed foods</a> such as packaged baked goods and snacks, sugary cereals, and fizzy drinks – which are commonly found in Western diets – are associated with weight gain in adults, it is still unclear whether there is a link between a mother’s consumption of ultra-processed foods during pregnancy and her offspring’s future body weight.



Now, an international team of experts has discovered that prospective mothers’ consumption of such foods during their pregnancies seems to be linked to an increased risk of overweight or obesity in their offspring, irrespective of other lifestyle factors. The scientists suggest that mothers may benefit from limiting their intake of ultra-processed foods, and that dietary guidelines from health authorities should be refined, and financial and social barriers removed to improve nutrition of pregnant women and thus reduce childhood obesity.



The researchers collected data on 19,958 children born to 14,553 mothers (45 percent of them boys with ages between seven and 17 at the beginning of the study) from the <a href="https://nurseshealthstudy.org/">Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II)</a> and the <a href="https://gutsweb.org/">Growing Up Today Study</a> (GUTS I and II) in the United States. In their analysis, they also took into consideration a range of other potentially influential factors that are known to be highly correlated with childhood obesity, such as mother’s weight, levels of physical activity, smoking, living status (with or without a partner), and partner’s education, as well as children’s consumption of ultra-processed foods, physical activity, and sedentary time.



During an average follow-up period of four years, 2471 children became overweight or obese, suggesting that a mother’s ultra-processed food consumption was associated with an increased risk of such conditions in her offspring. For instance, a 26 percent higher risk was identified in the group with the largest ultra-processed food consumption (12.1 servings per day) in comparison to the lowest consumption group (3.4 servings per day).



Although this is only an observational study, so causality cannot be properly established, the findings “support the importance of refining dietary recommendations and the development of programs to improve nutrition for women of reproductive age to promote offspring health,” as the authors concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/379/bmj-2022-071767">The BMJ</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Childhood obesity linked to mother's poor dietary choices

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 39 million...

It is a common misconception that over time, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/viruses-have-eyes-and-ears-on-their-hosts/">viruses</a> become milder within a population as they become endemic. New research led by Penn State has found that a virus among rabbits called myxoma has evolved to become more deadly.&nbsp;



The new findings highlight the need for rigorous monitoring of human viruses. For example, many people assume that once COVID-19 becomes endemic, it will also become milder.&nbsp;



“However, we know that the Delta variant was more contagious and caused more severe illness than the original strain of the virus, and Omicron is even more transmissible than Delta. Our new research shows that a rabbit virus has evolved to become more deadly, and there is no reason why this couldn’t happen with SARS-CoV-2 or other viruses that affect humans," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;



Myxoma was introduced to Australia in the early 1950s to control a non-native rabbit population. The disease caused terrible symptoms such as puffy, fluid-filled skin lesions, swollen heads and eyelids, drooping ears and blocked airways. The deadly virus killed an estimated 99.8 percent of the rabbits within two weeks.



Over time, the virus became milder, killing only 60 percent of the rabbits it infected and taking longer to do so. At the time, scientists referred to this as the "law of declining virulence" - the idea that viruses become milder to ensure that they do not kill their hosts before they’ve transmitted to others.



However, when the research team studied the myxoma virus in 2014, they found that the virus had regained strength and was killing rabbits at a higher rate.&nbsp;



The team examined several myxoma virus variants collected between 2012-2015 to determine their virulence. The experts determined that the viruses fell into three lineages: a, b and c.



The study rabbits exhibited different symptoms than those induced by viruses collected in the first decades after the release. For instance, the rabbits had more bacteria distribution, which is a symptom of immunosuppression. The researchers considered this a virus adaptation to the resistance gained among wild rabbits.&nbsp;



Lineage c, however, produced a slightly different response. Rabbits infected with lineage c had more swelling at the base of the ears and around the eyelids, where mosquitoes typically bite. These areas also contained extremely high amounts of virus.



“We hypothesise that lineage c viruses are capable of enhanced dissemination to sites around the head where mosquitoes are more likely to feed and that they are able to suppress inflammatory responses at these sites, allowing persistent virus replication to high amounts.”&nbsp;



The findings demonstrate that viruses do not always evolve to become milder. While organisms can develop adaptations to viruses, an evolutionary arms race occurs with counter-adaptations developed by the virus itself.&nbsp;



The study revealed that myxoma evolved to cause greater rabbit mortality. Most likely, rabbits will respond by gradually developing resistance to these changes.&nbsp;



A similar arms race could occur with COVID-19 and other human viruses as immunity strengthens. This demonstrates the importance of vaccines to keep up with new variants, and for the public to stay up to date on vaccines. A stronger solution could be developing a universal vaccine against all variants, which would be more effective over time.&nbsp;



The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases supported this research, which was initially stimulated by a seed grant from Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences.



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jvi.00886-22">Journal of Virology</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Rabbit virus evolved to become more deadly

It is a common misconception that over time, viruses become...

Sixty-six million years ago, a massive asteroid struck the Earth, leading to the extinction of dinosaurs and many other animal and plant species. According to a new study led by Hermann Bermúdez, a doctoral student in Paleontology at the <a href="https://unal.edu.co/en.html">National University of Colombia</a>, this asteroid impact also triggered an <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-tides-earthquakes/">earthquake</a> so massive that it shook our planet for weeks to months after the collision. The amount of energy released by this mega-earthquake is estimated at 1023&nbsp;joules - about 50,000 times more energy than that released in the magnitude 9.1 Sumatra earthquake in 2004, one of the most devastating earthquakes in modern history.



In 2014, while doing field work on the Gorgonilla Island in Colombia, Bermúdez&nbsp;discovered several spherule deposits – layers of sediment filled with small glass beads and shards known as “tektites” and “microtektites” which were ejected into the atmosphere during the asteroid impact. The spherules formed when the heat and pressure of the impact melted and scattered the Earth’s crust, ejecting tiny, melted blobs into the atmosphere that, later on, under the influence of gravity, fell back to the surface of the Earth as glass.



Moreover, about 3,000 kilometers southwest of the impact, layers of mud and sandstone as far as 10 to 15 meters below the seafloor experienced soft-sediment deformation that is still preserved today. These deformations – which continue up through the spherule-rich layer which was deposited post-impact - were likely caused by a massive earthquake which must have continued for weeks or even months after the asteroid collision.&nbsp;



Finally, evidence of deformation from the mega-earthquake are also preserved in Mexico and the United States. For instance, at the El Papalote exposure site in Mexico, Bermúdez found evidence of liquefaction - a process caused by strong shaking, making water-saturated sediments to flow like a liquid. In Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas, the paleontologist also documented faults and cracks most likely associated with the mega-quake.&nbsp;



The study will be presented at the <a href="https://community.geosociety.org/gsa2022/home">Geological Society of America (GSA) Connects meeting</a> in Denver on Sunday, October 9, 2022.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Asteroid collision triggered a months-long mega-earthquake

Sixty-six million years ago, a massive asteroid struck the Earth,...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/exercise-and-obesity-have-opposing-effects-on-the-body/">Obesity</a> affects over 42 percent of Americans and contributes to the onset of a variety of chronic diseases, including diabetes and cancer. While midnight snacking is considered by many to have a negative impact on health, few studies have comprehensively investigated the effects of late eating on the three main factors contributing to body weight regulation and thus obesity risk: the regulation of calorie intake, the number of burned calories, and molecular changes in fat tissue. Now, a research team from <a href="https://brighamandwomens.org/">Brigham and Women’s Hospital</a> has found that when we eat significantly impacts our energy expenditure, appetite, and molecular pathways in adipose tissue.



“In this study, we asked, ‘Does the time that we eat matter when everything else is kept consistent?’” said study lead author Nina Vujović, an expert in Medical Chronobiology at Bingham. “And we found that eating four hours later makes a significant difference for our hunger levels, the way we burn calories after we eat, and the way we store fat.”



The scientists studied 16 participants with a body mass index (BMI) in the overweight or obese range. Each of them had to complete two laboratory protocols – one with an early meal schedule, and the other with the exact same meals, each scheduled approximately four hours later in the day. For two or three weeks before starting the experiment, participants had to maintain a fixed sleeping schedule, and in the final three days before entering the laboratory, they followed identical diets and meal schedules.



In the lab, participants had to document their hunger and appetite levels, provide frequent blood samples throughout each day, and have their body temperature and energy expenditure measured. To assess how eating schedules affected the molecular pathways involved in adipogenesis – the way in which the body stores fat – the experimenters collected biopsies from a subset of the participants in both the early and late eating protocols.



The analyses revealed that eating later had a profound effect on the hunger- and appetite-regulating hormones leptin and ghrelin. For instance, the levels of leptin, which signals satiety, were decreased in the late eating condition. Moreover, late eaters burned calories at a slower rate and exhibited adipose tissue gene expression towards increased adipogenesis and decreased lipolysis, which promotes fat growth.



Since this study only involved five female participants, the researchers aim to recruit more women in future studies to increase the generalizability of the results.&nbsp;



“This study shows the impact of late versus early eating. Here, we isolated these effects by controlling for confounding variables like caloric intake, physical activity, sleep, and light exposure, but in real life, many of these factors may themselves be influenced by meal timing,” said senior author Frank Scheer, the director of the&nbsp;<a href="https://sleep.hms.harvard.edu/research/labs-divisions/medical-chronobiology-program-mcp">Medical Chronobiology Program</a>&nbsp;at Bingham. “In larger scale studies, where tight control of all these factors is not feasible, we must at least consider how other behavioral and environmental variables alter these biological pathways underlying obesity risk.”&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2022.09.007">Cell Metabolism</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Eating late increases hunger and changes fat tissues

Obesity affects over 42 percent of Americans and contributes to...

The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-is-heading-for-a-tipping-point-as-antarctic-ice-sheets-melt/">Antarctic Ice sheet</a> has been routinely observed over the past three decades and is known to be decaying progressively, due to accelerated rates of ice thinning, retreat and flow. Although this phenomenon has been ascribed to warming atmospheric and oceanic factors, there has been an implicit assumption that there are no seasonal variations in the rate of ice flow. A new study now finds evidence that this assumption is erroneous and that past predictions of ice loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet, and its contribution to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/elusive-sea-level-fingerprint-detected-around-greenland-ice-sheet/">sea-level</a> rise, will be inaccurate as a consequence.&nbsp;



The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Austrian engineering company ENVEO, identified distinct, seasonal changes in the velocity of land-based ice from 21 glaciers that drain into the George VI Ice Shelf – a floating platform of ice roughly the size of Wales – on the Antarctic Peninsula. They say there has been a shortage of high temporal resolution observations of the Antarctic Ice sheet in the past, in contrast to the situation for Greenlandic and other Arctic and ice masses where observational data is far more available. The timing and magnitude of seasonal ice-flow variation in Arctic ice sheets is now well observed and understood.&nbsp;



The assumption that there is no seasonal effect on ice flow rates in Antarctica was based partly on the fact that the ice sheets are very large on Antarctica, and the temperatures remain below zero degrees all year round. But it was also fueled by a lack of imagery collected over the icy continent in the past.&nbsp;



“Unlike the Greenland Ice Sheet, where a high quantity of data has allowed us to understand how the ice moves from season to season and year to year, we haven’t had comparable data coverage to look for such changes over Antarctica until recently,” said Karla Boxall from Cambridge’s Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), the study’s first author.



“Observations of ice-speed change in the Antarctic Peninsula have typically been measured over successive years, so we’ve been missing a lot of the finer detail about how flow varies from month to month throughout the year,” said co-author Dr. Frazer Christie, also from SPRI.



In the past, scientists wishing to study variations in Antarctic ice flow had to rely on information collected by optical satellites such as NASA’s Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager. These observations were not frequent or detailed enough to follow the seasonal patterns. In the current study however, the researchers used 6/12-day repeat-pass radar imagery from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites, in addition to 16-day repeat-pass observations made by the Landsat 8 satellites, to determine rates of ice movement. They analyzed images from these two sources acquired between 2014 and 2020.



“Optical measurements can only observe the Earth’s surface on cloud-free days during summer months,” said co-author Dr Thomas Nagler, ENVEO’s CEO. “But by using Sentinel-1 radar imagery, we were able to discover seasonal ice-flow change thanks to the ability of these satellites to monitor year-round and in all-weather conditions.”



The analysis, published in The Cryosphere, showed that the glaciers feeding the George VI Ice Shelf speed up by approximately 15 percent during the summer months. This is the first time that such seasonal cycles have been detected for land ice flowing into ice shelves in Antarctica.&nbsp;



Although the researchers are not exactly sure what mechanism is causing this seasonal increase in flow rate, they suggest two possible alternatives. It could be caused by surface meltwater reaching the base of the ice and acting like a lubricant, as is the case in Arctic and Alpine regions, or it could be due to relatively warm ocean water melting the ice from below, thinning the floating shelf ice and allowing upstream glaciers to move faster.



“These seasonal cycles could be due to either mechanism, or a mixture of the two,” said Christie. “Detailed ocean and surface measurements will be required to understand fully why this seasonal change is occurring.”



The results imply that other glaciers in Antarctica may also undergo ice flow seasonality, including the highly vulnerable and rapidly retreating Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers in West Antarctica. “If true, these seasonal signatures may be uncaptured in some measurements of Antarctic ice-mass loss, with potentially important implications for global sea-level rise estimates,” said Boxall.



“It’s the first time this seasonal signal has been found on the Antarctic Ice Sheet, so the questions it raises regarding the possible presence and causes of seasonality elsewhere in Antarctica are really interesting,” said co-author Professor Ian Willis, also from SPRI. “We look forward to taking a closer look at, and shedding light on, these important questions.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Antarctic glaciers flow faster during the summer time

The Antarctic Ice sheet has been routinely observed over the...

Over the past half a century, scientific awareness of non-native species – often called “<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/managing-invasive-species-can-improve-climate-resilience/">invasive species</a>” – has increased substantially, to the point where anyone with a “green conscience” has heard of them and their negative impacts. However, according to a new study led by <a href="https://www.brown.edu/">Brown University</a>, the long-standing biases against these species have hindered the acknowledgement and understanding of some of their benefits.



“Positive impacts of non-native species are often explained as serendipitous surprises - the sort of thing that people might expect to happen every once in a while, in special circumstances,” said study lead author Dov Sax, a professor of Environment and Society, and of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology at Brown. “Our new paper argues that the positive impacts of non-native species are neither unexpected nor rare, but instead common, important, and often of large magnitude.”



“We want to provide a framework for the way that scientists can think about non-native species constructively going forward and explicitly document their benefits. It’s only then that we’ll be able to accurately and fully compare and contrast them in order to perform the kind of cost-benefit analyses that can be truly helpful in making policy decisions.”



While some non-native species, such as introduced pathogens and agricultural pests involve indisputably large net costs and provoke significant damage to humans and various ecosystems, most domesticated non-native species, such as wheat, tomatoes, cotton, wool, and pets like dogs or goldfish, provide large net benefits to human societies.&nbsp;



By focusing on non-native species that are not directly managed by humans – so-called “wild” or “naturalized” species – Professor Sax and his colleagues found that many of these provide both costs and benefits for humans and nature.



For instance, while earthworms can negatively change forest ecosystems, they also often augment organic agriculture, significantly increasing agricultural productivity and decreasing food costs. Another example of a non-native species with major benefits is the brown trout. After reaching New Zealand, the brown trout became valued for its nutritional benefits, leading authorities to establish new environmental regulations to protect it.&nbsp;



The researchers advocate to apply the same framework used to discuss the benefits of nature and biodiversity to non-native species too. “How people relate to nature, to the intrinsic value of nature, to the ecosystem services, to the provisioning of resources - these are all things that we value in native species, and there are also ways to see that non-native species are contributing to these benefits, too,” Sax explained. “It’s not like there’s some inherent trade-off: Non-natives aren’t the boogie man.”&nbsp;



For instance, while non-native species can be a major cause of species extinctions, they can also contribute through their migration to regional biodiversity. Similarly, they can reduce some ecosystem functions, such as water clarity, while increasing others, like erosion control, and they can provide new valuable resources, such as fishing or hunting opportunities.



“We argue that long-standing biases against non-native species within the literature have clouded the scientific process and hampered policy advances and sound public understanding. Future research should consider both costs and benefits of non-native species,” the authors concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.08.005">Trends in Ecology &amp; Evolution</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Non-native species can have unexpected benefits

Over the past half a century, scientific awareness of non-native...

In a new opinion piece published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2210525119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>, a team of international scientists has urgently called for more research about the specific pathways by which human civilization could potentially collapse due to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humanity-should-brace-for-catastrophic-climate-change/">climate change</a>.&nbsp;



“Scientists have warned that climate change threatens the habitability of large regions of the Earth and even civilization itself, but surprisingly little research exists about how collapse could happen and what can be done to prevent it,” explained lead author Daniel Steel, an expert in Population and Public Health at the <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a>. “A better understanding of the risks of collapse is essential for climate ethics and policy.”



In their article, Dr. Steel and his colleagues define civilization collapse as the loss of societal capacity to maintain essential governance functions, such as maintaining security, implementing equitable forms of law, and providing basic necessities like food or water. The scientists identified three possible civilization collapse scenarios:



<ol><li>The localized collapse of specific, vulnerable locations;</li><li>The collapse of several urban and national regions, with the remaining ones experiencing negative climate-related impacts such as food and water scarcity;</li><li>Global collapse in which cities around the world are abandoned, nations vanish, and world population falls rapidly.</li></ol>



According to the researchers, it is not only the direct effects of climate change – such as heatwaves, droughts, or floods – which could lead to civilization collapse, but also less-studied mechanisms. For instance, climate change may have indirect effects on trade and international cooperation, which might lead to political conflict and war. Such impacts could lower civilizations’ adaptive capacities, leaving them more vulnerable to other major hazards, like pandemics.



“The danger climate change poses to civilization shouldn’t just be left for journalists, philosophers, and filmmakers to ponder. Scientists have a responsibility to investigate this, too,” Dr. Steel concluded.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Climate change could lead to civilization collapse

In a new opinion piece published in the journal Proceedings...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" 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 Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River.



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



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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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



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

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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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

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[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

[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



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...