Amber, the fossilized "blood" of ancient coniferous trees, holds the key to an extraordinary chapter of Earth's history.



Imagine stepping into a time machine capable of transporting you back to the era of the dinosaurs. 



Suddenly, you're immersed in a dense, swampy forest, surrounded by buzzing insects, blooming flowers, ferns, and conifers. Strikingly, this lush habitat is where snowy West Antarctica currently stands.



Recently, scientists from top universities in Germany and the UK have unearthed amber in this desolate landscape for the first time. 



These discoveries reveal that between 83 and 92 million years ago, coniferous trees once thrived on what is now the planet's southernmost continent.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-amber-discovery-in-antarctica">Amber discovery in Antarctica </h2>



Coupled with the discovery of roots, pollen, and spore fossils, the unearthed amber supports the evidence indicating the existence of a swampy rainforest in the region of the South Pole during the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dinosaur-discovery-reveals-ancient-alaska-warm-lush-landscape/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mid-Cretaceous</a> period.



This prehistoric environment was "dominated by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/conifer-communication-is-altered-by-air-pollution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">conifers</a>," not unlike the present-day forests in New Zealand and Patagonia.



This Antarctic amber discovery peels back the icy layer shrouding the continent's history, and reveals an ancient habitat that was warm and moist enough to host coniferous trees capable of producing resin.



During the mid-Cretaceous, these resilient trees were able to endure total darkness during the long winter months.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-resin-producing-trees-on-all-continents">Resin-producing trees on all continents</h2>



Previously, Cretaceous amber deposits had only been found as far south as Australia's Otway Basin and New Zealand's Tupuangi Formation. 



"It was very exciting to realize that, at some point in their history, all seven continents had climatic conditions allowing resin-producing trees to survive," said marine geologist Johann Klages from the <a href="https://www.awi.de/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alfred Wegener Institute</a> in Germany.



The goal now is to explore deeper into the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/large-herbivore-extinctions-drastically-affect-forest-ecosystems/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">forest's ecosystem</a> - to uncover whether the forest experienced extensive fires and if traces of life can be found encapsulated within the amber.



Renowned scientists have been unearthing fossilized wood and leaves in Antarctica since the early 19th century. However, most of these discoveries date back hundreds of millions of years. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-evidence-of-antarctica-s-past">Evidence of Antarctica's past</h2>



The fate of Antarctica's lush forests, as the land mass separated from Australia and South America and spiraled towards the South Pole, is currently unknown. 



In 2017, researchers unearthed well-preserved evidence of these once-thriving habitats by drilling into the seafloor near West Antarctica. 



After years of analysis, Klages and his team of researchers published a 2020 research paper documenting a 3-meter-long network of fossilized roots that dates back to the mid-Cretaceous.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-amber-revelation-in-antarctica">The amber revelation in Antarctica </h2>



Drill expeditions have provided compelling evidence that ancient forests once thrived in Antarctica.



Present in the layer of mudstone where the fossilized roots were found were also tiny slices of translucent amber, each a different hue of yellow to orange.



This amber serves as evidence of resin flow, a natural process where sap leaks out of a tree to seal its bark against potential harm from fires or insect pests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-was-the-amber-preserved">How was the amber preserved?</h2>



The Cretaceous, one of the warmest periods in Earth's history, was prone to frequent <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wildfires-were-common-in-ancient-antarctica/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">forest fires</a>, evident from the volcanic deposits found on Antarctica and adjacent islands.



The preservation and fossilization of the amber can be attributed to high water levels promptly enveloping the tree resin. This quick coverage shielded the resin from harmful ultraviolet radiation and oxidation. 



Excitingly, it appears that the amber encompasses tiny bits of tree bark, though further analysis is required for confirmation.



Slowly but surely, researchers are piecing together details of what Antarctica's prehistoric forests once looked like and how they functioned 90 million years ago.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-significance-of-amber-in-paleoclimate-studies">Significance of amber in paleoclimate studies</h2>



Amber&nbsp;is&nbsp;much&nbsp;more&nbsp;than&nbsp;the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/team-finds-mangrove-forest-that-was-lost-for-22-million-years/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fossilized</a> remnant&nbsp;of ancient trees.&nbsp;It&nbsp;is&nbsp;a&nbsp;kind of&nbsp;time capsule that&nbsp;informs&nbsp;us about&nbsp;conditions on the Earth&nbsp;millions of years ago&nbsp;and allows further insight into its climate.&nbsp;



This discovery of amber&nbsp;in&nbsp;Antarctica is&nbsp;very&nbsp;significant&nbsp;as&nbsp;it indicates that the region once&nbsp;must&nbsp;have had&nbsp;a warm and humid climate&nbsp;suitable&nbsp;for&nbsp;dense&nbsp;forests of trees that could produce&nbsp;resin.



This&nbsp;discovery&nbsp;has&nbsp;sparked a challenge to&nbsp;current perceptions of Antarctica's past and contributed&nbsp;to the growing body of evidence for a once green, thriving landscape on the continent. Information&nbsp;on&nbsp;the amber's chemical composition and inclusions will give scientists clues about what life&nbsp;must&nbsp;have been like in that&nbsp;ancient environment:&nbsp;its temperatures, humidity levels,&nbsp;diversity of flora and fauna,&nbsp;and&nbsp;indeed&nbsp;everything&nbsp;thriving&nbsp;at&nbsp;the&nbsp;time.



Such analysis&nbsp;can&nbsp;be&nbsp;pieced together&nbsp;to&nbsp;form&nbsp;a more complete picture of global climate patterns during the mid-Cretaceous period - the warmest&nbsp;era&nbsp;in Earth's&nbsp;existence.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/first-discovery-of-antarctic-amber/700244C13B3972F0048EAC029E34263E" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Antarctic Research</a>.



Image Credit: Alfred-Wegener-Institut / V. Schumacher



-----



Like what you read? <a href="https://www.earth.com/subscribe/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Subscribe to our newsletter</a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.&nbsp;



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



-----

90-million-year-old amber reveals Antarctica's secret past

Amber, the fossilized "blood" of ancient coniferous trees, holds the key to an extraordinary chapter of Earth's history. Imagine stepping into a time machine capable of transporting you back to the era of the dinosaurs. Suddenly, you're immersed in a dense, swampy forest, surrounded by buzzing insects, blooming flowers, ferns, and conifers. Strikingly, this lush habitat is where snowy West Antarctica currently stands. Recently, scientists from top universities in Germany and the UK have unearthed amber in this desolate landscape for the first time. These discoveries reveal...

Deep valleys buried under the seafloor of the North Sea provide an invaluable record of how the ancient <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/can-we-prevent-a-catastrophic-meltdown-of-the-worlds-largest-ice-sheet/">ice sheets</a> which used to cover Europe and the United Kingdom expelled water to stop themselves from collapsing. According to a new study published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bor.12594">Quaternary Science Reviews</a>, these valleys took just hundreds of years to form as they transported massive amounts of meltwater away from under the ice and out into the sea. These findings regarding when and how the vast ice sheets melted 20,000 years ago have important implications for how glaciers may respond to climate warming today.



Tunnel valleys are enormous channels – often up to 150 kilometers long, six kilometers wide, and 500 meters deep – which drain water from beneath melting ice sheets. There are thousands of such tunnels buried beneath the seafloor of the North Sea that record the melting of ice sheets which used to cover the UK and Western Europe over the past two million years.



“This is an exciting discovery,” said study lead author James Kirkham, a doctoral student in Polar Research at the <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/">British Antarctic Survey</a> (BAS). “We know that these spectacular valleys are carved out during the death throes of ice sheets. By using a combination of state-of-the-art subsurface imaging techniques and a computer model, we have learnt that tunnel valleys can be eroded rapidly beneath ice sheets experiencing extreme warmth.”



By analyzing “jaw-droppingly detailed” seismic images providing a 3D scan of the Earth’s buried layers, and performing a series of computer modelling experiments to simulate valley development, the scientists tested how quickly the tunnels formed as the last ice sheet that covered the UK melted away at the end of the last ice age, approximately 20,000 years ago. The findings suggest that this process is rather quick by geological timescales, with the melting ice forming gigantic tunnel valleys within just a few hundreds of years, and expelling water which would otherwise accelerate ice loss rates.



According to the scientists, the surprisingly fast rate at which these tunnels form means that we should start considering their effects in models of how today’s ice sheets will evolve in the coming decades and centuries. While there are no modern analogues for this rapid process, these ancient valleys record a mechanism for how ice sheets respond to extreme warming which is missing from present-day ice sheet models.



“The pace at which these giant channels can form means that they are an important, yet currently ignored, mechanism that may potentially help to stabilize ice sheets in a warming world. As climate change continues to drive the retreat of the modern-day Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets at ever increasing rates, our results call for renewed investigation of how tunnel valleys may help to stabilize contemporary ice losses, and therefore sea level rise, if they switch on beneath the Earth’s ice sheets in the future,” Kirkham concluded.



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.



---



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

Valleys in the North Sea hold a record of melting ice sheets

Deep valleys buried under the seafloor of the North Sea...

Firefighters have to work shifts in order to ensure there is always a team on duty that can respond to a call-out. But shift work comes with its down side. It has been linked to a number of negative outcomes in terms of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ozone-pollution-threatens-the-health-of-plants-and-pollinators/">health</a>, such as higher rates of diabetes, cancer, heart attacks and other cardiometabolic diseases. Firefighters have to expose themselves to these risks as part of their job, along with the dangers of tackling raging fires and rescuing people from the flames. And yet very little research has been done to identify ways in which these risks can be mitigated.



A new study, carried out by scientists from the Salk Institute and UC San Diego Health, has investigated whether time-restricted eating (TRE) could help firefighters to reduce the risks of developing some of these negative health conditions. The study was called the Healthy Heroes Study and involved a collaboration with the firefighters from the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. TRE is a lifestyle intervention that required firefighters to eat all their meals during a 10-hour window, but did not involve skipping any meals.&nbsp;



“Shift work is much more common than many people think, affecting workers in a range of different fields, as well as parents of newborn babies,” says co-corresponding author Satchidananda Panda, a professor at the Salk Institute and holder of the Rita and Richard Atkinson Chair. “Not only does shift work contribute to an increased burden of disease in our society, but it makes it hard for people with existing conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular disease to manage them.”



The main problem with shift work is that it disrupts the body’s natural circadian rhythm. Almost every cell in the body has a 24-hour biological clock that regulates behavior (e.g., when to be&nbsp;active and when to rest) and physiology (e.g., blood pressure, blood sugar, muscle function). Circadian rhythms coordinate with the environment&nbsp;in part by regular, timed cycles of light and dark, as well as through patterns of&nbsp;eating and fasting.&nbsp;Disruptions to these cycles can cause negative impacts to health.&nbsp;



“Within the confines of shift work, there are many lifestyle interventions that can potentially optimize the health of shift workers,” says co-corresponding author Pam Taub, a cardiologist and professor in the UC San Diego School of Medicine’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. “However, there are very few research studies on this population. Our study sheds light on one way that we can help this population.”



In previous research, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2022.08.018">Cell Metabolism</a>, Panda and Taub found that eating all meals within a 10-hour time period each day reduced body weight and improved blood pressure and cholesterol levels in people with metabolic syndrome. They wondered whether the same improvements in overall health would be found in a population of firefighters who work shifts as part of their job.&nbsp;



In the current study, 137 San Diego firefighters who work shifts took part, by installing and using the <a href="https://mycircadianclock.org/">myCircadianClock</a>&nbsp;app on their phones to track their eating patterns for three months. Half the group (70 firefighters) ate all their meals within a 10-hour time window, while the other half (67 that formed the control group) changed nothing about their eating schedules.&nbsp;



Both groups were encouraged to follow a Mediterranean diet that was rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats, and that is known to have health benefits. The study included both individuals who were healthy and those who were overweight or who had health conditions such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, and/or blood glucose. &nbsp;



“Most clinical trials exclude shift workers, but these are the individuals at the highest risk of disease. So, it was imperative for us to test our lifestyle intervention in shift workers with a continuum of disease risks,” says first author Emily Manoogian, a staff scientist in Panda’s lab at Salk. “Since shift workers are incredibly busy, using an app to track their habits, and being monitored at their stations instead of the clinic, when possible, enabled these individuals to participate more readily in the trial.” &nbsp;



The results of the study, also published in Cell Metabolism, showed that time-restricted eating within a 10-hour time window was feasible and had no adverse effects for the firefighters. They did not report any problems with their concentration or reaction times and, in general, experienced improvements in their quality of life.&nbsp;



Furthermore, firefighters in the TRE group showed a significant decrease (by 1.34 nanometers) in the average size of their VLDL (“bad”) cholesterol particles, which makes these particles less likely to block arteries. They also showed improvements in their mental health, and reduced their alcohol intake by roughly three drinks per week. Time-restricted eating also significantly improved blood sugar and blood pressure in firefighters who had elevated levels at the start of the study.&nbsp;



“Overall, firefighters are a pretty healthy group of people, but we found that for those who had underlying cardiometabolic risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and hyperglycemia, there was some benefit to TRE, especially in terms of improvement in glucose levels and blood pressure,” Taub says. “Even those who were healthy with no underlying cardiomeatabolic risk factors had improvements in quality of life and in VLDL, which is a form of bad cholesterol.”



“We’ve shown that time-restricted eating is a feasible way for shift workers, such as firefighters, to improve their cardiovascular health and wellbeing,” continues Taub, who is also co-corresponding author on the study. “These findings can likely be extended to a wider population, including health care workers like nurses and others who experience abnormal sleep-wake patterns.”



Nearly 30 percent of Americans are considered to be shift workers, being required to stay awake for at least two to three hours between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. for a minimum of 50 days a year. Such a lifestyle can play havoc with both sleeping and eating patterns, and lead to serious disruptions to the circadian rhythm that may have many negative health implications.&nbsp;



“Humans have been living with circadian rhythms for at least 200,000 years, and these rhythms clearly have a profound effect on us,” Panda says. “Shift workers, whether they are astronauts or custodians, are vital to our society. It’s time to think about how we might help them improve their health.”



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.



---



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

Dietary changes can improve the health of shift workers

Firefighters have to work shifts in order to ensure there...

Unrefined – or “crude” – oil has been spilled into the sea in massive amounts following ecological disasters such as the Exxon Valdez or the Sea Empress spills. Moreover, oil is also routinely released into the environment in moderate volumes due to extraction and transportation activities. According to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.ucc.ie/">University College Cork</a> (UCC) in Ireland, oil pollution poses a significant threat to many already endangered <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seabirds-are-damaging-their-health-by-eating-plastic/">seabird</a> populations.



The experts found that even tiny amounts of crude oil on the water surface – less than one percent of the thickness of a hair – could severely damage seabird feathers. After collecting feathers from the Manx shearwaters – a species considered to be at-risk from oil pollution – the scientists examined them to asses how quickly water would pass through after exposure to increasing concentrations of oil. Moreover, they also studied the feathers under high-powered microscopes to examine structural changes occurring after contamination.



The analyses revealed that even very thin oil sheens, between 0.1 and three micrometers in thickness, were enough to have a significant effect on feather structure and impacted waterproofing. Thus, seabirds exposed to oil are more likely to become waterlogged, cold, and less buoyant, as several other studies have already shown.



“Chronic small-scale oil pollution is commonly overlooked in the marine environment, though it has been shown to have serious implications for the fitness and survival of seabirds,” said study lead author Emma Murphy, a graduate student in Environmental Science at UCC. “This study examined one species, but the results can be extended to other species that rely on waterproofing to stay healthy when at sea for long periods.”



Murphy and her colleagues concluded that even when oil is released in moderate amounts from extraction and transport infrastructure, it can spread quite quickly across the surface of the sea, causing large marine areas to be coated by oil in concentration that are harmful for seabirds.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220488">Royal Society Open Science</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.



---



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

Even a tiny amount of oil can damage seabird feathers

Unrefined – or “crude” – oil has been spilled into...

Over 200 years ago, Ichthyosaurs were discovered by Mary Anning at Lyme Regis, England. Anning sold the first Ichthyosaur <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plesiosaur-fossils-found-in-a-100-million-year-old-river/">fossil</a> she found for enough money to support her family for six months and thus began her life as a celebrated commercial paleontologist.



Ichthyosaur means "fish lizard," reflecting the different features embodied by the animal, which seems to almost be a reptilian dolphin. Although all Ichthyosaurs share similar traits, there are differences as well. Some of Anning’s specimens have long, slender snouts, while others have short, stout ones.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



New research is shedding light on some of these old Ichthyosaur specimens. A study from the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a> shows that Ichthyosaurs may have had different diets.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Functional studies need excellent three-dimensional specimens, and the Lower Jurassic ichthyosaur fossils from Strawberry Bank in Ilminster are just that. Mary Anning’s fossils are amazing, but they are mostly squashed flat," said Matt Williams of Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution.



“Our idea was to CT scan the specimens,” said Dr. Ben Moon, of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences and a supervisor of the study. “The scans allow us to make a detailed, 3D model of the skull in the computer, and it can then be tested for the likely forces experienced during biting.”



“After we had the models, we could stress test them,” said supervisor Andre Rowe. “We tested and confirmed the hypothesis that the slender-snouted ichthyosaur had a quick but weak bite, and the broad-snouted ichthyosaur had a slow but powerful bite.”



“Confirming the supposition was important,” added Professor Michael Benton. “It’s important we apply rigorous scientific approaches such as these engineering analyses. The two species of ichthyosaur presumably chased fast-moving prey (the fast biter) and slower, tough-shelled prey (the slow, powerful biter).”



Professor Benton noted that modern marine predators comparable to Ichthyosaur (like orcas and sharks) eat whatever they can, so it’s interesting that these marine reptiles had specialized feeding habits. "The work can be extended to explore other marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs and crocodiles, so we get a detailed picture of these amazing and alien worlds of the Jurassic oceans.”



The study is published in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14697580">Journal of Anatomy</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.



---



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

Ichthyosaurs had specialized diets to peacefully coexist

Over 200 years ago, Ichthyosaurs were discovered by Mary Anning...

A,Powerful,Whirlpool,Is,Generated,At,The,Surface,Of,The

Subtropical gyres are massive rotating <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plastic-pollution-is-making-the-ocean-more-acidic/">ocean</a> currents which generate sustained circulations in the Earth’s subtropical regions to the north and south of the equator. These gyres are slow-moving whirlpools, circulating within large basins around the world, and gathering up nutrients, organisms, and sometimes even trash, as the currents rotate from coast to coast. At their surface, the gyres host healthy populations of phytoplankton – microorganisms that feed the rest of the ocean trophic chain, and are responsible for extracting a significant proportion of atmospheric carbon dioxide.



However, the currents themselves would not be able to maintain enough nutrients to sustain all the phytoplankton. Now, a team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> (MIT) has found that phytoplankton may receive deliveries of nutrients from outside the gyres through eddies – much smaller currents that swirl at the edges of gyres. These eddies pull nutrients in from equatorial regions and push them into the centers of gyres, where they are taken up by other currents and pumped to the surface to feed the phytoplankton.



According to the scientists, ocean eddies are a major source of nutrients in subtropical gyres. Their replenishing effect – called “nutrient relay” – helps maintain vast populations of phytoplankton, which play a fundamental role in carbon sequestration. While current climate models project a decline in the ocean’s ability to sequester carbon during the following decades, this “nutrient relay” could help sustain carbon storage in the subtropical oceans.



“There’s a lot of uncertainty about how the carbon cycle of the ocean will evolve as climate continues to change,” said study lead author Mukund Gupta, a postdoctoral fellow in Environmental Science and Engineering at the <a href="https://www.caltech.edu/">California Institute of Technology</a> (Caltech), who led the study as a graduate student at MIT. “As our paper shows, getting the carbon distribution right is not straightforward, and depends on understanding the role of eddies and other fine-scale motions in the ocean.”



Although scientists have previously thought that nutrient replenishment occurs largely through the recycling of “marine snow” – dead phytoplankton that sinks through the ocean’s layers and is subsequently pumped back to the surface to feed living phytoplankton – these findings paint a more complex picture of how nutrient travels through subtropical gyres.



“The vertical process that recycles nutrients from marine snow is only half the story. The other half is the replenishing effect of these eddies. As subtropical gyres contribute a significant part of the world’s oceans, we think this nutrient relay is of global importance,” Dr. Gupta concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206504119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</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.



---



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

Small eddies play a big role in nutrient cycling

Subtropical gyres are massive rotating ocean currents which generate sustained...

It seems that the Langeberg Mountains of the Western Cape, South Africa, have been keeping a stunning secret for some time now. Brian du Preez, a botanist at the University of Cape Town (UCT), has uncovered that secret.



In collaboration with Professor Peter Goldblatt of the <a href="http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/">Missouri Botanical Garden</a>, Du Preez recently described a new species of iris named Cherry Satin flower (Geissorhiza seracina). The flower is named for its deep cherry-pink petals.&nbsp;



Du Preez was hiking with his mentor, Professor Peter Linder, in December of 2021 when he spotted a peculiar flower.



"I took photos, but did not collect a specimen. It was only when I got back home and sent the photos to Dr John Manning, an expert on the Iris family, that we realized it is likely a new species," said Du Preez. Dr. Manning works at the Compton Herbarium at the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).



After consulting with Professor Goldblatt, the pair determined that the flower may be a new species. Du Preez hiked back up the mountain to collect a specimen as well as bulbs for ex situ conservation. He described the rarity of such a find, noting that a discovery like this hasn't been made in 10 years.&nbsp;



With the addition of Geissorhiza seracina, there are 106 South African species described within the genus, and 24 of these species have been described since 1985. Although the Geissorhiza genus is well known, new species are being discovered in the more remote regions of the Greater Cape Floristic Region.



"New Iridaceae species are rarely found, and I mostly find new legume species. It is not often that a new species turns out to be so beautiful," said Du Preez.



The Cherry Satin flower is described in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2022.09.014">South African Journal of Botany</a>.



Image Credit: Brian du Preez



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.



---



By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New iris species discovered in South Africa

It seems that the Langeberg Mountains of the Western Cape,...

According the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html">Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, </a>obesity rates have skyrocketed in the United States in recent years and this is becoming a growing health problem. More than 40 percent of the U.S. population is considered obese, and nearly 75 percent is overweight. Individuals who are obese or overweight have an increased risk of developing many different diseases, including heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and even infectious diseases such as Covid-19.&nbsp;



Apart from controlling diet and calorie intake, exercise is recognized as a means of assisting people to lose weight or to maintain a healthy body weight. During <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/exercise-over-social-media-less-stress-more-life-satisfaction/">exercise</a>, the body’s metabolic rate increases, which means that more calories are used up each day. However, the exact cellular mechanisms and biochemical pathways that underlie enhanced weight loss due to exercising have been difficult to identify because so many cells and tissues are involved.&nbsp;



In a new study by researchers from <a href="https://www.mit.edu/">MIT</a> and Harvard Medical School, mice have been used to test the effects of exercising, and being on a high-fat diet, on the cells, genes and cellular pathways in the body. In this way the researchers hoped to identify genes that are switched on or off in various types of cells as a result of exposure to exercise or to a high-fat diet.



“It is extremely important to understand the molecular mechanisms that are drivers of the beneficial effects of exercise and the detrimental effects of a high-fat diet, so that we can understand how we can intervene, and develop drugs that mimic the impact of exercise across multiple tissues,” says Manolis Kellis, a professor of computer science in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and a member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.



In previous research, his lab&nbsp;<a href="https://link.mediaoutreach.meltwater.com/ls/click?upn=kLuqYYBQiqEU1tC0k1-2Bxu01QDVU-2Bz37CVhW-2F2Vj6SIR8-2B8zmbPaxe8fplT1koCrOeTunqWsajmQ22iwEwm9JhZ0N-2FW9oGh4S5y11ZPiwnvzku25VeLTduYfERJkxty5JPTGZ_Qy1iPRsLFDhReOCf25oEjZpFIY3YbCdSIBAXYjyOHpPMa3Mx75kc6g4xgnGcK2tWUe28sl63q6QHc3t5xNwcqWTNniItCp0S1JtQ4mohIzNnvuFRlvYl8HyRdvB60Aasu3459JqPU63wXg6TJ1rqMY2wtMoF2SbA49VQIICvbV07AA7T0oGSjBYHB3nlevr7-2FYO8xPdJqCAI7e713dqwg2MJLLLQSooZYX99rn1iu9WwyLNMVZwEIBXEkdOugA-2BS6bjKsEKYCsacWNSgSf-2FqjNOv-2B2LxuyG18nmD1h7mA9svm80p4RUMcBB04LHuU5jC66UgvSEnRPxuMZwWD45fVOxgjryW6alB5TLPBqqYwrimsblIwGjcWlzalTAj2UO4">conducted a study</a>&nbsp;on the FTO gene region, which has been strongly linked to obesity risk. In that 2015 study, the research team found that genes in this region control a pathway that determines whether immature fat cells - called progenitor adipocytes - mature into fat-burning cells or fat-storing cells.



That finding, which demonstrated a clear genetic component to obesity, motivated Kellis to begin looking at how exercise might act on progenitor adipocytes at the cellular level.&nbsp;Kellis and his colleagues decided to perform single-cell RNA sequencing on cells of three types of tissue - skeletal muscle, visceral white adipose tissue (found packed around internal organs, where it stores fat), and subcutaneous white adipose tissue (which is found under the skin and primarily metabolizes fat).&nbsp;By doing this, they aimed to identify which genes are activated or suppressed as a result of exercise.&nbsp;



The researchers conducted these studies in four groups of experimental mice. Two groups were fed a normal diet, and the other two a high-fat diet. After three weeks on their respective diets, one group from each dietary regime was given access to a treadmill for exercise while the other was kept confined. After a further three weeks, the researchers used single-cell RNA sequencing to catalogue the genetic responses to these different dietary and exercise regimens in 53 types of cells found in the three mouse tissues – skeletal muscle and two types of fatty tissue.&nbsp;



“One of the general points that we found in our study, which is overwhelmingly clear, is how high-fat diets push all of these cells and systems in one way, and exercise seems to be pushing them nearly all in the opposite way,” Kellis says. “It says that exercise can really have a major effect throughout the body.”



The researchers found that in all three tissue types, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) appeared to control many of the diet and exercise-induced effects that they observed. MSCs are stem cells that can differentiate into other cell types, including fat cells. In adipose tissue, the researchers found that a high-fat diet modulated the MSCs’ capacity to differentiate into fat-storing cells, while exercise reversed this effect.



The experimental results, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2022.09.004">Cell Metabolism</a>, show that, in addition to promoting fat storage, a high-fat diet also stimulates MSCs to secrete factors that remodel the extracellular matrix (ECM) – a network of proteins and other molecules that surround and support cells and tissues in the body. This ECM remodeling helps provide structure for the enlarged fat-storing cells and also creates a more inflammatory environment.



“As the adipocytes become overloaded with lipids, there’s an extreme amount of stress, and that causes low-grade inflammation, which is systemic and preserved for a long time,” Kellis says. “That is one of the factors that is contributing to many of the adverse effects of obesity.”



The researchers also found that high-fat diets and exercise had opposing effects on cellular pathways that control circadian rhythms – our innate 24-hour cycles that govern patterns of sleep, body temperature, blood pressure, hormone release, and digestion.&nbsp;The study revealed that exercise boosts the expression of genes that regulate these rhythms, while a high-fat diet suppresses those genes.&nbsp;



“There have been a lot of studies showing that when you eat during the day is extremely important in how you absorb the calories,” Kellis says. “The circadian rhythm connection is a very important one, and shows how obesity and exercise are in fact directly impacting that circadian rhythm in peripheral organs, which could act systemically on distal clocks and regulate stem cell functions and immunity.”



When the researchers compared their findings to a database of human genes that have been linked with metabolic traits, they found that two of the circadian rhythm genes they had identified in this study, known as DBP and CDKN1A, have genetic variants associated with a higher risk of obesity in humans.



“These results help us see the translational values of these targets, and how we could potentially target specific biological processes in specific cell types,” says Jiekun Yang, a research scientist in MIT CSAIL.



The researchers are now analyzing cells from other mouse tissues, including the small intestine, liver, and brain, to explore the effects of exercise and high-fat diets on the genes in those cells. They are also conducting work with human volunteers to sample blood and biopsies, and study similarities and differences between human and mouse physiology. They hope that their findings will help guide drug developers in designing drugs that might mimic some of the beneficial effects of exercise.&nbsp;



“The message for everyone should be, eat a healthy diet and exercise if possible,” Kellis says. “For those for whom this is not possible, due to low access to healthy foods, or due to disabilities or other factors that prevent exercise, or simply lack of time to have a healthy diet or a healthy lifestyle, what this study says is that we now have a better handle on the pathways, the specific genes, and the specific molecular and cellular processes that we should be manipulating therapeutically.”



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.



---



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

Exercise and obesity have opposing effects on the body

According the&nbsp;Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, obesity rates have...

The massive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/largest-asteroid-to-strike-earth-was-up-to-15-miles-long/">asteroid</a> that struck our planet 66 million years ago wiped out nearly all the dinosaurs, together with three-quarters of the Earth’s animal and plant species. According to a new computer modelling study led by the <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> (U-M), this collision also triggered a monstrous tsunami with mile-high waves that scoured the ocean floor thousands of miles from the impact site on the Yucatan Peninsula, located in today’s Mexico.&nbsp;



“This tsunami was strong enough to disturb and erode sediments in ocean basins halfway around the globe, leaving either a gap in the sedimentary records or a jumble of older sediments,” said lead author Molly Range, who conducted the modelling during her Master’s degree in Paleoceanography at U-M.



The scientists calculated that the initial energy of the tsunami was 30,000 times larger than the energy of the Indian Ocean earthquake tsunami from 2004 – one of the largest tsunamis in recent history that killed over 230,000 people. The simulations of the ancient tsunami caused by the asteroid impact showed that it radiated mainly to the east and northeast into the North Atlantic Ocean, and to the southwest through the Central American Seaway - which used to separate North and South America - into the South Pacific Ocean. In those areas, underwater current speeds most likely exceeded 0.4 miles per second, a velocity strong enough to erode fine-grained seafloor sediments. By contrast, the North Pacific, South Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, as well as the region that is now the Mediterranean appeared to remain largely shielded from the strongest effects of the tsunami.



According to the simulation, one hour after the impact, the tsunami had spread outside the Gulf of Mexico into the North Atlantic, four hours after the impact, the waves have passed through the Central American Seaway into the Pacific, and 24 hours after the impact, they have already crossed most of the Pacific from the east and Atlantic from the west, and entered the Indian Ocean from both sides.



Further research is needed to estimate the extend of coastal flooding caused by this unprecedented tsunami. “Depending on the geometries of the coast and the advancing waves, most coastal regions would be inundated and eroded to some extent. Any historically documented tsunamis pale in comparison with such global impact,” the authors concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021AV000627">AGU Advances</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.



---



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

Dinosaur-killing asteroid scoured the world’s oceans

The massive asteroid that struck our planet 66 million years...

A team of researchers from <a href="https://oregonstate.edu/">Oregon State University</a> (OSU) has developed a new satellite tag called RDW which allows scientists to better track <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/great-whales-will-drift-southward-due-to-climate-change/">whales</a>’ behavior, including previously unobserved feeding events during dives. This tag is a major advancement in researchers’ ability to observe important whale behavior events and habitats, and better understand whales’ responses to human activities, such as ship traffic or military sonar.



As shipping traffic increases, whales are more at risk of being struck by large vessels. According to the experts, the 30 meters of the water column (the vertical expanse of water which stretches from the water’s surface to the ocean floor) is considered a “danger zone” for whales swimming through shipping lanes.



“One of the benefits of these new tags is that they give us information about how much time whales are spending within the danger zone throughout their migration,” said study lead author Daniel Palacios, an associate professor of Whale Habitats at OSU. “With that information, we can identify areas of higher risk and make more informed decisions to help protect them from the threat of ship strikes.”



Moreover, the ability to monitor dive behavior and identify changes could also have important applications for assessing how whales respond to sources of loud sound, such as sonar used by the United States Navy. In addition, the new satellite tag could help shed more light on marine mammal physiology, behavior, ecology, and conservation.



“Studying anything, whether it is a plant, animal or even something like our solar system, relies on our ability to observe it,” said study co-author Ladd Irvine, an expert in the ecology of large whales at OSU.



“Whales spend the vast majority of their lives underwater, where we can’t see them. They can move more than 100 kilometers in a day, so typical methods of observation aren’t reliable for keeping track of where they are going or what they are doing. Tags allow us to ride along with the whales as they go about their lives, similar to a fitness tracker or smartphone app.”



This new system allows scientists to monitor the feeding behavior of whales over much longer periods than was previously possible. “Before the advent of tagging, we could only get glimpses into the lives of the whales when they surfaced or by following individuals for a few hours at a time. It was like trying to watch a theater production in the dark, where someone would flip the lights on for a few seconds every now and then. By tracking whales across weeks, months, and even over a year of their lives, we are now able to put together a more complete picture of the lives of whales,” Irvine concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40317-022-00297-9">Animal Biotelemetry</a>.&nbsp;



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.



---



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

Satellite tag allows long-term tracking of whale behavior

A team of researchers from Oregon State University (OSU) has...

Scientists have long known that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/having-a-sense-of-purpose-improves-memory/">memory</a> is highly malleable, resembling less a video recording and more a constructive and reconstructive activity, constantly changing the content and emotional coloring of past experience. This nature of memory is both a blessing and curse: while it can trick us into remembering false details, it can also help us mold and update certain memories to make them less potent, especially if they are traumatic or scary.



Now, in two recent articles, a research team led by <a href="https://www.bu.edu/">Boston University</a> (BU) has investigated whether it is possible to use the malleable nature of our memories to our advantage, as a way of curing mental health disorders such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).



“Our million-dollar idea is, what if a solution for some of these mental disorders already exists in the brain? And what if memory is one way of getting there?” said senior author of both studies Steve Ramirez, an assistant professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at BU.



In order to answer these questions, Professor Ramirez and his team first mapped the key molecular and genetic differences between positive and negative memories in a study published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-03906-8">Nature Communications Biology</a>. Their analysis revealed that emotional memories – located mainly in the brain’s hippocampus – are physically distinct from other types of brain cells and, most importantly, distinct from each other. “That’s pretty wild, because it suggests that these positive and negative memories have their own separate real estate in the brain,” Professor Ramirez explained.



The scientists found that positive and negative memories are stored in different regions of the hippocampus, they communicate to other cells using different types of pathways, and the molecular machinery in both types of cells appears to be distinct. “So, there’s [potentially] a molecular basis for differentiating between positive and negative memories in the brain,” Ramirez said. “We now have a bunch of markers that we know differentiate positive from negative in the hippocampus.”&nbsp;



After identifying the differences between positive and negative memories, the scientists used mice to investigate whether they can artificially rewrite negative memories. First, they exposed the rodents to an either good or unpleasant experience, and identified the brain circuits were each type of memory formed. Once they can “see” the location of the memory in the brain, the researchers can use laser lights to artificially activate those memory cells, and ultimately rewrite negative memories.



The scientists had the mice recall a negative experience, and, during the recall, they artificially reactivated a group of positive memory cells. This competing positive memory updated the negative one, reducing the fear response both at the time and long after the memory was activated. While activating a positive memory was the most powerful way of updating a negative one, activating neutral memories, or even activating the whole hippocampus, also seemed to be effective strategies of updating negative memories.



Although artificially activating memories is not possible to do in humans due to ethical and health reasons, these findings could still translate to clinical settings. According to the scientists, it could be possible to override the impacts of a negative memory by having a person recall the bad memory, and correctly timing a vivid recall of a positive one in a therapeutic setting.



“We know that memories are malleable,” said Stephanie Grella, the lead author of the second study, published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32246-8">Nature Communications</a>. “​​One of the things that we found in this paper was that the timing of the stimulation was really critical,” she concluded.&nbsp;



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.



---



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

Rewriting negative memories by activating positive ones

Scientists have long known that memory is highly malleable, resembling...

The Moon is thought to have formed about 4.5 billion years ago, following a collision between the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/largest-asteroid-to-strike-earth-was-up-to-15-miles-long/">Earth</a> and a Mars-sized astronomical object called Theia. Most previous theories argued that the Moon was created by gradual accumulation of debris from this impact. However, these views have been challenged by measurements of lunar rocks showing their composition is similar to the Earth’s mantle, while the impact would have produced debris coming mostly from Theia.&nbsp;



Now, by using state-of-the-art computer simulations, a team of experts led by <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk/homepage/">Durham University</a> has provided a different explanation for the Moon’s origin, with a giant impact immediately placing a Moon-like body in the orbit of the Earth (“the immediate-satellite scenario”).



The researchers simulated hundreds of different possible impacts, varying the angle and speed of the collision, as well as the masses and speeds of the two colliding bodies, in their attempt to clarify the origins of the present-day Earth-Moon system. The analyses revealed that lower-resolution simulations can miss out on significant aspects of large-scale collisions, and only high-resolution simulations were able to produce the Moon-like satellite, showing that its outer layers were richer in material originating from our planet than previously thought.



If most of the Moon formed immediately after the impact, less of it became molten during formation than previous theories arguing that the Moon grew within a debris disk around the Earth postulated. Depending upon how the subsequent stratification formed, these theories should predict different internal structures of the Moon.



“This formation route could help explain the similarity in isotopic composition between the lunar rocks returned by the Apollo astronauts and Earth’s mantle. There may also be observable consequences for the thickness of the lunar crust, which would allow us to pin down further the type of collision that took place,” said study co-author Vincent Eke, an expert in Computational Cosmology at Durham.



In addition, the scientists found that even when a satellite such as the Moon passes so close to the Earth that it might be expected to be torn apart by the “tidal forces” of our planet’s gravity, the satellite can in fact not only survive, but also be pushed into a wider orbit, and become safe from further destruction.



“This opens up a whole new range of possible starting places for the Moon’s evolution,” said study lead author Jacob Keggereis, a postdoctoral fellow in Computational Cosmology at Durham. “We went into this project not knowing exactly what the outcomes of these very high-resolution simulations would be. So, on top of the big eye-opener that standard resolutions can give you wrong answers, it was extra exciting that the new results could include a tantalizingly Moon-like satellite in orbit."



The immediate-satellite hypothesis opens up a new understanding of the initial lunar orbit, and the predicted composition and internal structure of the Moon. Upcoming lunar missions could test such hypotheses and reveal more clues about what type of giant impact has led to the formation of the Moon.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2022/pdf/1724.pdf">Astrophysical Journal 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.



---



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

Giant impact may have instantly formed the Moon

The Moon is thought to have formed about 4.5 billion...

According to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.anu.edu.au/">Australian National University</a> (ANU), Pacific island nations underwent severe depopulation from introduction of diseases as a consequence of contact with European vessels. These declines caused by the introduction of new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/project-aims-to-limit-pathogen-spread-from-pet-amphibians/">pathogens</a> in immunologically-naïve populations are much higher than previously thought.



The scientists used aerial laser scanning data to map residences on the main island of Tonga, together with archaeological data, to estimate how population fluctuated due to the contact with Europeans during the 19th century. The analysis revealed that, while prior to the arrival of the Europeans, there were between 100,000 and 120,000 inhabitants in the Tongan archipelago, the introduction of new pathogens led to a massive population decline of between 70 and 86 percent.&nbsp;



According to the researchers, the islands of Polynesia are often seen as “natural laboratories” in which population size and growth are fundamental components of models that examine the development of Oceanic societies. As in many parts of the world – such as the Americas - the population of Pacific Islands suffered severe declines after contact when Europeans introduced new pathogens.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This improved understanding of the past has allowed us to show a significant population decline from 50,000-60,000 to 10,000 during a 50-year period on the main island of Tongatapu in the Kingdom of Tonga,” said study lead author Phillip Parton, a doctoral student in Archaeology and Natural History at ANU.



“Because this number is so much larger than anything anyone had previously considered, I used shipping and missionary data to check my estimates and found they were plausible. Obviously, this shows a big reassessment of the impact of globalization in the 19th century. As in many parts of the world, the population of Pacific islands suffered severe declines after contact when Europeans introduced new pathogens,” he concluded.



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103610">Journal of Archaeological Science</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.



---



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

Europeans carried deadly pathogens to the Pacific islands

According to a new study led by the Australian National...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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

[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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

[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="iuA5mpp3jv-1641775-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="qjvhBOBnY8-2426650-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="0dEcERCq61-2283382-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="3UUsNkFOuS-2487333-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



---



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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"]</div>



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)



---



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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



---



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...