We might like to think of ourselves as autonomous entities but, in reality, we're more like walking ecosystems, teeming with bacteria, viruses, and other microbes. It turns out that differences in these microbes might be as crucial to evolution and natural variation as genetic mutations are.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-understanding-biological-variation">Understanding biological variation</h2>



This novel perspective was discussed in a recent publication by Seth Bordenstein, director of Penn State’s One Health Microbiome Center, who is a professor of biology and entomology and holds the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Endowed Chair in Microbiome Sciences.



Bordenstein, along with 21 colleagues from around the globe, collectively known as the Holobiont Biology Network, propose that understanding the relationships between microbes and their hosts will lead to a more profound understanding of biological variation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-microbes-in-the-process-of-evolution">Microbes in the process of evolution</h2>



We've all heard the term evolution before, but what does it really mean? 



"The longstanding definition of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microbes-laid-the-foundation-for-early-life-on-earth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evolution</a> is the process by which living things change over time due to gradual mutations and adaptations to their environments," explains Bordenstein.



These adaptations are commonly driven by natural selection, a process that involves advantageous traits being passed on down the lineage. 



However, when we incorporate the microbiome, the collection of all microbes in and on a host organism, the process of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/discovery-evolution-not-random-gene-families-pangenome-influence-called-revolutionary/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evolution</a> becomes a whole lot more interesting and complex.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-paradigm-holobiont-biology">New paradigm: Holobiont biology</h2>



Traditionally, we've kept the visible and invisible forms of life separate in the way we consider and study them. Many scientists still think of microbes in terms of background noise or minor contaminants.



But it turns out that this approach may have been selling the microbes short.



"Microbes are the base of the biosphere," says Bordenstein. "Every host organism lives in contact and association with microbes, and those microbes can cause variation in traits."



This realization has given birth to a new concept - holobiont biology; a multidisciplinary and holistic understanding of how life's forms and functions depend upon relationships between microorganisms and their hosts.



Holobiont biology considers organisms and the microbes with which they are inseparably linked as a whole, rather than as separate entities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-harnessing-the-power-of-the-microbiome">Harnessing the power of the microbiome </h2>



The field of biology traditionally categorizes living things into taxa. But holobiont biology poses a challenging and exciting opportunity to rethink this framework.



"We’re making the case that organisms are not autonomous. They exist, by definition, always in association and in contact with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microbes-found-alive-inside-a-rock-after-2-billion-years-beneath-earth-surface/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">microbes</a>," explains Bordenstein.



This novel way of thinking could open doors to harness the power of the microbiome to improve health, resilience in environmental sustainability, and advancements in agriculture. 



Think of it: what if we could use microbes to combat chronic diseases like cancer or make agriculture more resistant to climate change?



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revisiting-microbes-and-evolution">Revisiting microbes and evolution</h2>



Darwin's famous treatise, Origin of Species, is a cornerstone of modern biology. However, it was written with species of animals and plants in mind and did not consider the multitude of invisible microbes that are part of every individual macro-organism.



Now that we know so much more about the fundamental role of microbes in the biosphere, we can add a new layer to our understanding of evolution.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-genetic-diversity-and-evolution">Genetic diversity and evolution</h2>



In the 1920s to 1940s, biology witnessed a revolution known as the Modern Synthesis, where Mendel's genetic laws were merged with Darwin's theory of evolution. This created a comprehensive explanation for how new variations of form and function develop over time.



We may well currently be at the cusp of another revolution, a post-Modern Synthesis. As Bordenstein points out, we're now factoring in the role of microbes in our understanding of genetics and evolution.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-shifting-paradigms-in-life-sciences">Shifting paradigms in life sciences</h2>



How do we incorporate this new understanding of the importance of microbes in the biology and evolution of all organisms? The Holobiont Biology Network authors state that this needs to start with redefining and re-teaching biology.



"We’re thinking of animals and plants as a consortium of host and microbial cells that influence anatomy and physiology," explains Bordenstein.



There's also a need for new analytic tools to determine the contribution of microbes and how they interact with genetics to explain traits. Once we have these analytic tools in place, we can engineer microbes and microbiomes as much as we can engineer genes to yield better outcomes for organisms.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-microbes-shaping-our-evolution">Microbes shaping our evolution</h2>



Microbes have been here for four billion years, and they outnumber the stars in the universe by orders of magnitude. There are more bacteria in your mouth than there are people on the planet. They have shaped our world in ways we are only just beginning to understand.



Research shows that they may also play a role in determining who is more likely to develop colon cancer, have high cholesterol levels or an average body mass index. After all, we contain not only our own genes, but also those of the billions of micro-organisms that live in and on us. &nbsp;



"What we're learning today and over the past decade, is that sometimes microbes explain more biological trait variation in organisms than the genes do," Bordenstein says.



The future of biology lies not just in our genes, but in the characteristics of our associated <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/city-microbes-are-finding-surprising-new-ways-to-survive/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">microbes</a> too. As we move forward, remember this: we're not lone entities. We're ecosystems.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado2152" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science</a>.



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Humans are walking ecosystems and microbes rule their evolution

We might like to think of ourselves as autonomous entities but, in reality, we're more like walking ecosystems, teeming with bacteria, viruses, and other microbes. It turns out that differences in these microbes might be as crucial to evolution and natural variation as genetic mutations are. Understanding biological variation This novel perspective was discussed in a recent publication by Seth Bordenstein, director of Penn State’s One Health Microbiome Center, who is a professor of biology and entomology and holds the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck...

Experts at the <a href="https://www.jic.ac.uk/">John Innes Centre</a> have found a correlation between early winter temperatures and crop yields for some economically significant crops. The researchers combined laboratory work with fieldwork to conduct their study and found that a chilling period in late November/early December promotes growth in oilseed rape plants. Although this process has been well studied in perennial plants, this was the first study to demonstrate this phenomenon in an annual crop.



“It was surprising to find that winter annuals have this flower bud dormancy - no one has ever suggested that this mechanism is important to flowering time control in annual plants," said Professor Steve Penfield, a group leader at the John Innes Centre. "Our experiments further show that if flower buds experience warmer than average temperatures then growth slows down and plants produce aberrant flowers and low yield. Conversely, we know that if plants get chilled at this stage this promotes faster growth and higher yield.”&nbsp;



Study first author Dr. Carmel O’Neil explained why this information is critical: “We want to understand the effect of climate change on the UK crop yields. To predict these effects and respond to them we must understand all the processes by which varying weather affects yield. And that is what we have done here in this study – proving experimentally what we have seen previously in correlated studies.”&nbsp;



The researchers determined that the expression of a gene called FLC influenced the bud dormancy response to winter temperatures.&nbsp;



“We had seen this correlation between chilling and yield in the data, but until now we could not say that chilling was linked to the physiology of the crop - it is not for example that chilling just kills some disease or pest - although it might do that as well," explained Professor Penfield. "But we now know why chilling influences yields and it is down to physical effect on the growth rate of the plants.”&nbsp;



Researchers hope that this study can be used to help us adapt our agricultural practices in a changing climate.&nbsp;&nbsp;



This study is published in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2204355119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



---



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

Warmer winters lead to lower crop yields

Experts at the John Innes Centre have found a correlation...

From the 1980s to the mid-1990s, a fungal pathogen called&nbsp;Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (or “Bd”) dispersed across Costa Rica, wreaking havoc among amphibian populations, and continued its path eastward across Panama during the 2000s. Globally, this deadly pathogen led to the extinction of over 90 amphibian species, and the decline of at least 500 additional species. 



Shortly after this gruesome mass die-off of amphibians in Costa Rica and Panama, both countries experienced significant spikes in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-malaria-colder-areas/">malaria</a> cases. According to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">University of California, Davis</a>, this spike in malaria was caused by the amphibian die-off.&nbsp;



“Stable ecosystems underpin all sorts of aspects of human wellbeing, including regulating processes important for disease prevention and health,” said study lead author Michael Springborn, a professor of Environmental Sciences and Policy at UC Davis. “If we allow massive ecosystem disruptions to happen, it can substantially impact human health in ways that are difficult to predict ahead of time and hard to control once they’re underway.”



Since many frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians consume hundreds of mosquito eggs per day, their massive die-off caused by the fungal pathogen led to a large increase in mosquito populations, which are vectors for malaria. By combining their knowledge of amphibian ecology with newly digitized public health record data and data-analysis methods developed by economists, the researchers discovered a clear connection between the time and location of the spread of the fungal pathogen and the time and location of the spikes in malaria cases.&nbsp;



Moreover, no evidence of other variables which could both drive malaria and follow the same pattern of die-offs has been found. Although tree cover loss is also associated with increases in malaria cases (by 0.12 cases per 1,000 people), the massive spike witnessed in Costa Rica and Panama (1 extra case per 1,000 people) was most likely caused by the amphibian die-off.



The researchers argue that measures to help prevent the spread of pathogens to wildlife – such as updating trade regulations to better target major host species – are necessary. “The costs of putting those protective measures in place are immediate and evident, but the long-term&nbsp;benefits of avoiding ecosystem disruptions like this one are harder to assess but potentially massive, as this paper shows,” Professor Springborn concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/1748-9326">Environmental Research Letters</a>.&nbsp;&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&nbsp;&nbsp;

Massive spike in malaria linked to amphibian die-off

From the 1980s to the mid-1990s, a fungal pathogen called&nbsp;Batrachochytrium...

As a result of a budget crisis in 2014, the city of Flint in Michigan, U.S., switched its water supply from Lake Huron and the Detroit River to the Flint River. The new supply of water was not treated properly and consequently nearly all 100,000 residents of the city were exposed to drinking water with unsafe levels of bacteria, disinfection byproducts, and lead, which is neurotoxic. The residents soon began to experience health issues and testing revealed up to seven times the acceptable level of lead in the water supply of homes.



The source of the contamination was found to be aging lead pipes in the water supply line. Usually, water is treated with substances to minimize leaching of lead from supply pipes, but in the case of the Flint water crisis, this treatment was not carried out. Of particular concern was the fact that between 6,000 and 12,000 children were exposed to drinking water with high levels of lead during the year in which water was derived from the Flint River. Children are particularly at risk from the long-term effects of lead poisoning, which can include a reduction in intellectual functioning and&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ">IQ</a>, and an increased chance of&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alzheimer%27s_disease">Alzheimer's disease</a> later in life.



Although Michigan Governor&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Snyder">Rick Snyder</a>&nbsp;declared a state of emergency in the county, and President&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama">Barack Obama</a>&nbsp;declared a federal state of emergency and funding to assist affected residents, a new study indicates that the people of Flint are still suffering the consequences of this environmental disaster. Despite financial reparations to victims, 15 indictments of people potentially responsible, several resignations, firings and suspensions, the consequences of this traumatic time persist.&nbsp;



The study, which involved the largest mental health survey of the Flint community, questioned 1,970 adults from different households in Flint between August 13, 2019, and April 10, 2020. Surveys were conducted online and via mail by a national survey research firm. The results, published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.32556">Journal of the American Medical Association</a> (Network Open), indicate that&nbsp; one in five adults, or roughly 13,600 people, are estimated to have clinical depression, and one in four, or 15,000 people, are estimated to have PTSD, more than five years after the drinking water of Flint was declared lead-free in January 24, 2017.



“The mental health burden of America’s largest public-works environmental disaster clearly continues for many adults in Flint,” said Aaron Reuben, a postdoctoral scholar at <a href="https://duke.edu/">Duke University</a> and leader of the research study.



As the water crisis unfolded over a period of several years, residents manifested symptoms of anxiety over the potential physical and mental health impacts of lead poisoning in themselves and their children. They experienced anger at political leaders and felt guilty about giving their children contaminated water. Despite the fact that numerous prominent figures have been indicted for crimes relating to the water crisis, only one has yet been convicted.



“We know that large-scale natural or human-caused disasters can trigger or exacerbate depression and PTSD,” said study senior author Dr. Dean Kilpatrick, a professor at Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Dr. Kilpatrick noted that there was clear evidence of high rates of mental health problems in the Flint community during the first years of the crisis. “What we did not know until now was the extent to which Flint residents continued to have mental health problems at the clinical diagnosis level, five years after the crisis began.”



During the study, Flint residents answered survey questions pertaining to their perceived exposure to contaminated water, their past year prevalence of depression and PTSD (using DSM-5 diagnostic criteria), and their potential risk factors for depression and PTSD, including prior exposure to potentially traumatic events, prior physical or sexual assault, and low social support. Adults were also asked whether they were ever offered or received mental health services.



According to Dr. Kilpatrick, past year rates of depression and PTSD identified in Flint today are three to five times higher than national estimates among US adults overall, and likely result from a combination of higher base rates of mental health problems in Flint before the crisis as well as a significant exacerbation of problems resulting from the crisis.&nbsp;



Dr. Kilpatrick said residents of Flint, a predominantly low-income, Black community, faced many challenges, before the water crisis, that can negatively impact mental health, including socioeconomic disadvantage, racism, and high exposure to potentially traumatic events, including prior physical or sexual assault.



Particularly striking was the finding that those with prior physical or sexual assault were more than three times more likely to have depression and more than six times more likely to have PTSD than those without this history. “This highlights the importance of considering the cumulative effects of prior exposure to traumatic events when evaluating the effects of environmental disasters on mental health,” Kilpatrick said.



It is clear from the study’s results that more should be done to provide mental health treatment for the residents of Flint. “We study these problems after disasters because they are&nbsp;common outcomes and because they are significantly impairing to individuals and communities. But we also study these problems because we have good treatments that are effective for most people," said study co-author Dr. Sandro Galea of the Boston University School of Public Health.



“There is a clear unmet need,” said Reuben. “Nearly 100 percent of surveyed Flint residents reported that they changed their behavior to avoid consuming contaminated water during the crisis, and the vast majority still worry that the exposures they had may cause future health problems for themselves or their family members.”



According to Reuben, uncertainties about exposures and future harms meaningfully contribute to psychological distress after environmental disasters, and the study found that adults who thought exposure to contaminated water had harmed their or a family member’s health were significantly more likely to have past year depression and PTSD.&nbsp;



“The vast majority of our respondents were never offered mental health services,” said Reuben, “despite clear indication that the crisis was psychologically traumatic.” Most Flint residents who were offered mental health services went on to use and benefit from them. “Now that pipes are being replaced, the time is right to begin a second phase of recovery from the water crisis – one that focuses on providing additional resources to heal psychological wounds."



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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

Flint’s water crisis continues to impact mental health of residents

As a result of a budget crisis in 2014, the...

A new study led by <a href="https://www.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers University</a> has found that our activity patterns and sleep cycles could significantly influence our risk of developing health conditions such as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drinking-plenty-of-tea-reduces-the-risk-of-type-2-diabetes/">type 2 diabetes</a> or heart disease. According to the experts, wake/sleep cycles cause metabolic differences and alter our body’s preference for energy sources.&nbsp;



Thus, “night owls” (people who stay up late in the evening) have a reduced capacity to use fat for energy, meaning that fats can build-up in their bodies and increase the risk for diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. By contrast, “early birds” (people who prefer to be active in the morning), rely more on fat as an energy source and are more active during the day, with higher levels of aerobic fitness than the “night owls.” These metabolic differences seem to relate to how well each group can use insulin to promote glucose uptake by the cells for storage and energy use.



“The differences in fat metabolism between ‘early birds’ and ‘night owls’ shows that our body’s circadian rhythm (wake/sleep cycle) could affect how our bodies use insulin. A sensitive or impaired ability to respond to the insulin hormone has major implications for our health,” said study senior author Steven Mallin, an expert in Metabolism and Endocrinology at Rutgers.&nbsp;



“This observation advances our understanding of how our body’s circadian rhythms impact our health. Because chronotype appears to impact our metabolism and hormone action, we suggest that chronotype could be used as a factor to predict an individual’s disease risk.”



The researchers enrolled 51 participants classified into two groups based on their chronotype (night owls versus early birds), and monitored them for a week to assess their activity patterns during the day. Moreover, they used advanced imaging techniques to assess their body mass and composition, insulin sensitivity, and fat and carbohydrate metabolism. Finally, the scientists tested participants’ fuel preference and aerobic fitness by engaging them in exercise sessions on a treadmill.&nbsp;



The analyses revealed that early birds are more insulin sensitive and use more fat for energy both while at rest and during exercise. On the other hand, night owls were insulin resistant, and their bodies preferred carbohydrates as an energy source rather than fats. Their impaired ability to respond to insulin to promote fuel use could have a negative impact on their health, indicating a higher risk of developing diabetes or heart disease.



Further research is needed to clarify the cause for this shift in metabolic preference between early birds and night owls and to better understand the relation between chronotype, exercise, and metabolic adaptation.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1113/EP090613">Experimental Physiology</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&nbsp;&nbsp;

"Night owls" may have greater risk of heart disease

A new study led by Rutgers University has found that...

Dogs’ ability to show affection towards humans is well-known. Some scientists argue that such a capacity to form strong attachments with humans arose in dogs only after their domestication 15,000 years ago. However, a team of researchers led by <a href="https://www.su.se/cmlink/stockholm-university">Stockholm University</a> in Sweden has now found that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wolves-improve-the-genetic-fitness-of-moose-populations/">wolves</a> are also capable of exhibiting attachment behaviors towards human caregivers – a surprising discovery that could help contradict the domestication hypothesis.



After raising wolf and dog puppies from the age of ten days to 23 weeks, the scientists performed a series of behavioral tests designed to quantify attachment behaviors in canids. The tests revealed that both species were able to spontaneously discriminate between a familiar person and a stranger and displayed more proximity seeking and affiliative behaviors towards the familiar person. Moreover, the presence of the familiar person acted as a social stress buffer for the wolves, helping them calm down during stressful situations.



“It was very clear that the wolves, as the dogs, preferred the familiar person over the stranger. But what was perhaps even more interesting was that while the dogs were not particularly affected by the test situation, the wolves were,” said study lead author Christina Hansen Wheat, a behavioral ecologist at Stockholm University.



“They were pacing the test room. However, the remarkable thing was that when the familiar person, a hand-raiser that had been with the wolves all their lives, re-entered the test room, the pacing behavior stopped, indicating that the familiar person acted as a social stress buffer for the wolves. I do not believe that this has ever been shown to be the case for wolves before and this also complements the existence of a strong bond between the animals and the familiar person.”



According to Dr. Hansen Wheat, these similarities between wolves and dogs can shed more light on where the behaviors we now see in dogs originated. “Together with earlier studies making important contributions to this question, I think it is now appropriate to entertain the idea that if variation in human-directed attachment behavior exists in wolves, this behavior could have been a potential target for early selective pressures exerted during dog domestication. Wolves showing human-directed attachment could have had a selective advantage in early stages of dog domestication,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9299">Ecology and Evolution</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&nbsp;&nbsp;

Wolves can show attachment toward humans

Dogs’ ability to show affection towards humans is well-known. Some...

Due to a variety of factors, including habitat loss and the use of pesticides, many <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/save-native-bees/">bees</a> are currently endangered, together with the plants that depend on them for pollination. Now, a research team led by <a href="https://www.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers University</a> has found that simply saving a greater number of bees may not be enough to solve these problems. According to the experts, the biodiversity of bee populations is most critical to maintaining the ecosystem function of crop pollination.&nbsp;



“We found that biodiversity plays a key role in the stability of ecosystems over time,” said study lead author Natalie Lemanski, a postdoctoral fellow in Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at Rutgers. “You do actually need more bee species in order to get stable pollination services over a growing season and over years.”



By studying various bee populations at dozens of farms in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and California, the researchers discovered that different bee species pollinated the same types of plants at different times of the year, and that different bee species were the dominant pollinators on the same kind of plants in different years. Thus, due to natural fluctuations in bee populations, all these bee species were necessary to maintain a minimum threshold of pollination, particularly during lean years.



“This research shows that abundance [of a species] matters, but bee diversity matters even more,” said Michelle Elekonich, the deputy division director of the National Science Foundation’s <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=BIO">Directorate for Biological Sciences</a>, which funded this research. “It’s not the same bees that are abundant at a given point in time, and variety is necessary to provide balance during a growing season – and from year to year.”&nbsp;



These findings offer evidence for what ecologists refer to as the “insurance hypothesis,” which argues that ecosystems benefit the most when nature “diversifies the portfolio,” supporting multiple animal or plant species rather than relying on one dominant species.&nbsp;



“We found that two to three times as many bee species were needed to meet a target level of crop pollination over the course of a growing season compared to a single date,” Dr. Lemanski reported. “Similarly, twice as many species were needed to provide pollination over the course of six years compared to a single year.”



“The magnitude of increase in species needed over multiple years was remarkably consistent among crop systems when considered over the same interval of time. In addition, the fact that the relationship between timescale and the number of species needed did not level off suggests that even longer time series, spanning multiple seasons, may further bolster the need for biodiversity to ensure reliable ecosystem service,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01847-3">Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution</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&nbsp;&nbsp;

Bee diversity is critical to ecosystems

Due to a variety of factors, including habitat loss and...

A study from the <a href="https://www.umass.edu/">University of Massachusetts Amherst</a> has revealed that non-biting flies are underestimated in their ability to transmit diseases to humans. Biting flies are known to spread <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-heightens-risk-of-most-infectious-diseases/">diseases</a> by transferring infected blood from host to host. The new research suggests that the vomit of non-biting flies poses an even greater risk to human health.



“I’ve been working on synanthropic flies since I was a graduate student in the 1960s,” said John Stoffolano, a professor of entomology at UMass Amherst’s Stockbridge School of Agriculture. “And synanthropic flies have largely been ignored. Blood-feeding flies have taken the limelight, but we should pay attention to the ones that live among us because they get their nutrients from people and animals that shed pathogens in their tears, feces and wounds.”



For example, the common house fly may eat foods such as roadkill, animal dung, or rotting garbage before entering a home. Each time the fly feeds, it fills its crop.



“The crop is like a gas tank, a place to store food before it makes its way into the digestive tract where it will get turned into energy for the fly," explained Stoffolano.



The crop is used for storage - not for digestion.&nbsp; According to the researchers, there are very few digestive enzymes or antimicrobial peptides present to neutralize most pathogens. This means that the crop essentially becomes a place to store disease-producing pathogens.



The experts explained that, as the fly then takes off,&nbsp; it gets rid of excess water in its crop by regurgitating the water. If the fly has landed on a sandwich, it will empty its crop onto the bread.&nbsp;



Stoffolano noted that we still don’t know many of the basics about these flies. “It’s the little things that cause the problems. Our health depends on paying closer attention to these flies that live with us.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects13090776">Insects</a>.



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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

Non-biting flies pose a bigger threat to public health

A study from the University of Massachusetts Amherst has revealed...

Depression&nbsp;is one of the most common mental health disorders in the United States and its prevalence is on the rise. Whereas statistics showed that 6.6 percent of US individuals older than 12 suffered from depression in 2005, this had increased to 7.3 percent by 2015. Now, researchers from <a href="https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.publichealth.columbia.edu%2F&amp;data=05%7C01%7Csb2247%40cumc.columbia.edu%7C89c310c90e8d4d48d2da08da95bd7d7c%7Cb0002a9b0017404d97dc3d3bab09be81%7C1%7C0%7C637986938352096526%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=6H8qC6SV%2BFCXEqrjGGFaKfX3Sbtt4%2FCYFCbhSNLOqP4%3D&amp;reserved=0">Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health</a>&nbsp;and City University of New York have updated these statistics using data from the 2015−2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and found a further increase. They report their findings in the <a href="https://www.ajpmonline.org/">American Journal of Preventive Medicine</a>.&nbsp;



“Our study updates the depression prevalence estimates for the U.S. population through the year 2020 and confirms escalating increases in depression from 2015 through 2019, reflecting a public health crisis that was intensifying in the U.S. even before the onset of the pandemic,” said study lead author Dr &nbsp;<a href="https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.publichealth.columbia.edu%2Fpeople%2Four-faculty%2Frdg66&amp;data=05%7C01%7Csb2247%40cumc.columbia.edu%7C89c310c90e8d4d48d2da08da95bd7d7c%7Cb0002a9b0017404d97dc3d3bab09be81%7C1%7C0%7C637986938352096526%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=It4WPnF5qFpphY7XjHnSE2rqN09AKCvhsgTNZktV3Fs%3D&amp;reserved=0">Renee D. Goodwin</a>. “The net effect of these trends suggests an accelerating public health crisis and that parity and public-service announcement efforts have not achieved equity in depression treatment.”



In 2020, nine percent of Americans aged 12 or older had experienced a major depressive episode during the previous year. Depression was more common among young adults aged 18 to 25 years (just more than 17 percent), and adolescents aged 12 to 17 years (16.9 percent). Depression had increased most rapidly among adolescents and young adults and had increased among nearly all gender, racial/ethnic, income, and education groups. However, depression prevalence did not change among adults aged 35 and over.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The prevalence of depression among non-Hispanic white individuals exceeded that of all other race/ethnic groups. Depression was also consistently higher among women than men, and among adults who were not currently or previously married. While there was an increase in depression from 2015 to 2019 among those in each income group, the highest prevalence of depression was evident among those with the lowest household income.&nbsp;



For some individuals, major depression can result in severe impairments to functionality and the ability to carry out everyday life’s activities. In addition, it is the strongest risk factor in suicidal behavior. Despite these potential consequences, the recent study showed that the prevalence of help-seeking remained consistently low.&nbsp;



“Our results showed most adolescents with depression neither told or talked with a healthcare professional about depression symptoms nor received pharmacologic treatment from 2015 through 2020,” noted Goodwin.



“The elevated level and concentration of untreated depression among adolescents and young adults are especially problematic because&nbsp;untreated depression early in life is predictive of an increased risk of subsequent additional mental health problems."



“The short- and long-term consequences of the pandemic on depression are not yet clear, but these estimates are a requisite starting point for quantifying the mental health impact of the pandemic. Expanding evidence-based, community-based, public-facing campaigns that promote help-seeking, early intervention, prevention, and education about depression are urgently needed."



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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

Nearly ten percent in the U.S. report having depression

Depression&nbsp;is one of the most common mental health disorders in...

Millions of people around the globe are currently facing malnutrition or even famine, while the production of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/feed-livestock-reduce-land-use/">feed for livestock</a> and fish is tying up limited natural resources which could be used to produce food for people. A new study led by <a href="https://www.aalto.fi/en">Aalto University</a> in Finland has shown how certain adjustments to animal feed could maintain production while also making more food available for people. According to the experts, implementing a series of relatively simple changes could increase the global food supply substantially, providing calories for 13 percent more people without requiring increases in natural resource uses or major dietary changes.



Currently, about a third of cereal crop production is used as animal feed, while a quarter of captured fish are not used to feed people. To find ways of solving these pressing problems, the researchers investigated the potential of using crop residues and food by-products in livestock and aquaculture production, thus freeing-up a significant amount of material that could feed people.



“This was the first time anyone has collected the food and feed flows in this detail globally, from both terrestrial and aquatic systems, and combined them together. That let us understand how much of the food by-products and residues is already in use, which was the first step to determining the untapped potential,” said study senior author Matti Kummu, an associate professor of Global Water and Food Issues at Aalto.



By analyzing the flow of food and feed – together with their by-products and residues – through the global food production system, the researchers identified ways of changing these flows to produce better outcomes for people. For instance, livestock and farmed fish could be fed with food system by-products, such as citrus pulp or sugar beet, rather than with materials that are also fit for human use.&nbsp;



With these changes, between 10 and 26 percent of total cereal production and 17 million tons of fish could be redirected from animal feed to human use, which would lead to gains in food supply of 6-13 percent in terms of caloric content and 9-15 percent in terms of protein content.&nbsp; “That may not sound like a lot, but that’s food for up to about one billion people,” said study lead author Vilma Sandström, a postdoctoral fellow in Food Systems Sustainability and Transformation at Aalto.



However, implementing such changes would require significant adjustments in supply chains. “For example, we’d need to reorganize the food system so that the industries and producers with by-products can find the livestock and aquaculture producers who would need them. And some of the by-products would need processing prior to using them as feed,” Dr. Sandström explained.



“I don't think there’s any serious problem with doing this. What we’re suggesting is already being done on a certain scale and in some areas, so it’s not something that would have to be developed from scratch. We just need to adjust the current system and increase the scale of those practices," concluded Professor Kummu.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00589-6">Nature Food</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&nbsp;&nbsp;

Changing animal feed could supply food for one billion people

Millions of people around the globe are currently facing malnutrition...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/white-tailed-deer-behavior/">White-tailed deer</a> are heavily overpopulated along United States’ East Coast, and play a major role as vectors in the transmission of tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme or anaplasmosis. Until recently, efforts to control deer populations have been based on the assumption that deer live mostly in wooded parklands, and pass only occasionally through neighborhoods to graze on gardens and landscaped yards.&nbsp;



However, according to a new longitudinal study led by the <a href="https://www.umd.edu/">University of Maryland</a> (UMD), deer spend much more time in suburban environments than previously thought, often passing their nights within 50 meters of residential properties.&nbsp;



“We knew deer were in and around neighborhoods, but we didn’t realize just how much they were living in the neighborhoods,” said study senior author Jennifer Mullinax, an assistant professor of Wildlife Ecology at UMD.



“A big takeaway from this study is that neighborhoods&nbsp;are&nbsp;the home range of suburban white-tailed deer. Agencies monitoring and estimating suburban deer populations may be missing a huge part of the population if they focus their monitoring efforts only on deer in wooded parks and undeveloped areas, because a lot of the deer are actually living in the neighborhoods, especially at night and in winter.”



The scientists captured and collared 51 deer from five parks from the metropolitan area of Howard County, Maryland – a highly suburban area including residential neighborhoods, schools, businesses, and patches of undeveloped land. The collars contained high-resolution GPS trackers which recorded deer locations each hour for 62 to 116 weeks.



While deer tended to a avoid residential areas during the day, they often moved into them at night, particularly during winter, sleeping near the edges of lawns and yards surrounding houses and apartment buildings. “We used to think people mostly got Lyme disease when they walked in the woods,” Mullinax said. “But recent studies have shown they’re getting Lyme disease in their own backyards, and now that we know the deer are living right there too, it makes more sense.”



These findings offer important guidance for suburban communities seeking to reduce the risk of tick-borne diseases. Removing deer – which serve as tick reservoirs – or treating suburban areas where deer spend time could help limit the spread of tick-borne diseases and lower the rates of human exposure to this parasite.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11252-022-01270-3">Urban Ecosystems</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&nbsp;&nbsp;

Tick-carrying deer are living in the suburbs

White-tailed deer are heavily overpopulated along United States’ East Coast,...

With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd, and the contentious presidential election from the fall, 2020 was a uniquely stressful year for Americans. According to a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.uni-mainz.de/">Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz</a> (JGU) in Germany, these crises may have significantly impeded the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fathers-age-social-development/">social development</a> of young adults at a critical time in their lives.



“If everything goes well, young adults select into social networks, initiate friendships and romantic relationships, and find their occupational niche,” said study lead author Janina Bühler, an expert in personality development at JGU. “Our findings, however, show that external stressors and environmental variations may set young adults on a less fortunate path.”



The scientists compared the social development of 415 young adults in 2020 with that of 465 ones in 2019. The participants – aged between 18 and 35 – were asked to share updates on various factors affecting their development over the course of eight months. The 2020 cohort reported decreased levels of intimacy and relationship satisfaction, while the group surveyed a year earlier reported slightly higher levels of social support and inclusion over time. Although the changes were not dramatic, even small effects can have long-lasting consequences.



“Environmental conditions and contexts are critical for development, because they provide the opportunities that people need to grow in a healthy way,” Dr. Bühler explained. “In the case of 2020, the average young person may have had fewer of these opportunities, causing fear and anxiety while potentially hindering their development.”



Surprisingly, one aspect of social functioning which did not appear to be affected by 2020’s multiple stressors was loneliness. “Irrespective of whether young adults were exposed to collective stressors or not, the degree and development of their loneliness was similar,” Dr. Bühler said.



Future studies are needed to assess the variation in the effect of such stressors on individual participants and to compare the stressors’ impact on different demographics and nationalities. Moreover, examining the coping mechanisms of those less affected could potentially lead to more effective resources and support for young adults.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/19485506221119018">Social Psychological and Personality Science</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&nbsp;&nbsp;

The stress of 2020 affected the development of young adults

With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the murder of...

Many scientists have already investigated how flooding caused by rising sea levels and storms may damage the coastal built environment. Now, a team of civil engineers from <a href="https://www.colostate.edu/">Colorado State University</a> has shed new light on a largely ignored aspect from previous studies: the hidden costs to building foundations due to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-levels-are-rising-at-an-alarming-rate/">sea level rise</a>. According to the experts – who also proposed a method for inspection and repair to lower the costs associated with deterioration from saltwater corrosion – it is highly important to look and plan ahead, especially considering the fact that there are over 16 million buildings along the United States’ Atlantic and Gulf coasts.



The researchers looked at nearly 137,000 residential buildings in the lower regions of Mobile County, Alabama, in order to estimate possible foundation damages caused by saltwater corrosion. Their analysis revealed that, under the most extreme sea level rise projections, the annual repair cost for building foundations in Mobile could rise up to $90 million by the end of this century.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The significance here is that this value that we found for one of the saltwater intrusion scenarios is just for 137,000 buildings in Mobile,” said study senior author Hussan Mahmoud, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Colorado State University. “If you calculated the cost for the entire East Coast – or from the East to the West Coast – it would be staggering.”



By taking into account building locations and the probability of saltwater corrosion, the scientists developed a formula to help building owners determine when to inspect and repair their buildings. In addition, they proposed the use of low-cost sensors to monitor the water table level near a building’s foundation and thus avoid - as much as possible - uncertainty.&nbsp;



In a future study, they aim to examine structural performance beyond the foundation – such as how much wind and water surges during a hurricane a structure can withstand before alternative shelters should be sought. “This work will allow us to be proactive about finding solutions quickly to help those in need, instead of waiting until it’s bad,” Professor Mahmoud concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-18467-3">Nature Scientific Reports</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&nbsp;&nbsp;

How does sea level rise impact building foundations?

Many scientists have already investigated how flooding caused by rising...

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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

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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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

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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

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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

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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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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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



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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