While space is often thought of as a quiet, eerie place of stillness, a dramatic saga is unfolding on the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is serving as an eyewitness to this interstellar drama.



The protagonist of this tale? None other than the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of our closest galactic neighbors.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-brush-with-the-milky-way">A brush with the Milky Way</h2>



Even though it is classified as a dwarf <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/runaway-star-j1249-36-spotted-trying-to-escape-our-milky-way-galaxy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">galaxy</a>, the LMC steals the show on the canvas of the southern night sky, where it displays its majestic halo at an impressive 20 times the size of the full moon's diameter.



Some astrophysicists propose that the LMC isn't orbiting around our galaxy. but is rather simply on a drive-by through our cosmic neighborhood.



These same scientists believe that the LMC has recently completed its tightest brush with the Milky Way. This intimate rendezvous has whipped away much of the gaseous <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/breathtaking-photo-shows-an-ice-halo-forming-around-the-sun/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">halo</a> that the LMC once wore with pride.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-measuring-the-lmc-s-halo">Measuring the LMC's halo</h2>



In a significant milestone, astronomers have managed to measure this halo for the first time based on observations from Hubble.



The findings, which are slated for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, unveil the LMC's halo as surprisingly small - a mere 50,000 light-years across.



This makes it about ten times smaller than the halos of other galaxies of a similar mass. The compactness of this halo is a silent reflection of the LMC’s recent encounter with the Milky Way.



"The LMC is a survivor. Even though it's lost a lot of its gas, it's got enough left to keep forming new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/uma3-u1-faintest-star-system-found-orbiting-milky-way-galaxy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stars</a>," explained Andrew Fox, the principal investigator from the European Space Agency in Baltimore, based out of the revered AURA/STScI.



Fox notes that smaller galaxies wouldn't fare as well as the LMC. Without gas, they would just be clusters of aging red stars.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-milky-way-s-giant-hair-dryer">The Milky Way's "giant hair dryer"</h2>



Despite experiencing a cosmic beatdown, the LMC managed to maintain a compact stub of its erstwhile halo, a feat it could not have pulled off had it been less massive.



The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/starburst-spikes-seen-exploding-from-nebula-n79-are-1630-light-years-long/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LMC</a>, while only 10% of the mass of the Milky Way, is still chunkier than most dwarf galaxies.



Sapna Mishra, the lead author of the study, argues that the Milky Way’s own gigantic halo truncates or quenches the LMC’s gas supply. Yet even while engaging in this catastrophic dance with the Milky Way, the LMC retains 10% of its halo, thanks to its notable mass.



Most of the LMC's halo was stripped away due to a fascinating phenomenon known as ram-pressure stripping. The dense atmosphere of the Milky Way repels the incoming LMC, creating a wake of gas following the dwarf galaxy - much like the tail of a comet.



"I like to think of the Milky Way as this giant hairdryer, and it's blowing gas off the LMC as it comes into us," noted Fox. He explained that the Milky Way pushed back so violently that the ram pressure stripped away most of the LMC's original halo mass.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-studies-of-the-large-magellanic-cloud">Future studies of the Large Magellanic Cloud</h2>



Due to its mass and proximity to the Milky Way, the Large Magellanic Cloud presents us with a unique astrophysics laboratory. It allows scientists to understand galactic dynamics in the earlier eras of the universe when galaxies were in closer quarters.



It's also a reminder that the galaxy interaction process is not as clean-cut and simple as we might imagine, but rather a wild, chaotic dance of cosmic forces.



As for the future, the research team is set to investigate the front side of the LMC's halo, a region hitherto unexplored.



Scott Lucchini, a co-author of the study from the <a href="https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Center for Astrophysics | Harvard &amp; Smithsonian,</a> points out the next objective.



"In this new program, we are going to probe five sightlines in the region where the LMC's halo and the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/milky-way-galaxy-is-surrounded-by-massive-magnetic-fields/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Milky Way's halo</a> are colliding. This is the location where the halos are compressed, like two balloons pushing against each other."



The study is published in <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.11960v1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Astrophysical Journal</a>.



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)



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What happened when a dwarf galaxy clashed with the Milky Way?

While space is often thought of as a quiet, eerie place of stillness, a dramatic saga is unfolding on the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is serving as an eyewitness to this interstellar drama. The protagonist of this tale? None other than the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of our closest galactic neighbors. A brush with the Milky Way Even though it is classified as a dwarf galaxy, the LMC steals the show on the canvas of the southern night sky, where...

Obesity in pet dogs has become a common phenomenon in recent times and is of concern to veterinarians and owners alike. It is estimated that between 34 and 41 percent of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-cry-tears-of-joy-when-reunited-with-their-owners/">dogs</a> globally are overweight or obese, and several previous research studies have investigated the risk factors associated with this condition. Overweight and obese animals are more likely to develop serious health problems, including joint, skin, respiratory, cardiac and renal diseases, diabetes and an increased risk of death.&nbsp;



The main cause of obesity in dogs is that they consume more calories than they use up in their daily lives, largely because they receive too much food and not enough exercise. Both of these factors are under the control of the dog owner but, although there are many commercial dietary options for overweight dogs, there is not a lot of information or guidance for owners who wish to increase their dog’s exercise levels. In this light, researchers from the <a href="https://www.uoguelph.ca/">University of Guelph</a> in Canada undertook a large-scale, international study to investigate the relationship between the exercise regimen of owners and their dogs.&nbsp;



Past studies on the association between dogs’ body weight and their diet, exercise regimen and other sociodemographic factors have involved small samples and have been restricted in geographic location. For a broader, international perspective, PhD student Sydney Banton and colleagues analyzed the results from a survey of 3,298 dog owners living in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. The survey included questions about both owners’ and dogs’ diets and exercise routines, and each owner’s perception of his or her dog’s body weight.



Analysis of the survey responses showed that dogs were likely to get more exercise if their owners spent more time exercising, themselves. Active owners were also more likely to perceive their dog as having an ideal body weight. Compared to owners in other countries, owners in Germany tended to exercise their dogs for a longer time, were more likely to perceive their dog’s body weight as ideal, and were less likely to report having been told that their dog was overweight.



The results, published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0272299">PLoS ONE</a>, also showed that dog owners who had been told their dog was overweight were more likely to respond by restricting the dog’s diet, or by feeding it a weight control diet, but not by adjusting its exercise regimen or by cutting out the daily treats. These owners were more likely to report that their dog only exercised for between 0 and 15 minutes per day, while the recommended daily exercise time, on average, is at least 30 minutes per day.&nbsp;



Among dogs who were five years old and older, owners were less likely to perceive their dog as having an ideal body weight if they had been told their dog was overweight, if they reported attempting to control their dog’s weight by limiting food intake, and if they reported giving dogs other foods, such as treats, every day.



To the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first large-scale study that demonstrates a relationship between an owner’s exercise regime and his or her dog’s exercise pattern. In the past, veterinarians have reported that the main causes of obesity are diet, socioeconomic reasons and lack of exercise, but admit that their primary strategy to address this obesity is to reduce food, reduce treats and change the diet, but not to change the exercise routine.&nbsp;



This highlights that the option to increase exercise time needs to be promoted by veterinarians when advising owners of overweight and obese dogs. "In order to treat and prevent obesity in dogs, a more holistic approach to changing both dietary and exercise routine needs to be made," wrote the study authors.



“Results from the survey revealed that feeding practices play a main role in owner perception of their dog being overweight, while exercise practices play a main role in owner perception of their dog being an ideal weight," said Banton. "While many weight loss strategies for dogs focus on feeding, this data highlights the need to incorporate exercise into weight loss regimens.”



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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

Jog with your dog to prevent pet obesity and health issues

Obesity in pet dogs has become a common phenomenon in...

The world is full of newsworthy events, spread to us via diverse media channels, that warrant our attention. Unfortunately, these events are often concerning or distressing but we feel compelled to understand them and stay informed about them anyway. In the recent past, for example, there has been a seemingly constant flow of disconcerting events, including a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-world-is-still-unprepared-for-the-next-pandemic/">pandemic</a>, a highly contentious U.S. presidential election culminating in an attempted insurrection, large-scale protests, mass shootings, a Russian invasion of Ukraine, life-threatening floods and devastating wildfires.&nbsp;



It is likely that, for many people witnessing these events in the news, the experience may cause stress and anxiety. In addition, for those who become drawn in to the unfolding tragedies and dramas, being exposed to a 24-hour news cycle of continually evolving events can have serious impacts on mental and physical wellbeing. This is the finding of a new research study that investigates the consequences of problematic news consumption on the general well-being of people.



“Witnessing these events unfold in the news can bring about a constant state of high alert in some people, kicking their surveillance motives into overdrive and making the world seem like a dark and dangerous place,” explained study first author Bryan McLaughlin, associate professor of Advertising in the College of Media and&nbsp;Communication at Texas Tech University.



“For these individuals, a vicious cycle can develop in which, rather than tuning out, they become drawn further in, obsessing over the news and checking for updates around the clock to alleviate their emotional distress. But it doesn’t help, and the more they check the news, the more it begins to interfere with other aspects of their lives.”



Known colloquially as news addiction, problematic news consumption is defined in this study as becoming immersed in the news (transportation) as well as consumed with thoughts about the news (preoccupation), attempting to alleviate feelings of threat by consuming more news (misregulation), experiencing a loss of control over consumption of the news (underregulation), and devoting less time to other aspects of one’s life (interference). McLaughlin and his colleagues, Dr. Melissa Gotlieb and Dr. Devin Mills, hypothesized that those with higher levels of problematic news consumption would experience greater mental and physical ill-being than those with lower levels of problematic news consumption.



The experts obtained data by means of an online survey completed by 1,100 U.S. adults. In the survey, people were asked about the extent to which they agreed with statements like “I become so absorbed in the news that I forget the world around me”, “my mind is frequently occupied with thoughts about the news”, “I find it difficult to stop reading or watching the news”, and “I often do not pay attention at school or work because I am reading or watching the news”.&nbsp;



Mental ill-being was assessed using nine items in the survey that captured feelings of stress (e.g., “I was in a state of nervous tension”) and anxiety (e.g., “I felt I was close to panic”) in the previous month. In addition, respondents answered questions about their experience of physical ailments, such as fatigue, pain, disrupted sleep, poor concentration, and gastrointestinal issues.



The results, published in the journal <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10410236.2022.2106086">Health Communication</a>, revealed four categories of problematic news consumption behavior – severe, moderate, minimal and non-problematic. Overall, 16.5 percent of people surveyed showed signs of ‘severely problematic’ news consumption. Such individuals frequently became so immersed and personally invested in news stories that the stories dominated their waking thoughts, disrupted time with family and friends, made it difficult to focus on school or work, and contributed to restlessness and an inability to sleep.



Perhaps not surprisingly, people with higher levels of problematic news consumption were significantly more likely to experience mental and physical ill-being than those with lower levels, even when controlling for demographics, personality traits, and overall viewing.



In particular, 73 percent of those recognized to have severe levels of problematic news consumption reported experiencing mental ill-being “quite a bit” or “very much,” compared to only 8 percent of all other participants in the study. Similarly, 61 percent of those with severe levels of problematic news consumption reported experiencing physical ill-being “quite a bit” or “very much,” compared to only 6.1 percent of all other study participants.



According to McLaughlin, the findings are “alarming” and show that there is a need for focused media literacy campaigns to help people develop a healthier relationship with the news. “While we want people to remain engaged in the news, it is important that they have a healthier relationship with the news,” he said.



“In most cases, treatment for addictions and compulsive behaviors centers on complete cessation of the problematic behavior, as it can be difficult to perform the behavior in moderation. In the case of problematic news consumption, research has shown that individuals may decide to stop, or at least dramatically reduce, their news consumption if they perceive it is having adverse effects on their mental health." “For example, previous research has shown that individuals who became aware of and concerned about the adverse effects that their constant attention to sensationalized coverage of COVID-19 was having on their mental health reported making the conscious decision to tune out.”



“However, not only does tuning out come at the expense of an individual’s access to important information for their health and safety, it also undermines the existence of an informed citizenry, which has implications for maintaining a healthy democracy. This is why a healthy relationship with news consumption is an ideal situation.”



In addition, the study also identifies the contribution of the news industry to fueling the problem. Journalists are encouraged to focus on “newsworthy” stories that will grab the attention of consumers, and news channels that then give non-stop coverage of unfolding stories feed into the fascination that some people experience. The authors call for a wider discussion about the news industry’s involvement in the issue of problematic consumption.&nbsp;



In conclusion, the authors state that for certain types of people, the conflict and drama that characterize newsworthy stories not only grab their attention and draw them in, but also can lead to a maladaptive relationship with the news. "Thus, the results of our study emphasize that the commercial pressures that news media face are not just harmful to the goal of maintaining a healthy democracy, they also may be harmful to individuals’ health.”



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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

News addiction can have serious health consequences

The world is full of newsworthy events, spread to us...

Two hypotheses describe changes in animal size. Cope’s rule says that body size tends to increase in a given lineage throughout time. Bergmann’s rule states that animals in cold climates tend to have larger bodies while those in warm climates tend to have smaller bodies.&nbsp;



These rules aren’t universally true among all groups of animals but have been shown to be largely true among “warm blooded” endotherms. A team of researchers recently tested these ideas among tetraodontiform fishes. This group of mainly tropical fishes includes pufferfish, boxfish, and filefish.&nbsp;



“Cope’s and Bergmann’s rules are fairly well-supported for endotherms, or warm-blooded species, such as birds and mammals. However, among ectothermic species, especially vertebrates, these rules tend to have mixed findings," explained Emily Troyer, a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma’s Fish Evolution Lab.



To study the trends in the size of ectothermic fish as the oceans cooled over time, the researchers used a mixture of paleontology and genomics to understand the lineage’s evolution.



“When you look across different groups in the tree of life, then you will notice that there are a limited number of groups that actually have a good fossil record, but the larger marine fish group (known as Tetraodontiformes) that includes the popular pufferfish, ocean sunfish and boxfish, is remarkable in that it has a spectacular paleontological record," said Dahiana Arcila, professor and assistant curator at Sam Noble Museum of Natural History,&nbsp;



“So, by integrating those two fields, genomics and paleontology, then we're actually able to bring into the picture new results that you won't be able to obtain using just one data type.”



What the researchers found is that the ectothermic fishes seemed to follow the two rules much like their endothermic counterparts among mammals and birds. The changes over time followed Cope’s rule, but the changes also coincided with cooling ocean temperatures, following Bermann’s rule as well.



“Based on fossil data, we're showing that these fish started very small, but you can see that living species are much larger, and those changes are associated with the cooling temperature of the ocean over this very long period of time,” said Arcila.&nbsp;



The research is published in <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2122486119">The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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

Fish grew larger as the oceans cooled over millennia

Two hypotheses describe changes in animal size. Cope’s rule says...

Anyone who watches a dog in the park will notice that sometimes the pup will stick her nose in the air, and other times, she will excitedly sniff the ground. Until now, scientists have not been able to figure out why animals decide to sniff the air versus the ground. An international team of researchers is shedding some new light on the topic.



"We used what we know about how scent is carried by the wind and on the ground to understand better why animals engage in this behaviour," explained study co-lead author Nicola Rigolli. "We then used machine learning techniques to identify the optimal strategy for locating the source of a scent."&nbsp;



The researchers created computer simulations to determine how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/spiders-can-track-the-scent-of-killer-ants-to-avoid-them/">scents</a> move under turbulent conditions. Then, they modeled the advantages and disadvantages of sniffing the air versus sniffing the ground.&nbsp;



The experts created a computer-simulated animal designed to minimize tracking time. They noticed that, like real animals, it would often go back and forth, sometimes sniffing the air, other times sniffing the ground.&nbsp;



The researchers found that when an animal is downwind from a scent source, they stick their noses up frequently to catch a whiff. As they get closer to the source, they will begin to sniff the air less and the ground more.&nbsp;



"Airborne scents are sparse and more difficult to track than scents along the ground, but they move faster and over longer distances. The benefits of sniffing near the ground or in the air therefore vary depending on the animal's distance from the scent's source," explained study co-lead author Gautam Reddy.&nbsp;



The researchers noted that the results might also be relevant to sea creatures, including crabs and mollusks. While the findings may not apply to real-world situations, the study authors expect that further research will yield more practical results.&nbsp;



"We hope our results inspire other scientists to conduct experiments with dogs, rodents and aquatic animals that can help us learn more about these behaviours in real-world settings," concluded study senior author Massimo Vergassola.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://elifesciences.org/articles/76989">eLife</a>.&nbsp;



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

Animals sniff the air and ground to track the source of a scent

Anyone who watches a dog in the park will notice...

Soon after the U.S. Congress passed the country’s most substantial legislation aimed at mitigating <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/groundbreaking-climate-action-underway-in-the-united-states/">climate</a> change, a new study led by <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/">Princeton University</a> has found that the average American significantly underestimates how much their fellow citizens support climate policy. Although 66 to 88 percent of the Americans support climate action, the experts discovered that the average American believes that percentage to be only 37 to 43.



“It’s stunning how universal and shared that idea is, among every demographic,” said study lead author Gregg Sparkman,&nbsp;who conducted this research during a postdoctoral fellowship in Psychology at Princeton, and is now an assistant professor at <a href="https://www.bc.edu/">Boston College</a>.



The researchers found that, although conservatives underestimated national support for climate policies to the greatest degree, liberals also believed that significantly fewer Americans support climate action. This misperception occurred in every state, across climate policies, and among all demographics, including political affiliation, gender, race, media consumption habits, or rural vs. urban/suburban. However, factors such as consuming conservative media or living in a red state were linked to a greater discrepancy between estimates of popularity and actual popularity of climate policies.&nbsp;



While supporters of climate action outnumber opponents two to one, most Americans falsely believe that the opposite is the case. Since people tend to conform to what they think others believe, this underestimation is problematic and could actually weaken actual climate support and stifle constructive public discussions on the topic.&nbsp;



“They fall into a trap of: I support this but I think other people don’t, so in a democratic society, that means there’s nothing else to be done, beyond maybe convincing your peers,” Dr. Sparkman explained.



Some methods of fighting such misperceptions could include displaying signs in favor of climate action or talking about it with friends, family, and local community groups, as well as educating people about the already high levels of support for major climate policies. Media outlets could also help correcting these false beliefs by offering more coverage to public support for climate policies and not overrepresenting the opposition.&nbsp;



“It's important to remember that ‘being fair and balanced’ means accurately showing how popular something is, not pretending it’s fifty-fifty,” said Dr. Sparkman.



Future research is needed to clarify the sources of the misperception and to develop efficient interventions to help Americans understand the true popularity of climate policies.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32412-y">Nature Communications</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 vast majority of Americans support climate action

Soon after the U.S. Congress passed the country’s most substantial...

By using an acoustic camera that visualizes sound pressure, a team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.univie.ac.at/en/">University of Vienna</a> has investigated the calls of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/asian-elephants-vibrate-their-lips-like-human-brass-players/">Asian elephants</a>. The analysis revealed that the animals emitted their low frequency “rumbles” mainly through their trunk, or through their trunk and mouth simultaneously, and only rarely through the mouth alone.&nbsp;



Since elephants have the longest nasal elongation in the world, it is not surprising that their low-frequency, partially infrasonic rumbles resonate deeper when emitted through their long trunks. According to the researchers, these vocal tract resonances – known as nasal pronunciations in human languages – play a crucial role in animal communication, by allowing them to encode more information and enhance the transmission of the calls over long distances.



Humans form vowels through their tongue positions, lips, and mouth. By opening the velum and letting air stream through the oral and nasal cavities simultaneously, humans “nasalize” the sound of vocals, a feature which in many languages (such as French or Hindi) can change the meanings of words, as in the case of beau [bo] meaning “beautiful” in French and the nasalized bon [bõ] meaning “good.”&nbsp;



Scientists have long thought that mammals have far less flexibility to modify their vocal tracts and thus the timbre of their calls. Although in animals calls often differ solely by being emitted through the mouth or nose, in the case of Asian elephants the situation appears to be more complex.



“To our surprise, the acoustic camera also clearly showed calls that were emitted through the mouth and nose simultaneously. The resonance spectra of these calls were very similar to the ones described in human nasal vowels,”&nbsp;said study lead author Veronika Beeck, a cognitive biologist at the University of Vienna.



These findings suggest that mammal calls may be more flexible than previously though. While it is well known that acoustic communication plays a critical role in social systems, such as the complex matriarchy of elephants, further research is needed to clarify the exact function of the mixed mouth-and-trunk calls that Asian elephants emit.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/12/16/2119">Animals</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;

Asian elephant calls are more flexible than previously thought

By using an acoustic camera that visualizes sound pressure, a...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.usc.edu/">University of Southern California</a> (USC) and the <a href="https://www.arizona.edu/">University of Arizona</a> has found that adults aged 60 or older who sit for long periods of time watching TV or engaging in other such passive, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sedentary-behavior-linked-to-higher-risk-of-cancer-mortality/">sedentary</a> behaviors are at increased risk of developing dementia. Surprisingly, the investigation revealed that other sedentary activities, such as using a computer or reading, were not associated with similar risks.



“It isn’t the time spent sitting, per se, but the type of sedentary activity performed during leisure time that impacts dementia risk,” said study lead author David Raichlen, a professor of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at USC.&nbsp;



“We know from past studies that watching TV involves low levels of muscle activity and energy use compared with using a computer or reading. And while research has shown that uninterrupted sitting for long periods is linked with reduced blood flow in the brain, the relatively greater intellectual stimulation that occurs during computer use may counteract the negative effects of sitting.”



To investigate potential correlations between sedentary leisure activities and dementia in older adults, the scientists used self-reported data from the <a href="https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/">U.K. Biobank</a> involving over 145,000 participants aged 60 or older who were not diagnosed with dementia at the beginning of the study. After 12 years of follow-up, the researchers used hospital inpatient records to determine new dementia diagnoses, and found 3,507 cases from their cohort.



Surprisingly, even in individuals who were highly physically active, time spent watching TV was associated with increased risk of dementia, while leisure-time spent using a computer was linked to a reduced risk for dementia. “Although we know that physical activity is good for our brain health, many of us think that if we are just more physically active during the day, we can counter the negative effects of time spent sitting,” said study senior author Gene Alexander, a professor of Psychology at the University of Arizona.



“Our findings suggest that the brain impacts of sitting during our leisure activities are really separate from how physically active we are, and that being more mentally active, like when using computers, may be a key way to help counter the increased risk of dementia related to more passive sedentary behaviors, like watching TV.”



“What we do while we’re sitting matters. This knowledge is critical when it comes to designing targeted public health interventions aimed at reducing the risk of neurodegenerative disease from sedentary activities through positive behavior change,” Professor Raichlen concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206931119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</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;

Watching TV increases risk of dementia in seniors

A new study led by the University of Southern California...

Humans help one another – this is one of the characteristics of human society and one of the traits that makes us human. Help may be in terms of financial donations, goods, assistance or kindness, but it is a widespread phenomenon globally, and is common across diverse societies. Indeed, more than 50 percent of people across the U.S., Europe and Asia have reported donating to charity or helping a stranger in the past month. But why do we do it?



There are many motivational factors that drive people to help others, including cultural norms, socioeconomic factors, genetics and personality type, but at the end of the day helping others is a conscious decision involving a set of brain regions known as the social cognition network. This network becomes active when we consider the needs, mental states and perspectives of others, and when we are go about making an active decision to help another. It is possible that impairment in the functioning of this network may affect a person’s willingness to help others.



A new study by scientists at <a href="https://www.berkeley.edu/">UC Berkeley</a> suggests that lack of sleep may be another factor that determines how likely people are to help each other. Sleep deprivation not only disrupts the functioning of the social cognition network in the brain, but also impairs emotional processing – including the ability to recognize and express emotions. The researchers suggest, in their study published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/">PLoS Biology</a>, that a lack of sleep impairs helping at a neural, individual, group and global societal level.



Lack of sleep is known to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, depression, diabetes, hypertension and overall mortality. The new study proposes that inadequate sleep also compromises the bonds between individuals – and even the altruistic sentiment of an entire nation.



The researchers undertook three separate studied that assessed the impact of sleep loss on people’s willingness to help others. In the first study, the scientists placed 24 healthy volunteers in a functional magnetic resonance imager (fMRI) to scan their brains after eight hours of sleep and after a night of no sleep. They found that areas of the brain that form the social cognition network were less active after a sleepless night. “When we think about other people, this network engages and allows us to comprehend what other person’s needs are: What are they thinking about? Are they in pain? Do they need help?” said study co-author research scientist Eti Ben Simon. “However, this network was markedly impaired when individuals were sleep deprived. It’s as though these parts of the brain fail to respond when we are trying to interact with other people after not getting enough sleep.” In the second study, they tracked more than 100 people online over three or four nights. During this time, the researchers measured the quality of their sleep – how long they slept, how many times they woke up – and then assessed their desire to help others, such as holding an elevator door open for someone else, volunteering or helping an injured stranger on the street. “Here, we found that a decrease in the quality of someone’s sleep from one night to the next predicted a significant decrease in the desire to help other people from one subsequent day to the next,” Ben Simon said. “Those with poor sleep the night prior were the ones that reported being less willing and keen to help others the following day.” The third part of the study involved analyzing over 3 million charitable donations made in the United States between 2001 and 2016. In particular, the researchers focused on donations made in the four weeks prior to, and the four weeks subsequent to the spring changeover to daylight saving time (DST). The researchers wondered whether the number of donations would change over this time in the states that transition to DST, when people experience the potential loss of one hour of sleep.&nbsp;



The results of the analysis showed a decrease of around 10 percent in the mean daily donation in the few days following the change to DST. This trend was not apparent in states that did not transition to daylight saving and so did not alter their clocks. This result demonstrates that a one-hour reduction in sleep opportunity is associated with a reduced desire to help others who are in need, and this occurs on a nation-wide scale.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Even a very modest ‘dose’ of sleep deprivation – here, just the loss of one single hour of sleep opportunity linked to daylight saving time – has a very measurable and very real impact on people’s generosity and, therefore, how we function as a connected society,” said study co-author Professor Matthew Walker. “When people lose one hour of sleep, there's a clear hit on our innate human kindness and our motivation to help other people in need.”



The authors state that sleep deprivation acts as a previously unrecognized factor influencing altruistic and helping behavior in humans. Considering that more than 50 percent of individuals across numerous first-world nations currently report not getting sufficient sleep during work days, this finding has potentially serious ramifications in terms of societal cohesion and caring.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Looking at the big picture, we're starting to see that a lack of sleep results in a quite asocial and, from a helping perspective, anti-social individual, which has manifold consequences to how we live together as a social species,” said Professor Walker. “A lack of sleep makes people less empathetic, less generous, more socially withdrawn, and it's infectious – there is contagion of loneliness.” “The realization that the quantity and quality of sleep affects an entire society, caused by an impairment in prosocial behavior, may provide insights into our societal state of affairs in the present day." This finding also offers a novel approach to improving these specific aspects of our society, since amount of sleep is a modifiable factor, unlike personality, genetics or cultural background, for example. ”Promoting sleep, rather than shaming people for sleeping enough, could very palpably help shape the social bonds we all experience every day,” Ben Simon said. “Sleep, it turns out, is an incredible lubricant to prosocial, connected, empathic, kind and generous human behavior. In these divisive times, if there was ever a need for a strong, prosocial lubricant to enable the very best version of ourselves within society, now seems to be it. Sleep may be a wonderful ingredient that enables the alacrity of helping between human beings," said Professor Walker, who is the author of the international bestseller, <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2017/10/17/whywesleep/">Why We Sleep</a>. “Sleep is essential for all aspects of our physical, mental and emotional lives,” said Ben Simon. “When sleep is undervalued in society, not only do we get sleep-deprived doctors, nurses and students, but we also suffer from unkind and less empathic interactions on a daily basis.” “It is time, as a society, to abandon the idea that sleep is unnecessary or a waste and, without feeling embarrassed, start getting the sleep that we need,” she added. “It is the best form of kindness we can offer ourselves, as well as the people around us.”



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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

Lack of sleep makes people more selfish and less generous

Humans help one another – this is one of the...

Researchers from the <a href="https://illinois.edu/">University of Illinois</a> have discovered that the fathead minnow, a small fish species found in North American streams, can survive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-activities-are-fueling-more-extreme-heatwaves/">heatwaves</a> with few adverse effects.&nbsp;



"Fathead minnows are really common throughout North America and they're important prey for a lot of charismatic sport fish anglers care about. So, learning how they handle heatwaves in this study gives us good insights into the potential fate of freshwater food webs under climate change," said study co-author Cory Suski.



Previous research focused on how well animals can tolerate temperatures 2-3 degrees Celsius warmer than the current average. The U of I team wanted to look at how the minnows responded to short-term increases of 5-10 degrees Celsius.



Doctoral student Qihong Dai simulated three types of heatwaves; single short-term heatwaves, repeated heatwaves three days in a row, and extended heatwaves that lasted 48 hours.&nbsp;



"After our simulated heatwaves, we tested enzymes reflecting the minnows' ability to perform aerobic and anaerobic activities. We also were able to test changes in their metabolic rates during heatwaves," said Dai. "After all three heatwave simulations, most minnows rapidly returned to normal physiological functioning when we cooled the water back down."



The researchers also discovered that minnows previously subjected to heatwaves were more resilient to higher temperatures than fish that had not been exposed. However, some fish suffered negative effects.&nbsp;



"The heatwave didn't impair their ability to swim or go about their business. In fact, they could handle higher temperatures after the heatwaves, but some became more susceptible to oxidative stress. That could lead to long-term tissue degradation from free radical damage and other physiological problems," said Suski.



Still, most minnows seemed to recover well after exposure to heatwaves. "We are surprised but also excited to see how minnows can be so resilient to heatwaves in the Midwest," said Dai.



"We witnessed high thermal resilience of fathead minnow to extreme heatwaves," wrote the study authors. "This result suggests that some fish species, particularly thermally tolerant ones, can withstand current and near-future heatwaves in disturbed ecosystems such as agricultural streams."



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/fwb.13976">Freshwater Biology</a>.



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

Minnows can rapidly recover from heatwaves

Researchers from the University of Illinois have discovered that the...

Central Asia is a significant producer of some of the world's most widely consumed delicacies, including <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eat-a-handful-of-walnuts-every-day-for-better-heart-health/">walnuts</a>, apricots, plums, apples, and pears. Many of these crops are grown in home gardens in Central Asia's rural landscapes and provide a living for growers.



In a new study from the <a href="https://ciat.cgiar.org/">International Center for Tropical Agriculture</a> (CIAT), researchers have found that home gardens in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan are an average of 40 to 50 years old, with some gardens more than 70 years old. In Tajikistan, these gardens have saved lives.



"These trees have been vital for people to survive during times of conflict, and these home gardens with trees and vegetables play an important role to support families, providing a lot of the food for the household, in addition to income," explained Barbara Vinceti, a forest ecologist and lead author of the study.&nbsp;



Despite their importance, Central Asian gardens have not received much attention from the scientific community. However, the CIAT research is shedding new light on the subject.&nbsp;



"Central Asia is an important center of origin for many globally valued fruit and nut tree species. Forest degradation and deforestation are cause for concern for the conservation of these valuable species, now confined to small remnant populations," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;



"Home gardens have the important function of sustaining household food consumption and income generation, and can potentially play a critical role in conserving diversity of fruit and nut trees."



The researchers studied diversity within and across the fruit and nut trees in the region by talking to the growers and analyzing wild versions of the trees in neighboring forests.&nbsp;



"We looked at home gardens situated close to forests and examined how genetic material moves between the forests and the home gardens," said Marlène Elias, a senior scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.&nbsp;



Elias noted that home gardens are a bastion for genetic diversity, which makes them "living genebanks" that are essential to protect. However, they are threatened by outside influences from the USA, Russia, and Europe.&nbsp;



Growers in Central Asia realize they can make more money from foreign varieties, especially apples and pears, and are replacing their traditional crops with these commercial varieties. This loss of diversity is devastating, according to Vinceti, who warns that "once that diversity is lost is lost, it is lost forever."&nbsp;



"We saw a significant erosion of local tree varieties of key species as more varieties come from outside," said Vinceti. "In Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, we examined this dynamic flow of planting material and its sources, understanding the future prospects of home gardens, and looking at differences between the three countries."



Crop diversity is essential for protection against disease and climate change. So, while there may be some short-term financial gain, the growers could be setting themselves, and future generations, up for failure.



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0271398">PLoS ONE</a>.



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

Home gardens in Central Asia are "living genebanks"

Central Asia is a significant producer of some of the...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> has investigated how hunting hawks and other raptors solve the problem of intercepting a single bat within a dense swarm. The experts found that, instead of targeting individual bats, the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/top-predators-trapped-by-trying-to-adapt-to-climate-change/">predators</a> would steer towards a fixed point within the swarm, a technique which increases their chances to capture the prey.



Scientists have long argued that being in a large group, such as a swarm of bats, a school of fish, or a flock of birds, offers significant protection from predators, since the presence of so many potential targets may confuse them, making it more difficult to focus on and capture a specific individual. However, empirical evidence for such a “confusion effect” has not been very strong.&nbsp;



To gain more insight into predators’ hunting strategies when facing large groups of prey, the researchers filmed Swainson’s Hawks (Buteo swainsoni) and other raptors hunting a colony of approximately 700,000 to 900,000 Mexican Free-tailed Bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) as the bats emerged from a cave in the Chihuahuan Desert in New Mexico at dusk. Then, they reconstructed the hawks’ flight paths using 3D modeling and compared the trajectories of the real birds with those modeled by the computer algorithm.&nbsp;



The analysis revealed that, instead of continuously targeting an individual bat, the raptors would steer towards a fixed point within the swarm. Since any bat on a collision course with the hawk would appear stationary to the predator, the latter may use this to single out a target bat from the swarm. “From the viewpoint of a stationary observer – such as a person stood on the ground - all members of the swarm appear to move erratically. For a mobile observer – like the hunting hawks in flight - any bat that it is on a collision course with it will appear stationary against the background movement of the swarm,” explained study lead author Caroline Brighton, a postdoctoral researcher in Biology at Oxford.&nbsp;



“Our work shows how the appearance of a swarm depends on the predator’s own motion, so starling murmurations and many other group behaviors that look bewildering to our own eyes may not appear so confusing to a predator taking the plunge,” added study senior author Graham Taylor, a professor of Mathematical Biology at Oxford.



These findings suggest that such a strategy of targeting a fixed point in a group of prey could be a more general mechanism yet to be discovered in other predators. However, such a technique may only be effective when prey aggregations are sufficiently dense.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32354-5">Nature Communications</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 do hawks target prey inside chaotic swarms?

A new study led by the University of Oxford has...

A recent study led by <a href="https://www.dal.ca/">Dalhousie University</a> in Canada has found that, if greenhouse gases continue to be emitted at current rates, nearly 90 percent of all marine species could be at risk of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-sixth-mass-extinction-is-currently-in-progress/">extinction</a> by the end of the century. Among the various species of animals, plants, chromists, bacteria, and protozoans examined, higher trophic species – particularly those that are harvested for food, including tunas, sharks, or pufferfish - had the highest risk of going extinct.



The researchers evaluated threats faced by almost 25,000 marine species which inhabit the upper 100 meters of oceans if greenhouse gas emissions continue to stay at high levels, under a “business as usual” scenario. The analysis revealed that almost 90 percent of these animals may be at high or critical risk of extinction by 2100, and will not be expected to survive in their current habitat across an average of 85 percent of their geographical distribution. In addition, the scientists found that about 10 percent of the ocean has areas of combined high climate risk and endemism (the state of a species being found in a single defined geographical location), which place further threats on a vast majority of ecosystems.



According to study lead author Daniel Boyce, an ecologist at Dalhousie University, these findings are “quite startling and very sobering,” providing clear evidence of the massive danger life on our planet faces if extraction of fossil fuels continues unmitigated. “I’d like to think that that’s an implausible scenario,” he said. “But nonetheless, it is the worst-case scenario. And when we evaluated that scenario, we found that there was a very grim picture for the climate risk for marine species.”



The threats were found to be higher for many species that are currently harvested for food in low-income countries highly dependent on fisheries. “There was a really striking pattern where the risk was systematically higher for nations that have a lower socioeconomic status, lower income nations that tend to be more dependent on fisheries and tend to have a lower food security, and overall nutritional status,” Professor Boyd explained.



These findings should lead to increased efforts to prioritize the conservation of vulnerable ecosystems by taking into account the susceptibility and adaptability of various species in climate management strategies. “It should provide a strong motivation for us to do everything that we can to mitigate our emissions and focus on avoiding that worst-case scenario,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01437-y">Nature Climate Change</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&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;

Unchecked emissions could kill 90 percent of marine species

A recent study led by Dalhousie University in Canada has...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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

Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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