An asteroid impact on Mars 11 million years ago sent fragments of the red planet hurtling through space. One of these pieces eventually crashed into Earth, making its way to Purdue University and becoming known as the Lafayette Meteorite.&nbsp;



This rare find has been instrumental in unlocking secrets of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/manganese-discovery-ancient-mars-earth-like-water-lake-habitable/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mars</a>’ watery past, with new research recently published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7185/geochemlet.2443" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Geochemical Perspective Letters</a> that provides insight into the timing and nature of Mars’ ancient water activity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracing-mars-watery-past">Tracing Mars’ watery past</h2>



Scientists have long known that the Lafayette Meteorite interacted with liquid water on Mars, but the exact timing of this event was uncertain.&nbsp;



Dr. Marissa Tremblay, an assistant professor at Purdue University’s <a href="https://www.eaps.purdue.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences</a> (EAPS), led an international research team to determine the age of the water-altered minerals in the meteorite, pinpointing it to 742 million years ago.



“Dating these minerals can therefore tell us when there was liquid water at or near the surface of Mars in the planet's geologic past,” Tremblay explained.&nbsp;



The findings suggest that while liquid water wasn’t abundant on the surface at this time, it likely came from melting subsurface ice, or permafrost, caused by intermittent volcanic activity - a phenomenon still observed on Mars today.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-preserving-a-moment-in-mars-geological-timeline">Preserving a moment in Mars’ geological timeline</h2>



The study not only identified when water interacted with the meteorite but also established that the dating was unaffected by events after the meteorite left Mars.&nbsp;



“The age could have been affected by the impact that ejected the Lafayette Meteorite from Mars, the heating it experienced during the 11 million years it was floating in space, or the heating when it fell to Earth,” Tremblay said.&nbsp;



However, the team confirmed that none of these factors altered the age, validating the timeline of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mars-lost-most-of-its-water-but-where-did-it-go/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">water</a> interaction.



Study co-author and Purdue EAPS researcher Ryan Ickert applied heavy isotope analysis to further verify that previous data on the meteorite’s water-rock interaction had likely been skewed by other geological processes.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This meteorite uniquely has evidence that it has reacted with water. The exact date of this was controversial, and our publication dates when water was present,” said Ickert.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mysterious-journey-of-the-meteorite">Mysterious journey of the meteorite </h2>



The Lafayette Meteorite’s journey to Purdue is something of a mystery. It was found in a university drawer in 1931, though how it got there remains unknown.&nbsp;



In previous research, Tremblay and her team used crop disease markers from organic contaminants found on the meteorite to narrow down when it might have fallen to Earth.



Once the meteorite was ejected from Mars, it endured constant cosmic ray bombardment in space, which produced certain isotopes, offering clues to its time of impact on Earth.&nbsp;



“Many meteoroids are produced by impacts on Mars and other planetary bodies, but only a handful will eventually fall to Earth,” Tremblay said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-planetary-time-capsules">Planetary time capsules</h2>



Meteorites like Lafayette serve as planetary time capsules, offering invaluable data on the geological and environmental history of their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/most-meteorites-can-be-traced-to-three-asteroid-families/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">home worlds</a>. With their dense structure, metallic content, and magnetic properties, meteorites are often distinguishable from Earth rocks.&nbsp;



“We can identify meteorites by studying what minerals are present in them, their mineral relationships, and by checking for a fusion crust formed during entry into Earth’s atmosphere,” Tremblay explained.&nbsp;



By analyzing these traits and their chemical signatures, scientists can often determine a meteorite’s planetary origin.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-complex-history-of-meteorites">Complex history of meteorites</h2>



This research marks a significant milestone for the team, which included scientists from institutions across the globe, such as the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Center (SUERC), the University of St. Andrews, the University of Glasgow, the University of Bristol, and London’s <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Natural History Museum</a>.&nbsp;



“Before moving to Purdue, Ryan and I were both based at SUERC, where the argon-argon isotopic analyses of the alteration minerals in Lafayette took place,” Tremblay said.&nbsp;



Their partners at SUERC and the Natural History Museum have long contributed to studying Lafayette’s complex history.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dating-minerals-in-meteorites">Dating minerals in meteorites</h2>



Dating the water-altered minerals in Lafayette, and others in its class of Martian meteorites called nakhlites, has been a central focus in planetary science, as they uniquely capture moments when liquid water was present on Mars.&nbsp;



Due to complex alterations over time, previous attempts to date these minerals were plagued with uncertainties.&nbsp;



However, the team has now developed a robust dating method that could be applied to other meteorites, enhancing our understanding of when water might have been present on Mars and other planetary bodies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-of-planetary-science">The future of planetary science</h2>



Thanks to the Stahura Undergraduate Meteorite Fund, Tremblay and Ickert’s research on the Lafayette Meteorite will continue, with the involvement of undergraduate students in Purdue EAPS.&nbsp;



This opportunity allows students to engage in real-world planetary science, helping to reveal the intricate histories of meteoritic samples.



Tremblay and her team’s work on the Lafayette Meteorite highlights its scientific significance, revealing a complex history that ties it to Mars’ geological past.&nbsp;



Their findings not only deepen our understanding of Mars but also set a precedent for future studies that might unveil even more about the red planet’s climate history, water activity, and potential for supporting <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/some-mars-rocks-contain-signs-of-life-scientists-call-to-bring-them-back-to-earth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">life</a>.



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Meteorite that struck Mars reveals when the planet had liquid water

An asteroid impact on Mars 11 million years ago sent fragments of the red planet hurtling through space. One of these pieces eventually crashed into Earth, making its way to Purdue University and becoming known as the Lafayette Meteorite.&nbsp; This rare find has been instrumental in unlocking secrets of Mars’ watery past, with new research recently published in the journal Geochemical Perspective Letters that provides insight into the timing and nature of Mars’ ancient water activity. Tracing Mars’ watery past Scientists have long known that the Lafayette...

Blueberries have often been touted as a superfood as they are full of antioxidants, vitamins and healthy plant compounds. Their apparent health benefits include improved blood sugar regulation, lower blood pressure and reduced risk of heart attacks. And now, a recent study from the <a href="https://www.uc.edu/">University of Cincinnati</a>&nbsp;has found that supplementing the diets of middle-aged people with blueberries may lower their risk of developing late-life <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-dementia-cases-may-triple-by-2050/">dementia</a>.&nbsp;



Previous research led by UC’s Dr. Robert Krikorian had focused on the benefits of berries for people with a greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, but their studies had involved older people. For the current study, the experts investigated the potential benefits among middle-aged individuals, in terms of dementia prevention and risk reduction.&nbsp;



Blueberries have particularly high levels of micronutrients and antioxidants, and also contain certain vitamins and minerals. Among the beneficial plant compounds are quercetin and myricetin, flavonols that have been linked to reduction in blood pressure and prevention of cancer, respectively. Blueberries are also very rich in anthocyanins, a type of antioxidant that protects the plant against excess radiation, infectious agents and other threats.&nbsp;



These same properties that benefit blueberries also provide benefits to humans, Dr. Krikorian said, such as reducing inflammation, improving metabolic function and enhancing energy production within cells.&nbsp;



Dr. Krikorian explained that about 50 percent of individuals in the U.S. develop insulin resistance, commonly referred to as prediabetes, around middle age. Prediabetes has been shown to be a factor in chronic diseases, he said.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“We had observed cognitive benefits with blueberries in prior studies with older adults and thought they might be effective in younger individuals with insulin resistance,” said Dr. Krikorian, an expert in the UC College of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience. “Alzheimer’s disease, like all chronic diseases of aging, develops over a period of many years, beginning in midlife.”&nbsp;



In order to find out whether consuming blueberries had any effect on the cognitive abilities of middle-aged people, the researchers enrolled 33 patients between the ages of 50 and 65 from around the Cincinnati area. All the participants were overweight, prediabetic and had noticed mild memory decline in themselves. Dr. Krikorian said this population has an increased risk for developing late-life dementia and other common conditions.&nbsp;



The participants abstained from eating any berries over a period of 12 weeks, and were instead given a daily packet of supplement powder, to be mixed with water and drunk at breakfast of dinner time. Half of the participants received powder that contained the equivalent of one-half cup of whole blueberries, while the other half received a placebo.&nbsp;



The cognitive abilities of the participants were tested by assessing aspects of their executive functioning, such as their working memory, mental flexibility and self-control. Cognitive dysfunction in these areas is often associated with aging and with the development of late-life dementia.&nbsp;



The results of the research, published recently in the journal <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/8/1619">Nutrients</a>, showed that those individuals whose diet was supplemented with blueberries had improved performance on cognitive tasks that depend on executive control.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This was evident as reduced interference of extraneous information during learning and memory,” Krikorian explained.&nbsp;



Patients in the blueberry group also had lower fasting levels of insulin, indicating that they had improved metabolic function and were more able to utilize fat as an energy source.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Krikorian said the blueberry group also displayed an additional slightly higher levels of mitochondrial uncoupling, a cellular process that has been associated with greater longevity and reduced oxidative stress. Oxidative stress can lead to symptoms like fatigue and memory loss.&nbsp;



“This last finding was exploratory but points to an interesting, potential mechanism for blueberry benefits,” he said.&nbsp;



Dr. Krikorian said that, in future, he would like to investigate the exact biochemical mechanisms whereby blueberry compounds help improve cognitive performance and metabolic function. But the most important conclusion from the current study is that regular blueberry supplementation into the diets of at-risk, middle-aged people may lower their chances of developing late-life dementia.&nbsp;



“The sample size is an obvious limitation of the study, so it will be important to reproduce these findings, especially by other investigators,” said Dr. Krikorian. “In the meantime, it might be a good idea to consume blueberries on a regular basis.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



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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

Blueberries may protect our brains against dementia

Blueberries have often been touted as a superfood as they...

Previous studies of violent coastal <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/deforestation-exposes-coastal-cities-to-more-deadly-storms/">storms</a> have tended to focus exclusively on the extensive damage caused to beaches, dunes, properties, and surrounding infrastructure. However, new research led by the <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/">University of New South Wales</a> (UNSW) has found that extreme weather events could actually help protect beaches from the impact of sea level rise, by bringing in new sand from deep waters or nearby beaches.



“We know that extreme storms cause major coastal erosion and damage to beachfront properties. For the first time we looked not just above water, where the impacts of extreme storms are easy to see, but also deep down below the water as well,” said study lead author Mitchell Harley, an expert in continental shelf dynamics at UNSW.



“What we found was that hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of sand were entering these beach systems during these events – that’s similar to the scale of what engineers use to nourish a beach artificially. This could potentially be enough to offset some of the impacts of sea level rises caused by climate change, such as retreating coastlines, and by several decades in the long-term. It’s a new way of looking at extreme storms.”



These findings emerged after Dr. Harley’s team examined three coastlines across Australia, the United Kingdom, and Mexico, which were all subjected to a series of extreme storms or extended storm clusters, followed by periods of beach recovery. High-resolution measurements of the beaches and seabed have revealed that sediment gains from the storms were sufficient to theoretically offset decades of projected shoreline retreat.



How much a coastline may change due to sea level rise is a crucial question facing coastline managers, as they plan to protect coastlines from the escalating impacts of climate change. To estimate this, scientists have previously used the Bruun rule, which states that, for a given meter of sea-level rise, the coastline is expected to retreat between 20 and 100 meters, depending on the steepness of the coast.



“The Bruun rule however has been criticized for its simplicity, as it doesn’t take into account the many complex factors about how individual beaches respond to sea-level rise,” said study co-author Geerd Masselink, a professor of Coastal Geomorphology at the <a href="https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/">University of Plymouth</a>.&nbsp; “This includes the presence of sand stored in deeper water immediately off the coast – and its potential to be mobilized during extreme weather events.”



For the moment, there are so few measurements of the seabed immediately off the coastlines that it is difficult to tell how much sand could be mobilized in the future.&nbsp;



“We’re only scraping the surface here. We need to repeat these types of monitoring measurements for more storms and different types of coastal settings under various conditions. Only then, will we be able to get a clearer understanding of how much sand is stored off the coast that could potentially help buffer the impacts of sea level rise – and a clearer picture of what our beaches could look like in the year 2100 and beyond,” concluded Dr. Harley.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00437-2">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

Major storms nourish beaches with enormous loads of sand

Previous studies of violent coastal storms have tended to focus...

Microbes which have developed resistance to common antibiotics such as tetracycline or aminoglycoside are a major source of risk for people worldwide. Scientists have long known that antimicrobial resistance in humans is largely based on their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/our-gut-microbiome-is-shaped-by-what-we-eat/">gut microbiome</a>, where various microbes carry genetically encoded strategies to survive exposure to antibiotics.&nbsp;



A research team led by the <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/">Agricultural Research Service</a> (ARS) has now found that healthy adults who eat a diverse diet containing at least 8-10 grams of soluble fiber each day have fewer antibiotic-resistant microbes in their guts.



“The results lead directly to the idea that modifying the diet has the potential to be a new weapon in the fight against antimicrobial resistance,” said study senior author Danielle Lemay, a molecular biologist at the <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/davis-ca/whnrc/">ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center</a> in Davis, California. “And we’re not talking about eating some exotic diet either, but a diverse diet, adequate in fiber, that some Americans already eat.”



By analyzing a cohort of 290 healthy adult participants, Dr. Lemay and her colleagues discovered that regularly eating a diet with higher levels of soluble fiber (found in grains like barley and oats, legumes such as beans, lentils, and peas, as well as in nuts and seeds) and lower levels of animal protein was significantly correlated with lower levels of antimicrobial resistance genes (AMR) among participants’ gut microbes.



“Surprisingly, the most important predictor of low levels of ARG, even more than fiber, was the diversity of the diet. This suggests that we may want to eat from diverse sources of foods that tend to be higher in soluble fiber for maximum benefit,” explained Dr. Lemay.



On the other hand, people who had the highest level of antimicrobial resistance in their gut microbiomes were found to have a significantly less diverse gut microbiomes compared to those with low and medium levels of ARG. “Our diets provide food for gut microbes. This all suggests that what we eat might be a solution to reduce antimicrobial resistance by modifying the gut microbiome,”&nbsp;said Dr. Lemay.



“But this is still just a beginning because what we did was an observational study rather than a study in which we provided a particular diet for subjects to eat, which would allow more head-to-head comparisons. In the end, dietary interventions may be useful in lessening the burden of antimicrobial resistance and might ultimately motivate dietary guidelines that will consider how nutrition could reduce the risk of antibiotic-resistant infections,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/mbio.00101-22">mBio</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

Fiber-rich diets reduce antimicrobial resistance in the gut

Microbes which have developed resistance to common antibiotics such as...

The monotremes belong to an ancient order of mammals represented by only five living species – the duckbilled platypus and four species of echidna (or spiny anteater). All of these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/greater-risk-of-extinction-for-large-bodied-mammals-in-the-past/">mammals</a> have several things in common. They are endemic to Australia, have some primitive skeletal features, and lay eggs. Today we recognize this order as being one of the three orders of mammals, along with marsupials and placental mammals, but it was not always this way in the past.



Until the time that Europeans first encountered platypuses and echidnas in the 1790s, it was assumed that all mammals give birth to live young. The proposal that some mammals reproduce by laying eggs was considered preposterous in early 19th century zoological circles. But then, the subject became the topic of great debate and naturalists were encouraged to find evidence of these egg-laying mammals.&nbsp;



“In the nineteenth century, many conservative scientists didn’t want to believe that an egg-laying mammal could exist, because this would support the theory of evolution – the idea that one animal group was capable of changing into another,” said Jack Ashby, assistant director at the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> Museum of Zoology.



“Lizards and frogs lay eggs, so the idea of a mammal laying eggs was dismissed by many people – I think they felt it was degrading to be related to animals that they considered ‘lower life forms.’”



For 85 years, European naturalists attempted to find proof that platypuses and echidnas lay eggs. They sought the help of Aboriginal Australians and sent reports home to Europe – all their results were either ignored or dismissed as fantastical. However, in 1883, William Caldwell, a Scottish zoologist working at Cambridge University went to Australia to resolve the burning question.&nbsp;



Caldwell set up camp on the banks of the Burnett River in northern Queensland and began hunting for platypus and echidna specimens and eggs. After extensive searching, and assisted by a team of 150&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_Australians">Aborigines</a>, he collected around 1,400 specimens to be sent back to Cambridge. In 1884, the team eventually found an echidna with an egg in her pouch and a platypus with one egg in her nest and another in her body, just about to be laid.&nbsp;



Caldwell sent news of his triumphant findings back to his mentor at the university. Monotremes were indeed oviparous! The confirmation spread around the world, as though the colonial scientific establishment could now believe this evidence because it had been confirmed by "one of their own."



While doing recent research on a book about Australian mammals, Ashby began to wonder what had happened to those original specimens collected by Caldwell during his fact-finding mission in Australia. He considered it most likely that they had been brought to the University Museum but there was no record of them in the Museum’s catalogue. He asked Collections Manager Mathew Lowe to look out for specimens that would fit the description and, three months later, was rewarded with a box of jars, each one containing a tiny platypus or echidna specimen.&nbsp;



“I knew from experience that there isn’t a natural history collection on Earth that actually has a comprehensive catalogue of everything in it, and I suspected that Caldwell’s specimens really ought to be here,” explained Ashby, who was delighted at this exciting find.



“It’s one thing to read the 19th&nbsp;century announcements that platypuses and echidnas actually lay eggs. But to have the physical specimens here, tying us back to that discovery almost 150 years ago, is pretty amazing."



At the time of their collection, these specimens were key to proving that some mammals lay eggs – a fact that changed the course of scientific thinking and supported the theory of evolution. But the unique assemblage of jars had not been catalogued by the Museum so, until recently, staff had been unaware of its existence.&nbsp;



The newly discovered collection includes echidnas, platypuses and marsupials at varying life stages, from fertilized egg to adolescence. Caldwell was the first to make complete collections of every life stage of these species – although not all of the 1,400 specimens have been found in the Museum. Details of the specimens that have recently been rediscovered among the Museum’s collections are published today in the



Ashby says that over the last two centuries, scientists have consistently belittled Australian mammals by describing them as strange and inferior. He believes that this language continues to affect how we describe them today, and undermines efforts to conserve them.



“Platypuses and echidnas are not weird, primitive animals – as many historic accounts depict them – they are as evolved as anything else. It’s just that they’ve never stopped laying eggs,” he said. “I think they’re absolutely amazing and definitely worth valuing.”



The quill-covered echidnas are the most widespread mammal in Australia. They inhabit different ecosystems over the whole continent and have adapted to live in all climates, from snow-covered mountains to the driest deserts.



Platypuses are unique among mammals in that they can detect electricity, and can produce venom. With a tail like a beaver, a flat bill, and webbed feet like a duck, the first specimens brought to Europe were considered to be fakes that had been sewn together.



Ashby’s new book,&nbsp;Platypus Matters: The Extraordinary Story of Australian Mammals, was published in the UK on May, 12 2022 by HarperCollins.&nbsp;



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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

Unique museum collection of platypuses resurfaces after 150 years

The monotremes belong to an ancient order of mammals represented...

A new report from the <a href="https://www.unccd.int/">United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification</a> (UNCCD) has argued that humanity is “at a crossroads” when it comes to managing the increasingly high number of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-have-a-memory-of-drought/">droughts</a> and the severity of their impacts worldwide. The experts found that, since 2000, the number and duration of droughts has increased by 29 percent, and took the largest human toll among all natural disasters. If mitigation actions are not done “urgently, using every tool we have,” droughts may end up affecting over three-quarters of the world’s population by 2050.



“The facts and figures of this publication all point in the same direction: an upward trajectory in the duration of droughts and the severity of impacts, not only affecting human societies, but also the ecological systems upon which the survival of all life depends, including that of our own species,” said Ibrahim Thiaw, the Executive Secretary of UNCCD.



The report revealed that from 1970 to 2019, weather, climate, and water hazards accounted for over 50 percent of all natural disasters and 45 percent of disaster-related casualties, most of them in developing countries. From 1998 to 2017, droughts caused global economic losses of nearly $124 billion. This year, over 2.3 billion people face water stress and 160 million children are exposed to severe and extended droughts.



According to the scientists, unless action is significantly stepped up, by the end of this decade an estimated 700 million people may be displaced by droughts, while by mid-century 4.8 to 5.7 billion people will live in water-scarce areas for at least one month per year.



“We are at a crossroads,” said Thiaw.&nbsp;“We need to steer toward the solutions rather than continuing with destructive actions, believing that marginal change can heal systemic failure. One of the best, most comprehensive solutions is land restoration, which addresses many of the underlying factors of degraded water cycles and the loss of soil fertility. We must build and rebuild our landscapes better, mimicking nature wherever possible and creating functional ecological systems.”



Beyond these restoration efforts, there is an urgent need for a paradigm shift from “reactive” and “crisis-based” drought management approaches to “proactive” and “risk-based” ones, involving political and institutional communication, cooperation, and coordination. “We all must live up to our responsibility to ensure the health of present and future generations, wholeheartedly and without delay,” concluded Thiaw.



Further details about this report can be found on UNCCD’s <a href="https://www.unccd.int/news-stories/press-releases/world-crossroads-drought-management-29-generation-and-worsening-says-un">website</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

The world is at a crossroads in managing severe droughts

A new report from the United Nations Convention to Combat...

If we knew the carbon footprint of our favorite restaurant meal, would we choose a different dinner? This is what Ann-Katrin Betz and colleagues at <a href="https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/startseite/">Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg</a> set out to investigate in a recent study. The researchers gave would-be diners menus that specified each meal’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-carbon-sinks-may-be-appearing-in-the-arctic/">carbon</a> footprint, or menus that gave high-, medium-, and low-emission options, and then asked them to choose their dinner.



Previous research has shown that people’s food choices substantially affect their personal carbon footprint. However, most studies examining factors that influence environmentally relevant food choices have focused on grocery purchases.



In the current study, Betz and colleagues used an online survey of 256 volunteers to explore how restaurant menu design might influence diners’ awareness of the climate-related impacts of their dinner choices. They created nine hypothetical menus in order to test two different design approaches: dishes described along with each one’s carbon label indicating the amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with its production, and dishes given with options that were high-, medium- or low-emission alternatives.&nbsp;



One example of a modifiable dish was a couscous salad that could be ordered with beef (high emission), shawarma (poultry; medium emission), or falafel (low emission). On six of the menus, the main dishes were presented with different default options – the side dish was associated either with the highest, or with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions.&nbsp;



The researchers asked each volunteer to choose exactly one meal that they would order from each of the nine different menus. This appears to be the first published study to simultaneously explore the effects of default options and carbon labels on food choice.



After statistical analysis, the findings showed that participants selected more climate-friendly dishes when carbon emission labels were present, as well as when defaults consisted of low- rather than high-emission options. These findings are in line with results from earlier studies that explored the two approaches separately.



The results of the study, published today in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000028">PLOS Climate</a>, suggest that the design of restaurant menus has a considerable effect on the carbon footprint of dining out. Restaurant owners could use carbon labels for each dish, and could also use the most climate-friendly component as the default option in modifiable dishes with variable components, as both these options could reduce the carbon footprint of their business.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The researchers emphasize that more research is needed to inform such strategies, including investigations into interactions between the two approaches, the impact of personal habits – such as vegetarianism – on menu choices, and menu choices in real-world settings.



“If we want more climate-friendly restaurant visits, highlighting dish components on a menu can really be an important parameter because it communicates what is normal and recommended," said the study authors. "It may also be one of the easiest things restaurant owners can do.”



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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

Restaurant menus could guide more climate-friendly diets

If we knew the carbon footprint of our favorite restaurant...

A shallow inland sea with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/animals-combine-different-strategies-to-survive-the-cold/">animals</a> and plants very different from those found today covered much of Wyoming 95 million years ago, according to a new study. It has long been known that during this time in history, temperatures were warmer than they are today. However, no study directly attempted to measure the temperature, until now.&nbsp;



Researchers at the <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> analyzed oyster shell fossils to calculate the temperature of the Mesozoic Wyoming sea. The temperature was a calculation taken for the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, one of Earth’s hottest points in the last few hundred million years.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



"These data indicate that the North American interior during the peak of the Cretaceous greenhouse was as warm as the hottest conditions in the modern-day tropics - imagine the climate of Bali, Indonesia, in places like Utah or Wyoming," said study lead author Matt Jones, a former University of Michigan postdoctoral researcher now at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.



The researchers found that during the mid-Cretaceous, temperatures in the Western Interior Seaway ranged from 28 to 34 degrees Celsius (or 82 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit). This is as warm as the warmest known waters on Earth today and is comparable to Bali.



The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during this time period are still debated, but some scientists estimate there could have been more than 1,000 parts per million (ppm). We are still below that number now, with levels around 420 ppm, but experts worry that we could see similar levels by the end of the century unless we change our energy consumption habits.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



"These new findings help resolve temperatures in North America during a peak greenhouse warmth interval in the geologic past, which in turn may help us better predict just how warm Earth may be in the future under projected higher atmospheric CO2 conditions," said study co-author Professor Sierra Petersen.



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/geology">Geology</a>.



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

Wyoming once had a hot, tropical climate

A shallow inland sea with animals and plants very different...

Ice shelves are floating extensions of glaciers that are key to maintaining the Earth's <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-affect-the-timing-of-plankton-blooms/">climate</a>. If Greenland’s second largest ice shelf breaks up, it would need a significantly cooler climate in the future to recover - if it could even recover at all. This is the result of a new study led by Henning Åkesson at <a href="https://www.su.se/cmlink/stockholm-university">Stockholm University</a>.



The Petermann ice shelf is one of the last remaining in northern Greenland. In 2010 and 2012, Manhattan-sized icebergs broke off, causing Petermann to lose 40 percent of its floating ice. In 2018, a new crack was discovered in the middle of the shelf, which has caused great concern among climate scientists.&nbsp;



Ice shelves limit sea level rise caused by global warming because they reduce the mass loss from polar ice sheets, and it is more important now than ever before to prevent them from breaking up. 



"Glacier retreat is projected to continue over the coming decades to centuries due to sustained climate warming," wrote the study authors. "Nonetheless, the Paris Agreement aims to reduce emissions enough to limit future warming to 2 °C higher than in Earth’s pre-industrial climate. This could eventually permit a return to a colder climate, reminiscent of that of the pre-industrial period."



Even if the climate stopped warming today, it would still be difficult to rebuild Petermann after falling apart. “If Petermann’s ice shelf is lost, we would have to go ‘back in time’ towards a cooler climate reminiscent of the period before the industrial revolution to regrow Petermann," said Åkesson.



This study raises major concerns about the larger ice shelves in Antarctica. It is likely that if these were to break up, they could also be difficult to build back.



“This is just the first step, but chances are that our findings are not unique for Petermann Glacier and Greenland.” said Åkesson. “If they are not, near-future warming of the polar oceans may push the ice shelves protecting Earth’s ice sheets into a new retreated high-discharge state which may be exceedingly difficult to recover from.”



The scientists emphasize that we need to identify exactly how ice shelves break up, and how much more warming they can withstand before they fall apart.



"Given the difficulty to regrow ice shelves once they have collapsed, the rationale to avoid ice-shelf breakup in the first place should be clearer than ever," wrote the study authors.



"Future research needs to pin down the exact mechanisms and thresholds of ice-shelf breakup, and to what extent ice shelves in Antarctica exhibit the same behaviour as Petermann Glacier Ice Shelf in Greenland.



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>.



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

Ice shelves will struggle to recover from global warming

Ice shelves are floating extensions of glaciers that are key...

Continents,Earth,Are,Made,Up,Of,Garbage,,Surrounded,By,Ocean

It’s estimated that there could be 80 million metric tons of trash dropped into the ocean annually by 2040. As of now, tiny particles of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plastic-production-must-be-phased-out-to-stop-pollution/">plastic</a> are found nearly everywhere from soil water and air to inside the human body. Even the remote waters around Antarctica and the Arctic have transported plastics to frozen shores and the bottom of seas.&nbsp;



Now, researchers have found that air can transport tiny plastic particles to distant lands and waters. The experts estimate that, each year, between 0.013 and 25 million metric tons of nano- and microplastics are carried by air, snow, sea spray and fog across entire continents.&nbsp;



“Air is a much more dynamic medium than water. As a result, micro- and nanoplastic can much more quickly penetrate those regions of our planet that are most remote and still largely untouched," explained study co-author Dr. Melanie Bergmann from the <a href="https://www.awi.de/en/">Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research</a> (AWI).



Plastic particles end up in the atmosphere from a number of different sources. Some are directly caused by humans, such as particles created from tires and brakes or exhaust. Other particles end up in the atmosphere from the marine environment. Because of this, the researchers emphasize the importance of better understanding the interactions between water and atmosphere and the role plastics play in this system.&nbsp;



“We need to integrate micro- and nanoplastic in our measurements of air pollution, ideally on an international scale as part of global networks," said Dr. Bergmann.



The experts noted that further research and collaboration on an international and interdisciplinary level will be required to understand and tackle this problem.&nbsp;



"To address the uncertainties and remaining knowledge gaps in the marine-atmospheric micro(nano)plastic cycle, we propose a future global marine-atmospheric micro(nano)plastic observation strategy, incorporating novel sampling methods and the creation of a comparable, harmonized and global data set," wrote the study authors.



"Together with long-term observations and intensive investigations, this strategy will help to define the trends in marine-atmospheric pollution and any responses to future policy and management actions."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/natrevearthenviron/">Nature Reviews, Earth and Environment</a>.



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

Plastic particles can travel in the air across entire continents

It’s estimated that there could be 80 million metric tons...

A new report by the <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en">World Meteorological Organization</a> (WMO) has argued that there is a 50/50 chance for the average global <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mysterious-temperature-swings-on-neptune-have-scientists-puzzled/">temperature</a> to surpass the critical threshold of 1.5°C&nbsp;above pre-industrial levels&nbsp;for at least one of the next five years. The experts have also determined that there is a 93 percent chance that at least one year between 2022 and 2026 will become the warmest on record, surpassing 2016 from the top ranking.



In 2015, the chance of global temperatures rising above the 1.5°C threshold was close to zero, but the odds steadily increased over the next few years. For the 2022-2026 period, that probability has reached nearly 50 percent. Such rapid heating will most likely have a devastating impact on a variety of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and will cause substantial ice loss in the Arctic, which, in its turn, will lead to accelerated <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-levels-are-rising-at-an-alarming-rate/">sea level rise</a> and massive floods in the world’s coastal regions.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This study shows – with a high level of scientific skill – that we are getting measurably closer to temporarily reaching the lower target of the Paris Agreement&nbsp;on Climate Change. The 1.5°C figure is not some random statistic. It is rather an indicator of the point at which climate impacts will become increasingly harmful for people and indeed the entire planet,” said Professor Petteri Taalas, the WMO Secretary-General.



“For as long as we continue to emit greenhouse gases, temperatures will continue to rise. And alongside that, our oceans will continue to become warmer and more acidic, sea ice and glaciers will continue to melt, sea levels will continue to rise, and our weather will become more extreme. Arctic warming is disproportionately high and what happens in the Arctic affects all of us.”&nbsp;



While a single year in which temperatures will exceed the 1.5°C does not necessarily mean that the Paris Agreement targets are breached, it does reveal that we are getting closer to a situation where this threshold could be exceeded for an extended period, leading to catastrophic climatic events.&nbsp;



According to Andrew King, a climate scientist at the <a href="https://www.unimelb.edu.au/">University of Melbourne</a>, this report highlights how fast humans are warming the planet. “Our greenhouse gas emissions are still at near-record highs and until we get emissions down to net-zero, we’re going to continue to see global warming,” he said. “If we fail to take that action, we will have much worse heatwaves and bushfire conditions as well as coral reefs that have been decimated beyond recognition.”



The full report can be downloaded from <a href="https://hadleyserver.metoffice.gov.uk/wmolc/">here</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

50/50 chance that global warming will soon exceed 1.5°C

A new report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has...

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A tropical spider species can hide from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/some-bats-buzz-like-hornets-to-deter-predators/">predators</a> underwater for up to 30 minutes by using a “film” of air. The film allows the creature to breathe while submerged in water.



Lindsey Swierk, assistant research professor of Biological Sciences at <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/">Binghamton University</a>, observed a large tropical spider fleeing from humans and hiding underwater. This was an interesting discovery as the species was not previously known to escape by water.&nbsp;



“For a lot of species, getting wet and cold is almost as risky to survival as dealing with their predators to begin with,” said Swierk. “Trechalea spiders weren't previously known to hide underwater from threats - and certainly not for so long.”&nbsp;



The spider spent about 30 minutes underwater by keeping a "film" of air over its entire body. The fuzzy hairs that cover the spider's body likely help maintain the film of air. This strategy could work to prevent thermal loss while underwater, or prevent water from entering respiratory organs. Swierk and her colleagues suspected this because spiders are air-breathing creatures that are not adapted to cold stream water that the spider submerged itself in.&nbsp;



“The film of air surrounding the spider appears to be held in place by hydrophobic hairs covering the spider's entire body surface,” said Swierk. “It's so complete that the spider almost looks like it's been dipped in silver”.&nbsp;



This observation provides new insight into how species can cope with the problem of finding refuge underwater. Swierk had previously observed a Costa-Rican lizard species that was able to stay underwater for 16 minutes to hide from predators.



Animals that hide from predators are forced to manage risks and find creative means to survive. These animals, such as spiders, could also face risks by fleeing predators.&nbsp;



“For some species that means leaving territory or mates unguarded, or maybe spending stored energy in a sprint. In this species, potential risks of underwater refuge use can include lack of respiration and a loss of body heat," said Swierk.&nbsp;



The fascinating discovery has opened the door to further explore how different species can escape their predators to survive.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14390310">Ethology</a>. Image Credit: Lindsey Swierk



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

Tropical spider can hide underwater for 30 minutes

A tropical spider species can hide from predators underwater for...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmolb.2022.815320/full">Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences</a> has found that supplementing a diet with the marine organisms Ascidiacea – also known as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/promising-anti-cancer-treatment-discovered-in-sea-squirts/">sea squirts</a> – reverses some of the main signs of aging in animal models such as mice.&nbsp;



Sea squirts contain a group of substances called plasmalogens, which are vital to a variety of bodily processes. Plasmalogens are found in our bodies naturally - particularly in the brain, heart, and immune cells - but they tend to decrease while we age, often leading to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.



By adding plasmalogens in the diets of aged mice, the scientists found that these supplements had profound effects on the animals’ learning abilities and physical characteristics. “Our research suggests that plasmalogens may not just stop cognitive decline, but may reverse cognitive impairments in the aging brain,” said study senior author Lei Fu, a professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacy at the <a href="https://www.xjtlu.edu.cn/en/">Xi’an Jiotong-Liverpool University</a>. “Additionally, aged mice fed with the plasmalogens grow new black hair that is thicker and glossier than aged mice not fed the supplement.”&nbsp;



Professor Fu and his colleagues tested the effects of the plasmalogens on mice’s learning and memory abilities by training the animals to use a Morris water maze (a pool of water with a platform serving as a resting area). Since mice do not like to swim, after five days of training, they remember exactly where the platform is and swim directly towards it the moment they enter the pool. 



However, due to memory deficits, older specimens take longer to localize the platform after the same amount of training. When fed with plasmalogens though, aged mice manage to find the platform just as fast as their younger conspecifics.



“We found that plasmalogens significantly increase the number of molecules that aid the growth and development of neurons and synapses in the brain. This suggests that plasmalogens can promote neuroregeneration,” explained Professor Fu.



“There is also an increasing body of evidence that plasmalogens directly affect the structural properties of synapses. Plasmalogens may increase the fluidity and flexibility of synaptic membranes, affecting the transmission of impulses between neurons.”



Moreover, these substances may also have indirect effects on our brains, by affecting the microorganisms in our gut. “It has been widely reported that the connection between the organisms in our gut and our brain influences neurodegeneration. It may be the plasmalogens’ effect on this connection that causes the improvements in learning and memory seen in this study,” said Professor Fu.



Thus, plasmalogen supplements could be a valuable intervention strategy for stopping neurodegeneration and promoting neuroregeneration. “The oral intake of plasmalogens could be a feasible therapeutic strategy to improve cognitive function in older people,” Professor Fu concluded.



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

Eating sea squirts may reverse aging processes

A new study published in the journal Frontiers in Molecular...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River.



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



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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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



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

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

[sendtonews key="iuA5mpp3jv-1641775-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> explores the ability of salt to transform the way that foods and beverages taste. Salt is known to cover up undesirable flavors, such as bitterness in coffee or beer, but how exactly does sodium chloride change the taste of other compounds?



One previous study showed that, not only does salt suppress bitterness, but also enhances sweetness and sourness. Another study revealed that bitterness reduction by salt seems to be happening at the tongue receptor level as well as in the brain.&nbsp;



While it is known that salt taste is mediated by the presence of sodium channels in the form of taste buds, experts believe that there is also an unknown receptor responsible for how we taste salt that has not yet been identified.&nbsp;



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



'The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September)."



"The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries," says ESA.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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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

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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

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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

[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...