An,Artist's,Illustration,Of,A,Black,Hole,In,Interstellar,Space

Astronomers recently discovered the biggest pair of black hole jets ever observed and named this system Porphyrion. Imagine something so massive that it lines up 140 Milky Way galaxies back to back. Then multiply that thought by two. It's almost too much for our minds to fathom, but that's exactly what they found.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meet-black-hole-jet-system-porphyrion">Meet black hole jet system Porphyrion</h2>



Martijn Oei is a <a href="https://www.caltech.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Caltech</a> postdoctoral scholar with a flair for digging into the mysteries of the universe. His recent work published in a new Nature paper has everyone talking.



Oei and his team discovered this enormous pair of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/awakening-of-a-black-hole-witnessed-for-the-first-time/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">black hole</a> jets named Porphyrion. Derived from Greek mythology, Porphyrion is a fitting moniker for a structure with such colossal proportions.



This jet megastructure not only spans 23 million light-years in total length, but it also dates back to when our universe was just 6.3 billion years old. 



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/black-hole-jet_23-million-light-years_Porphyrion_credit-Caltech-Oei_Martijn_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/black-hole-jet_23-million-light-years_Porphyrion_credit-Caltech-Oei_Martijn_1s.webp" alt="An artist's illustration of the longest black hole jet system ever observed. Nicknamed Porphyrion after a mythological Greek giant, these jets span roughly 7 megaparsecs, or 23 million light-years. That is equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back-to-back. Porphyrion dates back to a time when our universe was less than half its present age. Credit: Caltech" class="wp-image-1945007"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">An artist's illustration of the longest black hole jet system ever observed. Nicknamed Porphyrion after a mythological Greek giant, these jets span roughly 7 megaparsecs, or 23 million light-years. That is equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back-to-back. Porphyrion dates back to a time when our universe was less than half its present age. Credit: Caltech</figcaption></figure>



That's less than half its present age of 13.8 billion years. To put that into perspective, it's like the universe was still in its adolescence.



These ferocious outflows of energy, with a total power output equivalent to trillions of suns, emanate from a supermassive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/directly-detecting-dark-matter-primordial-black-holes-simple-as-monitoring-mars-orbit/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">black hole</a> at the heart of a distant galaxy. 



Before Porphyrion, the record-holder for the largest jet system was Alcyoneus, another giant named after a figure in Greek mythology. 



Alcyoneus, discovered in 2022 by the same team, measures about the equivalent of 100 <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/newly-discovered-stars-milky-way-are-old-as-universe/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Milky Ways</a>. Comparatively, the Centaurus A jets, the closest major jet system to Earth, only spans 10 Milky Ways.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-shaking-up-the-neighborhood">Shaking up the neighborhood</h2>



What makes Porphyrion's discovery more groundbreaking is the implications it holds for our understanding of galaxy formation. 



Co-author George Djorgovski, professor of astronomy and data science at <a href="https://www.caltech.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Caltech</a>, provided some insights on this.



"Astronomers believe that galaxies and their central black holes co-evolve, and one key aspect of this is that jets can spread huge amounts of energy that affect the growth of their host galaxies and other galaxies near them,” he says. "This discovery shows that their effects can extend much farther out than we thought."



But Porphyrion's scale reveals that the effects of these jets may extend far beyond our previous understanding.



<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="D4GGVHtxYz-3864208-12187" type="single"]</div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-scanning-the-cosmos-and-black-hole-jets">Scanning the cosmos and black hole jets</h2>



The discovery of Porphyrion is part of a larger sky survey, which unveiled a staggering number of similar structures -- over 10,000.



This massive population of gargantuan <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/black-holes-captured-redirecting-jets-beams-like-death-star-weapon/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">jets</a> was found using Europe's <a href="https://www.astron.nl/telescopes/lofar/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">LOFAR</a> (LOw Frequency ARray) radio telescope.



"Giant jets were known before we started the campaign, but we had no idea that there would turn out to be so many," says Martin Hardcastle, second author of the study and a professor of astrophysics at the <a href="https://www.herts.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Hertfordshire</a> in England. 



"Usually when we get a new observational capability, such as LOFAR's combination of wide field of view and very high sensitivity to extended structures, we find something new, but it was still very exciting to see so many of these objects emerging."



The origins of Porphyrion took the team across continents and observatories. They used the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India and supplementary data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. 



The observations pointed the team to a hefty galaxy, about 10 times more massive than our Milky Way, as the birthplace of Porphyrion.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-black-hole-jet-system-porphyrion-s-size">Black hole jet system Porphyrion's size</h2>



Porphyrion resides a mind-boggling 7.5 billion light-years from Earth. Its far-off residency and its emergence from a radiative-mode black hole suggest that it may not be a lone titan, but the harbinger of countless colossal jets yet to be discovered. 



Oei suggests as much, saying, "We may be looking at the tip of the iceberg."



There are still many unanswered questions surrounding these giant black hole jet systems. How do they extend so far and get so big without destabilizing? 



"Martijn's work has shown us that there isn't anything particularly special about the environments of these giant sources that causes them to reach those large sizes," says Hardcastle, who is an expert in the physics of black hole jets. 



"My interpretation is that we need an unusually long-lived and stable accretion event around the central, supermassive black hole to allow it to be active for so long -- about a billion years -- and to ensure that the jets keep pointing in the same direction over all of that time. What we're learning from the large number of giants is that this must be a relatively common occurrence," Hardcastle concluded.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surrounding-influence-and-magnetism">Surrounding influence and magnetism</h2>



How do they influence their surroundings? And perhaps most intriguingly, have these giant jets spread magnetism throughout the cosmos?



"We know magnetism pervades the cosmic web, then makes its way into galaxies and stars, and eventually to planets, but the question is: Where does it start?" Oei rightly says.



This research is the exciting beginning of a new chapter in our understanding of the universe. With the discovery of Porphyrion, we're reminded that we still have a lot to uncover about the mysteries of the cosmos. Even a sky full of stars is just the beginning.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07879-y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a>.



Video Credit: Caltech 



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Largest black hole jets ever seen are 23 million light years long

Astronomers recently discovered the biggest pair of black hole jets ever observed and named this system Porphyrion. Imagine something so massive that it lines up 140 Milky Way galaxies back to back. Then multiply that thought by two. It's almost too much for our minds to fathom, but that's exactly what they found. Meet black hole jet system Porphyrion Martijn Oei is a Caltech postdoctoral scholar with a flair for digging into the mysteries of the universe. His recent work published in a new Nature paper has...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.ab.mpg.de/">Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior</a> in Konstanz, Germany has analyzed the interaction between orangutan mothers and their infants in Sumatra, Indonesia. The researchers found that when orangutan mothers are foraging, they tailor their behavior to match the age and capacities of their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/songbirds-abandon-their-offspring-early-but-its-for-their-own-good/">offspring</a>, thereby helping them to learn.&nbsp;



According to the researchers, this study uncovered the first evidence yet of active involvement by orangutan mothers in their offspring’s learning of new skills.



“Immature orangutans acquire their feeding skills over several years, via social and independent learning,” wrote the study authors. “So far, it has remained uninvestigated to what extent orangutan mothers are actively involved in this learning process. We conclude that orangutan mothers have a more active role in the skill acquisition of their offspring than previously thought.”



During their infancy, orangutans must learn to recognize and process over 200 food items, many of which require several steps before they can be eaten. For instance, while most flowers and leaves require no previous processing, bark must be loosened from the trees and scraped with the teeth in order to access its nutritive parts. The most difficult foods, such as honey from bee hives, require even the use of tools such as sticks in order to consume it.&nbsp;



According to the researchers, immature orangutans learn such complex skills by observing their mothers while they are eating.&nbsp;



“It was puzzling that mothers always seemed so passive during these feeding interactions,” said study lead author Dr. Caroline Schuppli, an evolutionary biologist at the Max Plank Institute. “Mothers have so much time with their offspring, and maintain such a close connection, but they never appeared to be actively involved in the skill acquisition of their young.”&nbsp;



However, by analyzing over 1,300 instances of immature orangutan’s food solicitation – asking or trying to obtain food from their mother – Dr. Schuppli and her colleagues have found that orangutan mothers do in fact respond to their offspring during feeding, and therefore facilitate learning opportunities.&nbsp;



When their offspring solicit food, mothers usually adjust their “tolerance” according to their offspring's age and how difficult the food item is to process.



“Our findings suggest that orangutan mothers are actively involved in their offspring's skill learning,” Dr Schuppli said. “However, they do this in a reactive, rather than proactive way.&nbsp;Interestingly, there were very few incidents of active food sharing only.&nbsp;This means that orangutan immatures need to take the initiative during learning.&nbsp;This is very different from humans, where active teaching plays an important role and role models are much more proactive.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-02901-z">Nature Scientific Reports.&nbsp;</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

Young orangutans learn survival skills from their mom

A new study led by the Max Planck Institute of...

Voice,Search.,Happy,Black,Man,Using,Voice,Assistant,On,Mobile

Life coaching, a process in which an expert helps a person identify and achieve his or her most important personal and professional <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/children-effort-goals-adults/">goals</a>, is becoming increasingly trendy. Such support is also used by groups and companies. Recently, a research team led by <a href="https://www.upf.edu/en/">Pompeu Fabra University</a>, Spain, has investigated the possibility of using virtual life coaches instead of real people.



“Using coaching models, we programmed a conversational agent based only on voice, which would guide people to achieve their goals in the same way that a human coach guides you in your session through questions,” explained study lead author Dr. Laura Aymerich-Franch, a research fellow at Pompeu Fabra University. “In this study we found that, using the application we created, the psychological well-being of the participants improved.”



Dr. Aymerich-Franch and her colleagues created an application called NORIKA, which could be installed on smartphone and operated using a very simple visual interface. In order to test it, the researchers asked 30 participants to work together with NORIKA on deciding which aspects of their lives they wanted to focus on, finding the core values for those specific aspects, identifying a goal based on SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely) criteria, and putting it into practice.



To test the effectiveness of the virtual assistant, the scientists measured variables such as personal growth (Personal Growth Initiative Scale, or PGI), life satisfaction (Life Satisfaction Scale, or SLS), and Implementing the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS).



“The results revealed a significant increase in PGI and SLS values, and in turn an also significant decrease in negative emotions (PANAS) compared to the status prior to the start of the sessions,” explained Dr. Aymerich-Franch. “This suggests that the coaching program contributed positively to psychological well-being, life satisfaction and personal growth.”



“Everything seems to indicate that [virtual coaches such as NORIKA] will be increasingly present in the home. Although for the moment the conversational agent cannot offer the same abilities and services as a session with a coach or a therapist, it can serve to help eliminate attitudinal barriers that still exist when seeking therapeutic support to improve psychological well-being,” Dr. Aymerich-Franch concluded.



The study is published in the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1071581921001634?via%3Dihub#!">International Journal of Human-Computer Studies</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

Virtual assistants could be used for life coaching

Life coaching, a process in which an expert helps a...

Although many people, myself included, find spinach wonderful as it is, some find it less palatable. Researchers from <a href="https://btiscience.org/">Boyce Thompson Institute</a> (BTI) and six different Chinese universities have set out to change spinach.



The focus is partially on the genetics of “spinach teeth,” the chalky mouthfeel caused by the plant’s concentration of oxalate. The scientists are also looking into genes that fight downy mildew, a major disease of spinach <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/crops-have-a-drought-memory-that-prepares-them-for-tough-times/">crops</a>.&nbsp;



According to the researchers, the study provides valuable insights into spinach evolution and domestication, as well as valuable resources to facilitate breeding.



“I think more consumers would be willing to buy spinach that has less oxalate," said BTI faculty member Zhangjun Fei who co-led the study. "Dietary oxalate can interfere with mineral absorption and may lead to kidney stones, and less oxalate would also make spinach more palatable to a wider market.”



The research provides information on producing disease resistant spinach with a different mouthfeel than traditional varieties. To accomplish this, the scientists compared the genetics of cultivated spinach to those of two wild relatives. They discovered genes that will be of particular interest to farmers.&nbsp;



Study co-author Chen Jiao is a former postdoctoral researcher with Fei’s group and now professor in the College of Agriculture and Biotechnology at Zhejiang University.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Our results provide rich resources for the spinach community, especially those working on increasing downy mildew resistance, improving leaf texture and reducing oxalate content,” said Jiao.



The researchers also sequenced the genome of 295 varieties and 10 accessions of two wild relatives. Most of the varieties of the different plants come from environmental adaptations to different locations.&nbsp;



“I think our most interesting finding is that the genetic diversity between Asian and European spinach is higher than it is between cultivated and wild spinaches, which is not very common in other crops," said Jiao. "This increases our knowledge of how human selection diversifies crop plants.”



Overall, the team identified a complex network of genetic regions that are responsible for disease resistance. They also found genes that encode for oxalates, the chemicals responsible for “spinach teeth,” and made the important discovery that oxalates are also important for the crop's survival, such as resistance to pests.&nbsp;



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

Scientists are working to make spinach more appealing

Although many people, myself included, find spinach wonderful as it...

Tropical cyclones (TCs), also known as hurricanes and typhoons, generally form at low latitudes and have their impacts in tropical regions to the north and south of the equator. They start as clusters of individual <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-variability-is-driving-more-intense-thunderstorms/">thunderstorms</a> that rotate weakly around a common axis but transition into a cyclone over weeks, days or even hours. Their formation is associated with the warm waters of tropical oceans, but far enough away from the equator to allow the Earth’s rotation to cause them to spin up into the spiraling vortices so typical of a cyclone.



Once formed, tropical cyclones generally move westward and poleward before they interact with mid-latitude westerly winds, known as jet streams, that circle the planet. But as the climate warms, temperature differences between the equator and the poles will decrease, which may cause weakening or even a split in the jet streams; this may allow conditions to arise in the mid-latitudes where tropical cyclones can form and intensify.&nbsp;



In a review article published recently in the journal Nature Geoscience, a team of scientists led by Joshua Studholme from&nbsp;<a href="https://earth.yale.edu/">Yale’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences</a> suggests that the 21st&nbsp;century will see an expansion of hurricanes and typhoons into mid-latitude regions, which includes major cities such as New York, Boston, Beijing, and Tokyo. These are some of the most populous cities in the world and tropical cyclones that reach them could cause untold death and damage.&nbsp;&nbsp;



For the study, Studholme and colleagues analyzed numerical simulations of warm climates from Earth’s distant past, recent satellite observations, and a variety of weather and climate projections, as well as the fundamental physics governing atmospheric convection and planetary-scale winds.



They noted that the configuration of the continents during the Eocene epoch (56 to 34 million years ago), along with the warmer climates, extratropical humidity, CO2 concentrations and shifts in the jet streams would have favored poleward expansion of the areas favorable for TC formation. Eocene simulations thus showed that TCs most probably formed in the subtropics (~25° latitude) in both hemispheres, in contrast with the situation in the modern era.



According to the authors, contemporary TC distributions were probably established towards the end of the warm Pliocene epoch, some 3 million years ago. This has remained largely stable since that time but today, as the planet warms due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, the conditions for a poleward movement of tropical cyclones could once again be established.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This research predicts that the 21st&nbsp;century’s tropical cyclones will likely occur over a wider range of latitudes than has been the case on Earth for the last 3 million years,” Studholme said.



In fact, the 2020 subtropical storm Alpha, the first tropical cyclone observed making landfall in Portugal, as well as this year’s Hurricane Henri, which made landfall in Connecticut, may already provide evidence of the trend predicted in the study.&nbsp;



Although scientists disagree about whether the number of tropical cyclones will increase as the planet warms, evidence certainly suggests that they will become more intense.



“There are large uncertainties in how tropical cyclones will change in the future,” said Alexey Fedorov, a professor of oceanic and atmospheric sciences at Yale. However, multiple lines of evidence indicate that we could see more tropical cyclones in mid-latitudes, even if the total frequency of tropical cyclones does not increase, which is still actively debated. Compounded by the expected increase in average tropical cyclone intensity, this finding implies higher risks due to tropical cyclones in Earth’s warming climate.”



“The core problem when making future hurricane predictions is that models used for climate projections do not have sufficient resolution to simulate realistic tropical cyclones,” explained Studholme. “Instead, several different, indirect approaches are typically used. However, those methods seem to distort the underlying physics of how tropical cyclones form and develop. A number of these methods also provide predictions that contradict each other.”



The new study derives its conclusions by examining connections between hurricane physics on scales too small to be represented in current climate models and the better-simulated dynamics of Earth’s jet streams and north-south air circulation, known as the Hadley cells.



The authors of the review conclude that, since at least the 1970s, the planet’s TC distribution has moved unambiguously poleward, with latitudes of peak TC intensity migrating poleward at a rate of around 0.5° latitude per decade. Should this continue as predicted, these deep-tropical TCs will most certainly become a critical feature of Earth’s climate and a potential source of devastation to human life and property.&nbsp;



“This represents an important, under-estimated risk of climate change,” said Studholme.&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

Warming climate will push hurricanes into more populated regions

Tropical cyclones (TCs), also known as hurricanes and typhoons, generally...

Within only a few weeks from its emergence in the United States, the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/omicron-is-surging-but-may-cause-less-severe-illness/">Omicron</a> variant has fueled thousands of hospitalizations among children. Experts believe that this surge is mainly caused by the lower vaccination rates in this age category.



Between December 21 and December 27, the seven-day-average number of daily hospitalizations for children is up by 58 percent nationwide, compared to around 19 percent for all age groups. 



According to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/">Center for Disease Control and Prevention</a> (CDC), fewer than 25 percent of the 74 million Americans under 18 are vaccinated. Moreover, young children have the lowest vaccination rates, with many families hesitating to vaccinate their youngest members.



Although the Pfizer vaccine has been authorized for use in children over five years of age, less than 15 percent of children between five and eleven have been fully vaccinated.



According to scientists, it is still too early to &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; determine whether Omicron causes more severe illness in children than previous variants. However, its extremely high transmissibility is an important factor driving up hospitalizations.&nbsp;



"It is going to infect more people and it is infecting more people. We've seen numbers go up, we've seen hospitalizations in kids go up," said Dr. Jennifer Nayak, an infectious disease expert and pediatrician at the <a href="https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/">University of Rochester Medical Center.</a>



"What we are seeing is that children under five remain unvaccinated so there's still a relatively large population of children who are naive, so they have no preexisting immunity to this virus.”



"The virus has just been able to outsmart, penetrate beyond, what it is the parents have done to shelter those children," said William Schaffner, a leading infectious disease expert from the <a href="https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/">Vanderbilt University School of Medicine</a>.



Unfortunately, many doctors reported more severe symptoms in hospitalized children this month, including high fever, difficulty breathing, and dehydration. 



"They need help breathing, they need help getting oxygen, they need extra hydration. They are sick enough to end up in the hospital, and that's scary for doctors, and it's scary for parents," said Rebecca Madan, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the <a href="https://med.nyu.edu/">New York University's Langone Health</a> hospital system.



Scientists expect the number of cases and hospitalizations to rise even more after the Christmas and New Year’s Eve holiday gatherings, and the return to schools next week.



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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

Omicron leads to rise in children’s hospitalizations

Within only a few weeks from its emergence in the...

During the last year, the <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/">National History Museum</a> (NHM) in London has <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2021/december/natural-history-museum-scientists-describe-552-new-species-in-2021.html">described</a> a total of 552 new species of animals and plants, including several new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fascinating-dinosaurs-were-discovered-in-2021/">dinosaurs</a>, two ancient mammals, 291 crustaceans, 52 wasps, 13 moths, seven crabs, six flies, five amphipods, and 90 beetles.



This year has been particularly important for the discovery of new species of dinosaurs (four in the UK, one in China, and one in Morocco). “It’s been a fantastic year for the description of new dinosaurs, especially from the UK,” said Dr. Susannah Maidment, a senior researcher in Paleobiology at the NHM, who helped describe some of these new species.



“Although we've known about the UK's dinosaur heritage for over 150 years, the application of new techniques and new data from around the world is helping us to uncover a hidden diversity of British dinosaurs. These specimens are parts of a vast palaeobiological jigsaw puzzle that allows us to understand environments of the past and how they changed over time.”



These dinosaurs include two massive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/two-new-predatory-dinosaurs-found-on-the-isle-of-wight/">carnivorous spinosaurs</a> found on the Isle of Wight, &nbsp;a “chunky” sauropod with an unusually large funny bone discovered in China, and an ankylosaur found in Morocco with had an odd series of spikes attached to its ribs.



The museum has also discovered two ancient mammals, Megalomys camerhogne, a species of rodents that once lived scattered across the Caribbean, and Borealestes cullinensis, a “Jurassic mouse” from the Isle of Skye, Scotland that lived together with the dinosaurs 166 million years ago.&nbsp;



Among the 13 species of moth described by NHM, the most impressive one is <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/moth-with-the-longest-tongue-of-any-insect-is-a-new-species/">Wallace’s sphinx moth</a>, which is considered to have the longest tongue of any insect, measuring up to 30 centimeters in length. This moth is famous for having been predicted to exist by Charles Darwin four decades before its actual discovery.&nbsp;



Some other fascinating discoveries include a large number of copepods, small shrimp-like creatures that are found in water and are critical for our planet’s ecology and carbon cycle, a pair of glitteringly purple and green metallic beetles from India, a chunky monochromatic beetle with a huge pair of jaws found in Philippines, as well as five new snakes and three lizards.



“Finding - or finding out about - something for the first time is at the root of discovery,” said Dr. Tim Littlewood, the Director of Science at the NHM. “Discovery can be a personal, community or even a global revelation, or just a nudge towards advancing knowledge. Discovering new species is what the Museum does, and it's a matter of personal and institutional pride that we continue to be at the forefront of recognizing and naming new species - especially at a time when we are losing so many.”



&nbsp;---



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

Hundreds of new species were discovered in 2021

During the last year, the National History Museum (NHM) in...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/spp2.1415">Papers in Paleontology</a> has found that the huge Australian “thunder birds” (Genyornis newtoni) which were wiped out 48,000 years ago, suffered a painful form of bone infection that hampered their mobility and foraging abilities and possibly contributed to their extinction.



These majestic birds, living in the territory of today’s Australia, weighted roughly 230 kg (almost six time more than an emu), and were about two meters tall. They were part of a unique group of Australian flightless birds called the dromornithids or "thunder birds.”



By studying the fossils of these birds found at the famous South Australian fossil site of Lake Callabonna, scientists discovered that at least 11 percent of these birds suffered from osteomyelitis, a severe infection affecting multiple bones throughout the animals’ bodies.



“The fossils with signs of infection are associated with the chest, legs, and feet of four individuals,” said study lead author Phoebe McInerney, a doctoral student in paleontology at the&nbsp; <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/">Flinders University</a> in Adelaide.&nbsp;



“They would have been increasingly weakened, suffering from pain, making it difficult to find water and food. It’s a rare thing in the fossil record to find one, let alone several, well-preserved fossils with signs of infection. We now have a much greater idea of the life challenges of these birds.”



Since this disease afflicted such a large percentage of the bird populations, researchers believe that it may have been caused by environmental stressors. As the Australian continent dried during a period of severe drought 48,000 years ago, large inland lakes and forests began to disappear and central Australia transformed into a flat desert. Thus, food resources most probably dwindled significantly, placing considerable stress on thunder birds and other Australian megafauna.



“From studies on living birds, we know that challenging environmental conditions can have negative physiological effects,” said study senior author Trevor Worthy, an associate professor of Vertebrate Paleontology at Flinders University. “So we infer that the Lake Callabonna population of genyornis would have been struggling through such conditions.”



According to Professor Worthy and his team, the effects of severe drought included high rates of bone infection, which may have ultimately contributed to the extinction of this fascinating species.



Image Credit: Phoebe McInerney



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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

Bone disease killed off Australia's giant thunder birds

A new study published in the journal Papers in Paleontology...

On a journey towards the center of the Earth, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bizarre-seismic-waves/">seismic waves</a> become very slow near the core. Scientists descriptively call these areas the “ultra low velocity zones.”



In a new study from the <a href="https://www.utah.edu/">University of Utah</a>, researchers have discovered that these ultra low velocity zones contain layers which may provide insights into the early Earth. In fact, these zones may be leftovers from the processes that formed our planet.&nbsp;



“Of all of the features we know about in the deep mantle, ultra-low velocity zones represent what are probably the most extreme," said Professor Michael S. Thorne. "Indeed, these are some of the most extreme features found anywhere in the planet."



Initially, scientists thought that perhaps the ultra low velocity zones might be partially melted mantle, and the source of volcanic hotspots.&nbsp;



However, this cannot be completely true, said Professor Thorne. He explained that most of the things we call ultra-low velocity zones do not appear to be located beneath hotspot volcanoes.



In collaboration with post-doctoral researcher Surya Pachhai and other colleagues, Professor Thorne explored an alternative hypothesis - that the low velocity zones are made of different rocks, rocks with composition dating from early Earth.&nbsp;



“The physical properties of ultra-low velocity zones are linked to their origin, which in turn provides important information about the thermal and chemical status, evolution and dynamics of Earth’s lowermost mantle - an essential part of mantle convection that drives plate tectonics," explained Pachhai.



The researchers looked at the Earth’s deep layers by using imaging from seismic waves. However, this method can be imprecise and hard to use. So, the scientists used a modeling approach with a Bayesian Inversion method.&nbsp;



“We can create a model of the Earth that includes ultra-low wave speed reductions and then run a computer simulation that tells us what the seismic waveforms would look like if that is what the Earth actually looked like," said Pachhai.."Our next step is to compare those predicted recordings with the recordings that we actually have.”



The modeling method found that it’s likely that the ultra low velocity zones are layered and that some of the layers do represent the Earth’s origins, perhaps an interesting piece of the puzzle of our planet’s past.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ngeo/">Nature Geoscience</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

Chemicals near the center of Earth reveal the planet’s past

On a journey towards the center of the Earth, seismic...

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common complication of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/exercise-during-pregnancy-improves-the-health-of-babies/">pregnancy</a>, with an estimated 17 percent of pregnant women worldwide developing this condition. It is characterized by high blood sugar levels and may affect the health of the baby and increase the mother’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.&nbsp;



Although the cause of this condition is not known, excess weight before pregnancy often plays a role. Along with obesity, diet has also been implicated as a key contributory factor in the onset of GDM.&nbsp;&nbsp;



To investigate the link between diet and gestational diabetes in more depth, a team of scientists from the <a href="https://www.utu.fi/en">University of Turku</a> and the Turku University Hospital in Finland recently undertook a study of 351 pregnant women and their diets. The objective of the study was to determine the extent to which diet in early pregnancy contributes to the risk of developing GDM in a high-risk group of women who were overweight or obese.&nbsp;



The women's nutrient intake was calculated using questionnaires and self-reported records in food diaries that were kept by the participants during early pregnancy. The researchers evaluated the relationship between the development of gestational diabetes and the pregnant women’s nutrient intakes, dietary patterns, overall diet quality when compared to a recommended diet, and eating frequency. They also studied the inflammatory potential of each woman’s diet using a dietary inflammatory index.



During the course of the study, 23 percent (81) of the women were diagnosed with gestational diabetes. These women had significantly higher pre-pregnancy BMI values and higher diastolic blood pressure at the start of the study, compared to those of women who did not develop GDM.&nbsp;



Analysis of the women’s dietary patterns showed two predominant patterns, which the researchers labeled healthier and unhealthier. The healthier pattern was characterized by a high intake of vegetables, fruits, berries, rye bread, pasta, rice, fish and seafood. The unhealthier pattern represented a diet focused on multigrain and wheat bread, dairy desserts (e.g., ice-cream), sweet pastries, savory pastries, sugar, sweets and chocolate, nuts, seeds, popcorn, potato crisps and dried fruits, beverages, pasta and rice, and poultry.



The study found that women who adhered more strictly to the healthier dietary pattern during early pregnancy had a lower risk of developing GDM later on. More particularly, the development of gestational diabetes was associated with higher dietary intake of fats, specifically saturated fatty acids and trans fatty acids.&nbsp;



In addition, a more inflammatory diet was associated with a higher risk of developing gestational diabetes. The authors state that low-grade inflammation is a mediator for insulin resistance and therefore foods with higher inflammatory indices (e.g., fats) could contribute to the onset of GDM. Total fat, saturated fatty acids, and trans&nbsp;fatty acids have a high inflammatory potential and are able to increase the presence of chronic, systemic inflammation in the body.



“Our research results show that following a healthy diet in early pregnancy reduces the risk of gestational diabetes," said study first author Lotta Pajunen.



One of the limitations of the study was that it focused on overweight and obese women only. The researchers feel that this is justifiable, given the fact that these women are more prone to the development of GDM than are women of normal weight, and that levels of obesity are increasing globally.&nbsp;



Overall, the findings suggest that pregnant women who are overweight or obese can lower their risk of developing gestational diabetes by consuming a diet with a low inflammatory index and more healthy foods, particularly foods that do not contain a lot of saturated fats.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Eating vegetables, fruit, berries, and wholegrain products as well as unsaturated fats is particularly important. These nutrients and foods reduce inflammation in the body and therefore also the risk of gestational diabetes. Mothers who are overweight or obese already before the pregnancy would most likely benefit from dietary guidance in early pregnancy,” said Professor Kirsi Laitinen.



The study is published in the <a href="https://www.springer.com/journal/394">European Journal of Nutrition</a>.



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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

Healthy diet during early pregnancy reduces gestational diabetes risk

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a common complication of pregnancy,...

Kodiak, Alaska just reported the highest temperature ever recorded in the state in the month of December at 67 degrees Fahrenheit. The new high (reached on Sunday, December 26) beat the previous record from the 1980, which didn’t manage to exceed the high 40s. According to the <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/">National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration</a> (NOAA), Alaska is warming faster than any other US state and at a rate that is twice the global average.



Kodiak was not the only city in Alaska fighting with record temperatures recently. Cold Bay, located on the Aleutian Islands, experienced a ground-breaking 66 degrees (after a previous record of 44 in 1999), while Unalaska’s temperature spiked up to 57.3 degrees on Monday.



This anomalous warmth has brought record moisture, since the air can hold four percent more water with every degree that it warms. This resulted in massive rains, with Fairbanks experiencing its wettest December on record, and winter rains in the Interior region of Alaska becoming increasingly more commonplace.



According to the <a href="https://ncar.ucar.edu/">National Center for Atmospheric Research</a> (NCAR), climate change could also increase the number of thunderstorms that Alaska will face during this century, which in turn could spark widespread flash flooding, landslides, and lightning-induced wildfires.



The scientists estimate that the sea ice around Alaska will increasingly melt in the warmer months, creating an ample source of moisture which, together with warmer temperature from greenhouse emissions may cause intense summertime storms.



“Alaska can expect three times as many storms, and those storms will be more intense,” said NCAR scientist Andreas Prein, a co-author of an earlier <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00382-020-05466-1">study</a> exploring the impact of climate change on Alaska’s weather. “It will be a very different regime of rainfall.”



“We suspect that the increasing number of thunderstorms might have significant impacts, such as amplifying spring floods or causing more wildfire ignitions,” added study lead author Basile Poujol, a scientist at the <a href="https://psl.eu/en">Paris Sciences and Letters University</a>.&nbsp;



“Further studies are necessary to determine whether these impacts are likely to occur and, if so, their potential effects on ecosystems and society.”



“The potential for flash flooding and landslides is definitely increasing, and the Arctic is becoming way more flammable. It’s hard to grasp what the ecological changes will be in the future,” concluded Dr. Prein.



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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

Alaska hits record temperatures due to climate change

Kodiak, Alaska just reported the highest temperature ever recorded in...

In a recent study, Professor Kuniyoshi L. Sakai of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the <a href="https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/">University of Tokyo</a> and his colleagues set out to look at the effect of music on the human brain. Specifically, they wanted to look at the overlapping neurology of language acquisition and music. This idea was inspired by the Suzuki Method, a type of musical training based around natural language learning.&nbsp;



"In the field of neuroscience, it is well established that there are areas of the brain that deal specifically with language, and even specialized regions that correspond to different parts of language processing such as grammar or syntax," said Sakai.



"We wondered if training under the Suzuki method might lead to activity in such areas, not when using language, but when engaging with music. Our study reveals this is indeed the case."



To investigate, Sakai and his colleagues gathered a study group of 98 Japanese secondary school students. The participants fell into three categories - those who were trained in music from an early age using the Suzuki method, those who were trained from an early age using a different method, and those who were trained late in life or not at all.&nbsp;



The scientists scanned the subjects' brains to create a model of their neurological activity. While being scanned, the groups were given musical compositions with errors to fix in one of four categories. The pieces had errors in pitch, tempo, stress or articulation.&nbsp;



Interestingly, both of the groups trained from an early age showed similarities in brain activity. These students showed more overall neurological activity, as well as activity in specific parts of the brain, depending on the type of error in the music.&nbsp;



Furthermore, participants who had been trained in the Suzuki Method showed unique activation of emotion and melody parts of the brain when working with tempo.&nbsp;



"One striking observation was that regardless of musical experience, the highly specific grammar center in the left brain was activated during the articulation condition. This connection between music and language might explain why everyone can enjoy music even if they are not musical themselves," explained Sakai.



"Other researchers, perhaps those studying neurological traits of artistic experts, may be able to build on what we've found here. As for ourselves, we wish to delve deeper into the connection between music and language by designing novel experiments to tease out more elusive details."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cercor">Cerebral Cortex</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

Brain activity reveals connection between music and language

In a recent study, Professor Kuniyoshi L. Sakai of the...

A new study published in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.13588">Journal of Anatomy</a> has described an extinct species of bird from Northeastern China that had a peculiar bony tongue nearly as long as its head. The bird lived among the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fascinating-dinosaurs-were-discovered-in-2021/">dinosaurs</a> over 120 million years ago.



Most reptiles and birds do not have large muscular tongues like humans. Instead, they have a set of rod-shaped elements made of bone and cartilage, located on the floor of their mouth. Some birds today, such as hummingbirds and woodpeckers, have a bony tongue as long or even longer than their skulls.



The newly discovered bird was baptized Brevirostruavis&nbsp;macrohyoideus (“bird with a short snout and big tongue”) by researchers from the <a href="http://english.ivpp.cas.cn/">Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology</a> (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/">University of Texas at Austin</a>. It is part of an extinct group of birds called enantiornithines or “opposite” birds which were the most successful group of birds during the&nbsp;Cretaceous&nbsp;Period (between 66 and 145 million years ago). Moreover, it appears to be the earliest known example of a bird capable of sticking its tongue out.&nbsp;



According to the scientists, this ability may have helped the bird to catch insects in the same way in which today’s woodpeckers use their tongues to extract insects from holes in bark, wood, and tree branches. However, since no stomach contents were found with this fossil, the birds might have also been feeding on pollen or nectar-like liquids from the forests in which they lived.



“We see a lot of variation in the size and shape of the skulls of enantiornithine birds and that probably reflects the great diversity of the foods they ate and how they caught their food. Now with this fossil, we see that it’s not just their skulls, but their tongues that also vary,” said study co-author Dr. Wang Min, a paleontologist at IVPP.



“Animals experiment evolutionarily with what they have available. This bird evolved a long tongue using the bones it inherited from its dinosaur ancestors, and living birds evolved longer tongues with the bones that they have,” added study co-author Dr. Thomas Stidham, a paleoanthropologist at the same institute.&nbsp;



“This situation demonstrates the power of evolution, with birds using two different evolutionary pathways to solve the same problem of making a long tongue to stick out of their mouths,” he concluded.



Image Credit: IVPP



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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

A prehistoric bird had a tongue as long as its head

A new study published in the Journal of Anatomy 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

[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

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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...