The era of wondering and wildly speculating may be drawing to a close, with researchers recently devising a new model they're calling the "formula for life." 



The experts hope this tool will calculate the chances of intelligent life existing in our universe and even predict the potential for alien life in future universes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-next-generation-of-intelligent-life">Next generation of intelligent life </h2>



According to this new calculation model, the likelihood of life beyond our galaxy sits at 27 percent, which may let down the 65 percent of American adults who firmly believe in extraterrestrial life.



Interestingly, the chances of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/are-aliens-sending-radio-signals-to-each-other/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">intelligent life</a> existing within our own Milky Way are even lower - just 23 percent.



These estimates come from the concerted efforts of researchers at the <a href="https://search.app?link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ed.ac.uk%2F&amp;utm_campaign=aga&amp;utm_source=agsadl2%2Csh%2Fx%2Fgs%2Fm2%2F4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Edinburgh</a> and the University of Genevieve. The study suggests that star formation and the evolution of large-scale planets might intertwine to quietly "form the next generation of intelligent life."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dark-energy-and-the-potential-for-alien-life">Dark energy and the potential for alien life</h2>



To understand the potential of other life forms, the team devised a theoretical model that leans heavily on the Drake Equation, developed in 1960. 



This well-known formula calculates the universe's expansion and has been used to research the existence of advanced civilizations in our galaxy.



The researchers emphasized that their calculations do not suggest a number of intelligent life forms but rather estimate the likelihood of their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dark-oxygen-in-the-deep-sea-may-hold-clues-about-alien-life/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">existence</a>.



Their estimation process takes into account dark energy, which comprises over two-thirds of the universe and fuels its expansion.



"Understanding dark energy and the impact on our universe is one of the biggest challenges in cosmology and fundamental physics," said lead researcher Dr. Daniele Sorini, affiliated with <a href="https://www.durham.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Durham University</a>’s Institute for Computational Cosmology.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-potential-for-future-alien-life">Potential for future alien life</h2>



In addition to the probabilities of current extraterrestrial life, the researchers' model also accommodates for alien life forms that don't exist yet but could develop in the future. 



To do this, they calculated the amount of ordinary matter that combined to form stars across the universe's history, stretching back a staggering 13.8 billion years.



It seems the chances of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cosmic-connection-aliens-could-make-contact-by-2029/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">intelligent life</a> appearing in universes beyond our own also hover at around 27 percent. 



"Surprisingly, we found that even a significantly higher dark energy density would still be compatible with life, suggesting we may not live in the most likely of universes," said Dr. Sorini.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-for-future-research">Implications for future research</h2>



The pioneering work of modeling the probability of intelligent life in other universes opens up numerous avenues for future research. Scientists are now challenged to refine these models further, grounding them in observations and experiments to reach more precise conclusions. 



Such work may involve advancing our understanding of dark matter and energy - components of the universe that remain elusive yet crucial to grasping the cosmic puzzle.



This pursuit could bridge the gap between theoretical physics and cosmology, bringing them closer within the realms of empirical science.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-interplay-of-gravity-and-alien-life">Interplay of gravity and alien life</h2>



Another intriguing factor in cosmic life creation is gravity's role. Gravity influences the formation of stars and galaxies, effectively setting the stage for potential habitats where life could develop. 



The extent of gravity's influence in these processes highlights its importance, not just in structural formation, but in setting conditions that could favor the emergence of life. 



Existing research suggests that regions with optimal gravity balance might support complex planetary systems, paving the way for biological evolution. 



As scientists continue to explore the mysteries of the universe, understanding the precise role of gravity will add another layer to our comprehension of life's cosmic potential.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-speculation-to-exploration">From speculation to exploration</h2>



"It will be exciting to employ the model to explore the emergence of life across different universes and see whether some fundamental questions we ask ourselves about our own universe must be reinterpreted," noted study co-author Lucas Lombriser, a professor at the University of Genevieve.



If this research can help us to better understand our own universe and its likelihood for hosting life, it seems we have come a long way from wild speculation to measured investigation into our place in the cosmos.



So, what does this all mean for us? Are we on the brink of making contact with alien life forms? While the research findings might lead some to temper their expectations, the search for extraterrestrial life continues.



In the end, we need to remember that the universe is vast, mind-bogglingly diverse, and still largely unexplored. The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/finding-alien-life-searching-for-color-purple-not-green/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">potentials for life</a> - both as we know it and beyond our current comprehension - remain a thrilling frontier in scientific exploration.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/535/2/1449/7896079?login=false#493432585" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</a>.



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What are the chances that alien life exists?

The era of wondering and wildly speculating may be drawing to a close, with researchers recently devising a new model they're calling the "formula for life." The experts hope this tool will calculate the chances of intelligent life existing in our universe and even predict the potential for alien life in future universes. Next generation of intelligent life According to this new calculation model, the likelihood of life beyond our galaxy sits at 27 percent, which may let down the 65 percent of American adults who firmly...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.737379/full">Frontiers in Environmental Science</a> has investigated the source of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/methane-emissions-are-higher-than-previously-estimated/">methane</a> emissions in coastal forests that are destroyed by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-levels-are-rising-at-an-alarming-rate/">rising sea levels</a> – the so-called “ghost forests.” The scientists have found that communities of microbes in the soils under dead trees (also called “snags”) are producing methane, while the snags act like filtering straws as the gas rises through the wood.



“We’re tracing where the methane is originally coming from, and what we’re finding is that it’s coming from the soils, and as it moves through the tree, it’s changing as well,” said study co-author Marcelo Ardón, an associate professor of Forestry and Environmental Resources at <a href="https://www.ncsu.edu/">North Carolina State University</a>. “The methane is being processed as it moves through those snags.”



In order to localize the source of methane emissions, Professor Ardón and his colleagues analyzed methane gas samples from standing dead trees in ghost forests from five sites on the Albemarle-Pamlico Peninsula on the North Carolina coast.&nbsp;



“It’s important to be able to understand how methane is moving through the ecosystem,” study lead author Melinda Martinez, a postdoctoral scholar at the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/">U.S. Geological Survey. </a>“These ghost forest regions are temporary ecosystems; they will become marshes. But even during the transient state, we want to know how ghost forests produce and move this greenhouse gas.”



By measuring concentrations of the gas in the soil, in the soil water, and inside the snags, the scientists found that methane concentrations generally decreased the higher they got from the ground in the dead trees. Afterwards, they also took samples from the trees and placed them in vials to see if they were producing any methane when isolated in oxygen-free environments.



“Only five out of 100 vial samples produced any significant results, which provides further evidence that the methane being emitted from standing dead trees originated in the soil,” said Dr. Martinez.



Since increasingly more scientists agree that methane has a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/reducing-methane-is-the-fastest-way-to-slow-global-warming/">higher warming potential</a> than carbon dioxide, mapping methane fluxes in ghost forests is essential for better understanding the environmental impact of forest-to-ghost forest transition and building strategies for mitigating climate change.&nbsp;



---



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

Why are dead trees emitting methane?

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

Capsule,And,Mount,Crystals,,Potassium,Cyanide,Or,Potassium,Cyanide,Is

While the deadly gas cyanide is well-known today as a fast-acting poison and possible chemical weapon, scientists have found that it may have contributed to the emergence of life on <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/earth-humans-and-all-living-creatures-are-made-from-stars/">Earth</a> four billion years ago, by enabling some of the earliest chemical reactions to create carbon-based chemical compounds out of carbon dioxide. Besides shedding more light on the emergence and evolution of life on Earth, this discovery offers new clues about the potential chemistry of life on other planets.



“When we look for signs of life - either on the early Earth or on other planets - we base the search on the biochemistry we know exists in life today. The fact that these same metabolic reactions can be driven by cyanide shows that life can be very different,” said study lead author Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, an associate professor of Chemistry at the <a href="https://www.scripps.edu/">Scripps Research Institute</a>.



Scientists have long suspected that chemical reactions known as “the reverse tricarboxylic acid cycle” (r-TCA cycle) – in which carbon dioxide and water are metabolized into chemical compounds that are necessary for life - occurred on the surface of the early Earth. However, r-TCA cycles that can be observed on our planet today rely on complex proteins that could not have existed before life evolved. Researchers have shown that, in the primordial soup of the ancient Earth, some metals could have driven the same reactions without today’s proteins, but only under very acidic and hot conditions that were most probably not prevalent on our planet.



According to Professor Krishnamurthy and his colleagues, cyanide could have spurred the same reactions under more moderate conditions. Since this gas was clearly present in the early Earth’s atmosphere, the scientists hypothesized a set of reactions that could have used cyanide to produce organic proteins out of carbon dioxide, and tested them in the laboratory.



“It was scary how simple it was,” said Professor Krishnamurthy. “We really didn’t have to do anything special, we mixed together these molecules, waited and the reaction happened spontaneously.”&nbsp;



The results shown that the cyanide-based reactions worked at room temperatures in a wide pH range, and allowed a simpler version of the r-TCA cycle that could have contributed to the emergence of life billions of years ago. By suggesting that life could evolve from cyanide-based chemistry, this study, recently published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/nchem/">Nature Chemistry</a>, has crucial implications for the search of life – not only in our planet’s past, but also elsewhere in outer space.



---



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

Cyanide may have contributed to the emergence of life

While the deadly gas cyanide is well-known today as a...

Many models of climate change predict that hurricanes will increase in frequency and intensity in future, bringing devastating consequences for both human life and property. In this connection, the effects of both sea level rise and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/deforestation-exposes-coastal-cities-to-more-deadly-storms/" data-type="news" data-id="1900470">storm</a> intensification have been well documented over the past decade, but always separately from one another. A new study from Princeton University now shows that the two sources of water, when acting jointly, can produce flooding events that will have far worse impacts than those from storm surge or rainfall alone.&nbsp;



The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01272-7">study</a>, published today in the journal&nbsp;Nature Climate Change, is among the first to assess how climate change could impact the frequency of extreme rainfall-surge events.&nbsp;



“Most studies have looked at the hazards of rainfall and storm surge separately, but in this study, we looked at the joint hazards from the Gulf Coast up through New England,” said study senior author Professor &nbsp;<a href="https://engineering.princeton.edu/faculty/ning-lin">Ning Lin</a>.



In order to assess the effects of joint extreme events, the research team used eight different global climate models that simulate the way in which the world's climate is being altered due to increasing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.&nbsp;



Since each model weighs climate variables in different ways, the scientists calculated a reliable average. They did this by comparing each model’s predictions of past hurricane development and strength to historical simulations. The researchers then downscaled these models to generate tens of thousands of synthetic storms for the region of interest along the western Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.&nbsp;



“This way, by comparing the models’ predictions of the past, we know we have a reasonable basis for the models’ predictions of the future,” said Professor Lin.



The researchers next modeled the powerful winds produced by the hurricanes and the distances that the winds extend outward from the storm. It is these powerful winds that drive storm surges by pushing great volumes of water toward land. The storm winds also affect the amount of rainfall associated with a hurricane. If a storm has a slower translation speed (the speed with which it moves over land and water), then there will be more time for rain to fall in any particular area.&nbsp;



In these ways, the two hazards of storm surge and rainfall are intertwined and can add to the catastrophic effects. For example, increased rainfall can add to the local storm surge flooding, while slower storms may give gale-force winds more time to pile up higher, more damaging surges.



Using these climate models, along with physics-based hurricane hazard models and statistical analyses, the researchers predicted a dramatic rise in how often joint 100-year events – that usually only have a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year – will occur by the year 2100.



For example, along the Gulf of Mexico, extreme rainfall-surge events have historically occurred on average every 200–500 years. But by the end of the 21st century, the study predicts, these extreme events may occur on average every 10–30 years. And in New England, where extreme joint events historically occurred less than once in a thousand years on average, they are predicted to occur approximately every five years.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The analysis also enabled the researchers to gauge the relative contributions of sea level rise and storm changes to the joint rainfall-surge hazards. Sea level has risen dramatically in the past 30 years (by around 0.13 inches per year), and this has been considered a primary cause of more frequent floods. For the eastern seaboard of the US, though, the new study implicates increasing storm intensity and slowing translation speeds as the main reasons why joint extreme rainfall-surge events look set to spike.



“It's a surprising finding that says we should not neglect changes in storm climatology, with enhanced rainfall projected to play a bigger and bigger role in driving compound flooding," said Lin. She and her colleagues hope these findings will help better inform policymakers as well as bolster overall preparedness for the severe storms to come.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Thomas Wahl, an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida who was not involved in the study, offered comments on its significance. “Based on the results presented in this study and others, it is paramount for decision-makers to properly account for compound flooding events in their coastal management and adaptation plans."



Wahl noted that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), two agencies deeply involved in flood mitigation and disaster response, have both recently created task forces to better understand the impacts of compound flooding.



This growing awareness of the threat of compound flooding dovetails with Lin's own work on hurricane risk analysis, where the hazards of storm surge and rainfall are no longer being treated as separate phenomena.&nbsp;



“We've been learning that as joint hazards, surge and rainfall really should be studied together, and right now that's where my work is going,” said Professor Lin. “The current and future joint hazard posed by hurricanes has not been well-quantified, but with this study, we're now getting a clearer, and unfortunately sobering picture.”



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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

Rainfall-surge events are a growing threat on the East Coast

Many models of climate change predict that hurricanes will increase...

The gut microbiome is defined as the collection of microbes that inhabit our digestive tract. These intestinal communities play a significant role in human health and disease, and are involved in processes such as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/age-related-changes-in-metabolism-dont-match-our-expectations/">metabolism</a>, immunity, growth and the digestion of certain carbohydrates. In particular, an imbalance (dysbiosis) in the numbers or variety of microbial species in the gut is believed to be important in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), immune disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and cancer.&nbsp;



And now, a recent study led by Dr.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.childrenshospital.org/research/researchers/r/seth-rakoff-nahoum">Seth Rakoff-Nahoum</a> from the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Gastroenterology at <a href="https://www.childrenshospital.org/">Boston Children’s Hospital</a>, has found that the nature of the sugars in our diet also affects the balance between gut microbe species. Some species thrive in the presence of a certain dietary sugar, while others die off. The research focuses on the response to different sugars by Bacteriodes, the predominant Gram-negative bacteria in the human intestine.



“We need to learn how each species and strain of the gut microbiome, in particular&nbsp;Bacteroides&nbsp;species, survive in our guts if we want to enhance them or diminish them,” said Dr. <a href="https://www.childrenshospital.org/research/researchers/r/seth-rakoff-nahoum">Rakoff-Nahoum</a>. “Gut bacteria compete to use the undigested sugars in our diets as their energy source. Some have half their genome dedicated to better using these sugars.”



The bacteria in the gut also produce thousands of different chemical metabolites as a result of their own activities, and these influence the survival of competing microbes. 



For example, butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid, produced in the gut as a result of carbohydrate digestion by bacteria. Although this substance plays a critical role in the development of the immune system in humans, the microbes are ambivalent about it – some thrive in the presence of butyrate while others die.&nbsp;



When the researchers grew&nbsp;Bacteroides&nbsp;in different sugars from the human diet, they found that butyrate’s antimicrobial effect depended on what sugar each strain was using.



“If you take any two strains and grow each in Sugar X, in the presence of butyrate, Strain A will be killed dead in its tracks while Strain B grows as if butyrate was not even there,” explained Dr. Rakoff-Nahoum. “With Sugar Y, we see the opposite: Strain B is now killed by butyrate, while Strain A is unaffected.”



When trying to understand why the presence of butyrate kills some Bacteroides&nbsp;but not others, the researchers identified a third factor – genetics. Slight variations in genes affecting Coenzyme A metabolism resulted in differing sensitivity to butyrate among&nbsp;Bacteroides&nbsp;strains.



“We initially thought these genes would be very similar among all bacteria, as they perform basic cellular functions,” said Dr. Rakoff-Nahoum. “But the&nbsp;Bacteroides&nbsp; change them, likely to help them deal with the special environment in our gut.”



The findings, published online today in the journal Cell, indicate that the gut microbiome, when exposed to a different type of sugar in the diet, may initially suffer losses in terms of microbe diversity and number. However, over time the microbial communities become adapted to the presence of the sugar. In this way our gut microbiome is shaped by what we eat, on an ongoing basis.&nbsp;



This is particularly relevant in light of the fact that sugar is added to many foods in the Western diet, in order to make them appealing. In addition, since people are more aware of the importance of controlling calorie intake, cane sugar (sucrose) is often replaced by alternatives such as corn syrup and low-calorie sugars. The study’s results suggest that our gut microbes will be affected by the presence of these different sugars.



According to the study authors, this work is just the beginning. “We want to explore how combinations of metabolites and specific glycans in the diet can help us shape the microbiome for conditions in which we think the microbiome is important, such as IBD, allergy, and cancer,” said Dr. Rakoff-Nahoum.



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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

Our gut microbiome is shaped by what we eat

The gut microbiome is defined as the collection of microbes...

Approximately 51 trillion <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/understanding-the-effects-of-microplastics-on-our-environment/">microplastics</a> -&nbsp; tiny fragments measuring less than five millimeters in length and originating from various types of plastics - are floating in the surface waters of seas and oceans all over the globe, negatively impacting a large variety of ecosystems. While hundreds of scientific studies have surveyed the plastic debris on the surface or near the surface of oceans, they are still far from providing a full picture of marine microplastic pollution.



A new study led by the <a href="https://www.fau.edu/">Florida Atlantic University</a> (FAU) has found that microplastics are in fact present in the entire water column within the Southern Atlantic Ocean, suggesting that ocean interiors are just as polluted as their surfaces. According to the researchers, the study indicates that the ocean interior is a crucial pool of "missing" plastics.



Moreover, weak ocean current systems are shown to contribute to the formation of microplastic hotspots in the depths of the ocean, where they can significantly affect zooplankton populations.



“Our study highlights the urgency for more quantification of the deep-ocean microplastics, especially the smaller size fraction, to better understand ecosystem exposure and to predict the fate and impacts of these microplastics,” said&nbsp;study senior author Tracy Mincer, an assistant professor of Biology at FAU.&nbsp;



By sampling plastic particles in the South Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, Professor Mincer and her colleagues found that abundances and distribution patterns of small and large microplastics varied geographically and vertically due to complex and diverse redistribution processes.&nbsp;



“Small microplastics are different from large microplastics with respect to their high abundance, chemical nature, transport behavior, weathering stages, interactions with ambient environments, bioavailability, and the release efficiency of plastic additives,” explained study first author Shiye Zhao, a postdoctoral fellow at FAU. “These distinct characteristics impact their environmental fate and potential impacts on marine ecosystems.”&nbsp;



Compared to larger microplastics, the smaller ones are more highly oxidized and seem to have a longer lifetime in the water column, suggesting increased risks for ocean ecosystems. 



“As plastic particles disintegrate into smaller size fractions, they can become harmful in different and unpredictable ways that are only now beginning to be understood,” said Professor Mincer. 



“These micron-size microplastics can move across the gut epithelium, become trapped in biomass, and have the potential to transfer through marine food webs, posing an unknown ecological risk and biogeochemical impacts.” 



Further research focusing on smaller microplastics <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microplastics-discovered-in-the-blood-of-livestock/">ingestion</a> by various animals are urgently needed in order to assess the extent of plastic contamination in biomass.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/gcb.16089">Global Change Biology</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

Ocean interior has accumulated "missing" plastics

Approximately 51 trillion microplastics -&nbsp; tiny fragments measuring less than...

A new study led by <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a> has found that, at night, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hummingbirds-can-smell-dangerous-insects/">hummingbirds</a> drastically lower their body temperature and metabolism, entering into an energy-saving state of inactivity called torpor. According to the researchers, hummingbirds can switch between different levels of torpor - shallow, deep, plus several transitional stages as well as normal sleep.



By using infra-red thermal imaging to track the body temperature of three hummingbird species from Arizona (the Blue-throated Mountain-gem, the Black-chinned Hummingbird, and Rivoli’s Hummingbird), the scientists discovered that the differences in heat generation at various stages of torpor were substantial.



While the normal daytime body temperature of hummingbirds is, even in cold weather, over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, during shallow torpor this temperature drops by 20 degrees, and during deep torpor by a staggering 50 degrees. If human body temperature were to drop by only three degrees from its average of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, we would enter hypothermia and need outside help to warm up again.



“There have been a few hints that this ability to fine-tune thermoregulation was possible,” said study lead author Anusha Shankar, Postdoctoral Fellow at the <a href="https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/">Cornell Lab of Ornithology</a>. “But the studies were done under laboratory conditions, not the conditions a bird would encounter in the wild. It was really exciting to see that hummingbird torpor could be variable and flexible.”



Dr. Shankar and her colleagues also found that, while the smallest hummingbirds entered deep torpor each night, larger ones did this more rarely, and relied mostly on shallow torpor. According to the researchers, shallow torpor may have evolved to balance energy-saving with the steep costs of deep torpor – including immune suppression, and thus increased vulnerability to disease, as well as risk of predation or sleep deprivation.



Further research is needed to clarify what is taking place in the birds’ brains during torpor, how levels of body fat can trigger torpor, and how the birds can generate the heat to warm up again.



“At least 42 bird species use torpor. But only hummingbirds, nightjars, and one species of mousebird go into deep torpor. Studying the range of torpor could help us understand the evolution of thermoregulation in birds,” concluded Dr. Shankar.



The study is published in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.243208">Journal of Experimental Biology</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

Hummingbirds are experts at regulating body temperature

A new study led by Cornell University has found that,...

The changing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/some-dog-color-patterns-existed-long-before-dogs-themselves/">patterns</a> of differently colored scales on a lizard’s skin can be modeled mathematically. A multidisciplinary research team did just that in an attempt to better understand the evolution of skin patterns. 



The researchers looked at the changing green and black patterns of the ocellated lizard. The experts found that the patterns may change but they always facilitate the lizard’s survival.&nbsp;



"The ocellated lizard (Timon lepidus) exhibits an intricate skin color pattern made of monochromatic black and green skin scales, whose dynamics of color flipping are known to be well modeled by a stochastic cellular automaton," wrote the study authors.



The scientists discovered that scales change depending on the color of nearby scales based on a mathematical rule. The ocellated lizard scales can be explained by the Lenz-Ising model, an important model in modern condensed matter physics.



This model was initially used to elucidate the behavior of magnetic particles, which could be in one of two states and interact only with their immediate neighbor.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



"The elegance of the Lenz-Ising model is that it describes these dynamics using a single equation with only two parameters: the energy of the aligned or misaligned neighbors, and the energy of an external magnetic field that tends to push all particles toward the +1 or -1 state," explained Szabolcs Zakany, an expert in the Department of Genetics and Evolution at the <a href="https://www.unige.ch/en/">University of Geneva</a>.



The scientists adapted the Lenz-Ising model to the ocellated lizard. While it originally used a square lattice, this was modified to a rectangular lattice for lizards. The experts found that the favored pattern with ocellated lizards was a labyrinthine one rather than one of lines, spots, etc.&nbsp;



"These labyrinthine patterns, which provides ocellated lizards with an optimal camouflage, have been selected in the course of evolution," explained Michel Milinkovitch.



"These patterns are generated by a complex system, that yet can be simplified as a single equation, where what matters is not the precise location of the green and black scales, but the general appearance of the final patterns."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://prl.aps.org/">Physical Review Letters</a>.&nbsp;



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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

Ocellated lizard camouflage explained by a simple equation

The changing patterns of differently colored scales on a lizard’s...

Pensive,African,American,Businessman,Pondering,Business,Strategy,,Serious,Employee,Thinking

Our brains are constantly bombarded with incoming visual stimuli relating to the world around us. Just like our social media feeds, this stream of new and rich information needs to be kept in check so that we have a sense of continuity in our visual environment. The brain thus acts to "smooth out" small changes in what we perceive so that we get a sense of continuity. And it does this by focusing on what we saw 15 seconds ago.



Researchers at <a href="https://www.berkeley.edu/">UC Berkeley</a> have discovered that our brains do not update our visual surroundings in real time but rather present us with an image representing an average of what we saw in the past 15 seconds. This has the effect of downplaying the constant changes in light, movement and action that would otherwise add up to a confusing and chaotic visual input.&nbsp;



“If our brains were always updating in real time, the world would be a jittery place with constant fluctuations in shadow, light and movement, and we’d feel like we were hallucinating all the time,” explained study senior author Professor David Whitney.



“Our brain is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.studyfinds.org/time-travel-mathematical-model/">like a time machine</a>. It keeps sending us back in time. It’s like we have an app that consolidates our visual input every 15 seconds into one impression so we can handle everyday life,” added study lead author Professor Mauro Manassi.



By merging together recent images and smoothing over subtle changes, our brain tricks us into perceiving a stable environment that is more manageable to process. However, living “in the past” also means that we will not always notice changes in what we see over time. The researchers refer to this phenomenon as “change blindness."



In their study, published recently in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv">Science Advances</a>, the researchers recruited nearly 100 people to view close-up images of faces which morphed subtly from young to older, or from male to female. The time-lapse videos lasted for just 30 seconds and only included a person’s eyes, brows, nose, mouth, chin, and cheeks – not their head or facial hair – meaning that few clues were given about the age or gender of the person in the image.



After watching the video, participants were asked to assess the age or gender of the image they had seen. The participants consistently picked an image they had viewed halfway through the video instead of the final one, which would have represented the most recent and accurate image.



“One could say our brain is procrastinating,” said Professor Whitney. “It’s too much work to constantly update images, so it sticks to the past because the past is a good predictor of the present. We recycle information from the past because it’s faster, more efficient and less work.”



Indeed, the results suggest the brain operates with a slight lag when processing visual stimuli, and this means that it sacrifices accuracy for a stable picture. This can have both positive and negative implications.



“The delay is great for preventing us from feeling bombarded by visual input in everyday life, but it can also result in life-or-death consequences when surgical precision is needed,” said Professor Manassi. “For example, radiologists screen for tumors and surgeons need to be able to see what is in front of them in real time; if their brains are biased to what they saw less than a minute ago, they might miss something.”



Furthermore, it is important that we understand our perceptions may actually not be an accurate representation of the physical world. Scientists rely on perception for their accuracy when collecting empirical data – the findings of this study indicate that we all have a perceptual bias that may affect our ability to perceive the physical world accurately.



The study provides new insights into what scientists call the mind’s “continuity field,” a function of human perception that involves mechanisms within the brain that continuously bias our visual perception towards our past visual experience. This explains why, for example, we don’t notice when an actor is replaced by a stunt double during the course of a movie.&nbsp;



Such change blindness reveals how the continuity field is a purposeful function of consciousness and how it helps stabilize the chaotic visual world we live in.&nbsp;



“We’re not literally blind,” said Professor Whitney. “It’s just that our visual system’s sluggishness to update can make us blind to immediate changes because it grabs on to our first impression and pulls us toward the past. Ultimately, though, the continuity field supports our experience of a stable world.”



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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

Our brain delays visual inputs by 15 seconds to keep us stable

Our brains are constantly bombarded with incoming visual stimuli relating...

The extraordinary <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/background-gardens-increase-regional-bird-diversity/">diversity</a> of flowers has always been a mystery to scientists. A research team led by the <a href="https://www.umass.edu/">University of Massachusetts Amherst</a> has recently had a breakthrough while investigating the genetic linkages governing the formation of flowers. 



According to the researchers, a process called “programmed cell death” – a genetic mechanism eliminating some cells on purpose that is at work in the carpels of flowers, or the seed-bearing structures located at the heart of flowers – is partly responsible for flowers’ morphological diversity.



“Flowers are amazing. They’re all built of the same component parts, and yet we have such incredible diversity, from corn tassels to orchids. We want to know how the same few parts wind up creating such wildly different forms,” said study senior author Madelaine Bartlett, a professor of Biology at UMass Amherst.



Professor Bartlett and her team focused on maize flowers and used a technique known as “forward genetics” to identify which genes are responsible for suppressing carpel growth in maize. While scientists have already known that the gene GRASSY TILLERS1&nbsp;(GT1) plays a fundamental role in suppressing carpel growth in this plant, they have not be able to identify other genes working in tandem with GT1 to facilitate this process.&nbsp;



By using “forward genetics” – a way of looking backwards from a known flower formation, or phenotype (in this case, a mutated maize flower caused by a genetic alteration in the cell death process) to the specific mutation causing such formation – the researchers discovered that another gene, RAMOSA3&nbsp;(RA3), also plays a fundamental role in maize carpel programmed cell death.&nbsp;This gene was previously thought to structure only the way that plants branch, but it appears to be pleiotropic, meaning that it can influence several different traits.



“Our results highlight the power of forward genetics to reveal unpredictable genetic interactions and hidden pleiotropy of developmental genes. More broadly, our findings illustrate how ancient gene functions are recruited to new developmental contexts in the evolution of plant form,” explained the study authors.



Clarifying the role that genetics play in structuring the wild diversity of plants is another step forward in better understanding the evolution of life on Earth. Moreover, it could also have fundamental implications for the applied science of plant breeding.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/119/2/e2115871119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</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

New secrets of flower diversity revealed

The extraordinary diversity of flowers has always been a mystery...

New research shows that microplastics can be found in human placentas and in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sugars-in-breast-milk-help-prevent-infections-in-newborns/">newborns</a>. This is especially important as plastics may have serious health consequences for people at any age.&nbsp;



“It’s quite possible that children are more exposed to microplastics than adults, similar to children’s greater exposure to many other environmental toxic chemicals,” explained Kam Sripada, a neuroscientist from the <a href="https://www.ntnu.edu/">Norwegian University of Science and Technology</a> (NTNU).



Rather than degrading and decomposing, plastics just break down into smaller and smaller microplastics, which break down into even tinier nanoplastics. Plastic is ubiquitous in our world, from things we use daily to things quickly dominating our landfills, clogging our rivers and creating islands in our oceans.&nbsp;



Sripada is first author on a review paper in <a href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/">Environmental Health and Perspectives</a> that summarizes what is known about micro and nano plastics and their connection to pregnancy and child health.&nbsp;



“No one knows exactly how much microplastic a child ingests. But several studies now suggest that today's children absorb microplastics in their bodies as early as at foetal age. This is concerning,” said Sripada.



Research is especially lacking on children’s exposure and health problems caused by micro- and nanoplastics.&nbsp;



“Although a lot of research is being done on microplastics, studies on the health effects of these plastic particles are limited. This applies especially to the effects on children,” said Martin Wagner, an associate professor of biology at NTNU.



What is now understood is that, even before birth, children are exposed to these plastics throughout childhood and into adulthood. This is also true of toxic chemicals.



“Children do not have a fully developed immune system and are in a very important phase of their brain development. This makes them particularly vulnerable,” said Sripada.&nbsp;



While the researchers noted that it is almost impossible to prevent children from ingesting plastic, there are ways that parents can reduce the amount of plastic that their children are exposed to.&nbsp;



For example, parents should make sure that their child's food comes into as little contact with plastic as possible. The experts also advise to clean the house properly and regularly with soap and water because dust may contain microplastics.



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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

Babies are exposed to microplastics before they're even born

New research shows that microplastics can be found in human...

An unprecedented study led by scientists at <a href="https://www.swansea.ac.uk/">Swansea University</a> (UK) has used GPS collars to analyze the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dangerous-bee-behavior-may-be-linked-to-appearance/">behavior</a> of a group of baboons living on the edges of Cape Town, South Africa.&nbsp;



"Owing to the challenges involved in tracking the behaviors of many individuals simultaneously, we are only just beginning to understand the collective behavior of wild social groups and know little about whether and how it changes in anthropogenic environments," wrote the study authors.



"This is an important gap in knowledge given the critical influence collective behaviors exert on group dynamics, individual fitness and social evolution and the increasing spatial overlap between wildlife and humans worldwide."&nbsp;



The researchers collected GPS data every second to compare the behavior of urban baboons with those in more traditional settings.&nbsp;



The analysis showed that urban baboons were less likely to coordinate their behaviors with each other. Instead, each baboon acted as smaller groups and moved more quickly to escape threats of traffic and obtain high calorie foods.&nbsp;



Even though urban baboons did not coordinate their efforts as much, the same social hierarchy seemed to be in place, with dominant animals having greater influence.&nbsp;



"We expected dominant baboons to have less influence on others' movements in urban space because the troop social dynamics break down. But we were surprised that the males continued to play an important role," said study lead author Anna Bracken.



The research is important for baboon rangers, people who work minimizing conflict between baboons and people.&nbsp;



"The baboon rangers are tasked with keeping baboons out of the city, and by focusing on adult males, they indirectly deter most of the group from urban space, because these males tend to be followed," explained study co-author Professor Justin O'Riain of the University of Cape Town.



Now that the scientists have a basic understanding of baboon collective behavior in cities, where the social cohesion is loose but social hierarchy maintained, they want to use their data to understand why these wild animals move into cities in the first place.&nbsp;



The study is published in <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rspb">Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</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

Baboons behave differently in urban areas

An unprecedented study led by scientists at Swansea University (UK)...

Climate change is progressing rapidly, leaving traces all over the planet. The impact of global warming is particularly dramatic in the Arctic: during the past decades, the sea-ice has declined massively in the face of rising temperatures. According to the latest simulations, by 2050 the Arctic could be consistently ice-free during summers.



Surprisingly though, on the other side of the planet, the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-antarctic-sea-ice-has-fluctuated-over-the-past-century/">Antarctic sea-ice</a> seems to have evaded the global warming trend, and has remained largely unchanged since 1979. However, contrary to actual observations, existing climate model-based simulations indicate significant sea-ice loss in the Antarctic too. 



According to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.awi.de/en/">Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research</a> (AWI), this Antarctic “sea-ice paradox” could be explained by the fact that current simulations fail to take into account the role of ocean eddies in delaying Antarctic sea-ice decline.



“This so-called Antarctic sea-ice paradox has preoccupied the scientific community for some time now,” said study first author Thomas Rackow, a senior scientist at AWI. “The current models cannot yet correctly describe the behavior of the Antarctic sea-ice; some key element seems to be missing.”&nbsp;



By employing the <a href="https://fesom.de/models/awi-cm/">AWI Climate Model</a> (AWI-CM), a high-resolution computer simulation used to model changes in climate, Dr. Rackow and his colleagues managed to map processes from the Southern Ocean in much more detail than previous researchers.



“We used a broad range of configurations for our simulations. In the process, it became clear that only those simulations with a high-resolution description of the Southern Ocean encircling the Antarctic produced delayed sea-ice loss similar to what we are seeing in reality,” explained Dr. Rackow. “When we then extended the model into the future, even under a highly unfavorable greenhouse-gas scenario the Antarctic sea-ice cover remains largely stable until mid-century. After that point the sea-ice retreats rather rapidly, just as the Arctic sea-ice has been doing for decades.”



According to the scientists, the delay in Antarctic sea-ice decline could be explained by the activity of ocean eddies – currents with diameters of 10 to 20 km - which allow the ocean to transport additional heat taken up from the atmosphere north, towards the Equator. This northward heat transport is closely linked to the underlying overturning circulation in the upper kilometer of the ocean, which in the Southern Ocean is influenced both by wind and these eddies. As a result, the ocean surrounding the Antarctic warms slower, and the sea ice remains stable for longer.



“Our study supports the hypothesis that climate models and projections of the Antarctic sea-ice will be far more reliable as soon as they are capable of realistically simulating a high-resolution ocean, complete with eddies. Thanks to the ever-increasing performance of parallel supercomputers and new, more efficient models, next-generation climate models should make this a routine task,” concluded Dr. Rackow.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28259-y">Nature Communications</a>.



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

Antarctic sea-ice decline is delayed by ocean eddies

Climate change is progressing rapidly, leaving traces all over the...

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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...