The development of a big brain in humans and its connection to social bonding has been a hot topic of debate, and secrets found in fossil teeth may hold the answers.



Researchers have been studying the fossilized teeth of an early Homo from Georgia, dating back approximately 1.77 million years. The research was made possible by the European Synchrotron in Grenoble, France.



The findings suggest that despite having a small brain and reaching adulthood at a similar pace to great apes, these early humans had a prolonged childhood. 



This could mean that the large brain of modern humans resulted from an extended childhood along with cultural transmission across generations instead of vice versa.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-long-childhood-big-brains">Long childhood, big brains</h2>



A team of researchers - including specialists from Switzerland's <a href="https://www.uzh.ch/en.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Zurich</a>, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and Georgia's National Museum - have challenged the theory that modern humans' extended childhood is directly linked to their large brains.



The team analyzed dental development in an early Homo that was almost an adult. The results suggest that though these early humans reached adulthood at a similar age as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/buronius-manfredschmidi-tiny-great-ape-species-lived-11-million-years-ago/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">great apes</a>, their tooth development followed a longer timeline similar to modern humans.



This proposes the distinct possibility of a longer dependency on adults and an elongated childhood for these early humans.



Remarkably, the brain size of these early Homo specimens was only marginally larger than that of a chimpanzee. This made the researchers question the link between the prolonged development and cultural transmission across generations.



An extended childhood within a three-generation context might have allowed the immature members of the group to effectively assimilate growing amounts of knowledge. 



Eventually, this led to the development of larger brains and longer life spans, traits characteristic of modern humans.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dental-development-in-early-homo">Dental development in early Homo</h2>



An enduring assumption has been that humans' extended growth period is a consequence of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/our-brain-sizes-are-growing-possibly-lowering-dementia-risk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">increased brain volume</a> since a larger organ requires more energy resources to grow. But analysis of the fossil's dental growth has caused researchers to question this hypothesis.



The research team used synchrotron imaging to study the dental development of a near-adult fossil of early Homo from the Dmanisi site in Georgia, dated to around 1.77 million years ago. 



<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="CWxiqQg039-4024544-12187" type="single"]</div>



“Childhood and cognition do not fossilize, so we have to rely on indirect information. Teeth are ideal because they fossilize well and produce daily rings, in the same way that trees produce annual rings, which record their development,” noted study first author Christoph Zollikofer from the University of Zurich.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-unexpected-findings-and-a-new-perspective">Unexpected findings and a new perspective</h2>



“Dental development is strongly correlated with the development of the rest of the body, including brain development," explained study co-author Paul Tafforeau, scientist at the ESRF.



"Access to the details of a <a href="https://www.earth.com/search-results/?search=fossil%20hominid&amp;start=0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">fossil</a> hominid's dental growth therefore provides a great deal of information about its general growth."



After almost two decades of research beginning in 2005, the initial results startled researchers. 



“We expected to find either dental development typical of early hominids, close to that of the great apes, or dental development close to that of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/neanderthal-genes-still-influence-modern-humans/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">modern humans</a>," said Tafforeau.



"When we obtained the first results, we couldn’t believe what we saw, because it was something different that implied faster molar crown growth than in any other fossil hominin or living great ape."



In the following years, the team conducted five series of experiments and completed four full analyses, employing various methods as dental synchrotron imaging technology advanced.



As the consistent results suggested significant implications for the "big brain - long childhood" hypothesis, the scientists needed to think creatively to interpret this fossil's findings.



“It's been a slow maturation, both technically and intellectually, to finally arrive at the hypothesis we are publishing today,” said Tafforeau.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-longer-childhood-evolution-s-early-experiment">Longer childhood: Evolution's early experiment?</h2>



The dental development of the studied fossil suggested that milk teeth were used longer than in great apes, implying that early Homo children were dependent on adult care for a longer duration.



This could be the first experiment evolution took towards a prolonged childhood. Despite having brains only slightly larger than australopithecines or great apes, early Homo are believed to have lived longer.



The survival of a very old individual with no teeth for several years indicates that the group sufficiently cared for him. This alludes to a three-generation structure, a key aspect of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-started-cumulative-culture-around-600000-years-ago/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cultural transmission in humans</a>.



The new hypothesis begins with children's growth slowing down as cultural transmission increased. 



The accumulation of information from older to younger individuals had an advantageous effect on resource utilization and the development of complex behaviors, thus favoring a longer childhood. 



Once this mechanism was established, natural selection acted on cultural transmission, not just biological traits. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-brains-and-delayed-adulthood">Big brains and delayed adulthood</h2>



As the volume of transferrable information grew, evolution supported a larger brain and delayed adulthood, enabling a longer learning period in childhood and time to grow a bigger brain despite limited food resources.



The large brain of modern humans could be attributed to an extended childhood and a three-generation structure encouraging bio-cultural evolution. These mechanisms may have led to increased brain size, delayed adulthood, and longer lifespan. 



The study of this exceptional fossil could motivate researchers to rethink the evolutionary mechanisms that led to Homo sapiens.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08205-2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a>.



Image &amp; Video Credit: ESRF/Paul Tafforeau, Vincent Beyrand



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How did humans get big brains? Fossil teeth reveal new clues

The development of a big brain in humans and its connection to social bonding has been a hot topic of debate, and secrets found in fossil teeth may hold the answers. Researchers have been studying the fossilized teeth of an early Homo from Georgia, dating back approximately 1.77 million years. The research was made possible by the European Synchrotron in Grenoble, France. The findings suggest that despite having a small brain and reaching adulthood at a similar pace to great apes, these early humans had a prolonged...

After wreaking havoc all over the world, pushing up the number of coronavirus cases to all-time records, the highly contagious <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/did-the-omicron-variant-jump-to-humans-from-mice/">Omicron</a> variant has already begun to subside in many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, or Spain. However, a new version of Omicron, called BA.2, has recently been detected in several countries. The new variant raises new doubts that the pandemic is near its end, and suggests that SARS-CoV-2 may soon turn into an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/14/world/europe/coronavirus-europe-uk.html">endemic</a> virus.&nbsp;



Estimated to be 1.5 times more contagious than the original Omicron variant BA.1, the sister-variant BA.2 (which emerged from a common ancestor with BA.1) has already become dominant in <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ba2-subvariant-omicron-appears-more-contagious-than-ba1-denmark-says-2022-01-26/">Denmark</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0uGX4BMWD8&amp;ab_channel=ANINews">India</a>. However, according to Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke and scientists from Denmark’s top infectious disease authority, <a href="https://www.ssi.dk/">Statens Serum Institut</a> (SSI), the emergence of this sub-variant is no reason to panic.



“There is no evidence that the BA.2 variant causes more disease, but it must be more contagious,” Heunicke told a news conference on Wednesday, January 26, 2022.&nbsp;



“There is some indication that it is more contagious, especially for the unvaccinated, but that it can also infect people who have been vaccinated to a greater extent,” added SSI's technical director Tyra Grove Krause at the same news briefing.&nbsp;



Due to this sub-variant, Denmark’s Omicron peak may extend a bit further into February than previously estimated, but will not cause significantly more hospitalizations and deaths, said Krause.



During the past week, about one hundred BA.2 cases have also been detected in the United States, but this number is likely underestimated and is expected to skyrocket very soon. However, as in the case of Denmark, many U.S&nbsp; scientists are not very worried that BA.2 might become a serious game-changer.&nbsp;



“Variants have come, variants have gone,” said Robert Garry, a virologist at <a href="https://medicine.tulane.edu/">Tulane University School of Medicine</a>. “I don’t think there’s any reason to think this one is a whole lot worse than the current version of Omicron.”



Other scientists though, including those from the <a href="https://www.who.int">World Health Organization</a> (WHO), are more cautious, and refrain from making any sweeping statements regarding the nature and possible impact of BA.2.&nbsp;



Jacob Lemieux is an infectious diseases physician at <a href="https://www.massgeneral.org/">Massachusetts General Hospital</a> who is helping lead a state program studying coronavirus variants. He said that while we can already be certain that BA.2 will soon displace BA.1 as the dominant variant, what we don’t know, and still have almost no information on, is what impact this will have on case counts, on hospitalizations, on death.



“As of 24.01.2022, the BA.2 descendent lineage, which differs from BA.1 in some of the mutations, including in the spike protein, is increasing in many countries. Investigations into the characteristics of BA.2, including immune escape properties and virulence, should be prioritized independently (and comparatively) to BA.1,” urged WHO.



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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’s sister has arrived, and Covid may be here to stay

After wreaking havoc all over the world, pushing up the...

A British scientist from <a href="https://aru.ac.uk/">Anglia Ruskin University</a> has recently discovered a new species which belongs to a group of insects so rare that its closest relative was last spotted in 1969. During field work with his students in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/illegal-gold-mining-dumps-mercury-in-the-peruvian-rainforest/">rainforest</a> of the Kibale National Park in western Uganda, Dr. Alvin Helden, an expert in Animal and Environmental Biology, found a new type of leafhopper. Dr. Helden named the species Phlogis kibalensis and described it in the journal <a href="https://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/">Zootaxa</a>.



Leafhoppers are closely related to cicadas, but they are much smaller. These insects feed mainly on plant sap, which they suck directly from the phloem, and are preyed on by invertebrates such as spiders, parasitic wasps, and beetles, as well as some species of birds.



The newly discovered leafhopper is only 6.5 mm long, has a distinctive metallic sheen, pitted body, and – as most other leafhoppers – bizarre, leaf-shaped male sexual organs.



“It’s the first time I’ve ever discovered a newly described species. Personally, it’s one of those things you aspire to do as an entomologist and I’ve managed to do it now,” said Dr. Helden. “To find this new species is a once-in-a-lifetime achievement, particularly as its closest relative was last found in a different country over 50 years ago.&nbsp;I knew it was something very special as soon as I spotted it.”



“Phlogis kibalensis&nbsp;is a member of the leafhoppers. Most people are familiar with cicadas, and leafhoppers are related to cicadas. I usually describe them as much, much smaller. They all have the same overall structure; their head end is held slightly higher than their back end and they are quite colorful.”



“Leafhoppers of this genus, and the wider tribe, are very unusual in appearance, and are rarely found. In fact, they are so incredibly rare that their biology remains almost completely unknown. We know almost nothing about&nbsp;Phlogis kibalensis,&nbsp;the new species I found, including what plants it feeds on or its role in the local ecosystem.”



According to Dr. Helden, there are many other animal species waiting to be discovered. However, due to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coordinated-efforts-needed-to-slow-deforestation/">deforestation</a> and habitat loss, a large number of these species may sadly become extinct before we will even know they exist. Urgent measures to protect the rainforests and other endangered ecosystems are necessary in order to avoid the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-sixth-mass-extinction-is-currently-in-progress/">extinction</a> of numerous species.



Image Credit: Dr. Alvin Helden, Anglia Ruskin University



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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

Rare insect with leaf-shaped genitals discovered in Uganda

A British scientist from Anglia Ruskin University has recently discovered...

According to a new study published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/beheco/advance-article/doi/10.1093/beheco/arab137/6454996">Behavioral Ecology</a>, human-related concepts such as intergenerational wealth and inequality can also be used to understand and explain the behavior of some <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/our-warming-climate-is-changing-how-animals-hibernate/">animals</a>. Inheritance of non-genetic commodities such as nests, territories, or tools can contribute to animals’ fitness and thus to their survival and reproductive success.



The idea for this study emerged early in the pandemic, when Dr. Jennifer Smith, a behavioral ecologist at <a href="https://www.mills.edu/">Mills College</a>, started discussing health disparities and inequalities caused by COVID-19 with her colleagues at <a href="https://www.ucla.edu/">UCLA</a>. The researchers began to wonder whether inequality exists in animals too and could be studied in order to shed more light on human inequality.



“When we started looking for it, we found lots and lots of examples,” said Dr. Smith. For instance, young red grouse have more chances to succeed in establishing their own territories when their fathers or other relatives are nearby, while female North American red squirrels can be the lucky recipients of large quantities of nuts from their mothers, helping them survive longer and reproduce earlier. Hyena daughters with high-ranking mothers inherit their status and have access to better food, and some chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys inherit stone tools from their parents, which they use to crack nuts.



“Humans pass on material wealth like silverware, a home, or land to the next generation,” said Dr. Smith. &nbsp;“Animals do this too. It occurs in many species: some individuals have priority of access to resources while others do not.”



“'Humans have language, and therefore such things as cultural traditions, rules, norms, etc.; so the possibilities for transmitting material wealth, and intellectual wealth - knowledge that can be used to improve one's well-being - are tremendously greater. But at a more abstract level, many other species have 'property rights' in the form of territorial claims that are recognized, as well as contested, by other members of the population,” added Eric Alden Smith, a professor emeritus of Anthropology at the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington</a>.&nbsp;



While using ideologically-loaded terms such as “privilege” and “inequality” when describing animal behavior can have its dangers, according to Dr. Smith and her colleagues, a deeper understanding of the biological roots of these concepts could help us clarify aspects of human behavior too.&nbsp;



However, she emphasized that finding inequality in nature is not the same as justifying it. The research findings “could be misinterpreted as saying,&nbsp;‘Well, it exists everywhere, so we can do nothing about it,’” said Dr. Smith. Unlike other animals “we’re able to understand this phenomenon and then explicitly act to choose how we use that knowledge to create social change.”



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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

Wealth inequality exists in the animal kingdom too

According to a new study published in the journal Behavioral...

Winter snowstorms are increasingly frequent on the United States’ eastern coast and often cause major disruption to transportation, economy, and public safety. In order to study these extreme weather events, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">NASA</a> has initiated a program called <a href="https://espo.nasa.gov/impacts/content/IMPACTS">The Investigation of Microphysics and Precipitation for Atlantic Coast-Threatening Snowstorms</a> (IMPACTS).&nbsp;



With the help of an international group of experts and state-of-the-art technology, the project aims to clarify how storms develop and how snow bands can be used to predict snowfall. The research may ultimately help mitigate the natural, social, and economic impacts of snowstorms.



The team will be tracking storms with the help of two NASA planes equipped with top notch scientific instruments. One of them – the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center’s<a href="https://airbornescience.nasa.gov/aircraft/ER-2_-_AFRC">&nbsp;ER-2</a> - will fly at 65,000 feet to get a top-down view of the storm clouds, and complement the measurements of cloud properties taken by ground-based radars.



“A project like IMPACTS can really complement those spacecraft measurements with aircraft measurements that are higher resolution, higher accuracy, sample an event more frequently, and provide additional parameters such as Doppler measurements,” explained John Yorks, one of the deputy principal investigators for IMPACTS.



The second aircraft - the<a href="https://airbornescience.nasa.gov/aircraft/P-3_Orion_-_WFF">&nbsp;P-3 Orion</a> – will fly at variable altitudes of up to 26,000 feet and will use probes hanging off its wings to measure the size, shape, and distribution of precipitation particles. Flying this aircraft at different altitudes will allow scientists measure snow particles throughout the clouds, as well as the temperature, water vapor, and other conditions in which they form.&nbsp;



Moreover, P-3 Orion will also drop small instruments called dropsondes over the ocean, which, together with weather balloons launched from the ground, will measure temperature, wind, and humidity, and provide crucial information about the atmospheric conditions before, during, and after a storm.



“Snowstorms are really complicated storms, and we need every piece of data – models, aircraft instruments, meteorological soundings – to really figure out what’s going on within these storms,” said Gerry Heymsfield, another deputy principal investigators for IMPACTS.



This data will help the scientists relate the properties of the snow particles and their environment to large-scale processes such as the structure of clouds and precipitation patterns, and thus improve meteorological models and complement the use of satellite data in order to predict how particular storms will develop and what their impact will be.&nbsp;



Today, residents of New England are bracing themselves for possible whiteout conditions, as a nor'easter has brought heavy snowfall and fierce winds to the region. More than 10 million people in coastal areas (all the way down to Virginia) are under blizzard warnings, and some areas may reach record snowfall totals. According to CNN, parts of eastern Massachusetts and Maine could get more than two feet of snow.&nbsp;



John Yorks, one of the deputy principal investigators for IMPACTS at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, explained that nor'easters travel up the East Coast and can dump several feet of snow, effectively shutting down cities. Being able to predict which areas will get hit the hardest, and with how much snow, could help cities better prepare for severe winter weather.



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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

NASA project aims to more accurately predict snowstorms

Winter snowstorms are increasingly frequent on the United States’ eastern...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.ufl.edu/">University of Florida</a> has identified the genetic characteristics relevant to the behavior of two nuisance western honey <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/when-it-comes-to-bee-colonies-size-matters/">bee</a> subspecies. The “killer bee” or “Africanized honey bee” is a light-colored bee known for its highly defensive, territorial nature, and the “cape honey bee” is a darker colored social parasite, capable of colonizing bee hives of other subspecies.



Both species are invasive bees that can easily take over colonies of managed honey bees, with costly consequences for beekeepers. Although the cape bees appear to be more docile than the Africanized bees, they are capable of an extraordinary feature that helps them overtake bee hives: they can clone themselves, producing female eggs without mating.



“More amazing than the cape bee worker’s ability to clone itself is the rate at which it can take over other colonies,” said study senior author James Ellis, a professor of Entomology and Nematology. “We are working to ensure these bees do not make their way to the United States because in most cases, when these bees take over a colony, the colony is doomed.”&nbsp;



Professor Ellis and his colleagues analyzed genetic data related to these subspecies in order to better understand what genetic traits contribute to their appearance and behavior.&nbsp;



“We found really interesting variations in the genes of these bees that can help explain why they look and behave differently,” said study co-lead author Laura Patterson Rosa.



“There are a lot of implications to what we found. We have not yet been able to verify these new discoveries in additional populations, but if our findings stand the test of time, it could partially explain why we see behavioral changes, why they do not acknowledge the existence of queens of other subspecies and why they can clone themselves when other bees cannot.”



The research findings suggest that the darker color of cape bees could be genetically correlated to their cloning and colony takeover behavior. Further research is needed to assess whether this correlation holds for other subspecies of bees.



“There are potentially over 30 subspecies of honey bees. We investigated only two in the published study. Does this finding hold true for the other dark colored honey bee subspecies? It would be interesting to look for these mutations across all western honey bee subspecies to determine if this is the case,” Professor Ellis concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0260833">PLoS One</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

Dangerous bee behavior may be linked to appearance

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

A research team from the <a href="https://www.elte.hu/en/">Eötvös Loránd University</a> in Hungary has recently studied the hierarchical <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/children-use-saliva-sharing-to-infer-close-relationships/">relationships</a> and personalities of companion dogs. The results showed that dogs that are more extroverted, open, and conscientious tend to be more dominant, while friendlier, more agreeable ones usually rank lower. Additionally, in multi-dog households, the older dogs are usually dominant.&nbsp;



“In case of social animals often we can observe dominance hierarchies among the group members around limited resources. Once stabilized, hierarchy can help the access to these resources – in favor of the dominant individuals – without serious conflict or harm. While we can easily identify the limited resources in nature, in case of companion dogs, all essential resources are provided by the owner thus shortcutting competition,” wrote the study authors.



“While it seems that its original function is not present in companion dogs, dominance hierarchies were still described in dog groups. As everyday competition for essential resources is seldom part of the lives of most companion dogs, our aim was to find what traits might be related to the formation of these hierarchies and the rank of the individuals.”&nbsp;



The scientists used a large-scale online questionnaire study of personality traits, called the <a href="https://socialdogs.elte.hu/en/result/">Canine Big Five</a>, to assess the personalities of 1,082 dogs from multiple-dog households. Owners needed to rate their pets based on five personality traits: Extraversion/Energy, Agreeableness/Affection, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness/Intelligence.&nbsp;



Four out of these five personality traits showed a significant correlation with the so-called “dominance score” calculated from interactions between dogs, which indicates each dog’s position in the home ranking. While the more extroverted, conscientious, and open dogs scored higher on dominance, the more agreeable and affective-prone ones scored lower.&nbsp;



Moreover, older dogs were usually the most dominant ones.&nbsp;“As personality can slowly change with age, we needed to check whether our results still hold regardless of age. We found negative correlations between age and extraversion and age and openness, while these traits have positive associations with rank. Agreeableness had a similarly negative correlation with age and a negative association with the dominance score,” explained study lead author Kata Vékony, a doctoral student in Ethology at the Eötvös Loránd University.



“While our results support the notion that ’dominance’ is not a separate personality trait in dogs, we found that the personality of family dogs have a complex relationship with the group hierarchy and the individual dogs’ rank within,” added study lead author Péter Pongrácz, an associate professor of Ethology at the same university. “Further research is needed to discover what causal relationships may exist between personality traits and rank.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159122000028?via%3Dihub">Applied Animal Behavior Science</a>.



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

Dog personalities influence their hierarchical position

A research team from the Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary...

It is not uncommon for people to develop symptoms of ‘long COVID’ after recovering from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pigs-are-highly-resistant-to-sars-cov-2-infection/">SARS-CoV-2</a> infection. Also known as PACS (post-acute COVID-19 syndrome), this condition is familiar to scientists and medical practitioners by now, with as many as 3 out of 4 people presenting with at least one lingering symptom in the weeks and months after initial infection.



The most common symptoms of PACS include fatigue, muscle weakness and sleep disturbance - but the potential causes of these symptoms are unknown. Some suggestions include an exaggerated immune system response, cell damage, or the physiological consequences of a critical illness, all of which may contribute to the development of long COVID. Furthermore, scientists do not yet understand why some people suffer persistent symptoms after clearing the initial infection whereas others do not.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In a new study published in the BMJ journal <a href="https://gut.bmj.com/">Gut</a>, researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong propose that the human gut microbiome may play a role in the development of long COVID. They set out to analyze which bacteria, fungi and other microbes are present in the intestines of people who have not had COVID, those who have had COVID, and those who have developed PACS.



There is evidence that gut microbes are important in the development and maintenance of major components of a person’s innate and adaptive immune system, and that imbalances in the populations of different gut microbes can contribute to auto-immune diseases and other illnesses. Given this evidence, it is possible that a disordered immune response to COVID-19 infection, induced by resident microbes, may affect the recovery process as well.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed the gut microbiomes of 106 patients who had been admitted to one of three different hospitals in Hong Kong between February and August 2020. These patients had all tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 virus and subsequently developed varying levels of COVID symptoms.&nbsp;



For comparison, the gut microbiomes of a further 68 people, none of whom had COVID, were also analyzed. These non-COVID controls were recruited before the start of the pandemic (between September 2019 and November 2019) from the volunteer patients at the endoscopy center at the Prince of Wales Hospital. Stool samples were collected before these subjects underwent a normal colonoscopy.



Initial stool samples were collected from the sick people upon their admission to hospital, and from the control group just prior to their colonoscopies. Samples were collected again after one month and after six months. Samples were also collected from 11 patients after 9 months.&nbsp;



The researchers also checked all participants for the presence of the 30 most common long COVID symptoms, one, three, six and nine months after admission to hospital. Their aerobic capacity and endurance, an indicator of long COVID, was also measured in a 6-minute distance walk test.&nbsp;



Of the patients diagnosed with COVID, 86 (81 percent) of them had symptoms of PACS three months later, and 81 (76.5 percent) after six months. The most common symptoms reported at 6 months were fatigue (31 percent), poor memory (28 percent), hair loss (22 percent), anxiety (21 percent) and sleep disturbances (21 percent).&nbsp;



There were no significant differences in potentially influential factors, such as age, gender, prevalence of underlying conditions, use of antibiotics or antiviral drugs, or COVID-19 severity between patients with and without long COVID, six months after initial infection.



However, there were significant differences in the gut microbe populations found in those who developed PACS, and those who did not. While the microbiota were similar for people who did not develop PACS and those in the control group, those who suffered from long COVID had a less diverse and abundant community of gut microbes.&nbsp;



In particular, patients with long COVID had reduced populations of 28 different species of microbes, including the ‘friendly’&nbsp;Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, and&nbsp;Blautia obeum. These species are associated with anti-inflammatory effects. In addition, these patients also had increased numbers of 14 other ‘unfriendly’ gut bacterial species, such as Ruminococcus gnavus&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bacteroides vulgatus, both of which are associated with inflammation.&nbsp;



Interestingly, this dysbiosis (unbalance between gut microbe populations) was present at the time of admission to hospital, and it did not improve, even after six months. In contrast, patients who did not develop PACS had only 25 changes in bacterial species at the time of hospital admission, and this recovered completely after 6 months such that their gut microbes were similar to those of people who had not had COVID.



The researchers then looked in more detail at whether the composition of the gut microbiome was associated with specific symptoms of long COVID. They considered the following symptoms: respiratory; neuropsychiatric (headache, dizziness, loss of taste and smell, anxiety, poor concentration, disrupted sleep, low mood, poor memory, blurred vision); gastrointestinal; skin (hair loss); musculoskeletal; and fatigue.&nbsp;



Eighty-one bacterial species were associated with different categories of long COVID symptoms, and many species were associated with more than two categories of persistent symptoms. For example, after six months, persistent respiratory symptoms were strongly associated with the presence of several opportunistic ‘unfriendly’ microbes, including&nbsp;Streptococcus anginosus,&nbsp;Streptococcus vestibularis,&nbsp;Streptococcus gordonii&nbsp;and&nbsp;Clostridium disporicum.&nbsp;



Additionally, several species known to boost immunity, including&nbsp;Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum,&nbsp;F. prausnitzii,&nbsp;R. inulinivorans&nbsp;and&nbsp;Roseburia hominis, were depleted in those with long COVID at six months.



Similarly, several ‘unfriendly’ bacterial species were associated with poorer performance on the 6-minute walk test among those with long COVID.



Overall, the study found that, at the time of hospital admission, the diversity and richness of gut bacteria in patients who subsequently developed long COVID was significantly lower than that of patients who didn’t, suggesting that particular gut microbial profiles may indicate heightened susceptibility, say the researchers.



“In summary, altered gut microbiome composition is strongly associated with persistent symptoms in patients with COVID-19 up to six months after clearance of the SARS-CoV-2 virus."&nbsp;



The study authors propose that gut profiling may even help to identify people who are more vulnerable to developing serious long-term symptoms after having COVID.



“Considering the millions of people infected during the ongoing pandemic, our findings are a strong impetus for consideration of microbiota modulation to facilitate timely recovery and reduce the burden of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome," concluded the researchers.



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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

Gut microbe diversity may predispose people to long COVID

It is not uncommon for people to develop symptoms of...

The Texas Christian University (TCU) mascot, the “horned frog,” actually refers to the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/switching-to-solar-energy-affects-endangered-florida-panthers/">endangered</a> horned lizard, or Phrynosoma cornutum. I grew up knowing the lizards as “horny toads.”



In an effort to learn more about these creatures, including how they can survive side by side with humans, Professor Dean Williams is heading up the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TCU-Horny-Toad-Project-736369469743046/">TCU Horny Toad Project</a>&nbsp;



“Since the 1960s, horned lizard populations have been declining and have disappeared pretty much east of Interstate 35, and then there are lots of areas on the west side of I-35 where they’ve winked out - I mean total extinctions,” said Professor Williams, who is an expert in genetics.



The horned lizard is at risk of extinction for many reasons. The pet trade may have contributed to their decline in the 1940’s and 50’s. Since that time, habitat lost, human development and invasive fire ants have pushed the reptile closer to the brink.&nbsp;



Ants are especially important to the horned lizards as harvester ants are their main food. Unfortunately, introduced fire ants from South America can often outcompete these native ants, making it harder for horned lizards to find a meal.&nbsp;



In Texas, the horned lizards live in several populations. While the western population is stable, the two other groups in the northern and southern part of the state are not faring too well.&nbsp;



This is where genetics comes into play. Thanks to the work of Professor Williams, lizards can be reintroduced properly with the group’s genetics maintained properly. Zoos in Fort Worth, Dallas, San Antonio and elsewhere have been raising the imperiled lizards in captivity. So far, lizards have been reintroduced to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) property at Mason Mountain and Muse wildlife management areas.&nbsp;



Last fall, Fort Worth Zoo hatched it’s 1,000th horned lizard in captivity. While releasing lizards at Mason Mountain, TPWD discovered 25 lizards released from captive breeding efforts in 2019. This marks a milestone; as these are the first captive bred lizards known to survive in the wild long enough to breed.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&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

Texas project aims to save horned lizards

The Texas Christian University (TCU) mascot, the “horned frog,” actually...

Migratory <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/song-sparrows-shuffle-and-mix-their-tunes/">songbirds</a> embark upon very long journeys to return to their breeding grounds. Although these trips can occasionally span several continents, the birds arrive each year at the same spots with remarkable precision. While much research has focused on understanding how birds learn migratory routes and navigate them, until recently it has remained a mystery how they know where and when to stop migrating.



According to new research led by the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a>, migratory songbirds use cues derived from the Earth’s magnetic field, such as magnetic declination, inclination, intensity, and area-specific strength, in order to guide their arrival.&nbsp;



However, the Earth’s magnetic field slightly shifts each year, and thus the magnetic parameters that are used to define a bird’s natal and breeding site will occur in a slightly different location every year. Despite this, birds are often able to arrive within meters of their natal sites year after year.



“Although it is known that birds can return to their breeding grounds with exceptional precision, it has remained a mystery how they know when and where to stop migrating,” wrote the study authors.&nbsp;



“Using nearly a century’s worth of Eurasian reed warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) ringing recoveries, we investigated whether fluctuations in Earth’s magnetic field predict variation in the sites to which birds return. Ringing recoveries suggest that magnetic inclination [the specific dip angle between the Earth’s magnetic field and the Earth’s surface] is learned before departure and is subsequently used as a uni-coordinate “stop sign” when relocating the natal or breeding site.”&nbsp;



Although several locations on the Earth’s surface have the same magnetic inclination, songbirds solve this problem by stopping at the first place where the correct inclination is encountered on the flight trajectory that they inherited. This amazing, instinctive capacity makes them able to return to their natal and breeding grounds after each migration.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abj4210">Science</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

How do birds know when it's time to stop migrating?

Migratory songbirds embark upon very long journeys to return to...

A new study led by <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford</a> researchers has revealed that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/methane-emissions-are-higher-than-previously-estimated/">methane</a> leaking from natural gas burning stoves in the US has a similar climate impact as the carbon dioxide emissions from 500,000 gasoline cars. When compared to the carbon dioxide created from burning natural gas while the stove is in use, the contribution of these methane leaks to global warming is about one third.



“Surprisingly, there are very few measurements of how much natural gas escapes into the air from inside homes and buildings through leaks and incomplete combustion from appliances,” said study lead author Eric Lebel, who conducted the research as a graduate student in Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences (Stanford Earth).&nbsp;



“It’s probably the part of natural gas emissions we understand the least about, and it can have a big impact on both climate and indoor air quality.”



Methane is about 86 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over the first twenty years and 25 times worse for one hundred years after emission. Methane also contributes to approximately one million premature deaths annually across the globe. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, concentrations of methane have increased more than twice as fast as those of carbon dioxide.



Over 40 million homes in the US cook with natural gas, representing more than one third of households. Because people are close to the natural gas emissions coming from their kitchen, they are directly exposed to air pollutants.&nbsp;



These pollutants can include nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde, which are all dangerous gasses. Some of these are known to trigger asthma, coughing and difficulty breathing, even occasionally leading to hospitalization.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“I don’t want to breathe any extra nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide or formaldehyde,” said study senior author Professor Rob Jackson. “Why not reduce the risk entirely? Switching to electric stoves will cut greenhouse gas emissions and indoor air pollution.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/journal/esthag">Environmental Science &amp; Technology</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

Natural gas stoves have greater impacts than expected

A new study led by Stanford researchers has revealed that...

New genetic research techniques are confirming old theories of insular evolution. A study conducted by a team of zoologists at <a href="https://www.tcd.ie/">Trinity College Dublin</a> has confirmed that the isolating effects of islands impact the evolution of species, even <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lighter-feathers-help-migratory-birds-to-keep-cool/">birds</a> that are some of their best colonizers. 



For the investigation, the researchers sequenced genes and took measurements of the “Supertramp” bird of southeast Asia, the island monarch (Monarcha cineracens). This is a bird that’s been studied by evolutionary biologists for decades.



“This study was a great opportunity to work with one of biogeography’s ‘star species," said first author Fionn Ó Marcaigh. "The island monarch was studied by famous scientist and geographer Jared Diamond in the 1970s, when he saw that they occurred on small islands across a wide range but were entirely missing from larger islands." 



"He named species with this kind of distribution ‘supertramps,' hypothesising that they essentially evolved into specialist island colonisers in response to their small islands being so unstable."



"This hypothesis has been influential ever since, but now we’re able to test it using modern genetic methods and help to evolve it further.”



The research was focused on island biogeography, an important part of evolutionary theory and ecology. The study showed that although island monarchs can fly to different islands, they generally stay put after colonizing a new island.&nbsp;



“We found that even though the Island Monarch is clearly good enough at flying to reach these islands in the first place, it doesn’t maintain this dispersive lifestyle after colonisation. This causes the island populations to diverge from one another, to the point that the Island Monarch in our study region is probably a different species to the one Diamond worked with, even though they look the same to the eye," explained Ó Marcaigh.



"Our statistical analyses indicate that this genetic divergence is linked to the size, elevation, and isolation of the islands, but we found no evidence that the monarchs get physically worse at flying between islands. They just choose to stop doing so!"



The research shows the importance of insularity to the evolution of new species, emphasizing that isolation allows a bird in this case to evolve in isolation from the rest of its species.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/fb">Frontiers in Biogeography</a>.



Image Credit: Fionn Ó Marcaigh



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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

“Supertramp” birds provide insight into how evolution works

New genetic research techniques are confirming old theories of insular...

Small-scale artisanal gold mining provides an important income for local communities in the Peruvian rainforest, as in many other locations around the world. The miners collect river sediments and then use <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mercury-levels-in-bluefin-tuna-reveal-patterns-of-ocean-pollution/">mercury</a> to bind together the particles of gold present in these sediments. This process forms a pellet of gold large enough to be caught in a sieve and thus separated from the matrix of river sands.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The use of mercury in this process pollutes the river water with this toxic, heavy metal and impacts the associated aquatic ecosystems. Studies have investigated the impacts and spread of river pollution in the past, and exposed the dangers of this practice.&nbsp;



Now, a team of researchers led by <a href="http://duke.edu">Duke University</a> has collected the first data from the Peruvian rainforest on terrestrial deposits of atmospheric methylmercury, the most toxic and dangerous form of mercury.



Atmospheric mercury is released when the pellets of gold are heated in open fire ovens in order to separate out the gold. The gold melts, while the mercury vapor goes into the atmosphere along with particles of smoke. This smoke settles on the leaves of trees and usually ends up being washed into the soil by rainfall, or absorbed directly into the tissues of the leaves.



In order to quantify the levels of mercury around gold mining sites in an area of the Peruvian rainforest, Gerson and colleagues collected samples of air, leaf litter, soil and green leaves from the tops of trees – these were obtained using a huge slingshot. Their samples came from four different environments: forested and deforested areas that were either near to mining activity or removed from it. Two of the forested areas near mining activity were patches with small, scraggly trees, while the third was at the Los Amigos Biological Station, a pristine old-growth forest that has never been disturbed.



The results of the analysis, published today in the journal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>,&nbsp;showed that samples from deforested areas had low levels of mercury regardless of their proximity to mining activity. Deforested areas would be expected to receive mercury only in the rainfall and so levels would be comparable to those currently recorded in atmospheric circulation globally.&nbsp;



Forested areas, however, showed differing levels of contamination. The four areas with scraggly trees, two near mining activity and two further away, had levels of mercury that were within the range of world-wide averages. By contrast, the areas of mature forest that were near mining activity showed elevated mercury levels.&nbsp;



In fact, the stand of old-growth pristine forest at the Los Amigos Biological Station was found to harbor the highest levels of mercury ever recorded anywhere in the world, rivaling industrial areas where mercury is mined.&nbsp;



“We found that mature Amazonian forests near gold mining are capturing huge volumes of atmospheric mercury, more than any other ecosystem previously studied in the entire world,” said study lead author Jacqueline Gerson, who is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley.



The researchers used a parameter called leaf area index to quantify the density of the forest canopy at each site. They found that mercury levels were directly related to the leaf area index, indicating that the more leaves there are present in the canopy, the more mercury is accumulated. The leaves therefore trap the gases and smoke particles that originate from the open-pit heating of gold pellets.&nbsp;



Not only was the mercury accumulating in the leaves of trees, either. The researchers hypothesized that the metal would undergo bioaccumulation and be present throughout the food webs in the Peruvian rainforest ecosystems. They measured the mercury levels in the feathers of three species of songbirds in forest reserve areas close to, and far from, gold mining operations.&nbsp;



They found that birds from Los Amigos had on average three times (and up to 12 times) more mercury accumulated in their feathers, when compared to birds from other forest stations that were far from mines.&nbsp;



Mercury can be ingested with contaminated food or water, and can also be inhaled and enter the body through the mucus membranes. It is extremely toxic and can have serious impacts on the nervous system as well as the success of reproduction. The high concentrations of mercury in the songbirds could result in a decrease in reproductive success of as much as 30 percent, report the authors. &nbsp;



“These forests are doing an enormous service by capturing a huge fraction of this mercury and preventing it from getting to the global atmospheric pool,” said Professor Emily Bernhardt. “It makes it even more important that they not be burned or deforested, because that would release all that mercury back to the atmosphere.”



Since small-scale artisanal gold mining provides a livelihood for local communities that have little other source of income, it is not feasible to disallow or ban the activity. Just as with the American gold-rush that ravaged California in the 1850s, it is driven by economic necessity, and impacts indigenous communities disproportionally.



“This is not something new or exclusive to this area,” said Professor Bernhardt. “A very similar thing, with very similar methods, has already been done throughout many of the wealthy countries of the world where gold was available. The demand is just pushing mining further into new areas.”&nbsp;



“There's a reason why people are mining,” said Gerson. “It's an important livelihood, so the goal is not to get rid of mining completely, nor is it for people like us coming in from the United States to be the ones imposing solutions or determining what should happen.”



“The goal is to highlight that the issues are far vaster than water pollution, and that we need to work with local communities to come up with ways for miners to have a sustainable livelihood and protect indigenous communities from being poisoned through air and water."



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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

Illegal gold mining dumps mercury in the Peruvian rainforest

Small-scale artisanal gold mining provides an important income for local...

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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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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



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Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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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...