The morning ritual of walking the dog might be more than just a daily chore for older adults. New research from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at Trinity College Dublin has revealed the significant benefits of regular dog walking for older adults.



The researchers found that walking a dog frequently can improve mobility, reduce the risk of falls, and lower the fear of falling - an important factor in maintaining independence and quality of life as people age.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-falls-major-concern-for-older-adults">Falls: Major concern for older adults</h2>



Falls are a leading cause of hospital admissions among <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/not-all-aging-cells-are-bad-some-help-to-heal-the-body/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">older people</a> and the most common cause of accidental death in later life. 



They often lead to fractures, including hip fractures, which can result in a loss of independence, increased reliance on healthcare services, admission to nursing homes, and even premature death. 



In Ireland, <a href="https://tilda.tcd.ie" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">TILDA</a> data shows that around 30% of people over the age of 70 experience a fall every year, and one in eight require emergency care due to a fall.



With an aging population, the number of older adults experiencing falls will only increase in the coming decades. 



This makes fall prevention a critical issue. Identifying simple, cost-effective strategies to reduce the risk of falls is essential for improving public health and reducing the burden on healthcare systems. 



Regular physical activity is one of the most effective ways to maintain strength, balance, and mobility, but finding enjoyable and sustainable ways to stay active is key.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dog-walks-benefit-older-adults">Dog walks benefit older adults</h2>



The study analyzed data from over 4,100 adults aged 60 and older who participated in TILDA Wave 5. 



The team categorized participants into two groups: those who walked their dogs at least four times a week and those who either did not own a dog or owned a dog but did not walk it regularly.



By using self-reported data on falls and fear of falling, combined with objective mobility assessments through the Timed-Up-and-Go (TUG) test, the researchers were able to determine whether regular dog walking had a measurable impact on fall risk and mobility.



The TUG test is a well-established method used to assess mobility and fall risk in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-bodies-undergo-very-rapid-change-aging-at-two-very-specific-times/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">older adults</a>. Participants are timed as they stand up from a chair, walk three meters, turn around, walk back, and sit down again. 



The time taken to complete the task is a strong predictor of fall risk, with slower times indicating reduced mobility and a higher likelihood of falls.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-regular-dog-walks-and-improved-mobility">Regular dog walks and improved mobility </h2>



The results of the study showed a clear link between regular dog walking and improved mobility. Participants who walked their dogs frequently completed the TUG test significantly faster than those who did not, with an average time of 10.3 seconds compared to 11.7 seconds for the group that did not walk a dog regularly.



This suggests that regular dog walking helps maintain agility and physical function, both of which are critical for preventing falls.



In addition to better mobility, regular dog walkers were also found to be 40% less likely to experience unexplained falls. 



This is a significant finding, as falls often lead to serious injuries and long-term disability. By engaging in regular walking with a dog, older adults may improve their balance and coordination, making them less prone to sudden falls.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-reduced-fear-of-falling">Reduced fear of falling</h2>



Another important outcome of the study was the reduction in fear of falling among dog walkers. Fear of falling is a major concern for many <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/muscles-defy-aging-with-remarkable-resilience/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">older adu</a><a href="https://www.earth.com/news/muscles-defy-aging-with-remarkable-resilience/">lts</a> and can lead to a cycle of inactivity, reduced confidence, and further mobility decline. 



The study found that participants who walked their dogs regularly were 20% less likely to report fear of falling. This suggests that dog walking not only has physical benefits but also plays a crucial role in maintaining psychological well-being and confidence in mobility.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dog-walking-is-more-than-just-exercise">Dog walking is more than just exercise</h2>



While physical activity in general is known to have numerous health <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/what-25-years-of-research-revealed-about-brain-aging/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">benefits</a>, this study suggests that the specific activity of dog walking provides unique advantages. 



Unlike structured exercise programs, which some older adults may find difficult to maintain, walking a dog is an enjoyable and routine-based activity that provides both motivation and companionship.



"While this may be partly due to increased physical activity, it is also likely that increased social interaction, companionship, and purpose derived from having a dog also plays an important role,"&nbsp;said Professor Robert Briggs, consultant geriatrician at St James’s Hospital and Trinity College, and co-author of the study.&nbsp;



"We see how important pets are in the lives of older people we encounter both in St James's Hospital and the TILDA study, and it is therefore heartening to see the benefits borne out in this study."



"Our findings highlight the value of regular dog walking as a simple and accessible activity that not only improves physical health but also has benefits for mental well-being and confidence among older adults," said study lead author Dr. Eleanor Gallagher, Specialist Registrar in Geriatric Medicine from <a href="https://www.tcd.ie" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Trinity College Dublin</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-encouraging-healthy-aging">Encouraging healthy aging</h2>



The study reinforces the idea that health-promoting activities should be both enjoyable and easy to incorporate into daily life. 



Walking a dog provides structure, companionship, and motivation - elements that help older adults stay consistent with their physical activity. Unlike other forms of exercise, which may feel like a chore, dog walking offers a sense of purpose and social connection, making it more sustainable over the long term.



For older adults looking to improve their mobility, reduce their risk of falls, and maintain their independence, adopting or regularly walking a dog may be a simple yet highly effective solution. 



The benefits extend beyond just physical health, contributing to overall <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/discrimination-speeds-up-aging-molecular-level/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">well-being</a> and a higher quality of life in later years. 



As research continues to highlight the importance of maintaining an active lifestyle, studies like this one offer practical and accessible strategies to help older adults age healthily and confidently.



The study is published in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/advance-article/doi/10.1093/gerona/glaf010/7951863?login=false" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences</a>. 



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Dog walking improves mobility and prevents falls in older adults

The morning ritual of walking the dog might be more than just a daily chore for older adults. New research from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA) at Trinity College Dublin has revealed the significant benefits of regular dog walking for older adults. The researchers found that walking a dog frequently can improve mobility, reduce the risk of falls, and lower the fear of falling - an important factor in maintaining independence and quality of life as people age. Falls: Major concern for older adults Falls are a leading...

Researchers looking at Pacific salmon populations have found that declines are related to 40 years of change in both their marine and freshwater <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/three-important-reef-building-coral-habitats-are-vanishing/">habitats</a>. The research looked at declining numbers of five salmon species in the Keogh River on Vancouver Island.&nbsp;



“It’s not just the ocean that is driving declines," said lead researcher Kyle Wilson. "The combination of marine and freshwater stressors effectively ‘squeezes’ some salmon populations by lowering survival in both the river and the sea.”&nbsp;



There are multiple causes of change in both environments, including logging in watersheds (and associated erosion), increases in seal populations along coasts, changing ocean climate, and other competing salmon.



"Collectively, these changing environments limited juvenile production and lowered future adult returns," wrote the study authors. "These results reveal how changes in freshwater and marine environments can jointly shape population dynamics among ecological communities, like Pacific salmon, with cascading consequences to their resilience."



When it comes to which factors are the most detrimental to salmon, the results from previous studies are mixed. This new study puts the blame on both freshwater and marine environmental declines.



“Some research attributes the decline to worsening ocean conditions while others point to climate change or overfishing," said Wilson. "There has even been great uncertainty about which is more responsible, freshwater or marine processes, for salmon and steelhead declines.”&nbsp;



Such a deep analysis of salmon populations is not possible everywhere and required analysis of long-term data collected over decades. This shows the importance of keeping a close eye on salmon everywhere, noted research collaborator Jonathon Moore, a professor at <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/">Simon Fraser University</a>.



“This study showcases the power and importance of careful monitoring of both adult and juvenile life-stages of salmon and steelhead in order to understand what parts of their life-cycles are driving overall population change,” said Professor Moore.



The research will help guide Canada’s federal government policy on salmon management and allocation of $647.1 million through the recently announced Pacific Salmon Strategy Initiative (PSSI). It could also guide other nations to look at the declines of their own salmon populations, such as those in parts of the United States.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The study published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652486">Global Change Biology</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

Declining salmon populations linked to environmental decline

Researchers looking at Pacific salmon populations have found that declines...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba9584">Science</a> investigated how the brains of Egyptian fruit bats process complex group interactions. The researchers found that, within individual brains, different sets of neurons were used to distinguish between <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/baby-birds-can-learn-sounds-before-theyve-even-hatched/">vocalizations</a> made by oneself and others, as well as among different individuals in the group. Across the brains of multiple bats, vocalizations often elicited neuronal synchronization patterns that remained stable over weeks of interaction.&nbsp;



Egyptian fruit bats are highly social creatures, passing the daylight hours packed together with hundreds or thousands of other bats into tight caves or crevices. During these hours, they vocalize to squabble over food, mating partners, or sleeping spaces.



“These bats are very long-lived - they live about 25 years - and basically their entire lives are spent in this group social living. So, the ability to live together in a group and communicate with each other is an inherent feature of their lives,” explained senior author Michael Yartsev, an assistant professor of Neurobiology and Bioengineering at the <a href="https://www.berkeley.edu/">University of California, Berkeley</a>.



By using wireless neural recording devices, the scientists tracked the brain activity of bats as they freely interacted within groups and communicated with each other. They found that within each bat’s frontal cortex (a brain area known to mediate social behaviors in mammals), different sets of neurons were activated depending on which of the bats in the group vocalized.&nbsp;



“What these individual neurons cared about was, ‘Am I making the call? Or is somebody else making the call?’ no matter what type of vocalization it was. Other neurons were only sensitive to when one specific bat within the group was talking,” explained co-author Boaz Styr, a postdoctoral fellow in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.michaelyartsev.com/">NeuroBat Lab</a>&nbsp;at UC Berkeley.



Moreover, the scientists found that the brains of different bats tended to synchronize when they socialized. This degree of correlation among the group members’ brains depended upon which bat was vocalizing, with some bats having stronger synchronization with specific individuals. These inter-brain patterns lasted for weeks, presumably representing stable social relationships among bats.&nbsp;



Both the intra- and inter-brain activity patterns were modulated by the social preference of individual group members: bats preferring to spend more time with others elicited stronger neural identity representation and higher levels of brain synchrony. Understanding the neural bases of why some individuals can smoothly engage in social interactions, while others are constantly misunderstood or ostracized, could have major implications for improving human mental health.&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

Bats have brains that synchronize when they socialize

A new study published in the journal Science investigated how...

According to a recent <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/report/2021-production-gap-report">report</a> (The Production Gap Report) by the United Nations Environment Programme (<a href="https://www.unep.org/">UNEP</a>), governments’ fossil fuel production plans remain dangerously out of sync with the limits imposed by the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">Paris Agreement</a> that aimed to limit global <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/centuries-old-record-of-arctic-warming-found-in-driftwood/">warming</a> to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius increase by 2030.&nbsp;



The Production Gap Report was first launched in 2019 in order to measure the gap between the governments’ planned production of gas, coal, and oil, and the global production levels allowed to meet the Paris Agreement limits. In 2021, the experts found that, despite increased ambition to mitigate climate change by reducing emissions, governments still plan to produce double the amount of oil and gas by at least 2030.



The 2021 Production Gap Report provides profiles for 15 major countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.&nbsp;



The scientists involved in the report have found that these countries’ governments plan to produce in the following decade 110 percent more fossil fuel, 240 percent more coal, 57 percent more oil, and 71 percent more gas than would be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. Furthermore, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have directed over $300 billion in funds towards fossil fuel activities – much more than they have towards clean energy.



“The research is clear: global coal, oil, and gas production must start declining immediately and steeply to be consistent with limiting long-term warming to 1.5°C,” said study lead author Ploy Achakulwisut, an expert in fossil fuels and climate change at the <a href="https://www.sei.org/">Stockholm Environment Institute</a>. “However, governments continue to plan for and support levels of fossil fuel production that are vastly in excess of what we can safely burn."



“The devastating impacts of climate change are here for all to see. There is still time to limit long-term warming to 1.5°C, but this window of opportunity is rapidly closing,” added Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.&nbsp;



“At COP26 and beyond, the world’s governments must step up, taking rapid and immediate steps to close the fossil fuel production gap and ensure a just and equitable transition. This is what climate ambition looks like.”



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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

Fossil fuels must be reduced immediately and drastically

According to a recent report (The Production Gap Report) by...

We are all well aware that increasing brain capacity has been a defining characteristic of the human lineage. Our oldest hominin ancestors, for example <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature00879">Sahelanthropus</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19810194">Ardipithecus</a>, who lived about 4 million years ago, boasted brain sizes comparable with those of modern <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/chimpanzees-give-us-clues-about-early-human-evolution/">chimpanzees</a>.&nbsp;



Since then, cranial capacity has increased dramatically, with maximum values reached around 130,000 years ago in populations of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.



What is not as well advertised is that, since the end of the Pleistocene Epoch around 12,000 years ago, the brain size of modern humans has decreased by approximately 10 percent. Some say the decrease has been associated with a slight reduction in body size and robustness, related to the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/203138">warmer conditions</a>&nbsp;of the Holocene, but this hypothesis has met with resistance.



In order to identify the pattern of cranial capacity decrease in modern humans and shed light on the potential reasons, a team of researchers from different academic fields set out to study the historical patterns of human brain evolution, and to compare their findings with what is known in ant societies.&nbsp;



“A surprising fact about humans today is that our brains are&nbsp;smaller&nbsp;compared to the brains of our Pleistocene ancestors. Why our brains have reduced in size has been a big mystery for anthropologists,” explained co-author Dr. Jeremy DeSilva, from Dartmouth College.



“A biological anthropologist, and a behavioral ecologist and evolutionary neurobiologist, began sharing their thoughts on brain evolution and found bridging research on humans and ants might help identify what is possible in nature,” said co-author Dr. James Traniello from Boston University.



Previous research has shown that ants with specialized tasks that require learning and memory can have enlarged regions within the mushroom body of the brain, a phenomenon that becomes more pronounced as colony size increases. The scientists wondered whether there were any parallels between the evolution of ant and human brains.



They applied a change-point analysis to a dataset of 985 fossil and modern human crania. The results showed that human brains increased in size 2.1m years ago and again 1.5m years ago, during the Pleistocene. However, cranial capacity underwent a noticeable decrease in size around 3,000 years ago, during the Holocene Epoch, which is more recent than previously thought.



“Most people are aware that humans have unusually large brains - significantly larger than predicted from our body size. In our deep evolutionary history, human brain size dramatically increased,” said Dr. Traniello. “The reduction in human brain size 3,000 years ago was unexpected.”



Although the increases in brain size can be correlated with the early evolution of the genus Homo, and the associated technical advances that led, for example, to the manufacture of more complex tools, to better diet and larger social groups, the timing of the decrease in brain size has not yet been explained.&nbsp;



The interdisciplinary team involved in the current study proposes a new hypothesis to explain the decrease in brain size, based on clues and comparisons within ant societies.&nbsp;



“We propose that ants can provide diverse models to understand why brains may increase or decrease in size due to social life. Understanding why brains increase or decrease is difficult to study using only fossils,” explained Dr. Traniello.



Studying patterns of worker ant brain size, structure, and energy use in some ant clades, such as the&nbsp;weaver ants (Oecophylla),&nbsp;leafcutter ants (Atta), and common garden ants&nbsp;(Formica), showed that group-level cognition and division of labor may select for adaptive brain size variation. This means that within a social group where knowledge is shared or individuals are specialists at certain tasks, brains may adapt to become more efficient, sometimes by decreasing in size.



“Ant and human societies are very different and have taken different routes in social evolution,” said Dr. Traniello. “Nevertheless, ants also share with humans important aspects of social life such as group decision-making and division of labor, as well as the production of their own food (agriculture). These similarities can broadly inform us of the factors that may influence changes in human brain size.”



The study authors propose that, since brains use up a lot of energy, it would be advantageous to have a smaller brain if not all of its potential is needed for survival. The externalization of knowledge in human societies (relying on other sources and other people for information), as well as the division of labor, means that individual humans do not need to store or use all potentially useful information.&nbsp;



Thus, the experts hypothesize that increases in the complexity of human societies, along with increased labor division may have favored a decrease in brain size.



“We propose that this decrease was due to increased reliance on collective intelligence, the idea that a group of people is smarter than the smartest person in the group, often called the ‘wisdom of the crowds,’” explained Dr. Traniello.



“We look forward to having our hypothesis tested as additional data become available," said Dr. DeSilva.



Their paper is published in the <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution">journal&nbsp;Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution</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

Ants help explain why the human brain shrank 3,000 years ago

We are all well aware that increasing brain capacity has...

In November 2019, Venice experienced its second worst <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-flood-disaster-in-germany-raises-new-questions-about-extreme-precipitation/">flood</a> in its history, with waters reaching up to 1.87 meters and inundating over 80 percent of the city. Within six weeks, the famous city was flooded four more times, triggering increasing fears about the worsening impact of climate change. 



Although such events have always been common during the autumn and winter months, in 2021 Venice was also flooded during summer. “I can only say that in August, a month when this never used to happen, we had tides over a meter five times,” said Carlo Alberto Tesserin, the chief caretaker of Venice’s iconic St. Mark’s Basilica.



“Conditions are continuing to worsen since the flooding of November 2019. We therefore have the certainty that in these months, flooding is no longer an occasional phenomenon. It is an everyday occurrence,” he added.



Due to its unique topography, with long pointed wooden poles driven straight into the seafloor, and 117 canals flowing throughout the city, Venice is particularly vulnerable to climate change.&nbsp;



According to several studies published in a special issue of the journal <a href="https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/special_issue1124.html">Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences</a>, long-term future projections indicate a great uncertainty regarding the relative <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sea-levels-are-rising-at-an-alarming-rate/">sea level rise</a> of Venice by the end of the 21st century. The projections range from 17 to 120 centimeters, depending on various greenhouse gas emission scenarios.



In the past, sea level rise was mainly caused by storm surges, but a greater variety of factors will be involved in future flooding, including meteotsunamis (lighter forms of tsunamis generated by atmospheric conditions), or massive planetary atmospheric waves that affect sea levels at multiple scales.&nbsp;



“When you are this close to the upper limit of the tidal range, any meteorological event can be hazardous and cause an extreme flood,” said Piero Lionello, a professor of Oceanographic and Atmospheric Sciences at the <a href="https://international.unisalento.it/">University of Salento</a>. “Small increases can have a large impact.”



In the short-term, the protection of Venice from flooding depends on the effective and timely deployment of the new&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mosevenezia.eu/project/">MoSE</a>&nbsp;coastal defense system, which is designed to predict the water levels four to six hours ahead of their maximum and to close several underwater barriers in order to isolate the lagoon from the sea. However, in terms of long-term planning, greenhouse emissions should be urgently curbed in order to save Venice and other coastal cities.



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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

Venice faces an uncertain fate due to sea level rise

In November 2019, Venice experienced its second worst flood in...

The skins and pulp left behind after the early stages of red wine production have traditionally been considered a useless by-product known as pomace. The mass of skins, pulp, seeds and stems left after the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/orange-juice-can-reduce-inflammation-and-chronic-disease/">juice</a> has been extracted is mostly used as fodder or fertilizer.&nbsp;



However, a new study led by <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a> has shown that red wine grape pomace contains valuable polyphenols that could be useful nutritional supplements and even have effects on intestinal functionality and morphology, as well as on the gut microbiome.&nbsp;



The important plant nutrients present in red grape pomace are stilbenes, natural compounds that have been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Both resveratrol and pterostilbene are present in the skins of red grapes, and the scientists were interested in testing the potential effects of these polyphenols on gut functionality.



“This by-product of making wine has important potential,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.cornell.edu/takolab/">Elad Tako</a>, associate professor of food science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “If we can use the pomace to either extract key compounds or use them as a dietary ingredient to fold into food, then grape pomace can be a very sustainable source of nutritional compounds with demonstrated health benefits.”



“I’ve been working with polyphenols (plant-based nutritional compounds), and I was intrigued by previous research that suggested that bioactive compounds – such as resveratrol in red wine – has cardiovascular and other health benefits. The mechanism of how these compounds work in the body was not clear, so I used my in vivo model to find the answer.”



Professor Tako and the team used a developing chicken’s egg to test the effects of the two stilbenes, resveratrol and pterostilbene. A chicken embryo takes 21 days to develop to hatching and, during this time, it is nourished by the surrounding amniotic fluid (egg white).&nbsp;



The researchers injected different mixtures of the two stilbenes into the amniotic fluid on day 17 of incubation - a method developed by Professor Tako called “intra amniotic administration.”



In this way, the group learned how the resveratrol and the pterostilbene affect the gastrointestinal tract, as well as other physiological systems and tissues, said Professor Tako.&nbsp;



The experts found that the morphology of the intestine was positively altered (villi with greater length and diameter), and that there was better absorption of micronutrients such as zinc and iron into the chickens’ blood. They concluded that the inclusion of dietary stilbenes led to an improvement in gut health in their in vivo chicken model.&nbsp;



Further research is needed to focus on the use of the red grape compounds in humans and the associated effects on gut health. The study is published in a special edition of the journal <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients">Nutrients</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

Red wine grapes have unexpected gut health benefits

The skins and pulp left behind after the early stages...

Two new studies led by the <a href="https://institutducerveau-icm.org/en/mission-en/">Paris Brain Institute</a> aim to clarify how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/environmental-change-makes-animals-alter-their-behavior/">animals</a> interact with one another within social groups. The researchers are investigating how animals perceive the social interactions of other members of their species, as well as how they experience their own interactions with other members of their group.&nbsp;



The experts want to identify the brain mechanisms that constitute collective intelligence. Moreover, instead of analyzing interactions between only two animals, the studies are focused on all interactions that emerged within certain social groups.



All animals that live in social groups, from ants and birds to apes and humans, adapt their behavior to the group. Being part of a group represents a significant evolutionary advantage for a large number of species. It allows them to accomplish tasks that are impossible to achieve alone, such as building complex habitats, and to solve complex problems in order to avoid predation or find reliable food sources. Such behaviors arise from social interaction, which can range from verbal and non-verbal communication to mimicry, memorization, or other signaling processes.



Previous research in ethology has already investigated in great depth collective decision-making in animal groups. Such decisions are often made by individuals without them realizing that they are in fact collective efforts, as in the case of birds synchronizing their flight. Until recently, animal neuroscience has focused on how animal intelligence and decision-making function at the level of individual brains in isolation.



The new studies explore what happens to animal brains when they are embedded in social groups. The experts propose that the brains of animals change their functioning when they are evolving within social groups.&nbsp;



With new technological advances in brain imaging, EEG recordings can now be made using portable machines, allowing the scientists to study animal social interaction not only in the laboratory, but also in the wild.



It is known that, in humans and many other mammals, the brain activity of individuals belonging to a certain group can be synchronized during various social interactions. However, it is not yet clear how this synchronization process functions.&nbsp;



The researchers at the Paris Brain Institute are starting to uncover these mechanisms, together with other crucial aspects of social intelligence, such as some mammals’ ability to individually represent group decisions. Further research is needed to fully understand the complex interplay between individual cognition and group thinking in social animals.



The studies are published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abm3060">Science</a>. &nbsp;&nbsp;



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

How do animals interact within social groups?

Two new studies led by the Paris Brain Institute aim...

A new study led by <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a> has found that between 2.5 and 4 billion years ago, a period known as the Archean Eon, asteroids hit the Earth much more frequently than previously thought. The experts report that these frequent asteroid strikes likely delayed the moment when oxygen started accumulating on our planet. 



The findings could help us better understand when the Earth started its path toward becoming the habitable planet we know today.



During the Archean Eon, it was common for asteroids or comets to hit the Earth. The largest ones, over six miles wide, significantly altered the chemistry of the planet’s atmosphere by creating oxygen sinks that sucked most of the life-sustaining gas out of the atmosphere.



“Free oxygen in the atmosphere is critical for any living being that uses respiration to produce energy,” said Nadja Drabon, an assistant professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. “Without the accumulation of oxygen in the atmosphere we would probably not exist.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



By analyzing records of small pieces of rocks that formed in the fiery collisions between asteroids or comets and the Earth (so-called “impact spherules”), Drabon and her colleagues have discovered that existing planetary bombardment models strongly underestimate how often asteroids and comets would hit Earth. 



The new collision rates suggest that impactors collided with the planet roughly every 15 million years, about 10 times more frequent than previously thought.&nbsp;



These findings align with geological records which show that the oxygen levels remained relatively low during the early Archean Eon, until 2.4 billion years ago, when the bombardment slowed down and the Earth experienced a major rise of oxygen levels known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE).



“As time went on, collisions become progressively less frequent and too small to be able to significantly alter post-GOE oxygen levels,” said study leader Simone Marchi, a scientist at the <a href="https://www.boulder.swri.edu/">Southwest Research Institute</a> in Boulder, Colorado. “The Earth was on its course to become the current planet.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00835-9">Nature Geoscience</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

Frequent asteroid strikes delayed oxygen growth on Earth

A new study led by Harvard University has found that...

Dinosaurs are often portrayed to have been aggressive and territorial, suggesting that they would generally live in solidarity. However, a new research study has come to a very different conclusion that some of the earliest dinosaurs flourished by living <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brazilian-jaguars-have-an-unexpected-diet-and-social-life/">socially</a> within herds.



Whilst past studies have already revealed that some dinosaurs lived in herds during the late stage of the Cretaceous Period, it has never been known exactly how and when this behavior emerged.



The research was carried out within a large fossil site in Patagonia, with fossilized eggs being analyzed with the <a href="https://www.esrf.fr/">ESRF</a> (European Synchrotron) tool. The 190-million-year-old nesting ground was discovered in the early 2000s, with scientists discovering skeletons belonging to Mussaurus patgonicus. “Such a preserved site was bound to provide us with a lot of information about how early dinosaurs lived," explained Diego Pol, the paleontologist who initially discovered the site.



The team used the ESRF tool to analyze 30 fossilized eggs containing embryos. The goal was to confirm whether the eggs were laid by Mussaurus or not. “We use high-energy X-rays to penetrate in the sample without destroying it and get a full view inside it," explained ESRF scientist Vincent Fernandez.



Ultimately, the high-resolution computed tomography confirmed that Mussaurus embryos were present in some of the eggs. Furthermore,&nbsp; it was concluded that the fossils belonged to a communal breeding site of a singular dinosaur species, showing that Mussarus would return to the same area (on the dry margins of a lake) to form breeding colonies.



The fossils were not scattered randomly but instead grouped according to their age, demonstrating the strategic grouping of eggs to form schools of young dinosaurs. While adults and subadults were more commonly found in pairs or alone, they were always within one square kilometer of each other.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In order to determine dinosaur age and conclude these results, the ESRF scientists had to cut thin bone samples and scrutinize them under a microscope. “The bones of these dinosaurs grew in annual cycles, much as the tree rings, so by counting the growth cycles we could infer the age of the dinosaur," explained Pol.



Considering that the Mussaurus species belonged to the first successful family of herbivorous dinosaurs, the research has presented clear evidence that dinosaurs developed strategic and well-organized herd structures over 40 million years before initial estimates.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“These are not the oldest dinosaurs, but they are the oldest dinosaurs for which a herd behavior has been proposed," said Pol. "Mussaurus belongs to the first successful family of herbivorous dinosaurs, so we postulate that being social and protecting their young together as a herd may have been part of the reason these long-necked dinosaurs were so common in all continents."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:calumvaughan05@gmail.com">Calum Vaughan</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Social behavior helped early dinosaurs thrive

Dinosaurs are often portrayed to have been aggressive and territorial,...

A new study highlights the dangers of the ongoing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/delta-variants-could-further-prolong-the-covid-pandemic/">COVID-19</a> pandemic for mountain gorillas, particularly those in Volcanoes National Park. The researchers determined that there is a very high probability that a COVID-19 outbreak would lead this population of wild mountain gorillas to collapse.



"Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), classified as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, have been the focus of intense study on the potential effects of diseases, particularly given that a significant percentage of the population is habituated and in close contact with humans on a daily basis for ecotourism, protection and research programs," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;



"Respiratory outbreaks occur on almost an annual basis - between 1990 and 2020, 18 outbreaks were recorded in the groups within Volcanoes National Park - and pneumonia is considered the second highest cause of mortality, although in only a few cases have illness be directly linked to human origins due to limited molecular data."



Even though COVID infections have been found in captive western lowland gorillas, the potential health risk that COVID-19 poses to mountain gorillas and other wild apes is not yet clear.&nbsp;



"The current COVID-19 pandemic has created unmeasurable damages to society at a global level, from the irreplaceable loss of life, to the massive economic losses. In addition, the disease threatens further biodiversity loss," wrote the researchers.



"Due to their shared physiology with humans, primates, and particularly great apes, are susceptible to the disease. However, it is still uncertain how their populations would respond in case of infection."



To investigate, a research team led by Fernando Colchero from the University of Southern Denmark obtained data on 396 gorillas from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. The information was collected between 1967 and 2018 in Volcanoes National Park.&nbsp;



Taking into consideration the yearly variations in the size of the gorilla group, the experts used computer models to simulate the probability that a COVID-19 outbreak would lead to a population collapse.&nbsp;



The researchers also accounted for epidemiological factors that influence COVID-19 in humans, including the probability of death after infection and the probability of developing immunity.



Overall, the study authors ran 2,000 simulations in which the size and structure of the population in the park varied at different rates. The analysis revealed that 71 percent of these simulated populations would collapse within 50 years.&nbsp;



According to the researchers, the outlook could be even more grim due to the fact that mortality could be higher among gorillas with a limited availability of treatment options.&nbsp;



On the other hand, the experts noted that the tendency of gorilla groups to naturally socially distance from each other likely decreases the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.&nbsp;



"The most evident and urgent goal is to avoid infection with COVID-19," wrote the researchers. "This requires that both, park personnel and tourists are vaccinated promptly, monitored for evidence of infection before they come in proximity of the mountain gorillas, and that mask wearing, hygiene measures and daily health checks before visiting gorillas are strictly followed."



"Similarly, it is fundamental to establish a monitoring protocol that allows testing regularly gorillas for possible infections."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>.



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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

A COVID-19 outbreak could be devastating for mountain gorillas

A new study highlights the dangers of the ongoing COVID-19...

According to a new <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.10.463851v3.full">study</a> led by the <a href="https://www.soken.ac.jp/">Graduate University for Advanced Studies</a>, an extinct Japanese wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax) may hold clues to the origins of modern dogs. Genomic analyses indicate that the two might share a common ancestor, and that up to 5.5 percent of modern dog genomes throughout East Eurasia are derived from Japanese <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wolf-populations-are-expanding-across-europe/">wolf</a> ancestry.



The Japanese wolf was a subspecies of the gray wolf which inhabited the Japanese Archipelago until approximately 120 years ago. At least since they appeared in written records in the first century AD, these wolves were seen as pests, preying on horses and other livestock.&nbsp;



More recently, rabies outbreaks and habitat loss forced Japanese wolves into increased conflict with humans, making their eradication a national priority towards the end of the 19th century. The last known Japanese wolf was hunted and killed by humans in 1905.&nbsp;



By studying the genomes of nine Japanese wolves from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and 11 Japanese dogs (including popular breeds such as shiba inus), and comparing the results of the analysis to both modern and ancient wolves and dogs, the scientists found that both the Japanese wolves and modern dogs came from a vanished population of gray wolves in East Asia.



According to study senior author Yohei Terai, an evolutionary biologist at the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, the Japanese wolf appears to be a unique, genetically distinct subspecies of the gray wolf, different from both ancient and modern gray wolves. Surprisingly though, the Japanese wolf seemed to share significant genetic affinities to East Eurasian dogs. “It’s a sister relationship,” Terai said.



“If true, this is very important,” added Laurent Frantz, an evolutionary geneticist at the<a href="https://www.lmu.de/en/">&nbsp;Ludwig Maximilian&nbsp;University of Munich</a>. “It’s the first time we’ve seen a wolf population that’s close to dogs.”&nbsp;



However, not all dogs have a significant genetic overlap with the Japanese wolf. Western dogs such as Labradors or German Shepherds, for example, shared far less genetic material than eastern dogs, such as modern Japanese breeds, or ancient canines including the dingo or the New Guinea singing dog. Terai and his colleagues speculate that Japanese wolves bred with dogs that were moving east after a hypothesized east-west split of canine lineages.&nbsp;



Nevertheless, the discovery of these significant affinities between the Japanese wolf and eastern dogs is a crucial step forward in understanding the origins and evolution of modern dogs.



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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

Mysterious wolf may hold clues to the origins of modern dogs

According to a new study led by the Graduate University...

According to a recent <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/climate-change-triggers-mounting-food-insecurity-poverty-and-displacement-africa">report</a> of the <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en">World Meteorological Organization</a> (WMO), Africa’s rare glaciers located on Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya, and the Rwenzori Mountains are retreating at an increasing speed due to global warming. Anthropogenic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-profoundly-affect-plankton-communities/">climate change</a> may cause the glaciers to disappear completely by 2040.



Between 2014 and 2020, Furtwängler, Mount Kilimanjaro's largest glacier, has shrunk 70 percent. This glacier is vital to the people living in the nearby areas, being a major source of freshwater. Moreover, its disappearance could severely impact Tanzania’s tourist industry, since the Kilimanjaro glaciers attract thousands of people from all over the globe each year.



The Rwenzori Mountains from Uganda, which are often referred to as the “African Alps,” the “mountains of the moon,” or “the snowy source of the Nile,” and are also important tourist attractions, have lost up to 90 percent of their mass during the past decades.&nbsp;



While the Kilimanjaro and the Rwenzori glaciers are expected to disappear by 2040, the situation in Kenya is even more dramatic: the Lewis Glacier, which lost over 90 percent of its volume since 1934, is expected to vanish completely by as early as 2030. &nbsp;



“When the melting starts, rivers first experience high flows because of the melting ice. But this subsequently reduces because the glaciers never really recover like they did before climate change became a reality. Because of this, there is less and less water in the rivers in the years that follow,” warned Isaac Kalua, a Kenyan environmentalist and chairman of <a href="https://watertowers.go.ke/">Kenya’s Water Towers</a> Management Authority.



"During 2020, the climate indicators in Africa were characterized by continued warming temperatures, accelerating sea-level rise, extreme weather and climate events, such as floods, landslides and droughts, and associated devastating impacts. The rapid shrinking of the last remaining glaciers in eastern Africa, which are expected to melt entirely in the near future, signals the threat of imminent and irreversible change to the Earth system,"&nbsp;said WMO Secretary-General Professor Petteri Taalas.



If no adequate response measures are urgently put in place, this weather and climate variability will lead to a significant disruption of ecological, economic, and social systems, and expose over 118 million people who already fight with poverty to droughts, floods, and extreme heat.&nbsp;



“This will place additional burdens on poverty alleviation efforts and significantly hamper growth in prosperity,” concluded H.E. Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture in the <a href="https://au.int/en">African Union Commission</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

Africa’s glaciers may disappear by 2040

According to a recent report of the World Meteorological Organization...

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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"

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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

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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...