Spaghetti, a word that evokes thoughts of delicious Italian cuisine and hearty meals, has taken on an entirely new meaning in the realm of science.



Imagine strands so impossibly thin they are 200 times slimmer than a human hair -- not destined for marinara sauce but poised to revolutionize fields as diverse as medicine and advanced materials science.



Recently, a team of scientists from University College London (<a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UCL</a>) has crafted the world’s thinnest strands of material, daintily dubbed "spaghetti" in an attempt to blend the familiar with the extraordinary.



Beatrice Britton, the study's lead author, carried out the work as part of her master’s degree in chemistry at UCL.



“To make spaghetti, you push a mixture of water and flour through metal holes. In our study, we did the same except we pulled our flour mixture through with an electrical charge. It’s literally spaghetti but much smaller,” explained co-author Dr. Adam Clancy from the UCL Department of Chemistry.



However, this remarkable creation isn’t for your dinner plate. Its potential lies in novel applications for wound healing, tissue <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/secrets-of-killifish-regeneration-may-help-us-heal-humans/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">regeneration</a>, and drug delivery, thereby setting a new benchmark in nanotechnology.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-healing-power-of-spaghetti-nanopasta">Healing power of "spaghetti" nanopasta</h2>



The secret lies in its base material - starch. This <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eating-refined-carbs-can-make-you-less-attractive/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">carbohydrate</a>, accumulated in abundance by green plants, provides us with fascinating prospects for creating nanofibers.



The microscopic mats of nanofibers are permeable enough to permit the passage of water and moisture, while acting as a protective barrier against harmful <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bacteria-form-memories-and-pass-them-on-to-future-generations/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bacteria</a>. 



“Nanofibers, such as those made of starch, show potential for use in wound dressings as they are very porous,” said Professor Gareth Williams from UCL School of Pharmacy. 



“In addition, nanofibers are being explored for use as a scaffold to regrow tissue, as they mimic the extra-cellular matrix – a network of proteins and other molecules that cells build to support themselves.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-making-spaghetti-nanopasta">Making spaghetti nanopasta</h2>



Nanofibers made from starch offer remarkable potential for applications in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/increasing-plant-extinction-threatens-the-future-of-medicine-and-human-health/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">medicine</a> and industry. 



However, traditional methods for producing these materials rely on extracting and purifying starch from plant cells - a process that demands significant energy and water and raises environmental concerns.



The UCL team has devised an innovative alternative: creating nanofibers directly from starch-rich flour, a widely available and sustainable resource.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/spaghetti_worlds-thinnest_nanopasta_single-strand_credit-UCL_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/spaghetti_worlds-thinnest_nanopasta_single-strand_credit-UCL_1s.webp" alt="Each individual strand is too narrow to be clearly captured by any form of visible light camera or microscope, so the team used a scanning electron microscope, scanning the mat with a focused beam of electrons and creating an image based on the pattern of electrons that are deflected or knocked-off. Credit: Beatrice Britton / Adam Clancy" class="wp-image-1951309"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Each individual strand is too narrow to be clearly captured by any form of visible light camera or microscope, so the team used a scanning electron microscope, scanning the mat with a focused beam of electrons and creating an image based on the pattern of electrons that are deflected or knocked-off. Credit: Beatrice Britton / Adam Clancy</figcaption></figure>



Bypassing the need for intensive purification, this approach not only reduces resource consumption but also leverages a common food ingredient in an unexpected and transformative way.



This method represents a shift towards greener nanotechnology, aligning material science innovation with environmental responsibility.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-of-spaghetti-nanopasta">Future of spaghetti nanopasta</h2>



The researchers are optimistic about the future of these ultra-thin nanofibers, especially when they are made using starch-rich flour as a starting material.



“Starch is a promising material to use as it is abundant and renewable -- it is the second largest source of biomass on Earth, behind cellulose -- and it is biodegradable, meaning it can be broken down in the body,” said Dr. Clancy.



However, the process of creating nanofibers from flour is not without challenges. Impurities such as proteins and cellulose increase the mixture’s viscosity, making fiber formation more difficult.



The study highlights how using formic acid instead of water effectively breaks down the giant starch helices, allowing the creation of nanofibers. 



The researchers also carefully controlled the mixture’s temperature during preparation to achieve the right consistency. 



This novel approach not only simplifies the process but also opens the door to sustainable and scalable production methods.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-does-any-of-this-matter">Why does any of this matter?</h2>



While the team has made significant progress, much work remains to fully explore the potential of this "healing spaghetti." 



“We’ve shown that a simpler way to make nanofibers using flour is possible. The next step would be to investigate the properties of this product. We would want to know, for instance, how quickly it disintegrates, how it interacts with cells, and if you could produce it at scale,” explained Dr. Clancy.



The versatility of these nanofibers opens the door to applications beyond medicine, potentially transforming areas such as environmental engineering and biodegradable materials.



Despite the promise of starch-based nanofibers in medicine and industry, their culinary applications remain out of reach. 



“I don’t think it’s useful as pasta, sadly, as it would overcook in less than a second, before you could take it out of the pan,” Professor Williams stated humorously.



The researchers plan to continue refining the electrospinning process and exploring the properties of their nanofibers to determine their viability for practical applications. 



For now, the world's thinnest "spaghetti" stands as a remarkable example of the creativity and ingenuity of modern <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/astronauts-are-studying-materials-science-in-space/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">materials science</a>.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2024/na/d4na00601a">Nanoscale Advances</a>.



Image Credit: Beatrice Britton / Adam Clancy



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World’s thinnest spaghetti 'nanopasta' could heal wounds and regrow tissues

Spaghetti, a word that evokes thoughts of delicious Italian cuisine and hearty meals, has taken on an entirely new meaning in the realm of science. Imagine strands so impossibly thin they are 200 times slimmer than a human hair -- not destined for marinara sauce but poised to revolutionize fields as diverse as medicine and advanced materials science. Recently, a team of scientists from University College London (UCL) has crafted the world’s thinnest strands of material, daintily dubbed "spaghetti" in an attempt to blend the familiar with...

A desire for sweet foods is hard-wired into each and every human. Sugar is the simplest form of energy for our bodies, and our brains. As a result, we are programmed to seek out sweet foods and even gorge on them when they are abundant. This may have made sense when humans spent days searching for their next meal, but in our modern society sugar is always available. 

Sugar is now the ingredient that <a href="https://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Article/2013/03/04/Mintel-Shoppers-more-concerned-about-total-sugar-than-HFCS">consumers are most worried about avoiding</a>. This concern is well founded. The prevalence of sugar has led to a huge array of health problems, from obesity, to type 2 diabetes and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769828/">has even been implicated as a cause of alzheimer’s disease</a>. 

In light of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/that-sugar-film-sugar-consumption/">concerns surrounding high-sugar foods</a>, many people choose artificial sweeteners. Products such as Diet Coke and Splenda offer a calorie-free alternative to sugar. However, there are growing concerns about the safety and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/non-sugar-sweeteners/">effectiveness of these products</a>. 

As a result, many consumers are looking for a healthier and more natural way to reach the sweetness we’ve grown accustomed to. There are a few big contenders in the race for the best natural sweetener.
<h2>Stevia - <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia/plant/en/stevia-rebaudiana/">Stevia rebaudiana</a></h2>
Stevia has dominated the world of natural sugar alternatives in the last few decades. This small shrub from the daisy family (Asteraceae) is native to Paraguay where it has been used for centuries as a sweetener. The leaves of this plant contain compounds called steviol glycosides that are <a href="https://www.purecirclesteviainstitute.com/healthy-lifestyle/great-taste/how-sweet-is-stevia">up to 300X sweeter than sugar by weight</a>. 

The artificial sweetener industry sees Stevia as the most hopeful natural sweetener. There are already multiple stevia based sweeteners on the market including Cargill’s Truvia, as well as some mid-calorie sodas. Current products are made from the natural rebaudioside-A. However to get close to the flavor of sugar, it needs to be mixed with other sweeteners. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/magazine/the-quest-for-a-natural-sugar-substitute.html">Research is under way into how the sweeteners in stevia can be improved.</a>
<h2>Monk Fruit (Lou han guo) - <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia/plant/en/siraitia-grosvenorii/">Siraitia grosvenorii</a></h2>
Monk fruit is the second most popular natural sugar alternative. It has garnered some commercial attention and is used in Cumberland Packaging’s Monk Fruit in the Raw sweetener. 

However, monk fruit is far more expensive to produce than stevia, and therefore has lagged behind its more popular competitor. In addition, the active chemicals (mogrosides) work far better in a neutral pH, making them less versatile for sodas and coffee. Some mixtures combine monk fruit and stevia <a href="https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/9592-be-wary-of-new-natural-sweeteners">to take advantage of the best parts of each</a>.
<h2>Chinese Blackberry (Chinese Sweet Tea) - <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia/plant/en/rubus-chingii-suavissimus/">Rubus suavissimus</a></h2>
The Chinese Blackberry is a close relative of the blackberries that grow in North America. However, the Chinese Blackberry has more sweetness to offer than just its berries. The leaves of this plant are brewed into a tea that is sweet, despite having no sugar at all. This plant is less well-researched than some other natural sweeteners. It is believed that it owes its sweetness to compounds <a href="https://examine.com/supplements/rubus-suavissimus/">similar to the steviol glycosides found in stevia</a>. There may be a lot of potential in this sweet leaf, but it still needs to be studied more extensively.
<h2>Miracle Berries - <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia/plant/en/synsepalum-dulcificum/">Synsepalum dulcificum</a></h2>
A different type of sweetener exists in the boldly named miracle berry. This fruit contains a protein called miraculin, which causes sour foods to taste sweet. After eating miracle berries, lemons and vinegar will taste excessively sweet. 

This fruit may seem like a great way to add sweetness to a sour meal, but as a food additive it isn’t practical. For it to work, you must coat your mouth before consuming the sour food. In addition, it cancels out the sour flavors that are essential in many delicious meals.

Miracle berries make a much better party trick than a natural sweetener, but their unique properties make them worth mentioning.
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
The amazing diversity of the plant world offers up quite a few different natural sweeteners, though they each have their unique shortcomings. In addition, there is no guarantee that a chemical produced by a plant is any safer than one created in a lab. These plant sweeteners still need to undergo extensive testing before they are considered safe as a food additive.

To make matters worse, it has not been proven that artificial sweeteners actually improve health. Although they don’t have the fattening calories of sugar, as we have reported, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/artificial-sweeteners-obesity-diabetes/">they may still contribute to obesity and diabetes</a>. The only proven solution to the dangers of sweetness is eating food that isn’t quite so sweet.

--

By <a href="mailto:casey.hofford@gmail.com">Casey Hofford</a>, <a href="http://earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Which plant-based natural sweetener is the best pick?

A desire for sweet foods is hard-wired into each and...

Animals can feel empathy, new research shows. Having evolved as a social society that relies on strong community and familial bonds, humans have a remarkable ability to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-chimpanzees-exhibit-empathy/">empathize with the emotions and pain of others</a>. 

We wince when we see someone else get hurt or feel bad when our loved ones experience a loss. But now, for the first time, the ability to empathize and mirror another’s pain has been observed in animals.

When it comes to why we experience empathy, previous research has come up with a potential explanation. 

It’s theorized that the cingulate cortex, a region of the brain activated when we get hurt or experience pain, contains mirror neurons that are easily triggered when we see someone else get hurt. 

In other words, the same region activated by our own pain is also activated when it registers someone else’s pain. 

This theory has remained untested until now as it is impossible to record the activity of single human brain cells or disrupt brain activity in the cingulate cortex. 

To determine if the cingulate cortex is responsible for empathy, researchers from the <a href="https://nin.nl/">Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience</a> turned to rats. 

For the study, published in the journal Current Biology, the researchers monitored the brain activity of a rat as it watched a fellow rat receive a mild shock. 

Rats freeze in response to fear, and when a rat saw it’s neighbor rat get shocked, it also froze in fear showing that rats, similar to humans, experience empathy. 

What’s more, watching another rat experience something unpleasant activated the same cingulate cortex region of the brain that is theoretically triggered in humans who experience empathy. 

Both the rat receiving the shock and the rat watching had similar brain activity which confirms the theory that the cingulate cortex contains mirror neurons. 

The researchers also tested to see what happens when a rat’s cingulate cortex cells were suppressed. 

After injected a drug into the rat that hindered the activity of the cells in the cingulate cortex, the researchers found that rats no longer felt empathy or mirrored the pain and fear of another rat. 

The study sheds insight into the underlying mechanisms behind empathy and could help future studies working to understand certain disorders like psychopathy, which are characterized by a lack of empathy. 

“What is most amazing, is that this all happens in exactly the same brain region in rats as in humans,” said Christian Keysers, the lead author of the study. “We had already found in humans, that brain activity of the cingulate cortex increases when we observe the pain of others, unless we are talking about psychopathic criminals, who show a remarkable reduction of this activity.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Animals can feel empathy, new research shows

Animals can feel empathy, new research shows. Having evolved as...

Research shows link between antimicrobial resistance and climate change. A collaborative study from the Institute of <a href="https://www.idsociety.org/policy--advocacy/infection-prevention-and-control/">Infection Control and Infectious Diseases</a>, <a href="https://www.umg.eu/">University Medical Center Göttingen</a> (UMG), and the <a href="https://www.mh-hannover.de/">Hannover Medical School</a> (MHH), has shown an association between antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and climate change. 

AMR was first linked to <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-allergy-season-longer/">climate change</a> when researchers noticed that resistance increased as temperatures warmed in the U.S. The study set out to determine if explanatory strength of climate factors can predict an increase of AMR, even in regions with diverse healthcare systems and communities. The researchers used Europe as a case region.

The team studied 30 countries across Europe and found via data published by the <a href="https://ecdc.europa.eu/en/home">European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control</a> (ECDC) a widespread, six-year-long presence of carbapenem resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA), Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP), multiresistant Escherichia coli (MREC), and Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

The then looked at the correlation between AMR and seasonal temperatures in each region, paying close attention to potential healthcare and socioeconomic factors that could be at play. Researchers were able to link CRKP, MREC and MRSA to warm-season mean temperature. CRPA was linked to warm-season change in temperature.

"Our study identified a novel association between AMR and climatic factors in Europe,” Professor Simone Scheithauer of UMG and her colleagues explain. “These results reveal two aspects: climatic factors significantly contribute to the prediction of AMR in different types of healthcare systems and societies, while climate change might increase AMR transmission, in particular carbapenem resistance."

The authors continue, "While these results remain hypothetical as it is unknown if any causal association exists, future analysis of AMR and climatic developments is necessary to determine whether potential climate change effects on AMR become stronger."

The findings will be presented at the April 13th <a href="https://www.escmid.org/">European Congress of Clinical Microbiology &amp; Infectious Diseases</a> (ECCMID).

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Research shows link between antimicrobial resistance and climate change

Research shows link between antimicrobial resistance and climate change. A...

Why lightning really can strike twice. While experts have noted that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/most-lightning-strikes-2018/">lightning</a> really can strike twice in the same place, the reason that a lightning channel is “reused” has remained unclear. But now, an international research team led by the <a href="https://www.rug.nl/?lang=e">University of Groningen</a> may have finally solved this mystery. 

By using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a Dutch radio telescope consisting of thousands of antennas spread out over Northern Europe, the researchers were able to view the development of lightning flashes in unprecedented detail. 

The study revealed that the negative charges inside of a thundercloud are not all discharged in a single flash. Instead, some are stored inside structures that the experts refer to as needles. The researchers determined that a negative charge through these needles may cause a repeated discharge to the ground.

“This finding is in sharp contrast to the present picture, in which the charge flows along plasma channels directly from one part of the cloud to another, or to the ground,” said Professor Olaf Scholten.

Study first author Dr. Brian Hare explained that the reason why the needles have never been seen before lies in the “supreme capabilities” of LOFAR.

“These needles can have a length of 100 meters and a diameter of less than five meters, and are too small and too short-lived for other lightning detections systems.”

For their observations, the scientists used only the Dutch LOFAR stations, which cover an area of 3,200 square kilometers. They analyzed the raw time-traces as measured in the 30-80 MHz band. 

“These data allow us to detect lightning propagation at a scale where, for the first time, we can distinguish the primary processes. Furthermore, the use of radio waves allows us to look inside the thundercloud, where most of the lightning resides,” said Dr. Hare.

High-resolution 3D images of the lightning clearly showed a break in the discharge channel at a location where needles are formed. These appear to discharge negative charges from the main channel, which then re-enter the cloud. As a result, the reduction of charges in the channel causes the break. 

But then, once the charge in the cloud is built up again, the flow through the channel is restored and there is a second discharge of lightning. Based on this finding, lightning can strike in the same area repeatedly.

“The VHF emissions along the positive channel are due to rather regularly repeated discharges along previously formed side channels, the needles,” explained Professor Scholten. “These needles appear to drain the charges in a pulsed manner.”

“From these observations, we see that a part of the cloud is re-charged, and we can understand why a lightning discharge to the ground may repeat itself a few times,” said Dr. Hare.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/">Nature</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Danielle Futselaar, Artsource.nl

Why lightning really can strike twice

Why lightning really can strike twice. While experts have noted...

The number of planets that could conceivably support life are identified by astronomers by their location in a “habitable zone,” which refers to the sweet spot in a solar system where a planet is close enough to its sun to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/exoplanet-proxima-centauri-life/">have liquid water</a>. 

For a planet to be located in a habitable zone, it needs to be at just the right proximity from its star. If it’s too close the water evaporates, but if it’s too far everything freezes (think Pluto). 

In a new study, researchers from the <a href="https://www.ucr.edu/">University of California, Riverside</a> found that the habitable zone of a solar system may be narrower than previously realized. 

Now, researchers estimate that a habitable zone capable of supporting complex life is half the size it was previously thought to be. 

The study shows that most planets in a habitable range would be unable to support anything but single-cell microbes and that a thick layer of toxic gases like carbon monoxide would make human exploration or complex life impossible. 

The researchers published their findings in the <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ab1d52#references">Astrophysical Journal</a>. 

“Imagine a ‘habitable zone for complex life’ defined as a safe zone where it would be plausible to support rich ecosystems like we find on Earth today,”  said Timothy Lyons, a co-author of the study. “Our results indicate that complex ecosystems like ours cannot exist in most regions of the habitable zone as traditionally defined.”

For the study, the researchers used computer models to simulate the climate, atmosphere, and photochemistry of different planets. 

A planet with liquid water farther away from its star likely indicates a massive amount of carbon dioxide at levels to potent for complex life to survive. 

“To sustain liquid water at the outer edge of the conventional habitable zone, a planet would need tens of thousands of times more carbon dioxide than Earth has today,” said Edward Schwieterman, the study’s lead author. “That’s far beyond the levels known to be toxic to human and animal life on Earth.”

Accounting for gas toxicity drastically reduced the habitable zone and if a planet is to support humans, it’s habitable zone is one-third what it was previously. 

Certain stars like Proxima Centauri have no planets capable of supporting life the models showed. 

The study models are already being used by the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/">National Aeronautics and Space Administration </a>(NASA) to help determine which, if any, planets outside of our own solar system are worth exploring as potential candidates for supporting life. 

“Our discoveries provide one way to decide which of these myriad planets we should observe in more detail,” said Christopher Reinhard, a co-author of the study. “We could identify otherwise habitable planets with carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide levels that are likely too high to support complex life.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Jurik Peter

There may be far fewer planets that could support life than previously thought

The number of planets that could conceivably support life are...

The ocean has been doing us all a solid for decades. As human activity pumps out carbon dioxide headed for the planet’s atmosphere, the ocean absorbs it – but its role as a carbon dioxide sink may be causing irreparable harm.

The Earth’s seas absorb close to a third of the carbon dioxide humans are releasing into the atmosphere. That adds up to about 2.6 billion tons per year, according to the international team of researchers. 

"It’s a huge service the oceans are doing,” co-author Dr. Richard Feely of the <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a> told the <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/">Seattle Times</a>. “That significantly reduces global temperature.”

Carbon dioxide is produced by human activity that burns fossil fuels, like transportation, heating buildings, and producing electricity from coal and gas. Plants can convert the gas into oxygen and forests serve as a carbon dioxide sink, but deforestation and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tropical-regions-co2-increase/">drought</a> have made it impossible for Earth’s plant life to keep up with emissions.

Enter the ocean. The massive body of water that covers 70 percent of the planet’s surface has been taking in carbon, but at a cost.

Ocean acidification has been linked to CO2, and it is having a devastating effect on ocean life. Fish in coastal waters such as salmon and sharks have shown signs of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-acidification-coastal-waters/">cognitive dysfunction</a> due to the more acidic seas, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-acidification-marine-ecosystems/">coral reefs and kelp forests</a> have been dying off. It changes how shellfish develop their skeletons. The ocean’s role as a carbon dioxide sink has also been linked to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/co2-ocean-floor-dissolve/">damage to the seafloor</a>.

"The increasing load of carbon dioxide in the ocean interior is already having an impact on the shellfish industry, particularly along the U.S. West Coast,” Feely told the Times.

But the study shares a more dire prediction: the ocean will eventually reach its saturation point, though it’s at least a few decades away. That’s when those of us living above the surface may start feeling the effects of climate change that the seas have been shielding us from.

"At some point the ability of the ocean to absorb carbon will start to diminish," co-author Dr. Jeremy Mathis, also with NOAA, told <a href="https://mashable.com/">Mashable</a>. "It means atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could go up faster than they already are."

The study has been published in the journal <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6432/1193">Science</a>.

—

By <a href="mailto:kyla.cathey@gmail.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

The ocean is a key carbon dioxide sink – for now

The ocean has been doing us all a solid for...

Organic electronics have been quickly gaining traction in the world of technology ever since the discovery of electrically conducting plastics and polymers. 

Organic light emitting diode displays are already on the market and have become more popular for televisions and cell phones and are also said to produce clearer images compared to LED displays.  

While organic electronics show a great deal of promise, they have yet to compete with other inorganic methods of conducting electricity in terms of efficiency, production, and manufacturing. Polymers and plastics don’t conduct as well as other materials. 

However, that may quickly change as researchers from the <a href="https://www.chalmers.se/en">Chalmers University of Technology </a>in Sweden have found a way to double the efficiency of organic electronics. The implications of this breakthrough could benefit organic light emitting displays, bioelectronics, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plastic-solar-cells-absorb-sunlight/">plastic solar cells</a>. 

The research revolves around “double-doping” polymers. Most electronics today depend on inorganic semiconductors like silicon and doping helps enhance the conductivity of these materials. Doping is a process by which impurities are inserted into semiconducting materials. 

Doping is also required for organic electronics, and a redox reaction is what creates organic semiconductors. 

A <a href="http://www.chemistry.wustl.edu/~coursedev/Online%20tutorials/Redox.htm">redox reaction</a> is a common type of chemical reaction combining reduction and oxidation in which atoms gain and lose electrons, and this increases conductivity.

[caption id="attachment_1865166" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/solar-cell.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1865166" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/solar-cell.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="1050" /></a> Image Credit: Johan Bodell/Chalmers University of Technology. The solar cell was supplied by Epishine AB.[/caption]

With organic semiconductors, an electron is added to a dopant molecule through the redox reaction, and this increases electrical conductivity. The more dopant molecules, the better the conductivity, but only up to a certain limit (called the efficiency limit). 

After a doped organic semiconductor reaches its efficiency limit, conductivity decreases. 

To improve the efficiency of organic semiconductors, the researchers found a way to add two electrons to every dopant molecule, effectively double doping the semiconductor and making it twice as effective. 

“The whole research field has been totally focused on studying materials which only allow one redox reaction per molecule,” said Christian Müller, an author of the study. “We chose to look at a different type of polymer, with lower ionisation energy. We saw that this material allowed the transfer of two electrons to the dopant molecule. It is actually very simple.” 

The findings were published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-018-0263-6">Nature Materials</a> and the results could help make organic electronics viable and competitive alternatives to inorganic semiconductors.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Main Image Credit: Johan Bodell/Chalmers University of Technology. The solar cell was supplied by Epishine AB.

New research presents major breakthrough in organic electronics

Organic electronics have been quickly gaining traction in the world...

As <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rates-loneliness-doubled/">we reported</a> last year, rates of loneliness have doubled over the past 50 years, despite the ability to connect online at almost any time. Since pharmaceutical solutions seem to be available for most other ailments, many have questioned if a pill could cure one of humanity’s greatest epidemics and hardest to treat afflictions.

This is the current goal of Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo, a neuroscientist who has studied loneliness for most of her career, and recently spoke to the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-6598703/A-pill-loneliness-Scientists-race-treat-condition-raise-premature-death-risks.html">Daily Mail</a> on her efforts to develop a loneliness cure.

With social media platforms and the internet connecting people all over the world in the blink of an eye, you would think loneliness would be a thing of the past. 

However, research has shown that people today feel more<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/loneliness-rise-united-states/"> isolated despite social media’s connectivity</a> and that pervasive loneliness impacts health and wellbeing, especially among younger generations. 

One 2018 nationwide survey of 20,000 US adults found that around <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/05/01/606588504/americans-are-a-lonely-lot-and-young-people-bear-the-heaviest-burden">50 percent of the survey respondents felt lonely some or all of the time</a>. Studies have found links between loneliness and an increased risk of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/11/well/mind/how-loneliness-affects-our-health.html">diabetes, dementia, and cardiovascular disease</a>. 

Cacioppo recently had to deal with loneliness head-on after the sudden death of her husband, an event that motivated her to continue on with her research into what loneliness does to the brain and how to potentially treat it. 

A cure for loneliness may be closer than you think as Cacioppo found that pregnenolone (a steroid naturally made in the body) can help combat the anxiety that comes with feelings of loneliness. 

Several test studies and trials have shown that participants given pregnenolone have less activity in the amygdala and insula parts of the brain compared to control groups. These regions in the brain are linked to the flight or fight response and help people process and perceive threats around them. 

Cacioppo is in the process of analyzing data from a clinical trial in which 96 participants who reported feeling lonely were given different amounts of the steroid or a placebo. If the results are successful, Cacioppo and her team could soon develop a pill form of the steroid which could help ease the anxiety and negative symptoms of loneliness.  

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By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

With loneliness on the rise, there may soon be a pill to treat it

As we reported last year, rates of loneliness have doubled...

Scientists at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Chemical_Society_(EuChemS)">European Chemical Society</a> (EuChemS) have created a new periodic table that highlights which elements are now considered endangered. Elements such as allium, arsenic, yttrium, and silver have become shockingly scarce and could vanish in less than 100 years at the current rate. 

The experts added a mobile phone symbol to the 31 elements that are used to make phones, hoping to send a powerful message about how much we depend upon these elements in our daily lives. The modified periodic table also distinguishes conflict minerals, which fuel violence and wars in the regions where they are extracted.

David Cole-Hamilton, a professor of Chemistry at the <a href="https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/">University of St. Andrews</a>, pointed out that all of the conflict minerals are used in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/smartphones-sleep-deprivation-kids/">cell phones</a>. 

“We have to question whether it’s really necessary to change over mobile phones every year or so. 10 million phones a month are changed in Europe alone. Most of them are sent to the developing world - either for reuse or for recycling - but the recycling is not efficient.”

[caption id="attachment_1865899" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/elements.png"><img class="wp-image-1865899" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/elements.png" alt="" width="700" height="456" /></a> Image Credit: European Chemical Society[/caption]

Professor Cole-Hamilton also explained why we should be far more conservative with helium. He said that while it is widely used for magnetic resonance imaging and deep sea diving, the helium for both of these applications is recycled. 

“But if you have a helium balloon at a birthday party, it will either deflate or burst, and either way the helium is released into the atmosphere,” said Professor Cole-Hamilton. “Helium is so light that once it’s in the atmosphere it can actually escape from the Earth completely and go into outer space where it’s lost to us forever.”

The team hopes to make their periodic table accessible to everyone, and has already made “great progress in getting it into schools across Europe.” The Royal Society of Chemistry will be sending a copy to every one of its 50,000 members.

“It’s amazing to think that everything that we see around us in the natural world is made up from just 90 building blocks - the 90 naturally occurring elements,” said Professor Cole-Hamilton. “Furthermore, these 90 elements, in different combinations, make up all of the wonders of nature, and all the technology and gadgets we use every day. We need to have a better way of dealing with these resources, or we won’t have them anymore.”

The EuChemS version of the periodic table was launched this week at the European Parliament.

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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

Elements used to make smartphones and devices are becoming scarce

Scientists at the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) have created a...

New discovery could pave the way for a plant-based. A genetically engineered microbe could be used to break down woody plant material and create a biodegradable alternative for plastic.

Finding environmentally friendly alternatives to plastic is a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/protein-squid-alternative-plastics/">mission</a> taken on by a number of research teams, and the focus of these endeavors is typically the sugars and cellulose in plant cell walls. 

But while researchers have been able to break down plant materials and extract sugars, an abundant polymer called lignin is stripped away in the process. Lignin is so abundant and carries such little value that it’s typically just burned during manufacturing processes. 

If this lignin could be broken down and utilized efficiently, it could be used to make durable materials that could replace plastic. Unfortunately, the molecule is large, complex, and challenging to break down, and so it has been long overlooked until now. New discovery could pave the way for a plant-based plastic substitute 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.wisc.edu/">University of Madison-Wisconsin</a> discovered that a microbe called Novosphingobium aromaticivorans efficiently digests the different components of lignin and produces smaller aromatic hydrocarbons in the process. 

A study detailing how the bacterium breaks down lignin and potential future implications for the microbe was published in the journal Green Chemistry. 

“Other microbes tried before may be able to digest a few types of aromatics found in lignin,” said Miguel Perez, the lead author of the study. “When we met this microbe, it was already good at degrading a wide range of compounds. That makes this microbe very promising.”

As Novosphingobium aromaticivorans digests lignin, it produces pyrone-4,6-dicarboxylic acid,  also known as PDC. The researchers found that by removing three genes from the microbe, they could expedite the PDC process. 

Bioengineers are already using PDC in Japan as a plastic replacement, but the difficult extraction process has kept lignin from being used over a wide scale. 

Now, the researchers say that the microbe could make PDC production at the industrial level a real possibility. 

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By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New discovery could pave the way for a plant-based

New discovery could pave the way for a plant-based. A...

Extreme rainfall is defined as the top five percent of rainy days – which may mean different things to those who live in Seattle, Washington versus the Mojave Desert. But it has been known that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/winter-rainfall-arctic-ecosystems/">extreme rainfall</a> forms a pattern at a local level. 

However, a new study published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/">Nature</a> has found that there are also larger-scale global patterns to extreme rainfall events, which could be used to develop better forecasts and more accurate climate models.

This research was led by a team at <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/">Imperial College London</a> and the <a href="https://www.pik-potsdam.de/pik-frontpage">Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research</a> in Germany. Along with the potential of these findings to help improve global climate models, the study also provides a “baseline” for climate change studies. Through knowing how the atmosphere behaves to create patterns of extreme rainfall events, other researchers will be able to gain new insights into changes that may be a result of climate change.

“This finding could also help us understand the connections between different monsoon systems and extreme events within them,” says lead author Dr. Niklas Boers of the Potsdam Institute. “I hope that our results will, in the long term, help to predict extreme rainfall and associated flash floods and landslides in northeast Pakistan, north India and Nepal. There have been several such hazards in recent years, with devastating consequences in these regions, such as the 2010 Pakistan flood.”

In their research, the team developed a new method based in complex system theory in order to study high-resolution satellite data of rainfall. Through breaking the globe into a grid, they could see where events occurred and determine how “synchronous” they were. Their results revealed a potential mechanism for how the events were connected, as the patterns appeared to be created by Rossby waves, which are wiggles in fast-flowing currents of air way up in the atmosphere, known as jet streams. 

While Rossby waves have been linked to regular rainfall, this is the first study to connect them to extreme rainfall event patterns. 

“The new technique applied to satellite data shows very surprising relationships between extreme rainfall events in different regions around the world,” says co-author Brian Hoskins of Imperial College London. “For example, extreme events in the South Asian Summer Monsoon are, on average, linked to events in the East Asian, African, European and North American regions. Although rains in Europe do not cause the rain in Pakistan and India, they belong to the same atmospheric wave pattern, with the European rains being triggered first.”

The work done by these collaborative and multidisciplinary researchers could help shed light on how extreme weather events occur, and provide us with better forecasts and more accurate climate models.

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By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Extreme rainfall events are connected globally by air currents

Extreme rainfall is defined as the top five percent of...

If you’ve seen the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you may have wondered whether the “erasure” therapy seen in the film could potentially become a reality in the future. The plot revolves around two characters using this therapy to forget about their past relationship together. And according to real-life scientists, forgetting something can take more mental effort than trying to hold onto the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/brains-work-backwards-memories/">memory</a>.

A new study published in <a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/">JNeurosci</a> has found that if we focus on negative experiences rather than suppressing them, we may be able to force unwanted memories from our brains. This research was done by Dr. Tracy Wang and colleagues at the <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/">University of Texas at Austin</a>, where they had young adults forget images of scenes and neutral faces by activating a brain area called the visual cortex.

The findings support a hypothesis that memories can be forgotten by activating them, which goes against popular belief. 

“We forget the majority of our experiences,” says Dr. Wang. “This may seem bleak, but memory loss is essential to the human experience; we are bombarded with too much information each moment to preserve everything.” 

Due to how much information we receive on a daily basis, forgetting is actually an adaptive feature of memory that allows us to discard unneeded or irrelevant information, so we can enhance our access to other memories. 

“'Which information should be saved and which discarded?” asks Wang. “While this challenge is often solved automatically by the brain, people can also exert volitional control over what they forget.”

The study shows new evidence that intentional forgetting involves enhancement of memory processing in the sensory cortex in order to achieve the desired forgetting of recent visual experiences. According to Wang, this enhancement temporarily increases the activation of memory representations, which makes it vulnerable to disruption. 

“Contrary to intuition, deliberate forgetting may involve more rather than less attention to unwanted information,” she explains. 

Although far from being developed into the erasure therapy from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, this new research does have the potential to develop into a treatment where it could possibly benefit people who suffer from PTSD or other psychological conditions.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Could “erasure therapy” actually get rid of unwanted memories?

If you’ve seen the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless...

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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

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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Spiral,Galaxy,,Illustration,Of,Milky,Way

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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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...