We've all been told that a good night's sleep can do wonders. And indeed, who can deny the refreshing feeling that comes after a great sleep session?



Yet, the intricate processes that unfold in our brains while we're catching some z's are still shrouded in mystery. 



The intriguing world of sleep studies is seeing some fresh revelations, thanks to the efforts of researchers at <a href="https://www.rice.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Rice University</a>, Houston Methodist’s Center for Neural Systems Restoration, and Weill Cornell Medical College.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-journey-of-discovery-begins">A journey of discovery begins</h2>



The main purpose of the study was to shed light on the elusive neural mechanisms that enhance cognitive performance during nonrapid eye movement (<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sleep-reboots-the-brain-making-room-for-new-memories/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NREM</a>) sleep.



This is the kind of sleep you experience when you're taking a quick nap, nothing too deep. 



The results of the research could potentially change our understanding of how sleep sharpens our brain and might even open new avenues in treating sleep disorders and identifying methods to enhance cognitive and behavioral performance.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-unraveling-the-magic-of-sleep">Unraveling the magic of sleep</h2>



The researchers began their investigation by studying the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mixed-emotions-linked-to-unique-brain-activity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">neural activity</a> of multiple brain areas in macaque monkeys.



They examined the brain activity of these animals as they performed a visual discrimination task before and after a 30-minute NREM sleep period.



To ensure the animals were indeed sleeping, the team used polysomnography, a method that measures brain and muscle activity.



The results were fascinating. The visual task performance of the animals improved post-sleep and showed enhanced accuracy.



This improvement was found only in the macaques who actually fell asleep - those that remained awake didn't see the same performance shift.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-deeper-dive-into-sleep-s-magic">A deeper dive into sleep’s magic</h2>



The effects of sleep on neural activity in the macaques were described by Dr. Natasha Kharas, the study's first author. 



“During sleep, we observed an increase in low-frequency delta wave activity and synchronized firing among neurons across different cortical regions," noted Dr. Kharas.



"After sleep, however, neuronal activity became more desynchronized compared to before sleep, allowing neurons to fire more independently. This shift led to improved accuracy in information processing and performance in the visual tasks.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-power-of-simulating-sleep">The power of simulating sleep</h2>



In their relentless pursuit of understanding sleep's magic, the researchers went a step further. 



They replicated the neural effects of sleep through low-frequency electrical stimulation of the visual cortex in macaques that were awake.



In this way, specific patterns of stimulation could potentially be used to mimic the cognitive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/consistent-sleep-slows-down-aging-at-a-cellular-level/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">benefits of sleep</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-restorative-effects-of-sleep">Restorative effects of sleep</h2>



The implications of the replicated sleep effects are game-changing.



The results hint that the restorative and performance-enhancing effects of sleep could potentially be achieved even without actual sleep.



“The ability to reproduce sleeplike neural desynchronization in an awake state opens new possibilities for enhancing cognitive and perceptual performance in situations where sleep is not feasible - such as for individuals with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/daylight-saving-time-changes-are-directly-linked-to-sleep-disorders/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sleep disorders</a> or in extenuating circumstances such as space exploration,” stated Valentin Dragoi, the study's co-author.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-deepening-our-understanding-of-sleep">Deepening our understanding of sleep</h2>



According to Dragoi, the study is unique as it not only deepens our understanding of sleep's role in cognitive function but also breaks new ground by showing that specific patterns of brain stimulation could substitute for some of the restorative effects of sleep.



“We have uncovered a surprising solution that the brain employs after sleep whereby neural populations participating in the task reduce their level of synchrony after sleep, despite receiving synchronizing inputs during sleep itself,” explained Dragoi.



This revelation highlights how NREM sleep effectively 'boosts' cognitive function by resetting neural activity.



“Our study not only deepens our mechanistic understanding of sleep’s role in cognitive function but also breaks new ground by showing that specific patterns of brain stimulation could substitute for some benefits of sleep, pointing toward a future where we might boost brain function independently of sleep itself,” said Dragoi.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-broader-implications-of-the-research">Broader implications of the research </h2>



This fascinating study opens exciting possibilities for practical applications in various fields.



From improving cognitive performance in individuals with sleep disorders to optimizing productivity in high-stakes scenarios, such as military operations or space exploration, the potential is vast. 



Additionally, the ability to simulate sleep's effects could pave the way for innovative therapies for neurodegenerative diseases and mental health conditions, where <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/children-who-watch-screens-in-bed-have-the-most-disrupted-sleep/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">disrupted sleep</a> plays a significant role. 



As research progresses, integrating these findings into wearable technology or non-invasive devices could make cognitive enhancement accessible and customizable for everyday use.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr3339" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science</a>.



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How sleep transforms brain performance

We've all been told that a good night's sleep can do wonders. And indeed, who can deny the refreshing feeling that comes after a great sleep session? Yet, the intricate processes that unfold in our brains while we're catching some z's are still shrouded in mystery. The intriguing world of sleep studies is seeing some fresh revelations, thanks to the efforts of researchers at Rice University, Houston Methodist’s Center for Neural Systems Restoration, and Weill Cornell Medical College. A journey of discovery begins The main purpose of...

A tiny earthquake island off the coast of Pakistan has finally, after six years, disappeared under the sea. 

The island was formed during the Balochistan earthquake series. On September 24, 2013, a 7.7-magnitude quake rocked southwestern Pakistan, killing at least 825 people in the sparsely populated region. The mainshock was felt throughout the region and as far away as Delhi, India and Muscat, Oman.

One of the effects was to raise the earthquake island – called Zalzala Jazeera or Zalzala Koh – in the northern Indian Ocean. The little island became a popular tourist draw, even though it was known to spew toxic and flammable gas from cracks in its surface. 

“The island is really just a big pile of mud from the seafloor that got pushed up,” Dr. Bill Barnhart of the <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/">U.S. Geological Survey</a> told the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html">Daily Mail</a> in 2013.

Zalzala Jazeera was not the first earthquake island to form in the area. Others appeared in 1945, 1999, 2001 and 2010. That area of the Indian Ocean is also known for its underwater mud volcanoes, which are common in subducting plate boundaries.

But the little islands tend to reach the surface only when there is a massive quake like the 7.7-magnitude disaster in 2013. 

“This area of the world seems to see so many of these features because the geology is correct for their formation. You need a shallow, buried layer of pressurized gas – methane, carbon dioxide, or something else – and fluids,” Barnhart said in 2013. “When that layer becomes disturbed by seismic waves (like an earthquake), the gases and fluids become buoyant and rush to the surface, bringing the rock and mud with them.”

Massive earthquakes often bring changes to the landscape. A 7.8-magnitude quake near Kaikoura, New Zealand in November 2016 <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/new-zealand-earthquake-exposes-land-kaikoura/">raised the seabed floor</a> to create new coastal land and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/kaikoura-earthquake-islands-closer/">pulled some islands closer together</a>. The <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/how-much-did-the-earth-move-during-nepal-gorkha-earthquake/">2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal</a> actually changed the shape of the Earth’s crust in that region.

In this case, however, the new island was only temporary. Ocean waves have been eroding 2013 earthquake island since its formation, and it’s now entirely submerged, though it can still be seen below the water’s surface.

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Image credit: <a href="http://www.nasa.gov">NASA</a>

Earthquake island in Indian Ocean finally engulfed by sea

A tiny earthquake island off the coast of Pakistan has...

Greenland’s ice is looking a little less nice these days – and a lot thinner. Summer arrived early in the Arctic, and the heatwave has sped up melting of the Earth’s second largest ice sheet.

But Greenland was already steadily losing ice over the past couple of decades.

Researchers from the Danish Meteorological Institute, the Technical University of Denmark and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland have been combing over 30 years of satellite data on the height, mass and movement of Greenland’s ice. They found that from 2003 to 2016, an average of 255 gigatonnes of ice have been lost each year. One gigatonne is equal to 1,000 metric tons, or 1,102 U.S. tons.

“The Greenland losses have raised sea level by around half a millimeter each year over the observed period,” said Dr. Ruth Mottram, lead author of the study, which has been published in the journal <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/11/12/1407">Remote Sensing</a>.

The team also found that Greenland’s ice is not melting at a steady rate. In fact, the rate of ice loss has increased steadily each year – consistent with ice loss at the North and South Poles.

Unlike melting sea ice, land ice contributes directly to sea level rise as it returns to the ocean.

In some places, the ice sheet thinned by as much as 2 ½ meters. The researchers pointed to rising global surface temperatures and less snowfall as causes for the decreasing ice.

“If an icesheet is to maintain its mass balance, or volume, we would expect to see the height increase at its centre due to snow accumulation. It is striking how this pattern has changed when comparing the early 1990s to the last few years,” Mottram said.

Datasets used in the study came from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a>’s Copernicus satellites. The researchers used models to analyze the disappearance of Greenland’s ice. 

The team says that continued monitoring of ice loss in Greenland is vital. They plan to continue studying the data collected by the ESA.

“With Copernicus Sentinel-1 and -3, we are moving from only being able to take a short snapshot of icesheet flow speeds or calving front changes beginning to be able to monitor the Greenland icesheet remotely, in almost real time,” Mottram said. “We now get consistent, weekly repeat, and with such a richness of data we can more accurately understand how Greenland is responding to a changing environment.”

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Paid for by Earth.com.

Greenland's ice is raising sea levels as it melts

Greenland’s ice is looking a little less nice these days...

Chinese tombs reveal ancient people who purposely elongated their skulls. The practice of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/looking-down-phone-skull/">skull</a> modification and elongation is said to date back 10,000 years, and archeologists theorize that different shapes were used to signify status or group affiliation. 

Eleven skeletons with long oval shaped skulls dating back 5,000 to 12,000 years ago were excavated from ancient Chinese tombs. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.tamu.edu/">Texas A&amp;M</a> University made the discovery which resulted in 25 skeletons unearthed at the site, called Houtaomuga. 

Of the elongated skulls, the researchers found that five belonged to adults with ages ranging from 3 to 40. 

[caption id="attachment_1874834" align="aligncenter" width="627"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/skulls.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1874834" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/skulls.jpg" alt="" width="627" height="245" /></a> Image Credit: Q. Wang[/caption]

Based on the ornaments and pottery buried with the skeletons with elongated skulls, the researchers believe that the individuals came from wealthy, high-status families. 

The findings, detailed in the Journal of Physical Anthropology, might indicate that the practice originated in Asia, but the researchers say there is not enough data to support this conclusion. 

“It is too early to tell whether intentional cranial modification first emerged in East Asia and spread elsewhere or originated independently in different places,” said Qian Wang, a paleoanthropologist who studied the skeletons. 

As with other forms of body modification, skull elongation would have taken place over a long period of time, and the skulls were not modified during burial. Chinese tombs reveal ancient people who purposely elongated their skulls

Skull modification was practiced in many parts of the world and archeologists have uncovered flat, cone-shaped, and round skulls from burial sites in Central America, North America, and Australia. 

In order to achieve the desired skull shape, pieces of cloth or boards tightly fixed to the skull may have been used, and in infancy, it would have been possible to simply mold the skull shape by hand because the skull is so soft.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Main Image Credit: Q. Wang

Chinese tombs reveal ancient people who purposely elongated their skulls

Chinese tombs reveal ancient people who purposely elongated their skulls....

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/artificially-cooling-atmosphere-geoengineering/">Solar geoengineering</a> is the idea that spraying aerosols into the stratosphere to reflect the sun’s rays can help cool the Earth.

There have been numerous studies into the potential of solar geoengineering and the benefits and risks of using aerosols, but in the grand scheme of climate change research, very little has been dedicated to this particular “hack” for the planet. 

If geoengineering is to be a viable and safe solution for lowering global temperatures and slowing the impacts of climate change, more research and funding are needed.

David Keith from <a href="https://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a> and Kerry Emanual from the<a href="http://www.mit.edu/"> Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> are two climate scientists working to realistically assess the risks of blocking solar radiation with aerosols and look for solutions that would ensure geoengineering is successful. 

Some of the more pressing political concerns of geoengineering are that it may negatively impact regional climates and increase the risk of droughts and severe hurricanes. However, the two researchers say that these risks may be overstated. 

Instead, Keith and Emmanual suggest an easy solution: If aerosol amounts were halved and used uniformly worldwide, it would lower the risk of regional climate catastrophes. 

Providing insurance to smaller developed countries worried about the risks of geoengineering would also be an important safeguard. 

“It takes concerns of developing countries seriously," Joshua Horton, a research assistant who worked with Keith, told <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/risks-of-controversial-geoengineering-approach-may-be-overstated/">Scientific American</a>. "It's reasonable for them to be concerned. They want some measure of assurance that if things go wrong, they wouldn't be screwed.”

Keith and Emmanual are part of a growing effort to fuel international interest in solar geoengineering and develop a regulatory framework that researchers can work under. 

Plans for a global geoengineering assessment proposed by Switzerland in March were rescinded after ten days due to opposition from several countries, including the US and Brazil. 

Time is running out to reach a consensus on solar geoengineering, and it may be a valuable tool to have in the arsenal against climate change as the world struggles to lower emissions and prevent further warming. 

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Aphelleon

Reassessing the potential of solar geoengineering to combat climate change

Solar geoengineering is the idea that spraying aerosols into the...

Experts question the morality of creating human-monkey ‘chimeras’. Earlier this year, scientists at the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the <a href="http://english.cas.cn/">Chinese Academy of Sciences</a> announced they had inserted a human gene into embryos that would become rhesus macaques, monkeys that share about 93 percent of their DNA with humans. The research, which was designed to give experts a better understanding of human brain development, has sparked controversy over whether this type of experimentation is ethical.

Some scientists believe that it is time to use human-monkey animals to pursue new insights into the progression of diseases such as <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/poor-sleep-quality-alzheimers/">Alzheimer's</a>. These genetically modified monkeys are referred to as chimeras, which are named after a mythical animal that consists of parts taken from various animals.

A resource guide on the science and ethics of chimeras written by <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a> researchers suggests that it is time to "cautiously" explore the creation of human-monkey chimeras.

“The search for a better animal model to stimulate human disease has been a ‘holy grail’ of biomedical research for decades,” the Yale team wrote in Chimera Research: Ethics and Protocols. "Realizing the promise of human-monkey chimera research in an ethically and scientifically appropriate manner will require a coordinated approach.”

A team of experts led by Dr. Douglas Munoz of <a href="https://www.queensu.ca/">Queen’s University</a> has been studying the onset of Alzheimer's disease in monkeys by using injections of beta-amyloid. The accumulation of this protein in the brain is believed to kill nerve cells and initiate the degenerative process.

Even though Dr. Munoz leads his own experiments with monkeys, the prospect of humanizing animal brains is disturbing to him. "To be honest, it just really ethically scares me,” Dr. Munoz told the <a href="https://nationalpost.com/">National Post</a>. "For us to start to manipulate life functions in this kind of way without fully knowing how to turn it off, or stop it if something goes awry really scares me.”

The Yale experts behind the new book, including visiting researcher Dr.Alejandro De Los Angeles, expressed their own concerns about the enhanced capacity for suffering among humanized monkeys. "Whether chimerism in portions of the monkey brain would affect cognition or emotion is unknown,” they wrote.

“The issue is complicated by the fact that no human-monkey chimera can have any chance at life at all, except as a research subject; it may be that, if the chimera has a life that is not too burdensome, there may be fewer objections to its having been created in a lab.”

According to the National Post, the book authors recommend a step-by-step approach to creating human-monkey ‘chimeras’. The creation of monkey-ape chimeras, for example, may provide scientists with an opportunity to ensure such experimentation complies with animal welfare standards. 

Bing Su of Kunming, who was involved in the research at the Kunming Institute of Zoology, told <a href="https://www.nbc.com/">NBC</a> in an email that the study was approved by the institute’s ethics board. "In theory and in reality, there is no ‘humanness’ observed in the MCPH1 transgenic monkeys, since only one gene was changed among tens of millions of genetic differences between humans and monkeys," he said.

However, there are others who argue that the research is not only unethical but is also unnecessary. 

"Alzheimer's disease is a human-specific condition, and genetic engineering and the creation of human-monkey 'chimeras' are unethical, curiosity-driven Frankenscience," Julia Baines of  PETA told <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html">MailOnline</a>. "Inserting human genes into the genome of sentient monkeys in a vain attempt to 'humanize' them will serve only to intensify animal suffering."

"To achieve the ultimate goal of curing Alzheimer's disease - and to alleviate the suffering of millions of patients around the globe - PETA is calling for further funding, development, and use of humane, human-relevant techniques. Such research methods offer real, tangible solutions, not ones based in fantasy."

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Zzvet

Experts question the morality of creating human-monkey ‘chimeras’

Experts question the morality of creating human-monkey ‘chimeras’. Earlier this...

The objective of the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) is to achieve access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for the global population by 2030. The largest power deficit in the world is in Sub-Saharan Africa, where approximately 600 million people live without <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/renewables-more-electricity-coal/">electricity</a>. 

To expand electricity infrastructure and prioritize financial support in sub-Saharan Africa, current information is needed on the status of electricity access and use. Traditional tracking methods do not provide clear or comprehensive data, which presents significant challenges for achieving SDG7.

A team of researchers from <a href="http://www.iiasa.ac.at/">IIASA</a> and the Future Energy Program at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) investigated the potential for nighttime satellite images to be converted into spatially detailed maps of electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa. 

The satellite-based dataset produced for the study was found to accurately predict not only where people have access to electricity, but also their measure of light intensity. This could help in determining the amount of residential electricity consumption in a particular area.

"We were able to use our derived indicators to track, within each country, what progress with electricity access has been over the last five years and where critical hotspots of people without access or high latent electricity demand remain," explained study lead author Giacomo Falchetta. "The results revealed large inequalities in progress towards universal access to electricity, both across and within nations in the region."

According to the research, some countries showed strong improvement in electricity access over the last five years, but others showed no progress or even a deteriorating situation. This is particularly the case in areas where the population is growing faster than the provision of access to electricity. 

The published dataset, which can be openly accessed on the IIASA website, will support both policymakers and private firms in their investment decisions and planning.

"Our dataset provides a useful complement that is easily updatable and can help assess progress with providing electricity access, as well as inequalities in electricity use at a fine sub-national scale. This can be an invaluable input to efforts aimed at meeting SDG7," said study co-author Shonali Pachauri.

The research is published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/scientificdata/">Scientific Data</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: Shutterstock/Rakchai Duangdee

Experts use nighttime satellite images to map electricity access in Africa

The objective of the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG...

More than a billion people worldwide depend on intermittent water systems that turn and off depending on use, need, and the available supply. In some cases, the pipes can be empty for most of the week and only turned on for a few hours. 

There are many benefits to this kind of system, including water conservation when there are <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/risk-severe-water-shortages/">shortages</a>. Having empty pipes also prevents leaking. 

But intermittent systems can be problematic and increase the risk of contamination as well as leaving people without water when they need it most.

David Taylor, a professor of engineering at the <a href="https://www.utoronto.ca/">University of Toronto</a>, has developed a new framework to assess the benefits and challenges of an intermittent water system by factoring in hours of operation, demand, water sources, and damage. 

Having a unified framework that focuses on demand and supply rather than the complexities of the system’s inner workings helps explain why the systems are in use and how an intermittent system can help meet the <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/">United Nations Sustainable Development Goals</a>. 

Taylor worked with water companies in Delhi to see how intermittent systems meet demand. Working with a detailed hydraulic model of the water systems in Delhi, Taylor quickly realized that these models fall short. 

“These systems are chaotic,” said Taylor. “There are often pipes or valves that are missing from the official charts. We usually don’t know as much as we think we do, and in that situation, fancy models can’t tell us much.”

Rather than focusing on the nuts and bolts, or pipes, in this case, Taylor tried a different approach and created a model under the assumption that he knew nothing about the network. 

The result was a single equation model that links consumer demand and need and shows how system changes impact customer satisfaction. If customer demand is not met, for example, an intermittent system may double its supply time. 

What’s unique about Taylor’s framework is that it shifts perspective from asking how much water is saved or wasted, to how meeting demand or changing supply times increases the risk of leaks or contamination. 

“The model lets you see right away what the effect of altering a parameter is going to be, whether it’s leakage or demand or whatever,” said Taylor. “That enables you to do these back-of-the-envelope calculations and determine whether what you’re proposing is feasible.

The new model could be used to compare and improve existing intermittent systems or create new ones. 

Taylor outlined his model in a paper published in the journal Water Resources Research. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Pixel-Shot

How to determine the value of an intermittent water system

More than a billion people worldwide depend on intermittent water...

Dairy cows contain the same group of microbes, and these microorganisms control methane emissions produced by digestion, new research shows. 

Understanding how cow microbiomes are linked could help researchers manipulate microbes and digestion in the rumen of the cow to help reduce emissions and pave the way for more sustainable and eco-friendly agriculture.

In humans, the importance of the gut microbiome cannot be understated. Our unique flora of microbes and bacteria aids in digestion and helps strengthen the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/link-gut-microbiome-fight-cancer/">immune response.</a> 

Some of our gut microbiome is inherited through genetics, and researchers have wondered about the links between the cow microbiome and genetics. 

Robert John Wallace, a professor at the <a href="https://www.abdn.ac.uk/">University of Aberdeen</a>, along with a team of colleagues, studied the genotypes of 1,000 Holstein and Nordic Red dairy cows from the UK, Italy, Sweden, and Finland looking for genetic variations. 

The researchers discovered that at least 50 percent of the cows studied contained the same core group of microbes. 

Next, the researchers used machine learning to try and predict milk output, metabolism, and methane emissions based on the microbes present in this core microbiome. 

The results, published in the journal Science Advances, showed that inherited genes produce microbes that control methane emissions.

If breeders can selectively breed cows to produce less methane, it could help lessen the burden of emissions produced by the meat and dairy industry. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Shutterstock/J R Patterson

Dairy cow microbiome could yield the key to eco-friendly agriculture

Dairy cows contain the same group of microbes, and these...

Satellites capture the total eclipse over South America. A total solar eclipse left northern Chile and parts of New Zealand and Argentina in temporary darkness on Tuesday, and tens of thousands of people from all over the world showed up to witness the phenomenon. According to the <a href="https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/announcement/chilean-astronomy-societys-7th-annual-meeting/">Chilean Astronomy Society</a>, this particular area had not experienced a <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/bees-stopped-buzzing-solar-eclipse/">total eclipse</a> since 1592, and will not see another one until 2165. 

The best views of the rare event were from Chile's Atacama desert north of the coastal city of La Serena. This region is known for having the world's clearest skies due to a lack of humidity and light pollution. 

[caption id="attachment_1874774" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/eclipse.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1874774" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/eclipse.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="364" /></a> Image Credit: ESO/R. Lucchesi[/caption]

There are dozens of space observatories in Chile, and the country is home to about half of the world’s telescopic capacity. 

"Today Chile is the world capital of astronomy," said Chilean President Sebastián Piñera. "We are the eyes and senses of humanity to be able to look, observe and study the stars and the universe."

The eclipse made its first landfall in Chile at 3:22 p.m. in La Serena and remained in the partial phase for just over an hour before totality began at 4:38 p.m., which lasted around 2½ minutes.

The <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a> (NOAA) shared an incredible image from space that shows the darkness moving over South America. The first major hurricane of the 2019 season, Hurricane Barbara, is also visible churning in the nearby Pacific Ocean. The stunning images were obtained by the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) system.Satellites capture the total eclipse over South America

"Not too often you catch a Category 4 hurricane and a solar eclipse occurring in the same satellite loop,"  the National Weather Service tweeted.

At its peak intensity, Hurricane Barbara had  maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, which is close to a Category 5 storm. The hurricane is moving in the direction of Hawaii, but the winds are expected to substantially weaken before the storm reaches land. 

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Main Image Credit: NOAA

Satellites capture the total eclipse over South America

Satellites capture the total eclipse over South America. A total...

For the first time, scientists have retrieved and analyzed genome-wide data from people who lived during the Bronze and Iron Age (roughly 3,600 to 2,800 years ago) in the ancient port city of Ashkelon. This city was one of the major Philistine cities during the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/beer-iron-age/">Iron Age</a>. 

The Philistines are perhaps most well-known for their role in the Hebrew Bible as the enemies of the Israelites. But other than some ancient texts revealing that Philistines came to Crete, little is known about the origins of the Philistines. 

Over a century ago, Egyptologists posited that a group called the Peleset in texts from the late twelfth century BCE were the same group as the Biblical Philistines. The researchers proposed that the Peleset travelled from “the islands,” and attacked what is now Cyprus and the Turkish and Syrian coasts, ultimately attempting to invade Egypt. Then from 1985 to 2016, the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, a project of the Harvard Semitic Museum, initiated the search for the origin of the Philistines at Ashkelon – one of the five Philistine cities according to the Hebrew Bible.

The team discovered significant changes in the ways of life during the 12th century BCE, which they linked to the arrival of the Philistines. However, many scholars argued that these cultural changes were simply a result of trade or local imitation of foreign styles, not the result of a major movement of people. 

This new study led by scientists from the <a href="https://www.shh.mpg.de/en">Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History</a> and the Leon Levy Expedition is the result of over 30 years of archaeological work and genetic research. It concludes that the advent of the Philistines in the southern Levant involved a movement of people from the west during the Bronze to Iron Age transition.

To determine this, the researchers recovered genomic data from the remains of 10 individuals who lived in Ashkelon during the Bronze and Iron Age, which allowed them to compare the DNA of the Bronze and Iron Age people of Ashkelon to figure out how they were related. Their findings revealed that individuals across all time periods derived most of their ancestry from the local Levantine gene pool. However, those who lived in early Iron Age Ashkelon had a European derived ancestral component that was not found in their Bronze Age predecessors.

“This genetic distinction is due to European-related gene flow introduced in Ashkelon during either the end of the Bronze Age or the beginning of the Iron Age. This timing is in accord with estimates of the Philistines arrival to the coast of the Levant, based on archaeological and textual records,” says leading author of the study Michal Feldman of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. “While our modelling suggests a southern European gene pool as a plausible source, future sampling could identify more precisely the populations introducing the European-related component to Ashkelon.”

When they analyzed the genomes of later Iron Age individuals from Ashkelon, the research team found that the European related component could no longer be found. 

“Within no more than two centuries, this genetic footprint introduced during the early Iron Age is no longer detectable and seems to be diluted by a local Levantine related gene pool,” explains corresponding author Choongwon Jeong of the Max Planck Institute of the Science of Human History.

“This data begins to fill a temporal gap in the genetic map of the southern Levant,” explains senior author Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. “At the same time, by the zoomed-in comparative analysis of the Ashkelon genetic time transect, we find that the unique cultural features in the early Iron Age are mirrored by a distinct genetic composition of the early Iron Age people.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Melissa Aja. Courtesy Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon

Using DNA to unravel the mystery of the Biblical Philistines

For the first time, scientists have retrieved and analyzed genome-wide...

Researchers at the <a href="http://www.aecom.yu.edu/">Albert Einstein College of Medicine</a> have assembled the first complete wiring diagram of the nervous system of an animal. The study was focused on the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, and reveals some significant differences between the male and female specimens.

The achievement marks a major milestone in the field of "connectomics," the production of comprehensive maps of the brain or nervous system to identify the specific <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/medical-marijuana-chronic-nerve-pain/">nerve connections</a> responsible for various behaviors.

Study lead author Dr. Scott Emmons is a professor of Genetics in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience.

"Structure is always central in biology," said Dr. Emmons. "The structure of DNA revealed how genes work, and the structure of proteins revealed how enzymes function. Now, the structure of the nervous system is revealing how animals behave and how neural connections go wrong to cause disease."

Experts theorize that some neurological and psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and autism, are problems caused by faulty connections. 

"This hypothesis is strengthened by the finding that several mental disorders are associated with mutations in genes that are thought to determine connectivity," said Dr. Emmons. "Connectomics has the potential to help us understand the basis of some mental illnesses, possibly suggesting avenues for therapy."

An adult C. elegans grows to just one millimeter in length and contains about 1,000 cells that make up a simple nervous system with a few hundred neurons. This makes the roundworm one of the best animal models for understanding the human brain, which is billions of times more complex.

The laboratory of the late British biologist Dr. Sydney Brenner published the first map of the C. elegans nervous system in 1986, after analyzing thousands of electron micrographs of the roundworm. 

Using specially developed software, Dr. Emmons' team combined new roundworm electron micrographs with the ones used by Dr. Brenner to create complete wiring diagrams of entire adult animals of both C. elegans sexes. The diagrams include all connections between individual neurons, connections from neurons to the worm's muscles and other tissues, and synapses between the muscle cells.

"While the synaptic pathways in the two sexes are substantially similar, a number of the synapses differ in strength, providing a basis for understanding sex-specific behaviors," explained Dr. Emmons. 

"These connected networks serve as starting points for deciphering the neural control of C. elegans behavior. Since the roundworm nervous system contains many of the same molecules as the human nervous system, what we learn about the former can help us understand the latter."

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: Shutterstock/Giovanni Cancemi

Scientists assemble the first full diagram of an animal’s nervous system

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have assembled...

It’s a point of contention and a hotly debated topic as to whether or not <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-generate-electricity/">plants</a> feel pain or have a brain capable of consciousness like other living vertebrates. 

Researchers in the new field of plant neurobiology argue that plants can indeed think. 

But in a new opinion article published in the journal Trends in Plant Science, a team of experts in plant physiology attempt to put the topic of plant consciousness to rest once and for all, arguing that because plants lack neurons and a brain, they are incapable of consciousness. 

Instead, plants grow using electrical signals to distribute molecules across the plant’s membranes and send long-distance messages in case of danger like an insect bite. 

Plant neurobiologists use these signals to prove the plant’s ability to think, showing that the distribution of signals is similar to the electrical signaling in the nervous system of animals. 

In the new article, Lincoln Taiz from the <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/">University of California</a> cites research from Todd Feinberg and Jon Mallatt who studied the evolution of consciousness to show why dumbing down consciousness to fit the basic chemical signaling of plants is a problem. 

“The biggest danger of anthropomorphizing plants in research is that it undermines the objectivity of the researcher,” said Taiz. “What we’ve seen is that plants and animals evolved very different life strategies. The brain is a very expensive organ, and there’s absolutely no advantage to the plant to have a highly developed nervous system.”

The Feinberg-Mallat model of consciousness determines what must be in place in the brain for a species to have awareness. 

It was Feinberg and Mallat who traced back the <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/ancient-origins-consciousness">origins of consciousness</a> to the Cambrian explosion 520 to 560 million years ago, much earlier than previously thought. 

“Feinberg and Mallatt concluded that only vertebrates, arthropods, and cephalopods possess the threshold brain structure for consciousness. And if there are animals that don’t have consciousness, then you can be pretty confident that plants, which don’t even have neurons--let alone brains-- don’t have it either,” said Taiz.

Taiz and his colleagues say that the chemical signaling in plants are genetically encoded responses that have been fine-tuned through natural selection. 

The researchers argue that sensory adaptation doesn’t involve learning and shouldn’t be linked to consciousness. 

But Taiz and his co-authors emphasize that these responses are genetically encoded and have been fine-tuned through generations of natural selection.

“I feel a special responsibility to take a public position because I’m a co-author of a plant physiology textbook,” said Taiz. “I know a lot of people in the plant neurobiology community would like to see their field in the textbooks, but so far, there are just too many unanswered questions.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Can plants think, feel, and possess consciousness?

It’s a point of contention and a hotly debated topic...

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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



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Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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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



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Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River.



In 1968, Kainji Lake was created by the construction of the Kainji Dam. The Niger River, the third longest in Africa, enters the lake in the north.&nbsp;



According to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rivers-in-the-american-west-are-a-lifesaving-resource-for-birds/">ESA</a>, the creation of the lake submerged Foge Island and the town of Bussa and permanently flooded other riverine settlements, leaving around 50,000 people displaced.&nbsp;



Large parts of Foge Island are temporarily exposed during low water tides, and the land is often used by migrating fishermen. Kainji Dam is a dam across the Niger River in Niger State of Central Nigeria. 



Wild mammals occur at relatively low densities due to illegal hunting. Lake Kainji has suffered a dramatic decline as a fishery due to the high numbers of artisanal and subsistence fisherfolk using the lake. It has been suggested that a period of closure, together with controlled fishing rights may help improve fish stocks.



Kainji Lake National Park is the oldest of its kind in Nigeria. The park contains three distinct areas: a part of the Kainji Lake, the Borgu Game Reserve to the west of the lake, and the Zugurma Game Reserve to the southeast. The park is home to around 65 mammal species, 350 bird species, and 30 species of reptiles and amphibians. 



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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



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

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



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

Designing crops that can beat the heat

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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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

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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



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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



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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



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Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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



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

How the immune system responds to injury

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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"

[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...