Plants don’t stay put. They grow, spread, and sometimes end up far from where they started. In the tropics, that movement is causing big changes. Plants from other parts of the world - called alien species - are taking root in places they’ve never belonged. Some are harmless, but others are taking over.



Across the tropical and subtropical regions of the planet - an area known as the greater tropics - roughly 10,000 alien plant species are now thriving. Many of these plants were brought in on purpose. People wanted them for farming, gardening, or medicine. But once they got loose, a few of them started spreading fast.



Not every alien plant causes problems. In fact, most don’t. But the ones that do are known as invasive species. And their impact goes beyond plants - they’re changing entire ecosystems, pushing out native species, and even making life harder for the people who live nearby.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-plant-that-pushed-people-out">The plant that pushed people out</h2>



One of the most invasive plants in the world is called Lantana camara. It’s originally from the tropical Americas and was brought to Europe in the late 1600s as a pretty <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/hundreds-of-invasive-species-are-for-sale-as-garden-plants-in-the-u-s/">garden plant</a>. Later, the Portuguese carried it to their colonies, including India.



“In the last century, large areas in the Western Ghats of India became overrun by Lantana. This triggered the native forest-dependent Soliga people to abandon their traditional livelihood and migrate in search of alternatives,” said Ninad Avinash Mungi, a researcher from <a href="https://international.au.dk/">Aarhus University</a>.



India isn’t alone. Lantana now covers 74 million acres there - an area larger than the state of Arizona. In Australia, it has taken over 9.9 million acres, and in Hawaii, about 395,000 acres. And it keeps spreading.



“Invasive plants like Lantana competitively suppress native food plants in forests and on savannas. Scarcity of food makes herbivores decline, which further affects the carnivores. We’ve seen examples of tigers preying on livestock when herbivores decline,” said Mungi.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ecosystems-lose-their-balance">Ecosystems lose their balance</h2>



This isn’t just a plant problem - it’s a people problem too. In poor areas where communities depend on forests and savannas for food, firewood, and medicine, invasive plants can cut off their access. 



As ecosystems get weaker, animals get hungrier. And that means more conflict - between <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-wildlife-overlap-is-rapidly-rising-across-the-globe/">wildlife</a> and people. But this didn’t start yesterday. 



“The tropics have historically been changed by people for thousands of years," said Mungi. "But the pace changed during the colonial era."



"People brought species from colony to colony, spreading plants and animals all over the tropics. Global trade after World War 2 has even further accelerated the process. Today, species are being exchanged all the time.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-invasive-plants-overwhelm-weakened-lands">Invasive plants overwhelm weakened lands</h2>



Forests used to keep these invaders in check. But human activity has changed that. Researchers point out that human-caused <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-deforestation-crisis-how-can-we-stop-massive-forest-losses/">deforestation</a>, wildlife extirpation, pollution, and land-use transformations are important drivers of invasive plant spread. 



"These changes weaken the natural control over alien plants, facilitating their spread. Thus, invasive plants are initially passengers of disturbances, but eventually become drivers of disturbances,” Mungi said.



And with climate change speeding up, things are getting worse. In the Amazon, rising temperatures, logging, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/invasive-species-use-wildfires-and-drought-as-an-opening-to-move-in/">wildfires</a> are killing off native trees and plants. Invasive grasses make fires worse. They dry out easily and act like kindling, fueling the flames and preventing native species from regrowing.



“Paradoxically, increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere supports woody plants in place of grasses across savannas in the greater tropics," Mungi said. "Here, woody invasive plants are benefitting from CO2, fire suppression, and loss of large herbivores.” 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-some-invasive-plants-help-not-harm">Some invasive plants help, not harm</h2>



There’s another side to this story. Some alien plants aren’t entirely harmful. In fact, they may help, especially when native species are already struggling.



“While <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/international-plant-trade-is-spreading-invasive-species-and-pests/">invasive species</a> require focused management, more neutral alien species can sometimes play a positive ecological role, particularly when native species are stressed by a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-plants-adapt-to-survive-a-changing-climate/">changing climate</a> or have been removed by people,” said Jens-Christian Svenning, a researcher at Aarhus University.



New types of ecosystems are emerging. These “novel ecosystems” may actually be more stable in a world of rising temperatures, extreme weather, and pollution. Protecting and expanding biodiversity can help keep invaders in check.



Alien plants are often seen only as a threat, but the reality is more complex. Most alien plants are neutral, and some can even play positive roles - especially as climate change pushes ecosystems toward collapse.



“Understanding both the risks and the buffering potential is key for smart management,” Svenning said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fighting-invaders-is-costly">Fighting invaders is costly</h2>



Managing widespread invasive plants is costly, and complete eradication is often uncertain because the species can easily re-invade.



“Since invasive plants have spread across natural areas, they can’t simply be bulldozed, as that would cause several undesirable impacts on ecosystems,” said Mungi. “A sustainable alternative is urgently needed.”



Mungi and Svenning have proposed a solution called Nature-based Solutions for Biological Invasions. Instead of fighting nature, this approach works with it.



One idea? Reintroduce large animals - such as elephants and buffalo - into floodplains and savannas. They can naturally control invasive plants simply by grazing.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-adapting-to-invasive-plants">Adapting to invasive plants</h2>



In some places, invasive plants are already part of the landscape and have become quite useful.



“In many areas across the greater tropics, locals have begun using invasive plants such as Lantana to build crafts and furniture, Prosopis juliflora for biochar production, and water hyacinth for commercial products. They have adapted to a new reality,” said Mungi.



Both studies emphasize the importance of working in partnership with local communities when managing invasive plants.



“Local communities are often more aware of their ecosystems and of creative ways to manage them,” said Mungi.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-invasions-reshape-our-world">Invasions reshape our world</h2>



The world is not what it used to be. And it won’t stay the same. Invasive species are part of this shift. They’re changing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/invasive-plants-are-taking-over-ohios-forests/">forests</a>, savannas, and coastlines. And they’re changing how people live, work, and survive.



The question isn’t just how to get rid of them - it’s how to live with them, manage them, and make better choices about the future of nature.



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Invasive plants are transforming the tropics, forcing people to adapt

Plants don’t stay put. They grow, spread, and sometimes end up far from where they started. In the tropics, that movement is causing big changes. Plants from other parts of the world - called alien species - are taking root in places they’ve never belonged. Some are harmless, but others are taking over. Across the tropical and subtropical regions of the planet - an area known as the greater tropics - roughly 10,000 alien plant species are now thriving. Many of these plants were brought in on...

The Falkland Islands are known today for cool winds, broad grasslands, and very few trees. That modern picture is accurate, but it is not the whole story. Pollen found beneath the capital shows these islands once supported a cool-temperate forest - wet, shaded, and biologically rich.



The clue came from a dark, woody layer uncovered during construction in Stanley. It was not random debris. 



It was a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fossilized-frozen-forest-reveals-climate-impacts-on-ancient-alpine-ecosystems/">buried forest</a> bed - plant-heavy sediment preserved in place - holding microscopic grains and real pieces of ancient wood.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-forest-pollen-and-wood-fragments">Forest pollen and wood fragments</h2>



Scientists collected three kinds of evidence: pollen grains, spores, and chunks of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/north-americas-oldest-known-pterosaur-eotephradactylus-mcintireae-discovered-arizona/">fossilized wood</a>. 



Pollen and spores keep their species-specific shapes for millions of years when they get trapped in wet sediment and then buried. 



Wood fragments preserve internal features that point to the type of tree and the conditions in which it grew.



This layer is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/lignite" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lignitic</a> - formed as plant material piled up in waterlogged, low-oxygen settings where leaves and twigs do not fully rot. 



Over time, that mush compressed into a dense, carbon-rich stratum, likely in a shallow, protected basin near the coast.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-collecting-and-identifying-samples">Collecting and identifying samples</h2>



After the discovery, Dr. Zoë Thomas of the <a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Southampton</a> hurried to the site with colleagues to salvage fresh samples before they dried and cracked. 



“The tree remains were so pristinely preserved they looked like driftwood,” recalled Dr. Thomas.



In the lab, the team separated tiny grains from the sediment and examined them under high magnification. 



The mix showed southern beech (<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/nothofagus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nothofagus</a>) and podocarps - Southern Hemisphere conifers - alongside moisture-loving plants that thrive in soggy ground. 



“The fossil pollen, spores, and wood paint a much different picture of the ancient environment, providing direct evidence of cool, wet forests,” noted Michael Donovan, collections manager at <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Chicago’s Field Museum</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-reading-the-forest-s-pollen-and-wood">Reading the forest's pollen and wood</h2>



Pollen alone can be misleading because wind can carry it far. That is why the wood matters. 



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/giant-trees-never-seen-before-up-to-3000-years-old-tessmannia-princeps-tasmania/">Wood anatomy</a> - cell sizes, pits, and rays - helps confirm whether pieces came from conifers or broadleaf trees and whether the community matches the pollen record. 



Here, it does. The agreement points to a local forest, not distant pollen that drifted in.



Modern relatives of Nothofagus and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podocarpus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">podocarps</a> form cool, mossy forests in parts of southern Chile and Patagonia. 



Their presence in the Falklands’ fossil record supports the idea that the islands once held a wet, shaded habitat.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dating-the-forest-fossils">Dating the forest fossils</h2>



Radiocarbon dating tops out around 50,000 years, so the team turned to regional comparison. They lined up the Falklands’ pollen 'cast' with well-dated South American records. 



When the same key pollen types appear and fade in the same order across sites, timelines can be matched.



Those comparisons point to the mid-to-late Cenozoic - tens of millions of years ago - when warmer intervals let rainforests extend to higher latitudes and outlying islands.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/ancient-forest_treeless-island_falklands_pollen-discovered_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/ancient-forest_treeless-island_falklands_pollen-discovered_1s.webp" alt="Selected photomicrographs of fossil pollen produced in an ancient forest by gymnosperm and angiosperm living relatives in the rainforest of southern South America. Credit: Antarctic Science" class="wp-image-1985897"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Selected photomicrographs of fossil pollen produced in an ancient forest by gymnosperm and angiosperm living relatives in the rainforest of southern South America. Click image to enlarge. Credit: Antarctic Science</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pollen-explains-the-disappearing-forest">Pollen explains the disappearing forest</h2>



Islands get new species in bursts. Seeds and spores ride wind, float on ocean debris, and travel with birds. During milder, wetter stretches, the odds of survival jump. 



Once early trees took root in a sheltered, waterlogged basin, they could trap moisture, calm ground-level winds, and gradually build a stable community.



That is a familiar pattern in island biology. Given time and the right conditions, a few arrivals can turn into a functioning forest.



The climate shifted. Cooling trends and glacial cycles brought colder, windier conditions. 



The Falklands lack high mountains to block strong westerlies or snag extra rainfall, and many soils are thin and peaty. Those factors make it hard for trees to outcompete grasses today.



Ecosystems do not just follow latitude. Local wind, rainfall, and topography set the rules. Under the current rules, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mountain-greening-threatens-genetic-diversity-of-iconic-plants/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">open grassland</a> wins across most of the islands.



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



Fossil evidence gives climate scientists real targets for testing models. 



If a model run with mid-to-late <a href="https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/cenozoic/cenozoic.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cenozoic</a> conditions places a cool-temperate rainforest on the Falklands, that is a sign it is on track. If it does not, something is missing. 



These checks turn evidence from a single site into valuable test data.



There is also a wider lesson. Ecosystems can move, shrink, expand, or appear in places that seem unusual by today’s standards. 



The Falklands’ buried forest shows how temperature, rainfall, and wind can reshuffle living communities over long spans of time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-building-the-case">Building the case</h2>



Fieldwork documented and sampled the lignitic layer in place. Lab work isolated pollen and spores, then identified them under microscopes. 



Wood pieces were sectioned to reveal diagnostic features. Together, those signals established both habitat and local origin.



For age, researchers matched the Falklands’ pollen sequence to dated South American profiles, tracking the same marker taxa as they rose and fell. 



That approach pinned the layer to a deep time window without relying on radiocarbon.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-have-we-learned">What have we learned?</h2>



To sum it all up, hidden beneath Stanley on the Falkland Islands lies a pollen record of a cool, wet forest dominated by southern beech and podocarp relatives, growing in a sheltered, waterlogged basin. 



The age falls in the mid-to-late Cenozoic, when warmer intervals allowed trees to push farther poleward and onto islands. 



This clear snapshot - written in pollen, spores, and wood - adds a useful data point to Earth’s climate history and helps scientists check the tools we use to understand past, present, and future change.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antarctic-science/article/evidence-for-a-floristically-diverse-rainforest-on-the-falkland-archipelago-in-the-remote-south-atlantic-during-the-mid-to-late-cenozoic/B4CFF913DD8F1BB43B570E4086C7CF7B" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Antarctic Science</a>.



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Scientists accidentally discover that a treeless island was once a tropical rainforest

The Falkland Islands are known today for cool winds, broad...

Plants protect themselves. They often produce chemicals that discourage animals from feeding on them. For herbivores, survival means eating enough food while avoiding dangerous toxins. This delicate balance shapes how animals forage and adapt to their environment.



The challenge is not only about survival in the present moment. It is also about long-term adaptation. Animals that fail to strike this balance risk starvation or poisoning, while successful ones pass on their strategies to future generations. 



This ongoing evolutionary tug-of-war between plants and herbivores defines much of the natural world.



<a href="https://www.usu.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Utah State University</a> ecologist Sara Weinstein believes these choices reveal much about survival. “Understanding how these animals navigate these choices is fundamental to understanding what these creatures need to survive and how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/woodrats-duplicated-their-genes-to-survive-eating-poisonous-plants/">species</a> respond to changing conditions."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-woodrats-and-toxic-plants">Woodrats and toxic plants</h2>



Among the many plant eaters, woodrats offer a surprising case study. Native to North America, these rodents consume a wide range of plants.



“Woodrats are remarkable in their ability to eat truly awful, toxic plants,” said Weinstein. “If there are no other options, woodrats can consume plants like creosote bush, mesquite and juniper, which are full of disagreeable compounds like alkaloids and terpenes.”



Weinstein and colleagues from several universities recently published findings from an eight-year survey of woodrat populations across North America.



“Woodrats are a phenomenal model organism for understanding how wild <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-have-super-sized-domestic-animals-and-shrunk-wildlife/">animals</a> make choices about what to eat,” Weinstein explains. Their habitats provide varied food choices, allowing researchers to study how animals decide among safer or riskier plants.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-analyzing-the-diets-of-woodrats">Analyzing the diets of woodrats </h2>



Unlike city-dwelling rats, woodrats avoid people. "Woodrats are very distant cousins of the better known, and omnivorous, New York pizza rat,” Weinstein noted. “You are unlikely to see woodrats, unless you’re in relatively undeveloped habitat.”



Despite their shy nature, woodrats are widespread across the United States. Their abundance makes them excellent research subjects, especially since multiple <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-survivors-dragonflies-face-their-toughest-test/">species</a> often share the same environment.



“Compared to large herbivores like deer, moose or elephants, woodrats are much easier to capture and handle,” said Weinstein. “They also readily provide us with material for diet analyses, because they tend to defecate in traps.”



These droppings become data-rich samples. Weinstein noted that each sample combines about a day of food choices. This allows scientists to capture a snapshot of their diets.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-patterns-in-herbivore-diets">Patterns in herbivore diets</h2>



Advancements in DNA metabarcoding, using next-generation sequencing, have transformed diet research. 



“It’s a very powerful and accessible technique to characterize the unseen,” Weinstein said. This method has helped reveal important patterns in how herbivores eat.



Despite progress, dietary niche breadth remains poorly understood. The research shows that both specialization and generalization carry costs for herbivores.



“A longstanding notion is that if you’re highly specific in what you eat - you only eat one thing - then, if you lose access to that plant - say, it disappears because the ecosystem changes or an invasive species pushes it out - you’re going to be in trouble,” said Weinstein.



Generalists adapt more easily, shifting diets when needed. Yet the story is more complex. Most woodrat populations are generalists, but at the individual level, these generalists’ diets may not be as broad as we previously assumed, explained Weinstein.



“We tend to think of generalists as being a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. However, it looks like most generalists are more aptly described as jacks-of-all trades, master of some.”



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



Individuals often select consistent subsets of plants, helping them manage risks from toxins. These findings matter beyond woodrats.



“Ultimately, these constraints on animal diets have important implications for our understanding of food webs, species interactions and which populations are more likely to persist in changing ecosystems,” said Weinstein.



The study highlights how much we still have to learn about herbivores. By tracing dietary strategies across individuals, populations, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/not-just-birds-and-beetles-iridescence-found-in-unexpected-animals/">species</a>, scientists gain insight into resilience and vulnerability in a changing climate. 



In the end, the secret lives of woodrats remind us that even the smallest animals can unlock big lessons about survival.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2413556122" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



Image Credit: Sara Weinstein



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Woodrats reveal how herbivores survive eating toxic plants

Plants protect themselves. They often produce chemicals that discourage animals...

Parents often ask the same question: what should I feed my baby first? Cereal, bananas, sweet potatoes, or something else? For years, advice has been vague. Scientists now suggest that blueberries may deserve a place on that list.



Blueberries are packed with color-rich compounds, fiber, and vitamins. Adults eat them for heart and brain health. 



Until now, though, no one had rigorously tested them in infants. A team at the <a href="https://www.cuanschutz.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Colorado Anschutz</a> decided to change that.



The researchers designed a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Sixty-one babies between five and twelve months joined. Some received blueberry powder each day.



Others received a powder without blueberries. Parents mixed the powder into normal <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/unstable-gut-microbes-can-worsen-child-malnutrition/">meals</a>. Nothing else in the routine had to change.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-linking-blueberries-and-allergies">Linking blueberries and allergies</h2>



By the end of the study, the blueberry group showed fewer allergy symptoms, especially respiratory ones. Inflammation markers also shifted. IL-13, a molecule tied to asthma and allergies, dropped. 



IL-10, known for calming the immune system, nudged upward. These results suggest blueberries encourage balance, not overreaction.



“For parents beginning to wean their infants, it’s incredibly difficult to find solid, research-backed advice on what <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/key-to-cutting-food-waste-is-in-our-daily-routines/">foods</a> to introduce,” said senior author Minghua Tang, PhD, adjoint associate professor of pediatrics at <a href="https://www.cuanschutz.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CU Anschutz</a>. 



“This study is a critical first step in filling that gap by offering real data on how a specific food like blueberries can improve your infant’s health.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-blueberries-protect-babies">How blueberries protect babies</h2>



Blueberries owe much of their power to anthocyanins, the pigments that give them a dark blue color. These compounds protect the gut lining, reduce inflammation, and discourage harmful bacteria. 



They also influence immune cells by turning down allergy-driving signals and boosting tolerance-building ones. In plain words, they help the immune system learn when to stay calm.



Infant gut bacteria shifted too. Beneficial groups such as Lactobacillus linked with more IL-10. Less friendly microbes like Citrobacter showed ties to IL-13. These shifts reveal how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/everyday-kitchen-tool-that-could-be-leaching-toxins-into-your-food-polypropylene-cutting-board/">diet</a> influences microbes.



The pattern suggests blueberries push gut communities in directions that support calmer immune activity, reducing unnecessary inflammation, encouraging tolerance, and possibly lowering the chance of early allergy development in infants.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-blueberries-support-long-term-health">Blueberries support long-term health</h2>



Not every improvement lined up neatly. Some babies improved without clear biomarker changes, and some biomarker shifts didn’t translate directly into fewer symptoms. 



That mismatch highlights the complexity of the gut–immune connection. Diet seems to nudge the system, but it doesn’t act through one simple pathway.



“This research supports the idea that blueberries are not only safe for infants but also offer meaningful health benefits,” said Minghua Tang, who is also a researcher at the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute and <a href="https://www.colostate.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Colorado State University</a>.



“Just a few blueberries a day could make a difference in supporting long-term health. We view infancy as a critical window of opportunity and what we introduce during this time can have lasting effects as children grow.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-early-diet-and-allergy-risks">Early diet and allergy risks</h2>



Allergic conditions are on the rise worldwide. Eczema, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/simple-way-to-remove-microplastics-from-tap-water-home-faucet/">food</a> allergies, and asthma often appear in childhood and can persist into adulthood. Scientists increasingly believe that early diet plays a role in either fueling or calming these risks. 



Breastfeeding remains the gold standard, but once solids start, the choice of foods may also matter more than once thought. 



Blueberries now join a list of foods being tested for their ability to train the immune system during this vulnerable window.



Health agencies encourage introducing a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains around six months. Yet parents often hesitate, especially with foods they fear might trigger allergies. 



Research like this helps reduce uncertainty. It suggests that some foods not only avoid harm but may actively help protect against allergies when offered early in life.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-introducing-babies-to-blueberries">Introducing babies to blueberries </h2>



The team stresses this was an early trial. More infants, longer follow-ups, and fresh blueberries instead of powder are next on the agenda. Other foods rich in similar compounds may also help, but those studies still lie ahead.



For now, families can introduce blueberries safely once babies begin solids. Puree them for the youngest. Mash or slice them for older babies and toddlers to avoid choking. 



A handful here and there may help more than just nutrition - it could shape long-term health.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/17/17/2795" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nutrients</a>.



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Feeding blueberries to babies is a great idea for many reasons, according to a new study

Parents often ask the same question: what should I feed...

Sargassum seaweed is piling up on Florida’s beaches, and it’s making a dangerous journey for sea turtle hatchlings even riskier.



Every summer, the sand becomes a highway as thousands of tiny turtles burst from their nests and scramble toward the ocean. For most of them, this short sprint is the difference between life and death.



They’ve already beaten the odds just by hatching. Now, they must avoid predators, stay cool under the rising sun, and find the water before their strength runs out.



But this growing <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sargassum-seaweed-a-growing-problem-could-become-a-sustainable-solution/">seaweed problem</a> is more than just beach clutter - it’s a new threat that’s slowing them down at a time when every second counts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-more-than-just-smelly-beach-junk">More than just smelly beach junk</h2>



Sargassum seaweed often washes up along Florida’s coast. It’s that brown, leafy stuff that starts to smell after a while. Out in the Atlantic, it floats in huge mats that provide habitat for marine life.



But when too much piles up on shore, sargassum seaweed creates a thick, tangled mess that’s hard for anything small to get through - including baby sea turtles.



Over the past few years, sargassum levels have exploded. Summer beachgoers aren’t the only ones frustrated. 



Sea turtle <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rainfall-impacts-the-size-of-sea-turtle-hatchlings/">hatchlings</a> are now struggling to cross these growing piles to reach the ocean. It’s not just an inconvenience. It’s a survival threat.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-testing-how-turtles-navigate-the-sargassum">Testing how turtles navigate the sargassum</h2>



Until recently, no one had looked closely at how sargassum affects sea turtle hatchlings. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University (<a href="https://www.fau.edu/science/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FAU</a>) set out to investigate.



The team tested three species common in Florida: <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/leatherback-sea-turtles-where-the-worlds-largest-turtles-go-to-eat/">leatherbacks</a>, loggerheads, and green turtles. These are the same turtles that nest on beaches from Boca Raton to Juno Beach.



The researchers built 50-foot (15 meter) crawlways in the sand and placed mats of loose sargassum up to 7.5 inches (19 centimeters) high - roughly the height of a large shoebox on end - at the finish line.



A dim light at the far end mimicked the natural glow over the ocean that hatchlings instinctively head towards. Then the team observed how the turtles responded.



The team measured how long it took for the turtles to reach the water, tracked whether they got flipped over while crawling through the seaweed, and even checked their blood sugar levels to see how much energy they were burning.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sargassum-slows-turtles-down">Sargassum slows turtles down </h2>



The results were clear. All three species took much longer to reach the ocean when sargassum was in the way. Leatherbacks were slowed by 54% with lighter sargassum, and 158% with heavier coverage.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/loggerhead-turtles-migrate-using-a-secret-thermal-corridor/">Loggerheads</a> saw a 91% delay in light coverage and 175% in heavy seaweed. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/reintroduction-of-green-turtles-has-been-a-success-in-the-cayman-islands/">Green turtles</a> slowed by 75% and 159%, respectively.



Some turtles couldn’t even finish the crawl in time. The biggest delay came when hatchlings had to climb over the thick seaweed, which slowed them down to a crawl - literally.



“The longer a hatchling stays on the beach, the more at risk it becomes - not just from predators like birds and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/why-did-billions-of-crabs-vanish-from-the-bering-sea/">crabs</a>, but also from overheating and dehydration, especially after sunrise,” said Dr. Sarah Milton of the FAU Department of Biological Sciences.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7xqe2C6RR6I?feature=share"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/leatherback-hatchling_sargassum-seaweed-obstacles_FAU_1s.webp" alt="A leatherback hatchling navigates over sargassum on Juno Beach in July 2021. Credit: Abbey M. Appelt, Florida Atlantic University" class="wp-image-1986078"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">A leatherback hatchling navigates over sargassum on Juno Beach in July 2021. Click image for video. Credit: Abbey M. Appelt, Florida Atlantic University</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-getting-stuck-and-flipped">Getting stuck and flipped</h2>



The sargassum didn’t just slow the turtles down. It threw them off balance. Hatchlings kept flipping over while trying to climb the mats. In some cases, it happened over and over.



One unlucky turtle flipped more than 20 times in a single trial. Every time that happened, it wasted time and energy, and made hatchlings easy targets for predators.



These juveniles only have a small window to make it to the water before heat and dehydration kick in.



“When sargassum piles are higher - some can be over a meter high on South Florida beaches in the summer and extend for hundreds of meters down the beach - we can expect more failed attempts, particularly when hatchlings have to cross multiple bands of <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sargassum/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seaweed</a> just to reach the ocean,” said Milton.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-no-sign-of-burnout-yet">No sign of burnout - yet</h2>



Even with all that effort, the turtles didn’t show signs of physical exhaustion - at least not in their blood sugar levels. Glucose remained in normal ranges for all three species, no matter how much seaweed they faced. 



Only leatherbacks in the no-crawl control group had noticeably higher glucose, which researchers say shows that crawling itself is demanding - but the sargassum didn’t drain them any faster, at least in the short term.



Still, that doesn’t mean it’s harmless.



“For sea turtle hatchlings, reaching the ocean is already a race against time – and survival. Now, increasingly large mats of sargassum are adding new challenges to this critical journey,” said Milton.



“As these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/robot-discovers-surprising-food-source-sargassum-for-deep-ocean-creatures/">seaweed accumulations</a> grow taller and more widespread, they risk blocking hatchlings entirely, draining their limited energy or leaving them stranded. Beyond impeding movement, sargassum may also reduce nesting space and alter incubation conditions.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sargassum-management-and-turtles">Sargassum management and turtles</h2>



Sargassum isn’t going away anytime soon. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-warming-broke-records-for-450-straight-days/">Warmer oceans</a> and nutrient runoff are fueling massive blooms across the Atlantic, and more of it is expected to hit Florida’s shores every year.



This growing issue isn’t just about beach aesthetics. It's quietly making a tough journey even tougher for baby turtles trying to survive their first few minutes of life.



Without changes in how beaches are maintained, these seaweed mats could keep getting in the way - and turtle populations may suffer down the line.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-24-00092.1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of Coastal Research</a>.



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Sargassum seaweed is a deadly obstacle course for baby sea turtles

Sargassum seaweed is piling up on Florida’s beaches, and it’s...

Summer heat waves are becoming harsher across urban areas. Concrete, asphalt, and dense buildings trap heat, creating what scientists call the urban-heat-island effect.



For city dwellers, this translates into hotter days and nights, increased discomfort, and higher health risks. As global temperatures climb, researchers and planners are looking closely at natural ways to cool cities.



Urban trees are often viewed as allies against sweltering heat. Their shade can offer instant relief, while their leaves help cool air through evaporation. But new research shows that trees alone are not guaranteed to ease urban heat.



A study led by environmental engineers at <a href="https://ethz.ch/en.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ETH Zurich</a> and <a href="https://www.eawag.ch/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Eawag</a> highlights that the key factor lies beneath the surface: soil moisture.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-water-drives-cooling-power">Water drives cooling power</h2>



The research investigated several neighborhoods in Zurich to measure cooling potential. Findings revealed that trees noticeably lower surrounding air temperatures only when the soil around them is moist. 



Dry soil limits their cooling power. The researchers also found that evaporation from the ground itself plays a vital role, working much like a damp sponge slowly drying out.



The study also compared city layouts. In Zurich’s less dense areas, where green space is more available, watered trees created zones with little heat stress. 



In compact neighborhoods, though, even extensive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/heat-is-making-crop-harvests-wildly-unpredictable/">greening</a> had limits, especially during extreme heat. Cooling potential depends not only on vegetation but also on water supply and available space.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-shade-evaporation-and-water">Shade, evaporation, and water</h2>



Cooling in cities comes mainly from two mechanisms: shade and evaporation. Shade reduces radiant heat from buildings and streets, while evaporation removes heat by transforming water into vapor. 



The ETH study found that shade was often the stronger cooling force, but irrigated <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/warming-soils-release-more-carbon-than-plants-can-replace/">soils</a> added significant benefits through evaporation. Soil moisture kept leaves functioning, yet once temperatures climbed beyond certain thresholds, leaves closed their pores, reducing evaporative cooling. 



To maintain this cooling effect, steady irrigation was essential. For Zurich’s soil, bringing one cubic meter (about 35 cubic feet) from dry to optimal moisture required nearly 100 liters of water (about 26 gallons).



Daily upkeep ranged from 2 to 4 liters (0.5 to 1 gallon) per square meter during summer. Larger tree patches helped conserve water by shading the soil, while automated irrigation systems guided by weather forecasts offered a more efficient way to keep moisture levels stable.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-balancing-trees-heat-and-water">Balancing trees, heat, and water</h2>



The study also noted that water management must strike a balance. Heavy irrigation improves cooling but can increase flood risk if soils remain oversaturated.



Frequent, light watering combined with good drainage works better than heavy irrigation.



Another trade-off involves <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mixed-cover-crops-may-be-the-future-of-sustainable-farming/">mulching</a>. While mulch conserves water and benefits plants, it suppresses soil evaporation, which plays a key role in cooling at pedestrian level. The researchers suggest using tree grates as a compromise, allowing evaporation while still protecting roots.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cities-share-heat-lessons">Cities share heat lessons</h2>



Zurich’s case is not unique. Cities like Singapore and Melbourne have pioneered integrated blue-green infrastructure, combining water features with greenery to create cooler urban pockets. These efforts show that irrigation and vegetation design must work hand in hand. 



In desert cities such as Phoenix, irrigation of urban trees has already been shown to reduce local air temperatures by several degrees. Yet the challenge remains to balance cooling benefits with sustainable water use, especially in water-scarce regions.



"On heat-wave days in Zurich, it will not be possible to create heat shelters that fully solve heat by only using trees and water," said Lucas Gobatti, first author and doctoral student at ETH Zurich and Eawag.



During extreme events, even fully irrigated large tree patches could not eliminate heat stress.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-preparing-for-extreme-heat">Preparing for extreme heat</h2>



The study stresses that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/planting-trees-in-the-wrong-place-can-make-cities-hotter/">planting trees</a> without considering water supply and soil conditions will fall short. Intelligent water management, such as irrigation systems that adapt to rainfall and heat forecasts, is vital. 



But other measures must complement greenery, such as cooling centers, shaded public spaces, and indoor shelters.



"The city should also consider improving heat adaptation plans, following examples such as Barcelona, where citizens are given access to public buildings to cool down, rehydrate, and reduce heat exhaustion during heat waves," said Gobatti.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-green-meets-blue">Green meets blue</h2>



The findings reinforce that urban cooling requires combined strategies. Trees provide shade and comfort, but water management, species choice, and urban design play equally important roles. 



Future research is exploring how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/common-weed-may-lead-to-drought-resistant-crops/">drought-resistant</a> trees or varying planting patterns might influence cooling. 



What remains clear is that climate resilience in cities will depend on integrated approaches - green infrastructure paired with thoughtful water use and inclusive public-health planning.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42949-025-00220-0" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">npj Urban Sustainability</a>.



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Urban trees can cool cities, but only if they get enough water

Summer heat waves are becoming harsher across urban areas. Concrete,...

The Mojave Desert’s Joshua trees look timeless, but their future isn’t guaranteed. Despite being built for heat and drought, these long-lived yuccas are already showing signs of stress as temperatures rise and dry spells lengthen. Fewer young trees are making it past their first years, and the species’ range appears to be shrinking.&nbsp;



A new study led by a multi-institution team that includes <a href="https://uconn.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Connecticut</a> ecologist Karolina Heyduk asks a simple, crucial question: how much wiggle room do Joshua trees have to adapt? The answer points to a surprising ally - how they breathe at night.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-joshua-trees-in-a-warming-climate">Joshua trees in a warming climate </h2>



Most plants throw open microscopic pores on their leaves during the day to take in carbon dioxide for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/key-to-life-on-earth-photosynthesis-begins-on-the-quantum-level-with-a-single-photon/">photosynthesis</a>, but that comes with a cost: precious water escapes while the sun is blazing.&nbsp;



Some desert specialists dodge that trade-off by using a different playbook, called crassulacean acid metabolism, or CAM. CAM plants take in CO₂ at night when it’s cooler and stash it away until daylight returns to power sugar production.



“We sort of stumbled upon this idea that Joshua trees might use CAM photosynthesis,” Heyduk said. “Finding evidence of CAM in Joshua trees is great news - it may help the plants tolerate the warming climate across their range.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-common-gardens-uncommon-insights">Common gardens, uncommon insights</h2>



To see whether all Joshua trees play by the same rules - or whether some populations are naturally better tuned to today’s harsher conditions - the team established common garden test plots. 



The researchers grew seedlings from populations across the species’ ranges, including both recognized species, Yucca brevifolia and Yucca jaegeriana, side by side under the same conditions. That setup strips away local weather and soil differences, letting genetic and physiological differences rise to the surface.



As the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rainforests-replanted-seedlings-after-logging-do-not-recover-well/">seedlings</a> grew, the researchers tracked growth, water use, leaf gas exchange, and the chemical signatures that reveal when and how carbon is taken up.&nbsp;



The patterns were clear: many seedlings showed nighttime CO₂ uptake consistent with CAM, and the intensity of that CAM-like behavior varied among populations.&nbsp;



In other words, Joshua trees appear to have some built-in flexibility in how they photosynthesize, and some lineages lean into the night-shift strategy more than others.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-genes-back-up-the-physiology">Genes back up the physiology</h2>



The team didn’t stop at leaf measurements. They looked under the hood - profiling gene activity and the metabolites plants stockpile when they run CAM.&nbsp;



“We’re bridging a lot of fields in biology,” Heyduk said. “We measured a lot of physiological traits, but we also looked at the gene expression of these plants in the gardens, and the accumulation of metabolites.”&nbsp;



The timing of gene activity matched expectations for CAM, bolstering the case that Joshua trees can switch - or at least blend - between daytime and nighttime <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-absorb-31-more-co2-than-previously-estimated/">carbon uptake</a>.&nbsp;



The two species also differed in how they process carbon and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nitrogen-was-plentiful-for-early-life-on-earth/">nitrogen</a>, hinting at deeper physiological distinctions that may help explain why both persist as separate lineages despite overlapping ranges and occasional hybrids.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-this-matters-for-conservation">Why this matters for conservation</h2>



If CAM capacity is real and variable, it could be a lifeline. Nighttime carbon uptake reduces water loss, a critical edge as the Mojave gets hotter and, importantly, as nights warm too.&nbsp;



But flexibility is only half the story - longevity complicates the rest. A mature Joshua tree can live for centuries; some living trees have experienced the entire arc of industrial-era climate change. The seedlings trying to establish today face a very different climate than the one their elders grew up in.



“We’re not focusing on desert species quite as much as other ecosystems,” Heyduk said. “I think partially that’s because we think they’re already adapted to the super-hot environment and they’ll be fine." 



"However, the deserts are getting hotter, and in particular the nighttime temperatures are getting hotter.” If nights stop offering relief, even CAM users may struggle.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-heat-and-joshua-tree-survival">Heat and Joshua tree survival</h2>



One red flag is the lack of young trees. Fewer seedlings are making it to sapling stage, suggesting a new bottleneck right where populations renew themselves.&nbsp;



To test how temperature - especially warmer nights - affects survival, the team is now growing seedlings under tightly controlled conditions, dialing nighttime temperatures up and down to see how water use, growth, and CAM behavior respond. 



The goal is to pinpoint whether hotter nights are tipping the balance, and which populations cope best.



“What today’s seedlings are experiencing is going to be very different from what they might experience in 100 years when they’re mature plants,” Heyduk said. “We need to understand how they will respond to that change.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-collaborative-blueprint-for-action">A collaborative blueprint for action</h2>



This project is as much about method as it is about the Mojave. University researchers, federal scientists, and teams from primarily undergraduate institutions pooled fieldwork, greenhouse trials, physiology, genomics, and metabolomics. 



That breadth matters because it lets scientists connect genotype to phenotype - tying genetic differences to real-world traits that influence survival.



The immediate conservation takeaway is practical: not all Joshua tree populations are the same. Some may harbor greater CAM capacity or other physiological tweaks that make them better bets in a warming desert. Identifying and prioritizing those lineages - while protecting the habitats they occupy - could buy the species time.



Joshua trees won’t outpace <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plants-defy-climate-change-through-acclimation/">climate change</a> by migrating quickly; they don’t disperse far, and they don’t grow fast. But if they can lean on a night-shift photosynthesis strategy - and if we focus protection on the populations best at it - they may have a fighting chance to hold their ground as the Mojave’s thermostat keeps climbing.



The research is published in the journal the <a href="https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nph.70437" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New Phytologist</a>.



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Joshua trees have a hidden trick to survive climate change

The Mojave Desert’s Joshua trees look timeless, but their future...

A tiny desert flower with horn-like tips has been hiding in plain sight in West Texas. Scientists have confirmed Ovicula biradiata is both a new species and a new genus, a rare one two in botany.



The plant, informally called the woolly devil, sits within the <a href="https://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/family/25" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Asteraceae</a> family, the same group as sunflowers and daisies. It turned up inside Big Bend National Park and surprised experts who know this rugged country well.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-finding-ovicula-biradiata">Finding Ovicula biradiata</h2>



Lead researcher <a href="https://rockdaisy.wordpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Isaac H. Lichter Marck</a> works at the California Academy of Sciences (<a href="https://www.calacademy.org/scientists/botany" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CAS</a>) and coordinated the formal description.



Researchers compared its DNA and examined specimens in an herbarium, the scientific library of preserved plants, to check what it was not. 



They then built a phylogenetic tree, a diagram that maps evolutionary relationships, to test where it belongs.



The detailed paper reports that the plant is a member of the sunflower group yet differs enough from its nearest relatives to require a new genus, which is a taxonomic rank above species. 



“While many assume that the plants and animals within our country’s national parks have probably been documented by now, scientists still make surprising new discoveries in these iconic protected landscapes,” said Lichter Marck.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-makes-ovicula-biradiata-unique">What makes Ovicula biradiata unique</h2>



The species is named Ovicula biradiata, nicknamed the woolly devil for its fuzzy leaves and small red and white flowers. It is tiny, usually about 1 to 3 inches across, and it grows low among pale limestone gravel.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/first-photograph-ovicula-biradiata-taken.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1985272"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">First photograph of Ovicula biradiata taken by Deb Manley on 2 March 2024.</figcaption></figure>



Each head carries two ray florets, the narrow outer <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/corpse-flowers-amorphophallus-titanum-smell-like-death-but-thousands-rush-to-see-them-bloom/">flowers</a> that look like small petals in the daisy family. Seeds develop with a five scaled pappus, the set of small scales or bristles at the top of a seed that help it detach.



The leaves are covered with dense trichomes, which are tiny hairs that trap air and reduce water loss. That woolly coat likely helps the plant endure short bursts of sun and wind at ground level.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-where-it-lives-and-why-that-matters">Where it lives and why that matters</h2>



Ovicula biradiata grows in the northern corner of Big Bend on coarse limestone alluvium within a very narrow range. The plant is ephemeral, which means it lives fast and blooms only after rain.



The Chihuahuan Desert is a hot, dry region spanning West Texas and northern Mexico, and Big Bend offers many microhabitats within that larger desert. 



The park <a href="https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/news/new-plant-species-discovered-in-big-bend.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> the discovery and noted that the plant appears after spring rainfall in harsh, rocky terrain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ovicula-biradiata-extinction-risk">Ovicula biradiata extinction risk</h2>



“We have only observed this plant in three narrow locations across the northernmost corner of the park, and it’s possible that we’ve documented a species that is already on its way out,” said Lichter Marck. 



The study team withheld exact coordinates because of the small populations and sensitive habitat.



Based on known range and short life cycle, the authors note the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stressed-plants-make-sounds-and-moths-can-hear-them/">plant</a> would preliminarily qualify as vulnerable under IUCN criteria, the global standard for conservation status. 



That call signals the need for careful monitoring, not panic, while scientists gather more data.



Big Bend has been surveyed for decades, yet a volunteer still found something new by looking closely at the ground. Community science tools like iNaturalist make it easier to flag unusual finds so specialists can respond quickly.



The woolly devil is also the first new plant genus described from a U.S. national park in nearly 50 years. The last time a similar step was taken was with July gold, a shrub described from Death Valley in 1976.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-scientists-figured-out-its-family-ties">How scientists figured out its family ties</h2>



The team sequenced nuclear DNA and compared the results with related sunflowers stored in museum collections. The analysis shows Ovicula is sister to Psilostrophe, a western group sometimes called paper <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/both-bees-and-humans-like-these-flower-mixes-the-best/">flowers</a>.



That placement explains some of the look, such as very small flower heads and dense hair on leaves and stems. It also confirms that the unusual two ray florets are not a quirk of a known species but a trait of a line all its own.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-scientists-want-to-learn-next">What scientists want to learn next</h2>



The plant’s glands could be chemically interesting because related sunflowers produce compounds linked to anti inflammatory and anti cancer activity. 



The press team reports that researchers saw specific glands under the microscope and plan to test for these compounds in future work.



Climate trends raise concern because hotter, drier conditions can squeeze short lived desert annuals. Long term <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17412920/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">modeling</a> projects a more arid Southwest as temperatures rise, which could make rainy windows less frequent and shorter.



The obvious next steps include tracking when the plant appears, how many individuals emerge after different rain years, and what insects visit the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tonights-flower-moon-completes-2025s-micromoon-trilogy/">flowers</a>. Those answers will guide any long term protection plan.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-helping-ovicula-biradiata-thrive">Helping Ovicula biradiata thrive</h2>



Small plants can be easy to overlook, yet they often hold the clearest signals about how a desert is changing. 



Finding a new genus inside a well studied park is a reminder that careful field work still moves science forward.



It also shows why preserving habitat matters even when a species is tiny. If the habitat is intact, the species has a fighting chance to persist through hard years and rebound when conditions improve.



If you visit Big Bend during a wet spring, stay on durable surfaces and avoid fragile gravel flats where small annuals grow. 



Report unusual wildflowers with clear photos and location details using community science apps, and let experts do the collecting.



That approach protects sensitive sites and gives researchers good data over time. It also makes every careful observer part of the discovery pipeline.



The study is published in <a href="https://phytokeys.pensoft.net/article/137624/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PhytoKeys</a>.



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New plant species has flowers with tiny 'horns' and a devilish appearance

A tiny desert flower with horn-like tips has been hiding...

The benefits of psilocybin-assisted therapy for major depression reportedly endures for years, if not forever. 



In a new analysis of people who took part in a 2020 psilocybin clinical trial, 67 percent were still in full remission from depression an average of five years later - up from 58 percent at the one-year mark.



Study lead author Alan Davis is an associate professor and director of the <a href="https://www.cpdre.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education</a> at The Ohio State University.



“Across the board - <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gut-microbes-have-an-unexpected-link-to-anxiety/">anxiety</a>, depression, global functioning, self-reported depression - we kept seeing the same signal of continued improvement," said Davis.



The follow-up results offer a rare long view of outcomes after psychedelic-assisted therapy, an area where long-term data are still sparse.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-understanding-psilocybin-the-basics">Understanding psilocybin - the basics</h2>



Psilocybin is a natural compound found in certain mushrooms, often called “magic mushrooms.” When you ingest psilocybin, your body quickly converts it into psilocin, the active form that interacts with your brain. 



Psilocin closely resembles <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-dopamine-and-serotonin-shape-behavior/">serotonin</a>, a key neurotransmitter, so it binds to serotonin receptors - especially the 5-HT2A receptor. 



This binding alters the way nerve cells communicate, which leads to changes in perception, mood, and thought patterns. 



From a scientific standpoint, psilocybin disrupts the brain’s usual patterns of activity and connectivity. 



Brain imaging studies show that it quiets the “default mode network,” a system linked to self-reflection and the inner voice we all carry. 



At the same time, it boosts communication between brain regions that don’t normally interact.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-curing-depression-with-psilocybin">Curing depression with psilocybin</h2>



The peer-reviewed study, published in 2021, enrolled adults with major depressive disorder and compared two groups: one received psilocybin treatment immediately, and the other started after a wait-list period.



All the participants ultimately completed a standardized protocol: two dosing sessions with psilocybin paired with about 13 hours of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/psychotherapy-is-key-to-the-success-of-psychedelic-treatment/">psychotherapy</a> (including preparation, support during sessions, and integration).



The initial results showed large reductions in depression severity, with half of participants in remission up to one year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tracking-patients-over-time">Tracking patients over time</h2>



Of the 24 people in the original trial, 18 took part in the five-year check-in. Online questionnaires were used to assess depression, anxiety, and functional impairment. 



The researchers also applied a clinician-rated depression scale and conducted qualitative interviews to capture changes the numbers might miss.



The team made a conservative assumption to avoid overstating success. They counted the six who did not return as having fully relapsed to pre-treatment levels.



Even under that assumption, depression scores remained “very large and significantly” reduced at five years, Davis noted, and the share of participants in complete remission nudged upward.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-more-than-psilocybin">More than psilocybin</h2>



The lasting gains cannot be chalked up solely to the two psilocybin sessions. Only three people reported no additional depression-related treatment in the years since. 



Others used antidepressant medications, tried <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ketamine-treatment-may-now-last-months-instead-of-weeks/">ketamine</a> or other psychedelics, or engaged in psychotherapy.



Interviews helped explain that context. Many participants described life with depression as profoundly constricted before the trial - too little energy, too little hope to engage. 



Afterward, several said their depression felt more situational and manageable. They reported a greater capacity for positive emotion and motivation, and a different relationship to low moods when they returned.



A few who experimented with psychedelics on their own found the experiences less helpful without a clinical framework. This underscores a theme from other work by Davis and colleagues: the therapeutic container matters.



A strong alliance with trained therapists, structured preparation, and integration support may play as big a role as the drug itself.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-psilocybin-safety-over-time">Psilocybin safety over time</h2>



At the five-year mark, 11 of 18 participants reported no adverse effects since the trial. Looking back, three remembered feeling unprepared for the heightened emotional sensitivity that followed their dosing sessions. 



Two said tapering off <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cure-for-alcohol-addiction-was-discovered-by-accident/">medications</a> and waiting during the original trial was especially difficult, and two wished they’d had more formal integration therapy afterward.



The study is small, non-randomized at follow-up, and based on a motivated sample - limitations the authors emphasize.



With just 18 people contributing long-term data, it’s impossible to generalize broadly or disentangle psilocybin’s contribution from other treatments and life changes.



Larger, placebo-controlled trials with systematic follow-up will be needed to test durability, dosing strategies, and who benefits most.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-psilocybin-depression-and-healthcare">Psilocybin, depression, and healthcare</h2>



Even with the study's limitations, the pattern is encouraging. Many participants maintained remission or continued to function better. 



Several described a shift that outlasted symptom scores - more engagement with family, work, and meaningful activities, and fewer episodes of withdrawal and isolation, which are among depression’s most disabling features.



“Five years later, most people continued to view this treatment as safe, meaningful, and important - something that catalyzed an ongoing betterment of their life,” Davis said.



“Despite some symptoms coming back, they weren’t experiencing the same levels of impairment - suggesting this approach might, for some, kick-start lasting positive change.”



The bottom line: psilocybin-assisted therapy remains experimental, and it’s not a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-gut-bacteria-morganella-morganii-could-cause-depression-not-a-brain-disorder/">depression</a> cure-all. But in this small cohort, the combination of guided psychedelic sessions and psychotherapy was associated with durable relief - and in many cases, a different relationship to depression - years down the road.



The study is published in the <a href="https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/aop/article-10.1556-2054.2025.00461/article-10.1556-2054.2025.00461.xml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of Psychedelic Studies</a>.



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Patients report no signs of depression five years after psilocybin treatment

The benefits of psilocybin-assisted therapy for major depression reportedly endures...

A small river in upstate New York bounced back fast after a long standing barrier came out. A new study followed the water before and after the dam removal and tracked how the habitat, water quality, and small aquatic life changed.



The results show a clear pattern. When a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dams-built-by-humans-have-shifted-earths-poles/">dam</a> stops slowing water and trapping sediment, the channel rebuilds itself, oxygen levels rise, and the community of living things resets.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-before-and-after-dam-removal">Before and after dam removal</h2>



“The research demonstrates the resilience of nature to recover from imperiled states,” said lead author <a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/water-resources-institute/about/people/jeremy-dietrich" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeremy Dietrich</a>, principal aquatic ecologist at the New York State Water Resources Institute at <a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/">Corn</a><a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">e</a><a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/">ll University</a>. 



He and colleagues monitored the site from the summer before removal through the third year after.



The barrier was a 12 foot structure installed in the 1960s to hold a small reservoir. 



After the dam removal, the slow pool upstream shifted toward a stony channel with steady current, and the differences between upstream and downstream sections faded.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-recovery-after-dam-removal">Recovery after dam removal</h2>



The team relied on macroinvertebrates, the insects, worms, and other small animals without backbones that live on stream bottoms. 



These organisms respond quickly to changes in flow and substrate, so they are reliable indicators of stream health.



New York uses the Biological Assessment Profile (<a href="https://extapps.dec.ny.gov/docs/water_pdf/bapnarrative18.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BAP</a>) to score water quality based on that community. Scores range from 0 to 10, with higher values signaling healthier conditions.



Before removal, the impounded reach had soft sand and silt, which favors burrowers and low oxygen tolerant species. 



After removal, gravel and cobble expanded, and clinging insects that need cleaner, faster water moved in.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-from-silty-and-still-to-rocky-and-flowing">From silty and still to rocky and flowing</h2>



Scientists often describe still water as lentic and flowing water as lotic. The upstream reach shifted from lentic conditions to lotic conditions once the channel reformed and the fine sediments moved out.



Those physical changes matched biological ones from the first year onward. 



Taxa richness and the number of sensitive <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5584830/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EPT groups</a>, the mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies, rose in the former reservoir reach while tolerant taxa declined as habitat improved.



The study documented a jump in upstream BAP score from the “moderately impacted” range to the “slightly impacted” range by year three. 



That change signals that the site moved out of biological impairment and into a condition that can support a diverse community.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fish-on-the-move-again">Fish on the move again</h2>



Dams do more than trap sediment. They block movement for species that need to travel between salt water and fresh water during their life cycles, a pattern biologists call diadromous.



American eels are <a href="https://www.fws.gov/species/american-eel-anguilla-rostrata" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">catadromous</a>, which means they grow in rivers and estuaries and return to the Sargasso Sea to spawn. The new channel opened upstream access to rearing habitat that had been off limits.



Juvenile eels can now reach cooler, oxygen rich stretches that support growth. Restoring that passage is one of the most direct ecological wins when a small barrier comes out.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-numbers-that-tell-the-story">Numbers that tell the story</h2>



By year three, upstream habitat composition in the former impoundment was dominated by gravel and cobble instead of sand and silt. 



The macroinvertebrate community shifted toward clingers and grazers that feed on algae growing on rock surfaces.



The BAP score in the upstream reach rose into the “slightly impacted” band. Sensitive EPT taxa increased several fold, and overall taxa richness roughly doubled, showing a stable and diverse community had taken hold.



This case fits a bigger national pattern. In <a href="https://www.americanrivers.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/DamList2024_Summary_03032025_Revised.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2024</a>, there were 108 removals across 27 states that reconnected more than 2,528 miles of upstream habitat.



Removing the right barriers can improve water quality, increase habitat variety, and make rivers safer for communities. It can also reduce maintenance risks tied to aging infrastructure.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cost-and-common-sense">Cost and common sense</h2>



Many older dams are expensive to repair and keep up to code. Rehabilitating non-federal dams carries an <a href="https://damsafety-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/files/2025%20ASDSO%20Costs%20of%20Dam%20Rehab%20Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">estimated</a> nationwide price-tag of about 165.2 billion dollars.



Communities weigh those bills against the benefits of free flowing streams, improved fish passage, and fewer liability concerns. In many cases, taking out a small, obsolete barrier is the practical option.



Two ingredients stood out. First, the stream had healthy downstream habitat that could seed the new channel with sensitive taxa once conditions improved.



Second, the restored channel developed coarse substrate quickly, which boosted oxygen exchange and created surfaces for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bioplastic-bubbles-made-with-algae-could-sustain-life-on-mars/">algae and microbes</a> that fuel the food web. 



Those changes support clinging and grazing insects that form the base of a productive stream.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dam-removals-and-conservation">Dam removals and conservation</h2>



Not every site will respond on the same timeline. Recovery speed depends on gradient, how much fine sediment is stored, watershed land use, and how intact nearby source populations are.



This project shows how a simple monitoring plan can track progress clearly. 



A short list of indicators, substrate size, macroinvertebrate groups, and BAP score, gave managers a transparent way to judge when a site has met its target.



One removal is good, and many removals in the right places can be even better. 



Repeating small, strategic projects across a watershed can stitch together longer corridors for fish and re-build natural transport of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/why-rivers-split-a-century-old-mystery-has-finally-been-solved/">sediment and nutrients</a>.



That kind of connectivity helps streams handle floods, heat waves, and shifting seasons. It also makes local wins add up to regional gains.



Healthy flow and connected habitat set the stage for life to return. When small, aging barriers come out, streams can heal faster than many people expect.



The study is published in <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ecs2.70323" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ecosphere</a>.



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River ecosystem is reborn and life is thriving just three years after a dam is demolished

A small river in upstate New York bounced back fast...

Tomatoes do not just grow faster on a whim. They speed up when a tiny spelling mistake in their DNA gets corrected with precise tools.



A Swiss team did exactly that in a domesticated tomato line, altering SSP2, and the plants shifted into fruiting earlier while staying compact. 



In a new study, the researchers show that fixing a single harmful mutation can tune the plant’s growth schedule in a predictable way.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-making-genetic-alterations">Making genetic alterations</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-italian-secret-to-sweeter-tomato-plants-and-greater-economic-efficiency/">The tomato</a> carried a small <a href="https://www.yeastgenome.org/locus/S000005768">change in a gene</a> called SSP2, which helps switch growing tips from making leaves to making flowers. 



That switch sets the pace for fruiting, so repairing the harmful version of SSP2 nudged plants to set fruit sooner without ballooning in size.



This work comes from assistant professor <a href="https://www.unil.ch/dbmv/en/home/menuinst/research/recherche/prof-sebastian-soyk.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sebastian Soyk</a> at the University of Lausanne (<a href="https://www.unil.ch/unil/fr/home.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UNIL</a>), whose group focuses on the genetics of flowering and plant architecture.&nbsp;



“Our work shows how deleterious variants have sensitized modern genotypes for phenotypic tuning and illustrates how repairing deleterious mutations with genome editing may allow predictable crop improvement,” wrote Soyk in the report.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-changing-the-tomato-s-ssp2-gene">Changing the tomato's SSP2 gene</h2>



During domestication, people selected traits like bigger fruit and determinate growth. That selection also dragged along unwanted DNA changes, a pattern called the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28992310/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cost of domestication</a>. 



A 2018 review explains how such mutations accumulate and can subtly reduce performance.



The Swiss group identified a single letter change in SSP2 that weakened the protein’s grip on DNA. 



They also showed that SSP2 normally backs up a related paralog called SSP, and that redundancy eroded in domesticated <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ripening-tomatoes-may-hold-clues-to-delay-human-aging/">tomatoes</a> over time.



Flowering in-tomato is powered by florigen, a mobile signal encoded by the gene SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS (<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14504922/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SFT</a>). 



Classic work showed how SFT shapes yield by balancing vegetative growth and flower production, including heterosis effects in hybrids, in a landmark <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ng.550" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">paper</a>.



SSP and SSP2 are transcription factor partners that help florigen trigger the flower program. When SSP2 is compromised, the switch gets sluggish, shoots elongate more before flowering, and early fruit set slips.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-the-data-shows">What the data shows</h2>



Once the harmful letter in SSP2 was corrected, plants produced an earlier tranche of ripe fruit under controlled conditions. 



The repaired line showed compact growth and fewer flowers per truss, which channeled development toward earlier maturity.



At harvest, the repaired plants had an 8 percent higher share of fully red fruit compared with siblings carrying the uncorrected allele, and they showed an 11 percent lower sugar content by Brix. 



The team scaled up measurements to make that conclusion, then reported the full trait set in the study already cited.



Domestication often narrows genetic diversity and can fix slightly harmful variants that hitchhike with useful ones. Over centuries of selection and inbreeding, those background changes can linger and affect traits in small ways.



With precise editing, breeders can now remove a specific deleterious variant without undoing the useful alleles it sits near. 



That approach complements classical breeding and reduces guesswork that usually follows random <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/understanding-crop-pest-evolution-to-develop-biocontrol-strategies/">mutagenesis</a> or long cycles of recombination, as noted by the broader literature on domestication’s genetic footprints in the same 2018 review linked above.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ssp2-tomatoes-and-health-concerns">SSP2 tomatoes and health concerns</h2>



Switzerland has maintained a moratorium on growing genetically modified crops since 2005, and lawmakers voted in June 2025 to extend it. 



Swiss <a href="https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/various/parliament-wants-to-extend-genetic-engineering-moratorium-by-five-years/89467765" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lawmakers</a> backed a continuation through 2030, while also debating tailored rules for new gene editing methods.



That policy context matters because base edited plants, including those created by precise letter swaps, may fall under different legal definitions depending on jurisdiction. 



The debate centers on whether an edit that could occur naturally should be regulated like older transgenic approaches that insert foreign DNA.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-this-could-mean-next-season">What this could mean next season</h2>



Earlier yield can be valuable for growers in short seasons, high latitude regions, or indoor systems where turn time is money. 



Compact plants with predictable flowering can be spaced and pruned more efficiently, which helps planning.



There is a tradeoff to watch, since lower Brix means less sweetness. Breeders can mitigate that by stacking the SSP2 repair with sugar related alleles or by targeting edits to environments where early red fruit is worth more than peak sweetness.



The SFT pathway is a central timing circuit in tomato, and tuning it has a long track record in yield optimization. 



<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20348958/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heterozygosity</a> at SFT can boost yield markedly in hybrids, showing how small shifts in flowering control ripple into fruit set and harvest timing, as shown in the 2010 paper cited above.



The SSP and SSP2 pair acts just upstream of these outcomes, guiding meristems to switch from leafy growth to flower clusters on schedule. 



Repairing SSP2 did not raise total fruit number in this experiment, but it pulled ripening forward and tightened the plant’s form, which is a clear lever for scheduling.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-024-02026-9" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Genetics</a>.



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This Swiss trick makes tomatoes bear fruit much faster

Tomatoes do not just grow faster on a whim. They...

Once upon a time, you went to a florist for a bouquet. Now you can grab one next to the spinach, at the pharmacy counter, even by the chips at a gas station. As fresh flowers have spilled out of specialty shops and into everyday retail, their place in our lives - and who’s buying them - has changed fast.



Researchers at the <a href="https://www.caes.uga.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Georgia</a> College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences wanted to know what, exactly, is going on. 



They teamed up across horticulture and agricultural economics to look not just at what people buy, but why they buy it, how often, and what those habits reveal about the modern consumer.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-flowers-move-beyond-florists">Flowers move beyond florists</h2>



Drawing on a nationally representative survey of more than 8,500 people, the team found remarkable variety rather than a single archetype. Using marketing-style cluster analysis, they identified 13 distinct kinds of flower buyers.



Some are the classic date-night crowd: heavy on roses, big on Valentine’s Day. Others show up once a year for anniversaries and otherwise keep their wallets shut. 



A growing slice is buying flowers solely for themselves - home-use-only shoppers who treat stems like candles or throw pillows, a mood boost for the living room. 



And then there’s the “everything” group: people who purchase for all kinds of occasions and tend to spend the most overall.



Ask people what flowers mean and the responses span the spectrum. Word clouds from open-ended answers lit up with “beauty” and “smell,” but also “expensive” and “waste.”



Even so, buyers describe tangible upsides. Those who’d purchased flowers in the past year were more likely to report feeling better at home and at work - <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/simple-and-self-guided-nature-program-quickly-improves-mood-and-reduces-stress/">improved mood</a>, less stress, higher morale. The effect was strongest among recent purchasers.



As agricultural economist Ben Campbell put it, “there’s a perceived benefit of buying flowers - whether it’s real or not. People feel they’re getting something valuable from the experience.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-covid-changed-how-we-buy-flowers">Covid changed how we buy flowers</h2>



Behind the scenes, the cut-flower supply chain is both global and intricate. Imports - especially roses from Colombia - still dominate U.S. shelves. But the domestic picture has shifted in surprising ways.



When <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/covid-19-lockdowns-weakened-our-immune-systems/">COVID-19</a> hit, weddings and funerals vanished overnight. Growers plowed under fields. Florists closed their doors. 



And then, stuck at home, people started buying flowers anyway - to brighten kitchen tables and Zoom backgrounds, to mark time when weeks blurred together. Grocery stores and even convenience stores leaned into the demand.



“It became almost like therapy,” said Julie Campbell, the study’s lead author and a horticulture professor. “The habit stuck around.”



That collective turn inward sparked new growth outdoors. From 2017 to 2022, open-field flower acreage in the U.S. more than doubled. 



Much of that expansion came from small and mid-sized farms growing stems that don’t ship well - zinnias, dahlias, snapdragons - varieties that explode with color but wilt on long-haul flights.



Rather than compete with mass-produced roses from the Andes, these growers staked out a complementary niche: seasonal, local, and often more diverse.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-local-farms-find-their-niche">Local farms find their niche</h2>



Today’s bouquets are often a collage of origins. One sleeve might hold Ecuadorian roses, California ranunculus, and Georgia-grown <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/urban-wildflowers-may-be-harming-bees/">wildflowers</a>, all in the same mix.



Consumers seem comfortable with that blend, and many are learning to read seasonality the way they do with produce: peonies in late spring, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sunflower-family-tree-explains-evolution-of-flower-symmetry/">sunflowers</a> in midsummer, chrysanthemums in fall.



For domestic growers, that seasonality is an advantage. It allows them to sell what travels poorly and tell a fresher story - field to vase instead of farm to table. For retailers, it’s an opportunity to meet shoppers where they already are.



The UGA study suggests that people inclined to toss a bouquet in the cart also value other small home upgrades. In other words, flowers are converging with the broader “home as haven” mindset that accelerated during the pandemic and never really retreated.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-flowers-are-no-longer-just-gifts">Flowers are no longer just gifts</h2>



If there’s one throughline in the data, it’s diversity of intent. Flowers are still gifts, of course, but self-purchase is no longer niche. 



The “everything” buyers - those who grab stems for birthdays, apologies, Tuesdays, and everything in between - anchor the market, yet the once-a-year romantics and the treat-yourself crowd matter too.



That mix is why bouquets now show up in so many retail formats. A pharmacy endcap might catch the anniversary buyer; a grocery display might tempt the self-care shopper who wants tulips with their tomatoes.



It also helps explain the emotional payoffs respondents described. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/flower-quality-is-a-critical-driver-of-bee-abundance/">Fresh flowers</a> are a fast, visible change in a room and an affordable luxury compared to furniture or renovations. 



That hit of beauty, scent, and novelty can feel outsize relative to the spend, which reinforces repeat purchases.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-where-the-industry-goes-next"><a></a>Where the industry goes next</h2>



Policy and logistics will continue to shape the landscape - trade agreements, air freight costs, and climate impacts all ripple into what appears in the bucket by the checkout. But the UGA team’s work points to a few practical implications now.



Retailers can segment more intelligently, tailoring assortments and messaging to different buyer types rather than assuming a single use case. 



Growers can lean into their strengths - distinctive, local, and seasonal - without trying to displace imports that excel at year-round volume. 



And marketers can speak to well-being without overpromising: flowers won’t solve life’s problems, but they routinely make spaces feel better, and people notice.



Perhaps the biggest takeaway is the simplest: Americans are still buying flowers - and not just to hand to someone else.



Whether it’s a dozen <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/why-do-delicate-roses-have-such-harsh-prickles/">roses</a> flown in from Colombia or a handful of dahlias clipped from a nearby farm, fresh stems have become an everyday indulgence. 



They sit by the sink, brighten a desk, bookend the produce aisle, and remind us, in small ways, why bringing a bit of the outside in still resonates.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.ashs.org/view/journals/horttech/35/3/article-p286.xml" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HortTechnology</a>.



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Why more people are buying flowers for everyday therapy

Once upon a time, you went to a florist for...

Eight or more alcoholic drinks per week were linked to signs of injury in the brain in a large autopsy <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40203226/">study</a>. The finding points to changes in small blood vessels that help feed and clean brain tissue, which is hard to detect during life.



Those lesions are called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/hyaline-arteriolosclerosis">hyaline arteriolosclerosis</a>, a thickening of tiny arteries that narrows the passage for blood and stresses nearby cells. 



This process sits within vascular cognitive impairment as described in an American Heart Association <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/str.0b013e3182299496">statement</a>, which outlines how damaged vessels relate to thinking problems.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-alcohol-and-brain-health">Alcohol and brain health</h2>



<a href="https://bv.fapesp.br/en/pesquisador/679852/alberto-fernando-oliveira-justo/">Alberto Fernando Oliveira Justo, PhD</a>, at the University of Sao Paulo Medical School in Brazil (<a href="https://www.fm.usp.br/fmusp/portal/">FMUSP</a>) led the work. His team used human brains rather than only scans, which lets them count lesions directly and measure brain weight.



"Heavy alcohol consumption is a major <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drunk-decisions-alcohol-affects-men-and-women-differently/">global health concern</a> linked to increased health problems and death," said Alberto. 



This project analyzed older adults who agreed to donate their organs for research, creating a window into aging and alcohol exposure.



In the United States, one <a href="https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohols-effects-health/what-standard-drink">standard drink</a> contains about 14 grams of pure alcohol. That is roughly 12 ounces of beer at 5 percent alcohol, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, which are the serving sizes researchers use to keep totals comparable across people.



The researchers classified participants as never, moderate, heavy, or former heavy drinkers based on interviews with family members. 



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/drinking-alcohol-helped-ancient-people-build-better-societies/">Heavy drinking</a> in this work meant eight or more drinks per week, a level that adds up faster than many people realize when pours are generous at home or at restaurants.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-the-study-was-done">How the study was done</h2>



This cross-sectional autopsy analysis included 1,781 people with a mean age near 75 at death. All underwent standardized postmortem exams that recorded brain weight and neuropathology using standard stains to label lesions under the microscope.



Researchers looked for signs of brain damage such as tangled proteins, small strokes, buildup in blood vessels, and thickening of tiny arteries. 



They also calculated a brain mass ratio by dividing brain weight by height and rated cognition using the Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (<a href="https://www.understandingalzheimersdisease.com/-/media/Files/uAD/Clinical-Assessment/CDR-Brochure.pdf">CDR-SB</a>) to summarize abilities close to death.



Alcohol exposure was reconstructed from detailed interviews with relatives who knew the person well. This approach is common in autopsy cohorts but it depends on memory and records kept during life.



The team used logistic and linear regression to estimate odds of lesions and differences in continuous measures.



Finally, the team tested whether vascular injury mediated any links between <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/even-small-amounts-of-alcohol-increase-cancer-risk/">drinking and cognition</a>, asking if vessel damage could explain the path from alcohol to poor scores.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-brain-vessel-damage-from-alcohol">Brain vessel damage from alcohol</h2>



Compared with people who never drank, the odds of hyaline arteriolosclerosis were higher in moderate drinkers, heavy drinkers, and former heavy drinkers. 



Reported odds ratios were 1.60, 2.33, and 1.89 respectively with confidence intervals that excluded 1.00, which signals an association in this dataset.



For tau pathology, only heavy and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/weight-loss-drugs-unexpectedly-help-people-drink-less-alcohol/">former heavy drinkers</a> showed higher odds of neurofibrillary tangles. Odds ratios were 1.41 for heavy and 1.31 for former heavy drinkers, indicating a specific link to tangles in this cohort.



Former heavy drinking tracked with a lower brain mass ratio and worse cognitive performance at the end of life. 



The beta estimates were negative for mass and positive for impairment, and only former heavy status met the threshold for these outcomes after adjustment for other factors.



The association between alcohol, brain vessels, and cognitive abilities was fully mediated by hyaline arteriolosclerosis in the statistical models. 



In plain terms, the vascular injury appeared to sit between reported drinking and measured cognition within this dataset.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-this-might-mean">What this might mean</h2>



When small vessels stiffen, they limit blood flow to fragile <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ai-reveals-the-secret-to-keeping-your-brain-young/">brain circuits</a> that handle attention, speed, and memory. 



Over time, injuries add up as white matter changes and microinfarcts that often go unnoticed in daily life, yet they can slow everyday tasks.



Excessive alcohol use is a leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States. 



Public health <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/facts-stats/index.html">estimates</a> attribute about 178,000 deaths per year to heavy and binge patterns across the country, placing alcohol alongside tobacco and obesity among top sources of avoidable harm.



This autopsy analysis cannot prove the cause, and the authors say so. It shows a statistical signal that aligns with what pathologists and stroke specialists see in vascular cognitive impairment.



Adding alcohol to vascular risks like smoking, hypertension, or diabetes can stack the deck. Reducing intake and treating existing vascular risks could limit future <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/alcohols-hidden-toll-on-the-brain-revealed/">small vessel injury</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-brain-health-alcohol-future-study">Brain health, alcohol, future study</h2>



The dataset does not track how long people drank or how their habits changed across adulthood. Without a timeline, it is hard to test dose response or recovery during abstinence.



"We found heavy drinking is directly linked to signs of injury in the brain, and this can cause long-term effects on brain health, which may impact memory and thinking abilities," said Alberto. 



Alcohol reports came from informants, so misclassification can occur when records are thin or memories fade. 



These donors came from one urban region with limited formal schooling on average, which can shape both drinking patterns and health access. Future cohort studies can test whether cutting back reverses vascular stress or slows tangle buildup.



Mediation analysis isolates a pathway, but it relies on modeling assumptions. 



Trials and prospective cohorts that measure alcohol objectively and track imaging and cognition could answer questions about reversibility and thresholds.



The study is published in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40203226/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Neurology</a>.



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Having just one alcoholic drink every day is linked to brain damage in a new study

Eight or more alcoholic drinks per week were linked to...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E0mn5mTvhQ
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">'Death Star' moon Mimas conceals a 15-million-year-old ocean that scientists never expected.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hidden-waters-beneath-ancient-craters">Hidden waters beneath ancient craters</h2>



Scientists have made a startling discovery that challenges everything we thought we knew about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/saturn-moon-mimas-has-remarkably-young-ocean/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Saturn's moon Mimas</a>. Beneath the heavily cratered surface that earned it the nickname "Death Star" lies a global ocean that formed just 5 to 15 million years ago—a remarkably young age by cosmic standards.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cassini-data-reveals-orbital-secrets">Cassini data reveals orbital secrets</h2>



The discovery, led by Dr. Valéry Lainey of the <a href="https://observatoiredeparis.psl.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Observatoire de Paris</a>, emerged from careful analysis of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NASA</a>'s Cassini spacecraft data. By studying subtle irregularities in Mimas's orbit around Saturn, researchers detected the gravitational signature of liquid water hidden 20 to 30 kilometers beneath the moon's icy shell.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-an-unlikely-ocean-world">An unlikely ocean world</h2>



At only 400 kilometers in diameter, Mimas seemed like the least likely candidate to harbor a subsurface ocean. Unlike other ocean moons such as Europa and Enceladus, which show clear surface signs of internal activity, Mimas displays no obvious hints of the liquid water beneath its ancient, crater-scarred exterior.



"Mimas is a small moon, and its heavily cratered surface gave no hint of the hidden ocean beneath," explained Dr. Nick Cooper from <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Queen Mary University of London</a>, a study co-author.



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



The ocean's recent formation makes Mimas a prime target for studying how oceans develop and potentially support life. This discovery adds another member to the exclusive club of ocean worlds in our solar system, each offering unique insights into the conditions necessary for habitability.



The research, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature</a> journal, demonstrates how advanced orbital analysis can reveal hidden features of celestial bodies, opening new possibilities for understanding ocean formation throughout the cosmos.



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Scientists discover unexpected young ocean on Saturn's cratered moon Mimas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E0mn5mTvhQ 'Death Star' moon Mimas conceals a 15-million-year-old ocean that...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y4eLFNYrKE
</div></figure>



On the unforgiving landscape of North Greenland, temperatures drop and sunlight barely penetrates through the polar winter. It was here, however, that an international team of scientists found <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/predatory-worms-were-terror-beasts-half-a-billion-years-ago/#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evidence of sea monsters</a> that would change our understanding of ocean life in the past.



This video captures the discovery of Timorebestia fossils that had been hidden for more than 500 million years in the Sirius Passet formation. The "terror beasts," as they are called, are a hidden chapter in the evolutionary history of <a href="https://www.earth.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth</a>, showing that sophisticated predator-prey interactions occurred much earlier than previously envisioned.



Dr. Jakob Vinther and his research team at the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Bristol</a>, in collaboration with researchers at the <a href="https://eng.kopri.re.kr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Korean Polar Research Institute</a>, braved extreme weather conditions at 82.5 north latitude to locate these giant creatures. Using sophisticated electron microprobe analysis, they revealed the detailed anatomy of the animals, including their muscle and nerve tissues.



The find upsets the traditional timeline of sea predators. Although we've long appreciated that Cambrian oceans were at one time ruled by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWI3-UgA3_o&amp;list=PL1QLQMW9MWDwpkFOnvgAmu7wT6rZmYqdJ&amp;index=19" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arthropods</a>, these discoveries indicate that relatives of arrow worms were first to dominate the seas. These worms were building sophisticated food webs several million years before other predator groups arose.



Each fossil is a story of ancient hunger, with fossil stomach contents revealing these meter-long beasts dined on heavily armored arthropods regularly, cementing their place as the ocean's first apex predators.



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Worms dominated seas before dinosaurs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y4eLFNYrKE On the unforgiving landscape of North Greenland, temperatures drop...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3JH03PqEQ
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">New York is the site of the world's oldest forest.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-385-million-year-old-trees-discovered">385-million-year-old trees discovered</h2>



Scientists have uncovered something extraordinary just two hours north of New York City. The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/worlds-oldest-forest-discovered-close-to-new-york-city/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">world's oldest forest</a>, dating back 385 million years, offers a window into how Earth's first complex forests shaped our planet's atmosphere.



Located near <a href="https://townofcairo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cairo, New York</a>, in Greene County, these weren't merely primitive plants struggling to survive. These were sophisticated trees with root systems remarkably similar to modern forests. This ancient woodland predates dinosaurs by 140 million years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-cairo-forest-discovery">The Cairo forest discovery</h2>



385 million years ago, upstate New York was a tropical paradise near the equator. Thanks to continental drift, this ancient forest has traveled thousands of miles to its current location.



The fossil forest sits in an abandoned quarry, roughly half the size of a football field. This represents just a slice of what was likely a massive forest system stretching from New York into Pennsylvania.



Charles Ver Straeten, curator of sedimentary rocks at the <a href="https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York State Museum</a>, made the discovery in 2009. While scouting the former highway department property, his trained eye spotted wandering patterns in the stone that looked like marine features.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revolutionary-age-and-preservation">Revolutionary age and preservation</h2>



The site contains 385-million-year-old rocks with fossilized woody roots forming horizontal patterns up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide. As Christopher Berry, a paleobotanist at Cardiff University, explains: "You are walking through the roots of ancient trees."



This discovery pushes back advanced tree evolution by millions of years. The research, published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Current Biology</a> in December 2019, fundamentally changes our understanding of when complex forests first emerged.



Researchers believe a massive flood buried the forest floor, creating perfect fossilization conditions. Over millions of years, sediment hardened into rock, preserving these root patterns like nature's time capsule.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meet-archaeopteris-the-first-modern-tree">Meet Archaeopteris: the first modern tree</h2>



The star of this ancient forest is Archaeopteris – not to be confused with the feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx. This tree was far older and more revolutionary.



William Stein from <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Binghamton University</a> describes the roots as "strikingly modern, essentially what you'd see outside in my yard right now." These weren't simple root systems you'd expect from ancient plants.



Some fossilized roots are six inches (15 centimeters) in diameter, forming 36-foot-wide (11-meter) patterns. These giants grew up to 65 feet (20 meters) tall with five-foot-diameter (1.5-meter) trunks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-climate-changing-impact">Climate-changing impact</h2>



These trees fundamentally changed Earth's environment. Kevin Boyce, a Stanford University geoscientist, explains how their deep roots triggered "weathering," chemical reactions that pulled carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.



This process dropped atmospheric CO2 levels from 10-15 times higher than today to roughly modern concentrations. These ancient trees helped create atmospheric conditions that made complex life possible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ancient-forest-ecosystem">Ancient forest ecosystem</h2>



The forest was remarkably diverse. Scientists identified Eospermatopteris, palm tree-like plants with short roots that reached 30 feet (9 meters) tall but lacked woody structure. The forest also housed cladoxylopsids and a mysterious third species still being studied.



All reproduced through spores rather than seeds – millions of years before seeds evolved. This tropical environment had no grass, flowers, or flying insects, just towering trees creating Earth's first complex forest canopy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-scientific-significance">Scientific significance</h2>



Before this finding, the Gilboa forest, located 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, held the "oldest forest" title. Cairo's trees are 2-3 million years older, showing that complex forest ecosystems developed much faster than scientists believed possible.



Patricia Gensel, a <a href="https://www.unc.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of North Carolina</a> paleobotanist, notes: "The size of those root systems is really changing the picture. Even 20 years ago, researchers assumed trees with such complex root systems didn't evolve so early."



The Cairo site presents three unique root systems, suggesting Devonian period forests were diverse ecosystems with different trees occupying different environmental niches, much like today's forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-modern-preservation-efforts">Modern preservation efforts</h2>



In 2022, New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey secured a $170,000 grant for the town of Cairo to construct specialized fencing around the fossil forest site. The town plans to conduct a feasibility study exploring the possibility of creating an educational center and working lab on-site.



Joe Hasenkopf, chair of the Cairo Planning Board, hopes to partner with educational institutions to create a research facility serving scientists, students, and the public.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lessons-for-today-s-climate">Lessons for today's climate</h2>



Why does a 385-million-year-old forest matter today? It shows how dramatically forests can change Earth's climate. These ancient woodlands created the atmospheric conditions supporting complex life.



Understanding how prehistoric forests transformed the planet helps us appreciate modern forests' critical role in addressing climate change. Forests remain Earth's most effective carbon capture systems.



These prehistoric trees changed Earth's atmosphere by pulling massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. As we face modern climate challenges, this ancient forest reminds us of trees' incredible power to transform our planet's environment.



The next time you walk through a forest, remember you're experiencing an ecosystem whose blueprint was established 385 million years ago in upstate New York. These ancient pioneers didn't just survive – they thrived and changed the world forever.



The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.



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Earth's oldest forest found in the United States

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3JH03PqEQ New York is the site of the world's oldest...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Acid rain and a crisis solved.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-don-t-we-ever-hear-about-acid-rain-anymore-the-environmental-crisis-that-was-solved">Why don't we ever hear about "acid rain" anymore? The environmental crisis that was solved</h2>



Remember the 1980s when acid rain dominated headlines? Dire warnings about rain eating buildings, killing fish, and destroying forests filled every news cycle. Then, almost like magic, acid rain vanished from public discourse. What happened? Did we actually solve one of the late 20th century's most pressing environmental challenges?



The answer might surprise you. Unlike many environmental issues that drag on indefinitely, acid rain represents one of modern history's most successful ecological recovery stories. It's a tale of science, politics, and technology working together to tackle what seemed impossible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What was acid rain?</h2>



Acid rain isn't regular rain having a bad day – it's precipitation that became significantly more acidic due to air pollution. When power plants, factories, and vehicles burn fossil fuels, they release sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the atmosphere.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The science behind it</h2>



Think of acid rain as nature's chemistry experiment gone wrong. These compounds react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids. When mixed with water vapor in clouds, they create precipitation with dangerously low pH levels.



While clean rain has a pH of about 5.6, acid rain could drop as low as 4.2 to 4.4 – roughly as acidic as tomato juice or coffee. According to US Geological Survey documentation, Scottish chemist Angus Smith first coined "acid rain" in 1872, but it didn't become a household phrase until the 1960s and 1970s when Swedish scientist Svante Odén documented its devastating effects on Scandinavian lakes and European forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The crisis at its peak</h2>



During the height of public concern, environmental damage was both widespread and visible. This wasn't some abstract future threat – people could see destruction happening in real-time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Environmental devastation</h2>



The most dramatic impacts were impossible to ignore. Research documented by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation shows that in the Adirondack Mountains, more than 200 lakes became so acidic they couldn't support fish life. The Adirondack Council reports that 409 lakes once supported brook trout, but many lost their fish populations due to acid rain.



By 1976, when scientists cataloged all acidified lakes in the Adirondack Park, researchers found that half of the lakes over 2,000 feet above sea level had no fish, according to studies published in environmental journals. The acidification process worked like a slow-motion disaster. As acid rain fell into watersheds, it gradually lowered pH levels. Fish couldn't survive in acidic water, and their food sources died off too.



Trees at high elevations showed stress directly linked to acid rain. It weakened them by leaching nutrients and making them susceptible to disease. Historical records show Germany's Black Forest saw nearly half its trees damaged by the mid-1980s.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Economic impact</h2>



Acid rain wasn't just environmental – it was expensive. Acidic precipitation corroded infrastructure, buildings, and monuments. Historic stone structures deteriorated at accelerated rates. Tourism suffered as lakes became fishless and forests declined. EPA economic analyses from the period documented repair costs mounting into billions annually.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The solution: government action and technology</h2>



Transformation from crisis to success required unprecedented cooperation between governments, industries, and environmental groups.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Clean Air Act of 1990</h2>



The turning point came with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, signed by President George H.W. Bush. This represented a fundamentally new approach to environmental regulation, as documented in EPA historical records.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cap-and-trade success</h2>



Instead of mandating specific technologies, the 1990 amendments introduced something revolutionary: a cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide emissions. EPA program documentation shows this market-based approach set overall limits but allowed companies to trade emission allowances.



The genius was harnessing market forces to find cost-effective pollution reduction. Companies reducing emissions cheaply could sell excess allowances to those facing higher costs. Research published in environmental economics journals and EPA progress reports shows this resulted in dramatic SO2 reduction at a fraction of projected costs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Technology advances</h2>



Policy provided the framework, but technology made reductions possible. Studies in atmospheric science journals document the widespread adoption of flue gas desulfurization systems ("scrubbers") that removed sulfur dioxide before it reached the atmosphere. By the 2000s, new installations could remove over 95% of SO2 emissions, according to EPA technical reports.



The push coincided with cleaner energy development. Natural gas produces fewer sulfur compounds than coal. Wind and solar, emerging in the 1990s, captured growing market share, reducing reliance on high-sulfur coal.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-we-don-t-hear-about-it-today">Why we don't hear about it today</h2>



Why did acid rain disappear from headlines? Simple: the problem was largely solved.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Success doesn't make news</h2>



There's an old journalism saying: "If it bleeds, it leads." Environmental success stories don't generate urgency like crisis reporting. Media attention shifted to other challenges: climate change, plastic pollution, and biodiversity loss. There's only so much environmental anxiety the public can absorb, and newer concerns replaced acid rain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Mission accomplished</h2>



The primary reason is beautifully simple: interventions worked. EPA monitoring data shows sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990. Academic research published in environmental science journals confirms pH levels in formerly affected areas returned closer to normal. This represents one of history's most dramatic environmental recoveries. Studies by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation show fishless lakes now support healthy populations. Forests recovered, and building damage slowed dramatically.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-is-it-really-gone">Is it really gone?</h2>



The crisis is largely resolved, but monitoring data shows the problem isn't completely eliminated – it's managed to acceptable levels. Some areas still experience occasional events during high pollution periods. International environmental research indicates that rapidly industrializing Asian countries face similar problems to what we experienced decades ago, though they're implementing successful strategies.



EPA research shows nitrogen oxide emissions proved more challenging than sulfur dioxide, coming from vehicles and mobile sources. Climate science studies suggest changing weather patterns add complexity to how acid rain forms and falls.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What this teaches us</h2>



The acid rain experience proves that seemingly intractable environmental problems can be solved with scientific understanding, political will, and technological innovation. Environmental monitoring data shows recovery speed was remarkable – within a decade, measurable improvements appeared in air quality and ecosystem health.



Success came from bipartisan support across party lines. Policy analysis studies show the market-based approach appealed to those preferring economic incentives while achieving environmental goals. This support created lasting policy surviving political changes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Conclusion</h2>



Acid rain's disappearance from public consciousness represents environmental science's greatest success stories. Through effective regulation, technological innovation, and international cooperation, we transformed an overwhelming crisis into a manageable challenge.



Today's silence isn't because we forgot – it's because we solved it. The 1990 Clean Air Act, combined with technology and energy market changes, reduced acid rain emissions over 90%, according to comprehensive EPA data analysis.



This success offers hope for current challenges. It proves complex problems can be solved when science, policy, and technology work together. As we face climate change and plastic pollution, acid rain reminds us that dramatic positive change is possible.



Next time someone asks whether environmental regulations work, remember acid rain. It's proof that sometimes, we get it right.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Sources: This article draws from EPA official documentation and progress reports, peer-reviewed research published in environmental and atmospheric science journals, historical data from the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation records, US Geological Survey publications, policy analysis studies, and environmental monitoring data collected over three decades.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



1. Is acid rain completely gone? No, but EPA monitoring shows it's reduced to manageable levels. US sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990, making acid rain much less severe than the 1980s crisis.



2. How long did solving take? Environmental monitoring data shows significant improvements began within 5-10 years of 1990s emission controls. Full ecosystem recovery took longer – some areas need 20-30 years for complete recovery.



3. What made the solution successful? Clear scientific understanding, visible damage motivating action, bipartisan support, available technology, and innovative market-based policies like cap-and-trade.



4. Do other countries have acid rain problems? Yes, particularly rapidly industrializing Asian countries. However, international environmental research shows many implement similar successful control strategies.



5. Could acid rain return? Potentially, if regulations weaken or we return to high-sulfur coal without controls, though effects would take years to become severe according to environmental projections.



6. Can you recommend any teaching tools on the subject of "acid rain"? The United States Environmental Protection Agency produced a wonderful teacher's guide for ages 14 and under that you can find on the EPA website here: <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf</a>



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The environmental problem we actually solved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk Acid rain and a crisis solved. Why don't we...

Fresh,Radish,Harvest,On,Soil,In,Garden.

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/Fi2OeEwuzRM?si=vTyd2m9FMmtyWkex
</div></figure>







Mid-July is an opportune time to kick-start a thriving fall garden, and this guide lays out the best vegetables and herbs to plant now for a fruitful autumn harvest. 



Fast-growing leafy greens such as spinach, lettuce, kale, and arugula perform especially well in the waning summer heat, with harvests beginning as soon as 30 days. 



These cool-season crops relish the transition into fall, offering repeated yields with cut-and-come-again methods.



Root vegetables like radishes, carrots, and beets also excel during this period. Radishes deliver satisfaction in under a month, while carrots and beets mature in about two months. Employing succession planting ensures a continuous stream of produce deep into the cooler months. 



For a boost of fresh flavor, herbs like cilantro, basil, dill, and chervil are excellent picks. These heat-loving varieties flourish in July’s warmth and are harvest-ready in about 30 days, especially when sown continuously.



Gardeners in zones 6 through 9 can benefit from planting bush beans and snap peas, which don’t require trellising and are ideal for compact plots. 



Maturing in 50–60 days, they’re a smart choice for quick, protein-rich harvests. For those in hotter regions, heat-tolerant crops such as okra and southern peas provide reliable yields and thrive in scorching conditions.



This guide emphasizes more than crop selection—it highlights the importance of timing, soil preparation, and ongoing sowing techniques. 



With thoughtful planning and attention to regional climate needs, even late-summer gardeners can enjoy fresh salads, hearty stews, and the satisfaction of a robust, homegrown harvest well into fall.



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What to plant in your garden in mid-July

https://youtu.be/Fi2OeEwuzRM?si=vTyd2m9FMmtyWkex Mid-July is an opportune time to kick-start a thriving...

Green,Ecoduct,Over,An,Empty,Highway,During,Sunset.

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A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that wildlife tunnels significantly reduce amphibian road mortality during seasonal migrations. 



Frogs and salamanders often cross roads to reach breeding ponds each spring, but many are killed by vehicles. 



Researchers from the <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Vermont</a>, in collaboration with local citizens and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, installed two underpass tunnels in 2015. 



Over a 12-year monitoring period, they observed an 80.2% reduction in amphibian deaths, and up to 94% for non-climbing species like salamanders. 



The study used a before-after-control-impact design and documented more than 5,200 amphibians, highlighting the tunnels’ effectiveness even in nearby buffer zones.



Funded at $342,397 - far cheaper than wildlife crossings for large mammals - the project showcased the power of community-led conservation.



Local groups initiated the effort after observing mass amphibian deaths. Wildlife cameras later captured over 2,200 amphibians using a tunnel in just one spring, along with other species like raccoons and bobcats, indicating wider ecosystem benefits.



This marks the first peer-reviewed, long-term data set in the northeastern U.S. confirming amphibian-specific underpasses work. 



The study urges transportation departments to incorporate these designs into road planning and highlights how community action, thoughtful infrastructure, and persistence can make a real difference for biodiversity.



The full study was published in the <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1617138125000780" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal for Nature Conservation</a>.



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that...

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing it with probiotics and prebiotics, aiming to create a treat that satisfies cravings while supporting gut health. 



The challenge lies in maintaining chocolate's beloved texture and flavor while adding health benefits.



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Probiotics - beneficial microbes that balance gut bacteria and aid digestion - are typically fragile and can be destroyed by stomach acid or processing. 



Prebiotics act as food for these microbes, helping them thrive. Together, they form "synbiotics," a powerful health combination.



Researchers Smriti Gaur and Shubhi Singh from India's Jaypee Institute of Information Technology took an innovative approach, using natural prebiotics like corn and honey instead of complex processing methods. 



They created five chocolate varieties: a control and four synbiotic versions containing different combinations of prebiotics, probiotics (Lactobacillus strains), and flavor enhancers (cinnamon or orange).



Laboratory simulations of human digestion showed the probiotics remained viable for over five hours, suggesting they could survive long enough to benefit gut health.



Taste tests were positive, with researchers particularly enjoying the orange-flavored variety, describing it as having "vibrant citrus notes" complementing the "rich cocoa" with a "luxurious" texture.



This research represents just the beginning. With further refinement of strains, textures, and flavors, chocolate could evolve beyond mere indulgence to become a functional food that nourishes while it delights.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00741" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ACS Food Science &amp; Technology</a>.

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing...

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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

[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" 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.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

[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" 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.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.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?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" 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 Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&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> Staff Writer 



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.

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

[sendtonews key="uV9Lh2fQbV-1760058-12187" type="single"] Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s...

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://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...

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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