Young aspen trees in Yellowstone are doing something they have not done in almost 100 years. Rather than sprouting and being eaten back to nubs by elk and bison, they're actually growing into tall, adult forest trees rising up towards the canopy.



This matters more than it might seem, because it shows what happens when a missing piece of an ecosystem returns.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-yellowstone-aspens-and-elk">Yellowstone, aspens, and elk</h2>



In the 1920s, people <a href="https://www.yellowstone.org/wolf-project/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">eliminated wolves in Yellowstone</a>. At the time, with limited scientific knowledge, managers believed it was the right thing to do.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/from-wolves-to-dogs-did-domestication-begin-without-human-help/">Without wolves</a>, elk herds grew very large. Elk love to eat aspen shoots - the tender young growth is highly palatable to them.



For roughly 70 years, elk browsed aspen sprouts down to stub height, and the trees couldn't grow. 



If you had walked through Yellowstone in the 1980s, you would have seen many tiny aspen shoots covering the ground, but almost no young trees gaining height. 



The forest's regeneration was stalled. Old trees died, and no new ones replaced them.



In 1995 and 1996, park managers reintroduced wolves into the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/yellowstone-supervolcano-eruption-study-sparks-new-debate-on-where-and-when-it-will-erupt/">Yellowstone Park ecosystem</a>. Scientists hoped and wondered whether this would change anything for the trees.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-aspen-matter-to-yellowstone">Why aspen matter to Yellowstone</h2>



Aspen groves provide habitat for many species. Birds nest in them. Beavers eat the bark and use the wood for dams. Butterflies and moths lay eggs on the leaves. 



Their canopy admits enough light for wildflowers and shrubs to grow beneath. When it rains, aspen groves hold water in the soil better than some other forest types.



In short, when aspen return, dozens of other species benefit. More trees support more insects, which in turn support more birds, enriching the ecosystem.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-checking-the-trees-three-decades-later">Checking the trees three decades later</h2>



<a href="https://fwcs.oregonstate.edu/users/luke-painter" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Luke Painter</a>, an ecologist at <a href="https://oregonstate.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Oregon State University</a>, sought clear answers. His team returned to 87 aspen stands across Yellowstone that scientists had previously surveyed. 



They measured thousands of young trees, looked for bite marks, and counted how many stems were tall enough that elk could no longer reach the tips.



About a third of these stands now have many tall young aspens pushing toward the canopy. 



"About 26 of the 87 aspen stands we examined had large numbers of tall saplings throughout, a remarkable change from the 1990s when surveys found none at all," Painter said.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-wolves-matter-to-yellowstone-aspens">Why wolves matter to Yellowstone aspens</h2>



Breaking it all down, the conclusions of this study are pretty simple. 



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wolves-move-pups-across-mountains-to-adapt-to-climate-pressure/">Wolves hunt elk</a>. When wolves came back, two things happened. First, elk numbers declined from unusually high levels. Second, elk changed their behavior. They spent less time in the same areas feeding.



With fewer elk and shorter feeding bouts, more aspen shoots survived long enough to exceed the browsing zone - about six to seven feet high. 



Once a sapling reaches that height, elk cannot easily reach the growing tip. The tree continues to grow.



"The reintroduction of large carnivores has initiated a recovery process that had been shut down for decades," Painter explained.



Scientists call this a <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/trophic-cascades-across-diverse-plant-ecosystems-80060347/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">trophic cascade</a> - when adding or removing one species causes changes that ripple through the whole system.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-some-places-recover-others-don-t">Some places recover, others don't</h2>



Unfortunately, not every aspen stand has recovered yet. Some valleys still have many short, heavily browsed shoots, because it's not only elk eating them anymore. 



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/yellowstones-iconic-bison-have-merged-into-a-single-herd/">Bison herds have grown</a>, and bison browse on aspen as well. They are strong enough to break young trees. 



"Increasing numbers of bison may be emerging as a new constraint to aspen in some areas," Painter confirmed.



Additionally, winter snow depth varies; droughts stress trees; bears and mountain lions also hunt elk; and hunting outside the park influences elk distribution. 



All of these factors interact, which is why some sites show strong recovery, others show moderate recovery, and a few have changed very little.



The key pattern is that places with many tall saplings experience little browsing, and aspen groves that remain popular eating grounds today stay short. 



This fact is the strongest indication that tree recovery is linked directly to wolf presence, not solely to weather or soil conditions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-proof-in-the-measurements">Proof in the measurements</h2>



Painter's team did not rely on casual observation. They used the same methods as earlier researchers, measuring the same plots. 



They counted recruitment - when young trees surpass browsing height and begin progressing toward maturity. This measure is crucial. Sprouts are insufficient if they never grow; without recruitment, the forest cannot replace itself.



The results are robust. After being stalled for most of a century, Yellowstone's aspens are increasing in height. In recovering stands today, you will see saplings - six, eight, or ten feet tall - that were not present in the 1990s.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-future-of-yellowstone-s-aspens">The future of Yellowstone's aspens</h2>



"This is a remarkable case of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/giant-viruses-found-in-yellowstones-hot-springs-may-be-near-the-root-of-all-life-on-earth/">ecological restoration</a>," Painter concluded. "Wolf reintroduction is yielding long-term ecological changes contributing to increased biodiversity and habitat diversity."



Trees grow slowly, so even with wolves restored, it will take decades for these young aspens to form a full-grown forest. 



Some areas might never fully recover if bison numbers continue to rise or if the climate becomes too hot and dry.



Thanks to the work of Painter and his team, scientists are now certain that restoring the Yellowstone predator has restarted aspen forest regeneration. Not everywhere and not perfectly, but enough to be measured, creating hope for the future.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112725004499?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forest Ecology and Management</a>.



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Yellowstone's aspen trees are growing again thanks to the reintroduction of wolves

Young aspen trees in Yellowstone are doing something they have not done in almost 100 years. Rather than sprouting and being eaten back to nubs by elk and bison, they're actually growing into tall, adult forest trees rising up towards the canopy. This matters more than it might seem, because it shows what happens when a missing piece of an ecosystem returns. Yellowstone, aspens, and elk In the 1920s, people eliminated wolves in Yellowstone. At the time, with limited scientific knowledge, managers believed it was the right...

What started as a student field trip along the cliffs of Dorset turned into the discovery of a new prehistoric species. A 16.5-millimeter lower jaw, embedded in rock near Swanage, is now reshaping how scientists view early mammal evolution.



The discovery was made by an undergraduate student from the <a href="https://www.port.ac.uk/">University of Portsmouth</a>. The fossil belongs to a type of extinct mammal called a multituberculate. 



These small, rodent-like creatures once lived alongside <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/where-did-dinosaurs-come-from-missing-fossils-hold-the-secret/">dinosaurs</a> and were known for their distinctively complex teeth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-curious-jaw-a-surprising-species">A curious jaw, a surprising species</h2>



The fossil was uncovered at Durlston Bay, a site famous for its rich geological layers. It’s the first multituberculate jaw found there since the 1800s. 



Though it looks a bit like a rabbit's jaw at first glance, the structure of the teeth tells a different story. A sharp incisor juts out at the front, followed by a gap, and then four blade-like premolars.



“I instantly had my suspicions of what the jaw was when I found it at the beach, but couldn’t have imagined where the discovery would take me,” said Ben Weston,&nbsp;an undergraduate paleontology student.



“I’m extremely grateful to the team and to the university for helping me take my first steps into academic paleontology.”



Researchers at the University of Portsmouth confirmed that the fossil is from a species that had never been identified before.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-technology-brings-the-fossil-to-life">Technology brings the fossil to life</h2>



The fossil wasn’t easy to examine. Rock still clung to key parts of the specimen. To get around this, the team turned to high-resolution <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gordonia-traquairi-pig-like-creature-discovered-roamed-earth-250-million-years-ago/">CT scanning</a>. 



Dr. Charles Wood, a senior scientific officer at the university, scanned the fossil, allowing scientists to see inside the rock without damaging the sample.



Jake Keane, a former Portsmouth paleontology student now working in Abu Dhabi, helped process the scans. In just a few hours, he digitally removed the surrounding rock and isolated the teeth in fine detail.



The scans were then turned into 3D-printed models by John Fearnly, lead technician in the university’s Faculty of Technology. These models were ten times larger than the original, making it safer and easier to study the fossil in depth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-mammal-gets-a-name">New mammal gets a name</h2>



The team named the new species Novaculadon mirabilis. “Novacula” means razor, a nod to its sharp back teeth. “Mirabilis” refers to the jaw’s almost perfect preservation.



Portsmouth student Hamzah Imran created an artistic rendering of the animal. It’s imagined as a small, furry creature with a mix of spots and stripes - though its actual appearance remains speculative.



Based on its teeth, Novaculadon mirabilis likely ate <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/very-little-is-known-about-99-of-all-insects-on-earth/">insects</a> and other small <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-noise-can-be-fatal-to-marine-invertebrates/">invertebrates</a>. Its slicing premolars and pointed incisors set it apart from modern rodents like rats or squirrels.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-hotspot-for-new-mammal-species">A hotspot for new mammal species</h2>



This isn't the first time a student has made a big find in the same area. In 2017, another Portsmouth undergraduate, Grant Smith, discovered fossils of two new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/where-mammals-live-depends-more-on-climate-than-human-activities/">mammal</a> species thought to be among humanity’s earliest relatives.



Dr. Steve Sweetman, a researcher at the University of Portsmouth, also worked on this new discovery. 



“This is a remarkable find that reminds me of when Grant found those extraordinary eutherian mammal teeth," said Dr. Sweetman.



"When I first saw Grant's specimens, my jaw dropped - and I had exactly the same reaction to Ben's multituberculate jaw. It's incredible that Durlston Bay keeps delivering such significant mammal discoveries by our undergraduate students.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-evolution-insights-from-tiny-jaw">Evolution insights from tiny jaw </h2>



Beyond the scientific importance, the discovery highlights the value of collaborative research. 



“Looking back now that the discovery has been published, I am amazed at how many people it took to describe this little mammal," said Professor David Martill.



"I especially appreciated that all team members were University staff or present and former students - a true team effort including academics, technicians, alumni, and students with diverse talents across three departments.” 



The fossil helps researchers better understand how early mammals survived during the age of dinosaurs. While multituberculates lived through the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/what-was-the-cause-of-earths-largest-mass-extinction/">mass extinction</a> that wiped out dinosaurs, they eventually died out during the Oligocene, around 33 million years ago.



With over 200 known species, multituberculates were the most diverse group of mammals in the Mesozoic era. They filled many ecological roles - some burrowed, others climbed trees. This new discovery adds to what we know about their evolution and survival.



And it serves as a reminder that major scientific contributions can come from anyone - even a 22-year-old student on a windy beach in Dorset.



Image Credit: Hamzah Imran



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pgeola.2025.101128">Proceedings of the Geologists Association</a>.



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Tiny fossil, big discovery: Student uncovers a lost mammal species

What started as a student field trip along the cliffs...

You’ve seen them on shirts, in documentaries, and maybe jumping at a theme park. They look bold and sound fierce. But orcas, also called killer whales, aren’t what the name suggests. They’re smart, social, and loyal. Every year on July 14, we celebrate World Orca Day.



It started in New Zealand. A young orca got stuck in shallow water. Locals worked together to help him return to the sea. That rescue turned into something bigger. Now, people around the world use this day to honor <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/orcas-have-hunting-and-eating-habits-that-we-never-imagined/">orcas</a> - not only celebrating their strength but also highlighting the challenges they face.



While some orcas are thriving, many are struggling. They face pollution, food shortages, and in some cases, captivity in tanks. World Orca Day presents an opportunity to learn about the real challenges they endure.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-orcas-live-in-pods-and-pass-on-skills">Orcas live in pods and pass on skills</h2>



Orcas aren’t whales - they’re actually <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/why-are-killer-whales-struggling-to-survive-in-the-pacific/">dolphins</a> that live in social groups called pods. Every pod has its unique way of communicating. Some feed exclusively on fish, others hunt seals, and a few even pursue sharks. Each group follows its own distinct hunting strategy.



Orcas learn how to hunt from each other. Young ones watch the adults. They copy what they see, and then get better at it. Some pods chase fish into tight balls. Others slide onto beaches to grab seals. These skills don’t come from instinct - they’re passed down like family recipes.



Orcas stick together. Mothers lead, sons often stay for life, and grandmothers play a big role. They know the best places to find food and guide the group with memory and experience. These pods aren’t random groups - they are families.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-awareness-on-world-orca-day">Awareness on World Orca Day </h2>



The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/prehistoric-marine-reptiles-would-have-eaten-killer-whales-as-snacks/">ocean</a> has gotten louder due to ships, drills, sonar. It’s equal to trying to talk in traffic. Orcas use sound to hunt and stay close. Ocean noise messes that up.



Food is another problem. Some orcas depend on salmon, but in some places, these fish are disappearing. Less food means weaker orcas, affecting moms, calves, and the whole pod.



Pollution adds to the stress. Orcas store fat. When they don’t eat enough, they burn that fat for energy. That’s when stored toxins enter the bloodstream, impacting their health and survival.



Some orca populations are shrinking. They can’t bounce back if the ocean stays loud and empty.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tanks-are-not-healthy-homes">Tanks are not healthy homes</h2>



Captive orcas live in marine parks. They spend years in tanks that are too small and restrictive.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/photographer-captures-killer-whales-wearing-fish-hats/">Orcas</a> kept in tanks often suffer from illness. They may grind their teeth and display unusual behaviors, and they tend to have shorter lifespans than their wild counterparts. 



While some parks continue to feature them in shows, this is more for entertainment than genuine education.



A few places have banned <a href="https://savedolphins.eii.org/campaigns/fow">orca captivity</a>. Others still allow it. World Orca Day reminds people that wild animals belong in the wild. Tanks don’t offer a healthy life.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-world-orca-day-inspires-action">World Orca Day inspires action</h2>



To help protect orcas, you can start with the basics. Learn what makes them unique and share those facts with others. Stay away from parks that keep orcas in tanks. Choose brands that care about the ocean.



You don’t need to live near the coast to make a difference. You can watch orcas through live cams, read their stories, and talk about them. You can join a cleanup in your area or support groups working to protect marine life. Every small step counts.



On World Orca Day, schools and science centers often join the effort. Kids ask questions. Teachers explore ocean life. Artists and researchers also get involved. And you can too, in whatever way fits you best.



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



Orcas play a big role in the ocean. They help keep balance in marine food webs. When they suffer, the whole system shifts. They’re not just animals. They’re indicators of ocean health.



World Orca Day calls on us to care - to recognize how our actions impact the ocean. Orcas don’t seek applause; they need clean waters, plenty of food, and peaceful places to raise their young.



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World Orca Day 2025: Saving the ocean's top predators

You’ve seen them on shirts, in documentaries, and maybe jumping...

Fish have voices, and the sea is never silent. From croaks that ricochet through mangroves to deep‑sea booms, these conversations guide courtship, navigation, and survival.



A new analysis from <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Simon Fraser University</a> shows that Canada’s flagship conservation policies almost never recognize those <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/small-fish-species-are-the-big-catch-of-the-future/">voices</a>, leaving vital acoustic habitats unguarded. 



Marine ecologist <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/postdoctoral-fellows/profiles/kieran-cox.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kieran Cox</a> of Simon Fraser University co‑authored the study that sifted through two decades of federal paperwork.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fish-use-sound-to-survive-and-reproduce">Fish use sound to survive and reproduce</h2>



More than 1,000 known fish species are <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-023-02745-4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">soniferous</a>, meaning they deliberately produce sound to communicate, and hundreds more are suspected to do the same. Male toadfish drone like idling motorcycles, while haddock tick and grouper boom, each signal tuned to species‑specific ears.



“A male <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-fish-bones-reveal-clues-about-the-evolution-of-eating/">fish</a> might hum or sing to attract their mates, and the longer his song, or the louder it is, the more eggs he will get from females,” explained Cox. 



Atlantic cod <a href="https://academic.oup.com/tafs/article/135/2/529/7887937" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gadus morhua</a> grunt through swim‑bladder muscles during spawning, and researchers have tracked entire aggregations by listening to those calls.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ocean-noise-drowns-out-fish-voices">Ocean noise drowns out fish voices</h2>



The <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba4658" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ocean soundscape</a>, the mix of biological, physical, and human noises filling the water, has changed faster than any other habitat feature in recent decades. 



Ship engines, seismic air guns, and pile drivers add low‑frequency roar that travels farther than light or chemicals, masking the fine‑tuned signals fish depend on.



Most of this din comes from <a href="https://wwwcdn.imo.org/localresources/en/OurWork/PartnershipsProjects/Documents/GloNoise-Library/MEPC.1-Circ.833-7April2014.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">underwater radiated noise</a> generated when propeller bubbles collapse and machinery vibrates the hull. As depth increases and daylight fades, sound replaces vision, so the risk rises for deep‑water species that have no other way to find mates or food.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-conservation-laws-ignore-acoustic-habitats">Conservation laws ignore acoustic habitats</h2>



<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320725003763" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">COSEWIC</a>, the expert panel that advises Ottawa on endangered wildlife, acknowledged fish sound production in just one assessment out of 204. Neither of the 56 recovery strategies drafted under <a href="https://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/s-15.3/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">SARA</a>, Canada’s endangered‑species law, mentioned soundscapes or noise threats.



Anthropogenic noise has <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aah4783" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">doubled</a> background sound levels in more than half of U.S. protected areas, hinting at the scale of the problem in Canadian waters as well. 



When noise blocks communication, the effect mirrors habitat loss, shrinking a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fish-dont-rest-while-hovering-its-actually-hard-work/">fish</a>’s functional living space even though the water looks unchanged.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-learning-from-the-whales">Learning from the whales</h2>



Regulators already protect communication spaces for southern resident <a href="https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/species-especes/publications/mammals-mammiferes/whalereview-revuebaleine/review-revue/killerwhale-epaulard/index-eng.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">killer whales</a>, setting vessel speed limits and buffer zones in the Salish Sea. During voluntary slow‑down trials, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X21010109" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">quieter ships</a> raised successful foraging dives by the whales, proving that less noise can yield instant biological payoffs.



Fish biologists argue the same principle should apply below the whales, because many coral, seagrass, and deep‑sea communities are built on acoustic cues. 



The International Maritime Organization’s revised <a href="https://wwwcdn.imo.org/localresources/en/Documents/MEPC.1-Circ.906%20-%20Revised%20Guidelines%20For%20The%20Reduction%20Of%20Underwater%20Radiated%20NoiseFrom%20Shipping%20To%20Address...%20%28Secretariat%29.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">guidelines</a> outline hull forms, propeller tweaks, and resilient engine mounts that slash cavitation clatter at the design stage.



For existing fleets, slower speeds remain the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X21013357" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">quickest fix</a>, trimming hull noise in minutes and saving fuel at the same time. On land, urban planners already impose airport curfews; similar acoustic zoning could shield key spawning refuges from seismic blasts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fish-voices-must-be-included-in-planning">Fish voices must be included in planning</h2>



<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/ecoacousticssociety" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ecoacoustics</a>, the cross‑disciplinary science of environmental sound, now lets managers deploy autonomous recorders that log fish choruses year‑round with little labor. 



Cox and his team want Ottawa to add acoustics to every new status report, a change that would trigger legal duties to weigh noise limits before approving coastal developments.



“These three aspects of sound create different types of marine noise pollution, and each kind of noise pollution poses potential risks to marine species, from whales to fish to crustaceans,” said Kiara Kattler, who led the analysis in Isabelle Côté’s <a href="https://tmel.wordpress.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lab</a>.



If policy follows the evidence, tomorrow’s endangered‑species plans could include quiet hours, ship‑route changes, and protected “singing grounds” for fish.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-policymakers-can-do-now">What policymakers can do now</h2>



Fisheries managers don’t have to wait for more studies to take action. Passive acoustic monitoring gear is already cheap, easy to deploy, and able to track seasonal behavior in many key species. 



Adding simple guidance on soniferous species to existing review checklists could prevent new development from degrading acoustic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-alternative-seafood-can-help-save-our-oceans/">habitats</a> by accident.



Acoustic degradation doesn’t only affect fish. Crustaceans, cephalopods, and even coral larvae also use sound to find mates or settle in reef habitats, which means entire ecosystems could be thrown off balance. 



By integrating sound into conservation policies, agencies could protect dozens of marine species at once without needing separate rules for each.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006320725003763?dgcid=coauthor" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Biological Conservation</a>.



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Fish have voices but conservation policies ignore them

Fish have voices, and the sea is never silent. From...

The Earth spins steadily, but not without a wobble. While we imagine the North and South Poles as fixed points, they’re not exactly anchored. Over time, they shift slightly, influenced by how mass is distributed across the globe. 



Ice sheets melt, tectonic plates shift, and oceans swell. But now, researchers have revealed that humans, through dam building, have also nudged the planet’s spin ever so slightly.



In a quiet but measurable way, our thirst for water control and hydroelectric energy has shifted the Earth's poles. From the earliest major dams in the 19th century to the massive reservoirs constructed in Asia and Africa during the 20th century, the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-is-now-impacting-earths-rotation/">effect</a> has grown stronger. 



According to a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, this phenomenon has moved Earth’s rotational axis by more than a meter (3.3 feet) since 1835.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dam-building-shifts-earth-s-poles">Dam building shifts Earth’s poles</h2>



True polar wander refers to the shifting of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/magnetic-north-pole-is-moving-faster-than-ever-as-it-races-toward-russia/">Earth</a>’s solid outer shell relative to its spin axis. This motion occurs when mass on the planet’s surface moves around. 



Think of Earth like a spinning basketball. Place a lump of clay on one side, and the ball shifts slightly to balance the extra weight. When this happens on Earth, the solid crust adjusts its position, moving relative to the axis of rotation. The poles then pass through new locations on the surface.



Traditionally, this phenomenon has been linked to natural processes like glacial melting. But the recent study by Natasha Valencic and her team at <a href="https://www.harvard.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Harvard University</a> shows that human activity, specifically water impoundment from dam construction, has become another significant contributor. 



The findings suggest that this artificial redistribution of mass has created a measurable shift in the Earth’s pole positions.



“As we trap water behind dams, not only does it remove water from the oceans, thus leading to a global sea level fall, it also distributes mass in a different way around the world,” said Valencic. That mass, once fluid and ocean-bound, is now stored in still reservoirs scattered across continents.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-s-poles-moved-in-two-phases">Earth’s poles moved in two phases</h2>



Using data from the Global Reservoir and Dam (GRanD) database, the researchers mapped the water storage of 6,862 artificial reservoirs from 1835 to 2011. The dam analysis revealed a striking, non-linear shift in the Earth’s poles. 



From 1835 to 1954, dam building focused heavily in North America and Europe. This caused the North Pole to move about eight inches toward 103.4°E, a direction passing through Russia and parts of Asia.



After 1954, the pattern of dam construction changed. Major projects emerged across East Africa and Asia. As a result, the pole reversed direction, moving 22.5 inches toward −117.5°E, roughly through the western United States and into the South Pacific. 



These changes did not follow a smooth path. The polar motion was highly variable, influenced by the size and location of dams being built over time.



Across the entire study period, the poles shifted about 44.6 inches. Notably, 40.9 inches of that motion occurred during the 20th century. This finding suggests that modern infrastructure, rather than long-term natural <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/this-is-what-the-total-collapse-of-the-earths-magnetic-field-sounded-like-41000-years-ago/">processes</a> alone, has become a key factor in Earth's orientation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dams-and-earth-s-pole-positions">Dams and Earth's pole positions</h2>



To track these subtle shifts, the team used a detailed physical model. They combined gravitationally self-consistent sea level theory with equations for rotational stability. 



The researchers accounted for how Earth’s crust responds elastically to mass changes, and how these changes, in turn, influence Earth’s spin.



The Earth model used, known as PREM (Preliminary Reference Earth Model), includes variations in Earth’s density and elasticity. The team also incorporated seepage, the loss of stored water into surrounding soils, using a parameterization method from earlier work by Chao et al. (2008). 



Despite excluding about 28 percent of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earths-magnetic-field-is-shifting-and-putting-navigation-at-risk/">global</a> impoundment volume, mainly from smaller dams, the results remained consistent. 



The missing volume came mostly from minor reservoirs, each contributing less than 0.024 cubic miles, and these had minimal influence on the final polar calculations.



To test the significance of these smaller dams, the team plotted how pole position changed with each added reservoir. After about 6,000 of the largest were included, the results stabilized. This confirmed that the many small, excluded dams had negligible overall effect.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dam-water-storage-and-sea-levels">Dam water storage and sea levels</h2>



Global sea levels are rising today, but during the 20th century, the creation of reservoirs temporarily offset this trend. The researchers found that the 6,862 dams in their study led to a sea level drop of 0.86 inches between 1900 and 2011.



This artificial dip matters. While it’s small compared to the rise caused by melting glaciers and warming oceans, it complicates calculations. 



“Depending on where you place dams and reservoirs, the geometry of sea level rise will change. That’s another thing we need to consider, because these changes can be pretty large, pretty significant," said Valencic.



In the first half of the 20th century, the mean polar motion rate from impoundment was about 0.12 inches per year. 



In the second half, it rose to 0.37 inches per year, a threefold increase. The pole's changing pace mirrors the rapid expansion of dam building after 1950.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revisiting-old-assumptions">Revisiting old assumptions </h2>



Previous studies underestimated the effect of dam-induced polar wander. One earlier estimate in 2008 suggested a mean movement of −0.06 inches per year in the east direction and −0.31 inches per year northward across the 20th century.



But Valencic’s team found it was actually −0.12 inches per year and −0.09 inches per year, respectively. This difference matters because it rebalances the budget of polar motion. 



Scientists trying to understand how much glaciers, groundwater, or ocean changes contribute to Earth's spin now have to subtract out the dam effect. Without this correction, estimates about ice loss and sea level rise remain incomplete.



Interestingly, the influence of dam building didn’t act alone in shifting Earth's poles. The researchers also modeled how the oceans responded to displaced water. 



While water impoundment dominated the first half of the century, the second half saw both dam storage and ocean mass redistribution playing nearly equal roles in shaping Earth’s polar path.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-subtle-shift-in-earth-s-poles">Subtle shift in Earth's poles</h2>



This study began as a classroom project at Harvard but quickly grew into a deeper investigation of Earth’s shifting balance. It reveals that something as mundane as a dam, one of civilization’s most common tools, has reshaped the geography of our spinning planet.



The pole has not leapt across continents. It has crept, step by engineered step, with every new concrete wall holding back a river. While not disastrous on its own, this shift reveals a truth: our actions reach farther than we often imagine.



Every dam, every floodgate, becomes part of the Earth’s momentum. What we store on land doesn’t just change rivers. It nudges Earth’s rotation, redistributes the weight of water, and contributes silently to a planet that, while spinning, is never truly still.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025GL115468" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Geophysical Research Letters</a>.



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Dams built by humans have shifted Earth’s poles

The Earth spins steadily, but not without a wobble. While...

Sediment hidden under ice for millennia is seeing daylight again as glaciers melt. At first, those fresh minerals mop up carbon dioxide. But over time, they switch roles and start leaking gases that trap heat in the air.



<a href="https://geology.ufl.edu/directory/dr-jonathan-martin/">Jonathan Martin</a>’s University of Florida team, along with colleagues from the <a href="https://www.umaryland.edu/">University of Maryland</a> traced that flip in Kobbefjord, Greenland. 



Researchers compared young glacial meltwater with soil water that had been exposed for about 10,000 years. Their <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02404-z">work</a> shows why every newly uncovered valley enters a long, slow countdown from sink to source.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-after-glaciers-melt-methane-rises">After glaciers melt, methane rises</h2>



Lead author <a href="https://www.umces.edu/andrea-pain">Andrea Pain</a> and co‑author <a href="https://geology.ufl.edu/directory/dr-jonathan-martin/">Jonathan Martin</a> sampled streams that draw melt straight from small glaciers and others fed by seeps through mature tundra soils. 



The two waters could be told apart by their oxygen isotopes and by how clear they were. Meltwater ran chalky with rock flour, while seep water ran tea‑colored from dissolved organics.



“Our central hypothesis was that the transfer of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/greenhouse-gas-emissions-reach-another-all-time-high/">greenhouse gases</a> between landscapes and the atmosphere has changed since the Last Glacial Maximum about 15,000 years ago,” said Martin.



Field data upheld that hunch, showing glacial streams still scrubbing carbon dioxide while older soils were busy making methane.



Freshly ground carbonates and silicates react with carbonic acid in cold meltwater, locking up carbon as bicarbonate. 



Once microbes colonize the maturing soil, they chew on buried plant matter and turn it into methane through <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/methanogenesis">methanogenesis</a>, reversing the sign of the gas ledger.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-glacier-melt-reshapes-gas-timing">Glacier melt reshapes gas timing</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/massive-new-source-of-methane-emissions-discovered-glacial-fracking-arctic/">Methane</a> packs a bigger punch than carbon dioxide, trapping about 28 times more heat over a century. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532922/">Nitrous oxide</a>, the third‑place greenhouse gas, is even fiercer, with a global warming potential of 273 on the same scale.



Those numbers mean that a late rise in methane can wipe out the early carbon‑dioxide savings that bare sediment briefly earns. 



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-models-underestimate-sea-ice-melt-and-global-warming/">Climate models</a> trying to look centuries ahead need that timing baked in, or they risk undercounting the payback later in the game.



Martin’s crew found that the window of net uptake might last only a few centuries in the high Arctic. That’s just a blink compared to the ten‑thousand‑year age of most post‑ice soils. That insight adds a moving target to projections of future warming.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-greenland-s-valley-tells-all">Greenland’s valley tells all</h2>



Kobbefjord lies about six miles southwest of Nuuk and covers roughly 12 square miles. Only 1.7 percent of the watershed still holds glacier ice, yet the lingering meltwater strongly flavors the downstream chemistry.



During a clear July stretch, meltwater from nearby glaciers ruled the flow, and carbon dioxide in the main channel stayed close to atmospheric equilibrium. 



A week later, cloudier weather cut the glacier melt pulse; seep water took over, and methane levels at the outlet jumped more than fourfold.



That flip also showed up in the strontium isotope gap between water and bedload sediment, a geochemical clock for weathering progress. 



Values near zero in seep streams told of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/water-and-ice-may-reveal-where-rare-earth-elements-are-hiding/">minerals</a> already well chewed, while high values in the icy headwaters marked rock that had barely started to dissolve.



Field calculations revealed a net sink of 64 millimoles of carbon dioxide equivalents per second during the melt‑dominated period. 



Just days later, the same outlet turned into a 44-millimole-per-second source as methane outran the shrinking weathering sink.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-reading-the-gases">Reading the gases</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/massive-study-provides-answers-to-how-coral-reefs-can-survive-climate-change/">Carbonic acid weathering</a> of carbonates and silicates pulls carbon from the air, but sulfuric acid weathering of carbonates can add it back.



The balance between those paths hinges on how much fresh mineral surface and dissolved organic carbon each water source carries.



Runoff from glaciers had lower organic carbon, yet it was more labile, fueling acid generation that sped up mineral reactions. 



Seep water, richer in tougher humic carbon, fostered anaerobic pockets where methane‑making microbes thrived.



The study underscores that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/greenland-ice-fossil-tundra-discovery-stuns-and-worries-scientists-sea-level-rise/">melting ice</a> and deglaciation is not a single event but a sequence of chemical stages. Understanding which stage a watershed occupies helps predict whether it will cool or warm the planet in any given decade.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-warming-builds-after-glacier-melt">Warming builds after glacier melt</h2>



Pain and Martin now plan to test nitrous oxide dynamics in the same valley, because that gas can warm the air <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/nitrous-oxide-emissions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">200 times faster</a> than carbon dioxide if it escapes.



Preliminary lab work hints that nitrous oxide might peak earlier than methane, suggesting a still more complex hand‑off among the three gases.



Other researchers are already noticing similar trends elsewhere: on the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/why-the-roof-of-the-world-keeps-rising-over-time/">Tibetan Plateau</a>, lakes that no longer receive melt from glaciers emit about three times more methane than glacier‑fed lakes.



As more high‑altitude or high‑latitude basins lose ice input, those findings imply a widespread tilt toward methane dominance.



Martin cautions that rapid, human‑driven warming could briefly revive the negative feedback by boosting meltwater flow. 



Yet the reprieve would be short‑lived. Once the last ice patches vanish, soils everywhere will settle into the methane‑rich phase that the Kobbefjord team measured.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02404-z" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Communications Earth &amp; Environment</a>.



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Land exposed by melting glaciers transforms into a greenhouse gas emitter

Sediment hidden under ice for millennia is seeing daylight again...

Live shows can feel different from a screen even when the choreography, lighting, and music match. Scientists have now put numbers on that hunch by recording brainwave sync activity inside a theater.



In a recent <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004225011836" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>, a team strapped <a href="https://www.cgxsystems.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">EEG headsets</a> on fifty‑nine volunteers and found that their slow “<a href="https://sleepspace.com/what-are-delta-waves/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">delta</a>” waves fell into step during a contemporary dance piece, a pattern missing when people watched the same <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/music-rewires-the-brain-to-quickly-navigate-emotion/">recording</a> alone.



<a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-sciences/guido-orgs" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Guido Orgs</a> of <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University College London</a>, both a dancer and a neuroscientist, led the work.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-live-audiences-and-brainwave-sync">Live audiences and brainwave sync</h2>



The researchers used <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0166432824005254" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interpersonal neural synchrony</a>, a measure of how similarly brainwaves fire over time. 



Audience members who sat together during three live performances showed clear delta‑band alignment, or brainwave sync, especially when performers locked eyes with them.



“Previous research has mostly linked attention to the faster alpha band,” admitted first author <a href="https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/99711-laura-rai" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Laura Rai</a>, yet delta proved the best signal of group engagement. 



Delta waves run at one to four cycles per second, a tempo linked to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/our-brain-doesnt-just-hear-music-it-becomes-the-rhythm/">social</a> processing and day‑dreaming rather than outward focus. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-brainwaves-reveal-social-attention">Brainwaves reveal social attention</h2>



Earlier classroom <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28457867/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">experiments</a> found that alpha‑band synchrony predicts how interested students feel, but those studies relied on lectures and screens. 



The dance data suggest that live, multisensory settings tap slower neural rhythms that keep pace with movement phrases and breathing cycles.



Reviews of mind‑wandering consistently <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35700946/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> higher power in the same low frequencies, hinting that delta may flag an internal, socially tuned form of attention.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dancers-moves-guide-audience-focus">Dancers’ moves guide audience focus</h2>



During each show, the researchers found that the dancers’ movements and spacing influenced how closely the audience’s brains aligned. 



When performers stood closer together, the audience focused more, likely directing their attention to the same spot. This physical cue helped synchronize viewers without them realizing it.



What’s more, the choreographer’s own predictions of when people would pay attention turned out to be accurate. 



Brain data from the audience followed those cues, confirming that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/live-music-connects-people-emotionally-and-physically/">artistic</a> choices, like eye contact or deliberate pauses, actually shape how people engage on a neurological level.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-live-shows-feel-stronger-together">Live shows feel stronger together</h2>



When volunteers watched the recording together in a cinema, their brains still synced, though a bit less than in the theater. 



Sitting alone in a lab, delta synchrony dropped further. Sharing space, the authors argue, matters as much as the presence of live performers.



The pattern matches <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2022.855778/full" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">findings</a> from music venues where pleasure peaks alongside spikes in audience synchrony, pointing to a feedback loop between emotion and neural alignment.



Choreographer <a href="https://metalwater.co/artist/seke-chimutengwende/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Seke Chimutengwende</a> was asked to flag moments he believed would grip spectators. Audience synchrony rose during nearly every scene he highlighted. 



One section, nicknamed “Unison,” featured the dancers moving slowly while gazing directly at individuals; it generated the strongest brain alignment.



“People often emphasize how personal and subjective art is, and that’s absolutely true regarding interpretation. But when it comes to attention, we found that how people engage can be surprisingly predictable and measurable,” said Orgs.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cinemas-are-also-social">Cinemas are also social</h2>



Film editors have long spliced shots to guide viewers’ eyes. The new work shows that a shared room can amplify that guidance even without live performers. 



Viewers in the cinema displayed tighter phase‑locking of delta waves than isolated viewers, yet still less than theatergoers, suggesting a social gradient.



That gradient echoes data from <a href="https://www.ant-neuro.com/blog/showcases-1/the-neurolive-project-10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NEUROLIVE</a>, a five‑year project mixing dancers and scientists; interim reports showed that simply being near others sharpens collective focus during performance art.



Delta oscillations help stitch sensory snapshots into meaningful chunks, from spoken sentences to dance phrases. Because they run slowly, they can integrate movement cues, music swells, and audience reactions over several seconds.



Such integration may underlie the “we all felt it” effect theater lovers describe, turning individual perception into a shared storyline without words.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-entertainment-and-brainwave-sync">Entertainment and brainwave sync</h2>



EEG caps remain bulky, and wet electrodes are messy to fit on large audiences. The team plans to tour the piece internationally once lighter headsets arrive, hoping to test whether cultural context changes synchrony patterns.



Future studies could pair EEG with motion tracking to see if spectators’ subtle shifts, leaning forward, holding breath, map onto neural alignment, deepening our grasp of how bodies and brains co‑create the live arts experience.



Understanding shared brain rhythms might help directors craft scenes that pull distracted viewers back, or inform therapies that use dance for social disorders. It could also fine‑tune virtual reality concerts by adding avatars that mimic real‑world gaze.



For now, the data give scientific weight to something performers already sense: when the house lights dim and a crowd breathes as one, brains really do catch the same beat.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004225011836" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">iScience</a>.



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Brainwaves of humans sync more at live shows than on screens

Live shows can feel different from a screen even when...

Nostalgia often centers on places near water, according to a new study. The researchers found that people are more likely to feel nostalgic about coastlines, lakes, and rivers than about forests, mountains, or farmland.



Dr. Elisabeta Militaru led the study during while earning her in the Psychology Department at the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a>.



Seaside locations made up over 25 percent of nostalgic places reported by UK participants. In the United States, that figure was 20 percent. The totals rose to 35 and 30 percent, respectively, when lakes and rivers were included. 



By contrast, only about 10 percent of responses mentioned agricultural areas, forests, or mountains. Urban places made up just over 20 percent in both countries.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mapping-nostalgic-places">Mapping nostalgic places</h2>



To help visualize their findings, the team created maps showing where participants’ most nostalgic places were located. While not statistically representative, the maps give a vivid snapshot of the emotional geography of each country.



In the UK, people most often mentioned spots in Cornwall and Devon, known for their dramatic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/human-activity-impacts-97-percent-of-the-worlds-coastline/">coastlines</a>. North Yorkshire also ranked high, likely due to its unique combination of ocean views and the green hills of the Yorkshire Dales.



In the United States, California and Florida came out on top. Both states are known for their beach destinations. New York also stood out - not just for its natural parks but for the emotional pull of places like New York City.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-emotional-pull-of-water">The emotional pull of water</h2>



The scientists set out to better understand what makes some places more likely to stick with us emotionally. They looked at both the physical and psychological traits of these locations.



Each participant was asked to describe a place they felt nostalgic about and explain why.



“We expected people to be more often nostalgic for green places since so many studies emphasize the psychological <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/surprising-mental-health-benefits-of-living-near-green-spaces/">benefits of green, natural environments</a>. We were surprised to find that blue places are the hallmark feature of place nostalgia,” said Dr. Militaru. 



“Our findings add to the growing evidence that blue places are associated with increased <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/world-environment-day-the-critical-role-of-nature-in-human-well-being/">psychological well-being</a>."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-features-of-nostalgic-places">Key features of nostalgic places</h2>



Participants frequently used words like "beautiful," "aesthetic," and "views" to describe their most nostalgic places. 



Past studies by the same team have shown that brightness, color saturation, and contrast influence our emotional responses to a place. Locations by water tend to score high on all three of those factors.



Another feature may be what scientists call "fractal properties" - patterns that repeat in nature. Coastlines often strike the right balance of visual complexity.



According to Dr. Militaru, past research suggests that landscapes with moderate fractal structure, like coastlines, tend to generate <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brainwaves-reveal-that-positive-emotions-enhance-memory/">positive emotions</a>. 



“People don't like extremely chaotic outlines of the kind you might see in the middle of the forest, where you don’t get a sense of openness. People also don't like too little complexity. With an urban skyline, for instance, there are very few breaks in the scene’s pattern," noted Dr. Militaru.



“Seaside, rivers and lakes may give us the optimal visual complexity, but more work is needed to fully understand this.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-emotionally-charged-experiences">Emotionally charged experiences</h2>



While natural places dominated the results, cities still held a strong emotional pull for many participants.



“It’s important to note that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-does-nature-affect-human-health-in-urban-areas/">urban</a> places are more often classed as being ‘ordinary’ than nostalgia-inducing,” said Dr. Militaru.



So why did they still show up so often? The researchers think it may be tied to how many people live in cities - and to the power of one-off, emotionally charged experiences.



“We are particularly nostalgic about memorable one-time experiences and about unique places which we have visited. Holidays, including trips to cities, can leave a deep emotional imprint," explained Dr. Militaru.



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



The emotional benefits of nostalgia are no longer in doubt. “Back in the 17th century, nostalgia had a negative reputation, it was regarded as a disease of the mind,” said Dr. Militaru.



“Scientific investigation changed that. Now we know that nostalgia is a psychological resource; it emerges when we are faced with psychological discomfort, like feeling lonely or socially excluded. Emerging research finds that nostalgia can also have a positive role in caring for people with dementia.”



Thinking about a nostalgic place does more than just feel good. It can increase your sense of meaning and connection, raise self-esteem, and even help you feel more authentic. 



“Nostalgia brings places into focus, much like a magnifying glass. Meaningful places tend to be physically far away from us, yet nostalgia brings them back into focus and, in so doing, connects our past self to our present and future self,” Dr. Militaru explained.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-designing-places-with-nostalgia-in-mind">Designing places with nostalgia in mind</h2>



The findings have practical implications. Dr. Militaru believes that remembering nostalgic places could help guide conservation and urban planning.



“Our research suggests that access to coasts, rivers, parks, and natural landscapes should be prioritized, especially in dense urban areas."



Focusing on nostalgia might also help city planners and communities work together to protect smaller, locally meaningful places.



“Communities need to be involved in urban planning decisions implemented in their neighborhoods. Only then can we identify the local landmarks that need to be preserved,” noted Dr. Militaru.



The message is clear: the places we carry in our hearts often have water in the frame - and nostalgia might be more than a feeling. It could be a map to the kind of environments that make us feel most alive.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2666622725000103">Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology</a>.



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Why we long for the sea: The power of nostalgic places

Nostalgia often centers on places near water, according to a...

Planting trees is a simple idea, yet the details - from which species are used to how they’re arranged within a forest - shape the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-devastate-global-food-production/">climate</a> benefits we reap. 



Advanced computer models make it possible for scientists to peer inside virtual forests. They can test every possible arrangement before a single sapling goes into the ground.



A new <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61389-7">study</a> used those models to show that layout matters almost as much as species choice. The research was led by Rémy Beugnon at the <a href="https://www.idiv.de/">German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mixing-trees-boosts-growth">Mixing trees boosts growth</h2>



Researchers call the fine‑grained mix of species in a stand <a href="https://taylorandfrancis.com/knowledge/Engineering_and_technology/Engineering_support_and_special_topics/Spatial_heterogeneity/">spatial heterogeneity</a>. When that mix is high, neighboring trees draw different nutrients, share light, and leave a patchwork of leaf litter that fuels underground life.



Beugnon’s team modeled eight subtropical species in thousands of simulated plots and compared designs ranging from single‑species blocks to fully shuffled grids. 



The models predicted that random layouts move <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/excess-nutrients-are-creating-ocean-dead-zones/">nutrients</a> faster through the system, lifting both growth and recycling.



“The models show that random planting designs increased tree biomass by 11 percent compared to clustered layouts,” said Rémy Beugnon, first author of the study.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-random-forest-designs-pay-off">Random forest designs pay off</h2>



Across the forest simulations, shuffling species raised aboveground biomass by 11 percent over block plantings, even though every plot carried the same number of stems. 



The extra wood comes from chance neighbors; tall shade‑tolerant trunks share space with shorter sun‑lovers, wasting less light and soil.



A 2023 global <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi2362">analysis</a> of more than 10,000 plots found a similar pattern, reporting that each additional tree species added roughly one‑third of a ton of extra wood per acre by boosting canopy complexity.



For managers locked into mechanical harvesting, random layouts can be intimidating. Yet the payoff shows why many reforestation guides now favor flexible rows or small patches over the classic monoculture block.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mixed-trees-enrich-soil">Mixed trees enrich soil</h2>



Dead leaves are not waste; they drive litter decomposition that returns nitrogen and carbon to roots. In the models, mixed canopies dropped litter more evenly across the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dead-trees-in-forest-streams-hold-more-carbon-than-expected/">forest floor</a>, smoothing out nutrient hot and cold spots.



Carbon loss from litter after nine months climbed from 36.5 percent in block plantings to 47.1 percent in random mixes, a jump big enough to shift the soil’s entire carbon budget.



Field experiments in subtropical China showed that doubling tree species richness sped up decomposition by up to 25 percent through thicker, more varied leaf fall. 



Faster turnover does not mean carbon is lost. Instead, it channels organic matter into microbial pathways that lock it deeper in the soil profile.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-tidy-path-to-forest-diversity">A tidy path to forest diversity</h2>



The Leipzig group tested a middle ground called “line planting,” alternating single or double rows of different species. Lines keep machinery lanes clear while still mixing neighbors along their edges. 



Their simulations showed that line layouts decomposed 40.4 percent of litter carbon in nine months -halfway between blocks and fully random, yet easy to mark out with a tape measure.



“We can leverage biodiversity in forests if we arrange it in the right way,” said Nico Eisenhauer, professor at <a href="https://www.uni-leipzig.de/">Leipzig University</a> and iDiv group leader.



For many operational foresters, that design tweak may be the cheapest route to healthier soils - without rewriting the entire planting manual.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-planting-diversity-fuels-forest-gains">Planting diversity fuels forest gains</h2>



Layout is only half of the equation; adding species amplifies its effect. In mixed stands, each extra species multiplied the layout benefit, but in block designs the diversity effect nearly vanished. 



When eight species were scattered randomly, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/balancing-act-microbes-speed-up-plant-decomposition-in-a-warming-world/">decomposition</a> leapt by more than ten percentage points compared with similar blocks. In contrast, two‑species plots barely budged.



A pan‑American census reported that forests holding a wider spread of life‑history strategies stored more carbon over time, even after accounting for climate. Thus, thinking in two dimensions - what trees and where - can stretch every acre planted toward national carbon targets.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-climate-goals-need-forest-designs">Climate goals need forest designs</h2>



Beugnon and colleagues plan long‑term field tests to see how windthrow, pests, and thinning interact with mixed layouts over decades. 



Policymakers drafting <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/planting-trees-is-important-but-reforestation-can-help-too/">reforestation</a> incentives could build spatial criteria into grant rules, rewarding forest designs that mix species at the row scale rather than the stand scale.



With roughly 470 million acres already pledged for restoration worldwide, even a 10 percent biomass lift adds up. That increase translates into gigatons of extra carbon locked away.



Choosing the right forest design from the start costs nothing yet pays dividends for centuries, making it one of the simplest levers in the climate toolkit.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-61389-7">Nature Communications</a>.



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Smarter forest design can help fight climate change

Planting trees is a simple idea, yet the details -...

Mars holds far more fossil rivers than anyone realized. More than 9,320 miles of sinuous, ridge-like channels lace its southern highlands, hinting at a planet once rich in stable surface water.



The discovery comes from a team led by PhD candidate Adam Losekoot at the <a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/">Open University</a>.



Working with colleagues and funded by the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-space-agency">UK Space Agency</a>, Losekoot mapped dozens of fluvial sinuous ridges - also called inverted channels - in Noachis Terra. She then pieced together a new story for the Red Planet’s climate about 3.7 billion years ago.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-underexplored-regions-on-mars">Underexplored regions on Mars</h2>



A fluvial sinuous ridge forms when a river lays down sediment that later hardens. As wind or water erodes the softer ground beside the deposit, the old riverbed flips from a low channel to a raised spine.



Seen from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mars-orbiter-taught-to-roll-over-for-a-view-beneath-the-surface/">orbit</a>, it snakes across the landscape like a dried vein. Because the ridge marks a former stream, its presence is direct evidence of flowing water rather than ice runoff or chemical trickery.



“Studying Mars, particularly an underexplored region like Noachis Terra, is really exciting because it's an environment which has been largely unchanged for billions of years," Losekoot said. 



"It's a time capsule that records fundamental geological processes in a way that just isn't possible here on Earth.”



Noachis Terra lies in the planet’s ancient southern highlands, a rugged sector that has long seemed quiet compared with the famous valleys of Arabia Terra or the deltas at <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/lake-sediments-found-in-jezero-crater-hint-at-past-life-on-mars/">Jezero Crater</a>. 



Its scarcity of branching valley networks led some scientists to view it as a dry, mostly frozen plateau during early Martian history.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mars-mapped-in-high-detail">Mars mapped in high detail</h2>



The team combined images and elevation data from <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/resource/context-camera-for-mars-reconnaissance-orbiter/">NASA’s Context Camera</a>, the <a href="https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/attic/mola/">Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter</a>, and the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment.



Together these instruments trace features as small as a few feet high over areas hundreds of miles wide. 



Software tools then flagged elongated ridges, measured their heights, and logged their paths. Some systems stretched across mere miles, while others stretched hundreds of miles - rising tens of feet above the surrounding plains.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-widespread-rivers-once-flowed">Widespread rivers once flowed </h2>



The map revealed ridges scattered across many kinds of terrain. They do not huddle in crater floors alone but cut across inter-crater plains, crater walls, and high ground.



The extent of ancient rivers on Mars is indicative of a hydrological cycle powered by precipitation rather than isolated bursts from melting ice sheets.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/mars_water_fluvial-sinuous-ridge_fsr_east-branches_NASA_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/mars_water_fluvial-sinuous-ridge_fsr_east-branches_NASA_1s.webp" alt="Two east-west branches of an FSR. These preserve an area where a river split and then rejoined (off image). The lower branch is heavily eroded and quite spread out, the upper branch is narrower but more clearly preserved. These may have been exposed for different amounts of time, undergone different geological processes, or represent different periods of river activity. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona" class="wp-image-1977749"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Two east-west branches of an FSR. These preserve an area where a river split and then rejoined (off image). The lower branch is heavily eroded and quite spread out, the upper branch is narrower but more clearly preserved. These may have been exposed for different amounts of time, undergone different geological processes, or represent different periods of river activity. Click image to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona</figcaption></figure>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wave-ripples-discovered-mars-surface-indicate-liquid-water-present-4-billion-years-ago/">Water</a> must have fallen from the sky, collected in streams, and flowed long enough to build up thick beds of sand and gravel that later cemented into rock.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mars-shifted-slowly-to-cold">Mars shifted slowly to cold</h2>



All lines of evidence point to the Noachian-Hesperian boundary, roughly 3.7 billion years ago - a span when Mars shifted from its wettest known era toward a colder, thinner-air world.



The ridges suggest that, at least in Noachis Terra, warm and wet spells were not fleeting. River activity persisted long enough to carve extensive drainage and leave behind hardened deposits.



The findings undercut views that late-Noachian Mars was dry except for brief interludes triggered by volcanoes or asteroid impacts.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-hidden-rivers-revealed-on-mars">Hidden rivers revealed on Mars </h2>



Traditional climate reconstructions have leaned on valley networks - branching erosional troughs that act like dried-up tributary webs. Noachis Terra hosts few of those features, so past global surveys glossed over it.



By shifting the focus to inverted channels, the new study opens a fresh window on terrain that satellites have photographed but researchers seldom mined for climate clues.



The cumulative ridge length spans more than 9,000 miles - comparable to the present-day length of the Amazon River system.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/mars_water_fluvial-sinuous-ridge_fsr_intersecting-rivers_NASA_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/mars_water_fluvial-sinuous-ridge_fsr_intersecting-rivers_NASA_1s.webp" alt="Oblique view of part of a system of FSRs, recording multiple river tributaries, likely all active at the same or similar times. This shows rivers meandering, areas where river banks have burst and fine layers of sediment have been deposited around the river, and branching. At the top of the image is a really clear example of an area where two FSRs intersect with an infilled crater. This is likely where the river flowed into the crater, filling it up and then breaching the other side to continue through the crater and down to the bottom of the image. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona" class="wp-image-1977753"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Oblique view of part of a system of FSRs, recording multiple river tributaries, likely all active at the same or similar times. This shows rivers meandering, areas where river banks have burst and fine layers of sediment have been deposited around the river, and branching. At the top of the image is a really clear example of an area where two FSRs intersect with an infilled crater. This is likely where the river flowed into the crater, filling it up and then breaching the other side to continue through the crater and down to the bottom of the image. Click image to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona</figcaption></figure>



While the original streams were narrower than the ridges that mark them, the sheer distance suggests abundant runoff. 



To deposit and cement such volumes of sediment, water must have flowed season after season rather than in single catastrophic floods.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-thicker-air-stable-flow">Thicker air, stable flow</h2>



Long-lived rivers need pressure and warmth to keep liquid from flashing into vapor under <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mars-gravity-pulls-earth-closer-to-the-sun-warming-our-climate-scientists-say/">Martian gravity</a>. 



The evidence supports models in which early Mars carried a thicker carbon-rich atmosphere or received extra greenhouse boost from water-ice clouds.



Either way, conditions would have been friendlier for life, raising the odds that Noachis Terra once nursed habitable niches.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mars-may-have-stayed-warm">Mars may have stayed warm</h2>



Current rival models picture a frigid ancient Mars, warmed only in rare spurts when volcanoes released steam or impacts melted buried ice. Those scenarios struggle to explain ridge networks that record sustained flow.



The new map suggests the climate pendulum did not swing from deep freeze to brief thaw but instead lingered for geologically meaningful intervals in a temperate state.



“Our work is a new piece of evidence that suggests that Mars was once a much more complex and active planet than it is now, which is such an exciting thing to be involved in,” Losekoot said.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/mars_water_fluvial-sinuous-ridge_fsr_river-sediment_sand-dunes_NASA_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/mars_water_fluvial-sinuous-ridge_fsr_river-sediment_sand-dunes_NASA_1s.webp" alt="Color image of a flat top, heavily eroded fluvial sinuous ridge (FSR) on Mars. Sand dunes can be seen migrating over the top of the FSR. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona" class="wp-image-1977755"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Color image of a flat top, heavily eroded fluvial sinuous ridge (FSR) on Mars. Sand dunes can be seen migrating over the top of the FSR. Click image to enlarge. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona</figcaption></figure>



Future high-resolution topographic missions could hunt for smaller or heavily eroded ridges, refining the timeline of river activity. 



Rovers or landers might someday target Noachis Terra to sample ridge-crested rocks, probing their minerals for signs of slow water deposition or even ancient biosignatures.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-beyond-mars"><a></a>Implications beyond Mars</h2>



Understanding inverted channels also helps planetary geologists read other worlds. Similar features appear in satellite images of Earth’s deserts and may lurk on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/venus-was-never-capable-of-supporting-life-as-we-know-it/">Venus</a> beneath its clouds. 



The work highlights how subtle landforms can rewrite climate history long after rivers dry up.



Noachis Terra, once overlooked, now emerges as a vast fossil watershed. Its ridges sketch a wetter Mars, where rain fell, rivers wandered, and sediments lit up under a thicker sky. 



Each kilometer of braided stone revives a chapter of hydrologic complexity that scientists are only beginning to decode.



The research was presented at the <a href="https://conference.astro.dur.ac.uk/event/7/contributions/607/">Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting 2025</a> in Durham.



Image Credit: ESA



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Ancient river systems suggest that Mars was much wetter than previously believed

Mars holds far more fossil rivers than anyone realized. More...

Cancer cells are notorious for their ability to break the usual biological speed limits. They divide quickly, migrate toward blood vessels, and survive bouts of low oxygen that would stall most healthy tissue. 



The question that has nagged researchers for a century is how these unruly cells keep their energy meters running so high so often.



New work from <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/">Johns Hopkins Medicine</a> offers an unusual answer: energy doesn’t just churn inside the cell. It ripples across the membrane in rhythmic bands of glycolysis proteins that whip up fresh <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK553175/">adenosine triphosphate (ATP)</a> right where the cell needs it most.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-textbooks-miss-enzyme-waves">Textbooks miss enzyme waves</h2>



“This finding may challenge the canonical textbook knowledge that we all learn from the biochemistry course,” noted Dr. David Zhan, a postdoctoral researcher at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.



Zhan and his colleagues tagged each key enzyme in glycolysis with a fluorescent marker, then filmed <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ai-scientist-discovers-that-common-non-cancer-drugs-when-combined-can-kill-cancer-cells/">breast cancer</a> cells under a confocal microscope. 



Every nine minutes, a colored wave rolled across the outer membrane, showing the enzymes moving in lockstep. Normal breast duct cells, in contrast, displayed little more than a flat baseline.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-more-waves-more-aggressive-tumors">More waves, more aggressive tumors</h2>



The team connected those shimmering rings to a long‑standing puzzle called the Warburg effect - the habit of tumors to favor sugar fermentation even when oxygen is plentiful. 



Pinning glycolysis to the edge of the cell, they argue, shortens the distance between ATP production and the cell’s needs. This proximity supports the mechanical work of moving, stretching, and invading.



“The more aggressive the cancer, the more waves we found on the cell surface,” said Dr. Peter Devreotes, a professor of cell biology at Johns Hopkins.



High‑grade breast, liver, pancreatic, lung, and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/protein-cd74-discovery-may-change-the-treatment-of-colon-cancer/">colon cancer</a> lines all pulsed with faster, brighter waves than their less aggressive cousins.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-aggressive-cancer-cells-pulse-with-energy">Aggressive cancer cells pulse with energy</h2>



Quantitative imaging placed numbers on the link. Cells with intense surface ripples packed 25 percent more membrane‑proximal ATP than cells with faint ripples. 



Cells with more ripples leaned harder on glycolysis overall, producing up to one‑third of their total ATP in these membrane zones rather than in the main cytosol. The same lines showed heightened <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/types/metastatic-cancer">metastasis</a> potential in animal studies reported earlier by the group.



Higher wave counts correlated with faster macropinocytosis, the cell’s nutrient‑gulping process. They also coincided with surges in new‑protein synthesis, both classic hallmarks of metastatic readiness. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-blocking-wave-formation-dulls-cell-spread">Blocking wave formation dulls cell spread</h2>



Blocking wave formation with latrunculin A, a marine‑derived molecule that locks actin monomers in place, cut local ATP by roughly 25 percent and slowed cell invasion in prior tumor models. 



In the Johns Hopkins dishes, the drug wiped out the colorful bands and dulled cell movement within minutes.



Conversely, forcing a single glycolytic enzyme - <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/phosphofructokinase">phosphofructokinase</a> - to stick to the membrane with a molecular “hook” drew the rest of the pathway along for the ride. 



The manipulated cells spread wider and crawled faster, mirroring the behavior of high‑wave cancer lines.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-interrupting-the-ripple-with-drugs">Interrupting the ripple with drugs</h2>



Standard anti‑glycolytic cocktails, such as <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9998157/">2‑deoxy‑D‑glucose</a> paired with <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7290944/">3‑bromopyruvate</a>, erased most of the cell‑edge ATP, but they also came with toxicity. The team tried a lighter tactic: targeting the waves’ actin scaffold.



Low‑dose latrunculin trimmed wave activity by about 60 percent yet spared mitochondrial function, hinting at a therapeutic window.



In a side‑by‑side test across four breast cancer lines of increasing malignancy, partial wave suppression shrank nutrient uptake. 



The effect was far greater in the two most aggressive lines than in the milder pair. Protein‑synthesis rates, measured with a photoswitchable marker, fell in step with wave loss. Such selective pressure on the worst‑behaved cells could be valuable in an adjuvant setting.



Wave frequency may also become a staging tool. Because the phenomenon occurs on the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/shape-shifting-membrane-could-be-the-key-to-cleaner-energy/">membrane</a>, it is theoretically accessible to surface‑enhanced Raman probes or contrast agents that glow in positron emission tomography. 



Measuring wave intensity could help clinicians gauge whether a tumor is primed for spread without waiting for genomic tests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-self-reinforcing-rhythm-fuels-cancer">Self-reinforcing rhythm fuels cancer</h2>



The concept of a self‑organizing metabolic wave sets up a feedback loop. Actin dynamics drive the enzymes to the edge, concentrated enzymes spike ATP, and fresh ATP fuels more actin remodeling. Interrupt any side of the triangle and the momentum falters, at least in cultured cells.



Translation to patients will require careful mapping of wave behavior in three‑dimensional tissue and in living organisms. 



Tumor microenvironments include stiff extracellular matrices, fluctuating oxygen, and immune attacks, factors that could amplify or dampen membrane rhythms.



“Our findings suggest a correlation between higher levels of the energy‑producing waves and a greater severity of the cancer,” Devreotes said. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-waves-may-guide-cancer-treatments">Waves may guide cancer treatments</h2>



The simplicity of watching a fluorescent band circle a cell offers an intuitive <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/100-year-old-people-all-share-these-crucial-blood-biomarkers-that-short-lived-people-dont-have/">biomarker</a> for metabolic state. Devreotes thinks the waves may give cancer biologists a concrete handle on the Warburg effect, long treated as an abstract flux calculation.&nbsp;



Future experiments will test whether disrupting the actin-enzyme partnership in animal models slows real tumors or merely re‑routes their energy supply.



If the former holds, oncologists could add “wave breakers” to the growing list of metabolic therapies that aim to starve tumors without starving patients.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60596-6">Nature Communications</a>.



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Cancer cells create power waves to fuel invasion

Cancer cells are notorious for their ability to break the...

Using ancient DNA recovered from prehistoric bones and teeth, scientists have built a 37,000‑year timeline of human infections, stretching from the icy mammoth camps of Siberia to medieval graveyards in Denmark. 



The new <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09192-8">genetic map</a> shows how early microbes began shaping human history. The scientists sequenced remains from 1,313 individuals and found genetic traces of 214 different pathogens. These range from hepatitis B viruses to the bacterium that causes plague.



The scale of the study provides an opportunity for researchers to test ideas about how culture, climate, and migration changed disease pressure over time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-skeletons-hold-disease-secrets">Skeletons hold disease secrets</h2>



The study was led by evolutionary geneticist Eske Willerslev of the <a href="https://globe.ku.dk/">University of Copenhagen</a> and the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a>.



“We’ve long suspected the transition to farming and animal husbandry opened the door to a new era of disease," Willerslev said. "Now DNA shows us it happened at least 6,500 years ago.” 



His team sifted through more than 400 billion sequencing reads and used chemical damage patterns to confirm which fragments truly came from ancient microbes. 



The analysis uncovered infections in roughly three‑quarters of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-decipher-the-genetic-history-of-400-medieval-skeletons/">skeletons</a>, indicating that illness was a constant companion rather than a rare ordeal. The oldest sample, dating back about 37,000 years, contained mostly oral bacteria still common today. 



The results revealed that blood-borne infections didn’t show up until people began settling down, storing grain, and living closely with sheep, goats, and cattle.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-farming-sparked-new-infections">Farming sparked new infections</h2>



Livestock pens and crowded villages arrived in Eurasia around 8,000 years ago, and the genomic record registers an immediate uptick in disease. 



A clear inflection point appears at 6,500 years ago, the moment when <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7563794/">zoonotic pathogens</a>, the kind that jump from animals to humans, first show up consistently.



One notorious example is <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(15)01322-7">Yersinia pestis</a>, the plague bacterium, whose oldest genetic trace dates back to about 5,500 years ago in western Russia. 



This pushes the timeline of plague back two millennia and shows the microbe shadowing early farmers long before recorded pandemics.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-waves-of-new-infections">Waves of new infections</h2>



A second surge of infection follows the migration of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14507">steppe pastoralist</a> groups roughly 5,000 years ago, when horse‑drawn wagons carried people, livestock, and microbes across the continent.



Skeletons from that period revealed <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stone-age-farming-population-decimated-by-plague-dna-skull/">plague</a>, relapsing‑fever spirochetes, and the parasites that cause vivax malaria.



Such waves of infection probably devastated local communities, clearing ecological space for newcomers and turning pathogens into unlikely allies of conquest.



Ancient immune‑gene data hint at strong selection beginning in the Bronze Age - a genetic fingerprint of relentless pressure from emerging pathogens.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-human-infections-from-animals">Human infections from animals</h2>



The catalog reveals that cowpox relatives, leptospirosis bacteria, and meat-borne yersiniosis showed up soon after pigs, sheep, and goats were domesticated. 



This finding aligns with estimates that around 60 percent of emerging infections come from animals. Close contact clearly reshaped the disease landscape.



The researchers also found skeletons that harbored two or more bugs at once, and these co-infections can worsen outcomes. An ancient Viking‑Age skull carried both hepatitis B and plague DNA, demonstrating how mixed infections may have driven sudden mortality spikes.



Curiously, no clear evidence of tuberculosis surfaced, probably because its bacteria rarely circulate in high numbers in healthy blood. But as the team notes, absence of proof doesn’t mean ancient lungs were safe - only that some microbes leave fewer traces in the molecular record.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-ancient-infections-teach-doctors">What ancient infections teach doctors</h2>



“Mutations that were successful in the past are likely to reappear,” said lead author Martin Sikora. She noted that the ancient genomes can help scientists anticipate future mutations.&nbsp;



Vaccine makers already test candidate antigens against panels of modern strains - a practice encouraged by the <a href="https://www.who.int/teams/health-product-policy-and-standards/standards-and-specifications/norms-and-standards/vaccine-standardization/regulation-and-quality-control-of-vaccines">World Health Organization</a> - and prehistoric DNA provides a deeper benchmark. Comparing lineages over millennia highlights which protein targets stay stable and which drift.



Old plague sequences, for instance, are missing the <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8547695/">ymt gene</a> that helps modern strains survive in fleas. This points to the key step that turned a local infection into a global pandemic threat. 



Similar evolutionary tipping points could lurk in viruses still endemic in bats or rodents. Public‑health planners can combine the new database with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-tipping-points-how-close-are-we-to-irreversible-change/">climate</a> and land‑use models to gauge spillover risk. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pathogens-rewrote-human-genes">Pathogens rewrote human genes</h2>



The skeletal archive captures natural selection in action. It shows that human alleles linked to inflammatory responses became more common after farming took hold. 



The same alleles, still common today, now raise the risk of autoimmune disorders in industrialized nations.



Immunologists argue that this trade‑off is the cost of survival: genes that helped ancestors fight livestock‑borne bugs can misfire in cleaner modern environments. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/oldest-human-dna-ever-found-tells-story-of-lost-branch-on-human-neanderthal-family-tree/">Ancient DNA</a> provides the infection history that scientists need to test that idea.



"Infectious diseases have left lasting impressions on human genomes, as selective pressures from pathogens have continuously shaped human genetic variation," wrote the researchers.



"Where and when different human pathogens first emerged, how and why they spread, and how they affected human populations are important but largely unresolved questions."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09192-8">Nature</a>.



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Ancient DNA reveals 37,000 years of hidden human infections

Using ancient DNA recovered from prehistoric bones and teeth, scientists...

A surgical robot named SRT-H has completed the most delicate portion of a gallbladder removal on a lifelike model without a human controlling its arms. 



The demonstration, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adt5254" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a> on July 9, 2025, signals a step toward operating rooms where <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/robots-with-space-to-think-will-become-more-useful/">machines</a> handle routine tissue work while surgeons oversee strategy.



Gallbladder removal, or <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/cholecystectomy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cholecystectomy</a>, ranks among the <a href="https://www.facs.org/for-medical-professionals/news-publications/news-and-articles/bulletin/2025/may-2025-volume-110-issue-5/critical-view-of-safety-minimizes-risk-of-bile-duct-injury/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">most common</a> operations in the United States with 750,000 to 1 million cases every year. 



Training a robot to navigate the tangled ducts, vessels, and sudden bleeds involved in that procedure has challenged engineers for decades.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-robot-starts-making-surgery-decisions">Robot starts making surgery decisions</h2>



Lead researcher Axel Krieger of <a href="https://engineering.jhu.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Johns Hopkins University</a> says the new system behaves less like a rigid industrial arm and more like a junior resident who can learn on the fly. 



His team previously built the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot, known as <a href="https://www.nibib.nih.gov/news-events/newsroom/robot-performs-soft-tissue-surgery-minimal-human-help" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">STAR</a>, which stitched pig intestines in <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35080901/#full-view-affiliation-3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2022</a> but still relied on special tracking markers.



The latest platform, called SRT‑H, extends that earlier work by combining camera feeds with a language conditioned hierarchy that tells each motor exactly where to go. 



Instead of following a fixed playbook, it chooses its next move after reviewing what it sees inside the patient and what the team says aloud.



During the study the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/brainless-soft-robot-created-that-runs-and-swims-is-powered-solely-by-air/">robot</a> completed 17 consecutive tasks, placing clips on tiny arteries, cutting tissue, and repositioning when dye obscured its field. 



Performance matched that of an expert surgeon, though the machine took a few extra minutes to finish the sequence.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-srt-h-learns-by-watching-and-listening">SRT‑H learns by watching and listening</h2>



SRT‑H did not learn from code but from YouTube‑style footage of faculty performing cholecystectomies on pig cadavers, each clip paired with plain language captions. 



Those labels formed a cookbook of gestures that the high‑level policy invokes, while a low‑level controller refines wrist angles millisecond by millisecond.



“This advancement moves us from robots that can execute specific surgical tasks to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-electronic-skin-gives-robots-the-human-touch/">robots</a> that truly understand surgical procedures,” said Krieger. 



The machine responded to spoken nudges such as “move the left arm a bit to the left,” adjusting grip and trajectory in real time.



“This work represents a major leap from prior efforts,” noted <a href="https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8669-205X" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ji Woong “Brian” Kim</a>, now at <a href="https://gostanford.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stanford University</a>. Kim emphasized that the imitation‑learning framework can rescue the robot when it drifts into awkward positions instead of stalling.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-gallbladders-help-test-robot-surgery-skills">Gallbladders help test robot surgery skills</h2>



Surgeons pick gallbladders for early autonomy trials because the organ lies in a predictable spot yet presents a mix of ducts, vessels, and slippery fat. 



A misclip on the common bile duct can cause lifelong complications, so even minor improvements in precision could spare thousands of patients repeat <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/robots-can-now-learn-from-humans-by-watching-how-to-videos/">operations</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/robot-surgeon_SRT‑H_first-surgery-without-human_gallbladder_JHU_1m.jpg"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/robot-surgeon_SRT‑H_first-surgery-without-human_gallbladder_JHU_1s.webp" alt="SRT-H learned how to do the gall bladder work by watching videos of Johns Hopkins surgeons doing it on pig cadavers. After watching the videos, the robot performed the surgery with 100% accuracy. Credit: JHU" class="wp-image-1977721"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">SRT-H learned how to do the gall bladder work by watching videos of Johns Hopkins surgeons doing it on pig cadavers. After watching the videos, the robot performed the surgery with 100% accuracy. Click image to enlarge. Credit: JHU</figcaption></figure>



Inside the study, SRT‑H recognized the cystic artery despite investigators tinting nearby tissue with red dye, a trick that often confuses computer vision. 



That resilience matters because real human abdomens rarely match the tidy diagrams found in textbooks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-srt-h-thinks-like-a-surgeon">SRT‑H thinks like a surgeon</h2>



Unlike factory robots that repeat a weld, SRT‑H chooses strategies through a hierarchical policy, selecting objectives in plain English then mapping them to motor commands. 



The approach resembles the prompting methods that steer large language models like GPT‑4, though here the stakes involve patient safety rather than creative text generation.



A high level planner can instruct the robot to expose <a href="https://radiopaedia.org/articles/hepatocystic-triangle-1?lang=us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Calot’s triangle</a>, and the lower layer then manages the tiny cuts needed to make that happen. 



Surgeons watched the system edit its own plan when blood pooled, demonstrating situational awareness beyond previous autonomous attempts.



“Just as surgical residents often master different parts of an operation at different rates, this work illustrates the promise of developing autonomous robotic systems in a similarly modular and progressive manner,” said <a href="https://profiles.hopkinsmedicine.org/provider/jeff-k-jopling/2709700" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeff Jopling</a>, a Johns Hopkins surgeon. 



The layered design also lets engineers swap in better perception modules without rewriting the entire algorithm.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-robot-surgery-safety-tests">Robot surgery safety tests</h2>



Even with flawless lab performance regulators will insist on exhaustive validation before the robot touches a living person. 



The team plans to run trials on cadavers and live animals under conditions that mimic crowded emergency rooms.



Failure modes include camera fogging, suction delays, or electrocautery sparks, each of which could scramble visual cues. 



Kim’s group is building a watchdog module that interrupts the robot and summons the surgeon if sensors detect drift or hardware faults.



Ethicists also warn that hospitals must clarify liability when an autonomous system makes a cut. Krieger counters that consistent precision might reduce malpractice overall, but admits policy needs to catch up.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-of-srt-h-and-robot-surgeons">Future of SRT-H and robot surgeons</h2>



Future updates aim to let SRT‑H perform an entire cholecystectomy from first incision to closing skin, as well as expand into hernia repairs and bowel resections. 



Krieger hopes cloud‑based training will one day let a robot in a rural clinic learn from video uploaded hours earlier at a major center.



For now the gallbladder milestone shows that surgical autonomy is no longer science fiction but an engineering task with a clear checklist. 



Patients may never see the robot’s face, yet its steady hands could soon shorten queues for safe, dependable surgery.



The study is published in <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adt5254" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science Robotics</a>.



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Robot performs surgery without a human controlling its hands for the first time ever

A surgical robot named SRT-H has completed the most delicate...

<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.

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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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https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
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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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"]</div>



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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